Clouds in the Coffee: Parking at Proposed Roxbury Cafe

ROXBURY, NJ – The owner of the Merry Heart Senior Care Center in Succasunna wants to open a small coffee shop nearby on Main Street, a plan that got a tepid response from Roxbury officials who said they were concerned about parking constraints.

The proposal, by Merry Heart owner Blanche Bonifacio, calls for demolishing an existing building at 130 Main Street and building a new, 1000-square-foot, 1-story coffee shop with a drive-through window on the third-of-an-acre site.

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Chester engineer Daniel Sehnal presented the concept recently to the Roxbury Planning Board.

“Right now … it only fronts on Main Street," he told the board. “It does not front on Route 10, and on either side there are existing banks with drive-throughs.”

He noted Bonafacio has owned the 2-story, unoccupied building “for some time now” and formerly proposed keeping it as office space and extra parking for Merry Heart. However, he reminded the board that Bonafacio’s representatives were “all but laughed out of the room” when they brought that idea before the panel in the past.

“So she’s come up with a new concept,” Sehnal said. “Really, the intent here is just to provide a more local, mom-and-pop type of feel for a coffee shop not serving any type of prepared foods or anything. It would essentially be grab-and-go things.”

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The proposal calls for two driveways onto the property, nine parking spaces and a drive-through window. Roxbury zoning requires 20 parking spaces for the site, acknowledged Sehnal.

However, he stressed the restaurant would have only 10 seats. “So, with the nine spaces, we feel that would be sufficient to essentially handle the amount of seats that would be proposed inside the building,” he told the board.

Too Popular to Park

Roxbury has experienced issues related to traffic and parking at other coffee shops in the township, including the Starbucks in Ledgewood Commons, Beanbury on Route 10 in Succasunna and Roosters on Main Street in Ledgewood. The issue was raised by Roxbury Councilman Jim Rilee, also a member of the planning board, who asserted the proposed shop will need more than nine parking spaces.

“I have a lot of concern with parking,” he said. “We’ve seen - with the one on Route 10 - people parking on Route 10. On weekends, it’s many cars; a dozen cars on Route 10. We see it at Starbucks as well. This might be boutique, but we see a lot of cars over at Roosters. They’re parked up and down the street there.”

Roxbury Planning Board Chairman Charles Bautz echoed Rilee’s thoughts, adding that many people go to coffee shops and spend an hour. “It’s a great idea, great concept,” he told Sehnal. “But we’re on Main Street. What do we do when there’s no room? What do we do when there’s no parking?

Also weighing-in was Roxbury Councilman and Planning Board Member Bob DeFillippo.

“I only want to say I wish we could do something like this,” he said. “I actually would like to see more of this sort of thing happen on Main Street. I don’t disagree with either of my colleagues on the board, but I really wish we could do something, and this looks really nice.”

Repeatedly telling Sehnal that they liked the idea of a small coffee shop, but didn’t want to clog Main Street with parked cars, board members suggested Sehnal go back to the drawing board.

They said Bonifacio might consider eliminating the drive-through window and replacing it with parking spaces. Also suggested was attempting to strike deals with other businesses on the street, such as the two banks flanking the property, that have large parking lots.

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