City Council on Thursday will consider rezoning the property of the abandoned Palermo’s Family Market on the 400 block of Asbury Avenue to allow the construction of duplexes.
Council will vote on the first reading of an ordinance that also would zone the rest of the block for duplexes with 30-foot frontages. Council holds its public meeting 7 p.m. July 24 on the third floor of City Hall.
Palermo’s was a family-owned neighborhood grocery that opened at its currently location in the early 1950s. It began to close seasonally in the early 2000s and was permanently shuttered even before Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 flooded the property. It includes three vacant apartments on the upper floors.
Unable to find a commercial buyer, the owners have let the property sit vacant. Neighbors have complained that the property is an eyesore and an attraction to rodents and vagrants.
“The Planning Board has conducted a detailed and thorough evaluation of the area … and has concluded that a rezoning from the current Neighborhood Business (NB) and R2-40 to R2-30 is appropriate,” Planning Consultant Randy Scheule writes in a memo to City Council.
Most of the rest of the area proposed for rezoning is already occupied by duplexes.
Scheule cites neighborhood characteristics, topography, post-Sandy building requirements and market conditions as reasons why the area is not conducive to commercial development.
See complete agenda packet below:
