FROM THE RECORD (North Jersey Media Group)
Sunday, August 27, 2006
By ADRIENNE LU
STAFF WRITER
FORT LEE -- Main Street may undergo an extreme, though gradual, makeover if an ordinance adopted by the Borough Council has its intended effect.
The measure requires Main Street property owners seeking to make certain types of changes to their buildings to adhere to new design guidelines, which will dictate aesthetics for such elements as awnings, signs and storefronts. The guidelines would apply if the property owner wanted to make changes that would require permission from either the planning or zoning board.
Councilman Mark Sokolich, who has been pushing the council to help revitalize Main Street, said he was concerned that with the massive Centuria project starting nearby, Main Street could become deserted. Centuria is a $600 million to $700 million mixed-use development bordered by Lemoine Avenue, Main Street, Central Road and Bruce Reynolds Boulevard (formerly Bridge Plaza South).
Currently, downtown Main Street is a reasonably busy, if eclectic-looking compilation of restaurants, liquor stores, banks and small retail shops.
"I'm not happy with the current condition of Main Street," Sokolich said. "I think it's tired."
Sokolich describes the requirements as "nothing crazy that would cost somebody tens of thousands of dollars to do." In some cases, the guidelines would call for nothing more than a fresh coat of paint and a new awning, he said, with the aim of creating a more homogeneous, welcoming look.
The borough hired Do H. Chung & Partners of Stamford, Conn., to create the design guidelines. The firm describes Fort Lee's downtown as "a mixture of bad makeovers of new facades and neglected old buildings."
Tony Clores, chairman of Fort Lee's beautification committee, remembers visiting Main Street as a child with his parents on Saturdays, when they would walk from the butcher shop to the grocery store to the poultry store to the fruit store.
Nowadays, he said, Main Street isn't quite as bustling.
"I think it was a long time coming," Clores said of the new design guidelines. "I think it'll be an asset to our main business district to try to keep things uniform."
Terry Holtje, co-owner of the nearly 60-year-old Fort Lee Hardware, Main Street's oldest family-owned business, likes the idea of the design guidelines. But he also wonders how they will work out in reality.
"It would be very nice if everybody did it, but whether they're going to be able to get the tenants to spend the money to fix up the buildings they rent – I think it may be a problem," Holtje said.
"People who rent aren't going to spend $10,000 or $15,000 to fix up their building."
James Kim, owner of Center Pharmacy, agrees that money could be a prohibitive factor. "I don't know what they're going to do as far as the cost," Kim said. "That's the main factor."
But Sokolich is optimistic that once a few buildings are spruced up, everyone else will want to keep up.
"We want it to be fresh, we want it to be nice and we want it to be contagious," Sokolich said.