Planning board approves expansion plans for Tomasello
Page 4 • Wednesday, October 9, 2013 • The Hammonton Gazette
PLANNING, from?Page 1
ten, by the members of the board.
attorney Michael fralinger of Capizola,
Lapham & fralinger in Vineland represented the tomasello Winery minor site
plan application, while engineer Brain Peterman of Peterman Maxcy associates
LLC. provided additional information to
the board, pertaining to parking, lighting
and landscaping questions and concerns.
Charlie tomasello opened the proceedings by discussing the purpose for the proposed building addition to the site. the
building would be placed at the front of the
site, and it would expand the tasting room
area, which is currently 20-feet by 25-feet,
according to fralinger.
“essentially, what is going on here at the
winery is the wine industry has expanded.
in 1981 when i started, there were only
seven wineries in all of New Jersey. We are
now up to 46 in the state. What is happening is we are getting traffic tours that are
coming in by the bus trip, and as a result,
primarily by the recession that we’ve gone
through, our banquet business has declined
and suffered because people aren’t getting
married as much or there are smaller weddings. the 20-foot by 25-foot tasting room
with potentially 45 people in there is extremely challenging. this has been going
on for a few years and we feel it is time to
expand our tasting room facility to accommodate people that are coming to taste wine
in a more serious matter,” Charlie
tomasello said.
the tasting room connects to the
bigger banquet room, and the
tomasellos’ vision is to expand the
tasting area, and by doing so, that
would allow for more space for
cocktail hour and wine tasting purposes as well. the family feels that
is a necessity in order to compete in
the wine industry today. they are
also preparing for the next generation of business, Charlie tomasello
said.
“Our objective is to build an aesthetically attractive space that will
accommodate additional customers. in Hammonton, we are the
only town that has three wineries…
and bus tours visit multiple wineries in one day. this is preparing us
for the next generation and we want
the extra tasting space that will accommodate people that take wine
tasting
seriously,”
Charlie
tomasello said.
according to the applicant, there
is sufficient paved parking and
lighting on the site. the gazebo
area is a landscaped area, and will
remain in place and no additional
landscaping will need to be performed on the site fralinger and
tomasello said during their testimony period.
Peterman provided additional
testimony to the board. He stated
that the addition would still allow
for a 103-foot front yard setback off
the White Horse Pike and a 10.5foot side yard setback, while also
outlining some other specific, including the explanation of a splitzone property. the front portion is
in the B-2 Highway zoning District, while rear side is an aP zone.
“We are looking to improve that
area around that addition, and continue that sideyard setback off of
the neighbors at a