A plan to develop property into hotel, coffee shop and mini storage facility  along Veterans Highway in Bristol Township was green lighted by the zoning board Tuesday night.

News of the plans were made public just before the holiday season in December by officials who leaked preliminary documents of the development plans for 3105 and 3113 Veterans Avenue.

The developer, DCD Capital LLC of Bound Brook, New Jersey (DCD), came before the Zoning Board Monday night seeking exceptions to the township’s ordinances for mini-warehouses, wetlands, off-street loading, and setbacks, township documents say.

The size of the proposed development spans just under 12.5 acres and provides easy access to main arterials in and out of town— I-95, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and Route 13.

Mike Begley of Bagley Carlin and Mandino provided a presentation to the Zoning Board last night on behalf of DCD  about the proposed development.

Begley said 9.5 acres are developable adding there are three competing zoning considerations for the property site

Begley noted his firm has been involved with the site for  a “number of years” and has been contacted a number of times about the possibility of developing it for trucking and or heavy machinery companies.

Because of its unique location we had always hoped of developing it as a commercial property and I was excited when DCD contacted us, and you’ll hear why they are a class a developer, Begley added before deep into the proposed site development and variance requests.

DCD is primarily a hotel developer and does not “develop and flip” properties, representatives said.

Begley explained that the uses listed for the site, are in some cases the closest proximity of a described use. As in the case of the auto repair shop use, saying”it’s a state of the art oil change facility- automotive repair was the closest language in the zoning code that matches the use.

The fast food use is designed for a well known international coffee chain – which there is no language in the zoning code to address also, so it had to be listed as a fast food restaurant, officials said.

Begley said due to legal limitations he could not identify the coffee or oil change companies at this time but has basic agreements in place with both commercial entities.

The developer said they are seeking five different zoning reliefs from the township and catergorized them in five different ways

1. Dimensional Relief for Indoor Mini-Storage: Parking and size of storage units.
2. Permit Auto repair shop/Mini Warehouse Use: part of a cohesive development and uses for the property
3. Wetlands
4. Parking and Loading Relief – mainly pertains to parking requirement of 60 plus spaces which is not needed by the developer
5.  Small dimensional related to a buffer of structure height

Bill Davidson principal owner of DCD testified before the board first reiterating his company builds and operates hotels.

“We were in the market looking for hotel sites when we came across this site which we think is very suitable for a hotel, near 95 with population density and solid incomes which would draw people to area who would need accommodations and we just think its a very solid hotel site,” Davidson said.

The developers said  they have been in the hotel business for 20 years owning many of the sites  them for  long periods of time.  Our perspective is to be community oriented, good neighbors,  with an eye towards increasing values of the properties and businesses, on the sites DCD operates.

The developers say the hotel will be four stories with the largest building on the site the four story climate controlled self storage warehouse, with single story accessory drive-up structures.

Concerns about Penn DOT requirements, like newly modernizied traffic signals, and costs were discussed in light of those requirements when Royal Farms originally sought to develop the property in 2017 and backed out of the deal.

Zoners approved the variance requests anonymously last night.