The GB General Business Zone is intended to
permit retail business, personal service establishments, general corporate
and administrative offices and other nonresidential uses within a
shopping center-style environment. Development within the zone will
strive to promote the sharing of parking and stormwater management
facilities, have well-landscaped and adequate building setbacks from
surrounding roads, provide off-street parking that is well screened
from public view, control means of ingress/egress and coordinate internal
pedestrian and vehicular traffic flows relating to existing and proposed
development and ensure design compatibility with existing development
that considers building height, materials, colors, landscaping and
signage.
Development within the GB General Business Zone
shall reflect a shopping-center-style environment and design principles
contained in the Township Master Plan's Village Area Plan adopted
by the Planning Board as part of its Land Use Element, including:
A. Encourage innovation in design and reflect changes
in land development technology to enhance the existing village character.
B. Provide for necessary commercial facilities and services.
C. Encourage the highest quality design and architecture.
D. Encourage better movement and transportation of people.
E. Prevent strip commercial development by ensuring that
new development reflects and respects the existing and evolving village
areas.
F. Provide a more defined sense of place along Schalks
Crossing Road.
G. Preserve the residential integrity of adjacent areas.
H. Create a zone with enough flexibility that permits
the land use variety of a village yet prohibits the chaotic character
of an unplanned area.
In the GB General Business Zone, no building
or premises shall be used and no building shall be erected or altered
which is arranged, intended or designed to be used except for one
or more of the following uses, and all such uses shall be subject
to the performance standards set forth in the Township's Site Plan
Ordinance:
A. Stores and shops for the conduct of any retail business.
B. Personal service establishments (e.g., tailor, barbershop
or beauty salon).
C. General corporate and administrative offices as well
as offices for professional services (e.g., physicians, lawyers or
architects); small commercial offices (e.g., realtors or travel agencies);
small governmental offices (e.g., post office branch or social security);
and offices incidental to uses permitted in this section.
D. Restaurants and neighborhood taverns, excluding drive-in
and curb service establishments.
E. Repair and servicing, indoors only, of any article
for sale which is permitted in this district
H. Attended laundry and retail dry-cleaning services,
not including bulk processing and, in the case of dry-cleaning establishments,
not providing for the storage of more than five gallons of flammable
or toxic cleaning fluid on the premises.
I. Building structures and uses owned or operated by
the Township of Plainsboro for municipal purposes.
J. All farm and agricultural uses permitted in residential districts in accordance with the provisions set forth in Article
V of this chapter.
K. Carpentry, electrical, masonry, plumbing and painting
services, provided that all activities are conducted and all materials
are stored within a completely enclosed building and that only trucks
incidental to the use located on the premises are permitted. Such
trucks shall be parked in areas that are appropriately landscaped.
L. Copy centers and newspaper offices.
M. Child-care centers, subject to the minimum standards found in §
101-65F. Child-care centers as an accessory use are permitted, subject to the standards contained in §
101-13.4.
[Amended 11-10-2011 by Ord. No. 0-11-13]
P. Accessory uses and accessory buildings incidental
to the above permitted uses and located on the same lot and within
the same zoning district that permits the principal use.
Q. Shopping centers, comprised of any of the above permitted
uses.
R. Drive-through facility for shopping center pad site
only, subject to the following:
(1) A drive-through facility shall be permitted only for
a pad site associated with a shopping center with direct vehicular
access thereto, and such facility shall be limited to one service
window only.
(2) A drive-through facility shall be permitted only if
the permitted principal use it serves does not have direct vehicular
access to a public street.
(3) A drive-through facility, accompanying driveway and
associated signage shall be set back a minimum distance of 50 feet
from any lands zoned for residential development.
(4) A drive-through facility and associated signage shall
be provided with landscaping to visually enhance views of the facility,
signage and driveway as seen from adjacent properties, as appropriate.
(5) A drive-through facility may be permitted provided
that such facility does not adversely impede or conflict with the
safe traffic flow required by the permitted principal use.
(6) The Planning Board shall be satisfied that the on-site
and off-tract traffic circulation is capable of accommodating the
proposed traffic volume associated with such facility, particularly
during peak hours. The stacking driveway for the drive-through window
shall provide room for at least five automobiles and shall be separated
from any off-street parking areas and their access aisles, loading
areas or trash enclosures.
S. Necessary public utilities and services pursuant to §
101-13.6.
[Added 10-10-2018 by Ord.
No. 18-13]
In a GB General Business Zone, the following
uses may be permitted as conditional uses:
B. Facilities for the covering, altering, finishing or
assembling of goods for sale exclusively on the premises, subject
to the following special requirements:
(1) Such activities shall be conducted within completely
enclosed buildings.
(2) Machines used in the operation of such permitted activities
shall not exceed two horsepower for any one machine and shall not
exceed a total of 10 horsepower for any one business.
The minimum lot area in the GB General Business
Zone shall be 25 acres.
The minimum lot frontage in the GB General Business
Zone shall be 425 feet.
The minimum lot depth in the GB General Business
Zone shall be 450 feet.
No development shall be approved unless front,
side and rear yards and locations of buildings or enclosed structures
provided for are consonant with the public health, safety and general
welfare.
All site improvements shall be set back a minimum
of 100 feet from the Plainsboro Road right-of-way line, with the exception
of a single access drive and improvements to common open space. The
pad site building shall be set back no greater than five feet from
the Schalks Crossing Road right-of-way.
The maximum permitted lot coverage for all buildings
or enclosed structures in the GB General Business Zone shall be 20%.
The maximum improvement coverage in the GB General
Business Zone shall be 65%.
For all uses in the GB General Business Zone,
the maximum permitted floor area ratio (FAR) shall be 0.20.
The maximum building height for all business
and commercial uses in the GB General Business Zone shall not exceed
one story or 28 feet and for office uses shall not exceed 30 feet.
Every structure erected, designed or altered
for occupancy by any use as permitted in this article shall provide,
at the side or rear of its lot, access and space for the loading and
unloading of delivery trucks, which space shall be screened with landscape
improvements and/or a decorative wall or fence and have a paved hard
surface and be accessed from a public or private roadway or other
way to be used for such purposes, being primarily accessible to and
from Schalks Crossing Road.
There shall be not more than two driveway curb
cuts, including the existing PNC Bank property exit only, onto Plainsboro
Road to service permitted uses.