By Anne Levin

Last March, Princeton’s Zoning Board of Appeals first considered an application from Sakrid Coffee to open a new coffee shop, with a coffee roasting operation inside, at 300 Witherspoon Street. Following a lengthy meeting on June 28 — the fourth since the proposal — the board voted 4-3 to reject the idea for a coffee roaster. But the application for a coffee shop, minus the roaster, was approved.

Sakrid has an existing location at the corner of Nassau and Chambers streets. Owners Jonathan Haley and Serge Picard have been roasting their coffee at a facility in Moonachie, and hoped to consolidate by relocating the operation to Princeton. Moving the roasting process to 300 Witherspoon Street would not only cut down on the 110-mile round trips between Princeton and Moonachie, but would also allow customers to observe the roasting process in action.

Since the idea was proposed, numerous neighbors of the site have voiced concerns about the possible odors, fumes, and health hazards the operation could bring, especially due to its proximity to Community Park School. Some other residents spoke in favor of the proposal. Sakrid’s owners brought witnesses familiar with the roasting process to testify that the process was safe.

In the end, the decision to deny the roaster proposal was based more on whether the zoning board could allow a manufacturing use in a commercial district, where it was not permitted, than on environmental concerns.

Once the public comment portion of the meeting concluded, Zoning Board member Michael Floyd was the first to speak. While he was “comfortable” with the testimony that fumes and vapors would not be harmful, he said he was less comfortable with voting in favor of a variance that would change the current zoning code.

Steve Cohen, who chairs the board, spoke up next, voicing a similar opinion.

“It is not our place to create a variance for this type of thing,” he said. “It’s the municipality’s place to change the zoning.”

Since coffee roasting is considered a manufacturing process, as determined by the town’s Zoning Officer Derek Bridger, a use variance would be necessary for the roaster to be approved. When Bridger was asked why the roaster was considered manufacturing while bakeries are not, he said that roasting is manufacturing while turning flour into bread is baking.

Sakrid’s planning consultant Susan Favate said the roasting should be considered artisanal manufacturing, a “micro-operation,” a designation that other New Jersey towns are using to update their zoning laws.

A motion to approve the application with certain stipulations about hours and times of roasting was introduced by board member George Stein, but failed to get the five votes needed. Board member Eve Coulson commented that this was the hardest application she had worked on during her eight years on the board.

The building at 300 Witherspoon Street was for many years the home of The Princeton Packet. Homestead Princeton and a Capital Health Primary Care are current tenants.