NORTHFIELD — The Planning Board granted major site plan approval for a new building to operate as an ice cream shop at 1600 Tilton Road, across from Tilton Market at the corner of Zion Road, but rejected its giant cone sign.
Applicants Rob Lancaster and Jesse Bishoff hope to build a two-story, 1,250-square-foot creamery with 16 parking spots on the 12,500-square-foot lot.
The lot was the longtime site of the Northfield Service Station owned by Ken Adams. It closed Dec. 15, 2019, after decades of providing fuel and service and was demolished by American Demolition Corp. on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in preparation for contamination remediation.
The station’s closing left that section of Tilton Road — which once had two gas stations just a block away from each other — without a filling station.
P & R Petroleum at 1408 Tilton Road, owned by Robert Previti, closed in 2016. It had operated since 1978.
Planning Board Secretary Robin Atlas said the board rejected a rooftop sign in the shape of an ice cream cone but allowed the design on a stand-alone sign. According to plans presented to the board, the building was designed to be 15 feet high in the front with a 10-foot-high cone. The roofline will slope down to 10 feet in the rear.
Atlas said Planning Board Chairman Richard Levitt felt the rooftop sign “just doesn’t fit in Northfield.”
The county owns both Tilton and Zion roads, so its approval is also necessary.
Lancaster said the partners were not yet ready to discuss their plans as other approvals are needed. He said the date of approvals would determine when construction begins, noting summer is high time in the ice cream business.
“There are a lot of things to do before we know for sure this is going to happen,” Lancaster said.