I've seen people complaining about the Dunkin parking lot at Renaissance Square for a while now. I don't normally eat at Dunkin, so I wasn't really familiar with the issue, but I make it a habit of driving through all the shopping centers in town at least once a week. In my journey from Plaza 70 to Renaissance Square, I frequently end up driving the long way around to the Route 70 entrance of Renaissance Square and backtrack to take a peek at the new Gaetano's, in order to avoid the line at the Dunkin drive-thru.
Some times an overhead shot perfectly exemplifies a problem. Below is the new Dunkin Donuts drive-thru at Renaissance Square. There are 4 cars waiting in the drive aisle to be able to enter the drive-thru lane, with a 5th vehicle turning in from North Locust. These cars are preventing access to the Evesham Mortgage Building just to the right of Dunkin in the photo. In addition, a vehicle already in the drive thru lane is blocking the crosswalk from Dunkin to Evesham Mortgage.
The Evesham Mortgage Building currently houses three businesses: Evesham Mortgage, Keller Williams Realty and Pink Petal Mani-Pedi. Two more businesses plan to open soon: a yet-to-be-named hair salon and Gaetano's Steaks and Pizza, which will presumably only make the problem worse as more customers flock to the area.
A wider view shows that there is a second way to access the Evesham Mortgage Building parking lot, shown by the blue arrows is in the photo below.
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| The blue arrows indicate the two entrances to the Evesham Mortgage Building parking lot |
The backup up to enter the Dunkin, however, creates several other issues. Looking at the first photo, you'll notice the backed up cars also block entrance to parking spaces for the new 4 story apartment building.
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| 58 parking spaces (marked in yellow) and 18 garages can only be accessed across from Dunkin |
In the site plan rendering above, which was approved by the Evesham Township Planning Board in 2016, I've added a black arrow across from Dunkin Donuts. This entrance is blocked by cars waiting in queue at Dunkin. This blocked entrance is the ONLY way to access 58 parking spaces that are designated for residents of the 45 apartments in the four-story apartment building, as all the black arrows indicate one way drives. In addition, there are 18 garages available to the residents which also can only be accessed across from Dunkin. Those residents have no choice but to navigate through the Dunkin parking area to get home if they want to park in any of the spaces highlighted in yellow.
More importantly, aside from the frustration of having to wait to access Dunkin or parking spaces, the parking lot is a safety hazard. To understand the full extent of it, I actually watched the area for about 10 minutes during the Friday morning rush, at about 8:30 AM.
Several times, the line of cars waiting to access the Dunkin drive thru backed all the way up to North Locust, and then out on to North Locust, in both directions. This blocked thru traffic on North Locust north to Route 70 and south to Main Street, and at times also blocked the entrance to Plaza 70/Produce Junction.
Occasionally, vehicles waiting to park at Dunkin (rather than use the drive-thru) or travel on past the Dunkin drove on the wrong side of the drive aisle to do so. Like this..
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| View from my vehicle while exiting Dunkin, looking south down North Locust. April 2020. |