Verona Rewrote the Rules for Bloomfield Avenue This Spring. The Storefronts Are Still Sorting It Out.

"The TC Zone is specifically intended to: promote active street-level commercial uses; encourage mixed-use buildings with residential or office uses above the ground floor; discourage uses that generate high-volume, episodic attendance or simultaneous arrival and departure of large groups."

As Ordinance 2026-04 states, that sentence is now the purpose of Verona's Town Center zoning code. The Town Center is the stretch of Bloomfield Avenue from Park Avenue to Fairview Avenue, the blocks most residents walk for coffee, errands and a quick dinner. Those blocks were already carrying empty storefronts, including a party venue that closed in 2025 and an entertainment business. Since the new language took effect this spring, a 12-year-old Thai restaurant has closed, a bank branch closes this week, and a princess-themed cafe has closed and then reopened on a temporary agreement.

Read one at a time, those look like ordinary turnover. Taken together, they show a main street being reorganized around the walk-in customer, with one ordinance deciding who fits.

Five Votes in March, Effective by Spring

The change is Ordinance 2026-04. It was introduced February 9, 2026, adopted by the Township Council 5–0 on March 9, and took effect March 30. The ordinance gives its basis as Verona's September 29, 2022 Master Plan, which named the Town Center as an area recommended for change and called for amendments to the zoning code.

Two provisions do most of the work. The amended rules prohibit event venues, banquet and party halls, and any use mainly defined by episodic assembly. The ordinance also tightens parking. A business asking for variance relief cannot count municipal or public lots toward its parking requirement, and any shared-parking arrangement needs a professional analysis showing that the businesses' peak hours don't overlap.

The ordinance spells out its reasoning: limit reliance on off-site public parking and protect nearby residential streets from traffic, noise and operational impacts. A birthday party draws 30 guests who all arrive at 2:00 and leave at 4:00. A cafe draws a steady trickle across the afternoon. The code now favors the trickle.

Four Doors, One Test

Here is where the Town Center addresses in this year's local coverage stand as of October 4, 2026.

The Thai Elephant closing had nothing to do with zoning. Owner Pupay Hepner sold the restaurant, and the July report gave neither a name nor an opening date for what comes next. Full-service restaurants remain a permitted use under the amended code, so a Thai successor at 605 Bloomfield fits the rules without a hearing.

The vacancies add up. MyVeronaNJ also listed The Specialists Entertainment among recent closings and pointed to older gaps on the same blocks: the former Verona Opticians space, empty since that business relocated several years ago, and a lot beside Learning Express that has been empty for more than a decade.

The Chase building is the one to watch. It sits across the town center green from the Verona Police Department, which has needed a new headquarters for decades and talked with Chase about the building before the pandemic. Town leadership has since focused on a new first-responder complex on Pompton Avenue, and MyVeronaNJ reported that other sites have not been able to get a hearing. As of now, 566 Bloomfield has no announced next use.

The Cafe Running on Borrowed Terms

Bella Princess Cafe shows how the rule works on the ground. The business had run princess-themed parties at 555 Bloomfield Avenue since opening in 2023, under a permit for retail and personal-service uses. On May 6, the township notified owner Martha Peralta that the business was out of compliance. The town's position was that a zoning official who no longer works for Verona had granted the permit in error.

At the July 9 Board of Adjustment hearing, Montclair Local reported that the question was whether the business operated as personal service and retail, which is permitted, or as an event space, which is not. Peralta testified that the cafe took walk-in customers and also took reservations and held private, ticketed events. The board upheld the rescission of the permit, and chairman Daniel McGinley suggested the owners apply for a use variance.

The cafe closed. Verona then offered a settlement that let it operate while it pursued the variance, on two conditions: open to the public 25 hours a week, with parties limited to four hours a week. The business reopened, and MyVeronaNJ's September 25 update confirmed it remains open.

Those two numbers mirror the ordinance. Most of the week goes to walk-in public hours, and only a small share goes to the scheduled group arrivals the code now discourages.

The application process is still underway. Town Manager Kevin O'Sullivan said the variance filing submitted for the September 14 deadline was missing an affidavit of ownership, current color photos, a full-sized survey, and full-sized architectural and site plans. The township gave the applicant until October 5, the extension the cafe's attorney had requested, and is holding a spot on the November 13 Board of Adjustment agenda if notice and advertising requirements are met. Peralta said her attorney and professionals are working on the outstanding items.

What the List Now Invites

The same ordinance that closed the door on party halls added uses that could fill the empty storefronts. Alongside personal services, retail, restaurants, cafes and bakeries, the amended Town Center now permits:

• Coworking space
• Brewpubs and microbreweries that comply with state licensing
• Artisanal workshops
• Shared kitchens, shared workshops and shared textile spaces, subject to square-footage and operational limits
• Art galleries, studios and instructional spaces with incidental assembly only
• Med spas
• Commercial recreation facilities

The qualifier on studios, "incidental assembly only," is the ordinance's core idea in three words. A pottery class is welcome. A pottery studio that mostly rents itself out for parties is a different use.

The code also allows two or more principal uses on one site, as long as each has its own space, interior walls between them and a separate entrance. A larger building like the bank at 566 Bloomfield could legally be split between, say, a bakery and a coworking floor.

Rent is the other draw. MyVeronaNJ reported in July 2026 that commercial rents in Verona run roughly 30% of what comparable spaces rent for in Montclair. For a microbrewery or shared kitchen priced out of Bloomfield Avenue a few miles east, the Verona stretch of the same road is now cheaper and explicitly zoned for them.

The Dates That Decide the Next Chapter

The next few weeks will shape the Town Center:

1. October 5. Deadline for Bella Princess Cafe to complete its variance application.
2. October 6. Chase closes its branch at 566 Bloomfield Avenue.
3. October 24, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fall-O-Ween at Town Hall and the Civic Center, 600 Bloomfield Avenue, with pumpkin painting, inflatables and a costume parade. Trick-or-treating at Bloomfield Avenue businesses runs from 2 to 4 p.m. One line of the township's event description says October 25, but the event listing and the township calendar both give October 24.
4. November 13. Tentative Board of Adjustment hearing on the Bella Princess Cafe variance.

Fall-O-Ween is the walk-in model at its fullest. The crowd spreads along the avenue door to door over two hours, which is the kind of foot traffic the new purpose statement describes.

The physical street is changing more slowly. A streetscape plan for the same Fairview-to-Park corridor includes ADA upgrades, traffic calming, new sidewalks and crosswalks, trees, stormwater improvements, and possibly benches and bicycle parking. A June 5 report expected the design to be finalized and bid later in the summer. No later confirmation of bidding or a completion date has been published. For now, the rules for what fills Town Center storefronts have changed faster than the sidewalks in front of them.

If you own a home within walking distance of the Town Center, the tenants who move into 566 and 605 Bloomfield will shape your daily routine, and they can shape your home's value too. The Wright Group follows Verona's main street block by block. Request a complimentary home valuation, and we'll show you how the changes on Bloomfield Avenue factor into what your home is worth today.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.