MANALAPAN — Referring to vehicular traffic on some parts of Route 18 in neighboring Middlesex County, a township resident urged the Manalapan Planning Board, “Don’t turn Manalapan, which is a great place to live, into East Brunswick, which is a great place to shop.”
Susan Hergenrother was speaking at the Nov. 10 meeting of the Planning Board as the panel continued a discussion of a potential rezoning at and near the intersection of Route 9 and Taylors Mills Road.
At issue is Manalapan’s master plan, the document that directs the growth and development of the municipality. The Planning Board is considering an automobile dealer’s request to change the master plan and make automobile dealerships a permitted use in the township’s OP-3 (office-professional) zone.
The OP-3 zone in question is on both sides of Route 9 at Taylors Mills Road. Representatives of the Ray Catena auto group have approached municipal officials with a plan to convert a vacant office building in the Justin Corporate Center at Route 9 north and Taylors Mills Road into an Audi dealership.
The Planning Board may make a recommendation to the Township Committee based on the Catena group’s request. The town’s elected governing body would have the final say on any recommendation the Planning Board members, who are appointed, not elected, may make.
During the Nov. 10 Planning Board meeting, residents of the Prides Walk housing development directly behind the Justin Corporate Center, as well as from the Monmouth Heights development which is just up Taylors Mills Road from Route 9, continued to state their concerns about the possibility that the vacant office building at the Justin Corporate Center could be converted into an automobile dealership.
There is a second building at the Justin Corporate Center that has several tenants.
Two former Manalapan mayors asked the members of the board to keep an open mind about the Catena group’s request.
No motion making any recommendation to the Township Committee has been voted on by the Planning Board. Discussion of the matter is expected to continue at the Dec. 8 meeting of the Planning Board.
In comments at the opening of the evening’s discussion, the board’s planner, Richard Cramer, of T&M Associates, said several automobile dealerships could operate in the OP-3 zone if such a use is eventually approved by municipal officials.
One other property in the OP-3 zone that could meet the criteria for an automobile dealership is the Manalapan Corporate Center on Route 9 south, just south of Taylors Mills Road (next to a Wendy’s restaurant), Cramer said.
In regard to why officials are examining Manalapan’s master plan and why they may want to make changes to it, Cramer said, “the circumstances of the great recession have changed the economic situation and (officials are) looking at additional uses which may be of benefit to the township.”
Resident Mike Wallace said he was concerned that if an automobile dealership opens at the Justin Corporate Center, potential customers will not take test drives on Route 9 and will instead take test drives on local roads.
Attorney Gerald Sonnenblick, who represents the Ray Catena auto group, told the News Transcript that test drives will not take local roads. He said test drives will take Route 9 north to the Covered Bridge jughandle, then Route 9 south to Symmes Drive, taking the jughandle to Route 9 north and returning to the dealership at the Justin Corporate Center with direct access from the state highway, and not from Taylors Mills Road.
Several residents whose homes on Greenfield Road back up to the Justin Corporate Center reiterated comments they had made at previous meetings in objecting to the use of the building as an automobile dealership.
James Gray, a former mayor, described the Justin Corporate Center as an underused facility and told the board, “I would not dismiss a chance to bring a desirable ratable to town. The people’s concerns (about potential noise, traffic and buffering) can be addressed … This is not specifically about a car dealership, it is a business entity with potential. You should think outside the box. I think this can work and you should not dismiss this out of hand.”
Rick Klauber, a former mayor, said, “Route 9 is a tough road. The traffic issue is and always has been this board’s principal focus, (but) if we have a building that has been vacant for 18 months it will continue to deteriorate and that is not good for the town either. We need to bring businesses into town that will employ people … This is not a bad application.”
Offering information on behalf of the Catena group, traffic engineer Scott Kennel, of McDonough and Rea Associates, said he conducted traffic studies for a total of 30 hours on eight days at the intersection. He noted that during peak times about 5,000 vehicles per hour pass through the intersection.
Kennel made several conclusions based on his observations:
During the morning hours, an automobile dealership would generate less traffic than an office building would generate.
On Saturdays, traffic resulting from an automobile dealership would be greater than if the building remained office space.
Fewer employees would arrive at an automobile dealership via Taylors Mills Road (i.e., coming through Monmouth Heights) than the number of employees who would arrive at the office building from Taylors Mills Road.
There are opportunities to improve the conditions at the intersection, however, the improvements in the level of service (currently poor or failing) would be minimal.
There would not be a measurable, appreciable difference in traffic at the intersection of Route 9 and Taylors Mills Road as a result of having an automobile dealership there.
There would be approximately 40 employees at an automobile dealership. There are 270 parking spaces, of which 80 to 100 spaces would be for employees and customers, with the remainder of the parking spaces for inventory, generally at the rear of the property.
Tim Horn, the general manager of Ray Catena’s Lexus dealerships in Freehold Township and Oakhurst, said there are 18 service bays proposed for the Audi dealership in Manalapan, with a projected turnover of two to three cars per service bay, per day (i.e., 36 to 54 cars serviced per day).
There was some discussion as to what impact the service department could have on the environment (fumes, use of chemicals, etc.), but it was noted that the current discussion is not a site plan application for an automobile dealership and no specific scientific information was presented on those matters.
Professional planner Tom Thomas, speaking on behalf of the Catena group, noted in general terms that an automobile dealership would have to comply with regulations promulgated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the municipality in which the dealership was located.