Millstone car wash issue left in limbo
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

"It should be voted down on its merits and put to bed once and for all. How much study can anyone need for such a simple ordinance?" - Elias Abilheira

MILLSTONE - A controversial ordinance that would have permitted the construction of car washes in town has been indefinitely tabled.

The Township Committee voted 3-1 at its July 5 meeting to table the ordinance. Committeeman Elias Abilheira cast the dissenting vote and Committeeman Steven Sico did not attend the meeting.

The ordinance would have allowed car washes as permitted "conditional uses" in the township's Highway Commercial (HC) and HC 1 zones along Routes 33 and 537 in the township.

The ordinance defines a car wash as any establishment that provides full-service washing and cleaning facilities for motor vehicles moving through a building via a conveyor-belt system or other mechanical means.

The ordinance would have also permitted self-service car wash bays in a separate building provided that the self-service portion of the business would be ancillary and subordinate to the full-service operation.

When asked why he voted against tabling the ordinance, Abilheira said that the ordinance is clearly inconsistent with good planning. He said the committee should open the ordinance to public comment and then vote on it.

"No one has ever provided a good reason why the ordinance was ever introduced in the first place," he said. "Rather than allowing the public to comment on the second reading and having the ordinance voted up or down on its merits, instead it has now been tabled twice."

He said that Sico tabled the ordinance the first time and told the public that the township would prepare a study on the matter for the July 5 meeting.

"No study was ever presented and the ordinance was again tabled," Abilheira said. "It should be voted down on its merits and put to bed once and for all. How much study can anyone need for such a simple ordinance?"

Abilheira noted that the township's Environmental Commission has said that the ordinance is not in the best interest of the residents.

In a letter to the mayor and Township Committee regarding the proposed ordinance, the Environmental Commission wrote, "Although not specifically prohibited, car washes and many other undesirable and nonessential enterprises are not part of the variety of businesses

usually associated with rural environments. Will Millstone Township continue to do the hard work of maintaining its unique character, or slip and slide toward conventional patterns of overgrowth and overdevelopment?"

Abilheira thanked the Environmental Commission members in the audience at the meeting for the hard work they did on the car wash ordinance. He called them the "guardians of the master plan and the rural nature of our environment" and then thanked them for what he termed "their efforts in this fight."

Mayor Nancy Grbelja said, "I didn't realize we had a fight."

After the meeting, Grbelja said that the Township Committee asked Township Planner Richard Coppola in 2005 to develop several ordinances to regulate car washes, kennels and veterinary clinics in the township.

"The car wash ordinance was one of the first ordinances developed for the Township Committee to review," she said.

According to Grbelja, the ordinance would establish guidelines to limit the use of car washes in an effort to protect the environment.

"Once the ordinance was proposed, some residents and board/commission members raised concerns as to whether or not the environmental protections were enough, and whether or not a car wash was an appropriate business to be located in our township, due to our environmental sensitivity," she said.

Grbelja said that Coppola met with various township groups to discuss the details and impact of the ordinance, but the groups' concerns remained.

She noted that Millstone Township is home to the headwaters of several watersheds and said the Township Committee is committed to protecting the environment.

Grbelja said the Township Committee applauds the open dialogue and constructive feedback residents and board and commission members provided on this issue.

"Voting to table the ordinance indefinitely, puts this issue to bed once and for all," Grbelja said. "Anyone who states that discussion regarding this ordinance was anything more than a healthy dialogue is misleading the residents of this township."