Millstone considers plan for car wash on Route 537 Planning Board hearing on application will continue Aug. 22 BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer MILLSTONE - Township officials have left the car wash issue in limbo, but a couple of residents continue to forge ahead with their plans to create such a facility in town. The hearing on the proposed car wash/oil change facility on Route 537, which began on June 27, continued at the July 25 Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting. Between the initial presentation of the plan and the most recent meeting regarding it, the Township Committee voted to table an ordinance that would have allowed car washes as a permitted land use in the township's highway commercial zone. Attorney Kenneth Pape is representing the applicant, 537 ABR, LLC, whose principals are township residents Brandon and Rogan O'Donnell. The O'Donnells are the contract purchasers of a 4.02-acre lot at 490 Monmouth Road/Route 537, which is located a quarter mile from the intersection with Route 571. In June, Pape had indicated that his clients also wanted to construct a warehouse on the rear of their property. However, at the recent meeting, Pape said his clients have withdrawn their plan for the warehouse. Michael Geller, the applicant's engineer and environmental planner, said his clients' property has two residential dwellings and some accessory sheds and garages on it. He described the site as deep and narrow and said that it is one property away from the Jay Plaza strip mall. Geller told the board that the tract does not have any environmental constraints. He said a wet detention pond would be constructed on the property and that the septic system would be located on the western portion of the site. While the site could house a 2,000-gallon septic system as per N.J. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulations, Geller estimated that the operation would only generate 725 gallons of wastewater per day. He also told the board that permitted uses on the property such as offices and warehouse space would generate more gallons. The 32,000-gallon pond would meet all state stormwater management criteria, Geller said, and could serve as a draft station for fire protection. Pape said there is a number of wet basins in the township, including one in front of Crest Engineering in the Moto Industrial Park behind Millstone Liquors on Route 33, and one next to the veterinary hospital on Route 526. Pape said the DEP encourages the construction of wet basins as part of its best management practices and added that dry basins are easier to build and much less expensive. Due to the elimination of the warehouse from his clients' plans, Geller said the 9,820-square-foot car wash/lube service building would now be located 150 feet from the road. He said his clients would preserve the mature oak trees in the front of the lot. Geller said that a commercial center will be developed directly across the street from the site at Woodbury Drive in Jackson, Ocean County. Plans for the center include the creation of a traffic signal and turning lanes. Pape said his clients could enter into an agreement with those developing the commercial center in order to create a center turning lane into the car wash site. Otherwise, access to the site would be provided by a two-way driveway along the northern property line. The site also has a one-way, right-turn exit at the southwest corner. The applicants' traffic engineer, Jonathan Szap, testified that 14,000 vehicles pass the site each weekday, with a total of 17,000 passing on Saturdays. He estimated that 300 vehicles would enter and exit the site on a daily basis. Szap told the board that other permitted uses on the site would generate more traffic and that the long, deep property is good for a car wash. When Route 537 is improved, there will be both a right- and a left-hand turn out of the site, according to Szap. The applicants also presented Massachusetts-based car wash owner and consultant Leo Zona as an expert witness. Zona said he has no ownership interest in the proposed facility and is consulting on the design of the car wash tunnel. Zona, who said he has been in the car wash business since 1975, is president of Posh Wash Auto Wash, a company his father founded that will soon be taken over by his 27-year-old son. He has owned and operated water reclamation systems for car washes since 1998, he said. Zona described the water reclamation process, saying that all water is reclaimed. "It is used over and over again as it goes through the filtration system," he said. Zona said that the rinse water used is freshwater. Five gallons of freshwater are used in the rinse cycle, he said, and 89 gallons of filtered water are used to wash each car. While Zona cited studies indicating that homeowners use 180 gallons of freshwater to wash their cars, he said he did not think the amount was accurate and estimated it to be in the 60-gallon range instead. The water in a car wash gets to the conveyor through a series of tanks, Zona said. No tanks are connected to the septic or stormwater system, according to Zona, and they do not have outlets. He said he recommends pumping the tanks four times a year and having the wastewater removed by a licensed hauler. "If you don't pump the tanks, you'll wash cars with dirty water," he said. When the water is pumped out, it is replenished by water from the well, he said. When Planning Board Chairman Michael Novellino asked if a license is needed to operate a car wash, Zona replied that he has a maintenance program for the system and trains the system's owners. Pape said there is no legal requirement for a car wash to have a reclamation system and that many car washes in the area do not have one. The board will continue hearing the application Aug. 22.