HOWELL – The Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the construction of a new convenience store gas station on the corner of Strickland Road and the northbound side of Route 9.
Returning before the Planning Board, attorney Jason Tuvel appeared on behalf of the applicant, 7-Eleven, Inc., to present augmentations to the final major site plan that will bring a new 2,999-square-foot convenience store and a six-pump fuel dispensing area that can accommodate up to 12 vehicles. The site will feature a large canopy over the pump areas and will have 25 parking spaces. At least one of the parking spaces will be designated as an electric vehicle (E.V.) charging station, with the possibility that others may be converted to E.V. spots in the future. Other improvements will include a larger retaining basin for stormwater, new lighting fixtures and bike racks.
Getting to a final vote has been a long process for the applicant, as the company faced contradictory and conflicting regulations and ordinances from both the Township of Howell and the New Jersey Department of Transportation. The main point of contention involved an access driveway to the location that was originally planned for Strickland Road. The site had previously been described by Tuvel as “somewhat of a peninsula, with three frontages” inasmuch as it sits between the roughly parallel roadways of Route 9 and Wyckoff Mills Road, while bounded to the south by a short stretch of Strickland Road. The rhomboid-shaped property is directly across the street from “The Villages” residential development, and just north of Woolley’s Fish Market.
When the applicant appeared before the Planning Board on April 1, 2021, they had cleared the Environmental Commission, and had expressed the desire to replace the current Exxon gas station with a new convenience store and array of pumps. While the original site plan did run into questions from the Planning Board regarding lighting fixtures, the application drew more rigid opposition regarding signage being proposed.
“I honestly have to say I think even the two canopy signs are ridiculous,” said Township Planner Jennifer Beahm during the original application hearing. “There’s no reason for them. People are generally not that dumb. I don’t see the need at all. I have to tell you that you’re going to have your work cut out for you, because I don’t think you’re going to be able to justify it. It’s sign clutter that’s unnecessary.”
However, in order to comply with the township’s ordinances at that time, an entrance to the property was required to the site from a perpendicular roadway, which would have been Strickland Road. While the original site plan was compliant with the town’s ordinances, it later ran afoul of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT).
According to the applicant, the DOT first gave approval for the Strickland Road entrance, which would comply with the ordinances in place for Howell in 2021. However, the DOT then made a contradictory statement, indicating that the driveway would be problematic for traffic.
“The DOT pushed back on that driveway for the reasons that Strickland Road is really a limited length between Wyckoff Mills and Route 9,” explained site engineer Jeffrey Martell. “They were concerned with potential customers being tempted to make a left in off of Strickland, and really the limited productivity of that driveway. So, for reasons that the DOT put forth, and the fact that since the original approval the town ordinance has changed, and the requirement to have that driveway is no longer part of the conditional use criteria, we have since removed that driveway from the plan and obtained NJDOT approval.”
With the changes in township ordinances in place, and with approval from the State of New Jersey, the application was finally able to move forward nearly 16 months after their appearance at the Planning Board.
“The changes to the plan that were made as a result of removing the Strickland Road driveway,” opined Tuvel to the Board, “were probably for the benefit of the site, where we were able to reduce impervious coverage by an additional three percent, [and] add additional landscaping to the property.”
Impervious coverage is the percentage of a plot of land that’s covered by roads, buildings, or anything else that rain water can’t get through.
The location is scheduled to have five employees during hours of operation, consisting of an onsite manager, two gas attendants, and two workers within the convenience store. Given that it is a 24-hour facility, deliveries will be frequent, consisting of trucks that will restock the convenience store weekly, as well as fuel deliveries estimated to be four to five times a week. Garbage pickup for refuse and recycling will be done twice a week.
Despite the Board’s concerns about traffic and the site’s proximity to “The Villages” residential area, no one from the public raised opposition to the project when given the opportunity to speak during the application process.
The new site will be “a relocation” of the existing 7-Eleven convenience store that currently sits at the corner of Casino Drive and Route 9.
