In 5-4 Vote, Brick Planning Board Approves New Dunkin’ Donuts Location

Renderings of a proposed Dunkin’ Donuts location on Mantoloking Road in Brick Township, June 2025. (Planning Document)

A close vote in Brick has paved the way for a new Dunkin’ Donuts location in town, despite calls from local residents that urged officials to deny the proposal, citing traffic concerns along the oft-congested Mantoloking Road corridor.

After a string of meetings, the board approved the application by K Brick Mantoloking LLC, owned by the Patel family of Franklin Lakes, N.J., which sought approval to build the establishment at 738 Mantoloking Road, a vacant lot at the corner of Mantoloking and Vannote Drive. The parcel is located across the street from Visitation Roman Catholic Church. The property will be developed with a Dunkin’ Donuts retail franchise store plus a drive-thru. The property is located within the township’s “Village Zone,” which encourages mixed use development, though the Dunkin’ Donuts store will be the sole use of the .72-acre parcel. The store will measure 1,639 square feet in area.

The Oct. 29, 2025 approval is based on a revised application by the store owner. First submitted early this year, the plan was modified over the summer to allow two-way traffic on a driveway on Vannote Drive, on the side of the restaurant location. Access to the site will be provided via a new full movement (two-way) driveway along Mantoloking Road and a full movement driveway along Vannote Drive.

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According to a revised traffic impact study conducted by Dynamic Traffic, the Dunkin’ Donuts location would likely generate 52 additional trips in and out of the driveway during the morning rush hour, and 22 for the evening rush hour. On Saturday mornings, 72 new trips in and out would be generated. A seasonal adjustment factor was applied to the traffic counts to account for peak traffic conditions during the summer season. It was unclear whether the traffic study took into account the Mass schedule at Visitation church across the street, which could impact Sunday traffic.

Renderings of a proposed Dunkin’ Donuts location on Mantoloking Road in Brick Township, June 2025. (Planning Document)

Renderings of a proposed Dunkin’ Donuts location on Mantoloking Road in Brick Township, June 2025. (Planning Document)

Neighboring residents strongly opposed the Dunkin’ Donuts location, with a Change.org petition garnering more than 400 signatures against what organizers described as “overdevelopment.”

“Adding a high-volume drive-through business would make this intersection too dangerous. There is not enough room for an approved business of this size, [and] the amount of variances needed for this business to be approved is astronomical,” the petition stated. “The difficult approach for the delivery trucks would cause road blockages. We can’t risk our public safety because of one business.”

The petition also raised concerns over whether wildlife could break into refuse receptacles, however the developers promised a trash management system that would include lids on cans and frequent pickups of dumpsters.

Traffic concerns about “stacking” vehicles at the drive-through lane were also addressed in the traffic study.

“As proposed, the project’s site driveways and internal circulation have been designed to provide for safe and efficient movement of automobiles and large wheel base vehicles,” the study concluded.

Renderings of a proposed Dunkin’ Donuts location on Mantoloking Road in Brick Township, June 2025. (Planning Document)

The board granted several variances, including the maximum amount of lot coverage – where 60 percent was required while 71 percent was proposed. A landscape buffer of approximately 10 feet will be located on the side of the building where 25 feet is normally required. Also, the minimum parking space distance from Vannote Drive is 20-feet, where 16.1 feet is proposed.

The same property was once approved for a “Farm Store,” a small drive-through convenience store that would have measured only about 675 feet in area. That store, however, was never constructed, and the Dunkin’ Donuts was proposed in March. Plans were updated in May and June, and multiple meetings led to the Oct. 29 vote, which narrowly passed 5-4.