{"id":26014,"date":"2026-02-17T09:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T14:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=26014"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:04:27","slug":"as-land-cleared-for-car-wash-in-brick-neighbor-asks-for-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2026\/02\/as-land-cleared-for-car-wash-in-brick-neighbor-asks-for-park\/","title":{"rendered":"As Land Cleared for Car Wash in Brick, Neighbor Asks for Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the proposed ‘express’ car wash at 1905 Route 88, Brick Township. (Planning Documents\/Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

Since it was first proposed in 2023, residents of Brick Township’s Laurelton Heights neighborhood objected to the addition of a new car wash along Route 88 \u2013 notably, just feet from another car wash. Now, in early 2026, the trees have been cleared from the property at 1905 Route 88 and construction is beginning, and one resident requested the township make an investment that she believed could help mitigate a potential loss of property value.<\/p>\n

The answer from township officials after reviewing the request was a definitive ‘no,’ for several reasons. But the township also said conditions would improve once the car wash is constructed and adheres to landscaping buffers that were required by the zoning board at the time of approval.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A wooded area near Barb Lane and Taylor Boulevard, Brick, N.J. (Google Earth)<\/p><\/div>\n

The proposed \u201cUrban Express\u201d car wash, as it was known as the time, will be located at Route 88 and Kenneth Place, or 1905 Route 88, which is currently half-developed with a strip mall. The other half of the parcel, located closest to Kenneth Place, was undeveloped and wooded until recently. It is located roughly across the street from the new Wawa at 1902 Route 88, which has been the subject of complaints over traffic safety<\/a> on the oft-congested state highway. The car wash, like the strip mall, will back up to residential properties on Kieser Boulevard.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no privacy to the neighborhood, and once construction is complete, it will become another hazard of people zooming through the neighborhood with no speed limit signs,” said resident Gianna Minich, reiterating the fact that another car was is less than two blocks away.<\/p>\n

The zoning board gave final approval to the car wash in 2024, which will take up 2,800 square feet in a one-story structure. It will also include 12 outdoor vacuum stations. Car washes\u00a0 are not allowed in the B-2 zone, where the property is located, necessitating the board to grant a use variance. But while car washes are not an allowable use, there is no expressed prohibition on them, and their status within the zoning code is something of a relic of years past. A car was would have been fully allowed under the code \u2013 in the same spot \u2013 had a gas station been built alongside it. The code, when written decades ago, assumed car washes would be mated to gas stations, as was the trend at the time. Theoretically, its owners could have packed a filling station into the same application and avoided a variance altogether.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the proposed ‘express’ car wash at 1905 Route 88, Brick Township. (Planning Documents\/Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the proposed ‘express’ car wash at 1905 Route 88, Brick Township. (Planning Documents\/Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

Still, neighbors brought their concerns about traffic, noise and other issues the board with the hope that the well-known traffic safety woes along the state highway would be enough to stop the variance from being granted. In the end, the objections were unsuccessful, and the project was approved in a 6-1 vote.<\/p>\n

In January, Minich came to the township council with a proposal of her own: purchase a small wooded area near the intersection of Barb Lane and Taylor Boulevard, behind an existing shopping center, and use open space funding to preserve it as a small neighborhood park. She said there were ru<\/p>\n

“Spend the community tax dollars to improve our neighborhood as you simultaneously de-value our neighborhood by adding a car wash to it,” she said, with an emphasis on holding Mayor Lisa Crate to campaign promises over purchasing additional open space in the township. “I would like to begin a proposal to build a small neighborhood park so there is a safe place for families to gather, as this car wash will be at the entrance of our neighborhood.”<\/p>\n

Minich said there were rumors in the neighborhood that the land was owned by the township. Those rumors, however, were not true.<\/p>\n

“The neighborhood backs up to a state highway and the property in question has been in a commercial zone since 1948,” said Councilwoman Steve Feinman.<\/p>\n

The parcel of land is owned by the operators of the Camp Mall strip mall. It has been under their ownership since the 1960s, when they first developed the now-aging shopping plaza.<\/p>\n

Feinman, after having consulted with the mayor and township administrator, said she learned the site does not meet the normal qualifications for open space preservation. The fact that it is privately owned and located in a business zone would make the price of an acquisition exponentially higher than an outlying parcel in an undeveloped residential zone. There were also concerns about preserving land on a state highway, which would come with its own safety issues and red tape. It would most likely not qualify for state Green Acres funding, either. Then, there is the fact that it is not for sale.<\/p>\n

“We only purchase open space from willing sellers,” said Feinman. “This property does not have open space conservation or recreational value, as it is a conforming business zone use and would be very expensive as such.”<\/p>\n

When the township considers open space preservation, officials look for the potential for developability as well as opportunities for active or passive recreation. The small parcel would be unable to house either, officials determined.<\/p>\n

“The 4,500 square foot piece is best suited for an Adopt-A-Spot, but a property that abuts a state highway is not appropriate for even a pocket park,” Feinman said.<\/p>\n

While the news will likely disappoint residents, township officials said some early concerns about the car wash site will be \u2013 and already have been \u2013 addressed. A township zoning officer already brought up sight line concerns and was successful in ensuring they will be addressed by the time construction concludes.<\/p>\n

“Once the construction is completed, construction equipment, temporary fences and temporary signage will be removed,” said Feinman.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the proposed ‘express’ car wash at 1905 Route 88, Brick Township. (Planning Documents\/Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the proposed ‘express’ car wash at 1905 Route 88, Brick Township. (Planning Documents\/Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the proposed ‘express’ car wash at 1905 Route 88, Brick Township. (Planning Documents\/Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

At the hearing where the zoning board considered the application, representatives for the the owner,\u00a0 JAC Operating Corp., said safety concerns would be addressed by the entrance and egress to the site being located within the adjacent strip mall rather than through additional dedicated driveways onto the highway itself.<\/p>\n

Jason R. Tuvel, attorney for JAC, told board members that the facility would be largely automated and open seven days per week from either 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will allow enough space for 11 cars to \u201cstack\u201d while waiting to be washed without overflow, and between one and two employees would be on site during the hours of operation. Access to the site will be through the adjacent strip mall rather than local streets or a separate entrance on Route 88.<\/p>\n

The car was was ultimately approved to share a driveway with the neighboring strip mall, with left turns allowed into the facility from the state highway. Traffic would also exit the business onto the state highway through the existing driveway. A traffic engineer previous testified that the only alternative to routing traffic directly onto the busy highway would be to route it onto adjacent residential streets, which was a non-starter for board members.<\/p>\n

A traffic study conducted by an engineering firm estimated about 30 percent of customers would access the car wash from the west, meaning about 30 percent would likely attempt to make a left turn onto Route 88 from the exit lane.<\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

Correction:<\/strong> Quotes from Council President Steve Feinman were initially attributed to Councilwoman Lisa Reina. They have been corrected.<\/p>\n

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Since it was first proposed in 2023, residents of Brick Township’s Laurelton Heights neighborhood objected to the addition of a new car wash along Route 88 \u2013 notably, just feet from another car wash. Now, in early 2026, the trees have been cleared from the property at 1905 Route 88 and construction is beginning, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,1649],"tags":[24,5558,1901,4484,5559,625],"class_list":["post-26014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-local-business","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-camp-mall","tag-car-wash","tag-featured","tag-laurelton-heights","tag-route-88"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/car_wash_bg.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6LA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26014"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26022,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26014\/revisions\/26022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}