Howell Wendy’s, Warehouse Hearings Moved To September

HOWELL, NJ - Applications for a Wendy’s drive-thru on Route 9 and a warehouse on Victory Road won’t be heard until at least next month after a recent Howell Planning Board meeting was canceled, officials said.

While it wasn’t immediately clear why the meeting was canceled hours before the scheduled hearings. officials said the Wendy’s application will be heard on Sept. 21 and the warehouse application will be discussed on Sept. 7.

You can view the agenda for the Aug. 17 planning board meeting here.

Wen Claire Real Estate LLC will be seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval for a 2,380-square-foot Wendy’s restaurant with 30 seats, 42 parking spaces and a drive-thru large enough to accommodate a nine-vehicle queue.

Access to the site will be provided via new one-way right-in and right out driveways from Route 9, as well as from the existing full movement driveway along West Farms Road, according to planning board documents.

The same applicant was granted approval in 2015 to build a 3,429-square-foot Wendy’s restaurant with drive thru, and in 2017 the applicant submitted for an amended approval to construct a 2,565-square-foot Wendy’s restaurant. Construction has not started on either application.

AAVRHW Property, LLC (Victory Road) is seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval for a 25-dock warehouse on Victory Road, according to planning board documents. Hearings from earlier this year will be continued on the September meeting date.

According to a May 4 board agenda, the application would remove a large portion of the existing woods and construct a 203,802-square-foot warehouse/office building which will consist of 193,802 square feet of warehouse space and two separate office spaces totaling 10,000 square feet.

Apart from the 25 loading docks, two drive ramps, 68 trailer parking spaces as well as 73 passenger vehicle parking spaces are proposed, according to a description of the project on the agenda.

Access will be provided via two new full movement driveways along Victory Road and a 30-foot wide circulation aisle around the eastern, southern and western sides of the building.

The consideration by the Planning Board comes in the midst of an overall issue of warehouse construction in the state.

The Township Council has voted to ask area legislators to tighten state Municipal Land Use laws regarding warehouse development in the wake of a building boom in the industry.

-With reporting by Pat McDaniel.