Board approves auto-detailing use with parking-relief conditions at industrial site

The Ocean Township Board of Adjustment approved a request by BEL Avenue LLC to permit an 11-station auto-detailing use in an existing warehouse at 1304–1306 Bal Avenue, subject to plan clarifications.

Applicant counsel Jennifer Criminal presented the proposal and introduced traffic engineer Justin Taylor of Dynamic Traffic, who testified he conducted counts at the applicant's Milstone facility and on the subject property. Taylor said the ordinance would nominally require 244 parking spaces for all uses on the site, but that empirical counts and conservative occupancy assumptions showed a realistic maximum of 31 vehicles on the non-car-club portions of the property at peak observed times and that the proposed detailer would need roughly 14 spaces. With 92 spaces available to serve the non-car-club uses, Taylor concluded the site could support the auto-detailing operation.

Board professional Mr. Higgins said he had no major objection to the testimony but asked that gates and related site features be clearly shown on revised exhibits to avoid future ambiguity. Applicant agreed to submit a revised exhibit marking gates and to provide clarifying materials. After the public portion closed, the board recorded affirmative votes to grant the relief, with standard conditions related to final plan details.

Justin Taylor summarized his core finding: "The maximum we saw was 14 cars parked for any one day" at the comparator site, and for the subject property he reported a maximum count of 31 vehicles on the non-car-club lots but concluded there are 92 available spaces to meet the proposed need.