Residents Picket Against Proposed Car Dealerships on Rt. 9

Approximately 25-30 Manalapan residents picketed the intersection of Rt. 9 and Taylors Mills Road this morning from 9 a.m. to noon to raise awareness about the proposed amendment to the township's Master Plan which would allow car dealerships to be constructed in the OP3-Zone.

The protestors held up signs advertising the upcoming Planning Board meeting on Thursday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m., where Ray Catena Auto Group will continue their testimony defending the proposed amendment formally titled, "Master Plan Amendment to the Land Use Plan Element - OP-3 Zone to Permit Automobile Sales Agencies”. Ray Catena Auto Group, represented by attorney Gerald Sonnenblick, .

Catena presented his plan to the Township Committee at a to discuss possible re-zoning and potential purchase of the 60,000 square foot CMX building on the site. Catena was instructed by the Committee to meet with the Planning Board about the possibility of re-zoning the area to allow auto sales dealerships. After two Planning Board meetings on the issue, Catena Auto Group will continue testimony at the meeting on Thursday, Dec. 8 in the courtroom of the at 8 p.m.

The picketers handed out over 1,000 flyers to cars idling at the traffic light on Taylors Mills Road which explain the proposed amendment, ask people to sign the petition against the amendment on www.stop07726dealership.com, and publicize the Planning Board meeting on Thursday. The protestors, also, asked drivers to sign a petition against the dealership right from their car.

Lauiace Burke, who has lived for 26 years on Greenfield Avenue with her husband Bernard, said "a lot of people who work for Catena are saying, 'you're wasting your time, it's a done deal.'"

Susan Hergenrother, a resident of the Prides Walk development for 25 years, said that the purpose of the picketing is to raise awareness about the potential change to the Master Plan and that a lot of the drivers who were spoken to were unaware of the possible dealership and opposed the idea.

One of the main issues the protestors fear is the increased traffic car dealerships at the Taylors Mills Road intersection would incur. Hergenrother said that Route 9 is already congested and the intersection is almost always overcrowded with vehicles.

Volunteers were counting cars on both sides of the intersection on Taylors Mills Road and within two and a half hours 1,759 cars were counted on the eastbound side of Taylors Mills Road and 2,556 cars were counted on the westbound side of Taylors Mills Road.

"Numbers don't lie," Hergenrother said. "We're watching people make illegal turn, after illegal turn, after illegal turn." She said she worries that the area and township would not be able to handle the amount of growth the dealerships could possibly bring, and whether the assured ratables are worth it.

David Finkelstein, a resident of the Monmouth Heights development, said that he is looking five years down the road and is worried about the possibility of the intersection eventually housing multiple car dealerships, which the proposed amendment would allow. 

According to Finkelstein and Hergenrother, the protestors are not after Ray Catena Auto Group and understand their position in the debate, they are opposed to car dealerships at that intersection in general.

"It's not about [Catena], it's not about his dealership, it's about, honestly, the quality of life that we have all been able to experience here," Hergenrother said. "I moved from Marlboro to Manalapan for quality of life, and that's what this is about."