Piscataway May Start Fining 'Nuisance Motels' $1,000 Per Day

PISCATAWAY, NJ — Piscataway is continuing to crack down on what it calls problem motels in town and in response, the Piscataway Motel 6 sued the town:

The town may soon start fining motels $1,000 per day if the town determines they are "nuisance properties."

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The Piscataway town council is considering a proposal that will label a property a nuisance if it receives an excessive number of visits from the police within a 60-day period, for things such as felony arrests, prostitution and drug sales. The motel owner would then have to present a nuisance-abatement plan before town officials, and the town would impose $1,000 fines, per day, if the motel owners don't follow that plan.

This proposal was introduced at the May 14 town council meeting.

Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler previously identified two motels — the Motel 6 on Stelton Road and the Extended Stay — as problems. Piscatataway Police say they receive multiple 911 calls a day from those two motels, for drug sales, drug overdoses, thefts, burglary and prostitution. People turned rooms at the Extended Stay into makeshift meth labs, and there were two meth lab explosions at the Extended Stay in recent years.

Wahler said ever since the state of New Jersey and social service agencies started housing the homeless at those two motels, as well as people just released from prison, they have become a "petri dish of crime."

"We've had almost 700 police, fire and EMS calls from the Motel 6 this year alone," Wahler said in December. "We know people just out of prison are being housed there. Somerset County Social Services is sending people there, and I believe Burlington County as well ... There is no follow-up. It's become a petri dish of crime."

In February, the Piscataway town council passed an ordinance that hotel licenses can be revoked for failure to follow the municipal code. The town also limited guests to 89-day stays (exceptions are made for those fleeing domestic violence and families having construction done on their homes).

The Piscataway Motel 6 hired lawyers, and the Bianchi Law Group, working with Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith and Davis, sued the town of Piscataway, challenging the February ordinance. Their lawsuit has not been resolved.

The lawyers said this week they are reviewing the town's latest proposed $1,000-per-day ordinance.

The owner of the Piscataway Extended Stay did not return a call for comment for this article.

The town also wants the motels to install surveillance systems, and give law enforcement access to the footage, as well as better lighting to help police and deter crime.

Previously: Ex-Cons, Homeless Are Being Housed At 2 Piscataway Motels; Mayor Says It's Led To Crime, Drug Surge (December 2025)