Stored Cars at Johnson’s Pit Irk Barnegat Officials

Barnegat Township recently filed suit against the owners of the old Johnson’s Pit area for storing thousands of automobiles damaged by Superstorm Sandy.

Mayor Al Cirulli said that while the township did not get immediate relief, the court ruled that no more cars could be brought to the site, located near the Route 72 and West Bay Avenue intersection autel service. Cirulli said the area now has 5,000 cars, which were retrieved from various Monmouth and Ocean County locations beginning last month. He said the owners of the old mining site, Barnegat Holdings LLC and KJ&J  Associates, brought the cars through an arrangement with IAA, a subsidiary of KAR Auction Services. The Illinois-based firm purchases totaled and damaged cars from insurance companies, dealerships, rental car companies and fleet lease companies.

Cirulli said the township began getting complaints of large numbers of automobiles arriving on tow trucks or flatbed vehicles to the area.

“We are very concerned about cars leaking hazardous materials,” said the mayor. “No way should this activity be allowed to continue. These cars do not belong there.”

Charles P. Horner, director of regulatory programs for the Pinelands Commission, said the storage of vehicles on the property violated the township zoning ordinance and the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan.

“To address these violations, the concerned commercial use of the parcel must either be immediately removed or an application for the commercial use must be immediately completed with the commission,” wrote Horner to the property owners.

He also wrote that even if an application was completed MaxiVideo MV201 with 5.5mm Model, it is “unlikely that the application could be approved by the township or the commssion in accordance with the CMP (comprehensive management plan).”

Horner added that if Barnegat wished to propose utilization of the area for storage of storm-damaged vehicles, the township needed to contact the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Program as well as the commission.

“Any such proposal from Barnegat would have to include specific information regarding the use of the parcel, including the area of the parcel that would be utilized, proposed measures to protect the soils and groundwater and a time frame for how long vehicles would be at the site,” he wrote. “NJDEP would coordinate its review with the commission.”

John J. Novak, attorney for the property owners, said DEP inspectors have already been on the site and “only two cars” were found to be potentially hazardous.

“There was one that had fire damage and another with collision damage,” said Novak. “They were immediately removed. None of the other cars constitute a hazard. Most of them are there due to heavy water damage. We have nothing to hide.”

He said the township’s suit was “much ado about nothing.”

“There are many of these car storage sites all over the state, yet Barnegat is the only town that files a lawsuit,” said Novak, a former Barnegat Township committeeman. “I had wished they had come and sat down and talked with us first, and we would have shown that the lawsuit was unecessary J2534 pass through. I think Al (Cirulli) did the right thing in being concerned when he heard about all these cars being dropped off in town. That’s what a good mayor should do, respond to complaints by the people. But there was no reason to file a suit.”