Board OKs BP's Plan to Reopen Former Getty Station

The former Getty gas station on Washington Avenue, which has been sitting empty for several months, will reopen as a BP.

The Washington Township Planning Board unanimously approved BP's plan to rebrand and reopen the gas station during its meeting Wednesday night.

According to engineer William Vogt, the gas station will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and have three employees working. There will not be any retail store as had been rumored because of a planned "shop" sign over the garage, he said.

BP will be renting the property from Getty Properties. Getty Petroluem Marketing, a seperate company which had rented the property, went bankrupt late last year. BP has not yet named its operator for the reopened gas station and garage.

The existing 21-foot-high pylon sign will be reused, with just the branding at the top replaced, according to Vogt. Only the logo on the sign will be illuminated, as opposed to the Getty sign which was fully lit, he said. They had previously planned to replace it with a slightly taller sign, but agreed not to at the board's request.

BP also agreed to fix a fence at the rear of the property and maintain plants as requested by the board's engineer.

Coincidentally, the three 6,000-gallon gas tanks at the station will need to be replaced soon because they have reached the end of their 30-year lifespan, Vogt said. The work will likely take place within the next year, but some of the landscaping will be held off until then because of the size of that project.

Vogt said he did not expect any leaks from the existing tanks would be found because no problems have been discovered in the five existing monitoring wells on the property. They have already received the go-ahead from the state Department for Environmental Protection for the tank replacement.

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