The empty corner at Speedwell Avenue and Dayton Road, where the Friendly's used to be, sits across from Morris Plains Borough Elementary School and Joyful Noise Nursery School. On paper the lot is 415 and 435 Speedwell Avenue, Block 23, Lots 4 and 5. The application on file there comes from McDonald's USA, LLC, for a drive-through restaurant.
The borough finished its part almost two years ago. The Planning Board approved the project in December 2024, but it attached a condition that the applicant get the New Jersey Department of Transportation to sign off on access from Speedwell Avenue. Speedwell is U.S. Route 202, a state highway, and that condition is where the project stopped. The question still open this fall is whether cars may turn left across this stretch of Route 202 at all, and the borough never had control over that decision.
Twenty-five hours of testimony, decided by one vote
The local process was long and close. Morristown Green reported that the Planning Board approved the drive-through by a 5-4 vote after 25 hours of testimony. At the December 16, 2024 session, 26 of the roughly 90 people in the room spoke during public comment, the outlet reported.
Several things changed in the plan over those months. New Jersey Hills described a 3,000-square-foot restaurant with two drive-through lanes and 32 parking spaces. The concessions it listed included shorter hours, pedestrian improvements, landscaping, and an exit onto Dayton Road angled to discourage right turns. At the first hearings the applicant had proposed opening from 4 a.m. to midnight. By November 12, 2024, the applicant's engineer confirmed hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., with the drive-through closing when the restaurant does.
Traffic took up most of the testimony. The applicant's traffic engineer projected 710 vehicle entries a day and put the chance of the drive-through line backing up onto Speedwell at 0.01%, Morristown Green reported. Residents asked whether that study covered the 2 to 2:30 p.m. school pickup window and the event traffic from the Central Park sports complex. At the September 2024 hearing, a Planning Board member called the drive-through design a "bottleneck."
None of that testimony was about the left turn into the site from Speedwell. That question belonged to Trenton.
What the state's letter actually says
On August 25, 2026, NJDOT turned down the applicant's request for a waiver that would have allowed a left turn into the site without a dedicated left-turn lane. Morristown Green obtained the letter, and the reasons in it are specific. NJDOT classifies this section of Speedwell as Access Level 4, which, in the letter's words, "mandates that left-turn movements from State highways must utilize a dedicated left-turn lane where warranted by design and safety considerations."
The letter also says this stretch of road can't fit that lane:
"the existing roadway cross-section does not provide sufficient width to accommodate installation of a dedicated left-turn lane in accordance with NJDOT safety and design standards"
The letter then turns to the crash record, and these figures say the most about the road people drive every day. It gives the corridor's crash rate as 11.13, against a statewide average of 4.6, so this part of Route 202 has more than twice the average rate. It also says 61% of crashes on this segment happen between intersections, which it calls "a concerning pattern of mid-block conflicts." NJDOT concluded that adding a new unsignalized left turn without a dedicated lane would create more conflict points on a road that already has elevated crash activity.
The applicant had argued that other left turns across Speedwell already exist. NJDOT answered that it has issued "no Major Access Permits" on this section "since the early 2000s," and that every new application gets judged against current Access Code requirements and current safety data. Older driveways up and down Route 202 were approved under earlier conditions, so they don't set a precedent for a new one.
The rule behind the decision
The standard NJDOT applied is in the State Highway Access Management Code, N.J.A.C. 16:47. On an Access Level 4 road, the code allows left turns from the state highway "via a left-turn lane where warranted by traffic volumes and design requirements."
The code does let NJDOT grant a permit that falls short of a requirement in some cases, for example when meeting the requirement isn't reasonably attainable or a denial would leave a property with no reasonable access. It also rules out any waiver that would substantially harm safety or operations on the state highway. A waiver request has to be documented, and even an approved waiver is not the same thing as an approved application. The NJDOT PDF is labeled a courtesy copy, and the official New Jersey Administrative Code controls if the two ever differ.
The crash figures in the letter connect directly to that safety limit in the code. Since the letter found the segment already crashes at more than twice the state rate, the waiver ran straight into the "substantial harm" limit.
How the news reached Borough Hall
The denial went to the applicant's engineer on August 25, 2026. In a letter to residents dated September 10, Mayor Jason Karr wrote that neither the borough nor its professionals received a copy. He learned of the denial on September 9 and had the borough engineer get the letter from the applicant's engineer.
The subject came up again at the October 1, 2026 Borough Council meeting. According to the official minutes, the borough attorney said the borough's traffic engineer had asked the applicant's traffic consultant for a gap study and was satisfied with it. The attorney said he believes the applicant relied on that study when it told NJDOT the borough supported the waiver. He declined to say more in public, so as not to compromise the borough's ability to hear testimony if the applicant comes back to the Planning Board.
Three ways forward, all in the applicant's hands
The mayor's letter lists what the project would need in order to move ahead:
- NJDOT revises its denial.
- Speedwell Avenue is widened to add a dedicated left-turn lane.
- The Planning Board amends its resolution of approval.
"The manner in which it may seek to proceed is entirely up to the Applicant," Karr wrote. TAPinto reported the same three options.
Each option runs into the facts in NJDOT's letter. A revised decision would require the agency to set aside its own current crash data, and a widened Speedwell would need road width the letter says isn't there. An amended resolution would send the project back to the board that approved it 5-4, with the hours, exits and parking it already argued through in 2024 still part of the record.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | Planning Board approves the drive-through, on condition of NJDOT access approval |
| August 25, 2026 | NJDOT denies the left-turn waiver |
| September 9, 2026 | Borough learns of the denial |
| September 10, 2026 | Mayor's letter to residents lays out the three paths |
| October 1, 2026 | Council discussion; attorney describes the gap study |
| October 19, 2026 | Planning Board meets; no McDonald's application on the agenda |
| November 16, 2026 | Next scheduled Planning Board meeting |
Where things stand this week
There was no McDonald's item on the revised agenda for the October 19 Planning Board meeting, and the agenda gives November 16 as the next scheduled meeting. A resident's October 22 update on a Change.org petition opposing the project says the applicant "may be pursuing an appeal to DOT." That is a resident's account, and it is not a filing or a statement from the applicant. As of late October, the borough has posted no amended application and no new hearing date.
The next Planning Board agenda, for November 16, will be posted on morrisplainsboro.org.
At Jillayne Southren, we keep track of projects like this one along Route 202 because what happens to a busy corner can come up when you list a nearby home. If you live near Speedwell Avenue and want to talk through how the area is changing, schedule a personal consultation or ask for a free home valuation.
