Warehouse plan opposition draws cheers at hearing

 

UPPER FREEHOLD -- A person hearing the noise emanating from the Allentown High School auditorium at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday might have guessed a student performance or political debate was going on inside.

 

But the event was a meeting of the Upper Freehold Township Planning Board, and the shouts and applause came from the hundreds of area residents who wanted to make their voices heard.

 

The board was hearing testimony regarding a plan to build 1.8 million square feet of warehouse space near New Jersey Turnpike Exit 7A.

 

The developing team, New York-based Rockefeller Group Development Corp. and Philadelphia-based Industrial Development International (Rock-IDI), is seeking approval of an $82 million plan for three warehouses as well as parking lots, internal roads, a revamped Breza Road that connects to Route 526, and drainage basins on the 253-acre site. The plan would also donate 19 acres to the township that would likely be used for affordable housing.

 

The sometimes-raucous audience applauded as Eric Beck, engineer for neighboring Allentown Borough, brought up issues of noise, light and environmental pollution. The cheers were loudest when Beck said, "Large warehouses and trucking and things of this nature do not conform to the character of the borough of Allentown."

 

Upper Freehold resident Jim Hannon told The Times that his family's "quality of life has suffered" as a result of truck noise along a new bypass road around Allentown. It has been "deafening in people's backyards," he said, arguing against allowing even more trucks on the local roads.

 

A representative from a local planning group passed out copies of a lengthy statement that argued "a warehouse development will place an excessive burden on the environment; it will destroy an historic, bucolic, and rural area."

 

But officials from Rock-IDI contend that they comply with local noise and light ordinances and that their proposal will keep truck traffic away from Allentown. They say that state-protected wetlands in the area will be preserved and that Monmouth County, the township and school district will gain tax revenue, about $1.6 million per year, by allowing the development.

 

Beck's testimony was preceded by two hours of sworn statements from experts hired by Rock-IDI, the majority of which responded to an ordinance recently adopted by the township that requires strict visual and spatial buffers between commercial developments and residences.

 

The developers attempted to demonstrate their ability to comply with the ordinance over most, but not all, of the 3-mile site's perimeter. They requested a variance that would allow them to proceed despite this, which could be a sticking point in future hearings.

 

The next public meeting on the proposal will be on Aug. 22.