Howell Residents: Warehouse Plan Threatens Safety, Quality Of Life

HOWELL, NJ — A hearing on the proposal for a 203,802-square-foot warehouse/with office on Victory Road will continue before the Planning Board on Nov. 2.

Many residents of the area spoke at a more than three-hour hearing on Oct. 5, asking the Planning Board to reject the proposal.

The board has other agenda items already planned for the Oct. 19 meeting, including a presentation on the Master Plan re-examination and other applications.

So Nov. 2 was chosen as the next best date for the continued discussion of the application.

The AAVRHW Property - or Victory Road - application calls for a 203,802-square-foot structure with 25 loading dock spaces, two drive ramps, 68 trailer parking spaces, as well as 73 passenger vehicle parking spaces, according to the application.

The developers of the site are meeting resistance from residents opposed to the "mega-warehouse." Ten residents in the area have hired an attorney to rebut traffic and engineering experts for the developer.

The matter was first scheduled before the board in November 2022 and has had many continuations, although there also has been past testimony and many exhibits and site plan drawings submitted for various aspects of the project. You can refer to the Planning Board agenda to links to the exhibits, including a rendering of the proposed building.

Residents say the warehouse, among other issues, will endanger road safety and create storm water runoff problems and affect the quality of life in an area of private homes. Some houses in the area are rural, on several acres of land, and farms in the area include horse farms, produce farms and even an alpaca farm.

Time also means money for the residents.

Betty Velez, one of the objectors, led off the comments. She spoke of the $60,000 in fees they have incurred as they try to preserve the rural character of the area.

"Our lives are completely destroyed; our future as Howell residents is in question," she told the Planning Board members.

The warehouse is a permitted use in the zone and should be before the Planning Board, the attorney for the developer said.

But Velez said the board has the right to apply its own environmental ordinance to deny the application.

"I'm not an activist, I'm a resident who's worked very hard to live here," she said.

She cited various environmental concerns, including:

• Large deliveries of fill to prepare the ground for the construction will mean the warehouse will tower over nearby properties.
• The removal of trees and the creation of the hard surfaces for the project will create too much water runoff to nearby brooks, especially considering the heavy rainfalls lately.
• Animal species in the area, such as as the endangered barn owl, will be pushed into a more limited area.
• Noise pollution will be created from the removal of 1,500 trees and the trucks using the site 24/7, she said.

Many more residents spoke and raised issues about the warehouse truck traffic and the turning radius needed for them at various intersections. Plans to widen Victory Road in certain areas could also impact homes in the area, necessitating the removal of trees. Another speaker said she was concerned for the safety of school children, including her own daughter, getting off school buses on the 50 mph road.

The residents in the area have retained a lawyer to fight the application, attorney Stuart J. Lieberman of Princeton.

An attorney in the firm attended the meeting to argue that an easement being acquired by the warehouse from an auto body shop a half mile off the site to facilitate turning onto Route 547 should become part of the application. She said no notice has been given to residents of the area. She also questioned the "flex space" concept for the offices at the site. She said those plans should move the application to the Zoning Board for a variance.

But the board, with one exception, decided upon advice of professionals that neither of her arguments related to the application and had other avenues of approval if the developer proceeds - and that the application was properly before the Planning Board.

You can see a video of the meeting here that shows that initial legal argument and then all the comment by residents. It also contains additional testimony from the developer's traffic and engineering experts.

A past Patch article also contains more resident comments on the issue prior to this meeting. Howell NJ First, an organization that has opposed "mega-warehouse " applications here and elsewhere in town, encourages residents to turn out for the hearings.

Access to the warehouse will be provided via two new, full-movement driveways along Victory Road and a 30-foot-wide circulation aisle around the eastern, southern and western sides of the building, according to the application as presented on the agenda.

Other improvements listed by the developer include concrete sidewalks, curbing, ADA curb ramps, storm water management as well as new landscaping and lighting throughout.

The site is at Block 41, Lot 17, Victory Road.