Residents to ap­peal court’s decision on warehouses

By alison granito
Staff Writer

By alison granito
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD — Although they lost the first round in court, local grassroots opposition plans to appeal a judge’s decision to uphold the approval of a 5.58 million-square-foot warehouse project.

According to Bob Pinto and Maureen Novozinsky, members of Residents for Smart Growth, they feel they have a strong case on appeal.

The Residents for Smart Growth is composed of homeowners in Upper Freehold’s Lynwood Estates who live across Route 539 from the proposed site of the warehouse project. The site is actually on the other side of the municipal border in Washington Township, Mercer County.

Residents for Smart Growth’s initial lawsuit challenged the approval the Matrix Corp. received from Washington’s Planning Board to develop the site. The suit contends that the project does not conform to regulations set forth in Washington Township’s zoning ordinance, which requires a "reasonable mix" of warehouse and office space on the site.

New Jersey Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg dismissed the lawsuit May 30.

"We just don’t think what they are proposing qualifies as reasonable at all," Pinto said in a recent interview.

Only a small percentage of the development will be used as office space — 60,000 square feet out of 5.58 million total square feet.

"The contentions set forth in the residents’ original lawsuit were uniformly dismissed by Judge Feinberg in her very decisive ruling. There are no grounds for an appeal and I believe that any future judicial actions will vigorously uphold Judge Feinberg’s judgment," said Alexander B. Taylor, Matrix’s chief operating officer, in prepared statement Tuesday. "Matrix is actively proceeding with the marketing of the park and expects to announce new transactions shortly."

In a recent interview, Novozinsky and Pinto said they took issue with previous reports that their group rejected a settlement offer with the company. It was reported that Matrix agreed to address 10 of 11 concerns the Residents for Smart Growth had raised. The last item on that list, wherein the residents asked for $10 million in damages, was rejected by the company.

The items in contention include moving the entrance of the eastern portion of the industrial park, adding berming and landscaping to shield residents’ view of the property, creating a no-left-turn exit lane for large trucks so they cannot turn onto Old York Road, increasing the building setback on Old York Road, and adding road improvements to control the flow and speed of traffic at local intersections.

"If you look at their letter, they didn’t really agree to do it, but only to consider doing most of it — whatever that means," Pinto said.

"They never said exactly what they would give us," he added.

Pinto and Novozinsky said the Lynwood residents wanted assurance that the company would follow through on the measures which would minimize the impact on their development, particularly in reference to the setback from the road and traffic issues.

As for the $10 million, both said that "it’s not really about the money."

"We don’t want the money. We want them to adhere to a reasonable mix and the zoning ordinance," Novozinsky said.

"But when it comes down to it, if this is built, we are all going to take some losses so we thought some compensation might be fair," she said.

Novozinsky and Pinto both said they feel the project would have an extremely negative impact on property values in their development.