Planning Board recommends against zoning change.
By: Joseph Harvie
An overflow crowd packed the township meeting room last week, hoping to convince the Planning Board to recommend against rezoning a 220-acre farm for warehouses.
And the board complied, voting unanimously Feb. 16 to ask the Township Council not to change the zoning on the Davidsons Mill Road parcel.
Residents gathered at the Municipal Building for the meeting, carrying signs urging an end to warehouse development. The group was so large it spilled out into the hallway so residents could watch the meeting on the TV above the information desk in the main lobby.
Residents hung posters in the meeting room with pictures of trucks driving past areas of Davidsons Mill Road designated as no truck zones.
They circulated a petition urging the township to keep the 220-acre Pulda farm and historic farmhouse zoned as rural residential and not changed to LI-4, which would allow warehouses. The property borders the N.J. Turnpike and Pigeon Swamp State Park.
Most of the residents in attendance were from the northeastern corner of town near the border with East Brunswick. Many spoke out against the rezoning.
The board’s vote now places the decision in the hands of the council. Mayor Frank Gambatese said he did not know when the council would review the plans.
The property is owned by Walter Pulda of Piscataway, but would be sold to the Morris Co., a Rutherford-based commercial real estate firm, if the zoning is changed. Morris is proposing three warehouses totaling 3.3 million square feet on the 220-acre site. The buildings would be built as close to the Turnpike as possible because of wetlands on the property and high voltage power lines that run along the western part of the property, according to company representative Tom Gallagher. The company also is planning to offer 50 acres as open space, he said. Morris has built the Barnes & Noble warehouse on Cranbury Road, the Canon USA facility on Route 522 and the Wakefern Shop-Rite warehouse on Davidsons Mill Road.
Mr. Gallagher said the company is requesting a change to LI-4 because of the existence of the power lines and proximity of the Turnpike. He said the property would not be desirable for residential development.
While the vote was 7-0 (three members were absent and the second alternate’s position remains vacant), several board members were hesitant to make a decision at the meeting. Mayor Gambatese, who sits on the Planning Board, said he would have preferred that more time be taken to look into the rezoning. However, he decided to vote against the rezoning because of the number of residents in that area that are opposed to the plan.
Most of the residents in attendance said they opposed the rezoning, but two said they supported it.
Jesse Voight, who owns and operates a horse farm on Davidsons Mill Road, said he would rather see warehouses built on the property than houses. He said the properties could be left unkempt by the residents that move into the houses that could be built on the property.
"If we put houses on that land it will be the end of it," Mr. Voight said.
Herb Gopstein of Kendall Park said residential zoning would mean higher taxes, because the single-family houses would bring more children into the township’s schools.
Opponents of the zoning wanted to preserve the rural character of the area and also asked that township to preserve the farmhouse known as the Van Dyke House that sits on the parcel. The Van Dyke house dates back to the 1700s. The upper level of the house was once slave quarters and the house itself has about seven fireplaces including one large one in the kitchen that was used as the main source for heating food in the 1800s.
John Van Dyke, the son of the house’s former owner, urged the township to save the farmhouse and the cemeteries on the property. He said his family started farming the parcel in 1711 when they emigrated from the Netherlands. He also believes, based on the date of a tombstone, that a Revolutionary War soldier is buried on the property.
"The most important product of a farm is its people," Mr. Van Dyke said. "And it is because of the people that I ask that you save the graveyard and the historic home on the property, if nothing else."
Janet Koenig, who has lived on Davidsons Mill Road next to the Pulda tract for 27 years, said the board should not allow warehouses.
"I accept that I have to share my apples and chestnuts with (the animals near her property)," Ms. Koenig said. "But it is a shame that my human counterparts would prefer a warehouse parking lot."
Lazlo Nyitrai, a township police officer, said he and his wife, Barbara Gut, the township clerk, would not have purchased their house on Davidsons Mill Road if they knew the zoning might be changed.
"I would like to say we did a lot of research before we purchased our house a year ago," Officer Nyitrai said. "I would like to see it stay zoned as it is in the current Master Plan."
Gary Ipoliti of Davidsons Mill Road said he would not have agreed to preserve his horse farm under the state farmland preservation program had he known warehouses might be built. He said that if the Planning Board was having such a hard time deciding to recommend the property rezoned then they should do nothing.
"If it is that critical then don’t rezone it," he said.

