A proposal to build three warehouses totaling 1.8 million square feet will be on the Planning Board agenda on Feb. 15.
By: Joseph Harvie
The Planning Board will hear more public comment Feb. 15 on a 1.8 million-square-foot warehouse complex at the intersection of Davidsons Mill Road and Route 535.
Trammell Crow South Brunswick is proposing a three-warehouse complex on 113 acres east of the N.J. Turnpike. The application calls for an internal roadway and several variances.
More than 20 residents representing the Eastern Villages Association attended the meeting to voice their concerns about the impact the development would have on traffic and storm water run off in the eastern section of town. EVA is group of residents living near the township’s border with East Brunswick and Monroe near Davidsons Mill, Deans Rhode Hall and Fresh Ponds roads, that has been fighting warehouse development in the area for more than a year.
The traffic engineer for the applicant provided testimony at the meeting that improvements including the widening of Davidsons Mill Road near its intersection of Route 535 and the installation of a light at Middlesex County Boulevard and Route 535 would ease the traffic flow on that section of Route 535. The engineer said that the applicant also would post truck-route signs that indicate the direction to the N.J. Turnpike from the site to deter truck drivers from driving on Davidsons Mill Road past the Turnpike overpass.
According to its application on file with the township Planning Department, Trammel Crow is seeking a major subdivision approval to make four lots into one conforming lot; preliminary and final site plan approval, with variances, to allow more impervious coverage than is normally allowed; and more parking than is normally allowed in the front of the complex.
The first phase would include a 600,000-square-foot warehouse on a 34.64-acre parcel that would face Route 535. The second phase would include a 450,000-square-foot complex on a 26.7-acre parcel adjacent to the first, located closer to the intersection of Route 535 and Davidsons Mill Road. The third phase would include a 750,000-square-foot warehouse located behind the first two warehouses on a 44.8-acre parcel. The developers plan to set aside 7 acres of open space.