Go slow on Brick Yard warehouses
A Colorado firm wants to build 2.8 million square feet of warehouses on a long unused and contaminated 400-acre parcel on Brick Yard Road in Cranbury.
Viridian, a firm that specializes in brownfield cleanups, unveiled a plan for the complex last week, hoping to convince the Township Committee that building nine warehouses on the site was both the safest and best use for the property.
However, there are concerns about what kind of impact the proposal would have on the approximately 250 acres of wetlands on the property and on the nearby Millstone River.
For that reason, we believe the township should move slowly in reviewing the Viridian proposal.
The Brick Yard property, which sits between Route 130 and the N.J. Turnpike, is the largest undeveloped and unpreserved parcel in Cranbury and is zoned for light impact industrial facilities like the warehouses being proposed by Viridian.
The land is the site of the former Unexcelled Chemical Corp., a chemical plant that made munitions. The plant exploded in 1954, killing two men, injuring 10 others and contaminating the site’s soil and water with the residue and debris from the napalm bombs and hand grenades made there.
Middlesex County officials considered buying the land as open space several years ago, possibly for use as a golf course, but a study of the site turned up the contamination and the state ordered it cleaned up.
Viridian stepped in, buying the land in January and beginning cleanup and a redevelopment that is expected to cost about $30 million when completed.
That is assuming the warehouses are approved.
Viridian says the warehouses, which it estimates will generate $2.5 million a year in taxes, are the safest use of the site. It says that most of the debris, which includes some unexploded shells, have be found on an 85-acre area on the east side of the property, but that the entire property will be remediated because there is a risk of contamination throughout the site.
Even with the remediation, however, there is no guarantee that all of the weapons debris can be removed. The DEP recommends "controlled-end use where access can be limited." The warehouse complex would accomplish that, Viridian says, because it would be a private facility with restricted access and buildings and concrete would cover much of the contamination with the rest being be capped with layers of clean soil.
The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, however, is concerned that the wetlands are of too high a quality to sacrifice and it says there are options that could allow Cranbury, the county or the state to preserve the land while still restricting its use.
There also is the question of affordable housing. The complex, according to the township, could add 22.4 units to its state-imposed obligation, which would impose added school costs and leave the township scrambling to find a new site for the housing.
Ultimately, however, this may boil down to whether any government agency wants to take on the potential liability associated with the site. If not, Viridian’s plan maybe the only approach that makes sense.
The key is not to rush, though, and to make sure all options are fully explored. The property has been dormant for 50 years. Waiting another few months shouldn’t matter.