Residents sue to halt warehouse

By: Purvi Desai
   UPPER FREEHOLD — A neighborhood organization is suing the Planning Board and a developer in an attempt to reverse board approval of a warehouse on Meirs Road.
   The Meirs Road Residents Against Warehousing filed suit Dec. 13 in Monmouth County state Superior Court against the Planning Board and JAC Raw Land Co., claiming the company failed to comply with two township ordinances and demanding the Planning Board’s approval of a warehouse on Meirs Road be reversed, said Josh Levy, an associate attorney of Stuart Lieberman, attorney for the Meirs Road residents.
   The residents have brought the suit "due to a number of substantive and procedural infirmities that manifested throughout the approval process for a preliminary and final site plan evaluation for a warehouse facility," according to the lawsuit.
   "Though there were a number of deficiencies throughout the approval process that require reversal of the Defendant Upper Freehold Township Planning Board’s decision, two of these are most egregious: the failure to comply with the Environmental Impact Statement ordinance and the failure to comply with the storm water ordinance," the suit states.
   "The ordinance for the EIS has a number of requirements where the applicant has to address a number of issues," said Mr. Levy. "The applicants, for one reason or another, did not follow the requirements. It’s the township ordinance that requires that the EIS have those requirements addressed in those documents. The fact that the board was willing to approve the application without the township ordinance followed should render the approvals arbitrary."
   Mr. Levy said the Planning Board has until Friday to respond to the suit and plans to do so.
   "We have not received a response to the trial brief we submitted," he said, adding that the applicants have indicated they might request an extension for the deadline.
   Sue Babbit, the Upper Freehold Planning Board administrator, said Monday that board attorney Frank Armenante is handling the case and could not provide any further comment. Tim Hiskey, an attorney and associate of Mr. Armenante, said their office plans to file a response to the suit on Friday, but could not provide any additional information.
   Michelle Tullio, the attorney for JAC Raw Land Co., based in Freehold, said the company has until Jan. 2, 2007, to respond.
   "We’re dealing with a piece of property zoned HD, the proposed use for a two-story warehouse building," she said, adding that other than some minor requests, JAC Raw Land did not seek any variances and is developing in accordance with the township’s requirements.
   JAC has not begun construction.
   Phil Sinicropi, a Meirs Road resident and member of the neighborhood organization, said he hasn’t seen any construction being started at the location.
   The proposed warehouse is 13,490 square feet, with 750 square feet of office space on the first floor and 4,450 square feet on the second floor, Ms. Tullio said.
   The residents of the neighborhood organization live adjacent to the warehouse site or across from it, Mr. Levy said.
   The Planning Board held two hearings on the application by JAC Raw Land Co. — on March 9 and April 25, he said.
   "On April 25, there was a vote, and board approved the application," Mr. Levy said. "They signed a resolution of approval on May 23."
   During the application process, the neighborhood organization claims, several rules and regulations of the EIS and storm-water ordinances were either not complied with or ignored completely.
   "The skimpy EIS that the applicant … submitted in support of its application is deficient in that it does not provide the information that the Township’s ordinance requires," the suit states. "At least nine requirements of the ordinance were either completely ignored, or drafted so ambiguously and superficially that it does not provide the data and analysis required. This complete disregard for the requirements of the Township Ordinance renders the EIS insufficient, and any action taken by the applicant with this EIS as its analytical basis for proceeding is in contravention of the law.
   "The plaintiff states that a planner and not an environmental scientist drafted the EIS," according to the lawsuit. The plaintiff also states that the environment of the area where the applicant showed interest was declared inhabitable by rare species, when an independent study revealed that it was in fact habitable, according to the suit.
   "The applicant determines that there is no habitat suitable for endangered or threatened species on the proposed site, when the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has in fact determined that the proposed site does consist of habitat suitable for three endangered/threatened species," the suit states.
   Also, the lawsuit states, "the applicant failed to comply with a number of provisions of the Township’s storm water control ordinance. The applicant’s proposal routes all discharge to a single point on the property, in complete contravention of the requirements of the ordinance. There are no off-site stability calculations as required by the New Jersey standards, the design of the detention basin is insufficient to allow for settling of pollutants, and the drainage channels and detention ponds are designed with only a six-inch freeboard."
   "Couple these deficiencies with the lack of a proper erosion and sediment control plan, and without a detailed management plan, and the result is not only an inappropriate proposal, but a dangerous one that has the potential of affecting the drinking water of the surrounding community," the suit claims.
   The Meirs Road residents demand that the court "should reverse the resolution granting preliminary and final major site plan approval for JAC Raw Land Company LLC and provide the appropriate costs and fees," according to the suit.
   Mr. Levy said there was no "stay" filed on the property in question, and therefore JAC Raw Land Co. is free to begin construction of the warehouse on Meirs Road.
   "It would be their peril," he said, adding that should the lawsuit go through, the company would have to deconstruct everything it may have built on that land.
   A trial could last anywhere from six months to a lot longer, Mr. Levy said.
   "Currently we have a trial date scheduled for Jan. 12," he said.
   In the end, Mr. Levy said, what the Meirs Road residents want to get out of this is that the Planning Board properly review under law any future development or requests for development in their area.
   "So that their legal rights are property exercised," he said.