By Kaitlyn Kanzler, Special Writer
CRANBURY — The Planning Board approved an amended preliminary site plan for the Cranbury Brick Yard LLC.
The $200 million project proposed by Viridian Partners, a Colorado-based Brownfield developing company established in 2003, is a 2.8 million-square-foot industrial distribution warehouse facility, according to Viridian Partners Project Manager Steve Ganch.
The 390-acre property, located between Hightstown-Cranbury Station Road and the New Jersey Turnpike, was a former munitions factory, owned by Unexcelled Munitions Corporation, that exploded in 1954, according to planner Richard Preiss.
Several people were killed in the explosion, and the factory closed. The property has remained unused since that time, according to Mr. Preiss.
”There are munitions of explosive concern spread throughout most of the site, and those munitions need to be cleaned up in accordance with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection regulations,” Mr. Ganch said.
Viridian Partners still is awaiting approval from the DEP for several permits before it can begin the remediation phase of the project.
”It will probably take somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 months to complete,” Mr. Ganch said. “We’re hoping that, somewhere in 2014, the construction will start.”
The site plan includes three warehouse buildings. The first building would 1,366,388 square feet, the second building would be 1,007,003 square feet, and the third building would be 433,705 square feet, according to the site plan.
According to Planning Board Secretary Josette Kratz, Viridian had approval once before in 2010, but several of its waivers were denied, including importing 550,000 cubic yards of soil.
”They asked for reconsideration to be allowed to bring in only 50,000 cubic yards,” said Glenn Gerkin, special conflict engineer for the township. “The board found that to be a substantial reduction and ended up approving that.”
Around half of the 50,000 cubic yards of soil will be topsoil, according to Mr. Gerkin. This will be used to cover up areas that aren’t paved or have buildings on them, but are part of the cleanup site for the munitions.
The second reconsideration Viridian was seeking was the height of the berms, which are mounds of earth that would block parking areas from the view of Hightstown-Cranbury Station Road.
According to the ordinance, berms are supposed to be between 2 and 8 feet in height, averaging around 5 feet, but the developers had four berms that exceeded that, two of them substantially.
One berm would be 13 feet and the other 18 feet, and the other two berms were 10 and 12 feet in height, according to the plan. The board OK’d the height of all four berms.
The third waiver, which the board granted, regarded fencing.
According to Mr. Gerkin, there is already an existing fence that was put up to contain the munitions cleanup area and, at its closest point, sits about 2 feet from the right-of-way line.
According to the ordinance, all fences have to be set back 5 feet from a public road, but because the application conforms to that, and Viridian was going to dedicate additional right-of-way along Cranbury Station Road to the township, the waiver was granted.
According to Mr. Preiss, the project still is waiting on approval for replacing wetlands that will be filled in for the construction.
”They have to do what is called wetland mitigation because they are disturbing an extensive area of wetlands in order to build their warehouse,” Mr. Preiss said. “So they have to compensate by creating (new) wetlands.”
According to Jim Whitman, executive director of the Stonybrook Millstone Watershed Association, Viridian is required by state and federal law to create the new wetlands.
According to Mr. Whitman, the federal Environmental Protection Agency became directly involved with the process to make sure Viridian was following the requirements for the DEP permits.
”These are really important wetlands, and this is a really important site,” Mr. Whitman said.
After an earlier application was denied, Viridian filed suit in the Superior Court of New Jersey, but withdrew the litigation after discussing the issue with the township, then changing the application, according to Mr. Preiss.
The DEP was unable to be reached for comment by press time.

