UPPER FREEHOLD – An applicant who will propose the construction of a warehouse on a Route 524 property in Upper Freehold Township is now expected to appear before the Zoning Board of Adjustment on Feb. 15.
Representatives of NP Freehold Industrial, LLC, were scheduled to present their application at the zoning board’s Jan. 25 meeting. The meeting was conducted in a remote manner because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
During the meeting, zoning board secretary Angela LoConte announced that the NP Freehold Industrial, LLC, application would not be heard that evening.
LoConte said the applicant’s representatives want to present the entire application at one meeting and she said that would have been difficult on Jan. 25 because there was a second application on the board’s agenda.
The NP Freehold Industrial, LLC, application is now scheduled to be heard during the zoning board’s Feb. 15 meeting, which will also be conducted in a remote manner.
The meeting will be open to members of the public, who may join the remote meeting and listen to the testimony presented by the applicant’s professionals and offer their own comments when given the opportunity to do so by the zoning board.
According to the application, NP Freehold Industrial is seeking municipal approval to construct a 566,840-square-foot warehouse at the site of Westhaven Farm on Route 524.
NP Freehold Industrial is required to appear before the zoning board to seek a use variance for its proposed structure because warehouses are not a permitted use in the research, office and manufacturing (ROM) zone in which the building is being proposed. The warehouse is proposed on a 117-acre lot.
The applicant will also seek variances to allow the proposed warehouse to be 50 feet tall (the maximum permitted height is 35 feet) and to provide 337 parking spaces (667 parking spaces are required).
In the weeks since the NP Freehold Industrial application came to the attention of the public, the plan to build a warehouse on Route 524 in the rural farming community has sparked conversations on Upper Freehold Township and Allentown social media sites, with residents commenting on the negative impact they believe such a business could have on the two neighboring communities.