Audience members will get a chance to comment on a proposed warehouse and distribution center on Quakerbridge Road – on the West Windsor/Lawrence border – at the West Windsor Township Planning Board’s June 1 meeting.
The meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. and will be held in the West Windsor Township Senior Center, marks the fourth meeting on Bridge Point WW LLC’s proposed 5.5-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center.
About 70 people waited patiently for their turn to comment at the Planning Board’s May 25 meeting, but the board ran out of time.
The developer is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval and subdivision approval for the first phase of the development – 3 million square feet of warehouse space – on the 645-acre property that spans both sides of Clarksville Road.
The developer also has applied for preliminary and final site plan approval for the second phase of the development, and would have to return to the Planning Board for final approval. The second phase calls for 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space.
Much of the May 25 meeting focused on reviewing the West Windsor Township Planning Board consultants’ reports. The applicant’s consultants were on hand to provide clarification to comments and questions posed by the township’s consultants.
West Windsor Township Councilwoman Andrea Mandel, who sits on the Planning Board, questioned the waiver for the number of loading docks and whether it might encourage more tractor-trailer truck traffic.
The township’s ordinance requires 147 loading docks spread among the five warehouses, but the applicant has proposed 910 loading docks.
Traffic engineer Karl Pehnke, who represents the applicant, said the number of loading docks is a function of the size of the warehouse. There is no correlation between the number of loading docks and the number of trucks entering and leaving the site, he said.
Meanwhile, a traffic count will be conducted at the end of each phase, said Jeffrey L’Amoreaux, the Planning Board’s traffic consultant. Annual traffic counts will be conducted for three years after the warehouse and distribution center is fully built out, he said.
There was some discussion about a new road through the parcel, beginning at Quakerbridge Road opposite Avalon Way in Lawrence Township. Informally dubbed Coleman Road, it would end on Route 1, opposite the Nassau Park Pavilion shopping center. It would provide access to Route 1 north for tractor-trailer trucks.
Attorney Christopher DeGrezia said his client would build the road “upfront.” It would be built up to the right-of-way to Route 1. It cannot be built in its entirety because the last section – to intersect with Route 1 – needs approval from the New Jersey Department of Transportation. It is a lengthy process.
Having run out of time, the Planning Board and the applicant agreed to continue the public hearing to the board’s June 1 meeting.