South Brunswick board rejects plan to build large warehouse
Friday, August 17, 2007
BY SUE EPSTEIN
Star-Ledger Staff
South Brunswick's planning board has unanimously rejected a
proposal by Matrix Development Group to build a 744,000-square-foot
warehouse along Friendship Road, near Route 130.
The board voted late Wednesday after residents of the Four Seasons
retirement community pleaded with members not to approve the
project, which would have been built adjacent to their development.
The residents had formed a group, the Friends of Southern Middlesex
County, to fight the proposal, one of seven warehouses the developer
planned to build along Friendship Road.
Matrix is vowing to fight the board's action.
"We are extremely disappointed by (the) decision,"
Hilary Budny, Matrix's vice president of marketing, said in
a statement yesterday. "We will vigorously defend our rights
to develop this property."
Budny questioned the reasoning behind the vote, coming after
two days of testimony -- July 25 and Wednesday.
"To the extent that the board was influenced by a crowded
room, it placed the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) interests of
a few over the good of the township at large," she said.
"To the extent that the board was governed by its own uncertainty
as to warehouse development fronting Route 130, I would ask
them, why has the land been zoned industrial for over 20 years,
through numerous master plan updates, only to have an application
denied when by board members' admission it conformed to the
ordinance?"
The residents group argued the property is environmentally sensitive
and should remain open space.
"We have brownfields sites they can clean up and use instead
of destroying pristine wetlands and prime open space,"
said Lester Ray, one of the group's leaders.
Mayor Frank Gambatese, a member of the planning board, said
earlier this week he opposed the project because of its location.
"That's not the place for warehouses," the mayor said.
"Warehouses don't belong on that side of Route 130."
He also questioned whether Matrix had the legal right to build
on the property because the New Jersey Turnpike Authority has
an easement on the land, which was earmarked for the construction
of Route 92. The road has since been abandoned.
Ray said the planning board vote proved "the system works."
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@starledger.com or at
(732) 404-8085.
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