Planners approve megawarehouse
Residents worry 1.4M-sq.-ft. project will worsen flooding
BY MELISSA CIFELLI
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT staff Trails flood along Davidson’s Mill Road in South Brunswick, an issue residents believe is the result of warehouse development.

South Brunswick may soon have a new addition.In a move anticipated by residents, the township Planning Board voted yes for a 1,401,500-square-foot warehouse at a packed meeting Aug. 3.

Developed by the CNJ Company IV LLC, the megawarehouse will be built on the corner of Davidson’s Mill Road and Middlesex Center Boulevard in the LI-4 zone.

The land, which currently qualifies as an active farm, will hold several office complexes with up to 797 employee parking spaces and 167 tractor-trailer parking spots.

And despite the public’s concerns over water runoff and flooding on land on Davidson’s Mill Road, the application was passed by a vote of 6-1.

Gary Dahms, of T&M Associates, the engineer and traffic expert for the applicant, said the warehouse will have an infiltration basin for runoff, which is a method preferred by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection. Water will also run into a detention basin, through pipes under the New Jersey Turnpike and eventually empty into Pigeon Swamp State Park.

Residents and board members, however, were concerned with potential flooding and pollution problems at Pigeon Swamp State Park.

Board member Joseph Spataro questioned the development’s design and water runoff plan. Spataro said he has been out to the site and witnessed flooding as well as dying trees, likely a result of warehouse development.

“What gives you the jurisdiction to spill something on someone else’s property?” Spataro asked.

Spataro also expressed surprise that the state, which owns the property, is allowing this to occur.

According to Dahms, water runoff already flows in the direction of Pigeon Swamp State Park, and the water quality of that runoff will improve with a warehouse compared to the pesticides and chemicals present on a farm.

Some residents weren’t convinced by the expert testimony.

According to Jean Dvorak, a resident of Deans Rhode Hall Road, flooding has increased on land on Davidson’s Mill Road over the last several years. This spring, Dvorak said she finally realized the severity of it when she was unable to take her horse along a trail she normally uses. The water, according to Dvorak, had reached the belly of her horse.

And according to Dvorak, neither township officials or members of the Department of Environmental Protection know or have come to view the flooding, except for a few Planning Board members.

“Everybody is denying any kind of responsibility for this,” Dvorak said.

According to Dvorak, this ignorance of the problem is another symptom of the township forgetting about land and residents in this section of town.

The township needs to become knowledgeable and investigate land conditions before voting on a development that might make the problem worse, Dvorak said.

According to Planning Board Engineer Jim Ruddamin, the applicant has met the appropriate rate for runoff reduction.