S.B. pesticide factory will not be missed

This page has been critical of the warehouse construction going on in eastern South Brunswick, but if there has to be some, it might as well be done the way Matrix Development Group proposed last week.

The Planning Board unanimously approved an application July 19 for the firm to build a 400,000-square-foot warehouse on Stults Road at the site of a former pesticide factory. The warehouse would serve as a sister building to the currently operating Matrix facility up the road.

One of the few positive legacies former Gov. James McGreevey can be credited with was that he raised the profile of the "smart growth" concept in New Jersey. Recognizing the toll sprawl was taking on New Jersey residents' quality of life, McGreevey pushed the state's builders to focus more on redeveloping blighted areas rather than paving over our dwindling pristine lands. The strategy was meant to accomplish two goals: it would reinvigorate depressed and underutilized areas, and protect the character and charm of suburban neighborhoods.

The application presented last week in South Brunswick seems to fit the smart growth bill. The building Matrix is replacing is dilapidated, dormant and outdated, and nobody should be sorry to see it go.

Decades ago, the factory was determined to be responsible for polluting the soil and groundwater with toxic chemicals, leading its owners and the government to spend considerable time and money on its cleanup. Today, the soil is still said to be contaminated, although not at a level that poses any immediate threat.

Warehouses are not exactly an environmentally friendly use - the sheer amount of ground they cover with blacktop can cause runoff and flooding problems, and thwart the aquifers below from recharging as nature intended. But in this case, impervious coverage might actually do some measure of good. Like a landfill cap, the new building and blacktop could block some of the rainwater from draining what nasty compounds remain in the soil into the groundwater, perhaps giving the toxins a little more time to naturally degrade.

However, one inescapable burden that this or any other warehouse will bring to the neighborhood is its truck traffic. But at least, for a refreshing change, the applicant's traffic engineer admitted it.

The pesticide factory is a symbol of a bad chapter in South Brunswick's history. That it is being replaced by a better ratable and safer use should be seen as good news.