Mike Deak, MyCentralJersey.com
January 17, 2024
After a dozen public hearings, the township Planning Board will continue hearing more testimony on a controversial plan to build two warehouses on Homestead Road.
The proposal by Homestead Road LLC will again go before the board for its 13th and 14th public hearings on Jan. 25 and Feb. 8.
Homestead Road LLC has proposed the largest of the proposed warehouse projects in the township with two warehouses totaling more than a half million square feet on 88 acres on Homestead Road just east of the Route 206 Bypass.
Five official objectors are formally opposing the plan, including The Watershed Institute and the Sourland Conservancy.
For two hours at the board’s Jan. 11 meeting, Gary Dean, the developer’s traffic expert, was cross-examined by the objectors and residents trying to poke holes in his testimony that the warehouses would not have an adverse impact on traffic on either Route 206 or Homestead Road.
Dean’s study determined that 160 trucks at most would be travelling daily to the warehouses.
Craig Gianetti, the developer’s attorney, asked the board to consider placing a limit on questions asked during cross-examination.
“This cross-examination is being used as a filibuster to just delay this process,” he said.
Gianetti said he is only three quarters of the way through presenting the application. A planner and ecologist are scheduled to testify at future hearings.
Board Chairman Carl Suraci said there will be no special meetings on the proposal.
Board Attorney Eric Bernstein suggested that though the testimony and cross-examination should proceed expeditiously, the board should not “cut off” cross-examination.
“It is going to take as long as it takes,” Bernstein said, later adding, “It is time-consuming and it’s tedious, but it is what it is.”
Two other long-running warehouse proposals will also be returning to the Planning Board in the coming weeks.
Homestead Road 279 LLC is set appear before the board on Jan. 25 and Weston RD LLC has a Feb. 1 appearance scheduled before the board.
Homestead Road 279 LLC is proposing a second 132,730-square-foot building also on Homestead Road on the western side of the railroad tracks nearer Route 206.
Weston RD LLC has proposed a 130,418-square-foot building opposite the Hearthstone at Hillsborough senior community in the northwestern corner of the township near the Manville border. That proposal has also drawn considerable opposition from the senior community,
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.