The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A contingent of Franklin residents – including Township officials – converged in Trenton on March 20 to offer testimony on what they say is the deleterious effects the proliferation of warehouses is having on their town, and to ask the state Legislature’s help in dealing with them.
The testimony was given to the Assembly’s Public Safety and Preparedness Committee, which is chaired by Franklin resident Assemblyman Joe Danielsen.
Those who made the trip to Trenton were Mayor Phil Kramer, Deputy Mayor Shepa Uddin, former Councilwoman Roz Sherman, and residents Jan Brant, Eleanor Ogin, Mahesh Muchhala, and Sudhir Shah.
Danielsen said the discussion about warehouses is “among the most, if not the most important discussion that I have dealt with on the Public Safety and Preparedness Committee. The issue of warehouses across the state of New Jersey has become one of the top issues for residents in my district. And based upon my discussions with my colleagues in both houses of the legislature, I am not alone.”
“This issue has impacted every district,” he said.
Danielsen noted that with the advent of Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, people’s shopping habits changed to online, necessitating the building of more warehouses. That, he said, was seen as a “win-win” by towns because they increased revenues “while costing them very little in return.”
“But now, seeing the reality of warehousing, public opinion and municipal policies are quickly changing as concerns grow with traffic, health, environment, and quality of life in many communities,” he said. “New Jersey has now 1,777 warehouses which are located within a half a mile of residences.”
“That amounts to almost 2 million residents in our state living close to warehouses,” he said. “These residents are now disproportionately affected by air pollution, sometimes toxic waste, noise, and other environmental issues. Making things more impactful, often these warehouses are located near our residents with extra vulnerabilities, such as our children and our senior citizens.”
Because warehouses were not seen as polluters, Danielsen said, they were not included in the 2020 environmental justice law ratified in the state.
“That law did not take into account the amount of trucks these warehouses invite to arrive, depart, and to idle for hours throughout the day and night,” he said. “The continued growth of warehouses has become more worrisome each year as citizens realize just how much of an impact they are causing on our daily, day-to-day lives.”
Kramer outlined five areas that required an “urgent need for regulatory relief:”
- Stormwater regulation authority, through which towns can “enforce updated stormwater management standards on pending applications to ensure the safety and resilience of our communities.”
- Environmental and quality of life impact studies, which would require applicants to provide noise and pollution analyses.
- Municipal control over warehouse operations, to “mitigate the disruptions caused by around-the-clock operations in areas adjacent to residential communities.”
- Comprehensive traffic impact assessments that would “assess the collective impact of all pending applications” on traffic.
“While warehouse development has contributed to economic growth, it has also introduced considerable challenges that municipalities like Franklin must navigate,” Kramer said. “We need legislative support to ensure that warehouse developments are planned and regulated in a manner that prioritizes the well-being of our communities.”
Uddin said her major concern was with senior citizen developments and students who are in a section of town with major warehouse development.
“We have a major issue with them (trucks) speeding and also damaging our roads,” she said. “Then we have our seniors that are trying to get out to do their normal day-to-day shopping, and now they’re competing with these trucks. The school buses that are trying to make turns, they’re competing with these trucks. So I think what you’re hearing is that we’re very concerned, and we want this issue to be taken very seriously because it is impacting residents.”
“It may seem like … it’s great to have your Amazon delivered or your boxes next day, but it’s impacting our life,” she said.
Sherman said that she did not think there has been enough focus on the impact that warehouses and the trucks they attract are having on people who live or go to school near them.
“I was born and raised in North New Jersey, and if you remember or have read about the Portuguese section in Newark, it’s a great place to go eat,” she said. “But I didn’t realize for many years that right next to the port, and I didn’t realize for many years, trucks would be waiting for hours. The children in the Portuguese section have asthma problems, and we don’t want that to happen to anyone.”
Jan Brant, who is part of a citizens group that successfully fought the approval of a warehouse across the street from their development, asked for a moratorium on new warehouse development until a traffic impact study commissioned by the Township is completed.
“The proliferation of new warehouses is astronomical,” she said. “There are 25 warehouses that have been built or approved, equaling 4,822,260 square feet of warehouses in the past few years in” the ward in which she lives. “In today’s economy, it’s obvious that we need warehouses for economic commerce, and I am not against warehouses, if, one, they are placed in appropriate locations, away from schools and residential areas, due to the impact that these increase noise and traffic; two, if the infrastructure from our township supports the warehouses, for example, do we have adequate roads to support the traffic, the 911 services, and fire services, and three, if the concentration and number of warehouses combined do not pose a threat to the health and safety of our community, a measurement of the combined effects that all these warehouses have on our community must be taken into consideration.”
“The health and safety of our community is in danger, and immediate action needs to be taken,” Brant said.
Ogin, a lung cancer survivor, noted the air pollution caused by the trucks going to and from the warehouses.
“The pollution from the warehouse truck traffic complicates the situation,” she said. “You are aware of the truck particle matter among cancer associations. I’m here to ask you to please take the time to think about the studies that have shown an increase in cancer in areas of increased pollution, which is generated by expansion in warehouse traffic and affect everyone in our community, not just people with lung issues.”
Muchhala told the committee that warehouse applicants ought to be required to abide by new development regulations, regardless of whether they were adopted before or after the application was accepted by a town’s planning department.
“We have a quality-of-life issue that needs to be tackled,” Danielsen said. “I am committed to continue to work on this. I’m sure everyone on the committee will join me.”
“And as the most densely populated state in the country, I think we should be the leaders on this issue,” he said. “I don’t want to look to other states for what they’ve done, so I’m not opposed to that, but I want other states to look at us and copy us.”
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