Millstone paves way for new warehouse project Arsenic at site would be blended with clean soil and/or capped BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer MILLSTONE — Plans for a warehouse complex along Route 33 have received preliminary approval. The Planning Board granted preliminary approval for the nine-lot commercial subdivision at its Dec. 13 meeting. A group called 33 Associates owns Riverside Center, the name of the proposed subdivision of 57.7 acres along Route 33 in the township’s planned commercial development (PCD) zone. The property straddles the border of Monmouth and Middlesex counties, and the developer owns another nine lots on 71 acres in adjacent Monroe Township. According to Township Engineer Matt Shafai, there is some arsenic on the site, which was formerly farmed. At a July meeting, the board voted to waive full contaminant testing of the property. The applicant’s attorney, William Mehr, said the arsenic was discovered near old barns on the tract. The arsenic would either be blended into the soil at the site, according to Mehr, or encapsulated or capped in certain areas. He said the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) would have to issue a No Further Action letter for the property before any development on the contaminated part could take place. Since the board previously told the applicant that it does not want a traffic light installed on Route 33 if the warehouse complex is built, the applicant’s engineer, Lorelei Totten, of Crest Engineering in Hightstown, appeared before the board to discuss various traffic issues. Totten said that Route 33 and the road the project would go on, which is called Farrington Boulevard, connect to old Route 33 and only have a small distance between them. Totten said a vehicle going north on Route 33 could appear as if it is heading straight toward a driver moving south on old Route 33 toward Farrington Boulevard. She said she is working on the issue with the Department of Transportation (DOT). The applicant is proposing to create a berm with deciduous trees and shrubs between Route 33 west and Farrington Boulevard. The berm, which would help block headlights, would measure about 2.5 feet high with 3 feet of shrubbery on top for a total height of 5.5 feet. Board member George Zanetakos noted that the proposed berm might not be tall enough to block the headlights of large trucks. Mehr said the berm would be designed more fully, with higher shrubs that are more dense. The township’s traffic consultant, Jerry Cantor, said a vegetative fence could also be used to make headlights less distracting. According to Jay Troutman, the applicant’s traffic engineer, the year projected for full build-out of the site has been changed from 2010 to 2013. By this date, he said, there would be an estimated 450-550 more vehicles traveling on Route 33 during peak traffic hours. Zanetakos said there could be a point when the traffic light would be needed, but that the board could revisit the issue sometime in the future. He called it “a fair approach to the situation.” Mehr said there must be a certain amount of traffic on Route 33 before the DOT would warrant a new traffic light. Chairman Mitchell Newman said that even if the board wanted a light, the applicant may not meet the DOT’s standards for a light for several years. “In the meantime, we have the old intersection handling traffic in a much more aggressive way,” he said. Troutman said the current traffic design would handle traffic until the full 2013 build-out without the addition of a light. However, he added, “It makes good planning sense to keep the light in the back of your mind.” Cantor said the project has three phases of development and suggested revisiting the traffic signal issue at the start of the third phase. Mehr said the DOT has exclusive jurisdiction on Route 33 and will have 18 different site plans coming in from two townships over a period of five to seven years. “It’s not like a residential subdivision,” Mehr said. “We’re here with you all the time. We’ll be working together for a long time.”