Fla. Warehouse Developer Concludes Testimony after 15 Meetings in Hillsborough; Opposition More than Ready to Attack Plans for Two Warehouses on Homestead Road

HILLSBOROUGH,, NJ -  After two years of Hillsborough Township Planning Board hearings, community groups opposing the development of two giant warehouses on Homestead Road are finally getting the chance to present their case.

The applicant, Homestead Road, LLC, based in Boca Raton, Fla. issued thousands of pages of plans over 15 meetings starting in May 2022, and ended their direct testimony in July. The proposed development is located at 189/203 Homestead Road.

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The Watershed Institute, based in Pennington, NJ and one of the formal objectors to this application, brought Dr. Clay Emerson of Princeton Hydro to last month's meeting, to review the many problems with the proposed stormwater management system.

“The deficiencies I have noted are significant. The design does not meet the required DEP standards, and would likely result in exacerbated flooding,” Emerson testified. The Royce Brook runs through the property, and often floods during rain
events, including catastrophic flooding downstream of the property that claimed one life during Hurricane
Ida in August 2021.

The other formal objectors to the application are prepared to present experts and argue their case against approval, including Scott Gross of Local Citizens Against Traffic, Brian Tarantino of Stop Warehouses and Trucks, John Lanahan, representing himself, and Lucy Sandler, of the Sourland Conservancy. Over the coming months, these groups will detail their reservations, contending that the Homestead LLC application does not meet the Township ordinances.

The two warehouses, which total 537,000 square feet, or more than nine football fields, will impact the local environment and the entire Hillsborough community, according to Brian Tarantino of SWAT.

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“Warehouses may be necessary for e-commerce, but it is wrong to locate them on a property that is prone to flooding, on a rural road, miles away from an interstate, adjacent to a residential neighborhood, and near the proposed Hillsborough town center,” Tarantino said.

The proposed buildings include 90 loading docks and 137 truck parking spaces, indicating that the developer plans for
an extremely busy logistics facility, able to support up to a thousand truck trips per day, according to Tarantino.

There are five other warehouses currently proposed for the township. that would totall one million square feet of space, and pave over nearly two million square feet of grassland and forest, according to Tarantino.

The Township is taking action to purchase two of  the properties, and continues to hear applications from proposals at 279 Homestead and Weston Road.

The next hearings for Homestead Road are scheduled for Sept. 12 and Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. in the Municipal Building.

The public is encouraged to attend, and will be able to provide verbal and written comments to the board during the public comment portion.

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