JACKSON – The Jackson Planning Board approved a plan to build a new warehouse on Herman Road.
Planning Board Chairman Robert Hudak, Vice Chairman Len Haring and board members Joseph Riccardi, Timothy Dolan, Noah Canderozzi, Jeffrey Riker, Martin Flemming and Campbell voted in the affirmative while Jackson Business Administrator Terence Wall, who sits on the board, voted against it.
The company applying to build the warehouse is called 498 Herman Jackson, LLC, and the company itself is located at 915 Bennetts Mills Road.
The application was represented by attorney Jennifer S. Krimko of the firm Ansell Grimm and Aaron, engineer Thomas Muller and architect David Collins.
Krimko remarked during the meeting, “it is a permitted use. We don’t have perspective tenants yet so we can’t speak to as to a number of employees so we can only speak to what is typical based on warehouses of this size.”
The plans state that all construction will conform with applicable codes, ordinances and manufacturer’s requirements and the building approved for uses as permitted. A waiver is being requested for the improvement of Herman Road.
Krimko responded to questions during the meeting regarding operating hours. “Even if we had a tenant we could tell you what their operation hours are but 10 years from now another permitted use tenant could potentially come in and have different hours of operations so we will comply with your ordinance as it relates to all of those things.”
It’s an allowed use in the LM-Commercial Office/Light Industrial Zone. There will be potable water supplied by a private well and sewage handled by septic disposal.
The site of the proposed warehouse is an undeveloped 4.8 acres and is restricted by state-regulated freshwater wetlands and steep slopes.
These environmental limitations required 498 Herman Jackson, LLC to request several setback variances. The Planning Board later approved those variances and the warehouse, which was originally proposed at 35,910 square feet and subsequently reduced to 35,361 square feet, will have three loading docks, approximately 900 square feet of office space, off-street parking, lighting, landscaping, and storm water management.
Making her case to the Board, Krimko noted “the extensive landscaping that we are proposing far exceeds what most industrial uses would have in an area that is really in the middle of nowhere in an industrial corridor.”
“In order to put a building that can function as a warehouse on this site whether it was double this size or half this size, we need a front yard setback there and we need the parking setback variance and we need the wall height variance and that is solely a function of the environmental constraints and the unique topography of this site,” the attorney added.
She addressed the Board saying, “there is no precedent here being set if you were to grant these variances. It would not carry over to any other application at all so you don’t have to worry that you are opening Pandora’s Box to grant these variances.”
Fire safety concerns were brought up by Board members Jeffrey Riker and Township Council President Martin Flemming. Both are firefighters and each expressed the potential of “collapse zones” and how that would impact equipment parked at the location.
Collins responded saying there would be no hazardous materials stored in the warehouse and described the proposed building as being “non-combustible.”
The architect also explained that were a fire to start involving materials such as wooden pallets or cardboard boxes and was hot enough, it could cause interior steel to heat to a point at which one or more of the building’s concrete panels could potentially collapse.
Collins added that a fire department connection could be placed by the applicant at a location that would allow firefighting vehicles to be parked outside of a potential collapse zone while also having access to a water source to combat a blaze.
He also described an early suppression, fast response (ESFR) sprinkler system could be added in the structure.
