Edison Residents Protest Warehouse Project

EDISON, NJ — Residents of the Silver Lake section in Edison are protesting the building of a warehouse on the intersection of Glendale and Silver Lake avenues.

A 161,580-square-foot warehouse is being planned at the intersection near the Raritan River, by 41 Glendale LLC. The project is yet to be approved.

At the end of August, the residents of Silver Lake learned of the new project and have been protesting since.

They have been canvassing the neighborhood and have also created a Facebook page “Silverlake Edison” to discuss matters relating to the warehouse.

“We are really concerned about all the big trucks that are going to go up and down Silver Lake,” said Kaitlyn Duarte, who lives on Westminster.

“The only way to get to my house is through Silver Lake. The road is just 30-feet wide. With the warehouse huge trailers and trucks will be going up and down, when you have children crossing the street to get to the park. Also, there's no sidewalks on either side of the street. It’s a major, major concern,” said Duarte.

A special Planning Board meeting on the warehouse proposal was scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday. Residents had planned to attend the meeting to make their opinion heard. The meeting now stands cancelled.

The town said the Planning Board meeting was cancelled because "someone affiliated with the board may have been exposed to COVID."

“The township knows that we really don't want this. And they're just kind of, not being dismissive, but not really saying anything back to us that's conclusive yet,” said resident Laura Uhlig Smith.

With increased vehicular traffic, residents are concerned for fire trucks and ambulances getting around in case of an emergency.

“What if they can't get around them (trucks) because there’s no space? For us, it's the safety and traffic that's going to be coming from this that’s a concern,” said Duarte.

Keith Hahn, an Edison Planning Board Member, said he knows firsthand that Silver Lake Avenue cannot “safely handle daily tractor trailer traffic."

“As newly appointed member of the Edison Planning Board I believe we must do everything legally possible to prevent this warehouse from being built. We cannot allow the daily lives of over 3,000 local residents to be adversely affected in order for an out–of-state company to reap tremendous profits,” said Hahn.

A recently retired Edison police officer, who served for more than 25 years, Hahn said “common sense should dictate” the town’s decision on the warehouse.

The residents have also hired a lawyer to represent them in preliminary meetings with the Planning Board.

“One of our residents helped us in getting a lawyer for the first meeting. Going forward we will have to raise funds to get the lawyer to represent us in future meetings,” said Duarte.

No new date was announced for the meeting.

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