Hillsborough Amends Warehouse Ordinance To Settle Lawsuit With Larken Entities

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The Township Committee unanimously approved the amendment of its warehouse ordinance following a lawsuit filed by Larken Entities.

A public hearing and final vote on the ordinance was held at the Township Committee meeting on Feb. 25.

The revised ordinance permitting small-scale logistics facilities as a principal permitted use in the LI Light Industrial District was approved as part of a settlement agreement with Larken Entities.

"For this application and this lawsuit and this site I think this is a very good restructuring of the oridnacne," said Committeeeman Shawn Lipani.

The ordinance does limit the size of LI facilities to 41,000 square feet and limits the building height to 35 feet.

The settlement and lawsuit followed the Township's passage of an ordinance on June 13, 2023, to remove warehousing, and shipping and receiving facilities as a principal permitted use in the I-1, I-2, and I-3 Light Industrial Districts, GI General Industrial District, and LI Light Industrial District. Read More: Hillsborough Takes 'First Step' In Fight Against Warehouses

"There was a large proliferation of warehouse applications coming to the Township. The Township was concerned with large-scale warehousing in the municipality and an ordinance was adopted to remove it as a permitted use," said Township Attorney William Willard.

After the passage of the ordinance, Willard said some businesses were affected ones that had some flex space warehousing owned by Larken Associates.

"They had a number of facilities there. We made a commitment to them to look at our ordinance to see if we could accommodate what was currently going on and their current uses in that particular zone and still hold to our belief that we want to prohibit large-scale warehousing in these particular zones," said Willard.

The amended ordinance was then reviewed by the Township Planning Board at its Jan. 23 meeting, who "concluded the proposed ordinance is consistent with the Town’s Master Plan," said Planning Director David Kois.

Willard noted Larken Associates is satisfied because "now their properties would be permitted uses within the zone," said Willard.

"That was the purpose of the ordinance, and I think we accomplished that with this settlement agreement," said Willard.

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