24/7 Operation Planned For Proposed Howell Warehouse

HOWELL, NJ — The Monmouth Commerce Center warehouse proposal on Randolph Road will be a 24/7 operation and have nearly 200 employees, experts for the developer say.

After two hours of review Sept. 15, the township Planning Board, its planning experts and the lawyers and experts for the applicant found they will need at least another meeting and possibly a site walk to study the proposal.

But some some new details about the project, which residential neighbors oppose, were outlined at the hearing. And more will be heard at the Oct. 20 meeting of the board.

Monmouth Commerce Center LLC and developers Lawrence Katz and Felix Pflaster are seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval with variance relief.

They want to construct five one-story warehouse buildings with office space with a total of 940,400 square feet off Randolph Road. The square footage is a 32 percent reduction in the original proposal, the company's lawyer, Meryl Gonchar, said.

The engineer on the project, Steven Cattani, Dynamic Engineering Consultants, Newtown, Pa., said in his testimony that the operations at the warehouse would likely be 24/7 with truck deliveries. There will be 175 to 220 employees, depending on the tenants for the site, he said.

The professionals advising the Planning Board brought up certain concerns, such as as the need for a noise study and a concrete enclosure for the trash area. Currently a vinyl solid enclosure is planned.

Cattani said there would be a widening of Randolph Road and improvements to Oak Glen Road and would include curbing.

The architect for the project, Kyle Ferrier of ARCODesign/Build Industrial, King of Prussia, Pa., also testified before the board.

Although he showed two-dimensional elevations for the buildings, the board and its experts requested three-dimensional renderings for the next meeting that could help them visualize what the project would look like.

The coloring would be gray and a charcoal blue. The roof would be built to support solar panels, if a tenant chose to install them in the future, requiring special approval at that time. The roof would have a white "membrane" to reflect heat. There would be air conditioning only in the offices, at this time.

The next meeting of the board is at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20. the applicant's traffic study is expected to be presented, Gonchar said.

Residents connected to HOPE, Howell for Open Land and Preservation of the Environment, have cited several concerns about the project's impact on the Randolph Road area on their Facebook site.