Monmouth Commerce Center Hearing In Howell Continued To October

HOWELL, NJ — Hearings by the Howell Township Planning Board on the application to build a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse facility on Randolph Road will continue at a special meeting in October.

The Monmouth Commerce Center hearing last Thursday focused on the traffic report by Justin Taylor, the traffic engineer for the applicant, and the way the data on traffic counts and his projections for the impact of the project on traffic in the area.

A petition opposing the Monmouth Commerce Center application has gathered more than 1,200 signatures so far. The next hearing is set for Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at the municipal building, 4567 Route 9 in Howell.

Revisions to the site plan, requested by the board, were presented that addressed changes requested by the township's professionals to address concerns about how trucks and traffic would be able to safely drive in and out of the site.

Meryl Gonchar Sills, the attorney for Monmouth Commerce Center, said that despite the changes made, Monmouth Commerce Center still prefers its original design.

Taylor said the updated design reduced the number of exit driveways and changed some of the others to widen them to make it easier for tractor trailers to turn into and out of the site.

The traffic estimates for vehicles turning in and out of the site Taylor testified to also were calculated based on the idea of a traffic signal being put in at Route 547, Taylor said. The board raised questions about how the lack of the signal will impact safety.

Gonchar Sills and Taylor said the project is designed to prevent trucks from going east on Randolph Road and shouldn't be used against the applicant in its attempts to seek approval of the project.

Among the repeated concerns of residents and was that the traffic surveys weren't conducted at times that accurately reflect the traffic in the area.

When Craig Bossong, the attorney for HOPE, a collection of Howell residents who object to the project, tried to raise questions about traffic counts taken on Fridays and noting that Jewish residents in the area typically are off the road by early afternoon, Planning Board attorney Ronald Cucchiaro stopped him, saying concerns about traffic issues can't be pinned to religion for constitutional reasons.

Cucchiaro's comments generated grumbling in the audience.

Residents also scoffed at Taylor's testimony about the impact of the closure of the Ramtown-Greenville Road bridge following flash flooding during the August 2018 storm that washed out part of the bridge. Taylor's testimony was that the bridge closure had little impact and did not noticeably lower traffic in the Randolph Road/Oak Glen Road area, where the property sits.

The traffic concerns have been paramount. The project includes a proposal for nine warehouse buildings (ranging from 85,600 square feet to 150,000 square feet) with 234 loading spaces for tractor trailers and parking for 706 vehicles.

Taylor said the majority of the trucks from the site would be traveling on Route 547 to and from Route 195. But board members also expressed reservations about automobile traffic coming to and leaving from the site.

The project has been the subject of hearings on May 9, June 6, June 20, and July 29 in addition to the Sept. 19 hearing, and those hearings are available online. The Sept. 19 hearing can be viewed below; it begins an hour into the video.

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