Monmouth Commerce Warehouse Application Worries Howell Neighbors

HOWELL, NJ — The application of Monmouth Commerce Center, LLC, for preliminary and final major site plan approval with variance relief, is scheduled to be heard at the next township Planning Board meeting, Sept. 1.

But although the application is on the agenda, "it is unclear if it will be reached as there are other applications also being heard on the same meeting," said Matthew R. Howard, director of Community Development.

Monmouth Commerce Center, LLC and owners Lawrence Katz and Felix Pflaster, owners, seek to construct five one-story warehouse buildings with office space with 1,192,500 square feet in total, according to the board's agenda.

Residents connected to HOPE, Howell for Open Land and Preservation of the Environment, have alerted the public to the meeting, although they also say they are not positive it will be heard because of the heavy agenda.

Residents citied several concerns about the project's impact on the Randolph Road area on their Facebook site.

In a recent post, some of the history of the application was explained on HOPE's site:

"In 2018, the Monmouth Commerce Center applied to build 1.2M square feet of warehouses on Randolph Road. A resident, Dawn Van Brunt, hired a lawyer and fought it. After 10 Planning Board meetings between may 2019 and January 2020, the Planning Board denied the project," which was later upheld on appeal.

"How was the MCC able to come back? They reapplied to build the warehouses in December 2021, before the Planning Board and Town Council changed the zoning in July 2022," she said. "The MCC is now grandfathered to build these massive warehouses. What could have been done to stop this project? It was simple. The Planning Board and Council could have changed the zoning two years ago and not waited until," Van Brunt said.

According to the Planning Board agenda, the application calls for each building at the Monmouth Commerce Center to contain its own parking and loading stalls to service the building.

Access to the site is provided by four new full movement driveways; two along Randolph Road that will serve as access for both passenger vehicles and tractor trailers, a third on Randolph Road as well as one on Brook Road that will serve for passenger vehicles only.

Additional site improvements consist of lighting, landscaping, aboveground infiltration basins to address stormwater management and refuse enclosures. The applicants are also proposing off-site improvements to extend public water and sanitary sewer mains to the development.

The off-site improvements would also consist of improvements at the Randolph Road and Lakewood Farmingdale Road intersection, including the installation of a traffic signal, full width mill and overlay, storm water inlets along the subject side of Randolph Road and Oak Glen Road, roadway striping within Randolph Road and Oak Glen Road and an 8.5-foot-wide, 21,639-square-foot right-of-way dedication to Howell Township along Randolph Road frontage, as well as a 3,055-square-foot right-of way dedication to Howell Township at the intersection of Oak Glen Road and Brook Road, the agenda says.