Commission flags pipeline setback, truck access and tree protections as two warehouse projects move through planning

Franklin Township Environmental Commission members discussed two large warehouse proposals that are advancing through local planning review and flagged safety, access and tree-protection concerns.

At a regular meeting of the Environmental Commission, members reviewed an Onyx application for a warehouse sited between New Brunswick and Old New Brunswick roads (across from the ShopRite) and a separate Route 27 proposal for two 75,000-square-foot buildings on roughly 16.77 acres. The commission recorded concerns about the Onyx site's proximity to a Buckeye pipeline and questioned truck access and topsoil changes that would bury the pipeline, while urging the Route 27 applicant to preserve trees, reduce unnecessary parking and consider solar-ready roofing.

Why it matters: The Onyx site borders a petroleum pipeline owned by Buckeye; burying additional topsoil above a pipeline can make future repairs more complex and costly and can trigger additional safety and shoring work. Large warehouses also increase truck traffic, stormwater runoff and impervious surface across the township, matters the commission said deserve careful scrutiny during planning-board review.

Onyx / pipeline concerns

Commission member Stan (Environmental Commission member) summarized the Onyx application and the commission's concerns about the Buckeye pipeline: "The regulation says the building should be a hundred feet from the pipeline. They went they did back it off. It was 21 feet, now they were 40 feet." He added that the developer planned to bring in about three feet of topsoil over the pipeline, and said, "If they have to repair or go into the pipeline, they gotta dig deeper, and that means they gotta put shoring on the thing. It's a whole big deal, and they don't wanna have to do that." The commission noted Buckeye's opposition and the safety/maintenance implications if the pipeline is buried under fill.

Route 27 two-building proposal

Tara (Environmental Commission member) described the Route 27 submittal, which the commission reviewed and then re-sent to the planning board with recommendations. The site plan shows two separate 75,000-square-foot buildings. "Of that 75,000, 73,350 square feet would be the warehouse space, 1,330 would be office space, and 320 square feet would be electrical room," Tara said. The plan includes 275 parking spaces, 62 loading berths and four drive-up ramps; access is proposed via a cross-access from an existing approved warehouse development to the north and out to Veronica Road.

Tara noted the proposal stays just under the industrial (BI) zone impervious limit: "In the BI zone, you're allowed to have 60% impervious coverage, and they're within that because they're not requesting a variance. I believe they're right below it. It's, like, 58.5 somewhere around there." She also said the developer proposed a number of green infrastructure measures and a reconstructed wetland, and the commission recommended the applicant make roofs solar-ready even though state rules require make-ready solar only for buildings of 100,000 square feet or more.

Other planning concerns and board direction

Commission members urged the planning board to insist on emergency-access routing that does not force development into protected zones. The commission record shows the planning board asked for an emergency access off Route 27; staff and attorneys discussed whether a mandated emergency access would constitute freestanding development in adjacent OPT (open space) zoning, and attorney testimony before the planning board reportedly concluded it would not.

The commission also urged preservation of tree lines along the border with nearby residential zones, banking some parking stalls rather than building at the maximum parking allowed, and placing detention basins and buffers so that existing woodlands are retained where feasible.

What the commission decided

The Environmental Commission provided a review report and recommended conditions to the planning board; it did not itself approve or deny the projects. Commission members asked planning staff to keep monitoring pipeline-owner concerns and truck-access diagrams and to press applicants to minimize impervious area and to preserve trees where possible.

Ending

The planning board is the decision-making body for site-plan approvals. The commission recorded its comments in a written report to the planning board and will monitor subsequent resubmissions and the planning-board hearings.