Assembly committee hears widespread concerns about warehouse sprawl, public-safety and planning gaps

Members of the State Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee held an hours-long hearing on warehouse development across New Jersey and heard repeated appeals from municipal officials, senior residents, planning advocates and first responders for stronger local planning tools and public-safety safeguards.

The discussion centered on cumulative impacts: traffic congestion, truck-related air pollution, stormwater runoff, noise and emergency-response challenges posed by clustering of large distribution facilities adjacent to schools, senior housing and neighborhoods. Speakers urged legislation to give towns funding and authority to update master plans and to require broader impact studies for applicants.

Why it matters: witnesses said existing municipal and state processes are not keeping pace with a post‑COVID rise in e-commerce distribution, producing concentrated local harms even where state law and zoning technically allow warehouses. Several speakers described fatalities, long EMS response times, repeated traffic incidents and large fires that strained local resources.

Mayor Philip Kramer of Franklin Township told the committee that his town consolidated industrial zoning into a Business and Industrial (BI) zone in 2020 and then saw far more warehouse applications than expected: “When we created the BI Zone, I anticipated roughly 25 warehouses to come in 10 years. We had 31 apply in 2 years.” He urged legislation giving municipalities authority to apply updated stormwater standards to pending applications and to require noise and pollution analyses and collective traffic studies for multiple pending projects.

Resident Jen Brandt described Ward 2 of Franklin Township, which she said contains about 25 warehouses totaling roughly 4,822,260 square feet and serves about 10,000 people in a nine‑square‑mile area. “We would like to request the township and state to have a moratorium on warehouses until this traffic study is completed and the master plan is updated,” Brandt said. She cited an ambulance response time she said exceeded 15 minutes to a nearby collapse and said a traffic study rated local roads at level‑of‑service F in many spots.

Several senior residents described health concerns from diesel exhaust and particulates near senior communities and schools. Rosalyn Sherman, of Somerset Run, said idling trucks near a nearby school expose children to diesel fumes as parents wait for carpool pickup. Eleanor Ojin, who identified herself as a lung‑cancer survivor, cited scientific literature presented at a 2023 European Association for Cancer Research meeting and urged the committee to consider links between pollution and lung disease.

Allison McLeod, deputy director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, urged a planning‑support bill sponsored by the committee chair (identified in testimony as A‑3685/A 3,685) that would create a competitive Office of Planning Advocacy program to give municipalities funds and technical help to reexamine master plans and zoning with regard to warehouse siting. “It does not tell communities that they can't have warehouses. It gives them the tools they need to proactively plan for what kind of development makes sense where,” McLeod said.

Representatives of commercial real‑estate trade group NAIOP said warehouses and logistics bring statewide economic benefits but supported more proactive municipal planning and regional coordination. Dan Kennedy, representing NAIOP New Jersey, told the committee: “So we support, very clear terms of updated ordinances. We support traffic and public safety improvement. We support community engagement.”

Fire and emergency medical officials described operational problems tied to building scale and contents. Mayor Thomas Heck (also a volunteer firefighter) urged mandatory disclosure when a tenant or use changes, warning that commodity changes (for example, to lithium‑ion batteries) can drastically alter fire risk and required suppression. Paula Wyler of the EMS Council of New Jersey and David Viales of the Professional Firefighters Association described challenges for EMS access, signage, elevator and stair constraints, radio communications inside metal buildings and the extraordinary water demands of large fires.

“The amount of water that is needed to extinguish these fires is unfathomable,” Viales said, describing a multi‑alarm warehouse fire his department fought that required drafting water from a nearby river and assistance from neighboring departments.

Several presenters urged statutory or regulatory changes the committee might consider: allow municipalities to apply updated stormwater rules to pending applications; require cumulative traffic studies or contributions to a town fund for regional traffic analysis; require disclosure of tenant uses and hazardous materials; require site‑specific noise and pollution assessments; and provide grant funds for towns to update master plans.

Committee Chairman Danielson closed the hearing by thanking participants and saying he would continue working with stakeholders and with colleagues in both houses to pursue legislative and budgetary responses.

Ending: Witnesses left the committee with clear, recurring requests: immediate funding for municipal planning reviews, stronger disclosure and safety requirements for facilities and tenants, and clearer rules to let towns assess and limit cumulative traffic, stormwater and air‑quality impacts. The committee signaled support for a planning‑support bill but did not vote on substantive warehouse reforms at this session.