Franklin Township planning board adopts BI zone master-plan amendment, recommends draft warehouse rules to council

The Franklin Township Planning Board voted Jan. 14 to adopt a master-plan amendment for the township’s Business & Industry zone and to forward a draft BI zoning ordinance to township council for consideration.

Consultant Dave Roberts of BrightView Engineering presented the reexamination report and traffic analysis that guided the draft standards. Roberts said the study catalogued 37 warehouse applications totaling about 7,795,641 square feet and used community input and steering-committee review to design rules that distinguish low-, medium- and high-intensity warehouse uses.

"We separated warehouses by size and loading-dock intensity and then tied those differences to measurable zoning controls," Roberts said. He told the board that the proposal would continue to prohibit high-intensity warehouses — defined in the report as buildings larger than 400,000 square feet or those with high loading-dock density — while allowing low- and medium-intensity uses under conditional-use review.

The draft ordinance includes numeric controls intended to prevent developers from subdividing parcels to evade size limits: a floor area ratio (FAR) of 0.362 that Roberts said reflects parcel and building proportions already common in Franklin; a minimum building setback of 200 feet from a residential zone; and a planted buffer of at least 100 feet in many circumstances. Medium-intensity warehouses would be limited to parcels within a one-mile road-mile of Interstate 287 interchanges; low-intensity uses would be permitted farther from the highway.

Mark, a planning board member, and staff emphasized that low- and medium-intensity warehouses would be subject to planning-board conditional-use review and site-plan controls. The draft ordinance also calls for amplified buffering and design standards, truck-routing plans, gate-management plans and a noise study when a site adjoins residential property. The version on the township website includes restricted operating hours cited by one commenter: the draft shows limitations between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays and between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. on weekends.

The public comment period ran more than an hour. Supporters on the steering committee said the recommendations offer a practical, enforceable approach that recognizes market pressure for industrial development. "I am in support of the recommendations," said Dave Robinson, a member of the steering committee.

Many residents said the proposed rewrite would reverse a de facto moratorium and risk quality-of-life harms from truck traffic, noise, lighting and air pollution. Jan Bryant, a resident, said changing the master plan felt like a reversal of a decision to protect neighborhoods: "This plan would have been great if it had been made back when the BI zoning was done," she said, and warned that limits can be challenged and exceptions granted.

Board counsel and members repeatedly noted limits on the planning board’s authority: rules on speed limits, truck enforcement and weight restrictions on township or county roads lie with council or county agencies. Counsel said air‑quality enforcement largely falls to the board of health and other agencies, not zoning rules alone.

After closing public comment, the board voted twice: first to adopt the BI master-plan amendment, then to recommend the draft BI zoning standards to council. Roll call on each motion recorded affirmative votes from Theodore Chase, Robert LaCourte, Mahir Rafiq, Robert Thomas and Chairman Orsini; both motions passed and will be transmitted to township council for its consideration.

The board’s action is a recommendation; adoption of any ordinance and implementation of road or enforcement measures will require council action and, where applicable, coordination with county or state agencies. The council is expected to receive the planning board’s recommendation at its next available meeting.