See WAREHOUSING

Photo By Douglas D Melegari

The Pemberton Farms Research Campus that is included in the redevelopment plan.

WAREHOUSING

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allow for warehousing on 19 properties in the municipality, all of which are located near the intersection of North Pemberton Road (also known as County Route 630) and Route 206.

The redevelopment area – along the highway corridor, but located away from the dense population centers of Pemberton Township (Browns Mills, Country Lakes and Presidential Lakes) – is approximately 466 acres in size, and is presently “primarily developed and used as farmland,” according to a copy of the redevelopment plan later obtained by this newspaper through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request.

While the mayor and Business Administrator Daniel Hornickel spoke at length about the potential future financial and job creation benefits that might come about as a result of allowing warehousing, the top elected official of Pemberton also contended that the redevelopment plan will ensure “we are putting warehouses on Route 206 where warehouses should go” instead of being “too close to the residential areas” of the township.

The mayor, during the October planning board hearing on the redevelopment plan, said the township has been receiving requests to place warehousing on the former tract of Rowan College at Burlington County on Pemberton-Browns Mills Road, for example, but that a site like that – which is between Pemberton Borough and Browns Mills – would be “totally unacceptable” for such development given its proximity to residential areas, as well as its distance from the highway corridor.

Approval of the plan on Dec. 15 by council, however, was given despite objections about warehousing in general raised by a lone resident, Michelle Forman, who contended that a project currently in progress to build a warehouse at the intersection of County Route 530 (also known as South Pemberton Road) and Birmingham Road was already generating issues for residents of the Birmingham section of Pemberton, several of whom have homes right across the street from the project.

“This building is way too close to homes on Birmingham Road, and these people’s lives are destroyed now,” maintained Forman, describing that the residents who live there went from looking at woods to staring at dirt hills “taller than this ceiling” (the one in council chambers), as well as have been experiencing dust blowing into their homes during the construction process. “It is like a tornado over there.”

Patriarca, in response, acknowledged that there are “some residents right in this area” of the project currently constructing a 509,038 square foot warehouse on an approximately 30-acre lot at 300 Birmingham Road for Seldat Distribution, Inc., but maintained in that instance, it was the result of “unintended consequences.”

“They built these homes there many years ago,” Patriarca maintained. “The town looked at that area differently many years ago after those homes were built to decide to build industrial on that 191 acres of (designated) commercial (property) there.”

The mayor, in further justifying allowing a warehouse to be built adjacent to Birmingham residences, pointed out that County Route 530, also known as South Pemberton Road, is now “a five-lane highway” following the recent completion of a county road widening project, and that the parcel the facility is being erected on is “the last property in town” before one enters Southampton Township.

The circumstances surrounding the anticipated redevelopment of the “Route 206 Commercial Corridor” are different, the Pemberton mayor indicated, in noting that the 19 properties that are part of the redevelopment plan are “the best to target” because “they are on a highway” and “away from populated communities,” with only “three residents along this corridor,” two of whom he said were “actually in support of this.”

Additionally, according to Patriarca, projects to build warehouses are already underway “on the other side of Route 206” in neighboring Eastampton Township.

“This is an opportunity to capture revenue that they are already capturing in other towns,” Patriarca maintained. “They are putting their warehouses out there. So, you are going to see them anyway and they are going to be the ones collecting all the money (if we don’t do this).”

The Pemberton mayor estimated that a revenue plan for the Seldat warehouse alone “will bring in excess of a half million dollars of revenue during the first year and works its way up over $1 million dollars over the course of the plan.”

“And that is just from one, ‘small’ warehouse,” Patriarca declared. “I say ‘small’ because it is 500,000 square-feet. There are others knocking at the door. That is why we are looking to do the Route 206 corridor with this type of development.”

The mayor pointed to the situation in the Pemberton Township School District, which is “struggling for funds” in the wake of state aid cuts and facing a “crisis,” raising and planning to continue to raise the tax levy by 9 percent each year through the 202425 school year to offset the funding loss. The resulting rise in school taxes, he said, has led residents to come to the township “screaming and hollering that we are raising taxes,” but it is not the local purpose taxes that are actually rising significantly, but rather the local school taxes.

“So, we have to find ways to bring revenue in, and as you know, we don’t have the ability to do that with most of the land in the township because of the (development) restrictions (implemented by the Pinelands Commission), which we are held under. These are ways for us to capture revenue to keep our side of the tax bill that goes out – the local purpose tax – in a better way so that the increase coming in from other areas does not seem as bad to the residents.”

Warehouses, Patriarca pointed out, do not impact the schools as a housing development might, though the mayor acknowledged there are “plus sides to warehouses, but also negatives.”

“We understand that,” he said.

Residents of municipalities in northern portions of Burlington County, and in counties further to the north, have recently protested “warehouse sprawl” occurring in their communities, decrying the associated traffic – particularly truck traffic – in residential areas.

In Mansfield Township, a little less than 15 minutes away from Pemberton, numerous residences have lawn signs urging the community at large, as well as their elected officials, to “say no to more warehouses.” Warehouse sprawl has also been at the forefront of local political campaigns there.

In response to the concerns about warehouse sprawl, outgoing state Senator Dawn Marie Addiego, of the 8th Legislative District, which includes Pemberton Township, as well as outgoing Senate President Steve Sweeney, met with local officials and residents from Mansfield in early August 2021 to discuss legislation they proposed in response to the concerns to prevent warehouse sprawl.

The proposed bill would update the “Municipal Land Use Law” to require the notification of nearby communities that could “suffer negative consequences of the large-scale projects and give them a voice in the approval process.” The measure would also authorize county planning boards to approve or deny contested construction proposals.

Additionally, a separate piece of legislation co-authored by the two Democratic state senators in late August 2021 would exclude farmland as redevelopment or rehabilitation areas under the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law.

Specifically, the bill would revise the definitions of “redevelopment area” and “rehabilitation area” used in the law to specifically exclude any land actively devoted to agricultural or horticultural use that is valued, assessed and taxed pursuant to the “Farmland Assessment Act of 1964.”

The aforementioned 19 properties in Pemberton were recently designated by Pemberton council, following an investigation undertaken by CME Associates, as a “non-condemnation area in need of redevelopment” through the current Local Redevelopment and Housing Law, with the corresponding redevelopment plan noting that “nearly 95 percent of the redevelopment area is used as farmland and a few small parcels are used as farmhouses.”

The remainder of the area, according to the plan, is currently used as a small industrial park, known as Pemberton Farms Research Campus.

It is also noted in the redevelopment plan that the redevelopment area is “primarily

Photo By Douglas D Melegari

A 509,038 square-foot warehouse for Seldat Distribution, Inc. currently under construction at the intersection of County Route 530 and Birmingham Road in Pemberton Township.

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