Council urged to preserve land

Nearly two dozen residents urged the Hardyston Township Council to find a way to preserve open land on Lasinski Road rather than permit development there.

During the council’s meeting July 24, they said allowing a large warehouse there ultimately would cost Hardyston more in increased costs for police and emergency services than it would bring in tax ratables.

In addition, it is incompatible with the reasons why people choose to live in Sussex County, they said.

Township Manager Carrine Piccolo-Kaufer said the council in August 2022 authorized a study of whether the 265-acre property at 1 Lasinski Road qualified as an area in need of redevelopment.

That study was presented to the Joint Land Use Board in June 2023. It found that the property did qualify as an area in need of redevelopment, and the board recommended that the council designate it so.

The council did, and a plan was developed for the property. The plan was adopted by the council June 26 after a public hearing; no one spoke about the plan at that hearing.

”The next step would be for a developer to come before the Joint Land Use Board with a development application to develop the property,” she said.

The property has been zoned industrial, which would permit warehouse development, since 1989, Piccolo-Kaufer said.

”The redevelopment process would actually allow for us to strengthen the zoning standards and potentially have more control over a potential redevelopment project,” she said.

The council would have a greater say over buffer requirements, traffic impact studies, road and infrastructure improvements, “and other items that would not normally be allowed to be considered or enforced” in a conforming land use application, she added.

Under the redevelopment plan, warehouses are permitted but not building centers and third-party logistics centers, which tend to have more traffic than the standard warehouses.

Quarrying would be permitted as a conditional use if related to preparation of the site for development. The amount of impervious coverage is reduced to 30 percent to 50 percent under the redevelopment plan and the maximum building coverage is set at 10 percent, she pointed out. The building height was raised to 50 feet from 40 feet under the previous zoning rules to accommodate the new industry standard.

Rising taxes

Andrew Mulvihill, co-owner of Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg, was one of the few people to speak in favor of development on the Lasinski Road property.

Mulvihill, an Andover resident who has been a developer in Sussex County for 40 years, said the tax bills seem to rise every year - for property taxes, sales taxes, hotel taxes and labor taxes.

“It’s tough for business owners to pay the taxes. and I think it’s really hard for property owners. ... It’d actually be nice to have some other guys bear the burden of paying the taxes to help out. We’re certainly more than happy to pay our fair share.”

He praised the council for going through the redevelopment process. “I think it’s good leadership by you folks to have done that and to create the opportunity for these ratables to come into the town.”

Mark Scott, a Sparta resident, disagreed with Mulvihill, saying it’s much cheaper to keep land green than to add ratables. ”If you bring a warehouse in here, your expenses are going to explode.”

He pointed out that a firetruck costs $2 million, a Fire Department costs $6 million a year, and a firehouse costs $8 million to $10 million, while a warehouse might bring in $1 million a year in taxes.

Scott also warned about difficulty of fighting a fire in a mega-warehouse. “If you Google it, you’ll find warehouse fires all over the United States that literally take three to four weeks to put out.”

Richard Dacosta of Vernon said he grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York which has been ruined by all the mega-warehouses built there. “It took away all the beauty of the mountains, the wildlife, and the noise pollution and sound pollution and traffic went just absolutely chaotic.”

A Hardyston resident who said he has worked on 50 warehouse projects said, “They destroy towns, destroy them. Then once you have these buildings in, you’re going to have to widen the highways.”

County meant for farms

Lauren Drum said she and her husband bought property on Route 94 and are trying to start a farm, Outlaw Acres, near the Lasinski Road property.

Instead of being the Garden State, “we’re building Amazon factories.” “We’re becoming the new Bergen County, unfortunately,” she said.

“I don’t want to raise a family in an industrial area. ... Sussex County was meant to be for farmland.”

Brian Tobachnick, who lives on Sabine Lane next to the 1 Lasinski Road property, said any development there would greatly affect residents on nearby streets.

His family moved from their home in Hamburg because of constant blasting that cracked their foundation as well as the high taxes.

”My wife, my kids and I moved where we did because of the beautiful woods. ... We certainly did not think we were moving to a blast zone.”

He urged the council to turn the property into open space. “There’s DEP money, there’s other ... .”

Another speaker pointed to a new law, sponsored by state Sen. Parker Space, R-24, and signed by the governor, that provides more than $101 million to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to assist local governments in acquiring open space and developing lands for recreation and conservation.

Where animals hunt

Mike Mornhineway, who lives next to the Lasinski Road property on Estell Drive, said he hunts on his property and has documented bobcats and bears who live there.

”The size of these warehouses would totally wipe out any of their ... hunting terrain, which would likely push them out of the area,” he said, referring to the bobcats.

He also objected to the possibility of mining granite to level the land for a warehouse, saying it could take 10 years and could put dangerous substances, such as silica, into the air.

Al Smith, who has lived for 53 years on Route 94 next to Outlaw Acres, pointed out that the section of Route 94 just north of Lasinski Road to Hopkins Corner Road is extremely dangerous.

He has seen six people die on that section of road, which is used by buses going to four different schools.

The trucks using that road are abusing it because they are overloaded, the drivers speed, and some of them remove part of their exhaust systems and are running jet brakes, Smith said.

”The road is a menace. There is no area on the northbound side until you get to the church where you can pull a car over safely. Southbound is just as bad.”

Same fight in Sparta

Anand Dash, a Sparta resident who has been a leader in fighting proposed mega-warehouses in that township for the past two years, said, “The Sparta residents take umbrage to this development. The redevelopment law requires a consistency determination with adjoining municipalities. This is not consistent with our master plan and our zoning.”

He urged the council members to listen to the residents, “who chose to raise their families in a peaceful, rural, quiet setting.”

”Sure we don’t want to pay exorbitant taxes ... but we don’t mind paying a little bit more in our taxes for a quieter life. ...

”You can rest assured that the residents of Sparta will go to any extent necessary to legally block this development.”