WHITE TOWNSHIP -- A conceptual plan for a 6-million-square-foot warehouse development over 585 acres is making waves in White Township.

WHITE TOWNSHIP -- A conceptual plan for a 6-million-square-foot warehouse development over 585 acres is making waves in White Township, where area residents from Citizens for Sustainable Development plan to attend tonight's Township Committee meeting to further air their concerns.

Organization President Theresa Chapman said members plan to "give a full reveal" as to how many citizens are opposed to the idea of the complex that Jaindl Land Company informally presented to the Planning Board for a conceptual review in April.

Chapman said more than 711 people signed a petition at the Warren County Farmers' Fair last week. She said the petition, once submitted, will ask the Planning Board and the Township Committee to realign the township's zoning to its master plan and change the zoning for the area by Route 519, Foul Rift Road and the Delaware River from a low-density industrial zone.

The Township Committee and Planning Board meetings since April have become so crowded, one meeting was rescheduled and moved to the White Township Elementary School's gymnasium, where tonight's meeting will take place at 7 p.m.

According to Tom Bodolsky, the group's vice president and a private practice engineer by trade, the project is "all wrong" for the area. The group's website -- savewarrencounty.org -- states that one of the buildings in the conceptual layout is 1.5 million square feet or a half-mile in length. Six million square feet of warehouse space is comparable to 104 football fields.

The conceptual plan calls for high-cube warehousing, which the Institute of Transportation Engineers classifies as automated storage of manufactured goods. Bodolsky estimated, based on ITE figures, that type of warehousing could yield between 2,684 and 23,860 trucks daily, depending on if it is a storage or parcel hub.

The area presently sees 371 trucks per day, according to state Department of Transportation figures from 2017, the group's website states. Truck traffic, Bodolsky said, would need to travel along Route 519 -- a two-lane road -- to and from Routes 80, 22 and 78 through communities, about 12 to 15 miles, depending on the direction. Bodolsky said he has concerns about category 1 sensitive waterways in the area and a bald eagle habitat.

Jaindl's attorney, Anthony Sposaro, said Tuesday his client -- a prominent developer from the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania -- has the legal right to develop on the land it purchased outright for $11.2 million.

Jaindl is best known for its turkey farming and sending two turkeys annually to the White House since 1962, and more recently its development ventures in the Lehigh Valley, including a resort, spa and wedding destination venue. Owner David Jaindl also purchased the former Nazareth Speedway for redevelopment, according to the company's website.

Bodolsky counters that Jaindl does not have the right to "destroy the life of thousands of people" with its development. Bodolsky said the land should be reverted to pure agriculture or large-lot residential development due to the terrain's propensity for sinkholes. In the 1990s, it was changed to the low-density industrial zone designation to avoid a housing development. Bodolsky said with larger residential lots versus warehousing on the property, the impact of sinkholes would be less.

Sposaro, who specializes in farm and development law, said Jaindl's concept does not plan for construction close to the Delaware River and offers significant flexibility in its only New Jersey property. He also said Jaindl will not be planning on procurement warehousing in its proposals like the recent Lehigh Valley QVC fulfillment center owned by the shopping channel's parent company Qurate Retail.

Sposaro estimated that Jaindl's yet-to-be finalized plan can add about 1,000 permanent jobs, in addition to the temporary construction jobs once a construction timeline is set. He added that Jaindl's development plan fully complies with White's zoning and called Jaindl, as a developer, as "responsible as they come."

Sposaro said Jaindl recognizes traffic will increase and will need to help with modifications to the roadways to accommodate for that. He said Jaindl is willing to "make significant compromises" to its plan and hopes those in opposition do not intimidate municipal officials' decision-making. Sposaro said farmers in the area have contacted him, worried the opposition could cause harm for them should they decide to sell their land, with the push for a zoning change.

White Township Deputy Mayor Sam Race said Tuesday it would be inappropriate for the Township Committee to take a position on the issue at the moment and the committee is seeking advice from its attorney. White Township Mayor Jeff Herb said he has full trust in the volunteers on the township Planning Board and its professionals to perform the necessary due diligence.

�

Hope's resolution

Hope Township Mayor Timothy McDonough said although the Jaindl development is permitted in White Township, the Hope Township Committee will propose a resolution at its Aug. 14 meeting to prevent truck traffic through Hope to and from the proposed complex. McDonough said he is already familiar with the impact trucks have on the historic Moravian architecture in the township, which celebrates its 250th anniversary this year. The buildings rattle as trucks approach the stoplight on Route 519, generating dust from the bricks.

"It (the truck traffic) will destroy the village of Hope," McDonough said.

�

Jennifer Jean Miller can also be reached by phone at: 973-383-1230; and on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/JMillerNJH.