Howell officials are weighing whether to approve a sprawling warehouse complex totaling more than a million square feet on 100 acres of southern Monmouth County forest, where hundreds of tractor trailers a day would travel several miles on rural roads to and from the nearest highway.

Environmentalists and at least some residents oppose the plan to cut down such a large swath of woodlands and develop it with buildings and parking lots, which they say would prevent the natural absorption of rainwater and instead send polluted runoff into the region’s water supply.

Critics say the project would also eliminate oxygen-generating trees and wildlife habitat, and even increase the township’s affordable housing requirement, which is based in part on development and growth.

“It looks like a massive sprawl project that will create a tremendous amount of environmental problems,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. Referring to a popular Monmouth County drinking water repository and park in Howell, Tittel added, “You build this development and I can guarantee the next year you’ll have algae blooms in the Manasquan Reservoir.”

A Change.org petition opposing the project posted by Howell resident Dawn Van Brunt had garnered close to 1,700 signatures this week, with a goal of 2,500. And on Facebook, the Howell Happenings page has become a forum for gripes against the giant warehouse project.

The application calls for a total of nine buildings ranging from 85,600 to 150,000 square feet each, for a total of 1.24 million square feet, according to township records. There would also be parking lots with 706 spaces for regular vehicles, plus another 142 extra-large spaces, or bays, for tractor trailers.

Township records identify the applicant as Monmouth Commerce Center LLC and the property owners as Lawrence Katz and Felix Pflaster. Lawyers for the applicant, Meryl Gonchar and Adam Faiella of Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Warehouses are a permitted use in the special economic development zone in Howell’s south-central region, said James Herrman, director of community development for Howell, a 61-square-mile township, where 51,000 residents live on the southern end of Monmouth County, a few miles inland of the Jersey Shore.

The proposed Monmouth Commerce Center in Howell would build 1.2-million square feet of warehouse space, plus parking areas and roads, on 100 wooded acrres south of Randolph Road, which runs into County Route 547, or Lakewood-Farmingdale Road, at the red arrow.Google

The area proposed for the warehouse complex is a jumble of dense woodlands, large industrial sites, high tension wires, and scattered homes. The warehouse lies along Randolph Road, which runs into Route 547. Route 9 is about a mile to the west, about four miles south of Route 195, which runs into the New Jersey Turnpike.

The project’s next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 7, following an Oct. 10 hearing streamed by the township, that was dominated by testimony from the applicant’s traffic engineer, Justin Tayler, who tried to allay concerns about truck traffic expressed by residents and planning board members. Taylor, whose firm produced an animated video imagining a drive past the site (seen above), did not respond to requests for comment.

The project will also need approval from the Monmouth County Planning Board, after county officials determined that runoff could have an impact on Route 547, a county road about a quarter-mile away, said the county planning director, Edward Samson.

It was unclear just how the project might benefit Howell, Monmouth County, residents or businesses, in terms of tax revenues, jobs or economic activity it projects to generate.

Just south of Howell, in Ocean County, the 2,000-acre Lakewood Industrial Park is home to warehouse and manufacturing firms that employ a total of 10,000 workers, according to the industrial park’s owners, who say occupancy is at 100 percent. Three new buildings with warehouse/industrial space totaling 146,000 square feet are currently under construction there.

Back in Howell, members of a residents’ group opposed to the warehouse complex, Howell for Open Land and Preservation of the Environment, or HOPE, share the Sierra Club’s concerns about the potential loss of habitat, as well as the impact of some 400 truck trips per day on the surface and the safety of the area’s narrow roads.

“The applicant’s own numbers basically indicate there will be one truck every two minutes throughout the day. It’s basically 35 trucks every hour, throughout a 12-hour day,” said HOPE’s lawyer, Craig Bossong. “Whether the breakdown of the roads or the safety of the vehicles, the massive volume is absolutely going to create a safety concern.”

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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