HOWELL – The Planning Board has killed a controversial proposal for 1.2 million square feet of warehouses along Randolph Road, ending a months-long contest between a would-be developer and homeowners around the proposed development site.

In a unanimous vote in the early hours of Friday morning – the Thursday meeting lasted well after midnight – the board voted to reject the Monmouth Commerce Center, which neighbors feared would bring hundreds more trucks daily to the southern edge of the township.

EARLIER: Howell warehouse project would bring trucks, kill trees

More than two dozen Howell residents testified Thursday, as did one resident of Farmingdale, which Howell surrounds. Not a single member of the public spoke in favor of the project.

Kirsten Gallo, an East Shenandoah Road resident, said she had been “shocked and horrified” to learn of the proposed development and feared the pollution trucks would bring to the area.

“I want to be able to walk and bike with my son and not worry about tractor trailers barreling down the roads,” she testified. “I want to be able to travel to the grocery store, the doctor’s office or the pharmacy without it taking an hour to get there.”

Andre de Garmeaux, a Porter Road resident, said he had already come across truckers sleeping in parked big rigs while driving around the township.

“This is the wrong project for the wrong place,” he said of the warehouse proposal. “We’re talking about putting something in that’s the size of Freehold Mall on a tertiary road.”

EARLIER: Will warehouse center create traffic nightmare?

Monmouth Commerce Center LLC and property owners Lawrence Katz and Felix Pflaster have had their proposal before the board since last spring. In addition to the warehouses, the proposal included parking for 706 vehicles and 142 trailers, as well as 234 loading spaces.

Meetings during which the proposal was scheduled for testimony have seen increasingly large crowds filling the board’s meeting room. Thursday night was no exception, with an overflow crowd standing in the wings.

The application process devolved into dirty tricks in early January. Dawn Van Brunt, an organizer of Howell for Open Land and Preservation of the Environment (HOPE), told the Asbury Park Press that a sign the citizens’ group had erected at Allenwood Lakewood Road and Arnold Boulevard — across from the proposed development site — had been vandalized.

Throughout the testimony Thursday, board Chairman Brian frequently cut in to quell applause and other interruptions.

The board’s traffic engineer, James Winckowski, raised concerns over access points on Randolph Road and said it was still unclear to him if a traffic light would be installed at Randolph and Lakewood-Farmingdale roads.

The developer’s attorney, Meryl Gonchar, asked for a month-long extension to submit a concept plan to address some reservations, but was rebuffed.

EARLIER: Warehouse proposal finally nearing a vote

In his closing argument, attorney Craig Bossong, who represents HOPE, decried “overzealous and gluttonous developers” and warned that “one thing is certain: There will be a substantial increase in traffic, especially tractor trailers.”

If the site “were located in Elizabeth or Kearney it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, but this is Howell,” Bossong said.

Gonchar insisted that her clients were simply trying to use the land in a way to which they were perfectly entitled.

“This zoning has been in place fro 24 years,” she argued. “We didn’t ask that this property be rezoned, and we’re not here for a use variance.”

Traffic problems away from the site, and pre-existing traffic issues, are “not a basis to deny the application,” she said.

The board’s attorney, Ronald Cucchiaro, advised the board that a possible increase in traffic was not, on its own, “relevant to approval or denial” – but, he said, “the safety of ingress and egress” was something the board could consider. 

Finally, after nearly six hours of testimony and arguments, the board voted to reject the proposal.

Following the vote, Van Brunt said in a written statement that she was grateful.

“Thank you each and everyone who helped, donated, shared my million posts or just expressed your support,” she wrote. “This wasn’t a battle I could fight on my own. Howell, you showed up!”

Asked if she had any comment on the outcome, Gonchar said, “I was raised to be a lady.”

Alex N. Gecan: 732-643-4043; [email protected]; @GeeksterTweets

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