Planners OK warehouses

HOWELL - Planning Board members voted unanimously on Aug. 2 to approve an application for 11 detached storage/warehouse buildings on a 6-acre site on Okerson Road.

An application filed by My Warehouse gained approval after revisions were made and a rest room was added to the site plan.

The property is in Howell's Special Economic Development zone with 492 feet of frontage along Okerson Road (between Business Route 33 and Halls Mill Road, Freehold Township). Access to the warehouses will be from Okerson Road.

The applicant will dedicate a 13.5-foot wide area along Okerson Road for future road widening purposes. A detention basin will handle the increase in storm water runoff, according to information provided in a report prepared by the board's engineer CME Associates.

The revisions that were made include the addition of a required 50-foot wide Right to Farm buffer; a septic system to accommodate the waste generated from the shared rest room facility; 11 detached storage/warehouse buildings, totaling 27,396 square feet, where 15 detached storage/warehouse buildings, totaling 30,392 square feet, were previously proposed; and a 30-foot wide circulation aisle.

Resident Barbara Dixel said she appreciated the changes that had been made by the applicant.

"I want to thank the applicant, attorney and board for providing sanitary facilities for this development," Dixel said, adding that she would like all commercial facilities that come to Howell to provide sanitary facilities. She asked the board to send a note to the Township Council in regard to that point.

John Costigan, who chairs Howell's Farmland Preservation Task Force, said, "This new plan looks good to me."

Board members James Burgess, Thomas Frese, Paul Sayah, Curtis Vis-locky, Marlene West, Christopher Estevez, Michael Morello and Paul Schneider voted to approve the My Warehouse application.

- Toynett Hall