STOP THE WAREHOUSE!
100% of every contribution will go directly towards the legal expenses to keep this warehouse out of downtown Phillipsburg.
WHAT TO KNOW
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Three of the five Phillipsburg town council members want to change the acres between the downtown and the Delaware River to industrial zoning from residential/riverside recreation zoning to allow a mammoth warehouse along Howard Street. Two council members are in opposition and that one vote is creating this problem project, so we are rapidly running out of time.
INDUSTRIAL ZONING
A lawsuit has been filed in New Jersey Superior Court by citizens to oppose the approval of a warehouse In downtown because it is in violation of the clear intent of the town’s Master Plan. More recently, In order to approve the warehouse three members of town council are attempting to change the zoning to industrial.
ENVIRONMENTALLY OVERBURDENED
The downtown Phillipsburg neighborhood has been identified by the NJDEP as an environmentally overburdened community because it fails in 22 of 25 stressors used to identify such a neighborhood in the NJ Environmental Justice Law.
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This negative rating of stressors can be made worse and the quality of life can be further degraded for the older and poorer population by the addition of the air, lights and noise pollution of a warehouse and removal of the forest on the 32 acre lot to build a mammoth warehouse.
WAREHOUSE WALL
Delaware River Park is accessed via Howard Street and visitors drive past the 32 acres where the warehouse is proposed to reach the entrance. It is the only public parkland adjacent to the densely populated downtown neighborhood and will have a 55-foot wall for half its length if the warehouse is built. This would greatly diminish the residential/ riverside recreation potential of the area
DELAWARE RIVER PARK (DRP)
Delaware River Park - between Howard Street and the Bel-Del Railroad along the Delaware River- was created over the former Morris Canal. After the canal was closed and drained, it was used by Phillipsburg as a municipal landfill. The entrance to the park is a far walk and therefore the park is often disparaged as isolated and unsafe.
95% of the 32 acres proposed for the warehouse are wooded and less than two blocks from the neighborhood and could provide excellent access to a reimagined Delaware River Park. The crowded neighborhood has few trees except those on the 32 acres. The current entrance is a long walk so not easily accessible to the neighborhood.
THE 32 ACRES
The Phillipsburg Railroad Historians worked through the 1990s to create a railroad heritage museum on the property and had been awarded funding from the state of New Jersey when Mr Perrucci bought the property from under them in 2006, ending the dream.
During the next decade he received serveral approvals from the town for residential developments of about 450 units each and tried to sell renditions to national developers without success. More recently, he gave up that effort and decided that getting approval for a warehouse would give him the profit he desires.
JOBS
Pburg/Lopatcong already have more than 4,000,000 ft.² of warehouses on the highway (where they should be) not downtown three miles from the Highway. Proponents for the downtown warehouse on Howard Street say the need for jobs outweighs any concerns but if warehouses bring jobs the existing 4,000,000 ft.² of warehouses should have already provided the jobs. Councilman Lee Clark was very clear when he spoke at the Pburg town council meeting that the future of warehouses is automation, not jobs.
They will not be a source of many jobs in the future.
A BETTER WAY TO CREATE JOBS
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The best way to create jobs for the local economically disadvantaged population is to repopulate the downtown with residences and thereby create lots of jobs in the businesses in a revitalized downtown.
THREE MILES TO THE HIGHWAY
A downtown warehouse will bring tractor trailers rumbling through the streets day and night. To spare the majority of the business community downtown of this onslaught of trucks, P’burg has requested and NJDOT has approved a plan to direct all trucks to head south from McKeen Street towards Pohatcong thereby sacrificing the three miles of neighborhoods the trucks will pass through.
No trucks will be allowed between Union Square near the bridge to Easton and McKeen Street except for local deliveries.
ALTERNATIVE TRUCK ROUTES
It is likely that trucks from Howard Street, heading south from McKeen St, added to the large volume of trucks expected from projected warehouses in Pohatcong and Alpha, will overwhelm New Brunswick Avenue at Route 22 creating a need for alternative truck routes. We can foresee NJDOT coming under pressure to open St James Avenue, Lock Street or Center Street to trucks.
Phillipsburg Riverview Organization (PRO) advocates for the residents of Phillipsburg. We believe in a strong and healthy community with positive development, protection of our natural resources, strong economic growth, opportunities, and greater quality of life. This warehouse does none of those things. In fact, it will have the exact opposite effect on our community.​