From The Jersey Sierran, July - September 2022
If you live in Mercer County or the lower portion of Middlesex County you should be concerned about the proposed Bridge Point 8 Industrial Park plan for seven large warehouses totaling 5.5 million square feet, plus about 500,000 square feet encompassing a hotel, an office building, and some retail. This project would be situated on the former American Cyanamid property at the northeast corner of Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road in West Windsor and is currently under planning board review.
This project brings with it potential for severe congestion on Route 1 and area roads, increased air pollution, and other problems. Insufficient information has been provided about the anticipated traffic increase or stormwater flow, which is critical in light of climate change.
Augmenting West Windsor’s environmental oversight is its Green Development Checklist (GDC), which identifies many methods for mitigating environmental impacts, such as solar power, water efficiency, and electric trucks. Bridge Point has shown only a limited willingness to incorporate significant green checklist provisions into the project, saying this may conflict with tenant requirements. Such an issue is easy to remedy by inserting language into tenant leases requiring compliance with GDC local ordinances.
The developer objects to requiring that its tenants comply with sustainable measures including electric charging stations and the use of water conservation measures, such as drip landscape irrigation, low flow fixtures, drought tolerant plants, and grey water recycling.
Even more important are issues related to stormwater mitigation, flooding, and stream contamination. With extensive parking lots and regular spills and drips that include a variety of oils, toxic chemicals, and the use of salt in the winter, Bridge Point needs to explain how it will prevent this contamination from entering local streams. Almost all nearby streams feed into the Millstone River, a primary source of local drinking water.
At a May 2022 planning board hearing, Bridge Point pledged that the buildings would be LEED-certified. This covers just the building envelope and the superstructure, not the critical interior building systems.
One last critical issue is the proposed system for vehicle access to the site. Nearby roads already have congestion issues and may not be appropriate for 18-wheeler traffic. The developer has applied to the state Department of Transportation (DOT) for a highway access permit along Route 1 at Nassau Park Boulevard. Unfortunately, we don’t know how the DOT is responding to this application, since the DOT review process doesn’t include hearings or public meetings. It can certainly be argued that the project is not ready for approval.
Towns abutting Route 1 can request the development of an access management plan (AMP) that could evaluate transportation alternatives to the proposed development. An AMP would help mitigate and respond to the impacts of Bridge Point.
A key to planning board review and approval are the conditions of approval. The public should focus on these—the more voices that say the same things, the more likely the public is apt to prevail.
For access to the applicable planning board files, please click on Planning Board Information 051122 (westwindsornj.org).