Sparta officials tell warehouse developers to revise plan for Demarest Road complex
SPARTA — Developers behind the proposed 880,000-square-foot warehouse complex on Demarest Road will submit a revised site plan to Planning Board officials who questioned parts of the initial proposal.
Diamond Chip Realty agreed to submit an updated proposal for the Diamond Chip Logistics Park complex, at the request of the board's attorney and members following several questions about the existing plan this week.
Chairman Drew Reina said the application appeared to contain "material design flaws that are not congruent" with the township's ordinance concerning a plan of that scale.
Diamond Chip officials are expecting to have all updated plans submitted to the board by July 27 so township professionals have time to review it before the next hearing on Aug. 17, 7 p.m.
Wednesday's hearing began with a continuation of the environmental review from last month. Township experts and Planning Board members asked about stormwater management, lighting and other aspects of the site plan, which feature two buildings on 68 acres of the Sparta Redi-Mix property located near Route 15.
Board member Christine Quinn sought clarification regarding Building B, the larger building measuring more than 500,000 square feet, and cited language in a township ordinance stating that a structure within 500 feet of a rail line benefits from a higher allowable impervious coverage. She questioned whether Building B would qualify under that exception since, unlike Building A, it is not rail-dependent.
Board attorney Tom Collins advised Diamond Chip officials to revise the application because the "proposal as shown now doesn't meet the ordinance standards of rail-dependent and rail use for Building B."
George Parker, another Planning Board member, expressed concern the applicant does not have a specific business in mind for the proposed warehouse complex. Developer Jim Ford said in prior meetings that the facility is intended to store food products and consumer goods for distribution to local retailers, but Parker suggested the board establish some parameters for the application before considering it for approval.
"We were told that we were going to have a high percentage of material coming in and material coming out, so if you don't know the tenant, then you can't answer that question," Parker told the Diamond Chip representatives. "We have to put some kind of regulations on here, what the minimums are. I still don't understand how you're putting this much money in and don't have a tenant."
The board's comments were followed by applause from the crowd of residents in attendance.
Residents have attended the prior hearings and organized opposition to the project. An online petition against the proposed complex has gained more than 3,500 signatures while two Sparta attorneys who represent themselves and other residents have challenged parts of the plan on several occasions.
Ford, on behalf of his team, accepted the request to revise the initial site plans. He said he has always intended to make the entire facility rail-dependent and wants a tenant that will continuously be moving products in and out of the site.
"Having a user in there that's going to switch two cars a year or something, that's not a benefit to the development," Ford said. He later added he would be glad to return with "some major tweaks to this, especially the rail perspective."
Quinn asked Diamond Chip to be mindful of community feedback when redesigning its site plans. In particular, she suggested the updated application show a warehouse that conforms to a "campus-like setting" like other similar projects in Sparta do.
"I think that's why a lot of people were surprised when they learned how many warehouses we actually have in Sparta because when you're driving down, they look like businesses," Quinn said. "They have very nice fronts, and all the loading and all the trucks and that stuff are in the back."
Ford agreed to keep the public in mind when creating the updated application. He also stated that he would be cognizant of previous requests relating to stormwater management and other environmental and landscaping factors.
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"We're here to adhere to what has been set forth," Ford said.
The proposed warehouse in the township is one of many cropping up all over the country and the state.
Long before COVID-19, New Jersey, like the rest of the country, was seeing a growing need for warehouse space spurred by the expansion of online sales and next-day delivery services.
The pandemic fueled that growth into a boom.
The warehouses and distribution centers boom in New Jersey is bolstered by the state's proximity to ports, which are recording all-time highs in trade volume as the global economy recovers, shows a study by Newmark, a global commercial real estate company.
Inventory of warehouse and distribution space grew by an average of 10% over the past five years in the New York and New Jersey area, Newmark said.
Quick access to numerous highways and railways with close proximity to ports and airports, combined with a large population for quick access to consumers, makes North Jersey very desirable to developers. Though most of the land in these populous areas of New Jersey has already been built up, developers are eyeing existing properties such as empty office parks for redevelopment. When that's not an option, they look for open space or farmland in northwestern New Jersey's Sussex and Warren counties.
New warehouses in North Jersey
These are some of the most recently constructed or soon-to-be constructed warehouses in North Jersey:
Bogota/Ridgefield Park – 30 Cross St.
Dual-municipality project: 6 acres, 83,600 square feet in Bogota, and 5.7 acres, 92,400 square feet in Ridgefield Park.
Approved by the Bogota Planning and Zoning Board on Feb. 22.
Mahwah – 1 International Blvd.
471,000-square-foot warehouse on 30 acres adjacent to the Sheraton Crossroads Hotel.
Site includes area zoned for up to 800 residential units; no application has been submitted.
Warehouse application is pending approval from the Mahwah Planning Board.
Mahwah – 1000 MacArthur Blvd.
208,000-square-foot warehouse distribution facility.
Expected to generate 66 tractor-trailer trips per day.
Approved by the Mahwah Planning Board on Oct. 11, 2021, and memorialized Oct. 25, 2021.
Passaic – IDI Logistics: 28 Jefferson St.
111,000-square-foot warehouse on 8 acres.
Construction completed in fall 2021, but no tenant has signed a lease.
Sparta – Diamond Chip Logistics Park: 33 Demarest Road
Plans for two buildings, 506,880 square feet and 373,600 square feet, on 68 acres.
No specific tenant, but facility is intended to store food products and consumer goods for distribution to local retailers.
Discussion to continue at Sparta Planning Board meeting on April 6.
Wanaque – 30 Union Ave.
Planned 272,000-square-foot warehouse on 35 acres between Greenwood Avenue and the Passaic County Community College campus.
Passaic County Planning Board withheld approval at its March 10 meeting so proposed rock cuts and retaining walls on the property can be better defined.
Woodland Park – 46/80 Logistics Center: 1150 McBride Ave.
205,000-square-foot mixed-use warehouse and retail building on 16 acres.
Broke ground Aug. 4, 2021.
This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Sparta NJ tells warehouse developer to revise Demarest Road plan
