The zoning board had earlier agreed to change the site's zoning from rural/residential to allow construction of the complex. Residents' objections have centered on traffic around the site, located at Cranbury-South River and Dunham's Corner roads, not far from the New Jersey Turnpike, and the fact that the tract had earlier been designated for preservation as farmland. Officials in neighboring East Brunswick had also opposed the project on the basis of traffic, but their complaints were mollified with a revised access plan.
"It has become our 'warehouse district'," township councilman Frank Gamatese said at the council meeting. "It is close to the Turnpike, and all the trucks have to do is come right off the Turnpike and into the warehouses. They will avoid all of the other roads in town."
The project still has a series of approvals from the local planning board to clear before it becomes reality, and no timeline has been announced. And while residential groups say they will continue to oppose the project, "they have no funding to fight it in court," according to one observer. K&K officials could not be reached for comment.
The site had earlier been up for designation within the township's master plan as a commercial (non-industrial) district. The planning board subsequently approved the change to industrial zoning, which the township council has now upheld.
The environment has also been an issue in the approval process – that particular section of South Brunswick is part of the recharge area for much of the township's drinking water. To remedy that, K&K has agreed to foot the bill for new sewer lines that would serve both the proposed project and residents of the immediate vicinity, according to Gamatese.
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