JACKSON – Residents will have another chance on Feb. 21 to voice their displeasure with an application that proposes the creation of a recycling facility on Wright-Debow Road in Jackson.
A and A Truck Parts Inc. is seeking a use variance from the Jackson Zoning Board of Adjustment for a recycling center for used truck and trailer parts. Recycling is not a permitted use in the Commercial Office/Light Industrial (LM) zone.
The applicant was represented by attorney Ray Shea and Ian Borden of Professional Design Services during a Jan. 17 meeting.
Attorney Ron Gasiorowski, who is representing an objector, Charles Baker, was also in attendance.
“We are proposing a 280,000-square-foot building with a single entrance off Wright-Debow Road and parking in front of the site,” Borden said.
The proposed building would include a 108,000-square-foot warehouse and office space in the front, a 64,000-square-foot truck dismantling canopy in the middle and a 108,000-square-foot metal recycling canopy in the rear, according to the testimony.
“The entire building will be prefabricated steel with a solid concrete floor. We are not proposing any floor drains. The warehouse (the front of the building), will contain an office for use by A and A Truck Parts as their corporate office and they are relocating their operations” to Jackson, Borden said.
A portion of the warehouse will be reserved for the applicant’s trucks. A and A Truck Parts operates a recycling facility in Freehold and plans to run a similar facility in Jackson, according to the testimony.
Borden said the proposed facility will not accept oils, fluids or batteries from outside sources.
During public comment, resident Bud Thatcher asked about the number of deliveries that will be made to the site each day.
Board members said there had not been any testimony regarding that aspect of the application.
Thatcher asked the board members if they had ever been to the applicant’s Freehold location. He provided pictures of the Freehold site from the applicant’s social media page.
“The point I am trying to get across is that what these gentleman are describing here is not what is going to happen, and that is part of the testimony today, like if you are talking about 80 (to) 90 trucks and they are going to store their stuff in this self-container, when you look at the pictures there is no way all that stuff can be delivered there on a daily basis, be broken down, processed, sold, whatever, that is what is going to be there, there is going to be a junkyard there,” Thatcher said.
The zoning board’s attorney, Sean Gertner, asked Thatcher to reserve his points to rebut future testimony about proposed operations at the facility.
Gertner asked residents not to comment on aspects of the application for which testimony has not been provided, but did permit questions to be asked of the applicant’s representatives.
“If you have a question, it benefits everyone (if you) put the question on the table, understanding that you may not have an answer tonight, but certainly the applicant is alerted to get an answer at the next meeting,” Gertner said.
Caroline Zeh said her primary concern is the view from her home.
“My concern is that when I look out my backyard, when I go (outside) to enjoy the summer, what am I going to see? Am I going to see the same kind of (barbed wire) fence that is at (their Freehold location) right now?” Zeh said.
Zeh also expressed concern about how lighting and noise at the recycling facility may disturb her children and dog.
Resident Val Tudor touched on pollutants and said, “In a factory … you get toxic fumes, and if you are going to be stripping down cars, taking them down to bare metal or painting them … you have fumes.
“So that is something I would like to know about. What kind of pollution is going to be generated by stripping down metal? Somebody else brought up toxic liquids … like I said, if you strip down metals, where is that going?” she asked. “We get our water from wells, we do not put down anything toxic (on our lawns). I am worried about our water source.”
Shea, the applicant’s attorney, deferred answers to the residents’ questions to the next meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 21.
