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Jackson residents have questions about proposed recycling operation

JACKSON – Residents had a chance to question the engineer representing a company which is proposing to create a recycling facility on Wright-Debow Road when the A and A Truck Parts hearing resumed in front of the Jackson Zoning Board of Adjustment on June 20.

During a previous meeting, engineer Ian Borden described the operation that would be conducted at the property. A and A Truck Parts is seeking a use variance from the board to operate a recycling center for used truck parts and trailer parts. Recycling is not a permitted use in the Commercial Office/Light Industrial zone on Wright-Debow Road.

Attorney Ron Gasiorowski has been representing resident Charles Baker, an objector to the application. The application was approved by the board several years ago, but Baker took the issue to court and won when a court ruled the board’s resolution describing details of the approval was insufficient. The case was remanded back to the board for reconsideration. Attorney Bernard Reilly stood in for Gasiorowski and represented Baker at the June 20 meeting.

Before hearing new testimony from the applicant’s representatives that evening, zoning board members permitted residents to question Borden on his previous testimony. Several residents asked about the type of machinery that would be used and noise that would be produced at the property.

Borden said the property is in Jackson’s Commercial Office/Light Industrial zone and not in a residential zone.

“Let’s be clear, this is a light industrial zone. I know we talk about residential, but this (property) is in the light industrial manufacturing zone,” he said.

Resident Scott Brinley expressed concern that vehicles bringing items to the property will damage Wright-Debow Road. Borden said the applicant will comply with regulations regarding the use and condition of the road.

Board member John Suttles asked how much noise will emanate from the site.

The applicant is proposing to construct a 108,000-square-foot warehouse and office building, a 64,000-square-foot truck dismantling canopy and a 108,000-square-foot metal recycling canopy.

In response to Suttles, attorney Ray Shea, who represents the applicant, said he could not specifically define the noise, but he said that because work will take place in a building, there would be less noise than if the work were to occur outside.

Resident L.D. Thatcher testified in support of his son and said the application affects his son’s situation. Thatcher is a former chairman of the zoning board.

He said he read the minutes of the board’s April 18, 2018 meeting, when the A and A Truck Parts application was heard, and said “there was so much contradiction, confusion and misrepresentation of facts in the current minutes and testimony from the previous minutes, it would require several hours to unwind.”

Thatcher asked Borden to explain how the company’s application meets the objectives of Jackson’s master plan and the purpose of the zoning requirements of the Commercial Office/Light Industrial zone, given that it “requires no fewer than eight variances and clearly does not meet the master plan or the zoning codes.”

Borden said one of the primary objectives of the master plan is to encourage the development of industrial, warehouse and office uses, and to encourage ratables in the zone.

“We are proposing a light industrial development in the light industrial zone. Our variance is for a recycling use which meets one of the purposes of zoning,” Borden said.

Shea said Thatcher was parsing the ordinance in attempting to label the proposed facility a junkyard.

Thatcher said regardless of whether the application is for a recycling center or a junkyard, the facility does not belong in the zone in which it is proposed and should not be approved by the zoning board.

Reilly asked Borden why he does not believe the application is for a junkyard.

“Because the distinction, in my opinion, between a junkyard and this use is that this use requires a recycling license and this is a Class A recycling center,” Borden said.

“You can be both in New Jersey,” Shea interjected. “You can be a recycling center and you can also be a junkyard. We are not shy to say that under a local ordinance and a broad interpretation, (the application) can be both.”

Borden said there are four junkyard licenses in Jackson and said all of those businesses store junk cars, but none has a recycling license.

Reilly asked if non-operable vehicles being trucked to the applicant’s proposed facility on Wright-Debow Road met the definition of a junkyard.

“We are a recycling use with a maximum of 30 days storage time,” Borden said.

Reilly said parts intended for retail sale would be on the property longer than 30 days.

Resident Val Tudor expressed concern about what she characterized as contradictory testimony regarding the disposal of gasoline from non-operable vehicles at the property.

“I have been coming to these meetings since last fall and I have (asked) what is going to be done with the waste products coming from these vehicles. What disturbs me the most now is that even though (the applicant’s representatives) have come back and said they have taken my concerns and addressed them, in February they said all the vehicles coming to the facility are going to be stripped of gasoline before arriving.

“In April, when describing what they were going to do with the fluids, they said they were going to have a tank for regular gas and a tank for diesel gas inside this huge building. So the story has changed,” Tudor said.

Tudor said she is concerned the applicant’s explanation would continue to change “depending on what is convenient for them.”

Shea rejected her contention there was a change in the testimony.

Borden said all fluids would be drained from vehicles inside the building and placed in the appropriate container.

The applicant’s representatives said the perception that fluids would be drained from vehicles prior to their arrival at the site is incorrect.

The A and A Truck Parts application is expected to resume at the zoning board’s Sept. 5 meeting.

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