JACKSON – Conditions that will exist at and near a proposed truck parts recycling facility in Jackson were the subject of testimony during a recent meeting of the Jackson Zoning Board of Adjustment.
A&A Truck Parts is seeking a use variance from the zoning board to operate a recycling center on Wright-Debow Road.
Recycling is not a permitted use in the Commercial Office/Light Industrial zone on Wright-Debow Road. Previous testimony has indicated trucks will be brought to the site, broken down in a building and their parts resold.
Attorney Ron Gasiorowski represents resident Charles Baker, an objector to the application.
The A&A Truck Parts application was approved by the zoning 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.
During the zoning board’s Dec. 19 meeting, Gasiorowski cross-examined a professional who had testified on behalf of the applicant.
He asked planner Ian Borden, “Is it not a fact there are going to be trucks that are delivering materials coming from other parts of the state … or other states … to get on to this site to drop off this scrap or material?”
Borden said that would be the case.
Gasiorowski asked if the business’s owner would enforce regulations for vehicles entering and leaving the site.
“We have made it, as I have testified, physically impossible for a vehicle to exit our site and turn right,” Borden said.
During public comment, one resident asked traffic engineer John Rea about sight lines as vehicles exit the property.
Rea said truck drivers would be directed to exit toward Patterson Road. He said individuals driving cars would not be directed to use Patterson Road.
“Patterson Road is going to be a truck route, cars are not going to use it. The height of a driver’s eye when he is sitting in a truck is quite a bit higher than when someone is sitting in a passenger vehicle or SUV or something like that,” Rea said.
He said truck drivers would have an appropriate sight line. Rea said he and Frank Miskovich, who is the zoning board’s traffic engineer, agreed on that point.
Rea said traffic on Patterson Road is low, about 10 vehicles in two directions during peak hours.
In response to a question from a resident, Rea said an individual driving a car on Patterson Road would be able to see a truck that is exiting the A&A Truck Parts property.
Rea was asked if he could foresee any problems with trucks turning from Wright-Debow Road onto West Commodore Boulevard to head east.
“I cannot say there are not any issues or problems at all. What I can tell you after looking at the accident history … is that none of the accidents in that intersection involved any kind of large truck,” he said.
Resident Carolyn Zeh expressed concern about schools in the area and school buses on the roads.
Rea said the schools in question are on the other side of West Commodore Boulevard.
“But Patterson Road going to West Commodore Boulevard, from where our site is, only passes two other (notable properties); one is a commercial nursery and the other is New Jersey Iron, and both generate truck traffic. The intersection of Patterson and Commodore has a better angle to make the turns than Wright-Debow Road. I understand there is school traffic on the other side,” Rea said.
The A&A Truck Parts application was carried to the zoning board’s Feb. 20 meeting.
