Two months after local officials voted to kill plans for a 200,000-square-foot warehouse complex in a Monmouth County township, the property developer is suing the planning board over the allegedly “arbitrary” decision.
The developer, AAVRHW Property, filed its proposal to build a warehouse along Victory Road in Howell more than two years ago. The application laid out a vision of a 203,802-square-foot warehouse and office complex with 25 loading dock spaces, 35 trailer parking stalls and 72 passenger vehicle parking spaces.
The proposal quickly attracted the attention of Victory Road’s residents, some of whom began organizing to oppose it.
After a series of contentious public hearings that began last April, the Howell Township Planning Board voted unanimously to deny AAVRHW Property’s application in September. The move was applauded by members of the public in attendance, according to the Asbury Park Press, which first reported the lawsuit’s filing.
In the lawsuit, filed late last month, the company alleged the board’s decision was “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and unsupported by the record.” It asked the court to overrule the township, void the denial, and order the board to approve its application under “reasonable conditions.”
The planning board did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the lawsuit. A lawyer for AAVRHW Property did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
AAVRHW Property alleges in its suit that it presented the board with “competent, comprehensive and detailed evidence” to support the Victory Road proposal. The board “improperly considered evidence presented by, and on behalf of, members of the public that had no sufficient factual or legal basis,” the lawsuit said.
The Victory Road residents, who are not a party to the case, disagree with the allegations.
“They hired a team of experienced lawyers and experts,” said Marc Parisi, the president of Howell NJ First, a local nonprofit involved in the opposition effort.
Testimony at the hearings showed “why this application was insufficient and problematic,” he said.
Betty Lou Velez-Gimbel, a farmer who lives within 200 feet of the property on Victory Road, said she received a letter in 2022 informing residents of AAVRHW Property’s proposal. She made copies and began spreading the word to her neighbors.
“This was much more than a ‘Not In My Backyard’ type of mentality,” Velez-Gimbel told NJ Advance Media, referring to the so-called NIMBY movement.
The application failed to take into consideration the environmental sensitivity of the property, a heavily wooded plot with pockets of freshwater wetland, she alleged.
The area has a fluctuating water table, as well as the matter of stormwater management issues and the presence of threatened species like the Pine Barrens tree frog, Velez-Gimbel said. Other issues included traffic and and the proximity of a nearby liquefied natural gas plant.
Some residents pressed for the area to be rezoned for residential development, in line with the rest of Victory Road’s zoning. Their request was granted earlier this year.
“We have to find a balance,” said Velez-Gimbel, who also ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for the township council last month. “That’s what I was looking for in this. I’m not against capitalism. I’m certainly not against warehouses. But I am for common sense. There are places for them, and this was certainly not the right place.”
The board’s September decision to reject the warehouse proposal was accompanied by a 76-page resolution summarizing testimony from both sides and its findings. It said the residents’ experts had presented more “credible” evidence.
AAVRHW Property maintains in its lawsuit that the findings were “fabricated and manufactured for an illegal, transparent purpose of providing specious reasoning for its improper denial.”
Zoe Ferguson, one of the environmental and land use lawyers representing Velez-Gimbel and the other residents, said they plan to keep an eye on the case as it progresses. “We’re certainly watching it very closely,” she said, “and we are feeling confident that the decision will be upheld in court.”
Parisi added, “It’s our hope the Planning Board will defend this denial with the same tenacity their own residents showed in fighting this project.”
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AJ McDougall may be reached at amcdougall@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on X at @oldmcdougall.
