Rocky terrain slowing down Wanaque warehouse approval

The lumpy terrain of North Jersey's Highlands is again confounding plans to develop about 35 densely wooded acres near the Interstate 287 interchange in Wanaque.

Passaic County Planning Board members on Thursday withheld approval for a planned 272,000-square-foot warehouse rising 48 feet between Greenwood Avenue backyards and the Passaic County Community College campus.

The proposed rock cuts and retaining walls needed to deal with the lumpy terrain need to be better defined before approval can be granted, said Joseph Metzler, Planning Board chairman.

Long targeted for potential development, the site across from Susquehanna Avenue is approved for warehouse use, town records show. However, the property's steep slopes have been an obstacle. In 2020, Robert Benecke, the town planner, said he would expect the majority of the property to be undevelopable due to the terrain.

The site plan nonetheless proposes impervious coverage for slightly more than half of the site, bringing the total from roughly 24,000 square feet to 742,000 square feet. The plan still requires New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Approval, said Arthur Kuyan, a civil engineer for the applicant.

No end user has been identified for the warehouse, leaving county officials uncertain about the potential traffic and operational implications.

Michael Lysicatos, the county planning director, said the county will likely need a range of the warehouse's potential trip generation numbers and hours of operation before considering final approval. The spectrum for these warehouses is vast, he said, and can range from 24-hour local fulfillment centers to business-hour depots for longer-term storage.

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As proposed, the warehouse would include 82 loading docks, 144 parking spaces and 34 trailer stalls. Also proposed are stormwater management facilities and a bio-retention area that doubles as a park to handle the runoff. The site's redevelopment plan calls for 50-foot wooded buffers to shield neighboring homes. While officials at commercial real estate firm JLL have seen a surge in demand for North Jersey warehouses of less than 100,000 square feet since 2019, they say the need for industrial space shows no signs of slowing down as e-commerce cements itself in society.

Before returning to the Passaic County Planning Board, the Bloomingdale-based applicant, Wanaque Depo Urban Renewal, is expected to visit the Wanaque Planning Board on March 17 for possible final site plan approval on the municipal level. That evening, the board is also expected to progress an application for a Taco Bell restaurant at an adjacent property. That property, 164 Greenwood Ave., was formerly owned by the town's mayor, Daniel Mahler. It sold for $475,000 in 2020.

David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Wanaque NJ warehouse project approval withheld by Passaic County