Warehouses may bring unanticipated issues

When people say they're bringing new ratables to Upper Freehold, ask what else they're bringing.

The warehouse complex proposed for Breza Road is certain to bring overwhelming traffic to the area: an additional 325 tractor-trailers and 1,226 cars, to be exact.

What else can we expect this volume of new traffic to bring? How about the need for enhanced police, health and fire capabilities? And additional crossing guards and buses?

One local official said the great thing about this project is that it won't impact our schools. Not only did she neglect to factor in the direct impacts of added traffic, but she forgot to count the children who will be living in the affordable housing units proposed smack-dab in the middle of this new, industrial dock city.

Also lost in the debate so far is that this new ratable will bring hundreds of dock workers to Upper Freehold.

In terms of real estate values, I have to wonder whether it's not prudent for every seller in Upper Freehold to disclose that there's a couple million square feet of industrial warehouses coming to town.

Is it really worth an estimated $119,000 in property tax revenues?

By the way, that works out to about $26 for each resident of Upper Freehold, considerably less than the $30 the developer says each warehouse employee will cost the township. Which doesn't even seem like a fair trade.

Micah Rasmussen

Allentown