Limecrest seeking approval for new plant

ANDOVER — Limecrest is seeking approval for a 100,000-square-foot, 24-hour paving stone plant on Limecrest Rd. in Andover. Rejina Sharma, of Matrix New World Engineers, said that Limecrest is in the final stages of obtaining approval from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection for two permits. Sharmer said that she expects the permits to be granted by early Nov. of this year. Sharma drew criticism for not visiting the site during or after a heavy rain to observe flood conditions. However, she said her flood calculations were based on the most conservative criteria available. According to Sharma, the site as it exists now is “not in good environmental condition” and the proposal would be beneficial to the area. “Overall, [the proposal] will provide innate improvement to the environmental condition,” said Sharma. “Also, it will uplift the ecological resources.” The sometimes contentious meeting lasted over three hours and dealt largely with Limecrest’s application. Public cross examines environmental expert The board opened up the public comment period on Aug. 2 to allow residents to question Limecrest’s environmental expert. First up was Louis Coppolino, who voiced his concerns over the proposed plant at prior land use board meetings. Coppolino lives on nearby Macintosh Dr. and said that years ago, Limecrest backfilled on the same wetlands that are now contained in their proposal. “Why would you want to reward a company for doing illegal stuff to begin with?” said Coppolino. Coppolino called on the board to examine old aerial photographs to substantiate his claim. John Reed, who lives on Pinkneyville Rd. near the proposed site, raised concerns about flooding in the area being made worse by operations at the plant. According to Sharma the plant’s design will actually help limit the impact of flooding in the area. Sharma also said that there were no endangered species in the proposal area. Sharma said the environmental impact study she did covers the development of the land and the construction of the building. A board member asked Sharma whether the study examined the impact that a business would have on the environment once the plant was operational. Hefele said the study is specific to a paving stone plant “to some degree.” No risk of groundwater contamination Resident Stan Christodlous asked whether operations at the plant would contaminate groundwater. “In the production process of paving stones...there are no hazardous substances being utilized,” said Hefele. “They are all naturally occurring.” Concern over end-user Jeffrey Wolk questioned why the board was hearing Limecrest’s application if they didn’t have an end-user lined up. Wolk raised this question at the July 19 meeting when it was revealed that Cambridge Pavers Inc. backed out of the plan as co-applicants with Limecrest. Wolk was concerned that a company with a bad environmental track record could come to Andover once the board approved Limecrest’s plan. Traffic impact Hefele started this portion of the meeting by saying that the board didn’t really have the authority to deny Limecrest’s application on the basis of any traffic impact that will occur on the plant’s surrounding roads. This is because those roads are owned and maintained by the county and Limecrest has already obtained approval from the Sussex County Land Use Board. Board attorney Richard Brigliadoro confirmed Hefele’s statement. The expert, Joseph Staigar of Joseph Staigar Engineering, said his firm completed a traffic impact study using Cambridge Pavers as a model for the traffic volume that will occur. Staigar said the plant will run two 12-hour shifts. Twenty-two employees will work at the plant during the day shift and 19 will work the night shift. Staigar’s report states that delivery of raw materials will occur between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday. “Typically a mix of sand, gravel and cement delivery trucks at a maximum rate of 12 trucks per hour at peak capacity with approximately 10 of those trucks coming from the adjacent quarry.” He said shipping the finished product will require 120 trucks per day with 75 percent of the activity occurring between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. or a maximum of ten trucks per hour. Trash pickup will be once a day. According to the report, incidental deliveries of propane, color additives, spare parts etc... will occur twice daily. Staigar said that most pickups and deliveries will enter and exit the area via Route 15. “Most of the market would be to the north,” said Staigar.