Residents still pressing to get trucks off street
Local man describes repeated situation, lack of action as 'ridiculous'
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK - It's become a familiar sight for anyone watching Township Council meetings.

Residents complain during public session about trucks using McGuire Street, a small residential road off Route 18 just south of the New Jersey Turnpike, and township officials say little in response or tell them there's not much they can do.

Residents have approached the council on the issue consistently at council meetings going back more than a year, something that also occurred at times during the 1990s.

According to McGuire Street residents Frank Coury and his wife, Mary McGuire, there were three prior occasions when trucking businesses operated in the nearby Turnpike Industrial Park in the past, and now a fourth business described as a warehouse and distribution facility has recently located there. Each time, residents say, the problems are the same: trucks idling and waking up residents, passing by and causing house-shaking vibrations, and in general bringing about a decay in the quality of life for neighbors.

The discussion occurred once more at Monday night's council meeting, after Township Attorney Michael Baker sought to address the issue. Baker stated that a township ordinance prohibiting trucks weighing over 4 tons from using streets like McGuire cannot be applied here. That's because police interpret the ordinance as only affecting trucks that use streets as cut-throughs.

He did say that the township will post signs in the area advising truck drivers of the weight limit.

But Mary McGuire said the road already has such signs. She wanted to know why the signs on McGuire Street provide an exemption for trucks making deliveries. None of the other weight limit signs she's seen on township roads provide such an exemption, she said. She also said the sign dates to when the road was a dead-end, and that it was designed to allow use of the road by the occasional truck making a delivery, for example.

"It did not mean semis," she said.

Albert Gonzalez, of the adjacent North Woodland Avenue, is also affected by the trucks.

"This is ridiculous," he said. "There is no other way to put this."

Gonzalez was one of the residents who last year complained about Nieroda Transport, which had operated on the site until being cited by the township for zoning violations.

He contends that the new company, Concord, has violated zoning requirements because there is no buffer for noise or visual impact on nearby residences.

Mary McGuire, for whose family the road is named, said the road has numerous potholes, which only worsens the vibrations. She said her house shakes so much when trucks go by that her new windows have already cracked.

"Am I supposed to live like that?" she asked.

While no council member responded, Mayor William Neary said the township is limited in what it can do. A misinterpretation in terms of what is allowed in the Planned Industrial zone has caused the problem.

But Coury said no such misinterpretation should exist. Trucking is clearly not allowed in the zone, but that is the use that occurs there, he said, noting, however, that the businesses always claim to be warehouse/distributors.

Coury noted that a Middlesex County judge agreed with Coury when he and his wife sued in the mid-1990s to get the first company, Legend, to vacate.

Baker said he agreed with the judge's decision and that code enforcement has been told to write summonses to the latest company if it is, in fact, repeating the same use as its predecessor.

Coury also pointed to a township code that allows warehouses in the zone but lists conditions. One condition states that the use must be completely enclosed in the building, and another says no noise from the use should carry over to residential properties.

Coury also disputes Baker's stance that Concord is "grandfathered" due to the township's 1990s decision to allow warehouses in that area. He said this is not just a warehouse.

"He transfers the load from one owner to another," Coury said of the current business operating there. "Why is he grandfathered in?"

Gonzalez said police have been called to the area several times, but he questioned their approach to handling the matter. He said he also called the mayor's office and was told by an assistant that she would talk to the chief of police and get back to him, but he never heard back.

"Nothing has been done," he said. "It's an embarrassment to have to come back and have to repeat this."