By Jeff Tittel in The Jersey Vindicator
The Highlands Council approved a 900,000-square-foot warehouse on the Pohatcong grasslands this week despite the fact that Governor Mikie Sherrill called for a moratorium on new warehouses. This is a shameful attack on the protection of the Highlands and the preservation of farmland. The Highlands is, by law, a state and nationally significant environmental region. The purpose of those protections is to safeguard the drinking water supply for more than six million New Jersey residents, as well as residents of New York and Pennsylvania.
The preservation of open space is a critical part of that mission, especially forests and environmentally sensitive farmland. Instead, the Highlands Council approved a dirty deal for politically connected developers — a betrayal of the Highlands Protection Act and a betrayal of our drinking water during a drought. This warehouse is to be built on spec, so we don’t know what it could become: an AI data center or even an ICE detention facility.
