Harbor Freight: ‘We will make it right’

courtesy photo

HAMMONTON—The Planning Board approved Harbor Freight Tools amended site plan application with two C variances, one for lot coverage and the other for the elimination of three parking spaces during the September 4 meeting at town hall.

Harbor Freight Tools located at 30 N. White Horse Pike has to meet the conditions set forth in the Adams, Rehmann and Heggan Associates (ARH) report dated August 26.

Representatives from Harbor Freight Tools were previously at the August 21 Planning Board meeting, but were asked to come back with someone who can answer questions about operations.

“Dear Mr. [Joseph] McGroarty, As you know the Joint Land Use Board decided to postpone this application to the following meeting due to inconsistencies due to numerous outstanding issues. Our office has prepared a list of outstanding items that the Applicant is required to conform in accordance with the previous Resolution (05-23ZB). There will be additional conditions imposed if the Board decides to grant the requested amended approval,” the ARH letter written by town engineer Mark Herrmann read.

The resolution conditions from the ARH letter include the following:

“The site will be ADA compliant. The Applicant will submit documents to the Board Professionals for confirmation (Status: Outstanding. Required information has not been received by this office.);

“Deliveries shall occur only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The length of each delivery shall not exceed two hours (Status: Outstanding. Delivery trucks have been observed outside of specified window and have stayed overnight.);

“The lighting on the site needs to be evaluated and compliance confirmed with the Board Professionals (Status: Outstanding. Required information has not been received by this office.);

“The dumpster shall be surrounded by a fence constructed of TREX material (Status: Outstanding. Although also subject to current amended application, dumpsters remain open and unprotected.);

“The Applicant has been granted a variance allowing the pillar sign in the front of the property to extend to 20 feet. In addition, the owner has been given permission to add an additional 10 feet (expanding from 20 feet to 30 feet) to add a sign identifying the name of the complex and providing a street address. If the owner does not add a sign identifying the complex by December 1, 2024, the owner shall have waived their right to add such a sign.

The owner shall then cutoff the two pillars at the top of the Harbor Freight sign (Status: Outstanding. Owner has four plus months to comply.) and

“Consolidation of Lots/easements. With respect, to the parking, the owner shall either consolidate the lots or produce easement agreements allowing for the shared use of parking spaces among the three tenants (Status: Outstanding. Required information has not been received by this office.).”

Earlier in the day before the meeting, Herrmann went to Harbor Freight Tools to assess the ADA improvements.

“Unfortunately, the ramp is not compliant. The ramp itself is pushing 10 percent and the landing is 2.5 percent, so that would have to be rebuilt. That’s kind of why I need to be there, but anyway at some point we have to figure out a way to rebuild the ramp,” Herrmann said.

Joseph Paparo of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman law firm represented Harbor Freight Tools.

“My understanding from speaking with the contractor before this evening’s hearing was that they, the subcontractor who installed the ramp, will reinstall an appropriate ramp to the store that the board engineer has identified, so that activity will need to be done if this board were inclined to approve the application,” Paparo said.

Harbor Freight Tools was also supposed to provide the town engineer with a cut sheet of the new lighting fixtures as well as a lighting plan, however, Herrmann said he didn’t see the cut sheet earlier.

Harbor Freight Tools engineer Cleary said the cut sheet may have gotten lost.

“It was handed to you after the meeting. It may have gotten lost. The applicant’s attorney indicates that it was marked as provided at the meeting,” Cleary said.

Herrmann said his main concern is there are some handicap spots by the loading area, so he wants to make sure there is appropriate lighting and coverage.

“We have some handicap spots over by the loading area and that’s where I really want to make sure that we have appropriate lighting and coverage because in theory we can have people using that walkway in the dark,” Herrmann said.

Paparo said Harbor Freight Tools will give the cut sheet to the board engineer.

Cleary then suggested granting a waiver for lighting subject to the town engineer’s review and approval.

Next, Harbor Freights discussed the TREX dumpster installation.

“It’s going to be installed?” Olivo said.

Paparo said yes.

“Can I ask why none of this has been done? You’ve been open since when?” Olivo said.

Cleary answered.

“As we testified at the previous meeting we know that a trash enclosure is required, but since we needed amended approval, they didn’t want to construct a semi-permanent trash enclosure. And for some reason, maybe the location changes based upon feedback from the board. That was the concern with the applicant,” Cleary said.

Cleary added there was a conflict with the overhead wires.

Later in the meeting, Olivo asked AJ Berenato from Code Enforcement to give some background on the construction of the store and “why it maybe should not have opened.”

Berenato said towards the end of the construction project there were issues when Harbor Freight Tools “decided to dictate when they were going to open the doors.”

“The contractor who was on the job had a deadline whether it was Tuesday, Monday, whatever it was he had to be done and go back to Florida. We came back after the weekend.

They were having a grand opening [in April]. It was very difficult from that point going forward to track down anybody who wanted to help us figure out what’s left, what we have to do just to try to get a temp. CO in the facility so we had something. I was in there to make sure we were up to code compliance, but there’s a lot of things left onset, a lot of time wasted between municipal officials chasing people, trying to gather details and paperwork and information just trying to push this through the right way. So that’s basically, in a nutshell how it went down,” Berenato said.

Olivo asked why was the town disrespected to the point where Harbor Freight Tools felt like they could open up the doors without the necessary proper procedure?

“I mean we’re business friendly. We like the store. We want it to be safe. We want it to be open. But then there’s still a number of outstanding issues that we’re going to get to. And the same thing from the original time that you came, you weren’t here, but the original time you came, there was no licensed professional from the state of New Jersey here so that got adjourned and then it went to another meeting. So now here we are the fourth time with my volunteers here and have to keep coming back. I mean I know we have paid professionals as well. I mean not that we’re footing the bill for them because Harbor Freight is, but still I just think it’s unfair because I feel like we were disrespected as a town,” Olivo said.

Paparo said the biggest disconnect was between the project architect and Cleary’s office where the two plans did not match.

“Unfortunately, what was built had differences from what Mr. Cleary designed and what this board spent considerable time approving, so that’s on us,” Paparo said.

Town Planner Stuart Wiser asked how does that happen?

“I don’t want to testify, but the construction work was based on the plans that were submitted and approved by the construction department, which were the architect’s plans not the civil engineer’s plans. So a set of plans went in, reviewed and approved. Work was done. The coordination misstep between the architect that submitted something to your building department and not checking with the project civil engineer was again the blunder on the team’s fault. That I’ll defer to the construction official, but it’s not as if work was done without permits. Everything went in, permits were issued. It’s just there was a misstep between what was sent to the construction official’s office versus what this board approved, so that’s how that misstep occurred,” Paparo said.

Later in the meeting, Eric Mazzant of Harbor Freight Tools came to the Planning Board to address the operations questions from the August meeting.

Before voting, Chairperson William Olivo asked if anyone from the public wished to be heard.

The executive director of construction and facilities for Harbor Freight Tools Adam Steece apologized to the board.

“To say that this store built out for us has been a calamity. It’s been a calamity. We apologize on our behalf, our corporate partners and our company. I think along the way, the disconnect there were a lot of players in the game on approvals and you know it’s a little bit of learning from my team. The team I have been around 14 years, 1,250 stores across the United States.

Been to a lot of these meetings. So I just wanted to say thanks for working with us. We will make it right. We are committed to community and the employees and the people of this community, so just wanted to say thanks for letting us join you tonight. And if we knew we needed to be here last meeting, I would’ve been here,” he said.

Planning Board member Raymond Scipione made a motion to approve the amended site plan application with two C variances, seconded by Planning Board Member Michael Messina and the application was approved.

The motion was approved.

“Please don’t come back. Not that we don’t like you, but just move forward and just make sure everything’s right,” Olivo said.

Next, the Planning Board approved a resolution for Lisa Warren of Grand Street in Hammonton who was approved for a C variance relief in order to construct an in ground pool with a three feet wide concrete deck in the rear yard.

The next Planning Board meeting will be on September 18 at 7 p.m. at town hall.