A proposal to develop property near Diamond Nation in Raritan Township. (Google Males/Canva)
Does it feel like New Jersey is rapidly becoming a wasteland of warehouses and storage facilities and not much more? That's hyperbolic, of course, but there's certainly a germ of truth to it.
A sports complex in Hunterdon County is looking for some changes and it's not a new mascot or fresh uniforms. It's storage units. A whole bunch of them.
Diamond Nation in Raritan Township is an impressive sight. It is the largest turf baseball complex in the United States. It has five 90-foot baseball diamonds and also two youth fields. There's even an indoor training facility, which is state-of-the-art.
Living here, I've passed the complex many times and it is a striking operation. Each year, more than 3,000 teams play here with 45,000 participants.
No, it's not being torn down in favor of a gigantic self-storage facility. This would be a much bigger story if it were.
What they're doing is looking to use a lot across the street they now use for overflow parking and turn that land into a three-story storage facility. It's an almost 5-acre tract that would require some variances granted by the township.
The proposed self-storage facility would be larger than 126,000 square feet.
Diamond Nation gets so busy on weekends that I couldn't imagine how they could get by without that overflow parking area. But I trust they know what they're doing. They've been part of the community since 2009.
Their proposal has been submitted to the Planning Board but no public hearing date has been scheduled.