Last November, a central New Jersey developer announced a plan to build three warehouses on nearly two million square feet of farmland in Pilesgrove, Salem County.
Reacting as if they were being invaded, residents of this township of 4,000 executed a grassroots counterattack.
Within a week, they’d organized a leadership team, created a Go Fund Me site and a Facebook page, hired a lawyer, and distributed 1,600 fliers urging people to attend a planning board meeting at which the developer would request a zoning variance for the desired land along rural Auburn Road.
