The owner of a 1,000‑acre former munitions plant in Roxbury is suing the township, claiming a new ordinance will make it harder to redevelop the property.
Hercules LLC, which owns the land known as the Kenvil site, filed a complaint in Superior Court asking a judge to overturn an ordinance the township council adopted last fall.
The law notified the New Jersey Highlands Council that Roxbury Township intended to enter “Plan Conformance,” a voluntary process in which a municipality agrees to align its zoning and planning rules with the regional Highlands master plan.
The Highlands Council, a state agency created to oversee development and protect drinking water in the region, can impose more stringent land‑use restrictions in areas designated as the Highlands Preservation Area.
Hercules argues the new ordinance effectively shifts parts of Roxbury — including its property — from the more flexible Highlands Planning Area into the stricter Preservation Area, limiting how the site can be cleaned up and eventually redeveloped.
Hercules and its predecessors have owned the 1,000 acres for more than 150 years. The property once housed the flagship facility of the Hercules Powder Co., which produced dynamite, explosives and propellants.
The plant operated from 1871 until 1996.
According to the lawsuit, the company demolished more than 300 structures and removed over 1 million square feet of paving and concrete between 1996 and 2005, working with the state Department of Environmental Protection and licensed remediation professionals.
Between 2018 and 2021, the DEP approved several remediation plans that Hercules is currently carrying out.
Town planning documents previously identified the Kenvil property as a redevelopment opportunity.
The township’s 2000 Master Plan listed uses such as offices, limited industrial operations, hotels, conference centers and service businesses. Roxbury again highlighted the site for redevelopment in 2004 and 2017 because of its proximity to transit and major highways.
The new Highlands ordinance, the company says, “now limits the remedies available to Hercules in its ultimate remediation and redevelopment of the Kenvil property.”
The filing argues the change will increase cleanup costs and place “a further burden solely on Hercules without any corresponding public benefit.”
“Hercules has been working cooperatively with the Township of Roxbury since the mid‑1990s on various remediation and redevelopment efforts for its approximately 1,000‑acre property,” spokesperson Carolmarie C. Brown said.
Brown added that the ordinance “has created new and excessive restraints for Hercules and goes beyond reasonable limitations on development, creating a burden on Hercules’ township property interests.”
Brown said that the company still hopes to resolve the issue without further litigation.
The lawsuit claims the township failed to individually notify nearby property owners of the zoning change and improperly bypassed the Planning Board, which is supposed to review all land‑use ordinances.
The Roxbury Township Council, the Planning Board and the township itself are named as defendants. The township attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.