The Federal Reserve asked Warren for a variance to keep its trash inside, and got it
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York needed relief from Board of Health Ordinance BH:7-5(c) to put a 3,500 square foot waste room inside its building at 15 Mountainview Road. The stated reason is security.
At its January 14, 2026 reorganization meeting, the Warren Township Board of Health approved a variance letting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York store solid waste inside its building at 15 Mountainview Road, Block 8, Lots 2 and 3. Board of Health Ordinance BH:7-5(c) requires trash facilities to be outside the building. The Bank's attorney said the reason for the request is security, so that nobody attempts to access the trash. The variance passed by unanimous voice vote and was memorialized as Resolution 2026-5.
Most Board of Health variances are about septic systems or a restaurant grease trap. This one is about a central bank not wanting its garbage sitting in a parking lot.
What was asked for
Case 1 on the January 14 agenda was an application by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for 15 Mountainview Road, Block 8, Lots 2 and 3, the former Chubb site. The Bank sought a variance from Board of Health Ordinance BH:7-5(c), which requires trash facilities to be located outside the building.
Attorney Kate Coffey presented the reasoning. She told the Board the Bank wanted interior trash storage for security reasons, so that no one would, in her words, "attempt to access the trash, thinking that discontinued currency or state secrets will be found."
That is an unusual sentence to find in a municipal health board record, and it is also a straightforward statement of the problem. An exterior dumpster at a Federal Reserve facility is an access point. An interior waste room behind the building envelope is not.
The engineering
Andrew Smith, P.E., Senior Project Manager at Langan, gave the technical testimony. The specifics as recorded:
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Building size | Roughly 400,000 gross square feet |
| Waste room | 3,500 square feet, interior |
| Access | Overhead door |
| Systems | Ventilation, floor drainage, hose bib |
| Collection | Private hauler, once daily, Monday through Friday |
| Site area | Roughly 118 acres |
| Plan date | 01/17/2025, last updated 12/12/25 |
The daily private pickup is the part that answers the health objection. The ordinance requirement for exterior trash facilities exists because interior storage can mean accumulation, odor and pests. A dedicated ventilated and drained room with a hose bib and a five day a week haul schedule addresses those concerns through operations rather than through location.
The vote
The Board approved the variance by unanimous voice vote and memorialized it as Resolution 2026-5. Voice votes do not produce a member by member tally in the record, so I cannot report individual positions.
For scale
The building is roughly 400,000 gross square feet on roughly 118 acres, and the waste room by itself is 3,500 square feet. That is the correct way to think about the Mountainview Road site generally. It operates at a scale unlike anything else in the township, and the ordinances Warren wrote for ordinary commercial buildings do not always fit it cleanly. This variance is one instance of that mismatch, and the record here does not tell you whether there will be others.
The rest of a busy reorganization
The Board met at 6 p.m. in the 2nd Floor Conference Room of the Municipal Building and adjourned at 7:12 p.m. Three other items are worth recording.
Health Officer Kevin Sumner reported school age vaccine compliance in the mid-90 percent range, and said flu activity was tapering after a high period around the holidays.
Board Treasurer Riley reported that Warren Township's 2026 share of the Middle-Brook Regional Health Commission budget is $170,542.00. Warren does not run a standalone health department. It participates in a regional commission, and that line is what the arrangement costs the township this year.
Three new Board members were welcomed: McCarey, Patel and Prabhakar. McCarey was sworn in as a Township Committeeman eight days earlier, so he is picking up health board service in his first month.
The next Board of Health meeting was set for March 11, 2026.
The minutes record the vaccine compliance figure as a range in the mid-90 percent band rather than a precise number, so I have not published a specific percentage. The record also does not state a construction schedule or occupancy date for the Mountainview Road building, and this Board of Health variance is separate from any site plan action by the Planning Board. Do not read one as approval of the other.
Why a small variance is worth reading
Warren has two land use boards and a Board of Health, and applicants often need more than one of them. A project can hold site plan approval and still need relief from a health ordinance written decades earlier for a different kind of building. The Federal Reserve application is a clean example, which is the reason to keep an eye on Board of Health agendas even when the headline projects are being argued elsewhere.
The next chance to see that calendar is March 11.
- Township of Warren, Board of Health Reorganization Meeting Minutes, January 14, 2026. https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_01142026-946
John Mangini
Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier
Warren Township resident and full time broker, serving clients since 1999. Warren 07059 is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above.
