A proposed $100 million warehouse complex in Mansfield Township will bring about 700 jobs and thousands of dollars in tax revenue to the region, the project's developer says.

The Margolis Warehouse Distribution Facility is set to be built on 200 acres in the Burlington County community, in an area bounded by I-295, the New Jersey Turnpike, and Florence Road. The land has been zoned for warehouses since 1990.

"It's an ideal site because it has access to 295 and access and visibility from the New Jersey Turnpike," developer Alan Margolis said.

But to one neighbor and some conservationists, it's anything but an ideal site.

Andy Pritikin has owned the Liberty Lake Day Camp, next to the warehouse site, since 2002. Because the area has been zoned for warehouses for almost two decades, a development next door was perhaps inevitable.

But that has not made it any easier for Pritikin.

He said his camp, which provides activities such as swimming and rock climbing to 600 campers a day, relies on the natural beauty and perceived safety of the area.

"If this is built, you're going to have tractor-trailers coming in and out all day" a few hundred yards away, Pritikin said.

Margolis said his family and several partners bought the property as Avis Realty L.L.C. in 1968. They have waited to develop the land while the I-95 and I-295 corridor running from Maine to Florida was completed.

Bob Tallon, president of the Crafts Creek Spring Hill Brook Watershed Association, said paving over such a wide swath would impair the ability of aquifers to recharge and would lead to flooding.

The area of the proposed construction, he said, is one in which the state's groundwater reserves come closest to the surface. Rain would normally be absorbed by the soil and filter into reservoirs that are tapped by wells and wetlands throughout the state.

"All you need is the runoff from one or two inches of good rain to flood," he said.

Margolis said he was doing everything he could to protect the land. That includes building a 125-foot-long bridge that will cross Crafts Creek, which bisects the property, and minimize disruption to the wetland that borders the creek.

"We have no intention of trying to do anything that would hurt anybody," Margolis said. "We're not doing anything without the approval of the local government."

Township Business Administrator Joseph Broski said the developer had conformed to all local regulations. The project has received six of seven required permits from the Department of Environmental Protection.

"You have an unhappy neighbor," Broski said. "It's really just a squabble between the two."

Liberty Lake, which became a popular picnic area in the 1950s after a concrete dam was built along Crafts Creek, was grandfathered into the zoning laws as a recreational area.

When it became a day camp, Broski said, the new zoning had not officially been approved. But the township is working with Pritikin, who bought the camp from the Hamilton YMCA in 2002, to bring his business up to zoning standards.

"[The warehouses] are going to be a hard thing to fight," he said. "Margolis is fitting in with the zoning for his piece of land."

Margolis estimates there will be another 18 to 24 months before ground is broken on the project while he waits for the DEP to approve changes to the county wastewater management plan, as well as the complex's on-site treatment facility.

After final approval, he said, the four proposed warehouses will be built based on demand for the space. The facility could expand to 2 million square feet of space and contribute $135,000 annually in tax revenue to the area upon completion, according to the developer.

"Chances are," Margolis said, "this could be a 10-year project."

In the meantime, Pritikin is mounting a campaign to spread awareness about the development, which he said would "crush" his business.

"Nobody's going down to City Hall to complain because nobody knows about it," he said.

Sharon Bishop of Moorestown has started by sending a letter of protest to her congressman.

Her children have attended the camp since elementary school and now work there as two of the approximately 200 teenage counselors.

"The environment is magical," she said. "It feels like they're in the country without being too far away from home."

If the roar of truck engines and smell of diesel fumes become a part of that environment, Debbie Krouse will find someplace else to send her two children.

"I wouldn't feel safe sending them there anymore," she said.

Contact staff writer Wallace McKelvey at 856-779-3917 or wmckelvey@phillynews.com.