Danielle George - All Headline News Staff Reporter

PENNSVILLE, N.J. (AHN)- A new billboard greeting people entering New Jersey over the Delaware Memorial Bridge slams the state's business climate.

"Welcome to New Jersey. A horrible place to do business," reads the billboard message. William Juliano, whose company is based in Mount Laurel, makes his feelings clear in the third of the four sentences on the cryptic billboard, which he put up just in time for the Memorial Day weekend: "DEP nightmare state."

Juliano planned to build a truck stop after a previous owner received state approval for it in 1985. But the state now says the land is in a wetlands area and is unsuitable for either a truck stop or a Home Depot, which Juliano proposed building there last year.

"They (state officials) are antibusiness," he said. "And the state is run by environmentalists." DEP officials say Juliano's anger is misplaced. The agency, after all, has approved four of Juliano's projects over the last three years -- each in under seven months.

"I think that he came to the mistaken belief that he had a personal and perpetual exemption from the wetlands laws," Environmental Protection chief Bradley Campbell said. Juliano says the billboard will stay until the DEP makes changes.