MIDDLETOWN – Outdoor seating is a hot commodity during the summer season. A new retail development in the middle of Route 35 will provide patio areas – sandwiched between two sides of the highway.
At a June 7 Middletown Planning Board meeting, Frontier Development gained approval, pending an environmental study, to demolish a dilapidated gardening center located on Route 35’s traffic island and construct a retail building.
The new development will include a one-story, 5,040 square-foot building designed for two to three tenants. Additionally, the building will have 34 parking spaces, a loading zone, drainage, landscaping and lighting.
“We are providing a more efficient, effective, and safer layout of the property than what currently exists today,” said Daniel McSweeney, a professional planner who worked on the project.
The property is neighbored by a Dunkin’ Donuts, a BP gas station, and a Liberty Travel agency, and is just outside the border of the proposed Village 35 retail development center currently under review by the township Planning Board.
Rick Brodsky, the attorney representing Frontier, said there are no prospective tenants yet for the new building.
The developers are required to gain permits from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in order to begin their project. This includes providing environmental samples of the soil to ensure that the space is safe to build on.
The samples will either be approved or denied before the next board meeting set for July 12.
One of the main environmental concerns revolves around pesticides in the soil because the land was previously a gardening center. Another chief concern is that the stream culvert is undersized and unable to handle any more runoff. This issue is coupled with the fact that this portion of Route 35 floods easily.
To combat the drainage, Robert Strecker of Bohler Engineering, who worked on the site plan, said the company will be putting a storm water system on the site.
That system “catches the initial runoff, holds it, and releases it at a slow rate into the adjacent DOT (Department of Transportation) roadway system,” he said.
In regard to the system’s design, additional approvals from the DEP are needed.
Problems surrounding this project do not stop at the environmental level, though. The traffic island has proven to be a dangerous place for drivers, said Middletown resident Monica Manning.
She voiced concerns about entering the island from Route 35, or blindly darting out to exit the island, hoping not to be involved in a car accident.
Scott Kennel, a traffic expert with McDonough and Rea Associates, estimates the development will handle around 40 vehicles during peak daytime hours, and 60 vehicles on a Saturday at peak hours. This influx of traffic is a major concern of Middletown residents.
“I see a risk with young people not wanting to deal with the loop,” and cutting across the island to get from one side of Route 35 to the other, said Middletown resident Pauline Hynes.
Safety issues include drivers cutting across the highway through the gardening center, in order to bypass the jughandles on both the northbound and southbound sides of Route 35.
“It is a concern, I have to say, that the stores you might be putting in here would attract young drivers to this ‘hazard island’ here,” said Manning, president of Minding Middletown, a local group aiming to stop the possible Village 35 project. “People that live here are very concerned about that.”
Strecker said he heard those concerns and assured residents a solution exists. He explained the planners have worked extensively with both the DOT and township fire officials to make the property as accessible as possible.
He also said that a shoulder will be added to the northbound side of Route 35. A 12.5 foot-wide shoulder now exists on the southbound side.
“It will be a means for people to decelerate and enter the property in a safe manner,” Strecker said.
While these safety precautions may seem beneficial to residents, they are quite sure that this retail development is not something that they need, or want.
“The total effect of what’s going on up and down Route 35 is frightening to the residents of Middletown,” Hynes said.
This article was first published in the June 15-June 22, 2017 print edition of The Two River Times.
