By Emily Schopfer
MIDDLETOWN – For the third time, hearings have been canceled for a trio of 40-foot-tall, double-sided LED billboards proposed for Route 36 and Newman Springs Road in Middletown. The proposals were set to be heard at the 7 p.m. Middletown Planning Board meeting Nov. 4. The meeting was canceled via electronic notice from Middletown at 6:11 p.m. The cancellation was due to a “lack of quorum,” meaning there “were not enough planning board members available to conduct official business,” explained Tara Berson, communications director for Middletown Township.
“At this time, a new hearing date for the IAAT Services LED billboard applications has not been confirmed. Once a date is established, a new public notice will be issued, and the hearing will be included on the board’s publicly posted meeting agenda,” Berson said.
Each billboard has its own application, but all are proposed by one applicant, the New Jersey-based developer and real estate firm IAAT Services LLC. The applications were first scheduled to be heard July 1 by the planning board but were postponed to Sept. 2 by the applicant just minutes before the meeting started, with many of the public already in attendance. Just hours before the Sept. 2 meeting, the hearings were postponed again, this time to Nov. 4.
The proposed billboard locations are 981 Highway 36, Middletown (bordering Atlantic Highlands), outside Massari Motors; 220 Highway 36, behind the Eastpointe Shopping Plaza; and 329 Newman Springs Road (CR 520) in the Lincroft section of Middletown, bordering Red Bank.
The project is facing criticism for concerns about light pollution, potential traffic hazards and environmental impacts, specifically on migrating birds, as reported in The Two River Times, June 20.
This article originally appeared in the November 12-18, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
