Middletown Merges Development Hearings

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Residential and Retail To Be Considered Together

By Joseph Sapia
MIDDLETOWN – When the township Planning Board resumes hearing the Route 35 Village proposal, it is to hear both the commercial and residential components.
So, at the next hearing on the matter – scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 7, at 6:30 p.m. at the municipal complex – the board will hear both the Shoppes at Middletown commercial aspect and the Oaks at Middletown residential component. Both are to be built on 118 acres basically bounded by Route 35 North, Kings Highway East, Carriage Drive and Kanes Lane.
Board Chairman John Deus announced consolidating the applications for the purpose of the Planning Board hearings at the Wednesday, June 15 meeting, when the board had the Shoppes at Middletown before it for the second time.
On 52 of the acres fronting Route 35, John Orrico/Village 35 LP of Purchase, New York, proposes to build the Shoppes – 338,455 square feet of commercial space, including retail, restaurant and movie theater space. On the rear 66 acres, or at the Carriage Drive end of the property, Toll Brothers of Horsham, Pennsylvania, wants to build the Oaks, a 350-townhouse complex – a breakdown of 280 units at market price and 70 units of government-designated affordable housing.
A way to avoid “mass confusion” and “be fair to the public and the board is to consolidate the two hearings,” Deus said. This way, for example, the board and public could hear each’s engineering, traffic, and other related components at the same time, Deus said.
“A consolidated hearing makes sense,” Board Attorney James H. Gorman said.
As it stands, the Oaks application, which was filed after the Shoppes proposal in recent weeks, was still under review by the township Planning and Community Development Department. But, barring anything unusual, the department was expected to deem the Oaks application complete in the coming days.
Outside of the June 15 meeting, members of the public raised concern about the development of the overall 118 acres, which is now a combination of some businesses and homes, but mostly woods and open land.
“I see no need for it,” said Joan Blankertz, who lives in the Oak Hill Road area. “There’s so much vacant (commercial space), all along Routes 35 (and) 36. And all the trees that’ll come down.”
“We don’t need another mega-mall when we have stores all empty,” said Dora Crisafulli, who lives in the nearby Middletown North development.
Crisafulli also raised traffic concerns.
“I think a big piece is the traffic,” said Phyllis Ronek, who lives in the nearby Kings Landing condominiums. “Kings Highway East, a beautiful, beautiful road now. Progress has to happen, but it has to happen the right way.”
With the development, traffic will avoid Route 35 and use the Twin Brooks Avenue area, said Diana Fallon, who lives in the area she worries will be impacted.
“That’s going to be a thoroughfare,” Fallon said.
“I’m not against the development of the property, I’m against the overdevelopment of the area,” said Frank Renales, who lives in Kings Landing.
Inside the meeting, Shoppes engineer Gerard Fitamant continued from the first hearing, laying out the commercial development plans. The public cannot give testimony until the appropriate time, but it was allowed to ask questions specific to what the applicant is presenting.
The 118 acres is owned by Mountain Hill LLC, or the local Azzolina-Scaduto family. Gary E. Fox, a lawyer representing Mountain Hill who has been attending the hearings, said his client is just trying to sell the property.
“We’re here because we agree with what’s going on (before the Planning Board),” Fox said.