According to the Independent there is a planned development of 245 multi-family units being proposed by developer American Properties. This development would be located near Taylor Lane in the northwest section of Middletown and to no ones surprise, the residents in the area are fighting it.
Of all the meetings that take place during the month here in Middletown, the Planning Board meeting is the least likely meeting you'll ever see me at. They are long, boring and tedious affairs that just seem to drone on and on. Often if you attend one of theses meetings for a specific case, quite often the case you came to lend your support or opposition to is pushed off until the next or later meeting. Therefore, not much useful information ever comes out of these meetings unless there is some kind of controversy brewing or about to brew.
This is going to be an interesting story to keep and eye on. As everyone pretty well knows, Middletown is nearly built out and the days of constructing housing developments of 20 or 30 homes in a given area are gone. With the need to provide affordable housing and a lack of open, buildable land, real estate is at a premium in town, big multi-family unit developments are the only feasible alternative that developers have.
Residents can hire attorneys to fight urban sprawl and win, all you need to do is see what the citizens group SONIC and the Lincroft Village Green Association were able to do in their fight against Four Ponds Center Associates and the 340 housing units that had been proposed for the old AVAYA site on Middletown-Lincroft Road. They won the battle this go around when the Planning Board, earlier this year turned down Four Ponds application but the war isn't over, Four Ponds has gone to court to appeal the denial.
There really is no good solution to any of this but before tens of thousands of dollars are spent trying to fight this new development, it would be nice if the builders could get together with residents and the town to work out some type of plan that would be beneficial to all partys involved before all that money and tax dollars are is wasted attempting to fight the inevitable
2 comments:
It's too bad the Township rezoned this farm for high density housing years ago. Like all of the other farm land in Middletown, it has gone by the wayside only to have more homes planted on it.
If they would just build what is around it and make it look like it fits, no one would cry foul. Some people keep getting the notion that we need high density housing. There is plenty of houses for sale in middletown.
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