December 6, 2016 Rt 36 Development Forum in Middletown

Middletown held a public forum on December 6th to discuss plans for the potential redevelopment of Rt.36. The Township hired Maser Engineering to study how the Rt. 36 corridor could be developed. Part of this study is to obtain input from the public. This video explains some of the work that Maser has done and what they hope to achieve with the input that was obtained during this meeting.

The Two River Times ran a story on this last week.

October 24, 2016 Belford Redevelopment Forum

On Oct. 24th Middletown held a public information session concerning the redevelopment of the Port of Belford. After the presentation, engineering firm, T&M, asked for input concerning the project from direct stakeholders in the Belford area.

This purpose of this meeting was to obtain input from the general public.

Nutswamp School To Be Site of New Artificial Field, Not Thompson

A number of weeks back the Township announce that it had entered into an agreement with the Middletown Board of Eduction(BOE) and would bond for $1.5M to build an artificial turf field at Thompson Middle School and another natural grass field would be built at a yet to be disclosed location.

At the BOE budget presentation meeting back in March (I believe), it was discussed at length about how the field would be built at Thompson and how the location was the best place for it. The Township Committee has also stated at its meetings that the field would be located at Thompson School.

Apparently sometime last month, a decision was made to relocate this project. The field will not be built at Thompson School, as originally publicised. An announcement to accept bids on the project, now calling for the field to be built at Nutswamp School, across the street from Thompson, was published in the Asbury Park Press last week.

This doesn't appear to be a logical decision. Parking is rather limited at Nutswamp Elementary School and parents will now have to park at Thompson School and cross Middletown-Lincroft Road in order to get to Nutswamp School. Whereas Thompson School is a good location for this facility, it has lots of parking and the middle school can utilize the field during physical education classes.

When you look back on page 123 of the Township's Recreational Master Plan (which cost the township a boat load of money to produce) Nutswamp School was ranked as 6th best location in the township to construct a field of this type, 3 rankings lower than Thompson. The Master Plan made note of the fact that there wasn't sufficient room at this site to support a field due to lack of parking; It was a major drawback.

Given the redevelopment that will  soon begin at Bamm Hollow Country Club, where 190 homes will be constructed and potentially 342 more at the Avaya property and the fact that the schools in Lincroft will need to be expanded to accommodate the increase of students. I am quite sure that our BOE has taken all this into consideration when the decision to locate the artificial turf field at Nutswamp School was made.

NOT

Before Moving Forward With Avaya Redevelopment, New Traffic Study Needed

Once again on tonight’s agenda for the Middletown Planning Board is a continuation of the public hearing concerning the controversial Four Ponds (Avaya) Redevelopment plan. Tonight’s meeting will be the 5th such hearing on the redevelopment plan that, if allowed to move forward, will approve the building of 342 high density housing units (270 townhouses and 72 apartments) in Lincroft.

Since the first Planning Board hearing on this issue took place back on May 4th , these meeting have been extremely well attended and have filled the Middletown Court Room (where the meetings are held) with area residents expressing their disapproval of this planned high density, residential redevelopment of the former Avaya industrial site. The main concern of these residents isn’t so much about the number of homes being built as it is about the traffic and safety concerns that need to be properly addressed on the local roads as a result of these homes being built.

The roads over in the Lincroft area are already congested and often impassable during the rush hour or when Brookdale Community College is in session; the intersection that comprises Newman Springs Rd/520, Middletown Lincroft Rd and Swimming River Rd is a nightmare and getting into and out of the shopping centers that surround this intersection is nearly impossible at times. West Front St won’t be easy to navigate around either once residential cars from the redevelopment start to pour out of the back entrance of the site and onto the road.

Safety concerns for area residents are valid especially when you factor in "cut-through" streets like Turnberry, Whispering Pines, Jumping Brook, Hillside; cars looking to avoid the congestion of the main roads will no doubt filter through the side streets looking for short-cuts around the traffic. Pedestrians and other vehicles parked on these residential streets will be placed at a higher risk for harm which does not exist now.

That’s why when at the last Planning Board meeting held on August 3rd, Traffic Engineer John Rea presented to the board the results of a traffic study that was completed during March last year, residents were right to question its’ validity.

According to the Brookdale College 2010 academic calendar spring break was held during this time and campus activities were limited, so a representative study wasn’t possible. Rea went on to state that there was a follow up traffic study completed during the week of May 16th 2011 to show that traffic didn't change much.

Coincidentally however, the Brookdale Community College spring semester ended the week before and Christian Bother’s Academy had a shortened academic week and held graduation during this time period. So again, the validity of this follow up traffic study was in question.

Based on this information, I would think that another, more representative study should be completed by a third party before further discussions on the redevelopment of the Avaya site proceeds.

A new study needs to be completed that includes the areas from the intersections of 520/Half Mile Rd, 520/Middletown Lincroft Rd and future developments west of Garden State Parkway. Surrounding areas and planned developments (Bamm Hollow) need to be included and thought out to show the real impact on the community. The study should be done at the peak of traffic season, possible during the 2nd week of October, when the fall session is in full swing at Brookdale for example, to ensure that a true representative sample of traffic conditions are taken. In addition another study should be done during a weekend when residents are home and out shopping to show what the difference in traffic conditions would be. These studies should be done to provide data for a worse-case scenario and provide plans to mitigate traffic increases during peak times.

Before moving forward with this redevelopment of the Avaya site, the Planning Board needs to make sure that a true, accurate and representative traffic study is performed that will take into consideration the concerns of Lincroft and other area residents. This new study should be done by a firm mutually agreed to by Four Ponds Developers, Middletown and the residents that are fighting the planned redevelopment of Avaya, with the costs of the new traffic study being split between the three.