August 20, 2018 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

It has been a week now since the Middletown Township Committee all voted to accept the Planning Board recommendation that the Circus Liquors Redevelopment Plan conformed to the Township Master Plan.

The meeting started a few minutes late and took a different turn from the normal flow of past meetings, due to the volume of residents present. There were six proclamations read into the record, where each one would have been presented individually. After unanimous approval of meeting minutes, some dating back to before some Committee members were not on the Committee, the public hearing on the Circus Liquors Redevelopment Plan commenced.

Residents that wanted to address the Township Committee were asked to sign in before the meeting began, though this was not required. Each person was allowed to speak as long as they wanted and this continued until about 1am, about 4-1/2 hours. Many asked about the process in which a decision was to be derived. Many, many more expressed the need for such a development. Some questioned specific aspects of the development. These people were told that those types of questions were to be held until the Planning Board begins site plan hearings.

The previous plan presented by the developer included 350,000sq.ft. of retail space and 350 townhouse units, 70 of which would be affordable units. The planner contracted by the Township presented a plan that included 400,000sq.ft of retail space and 400 townhouse units, 80 which would be affordable. These plans are very similar in nature and graphics presented during the meeting were practically identical to those which the developer previously presented.

This video runs about 5hrs. and as I stated previously, about the first 4-1/2 hrs. is the public hearing on this project. The remainder portion of the video is of the Township Committee conducting the business of the town. A number of ordinances were introduced which included an amendment to a bond ordinance that was adopted during the July meeting, two ordinances that exchanged parcels of land for easements within the Bamm Hollow development and one that would establish death benefits for EMS volunteers. The video of this meeting can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/wARCkwXIEWM. To view all of the agendas, ordinances and resolutions acted upon go to: https://archive.org/details/82018TCBusiness.