Town Square lands major court victory

The Courier 3/24/05

Mountain Hill Group LLC has been at odds with various bodies from Middletown Township since 2000, when the project was first proposed.

The Town Square at Middletown project involves 138 acres of real estate located along Route 35, in Middletown . Originally, when the Middletown Committee approved of the “town center concept” in its 1993 master plan, the area for the project was supposed to remain at 85 acres. However, when the concept as proposed by Mountain Hill in 2000, the group was seeking to develop the Town Square at Middletown on 138 acres.

After opposition to the project from the Concerned Citizens of Middletown , a local anti-development group, the Middletown Committee quickly took a position on the proposed project. Most members of the Middletown Committee railed against the project. The Middletown Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected an application for the project about two years ago. The first application was stuck in bureaucratic limbo at the zoning board when Mountain Hill filed more applications requesting the plan be reviewed by the Middletown Planning Board.

In April 2004, the Township Committee changed the zoning for the tracts of land involved in the project. With the current ruling, the Middletown Planning Board has been ordered to begin hearing the application for the Town Square project after more than a year. A controversy for five years?

MODEL TOWN ? A scale model of the project is on display at Spirits Unlimited, 855 Route 35, Middletown.