Listen to the judge

Published in the Asbury Park Press 03/30/05

A judge has ordered the Middletown Planning Board to consider the proposal for a $150 million mixed-use "town center" development. A review of the application is long overdue. The five-year battle with township officials opposed to the project has already cost taxpayers more than $200,000 in legal fees.

Yet township attorneys appear to be further stonewalling, saying the board can't hear the application under the old zoning laws — though ordered to do so last week by Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson.

Last year, in an obvious attempt to derail the project, the Township Committee changed the zoning on the site to allow only age-restricted housing. The town center concept had been in the master plan since the early 1990s.

The project, scaled down from 1.5 million square feet to 1.2 million, would include a mix of office, retail and residential buildings in a picturesque turn-of-the-century "Main Street" design. Compared to the strip malls and big-box stores that clutter the entire length of Route 35, it would be a breath of fresh air.

Planning Board Attorney Lawrence Carton contends the board is "only authorized to operate under the law, and the law does not permit this zoning." Wrong. The judge told the board to consider the application under the laws that applied when it was submitted. That's perfectly reasonable.

Carton also said the board was being asked to "deal with a hypothetical situation." More balderdash. And Township Attorney Bernard Reilly questioned whether the developer could make changes to the 2003 plan to comply with state regulations and court rulings that came after it was submitted. Why not? If the township hadn't blocked the application, the developers wouldn't need to update it.

The developers — Mountain Hill Group, run by Joseph Azzolina Jr. and Philip Scaduto — have the right to build on their property. And the township has the right to fairly apply land-use regulations. That process should be played out now — before the Planning Board, not in the county courthouse.