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Planners
go back to drawing board
A new
Middletown master plan ordered
September 15,
2004
Asbury Park
Press
Middletown –
The Planning Board started working from scratch last night on
the new master plan ordered by the court after the previous
proposal was overturned because of a conflict involving the
proposed town center property.
None of the
research compiled during a year’s worth of work on the 2003
master plan will be used to create a new document to guide
growth in the township, Planning Board Attorney Lawrence Carton
said last night.
Monmouth County
Assignment Judge Lawrence M. Lawson ruled in July the master
plan must be rescinded because four Planning Board members
belonged to a neighborhood group that actively opposed the town
center.
Lawson had said
Planning Board Chairwoman Judith Stanley Coleman and board
members Mary Lou Strong, Ann Prewitt and Candace Cade could not
participate in revising the master plan because they are members
of the Riverside Drive homeowners association.
The association
was represented by an attorney at all Board of Adjustment
hearings on the town center in opposition to the mixed-use
project.
None of the
four members were present during the meeting last night.
Planning Board member John Deus led the meeting.
When a
reference was made to the master plan adopted last year,
Planning Board member William Warters said: “Instead of the
newly adopted master plan, it should read the newly eliminated
master plan.”
Township
planners had the 1993 master plan recently corded on a disk and
have been making changes to that document, Carton said.
The Mountain
Hill Group, run by Joseph Azzolina, Jr. and former Board of
Education President Philip Scaduto, has been engaged in a
three-year battle with the township seeking approval for the
$150 million Town Square at Middletown. The commercial and
residential development would span 137 acres on Route 35 between
Kanes Lane and Kings Highway East.
The master plan
that was overturned in court recommended that age-restricted
housing be built on part of the tract. The Board began
reviewing the recreation, open space and conservation elements
of the master plan last night. Warters said the new master plan
should recommend the township increase its open-space tax in
order to acquire more property.
Mercantante
also suggested the master plan recommended the township enter
into a public private partnership to build a recreation favility
with an ice skating rink and swimming pool.
The Planning
Board will hold another workshop meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 22.
The Board is expected to review the land-use section of the
master plan, which could include the town center zoning.
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