Committee okays vision for redevelopment of North Middletown

By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Township Committee members have approved a conceptual redevelopment plan for North Middletown that they hope will attract developers to move the area toward a more desirable future.

Port Monmouth Road, as well as Bray and Ocean avenues, border the North Middletown Redevelopment Area.

“I think the issue is we’ve got to try to attract somebody to invest … and if we don’t have an ambitious start, I’m not sure the committee or the municipal government will be able to get somebody to make the investment in the property,” Committeeman Anthony Fiore said.

“We need to do whatever we can to attract developers.”

According to Fred Heyer, of Heyer, Gruel & Associates, the firm that developed the North Middletown Redevelopment Plan that the committee approved at its Nov. 16 meeting, the vision for this area of approximately 26,000 square feet is to create a three-story mixed use building featuring 20 townhouse and apartment residential units.

The site currently is occupied by several businesses, including a former gas station and a towing company.

Following the completion of the North Middletown Neighborhood Preservation Program in 2010, the area was designated as an “Area in Need of Redevelopment” in August 2014.

According to Heyer, the Arts and Crafts style of existing homes in the neighborhood provided inspiration for the design standards and concept for the plan.

Developers would be encouraged to utilize the Arts and Crafts style, building lowpitched roof lines with gabled or hipped roofs; double-hung windows with clerestory; hand-crafted stone or woodwork and other mixed materials throughout the structure.

According to Heyer, while the committee approved the concept plan for the site, the plan is not set in stone.

“While it should be noted that this plan has a lot of detail in it, a lot of renderings and a great deal of design standards, it is not the development plan for the site,” he said.

“This is not a site plan at this time, this is not a development approval, this is really an ordinance in a pictorial form that really represents an example of what could be developed.”

According to Heyer, a developer is still needed that is willing to build the concept plan, maybe with some changes, and the plan would ultimately be required to have the township’s Planning Board’s approval.

“What we are seeing here is a concept plan for developers to get a sense of what could possibly work here,” Committeeman Gerard Scharfenberger said.

According to Heyer, part of the redevelopment plan involves the creation of a walkable and pedestrian-friendly commercial environment with sidewalks and residential porches and stoops.

Heyer said the plan also takes into consideration North Middletown’s character.

“This piece of property is relatively small … and in terms of the development and design standards that were adopted, we’re looking at a possibility of mixed use,” he said.

“The key in the design standards that were established is keep as much of the building mass as close to Port Monmouth Road as possible and keep it away from the residential development that is nearby.”

Scharfenberger said he is looking forward to development of property he described as an eyesore.

“Overall I am very pleased to see this going forward,” Scharfenberger said. “This has been an eyesore for as long as I have been on the committee, and there were so many issues with this particular piece of property from sketchy ownership, contamination … and all these are really a faulthouse of problems that make it difficult to redevelop this area.”

“It will be interesting to the see the type of response we get from developers … and see where this goes … but one thing for sure, it couldn’t stay the way it was and it can’t stay the way it is now.

“I think if we all put our collective heads together, we can really make this a shining jewel in that area.”