By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN — A special meeting of the township Planning Board saw officials decide to consolidate hearings on applications to build a 340,000-square-foot commercial development and 350 residential units on land along Kings Highway East, Route 35 North and Kanes Lane.
“The board has come to a decision [and] we are going to consolidate [the retail] application as well as [the residential application],” Chairman John Deus said at a special Planning Board meeting June 15.
At their regularly scheduled meeting June 1, the board began hearing testimony on an application filed by Village 35 LP, of Purchase, New York, to develop 340,000 square feet of commercial space on about 52 acres of a 120-acre tract on Route 35 between Kings Highway and Kanes Lane.
During that meeting, Board Attorney James Gorman mentioned Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers filed a separate application to build approximately 350 residential units behind the proposed “Shoppes at Middletown” center the Friday before Memorial Day.
“The Toll Brothers [application] is in the process of being deemed complete,” Deus said. “Hopefully, they will be deemed complete within the timeframe of August.”
The decision allows the Toll Brothers residential application to catch up to the status of the commercial application and be properly reviewed by professionals, and once that is complete the two proposals can then be evaluated as one.
“… This is such a huge project that the only way to be fair, not only to the public, but to the board as well, is to consolidate the two hearings … to keep track of what is going on, who is saying what when, etc.,” Deus said.
“[What] we are trying to do … [is help] the public [and] quite frankly the board make sense of this … and [avoid] mass confusion.”
At the June 15 meeting, Gorman said some confusion among board and community members alike comes from figuring out what can be discussed by the plethora of professionals for both applications, due to the fact that the projects are closely related, but tackle several different areas.
“There was a consensus from the board members that there was a process to be maintained and that a consolidated hearing makes the most sense,” he said.
“This issue is not something that just came up. The board chair, myself, [Township Administrator Anthony] Mercantante, [Director of Planning Sanyogita S.] Chavan met back in March and I sent a letter out saying … this is going to be a problem and asked how are we going to handle this because we didn’t want to have two applications pending at the same time, it’s too confusing.
“So after discussions … I sent a letter saying this is the way the board thinks it should proceed — one hearing at a time … or combine them and make it a consolidated hearing, and the response back from both applicants was no response to that letter.
“The Toll Brothers application was submitted the Friday before Memorial Day, and the board met right after on that Wednesday and questions came up from the public about ‘Why can’t we talk about this?’ or ‘Why isn’t Toll Brothers being considered?’ and they are good questions.
“This, in my opinion, should be consolidated so that there can be a comprehensive review, then questions can be answered … I can’t imagine having two hearings by this board, parallel hearings, one for Toll Brothers, one for National Reality, it’s too confusing, it’s too time-consuming, it’s inefficient, it is just not going to work….”
Following the announcement of the consolidated hearings, the June 15 meeting saw the continued testimony of Gerard Fitamant, associate at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, for the Village 35 LP application.
“We will finish with your engineer’s testimony — the public and any board members can cross-examine the engineer and then we will carry the whole thing to the Sept. 7 meeting,” Deus said.
The idea for the September meeting then would be, if the Toll Brothers application is ready for a public hearing, to hear from their engineer and then continue from there, hearing from both applicants’ architects, traffic engineers, developers and so on.
“This board wants to ensure that the public and the board will hear both [sides] one after the other … so the board and the general public can make comments on it together,” Township Committee member Kevin Settembrino said. “The board and general public should be able to hear both applications simultaneously and understand both together.”
According to commercial developer National Realty & Development Corporation, the “Shoppes at Middletown” site is proposed to feature a specialty grocery store, upscale retailers, restaurants and shops, a luxury cinema with a dine-in theater experience and nearly 2,000 parking spaces.
The Village 35 LP is seeking preliminary and final major subdivision and site plan approval.
The residential portion of the project is proposed to consist of 350 total housing units, including 70 affordable housing units.
A final decision on the applications and projects would all depend on how hearings go.
According to Paul Phillips, managing principal at Phillips, Preiss and Grygie, the development of the property, currently owned by local company Mountain Hill LLC, goes back more than a decade. A litigation settlement from 2009 allows the applicant to build as many as 540 residential units and 625,000 square feet of commercial space.
The next meeting of the Planning Board dedicated to these applications will take place Sept. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.