Islamic Society Hearing Moved to June

Based on insufficient public notice, the public hearing for the proposed expansion of the on Red Hill Road has been carried to June 6.

Middletown Planning Board Attorney James Gorman told the applicant’s attorney, Allen Falk, that the notice provided by the Society to neighbors was insufficient, Planning/Zoning Secretary Debra Yuro said. The Islamic Society's attorney of record is Patrick Healy. Falk represented the firm at Wednesday's meeting.

The application calls for the its parking lot, adding 106 stalls, and build a 19,961-square-foot plaza with a two-story community center on neighboring property it purchased, at 502 Red Hill Road.

There are also plans for assorted site improvements, such as lighting, landscaping, storm water basins and a 50-foot-wide residential buffer. The owners are seeking a conditional use permit as well as a preliminary and final major site plan approval.

The conditional use component of the application is standard for a house of worship in a residential zone, Middletown Planner Jason Greenspan said. “It means that there are special standards with which they have to comply.” There is no such thing as a house of worship zone, he explained, so the conditional aspect of the application covers that use.

The Islamic Society site, in a residential zone, borders an office zone, Middletown Administrator Anthony Mercantante, the township’s former planner, said. “There is nothing unusual about houses of worship being in residential zones,” he added. “That’s where they usually are. You very rarely see a church or other house of worship on a highway. People forget that houses of worship are intended to be in or closer to neighborhoods. The idea is and always was for them to be relatively convenient for people to access or even walk to and from.”

Mercantante noted that Saint Catherine’s Church, a relatively large facility in Holmdel, is less than a mile away from the Islamic center.

The mosque, he said, is, however, “not in any kind of ‘walkable’ neighborhood. It’s not situated in a neighborhood, per se. That area is not very densely populated.”

Greenspan said that Middletown noticed roughly 10 property owners within the standard 200 feet, fulfilling the township requirement. The Islamic Society’s notice is what was deemed insufficient.

It is located near Garden State Parkway Exit 114 and sits adjacent to a now empty 300,000-square-foot office complex and next to an abandoned house. There are a few homes to the south of the Islamic Society’s center, right before Red Hill Road turns into Everett Road in Holmdel.

Mercantante noted that the application is not an unusual one for the township. “In fact, some of the most recent (expansion) applications that have come to the board in Middletown have been houses of worship in residential zones, such as St. Mary’s, CBA and the New Monmouth Baptist Church.”

For instance, he said, the , at the corner of Cherry Tree Farm, Tindall and Leonardville roads, in a neighborhood, added a large expansion with a gymnasium a few years ago.

The Islamic Society of Monmouth County has been at the Red Hill Road site since the late 1990s, Greenspan said.

“You can’t get an accurate, legitimate gauge on public response to any application until it gets an official airing in a public forum when it is heard by the board and testimony is given,” he added. “Until then, anything heard (out of the official hearing context) is just speculation. We’ll see what happens in June.”

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