Avaya Site Development Hearing Postponed

If you were planning on attending the Middletown Planning Board meeting tomorrow because you’re following, battling or siding with the controversial proposed at the site of the former Avaya offices on Middletown-Lincroft Road, your schedule has been altered.

The development company that has the plan before the board, Four Ponds Center Associates, has "requested that the Planning Board postpone its hearing to its July 6 meeting," Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore told Middletown Patch today.

"I got a call from Deputy Mayor Pam Brightbill, who is the Township Committee representative sitting on the board," the mayor added. "She had been notified by Rick Brodsky (Ansell, Grimm and Aaron attorney representing the developer) of the change in the agenda."

Fiore said Brodsky offered Brightbill no explanation for the change in plans. And the mayor said that he just wanted to make sure, considering the popularity of the issue, that hundreds of people didn’t unnecessarily gather at the board meeting tomorrow evening to find there would be no hearing. Hundreds showed up at the first meeting on the issue earlier this month.

The developer’s plans to build 324 new housing units on the 62-acre site have caused a stir among residents, especially those neighboring the site in the Lincroft section of the township. The residents are rallying against it because they say it has no redeeming neighborhood qualities befitting the area. They claim the strain on the school system, infrastructure and neighborhood "character" is too much to bear. 

The plan is in conformance with all current township zoning parameters. No variances are being sought. It also calls for roughly 68 affordable housing units, in compliance with the state’s Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) mandates.

That is a component that neighbors have expressed they dislike as well. COAH requires that municipalities throughout the state contribute their “fair share” of new affordable housing so that home ownership and rentals is not skewed to cater to only those who can afford high priced homes and apartments.

This development proposes two- and three-bedroom "flats" that would be deemed affordable according to state rule. Lincroft Village Green Association members, in particular, have said they feel that the affordable units are akin to row housing in urban areas, which destroys neighborhood "character."

Township officials have fought adhering to what they’ve called "archaic" COAH rules and lost. They say that there is plenty of existing affordable housing throughout the township and no need to build more. The proposed development for the former Avaya site, they say, is the best of the worst compromises. Yet, Fiore says he and other officials will continue to fight it, as, he said, the township should not be built out to the max only because it is large.

COAH housing, officilas have argued, has cost the township too much money in legal suits and taxpayer burden. The additional population, in general, they say,  will require costly municipal services and education costs.

Most of the units in this proposed development are not affordable.  Lincroft Village Green members also have a problem with the overall project, claiming it just doesn't fit in.

Check the township's Web site for updates.