COURT HOUSE – The Middle Township Planning Board hoped to have a public hearing on the master plan reexamination in April, but the pandemic scuttled those plans.
After waiting several months for the state to relax restrictions on indoor gatherings, the board decided to hold the hearing Nov. 10.
With restrictions in place, relocating the hearing to the Performing Arts Center (PAC), 212 Bayberry Dr., Court House, will allow social distance seating of “about 100 people,” according to Mayor Timothy Donohue, speaking at the Oct. 19 Middle Township Committee meeting. Donohue said that the municipality waited because “we did not want to do this as a Zoom meeting.”
The master plan changes must be adopted by the end of the year, so waiting was no longer an option. Donohue said the shift in location to the PAC should allow for public participation in a safe environment. The meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
The plan will contain several recommendations for zoning changes. Among those will be a recommendation on a zoning change for a parcel off the entrance ramp to the Garden State Parkway, at Exit 10.
That location is one where a developer is seeking to construct a hotel. The intended use of the property was opposed by property owners who live in a neighborhood directly behind the proposed construction area.
