Middle Township to Discuss Amendment to Gravel Pit Ordinance

COURT HOUSE- Middle Township officials are holding a meeting to discuss a requested amendment to its ordinance regulating gravel pits. The meeting will be held on Monday, August 19th, at 4:00pm inside the Middle Township courtroom located at 33 Mechanic Street in Cape May Court House. The public is invited to attend the meeting.
The township has been approached to amend the ordinance to permit digging to a depth of 60 feet at a gravel pit. Currently, the township permits digging to a depth of 30 feet. The request for the change in the ordinance has been made by Donald Rogers, Inc. which owns a gravel pit located on Indian Trail Road. The request is made as a result of a major redesign of the Garden State Parkway in Middle Township which will eliminate traffic signals at interchanges 9, 10, and 11.
R.E. Pierson Construction Company is the contractor for the Garden State Parkway improvement project and has an affiliation with Donald Rogers, Inc. R.E. Pierson will need a considerable amount of fill material in order to construct the overpasses to allow for the elimination of traffic signals at three intersections. The township is being asked to permit digging to a depth of 60 feet in order to allow the fill material to be extracted locally.
Discussion at the meeting is expected to focus on the potential benefits to Middle Township if the ordinance is amended. If additional material is mined locally, additional heavy truck volume that could disrupt local communities and disturb Middle Township roadways may be eliminated. An amendment would also bring Middle Township into consistency with mining depths currently allowable in other neighboring communities. Dennis Township, Upper Township, and mining operations located in the environmentally-sensitive Pinelands Management Plan all currently allow mining depths of 65 feet.
For more information, please visit www.middletownship.com.