To the Editor:
Middle Township’s master plan is being reexamined by a committee that is made up entirely of the Planning Board, with no general public members allowed. According to Anthony Anzelone, chairperson, additional members slow the process down.
At the January or February meeting, the Planning Board promised to keep the community up-to-date with their discussions on the proposed zone change contained in the plan that would ultimately allow a four-story hotel on a currently zoned “rural conservation” parcel.
My neighbors and I had a chance to speak to the board at this time. We spoke about the inappropriate site for the hotel and the impact of road safety, along with noise and light pollution to the neighborhood.
We tried to stress the negative environmental damage that would be done to this site and surrounding wetlands, but Anzelone wanted to hear nothing on this topic. He stated that was for the state Department of Environmental Protection to decide.
Why would a group of professionals not want all information to make a sound decision on this matter? Pictures are worth a thousand words. Google an aerial view of this parcel. This parcel, our neighborhood and surrounding water, woods, and marshes do not even closely resemble the properties way over in town center, and it is certainly not adjacent to any similar commercial properties, as stated in the original request for the variance by the owners’ attorney, in March 2019.
In fact, why would a group of investors buy this land in the first place if it was not properly zoned? If this zone is changed, as the board clearly wants to do, the property goes from being the most environmentally protected to the least protected, where anything goes.
Back in 2014, the Environmental Commission recommended no zone change for the purpose of another construction project.
Since COVID struck, many Planning Board meetings were canceled and those that were held were held via Zoom and consisted of variance applications.
No mention of the master plan reexamination was listed until Sept. 8. The agenda item did not include the term “master plan,” as promised by Anzelone for clarity of future agendas.
I have since learned that there was a discussion in September on this topic and that the proposed zone change was agreed upon by the board. I have requested the minutes from this meeting to verify this but have not received them.
Now, after all this time, the board and Middle Township Committee want to rush this plan through by the end of the year. So many things in our lives have been delayed, disrupted, or postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but not this.
When my neighbors and I tried to speak at the Planning Board meeting Oct. 13, we were not allowed, as it was only an “informal discussion.” We spoke at a previous meeting that was listed as “informal discussion,” so why not this meeting?
The Oct. 22 Planning Board meeting was canceled, and the matter will be brought before the public for discussion and vote by the board Nov. 10 at the Middle Township Performing Arts Center. The public has only one opportunity for input after all this time and the board has apparently already made up their mind.
My neighbors and I are not opposed to a hotel in Middle Township, which will bring more jobs to the local community. What we are opposed to is the proposed site.
This is not NIMBY (not in my backyard). This is about preserving and protecting our natural resources, as well as our own township officials being responsible and doing the right thing by their community.
