Judge sides with township in town center lawsuit Rules committee's decision to rezone tract was proper BY DAN NEWMAN Staff Writer "This was a long-awaited decision and one which issupported by the majority ofresidents in Middletown." - Thomas Hall Mayor MIDDLETOWN - In the latest - and officials hope final - chapter of Mountain Hill LLC's bid to build a 137-acre town center, a judge has upheld the township's decision to rezone an 87-acre tract on Route 35 from being primarily commercial to an active adult residential zone. The proposed town center was slated to be 1.5 million square feet of retail or office space, apartment or townhouse units, and parking space for nearly 5,000 vehicles. But a 1999 traffic study concluded that the traffic on Route 35 would be exponentially increased if the property was allowed to be primarily commercially developed. "Zoning is a proper means for a municipality to handle traffic problems in their major aspects as they affect the entire community or major portions thereof," Superior Court Judge Lawrence Lawson wrote in his decision. He also wrote that the Township Committee only rezoned the property after consulting the public, planners and experts. Mayor Thomas Hall was very satisfied with the judge's decision. "This was a long-awaited decision and one which is supported by the majority of residents in Middletown," Hall said. "I speak for the entire committee when I say that this was not unexpected." Hall also said that he thought this could be the end of an era as far as all of the court battles that have surrounded the proposed project. "I would hope that this is the end of a very long battle," he said. While Hall is merely hopeful that the end has arrived, Township Attorney Bernard Reilly said he sees no way that the legal wrangling can continue. "I definitely think this is the final decision in favor of the rezoning," Reilly said. "It's been a long litigation and I really can't see them appealing. If they did, they'd have to reconstruct the whole case. The magnitude of it would be huge. I just hope we can finally move on now." Mountain Hill attorney Gary Fox and Joseph Azzolina Jr., a principal with the company, could not be reached for comment by press time. Reilly did acknowledge that the piece of property, located between Kanes Lane and Kings Highway East, still has "feasible use," but not for what Mountain Hill wanted to do with it. Hall also has no issue with the land being developed, but he and many other residents, he said, felt the project was too big. "In the end, I think it came down to a question of scale," Hall said. "Now we have rezoned it for the best interest of Middletown." Reilly also spoke about the length of time it has taken just to get to his point. "All of this litigation started back in 2001. I don't even know why it took this long. It should have been done probably a year or two ago. The facts and studies showed this was not a good idea to start with," Reilly said. "It's one thing to talk about a project like this, but once you see the blueprints and sketches and then think about the traffic, it's tough for the people to really say they want it in their town. In the end I think the people got what they want." Also in his decision, Lawson ruled that the 2004 master plan was valid. It included a recommendation that the property's previous designation of "Planned Development" was no longer accurate because there was no further need for a town center and that the community could best be served by encouraging renovation and renewal in already-existing village centers. "The Township Committee tried to balance the property owner's reasonable use of the property with the impact such use would have upon the township," Lawson wrote. "Such balance resulted in the AAC [Active Adult Community] designation."