Tag: #middletown

The Middletown Township Committee is scheduled to introduce an ordinance Monday that would adopt a redevelopment plan for the Circus Liquors property on Route 35, beginning the municipal approval process required by a court-approved affordable housing settlement.

Ordinance 2026-3544 is the first local legislative step toward allowing as many as 450 homes on the property, including 68 affordable units if the full project is built. Introduction would not amount to final adoption or development approval.

The action matters because the New Jersey Superior Court has set a November 10 deadline for Middletown to adopt the plan and take other steps needed to implement the settlement of a builder’s remedy lawsuit filed more than three years ago by AAMHMT Property LLC.

The Middletown Township Committee’s September 21 agenda omits public hearings on a proposed townshipwide data center ban and zoning standards for a contemplated 136-home development on West Nut Swamp Road.

A township notice viewed September 15 said the data center hearing had been rescheduled to November 9. That notice and the ordinance’s original introduction notice later disappeared from the township’s public-notices page. A separate notice announces November 9 as the rescheduled West Nut Swamp hearing.

The published agenda instead schedules hearings and possible final passage for other measures, including a first-time homebuyer incentive for eligible emergency-service volunteers and updated recreation rules. Neither omitted ordinance should be considered finally adopted or abandoned based solely on its absence from the agenda.

The Middletown Township Committee authorized an agreement to acquire and preserve approximately 83 acres and adopted new rules for special events on large farms on September 8, following public hearings that drew questions about displaced tenants, financing and which farms would qualify.

A broad array of speakers supported preserving the Chapel Hill property, but the hearing also included a tenant who said he had received 60 days to leave his home. Committee members said the transaction could not be treated as certain until there was a written agreement, while the property owner said she had tried to help him find another place.

The committee also heard concerns about the proposed redevelopment of the property commonly known as Circus Liquors and introduced a separate ordinance that would prohibit data centers throughout Middletown.

UPDATE, SEP. 14, 2026, 5 P.M.: According to a notice posted September 14, the public hearing on this data center ordinance has been moved to November 9, 2026 at 7:00PM.

The Middletown Township Committee has introduced an ordinance that would prohibit data centers in every zoning district, with a public hearing and final vote scheduled for later this month. Middletown joins a growing list of New Jersey municipalities that have adopted or are considering restrictions on data centers.

Neighboring Holmdel recently adopted its own ordinance restricting data centers. Before the ordinance was adopted, the township received an application to construct a data center at Bell Works. That proposal, submitted under the previously allowed zoning uses, is now being considered by the township.

Ordinance 2026-3536 is not yet in effect. The committee is scheduled to consider final passage on September 21, 2026, following public comment on the proposed restriction.