Middletown Buys 3 Acres Of Woods On Rt. 36, To Be Saved As Open Space

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — At their Dec. 18 meeting, the Middletown Township Committee approved the purchase of three acres of land on Rt. 36, which the Township promises will be preserved as open space.

The three acres are between Rt. 36 and Thompson Avenue, right across from Regency Park and Guttenplan's frozen dough plant. This is a three-acre wooded lot that is currently empty; its neighbor on one side is a cell tower and a bus company on the other. (The technical address is 120 Thompson Avenue.)

The lot is currently woods. It is one of the few pieces of open space left along Rt. 36. The Township says it plans to permanently preserve the lot as woods and keep it undeveloped. Middletown purchased the lot from Monmouth Conservation Fund for about 20 percent of its market value.

Some may recall this is the piece of land Mayor Tony Perry was feuding with Monmouth Conservation Fund director William Kastning about in the summer of 2022: Middletown Mayor Feuds With Open Space Group Over Sale Of Hwy. 36 Lot (July 2022)

At that time, Monmouth Conservation Foundation planned to sell the land to a developer, which planned to build storage units on it. The lot is zoned for commercial development.

Kastning said land sales such as this one provide the funding that allow his organization to exist. He said all the money generated from the sale of the lot would have gone back into the non-profit, to continue purchasing thousands of acres of open space in Monmouth County.

At the time Kastning also said Perry and his allies on the Middletown Twp. Committee dislike him since the Monmouth Conservation Foundation adamantly opposed the Village 35/Middletown Walk Toll Brothers development, which are the townhouses currently being built along Kings Highway. A few years back, Monmouth Conservation Foundation put out a robo-call to all Middletown residents asking them to oppose Middletown Walk, which was approved by the Planning Board.

Kastning and Perry have been at odds ever since.

Perry said at the Dec. 18 meeting:

"This was a point of contention between the Township and the Monmouth Conservation Foundation, as it was moving to sell and develop this piece of property along Rt. 36. This governing body stood opposed to that sale by a non-profit entity that is supposed to preserve open space."

"Fortunately, this sale was a big win for the Township. It is preserving one of the few and final undeveloped pieces of property along Rt. 36 so it cannot be developed in the future."

Perry said it was Monmouth Conservation Fund trustee Valerie Montecalvo in particular who was key in sealing the deal.

Since the 2020 Open Space referendum, Middletown has been working to acquire more land for open space. The most recent acquisition efforts include the 67-acre Tretter property off Chapel Hill Road, 20 acres at Fairview Fields, and several properties totaling approximately 18 acres near Exit 114.