West Main Road’s town center, once envisioned as community space for residents, is potentially being handed over to developers who are not considering our interests. Developers have removed all community amenities from their initial proposal, contradicting the town’s 2021 Request For Information (RFI) and the developers’ own RFI response, according to documents on the Planning Department’s Middletown Center web page.
There will be a Planning Board Public Hearing on April 3rd, 6:00 PM at Gaudet Middle School (Turner Rd entrance). Previously adjourned on Feb. 24th due to high turnout, this hearing is your chance to be heard!
The developers are asking the Planning Board to forward a positive recommendation to the Town Council to:
- Amend our Comprehensive Plan: Change zoning from Industrial to General Business.
- Re-zone property from Public-Traffic Sensitive (PA) to General Business-Traffic Sensitive (GBA), (Note: without having performed a traffic study).
- Adopt an overlay zoning district for the property.
Is it a goal of the developers to change our Comprehensive Plan and zoning laws to gain full control, bypassing oversight, to develop our land without restrictions? Why hasn’t a traffic study been done? How can zoning laws related to traffic in a highly traffic-sensitive area be changed in the absence of a traffic study? If you call Middletown home, please show up and bring your neighbors as well as your Middletown friends and family members. Let the Planning Board know what you think about the developers’ requested changes to our Comprehensive Plan and zoning laws.
Thank you,
Karen Biastre
Middletown
