Tag: #affordable-housing

The Middletown Township Committee introduced an ordinance Monday that would permit up to 450 homes on the Circus Liquors property along Route 35, taking a legislative step required by the court-approved settlement of a three-year affordable-housing lawsuit.

The October 19, 2026, vote advanced Ordinance 2026-3544 to a November 9 public hearing. It did not approve construction or a final site plan. If the committee adopts the ordinance, a designated redeveloper would still have to submit engineered plans to the Middletown Planning Board for review.

The ordinance and attached redevelopment plan detail the housing types, building heights, affordable-housing requirements and infrastructure standards that would apply to the approximately 52-acre property. The 450-home figure is a permitted maximum, not a guaranteed buildout.

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.

Middletown Township has published the full settlement agreement and conceptual renderings showing what a proposed 450-home development at the former Circus Liquors property could look like.

The newly released plans show a mix of traditional townhomes, stacked townhomes and affordable flats, along with internal roads, parking, amenity areas and open space. The settlement between Middletown and AAMHMT Property LLC remains subject to court approval at an October 2 fairness hearing.

As Public Record NJ reported previously, the hearing is the latest development in a years-long builder's remedy dispute over the Route 35 property.