On Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in City Hall, the Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission will hear and rule on two proposals to alter zoning code texts, thereby determining whether Washington Street will be commercialized. In preparation for the public hearing, the Office of Planning, Conservation and Development published Staff Comments to the proposals, attached to the Public Hearing Notice.
The neighborhood on the northern side of Washington Street is presently divided into two zones: mixed residential and commercial (MX) and institutional development (ID). The first proposal, forwarded by Acquisition Holdings, LLC, on behalf of developer Robert Landino and Centerplan Companies, seeks to alter the MX code to allow more intensive commercial development in certain areas of Middletown. The second, proposed by Pearl Street resident and member of the Middletown Board of Education Ed McKeon, would alter the ID code to restrict some of those properties to primarily residential use with the exception of adaptive reuse.
The Commission’s Staff Comments, prepared by Director of Planning, Conservation, and Development Bill Warner, reflect support for Centerplan’s proposal to alter the MX zoning code.
“Multi story mixed use development of the type envisioned by this regulation is definitely desirable and the way of the future,” Warner wrote. “I think the regulation provides an alternative for the areas discussed and could result in better development than what currently exists and what is currently allowed.”
The two proposals stem from issues surrounding Centerplan’s proposed commercial center development on Washington Street between High Street and Pearl Street.
Under current regulations, office buildings are already allowed in the MX zone. Centerplan’s proposal, however, would extend it to allow higher density restaurants, retails and drive-thrus by special exception, which developers may request to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Though the two proposals affect all MX and ID zones respectively, the location currently contested by Centerplan’s proposed development is the stretch on the northern side of Washington Street currently lined by historical homes, offices and University program housing. The area entered the National Park Service’s National Registry of Historic Places in May 1985.
University Vice President for Finance and Administration John Meerts has agreed to prepare a statement on the issue to be delivered at the hearing, following a meeting with a number of University administrators and faculty members.
Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and Behavior Stephen Devoto, who will be attending the meeting, expects that the statement will speak to the importance of the decision to the University neighborhood.
“I am thrilled that our institution is willing to engage in such an important land use decision,” Devoto wrote in an email sent to University faculty and staff.
A number of University faculty and students have expressed opposition to Centerplan’s development plans and zoning code proposal through a Sense of the Faculty Resolution and a WSA Resolution, respectively.