MIDDLESEX TWP — After a public hearing on Wednesday night, Oct. 15, supervisors granted a conditional use permit to Penn Acres, LLC for the proposed Amber Grove residential development, which would be located along Route 228.

The plan put before the township on Wednesday night was a resubmittal of one which had previously received land development approval from Middlesex Township in 2022. While the original plan called for 52 townhomes and two commercial buildings, the new plan axed the commercial buildings entirely and proposed a development of 89 townhomes on 19.83 acres.

According to attorney Rebecca Black, the previously-approved plans were altered due to a dispute with a neighboring development, Sienna Village, as well as a change of township ordinances.

“At that time, the township had in effect an ordinance that required a connection between the two developments, and that connection was the only way that Penn Acres would have been able to have commercial development at the front of this parcel,” Black said. “After the approval of that plan, the township changed its ordinances and deleted the requirement. We could not get permission from the neighboring parcel owner to utilize their access point. That matter was litigated for quite some time. At this point, the only way that we can develop this property is to do so with all residential townhomes.”

At Wednesday night’s meeting, developers asked for — and received — modifications which would allow them to place 4.49 dwelling units per acre within their parcel, more than the township’s maximum of four, as well as have waived the requirement residences be set back from the Route 228 right-of-way by 300 feet.

Both variances raised the ire of some residents who made their concerns heard during the public hearing.

“Every time we have a development, we seem to give a little bit more ground to the developers and give them a variance,” said Peter Walker, who runs a Middlesex Township community action group. “The trouble is, once you’ve given it, it’s real difficult to take it back. Gradually, we’re losing a lot of the rural character of the area and we’re creating a precedent where, essentially, the developers are controlling the development of the township, not the people.”

“It seems to me that we have ordinances and zoning ordinances for us to follow,” said Susan Race. “Every contractor that comes in wants variances for this and this and we just keep granting everything everyone asks for. What’s the purpose of even having any rules if we’re just going to grant variances one after the other?”

Residents also raised concerns about the possible impact of one more residential development on the Mars Area School District.

“I have two children in the Mars School District,” said Jessica Norman. “The school is bursting at the seams. The class sizes are getting bigger and bigger. We all know that there is a massive investment going into the elementary school to be completely rebuilt to accommodate all of the children that have moved into the community that are going to be coming up through these lower grades and this is not going to help that.”

“Each residential property brings in more tax,” Walker said. “But the amount of tax it brings in for the school is less than the additional cost of putting the children in that development through the school. So essentially, although the taxes are going up, expenses are going up faster.”

Solicitor Brian Farrington stressed to township residents the conditional use approval did not mean the township had given their final approval to the Amber Grove development and the developers would still need to go through a lengthy process before any earth is moved on the project.

“We’re not approving the plan tonight,” Farrington said. “This is for conditional use only. This isn’t a land development plan.”