Middletown Mayor Feuds With Open Space Group Over Sale Of Hwy. 36 Lot

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — A well-known land preservation nonprofit in Monmouth County is planning to sell a parcel of land it owns along Rt. 36 — and Middletown Mayor Tony Perry is not happy about it.

The nonprofit is the Monmouth Conservation Foundation (MCF) and the lot in question is 120 Hwy. 36, directly across from Regency Park and Guttenplan's frozen dough plant. This is a three-acre wooded lot that is currently empty; it is bound on one side by a cell tower and on the other a bus company.

The lot is zoned for commercial development.

William Kastning, the executive director of the Monmouth Conservation Foundation, confirmed to Patch that his group is in contract to sell the land to a developer, which plans to build storage units on it. He declined to say exactly how much the developer is paying for the lot, but it is more than $200,000.

Mayor Perry said the sale represents an abandonment of the MCF's principles, which are to conserve open land and open space in Monmouth County. Perry is calling for Kastning, a Holmdel resident, to resign.

"The Monmouth Conservation Foundation was founded in party by a great Middletown resident and philanthropist Judith Stanley Coleman, and I am extremely confident this was not her vision when she helped form it in 1977," wrote Perry in a letter he sent Tuesday to Monmouth County Commissioners Director Tom Arnone, who oversees the Monmouth County Parks Department. Perry also sent his letter to all the Monmouth Conservation Foundation trustees.

"Given that the Monmouth Conservation Foundation and the county parks system work together, I thought Arnone should know this is happening," Perry told Patch Tuesday. "You are taking one of the few remaining parcels of untouched, undisturbed land and you're going to turn it into a self-storage facility. Why would anyone now donate to the Monmouth Conservation Foundation? Why would anyone volunteer for the Monmouth Conservation Foundation?"

According to Perry, Middletown offered to buy the lot from MCF a few years ago, offering to pay no more than $1. The Township intended to keep the land as open, undeveloped wooded space.

The Monmouth Conservation declined the Township's offer, said Perry, and confirmed by Kastning.

"We wanted to keep it as open space," said Perry. "If their executive director was true to his word, he would turn around and donate this to the Township. Their executive director is being greedy and selling it for a profit. I am not going to associate myself with an organization that purposely misleads people."

Kastning said his organization has helped preserve thousands of acres of open space in Monmouth County and that 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 will be put back into the non-profit, to continue purchasing lots of land that are worth preserving as open space in Monmouth County.

He also said such land sales are permissible under "trade lands" rules, which allows non-profits like his to sell land to developers as long as the land is not historically or ecologically significant. This Hwy. 36 parcel is neither.

The lot is also commercially zoned lot on the busy Hwy. 36 commercial corridor, Kastning pointed out.

"The revenue from the sale of this property on Route 36 is to be used to preserve natural resources in Monmouth County," wrote Kastning in his own follow-up letter, which he sent Arnone Wednesday. "In a perfect world, we would preserve all (green space) ... but MCF simply does not have the funds to do so. MCF must make hard decisions to preserve what it can."

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 Middletown Planning Board.

Here are some of the public parks/open space Monmouth Conservation Foundation has worked with others to help preserve:

Allaire State Park: MCF and the state of New Jersey DEP Green Acres Program purchased the last remaining large parcel of land connected to Allaire State Park in 2019, expanding the park by nearly 190 acres in Wall Township.

Shrewsbury Riverfront Park in Sea Bright: MCF and Monmouth County paid for walking paths, open green space and installation of benches and fencing along the waterfront. Plans are moving ahead for Phase Two completion this year, which will include amenities like a patio, pavilion and landscaping.

Swimming River Park in Middletown: Construction takes place this summer to improve public water access and add recreational amenities. An effort years in the making, the project is a successful collaboration of Monmouth County, the Monmouth County Park System (MCPS), and MCF that preserves approximately 18 acres of green space.

Colts Neck: MCF preserved the 19-acre Stivala Farm in Colts Neck. The property is contiguous to the roughly 63-acre DeGroot Farm, which was also preserved through the State’s Farmland Preservation Program. Both quintessential examples of rural farm life in Colts Neck, these farms will now be protected forever from encroaching development.

Sunset Park in Red Bank (still in planning stages): MCF secured a $2 million anonymous donation from a philanthropist in fall 2021 to support the creation of a park on the underserved west side of Red Bank. Sunset Park will become a reality in the coming years, as MCF works with the Red Bank Borough Council and other partners to restore the former landfill into a public park for recreational use.

Edgemere Park in Sea Girt will soon be home to a new pollinator garden thanks to a $10,000 charitable grant secured by MCF.

MCF is working with the U.S. Navy to preserve land and natural habitats that surround Naval Weapons Station Earle to "help sustain critical, at-risk military mission capabilities." Conversations are currently underway to preserve applicable properties in Howell and Colts Neck.

Here is all of Monmouth Conservation Foundation's work:

https://www.monmouthconservation.org/properties