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Middletown Resident Opposes Trinity Hall School Development

By Christopher R. Whalen, CPA

I am writing to express my many concerns regarding the Trinity Hall Development.Trinity Hall

Trinity Hall is a commercial enterprise and will bring to our neighborhood all of the communal, societal and environmental harm that such enterprises do.

Let’s project out some of the many terrible impacts this will have on our neighborhood.

The Trinity Hall Development will increase the volume of:

School buses and other school vehicles

Student cars and

Parent drop off vehicles

Evening noise and light pollution.

Daily noise and pollution from the school’s physical plant.

and

Possibly necessitate:

  1. the widening of parts of Chapel Hill to install shoulders, the land for which will be taken from existing landowners on Chapel Hill Road using Eminent Domain Laws.
  2. the installation of traffic lights at the intersections of  Chapel Hill and Kings Highway, and Sleepy Hollow and Chapel Hill AND
    1. Definitely at the school’s main entrance on Chapel Hill itself.


The Trinity Hall Development will decrease the land values surrounding it dramatically, financially devastating families already hard hit by the down turn in the real estate markets the past 6 years.

What are some of the direct and unacceptable impacts on our public school attending children?

  1. The logistics for our local public schools’ bus stops on Chapel Hill AND our buses that use Chapel Hill to bring our kids to school will have to be overhauled.
    1. Bus Ride LENGTHS will increase for our students boarding on Chapel Hill and using Chapel Hill Road on their bus rides.
      1.                                                       i.        This means earlier boarding times for our children.
  2. Increased air and noise pollution along the entire corridor.
  3. Increased physical DANGER to our bus riding public school children

Money will be taken in increased taxes from the students’ parents’ savings for construction projects, and increased police and fire protection services. They will be forced to bear these charges as the school is a non-profit which does not pay real estate taxes. It will have zero responsibility financially for these multi-million dollar improvements that will be necessary, now and ad infinitum. These funds should be going towards OUR students’ education, and not funding the education of strangers who are not contributing to our community.

There are enough private schools in the area to service the needs of our community. From a simple zoning and planning perspective alone, this project should be rejected as there is ample township real estate dedicated to this “Business Purpose.”

Only if there was a true and incontestable direct community need for such a large commercial operation in the heart of our neighborhood, should such a land, family and way-of-life altering project be considered.

That is clearly not the case. The opposite is true.  Thank you for your time.

Christopher R. Whalen is a resident of the Chapel Hill section of Middletown Township

Editors note: Trinity Hall is an All-Girls school that follows Catholic traditions currently operating from a temporary facility in Leonardo.  The school has an application before the Middletown Township Planning Board for the development of a permanent campus in Chapel Hill.

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Posted: March 12th, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Education, Middletown, Opinion | Tags: , , | 13 Comments »

13 Comments on “Middletown Resident Opposes Trinity Hall School Development”

  1. Dear Mr. CPA said at 10:49 am on March 12th, 2014:

    Dear Mr. CPA,
    I understand that this is a block and lot that is about 37 acres in land area. Might I suggest if you wish to decide what happens on that 37 acres, you purchase the land from its currently legal owner for it’s market value. I’d suspect that 37 acres in that area might be worth $2-3 million or more but surely with your great concern to “family and way-of-life”, that cost is trivial for you. Might I also suggest forming an LLC with your neighbors in the Chapel Hill section and your LLC can then purchase the lot so as not to impose such a hefty initial financial burden, or yearly tax burden, on any single individual. Hope this helps to resolve this matter.

    Signed, Mr. No Fancy Title Here.

  2. Middletown Resident said at 1:17 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    I want to make a comment on Trinity Hall’s TAG LINE “Follows the Catholic Tradition”.

    This verbiage is a marketing ploy, a deception, a con. They have zero affiliation with
    and Catholic Church. Are there any Nun’s or Priest’s teaching there? The answer is NO.
    While they are at it why not say “In the Vatican Tradition” or “In the Tradition of Jesus Christ and his Apostles”.
    Sounds good to me! They are using the Catholic Church as a way to fooling the public for there own interests.

    The fact of the matter is that the Diocese of Trenton has stated that they have no affiliation with Trinity Hall.
    None at all!

    How dare they use such trickery. It is an outrage and an insult to ones intelligence. “Beware of Men Bearing Gifts”
    or groups engaged in a sleight of word for that matter. That’s my Tradition!

    – MIDDLETOWN RESIDENT

  3. Resident of Middletown said at 1:19 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    The sale of this land was NEVER made public. Perhaps if it was someone else would buy it, Mr. No Fancy Title…

  4. private sale said at 1:28 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    look up freely available property information on the wonderful county website …make a private offer. this happens in realestate. good luck.

  5. Republican in name and actions said at 1:44 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    Does the zoning of the property allow for this use.

    If it does then TOO BAD!

    If you live near it and this is allowed in the zoning then you should have paid attention before you moved to your property.

    And as far as the purchase it does not HAVE TO BE MADE PUBLIC.

    We live in the United States of American and private land sales happen all the time. ‘

    Give me a break.

    Since when this this site become a place where a private resident can write about objections to a construction project.

    Go to the Planning or zoning board meeting and voice your objections, hire an attorney to represent you at these meetings.

    Too bad this was allowed to be posted in an otherwise informative site.

    Mr. CPA do you represent business clients? Do they own buildings or are any developers. I bet there were objectors to their projects, but now you make money from there endeavors. What a hypocrite.

    Typical NIMBY

  6. Resident of the area said at 2:14 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    ZONED for 19 SINGLE FAMILY HOMES, NOTHING FOR A SCHOOL or OTHER ESTABLISHMENT

  7. Who cares? said at 3:50 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    The NIMBY’s have found their keyboards! Prepare for all Hell to break loose.

  8. 19 homes == traffic / noise too said at 4:36 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    Again, just to remind you — 19 homes means:
    1) 19 more houses that the garbage truck stops at
    2) in today’s world, that means:
    a) 19 x 4.3 drivers more on those roads.
    b) 19 x 2.3 more bus stops/pedestrians on those roads + 19 x 2 drivers
    3) 19 more noise complaint recipients, FROM NEIGHBORS LIKE YOU
    4) 19 more potential police/fire/ems responses in your area
    5) 19 more potential meth labs in your neighborhood basements
    ***Clearly my list can go on and on***
    oo) 19 more homes causing all of the above problems 24/7

    All of this vs a school (not a garbage dump, prison, nuclear reactor) that may bring some noise/traffic twice a day for an hour or two each 5 days a week.

    In either case, point is, “the public” doesn’t own the land, it is legally and privately owned. Maybe the people of Middletown should *SUFFER* from laws like the ones in Neptune that dictate private land owners can’t even park their privately owned and state registered RVs on their own land.

  9. TheDigger said at 11:12 pm on March 12th, 2014:

    Hmmm…an all-girls high school (and “Catholic”) – it is starting to sound like Middletown is located in Afghanistan where the extremists of another religion don’t want girls educated.

    The “NIMBY” attitude so blatantly portrayed by Mr. CPA (“and Possibly necessitate…” – with no proof at all – just “fear – mongering) is pathetic.

    I certainly hope that this is not a resurrection of prior years’ anti-Catholic bigotry that once had a foothold in Middletown.

  10. Kings Hwy Resident said at 2:11 am on March 13th, 2014:

    http://middletown-nj.patch.com/groups/schools/p/why-trinty-hall-all-girls-hs-cannot-call-itself-a-catd9530cc3c1

    Check out the article. Not even a Catholic school. Even the Catholics are skeptical of this school’s intentions. Being a Catholic myself this is a guise “In the catholic tradition”. Don’t make it a religious debate, but if you want to see it as such, see the article above. It’s not even a sanctioned religious based institution. What a ruse.

    Single family homes extend our neighborhood development. No to Trinity on this land.

  11. Republican in name and actions said at 8:22 am on March 13th, 2014:

    Better check your reading of the zoning. Most zoning has conditional use for church and schools. This may not but most do.

    This is about 2 things a NIMBY and some people that seem to have an ax to grind with the school.

    Who cares if it is not a catholic school. Its a private charter school. Would you be objecting if it was a Hebrew school(this is for the people with an ax to grind with Trinity not the NIMBYs since they would oppose anything) except of course the house that was built that they live in.

    Again why is this post even here. GO TO THE PLANNING BOARD MEETING AND OBJECT.

    I guess Mr. CPA is a friend of Al.

    BTW you NIMBYS are a real piece of work. You live in a house, probably a development, you shop in strip malls, you drive your SUV’s and gas guzzelers and your 2.5 children go to public school at a cost of apprx 12,000 per child which your RE taxes does not cover, then you complain when someone else wants to build something in your neighborhood.

    Mr. CPA is the biggest piece of work. He makes his living doing taxes for or working for a corporation that makes profit helping people that own businesses, develop land, and now since something is in his backyard he is anti development.

  12. @ 19 Homes = = said at 8:34 pm on March 13th, 2014:

    Let me unequivocally state I did not write that comment about living in Neptune and not being able to park your RV’s on your property.

    However, as the only one FINED nearly $1500 in Neptune for such, I also UNEQUIVOCALLY agree with you 🙂 🙂 🙂

    FYI, not to hijack the thread, the amount of people in violation of said RV ordinance EXCEEDS those in compliance. It all depends on what kinds of neighbors you have and “I can not comment on that.” 🙁 🙁 🙁

    Jim Granelli

  13. Sad to say, said at 8:27 am on March 14th, 2014:

    but no one ever wants their own little way of life and behavior pattern disturbed by others. It’s a miracle any land is left in this desirable county at all. However, when one moves into an area, they ought to check the zoning and consider that the lovely wooded lot next to you could be developed someday, your place was built, no? We get the traffic and noise concerns, but unless you move to some protected land in some national reserve or rural wilderness, civilization and the right to buy and sell and develop will happen.. A local issue, several of the residents came to the freeholder meeting last night, begging for help to stop something they have no power over.. My guess is, whatever one thinks of the advertising ploys of the owners, this place will wind up being built, and then the neighbors will simply have to decide whether to stay or go..