The Great Auditorium, Ocean Grove, NJ. Does this look like a town that needed an ” Area in Need of Redevelopment?” Paul Goldfinger photo.. Blogfinger.net. Undated.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net 5/15/19. Ocean Grove, NJ, USA.
“Redevelopment is a tool which may be used by municipalities to turnaround stagnating, deteriorating, underutilized, or “undeveloped” properties which are not being properly maintained or invested in through the instrumentality of private capital.” (From the NJ Redevelopment Law)
In 2007, the CMA and WAVE persuaded Neptune Township to declare the North End of Ocean Grove as an “Area In Need of Redevelopment.” The Planning Board agreed, and the deed was done, giving developers the green light to dump the existing single family home zoning recommended by the Master Plan in favor of a mixed use that would allow the commercialized NERP which we have all heard about.
But that designation was inappropriate for the North End of Ocean Grove where there was no shortage of investors to develop that property. This was a decision that appeared to be illegal and was done to enrich investors at the expense of our historic town and its citizens.
Now the latest group of developers (OGNED) plans to implement that same designation when the best interests of the community would be better served by the Township’s cancelling that 12 year old plan and reverting to the original single family zoning.
This article was posted in January, 2020, but it references events in 2019: Re-posted now 3/24 because it needs to be… now.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net
Modern Ocean Grove History:
“Something familiar,
Something peculiar,
Something for everyone:
A comedy tonight!
“New complications,
Nothing portentous or polite;
Tragedy tomorrow,
Comedy tonight!”
*Stephen Sondheim: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Raise the curtain at the Neptune Theater of the Absurd. The stage is set for a tragedy:
Jack Bredin attended the Township Comedy’s meeting last night (August 2019,) and his conclusion is, “Ocean Grove is being sold down the river.”
After hearing OG’s Carol Rizzo, the 2019 Neptune Township Mayor, effusively praise the “new” North End Plan, Jack sank down in his chair—He says that all hope seems to be lost as this show unfolds with its final acts waiting in the wings.
This drama about the historic town of Ocean Grove is now positioned to move forward in a direction that will be accepted by all the power players, leaving the residents of the Grove hung out to dry. Once the contractors’ trucks begin to stir up the dust and clog our respiratory tracts, while creating a nightmare of congestion and a cacophony of noise, we will wind up with a large scale version of the Greek Temple on Main Avenue—a variation on a theme as the promise of historic small town OG may forever be lost.
And along with it will be the hopes for a pristine Wesley Lake, now known by all concerned as a “retention/detention basin.”
Let’s consider the players in this Greek tragedy known as “The North End Revelopment Plan.” We have the main actors at the Neptune Township Comedy along with the Chorus consisting of the Home Groaners, the Camp Meeting, the Chamber of Commercials, the Historic Preservation Commission, the Planning Board, and The Wesley Lake Commission.
And providing the backdrop and script for this scandalous performance, there is the main villain of the piece—secretive developers lurking off stage while pulling on the puppet strings.
Here is the cast of characters:
a. The Neptune Township Committee: Mayor Rizzo of Ocean Grove, who has swallowed the Kool Aid, will lead those Neptuner sheep to unanimously approve the new plan. She has appointed Committeeman Michael Brantley to take her place as the “Class one” member of the Planning Board.
She has abdicated her key role as the protector of the people at the PB. Brantley is a Neptuner through and through and he will order the PB to approve the new plan unanimously.
Once upon a time there was a Committeewoman who favored single family zoning at the North End. Mary Beth Jahn stuck her neck out for the best interests of the people and the town, and she was beheaded by the Monmouth County and Neptune Democrat Party.
The Neptune Comedy is indifferent to the people of Ocean Grove, and one-party rule prevents any chance of changing the ending of this tragedy.
b. The Rule of Law: Normal procedures regarding land use law have been routinely violated in Neptune, but that crowd, along with their OG allies, does whatever it pleases. And they are aided and abetted by favoritism offered by key unelected bureaucrats at Town Hall.
c. OG Home Owners Ass. We don’t know their motives, but this group of turncoats continues to back the developers and Neptuners regarding the North End. The late Ken Buckley who was on the HOA Board and the HPC told Jack that the HOA is “backing the Plan.”
d. Developers: (OGNED) Some of these people are connected to OG, but despite that, they conspire, whenever possible, to exploit the people of OG for profit. They are favored at the Mother Ship with zoning manipulations including those that increase congestion and ugliness in town: condos, Greek Temple, Mary’s Place, parking torture, etc.
e. Camp Meeting Association. They have removed themselves as redevelopers, but that is just cosmetic. The President of the the CMA told us publicly that his organization has been involved in negotiations to move the NERP forward. They have control as the land owners, so they are focused on making money. They seem to have little interest in the OG residents community or the historical designation of the town.
f. Chamber of Commerce: In many US towns the CC is community minded. But this crew only cares about two things: profits and tourists. They never get involved with community issues such as the North End. For them, the commercialized North End Plan will increase their membership as they continue to close Main Avenue for mindless tourist events and crowds.
g. Historic Preservation Commission: When they are not hiding under their beds they have stood by while the Neptuners seek to take over their guidelines on behalf of developers and contractors.
And they refuse to be transparent with BF or the public. The Chairwoman won’t even speak to us regarding their situation.
h. Wesley Lake Commission, representing both sides, has stopped trying to clean the Lake and instead they support the Retention/Detention re-naming in order to allow the Lake to be used to receive increasing amounts of filthy ground water from the future North End, thus saving the developers a huge amount of money to fix the ecology of the former “Wesley Lake.”
i. The Residents of OG-–Those who envision our historic town as a lovely place with its Victorian architecture, parks, clean lakes, parking for those who live here, reduction in tourist glut, solving the Asburian invasion, keeping our streets open, nurturing of the secular community with its kids, families, retirees, diversification, etc. will be the big losers in the North End project.
“Representative government” has failed here, and apathy reigns. Only a major law suit in Superior Court or an investigation by the NJ Attorney General could close this show down.
Once the curtain closes on all this, the corruption in OG/Neptune will continue. Blogfinger will keep reporting the news, but we don’t see an alternative ending to this drama. Jack says, “Ocean Grove is a door mat; we’re sunk.”
By Jack Bredin and Paul Goldfinger: Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
ZERO MOSTEL from the original Broadway cast album of Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger. April 16, 2015.
There have been times in the past when Grovers have asked to know the identity of the NERP Co-developer WAVE. That issue has been raised before on Blogfinger and at OGHOA meetings. I.M. Radar, for one, has brought this up before on a number of occasions. Jack Bredin brought it up again at last Monday’s Township Committee meeting , and so did the HOA President Ann Horan. But so far silence and opacity prevail.
The North End Committee of the HOA has not discovered this important information nor has the Township Committee revealed what they evidently know. In June, 2012, an article in Blogfinger said, ” The developers are the Camp Meeting Association, which owns the 5.6-acre site, and a company run by Ocean Grove developer William Gannon III.”
But there has been the suspicion that others might be involved in WAVE, perhaps investors who are going to put up a lot of money. Evidently, the Camp Meeting Association, the land owner, was motivated to change the zoning and come up with a project that would be more profitable than just single family homes. But shouldn’t others who stand to profit from this endeavor be named also? This is not a typical private development enterprise.
After the Planning Board approved the designation of the North End as a “zone in need of redevelopment,” which in turn allowed the Township Committee to permit multi-use zoning, this project became a public redevelopment zone, under the management of the Township Committee, where all decisions would require public scrutiny and all subsequent steps in the process would be the public’s business.
Ever since Ann Horan, President of the HOA woke up a sleeping giant by telling the Coaster in December that the HOA North End Committee (and she named all of the current members) had “persuaded the Township Committee to revise the redevelopment plan,” Blogfinger has been trying to find out what really is going on.
Is there anyone in Ocean Grove who doesn’t believe that this matter should be carefully looked at again by the citizens who pay taxes here and worry about the future of the town and of their own real estate investments?
Yesterday there was a meeting to discuss the Redevelopment Agreement which is the contract required under the Redevelopment laws. It is a contract between the Redeveloper and the Township. The meeting was attended by the Town engineer, Town attorney, WAVE and a Township Committeeman (Randy Bishop.) Not present was Mayor Mary Beth Jahn who is part of the negotiating committee.
According to Barbara Burns, the Vice President of the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association, in a letter to the Coaster dated March 26, 2015, “The CMA will be an active participant in negotiation of the redevelopment agreement that is the next step in the process.” So Barbara, why wasn’t the CMA present at yesterday’s active administrative proceeding?
She also said, “Blogfinger seems to be laboring under a misconception that there is an active administrative proceeding underway with respect to the North End…There is no ongoing proceeding.” Really Barbara?
We need a homeowners association that is better informed and more aggressive.
It looks like the CMA has taken a big step back to allow WAVE to negotiate the agreement, presumably because WAVE has a contract to buy the land if all the approvals go their way. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with any of this, but we the people need all the facts.
And among the facts is that WAVE is now called OGNED
Meanwhile, a Blogfinger citizen researcher from Ocean Grove found the above document regarding WAVE. In an email to Blogfinger, D.T. said:
“This is their original certificate of formation (attached). It only lists William and Paul Gannon as owners — in an LLC the owners are called “members.”
“If there are any outside investors, they are not legally involved from a corporate standpoint (which, while certainly still possible, would be odd; investors usually like to have voting rights on how their money is being used).”
2019. Just because this agreement is signed by the Mayor and the Redeveloper OGNED doesn’t mean that the project will ever be completed. The Redevelopers Agreement for the North End Redevelopment Plan should be subtitled “Promises, Promises” because it is filled with nothing but those.
Jack Bredin, Blogfinger reporter/researcher, was present at the September 9, 2019 Committee Meeting when this long delayed document was approved by resolution.
By Jack Bredin, Blogfinger reporter/researcher, September 10, 2019. Ocean Grove, NJ.
At the September 9, 2019 meeting of the Township Committee, a 100+ page report, with attachments and exhibits (Resolution 19-316,) was passed with no dissenters.
It had been written by the Township’s Redevelopment Attorney. The report attempted to list all of the items that were NOT accomplished over the past 11 years, items that are necessary to start construction at the North End, and a recommendation for the Mayor to sign a “Redevelopment Agreement” with OGNED LLC.
It would have been easier to just say, “Nothing has been accomplished in 11 years.” This 100 page report is an attempt to “pull the wool over our eyes.”
The only thing that was new in the report was that Mayor Rizzo’s Redevelopment Committee recommended that the Township Committee drop its requirement that the Redeveloper file “financial guarantees” with the Clerk assuring that the project would be completed and on time.
At the 7:00 p.m. Regular Meeting after the 6:00 p.m. workshop, about 40 residents were present, but OGNED did not attend. The Camp Meeting Association did attend. They are the landowner of the 3 acre site and they took notes. 6 residents spoke against the resolution, and no one spoke for it.
The OG Home Owners Association is already on record from day one, 2008, supporting the North End Redevelopment project.
All residents with questions were told, “You can ask that question at a Planning Board meeting.”
Because Mayor Rizzo is the Class 1 member of the Planning Board, she should be able to answer all questions regarding the North End Redevelopment, but she appointed Dr. Michael Brantley as the Class 1 member of the Planning Board in her place, and he voted in 2008 that the redeveloper “shall” be required to post “financial guarantees.” And last night he voted, “The redeveloper ‘may’ post financial guarantees, to assure the successful completion of the project.”
This change of one word from “shall” to “may” is a financial benefit to the Redeveloper that other developers do not get, and could be detrimental to OG residents if OGNED LLC goes bankrupt or cannot build an underground parking garage as approved by the Township, and they all voted for it.
Editor’s Note. Paul Goldfinger @Blogfinger.net . 9/10/19. Re-post.
Why should OGNED have been at the meeting? That redeveloper has no interest in what the public thinks. You may recall when OGNED visited the HOA and refused to answer certain questions from the audience.
All these documents will be signed in private, out of the public’s view.
The Agreement raises all sorts of questions that currently are not answered. The Redeveloper thinks he can complete all the approvals and documents within 14 months, but it likely will take longer than that. And the actual construction project will probably take at least 5 years. During that time, there will be major hardships on those who live near the project, and the document promises that those concerns will be assuaged.
Most of us wonder about the underground garage which will be huge. It will have to be flood-proofed and it will need massive pilings to hold its weight as well as the weight on top of it. None of that information is yet available, and the garage is barely mentioned in the document.
And we also wonder where all the equipment and supplies will be kept during construction.
Here is a partial list of what is promised in this Redevelopers Agreement:
a. “Any and all required goverment approvals” will be obtained including DEP (Federal and State.)
b. A final site plan with all needed engineering approvals to go to the Planning Board.
c. A “traffic impact study.”
d. A “project schedule.”
e. “Financials” which “may” be supplied.
f. A “minimization impacts” statement.
g. A long-term lease agreement between the Camp Meeting Association and the Township/OGNED. We don’t know if all this has been thoroughly worked out. But in the end, all condo unit owners (51) will have their own individual ground rent arrangements with the CMA. Other components are also condo units such as the hotel and the retail entities.
h. And much more…..You can read the entire Agreement. The HOA sent it around a few days ago. Email them. The Neptune web site has not posted it.
So, after years of Blogfinger ‘s wrestling with this damn topic, we find that democracy has lost out to apathy….a failure of the people to participate in the process.
Main Avenue, Ocean Grove. July 4, 2019. In our opinion, The people want to preserve our lifestyles and keep the small town of Ocean Grove historic and uncluttered. Paul Goldfinger photo of the Days Kazoo Band. 7/4/19. Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net. 11/1/19
We have announced the forthcoming Planning Board meeting (11/13/19) and have encouraged citizens to attend. I would caution you about a dirty trick sometimes evoked in the past whenever a controversial topic was to be discussed at the Mother Ship.
If a large number of Grovers were anticipated to attend, the meeting might be cancelled and rescheduled in the dead of winter.
Here’s a copy of some information transmitted by email from the OGHOA:
“The North End Redevelopment Agreement will be on the agenda for the next scheduled meeting of the Neptune Township Planning Board on Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 7 pm at the Municipal Building, 25 Neptune Boulevard.
“The Planning Board will review the Redevelopment Agreement and the many plans that are incorporated in the Agreement. These include the site plan, traffic plan, drainage plan, landscaping plan and architectural drawings. There’s a lot to unpack here, and the Planning Board’s review is a key part of the process.
“If you care about this issue, the obligations of the redeveloper, and how construction in the North End is expected to unfold, you should attend this Planning Board meeting.”
Blogfinger finds this message from the Home Groaners to be hopelessly incomplete either due to ignorance of the subject or purposeful evasiveness.
Among the many issues which should be addressed in the open include: Environmental impact, financial guarantees, parking garage, parking in the neighborhood, easements across the boardwalk, subdividing one lot into two, plans to block public access, impact on Grover lifestyles in that area and actually all over town, air and light for the public, relationship with the Asbury Park Casino, elevations related to the boardwalk, pollution of Wesley Lake, plans for Lake Avenue, HPC evaluation, flood prevention, retaining wall along the lake, payment to repave the Municipal Building parking lot, types of retail, condominium details, access for fire and sanitation, CMA ground rent agreements, and the very legality of these proceedings.
Since this plan is a “redevelopment plan” which received preferential zoning, the public has a right to know all that will take place in the process. This presentation should be an open book, and the reading of that book should take many meetings to be done properly. Maybe you can think of some topics that you would like to hear about.
Can you imagine that all the above “plans” might be approved in one fell swoop? Well, if the Planning Board wants to rush it through (a “snow job,”) they will, but the topic and all its ramifications should be carefully considered, and that should require many public meetings.
Blogfinger reporters will be at the meeting, and Jack will be breathing fire, and hopefully he won’t be the only one bringing a ring of fire.
2015: According to the Township Committee, the Township Attorney, the CMA, the Township Clerk and the OGHOA North End Committee, things are “heating up” with respect to the North End Redevelopment Plan. In a series of articles on the subject, Blogfinger has described some of the details and has found some “red flags” regarding the propriety of the process.
It would be helpful to take the pulse of the public regarding how OG citizens perceive what we have learned so far.
Rev. W.B. Osborn was the founder of Ocean Grove. This bio was written by his wife. Let’s see if she writes about a commercial North End.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net (Re-post from 2018)
Speaking at the Home Groaners meeting on August 6, 2018, CMA President Michael Badger said, ” The maps of Ocean Grove from the 1880’s contained a plan for the North End hotel and it will be excellent to have the founders’ vision fulfilled again,”
This quote is from the Coaster which reported on that meeting.
Here is a CMA map from about 1879 when Stokes and other founders were in charge, so you know that it is very early:
Ocean Grove from about 1879. Map commissioned by Dr. Stokes, President of the CMA. Click on map for details. North End has 26 lots for single family homes. See Jack Bredin’s comment below about this map.
Ocean Grove 1889 map. It shows 12 lots at the North End property. Those lots were for single family houses for Methodist clergy. No sign of a planned hotel there.
1881 Library of Congress map. Detail below this map.
Detail. Library of Congress map of OG and A. Park 1881. No North End hotel. There is the Ross bathing pavilion located there, by the ocean. The North End is otherwise shown as a barren lot. Click to enlarge.
Click on these maps to see the details. If you look carefully near the Ocean at the North End you will not find a “plan for the North End Hotel.”
Obviously CMA President Badger would like to find a historic precedent for a “very early” North End Hotel plan to back up his latest (2018) new North End plan. He says that there are maps that reveal “the founders’ vision” for a North End hotel.
We have never seen such a map, so it would be good if President Badger could back up his statement with at least one of his 1880’s maps, and we would be pleased to post it on Blogfinger.
We have reviewed Elwood Stoke’s biography as well as the book about early Ocean Grove written by Mrs. W.B. Osborn. Neither of these books mention a hotel.
In fact Mrs. Osborn tells us that James Bradley, who developed Asbury Park, saw that the two cities might compliment each other, so he offered Osborn a chance to partner with him and make some money. But Osborn refused, saying that he founded Ocean Grove not for money but for the “glory of God.”
The Grand Ocean Grove North End Hotel complex opened in 1911, about 40 years after the founding—hardly a good historic precedent for 2018 justifications.
Besides, even if that founders’ vision can be verified, who’s to say that it justifies the CMA’s 2018 North End Plan to build a hotel? OG’s history is full of hotels, but zoning normally would not allow one to be built from scratch now.
The way we were. Ocean Grove as it should look. Mt. Hermon Way at Firemen’s Park. Paul Goldfinger photo. 2004. 2015 Re-post
“Can it be that it was all so simple then Or has time rewritten every line And if we had the chance to do it all again tell me, would we? could we?”
BARBRA STREISAND: “The Way We Were.”
2015:
In the process of selling the North End Redevelopment Plan to the citizens of Ocean Grove in 2008, the Township Committee asserted that people in town were in favor of the plan. This pitch was based on what the OG Homegroaners had to say and what supposedly was said by citizens at “visioning sessions.”
The process of approving an “Area in Need of Redevelopment” was supposed to include the support of the citizens, but do you think the citizens wanted to get rid of the North End single family home zoning in exchange for the NERP Asbury Park South plan?
Did the Township really obtain the blessings of the citizens of our town or were they twisting the truth? We suspect the latter.
Here is a quote from the official “2008 North End Redevelopment Plan:”
“Given the importance of this site to Ocean Grove and its residents, this plan was developed in conjunction with an extensive community visioning process in which members of the public had an opportunity to comment on all aspects of the plan and its proposed design standards and requirements. Accordingly, the final plan and its core design elements reflect the input of the Ocean Grove community in creating a new vision for the North End.”
Blogfinger has pointed out many of the illegalities and improprieties that are intrinsic to the NERP. We haven’t yet exhausted everything that we have to say on this subject. Soon we will be posting our latest article entitled: “Ten reasons why there is a black cloud over the NERP,” and actually there are more than ten.
This opinion poll will offer an idea as to whether the Ocean Grove public in 2015 really wants the NERP, complete with condominiums, a hotel, retail stores, one or two new roads, and a banquet hall, or would they prefer the original zoning for 25 single family homes. Hopefully we will get 200 or more respondents, but whatever the number, I bet they are more than showed up for those “visioning sessions.”
–Paul Goldfinger, Editor @ Blogfinger. Note many comments.
“Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There” is the name of Lewis Carroll’s 1872 book. (just a few years after OG was founded.)
Alice found a wondrous world. (as we find every day at our beautiful open-to-the-ocean North End) but also Alice found that logic was reversed, as it is in the hands of all the North End culprits who are supposed to be doing right for the people of Ocean Grove.
Ya know: If you walk on our boards, for most of the distance, you cannot see the beach or the ocean. That is because of the dunes created after Sandy. People used to set up chairs near the boardwalk railing or towels to relax, get some sun and admire the view. The same for the benches that face east. But you can still do that at the North End of Ocean Grove…”for the people, of the people, and by the people .”
The beach and ocean front are supposed to be reserved for we-the-people for recreation, swimming, fishing, etc by order of laws going back to Roman times.
But the forthcoming North End development will block the views and the flow of breezes, and the light for visitors and those who live in that neighborhood.
And can this re-development plan stand up to our Master Plan? Let’s hope that the HPC can stand its ground,
But don’t depend on the Home Groaners. They have been on the wrong side of all this since 2008.
RYAN GOSLING AND EMMA STONE from La La Land: “A Lovely Night.”
By Paul Goldfinger and Jack Bredin of Blogfinger.net
Re-posted 2021 with minor updates from 2018–a refresher course now that the Mayor Brantley (August 2021) says that the North End project will go ahead.
This post is dated 7/21/22—-following on the refusal of the Historic Preservation Commission to give their stamp of approval to the developers. We don’t know if the next step will be at the Planning Board of Neptune (the town not the planet.) Or will we be seeing all parties in a courthouse in Freehold?
Blogflinger.net. Ocean Grove, New Jersey. From the Blogfinger Department of Recent OG Past History devoted to keeping the truth alive in our beautiful little town.
A little historic perspective is now in order since the Township is insisting on pushing their unfortunate fifteen year-old North End Redevelopment Plan past the citizens and into the reality of a construction zone. They are determined to move quickly and to break a variety of rules along the way, and the public be damned.
But why not push this travesty through since they have had a lot of experience doing whatever they please with zoning abominations, architectural design, land use law, and condoization of our little town?
Let’s go back to 2008. The Neptune Planning Board received a request from the Township Committee to consider the idea of an Area in Need of Re-development for the long neglected and vacant North End. The Camp Meeting Association associated with a group of developers called WAVE and conspired to find a way to bypass the single family zoning of that time.
So they decided to exploit a State program designed to bring to life horrible urban land areas, such as the inner city of places like Camden, where nobody wanted to invest and develop.
The program was not intended to help affluent developers such as the OGCMA and WAVE do away with current local zoning and instead allow them to do pretty much whatever they wished.
The Planning Board had a meeting in 2008 where only 6 of 11 members were present to act on that request. Only 5 “yes” votes were needed to approve the Redevelopment project. For such an important meeting, 100% of members should have been present. Were those absences a form of protest?
One of the 5 who would vote “yes” was Denis McCarthy, the President of the OG Homeowners Association. If he had voted “no” we would have had single family homes over there a long time ago. But he voted “yes,” and the Committee accepted those 5 “yes” votes and went ahead and allowed that Area in Need of Redevelopment.
Fast forward to 2011. There was no progress at the North End, so the OGHOA, instead of insisting that the NERP be abandoned, met with the CMA to ask that the project be scaled back. Then Committeeman Randy Bishop presented that idea to the Township, but the historic reality is that the HOA had no authority to negotiate anything with anybody regarding that public project. And, the “HOA plan” was never officially approved, but they have continued to brag that somehow they made progress.
Now, as you know from our recent 2018 articles, a new re-developer has been named called OGNED. Mayor Williams said publicly at the last Committee meeting that the “OGNED Plan” would be approved. However, there is still only one legal plan extant, and that is the 2008 North End Redevelopment Plan. The explanation of the current situation and negotiation was presented in such a muddled way at the November meeting, that we called it “gobbledygook” in our last article.
On December 10, 2018, at the Committee meeting, a representative of the OGHOA, Joan Venezia, went to the microphone during the Public Portion to complain that the recent explanations by the Redevelopment lawyer and the Mayor were so confusing that no one at the HOA understood what was going on. Jack Bredin from Blogfinger concurred, as we did in a recent article.
But here is the rub. (2022): Now, after 15 years, the HOA is still supporting the NERP instead of taking the side of reasonable and caring residents. And, despite 15 years of their failure to accomplish anything meaningful regarding the NERP, The Groaners are not embarrassed to have said publicly in 2018 that they don’t know what is going on and that they have not employed any impartial experts to help the OG community understand the ongoing process.
When Ms. Venezia asked the Committee in 2018 when public hearings will be held on this matter, she was told by Mr. Gadaleta, the Township Business Manager, that the public can be free to ask questions when the HPC has its hearing and when the Board of Adherence has its rubber stamp session.
But, the HPC has no power to rule on the NERP–only the architectural drawings, and the Board of Adherence will not challenge any of this despite what public statements are made by Grover residents.
At Blogfinger we are still doing our best to stay on top of the situation and to demand that the fraudulent Area in Need of Redevelopment be abandoned, with a return to single family zoning, a decision that would be consistent with the Master Plan in this historic town.
But we don’t know if the next stop will be a courthouse in Freehold, The Board of Adjustment in Neptune, or a repeat visit at the HPC where they will probably eventually approve all the columns, windows, paint colors, roof-lines etc that they tend to fuss over.
We hope instead, that they will trash the whole plan and allow the Neptuners to do the same, clearing the field for a return to single family zoning.
After all, at some point over the last 15 years, the clock should have run out on these illegal “developers.”
VALERIE MASTERSON from the soundtrack of the marvelous movie “Quartet.” This is from Gilbert and Sullivan’s the Mikado.
“I think you ought to recollect You cannot show too much respect Towards the highly titled few; But nobody does, and why should you?”
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger (NOTE: This article was originally posted on Dec 31, 2015, and again in 2020. )
In view of the current signs of life emerging out of the North End Redevelopment Plan’s resting place, here is another chance to read selected quotes by your neighbors and a few others regarding governance in this town and about the North End plan.
Why is it that our local institutions never seem to place the interests of OG’s citizens first? Representative government here has failed. The Neptune Committee makes you wait 3 hours before you get 5 minutes to speak at their meetings, and they show essentially no interest in what the citizens of Ocean Grove think.
They have even threatened a Grover who spoke “out of turn” at their meetings.
Now (2020) they will take advantage of the coronavirus to further distance their governance nonsense from we the people.
Here is a collection of comments, mostly from 2015, but some from 2011 and 2012, repeated now to show the extent of discourse, mostly on the critical side, and to offer a sense of clamor for change leading up to 2016. Note that this is just a mere sprinkling of quotes, chosen arbitrarily from the nearly 17,000 comments made on Blogfinger (except for A.O. Scott) since 2009 to 2015.
A.O. Scott of the New York Times, 2015, talks about “how power operates in the absence of accountability. When institutions convinced of their own greatness work together, what usually happens is that the truth is buried and the innocent suffer.
“Breaking that pattern of collaboration is not easy. Challenging deeply entrenched, widely respected authority can be very scary.” (This quote of A.O. Scott comes from his N.Y.Times movie review of “Spotlight” but it rings true for Neptune Township.)
Jack (Bredin) : The proposed subdivision on Sea View Avenue will result in 4 illegal lots. Whoever purchases them could have big problems in the future, and the Neptune Township Planning Board doesn’t give a flying fig*.
Devo: Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Jack: You would increase your chances of getting a subdivision if you hire a politically connected attorney who can trot out a professional planner who is willing to lie to the Board under oath. You must first make a campaign contribution.
Kevin (Chambers) : As a service to the people of Ocean Grove it would be nice to have that Committee oath of office printed on your site to remind each of the Committee people that their duty is to uphold the laws of the State and to enforce those laws, and that includes zoning laws—–for the protection of all the people in Neptune equally.
Kevin: The attorneys and the planners have the obligation to the public to make sure that testimony is factual, consistent and truthful. In one of these two cases it is anything but that.
Paul Goldfinger: The people of Ocean Grove are being plundered, just as if the Vikings returned from Iceland and landed on the shores of Ocean Grove.
Jack:
What we do know is :
-The Township Committee has no heart.
-The Planning Board has no brain and,
-the OGHOA have no courage.
They all just “go along” with the “Flat Earth Society” opinions from the Township’s professional planners and engineers who most likely were referred to Neptune by the Great Wizard.
The fact is, we have no idea who is running (ruining) our town.
Blogfinger: The Home Groaners’ Board has taken the Kool Aid and has jumped on the bandwagon which says that RSIS*** parking standards are no good for Ocean Grove
Rev Janeba: Although I am a Brooklynite, my heart is in Ocean Grove – the Ocean Grove I KNOW, not the cartoon theme park version that so many misguided persons are trying to bring about. Thank you so much for looking out for MY best interests, too.
Radar: I can’t remember any recent meeting that a vote was taken on the Homeowners’ position.
By the Sea: Who does the OGHOA think they serve? Why do they not test their positions with their own membership? I am a member and I can attest to the fact that OGHOA members were never offered an opportunity to review the RSIS issue, vote on or even discuss it.
From the Neptune Application to SIAB**: “This application…seeks relief from RSIS standards in an overall effort to balance the needs of residents, visitors, and public safety with the unique challenges of maintaining a Federal and State Historic Designation coupled with the unique and historic patterns of development that comprise Ocean Grove as a whole.”
“It is estimated that there are approximately 1.38 potential on-street parking spaces per occupied unit (ie house or condo). This potential inventory adequately addresses the parking need, given that the average number of vehicles per household in the 2010 census is 1.5 vehicles.”
“Neptune Township has worked in concert with the OGCMA to continue to ameliorate parking issues within Ocean Grove.”
Blogfinger (re: RISS:) Let’s face it, this has nothing to do with history or even parking, and everything to do with greed.
Blogfinger: The $64,000.00 question: Even if the State turns down the application and leaves the RSIS rules in place, who is going to enforce the law? After all, even today, the RSIS rules are in effect in Ocean Grove and they haven’t prevented condos without parking from being built— single family homes should have been constructed instead.
New Kid in Town Has any thought been given to forming a citizen’s group to formally object to Neptune Township’s dishonest efforts to destroy our historical town for greed and profit? I for one, would be happy to join such a group and support it in anyway I could. I know many others who would do the same.
Upset taxpayer I invite anyone on the Township Committee that thinks we already have adequate parking, to sit on my porch on any Friday, Saturday or Sunday all spring, summer and fall, and watch the frustration among all visitors to Ocean Grove.
Michael Grover (2011) I believe the language in the proposed Master Plan is intended to further develop ratables for the Township in Ocean Grove at the expense of its residents. The Board is attempting to set up a structure that will permit replacement of B and B’s with condominiums and development of larger structures, further adding to our density.
Don’t count on the HPC to protect us, using historic preservation as grounds to prevent conversions. Recent decisions and the North End project demonstrate their weakness against the Planning Board.
As for the Township Committee, don’t look to them for much help either. The town needs money, and this is New Jersey, enough said. We will need to protect ourselves.
Mary Beth Jahn: (2011) I am the sole member of the Township Committee to vote against the North End plan, and I still believe that single-family homes and not condos should be built on that site.
OGrover: 2011 The recent high density project with it’s proposed underground parking is not supposed to add to the parking issues but will do nothing to alleviate them either. (Underground parking next to the ocean and a lake? The Titanic was unsinkable, too!)
Frank: (2011) New Jersey Site Improvement Advisory Board knows the situation of our not owning the property, and their recommendation for parking is that Neptune follow the Municipal Land Use Law’s standards that are used throughout the state. I have a copy of the letter addressed to Neptune from the Sites Board that states that the Township is to follow the standards for parking
Joan C (2012) I was rather surprised to read that Mr. Williams stated so emphatically that he would never read nor respond on Blogfinger. Is Mr. Williams “too good” for the blog? Is he choosing to remain unaware of the concerns of our residents? I frankly had hoped that all members of both parties read Blogfinger, which is the least divisive, non-political posting of relevant information for those of us living in Ocean Grove and Neptune Township
Devo (2012) The North end project, in its current form, will not benefit the Grove. It will generate significant additional traffic, create additional parking issues (despite what they say they are planning), will depress home/condo prices for the existing housing stock, and will add out of character buildings. I wasn’t here when all this went down, but I can’t imagine why folks in OG think this is a good idea.
The longer it is delayed, the better.
Michael Grover (2012) Those of us concerned about noise and congestion, not to mention density and over-development, need to look no farther than the North End project. Want a problem that really happens and lasts forever? Why was this project approved, and where was the HPC to protect the integrity of our beloved historic district? It’s a lot easier to enforce the rules when the issue is the color of a house and other minor cosmetic concerns, or when you have the authority to impose a decision no matter how unjustified on a weak, defenseless homeowner. Take on the town and the developers, that’s another story.
Devo (2012) Scuttle the redevelopment plan now, or forever be sorry you did not.
Bythesea (2012) Developing the North End under a State sanctioned redevelopment designation is a terrible idea. I can tell you right now that, based on what has happened most other places in NJ, OG will lose all control and hate the outcome. OG should seek to bring about the collapse of this redevelopment plan. The land and location is valuable/desirable enough that the CMA should be able to manage its own redevelopment.
Despite Mary Beth Jahn’s best intent and all of our wishful thinking, redevelopment areas take on a life of their own and they always gravitate to higher than expected density and insensitivity to quality of life concerns of the town they are occurring in (e.g., traffic impact, parking, etc.).
Gosh: (2012) I have to say for the last time, the approval of the redevelopment of the North End was never legal.
Mary Beth Jahn (2012) Those who are sucking sour lemons and trying to run a smear campaign wouldn’t know or care, because they have no respect for the Grove’s historic designation and would have no problem turning the Grove into Condo City.
Wisher: (2012) There will be no distinguishing OG or Asbury Park in the future. No grand vistas, or public places for shoppers and beach-goers. People won’t come here any more than they will go to any of the myriad of other shore towns. No distinguishing characteristics. Just everything shoved up against the shoreline while developers walk about with their boatload of cash.
Gosh (2012) Condos have been motivated by GREED and REVENUE that they bring into Neptune. There is absolutely no interest in keeping O.G. historic with single family homes; just look at the new Master Plan— there are so many gray areas for interpretation.
Bythesea: (2012) Where is the OGHOA on the North End Development? What stand have they taken relative to the abomination of a plan that now exists for the “redevelopment” of the North End? It is they who should be the champions in the fight against poor planning that will hurt the town. Do they just play a reactive game, or do they try to lead? Where is their position paper? Seems to me that this is by far the biggest issue on their plates for the next year.
Jack The first and only comment from our new year (2016):
OhGee, the reason this special town exists, is to the credit of the OGCMA.
The Township Committee has the exclusive authority to adopt our zoning ordinance.
We cannot blame any property owner for developing what they are permitted to develop under the zoning ordinance adopted by the Committee. With zoning, the buck stops with the Township Committee.
The problem is that the Committee, Planning Board and Board of Adjustment use Municipal Land Use Law in ways that were never intended by the NJ State Legislature.
**SIAB is the State Site Improvement Advisory Board in Trenton. They keep Blogfinger up to date on their agendas so that the Neptune Comedy doesn’t sneak into one of their meetings without the people knowing.
*** RSIS means Residential Site Improvement Standards” regarding required off site parking standards for new construction.
Editor’s note: June, 2020. The OGNED North End Redevelopers applied to the DEP for CAFRA approval to build an underground garage at the North End. But they were rejected, and we are seeking up-dated information as to the current status of that fraudulent plan.
