The Lagoon* at Shell Point, a private contained religious-owned community in Fort Myers, Florida Paul Goldfinger photo. Jan, 2020. “Forever Friends.”

 

The Arbor at Shell Point. Internet photo.

 

By Paul Goldfinger, MD.   Editor.  Blogfinger.net.  Ocean Grove, NJ. 2020.

Is the Camp Meeting Association’s unique status in Ocean Grove so unusual that there is no other town exactly like it?  We would be interested to find another for historical and comparison purposes.

After all, the OGCMA is a religious organization with its own goals within the larger universe of Neptune Township and Ocean Grove.  They own 99% of the land in OG and they have political leverage in Neptune Township even though they no longer have official power.  When they governed the town—1869 to 1980, everyone had to follow their rules.

They functioned like a gated community.  They would interview prospective residents and explain that all who were accepted had to follow those rules, many of which were religious based, such as the constraints on many activities on Sundays.

But OG is no longer like a gated community. No one can make laws for Ocean Grove except the elected officials in Neptune.  Of course the CMA can make rules for its own buildings  (like no food in the Great Auditorium and no gay weddings in its chapel.)

Some would say that the CMA can make rules for its public parks and for the beachfront (eg no admittance on Sunday morning.)  But that is questionable since the CMA has officially opened such thoroughfares to the public.

We discovered  a place similar to the OGCMA within the city of Fort Myers, Florida, called Shell Point.  This is a 700 acre community that provides homes and life styles for retirees. Everything within its boundaries is owned by the CMA—the Christian Missionary Alliance.

Unlike the OGCMA, the Alliance owns both the land and all the residences (homes, condos, apartments.)   And, unlike with the OGCMA, everyone who lives in Shell Point has signed a contract to follow all the rules.  So if they say “no alcohol” within their boundaries, then that is what happens, and rule breakers can be forced out, and the city of Ft. Myers stays out of it.

The OGCMA insists on no alcohol sales in town by convincing Neptune to have an ordinance—an actual law, but only in the OG part of town.  So the way that power is exerted, in this regard, is different for these two religious-based communities when compared to each other.   In OG people have alcohol in their homes, on their porches and in restaurants if they are BYOB. They just can’t sell it.

Like OG, Shell Point is bordered by water on 3 sides and they have a large central auditorium where religious events are held.  They also have parking problems.

Governance is by a board that has a mixture of religious and lay people.  Residents do pay some property taxes, but the amount is small and shared with management.  Everything is leased.

Unlike Ocean Grove, Shell Point does resemble a gated community but without gates.  And it is different in other ways as well.

Geographically, the OGCMA is woven into the fabric of life in the Grove, whereas Shell Point’s properties, physical and otherwise, are clearly demarcated by boundaries and this characteristic reduces the chances of clashes within the community at large, as sometimes occur in Ocean Grove.

Overall, we would be hard pressed to find any towns in New Jersey that are comparable to OG, especially the way we have the CMA which is part and yet not part of our town at the same time. So, unlike Shell Point, we do not have a singular sense of community.

At a person-to-person level, an important difference  is that there is considerable overlap of the OGCMA with the secular and diverse residents of Ocean Grove.  And that is where conflicts may occur, as we saw in 2007 during the gay civil ceremony angry exchanges and the fight over Kirk Cameron’s appearance in the Great Auditorium. And now we have the Parking Wars.

In Shell Point, the residents are all on the same page and rarely overlap in important ways with those who live outside their invisible borders.

And unlike with many gated communities and unlike Shell Point, our CMA isn’t able to exert its powers of persuasion within a geographically demarcated zone as it did pre-1980,  and the demographics in OG are now quite diverse.  We are sometimes stepping on each others’ toes, priorities, and life styles.

So Shell Point does resemble Ocean Grove’s CMA in some ways, and that is interesting, but there are differences.

We are still looking for another community where a religious presence like the CMA coexists in a comfortable way with others in town.  We have found no nearly identical community to compare with.

So we are on our own in OG,  trying to find solutions to certain issues, and sometimes that seems insurmountable as with parking.  And that is why parking is about more than parking.

* “Forever Friends” is a 1500 pound stainless steel structure by Douglas Hayes (b. 1968) and donated by a Shell Point benefactor.  The birds have a 10 foot wing span.  The lagoon features manatees which visit regularly.  Shell Point is open to the public and has various races and religions among its residents.

PAUL MOTIAN:    “I Remember You”

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