The North End, looking toward Asbury Park. Photo by Paul Goldfinger.

By Charles Layton

MONDAY, Feb. 14 — Neptune Township has finally begun what promises to be a long and complicated negotiation with developers of the North End hotel/condominium complex.

Committeeman Randy Bishop said tonight that Township officials got together for the first time last Thursday with representatives of the Camp Meeting Association and its building contractor. It was the first of many meetings, which will extend over many months, to negotiate specific details of the most massive construction project in Ocean Grove’s recent history.

“Of all the redevelopment negotiations I’ve seen, this is the most complex,” Bishop said.

The Township approved the general outlines of the North End plan in March of 2008, but further progress had been stalled by a law suit. In October, 2010, an appeals court dismissed that suit, clearing the way for the project to proceed.

The next step, then, is for the Township and the developers to hammer out what’s known as a Redeveloper Agreement – a legal contract, actually. That agreement will spell out exactly what the developers can and cannot do, including the exact number of condominium units, permitted uses of the property, traffic flow requirements and much, much more.

The developers are the Camp Meeting Association, which owns the 5.6-acre site west of the boardwalk and north of Spray Avenue, and a company run by Ocean Grove developer William Gannon.

The plan approved in 2008 calls for a maximum of 85 residential units — mostly condos but with a few single-family homes — and a hotel with a maximum of 80 rooms. However, that plan leaves many questions unanswered. For instance, although the plan calls for a large underground parking garage, it is unclear how much underground parking the water table will allow. The site lies between Wesley Lake and the Atlantic Ocean.

The site is also problematic because the wall along the lake shore is in such disrepair that it could collapse under the strain of a major building project. Who pays to fix that wall – the Township or the developers – will be part of the negotiations.

Furthermore, because the North End is on the ocean, the developers must meet regulations of the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA); these regulations deal with storm water runoff, pollution, waste disposal, beach deterioration and more.

And, the project is in a Historic District, which brings its own complications.

Residents near the site are dreading the disruptions that are bound to come from such a massive project. How to minimize those inconveniences will surely come up in the negotiations as well.

It is hard to see how all of these issues can be worked out before the latter part of this year.

Although the negotiations will be behind closed doors, the final contract must be enacted as an ordinance. Therefore, as with any ordinance, there eventually will be public notice and an opportunity for citizen input. Given the extraordinary amount of public interest, the Township will likely hold some kind of special public hearing before the contract comes to a vote by the Township Committee.

Bishop and Mary Beth Jahn are the two Township Committee members serving on the negotiating committee. Other township officials, including Business Administrator Philip Huhn and Chief Financial Officer Michael Bascom, will also undoubtedly take part.

The site of the North End has a storied (one could even say calamitous) history. It was, in earlier days, a complex of structures that included a fishing pier, a pavilion and a large hotel. A hurricane destroyed the pier in 1938. The hotel was demolished in 1978. Following that, the site was mostly empty except for a large storage building along Spray Avenue. That building was destroyed in a spectacular night-time fire on September 2, 2008.

The 1978 demolition of the North End Hotel. Photo courtesy Historical Society of OG.