Rotten supports under the Great White Whale. March 7, 2016. Jean Bredin photo Blogfinger staff ©
Blogfinger special report. March 7, 2016. By Paul Goldfinger, Editor and Jack Bredin, researcher @Blogfinger.
The big white building on the beach at the North End is called the Pavilion by some and the Homestead Building by others.
We call it the Great White Whale. This past summer Randy Bishop announced that the building would contain 4 stories in the future including condominiums, an auditorium and a banquet hall. Later he disavowed that announcement.
There have been concerns about that building in terms of whether such a usage would be legal. Construction on New Jersey beaches is under the watchful eyes of the State DEP, and only recreational uses are allowed.
You may recall that the back of the restaurant collapsed after Sandy, and some wondered about the adequacy of the re-built portion. New construction standards have been developed for shore buildings post Sandy. FEMA is paying for the current North End boardwalk project, but no one that we know has seen the plans as submitted to FEMA.
The new North End Boardwalk was supposed to be widened to 35 feet in front of the Whale during the boardwalk reconstruction going on now. You will recall that macadam had been used temporarily and that wood rather than Trex is planned for some portions of the North End boardwalk because of NERP uncertainties at this time.
Recently we reported that work had stopped at the North End boardwalk.. We don’t know what happened since then, but today we are informed that work has stopped again because the underlying supports under that building are rotted, and the integrity of the building is in question.
Engineers have to evaluate the situation, but so far there are no public announcements and no details. This condition has already raised serious concerns about the future of the Great White Whale. The State will undoubtedly be looking at this, and probably also FEMA. Who is responsible for this sloppy mess?
LINKS TO PRIOR POSTS ABOUT THE WHALE.
http://blogfinger.net/2015/06/17/the-tale-of-the-great-white-whale-on-the-og-boardwalk/
DEL McCOURY with the PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND “Careless Love.”
Jason, The Mission Statement of the OGCMA is to provide a place for spiritual birth, growth, and renewal, the rest is up to the Township Committee.
The North End was zoned single family. However, the property could not be developed because the Township failed to provide the necessary municipal streets.
The Township then took control of the property and told them what to develop—-High-density condo development that would result in extracting an exorbitant amount of taxes.
If anyone has a problem with the North End Plan or other condo developments, your questions and complaints should be directed to the Township Committee and their cohorts running the Ocean Grove Homeowners Association.
In reading about the OGCMA on this thread and others on Blogfinger, I’m trying to figure out what their foundational motives are. Clearly, they support the spiritual life of the town via a variety of sponsored activities. Beyond that, I don’t understand what they want.
Are they simply about making as much money as possible, thus their support for a densely constructed North End? And their silence on other projects that increase the density from the zoned single family houses? Do they care about quality of life issues such as parking? It does not seem like it as they have been silent on the RSIS issue? They are secretive and apparently do not care about their face to the public.
Can anyone explain what drives this organization? Surely there must be someone on this blog who is ex-OGCMA who can explain their worldview? It’s almost like they are some form of a secret society like the Masons.
Jack Bredin – Thank you for all your intelligence.
When I jog past that building, without conscious thought, or voluntary actions, I jog faster, and faster! Suddenly, without warning or regret, I think there may be a place of justice and peace for nuclear weapons.
Oh My: Construction of one section of the Boardwalk project stopped because large jetty rocks found under the sand by the Pavillion building were preventing piles to be driven to their proper depth. That is a separate issue.
There is something bizarre about that hideous building. It looks very weak and cheap, empty, Third-World and creepy. I think it is just a very low-quality, flimsy, thin-wooded house of cards. It has a ruin-like second floor, no real tenants, except for “Cheap Plastic Beach Stuff From China,” or whatever the store’s name is. It is strange that we have such a ruin-like venue, when as soon as you walk through the Casino into Asbury Park, you are in the First World again.
For some inexplicable reason, workers are STILL making Sandy repairs, and it looks no better than BEFORE Sandy. Stuck in time?
So when they were busy doing all of that illegal work they never bothered to look at something as basic as the foundation? It’s no wonder that people question WAVE’s ability to properly execute a large North End construction project.
We’ll bring our sealed travel mugs just in case.
Um … isn’t the boardwalk a public project with FEMA funding? Isn’t the pavilion a privately funded project? Why should the public project be stopped by a private venture? Something just doesn’t seem ‘Kosher’ here.
Regardless of who owns the land in OG, the beach is reserved (not zoned) by the DEP for recreation. The North End Pavilion, was always permitted on the Beach, without fronting on a street, and all the commercial uses in the building, like a restaurant, or a fudge shop were and still are permitted.
However, residential use on the Beach was prohibited. The Township, relying on the Planning Board’s ‘discovery’ that the Boardwalk was a municipal roadway (it’s not) and an illegal subdivision of the Pavilion property, they then zoned the Pavilion property, that was reserved for recreation, to a non-permitted COMMERCIAL and RESIDENTIAL zone, permitting condo developments on the beach. This was all done without DEP approval.
The last conceptual plan for the Pavilion included 2 upper floors of condos. Randy Bishop said, ” That was a mistake.” The ‘mistake’ was showing the plan to the public; the zoning is still in place.
The support beams are rotting under the Pavilion, along with the zoning ordinance that supports the NERP.
Enjoy your cup of Java; the ocean will be in shortly for your second cup.
When my wife and I walked by on Saturday work was continuing in preparation for opening a food court in the old Homestead Restaurant location. It looks like good progress has been made on the interior. We’re looking forward to having a cup of coffee and watching the ocean out of the those large windows. It will be very sad if they had to stop work.
Radar: The CMA has always been silent about its internal agreements and strategies. They know that the door is open if they wish Blogfinger to post any information about them, but don’t hold your breath. They were cooperative with BF during the FEMA saga, but that era is over.
The North End property may have already been sold to WAVE. No information on that has leaked out.—Paul
Primary reason WAVE (AKA local builder Gannon) and Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association wanted North End designated as an area in need of redevelopment was to suspend application of local township zoning code to the North End to which the rest of us are subject.
The contract establishing the relationship between the two was adopted by the Camp Meeting board years ago and has never been made public.
No doubt the Camp Meeting is owner of the land. It owns all our land. So a call to Bill Bailey employed by the Camp Meeting to be in charge of facilities, grounds, beaches, etc. will probably answer why the current mess. He’s a nice guy.
The top executive, JP Gradone , may also wish to respond since he has shared data with Blogfinger in the past in terms of Camp Meeting being a caring benevolent “landlord.”