The Township Committee established a, Parking Task Force in response to the O.G. Home Owner/ Condo Owner Assoc. suggestions on how to cure our parking problems. The voting members of the task force will be the Stake Holders.
However, there are two sides to this Stake Holder coin, with each side of the coin having different aspirations of what the Task Force will recommend to the Committee.
On the head side of this coin is the Township and the OGCMA; with both having a financial stake in shoehorning more condo units into our small Historic District without parking, where parking conditions were already bursting at the seams by the early 1980;s.
The Township, the OGCMA, and the OGHOA do not want to solve our parking problems; they just want to treat the symptoms.
On the tail side of this coin are the rest of us, that just want to preserve Ocean Grove and have a place to park our cars, but we don’t get to vote.
I predict, when the task force flips this coin, it will always come up heads, on the side of making money—–over the historic preservation of our town.
A few months ago, at the public portion of a Committee Meeting, an attorney advised the Committee that “A historic district is a detriment to development.”
I can see where we are heading with all of this.
Jack Bredin
K.D. LANG with a Patsy Cline song:
Summer Rental Concerns: Your comments on the Coaster article (pg 1, July 14th) are well taken, and Ocean Grove must be one of the “other shore towns” mentioned where “zoning laws are NOT IN PLACE OR ENFORCED.”
Although Asbury Park has no room to criticize any other town, it is true that the zoning for OG is NOT IN PLACE OR ENFORCED.
The zoning in OG is like the old wild west in a town without having a marshall.
The planning IS NOT done by the Planning Board. It’s done in an ad hoc fashion by a few developers who get their pet projects approved in advance of filing an application.
The judge in the Kevin Chamber’s case did not recognize this well known concept in zoning law—–that without first having proper planning, you do not have a valid zoning ordinance.
Kevin Chambers was correct. The decision by the court was wrong.
The Planning Board’s professional planners never get the chance to do the planning for O.G. that they have been trained to do. They do as they are told to do by the “Powers that Be,” or they are “out the door.”
This is no way to run a municipality.
Interestingly enough, the city planners in Asbury Park seem to be concerned about taking steps to avoid the issues that plague other shore towns (see Coaster July 14th issue) specifically addressing the summer rentals. They specifically cite “the fear of investors buying properties specifically for seasonal rentals” – a phenomena that is already problematic here.
Some of the concerns of the city planner include: multiple families sharing a rental with multiple cars causing parking issues, absentee landlords, living next to a house that is a revolving door, etc. Rob McKeon, Director of Property Management in AP likened investors buying homes to rent them out to “plopping a business in the middle of residential areas.” Hear, hear Mr. McKeon.
Asbury Park has been so successful, it can be missed. They now suck resources and tax revenues away from Neptune Township, and pull them toward their remarkable transformation.
Ocean Grove is now Asbury Park’s parking lot: a free-for-all. Employees in Asbury Park are not shy, and they call our North-West end, the ____ fill-in-the-blank “parking lot.”
So the question is, are Neptune taxpayers going to permit subsidizing Asbury Park, are are Neptune residents going to assert control over its borders? The problem is real, practical, and in need of a solution.
I think parking permits for all is a solution. Visitors get special treatment — for Ocean Grove events only. Just like a college campus. Let’s go the Monmouth University course.
Awhile back there were some discussions regarding forming a group of concerned citizens/homeowners against future condo development in OG. Some names for the group were even bandied about. Whatever happened to that idea?
Blogfinger, it is your reporting that has been the glue bringing us together to save our town.
Jack: Thank you for setting us straight on the power flow, and I agree with everything you said.
But we should point out that Ocean Grovers worked to earn the historic designations (national and state) for the town, and maintaining those designations requires vigilance.
It is to everybody’s advantage to fight for that goal, including the citizens, the homeowners, the realtors, the Chamber of Commercials, the Home Groaners, the Township Comedy, the CMA, the Historical Society and all other groups in town. That should be the glue that brings us all together to save the town, and commercial development and condominiums are contrary to that goal. —Paul @Blogfinger
The Township Committee has the exclusive authority to “zone” Ocean Grove for the “health, safety, and general welfare” of its residents.
The “power to zone” and create planning and zoning boards comes from the Federal Government to the State under the State’s police powers.
The State then transfers this power to all municipal governing bodies who may share some of this authority with planning and zoning boards, but only the governing body can adopt a zoning ordinance.
The zoning ordinance must be consistent with New Jersey State Land Use Law and Procedures, and that includes the Local Housing and Redevelopment Law and the RSIS parking standards.
The Township Committee has little regard for land use law, and the Planning and Zoning Boards take their cue from the Committee.
This results in a financial benefit to many who have government connections but does nothing to advance the “health, safety, and general welfare” of the remaining residents. The rich get richer and the poor get less parking spaces, and we lose faith in our government—–that is the worst part of all.
Kevin Chambers has been warning about this for years.
I agree with Kevin and I also agree with “Just Stating the Obvious” who reminds us that:
“A historic district is a federally recognized national resource”——that the Neptune Twp. Government is currently undermining.
“…the Task Force is essentially doomed in its mission except for some cosmetic changes, and they might as well return to their usual state of denial regarding the real causes of the mess.” I don’t know why, but I’m still amazed at how we discuss these “real causes” openly here on Blogfinger every day, and yet we never read a word about this from either the Township Committee or the OGHOA. Neither group will publicly acknowledge this truth; and the ones paying the price for their silence are the residents (and soon-to-be former residents).
Speaking of which, here’s another example of how residents are paying the price–literally. When discussing the cost of my move-out with the mover, she e-mailed me,”But parking wise, in Ocean Grove, the earlier [we start the move] the better because if they have to park farther away, it will end up taking them longer to load and add time to your move.” In other words, I may have to pay more just to move out because of the parking situation!
Power to the people. During the last two large scale changes in town, i.e. the 1985 South End condos rejection and then the 1980’s-’90’s snatching Ocean Grove from a fatal downward spiral were initiated by aggressive citizen pressure. The 1980 transfer of power from the CMA to Neptune Township came about as a result of a law suit demanding changes in town governance.
The various organizations which we mentioned are all supposed to represent the people of Ocean Grove, and the Township Committee and its boards should be subservient to the people.
I do feel strongly that protecting the character of this unique town is of paramount importance, and do not get distracted: the Township Committee, the Planning Board, and the Zoning Board are the current decision makers here as far as density is concerned. They are the three agencies that hold the legal reins on this issue, and they are the ones that we need to focus on.
The other groups that you would like to see take more action (the HOA, Historical Society, and HPC) don’t have any legal authority to override the aforementioned three as far as density-based zoning decisions are concerned, though we do all need to come together as a group to protect what we have.
OG is listed in the National Register for its “Community Planning and Development” (as well as “Architecture” and “Religion”). This is the very aspect of our community that the Neptune Twp. government is currently undermining.
Just Stating: I am impressed by your saying that protecting our historic district is an obligation for those who live here. Unfortunately, the elected officials, the HOA and the Historical Society don’t seem to see it that way. You would expect that the CMA also would be concerned with that, but they only seem to focus on their own properties.
The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) stays in its ivory tower where it goes through the motions without really considering the lives of the people in those houses. If it did, it would be a leader in this town fighting the density wars.
I wonder how many towns on the National Register of Historic Places encourage the development of condominiums and pseudo-historic buildings like Mary’s Place.
These “community leaders” are not only failing to promote our town as a community, but they also fail to protect the town’s history. That should be #1 in Ocean Grove.
I don’t know who wrote the master plan, but that emphasized historic preservation. Where did those writers go? And finally, where are the citizens in all this? The last I heard they voted to defeat an anti-condo proposal by Jack Bredin at the Home Groaners’ clubhouse.
—-Paul @Blogfinger
Regarding the lawyer’s comment that “A historic district is a detriment to development,” sometimes doing the right thing to protect someone, or something, is not convenient to those who don’t really care about the damage they cause in their quest for personal gain.
A historic district is a federally-recognized national resource. As Americans we have an obligation to protect it.