Who will care about light, space, air, lifestyles, and history in Ocean Grove? Paul Goldfinger photo. Click to enlarge. ©
That two-story building, #58-60 Main Avenue, has shops on the ground floor and 5 rental apartments on the second floor.
The owner, Sackman Enterprises, of NYC and Asbury Park, wants to add a third floor. They want to renovate the apartments and turn them into five (5) two-bedroom condominiums with one of the bedrooms on the third floor for each unit.
The third floor may be added according to the HD-B-1 historic mixed use zoning. The lot is double, 3,600 square feet (60′ x 60′). The maximum building height is 35 feet. Blogfinger got to review the site plan today at the Municipal Building. Luckily they gave us more than five minutes to study it.
The lawyers for the owner requested that their application be heard by the Planning Board, but there is reason to believe that the correct place would be the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA). That is what the Planning/Zoning office thought in the first place and that is how they initially marked the paper work—–The application and plan have “ZBA” written on them.
But later that department decided to send it to the Planning Board as requested by the applicant’s attorneys. We do not know the dynamics of that decision, but we suspect legerdemain.
The reason that the ZBA would be a proper destination is that the building is non-conforming, and the third floor addition is non-conforming. Only the ZBA can grant the proper variances for the addition and for its use as condominiums.
And part of the problem for approving this project is density. It will increase congestion and parking problems in a part of town where those issues already exist. The Planning Board might not be interested in those aspects, but the ZBA may be.
In addition, an RSIS parking waiver should be proffered if the applicant wants to increase density without offering off-street parking. Of course Neptune Township will likely ignore this Land Use law as they have done for years in approving condominium projects sans parking, all over town.
It seems that the owners want to finesse this project by having it sail through the calm waters of the Planning Board on Wednesday, December 14, 7 pm, in the Municipal Building.
If you are cynical about the way that projects get approved in this town, and if you are resigned to having the citizens of Ocean Grove lose these battles due to the lack of opposition, at least you can be informed. Come to that meeting. You can stand up and ask a question or not, but you may find it interesting to hear the discussion which may actually become heated and thus great fun.
The PB chair is Sharon Davis—–please be kind to our man Jack.
Link to the BF article on this subject 12/3/16. There is a photo of the building:
FRANK SINATRA AND COUNT BASIE:
From the Dec 14 Planning Board agenda:
b. PB16/11 – Linus Holding Corp. – Block 209, Lot 1 – 58-60 Main Avenue – Applicant has submitted an application for Preliminary and Final Major Site Plan approval to add a third-floor to an existing mixed-use structure along with associated improvements. Applicant is represented by Andrew J. Karas, Esq.
Didn’t know if you had seen this. It is from the Planning Board announcement of the meeting.