These notes are quoted from the Application dated August 30, 2016 acquired from an anonymous source today after we posted the editorial and the poll:
Application Attachment: Sprout Health Group LLC (“Sprout”) seeks to purchase the Laingdon Hotel in order to provide transient lodging accommodations to clients who utilize the services of our New Jersey counseling center,* Advanced Health and Education (“Advanced”) located at 3 Corbett Way in Eatontown. There would be no change to the exterior of the hotel, and the interior will remain largely unchanged except for renovations to the existing kitchen and dining area and decorative changes such as painting and new furniture.
The Neptune Township Land Development Ordinance defines a “hotel” as follows:
“A facility offering transient lodging accommodations to the general public and providing additional services such as restaurants, meeting rooms, entertainment and recreational facilities and so constructed that access and egress from rooms to the outside passes a control desk.”
Sprout intends to operate a hotel within the aforesaid definition, with one exception. The hotel will not be open to the general public, but rather will be limited to those clients enrolled in Advanced’s off-site program.
Guest stays will be limited to no more that 30 days. There will not be any counseling or medical services provided on site. Guests are not permitted to bring vehicles to the hotel, and transportation is provided for them on a daily basis by Advanced’s guest service company, Seaside Guest Services. Moreover, guests are not allowed visitors on site. Therefore the parking demand is significantly less than that of a hotel that is open to the general public.
Additional Notes:
“Sprout Health, LLC, is a Delaware registered company with corporate offices at Three Corbett Way, Eatontown, NJ 07724.
The “landowner,” listed separately from the “applicant” is Hans Kretschman.
There is a Traffic and Transportation Consulting Report sent to the Neptune Township Zoning Board of Adjustment dated August 16, 2016 which verifies that this proposal will “generate a lesser traffic/parking impact on local roadways in the area than the current 18 room hotel.”
There is a “Community Impact Statement” commissioned by “Sprout Health Group LLC of 8 Ocean Avenue in Ocean Grove” dated August, 2016. It says, “The findings indicate that the proposed use will not result in any significant negative impacts to the surrounding community or the overall Township of Neptune.”
Neptune Zoning Review Notes say, “The applicant is not proposing to continue the preexisting Nonconforming Hotel use. The proposed does not comply with the Land Development Ordinance definition of a Hotel.
Zoning Board of Adjustment review and approval is required (September 15, 2016)
*The document says that the “counseling center is for substance abuse.”
I agree with your comments completely.
The additional information regarding the Sprout Application provided in this post would seem to put a glow on the plan.
However, even if this rehab facility is quiet, uncrowded, well run, safe, and lovely, it still represents a precedent of allowing all sorts of commercial or medical endeavors to open in this town which is supposed to be essentially a residential community.
It is a precedent which defies what the citizens want for their town and it perpetuates zoning manipulation and defiance of RSIS parking standards.
That’s why it should be vigorously opposed by those who want to see Ocean Grove follow its historic mandates and its Master Plan which supports the Grove as a historic community. We’ll see what the poll shows.