New curb and curb-cut at the northern end of Central Avenue. What is the meaning of this? Click to enlarge the curb-cut and let a truck through. Blogfinger.net photograph. 5/14/17 ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger and Jack Bredin, Researcher @Blogfinger.net
At Blogfinger we have long been suspcious of the North End Redevelopment Plan. Our concerns are multiple, and you can review our many articles on the subject by typing key words into the search box at the top right of this page.
One of our concerns is that there is a secret Master Plan which would create new roadways to make the large NERP project possible. You may recall that the Home Groaners Ass. proposed putting in some roadways near the Founders’ Park west end, supposedly to create some new parking spaces. That ridiculous idea did not (yet) materialize, but we saw it as one piece of a destructive move to turn Lake Avenue into a two way road stretching to the boardwalk.
That could be a part of access and egress roads to and from the North End, also involving Central Avenue and Beach Avenue. You may recall that the Tax Map and even Google Maps have been labeling Lake Avenue at its east end as “Beach Avenue.” We have written about that concern where Lake Avenue, a walkway, could become a roadway.
Currently, Central Avenue is being paved. If you were to walk down to the northern-most end of Central you will see that a new curb and a new curb cut have been installed. Before this there was no curb there; just some grass which a car or truck could ride onto.
So why has a curb cut been installed? Firstly, curb cuts are illegal in Ocean Grove. Secondly, the curb cut opens onto a sort of lot which could accomodate a house, but this is CMA property, and it is part of a much larger lot. It is not subdivided for a house there.
Could it be for trucks and other vehicles to ride onto? Why would that be since there is no roadway beyond that—just the Lake Avenue walkway; and a curb cut is not a way to access a road.
We have requested an engineer’s plan to see if we can learn the purpose of that curb cut.
Any ideas? (See Kevin Chambers comment by clicking below on “comments”)
Even Tony Bennett and Ralph Sharon (and his orchestra) are wondering if this curb-cut might be the start of something big.
Jack, I never said it was a public street. It is an access road on OGCMA property. That curb cut is an access point to an access road that runs along the lake from Pilgrim Pathway to the boardwalk. This access road was utilized by the fire department during the March fire. Another example of this type of access road is found at Mt. Zion, Mt. Pisgah and Front Circle around the tents and Auditorium with access points on New York Ave.
OGTS, the “road loop” was a dirt road on private property.
There wasn’t a curb cut there before because there was not a curb there before this one was installed. The new thing here is the curb.
There has always been an access road there that loops around the park, which in recent history has been used by emergency vehicles. The sign in the picture, which is not new, is the evidence of that. At one time there was a police substation near the bridge and police vehicles would regularly drive through there.
Historically there was a road there that looped around and connected to Pilgrim Pathway as late as the 1930’s. There is a postcard I’ve seen from that time period where this can be seen.
Jay Jay: Much of what we worry about in Ocean Grove occurs in smoke-filled rooms enabled by elected politicians with their own agendas. This lack of transparency endangers the chance for citizens to steer the ship of state in the right direction.
So we stay alert and look for clues to tip us off as to the truth. Power to the people!
Good grief! Now it’s curb cuts! No worries—- that end of town will always be undeveloped by progress. You folks of Neptune Grove worry about every little thing.
Paul
There was never really any curb there before; you could drive up onto the grass with a car, but it never was a legal curb-cut.
What this shows though, is that Lake Avenue is not a street. A curb-cut like that fails to meet the definition of street access. More lies at the Board of Adjustment. Remember, they had to say that Lake Avenue was a street to grant the variances for the Warrington Hotel.
What makes the OGCMA above the law? If the people in OG need a variance to have a curb-cut, then the OGCMA needs a variance for a curb cut for this Central Avenue/Lake Avenue lot that the curb-cut is serving.
The problem is that Neptune refuses to enforce the law equally. They pick and chose whom they will let violate the law and whom they will force to follow the law.
Kevin