The worrisome Warrington, rear view, photo by a concerned citizen, one month before the huge fire on March 3, 2017. ©
The Warrington fire site. Just a foundation is left. Note the fence erected after the deluge. Blogfinger photo. 12/1/17. The new house (left) is on the Parkview Hotel site where 4 undersized lots result in skinny houses. Paul Goldfinger photo ©
December 7, 2017. This past year, Blogfinger posted a number of articles under the heading of “The Case of the Worrisome Warrington.” You can do a BF search using the box in the upper right hand corner. But now we are re-posting (below) the last of that series so far, dated March 6, 2017, just a few days after the fire that demolished that derelict building. We want to keep an eye on this situation because it is fraught with concerns regarding Ocean Grove’s future.
The site of the Warrington today remains pretty much as it looked below in the photograph—just a foundation. There was a criminal investigation for arson, but we don’t know the status of that. What we do know is that there has been nothing done with that site.
You can learn a lot about the fate of that devastated location by reading our March post below. But our concern now has to do with whether the owner could possibly build condominiums (the C word) instead of the previously approved boutique hotel (20 hotel units and one apartment in the basement,) or, as with the Manchester site, some single family Victorian homes.
The bottom line now is that all prior approvals/variances are invalid, and the owner would have to go back to a Neptune board and get them again.
So here, “in a nutshell,” is an outline summary of pertinent issues that would certainly slow down or negate any such attempt:
1. The site is landlocked, and no construction should be allowed on such a site.
2. The footprint of the approved hotel is larger than the lot. The CMA allowed an encroachment onto their Lake Avenue property, but was that legal?
3. A subdivision should have been obtained, but was not.
4. The hotel plan was in violation of State Land Use Law in terms of the New Jersey Residential Site Improvement Standards (RSIS.) The number of parking spaces required for condominiums is higher than for a hotel, but regardless, no off-street parking was to be provided.
5. There is no easement to allow connection of the landlocked property over to Seaview Avenue. Owners of destroyed properties over there refuse to sell to the Warrington owner
This outline above is by Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger and Jack Bredin, BF reporter/researcher.
Below is the actual post of March 6. 2017:
The Park View site is next to the La Pierre condos. Next to the PV is the Warrington property along the Lake. Gary Colyer drone. photo. Cropped @Blogfnger.net. 3/3/17
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
March 6, 2017. We had a conversation this morning with Kristie Armour, Secretary to the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA). We thank her for sharing her knowledge about the situation at the Warrington.
As we expected, the final sign-off for the #22 Lake Avenue (Warrington) site plan occurred last week, receiving the blessings of the ZBA Engineer, Chairman, and Secretary.
The process had been going on since 2013 when a conditional use variance was granted to turn the old boarding house into a 20 room boutique hotel with an apartment in the basement. The applicant was Jack Ancona, while the land owner is, according to Ms. Armour, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.
The Warrington had been a hotel on a 3,000 square foot lot. It came under a permitted zoning designation for an old hotel. Later the original use was abandoned, and the State of NJ created a rooming/boarding house zoning designation. Subsequently it got into trouble for its care of unfortunate tenants. and eventually it was closed for any use and was, by definition, a derelict building when it burned down 3 days ago. Contrary to other press reports (APP), it was not scheduled for demolition when it was destroyed.
The approved site plan just finalized last week was to rehabilitate the old building into a new hotel. Now that the site is an empty lot, that site plan is no longer applicable; it does not authorize a new, from scratch, construction hotel.
That might become possible later, but the developer would have to go back to the ZBA for new use and bulk variances.
However, such approval is not guaranteed. For one thing, the zoning at that location requires that a new hotel be on a 10,000 square foot lot. Even if the developer could acquire the sites of the two lost cottages adjacent, it might not be large enough.
Also the Planning Board might have to get involved to look at the permitted use situation for a new hotel, before any variances are considered by the ZBA. Maybe the Township would consider turning those properties into single-family zoning with fire safety in mind.
After all, they have already approved four undersized lots on the adjacent Park View Hotel site where the houses would be crammed together, creating fire safety concerns along with questions about air, space and light.
And, there are still questions about building a hotel on a land-locked lot, with the attendant concerns that we have raised before about access from Seaview Avenue, parking, encroachment onto CMA property, easements, and other land use issues previously discussed on Blogfinger (just search in the box above under “Warrington.”)
And what is the role of the Camp Meeting Association–the presumed land owner–as all this plays out?
YO-YO MA “Silk Road” from his album Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Philip Orton, suburban sprawl started after WW II putting an end to the world you would like to go back to.
I would like to go back too, but in this part of New Jersey, that world ended in the 1950’s, and we can’t go back.
Phil: Stokes did not create zoning—that came later. But he does get credit for creativity in planning the layout of Ocean Grove. And as for your fairy tale image of the town, there is no way that could be “restored.” People want to drive everywhere and they wouldn’t take your advice to ride trains.
And besides, with current zoning, more hotels would be illegal under MLUL, and hotels are not much of an investment these days. The owner of the Manchester Inn on Ocean Pathway made that quite clear when he began his application for condominiums before a massive fire destroyed his building. And then, at that site, there were new Victorians built, not another hotel. And that is what should happen with the Warrington.
Paul
By the way, have you seen the new Hotel Asbury, and another one is due in A. Park in that big building currently under construction over there. It’s unlikely that we will ever see the planned hotel at the North End.
I personally don’t see any special value to the original zoning created by Stokes.
I prefer restoring the view that existed for most of the 20th century- grand Victorian hotels side by side and within a comfortable 5-10 minute walk up the lake directly to the train station for tourists (no parking needed).
Dr. Carol, as you have suggested, the Warrington lot and every other lot on that block was originally reserved for single-family houses by Dr. Elwood Stokes in 1879.
The yellow house is an example of the vision Dr. Stokes had for the entire block, and in fact, for the entire “North End.”
If Rev. Stokes were alive today I am sure he would thank you for your thoughtful comment, and wonder, what went wrong?
That site would be a spectacular lot for a single family home if some kind of easement exists so they can walk in from Sea View. Or (I know this is unlikely but let me dream!) maybe combine this lot with the Park View site and make 5 correctly sized lots, with the Lake Ave. properties sharing an easement/walkway from Sea View.