Will all this North End nonsense get our town back on some magazine cover in the future?

By Paul Goldfinger and Jack Bredin, Blogfinger.net.

Richard Williams is the Vice-President of the OGHOA.  At the July 9, 2018 Neptune Township Committee meeting, he got up during the public portion and asked if the Committee would approve the “scaled-down” version of the North End Redevelopment Plan which has been mentioned in the past by Randy Bishop, by the CMA, by the HOA, and recently by the CMA President Michael Badger.

Catch up with our most recent posts on this topic:   Scroll down to the July 9 post and also click on this link.    Nonsense about the North End Plan

So the Township Attorney, Gene Anthony,  had to set this HOA representative straight.  He told Williams that there is only one approved plan, and that is the original, dated 2008.  All the talk about a “scaled down” project is currently nonsense as BF pointed out before.  But Richard Williams pressed on, revealing that he doesn’t understand the process of areas in need of redevelopment in New Jersey.

However, Joan Venezia, representing the HOA North End Committee, recovering from the last befuddled conversation about this at the June 11 meeting  (see Link above)  once again asked, during the public portion,  if there was any progress with the North End Plan.

Vito Gadaleta, the Township Business Manager, responded and said that although a meeting involving the Township had been held with developers, no progress was achieved, and that he and the Mayor were clashing with those developers regarding who gets to decide what will be built.  This revelation is crazy, because only the unchangeable approved plan (2008) should define what should be built.

So, it seems that the Township’s North End Plan involvement is coming apart as it tries to deal with the current developers.    Why don’t Gadaleta and Mayor Nicholas Williams tell us whom they are negotiating with and why they are debating the content of the plan?

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Committeeman Kevin McMillan spoke up and asked why the Township cannot function as the Redevelopment Entity so that it could get what it wanted without fighting with the current supposed Redeveloper.   (Ocean Grove North End Development LLC. )

McMillan’s suggestion sounded like a totally fine, out-of-the-box solution which would be legally feasible for this public Re-development  Project.  But, instead of a pat on the back, McMillan was chastised by Gadaleta and the Mayor and was shut down immediately after asking his question.  McMillan’s question  seemed to us to be the first intelligent statement to come out of the Committee in months regarding the North End Redevelopment Plan.

JACK JOHNSON  “Anything But the Truth.”

“What is this place, who am I
Why did we come here
What is this place, who am I
Why did we come here”