Blogfinger

The people of Asbury Park know what to expect from their developers. They meet with their public and they listen.  BF photo

What happens to OG lifestyles if OGNED gets its way at the North End? Blogfinger, July, 2019. ©

Small towns can deteriorate when local representative governments fail the people. Paul Goldfinger; Spring Hope, N.C. 2017 ©

Jack Bredin and Paul Goldfinger.   Blogfinger.net  8/9/19

When the public  last heard about the North End Plan, two OGNED principles appeared on June 22, 2019 at the Home Groaners meeting.  It was an unsatisfying session because the speakers refused to answser certain questions, and that censorship was allowed by the Groaners.   OGNED agreed to the session because they thought that a Redevelopers Agreement, tied up in a bow, would be paraded at the meeting, but that did not happen.

Here is a quote from  our post about that June HOA meeting:

“The biggest news of the morning was that OGNED and the Township have still not signed off on a Redevelopment Agreement, and that is needed before the package goes to the Planning Board. It seems that there still is a tangle of issues to be settled, and OGNED was evasive in explaining all that, hiding behind the “we can’t talk about it” excuse.

Here is a link to that 6/22/19 BF report on that Groaner meeting:

6/22/19 OGHOA meeting about OGNED’s plan

Since then there has been silence–a foggy shroud over the whole topic.

Now the agenda for the August 12 Committee meeting has been published online, and with it is a resolution (#19-289)  which says that there will be a secret meeting  (aka “executive session”) that night.  At the top of the list we find:

“Contract negotiations—OGNED Redevelopment Agreement”

So whatever they will discuss about the North End Plan at the secret session will not be open to the public.

It seems clear that they still do not have a signed Redevelopment Agreement between OGNED and the Township, because if they did, it would be on the open meeting agenda, which it is not.   If they do sign an agreement that night, it will not be made public right away. But whenever it might get signed, it must be made available to the public.

You may recall that this process goes back to 2007 when the Township appointed two redevelopers without ever signing a Redevelopers Agreement.  So technically we should not be witnessing a new agreement when the process for the original one is still open.

We suspect that the CMA is still arguing over ground rents.  After all, if new residential and commercial buildings are built, the CMA would want substantial ground rents, and that would be problematic, especially for new buyers and could even provoke law suits.    Maybe the CMA is getting “cold feet.”  But it is speculation at BF.

So we have no certain information as to what will happen at that secret session on August 12.  As usual, transparency is missing in action.

It’s as transparent as a fog over Fletcher Lake. Paul Goldfinger photo. © Blogfinger.net

If a Redevelopment Agreement is finally signed, it should include site plans, financing data, crucial permits, work schedules, etc, and then the package can go to the Planning Board where the approval would be certain, because who on the Planning Board would do what’s best for residents of OG?

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT IN CARNEGIE HALL: