By Paul Goldfinger and Jack Bredin. Blogfinger.net
This is what the HPC said in their report of 11/13/19:
“The proposed plan does not demonstrate an in depth understanding of or regard for, Ocean Grove’s character and the need to preserve the town’s ‘sense of place,’ established in its plan.”
OGNED PLAN: 40 room hotel, 49 condos (in two buildings,) 10 single family homes on Spray Avenue, 7,000 square feet of retail on the boardwalk, underground garage on top of which will be built condos and homes, 140 car spaces in the garage for residents only, and 13 surface spaces.
Utilities are available. Homes will cost over $1 million each; condos will start at $800,000.
November 13, 2019. Neptune Township Municipal Building. Planning Board Meeting:
The Planning Board meeting went on for hours, yet the testimony by the developers’ professionals, such as the architect and the engineer, was incomplete. Others did not get their turn.
The room was crowded. The content consisted mostly of technical discussions, for example how many parking spaces will be on Spray Avenue and how will ground water be handled?
Questions were allowed from the audience, but only 5 minutes at a time, and the part where citizens can offer opinions was not allowed–only questions related to professional testimony were permitted, such as what is the angle of the driveway into the subsurface garage?
Those citizens who went to the mike were mostly concerned with their personal issues, especially parking on their streets near the project. A few members of the HOA asked questions, but they did not identify themselves as HOA officials. There were a few angry confrontations between citizens and the Board.
But the big picture, as enunciated by the HPC report conclusion above, was not addressed.
The most worrisome episode during the meeting, was at the beginning when the HPC was attacked before their report was distributed–it never was distributed.
The first one to preemptively strike the HPC was the Township Engineer, LeAnn Hoffman, who, in a hit-and-run appearance before the Board, certified that the new North End Redevelopment Site Plan is “consistent with” the original Plan of 2008. The process requires that the two plans be “consistent” with each other.
Hoffman’s hit-man appearance was designed to add Township credibility to OGNED’s lawyer, Jennifer Krimko, who would appear next in order to make the same assertion.
Why would that assertion be important? It’s about depriving freedom of speech to criticize the new plan. Do you recall when OGNED wouldn’t allow certain questions to be asked at the HOA meeting? Evidently, OGNED does not want the HPC report to see the light of day.
According to Krimko, that “fact” of consistency was unassailable and would “supersede” whatever the HPC had to say. Krimko said that “the HPC cannot judge the consistency of the two documents.”
In other words, she thinks that the HPC should not be allowed to complain about the details of the new plan, especially regarding the design elements, which is what the HPC report is all about. She also said that the “Planning Board cannot complain about the details” either.
According to her, “All challenges are foreclosed.”
In addition, while she was nailing another spike into the heart of the HPC, she said that the HPC “is too late to challenge the plan based on Ocean Grove history. They should have done that in 2008.” She also said that the “HPC may not now offer a statement.”
She stated that by signing the Redevelopers Agreement, the Governing Body (Township Committee) ignored the HPC concerns, and that the signing ends all further discussion about plan details.
But the 9-point HPC report was released only yesterday, so we suspect that the Township Committee and the Planning Board are ignorant of the HPC report. (see link above)
So this flagrant attempt to aggressively preemptively shut down the HPC before it has a chance to speak is a vicious tactic to stifle their free speech, and we resent that, regardless of the legal niceties.
The HPC should have gone to that meeting with their lawyer, and the Planning Board Chair should have expressed her outrage at this horrid lawyerly maneuver to suppress the citizens of Ocean Grove. And by the way, how many of the Planning Board members are from Ocean Grove? Does that board have any built-in biases?
We believe that the new Plan seriously and illegally disregards elements of the old. For example, regarding the HPC, the original NERP says, “The Township Committee shall consider the HPC comments.” (it says “shall” not “may”)
And there are other elements which are not consistent with the original NERP, and that consistency is necessary for the Board to approve the new Plan.
Here is a quote from the HPC: “The site plan does not follow the historic site plan. This is contrary to the mandate of the Redevelopment Plan that the site be developed in accordance with the Period of Significance (late 19th and early 20th century.) Instead it follows the 1930’s development of the North End.”
Because there are inconsistencies with 2008 as well as other standard procedure deficiencies, the PB should not give final approval to this plan. Why rush the process?
This OGNED plan is a conceptional plan and should not therefore receive final approval by the Board. At Blogfinger we think that final approval should not be given to a conceptual plan.
More to say from Blogfinger:
a. The Township Committee should have sent an official letter to the PB containing the HPC report. So, 11 years after the original document, this current Committee should have considered the current HPC report. If the developer can freely change the specifications from 2008, then why can’t the HPC offer an updated opinion?
b. The Township Clerk should have received a schedule of completion of the project and performance guarantees from the developer, and then forwarded them to the Board. Did he?
c. How can this be approved without DEP (environmental protection) approval, currently absent.
d. What about the assertion by the Township that the 3+ acres plan consisting of 4 parts (hotel, condos, retail and houses,) should be considered a single lot with no subdivisions?
In 2008, this was a 5 acre plan—-a minimum size that was required for Redevelopment Zones. It included the White Whale site, but that is now gone.
So now, in 2019, clearly this part of the 2008 plan is different and not consistent. Is the Revelopment designation still applicable?
And Lake Avenue is a lot and not a street. It needs to be subdivided. The site plan calls it “Wesley Lake Promenade”—a fanciful name, but the official name on the Tax Map is still Lake Avenue, despite what Google maps say.
And the east side parcel (which burned down) should be subdivided since it is not.
e. Why was lawyer Krimko allowed to give testimony without being sworn in? She was doing a lot of interpreting of the new plan. When the minutes are published they should reveal all that she had to say.
f. Why is the Planning Board rushing this process along? This truly is like a freight train. We doubt that the members of the Planning Board saw this site plan and studied it before this meeting. The site plan was handed out to some of the audience mid-way in the meeting. This is sloppy.
g. The Board should have a written report from the Township Planner and a written report from the Planning Board Engineer, Peter Avakian; and from the Town’s pool of special environmental engineers.
h. Where are the easements under the boardwalk which would be needed to bring utilities over to the eastern parcel when that is developed. That concern is stated in the 2008 version. Another inconsistency.
i. Now that the White Whale has burned down, the original 2008 NERP, which included that parcel, must be revised in the new Plan including provisions from 2008 regarding off street parking which need to be revised; and the east parcel is no longer nonconforming—another example where the old and the new plans cannot be identical.
And what about the fact that the eastern parcel is not on a street? NJ law requires that new construction be on a street. And they will eventually need an easement to allow access to the eastern parcel for deliveries, garbage collection, etc. Where is that addressed in the new site plan? It is found in the old one.
j. What about the fire lane which is Lake Avenue? When a big firetruck enters Lake from Bridge, it would then come east on Lake; how can it turn around at the end?—It cannot.
The PB needs to get an official statement from the Fire Department after they review this new site plan.
k. How can all parties quickly review the complex site plan when it is dated Nov 13—just released?
l. How can the PB approve a plan which has parking for new residents and businesses, but no provisions for tourists, guests, families, employees, pre-existing neighbors, or customers? The lawyer says that customers will only be beach-goers, but that is nonsense.
M. Where is the traffic impact study? Has the Board looked that over?
N. What about the ground water pipe from Wesley Lake that discharges into the ocean? The new development will dump its dirty ground water into the Lake. Who has promised that the system will work and be maintained? That should be in writing.
The developers’ engineer said that dumping that water into the ocean is “a good thing” because “you can’t flood the ocean.” He also claimed that the pipe contains a “water quality device,” but nobody knows if it actually works or how it works. Should we trust this developer to care about the environment?
O. The HPC only just released its report yesterday. The HPC Chairperson was present at this meeting, but she had nothing to say. She is welcome to make a statement on Blogfinger.
Note: The next session of the Planning Board will continue the process on December 11.
KEVIN KLINE. “Experiment” from the movie De-Lovely
Blogfinger: The answer is “Yes, of course” to your question about people making negative comments on both sides of an adversarial legal matter.
Am I wrong to assume that most of the negative comments about Ms. Krimko on this post have come from fellow homeowners? I thought that by sharing a personal experience as a homeowner, it might reinforce the point that yes, you might not like her or her behavior now, but should you find yourself in a tough situation like we did, she’s the one to call in mho.
JW.. Thank you for your comment attesting to the competence of Ms. Jennifer Krimko, “land use attorney,” and your sharing your personal experience with her.
But your story isn’t relevant now. Our article “Preemptive strikes at the Planning Board….” covers the events at that meeting, and most of what Blogfinger said about Ms. Krimko, the lawyer for OGNED, consists of direct quotes of hers that we jotted down as she spoke.
Although we didn’t like some of her tactics and objectives, particularly her efforts to block the HPC report from being heard, we did not question her competence and we understood that she was representing her client’s interests. She was the face of OGNED at the session, so being “tough” must be part of her persona in public.
>. I actually admired her public persona, even though I didn’t like what she was promoting.
There were some readers’ comments referencing her, but the reviews there were mixed.
Don’t you agree that in an adversarial legal matter, there may be some people who might make “negative comments” about the legal representation on both sides ?” In the case of our post, none of it was personal. I never even met her.—-Paul @Blogfinger
Regarding the negative comments about attorney Jennifer Krimko, I pose the following question to OG homeowners:
What if you were in a situation where you needed a tough land use attorney to present your case? As homeowners whose home remodeling project was shut down midway over a dispute on whether or not we followed agreed-upon HPC guidelines. I’m grateful that we sought out Ms. Krimko to represent us at walk throughs of our project and a contentious HPC heariing where it was determined that we were in compliance all along.
Lady Bird,
Jennifer Krimko is an excellent Land Use Attorney. Any Developer big or small, would be lucky to have her represent them.
If OG residents have a problem with the North End plan as I do, look no further then the Township Committee in general, and Mayor Rizzo in particular.
The Mayor signed the Redevelopment Agreement , not Jennifer Krimko.
I am speechless. All of the above contributions to a discussion of this issue are valuable, thought out, and show the obvious disgust with this atrocity that is being put upon us.
We home owners have lost our hold on our own little town. It’s hard to pinpoint who is in charge and who is running the show. But it’s clear they are driven by money, not maintaining a charming town. It’s infuriating to think of even MORE traffic on our few streets heading to this new “hotel” and condos. Not to even mention they may be very sorry with the first Nor’easter once the building begins or is completed.
All I can say is, greed is the root of all evil, and if we had strength in numbers we should take turns legally standing there with signs. We had the television stations here once before when we had had ENOUGH (the hotels housing the mental patients and parolees). When will we feel we’ve had “enough”?
Fuming
Jennifer Krimko, how do you sleep at night?
Ms. Krimko, how is Planning Board’s consideration of the HPC document “legally inappropriate”? The HPC is an advisory board to the Planning Board. This is taken directly from Neptune’s Land Development Ordinance:
The HPC shall have the following powers, duties and responsibilities…
“To advise and assist Township officers, employees, boards and other bodies, including those at County, State and Federal levels, on all matters which have potential impact on the historic buildings, places and structures in the Township or on the physical character and ambiance of a historic district.”
Ms. Krimko said, “Uncle ‘Diddy’ Joe Krimko took exception with the redevelopment process as a means to develop the property, not the project itself.”
With all due respect to the late, great Mayor Joe Krimko, that sentence makes no sense.
If he were opposed to the redevelopment process, then the “project itself” would not be possible, because the Zone in Need of Redevelopment provided the mixed use zoning that the developers would need for condos, stores, etc.
Without that special redevelopment zoning, the Camp Meeting Association would have been left with the pre-existing single family home zoning only, a desired result that would have been better for the people of Ocean Grove and in line with the Master Plan.
The project is required to obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness from the HPC, like every other project—-after the site plan process is complete. The Planning Board’s consideration of the HPC report was legally inappropriate.
And as an FYI…Uncle “Diddy” Joe Krimko took exception with the redevelopment process as a means to develop the property, not the project itself. He was my biggest fan and greatest advocate, and if he believed in life after death, he would be cheering me on…nor rolling in his grave.
Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving to you all.
Although I was only an Ocean Grove homeowner for a year — I soon realized that the lack of parking was incompatible with my degenerative osteoarthritis (just had a knee replacement last week)
Even I can see that these design images don’t much resemble historic Ocean Grove. As Blogfinger suggests, the designs look like an extension of Asbury Park; they remind me of that overbuilt Pier Village in Long Branch.
I hope that there are enough Ocean Grovers who still think it’s important to preserve the unique qualities that set Ocean Grove apart from most other Jersey Shore towns. To me, these designs don’t appear to capture the special charm and unique spiritual character of the town.
The study and planning for the North End were done in 2006-2007.
At this point in time, the job of the Planning Board is to simply determine if the redeveloper prepared a plan that is consistent with the 2008 plan.
The Township Committee, the Planning Board, and all their experts had 11 years to study this as the plan evolved.
A blind man could see that the 2 plans are not consistent, in ways that are very problematic.
The HPC is correct, and the present plan should be dismissed.
And while we are pointing fingers at do-nothing groups, where is the Historical Society of Ocean Grove? I guess they’re playing house at the Centennial Cottage, but why aren’t they getting involved now that the rubber is hitting the road regarding historic preservation in the Grove. What do they think about the HPC conclusions and the OGNED Travesty.
Is it possible they only care about historic Grove if it involves their narrow vision which includes the museum, women’s history, house tours, and postcards?
Where are they on the big questions currently at stake here? How about a forceful letter to the Planning Board? How about picketing the Mother Ship? How about letters to the editors of the Coaster and Blogfinger? They should put on their big boy pants and do something.
And then there is the CMA. Except for the historic buildings which they cherish, they have shown little interest in the people who actually live in town including those who have spent fortunes turning their old houses into historical reproductions—accurately done so that the HPC would be pleased and so tourists can google and oogle them as they take our parking spaces and wander the town and photograph our homes.
The CMA seems to like being in historic O. Grove, but now they are an intrinsic part of the OGNED transformation of our North End into Asbury Park South.
They forgot that the North End used to be a place where Methodists lived in tents and practiced the Camp Meeting philosophy and where the Master Plan chose single family homes—ie a neighborhood, not an expensive housing project.
Those of us who have been around for a while remember that the HPC did speak out against the original plan in a public meeting about 10 years ago, but none of their objections were addressed. The Township appears to be arbitrary in how it chooses to enforce historic guidelines.
Now that we all have seen the site plan, I want to add that this project is ugly.
I look at that picture and get nauseous. It is almost as ugly as the developers name: OGNED.
And I bet that the HPC is stating its true opinion now even if they don’t think they can win, because years from now they will have plausible deniability. No one will want to claim ownership of that project–just like the Greek Temple on Ocean Avenue which is a first cousin to this mess.
RRS Your comment is undoubtedly echoed all over town. I heard the same thing at an OG dinner party one week ago.
The developers of the new North End Redevelopment Plan (OGNED) should have to accept the ruling by the HPC just as we all have to. It is said that the HPC has no real power, but whatever their actual power is, it should be the same for all applicants to that Commission.
There is a massive double standard occurring here.
If the Home Groaners really represent the citizens, they should have already filed a law suit. They are a useless weak-kneed organization.
As Curmudgeon said, “…in order to get serious about opposing this, the situation will require a legal challenge.”
—-Paul @Blogfinger.
I will be very interested to see how this proceeds.
Can OGNED (the developer) and the Township Planning Board seemingly ignore HPC input while the rest of us in OG must submit applications and seek approval not only for new construction, but for exterior color changes, home improvements like new windows, screen doors, replacing cracked sidewalks etc. and must incorporate any and all HPC recommendations and resubmit revised plans?
Allan Sherman………Perfect!
Blogfinger is correct. Ms. Krimko is part of the problem. Curmudgeon were you to at the meeting? Her tone and demeanor towards both the Planning Board and citizens in attendance, was deplorable. I have never heard an attorney address an official body the way she did Wednesday night.
I found it ‘interesting’ that while much of the audience was taken aback with her over-aggressiveness, the head of the Planning Board (didn’t catch name) practically kissed Krimko’s behind. It was quite a circus to witness.
Curmudgeon: Thank you for your comment, but Krimko the lawyer is not some messenger who is not responsible for how she conducts herself at the Board. Blogfinger reported on what she said, and that news is available nowhere else.
We also were critical of her performance as she aggressively tried to find legal loopholes to prevent the HPC from testifying. I guarantee that the people of Ocean Grove want the HPC to be heard, and, regardless of her legal tap dancing, it is wrong of her to try to deprive them of presenting their report. Lawyers are supposed to favor “equality before the law” as an ethical prerogative.
If the Planning Board was not supposed to consider the HPC comments, then why did the Township put them on the meeting agenda for that night? And why did the Township give the same document to the Homeowners?
Jennifer Krimko is not the problem here – her client is the problem. She is just the lawyer representing the developers proposing this evil. But it is a great example of who runs local government in New Jersey – the developer, their lawyer, and the crooked town council. Taking shots at Krimko won’t do anything, and in order to get serious about opposing this will require a legal challenge.
Joe Krimko is rolling in his grave. Shame on his niece for selling OG out. Pure evil.
Have they never heard of a Nor’easter or even coastal hurricane? Tidal flooding remains a big issue.
Forecasts for the coming season say 3 expected this year. All it takes is one big storm coordinated with a full or new moon to wreck havoc to any coastal development, especially in vulnerable areas like the North End. They are now stronger and more frequent.
What measures will the developers use to mitigate this all too frequent and unfortunate, extreme weather event?
Joe Krimko, former Mayor, seemed to give a damn about OG. Jennifer Krimko has represented interests that are designed to destroy the OG we all know and love. She represented the Warrington Boutique Hotel project, a prospective drug rehab facility near the boardwalk, and now the OGNED.
I attended the meeting tonight, if you need a definition for rape, all you have to do is look at the North End Plan.
Kevin Chambers