Neptune dump. This is where the OGNED plan should have wound up. Paul Goldfinger action photo. © 2022.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net
April 17, 2022: In recent years Blogfinger has been relentless in complaining about the plans for Ocean Grove’s North End redevelopment.
We focused on land use laws because those laws, designed to protect towns like OG, were being violated by avaricious groups that were moving to create Asbury Park South at OG’s North End instead of developing a true small-town residential neighborhood that was envisioned in the Master Plan.
Here is our last summary of our concerns which we posted one year ago:
Some comments about the North End Redevelopment Plan. April 9, 2021.
Some of the violations were glaring such as the creation of a “Zone in Need of Redevelopment” which was not needed in the Grove and was contrived to cancel the existing single family zoning in favor of a lucrative multi-use commercial project which would not only be ugly but would cause changes in the essence of the Grove.
And even the HPC declared in 2019 that they were opposed to the Plan. But now the HPC has evidently jumped ship.
No legal/state scrutiny or citizen outrage resulted from our efforts. We paid little attention to the actual architectural elements because we had no site plans to review and we were more worried about the land use procedures which were being tortured by OGNED and Neptune.
In 2015, 7 years after the original North End Plan was approved, Neptune Township, the Home Groaners, and the CMA announced a “revised plan” which was, in our opinion, never properly vetted according to land use laws, and we complained but to no avail. And that is the plan which is now on the verge of coming true in 2022.
Currently, the secret developers called OGNED will be tying up loose ends to satisfy the Neptune Planning Board and the Historic Preservation Commission.
Regarding the latter, we learned at their last North End meeting (2021) that they were being chewed up by OGNED’s lawyer who was tenaciously bullying the HPC for a “Certificate of Appropriateness.”
Now (2022) the HPC is working on architectural details and not on any fundamental changes in the steam roller called the “North End Redevelopment Plan.”
Recently we complained that the HPC has been”hush-hush” in terms of their recent deliberations. We did not know if they would oppose the entire project, as we had hoped based on their 2019 statement, or if they were just fussing over minutiae.
So now we have learned that the HPC will not stand in the way of the OGNED/CMA/NEPTUNE scamalot plan.
We have just obtained a 37 page HPC document* dated 4/13/22 which refers to all the interactions of the HPC tech group with the OGNED “development team” since 4/6/21, including: 2 OGNED architects; developers William Gannon, III and Joel Brudner; Janet Foster, OGNED’s Historic Preservation consultant; Bernard Haney–Land Use Administrator for Neptune township; and Alison Walby, HPC administrator at Neptune Township.
Below is the opening of that 37 page document:
13 April 2022
Dear HPC Members:
Following OGNED’s meetings before the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) on 6 & 27
April 2021, three members—Deborah Osepchuk, Lucinda Heinlein, and Jeffery Rudell—were
asked by Bernie Haney, to meet and offer feedback to the development team on ways their
application (the Plan) could be brought into conformity with the Architectural Design Guidelines.
The Commissioners made themselves available at the applicant’s convenience. OGNED
requested two meetings: 15 September 2021 and 1 December 2021. In preparation for a third
meeting, these Commissioners reviewed the current Plan and prepared feedback. However,
OGNED opted not to meet with Tech a third time.
Besides the three Commissioners listed above, attendees at one or both of these meetings
included, Stephen Carlidge, AIA and Justin Calvert, AIA, of Shore Point Architecture; William
Gannon, III and Joel Brudner, developers; Janet Foster, OGNED’s Historic Preservation
consultant; Bernard Haney, Land Use Administrator, Neptune Township; and Alison Walby,
HPC Administrator, Neptune Township.
In their review of the Plan, Tech weighed the proposed design against the Guidelines…
The document is highly technical and focuses on “bringing the Plan into conformity with the Architectural Design Guidelines.” It is all about the architectural details, and nothing about the fundamental issues which we have raised in the past. I guess that is all we can expect from the HPC which is a tool of the Neptuner Committee.
There is no way that most of we-the-people can make sense of the topics mentioned in the document which include: dormers, gables, towers, turrets, decorative glass, window openings, cornices, transoms, and many other design features including condominium designs, “massing” of townhouses, roof types, and roof projections, etc.
If you attend the forthcoming 4/20/22 HPC ZOOMFEST, you may be bored or baffled.
Clearly WAVE/OGNED and the Township have finally, after 14 years, successfully positioned themselves to turn the Ocean Grove North End into Asbury Park South: a crowded, ugly, pseudo-historic, money-driven mess.
During those 14 preceding years, no attention was paid to the views of the Grove’s dominant citizen group—OG residents, and no attention was paid to the legitimate legal concerns presented on Blogfinger.
Now all that is left is to iron out architectural details with the HPC and to smooth out the feelings of the Neptune Planning Board.
The Blogfinger issues are now left in the dustbin of history.
JACK JOHNSON AND FRIENDS: “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”
“But I got to stop wishing, got to go fishing, down to rock bottom again
Just a few friends, just a few friends”
The MLUL states that every municipality should have every public official sign an affidavit that when presenting any testimony to a Board, that it “will be truthful, complete and as to any opinion I may give in any matter, based on the facts as I understand them and my perception of the public interest in light of those facts.’
This in fact has not been done since the overlay zone of the first two blocks in OG is illegal and in direct violation of Federal and State law. The overlay zone was created illegally in order to allow the Area in Need of Redevelopment.
All testimony that was given in creating these two illegal zones was done to harm and endanger the residents of OG.
For the HPC not to remand the North End application back to the Planning Board puts it in the position of continuing the fraud that has permitted this application to proceed and violates the rights of the residents in OG to fair and legal representation.
Kevin Chambers is correct!
However, the only thing worse than the all Democrat Township Committee, are the voters that keep voting them back into office.
There are two types of land in OG, the OGCMA lots with a 99 year lease that is held in perpetuity. Thre courts have ruled that those leases were only permitted to be zoned single family. Therefore, under Federal and State law, the courts have ruled that all land under the OGCMA can only be zoned single family.
The other land, is the OGCMA property that was not leased out. That included the North End which has always been merged with all their other property including the board walk and beach and the green acres along the lake. The North was never separate lots and never went through any legal subdivision since the OGCMA never formally filed their development in Freehold.
Therefore, the Planning Board could never establish the 5 acres needed by law to create the area in need of Redevelopment.
Not only that, but the Township never held a parking study requiring the OGCMA to meet the states requirement for parking for its facilities nor for the parking required for all the illegal condos the Township permitted in violation of law.
The planners and attorneys are fully aware of this and are fully aware that the whole North End area in need of development is fraudulent and this is why the HPC must remand the application back to the planning board to correct its corrupt rulling.
David I’m not sure what your discussion has to do with our North End topics. Of course zoning has to do with geography. That is how the zoning is separated in Ocean Grove. The North End was zoned in the past for single family homes, and the zoning maps show geographical demarcations. Those maps are widely used as being authoritative.
The Neptune Committee allowed that North End zone to be changed illegally to multi-use so that voracious developers, permitted by the Planning Board and the CMA, with a pat on the head by the Home Groaners, the DEP and the HPC, could ignore the Master Plan and instead permit a multi-use project which is not historic (tents preceded that big 1930’s North End Hotel) and which will create chaos in that part of town, with a ripple effect elsewhere in the Grove. PG
Zoning, as we know it today, originated in New York City in 1916 and has been frequently changed since then. The area where I live consists of 41 seven-level co-op buildings that are surrounded by lawns and gardens. These were constructed on leased ground in the 1950s.
Most of these leases were held by a bank but subsequently sold to a pension fund. The 99-year leases were renewable at the same terms and conditions including a fixed price for the purchase of the lease. Most of the co-ops have since purchased their ground as the real value of the price declined with inflation.
In the 1960s, most of this area was reduced in zoning density with only 4-story row houses now being permitted. In some cases, the new boundaries of the zoning area pass through existing buildings. It would seem that zoning depends more on geographical location than mere ownership of the ground.
I recently completed studies on about 45 major hotels in Ocean Grove. Nearly all of these were subject to fires, demolition, or conversion into condos. Well over 1,600 rooms have been lost over the past century. The motel on Central Ave. was likely the only new facility built in this period.
The Board has a fiduciary responsibility to address the North End in compliance with Federal, State, court rulings, and Neptune’s zoning. Every aspect of this application violates every part of the law.
First, a 1930 court case ruled that every OGCMA lot was held in perpetuity; in other words, nothing can change, either the use or density of any leased lot. All lots are held by law to single family.
Second, since all lots are held and restricted in perpetuity to single family, the perpetuity of the lease also restricts each lot to 2 stories.
Third, Federal and State law demands that all lots in a like zone must be restricted equally under the 14th amendment. In other words, Ocean Grove by law can only permit single family uses, and all other uses are invalid.
Even worse, Neptune has refused to establish a legal lot size requirement for OG. It instead continues using the OGCMA nonconforming lot size in violation of law.
Fourth, The overlay zone that permits condos and hotel uses was created illegally in violation of the 14th amendment because the development of OG is owned entirely by the OGCMA, and therefore the law all uses to single family uses within the OG development.
Fifth, Neptune’s zoning for OG restricts its zoning to 2 stories in the single family zone, and because Federal, State law under the 14th amendment requires all land within a single development like OG be treated equally, then every use must be held to 2 stories.
Because Neptune has created the “Area in Need of Redevelopment,” knowingly in violation of Federal and State law, in violation of clear court rulings and in violation of Neptune’s own zoning, then the HPC must remand this application back to the Planning Board to correct its corrupt and unlawful decision that created the unlawful “Area in Need of Redevelopment.”