A portrait of the North End from one year ago. Blogfinger photo.
Paul Goldfinger and Jack Bredin, Blogfinger.net. 7/12/23. Ocean Grove, NJ
The Home Groaners are like the Oz lion—no courage. They have failed in their job which is to be activists for the citizens of Ocean Grove over the last 16 years.(2007-2023—the span of the North End Plan.) Despite their bragging about their supposed contributions in opposing the North End plan, they have totally failed to stop the slowly moving steam roller called the North End Redevelopment Plan.
If you read their current “North End Report” (OGHOA.org,) a certain degree of skepticism regarding their truths is essential. What they say in that “historical background” is self serving baloney. And that’s why we call them the “Home Groaners.”
But you should read their report regarding their “contributions.”
That “overview” reveals their naivety and their superficiality. It shows that they know nothing and care nothing about important aspects regarding this topic including: Neptune politics, developers agreement, parking ripple effects, damage to lifestyles at north end neighborhoods and beyond, land use law, OG demographics, RSIS rules, concerns in Trenton, failure to obtain bids by developers, concerns about A. Park development at our border, ignoring the Master Plan, expanding ambitions of the CMA, possible politician corruption, OG zoning issues especially at the NERP zone, renaming the lake, condofication, rental and real estate markets, Wesley Lake pollution, compromise of ocean views, air and light, and more.
As for the HPC court case now, Jack Bredin says that the HPC jurisdiction in these matters has expired. The HOA focuses on the HPC, but, as Peggy Lee says, “Is that all there is?”
In addition they say nothing about Blogfinger which has has kept Grovers informed about all the complex, controversial and difficult issues surrounding the North End. They have failed to credit Blogfinger which has continuously brought to the forefront all the elements that the HOA has ignored and continues to ignore since 2009.
Blogfinger has published hundreds of articles about these matters since 2009, and our editor Jack Bredin has faced the Neptuners in person at most Committee meetings for years and challenged them on multiple aspects of their North End actions, and the Groaners do not even mention him. Everything he has said at the Neptune mic is documented in most of those recorded meetings and in his personal notes which could be turned into a book. And there are the Blogfinger archives.
The fact that the HOA left us out of their recent “historical background” report reveals that they’re ignoring most truths regarding the North End. Meanwhile we are averaging 11,000 hits per month. How many do they get at their meetings ? 50 or 60?
Here is a link to our position vis a vis the Groaners in June, 2022:
Blogfinger discusses the HOA re: North End situation.
And the OGHOA has continued to ignore the foundational and illegal element called “The Zone in Need of Re-development.” The Groaners should have stood tall to block that illegal zoning monstrosity from the beginning.
The HOA has failed to confront the self serving OGNED juggernaut and its allies at the CMA and the Township. The HOA invited OGNED to their meeting recently and allowed censorship of questions from the citizens in attendance. That shameful and disgraceful performance should embarrass every member of the Groaners. That entire board should have been impeached by the members.
Their “overview” now is merely a recounting of their history designed to pat themselves on the back. Any real accomplishments by them regarding their supposed influences on the latest plan don’t exist. The North End developers have made changes in the past, but only because they had to. Do you really believe that they took seriously any whining put forth by the Groaners? And were those departures from the original plan legal?
We will continue monitoring this topic.
PEGGY LEE:
Your article is spot on!! The character of this town will forever change if dense construction is approved. The HOA is not serving the Ocean Grove if their views support the North End Development.
The state requires a legal survey of the land owned by the OGCMA when addressing zoning issues for every use variance in OG. It cannot use the zoning map.
When the OGCMA North End hotel existed, it had reached from Beach Avenue over the boardwalk and onto the dune area. Because this land had always belonged to the OGCMA, the land was legally merged with the entire beach fronting the ocean along with the Green Acres along Wesley Lake.
The OGCMA was required to legally sub divide the land now known as the Area in Need of Redevelopment from the other land it was merged with. This was never legally done.
Also, State and Federal law demands that all land within the confines of the OGCMA land must be zoned equally which then restricts all land and lots, no matter the previous use to single family use. Federal and State law nor the Courts make an exception to this.
Therefore, the only use permitted legally by law are single family houses. Though that can only be done until the OGCMA meets its parking requirements.
The site of the burned North End Pavilion, “4 Boardwalk” is being offered “for lease or sale” by the William Hettler firm, Logistic Realty. The ad appears on their website. I was under the impression that once land was declared a “public highway” and accepted by the local government, it could never be sold.