Blogfinger

Spring Hope, North Carolina. There was so much hope there, that they named the town for it.     Paul Goldfinger photo. Click once to enlarge.

Paul Goldfinger, MD.   Blogfinger.net 11/21/24.

Over the years, Blogfinger has posted over 300 articles with the name “North End Redevelopment Plan.”   And there were many  hundreds more that were about that topic, but with somewhat different titles.

Now in 2024, some Grovers have started a new  organization to try and prevent the current Plan from going forward.  That Plan currently is hovering at the precipice of final approval by Neptune Township. Unlike our prior efforts which were about land use law, zoning issues, and public opposition, this current effort is about objections to the design of the current design.  We hope the current opposition will succeed, but we don’t know what they stand for.

We do know from a former poll which we conducted years ago that 80% of OG participants were opposed to the North End Redevelopment Plan.  How has Neptune taken we-the-people this far by ignoring the citizens of OG?

Here is a  BF  post from 2015 (9 years ago) when we continued our opposition and where we wondered why we lost.

Also the latest Township Committee has hinted that it may resurrect the permit  parking permit plan. Blogfinger has always supported this idea, but now I believe it might pass if it were activated only from May through October each year.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor and Jack Bredin, researcher.  Blogfinger.net. 2015.

In a series of articles since 2008, Blogfinger has asserted that the North End Redevelopment Plan is in violation of Municipal Land Use Law and the Local Housing Redevelopment Law starting with the illegal designation of that property as an “Area in Need of Redevelopment.”

We pointed out other irregularities and improprieties as well, such as denying developers their right to be included in the bidding process, ignoring State parking regulations for the “White Whale” building, relying on streets that don’t exist, and even creating an illegal subdivision out of beach property that is reserved by the State for recreation and conservation;  and zoning this public open space for mixed “commercial and residential” use, which would allow condos to be built on the beach at the North End.  Such construction would create a hazard for Grovers who might live at that “White Whale” location.

Interestingly, the foundation of the Township’s position on approving all of this relies on the Camp Meeting Association’s owning all the property in Ocean Grove. But they do not, including the land under the boardwalk, own the beach and the roads.

When most of the residents are a “no  show” at the Township meetings and rely on the OGHOA to represent them, we find the HOA going on the record supporting the final Township Redevelopment Plan back in 2008 and again in 2011,  which increased the density from 25 residential single family  homes   to 165 units, thus permitting condos and a hotel at the North End, and recently proposing condos for the “White Whale;” so who will represent the citizens of Ocean Grove if they want to challenge the record?

But Blogfinger is not giving up.

Some of you may feel frustrated that “nothing is being done about these violations.” You may ask, “How do they get away with it?”

Under our system in the United States, local government bodies such as the Neptune Township Committee, have the authority to make laws, such as empowering the Board of Adjustment and approving a distortion of the “Area in Need of Redevelopment” procedures. They can even violate the State Municipal Land Use Laws as long as no one challenges them.

Once the governing body makes a decision, such as allowing WAVE to become a redeveloper without competitive bidding, then their decision is deemed to be correct unless someone takes them to court within 45 days.

When Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Do we have a monarchy or a republic?” he replied “We have a republic as long as we can keep it.”

The Greeks invented democracy where male citizens voted directly on issues, but even those innovative city-states sometimes had trouble finding justice in their system.

The Romans invented something even better—the republic, where citizens depend on elected officials to do the right thing regardless of what the majority prefers, but in the Roman system, as in Neptune Township, elected officials may act in unjust ways and get away with it.

In many other New Jersey towns, the homeowners associations stand up for the people since the Governing Body may not be trusted. But here, the OGHOA (Home Groaners Association) is an abysmal failure and they are doing nothing about these issues. And, at the candidates forum last week, no citizen said anything about the North End, according to the Coaster article.

In Ocean Grove, if our elected officials fail to provide justice, and the people are apathetic, then we find the cracks in our system exposed.  Since we cannot trust the Neptune governance, the only thing which might save Ocean Grove would be to petition the State to grant independence to Ocean Grove, even if the majority of Neptuners vote “no.” as they did in the past.

However, “Hope springs eternal*,” and in a great nation we “never give up the ship**.”

*Alexander Pope:  People will continue to hope even though they have evidence that things cannot possibly turn out the way they want. (From Alexander Pope’s poem, “Essay on Man.”)

** James Lawrence, Captain. 1814.

BROADWAY CAST OF FIORELLO;    Do you think we will ever have a Committeeman like this politician—-on the side of the angels?