1891. OG Fishing Pier–definitely historic as is the Ocean Grove Fishing Club. From Bell ard Flynn’s Ocean Grove in Vintage Postcards. With permission.
April 15, 2023. The new pier is open. Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net Click once to enlarge.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net. September 17, 2022. Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Re-post 10/27/24:
Here is another consideration: The Ocean Grove Fishing Pier is a genuine historic structure tied into the history of the CMA and the town of Ocean Grove. We are a historic town on the State and National Historic Registers, and you can’t change anything on your Victorian home without approval.
Yet this pier is now built in a non-historic style. This new pier design was allowed by the authorities without HPC approval or any historic justification. Neptune Township had no say in the matter.
The double standards here are staggering. Who in the future will give a damn what the HPC thinks? As it is, they have inequality through their record–just witness the Greek Temple and the many examples of inconsistent rulings.
Cambridge Dictionary defines “double standards:” A rule or standard of good behavior that , unfairly, some people are expected to follow or achieve but other people are not.:
And let them try to enforce their guidelines in the future when we now have this glaring unfairness. A lawyer might find a problem here if there is a suit.
I know that there is supposedly some loophole which will allow this failure of historic preservation, but our elected officials need to publicly explain what happened and why our obligation for historic preservation has now been ignored. We need to know the answer or why should any of us worry about listening to the HPC in the future?
This issue has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with what kind of town this will be. On Blogfinger we often talk about this topic, so here is another issue to add to the list.
AND NOW AN UPDATE. 10/27/24. No further information since then.
And since when can the CMA change the name of the historic (1891) “Ocean Grove Fishing Pier?”
JOHN COLTRANE. “You’re a Weaver of Dreams.”
In this blog post, I wondered why the HPC was not involved with the new pier planning. Further investigation reveals that the pier is partly in Ocean Grove and thus could be under the HPC jurisdiction, but part of the pier is not within the HPC’s jurisdiction and thus the HPC was not involved in the planning.
The HPC gets its authority from Neptune Township Ordinance. The latest Guidelines were adopted by Neptune Township Resolution #05-254.
Further discussion of this topic should be handled at the Township level, not on Blogfinger.
The OG HPC, like other town’s HPC gets its authority from the National Park Service:
“Technical Preservation Services develops historic preservation standards and guidance on preserving and rehabilitating historic buildings, administers the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program for rehabilitating historic buildings, and sets the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.”
https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1739/index.htm
If you read the “Ocean Grove Historic District Architectural Design Guidelines for Residential Structures” you will see that it states: “The Historic District of Ocean Grove is defined as the entire area within the boundaries that are legally known as Ocean Grove. This includes all structures, grounds and amenities within those boundaries.”
No local government or private authority can own an ocean beach area. Thus the boundaries of Ocean Grove do not include the beach area, so the OG HPC has no authority over the pier sections that are within the beach area.