William Heatley was taking a ride in a banner plane over the beach in OG. It was August, 1981, and he took this photo. Note the extent to which OG was built-up even in 1981. © Special to Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
Wesley Lake is to the right. The North End Hotel had been torn down, but the salt water swimming pool remains. You can see the outlines of the North End area which will be “re-developed” according to the current (as of 2017) Township Plan, and imagine where the condos will be along Lake Avenue, Spray Avenue, and the Ocean. Then imagine a hotel there which probably will actually become condos. Oh, and don’t forget the parking garage underground, stores, and new North End boardwalk.
The process is currently dead in the water, but we are keeping an eye on it along with the OGHOA, although the latter has been a champion of the plan, and we have not. The NERP is an example of Neptune Township taking the side of developers.
The question is why does the Township choose to support developers over the best interests of the people who live in Ocean Grove? That is an old problem which has continued in the recent past, and that is why we have over 300 condo units in town, without parking (except for Embury Arms), and why we are suspicious of activities such as will determine the future of the Warrington site.
Some will say that the reason is simple: the Township wants more ratables. 20 condos bring in more money than one Victorian single family house. But the blatant targeting of Ocean Grove will continue to cause increasing congestion and result in the town’s losing its character and its history. And if that happens, the value of homes in the Grove will decline, and that would reduce the “cash cow” profits.—a counterintuitive result for the tax-hungry Neptune administration. So the tax angle doesn’t seem convincing enough as an explanation.
Others who are more cynical say, “Follow the money.” A member of the Township Committee went to jail some time ago as did some officials in A. Park and elsewhere in Monmouth County.
So it is not outside the realm of reality that there may be some shenanigans going on here. We have been watching the methodology of how things are done in the Grove, such as the manipulation of zoning by the Land Use Department in Neptune and the lack of transparency on the part of elected Neptune officials.
Endless one party rule is not good for our town regardless of which party is in charge. It is un-American.
THE CAST OF FIORELLO (Broadway show)