26 Lake Ave. This beautiful historic home restoration was monitored and approved by the HPC using its guidelines. It won a Beersheba Award in 2012. Blogfinger photo ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfnger
A large crowd, mostly from Ocean Grove, assembled on Monday night, December 12, at the Neptune Municipal Building for the regular session of the 5-person Township Committee.
The crowd was there because of an item on the agenda: the rewriting of the Historic Preservation Guidelines. But it quickly became apparent that ordinance #16-45 would be tabled. The motion was made by Committeeman Nick Williams. The crowd was not pleased.
The Historic Guidelines are implemented by the HPC (Historic Preservation Commission) whose 7 members (and 2 alternates) are appointed by the mayor of Neptune Township.
Evidently, two Township Committeemen, Rizzo and Brantley, commissioned these revised guidelines and placed them on the agenda three days before the meeting. The document was not properly marked up to reveal where the changes were, and interested parties had a difficult time deciphering the new document. Even Committeemen Brantley complained that he could not understand it.
This is ostensibly why the item was tabled three days after it suddenly appeared on the agenda. Do you buy that?
The OGHOA had declared prior to the meeting that the changes would weaken the authority of the HPC to maintain historic construction standards in town. The Historical Society of OG came up with similar concerns, and both groups encouraged Grovers to come to the meeting.
The HPC itself made no formal announcement about their opinions, but it is our understanding that they are not pleased with the changes. Don’t they have an obligation to inform the OG public about their concerns?
One change that emerged prior to the meeting was the idea that the HPC could only regulate the parts of buildings (the façades) that front on a street. This is a big issue because its implementation could adversely affect the look of the town and perhaps even the chance to keep the historic designations which we have received—-federal and state.
Many believe that weakening the guidelines will make it easier for developers and investors to introduce more condos and other buildings including non-Victorian private homes which could jeopardize the special character of Ocean Grove. Without the guidelines we could become another Bradley Beach.
The HPC War is about that vulnerability, and there are concerns regarding the underlying motives behind this attempt to re-write the guidelines. Committeeman Carol Rizzo asserted at the meeting that the reason for the re-write was because of two complaints about the cost of HPC compliance.
Well, heck, folks sometimes complain about the HPC rules, but that shouldn’t prompt a re-write. It is those rules that help keep the town the way we like it.
What is the real reason for the new guidelines and why was it placed on the agenda in such an abrupt way without proper documentation and opportunity for study?
And, along those lines, we need to know who wrote the new document and why that document says “prepared by the HPC” on the cover when the HPC says it had nothing to do with it?
This issue has significant potential repercussions, and the Mayor owes the people of Ocean Grove a true explanation. In our initial article on this we suggested that the weakening of architectural standards is only one component of a conspiracy by Neptune/OG insiders to change Ocean Grove. There have been plenty of reasons to suspect such a movement.
Last night a number of you went to the microphone for your 5 minutes in the spotlight. How about telling Blogfinger what you said? Note that all those comments were recorded and can be retrieved whenever the CD is available. We will post your information anonymously if you wish. Contact us at Blogfinger@verizon.net.
Please use this post for further comments on this topic.
www.neptunetownship.org/departments/historic-preservation-commission
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