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Posts Tagged ‘New North End plan in Ocean Grove’

 7/3/25: BLOGFINGER NORTH END UPDATE:  A new lawsuit was filed on June 9, 2025 according to the Coastericans 7/3/25 issue.

Posted in Blogfinger Presents, Ocean Grove North End Redevelopment Plan, tagged on July 3, 2025| 7 Comments »

July 3, 2025

A  new law suit is brought against the Neptune Township  Planning Board for approving a fraudulent North End Redevelopment Plan.

The July 3 Coaster explains in a page one article  that the Planning Board and the Township are unaware of this suit.  Blogfinger has been reporting on  this issue for  at least 17 years, always in opposition to the NERP,  (North End Redevelopment Plan,)  a plan which we have found was fraudulent since the beginning—2008.

And over the years many related issues have emerged in the hopes that the NERP might be cancelled by the Township Committee and/or the Camp Meeting Association.

So now, once again,  there is evidently another  law suit in addition to our years of complaints, most of which are not reviewed in the Coaster article today July 3, 2025.

What are  mentioned are the complaints in the new suit which  according to the Coaster are about:  approval of two single family homes in a place forbidden by zoning, obstruction of Wesley Lake views for Surf Avenue residents, and  failure to allow the HPC’s rulings about the North End to be enforced on the developers.

The Coaster says that the suit was brought by two lawyers from town who are associated with the Ocean Grove Community Association Legal Committee.  

But now those lawyers, Barbara Burns and Robert Ignato, who had been raising funds for this suit, say , according to the Coaster, that they have hired a lawyer to carry the ball from here.   Meanwhile the North End Redevelopment site continues to sit idle.

 

Below is one of our many  prior posts on this subject . This re-post is dated December 2019 which describes one of many  examples of  outrageous previous actions by the Neptune fraudsters.

 

 

By Jack Bredin, Blogfinger reporter tells us about the North End Planning Board approval meeting of 11/13/2019:

 

December 11, 2019. Blogfinger.net post.

 

The Planning Board is a quasi-judicial body, exercising functions of a judicial nature as a guide for official action.

Members of the Board act as judges and cannot talk in private with someone that has a case coming up before the court, or in this case, the Planning Board.

When Planning Board Vice-Chairman Paul Brown was called on to vote, he said, “I have been meeting with Jennifer Krimko*,  so I am convinced that this is all being done properly.”

The Boards’ Attorney said nothing to correct this protocol error.

Then Township Deputy Mayor Robert Lane said that he had also been talking to Jennifer Krimko* about this application, and he also voted “Yes.”

There is now a dark cloud over this entire hearing.

 

NOTE   by Paul Goldfinger, Blogfinger editor:

I  was at the Planning Board meeting on November 13,  2019 when the Township engineer swore under oath that the redevelopment plan  being considered  was essentially the same as the one which became law in 2008.  This was an important pre-condition for approval of the North End project.

She said “Yes–the two plans were essentially the same”  and then she walked out of the meeting without being subject to any scrutiny. The OG press, Blogfinger, had no chance to interview her. Her approval was a set-up, and she was representing Neptune Township.

But was it true?  Did any independent expert review the two plans—2008 and 2019?   This is essential to elicit trust in this process. Did the engineer have a conflict of interest?  We think so.

 

* Jennifer Krimko is the attorney for the North End redeveloper OGNED.

 

JULIE RAFFERTY: From the Fantasticks:

 

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Modern OG history—2015: The Coaster reports on the New North End Redevelopment Plan, but do those Asburians get it right?

Posted in Neptune Township Committee, Neptune Township News, North End Redevelopment, tagged , , on July 12, 2023| 3 Comments »

Wesley Lake, lookng toward the OG North End. A space where light, breezes and ocean views prevail. Paul Goldfinger ©

2015 Wesley Lake, looking toward the OG North End. A space where light, breezes and ocean views currently  prevail. Paul Goldfinger photo   Click to enlarge.   Note the White Whale building which subsequently burned down.  (2019).

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger

At last week’s Neptune Township Committee meeting, April 27, 2015, Committeeman Randy Bishop reported that WAVE requested the Committee to amend the North End Redevelopment Plan (NERP. ) However, the Committee took no formal action to amend the plan.   As such, the 2008 plan (permitting 165 units) is still in effect.

The Coaster reports on the Grove, but they are not from the Grove. Their reporter goes to the Committee meetings, shuffles through the packet of press releases given to him by the Township, and then rolls it out in their next edition, as they did last week, sticking to the Committee’s narrative.

The Coaster doesn’t offer any editorial opinions on these matters because they get lots of money from the Township for ads that you can see at the back of every issue; not that there’s anything wrong with that, but The Coaster is  busy covering a bunch of towns in this area, so it may not get all the facts straight in Ocean Grove.   We, on the other hand, are OG specialists.

It’s a good thing Blogfinger is hovering nearby to keep the record accurate.    In The Coaster front page story on April 30, 2015, about the New NERP, we found some things that need clarification. All quotes are from that Coaster article:

——–“Redevelopment of the North End section in historic Ocean Grove will proceed under a revised developer’s agreement.” Wrong! How can an agreement be revised when it has never existed in the first place?  That agreement should have happened back in 2008 when the redevelopers were identified, but it never did.

——–“…but an exact timeline for the project has not yet been announced.”   No kidding! Such a timeline would be a necessary part of a redevelopers agreement which doesn’t exist, so why would anyone expect a timeline to be announced now?

——–“Committeeman Randy Bishop, who was mayor during the initial hearing to adopt the 2008 plan, said at Monday’s workshop that recent meetings were held with the main principals of the redevelopment project.”

Really?  Meetings?   We only know of one such meeting that was announced as occurring in April, and that meeting was attended not by our Mayor (definitely a “principle”) or by the Camp Meeting Association (definitely a “principle.”)   Instead that meeting was attended by the Township Engineer, WAVE, Bishop, and the Township lawyer. That meeting was supposed to be about negotiating a redevelopers agreement, but instead it was for WAVE to offer a new plan.    If there were “meetings,” then why don’t the citizens know about all of them?

——–  “It was very hard and there were very frank discussions. Everyone at the table gave up things to make the plan better.” per Bishop. But who exactly gave things up? Only Bishop and WAVE were there. Where was the CMA to say what it would give up?

——-Coaster, “The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association…..will still own the land, like it does in all of Ocean Grove.” But, excuse us, the CMA does not own the beach or Wesley Lake, and those places are involved in the “New NERP.”

——-“Bishop said all of WAVE’s principles and financials will have to be given before it is declared the sole redeveloper and that a timeline for the project will probably be announced once this happens”

Sorry, but the timeline must be included in the Redeveloper’s Agreement before it is signed.   And  let’s be frank here: those WAVE “principles” have been concealed from the public for the last 8 years. Why weren’t they identified before? They will have to come out of the shadows now if they own over 10% interest in the project.

——-And Coaster what about the site plan which must be designed after the surveys are complete, and no surveys have evidently been done so far. Those site plans are needed to get all necessary approvals such as DEP, Army Corps of Engineers, etc.

——-And Coaster  how about the Gateway Design feature* which has now been eliminated? Why did that happen and why did you forget to tell us about the construction plans which must be obtained before this New NERP goes forward?

It seems that you only want to mention what they tell you to mention. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

* Gateway design feature: A statue or other structure on the boardwalk at the place where Asbury Park meets Ocean Grove.

 

BIG BIRD:   What the heck avenue do those NEW NERP words mean?

 

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Neptune Township Announces a New North End Plan. 4/28/2015

Posted in Ocean Grove news, Ocean Grove North End Redevelopment Plan, tagged on April 28, 2015| 24 Comments »

 

 

Paul Goldfinger,M.D.  Editor Blogfinger.net.  4/28/2015

 

A new North End Redevelopment Plan was announced at last night’s Neptune Township Committee meeting.   The initial part of that meeting was a work- shop session which had the NERP on its agenda.

Committeeman Randy Bishop reported that the redeveloper WAVE had a new site plan prepared for the North End by Shore Point, an architecture firm from Ocean Grove, and he brought the concept drawing (above) with him.   Click on the drawing to make it larger and easier to study.

In an email from JP Gradone, COO of the CMA, Gradone said, ” The OGCMA and WAVE have agreed to make WAVE the primary developer.  The OGCMA will have covenants that will run with the land, and Neptune Township will be the authority to oversee the project as The Redevelopment Entity.”

The new plan is not official and it contains the same elements as before: condos, hotel, underground garage and retail. But there will now be some major quantitative differences.

In addition, the concept plan actually shows us, in a limited way, what the project will look like. The diagram by the Shore Point Architecture firm has no seal, no signature and no date. In addition, there was no engineer’s report or signature, and the project has yet to be reviewed by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Bishop wasn’t planning to share the diagram with the public, but when challenged by citizen Jack Bredin, and with the approval of the Township Attorney, Committeeman Houghtaling handed a copy to Bredin.

Interestingly, Bishop did not offer to explain why these changes were made. The redevelopers likely didn’t cut back on millions of dollars in profits just to make Grovers feel better about the project.

Here are four of the differences between the new plan and the legal 2008 NERP which Bishop was willing to share, and then we will make some observations of our own.

  1. Condos: reduced from 78 multi-units to 39
  1. Single family homes: increased from 7 to 10
  1. Hotel rooms : reduced from 80 to 40
  1. Retail space: reduced from 15,000 sq. ft. to 12,000 Sq. ft.

Then comes the drawing from Shore Point, and that is very interesting, even though is merely a “concept.” Remember that the original NERP which was accepted in 2008 and is still officially in effect had no detailed diagram or plan to show. But now we can see some details:

  1. There will be 10 single family detached homes, 2.5 stories high along Spray Avenue (a narrow one way street.)  Each home will have its own underground garage. Each home will face Spray Ave. and retain a historic setback.
  1. The hotel, despite the reduced number of rooms, will be 5 stories high. It will have some surface parking (6 handicap and 13 standard) and a loading zone. It will partially abut the boardwalk to its east. On the second floor are 11 rooms; 3rd floor 11 rooms; 4th floor 11 rooms; 5th floor 7 rooms. The first floor is for commercial enterprises.
  2. The condos will face the lake. Those two multi-family buildings will be 3 and 4 stories and contain 39 units total. It looks like there will be a roadway alongside the lake.
  1. The current white building* standing alone on the beach and boardwalk will be a 4 story multi-family structure with retail, health club and restaurant on the first floor. There will be a conference banquet facility on the second floor along with the restaurant. It’s unclear how that building will be accessed for vehicles. A pedestrian bridge will cross over the boardwalk.  Condos will be on the top floors.
  1. Retail will be 12 units.
  1. The garage will have 139 underground spaces. It will have egress and ingress via Spray Ave. Exit out to Ocean Avenue.

You can study this diagram yourself. However consider this:

  1. Because the changes involve “core elements,” the original 2008 NERP may have to be rescinded and a new one approved, including public hearings. In addition, the Township may have to open up the redevelopment project to new bidders. So will the Township conduct a search for a new redeveloper, and when will we have a signed redeveloper agreement?
  1. The whole project will fail if an engineer does not sign off on the structural integrity of the garage and related structures.
  1. RSIS parking standards will be met. At some point a traffic study will be required.
  1. The last step before construction will be another Planning Board hearing.

So, the plot thickens. Let’s pay attention.

 

DALIDA:

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