This is what’s left of the Park View Inn on Seaview Avenue. Blogfinger photo Sept 22, 2016 © On the left is the Warrington (see our Warrington posts), and on the right is the La Pierre condos at the lake and a private home on Seaview. Click on photo and you might be able to discern palm trees in A. Park.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Shirley and Ted Bell were married 62 years ago in the Park View Inn on Seaview Avenue in Ocean Grove which was owned by Shirley’s parents. It was a busy place and quite wonderful. There were porches in the back where guests could look out onto Wesley Lake and enjoy great hotel food. Lake Avenue ambled by, and walkers provided a parade for the Park Viewers. The Park was Founders Park.
Ted, an eminent Ocean Grove historian, recalls that Lake Avenue was “always a walkway.” The founders would not allow even a horse and buggy on that footpath. Lake Avenue actually had two levels, with the houses and hotels being elevated (see photo below). But for now, Ted and Shirley can sit on their porch on Seaview Avenue, look across the lake, and see real palm trees!
1896. Wesley Lake. Ocean Grove. Clearly the precedent for Lake Avenue is a walkway. Courtesy of Ted Bell, Ocean Grove historian. Look closely and you will see Ted walking over to Days Ice Cream Garden.
1896. OG. Lake Avenue had upper and a lower elevations. No one imagined that someone might want a roadway there. Courtesy of Ted Bell.
Now that the Inn is gone, the Township has approved plans to subdivide that narrow lot into 4 undersized house lots. Two would be on Seaview Avenue, while two would be on Lake Avenue. Those lots are currently for sale. The two lake front lots are $459,000 each. The two Seaview Avenue lots are $419,000 each. The four houses planned are said to have received approval for 3 stories each.
But since Lake Avenue is not a street or a road, land use law would forbid building those two lakeside houses. They should have never been given permission. We also need to determine if the lakeside houses are being built on Green Acres properties.
Municipal Land Use Law (New Jersey). Official record. Click to read it easier. Source: Jack Bredin.
The neighbors over there are concerned about parking and access issues. Supposedly a path between the houses would allow access to Lake Avenue from Sea View. Or the residents could walk around to Lake Avenue (aka Beach Avenue) by the boardwalk and then head west. But what about UPS, garbage trucks, mail delivery, etc.?
And won’t those houses be crowded together when built on small lots? Would they get any breezes or light? Aren’t OG lots small enough? Shouldn’t there be only two houses there, fronting on Seaview and with lovely rear yards and views of the lake?
Blogfinger will be investigating these issues. Please comment if you have any information.
Link to our 1/14/16 article about the land under the now demolished Park View Inn. It is very interesting:
So how exactly were these permissions given? How long has this been going on?
PEGGY LEE