The next OGHOA meeting will be held on March 26 at 10:00 am. in the Community Room. There will be a discussion of Jack Bredin’s February motion regarding the Neptune Township Application for a special RSIS parking standard. His motion, currently tabled, reads:
“The OGHOA is in favor of the Neptune Township Committee refiling an application for a waiver from the State RSIS Parking Standard for detached single family houses only.”
You may recall that the Township applied in 2015 for a special standard which would apply to all of Ocean Grove. But that would open the door to unlimited condoization in town as well as more multifamily or large buildings that could be built without providing any parking. That outrageous effort by the Township has been supported by the OGHOA and is a policy which is just the opposite of what most Grovers prefer.
Jack’s motion would recommend a special standard only for new single family houses. That means approvals could be given for new single family houses without demanding that they have driveways or garages.
Blogfinger recommends that you go to that meeting and vote for Jack’s motion. And please support Jack in case there is any more parliamentary chicanery afoot.
Also note that currently there is no active Neptune OG application at the Department of Consumer Affairs because the last one was dismissed without prejudice by the State Site Improvement Advisory Board, and Neptune has not so far re-applied.
The SIAB recently cancelled their March meeting. We suspect that Neptune will re-apply so that they can continue their anti-OG policies regarding condominiums without worrying about breaking the law. But even if Neptune does not reapply, this vote will indicate which way the wind is blowing in our town.
The Township Committee now has 2 new members, so we must keep the pressure on the Committee to do their jobs as representatives of the people instead of being shills for developers.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
GRANT PHABAO “Message to you Rudy” from the movie Chef.
The HOA held a meeting on Saturday, Feb 27, 2016. In attendance were Blogfinger reporters. It was a turning point for Ocean Grove. Several HOA board members stood shoulder to shoulder with two Neptune Committeemen (Bishop and Rizzo) and told the audience, in so many words, that they will continue promoting condominiums and commercialization without parking in Ocean Grove.
They pontificated about the RSIS, filling the room with jargon and gibberish, but they failed to explain that offering Ocean Grove an exemption from RSIS regulations will result in unfettered condo conversions, including not only big multifamily buildings, but conversions of smaller multi-family houses all over town. They never honestly explained why they support the RSIS Special Standard, and nobody pressed them to do that.
For those of you who want Ocean Grove to be a charming family-oriented historic town with single-family house zoning, your vision will never happen. If you want a low density town without crowding and congestion, your desire will never be realized. If you want a town where developers and politicians do not prevail over the citizens, you will never see that thanks to the OGHOA Board. It was their responsibility to protect our town, and they have failed at that.
The corruption of the HOA was made clear at that meeting. Ocean Grove is on its way further downhill, led by the HOA, the politicians, and the developers.
It’s time to pull the plug on that miserable organization. Only an insurrection can turn this around, because presently, there is no group in town to stem the tide. The town will change for the worse and few will try to stop the inevitable.
Ocean Grove is doomed to becoming an ordinary place, and that will disappoint many of you who have taken pride in the unique promise of this historic town and who have invested your lives and money in a dream.
Blogfinger will report the news, but we will not waste any more of our time with the feckless HOA, because the citizens have remained apathetic despite our efforts. At present, there seems to be little cause for optimism.
You should all read Jack Bredin’s comprehensive and unique discussion of the RSIS matter. It is disgraceful that his motion at the meeting was tabled due to a vote by the members.
This was not the first time that Neptune wanted to be free of the RSIS (Residential Site Improvement Standards) parking rules that required off-street parking for every new building that would be constructed in town. Their quest goes back to 2007 when they were denied by the State of New Jersey and told to bring their zoning in line with Municipal Land Use Law.
The way that Neptune dealt with those requirements in the past was by ignoring them. That is how the condos around town were built without parking, including two on Ocean Pathway, near the Albatross, which were constructed in 2010.
We don’t know exactly why official Neptune tried to get an exemption (ie a “special standard”) in the past—they couched their request in terms of historic preservation. However they did not succeed and some Grovers were suspicious of their motives. On one occasion, according to a State official, OG citizens’ outrage resulted in denial. So why bother to seek an exemption now when you can just ignore the rules? Maybe they felt guilty.
When the North End Plan was passed in 2008, it contained the promise to follow the RSIS regulations for that project to provide parking for the condos and the hotel.
Last year, Neptune tried once again to get a special standard for the entire town of Ocean Grove. The town planner seemed to think that they could quietly achieve that goal without any controversy.
They went through the required procedures, with the help of the SIAB staff. The plan in Trenton was to have the matter heard by the Streets Subcommittee in December.
A number of us were planning to go to that meeting in order to be part of the discussion. However, the day before, the town planner called Trenton to ask that the hearing be postponed. It’s not clear why she wanted that, but the SIAB staff in Trenton said that the application was on the agenda and could not be removed. The reason for the change was not important to the staff. Neptune had the right to back off, without any reason, even at such short notice. Some of the SIAB staff thought that Neptune was afraid of the OG citizens who were coming to the hearing.
Therefore the staff and Neptune agreed that the Township could come to the meeting and ask the Chairman to withdraw the application without prejudice, but they would have to pay a price. (see below)
The SIAB staff had to decide what to do with the Grovers who were planning to speak at the hearing, so they decided to let us be heard, and we did get to address the full Committee and to actually have a discussion with them regarding our objections to the application.
On the day of the meeting, neither the Neptune Planner or the Township Attorney showed up. Instead Vito Gadaleta, the Business Manager at Neptune, came and publically asked that the application be withdrawn.
The Chairman informed Gadaleta that the request was granted without prejudice , but if the Township wanted to reapply, it had to go through the entire procedure, including a formal resolution, from scratch. Since then, Neptune has not reapplied.
So it’s not exactly clear what the purpose is of bringing this matter to Saturday’s HOA meeting. Is it a chance for the HOA to show off its new-found expertise on this subject after years of ignoring the issue? Do they want to debate or defend their grotesque support (in a letter to the SIAB) of an application that no longer exists? Is this really a meeting without meaning?
For those of you who are going to the Saturday “discussion,” there may be some fireworks as certain knowledgeable opponents of the application may show up. Will the HOA cut off debate to try to stop them from speaking? Are they hoping for an audience of ignorant robots? Well that’s not going to happen.
And best of all, maybe someone will make a motion to force the HOA Board to oppose all attempts to favor developers and politicians who would increase density and congestion, build ugly condos or other Mary-like buildings without parking, and who would want to turn Ocean Grove into Asbury Park South. Isn’t that what the HOA ought to be about?
In an announcement e-mailed by Ann Horan, President of the HOA, the OG Home Groaners Association decided that they should discuss Grove parking and the RSIS application because “these topics are very much ‘of the moment,’ and the discussion is sure to be wide-ranging and lively'”
Wow! Where have they been? “Of the moment?” These topics have been topical for years. And what has the HOA done to educate the people of the Grove about RSIS which is a subject that can impact the town’s future?
They promise a ” lively discussion,” but without preparation, all the audience can do is listen to lawyerly propaganda speeches by an organization that has shown little interest in the RSIS issue until now and which has been on the anti-OG side of other topics including North End redevelopment and zoning. Where do they stand on other “of the moment” issues such as the Park View subdivision? Why didn’t they attend the recent RSIS meeting in Trenton?
If it weren’t for Blogfinger hammering away, nobody in town would have a clue about these important subjects.
Those who will attend the event on Saturday, Jan 23 at 10 am in the Community Room, should do their homework and do searches on Blogfinger under RSIS and parking.
This Saturday’s forum will hopefully be enlivened by informed and involved individuals in the audience who will make sure that the facts are allowed to surface.
Maybe Jack Bredin will be there. In the past certain officers of the HOA tried to silence his dissent.
RAY CHARLES:
DOM DE LUISE: Blogfinger is a watchdog, so there’s nothing dirty going on in Ocean Grove—-from the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas:
This appeared in 2013, so it is fun and timely to post it again..And don’t fail to read the 34 comments. Do your homework for the HOA parking forum on Jan 23.
Use the BF search engine on the top of the page and search under parking, RSIS, etc. Don’t let the Home Groaners Board steamroll you with their usual lawyerly, pedantic propaganda.
