Resident: Planning Board "Totally Uninformed"

M. Berman, S.A.Towery, City Mgr Terry Reidy, Chair D. DiBenedetto, Councilmember J. Loffredo, Vernice McGriff, Dave Parreott.

Planning Bd member Sara Anne Towery

Drawing shows gate across access point to beach and replacement boardwalk. Planners say this was in error.

A seemingly innocuous three questions posed by Asbury Tower resident, Mickey Schwartz, dressed in purple and sporting a flower in her hair (pictured) (Was there an environmental study done? Was it published? And, can I have a copy?) erupted in an angry accusation that the board is "uninformed" about the details of its plans to build 15 town houses on Ocean Ave.
When Schwartz, an art instructor at the Tower, asked the questions, planning board (PB)members did not respond. Board Chair Dan DiBenedetto and councilmember John Loffredo exchanged puzzled looks.

Then CMX (formerly Shoor DePalma) engineer, Bob Curley, advised that the board that an environmental impact study would have been done at the time the plans were originally presented to the Department of Environmental Preservation (DEP).
The board had reopened the public portion to allow Schwartz to speak. Then another resident, Carole Gorman, came to the mic to ask if the fact that the board did not know the answer to whether the study was done had been recorded. Hear sound file from that portion of the meeting.

The planning board approved the application by unanimous vote. Application proceeds now to DEP's Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) division, which is responsible for coastal land use. (Hear the DEP's Mark Mauriello's interview on Asbury Radio in 2003, prior to the division's review of the waterfront building permit, below. Mauriello was asked how the fact that the waterfront plan's chief negotiator, former city manager Terrance Weldon, had pled guilty to extorting developers in return for greater density in their Ocean Twp projects, would affect the DEP's review process.)

Another flare up occurred when PB member Sara Anne Towery told the audience that if she lived in Asbury Tower, which is a few yards from the planned site, she'd be happy to have the development there. Some audience members vowed to retaliate at the polls this May when the city council is up for re-election. Click to PB Comments. Click to hear PB Vote.

Larry Fishman, COO of Asbury Partners, his representatives attorney Alfred Faiella (hear on CAFRA), John Clarke of Caton Clark and Hintz, and Curley, showed new drawings of a widened corridor between the buildings, which members of Oceanfront Preservation say is still not up to the DEP's minimum for a view corridor, and a wider turnaround for vehicles on Ocean Ave., which will be reconfigured and greatly narrowed to make room for the development.

Additional sound from the meeting: Opening; Resident Roger Krause; View Corridor Discussion; and Public comments including Joe Woerner, science teacher representing Surf Riders Fdn. and the Littoral Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to water quality. Please share your comments on this board.