Asbury Radio

City's 2018 Access Plan Approved iStar's PRIVATE POOL?

Excerpt from pg. 38 of the

Amended and Restated Redeveloper and Land Disposition Agreement

Contained in the Municipal Public Access Plan. The excerpt reads:

The Amended and Restated Redeveloper and Land Disposition Agreement is a master redeveloper agreement between the City of Asbury Park (acting as the redevelopment agency) and Asbury Partners, LLC that was executed in 2002 in order to implement the Asbury Park Waterfront Redevelopment Plan. The purpose of the redeveloper agreement is to set forth the respective rights, obligations, conditions, and agreements of the City and the Master Redeveloper in connection with the development and redevelopment of the properties in the Asbury Park Waterfront Redevelopment Area. [Emphasis AsburyRadio]

The redeveloper agreement outlines the following specific provisions as relevant to public beach access and parking for the redevelopment area:

1. Article 3, Schedule of Development: 3.13 Beach Clubs:

“Master Developer shall be responsible for the construction of two, one or two-story Beach Club facilities, one of which shall be available to the general public. [Emphasis AR.]The first will be located on the eastern terminus of Ocean Avenue and the beach between 6th and 7th Avenues and Master Developer may charge a membership fee. The second, the public Beach Club will be located on the eastern terminus of Ocean Avenue and the beach between 1st and 2nd Avenue and available to the general public. Neither of the facilities shall be built to impede pedestrian access to the boardwalk. The obligation to construct the facility for the general public is explicitly conditioned on Master Developer obtaining all approvals to construct the two Beach Clubs”

For the full Municipal Access Report from the DEP site Use URL https://tinyurl.com/vapdwq5

How should this Developer Agreement and the Coastal Area Facilities Review Act (CAFRA) 2004 Permit, which Asbury Radio posted about earlier this week, on our FB page at https://tinyurl.com/uxf843z and here https://AsburyRadio.blogspot.com, to be viewed?

The CAFRA Permit bars anything but a public facility on the Asbury Park beach.

Yet the Developer Agreement seems to grant exactly what iStar is asking for in 2020 - a non-public beach, albeit without using the word private.

And why are the dates missing from this 2018 document, the Access Plan? [see brackets]

It reads:

"This plan has been developed in collaboration with the DEP, Asbury Park City Council, City Manager, and Planning Staff; and was presented to the Planning Board [on date] and approved for submission to the DEP [on date]. Upon receiving approval from the DEP [on date], the MPAP was incorporated into [specify element] Element of the Master Plan by resolution on [date], (see Appendix 1). All public access decisions made within Asbury Park after [this date] will be consistent with this plan." End of excerpt -

Why does this document reference 2002 (see above), as if these details were included upon the signing of the City's first developer agreement with Asbury Partners. And if that's true, why wouldn't the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have finalized it by filling in those dates? This, together with the strange page numbering and missing pages in the CAFRA permit document, listed on the http://www.AsburyRadio.com homepage, should give the AP Planning Board cause to pause for even more reflection.  Your comments are invited and very important.

But NOTE all might be turned around again, according to N.J. Governor Phil Murphy's press release this morning 2/7/20, laying out the State's plans to bring our DEP into the Climate Conscious 2020s.  

DEP Begins Reform of Environmental Regulations in Response to Climate Change

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
February 6, 2020

Contact: Lawrence Hajna       (609) 984-1795
                Caryn Shinske          (609) 292-2994

NEW JERSEY DEP BEGINS REFORM OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Protecting Against Climate Threats: DEP Seeks Stakeholder Input on Greenhouse Gas and Environmental Land Use Rule Changes

(19/P02) TRENTON - One week after Governor Phil Murphy and Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe announced a comprehensive effort to modernize New Jersey's environmental regulations to protect our communities and economy against the threats of climate change, the Department of Environmental Protection is moving forward  with a collaborative rulemaking process, holding several stakeholder events throughout February and March, to make the New Jersey Protecting Against Climate Threats (NJ PACT) reforms a reality. [ Read full release with details for public comment at https://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2020/20_0002.htm ]