Hope for Esperanza?

Yes, Esperanza does mean hope in Spanish, but the word may amount to more than clever marketing this time, for the unfinished condo tower that replaced the last unfinished condo tower between Third and Fourth avenues.
Asbury Radio has learned from a major industry source that developers are sniffing around unfinished condo developments searching out bargains, but they have to be big bargains.
The major costs in these large projects are getting the project in the ground, said the source, and clearing hurdles such as zoning approvals.
But what about bank funding, which is almost impossible for buildings that aren't completed? These developers are working on mainly private investment financing.
Somebody call Dean Geibel and let him know...

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.

Asbury Tower Residents Throw Book at Planning Board

Map shows Lot 220, Asbury Tower (note stairs from building), and Lot 222, the Triangle sold to Asbury Partners by the City Council for the future construction of a condo tower of 8 - 10 stories, surrounded by more townhouses. Note: economists are currently predicting the residential housing slump will not bottom out until mid-2010. Is Asbury Partners rushing to get approvals for this construction plan, before their construction permit can expire in March, in order to sell off this valuable parcel to a developer and realize some revenues since the three fast track residential sites are still not fully constructed or sold out, meaning Asbury Partners has not made the full commissions (said to be 7% at one point) on their units' sale prices?

The Triangle is believed to be encumbered by a reparian rights issue.

Despite a freezing cold night, about 20 residents of Asbury Tower, an age restricted high rise for about 400 people, turned out to the City's Planning Board meeting to object to the city's plans to grant site approval for 15 housing units to be built where Ocean Avenue is now, East of the Tower, which is itself a stone's throw from the beachfront. Asbury Partners, which plans to sell the parcel to a developer when it locates one in the future, has to move quickly with the site approval because the coastal land use permit, referred to as the CAFRA permit, issued by the state's Dept of Environmental Protection (DEP) prior to Hurricane Katrina and the issuance of new flood maps by FEMA, factors that could influence building on the coast, expires this March.
Some residents cited sections of the state's laws governing coastal development, while others addressed flood zone,"V Zone" and FEMA guidelines, which they say apply to the parcel that is bordered by ocean to the East and Deal Lake on the North. A few years ago, the village of Loch Arbor commissioned a study that yielded a map of the area showing it to be in a Category 1 flood zone, meaning the area would flood in a Category 1 storm.
The following sound files are from the major portion of the public comment segment. There is much more. The meeting ran from 7 to 10:30 PM. I will post more tomorrow night. Please turn your volume up, since there was not time to process the files through mp3 Gain software.
Track One - Track Two - Track Three - Track Four - Track Five