Resident wants answers on Smart Growth plan

BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

SEA BRIGHT - Borough resident Ed Bannon will be watching for an e-mail from town hall.

Almost 16 months after he took part in a community workshop where residents drew up maps and drawings of what they believe three areas of Sea Bright's central business district could be, Bannon says he would like to see the fruits of his labor and that of fellow residents.

During the public portion of the Borough Council's Oct. 3 meeting, Bannon asked officials for a status update on the proposed revitalization, dubbed The Smart Growth Plan, a reference to the borough's receipt of a $50,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Smart Growth Program for that initiative.

The last time residents who participated in the June 2005 community workshop even met with the borough's hired planning consultant for the revitalization was in late August 2005, Bannon pointed out.

With the overwhelming defeat of Shore Regional High School's $49.8 million bond construction referendum, as delivered by voters in Sea Bright and the three other sending towns on Sept. 26, borough officials ought to concentrate on the revitalization again, said Bannon, of Church Street.

It would behoove the borough to get to work on the project, before the regional high school "asks for another $50 million," he told officials.

"Now that Shore Regional has been voted down, are we going to proceed with Smart Growth?" Bannon asked.

Once he found out that the first of two reports summarizing residents' suggestions had been compiled by planner Ken Bowers and released to officials, Bannon said he went to borough hall to pick up a copy.

That report covers one phase of the revitalization which includes the borough's plans for new municipal facilities, according to Borough Clerk Maryann Smeltzer.

"I read the first report," Bannon told the council.

The second report, received at Borough Hall on Sept. 29, covers other aspects of the revitalization including plans for the downtown business district, an adjacent five-street residential neighborhood, and the public oceanfront, said Council President William "Jack" Keeler.

Workshop participants will get to read the second report once Mayor Jo-Ann Kalaka-Adams and the council review it and after a few mistakes are corrected by the planning consultant, Keeler told Bannon.

"The mistakes that were made need to be corrected," Keeler said. "It covered everything that we went over in that meeting. The people who participated will get to see it."

Bannon was clearly taken aback that officials had just received Bowers' second report late last month.

"I can't believe it took [Bowers] that long to get all this information out. I mean, a year and three months?

"I could have done that in three days!" he added as some in attendance laughed.

The borough ought to notify workshop participants via e-mail once the second report is ready, so that they can get copies, Bannon said.

Likewise, participants should be e-mailed when subsequent public meetings on the project are scheduled, he added.

"I look forward to seeing the second draft," Bannon said.

Both Keeler and Kalaka-Adams acknowledged that they have been waiting longer than they expected to receive draft copies of the reports.

"It has taken much longer than we anticipated," Keeler said. "I think you'll be more interested in the second phase."

"We're disappointed with how long it has taken to complete too," Kalaka-Adams said.

Keeler has been the borough's liaison with Ken Bowers, of the New York City planning firm Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates Inc. (PPSA). The borough hired the firm to lead its revitalization in early 2005.

Bowers is no longer working with the firm, according to an Oct. 6 e-mail from Diana Marsh, who indicated that she and Richard Preiss, PPSA's vice president, are in the process of wrapping up the Sea Bright plan.

"Sea Bright is now in the process of reviewing the Smart Growth report," Marsh wrote.

"I would not say that there are 'mistakes' in the Smart Growth report, but of course this is a first draft, and there will certainly be things that the borough would like to discuss and revise," Marsh went on. "Whatever changes the borough proposes for the municipal facilities plan will of course also be updated in the Smart Growth plan."

In conjunction with the revitalization effort, the council voted in June to authorize Borough Engineer David Hoder to prepare design specifications for two building options to help relieve crowded conditions inside the present municipal building at 1167 Ocean Ave.

One option considered by the council would be to renovate that current borough hall, which is known as the Cecile Norton Community Center.

The second option would be to construct a new municipal complex on the site of the former Peninsula House parking lot, which is now used by patrons visiting downtown and the public beach.

Keeler has said that the cost of each option, to be presented later by Hoder, will determine whether the borough goes with renovation or building a new structure.

However, the latter scheme could hit a wall due to a civil complaint filed against the Borough of Sea Bright in state Superior Court, Freehold, on Sept. 21 by the state's acting attorney general and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

In the four-count complaint, acting Attorney General Ann Milgram and the DEP accuse Sea Bright of attempting to "barter away" a portion of the municipally owned Peninsula House parking lot to the privately owned adjacent Chapel Beach Club in exchange for "landlocked property" to build its new proposed borough hall.

Chapel Beach Club, which does not allow nonmembers to access its beaches, is named as a defendant in the state lawsuit, which seeks complete public access to Sea Bright's three miles of beaches.

The borough has been served with the complaint, according to Borough Attorney Scott Arnette.

"The borough intends to vigorously defend themselves in this matter," Arnette said after the Oct. 3 council meeting. He would not comment further, citing the pending legal action.

Besides the Borough of Sea Bright and Chapel Beach, seven other private beach clubs, and East Brunswick-based developer Kara Homes, owner of the former Trade Winds property, are identified as defendants in the suit.

Milgram and the DEP said the legal action stems from the fact that private businesses have refused to provide public access to beaches that were restocked with new sands in 1993 and 2003 via a taxpayer-funded replenishment project.