City unsure of next move after blight ruling

City unsure of next move after blight ruling
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer
Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider said he is not sure what will be the next move the city makes, after the state’s Appellate Court ruled last week that the redevelopment ordinances in the Broadway Arts district are invalid.

“In terms of where we go now, I think the only answer anybody can give you is we don’t really know,” he said. “Everything is on hold because of the economy anyway, and that’s been the case for the better part of two years.”

A three-judge panel released an unpublished opinion April 16, stating that the city’s 1996 designation for zone does not meet the heightened standards put forth from the 2007 decision, Gallenthin v. Paulsboro.

Peter Wegener, of Bathgate Wegener and Wolf, Lakewood, who represented the three property owners challenging the city’s blight designation, said the decision comes as a victory for his clients.

“The court has ruled that the redevelopment plan as related to Broadway is illegal,” he said. “I think this was a clear victory for the property owners.”

The three property owners in question are Rainbow Liquors owned by Kavita and Gopal Panday, The Lighthouse Institute for Evangelism owned by the Rev. Kevin Brown, and a property owned by Dr. Carlos Rivera.

Long Branch City Attorney James Aaron said the city has settled on the taking of the Pandays’ building, and the only thing that has to be cleared up is the worth of the property.

The developer who owns the remaining properties in the zone is Broadway Arts Center LLC, and Aaron explained that there are a few options moving forward.

“It depends on what the developer wants to do,” Aaron said. “Does it want to carve out the two properties that are not yet acquired? Does it want the city to reapply to the court in the remand hearing, or start again and do a redevelopment study for the area now? That would be a city decision made in conjunction with the developer and the city.”

With a municipal election scheduled for May 11, Aaron doesn’t see a lot of decisions being made before that.

“The only thing that could happen before the election would be an application to the Appellate Division for instructions and an interpretation of the decision,” he said.

The court ruled that the city now has the opportunity to resubmit plans proving that the area is blighted, but Schneider is not sure if they will ever do that.

“Do I see this or any other project moving forth the way we originally envisioned? No, I don’t,” he said.

“The decision is still fairly recent, and the developer has its own financial headaches right now, but I tend to doubt that we’d go in that direction. I very much doubt it.

“I just don’t see it happening,” he added. “In part, you have to wait until after the election, but I just can’t imagine the model is going to change.”

Wegener said the next move for the property owners is to react to the city’s next move.

“It depends on what the city officials want to do,” he said. “I think we have to wait and see what the city wants to do.”

Wegener was one of the attorneys who fought a similar fight in 2008 with the Beachfront North redevelopment zone and compared the two appellate decisions.

“They [in Beachfront North] found that the original study was faulty and inadequate,” he said.

“They made similar findings that the ordinance was inadequate, but they sent them back [in BFN] for additional proofs,” he added, “whereas here they actually invalidated the ordinances.”

Both Schneider and Wegener agreed that the city’s use of eminent domain would not be implemented, going forward.

“The ability now to use eminent domain, I think, is essentially dead,” Schneider said.

“I don’t think there will be any more takings under the statute in any of the zones,” Wegener said. “The mayor has indicated that he does not intend to use eminent domain to take any other properties.

“If they attempted to, whoever was defending the case can point to the two cases we were successful in challenging the takings,” he added.

Schneider said that because of the economy and past development, he doesn’t think there will be much movement in any of the redevelopment zones in the near future.

“Essentially most of it [redevelopment] is done, meaning the oceanfront is settled and done,” he said. “Broadway Arts may actually have the least amount of impact on it because 98 percent [of the properties] was already acquired.”

Schneider said that he was left unclear whether the zone is still considered a redevelopment zone and whether or not variances could be issued in the zone.

“It was one of those things that was left in a hazy decision on what we can and can’t do there,” he said. “It isn’t clear to me that they are saying the redevelopment zone is inappropriate, or because of various reasons you can’t use eminent domain, or if they are saying something more to that.

“Those issues are still sitting there to be determined,” he added. “It just isn’t really clear what we will be permitted to do or not to do. I would say it would remain the same.”

When the city first looked at the area as “in need of redevelopment,” they developed a six-prong criteria for the buildings, including broken windows, deteriorating paint, failing, rotten exterior columns, cracked or chipped masonry veneer, structural parts showing evidence of deterioration, and gutters, leaders, drains, window frames and doors showing evidence of apparent defects.

According to the study, 48 buildings received a good rating, 74 were found to be fair, and 68 were considered poor, with the remaining 47 parcels of land being vacant.

Plans for the downtown Broadway Arts Center zone call for BAC to develop the Broadway corridor, which is the first 9 acres of the entire Broadway redevelopment zone.

The corridor extends two blocks from Second Avenue to Memorial Avenue and from Union Avenue to the north and Belmont Avenue to the south.

Plans for the project call for the properties to be razed and replaced with a mixeduse arts and theater district. BAC would consist of commercial space, residential and live/work units, office space and parking garages.

BAC is one of six zones in the city slated for redevelopment. Also labeled as redevelopment zones are Beachfront South, Pier Village, Hotel Campus, Broadway-Gateway and MTOTSA (Marine Terrace, Ocean Terrace and Seaview Avenue).

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.





Click here to enlarge



No Flash Detected
Please download the latest version by clicking below:

Get

Advertisement for AllAmericanChevy.com