SBB has appealed the granting of a use variance for luxury condos, a restaurant and an upgraded marina to Paramount Homes.
906-B Grand Central Avenue
Lavallette, NJ 08735
For Release
October 17, 2003
Contact: William deCamp Jr. 732-830-3600
Complaint in Superior Court
Save Barnegat Bay today filed an eight-count complaint against the Brick Township Zoning Board of Adjustment in Superior Court in Toms River. The lawsuit seeks to overturn the granting of a use variance that would allow the intensive development of Traders Cove marina.
The zoning board’s action would allow Paramount Homes of Lakewood to develop the eleven acre Traders Cove site with luxury condominiums, a restaurant and an upgraded marina.
Although the variance was granted in April of this year, the Zoning Board has yet to pass a resolution memorializing that fact. According to Save Barnegat Bay’s lawsuit, New Jersey’s Municipal Land Use Law “requires that the Zoning Board of Adjustment adopt a resolution within forty-five days of the date of decision.”
Save Barnegat Bay’s attorney in this matter is Michele R. Donato, of Lavallette.
The group’s suit also alleges that the granting of a use variance is illegal and should be reversed for numerous other reasons, including:
– Violation of the rezoning of Traders Cove and other waterfront tracts passed in June of 2002 at the urging of Save Barnegat Bay and Brick Township’s own planners.
– Failure to meet the specified criteria for use variances as defined in the Municipal Land Use Law.
– Violation of Brick Township’s Master Plan, which calls for open space and recreation at this site.
– Effectuating a rezoning under the provisions of New Jersey’s Municipal Land Use Law, rather than a variance.
“If the Scarpelli administration gets away with making Traders Cove an intensive high-density condo development, how are you going to stop the granting of variances to politically connected developers throughout Brick’s fifty-three mile waterfront?” asked William deCamp, Jr., President of Save Barnegat Bay.
Traders Cove is located at the northwest foot of the Mantoloking Bridge, on Mantoloking-Adamston Road, across the street from Beaton’s Boatyard and Winter Yacht Basin.
Save Barnegat Bay has advocated use of the site in a manner more open to the public. The group’s preferred use would be as a park for passive recreation, fishing, crabbing, picnicking and launching of boats. Save Barnegat Bay has pointed to Brick Township’s Bayside Park in Normandy Beach as an example of what could be done at Traders Cove.
“The County makes money running Forge Pond Golf Course,” said deCamp. “Why shouldn’t they be able to make money running a modest marina facility open to the public for boat launching, fishing, crabbing, and picnicking? The public is getting walled off from the bay.”
Save Barnegat Bay has assisted in making the adjacent “Herring Point” tract part of the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. The group maintains that it is bad planning to place an intensive development next to a National Wildlife Refuge.
DeCamp observed that dozens of Brick citizens and Cub Scouts have hauled tons of trash out of the neighboring refuge over many years. According to the group, it is a betrayal of the trust of these many citizens to intensively develop the adjacent Traders Cove, especially when the Master Plan calls for open space.
“The township has bent over backward to make this overly intensive use of the waterfront happen,” said deCamp. “We want to see Brick’s waterfront and all of Barnegat Bay used in a manner that is people-friendly, not as a bankable asset for special interests.”
