To paraphrase: 'If you tell a lie long enough, people will begin to beleive it.'
That Duany was the primary source of creating our Redevelopment Plan is still being cited as a good reason to accept it without question. A good tactic from a public relations view, but far from the truth. One needs to look at the factual history of the evolution of the current Plan to determine what hapened. First the biggest lie needs to dispelled. The lie that the Plan was held up in bankruptcy court as a asset of Carabetta and subject to the powers of the Court. It was the Redevloper Agreement between the City and Carabetta that was held as an asset in the bankruptcy. That agreement was the contract that obligated implimentation of the adopted land use and zoning in place at the time. A Redevopment Plan is the publicly adopted set of criteria that sets forth land uses such as residentail, commercial, entertainment, etc. The Plan is "owned" by the public and can not and was not held as an asset of Carabetta's. Redeveloper Agreement = Contract to perform = Held in Bankruptcy Redevelopment Plan = Land use and Zoning = The Local Law Whoever became the developer was obligated to build out what the law specified. So what happened? The City settled the litigation with Carabetta and agreed to transfer his rights (the contract) to Asbury Partners. That contract obligated them to impliment the existing Plan because that is what was adopted and had the force of law at that time. Instead the City entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was treated as a contract modification to settle the litigation. The MOU set forth development criteria and land uses that were in violation of the existing adopted, legal land uses. The MOU was, from that point on, treated as the "New Plan" upon which all subsequent Plans were built. This is where the major error was made. A City can not devise redevelopment plans by contract, it violates the public process established by the Municipal Land Use Law. Changing land use and zoning to satisfy a prearranged contract is illegal. That is how Asbury Park went from a mixed use resort, entertainment, residential Plan (v1991) that was the Law at the time, to a primarily residential Plan. The "Real Plan-1991" was ignored. The MOU (Settlement Agreement) was taken as the "New Plan" and off everyone went to build a new Asbury Park. When the New Plan was publicized many residents and stake holders voiced their concerns about the "New Asbury Park". Condos are nice but what about the Palace, The Pony, Entertainment, Historic Landmarks, Public Lands, the Architecture, etc etc ? Enter Duany - The City hires Duany to iron out all the details, mediate, and create design standards. His quote diring the public presentation - '"this is planning by contract"' -- OUCH !!! In the end, land uses did not change, they still reflect the MOU, Condos everywhere. We got narrower streets, smaller sidewalks, lost the Palace, lost the entire public oceanfront, better architecture at least.... I attribute most of the mis-steps to a City Council unwilling to take input from knowledgaable people who had the Public's interests in mind. Also, there was no City Planner on staff throughout this entire period. Werner PS - for a typical developer Condos are an easy to build cash cow (in a good market). Real Redevelpment - Community based, Heritage based, Economics based - takes a much higher skill level and commitment that in the end would be better for the City. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From Tommy: As to why the plan has 3000 condos, he is jumping to conclusions that just the developer wanted that. From Sea Bright to Long Branch to Belmar, all of Monmouth County's previous tourist towns went to year-round residential rather than seasonal tourism, because Monmouth County has changed Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/