City cancels meeting with developer
Lack of quorum postpones session to next week
BY NANCY SHIELDS COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU FEBRUARY 21, 2008
ASBURY PARK City officials postponed a public work session with boardwalk
developer
Madison Marquette Wednesday, as well as the regular public meeting that was to
follow,
because only two of five City Council members showed up.
Officials said they knew Councilman Jim Keady would not be present and that
Councilman
Ed Johnson had a work obligation at Brookdale Community College develop
Wednesday
morning.
Mayor Kevin Sanders let the council know in the late afternoon that he could
not attend
because of a personal issue, but that came as approximately 12 professionals
and staff
working for Madison Marquette were waiting in the council foyer to meet.
The planned two-hour work session to attempt to iron out some differences was
rescheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, with the regular council meeting to follow at
7 p.m.
The postponement comes as Madison Marquette works at a frenetic pace to open
the
rehabilitated boardwalk pavilions, housing, shops, restaurants and nightclubs
by Memorial
Day.
"The city's been great and worked really hard the last two months," said John
Lanham, the
company's senior vice president of development. "They're pushing as hard as
they can. It's
tough to do this development in any environment. We wouldn't get it done
without their
cooperation."
The developer and city are working together and fighting it out when they
disagree.
One of the issues on which the two sides differ is the city's requirement that
the public
have access to bathrooms in at least one of the five pavilion sites.
Two weeks ago, Madison Marquette agreed that bathrooms in a planned Second
Avenue
beach club to be called "Oasis" would be open to the public if the state
Department of
Environmental Protection did not let them put the restrooms on green space
between the
pavilions.
Donald Sammet, the city's director of planning and redevelopment, said a
special meeting
of the city's Technical Review Committee will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday for a
review of
some of Madison Marquette's plans or revised plans for the Wonder Bar on Ocean
Avenue,
pop-up retail structures on the green areas between the pavilions and the
design of
proposed stairwells onto the beach from Convention Hall.
The Planning Board has approved Madison Marquette's plans for the First, Third
and Fifth
Avenue pavilions, and that work is under way. Another issue that still needs to
be resolved
is parking on Ocean Avenue.
The council also has to look at plans for a proposed miniature golf course, a
sculpture
garden, a water park and a so-called interlocking garden on the green spaces
between the
pavilions, and rehabilitation plans for the Casino Carousel building.
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