With Bocce Court Tossed, Tommy's Expansion Plan Approved

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By Liz Sheehan |
SEA BRIGHT – After months of meetings, the Unified Planning Board approved the proposal Tuesday night for an expansion of Tommy’s Tavern & Tap. Residents of the Nautilus condominiums, neighbors of the restaurant, withdrew their opposition to the plan, paving the way for the board’s approval.
In a letter to the board dated May 9, Michael Lipari, the attorney for the Nautilus Condominium Association, said the association withdrew its opposition to Tommy’s application.
“The association and the applicant have reached a tentative agreement regarding this application, which the parties anticipate will be finalized shortly,” the letter said.
A number of factors caused the change of opinion, including the elimination of a bocce court and the allowed use of an easement for entering and exiting the condominium parking lot.
After Tommy’s opened in the summer of 2015, noise from the bocce court and patrons gathering in the riverfront lot behind the restaurant caused numerous complaints, mostly from residents of the Nautilus. The board had not given Tommy’s owner, Tommy Bonfiglio, permission for entertainment in the lot and the bocce court was closed down.
At the last board meeting on the application in March, the bocce court was still in the plans, but at Tuesday’s meeting, Martin McGann, Jr., the lawyer for Tommy’s, presented a new plan dated May 5, without the bocce court.
Board Attorney Kerry Higgins outlined the conditions for the approvals of the two separate applications, one for the addition of a banquet room, the other for the plans for the parking lot, which include no service of food or drinks outside the dining room in the back of the restaurant and the closing of the outdoor section behind the restaurant at 10 p.m.
Also on Tuesday McGann explained an agreement he said was made with Nautilus residents that would allow them to use an easement located directly to the north of Tommy’s for both exiting and entering the parking lot for the condominium. This is important to the residents since the county’s plans for construction on the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge would eliminate left turns onto Old Rumson Road, the street Nautilus residents now use to enter their parking lot.
In its original plan for the bridge, the county said it would acquire a former Sunoco station, destroyed by Super Storm Sandy, adjacent to Tommy’s, to give access to the Nautilus parking lot and for access and parking spaces for an existing Dunkin’ Donuts. According to county representatives this was necessary because the state would not permit a left hand turn onto Old Rumson Road once the bridge was in place.
However, Bonfiglio had already bought the lot to use as the parking needed for his expansion application.
Nautilus residents currently can exit their parking lot using the easement next to Tommy’s but cannot use it to enter.
McGann presented a plan to the board that showed access to the condominium parking lot by vehicles traveling north by making a left hand turn into the easement next to Tommy’s, going through Tommy’s parking lot and then making a left into the condominium parking lot. Vehicles exiting the Nautilus parking lot onto Ocean Avenue would use the easement, as they now do.
McGann said this plan depended on the county using its current plan for the bridge.
Higgins said if the county acquired the property where the parking lot was to be situated the approval would be withdrawn.
On Wednesday, Jennifer M. Nelson, the director of communications for the county, said, “At this point in time we have no plans to acquire the property as part of the project,” referring to the moving of the bridge.

This article was first published in the May 11-18, 2017 print edition of The Two River Times.