By JF Grodeska
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – The small beach off Center Avenue by Wagner Creek – locally known as Wagner Beach – has been a waterfront recreation area for more than a century. It boasts a gentle surf, shallow waters and stunning views of Sandy Hook Bay and the Manhattan skyline. It is home to the Sandy Hook Bay Catamaran Club.
Denholtz Custom Homes is currently developing a 7-acre property that runs between the beach and Avenue D, known as the McConnell Tract and previously occupied by Blackfoot Mobile Marine Services, a boat storage facility. The property will hold 16 waterfront homes ranging in price from $1.9 to $3.3 million, according to the Denholtz website, a public boardwalk and open green space overlooking the bay. The site has been zoned residential but used commercially since 1923. In 1929 the parcel was developed by Standard Oil and was later owned by Exxon for industrial operations.
However, in April 2023, as construction got under way, neighbors began to notice a strong odor they said coincided with the excavation. Some developed headaches and nausea. At times, the smell permeated indoors, through closed windows and doors.
Carol Nolte, a nearby resident, recognized the odor. After a long career in the oil industry, Nolte knew she was smelling petroleum. She and her neighbors called the state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
“When you have an odor complaint, they send you to the odor department and what happens next is that the NJDEP sends somebody out to the site,” Nolte explained. “Then they contact somebody from the county and somebody from the county actually comes out. They basically say, ‘If we don’t smell it when we get here, it doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter what you smell for days. It doesn’t matter what you smelled two minutes ago. When we get here is all that matters.’ ”
Residents followed up with calls to Wriston Phillips, the licensed site remediation professional employed by Denholtz. “Basically, he said that you’re allowed to file an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request to get the test results of what they found,” Nolte said.
She and her neighbors attempted several more calls to the NJDEP, leaving messages that prompted no return calls.
“We haven’t been able to get information from anyone that this smell is OK to smell,” she said. The smell isn’t their only concern. “What’s going into the water?” Nolte wondered.
“Nobody will get back to us, and the sad part is the Borough of Atlantic Highlands doesn’t seem to be concerned about A) finding out and B) letting us know. That’s the sad part.”
Angus McDougald, another neighbor of the Brant Point project and the administrator of the Atlantic Highlands Almost unCensored Facebook page, posted videos of runoff from the site and what appears to be an oily sheen in the water for weeks.
“I am still not confident that anybody in the government is going to do anything to release the information about what is going on, what happened before with the original mitigation, and what is the outcome,” McDougald said, concerned about the pollution being created by the construction.
“For me, it’s clear that pollution is coming out of this, and people are kind of, at the very least, hiding what’s going on. They just don’t want it talked about. You know, like the town, I think, is scared of being sued,” he said.
The project, named Brant Point, has been plagued with controversy from the beginning. Local residents protested the original application for 21 homes, prompting several special borough planning board meetings that drew such large crowds they had to be held in the Atlantic Highlands Elementary School.
After being reduced to 16 homes and adding open space, the project got the goahead from the borough in April 2019. But the citizens’ group Neighbors for Waterfront Preservation (NWP) filed a lawsuit against Denholtz Custom Homes and the borough planning board. In 2020, Superior Court Judge Owen C. McCarthy sided with NWP and over- turned the approval, requiring Denholtz begin the process again. All three parties reached a settlement and the project moved forward.
The NJDEP presented Denholtz Properties with a Notice of Violation (NOV) Aug. 28 for “failure of the permittee to process and/or operate in compliance with a certified soil erosion and sediment control plan. The NOV directs Brant Point Development to comply with the Soil Erosion Sediment Control Plan approved by the Freehold Soil Conservation District or submit a revised plan to the district within 30 days of receipt of the NOV.”
Denholtz posted signage on the construction site advising the public of the violation Aug. 31.
The borough released a lengthy statement that same day, which read, in part, “The Borough Fire Marshall and Water/Sewer Licensed Superintendent have also been on site on several occasions with no concerns or violations to date. The Borough OEM Coordinator has been advised of the complaints to the NJDEP and also does not have any concerns at this time.”
When asked about the violation, Phillips, Denholtz’s licensed site remediation professional, said “In speaking with those involved, I understand the soil erosion control measures were installed per the approved plans. When Freehold Soil Conservation District visited the site, they suggested some field changes be made to prevent erosion at the adjacent Catamaran Club. Denholtz complied and incorporated those changes. When the NJDEP visited the site, they noted that the erosion measures did not reflect what was on the original approved plans and issued the violation. Denholtz has now updated the plans to the satisfaction of both agencies and will be installing the improvements in the coming weeks.”
The majority of the neighbors of the Brant Point project are not against the project. They simply want to know if the odor and dust are safe, and ensure that petroleum pollution is not seeping into the bay.
The article originally appeared in the September 14 – 20, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
