Sea Bright OKs Transfer of Riverfront Parcel to Resident

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By Liz Sheehan
SEA BRIGHT – A parcel of riverfront land was transferred to an Atlantic Way resident who lives adjacent to the property.
In a 4-2 vote Tuesday night, the Borough Council approved the deal to vacate the 30 by 30-foot Bellevue Place parcel and granted ownership to Timothy J. Parker, 3 Atlantic Way.
Prior to the vote, the council heard from supporters and opponents of the action at a public hearing on the ordinance. Council members John Lamia Jr., and Peggy Bills voted against the vacation of the property, while Charles Rooney III, William Keeler, Brian Kelly and Marc Leckstein supported it.
In a telephone interview before the meeting, Acting Borough Administrator Joseph Verruni said the land was reserved for a public street when the subdivision was built decades ago, but the paper street was never realized. “The borough has no intention to lengthen the street,” he said.
Parker’s neighbors spoke in support of the ordinance granting him ownership.
Mike Welty of Bellevue Place, said no one uses the plot, located between Parker’s home and the river on the north side of Atlantic Way, adding that “hundreds of square yards” of riverfront property are open to public access on the south side of the end of Atlantic Way, where it terminates at the river. Neighbors in the area, Welty said, use the larger property for picnics and get-togethers.
Before the vote was taken, Councilman Leckstein introduced an amendment he said was requested by the American Littoral Society, NY/NJ Baykeeper and the Surfrider Foundation which said, “The act of vacating the identified portion of Bellevue Place shall not vacate or eliminate the end of public street access,” referring to the end of Atlantic Way which runs from Ocean Avenue to the river.
All council members approved the amendment.
But the rest of the letter from the three organizations, which was not read to the public by Leckstein but was later read at the meeting by an objector to the vacation of the street, went on to give reasons they opposed the ordinance. “In this case, the undersigned groups believe that the public interest, specifically as related to future public access to tidal waterways, would be better served by maintaining the public right to this property,” the letter said, referring to the New Jersey Legislature’s effort to “pass laws to clarify the type and amount of access to these tidal waterways,” following a court decision that “recently struck down the NJ DEP’s most recent Rules public access to tidal waters in NJ.”
“A single property owner’s desire to build a deck and any attendant minimal tax base interest does not outweigh the larger public interest that is provided meaningful public access,” the letter said.
Councilman Keeler said he had decided to vote for the amendment because he believed that having a public space so close to the Parker home caused a difficult situation for the family as “people could come up and look into the windows” of the house.
Keeler said he had a parking lot adjacent to his home and it was often noisy and had trash left on it.
He said there were other areas in the neighborhood that had public access to the river.
Several others objected to the ordinance including a neighbor, Tom Scriven.
“Once you give land away it’s never given back,” he said. Scriven said the council had a “duty” to preserve land “for the future” of the town.