Construction on the expansion of the Kikar Shabbos shopping center onto the former community center site is well underway.
However, for reasons unexplained, no construction at all is underway on the new municipal building we were solemnly promised in exchange for this giveaway.
Curious minds wonder if this was simply "an innocent deal gone bad" or if there was something nefarious planned from the get-go.
Back on August 20, 2009 Moshe Lankry attended a Township Committee meeting. He advised he was representing a few store owners, and they are concerned about a paper street near the Community Center, Steckler Street, with a large area behind it. They have heard rumors that someone wants to develop Monmouth Avenue into a mall, or storefronts. "The Clifton Avenue storeowners would like to know what is planned for that area, and how it will affect the storeowners on Clifton Avenue," he stated.
Committteman Ray Coles responded: The Township was approached with a proposal to build a parking lot behind where the current Community Center is located to service a new shopping center that would be built on the site. The participation from the LDC will be limited to constructing the parking lot, which would be a public parking lot for everyone.
Back in 2017, there was a 1.71 acres Township-owned lot at 20 4th Street, adjacent to the Kikar Shabbos shopping center, which included a community center, playground and basketball court.
In April 2017, the Township Committee adopted an ordinance that laid the groundwork towards eliminating this recreational space which was used heavily by all the nearby residents, and giving it up for private commercial construction.
The ordinance states that "this property is not needed for public use as it is presently maintained, inasmuch as a new facility is required," and therefore, to "benefit the residents of the Township of Lakewood through the more efficient management of the property and the township's facilities," the Township will transfer ownership of this entire lot to the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), "in conjunction with ... a land transaction LDC is entering with BRR wherein they are contracting to exchange land, including this parcel and other properties, to be encumbered with perpetual deed declarations creating public parking facilities and BRR shall construct an approximate 7,800 squarefoot new Lakewood Community Center at John Patrick Park... with the presently existing Lakewood Community Center continuing in operation until such time as the new facility has been constructed and appropriate Certificates of Occupancy been issued."
LDC is an arm of the Township. Transferring Township property via the LDC permits the Township to sell the property to a third party for $1 instead of the usual way of selling the property at a public auction to the highest bidder.
The full agreement between BRR and LDC was subsequently signed in February 2018.
That agreement discusses 3 separate lots, which were owned by these 2 parties:
LDC owned
1) 301 Monmouth Avenue, Block 160 Lot 1.03
2) 20 4th Street, Block 161 Lot 2
BRR owned
3) 305 Monmouth Avenue, Block 160 Lot 1.02
The plan was for LDC to give their 2 lots to BRR, and for BRR to demolish the mixed-use building that was on their own lot, (305 Monmouth Avenue) and to construct a public parking lot with appropriate lighting, as well as to complete improvements to the parking lot on the LDC property (301 Monmouth Avenue) by installing lighting fixtures and adding parking spaces. Both of these properties were to be dedicated for public parking use for the land in perpetuity.
The agreement does not specify what BRR would build on the community center lot (20 4th Street) rather it stated that BRR would receive this lot and all structures thereon in its "as-is" condition, and they would build a new community center at John Patrick park and they would maintain the original community center until completion of construction of the new community center.
Included in this agreement was a clause that noted that construction of the new community center would require an environmental permit from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, known as CAFRA, and that the LDC would obtain this permit, and construction on the community center would be required to be completed within one year of acquisition of the CAFRA permit.
In January 2019, things hit a snag when DEP responded that a CAFRA was also required – and never applied for – for the entire John Patrick Park which was built over 10 years ago, and as a result, the Township would now be required to submit for a CAFRA permit for the entire park as a prerequisite to constructing the new community center. This expanded permit would involve costly traffic improvements and expansion of the park's drainage system.
In the meantime, Township officials got busy planning construction of a new building for the planning, engineering, inspection, and code enforcement departments which are currently housed at 212 4th Street. The new building is to be located on America Avenue near the Public Works complex.
In September 2020, the Township took a $2 million bond for construction of this new inspection department building.
In November 2020, just before the onset of the winter when the community center would be used as the Township's Code Blue homeless shelter, the Township's Inspection Department mysteriously appeared and determined the community center to be "hazardous" and they shuttered its doors. Boom!
At the same time, the new owners of the community center ever so quietly struck a brand new deal with the Township: In lieu of constructing a new community center at John Patrick park - and importantly, waiting until the new community center is constructed prior to demolishing the original community center - the developers will instead agree to construct the new inspection department building.
The zillion dollar question is, what assurance do we have that the new inspection department building will actually ever get built? What sort of timeframe is there for when the developers of BRR are even required to start construction?
So... here goes....
See... um... well....
It's sorta... kinda....
An agreement was drafted that states that BRR needs to commence construction within one year of signing the agreement. However, they never actually signed this agreement, therefore the time clock has not yet begun.
How do you like that scam??
Regardless, once the Township gave the go-ahead to demolish the community center, they lost all "enforcement powers" to assure that any construction on the new inspection department building will actually begin.
Engineering site work for this project began in March 2021, and in July 2021, plans were presented to the Planning Board for a new 8,110 sq feet pre-fabricared one-story building with 56 off-street parking spaces.
Since then, complete crickets.
In the meantime, the expansion of the Kikar Shabbos shopping center is getting shinier by the day.
Is it possible that, back in 2017 and 2018, when the major deal was hashed out, all parties involved acted in good faith, thinking that the CAFRA permit would be a simple matter and that once it would be obtained and then the new community center would get built and the original community center would not shuttered or demolished until the new community center was built, and then the turn of events was simply because DEP's stipulation that the Township would be required to install an expensive drainage system as a prerequisite to receiving the CAFRA permit made the community center project too much of a major headache? (Remember, LDC is the one obtaining the CAFRA, not BRR).
Is it further possible that when the Township bonded $2 million for the new inspection department, they truly planned to properly bid out the project to the lowest bidder?
Or, perhaps, is there something nefarious going on? Did the parties specifically choose for the new community center a location which required a CAFRA permit, knowing that they would never obtain the permit and then they could play around and release BRR from their part of the deal to build a community center?
Either way, questions still remain what will become of the $2 million bonded by the township for this project? Will they return it or we will continue to pay interest on it? Additionally, will BRR be compensated for building the new construction offices? If yes, how much?
Furthermore, we have an additional question: The 2018 agreement says that the lots at 301 and 305 Monmouth Avenue are to be dedicated in perpetuity for public parking. These lots are now the site of the Kikar Shabbos shopping center and parking lots. The 2018 agreement does not specify if the entire lot needs to for public parking or if most of the lot can also be used for a shopping center, however, it does stipulate that there needs to be a public parking lot. The issue is that Kikar Shabbos included all the parking spaces in their Site Plan to fulfill their requirement for parking for their shopping center. Additionally, some of those parking spaces have signs restricting them for specific tenants of the shopping center - how can this be permitted in a public parking lot?
Side note: The Planning Board approved the Site Plan for the expansion of the Kikar Shabbos shopping center in July 2021. Numerous neighbors opposed the application. As part of their opposition, the neighbors expressed hurt that their public park was eliminated to make way for the shopping center expansion.
At the time, Mayor Ray Coles assured the neighbors that he would assist in brokering an agreement to replace their eliminated park.
Provisions for a park were finally set in August 2022... Maybe.
There was a public right-of-way called Steckler Street which then ran through a small portion of the future shopping center expansion. The Township Committee formally vacated this right-of-way to permit for additional parking for the shopping center. At the same time, the Committee formally accepted from BRR a dedication of a triangular-shaped, approximately 1,000 sq feet easement for the purpose of the Township constructing a public pocket park thereon.
Since that time, its just been "swinging and sliding" with no pocket park yet spotted.
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3 comments:
As someone who grew up there and used “4th street” often, it’s horrible how a community space can just be taken away by greedy developers.
They are stealing from the people.
The basketball court was used a ton by all sorts of people. Never understood why they gave it away.
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