Brick Residents Protesting Hotel/Retail Complex On Route 88

The Brick Township Planning Board likely will have a full house on Wednesday evening when it meets to consider more testimony on a proposal for a hotel and retail complex on a triangle of land not far from Ocean Medical Center.

The application by Kamson Corporation for a project called Ocean Pointe on land bounded by Route 88, Jack Martin Boulevard and Burrsville Road, which was carried from the Oct. 14 meeting, is facing significant opposition from the community.

Residents packed the Brick Township Council meeting last Tuesday to complain to Mayor John Ducey and the council about the proposed project, which includes a 103-room extended stay hotel, two strip malls with 66 apartments total above the retail spaces, and an additional retail space.

Many left frustrated, however, when Ducey and the council would not take a stand against the project, on the advice of Township Attorney Kevin Starkey. Starkey tried several times to explain to the audience that any comment from the council or Ducey could be construed as an attempt to sway the Planning Board and could create problems if the Planning Board rejects the application.

“Under the law it would do more harm than good,” Starkey said.

The Republican candidates running for four Township Council seats -- Michael Conti, Frank Pannucci Jr., Charlie Bacon and Martin Ebert -- announced their opposition to the project in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

Bacon and Ebert expressed disappointment that the council -- all Democrats -- “refuses to address the severe negative impact, especially on the quality of life changes that this project will bring on our Brick Township residents,” with the four saying the abandoned Foodtown site is ”the perfect location for a project of this type.”

“If the Democrats were truly interested in seeing our business community grow, they would have actively pursued timely development of the Foodtown tract,” Conti said. “They had four years to proactively facilitate this type of project on the Foodtown property that the township already owns, and they sat on their hands.”

Ducey, who served as council president in 2012, has repeatedly said the issue with the Foodtown site has been the redeveloper’s refusal to go forward with plans for a hotel on that site. In 2012, the redeveloper, M&M Properties at Route 70, said a feasibility study said the township would not support a hotel.

Last year, however, emboldened by the proposal to build a hotel on the Jack Martin/Route 88/Burrsville site, Ducey and the council moved to terminate the redevelopment project, citing missed deadlines for monetary deposits. The issue is now tied up in court, with the redeveloper having filed a counterclaim, saying Brick failed to obtain the needed permits from the state, including one from the Department of Transportation.

Residents cited concerns ranging from traffic -- a traffic study included with the proposal says it will bring a minimum of 300 to 400 extra vehicles per day to the area -- to what they viewed as the potential for an extended-stay hotel to turn into a haven for drug dealing or crime in asking the council to oppose the project.

“I’m right smack in the middle of this disaster, “ said Lori Zange of Burrsville Road. “I don’t see why we need this hotel. We have plenty of empty strip malls. If I want to open a store I can go rent an empty store anywhere else in Bricktown.”

Ducey and Council President Paul Mummolo said all of the residents would have their opportunity to be heard at the Planning Board meeting and encouraged them to attend.

“Your comments are important, but they need to be on the record there in case this goes to an appeal, because those are the only comments the court will see,” Ducey said.