Ferry Service To Point Pleasant Beach From New York Canceled

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — Three days before the Seastreak ferry service was set to bring passengers from New York to Point Pleasant Beach, the route has been scrapped.

Seastreak announced it was dropping the proposed service after the Point Pleasant Beach Borough Council rejected an ordinance Tuesday night that would have paved the way for a temporary pilot program.

The ordinance would have created ferry licensing rules to operate a ferry commuter service in the borough, including a requirement to go through the planning approval process.

After more than four hours of discussion by council members and input from residents, council members John Dixon, Kitty Stillufsen and Andy Cortes voted against the ordinance, while Michael Ramos and Caryn Byrnes voted in favor.

Mayor Doug Vitale, before the vote, urged the council to approve the ordinance.

"We're presented with a great opportunity in town," Vitale said. "This is an opportunity to keep our businesses going. We're squandering an opportunity."

Seastreak President James D. Barker said he was disappointed at the council's decision.

“At the end of the day, this was about an opportunity to evaluate a new and exciting service with very little downside to Point Pleasant Beach and real and significant upside potential," Barker said in a statement. "We’re disappointed and frustrated that the Borough Council did not agree, and instead voted against allowing the pilot ferry service. Residents should take a close look at how decisions like this are being made and what opportunities may be lost as a result."

An unexpected announcement

Seastreak's planned route was announced at the May 19 Borough Council meeting. But the plans to launch the service June 19 caught Vitale and the Borough Council off-guard, according to statements at a hastily called special meeting of the council on May 26.

"I literally found out ... two hours before the council meeting," Vitale said on May 26. When he announced it, he said he had assumed all the logistical issues had been resolved.

"Come to find out they weren't," Vitale said.

The ferry had been scheduled to dock at Captain Bill's Landing, near the tip of Inlet Drive. The logistical issues included practical matters of parking and how passengers from New York would get in and out of the area, restroom availability and other accommodations.

They also included a debate over whether the existing marine commercial zoning for the area included allowing for passenger ferries.

Vitale and the council learned that William Cleary, the owner of Captain Bill's, had been discussing the ferry possibility for nearly nine months, and Seastreak had received permissions from the U.S. Coast Guard to offer the service.

Cleary had spoken with the Point Pleasant Beach Chamber of Commerce, which supported the plans for the ferry service, and had spoken with Police Chief Robert Kowalewski about potential traffic issues, Cleary said.

The issue of whether the ferry passenger service is a permitted use in the marine commercial zone was raised after the service was announced.

Cleary contended the ferry service is similar to the operations of the for-hire fishing boats that operate along Inlet Drive, that have daily passenger trips.

Others, including members of the council, contended it was not a permitted use because it was not explicitly spelled out in the ordinance.

In the end of the May 26 meeting the council agreed to a temporary permit to operate the ferry on a trial run.

An argument about process

On Tuesday night the council was asked to vote on the ordinance that would have created a licensing requirement.

Dixon said the ordinance was fixing a problem that Cleary and Seastreak had created for themselves, and they should be going before the borough's planning or zoning boards.

"What did they submit in the nine months to this town to say, 'Hey, maybe should we check with this? See if it's OK," Dixon said. "The people that own the business over there have gotten who knows how many variances and everything site plans when they turned it into a fuel dock and a bait shop and apartments and everything else. So, they know, but they walked in here, going like, 'Oh, I didn't know how to do that.' Come on, give me a break."

"There's a process that you have to go through. It isn't like, oh, I disagree with our zoning (official), so I'm going to ignore what she says and do whatever we want. That's not how it's supposed to work," Dixon said. "We're fast-tracking this and violating all our rules."

Some residents also urged the council to reject the ordinance and slow the process down.

"I'm not against a ferry," resident Mary Alice Kinsella said. "I can see the benefits of a ferry. I have a daughter that lives in the city. Her and her friends come down here. I can see them using this service, but it needs to be done the proper way. It shouldn't be rushed."

"I'm not completely against the idea of ferry service, but I am completely against the way that we're doing this," said Dave Friendly. "I do think this is something, especially because of the traffic situation, the parking situation, the closeness to the Coast Guard station, that entire area is the real problem. It's not so much the ferry, but I also don't understand why we're excited about dumping 4 or 500 more people here on the busiest weekends of the year."

"This is just absolutely rushed for no reason whatsoever," he said. "They made the mistake of doing this without doing it the right way and we're bending over backwards for them."

Resident Daryl Monticello argued that the ferry was simply docking at the site, similar to the water taxis that bring customers to various residents.

While multiple comparisons were made to Seastreak's ferry service out of the Highlands in Monmouth County, Monticello said the two situations were very different because the Highlands service includes a ferry terminal building and other items that required approval by the Highlands borough land use boards.

The Seastreak proposal did not include a building for a ferry terminal.

Stillufsen at one point raised the possibility of revisiting the ordinance, but it was unclear whether the council would take another look at one.

Seastreak may not be back

Barker, in the statement issued on the Seastreak website, said the company had worked with Vitale and Borough Administrator Joseph Michigan over the last few weeks to address concerns including passenger pickup and drop-off logistics, "designed to minimize local impact."

"To get to this point after the level of engagement we’ve had is extremely frustrating and disappointing," Barker said. "We were confident that we had a path to responsibly test this service. The whole purpose of the pilot was to determine whether service was logistically and economically viable before making larger investments and commitments. Without the ability to test the concept on a limited basis as we proposed, it becomes very difficult to move forward."

The pilot was anticipated to "test demand and, importantly, to
determine whether this type of service could be financially viable before making larger, long-term investments and commitments for more robust ferry service to Point Pleasant Beach," he said.

"The transportation value of the route was clear," he said, with a travel time of about an hour and 15 minutes, as opposed to a 2-1/2-hour trip from Penn Station via NJ Transit trains.

"Without the pilot, you’re now asking a private operator to take on significant engineering, planning, and capital costs without ever having had the chance to validate whether the service was economically and operationally viable, and without assurance that it would even be permitted to operate if it was determined to be viable," Barker said. "That’s very difficult to justify."

Without the pilot, Barker said, the company "cannot justify the significant level of time and investment that Borough Council is requiring before it will even consider whether to permit ferry service."

People who had already purchased tickets should be seeing refunds immediately, he said.

Barker said it's uncertain whether Seastreak will revisit running ferry service to Point Pleasant Beach or look elsewhere.

The company "remains focused on deploying its vessels where projects can move forward with a clear and practical path to execution. The company remains open to working with other communities interested in developing ferry service."