By WILLIAM CLARK
The long contentious pilot parking program for Ocean Grove is back up for discussion with the Neptune Township Committee.
During its workshop meeting, the Township Committee conferred with Township Attorney Gene Anthony what needs to be done to get a permit process underway for the coming year.
Anthony said any ordinance adopted by the township that would require enforcement by the police department would need to be approved by the Monmouth County Assignment Judge prior to being placed on the agenda for adoption.
Anthony warned that this was not a timely process and any lengthy debate and deliberation could delay an already precipitous timeline for implementation next summer. With just a month and a half remaining for this current governing body, it is highly unlikely that Anthony could get any concept of a plan to the county prior to the end of the year.
He said the committee would need to come to a firm consensus regarding the specifics of the language the ordinance would have. Any “significant amendment,” he said, would restart the whole process.
Committeeman Derel Stroud asked about enforcement measures, raising the concern that it would place another burden on the police department. Stroud has long been skeptical of new ordinances that may not be easily enforced.
“If we’re going to do this, it needs to make sense across the board,” he said.
Stroud brought up the concept of a parking authority or reaching out to officials in Asbury Park to piggyback on top of their existing infrastructure regarding parking. He said, however, that actions like locking the gates at night across Wesley Lake has created a rift between the municipalities.
“Why would Asbury Park help us?” he asked.
Anthony said that at the end of the lengthy process the township would end up with a pilot program which would then be studied and any permanent fix would need to be moved through the system again.
During the public comment portion of the regular meeting, Ocean Grove resident Justin Dombish spoke against any permit program. Dombish said that a resident parking program would be difficult when he needs workers to come to the house or when his elderly relatives come visit and would have to park several blocks away.
He also took exception to the idea that each unit would be provided two passes, pointing to a building close to him divided into three apartments which would give the building six permits to his two. An inequity which he ties to the $19,000 tax bill that comes with his property.
“You had a gated community in the past and you’re returning to that,” he said.
In discussing the short term rental measure Anthony said he researched ways in which the “Animal House” portion of the ordinance could be revisited. He said state lawwould restrict Neptune from instituting a more punitive system of bonding against property owners who allow renters to be a chronic nuisance.
Neptune would not be able to require bonding before a property shows itself to be a problem.
“We can’t do anything without a legal challenge,” he said.
However, Anthony said that some properties are already approaching two convictions or pleas already in the short time the ordinance has been adopted.
