$400,000 sewer fee stalls beer garden construction
Business owner did not expect connection charge
A $400,000 sewer connection fee has caused construction to cease at the Asbury Park Festhalle and Beergarden site.
Jennifer Lampert, a resident of Deal Lake Drive and partner in the two-story restaurant and beer garden slated for the corner of Lake Avenue and Press Plaza, brought her concerns about the future of the project in front of city council members Wednesday night.
“We want to be a partner with the city of Asbury Park — not an advocate against it,” said Lampert during the public participation portion of the meeting. “We worked with the city manager, city council, planning board and zoning office for at least nine months without mention of a $400,000 fee. We were given approvals on demolition permits without mention of a $400,000 fee.”
The purpose of the fee is to support the sewer infrastructure of the city. Fees for the sewer connection ordinance are calculated through the city’s engineering department, according to Donald Sammett, the city’s director of planning and redevelopment.
Different factors come into play when a building’s connection fee is estimated, such as residential or commercial use, changes of use to existing buildings, and new construction.
Lampert and her business partners have been working in the city for nine months and say they were unaware of the connection fee until the Monday before Christmas when they submitted permits for new windows. The amount totals more than half of their construction budget, she said.
The city has stopped issuing construction permits for the project, construction schedule has fallen behind three weeks, and Lampert has yet to receive a written denial for the window permits.
“We’re stopped. If we want to open this spring, we can’t,” she told the Sun.
According to a city ordinance, building permits cannot be issued until the fee is paid, said Don Sammett, the city’s director of planning and redevelopment.
City officials recieved a letter from Lampert’s attorney Friday, according to Acting City Manager Anthony Nuccio. The matter is currently under council and attorney review, he said.
“The city is looking into whether the calculations are correct,” Nuccio said. He was unable to say whether any businesses have paid a similar cost in the past and was not involved in the matter until Wednesday when Lampert voiced her concerns to the city council and has asked for more clarification on the $400,000 fee, he said.
The city engineer’s office did not return the Sun’s calls for comment.
The following is the full statement from Lampert read to the city council members:
Good Evening,
I am unfortunately not here this evening on happy matters. I am here regarding the denial of pernits to begin construction on the Asbury Festahalle and Biergarten until we pay an outrageous sewer tap fee of approximately $400,000!
We are shocked and astonished that after 9 months of working with the city we come to find out that we are expected to pay this unreasonable, exorbitant sewer connection fee.
We want to be a partner with the city of Asbury Park, not an advocate against it. We worked with the city manager, city council, planning board and zoning office for at least 9 months without mention of a $400,000 fee. We were given approvals on demolition permits without mention of a $400,000 fee.
Kind of maked a new business feel as if it has been taken for a ride.
1st and foremost —we can not afford a fee even 1/8th of that! We are a small business.
What kind of small business do you think can afford this kind of a fee?
Would you pay it or would you just choose another city?
By imposing such fees you are absolutely destroying development. You are going to have empty buildings.
What you are doing is putting the heaviest financial burden on the projects that are most in need.
You are putting the heaviest burden on projects which are the costliest to renovate and occupy,
We will be paying taxes, we will be paying quarterly fees and monthly usage fees. Where does thi other fee come from?
Government is supposed to foster development but what you are doing is impending development.
Vacant buildings = more crime, more graffiti.
Taking a vacant building and restoring means jobs, tax revenue, parking revenue.
Life comes to the downtown central business district.
Lastly, it is beyond frustrating how this has been handled.
Our permits for our windows were handed in on Dec. 10.
We did not get a written denial at all. Just a verbal “we won’t even look at this until the sewer tap fee is paid.” The $400,000 was an aside. Not in writing. It was been over 2 weeks now. Our project stopped completely.
We will not make the summer season or our desired opening of Memorial Day weekend without the city, zoning and building department playing on our team. We need you to help make this happen. Time is running out. The window is closing. If we do not open for the summer season we lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue for our business, our neighbor’s businesses and the city.
Are you willing to be on our team? Get rid of the fee, approve our window plans and start to review our construction plans immediately. Or would you like to kill our business and have a vacant building.
Please choose to foster development.
[Photo at top is of a rendering provided to the Asbury Park planning board of what the Lake Avenue facade will look like.]
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