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With the city’s ban on office space on the ground floor of Cookman Avenue, a local advertising agency was told on Friday to remove their signage and vacate the premises at 716 Cookman Avenue.

Marshall, Jackson & Partners advertising agency had shared the space with Image Tech Photo Studio and Kiss My Art, an art gallery.

The Asbury Park Central Business District Redevelopment Plan, adopted in June 2003, does not permit office space as a principal establishment on the ground floor of any space that fronts Cookman Avenue.

The plan “prevents offices on the first floor of Cookman,” said Barbara Van Wagner, the city’s zoning officer.

Van Wagner verbally informed the ad agency’s co-owners Marshall Twinam and Ian Jackson they were in violation when she walked into their space on Friday.

“I told them you can’t have offices on Cookman,” said Van Wagner.

“We were caught completely off-guard as we believed the fact that we are part of a retail art gallery that is open seven days a week meant we could also practice advertising in the same space,” said Jackson [above right].

Neither the advertising agency nor the other two merchants had the required mercantile licenses to be in operation, according to Van Wagner.

Van Wagner did not provide any paperwork to Jackson or Twinam. Instead, she gave them a verbal warning that they were not in compliance and had to cease operations and vacate the premesis.

“I write you a summons if you don’t comply after I notify you, but that would be a last resort,” said Van Wagner. “I don’t like giving summonses, and I don’t like taking businesses to court.”

The ad agency owners were left “between anger and mystification,” said Twinam.

“She just came in and said I need the ad agency out of here, offices are not allowed on Cookman,” said Twinam.

The verbal notice to stop operations came just one day after the agency won eight awards representing Asbury Park at the New Jersey Advertising Awards show. Twinam and Jackson have been operating the advertising agency in Asbury Park for a year. Seven weeks ago, they moved out of office space on Mattison Avenue and into the space on Cookman.

“We love this town and we want it to succeed, but it seems you take one step forward and two steps back around here,” said Twinam.

Van Wagner prefers to give local businesses in town “fair warning,” she said. Van Wagner said some people legitimately don’t know they are in violation.

“Honestly, most people come to me and say ‘Barbara is this permitted?'” Van Wagner said.

Van Wagner said the landlord of the space at 716 Cookman also agrees the tenants were in violation.

“They had no mercantiles for anyone to operate,” she said of the required mercantile licenses.

Since notifying the business owners that that they were in violation, the owners of Kiss My Art gallery have applied for a mercantile license, according to Van Wagner. She said the city “move(s) pretty quickly “to get businesses open, and it is now up to the owners of the gallery to schedule city inspections.

Marshall, Jackson & Partners are currently looking into their possible solutions and next steps, according to Twinam.

“I told them, you can have offices on any other street in the central business district — Mattison, Bangs, Lake — just not on Cookman,” said Van Wagner.

In reference to permitted uses on Cookman Avenue, the redevelopment plan for Asbury’s downtown central business district states:

This district contains an eclectic mix of historic and architecturally significant buildings which should be adaptively reused for mixed-use development. First floor retail sales or restaurant uses are required to create a continuous “window shopping” streetscape for the length of Cookman Avenue in the Redevelopment Area. Upper floors may be used for a mix of non-residential and residential uses.

Permitted Principal Uses

• Ground floor: retail sales, eating and drinking establishments subject to the City’s Land Development Regulations, art galleries, museums and theatres, banks, public parks. No drivethru [sic] uses of any kind are permitted.

• Upper floors: office, retail sales and service, residential, health and fitness clubs, cyber related businesses and professional offices such as software designers, web designers, e-commerce, and other computer and internet related companies. Cyber hotels are prohibited.

 

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