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Local environmental activists seeking to preserve a section of the North Asbury beach area from development are calling for the public to attend a meeting of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders on Thursday in Asbury Park.

The meeting — a regular session of the freeholders who make it a practice to hold some of their meetings in various parts of the county — will begin at 7 p.m in the Asbury Park City Council chambers in the municipal complex on Main Street. There is a public participation portion of the meeting where individuals may address the board.

Master waterfront redeveloper Asbury Partners owns the redevelopment rights to build 15 townhouses on the existing Ocean Avenue right of way from the sewerage treatment plant to near the Loch Arbour border. The project would be called Bradley Cove. The city currently owns that strip, but must transfer it on request to Asbury Partners under the waterfront redevelopment agreement.

In addition, Asbury Partners owns an adjacent triangular parcel which is approved for a mid-rise residential structure. Both pieces of land are approximately .6 acres in size.

Asbury resident Joe Woerner, a former chairman of the Jersey Shore Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and a council candidate last year, is leading the effort to bring people out to the freeholders’ meeting on Thursday. The following is an excerpt of the statement Woerner has been distributing and which can be found on the Surfrider website:

An important day in the struggle to preserve Asbury Park’s north end beach is just around the corner. This land is one of the last coastal open spaces in Monmouth County. It must be preserved. The Monmouth County Freeholders are in a unique position to do just that. They are coming to town on June 26th!

Since 2007 the proposed “Townhomes at Bradley Cove” have been opposed by thousands of people because they sit in an area flooded by lake and ocean waters, encroach on public lands used for recreation, wall off the beach and ocean, and are inconsistent with Bradley’s vision for Asbury Park.

The Monmouth County Board of Recreation Commissioners has ordered an appraisal of the property where the 15 townhouses would be built on the existing Ocean Avenue. Two members of the commission — Michael Harmon and Kevin Mandeville — had proposed an a 8 acre county park in the area, comprised of Asbury Partners’ land, part of the beach owned by the city and public land on Deal Lake. However, other members of the commission, such as Commissioner Mel Hood, are critical of the idea.

In March, county and city officials met to discuss the possibly of preserving the North Beach area as a county park.

After the meeting, Freeholder Director Lillian Burry told the Sun that the issue was solely economics.

“It came down to dollars and cents,” said Burry, who has been the freeholder liaison to the county parks system for the past six years. “IStar wants to be paid market value for property, and that’s where the rub came in because their feeling of what market value is, is substantial.”

Burry said representatives from iStar “felt very comfortable” that the land where the townhouses would be built is worth “well in excess of 3.5 million.”

“I kind of think everybody’s jaw dropped open [at the amount],” she said.

Asbury Park officials indicated the city does not have the funds to purchase the property and the county will not support spending that much money on such a small piece of property, Burry said.

Representatives from the Monmouth County Parks and Recreation Commission believe the number to be much lower, she said.

Since that March meeting, the city has applied for a Green Acres grant toward the purchase of the property.

Brian Cheripka, vice president of land for iStar Financial — which is the majority owner of Asbury Partners — has stated Asbury Partners is willing to talk about selling its interests in the property for preservation, so long as iStar is paid fair market value. That’s what iStar must pay to private property owners when purchasing land in the redevelopment zone, Cheripka has said.

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