---

To the Editor, Asbury Park Sun:

Over the past two years, I have attended the Asbury Park Planning Board meetings regarding iStar’s application to build a private pool club on Ocean Ave.  There have been numerous objections from the public regarding this project throughout, and on Monday, December 14 at 7:00 pm, the public will be invited to make three minute comments at what will likely be the Planning Board’s final meeting before they vote.

There have been ongoing references during these meeting to any number of existing, as well as subsequently revised, City Plans, Reports, and Ordinances that have not been easy for the average member of the public to fully follow.

I would point out that the public’s main objections have basically fallen into these 5 categories:

– promotes social exclusion and inequality

– residential neighborhood quality of life issues, including parking saturation

– ongoing environmental deficiencies and concerns 

– lack of appropriate aesthetics in design

– loss of faith in the process given recently discovered conflict of interest concerns regarding

  the Board Planners (who were just dismissed at the October 2020 meeting).      

However, Asbury Park’s Master Plan Reexamination Report of 2017(https://cityofasburypark.com/DocumentCenter/View/398/City-of-Asbury-Park-2017-Master-Plan-and-Master-Plan-Re-Examination-Report),  contains the following citations which I believe strongly supports many of the same points made by the public as noted above.

*Page 14:   “Asbury Park’s family poverty rate of 26.9% is higher than adjacent regions as well as the state and National poverty rates. Additionally, Asbury Park’s median household income of  $32,755   is substantially lower than Monmouth County’s ($85,242) and is also lower than  the state and National median incomes of $72,093 and $53,889 respectively.”

*Pages 36 -37: 

5.1.2.1 Protect and enhance the quality and enjoyment of the City’s residential neighborhoods through policy and regulation that promotes quality of life and minimizes negative impacts from the City’s tourism and other economic development activities

5.1.2.8 Address Asbury Park’s historic racial and socio-economic divisions that continue today through policy and regulation of the built environment with the understanding that the built environment can exacerbate or alleviate such social divisions.

5.1.2.10 Manage vehicle parking throughout the City in a manner that is safe, convenient, protects the character of the area, and can accommodate future changes in the paradigm related to parking and transportation systems (increased mass transit, self-driving cars, etc.).

5.1.2.17 Create resiliency and adaptation measures to address the impacts of climate change, including but not limited to rising seas, in the City’s physical and social infrastructure.

I strongly encourage ALL residents of Asbury Park and our neighboring communities to log in to the Planning Board meeting on Monday evening and let your voice to be heard too (even if only for 3 minutes!).  Tell the Planning Board to VOTE NO on iStar’s proposal for this private pool club!

Respectfully,

Ellen Michelson

Asbury Park

[Letters represent the opinion of their writer and are not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here.]

————————————————————————————-

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

---