Long Branch seeks Green Acres land swap
Paved parcel along Ocean Ave. would be reopened to traffic
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH - - A petition is being circulated in the city to oppose the re-opening of Ocean Avenue along the city's oceanfront to vehicular traffic.

The City Council unanimously approved resolution 130-07 at the May 8 municipal meeting, to support an application to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to remove a portion of Ocean Avenue from the Green Acres Inventory Program.

For more than 20 years, 3.10 acres of Ocean Avenue has been listed as Green Acres and closed to vehicular traffic.

In return, the city would donate 6.19 acres of city-owned parcels to be listed as Green Acres, according to the resolution.

But several residents at the meeting were opposed to the re-opening of the roadway which runs along the city's boardwalk and oceanfront because it has been used as recreational space.

"I think this is witless," said Diana Multair, North Bath Avenue, said. "You want to open traffic right along the boardwalk. It does not make sense.

"People go to the boardwalk to breathe that fresh air," she continued. "What will happen when you open it to motorized traffic."

Resident Bill McLaughlin of Ocean Avenue agreed.

"It is very sad what you are doing. Go down there one day and see the kids riding their bikes and the senior citizens walking. It is recreation and you are trying to take it away," he said.

McLaughlin, along with several other residents, is distributing petitions asking residents to reject the adopted resolution.

"We are going to get as many people as we can to sign this petition," McLaughlin said after the meeting.

Once a property is listed as Green Acres, it cannot be developed, according to City Business Administrator Howard H. Woolley.

Woolley explained that when the city was planning for the development of the Ocean Place Resort & Spa on Ocean Boulevard in the 1980s, there was a parking lot on Laird Street that was deemed Green Acres.

"In order to do the hotel, we had to take the parking lot off Green Acres," he said, adding, "So we did a diversion."

The city made an application to, and received approval from, the DEP in 1984-1985, according to Woolley, to remove the parking lot's Green Acres status, and in return it closed portions of Ocean Avenue to vehicular traffic and dedicated them as Green Acres.

"When the road was closed, there was a furor from the public," Woolley said. "They did not want to see it closed."

Woolley added that part of the city's oceanfront redevelopment plan from the start was to reopen Ocean Avenue to vehicular traffic.

Although no specific plans are in place for Ocean Avenue once it is opened, Woolley said removing it from Green Acres allows the city to explore its options.

"We have been looking at it and have been talking about opening it to limited vehicular traffic or only opening it seasonally," he said. "But nothing can be done while it is on Green Acres.

"The road is too narrow to support too much traffic, so if it is opened, it would probably only be a 15 mile-per-hour roadway," Woolley said.

The city is proposing to remove the following sections of Ocean Avenue from Green Acres: between Brighton Avenue to West End, between Howland Avenue to South Bath Avenue and between Madison Avenue to Ocean Terrace.

The reopening of the 3.10 acres of roadway will provide increased access to the waterfront, according to the resolution.

In exchange, the city is donating approximately 4 acres of property at the Great Lawn in Pier Village and approximately 2 acres of the walking and bicycle path on the east side of Ocean Boulevard.

Woolley explained that in order to remove the Green Acres designation, property must be replaced with double the acreage of the land removed.

"We are taking blacktop property off Green Acres and replacing it with actual green property," Woolley said.

Another resident voiced his concern at the meeting, saying that with summertime beach traffic, Ocean Avenue could become dangerous if vehicles are able to access it.

"Seaview Avenue is quite a nuisance in the summertime," Bill Nordahl, Marine Terrace, said. "I am afraid that Ocean Avenue would work out just as dangerous. It doesn't sound like a good idea to me."

Denise Hoagland, of Ocean Terrace, who resides in the same neighborhood as Nordahl, agreed.

"The problem with this is that you don't understand the dangers you are going to be putting your community in," she said. "The impact is going to be detrimental to somebody's health.

"Do you go down there?" Hoagland asked the council before answering, "For you to open it is ludicrous."

The approved application to support the diversion plan is expected to be heard before the DEP on June 6, according to Woolley.