L.B. residents: We're hostages of redevelopment
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH - Several Long Branch residents living in redevelopment zones along the city's oceanfront told the City Council last week they feel like "hostages" under the city's plan to take their homes by eminent domain.

At the Sept. 11 municipal meeting, a resident from the Beachfront South redevelopment zone pleaded with council to reconsider its plans that call for his neighborhood to be condemned by the city.

Harold Bobrow of Ocean Boulevard asked council to meet with city officials, developers and interested residents to discuss plans for the oceanfront neighborhood.

Bobrow noted that Beachfront South's designated developer, K. Hovnanian, has reported falling home sales due to market conditions and urged the council to rethink redevelopment plans and "to come up with a win, win, win for the residents of the city."

"We have a window," Bobrow said. "I am asking you for a meeting within the next month.

"[K. Hovnanian] may not have any money," he said. "They may not see a profit in [the Beachfront South development].

"You are keeping the people of Beachfront South hostage. We cannot get anyone to buy our homes in that area because it is under the cloud [of redevelopment]."

Bobrow added, "We don't ask you to put your lives on hold. You should not put our lives on hold."

Councilman Brian Unger said he supports Bobrow's request for a meeting.

"If we were going to have some kind of discussion, we would need approval and guidelines from [City Attorney James] Aaron and Mayor [Adam] Schneider," Unger said.

"I would like Mr. Aaron to set up ground rules," he said.

Councilman Anthony Giordano said he agreed with several of Bobrow's comments.

"I agree with Mr. Bobrow that it is not fair to the residents to prolong this anymore," Giordano said. "We need to come to some kind of finale with Hovnanian. I will be looking at it in the next couple of months."

Council President Michael DeStefano agreed with Giordano.

Plans for Beachfront South call for K. Hovnanian to raze approximately 30 properties on the 12-acre site that extends from Bath to Morris avenues, between Ocean Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, and replace them with upscale condominiums.

K. Hovnanian reported an after-tax net loss of $80.5 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 2007, according to the developer's Web site.

For the nine-month period ending July 31, the company reported that revenue fell by 22.6 percent to $3.4 billion, from $4.4 billion in the year-earlier period, according to the Web site, which stated that the company reported a net loss of $168.5 million for the first nine months of 2007.

Bobrow said that with the reported losses, Hovnanian could decide not to go forward with the project.

"I think right now we should have a resolution as to what is going on," Bobrow said. "Either they are going to do [the project] or they are not. Possibly putting a meeting together next month, I believe and I think you believe, and the citizens believe, is the right thing to do."

Doug Fenichel, a spokesman for K. Hovnanian, said last week the company does not plan to withdraw from the project.

"We are definitely moving forward and continuing to work with the town," Fenichel said. "Markets have changed a bit. We are talking to the town to make sure that our plans will work."

When asked if Hovnanian will present a scaled-down version of the original plans for some 352 condominium units in five mid-rise buildings, Fenichel said, "Nothing has been decided either way."

"We are a Fortune 500 company," he said. "We've been around since 1955 and we will be around to not only build these homes, but to service them."

Although there is no specific date scheduled for when plans could proceed for Beachfront South, Fenichel said meetings are ongoing with the city.

Beachfront South resident Diana Multaire agreed with Bobrow's comments at the council meeting.

"You have a situation here where property owners want to stay and pay their taxes," Multaire said. "You have residents who pay these unbelievable taxes and they still live under the threat of redevelopment.

"This is really an unbelievable position that you have our taxpayers in. You are really holding us hostage," she said.

Multaire referred to the recent reports of Hovnanian's losses and said, "You have an opportunity to take a look at this and say enough is enough."

A resident from another of the six redevelopment zones in the city said that she has been fighting the city for several years to save her home from being taken through eminent domain.

"You guys don't care," Denise Hoagland, a resident in the Beachfront North Phase II redevelopment zone known as the MTOTSA, said to the council. "You don't understand or respect the fact that these homes are our homes and that our homes are an outer extension of ourselves.

"I feel so hostaged on every single day, in everything I do, in every decision I make for my family," she said, adding, "I feel hostaged because you made a deal with a developer."

Hoagland, along with a group of some 20 residents of Marine Terrace, Ocean Terrace and Seaview Avenue (MTOTSA) are appealing a court decision that permits the city to raze the three-street neighborhood and replace it with a luxury condominium project. Attorneys for the MTOTSA residents are waiting for a court date to be scheduled to argue the appeal.