Unger asks city to take action on beach club Resolution calls for city to seek funds to save Takanassee BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer The Long Branch City Council was expected to discuss a proposal Tuesday night to support the acquisition of the historic Takanassee Beach Club property. Long Branch Councilman Brian Unger is asking council to agree on a nonbinding resolution stating that the city agrees to seek available state Green Acres funds to acquire the estimated $10.6 million historic Ocean Avenue site. "The city needs to send a clear message to Trenton that there is no confusion whatsoever that if all the funding pieces can be put in place, the city is going to take the necessary steps to save the property," Unger said in an interview. "The city can't afford a $10 [million] to $17 million acquisition by itself," he said, adding, "We don't have that kind of money and we can't add that to the tax burden of our citizens." Unger made a request to council President Michael DeStefano on Nov. 16 that the proposed resolution be put on the Nov. 27 workshop agenda for discussion. "The resolution should formally state the historic importance of the site and its recreational value," Unger said. "It should also state that it will be the policy of the city, that is, we can secure sufficient funding from Green Acres, that we will take the required steps to make applications for the funds," he said. In the letter to DeStefano, Unger wrote, "At this point, senior officials within NJDEP [the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection] do not believe the city is even remotely interested in Takanassee as a recreation site owned by taxpayers. "This resolution will not bind us," he wrote. "It will merely be a 'sense of the council' resolution." Unger also requested that Mayor Adam Schneider appoint a conflict counselor in the Takanassee matter. An application is currently pending before the DEP for a Coastal Area Facilities Review Act (CAFRA) permit to develop the 5-acre site. Takanassee Developers is seeking to build 21 luxury condominiums and townhouses on the site where the three originals buildings that once comprised the United States Life-Saving Station No. 5, stand. "I have fears which may be reasonably grounded, that having received the necessary permits and approvals, the prospective new owner of the Takanassee property, Takanassee Developers, may, technically, be able to legally demolish all of the existing structures on the site, including the three indisputably historic structures," Unger wrote in a Nov. 16 letter to Schneider. "I would like to engage counsel for detailed legal advice pertaining to the safety of these structures until all preservation remedies and considerations have been thoroughly exhausted," he said in the letter. City Attorney James Aaron's law partner Jerold Zaro, at Ansell Zaro Grimm & Aaron in Ocean Township, is representing Isaac Chera, principal of Takanassee Developers. Aaron said in an interview in May that he will recuse himself on matters pertaining to Takanassee. "It is my belief that we need to protect this site," Unger said in an interview. "We need an attorney to do formal correspondence with Takanassee Developers and contact government bodies to ensure that if they get the CAFRA permit, we don't wake up the next morning and the structures are bulldozed. "We need to make sure we can secure the site until this is worked out," Unger said. A $200 million preservation bond initiative, through the DEP's green acres program, was approved by voters earlier this month. The bond makes funding available in the state to be used to preserve open space, farmland and historic sites, such as the Takanassee property. In addition to Green Acres funding, Unger said that he, city officials and various environmental and activist groups have reached out to the county, Congressman Frank Pallone and the DEP about funding opportunities available to Long Branch to help acquire the site. Unger, along with Schneider, City Council members, Sen.-elect Sean T. Kean, freeholders, the Surfrider Foundation, the Surfers' Environmental Alliance, the Sierra Club and local historians have been advocating for the site to be preserved. "The state government wants to hear from us," Unger said. "I want to pass this resolution and send it [to Trenton]." What is now the Takanassee Beach Club was a lifesaving station, which operated from 1876 to 1928 as one of the 42 lifesaving stations situated three-and-ahalf miles apart along the New Jersey shoreline from Sandy Hook to Cape May. Crews of the lifesaving station patrolled the Long Branch beach until 1928 when the Coast Guard deactivated the station and the site became the Takanassee Beach Club.