City tables measure to acquire Keelen property
Public hearing and final vote on $2.2 million bond ordinance set for Feb. 13
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH - The public hearing and final vote on a $2.2 million bond ordinance to support the acquisition of property in the Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone was tabled last week due to a lack of a quorum on the City Council.

The measure is expected to appear on the Feb. 13 agenda for final consideration, according to council President Michael DeStefano.

"[The ordinance] requires four votes," DeStefano said at the Jan. 22 council meeting, explaining that Councilmen Brian Unger and Anthony Giordano were absent from the meeting.

"We don't have five members of council present," he said.

The bond money will be used to acquire James Keelen's home and bus company business on Belmont Avenue, which is located in the city's downtown Broadway sector and slated for redevelopment.

Keelen voluntarily entered into a settlement with the city for the purchase of his property, according to Unger, who said the city is not taking the property through eminent domain.

Ocean Boulevard resident Harold Bobrow asked council members at the meeting when they plan to redevelop the Broadway Corridor where Keelen's property is located.

"We don't know," Mayor Adam Schneider said. "We are incredibly fair people.

"Mr. Keelen wanted to sell, and we, knowing that we are going to need the land, reached an agreement," Schneider said.

Bobrow, whose home is located in the Beachfront South redevelopment zone and slated for condemnation, said he applauds the city for not taking the land through eminent domain.

"You are going to hold this land for possibly two to three years," Bobrow said, adding, "Isn't that going to cost the city money?"

Another resident, who is fighting the city's use of eminent domain to acquire her oceanfront home in the Beachfront North phase II redevelopment zone, said that Schneider and the council have been anything but fair to property owners.

"Mr. Schneider's comment about being extremely fair people - I truly feel miserably ill," Denise Hoagland of Ocean Terrace said. "Quality of life has been diminishing because of the influx of people coming in [as a result of the city's redevelopment plans].

"I can't comprehend you," she added.

The city plans to issue $2.1 million in bonds and pay a $105,000 down payment for the acquisition of the Keelen property.

Keelen began operating his business, Keelen Bus Co., at 142 Belmont Ave. in 1992, and seven years later he purchased a home next door to his company.

He later learned that both his business and home are located in the city's Broadway Gateway sector of the Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone.

A developer has not been designated, according to City Attorney James Aaron.

The Broadway redevelopment zone, one of six redevelopment zones in the city, extends 72 acres from Second Avenue west to the railroad tracks.

Permitted uses in the Belmont Avenue section of the redevelopment, where Keelen's property is located, include college campus housing.