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Belmar Council Meeting – April 9, 2024
Click the Image for the 19 page Document
Click the Image for the 19 page Document
Click the Image for the 19 page Document
Click the Image for the 19 page Document
Welcome to The Belmar Blog
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But this Mayor was the one that brought this up by filing the litigation. Instead of working with developers in a public forum where the residents get a say. Silly guy. This has been going on since March of 2023- and a year later we get put on notice
Where is the ever missing Mark Levis? And Kate Donovan? On this most important meeting.
Posted on: March 13, 2024
Senate GOP Calls for Bipartisan Solution to Affordability Crisis
GOP Fight for Affordability
Members of the Senate Republican Caucus announced their united NO vote on the Democrats’ court-mandated housing bill.
Today, the Senate Republican Caucus issued the following statement calling on Governor Murphy and Trenton Democrats to embrace Republicans’ long-ignored constructive ideas that would help address the affordability crisis in New Jersey:
“Senate Republicans have long fought to pass commonsense reforms that would increase the State’s housing stock without trampling on the autonomy of the State’s many diverse municipalities. The reason that Republicans have not been able to solve this crisis is not due to a lack of ideas or advocacy on our part, but rather that Trenton Democrats, who control the legislative agenda by virtue of being the Majority Party, have refused to take any action on our reforms or even entertain our ideas.
“We all want to make sure that New Jersey has enough housing for those in need, but we cannot jump right to gutting open spaces and farmland. Constructing these units must happen in a commonsense way. Unfortunately, Republican legislators and local leaders have not been given a seat at the table when it comes to this important issue. Democrats are attempting to force through a bill that not only leaves the affordability problem unsolved, but will most likely make the situation even worse.
“Everyone knows that New Jersey is often ranked as having the highest property tax rates in the country. Housing development mandates passed down by the courts tend to exacerbate the problem by encouraging irresponsible and unsustainable growth in towns that lack the infrastructure to accommodate large population increases over short periods of time. As municipalities continue to recover from the economic impact of COVID-19, implementation of the fourth round of court-mandated development rules should be delayed to give municipalities a chance to respond to new mandates in a responsible, sustainable manner.
“In its present form, S-50 will have a direct negative impact on the quality of life in our communities that will only get worse over time. We must work alongside our municipalities with sound land use planning to ensure each community has the infrastructure, mass transit access, job market, and open space to support growth without overwhelming local services and further driving up already sky-high property taxes.
“We need a far better approach to affordable housing. New Jersey residents deserve a plan that avoids changing the character of our communities with massive overdevelopment and exorbitant costs, while at the same time provides safe and affordable housing for all. That is why we will be voting no on this legislation.”
To speak with members of the New Jersey Senate Republican Caucus, please contact Kyle Fischer, SRO communications director, at kfischer@njleg.org.
This is nothing sir. The legislature here in Trenton is marxist through and through. The so-called republicans know they have no power so they put up these “bipartisan proposals” to look good, knowing the only thing the representatives of the urban centers in this state want is free stuff and that includes this so-called affordable housing. They also know, both “republicans” and “democrats” that the marxist/communist judiciary will back this anti US constitutional plot, 100%. In the end, towns such as Belmar will be destroyed but that doesn’t matter to the “republicrats” They can’t figure that if they kill towns like Belmar, they kill the host that gives them their free stuff (goose that lays the golden egg).
Times? They sure are changing. Give me stuff!!!!!!
Give me give me give me! What can you do for ME? Everyone wants something for nothing. Affordable housing?? I always told my kids, if you want nice things you have to work for them, they don’t fall out of the sky. My family grew up as a working middle class family. I would work as many jobs as I had to, to take care of my family and still do.
Woke snowflakes, get off your arse and start working for the things you want like most of us do instead of looking for the handout off of our backs!
Haha. Yea, it’s ‘woke snowflakes’ at fault. Let’s forget for a moment the only ones whining here are the so called anti-woke (still never heard a single person actually define that over used word). It’s always the poor’s fault. It is never the greedy developers who exert their impressive political pressure to do what they want, where they want. You can teach your kids to work hard all the live long day. But no honest hard working individual can afford a starter home that costs $1million. That’s what Belmar has become. Tear downs are $800k. Yes, that is a product of the free market. But affordable housing mandates are in place so that developers add in a percentage into their giant projects. The people that benefit from such mandates are cops, teachers, nurses, etc. These are not ‘the projects’, they are ‘affordable’ units within a larger profit generating project. The fact that you all are blaming the poor would be hysterical if not so sad. Wealthy developers have been getting away with over valuation for cheaper money and under valuation for cheating on taxes for decades. That gets ignored. Let’s focus on the single mom who gets food stamps.
Dear Hard Worker, Bravo. I couldn’t have said it any better. Affordable housing is a farce. Housing should be affordable for ALL. Not just the lazy. FACT: The median rent for NYCHA is less than $400 per month. And who do you think subsidizes that? YOU do. And it is based on income. So if you make more money, your rent goes up. Those paying less than $400 a month either work off the books, and pay no taxes, or have become lazy and feel they don’t need to contribute to society. Some system, huh? And when you flood the country with illegal immigrants there’s no room at the inn for the Americans, hence rents go up.
That’s a pretty impressive rant. Just a couple of facts you left out though:
Illegal immigrants cannot get NYCHA assistance. Instead, they are typically crammed into an undersized house or apartment so they can pay rent to an absentee slum lord who is happy to have them because are less likely to complain about the leaky roof or moldy walls. Also, NYCHA, and programs like it, houses section 8 qualified individuals which includes US veterans and individuals with psychological issues. Keeping them off the street and in decent housing is a price I for one am happy to pay.
But hey, if you’d rather them living on a park bench so that you can save around $9.47 on your federal taxes, who am I to judge.
Sir, your so-called logic is way off base. Illegal aliens have no rights to anything here other than to be deported to the northern reaches of Greenland and left there to fend for themselves.
Build more park benches. In fact, inscribe their names on them so there’s no fighting over them. It’ll give the police one less thing, out of the thousands of duties they already have, to worry about. I’ll just keep quiet and try to make ends meet while slowly going POOR under this current administration.
Let’s not forget all the PILOT programs given to the greedy developer DePeppe by our ****** ex mayor Doherty.
(Asterisks are mine, Editor.)
I think you mean the deal for Marina Grill? Yes, Belmar got trashed on that deal while Doherty (Deleted by Editor.). The same with post Sandy cleanup.
Since 2015 Belmar had 4 opportunities to add affordable units to newly built construction: Riverwalk, 5th Ave Flats, The Plaza at 10th, and The Vault at 900 Main. Those projects added a total of 130 market rate units to our downtown area, zero of them affordable. As the speaker at the end said, the town chose to kick the can down the road, even while we knew that we were within the third round timeline of our affordable housing obligations. Belmar has always been developer-friendly. Heck, the Walsifer admin voted to let The Mediterranean go forward and even passed an ordinance allowing them to build even higher than originally zoned! People wonder why builders want to come here, it’s because we have a history of letting them do whatever they want. And when they don’t, we get sued.
Watch the planning board meeting video just posted. This new East Port project will have ZERO affordable units. This administration is kicking the can down the road as well. Why would town agree to ZERO affordable units for this property knowing they have to go someplace else in town.
Yes, I did watch it. It is baffling. The builder’s reasoning was that it would add more units to the project, which is a load of nonsense. These will sell in record time for loads of $$$.
LHD. It would add more units to the building. All the other projects WILL ADD MORE UNITS AMD HEIGHT because of affordable housing demands made by THIS administration By Putting forth a lawsuit against the developers THIS administration took the process away from our planning and zoning. The final decision will be by the courts.
They are not demands by the admin, they are requirements of the state. We are not the only borough this is happening to. By negotiating now, we avoid lawsuits down the road. Think long-term. Approvals by the planning and zoning boards are how we got all those big buildings on Main St in the first place. It’s planning and zoning that’s allowing a condo building to replace The Belmar Inn when the area is only zoned for single-family housing, approving dozens of variances. It’s planning and zoning that allowed the bank building to be replaced with that monster at 9th and Main. Our last council voted to allow spot zoning and gave The Mediterranean the go ahead with even more height allowances. The town is builder friendly, will always be builder friendly, and it will only continue until you get some new folks seated on those committees.
With the reported spread of the Avian bird flu throughout the US and its detection in the Canada Goose population, I think some strong discussions need to occur regarding possibility of culling the flock. No longer can we put human health at risk to preserve the goose population which nobody wants at the lake in the first place.