“Bayfront Property Preserved”  – Asbury Park Press

MATTHEW McGRATH

Feb 16, 2009

No condominiums, McMansions or apartments will be built on the grounds of the former Mantoloking Cove Marina, known as Trader’s Cove. A deed recently signed by the mayor will preserve forever the 10.5 acres on the mainland side of the narrows between Mantoloking and the township as a recreation site.

“We need to give people an opportunity to do things that will not cost them money,” Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said. “This is a way for them to go out and sit out by the water. There isn’t anything like this on the northern part of the bay.”

The pen stroke ended one part of a war between between political parties, environmentalists, marina owners and developers that erupted about seven years ago when Paramount Homes sued the township over zoning changes a month before the developer bought the marina. Now the land battle seems to be over, but control of the sea has not been won.

“Our biggest concern at Trader’s Cove is how many slips are planned and what size,” Save Barnegat Bay president Willie deCamp said. “If you get hundreds of slips there and they are large slips, the citizen who was promised a park is going to drive in and look for the water and they are not going to see it behind flying bridges and large boats.”

Save Barnegat Bay will be involved with plans to develop the marina, Acropolis said.

Concepts for the park development were presented during a public hearing last September. The plans include a boardwalk, a playground and a link to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

The township has not released concepts for the size and scope of a proposed marina. The initial plans have 25 boat trailer parking spaces and parking for 175 cars. The current marina has 150 slips.

Save Barnegat Bay’s legal challenge to the township’s redevelopment plan recently was dismissed. The township decided to develop the park on its own, rather than pursue private developers to build a larger marina there, and Save Barnegat Bay reserved the right to challenge the township in court.

The environmental activists have fought the development of the site since Paramount’s plan to build 52 condominiums, a restaurant and a 188-slip marina on the bayfront was approved by the township Zoning Board of Adjustment in 2004.

The fight against Paramount brought Save Barnegat Bay and township Republicans together. The environmental group and the Republicans’ 2004 campaign manager appealed the zoning board’s approval of the project, and the council in a bipartisan vote ultimately overturned the zoning board’s approval. Save Barnegat Bay turned against the council’s Republican majority because it thought the park aspect of the plan was being threatened.

Whatever the final outcome and whatever the size of the marina, the New Jersey Museum of Boating has lost out.

The museum wanted to relocate from Johnson Boat Works in Point Pleasant to the proposed park, build a replica headquarters of the U.S. Lifesaving Station on 2 acres at the park’s northern tip and open its doors this year.

Now private donations and financing options have dried up, museum director Robert O’Brien said. He attributes the lack of funds to the ongoing recession, but he wants to capture some of the federal economic stimulus dollars.

“We’re in no real rush. We have a museum now, which is good,” O’Brien said. “The intent (to move to Brick) is still there, and the promise of federal dollars seems good.”

Acropolis hopes some amenities, such as picnic tables, will be put at the park this summer. O’Brien hopes the museum will open there in 2011.