Belmar GOP seeks change; Democrats tout seaport

Belmar GOP seeks change; Democrats tout seaport
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/15/06
BY ERIK LARSEN
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU

BELMAR — The Republicans who want to unseat 16 years of Democratic rule in the borough argue residents need a change from Democratic Mayor Kenneth E. Pringle to face the future.

Republicans William D. Young, the mayoral candidate, and Gregory J. Dempsey, a candidate for the one open Borough Council seat, say "a new pair of eyes" is needed to bring a fresh perspective to the challenges that will confront Belmar in the coming years.

Pringle, who is running for re-election as mayor with council candidate and fellow Democrat Matt Doherty, has heard all this before. Pringle is seeking his fifth four-year term as mayor of the one-square-mile borough where uneasiness over its ambitious redevelopment plans remains among the biggest issues in town.

"I think the main issue for any mayor today in New Jersey is how to keep their communities for the residents as the cost of living in this state continues to increase," Pringle said.

Pringle said the solution for Belmar lies in its future Seaport Village. At a cost of $500 million of private investment, redeveloping the downtown from Shark River to 10th Avenue will provide for 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 36 condominium units when completed in about 10 years.

"It will enable both our older residents to downsize while remaining in the community while enabling our children to get a foothold in the community as home buyers," Pringle said.

Pringle also pointed to his recent efforts to regionalize municipal services. He and Police Chief Jack Hill have been shopping their proposal to merge the police departments of eight towns — Belmar, Brielle, Lake Como, Manasquan, Sea Girt, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights and Wall Township — into one intermunicipal force.

"We're trying to find a way we can deliver services to our residents in the most economical way possible," Pringle said, who said the project is second only to the Seaport Village in terms of priorities on his agenda.

But Young said redevelopment is taking too long to come to fruition and contends that the creation of a South Monmouth Regional Police Department is a pie-in-the-sky idea that most of the towns will ultimately take a pass on.

"The biggest issue in town was what happened (Wednesday) at the Borough Council meeting," Young said.

At that meeting, the council voted 4-to-1 to limit the lot sizes of homes in an effort to better regulate residential construction in town and preserve the borough's Victorian character. The council's lone Republican, Bill Merkeler, elected last year, voted against the proposal, saying the borough had enough building codes on the books and the law would take away the discretion of municipal planners.

Young agrees.

"The floor ratio (ordinance) will end up having a negative impact on the town," Young said. "Residents are going to soon find out they can no longer build the houses that all of their neighbors have been building."

Young said homeowners are going to discover a loss in value of their homes: "They have less equity in their homes than they thought they did before Wednesday," he said.

Young said the real motivation behind the ordinance is to push investment in the borough out of its neighborhoods and into the redevelopment project of the downtown area. It is expected to take 10 years to complete.

But Pringle said such an accusation is ridiculous. If home builders could no longer do business in Belmar, they wouldn't transfer their investment to the Seaport Village, they would simply leave town.