Here is the link to my previous post with the
article, meeting video and copy of the mayor’s letter,
Belmar Housing Authority might come under Affordable Housing?
Here is what seems to be the Original Admissions and Occupancy Document
Here is the 1966 Announcement in the Asbury Park Press
Here is the 1967 Dedication in The Asbury Park Press
I think this is a good letter, but one thing not mentioned is that when Belmar loses control over who goes into this residence, I guarantee, the “region” will put in a bunch of real human vermin that will prey on the nice people who live there now. Trust me on this. I’ve seen this type of thing for years now – it’s always the same.
Agree 100%.. it is really sad to see this happening!
You are correct- and worse to think about is that the Belmar Seniors that will not get preference will have to apply for senior housing in the “region” and could/will be put in Mercer County or Ocean County- can you imagine the change in life from living in Belmar to getting assigned to live in a senior community in Trenton, NJ???????? This is why senior resident preference is so important, keep our seniors in our community where they are close to their friends and the life they knew- some money isn’t worth the devastating consequences of displacing our senior community. What Mayor B and Councilwoman R, fail to tell you is in this process of being assigned a place in a region if you don’t want to go where they assign you- then there is no alternative option for them- you go where they send you or you are on your own. We can’t displace our senior community from the doctors they have had for years, to the neighbors they know and can rely on. Mayor B- started this by not waiting when he could have- he knee jerked into a litigation that has now made this issue which could have waited now urgent- he is the reason it’s urgent because of the actions he took without understanding the process and learning it as he goes. And to bail himself out he wants to put our seniors on the chopping block. There has to be a better way.
Don’t mess with the BHA … get the 3+ acre developer (Waterview, Riverview & Motor Lodge) to build Affordable Housing.
Pass the problem to someone else. Why don’t you have affordable housing next to your house?
Yep! … pass the problem to the developer who threatened a “Builder’s Remedy” lawsuit.
I don’t know if there are Affordable Housing Units in my neighborhood … but, there are many heated bungalows and garage apartments.
Are boarding houses and rental units above stores counted towards affordable housing?
No, rental units above stores and restaurants are just like any other market-rate units in town.
Eugene, how much money was contributed to the Belmar Affordable Housing Trust Fund by The Vault, the First Aid, the White House and the Belmar Inn redevelopments? None of these redevelopments provided for any Affordable Housing units.
Under State Law they were obligated to either provide Affordable Housing units or make a payment to a Trust Fund for that purpose. Where’s the money!!
I know you’ve asked that question at Council Meetings. Any answers?
They are and there aren’t currently 4 builder intervenors from the Boro lawsuit in negotiations. Putting our seniors at risk won’t stop more building and more affordable housing obligations
Senior are again the pawns who have to bail Belmar out in yet another self inflicted Political Quagmire. Shameful! Back up and do the right thing immediately. Belmar Seniors have paid their dues for generations.
If necessary, get Kenny to intervene on behalf of the Belmar Community and all our Seniors now. The bipartisan Group fought McDirty back when and won, don’t forget.
Well unfortunately that’s the only answer. If the housing number doesn’t come from the senior building, it has to come from somewhere else. I get that people are against relinquishing the control of that building, but everyone also seems against every other alternative plan. Being against stuff is as easy as breathing. Finding a solution that everyone will live with, that’s hard.
Lastly, it is a little off putting that everyone keeps referring to “others”’who are different from us and come from other places.
This whole town is made up of people from other places. Hell, the whole country is. There are reasonable arguments to let Belmar retain control of that building, I don’t think we need to resort to petty fear mongering.
Sounds like a lot of crap to me…
If BHA loses control, most likely someone sitting behind a desk in Trenton will do the vetting.
Department of Community Affairs determines eligibility.
How thorough is the vetting process? Most likely there will be applicants with “shady” backgrounds who will get an affordable housing unit.
Here is the website from DCA listing eligibility criteria.
https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dhcr/offices/eligibility.html
When I called a few years ago I was told the BHA wasn’t accepting any more Applications because the list was too long. So if they can’t even accommodate local residents how are they opening it up to other counties?
When one of the residents passes away or otherwise doesn’t live their anymore, the “region” will put a real loser in there to replace our decent citizen. That’s always the plan when they do these type things – maybe it’ll even be a “migrant or refugee.” Won’t that be peachy keen?
I must take offense. As an Irish American, I come from a long line of migrants and refugees.
To the indigenous North Americans, the pilgrims were migrant refugees.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
MALARKEY!!!
Buccafusco, Rondinaro and Levis all need to be recalled. Their attitudes toward the public condescending at best. Levis is baby who cries when he can’t have his way.
Save the seniors and save Belmar!
Did a lot of research in advance of trying to Save Our Seniors (SOS) and protect the Belmar Housing Authority. It’s critical that the preference to Belmar Residents to get into the Belmar Housing Authority is not lost. It will not be temporary and once it’s gone its gone.
First and for clarification because it remains unclear watching different meetings of the Mayor and Council- putting the Belmar Housing Authority Building into the affordable housing count by taking away the “preference of Belmar residents” WILL NOT fullfill the Boroughs affordable housing obligations nor will it prevent the buildings of the four intervening developers and their projects which the Mayor is about to sign off on. It will be in addition to.
Mayor B may say he was left with this and this fell in his lap. But here are some things discovered that no one wants you to know and where we need to hold him accountable for this urgency.
According to the NJ Supreme Court in March of 2015 (yes almost ten years ago) they determined COAH was non-functioning and failed to adopt updated affordable housing plans. Municipalities were permitted at their own costs to hire attorneys, planners and professionals to determine an affordable housing plan, present to the Superior Court or to wait on COAH, and the process of submitting to the COAH Board (which was set up to be a more effective way and a cost containing way for municipalities to determine their fair housing plans).
So unless a municipality had the money and resources to put towards the efforts and expense to submit to the Superior Court and force litigation and whatever that brings- they would submit plans to COAH or await COAH to identify their plans for the municipalities.
In 2022, a group of 12 municipalities joined into a litigation in the Matter of the Appointment of the Council on Affordable Housing (i.e. COAH) by Gov. Phil Murphy.
This litigation was brought on because Gov. Murphy had failed to appoint members to COAH with an insufficient amount of members the towns couldn’t get their plans submitted through COAH to accomplish their affordable plans and getting their approval for same.
The decision on this matter A-0050-22 was not decided on by the Appellate Court until January 23, 2024.
On March 20, 2024- Gov. Murphy then signed a landmark affordable housing legislation to support towns in meeting their afforable housing obligations, replacing the current process (ie COAH) and establishing a new, streamlined framework for determining and enforcing with a compliance period that BEGINS in 2025.
The deadline for the DCA to complete and publish a report on calculation of regional needs and municipal obligations isn’t until October 20, 2024.
The deadline for a municipality to amend its Housing Element and Fair Share Plan and to adopt the implementing ordinances is March 15, 2026.
The request made by the people involved from the state to already give this deadline a 90 day extension has been made as the State is not sure the DCA will be able to provide this info by their deadline of October 20, 2024.
Why is this important to understand- Number One Reason-well the prior administrations weren’t just “not doing stuff” and Mayor B got left with everything. The prior administrations were awaiting the outcome, not taking on expensive litigation until the State came to decisions on actively pending litigations involving COAH. It wasn’t just Belmar, a lot of towns were in the wait and see how this unfolds, on top of since 2015 there was no COAH Board to submit to if you didn’t want to take on expensive litigation costs.
Number Two- the dates of the above history are incredibly important so everyone understands NJ just landed on their real process and current process in 2024, a few months ago in March. Towns also were holding out for hope that the COAH Board would get members and save the towns money to be able to determine the plans- which wasn’t decided on until January 2024.
So why did Mayor B and his administration act before all of this was decided, why did Belmar take on expensive litigation, hire professionals, to take this on before it had to. I guess Mayor B will say he was being proactive because at some point Belmar would have to act. But Mayor B and his administration acted before they needed to, specifically, in March of 2023 the Borough filed their litigation against Fair Share Housing and started their process in Monmouth County Superior Court at the expense to Belmar of attorney fees, planner fees and engineering fees, shortly after May of 2023- you have a Builder intervener, then three more shortly there after. All looking to build the projects that Mayor B campaigned against. The Borough and the developers (all four) are about to enter into Settlement Agreements for their projects, once that is signed and done no planning board, zoning board, technical review committee, etc., will have the ability to substaintially change their plans and/or unit counts. So these negotiations all behind close doors and in Monmouth County will be decided by a Superior Court Judge. And then that will be that.
Interestingly enough it appears the idea to commence with this litigation instead of letting it be and seeing what happens came from our BA, Kane, who is also the Mayor of Freehold Borough, ironically, in 2019 and 2022 Freehold filed their own actions regarding affordable housing, using the same professionals as he brought to Belmar. And the Kane supporter out of Freehold Borough was just appointed as the head of the Fair Housing Share. So I guess without BA’s contribution in convincing Mayor B of this poor choice our seniors would have been safe and we would be just trying to figure things out with the knowledge once the DCA told Belmar their obligations instead of Belmar spending taxpayer dollars to figure it out on our own.
Excellent research on this. Thank you
I would like to have one administration in this town, just one, for whom we didn’t have to be constantly vigilant. Doherty, Magovern, Walsifer, Buccafusco. We can never just relax.
(Deleted by Editor.) Can someone share pictures of one of the units?.
Knock it down.
There is the firehouse / gas station. Give that to affordable housing if it’s toxic.
Vote for Gerry.
Gerry, Maria and Levis ran on transparency, yet did not advise the residents in March of 2023 when the Borough (Gerry) filed this litigation, they did not disclose when the developers intervened, nor did they disclose settlement discussions they were having until 2024 after having them for a year. And Gerry is hiding behind “litigation” he can discuss things happening and keep the Borough up to date if he wanted to be transparent- unless he shows us a Gag Order from the Court- it’s BS he can’t talk about it to the taxpayers, after all the taxpayers are footing the bill for the attorney, experts and fees from the Court.
Gerry, Maria and Levis ran on no more over development but will now be responsible as the people that put more units in Belmar then all the other administrations together. And the reason this is happening is because they filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Borough within three months of taking office and not truly understanding the potential outcomes. Gerry bragged he was an attorney he should have known better and prepared his case before filing suit and jeopardizing Belmar. He needs to be accountable and he needs to tell the residents whose idea this was? Do not give any of them a pass. News 12 NJ is on their way down and ready to report on this mess.
We are losing control of our country and we are losing control of our town.
Only way to get it back is through elections