Parking on residential streets in District 4 will soon be off limits during the summer overnight hours except for taxpayers, now that a new parking plan has been narrowly passed by Point Beach Council at Tuesday night's meeting at
The plan does not allow parking on residential streets in District 4 from midnight to 6 a.m. except for taxpayers, or those they share with, who have parking placards from the town, from the Monday before Memorial Day to the Monday after Labor Day, said Councilman Michael Corbally, who had initially proposed the plan.
District 4's boundaries are the ocean on the east, the New Jersey Transit Railroad Tracks on the west, the Manasquan River and Inlet on the north and the north side of Arnold Avenue on the south.
Councilmembers William Mayer, Tim Lurie and Stephen Reid voted against adopting the parking plan ordinance on second reading. Councilmembers Kristine Tooker, Corbally, Bret Gordon and Mayor Vincent Barrella voted for it.
Barrella only votes when there is a tie.
Barrella said the parking ordinance is to help prevent a repeat of last summer when drunks were strolling through residential neighborhoods early in the morning, frequently being loud and unruly and urinating and vomiting on people's lawns.
Police have said that weekends last summer were the worst in the past 17 years in terms of criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and petty crime.
During a meeting that went on for a few hours, the council voted 4 to 3 for the parking plan, which calls for each taxpayer to receive five transferable parking placards.
The placards can be shared with tenants or visitors.
If lost, taxpayers can ask Municipal Business Administrator Christine Riehl for a new one, said Corbally after the meeting.
"We'll work it out," said Corbally.
Mayor Vincent Barrella said after the meeting that he may ask the council to pass a measure to help prevent a parking problem from seeping into District 3, which was a concern raised by some residents who spoke during the meeting.
"If there are problems with the first few streets in District 3, I'd like the ability to adjust and adapt," Barrella said.
The measure was one of two opposed by some local businesses. Representatives of Jenkinson's and Martell's said after the meeting they did not have an immediate comment regarding the parking plan or the ordinances that were passed Tuesday night.
Mayer and Reid said the parking problem should be addressed through greater police enforcement which they feel will be possible this summer since at least 40 new special officers are being added to the local police ranks.
Mayer also said that in for a townwide plan, voters in the first three districts voted no.
He said, "If you asked District 3 voters if they wanted a parking plan in District 4 only, they wouldn't have said no, they would have said 'Hell, no.' I think it will hurt tourism. You deal with this through enforcement. You put a cop on every corner, have zero tolerance, keep giving out tickets until word gets out that this will not be tolerated."
Mayer and Gordon have recently been having private negotiation sessions with Jenkinson's and Martell's representatives to try to come up with mutually-agreeable ways for the businesses to continue operating at a level acceptable to owners along with helping the town pay for police services and helping to cut down on loud, rowdy behavior by some in residential neighborhoods this summer.
When asked after the meeting if the negotiations yielded any useful results, Mayer said, "An offer was made, but I don't think that's going to happen now."
He said boardwalk business owners had offered a substantial sum of money, to be paid on an annual basis, to help address the town's financial needs to support police and other services.
Mayer would not say what the amount is because it was offered in private negotiations.
"The negotiations assumed that these two ordinances would not pass," he said, referring to the ordinances regarding earlier bar closings and the District 4 parking plan.
He also cited a letter written by a Jenkinson's attorney (see attachment) saying there will be no more negotiations as long as the town is considering the two ordinances.
"I think the negotiations are over and I don't think that offer of a payment still stands after the votes tonight," he said.
Don't let your obvious hatred of Sean interfere with your dealings with his father. Though they are father and son...they have both had very different political "lives".
Hate is a very strong word. I have a major issue with people that distort the truth and contradict themselves. I do apologize for all of the times that people interpret what I say as being nasty,I just feel if you are not going to tell the truth than you should not post anything.....
I would like to see what would happen if they changed Clarks Landing to a bar in the same vain as Martells or Jenkinsons. After all it was the original resort area in our community, Clarks would have a simillar arguement that many of the BW supporters put forth. I wonder what voting district contributes the most tax revenue, I would have to guess the fourth based on the fact that it by far and away has the most homes and a lot of business properties. I wonder what district sends the least amount of children to the school system which is by far and away the largest single expense this town deals with. Once again it is probably the fourth. So get off this sqeaky wheel rap because it is the fourth district that provides the largest tax bases that pay for the other districts little darlings education. Once I was blind and now I can see!
PPB evolved into the wonderful place it was and is----not because of what politicians did, but despite what politicians did---as Thomas Paine wrote "Those that govern less, govern best." This philosophy is what made the GB before 2008 such a huge success-----today's group just doesn't have the patience to let the solutions evolve---they arrogantly think they know better-----sure way to ruin the town
If as you put forth that D$ secede the financial advantage would be D4's gain and loss to the other three. What would we call the new town?? "Cook's Homestead" ?," Lake Louise"? , "The 4th of July"???? I have heard it said that one can not win election in town without winning the 4th! Even with all the summer homes they still have the largest number of voters. Certain forces in town love D4 taxes , But not their vote!
I'd bet on the library district... There's an awful lot of families with kids living around the Antrim in D4
40+ years ago, when I lived in the area of the boardwalk....this occurred. It's still occurring. What has changed in those 40+ years? Yup....the people that moved into the area believing this stuff never happened.
Parking and violations get enforced in the other 3 districts year round, not just a 4 month span.
If you think peoples bad behavior is simply going to change due to an earlier closing time and having to move their car just before midnight....you are going to be very unhappy. People that are behaving that way are still going to behave that way. It will just be earlier in the night. Nothing in these ordinances will change their behavior....just when. Are you that naive to think no one gets drunk and such before midnight? Are you that naive to think people won't be walking back to their cars at 11:59pm and still throwing out their garbage, getting sick, and "relieving" themselves? Honestly?
At that time the town restricted "The Riptide" and "The Beach (Hoffman) House". That Riptide crowd was a lot smaller than the current 2 large boardwalk bars. I was amazed that the capacity of those two Bars is well over 3 thousand people. How many were allowed back then?? 3,000 is more than voter turnout!! Both those bars have greatly expanded the size of the operations. Who turned a blind eye as these continued expansions. Most towns require addressing parking concerns when changing use or expanding. Look at the old photos of those operation and compare to now . I think food/ drink were not allowed in the rocker area . That area was probably a quarter of the entire footprint. Did Martells have bar on the beach? The usable floor areas seems to keep increasing and spliling out to onto the beach with patios and decks. Increased volume = requisite demand for parking. Those bar patrons are forced to parking further away.. Sure there was some rowdy behavior back in the day. It is just that the volume of that behavior has increased so drastically, The season was over at labor day and now it has extended shoulder seasons for longer periods in the spring and fall. That means that they are walking farther and past more homes in their inebriated state. Do those business' really not allow or turn away parking from thier lots??? "There was a time when I went Blind"
" - less, cuz the buildings were smaller. "Who turned a blind eye as these continued expansions. Most towns require addressing parking concerns when changing use or expanding. " No one turned a blind eye. All legal expansions that were processed through the building department....just public not paying attention. Parking amounts are spelled out in legal building codes. "The season was over at labor day and now it has extended shoulder seasons for longer periods in the spring and fall. " - something that the Town was looking to have happen not that long ago....Seafood festival is a good example.... "Do those business' really not allow or turn away parking from thier lots???" - No.
My issuing ticket was given at 12:01am. It disgusted me that they are taking advantage of people and "stealing" their money by issuing tickets.
Hope4U: You're right -- it is disgusting. No worries though. The parking plan will be ruled illegal in about 2 weeks when it goes to Superior Court. Then the town will have to refund the money to everyone who was given tickets. I'd suggest you appeal your ticket to the Municipal judge. By the time you get a court date, you're ticket will be deemed invalid anyway -- so you WIN!