Views on redevelopment at heart of mayoral race
Grant pushing for more business, while Schneider contends mixed plan on the table is right concept
Chris Kelly Long Branch mayoral candidate Avery Grant responds to a question asked of him at a debate Tuesday at the Ocean Place Conference Center and Resort Spa. To Grant’s left is current Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider.
LONG BRANCH — The city’s municipal elections are just two weeks away, and the main issue for both incumbents and challengers is redevelopment.
Mayor Adam Schneider who is seeking his fourth four-year term is challenged by Avery W. Grant, currently a member of the Board of Education and a retired Army lieutenant colonel.
While all candidates are focused on redevelopment and the rebirth of the inner city, each candidate has distinctly different views on the result of redevelopment and the way it will affect residents.
Schneider and his team of five incumbent council members have spent the last eight years focused on bringing about the redevelopment that is taking place. At the recent ground-breaking ceremony of the 25-acre Pier Village redevelopment project, Gov. James E. McGreevey, supporting the project said, "Adam has been tenacious. He doesn’t understand the meaning of the word no, and he has fought for Long Branch. The standard Adam set is the gold-mark standard for the rest of the state."
State agencies have supported redevelopment plans by investing $11.2 million toward the development of Pier Village as well as other money from agencies such as CREDA (Casino Reinvestment Develop-ment Authority) and the department of transportation to reconstruct Ocean Boulevard.
According to Schneider, when he was elected to council 12 years ago, he was continually asked when the city would be rebuilt. In the last 10 years, Schneider said he and his team have worked very hard at creating a redevelopment plan to bring entertainment, restaurants, jobs and affordable housing back into the city.
But Grant debates the affordable housing and said, "Only a very few Long Branchers or their children could afford to buy theses housing units."
Grant is referring to the 420 Pier Village residential units which are expected to sell for between $100,000 and $400,000.
"Residents living on or near the oceanfront would like to continue to live there," said Grant. "But Mayor Schneider’s redevelopment plan insultingly never considered that they are relocating people."
"We have always involved the public before making any decisions on redevelopment," said Schneider. "We have held many meetings, and we were always supported by the public." He added that it was always clear that people would be displaced in the redevelopment process.
"We knew that at various points along the way public support would be crucial," He said. "I can look back and can say we are proud of the way we handled the redevelopment process."
On the relocation process Schneider said, "It has worked amazingly well. We have relocated 300 people and 90 percent of those residents have stayed in Long Branch."
Part of the redevelopment process is razing homes on the oceanfront, explained Schneider, but at the same time the process has included the creation of new housing within the city.
Providing affordable housing, noted Schneider, is part of our redevelopment plans as well as a condition of securing state money to support redevelopment.
According to Schneider, 10 of the units within Pier Village will be low-income housing units, and additional scattered site housing has already been designed within city limits.
The company developing Pier Village, which also is the designated developer of Beachfront North, the Applied Cos., Hoboken, has entered into a partnership with local builder Dean Mon who has taken on the task of building new affordable condominiums and duplexes in scattered sites in the city.
Additionally, the Broadway redevelopment corridor calls for 400 to 500 new residential units that will fit the state guidelines for affordable housing, said Schneider. He added, "More homes will be provided than were taken down."
"We have several situations," said Schneider, "where those who were relocated from substandard rental units have now been relocated within the city into a new first time homeowner situation."
Schneider said, "Avery [Grant] has never participated in the workshops. The redevelopment plan was put out for public review seven years ago. We held 20 public meetings on the plan from ’95 to ’97 and went for review with the state. He [Grant] never participated and now he wants to start from scratch. If he were elected, he would bring relocation to a halt for four or five years to renegotiate the terms. He clearly does not know what he is talking about."
Grant maintains that the redevelopment plan should include family amusement areas, a pier and visitor accommodations "to make Long Branch a destination where people come to spend their money and create jobs."
The main goal, said Schneider, is to create a year-round economically stable community uniting the oceanfront with the rest of the city.
In addition to opposing the current redevelopment plan, Grant has said that the city government is unresponsive to the public, crime has been reduced but not drugs, money continues to be wasted on frivolous lawsuits, and there is a lack of public services such as trash removal and paving of the streets.
Schneider said that his record and that of his council speak for themselves: "We as a governing body are united and have received across-the-board public approval."