By carolyn o’connell
Staff Writer
OCEANPORT — The borough has dusted off plans for its village center.
Nearly 34 years ago, on July 3, 1969, the ordinance creating the center was adopted; last week the Borough Council introduced an amendment to that ordinance designating the center as its commercial district on East Main Street.
"The ordinance will help formulate where the center is, and a place for people to congregate," said Councilman Martin A. McGann.
Oceanport Plaza on Main Street, a small shopping center which already exists in the borough, is adjacent to the soccer fields the borough is expected to take title to from the New Jersey Sports Exposition within the next couple of months. The NJSEA also is in the process of selling land it owns across the street from the soccer fields with the expectation that it will be developed as an age-restricted community .
What will be added, on a parcel adjacent to the soccer fields, according to McGann, will be a three-story structure. The first floor will incorporate commercial business while the second and third floor will offer residential units.
Some of the uses outlined in the ordinance include museums, galleries, and studios for dance, art, photography, radio and television. The list includes medical offices, limiting the usage to 25 percent for professional or medical services. The second floor also will allow professional space along with one- and two-bedroom apartments.
A restaurant or a drinking establishment with or without dining areas is allowable, as well as a grocery store in excess of 5,000 square feet.
What is prohibited for the first floor are drive-in or drive-through restaurants and drugstores.
The third floor is reserved for studio and one-bedroom apartments requiring that all residential units, including those on the second floor, be a minimum of 800 square feet.
The village center also is envisioned, according to McGann, to cater to the age-restricted community planned for the vacant land behind the First Union Bank.
The NJSEA has plans to sell the property to a developer who will build 40 units with a restriction limiting ownership in the community to those age 55 and older, noted McGann.
Also planned for the borough is a new streetscape in front of the existing stores along East Main Street which would include a median landscaped strip in the center of the road.
"We would like to take it all the way through to Oceanport Avenue," said McGann, "but we would need to get the county to buy into it since it is owned by the county."
In addition to the landscaping upgrades, borough officials would also like to see the parking lot opposite Monmouth Park be upgraded.
A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for July 17.