Brick, SBB clash over Traders Cove site

BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP – The lawsuit filed by Save Barnegat Bay against the township over the Traders Cove site is no longer a topic for mediation, Township Attorney Jean Cipriani said.

“Save Barnegat Bay is filled with criticism, but not filled with suggestions,” Cipriani said yesterday, after a case management conference before Superior Court Judge Vincent Grasso. “The judge agreed to hear several summary judgments on several of purely legal issues. We’re hoping to file the summary motions very quickly to get those addressed by the court. It could either resolve the case or narrow the issues.”

Save Barnegat Bay filed suit against the township in January. The environmental group asked that the township’s redevelopment plan for Traders Cove be invalidated.

SBB objects to the section of the plan that allows up to 193 boat slips to be built, instead of the existing 139 slips. The group also opposes having a private redeveloper, not the township, run the marina, group officials have said.

Allowing a private developer reneges on the original agreement back in 2005 to build a public park and marina, with a lesser amount of boat slips, SBB officials have said.

But Cipriani disagrees.

“Every written agreement that came out of the first round of mediation, the township has completely complied with,” Cipriani said. “If you ask Save Barnegat Bay to show you an agreement where that promise was made, they will not be able to do it because there was no mediated agreement.”

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said recently that the township might be able to receive a combination of grants and low-interest loans to renovate the Traders Cove property, without going to a redeveloper.

Save Barnegat Bay executive director William deCamp said the Green Acres funding has always been available to the township.

“That’s the crazy thing,” he said. “That was true all along. I never know when to believe Steve Acropolis and when not to. It’s been the case all along as far as Green Acres money is concerned.”

Green Acres funding for the Traders Cove site could “potentially be a good thing,” deCamp said. “But nothing would have changed on the state levels. What would have changed is Brick’s choice of what to do.”

The redeveloper who Acropolis said was interested has not had any expenses to pay so far, deCamp said.

“All he has to do is wait while his cherry pie is baking,” he said. “It can only be the scrutiny that is scaring himaway.When it’s high profile, more people look it over.”

Save Barneget Bay and Brick successfully fought on the same side back in 2005 to keep condominiums out of Traders Cove.

“The deal was already worked out in the mediation before Judge Serpentelli,” deCamp said. “It was going to be a public park, not privately owned, with a modest marina component.”

“Brick came up with this idea to privatize the marina, with very little scrutiny of the financials,” he added. “All we’ve been asking for is for them to be able to keep their word. They are using me as their whipping boy over there, totally without justification. They are just not giving the public the straight story.”

Cipriani said the deed restrictions under the redevelopment plan call for complete public access, even if a private redeveloper takes over Traders Cove.