Agroup of Elberon homeowners are calling on Long Branch officials to address the “unsafe” conditions at a deserted development project bordering their neighborhood.
Pictures of vacant lots and abandoned million-dollar homes at the Ranch development project site in the Elberon section of Long Branch. Residents toured the Ranch project site last week, calling attention to a “faulty” detention basin, abandoned million-dollar homes and “unruly” vacant lots.
“There is nothing being done to entice buyers to invest in these new homes or for developers to develop the vacant lots,” said Leila Poch, an Elberon resident who had protested the project from being approved several years ago.
“We had wanted to save this property so that it could be a passive park,” she said. “The developers got approval, and once they acquired the land, they bulldozed everything.
“Now it is abandoned and unsafe and nobody wants to buy these houses or these lots,” Poch said, adding, “There has been abandoned construction equipment here for over a year, and these homes that were built are being vandalized.
PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE VARNO “Who is responsible for this?” she said, explaining that the residents in the surrounding neighborhood want city officials to determine who is responsible for maintaining the land.
Park Avenue Estates, of Ocean Township, received approval from the city in 2005 to develop the 30-acre site. The property is bordered to the south by Park Avenue, the east by Elberon Avenue, the west by the railroad tracks and the north by Lake Takanassee.
Park Avenue Estates owns several of the lots on the site, but some of the lots have been sold to private developers, according to Poch.
“We don’t know who is responsible for this,” Poch said.
There are some 30 lots on the site, and to date, only five luxury homes, valued between $1 million and $5 million, have been constructed, according to Poch.
The homes remain vacant and at least one of them has been vandalized, Poch said, adding that the site is isolated and abandoned, and empty beer cans and trash litter the area.
“It has become a dumping ground,” Poch said.
The remaining vacant lots are overgrown with grass and weeds, and the roadways in the development flood due to broken storm drains, Poch said.
“How frustrating this is,” Poch said. “As much as we didn’t want this, it is here now, and look at it. Nobody is even coming here to look to invest in the property.”
Poch said that she and her neighbors also have concerns about the retention basin constructed on the site that is not maintained and was constructed improperly. The basin overflows with water and there is no fence to keep children from the water, Poch explained.
“When we were protesting the project, one of the big problems we mentioned was the detention basin on the property to take run-off from the land.
“They said a homeowners association was to maintain the detention basin, but there are no homeowners to maintain it,” she said. “People think we have a lake back here. It is not safe. I want somebody who cares to take a look at the situation out here.”
Arlene Mavorah, of Elberon Avenue, agreed.
“It was found that the detention basin was not constructed properly,” Mavorah said. “It is a lake. The water never drains.”
Schneider said that he has received several complaints about the detention basin.
“They are valid complaints,” Schneider said. “We are making [Park Avenue Estates] rebuild it because it is not draining properly.
“There is testing going on,” he said, adding, “It is supposed to drain and empty and it hasn’t been doing that. It is being rebuilt.”
The homeowners agreed that they want someone to be held responsible for the project site, which they are calling a “ghost town.”
“You have some really beautiful homes here and now it is a really dirty ghost town,” Mavorah said. “I come home at night and there used to be this rustic feel.
“This project gives you the feeling of living in an abandoned neighborhood,” she said.
Poch added, “I would like to see the developers maintain these properties and the owners of the other lots maintain their properties.
“This is an insult to the community,” she said. “We want the city to see what it is like over here and hold somebody responsible for it.”
Councilman Brian Unger joined the Elberon homeowners on the tour of the site on June 6 and said that he plans to bring the situation at the Ranch site to the attention of Mayor Adam Schneider and the council.
“We are going to have to ask the mayor and his staff to come up with a plan,” Unger said. “If the city doesn’t take action, other towns, like Deal and Rumson, that have houses like these, will attract homeowners, rather than Long Branch.
“Who wants to buy a home next to this?” he asked.
Unger said that the city is currently discussing a fence ordinance for retention basins.
“It is something we are going to talk about,” he said, adding, “But the problem here is that the water doesn’t drain properly.”