Cove Restaurant Hearing Delayed Until October

CAPE MAY — A hearing before the city’s Planning Board Aug. 25 for the Johnston family, dealing with use of the Cove Restaurant’s porch, was delayed until October.
Following a closed session on another topic, Planning Board Attorney George Neidig, City Solicitor Tony Monzo and Attorney Louis Dwyer, representing the Johnstons, stepped into the hallway outside the city’s police station and talked for several minutes.
When the meeting reopened, Neidig announced the delay until October.
At issue, the Johnstons, long time owners of the Cove Restaurant, 405 S. Beach Ave., began to replace the wooden floor in the porch section of their business with concrete last February when they received a stop work order from the city’s construction office even though they had received a permit for the work. At that point, the wooden floor had been removed.
The City has maintained that the restaurant porch sits on a former, vacated street, Third Avenue, claimed by sand decades ago which the city retains some access rights despite giving the Johnston family use of the parcel years ago.
Unable to complete work on the porch due to the stop work order, the Cove was closed for the busy Memorial Day and reopened after a Superior Court judge ordered temporary relief allowing the Johnston’s to use the porch dining room.
The Johnstons have sued the city, which is a matter City Council has been discussing in closed session.
On May 19, City Council unanimously passed a resolution rejecting any planning board approvals for the construction of improvements “in the vacated portion of Third Avenue, requesting the site plan application for the property be reheard by the planning board and reconfirming the city’s rights to the vacated portion of Third Avenue as previously set forth in an ordinance vacating the property.
At the Aug. 25 meeting, Neidig said he and Dwyer “were not on the same wavelength as to how to proceed.” He said Dwyer believed Planning Board members that did not attend earlier meetings would have listened to audio recordings of those proceedings to familiarize themselves of what occurred.
Dwyer said it was in question of whether there was a quorum of at least five members to hear the application He said the hearing would be postponed until Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. He said Planning Board members who needed to catch up would listen to recordings of earlier meetings in the meantime.
Dwyer said he did discovered at the meeting the city intended to present an expert witness, City Engineer James Mott.
Neidig said the three attorneys needed to “sit down and agree how this is going to proceed next time.”
On Tuesday May 26, the Planning Board had the matter on their agenda but did not take action.
At that time, Monzo told the Planning Board he had been in communication with Dwyer regarding a proposed settlement which could be presented to City Council at its June 3 meeting. A settlement was not approved.
Following Hurricane Bill, the Cove’s porch dining room regained a view of the ocean and lighthouse due to erosion of a dune. The Johnstons had complained in 2005 that a fence placed on the beach by the city created the dune, which obscured the view from porch when a large dune grew.