Council Weighs Purchase Options for Pebbles

STONE HARBOR – The main topic of discussion during Borough Council’s regular meeting July 1 was funding for the purchase of the Pebbles guest house.
Leslie Gimeno, director of the Cape May County Planning Department and a member of the Open Space board, spoke to council and answered questions regarding their options for applying for Open Space funding in order to purchase the Pebbles property.
At this point, the borough is considering making an application to the county in partnership with the Stone Harbor Museum for a land acquisition application for the county to purchase the property.
“Our program isn’t that difficult, but there are specific things that we need to do,” said Gimeno. “The major thing that we would be looking for is having the borough as a partner to the application, so we wouldn’t look for doing a partnership with just the museum.”
With this in mind, Gimeno explained that the borough has two options if it chooses to apply for Open Space funding; the borough could go in with a land acquisition application requesting that the county pay the borough back over time for acquisition costs. The other option would be asking the county to do the land acquisition on its own.
“Our board is very progressive, very smart and I think if you would come in with an application that would say either do a timed pay out with the county involved in the purchase or do the straight out acquisition, that would give us a little bit more flexibility in being able to make this decision,” said Gimeno.
Under both options, Gimeno made it clear that the borough would be responsible for the long-term maintenance of the facility, including renovation, creation of the museum and maintenance, meaning a commitment of about 15-20 years with renewable clauses.
“The Open Space board would want to purchase the property and engage in a partnership with the borough so it could become the vibrant museum that has so often been described,” said Gimeno.
It should be noted that the Open Space board is an advisory board to the Board of Chosen Freeholders and merely makes recommendations to freeholders. Freeholders ultimately would make the final decision.
Gimeno explained the Open Space application process, which includes two appraisals of the property, with a third review appraisal for the certified value and final number.
“The open space board is not in the business of buying houses or properties with structures on them,” said Gimeno. “The regulations do say that the value of any structure on the property would have to be incidental to the value of the land itself and we have bought properties with structures on them in the past.”
“If the property went to bond in 10 years, who owns that property,” Councilmember Joan Kramar asked Gimeno.
“The county would always own the property; the borough would be responsible under a leasing and management agreement for maintenance and operation,” said Gimeno.
Councilmember Albert Carusi addressed Robert Ashman of the Stone Harbor Museum board with regard to operation costs.
“The idea was some of that cost, with fundraisers, was to build a large fund to be able to pay your way as the museum and not have the borough pay,” said Carusi to Ashman.
“The museum generates all the funds to pay operating expenses,” said Ashman. “We plan to do that in the future. The museum is not asking for the borough to handle the whole load.”
Ashman suggested drafting a written agreement between the museum and the borough to decide who would handle what. Gimeno suggested that these decisions be fleshed out before an application is submitted.
According to council, Remington & Vernick Engineers released its engineer’s report regarding the Pebbles ADA compliancy with an estimate of $972,000 to fix the building.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Lindsey Rollins of the county Department of Tourism and the ADA coordinator for Cape May County Division of Culture & Heritage Commission proposed that several items in the engineer’s report could be eliminated if the building were to be placed on either state or national historic registers of historic places.
“There are two completely different standards for ADA accessibility depending on if you’re a municipality or public museum,” said Rollins. “The museum is absolutely committed to working with the property owner making sure that the standard which will save you a lot of money is applied.”
“The engineer is not here to defend his report,” said Mayor Suzanne Walters.
“I’m not arguing with the engineer’s report, I think it’s accurate based on the parameters they were given,” said Rollins. “I’m saying that you could apply a different set of standards that would help everyone involved.”
“We wouldn’t have to send the $972,000 to Remington Vernick because all of those things would not be required on a building that is New Jersey historic,” said Ashman.
Council inquired if it would be possible to sell the property in the future, especially after being named historic.
“A property like that on the historic registry is a good thing,” said Gimeno. “It could result in some adaptations, some accommodations there, but once that building is on the register there are a lot of things that go along with that.”
“The county would be very hard pressed to buy an open space property, have it declared historic and then decide we want to get rid of it, but that is a larger reason we would look to the municipality for that long term commitment,” said Gimeno.
In addition to the improvement costs, council discussed the purchase of the Pebbles itself.
“On public record, the building has been on and off for sale the last four years, from $1.6 to $2.6 million with no valid offers,” said Ashman. “The museum had an appraisal done late last year and that came in at $1.9 million. The county, should they accept the application, will have their appraisals done and whatever that number is will be the number.”
Gimeno discussed some of the things the Open Space board looks for when making decisions.
“What we as an Open Space board like to see are projects with a regional draw, things that aren’t duplicated by other services in the community,” said Gimeno. “This particular project would bring in a preservation element which would be nice, so there are a lot of positive features to it.”
As for the museum’s contributions, Ashman told council that their first fundraiser netted about $3,500 and there are plans for more in the future.
“What’s your plan B if this doesn’t carry forward,” Kramar asked Ashman.
“As far as a location for the museum,” asked Ashman. “We don’t know, because of the cost of property here.”
Kramar suggested splitting the museum up between three available properties.
“The board wants it all in one location,” said Ashman. “Your expenses and personnel would go up three times; it doesn’t work. It would be more expensive for the museum to try and find another piece of property and build on it. We wouldn’t have a shot at getting Open Space money, so we would have to generate all that money. It would be foolish to knock that down and do something there.”
Council has the opportunity to apply for Open Space funding three times a year. There are three Open Space application deadlines; Aug. 15, Dec. 15 and April 15.
“Take your time, give us the best possible application and have all these questions answered before you come to us, because the more we have to sell it, it will just be more difficult,” said Gimeno.
To contact Erin Haskell, email ehaskell@cmcherald.com.
For the Herald’s previous coverage, go to:
http://goo.gl/GqemqC