Some Patrons Hate Library’s Seaside Site

STONE HARBOR — Not since the specter of a municipal recreation center several years ago has this borough been so incensed over a building.
This time the building is a branch of the Cape May County Library, for which freeholders expect to award a construction contract July 19.
If the state Department of Environmental Protection enacts a recently-passed amendment to allow construction of public facilities closer to the bulkhead than is presently permitted, ground will likely be broken in September or October.
Opposition to the site, not the library, swelled in June, and a petition that bore 117 signatures sought a referendum on placement of the library. That petition, however, was deemed lacking, and was not accepted.
Opposition sentiment to the location, on a municipally owned parking lot at 95th Street, erupted at the June Realty Owners Association meeting.
At that meeting, County Library Director Deborah Poillon extolled the virtues of the planned beachfront facility, but the aspect of the facility did not comfort opponents. Some even voiced the notion of following Avalon’s lead and forming the borough’s own library, separate from the county system.
Some believe the new library should be placed on a municipal lot purchased from the late Mayor Arden Hand for $1 million. That lot is close to the elementary school between 94th and 93rd streets on Second Avenue.
That lot, however, lacks parking for the numbers of patrons expected to utilize the library. What would neighboring residents do if the library patrons parked in adjacent streets?, officials feared.
As freeholders prepare to award the contract later this month, they have already at the Tue., July 12 meeting, authorized a “Project Labor Agreement” that has been authorized by the contactor and all building and construction trades. The pact ensures a “reliable source of skilled and experienced labor and avoids potential work stoppages,” according to the agenda for the July 12 meeting.
Former borough councilman Randall Bauer attended the Tue., June 28 freeholder meeting to urge the county’s top governing body to reconsider placement of the library.
Bauer questioned the county’s support for that beachfront site, and its backing of a Department of Environmental Protection amendment that would permit construction of such a public facility to be located closer to the bulkhead than present regulations would allow.
“When I met with you when I was a councilman in Stone Harbor, we talked about placement of the library and you said to me, ‘We don’t want to put it there.’”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I specifically said the freeholders would support wherever Stone Harbor wanted it, the same as Sea Isle City. The county never said this is better. The county never expressed any opinion, however, Stone Harbor decided it wanted it at that location,” said County Administrator Stephen O’Connor.
“Then the county said, we will go through every hoop to get it at that location,” O’Connor added.
“You were clear,” said Bauer. “The county is held harmless. The borough is the one that directed possible building of that structure where it is,” Bauer added.
He cited present DEP regulations that “would have moved the building quite a distance from the bulkhead, and it appears as if there is support of the council that the freeholders have gone ahead and said we will support the amendment if you allow us to build wherever you want it to be,” Bauer continued.
“My concern here is that in Stone Harbor there is very little support for this to be out on the beach. When I voted in existing regulations of DEP, it was not to go out and change or amend to follow what CAFRA (Coastal Area Faculties Review Act) imposed,” Bauer added.
“Evidently over four years, that was not acceptable to the people,” he said.
“My concern is that we are not all hearing the same story…maybe it was approachable four years ago, but maybe at this point, it is not approachable with the amendment.
“You understand as freeholders how the intervention of the board in this amendment process has changed the whole footprint and design of the placement of that library,” Bauer told the board. “Nobody in Stone Harbor is against the library; some are trying to make this an anti-library thing. The place where is to be put is not a good place,” said Bauer.
“Maybe you as a board need to readjust and rethink and redirect your thoughts on this,” said Bauer.
Bauer said if the DEP amendment is passed, it would be another year before the library could start.
“That is very upsetting whey we would have to go through five years of trauma and discontent and misunderstanding. If were to put the library in a place compatible with state regulations, you and the people of Stone Harbor would have had it built by now,” said Bauer.
“We had multiple meetings between freeholders with the council and mayor. We have always taken the position we will do whatever the elected officials want us to do. We have had six meetings this year. It is up to Stone Harbor to pursue or relocate, that is still where it stands now,” said O’Connor.
When Bauer called the proposed site a “pristine area,” O’Connor countered, “There are houses up and down. It is a public facility; it is not a pristine area. It is a developed area and provides access for the public to enjoy. A regulation that prevents that is silly,” O’Connor added.
Bauer then cited Wildwood Crest’s recent action to move its beachfront library to a site a block or two inland.
Freeholder Director Daniel Beyel cited the Wildwood Crest example, and said the present library could not be renovated because there was no adjacent available land to expand.
Beyel also noted the board’s historic support of public faculties east of the bulkhead line. One of those, he said, is Wildwoods Convention Center. Although located in a flood zone, Beyel said it was deemed a “regional facility for the betterment of the county. We don’t’ have any regrets. We have seen other facilities on the other side of the bulkhead line, like Ocean City Music Pier,” he said.
“We have worked with Stone Harbor,” said Beyel, and had been “advised” what had been voted upon by the board was the desire of the municipal governing body.
Beyel said it was also the county’s hope that by locating the library there that the public would be drawn to the borough, as with the one in Sea Isle City for its “uniqueness and being modern.”
***
New DEP Amendment Permits Library’s Site
TRENTON — Much argument and debate regarding the Stone Harbor branch of Cape May County Library has centered on an amendment to the Department of Environmental Protection’s “Scenic Resources and Design Rule.”
Attorney Neil Yoskin, based in Princeton who specializes in environmental matters, represented the County of Cape May regarding that DEP amendment.
The amendment was published in the New Jersey Register April 4, 2011. A hearing was held May 16 in Trenton, and the public comment period closed June 3.
The amendment:
(f) Federal, State, county or municipal development projects which are located adjacent to a bay or ocean or bay front or oceanfront, beach, dune or boardwalk, and are greater than 15 feet in height measured from the existing grade of the site or boardwalk need not comply with the setback requirements in (d) 2 above provided that the development contains design elements that enhance physical or visual public access to the waterfront beyond that which would be afforded by strict compliance with (d) 2 above and the development, as proposed, would remain in compliance with N.J.A.C. 7-7E-3-50.”
According to Yoskin, “The rule as currently written required that new structures adjacent to water bodies, beaches or dunes be set back from the landward limit of the beach-dune by a distance equal to twice the building’s height.
“It is intended to keep buildings from overshadowing the waterbody or beach-dune complex. The rule has frequently resulted in the denial of permits for single-family homes on bayside lots, usually triggering litigation that always and eventually results in settlements. It has long been understood by practitioners and by DEP that the rule needed to be amended.
“The amendment was proposed at the same time as DEP’s proposed public access rules. They have been the subject of significant public interest…The public comment period has closed, so DEP is free to adopt the amendment to the Scenic Resources and Design rule at any time, and can do so without adopting the public access rules.”
Yoskin stated that one of the purposes of the Stone Harbor library location is to allow seniors and handicapped patrons enjoyment of the views of the ocean from the second floor of the facility, regardless of season or weather.
That could not be achieved, he noted, if the building were to be set back 70 or more from the bulkhead, as presently required, since the structure is 35 feet in height.
“It would have the added effect of further reducing the number of parking spaces.” That is because the area between the building and the beach could not be used for parking.
Yoskin stated while he had not seen a “shadow drawing” for the library, it was his understanding it would not overshadow the beach.
Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 Ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com