Responds to Publisher’s ‘Theater Saga’ Analysis

To The Editor:
This letter is in response to Publisher Art Hall’s Oct. 25 column, “What Does the CM Theater Saga Point Up?”
In his analysis, a number of key facts and assumptions about the Beach Theatre Foundation (BTF) and the circumstances of the theatre’s recent demise are erroneous and need to be corrected.
• The BTF never advocated eminent domain proceedings by the City of Cape May to take the theatre for a public purpose, even though many in town thought that means was justified. Rather, we leased the property with an option to buy it for $12 million (the owner’s grossly unrealistic price for so derelict a property). We always sought to acquire the theatre through private sale for a fair market price.
• After the owner was denied a demolition permit by Cape May’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), and that body’s ruling was allowed to be appealed to its Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), we challenged that appeal based on the building’s historic and community value. In the meantime, both the HPC and Cape May’s Planning Board (PB) passed resolutions of “historic designation” for the theatre and sent them to the City Council for adoption. There are legislated procedures that apply if applicants are not granted demolition certificates for historic property. Essentially, they have two years to market the property at a fair market price, a price determined by appraisals by neutral third parties. If it is not sold in two years, the owners then have the right to demolish.
• Hall quotes someone saying tax dollars were used in our preservation effort. I assume that refers to our five-year, $100,000 loan made in 2007 nominally from the City of Cape May, the proceeds of which were employed for a year’s lease of the theatre. No local tax dollars were part of that loan. The money came from funds lying fallow under the state’s Small Cities Community Development Block Grant that remained untapped since the refurbishing of Congress Hall in 2002. The loan was put to the direct purpose of the program, namely to provide local jobs which the theatre supported while we operated it.
• We don’t disagree that the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is one of the most precious rights of Americans. So too are rights given under other Amendments like the First and 14th. Property rights have never been– and are not now– absolute. Zoning laws were created to protect the rights and values of property owners against the actions of other property owners. We petitioned the state Superior Court to try to have them adhered to by what turned out to be an irresponsible City Council. We believe the city acted unlawfully in giving a demolition permit to the theatre owners after they sued the city on a previous expired permit. That suit was born out of a mistake by the city solicitor concerning the expiration timing for the first permit. Judge Armstrong’s opinion in the case was that the BTF had no standing to intervene and be heard by the court, a narrow and dangerous, conclusion.
That court’s decision effectively sanctions an “open hunting season” on non-specifically designated structures significant to the state’s history. It sets a very troubling precedent when a preservation group is denied “a voice” in the application of demolition.
When any voice is silenced like that, we should all take a hard look at the current state of liberties in our nation.
STEVE JACKSON
Cape May
(ED NOTE: Jackson is president and founder
of Beach Theatre Foundation, Inc.)