March 01– Mar. 1–OCEAN TOWNSHIP — Paramount Realty is asking for final site plan approval from the Planning Board for its Ocean Town Center plan, the public hearings for which started Monday.
Paramount is owned by Ocean Township resident Maurice Zekaria. The group is proposing to subdivide the 31-acre parcel into two commercial and residential lots and build a four-story 114-room hotel, Wawa and gas station, retail space, restaurants and 70 townhouses.
The townhouses could sell for as much as $500,000, according to the group.
The developer is seeking three variances from the board and needs two permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Jennifer Krimko, Paramount's attorney, said the DEP and Paramount have already agreed to the buffer line between the proposed development and wetlands surrounding Poplar Creek on the northern boundary line of the property.
The property was rezoned in 2017 to create a community mixed-use district, which permits the proposed uses.
The plan is getting pushback from a grass-roots group Save32Acres, which is against clear-cutting of the woodland.
In a letter to the DEP, Save32Acres member Monika Mazurczyk, of West Long Branch, wrote that "it is environmental and cultural suicide to cut down this vast, historic woodland and turn it into impervious ground cover."
The group didn't have any legal counsel present at the first meeting to represent it as objectors to the board.
In anticipation of perhaps larger public turnouts to come, the board agreed with the applicant's request to have the next hearing on March 4 at the high school auditorium.
History
The property is former farmland that was settled by Thomas Woolley in the early 1700s and still has remnants of the farm, including an artesian well.
In 2000, the township purchased about 43 acres of the farmland, which was then the estate of Emanuel and Matilda Terner, for $7.2 million. Today, both the library and the historical museum are located on that property, which is adjacent to Joe Palaia Park.
Ahold USA, owners of Stop & Shop, bought the remaining 31 acres of the Terner estate at the corner of Route 35 and Deal Road in 2001 for $4.7 million.
The group wanted to build a shopping center but wasn't able to get the plan through because the town changed the zoning on the land in 2006.
Ahold USA then sued Ocean Township and the two have been in litigation since.
The year before, Ahold USA moved the Eden Woolley house, circa 1747, off the property to its present spot on Deal Road, where it is now the home of the town's historical museum. The move was in anticipation of developing the land, according to town officials.
Stop & Shop would drop its lawsuit if Paramount bought the property, according to town officials.
Krimko said Paramount is under contract to buy the land and is awaiting approval of its project before closing the deal.
Dan Radel: @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; [email protected]
