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Plan Driven Redevelopment Process
While the City of Long Branch has been no stranger to redevelopment - it adopted its first redevelopment plans in the mid 1980s - only since 1995 has the redevelopment process been able to galvanize this oceanfront city into a coordinated plan of action. Past redevelopment efforts have yielded a measure of success, as evidenced by the Ocean Place Hilton hotel, adjacent promenade and several condominium apartment buildings along Ocean Avenue. However, these projects fell short of the new investment expected in the 1980s when Ocean Avenue was reconfigured as a medianed boulevard. Private initiatives along the oceanfront also were short-lived and tailed off with the 1987 fire that destroyed the Kids World amusement pier and the recession that destroyed the residential real estate market.
In 1995, the City recommitted itself to redeveloping the oceanfront and embarked on a new journey through the process. This time, however, they applied the lessons learned from past mistakes and involved the public in the planning process from the onset. The City's nonprofit development corporation, Long Branch Tomorrow, Inc. (LBT), spearheaded this effort. LBT solicited professional planning and urban design consultants and selected the Thompson Group of Boston to develop a plan for the oceanfront. The Plan was developed through a series of public meetings from which a vision was shaped for the 135.5 acres designated as an Area In Need Of Redevelopment by the City. While not technically a redevelopment plan, the Plan provided the urban design format for five sectors, each with its own identity and focus. Specific implementation steps, including redevelopment plans for each sector, were outlined in the Plan.
With the vision firmly established and fully supported by the community, the City pushed ahead with the redevelopment area designations for the various sectors and solicited proposals from redevelopers. Because the overall vision for the waterfront was fully understood in advance, the ultimate intentions of the City for each of the redevelopment areas was not considered suspect by the property owners, residents and business owners in the affected areas. The result has been a smooth process without significant legal challenges and considerable interest from redevelopers - the first major redeveloper agreement was executed in February 2000.
The final and perhaps most unique aspect of the Oceanfront Plan is that it followed a focused effort by the City to obtain a Regional Center designation by the State Planning Commission, as outlined in the State Development and Redevelopment Plan. The City then worked with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to obtain the then-pilot Sector Permit, which is now available to municipalities with endorsed plans located within the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) areas. The permit essentially delegates the usual NJDEP project review to the City by granting the City a General Permit based on the consistency of the Oceanfront Plan with NJDEP policies for land use within the Coastal Area. The permit benefits developers and redevelopers as it reduces the usual, often lengthy, NJDEP project review to a quicker oversight of the local approval.