Keyport Neighbors

Re: Rescheduled Planning Board Meeting 1/30/07

The next Keyport Unified Planning Board (KUPB) meeting is scheduled for Tuesday
1/ 30/07 at Borough Hall starting at 7:00 PM. There are two major items on the
agenda:

    * Reorganization for 2007
    * Resolution from Governing Body - Area in Need of Rehabilitation.

A Keyport Borough Council (KBC) Resolution approved on 1/16/07 referred the KBC
plan to designate the entire Borough of Keyport as "an area in need of
Rehabilitation" to the Keyport Unified Planning Board (KUPB) for comments.

Re: Borough Council Meeting 1/23/07

The next KBC meeting is scheduled for this Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007 at Borough
Hall starting at 8:00PM. Two Ordinances are scheduled for introduction at this
meeting:

    * Establish Storm Water Management Requirements and Controls
    * Amend Chapter XVI, Streets, Sidewalks, and Sanitation, Section 16-8.3 Yard
Waste Collection

Re: Rehabilitation Resolution -  Special Meeting Summary

A Special KBC Meeting was held on 1/16/06 regarding the KBC plans to designate the entire
Borough of Keyport as "an area in need of Rehabilitation".  A resolution to
refer this KBC proposal to the KUPB for comments was approved unanimously.

Borough Hall was filled to capacity for this meeting. A significant part of the
attendance was stimulated by a letter from Mayor Bergen stating that this
process was critical to residents living near the old factory on Manchester
Avenue and promoting a conceptual plan for redevelopment of this site generated
by the owner.

The process and "benefits" of this Rehabilitation designation were described by
the Borough Redevelopment attorney, Litwin, and a Carteret attorney, Slachetka.
The Rehabilitation process was promoted as a resident-driven planning process as
contrasted with developer-generated plans presented to the KUPB for use-variance
approvals.

The conceptual plans from Manchester, LLC, exhibited during this meeting
promoted a high-density condo project containing multiple flats with what appeared to be underground parking facilities. The great
majority of  residents (adjacent to the old factory and who spoke at the
meeting) did not embrace this plan. Further, many questions and challenges
focused on how could this developer-generated plan be rolled out at a meeting
promoting Rehabilitation as a resident-driven planning process.  Additional
questions focused on how are residents going to be involved. No process has been
defined for soliciting input from residents on planning for a site's
rehabilitation-redevelopment, notification of planning activities, and resolving
differences in objectives between residents and developers. All these process
issues are defined for the KUPB hearings by the NJ MLUL. Comparable processes
are needed for Keyport Rehabilitation activities to keep the promotion of 
resident-driven planning from being false hype.

Areas to be impacted with new development rules per the Rehabilitation powers
are most likely the Manchester factory site, Browns Point Marina, the Kara Homes-Longview Ventures site, highway areas, and possibly
other marinas. So the fundamental question remains will Rehabilitation be
developer-driven (as demonstrated by the Mayor's Manchester exhibit and the
Century Land Group MOU) or "resident-driven" by a yet to be defined process.

All comments and corrections are appreciated.

Regards
Michael Lane

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