Meeting Minutes

APHOA Membership Meeting
FEBRUAY 25, 2025
Sisters Academy School

Jordan Modell opened the meeting at Sisters Academy and introduced our host, Mercy Center Pantry and Volunteer Manager Tracy Wilson, who described the school and its sister operation, the Mercy Center on Main Street. The all-girls school offers free tuition to its 62 students, serving 4th through 8th grade. Mercy Center offers family services, housing assistance, tax preparation and a weekday food bank that serves 150+ families daily. More information about their activities, upcoming fundraising events, and opportunities to volunteer can be found on their website https://mercycenternj.org/.

Jordan answered a question regarding Porchfest fundraising, stating that $8,000 raised from the 2024 event was donated to local non-profits, and moved on to a presentation on three housing development projects, encouraging all to attend a Council meeting to be held 2/26:

1. 8-story tower in waterfront redevelopment zone , not an I-Star project, nor Council-approved
2. 101 Second Avenue – initially approved for 84 units, developer seeks to expand to 124 units
3. 1201 Memorial Drive – 126-unit building, 20% of which is affordable housing. Council-approved.

Dominic Latorraca spoke to school issues, specifically as relates to funding matters. He explained the Abbott School District program and how 2017 state legislation began a reduction in Abbott Aid to Asbury schools – effectively eliminating it by 2024. However, a State Monitor remains with oversight authority over school budget matters. Residents are now responsible to replace the previous state subsidy. A School Board meeting will be held Saturday 3/1 at 10 AM in the High School Auditorium. All are invited to hear the School Board presentation and raise questions/concerns.

Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn spoke to the Vision Zero Policy, an initiative to end traffic fatalities, and two State DOT projects to elevate certain intersection crossings (work to start in 2025, complete in 2026). She described a new Traffic Task Force being established by town Transportation Director James Bonanno. Contact him at 732-502-5762 for more information. She spoke of the relatively new town Accessory Dwelling Unit Program (one of only 2 in the state) which seeks to diversify town housing stock and expand affordable housing options by converting garages, basements, etc. to rentable apartments. An overview of the program and public workshop will be held 2/26 at 6 PM at City Hall. All are invited to learn program details and contribute ideas/comments (e.g., is the process over-regulated? What funding assistance is available?).

Boardwalk improvements are underway using $7 MIL in State funds including replacement of boards (90% complete), railings and stairs (to complete by Memorial Day 2025), and construction of new toilet facilities (as exist in the North Beach Area (that project to be re-bid with a targeted Fall 2025 completion).

One million dollars in State-provided UEZ funds are available for small businesses. A consultant has been hired to assist in determining the best way to distribute the funds (e.g., lease subsidies for winter rents).

The Sea Hear Now 2025 concert has not been confirmed, but is likely, with festival to give special priority consideration for town residents to purchase tickets and expansion of events to include Main Street and/or the Cookman Ave business areas.

Recreation Department news includes continuation of town sports camps (swim lessons in March/April/May) and surf lessons following.

Councilwoman Yvonne Clayton discussed the Quality-of-Life Committee which is assisting resident immigrants with legal guidance and advisory services. Key services include guidance on rights regarding ICE access to homes and workplaces. Handy info cards are available in multiple languages.

General discussion by all on:

• Town parking plans: refer to town Parking Committee for details and events
• PILOT Projects: aimed at attracting development to create tax revenue and install infrastructure and public use structures like parking garages that benefit the entire community. Question was posed as to why these are largely located near the waterfront rather than in the western parts of town where development is needed.
• Resident involvement in upcoming development projects – refer to town Technical Review Committee (TRC) for details and events

Jordan presented several slides detailing school facts on real estate holdings, student population and performance, restating that a school board meeting will be held Saturday 3/1 at 10 AM in the High School Auditorium. A special board meeting on the 2025-26 budget will be held on 3/13 at 6pm at Braadley Elementary School. Several attendees posed specific questions about school staff, which were tabled due to confidentiality issues.

Mike Sodano of the Asbury Park Arts Council described several initiatives/events occurring in the near future – some requiring ticket purchases, but most free of charge. Visit the Asbury Park Arts Council website for details: https://asburyparkartscouncil.org/. Many of these events are also posted on the calendar of events on the APHOA website, www.asburyparkhomeowners.org.

The meeting concluded with Jordan and Dom randomly awarding two Eat Here Now coupon books offered by the Asbury Park Kiwanis Club to two lucky attendees. The books are $30 and the proceeds go to non-profit activities supporting our local kids. Again, check out the link on the APHOA website to purchase a coupon book.

APHOA Membership Meeting
OCTOBER 17,2024
Asbury Hotel

Jordan Modell opened the meeting and introduced Asbury Park City Councilmember Angela Ahbez-Anderson, who gave an update on City matters. Ms. Ahbez-Anderson reminded everyone to please vote on November 5th. Angela updated us all on events going on in Asbury Park and took questions from the audience. Later, as former head of the school board, she corrected some misconceptions that were unfortunately being spread vis a vis the Asbury School board race.

Jordan introduced one candidate each from the two tickets running for Asbury Park School Board, beginning with Stephanie Ackerman from the Improve Learning Now! ticket. Ms. Ackerman presented what the ticket stood for, including fiscal responsibility, a plan for academics with regular benchmarking of results, and addressing the problem of two superintendents being paid. And said what she would do to trim budget while helping our kids do better. Next, Shadab Maghsood introduced herself and provided some information on her background. Ms. Maghsood mentioned she is running with Danielle Brascomb and Mariella Soria-Flores, who would be the first Hispanic elected to the Asbury Park School Board. She noted that during her time on the Board, the District had vacated the offices on 4th Avenue and moved into the Martin Luther King Middle School. And has moved to sell buildings and change superintendents.

Both candidates answered questions from the audience generally centered on what the plan is to get Asbury Park from being near the bottom in the state test scores while maintaining one of the highest costs per student in the state. They both presented plans and stated the best way to know is to look at their respective website and then reach out to them.

Brian Cheripka, co-founder of Starfield, formerly iStar, made a presentation on what Starfield has been up to since it came to Asbury in 2009. He began with the history of failure in the redevelopment of the Asbury Park waterfront area and showed pictures of what properties like The Asbury Hotel looked like – pretty amazing the transformation.

Highlights of the talk:

• Starfield (formerly iStar) has created over 250 full-time jobs in Asbury Park, the majority staffed by residents.
• Six most recent development projects have produced $3m in NEW tax revenue that continues to drive the Municipal portion of the overall tax bill down.
• There are 12 more projects on the docket, which will create significant new tax revenue for the City.
• PILOTs in the waterfront are necessary to bring in development to create tax revenue and install infrastructure and public use structures like parking garages that benefit the entire community. As a result of this program, Starfield (as iStar) has spent $37m on new public infrastructure for the Asbury Park waterfront, including $8m on the North End Boardwalk extension.
• $12m of additional NEW infrastructure will be installed over the next 12-18 months (along Kingsley Street from Sunset Ave to Deal Lake Drive).
• New traffic control measures and ”bump-outs” will add almost an acre of pervious surface to help stormwater management and over a half-acre of NEW greenspace as part of this next installation.
• They spent over $350,000 over the last 10+ years on our fireworks display.
• It takes over 2 to 4 years to get each project through the approval process, and then it must be built to deliver new tax revenue. Brian thinks it takes entirely too long.
• If we got the slide right – when they came, 95% of units being built were condos, and that now that figure is being almost evenly split with rentals, townhomes, and hotel keys. More diversity of housing types to attract new residents and create a long-term stable tax base.  
• Even though legally, 6 to 8-story buildings are permitted to be built across the entire waterfront (Ocean Ave.), they did not want to block the view of the ocean for residents and only plan to build 3-4-story buildings in most locations.  
• Starfield plans to construct 2,000 living units even though there is approval for 3,164 units.
• The future projects will be at a lower scale and less density than the original redevelopment plan allows.
• A PowerPoint slide of future projects was presented, including the Surf House luxury rentals currently in construction across from the Asbury Ocean Club. 
• Eventually, the surface parking lots at the beachfront will go away.  Starfield will build a parking garage behind the Empress Hotel with 252 public parking spaces.  Ultimately, Starfield plans on approximately 600 parking spaces at the beachfront in various parking garages.  NOTE: No underground parking is allowed by the State, and 1.5 parking spaces will be provided for each housing unit built.
• The first garage behind the Empress is in the approval process and could be delivered by summer 2026 – IF approved by the City Council and the planning board!

We were then treated to one of the treasurers of Asbury Park – Officer Gene Dello.   Gene represents what is great about the AP Police: smart, kind, thoughtful, and, most of all, caring.  He kindly gave his number to anyone who had any need at any time. Spoke about how hard it is to recruit police officers in the current environment.  And made a plea for more ring doorbells that can be tied to the police so they can help cut down on vandals and thieves.

Gene Dello also spoke about the police and public safety. The police department is coordinating a Thanksgiving food drive with the AP Homeowners Association. We will be contacting you for donations.

Lastly, Mike Sodano of the Asbury Park Arts Council reminded everyone that the APn3 Challenge will be premiering 11 films on November 3rd at the Jersey Shore Arts Center auditorium from 6:30 pm to 8 pm.  Tickets are now available.  Got to the Asbury Park Arts Council website: https://asburyparkartscouncil.org/.

Jordan raffled off a VIP ticket to the event, and the meeting concluded.

APHOA Membership Meeting
August 15, 2024
Asbury Park Public Library

• Dom Latorraca began the meeting by introducing AP Public Library Director Kathleen Melgar and thanking her for the work she and her staff did in providing the large library space for our meeting after regular library hours. Kathleen reminded the audience of the activities and events that the AP Library is providing each month. Be sure to regularly check their website for what is being offered.
• Dom reminded everyone that this year’s Porchfest date is September 28, with a rain date of September 29. A Porchfest representative was scheduled to attend the meeting to sell the new Porchfest t-shirts, but was unable to attend. Please remember that Porchfest is now a separate legal entity from the APHOA, but APHOA members provide much needed volunteer support for the event. Check out the website at apporchfest.org
• An APHOA financial report was provided with information updated a few days prior to the meeting. There are 84 members/households. The web development expenses have been paid. The current checking account balance of $2,901.68 reflects that it was not necessary to use any of the 2023 carryover balance of $2526.40 to meet the initial expense in re-vamping the website. The new website will require a $40/month expense for updating. Anticipated 2024 expenses include the cost for forums for local candidates to city council and school board.
• Guest speaker, Dan Davidow, attended for a discussion of the details surrounding planned improvement of the various boardwalk structures by Madison Marquette. Dan has been hired as a consultant by Madison Marquette and has been tasked with helping them obtain tax credit subsidies for the redevelopment of the Convention Hall complex and interfacing with City government on waterfront issues. He now meets with City officials on a regular monthly basis. Dan took a variety of questions from the audience, and in so doing provided more detail of the requirements necessary for progress in re-developing these boardwalk structures. A combination of tax credits, private financing, and funds from Madison Marquette are needed. Convention Hall has been evaluated by several engineers and the engineering issues involved are significant. So, the initial State grant of $13 million recently received by the City for improvements to the Paramount Theater and Convention Hall cannot help much with these structural issues. Dan acknowledged that the priority of the City working with Madison Marquette is to re-open the Paramount Theater. Dan agreed to come back to a later APHOA meeting with updates as progress continues to put together the financing for what may be a $150 million project.
• City Manager Lillian Nazzaro and Deputy City Manager John Hayes were also part of the speakers panel and willing to respond to any audience questions as well, although most questions were directed to Dan. Eileen Chapman was on the agenda, but a scheduling conflict forced her to miss the meeting.
• This discussion consumed the remaining time for the meeting, so we were not able to hear from Kevin Strickland about the initiatives for local girls’ sports that he started while involved with the AP Little League and is now doing with soccer. We hope to have Kevin speak at our next meeting.

APHOA Membership Meeting
June 22, 2024
Asbury Park High School

• Jordan began the meeting with a preview of the new APHOA website. An overall map of the website was displayed. The website was shown to include: a list of Happy Hours in town; a featured small business; info about the organization: the Neighbors United initiative to provide free home maintenance and repair; a list of non-profits that APHOA supports and connects with; calendars of hyper local events and meetings; and a page with ways to contact the organization.More pictures of homes and selfies from members were requested that will be shown on the website in a rotating fashion.
• City Councilwoman Eileen Chapman gave an update regarding City government. She mentioned that the Environmental Shade Tree Commission just assisted a homeowner with landscape maintenance so that she could avoid a citation.An RFP has been issued for a parking garage. It will be a public/private partnership, and will be located at Main Street and Springwood Avenue with 400-500 parking spaces. IStar will be building a parking garage at Kingsley and 1st Avenues.At the end of September, Madison Marquette will provide design plans for the Paramount Theater. The State grant to Asbury Park of $13 million can be used to improve the structure and façade of the Paramount Theater and Convention Hall. Madison Marquette is seeking two more grants totaling $100 million to build an amphitheater at the Casino building.Also, Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn mentioned that this Wednesday at the City Council meeting there will be a presentation of inclusionary zoning issues and providing 20% of every development as affordable housing.
• Mike Sodano, board president of the AP Arts Council presented an update on arts activities in town. Three galleries are having events tonight. The AP Arts Spot opens next week on the 4th Avenue pavilion on the boardwalk. On July 8, Siren Art performances begin every Thursday in July-August on the 2nd Avenue beach at 6:00 pm.The APin3 Film Challenge will issue guidelines for this year’s films in early August. Last year, there were 30 entries and 300 people attended the Premiere event. Music Mondays begins at Springwood Park on July 1. There is jazz every Tuesday beginning July 2 at Blackbird, 131 Atkins Avenue. Tomorrow at Blackbird there is a fundraiser for the Turf Club from 5-8pm. Tickets are $75.
• Mark Gerbino, Acting Superintendent of AP School District did a presentation that included the following: There was an $8 million shortfall in the budget for next year, as a result, 34 staff positions have been cut; 21% of the budget goes to charter schools; the central office will leave the 4th Avenue building and will relocate to MLK Middle School with a savings of $250,000/year; $1.1 million has been cut from the central administration; the elementary schools will be restructured for the coming year, Thurgood Marshall will house pre-K to 2nd grade and Bradley will house 3rd through 5th grades; the District is looking into leasing its own buses, providing its own program for special needs students, increasing grant funding, using facilities to generate revenue, and bring back CTE programs; and the District is also considering the sale of the maintenance building on 2nd Avenue and the possible relocation of the IT building.
• Dom made a brief presentation regarding APHOA finances. The current checking account balance is $3,213.56, however significant payments for the website re-development are anticipated in the near future.

The meeting concluded with an offer of a tour of the high school for any interested members.

AP HOMEOWNERS MEETING
APRIL 19,2024
ASBURY PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY

Board (Attending): Jordan Modell, Fred Dupont, Dominic Latorraca
Invited Guests: Amy Quinn, Lillian Nazzaro, Gene Dello

• • Jordan Modell – The board has Mail Chimp for emails. Jordan and Dom are learning the software so that more informational e-mails can be sent.
  • Dom Latorraca – The officers met and hired Dan Baum to revamp the website and streamline the back- end processes. Also, Dom passed out a record of the current finances. Currently, much of the roll-over funds from last year will be used to fund the work on the website.
  • New Initiative – Thanks to Laurie Balbo who brainstormed possible projects, including this one. Tentatively named “ Neighbor Helping Neighbor”, members will provide free, simple home repair and maintenance projects to homeowners and non-profits. In some cases, homeowners may barter services or donate to the APHOA. We will be looking for volunteers and for those who need assistance.
  • The new City Manager, Lillian Nazzaro, appeared by Zoom. She introduced herself and gave everyone information on her background and experience.
  • Gene Dello from the City’s police force discussed the bike and dog enforcement processes on the boardwalk that will be in place from 5/16/24 to 9/14/24. He also:
    • Encouraged people to get their dogs licensed and update their rabies shots;
    • Mentioned that if you have a camera system in your home, register with the City. It can help the police identify anyone involved in criminal activity;
    • Stated that on 5/21/24 six Class 2 Police Officers will graduate from the Police Academy;
    • Announced that AP Police Dept. is the most awarded police department in the State;
    • Offered his personal phone number 732-684-2431;
    • Stated the department currently has 83 FT police officers.
  • Joe Grillo announced that a fundraiser is being held on 5/7/24 at Fantasia Restaurant on Cookman Avenue for the AP Police Union. The cost is $25.00.
  • Dom Latorraca announced that the Asbury Arts Council is one of the non-profits that APHOA is connecting with this year. Members will be asked to volunteer with the APin3 Film Challenge event. Two of the winning films from last year’s APin3 event were shown to the members.
  • Amy Quinn gave an update on actions and activities by the City that included:
    • 8-10 Concerts will be held at Springwood Park this Summer;
    • Blackbird Event Center is having a concert series as well;
    • The City has received $20 million from the State for boardwalk improvements, i.e., bathrooms, railings, Paramount Theater, and Convention Hall;
    • Construction of the new firehouse has begun;
    • A new UEZ Director has been hired;
    • City passed an ordinance allowing Ancillary Dwelling Units;
    • New murals have been painted on the sewage treatment plant;
    • A lot of business owners downtown say they are having a harder time this year than during the pandemic;
    • City did a new request for proposals for a new scooter company;
    • The City is evaluating each new construction project on its own merits, and is requiring 20% of each project be affordable housing. If so, the City considers offering a PILOT for the project;
    • None of the PILOT projects at the waterfront or elsewhere contribute to the school budget;
    • City will be putting out a request for proposals for the parking deck construction on Main. It is anticipated that it will be a public-private partnership.
    • Questions from the members included why Madison Marquette is not making necessary improvements to the Paramount Theater and Convention Hall. Amy explained the City cannot legally force Madison Marquette to make the improvements under the terms of the 2002 redevelopment agreement. The City’s recourse would be eminent domain that would be a lengthy and costly legal process if the properties continue to be neglected. Madison Marquette is currently seeking grants for improvements and additional construction.
  • Joe Grillo, Wendi Glassman, Tracy Rodgers, Kenneth Saunders, and Shadab Maghsood presented information on behalf of the AP School Board (board members Jessie Ricks and Barbara Lesinski were in attendance) that included:
    • It was noted by Jordan that the AP School District has the lowest test scores in the State and seems to have more square footage per pupil than a District such as Ocean Township:
    • The goals of the School Board are to give a quality education to the children, be fiscally responsible, and provide transparency;
    • The sale of the school maintenance building on 2nd Avenue is anticipated. It has been valued at $3.2 million and those funds could be directed toward student learning;
    • The administrative offices on 4th Avenue will be vacated and administrators placed in school buildings at a savings of $250,000 per year;
    • The physical footprint of the school district will continue to be reduced. The School District has an IT building which serves other entities as well, and the legal viability of saving money there is being evaluated;
    • The current State school funding formula is flawed. With regard to Asbury Park, the formula includes the incomes of residents in PILOT areas that do not pay school taxes, when the formula determines how much Asbury Park residents should pay toward their school district;
    • Asbury Park residents pay for their students to attend Charter schools. There was a discussion of the loss of students to the Charter schools that included the limits on a School District to market to parents compared to what Charter school can do, and a member noted that the teacher’s union leadership presents negative messages about the school district at times;
    • Members were urged to attend school board meetings at Bradley Elementary School. Meetings begin at 6pm. The next scheduled meeting is April 25;
    • It was noted that more students in the district schools will bring more State funding.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:00 pm.