Negotiations are continuing on demolishing Highbank Apartments
SOMERS POINT — City Council met in executive session Jan. 23, when solicitor Thomas Smith updated the governing body on litigation involving a proposed billboard at Somers Point Diner.
City Council took no action.
Reached after the meeting, Smith said the parties are hoping to reach a settlement agreement as they await a decision by the appellate court.
Judge Dean Marcolongo dismissed the complaint Sept. 30, 2024, but the complainant submitted a notice of appeal Oct. 3, 2024.
The lawsuit involves Garden State Outdoor, which filed a complaint against the Somers Point Zoning Board for denying an application to erect a 45-foot-tall billboard between Somers Point Diner and DiOrio’s Circle Cafe near the four-way intersection of MacArthur Boulevard, Shore Road, Route 52 and Somers Point-Mays Landing Road.
Garden State Outdoor LLC accuses the Zoning Board of wrongly denying a use variance and other relief sought to allow the digital billboard
The suit states Garden State has a lease to erect the billboard at 8 MacArthur Blvd., site of the diner owned by the Exadaktilos family.
Garden State applied to the Zoning Board on Oct. 25, 2022. The application requested a use variance, height variance and bulk variance relief.
The complaint also alleges the city has an “unconstitutional ban” on billboards, stating the city cannot limit content. The suit states the billboard would be for all forms of content and not solely commercial and that Somers Point’s zoning ordinance limits advertising to the business or use on the property. It claims content-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.
Somers Point argues that a secondary business on the property is barred by municipal ordinance and that the city’s sign ordinance is not content-based discrimination because it is narrowly tailored so as not to be so.
In addition, the city argues digital billboards of the size requested are “an intrusive invasion upon the landscape” as well as its “promotion of a desirable visual environment and retention of the character of the community.”
Highbank Apartments
Smith also discussed the status of potential development negotiations with the contract purchasers of the bayfront property 90 Broadway, location of the Highbank Apartments.
A developer is hoping to demolish 17 rental units in three buildings to make way for 24 townhouses fronting Great Egg Harbor Bay.
Attorney Keith Davis, representing the prospective purchasers, addressed City Council on Sept. 12, 2024, proposing a redevelopment agreement that would create amenable zoning for the project.
The property, west of John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, contains three homes and an apartment building.
Davis called it “attractive real estate,” characterizing the current structures as “somewhat old and out of character of the development pattern.”
“The 24 luxury townhome units will be a better fit for the city,” he said.
“We would like to move forward in working with your professionals with a redevelopment plan to facilitate this project,” Davis said. “We are asking for adoption of a redevelop agreement to allow for favorable zoning.”
Residents of a bayfront apartment complex are scrambling to find housing while working to determine whether the eviction notices they received are legal and enforceable.
Those living in the 17-unit Highbank Apartments at 90 Broadway, received a letter dated Sept. 6 from property owner John Folz titled “Notice of Tenancy Termination.”
“As you are aware, the property has been on the market for some time. This being said, the time has come, and the property is being sold. This letter serves as notice that the property is being sold and your tenancy for the premises located 90 Broadway … will terminate December 31, 2024. To help ease the burden of relocating, we will not be charging rent for November and December.”
On Sept. 12, a developer hoping to demolish the four buildings to make way for 24 townhouses, presented the plan to City Council, asking for a redevelopment agreement that would provide favorable zoning.
One sticking point is that people live there.
Owner John Folz, president of Point Property Holdings LLC, which bought the property for $1.6 million from local real estate agent Alex Kazmarck in 2021, said having the tenants gone is a condition of the sale of the land. The property was listed for $3.2 million in September 2023.
Folz sent tenants a letter dated Sept. 6, less than a week before the plan was proposed to City Council, informing them that had to vacate by Dec. 31, 2024.
“I bought the property with the intention of developing it,” Folz said at the time, adding all of the tenants had month-to-month leases when he purchased it. “I never told anyone I planned to fix it up and be a landlord forever.”
Levi Fox, a city activist and resident of the complex, led a drive against eviction, calling into question the legality of forcing people out on short notice.
In fact, Fox said Jan. 23, nine families still live there.
Fox said four of the families received offers to stay through May 31 but the others did not.
“I believe that council exists to protect citizens like Bob and Allison and Lisa, who lives in the same building and is a crossing guard,” he said. “I urge council to consider the plight of our neediest citizens. Please don’t enter into any deals that make us easier to evict.”
Following the closed session, City Council voted to enter into an escrow agreement with principals John Wolfington and Dan Metzler.
Smith said the agreement allows the city’s professionals to investigate the project and puts the potential developer on the hook for the bill.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff