Politics & Government

Private Marina May Become a Public Park

Monmouth Conservation Foundation moving forward with a plan that could protect the valuable River Plaza riverfront from development.

There is progress in the effort to transform a privately-owned marina at River Plaza in Middletown into a passive recreational riverfront park, open to the public for potential uses such as picnics, canoe and kayaking, and launching small outboard motor boats.  

The Monmouth Conservation Foundation, a non-profit land trust that recently moved headquarters to Sunnyside Park in Middletown, is meeting with several public and private funding partners over the next two weeks to formalize agreements that have been verbally discussed for eight years, said Executive Director Bill Kastning on Thursday. 

Once the funding solution is in place, a major site clean-up will be performed before the parcel, dubbed "Chris' Landing" could be sold to an interested party in 2015. The MCF would hold the conservation easement, which would enable it to protect the scenic riverfront property and wildlife habitats. 

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Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger said he was "pleasantly surprised" to learn that the Foundation was moving ahead with the acquisition plan. "It's a great thing for the township that it will remain a marina, in perpetuity," he said at a May 6 Township Committee meeting. 

The mostly undeveloped 12-ace boat launch off Front Street is one of the last privately-owned sites that provides boater access to the brackish Swimming River and Navesink River flowing beneath the low-clearance Hubbard Bridge, between Middletown to Red Bank. 

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Hunter Tramitz, who runs the bait shop and launch at the waterfront, said his family is currently rebuilding their marina after Superstorm Sandy. He said he is more concerned right now with getting the NJDEP out to dredge the river of Sandy debris, and wasn't informed of the MCF's success at lining up private investors to foot the bill for a site clean-up. 

"If they're interested in it, maybe we'll work something out," Tramitg said of the potential deal, which would not include the family's deli. 

The plans for acquisition were in the doldroms in recent years because investors were scared off by sky-high real estate values and the unknown expense of cleaning up the site, said Kastning. The investigation so far has revealed contamination from underground oil tanks (since pulled out the ground), oil-baed roadway millings on the property, and the detection of some PCBs and insecticides, said Kastning.

"It probably protected it from being acquired by someone else for development," he said. 

Monmouth Conservation acts as an agent in deals like this one, and dozens around the county, Kastning said. While he said he could not divulge the name the potential purchaser, Kastning said the Foundation is working with partners like NJ/NY Baykeeper, Monmouth County Parks System, the Township of Middletown to purchase the property. 

"It's a very nice spot to preserve because there are so few like it," said Kastning.


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