{"id":9184,"date":"2016-08-24T00:22:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T04:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=9184"},"modified":"2016-08-25T11:03:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T15:03:27","slug":"state-to-hold-hearing-on-proposed-traders-cove-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2016\/08\/state-to-hold-hearing-on-proposed-traders-cove-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing Planned on Proposed Traders Cove Restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A proposed bar and restaurant to be built at Traders Cove Marina in Brick, NJ. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The township\u00a0will hold a public hearing next month to gather comments on a proposed outdoor restaurant and bar at Traders Cove Marina and Park. The comments will be sent to state Green Acres officials, a customary process when a new project is planned on public land.<\/p>\n

The proposed restaurant<\/a>, an outdoor dock-and-dine facility overlooking Barnegat Bay, has been approved by township officials. It is slated to be built and operated by Chefs International, which is known for several local restaurants, including Baker\u2019s Water Street Grill in Toms River and the Lobster Shanty and Wharfside restaurants in Point Pleasant Beach. It operates a similar outdoor location at\u00a0a publicly-owned marina in Belmar.<\/p>\n

The project will be the subject of a hearing since funding for the purchase and development of the site included state Green Acres money. Officials have previously said the state Department of Environmental Protection and Green Acres officials had internally signed off on the project.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is favored by township officials as a way to generate revenue from the site, which carries about $15 million in debt from the years of development it took to convert the site from a derelict marina to a park and modern marina facility. Under the agreement with Chefs International, approved in May, the company will pay an annual $75,000 payment to the township.<\/p>\n

The facility will be decked out with native plants, and will also feature a sandy beach area with fire pits where patrons can relax.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have opposed the plan. Save Barnegat Bay said\u00a0in a letter to DEP Commissioner Bob Martin last year that the project \u201cwould violate both [the] spirit in which this park came into being and the regulations governing waterfront development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, the group is opposed to the township issuing a liquor license at the park, arguing that a bar would \u201cput at risk restaurant patrons who may drink to excess and fall into the water, the lives of good Samaritans who may jump in to save those patrons, the restaurant concessionaire who may be held liable, Brick Township who may be held liable, the Green Acres program itself, and the boating public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group also said in the letter that a restaurant at the site is not a \u201cwater-dependent use,\u201d as required under state regulations, and its patrons would take up too many parking spaces at the site, leaving park-goers with\u00a0less access.<\/p>\n

Bob Cooper, president of Chefs International, has previously said the restaurant\u00a0would retain all of the\u00a0public access now featured at the site, including the boardwalk which rings the bayfront.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re going to find that Chefs is a great partner for Bricktown,\u201d said John Jackson, attorney for Chefs International, explaining that the company entered into a similar agreement with Belmar at its municipal marina, which has been praised by both patrons and officials as a positive partnership.<\/p>\n

The hearing will take place Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. at the township municipal complex.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The township\u00a0will hold a public hearing next month to gather comments on a proposed outdoor restaurant and bar at Traders Cove Marina and Park. The comments will be sent to state Green Acres officials, a customary process when a new project is planned on public land. The proposed restaurant, an outdoor dock-and-dine facility overlooking Barnegat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,2174,2385,1047,40],"class_list":["post-9184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-chefs-international","tag-dock-and-dine","tag-restaurant","tag-traders-cove"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/IMG_5336-e1463531067871.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2o8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}