{"id":5142,"date":"2018-04-19T12:40:14","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T16:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=5142"},"modified":"2018-04-19T12:40:14","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T16:40:14","slug":"rebuilding-plan-would-allow-70-homeowners-to-return-to-island-community-destroyed-in-sandy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2018\/04\/rebuilding-plan-would-allow-70-homeowners-to-return-to-island-community-destroyed-in-sandy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebuilding Plan Would Allow 70 Homeowners to Return to Island Community Destroyed in Sandy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A rendering of proposed homes for the rebuilt Camp Osborn neighborhood. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

They finally figured it out.<\/p>\n

When 70 homeowners lost their houses \u2013 some seasonal, and some year-round residents who are still displaced after almost six years \u2013 it was a struggle to find out how to accommodate all of Camp Osborn\u2019s residents under modern building codes that prevent bungalow communities from being constructed as they were in the 1950s. But a new plan gives every resident a fighting chance of returning to the hallowed ground they once called home, with the help of a new Brick Township ordinance that confers a special zoning overlay on top of the plot of land that once made up the bulk of the Camp in order to accommodate and out-of-the-box plan for an out-of-the-box community that has been a part of the fabric of Brick for the last century.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years, the association was going down the wrong road of trying to get with single-family homes,\u201d said Dan Redmond, one of the community leaders of Camp Osborn. \u201cThe town felt it wasn\u2019t the density that was the problem, but the intensity. Instead of 67 individual buildings, we\u2019ll now have half that with ten feet between the houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camp Osborn was made up of three separate plots of land. One, the southernmost portion, was owned by a Bob Osborn, now deceased, whose family has sold it to a developer proposing seven large homes. The proposal \u2013 far less than the 30 small homes that once stood there \u2013 is being fought by a single homeowner on a neighboring street who has hired attorneys to oppose the reconstruction. Previously, Osborn operated the property under a land-lease arrangement. He owned the land, which was rented by homeowners who built houses there.<\/p>\n

But the latest proposal covers the largest portion of the community, which is under the jurisdiction of the\u00a0Osborn Sea-Bay Condo Association. In this portion, homeowners owned both the land and homes \u2013 but there weren\u2019t traditional lot lines and the footprints of the former houses that stood there would not hold up to current zoning or fire codes.<\/p>\n

Indeed, a fire sparked by a power line malfunction and fed by a natural gas leak destroyed the entire property during Sandy.<\/p>\n

The latest proposal calls for 32 buildings \u2013 several duplex-style homes and a few single-familt residences \u2013 that will accommodate all of the former homeowners. Most want to come back, but some will likely sell their interest in the property, said Redmond.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody who wants to come back will be able to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The project has yet to be presented to the planning board, and it is unknown whether the seemingly-disgruntled homeowner from Lyndhurst Drive opposing the rebuilding of the smaller portion will, likewise, oppose plans to rebuild the rest of the property.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The former Camp Osborn site, Brick, N.J., Feb. 2018. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Recently, the township passed a revision of its zoning code, creating a new version of what was once known as the Beach Cottage Community Zone overlay. Most of Brick\u2019s barrier island portion is located in the R7.5 zone, which requires 7,500 square foot lots \u2013 far larger than most island lots, and exponentially larger than the former Camp Osborn properties.<\/p>\n

Under the new ordinance, a special \u201coverlay\u201d on top of the R7.5 zone allows special construction regulations in the Camp in order to accommodate its unique scenario.<\/p>\n

Nick Honachefsky, nationally known as a writer for a popular fishing magazine and host of a fishing television program, was a year-round resident of Camp Osborn and has been sleeping on friends\u2019 couches and renting homes for years, all while paying a mortgage and taxes on a property he could not access or rebuild.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I enjoyed the summers, I also enjoyed December and January,\u201d Honachefsky told Brick council members at a recent meeting. \u201cIt was my home. People lost important things, but I happened to lose everything in my life. What would you do if you lost everything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first five or so years, I was living in hotels,\u201d he said, continuing his story. \u201cI\u2019ve been staying on friends\u2019 couches, at least until they kicked me out. Some nights I slept in my truck at the inlet. Nobody would even let me put a trailer on there, even for three months. When you guys consider this proposal, this is the first step for me feeling like I\u2019m getting back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis took too long,\u201d said Councilman Jim Fozman. \u201cIt should\u2019ve been done sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now, it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like to be out of your house for five years, whether it\u2019s a summer cottage or, even worse, your year-round residence,\u201d said Mayor John Ducey. \u201cWe had to have rooms for streets, room for parking, and enough space so we don\u2019t have the same thing happen as is in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

There also needed to be turnarounds for fire trucks, ambulances and school buses, he said.<\/p>\n

The new ordinance fits all of those safety features alongside rebuilt homes, allowing an empty, overgrown lot to be turned into the seaside community it was always meant to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cReporters have asked me, \u2018where are you?\u2019 And now I can tell them I\u2019m at step one,\u201d Honachefsky said.<\/p>\n

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They finally figured it out. When 70 homeowners lost their houses \u2013 some seasonal, and some year-round residents who are still displaced after almost six years \u2013 it was a struggle to find out how to accommodate all of Camp Osborn\u2019s residents under modern building codes that prevent bungalow communities from being constructed as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[18,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-superstorm-sandy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_0592.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-1kW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}