Toms River Council One Step Closer To Buying Surf Club

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River is a step closer to completing a deal with the state for the joint purchase of the Joey Harrison's Surf Club property in Ortley Beach, after introducing an ordinance Tuesday night to sell township property to Ocean County for $1.88 million.

The $1.88 million will fund its portion of the purchase price of the surf club property, along with improvements to the property, township officials said. The second reading of the ordinance and anticipated approval is scheduled for the Feb. 9 council meeting.

The council also approved a resolution supporting the state Department of Environmental Protection's use of the Blue Acres Buyout Program to help purchase the property.

The two measures are part of a preliminary agreement for the township and the NJDEP to buy the property. The state would pay about 90 percent of the purchase price through the Blue Acres program, and Toms River would pay the remaining 10 percent.

The agreed-upon purchase price has not yet been disclosed, but was reached after the Ortley Beach Voters and Taxpayers Association paid $10,000 for a mediator to help negotiate an agreement between the town and NJDEP and the Barcellona family, which owns the property.

The Barcellona family sought $8.3 million for the surf club property, and the state was offering $6.6 million in Blue Acres funds, the Asbury Park Press reported in January 2020.

The purchase of Joey Harrison's Surf Club has been years in the making. The club was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 and has sat vacant. The club's owner, Joseph Barcellona Jr., initially planned to rebuild, but later abandoned that plan in favor of selling the property, at Route 35 North and Seventh Avenue.

The Ortley Beach group has been advocating for the town's purchase of the property since at least 2015, to preserve open space and create more public beachfront.

"The surf club is one of the few oceanfront properties in the state available for acquisition," Councilwoman Maria Maruca said Tuesday night. Maruca, who lives in and represents Ward 1, which encompasses Toms River's barrier island sections, said the town owns the beachfront properties on either side of the surf club, so the surf club property purchase will allow the town to connect its boardwalk in one continuous stretch.

"It will benefit residents all over Toms River," she said, with the expanded beachfront drawing more tourists and beachgoers. "It will enhance Ortley Beach and make it a premier Shore community."

"This property will preserve open space and provide increased public access for all of our residents to enjoy," Mayor Maurice Hill said. He thanked the NJDEP and the Ocean County Board of Commissioners, which agreed to buy the properties near Cattus Island County Park and Ocean County College, after initially declining to join in the purchase of the surf club property.

"The proposed purchase would not have been possible without the assistance of the Ocean County Commissioners and I want to thank them for their hard work in helping to make this happen," Hill said.

The votes on the ordinance introduction and the resolution were 6-1, with Councilman Dan Rodrick voting no. Rodrick has been vocal in his objections to the purchase, and repeated those objections Tuesday night, claiming the town and the NJDEP are overpaying for the property.

The surf club property is assessed at just over $1.9 million, but the assessment isn't the number the state Blue Acres program uses for calculating how much it will pay for a property.

According to the NJDEP, the state hires an independent appraiser to conduct a property appraisal.

"If the property owner owned their property prior to Superstorm Sandy, the appraisal will be based on the value of the property before Sandy," the NJDEP said in its frequently asked questions about the Blue Acres program. "This appraisal, which will be shared with the property owner, is the basis for the amount offered for the home."

Rodrick has repeatedly criticized the idea of paying the state's appraised value for the property, in spite of it being the state's decision. He has repeatedly cited $8 million as the purchase price, though it appears the sale price is closer to $7 million.

"I can’t support selling property to enable overpaying for the surf club," he said. "I certainly don’t believe the taxpayer should be paying four times what it’s worth in the free market."

"You don't base a purchase on the tax assessment," Councilwoman Laurie Huryk said; similar to when someone buys a home. The market value for the home and the assessment are unrelated. "It's really being misrepresented," she said.

Part of the reason the Blue Acres program exists is to turn properties occupied by structures that have been repeated or severely damaged by flooding and storms into open space, because of the costs to the federal government from damage to those properties. The Blue Acres program was funded in part with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds and funds from the federal Community Block Development program, according to the NJDEP.

It has primarily been used with willing homeowners; the surf club purchase is a rare involvement with a commercial property.

Huryk said only part of the $1.88 million from the county's purchase of township land is covering the township's percentage of the purchase of the surf club. The rest is going toward the improvements, including extending the boardwalk.

"We are required to commit a percentage (of the purchase price) when we accept the Blue Acres funding," Huryk said.

"This has been a long process but we could not be prouder that an agreement appears to be in sight," said Anthony Colluci, president of the Ortley Beach Voters and Taxpayer Association. "This pristine piece of property will be enjoyed by all the residents of Toms River and Ortley Beach for decades to come."

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or download our app to have breaking news alerts sent right to your phone. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Toms River Patch on Facebook.