Toms River Terminates Controversial Downtown Development Agreement

TOMS RIVER, NJ ? Toms River has terminated an agreement on the controversial downtown redevelopment project that would have brought a six-story apartment building to the area, Mayor Daniel Rodrick announced Wednesday.

Capodagli Properties, the developer of the project at the former Red Carpet Inn site, missed multiple deadlines for permits and financial guarantees, Rodrick said in announcing the agreement termination. He said the property will revert back to the township's ownership in 60 days under a clause in the contract.

A spokesman for Capodagli Properties had said a statement was coming, but as of 5 p.m. nothing had been received.

Rodrick's announcement comes as work is underway at the site to upgrade and reinforce bulkheading along the Toms River. The work, which is being done by Extreme Marine Construction of Brick Township, began in late July.

The proposed project faced significant opposition from residents, particularly those in the downtown area, going back to 2021 when the township council approved the redevelopment plan. The approval of the Meridia Toms River 40 project, initially proposed as two 10-story towers above retail space, prompted complaints and demands from residents that town officials revisit the plans.

The criticisms ranged from the visual impact of 10-story towers downtown to the potential effect on school populations and to a decision to approve a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, where the developer would have paid the township a set amount each year, increasing with the rising occupancy of the building. PILOT agreements are regularly criticized as not capturing the full property tax value of a project and redistributing the burden to other taxpayers.

The complaints met with resistance from town officials including then-Mayor Maurice Hill and some council members who supported the project, and the development became a focal point of the Republican primary in the spring of 2023.

Though the 10-story towers were reduced to a single six-story building with retail, which Hill unveiled during the Republican mayoral debate in May 2023, voters rejected Hill in the primary in favor of Rodrick, who promised to dismantle the project.

The township council approved the revision in July 2023, over the objections of Rodrick and Councilman Justin Lamb, who had pushed Hill to halt the project saying Capodagli had missed deadlines to obtain permits and financing. The Toms River Planning Board approved the revision in October.

Rodrick's statement Wednesday announcing the termination did not specify what permits were missing. The project had received a Coastal Area Facilities Review Act permit in January 2023, and on May 28, 2024, the developer submitted a proposal to modify the CAFRA permit to reflect the change from 10 stories to six, said Caryn Shinske, a spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The reduced building height "requires a transfer of vertical building loads to support the new floor perimeter, resulting in a net increase of the building footprint by a total of 45.37 square feet. No other changes to the building or number of units and parking spaces are proposed," Shinske said. The proposed modification is under review by the NJDEP, she said.

The bulkhead work that is underway is covered by a separate process, Shinske said, and because it is replacing an existing bulkhead may have been "subject to a Zane exemption and, therefore, not require a permit."

The project also received a conditional approval from the Ocean County Planning Board on June 19. Among the conditions is a requirement for Capodagli to evaluate and identify traffic impacts and construct improvements needed to accommodate the traffic, "since the Toms River Township Downtown Redevelopment Build Grant has been terminated," according to the minutes of the hearing.

The $5.66 million federal BUILD grant (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development), titled the Toms River Downtown Loop Road, was awarded to Toms River in December 2018.

According to the federal Department of Transportation, the project was to create a counter-clockwise loop road as an alternate route to and from the Garden State Parkway that would remove the backup of eastbound traffic on Water Street.

"The project consists of elevating a major roadway so that it can be used as an evacuation route during flood events, reconstruction and transition to Complete Streets of a few streets, and upgrading traffic signals," according to the Federal Transit Administration's list of awarded projects.

Toms River had to provide $1.5 million as its share of the cost of the project, which was to "allow for the improvement and reconstruction of several roadways near exit 81 off the Garden State Parkway to create easier access to the township?s waterfront business district. The project also includes adding or improving approximately eight traffic signals in the project area," a news release said.

Rodrick on Wednesday night said he canceled the BUILD grant because the road improvements were designed only to allow for the Meridia project.

A New Jersey Turnpike Authority project to reconfigure the Garden State Parkway and add auxiliary lanes to ease travel in the area of Exits 80 to 83 would have tied into the BUILD grant road project. However, the termination of the BUILD grant is not an issue because the Parkway project is still in the preliminary stages, said Thomas Feeney, a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority.

Note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Capodagli. Patch regrets the error.