The Aurora Hotel. Bob Bowné photo in 2014. Now it has been turned into 4 condominiums. It could have been refurbished for its historic value. The creepy Neptune crowd let this happen with the help of the Greedy Grover Society.   Blogfinger.net

 

 

September 22, 2021.

David H. Fox:

"People have higher expectations for hotels today than in the 19th century. A bathroom down the hall or even shared is off-putting. Elevators are always nice. I once stayed in a hotel where the ceiling was the underside of the floorboards upstairs. Every movement thundered into my room. This hotel has since been heavily renovated.

"This summer, I stayed at the Shawmont and was very pleased with the rebuilding carried out in the decade or so since my previous visit. Fire resistant room doors had been installed and the bathrooms completely renewed. Fire detectors and sprinklers were everywhere and gave a reassuring presence. However, the steep original stairs still remained.

"I found hotel rooms to be very short supply and could not stay as often as I had desired.

Converting a hotel to a condo actually reduces parking needs as condos tend to be far larger than hotel rooms. Of course, single family houses would use even fewer spaces. Condos are year-round things whereas hotels have to make their money in only two or three months. One can appreciate the economic challenges."

 

Here is a quote from the Neptune Township Master Plan:

"The decline of the hotels and rooming houses that previously provided summer lodging gave rise to conversion to multi-family residential uses or provided additional rooming and boarding uses for the indigent. These changes had deleterious effects on Ocean Grove."

"Ordinance changes prohibiting similar conversions of hotels  to multi-family use have resulted in limited additional deterioration and facilitated a renaissance of investment for single family housing*, bed and breakfasts and historic hotels. These types of uses, in conjunction with and as shaped by the unique lay-out and civic design of Ocean Grove are more appropriate to the scale and character of the district and provide an appropriate type of growth and evolution that preserves the character and fabric of Ocean Grove."

"Through these efforts the Township has demonstrated a strong commitment to the protection of all properties designated as having architectural and historic significance."

 

Blogfinger:  The last sentence above by Neptune is a lie.  Just witness what happened to the Aurora.

David Fox would like to see old hotels be refurbished, not only for historic reasons, but because he thinks we need more hotel rooms. That is a solid conclusion if such a conversion is truly historic and especially if parking can be provided. which is highly unlikely.  And it is economically unsound.

But creating new hotels, as proposed for the North End, is just wrong and shouldn't have been allowed.  Someone should erect large signs at the North End with quotes from the Master Plan.

The conversion of an old hotel to condos is forbidden, but a condo developer who can twist some arms at the Mother Ship can be given special permission   (ie a variance) by the Board of Adjustment  (ie The Board of Special Influence)  even if the conversion comes with no off- street parking.  Over the recent years, there have been many such inappropriate condo conversions, but read above where the Master Plan says that such conversions are deleterious.

Blogfinger was at the meeting where the Aurora developers' lawyer was rude and dismissive of what's best for the town, and his reward was permission to ruin "the most important authentic historic structures in town and in America." *

 

*Quote from the late OG historian Ted Bell regarding the Aurora.

 

HARRY NILSSON :  "Remember"