Government

Seaside Park Envisions New Well, Parking and Solar Canopies at Former Motel Site

by
Daniel Nee
May 29, 2024

The Desert Palm Inn, March 21, 2024. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Seaside Park officials are continuing to discuss plans for new uses of the Desert Palm Inn motel property, which was condemned by the borough and remains in litigation – largely over procedural matters – between the town and its former owner.

The motel is located along Ocean Avenue between Lafayette Avenue and O Street.

The borough council, at its last meeting, discussed a number of public uses for the site, which is now owned by the municipality despite the litigation, which has continued ever since the taking. A municipality takes legal possession of a condemned parcel at the time it adopts an ordinance codifying the acquisition. The Desert Palm Inn had been owned by Shree Jyoti LLC, a company owned by Ramesh Kania, a physician based in Livingston who previously pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving kickbacks in a Medicare fraud scheme.

The borough plans on demolishing the motel, which its engineers said was in deteriorating condition that posed safety hazards, and generated an abnormally high number of police and medical responses to incidents there. The condemnation was executed in early 2023 following hearings before the planning and enabling ordinances, and the borough plans to demolish the structure and utilize the space for potentially numerous public purposes.

“We were within a day of actually doing the demolition and awarding the contract, but they are extremely busy and reserved the opportunity to come back,” said Mayor John Peterson.

In the interim, the former owner decided to appeal a lower court decision on the taking to the state Superior Court’s appellate division, where a judge issued a temporary stay on the demolition. Peterson, a former Superior Court judge, said the litigation has strayed from the condemnation itself and is now centered on procedural issues.

The Desert Palm Motel, Seaside Park, N.J., Feb. 2023. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The former Desert Palm Motel, Seaside Park, N.J., May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

“It’s disappointing that nothing has happened, because the issue that was appealed by the owner was a procedural one which had nothing to do with the condemnation,” said Peterson. “In a nutshell, whenever a public entity condemns property, it’s for public purposes. That was the nature of the resolution the town adopted at the time.”

The law does not require the borough to specify those uses, Peterson held, however the borough has done so anyway.

“All you do is adopt an ordinance saying, ‘here’s the public purposes,'” he said. ” It doesn’t change the condemnation, it doesn’t change ownership, and it’s really just a procedural issue that is an unnecessary obstacle.”

The Site’s Future

The future uses of the site may be numerous, officials said. A portion of the site’s property will likely be used to drill a new well for drinking water which will tap into the underground aquifer.

“It would be very similar to the other two wells,” said Councilman Marty Wilk. “It would be 25-by-25 feet.”

One of the borough’s wells needs to be replaced, and it must be drilled in an area that has not yet been used for that purpose previously. The advantage of using the Desert Palm site to house a well means the borough will not have to purchase or condemn land – potentially homes – elsewhere in town.

“We would have had to buy up three or four homes in Seaside Park to get the same thing,” said Wilk. “It has to be a certain distance away from our existing wells, and that area has not been tapped for wells before.”

In such a scenario, it is likely the property would be subdivided in order to separate the well site from other uses.

Those uses may include a dual-purpose parking lot and solar array, Peterson said, as the borough seeks to expand its parking as both Seaside Park and neighboring Seaside Heights become more crowded thanks to a number of major redevelopment projects that are underway. A potential plan could utilize the property for a parking lot with canopies built over the spaces to produce clean energy. The lot would also include electric vehicle charging stations.

The former Desert Palm Motel, Seaside Park, N.J., May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

The Desert Palm Inn, March 21, 2024. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Seaside Park has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the state that would fund a green energy and parking program in town. Though there are no plans solidified since a site has not yet been chosen, the project would consist of as many spaces as could be supported with the solar canopies. A similar parking canopy concept was erected at Brick Township High School in 2022.

“There are a number of public purposes, and parking in and of itself is needed,” said Peterson. “You see the development around us, and the pressure is now on us to accommodate more parking.”

The Park Central apartment complex, which itself was demolished after coming under borough ownership, was rejected by the state for the parking initiative due to its elevation and concerns over flooding. If the grant is to be utilized, officials said, either the Desert Palm site or another borough-owned lot on N Street would be the candidates on where the build the facility.

Seaside Park is also planning a multi-million dollar reconstruction of its current municipal parking lots, which Shorebeat is planning to report in a separate story.