Hotel Icona gets preliminary approval To move bulkhead, add sixth floor By JACK FICHTER VILLAS- Lower Township Planning Board granted preliminary site plan approval Jan. 22 to Eustace Mita and Achristavest LLC to move its beach bulkhead 200 feet closer to the ocean and add a sixth story to Hotel Icona, 9600 Atlantic Ave, Diamond Beach. Achristavest will need additional approvals from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to move the bulkhead. If it receives such approvals, Achristavest will return to the planning board to apply for final site plan approval. Mita built the neighboring the Grand at Diamond Beach condominiums and purchased the former Pier 6600 motel and rebuilt it into an upscale hotel. Hotel Icona is the only hotel in New Jersey with a 425 foot private beach. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to construct a 16-foot tall, 150 wide dune from North Jersey south to Cape May to offer storm protection to the coastline. Attorney Frank Corrado, representing Mita and Achristavest, said the hotel would effectively lose use of its beach to provide the amenities it now provides as a first class hotel. Landscape Architect Al Gryga, of CMC Engineering of Kimberton, PA, confirmed Hotel Icona uses its beach from the edge if its parking lot out past the site of the proposed dune. Mita said the proposed dune would go through the location of the hotel’s current bulkhead. “We would lose our beach shack, we would lose our wedding (area), beach bar, it sits right where that 16 foot berm would go,” he said. Mita said it could not place its beach amenities in front of the dune because they would be too close to the ocean nor place them behind the proposed dune because there is not enough room between the existing bulkhead and proposed dune. He said by moving the bulkhead forward, it would force the dune more seaward. “All we’re asking is the opportunity that our land just doesn’t get taken which happens to be a beach without any hearing, any compensation…” Mita said. Gryga said the dune would be 16 feet high on the landward side and 22 feet high on the seaward side and 150 feet wide. He said the Army Corps of Engineers would be excavating the beach for a width of 650 feet. “So what they’re doing is impacting three acres of land directly in front of Icona, excavating that land, developing the beach and they’ll be doing that not only for us but for the Grand and Seapointe Village,” said Gryga. If the hotel moves the bulkhead, the Army Corps of Engineers would accommodate any kind of improvement that would occur on the beach at the time of the construction of the dune, he said. Corrado said Archristavest was fully prepared to go before DEP and seek approval for extending the bulkhead. Mita said he could not approach DEP to move the bulkhead until he had approval from the local planning board. Corrado said they realized getting DEP approval was going to be “a tough row to hoe.” The board granted a variance for an insufficient number of parking spaces, a preexisting condition. The hotel would have 158 spaces while 212 are required by the township. Variances were granted for more signs than are permitted on the front and rear of the hotel and the size of three signs. The board granted dune area site plan review and preliminary site plan approval to add a sixth floor which will add 22 rooms to the hotel and a 693 square foot building to the east of building to relocate the laundry and exercise rooms. Mita said the former Pier 6600 had 120 rooms which Achristavest reduced to 108 suites. Gryga said 25 new parking spaces would be provided for the hotel and nine additional spaces for the restaurant. Attorney Karim Kaspar, representing the Seapointe Village and Grand condominium associations, asked Gryga if the DEP approved the application, would there be a variable bulkhead line in front of Hotel Icona compared to Seapointe Village and the Grand. Gryga said a variable bulkhead line currently existed with dunes at Seapointe Village “projecting way beyond the bulkhead at this point of the Icona.” He said the bulkhead of a hotel to the north of the Grand was further back than the Grand’s bulkhead. “Have you considered the impact of a storm surge on a variable bulkhead line as it would impact the Grand to north or Seapointe to the south?” asked Kaspar. See the Jan. 28 print edition of the Star and Wave for the rest of the story.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 11:21:55 +0000
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