Report: Seaside Park Land Use Board approves boardwalk plans

The Seaside Park Land Use Board gave the green light last night for Funtown Pier Associates, the entity that owns the beachfront land between Porter and Stockton avenues, to rebuild its stretch of boardwalk that was destroyed by the massive September 2013 fire. 

After reviewing the proposed design, the board not only approved the application but also issued a resolution of decision, allowing Funtown Pier Associates to immediately submit plans to the borough’s construction office, according to a report on APP.com. 

But there’s still uncertainty, namely how quickly crews can complete the project and how the boardwalk will ultimately look, the report said.

DJ D’Onofrio, project manager for Funtown Pier Associates, told the newspaper that the construction is “about 30 days of work,” so he’s eying a Memorial Day deadline. But if that’s not possible, he said it would be completed by the Fourth of July, the report said. 

In a NewsWorks report from earlier this month, D’Onofrio, who compared the pedestrian traffic flow of the boardwalk to a highway, said the proposed design would afford leaseholders the same frontage as previously, but “they’ll just be on the edge of the highway instead of the middle.”

“I truly believe it creates more value for these property owners by allowing people to freely flow between the two towns,” he said. 

But at the meeting Tuesday night, Bob Budesa, an attorney representing two leaseholders in the “middle portion” of that private stretch of boardwalk, expressed that his clients have the right to rebuild back in their previous footprints, the APP.com report said. He said they’ll continue talking with the property owner.