News

By Dan Moffett

    Nine of the 144 properties on Point Manalapan have hedges that are 12-feet tall, and town commissioners have decided these homeowners are going to have to do some trimming.
    At their May 26 meeting, commissioners unanimously voted to keep the town’s current 8-foot height restriction on hedges, while allowing some leniency for residents on corner lots to grow their greenery up to 10 feet.
    “Part of the job of the Town Commission is to protect the culture and history of the town of Manalapan,” said Mayor Pro Tem Peter Isaac, who told commissioners to keep in mind what made the Point a desirable place to live when it was developed decades ago.
    Isaac said it was intended to be a community of neighborhoods with open, landscaped lawns — not walls and tunnels of hedges. He said, over the years, residents’ calls for increased privacy had raised hedge limits from 4 feet in 1999, to 6 feet in 2003, to the current 8-foot limit in 2009.
    Commissioner Ronald Barsanti said the town should live by its own rules. “Too many people want special consideration,” he said.
    Commissioners agreed that the town had to do more to restrict hedges that have become safety hazards and grown too far into sidewalks or driveways, obstructing sight lines. They instructed Police Chief Carmen Mattox to survey problem spots throughout the town and report back.
    In other business:
    • The blessing of the National Marine Fisheries Service is all that’s holding up construction on the Audubon Causeway Bridge.
The town needs permit approval from that federal agency before the $1 million replacement project can begin. All other permits are approved, including a go-ahead from the Army Corps of Engineers. Town Manager Linda Stumpf said it typically takes between six months and a year for the NMFS to complete its review process, and June is the year anniversary, so approval could come any day.
Stumpf told commissioners plans are in place to relocate and then replant the trees around the bridge. Isaac said engineers are still looking for cost-cutting measures that may include reinforcing, rather than replacing, the existing side walls. Isaac said he remains hopeful that the project can be completed by year’s end.
    • Commissioners rejected construction variance requests from Kenn Karakul, the homeowner at 1555 S. Ocean Blvd. Karakul’s property sits at the curve on A1A and has a configuration that is more triangular than rectangular.
Karakul told the commission that the unusual shape of the parcel makes it difficult to design an addition to his home without relief from setback requirements. But Mayor David Cheifetz said allowing Karakul to build 11 feet from the ocean, instead of the 25-foot standard, is too close.
    “It would be a very dangerous precedent for us to set to approve these variances,” Cheifetz said. A majority of commissioners agreed. Commissioner Simone Bonutti voted to approve the variances.
    • Homeowners on Curlew Road got an abrupt surprise recently when one of their neighbors across the water on Lands End Road cut down the vegetation to install a retaining wall on a 40-foot strip of land east of the road.
    Commissioners say they will consider adopting an ordinance to protect the natural vegetation along the water from 1545 to 1605 Lands End Road. Larry Robbins, owner of Docks and Seawalls, told the commission that new plants will soon be planted behind the wall his company is building and ultimately will overgrow the opening. Robbins said mangroves grow in the surrounding parcels and are protected, so it’s unlikely a similar surprise will happen again.
    • Stumpf said the survey ballots for natural gas service to Point Manalapan will be opened at a special public meeting beginning at 2 p.m. June 23. At least 60 percent of the respondents must vote yes for the town to move forward with Florida Public Utilities and install gas lines.
    Stumpf said the town’s first budget workshop is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 22, with other sessions tentatively scheduled for July 27 and Aug. 24.