Neighbors to monitor seasonal rentals

BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

OCEAN TOWNSHIP - A neighborhood watch to monitor code enforcement violations may be the next step in the ongoing conflict between residents of the township and seasonal renters.

At last week's Township Council meeting, Mayor William Larkin said township officials are discussing a neighborhood watch program that would help streamline the process for reporting complaints about code enforcement violations from residents.

"The Clean Community Watch Group," said Larkin, "is currently being considered. Like the police watch, we will ask neighbors to e-mail us and call us when there are violations of code enforcement."

Township Manager David Kochel said last week that the program would parallel the neighborhood crime watch program, with each neighborhood having a block captain, who would keep his or her neighbors informed, and who would work with code enforcement officials.

"In this case," said Kochel, "people would be the eyes and ears of the Code Enforcement Office. They will share with us, through channels to be established, concerns about property maintenance, garbage or recycling collection and other code enforcement issues."

Although this program in still in the conceptual stages, and the council only first heard about the idea at its workshop meeting on May 24, Kochel said that he was given the go ahead to sit down with the department heads and refine the proposal.

"We'll have to refine the process," he said, "set up a voice mail and e-mail system, conduct outreach to the neighborhoods."

Kochel said that he hopes to have the program in place in three months, which would mean it would be ready for the next school year at Monmouth University located in neighboring West Long Branch.

Tensions continue between the permanent residents of the township and the seasonal renters, who are often students at Monmouth University.

Residents have been complaining to the Community Relations Task Force since it was established in 1996 about problems related to university students living off campus in neighborhoods that consist predominantly of single-family homes.

While residents have claimed that students are acting recklessly and bringing alcohol and drugs into their neighborhoods, students have countered that frequent police visits amount to harassment.

Kochel said that complaints registered by residents would be responded to by a code enforcement officer, or a police officer if the complaint is issued outside

of the regular hours of the office.

"The police department is our 24/7 agency," he said, "and we are discussing the coordination between the various offices."

Kochel explained that if a complaint is registered when there is no code enforcement official on-duty, the police department will respond to the scene and document the violation.

"Let's say it's a rental house [with occupants] throwing a party at 1 a.m. on a Sunday," he said, "and there are cars parked on the lawn, which is a zoning violation, the police would take down license plate numbers, write down the address, and maybe even take digital pictures. They would hand that information into the code enforcement officer on Monday morning, and the code enforcement officer would write the summons."

Kochel said that the first code violation would initiate a warning letter, which would be sent to both the residents and the property owner, if different from one another, such as in a rental unit.

"Everyone whose name is on the lease gets a summons," he said, "as well as the property owner."

Kochel said residents had suggested a volunteer code enforcement officer program, which would allow them to issue summonses to their neighbors.

"That would have created certain challenges," he said, "both in the training and the consistency of the approach. We thought the concept of having people in the neighborhood involved was a sound concept. We just modified how people would be involved. We didn't want to pit neighbor against neighbor."

Kochel said that although there is still a chance of this program causing some neighborhood problems, he thinks the chance of conflict is decreased with the program the township is organizing.

He said that members of the council seemed in favor of the program, and that he is already speaking with department heads about implementing it.

"It's one of the many measures we are taking," said Councilman Christopher Siciliano at the May 24 council meeting, "to help with the situation with seasonal renters."

Larkin said that some of the other steps being taken by the township include a parking ordinance.

"It's just a handful of homes that are a really big problem," he said. "Most of them, we can handle, but a few are really a challenge to us."