Ordinance Approved
Mayor and Council unanimously approved an amendment to the Rent Control Ordinance which received strong support from residents at 10 Ocean Blvd.
Yet the governing body still failed to name five members to the Rent Control Board which is required under their ordinance. The position has never been filled and no reason given for the vacancy. However Mayor Lori Hohenleitner said a fifth member will be appointed soon.
Under terms of the rent control ordinance, no house, apartment or condominium owner can increase the rent after the first year only to a percentage based on the Consumer Price Index. Residents of 10 Ocean noted they have experienced huge increases in the past far exceeding that percentage and are grateful to the governing body for creating the limit. Residents said they have received “exorbitant raises, ““there’s no end to it,” and the increases have forced people to move from the building and from the borough. That is not good for the town, one resident said, since “people don’t want to live here.”
For some residents, the ordinance will not be effective until next year. Signatures by residents who had to agree to their rent prior to paying their March 1 rent renewal would not be nullified by the code being adopted at this meeting.
In response to resident Mark Fisher pointing out that Air B&Bs appear to be exempt from the code, Hohenleitner said it was “a good question” and deferred to attorney Marguerite Schaffer to respond., The attorney said controlling those rentals would not be appropriate in this ordinance, however, the governing body could create another ordinance to regular B&Bs.
Concerning naming a fifth member to the board, Hohenleitner said council is looking for a resident who is neither a landlord nor tenant to fill the vacancy, as required by the code.
In other business, Council appointed Ronald Ziolkowski to the Public Works Department, authorized an application to New Jersey Transit to permit a bus shelter on First Avenue, appointed Benjamin Schmoll as an alternate on the Shade tree Commission and approved an agreement with St. Agnes Church for use of the Hesse Parish Center for a number of municipal activities through the year, in additional to approving a partnership with Monmouth County Parks to jointly make an offer to the Diocese of Trenton to purchase that property together with St. Agnes School.
