What Does This Vote Mean for You and Seacrest Beach Club
Dear Members,
I am writing you today to help you understand what the upcoming vote means for you and the Seacrest Beach Club.
We offer this information to help inform you about the two zones that currently exist within our community the R-B-3 and GB or General Business zone. In the attached picture of the Toms River zoning map, you will see the red outline of the perimeter of the Seacrest Beach Club. Within that red outline there is the R-B-3 zone which is residential and the GB or General Business Zone which is mixed use business and residential.
PDF’s of each zones permitted uses in Seacrest per Toms River are on our website. We recommend you take the time to look at them closely.
The R-B-3 zone (348-10.15.3) is a residential building zone only, Toms River adopted all or most of the beach communities building restrictions several years ago in this zone, limiting building heights to 28 feet and same setbacks and lot coverages. These rules are what Seacrest has imposed for many years.
The GB or General Business Zone (348-10.29) which runs along the section of Route 35 North through Seacrest includes all the houses on the east side of Route 35 North as well as all the houses on the west side. These houses are marked with a small X. The rules for this zone are
different from the R-B-3 residential zone. As an example, in the General Business zone, you can have any kind of business as well as single family homes. If you research the building rules for a single-family home in this zone you would be required/allowed to follow the R-40A Residential Zoning rules which would allow you to build a home with a 35-foot maximum height (348-10.15 section E8) In short, the allowable building height for a single family home in the GB General Business Zone exceeds the 28 foot height restrictions that imposed throughout the rest of our community.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me or call the Toms River Building or Zoning department and do your due diligence.
Sincerely,
Jim Conover
President, Seacrest Beach Club
908-672-8081
At our Fall General Membership Meeting, which will be held on Saturday, August 26th at 10:00 am at the Ocean Beach Firehouse, we will be voting on a change to our currently by-laws with regards to section 12: Building Construction and Renovation.
Under the advice of counsel, we propose the following change to the by-laws to be voted upon at the fall meeting:
Seacrest Beach Club General Membership Meeting By-Law Revision Vote
August 26th 2023
The current By-Laws under Section 12 (Building Construction & Renovation) subparagraph A states:
ALL building and renovation plans including proposed variances shall be submitted to the Building Committee, showing sufficient detail to permit a complete review which complies with Toms River Township zoning ordinances of the R-B-3 zone as of August 27th 2022 and approved variances. This also includes any changes subsequent to submittal of the application.
The proposed change would be to eliminate the specific reference to the R-B-3 zone as of August 27 2022, and to add:
In the event the Township of Toms River changes any zoning or building regulations that would directly impact any Seacrest Beach Club (SBC) property, the SBC reserves the right to subsequently review this section of the By-Laws.
The revised section would read as follows:
ALL Building and renovation plans including proposed variances shall be submitted to the Building Committee, showing sufficient detail to permit a complete review which complies with Toms River township zoning ordinances and approved variances. This also includes any changes subsequent to submittal of the application. In the event the Township of Toms River changes any zoning or building regulations that would directly impact any Seacrest Beach Club (SBC) property, the SBC reserves the right to subsequently review this section of the Bylaws.
Important:
If you cannot attend the vote in person, you may send your vote into the board, and it will be tabulated with the in-person votes. Please click on the “contact” link on the top of the page, click “general inquiry”, and indicate if you vote YES to the proposed change, or NO to keep the by-law the same. All votes must be received by 8pm on Friday August 25th.