Asbury Park On The Record: The Basics.

Before the city is involved at all, the company responsible for a project and a sub-developer partner work out the project privately. At this stage, a developer can also choose to check in with the state's environmental agency, to get an early read on whether the project is likely to satisfy the state's coastal rules before investing further in the design.

Once a plan is ready, the developer brings it to a city panel called the Technical Review Committee, along with a fee that covers the city's cost of reviewing it. The city's approval to begin this review is sometimes called conceptual approval. The committee meets as needed, in sessions that are open to the public but not broadcast the way City Council or Planning Board meetings are, and reviews the design against city law, the master plan's rules, and other requirements. A design brought to this committee does not have to follow every master plan rule; developers can ask for specific waivers from those rules as part of the review, and city practice has not required a fully conforming design at this stage.

When the committee finishes, the design goes to the City Council, where the public can comment. The Council can send it back to the developer for changes, or move it forward into contract negotiations. Those negotiations happen partly in closed City Council sessions and partly through direct discussions between the city's and the developer's attorneys. If the negotiations succeed, the Council votes on a formal agreement covering that specific project, sometimes called a sub-developer agreement. This is a different document from the citywide Subsequent Developer Agreement described earlier in this guide; the two happen to share a similar short name in some records, but one covers Madison Asbury Retail's overall responsibilities, and the other approves a single housing project. If the Council approves this project-level agreement, any design waivers the developer requested are included in it, and this is distinct from a variance, a separate zoning tool not used in this process. Approval here moves the project to the Planning Board.

The Planning Board holds a public hearing where residents can ask questions and comment directly, including on any design waivers the project relies on. The Board then votes on the site plan, first in preliminary form and then in final form. The site plan is the detailed proposal for the building itself: its design, how many homes it contains, how much parking it provides, and how closely it follows the master plan's rules. If the Board approves it, the Board adopts a written decision at a later meeting, within 45 days of the vote, and the city publishes notice of that decision within 10 days after that.

Only then can construction begin, and only if a separate, parallel process at the state level has also cleared. Because the waterfront sits on the coast, every project also has to satisfy the state's coastal permit, and city approval does not substitute for it. The state process includes its own required filings, a compliance letter the developer must obtain before construction starts, and a schedule for related infrastructure work due within 90 days after residents move in. City approval never excuses a developer from a state requirement; each has to be satisfied on its own.

This same sequence applies to every housing project in the redevelopment area, no matter which company is building it.