Baiamonte’s Departure From Planning Board Is Giant Step Forward For New Republican Administration

Self Serving Former Board Chairman Championed Development Interests, Particularly If There Was A Proximity To Mugsy’s Bar And Grill

Phoney Negative Vote On JAMM Realty Application Was Not Followed Up As Ms. Petrizzo Was “Requested” To Stay Home When JAMM Application Was Considered By County Planners

Dover Township:  The Republican administration has removed a bad conflict of interest issue and a potential political embarrassment with the departure of Anthony Baiamonte as a member and former Chairman of the Planning Board.

Baiamonte claimed he is “moving from the town” (according to the Ocean County Observer) and “moving to another state” (according to the Asbury Park Press), a face-saving euphemism for getting out ahead of the next court order.

Mugsy’s Bar and Grill Was A Continuing Conflict For Baiamonte

In spite of the clear and compelling fact that approval would have benefited his bar and restaurant, Mugsy’s Bar and Grill (at the intersection of Fischer Boulevard and Hooper Avenue), Baiamonte voted for the application for the Fischer Boulevard Home Depot, when he should have disqualified himself and declined to discuss or vote on the matter.

Same for the decision to rezone 1400 acres near Mugsy’s, but in this case, the matter ended up in court and the rezoning, which included the JAMM Realty property, was thrown out by Superior Court Judge Eugene Serpentelli, partly because Baiamonte voted on the application.

Baiamonte’s Phoney “Opposition” To JAMM Realty

Baiamonte’s phoney “opposition” to JAMM Realty, a 320 unit Mt. Laurel affordable housing project that the Planning Board approved, was a matter of common knowledge and a sop to residents in the area.

The approval was a fait accompli and one of numerous sellouts to developers for which the Dover Township Planning Board is justifiably famous.

Baiamonte used his negative vote as a meaningless throwaway in a situation where he should never have voted at all because of the Mugsy’s conflict.

Joann Petrizzo Never Showed Up For The
County Planners JAMM Vote

Even worse, when the matter came before the county planning board, the Dover Township representative, Joann Petrizzo, never showed up for the vote, reportedly because she was “requested” by Baiamonte and some of the JAMM Realty principals to stay away from the meeting to facilitate the approval of the JAMM project.

As it turned out, county board chairman H. George Buckwald and board member Gerry Little voted against the JAMM project, making Ms. Petrizzo’s vote absolutely critical because there were only three affirmative votes on the board.

Baiamonte Was Chairman In The Heyday Of Gratuitously Bad Planning

So instead of killing the JAMM Realty project 3-3, the county board approval by 3-2 served to exacerbate the overdevelopment of Dover Township, a trend started by Baiamonte when he was chairman of the Planning Board between 1989 and 1995, the beginning of the heyday of gratuitously bad planning in the community.

If Ms. Petrizzo had attended the JAMM hearing and voted against the JAMM project, as she most certainly should have done, the project would have been history, failing on a tie 3-3 vote.

More on Baiamonte’s conflicts and excessive development tendencies in the fullness of time, and a review of the Pathmark application and its accompanying conflict that was the final straw in Baiamonte’s “service” to the community.

Ms. Petrizzo Resigns From County Planning Board

Also, Ms. Petrizzo recently resigned from the County Planning Board after numerous conflicts of interest of her own surfaced in the form of "abstentions" with "connections". More on this soon.

Click here to review OceanCountyPolitics October 29, 2002 editorial entitled “Unbelievable Arrogance”, a critical appraisal of Baiamonte as a “Saloon Owner/Forrester” and Dover Township Planning Board Member.    (4/30/03)

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