Belmar Lifts Back House Age Restriction

Belmar's governing body on Wednesday adopted unanimously an amendment to its back house ordinance that lifts the age restriction on tenants of secondary dwellings. 

Hoping to give residents incentives to spruce up both their primary homes and back houses, the Borough Council and mayor voted 5-0 to eliminate a section of the ordinance that said any tenants living in yearly back house rentals must be at least 62 years old. 

The previous ordinance also said property owners with a secondary dwelling wanting to convert or update an existing structure -- front or back house -- had to have or find tenants at least 62 years old for the back house. If a property owner couldn't and wanted to renovate the principal home, the ordinance said the secondary dwelling had to be demolished. 

While some members of the public have for weeks voiced their concerns with the amendment's impact on the demographics of Belmar, the governing body throughout a lengthy public hearing Wednesday mostly hailed the amendment as a means to promote property owners taking better care of their homes. 

The borough's Planning Board Attorney Doug Kovats and Mayor Matt Doherty both said the amendment doesn't allow for the increase or decrease of any secondary dwelling structures in town. 

Any property owner wanting to make renovations on a back house with more than one dwelling unit would have to convert the entire structure into a single dwelling unit, and without increasing the footprint, Kovats said. 

For instance, a three-family back house undergoing an upgrade would have to be converted into a single-family home of generally the same size, he said. 

Several residents on Wednesday expressed their support for the amendment. 

A few others however reiterated previous, albeit few, public concerns over the ordinance change causing an influx of illegal immigrants to Belmar. 

Borough officials have maintained the amendment is intended to help property owners find quality tenants.