No Vote on Squan Plaza Plan

No decision was made on a $2 million Squan Plaza makeover at this week's Manasquan Borough Council meeting. 

After months of presentations, the council decided not to take action on the plan at the Monday meeting.

Mayor George Dempsey said this week that the council could not reach an agreement in time and would likely vote on the project at the governing body's next scheduled meeting. 

Last month Borough Administrator Joe DeIorio quarterbacked a three-hour-long public presentation on the latest -- and what many probably hope is the final -- design for the proposed $1.925 million project.

The expected cost of the makeover increased to nearly $2 million from an estimated $1.2 million earlier this year after the borough's engineering firm T&M Associates and other officials revised the plan to accommodate suggestions from residents and other outside professionals, officials have said.

Kirk Danielson, of T&M Associates, is the project's landscape architect. Danielson has designed several award-winning parks and plazas in Eatontown, Brick, Perth Amboy and Avon-By-The-Sea.  

At last month's marathon presentation, several in a room of roughly 50 residents took turns panning the proposed design for a laundry list of reasons. 

Some residents wanted the underground Judah Creek to be day-lighted across the plaza, less parking and more green space. 

Fran Drew, of Third Avenue, who has for months been pitching the borough on an alternative plan also did not let up during the presentation. 

Drew has called for the borough to implement a design by landscape architect Dimitry Levitsky, of Frenchtown -- known as the "Levistky Plan." 

Levitsky, who met with borough officials prior to the presentation, said he thinks the plaza's proposed main thruway would become a raceway. 

Other residents, however, said that something needed to be done with the decaying infrastructure and surface of the plaza. 

This revised T&M plan, they said, was the best compromise the borough would reach with the dozens of its concerned citizens. 

The proposed plan adds 14,000 square-feet to Hancock Park, and 17,000 square-feet of open space to the plaza, officials said.

Combined, that's 3/4 of an acre of more open space while still adding 19 more parking spaces to the plaza, officials said. 

The proposed design would also make the plaza safer while adding more functionality and traffic calming elements, officials said. 

The ultimate goal, however, is to enhance the downtown business district with parking and to provide an improved venue for community events, officials said.