Last Wednesday, I climbed into the cab of a giant grappling track hoe (picture Fred Flintstone's dinosaur-powered crane, with huge rotating rubber bands for feet) as it began dismantling the long-abandoned James A. Bradley Motel at Kingsley and Seventh Avenues. The former seaside motel that caught the very end of Asbury Park's resort trade in the 1960s and ‘70s had sat forlorn and peeling for years, the prisoner of a beachfront deal gone sour.

Now, ten weeks after the city signed a new redevelopment agreement with M.D. Sass Municipal Finance Partners and Ocean Front Acquisitions (Sass's development arm), a series of ten blighted motels, bars and other crumbling structures along Asbury Park's beachfront -- originally scheduled for demolition in the late 1980s -- is finally coming down.

And the next stage of Asbury Park's architectural history -- a history that has more than once been dramatically altered by catastrophic fires, hurricanes, and human intervention over the last 100 years -- is beginning.

What will the "new" Asbury Park beachfront look like?

On Monday, October 15, Asbury Park residents and business people had a second opportunity to share their redevelopment visions, this time with urban planners as well as city officials. High on their lists were items like preserving the original Bradley streetscape plan with its open parks and its wide streets flaring to catch the ocean breezes; restoring such distinctive structures as the Casino, the Palace, Howard Johnson's and Madam Marie's; and protecting current residents from high-density residential development that could block beach access, increase noise, and cause endless parking nightmares.

Leading the session were the city's new redevelopment planners Bob Brown of Brown and Keener Urban Design and Jim Hartling of Urban Partners, both of Philadelphia. Also participating was John Clarke of Clarke-Caton-Hintz in Trenton, who represents Ocean Front Acquisitions, our redevelopment partners.

Bob Brown has since organized and recorded every participant's comments in depth, and has extrapolated a list of ten redevelopment principles that both sides seem willing to accept as a basis for future planning. (These broad principles -- which range in scope from architectural design and pedestrian environment to commercial uses and historic preservation -- will be discussed at our next public meeting on Monday, November 19, at 7 p.m. in city hall.)

Underlying these principles are what Brown calls the Three Community Goals. They are: preserve the character and history of Asbury Park; make Asbury Park a great community to live in, all year, all seasons; and increase tax revenues to the city -- a not-to-be-overlooked blessing, given our current financial woes.

Brown notes that economic viability -- for both the city and the redevelopers -- will be the real planning challenge as experts on both sides seek to reconcile community needs with market realities. For example, it is unlikely that we'll be able to keep all residential development west of Kingsley Avenue, as some residents suggested. But how dense that development is, and what form it will take, are areas that we certainly can address.

Over the next several weeks, Brown will be testing the consequences of his city planning principles on the project's bottom line, with input from economic analyst Jim Hartling.

Hartling will assess the market potential for different types of commercial and residential uses along the beachfront, and will analyze their likely impact on factors such as parking needs and traffic congestion in the city at large. He will also offer market-based scheduling suggestions for phasing in the new development.

Along with the city council and the city manager, Brown and Hartling will act as the primary advocates for Asbury Park.

On the developer's side, John Clarke is leading a team of architects, planners and structural engineers on an intense block-by-block survey of the beachfront to evaluate the soundness of current buildings and the optimum uses for each lot.

As the joint planning process proceeds, he will go back and forth among the developers, city planners, city leaders, and the public to structure a detailed redevelopment plan.

Along the way, he'll incorporate advice from market analysts like Hartling, civil engineers, traffic engineers and other planning experts who will evaluate the various options.

Depending on the outcome of a preliminary meeting with city officials, Clarke will most likely present his next level of planning proposals -- dealing with density, height, parking, etc. -- at the November 19 public meeting.

Also critical to the mix is design and development consultant Gail O'Reilly, who is working with the city. O'Reilly is already meeting with state agencies including the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Transportation to coordinate state assistance for the redevelopment area and for the broader Asbury Park community affected by the redevelopment.

She will assist with everything from writing grant applications to coordinating CAFRA permits. (CAFRA, the Coastal Area Facility Review Act, regulates development in state coastal areas.)

O'Reilly will also ensure that our redevelopment efforts conform to the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan, a move that can make us eligible for additional state funding and technical assistance.

In addition, she is working with county officials to help us get tied into their Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database, a planning and tracking system that will benefit numerous departments in city hall.

As discussed in a previous column, our goal is to sign a more detailed redevelopment agreement with Sass and Ocean Front Acquisitions by the year's end.

Want to stay informed? Plan to attend our next beachfront redevelopment meeting at city hall on Monday, November 19 at 7 p.m.

And please don't forget about STARS, the West Side redevelopment program that I told you about last month. Once again, a community information meeting for that project is scheduled for next Monday, November 5, at 6:30 in city hall. Food will be served, so bring a friend and learn more about redevelopment in the southwest quadrant of Asbury Park.

And, if you're looking for me, I'll probably be doing additional "research" down by the ocean. Riding in that big machine with the rubber band legs was actually pretty fun.