{"id":1586,"date":"2014-10-22T05:29:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T09:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2014-10-22T00:44:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T04:44:30","slug":"maple-leaf-park-residents-management-clash-at-brick-council-meeting-officials-promise-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2014\/10\/maple-leaf-park-residents-management-clash-at-brick-council-meeting-officials-promise-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leaf Park Residents, Management Clash at Brick Council Meeting; Officials Promise Action"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maple<\/a>

Maple Leaf Park (Credit: Google Maps)<\/p><\/div>\n

Spurred by a fellow resident who spoke out at a Brick council meeting two weeks ago<\/a> about crime and drugs in the Maple Leaf Park condominium complex off Herbertsville Road, a large group of residents from the neighborhood came to Tuesday night\u2019s meeting to reiterate a call for the township council to take action.<\/p>\n

When they got up to speak, however, they were confronted by the complex\u2019s property manager, board president and board attorney, who defended their management of the development and said they have improved it over the last several years.<\/p>\n

What resulted was a clash between the two groups that remained mainly civil, but highlighted deep differences in the perspectives of some residents who claim that management has looked the other way as crime has swept through the complex and board members who say they are working to make the area better but can only do so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire Herbertsville section is under siege from a cancer that has spread over the last ten years,\u201d said Gerry Decicco, who lives on Windcrest Court, a street made up of single-family homes which backs up to the complex.<\/p>\n

Homeowners from Maple Lead Park, one-by-one, went on to describe non-working security cameras, men drinking in public spaces during the day, drug activity and the difficult decision they are often faced with: calling the police or staying silent in order to avoid risking retaliation.<\/p>\n

But Myron Kozak, the development\u2019s property manager for three years, defended his company\u2019s actions and said he has worked on crime issues over the past several years. Kozak said crime has been reduced in recent years, a statement that elicited some grumbles from residents in the audience.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Maple Leaf Park complex, Brick, N.J. (Credit: Google Maps)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhen we came to Maple Leaf Park, there was a lot of drug activity,\u201d Kozak admitted, but said he installed $300,000 worth of security cameras. \u201cThings don\u2019t change overnight. Drug activity is down to a minimum from when we took over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kozak also touted an after-school homework help program for children and other activities in the complex\u2019s clubhouse as proof that Maple Leaf Park was being improved.<\/p>\n

But residents and some council members pressed Kozak \u2013 who came with an attorney who introduced him before he spoke publicly \u2013 on the crime issues. Eventually, Kozak was forced to admit that most of the complex\u2019s cameras had not worked in about three months due to a lightning strike, the complex\u2019s recording capability had been diminished and there is no one monitoring video feeds during the overnight hours. Private security patrols were eliminated after management found some of the security guards sleeping in their cars rather than working.<\/p>\n

Two residents who spoke accused Kozak of also running a crime-plagued condominium complex in Lakewood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been contacted in upwards of 23 different residents of yours echoing the same problems Mr. Cancel echoed at the last meeting,\u201d said Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero, referring to James Cancel, the man who stood up and addressed the council at the Oct. 8 meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t do you much good to know about the problem the day after it happens when our police can be there in a few minutes,\u201d she said, referring to the lack of staff monitoring the security cameras. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have someone monitoring those cameras 24 hours a day, how are you going to alleviate the crime that\u2019s going on now?\u201d she asked Kozak.<\/p>\n

Township Promises Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pontoriero, an attorney who chairs the governing body\u2019s public safety committee, said since Cancel brought up the issues in the complex earlier this month, she has been researching numerous potential ordinance additions and changes, including so-called \u201canimal house\u201d and \u201cdrug den\u201d ordinances that have been used in other municipalities to crack down on landlords whose tenants cause trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drove through the community four separate times and was scared driving through,\u201d said Pontoriero.<\/p>\n

Council President Susan Lydecker said the land use committee, which she chairs, has met with the police chief and other township officials to put together a plan of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more voices we have in the dialogue \u2026 the more it brings to the table,\u201d said Councilwoman Andrea Zapcic, who reported a \u201cproductive meeting\u201d was held with the township\u2019s construction code official on Maple Leaf Park.<\/p>\n

The residents who spoke asked for a number of actions to be taken by the township, including cracking down on absentee landlords, enforcing township codes and reducing the number of government-subsidized Section 8 tenants in the complex.<\/p>\n

But legally, Section 8 tenants cannot be denied a place to rent. The complex\u2019s board president, James Zago, said he was threatened with a lawsuit after posting an ad to rent one of three units he owns only to tenants who would not use the government program.<\/p>\n

For residents, the complex\u2019s 70 percent rental rate presents issues with selling their properties. One resident who spoke at the meeting said a \u201cnice lady\u201d who was a teacher wanted to buy her unit, but was denied a mortgage due to the high rate of rentals in the complex versus owner-occupied units. She said she was ultimately offered consistently low purchase amounts by investors offering cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a mortgage lender, and I feel so bad for the people that are here today,\u201d said Ed Kinney, another Windcrest Court resident. \u201cIt\u2019s a standby location. These properties cannot be financed because of the way it\u2019s being run. The investors are paying cash. What we need to do is make it a place where people want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steven Cancel, James Cancel\u2019s son, held up a printed copy of Brick Shorebeat\u2019s article<\/a> on Maple Leaf Park which ran Oct. 9 before the council, citing a high number of comments that supported his father\u2019s call for a crackdown on crime and code violations in the complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cRead these comments from Brick residents who don\u2019t even live in Maple Leaf but know what\u2019s going on,\u201d said Steven Cancel. \u201cThe people have spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spurred by a fellow resident who spoke out at a Brick council meeting two weeks ago about crime and drugs in the Maple Leaf Park condominium complex off Herbertsville Road, a large group of residents from the neighborhood came to Tuesday night\u2019s meeting to reiterate a call for the township council to take action. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,27,262],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-herbertsville","tag-maple-leaf-park"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-08-at-12.19.13-AM.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-pA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}