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SANDY’S
DEVASTATION
dustry consultant has given her
a balanced perspective on how
to properly manage growth while
considering environmental impact.
She described the state’s coastal regulations as “fairly liberal,”
and said officials need to be more
proactive in mandating what
makes sense for coastal development in the future.
“People do what they’re allowed
to do. You can’t blame builders
for building where they’re allowed
to build,” Wittenberg said. “You
have to have regulatory agencies
that make these calls and don’t
waver on them. I’m hoping that
some smart planning can come
out of this and that we can come
forward and rebuild the Shore in a
way that can sustain itself.”
Still, real estate development
along the Jersey Shore played a
central role in one of the state’s
largest corruption scandals in recent years, known as Operation
Bid Rig. New Jersey Assemblyman
Daniel Van Pelt was sentenced to
more than three years in prison in
late 2010 after being convicted on
federal corruption charges for taking a $10,000 bribe in exchange
for expediting environmental
permits for a developer to build a
project in Ocean County.
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HUFFINGTON
12.02.12
The developer who offered the
bribe turned out to be an undercover FBI informant, Solomon
Dwek, who last month was sentenced to six years in prison for
bank fraud in connection with a
real estate Ponzi scheme. In an
earlier phase of the FBI investigation, in 2002, former Ocean
Township mayor Terrance Weldon
pleaded guilty to taking more than
$60,000 in cash from developers
in exchange for zoning approvals.
Weldon, who has been released
from prison, did not return calls
seeking comment.
Christie and President Barack
Obama have both committed to
rebuilding the Jersey Shore, a
show of bipartisan support that
typically follows a wrenching disaster like Sandy. Researchers say
such