Nonprofit: Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association gets cheaper tax assessments

OCEAN GROVE - The nonprofit activist group Neptune United released a report arguing properties owned by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association are generally assessed at a lower value for property taxes compared with similar properties owned by other taxpayers.

The group, which describes its mission as advocating for parity and equity for all of Neptune Township and has frequently battled the Camp Meeting Association, has spent the last several months reviewing eight years’ worth of publicly available property assessment data, all of which is available at Monmouth County’s Office of Record Management.

Neptune United identified what it called repeated discrepancies between land value assessments assigned to property owned by the association versus land value assessments assigned to homeowners. The association owns almost all the land in Ocean Grove section of Neptune, except for the streets. Many, but not all, homeowners actually lease the land on which their homes sit.

Neptune United's focus was on the assessed land value of properties, not on the tax paid, because the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association owns many properties that are exempt from property tax because they have been found to qualify as church or charitable property. For example, the historic Great Auditorium, despite its tax-exempt status, in 2023 had an assessment total of $7,455,700, according to the report.

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The analysis identified three issues of particular concern, according to Neptune United.

The first issue is apparent pattern of lower assessments for land on which the camp meeting must pay tax versus camp meeting land which is tax exempt, the group said. The second issue is the group identified what it calls an "alarming discrepancy" in the assessed value of land owned by the association compared with private owners. The third concern claims the rate of increase in assessments experienced by homeowners from 2016 to 2023 is significantly higher than the rate experienced by the association in that same time.

The Camp Meeting Association could not be reached for comment.

The example provided by Neptune United to illustrate the first concern is two adjacent parcels owned by the association on Inskip Avenue — the Inskip Tennis Courts and a neighboring park.

Both are approximately 0.59 acres. The park is exempt from property tax, but the tennis courts are not. For 2023, the park land was assessed at $811,300, while the tennis courts were assessed at $215,600, the association said.

What the nonprofit describes as "even more concerning" in their findings is the Ocean Pathway, two vacant parcels where the annual flea market is held. The Ocean Pathway site is not exempt, and the two parcels, which lead toward the Great Auditorium in total consist of 3.0828 acres of “vacant land.” It has no assessed value and is not taxed.

In 2023, the Great Auditorium was assessed at a total of $7,455,700. Of that, $3,325,100 was for the the value for the 2.73 acres of land on which it is located. The whole property is tax-exempt because of the religious use of the auditorium.

"How can over three acres of oceanfront land be worthless?" Neptune United wrote in its report. "As a result, no taxes are being paid on land for which the township could be collecting a substantial amount of revenue in property taxes."

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Neptune United compared the assessed land values of each of the non-exempt Camp Meeting Association properties to the assessed land values of the three nearest homeowner properties, excluding those that had recently sold. Land owned by the association is assessed at an average of $1,721,461.92 per acre (limited to property on which the association pays tax). In comparison, the average land assessment of homeowner property per acre is $8,040,336.16, according to the report.

"That is a difference of over $6.3 million per acre. Does this ensure the equitable distribution of the tax burden?" the group wrote.

The rate of increase in assessments experienced by homeowners from 2016 to 2023 is 52% higher than the rate experienced by the Camp Meeting Association over the same, the group said.

During that eight-year period, the association experienced an average increase of 32.61% to its land assessments for its properties that are not tax-exempt while homeowners experienced an 85.07% increase in their land assessments, according to the report.

According to the Neptune United "it would be unfathomable for Neptune Township to give preferential treatment to one property owner, to the detriment of thousands of others. Therefore, we are in no way accusing any party of any misconduct. Instead, we are asking that the appropriate state and local officials look into the concerns raised and provide the public with an explanation as to what would otherwise seem preferential."

Township Administrator Gina LaPlaca told the Press that "Neptune Township values all our employees and trusts them to serve with a residents-first mentality.

"Ocean Grove is a unique community when it comes to the ownership and tax designation of certain properties, something that has been noted repeatedly by New Jersey’s Tax Court, and assessing values within it is even more challenging. Still, we maintain the highest level of confidence in the work of our Tax Assessor’s office," LaPlaca said.

She added "we also take the concerns of our residents and community groups seriously, and, as the Township, as state statute dictates, has no say over how a municipal tax assessor sets valuations, or in how the office operates, we encourage Neptune United to advance these concerns through the proper channels, in this instance the Monmouth County Board of Taxation."

Ocean Grove was founded in 1869 by Methodist clergymen and is noted for its Victorian-style homes and the Great Auditorium, which frequently attracts religious gatherings. It is commonly known by the nickname "God's Square Mile." In the past, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association had police powers like any other municipality, forbidding vehicular traffic on Sundays, but a 1979 state Supreme Court decision changed that. It maintains ownership of much of the land.

Neptune United formed after some residents said the Camp Meeting Association began rolling out religious imagery with more assertion. The association last summer included an image of a cross on beach badges. And it rebuilt the Ocean Grove pier, destroyed during superstorm Sandy in 2012, in the shape of a cross. The 500-foot pier opened last April, but it has been temporarily closed due to concerns about the safety of its structure.

The Camp Meeting Association has kept boardwalk access to the beach closed from 9 a.m. to noon on Sundays from Memorial Day to Labor Day, violating the terms of a permit that it received from the Department of Environmental Protection to manage and maintain the beach. Specifically, the permit said the Camp Meeting Association couldn't limit public access to the beach.

Some residents, including Neptune United members, began defying the policy. They gathered on the boardwalk on Sunday mornings, beach chairs in hand, insisting they were not protesting, but merely showing up to enjoy the beach with their friends and family as they were allowed to do under the law. The Camp Meeting Association filed a lawsuit, saying the group was trespassing. The fight over beach access drew the attention of the state Department of Environmental Protection. It ordered the Camp Meeting Association to open the beach. The association refused and is seeking to overturn the order.

A hearing date for the appeal has been scheduled for April 17. Residents hope that the issue will be resolved before the beach access closure, and, presumably more protests, are set to begin again Memorial Day weekend.

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association enjoys tax deals, nonprofit says