The City of Asbury Park and its waterfront developer, iStar, say they have agreed on a plan to rebuild a 4-block stretch of boardwalk on the city’s north end in time for the 2020 summer season, after the walkway was torn up last fall.

Under an agreement announced in July, Manhattan-based iStar will pay the $8 million cost of rebuilding the stretch of boardwalk, which will be 25 feet wide, made of wood, and run from Convention Hall to Asbury Park’s northern border with the Borough of Loch Arbor.

Officials said the cost is $2 million higher than the $6 million originally estimated by iStar for reconstruction in order to accommodate demands by city officials and local activists, including a width of 25 feet on that northern stretch, consistent with the rest of the city’s booming oceanfront. Other features sought by the city and agreed to by iStar include a series of “rain gardens,” essentially landscaped catch basins for handling stormwater runoff.

Officials said the plan still needs formal approval by the City Council, as well as a Coastal Area Facilities Review Act, or CAFRA, permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The council’s next regular meeting is Wednesday night.

“We are part of this community and our goal is to continue to bring certainty and long-term stability to the city,” iStar’s senior vice president for land and development, Brian Cheripka, said in a statement. “The city and the NJDEP need to formally approve the new design, but if they do so by October, we expect to have a new boardwalk completed in time for the next summer season.”

iStar set off alarm bells last October, taking some residents by surprise when it removed the stretch of old boardwalk to make way for a narrower walkway that would have snaked through a series of dunes and be connected to a newly paved parking lot under the city’s still-valid 2002 waterfront redevelopment agreement. Protests put a halt to the plan.

A new design was hashed out by iStar and city officials over the winter, with input from members of Save Asbury’s Waterfront, or SAW, a coalition of environmentalists, open space and beach access activists, and local homeowners, who have been close watchers and often critics of the waterfront development process.

However, funding was not decided, leading the council to authorize bonds to pay for the boardwalk plan, if necessary.

But iStar, which still needs the city’s final approval for a private pool club near the north end, as well as for thousands of residential units envisioned under a 2002 waterfront redevelopment plan, agreed to foot the boardwalk bill on Monday, said Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn.

“We’re thrilled iStar came to the table to fund the boardwalk,” said Quinn.

Quinn made clear that boardwalk funding agreement does not address the unresolved issue of Bradley Cove, where the redevelopment plan calls for a block of townhouses at the city’s north end, but activists and officials prefer to preserve the location as open space.

Kathleen Mumma, a surfer and local homeowner who is an organizer and spokesperson for SAW, called the deal “a win for taxpayers,” that city officials, iStar, residents and business owners could all be proud of, and not a moment too soon.

“We were getting a little nervous that we might not even have a boardwalk for next summer,” Mumma said. “This will be a moment that people can look back on a say, they did the right thing.”

A sign indicates the status of Asbury Park's boardwalk at the city's north end, where the planks were torn up last fall by developer iStar in a move permitted by a waterfront redevelopment plan.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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