Glenn Straub leaves meeting about Revel reopening

Glenn Straub, who has previously threatened to abandon his effort to revive the shuttered casino, took aim at the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority's land use board during a hearing for a site plan approval after the board's chairman said a landscaping plan was needed as part of the approval process.

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You come in here with $150 million to spend in your city and this is what you come up with? he said. Just keep it up. This building will be shut down forever

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The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, or CRDA, is requiring Straub's company, Polo North Country Club, apply for an amended site plan application because the addition of a ropes course on the former Revel property changes the way traffic flows through the site. The CRDA must approve the amended site plan before the city can issue a temporary certificate of occupancy allowing the building to reopen.

The application first came in front of the land use board in August but the meeting was continued to Thursday because officials said the application was not "thorough and complete."

Polo North appeared to have addressed previous concerns about the traffic change but Paul Weiss, the chairman of the land use board, said the landscaping plan, which was also discussed at the August meeting, would be a condition of approval.

Straub erupted after that assertion.

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We got $200,000 in this simple application and you're now adding up landscaping, 100,000 plants on that property? We're not going to keep changing things. We'll leave it go the way it is, he said.

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Weiss said the CRDA is not requiring Polo North to plant 100,000 plants.

"The CRDA is asking the applicant to produce, as is required under municipal land use law, a landscaping plan," Weiss said. "Plant as many plants as you wish. Plant them in what ever variety you wish. We want a plan that demonstrates compliance with the law. That's all."

"The application is withdrawn," Straub replied. He later left the meeting.

But the hearing continued with comments from the public, including nearby residents who raised concerns about noise at the property, and Straub's lawyer, Nicholas Talvacchia, told the board at the end of the hearing that the application was moving forward.

The land use board will make a recommendation on Polo North's application by Sept. 20, the next time the full CRDA board meets.

The landscaping plan isn't the only issue that may hold up Polo North's approval. The CRDA has also said Polo North must pay an outstanding balance it owes for Special Improvement District assessments.

Polo North has made clear it plans to fight the CRDA over that payment.

Straub pledged in March that the property that he bought for $82 million last year would be open by June 15. That date came and went and the building has not yet opened.

Straub has repeatedly assigned blame on state officials for delaying the opening and said in early August that he was so fed up with the red tape in New Jersey that he might quit his effort to reopen the resort.

During the hearing on Thursday, Weiss asked Talvacchia what the plan actually was for the property. Straub has previously raised a number of possibilities for the boardwalk site, including housing Syrian refugees and establishing a "university of geniuses."

Talvacchia said the plan is to reopen the building as a resort hotel, possibly with a casino. He said he could not disclose a timeline for when different amenities at the resort may open but said "everything is moving forward. The goal is to open it sooner than later."

"That's our goal too," Weiss replied.