By JOHN T. WARD

Adding yet another twist to what’s already the most convoluted building request in recent Red Bank history, the borough zoning board ruled Thursday night that a proposed 72-room hotel on the Navesink River exceeds height limitations.

In a trial-like case that turned on questions of property frontage and where streets begin and end, the board rejected the contention by Hampton Hotel developer RBank Capital LLC that the hotel site fronts on Route 35, rather than Rector Place, and should be subject to a height limit of 85 feet above mean high tide, rather than 60 feet.

The board’s 6-1 rejection of those arguments appear to mean that Rbank will have to either shear off several floors of the six-story structure or start its application all over again, abandoning a series of hearings now on hold at the planning board.

The zoning board was not ruling on the overall merits of the hotel plan, which had been the subject of planning board hearings that began last September.

Rather, the zoning board convened solely for the purpose of hearing an “interpretation” challenge by objector Stephen Mitchell, who contended that the height of the proposed structure, at 82.2 feet above mean high tide of the adjoining, put it in violation of limits for the waterfront development zone in which it would be built.

That, in turn, meant that the case should have been heard all along by the zoning board, which has different and arguably stiffer standards, Mitchell contended.

Lawyer Marty McGann and engineers for Rbank argued that though the former Exxon property has 47 feet of its southern border on Rector Place, it should more properly be seen as fronting on Route 35, and that a different height standard should thus apply.

The board, with little discussion and some apparent uncertainty, agreed with Mitchell.

Only board member Karen Waldman took Rbank’s side.

“Yes, I agree it’s on Rector Place,” she told redbankgreen afterward. “But I don’t think it ought to be treated like the rest of Rector Place,” which is lined with residences. “I think it’s separate and distinctive.”

Here’s Mitchell’s comment on the outcome, via email:

I never had an issue with developing the site with a hotel. My problem with the Hampton Inn plan was that it was too tall, too big, and too intense of a development for the 1 acre site. Tonight’s Zoning Board interpretation only bolsters my opinion. Now, let’s see if the Hampton Inn comes back with a more responsible and conforming design.

That, he said, would at least begin to address the law’s most problematic elements, as demonstrated by a recent brouhaha over a 100-foot tulip poplar.

At Monday night’s borough council meeting, Marchese proposed removing the controversial tree-preservation law from a land-use ordinance and reconstituting it as a code-enforcement matter.

The effect, he and borough Attorney Sal Alfieri said, would be that homeowners wishing to remove trees protected under the ordinance would no longer be required to obtain a zoning variance. Instead, they would take their cases to the borough council.

The law protects specimen trees and those that exceed specified girths. Builder Bob Susser saw his plan for a three-home subdivision on Woodland Drive, which otherwise required no variances, held up for months as his request to remove an 80-year-old tulip poplar was kicked from one department to another, and later on appeal to the planning board — three times. He succeeded in winning approval to remove the tree on the third try, in March.

Councilman Jerome Koch wondered if the change would “take some of the teeth out” of the existing law. Marchese said the move “doesn’t change how we define protected trees, but reduces the burden” on the planning and zoning arms of the town government.

“I still haven’t changed my opinion of the tree ordinance,” Marchese told redbankgreen afterward. “I will still seek to make it better.”

The amendment is expected to be formally introduced at the next council meeting on May 29.

By JOHN T. WARD

A prominent space on White Street in Red Bank is available for rent with the planned departure of a furniture and design store.

And stay tuned for some possible changes just down the block at Clearview Cinemas, which is up for sale with the rest of the arthouse chain, according to reports.

Cablevision has put its Clearview chain of arthouse theaters on the block. (Click to enlarge)

Both properties are under the ownership umbrella of Philip J. Bowers & Company, based in Tinton Falls.

At 24 White, Space Interiors is planning to relocate to Deal, having been the sole tenant of the refurbished corner of English Plaza for 14 years, owner Briggi Brandner tells redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.

“We’re not going out of business, we’re just moving,” Brandner said. She’s already shut down a second store at Pier Village in Long Branch for consolidation at the Deal location, which she said is three times as large as the Red Bank one.

Landlord John Bowers said there’s 2,000 square feet of space with display frontage on two sides. He says Space still has a lease and will remain until he finds a new tenant or the lease runs out. Brandner said that could mean Space sticks around for months more.

Bowers wasn’t aware until we told him that the 49-theater Clearview chain was on the block, as reported recently by Variety and other publications. But he’s not worried about losing the theater as a tenant.

“It’s one of the most successful in the chain, and I would imagine whoever bought it would keep the most successful ones,” he said.

By JOHN T. WARD

In a contentious exchange that appeared to foreshadow a lawsuit to come, a lawyer for a Red Bank convenience store challenged the rationale for a new local law that banned all-night businesses Wednesday night.

Squaring off against three lawyers sitting on the council dais, store attorney Philip San Filippo said a revision to a noise ordinance passed by the governing body just moments later was overly broad in scope and designed solely to torpedo his client’s plans, now pending at the borough planning board, to convert the store to a 24-hour 7-Eleven.

The law, cast as an amendment to a noise ordinance, was “absolutely” designed with his client’s plans in mind, San Filippo told reporters afterward.

“It absolutely was not,” insisted Councilman Mike DuPont, even as he touted the hastily enacted law as a “creative” response to a problem.

Welsh Farms owner Dina Enterprises is scheduled to return to the planning board on May 21 for what is expected to be a vote on its proposal, which calls for a small expansion and changes in signage.

The plan, however, has met fierce opposition by neighbors. They say allowing the store, which now closes at 10 p.m., to operate all night raises security and quality-of-life issues.

At the council’s April 26 session, Mayor Pasquale Menna, who is an attorney and a member of the planning board, introduced the noise ordinance amendment. The item was not on the agenda, and no written copies were available. Afterward, asked why the council was acting in such a rush, Menna told redbankgreen: “Get it done now.”

The law doesn’t affect existing businesses, only those within 100 feet of a residential zone that are not already open after 11 p.m. Restaurants and bars are also exempted.

Now, though, even if Dina Enterprises is successful at the planning board, the Welsh Farms would be barred from opening all night. San Filippo said he would consult with his client about the possibility of filing suit against the council.

That prospect was already in DuPont’s mind when the public comment portion of the meeting opened and San Filippo began asking questions about police department data cited at the April 26 introduction. That data purported to show a pattern of disturbances requiring police intervention at convenience stores late at night.

DuPont, a lawyer whose office is next door to SanFilippo’s on Broad Street, repeatedly cut off San Filippo.

“Your asking questions which I find to be alluding to or insinuating that the statistical date didn’t support the vote,” he said. “It’s kind of disappointing. It was a creative way to protect our neighborhoods from all-night establishments that had never been there before.”

San Filippo, though, argued that the kinds of disturbances cited in the data are already against the law, whereas the amendment seeks to curtail land use without going through the process of vetting the change against the town’s Master Plan and land-use bodies.

“If you’re really concerned with noise associated with businesses located in proximity to residences, then let’s deal with the activity that generates the noise,” he said.

Menna and borough Attorney Dan O’Hern defended the change as supported by court precedent. O’Hern also said the change reflected “common sense. If you put a 24-hour operation within 100 feet of residences, that’s going to interfere with the peace, quiet and solitude of the residents nearby.”

Here’s the ordinance: 2012-8001

The former home of Love Lane Tuxedos is one of downtown Red Bank’s most persistent large vacancies. (Click to enlarge)

By MIKE BARON

Where’s the love for the old Love Lane building?

The prominent storefront on West Front Street, with its distinctive retro signage, has remained stubbornly vacant for eight years, and the exterior is showing its age.

Now, amid  many signs of resurgence on the block, the address is starting to stand out as an eyesore, neighbors say.

Love Lane Tuxedos, which occupied the property for three decades, relocated to 66 Broad Street in 2004. Frank Cannarozzo of Holmdel bought the structure in June, 2007 for $1.75 million, paying nearly a million dollars more than the seller, 17 Broad Street LLC, paid just three years earlier, Monmouth County records indicate. He also took out a $1.435 million mortgage.

Then the financial crisis hit. An art gallery that was said to be planned for the building never materialized.

Public records show that PNC Bank began foreclosure proceedings on the property in July, 2009, but the status of that action is unclear. A call to Dilworth Paxson LLP, a Cherry Hill law firm representing PNC in the foreclosure process, wasn’t returned.

Attempts to reach Cannarozzo were also unsuccessful.

Sitar Company has a listing on the building now, and it’s being offered for sale at a “price reduced” $850,000. There’s also the option to lease all or part of the 6,200-square-foot structure, which Sitar says has “been gutted and is ready for construction.” The first floor features 3,500 SF and 14-foot ceilings.

The property also comes with “approved plans for renovation and expansion (to 7,100 square feet) for retail use,” according to Sitar, which adds that the addition of a third floor is possible.

But people familiar with the building say it is rife with problems, including termite damage, a dirt-floor basement and a need for costly upgrades to meet fire code and other requirements.

Meanwhile, the Love Lane structure appears more unloved than ever, a drag on a strip of West Front Street that has come back strongly in recent months, with new businesses joining mainstays Front Street Trattoria, Wayne’s Market, Fixx and the Downtown nightclub

Newcomers include Jonathan Erdelyi, a 30-year-old national biking champion who recently rolled out Red Bicycle Studio at 27 West Front, and Lucky Break Billiards and Café, at 14 West Front. In the works is Jr’s West End, the Long Branch late-night hamburger and sandwich restaurant that plans to expand into the former home of Zuleyka’s Kitchen at 17 West Front.

Harry Whittom, a manager at Wayne’s, Love Lane’s neighbor at 21 Front Street, said things are mostly quiet next door.

“You see a couple of people going in and out of there from time to time but not a whole lot of activity,” he said. “My feeling is the building probably needs a lot of work inside.”

Asked what business he’d like to see established in the spot, Whittom was at a loss, noting it was hard to picture any new venture setting up shop given the building’s current state.

“I don’t know what would work there now,” he said. “What we don’t need is another Italian restaurant or jewelry store.”

By JOHN T. WARD

Kathie Panepinto was leading a tour of the Red Bank Primary School property and lamenting the heavy growth that hides an adjoining pond Monday when groundhog that had been sunning itself in the grass scooted across her path and into the brush.

“Oh, look at that,” she said said excitedly, noting that up-close sightings of deer and other wildlife are common at the school, which sits on landfill in a former wetlands abutting the Swimming River.

It was the kind of moment that for decades has inspired talk of the school’s potential as natural sciences learning center. And it underscored the value of ongoing efforts by Panepinto and other volunteers in their most ambitious effort to date: creating a permanent physical link between the school and the inaccessible pond.

A concept plan shows a walkway out into the pond that the foundation hopes to win funding for. (Click to enlarge)

Since its revival from dormancy four years ago, the nonprofit Red Bank Borough Education Foundation has focused its efforts on small-bore projects: leading cleanups of the 17-acre primary school property, lending a hand and a few dollars to installations such as a butterfly garden, a small greenhouse and a human sundial clock.

Now, though, the all-volunteer group is raising its sights with a proposal to build an outdoor classroom in the form of a pier and observation deck on the pond. The structure would enable students at the K-3 school to see land and aquatic habitats up close, and “to do wet and muddy samplings,” said RBBEF member and Councilman Ed Zipprich.

“Most folks don’t even know there’s a pond back there,” said member Susan Berke.

“The idea is to make access to the pond not just for science, but for reading, writing, art,” said Panepinto, an RBBEF officer.

No cost estimate for the project has yet been worked up, and foundation members don’t even know if they would need and might obtain permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection for the structure, which may be subject to limitations on building in coastal areas.

Still, they’ve begun the process of trying to win a grant for as much as $460,000 from the National Science Foundation, said foundation president Doug Winning, an architect. “We’re going for the full enchilada,” he said.

Meantime, the organization has raised about $10,000 in each of the past two years through art auctions held at the Atrium at Navesink Harbor. This year, no such event is planned, though members hope to put together an Antiques Roadshow-type event for 2013.

Meantime, the group has produced a reusable canvas shopping tote featuring Red Bank student art that will soon be available around town for $5. For $10, residents get the tote and membership in the RBBEF.

“We’re still taking baby steps at this point, but we’ve got momentum going, and that’s the important thing,” said Zipprich.

By JOHN T. WARD

Without explaining the reason for its haste, the Red Bank Council introduced an ordinance change Thursday night to ban retail businesses from remaining open between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The law, an amendment to the town’s noise ordinance, would not apply to any business that now operates at those hours, said Mayor Pasquale Menna. Nor would it affect bars and restaurants.

Not a word was said, however, about its potential impact on the East Front Street Welsh Farms convenience store, which is in the midst of planning board hearings over cosmetic changes as it prepares to convert to a 7-Eleven and remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The measure was prompted, Menna said, by a neighborhood brouhaha over Best Liquors, a West Side packaged goods store that attracted so many complaints and legal run-ins that the council revoked its liquor license five years ago.

A recent review of police and code enforcement data by police Chief Steve McCarthy led to a recommendation that the town adopt a noise ordinance barring the operation of any business within 100 feet of a residential zone, excepting bars and restaurants, Menna said.

If any council members harbored any reservations about the amendment, they did not speak Thursday night. Councilman Mike DuPont called it “a very creative way to protect our neighborhoods. I think it’s a wonderful initiative.” Councilman Ed Zipprich said it offered “a good opportunity to protect the quality of life, to protect [neighbors] from a change, a dramatic change.”

“This is just a little bit of tweaking to that helps out our residents,” said Councilman Art Murphy.

The proposed change was not listed on the council’s agenda for the meeting, and no copies of its language, which Menna paraphrased, were available.

Afterward, Menna said there was no advance notice of the introduction because the language was still being drafted shortly before the meeting. Asked what the rush was, he replied, “Get it done now.”

Reminded that Best Liquors wasn’t open all night, Menna replied, “Yes, but it was open late.”

Pressed to address the impact on Welsh Farms, Menna said that if the store changes its hours to all-night before the law goes into effect, “they will be fine.”

He also acknowledged, as the store’s attorney maintains, that town officials did not limit the store’s hours of operation when they approved it as a convenience store and filling station in 1975.

The store has never operated all night, and now closes at 10 p.m.

A public hearing and vote on whether to adopt the amendment was scheduled for May 9. The planning board next meets on May 7, but it could not be immediately learned if the Welsh Farms hearings would resume that night.

By JOHN T. WARD

The developers of proposed 72-room Hampton Inn in Red Bank insist the property on which the hotel would be built is not on Rector Place.

Problem: they previously agreed that it was.

Easily the most multifaceted and complex case to confront  borough land use officials in years, the hotel, which would be built on the site of a closed Exxon station at the foot of the Cooper Bridge, has spawned three lawsuits and long-running, simultaneous sets of hearings at the planning and zoning boards.

At issue at the zoning board is a challenge by borough resident Stephen Mitchell, backed by a competing hotel group, who has asked that the board determine whether the main case was mistakenly sent by officials to the planning board. By his reckoning, the proposed six-story hotel violates the height limits of the waterfront development zone, and thus needs variances from the zoning board.

Mitchell’s challenge has led to three sessions resembling a trial, with lawyers for the opposing sides frequently clashing over rules of evidence and the relevance of questions in cross-examination.

On Thursday night, the thing got even more bizarre, as a witness for the hotel testified its property is not in any way on Rector Place.

Though borough tax records, the post office and a flurry of legislative activity over the property in 2009 all identify the site as 80 Rector Place, an engineer for developer Rbank Capital LLC insisted Thursday night that not only does the site “front” on Route 35, but that it has no frontage whatsoever on Rector Place.

His proof: agreements between the borough and the state Department of Transportation, as well as a finely detailed roadway jurisdiction map. All, he said, show that a 40-foot stretch of the property long identified as being on Rector actually fronts on Route 35.

Exiting the property from that area would put a pedestrian smack on state property, not Rector Place, which is a Monmouth County road, says hotel lawyer Marty McGann.

The issue is key, McGann said, in  determining how to apply a measurement formula in a zoning ordinance to gauge whether the proposed hotel is too tall.

To prevail, though, McGann will have to overcome a wealth of contradictory evidence, including borough tax and other designations.

He’ll also have to reverse the stance taken by of his own client three years ago.

That’s when Rbank Capital sought, and obtained, a decision from the borough council that, despite its street address, the property had previously been included by mistake on a list of residential properties along Rector Place in an ordinance that aimed to preserve old homes. At no time, however, did Rbank representatives claim that the property had no Rector Street frontage.

McGann said the existence of the documents cited Thursday night was unknown at the time.

But Mitchell’s lawyer, Ron Gasiorowski, made clear he regards the frontage issue as a red herring. The ordinance, he maintains, makes no reference to frontage in its formula for determining where to measure a building’s height. Instead, he said, it requires a line be drawn between the river and “the nearest parallel roadway,” which he says is Rector Place.

And just as McGann maintains that the post office designation “is based on public convenience” and has nothing to do with zoning, Gasiorowski claims the highway jurisdiction agreements have nothing to do with zoning, either.

The hearing was tentatively scheduled to resume May 17.

Guests explored the second-floor New Jersey Room, above, where uniforms produced by the Eisner factory were on display.  (Photos by Stephanie Schroepfer. Click to enlarge)

By STEPHANIE SCHROEPFER

Seventy-five years after moving into his former digs, the Red Bank Public Library honored Sigmund Eisner with a house party Saturday.

Light guitar music and tables laden with food for 200 guests set a festive mood as guests meandered through onetime parlors, checking out vintage Army and Boy Scout uniforms produced by Eisner’s Red Bank factories,.

“When the Eisner’s lived here, it was a home. Now its a home for people of all ages and backgrounds,” said Mayor Pasquale Menna.

Menna said he found the history valuable, but not as valuable as the home this library now provides for the community.

Whether they come to do job-hunting research online, to socialize or even just to snooze in a comfy chair overlooking the Navesink River, “it’s all valid,” he said.

“It’s a home for people who live in the neighborhood. No one knows what the role of the library will be years from now, but everyone needs a home and this is one.”

Terry McCue, a 45-year borough resident whose drawings of the Eisner manse and other old homes are featured on notecards sold by the library, said visiting regularly “keeps me handy. Gives me a night” out.

Eisner great-granddaughter Deborah Rutter was among six descendants of the industrialist and philanthropist on hand, and said she learned a lot about family to make her trip down from Connecticut worth the effort.

“I’m overwhelmed by the history, photos and memorabilia,” said Rutter.

“My great-grandfather Sigmund thanks you; my grandfather Monroe thanks you; my father Robert thanks you; and I most certainly thank you,” said Sigmund’s granddaughter Jan Eisner.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the New Jersey History Room, with its special collections of Red Bank, Monmouth County and state history.

With new addition to the collections and the historical tradition of the home, library director Mary Faith Chmiel said she hopes for “another 75 years here, at least.”