RED BANK: HOMEBUILDERS EYE WEST FRONT
Under concept plans filed by KHov, a building at Maple Avenue and West Front Street, center above, would be replaced by eight townhouses. Less than a block away, a developer is seeking approval for 35 rental units, shown below, on a vacant lot already approved for 27 condos. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
More multi-unit homebuilders have their eyes on Red Bank. West Front Street, in particular.
Two proposals that would add 43 new residences to the stretch of West Front between Maple Avenue and English Plaza have been filed with the borough planning board.
One is a revision of an already approved plan for 27 condos opposite Riverside Gardens Park, on a vacant lot that was once home to a Meridian nursing home. Approved by the planning board in 2007, that was to have been a five-story structure with most of its parking underground.
The new plan calls for a four-story building with a covered, at-grade parking garage for 47 cars and access to both West Front and White Street, on which the property backs up in a long narrow strip next to the former Liberty Hose firehouse.
The garage would be topped by a sundeck.
The plan is under review by the town’s engineering consultant, T&M Associates, and no hearing date has been scheduled.
Pastor John Lock of the Trinity Episcopal Church got his first look at the plans on Wednesday, and told redbankgreen one of his foremost concerns would drainage. The church adjoins the vacant lot.
The second plan isn’t as far along. In fact, developer KHOV calls it a concept plan, which has already been kicked back by the borough planning office for insufficient documentation.
The proposal, for the northeast corner of West Front and Maple Avenue, shows two buildings of four townhomes each, separated by a “driveway court” and running parallel to West Front.
Carl Erler, a lawyer for KHOV, has asked the borough for a meeting prior to a “formal” filing, to discuss “the nature of the proposed remediation and redevelopment of the site,” according to a letter on file at the planning office.
