Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

FAIR HAVEN: DUNKIN’ TRAFFIC FIXES OFFERED

fair-haven-shopping-center-062019-3-500x332-8040486A consultant to the planning board recommends that left turns from the shopping center’s eastern driveway, above, be prohibited. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot-topic_03-220x138-9108919Attempting to address concerns over traffic safety, an engineer for a hotly debated Dunkin’ coffee shop proposed in Fair Haven has offered an idea he says will safeguard pedestrians.

Another traffic engineer, this one hired by the borough planning board, has also made some suggestions, redbankgreen has learned.

fh-dunkin-080119-500x332-3078979The traffic island at left above would be expanded as a ‘pedestrian refuge’ under the plan by the applicant’s engineer, shown below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.

fair-haven-dunkin-amendment-080119-220x165-3718089Two weeks after the most recent planning board session on the Dunkin’ proposal held June 18, traffic engineer Robert Freud (pronounced Frood) submitted a concept plan to answer critics who say the store would imperil pedestrians within the River Road strip mall.

The latest plan calls for expanding an existing traffic island in the parking lot to serve as a “pedestrian refuge,” Freud, of Dynamic Engineering Consultants in Lake Como, wrote in a July 3 letter to the board.

The island would connect to the sidewalk in front of the store via a striped crosswalk, with ramps to accommodate wheelchairs. The sidewalk would have a railing along its outer edge to force pedestrians into a designated opening.

Additionally, new yellow lane-striping near the site’s eastern driveway would “help define the transition from the two-way entrance to the northbound one-way drive aisle,” Freud wrote.

The planning  board had been scheduled to take up Freud proposals, which have not previously been disclosed, on July 16. But that meeting was canceled over a lack of quorum. The hearing is scheduled to resume Tuesday, August 20, at the Knollwood School, where large crowds have been following the matter for several months.

The board is also expected to hear from Betsy Dolan, of Dolan & Dean Consulting Engineers, whom it hired to review the parking and traffic elements of the proposal.

In a July 12 letter to the board obtained by redbankgreen, Dolan commented on two concepts: Freud’s, and one drawn up by borough Engineer Rich Gardella.

Gardella suggested the elimination of the angled parking along the shopping center’s northern wall, creating space for a two-way drive aisle where there’s now a one-way, Dolan said. The plan would also change the remaining angled parking in the northern lot to perpendicular spots.

The “only negative” to that plan is that it would create a tight turn for vehicles leaving the drive aisle via the western driveway intending to head east on River Road, Dolan wrote. The same would be true for an eastbound vehicle entering the site through the eastern driveway, she wrote.

Freud’s plan, Dolan noted, would allow up to three vehicles could queue to ext the site at the eastern driveway.

Among Dolan’s recommendations: make the eastern driveway a right-turn-only exit. She also says the railing proposed by Freud should extend to the stop sign at that driveway.

At the June 18 meeting, board members and residents voiced concerns about the impact of cars queuing up on-site as customers attempt to make a left turn onto westbound River Road. Dangers to kids enroute to the towns’ two schools on foot or bicycle were also cited.

But Dan Hughes, managing partner of the LLC that gave the center a $4 million makeover under a site plan approved by the board two years ago, said it was “ridiculous” to argue that the site cannot safely accommodate a Dunkin’ store.

“It can handle it without any problem,” he said, citing ample parking, multiple entrances and exits, and the varying times at which stores in the center would be busy.

The shop would be operated by Dominic Sequeira, of Lincroft, who with family members also owns Dunkin’ shops in Red Bank, Tinton Falls and Lincroft.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.
JAY AND SILENT EAGLE
A very loud blue jay squawks at an indiferent bald eagle in a treetop alongside the Swimming River in Red Bank this week. (Partyline photo b ...
PIZZA LOVING SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN RED BANK
Pizza squirrel spotted in Red Bank. (click to read)
GET YOUR MA SOMETHIN’ NICE AT THE RED BANK FARMERS MARKET
It’s a beautiful and sunny Mother’s Day for the first instance of the farmer’s market, held every Sunday, beginning in May ...
SIGN? WHAT SIGN?
Folks in Red Bank Wednesday exercising their riparian rights to access tidal waters first encoded into Roman law in 500 AD and later adopted ...
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Partyline contributor captures photo of backyard fox.