A southward view of Broad Street from 2012. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank embarked on a full-scale rewriting of its Master Plan for the first time in 25 years Monday night.

At a meeting via Zoom that lasted less than 12 minutes, the planning board initiated what could be a two-year process of rethinking the town’s zoning for the next generation.

“It’s as very long process,” said board Chairman Dan Mancuso, “and there will be a great deal of public input available, when we get to that stage.”

First up, Mancuso designated himself, Mayor Pasquale Menna, and members Kristina Bonatakis and David Cassidy to form a subcommittee for the task.

Menna said the purpose of the subcommittee is “to do some of the preliminary work, and the fact-finding work.”

Next, the volunteer board will begin the process of hiring a planning consultant, “because we don’t pretend that we can do that by ourselves,” Mancuso said.

Mancuso said the the Master Plan review, which is mandated by New Jersey’s Municipal Land Use Law, should not be confused with the work of the borough’s  Redevelopment Agency, which is in the process of a two-track effort: identifying areas of town in need of either rehabilitation or redevelopment, and doing the same for borough facilities.

At the borough council’s April 7 workshop session, Councilman Ed Zipprich said the review was “long overdue.”

The missions of the 1995 plan have been “largely accomplished,” he said, and now it’s time “for us to begin the process to begin the process again and set the course for the next 25 to 30 years.”

Here’s an April 7 memo to the council from planning Director Shawna Ebanks outlining the objectives of the process: Red Bank Master Plan memo 040721

And here’s the existing Master Plan from 1995:

Red Bank Master Plan 1995. 1 of 2

Red Bank Master Plan 1995. 2 of 2

The 2019 Master Plan re-examination report can be found here.

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