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.

RED BANK: MASTER PLAN GETS MARKED UP

gianna-101322-500x375-2478226Gianna Maita-Edwards writes a comment on a display at the session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot-topic_03-220x138-2130637About two dozen Red Bank residents grabbed Sharpies to weigh in on the borough’s Master Plan Thursday night.

They gathered at the Red Bank Middle School despite heavy rain to share their thoughts on the first wholesale rewriting of the vision plan in almost three decades.

red-bank-master-plan-session-101322-500x375-5080615About two dozen residents attended the event. Below, Susan Favate of BFJ Planning addressing the audience. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

red-bank-master-plan-susan-favate-101322-220x165-4587769The occasion was the latest in a series of outreaches to community by New York City-based BFJ Planning, which is leading the update effort under a $150,000 contract.

Attendees were encouraged to comment on, and express their approval or disapproval, with concept plans distilled over the past nine months and displayed on boards set up on easels in the school cafeteria.

Among the topics: the future of three discrete sections of town, to be addressed in “small area plans” within the finished document.

The areas center on Riverview Medical Center, on East Front Street; around the northern “gateway” into town at the Route 35 Cooper’s Bridge; and the former landfill and incinerator alongside the Swimming River at the westerly end of Sunset Avenue, where a 10-acre park has long been contemplated.

The suggestions for the gateway area, for example, include conceptual plans for improving left turns for vehicles exiting Bodman Place, at Riverside Avenue, which is part of state highway 35.

“One of the things we wanted to set you all up with is an argument to go to the New Jersey [Department of Transportation, who actually owns the roadway, so that you all are not reliant on DOT engineers to make decisions about what is included,” said Adam Tecza, of FHI Studio, which is working with BFJ on the project.

Among the residents taking advantage of the Sharpies was Gianna Maita-Edwards.

“I think it’s really well done,” she said of the event, told redbankgreen.”I really like how interactive this space is, and I love it when these kinds of events are really digestible.”

Among her foremost concerns about the town’s future, she said, are affordable housing and “non-motorized transit.” As a new resident of the West Side, she also wants to learn more about plans for Sunset Park, she said.

Dave Johnson, an Elm Place resident, came to the event with concerns about traffic, he said. He recognizes, however, that improvements to some of the town’s worst bottlenecks, including the intersection of Broad and Front streets, require action by Monmouth County or New Jersey state agencies, and can’t be made unilaterally by the borough, he said.

“There’s certain decisions we can’t make,” said Johnson, a member of the environmental commission. “When Broadwalk is open, they can’t change that traffic light on Front Street, because Front Street is a county road. So sometimes, congestion is in the politics of what’s a state road and what’s a county road.”

In terms of the Master Plan, “those are going to be hard,” he said. “Somebody will have to be talking to the state level and the county level.”

BFJ expects to have a working draft of the plan for the planning board in December or January, firm principal Susan Favate told the gathering. The document would then have to be approved by the board and, ultimately, the borough council.

For those who missed it the session, or want to experience it again, the session will be repeated Tuesday, October 24, at Pilgrim Baptist Church, NUMBER Shrewsbury Avenue, at 6:30 p.m.

A public hearing would also be held in advance of the board’s vote to adopt or reject the plan, she said.

Here’s the interim report prepared by BFJ in September. Additional resources can be found on the planning and zoning page of the borough website.

If you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen, please become a financial supporter for as little as $1 per month. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
Partyline
RED BANK’S FINEST – AND NEWEST
Red Bank Police Officer Eliot Ramos was sworn in as the force’s newest patrolman Thursday, and if you’re doing a double take thinkin ...
EASTER EGG MAYHEM AT THE PARK
An errant whistle spurred an unexpectedly early start to the Spring Egg Hunt on Sunday, which had been scheduled to begin at eggsactly 11am ...
PRESEASON DOCKWORK
RED BANK: With winter winding down, marina gets ready for boating season with some dockwork on our beautiful Navesink River.
CORNED BEEF AND DISCO FRIES?
It’s Friday, and smart Lent-observing Leprechauns know the pot of gold at the end of Red Bank’s rainbow is actually the deliciou ...
SURFBOARD DITCHED
It’s a violation of etiquette in surfing to ditch your board.  (it could hit another surfer and hurt them). But someone appears to ha ...
ELSIE, TAKE ME WITH YOU!
Soaked by pouring rain with the temperature hovering in the low 40’s, this sign in the window of Elsie’s Subs on Monmouth Street ...
WALK THIS WAY
PARTYLINE: Before-and-afters of a sidewalk cleanup on West Street.
SOGGY NOTION
RED BANK: Breezeway sculpture captured the mood downtown as heavy rains fell Saturday morning.
HOME DELIVERY
RED BANK: After a subdivision, an instant house rises on a new Catherine Street lot.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
For Black History Month, Red Bank's Community Engagement and Equity Advisory Committee has been running a series of local profiles on Facebo ...
HEARTY FAREWELL FOR HARDY
RED BANK: Council to honor DPU supervisor Rich Hardy, who retired recently after almost 39 years of keeping things running.
HOMEBOUND? READ ON…
RED BANK: Can't get to the public library? It's now offering free delivery and pickups for homebound borough residents.
TAMING A BEAST OF A WEEK
RED BANK: After the second snowfall of the week, a borough family finds the perfect use for it – a Godzilla snow sculpture.
RED BANK: LIBRARY CLOSED, BUT THE HILL’S OPEN
RED BANK: Though the library was closed by a snowstorm, kids got to enjoy the riverfront property's steep slope Tuesday.
LIGHT(HOUSE) MAKEOVER
This year, getting ready for spring means a midwinter makeover for Strollo's Lighthouse in Red Bank.
TODAY: LOCAL PUPPY COMPETES ON ANIMAL PLANET’S “PUPPY BOWL”
Red Bank’s very own rescue puppy, Biscuit, is set to compete in Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl this Sunday, February 11, at 2 PM. Th ...
WHAT? NO redbankgreen NEWSLETTER?
Apologies to redbankgreen newsletter subscribers: the daily email hasn’t gone out for two days because of technical issues.
RED BANK: TIRED OF SKEETERS?
RED BANK: Tired of mosquito bites every summer? Monmouth County has a free program to help eliminate skeeter breeding grounds.
SEA BRIGHT: POLAR PLUNGE FOR ST. JAMES, OTHERS
Hundreds braved the wind and sea on Sunday at 1PM in support of St. James Elementary School, and other Catholic schools in the area. The eve ...
RED BANK: RBR CLAIMS TITLE
RED BANK: Watch pure joy as the RBR boys basketball team celebrates its first B North championship in 17 years.