RED BANK: AZALEA GARDENS PLAN ON AGENDA

Azalea Gardens would be built on Harding Road, between Clay Street and Hudson Avenue. (Google Maps photo. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank may get an update on a long-pending downtown housing project this week.

Also on planning and zoning agendas: an EV charger law, and proposed zoning for cannabis businesses.

The hearing on a plan to erect a 40-foot tall digital billboard at 187 Riverside Avenue has been postponed by a month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

Here’s what’s up for review and action at the planning and zoning boards this week:

• Monday night, the planning board reviews two proposed zoning law changes: one concerning electric vehicles, and other on cannabis businesses.

Both are pending final adoption by the borough council, but by state law require verification by the planning board that they comply with the Master Plan.

There’s also a request from the owners of the Galleria at Red Bank office and retail project for relief from a 1995 obligation to provide offsite parking.

Here’s the full agenda. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at borough hall and can be watched on Zoom, though only in-person attendees may ask questions or comment.

• On Thursday, the zoning board will hear an application by Ray Rapcavage, owner of RayRap Realty, seeking to alter his approved plan for a housing development on Harding Road between Hudson Avenue and Clay Street.

The project, dubbed Azalea Gardens, was approved in 2017 with plans for 16 townhomes and two freestanding houses. Since then, the lots have been cleared, and the property surrounded by a construction fence, but no building has yet occurred.

Rapcavage told redbankgreen last week that he’s “looking to reduce the amount of units from 18 to 16, [but] the original site plan is very much the same.”

A previously scheduled continuation of a hearing on a plan to erect a giant digital billboard at the town’s northern gateway will not be heard. The case is now scheduled to resume May 18.

Here’s the full agenda. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at borough hall and can be watched on Zoom, though only in-person attendees may ask questions or comment.

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