The house at 211 River Street, above, is to be demolished and replaced with the structure below. (Photo by John T. Ward; rendering by Catherine Franco. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank bungalow would be replaced by a modern three-story home overlooking the Swimming River under a plan approved by the zoning board Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the owner of a postage-stamp-sized lot will have to wait to find out if a neighbor makes a purchase offer before he can proceed with his plans for a new house.
Jacob Morales, center, speaking with would-be neighbor Rose-Marie Jackson about his plan to build the house seen below. (Photo by John T. Ward; rendering by Ed O’Neill. Click to enlarge.)
• Oceanport resident Timothy Shea won approval of his plan to demolish the bungalow at 211 River Street and replace it with a sleek new one.
The existing house sits above a tall retaining wall on a narrow lot, with no off-street parking. With a plan to remove the retaining wall and “cut into the hill,” architect Catherine Franco designed the new house with a one-car garage at the front and a driveway to accommodate a second car; an open stairwell; and a third story of living space with a balcony overlooking the river.
The plan would increase front and side-yard setbacks, said engineer Patrick Ward.
Shea told the board he and his wife planned to make the house, which also would feature an in-ground pool out back, their retirement home.
Board member and former councilwoman Sharon Lee said she liked the design, but both she and member Paul Cagno questioned whether the modern look was a good fit for the neighborhood.
Franco responded that no one style dominated the block, just up the hill from the Red Bank Primary School.
“There’s a little bit of everything,” she said. Franco predicted that other bungalows in the area would also eventually be replaced with larger, trend-following homes, “but right now there is no consistency.”
“I just don’t think it has anything to do with the neighborhood,” said Lee. She suggested that an A-shaped roof planned for the back of the house also be used in front, to soften its corners.
But Shea said that would prevent him from building the balcony at the front, oriented to take advantage of the sunsets. “When I bought the house 27 years ago, this is why,” he told the board.
The design “is a statement of the people who live there,” said Franco. “That’s the purpose of architecture.”
With only a reporter in the audience for the hearing, no objections were raised. All board members present voted in favor of the plan except Cagno, who abstained.
• Shea’s hearing followed two hours of testimony regarding plans for 1 Berry Street, where new owner Jacob Morales, of South Bridge Avenue, proposes building a tw-story home on a vacant, undersized lot for his mother as a “surprise” birthday gift.
Acquired this year for $20,000, the lot – just 33 feet by 50 feet – came with a tangle of a title and tax issues that Morales doggedly corrected, said his attorney, Kevin Asadi. It also had a one-story house on it as recently as 1999.
Morales’s plan needs a host of variances, including for setbacks. Though the setbacks of the previous house were unknown, architect Ed O’Neill said the new home, totalling 1,675 square feet, would have greater side-yard setbacks than the neighboring property to the west – 5.5 feet, compared to 1.7 feet – while providing the minimum first-floor area of 750 square feet required.
Lee and audience members, however, raised concerns about the bulk of the proposed house.
Much of the hearing centered on legal doctrine concerning isolated, vacant property, and the board’s ability to consider whether Morales made efforts to either acquire adjoining property to enlarge his or to sell his lot to a neighbor.
The hearing was put on hold until November 2 after Jasmine Jackson said her mother, Rose-Marie Jackson, who owns the house next door, was interested in obtaining an appraisal of Morale’s lot, with an eye toward making an offer.
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