UPDATE: SEE CORRECTION BELOW
After months of silence, a proposal for a giant digital billboard at Red Bank’s northern gateway is scheduled to return to the borough zoning board Thursday night.
Also on the agenda: a proposal to scrap a plan for an approved but never-built microbrewery downtown.
The former Famebilia space at 42 Monmouth Street has been vacant for 15 – yes, fifteen – years. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
• If it wins board approval, Outfront Media would erect a 40-foot-tall billboard powered by tiny LED lights at 187 Riverside Avenue.
That’s the site of a long-vacant gas station at the intersection of North Bridge Avenue, just south of the Route 35 Cooper’s Bridge.
A zoning board hearing on the controversial proposal began last February, but at the applicant’s request did not resume.
The application faces major hurdles, starting with the fact that new billboards are not permitted anywhere in the borough.
CORRECTION: According to Jennifer Krimko, the attorney for Outfront Media, the zoning board agenda’s description of the plan is incorrect. On December 18, Outfront amended its plan, reducing the height of the proposed billboard to 27 feet, from 40 feet; making its display area smaller than the existing billboard on the site; removing billboards it utilizes elsewhere in town; and other changes. Here’s a letter with the details: Red Bank Outdoor Media 121823
• Also on the board’s agenda is a request by Phoenix of Matawan, owner of 42 Monmouth Street, to “abandon the micro-brewery use approval” it obtained from the board in 2019.
The one-story building has been vacant since the departure of Fameabilia poster and souvenir shop 15 years ago.
Phoenix of Matawan, owned by Matawan restaurateur Florin Lupu, also won approval in 2019 to add a second story to the building for two apartments. But construction never began, and Lupu is now proposing changes to the parking plan.
The board’s agenda does not indicate how the first-floor commercial space would be used.
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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