A photo taken on Irving Place shows one of the homes that would be included in a proposed historic district. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Homeowners in the Irving Place neighborhood who largely opposed the designation of the area as a new historic district won’t have much to worry about — for a while, anyway.
On Wednesday, the Red Bank Historic Preservation Commission effectively tabled a measure to create the new Irving Place historic district. Plans to create the district had been outlined in a July report cataloguing 17 of the 22 homes on Irving, Maple Ave and Broad Street as having historic value that warrants making them subject to special protections and building rules to preserve their character. 
Residents of the prosed Irving Place Historic District at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
The proposal went over like a lead ballon, with 19 of the 22 homeowners in the proposed district signing a petition against it.
Nearly a dozen of those homeowners spoke out against the measure at the HPC meeting Wednesday, arguing preservation rules would put undue burdens on them when they seek to repair, remodel or sell their homes. Several predicted it would backfire by driving up the cost of repairs and causing homeowners to forego them altogether, leading to disrepair.
“It feels like losing control of our property,” Irving Place resident Laura Garrett told the commission. “In the end I like to control what I’m able to do to fix my house.”
“No matter what, the renovation of a house in this area, if you’ve gone through it recently, it’s time consuming and onerous as it is,” said Irving Place resident Kaupo Kunnapaa. “You’re proposing making it even harder.”
Even before the line of residents took to the mic, it was clear the HPC was taking a step back from the measures outlined in the report. Those steps would have included sending a recommendation to the Borough Council for possible votes on an ordinance creating the new district.
Instead, the idea of designating 17 of the 22 homes as historic will now be wrapped into a larger “planning effort” to document and protect historic structures Borough-wide, HPC Attorney Michelle Donato said.
“It’s off the table,” Donato said of the Irving Place district proposal following the meeting.
Earlier, she had told residents the review of properties on and near Irving place would be included in a town wide inventory requested by the Borough Planning Board and called for in the 2023 Master Plan.
“It’s just to do that a real comprehensive plan,” Donato said of the HPC’s plans going forward. “This is not going to be presented, the Irving Place is not going to be presented on its own. It’s going to be part of an entire process and you’ll have the opportunity again to participate.”
She continued: “The planning board has requested a comprehensive review of all the properties in the borough for evaluation as to their historic value and I have recommended that that foundational planning is appropriate to do first. Which would include consideration of the issues that many of you are raising on Irving Place.”
The HPC is tasked with reviewing exterior alteration plans and issuing “certificates of appropriateness” for properties designated historic, including those in the two existing historic districts that cover downtown and the Washington Street area.
The idea of expanding to Irving Place emerged this past spring after the borough council passed a new ordinance designed to better protect historic structures and streamline the approval process for property owners.
Donato repeatedly urged homeowners to study the new ordinance, which does not require homeowners to seek commission approval for minor repairs or exterior work. Those minor approvals will be approved administratively by borough planning officials, she said.
“A lot of you are basing your opinion on other ordinances, other towns and other experiences,” Donato said. “And so I think if you give this new commission an opportunity and you participate in the process I think you’ll find it really is not what many of you think it may be and it’s not these kind of controlling circumstances.”
Former Borough Council member Cindy Burnham, whose Wallace Street home lies in the Washington Street Historic District warned residents about what can happen to historic properties and neighborhoods that don’t have the designation.
“There were a lot of big houses close to down town in the old days,” she said. “And those were the houses that got sliced and diced by investors.”
“What I’m afraid of with Irving is the same thing that happened with Wallace Street,” she said.
Irving Place residents, meanwhile, said they had something to celebrate besides the apparent reprieve from having to seek additional approvals when they replace their windows or gutters. The effort to fight the proposal, they said, had prompted many of them to meet and get to know neighbors with whom they had rarely interacted.
“You’ve nudged us towards being a more unified community, and that’s not a bad thing,” Irving Place resident Michael Barrett told the commission. “So thanks for that.”
His comments were met with applause from his two dozen neighbors seated behind him and smiles from HPC members on the dais.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
