A 2024 photo shows the billboard at 187 Riverside Avenue, which Outfront Media wanted to replace with a larger electronic sign. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
56 Newman Springs Road, the location proposed for a new digital billboard. (Photo by Brian Donohue)
The company applied in 2023 to replace its longstanding billboard behind a vacant gas station at 187 Riverside Avenue with a larger digital display.
After almost 12 hours of hearings over 11 months, the Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected the application, which had met strong community opposition. The property was seen by board members and residents as particularly ill-suited for a large sign because of its location at what the borough’s 2023 Master Plan describes as an already “unsightly gateway” to Red Bank.
The board’s engineer, Edward Herman, called it “probably the single most challenging application I’ve faced” in more than a decade, due to the thicket of legal and engineering issues involved.
The company sued the borough over the denial last March.
RED BANK: BILLBOARD COMPANY SUES OVER SIGN DENIAL
The two sides entered settlement discussions shortly afterward, court filings in the case show.
Red Bank’s Zoning Board of Adjustment passed a resolution approving the settlement at its February 5 meeting, according to a letter submitted the next day by Board Attorney Kevin Kennedy to Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Gregory Acquaviva.
The resolution describes the terms of the conditional settlement as such: Outfront Media will drop its lawsuit against the borough once it receives approval to build a new double-sided digital billboard at the Newman Springs Road location.
Outfront will have to apply to the zoning board to build the new sign, and the board has the right to deny it, according to the resolution. But if it is denied, the settlement will be voided and the lawsuit reinstated.
In its application to the borough for the Riverside Avenue sign, Outfront had also offered to remove six other static billboards it has at three locations in town as a condition of approval. One of those sits smack dab in the middle of another blighted area the borough is trying to redevelop: the Red Bank Train Station redevelopment area.
It is unclear if any of the company’s other signs are affected by the settlement. Only the resolution passed by the Zoning Board, which refers to the settlement – not the entire settlement document itself – was filed in the case docket.
The former gas station property near the Route 35 Cooper’s Bridge was purchased in October by Victor Rallo, owner of Birravino restaurant, which sits next door.
His company recently completed an environmental cleanup of the site and is planning to rehabilitate the existing building and launch an unannounced new venture on the site.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.
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