The Plug Naturals shop would replace a single-family house at 156 West Front Street if approved. (Google Maps photo. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Facing possible rejection over parking issues, representatives of a proposed Red Bank cannabis shop asked for time to revise their plans Monday night.
Plug Naturals member Garth Case, center, flanked by architect Mike Simpson, left, and attorney John Anderson. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The move by Plug Naturals LLC came as the planning board appeared ready to nix a proposal to convert the single-family house at 156 West Front Street to a retail weed shop.
Garth Case, a member of the limited liability company, and his team – including an architect, an engineer and a traffic consultant – had spent more than two hours detailing their plans.
That included providing seven parking spaces at the rear of the property – one fewer than required by ordinance. Customers would walk to the front entrance along a ramp to be built on the east side of the property, adjoining a parking lot for the Atrium at Navesink, a senior housing complex on Riverside Avenue.
The shop’s six employees per shift, with two shifts a day, would be required to park their cars, if any, across the street, in the PRC garage adjoining Pazzo restaurant, said Case.
Traffic expert Hal Simoff testified that peak usage of the lot would likely be in mid-afternoon on a weekday, with 12 cars entering and 13 exiting per hour. Motorists making left turns out of the site to head east on West Front Street would utilize “courtesy gaps” in traffic to do so, he said.
But board member and Councilperson Kristina Bonatakis questioned the adequacy of the parking lot and narrow driveway. When customers find the lot full, “it doesn’t appear there’s any way for them to turn around,” she said. Would they have to back out onto the busy roadway?
Civil engineer Andrew Stockton said that “worst case,” the motorist would have to execute a five-point K turn in the lot.
“We wouldn’t be encouraging anyone to back out,” said attorney John Anderson.
But late in the hearing, it became clear that at least three members of the newly reorganized board, including returning Chairman Dan Mancuso, had misgivings.
“A conforming lot would solve all your problems, but you chose a lot that’s not conforming,” said Mancuso. “The fact that it’s not conforming, in my opinion, is not a ‘hardship.’ It’s a house.”
“I could care less about the type of retail use it is,” he added. “I just don’t think you’ve got the right location for your permitted use.”
Tommy Welsh, the borough’s fire marshal and emergency management director, focused on the lack of crosswalk access to the mid-block site.
“I drive there hundreds of times a week,” he said. “Like the applicant said, you would hope that people would act like adults and cross at the right places. They don’t.”
Vice Chairwoman Barbara Boas said she agreed with Mancuso and Welsh.
No members of the audience spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing.
With Mancuso about to call for a motion, Anderson asked for a brief recess, and upon returning, asked the board to carry the matter so the applicant could “explore ways in which we could perhaps address the board’d concerns.” The board agreed to resume the hearing September 18.
A scheduled hearing on proposed renovations at Red Rock Tap + Grill on Wharf Avenue was rescheduled, at the applicant’s request, to August 21.
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