The dilapidated former gas station at 187 Riverside Ave with the existing billboard in the background. Below, Outfront’s photo and illustration of the current and proposed billboards. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
An advertising company’s proposal to put a digital billboard at the town’s northern gateway faced strong pushback at a borough zoning board hearing Thursday over what effect it could have on traffic and the town’s ability to redevelop the decrepit property on which it sits.
The existing billboard on the site. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
But after a three-hour hearing, the application Outfront Media LLC first presented to the board in February 2023 will have to wait for a decision until at least August, when the hearing on the matter was scheduled to continue.
“This is a very very nuanced case,” zoning board attorney Kevin Kennedy said amid debate over what zoning variances the company is required to seek.
In January, Outfront proposed a 27-foot high digital billboard facing southbound drivers as they enter the town from Cooper’s Bridge. The plan is a scaled-down version of a 40-foot-high display Outfront had proposed in February 2023.
The structure would replace an existing 60-year-old billboard on the vacant gas station site at 187 Riverside Avenue.
Its display area would be ten percent smaller than the current sign but it would be five feet higher and shifted slightly west toward Route 35 Christine Cofone, a professional planner representing Outfront testified.
And in exchange for an approval, the company offered to eliminate six static billboards they own at two nearby locations on Shrewsbury Avenue and Oakland Street.
They also offered to allow the borough to display community messages for eight minutes per hour free of charge.
Cofone cited other factors she called positives for the borough: the new sign will be overall smaller in size than the current billboard, create less light “spillage” onto adjacent properties and go completely dark from 11 pm to 7 a.m.
Meanwhile, if the board does not approve the new digital sign, the current one will remain in use in perpetuity anyway – along with the six other signs at other locations.
“This is an opportunity for betterment,” she said.
Outfront needs variances because billboards are not permitted anywhere in town. Nearly two dozen exist, however, under laws that ‘grandfather’ uses that predate the ban.
The 2023 Master Plan called the area around the foot of Cooper’s Bridge both “an unsightly entryway into Red Bank” and a “hot spot” for crashes. Board member Raymond Mass asked Cofone if the sign with a display changing every eight seconds might make the latter factor worse.
“You don’t see that as a distraction to people operating their automobiles?’’ board member Raymond Mass asked Cofone.
And Victor Rallo, owner of Birravino restaurant next door to the property said the billboards – both the current one and the proposed replacement – are an albatross to any plan to redevelop the decrepit property.
Rallo said he was under contract to purchase the gas station property but dropped the plan after realizing the terms of Outfront’s long-term lease would have prevented him from building anything that blocks the view of the billboard.
“It’s a disgrace the way it looks and the way it’s been,” Rallo said.
The current owner of the vacant Bridge Avenue Gas station was in attendance and disputed Rallo’s statement in a brief interview, saying other factors caused the sale to fall through.
The property owner, who identified himself only by his first name of Jim, but previously identified as Jimmy Gambacorto, said he could not comment further.
But board member Chris Havens echoed Rallo’s comments, saying putting an even taller and more eye-catching billboard on the site would only further impede efforts to improve an eyesore property.
“It’s absurd to say this sign would not block a much larger and better use of this lot some day,’’ he said.
The hearing on the application will resume on August 15.
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.
