The parking lot at 103 East Front Street, which Riverview Medical Center is seeking to rebuild and upgrade. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Could someone lurking in the thicket of a steep bank of the Navesink River peer up into the windows of Riverview Medical Center and spy on cancer patients getting chemotherapy?
It sounds unlikely, perhaps, but that’s the scenario hospital representatives cited when they asked the Red Bank Zoning Board of Adjustment to waive a requirement for the hospital to provide a waterfront public access easement next to a proposed new parking lot on East Front Street.
The zoning board and a key borough official, however, did not seem to be buying it.
The 25-foot-wide easement along the river required by borough ordinance is “probably not negotiable,” Zoning Board Chairman Raymond Mass told an attorney and planner representing the hospital at Thursday’s board meeting. With that, and similar statements by Borough Director of Community Development Shawna Ebanks, the meeting was essentially over, with hospital reps requesting the matter be tabled until at least the next meeting.
The building that sat on the property before being demolished by Riverview Medical Center last year.
Riverview Medical Center is seeking approvals to build a 23-space parking lot on its property at 103 East Front Street, which it has already been using for employee parking for years.
A building that had been vacant for 16-years on the property was demolished last year and zoning board approval is required for the construction of the new lot because the primary use and configuration of the property is changing.
The Borough’s zoning ordinances require any waterfront development to provide a 25-foot access easement along the river, along with “appropriate provisions for passive enjoyment of river views by residents and the general public.”
Paul Grygiel, a professional planner representing the hospital, told the zoning board at Thursday’s meeting they were seeking a waiver of that requirement.
He cited two reasons: first, the steepness of the slope and the lack of adjacent waterfront pathways would make it a “pathway to nowhere” through a “wild undeveloped area” no one would likely use anyway.
“While it’s a nice objective, for most of the waterfront zone, it doesn’t really make sense on this particular property,” he said.
Second, Riverview attorney Tyler Zeberl said, was the concern that anyone using a public access path along the river might be able to see patients receiving chemotherapy inside hospital buildings along the river to the west.
“You’re looking right up at patient rooms at the hospital,” Zeberl said.
“We do have an interest in protecting the privacy of our patients,” he said. “That’s another reason why we are looking for that waiver.”
Borough Director of Community Development Shawna Ebanks pointed out that the easement was encoded in an ordinance and the hospital would need not just a waiver, but a zoning variance to build the lot without the easement. She also assured the hospital representatives that there was no current plan to create a walkway or path – or any requirement that the hospital create one.
The goal of the ordinance, she said, was simply to make sure access and easements are legally assured should the borough ever be in a position to build a boardwalk or pathway as envisioned for in the 2023 Master Plan. Plans for such a riverwalk date back years before the Master Plan’s adoption.
“I understand you would like the privacy of the patients and we respect that,” Ebanks said. She added, “I understand your concern that the slope and the terrain is difficult but that’s just future planning for whatever the borough has in store.”
Mass added: “We’re not asking you to build anything. We’re just asking for the easement.”
Board members suggest the hospital erect a six foot fence on the border of the easement to block the view of any peeping toms who may be wading through the tidal zone to spy on cancer patients.
Citing board members’ statements about their unwillingness to budge on the easement, Zeberl asked for the application to be tabled at least until the next board meeting to allow him to discuss the matter with hospital officials.
While it seems impossible to imagine a riverfront walkway across the entirety of Red Bank’s riverfront, examples abound of places where the slow amassment of easements eventually led to a contiguous walkway.
It was employed, for example, over decades of redevelopment to provide for the creation of what eventually became a Hudson River walkway from the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee to Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
And while it remains undeveloped, along the western edge of Red Bank a slow amassment of easements over decades has created an almost contiguous string of public land and easements Chapin Avenue to Locust Avenue. Planners say the key is making sure easements are obtained one by one as each property is redeveloped.
Red Bank’s master plan section on the concept of a riverwalk reads: “Actual development of a walkway has remained elusive due to the significant cost and coordination involved, but this remains a long-term goal.”
The hospital’s property at 103 East Front Street recently went on the tax rolls under an agreement reached over years of tax appeals (see story below)
RED BANK/RIVERVIEW SETTLEMENT: WINDFALL OR TAXPAYER HOSING?
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.
