The former home of Greene’s Auto Performance Center has been vacant for five years. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
The Red Bank Zoning Board gave partial approval to a Shrewsbury Avenue liquor store’s plan to move to a larger location across the street Thursday despite two board members saying a bigger booze shop was a bad idea for the neighborhood.
The board also sent the applicant, Spruce Beer Whine and Liquors, back to the drawing board to come up with a way to eliminate much of the parking lot in front of the former Greene’s automotive shop and turn it into a landscaped area.
In other words, they want Spruce to spruce up Greene’s with more green.
The current location of Spruce’s liquors (photo by Brian Donohue).
The board voted 5-2 to grant a use variance allowing Spruce Liquors, currently at 205 Shrewsbury Avenue, to convert the former Greene’s Auto Performance Center at 204 Shrewsbury Avenue into its new home.
Board members voting in support said the move would bring life to a large vacant space that might otherwise be hard to fill in a challenging retail climate.
While the space has been vacant for five years, attorney and former Mayor Ed McKenna, who represented Spruce’s owners, said the only other business that has approached the landlord was a cannabis retail shop.
Board Member Christopher Havens said he was voting in favor because the store would fill “a hole on Shrewsbury Avenue.”
But board members Sharon Lee and Paul Cagno both voted against the application, saying they thought expanding a liquor store on the border of a residential neighborhood was a bad idea. The new store would be 3,700 square feet, according to the application, more than double the size of the existing shop.
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“That’s the heartbeat of that whole neighborhood and I don’t know that a superstore liquor store would be an asset to the community,” Lee said. “We’ve absorbed lots of liquor stores.”
“I can see the appeal by the other little store to expand,” added Lee, who is a former Red Bank Borough Council member. “I just don’t think it’s right for the neighborhood.”
While the board approved the change in use, they held off on a vote over the site plan after the idea of ripping up the asphalt parking lot gained traction amid the back and forth with attorney and McKenna.
Board members first questioned a plan to have customer parking butting up against the sidewalk and then asked whether more landscaping could be included in the plan.
Seeing as the existing store functions with customers using only on-street parking, McKenna said the applicant could come up with a new plan to convert much of the existing parking lot into a lawn, while retaining a handicapped parking space in front of the store.
“We will come back with a plan that is more appetizing to everyone,” McKenna said.
Have a news tip or story idea? redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331. 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.
