The property at 96-98 West Front Street is approved for offices and apartments. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank may get a small addition to its riverfront Maple Cove tract under negotiations authorized by council in executive session Wednesday night.
The placement of the proposed border between the library parking lot and adjoining riverfront property was a subject of debate, but all of Maple Cove will remain on the open space inventory. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The battle to save the cove is over, apparently.
The Red Bank borough council officially abandoned a plan to remove Maple Cove and a nearby riverfront property from the town’s roster of open spaces Wednesday night.
The unanimous move appears to close the book on a controversial issue that helped vault activist Cindy Burnham onto the governing body in the last election.
Not that it can’t be undone, says Burnham, the lone Republican on the six-member council.
Maple Cove and the public library as seen in 2011. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials are abandoning a controversial plan to remove Maple Cove from the town’s inventory of preserved lands, the Asbury Park Press reports.
Instead, the borough council will ask the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to delist only a parking lot adjacent to the nearby public library, the Press reports.
The borough will install pay stations at the recently rebuilt parking lot at the north end of Maple Avenue. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Be sure to pack a change purse with your kayaks and canoes, river-goers.
Red Bank’s council, as it hinted in recent weeks, plans to reinstitute a pay-to-park policy at the recently repaved 12-spot lot at Maple Cove.
Stanley Sickels gave a brief history of the parking lot at Maple Cove Wednesday night in response to comments posted on redbankgreen. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Responding to “drama” in the redbankgreen comments section last week in which readers weighed in with speculation, history or their version of it and assorted posits about the repaving of the parking lot at Maple Cove, Red Bank officials took a break from Wednesday night’s regular order of business to clear the air. Fact check. Dispel the bloggy bosh.
To “try and shed some factual light,” said Mayor Pasquale Menna, “instead of just hypothetical speculation and gossip.”
Read on. Comment if you dare.
Red Bank’s KaBoomFest kicked off its 2011 fundraising season Thursday night with a tent party on the lawn of Hovnanian Enterprises’ HQ, followed by a sample pyrotechnics show on the Navesink by Garden State Fireworks, which will once again be handling the big show on July 3.
To enlarge the photo display, start it, then click the embiggen symbol in the lower right corner. To return to redbankgreen, hit your escape key.
A request for mulch at Maple Cove digressed into a clash between Cindy Burnham and council members Tuesday. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
When Cindy Burnham and other volunteers, part of the ad hoc Friends of Maple Cove group, ended a yearlong spat with the Borough of Red Bank and secured a deal to designate a one-acre patch at the foot of the Navesink River on Maple Avenue as a natural area with waterfront access, the understanding was that Burnham and company would maintain the parcel.
So says the town council.
Burnham maintains a different recollection.
“The only reason the Friends of Maple Cove came out to do anything was because you guys wouldn’t,” Burnham told the council Tuesday, following a request that the borough donate a half-truckload of mulch to the site.
The request triggered a kerfuffle between Burnham and the governing body over who should take care of the property, a question that never was answered.
The Navesink Maritime Heritage Association donated the above sign to be installed at Maple Cove next weekend. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Nature enthusiasts received a good sign earlier this week both literally and figuratively that the patch of land at the foot of Maple Avenue in Red Bank will become a dedicated kayak launch and natural area, as they’ve pushed hard for over the last year.
The one-acre parcel’s moniker, chosen by a pair of Red Bank Regional students last year, was made official Monday night, when representatives from the Navesink Maritime Heritage Association hauled up a heavy-looking cedar sign before the borough council and flashed it for the audience.
Gilded lettering in the center of the 8-foot-long sign reads “MAPLE COVE,” with two small stars vertically placed on each side. The sign is set to be installed at Maple Cove next Saturday, said NMHA official Charlie Ladoulis.
Cindy Burnham at Maple Cove in April, 2008.
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Is the wrangling over borough-owned land at the river end of Maple Avenue in Red Bank finally over?
Cindy Burnham, who’s been a thorn in the side of local officials with her campaign to spruce up popular gateway to the Navesink River, says so.
She tells redbankgreen that after months of wrangling with local officials, a deal is in place to get what she and other nature enthusiasts have been working for: two benches and a sign at Maple Cove, the unofficial name of the half-acre parcel.
A municipal boat ramp on the Navesink River was once envisioned for the north end of Maple Avenue, now a nature area called Maple Cove. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials boasted earlier this month that they’d “cobbled together” about $1 million from idle accounts to soften the impact on taxpayers of repairing the long-shuttered Senior Center.
It turns out a big chunk of that sum has been stuck in the borough’s sofa cushions for 30 years, designated for a never-built boat ramp, redbankgreen has learned.
Red Bank’s zoning board got the renderings it wanted showing proposed development at the corner of West Front Street and Maple Avenue Thursday night.
Among them was a view from Maple Cove on the Navesink River, above; a bird’s-eye perspective at right with a glimpse of the rooftop pool; and a view from the 7-Eleven across West Front Street, below.
Environmental Commission Chairwoman Nancy Facey-Blackwood speaking at the hearing as applicant’s attorney Chris Healey looks on. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For want of a drawing, the Red Bank zoning board stopped just short of approving a plan for 10 condominium units next door to the borough library Thursday night.
When they meet again in two weeks, board members will be set to fast-track the approval, provided a new rendering doesn’t change their minds.
Maple Cove in Red Bank provided a summer-ending birder’s bounty Tuesday. Who can identify these feathered friends of our beautiful Navesink River?
Autumn flutters in at 3:21 Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday, according to the Farmers Almanac. The new season will arrive under cloudy skies, and maybe some rain, with temperatures rising to the high 70s, says the National Weather Service.
Check out the extended forecast below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The site, at the corner of West Front Street and Maple Avenue, was cleared for construction last October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Zoning board hearings on a new plan to redevelop property next door to the Red Bank Public Library got underway without conclusion Thursday night.
A Navesink River Rowing launch boat heads out from Maple Cove in Red Bank Thursday morning.
Heading into the mid-summer weekend, the Greater Red Bank Green is looking at a mix of weather conditions. Heat and humidity will make it feel like 102 degrees Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rain may follow a sunshiney day Saturday; Sunday is shaping up as mostly cloudy with rain possible in the afternoon.
Check out the extended forecast below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Alexander In Ho Pane, John Franklin Cadamuro and Roman Devlin, with Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli, were cited by the borough council Monday night for recent work leading to their designation as Eagle Scouts.
Fish carcasses on the shoreline at Maple Cove in Red Bank Thursday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials this week called on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to host a virtual town hall meeting to address concerns about a fish kill the agency has called the “most severe” in recent memory.
The empty lot, located next door to the public library, slopes down to the Navesink River. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Months after long-vacant buildings next door to the Red Bank Public Library were demolished, not much progress appears to have occurred on a development plan for the site.
What’s Going On Here? Read on for the latest.
Bill Fontana speaking at the Two River Theater Monday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After four months of public meetings, Red Bank RiverCenter‘s effort to redefine its vision began coming into focus Monday night.
Topping a list of six priorities that the downtown promotion agency should focus on is a “reimagined, redeveloped and reinvigorated riverfront,” a consultant told several dozen business owners and borough residents at the Two River Theater.
The proposed Rivermark building shown above was modified before approval. (Rendering by Michael Monroe. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s planning board gave swift approval Monday night to a proposed commercial and residential building at a key downtown corner after it was downsized.
The pool and dock at Riverview Towers are off-limits after the pool tore loose on Tuesday, officials said. (Photo by Google Satellite. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials have condemned the swimming pool at a residential high-rise on the Navesink River after it was displaced Tuesday.
The Riverside Towers pool, built over the river, rose several feet, apparently on incoming tide, upheaving the surrounding deck, officials said. More →
The building at the corner of West Front Street and Maple Avenue, and the one next door would be razed for redevelopment. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A developer has plans to transform a high-profile corner on the edge of downtown Red Bank into ground-floor offices topped by luxury housing, redbankgreen has learned.
Dubbed ‘Rivermark,’ the project would replace two vacant and crumbling buildings that builder Mark Forman said make for a “really terrible” gateway into the the business district.
The prospective buyer of a high-profile corner in Red Bank is planning to erect an office building there, but not the one shown on his website, he told redbankgreen Wednesday night.
A website posting by the prospective buyer of two Red Bank buildings listed on an inventory of historic properties hints at big changes to come. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank preservationists expressed concern in recent days over the pending sale of two downtown buildings they believe have historic significance.