The car wash at left is to be replaced by a convenience store. (April, 2019 photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a favorable zoning change last year, Red Bank’s lone Shell station won approval to add a convenience store Monday night.
A neighbor called the proposal “lipstick on a pig.” The planning board’s chairman called it “a better pig.”
The latest plan calls for replacing the car wash, at left above, with a convenience store. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five months after yanking a plan to add a Dunkin’ coffee shop, the owner of Red Bank ‘s lone Shell station will once again try for a convenience store.
Station owner Waseem Chaudhary’s proposal is the third he’s floated in the past seven years.
The plan called for remodeling the gas station and replacing the car wash, at left above, with a drive-thru Dunkin’ shop. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A plan to create a Dunkin’ coffee shop in Red Bank for Parkway-bound commuters is dead.
A lawyer for the owner of the Shell gas station at Newman Springs Road and Shrewsbury Avenue tells redbankgreen the proposal has been withdrawn.
The long-vacant former home of Fameabilia will get one additional floor instead of two under the approval. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Downtown Red Bank may soon be home to another microbrewery.
Matawan restaurateur Florin Lupu won zoning board approval Thursday night for his plan to build one on Monmouth Street after volunteering to lop one story off a proposed two-story addition.
A rendering of the new Shell station and Dunkin’ shop at Newman Springs Road and Shrewsbury Avenue. (Drawing by Dynamic Engineering PC. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After an 11-week lull, the owner of a Red Bank gas station continued his bid to build a Dunkin’ shop for Parkway-bound commuters Thursday night with a revised plan.
This one shrinks the proposed coffee shop, eliminates interior seating and adds more space for vehicles to use the drive-thru service.
The Shell station at Newman Springs Road and Shrewsbury Avenue would be rebuilt with a Dunkin’ Donuts shop on site. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A bid to create a last-chance coffee stop in Red Bank for Parkway-bound commuters got underway at the zoning board Thursday night.
Among the issues: what if it’s really popular?
Two new floors are proposed for the former Fameabilia building on Monmouth Street, where a microbrewery and restaurant are planned for the first floor. (Rendering by Larry C. Johnson. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Should a one-story building in downtown Red Bank be permitted to add two floors? Should a gas station at a busy corner be allowed to add a Dunkin’ Donuts shop to its site?
Those questions are scheduled to go before the borough zoning board at its first meeting of 2019 Thursday night.
The building, formerly home to Fameabilia store, has been vacant since October, 2008. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The fate of a microbrewery proposed for a long-vacant storefront in downtown Red Bank appeared cloudy Thursday night.
The hangup? The two floors of apartments the landlord wants to add to the one-story building.
The attorney for the property owners said they could theoretically build nine homes, though they were only seeking approval for two. (Image from Google Maps. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The infilling of Red Bank, where buildable lots are hard to find, continued with the approval by the zoning board Thursday night of a plan for two new homes on a West Side riverfront estate.
Four Ponds development opponents were well-represented at Wednesday’s planning board meeting. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Even in a worst-case scenario, traffic in and out of the proposed Four Ponds development in Lincroft won’t have as big an impact on the area as neighbors fear, according to a traffic study presented to the Middletown Planning Board Wednesday night.
The 342-unit development, if approved, would be better traffic-wise for the town than a return to professional use of the 68-acre property on Middletown-Lincroft Road, said traffic consultant John Rea, of McDonough & Rea Associates in Manasquan. The site is the former home of business technology giant Avaya, where a vacant 352,000-square-foot building once housed a bustling tech industry until it was closed a few years ago.
“It has been used in the past, and it has generated higher traffic volumes than what is proposed today,” he said.
Members of the board, though, pushed back against a number of statistics Rea offered, saying traffic in that section of town can slow to a crawl and prompts travelers to seek shortcuts.
Arthur and Leslie Parent’s home at Hillandale Farm, as seen from Chapel Hill Road. (Click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Objections to a plan to subdivide an historic estate in the Chapel Hill section of Middletown were not heard at Monday night’s zoning board meeting, but at least a couple of them were addressed.
The board limited each of its four scheduled hearings to an hour, thereby delaying any public outcry over Arthur and Leslie Parent’s plan to subdivide their 5.1-acre property on Chapel Hill Road. The time limit allowed only for an introduction and overview of plans for the parcel by a civil engineer.
The residents will get their chance, though, said Chairman James Hinckley.
“One thing that is guaranteed: the public will always have its right to be heard,” he said. “Sometime it takes more than one hearing.”