The council is expected to discuss possible changes to the public comment protocol at its workshop session Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s planning board, council and zoning board meet this week, all via Zoom.
In chronological order, here’s what to expect in terms of business:
The approval allows an upward expansion of the existing structure, seen below. (Rendering by Anthony Conduouris; photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A one-story dance studio in Fair Haven is set to make a grand jeté to a second floor following zoning board approval Thursday night.
Board Chairman Todd Lehder praised the Kick Dance Studios plan as a harbinger of the borough’s future. He was also the only board member to vote against it.
Fair Haven’s March 23 council meeting, conducted via Zoom from the office of Forefront Incorporated, drew 68 attendees. (YouTube screen grab. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Thanks to a videocamera placed on a conference room table, Fair Haven residents got a close-up view of Mayor Ben Lucarelli’s beard when the town’s governing body held its first-ever online-only public session two weeks ago.
Now, thanks to the limits on public gatherings in the COVID-19 pandemic, Red Bank is also about to enter the fuzzy world of public sessions at which no members of the public are present.
It’s been almost six years since Red Bank sold the former firehouse on White Street to a private developer. More than two years have passed since a start-up brewery announced plans to set up in the space. And yet, the 109-year-old structure remains idle and empty.
What’s Going On Here? You ask, and redbankgreen answers…
A long-vacant structure on Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank is getting a major addition.
What’s Going On Here? Read on for the answer… and some history. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
Residents placed red dots on the names of restaurants they would not want to see open in town. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a prolonged battle over a Dunkin’ donut shop, Fair Haven residents took an “arts and crafts” approach to starting a new dialogue about fast food Tuesday night.
Mayor Ben Lucarelli, right, with Council President Jon Peters at Monday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Steam continued to rise Monday night from last month’s controversial planning board decision to allow a Dunkin’ coffee shop to open in Fair Haven.
At issue at the council’s semimonthly meeting was a proposed ordinance that would all but ban fast-food restaurants, even as advocates acknowledged it was no more than a “stopgap” measure.
By JOHN T. WARD
Stopping short, for now, of re-banning fast-food restaurants, Fair Haven officials took steps Monday night to instead prohibit drive-thru restaurants.
The borough council also plans to have the town join a rapidly growing list of New Jersey towns that have banned single-use plastic shopping bags.
Borough attorney Sal Alfieri and planning consultant Fred Heyer at Monday’s council meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A missing-in-action law that banned fast food restaurants in Fair Haven is effectively revoked and will have to be rewritten, the borough’s attorney said Monday night.
In that case, the next one needs to address “ambiguities” that enabled a proposed — and controversial — Dunkin’ coffee shop to clear the first hurdle to possible approval, officials and residents said.
Former Councilwoman Bea Sena reads minutes from a 2002 council meeting at which she voiced concern that parts of the borough code had gone missing. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fast food joints in Fair Haven? Why, there oughta be a law, say some residents, angered by a pending proposal for a Dunkin’ coffee shop.
Well, it turns out there is — or was — a borough ordinance explicitly prohibiting fast food restaurants. But it seems to have vanished from the town’s official code book, a resident told the borough council Monday night.
What that means to the most controversial planning board application in recent history, as well as others expected to soon follow, immediately became a lightning rod issue.
Planning board attorney Douglas Kovats, right, leads a joint swearing-in of witnesses at the February 19 hearing. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Even Fair Haven residents hopped up about a proposed Dunkin’ shop might want to fortify themselves with extra caffeine Thursday.
That’s because a zoning board hearing on the controversial plan could prove to be a seminar in arcane land use law.
HABcore plans to add a four-apartment addition to the rear of the two-family home it owns at 119 River Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank-based nonprofit housing provider HABcore won approval Thursday night for an expansion plan that would triple the size of a home it owns on the West Side.
The zoning board unanimously OKd the plan to add four apartments to what’s now a two-family house on River Street after several borough residents spoke in favor of it and no objections were raised.
Homes along Washington Street, in the borough’s designated historic district, would be affected by the ordinance, as would properties beyond the district’s borders. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Does Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission need more teeth?
The borough’s planning board began chewing on that question Monday night, and seemed not to like the taste of it.
HABcore hopes to win approval to build a four-apartment addition to the rear of the two-family home it owns at 119 River Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A nonprofit housing organization’s proposed expansion of a house it owns on Red Bank’s West Side ran into some resistance at the zoning board last week.
While board members agreed that HABcore’s plan to add four apartments to what’s now a two-family house on River Street is “inherently beneficial” as defined by zoning law, at least one board member expressed concern that it would result in “a huge building for this neighborhood.”
Triumph Brewing won approval to add outdoor dining on the Edmund Wilson Boulevard side of the building, facing the Two River Theater. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It’s been a couple of years, literally, in development, and yet the only person who can say when Red Bank’s Triumph Brewing Company might open has been steadfastly mum.
Well, finally, there’s some news.
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank homeowners who long to transform their garages into living space: take note. The borough zoning board summarily nixed a plan to convert a garage behind a Maple Avenue office building into a single-family home Thursday night.
On the Red Bank zoning board agenda for Thursday night: a proposal to convert a two-family home on River Street to a six-unit apartment building.
A rendering shows the proposed look of 175 Shrewsbury Avenue as seen along East Leonard Street, at top, and from Shrewsbury Avenue. (Rendering by Michael Monroe. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After years of neglect, the longtime office of beloved father-and-son Red Bank physicians, Drs. James Parker Sr. and Jr., was cleared for rehabilitation by the zoning board Thursday night.
The boarded-up house at 175 Shrewsbury Avenue would get first-floor retail space if the owner’s plan is approved. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[UPDATE: The October 5 zoning board meeting on these two applications has been cancelled.]
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s zoning board is scheduled to hear proposals for two West Side properties Thursday night.
One would revive a boarded-up house on Shrewsbury Avenue, and the other would add four apartments to what’s now a two-family house on River Street.
Architect Nelson Benavides discussing plans for 170 Monmouth Street, seen in in two renderings from the west. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A plan to turn a five-story office building opposite the Red Bank train station into rental apartments cleared its first hurdle at the borough zoning board Thursday night.
A plan by a Jersey City-based developer to convert a five-story Red Bank office building to apartments, and add 16 units, is on Thursday night’s zoning board agenda. See redbankgreen‘s earlier reporting here.
A builder’s proposal calls for converting four floors of the five-story building to apartments, plus an addition with 16 more units, directly across Monmouth Street from the borough train station. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One of Red Bank’s more prominent office buildings would be converted to apartments — and get new ones out back — under a proposal by a Jersey City-based developer, redbankgreen has learned.
The upper two floors of the building, which have been vacant for years, will get two apartments each. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A landmark Red Bank building’s upper two floors will be turned into spacious apartments under a plan approved by the borough zoning board Thursday night.
In a rarity in this parking-starved town, the change would reduce the demand for downtown spots, the building’s new owner told the board.
Two apartment projects — one next to the train station and the other in the heart of downtown — are scheduled to be heard by Red Bank land use regulators this week.
The first, by Denholtz Associates, would create a 45-unit mixed-use building with a parking garage extending from the taxi dispatch office on Oakland Street the office building shown above, on Chestnut Street.
The proposal is slated to be heard by the planning board tonight at 6:30 p.m. For more details, see redbankgreen‘s coverage from August, when the plan was filed. Read More
An architect’s rendering, above, shows the elevated patio of the proposed Element apartments, with parking underneath. Below, a view of the property, which includes a strip alongside the old Liberty Hose firehouse on White Street. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Questions about parking adequacy and affordable housing continued to dominate as the Red Bank zoning board resumed hearings on a 35-unit apartment building proposed for West Front Street Thursday night.
Dubbed the Element, the project would be built on an irregularly shaped, three-quarter-acre vacant lot facing Riverside Gardens Park at one end and White Street, alongside the former Liberty Hose firehouse, on the other.