RED BANK The quest to provide more parking for the borough’s downtown continues.
More than 90 residents voiced their concern over the conceptual development plans presented by the final two chosen developers for the White Street municipal parking lot located at 75-79 White St.
The Parking Committee held a special meeting to update residents about the current status of the municipal lot, on Sept. 27, at the Red Bank Primary School’s cafeteria, located at 222 River Street.
Councilman and Parking Committee Chairman Michael Whelan said the Borough Council unanimously approved and adopted an ordinance to rescind its previously adopted redevelopment plan for the municipal lot, on Sept. 27 during its meeting earlier that day, at the municipal building.
Whelan said that although the council rescinded the redevelopment plan for the municipal lot, it is still deemed an area in need of redevelopment.
Currently, the borough is being sued by a group called Residents for Responsible Development over its current redevelopment plan for the municipal parking lot, according to council Democrats in a previous article.
“The borough obviously has been facing a lawsuit. We have been speaking to our legal counsel and in the borough’s best interest to move forward we believe that rescinding the plan would be the best method,” Whelan said.
The borough has received five requests for proposals for the municipal lot, however the borough has chosen to continue to have conversations with only two out of the five development companies which are Yellow Property Company LLC and BNE Real Estate Group, according to Whelan.
Eventually, the borough is going to be designating one of the two final companies to develop the municipal lot, according to the Whelan.
During the special meeting, Yellow Property Company LLC President and owner Roger Mumford and BNE Real Estate Group Partner Jonathan Schwartz gave brief presentations of their proposed development plans for the White street municipal parking lot.
The White Street municipal parking lot already has a total of 271 parking spaces, according to Councilman Edward Zipprich.
With several diagrams, Mumford presented his conceptual plan which included a park like/civic center area; two six-story rental buildings that have 230 rental units; a parking garage and a pavilion area. Since the municipal lot already has 271 parking spaces, Mumford’s proposed plan will add 639 new parking spaces, giving the lot a total of 910.
Mumford said that his plan is not final and that he is open to making changes.
Schwartz also presented his company’s conceptual plans for the lot by using several diagrams that included a four-story rental building that has 204 rental units which is going to be over two stories of parking with 208 parking spaces, and a separate stand alone parking garage with 704 units of parking space.
“Our vision is we will build the the parking garage and we will hand it over to the borough..the borough will then maintain it and hopefully the revenue from the parking garage will off set any of the maintenance costs,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz also said that his company is open to making changes to its proposed plan for the lot.
After both Mumford and Schwartz explained their conceptual plans, residents voiced their concerns.
Many residents expressed concerns about the cost of each conceptual plan and questioned how developing the lot is going to be financially beneficial for the borough in the long run.
“One thing I will just mention is the way the process usually works in a redevelopment project is once a developer is selected the developer is going to be asked to put together a financial agreement pilot application, which usually outlines the economic feasibility of this project and that goes to an eventual vote to the planning board and the council,” Schwartz said.
RiverCenter Executive Director James Scavone attended the meeting and explained that many business owners are concerned that both of the developers proposed plans will not have enough parking spaces.
Scavone explains that, “The White Street municipal parking lot currently has 271 parking spaces. What we are asking for here at RiverCenter is for an additional 500 net new parking spaces, which would give the developers a total of 771 parking spaces.”
Scavone said, “Because each developer is proposing apartment structures with roughly 200 units each they are required to provide 1.5 parking spaces per apartment unit, which would be about 300 total parking spaces. So if you add the 271 already established parking spaces with the 300 parking spaces they would need for the apartments, and the 500 net new parking spaces we are asking for you would get a total of roughly 1071 parking spaces. Both developers fall short of roughly 200 parking spaces.”
Mumford said, “You have to be very careful here, because if you over build this parking garage you are going to end up with a situation where you are going to be maintaining a structure that over time will not have use.”
Other businesses owners also voiced concerns about both of the developers lack of enough new parking spaces.
“Neither one of us is designated and there are all sorts of serious planning mechanisms that kick in when you do these projects. For example, there has to be demand studies and revenue studies on parking to justify exactly what that parking lot should be. That doesn’t necessarily impact what either company is going to invest in Red Bank for a variety of reasons, but certainly Red Bank being the long term owner of the garage does not want to have spaces that they are maintaining that are not utilized,” Mumford said.
Resident and business owner Linda Cohen said that she has owned her business in the borough for 20 years and that her customers have complained about not being able to find parking to go into her store.
“The problem is that the people that live in Red Bank in different areas of Red Bank are not as aware of what they should be aware of and that is [that] our downtown is dying. When I say that our downtown is dying that means your community is dying and we have an opportunity here for somebody to put some fresh blood in town and if we continue to just drain it and every opportunity, we will all end up with a dead bank.” Cohen said.
Resident Bruce Maida expressed concerns about the borough’s method to get the municipal lot developed.
“What I want to say is if there is one thing we all can agree on is that we have a eye sore on White Street right now, its got to be converted into something that benefits both the town and the residents and has to be fairly appropriated, however these costs are going to go,” Maida said. “We need something here so that every town around us does not pass us by. I am not sure what it is yet, but we should plan as a master plan not just take this one project and say let’s do this and figure out around it. Let’s figure out around it and then take this project to the next step and make it the first step in a bigger project.”
For more information visit www.redbanknj.org/AgendaCenter or www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Fz2LZtDjo&t=2770s.
Contact Vashti Harris at vharrisnewspapermediagroup.com.
