Parking Wars Continue in Red Bank

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Rates To Increase in July

By John Burton

RED BANK – A recently instituted parking fee increase that goes into effect in July has downtown businesses and some elected officials crying foul and fearing its impact.
Despite an outcry from the business community and from two of its own members, the Borough Council voted at its May 11 meeting to raise the fees for both on-street metered spaces and for those slots in the municipal-owned lots.
Borough Councilman Michael Whelan, a Republican who took office in January, chairs the council’s parking committee and called the final ordinance “a compromise.” The final ordinance came after “hours and hours and hours and hours” of discussions with individual business owners and with the organizations for the business community – Red Bank RiverCenter and the recently established Red Bank Business Alliance, according to the councilman.
The borough council vote for the ordinance was 4-2, with Whelan and fellow Republicans Mark Taylor and Linda Schwabenbauer and Democrat Kathy Horgan voting in favor and Democrat Ed Zipprich and independent Cindy Burnham opposing it.
“It’s a fair compromise,” Whelan maintained about what was finally adopted by the governing body. Whelan also said that the conversations with merchants in the downtown business district found, “They respected us and we listened to them.”
And Jay Herman, a member of RiverCenter’s executive committee, and a longstanding commercial property owner, echoed that respectful tone commenting that the council is made up of “hardworking, honest and sincere people who really want to do the right thing.”
“But,” Herman continued, “We think it is a grand mistake,” believing it can’t help but have a negative impact on local businesses and the community.
Anthony Barbero, chief operating officer of Industry magazine, whose wife owns and operates CoCo Pari, a Broad Street women’s boutique, was blunt, saying he believed the elected officials “should have their heads examined. They actually need help,” he said, believing this action hurts business and the entire community while they’re “fighting over quarters,” and lacking vision for the community’s future.
The ordinance raises the cost of parking in the municipal lots to $1 an hour from the current 50 cents; on-street meters would jump from the $1 an hour to $1.50 per hour. Permit parking passes would also rise, going from $135 to $180 for a 30-day permit, from $200 to $275 for a three-month permit and from $400 to $500 for six months.
Initially there were discussions about extending meter-feeding time past the current 6 p.m. to later in the evening; actually having higher rates than those just approved; and doubling the minimum cost to park in the lot from its current one-hour minimum. But these provisions were abandoned as part of the compromise Whelan spoke about. He also called the cost hike a “rate adjustment” given its been years since the meter price had been last adjusted; and even with the increases it’s less than what it cost to park in Long Branch or Asbury Park. (Asbury also requires paying meters until midnight.)
The increases were broached in discussions between Whelan and the council finance committee, looking at ways to offset the expected tax increase when the municipal budget is introduced at the May 25 meeting to make the Trenton-imposed deadline for the budget.
“Every time you do one of these things, it’s piling on, it’s making it worse,” for the business community, said RiverCenter’s Herman. “The result is, if fewer people are coming to town, the businesses don’t prosper.” And that, Herman explained, has a negative impact on the tax ratable base, hurting all taxpayers.

Parking meters in Red Bank.
Parking meters in Red Bank.

“I seriously believe for every dollar that they raise from the added meter costs, they will lose several dollars in tax assessment,” Herman warned.
Commercial properties now account for 49 percent of the tax base, according to borough information.
Red Bank shouldn’t be comparing itself to other municipalities, Herman maintained. Instead, he said, “we should be looking at the smartest, most sophisticated owners of real estate,” such as those who operate shopping centers like the Grove, Shrewsbury, and Monmouth Mall, in Eatontown, who realize the benefit of no-charge parking.
Whelan’s two members of his parking committee have also offered stern criticism of this move. Both Edward Zipprich, a Democrat, and Cindy Burnham, an independent (and former Republican), were “annoyed” – Zipprich’s word – at what they saw as Whelan’s unilateral move to meet with the finance committee and move forward with an ordinance the two had issues with. “Then we never heard from him (Whelan),” until the ordinance was introduced, Zipprich said.
Zipprich and Burnham – long political foils who rarely agree on anything – shared their opposition on this. This is the first budget by the Republican majority, established in January and for Zipprich “They shouldn’t be balancing their budget on parking fees.”
“I know finance (committee) is just doing this to balance the budget,” Burnham echoed, believing “the council should look at other means to cut costs and save money.”
George Lyristis, a partner in the downtown restaurants the Bistro at Red Bank and Teak and active in the recently established Red Bank Business Alliance, vented his frustration. “Anytime you make it more difficult and inconvenient for customers to come into the downtown,” Lyristis warned, “you chase them away.”
Most vexing for Lyristis is that the additional money raised by this increase isn’t specifically earmarked for parking and road improvement. Instead, “They put it in the general fund,” he said, adding, “So my customers pay for a tax hike.”
Discussion of parking always ignites passionate debates as the town continues to look at remedies for its decades-old chronic parking space shortfall. And those discussions seem to always turn toward talks of a parking garage – long advocated by the business community and some elected officials, but traditionally opposed by homeowners who fear the cost’s impact on taxes. It again has become a focal point, especially for Whelan who insists he’s committed to bringing that plan to fruition by seeing a parking garage erected at the borough-owned White Street parking lot.
“This council,” Republican-controlled – “understands it,” what it would take to get the garage built, Whelan said. And “We’ve had discussions” with private developers for a possible public/private partnership to build and operate, he continued.
Whelan is so convinced that it will happen that he and other council Republicans are promising a “sunset provision” for the meter price hike, pledging on rolling them back if the garage project doesn’t move forward by the end of the year.
That provision, however, is not formalized in the adopted ordinance.
Herman, who has been down this road before in these discussions of a garage and parking remedies, takes a wait-and-see attitude on the rollback promise. “All it takes is for the council to say at the end of the year ‘Well, we didn’t figure on this,’ or ‘We didn’t count on that,’” and that promise will be left curbside, he said.