Red Bank Parking Plan Hits Snarl

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By John Burton
RED BANK – When it comes to whether a parking garage should be built in the borough downtown, progress seems impeded by differing opinions – and who should pay for what.
At the August 10 Red Bank Borough Council meeting, Mayor Pasquale seemed to be at odds with three council members – two from his own Democratic party – and with Red Bank RiverCenter, the management and advocacy group for the borough’s commercial Special Improvement District over how to proceed in regards to the long, torturously debated possible parking garage.
In regards to one of the resolutions the council was addressing at its bi-monthly meeting, Menna was forced to cast the deciding vote when the council tied 3-3 over a vote to whether to authorize the professional planning firm CME Associates. All three Republican councilmembers approved the plan, siding with Menna, but Democrats Edward Zipprich and Kathy Horgan, joined by independent Cindy Burnham, voted to put the brakes on the plan. “Let’s move this along,” Menna offered with his vote.
The resolution will allow CME, a consulting and engineering firm, to move forward with a study to redevelop the White Street municipal parking lot for the possible use of some of sort of multitiered parking deck for the downtown in the near future.
The borough Planning Board and borough council had previously accepted and endorsed a preliminary study by CME that classified the parking lot as a property in need of redevelopment under a state statute that in some way would be for the borough’s benefit. The report also labeled the privately owned 55 West Front St. vacant lot also in need of redevelopment under the same state statute – a much more controversial decision.
Horgan, Zipprich and Burnham had all expressed objections about the process of classifying these properties, especially in the case of the West Front Street location – fearing it was an attempted end run around the planning and zoning process.
The planned CME study discussion also hit another snag – concerning the payment.
The study’s cost is estimated at about $80,000. But the issue at hand concerns the contribution by RiverCenter. According to Menna, RiverCenter is expected to contribute half the cost, $40,000, based upon a memorandum of understanding between the two. On the other hand, James Scavone, RiverCenter’s executive director, countered that it hasn’t been settled to RiverCenter’s expectation as of yet.
Even without RiverCenter’s support at this point, the study is moving forward with the resolution’s approval.
Apparently there was some back and forth between Scavone and Menna on the topic but without RiverCenter signing off on the memorandum.
RiverCenter is seeking an assurance the memorandum would contain language that the business group would get a refund if a garage doesn’t move forward within a two-year period. “In all due respect,” Scavone told the borough council, “We’ve been down this road many times in the last 25 years,” as conversations had been started and stalled on remedying the decades-long chronic parking shortfall in the downtown shopping district.
Scavone said both Menna and Borough Councilman Michael Whelan indicated there wouldn’t be a problem including that language in the memorandum. “And that’s what we’re waiting for,” Scavone said.
There is more of a rift between RiverCenter and the mayor than that debate, Menna said. In an interview with The Two River Times on Aug. 4 Menna said, “I’m getting pushback,” from some RiverCenter members over some of the possible plans for a White Street redevelopment.
That “pushback,” according to Menna has some RiverCenter members now “saying there’s not a problem,” with the parking situation. Menna added there are objections over a possible public/private partnership, to allow a private developer to possibly construct a mixed use parking garage that may also include a residential or retail component, with RiverCenter advocating for the borough government to pay entirely to construct a garage. Menna scoffed off that idea, noting, “Trying to convince the taxpayers of that is going to be the hard part.”
“I wish RiverCenter would get its act together,” Menna added.
True, Scavone answered, “Our preference, and we have certainly expressed this, is for a fully public garage.”