By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – With a surge in the construction of mixed-use buildings underway, officials are making efforts at the same time to preserve the borough’s oldtown historic charm.
To further protect the town’s architectural heritage, the borough council recently contracted with Hoboken-based Architectural Heritage Consultants LLC (AHC) to provide the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) with resources to maintain clear, objective and transparent jurisdiction over architectural changes in the borough’s historic districts.
At a March 13 council meeting, a resolution was passed to allow AHC to prepare comprehensive design guidelines and architectural surveys of Red Bank’s properties. These guidelines are part of recommendations from the 2023 Master Plan and will help the HPC maintain consistent oversight in the face of rapid development.
The services, capped at $60,000, will be funded through the borough’s upcoming budget allocations. AHC consultants are expected to begin work in May, once the necessary funds are available, Shawna Ebanks, the borough’s director of community affairs, planning and zoning, confirmed at the March 19 HPC meeting.
The comprehensive design guidelines will provide the HPC with the information needed to evaluate proposed changes while balancing preservation with the needs of property owners.
The guidelines are “really critical,” said Red Bank Borough Council member Kristina Bonatakis, HPC’s council liaison and member of the planning board, after the HPC meeting. “It assures the residents that the HPC is using objective criteria.”
During the meeting that also included a special workshop session for the HPC members, member Marjorie Cavalier asked Michele Donato, legal counsel for the HPC, about maintaining the integrity of historic districts while accommodating new construction.
“There’s a lot of teardowns going around,” Cavalier said. “So, what replaces those teardowns?” She asked whether the HPC has any authority to suggest changes that are “sympathetic” to the character of the historic district.
“It is very difficult integrating new construction” in a historic district, Donato said.
Donato explained that any new construction in town must navigate architectural and zoning restrictions. The primary challenge, she said, is ensuring that the new buildings respect the “prevailing pattern of development” in terms of height, scale and style.
Donato also noted that while the HPC can review permits and make recommendations, its role in the preservation process is purely advisory and the borough’s planning board ultimately decides on implementation.
The upcoming design guidelines “will help you make these decisions,” Donato told the HPC. It will help create a framework to evaluate new construction proposals and ensure that the buildings “fit in the neighborhood and are attractive.” The ultimate goal, she noted, is to create new structures that balance preservation and progress.
Additionally, the design guidelines will also address long-standing concerns regarding historic preservation efforts that are often met with a “considerable amount of distrust, because there’s so much subjectivity in some of the decision making,” Donato said. Establishing concrete guidelines could potentially bring greater objectivity and transparency to the process, a sentiment echoed by many commission members.
“These guidelines are really critical,” Donato said, “because they assure residents that the HPC is using objective criteria, with meaningful community input.”
The project also ties into broader efforts to balance the borough’s development needs with its commitment to preserving its historical character as new mixed-use developments continue to emerge in response to state housing requirements.
The HPC plans to designate more properties for inclusion on the national and state historic registers. This designation would provide added protections while encouraging a more balanced approach to redevelopment.
Despite the potential benefits, some residents have been wary of the preservation efforts. Last year, the HPC’s proposal to designate Irving Place as a historic district was met with resistance, as a majority of the neighborhood’s residents argued that the designation would infringe upon their privacy and property rights. The commission’s challenge, according to Donato, is to create preservation strategies that respect property owners’ rights while ensuring the historic districts are not compromised by incompatible development.
Until the new guidelines are finalized, the HPC will continue to use the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, which focus on preserving original materials and historical character. Bonatakis pointed out that these standards are “fairly generic, but going forward, the design guidelines would be very specific to our town, the architectural history and what we want to preserve here.”
The article originally appeared in the March 27 – April 2, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
