By Allison Perrine
RED BANK – Plans to build a three-story mixed-use building on Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard are before the borough zoning board of adjustment again.
The project, brought by owner and developer American Real Estate Opportunity Fund LLC, calls for the consolidation of five lots at 273 Shrewsbury Ave., including a 3,600-square-foot office space with two apartment units and a single-family home on the northeast corner of the intersection. All spaces involved in the plan are currently unoccupied. Several witnesses and experts testified at the April 1 meeting, but the hearing did not conclude that evening.
The application for the project first appeared before the board last year but was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Plans have since been scaled back and now call for fewer apartment units and about half of the originally proposed retail space.
The project now proposes one building with 1,410 square feet of retail space on the first floor with two stories housing 10 multifamily apartment units above it, according to plans presented by consulting engineer Jaclyn Flor of Engenuity Infrastructure, Red Bank. There will be 26 at-grade parking spaces available – two of which are ADA accessible and two designated for electric parking stalls. The lot will be accessible from Shrewsbury Avenue and the existing driveway on Drs. James Parker Boulevard will be closed. The county has already issued conditional approval for the driveway, Flor said.
“We wanted to make sure that when we came to you tonight that there was no question whether the county would approve the driveway in this location,” said Flor. She added that most of the parking will be shielded from street view.
According to a professional traffic engineering and parking evaluation conducted in December 2019 by Klein Traffic Consulting LLC, West Orange, traffic in the area is considered “moderate” to “heavy,” with some pedestrian activity at the intersection due to retail spaces in the area. Some of the existing traffic is due to the Red Bank NJ TRANSIT Rail Station which is about a half-mile walk from the proposed development site.
“There are a few times per day when there is a NY Penn Station-bound train and a Red Bank-bound train in the Red Bank station at the same time. During that time, traffic along both site frontages can become congested with lengthy vehicle queues. This is an existing traffic condition and will not be exacerbated by the traffic generated by the project,” professional engineer Lee D. Klein wrote April 1, 2020, in a letter summarizing findings from the traffic and parking evaluation.
He added that based upon his findings, in his professional opinion, the multifamily housing units and retail space “would have no significant impact on traffic conditions” during the morning and evening peak commuter traffic hours and that it “would generate less than a significant amount of traffic, according to industry standards.”
Fifteen feet of landscaping will be installed behind most of the building. New sidewalks will be installed along the front of the site except at the corner where the county has already installed new sidewalk, Flor said.
“We have the landscaping about as tight as we can make it,” she said.
During a public question portion of the meeting, Russ Crosson, who opened Coffee Corral on Drs. James Parker Boulevard, said he loves the project and feels it could be “a big asset” to the area and community. But he did share a concern about how the project would impact stormwater runoff.
“We get a flood of water going by Coffee Corral and I’m concerned that we’re downhill from you – we’re going to get even more” when there is more impervious surface in the area, said Crosson.
Flor assured Crosson and the board that a retention basin is planned for the site and should decrease the runoff that occurs today. “What you see now will actually be less coming from our site than in the existing condition,” she said.
Commenter Freddie Boynton said he fears the project will raise taxes in the area and negatively impact those in the neighborhood who may already be struggling to make ends meet, especially African Americans, he said. But the zoning board chair said that would not necessarily happen, and board member Sean Murphy said when the board considers a property, it does not consider taxes or income of the town.
“How do you expect these people to pay their taxes when you’re bringing in… big buildings like this here?” Boynton asked. “How do you expect African Americans that live and pay their taxes in this town to stay in this town? You’re pushing them out. Everybody I talk to says they’re being forced to be pushed out of this town.”
The hearing will resume June 17 before the Red Bank Zoning Board of Adjustment.
This article originally appeared in the April 22 – 28, 2021, print edition of The Two River Times.
