News
Red Bank Zoners OK Parking Lot For Atrium Residents
By John Burton
RED BANK - A triangular shaped property located between Riverside Avenue and West Front Street will return to its former use as a parking lot.
The site, which measures less than an acre, had been a parking lot for the M. Schwartz and Sons car dealership once located on West Front, but has been vacant since the business moved to Shrewsbury Ave. Last week, the borough zoning board approved its use as a parking lot serving a senior housing complex on the river.
The board voted unanimously last Thursday, Oct. 1, to approve a plan to convert the now vacant .96-acre property at 29 Riverside Avenue, into a valet attended, fenced-enclosed parking lot for residents of The Atrium at Navesink Harbor, 40 Riverside Avenue.
"I don't find this out of scope over what it has been for years and years," noted board member Kevin Moss, referencing the site's former use. "I find this to be an improvement."
The Atrium at Navesink Harbor is owned and operated by Presbyterian Homes and Services (PHS), a Princeton-based company that operates senior facilities throughout the state. PHS acquired the facility, formerly called the Navesink House and then Navesink Harbor, from American Baptist Estates, which established the facility in 1968.
The lot would have 98 spaces and would be enclosed by fencing and berms and surrounded by landscaping, with the site accessible only by valet parkers from 7 a.m.-10 p.m., according to those professionals appearing before zoning board on behalf of the applicant over the course of three nights of hearings.
The lot is owned by the PRC Group, a West Long Branch real estate development company which had previously received approval from the borough planning board to construct an office complex with below-grade parking, with PHS now the contract purchaser for the site.
"The site is abominable now," said Board member Rosemary Minear. "I think it would be a vast improvement over a high-rise office building."
"I think it is a good use," contributed Board Vice Chairman Thomas Williams.
But there were those who disagreed.
"My whole focus being here is safety," said Arlene Dooley, who lives at Riverside Towers, 28 Riverside Avenue, a high-rise co-op residential complex. "The amount of traffic coming down Route 35 (which is Riverside Avenue) before anything is built is staggering.
"I can't imagine (what it will be like) when this is built," she said.
Riverside Towers' co-op board retained an attorney to express the residents' concerns about the project.
The zoning board still must agree on the route traffic will follow between the parking lot and the Atrium. Project professionals have presented three alternatives, with the recommended one being a series of right turns out of the lot onto West Front Street, to Morford Place, to Allen Place, and south on Riverside Avenue, requiring drivers to make a left across the busy street into the facility.
The other two proposals offer somewhat longer versions of that route. But the board was apprehensive about it, granting the facility a 120-day time frame from when the lot is usable to determine how it is working.
Employees may wind up using the parking lot as well, but, "It's not the first choice," said Jeffrey Fiore, project engineer. For now, employees are encouraged to park on property south of Riverview Towers, owned by The Atrium, the former site of the Salvation Army.
This plan would also allow the Atrium to give up their lease arrangement with a number of area property owners for approximately 40-plus parking spaces.
"I suggest that more parking in this neighborhood and any neighborhood in Red Bank is inherently beneficial," said Jay Herman, a member of the board of directors for Red Bank RiverCenter, which manages the borough's business and commercial special improvement district.
The Atrium does host RiverCenter's annual tiki party, an annual fundraiser for holiday decorations in the special improvement district, Herman said. But, "I don't see any downside to this," Herman told the board. "I only see an upside.
"The borough of Red Bank needs this facility," Herman said.
PHS is scheduled to come before the zoning board again in November to begin hearings on its plan to add six stories to an already approved six-story addition proposed for a site that lies between The Atrium and Riverview Towers.
Riverview Towers residents object to the proposal for a 12-story building on that property, having already engaged in a lengthy battle that ultimately resulted in a settlement and approval for a six story building.
"There is an incremental component to this that is troubling," Red Bank attorney Sean Byrnes, who is representing Riverview Towers' co-op board, told the board.
John Giunco, the attorney for PHS, said those expansion plans have been withdrawn at this time, to be rescheduled again for early next year.
Byrnes, the attorney for Riverview Towers, said on Monday that residents are concerned about the pending application but also have questions regarding what the future may hold for the former Salvation Army property as well as about the operation of the parking lot.
"The fact it's not open to the public and the fact it's going to become more and more congested, it's just going to be a difficult lot to have function correctly given the routes they have to take and the number of trips they have to take back and forth across the street."
The Atrium is an upscale retirement community that offers residents three levels of care, from active and independent, to assisted living and nursing care.
