Red Bank — The operator of Wesleyan Arms has raised concerns about the impact that a proposed commercial development will have on residents of the senior complex.
Nine Wall Street, the entity which administers Wesleyan Arms, has retained an attorney to represent its interests before the Borough Planning Board which is hearing an application by Two Wall Street, LLC, to construct a major commercial/retail complex across the street from the 60-unit low-income, senior housing complex.
Sanford Brown, the attorney representing Nine Wall Street, told members of the planning board this week that Nine Wall Street will call its own witnesses and exercise the right to question experts who appeared in support of the developer at the next meeting of the planning board scheduled for Aug. 13.
Brown, a member of the law firm of Cerrato, Dawes, Collins, Saker, Brown and Wilder, Freehold, said that concerns center on the impact traffic generated by the development will have on the 64 residents of Wesleyan Arms and about the intensity of the development, which exceeds the maximum lot-coverage limits set by borough ordinance.
Nine Wall Street, which owns and administers Wesleyan Arms, is comprised of the AME Zion Church of Red Bank, the United Methodist Church of Red Bank and United Methodist Homes of New Jersey.
At a previous meeting, it was determined that Nine Wall Street had not received notice of the proposed development because of an error in the borough’s address records.
Brown told the board he had been retained by Nine Wall Street just a few days earlier and had not had the opportunity to hear the testimony that was presented in support of the application at two previous hearings.
"The owner/board representatives from three church groups need to get together to discuss this," Brown told Planning Board members, requesting the hearings be extended.
Two Wall Street, an affiliate of PRC Group, West Long Branch, is proposing to build an 80,000-square-foot office building with an adjoining one-story 4,899-square-foot retail space and an adjacent 110,714-square-foot, five-level parking garage on the site of the former Schwartz auto dealership, which is bounded by West Front, Wall and Pearl streets.
The project, one of the largest commercial developments proposed for the borough, is expected to cost upward of $15 million, according to PRC Senior Vice President Joel Brudner.
The proposed development requires variances for front, centerline, side and rear yard setbacks, maximum lot coverage and signage.
Noting that the garage will have ingress and egress on Wall Street and allow for right turn in and out only on West Front Street, Brown maintained that the major flow of traffic from the project would be onto Wall Street.
He also questioned if plans include a cooling tower and if the tower would be screened from view; also in question was if tenant use would require the installation of emergency generators and if so, the placement of these for minimum noise impact on the neighbors.
— Gloria Stravelli