By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer
WEST LONG BRANCH — The PRC Group has received Planning Board approval to build a 20,800-square-foot office building on the south side of Route 36 between Broadway and Oceanport avenues.
The application had stirred community concern because of PRC’s request to use a paper street extension of Slocum Street, where it meets Route 36, to access the parking lot in the back of the office building. Neighbors feared PRC might want to cut through the back of the office building site and connect with the paved portion of Slocum Street in a quiet residential neighborhood.
To allay concerns of homeowners on streets behind the office building, a buffer of trees and bushes will be established across the rear of the property and a six-foot black vinyl-coated chain link fence will be installed in the middle of the buffer area.
Mayor Paul Zambrano said last week the Borough Council has not yet taken action to vacate the paper street where the proposed driveway would be built. However, the Planning Board resolution reads, "The governing body has decided to vacate the north end of Slocum Street."
Peter Falvo, a lawyer with Ansell Zaro Grimm and Aaron, who represented PRC, had assured the board early on in its consideration of the plan that PRC had no intention of connecting the existing Slocum Street to the driveway it wants to build and Route 36.
Falvo said the homes along the Slocum Street behind the site would be heavily buffered from it by evergreens and a fence to prevent anyone from attempting to drive through either way and that PRC would put in a guard rail, too, if the neighbors wanted one. The resolution made no mention of a guard rail.
The building will be three stories high, with parking on the first level and approximately 10,000 square feet of space each on the second and third floor. About one-half the parking will be under the building and the other half behind it. There will be a total of 85 parking spaces on the site.
The Planning Board, in granting site plan approval last month, also granted the variances that were requested — for a front setback for Slocum Street, the number of signs, sign size, sign setbacks and for buffers smaller than the 25-foot wide buffer zone that is required. There was no need for a use variance. An office building is a permitted use in the Residential Professional Zone.