Long Branch may revise plans for Transit Village

By KENNY WALTER
Staff Writer

Frustrated by various conditions and issues at the Long Branch train station, city officials are considering several options to make the area around the transit hub more accessible and development friendly.

Among the proposals is a plan to unify the areas to the east and west of the NJ Transit railroad tracks and plans to improve access to the Long Branch train station.

In 2013, the City Council voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance designating the zone around the railroad station as a Transit Village District. The district, bordered by Ocean Boulevard and Bath, Prospect and Chelsea avenues, would have four sub districts: a mixed-use core, higher-density medical/ residential transition, lower-density residential fringe and medical village.

However, the Planning Board has recommended changes to the Transit Village ordinance, calling for lower density housing west of the Third Avenue train station; and requiring developers who do not meet parking requirements to pay into a fund for accessibility improvements. During the Oct. 20 meeting, the planning board recommended that the council amend the ordinance, citing access issues to the west of the train station where there is no direct path for pedestrians to the west to get to the train station.

“We were tasked by the City Council to review the existing transit village ordinance and make some recommendations to potentially change things on the west side of the railroad tracks,” said Carl Turner, the city’s assistant planning director.

“Maybe we were too quick in doing what we did in terms of the type of structures and the density which we are allowing on the west side of the railroad tracks.”

Turner said the intent of the original ordinance was to have the area east of the railroad tracks be mostly retail and with uses related to Monmouth Medical Center, and the area to the west of the train station to be residential with higher-density projects closer to the train station.

However, he said projects submitted did not adequately connect housing to the train station, mainly due to the lack of direct pedestrian access from the area west of the tracks to the station.

He also said the projects proposed were inconsistent, saying they could result in a situation with a five- or six-story housing complex next to a one-story house.

According to Turner, transit village development requires a better link between the east and west sides of the train station.

“The problem here is that NJ Transit and the Department of Transportation, when they built the railroad station, severed the east side from the west side by creating the ‘great wall’,” Turner said. “They have not come forward with any solution or any plans or any money to repath the east side and the west side.”

City consultant David Roberts explained some of issues with the original ordinance.

“Initially we felt that the village district was too heavily slanted to the east and that we needed to balance it more and make it more equitable on the east and west sides,” he said.

“The problem is the west side properties, which is where more of the interest seems to have been, is where the disconnect is because they can’t get to the train station easily.”

In recent years city officials, including Mayor Adam Schneider, have expressed frustration with NJ Transit for not funding access improvements at the train station despite repeated requests.

According to Roberts, one of the proposed ways to help fund improvements to the train station, including a grade-level crossing on Morris Avenue or a parking garage that would connect both sides of the station, is to require developers with a parking deficit to pay into a fund.

“We have provided an option if you have a parking deficit then you would pay,” he said. “It’s a way to come up with some money from another source to try to help leverage that.

“At least that project stays on the radar screen.”

Turner explained that the vision of transit village is not being met on the west side.

“Therefore what has happened is the west side of the transit village area is basically proposing development that is not really contingent to the transit part of transit village,” he said. “The conceptual plans we have seen are basically looking to increase the density without the interconnect to transit.

“We are looking to modify this to create an area that is more of a transition area with a higher density type of development.”

The DOT’s Transit Village initiative provides incentives for municipalities to redevelop or revitalize the areas around train stations using design standards of transitoriented development.