BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
View of West Side Lofts from the corner of Bridge Avenue and Edmund Wilson Plaza. RED BANK – The West Side Lofts project received final approval from the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment after testimony for the site plan portion of the project was wrapped up last week.
By a unanimous vote of all seven board members in favor of the mixed-use, high-density project last Thursday, the site plan portion of the application by MW@Red Bank was approved. The vote came seven months after the density portion of the application was approved by the board.
The variance for density, which was granted by the board in December, allows 60 residential units per acre where ordinances permit 14 garden apartments.
A variance was also granted to allow for a mixed-use project not permitted in the zone, as well as variances for setbacks, lot coverage and parking.
The vote to approve the project came despite a pending lawsuit that charges that in hearing the application, Zoning Board Chairwoman Lauren Nicosia had a conflict of interest related to her father’s affiliation with a local law firm.
The lawsuit was filed on April 6 in New Jersey Superior Court Law Division after the density variance was approved. Red Bank attorney William E. Meyer is the plaintiff in the suit against the Zoning Board. Despite the litigation, Nicosia continued to chair the hearings for the West Side Lofts site plan.
Meyer acted as the attorney for the plaintiffs in another suit involving a Red Bank development, proposed by Building and Land Technology (BLT). That legal action sought to overturn the zoning board’s approval of a townhome/condominium project also claiming Nicosia’s participation represented a conflict of interest because her father is “of counsel” to the law firm of McKenna, DuPont, Higgins and Stone, Red Bank, which had represented one of the project principals.
Last month, the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court overturned a lower court ruling and found that Nicosia’s father’s relationship did represent a conflict of interest.
That ruling successfully overturned the board’s approval of the BLT project, and ruled that the application would have to be reheard by the board without the participation of Nicosia.
Despite that ruling, Richard Brodsky, attorney for MW@Red Bank said the developer decided to proceed with the West Side Lofts application.
According to Brodsky, in this case, the only connection between the applicant and the McKenna law firm is that the firm represented MW@Red Bank principal Chris Cole for the real estate closing on his residence.
Brodsky said that a hearing date for discovery in the lawsuit is scheduled for late August.
“We are prepared and anxious to proceed and conclude this process,” Brodsky said at the hearing.
Bernard Reilly, Meyer’s attorney, said that he is not sure if the suit will be amended to include a conflict of interest claim against Nicosia concerning the site plan portion of the application. If the court finds a conflict to have existed while Nicosia chaired the density hearing, and invalidates the approval, he said, then the site plan portion would also become invalid.
Cole said at the hearing that barring any problems due to the litigation, he hopes to begin construction next year.
Cole said that as the project was taking shape, he met with community groups and organizations to make the project compatible with the neighborhood.
He said the mixed-use project works
particularly well for the area, and traffic engineer Maurice Rached testified to that point at the meeting.
“The mixed-use element of the project,” said Rached, “helps maintain lower parking need and trip capture.”
Rached explained that because of the mixed-use aspect of the project, people are more likely to come and park in the seven-level parking garage, also part of the project, for retail shopping and stay for dinner at the on-site brew pub or a show at the neighboring Two River Theater.
Rached also cited a traffic study he conducted that found that the project would have no significant impact on the existing traffic on Bridge Avenue and West Front Street, which tends to be a busy intersection in the borough.
“Traffic is one major hurdle this project has to get over at the intersection of Front Street and Bridge Avenue,” said board member Kevin Moss.
Rached said that the project would have “slight impact” on that intersection, but said he has been in contact with the Monmouth County Department of Transportation, since West Front Street is a county road, about improving the timing of the traffic signal at the intersection.
Rached said that with the timing of the light as it is now, the delay for drivers waiting to proceed through a green light at the intersection would increase from a 30-second delay to a 115-second delay.
“With optimum operation of the traffic signal,” he said, “the delay would go from 115 seconds to a 70-second delay [after the construction of the project].”
Rached said that although he is working with the county to improve the timing of the traffic lights at both the West Front Street and Bridge Avenue and the West Front Street and Shrewsbury Avenue intersections, the changes would not be essential to the project.
“A 120-second delay is not unusual for a thriving commercial area,” he said. “Traffic is part of the success of an area.”
Rached added that when conducting the traffic study, he calculated the additional traffic of not only the West Side Lofts project, but the additional projects approved for the area on W. Front Street, including the headquarters of K. Hovnanian Enterprises and a 92,000-square-foot mixed-use office/retail building to be built by PRC Group on the site of the former Schwartz auto dealership.
Meyer was in attendance at the meeting, and asked Rached questions about his traffic study.
“Red Bank is surrounded by Middletown, Fair Haven, Little Silver, Shrewsbury and Tinton Falls. Have you looked into the development projects for these towns as well?” he asked.
Rached said that the traffic information he used for his study was taken from information gathered by the county, which looks at a countywide growth rate, including the towns surrounding Red Bank.
Rached said he also assumed in his calculations that the residential, retail and restaurant components did not have different peak times, although he said they would.
“The restaurant will peak at about 7 p.m.,” he said. “At that time, the retail will only be at 20 percent.”
The parking garage would provide 264 parking spaces; 10 parking spaces would be provided on Edmund Wilson Plaza, according to Rached, and 138 parking spaces would be dedicated solely to residents of the project.
The remainder of the spaces would be open to the public.
Moss called the project “outstanding” before voting in favor of it, and Cole received congratulations from several board members after the hearing concluded.