BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
Red Bank RED BANK — A mixed-use development proposed for the borough’s west side would have to provide affordable housing units under new regulations adopted by the borough.
Borough Engineer George Whalen told the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment Oct. 6 that MW Red Bank, the applicant proposing the West Side Lofts development, would have to create 12 to 14 new affordable housing units if two new ordinances were approved.
The new rules were, in fact, passed by the Borough Council Monday.
According to the new ordinances, a developer proposing to build residential units in the borough must build one affordable housing unit for every eight units built.
Under the ordinances, developers proposing projects with retail or office use are required to create one affordable housing unit for every 25 new jobs the project would create.
If the development is for fewer then eight new units or results in the creation of less than 25 new jobs, the developer will be required to pay into an affordable housing trust created by the borough.
Also, the Zoning Board will have the right to impose additional affordable housing-unit requirements on developers that are requesting density variances, like MW Red Bank.
In the application before the Zoning Board, MW Red Bank is requesting use variances for a parking garage, which is not permitted in the zone, and for density, proposing nearly twice the density permitted.
The West Side Lofts project would include 110 residential units, six of which would be live/work artists residences, a brew pub/restaurant, as well as retail units and a parking garage.
The project is proposed for the heart of the Arts and Antique District, bordered by Bridge Avenue, W. Front Street and Edmund Wilson Blvd.
Zoning Board Attorney Kevin Kennedy said the affordable housing requirement will be discussed during the site plan portion of the hearings, since the application was bifurcated.
Tom Thomas, a professional planner with Thomas Planning Associates, said at last Thursday’s zoning meeting that the “applicant would cooperate with the borough in establishing the appropriate type of affordable housing or the amount of contribution to be made.”
At the meeting Thomas and Maurice Rached, manager of traffic engineering services at Maser Consulting, concluded testifying for MW Red Bank, a partnership of developers Metrovation and Woodmont Properties.
The application has been carried until December, when comments and additional questions from both the board and the public will be permitted.
Thomas discussed how the proposed development fits into different aspects of the borough’s master plan, adopted in 1995.
Thomas said he participated in the work done for the master plan in the 1980s, when the emphasis was on the downtown and the riverfront.
The area known as the Arts and Antique District permits a variety of uses, including mixed-use developments of retail and residential, he said.
Parking garages, such as the one proposed for West Side Lofts, are not permitted in the zone, he said.
“The ordinance has not kept up with development,” Thomas said. “The Two River Theater [which opened this year] changed the character of the neighborhood.”
Thomas explained that the density variance that the applicant is seeking could be seen two ways, as including the garage or excluding it.
Without the garage, the floor area ratio (FAR), which determines the density of the structure and the taxes paid on it, would be 1.95. With the garage, the FAR would be 3.04. The permitted FAR for the zone is 1.75.
Whalen said that according to the borough’s zoning ordinance, the garage would have to be included in the FAR when the board makes its decision.
Although 55 units would be permitted in a mixed-use development, 110 have been proposed, including the six live/work artist spaces.
Whalen also said that if the applicant was proposing garden apartments, 14 apartments would be permitted per acre on the 1.83 acre lot.
“If you eliminate the retail and the restaurant,” said Whalen, “you’re still looking at 61 residential units per acre.”
Thomas said because of the different type of impact garden apartments would have versus mixed-use developments, it is unfair to compare the two.
Whalen agreed, saying that 2,000 square feet of office space would require 10 parking spaces, but the same amount of residential space would only require two parking spaces.
Thomas said that the proposal, if approved by the board, would not affect future zoning in the area, but at least one resident disagreed.
“If you grant this variance,” said Mary-Grace Cangemi, Rector Place, “that will be used as justification to grant the next variance for this or some other project.”
Rached testified next, amending his previous testimony based on additional research conducted since the last hearing on Aug. 4.
Rached said that his original count of spaces in the parking garage, 238, was not using the space in the garage in the most optimized way. The new number is 264 spaces, and Rached said that according to his estimates, only 233 spaces would be required to deal with the residential units, restaurant and retail put together.
He also emphasized the fact that a development such as West Side Lofts would not have as much impact on the neighborhood as some other uses permitted in the zone.
“Mixed-use developments are bi-directional,” said Rached. “The peaks for retail and residential do not coincide.”
He said, in response to some discussion after his previous testimony when he stated that he does not expect many of the residential units to have more than one vehicle, that according to the 2000 census, the average vehicle ownership for similar developments in Monmouth County is 1.1 vehicles per unit.
“The proposed parking ration for the residential units is 1.5,” said Rached. “[The borough’s] ordinance recommends for mixed-use developments 1.25 spaces per one bedroom unit, and 1.75 per two bedroom unit. Since half of the units in the project are set to be one bedroom and the other half two bedrooms, we will need 1.5 spaces.”
Cangemi said that she believes Rached’s numbers do not ring true.
“There are no markets in this area,” she said. “Everybody needs a car in Red Bank because they can’t walk to a supermarket.”
Attorney for the applicant, Richard Brodsky of the law firm Ansell Zaro Grimm & Aaron, Ocean, said that there are no more witnesses to present, but that all witnesses will be present when the hearing continues on Dec. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at borough hall.