BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer
MAP COURTESY OF MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY Three separate exit routes, one going west to Larchwood Avenue, one heading north to Cedar Avenue, and a third going east to Norwood Avenue are proposed as part of Monmouth University’s pending zoning board application for a multi-purpose activity center on its West Long Branch campus. WEST LONG BRANCH – If Monmouth University builds its proposed multipurpose activity center, they probably will come.
That’s what worries the university’s neighbors who fear seeing the local equivalent of the endless line of vehicles coming into the man-made baseball diamond in an Iowa cornfield as shown at the end of the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.“
In the case of the university, it is men’s basketball, not baseball, that campus officials believe will be the big draw, much to the concern of neighbors who maintain that the anticipated comings and goings of 4,000 or more spectators coming to the planned 152,400-square-foot center could clog area roadways for hours before and after an event.
To address such a post-game mass exodus, David Shropshire, a university-hired traffic expert testifying before the West Long Branch Zoning Board of Adjustment last Thursday night, called for three separate exits from the south side of campus where the 4,842-seat arena would be located.
Although the arena will supplant two 120-stall commuter parking lots adjacent to the existing Boylan Gymnasium, the present site of basketball and many indoor sporting events, the additional 200 parking spaces expected to be added on campus should be sufficient to discourage center patrons from parking on nearby residential streets, said Shropshire, a professional traffic engineer.
Shropshire’s testimony took up the bulk of the three-hour special zoning board meeting, a continuation of the university’s use variance application for the building known colloquially as “the MAC” which would be located on the south campus.
The hearing on the application is scheduled to continue tonight during the zoners’ regular meeting beginning at 7:30 p.m. at borough hall, 965 Broadway.
Presenting the findings of a study completed in January, Shropshire focused on in-flow and outflow of motorist traffic and parking, two elements that concern neighbors about the application for the center, which carries an estimated price of $34 million.
Most of the traffic will likely enter the campus via Larchwood Avenue because that borough road leads directly to the parking lots closest to the proposed center, said Shropshire, of Medford.
The three exit routes recommended by Shropshire prompted most of the questioning by board members and several neighbors in attendance.
One exit would direct traffic from the parking lots on the south campus out to Larchwood Avenue northbound and then to the signalized intersection at Cedar Avenue, which is state highway Route 71, Shropshire said.
A second option would be to direct traffic leaving the center north via an access road leading out to the campus entrance “B” onto Cedar Avenue, which is not a signalized intersection, Shropshire went on.
At both of those points, West Long Branch police could be employed, at the university’s expense, to direct the traffic flow onto Cedar Avenue east or westbound, he added.
Finally, the third egress would lead motorists from the south campus parking lots along a one-lane, one-way paved roadway out to entrance “F” located along Norwood Avenue, Shropshire said.
Traffic direction would be reversed to flow out, instead of inbound as it usually does along the roadway, he explained.
“That [roadway] is today one-way, inbound,” Shropshire said. “It would help distribute traffic to the south, north and east.”
From there, traffic could continue onto either Norwood Avenue north or turn south toward Ocean Township.
But borough residents John Berrian and Michael Pagones expressed skepticism about using a one-lane roadway to direct vehicles to Norwood Avenue, which is the continuation of Route 71 from Cedar Avenue.
“That is a lane, not a road,” Berrian said during the meeting’s public portion. “It’s not wide enough even for one car.”
Pagones, of Larchwood Avenue, questioned Shropshire about two of the three proposed exits.
“It seems illogical to maintain a single one-lane path to a state highway as opposed to a residential street like Larchwood Avenue,” Pagones said.
Zavara Sher, also of Larchwood Avenue, questioned Shropshire about noise and pollution emanating from vehicles as they wait in cue on her street to exit onto Cedar Avenue.
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) requires that vehicles idle for no more than 15 minutes at a time. Vehicles on Larchwood Avenue would probably not exceed that regulation under the proposed exit plan, Shropshire said.
Much of the study data was compiled based on traffic and parking counts taken during men’s basketball games at Boylan Gymnasium on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights as well as Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Shropshire said.
He acknowledged that after those events, the delays on Larchwood Avenue northbound leading to Cedar Avenue while vehicles waited in cue extended from “15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on volume.”
Nonetheless, even if the entire lower half of the proposed center were to be occupied in much the same way Boylan is filled to capacity, with 2,200 patrons during a men’s basketball game, Shropshire predicted “a relatively minor increase” in traffic coming to and going from the campus.
Many of the patrons attending the games would be resident students heading home to on-campus housing, Shropshire pointed out.
“We looked at the day-to-day utilization and at what would happen on a regular basis, not an event that would bring in 4,000 people,” he said.
With more than 3,000 parking spots altogether on both the north and south side of campus, the university exceeds the minimum patron parking requirement set by borough ordinance, Shropshire told the board.
That ordinance calls for public facilities and gathering places to provide one parking stall for every three patrons, he continued.
With its capacity of 4,842, the parking requirement for the center is 1,614 spaces, amounting to a ratio of one space for every three seats, Shropshire said.
“There appears to be more than enough spaces,” he said.
Temporary barriers could also be placed along smaller residential streets such as Palmer Avenue, Jonathan Court and Woodland Drive at the discretion of borough police, Shropshire suggested. Local residents would still be allowed to access the streets despite the barriers.
The center would become the new home of the university’s NCAA Division I teams, particularly the men’s and women’s varsity basketball teams and would house those teams’ equipment as well as offices, a green room for press, and an indoor track.
University officials have stated that the center is needed to accommodate Monmouth’s competitive athletic and intramural sports programs, which have outgrown the 40-year-old Boylan Gymnasium
However, neighbors believe that the arena would be too intense for the residential area around the campus, given the structure’s size and capacity.