Red Bank master plan targets new park, affordable homes, Route 35 traffic

RED BANK - A once-in-a-decade opportunity to direct the future of Red Bank is going to the planning board.

Red Bank’s draft master plan, which includes recommendations for bicyclist safety and waterfront access, will be presented at borough hall at 7 p.m. Monday.

While the master plan is not a set of laws, its contents need to be taken into consideration by municipalities when deciding land use or investment opportunities.

Demographic changes

The borough’s last major overhaul of the master plan was in 1995. Since then, the borough has exploded in growth. According to the draft master plan, Red Bank’s population grew by 22%, from 10,636 residents to 12,939 residents. That growth mostly occurred among the youngest and the oldest age groups, while residents age 18 to 49 experienced a decrease.

The draft plan states, “These age composition trends appear to highlight Red Bank’s strength in attracting young families, but not necessarily retaining these residents as they age, grow, and become more economically well-established.”

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It found that Red Bank saw a demographic shift in its resident population, with a 24% decrease in its Black population and a 4.8% decrease in its Latino population from 2010 to 2019.

Home values increased from $355,000 in 2012 to $548,000 in 2022. And from 2010 to 2019, rent increased by 13%, more than double Monmouth County’s increase of 5.8%. The draft master plan states that although the percent of cost-burdened homeowner households with a mortgage dropped by more than 37%, cost-burdened rental households stayed the same. It noted that the number of homeowners who paid off their mortgage and “may struggle to meet their housing costs” more than doubled.

Affordable housing

Red Bank is required to provide affordable housing under a 2019 Housing Element and Fair Share Plan. According to the draft master plan, 52 owner-occupied units, 181 rental units and 15 special needs units have been approved, are currently under construction or are built. Due to the prevalence of age-restricted affordable housing units, the draft master plan recommends developing affordable housing for families. It also states that the borough’s affordable housing obligation could be met with rehabilitating certain affordable housing units and providing assistance to first-time homebuyers.

According to the draft master plan, the borough has not received any applications for its first-time homebuyers’ program.

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Sunset Park

The draft master plan details three specific areas in need of change.

The first is the remediation and conversion of a former landfill into Sunset Park. The site, on the western side of town, had been a landfill up until its closure in 1983. “Wastes were formerly incinerated in the incinerator building and the residue was deposited in the landfill,” the report says.

Remediation costs are estimated to be between $5 million and $10 million, with 75% of the cost shouldered by the state’s Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund.

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The cost to build the park with a picnic area, playground and skate park is estimated to cost an additional $5 million to $10 million, with 75% of the cost shouldered by the remediation fund.

Ideally, the borough will eventually connect Sunset Park to Marine Park via a riverwalk, the report says.

Route 35 traffic

The borough has seen accidents involving vehicles crashing into cyclists, pedestrians or property. From 2018 to 2020, the intersection of West Front Stree and Maple Avenue has seen 40 incidents (32 cases of property damage and 8 injuries) and the intersection of West Front Street and Shrewsbury Avenue has seen 31 total incidents (27 cases of property damage and 4 injuries).

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The draft master plan found that “Most of the local roads are compatible for share-the-road bicycling, but most of the state and county routes are comfortable for only highly experienced cyclists, due to higher vehicular speeds and traffic volumes.”

At the intersection of Route 35, Bridge Avenue and Rector Place, the draft master plan listed a number of suggestions to improve safety including adding a roundabout, a stoplight and a one-way street down Rector Place.

It also suggested adding pedestrian refuge islands at the intersection to “give pedestrians an opportunity to stop mid-crossing.”

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Riverview Medical Center

The draft master plan states that residents are concerned about the hospital’s encroachment into the borough’s historic district through the buying of property.

It stated that the borough’s goals should include improving access to the waterfront behind the hospital, reducing the hospital’s impact on neighboring property such as noise and constraining the hospital’s activities to north of East Front Street.

The draft master plan recommends rezoning the area between the Riverview Plaza and East Front Street from residential to commercial.

It also states, “the borough should consider the impact of regulatory changes on the cost of development and how that might attract or drive away hospital expansion in the borough.”

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Other recommendations

The draft master plan recommends implementing a quiet zone around the train station to reduce honking by NJ Transit trains, hiring a public information officer to increase awareness of community events, allowing taller buildings along Monmouth and West Front streets to connect downtown with Shrewsbury Avenue, incentivizing the preservation of historic properties with a historic preservation tax credit, identifying a potential location for a consolidated pre-K, revising zoning to reduce impervious coverage and making energy efficiency a priority for new development among other recommendations.

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Red Bank NJ master plan considers new park, affordable homes, traffic