In Red Bank, there’s
no place to go but up

Big is beautiful. At least that’s what the people who are looking to build in Red Bank seem to believe.

Just a few weeks ago, the borough’s Planning Board approved a seven-story addition to the Molly Pitcher Hotel and Banquet Complex.

Since then, Riverview Medical Center has come in with a plan for a large addition, and PRC Group, Two Wall Street or RBA Associates, depending on how the organization chooses to identify itself, is now before the Planning Board with a massive office-retail-parking deck project it would like to build on the site of the former Schwarz car dealership on the corner of Wall and Front streets.

All of this big development hasn’t gone unnoticed.

At the Two Wall Street Planning Board hearing, four representatives of RiverCenter, the nonprofit corporation that manages the borough’s downtown Special Improvement District, were there, along with neighbors of the site.

Perhaps such large development is a sign of the borough’s success. Considering the geographic limits of the business district, any new space almost has to come in the form of multiple stories. And do not lose sight of the fact that both the Molly Pitcher and Two Wall Street are in zones that permit buildings that reach the heights they are scaling.

Still, it may be time for borough officials to take a look at the town’s master plan and make up their minds if they want to continue in this direction.

Right now Red Bank is still a small town, but a few more big projects and the nature of the borough will undoubtedly be irrevocably changed.

It’s time to decide if that’s a change Red Bank wants, and keep in mind, there’s space on the west side of the borough that would undoubtedly welcome some new businesses.