Zoners should turn down application

Zoners should turn
down application

There’s a lot more at stake than a few houses in the Red Bank Zoning Board of Adjustment’s hearing on a condominium project on Monmouth Street.

The developer is seeking to nearly double the permitted density in the zone, and neighbors are rightly concerned about the effect such a development will have on the community.

They aren’t the only ones who should be concerned. While the neighbors may be the ones to most directly feel the effects of an approval, the rest of the town will as well.

Construction of a project of such high density would signal a fundamental change in the nature not just of that neighborhood, but of the entire borough. Even though the zones in which the land the developer seeks to build permit as many as 16 units per acre, the developer is seeking a density of more than 27 units per acre for the bulk of the site.

Such a density may be consistent with putting as much money as possible into the developer’s pocket, but it is not consistent with the best interests of the borough.

To obtain the variance they seek, the developers are required to show not only that the project is not detrimental to the surrounding area, but that it cannot be developed in accordance with the existing zoning. That doesn’t seem very likely. If the project can be completed with 35 units, it seems the land could easily accommodate somewhere between 15 and 20, which would more closely conform to the zoning.

It is worth remembering that the borough only recently revised its master plan and that plan reflects not only the wishes of the borough’s officials, but also the nature of the development that exists in an area. Nothing that has occurred in recent months would seem to justify deviating greatly from the plan, as the developer is suggesting.

The zoning board exists to handle cases when a plan needs to deviate from the zoning that applies to a property. Nothing in the hearings on the project so far demonstrate such a need. Unless the borough sees its future as a city, the project should be rejected.