our view

On Tuesday, many of Red Bank’s merchants filled the Borough Council meeting room to express their concerns about planned changes for parking in the business district.

While the store owners and business persons may be the first to be concerned with the increase in parking fees and the installation of additional meters, they shouldn’t be the last. The proposed changes for parking in the downtown are part of much broader changes taking place in the borough.

Several large business projects, notably the expansion of the Molly Pitcher hotel and the PRC plan for the site of the former Schwarz Mazda dealership, have already been approved. Without a doubt, those projects mean a greater number of jobs will come to the borough. At the same time, residents on the borough’s west side have seen a dramatic upswing in residential construction, some of an extremely high density.

All of those developments — perhaps least significantly, but most visibly, the on-street parking meters — signal a fundamental change in Red Bank.

It is a change that residents should have a say in.

There are a lot of good reasons for Red Bank to become a more urban environment. It has a tradition of being a regional center and already has access to mass transit. A greater density of development in the borough is in line with state plans to funnel growth into already populated areas rather than continuing to exploit the dwindling amount of open space in the state. There may even be some economies of scale that could be achieved with a larger population in the borough.

There also are a lot of good reasons for Red Bank to seek only limited growth. Despite many changes over the last decade, the borough still maintains its small-town charm.

While the train may be readily available, there are often times when the borough’s network of streets are clogged and difficult to navigate. And of course, just as growth will spread the cost of services over a broader tax base, additional residents and businesses require additional services, so there is the possibility of a tax increase.

Under either scenario, the residents of Red Bank may come out ahead, but the only way for them to have a voice in the issue is to start talking now.

Right or wrong, those parking meters will send a loud message about what kind of town Red Bank thinks it is. Now residents have to decide if that’s what they want their town to be.