Planning Board to Review Ordinance Limiting Hotel Height

The Red Bank Planning Board is set to review ordinances at its regular meeting tonight, Monday, that help define what can and cannot be built along the Navesink River in the borough’s waterfront development zone.

Clarifying ordinances that appeared to be at odds with each other, the borough’s council determined that the maximum height of a building construction in the waterfront development zone could be 75 feet. The issue of height became a prime concern for the Planning Board when a on a vacant piece of 1-acre land alongside the river.

The height of the proposed hotel: 80 feet.

RBank Capital LLC had planned to build the six-story Hampton Inn and Suites on the at the base of the Route 35 bridge entering Middletown. Environmentalists and neighbors of the property said the proposed development was too big for the site and that the land was still contaminated from gas tanks lodged below the ground for decades, among other concerns.

It wasn’t until the – brought up by attorney Ron Gasiorowski, representing a Red Bank resident suing to halt the project – that the developer and the board hearing the application found their most significant stumbling block. The Planning Board sought clarification from the Zoning Board, which turned to the council for a definitive motion.

According to an ordinance previously unknown to the board and its professional staff, buildings located a specific distance between a waterway and a residential road could not be more than 50 feet tall. That ordinance, it seemed, covered the Hampton Inn and Suites. Eventually, other ordinances setting maximum heights at 75 and 140 feet were also discovered.

In its attempt to clarify the borough’s waterfront development ordinances, the council split the results and determined that the most accurate ordinance restricted the height of waterfront developments to 75 feet. The move came after the Zoning Board denied RBank Capital’s application in May.

It’s unclear what the next step for RBank and the proposed Hampton Inn and Suites will be. Not only did the developer face challenges from the borough and pending lawsuits, but also from Exxon and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, too.

According to the terms of the sale of the site, which served as a gas station for about 70 years, construction on anything that fell under residential, recreation, or elderly care use was prohibited until 2016 at the earliest. In an effort to shield itself from liability, to satisfy the terms of the deed.

The site is also located at a failed intersection that some, including Red Bank Mayor Pat Menna, believe is too dangerous and crowded to accommodate more traffic, signals or turn lanes. It’s unclear what approvals RBank would have had to pursue from the State to move ahead with construction.

The Planning Board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. tonight at .