When Tim Nash leaves Luciano’s and looks across the street, he’s reminded how terrible the vacant lot looks. There’s a fence but not much activity at the corner of Main and Monroe streets of late. Most of the action has been going on out of sight, at Zoning Board meetings and through the state permitting process, but construction on the 115-unit Meridia Lafayette Village is expected to start later this year.
During closing comments at last week’s Redevelopment Age
ncy meeting, Nash, a Redevelopment Agency commissioner, suggested the agency require developers to produce some type of signage on site for development projects, such as “Coming Soon,” that could include renderings.
Nash thanked Rahway Rising for bringing it to mind again. Last week we posted about some examples in other towns and initially proposed more prominent visuals when it comes to development projects in our State of the City suggestions in January.
There’s no reason why the agency can’t include such requirements in redevelopment agreements, said attorney Frank Regan. Unfortunately, most of the redevelopment agreements already are done, he added, but the agency can request it for new agreements going forward.
UPDATED, July 16: Well, it’s not as high-tech, advanced or even as big as I’d envisioned but it’s a start. A sign has been posted on the fencing surrounding the corner of Main and Monroe streets where the 
115-unit rental complex Meridia Lafayette Village is planned. The rendering is solid but ideally, I’d prefer to have some more details rather than just an image of what it’s supposed to look like. Of course, it’s not such a good idea to include a “Coming Soon”, especially on this project, which ran into issues with state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permitting.
Glad to see the Agency thinks this is a worthwhile idea. I think it will help satisfy the public’s curiosity, and may make things better for the Agency as well.
Kudos, Mark!
I agree that it makes things look better– but the coming soon sign on Irving St. and Seminary for the Jazz bar should come down because that is no longer the case
Yes, that’s one reason why I’ve suggested not using the phrase “Coming Soon.” Perhaps “future home of …” or something like that (http://www.rahwayrising.com/whats-going-on-here/).
Case in point, with Lafayette Village at this site, planning has been going on for more than a year and construction was originally anticipated sooner until the state permits got involved.
In the case of the Jazz bar, yes, the property owner should be required to remove the Coming Soon sign, since there’s a For Sale sign right next to it.
I’d also like to see them cover the entire fence. That particular lot has been an eye sore for some time. At one point green tarps where present but they disappeared.