The Planning Board is likely to be presented with the findings of a redevelopment study of five Esterbrook Avenue properties at its next meeting, scheduled for April 27.
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Earlier this month, City Council approved two resolutions requesting the Planning Board to study the area and hiring a planning firm to conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if they qualify as a “non-condemnation” area in need of redevelopment.
Planning Board attorney Karl Kemm told Planning Board members during their monthly meeting on Tuesday night that a resolution can be drafted in anticipation of the report at its next meeting. If the Planning Board concurs and recommends to City Council to designate the area as in need of redevelopment, the governing body would then introduce an ordinance (likely by May), adopt it (at its June meeting), and prepare a redevelopment plan.
Only four of the properties to be studied have existing structures:
- Block 151, Lot 20, 1436 Esterbrook Ave.
- Block 151, Lot 21, 1430 Esterbrook Ave.
- Block 151, Lot 22, 1416 Esterbrook Ave.
- Block 151, Lot 23, 1410 Esterbrook Ave.
Block 151, Lot 7, is a 12-foot wide city-owned right of way (ROW) that runs from Esterbrook to Bryant Street. It’s labeled a driftway, which is an “old-timey” way of describing an area that serves no purpose, such as utilities, according to Leigh Fleming, senior planner with Heyer, Gruel & Associates, the Red Bank-based firm hired to conduct the preliminary investigation.
Two of the homes have been on the city’s vacant registry since it was created in 2015: 1416 Esterbrook Ave., is the largest and was at one time a 10-unit apartment building, and 1430 Esterbrook Ave., is boarded up. Board members questioned what might become of two homes on either side of those structures that are much better kept and not the subject of public complaints.
The property that includes the large Victorian building at 1416 Esterbrook (Lot 22) is also the largest property and wraps around the adjacent lot to the south (Lot 23 in the tax map above).
“Sometimes it makes sense to make a neat square,” when considering redevelopment, Fleming said. “Also, just because it’s in the study area doesn’t mean it’s going to be designated. Because redevelopment is supposed to be a holistic process,” she said it’s a classic hole in the doughnut, meaning a property that might not qualify as in need of redevelopment but could be surrounded by others that are. That scenario played out when the Hamilton Street area was studied for redevelopment in 2019.
City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Robert Landolfi said during an interview earlier this month that the properties have been acquired by one developer. Property records indicate the most recent sale was in October 2018, the largest of the four properties, 1416 Esterbrook.
Board member Jeffrey Robinson asked whether the Victorian home at 1416 Esterbrook was historical. It once was the home of William Esterbrook, for which the street is named, according to Board member Al Shipley, the city’s historian. Esterbrook ran for mayor and served as the building inspector in New York City, he said. “It was a beautiful home at one time,” Shipley said.
Board member Bill Cladek, who has lived on Esterbrook Avenue for 50 years, said some of the homes have always been well kept but “those other two homes have been eyesores for an awful long time.”
Regardless of what the study ends up concluding, it’s just a recommendation from the board to City Council. “Designating an area in need of redevelopment doesn’t mean it’ll be knocked down necessarily,” Fleming said. It’s but the first step in a process. The board would be responsible for changing the zoning but not making a decision regarding which structures remain or not, she said.
What happens to the properties is the second part, whether they meet criteria for redevelopment is the first, Kemm said. Generally, the process can take two to eight months. “Sometimes plans come together quickly, sometimes there are competing interests that take a little longer,” he said.
Two years ago, the Planning Board and City Council went through the same process in studying and ultimately designating the St. Mark’s Church property and adjacent lots in need of redevelopment. That process took from about February, when the preliminary study was initiated; to June when the Planning Board accepted the study and recommended it to City Council; and finally in August, City Council accepted the recommendation from the Planning Board and designated the area.
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