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[Clarification: Design regulations included in the city’s Central Business District redevelopment zone govern what color a building building can be painted.]

Many know the mixed used building that house the downtown’s popular French brasserie Pascal and Sabine as the former NJ Natural Gas building, built in 1927.

But what appears to be uncommon knowledge is that Central Business District structures like this one are protected by local preservation laws. That protection includes obtaining exterior paint color approval. 

“I did not understand it was under the jurisdiction of the board to regulate the color,” said James Watt, architect and principal owner. “Yes, I did it without board approval but I did not know it needed board approval. I’m sure a lot of people are not aware of this.”

On Monday night, the Asbury Park Planning Board retroactively approved the changes made this past year to Bangs Avenue and Emory Street building that also houses commercial office space and luxury homes. The approval included the addition of an automated gate, put in place to ensure tenant parking spaces are not used by the eatery’s patrons, and allowing the office spaces to remain, rather than transforming them into more residences as the initial 2012 approval outlined. 

While the buildings are not listed on state and national historic registries, the local laws recognize their early 20th century development worthy of preserving.

Watt said the paint color changes came about after repeated brick replacement and repointing work failed to protect against leaks during inclement weather. When all else failed, they opted for a waterproofing paint option, which fixed the problem but did not aesthetically match the original hues.

“I’ve been involved in probably 200 projects in Asbury park as an architect,” Watt said. “We’ve painted a lot of buildings and no one ever brought this to my attention. I’m not saying that ignorance of the rules is a right to break the rules, but I did not know until Michele [Alonso, Director of Planning and Development] brought it to my attention. It was a mistake on my part but I did it unknowingly.”

City historian Werner Baumgartner, who helped to create the design regulations that govern the Central Business District [CBD], said that a fair and equitable approach to enforcing the historic district rules needs to be applied moving forward.

Adding that the CBD structures have intrinsic values that deserve “to be treated in a different manner than just a common everyday building” because they define the character of the downtown, Baumgartner said “the reality is it’s private property and a private owner can do what he he likes to his private property, absent of using public funds. As far as I know no public funds were used to do this and the building was not on the national or state registry.”

As part of the approval, architectural details washed out by the black hue at the base must be painted Watt’s proposed Art Deco style gold hue [shown above in rendering] by a June 1 deadline. They also must provide the automated gate’s emergency access codes to the fire and police departments.

“I want this building to be as beautiful as possible and have gone to great expense to make sure that it is so,” Watt said. “What I’m proposing, I believe very strongly, will be one of the crowning architectural achievements in the downtown as it has always been but I think it will get to live on much longer now that it has been protected.”

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