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The Asbury Park Planning Board on Monday granted preliminary approval to build a six-unit condominium development on Lake Avenue without the need to provide commercial space on the ground floor.

The four-story brick and aluminum facade building is located within the city’s Central Business District [CBD] redevelopment zone.

In lieu of the 35 percent ground-floor commercial space stipulated in the CDB plan, the planning board approved a variance to allow the developers to use the ground floor to provide six on-site parking spaces for the building’s tenants and pay $3000 into the city’s parking fund for each of the three spaces that remain.

The planning board also granted variances to allow the developer to shorten the required length of the on-site parking spaces by one foot, from 19 to 18, and to shorten the size of the drive aisle to gain access to on-site parking.

Residential units will occupy the second through fourth floors.

Every two-bedroom unit has an open floor plan with a front-facing balcony that connects to a living room area, dining room area and kitchen. A master bedroom with in-suite master bath is located at the end of the a corridor, with a common bathroom and a second bedroom situated in-between the master bed and dining area, project architect Frank Aiello told the planning board.

With the exception of staircases that give the two penthouse units access to a rooftop deck, the roughly 1,500 sq. foot units will have the exact same layout, Aiello said.

A section of the building’s rear rooftop area will remain inaccessible to tenants as the building developers consider the addition of solar panels as a supplemental energy source, according to Trip Brooks, the developer and agent for the contract purchaser, 603 Lake Avenue, LLC.

The project site lies adjacent to preschool facility Care on the Square, who may have to relocate a storage shed that was installed prior to the school taking ownership of the site 15 years ago, according to Care on the Square owners Linda Francese and Janice Ferrari.

Ferrari said the previous owner of the building did not provide access to the shed from the interior of the facility, Ferrari said, and that the only way to gain entry is for Care on the Square employees to walk outside on the vacant lot.

Planning board attorney Jack Serpico said the matter would have to be dealt with privately. Although it is unfortunate, the accessibility issue is not the planning board’s concern since the storage structure’s accessibility requires Care on the Square employees to basically trespass on the adjacent property to get to it, Serpico said.

“You are, in essence, saying you need to have the right to go across someone’s property to access your own area,” he said.

Francese and Ferrari also brought their concerns about environmental and safety issues in regard to the development with planning board members at the meeting.

State mandated environmental and air quality testing takes place every three years at the facility, and the two were concerned about proper air circulation around one of the building’s HVAC units located in the rear yard, Ferrari said.

The two asked for the developers to work with them to provide as much clearance room around the unit as possible.

The developers are working hard to be “very good neighbors,” said Brooks, who said he had met with the Care on the Square owners before the planning board meeting.

“We’re not approaching this adversarially, we are really trying to work with you and to sit down with owner to work it out within reason,” he said. “I don’t want it to be, ‘We are coming in here and putting this building up’.”

The applicant must still obtain final planning board approval after several stipulations are met, including letters from utility companies stating they will be able to provide ample service to the building and calculation of a sewer connection fee through the city engineer’s office.

[Rendering provided courtesy of Trip Brooks. Photo of the building site taken by the Sun.]

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