Red Bank's Transitional Housing Non-Profit Seeks Apartment OK

RED BANK, NJ - The not-for-profit housing agency HABcore, Inc., 119 River St., is seeking township Board of Adjustment approval to add four apartments to a two-family house.

HABcore needs use and bulk variances, preliminary and final site plan approval and is seeking waivers for site-plan approval, site-plan details and design waivers, among others. They will present their case at a meeting in January 2018, which also is the 20th year HABcore has been working to ease area homelessness.

HABcore wants to add four apartments to an existing two-family home at the River Street location. The agency since 1998 has been trying to increase housing opportunities for the indigent and maintains there are currently 227 homeless families in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

HABcore needs a variance to allow a multi-family apartment comprised of six individual units in a zone where only single-family homes are permitted. The property currently boasts a lawful pre-existing non-conforming two-family home there.

HABcore also is seeking a bulk variance to permit a rear-yard setback of 11.5 feet where 25 feet is required 576 square feet of gross habitable floor area for each unit where 1,000 square feet is required on a second floor and 700 square feet is required on a ground floor; Also, the applicant needs permission for maximum lot coverage of 44.8% where 40% is permitted and permission to permit forty feet of lot frontage where a minimum of fifty 50 is required.

The applicant wants the OK to permit a 19.73 foot front setback when a minimum of 30 feet is required; a 3.67 foot side setback and 13.07 foot combined side setback where a minimum of 10 feet is required on a single side and 20 feet is required elsewhere. These are all pre-existing conditions of the existing two-family homes, according to HABcore's application.

The agency also needs permission to forego the requirement for 12 off-street parking space, wants a waiver from the requirement for a minimum of 100 square feet of outdoor refuse storage; to permit a 3.67 foot side setback and 13.07 foot combined side setback where multi-family dwellings must be set back 20 feet from all side and rear lot lines; and to forego the need to install outdoor lighting of a certain strength on all interior roads, parking areas, dwelling entryways and pedestrian walks.

The group wants waivers for on-site drainage, grading, an exterior lighting plan; submission of a landscaping and screening plan; buffers, screening, landscaping and shade trees.

The hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 4 at the Board of Adjustment meeting, at the Red Bank Municipal Building, 90 Monmouth St.

For just under 20 years, HABcore has provided “stability, dignity and hope for the homeless” by providing permanent and supportive housing to low-income persons in a family setting. HABcore has programs for families, veterans and individuals with special needs, according to its website. The agency's focus is on people who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless, disabled or unable to care for themselves, affording them lives of dignity and meaning.

HABcore's primary goal is to promote self-sufficiency in a structured, family-like atmosphere so that clients develop the tools necessary to reach true independence, officials said. HABcore is guided by an all-volunteer board and employs 19 people who provide general administration, 24-hour supervision in their boarding homes and case management services to their independent living sites.

This proposal may help ease conditions for some of the 227 homeless families in Monmouth and Ocean. Photograph by Ted S. Warren/Associated Press.