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Planning board recommends allowing adult day‑care use at Main Street Dollar Tree site, urges parking safeguards
Summary
The Asbury Park Planning Board found a proposed amendment to the Main Street redevelopment plan—allowing an adult day‑care use at the former Dollar Tree location—consistent with the master plan but recommended that the governing body ensure adequate on‑site parking for vehicles and employees.
The Asbury Park Planning Board on May 5 recommended that the governing body find a proposed amendment to the Main Street redevelopment plan consistent with the city master plan while urging the City Council to require adequate on‑site parking for transportation vehicles and employees.
Donna Miller, the board’s planner, told the panel the amendment would allow an existing adult day‑care use to relocate from its current site (the YMCA property) to a specific Main Street address now occupied by Dollar Tree. “There is an existing adult day care use in the community shopping zone and it seeks to move its location,” Miller said, explaining the amendment adds the adult‑day‑care use for that specific site and establishes a parking requirement for the use.
Miller reviewed the master plan and found multiple provisions that support the change, including recommendations to upgrade neighborhood business areas, encourage health‑care and professional services, and provide community services for all demographic sectors. She also noted one section that favors commercial retail as the preferred ground‑floor use in community shopping zones, saying the amendment is not “100% consistent” with that specific preference.
The proposed amendment text includes a parking standard that the board discussed several times: one parking space per transportation vehicle plus one space per 900 square feet of facility area. Board members repeatedly emphasized that the planning board’s vote is a recommendation only; final approval and any ordinance language will be decided by the mayor and council.
Chairwoman Barbara Kurzak proposed the board recommend consistency with the master plan and explicitly ask the governing body to confirm there is adequate on‑site parking for the operation’s transportation vehicles and employee parking. The motion carried. Roll call showed Councilwoman Yvonne Clayton, Jim Henry, Mayor John Moore, Daniel Shenamayo, Catherine McLaughlin, Michael Goonan and Chairwoman Kurzak voting yes; Jen Sowder abstained. The board’s action was to forward a consistency recommendation and parking recommendation to the governing body.
Board members raised several implementation questions during discussion: whether the change would allow two adult day‑care locations to exist in the city if the existing site remains permitted, how shared parking on the Dollar Tree site will be allocated, and whether the proposed parking ratios would cover employees as well as vehicles used for client transport. Staff and board members noted that site‑specific design and any needed site plan approval would return to the planning board if the operator seeks physical changes that conflict with redevelopment plan design standards.
The recommendation does not alter existing approvals at the YMCA site; it only adds the adult day‑care use at the Dollar Tree location in the redevelopment plan language. The governing body will consider the ordinance revision and any final parking standards at second reading and adoption.
