Red Bank staff seek commission consensus to start disposition of two Goodson Avenue parcels

Director Slay told the Red Bank City Commission during a July work session that city staff recommend returning two residential parcels on Goodson Avenue to the tax roll and asked the commission to endorse beginning the formal disposition process. “The highest and best use of both these parcels is in my recommendation of return to the tax roll,” Director Slay said. The parcels are both city-owned and have been off the tax rolls for decades. Slay said the larger parcel likely reverted to city ownership via a court order after a delinquent tax sale in 1995 and has been off the tax roll for roughly 30 years. The smaller parcel was acquired in 2013 by deed in lieu of condemnation under Resolution 13-933, Slay said. The nut graf: City staff presented a step-by-step approach under the city’s public-process rules to ensure public hearings and planning commission review before any sale. Slay said the process would follow the framework in ordinance 21-11-88 and that the planning commission would craft the request for proposals (RFP) for sale and development, return a recommendation to the commission, and only then would the commission consider final action. City staff categorized the larger set of city-owned “sit on” parcels into active, inactive but retained, inactive but to be activated, or inactive and recommended for disposal; the two Goodson parcels fall in the last category. Slay said staff and public-works personnel performed a side-by-side evaluation in late 2023 and early 2024 and determined these two parcels are no longer serving a public use. Commissioners asked procedural and scope questions. One commissioner confirmed “Disposition is disposable real property, but, yes, it would be for sale,” and asked whether the parcels would be sold together; Slay said the planning commission’s RFP could offer them as a single transaction and that selling the parcels together “may change coming from the planning commission” depending on strategy. When asked about parcel sizes, Slay said specific square footage and property details are part of the due diligence phase and are “not specified” yet. Staff emphasized the commission goals this effort would advance: low-cost activation of city-owned parcels and strategic economic development to return properties to the tax rolls and generate property-tax revenue. Slay asked for consensus to move forward with due diligence and the planning-commission-led RFP process; the mayor recorded that no commissioners voiced opposition. Ending: No formal vote was recorded in the work session. Staff will carry the matter to the planning commission for RFP drafting and public hearings as outlined under ordinance 21-11-88; any sale or final disposition would return to the commission for formal action.