New Brunswick council approves H3 redevelopment-plan tweaks, narrows residential parking rules amid parking-deck debate

The New Brunswick City Council voted to approve an amendment to the city’s priority redevelopment plan that changes parking- and block-design standards for the H3 site, adjusts lot-depth requirements for some Patterson Street parcels and updates bike-parking rules, council members said at the June 19 meeting.

The amendment matters because it alters how future development adjacent to the train station and downtown can site parking and pedestrian circulation, potentially affecting whether developers add parking decks or rely on shared parking within a broader walking radius of the station.

City planning staff told the council the amendment removes obsolete language, narrows minimum lot-depth requirements that previously called for 100-foot parcels and adjusts how far parking may be located from buildings. “We put in language there essentially saying that Paseo meets the vision of what was intended with this pedestrian block area,” a city planner said, referring to the Paseo pedestrian route now laid out for the site. The planner also said staff “surgically…