Red Bank Council adopts new Director of Recreation & Human Services position and several ordinances; train-station redevelopment and billboard rules introduced

Red Bank's borough council on Tuesday voted to adopt multiple ordinances and introduced two major land‑use measures. The council approved Ordinance 2025‑11 to create a Director of Recreation & Human Services, a move council members said follows a 2018 management enhancement study and will combine community engagement, senior services and recreation under one director. "The manager thinks this is gonna be more efficient for the reasons he articulated," one councilmember said before voting for the ordinance.

Council also adopted Ordinance 2025‑12 (salary ordinance amendments to set a pay range for the newly created position and change a deputy public‑works title), Ordinance 2025‑13 (updates to police promotional procedures requiring one year in a rank before being eligible for appointment to the next rank) and Ordinance 2025‑14 (revisions to commercial filmmaking regulations to pursue film‑ready certification). All four ordinances passed on roll call votes. The consent agenda — resolutions 25‑125 through 25‑138 — was approved as a block.

On land use, the council introduced Ordinance 2025‑15, adopting a redevelopment plan for the train‑station redevelopment area (public hearing set for July 10, 2025), and Ordinance 2025‑16, which revises the borough's billboard rules. Borough attorney Greg Cannon said the billboard language modernizes the definition of a billboard and clarifies that converting an existing static billboard to a digital display does not qualify as maintenance and therefore would not be allowed; he said the ordinance uses language modeled on a Third Circuit decision to limit First Amendment exposure. "We're now being literal," Cannon said, adding the change is intended to put past zoning arguments to rest for future applications.

The meeting included robust public comment about affordable housing and building heights near the train station: resident Hitzel Hernandez asked the council to reconsider a proposed maximum of 10 floors and urged a six‑floor cap to preserve affordable units and site lines; other residents raised concerns about infrastructure capacity and traffic if large developments proceed. Council and staff responded that developers typically pay to upgrade infrastructure and that specific impacts would be negotiated at the redevelopment‑agreement stage.

The council adjourned without an executive session.