Planning board approves rooftop solar canopy at Riverview Medical Center

The Red Bank Planning Board voted 5–0 on Dec. 10 to approve a preliminary and final major site plan for a rooftop solar canopy at Riverview Medical Center, board members recorded during a roll-call vote.

Donald Farrell, identified as senior vice president for facilities and construction, told the board the installation was chosen to strengthen the hospital’s energy resiliency and would not disrupt day‑to‑day hospital operations. "The project will strengthen the hospital's energy resiliency and reliability," Farrell said during sworn testimony.

Applicant counsel and witnesses described the work as a canopy structure mounted to the existing parking deck with no expansion of the building footprint, no change to site circulation or parking layout, and no loss of existing parking spaces. Project engineer Todd Giddings, a licensed New Jersey engineer, described the canopy and electrical routing and testified that the submitted plans eliminate previously noted variances and keep the canopy under the 45‑foot height limit (an averaged height was given as about 43.96 feet). "The array system will be comprised of 470 individual panels," Giddings said, and he described panel dimensions and minimum clearances under the structure.

Presenters entered exhibits A1–A6 (site plans, renderings, equipment details and an environmental report) and a review letter marked B1 into the record. They told the board that any previously questioned switchgear is inside the hospital boundary and that external runs will terminate in an electrical room inside the hospital; Brandon Cole, the applicant’s project executive, described the off‑site notation as a clerical/design reading error. "The equipment was never located off site," Cole said. "It was a mix up with how we're reading the previous engineering drawings."

The applicant described measures to limit visual and glare impacts, stating the panels will include anti‑reflective coatings and that downlighting under the canopy will replace eight removed rooftop fixtures. From a stormwater perspective, presenters said the canopy design provides gaps between panels so runoff will drain through the structure and that drainage patterns will not change.

On system size and output, the record contains multiple figures. The engineer testified about an array of roughly 470 panels and an approximate system size described in testimony as about 258 (unit spoken as "PWC"). A presenter later referenced a 240‑kilowatt figure and said application materials project annual generation of about 516,000 kilowatt‑hours; meeting testimony also referenced the hospital's annual consumption as "19 million" (the unit was not specified in the hearing record). These figures were not reconciled on the record and remain in the application exhibits.

A board member moved to approve the site plan; another member seconded. The roll-call vote recorded 'yes' from Don Banks, Christina Bodak, Barbara Boz, Wilson Bey and Brian. The motion passed. No members of the public were present to comment on the application at the time testimony was given.

The record shows the board accepted the exhibits and voted to approve the application; the board did not ask for further hearings on the application during the meeting.