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Officials Hope "Streetscape" Standards Will Beautify Brick
By Catherine Snipe
Brick Township is planning to tidy up what its town center streets and storefronts look like, offering up a set of design guidelines officials are calling "streetscape."
The proposal is one of six ordinances the township council is discussing before voting in June.
The new ordinance, now under consideration by the township council, spells out what the area within the "Brick Town Center" should follow as far as the aesthetics or architecture and design, including landscape, building setbacks, lighting and more.
Some towns strictly limit the colors and designs builders can use. Brick's proposal doesn't go that far, but it does outline that businesses should keep in mind the historic architecture and details in other shore communities, such as Asbury Park, Spring Lake, Toms River and Point Pleasant Beach, and encourages the same in Brick.
According to the proposed ordinance, these townships have areas with timeless designs that feature historic or recreate historic details, such as clapboard signs and Victorian building architecture.
The purpose, according to the ordinance, is to "encourage redevelopment of commercial uses that enhance neighborhoods and generate pedestrian activity."
Walking from the bakery to the post office, for example, and making that walk more enjoyable via architectural and landscaping details are what the council is trying to accomplish with this ordinance.
To that end, the proposed ordinance would also create an Architectural Review Committee to oversee big projects. Members of the committee would suggest designs to create a unified but unique look for each project.
Of the other ordinances the council is considering, two focus on environmental issues. The first details land use in regards to habitat protection, outlawing building in a protected wildlife habitat. In addition to state and federal protections, builders would have to live up to the proposed township protections, too. Under the proposal, building projects could not be approved until the planning board is in receipt of a certification of non-occurrence of threatened and endangered species on the relevant site.
Another proposal creates riparian corridor buffers, which are the areas between ecosystems such as water. For example, a riparian corridor buffer would protect drinking water sources by prohibiting certain activities and development in the areas that border the water source.
In addition to this discussion, the township council also voted two ordinances into law. One updates the rules for licensing massage parlors, and the second strengthens the rules for managing mobile home parks.
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