Investors Savings Bank Application Approved by Brick Planning Board

A completed administrative review of an application to modify a current location of Investors Savings Bank at 2782 Hooper Avenue, resulted in an approval granted to the bank by the Brick Township Planning Board.

Planning Board member Skott Burkland said that the bank is moving from a two-story building to a one-story building on the same footprint (or piece of land), complete with a smaller sign on the outside and diminished lighting for that sign from the hours of 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.

The banking firm’s attorney, Ken Pringle, brought licensed architect Mark Haas of Haas Associates in Mount Arlington, New Jersey before the board to answer questions on how the current location is to be modified.

“The initial renderings show a two-story building, and all we’ve done is move to a one-story look that’s used throughout the state of New Jersey,” said Haas. “We’ve lowered the height of the building by about 11 feet, from 36 to 25 feet.”

Board member Dominick Rappoccio asked how the electrical current would flow into the modified building, and Haas replied that both the electricity and phone lines would be located underground, with electrical meters located in the rear of the building.

Dennis O’Hara, Senior Vice President of NW Sign Industries of Moorestown, New Jersey, was the next witness called by Pringle. O’Hara stated that the sign to be used for the new one-story bank building will utilize lettering measuring 15.45 square feet in size.

“When we were approved originally, it was requested to put the address numbers on one of the signs on Hooper Avenue, and those numbers have been added. We were also asked to add a directional sign for employee parking only, and we’ve done that too,” said O’Hara.

O’Hara stated that NW Sign Industries is the vendor handling the majority of work for Investors Savings Bank throughout the state of New Jersey.

Per O’Hara’s testimony, the letters of the signs to be used at the bank are internally lit through light-emitting diodes (LED’s).

“Due to the 24-hour ATM availability, the free-standing sign would be illuminated and the ATM area, covered by a canopy, would also be lighted according to state codes,” said O’Hara.

O’Hara termed that the bank and ATM signs lighting up were “important features” of the location, which also meet codes specified by the National Electric Sign Assocation.

Burkland mentioned that during the prior review by the Architectural Review Committee, the plan had in fact met with their satisfaction. When the final vote was taken, the application was unanimously approved by the board.