Too Loud: No Bar Parking On East Curtis Avenue

Shhh. Just shhh.

It’s not much to ask, residents of East Curtis Avenue say, just some peace and quiet in their homes at night.

But with a residential property on the tiny sliver of a street off Route 71 that residents say is being used as an overflow parking lot for nearby Bar Anticipation, residents instead hear the rowdy comings and goings of bar patrons well into the wee hours.

And they’re tired of it.

“I don’t know anywhere in Wall where anyone lives beside a parking lot,’’ said East Curtis Avenue resident Elizabeth Robinson. “You can’t get down the street, you can’t sleep, because it (the noise) goes on all night.’’

The problem, residents say, is rooted in an empty lot at the end of East Curtis, owned by Bar A’s proprietor, being used by the bar’s patrons as a parking lot.

Bar A owner Reginald Hyde did not immediately return a request for comment.

Hyde is listed as an owner on one of three lots located on either side of East Curtis. The other two lots — one contiguous to Hyde’s lot and one across the street — are owned by a company called Zeros Enterprises, according to property records.

Through complaints to the zoning office, Robinson said, neighbors won a minor victory by getting Bar A owners to put up a 6-foot, stockade-style fence separating Robinson’s property from the empty lot.

But it’s not enough. Neighbors want the parking to stop, plain and simple. It’s a residential street, not a commercial zone, they say.

East Curtis resident Arlene Dressler said she has seen as many as 32 cars parked in the lot. And the noise level from cars driving down the normally quiet, dead-end street has increased dramatically in the past two years, since the parking situation has gotten progressively worse.

“My dishes travel across the room sometimes,’’ because of the vibration of the loud music coming from the cars looking to park in the empty lot, Dressler said.

“I will call every day if I have to until this is resolved,” she said. “I want sleep and I want my peace and quiet that I had 15 years ago.”

Township Administrator Joe Verruni backed the residents’ claims.

“There’s no doubt about  it,’’ Verruni said. “They continue to allow parking on that lot under the guise that they can’t control it.’’

Bar A owners soon will have no choice, according to Mayor Jeffrey Foster.

Foster on Thursday morning visited the site to see for himself and was not pleased with what he saw.

“There’s three entrances (to the property), and not one of them is blocked,’’ Foster said.

The mayor said he instructed zoning officer Matt Zahorsky, to write a letter to Bar A, giving them seven days to construct locked gates at each of the entrances. Foster said the lot is a residential lot, and parking there is a violation of zoning codes.

“I told Zahorsky that I wanted locked gates there immediately,’’ Foster said. “It is a residential lot and parking there is a violation.’’

If after the mandatory seven days compliance period, Foster said, the lot still does not have gates preventing parking there, Bar A owners face fines.

“We’ll begin writing summonses,’’ Foster said.