Long Branch, NJ Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

1's purpose clause frames the WEDO District as a framework for infill development with a greater mix of uses than the base C-3 Neighborhood Commercial zone allows, meant to recognize the West End's architectural and cultural character as a compact "village" within the City. Subsection I's design standards then govern that infill: buildings must be designed to present an articulated facade from every vantage point, and a parking structure may not front a public street unless it is architecturally integrated into the principal building, through devices such as a vine-covered trellis, graphic panels, solar panels, a window-like facade treatment, a liner building, or ground-floor retail or office space along the sidewalk.

The same design-standards block extends the architectural treatment around all visibly exposed sides of a building, requires a base/middle/top massing composition with a horizontal transition line, calls for vertical and horizontal wall offsets to break up long facades, sets a minimum average spacing of 75 feet between functional building entrances, and requires ground-floor retail windows covering at least 60% of the facade between three and eight feet above grade. All of it is reviewed and approved by the Long Branch Planning Board as part of site plan approval for WEDO projects, making the design guide a discretionary, project-by-project review rather than a simple numeric limit.