e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e check he's good Township of Edon zoning Board of adjustment special meeting of March 26 2024 is now in session adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meetings Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice published in the home news and tribune on December 18th 2023 has been posted in the main lobby of the missal complex on December 18th 2023 please join me the pledge of allegiance to the flag flag the United States of America to the rep for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all Madame secretary roll call please Mr Bell here Miss Shaw here Mr aat here Mr chabra here Mr Patel here Mr Baron here Mr de here Mr sadaha here Vice chair o' Gorman here and chairman Kumba here Madame secretary uh minutes for consideration we have minutes of March 19th 2024 for approval to approve second motion made by Mr sedada second by Mr Gorman call please Mr chabra yes to the motion Mr Baron yes on the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr sadaha yes on the motion Vice chair Gorman yes on the motion and chairman Kumba yes on the motion mad Madam Secretary resolution for consideration case number z32 2023 um sorry Z37 2023 equistar chemicals LP what's the board's pleasure motion to approve second motion made by Vice chairman o' Gorman second by Mr Patel roll call please Mr chabra yes the motion Mr Baron yes on the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr sadaha yes on the motion Vice chair o' Gorman yes on the motion and chairman Kumba yes on the motion thank you thank you Madam Secretary uh we have two announcements uh the first is K z32 2023 sanj ther at 38 Jonathan drive it was improper noticing so Reen notice is required um and then secondly I'd like to welcome back Mr dve to the board uh we've missed you um and everybody came out to welcome you back thank you all right so good evening ladies and gentlemen this is a special meeting of the township Edison Zoning Board of adjustment this board is composed of Edison Township residents appointed by Municipal Council who volunteer their time and service to the board Municipal Lan use Law requires that members successfully complete a land use training course ad ministered by the Department of Community Affairs this board also holds inh training conducted by our board professionals the zoning board abides by the provisions of the municipal land use law in addition to our board's bylaws the zoning board is a quasi judicial land use board which differs from the township planning board under the municipal land use law board members are required to be impartial and are not allowed to discuss any case prior to its consideration before the board at a hearing all applicants will have the opportunity to present their case before the board the opportunity for board members and board professionals to question the applicant and their Witnesses at the conclusion of the applicant presentation of their case the case will be open to the public residents within 200 ft of the subject property will be heard followed by residents from outside of 200 ft all residents will be sworn in they'll provide their name and address and they'll be given six minutes to comment on the application being considered without the opportunity for a rebuttal residents may ask questions of the applicant the applicants professionals and board professionals the board requests that these questions are asked prior to any comments being made on the application once comment Begins the resident's timer will begin the applicant will be allowed for the opportunity for cross-examination of their Witnesses under the law the chair is allowed to stop any commentary that is repetitive or is an attempt to filibuster the board further the chair is allowed to stop any commentary that is irrelevant to the case or prohibited from the board's consideration once a public portion is closed all public comment is ended unless new testimony is presented by the applicant following the closure of the public portion the applicant will have the right of summation on their application following summation the case will go to the board for a decision this procedure has been followed by the board and is similar to the procedures followed by Boards of adjustments Statewide mpal L use law requires a board to engage in a balancing act and is not required to strictly apply Township ordinances zoning plan or master plan as a board of adjustment variances are granted when appropriately necessary following all legal considerations as has been the case with prior boards this board will see where we are at if we're still in session around 10:30 p.m. I ask that all applicants professionals and residents show respect to each other and be civil throughout all proceedings I ask that you withhold Applause booing or interrupting of anyone while they are speaking the chair will not tolerate any Outburst by applicants professionals or the public further since most cases are being recorded by a court reporter I ask that speakers do not speak over one another Madame secretary first case on the agenda please I'd just like to announce that Mr oara is also an intendance good evening Mr OA I missed you during my little diet tribe there no problem case number Z2 2024 Abby DJ at 111 Livingston AV applicant is seeking bulk and use D variances to demolish and construct a two-story single family home the following standards have not been met Max F permitted is 25% proposed is 29.6% maximum lot coverage required is 15% proposed is 16.5% lot width permitted is 100 ft proposed is 9 7.92 ft affected property is located in the ra Zone designated as block number 54626 Lot number eight on the Edison Township tax map all noticing paperwork is in order if the app could please approach the table are you going to testify sir y uh would you kindly raise your hand do you Solly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God yes I do state your full name for the record it's abijit G okay and I understand you have an expert with you right yes sir you're going to testify too raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God yes I do and state your full name for the record it's Paul James Fletcher f l t c h e r Mr Fletcher if you just give a summary of qualifications yes I'm a licensed professional engineer and professional planner in the state of New Jersey I'm the principal of Fletcher engineering and have been for 32 years I've appeared in front of numerous Boards of adjustments and planning boards uh throughout New Jersey approximately 50 Mr fler you've been before us a number of times the only question I'll ask if your license are current in good standing yes they are great you may proceed thank you ladies and gentlemen of the board uh good evening uh I'm here today not just as a p you could bring them bring the microphone Podium a little closer there we go thank you so good evening uh everybody uh I'm here today not just as a petitioner but also as a long-term resident of Edison uh we have uh the place that we have uh me and my family have called home for the last 10 years uh As We Gather here today you know um I'm reminded of the guiding principle of medicine let there be light uh which for me not just signifies like Enlightenment and U progress uh but also like warmth and support of the community so our request uh for variance is uh you know born out of U simple yet profound family needs uh firstly uh my daughter um who um who goes to the same school um who uh who goes to the same school in the same school district has grown up in Edison uh you know she has developed long-lasting friendships here uh and Excel and she has excelled in uh you know obviously education uh thanks in no small parts to the excellent uh education curriculum that Edison offers as well as like nurturing uh community that uh we have to offer secondly uh our parents our siblings uh frequently visit us you know to create like create and share personal memories and personal moments in summary I respectfully request everyone to consider our request uh which is more than a structural change like it's uh this will definitely eliminate our lives in a more personal way thank you does board have any questions for the applicant on Mr F you may proceed thank you yes the subject property 111 Livingston Avenue U block 54626 Lot 8 uh it's located in the ra Zone it's on the north side of Livingston Avenue uh it's currently improved by a small uh modest home the applicant proposes to demolish that and construct a new uh two-story single family dwelling lot size is uh 15536 ft uh where the requirement in the ra zone is 20,000 squ ft so we're undersized uh by about 4,500 Square ft uh the other existing non-conformity is lot width uh 100 ft is required in the ra Zone 97.92% criteria there is no land on either side to widen the property nor to increase its area to uh show the consistency of these this these two variances are non-conformities I prepared an exhibit uh from the Edison uh tax map uh I'll just distribute some you can just give it to Rachel thank you Mr Fletcher we're going to mark this as A1 yes the exhibit is colorcoded uh there's two uh radi one is at 200 the other 300 feet from the subject property which is highlighted in blue the uh orange highlighted lots are non-conforming to the Zone uh all the ones facing uh Livingston Avenue uh are substandard with regards to lot area uh there's two on the side street that um are substandard with regard to lot width uh I didn't do percentages but clearly uh all the Lots on our side of Livingston are are of similar size and shape uh as a subject property and it's clearly uh consistent with the existing neighborhood pattern of development the proposed home uh meets all the uh not all but most of the uh bulk requirements that it meets the front yard rear yard side yard setback requirements uh meets the height requirement meets the uh rsis standards for off street parking there are two two variances being created uh one is for lot coverage by building we're at uh 16.5% versus the 15 ft 15% that's allowed in the ra Zone the second U variance which is a use variance it's actually a D4 variance for exceeding the floor area ratio 25% is allowed in the ra Zone uh we're proposing a 29.6 uh these two variances are U created and proposed uh or because the lot is undersized if the lot was actually conforming at 20,000 uh there would be uh no variance required for uh lot coverage we'd be at 12.8 uh and uh floor area ratio would be at 0.23 uh I believe that the lot coverage of 16.5 1 and a half% uh is the Minimus uh in nature and not be noticed uh by the uh the neighborhood or traveling public driving by uh the uh criteria for uh the F variants uh is it's different than a a D1 or true use variance where the uh was not a permitted use in fact the residential nature of the application is is a permitted use in the zone so the criteria to be proven is that uh can the lot handle the extra F and I would point to the fact that we're uh complying with all the side uh rear uh height and front yard setback requirements so we're we're maintaining the requirement for open space and uh and air that is one of the uh purposes and goals of the municipal land use law U the size of home is uh uh 4500 square ft which is uh desirable and as the applicant has mentioned it's to enable his home or his family uh to have comfortable uh new new house uh and also will provide uh room for uh their extended famili when their parents visit and relatives visit with regards to the negative criteria I see no adverse effect to the neighborhood uh or to the master plan or the Zone plan and for those reasons I believe that the uh board could Grant these variances that are requested thank you Mr Fletcher does anybody have any questions uh for Mr fludger Mr chairman Mr dve um are you putting any basement yes yes yes yes separate entrance in the basement no no kitchen in the basement no not future plan to add Kitchen in the basement no fact no what about attic no attic no finish attic no finish attic no permanent stare to the attic no and no elevator go to the attic no it's not it's unfinished space yeah it's unfinished thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr any other questions yes Mr chair I do have a question Mr Fletcher I do have a question um based off your professional testimony you stated that all setbacks and such are met um would it be distinct that this property would match the existing criteria in the community in the neighborhood well the existing neighborhood is uh are older homes so this is what one of the new ones although there's uh there was a recent application in front of this board uh for a home and I believe it was 90 91 Livingston which was granted um so it it matches the setback requirements and matches the neighborhood in that in that respect understood so just the hardship is that the lot is undersized given the Zone yes makes sense thank you any other questions for Mr Fletcher Mr chairman Vice chairman you said there's a basement yes unfinished is there is it on the drawings uh architecturals I see I would think I don't think we are planning to kind of do anything you know so the sa shows the that they have intention to put the basement if you look at this action Mr chairman we need we need to what they're going to be doing they're going to say they're going to put a basement we have no information on the basement we will stipulate that uh it's the applicant's intention to have a basement he has no intention to finish it there will be no outside entrance it'll be strictly inside would you agree to that as a condition absolutely okay Mr Vice chairman are you satisfied yes okay all right any other other questions from the board all right seeing none Mr Fletcher do you have anything to add that's our cas okay all right so we'll now go out to the public if anyone within 200 feet of subject property wanting to be heard if you're within 200 feet of this subject property you've received a not notice of your certified mail seeing none we will go outside of 200 fet of subject property anyone W to be heard please approach seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close second motion made by Mr sedada second by Mr Patel all in favor signify by saying I I iose nay the eyes have it public portion is now closed and I'll go to the board for decision Mr chairman Mr D I'll make a motion to approve this application applicant will comply with the engine's report um with the card that there will not be finished basement there is no separate entrance to the basement there is no kitchen in the basement unfinished addict um this application it it is a diminum the Minimus request it is not a detriment to the neighborhood it enhances the neighborhood not out of character with the neighborhood and there's no objection from Neighbors second motion made by Mr dve second by Mr Sada roll call please Mr chabra yes to the motion Mr Baron yes on the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr D yes on the motion Mr sadaha yes on the motion Vice chair Gorman no on the motion and chairman Kumba yes on the motion okay you're approved congratulations thank you thank you sit here or we go there set up so one is done are you this is really I got it the first h get okay all right mad secretary es kaks on the agenda please case Z10 2023 Edison Muslim Community Center 157 and 15 9 planfield AV applicant is seeking bulk and ustd variances for an addition and alterations to the existing dwelling to convert into a house of worship standards have not been met in accordance with the master plan this is not a permitted use in this Zone maximum lot coverage is 40% proposed is 98.4% number of parking spaces is 54 proposed is 42 spaces affected property is located in the RB Zone designated as block number 16113 Lot number 1.14 and 1.13 on the Edison Township tax map all noticing paperwork is in order good evening good evening my name is John DeLuca from the law firm Boris golden Foley VI hman install on behalf of the applicant Edison Muslim Community Center I do have a few uh handouts that will assist in our presentation so if I could approach the board and you could just give them to uh Rachel and sh'll distribute perfect thank you thank you so much some of them last two okay I'll need to know if it was or wasn't mark so as you go through it I'm okay all right thank you uh again my name is John duuk I'm here on behalf of the Edison Muslim Community Center uh the property is located at 157 planfield Avenue uh this is a site plan and variance application uh the entire site is uh just over 29,000 Square ft uh two single family homes with several accessories sheds or garages currently exist on the site we are proposing house of worship um one of the existing dwellings will be renovated and expanded to allow the construction of a three-story Worship Center the building will include a basement and two upper floors for prayer Hall and other uh accessory spaces uh we're proposing a two-way driveway for access to and from planfield Avenue and uh with the inclusion of electric vehicle parking uh our parking count will uh we're proposing is 48 parking spaces uh for this we submit to the board uh that we require relief in the form of prel uh minor preliminary and final site plan approval uh D3 use variance is a deviation from conditional use standards uh as well as a variance bulk variance relief for minimum lot area minimum lot width maximum impervious coverage and required parking we are Mr Mr chairman Mr M if I can interrupt please this is not a conditional use it's a not a permitted use in this Zone I've been round and round it doesn't call that as a conditional use it says that it's it's permitted if if it's provided with three acres which it is not so it's not permitted so it's a D1 variant so let's let's start off on the right track here it's not a conditional use variant Mr DeLuca I would agree this is a D1 it's not a D3 it's not conditional you need three acres without the three acres it is a D1 okay all right my I my misstatement one other correction uh the gentleman's corrected in size for minor site plan but we don't Grant minor site plans this prary and final here in Edison we're going to have to update the ordinance at some point but we only Grant preliminary or final site plan thank you all right my apologies for the misstatements uh I I don't intend to dispute any of that I I I fully fully agree with your professionals assessments uh we're located in the RB Zone this is a single family residential Zone uh and we just talked about what uses are typically permitted there in terms of our presentation I I intend to present the testimony of four Witnesses first you'll hear from uh Mr bassir akar uh he's a my fact witness he's representative of the organization uh second you'll hear from John Dupont who is our professional engineer and also a professional planner then you'll hear from Ashraf ragab he's our licensed architect and then you also hear from quasi massud an expert in the field of traffic engineering uh so if the board doesn't have any uh housekeeping items or or Corrections or anything else that needs to be placed on the record uh before I get to my Witnesses uh then I'll proceed and ask my first witness to be sworn in does the board have any questions for Mr Duca I thank you seeing none you may proceed thank you sir would you raise your right hand do you telling me swear affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth hope you got yes I do and could you kindly State your phone name for the record Basir akar it is spell it as b a s e r last name octar AK h t a r uh thank you Mr octar what is your position with the Edison Muslim Community Center I'm one of the board member there so you're familiar with the operations and the plans for this establishment yes I do okay and how long have you been associated with uh education uh Edison Muslim Community Center around five to six years okay and can you tell me what what is your proposal for the property so basically uh the entire proposal is just to make the house of worship uh in Islamic we Islam we call it as a mosque all right and aside from prayer or religious services are you proposing any other activities on the property we only intend to do some religious education only on the weekends which will not conflict with any of the other prayer schedule okay and uh when will your prayer times prayer services be offered so our daily prayer schedule is basically uh five times a day um I think we already probably you see the the the details about all the five different periods and the timings in there uh which the handout which is given by Mr Dua all right so my client has referenced uh the document that's titled Edison Muslim Community Center activities so this is a this is a schedule if you could just describe the document and if we could kindly mark it uh I'm going to mark that as this is the Edison musle Community Center activities I'm going to mark that as A1 thank you so I'm just going to elaborate a little bit about this document here um as you can see that there are five daily prayers which is basically from Monday all the way to Sunday the only additional paer you will see uh is on Friday in fact it's not additional prayer it is just a mandatory prayer which takes little bit extra amount of uh time compared to any other uh other prayer on that time so each prayer usually takes uh about 15 minutes and they are into different intervals of time the first one starts at around 5:00 again these are not the exact numbers uh I just want to be clarify that these are uh all the prayer timings are basically uh calculated based on the sunset and sunrise time so this 5:00 prayer again goes by what time is the sunrise on that particular day and it varies in summer and winter then the second prayer uh usually Falls towards midday so we point it out as 1 p.m. prayer and then uh the third prayer basically Falls right before the sunset the fourth prayer Falls in right after the sunset and then the fifth prayer basically goes in about an hour after the after the sunset um the only prayer which uh I would like to little bit emphasize more and I think probably everybody have more concern is a Friday prayer which may cause a little bit additional traffic uh other than that and then we already have a very detailed plan that how we going to handle the situation we can go into more detail if anybody have more questions about it and I'm sure we'll get to that with some of our other Witnesses but uh for you I'd like to know what's the maximum number of congregants or prayers you uh expect to see for that Friday prayer not more than 200 at any given of given point of time okay um now do you expect all of these 200 individuals to drive to the site uh no um and the and we do have some underlined fact around it uh we do identified about 80 uh residents who will live within 10 minutes walking distance from this uh proposed location uh we do have their names addresses uh they are already our Uh current congregants so just trying to be conservative we assume only 50% of those congregants might be walking uh to the place that is uh we are considering only 40 people uh out of 80 who might be walking uh to this proposed location for for the prayers all right thank you and is there any anything else uh you want to share with the board before we move on to the next witness sure uh thank you for giving me this uh uh opportunity to talk little bit more about the project I'm not going to take too much of your time the intent of this mosque is not only limited uh to uh to only as a house of worship but basically this organization is already involved in different community activities so this particular location is going to be served as a fullest to any person comes from any religion from any ethnicity who feels comfortable and seek help here this organization is already serving past few years in a similar manner by having food drives food pantries soup kitchens winter Drive clothing Etc just uh for the record uh we do have uh the data available also in last past two weeks we distributed about 20 families need families uh a monthlong groceries and uh we have the data who we provided to so and this is all free of cost it is all the charitables uh we get from different organizations and from different individuals um in addition to it uh just wanted to bring it up that during covid-19 we did uh two food drives uh in the township of Edison and they both were right here in Lake papani one was in May and the second one was in June of 2020 uh we actually distributed four 40 foot containers of food that goes out to like about 900 to 1,000 families uh some of the township officials was also involved with us and helping us out and doing this great work so in conclusion uh I just wanted to emphasize that this establishment of a mosque in Addison is not just a matter of religious freedom here it is a testament to our commitment to divers inclusion and mutual respect I urge you to consider our request with an open heart and mind recognizing the positive impact it will have to our community and the township of Edison thank you thank you Mr actar um I have no further questions unless the board has some questions of the fact witness thank you so much Mr actar does the board have any questions for Mr actar um what is the current use of the uh premise now current use is the the property is basically for no use we just waiting for the U for the town to approve it so there is no prayer nothing is happening nothing is happening on this location we are actually renting out a space in a synagogue on 91 Jefferson Boulevard where we are conducting our daily prayers now the other question is how would you control that you will have only 200 congregant any given time how would you control the crowd so as of right now uh the place where we are conducting the the prayers we the crowd maxximum crowd we have there is about 90 to 100 and we have about walking crowd there is 10 to 15 so this there is no way that first of all we are reaching it to 200 Benchmark even at that location even if there is uh we do have a plan that we can split the our Friday prayer because that is the only prayer where we are expecting more people to come in because it is one of the mandatory prayer we can split the prayer into if any time we feel that the parking is becoming an issue if the building size is becoming an issue we can always split the pairer into two sessions into three sessions if needed my my biggest concern is you have 1293 square ft for the Jan prayer Hall 1293 is a small two bedroom apartment building basically that many square fet you're trying to put 129 men Mr chairman Mr speak if I could interrupt um the number of people that are going to be allowed in that building will be done by the building code not by the zoning code so whatever they're allowed per square foot per person it'll be calculated and it'll be put on their building permit and they won't be able to exceed that number I get it I'm just questioning what they submitted his number might be they were on the property at some time or things of that nature but so you may see some people on the property but they there's a maximum number that the building code and then they be in violation of the fire codes and everything else so we really don't want to go there okay all right sir Mr big do we have that number yet it'll get calculated by the building department when they when they submit for their renovation plans and stuff all right so that the occupancy would be based on the building code but I'm just going to keep on asking the questions and then you have a l prayer Hall 870 square foot a small studio apartment and you're trying to put 87 people to prayer this is something I think that how would you be able to control the crowd there beside the parking beside anything else looks like it FS a little small all right Mr chairman thank you mrby any other questions from The Bard Mr octar uh I actually so uh Mr oar is there any after any the prayer session is there any Fellowship afterwards I'm tell I'm looking at just like is there any Fellowship afterwards after prayer is there any activities after prayer or is it is it simply as it is people come in for prayer uh and then go home basically it is only for prayer if there are other activities if any community events uh we may want to have we usually rent out other bigger banquet halls we already have few events at kkwc and rville park and we did couple of events where we expect a bigger crowd we go to some bigger places okay and then your um proposed schedule so the earliest time that um would begin is prayer would begin is 5:00 a.m. that is the approximate time so if if there were hours um so you by You' estimate maybe like 4:30 people would begin arriving uh not really I mean these are the prayers uh where we ex even right now we not have not more than 10 people attending these prayers okay okay and then evening evening prayers so 8:00 p.m. you know in the summertime usually sunsets a little before 9: correct correct so like probably it's going to fall out like somewhere around 9ish 9 o' okay okay all right um okay all right thank you very much Mr chairman Mr z uh Mr akar you said soup kitchen uh you you're going to have a kitchen also in the uh in this building so we do have a soup kitchen here in this building but currently there is another organization in Newark uh that name is kdwc I can if anybody's interested we can uh share more details around it and we do collaborate for the soup kitchen activities with them thank you thank you Mr any other questions from Mr arar Mr Brown chair um your prayers start at 5 and on what happens from 6:00 to 12 basically nothing but is the are the premises open premises usually open but usually we probably have a security on someone to keep an eye but there is no activities happening during that time okay can you give an estimate of like when there's nothing happening how few people might just randomly usually yeah so usually when nothing happening we usually uh have our cleaning people get there to keep the the place you know uh cleaned up if there's any perishables need to be refilled you know like just uh basically just to keep up the place and do some housekeeping work during those those times and I in regards to the soup kitchen is there food being consumed on the on the premises or it's it's taken out of the taken out so no food is served in the building not not right now nothing okay thank you Mr BR and Mr z u mror i just have another question like you said Friday about 200 right what about the festivals how much traffic you going to You're Expecting on a you have some correct so if any point of time we have a people of gathering usually even today that because we have to do some different arrangements for the programs so we usually take RSVP for from the community that how many people we are expecting it so we usually have a good amount of count up front so even for the bigger Festival if anytime we feel that we are not able to handle the crowd on this location we always have an option to move out and that's what we do uh today also okay thank you thank you any other questions Mr Sher I have a question Mr Cher um for the storage room downstairs do you have any intentions to finishing it or what's the storage room used for in the basement right now if we are proposing it as a storage room uh there is no plan uh in a short term to finish it but down the line if there's a need arises we'll come back to the board with ask you our permission if it will be allowed by and meet all the building codes uh we can proceed okay at this time is it going to be used for any activities no activities there okay all right thank you any other questions see none thank you Mr doctor thank you sir thank you our next uh witness will be John Dupont our site engineer he's over here do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you got I do and please State your full name John P Dupont Mr Dupont if you just give a summary of your uh qualifications certainly I am a licensed professional engineer and planner of state of New Jersey for the past 25 years I've served as the burough of corat um Planning and Zoning Board engineer I've been through boards throughout the state including numerous times around this board as both a planner and engineer qualifications all good standing or current and you're looking to be accepted as both a planner and engineer that is correct okay all right without objection May proceed Mr dupon what can you tell us about the the engineering plans you designed for this project okay so what I have on the board here is sheet four of nine of your submitt packet might be the uh best plan to kind of give an overview so the existing property is 29,7 square ft it contains currently two frame single family dwellings and several accessory buildings the area between the buildings is currently paved and the entire back lot is broken up Asphalt and gravel the property does have one existing violation the minimum front yard setback of 25 ft F feet is not being met currently uh the closest building is 157 the front your set back is 22.5 feet so there's one existing violation so what the applicant is looking to do is convert the site into a house of worship the existing dwelling at 157 to the right as you're looking at the property that dwelling gets expanded and converted into a three level house of worship the single family home to the left of the site which is the north site remains unchanged there will be a basement and there'll be two floors of prayers the building will also include classrooms bathrooms and some conference room space the building will front on planfield Avenue and the rear of the property will be improved to provide 48 parking spaces again the re of the parking lot where where it's parking now we're proposing uh complete new parking lot back there lighting buffering and we'll get into a couple details of it so places of worship are not permitted with the Zone um due to bulk requirements so we are asking for a use variant in addition there's several bulk variants we're asking for minimum lot area for the house of worship use is 3 acres our site is 0.67 Acres the minimum lot width is 200 feet our current lot width is 150 maximum impervious coverage 40% maximum allowed little unusual we have 98.4% according to your calculation but I want want to give a little explanation this from an engineering standpoint the reason why the number is so high the entire rear parking lot we've used porest pavement so the your Township's correct it's a drivable regulated surface it counts as impervious coverage according to your definition but the reality is impervious coverage one of the big items one one of the big concerns about impervious coverage is you want to limit storm water runoff we were conscientious about that in the beginning I'm going to show you how many square feet reduction in impervious coverage we have here reduction and storm R off leaving the site just by our proposed building and parking spaces 60 spaces required 48 spaces uh proposed in that 48 spaces we do have three 88 spaces and eight electric vehicle charging stations and as we said we do need the use variant because you don't meet those both requirements in ordens so expanding the existing D 157 second D remains unchanged um we do have the 48 Park spaces on site porish pavement lit according to your Township standards we have two two sides of the the front is obviously PFI the avenue to the South we have the wick shopping plaza to the north side of property is a red residential there's three residential homes there it's a residential neighborhood so we have a significant buffer there and we also have the rear of the property is wooded so along the northern side and the Eastern side of the property we have proposed 8 foot high Bard on board fence and a 3-ft planted buffer strip we understand the importance of buffering the residential property from our parking area I think we've done that very well there's a proposed enclosed dumpster completely screened again handicap spaces with handicap accessibility we had um Lighting in coordin to your dark sky standards will meet that and drainage so there's because we use them po uh porish pavement here we're showing an 18,000 foot reduction in appropriate surface so the we are going to significantly reduce the drainage from the site thinking we make a significant Improvement just by that technique alone uh heavy screening so the next thing I want to talk about we do have professional staff letters from big nail planning and from DNR so Mr bignell his last letter was January 10th 20124 I think we could comply with everything but there's a couple comments I think we should talk about our traffic engineer is going to talk about traffic flow for the site so we'll leave that to him um but Mr Bell did ask if the rear parking area is curbed it's not it's poorest payment we don't want it curbed so we don't think the word's getting there so we don't want to curb that the angle of parking and chairman our latest uh review is March 21st so oh I didn't get that yeah it's here I'm sorry I didn't see one it just cleans up anything outstanding that I need to okay thank you for that the um the other thing I wanted to talk touch base on can we just go Point by point just with Mr bignell just just the way we can just we don't get lost in the shuffle here so you had said um that the curb lines in the rear of the parking yeah the real parking the rear parking area is not curbed okay Mr I certainly will it makes it makes it a whole lot easier to go through the report 11a must submit uh approvals for msus County pling boards fre soil completely agree B was answered by the first witness B was okay um Lots shall be combined via plat or deed I assume we're going to do deed Mr attorney there go yes um the proposed North dwelling the north the north dwelling will remain un unmodified no no changes at all to dwelling to North I think the perhaps the applicant could talk about who's going to live in that but that remains unchanged uh traffic that's e1e we'll have our traffic engineer address that we will have also have the traffic engineer address F talking about parking spaces parking lot needs to show additional design details angles parking spaces we've done that we've shown the angles of the spaces the depth of the spaces the the aisle wids I think all fully compliant with your Township standards will certainly comply with Mr bignell has a concern can you go back to f the last sentence in F how will the parking at the wick center help the parking overall I think our traffic guys address that as well very good um clarify the impervious Cal coverage calculations that's where in my calculation impervious I pulled out the POR payment went down to only 24% your ordinance is clear we have to ask for air for 98% because Porsche pavement is a regulated surface it counts to your impervious coverage so Mr Bell is right about that um occupancy number the applicant I think talked about that the occupancy numbers we have provided J is a fully screened trash enclosure has been provided in a rear fully screened all Landscaping areas according to Kate will be irrigated there's a no a plan complete irrigation the site AB buts a residential dwelling needs to be provide a substantial 10ft deep buffer along the property line uh buffer may be reduced to F feet along the south in the rear property lines and the buffer should contain that 8ot high fence so we do have 8ot high board on board fence to the north and this the east of the property along the Residential Properties we only got a three foot wide planting buffer strip so we're going to need a relief on that design wer well I'm I I only say five fot so that it would the plants live but if you're going to irrigate them I think that'll be a help okay so I have no problem with the five that's great reduction from the five M talks about the curbing on the rear it is not going to be curbed and the board should not that house of worship uh because they facilitate free exercise of religion or inherently beneficial I'll get the inherently beneficial on my planning testimony applicant should provide documentation about pipeline buffering requirements if approved we will comply with the B pipeline buffering requirements um any proposed signs I don't think there is any at this moment but are could confirm that for us before we and I think that's it for the big nail letter yeah the number 12 was for your planning testimony when you get done yep okay absolutely thank you Mr Bell you're satisfied I'm satisfied Mr chairman thank you very much the last DNR letter I'm sorry go you I'm sorry the last D sure you the mic microphone ready to rock okay I think the last d letter is January 16th that's correct Okay so we've read that letter we can comply with everything but I do want to hit a couple of those items 3.5 talks about the need for a loading space we don't need one or require one so we we' like not to put one in it would just be a waste of space for us uh 5.0 talks about the need for drain calculations we will certainly Supply that we've had some impervious numbers on there we know the answer to this and we'll certainly Supply drainage calculations for dnr's approval 8.2 we respectfully request a design waiver of the fiscal impact study because we're not bringing in new housing I think it's we can get a wer on that hopefully and 8.4 talks about Wetlands there's a letter I hope you have um eastern states environment that was hired by the by the applicant and in April 13th of 2022 did a Wetlands investigation study their investigation came back that there is no Wetlands within 150 ft of the property there are some farther into the woods but that no it's intermediate resource and no buffer would reach our property so no restrictions and I think that completes my engineering testimony if the board has any questions mrar uh thank you for that testimony um chairman uh subject to review of that Wetlands document assuming that it states exactly what Mr Dupont has represented we would take no objection to that um uh we do request some additional information for the uh impervious surface and the soils information but he's represented that he will provide that information as a part of any board action so that we're satisfied with that and I I believe the traffic engineer will speak to uh the commentary that we're looking for in in section two regarding parking and and vehicle movement on site so we would be we would be satisfied with his uh testimony thank you Mr uh Mr chairman if I may uh I believe that the wetlands evaluation needs to be marked as A2 Melle which which document is that so that's uh eastern states environmental Associates Incorporated it's um I don't see it April 22nd I believe April 22nd Okay so yeah April 22nd 2022 April 133 2022 um this evaluation was conducted for the property so that's going to be marked as A2 thank you thank you Mr dup do you have anything to add before I go to the board no that's it okay all right we'll go to the board for questions board have any questions of Mr Dupont with regard to his engineering testimony Mr Duan I have a question um on Mr Bar's report 8.2 um with the waiver request for fiscal impact statement can you just give me some reasoning as to why yeah I think the fiscal impact requirements of your ordinance talks to housing developments and incorporating new school children uh people into the community this is not a Housing Development role so I don't think it really applies in this case okay all right thank you thank you does the board have any uh questions uh from Mr stup in regards to the engineering testimony seeing none you can switch over to planning thank you uh for our next witness uh if I could have uh our architect come forward uh ashra RAB sir raise your right hand you saw me swear affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth so help you God I do and please State your full name ashra rap R A you just say into the microphone sir just first name ashra last name rap r a g a b spell your first name pleas uh if you could spell your first name for the court reporter please a h RF great thank you and you can bring the podium closer to you this way you don't have to lean over You' be more comfortable and Sir if you could just give us a summary of your qualifications yes uh graduated from City College of New York in 1994 Bachelor of architecture licensed in the state of New Jersey since 2001 principal of hemmer Design Studio since 2001 and your licens are current in good standing yes it is thank you very much you may proceed uh good evening so [Music] uh uh what uh we're proposing is uh an addition to an existing structure uh there is a shed in the place of that addition that is being removed uh and the existing structure is being joined with the addition and enlarg into a house of worship two stories plus basement uh the existing use of the of the residence which is the existing uh uh dwelling uh will seize uh to be uh all the residential units will be removed and uh it will be uh replaced with accessory uses to the prayer Halls that are being proposed in the addition so the addition will have uh a basement of storage space and then a first floor of men's prayer area and a second floor of lady pray area or women's pray area um the accessory uses for it which is uh toilets uh some conference offices and uh classrooms uh for weekend uh classes uh are being proposed in the existing structure and there will be uh interconnections between the two uh not always at the same level so you can see from the section that sometimes the prayer Halls because they require higher ceiling will be higher than the second floor of the residence the first floor will be aligned the basement will be lower than the existing uh because we are trying to achieve higher ceilings in these three levels um uh the occupancy there was a question about the the occupancy of the prayer Halls uh they're basically based on 10 square foot per person uh which is uh people when the prey they line up in lines uh each person takes approximately two foot wide by 5 foot uh long so it's about 10 square foot for each person so uh it's a pretty accurate number based on the square footage of the space uh and there is no uh aisles there's no uh uh spaces or stages or anything like this people simply line up from the beginning of the space to the end of it uh same thing for uh the women's prayer area uh the Occupy number uh pretty much we're uh showing uh 129 plus uh 87 which is 216 and we believe that this number should be the maximum occupancy of the building because of the fact that uh when the prayer areas are occupied uh no activities are taking place in any uh other part of the building and that's normal for any uh Muslim house of worship once the call of prayer is uh given uh any other uses will seize and everybody will move to the prayer Hall uh to conduct the prayers after the prayer is done which usually for the daily five times is about 15 minutes uh then any other activities can resume uh but then most people disperse um and then the third sheet and final sheet is proposed elevations uh which incorporates some contemporary design of uh Islamic motifs uh and uh simple materials of stco uh on all sides and some uh masonry uh base and uh that's about it and just for the sake of the board in terms of the visual aesthetic you also have an a 3D color rendering of uh of that sheet three what what that would look like if that could be marked as well yes correct thank you and I have no further questions okay does the board have any questions for Mr RAV any other questions all right thank you very much Mr B just make sure that the the the building plans that are submitted are sealed signed and sealed the building plans have to be signed and sealed if you're a professional architect yeah well I am a professional architect but I'm hired as a consultant so I will be signing whoever submits the plans has to have a seal on them architect has to sign and seal the plans so you can get a building permit so just yes the plans we of course consent to that okay yes great AB thank you very much thank you Mr G thank you Mr Dua uh so our fourth witness will be quasi massud our traffic engineer if he could please be sworn into to testify he's sitting to my left do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God yes I do and please State your full name for the record my first name is quazi quu a z i last name massud m a s o o d m Mr if you could just give a summary of your qualifications please sure uh as I said my uh I have a over 20 years of experience in tra transportation engineering I have a master's degree in transportation engineering I'm my licens is current and I have a I'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New York New Jersey along with four other states and also I do have a certification as professional traffic operationalist engineer great we'll accept you and if you want if you could bring the podium closer to you you make you more comfortable can you hear me now yes you can perfectly thank you so much me to repeat no I got you I just make it make it easier just as you as you go continue speaking sure so Mr massud uh did you perform any counts in connection with this project yes I did and also if you could look at the handout that we circulated it's called the traffic volume count near the proposed site it's this this document which has a picture of the side at the bottom and then some tables and charts I'm going to mark that as A4 okay okay that's the one with the image I held the wrong one okay as you can see as few of my predecessors is already told and let me ex let me go over a few more things before I get to the counts as a Muslim we are supposed to pray five times a day seven days a week 365 days a year so basically at 35 prayers per week out of the 35 prayers the most important prayer is the Friday uh prayer PR then Friday 1:00 that that's where the most of the people come and the only difference it is more like a mass on a Sunday mass mass for church the only difference is Friday is occurred on on a weekday versus Sundays in the weekend so we do not get that many people to show up on the Fridays and um um and then uh the capacity City uh the counts that's why the usually the the prayer starts at 1:00 and typically it runs between 30 to 45 minutes so we did a count uh next to the property at the driveway of the property and the counts were done on February 16 2024 the date is also shown on the chart as you can see on the left side we counted every 30 minute interval 12 to 12:30 12:30 to 1 1 to 1:30 and 1:30 to 2: p.m. and at along North Northbound planfield and southbound planfield Avenue the the and the chart that's shown at the bottom it shows that between 1 to 1:30 that's the most critical time you'll see most of the traffic traveling along plane field and the numbers are all less than 300 cars 300 allog together vehicles and the the counts that we collected is separated into three vehicle classes like like cars SUVs and Van in one class the trucks and buses like the heavy in the second class and the bicycles and the bikes in the third class and uh we also performed a v overc which is volume to capacity a calculation based on the highway capacity manual uh that's shown on the middle chart that you see in the table and the the one that I highlighted is three basically what is telling you between the hours of 12:30 and 1:30 that 1 hour window which is the most critical one you have a plenty of room plenty of available capacity on the roadway and plane field so which is that's what I'm saying it's it's the capacity VI Siege is only3 so only 30% of the roadways occupied at the 70% you'll have available to accommodate more traffic in there so that's that's the volume count uh John that's that we talked about the first sheet okay and so what can you tell us about the the parking need and the the parking volume on the site sure we also performed an analysis of how the parking how many parking will be required and how many we are providing and if you could flip to the page it's uh I think the title says 15 57-1 159 plan feed Avenue edent the basement floor occupancy I'm I'm going to I'm going to be marking that as A5 okay all right so let me explain how we calculated the parking as my predecessor says that we have two big hallways one for male other one is for female the male is 1293 square ft and each person we are calculating needs about 10 square fet to perform the prayer that basically in our Muslim Community we have two rituals to complete the prayer well the first ritual is you have to kneel down and you have to touch your forehead to the ground so that being said I do have a copy I can circulate this a typical size of a uh prayer mat is 4 feet by 2 and 1/2 ft which is about 10 square fet so you need at a person at least 10 square fet to perform the complete the prayer so divided 10 if you divide 10 10 or 1293 by 10 that's where we are saying that Ma the H room for male a maximum people they can accommodate is 129 that that can hold the whole it doesn't mean that 129 will show up on Friday because the other 34 prayers I was talking about except the Friday ones you'll see at least maximum 15 to 20 people not more than 15 to 20 Friday is the most critical one you'll see the maximum number of people so the prayer hall for male maximum it can hold 129 female is 87 so if you combine these two you end up with 216 maximum capacity a Friday prayer can hold for male and female now like Mr B said 80 80 we have a total of 80 congregants who live nearby within 10 minutes walking distance from the from the mosque they will probably prefer to walk on Friday if you take a 50% credit for that so you deduct 40 from 216 you end up with one6 176 and according to the uh Edison code Edison code the building code it's 37 60.3 d uh one parking space is required for four seats so that's why we divided 176 by 4 you end up with 44 that's the requirement and we are providing 4 the8 parking that that's uh that's all I have to say John about the parking we are we require 44 we are providing 48 for more all right um I don't believe I have any further questions unless the board uh or the board's professionals have any questions Mr chairman V chairman you you did these documents here yes is there a reason your name's not on here I can sign my name if needed oh there's no no I I yeah right I do not have my name but I can I can I can sign it and is there a reason you didn't put your name on there no there's no reason there's no reason behind it okay Mr chairman Mr Bell there's also a letter from the wick companies that they're allowed to use to spill over parking so no one that is that's actually what I positive yeah and and I can touch base with two other comments that m one of them Mr dender had is how you're going to H hold 26 people in two Hall rooms that's other one of the rituals other rituals that we have when we pray if you Google it you'll see it Muslim like a a typical prayer Eid prayer you'll see we stand next to each other without any Gap because if you have a gap in between two people your prayer is not going to be accepted so you have to touch your shoulder and stand next to each other so that's one of the reasons we we think we will be able to hold this number of people's 216 doesn't mean that 216 will show up at the same time uh that's why that's how we've we calculated the capacity of the hall room the 26 my concern is little my concern is different more than 216 so up no if the that we are open for uh segregated prayer we can can split the Friday prayer into two different prayer for two different time different timings at that point yeah that's fine we we typically do it for other MK we can do 12:30 to 1 and then 1 to 1:30 and you'll have you'll have staff there to control the crowd yes we will have volunteers we'll we'll control the traffic as well as a lot more people shows of walking people shows up how would you control the crowd I mean we will have volunteers because we have a 40 minute Gap in between the two prayers so that the when the first prayer is finished they have 40 minute Gap to clear the facility and then the second prayer will start and you'll have enough space inside the parking lot for people to just come and wait correct and on in on top of that we do have an approval from the neighboring week uh Community like uhu Mr chairman was saying they're willing to uh dedicate 244 parking spells for us in a week Plaza in the week Plaza have you have that AG we have we have the approval from there we have the letter it should have been part of your original packet Mr I could share if you'd like make it easier okay you have it and how many spots were were in within 244 they dedicated for us it within Wick yes okay within the week side thank you Mr massud Mr chair Mr Cher I have a question regards to that so the Wick's um letter here says that it's approved for April 9th 202 2024 and May 17 is there any letter that says anything past that or is it just for these two dates that was approved for I mean the the reason April 9th and May 17 is because those are two Eid dates the Eid of the end of the month of Ramadan we have the Eid FID that's scheduled for April 9th given the fact sighting the moon the other one is May 17 is we have two major festivals those are the that's why he mentioned those two dates for the year but he's willing to cooperate with us and and for those two and future in future scenarios whenever we need it he will be willing to cooperate with us because I just wasn't sure it doesn't say anything with the future that's the only no it doesn't say that's true but this it says for the year 2024 yes those two dates correct yeah I do have another question um for Mr massud traffic engineer um you did mention that there's 80 individuals that are nearby yes um I did see that you guys supplied a corre nice list of all the residents and all do you think that the traffic control devices and measurements in place are sufficient for that um considering that the closest crosswalk is at Jefferson um any residents living north of that same or drive as such is there any need for additional traffic devices I don't think so because they have sidewalks they will be able to use they will be able to use the sidewalks to get to the facility and again we are only seing uh 50% of those 80 like 40 people uh 40 4 40 people for the vehicle and if you divide four 40 divided by 4 it's like 10 cars so we don't I don't think 10 cars will be a major number I'm talking about the the residents living in the community the you're talking about the people who would be walking to the faity corre because majority of these addresses are fall on the other side towards Jefferson so now my only concern is is it safe for the individuals crossing the road um they have a light at the Jefferson and and they can use the light and to cross the street and get to the facility there okay is that sufficient so all the residents from seore Avenue are going to be directed to use that correct crosswalk correct and um second question is I did see your traffic study um you're looking at same questions traffic devices um you're looking at approximately 250 cars on average going back and forth for Northbound and southbound um is it by increasing it 20% cars by getting that capacity of 46 spaces is it so I mean 20 20% half of them we are assuming coming from will come from North out of 44 maybe 20 comes will come from North and when you come from South so if you combine these are all 30 minute counts so if you combine these two together which it which is around like 500 cars per hour 20 out of 500 is less than 2% so I don't think it's going to be a significant number okay thank you sure thank you Mr chairman Mr chairman Vice chairman and reference to this traffic volume count near the proposed site I don't see any traffic study for 400 p.m. or 6 p.m. on here no the reason we did first the question answer to that question is the typical Friday pair which is the most critical is 1:00 4: to 6: p.m. we like even if we have a prayer it's going not going to attract more than 10 or 15 people so which is less than less than five cars probably and if Accord according to the sare manual if a facility de uh generates less than 50 cars or 50 Vehicles then the traffic study is not warranted a standing alone traffic study is unwarranted for that Mr chairman CH chairman also in reference to this there's a traffic impact statement did you do it you did this yeah it is yeah yeah we have prepared it it is more like it it talks about how the traffic will how many traffic is expected to generate how to circulate and all those other details one more so the residents that are going to walk are they going to be cross walking across Route One also I don't think we have residents up to Route One I can I can look it up and and get back to you on that but we have to look at the list of the items list of the addresses I do not know on top of the head right now thank you and then Mr massud uh so the currently so you have parking onsite and then you have a parking agreement with Wick um for 200 spaces so there would be no need for any uh congregants parking within the res adjacent residential neighborhoods no and you'd agree to a condition of that yes okay thank you any other questions for Mr massud Mr chair um could we make a request to Mr muit to submit a copy from Wix Plaza's statement but for future use yes we'll do yeah okay thank you than so then so that would be a condition of any approval correct okay all right any other questions yeah Mr chair Mr so the Friday prayers it starts around 1 1:30 depending on 15 minutes 10 20 minutes no plus or minus how early the congregant would start coming to the facility maximum 30 minutes pror so the all the 40 45 cars would be spreaded in the 30 minutes Gap it's not just one time corre and the traffic would back up on planfield Avenue correct correct and the same thing when they leave correct they leave not at one time not at the same time within the 15 to 20 minutes interval because yeah it's not at the same time and we'll definitely have volunteers guiding the traffic in and out at the facility okay Mr thank you Mr chair BR you talked about the 48 parking spaces and then in some of your testimony you described that the cars would have four passengers each which sounds great and uh limits the volume of people pedestrians to cars I I'm not comfortable with that because uh to testify that there's going to be four people per car because you only have 48 spaces no um it's troubling for me okay uh thank you for the question it's the reason we use four it's actually for the code the code's 37- 60.3 D it specifically says for house of worship it is for one parking for four seats that's what we use the number from it's a code it's a Edison code Township Code um Mr chairman it's not four people in a car it's four people in the in the Mosk the seat every four people that sit in the mosque is one parking space that's where the number comes from it comes right out of the ordinance all right and he also has 200 spaces that he's sharing right next door so it's like yeah we got plenty of parking thank you you're welcome thank you last call any call any questions from Mr massud okay seeing none thank you very much Mr Mass thank you uh for our final witness we'll go back to Mr dupan who will provide his planning testimony thank you okay Mr dupan you previously accepted so you can proceed thank you I am still under oath so from a planning perspective uh um the subject property is identified as block 161 M Lots 1 l 1 q1 and 1q2 it's situated along planfield Avenue south of prospect prospect Avenue it is within the RB residential district that District permits houses of worship on Lots with three or more Acres our lot is 0.67 acres and as such a use variance is required um what Varian is what other variants we need in this use we're looking for several bulk variances as well the minimum lot area is 3 acres our lot is 0.67 Acres the minimum lot Frontage shall be 200 feet our lot Frontage is 150 ft existing by way those last two the maximum purose coverage shall be 40% and we had this discussion earlier in my engineering testimony we're going to ask for 98.4% keep in mind that number is high because it includes the porest pavement as it should by your code and parking 60 spaces required 48 provided on site so from a planners perspective again not to belabor it but 0.67 Acres meets the bulk standards for residential uses the surround in the zone the the surrounding land includes single family homes some multif family homes and the wick Plaza the lot is currently improved with three structures and three sheds in some paved parking areas applicant seeking permits to construct a new two-story house of worship and related site improvements that will include site plan approval parking lighting buffering enclosed dumpsters so when we look at your 203 2003 master plan we note a couple principles your master plan encourages wants to encourage the welld designing anti spra Land Development that is consistent with neighborhoods and land use patterns preserving the community suburban and urban Landscapes which makes Edison unique and desirable to both live and work the proposed house of worship is scaled to the lot and Improvement to the current land use pattern on the property we will meet the needs of the citizens of the community with respect to providing a convenient well-designed location to worship as they desire as the board knows a variance cannot be granted for the sole benefit of an applicant there must be public benefit such as defined in the ml and we further several purposes of that M purpose a to encourage Municipal action to guide the appropriate land use and development of all lands in the state and a marriage will promote the health Public Safety morals and general welfare a house of worship certainly furthers the morals and the general welfare of the community as it Fosters good citizenship good behavior and charitable Behavior purpose G to provide a sufficient space and appropriate location for a variety of agricultural residential recreational commercial industrial uses open space both public and private to their respective environmental requirements in order to meet the needs of New Jersey residents the district per permits houses of worship the house of worship has been scaled and will to the lot and will improve the environment uh that currently exists and will significantly improve the drainage of the site when we look at the use a little more closely the proposed house of worship will provide congregates with a foundation in a religion and culture therefore we must consider it that it be granted the relief uh that the request uh is inherently beneficial we must now address how the applicant meets the criteria for D1 use variance as we said this is inherently beneficial and as such satisfies the positive criteria of the D1 use variants there is no enhanced quality proof requirement instead the seek a balancing test must be employed the board must balance the positive negative criteria to determine whether on balance the dev variance can be granted without causing substantial detriment to the public good substantial impairment to detent and purpose of his own plan and his only ordinance the applicant must satisfy the four-prong test of the sea case which consists of and I I'll outline initially identify the public interest at stake the public interest at stake is the development of citizens with a strong sense of morals through religious practice this benefits the community at large through development of a sense of community and values two identify the detriments that would ensue from granting the variant the relief is triggered by the size of a lot however the house of worship has been scaled to the lot it provides all the setbacks adjoining property owners would anticipate from a standard building permitt Houston in his zone three to determine whether can be can reduce any detrimental Effects by imposing reasonable conditions we put pores Pavement in place we're improving the storm M on from the site we with respect to parking we've heard testimony from our traffic engineer that we're meeting the needs and actually exceeding the needs of our community and we've eliminated an existing violation the front yard setback that currently exists today we're improving that the board should balance the positive negative criteria whether the grant the variance would cause a substantial detriment to the public goods or substantial impairment to detent and purpose of the Zone plan and Zone ordinance this my professional opinion that the substantial detriment to the public good nor will this impair the intent of the Zone plan or the ordinance the basis of these conclusions has been stated but the restate the facility has been scaled to a lot we'll provide a religious Center for a segment of population that will Foster the morals and general welfare of the community with respect to the both variances for the lot size and lot width these are hardships as there's no additional property to acquire from the surrounding properties we have scaled the proposal to the property we represent a better zoning alternative to the poor poorly organized improvements currently on the property and we're improving the runoff we must additionally consider that price vers hedi where the case law Fosters that bulk relief can be subsumed within use variants as the standards have that written in mind in concl uson in my opinion the granting in variances will not have a negative impact on the surrounding properties the proposed use is inherently beneficial and the benefits of granting the variance completely outweigh any detriments and that does complete my planning testimony I have no further questions uh for the planner although um I do uh I will recall Mr massud very briefly after the board questions plan okay does the board have any questions uh from Mr Dupont with regard to planning testimony Mr now Mr chairman I think he's kind of nailed it in terms of uh the requirements under the land use law it is an inherently beneficial use and I think the detriments he's kind of they're outweighed because he he provides additional parking he's got the additional Landscaping he's going to bring the property into into a more um visually in visual environment of you know suitability so I think that he's done the uh pretty good job with it okay thank you very much okay all right thank you Mr thank you Mr Luka uh so uh Mr massud just to remind you you're still under oath um sure now uh the board had asked you about uh the residents who lived within walking distance and specifically would any of those residents cross uh Route One in walking to the site and while the planner was testifying what did you find yeah thank thank you John uh thank you B uh I do have a answer for to that question do you have a copy of this 80 the least of 80 people walking congregants so we looked at it none of them leaves on the other side of us one so answer is no nobody will be Crossing us one thank you sure nothing further that that conclude okay um we're GNA give the board five minutes to stretch your legs and we'll give the court reporter a chance to take a break uh so we'll be back in five minutes thank you we send to 5 [Music] minutes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e oh yeah forget it yeah good all right what did you we're going to return to session Mr du do you have anything to add before we go to the public uh nothing to add I think my my Witnesses summed it up perfectly obviously you know this is a house of worship it's inherently beneficial use we appreciate your time and thoughtful consideration and I think at this time it's uh that that that concludes appre you could hold that to this to the submission thank you all right so we will now go out to the public we will start within for residents within 200 feet of subject property if you're within 200 feet of subject property you have received a letter uh via certified mail uh with regard to this case um members of the public will be given six minutes uh so as to testify on it uh if you have any questions to ask of the applicant or the professionals please ask them at the beginning um any once your uh questioning turns into commentary your timer will then begin if there is someone says something makes a comment makes a statement that you agree with you don't have to reiterate it you could just say that I agree with so and so stat Stat or the person before me statement um and that'll that'll suffice um with that we'll be giv 200 fee of the subject property sir sir would you raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God yes I do if you pull the microphone a little bit higher um if you could State your full name for sorry if you could State your full name for the record and provide us with your address that would be appreciated uh Daniel hornek 7 Prospect Avenue I lived at uh seven Prospect Avenue since 1986 and I can assure you that in the time frame that I've been there there certainly has been a uh increase in volume on traffic on planfield Avenue it's difficult uh through the course of the day at times to even turn from Prospect Avenue onto um planfield Avenue uh planfield Avenue from Route One as you travel to Route 27 is four lanes and then just after Wick Plaza it changes to two lanes it's a double yellow line so really right now there's only one direction that you can come from and turn into the property where the mosque would be if you're traveling from 27 to Route One you really can't make that leftand turn into the the property um the uh mention of uh Wick Plaza uh offering uh a couple of hundred parking spots to the mosque including their 44 uh parking parking places would only allow potentially for more people to be attending the services as opposed to less that may not be actually be the case but certainly the potential exists um I just my my concern is that with the amount of volume of traffic that we have now um with this property obviously uh having some serious concerns about not meeting the zoning as it is that uh all you know allowing the variances and going forward with this would only make traffic worse and just a detriment to the immediate area itself thank you thank you very much sir uh next person within 200 feet of subject property sir solemnly swearer affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God I do and please State your full name for the record provide your address okay uh my name is Pete Scott Peters now it's spelled p IE T MD name Scott and the last name is p i e t e RS it's dutch don't ask I'm stuck with it but uh um basically uh so your I'm sorry just your address please oh I'm sorry number two Prospect AB I'm right on the front line I'm on the 50 yard line or up the front row of the stage whatever you want to call it traffic is horrible there it is but another concern really is um more or less I noticed that you know churches and and and uh schools and stuff on the back roads you know on the back streets how come safer there this place is anything but that now of course you've got the ladies and gentlemen is going there and stuff you know and that's okay but there will also be children and that place is insane when it comes to traffic I listen now I'm retired I'm there all the time day and night I see it all the time they think it's a racetrack it's incredible the danger is unbelievable there I mean it's me personally I'd be very leering about it because these folks that have children and stuff okay kids will be kids so you know you're talking whatever and stuff and all kids are playing and stuff whatever all a sudden one intently Chang them out onto playing field you and Wham oh God no no one want that no but it's a safety concern I think I think to myself why would they want to put it there it's like putting it on Route One at Route 27 I'm like what I wouldn't want like no put me in the back room back where it's quiet you know some places like that you know but it was was me I'd cons I'd reconsider and want to put it elsewhere but that's I'm just safety conscious that's why I you know think that way I just can't help it I was born that way but anyway that's really what I have to say about it too I mean you know the traffic is really horrible there I I feel for the children because without them there's no future let's face it so I want to make sure they're safe but I don't know it's uh it's an niffy thing you know but that's that's about all I wanted to say thank you very much we appreciate you coming out anyone else within 200 ft of sub property wan to be heard raise your right hand hold on ra raise your right hand you saw me swear firm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God I do and state your full name provide your address Bruce wearer five Prospect the Avenue last w h r i n g e r before the pandemic the house that they have that back there right now on Prospect Avenue was ran as a mosque a legal mosque I don't know if these people ever seen the property but the one side toward Wick all legal fencing Stockade Fence also put boards on top to make it 20 feet tall parties all the way to midnight sometimes 1:00 in the morning cars all over Prospect and Hill Crest should be turned down not big enough area for a mosque thank you anyone else within 200 fet of subject property wantan to be heard anyone else within 200 feed the subject property last call okay anyone outside 200 subject property wanting to be heard ma'am raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth so help you God if you could pull the microphone closer to you and state your full name and provide your address full name is CRA Zafar I'm sorry you have s a i r a Za a f a r and address 101 roxa my entire childhood took place in Edison and Edison is always going to be my home the Muslim Community of Edison helped Raise Me growing up there was no mosque in Edison I fully believe that having a local mosque will help help positively impact many people especially children in the community as it'll create a feeling of belonging for them and provide pos positive role models as well as a new mother I want the best for my daughters and that includes raising them in the best environment possible I believe that opening the mosque will in part enable that society today is individualistic and so I think having a mosque will give our children the same sense of community that was once present everywhere and it it's vital to a healthy childhood honestly in the era of islamophobia it's more important than ever for our children to feel like they have a safe place I wouldn't be the physician or person that I am today without the support of this community and so I strongly support building this mosque thank you thank you very much thank you for coming out anyone else outside of 200 feet of sub property want to be heard do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God I do and uh could you please State your full name provide your address sure my name is Patricia mote I live at 51 Hillcrest Avenue okay ma' if you just spell your spell your last name for the court reporter m a l c h i o d I thank you very much you may proceed I am so in favor of putting the mosque there I uh go to my church and I believe it's so important and so therefore I think they also need a place for the children to go for the children to learn how to be nice to other people and care about other people and not just think about themselves and I hear people talking about the traffic I understand that but it's everywhere now I moved out here in 82 and traffic has increased and our population has increased and that's just part of life you know the more people we get the more cars we're going to get but I do believe believe this is very important for these people thank you thank you so much anyone else outside 200 Fe the subject property wanted to be heard anyone else sir would you raise your right hand do you Solly swear affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth so help you God I do and state your full name for the record and provide your address you may also want to spell it I think you want everybody to spell it okay uh my name is imas CA first name is I am like Mary T I A Z last name s i a m w a l l a thank you so much sir you may proceed oh I apologize your address please uh Hannah RH Edison um first and foremost uh I would like to greet all of you with the Islamic greeting assalam alikum which means peace and blessings on all of you um I am so happy to see this entire congregation out here these people have fasted all day and they have broken the fast at Sunset with one date and one small bottle of water and uh they here because they are all so compassionate uh for those who don't understand where we come from as Muslims we are a compassionate community to begin with don't let the media fool you otherwise okay whatever you hear on media um you know fabricated stuff or non- fabricated stuff but the community as such is passionate I myself I run a not for-profit organization right here in Edison it's called the Care and Share Foundation we are not for-profit 501c3 approved and as Muslims it is an obligation on us to be compassionate and helpful so bringing this MOS into Edison is only going to Encompass the values that our religion teaches us this is the base of what we believe in is being compassionate being helpful being productive being a part of the fabric of the community and uh I heard somebody saying that parties all night uh perhaps you need to understand the religion a little deeply when we go into pray our priest our Imam is the only one who can recite and the congregants have to fold their hands and be silent they are not allowed to speak even the Friday prayer that we were talking about earlier that is the biggest crowd that is going to come to same applies there is a sermon by the priest everybody has to stay quiet that's a religious mandate this is not something out of etiquette but our religion requires us that when the sermon goes on you be quiet and right after the sermon is a small prey same exact thing so if you're talking about parties and all that I think you know you basically not understood the religion as such but I'm here to propagate that this mosque is a need of the community because there's there's there's a community which has you know a vast um network of people from different areas we have doctors we have it professionals we have taxi drivers we have food vendors we are Housewives right and we need a place to worship it is our constitutional right I'm just asking you all to uphold our constitutional right thank you thank you very much anyone else outside 200 fet subject property want to be heard ma'am B your right hand do you solemly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God I do and if you would provide your full name and spell it and your address um Fatima t f a t h i m a t h o w f i k five um 575 Main Street um chatam New Jersey good evening esteem council members first and foremost thank you for the opportunity to address you today my initial interaction with the Edison Muslim Community Center was at a profoundly meaningful juncture in my life since then my bond with the center has deepened and evolved continuously therefore I feel a sense of obligation to advocate for the operation of the Cent building which would greatly benefit carrier women like myself children and wider Community during my transition from the University of Cincinnati after completing my PhD in cancer biology in 2016 to Well conell Medical School in New York for postal research my husband and I encountered substantial challenges in securing accommodation the members of this Center went above and beyond to facilitate a smoth smoo relocation for us getting to know them not only provided us with practical assistant but also fostered a sense of belonging and connectivity particularly as we moved several hundred miles away from our previous environment since then we lived in New York City then around Edison for several years and now in Morris County for less than um less than a year however due to the warm welcome and unweaving support we received and continue to receive the Edison Muslim Community Center has remained our preferred place of worship through my interaction with the center I have observed that it and its members are exceptionally welcoming and diverse its services have had a profound impact on me personally and on the broader Edison Community esteemed council members over the past three years I have W witnessed the center's uning dedication in delivering essential services to the community despite the challenges of operating in temporary rented premises therefore I firmly believe that allowing the center to establish itself in its own permanent location will ensure uninterrupted service provision to the growing Community the services and activities offered by the center extern Beyond its primary function as a place of worship making a significant impact on the Edison Community at large the events and programs organized by the center in the past focusing on children women and youth have had a profound effect on the community these initiatives provide a valuable opportunity for many who otherwise may not have been able to access such Services due to financial constraints therefore allow dear esteem council members allow me to conclude by emphasizing one final Point as I have explained the services provided by the center that embrace the broader Edan Community I want to express the unique significance of this center to me and many other Sri Lankans as a Sri Lankan National by birth the existence and operation of this Center holds special meaning offering not only a place of worship but also a space to celebrate and preserve our culture Cuisine attire and language therefore I earnestly appeal to this Council to recognize the immense benefits of formalizing the center's operation in its own permises by granting full permission I am confident that many others gathered here would strongly support this stance acknowledging the invaluable contribution this Center can make to the greater Edison Community thank you for affording me to um me the opportunity to share my thoughts thank you thank you so much anyone else within 200 subject property want to be heard do you solemly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God yes I do and could you please State your full name and provide your address safin janov S a f a h u d e n j a n o o f 59 wira Ro Edison just want to remind you something most of the thing we are asking what this community need for this from this organization I want to tell you some witness Mr Jim know about it Jims uh what this organization gave it to a community during the covid and you remember as we came to Township we asked there's nobody there to go outside and scared to death everybody we and few people we bring the food two truck loads from DC we distribute house by house no race no religion nothing whoever around that area we distributed and this papani park also we distributed more than 2,000 people so this is what we asking if there's organization over there we cover everybody over there doesn't matter only a Muslim anybody over there surrounding that area thank you very much thank you very much anyone else outside feet sir raise your right hand do you solemly swear or from to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God I do and state your full name spelling it and provide your address Muhammad tahash Shake m u h a mme e d t a s a i k address is 52 Hest Avenue maybe she perfect I just want to thank the committee right now for taking your time and honestly because it's already 9:00 I'll keep my thing short I've I lived in Edison for over 18 years officially 18 and three months as a child growing up in Edison my parents had to take me to a mosque that was over 20 minutes away just right outside of Fords New Jersey now you might not think that's important but I want to give you a quick self-reflection ah had I owe everything that I have right now now where I'm standing what I'm doing and what I continue will do to the community behind me whether it's just older brothers and people older figures and older mentors that I have teaching me how to shoot a basketball outside the parking lot to help to older figures and people in the professional working experience teaching me how to navigate my college experience I owe everything to the community that we have but the reality is that currently there is no major mosque in South Edison and that is a big problem recently I don't want to shed light to something is that there's a youth group for the Muslims in Edison that we recently started in 2022 over this time we've reached over 140 youth but that's not even hitting numbers in South edisan me and my team have recognized over 60 youth not having being recognized the reality of this is because our headquarters and our region is primarily North Edison because of the distance if you travel from South Edison to North Edison to the mosca North Edison it takes around 20 minutes that's without traffic that's without any traffic lights or any stuff like that um with this Mon and South Edison we're able to invite the youth and get youth program started and just to quickly show you why this youth program is so important because why is it important to the township I'll give you two examples Civic engagement and social relief or social justice the first example I'll give you is just recently over a month ago in North Edison at the same mosque young Muslims that chapter in Edison packed and packed and made 500 meals over 500 meals but approximately 500 meals of no cost and we pack these meals and we deliver them and handing them out on the streets of Newark uh New Jersey in the past we've done greater examples of these with another food drive with a th meals this is all hand packed donated and fundraised by the youth for the Youth for the Greater Community another example we've done for the Youth and this is open to everybody is a professional development experience with over 20 people in qualified areas from qu quantitive Finance to marketing to business relationships to engineering and other stem fields coming in and giving their experience so that youth can understand what it does it mean to go into college and what major should I choose so I'll leave you off with one question it's not why we this mosque it's when we need this mosque thank you thank you very much anyone else outside 200 fet wan to be heard last call anyone outside 200 Fe subject property wan to be heard okay can I get a motion to close a public portion Mo to close public portion second motion made by Mr Patel second by Vice chairman o' Gorman all in favor signify by saying I I oose nay the eyes have it public portion is now closed uh Mr D you have any submission prior to going to board no submission I think thank you for your time okay thank you very much all right so we'll now go to the board hi Mr chair Mr D um I make a motion to approve this application with the caveat the applicant has applicant has met all the negative and positive criteria the use is not detriment to the public good or Public Safety as appropriate um the site is even though is smaller than three three acres um it suits for the intended use um with this application it comes with a lot of conditions and the conditions are that if the congregation is more than 216 uh uh congregant to the persons the applicant has agree to split the prayers they'll also employ the Professional Security or staff or cops to control the crowd and traffic the hours of operations would be 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. 7 days a week the building plans need to be signed and sealed by the professionals um when the prayers are occurring no other persons or activities are occurring in the premise um soup kitchen is only for to go is that is that what we agreed correct soup kitchen is only for the go yeah okay um signage is not provided that you're going to provide for the more details of the signage um basement and storage is uh only for storage use at present correct correct the um compliance of the professional reports um is required we also need the um agreement that you're going to make with the Vick Plaza and that should be agreeable to subject to board attorney so we going to provide that uh that agreement um no parking is allowed adjacent to residential neighborhood um all prayers must be conducted within the premise house of worship worship area only unless permitted by the state for the federal law uh with regard to any items not mentioned above this motion will incorporate all of the testimony of the applicant attorney planners engineers and members of the board as well as incorporation of all of the conditions and what is to be done not to be done at this side as was testified to that's it I second motion made by Mr a seconded by Mr sedada roll call please Mr Baron I have a comment I am a man of faith and I respect very much uh this application uh the testimony that we've heard and that has been given the services that are extended even beyond the religious aspect and that your Community deserves a house of worship however I must vote no for this reason all that I just said would be a permitted use in three acres this is a one acre lot versus three acres required I think it's too dense in this area I hope if it should not pass that the organization finds a more suitable appropriate location and that you do get your house of worship so I am a no on the motion okay uh Mr chra yes to the motion to approve with the condition that there is no street parking and um proper signage is given in accordance to the regulations as far as no left turn Etc okay Mr de yes on the motion uh Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr Saha yes on the motion on the conditions which D has proposed Vice chair Gorman no and chairman kamba yes on the motion so we have one two 52 this case is hereby approved thank [Applause] you [Applause] [Applause] my first ladies and gentlemen if we could exit quietly we're still in session we have another case coming up um if you could just make some room just let the next case coming in it's my all right we're going to take a two-minute recess just to allow the next case to set up all e e e e e e e start we're going to return to session Madam Secretary next case on the agenda case Z1 2024 460 planfield AV llc at 460 planfield AV applicant is seeking bulk and use D variances to permit the use of a restaurant and Catering in the existing Warehouse SL retail strip center standards have not been met in accordance with the master plan this is not a permitted use in this zone max F permitted is 50% proposed is 52% affected proper is located in the LI Zone designated as block number 3.02 Lot number 8.01 on the Edison Township tax map all noticing paperwork is in order good evening good evening board chair uh my name is Damon pad licensed attorney in the state of New Jersey I'm here tonight representing 460 Playfield Avenue LLC um they are seeking a D1 use variance for restaurant and catering hall in the LI Zone uh tonight we will have four Witnesses testify and we will try to keep it brief and thorough uh we'll have the tenant the Eng the civil engineer Robert Murray we'll have the traffic engineer John Ray and the planner John Dupont um we are seeking a parking uh variance for the for the site and there are four other existing variances on the site as well so with your permission I'd like to invite the first witness with that objection you pull the microphone closer to you you have a seat yes have a seat and pull the microphone closer would you raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or firm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you got hi uh yes hi my name is Shiki viala just say yes sorry yes okay and can I can I get your name uh my name is Shiki viala good evening everyone if you can spell your name for the court reporter uh s h i k i v i d a d a l a you may proceed okay can you just give us a brief description of how you intend to use the site yeah hi hi everyone good evening so uh this place basically I want to use for a restaurant and a catering business um so mostly it's a Indian restaurant uh it's a upscale restaurant which can C to the Indian AUD audience and also um having some um couple of some of American dishes too so we um planning to have it like operating in the morning and evening times like morning from 11:00 to 3: and evening like 6 to 11 and also the maximum the kitchen occupancy we can have that we can support is like Max 300 capacity so the that's a kitchen we have planned for designed um that's pretty much and also um I'm planning to have employees like 12 employees on the weekday and uh 16 employees working for the restaurant on the weekends Friday to Sunday yeah and your employees will also car pool is that correct yeah mostly they might use like four to three to four cars for car pooling yeah okay and for events and um catering events that you have at the facility you'll have valet parking available yeah for sure we will plan that uh I see mostly um the kitchen what we have we have supporting only Max 300 occupancy uh for sure we will have a valid service available uh if needed only because uh if needed I'm for sure we are going to hire them and use that for the valid service but for sure we don't have that much capacity to uh support the kitchen so if the board as a condition of the approval tonight would um limit you to a maximum of 300 occupants uh are you willing to agree with that yeah sorry oh sorry yes yeah exactly yes uh that's it for the operational testimony uh if the board would have any questions for this witness okay I actually have one question so with regard to the valet parking um you would submit to a valet agreement yeah I'm going to hire a valet service company so that they can help us in doing this okay all right excellent does the board Mr chairman Mr BD down I may have missed it I apologize so the parking is on site or is it going to be offsite for the valley parking and the reason why I asked that if it's offsite then they need to have some kind of agreement that as long as they're there they have to keep that keep that agreement in place yeah it's on site yeah it is onsite or offsite on site okay so you're just going to share the parking that's already there for the warehousing exactly okay thank you thank you does any uh any member of the board have any questions for the applicant seeing none okay thank you thank you so much I'd like to introduce our um next witness our civil engineer Robert Murray sir raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you got I do and just State your full name Robert Murray okay Mr Murray uh if you want to give a brief description of the site hang on sorry have to qualify him um you just please give a uh summary of your qualifications yes I graduated from Stevenson technology the site is uh located between planfield Avenue and Kilmore court with access off both roads the property is approximately 10.01 acres and is located entirely in the LI light industrial Zone the site is surrounded to the north by Kilmer Park to the east open spacewood it um wooded lot just past planfield Avenue uh to the South is an industrial building a commercial building and a school and to the West are industrial buildings as it exists today the site is currently standing with two buildings one is a 24,27 ft Warehouse with approximately 10,555 squ feet of office space and to the east is a 12,000 sqare foot retail building prior to the previous approval of the retail building there were 231 excuse me 231 parking spaces uh currently there are 175 parking spaces the applicant is seeking to convert the retail building into a Restaurant catering hall which is a use variant in the LI Zone site improvements include the restriping of 28 existing spaces with the addition of 21 spaces which is located just south of the existing Warehouse that's putting our daytime parking at a at 196 spaces no new impervious um coverages uh being proposed therefore this is not a major development and does not require stor Water Management and now if I can uh just change the to exhibit A2 which is our ballet parking plan so you can take the microphone with you so you just approach us way we have to go back and forth [Applause] okay so the applicant is proposing valet parking from the catering catering hall/ um restaurant to valet parking throughout the site including south of the uh existing Warehouse where we will triple stack cars if necessary this puts our our parking account to 2119 spaces and this is really the bulk of the improvements to the site existing non-conformities include sidey yard setback where 39.9 exists where 40 is required parking setback where zero um feet exists where five is required parking size where 8 and 1/2 ft by 18 is exists where 9 by8 is required both variants include Max floor area ratio where 0.52 where exists where 0.5 is required and which was previously granted and our final variance is the parking variance 293 spaces are required where 196 during the day are is provided and 219 during uh outside of the warehousing hour is provided and that concludes my description of the proposed improvements does the board have any questions for Mr chairman if you would just to clear up um we're not making any changes to the original site plan approval are we like all those conditions are staying to effect all the Landscaping the lighting it's all staying in effect right correct okay thank you does the board have any questions for Mr Murray Mr chair I have a question for the applicant um you said something about triple stacking cars could you repeat that yes the there will be for the valet parking south of the warehouse when outside of warehousing hours there will be triple triple stacked cars as shown on sheet three of the site plan okay is that the difference the 23 cars excuse me in between the day count and the valet count that difference is that what accounts for the Triple stacking yes okay thank you the board have any other questions Mr Murray Mr Mr chairman uh could you just speak to the circulation of at the warehouse how that's going to be impacted by the restriping of that parking on the south of the building right so the uh loading it will not be affected it will continue as is there will not be parking during in those spaces that are at it that are striped there will be no parking during loading hours so they're essentially valet only or off hours they're essentially just used off hours from the loading okay and you agree with the remainder of the comments there's just some minor commentary regarding potential utilities uh which may be impacted with the change of use correct okay I'm satisfied Mr chairman thank you Mr bar question excuse me Mr Murray hang on one second Mr Brown please bring micophone just curious uh it's going to be a restaurant and catering hall up to 300 people will the restaurant will the catering hall be serving alcohol uh that is a question for the tenant I would I would like to defer the tenant yes I do believe the uh the tenant will be serving alcohol okay thank you thank you Mr chairman Mr me down I believe they've already applied for the license in the clerk's office I kind of remember that going by my desk a couple months back so good excellent thank you thank you okay I'd like to call our next witness our traffic engineer John Ray to come up you saw me swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you got do and please State your full name for the record John Ray re EA and Mr Ray I know you've appeared before us prior uh but it's been a while sure so you could just give us sumary your qualifications please I'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey my specialty is traffic engineering I have a total of 50 years experience that includes doing parking studies I've been asked to come to the board tonight to testify as to the adequacy of the parking for the proposed restaurant and banquet facility and your licens are current in good standing yes they are great we'll accept you thank you thank you Mr Ray if you can just go through the parking and the circulation for the site sure um well first of all um I didn't hear the testimony from my client earlier but the peak hours for the restaurant and the banquet facility are going to occur in the evening after 5 6 o'clock in the evening and on weekends this is typical of restaurants or banquet facilities so the peak hours for the restaurant and the banquet facility will occur outside of the hours for the warehouse and the office operation which basically shut down around five or six o'clock on weekdays and I'm not sure if they even operate on Saturdays but if they do they have shortened days on Saturday so the first thing is the peak hours for parking for the restaurant and banquet facility will occur outside of the peak hours for the existing warehouse and office facility uh the second thing I did was I took a look at the distribution of the parking if you look at the uh site plan there are 110 parking spaces in the front area surrounding the building the retail building uh that fronts planfield Avenue it is my expectation that the overwhelming majority of the time that the restaurant and banquet facility is open that the 110 spaces surrounding the building will be adequate to serve the parking demand and I base this on the industry standard of uh requir iring one parking space for every three seats that are in the facility so we're looking and that would include employees and in this case we even have a little bit more of a factor of safety because I understand uh most of the employees will carpool to the site so the 110 spaces surrounding the building the overwhelming majority of the time will be adequate to support the facility on very busy um banquet facility evenings uh it is my expectation that they may have have to use the valet operation as Rob Murray has indicated with the valet operation uh and it's also my understanding that no employees or no customers will be allowed to park in the valet spots uh that are in front of the warehouse uh so it'll only be used by the valet operation we get up to 219 spaces and again my expectation is the even at a a peak time for a banquet even if there are more than you know more people than three people in a car you probably won't need more than 125 130 parking spaces based on my experience so we may have to go into the valet area for those Peak events for those Banquets and uh but we have the valet parking it'll be off peak not when the warehouse and office are operating so at the end of the day my conclusion is that the parking plan for the facility is adequate and will provide for adequate parking for the restaurant operation and the banquet facility thank you any questions from Mr R thank you seeing none thank you U for our next witness I'd like to call up our professional planner John Dupont do you Solly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you got I do and please state your name John P Dupont Mr Dupont you were previous ly qualified earlier this evening so we'll continue uh to accept you um you''ll be giving planning testimony correct correct thank you very much you can come out of timeout and all right so the applicants seek in to utilize the existing approximate 12,000 s foot retail space along the front edge of planfield Avenue as a Restaurant catering use which is not permitted in La Zone therefore the D1 use variance is required in order to justify the use one satisfy both the negative and positive criteria the positive criteria requires that special reasons exist meaning that in particular property is well suited for the proposed use here we have an existing currently unused structure which shares property with the warehouse in every re the property the warehouse use is limited and as a warehouse operation ends at 5:00 pm. uh each weekday and it Clos it's closed on weekends leaving a large section of on-site parking vacant the restaurant and caring use is busiest during the evening hours and on the weekends providing perfect Synergy between the existing Warehouse by utilizing the what would otherwise be vacant parking they are providing a complimentary use which would not be present at other sites throughout the township addressing NE criteria I believe the variant can be granted without causing a substantial negative detriment to the public good it wouldn't substantially impair the intent or purpose of the municipal Zone ordinance or Med plan the locations in the LI Zone restaurants are permitted conditional uses provid they are located within industrial parks the proposed use is very similar to the condition use while the property is not technically in an industrial park it does share space with an existing warehouse and makes use of ample parking away from Main roadway that no one would find that one would find in an industrial park setting there are no surrounding residential uses so there's no risk of us conflicting with residents visually an attractive and thriving restaurant such carrying Hall use is preferable to a vacant building the new C variants relief requested is tied to the unique parking situation on site I believe the parking relief can be granted under C1 hardship standard as the site is already developed and is designed is constrained by existing structures the proposed plan maximizes parking on site to the greatest extent possible the new bulk variants relief can can also be granted under the C2 under the flexible C2 standard as the use variant sorry as the variance relief sought is specific to the piece of property and will advance purposes of the M well and the township master plan and the benefits clearly outweighing the detriment and looking at the Edison master plan and its goals one of the state goals in the master plan is to discourage incompatible Andor conflicting uses the application promotes a compatible and complimentary use of the property is shown by the harmonious use of the parking areas another stated goal in the master plan is to promote the reduction of sprawl if the shoes were placed in a Zone such as the TC Zone the amount needed for parking would require a significant parking field to combinate to use resulting in more sprawl another stated goal is to capitalize on existing Transit the site is located within close proximity to the Edison Train Station and patrons can take advantage of that proximity the application meets the following purposes and the intent of the ml purpose a to promote public health safety and General Welfare by making use of an existing site and on-site unused parking less unnecessary parking Fields less unnecessary impervious coverages purpose C to promote adequate light air and open space for the same reason reasons I just stated purpose ey to promote a desire visual desirable visual environment the restaurant use will have a more pleasing facade than most other light industrial uses purpose M to encourage more efficient use of land the proposed shared Valley parking scheme will provide much more efficient use of the parking Fields than having a wide swath of impervious cover not being utilized for long periods of time all their variances with the exception of the use and the parking related variances are existing in non-conformities and they were previously approved in the past application in conclusion I feel the relief can be granted without substantial detriment and will promote the state goals and the township master plan and the ML and that concludes my planning testimony thank you very much does the board have any questions for Mr Dupont Mr chairman Vice chairman what's the arrows of operation uh I believe that uh the applicant testified that the Monday through Thursday they will be open for lunch from 11:30 to 3: uh p.m. and then they'll be they'll close for a break and then they'll open again from 6:00 p.m. to 11: p.m. and that's Monday through Thursday Friday to Sunday um the applicants St at 10:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. for lunch they'll close for an hour and open at 400 p.m. to 12: am for dinner or banquet events say that again okay Monday through Thursday open for lunch uh 11:30 a.m. to 3: p.m. they'll close for a break in between and open again at 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday Friday through Sunday they will open at 10:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. for lunch and then they'll close for an hour open again from 4: p.m. to 12:00 a.m. for dinner or banquet events thank you thank you any questions Mr dup Mr Brown on those hours uh Friday and Saturday uh 10: to 3: and then 4: to midnight they open on Sunday or you closed on Sunday I didn't hear that Friday through Sunday yes so through Sunday um one other question what kind of food are you going to be serving in the restaurant what kind of restaurant is it I believe the applicant testified saying it was it's an Indian uh restaurant and catering hall okay thank you excellent any questions Mr Dupont see none thank you Mr DuPont uh that is the end of our direct testimony um just for the record I'd like to say that we have a report from DNR engineering and from Big Nell planning Consultants post dated March 20th 2024 and the applicant has no issues with complying with any of the conditions contained in either of the reports thank you okay you have anything else to add that's it okay all right we will now go out to the public if there's anyone within 200 feet of subject property wanting to be heard if you are within 200 fet of subject property you have received a notice via certified mail seeing none will now go now go outside of 200 fet of subject property anyone wanting to be heard seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion Mr chair I have a question Mr ch um do we have architectural plans for this architectural plans no or this is a new construction correct no the building is existing it's a shell of a building right now it's just interior fit outs that will go into that building okay all right okay all right okay can I um get a motion to close motion to close public session second motion made by Vice chairman o' Gorman second by Mr Patel all in favor signify by saying I I oose nay the eyes have it public portion is now closed and I'll go to the board Mr chairman i' like to make a motion to approve this application it me the positive and negative criteria the will not result in substantial detriment to the master plan and zoning ordinance with conditions you'll meet the um engineering and planning report from Edison Township no more than 300 occupants you'll have an agreement agreed with the attorney on a valet parking for on-site parking and the uh f is is the Minimus the sight plan will remain the same and the hours will be Monday through Thursday 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. then on Friday it'll be 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. from Friday to Sunday it'll be 10:00 a. to 3 p.m. and then 400 pm to midnight second second Mr Patel Mr s beat you to it motion made by Vice chairman o' Gorman seconded by Mr sedada roll call please Mr Brown yes on the motion and I look forward to the Indian restaurant Mr chabra yes the motion Mr de yes on the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr sadaha yes on the motion Vice chair Gorman yes and chairman CBO yes on the motion uh and I too look forward to dining at the Indian restaurant but it's gonna be on Mr brone we're going to go for dinner and since you serve alcohol uh he'll cover that as well for me uh unanimous approval 7-0 congratulations thank you so much B have a good [Music] night I mean that's the best around I'm sorry what break you're talking about I I'm going to throw right in the dump I'm not even going to take it home ready Madam Secretary next case on the agenda please case number z27 2023 lince Sports llc at three Brunswick AB applicant is seeking bulk and use D variances for preliminary and final site plan approval to construct a recreational and Retail facility standards have not been met in accordance with the master plan Max F permitted is 25% proposed is 28% maximum Building height permitted is 30 ft feet proposed is 5033 ft affected property is located in the GB Zone designated as block number 4.01 Lot number 22.01 on the Addison Township tax map all noticing paperwork is in order thank you very much good evening Mr sh thank you good evening Mr chairman I greatly appreciate you and the board members staying late to get this done may not appreciate it tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off but uh my name is Bernard shy with the firm of conry conver and Shire representing Lin Sports LLC property in question is three Brunswick Avenue block 4.01 lot 22.01 it's 3.59 acres in the GB Zone presently property lies vacant we're proposing a twostory uh 43,800 ft mixed use building uh 12,525 ft of retail and 31,37 square ft of recreational use uh there are three variances we need uh the F uh as the secretary indicated uh will be 28 uh when permitted is 0.25 the building height uh will be 47 ft and that will be the reason for that will be explained because of the recreational use uh and permitted is 30 feet in the zone uh there will also be a sin height variance for the sign uh on the building uh the uh uses are permitted in the zone and they are contemplated under the master plan uh and uh unless there are any preliminary questions uh I have four witnesses to call board have any preliminary questions from Mr sh sing on you may proceed thank you call RJ kuko our professional engineer raise your right hand do you Solly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you go I do and state your full name for the record full name Robert kuko caas and Charlie o l u c o Mr kuko you just give a summary of your qualifications please sure uh graduated with the Bachelor of Science and civil engineering from the NJIT in 2014 I've been working in the field of civil engineering on various commercial retail industrial projects for the past 10 years a license engineer in the state of New Jersey my license is current and in good standings I've never been before this board before but I have been accepted as an expert witness at multiple other municipalities in New Jersey all well there's a survey afterwards to see how you how we rate up you will accept your qualifications thank you uh Mr kugo uh you prepared the proposed site plan for this project yes I did all right and uh could you please just briefly tell the board the president uh condition and location of the property sure uh we're looking at block 4.01 lot 22.01 3 Brunswick Avenue in the township uh for my first exhibit it's titled aerial map exhibit with today's date the north arrow pointing up it's basically a colorized version of the aerial map that was submitted with the site plan set with the subject site outlined in yellow and the zones outlined in blue can mark that as A1 do you have a uh a smaller version Mr sh for the board uh no I don't I believe the full version was submitted with the this is a colorized rendering I think he said there are some changes to what was submitted that's what I'm asking all right thank you m you just subit to the board secretary thank you Mr kuko while they're passing out those uh uh reduced size exhibits uh could you please uh tell the board what it depicts sure uh for the arrow map exhibit uh first I'll just note that the property is located in the GB General business district site consists of 15644 ft 3.59 Acres it's currently undeveloped open space to the north of the site you have Brunswick Avenue with commercial uses Beyond to the east you have Eisenhower Drive with residential uses Beyond to the South you have open space and an access drive to the commercial facility beyond the property and then to the West you have planfield Avenue which is County Route 529 with a public recreational park and Industrial uses Beyond um with the undeveloped light there's currently no vehicular access to the site uh there's full height curb surrounding the property on all sides to all three streets uh the access road that leads to the office complex to the South uh there's no curb Cuts or anything to the site believe it's actually uh roped off right uh could you please explain to the board what improvements are proposed sure I'll move on to my next exhibit which is titled site plan rendering again with today's date North arrow pointing up and it is basically a combined version combined colorized version of the site and Landscape plans that were submitted with the subject application I can mark that as A2 this is not might be on the opposite side so a this let me just confirm so that I have this correct A1 you're marking as the first page of AAL map exhibit A2 you're marking as um site plan rendering page one correct okay sorry the numbering might be a little off on the 11 by 17 uh going over uh the proposed improvements proposed improvements include the construction of a 2,839 foot two-story mixed use building uh those mixed uses include retail and indoor recreational courts or health CL which is listed as a permitted use in the GB Zone uh regarding bulk standard requirements the project is primarily compliant with the bulk standard requirements in the ordinance with the exception of Maximum Building height and maximum floor area ratio uh the permitted Building height is two stories are 30 feet whereas two stories and 47 feet are proposed and the maximum floor area ratio is 0.25 whereas 0.29 is proposed access to the site is provided via two driveways one full movement driveway to Brunswick Avenue off the northeastern corner of the building and the second driveway is a Ingress egress Right Turn Only driveway to planfield Avenue off the west side of the building uh what I will note about the Brunswick Avenue driveway is there is a small pocket of wetlands in the vicinity here uh previously uh the applicant has submitted applications to the D for an Loi and a General permit 10A which is a very minor Crossing and hased approval to add the driveway in this location access to the site again through these two driveways you have full movement around the entirety of the property parking spaces based on code one space per 300 squ feet of retail is required and one space per 200 squ feet of recreational is required doing the math it results in 199 total spaces being required in addition to General parking requirements there are electric vehicle parking requirements based off of the State uh for parking of this side greater than 150 spaces 4% of the total parking must be EV compliant eight are required and nine spaces are proposed uh the proposed EV spaces are outlined in green on the site plan rendering what I will note is as I noted before 109 regular parking spaces required the applant has provided 199 physical spaces so we do meet the parking requirements without taking any credits for Ev the EV credit is one EV space equals two regular parking spaces I believe there was a comment in one of the professionals letters regarding whether or not this EV space was a dedicated Ada space it is not we do meet the Ada space requirements by themsel um but that EV space has been designed per Ada code in addition to minimum parking quantity requirements there are setback requirements setbacks to the building 5 ft as required six feet is provided that's provided via six foot wide sidewalk along the northeast Southern sides of the building and then you have an extended 2 24t approximately 24t sidewalk on the west side to the side rear lot lines 10 ft as required 10 and 1/2 ft is proposed and to any Street line 15 ft is required and 15 ft is proposed and that is along the western side to planfield Avenue pedestrian access is provided to both planfield Avenue and Brunswick Avenue the planfield Avenue sidewalk connection is to the southern side of the driveway there's a sidewalk that's added it's a little tough to see on the rendering due to the trees but on the site plan you could see it better it comes down to a ramp there's an ADA Compliant crosswalk that leads across lines up with the Ada space sets here and then a ramp onto the sidewalk access to Brunswick Avenue is to the west side of the driveway again tying into the existing sidewalk that's out there today and again additional Ada ramps and crosswalks to provide a compliant path to the building in accordance with the recommendations we got at our TRC meeting we did add a sidewalk along Eisenhower Drive it's about 75 ft down this driveway and we did end it here there is an existing T cross in the sidewalk to the residential development Where the Sidewalk actually goes in so that's where we chose to end it we'll add a ramp here and then we'll have to add an additional ramp on the opposite side of the street to provide a compliant path across planfield or Eisenhower Drive loading space there is one loading space proposed as part of the development it's located off the east side of the building it meets minimum sizing requirements per code 12 feet by 48 feet is required and proposed Recycling and refu we have two trash enclosures proposed as part of the application one off the southwest side of the parking area and one off the southeast side of the parking area those are surrounded by a six foot high chain link fence with privacy slots those were added to provide screening to the uses to the South and in addition we've added evergreen shrubs or evergreen trees uh to further buffer those enclosures there are a few signs as part of the development we have one Monument sign which is located in the northwest corner of the site on the corner of planfield ab and Brunswick AB that is compliant with all code standards there are a few building Monument signs that are included those will go into detail by the project architect uh what I will note is there is a uh variance request that the applicant is making for maximum sign height 20 feet is permitted whereas 35 1/2 ft and 38 and 1/2 ft are proposed the proposed improvements will result in the disturbance of more than an acre and an increase in impervious coverage therefore the site is a major development in accordance with Township and NJ ac7 colon 8 regulations we do have an above ground bio retention base and proposed on the east side of the property located here in addition to wetlands in this northeast corner of the site there is a small portion of a flood Hazard area there in that same location we have submitted this application to D both for wetlands and for flood Hazard area individual permit application and have received approval and they approved the storm water management design as part of that application Landscaping we've proposed a robust landscape design and it surrounds the entirety of the parking areas in addition to screening along each of the streets uh We've heightened additional plantings along Eisenhower Drive again to further screen the residential use to the east um there are 184 trees currently proposed and about 300 shrubs uh we did receive the comment in Mr Big Nell's letter earlier today and we have no problem adding the additional trees to be compliant with the tree replacement requirements and then lastly for my testimony I'll hit on lighting there are 12 um pole mounted lights and six building mounted LED lights that are proposed as part of this application they've been designed to be in compliance with Township Code in addition uh we have designed them so there would be no spillage on Eisenhower Drive there's a little bit of spillage on the property line but it does meet code it's only 0.1 foot candles but on the road itself there's no spillage so no adverse impacts to the residential development and we have no problem with um making those dark sky compliant with that that would close my testimony and happy to answer any question questions you guys may have Mr CH Mr Mr kuk if I may just uh clarify one point you've had the opportunity to obviously to review Mr Bell's report and the report of DNR engineering yes I have and the applicant will comply with all the recommendations and requirements of those reports correct yes they will and uh with regards to the lighting uh you said there'll be no spillage uh there'll be no uh what they call Sky glow correct and we will prepare snow management plan yes one's actually been proposed and included with the site plans that were submitted with the township I have no other questions to Mr kuga Mr chairman Mr I may have missed it but the gentleman asked for variance of sign height and everything I don't understand why you need to have um the signs at those Heights when it was approved as a food store there were in compliance why are we raising the signs go ahead go ahead I was just going to say um it goes in line with how the building is laid out and with the use but our project architect and our planner can hit on the justification for this yeah I don't Mr chairman I don't believe that and I'm not I'm not in favor of of granting signed variances they can easily put the signs in according to the ordinance it's a it's not a major highway going through so people aren't speeding through there and there is residential behind so there's no need to have 38 foot signs over there thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr P does the board have any questions for Mr kuko see none thank you Mr chair thank you call Mr Horton and raise your right hand you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you guys I do and please State your full name for the record my name is Benjamin Horton H rteen I'm the uh principal of Ben Horton architecture and design located at 312 State Route 10 Randolph New Jersey if you can just give us uh some of your your qualification background qualifications yes sir uh I received my bachelor Fine Arts degree at caring melon University and I received my master of architecture degree at Yale University uh after graduation I cut my teeth working for a couple major firms uh known as Canon design and Gensler they were national International firms after working with them for many years I opened my own firm in 2000 and I've been practicing uh uh with my own practice uh since then so I have over uh 30 plus years of experience in architecture I'm licensed in New Jersey uh New York Pennsylvania as well as many other states up and down the coast and your licenses are current in good standing yes sir okay we'll accept you may proceed thank you thank you uh Mr Horton uh you are the architect to design this facility that's correct uh could you please uh briefly describe uh what you've designed yes if I may I if I need to point to the board uh I I have brought a board with the drawings that was submitted uh that included a set of architectural drawings as well as a set of renderings um going through the uh the drawings I I think I'll go to the board and kind of point to the uh the building layout just to get you oriented to the building that's fine you just bring the microphone with you thank you the site plan I think clearly showed how the building was configured uh we when we were planning the building we tried to be careful and um sensitive to the fact that to the west of the property you have the residential neighborhood and so we Tred to design the building to accommodate the parking that was required by the ordinance and then come out with a building that would work for the uh the client the building consists of it's a two-story building and as you can see by the side orientation It's a Long Bar and it's two stories in height um what's happening on the inside is that we're going to have two very specific uses that we already plann for the building which includes a rock climbing facility and a bad Mitten facility and then uh there's some remaining spaces that's going to be uh designed as a open speculative retail space uh we don't have any tenants for those spaces but I will kind of explain where the uh the uses would be located the first drawing is a 2.01 which is the uh first floor plan uh I colorcoded those and uh you have the drawings uh that was submitted uh in the light blue colors uh located at the uh left side of the plan and the right side of the plan those are going to be uh future retail spaces um we don't have any tenants for those yet um the the unit noted as retail a is about 4,900 ft in change uh the retail B which is the unit towards the right of the plane is about 8434 square foot and then the purple space in the middle is going to be the rock climbing uh facility the rock climbing facility is going to be two story in height uh I don't know if you've been to rock climbing but uh they have a section of the space that needs to be uh double height space that has the large rock climbing facility that would go up two stories plus and that's really one of the large drivers for our um height request in the darker purple area that space is actually an open volume that's going to be open from the ground floor to the RO bottom of the roof structure and that's where we're going to have the primary rock climbing uh uh facility there the the lighter color spaces are going to be uh the offices and amenity spaces uh things like bathrooms that'll be located there underneath uh the mees at the second floor level the the light blue spaces the retail space that's a one story and there's a there's another floor on top of those areas let me go to the second page to explain what's going on there so if I go to the the next sheet which is a 2.02 this is a second floor plan and so on the the left side you see in purple again kind of going with the purple of the rock climbing on the first floor this would be the second floor level for the rock climbing facility you could see that towards the front of the building it it it kind of sits over that one story retail space and we have secondary mezine space where there's additional lower height rock climbing facilities there whereas the white area that's noted as open to below that's that double height space that I explained that's where the taller rock climbing uh uses would be located um the other use that we're going to uh we actually have a use for the day one is badminton quartz that's uh colored in GRE green and you could see there's H several bad mitton quartz as well as uh pickle ball quartz so it's a combination of badminton and pickle ball um so that second floor uh that uh Second Floor area is going to be for bad mitton as you know bad mitton is a sport and it also needs a a height for the uh uh for the uh faciliity so um when we were talking about the building Heights um originally we were trying to go for a taller building um it's slightly taller than what we had but uh we we really went back and forth with the uh franchise as well as the uh the The Operators to discuss the building height we understand that uh we're asking for a variance and we did uh look at the inside and come up with ways to lower it as much as possible so we did lower than what we originally wanted but uh we are still requesting a hyp variance because primary driver is the uh rock climbing facility and the bad mitton courts which um requires a height um so when we organized it the the real height driver was the rock climbing and when we did the Badman because we need the hype for that too we kept it at that same level now I'll kind of walk you through the uh elevation and I think the rendering kind of speaks for itself in terms of what the building's going to look like the badminton court actually has a it has a near the stair here in the middle of the building the stair is going to continue up to a small meaning so that little plan insert at the top of the uh page is a small plan insert that would be on top of the uh the stairs there so you could continue going up the stairs to a meing level so you could sit there and kind of watch people playing you know uh it's it's very small that mezzanine is only uh about 300 and change Square ft but it's just an extra space that people could go up and watch people play and hang out a little bit the uh elevation drawings I hope I could kind of um uh convey the idea behind the uh elevation and why we're asking for the sign variants uh this this is the uh elevation which is the north base uh which is uh facing Brunswick Avenue not the residence uh again when you looked at the site plan the side of the building that faces the the residential property we try to make it as small as possible with minimal impact the side that faces Brunswick Avenue it's it's very visible obviously from Brunswick Avenue but uh that side would be also fairly visible as you're coming down Plainfield Avenue I think it's a very visible part of the building because as you go uh up and down the highway that's the side of the building that you'll see the most um and again I like to kind of take you to the uh the rendering to kind of explain the the size request but basically um in the north uh elevation up on the upper part of the building that's the the twostory portion of the rock climbing uh we're requesting uh a sign to be located uh just uh near the closer to the planfield Avenue side of the building and then uh at the entrance where the rock uh this band Mitten Court would be where this stair going up to the the elevator to the second floor and that second floor section of the building there closer again we try to bring it more towards the middle of the building which is where the Batman Court kind of starts we we're requesting putting a little sign there sign sizewise they're well under your ordinance requirement um and we did try to be uh cognizant that uh we are asking for a height variance but we try to size it in a way it it doesn't look too large on the on the facade um we we try to keep it tasteful and uh again the size itself is well under the ordinance size requirement but we are requesting a hype variance because of the fact that it is uh these functions are located on the second floor and we thought that these large blank areas of the wall would be a great spot to kind of uh put that sign and again I think the rendering is going to kind of tell a better story than these elevations which are more technical the uh a 4.02 is the um uh showing the uh the South elevation and and then the East Elevation again the East Elevation as you could see is the smallest part of the building that's the side that's going to face the uh the residential uh properties that are there and on those Sid we didn't put any uh uh signs and we also uh Tred to do have minimal impact on the residential Side by not putting any windows on that side we do have Windows for the badminton courts on the uh the second floor level as you can see in the uh the the South and the north elevation we try to put those windows at a lower height um uh so that uh in on days when we could have some cross ventilation we could open up those window for cross ventilation and a little bit of natural light um we didn't want to do too many windows cuz when you're playing bad Mitten um the the concern was that too much light would kind of interfere with the the shuttle  that you're hitting inside the when it came to rock climbing facility you can see we took care to create this um U kind of like a what I would call like a translucent kind of glass panels that are going to provide nice natural light into the interior side but also create this nice aesthetic appearance to the uh the Main Street facades which is the planfield Avenue again I will take you through the uh the rendering the the the last sheet that was submitted is A5 5.01 which is showing the uh the uh freestanding sign again the freestanding sign is is compliant it meets all the ordinance requirement and size requirement and the idea is that your typical shop Center sign it would have uh places placeholders for the various future tenants that we might get uh we're going to have the uh two day one uses the bad mitton court and the rock climbing facility uh spaces and then we have additional spaces for potentially future tenants now with that said I'd like to take you through the rendering fet High yeah through you Mr chairman the only variances for height are on the building there only the faade signs not the that's correct sir yes sir yes sir and and I I think this elevation I think tells the story a little bit better uh than the technical drawings do um now these were all provided to you as a handout there were 16 renderings and what we try to do when we do the renderings uh we try to show you one view without the treat trees turned on and then we turned on the trees so you can see what the the impact of all the trees that we added to the perimeter uh this first view is showing the Brunswick Avenue side which is the the broad side so you can imagine if you're coming from North in a southernly direction that facade would be visible um the the rock climbing is the gravity Vault it's it's a it's a franchise it started to gain some real uh strength recognition uh a lot of these franchises been very successful and um uh the client felt that uh this Edison would be a great home for this business and um uh they're really excited about getting this going and the gravity Vault has an interesting logo which is like a mountain with a what seems like a a circular Sun shape and then it says the gravity Vault and the sign is well under the ordinance and I think you could see it's located in that front right corner next to the uh the the large uh uh window there again it's to take on that spot I think size-wise we try to keep it tasteful not too large but just big enough that it's visible the bad mitton tenant sign uh they don't they don't have a logo yet uh but we show an area sign area located on the second floor level again relative to the building height I think uh we try to located in a tasteful Manner and keep the size where it's uh reasonable so that's why we are requesting the uh the the variance for those two signs all the other sign uh tenant signs we showed we obviously we're not going to have all those signs we're just uh we wanted to show the board that potentially depending on where we get the tenant we may put a uh one or two signs there depending on how many uh subdivision of tenants we get um all those signs again we wanted to show to you that when you added them all up they still meet your ordinance requirement in terms of the size of the sign the quantity um I think uh as you go through the rendering uh if you look at that Brunswick Avenue uh and then once we get the Landscaping in there with the trees it starts to uh create a nice atmosphere I think you know with shopping centers you know the I think the uh engineering team did a great job with all the Landscaping with the uh suggestion of adding some additional Landscaping I think it would be a a big asset because I think having a retail complex that uh uh where the building looks nice but it's enhanced by the landscaping that's even better and that's what we focused on um as I go through each of these views there's quite a few I think you know you could see this uh this is uh the entrance on Brunswick Avenue you start to see the uh kind of in that uh North uh east side of the building again you'll see that with the uh some of the trees added as you add the trees you know some of the views of the building kind of starts to uh become minimized and certainly uh from that side as the trees grow the uh the the signs are going to be less impactful I think the this is the the more of the Brunswick planfield side uh view as you're coming down from North in a southerly direction you'll see that front corner and you can see that's where we're we're locating the gravity Vault sign and the bad mitton sign and again they're a second floor tenant we felt that that that would give them uh a a little bit better presence on the main road but not so much on the uh residential side so Mr Mr Horton and in essence you've designed this to make it look as good as possible at this site with as little intrusion toward the Residential Properties that's correct and and if I may I'm just going to uh I think you all have the handouts but I'm going to skip uh put the mic down because there's a lot of pages but I want to skip to the the side the West Side that's the uh the side facing the residential side now this the last two renderings and uh if you refer to that this is the uh the Eisenhower Drive or the South East facade um the east side is the the the short side of the building and as you can see we showed this without the trees and you're you're seeing the the the short side of the building but when as you see the trees coming in and as they grow in a lot of the view I think would be minimized because of the trees and the fact that the you're seeing the shorter end of the building the again the the next elevation next rendering that you look at with if you look at it without the trees you could see again you're just seeing the short side of the building building with no signage and then when you add the uh the trees in it starts to uh make the building pretty much disappear um so we we we thought about you know the impact on the residential neighbor um we did uh try to put a lot of trees there but the uh as it relates to the facade sign I think where we located makes sense [Music] because it's it's really meant to be seen from um the mostly from uh Brunswick and the planfield uh side of the uh the road right and uh Mr Horton uh you've had an opportunity to review the reports of Mr Big Nell and DNR engineering yes I did and the applicant is willing to go along with whatever recommendations and requirements they've set forth correct that's correct I have no other questions to Mr Hort thank you board have any questions Mr Horton seeing none thank you very much thank you I like to quote Connor Hughes Mr use is being offered as a traffic engineer raise your right hand you saw me swear from to the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God yes I do and please State your full name for uh Connor Hughes h u GES uh if you just give me a summary of your qualifications please yes I'm a professional engineer in the state of New Jersey licens is in good standing I've been accepted as an expert witness in traffic engineering at various other boards in the state um and I have a Bachelor of Science and and civil engineering from NGIT as of 2017 since which time I've prepared hundreds of traffic studies for various commercial residential industrial types of uses and your license are current in good standing yes it is thank you so much thank you you Mr use uh you've been retained by the applicant to give testimony as to the adequacy uh for traffic purposes this project correct yes that's correct uh and knowing that uh we more than meet the parking requirements uh could you please uh just very briefly uh tell the board your opinion as to the adequacy of this project in terms of traffic certainly um so yeah as mentioned parking is met as terms of the ordinance requirements so I'll skip right over those parts I'll go right into the uh traffic generation and the um resulting analyses so in order to first look at our existing conditions we looked at the intersections of clanfield Avenue and Brunswick Avenue as well as Brunswick Avenue and Eisenhower Drive um since they're both directly adjacent to the site are going to handle the most amount of our site traffic um so we established our existing conditions there based on some previous counts that we had and isolated uh the highest peak hour during the PM weekday PM peak hour and Saturday midday peak hour since those would be the um the peak periods of the proposed use so once we have those existing conditions established we look into the future um first part of that is looking at the no bill conditions looking at background growth rates based on uh published percentages by New Jersey d uh as well as any adjacent developments um so those background growths account for any growth in the area other developments things of that nature and then once we have that is kind of like our future Baseline uh we look at the it trip generation in this case um which in during those particular peak hours that I mentioned the weekday pm and the Saturday midday um during that PM peak hour IT projects 168 total trips which includes 82 in and 86 out and during the Saturday they project 159 trips 78 in and 81 out and just want as a point of comparison the previous approval for the the leadle that's about half of the amount that would be projected by um a supermarket of that size so just to kind of put those numbers into perspective in terms of this new application and those numbers are also somewhat conservative since they don't account for any internal interaction between the different uses that are going to be on the site the recreational and the retail um interaction it might be minor but there will be some of that as well as any passby associated with the retail which is cars already driving along the road that may dive off to visit any of the New Uses um so once we have those chips established what we did is compared those no build to the build volumes just to see those differences and what we found is that those levels of service at the study intersections um are operating the same with or without the addition of the site traffic so there's really effectively no change in the operating conditions at either of those intersections and the site dve travies will also operate at acceptable levels um based on those parameters so um that's really the gist of it and if you have any questions I'll be happy to go into more detail thank you very much does the board have any questions from Mr use Mr chairman Vice chairman leaving going on to planfield Avenue you you have you can only make a right correct yeah only right turns in or out so if you want to get back to southbound planfield Avenue you'd have to take the left out of of our our driveway on Brunswick and make the left at the signal so what's going to stop someone from making a left U well right now as we have it proposed there's a physical island in the middle there to guide drivers to make that rightand turn there will be signage posted indicating as such no left turns well other than a signage what's going to stop someone from making a left if people want really want to make the left that bad they they can they will essentially a Police Issue to um you know handle that type of situation but it's going to be designed in such a way to um put it put the idea in their heads that they're not supposed to go left that the idea of it is you're you're going to have to go right so you going to design it so they can they they so there's going to be a right turn Island there be an island so it's it's it's going to literally be almost like a like a barricade so so it's to force traffic to the right rather than to the left right so the Island's going to be designed in such a way that it flows to the right hand side to guide those drivers to make that rightand turn it's a physical any other questions Mr use Mr chairman um oh I'm sorry the biggest concern I have is the people making left on Brunswick Avenue okay that distance is such a short from the traffic light okay the cars are coming speeding on that Avenue would them make a left taking a left out of onto Brunswick from the site you're talking about right um if there is a queue of cars there that there is a median there if they really needed to they could stage in that median before it would be a blind corner there where in that Medan making left from Brunswick Aven you people to go make left on Brunswick right so you also have the traffic light which helps to meter it so if there's a steady flow of cars they can wait until that traffic light changes and stops the traffic from turning right or left there make their turn then there's a two-way traffic there with the islands there in between right island has three of people coming on new binb Avenue going towards the plane field will not be visible for the guys who making left on there looking so you're saying looking to the right to the right correct gotcha um those trees are coming in their Vision they will not be able to see right so like I said there's a median area where you can essentially do it's like a twostep turn where you pull out of the site sit in that median area from that point you would be able to see down further to the right enough to there's not enough room there for median to accommodate the car there the car comes out this way there's not enough room that it's not wide enough you will have to redesign that Island remove those trees so that people can see when they make left on there those Island need to be redesigned okay yeah so I'm looking at the median now so the median is probably about 12 ft or so give or take so yeah the length of a car will it fit the entire car probably not you're right um but again there would be some space there if they had to and we can certainly look into working out those trees if we have to trim them in any way or you know make sure that that in one way or another we can make sure that that's visible that they'll have their you agree to redesign those islands to make sure that that well there's incoming traffic from brunck Avenue going towards the plane field would be visible for the cars coming out of the parking lot and brunso currently there's no proposal but we can certainly work with the township to to come up with the Sol tion that would be part of the condition as well you need to make sure that the cards are visible absolutely thank you Mr thank you Mr Mr you you CH yeah I was just going to mention title 39 for the enforcement of of those movements on and off that property so the police have the power and then secondly what to follow Mr Davies we're just looking at the plan there's a site triangle there and if he crosses the one line of traffic there's a space where he can sit in between the road it's wide enough for a car to make the next turn but we can work out whatever details you're looking for okay and Mr CH you agree to comply absolutely okay great thank you very much any other questions for uh Mr use all right seeing none I call Matt Flynn it's actually John McDon yeah I was gonna say boy I know I haven't seen you in a while I didn't realize you changed your name like you know Matt got really old do youly swear our firms tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you guys yes I do and state your full name please sure hi everyone my name is John MCD MC capital d o n o u g I'm the project planner and Mr MCD you could just uh give it please I know you've been here before just give a brief summary of your qualifications sure licensed professional planner state of New Jersey current and in good standing um also nationally certified aicp also current and in good standing I've been here before yes you have you may proceed thank you very much we'll accept you thank you thank you Mr mcdna sorry about the name no I snuck up behind you it's okay uh you have been retained by the applicant to give planning testimony regarding this project correct yes I have and you have heard all the testimony uh given this evening and you're familiar with all the plans and proposals yes I am could you please give us the benefit of uh your opinions uh regarding the uh planning sure I am uh very familiar with this site with uh with the surrounding area I was the Planner on the Leal application two or three years ago and I will say when I stood here last time there were as many people in the room uh for the Leal application as there were for the first application you had tonight so the fact that we're generally looking at an empty room I think speaks volumes about the uh application that's now before you this application has been a long time coming uh our applicant and our applicant team have done a great job in delivering a permitted use here uh that is actually a fun use it's going to go toward your your core planning goals for having livable and healthy communities and that's exactly what this land use will deliver um it does require some relief but for the most part aligns very nicely with the requirements of your GB General business district the overall setbacks are extremely generous here in terms of what the Zone would require um you've got conformance with building coverage conformance with lot coverage and a lot of those heavier bult controls are met here the applicant is asking the board to move on both D4 and interrelated D6 relief related to the height of the building and the overall floor area of the building those are controls that typically relate to intensity of use but in this particular circumstance we're looking at more space spatial requirement um inherent to the nature of the use as opposed to the overall activ activity or population that would come to the particular site so we we are looking for Relief related to height and related to floor area we're not necessarily triggering intense uh population density or activity or traffic on the site as you just heard through the witnesses before me the proposal is for permitted use for retail and a health club facility with a rock climbing and a bad Mitten component as well which responds to demand and as I said is actually a fun refreshing uh land use here um in the context of your general business district this project as a whole are going to advance multiple purposes of zoning in the land use law including purpose a the promotion of the general Weare again delivering a permitted use a recreational use a use that will Advance healthy and livable communities Additionally the planning goal for efficient use of land that's purpose M because it will activate and underutilized unproductive commercial land that has remained stagnant for too long uh and this will reverse that long-standing stagnation Additionally the project is going to advance purpose eye the planning goal for a desirable visual environment we've got an attractive centerpiece building that Ben just showed you and then we've got the landscape element that's going to wrap around it to nicely frame and blend that building into the natural landscape and then lastly the advancement of purpose G our planning goal to provide for a variety of uses in appropriate locations according to the needs of all New Jersey citizens this is a nice somewhat different type of commercial or non-residential use a retail type use and we think it will certainly be fresh um in the public eye at this location counterbalancing that with the negative criteria we turn to both the D4 and the D6 as interrelated here which are massing controls generally intensity of use controls which as you've heard through the witnesses before me is not what this particular relief is going to generate here the relief as I said relates more to airspace than to intensity of use certain land uses require a vertical element to them and this happens to be one of those if a rock climbing facility did not have height it would not AFF effectuate its purpose when we look at the purposes of height control in the Grasso case none of them are being violated here as I said the additional height does not equate to additional population density or additional traffic this additional height given the extreme setbacks from the property perimeter which is more than double or triple what the zoning would require um will not create any negative shadow effects on neighboring properties will not create an obtrusive imposing structure in the landscape and certainly will not exceed the carrying capacity of the land in terms of parking in terms of population traffic water sewer uh demand and the like uh So based on all of that we believe that relief can be granted under both the D4 and the D6 without violating any of the purposes of zoning without creating any substantial adverse impacts on the public or substantial impairment to the intent and purpose of your Zone plan and ordinance folding into that subsidiary to the D relief we've got the interrelated sign relief which as you've heard does not relate to the freestanding signs they are going to comply but really to the signs that will be embedded within the architectural framework and nicely fit and nicely integrate as those visuals showed you so it all lends itself to one nice package we're supposed to consider applications as a whole and we think the extreme positives here of a permitted use of of of a reactivation of vacant underutilized land substantially outweigh any detriments and with that Mr chairman I would offer the criteria for Relief are met the applicant has met its burden under the law and approval is warranted here and that's all I have under thank you Mr McDon does the board have any questions for Mr McDon uh I just have one question so with regard to the proposed retail use um the board would maintain jur you'd agree that the board maintain jurisdiction for any tenants coming in because we don't have any information as to you know what would be contained within that retail absolutely okay thank you very much all right board have any questions for title 39 Mr chairman I think we did got them on earlier on did they agree to that though as a condition sh you agree to title 29 yes we did okay thank you thank you all right um M Char that's the applicant's case I believe we've set forth a a a really good project one that's needed uh there was just an article in the home news about the problem with overweight in the state of New Jersey in the various counties and recreational facilities are certainly something as Mr mcdna mentioned that will be a help not a hindrance thank you all right uh uh is anyone from within 200 ft of subject property wanting to be heard if you were within 200 feet you received a letter via certified mail seeing none anyone from outside of 200 fet of subject property wantan to be heard seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close public portion second motion made by Vice chairman o Gorman second by Mr Patel all in favor signify by saying I I nay the eyes have it public portion is now closed and I'll go to the board Mr chairman Mr D I make a motion to approve this application the applicant has met all the negative and positive criteria the site is particularly suited for the use intended the use is not detriment to the public good or Public Safety uh with the following conditions the facade sign and the freestanding sign will not be more than 20 ft in height uh no Sky Globe will be created from the project all the rooftop units shall be screened from the public View and all the previous approvals for this site will be abandoned with approval of this application Mr chairman before you Mr second that I have I when he when he explained to me the signage I don't I didn't want to see the freestanding sign higher than 20 feet but I really have no objection to them raising the sign on the building so that doesn't bother Mr Davies I would have no problem to granting that variance Mr D would you amend so you said the facade sign can be hired yeah can it be hired just 30 ft yes sir okay all right I am in that the facad can be up to 30 ft High okay second wait wait I'm just hang on a second before I take your second I'm just going to add um that they will ex uh have agreed to the conditions of the board professionals reports um they will agree to uh title 29 and the board will make maintain jurisdiction for any uh future retail use on the site M were you good did you have anything to add yeah I'm good with read but they also I did not see the any Edison Town fire and police department and the uh the Water and Sewer connection permit and kind of stud you going to uh get it right yes sir okay um this Mo okay this motion will incorpor all of the testimony of the applicant attorney planners and engineers and members of the board as well as incorporation of all the conditions and what is to be done and not to be done at the site as intended thank you Mr chair second motion made by Mr dve second by Mr Patel roll call please Mr Baron yes on the motion Mr chabra yes to the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr D yes on the motion Mr sadaha yes on the motion Vice chair Gorman no on the motion and chairman kba uh I vote Yes on the motion I believe that uh the development on the site has been a long time coming uh and I think that uh this would be a great use for the site and uh you're approved 61 congratulations thank you very much I really appreciate you all staying thank you uh is there any other business come before the board that'll be all yes okay seeing none can to get a motion to can I get a motion to journ to motion toour motion made by Mr Patel second by Mr brone all in favor signify by saying IE nay the eyes have it board stands a Juran thank you everyone heyk I'm not gonna be a TRC