than all right welcome everyone to the burough of Hillsdale joint planning zoning board meeting on Tuesday October 24th 2023 we will begin with an open public meeting statement by our deputy secretary T Jano this is a meeting of the Hillsdale planning board on Tuesday the 24th day of October 2023 which is being held in compliance with the provisions of the open public meeting act and associated regul ations notice the time and place of this meeting has been provided to the rid news and the Bergen Record a copy was posted on the bson board outside of this meeting room and the burough website and was made available in Bur Hall and provided to any interested parties copy of the agenda for this meeting was made available for review on the Burrow's website near the posting of the meeting notice and in burrow Hall please silence all cell phones please wait to be recognized by the chairperson during the public hearing and the public comments part of the meeting it will me need to state your name and town of residence for the record a copy of the below listed applications may be obtained by requesting a copy in advance of the meeting by contacting the board deputy secretary at 201 666 4800 extension 543 Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 4: in addition the application documents are available for viewing or download on the planning ziling board page the burrow of Hillsdale website at www. Hillsdale nj.org or by appointment at the Hillsdale B Hall 380 Hillsdale Avenue Hillsdale New Jersey 0764 please rise to the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands for nation under God indivisible thank you Tanya get a roll call please chairman Reon here Vice chair secretary Raymond Mr alter here Mr Freedman here Mr GRE here Mr McAn here Mr Berliner Miss Thomas Council yison escar Mayo here board engineer Mr Cel here board attorney miss steinley here board planner Mr Barons all right thank you very much uh this is the point in the evening where I'd like to open up the meeting to the public to comment or speak on any items or issues other than those listed on this evening's agenda as well as any future matters that are scheduled to come in front of the board if anyone like to step forward please state your name and address for the record not seeing anybody else formally close it to the public and get on with our evening I'd like to start with some invoices we have we have two invoices from our engineer christel's office totaling $850 I will take a uh any questions or comments first not seeing anybody I'll take a motion to approve motion Mr alter I think second second Mr Freedman roll call chairman mean yes Mr alter yes Mr Freedman yes Mr Creed yes Mr M yes mayor R yes motion pass thank you uh up next we have our attorney clar jaob offer Jacobs LLC we have four invoices totaling $2,800 uh give everyone a second to just re themselves and if you have any questions or comments please let me know that I'll take a motion to approve motion second Mr G and Mr alter for second R chairman Reen yes Mr aler yes Mr fredman yes Mr G yes Mr McAn yes may ruk yes motion pass all right thank you very much uh up next we have the meeting minutes for meeting September 26th 20123 does anyone have any comments or questions regarding the minutes with that I will take a motion to approve motion Mr alter second second mayor a roll and I think just got to make sure anyone was in attendance chairman Reen yes Mr aler yes Mr fredman yes Mr gri was not present and Mr McAn was not present and mayor Ruka yes okay motion pass okay thank you uh next we have a completeness review uh application tz-4 d23 block 2002 lot 26 also known as 6 Willowbrook Road uh the applicant is Selena ramor it's for a pool and equipment that has Creed both variances uh to go over this quickly for the board and to deem it complete uh Chris can you give us a rundown on this yes sure this is this is a this is a varant application for the construction of a pool at the subject location the applicant had originally provided a plot plan that the building department could show the pool was in compliance but during constructions and how the pool moves and how it's that in comp so the application is Seeking a really variance is sort of back ended on this one it's complete the application is complete for public hearing so be on um I can go around the board if anyone has a question for Chris regarding again this is just to De it complete so it would be basically making sure the package is complete we're not asking questions about the Marin itself uh mayor any question questions none uh Mr M none Mr Freeman um I guess I guess the survey is just current right before the work was done yeah that's how he spotted the deficiency once they need the surve off okay okay um Mr alter no questions Mr gri no questions all right um with that I will take a motion to uh de this complete motion mayor I'll take a second second Mr GRE roll call Mr alter yes Mr fredman yes Mr greef yes Mr McAn yes mayor rco yes chairman ween yes motion pass okay so uh today is the 24th of October next meeting is Thursday November 14th if I'm not mistaken that's correct and we have I believe one other 38 Glen okay so I think we can place this also on that that's more than ample time to get the notice out if I'm not mistaken every time I've seen it so it seems not to be so ch right that should be enough time for the 14th I 14th of November talk November uh I'm probably not going to be here that night I'll somebody else substitute for be down at the league of municipalities from office I won't be here that that that's the uh convention have another application it's not Vari it's just a just theault variant so I'm pretty sure I'll be here one vote if you want I can send a representative no I'm not worried about that um let's put this on the 14th um we already have an application coming regardless and they've been no they've noticed yeah so we'll place on the 14th let them know if they deem that they can't make it then we should do what we usually do thank you okay with that we get to the hearing of the evening we have py- z223 block 704 lot 11 also known as 79 Beach Street uh John sers you guys want to please come up to the uh the desk introduce yourselves state your name address for the record and then we'll we'll get to work I'm Janette sers well known as Teresa sers I'm John sers 79 Beach Street um could you please raise your right hands do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you're about to provide will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes all right thank you okay um I think you have no professionals with you guys so it's just you guys okay that's fine so typically um basically you'll uh let us know what you're here for um the board has all the paper workor but again why don't you uh let us know uh what you're here what hardships you're looking for and what variances you're are being requested from the board I don't have the list of variances um we didn't know we needed a variance okay um and it's my fault that the permit was not pulled right away I um I guess it was almost 3 years ago when we had that hail storm we had a claim we did the roof and we had an awning over our deck um and they said they would give us money towards I said instead of an awning I would like a covering they said they would give us the money for it they gave us till May to to do the work well it got close to May and I said to John Let's hurry up and get everything done and I sent them all the paperwork of we purchased the wood and everything and they wanted pictures so I said to John you've got to get this done so we can get the pictures in and that's my fault he started working on it kept saying he was going to come down for the permit cuz we did not know we would need a variance um so we are seeking the variances now okay okay um just to Aid you uh Chris can you uh assist them in just letting the board know which variances they're going for sure um first off the light is uh undersized where it's 5,000 squ ft wor s out required semi report um they've also got they've also the L Frontage is only 50 ft where 100's required so the light is you know under sized for the Zone District pretty much hold on CHR one second do I have to S CH oh yes um if you raise your hand do you s from the testimony that you're providing tonight will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do thank you thank you sorry to interrupted that's okay that's not problem um so the newly created V uh violations Z violations are first of all is would be side guard set back that's to the north property line if you look at the plan uh 9.7 ft is what's the constructed versus 10 foot required so it's a little short that that's really the actual side of the house that's why it's sort of they sort of they sort of exacerbated the existing uh pre-existing non-conformity it's three T of a foot reard setback uh they constructed at 24.8 FT where 25 FTS required it's 2/10 of a foot it's it's a couple inches impervious coverage is the the big issue they're at 50% where 30% is allowed because it's it it's you know it's now it's now actually it's actually part of the building now so building coverage went is also in violation 34.2% where 25% is allowed for building coverage if it if it been open we wouldn't count as part of the building the fact it's got a roof becomes a structure becomes part of the building essentially and that's uh what the violations are the design violations are all right um did you guys have any other presentation before I get to the board members just giv a chance you don't have to I'm just asking if you if anything no we would just we just want to say we've been in town for 40 years um we've always been part of the community um John coached for 15 years Football 14 years wrestling soft uh baseball we raised four boys here um I do a lot of community service for the food pantry so we've tried to be part of the community so we hope you can take that into consideration um and of course we we're happy to always um help residents that uh cold Hills other town but we just got to make sure that um everything is to the zoning code so let me start um we'll start down if you don't mind U Mr grief do you have any questions the I I guess maybe this is towards Chris Chris in your report you say the applicant should provide testimonies to whether the size of the deck was changed correct uh and my understanding is you don't have any um we did not change the size of the deck we put the roof over the existing deck okay all right and what an awning was there before uh you have one of those SunSetter awnings and The Hil uh ripped it okay and um I wanted the roof because the awning was a pain every time it rained we had to pull it in the wind was blowing it so I really did not like the on it says now the sun's so hot it just the back is you know we have to have something covered there's no trees no more and does the the size of the covering that you had installed is that larger than the size of the previous Awning or is it yes it's bigger than the awning do you know by how much you cover the deck you cover the whole deck the the was a little bit more than halfway okay okay so these are the pictures right are these the pictures okay so when you say the awning was half the size you mean uh I'm looking at the top picture the width the came out to the end of the deck okay and it went not quite to the second group of Windows of 18 ft okay one other thing can I mention something we raised four boys in the house okay during that years they went through the whole school system and as they got older they needed vehicles in a 50 by 100 area we had to put some kind of pad for them to put the car on for as far as the ground C okay those are all the questions I have now I can Circle back Mr alter yes um by the way thank you because you coached my voice as well in football many years years ago and I remember that um it seems to me that the biggest issue is going to be the impervious coverage what kind of drainage do you have now of the new what hard here yeah so I understand that also what um what kind of drainage there there's gutters on it right the gutters are drain to the road they've been drained to the road ever since we bought the house drainage on the new Ro on the new Road the new yeah the dra to the house it runs the daylight to the road oh okay um yeah you know I think it's a hardship because you have such a small subed blot compared to what should be it's almost 50% smaller than what you allowed so um I'm inclined to to say okay thank you no no further question okay uh Mr fredman um uh no question U my question got answered with Mr response okay mayor did you say that the drainage now goes when the water hits the uh the new roof it goes where we have it pitched into the same place okay the same drain that we had before because we came up the top with it at the top of the roof you attach it to that it's it's a an apex right the RO side side comes halfway this way and goes back into the the grein system that we have okay I don't have any questions at the moment all right I'll um I'll te up some questions um you know you have an old deck it's almost a grade um you put some substantial roof load down onto some 6x6 LDL columns it looks like uh and it appears that there was no upgrading of any footings or anything like that um you know I'm sure architectual drawings were not created to do this no no okay um and to answer everyone else's questions there's a photo the first photo of the leader line going right to Daylight onto the ex Pap patio so it's hitting Pap going to the street proba I think that's what they're saying so there is no dra I assume if the board were to approve then Michelle's to get involved with the yeah the logistics of the foundations I have the unfortunate world of bringing architecture on the things I know it's not our world so no yeah but that'll be Michelle if she I don't she has done nothing just yet depending what happens over here okay very fair um I see the now you're saying this was all instigated because of the hail storm the the one a couple years back not the one from to September um and It's when um so you read to the roof on the whole house uh was it always a Gable front on that lower part of where I see the two windows or did that get reframed up to me this new roof in in back yes in the back was it always a g I don't understand no it was it was a shed roof it was a shed so framing from that wall so you did siding work you did everything I I just putting together this I want I wish I had a photo of the existing before what I'm TR to get that um it would alleviate a lot of people's question seeing that deck there uh we know you're saying that it was that size and uh the unfortunate thing is once you do put a roof on it it becomes your true structure and and does stop everything from um becoming uh it's just folding coverage now uh you know and then I take it this is what brought to the attention of the zoning official all the other uh to efficiencies with a lot that's what happened um I'll Circle back around one last time before we start going to discussion uh this agree nothing further Mr Al Mr Freeman any questions um I I didn't want to comment on the uh the footage there I was wored about that too I think that's going to come up um um no Mr M so the the uh Mr the roof in made the impervious coverage increase from 46.7 to 50.3 is that correct that's correct and that's because before while you had the an warning and it was just that the deck was considered so the water would just hit the the patio and this burrow the deck does not count as the coverage not 100% the drains right through no questions I got one question please just I see you have you put Lighting in as well under the deck ceiling okay so if you need any fmit you're going have the electric burit for those yes we had electric out there we had electric on the deck already we just ran them up to the you didn't have the burrow of electric official out there you you're just saying you had electrical feed out there yes okay I just want to put that on the r yeah but yeah so you may have to I'm not going to talk about the building department you have to tear the thing open so they can see the wiring okay so you you nothing to do with us here but yeah if they if the electrial inspector wants to see what you did inside there yes that's fine okay uh one of the thing is that if you do consider a resolution that if the drainage becomes a nuisance to the neighbors which we haven't heard anybody yet talk about it but if it does in the future then they're going to have to act to mitigate that I didn't hear you if there's a PR drainage with the neighbors because the additional part is coverage I want to make sure that the neighbors are protected that they will mitigate that situation of some sort and do you understand that so if the drainage from the roof over the deck becomes a problem starts spilling on to the neighbors you'll have to work with the burrow to address that okay thank you yeah um so I mean I see the one drain goes to grade you said the other one FS into the existing system we're run across run across and tap into the other one OHS um might need another one so uh how long ago was this B um how long ago was it though um May May yes because we I had to have the pictures to the insurance company by May 12th or 15th it was do do you usually have any water ponding issues no uh anyone else before we go for yeah just um so this was done after this the hail storm you had damage to the roof and you decided since you were going to have the roof prepaired this was a good time to think about covering the okay and the insurance company covered this they covered quite a bit of quite a bit of it okay thank [Music] you I had a question could you describe the if there's any topography issues or grade changes on your property like is it steep is it mainly flat our property yeah is um the backyard is flat but pulling into the front of our house we're up on a pitches from from back front yep the the water down down um Beach Street would go toward Hill The Way flows well our neighbor has a drain right in front of their house and usually goes down usually Hillsdale Avenue water comes past us oh does it go the other way it goes south yes and catch facing right in front of the neighbor's house okay which we're always clean um you said you didn't know you needed a permit for doing this um no we knew we needed a permit we didn't know we had any variance problems we didn't know we needed a variance permit so when if you knew you needed a permit how was it constructed he he I said to him you got to do the construction and during the day he kept saying I'll go down and get it and he just by the time he got cleaned up and got ready to come down you were closed he had all intentions of coming down for a permit but we got cleaned up sof installed exided roofed guttered a lot of he he did that all I've been in 45 years in business I'm finally retiring at the end of this year what's your business at construction I did boofing and construction for 45 years I'm finally ready to retire in December and this is the first time in 45 years I ever didn't get a permit I 45 years you can check my records go back to the Better Business Bure right in top of things all the time it's just as as the chairman of this board it's uh you know we get a lot of things that where you know uh some people have the philosophy of forgiven that's over permission and um it just gets to a point where uh yes you I mean you should State the fact that you do have a hardship it is the undersized lot if I'm not mistaken right CH they half the siiz lot that that affects the impious cover um they well you divide it you have twice as much area you said the minimum lot size is 10,000 for that zone 10,000 in the zone 5,000 yeah there's a lot of other siiz Lots in the neighborhood yeah you know the neighbor yes it's an old section in town in this case the in is going from 46.7% to 50.3% uh so it's like 3 or 4% it's the building coverage that well yeah they covered a whole the width of the house mhm plus how far out we say the deck is about 15 ft 14 ft out if those boards come in 16 did you buy true decking boards probably how far out is the de de yeah 12 no 12 12 12 um yeah I mean I have no more questions left for the app since anyone else have any questions left um and and U Marina just run us through if um we did um grant them this relief or did not grant them this relief what would be the uh the course of action so the there's two different types of v c variances which are for bulk um changes one is a C1 hardship test which is based on exceptional narrowness shallowness or shape of the property exceptional physical features or topographical conditions that are unique to this property or an extraordinary or exceptional situation uniquely affecting the property the alternative is the C2 balancing test um which is be would be that the deviation supports the purposes of the municipal land use law um by permitting the the variants and the benefits of the change of the requested variant substantially outweigh any detriment um in addition to either Pro establishing that you have a hard shift or a balancing test um the applicant also has to prove that the proposed relief is not substantially detrimental to the public good and that it will not substantially impair the intent and purpose of the Zone plan and the zoning ordinance so here it seems like the applicant has provided facts um relating to the hardship test about narrowness shallow shape of the property um and even to time I said the the grade so we're looking at a C1 variance yes M C1 a C1 test for all of thean all right with that explanation I will entertain a motion to deny or approve and just give reason I'd like to make a motion motion to uh to approve uh based on the limitations of the the size of the lot uh which increases the ratio of the cp's coverage uh quite high for such a small lot uh under the rules of the C1 variance test uh and considering that if there's any drainage problems in the future you'll mitigate those with avoid that uh I make a motion to approve um before I go for a second I apologize uh just for the record I want to say I would have opened it to the public but there is nobody in the public just for anyone watching um so that that would be a major deciding factor if you have any neighbors here against this so just want to put that on the record now I will take a second second Mr MCU go for roll call Mr alter yes Mr fredman yes Mr G yes Mr McAn yes mayor ruk yes chairman re uh yes and I want to condition that um the building department uh does get all their rough inspections and I I from my profession I am worried about the footing um for those going down if there is a footing being it was our grade deck so I just put this in the building Department's hands basically but yes thank you it passes all right okay is that it thank you very much thank you your time thank you thank you okay with that wrapped up I will once again open the meeting to the public before closing have a good night everybody night um without anyone here I will close it our next public hearing will be Thursday November 14th 2023 at 7:30 in the burrow Hall council chambers I'll take a motion to adjourn all in [Music] favor