join me in a salute to the flag I ALG to the flag the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you everybody could we have a sunshine announcement please cam yes good evening everyone um today is Tuesday May 7th in the year 2024 this is a Jersey City planning board meeting with a scheduled 5:30 p.m. start time um and in accordance with the open public meetings act notice of this meeting has been given to the editor of the Jersey journal the Jersey City Reporter and posted with the city clerk on May 2nd of this year this meeting was also posted on the Jersey City division of City Planning web page and all distribution materials made available to the board were published and made available to the public thank you cim could we have a roll call please yes um Vice chair Dr Gonzalez here commissioner gangadin here uh councilwoman uh priner here commissioner green present commissioner Torres and chairman Langston here all right we have a quorum we have six Commissioners present okay thank you could we SAR in the staff please Mike iie Michael mat you guys the truth the whole truth nothing truth yes thank you uh cam I know we have a a lot of Correspondence you want to read that off yes chairman okay so we have six items on the agenda being carried to May 21st with preservation of notice so um I'll go through those first but actually to keep in chronological order um I suppose I'll go to item 15 first on the agenda the first item that's to be carried and that item is case p2024 d002 the address is 27-29 Fatt Avenue and it is a pre preliminary and final uh site plan with C variances and they have requested to carry with preservation of notice to June 11th so that is 15 on the agenda and they are carrying to June 11th with preservation of notice so 16 on the agenda um is case p23 d32 the address is 791 to 805 Westside Avenue it's a preliminary and final major site plan with uh a conditional use and C variances and they have requested to carry with preservation of notice to May 21st um item 17 on the agenda it's case p23 d76 it's a preliminary and final major site plan with C variances the address is 829 Bergen Avenue and they've requested to carry with preservation of notice to May 21st um item 19 on the agenda this is case p2023 D105 it's a minor site plan address is 511 Palisade Avenue and they have requested a carry with preservation of notice to May 21st um item 20 it is case P20 uh P20 23-8 a minor site plan address is 47 van ripen Avenue um they've requested a carry with preservation of notice to May 21st um item 21 on the agenda it is case p2023 0095 it's a preliminary and final major site plan with see variances and they uh are at address 42 to 46 Cottage Street they've requested a carry with preservation of notice to June 11th and we got four more um item 22 on the agenda it is case P20 23- 0064 it's a preliminary and final major site plan with C variances the address is 147 Academy Street and they have uh requested a carry with preservation of notice to June 11th uh um item 23 on the agenda it's p2023 d0102 it's uh for a final major site plan address is 20 long slip and they've requested a carry with preservation of notice to May 21st um item 24 p2023 d103 um 01 03 yes okay it's for a minor subdivision address is 20 long slip and they have requested to carry uh with preservation of notice to May 21st all right last one um this is item 25 on the agenda uh it's case p2024 and it is uh all right case number p2024 d44 it's a site plan Amendment the address is 17-25 perin and they've requested a carry with preservation of notice to June 11th um so that is all the items requesting to carry and um to summarize it's uh everything after case uh 14 with the exception of item 18 is being carried if that makes it simpler okay thank you Cam all right let's get into Old business we'll call case p202 4-47 is a one-year extension for 370 to 372 Avenue good evening uh everybody Stephen Joseph for the applicant um this is it's not a notice application it's a one-year extension it's the first one-year extension uh the approvals expired February 1st 2024 if approved this evening the extension would take the approvals to Feb February 1st 2025 um applicant is still getting things in order working out financing for the project okay thank you does anybody have any questions any no okay is there anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this one-year extension anybody from public seeing no public I move to close second okay motion made and second it public is closed cim do you have anything you want to add um just that all of the existing conditions under the previous approval remain in effect and if the applicant's attorney agrees to that planning staff for comes approval of course agreed okay thank you Mr chair i' like to make a motion to approve case p2024 d47 as presented to our board tonight second okay motion made and seconded for approval all right Vice chair Dr Gonzalez hi commissioner gangen I uh councilwoman Prince I commissioner green I commissioner Torres I and chairman Langston I motion carries all in favor okay thank you all right let's move to Item B is case p2024 d009 is a one-year extension for preliminary and final major site plan with deviations for 163 to 165 nework good evening uh good evening Commissioners councel staff um court reporter uh my name is Jim mccan from the law firm of conell Foley in Jersey City I'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant this is also an application for an extension of uh of an existing preliminary and final site plan approval the application is for one year it would carry the approval through January 8th of 2025 this is the applicant's second um application for an extension um those of you who were on this board may remember that this is a project that's a combination of new construction and an Adaptive reuse there have been some significant issues regarding the safety of and it had an existing tenant in the building there have been some issues regarding um developing the project with the existing tenant in there the tenants lease expires at the end of the year the applicant believes that he'll get the project going after that okay that's the application and the applicant stipulates that any conditions in the original approval will continue apply to the extension all right thank you Council anybody any questions no no okay is there anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application anybody from public seeing no public I move to close second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed uh Jen Ru anything yeah uh I have heard applicants agree to the conditions in origin approval so step forment approval okay thank you Mr CH like to make a motion to approve case p2024 d009 is presented to our board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval Vice chair Dr Gonzalez I um commissioner gengen I councilwoman Prince I commissioner green I commissioner Tes I chairman linston I motion carries on figure okay thank you thank you thank you appreciate your time everybody okay let's move on to item C is case P2 0 24-39 are three one-year extensions for a final major site plan at one mallerie Avenue good evening members of the board uh my name is Veronica schmeil of the law firm Connell Foley and I'm here on behalf of the applicant um 70 Fisk LLC we did notice for this there was one C variance for the underlying um approval so I'd ask that that be marked for the record you have I have my origin um so yes as the commissioner said we are here today requesting uh three one-year extensions of the amended final major site plan approval with a c variance under p2- 032 um the approvals uh were expired on July 28th of 2022 which is why we're before for you requesting all three extensions which if approved would take us to July 28th of 2025 uh on behalf of the applicant I offer the following reasoning um they got their approval sort of smack in the middle of Co and I think like many others were severely impacted with their ability to obtain financing proceed to permitting I would note also that they were operating their small business on the property which was um kitchen and bath uh improvements and since though they've been able to move their business and vacate the building and they've been able to proceed to demolition as well um they are not seasoned or experienced developers so unfortunately they took their eye off the ball with the approvals period and the expiration thereof which is why we are requesting the three-year uh extension of those approvals so chairman the first order of businesses we are going to Mark the notice it does appear to be in order so we're going to mark it as A1 for purposes of the record in reviewing the notice from following correctly the actual expiration date was 2022 yes and we're coming up on the second year of the expiration is that yes fair to say m so chairman I think one the board absolutely has the discretion to go back and extend approvals that have expired uh after they've they've lapsed but I think we'd want to hear from planning as to what if anything may have changed because if the zonings changed obviously that's something that the board may want to take into consideration J R um I think changes I think the planning Staff feel like is fine to actually extend the uh original approval uh as long as they cover the experiment date okay so so chairman in light of no change in the zoning then it would be appropriate to go ahead and extend it based on the recommendation of planning okay thank you Council any questions anyone no so this is what we're doing is giving them a basically they only have one year now to start essentially yes two years2 yes and chairman you've heard me say it before the what expires is the protection from the change in the zoning the actual approval doesn't expire per se so it's not that well they can't act on it but if there's been a change in the zoning that's what they lose the protection of uh when they let these things lapse okay thank you Council any other questions anyone no okay is there anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application anyone from from public seeing no public I move to close second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed Jen Ru we have your recommendation already Yes um and also I just want to ask the applicants to comply with the conditions in original approval yes we agree and with that sta recommend approval okay thank you Mr chair I like to make a motion to approve case p2024 0039 is presented to the board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval Vice chair Dr galez I commissioner Gaden I councilwoman Prince ER I commissioner green I commissioner Tes I and chairman linston I motion carries all in favor okay thank you thank you Council okay uh I do have one item that I need to move up uh we're going to call Item 18 is case p2023 d115 that's a preliminary and final major site plan for 20 Columbus Drive good evening Mr chairman uh members of the board Robert verell from the law firm of Connell Foley on behalf of the applicant Harborside Plaza 4 Associates uh LLC um this is a uh preliminary and final major site plan application for um Harbor the harbor side four site which is the um site located at uh the corner of Christopher Columbus Drive Green Street um Pearl Street and um Hudson Street uh this is in The Exchange Place North Redevelopment plan area The Harborside West District this is uh preliminarily this is a notice case so we did serve notice I have uh hard copies of the notices that were served that uh if you'll allow me I'll present the council sure thank you Council chairman I had previously been supplied the notice as well as the Affidavit of publication proof of mailing I had the opportunity to review it prior to the meeting and it did appear to be in order it appears that what council has just handed me is the original of those documents so uh we can go ahead and market as A1 for purposes of the record it does appear to be same authentic and in order and Council just before you start um I did see a number of people walk in that weren't here earlier uh we have a number of items that are not being presented tonight we have item 15 uh is 27 to 29 fiet AV that will be heard on June 11th we have item 16 uh is 791 to 805 Westside Avenue that will be heard on may 2st we have item 17 for 829 Bergen Avenue that won't be heard tonight that'll be heard on May 21st uh we have item 19 for 511 Palisade Avenue that will be heard on May 21st uh we have item 20 is for 47 van rip and a that will be heard on May 21st we have item 21 for 42 to 46 Cottage Street that will be heard on June 11th we have item 22 for 147 Academy Street that will be heard on June 11th item 23 and 24 for 20 long slip they will both be heard on May 21st and item 25 17 to 25 parine a that will be heard on June 11th so if you heard anything that you are here for tonight that will not be heard tonight um this is the notice so those dates that I just read off those are the dates those items will be heard you will not receive new notice okay Council go ahead please thank you uh secondarily we have uh our uh um presentation slides which are on the screen it's comprised of the um materials that were supplied to the board and uploaded to the Tyler system however we'll mark that as A2 and we'll um uh submit a copy of the of the uh presentation materials at the conclusion of the hearing sure A2 and how many slides are there Council I believe there are 36 slides total okay once again this is for a uh new mixed use Residential Building in the uh Exchange Place uh Redevelopment plan area uh this is a prominent Corner in the city uh along Christopher Columbus Drive um a block away from The Exchange Place PATH station uh we're excited to bring this application to you here this evening given its location within the city we think this will be a very attractive addition to the uh ever changing and growing Jersey City skyline uh there are a number of elements that uh we've worked closely with um planning staff uh to incorporate into the building design that you'll hear from the Cy professional or from the project professionals this evening which I think will enhance both The Pedestrian uh experience and uh again be an attractive feature for that section of the city uh which is becoming more residential in character and less uh solely office as it uh historically was um the uh Tower which you'll hear from our architecture expert this evening is a 50 story uh on a Podium mixed use building uh that has a ground level retail space uh 800 residential units and 392 parking spaces and 411 uh bike uh spots I have with me a full compliment of the development team this evening we have G Gary Handel the project architect who will take the board through uh what's uh proposed from an architectural standpoint I have Chris Collins from drar Robin who is the project uh civil engineer uh along with Lauren Bennett who's also from Dresner Robin who will Who is the landscape expert and I have Charles height from Dresner Robin who is the uh professional planner for the uh application if there are no uh questions on any of the preliminaries I'll get right to it and I can call my first witness Council if you could just highlight what the variances are nature uh I don't want to take anything away from Mr height but certainly so we did notice for uh four uh variances uh one is for the number of Street trees uh due to some uh logistical issues which you'll hear from the development team this evening uh we couldn't uh Supply the full complement of Street trees we're still providing a substantial number of Street trees we're at about 13 shy so our proposal is to um make a contribution to the city for the 13 trees we also you'll hear from our landscape design team this evening as far as there are also landscape elements that make up for the lack of Street trees uh associated with that is also tree spacing which again you'll hear from our um project professionals this evening but again due to some of the location of utilities and poles uh we had to shorten some of the spaces um for the street uh for the uh placement of the street trees but many of the street trees will comply with the requirements some will have to be tightened up uh we also have a variance for lighting um due to its location there's a lot of ambient lighting already in that area so again you'll hear from our project professionals that we're proposing less of a I believe it's A6 foot candle as opposed to one which again given the location of the project uh should have minimal impact and still provide sufficient light uh for uh pedestrians and residents and uh lastly we have a variance related or deviation relating to building signage which you'll hear from the project team uh we have uh essentially two entrances to the building since it's a full block development and for way finding and for pedestrian safety and the vehicular safety issues we felt it would be prudent uh to have a secondary uh building signage so those are the uh deviations that are requested as part of this application other than that the bulk of the building complies as you'll hear from our professionals the bulk of the building and the massing uh comply with the Redevelopment uh plan uh and we're not asking for any deviations as far as the building form itself just with those ancillary U elements that I highlighted thank you very much Council if there are no further questions or issues I'll call my first witness no go ahead Council thank you uh my first witness is the project architect uh Gary hendel uh you can either stand here or there's also this I think if it's easier this is good for me okay then we'll shut this off okay you any ton tonu I do my name is Gary Handel g a r y h n d l Mr Handel good evening um we've qualified you in the past your license is current tonight it is okay thank you you're qualified okay Mr thank you uh Mr Handel if you could uh take the uh board through what's being uh proposed as part of this project great thank you very much um good evening my name is Gary Handel and I'm the managing director at Handel Architects one Harborside Plaza 4 is located within the Harborside West District of The Exchange Place North Redevelopment plan area as you can see by the pink boundary the site sits between The Exchange Place PATH station and the downtown and downtown Jersey City to its North is the Harborside Light Rail station and to its South is The Exchange Place Light Rail station as well as the pois hook Ferry the height of the neighboring buildings varies um and pending approval construction is anticipated to start at the end of the year and last for approximately 36 months the site is approximately 1.3 Acres or 5834 Square ft surrounded by mixed use buildings including two Exchange plates 10 Exchange Place two Montgomery 30 Montgomery 135 green with a whole food Foods 160 green and 200 Hudson currently Harborside Plaza 4 is an underutilized surface parking lot and we believe that the development of a mix use Residential Building at the site will activate Christopher Columbus Drive and enhance the eastwest visual connection um to and from the Hudson River the site is bounded by Hudson Street to the east um Christopher Columbus Drive on the South Green Street on the west Pearl Street on the North and we've included photographs of the immediately surrounding buildings to further explain the context and so and in images one and two those are photos from the ex from The Exchange Place PATH station on the Southeast corner and the project site faces 135 Green Street um images three and four are looking south from pear and Green Street and one can see 30 Montgomery and the Merl Lynch building and photograph five is looking West on Green Street and one can see the red brick facade of 135 green and then Image six is looking Northeast on Pearl um and towards 106 160 Green Street um the building has been cited with consideration of the adj adjacent buildings and the context um the idea is that the to the taller Tower portion is towards the west and it steps down with lower portions located ated towards the water and the East stepping down finally to the plaza at the intersection of Christopher Columbus and Hudson that open space Plaza is located at the intersection of of Christopher Columbus and Hudson um and along with the little diagonal um piece um setback from Christopher Columbus enhances the view corridor along Christopher Columbus um to and from the Waterfront and we've worked extensively with the project team including our landscape Partners who you'll hear from lat to enhance The Pedestrian experience around the site and to and from the PATH station uh this is is a view an overall view of the pro Pros development from the Hudson River um the development is composed of a Podium base and a residential Tower and has a total height of 664256 um elevation 8.75 um and as Robert mentioned we're hoping that the building will be uh what we consider a great addition to the developing Jersey City skyline uh this is a a section of the building that outlines the location of the uses and so the podium includes the residential Lobby and Reta at the ground floor a health club at the second floor and six floors of parking from floors 3 to 8 above the podium there are 48 floors of residential use including a landscape amenity deck on the ninth floor an amenity setback deck on the 39th floor and a small amenity space on the main roof level and so there are a total of 50 um story 50 stories um minus those Podium uses including a ground floor second floor and 48 floors of residential development um this is an overall view of the building looking from the southeast Corner um you can see the building articulation employing an articulated three-story Pier um we've used bronze-colored metal and glass materials to complement the existing context and you can see those building peers extend above the roof line to articulate the top and cap the building on the ground floor the main residential Lobby entrance is located at the southeast Corner as part of a new Plaza that extends to the north and west along Christopher Columbus this will enhance the eastwest visual connection to and from the Hudson River there's a secondary entrance at the northeast corner with an internal vehicular drop off the park the parking access entrance ramp and two loading births are located directly on the west of the drop off Zone off of Pearl Street incoming services and back of house spaces are located along the northwest corner of Pearl and Green Street there will be around 12,000 Square ft of retail space facing onto Columbus Christopher Columbus Drive and we're currently planning three retail and service establishments um with their entrances off of Christopher Columbus that will activate the raise pla uh raay Plaza and Street um and it's those entrance that cause us to ask for one of those signage deviations uh this is a perspective view of the open entry corner at Christopher Columbus in Hudson the base facade is articulated with masonry light bronze colored metal columns and and a glass toref front you can see the detail of those columns which are similar to those in the tower with the sculpted bronze um colored metal um the plaza is designed to open up views on both streets and is designed with minimum sight walls um so that the difference in grade due to the flood elevation is minimized there's about the site varies in in elevation there's between five and seven feet of grade difference in order to get to the resiliency level which is plus 13 um we worked hard with our landscape Partners to basically um uh avoid um straight walls that would basically um you know diminish The Pedestrian experience along those streets um seasonal planting will welcome visitors to the building and Retail establishments along Christopher Columbus uh the ground floor mezzanine includes mechanical spaces on the northwest corner of the building as well as the parking ramp that continues from the ground floor up to the third floor the second floor as mentioned contains the health club and tenant mechanical spaces on the northwest corner of the building um you can see the parking floors on on Floors 3 through 8 uh with 392 total spaces um which are provided along with mechanical uh the tenant bike parking backup House program and storage um in that garage will be the 15% EV Make Ready parking spaces that'll be provided there and the bike parking spaces that Mr vertella mentioned um that are required ired for residential tenants and provided in two bike rooms on the fifth and sixth floor on the eighth floor um a building generator is located uh in the northwest corner of the parking and then on the ninth floor once we get of the podium there's a combination of indoor and outdoor amenity space that's provided we get into the residential floor plans and as Robert mentioned there's a total of 800 residential units that consist of 20% Studio 27% Studio 43% one-bedrooms and 30% two-bedroom units uh the residential floors that are shown here are the floors between floors 10 and 37 on the next um floor we have the 38th floor which includes residential um and a mechanical and pool equipment um which will be located on the East portion of that residential floor and then on the 39th floor additional um indoor and outdoor amenities along with an outdoor pool um and then on you can see on floor on floor 40 um there's the elevator machine room for that lower tier of apartments and then the upper um Tower units start on the 40th floor and extend to the 56th floor and then on the you you have those upper floors 40 uh 42 to 52 um and 53 to 56 and then on the 57th floor you the additional mechanical plant with a small um amenity area that is less than 20% of the enclosed floor area of that of that floor and then finally the um elevator machine room floor um and rooftop with the building maintenance unit which will be fully screened from um from view um here in terms of the key materials of building of the building which we um have both in the render and physical samples uh and this is my first time back in person so it's nice to see you all um again and it's actually the first time that we've actually had to bring these um to you so we thought we would just walk them around because we're proud of them and they're nice um so we'll um so um you so Joseph um you do you want would you guys like to have you know just if you could just scooch forward so we can bring those those forward and so um as mentioned the facade materials um include include that um those sculpted bronze colored metal columns which we think are quite um dramatic a high performance um insulated um Vision Glass spander glass to match um some perforated metal panels um a beautiful silver travertine Stone um that's used at the base along with some actual bronze at our at our storefront entrances and I believe that that that concludes my testimony and okay thank you Mr handal Council any questions for your Witness uh no I have no further questions for this witness I don't know if the board wants to question Mr Handel otherwise I'll move on to my next witness um Mr handal I do have a question about the bronze um how is that going to weather over time sure so the the most of the bronze colored metal is painted aluminum above the second floor okay so the only actual bronze is not contemplated at the building entrances um um in which case it will be maintained by by ownership will probably be uh in general um we recommend a protocol that is basically every two or three years of basically um making sure that it's in good shape it's a dark um you know um bronze at the base um and so that you know that material ages the best of all the bronzes we just love the rich patina of that of that material okay understood any other questions Mr handell no okay thank you you so much for your time okay thank you I'll move on to our next witness which is uh who is uh Chris Collins from Dresner Robin okay thank you councilth I do Christopher Collins uh c h r i s t o p h e r uh c o l LS Mr Collins good evening always a pleasure um we've qualified you as well in the past is your license guant tonight it is okay thank you you're qualified Mr Collins if you could uh take the board through the uh engineering as the civil engineering aspects of what's being proposed here this evening sure so as Mr hendel mentioned um the site is bound by Green Street to the West which is oneway uh Northbound uh Pearl Street uh on the North side which um is a private street with public access um that is two-way Hudson Street on the East um which is separated by the Light Rail so it's effectively along this Frontage a uh one-way southbound uh and then Christopher Columbus Drive on the south uh which is a uh a two-way street um we are providing uh new streetscape on all of the street uh Street frontages um we have a large landscape area at the southeast corner um which uh meets the requirements for or helps meet the requirements for public open space and access per the requirements of the Redevelopment plan um we have a drop off area on Pearl Street all of the loading uh and and access um is is off of Pearl Street um we're providing two loading Bays for off Street um uh loading um and the exist bike lane striping on Christopher Columbus Drive uh in Green Street is going to remain uh Al with some slight modifications uh to accommodate the um New curb cuts and things like that moving on to uh utilities um no oh sorry the uh the grading and trange um storm water from the site will be discharged to an existing storm sewer in Hudson Street um no detention is required um because we are discharging to an existing storm sewer um and the runoff from the existing parking lot already discharges there uh nevertheless we're going to partially attenuate some of that storm water runoff through the addition of um elements like the green roof and the landscape area um which I mentioned uh in our project landscape architect will uh go into more detail about that area um we also comply with the green area ratio requirements as we are in a flood zone um the uh elevation of the main lobby um and other residential elements of the building are situated uh 1T above the base flood elevation per feema requirements um moving on to the next plan um sanitary sewer will connect to the existing sanitary suain in uh Pearl Street at the corner uh with uh Green Street um Water Service uh on the plan currently we show it being provided from Christopher Columbus Drive and Green Street um those connection points are subject to change based on our um ongoing discussions with the jcmua um we're working with them to um uh figure out the best place to connect um for water um Electric Service uh will be provided uh by PSG through inground vaults along Pearl Street um and gas uh will connect to an existing main on Green Street and that concludes uh my testimony I'll do it from here uh Mr Collins you had the U opportunity to uh review the review letters from the uh board's professionals is that correct that's correct and uh we'll take them one at at a time so with regards to the uh traffic uh engineering memo uh will we be able to comply with the comments or are there comments that um we'll have to work with traffic about yeah so we are in uh in receipt of a review letter from the division of Transportation Planning um we're okay with uh complying with almost all the comments except um there are a few regarding the um Ada ramps uh at the corners of the site um in the sidewalk um comments 2A and 2B um were regarding the ada8 ramps at the north side of the site um at those two corners um we agree with the um intent to provide uh separate ramps so basically one um you know 90° to the sidewalk going north and one um uh going the other way um but uh we don't control the um the opposite side of the street um so ideally in order to do that we would want to provide um identical receiving ramps on the other side of the street um and we we can't guarantee that we can do that given it's um it's an offsite Improvement and then comment to see regarding the um a similar comment regarding separating the ramp at the southwest corner of the site uh at Columbus and green um we may not be able to do that um due to the presence of existing uh signal boxes and other infrastructure um in that area but we'll we'll do our best to comply but we can't guarantee that we'll comply with that um we're also in receipt of uh comments from the division of engineering um they had similar comments regarding the Ada ramps um and that was that the same same goes for that um and then we're also in receipt of comments from the jcm UA um through their um uh Tyler review system um and as I mentioned before we're working uh with them to um determine the best place to connect to their system as they have two different um pressure zones in this area and we're we're we're working with them to um to make sure we connect to to the best one um so that may or may not involve a one or main extension along Green Street um so we we can't commit to that at this time and that concludes my testimony okay thank you Mr Collins anybody any question questions no I have a question for you um just you keep you keep mentioning that um you're not sure about the water mains whether it's going to come off a Christopher Columbus Drive now you're saying again there's something else that might prevent you from doing it on Christopher Columbus Drive I just a comment that um when you know where the water BS are coming from waterer uh it'll reflect on the design of that room cuz where I guess you would be changing the location in the area where it be coming into the building the layout we I guess the short answer is it depends um on the location because um the MUA has distance requirements from the main to the water meter room um which Yes sounds like what that's what you're alluding to um so depending on on where we connect to and and if we need to extend the main for instance um the the rooms may not have to change um if it's coming on Christopher Columbus Drive and then they tell you to put it off a Pearl Street you're not going to cross the whole that's that's correct the whole building that's correct with it so it will change it I just want to reflect that the draws and everything reflect that changes that are made wherever the MUA tells you the location of the build of the water B and obviously Council any change of that size would have to come back back to this board that's understood yeah okay thank you okay anybody else all right thank you Mr Collins we appreciate it okay moving on um I'll call the next witness uh who is Lauren venon also drent Robin who is the project landscape design designer okay ton truth truth truth I do Lauren l a r n venon Vias in Victor n i n miss venon good evening good to see you in person as well um we've qualified you in the past your license is still current yes correct okay thank you you're qualified all righty so we will start out with the street level Landscaping so we have the overall landscape plan up right now we are providing a streetcape new streetcape on all sides uh the street trees are provided in accordance with the 2018 forestry standards on Green Street Christopher Columbus Drive and Hudson Street our street trees are 20 to 30 ft on Center on average we have one location on each of those streets where building entry points and utility locations interrupt the rhythm of Street trees and uh force a wider spacing the spacing that we have set up does allow for a 15t offset between the proposed street lights and the trees on those three streets going up to Pearl Street on the north side of the site we are constrained by the utility locations specifically the uh Transformer volts that were mentioned in the civil engineering testimony and the driveway and uh loading entrances so this limits our street Tree locations in order to maximize the trees where we can accommodate them we have gone with a columnar species that allows for a closer spacing to the light poles so on Pearl Street we only have 133 ft 5 in between the lights and the trees as opposed to the 15 foot so that is our um deviation in that spot moving on to species selection on Green Street we are predominantly using American horn beams on Hudson Street we have honey locusts as you come South towards Christopher Columbus Drive and approach the intersections with Christopher Columbus Drive we switch the species to Japanese scholar tree which is Sephora japanica and that species continues along Columbus Drive so this gives a a wrapping of the um southern area of the building with a the same species and um the same shape to the trees to highlight the entries overall we are providing 21 Street trees and we have included the payment in L for the um remaining requir while we're on the ground floor we'll take a look at the G um can we zoom in a little bit on that gr table make it easier to read oh if not it's okay uh so we are providing a green area ratio of 26 the areas included in the G calculations are all of the landscaped areas on the street level as well as 3,801 squ ft on the green roof we are including 144 square fet of permeable pavers those are the pavers in the uh forestry standard compliant tree pits along Christopher Columbus Drive okay we're going to take a look at the landscape enlargement plants so Council I guess now would be the best time to if I heard the testimony correctly we're talking about 2018 forestry standard obviously we've got 2023 forestry standards so I don't know if that was if I misheard something the 2023 forestry standards have they have not been um they're not currently on the website or the 2023 standards were approved by city council back in 2023 I'm not sure of the state of the update on the website but they are with the appropriate department so in division okay we we have um we have discussed uh forestry standards with the Forester and um we we will review and comply okay if you've discussed them with the Forester then most likely you will be in compliance but just you have note for the record that is 2023 that all projects should be adhering to not 2018 okay thank you yes we have been working with the city agencies so collaboratively collaboratively to come up with this plan but we'll make sure that there aren't any uh omissions okay thank you I proceed okay so uh the landscape looking at the landscape enlargements at the this is at the intersection of Christopher Columbus Drive and uh Hudson Street first so this is where we are opening up the corner to create a more welcoming entry into the building and uh soften The Pedestrian experience at the corner with some additional Landscaping we've created a um building entry that includes larger larger wider staircase coming up into the building and a um a ramp that moves you through the Landscaping as you come up into the building entry Plaza the landscape materials at the stairs and the pavers are both gray Granite with a granite curve moving up to the Landscaping along Hudson Street as we head towards the uh secondary residential entrance at Pearl Street we're continuing a wider landscape buffer between the sidewalk and the raised building Terrace we've Incorporated more trees into this wider landscaped area which help supplement the street trees and create a Greener and softer streetcape and then looking at the building patio uh next slide along Christopher Columbus Drive in this section we have a raised patio this is where we have a a larger grade differential between the elevation of the building and the sidewalk so we have a rais building patio with a railing along the perimeter of it the the color of the metal on the railing will be matched to the bronze tones of the building we're using A Jacobs net as a mesh infill a very light Airy decorative metal infill panel in the railing to help that railing provide the um the required Edge and protection but visually disappear the uh other images on this sheet are the bike racks um and the trash can that was selected on site while we are on the uh ground floor here we're going to take a look at the lighting uh the street lights are the Jersey City signature along Pearl Street where we have loading docks and uh driveways interrupting um your sidewalk we have two building mounted lights to supplement the lighting along the along the sidewalk uh we are compliant with uh ordinance for and City preferences for the street light selection in um however we do have light levels that fall below one foot candle the Jersey City signature casts a shadow due to the design of the fixture there's always that shadow right next to the pole so our lower light levels where we are below one foot candle are immediately adjacent to the pole our lowest light level is 6 foot candles and those lows all do occur in the shadow of the fixture itself going to move up to the roof Terraces so on the ninth floor this is our primary amenity space uh we are providing a main uh programming core with outdoor kitchen dining areas smaller Gathering spaces in an open lawn flanked by um spaces that relate more closely to the interior amenities Fitness uses some private spaces and flexible seating we're going to go up to the 39th floor and the 39th floors are pool deck the majority of the uh roof deck area on the 39th floor is dedicated to the pool and Sund Deck with some adjacent related uses for uh outdoor dining and um you know out your kitchen and Gathering areas and that concludes my testimony okay questions anything for your witness Council uh I have uh no questions of this uh witness um commissioner Torres I'm going to beat you to it on the the railings so and on the roof level the two roof level railings is there any Gap underneath the railing there is not intended to be it's a glass railing um on the roof levels we don't have a detail of that um shown on these plans but it is a uh glass railing and I believe that railing is in architecture scope but I do not believe we are intending to have any Gap at the base of that railing okay all right thank you any other um any questions anybody all right thank you Miss venon okay thank you uh moving on to our last witness this evening will be the uh project planner Charles height hi good evening good evening Mr he I do yes Charles height last name sped h y DT Mr height good evening we've qualified you in the past um this is our first time seeing you in May is your license current tonight I've made the conscious decision to renew my license last week um so it is in good standing and I've met all the certification requirements as well okay thank you you're qualified Mr hey if you could take the board through the uh the deviations that are requested as part of this application and the rationale supporting them please great we'll do so just a reminder we are in the EXP Exchange Place North Redevelopment plan area we're at the footsteps of Exchange Place PA PATH station um this is in the downtown section near the Waterfront of Jersey City um we are uh through our process of zoning compliance review substantially compliant with the building Mass the uses uh the units all of the things that regulate the building itself uh we are requesting relief for three waivers two with Landscaping one with lighting and one deviation for signage and you've heard a little bit about that um I will just add to it and frame it in terms of the justification needed um with respect to the two Landscaping um you heard from miss venon the coordination um on part of the uh project team in the city um really met with some uh constraints with utility and and access on the number of Street trees along Pearl Street so we are requesting relief uh in terms of the number of count uh 21 proposed 34 required uh we are making the payment in Li which is compliant with with the requirements um with respect to the spacing itself the minimum that we are proposing is 13.4 feet we've design or selected the appropriate species to work within that spacing so there no won't be any detriment to the survival of those species um where 15 ft is propos is required uh lastly with the design waivers uh the lighting uh as we just heard from Miss fennon um we are working with the Jersey City standard lighting that supplies a certain amount of foot candles that grade um we don't believe there's any sort of substantial detriment to the proposed lighting there will be ambient lighting along the streetcape from the building from adjacent buildings um so there will be sub sufficient lighting for safety and uh and it also is consistent throughout the the proposed streetscape design uh we I will spend a minute just running the board through the proposed signage um we are requesting relief for number of residential signage um in terms of the count so we are proposing uh two residential signage where one is permitted um we do have two residential entrances so on the visual before you um the leftmost and Central uh images are the placement and sizing of the two residential signs one's permitted for the development project based on the Redevelopment plans we have two residential entrances uh on the left is the Columbus Drive Hudson Street entrance where we have the main pedestrian access we are proposing signage there uh and then also on the Pearl Street which is the north side of the the project site we are proposing uh another residential uh entrance again these are aimed at enhancing way finding um they're oriented towards um pedestrian and vehicular uh the vehicular specifically for the Pearl Street entrance um to the right we also are proposing retail signage which is in compliance with the square footage um maximums permitted in the Redevelopment plan and we're showing that just for the the overall view of of the proposed signage um I do want to recognize that we are also uh furthering uh special reasons to support these design waivers and deviations um that further purposes of the red of of the master plan so purpose a to gu guide appropriate development in the state of New Jersey um purpose e an esta appropriate establishment of population densities again um the high-rise structure being proposed as in an appropriate location in the downtown and then purpose IE um to create a desirable visual environment through Creative Design techniques again we're transitioning transitioning this property from a surface parking lot to a high-rise mixed use development that will enhance and serve the communities in the downtown uh Waterfront area of Jersey City um Switching gears to the negative criteria um with respect to the relief needed I don't see any substantial detriment to the general welfare we covered a lot of the design intent throughout the presentation um none of the design waivers nor the additional signage present present any sort of substantial um detriment to the public welfare I actually think they do enhance the public welfare additional way finding signage appropriate lighting and Landscaping along the streetscape uh and then secondly the the second prong of the negative criteria uh no substantial impairment of the Zone plan or zoning ordinance um I'm not going to recite the goals and objectives of the Redevelopment plan we provided them in the statement of principal points we're aiming to promote uh several of them I've provided five uh in add in addition and in addition um with respect to the Jersey City master plan um we are uh aiming to advance the to ensure the city's available housing is balanced and meets the needs of all future and current residents of the city uh and also item two uh to strengthen neighborhood oriented commercial areas U that's part of the the mixed use aspect of this project so I do believe um we are not proposing an impairment of the Zone plan or zoning ordinance but in fact promoting it by our consistency with the Redevelopment plan that's my complete testimony be happy to answer any questions thank you Mr H I have no questions anybody else okay thank you pleasure thank you okay Council anything else uh that concludes our presentation in Chief um at this point I'll turn it back to the board and just a reserve for a uh small conclusion at the end of course and uh before we open it up for public comment Council I want to go over a couple conditions um I'm sure planning staff will have conditions as well uh but I think the board is going to have four conditions tonight uh number one we discussed any changes to the mechanical room layout uh shall come back to the board uh number two is the applicant shall comply with the 2023 forestry standards number three there shall be no gap between the glass railings and the roof on the two amenity floors and number four and I I haven't worded this out right yet but um I I think being that there's a pedestrian entrance on Pearl is as well as the garage entrance and exits I think there should be some kind of pedestrian warning system actually warning system for the exiting cars that there are pedestrians approaching I don't want to put the onus on the pedestrians I think they're more than reasonable Council uh I believe so CH chairman L go ahead Edie the um larger size for the retail spaces that they're asking for mhm uh that we um go by what we normally do with the lighting behind the sign that there is no lighting if there is that they only used on peak hours no that's for retail though yeah there's no Lighting on the the retail signage well at this point we don't have retail tenants so typically what will happen is as the board's aware the retail tenant will come back with a signage application and at that point those types of details will be discussed but currently on our plan no we're not showing that okay Council what was being shown for the commercial retail was just what's permitted that's correct yes and as far as the board conditions those are acceptable to the applicant okay thank you Council so at this time let's open it up for public comment if anybody's hear from the public that wants to comment on this application please come on up hi yes Catherine Moore k a t h r y n m o o r e and I'm at 140 Bay Street Miss Moore good evening we have three minutes for you okay I just heard about this yesterday so I'm coming really cold um looking at the uh the the the exterior down at the street level there's no benches in this Landscaping there's no place any kind of passive seating space in in in that um area sort of curious if that was something that could be um considered um the uh roads around there are private uh so would they be um given back to the city um at any point or will they continue to be Harbor side's um attention as far as uh making it Zone 4 or you know what kind of parking will be there um currently right now there's only metered parking and I think some uh trucks um but nothing else that's on Pearl is allowed uh or in Green Street so just kind of like what is the parking plan surrounding that um surrounding the whole building um the loading Bays um will they be used to um deal with the trash and recycling um off off the street or will that be something that they're going to leave on the side of the road for uh regular pickup um and and parking uh and then I see again no affordable housing um is seems to be part of this and then just the defining the mixed use again I'm really I I didn't quite understand what they meant by mixed use um are there certain commercial units within the building or is it just the retail that's on the on the ground floor I didn't I didn't quite understand um exactly what that meant and then just to clarify um the the total height of the building uh it says that it's 50 stories but it's on the plans it says 57 or even taller so um it's just kind of deceiving as to like how big the building is because you're not counting all these buildings that are in between the top and the bottom so that just kind of makes it a little confusing for others um but basically just you know on the ground level you know looking at you know the all the new construction that's going to be going along uh Columbus um at uh 72 Montgomery and then you've got 25 uh Christopher Columbus you know are is it all going to sort of tie in together like you said you know with the different trees um just kind of hope that that landscape is all um cohesive and uh kind of helps your helps you as you leave the Waterfront and go forward to make this more of a pleasant cohesive uh uh travel experience for the pedestrians um but that's all I could come up with in less than 24-hour notice very valid points right uh council do you want to address anything or do you want to get through public comment and come back to those um I could wait if there are other comments otherwise I'm prepared to address these Let's uh address while you're at the podium then uh as far as benches uh we do have an elaborate landscape plan but we don't have benches currently planned um given the location and the some of the space restrictions I don't know how feasible that is but that's something we can look into but we just can't guarantee anything uh as far as the private streets again this is part of the Harborside complex we are only one site within the harbor side complex so that is a discussion that would have to be held amongst the owners of Harborside those were always private streets they date from the creation of The Harborside complex uh and they were never required to be dedicated to the city and to date the city has not asked that they be dedicated ated again things can change but at this point there's no plan as part of this application to dedicate any streets and we don't have the authority to dedicate uh the majority of those streets anyway um loading Bays we will be storing trash in there right now the plan is to um have the trash picked up from Curbside uh which is fairly standard uh for a residential building uh as far as the mixed use question this is primarily a resid iial building when we reference mixed use it's the residential and Retail component along the base there are no office spaces within the building uh with regards to affordable housing uh there is no affordable housing as part of this or required as part of this we're not triggering the uh inclusionary zoning ordinance since the massing of the building uh is as permitted by the Redevelopment plan uh the total height of the building um there are 57 stories but if if you look at it from from a practical sense but uh the way the Redevelopment plan is written uh parking and mechanical spaces are not included so those six uh floors of parking and Mechanicals are deducted so technically it is a 50-story building on a Podium um the Redevelopment plan is also further specifies that the height is regulated by a maximum height not to exceed 800 ft so as testified by the architectural team we're at 600 and change so we're below the um the height threshold so we are not triggering any height deviations or variances as a result of the application I think that addresses those issues uh the last one we have is um is the the Landscaping cohesive with the other properties in the area again we'll do our best to do that we have been working with um uh the city departments to come up with a an elaborate landscape plan that quite frankly we're proud of um but we'll we're always looking to improve so again we don't control those types of offsites but we certainly don't want to do anything that's jarring to the public okay thank you Council all right is there anybody else here from public that wants to comment please come on up tonight Tru the whole truth truth I do address my name is Ann Villers a n n e v i l l e RS I live at 1 Second Street Miss Villers good evening we have three minutes for you thank you um I did want to pretty much object to the idea of uh trash pickup being on the curb uh we've had some real problems with the her doing that it's been a rat infested area because of that so we would like to see the possibility of keeping all trash within the building until trash pick up uh I think that would make it a lot more sanitary all around than having it all on the street uh so if that's a possibility I think we would all appreciate it we've struggled with other trash on streets before it's not working um you have now uh a building that's going to be another 800 units and I know this is not your purview but I have to bring it up every single time ps16 is absolutely full there is no more room for children where are these children who will be inhabiting these 800 units going to go to school even the private schools are full and nobody is the city is just not addressing this the state is not addressing this but I have to bring it up because it's a real concern and if you could address the trash that would be great too thank you council could we make sure that the trash was held inside the building before pickup yes we do have a storage area within the building building that will hold the trash okay and it's private pickup correct or is it City pickup I think it would right now the plan is for City pickup because there are city streets there as the project develops that may change over time but for purposes of the application we're anticipating City pickup okay all right so just if we could let's make sure that trash was not put out prior to pick up okay is there anybody else here from public that wants to comment anybody else from public see no public I move to close second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed uh who is this Liz anything you want to add besides what we've discussed um yeah I'll just state that um although there there are some um tree related variances this site is located within a flood zone and slightly exceeds the the gar requirements um so although they are short on Street trees they're still meeting that meeting and exceeding that requirement um and then yeah we had some I guess just want to clarify the conditions for their records so um um I just want to confirm that the conditions in the staff report were were okay with Council um I think they're maybe they're should be some rewarding just to address the fact that not all review agent comments are going to be yes we can update that and the uh staff recommended conditions are acceptable to the applicant okay great um yeah so I think we can maybe we tweak the third condition just to say 2023 forestry standards um rather than just forestry standards um and then we have um conditions from the chairman would you like me to restate them or we're okay I I have them yes okay great and then um trash not to be put out prior to pickup yes that's acceptable and with all of those conditions staff would recommend approval okay thank you and council did you want to give a closing statement briefly I'll keep it very brief uh again we uh appreciate the board's time and consideration in this application um we have uh we're very proud of this project and we're looking forward to uh commencing construction uh presuming that there's approval this evening as soon as possible we do think it'll be um a benefit to the city and again a uh interesting addition to the skyline um you've heard from our professional um staff or our professional team as far as the uh variances that are requested and what's being proposed and with that I would uh respectfully ask that the application be approved thank you okay thank you Council I'll entertain a motion then Mr J I'd like to make a motion at this time to approve case P20 uh 23-11 15 is presented to the board here tonight with uh staff conditions and the additional following one the mechanical room layout to if it changes to come back to planning two to comply with the 2023 forestry standards the three no gap between glass railings and the amenity floors and four The Pedestrian warning system for existing cars and I guess five now the trash should be kept inside the building second okay motion is made and seconded with conditions okay Vice chair Dr Gonzalez yeah I I like this uh this application uh I like it architecturally visually um and aesthetically I think the variances that are being sought are within uh something that you should uh ask for um and uh it's in compliance with the master plan and the Redevelopment plan i v i councilwoman preri um just uh to make sure that moving forward there's um no confusion about which forestry standards I think that it would be helpful to have um the Forester added to part of the reviewing process in Tyler um then that way we'll make sure that every application moving forward uses the right forestry standards regardless of what may or may not be on the city website in case that is part of the confusion here and with that I vote I thank you um commissioner Gaden yeah I think the variance um requested here is minimal and it's not detrimental to the project so I vote I uh commissioner Torres great uh commissioner green a full I and chairman linkston yeah I agree uh first of all Council thank you to uh the applicant for meeting our conditions um I think the deviations are are well within reason for a project of this size I don't think there's any detriment to the master plan uh there's no detriment to the Redevelopment plan or the zoning and um I am going to vote I great motion carries all in favor with conditions thank you thank you everybody thank you thank you Council Mike do you want to get a break in before the master plan review okay we're going to take a 10-minute break everybody it's 656 we'll be back at 7:06 yeah I thought that they wereing you would have been proud okay I see what you mean should yeah no you're right oh boy you are good Crystal call the keep them around keep them around he's a keeper I don't know who's presenting hi guys um hi Chris nice to meet you Chris I'll I'll introduce I'll just say that they consultant okay so when I call it I'll talk it to me I'll introduce okay be the best thank you guys that's what I heard that's what I heard man okay let's uh move on to new business item nine is the review and discussion of updates to the historic preservation element of the Jersey City master plan uh documents were available for review and formal action may be taken tonight thanks Chris um as the board may be aware the division of City Planning has been working on a revision and update to the historic preserv element of our master plan we started this process in about 2012 with work um on the master plan itself beginning in 201 uh sorry 2012 I meant 2022 started work on it in 2023 um we have our two Consultants here this evening from h2m and uh eastn architects who are prepared to present uh the presentation of the revised element to the board okay thanks Maggie yes I do I do sure uh my name is uh my name is San San uh my last name is chavan c h a v an and I'm from h2m Architects and engineers and I'm Siri Olen s i r i o LS o n from eastn Architects okay good evening the floor is yours thank you uh good evening um as I said my name is San uh I'm from h2m and I'm joined by my colleague Siri Olsen and we're here to present the master plan element um we had presented this um I think almost 3 weeks ago um to the historic preservation commission um so before I begin just to um give uh refresh everyone's memory and even for the members of the audience um as you know the municipal land use law sets forth different plan elements that municipality can adopt and a historic preservation is part of that it's not mandatory but it is um but in this case it's recommended because this element provides a policy guide for the protection of um the cities resources and districts um okay so the municipal land use law um dictates how uh what should constitute or what a historic preservation plan should comprise of and I'll quickly go over what it's um what it states basically to indicate the location and significance of historic sites and districts to identify standards used to assess worthiness um for historic site and District identification and to analyze the impact of each component and element of the master plan on the preservation of historic districts and uh um sites so why should one have a historic reservation plan so as we all know that modern development uh replaces existing buildings and it we have this cookie cutter same you know places look the same and it therefore it becomes important for communities to keep their identities intact and in fact if there's one or two striking buildings it can help Define a community and provide a visual link to the past but if whole neighborhoods are preserved or can be preserved the effect is that much uh greater and also historic preservation offers a foundation for economic development through tourism and commerce and in fact there was a study conducted by uh the new for the New Jersey historic trust which indicated that for every million dollars uh preserved in the Pres reservation of New Jersey residential historic buildings 25 new jobs and $1.1 million in economic activity are generated at a state level and those facts were increased to 75 jobs and $2.5 million in economic activity on a national level so it is it is very important to uh preserve your historic resources especially in a city like Jersey City um so to prepare this just so that um you know some of you may be aware uh or maybe not aware but this whole process it's taken us 14 months to uh this date we've had public Workshop we've engaged extensively with the city staff so really a big thank you to Tanya to uh Maggie and uh the rest of their team but we also had we engaged with the historic preservation commission as well but we also engaged with the members of public by having two public workshops which were in May and July of last year and the first meeting we basically um wanted to get it was a first ever meeting and wanted to engage with the members of public to obtain input and it began with a short presentation and then interactive sessions to um really get everyone's ideas and thoughts and we and participants were encouraged to express their opinions ideas ask questions and state their concerns and um the slide this one slide just summarizes all of it and you know um and highlights the main point that I we've included the summary reports um uh to our um historic preservation plan um so anyway at the May 31st meeting participants mentioned the importance of parks and streetscape and uh you know there was a general dissatisfaction with new construction in historic districts not matching the existing character um rooftop additions uh some expressed that uh the requirements in historic district can be too restrictive in some areas um there was this um preservation of um green spaces and to discourage parking uh to discourage sorry Paving for for environmental uh reasons and uh especially for large scale development um a lot of people also expressed the desire to maintain the exterior facade but use the interior space for adaptive reuse um and then um there was also an expressed to discourage demolition of uh older homes and to then thus by designating uh historic properties um then we had a subsequent meeting on J in July where um we it this was in interactive in that first we had a short presentation let members of public know where we were along the process um we broke into um a session to then really refine all the comments and then met together to discuss preliminary goals and uh recommendations and in that really the Highlight was that again Sim to balance historic preservation with new buildings to encourage housing within historic districts to reduce demolition efforts so pretty much echoing the comments from the first meeting and um the comments one of the comments also to incorporate modern sustainable uh affordable technology into the preservation uh treatments and um you know they also expressed improving Clarity of historic preservation guidelines which will just help lay people and to enhance historic preservation and cultural education the third uh meeting was a virtual Stak hold a workshop which we had um at the end almost at the end of the summer and during that time attendees had opportunity to get into breakout rooms which enabled obtaining uh greater feedback and really delving into specifics of what they would like to see in their areas and um these are just highlights they express the importance of notifying neighbors of upcoming projects again maintaining facades uh concern conerns over lack of enforcement in maintaining historic character in new development there were some concerns about setbacks and development that may uh ruin the original streetcape so these were the few things we took all of that and um uh also started working on the historic resource inventory and would you like to take I will speak to that definitely so one component of the preservation master plan is is the development of a historic resources inventory which is a complement to the identification of the goals and objectives U for preservation large in the city so a historic resources inventory very briefly is just that it's a collection of historically and architecturally significant buildings or sites historic districts um elements objects um all sort of tangible places within the city that are identified for potential significance and the last Citywide comprehensive survey had been conducted in the 80s so one of our main challenges and places of starting was updating that inventory looking at those findings and recommendations and documenting changes over time maybe what had been lost and where there were opportunities to expand and so the inventory updates past surveys considers new surveys new work by the HPC by City staff by neighborhood associations by individual homeowners other consultant teams a very broad reach of survey efforts that get collected and analyzed into this historic resources inventory to create a list of potential um individual properties and districts that meet some of the criteria for designation either on the New Jersey state Register of historic places or the national register of historic places and or meet some of the Criterion for designation at the local level and we want to remind everyone and kind of throughout this process it was also a good education effort oh that historic resour inventory is not formal designation but it is setting a broad foundation for those future steps for protecting historic resources and it also does not preclude any property from being considered potentially significant and nominated for designation at the local level so this is really an opportunity to update information collect information add new information from the public input and the public workshops about um specific Properties or neighborhoods and bring that all together to be a tool to make you know to employ the Future tools that are recommended in the rest of the master plan so identification and inclusion of properties within this inventory helps enable the planning board the HPC the city staff to be more involved in the development and demolition review processes all within the ml UL thank you so uh then the next step which is typical of Master plans is um looking at the issues and existing conditions um and you know I'm I think everyone is well aware of the development Trends um there uh you know demolition for new development leads to destruction of historic homes so what a historic preservation plan does is it enables the town or in this case the city to protect its historic resources and assets and um one of the other things that we noticed was there's been a rapid growth following the 2008 recession and the result of this trend has been loss of units in certain neighborhoods decrease in affordability as larger units um because units get Consolidated and larger units are more expensive compared to multiple smaller units um additional feedback that we received on uh in uh on this issue was uh during one of the public engagement where um one of the input we got was to consider rent control or rent stabilization measures to ensure affordability along with incentives for property owners to maintain the historic buildings um then the other thing was um you know uh we also studied the significant immigrant population with the unique cultural heritage and have uh themed denominations that we've included as a part of our historic resource inventory um one of the things uh also was as I mentioned before historic preservation and economic development um they go hand inand and um we've have Redevelopment that in Jersey City that has catalyzed so much of uh growth and in fact what we also found that Jersey cities historic districts and landmarks were located within adjacent um to uh I think 30 designated Redevelopment areas and five of which were adopted within the last uh 10 years so all of which prioritize mixed use development growing and preserving open space and Green Building requirements um and finally being a waterfront Community flooding concerns um 12 historic landmarks and districts um fall within the areas identified as at the risk of flooding so it's necessary to prepare an adapt historic buildings and structures to withstand and quickly recover from natural hazards while maintaining um the Integrity so we the master plan covered that as well uh so which finally comes back to our goals um and um our public input uh review of all the documents and existing conditions um we set forth the goals and recommendations which I will be discussing now so with goals um we have these uh six seven uh six goals about balancing new development in the city with the preservation of historic buildings to ensure the continued preservation of historic districts and buildings to promote the city's rich and diverse history and assets which goes back to the uh themed nominations I just mentioned to encourage the use of historic preservation tools and incentives to advance uh um affordable housing goals um to promote sustainability and resiliency in historic preservation regulations and to encourage adaptive reuse of historic assets um now the next stage is uh next step is the recommendations so all our all the analysis were synthesized in the recommendation or action plan Matrix at the end of the document and what we tried to do is glean and synthesize that information into easy adaptable and adoptable recommendations which also came with um an implementing party so it's very clear under whose forview each of the recommendation would be and we also try to set in um timeline so it's short term which is 1 to uh 3 years medium term is 3 to five longterm which is 10 plus years and then ongoing which will go on in on a rolling basis um and uh we also had categories in the recommendation so uh the first one was uh seeking CLG certified local government designation that will also open up a lot of funding opportunities for the city um we also um recommended establishing program to provide um incentives such as the rehab tax abatement as well as uh establishing areas of Rehabilitation and uh providing tax abatements through that uh some low interest or no interest Loan program to improve signage for historic districts so it's more of a placemaking goal um to also to increase staff uh due to potential increase in historic designations uh to explore the potential to utilize uh historic preservation easements um also to um conduct Research into Jersey City's African-American history to explore the possib abity of developing an African-American um Heritage uh Historic Trail to conduct research to highlight the impact of immigrant uh groups in Jersey City and uh finally education uh is important we realize that um you know we've written other historic preservation plans and one of the things is people are not well informed and educating owners of historic properties of application process and design guideline is um essential as well um in terms of recommendation for uh local site and National um we uh recommend codifying criteria for local designation to consider expansion of the H historic district along the boundaries of the districts uh review existing monuments uh statutes and me uh statutes and not statutes I'm sorry and memorials for potential local historic designation um to explore designation uh eligibility of specific historic districts most often at local level because that's where you have the maximum preservation um to explore local designation uh of historic resources in joural square and again going back to education increasing awareness of historic districts and properties within the city and to conduct public Outreach and anticipation of and during additional designation process um and then very specifically would you like to uh talk about these sure sort of briefly we highlighted some of the recommendations that were specifically highlighted in the public input or in past surveys or that were consistently brought up or continuations from past survey results um and findings that were recommended for uh for uh Pursuit sort of in these short and medium long-term time frames so that included specific sites such as 79 cliff in place exploration of the Bergen Hill historic district um communa Lafayette historic district and Washington Village and shermont clar Sherwood Claremont historic district as examples of areas of the city that have previously had some element of study and determination of significance and for which there was a lot of advocacy and interest and support for designation and additional protections um but the formal designation at these levels had not been pursued so we brought those up as recommended specific sites that were also you know then included in the inventory and then finally as everyone knows here um this uh element serves as a policy guide so we really need Dee to that so um we're recommending um recommending changes to the regulations for that so one of it one of that is to update the existing guidelines to provide specific standards to regulate incorporation of Sustainable Building designs that ties into a lot of recommendations that were put forth in your land use plan um to investigate the potential to allow for an increase in permitted height to account for bfes for historic district properties located in uh FEMA or FEMA design flood plane areas um and also to consider incorporating the department of interior's guidelines on uh flood adapation for rehabilitating historic building buildings um so to create standards for adaptive reuse of historic structures to maintain the character and to update guidelines to incorporate flexibility in preservation treatments to allow for more modern materials that maintain historic character and it's very similar to uh the rehabilitation subcode um as uh set forth by the DCA um we also recommend most specifically to separate design guidelines uh within the historic preservation to create two separate policy documents This was um based on our conversations with the city staff which would help them um Implement these regulations uh we also um uh recommended increasing the maximum permitted density in h historic district while maintaining the existing bulk to allow for smaller units so going back to the point that you know you know there people are consolidating the units to have larger almost like single family units so this was something we discussed with the city staff and uh based on the input we got from the members of the public and then to consider amending the rorat setback to be based on the personage of the lot rather than a set distance so um that accounts for lots that do not meet the minimum uh lot depth requirement uh to incorporate design standards in Redevelopment plans as a Jon to establish historic districts to continue to maintain the character of the area um and then to consider amending the city's demolition ordinance to discourage demolition by neglect and to uh Implement enforceable standards and then finally um to incorporate historic district transition areas as part of the zoning code to ensure there's comp compatibility with historic districts um and then the adjacent areas um so it transitions out so which comes to my last but one slide is what are the next steps so um should the planning board choose um the historic preservation plan would get adopted tonight and then that allows the planning staff the governing body everybody to implement the uh recommendations over the next 10-year period so uh this is it from us and just o opening up for questions and comments from all of you and the members of public okay thank you um so I guess my biggest question was the last point is and Maggie jump in if uh you know you have any thoughts on this you know night after night we see demolition we see you know things that should be adaptively reused that aren't and this board doesn't have the teeth to enforce that that is correct and that's the problem so you know our hands are essentially tied when it comes to these things so going forward what tools and when can we have those tools sure to start the process sure so I you it's not under your perview that rightly said what a master plan does is provide the policy framework for the uh staff to adopt or revise the ordinance and a a policy framework for the city council to then adopt those ordinances once this ordinance gets adopted there will be coordination that provides um teeth for the planning staff as well as HPC or planning board to work together to implement this so what this historic Pres ation plan does is actually provides you with adequate language and if you've read the plan throughout we've been emphasizing it it's just summarized in this portion so everything gets tied up with each other so I hope this answers your question no it does and Chris I can also jump in too pleas um I think so compar I I'm not going to belabor it but comparatively to other cities Jersey City does have a very strong demo ordinance that we're in the process of strengthening um at the end of the day though most of the demolition that this board sees because it has been reviewed by our office for architectural Integrity is not really a preservation issue um I agree with you that it is very difficult to see the amount of demolitions in the city that happen but stopping them for preservation issues is not necessarily the best tactic when they don't NE aren't necessarily architecturally significant the changes that need if the board is interested Ed in discouraging demolitions the changes really need to happen at the um zoning level to discourage those demos rather than um trying to Strongarm everyone into preserving things for architectural Integrity reasons um we've already as a division taken steps towards that all of those R1 changes where we had um bonuses and incentives for keeping buildings um and rehabbing them are there um and we can uh certainly look forward to other zones to encourage that as well okay thank you anybody else any questions anybody want to jump in okay thank you Maggie do you have anything you want to add before we open it up for public comment um two items to add um the first is that we do have notices for this um we did forget to mark them at the beginning if we could just Mark those yeah the record will reflect that adequate notice was published will mark it as A1 for purpose of the record uh this is a master plan application or a master plan presentation so notice was sent around and the record will reflect as such all right thank you Council um the second item is I do they did include it in their presentation I do want to State for the record that um this was presented to the HPC at the regular meeting of April 15th um the HPC uh made a recommendation to the planning board to adopt the master plan element as presented okay and does this go to City Council next or is this the last step for this this is the last step this a municipal as per ml okay it's under your perview okay very nice that's nice to hear yeah okay like that so if there's nothing else uh let's open it up for public comment if anybody's here from the public that wants to comment please come on upu truuth yes please Charlene Burke c h a r l NE b r ke 56 dunin Avenue Miss Burke good evening we have three minutes for you good evening the first thing I would like to say about the plan is that uh same thing I said in front of the historic preservation commission which is staffing has to be the number one recommendation because with only limited staff I'm sorry to say that most of these recommendations or these uh actions put forth will just not happen we already have a staff that's overwhelmed with the amount of work uh I know we have Maggie that overlooks demolitions or reviews applications etc etc but believe me I have work being done on my house nobody comes out to look at anything so I'm doing the right thing but there's a lot of people that don't do the right thing and contractors who especially don't do the right thing so that's number one and it should be the number one recommendation and there should have been which I spoke about previously a ratio of Staffing to the amount of historic properties in the city because of the fact that you can continue to add landmarking in historic districts but you can't exist on a staff of three sorry it has to be four five 7 nine and when you add grants somebody's got to manage those so really Staffing is a key component to this plan and should be stressed more than it currently is second thing Outreach and education there was a email list that went out when we this plan first came out and that made us all aware of the plan well it got revised and then it went in front of the historic commission and now it's here and we have never seen another email come out recommending to everyone by the way it's going in front of the historic commission or it's coming in front of the planning board Outreach is a key component that is constantly missed by this city and departments particularly planning and I'll say that comprehensively about planning because I mean it even it came up in the the comments that people aren't notified about projects going on not only in their neighborhoods but a master plan is that big of an element to this city that it should have been announced with that email list that was already generated so why was that not done I would like to know that that was a huge email list we only have maybe a handful of people here tonight but at those meetings we had 40 50 people where are they they are in interested but it's not engagement and I have a problem when the city consistently does not engage us and I'm sorry I get worked up because you are a board that really does listen I truly feel that way but I don't find the city Staffing to do the Outreach that is really required to keep us informed and that's what I want to see changed thank you Miss B thank you that was your three minutes we appreciate it um I'd just like to uh respond to one of the things that based on the historic preservation uh meeting we actually did revise uh the recommendation to recommend that the city hires one additional staff person per historic district and I think the members of public had left by time we were responding one of my concerns was that I want whenever I write Master plans I want it to be as general as possible because this is a policy guide and I don't want such specific language that um you know I might say five and there's a need for one or I might say five and there might be a need for 10 so this is a guideline as the city staff uh their needs permit the funding permits they they this allows them to hire more people okay thank you and yeah obviously I agree um you know Staffing is one of the most important things here and again this isn't a planning board issue um unfortunately we don't hire the staff but um yeah no I agree on the Staffing so anybody else from public please come on up hi right truuth yes norice n o r r i c e Ray maker r a y m a k e r 109 Palisade Avenue Jersey City New Jersey um hand up may I give this to you uh who was it for well it is um an identification in the lower Heights special um uh planning district of properties that they recommended be rezoned from medical to our one in our um D2 I don't know how that ties into the presentation here this evening so well my concern is that explain it to us yes so my concern is that the city pays for Consultants to engage the public in lengthy um discussions and the results become part of the master plan and but then action is not taken to your point chairman um so the public thinks that their voices have been heard but their desires are not acted upon so zoning is not changed and historic properties continue to be demolished and buildings out of scale with the neighborhood continue to be approved so here's a specific example the lower Heights um Vision plan which is part of the master plan recognizes the historic Palisade Avenue Corridor and um that's why I wanted to give you my hand out because well so ma'am this is why I'm going to cut you off because we're talking about the historic element of the master plan yes and this is part of the master plan and the lower Heights Vision uh stud separate element is part of the master plan which addresses historic concerns and makes the point that the the um zoning has not been changed in order to protect these properties so I just want to ask um the that the that the planning department work on changing the zoning in the Medicals District to R1 or R2 as per the recommendation of the master plan thank you thank you thank you appreciate it you want my hand out you could give it to Maggie okay okay anybody else from public please come on up truth the truth truth yes please Shireen McCormack s h i r i n m a c o r m a k home address is 130 Glennwood Miss McCormack good evening good to see you in person Hello nice to see you we have three minutes for you thank you so much I wanted to um thank the city for redoing the historic preservation ma master plan I wanted to thank them for um you know um updating it to include uh new assets and and um preserve what's worth preserving in our city which there certainly is a lot of um living within the Mayo terce Cottages um on Glenwood it's uh been particularly important to me and my neighbors as part of the McGinley Square community board preservation is one of the main reasons we even formed um so I wanted to thank you and I also wanted to um Express that I I really appreciate the um one of the first things the consultant said about how it's about balance ing historical assets with um new development and that um they pointed out about preserving the larger context of a block or a community or a neighborhood rather than just individual locations so thank you for that um I also do realize that this uh aligns with the city's plan for diversity sustainability and adaptive reuse after all over 80% of landfill is from demolished architecture um I had spoken at the Monday April 15th HPC meeting about certain things properties that I thought were missing from the inventory and I just wanted to confirm that they've been added one of them is my home at 130 Glenwood um the Western cap of the Miu Terrace is another was 138 Glenwood the city's first Garden Apartments and then um after the meeting I did reach out to Maggie um about certain other properties that I thought were important for the larger context those include 121 Glenwood 123 Glennwood 125 Glenwood and 131 Glenwood as well 2671 JFK at corner of Glennwood um 100 106 and 110 to 114 Glennwood um some of those are on the brook survey and I also um wanted to express that I would love if there was some sort of a public hearing or an application um if if awareness was given to Neighbors when there's an application for a demo um for a building that's over 50 years old I would also love if the city would commit to completing the next update in 10 years just so another gap of 20 plus years doesn't go by um and um I I really appreciate the inventory that has been created by the Consultants I find it very valuable I um would love if there was a little bit more a um I don't know workshops from the HP office or if there was in the master plan the HP master plan some sort of um a more clear outline to the path to HD um as well and one of the big ones is funding for the HP office I think that's imperative especially if we're going to become um Jersey City is going to become the CLG the certified local government and be able to apply for those $50,000 in New Jersey state grants annually um the last thing I would like that was your time M McCormick I apologize thank you thank you so much okay anybody else um if I could just um clarify that um we did make the edits um and cross checked the properties that were discussed at the HPC meeting and we thank you for asking about those several of them had been and as well as the properties that were emailed um to the city staff several of them were in the inventory anything that wasn't was added and several um additional notes were added where maybe the property address the street address differed from the parcel address which was had been included in the inventory so uh we were able to make those inclusions following the meeting great thank you anybody else please come on up Mr chair saying no PO there somebody hi tonight the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I yes my name is Omar Mano o m e r m o and I live at 131 Dudley Street good evening sir we have three minutes for you good evening um on appendix C page two of this master plan element you can find the results of a survey asking residents about their priorities ranking their priorities for the uh future of Jersey City the top two priorities are access to Transit and affordab affordability of housing uh the experience of cities around the world has shown us how to address these priorities we must build a lot of dense housing near Transit I'm sure this board will help facilitate this goal over the coming decades unfortunately there is an obstacle in the way of achieving this goal some of the areas closest to Transit with lowest density overlap the current historic districts and future historic districts that are proposed in this master plan element preserving historic homes and neighborhoods is an important priority uh for the city's residents but it's a lower priority at priority number six on the list and it will be this board's job to find compromises between these competing priorities My worry is that the historic preservation commission is currently not set up to help you find these compromises members of the historic preservation commission will frequently say their job is the only to advise if a certain proposal helps or harms the goal of historic preservation their job is not to uh consider trade-offs I worry that these binary evaluations do not give this board enough information to make the difficult decisions they're ahead of you I don't know what the best collaborative framework is for the Pres preservation commission and this board uh but I'll take a stab at a suggestion uh when the historic preservation commission does its study of the lower nework Avenue it should only Rec recommend designation as a historic district if there's an equally sized area near Transit that it can be that it can recommend be removed from from designation this will let the planning board know what are the most important historic assets to preserve without further restricting access to our most treasured Transit resources I thank you for your time and for all your work for the city thank you we appreciate it anybody else from public anybody else Mr chery no public I move to close second okay motion is made and second seconded public is closed Maggie we have your recommendation here I assume yes the recommendation is to approve the plan as presented thank you Mr chair I'd like to make a motion at this time to approve and adopt as presented to the board the review and discussion of updates to the historic preservation element of the Jersey City master plan second okay motion is made and seconded for approval Vice chair Dr Gonzales I think this is a good first step to preserve the historical story of Jersey City so I vote I commissioner Gan yeah Maggie I want to thank you and your team for such a great presentation I vote I councilwoman priner yeah I want to thank you for listening to feedback from Community with adding additional um buildings onto the list of assets I know that was really important as um this was coming to this board um and I also just want to you know agree with the recommendation of hiring more staff commissioner Green Oh I vote I oh thank you I commissioner Torres and I just want to appreciate the work that you've done uh the staff the work that youve been doing for the years that you come to this board and give us the information that we need for historic reservation um the part I really like the most though was the educational part the educational part that you get U of different communities um and I I find that important because Jersey city has a very strong historic part in its communities just besides the building but the people that lived in the areas and the information from the areas so I hope they keep that on that plan and that sense of of going and with that I vote I and chairman linkston yeah so I agree uh the the work that went into this um is astounding I know it's a big big task um I appreciate the Public's input and I appreciate that you know the team listened to the public on this I I think the public is one of the best assets we have as as identifying these properties um obviously I agree and once again please give us the tools that we need to preserve it's it's night after night after night you know members of the public come up and believe me we want to preserve as much historic as possible but we just do not have the tools as a board so please give us the tools um so obviously my vote is eye and I appreciate all your work thank thank you motion carries all in favor okay thank you thank you thank you thank you very much for this opportunity and I really want to end this by saying a big thank you to Maggie and Tanya they were such an asset and everyone on that team I agree I agree okay let's move on to item 10 please case p2023 d116 is a conditional use for 1704 JFK Boulevard [Music] good evening uh Rod Nelson brush arm and Ross I'm here today on behalf of Mimi Wiggins applicant p2023 0116 applicant is a minority owned business proposing to operate at class 5 micro cannabis dispensary located at 1704 Kennedy Boulevard Jersey City New Jersey block 28601 lot 30 uh the location of the premises is in the residential commercial rc2 Zone this location was approved by the zoning officer and rc2 Zone does permit cannabis dispensery as a conditional use applicant did receive CCB approval on May 8th 2023 and does have a class 5 conditional license from the CRC I have here with me today Mimi Wiggins uh the owner as well as Allen Fel the architect um if the board would please I would like to swear in my first witness alfeld sure you can truth truth I do Allen Feld a l n f d okay and before we start do we have notice my apologies uh we did submit notice okay you have original you have the copy of the Notice come so you can submit it after the hearing we are received the Affidavit of publication proof of mailing I've had the opportunity to review it electronically it does appear to be an order so we can mark it as A1 for purposes of the record thank if you could just have the original given to uh staff at the end of the hearing or tomorrow okay thank you Council uh Mr Feld could you just walk us through the site plan that you've created for us today and Mr Feld we have qualified you in the past Mike did you swear in Mr Feld okay uh we have qualified you in the past your license is current tonight yes it is okay thank you qualified yes so uh this project uh is um for a dispensary uh in an existing building on the ground floor of 1704 Kennedy Boulevard it's a three-story building um the ground floor was a chiropractice office previously and now will be this uh new tenant um from it's in the rc2 district um it it's a permitted use it meets all the zoning requirements for the existing building there's no additions to the building itself it's all the everything is in the existing uh first floor as it is go the next page yeah so again there was a chiropractice office uh previously uh we're basically repurposing the existing layout um in that we're just creating an office where there was a bigger office before uh there's no work to the exterior of the building um there's a separate residential entrance on to the right um there's a an entrance to the um cannabis dispensary uh in the middle um where you come into uh a waiting area then you go past the checkpoint to go back to the the um showcase areas um these were previously uh the treatment areas uh in for the chiropractor um and uh there's a a staff bathroom there's two uh bathrooms in the space already one for the office and uh staff and the other one for staff as well um and then there's the checkout in the front and an exiting uh um the entire uh facility is uh be surveillance cameras to ensure safety in the space at this time we turn over to the board if they have any questions for Mr Feld okay thank you Mr Feldon um if you could just go through um while we're on that sheet the the circulation plan so you come in that middle entrance in the building the middle entrance in the building um that's a waiting area okay and there's Security in that waiting area yes there's cameras and okay but security IDs you in that area and someone's there to make sure you're you know legal and legal all that stuff all that stuff right okay so there's a Que in there and then you go I guess the customer is brought into the next next that's right where there's uh again more security counter space then you go towards the rear where there's display cases of the product and further back there's another showroom area and then a a storage area uh on the left okay so storage is all the way in the back yeah and where is the other the other review space where is that there there's a excuse me there's a staff room okay that's all the way back on the right hand side back on the right and a staff toilet existing toilet there as well okay so the only showroom is is in the center on the left side correct basically okay and there's staff everywhere in there that handles each customer watch okay and is it is it a I don't know if I'm getting too far into the weeds here with what's not our perview but so a customer walks in they're greeted by a staff member and that staff member walks them through the process around okay this isn't just an open no I would transaction area where people come and go no I'm I'm sure they can't take the product without someone assisting them oh God I hope not okay um I can confirm they cannot do that um okay that so then they proceed to the cashiers area they're given the product at the cashier area correct okay and then they exit the building okay that was my only question anybody else any questions for Mr Feld okay thank you sir thank you thanks Al anything else Council uh no I do have Mimi here if the board would like to ask her any questions but other than that we turn it over to the board I I please don't take offense we we don't um we've heard so many of these at this point we're we're very familiar with the process we're very familiar that we just specifically watch the zoning I I would love to hear story I let her know before and I I'll come to the ribbon cutting and hear the story please um but yeah we we just stick to the zoning of it so Council there's no other approved shops in the area that is correct no other per pulled yet okay all right thank you if there's no other questions I'll open it up for public comment so we don't we don't question the apprenti cogram or anything like that now yeah that's really the ccbs okay no and and I am a an organizer myself Edie so I wish I could no um okay at this point Let's uh open it up for public comment if anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application please come on up anybody from public chair see no one from public I would like to close the public portion second okay motion is made and seconded uh public is closed Francisco anything okay so this application is being proposed in the rc2 which is permitted it is not within 200 ft of school there are no other retail or class five retailers that have submitted an application um and the signage bulk uh coverage design standards are also um comp in compliance staff is in receipt of all required submittals they are also posted on the data portal as well as my staff report and with that said staff does recommend approval with conditions okay thank you and Council you're okay with the conditions in the staff report yes okay thank you sir I'll entertain a motion then chair like make a motion to approve case p2023 D- 0116 as presented to the board to get with staff recommendation and conditions second okay motion is made and seconded for approval okay on a motion to approve Vice chair Dr Gonzalez abstain uh councilwoman Prince Arie I commissioner Torres I didn't want to make a com but I just thank you for being a part of the computer let me put it that way I what you submitted to us and I was impressed I just want to say thank for being part of the community and with that I vote yes thank you and appreciate it commissioner green congratulations Miss Wiggins I vote I commissioner Gan congratulations and good luck I and chairman linkston uh also congratulations best of luck um it's an easy eye for me uh five in favor and one abstention motion car well there we go congratulations thanks everybody have a great night thank you everybody have a good night good luck okay let's move on to item 11 is case p2023 d82 is a preliminary and final major site plan for 681 to 685 Newark Avenue good evening Council chairman eug o conell for the applicant um this is a notice case I did bring the hard copy so thank you coun Mr oconnell I had received these electronically these are the same notices that had been submitted electronically and they're just in hard copy yes thank you so this is a preliminary and final major site plan application so conell we're going to mark them as A1 for purposes of the record okay thank you um the op proposed to construct a five-story mixed use building this is on norc Avenue between Summit and Kennedy Boulevard I have three Witnesses tonight Jeff Lewis Edward rman is our engineer and carollyn Westell planner there is one um deviation in the application and that's for the Elevator Shaft 10 ft allowed we need 14 feet to get a disabled person onto the roof so with that I'm G to ask Jeff Lewis to be sworn in and uh present the architectural plans great thank you Council yes I do Jeffrey Lewis J FF re y l w i s Mr Lewis good evening your license is current tonight it is yes okay thank you you're qualified great thank you all right let's jump right into this okay so 681 685 New York Avenue uh we have an oversiz lot here it's a total of 7,370 Ft so it's 70 ft 75 ft wide and it has multiple depths uh we are located in zone 5 of the general Square 2060 Redevelopment plan we're on Newark AV uh right near Summit Avenue uh there are currently three three-story buildings on the site these will be demolished and replaced with a new five-story mixed use building this building will have 452 ft of ground floor retail and then 40 residential apartments above uh the breakdown of those apartments are four one-bedroom apartments and 36 studio apartments we are asking for the one variance for the elevator bulkhead um this is because we are um using our rooftop space uh we need 9 ft for the elevator 5T for the pit above it excuse me the elevator um machine room above it uh so this does require a variance for 14 ft where 10 ft is allowed uh with that I want to start walking through the floor plans uh there's a full seller on the left I'm going to get back back to that I want to start on the right side on the first floor plan uh so what we have on the right side of the building is the main residential Lobby this provides access to the main stair and the elevator there's also a 292 ft amenity room for this for the building and then there's a large trash compactor room in the front this is for trash and recycling and it has uh Louver doors which exit directly to the front of the building um on the left side of the building we have a residential entrance which goes directly to stair number two and then we have an egress tunnel along the left side of the building which leads to this uh 3ft Alleyway and then lastly in between those two spaces and in the back uh we have all that uh ground floor commercial space and this space has been designed to work as either two one large space or two uh smaller spaces um looking to the left at the seller plan uh it is a full Stellar it's served by both stairs and the elevator um we have a commercial storage space here on the left there are two large residential storage spaces one in the back and then one here in the front we have a bicycle storage room which is designed for 52 bicycles we have a common laundry room with four washers and four dryers and then we have our meters utilities and sprinkler room as this will be a fully sprinklered building uh moving on to the upper floors I want to start on the second floor which is on the left side here there are 10 total apartments on the this floor uh one one-bedroom unit and nine studio apartments um right now let me just say all the apartments in the building are Ada adaptable and all the building all the apartments in the building are using uh wall mounted electric heat pumps to provide heat and air conditioning uh the floor plan has a common Hall in the center of the building connecting both stairs the elevator and providing access to all 10 of the apartments um the layout is oh there's excuse me there's also a trash shoot located at the end of the hall um there a small trash room with two shoots which go directly to the compactor room below uh the layout has five studio apartments facing Newark Avenue and then four Studios and a one one bedroom apartment which is shaded and gray facing the rear of the building uh this floor is set back a little bit from the facade of the ground floor in the back so we are using that rooftop space to provide roof decks for all five of the uh Apartments facing the rear of the building um additionally underneath the rear deck in the back back here we're using the pedestal paper system and underneath there we're going to be using that as a Blue Roof so that'll be part of our storm waterer management system uh looking on the right the third fourth and fifth floors the layout is exactly the same as the second floor we only have the one difference of not having those uh rooftop Terraces for the back Apartments here we're looking at our roofs so on the right this is the main roof deck we are providing a 702t amenity space with its own ADA Bathroom uh this space is accessed Again by both stairs and by the elevator uh there are two outdoor roof decks on the project one in the front and one in the back the front uh patio area is uh 704 square feet it's set back both of these excuse me both of the roof decks are set back from the front facades of the building and the back facade of the building and we're using that space for uh green roof areas so in the front we have a patio of 704 ft and a green roof area of 940 ft and then in the rear of the building we have a patio area of 810 sare ft and then a green roof area of 478 total square ft and beneath both of these patio areas is also being used as Blue Roof as part of our storm water management system uh lastly on the left here we do have the rooftop um of our amenity spaces and this is a flat roof that again will be used as Blue Roof for our rooftop U for our storm water retention system and you can see see um where the Elevator Shaft is this is the one variance that we required we did place the elevator in the center of the building so it's as invisible as it can be from the street it will be not seen from the street just wanted to bring that up with that we'll move on to the building elevations uh the main finish of the front is a brick veneer it's a blend of three different bricks that we can see here on the right hand side um we're using a few different brick patterns on the ground floor we're using a saw Toth pattern pattern on the upper floors uh we're going to have recessed brick patterns in between all of the windows uh the brick is actually uh continuing all the way to the top of the building and we're going to build a builtup brick cornice as well as brick corales an example of which is shown here on the right hand side of the drawing uh going back down to the ground floor on the right here we have those Louver doors that I mentioned from the trash room these will be a matte black finish uh at the ground floor all of the aluminum we have black aluminum storefronts for our doors and windows we have a black aluminum wrapped canopy above the main entries to the building in the center uh looking above again all the windows have black aluminum frames we are providing accents at the windows including uh castone um castone borders as well as a black matte aluminum panels located uh between the floors uh lastly at the top of the building we do have that rooftop amenity space which is set back from the front of the building and that will be finished in a vertical aluminum siding uh the color of which is a silver and as shown here on the right here we're going to move on to the uh left side of the building uh we're showing a concrete block wall at the front this section of the building is right up against our neighbor uh at the back half we have a 3-ft setback and this part of the building will be finished with a light gray fiber cement siding here we're looking at the right side again the bottom two floors are right up against the building next to us everything above is also located on the property line and it's going to be finished with a uh smooth stucco finish which will be painted gray and scored as shown and then we can move on to the rear elevation uh again this first floor is on the property line and we'll be right up against a building behind us uh above that we're going to finish the building in fiber cement panels the same light gray color as we're using on the uh left side of the building uh that concludes my part of the presentation I can answer questions unless Jean you have any for me uh and none for you Jeff but U I would like just because you spoke about demolition earlier we did get a determination from historic that it did not appear to meet any of the criteria for historic architectural cultural significance so there's no objection to to demolition okay thank thank you Council um Mr Lewis you talked about a a wallmounted heat pump in the units yeah mini split Minit yes okay where are the um the condens on the RO condensers they're all on the roof and they're screened yes they're all they're all screened in okay how many condensers are up there is it one per unit or are they shared cond it is one per unit they're bunched um sorry one more they're bunched over here in a room here they're in a room they're in a room here and over here and back here so they're all they're all gated in and shielded okay but they're not enclosed right they're no no no they're they're open to above for sure yes okay um sound attenuation of any kind um I don't think that was part of the plan that's definitely something that can be included if needed yeah I mean how how many units were we talking about again this is a 40 unit building 40 yeah that's going to be a lot of lot of noise up there yeah um we can definitely provide sound attenuation on the uh the buffers okay I appreciate that and Council will put that as and as I said we did try to keep them up against the the stair walls so that'll help a little bit too sure um that I believe is my only question um one other actually that that Louver door on the front where the trash is stored yes um two things so that's open to it's not open to the elements but obviously cold it's air in and out yes it would it would be a yeah it's not going to be a tempered room okay um what stops the smell of garbage from coming out nothing okay that's kind of the point I mean we could put an exhaust fan and do the same thing we did the no I don't want this smell coming out to the street um we're kind of required to do that and City planning's been asking us to show how we're um venting the trash rooms um Matt do you want to address that at all how do we how do we mitigate any odor coming out of the building um certainly um so neither the Journal Square re60 Redevelopment plan nor Our Land Development ordinance have any um standards around odor so I think Common Sense around potential nuisance would apply here um to the degree that there's any um alternative ventilation of your trash room and so that the primary point of ventilation is not your door but some other uh like I said we could definitely add a continuous exhaust fan it would still come to the front of the building but it would obviously be up high and out of the public way as much as possible that's we'd be open to that for sure um great that help yeah I believe we can recommend that as a condition if that's okay and we'll just change the door to a solid door instead of a Lou door yeah no I think that's preferable and I don't know maybe city council could um work on something like that that that sounds bananas to me that that yeah that this just vents out to the street um so yeah certainly some kind of ventilation and and solves your loss of heat problem in that room as well so you know you don't need a dry sprinkler system in that room now so um that's it for me anybody else all right thank you Mr Lo thank you okay so my my next witness would be Edward ront he our civil engineer um I'll let him come in and get just testimon you get tonight is going to be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth Edwin Raymond r e i m o n good evening sir yes I have my license is in order to okay thank you you're qualified like that the less I have to speak the better Mr rman uh Jeff Lewis uh testified to many of the um site engineering issues but can you just elaborate a little bit and fill in any any of the blanks yeah the blanks are that we did a storm waterer management report for this uh we have a Blue Roof we have a green roof also uh the Blue Roof is basically in the back of the building and then on the upper roof the green roof is in the upper roof if we can move up to the drawings in here St yeah which one did you need I want to go to the last one here the last one yeah all the way the end huh yeah sorry his drawings go really slow that's the last drawing that's not what you wanted no what do you want I want to see the roof you don't have a roof but here keep going up on the other way all right so um apparently we don't have the Blue Roof in here on the Drone there you go right there go back here the right there very good all right so in this drawing you can see on the right hand side and green is the green roof that we have on the perimeter of the upper roof and then we have in the interior we have a deck and then the Blue Roof is below the deck if you look at the small color squares that are next to the the green the green vegetation that is on the top those are the pedestals that is the what is called the deck so the pedestal is about 8 in above the surface of the roof and that's the area that we use for the to collect the water that is going to be standing there between three and seven hours which is a big time for the storage of the storm water management this Blue Roof uh has a maximum storage of of about 4 and 3/4 in for the 100 years storm it has about 38 for the 10 years and about 28 for the two-ear storm uh together between the Blue Roof and the green roof we exceeding the need or the requirements from Jersey City mua for storm water management uh we are over 700 cubic feet of water whereas we are required to have about 57 a cubic feet of water on on the on the project um I think that this is one of the most important items on the civil engineering drawings if you look at the side plan that is on cheet number three Jeff yeah I want to go to sheet number three or number number two my drawings yeah number two I'm sorry about that the Commissioners it's great when it works I'm sorry it's going to take a minute that's is just oh there you go yes all right so this is a side plan you can see the trees in here we have a 75 ft Frontage uh based on that we are required to have three trees we comply with the number of trees the trees are spaced about 25 ft apart we have the utilities in between the trees the clearance between the utilities and the trees meet the requirement from the forestry standards in Jersey City um in regards to Landscaping we only have a few spaces in the front to put some trops in baskets um we have some um perable pavement also very small areas we didn't even take that into account in the calculation for storm water management because the areas are very small but we have sufficient storage on the Blue Roof and the green roof so we don't really need to include that in the calculations uh you can see on the right hand side the planting schedule for all the species that we have the street trees are uh qualified as New Jersey native species and they are in the list of Threes uh that is published by the Jersey City forestry standards uh lighting is being provided I would like to point out that uh we have three existing street lights uh in the frontage of a project two on the near side and one on the opposite side uh those three lights have about 250 wattage between the street light and The Pedestrian lights these are lights uh combination of uh street light and pedestrian light if you can see if you look closely on the right and the left side of of this plant you can see the lights that are called ornamental area light and those are the existing lights that we have on the site in addition to that we provided also lighting which are a scon and you can see the lighting Legend at the right hand side of of the of the drawing with a photometrics being shown on the drawings too uh the max or the minimum fot candle that we have on the poish right of way is 0.3 fot candles anything else else not for me any okay I'm I'm done with my presentation okay any questions anybody okay thank you sir so then our last witness will be C we Stell our planet just to defend the uh 4 foot perance good evening tonight truth the whole truth I do it's Carolyn worell w r s l l miss worell good evening good to see you uh your license is current tonight my license is current and recently updated okay good to hear thank you you're qualified um so um as you just heard um both architect and engineer worked very hard on this project um so that I didn't have to work very hard on this project um we're here tonight for a very single variance or deviation um and that is for the uh rooftop a pertinence height um related to that Elevator Shaft um so um really I'm looking at this as as sort of being something of a hardship the um Redevelopment plan uh permits a maximum height for roof any rooftop apperance of only 10 feet um that's fine for a lot of things but um as I'm sure you are very well aware um elevators typically need that extra height um in order to uh allow for ADA compliance accessibility to a rooftop you need to have the full elevator cab go to the roof and then typically most elev elevators need an extra couple of feet in order to provide the mechanical spaces so it's very typical to find um an elevator um a perance are are um that's about 14 ft so this is very typical um but it's a little bit of a hardship here because we're only permitted the 10 fet um I will say that the proposed bulkhead is centered on the building with a setback of 29 ft from the front facade um and furthermore that height is consistent with what would typically be permitted um for uh building uh of this height um if it was just within any other District in the in the city uh per the ldo um so I think that overall this um this project really it it it's a necessary thing that has to be provided it's a bit of a hardship here um and I think granting this deviation um advances the purposes the municipal land use law uh purpose a you know it's appropriate land use um it's uh it won't have a visual um uh impact so it's consistent with purpose ey um you know that it's being set back um and uh in over 29 feet um so I think really that you know um it can be granted um and that uh it um both the positive and negative criteria can be met you know there's not going to be a substantial detriment to the Zone plan um there's no substantial detriment to um uh the zone or um uh and I think just overall that this um can be granted Ed with both the positive and negative criteria okay thank you Mr worell I have no questions anybody else okay it's our presentation thank you okay is anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application anybody here from public motion to close second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed uh Matt anything you want to add um certainly thank you chairman um I guess before I get into my substantive comments um about the project um I just perhaps um um well is he um Council uh Santo perhaps out of an abundant I noticed um commissioner gangadin missed a portion of the testimony and perhaps out of an abundance of caution um she choose to recuse herself from this vote um just to really make sure legally might that be advisable Santo I just want commissioner gangen uh did you hear I know that you had stepped off the Das I don't know if you missed uh any significant portion I I do know that you stepped off the Das but if you were in an earshot I I don't think you need to recuse yourself but um um I did step off but I didn't think I missed anything that's of important I think I'm legally able to vote on it excellent okay I'm glad we established that thank you um great um so staff submitted a memo dated February 6th 2024 um in that staff recommended five different conditions um has the board and the applicant had a chance to review the conditions yes we did we accept them all and we'll comply excellent um in addition um staff supports the two conditions that the board brought up with regards to um proper ventilation and securing any odor from leaking from the trash room onto street level as well as appropriate noise attenuation um for the rooftop condenser units um I would like to um advise the applicant that they can refer to our City's noise ordinance for what sufficient attenuation thank you and we'll comply with those two additional condition ex excellent staff also supports the VAR uh the deviation request um and uh with that um staff recommends approval with conditions okay thank you ma'am Mr TR I like to make a motion at this time to approve case P20 23- 0082 as presented to our board tonight with the conditions second okay motion made and seconded for approval uh Vice chair Dr Gonzalez hi um commissioner councilwoman Prince Ary hi commissioner green I commissioner Torres I and uh commissioner gangadin I and chairman Langston um yeah I agree with the deviation it's something that we've seen a lot lately I don't think there's any detriment to the master plan or the Zone plan or the Redevelopment plan uh my vote is I motion carries six okay thank for your time appreciate it um Mike are you okay with five yeah no problem five minutes okay uh we're going to take a quick five everybody if we get set up for the next application it is 8:36 we'll be back in 5 minutes everybody again everybody and let's call Item 12 is case P22 d187 is a preliminary final major site plan with variances for 191 to 193 Academy Street good evening Council Charles Harrington of Foley on beh of the applicant um there this is a notice case so I ask thank you Council I amce thank you Council emcy the affidavit publication proof of mailing with respect to the application 1 191-193 Academy Street have had the opportunity to review it it does appear to be in order A1 for purposes of a record thank you Council okay thank you so uh just quick summary um the application before you is for the property 191 193 Academy Street it's located in zone 4 of the journal square6 development plan and this uh this stre is probably familiar to some of the board members and that you've uh you've had a lot of applications before you the street is between Summit and baldwi Avenue and um there's actually the micro un building is directly across the street there's another building directly to the west of that and there's been like three approvals directly to the to the east of this as as you brings you down to Balden Avenue so this is kind of you know fitting in the lost tooth if you will um and we're proposing a f story building with 23 residentials we are asking for deviations I know for record that the notice that we provided as deviations for size and not re Asing that's actually referenced in report so there's two two deviations were requesting to the front yard set and the roof uh per coverage which is a little unique here that Mr that kind of it's a little bit of a belt to suspenders where making sure he has enough allowance for coverage for Mechanicals okay thank you Council can can we just make sure that that mic is on it didn't sound like it oh oh there you go I saw light green any testimony get tonight gonna be the truth truth nothing Tru yes I do Richard Garber g a r b r Mr Garber good evening always a pleasure uh your license is current tonight it is okay it is thank you you're qualified thank you and uh it's nice to be back uh nice to see everyone um as Mr Harrington said this is a building at 91 193 Academy Street I'm going to go into some depth about the facade of this building but here's a sort of tease or image of sorts um the the site is uh as Mr Harrington said uh on Academy Street we um have been lucky enough to be um involved with um several of the projects on this block actually and so um it's nice to be uh um working on this block and and and um adding another what I think is appropriate contribution to it um you see the two sites here um some of these images that I have actually are um uh were taken uh when we originally got involved with the project one of the buildings has since been demolished um you see uh here in the zoning map so this is the overall all the blue is Journal Square so this doesn't go into the subdistrict but the subdistrict we're in is Zone 4 which is the neighborhood mixed use district and you see us sort of at the south end of of the plan uh here um ultimately as as I mentioned the building on the left has been demolished but you see that this is um one of the things that we're um confronting on Academy Street is some of this old context this is in no way historic context I should say um uh making way for um for new structures Mr Garber do we need to mark this slide deck uh sure I can forward that market is A2 A2 how many slides if you know uh 34 with today's date and if we could just submit that electronically after the hearing no problem too thank you absolutely thank you yep um survey shows the two buildings one of those buildings has since been um uh demolished and you can see that Academy is a 50 foot wide Street um normal access uh nothing particular about about this um as Mr Harrington said we have noticed for four variances two of them are are existing conditions so the first is the lot size this is a Consolidated 5,000 SQ foot lot whereas a minimum um per Zone 4 is 7500 um the lot width therefore is 75 ft we have 50 that's another um the front yard setback there's uh something written in the in the plan about matching the setback of the primary building facade or the prevalent building facade um that wouldn't really make sense here because of the um number of approvals and building is under construction but we do have a building to the west of us that is um about 19 ft um we are proposing three feet and the reason why we are proposing three feet as opposed to zero which happens to be what most of the approvals are on the Block is because um we do have some ground floor um residential and that ground floor residential um the the plan dictates either set back three feet or raise four feet and I'll show you why we've decided to set back three feet in a second um and then finally as Mr Harrington said the roof of perces um we are assuming 28% and that's our best guess with mechanical equipment at this point the zoning code States 20% IBC States 30% we will comply with IBC um so just to read a few points into the record uh prior to um showing some graphics 5,000 ft lot area I mentioned our total proposed building area 17,600 117 Square ft this is a residential occupancy uh it is in zone 4 of Journal Square our proposed Building height is five stories and 52 feet 6 in we are proposing 23 residential units um uh broken down as follows 12 Studios 10 one-bedrooms and one two-bedroom uh there is an elevator proposed so the entire building is 100% accessible um and the first floor which I'll show and talk a little bit about that setback we're proposing in addition to the residential Lobby bike storage and package room there are three residential units on that floor we are proposing a seller uh not a basement a seller um uh specifically for utilities and storage uh the bike storage is for 12 bicycles and we do have a th square foot common roof deck proposed as well so our site plan very simple the primary um uh uh programming is residential you see we have residential units on the ground floor um you see that the building Lobby and two stairs in elevator are grouped on the west side of the building um and then we have that mail package room an internal trash room with a chute um as well as some residential storage and and things like that and then we have our residential units on the ground floor as well um this is a graphic that actually shows either buildings that have been built or approved by this board and then you see 195 Academy our neighbor ends up being the outlier um but we think we are um consistent with the um the Precedence uh before us on the Block uh in terms of lighting just very briefly um we have three light types we have a bothered light in the rear there's two of those uh they those throw um 7 Watts 115 lumens we have a recessed down light which is quite light uh 2.3 watts and that's right over the entry uh and then we have Wall sconces that are 6in wall sconces at 24 Watts I'll show you how those look in the facade in a second um we have a bike and trash removal plan we do have a dedicated compactor and trash shoot um trash will be stored in the building and only brought out on collection days and um the trash room is plenty large for um uh the amount of units that we we have here uh Sellar floor plan one stair going down and we basically have our mechanical and building infrastructure spaces down there as well as a modest 420 or so foot um amount of storage for uh res residential um tenants and then on the ground floor you see here we have um two one-bedrooms in the rear um as well as a two-bedroom in the front on the east side of the building we do have a small Court to bring light in that goes up the East wall and then you can see that residential Lobby um to the top of the plan and we've highlighted the egress system which are two stairs and an elevator uh the two stairs are more or less back toback flanking that elevator core but we have confirmed that that does meet the minimum distance requirements of egress code um and you can see that carries up and the second floor with the exception of the private decks because we're building over a kind of deeper first floor this is more or less the floor plan that carries up so you see we have reading um counterclockwise a studio in the rear on the upper left a one-bedroom unit um another studio in the middle that takes advantage of the Court a one-bedroom and then a studio in the front as well and then these this logic carries up on Floors 3ot through five this is a five-story building 52 feet 6 in as mentioned before and then um we are proposing this th it's a 108t common roof deck that is off the stair uh again so we do have the elevator and two stairs going up and then that condenser and mechanical area we're imagining will be behind that that will be screened um but because of that we're counting the apperances we're guessing at about 28% which is why we noticed for this out of an abundance of caution um as as you know the MEP design doesn't generally happen until after um um the first entitlement here uh now the facade um we've thought a lot about this facade I have a lot to say about this facade I will keep it relatively quick but um you know I would just say that you know us Architects we tend to dress in Black we design dark buildings and um it struck me that maybe we should do something different here and so um we do have uh a white brick building that is highlighted in um red accents like a brick red kind of accent um I do have some materials and um I too like the gentleman before me uh am happy that we can actually hand these things out now so uh here is our white brick which is very beautiful kind of glossy where should I put it Charles thank you um we just have a typical stucco sample I don't think you necessarily need to see this we have stucco on the rear of the building I'll show that in a second and then in terms of our red trim we have a cementitious fiber panel that is almost like a brick red color um and one of the things that I would like to just um State on the record is we can trim the that is the material for the base of the building we can also trim the windows in that however um the owner actually just mentioned that we may look to do a metal panel that would match that uh to trim the window so we'll we'll keep everyone posted on that um the rear of the building is stucco and we're carrying the brick up so this will have brick in the rear of the building uh which is great and then the sides are fairly simple um just stucco and you can see on that um Eastern side that court I mentioned so you can see the eight Windows uh actually 10 Windows excuse me that that are that are there now in terms of block elevations this is what I was talking about so so uh the buildings on your right are existing multif family buildings that actually have existed since before the instigation of Journal Square the buildings on the left are um buildings that have been approved by this board and are either to be constructed or under construction our white building is in the middle um and then we have the outlier home 195 Academy Street which is um in the middle of the block as I mentioned now one of the things that I thought is uh important here is what we're doing with the brick as well and um this was an idea to be honest with you that I had many many years ago and so we're happy that we're able to to actually kind of um look at it here but the um the surface of the brick is not flat it actually undulates and we think we have some good that can actually stack the brick this way so instead of just providing a kind of flat surface for the brick it'll have a little bit of movement in it it'll flutter with the sunlight as the sun moves over the street this is a um uh a north-facing um building but at the same time it will get um sort of indirect light uh most of the day and so you can see how we're imagining this kind of flutter with the brick that we're we're quite excited about and so here I've just put together the um uh kind of zoom in of the rendering that I I put up as well as that front elevation that shows um where we're utilizing the brick which is basically on the second through fifth floor um in this configuration um finally we just have some enlarged elevation showing signage and so forth there is no variants or deviations requested in the signage um this building may have a name um but nonetheless the uh as opposed to just an address but that will follow the um the prescriptive um signage requirements in the code um we have two building sections just to show you um we're hoping uh structure has not been worked out yet but we're hoping for floorida ceiling Heights of uh certainly over 9 ft we're hoping 96 they will be a minimum of 9 ft uh and I'm showing that in this section um and then you see that here as well you'll notice that our seller isn't even showing up in these sections because it's a small um sort of portion of the under of the subsurface area that is not even in this cut um finally a Qui a on aetric so you can understand the relationship of our sort of undulating brick to our side Court to uh our roof deck which we think is actually going to be quite nice um we should be able to get views um down the beginning of the Palisade to Jersey to to downtown Jersey City as well as further out to Manhattan even from here um this rendering shows very quickly the height of the building next to us now we didn't have that's not our building so we just kind of dashed in that's a six-story building so you get a sense of the taller building next to us uh and then finally we've considered how those buildings as well as our building really works in terms of um daylighting and um Shadow casting and fortunately because we are a north-facing building on the south side of the street most of the Shadow casting that happens on the most intense times which in the summer is the early morning and evening uh in the winter which is sort of all the because the sun is so low in the sky uh and then in the spring and Autumn um we're really only primarily casting shadows in the street so our building is not casting Shadows on anything else around us which is really important and uh we go through these exercises as the board knows to make sure of that uh and I will conclude with uh another image of the building which we think is quite sharp and we're happy that um you know maybe architectur should stop wearing black and start wearing white a little bit more um Chris thinks no we'll see um but uh thank you very much all right thank you Mr Garber um I have no questions anybody else okay thank you sir okay then I'm GNA jump right into Mr height so he can address the two deviations okay thank you hi um so this is a good image to leave up but before I get into it and obviously you've been sworn in and qualified and your license hasn't expired yet tonight so correct from earlier earlier this evening all right uh I will jump into the two uh two one one deviation one variance that we're requesting uh or two two deviations actually from the Redevelopment plan so one is the front yard setback uh that's as written in the Redevelopment plan to match um predominantly existing setbacks uh along the street here we do have two competing setbacks one at at 0t and one at 19 ft and change um the one at 19 ft and change is the adjacent resident residential home a two-story home um our application before you the justification is that the two existing older apartment buildings and the apartment buildings that have been approved and under construction will establish the future predominant setback which is zero feet um we are setting back the ground FL 3 feet to accommodate the ground floor residential it also allows us to accommodate a little bit of the planting um planter uh area in front that we're proposing on the plans um we are also improving the streetcape proposing two new Street trees um so there's no impact um with any sort of The Pedestrian activity along along Academy here uh on the upper floors above as we mentioned we are uh compliant with that zero foot setback which is the predominant setback for the existing and planned we're under construction properties um so that's the intent there um with respect to the other deviation the rooftop of pertinence coverage um we are permitted 20% we are proposing 28% um that's really in in uh our goal to provide for the two means of egress um we did show the roof deck uh there is no enclosed amenity space for this building so we're not going above and beyond with uh trying to provide any structures at the rooftop but we still are above that 20% um 20% coverage um with respect to other positive criteria I do believe we're furthering purposes of the municipal luse law purpose a e and I um this board has heard me testify those we're respecting appropriate development purpose a establishment of appropriate population densities this is the Journal Square 20160 Redevelopment plan in purpose I um appreciate the architecture because it is different colors aside um I think it does speak for itself um but we are uh providing a desirable visual Environ M um along the streetcape when you reverse into the negative criteria um again the Journal Square 2060 plan does allow for multi-story mixed use uh multi-story residential buildings in zone 4 that's what's being proposed um we are meeting all the setbacks the building height um so it allows for the appropriate light air and open space and then with respect to um any sort of uh detriment to the public welf are at the grade we're actually providing a little bit more relief along streetcape with the 3-foot setback I'm still maintaining the setback up on the upper floors um and the rooftop um mechanical equipment and the uh two means of egress are centrally located on the building um to try and mitigate the impact of those those elements of the building that's my direct testimony I don't know if you have any questions or if the board does any question questions for Mr height I I do not have any additional questions anybody no okay okay thank you Mr height thank you very much board members okay again for the record our civil engineer is here if you have any questions for for him but that completes our presentation okay thank you Council uh this time let's open it up for a public comment if anybody's here from the public that wants to comment on this application please come on up motion to close the public second okay motion made and second and public is closed Matt anything you want to add uh sure so uh the engineering division provided a staff report uh September 13 2023 and City Planning provided one dated December 6 2023 uh I just want to ask if the applicant uh reviewed those and if they would be able to comply with the conditions there in yes we would uh staff is satisfied with testimony that the team put on record uh staff recommends approval okay thank you Matt Mr chair I'd like to make a motion to approve case P22 d187 has presented to our board tonight second okay motion made and seconded for approval okay uh Vice chair Dr Gonzalez um I I vote I I I see no detriment to to master plan or the Redevelopment plan and uh and I like it and um you can dress in white sometimes that's good commissioner genen I think it's a great addition to the neighborhood seeing that it's a changing neighborhood as well um I vote I councilwoman Prince I uh commissioner green um I like the plans I I like that brick for my house and uh I vot I commissioner Torres yeah this project I'm going have to um go by their often I want to see those Brick Layers do that that that work see what is it progress um you guys all know I work in a field so I I'm very interested in that one that's a nice wave um I will keep an eye on this one project and um it fits the plan and uh with that I vote on uh chairman Lon and um commissioner Torres and I can if those Masons fall through we can recommend a million Masons that can handle this a million Union Masons that can handle it but um that doesn't affect my vote in the least um yeah I I think the deviations are um within reason I think it promotes the um master plan of the city and I don't see any detriment to the Redevelopment plan or the master plan um and Mr Garber this is the lightest thing I've worn since 1987 I think so um you know the the color is fine the clothing is it's all got to be black but um I I vote I it's an easy eye for me motion carries all in favor on a motion to approve with conditions okay thank you let's move on to item 13 is case P22 d129 it's aim and final major site plan for 385 to 387 commun [Music] Avenue all right good evening Veronica shme from Connell Foley again on behalf of the applicant uh gnd JC Holdings uh we did also note for this and I have the original copy if that could be marked for the record thank you Council Mr chairman I am and receive the Affidavit of publication proof of mailing with respect to 385 387 commun Paw Avenue here in the city does appear to be in order we're going to mark it as A1 for the record thank you Council all right so this um application for 385 to 387 communa PA Avenue um has been kicking around for a while so I know we're very excited to be here I'll frontload my comments before passing it to the two witnesses I have here this evening uh we are located in the Morris Canal Redevelopment plan area specifically the mixed use a district uh we presented to the community uh this past December and it went off without a hitch if I do say so myself uh this project is as of right we're proposing a five-story mixed use building 18 residential units uh with one lowincome affordable unit we're going to be using the bonus under the Redevelopment plan we've already entered into the agreement with uh the agency and we are also the designated redeveloper we also have an agreement um with the jcra to that effect um we're not proposing parking nor is it required but we will have um 20 bicycle parking spaces and with that I will turn it over to our first witness our engineer Mr guy lag marcino all right thank you counc figure out to get this in here this is USB I don't know if that fits try we go okay I think we're hooked up right truu yes I do guyo marcino l a o m a r s i n o and um licensed professional year and my office is located in Union City I've been for this board and my license is current I also just renewed it last month excellent thank you you're qualified so okay so uh this was a little bit different I got a couple comments uh from uh the planning board and we went through them and uh a little bit different than I usually have done before is on a corner uh and it's 100% uh right now it's a vacant Lodge it's been there for considerable amount of times uh I can imagine more than 20 years as far as I as I recall it was definitely a building there before um moving on to something that I think that is pertinent here is the the what we're providing them which is I haven't done before is that the the bump out on the corner of commun Po so so really he's the first one the owner would be to really reconfigures intersection uh there's a bump out that would leave space to where for ADA compliance and to to extend within which right now would be a parking Zone somewhat so that corner be lipped out into into which the Ada can go as well as pedestrians can go out can see either way for my understanding as well that they would like to do that in all four corners but will be the first one there um the other things that we are actually uh in compliance with we're putting five trees on the site as well as you know pural pavers for that um that that as well as well as any lighting that we have uh the next sheet is the lighting will be in compliance with the Jersey City uh planning board as well as they're requesting the the low lighting the the just no more than 0. five lumens to the the side only but it's enough to which they'll be uh designated to be able to walk through um uh the sidewalk with uh without seeing uh Darkness as far as um compliance with um the storm water uh we have planning to put a detention system here on on the hold on this would be on the the floor here the basically detention system would be there on there so be 6 gallons per square foot since right now a vacant lot we wanted to be in compliance with that ordinance and since there was it's right now grass that it's really a little bit more so so we're putting uh storm detention there on the site and then we're covering everything uh as far as the water runoff from the roof before it goes to the street and and storing that site I think as actually at this time but I do want to make one more comment when I understand from the planning board the will be Paving pretty much Van Horn from Curb to curb as well as commun curb to curb it's rather more uh you know indicative that they've asked this and that he's going to be in that compliance and bringing this whole Corner up to grade so it would definitely be a change here on this uh location from what it is now and that being said I think that should do my presentation okay thank you sir somebody has to go first yes somebody always has to go first and nothing gets done yes yes I think it's rather expensive to make that that corner that bump out there but I think he was to do it even though the need to do it on the other fours to be watching otherwise obviously it's going to be a little bit odd okay anybody any questions all right thank you sir we appreciate it thank you all right so and next I will turn it over to our uh architectural team we have Lisa Mendes Goot this here you should have one if not that could be yes here it is thank you so much there we goar tonight the truth the truth yes uh my name is Lisa L IA gogat g o g a TS good evening Miss goas um I don't believe we've qualified you in the past have we no okay if you could just go through your background real uh briefly uh your education your licensing okay uh I've been uh an architect since uh 2000 and I've been licensed in the state of New Jersey since 2008 I have presented in uh before many boards but this is the first time in front of Jersey City okay thank you you're qualified welcome thank you so I'll just go through the plans really quick um so we're proposing uh 18 uh residential Apartments all of them are two bedrooms uh they all have two bathrooms with except exception of one uh and this these 18 do include um one affordable unit the total building area is 26,631 [Music] used downstairs as well as a retail storage as and we also have a trash uh pickup room where the trash shoot comes down to the bins and the total area of the basement is 2,486 sorry excuse coming up to the first floor we have two residential units on the first floor and two retail units that could also you know they're smaller but they can become one retail we did uh raise the apartments the residential side to your page left up about 3T to get them up and off of the street and a little bit more privacy for them and the total uh retail is600 Square ft next now this this floor plan is typical of two three four and five um we have four total units up here two bedrooms two baths um you know it's pretty simple up there and I do want to say those typical residential floors are uh area 4740 Square F feet and we have a roof amenity um plan here we have a cover lenai area which is roughly 600 square ft and we have an uncovered Sun area deck which is about 400 feet and we have an elevator lobby as well so that this is um accessible to all of the uh residences this building is uh elevator service and it's all also fully sprinklered um onto the ele the exterior elevations so we have uh we have a the last uh applicant was stating about dark buildings and ours is a dark building so we have uh gray we have a lot of dark Grays we have uh the so the window are dark bronze aluminum trim uh we have a a red brick we have gray composite metal panels um we also have uh dark aluminum um bronze frames on the upper level and at the roof Terrace there is a warm Cherry um composite wood panel um up on the top there and we also have glass railings if you'll see to your page left and I do have colored renderings for you these are just the black and white and the only um we do have some uh just architectural uh CMU block on the uh left side elevation so let me show you the renderings and we do have to mark those renderings up believe right so this is um the the Communipaw elevation and you as you can see we have the dark we have hearty gray composite panels we have the dark bronze aluminum window frames we have uh to your page right we do have a an aluminum metal composite panel which is a a lighter color it's a champagne as it's called and then Up on the Roof we do have the warm cherry wood composite which is underneath that roof overhang are there multiple color and renderings or just the one that we're looking at I have I have two renderings I I'll have the next one for you all right so let's mark the colored renderings as A2 for purposes of the record identified as color renderings I don't see a date on the drawing so if you can just this is the van hnav elevation and I suspect the other one is the communic yes elevation M if you could just have those submitted electronically thank you absolutely and that concludes my testimony if you have any questions okay thank you I have no questions anybody else thank you thank you Council anything else that concludes our presentation unless the board has any other questions for us uh I actually do have one it would be a condition afterwards but um that the affordable unit is the same fit and finish as the rest of the units in the building there's no difference between any of the market rate unions yes absolutely okay thank you uh so at this time let's open it up for public comment if anybody's here from the public that wants to comment on this application please come on up motion to close public public second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed uh Liz this is yours anything else yeah um glad to see this make it to the board today um and yeah we've gone through some various design iterations over over a year so um yeah H happy with where we're landing and with the complying project um not to mention taking advantage of the affordable housing bonus to create um an on-site unit uh um yeah I would just ask um that you confirm that Council that you've reviewed the staff memo and conditions and agreed to them yes and we agree okay great uh yeah with that staff would recommend approval okay thank you Mr J like to make a motion to approve case P22 d129 is presented to our board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval okay um Vice chair Dr Gonzalez hi good luck councilwoman preri I uh commissioner geden um I'm happy to see that there's at least one low-income affordable unit in this project um my vote is I commissioner Torres uh commissioner green I chairman Langston I motion carries all in favor with conditions okay thank you let's move on to thank you Council let's move on to item 14 uh it's case p23 0094 is a preliminary and Final major site plan for 40 lbeck Avenue hi everyone how you doing good evening everyone Stephen Joseph uh for the applicant of casano quickly trami this is a notice application if we could confirm uh notices are received please chairman receive of Affidavit of publication proof of mailing with respect to the application at 40 lmac here in the city does appear to be in order we're going to Mark these as A1 for purposes of the record okay thank you Council great thank you all right 40 lbeck Avenue this is a oversized 50 by 150 and change a lot in the R1 Zone um located bid block on lbeck Avenue what the applicant is proposing is a new three-story 17 Unit dwelling um no parking and uh and no variances associated with the application in order to accomplish this we we only need preliminary and final major site plan approval um we are utilizing the affordable housing overlay on this project so that's going to result in two affordable units one three-bedroom unit that's going to be a moderate unit and one lowincome uh two-bedroom unit we do have two experts this evening we have Jeff Lewis our architect we have Mark lever our uh engineer so let's get Jeff up to walk you through the PLS okay and just for the record Mr Lewis has been sworn in and is qualified tonight yep it's still on the roath and is still under oath thank you okay so as Mr Joseph mentioned this is an oversized lot 50 by 152 we are in the R1 we're proposing a three-story 17 Unit residential building that uh is composed of four one-bedroom apartments 11 two-bedroom apartments and three and two three-bedroom apartments uh going through the site plan first uh on the public right of way we're proposing new concrete curbs new concrete sidewalks there is an existing Street tree in front of the building that we will be keeping we are proposing one new Street tree as well and two new Street pits uh tree pits one for each uh going on to our property we have a Central PA walkway which leads us to the main entrance to the building on the sides of that we have uh 289 ft planting areas one on each side on the right side of the building uh about halfway back we have a light well the rest of the building is built on the property line on the left side of the building we have a walkway that's a little less than 4T wide that goes from the front of the building all the way to the back uh moving to that backyard uh the first thing we have in the rear yard are two private patios they're 153 ft each they're actually accessed from the first floor so I'll show you those at the first floor plan the rest of the backyard is for all of the building tenants uh it includes a 648 ft patio area and a 629 square foot lawn and landscaping area uh we also have a covered shed in the backyard uh this is used for trash and recycling as well as bike storage the entire backyard is enclosed with a 6ot board onboard fence um and let me also mention that there is a stormm water detention system it's located underneath the front of the building okay so here we're looking at the first floor plan but first at the top here we do have a very small Cellar it's shown at the top right uh we're using this for storage for meters as well as for our sprinkler room as this is a fully sprinklered building uh going down to the floor plans uh there are two entrances to the ground floor uh one is located in the center of the building in the front the second is off of the alley on the left side uh right here both of these entrances lead to the main Corridor to the ground floor uh this provides access to both um both stairs as well as the five apartments that are located on this floor um all the apartments on the ground floor are Ada adaptable uh in the building itself all of our Apartments have washer dryers in the unit and all have wallmounted heat pumps for heat and air conditioning uh on this floor we have two three-bedroom apartments located at the top of the drawing a two-bedroom apartment in the back and then two one-bedroom apartments along the uh left side of the building and the front of the building uh and as I mentioned each of the two rear Apartments the three bedroom and two-bedroom they have doors directly out from their living rooms which go to a private uh private patio shown here and here this is the second and third floor plan each of these floors is exactly the same uh there are six apartments on these floor on these floors uh five of them are two bedrooms and one of them is a one-bedroom so six on each floor 12 in total uh each of these apartments has exterior balconies uh the rear balconies are full balconies as is the balcony uh in the window well the other three balconies are just Juliet balconies those are in the front and one along the side elevation um and then also besides the floor plans we're showing the elevations of that rear shed up on the top here um and what we can see is it's a simple post and beam wood post uh construction with a gable roof enclosed with uh wood board onboard fence so it's enclosed but it's really open um ventilation wise this is our roof plan we're not using our roof however we do have condensers on the roof and a stair that's going up there just for maintenance purposes this is the front elevation of the building our main finish is a smooth beige brick it's used on the main sections of the building we have a central Canal lever uh this is going to be finished mainly with white uh metal panels and we have accents of Cedar Brown metal siding used in between the floor levels uh we also as I mentioned have those Juliet balconies they have gray metal for their posts and um railings and then a glass finish for the rest uh all of our doors and windows have black aluminum frames uh and lastly here at the top of the building we have a 32in tall cornice which is going to be wrapped in Gray metal panels uh looking to the side elevation this is the left side uh we have a smooth beige stucco finish at the base of the building then above that we have light gray vinyl siding um also with the Juliet balconies we're just using a simple black aluminum uh railing system this is the right elevation again the same finishes as were um proposed on the left beige smooth siding oh excuse me beige smooth stucco at the base and light gray vinyl siding above and then lastly here we have the rear elevation uh this mostly mirrors the front elevation with a few minor changes uh the brick has been changed to be of the same L gray vinyl siding as on the sides and that large cornice has been been reduced to a simplified cornice but the look and feel of the front of the building uh is retained um that concludes my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions all right thank to Mr Lewis um just a couple quick questions uh just like an earlier application tonight is there screening of the mechanical equipment on the roof um I I think we just had the parit to act as a screening because we're not using the space for anything else okay and you're talking about we go back to the roof plan Jeff yep so we have some condensers here and condensers in the center of the building here but we do have the parit around it and there's nothing else that's going to be on the rooftop okay so you're talking about 17 condenser units up there correct that's correct all right I I think we would condition it that they be screened okay yeah we're the applicant's happy to agree to We can agree to that for sure screen around um that would be my last question for Mr Lewis but while we're talking about conditions uh just like the last application the affordable units there's no difference between the affordable units and the market rate units that they'll be uh the same fit and finish as the rest of the building of course as this board and the zoning board always uh condition absolutely okay thank you and uh do you want the balconies this time do you want it to handle the balcony condition this time I do want to handle the balconies especially I want I want to start Mr Lewis with the um side balconies that are on the side of the houses um those rooms there what are they it's a living room that's go access to that balcony each um in the each of them are living rooms yes yeah that's off a living room that's off a living room yes and then six of the balconies are off of living rooms and we know that if they decide to knock out the house next door somebody could build a house just as high of course and they'll get to look at that wall okay yeah these were really meant to be just Windows to we had a situation once where there was somebody's kitchen and it was it wasn't it wasn't a it wasn't a good thing um for the it wasn't a good thing for this board um being in a living room then that's that's U something different but um I noticed the balconies and the back of the house mhm and not not with glass that's correct those would be regular aluminum railings um once again the aspect of a safety mechanism underneath that balcony help the valid to the deck um by my trade I don't I don't want you to make a bathtub there but something to said because that is in a way where kids are going to be playing in that backyard right well these are actually above the private private Terraces below but yes they are there will be people below them below that somebody was going to play back there that's they going to be underneath those balconies correct so we will we will provide some it's just it's just a safety aspect on that and then the same thing you have a the front of the house you have the glass ones right or you have a and these are just Juliet balconies so no one would be out on these yeah so see the same they see how they line up that the side one lines up with the doors going into the building so if there's something there that glass doesn't go all the way down but at least enough that somebody can't kick off of there and hurt someone uh Jeff the can you tell us the the depth or I guess the width of the Juliet balconies there there's no depth it's just I mean it's just you know right so these these will be there will be no it looks nice but you built it right in front of the door entrance so it's like that's where somebody's going to be walking you know well again you're not walking out onto this balcony this is these are you can't walk out onto these balconies okay so the door opens in and that glass is right there okay nevere uh that part yeah thank but on the side ones yes the side ones and the re ones we will add some sort of mesh to make sure nothing falls out all right that that's all I have all right thank anybody else any questions okay thank you Mr leis thank you great uh we're going to bring up uh Mark get him sworn in um Mark has testified in front of this board but only by Zoom so it's we'll get him requalified this evening Zoom counted it's still counted hi good evening yes I do Mark M RC Liber l e b are in Market you can just confirm you've testified in front of this board in the past that your license is still current in good standing this evening yes it is okay thank you Mr Ola you're qualified good evening again uh I wanted to talk a little bit about drainage uh with regard to the building and we did a analysis of the property uh there was previously a building on this property if you refer to our plans on sheet three we had a color photo of what that prior building had looked like and that uh prior building represented approximately um 4990 Square ft of impervious coverage on the property this particular project will result in an increase of about 1,29 Square fet so the city has a very specific uh section of the code that addresses this which basically states you have to provide 6 gallons of storm water retention using green infrastructure practices um and it's tied to the amount of square feet of impervious so in this particular situation we have in acres 0.12 Acres of impervious uh we apply 6 gallons to that and convert it to square feet and we basically need 420 cubic feet of storage which we have provided in the rear of the property um 500 cubic feet so we're somewhat above what's required but should that system ever fill with water and the source of most of the water entering the system is actually the building roof uh there is an overflow pipe that runs along the left side of the building out into the street where there's uh actually two utility connections is a separate sanitary sewer connection for the uh water in the building uh showers bathrooms kitchens Etc and then there's a separate storm water line that would go into uh a separate at one day should it come into fruition uh separate storm sewer I know that the city is separating the storm and sanitary sewer on Princeton Avenue uh and I do anticipate at some point they'll be working their way up to this block but uh that's been designed with the future in mind that storm water should be separate from sanitary water and that's how the utilities were put on our plant um Mark we've uh we've received a engineering letter from the city division of engineering correct and yes no issue um working with division of engineering on addressing those comments right this is the March 26 letter which I have um and I I don't have any questions or comments on the issues that they raised Council if we could get uh just get you on a mic while you comment sorry I apologize I know there's a number of people here that want to speak tonight um I presume most of the questions are going to be around parking um in this particular overlay Zone with what's proposed there is no parking requirement so I know that was stated earlier I just wanted to restate it but if you have any questions for me I'm happy to answer them or if there's questions from the public I'm here okay thank you Mr lever anybody any questions okay thank you okay thank you sir council is that your that concludes our uh direct testimony okay and of course we'll let you do a uh closing statement after uh public comment if you wish okay is anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application please come on up sure ton the truth the whole truth the truth yes I do Lisa Santiago Lisa with to USS l i SSA Santiago s n t i a g o 44 lambc Avenue Miss Santiago good evening we have three minutes for you good evening goad good evening everyone as a longtime resident of the city in a resident of 44 lambc Avenue for 20 years my family neighbors and I are highly concerned about our quality of life we are apprehensive about the impact of a 17 Unit building being built on a residential street where the majority of our homes are two family units we want our city to prosper and we welcome everyone into our city however a 17 Unit building in the middle of our block will change the dynamic of our neighborhood completely my neighbors and I have been highly concerned about this project for almost a year and we immediately contacted our councilwoman our concerns garbage how are 628 bins going to be stored when they are adjacent to my neighbor backyards on Garfield Avenue how are these six to8 bins going to be placed out for garbage without damaging the cars parked on the street most importantly having an excessive amount of garbage in front of this building can become a serious issue for our street as it can be as it can potentially attract roadents our concerns continue the noise level in the building will affect our seniors in our neighborhood there are seniors in almost every house on lamb Avenue 39 41 43 45 46 44 42 lmic Avenue and I will continue the parking situation is already a challenge for us cars are often parked in small areas that divide two driveways blocking our access just imagine the additional strain of 34 more cars in our neighborhood I have an neighbor here who takes Ubers and uh Uber service so she doesn't move her car because she won't find a spot there are problems with the sewer and water lines in our area and uh the backyards especially our neighbors on Garfield Avenue have uh very serious issues water seeps into my basement and in in the basement of my neighbors I'm concerned about the water and sewer infrastructure of 40 lbec Avenue with 17 families and the impact on their neighborhood safety is also an issue 3T from uh uh the alley 3 ft from uh 42 lbeck the house on lbeck and the building that's a safety concern of in case of an eem an emergency no sprinkler system for 17 units I know we follow code and that's what we're supposed to do but we also have to consider what's important for our community at the end of the day two more questions uh the adjacent houses were built in the late 60s early 70s will the developer provide resources for preconstruction condition surveys of surrounding houses to ensure the construction activities do not compromise the structural Integrity of our 50 plus year old homes what methods will the developer used to prevent damage to the surrounding buildings during excavation and foundation work due to settling our shifting of soils I'm sorry ma'am that was your 3 minutes you have one more brief question I am good thank you okay thank you we appreciate your time all speakers thank you thank you thank you so much for yes you any testimony tonight is going to be the truth the whole truth and nothing Yes Virginia Puchi P ru CCI 325 Princeton Avenue you're welcome good evening man we have three minutes for you thank you um the uh lot is 50 by 152 um what I heard tonight it seems like they're going to take most of that space and at one side where it's only going to be less than 4 feet my concern would be for safety God forbid there's a fire how how is a how are fire persons going to go in that Alleyway carrying their equipment they can't go 2 by two side by side they would have to go linear that just doesn't seem right to me um also parking obviously is a huge problem huge huge problem and having this building with no parking just doesn't make any sense to me it's going to impact that neighborhood um wondering if the developer is getting any attack abatement and how is that going to impact everyone else that lives in that neighborhood um and earlier tonight there was the discussion on historic preservation and the de demolition of homes um and and obviously was discussed that those changes changed the landscape of the neighborhood and also the community that's been there 40 l be is in Greenville section and quick fact just in case anyone doesn't know it's Greenville because of it was a lettuce and celery forms early on um I asked you how could a modern building of 3 story 17 units with no parking fit in the neighborhood of homes which most of them are from the 19th century my home is from 1867 so I would like you to all please rethink I think this is a disastrous plan so I thank you for your time it's been a long night and I wish you well thank you thank you we appreciate it councilwoman good evening good evening yes and councilwoman uh like we said before there's three minutes for public take all the time you need that doesn't apply to council people okay but within reason okay I'll be brief thank you uh thank you all first I just want to say that um you know our residents are aware uh that this is an as of right project but they do have some concerns um there was a meeting that was held a community meeting that was uh held with the attorney for the project um and they brought up some of those concerns during that meeting um as was already mentioned the building doesn't really fit the character of the neighborhood um there are a lot of smaller homes there old older homes there so that is a concern even though we do realize it's as of right but I just want to ask that you please kind of take the concerns of my residents into consideration with this project um during that meeting there were a few things that the attorney said that he would look to change uh one being the balconies on the side of the building uh there was a concern that you know the noise is going to travel into the homes next to it so he did say that he would uh consider removing those balconies He also mentioned that he would make sure that the windows of their project aren't aligned with the windows of the houses next to them um it was mentioned before uh that there's concerned about concern about the garbage in the back with rodents uh being close proximity to all of the houses and of course concern with parking and I know that parking is not required so what I am asking is that um some consideration be given in general for projects or to the master plan in areas that are near specifically near the light rail or within a certain distance from the Light Rail and I know that the planning um I guess stance on that is because it's near public transportation uh less parking is needed because people have access to mass transit but um certain areas of the city are a little different and Greenville is one of those areas Greenville is a very highly residential area it is an area of the city where there is still a lot of old Jersey city and what I mean by that is a lot of my residents uh live in these areas not because it's convenient for them to get to work or to go into Manhattan but they live there because that's where they've always lived I live in Greenville I've never worked in Jersey City right I've worked in parcion I've worked in all these far places pamis so the light rail or the bus was never something that was convenient for me of course we need it but that didn't stop the use of my car I still needed my car and that's the case for a lot of my residents so I know the concept is close to mass transit um you shouldn't need cars but in certain areas we really need to kind of re-evaluate that and this is one of those areas I've changed at least four streets in that area to angle parking because there wasn't enough parking in the area and there still isn't even with doing that so that's something that we might want to consider throughout the city and with that um that's all thank you for your time okay thank you thank you for hanging out so long any testimon you get tonight it's going to be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do um my name is Gary Domingo I live in u g do NGO and I I live in 42 lamb Avenue good evening sir we have three minutes for you my concern is uh the side window and the balcony on the new building is facing my bedroom that's my concern and the safety only 5T away from my my side you know it's less than 5T just in case of fire how the fireman's going to go through on that side you know and how are they going to put the pens on it on my side or uh especially parking is the you know the problem is the parking somebody parking my driveway you know at least almost every day I'm concerned about this new new neighborhood yeah we have you know that's only thing I you know my question okay thank you sir we appreciate thank you sir anybody else from public anybody else from public please come on up and speak good evening everyone TR r rames ripul r m r a TTI p a l I live at 258 Garfield Avenue I concerned I was looking at the for plan and my backyard is right there where all the garbage B is going to be and the parking is every night people come from two three blocks and park in front our house my two neighbors got to ride with me tonight for come to this meeting thank you very much thank you sir we appreciate it anybody else from public please come on up the truth the truth nothing the trth yes so sing s o a m a t t i last name is s i n g h yes I'm concerned 260 gari laue good evening Miss Singh we have three minutes for you thank you yeah um I'm concerned like you say is about the garbage in the back and also the drainage um we already have floods in my backyard so I don't know how the fence is going to be I would still want the drainage there were just grass there in the back so that's was like where the water runs off so now I don't know how if there is nothing there if they block it then we're going to have floods because already have flood so and another thing parking uh I just my husband cannot get out sometimes to work he got to be late because the cars blocking our driveway so there a lot all I'm asking um I know it's a three story building it's a over white building I'm just saying asking please can you make it a smaller unit or put at least a two family we we would love to have people come into our neighborhood but if you could reduce that amount you know like instead of a 17 uh units you know if you could be half the amount of the units I mean if you can make it smaller then it might reduce a lot of these you know problems I mean we have raccoons and everything in our backyard and if we going to have garbage and all this stuff too you know it's a lot it's overwhelming so please if you can hear us thank you very much for hearing us thank you ma'am I appreciate it anybody else from public I move to close the public second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed Council if we could let's address a few things yes absolutely um I'd like to start with the some of the comments about the balconies if if you don't mind so sure we we did have walk out functional balconies on the side of this building and after that community meeting we we changed in the Juliet so not not step out balconies um applicants happy to just remove that architectural feature altogether totally totally fine we could agree to that as a as a condition um all balconies on the sides believe the comments were about we're about the the sides yeah I have no problem with the back or the front right but yeah the side balconies have to go that's yeah totally fine we're applicants happy happy to do that um storm water I believe you heard some testimony this evening that says our or storm order exceeds what the requirements are so we we believe that's a that's a positive um garbage storage it it is is enclosed um the garbage is enclosed not just uh it's not just um not just a size but it's a structure that the that the garbage is in I could bring Jeff up to talk about that um I would also like Jeff to confirm the building is fully sprinkler uh protection plan for the Neighbors during construction that's required um that's something that's required at the building department phase we're not in the CD phase yet a structural engineer is needed to be brought on board to prepare those uh those plans um and then the big issue is the the size of the building and and the parking so it's it is permitted it is as of right there are no variances associated with it parking is not required because of the width of the lot it's also not required when you utilize the affordable housing overlay um as far as number of units uh optimal from the developers perspective would have been 20 units because that's two affordable units um 17 we still require two affordable units they landed at at uh at 17 um I also want to remind the board that in the recently adopted ordinance two family homes is not what's permitted it's 42 units an acre um so the choice is not really between a a two family home and 17 building I think I don't know what the calculations work out to off the top of my head I believe it was seven or eight units for is a 17 Unit building um but it is uh completely compliant with the with the city's new ordinance um I I would like to bring Jeff up just to confirm those couple points so Jeff if you could just see a couple more words about the trash it's location and how it's storage and confirm the building is fully sprinklered sure uh first first of all yes the building is a fully sprinklered building uh and it does meet all building and fire codes or will meet all building and fire codes uh as far as the back um area you can see that it's it's about 15 x 20 I believe it's a pretty large space and it is enclosed on all four sides with a woodboard on board fence with a gate uh opening out to the patio um and I think uh there is ample room for the trash and bicycles that are stored there Mr Lewis can you just zoom in on that please I can exactly 15 by 20 so that is on that rear property line it's on the rear property line and it's set back two feet from the side property line those are the setback requirements for an accessory building and that is a completely enclosed structure four sides with a pitched roof yes you want me to I can show you how it's enclosed as well I'll go to those drawings quickly that's right here below so it's enclosed but it's enclosed with a six foot board on board fence so you can see there is a little bit of a space in between the roof and the fence itself to provide some ventilation so it's not an enclosed structure no it's it's hard to explain it's not enclosed but it's enclosed with a wood fence it's not hard to explain it's not enclosed it's how would you okay it's INF fenced what the what's the word you would use I'm not sure I would describe it as it's open I mean we could make it solid with a vent if that's what would be preferred we thought this would be the less intrusive option let's do that we're happy to make it an enclosed uh shed with ventilation like a like a Louver you mean in that area we could provide a we could buide louvers or we could just provide an exhaust fan for active ventilation there's going to be a light in there anyway so we'll have electricity we can do that okay with that we thought this was less intrusive than that but we're happy to enclose it if if it will keep everything away from the neighbors that makes some sense yeah I mean they they bring up a good point it it it definitely controls the animals if it's closed in yeah I mean that because uh that's the concern here there's a lot of there is a lot of uh pums raccoons skunks and um and they all crawl up and yeah and they'll climb up the RAC climb up there and this is not an animal proof enclosure but we can we can make it into a closed shed if that's what You' prefer yeah I think so I would say so too solid structure with an electric exhaust yeah with an exhaust fan do to work with staff on this that's fine okay set the setbacks are correct yeah these setbacks are fine for any accessory structure so that that still works theing I'm sorry for the main building do we do we uh the setbacks for the for the main building I'm asking Mr Mr Lewis confirm let guess that's yeah we're not we're not asking for any bulk variances we're in compliance with all the R1 uh bulk requirements as far as setbacks so we're not exceeding any of those and our full rear yard setback is actually 40 over 44 feet so it actually exceeds the required rear yard setback so the the building is not as big as it as would be permitted under the current zoning correct we could have gone a little bigger if we wanted to okay one last thing I want to address is the the side windows are there any windows that that are in compliant with with neighboring properties I'm not sure what the code is how far off those windows have to be from neighboring properties the code is a 3 foot minimum and we have three and over three feet we have 3 fo 8 in okay so we are compliant with having Windows there so Mr Lewis do you have side elevations of course this is the side that we're talking about now we said we're going to change these into windows so these two balconies will be gone and we'll replace those with probably a double window each because that is a living room those other eight windows are unit Windows not for the stairwell no those are actually in the unit these are in the units they're bedroom windows and living room windows and these two smaller windows are in the stairway and left side and right side mirror each other no the other side um is built mostly on the property line and this is a window well which again we're going to remove that balcony and replace those with a double window like we have below and that well set back to 3 feet off the property line a Little More Than 3 feet yes yeah it's compliant okay Council any other anything else you wanted to address from public comment uh the there's not if the board's okay with it I'd just like to read off the the added conditions that we discussed sure um so screening for the Mechanicals on the roof um same finishes material for the affordable units we're going to add a mesh um on the bottom of the railing to stop anything well on the rear and on on the front to stop anything from falling out um we're going to remove the side balconies and the uh shed in the backyard is going to be solid with a electric exhaust vent yes yeah I think that covers everything I know Chris I have a question for Council maybe or for Matt um so he made made a uh testimony he said that uh because of affordable housing overlay there is no requirement for parking is that there's two things I hear that correctly there's two things on the record so one the lot is 50 ft wide and the ordinance has read for last 24 years that if you have a 50ft wide lot or less you do not need to provide parking on that your lot the affordable housing overlay went one step further for any lot size uh it it allows you to do um whatever parking you wish to provide you have no minimum required parking in this instance on a lot of this size and in um in keeping with the ordinance that's been in place for R1 it is difficult to accommodate a garage for a building with this amount of units um so they are not providing parking it it it appears and aren required to so it's just not that the affordable hous that overlay is the two other things okay that's is correct all right Matt do you have anything else you want to add I've just been pinch hitting this is actually Cameron's application oh I'm sorry yeah um well I guess to piggy back off of that um discussion it's probably worth just reiterating the the affordable housing overlay and what the most important design element of it is and how it applies here which is under uh E2 which is the maximum unit per acre or maximum units per block is replaced with an alternate density standard instead of a maximum unit per acre standard density for developments pursuant to the overlay shall be defined by the building Envelope as regulated by applicable maximum floor area ratio he coverage step backs setbacks um minimum room and unit sizes are regulated by building code so all of that says you know that you need to build a building that fits within the parameters of the R1 Zone and this building meets all of the you know height width setbacks for the R1 Zone um and the density is waved because they are doing the 10% requirement for the affordable units um so just to you know summarize that is what this ordinance accomplishes um the creation of two affordable units um in this building and um you know I uh I'm not going to reiterate the uh conditions that we've added here I'm only just going to ask that the applicant agree to the original um eight conditions in addition to the uh what I it's five condition I I see is added um so we'll draft that in in the reso if a reso is approved um but anyway uh does the applicant's attorney agree to the conditions in the planning staff Meo dated March 27th yes I I reviewed the conditions and they're acceptable to the applicant okay um well I uh also just want to uh go over some of the recommendations and principles of the master plan um and just real short bullet points um recommendations of the master plan are to create a balanced housing Supply um and uh creating more units uh affordable units um is accomplishing that um then guiding principles of the master plan Cameron oh hello yeah okay um and then guiding principles of the master plan are to Advocate advocate for future development to PRI prioritize a diverse and affordable housing stock um so this obvious this complies with the city's master plan and the affordable housing overlay um but also just to give some context because it it is true the the majority of the area are one and two family homes so this will be a very radical change for the neighborhood however it's worth noting um you know for instance um let's let's look at uh 238 uh Garfield Avenue it's a 44 unit building um across the street um and it uh it has no parking and it's 44 units um you know uh so there there are older buildings that have greater density um but I uh I agree the uh fabric of the architecture um is not in character with the neighborhood it's a flat roof um the block uh has all peaked roofs um so that's worth considering and mentioning um there are homes with flat roofs on that block um but it does appear the majority are peaked roofs um overall the project does provide a substantial improvements and aligns with the objectives and goals of our master plan and the aho and um City Planning would have to recommend approval okay thank you Cam I'll entertain a motion then okay Mr chair I'd like to make a motion at this time time to approve case P 23- 0094 as presented to the board tonight second okay motion made and seconded for approval with conditions Vice chair Dr Gonzalez yeah this is a hard one because um you know you you have the public coming uh speaking with you we all live here um so we're with you we understand the the problems um and that for us the bottom line has to first of all seems like they really worked with you on some of the things that that you guys were requesting I really enjoyed seeing that because that doesn't happen often they didn't have to do a lot of that um but two you know when we have an application that is okay to be be as it's presented to us it's supposed to it's okay to be actually be built there it's called as of right and permitted there's not much we can do um and the project is is is a good project it I do kind of feel like it not might be in the area and I understand that you guys came out and why you came out as uh Cameron said uh there might be a you know a substantial sort of impact to the area but when we have to look at it the way we can look at it this is an as of right and a permitted application um and uh I thank you for coming because we do hear you um with that Al v i commissioner Gan I want to thank the uh public the resident for voicing your concerns this evening like Dr Gonzalez said we do understand your concerns we're resident of Jersey City and we fully fully understand um this is a RightWay project and it meets the goals and the objectives of the city master plan there are no variances requested and with that said what I would suggest if you guys can work the resident work together with the developer and the councilwoman in putting things together in all favor of each and every one of you here this evening um I know you guys have done quite a bit based on the concerns here and we're happy for that and as you move forward um let's move forward in the right way as well with that being said I'll vote I councilwoman priner I'm so so thank than you all for coming out tonight for sharing your concerns with us um you know wearing my slightly different hat sometimes as a council person I I hear the same concerns in my award as well from residents that that butress the two Awards together didn't councilwoman Ridley and I we share a border we try to be good neighbors with each other um and it's challenging when these projects are as of right because it makes it very difficult um to accommodate everyone in this process we know that the change is going to be challenging for you guys it sounds like um a little more conversation may need to be had going forward to make sure that everything is you know as best as it can be for the residents because you're moving into their neighborhood you're building a building in their neighborhood and it's really important for you guys to understand that while you you can build this you still have to be good neighbors and really listen to what the people are asking you to do and and try to align with them as best as possible um and and you know with the issues around parking and Transit unfortunately we cannot solve those problems here at the planning board that's another conversation for another time and I won't get on my Transit high horse I promise you that um but we can talk about it later um and so with that um I do vote I commissioner green um I sympathize with the residents and thank everyone that came out and spoke um I understand living in a two family neighborhood at which I live in the house or on the house that I grew up in and it's all two families all two families so to have a lot come with 17 units is a big deal um sort of messes with the Dynamics of the block cuz we're family oriented on my block and I'm sure you guys are family oriented around near um I am glad to hear that um they're going to work with you in regards to the changing of the balcony um the garbage please with that garbage that's like important to um but they are in compliance with the master plan so I'll be voting I commissioner Tores yeah um this this is a tough the these are the tough ones because you know the neighbors do come out um we are listening um to you um yeah I want to vote a big no because um the problem I see in this area is that just because of affordable and I I spent my career fight for affordable housing in Jersey City born and raised here um and to allow a developer not to have parking because he can have affordable housing I don't know it's it's you know we need affordable housing but Garfield Avenue and PE saww they built 12 parking spots in that building it's under construction now you know so is it possible to do it yes they could have done something I'm from Greenville I don't understand when I see somebody we have to walk and it's a A Long Walk to go to Wendy's and come back with the food and it's cold you know it's a long I I see the walk I have a driveway but I see my neighbors in Greenville going to the laundry m going to the store they have to walk you can't or you got to drive the bus doesn't pass Garfield Avenue the bus doesn't pass our area yes we have the light rail there but we still have blocks and blocks six seven eight blocks up walking to do anything um but it's a tough call um I don't know I I I'm not supposed to do this but I'm I'm going to stick by my no I'm going to vote no on this project because um you can't build parking spots there in that building the lot is big enough I sat in front of that property this morning looked at it and um it's big enough to do something uh so with um I'm going to stay with a NOA on this one thank you um and chairman Langston so I I agree with the other Commissioners here um this is a tough decision it's it's tough to have a community come down and you know voice their concerns that we understand we hear those concerns we are bound by the law um this is the law that's put in front of us this is the zoning that's put in front front of us we don't write the zoning we have to comply with the zoning we have to make sure that developers comply with the zoning I it's not often that we have a building that complies with all of that zoning come in front of us and take their side balconies off because we asked them to um they don't they didn't have to enclose the garbage they're doing that I I just hope that you know I I am going to vote I on this but I I hope that that sentiment carries forward you know as as other Commissioners said tonight that they want neighbors to move into this neighborhood they don't want a developer to move into this neighborhood please respect the neighborhood we always ask that respect the neighborhood you're off to a good start here but you know let let's carry that sentiment forward obviously the neighbors that came out tonight are not happy with this project you're complying with the zoning we you know that's all we can ask but let's just continue to be good neighbors understood all right thank you everybody that was an ie for me motion carries uh five in favor one oppose okay thank you everybody uh if we thank have a good evening thank you thank you all right let's move on with memorialization of resolutions Please Mr chair I'd like to make a motion to memorialize the following resolutions I have nine uh first one is resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant to llc at 44 newerk LLC for amended final major s plan approval with C deviations C deviations property at 171a 171 169a 169 and 167 Baldwin AV and 44-48 new Kirk Street block 10802 lot 25-32 case number P2 0 23- 0062 second resolution is of the city of Jersey City planning board case number P 23- 075 applicant is 319-321 4th Street LLC address is 319 to 3214 Street Jersey City New Jersey block 11101 Lots 10 and 11 decided on Tuesday April 16 2024 memorialized on May 7th 2024 application for preliminary and final major s plan approval with C variances uh resolution number three is resolution of the city of Jersey City planning board in the matter of 216 and 218 Academy Street application number p2023 d0109 decided April 16 2024 memorialized May 17 2024 application for preliminary and final major s plan approval with C variances deviation and design waiver Das exception relief resolution number four resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant is Harbor Side Plaza for Associates LLC for a preliminary and final major s plan at 20on Columbus Drive also known as Harborside Plaza 4 Jersey City New Jersey block 11603 Lot 29 case number p2023 d115 fifth resolution of the city of Jersey City planning board is in the matter of memes dank world LLC for conditional use a classifi cannabis retail establishment at 1704 Kennedy Boulevard block 28 601 lot 30 case number p2023 0116 decided today May 7th 2024 and moralized today on May 7 2024 application for conditional use resolution number six of the city of Jersey City planning board is extending preliminary and final major s plan approval submitted by Newport Associates devel development company at 535 5 Mammoth Street also known as 35410 street block 692 Lot 27 case number p2024 d37 uh resolution number seven of the city of Jersey City Planning in the matter of 17-19 Berkeley LLC application number p2024 d34 decided April 2nd 2024 memorialized May 7 2024 application for a minor sight plan approval number eight city of Jersey City planning board in the matter of 197 Palisade Avenue LLC application number on that is p2023 0075 decided April 16 2024 memorialized today May 7 2024 application for preliminary and final major s plan approval ninth and final resolution of the city of Jersey City planning board is in the matter of 35 Fairview Avenue LLC application number p2023 d44 decided April 16 2024 Memorial realized May 7th 2024 application for preliminary and Ma final major s plan approval second a motion Vice chair Dr Gonzalez I commissioner gagen commissioner councilwoman prery I commissioner green I commissioner Torres I and chairman Langs I motion carries all in favor to memorialize resolutions we need an executive session anybody motion to adjourn second all right Motion in second and we're adjourn thank you everybody