I'm your rightand guy no you're my right-and guy tonight there's the other way around I'm Doc's right hand guy okay could we come to order please everybody and join me in a salute to the flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you everybody Matt could we have a sunshine announcement please okay this is a special meeting of the planning board today is April 30th 2024 this meeting was advertised with a 5:30 p.m. start in accordance with the open public meetings act notice of this meeting has been given to the Jersey Journal L espito the city clerk on April 25th 2024 uh dis dis disribution materials were provided to the Commissioners and open to the public on the Jersey City open data portal all right thank you Matt could we have a roll call please Mike sure I'm sorry Matt commissioner Cruz here commissioner lipsky here uh commissioner Dr Desai here commissioner green present uh chairman linkston here and uh acting Vice chair genen here all right thank you could we swear in the staff please Mike Sophia Francisco T Matt do you guys for any testimony you get tonight it's going to be the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes thank you all right thank you do we have correspondence Matt none okay um we have no adjournments tonight so let's get right into Old business we'll call case p2024 d45 as a one-year extension for a preliminary and final major site plan with deviations for 414 to 432 Hoboken Avenue good evening Council good evening Gregory asadorian from the Dakota slw firm on behalf of the applicant um I'm here really um out of an abundance of caution asking for a one-year extension uh my client applied for demolition permits back in March uh 2023 uh he received the final demolition permit um in uh December 2023 demolition has begun and it's almost complete so once Demo's complete he could uh go on to the next step of the project uh so I'm really here just out of an abundance of caution in the event it is determined that a demolition alone does not suffice or or satisfy the time period uh and if something more is needed just to obtain and secure that approval okay understood Council thank you uh does anybody have any questions no okay is anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application for a one-year extension anybody from public chair see no one from public I would like to close the public portion second all right we have a motion made and seconded for public to be closed it is closed Sophia do you have anything you want to add planning would ask that the applicant's attorney agree to the existing conditions placed into effect under the old approval yes absolutely uh planning staff recommends approval okay thank you chair i' like to make a motion to approve case p2024 d45 as presented together with all conditions under the old case number second okay motion made and seconded for approval uh Act of Vice chair gangen I Cruz I green I Dr Desai I lipsky hi and chairman Langston hi thank you thank you Council all right let's move on to Item B is case p2024 d78 is a one-year extension of an interim use for 242 Hudson Street and 3 Second Street good evening Council good evening uh for the record Charles Harrington of conell Foley on behalf behalf of the applicant um um so uh what we're asking for tonight is for an extension of the beer garden um that is uh located next to Plaza 9 um some of the board members may recall that this this was approved as part of the Plaza 8 uh approval a few years ago um so it's actually been approved as a permanent use before that it was approved as an interm use which was continued uh the the uh app the owner has building permits in hand to start Plaza 8 but it doesn't look like they're going to be able to start within the next few months because they're trying to secure the financing so we're asking that um this be extended through October 31st 2024 so that they can have this use for the you know for uh you know General Community it's right there in the water it's a nice use uh any event uh construction starts before then then they would shut down the use okay thank you Council any questions anybody no okay is there anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this one-year extension anybody from the public see no one from the public wishing to speak I move to close seconded Okay motion is made and seconded public is closed Matt do you have anything you want to add staff recommends that all conditions on the record stay in effect uh and staff recommends approval okay thank you Council you're okay with that that's that's acceptable great thank you chair I'd like to make a motion to approve case p2024 d008 together with all conditions second okay motion is made and seconded for approval on a motion to approve with conditions commissioner Cruz commissioner lipsky wishing you a great Halloween October 31st I vote I commissioner Dr Desai I commissioner green I acting Vice chair gangan I and chairman Lon I motion carries all in favor and not a motion to approve thank you thank you all right thank you Council let's move on to new business item nine is case p223 z86 is a conditional use with preliminary and final major plan for 516 Tunnell Avenue good evening Council good evening Commissioners for the record Tom lean of Connell Foley uh the application is a notice case okay thank you chairman I am and receive the Affidavit of public proof of mailing with respect to the application located at 516 Tunnell Avenue here in the city it does appear to be in order we going to mark it as A1 for purposes of the record thank you Council thank you Council uh the application before you uh tonight is a conditional use uh for a class 5 cannabis retail facility uh it also requires preliminary and final site plan approval because we are building several improvements as well as parking on the site uh the existing site uh is currently a a tow lot um there is a one-story commercial building on it which will be re uh reutilized for the uh the commercial use uh right now it's packed with a lot of junk and a lot of cars uh we're removing that and we're going to place uh parking on site for the retail use uh it is located on Tunnell Avenue um we weren't certain if uh The Jug Handle that is next door was part of the county road and speaking with um Jersey City engineering they do not believe it is a County Road however should we receive approval to tonight we will ask for a jurisdictional determination from the county just to confirm that we don't need their approval for the uh for the use um there is one item I wanted to bring up before I bring up my Witnesses uh there was a planning memo generated by uh Francisco Espinosa uh dated uh 41024 uh within it um Mr Espinosa highlights that there is an approval for another cannabis facility within 600 ft here however they have not pulled their permits to begin construction on that as been the board's uh past practice and planning's policy uh we are not officially putting the pin on the map uh to count that for the 600 feed accordingly uh this can uh go forward before the board tonight and it will not uh require any uh deviations from the uh stated conditions for uh for the use um I do have three Witnesses this evening I think the most pertinent is Mark triset my engineer to go over the uh the site improvements uh I also have my architect Carlos Tovar who will just briefly go through the uh the floor plan obviously this has been in front of the Cannabis review board uh previously and received approval uh they went through the security plan um odor mitigation uh Community givebacks the other requirements that are not only provided to that board but are required as part of the conditional use requirements uh for this board um I also have a traffic expert should um you have any questions related to site access uh so with that I'm going to bring up uh Mr chis bat thank you coun good evening good evening Mr chis vet where's my cord [Music] all right okay ttim tonight be the truth the truth nothing the truth yes I do Mark m a r k chis vet c h i s v tte good evening Mr chis vet license is good for another two years okay thank you and it's current tonight so you are qualified um I don't know I just want to make sure you can see my screen now you should be looking at a zoning table yep okay um so this site is I'm just going to pan over a little bit to the area map this site is on the Northbound side of tunley Avenue it is just beyond or just north of The Jug Handle for New County Road and actually has access from The Jug Handle and the main Highway existing today three VI three curb Cuts today um I'll get into that when we get into the to the site layout I just want to go through the zoning table real quick there are some variances uh some of them are exist already this is an existing building we're not expanding the building in any way but there are some yard uh deviations already um there's also a variance for uh parking within the front yard but if you look when we get into the site layout you'll realize that pretty much the entire site is the front yard because of the way it's aligned with the jug candle um and there is a u a variance for for lot coverage um we're just a barely over it it we're 3/10 of a percent over the 90% allowable but that's a reduction from the 100% that exists today so with that being said I will move to the U site plan apologies I just want to make clear for the record you you said some of them are pre-existing there's they're actually all pre-existing we're not asking for any new variances tonight correct that is correct okay thank you so I'm what I'm showing you now is I'm zooming into the site plan these are all plans that have already previously been submitted um you the way you you're looking at this plan Northbound is to the left um in the lower right or the right side of the screen is part part of The Jug Handle which would be the turn from Northbound uh tonle AV into New County Road uh the main highway is at the bottom of the page existing building is shaded in Gray we are proposing 12 parking spaces um and we are proposing a uh clockwise circulation of traffic through the site it would be one way there are three Cur curb Cuts along the the frontage at this time um the one the one in the center of the site if you will which is U Along The Jug Handle we are not proposing to use at all in fact we are planting uh trees and grass strip and curb in front of that uh but we are going to utilize uh a part of the existing curb cut um that is on the main Highway which is to the left of the bottom of the screen which is the entry point and then there is another curb cut which we are proposing to use um which is towards the right of the site where it gets very narrow um and we are only using a part of that curb cut as well so both of those two curb Cuts even though we're using existing curb Cuts we are reducing those to less than half the length that that that are there that's there now as you circulate into the site there are uh three parking spaces to the left left as you enter in a vehicle would then turn right across the front of the building there are three more spaces along the frontage um and then as you pass those there will be two more parking spaces that uh but up against the building and then continuing on beyond the building along the rear property line there are three more including one Ada accessible space and at the far East or southernly or to the right it's first far southerly part of the property is is the 12th parking space and that's where the exit driveway is so we're proposing is that Vehicles would enter in from the main highway but they would exit out into The Jug Handle turn um and the reason we did that is be for a couple of reasons uh it enables it's a convenience for the exiting traffic they can then make a u-turn and go southbound or or on on rout one or go Northbound from that point rather than to have make u-turns further up the road and also um we were concerned that if um if it was in the reverse Direction uh Vehicles motorists who who are not familiar with entering the site might uh not realize you'd have to come in from a Jug Handle we didn't think that was the best way to circulate through the site coming in from a Jug Handle and exing it out into the main Highway thought it would be easier and safer to enter in from the main Highway and exit out onto The Jug Handle which is a much lower speed and there is a signal there um so traffic would stop occasionally to or give gaps for them to to exit the site um we are also proposing um to replace the sidewalk that's along the state Frontage the state highway Frontage which includes The Jug Handle that's all under dot jurisdiction um we are proposing um New Street trees along the entire Frontage um a total of nine trees are proposed and we are proposing a grass buff a 5ot grass strip between um the onsite curb uh and the back of the dot Highway uh we are removing the fence that is currently on site now that fence is actually well into doot right away and is uh would not be able to remain anyway uh but we are moving that fence uh which I think is it's chain link anyway which would be against your your ordinance uh there will be um as you as I said before towards the to rear of the property where you see those three parking spaces one of them is Ada space and there is an entry door at that location there's also a the double entry door which would be the main entrance um which is the double door uh at the lower right corner of the building um and so that the so the Ada space is very close to that door uh all of the spaces are standard size 9 by8 aisles 20 foot 22 ft minimum um uh there are no compact spaces on this site we are also proposing um some additional Landscaping along like I said we are proposing a a 5ot strip part of that is actually within a RightWay part of that is is on this property but there will be a 5- foot uh landscape strip with trees uh Along The Jug Handle uh there will be a landscaped area at the extreme southernly uh portion of the property and there will be a landscaped rain Garden um that will also attenuate roof runoff from the site um we're proposing to redirect the roof runoff now which just spills onto the parking lot to go pass through uh that rain garden and um we are um proposing uh bicycle spaces there will be two there will be two bicycle racks for Port four parking for bike parking spaces which would be located against the rear of the property just to the right as you can see space number 11 it's a little hard to see because there's a light pole in that area but there are two bike racks in that hatched out zone for the four bike spaces uh we are proposing I'm move on to the lighting we are proposing a combination of of u u a light pole a couple of light poles in the parking lot and some fixtures on the building for wall mounted to uh in combination that this would provide um the lighting required uh on the site um and um moving on further um to the grading utility plan as you can see the lower left um there is the rain Garden that's proposed some of the parking runoff will'll be going through there as well as the uh the roof runoff that we're collecting uh which currently just just goes to grade and eventually sheets into the highway um there is existing sanitary sewer connection already we propos to reuse there is a water service connection that we also propos to reuse um I will point out that we did receive a letter from the MUA and they questioned whether that um sanitary sewer is connected to a sewer main or a storm main um we are going to uh there are notes on the plan to video inspect that sewer line we would have to do that anyway to reuse it and we will confirm whether it does in fact connect to a legal combined sewer and um as a a matter of a condition of approval if we find that it doesn't we will uh connect connect construct a new uh Sewer Lateral from this site which would actually wind up passing through The Jug Handle there is um you can't see it on this sheet but just to the South or to the right of this site there is a uh a combined sewer that runs across across route one in in county road but it is a an mua uh sewer and that's where they would prefer us to connect it's possible that's where it goes now but we're not we're not sure until we do the inspection uh and that's like I said it's an existing building it's an very odd shaped piece of property uh we tried to make will the park and compliant we didn't we we don't we didn't uh include any uh waivers for the aisle or for the parking space sizes we do have one space more than what is required by ordinance on this site um and it like I said it's one-way circulation through and unless you have questions that's the end of my testimony um Mr shvet you did receive comments from Jersey City engineering on April 15th and comments from traffic on April 15th yes and we can either address or comply with all the comments there in yes I have nothing further for Mr chis okay thank you Mr chis vet I have no question anybody else I I have a question you know the place where you are coming out the back one and U the traffic uh there's so much traffic on that jug hangle so what precautions you have done for that well we felt it was safer to exit onto as you know tunnel EV has a lot of traffic there's no shoulders um it's one foot from The Painted line to the curb uh they move quickly there's a lot of trucking so we felt it was safer to come out into The Jug Handle for a couple of reasons like I said um it does allow a vehicle who's exiting to decide whether he wants to continue North or turn around and go the other direction uh but also because there is a lot of traffic on the J handle but it's slow moving because it's coming around the curve and there's a light so they would you know traffic does stop there for the light and that would give opportunities for the uh exiting traffic to penetrate into the jel candle traffic which I believe is a lot easier and safer than trying to trying to penetrate into uh the main highway traffic which is a lot heavier and a lot higher speed are you going to have stop sign there uh actually I don't we don't show stop sign there but we can certainly add one um we are showing uh do not enter signs there so traffic does not enter in that direction and we have some several wrong way and oneway signs within the site so that when someone backs out of their parking space it reinforce the direction that they're going to go we've also um as you can see the three spaces that are against the highway uh which are numbered four through six are angled slightly and we did that to reinforce because there's there's a driveway right there and it kind of tempting to back out of them and go out the entrance and to kind of reinforce the oneway nature of the C circulation we we angled them a little bit so that that those cars backing out would tend to want to go towards the exit instead of the entrance anybody else any questions is that the old is that the old or the current rendy's Body Shop okay yes um and also the auto repair adjacent to it um yeah it's it's right now there's it seems to me that there's more than one operation going on at that property and there's cars parked Helter Skelter throughout the site um they utilize all of the three curb cuts at this point in time and um U there's really no direction or or control of any of that they just squeeze in there when wherever they can yeah but that's like you said or is even in the report theot and County Road so but I guess my question is is remediation I mean is there any call for that I mean given its remediation regarding uh traffic impact you mean no no no in terms of uh the use you know converting it from a um I don't know I mean you mean like a hazardous material remediation I'm not I'm not aware of anything like that Council has there been any study on the property I mean I would think if it changed hands that would have to be part of that study right um I can brief L check with my client uh I'm not sure if they're leasing the space or purchasing it obviously if there was purchased they would have done environmental due diligence during it if it's just a lease and it's for standard retail you know I mean generally the the pavement is the cap on anything that's there but let me just quickly uh check with my client okay thank you they are just leasing the property um you know so it's it is a retail use to a retail use um again if they were purchasing it I think there probably would be a little bit more due diligence on it but given the nature of it um I I don't think there was any need to go any further into it it's it's it's one permitted use to another so okay understood thank you Council anybody else any questions okay thank you Mr shvat my next witness is uh Carlos Tovar who is our architect I just got yes go testimony ton be the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes I do can you say name please Carlos toar toar t o v Victor a r Mr toar good evening I don't believe we've qualified you in the past have we no okay if you could just go through your educational background and your licensing for us right I went to Drexel University in Philadelphia I graduate from there and and I'm currently uh ra architect in New Jersey and my license is current okay thank you you're qualifi thank you all right so here is a Isa image of of what proposing of the building the building again is is is is uh we are maintaining the the American tle use as we spoke the property is uh 4,000 square ft um a lot of the black colors that you see is uh M walls and the construction is actually a a wood construction and in this image this is this is the floor PL so what we're looking is coming from the sou of the building or the top of the screen we have a a checkpoint area um from the checkpoint area um um and they will look at at your ID the security person they have a backup room a security office right on the back when they will have U all the cameras after that you will be able to go through through the second entrance the way how the checkpoint works is into one door is closed you can open uh the second door for for security measures and when you come to to the fs area the sales area is about 850 ft is all open and then there is a a front counter with five five computers um the whole place is even in the shelfing and I will show you on the renders it will be all 8 accessible so we'll have low shelf 48 Ines so anybody can use use the shelfing and we do have on the back of the house we have a Jal closet and then we do have a office and a and a break room on the back um 65 70% of the building is occupied by by the retail space but then on the back we have like about ,600 1,600 square feet of of storage um um and the H if you know in few years they have room to grow but right now the the park on the back is going to be utilized for for storage we do have a ball a secure ball so so they will be able from the front counter to the ball to to pass the the mer the the merchandise through through a safe Windows uh we do have a the liy area above of of the ball H the building have a means of figes have one to the South to the north of the page it have other through the delivery area and then also half other other um through through the storage room here on the back is a little uh a little Courtyard they want to be using for for the mechanical equipment the mechanical equipment going to be a small equipment so it's not going to be make a lot of noise half of the equipment going to be outside the other equipment is going to be inside and I'm I'm also uh as we testified before uh we do have a outdoor control system they going to work with the proposed HBA C system and the VA is going to be secure and this graphic will show how the second layer of Security will have which is the the the metal match but again uh the good building is uh you have a good walls it's all mesur CNU CNU walls and and this images actually show the flow how people will come they will come through the you see the Ro people will come through the checkpoint and then we'll just go around and then the toilets are right adjacent to the checkpoint area um I was talking to my client and they they they own a a a a similar business and they are telling me that everybody they come in is just going to be there for for 10 minutes and and I guess sometimes uh they they they will pre-order few people they will pre-order and then will take less than than 10 minutes so we don't really see a a really crowded crowded crowded space and the images again is very simple we are taking advantage of of what is there um the building is concrete so we want to polish the concrete and again the the the the colors and and the material are time time Timeless we have a l g board a little bit of wood paneling um as you can see the front counter have a drop area for for Ada accessibility so somebody on the wheelchair can can use the counter um the shelfing are low too and we do have a two display on monitor so they can get order you know from from there from the space um here is um I know everybody talk about how ugly is the building and how the building do different things but actually we're taking down our advantage so um because after weakling out the building what we're proposing is paint the building create more like um Timeless colors and then create like a canopy on the south because looking the building there is actually right on the south so creating that green color canopy that we have almost a 9 ft will create a large ch and even the different slope of the RO will will help with that so uh as you can see from the rent there is going to be a a pretty nice building after everything is done after everything is you get clean up the materials are very everything is local and we are using paint the meur is already there um the canop is going to be done by a a manufacturer in Pennsylvania same thing with the metal panel that we have that look like wood is going to be done in Pennsylvania uh for the signage we had dimension of the signage the the signage right now is taking only 5% of of the wall so they are not really big on comparison with the rest of the wall um and again here are U some of the images we look at what it look you know during the day what it look like in the evening we're creating some ambient lighting and for safety of cor and to illuminate the building and here in this canopy when the um the the green color canopy you can actually see how we can create the shade getting everything from the Sun and with this I I finish my testimony I have no uh questions okay thank you uh Mr Tovar just a couple questions if you could leave that plugged in uh I just want to talk about first off um customer circulation customers are exiting the same way they come in correct that's correct single door correct but in case of emergency you have the second entrance through the delivery area sure it's a COR so then how are how are the goods delivered they're the customers don't go into the delivery delivery area do they they don't okay so who goes in there H is just the the Benders and also when they schedu the deliveries the deliveries will be scheduled understood so that's a secure door going from the sales floor into the deliver area delivery area that will be correct but we'll have a release in case of emergency to okay and where is that release that's in the security office I assume that will be in the security office okay and that's that triggered by fire alarms or anything like that how do how is that triggered it will connect it to the farm system okay is this a sprinkler building or a non-s sprinkler it's not a sprinkled building okay understood so it's going to be triggered by smoke alarms no smoke alarm we will have other other type of alarm so it will be WI a smoke alarm and Trigger wi wi yes okay what other kind of alarms are there did I misunderstand you that the smoke is gonna is not going to trigger the door to unlock correct corre so it will be it will be the light right if the light go away and then also is a smoke happen the larm will go will go off okay we have to have the door okay so then someone in the security office unlocks trigger you know hits that trigger to unlock the door or it's automatic it has to be automatically that's why I'm asking okay all right um that's it for me anybody else any other questions yeah uh can you tell me something about the the security what kind of security you have he we will have a security company we have a um on our client can I speak to that we we do have the applicant here and uh they've obviously presented that to the Cannabis board so if you'd like them to come up and just present the same information they presented to them we'd be more than happy to have them up I do have understanding about security how we work and so if you want I can talk about about about so we don't and Doctor don't let me put words in your mouth um we don't generally want to know camera locations I don't think that's something that should be public it's it's redacted a lot of times but there are cameras in the they will be cam there will be cameras and also what I mentioned before controls between doors so we create a salort environment when one is closed the other open okay and are there cameras outside the building as well covering the doors there will be cameras 360 cameras outside the building as well okay and lighting is out constant outside or is outside the lighting is constant outside um my Civ engineer have the plan and we saw there but yeah it's going to be constant I have a up and down o half round lighting okay so that should be sufficient to cover to light the the entrances and exits for the cameras that that's correct that that's correct actually on the lighting level on his drones you see how everything overlap sure so that's good okay anything else doctor all right anybody else any questions no all right thank you sir appreciate it uh I do have a traffic engineer if there are any questions regarding circulation in and out of the site other than that that I have no further Witnesses um I'm satisfied with circulation I think it's apparent you know it's it's pretty clear anybody want to hear traffic testimony no okay I just want to thank the board for getting us back in front of us so quickly and thank planning for facilitating that their state license was about to expire so it was important we got heard tonight we really appreciate it thank you no worries Council thank you uh okay is anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application anybody from the public Jersy no one from the public I would like close the public there does we have public coming up somebody coming truuth yes address Charlene Burke c h a r l NE b r ke 56 Duncan Avenue Jersey C Miss Burke good evening always a pleasure we have three minutes for you yes thank you firstly I have nothing against against this type of business whatsoever but I do have a problem on its location on that particular site and it is because of the circulation of the traffic it it was raised about the traffic on that Jug Handle and it's constant the traffic on that Jug Handle and it's not just cars but it's a lot of tracted trailers because that's one of the major entry points to the industrial area be it in SE caucus or to the UPS um excuse me the Postal Service uh facility that's there on County Avenue uh or County Road I should say so there's a lot of traffic and the way they have the car is going in from Tunnell Avenue which is just very dangerous in that given area I drive it constantly during the week so I know at all times of the day and evening and I just think it's a bad location for this kind of in and out one of the things that I really think is going to end up resulting is parking on The Jug Handle itself people sit in their car somebody else goes in and they take they're literally parked in the driving lane and I have a concern about that because even by Hudson mall if you look there was a jug handle that was two lanes that went in to the mall now parking is on either side and there's one lane now and it's it's just The Jug Handle can be a big problem and I think you need a lot of signage Along The Jug Handle that says do not park you need it saying that the entry is on around the corner that you enter they need to do a lot of signage because otherwise there will be people who will say I'm not going in there and negotiating this I'll just park right here and that's it so I I don't have a problem with the business I have a problem with the site and where it is so I think you should really think about or they need to reconsider how to do that circulation because there's not going to be any enforcement we all know Jersey City it's not an enforcement City so who do you call who do you call when there's a lot of cars parked there the county the state the city who's going to come thank you all right thank you Miss Burke we appreciate it anybody anybody else from public come on Sir sure come on up done before I apologize that's okay we'll walk you right through it anytim be the truth the truth truth I do name address Patrick Moore p a t r i c k Moore m o o r e 23 wave stre Mr good evening we have three minutes for you sir okay yeah my one concern is picking up what you said on tunley Avenue and I know you went over one parking spot but it's got to be a swoop in you know and it's got to be better sign is if people are driving along they say oh there's the pot shop instead of stopping and on tunley Avenue they added you think there's an entrance and there's three parking right there maybe one should disappear and it should be more of a swoop in so we don't have so much possibility of somebody stopping going like where am I where am I just a question um my other concern is about security I know they're putting a vault on keeping the the existing walls and putting a vault I'd go through the ceiling you know if I went a pot or I want to rob the place but that's my my concern my other concern was the lighting but it seems like they're putting the lighting down cuz you look at the pictures cuz M you know everybody lives up there if if it's how what are your hours of of uh working if it's going to be late night it's going to be a lot of lights neighbors aren't going to be happy but they seem to be pointing the lights down I just want to mention those few things I'm with the general Square Community Association we do I'm on construction and planning we look at things all the time good to see you all right thank you thank you Mr Moore take care anybody else from public if you'd like to comment please come on up seeing no one else from the public Mr chair I move to close second it okay motion made and exective public is closed council do you want a closing statement sure I just want to respond to some of the comments uh first off hours uh 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. um uh as we said for the lighting it is all down lit so it won't be uh interfering with any of the residential uses behind it as to the circulation uh We've submitted a full traffic report we provided the testimony uh this evening we think providing that additional space is going to it's it's better for people to go in and park if there's going to be available parking um we explain the reasons why we think it's safer to exit onto the uh The Jug Jug Handle there instead of having people speed out onto to Tunnel Avenue um there is a break in traffic that allows them to enter into that space um and uh frankly we we think it's a better than uh what's what the conditions are currently right now which is three curb Cuts uh cars being towed in and out of there on busy roads with a lot of trucks um there are tons of retail uses all along tunn Avenue um and I don't think that this is any different than those that currently exist and will operate in a way that is similar to those that are there um so that's all okay thank you Council doctor did you want to say something yeah I just wanted to say about the lady who said about lot of signs because the first exit there should be a sign there no is your microphone on could you speak the first exit there should be no there should be a sign that no entry and the second one there should be this is the exit entry there should be lot of as she said so that's a Jug Handle no I understood and right now we do propose a no entry on the the exit onto um and I'm not sure so Council we're going to put an entry on the entry that's what I'm confirming I no the No No entry for the exit just want to make sure there's an entry at at present time we're proposing two do not enters at the exit on one on each side we we don't have an ENT sign but we can certainly add one um we do have wrong way with inside the site so that someone pulling out of a parking space doesn't head towards the exit as opposed you know I mean head toward the entrance as opposed to the exit but if if you feel that it would be a benefit to add a um a small uh sign at the entrance just basically saying entrance or an arrow pointing in or something like that we can certainly add that to the site plan okay of the things about rendy's is they had that big old sign on top that you couldn't miss it a sign is a sign showing inside we're going to put an entrance sign at the entrance driveway yeah let's put an entrance sign at the driveway obviously there's signage for the business on the building so that will alert people to what the use is at the actual facility on the back of those do not enter signs so the do not enter signs obviously face The Jug Handle there the typical do not enter signs correct yes so on each side of those let's put stop signs on the back side so that people exiting the site know they have to stop at that driveway there's currently three driveways correct currently there are three yes and obviously an applicant could come before this body and propose to use all three of those to get onto and off of the site so the applicant has eliminated one and has chosen two that they feel supported by their traffic expert is the best maneuverability of the site but they could have come and said we have these three curb Cuts we're allowed to use these three curb cuts and this is what we're doing so the board just has to bear that in mind as does the public Council so I didn't finish okay go ahead so as I was saying this is rendy's which I've gone to for many years born in raised in Jersey City and had many your car repaired there or body work done but on top I mean it's recognizable from afar so maybe there should be tag might be a tag on that says entrance wherever you know so like you have green whatever it is Green Top but is and then underneath entrance you know so it could be seen from going north that would be a proposal above the entrance to on the building oh on the building right now we do have we have signage that indicates what the business bus name is no I know that but I'm saying is if you have a tag on that says entry wherever um you see that from suggestion and this is for the board to decide on can can as a condition of approval can we state that we will work with traffic and planning staff to approve uh identification signage that complies with the with the ordinance uh to identify the entrance location so Council that was my comment um that I was going to make next I don't know where you're at with percentage of retail signage we it we comply there is um a p permitted for uh each facade of the building and it's a certain size per the facade uh the two signs that we have currently comply I think for safety and traffic though that's not really what the ordinance is talking about as far as the actual signage for the business I think we can work with planning and traffic to devise a signage package that both complies with the ordinance both for a identification of a retail location and actually correctly identifies the location of the entrance so what I would propose was I I'm not opposed to branding on that entrance sign okay I I think it should be very identifiable what that driveway is for what you're pulling in there for and you know I think having and Francisco you know correct me if I'm at line here if I'm out of bounds of the law I I just think having you know obvious branding on an entrance sign on a highway is you know really the right way to go about this we can definitely work something out okay that that's a condition that we can agree to okay so we'll condition it that you'll present a signage package to planning that will be within the bounds of the ordinance if it is outside the bounds of that ordinance obviously you would need signage approvals from us again correct yes okay so I think it's a win-win in the sense that your client gets their customers and clientele to go directly to the spot and for the community it's sus of a cluster absolutely okay everybody okay y okay thank you Council I'll entertain a motion then uh I'm sorry I didn't hear from Francis I apologize they trying to get out so I will be brief um as was said earlier so they received the applicant has received cannabis control board approvals on March 27th this location is located in the highway commercial uh there are no schools within 200 ft of this location however it was mentioned that there is another class 5 retailer that was approved within 600 ft um but they have not pulled permits for the construction of the retail portion I do have a timeline of both applications if the board wants me to go through both of the applications or is everyone okay we're good okay yeah there's no permits pulled no no permits were pulled for the cand so there's no as far as this board's concerned all right so regarding distance the applicant does not have a D3 variance because no permits have been pulled for the Cannabis application with that said staff does recommend uh approval with conditions okay thank you Francisco chair I'd like to make a motion to approve case p2023 d86 is presented to the board this evening second okay we have a motion and a second for approval okay on a motion to approve commissioner green just just one quick question to council so on this notion about pulling permits I remember I remember last year that there was a very elongated meeting about two Cannabis shops on can keny Boulevard and so would just say if um Mr lean's uh client goes and pulls permits tomorrow what does it do to the other um proponent so the other propon the other proponent has all of its approvals in place as I understand that they have not submitted for or received building permits so it's been the uh interpretation of the city that until you have pulled submitted and pulled building permits there is no pin in the map that doesn't upend the approvals granted so that individual could submit for their building permits because they have their approvals in place uh but as far as jurisdiction and whether or not they violate the conditional use of being within 600 ft of a another EST establishment the interpretation of the city is until those permits are issued that establishment does not exist on the map and therefore you can't violate the 600 ft because the establishment doesn't exist yet so that's the interpretation of the ordinance and why the jurisdiction before this board on this application as it's presented to it great explanation the only thing is simply is whoever pulls the permits first pins it and that's it game set match in terms of putting everybody on notice that from there forward everybody's got to respect that location and has to be outside of 600 ft however if they're already in the pipeline right so if the application was filed today but permits were pulled last week that would be a problem if the permits were pulled today this application would go forward tonight because the application was already pending since it was filed by the applicant I believe it was back in in October this particular application and we did have a similar situation on um good Central AV and and griffith over there there was um the one shop on Griffith right at the entrance to that public parking lot behind the Burger King same situation there it's you know it's come up often and it's it's you know the permits get pulled that's when the pin goes in okay we're in a motion right now okay commissioner green I okay uh commissioner Cruz I obstain obain commissioner Dr Desai I commissioner lipsky I acting Vice chair gengan I good luck and chairman linkston I motion carries four in favor oh five in favor and one obstination okay thank you everybody thank you um Mike the time is quarter to 7 you want to get a break in before this next application that's the rest of our night yeah I'd rather not break it up okay we're going to take a 10-minute break everybody it's 6:44 we'll be back for you I have it at home my husband has so many what it's large here yeah did she leave yes okay um let's call Item 10 on the agenda is case P22 d189 is a preliminary and final major site plan for 216 Palisade Avenue okay thank you um Mr chairman Commissioners for the record Charles Harrington of conell Foley on behalf of the applicant uh this is a notice case so I'd ask that those be reviewed and marked into the record thank you Council chairman I've been provided the notice prior to the start of the meeting this evening for the application at 216 Palisade Avenue here in the city I've had the opportunity to review it it does appear to be in order so we're going to go ahead and Mark it as A1 for purposes of the record thank you Council okay thank you so uh what we have before you tonight we believe is a pretty exciting uh project uh it is a senior housing uh project um the property uh uh that is at issue is located within the medical Zone on Palisade Avenue it's also located within the Palisades pres preservation overlay District which the board is now very familiar with um the project before you is being proposed at 10 stories which is permitted there's a uh 10 stories and 100 ft is the permitted height within the medical Zone um we are proposing 51 units of senior housing uh which as noted is a permitted use um we believe this is a a much needed use uh in in Jersey City uh you hear about a lot of housing being provided but you're not seeing you know any new H uh senior housing project s um so we believe that uh it it really really will satisfy a need throughout throughout the city um as we hear I know we all hear stories about people being forced out of out of the city whether they don't want to you know take care of that home anymore but they want to stay within the city this is a vehicle that that we think will provide them an opportunity to stay stay here or you know new residents as well um they are being proposed as market rate uh units uh that being said uh we believe that they will probably um uh be less rent because you have a lesser you know uh demand pool if you will because it um it it'll be the local ordinance says 62 and older um the state says 55 and older so it's a little conflict there uh but you know bottom line is is we we are going to provide whatever is legally permitted um I believe that the the municipalities have a right uh to make it more restrictive at 62 and older so that's that's something we would probably expect be the outcome here uh but that that is uh something that we are ready to do regardless whether it's 55 or 62 that's that's the project um I'd also note that uh in the event that this is approved tonight my my client's plan is to uh seek out affordable housing trust funds um because if in the event that those are are available uh we will be looking into that as as the possibility of providing for affordable units within the project uh we haven't done that uh to date only because we didn't want to put the cart before the horse but uh that is that is something that we are definitely going to to seek we did have some conversations with them uh in the past but we needed a project so hopefully you know we have that project after tonight we are seeking one variance um the Varian is is uh uh is is for the minimum buffer from adjacent residential uses in zones uh the requirement in the medical zone is 10 ft we are proposing 3 fo9 in on the southern side of of the building um I just know for the record there's a lot of discussion about this uh with the planning department and the zoning department when we were uh proposing this project whether or not it was was applicable because you have a commercial building directly to the north which is uh owned by CarePoint uh CarePoint also owns all the property behind this there's a a large parking lot field uh between our property line and and the Palisade Cliff face uh and then directly to the South is a mixed juice building that has a pharmacy on the ground floor and a residential use up top so that's technically a commercial building but at the end of the day planning and zoning said that is a residential use as part of that so the the standard applies um we had some discussions about that and and um the back and forth what might be an appropriate setback and that's where we ended up with the 3 fo9 that we're proposing tonight uh as part of this project um as I noted earlier it's also in the Palisade protection or Palisade preservation overlay District the peod uh I note that none of the performance standards apply uh the performance standards are the setbacks this property is well over 100 ft from The Cliff face um and you'll see during the presentation how it's it's basically separated from uh The Cliff face um uh and the property line by this parking field um so we don't have any of those setback issues that we had with the 152 Ogden Avenue uh project uh that being said we did provide uh the analysis and reports that were required uh pursuant to Pro to the procedural regulations uh so we have a Geotech report that we've submitted uh we have uh uh the survey was was provided at the twoot Contours it shows that this is a very gentle slope uh I think it might be between 3 and 4% slope uh whereas the trigger uh for any of those set pack requirements is 30% slope so uh we don't have any concerns there uh we can talk to the the the Bedrock at the site and the depth of the Bedrock um so we have the same expert as we did uh during the 152 Ogden presentation and it'll walk you through that um so so I have um five witnesses uh tonight uh I have my my first just so you know the lineup is uh Eric Hof um he's my civil and traffic engineer and then he'll he'll address the PE pod uh regulations and how it applies and doesn't apply I have naam jundi he's our geotechnical engineer um who if you're familiar with the the 152 ogan Avenue uh project he was here uh Raj ekla lar uh is our structural engineer so he can speak to uh the foundation and how this can support it and we have Anthony vanderark as our architect and in San Bellamy will uh address the the requested variants so with all that being said I'm I'm going to bring up Mr H and start this off good evening tonight going to be the truth truth nothing but the truth I do uh my name is Eric ER i c ho h u g h good evening sir I believe we've qualified you in the past yes uh should I go through my credentials um no just let us know if your license is current tonight it is current okay and that's in the state of New Jersey correct okay thank you you're qualified just for the record Mr hulf is being presented as uh an expert in civil engineering traffic engineer okay yes all right so to go over the location I would like to first show sheet 1.1 of our site plan Set uh these are the plans that have already been submitted uh the site is located at 216 Palisades Avenue which is on the east side of Palisades Avenue it is Lot 8 block 6001 the property is 6,640 square ft or 0.15 acres and it is rectangularly shaped uh existing site conditions uh the site is currently vacon and was previously developed with a twostory building along the north property line there is an existing depressed curb driveway on Palisades Avenue in the center of the frontage uh there is an existing sidewalk uh currently along Palisades Avenue uh the site is gently sloped uh down from west to east with an approximate elevation of 115 along Palisades Avenue down to an approximate elevation of 111 in the rear of the property which is uh a 3.6% slope uh to talk about the proposed site I like to show the next slide this is sheet 1.2 which is our site plan the building footprint the proposed building footprint print is approximately 4,900 Square ft and the building will be a 10-story senior housing building with uh a total of 51 units as far as vehicular access uh there is 118 foot wide driveway to uh access the parking garage this is located on the North side uh of the frontage uh further away from the Jefferson Street intersection than the existing driveway left turn egress out of the site uh will be restricted at all times uh pedestrian access uh there is a Lobby uh at sidewalk grade located on the south side of the site as far as parking the city ordinance requires a total of 11 parking spaces and there will be a total of 11 spaces provided in the garage including eight mechanical spaces there's also uh bus stops available in the area up and down Palisades Avenue for Street improvements it is proposed to replace the Curbing and sidewalk along Palisades Avenue there will be two proposed tree Wells along the frontage which are 5T by 10 ft uh it is also proposed to Mill and repave this section of Palisades Avenue as far as the drainage and utilities I like to show sheet C13 uh we will have we do have a proposed under ground detention system located under the parking area this will collect the storm water uh from the roof and connect to the system in Palisades Avenue there will be new sanitary gas water utilities that will uh be connected from Palisades Avenue and also there is new overhead electric service from the existing utility pole on the north side of the frontage uh it should be noted that the the property is located in the Palisades preservation overlay District the pp o however the slopes of the subject lot are well below the steep slope limits identified in the ordinance the property is above the Palisades and is located 140 ft away from the top edge of the cliff phas with an existing parking lot in between um therefore the development requirements of the pbod do not apply to this application at this point I would like to talk about the traffic impact of the development uh uh to do our study uh NJ do traffic accounts were used along p uh Palisades Avenue from delay uh from data collected in 2018 these counts were made approximately 0.5 miles north of the site it was found that Palace Avenue has a volume of 400 to 470 peak hour trips in each Direction in the AM and PM uh it should be noted that additional counts were made in April 2022 and the total traffic volume was found to be less than the 2018 NJ do counts so for conservative analysis we use the higher volume counts uh from 2018 uh the am peak hour was found uh to be 8:00 a.m. to 900 a.m. uh with vehicles traveling southbound to the Holland uh tunnel in the PM the peak was found to be 5:00 p.m. to uh 6:00 p.m. with the majority of traffic traveling Northbound as far as the proposed trip generation uh we didn't account for any mass transit use and uh there will be a total of 11 trips anticipated in the in the peak hour and a total of 13 trips in the PM peak hour the overall level Services of all approaches of the Palisades Avenue site driveway intersection uh will be adequate with the addition of the site generated traffic uh I would like to speak about uh the existing intersection of Palisades Avenue and Jefferson Avenue this intersection is t-shaped with Jefferson Avenue being oneway westbound away from Palisades Avenue uh as far as accident history we received data from uh Jersey City and it was found that approximately nine accidents uh were recorded at this intersection in a 2year span as far as the need for uh potential potential traffic signal we did a warrant analysis and this intersection does not meet any of the warrants uh as far as traffic volume uh pedestrian volume or crash experience uh what we are doing as far as uh intersection improvements uh we use the Jersey City Vision zero action plan to incorporate uh painted uh bump outs as well as ballards at the intersection to improve visibility and solar powered flashing lights at The Pedestrian cross Crossings uh to improve pedestrian safety uh We've also worked with the uh Jersey City Traffic Division and we can comply with all of their recommendations uh it is my professional opinion that this intersection will uh be considerably safe uh safer with these improve uh these proposed improvements and uh the proposed development will have uh will not have a significant negative impact on traffic in the area so this is that was really my direct testimony any questions for Mr H I have none anybody else at this time anyway so yeah Mike's on thanks um so you said there would be no uh left-hand turn coming out of here that is correct okay is there a way to work with the city if this were approved to have some sort of like baller or I wouldn't say a jersey barrier but something to like they have on New York Avenue Ravine you can't no longer go down New York Avenue you have to go around understood we can work with the city right now we just propose no left turn signage out of the site but we can work with the traffic division to come up with something and as a lifelong resident in Jersey City I've seen no left turns where people make left turns so okay anybody else all right thank you sir thank you okay thank you so my next witness is uh Mr Nim jundi you just got hit any testimony give tonight is going to be the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes your name please Nim chundi uh first name NE J M last name jundi j ndi Mr jundy good evening um your license is current tonight in the state of New Jersey yes okay thank you sir you're qualified Mr jundy uh for the record you prepared a geotechnical report with regard to the property is that correct yes okay can you uh walk through that uh for the benefit of the board here Mr chairman yes sure um we we were um retained to do a geotechnical investigation on the site with the idea of finding where the rocket is and what's the quality of the rock we uh completed three borings uh placed diagonally across the site from uh east to west The Rock elevation while the rock depth varied a little bit but the Rock elevation uh ended up being almost flat uh elevation 101 to 102 uh about uh 12 ft on average below the existing surface soil was found to be suitable to support a 10 story building so it can be either supported directly on rock on a soil there's no slope stability issue here you we 100 ft away from the face of the cliff so we're good to go in that in that regards M can you use a mic please sure no Mr Harrington oh sorry we have the handheld there oh okay still um Mr jundy in your review of of the site did did you find any issues with uh putting a foundation uh at the site on the Bedrock uh no okay and again if uh I don't know if you specifically said it the depth of the Bedrock at the site what what was your uh findings there uh as far as depth I um uh it was on average around 12 ft down and elevation is constant elevation 101 to 10 to build the existing surface what does that mean does it slope a little bit uh very flat almost okay over a side this this T So sir the bedrocks 12 feet below the surface I I have nothing further for Mr jundi okay anybody else for Mr jundy any questions no okay thank you Mr jundy we appreciate it okay okay then my next witness is our structural engineer you any testimony get tonight it's going to be the truth the whole truth nothing but truth yes I do the tell your name please Raj r AJ last name is a caler e k h a l i k a r good evening sir I don't believe we've qualified you in the past have we could you repeat that I don't believe we've qualified you in the past have we um I don't believe that okay if you could just give us a little of your background your educational experience uh and your Licensing in New Jersey okay um I graduated as a civil engineer and I have a masters in civil engineer also uh Structural Engineering um after that I worked for different companies including some of the biggest companies like bun Andro kanta and I have uh 30 licenses in different states and I own the company that I that's EXL Engineers I am the President and and also I uh we have some International clients we have domestic clients we do projects all over us including California Texas Michigan okay and one of those 30 licenses sir I hope is New Jersey yes please yeah okay thank you you are qualified it is current okay thank you you're qualified sir if you could just get right up on that mic so everybody can hear you nice and uh so Mr ekar um have you had an opportunity to review uh the geot technical report the civil engineering plans and the architectural plans for this project yes I did okay and are you aware of the proposed type of foundation they're going to use here yes it is okay and do you see any issues uh with this project on the existing Bedrock or this property no I mean this is a dream come true for a civil structural engineer to design these foundations you know so it has Bedrock it has uh it's 12T deep we have a basement uh it's almost at the same elevation as the basement uh we have Bedrock that is uh almost like 12 KSF bearing pressure which is pretty very high basically so we can put the foundations we can put like a mat Foundation or or individual foundations okay so very easily for that kind of loading okay typically anywhere in New Jersey most of the sites you get like two or three KSF bearing pressures okay but here we are getting as much as 12 KSF okay so it's a pretty good decent um decent foundations we can provide you on that bedroom okay I I have nothing further okay is there um any blasting that has to happen far as the bed rock avoid I think for in this case we will be avoiding any blasting okay or I mean there might be some little chipping and all that stuff might have be done to level the surf Sur to put the foundation on a level surface okay okay so Nim's report clearly says that we have to we have to have we can have a maximum slope of 1 to 10 basically so so just to level it up we might have to do some little bit of chipping and all that stuff but nothing no blasting okay so chipping you're talking just you know chipping machine no blasting no okay no heavy heavy heavy machine for everybody's record you know so there is also we don't want to use it here but I'm just mentioning this out okay there's now a chemical also that you can make some drill some holes and leave the chemicals inside next day you come in the Rock will be shattered okay I mean like cracked up okay so but we don't want to use any of that just for your information okay all right anybody else any question on uh Structural Engineering Mr Harrington can we just get into the type of foundation for the public benefit just exactly what type of foundation is being proposed so that everybody understands are we talking about footings obviously we're laying it on the Bedrock Bedrock absolutely what are we laying on the bedrock in layman's turns is it a spread footing could you explain that yeah basically we just have to look at the loading we have to look at the column locations we will work it out with the architect you know the exact locations of the columns and the walls on East on both sides on either side of the property will have like a continuous wall I believe okay that will be our support so there will be continuous footings on on either either ends of I don't know the uh the the two sides okay so basically not on the Palisade but the other two sides okay we'll have like a regular side spreadings yeah two side regular fings uh you know and wherever we have columns we will have like a either a isolated footing or uh like a spread footing also there you know that will sit what say those footings are going to sit on the Bedrock on the bedrocks yeah thank you sir okay thank you so another question is is the variance proposed is for buffer on the south side of the building which is I think towards a pharmacy if I'm not mistaken yes yes right so I don't know the reasoning for having 10 feed but I suspect to give one's neighbor quiet enjoyment so is the materials that will be facing the um the proposed project towards the pharmacy um durable enough to give your the proposed uh project and its neighbor sufficient quiet enjoyment I I think that might be a better question for the architect bring Anthony on good segue okay thank you sir I think we're good for now all right thank you all right thank you yeah so on Q uh our next expert is Mr vandemark sure hope I don't disappoint okay any testimony get tonight be the truth the TRU I do sure that is Anthony C vandar Jr vanan d r m a r k princial of the architectural firm of minini vandemar milia and Kelly Mr vandemar good evening weol viously qualified you numerous times in the past your license is current tonight it is current tonight okay thank you sir you're qualified okay Anthony take us away all right great um we're here tonight again to propose a 10-story 51 unit senior housing building uh which is located in the medical uh Zone District here in Jersey City uh very briefly I I'll just give you some quick background um the civil engineer and he's already given us some traffic so I'll kind of move through uh the introduction very quickly Anthony before we go too much further do we need to mark this as an exhibit yes we do the slide deck needs to be marked uh a whole exhibit correct all right so we're up to A2 we'll mark it as the vandermark slide deck how many decks one through 19 did I hear correctly 17 okay and I suspect some of this is sheets out of the architectural set obviously the the majority of the information here is uh uh colored um examples of what's in the filing set right uh we have a few Aerials um you know as support information here but there's nothing uh uh that changes with the application basis here so Mr Harrington we'll just submit this after the hearing obviously electronically to planning for purposes of the record so A2 in evidence is the vanderark slide deck 1 through 17 thank you Council thank you uh sheet two of the slide deck uh it gives you a uh overall uh aerial of the medical Zone District here in Jersey City we are towards the Northern portion of the Medical District as you can see it extends pretty far south along Palisades almost all the way to Route 139 so again here in the purple as indicated that is the medical Zone going back to the site itself 6,640 Square ft uh we have 60. 39 linear feet of Frontage on Palisades Avenue uh directly across from us at the T intersection is Jefferson a um slide to the right just talk about some quick pre-existing conditions directly to our north of the site we have the Careo one-story gabled uh uh administration building directly to our South as you can see we have a three-story woodf framed uh Pharmacy at the base two stories of residential as previously mentioned across from the intersection on the north side of the intersection is a uh three-story nursing home and we have a three-story mixed juice structure uh to the southwest of the intersection So within this intersection we have various uses and various structure types here so pre-existing conditions the site is now vacant um uh has since been demolished the original uh site had 100% uh impervious coverage between pavement asphalt and building structure we are definitely going to improve on that as part of this application the civil engineer had mentioned uh we're providing a stormw detention system here so already we are improving uh storm to run off uh from the pre-existing condition that has since been cleared uh to what we're proposing this evening Center uh top slide here is the uh Pharmacy with the residential units above uh this is the trigger point for the uh 10-ft buffer this evening we are providing a 3 fo9 uh C type variance um you know within that buffer zone and what I'm going to uh describe here tonight is that we think this is the best option for this application uh is the only reason why we're seeking this one uh variance because we think it is a better site plan uh as proposed as opposed to a as a right application which I can certainly do top slide to the right hand side looking North the administration building again with the gable roof uh lower left hand side again care points administration building and then directly from across the street on Jefferson Avenue uh looking at the site proposed s plan was previously uh described by Mr Ho um General uh parameters of the project so of the 51 units we are proposing six Studios 43 one bedrooms and two three bedrooms which are at the upper floors we're proposing a 10-story structure that is at 100 ft which is compliant with the medical uh District here in Jersey City we're proposing 1 second floor uh gym space for 575 Square ft we have one rooftop amenity as part of this application the medical uh District uh uh permits 80% lock coverage at our biggest footprint area which at floors uh which is at floors 2 through 10 we are proposing 74% lock coverage uh so we are actually 6% less of what is permitted here the ground floor we are proposing 70% uh lock coverage so we are 10% less than what is permitted the building at the front yard uh is at a 16t setback um at the North side we are at zero at the South Side we we at 3 fo9 thus requesting the variance and at the rear uh adjacent to the parking lot which is on the Eastern side we are at 6'4 part of the application we are proposing 11 parking spaces again which is compliant with the Medical District eight mechanical uh and three at grade level that includes one ADA compliance space we are proposing um uh a compliant uh state required uh two EV uh charging stations as part of this application we're proposing nine bicycle parking spaces which is compliant with the District 27 of them are within the building footprint located in the cellar uh accessed by elevator and we have two outside uh the front door entry the proposed site plan uh here on the left is colored um as previously mentioned we are providing uh Street improvements here with a balled system so people cannot um temporarily pull out in front of the building uh uh and and load um in addition to uh it was important because we received uh comments from the neighborhood uh you know in previous neighborhood meetings that people have a tendency to stop their car here and run into the pharmacy so this Ballard system extends all the way in front of the uh Pharmacy thus uh eliminating that uh double Park situation at the pharmacy and creating an unsafe condition at the intersection working your way in uh obviously a proposed new curb two new proposed Street trees uh as compliant with the Jersey City forestry standard we are proposing uh one new bench in between those two Street trees um directly at the front apron bottom right hand corner of the site plan uh before you are the two outdoor uh bicycle parking spaces centrally located within that 16t setback we have a 377 ft green zone if I zoom into the front of the building here uh you can see that is centrally located we located the driveway apron uh and the curb cut all the way to the northern uh side of this property um taking you furthest away from that uh intersection trying to create even a safer uh condition um we we have an understanding that you know you have to provide parking as part of this application for an as of right the curb cut is placed at the uh maximum distance uh from where the intersection is again it's 18 ft wide um we have a small landscaped uh planter uh section just to the left or to the north of that concrete apron uh centrally located building at 10 stories we have a 490t amenity space centrally located with a 1,775 ft roof deck area which is on the Eastern side of the roof we're proposing a generator uh in an air handler unit there might be some smaller mechanical as part of this application they will be centrally located Lo at um above the principal roof not on the bulkhead roofs they will be screened from view um just in case um and again we have two stair bulkheads and one elevator bulkhead that's centrally located which is on the southern portion of the building the property is surrounded by a concrete pay system which is decorative until you actually hit the uh sidewalk line just for the record we are providing a uh a LED uh in the driveway apron a pedestrian War morning strip we also have a eyle uh pedestrian strobe um which is building mounted um and I will walk you through uh the inside of the garage space on the next slide few things to note right side of this page um yes we are uh requesting a c type variance for uh the remaining um 6'3 portion of that 10-ft buffer zone um the portion uh that we uh have added uh to the application is approximately 4,932 however the Red Zone to the front of this graphic is the uh actual footprint area that is permitted uh as part of this application and with that footprint area uh we have approximately 8,000 square ft um that could have been uh permitted so we have really a difference of 3,123 square ft of of actually lost area as part of the application if if the board can understand that so you know the the again um what we're requesting is less than what is permitted as part of this application from 80% to [Music] 74% okay uh right side first floor plan um you know working your way inward centrally located PNG gets its uh single Transformer Vault centrally located within the building footprint uh that is at 25 ft wide 17 ft deep directly behind that uh accessed off the lobby space is the fire Command Center technically at this height this building classifies as a high-rise construction uh because the uh it has a habitable floor above uh 75 ft in the garage the drive a is a um 22 ft wide which is uh permitted by the ordinance again we are providing eight parking spaces that is the first three uh in hatched area and two um directly on uh garage level and then one Ada space if you go to the uh the lobby point we have two elevators located in the center of the building a m space a trash room and uh a package room directly to the rear this project is proposing independent cting uh so therefore uh the trash will be moved uh through the Ada space and brought out into the apron and then independently carted uh away from the building so again this will not be Municipal carding this will be uh regulated by ownership and by a maintenance company graphic to the left um in between the layer of the Rock and the first floor slab will be the storm water detention system that is dotted to the left and again that is in the drive Al um we have various uh utility spaces uh switch gear room uh Gas Service uh sprinkler uh centrally located is the uh mechanical Pit and the uh bicycle parking space is to the rear uh we don't Envision the heights of these spaces being any greater uh than 7 ft in height and our foundation system uh as previously testified by the experts will be somewhere around 12T where the rock is so we have a approximately uh four to 5 feet of distance in between uh the bottom slab of the cellar and where the rock is this is a three-dimensional rendering of the proposed uh lower part of the building which is the 18t wide curb cut uh working your way down Palisades here to the South we have two proposed Street trees and again a 377q foot buffer zone bottom part of the building uh as part of this application to give the drivers actually more time uh to anticipate the pedestrians we have a setback of 16 feet to the building line we have an additional 16t setep back to the garage door so we have the ability to queue two cars in front of the sidewalk line here um you know prior to actually reaching the sidewalk and then reaching the driveway apron to exit right turn only here so we have a shorter building we have uh generous setbacks here to the garage door this is part of the reason why we're requesting this variance of 3 fo9 is that we have a a shorter fatter building as opposed to a longer building which is a little bit more unsafe that'll put the building line right at the sidewalk line so we think this is a better solution um to this application as opposed to an as of right project lower part of the building um and I'll get into the elevations uh this is a all ACM um aluminum composite material facade um and I will get into the Aesthetics of the facade uh as we get into the elevations on the lower floor second floor plan is the floor plan on your left we are proposing five uh one-bedrooms at the second floor and they range from a size of 645 ft to 720 Square ft on this level uh The White Square to the back Facing East uh is a 575t gym each one of these floors have a um an as of right uh 5ft can levered uh balcony section that's Services the units in the rear each balcony section is set back from the sidey yards for privacy 5T in from the property line so we're anticipating uh little impact on the adjacent property owners's uh rear yard we do have a privacy screen to the right of that extended balcony as part of this uh application to Mr uh lipsky's question uh we have a uh a decorative uh the majority of an opaque solid pattern we do have due to the setback we have a few windows at the corners of this building but again um we we do not think noise is going to be a factor and we do think that this facade um of course its subjective is aesthetically pleasing um and so I think that the the 3 fo9 with the amount of opaqueness on this facade will certainly uh create privacy for the adjacent property owner just for the record that property owner is at zero lot line uh for a portion of that building um the building does set back and have wind windows at 31 and then it setbacks again which is at approximately 5T so there's we're not cutting off any lot line facing windows and between our 39 and their 3 fo1 we have approximately 6' 10 in between their window line so it's a it's a pretty comfortable dimension for both uh safety for our fire rating reasons and then also for privacy graphic uh on the right is floors 3 through 8 um and on 3 through 8 we have six units um we have five 51 bedrooms at the same range at 645 to 720 and in place of the uh gym space we have a line of Studios at 550 Square ft rear facade of the proposed project again the uh design Motif is pulled to the rear this is the Eastern face there will be a a a 5-ft Canever balcony extension with privacy separation and we are not proposing any outdoor lighting uh on these balconies right now base of the building uh is in the same cladding system there's a pre-existing retaining wall uh that is part of the medical parking lot that is to remain and as you can see we have Design Graphic uh directly behind at 6'4 floor is nine and 10 uh this comes down to five units once again 41 bedrooms at 650 to 725 and each one of these levels uh here highlighted in blue has a three-bedroom at floors uh 9 and 10 at 1,265 So within the program again um six Studios 43 one bedrooms and uh two three-bedroom units as part of this application at the rooftop uh again in the center a 490 ft uh amenity with a 1,775 ft outdoor deck to the rear centrally located uh screened in Mechanicals going back to the facade again at 10 stories uh in 100 fet in height we have a two-colored ACM aluminum composite material uh facade system here the design concept is that we have a a front facade which is in the bone white or the off-white color here and then we have the peeling away of this facade uh as you can see we have various curved portions almost like a tin can is it was being pulled off of the facade and we have a secondary facade with a different window pattern which is in the charcoal gray so we have that at uh you know multiple locations including the top leftand corner and again that translates back into the base of the building where the garage is and also the main entry point with entry canopy at 100 ft we are proposing a 14' 6 inch high floor to floor height between first and second floor and of them floors 2 through 10 we are at uh 9' 6 the building is probably going to be cast in place um needs to be verified by ownership but that is of an 8 in slab thickness so therefore we will have a at least a finished ceiling height of 8 fo10 um again we have a rooftop amenity space that should be uh 10 ft in height um not shown on this graphic and I apologize to the board there will be an elevator overrun in the center which will be approximately 4T in additional height on top top of this uh side facade again um Mr lipsky is the uh decorative panel this is a cement board panel in two colors to mimic what's going on in both front and rear facades because of the setback we are permitted a certain percentage of window opening so on the southern portion of the side facade uh we have a a a row of Windows basically to the East and a row of Windows to the West as part of that facade Northern facade again uh cement board panel uh in multiple color uh Canever balconies matching the front facade and then coming back to the side facade now which is facing north um we have a centrally located light well um that will break up the definition of this long facade the building uh shadowing uh we're very fortunate of the position of this building and the adjacent properties here sun rising in the East and uh swinging South and West as you can see the Shadows are cast either to uh across Palisades Avenue um and further north above the administration building and then over uh the parking lot at the end of the day so again it it has minimal amount of impact uh you know really on the adjacent properties and neighborhood um because of the sun angle and the positioning of the building building again in closing um we think we have a really great application here we think there's certainly a need for seasoning uh senior housing at 51 units um this is our application this evening thank you all right thank you Mr vanderark council do you want to question first before the board I have no further questions for for Anthony okay um Mr vandemark the the setback of the garage entrance I I think it's actually very interesting um but I did want to explore what this building would look like if you didn't give that front yard buffer and took the building in narrower would you still be able to have that drive aisle I brought that exhibit to you chair because I anticipated this question and you know the building would have to be reconfigured we can still comply with both the parking requirement however the building with the 10-ft buffer puts the drive aisle and curb cut directly on the sidewalk it'll be the same number of units um but again the first floor will be reconfigured we should probably mark this it's a A3 I believe we're A3 we're up to A3 what are we calling this exhibit one exhibit one and the bottom right hand corner uh of this exhibit shows the massing of that 10 story 100t building sitting right on top of the sidewalk line um again this would be a fully uh zoning compliant uh volume at a fully permissible 80% lack coverage we just would have to reconfigure the first floor and again I think this application is not as strong and is not as safe as the one we're proposing this evening so Mr vandermark does just have a date on it [Music] this would be dated 12 2923 it's my wife's birthday didn't need to know that but thank you so Mr vanderark if we're looking at that that first floor on the upper left this is what a setback compliant footprint looks like that's correct and is it your testimony that as a result of a setback compliant footprint you would not be able to provide the drive aisle that was being presented in the application as far as from the curb to the garage entrance yes so both the front yard setback and then the setback of the garage door and then ultimately the drive a within the garage um wouldn't be achievable you know in an azerite project okay thank you Mr vanderark thank you um my other question would be uh movein could they happen in that driveway as it's currently proposed if it's scheduled they could they could literally do move-ins within the uh P area you certainly have a 30ft um depth where it can occur and they could actually pull uh material through the garage and then through the Ada space and then ultimately the elevator or if need be um the moving truck if size properly can enter the garage um and load directly to the um you know it be north of the Ada parking space drop off area so there's two ways of actually being able to do this I I know for the record that the Jersey City traffic department also uh pitched the idea of providing for a loading zone directly to the north of the property um that they would support uh the applicant you know would have to seek that through the city council uh but that is something that that they have um supported in their correspondence T us yeah correct that's not prop sir we we can't have people talking out from the public there will be time for public time that's go ahead sorry yeah so so there's already been um uh an exchange about uh a shortterm loading zone to the north of this property that would be service both that would service both this building and the CarePoint administration building adjacent to us okay understood and my last question I believe for at this point um your testimony was that the cellar ceiling height would be 7 foot yes and this is a sprinkled building your testimony was spr building yes and what's the regulation on how low that can that piping can be I mean those pipes could be side mounted um so they'll be a a side throw um if I needed 6 in on this building still where the rock level is I certainly could take it um but we would be what we think is probably you know because additional height creates additional construction cost not that we're supposed to talk about it here but sprinkler wise we we should be able to run it you know through the wall system on a side mount so it we shouldn't have any head clearance issues there okay they're masonry walls block or they're Foundation walls these no the the uh wall wall to the right and the wall to the top which would be the Eastern portion um and the front these would be uh all block walls here okay understood okay at this point those are my only questions for Mr vanderark anybody else no anybody as always that was very detailed we appreciate that thank you okay thank you Mr vandor okay then our last we is going Mr be Mr belly do you want to slide up or no you want the M this man yeah okay good evening testimony give tonight be the truth the whole truth truth I do sure Samuel Bellamy last name be LL y I'm a licensed professional planner with the firm jesna Robin and my license is current and in good standing okay thank you Mr Bellamy you're qualified Mr belly Bellamy I'm sorry um you've had the opportunity to review the plans and reports submitted uh in connection with this application yep reviewed the plans reports the zoning ordinance and master plan and also made a site visit as part of my preparation for tonight's hearing thank you and and can you provide the board uh the benefit of your review and Analysis as to the requested variants yeah so um as you indicated in your introduction we are just requesting the one bulk C variant tonight for the uh minimum buffer to a residential use um we we are located in the Medical District um the senior housing is a permitted principal use in that zone um as Mr vandemark indicated I I do agree that this certainly um is is pursuant to the C2 criteria that flexible standard under the municipal land use law where the benefits of what we're proposing the benefits of the variants would outweigh any detriments and also the the benefits of the overall project um with respect to the requirement it's a 10-ft buffer and it's required from a residental zone or use um in this case as indicated on the aerial being shown here um we're surrounded on on the northeast and South by the medical Zone um the rc2 district is located across the street um there is a a residential use it's actually part of a mixed use building with commercial ground floor and residential above um so from a conservative standpoint we are considering that a a residential use um which does uh trigger this 10-ft buffering requirement um as indicated we're proposing a 3' 9 in buffer here um I should also indicate that the the senior housing I would classify as a residential use so really looking at the intent of this requirement um generally the permitted uh uses within the Medical District the medical offices um and facilities are are more intense than a a a residential use a residential district so I think that buffer requirement was really to kind of separate those uh a more intense use from lesser intense use in this case a mixed use building and what we're proposing is a a residential building I think those are two compatible uses and and really I I think by providing a a 3 fo9 in buffer we are meeting the intent there um as Mr vanderark indicated we're also proposing a a greater front yard setback 15 ft where uh zero foots required um as as testified to that does provide benefits as far as the driveway access you now don't have a driveway right at the sidewalk um but I think that also creates a front yard landscaping area and that really is consistent with the general um the residential uses that are located along palate Avenue in the Medical District they generally are setback have front yard area so I think by providing that setback area it's not all not only a safer alternative but also a better design alternative that creates a more consistent streetscape um I would note that the adjacent building does have a zero foot front yard setback so um there's a little bit separation there um and also I think that 15ft front yard setback actually provides a greater setback from the across the street where there are more uh residential uses and as you get further west into the the R1 District so I think we're actually providing a a a greater um buffer and and transition from uh the senior housing project to the uh lower scale um residential neighborhoods uh to the West um as Mr Vander Mark indicated the the adjacent building is on the lot line um there are windows where there's a window well and also to the rear um and we're proposing the windows at the corner of the building so I don't think there's any direct um negative impacts from from the setback we're proposing um overall we we're also providing a approximately 5ft re yard setback again that's greater than what's required here and then um in terms of floor area the the alternative with this design of the front and rear yard setbacks rather than the full 10t um buffer side yard setback it actually creates um a little less floor area on the on the project than what an as right building would um I did want to focus in on the uh on my review of the master plan here um as a planner this is an exciting project to be a part of um I work on a lot of projects in Jersey City this is my first senior housing project that I I've been involved with um as this board has seen there's a number of projects now going forward under the io inclusion area zoning ordinance as well as the affordable housing overlay so that's that creates a a certain subset of affordable housing I think senior housing is also a subset of that Equitable and balanced housing that the master plan seeks to uh seeks to get seeks to be developed in in Jersey City um in in reviewing the master plan um there are certain lenses that the master plan was being looked at with one of them was social equity and Equitable Jersey City um that's in providing inclus uh inclusive and uh Equitable housing Supply and and specifically references um welcome residents of all ages backgrounds and economic levels so I think certainly senior housing provides an ability for not only existing residents to main uh uh stay in Jersey City but also potentially new residents come in um there's also a a reference to ability to have access to community services so as I indicated senior housing is a permitted principal use in the medical Zone I think it's clear why this use is is uh permitted here it's to have the ability for seniors to access medical services that are that's in the surrounding area and in this zone so I think there's a direct benefit to having senior housing where these community services are located and less reliab uh reliability on automobiles and potentially you're able to just walk to your uh medical appointments um certainly as I stated I think this does provide for a balanced um housing within Jersey City um one of the the uh potential um goals of that is ensuring senior housing needs are met um is and will be a very important uh priority in the future that's direct language from the master plan so I think this project certainly will be providing that um and then also strengthening neighborhood oriented commercial uses and also uh age restricting housing should be uh considered in some locations so again I I think this is an appropriate location not only from being principally permitted but also just generally having that access to the community goods and services um also mentioned that the RC uh 2 District um newly created Zone in in Jersey City is on the west side of palate Avenue so with that there may be an introduction to further commercial uses again um adding to the the Community Services located along this Palisade Corridor um that the that the senior housing would be able to access um overall I think this project is um is consistent with the m District um recognizing the existing medical use es um and it's also respecting the uh the residential Zone as I said there there's certain pockets of residential homes currently located in this District but the general residential area is further west um across the Palisade Avenue um this project does advance several of the purposes of the municipal land use law certainly I think it's an appropriate use and development of the property that will promote the general welfare again uh principally permitted use adding new senior housing here um this this property does have sufficient space and appropriate location for the proposed senior housing um with the exception of the buffer and as I mentioned we are providing greater setbacks in the front and rear um I think this the site is um is suitable for for the type of housing we're proposing here um I think we're also providing for appropriate setbacks um that's consist on purpose C and then also uh developing a currently vacant lot with an appropriate mix uh senior housing building uh would promote a desirable visual environment uh in my opinion there's no substantial detriment to the public good or general welfare here um likewise I don't see a substantial impairment to the tend and purpose of the Zone plan um again it's a permitted use it's ex actually what the zoning is call for I think it's directly in line with the master plan and promoting several of the objectives and goals there um so I think it's actually advancing the intent and purpose of the Zone planning zoning ordinance um with uh in my conclusion I'll just say I I agree that um and it's my opinion that this project does meet the C2 criteria the benefits would outweigh the detriments um and there's no uh negative impact here um so with that I think the the project meets both the positive and negative criteria and that would conclude my direct testimony okay thank you Mr belly um actually th this question is more directed to Tanya but I want to ask it while you're up on the stand um Tanya the in your report in your staff report you talk about the property next door uh to2 Palisade AV is residential a permitted use there no so it's actually um an existing legally non-conforming use it's mixed use ground floor commercial and residential above okay but residential on this site is is permitted because it's senior housing in the M District yeah yes I just want to be crystal clear on that that yes that is correct sir so so if if 212 Palisade AV was a conforming use yeah the way it is in the plan correct does that residential buffer still is that still in play is that still a a variance that would have to be asked for or could that 3 foot n be that buffer if that residential use at 212 Palace a was something else so my instinct would say no that it would not require the buffer um if you want to give me one second I can just read the standard just so you have the standard yeah just so you know we're not mincing any words well so T you just for purposes of clarity yep that's why I just want to make sure we're all in the event that 212 was a fully conforming building in terms of use in the M Zone y so I'm going to call it a medical building of that size and that bulk in that case the buffer requirement would not be applicable is that the analysis we're going through that's my instinct I just want to make sure that the language talks about you know the other not I just I just want to make sure I just want to pull up the the language in it I don't know yeah so I have it here the it's minimum buffer adjacent to residential Z uses and zones 10 feet yeah so I would say that the buffer doesn't apply because it's really talking about in relation to other adjacent to so now the fact that this is a mixed use which one residential above the ground floor yeah does the buffer trigger on the ground floor or just the floors above the ground floor where the residential is just above and this was a a point that we actually I know Mr Harrington said it earlier had a full conversation with the zoning official at the time um and none of us were actually in agreement with each other um CU I I was of the opinion that the buffer is not required um he was of the opinion that it was as long as there was a residential use um adjacent to the building I don't think it's that clear but just to be safe the buffer is required he he being the former zoning officer yes Nick Taylor I apologize yes right so for everybody's understanding Nick Taylor was the forming zoning officer he made a determination and obviously here we are dealing with the interpretation made by former zoning Officer Taylor essentially which was conclusory in the sense of he said the buffer is required didn't really explain how he got to that conclusion the applicant seeking the variant as just stated its position as to how it Justified the proofs and director you obviously are of the opinion that the buffer really doesn't apply but it it's possible that it could apply on the second and third floor but we're dealing with a pre-existing non-conforming use on the adjacent property uh right which is actually just mixed juice really MH right right I think just a quander here we we kicked around and and I think in reviewing this you maybe takes you down the road to why relief is appropriate as well is I think if you looked at if there was a development on on on the adjacent property to the South and you you define the res uh the senior housing as a residential use then a buffer applied 10 ft there mhm on the other side of that property is a similar building that's a mixed use so now you've got I don't know if it's 25 or 30 ft wide you've got a 10-ft buffer there and a 10-ft buffer there yeah so relief is going to be appropriate on on that on that property as well it just I don't you know I just don't think it works well Council I guess we'll get to that argument uh at some point during the closing I think what the board has to consider in its mind right now is the board has to obviously understand we're in the M Zone this is senior housing senior housing is residential so we all agree that senior housing is residential uh the height is permitted the use is permitted so those are not up for debate the only question in terms of relief being sought is this potential side buffer from really a mixed use building and what is appropriate what is required and then what proofs if any have been presented Andor met to Grant the deviation if a deviation is actually necessary I say deviation I really I guess should say variance uh is necessary so that's what the board is is being asked to consider by the applicant the applicant's position as I understand it while they're asking for the variant while they're presenting evidence and proof of the variance relief the applicant doesn't agree that the buffer applies and uh the director struggles with that as well and doesn't seem to agree that the the buffer applies on this property based on the 212 preexisting mixed juice which is non-conforming in the M Zone um so of course chairman that's something that the board will will deal with and address but that's really the Crux of the issue we're not talking about height and we are not talking about use those are permitted as being proposed by the applicant correct okay so just one thing council is if my memory serves me well that Mr Bellamy began his testimony or in the uh fairly early portion of it uh recognizing uh the rationale of the buffer and why uh uh men you know decreasing it to 3.9 was justifiable am I correct corre right so I mean if we need to reread that I don't think so but I mean uh I think it spoke to um I don't want to put words into you why if you could just sum summarize why 10 why 3.9 yeah it's just the respect the int different intensities between a residential use and a more intense Medical District use um obviously we're not before the zoning board for an appeal of that ordinance so we're I think we're conceding to the the variant request but I I think it does meet the the criteria here so if that's the case Council if he's seeding to it and he's made Testament that it conforms to the master plan and that the benefits far out um weigh the detriments then is there any further need to question what Nick Taylor did what Tanya's Viewpoint is what Chuck is well so I don't think it's that anybody needs to necessarily question it they're asking for it the purpose of questioning its being applicable in this case goes to weighing the detriments and whether or not those detriments are outweighed by the granting of a variance so just because somebody says I'll concede I need a variance doesn't necessarily get you over the line that you do need a variance right they're saying we'll concede it but here's the reason why we think it's Justified but if the board is saying well I'm not really thinking you need the variance then that goes to one side of the column right to me that goes in favor of why you would Grant the relief being sought because it's questionable whether a variance is actually necessary under these facts right okay sorry to take everybody down a little tangent there um I think it transparently clarifies it yeah I mean it's it's that's the function yeah so the story that was my only question for Mr belly um I'll entertain any other questions from the board anybody okay thank you Mr Bellamy okay so that then completes our presentation um Mr Harrington I do want to run this by you and and you know it's appropriateness given that this is a legal matter um the residents of the neighborhood have hired a professional planner my understanding is there's no attorney representing the neighborhood um so chairman I'm gonna stop this right now Mr Harrington you'll have a chance to opine on this why don't we have the professional come on up I don't have any information chairman I have her information okay do we have Miss mcgurk in the room still good evening never a dull moment here in the city I love it I love good evening Miss mcer so miss mcer according to your business card you are a professional planner I suspect licensed here in the state my license is current let's get Miss McGurk's sworn in first please ton truth the truth yes Colleen mcer c o l l n m c g r k so Miss mcer uh normally a I guess let's start it this way by whom were you retained to a here this evening the sergeant Anthony Park neighborhood association okay and was that an action done by their governing body do they have a governing body do you know the answer answer to these questions I do not okay do you know who your point of contact has been yeah um norice rain rain maker rain maker okay sorry I suspect that's you ma'am can you come forward please I have handouts I have handouts oh sorry yes I do sure it's n o r r i c e last name r a y m a k r 109 Palace Avenue Jersey City New Jersey good evening ma'am good even so the you know forgive my questions this is just out of the ordinary for us we usually have an an opposing attorney that comes in and makes a case and you know cross-examines the applicant's witnesses and by all means they're allowed to hire outside planners Architects the such so I I'm interested I want to hear I want to hear what your planner has to say I just want to go through the process and make sure that you know she was hired by the neighborhood association I do need to explore this that's all so she was hired by the neighborhood association okay and there's no attorney present there's no other cross-examination happening correct okay anything else Santo anything else we need so no Miss mcer I appreciate that you are a licensed planner and that you've been retained by the neighborhood association uh I guess Miss mcer will provide her testimony I suspect that you want to be heard during the public portion with your potential exhibits we not going to allow every member of the association to provide comments once the associ a puts its representation on any member is then spoken for by the representative of the association which I suspect is you ma'am is that fair I think I would like to ask my neighbors who are here with me who who they would like to represent um you know i' I've been I've been told yeah I've been advised that um you know that the planning board um listens more carefully or takes the testimony of experts um at a higher value than that of the neighbors um and so that is why we have someone here with us tonight because um we are concerned that our voices will not be heard there aren't a lot of us here tonight there are maybe six or seven people and we promise that we won't duplicate um we won't go on and on and and duplicate each other's comments we'll simply just come up and say I agree with what has been stated and that and that's fine I just want take up so much time I just want to make sure that and yes we do you know if we have an expert witness in front of us we qualify them as an expert so their testimony does carry in you know a legal situation more weight than someone who's not an expert so I love this I love that you brought a planner with you I think it's a great idea so I do want to hear Miss mcer and by all means confer with you know the rest of the neighborhood association and we'll come right back to you okay great all right thank you I appreciate it I need to so miss mcer we do need to qualify you as an expert now so if you could just give us your background your educational background okay and Licensing yes I received my uh Masters and urban planning from Boston University in Massachusetts um I opened up swix stall and mcgurk planning Associates in 2019 I'm a member of aicp my planning license is current I have testified before multiple municipalities including Piscataway Woodbridge Edison maten Oldbridge East Brunswick and actually the Jersey City Zoning Board of adjustment okay and that um planner's license is held in New Jersey yes okay the best state in the world thank you so you are qualified thank you good evening good evening um so I did uh take note that the applicants attorney stated that they would consider doing 62 and up which would meet the Jersey City uh land use ordinance um but there are certain things I do still want to get on the record but I will try to keep it brief thank you uh so tonight I will be discussing whether the planning board has jurisdiction over this application or whether it should be heard by the zoning Board of adjustment and also aspects of this proposed senior housing application the proposed application is within the M medical zoning District the medical purpose is defined as to recognize the existing medical facilities in the city and other medical related uses traditionally associated with these facilities the medical Zone permits Medical Offices Ambulatory Care Facilities offices diagnostic Centers rehabilitation centers Assisted Living residences nursing homes senior housing Public Utilities except that natural gas Transmissions line shall be prohibited and schools limited to the Medical District in Greenville all of these permitted uses have some type of linkage to the existing medical facilities residential uses are not permitted nor is a residential development for ages 55 and up the Jersey City Land Development ordinance 3456 defines senior housing as housing that is located and designed to meet the special needs and accommodate the changing living arrangements of an elderly population age 62 and older this proposed development so far has been developed for 55 and up and therefore does not fit the definition in the city's own ordinance the municipal land use laws identifies the purposes of the ACT senior citizen community housing is encouraged under purpose L senior citizens defined for the purpose of this act a senior citizen is any person who is attained the age of 62 years on or after the effective date of this act or the spouse of that person or the surviving spouse of that person if the surviving spouse is 55 years of age or older the ml would not supersede the local ordinance because the municipal requirement is in compliance with the state's definition of senior citizens The applicant's Proposal of constructing units to accommodate those aged 55 and older is not in compliance with the municipal land use ordinance or Municipal land use laws the applicant must either seek approval from the zoning Board of adjustment for a use variance or modify its application to comply with state regulations and and local ordinances in addition although the proposed luxury housing is proposed to meet federal fair housing laws for senior housing it is not complying with state regulations states have the power to enact laws that are more protective of individual rights than the standards set by federal law certain States set their own fair housing legislation which requires a resident of that state to adhere to both federal and state housing regulations the federal Housing Act protects all residents from discrimination on the basis of race color National origin religion sex handicap or familiar status the housing for older persons Act of 1995 creates an exception to title uh 8 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 in order to allow for senior housing developments senior housing facilities and communities are exempt from liability for familial status discrimination under hopa exempt senior housing facilities or communities can lawfully refuse to sell or rent dwellings to families with minor children in order to qualify for hopa a facility or community must prove through residential surveys and affidavit that his housing is provided under any state or federal program that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has determined to be specifically designed and operated to assist elderly persons or intended for and solely occupied by persons 62 years of age or older or intended and operated for occupancy by persons 55 years of age or older in order to qualify for the 55 or older housing exemption a facility or Community must satisfy each of the following requirements at least 80% of the units must have at least one ENT who is 55 years of age or older and the facility Community must publish and adhere to policies and procedures that demonstrate the intent to operate as 55 and older housing and the facility or Community must comply with Hud's requirement for age verification of residents it should be noted that the federal the fair housing laws provide a legal exception for protection against familiar status discrimination but does not force any Community to require the construction of such facilities in addition states have the power to enact laws that are more protective of individual rights than the standards set by federal law theca utilizes New Jersey Administration code 5 26 for retirement communities but DCA code does not supersede the municipal land use law however the applicant must comply with both the ML and New Jersey administrative code with regards to uh non-permitted accessory uses in the medical zoning District uses incidental and accessory to the principal use such as parking garages and off street parking meeting rooms conference facilities gymnasiums and exercise rooms and pools staff housing medical training including nursing and therapists fences walls and signs rooftop decks are not listed as incidental or accessory use it appears that the senior housing was listed as a permitted use to accommodate seniors with medical needs this facility is a luxury facility for people age 55 and older the facility is proposing a rooftop deck which is not a permitted accessory use uh I also um would like to discuss the uh possible D6 variance with regard to the height the vertical distance measured to the highest point of a building from the finished grade A building's highest point shall be determined in accordance with height exemptions this is from the ordinance requirements for rooftop with roof deck and Terraces Terraces shall provide privacy screening that measure 6 ft high this standard shall not apply to any Terrace encroaching into a front yard in addition to any un amenitized or non- mechanical apperances areas on the roof shall be provided with green roof solar panels or another form of green infrastructure in historic districts and historic overlay roof decks and Terraces shall not be visible from the street and shall provide a setback of minimum of 10 ft from any front facade roof decks on the uppermost roof area are permitted a maximum of 80 % coverage of said roof area any unitized or non- mechanical apperences roof area shall provide green roof solar panels or another form of green infrastructure roof decks at top the base Podium of a tower or high-rise development do not have a roof deck coverage limit roof mounted mechanical equipment shall have a level three sound enclosure or highest available manufacturer standard coverage and setback standards for roof decks or Terraces in zone districts or Redevelopment plans s supplement or supersede these requirements requirements for roof structures enclosed as amenity spaces in historic districts enclosed amenity spaces are limited to a floor area maximum of 100 square ft for buildings without elevator service to the roof enclosed amenity spaces are limited to a floor area maximum of 100 square ft in this case this applies for buildings with elevator service to the roof enclosed amenity spaces are limited to a maximum of 100 square ft or 10% of the floor area of the roof whichever is greater uh the so apparently the applicant did not include the um elevator and the stairwells which would be considered common space so um and if we go along with uh all of its criteria the building height should be considered 110 ft not 100 the applicant did not count the area for the stairway or elevators which should be considered common area and Common Language Jersey City does not have a definition for the common areas however stairways and elevators are traditionally considered common areas in real estate terminology uh I did find a definition on apartment.com apartment guide.com I don't know if anyone has any other definitions that they could find but it says stairwells and elevators for more than one person which obviously this would apply um and also the rooftop amenity according to my calculations if you include the elevator and the stairwells which is common space um would be greater than the 490 allowable uh rooftop area so the amenity the propos amenity space should be counted towards the height and the number of stories proposed therefore the applicant is proposing 110 fet Building height and 11 stories the applicant should be required to request a D6 variance to build those structures that exceed the maximum permitted height by 10t or 10% from the zoning Board of adjustment uh I also found an issue uh that's with the Ada parking spaces they should be 18 ft in length to comply with Federal Ada regulations it appears that the applicant is counting the drive aisle as part of the required length it should be noted that the city's parking definitions clearly state that the drive aisle should not be used to count towards the length of space I could read that definition if you like or I could just end my testimony um no I I believe you okay thank you thank you um so I I do before we let you go I want to go back and forth a little bit here with Tanya maybe um Tanya are first actually you know what I should yeah I should let Council cross first before I get into questions so Mr Harrington just before you begin uh m mcer is that your direct testimony is there anything yes that's all okay uh so is mcer if I understand the testimony correct me when I'm wrong not a permitted use because it's not senior housing because it's 55 and older correct it was 62 and older than it would be per okay uh D6 height yes avoiding this board of jurisdiction and then the other variant do you agree or disagree with the buffer requirement I did not have an issue strong issue with the buffer requirement oh I did uh I don't know that they comply with the EV parking spaces either I think that was mentioned in one of the engineer reports the city's engineer so not to oversimplify but we've got four issues two of which are jurisdictional in nature correct and the other two would be variance requests the other two being EV parking and then the Ada parking space being undersized correct okay so Mr Harrington I believe in your opening you said that you would comply I read the ldo is 62 and older so I'm not really clear where the 55 and older that's kind of being thrown around is coming from I didn't see it on the application when I was looking at the form at didn't indicate no 55 and older we applied for senior housing uh the 55 age uh criteria came in discussions with the planning department as to what what was the requirement or the floor uh because it did read at 62 in in the ordinance it's it's read like that since 20 or 2001 when it was uh drafted excuse me and state and other towns have 55 so the discussion LED too well the the state oversees this so they would probably preempt the local ordinance at 55 that was discussion at the time so you know upon you know further review uh I know that the municipalities can further restrict it at 62 so that's that's why I said earlier tonight uh whatever is legally permitted which I would I would think is the 62 and over and my client um is is uh uh fine with with the 55 or the 62 so we're here for this senior housing as permitted by the city of Jersey City so chairman I would submit to the board that under the ldo here in the city it's 62 and overall it's not 55 the ordinance is in my opinion Crystal Clear 62 and older okay so just one thing then is Council so do do you or your client accept that or is there a different body that you think or could tell me that would a differently no we we we accept that right and to be fair I haven't given my comments yet and I I want 62 I I think that's the interpretation of the ordinance I I think you know Jersey City's ordinance I think supersedes the state as a more stringent ordinance and I I think that's you know the way to go but that's you know a discussion for our comments later so Mr Harrington I don't think we need to to really get into that issue no the D6 I think you can either do you have any questions for the witness or do you just want to retort to her well a testimony I apologize because I I was having a little bit of a sidebar when she was speaking to that but I believe the issue there is uh if I could retort is that you know the building height in the Jersey city ordinance is measured from you know the average grade to the height of the building the height of the building being the top the ceiling on on the top floor it does not include the rooftop apperences there are special exceptions for that so if that's the argument that those those um exceed that well they're not relevant because it's the 100 feet to the top of the building the rooftop all applications before this board that's how it's interpreted correct I also disagree uh that you know roof decks are not permitted because I think that's maybe the how you logically are try to get there that you're above the permitted height um whereas the you know roof decks don't aren't specifically defined as accessory uses throughout the ordinance you know it does speak to Decks at times but it doesn't speak to Rooftop decks uh so that is something that is just about on every every application before this board and the zoning board and I also note for the record that when when we speak to accessory uses in the Medical District it says uses incidental and accessory to the principal use comma such as so such as does not these are not the defining you know only only ones that are permitted it it's a you know what's accessory and incidental what's a sensor incidental a rooftop amenity space for senior housing is absolutely incidental and accessory that that's something that you would expect so I I I don't I don't think there's any any D6 here I don't think there's any jurisdictional issue here um I I forget what the the other the other issue that was raised um I've got the ad TV parking and the size of the Ada space well the other thing was is the size of the com the uh not recogn correct me if I'm wrong not recognizing of the hallways or the gym or something and that it the stairwells and elevator would be part of the common space that's used to get to the amenity which is on the rooftop that was my question for Tanya um Tanya are are stairwells elevator lobbies are they considered an amend space I mean the stairwells are egress space so can they be considered amenity space so I think that's it is um under the height exceptions it is within the roof structure and perces for the housing of stairways tanks fans air conditioning equipment um that's clearly within the elevator uh elevator clearly within those parameters the other part where it says rooftop structures is enclosed amenity space it does say for buildings with elevator service to the roof enclosed amenity space uh limited to a maximum of 100 sare ft or 10% according to their plans it is 10% so whether it's an amenity space or not might be irrelevant because it does meet the standard what I consider an elevator an amenity space no I would consider part of it impertinence if then the amenity space was open to like a sync or even something like that then that's a little bit different I I think that's and I'm showing my age here I think that came out while Bob coder was still here and I believe the trigger for that I thought we talked about at the time was a sink a lav something like that yeah that you know that would trigger an amenity space on a rooftop um but that's you know that's not if we're saying that it's at 10% now that's what their plans represent so okay Mr Harrington is that accurate yeah that's I confer with the architect that we are compliant we're within the 10 feet because we have the elevator service so it's 10 100 S ft or 10% of the floor area of the roof whichever is greater so we are within that permited 10 10% okay and then let's um took about the ada8 parking spaces and the EV spaces my understanding uh in from the back and forth uh with with the Jersey City traffic uh Department that we are in compliance with that I can have you know my experts uh speak to that if you'd like but uh that's that's my understanding okay Miss mcer do you know what the EV uh issue was I just I happen to notice it in one of the uh Engineers reports saying that they were lacking in EV spaces that they don't provide enough EV for the calculation correct okay so I think that's civil engineering well somebody calculated it yeah as far as the EV parking I believe the requirement for residential is 15% uh of the required parking which is 11 in this case which comes out to 1.6 EV spaces required uh I know my plan says one but we can put two EV spaces in there we can do a dual charger and uh we will comply with EV and and just for the record I put that on testimony that we were providing to I thought that was the testimony was to yes and can we talk about the size of the Ada space not meeting the requirement and using the drive a to meet that requirement okay the the drive V is taken from the edge of the mechanical parking spaces and that travels all the way north of plan at 22 ft um we have um an 8T by 16t with a 8ft um loading zone which creates a 16 ft width which is the uh compliant with and then at 18t depth is compliant for the depth of an ADA parking space so I believe we are compliant with that so it's not the actual parking space it's the striped yeah next to it yeah correct the way um cable Wy reads is is that you know it's it's a combined of of 16 ft between parking space and loading zone you see it sometimes uh represented uh slightly differently where you'll get a a 5- foot loading zone and you get a uh 11t parking space but the the key here is the width of actually 16 ft um and again of the uh of the 18 ft uh depth of a standard parking space so this is compliant how wide is the drve vile 22 feet doesn't need to be 24 M mcer if you could please say it on mic for us sorry the municipality accepts 22 feet as a drive all minimum oh okay sorry the standard is 24 I just thought rsis is 24 yeah right correct the city ordinance is 22 minimum okay my error no you're you're not wrong four absolutely not that's all okay thank you okay thank you Mr mcer uh Mr Harrington anything else no I don't have anything else okay and uh you'll reserve the right for a closing statement after public comment yes okay thank you so at this time let's open it up for a public comment if anybody's here from the public please come on up if you'd like to speak on record you can put that right on that table if this one oh oh okay I meant everything you were holding I need to yes yes I'm any testimony tonight truth the truth truth yes name give us your home address please yes I'm Pam Andy from councilman Rich Boo's office here's my card oh that's right I think this the first time inbody in person Miss Andy are you speaking on behalf of the councilman tonight I am and I I made things easier I because I know I I printed out copies of his statement if I have permission to uh hand you copies of the statement perhaps it's best that you read it I read it and then hand it out I think reading it is the way to go it's up to we're going to read you're going to read the statement you're going to read the statement for us okay and then obviously planning would get a copy of it for the record Mike Mike do you need a copy okay okay and okay so it would be part of the record if planning gets a copy of it okay and we'll mark it zanto if she's going to read into the record then it speaks for itself as it's been read into the record as the councilman's statement we will allow him to make a statement through Miss Andy as his proxy uh because he's a councilman normally we don't allow people to speak through others but we'll okay provide that courtesy I also have that is the lower height small area Vision plan so that's part of a larger document obviously right I referred to it and I made copies for an so before we look at it we need to know what it is if it's relevant if it's a legal document that we can review so it's our document but director is going to explain to us what the low what it is what it's part it's part of a much larger document so this is an excerp of a larger document but why don't we do this Miss Andes why don't you read the statement and then we will determine the applicability of the small area Vision portion of the larger document okay fair that's fair okay good evening everyone thank you um for serving and being here so thank you for for your time uh dear planning board Commissioners and administrators and applicant please accept the following to be considered for the application on behalf of the councilman uh application for 214 to 216 Palisades a Avenue after several meetings with Sergeant Anthony neighborhood association regarding various upzoning in their predominantly R1 and R2 uh area I am concerned that the city's current zoning would allow for the potential loss of the neighborhood composition the historic View views associated with the Palisades and preservation of the Palisades as a whole I would like to use this opportunity to highlight several issues with the current application and why I believe the community's concerns regarding the current Zone zoning are valid one this application will change the neighborhood for the worse a more and more people are being displaced by developers and new development good people who are retired and have a limited income are being driven from their Community due to new developments and market rate Apartments while this current application appears to create more housing it also has the impact of potentially increasing the property values within the area and displacing many minority residents elderly residents and individuals who have made the heights their home for many years B that this development does not have an approved application for affordable housing C the medical zone is being manipulated by private developers to construct luxury housing change charge Market rates or above and serve people with higher incomes that significantly impacts the surrounding neighborhoods this will displace many people and doubtedly it will also displace the very senior population this development purports to serve all because they can no longer afford for to live in the area because of the potential gentrification number two the development project is a manipulation of the city code a according to Jersey City Municipal Code chapter 345 -53 Medical District B Medical zoning Medical District provides that the purpose of the Medical District is to recognize existing medical facilities and other medical Rel at ated uses traditionally associated with these facilities additionally it lists senior housing as acceptable to the medical Zone C The Zone defines senior housing as housing that is located and designed to meet the special needs and accommodate the changing living arrangements of an elderly population age 62 and older that was said before I am concerned that this is not a traditional senior housing that would benefit senior individuals with limited income and a need for special accommodations but instead become a proxy for luxury apartments for more senior individuals while I know the developer is not required to disclose how much they intend to charge for rent I would ask the board to press them on their business model and what they intend to charge for individuals to reside at this location especially because these buildings and pseudo luxury apartment departments have the potential to substantially affect the neighborhoods they are built within moreover I question what the developer plans to provide in the apartments to address the special needs of the seniors and how specifically they will accommodate the changing living arrangements of the elderly population with their development is there a community room number three the discrepancy in the zone in recognized by planning Jersey City municipal code 345-5328 3 subsection D1 provides as follows maximum height 10 stories and 100 ft provided however that in the district in green Ville the maximum height shall be limited to five stories I find it unreasonable that the city code would have two different height requirements for similarly situated medical zones both neighborhoods are similar in composition relating to the buildings houses structures and modes of transportation diversity of population incomes and all characteristics that make a neighborhood four the gradual loss of Christ Hospital the property owners of Christ Hospital are selling off their property which is zon medical oh headlines for years have been dominated with Christ Hospital potential closure and the city is very aware of the financial strain of the hospital however while I appreciate appreciate immensely the Magnificent work the hospital and its staff are doing I am concerned that the land owners of the area are going to exploit the allowances of this medical Zone to a point where hospital is gradually sold off and the hospital is forced to close Christ Hospital has served our community since 1872 it has been essential for the Immigrant communities people with little or no income the residents of the heights neighboring towns and it is essential that it remains operating in our city lastly zoning should recognize the small area Vision plan and use this as an opportunity to implement planning's General recommendations I res so I respectfully request that the board recognizes the small area Vision plan of the lower Heights vision which I have here please review page 21 of the study titled new medical overlay where it states I'll read it quote this zoning generally discourage discourages investing in these buildings and increases the chance that they will be demolished to accommodate more intensive Hospital uses as previously discussed there is a strong support for preserving existing buildings along this Corridor Beacon Avenue Hopkins Avenue to address these issues the city should explore rezoning this area to R1 or r2d assuming that the R1 recommendations are enacted since Palisade Avenue is a major Corridor the updated R1 would permit retail uses as well as residential which is in more line more in line with existing land use as a result of the above information please vote no on this application also couple of notes real quick um the buffer is going to make a big difference oh yeah was that the entirety of councilman Boo's statement that is the entirety of his statement did you supplement that at all with any of your own verbiage I did not okay now you want to provide your own comments uh from this meeting my notes yes but these are not the councilman's comments you just read a statement yes that you want to stick to that I understood to be the councilman's statement that is correct okay but now you want to add your own thoughts correct we' have many meetings so who's the Wii the councilman uh with residents and neighbors of that area I don't doubt any of that yep yep but that was his statement so I just want for the record to be clear that that was his statement y but now if you would like to give a statement then that is fine thank you so we need to we need to have them separate sure if you want to give your own commentary that's public comment rather than the councilman's comment so Tanya we need to explore exactly what that document is before anyone takes a look at it is that applicable tonight is that the um so when we did the master plan uh we also included three small Vision areas uh one of them was Palisade um and Palisade um did also I think the small Vision area also included um part of the medical Zone I don't know if it included all of it um but it did have recommendations for resoning on the medical Zone which was um as was read you can tell is that um because we didn't permit residential um to basically open the door to allow for residential and to rezone it as um rc1 rc2 um sorry rc2 is r2d when it was written um the R1 would not have permitted commercial I'm not really sure why that was written um but yeah it's the vision document as a part of the master plan now obviously I would say this chairman go ahead Council let's take a copy of councilman Boo's letter that was just read into the record let's mark it as boano one you can give that to M Marion boo one Bo we only need one copy boo1 okay oh just one copy and the lower height small area Vision plan we do not need to take you can give Ms Marion one copy if you'd like but that is a portion of the city's master plan do you want to mark this in or no I don't want to mark it because it's a portion of the master plan now that we have gotten the councilman Boo's statement on the record if you would like to make a statement of your own the floor is yours actually I'm sorry chairman sorry just give me a quick SE um and this is you know for the board as much as my knowledge so Tanya yep obviously this board you know had its hands on the master plan I I was in several sessions um before it went to the board before it went to city council so the document that the the vision plan that's in there is a recommendation to city council for future zoning correct and that zoning is not passed at this point it is not so that is a you know a goal for the city but that's not the zoning that's in front of us tonight correct so even if city council passed those changes while we were in this meeting those changes wouldn't affect this application because it's already the applications already in the pipeline correct yes would they have time of approve uh time of application correct okay so you know I'd be more than happy to see city council send that to us and look at it and give city council our recommendation and you know whether they approve it or not but that's really not the law right now it's it's a chairman question of whether or not it is really the law it's not the law yeah I mean it's a goal it's in the master plan but he was prepared to do this two weeks ago um before this meeting well it would have to be before the application came in so you know Mr Harrington how long you know I know we have a big backlog how long are we talking for what when did this application hit the planning department for oh a long time ago yeah we're slow 2019 we are really slow our our backlog is massive it's it's yeah about a year at least yeah yeah so just a couple of notes then if I may sure and I'm going to start your timer for three minutes just one other thing is um I know how hard councilman boano has worked in that area and with you I've attended some of the meetings over there with you uh but correct me if I'm wrong I under the new redistricting isn't the current parcel in councilman so's Ward D4 correct it is in councilman sales he was involved but we did not we started working with the community on this no exactly I'm saying the years that he's been at it and the he has a conflict of interest councilman Sal because he's on the board of Christ hospital so then we stayed to assist the community yep okay Miss Andes I know I keep pausing you I apologize Steve since you did just bring it up you never attended any meetings pertaining to this project have you I don't I'm still a du's paying member I I have been a member I mean I don't have to have to look back uh of the sergeant Anthony I live in the area my wife herb Sergeant have I attended meetings about this not to my knowledge no okay no that's my question you can be a member of Sergeant Anthony and still not a specific meeting but there was a there was an outdoor meeting in the park about a year ago when uh Mr Harrington and Mr vanderark uh spoke not on this project no no that that outdoor meeting was on a prior project that was presented to the zoning board so then thanks for quering me fine Miss Andes we're I think we're there I'm gonna start your Tim quick okay um just to make sure the uh developer works again with traffic because our office did um request a curb extension and so I know traffic was an issue um for the the buffer zone on the North side and the South Side that that will be some issue just pointing it out and are all the parking spots Ada um we just want to make sure they are or there's standard car uh parking spots not compact size and then uh is there a community room for senior activities um most of uh senior housing does have a community room and um I did not see one so double check that and um I just want to make sure there's um an agency that does compliance or certificate of occupancy that that this is a Senior residence and if we need to do a better job in strengthening that definition we let us know and we'll in include that in the resolution that he's presenting um also three bedrooms for seniors just uh we're about to go to Grand View on on St Paul's Avenue that's always um that's one bedroom and studio apartments so most senior housing is one bedroom um two bedrooms is generous but three bedroom is is really a lot for this development so if it's truly senior housing um the developer should really consider the studio one bedroom two bedroom um model and then um that's it those are my notes thank you very much thank you Miss Andes we appreciate your time Mike are you okay to go on I'd like to get through okay all right anybody else for public comment please come on up anybody for public comment please I'm Dr mahra m a h e n d r a first name sha last name s h a Edge Mr Shaw good evening we have three minutes for you sir see I been living in Jersey City since last 21 more than 20 years I never heard about this Senor project this is the first time I'm listening this thing and it's on the contary is blessing to the senior people so I do agree and I do I welcome this project and it's on the contrary I to should thank to the Jersey City as well the developer and I wish all the success to the developer and thank you Jersey City to involve to get take the part of in this project thank you so much okay anybody else from public please come on up hiu I do G Singh g r b i r last name Singh s i n g h 98 Columbia Avenue J City Mr Sing good evening we have three minutes for you sir good evening uh my name is guir Singh and I am living in Jersey City from last 11 years I this is the first time I'm listening this and I'm here uh first I got confused that why neighbor need to attend a public meeting where so many experts are sitting and I was amazed by the um uh discussion what we are doing here by the detail you guys are going like a Bedrock thing sight back sight back everything and uh this this project is really amazing I I I am uh like 42 years old I have started saving and I want to enjoy my retirement so I need a luxury building I don't want to go a a normal building where there is no rooftop there is no gym I want to send my parents wear somebody everything all the facilities are there that's the why I'm I'm saving myself and uh I don't want to retire early I don't want to retire at the age of 65 or 67 so I I I don't know why people are concerned that there is a rooftop and why there is a 55 years old constraint so I I I think uh this this is uh really a blessing for the city and so many good facilities solar uh lights uh I I was amazed with the architect when he said that he put the garage so far from the sidewalk so that the driver can see that who was on the sidewalk so those micro uh uh uh details they are looking into this so I I believe this is a perfect location bus stop is just outside the building so this this is amazing I I support for this project okay thank you Mr Sing appreciate your time anytim tonight the truth the whole truth the truth yes Bart warw b a r t w r s ha A W and I live at 97 Palisade Avenue good evening s and you're GNA represent Sergeant Anthony okay do you want to try the other mic I don't know why we got into this I know right that Pam anties okay you have three minutes sir thank you um um well first want to say I I I like appreciate you being here but um the what stands out to me about this application is that there is nothing in it that represents senior housing I don't know if you can recall anything that's in this design that's actually actually specific to senior housing but in the um in the senior housing ordinance 3 45-6 it says housing that is located and designed to meet special needs of the and accommodate the changing and uh changing living arrangements of elderly population I haven't seen anything that's specifically designed for seniors in this building and I do want to just go into the history of this site for a few minutes for a couple of minutes um the first application the first proposal for this um site was was a 10-story building uh 34 units um in 2019 at that point May Philip said without Community Support he doesn't see how he could support this proposal then um a couple of years later we we come down to about I think it was five stories 22 units at that point uh they tried to they brought this in front of the zoning um board um and in the first initial meeting there was a clear uh lack of um um knowledge about the the requirements for traffic traffic and things like that and so they pulled pulled the proposal before the meeting was adjourned before before it was um ruled upon and so they brought it back a couple of weeks later and it was denied a five story unit at 17 units um denied 5 to1 uh on six to1 I think actually on that um that for that and I think the reason they they suggest is because it's a residential building and it's not supposed to be in a medical Zone um now they brought this 10-story building and it's now 51 units Which is far exceeding what the original proposal was and suddenly it's being claimed as senior housing again I don't see anything in this that's that's got any kind of senior facility associated with it I don't understand why you can name something senior housing and then it can actually be senior housing that doesn't actually seem to be a reason way of dealing with um any kind of uh any kind of Senor or medical facility um I do want to address the size gap of 10 feet I'm not quite sure what um Mr vanderark was talking about when you if you squeeze the building in to 10 feet why it would affect the building like why why he would reduce basically I'm I'm assuming that basically what would happen if you squeeze the building in 10 feet he would lose some of the apartments and I don't see why that's a problem if if that's what would happen in the reality is 3 foot 9 is not allowed so 10t is what's allowed if the the driveway is a is a great um Improvement in what they proposing before which was incredibly dangerous for that intersection which has which has killed one person in the past five years and as you heard in the past couple of years has has had eight was it eight crashes certainly a significant number thank you sir that was your three minutes thank you please come on up yes I will my name is Anna Peno from 113 Palisade Avenue can you spell your name uh a an a last name is p as in Peter as as in apple an as in Nancy L as in love IIs in India Ellis in India AIS in India I mean Ellis in India I'm sorry Ellis in love okay panilo p a n l i l I'm spelling in Airline phonetics cuz I used to work for Philippine Airlines well the reason I'm up here is because I I will turn 70 years old in September I have lived on 113 Palisade we had that house built but you know what I'm getting ready to move out because I can no longer pay my mortgage I have tenants but they're not paying enough I don't make much for soci from Social Security and the problem is my question if not a question a statement if I sell my house I'm not going to make anything even if you know I'll sell it for whatever they call market value because I owe a lot on my house I pay $118,000 in taxes I was just at my accountant today last year I made $118,000 18 why and how do I supplement my income I went back to school at 68 years old at Hudson County Community College I got my diploma in culinary arts and that's what I do to supplement my income my question is I'm going to lose my house or if not I'm going to sell it but with nothing will I be qualified if that building is there to live in that you know like maybe one bedroom and how much do I have to have to be able to pay the rent that's my question and that's my statement and I feel bad because I've lived in Jersey City all the way from the Philippines in 81 Allan Terrace kilman Avenue Liberty um Palisade all my life I love Jersey City but I'm getting ready to leave because I can no longer afford and for senior housing I was told it's closed there's there's no more room so I have to call call call and check with the new developments if they have anything available that's my sentiment as a senior citizen thank you thank you ma'am we appreciate it truuth I do sure Tom Deus last name is D is and David EA m is in Mary u s is in Sam and I live at 11 Jefferson a in Jersey City Mr Deus good evening we have three minutes for you sure uh first thing is that I am actually a property owner um at 11 Jefferson a and I believe um under [Music] the condo association for the building that I own a unit in did receive notice but I and the other two units in the building did not um and so I do think that to the extent that notice wasn't provided it's a little bit concerning and I did cross check against the certified mail list that was a part of the application I didn't see it so I don't think it was sent out and never received first thing second thing um it sounds like Mr Harrington has all but conceded that this is going to be a 62 and over property is that right that's corre okay good I'm glad we got that squared away um to my friend in the back over here who's very excited about luxury apartments at a very young age um that's not the point of senior housing senior housing is for like the ordinance says 62 and over so I'm glad we're on the same page about that to popsy's point you know luxury apartments for seniors is is kind of a pipe dream we're talking about people who are on fixed income they are you know concerned about how they can stretch Social Security and whatever retirement income they have to make you know the rent the mortgage and this isn't it and to be sure about what that means um the applicant hasn't even promised to seek out any sort of you know say h subsidized housing or any sort of rent relief or anything like that through the state or the federal government and none of that is this is luxury apartments market rate so you know the ability for you know say seniors who are in the neighborhood or feeling you know pinched is really not there um I think some of the other just points I want to hit I mean again this is a 10-story building it far exceeds everything that's surrounding the other buildings it's also a little bit absurd to think that if there's a fire or the elevator breaks down that you know lots of seniors are going to climb down 10 flights of stairs that's just not what senior housing looks like um nine accidents in two years they're engineer and yet you know when you think about say seniors my parents 77 76 respectively they don't move quite as fast but Palisade AB is a busy street there's nothing that's being offered or added to make the intersections or anything surrounding it safer for people who might need a little more extra time to get from one point to the other again this is not senior housing other than calling it that um we've been down this road before on this property in terms of the egress and regress in and out of the driveway um it sounds like right now you know basically the lot line on the North side is going to be at zero which means that the parking that is already on Palisade AB is also at zero because that's just the way that it is um that creates blind spots it creates you know inability to see again you have so-called seniors who live there who are going to be subject to that as pedestrians this is a a hazard thank you sir that was your 3 minutes thank you okay anybody else from public please come on up good right just truuth I do add uhhuh it's uh Mia skanga Mia s CA n GA and I live at 4 um yeah 47 Duncan Avenue which is not directly in this District good evening ma' with three minutes okay the reason why I wanted to comment on this is because um in my area there's quite a bit of senior housing like right on the corner of Duncan where I live is the Birchwood at Fairmont Hotel and um they're always advertising for tenants and I have on their website they have Studios to two bedrooms okay they're listing their one bedrooms from $983,000 186 there are Income restrictions okay uh because they got some Federal grant money when it was gut renovated in the late 80s under the schundler administration all right now right across from there on Kennedy Boulevard you've got okay you you've got the park and you have the Boyd mcginness okay which is a huge building oh by the way this uh building has uh 51 no has 60 units and they have two elevators at a minimum two elevators okay I've been in the building has a lot of common areas it's got a kitchen downstairs it's really quite lovely all right and then you have the park the Boyd mcginness Park and then you have the Boyd mcginness housing complex which is probably a good 150 units they have like two to three elevators there I've been in it a few times okay two to three elevators they have 500 people on a waiting list and the reason why I know is that I have a neighbor who had to move out of his unit even though it was rent control because his roommate moved to Florida and is now living with his daughter okay and he can't afford the rent all right and so I've called a a lot of these places and it's true they have huge waiting lists and one of the reasons they have huge waiting lists is because in those buildings they only pay 35% of their income so in his case he got $1,200 a month in Social Security he pays I think it was like 360 or something like that or 350 uh for rent and the FEDS pay the difference that's why there's a waiting list there's not a waiting list for senior luxury this is just a band day to get this building built all right and it's true every senior building I've been in and I've been in three or four of them they all have common areas because they do you know they have you know chess and they play Bingo and they entertain and the apartments like at the Birchwood are Studios to two bedrooms and the two bedrooms aren't that large but um their apartments that they have for red now are I think it's 625 square feet to 7 700 or so at the rents that I quoted all right there's a need thank You' that was your three minutes okay thank you you can leave it on the table if you want right I think I'll have to okay anybody else please come on up good evening and Miss Burke if you could just recognize that you're still on the oath tonight yes okay thank you you have three minutes thank you so I just want to speak once again about um buildings that claim to appeal to certain types of people in this case it's going to be seniors and I would like to know what agents is going to oversee this to make sure that this is a senior building because when you may have been on this board when Mary Norton was um um approved for Duncan Avenue and it was Workforce housing and there are restrictions as far as Workforce housing and two years after that building was finally occupied those units were being sold at market rate and they were sold by the owners and when I called up the city they told me sorry that must be a HUD unit that's not our unit under aordable housing or under the program so I would like to know who's going to be the Watchdog here because otherwise we have a building that is going to get all of these approvals and claim to be senior and then nobody's watching the house so my question again is who's going to be responsible for making sure that it's seniors that occupy this building because that's a big problem in this city that things are approved based upon what is said here and then nobody goes and follows up after it's built and it's time and again we've had developers built other floors on top of buildings that they were approved for 10 you 10 floors they buildt 11 they come back and you guys have to approve it cuz you're not going to tell them to take it off now they plant trees as a as a punishment so I just would like to know who's going to be the Watchdog here thank you thank you Miss Burke please come on up Sir for you yeah testimony tonight it's going to be the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes can you stink your name and give your address please John Nissan uh J hn N good evening sir we have three minutes for you and I'm sorry an address okay and what is your address sir sir what is your address uh my address 19 uh 391 uh Central Avenue okay thank you you have three minutes okay um you know uh I'm here in Jersey City for the past 20 years and I have seen many midr coming all around but this one is one of the rare you for meant for somebody whether it is luxurious or anything uh it's meant for the seniors which I am on 57 now maybe I may get an opportunity to you know so I strongly recommend uh the construction of this uh place and someone said uh that the prices are gone high and it's not only the Palisade uh uh Palisade is the high price is rised it's all over the uh State country all over so it's not a it's not a factor which should be made to that uh it's it's a serious Factor so I thank whoever doing this project uh my full recommendation for them and I pray for them to uh do more regardless of uh any zoning whether it is a medical area or whatever area I would wish everybody to focus on seniors all over Jersey City that's my prayer thank you okay thank you sir we appreciate your time anybody else from public please coming up hello good evening testimony you give tonight is going to be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do the record can you sure it's Anthony Herrington h a r r i n g t n 74 Jefferson Avenue thank you Mr Harrington good evening we have three minutes for you sir hey good evening to the board thank you Tanya hello um my name is Anthony Harrington again I'm a licensed architect in the Resident owner of 74 Jefferson Avenue a couple blocks away from the project site um I've talked to many of my neighbors about this project over the last 3 or 4 months uh probably close to 60 people and I have not found anybody who's in favor of it um I'm not excited to be here to discuss this project as my line of work involves going in front of boards and I work with many of these people here um but they asked me to do this so I'm here in support of my community um the scale of this project is vastly disproportionate to the rest of the neighborhood um when the development team has presented this project to the neighborhood association and I believe it was January we were in disbelief that the scale this development would be allowed here urbanistic the project appears to have been designed in isolation and not part of any context that exists the senior housing use is misleading the proposed use is in fact market rate housing there is no affordability component and no services for residents onsite for which the medical uh District zoning use implies the product does not take into account the ler Heights Vision plan uh which was commissioned for the for the city for this area which um uh took input from the community as part of this zoning strategy um the zoning states that the buffer required adjacent to the residential zones and uses that should be maintained to keep this project buffered from those existing uses approving this project would be a real travesty for the neighborhood I honestly feel that um just because you can does not mean you should thank you thank you sir we appreciate your time okay anybody else from public am I still swor you still are and you're still under oath okay great uh so I would urge you to see this project for what it really is this is a wolf in sheep's clothing this is a building that is taking advantage of the medical Zone and of senior housing when I think of senior housing in Jersey City I think of housing that is for low or moderate income seniors and the disabled this building is supposed to be accessible for disabled people as well as senior citizens so you're taking and changing really the definition of traditional senior housing in Jersey City for market rate luxury condos the only thing that this building has going for it is that it has an elevator what else makes it a senior building where are the components that are all part of senior housing as we know it they're not there they're non-existent the lower Heights Vision plan recommended that all the property from L law Avenue North up to prospect be removed out of the Medical District I have copies I will give that little recommendation this was p in 2021 had someone acted upon the recommendations of the master plan we would not be having this discussion because this building would not be in a medical Zone and finally opening up the medical Zone to luxury housing gives the people who own the land at CarePoint the opportunity to just redevelop that land for luxury housing so it won't be for seniors with medical issues who would benefit from being close to the hospital people on dialysis who cannot get to their appointments people in wheelchairs people who have cardiac issues those are the kinds of people that medical housing that senior housing in a Medical District should be for not for wealthy luxury designed Condos for people who frankly are not going to be Jersey City also the Mount Laurel decision is going to come out with recommendations on how much more low and moderate income housing Jersey City is going to have to provide taking this land and using it for luxury rate Market condos is a waste it's not in keeping with the Mount Laurel decision you're going to have to come up with places to put affordable housing very quickly thank you very much thank you we appreciate it I do Michael mano m zo 82 right Avenue Jersey City Mr Mano good evening good to see you we have three minutes that's why I wanted to come up here and say hello to everybody it's been watching on a little screen there and you guys do a great job I appreciate everything you do and I'm kind of like disappointed that I didn't participate in this uh dialogue prior to this I had to care for my mom and dad that were hospitalized towards the end of uh February but thank God we're on that way there but it touches me in a different way because my dad's 96 my mom's 91 and we're talking about seniors seniors made Jersey City great we need things for them so if this project in fact is something that's looking out for seniors I support that 100% but I'm going to defer to Anthony Harrington and his group and everybody that came here as knowing what's going on in fact because I have not done anything on this the only thing I do want to say is that I've dealt with Mr sing in the past and every time I had an issue with him he was always accommodating for me and respective of my community so if that means anything fine it's been great seeing everybody keep up the great work thank you mik we appreciate it hope it stays there good evening tonight going be the truth I do your address my name is Guan Baba and uh uh g l s h a n and b a w a and my home address is ba a wa yeah and I lives in Jersey City from 16 years on corbon Avenue uh and lives in an apartment and um I we have three minutes for you we have three minutes for you okay so I really really wanted like the I heard this is my first time I heard this is a luxury apartment this is this this this we work hard for whole life right and then after that our we need a luxury apartments after 55 60 years right we enjoy our retirement we need a like I I really appreciate if they got a permission for the people I heard it they said this is dialysis people and but people I saw they 80 years old and they are very very in good health so they enjoy their after retirement after 55 65 70 75 right so I recommended if you can give a permission to this Senior Living this is luxury apartments I heard it but is really really we need a in city thank you thank you ma'am we appreciate it okay anybody else from public are you you any testimony give tonight going be the truth the whole truth nothing the truth yep director your name and give us your home address please sure Dan Francis 22 Sherman Avenue Mr Francis good evening we have three minutes for you sir thank you so much my family's been in Jersey City on and off for three generations and in the Heights and this is a very interesting project we haven't seen anything of this size and it's uh I think going to be a great addition to the neighborhood my family's since my mom and dad are in the suburbs and having them being closer and having an option for them being to be close I think would be well invited by me and my family here and we think that it's very interesting project and we'd like to see these guys build it if if you guys think it fits the neighborhood so we understand you know what all the other neighbors feel too and if it's done responsibly we think it'd be a great addition to the neighborhood okay thank you sir we appreciate it anybody else from public please come on up I'm still on the oath right yes you are on the oath and sworn in Patrick I live at 23 Waverly Street right around the corner from this property sure and we have three minutes for you Mr all of you and I want all of you who live on the West Side please into the mic sir so everybody can hear 5:30 any night at 5:30 and try to find a parking spot because the pictures they're putting up from which is we photoshopped there's no place to park and now you're putting 51 units with eight parking spots where am I going to park I don't have a park I don't have a driveway I drive around all of us drive dve around at 5:30 looking for place I I know senior Citi citizens have to be home early and you know they're going to be home come up please at 5:30 and try to find a parking spot and then now put 51 units on top of that and say oh we have eight spots for you which I'm sure you have to pay for which is another Curious Thing all right just want a statement right thank you thank you sir anybody else from public anybody else chair CA more public I would like to close the public portion second okay motion is made and second public is closed um Council before you give a closing statement I'm going to need five minutes we need a 5 minute break all right and uh just for the board no conversations we're in an open application no conversations between the board about this no conversations with anybody from the public any attorneys Architects the such all right guys thank you we'll be back in five requested you okay council do you want to give a closing statement uh yes yes I would and I I'd like to maybe address some of the comments um from the public uh I'll try to be brief um but the first the first question um that was raised by uh Miss Burke you know who oversees this uh this this is um uh the senior housing um and retirement community is overseen by the state so there are requirements that you file uh with the state you have to file certain um you know paperwork certifications on an annual basis to certify that you meet the requirements of a of a senior housing uh Community which would be one building uh is defined as a community under the definition so that's where it's overseen um there are some comments about you know why you know that it's not a senior building um you you know in all due respect it is a senior building uh from the very fact that it's restricted to the age of 62 and older um it has um it has a community room on a roof as part of the rooftop deck uh it has a gym in there it has two elevators for the 51 units it's entirely ADA Compliant uh now Are there specific criteria within it um that you are required to meet the answer is no um that was specifically uh taken out by the fair housing act Amendment uh uh in in that it used to provide what is required in a in a senior housing building um and just like beuty in the eye of the beholder a lot of people said Well it has to have this it has to have this and that and does that qualify it became so arbitrary that they just took it out um so what we're providing to you today is is is a senior housing building that's compliant you know with the law and we we think is consistent with the intent because you have your community room you have your your ADA compliance you have your elevators and it's restricted to to 62 and older and you know I think it's interesting that you know you heard some comments that there's a waiting list on on some some of the buildings the senior housing buildings in the city um that's kind of the proof is in the pudding that this is a required need um here within the city uh and you know is it going to be market rate yes it is but you know the demand pull um for the tenant base is is limited to 62 and over so that is naturally going to going to lower the rents because you're not competing with the 20 year olds and the 30y olds and the 40y olds um so that naturally depresses it um but that again as I stated in our our opening that we have have the intent to go to the um to the city to apply for affordable housing um funds I mean it's not part of this application before you but that's that's our plan um and if we can provide for that then that can help to provide some specific affordability um as part of uh this project um what else uh and there's I I know Mr Andy's you know talked about M or provided for Mr Boo's comment and or or statement um and I you know just to respond a little bit on that there's there's no displacement being made here here this is actually a a vacant parcel of land um so we are creating more housing stock and we're creating more housing stock specifically for the senior uh population which you know I have a lot of meetings with with councilman boano and you know his concern is people leaving the city and again as they said earlier this is an opportunity uh and a product that allows them to stay in the city and we probably don't have enough um but uh you know cuz the senior population I know you know my experience and my we all you know elderly parents you know when when my dad was alive he hated to move out out of you know he grew up in Carney and he moved out he went back to you know his Pharmacy he went back to the fish store he went back to the to the cleaner you know and we'd be like why are you going you know all the way there and he's like you know that those are my people so I think this is an opportunity to keep people within Jersey City um and you know as far as the the relief we're asking for as as Mr Bellamy said it's it is a classic C2 with the benefits outweigh to detriments um you know could you comply with with the uh uh with the 10- foot uh buffer um you could but it's a much you know this is a much better Pro uh project is as you saw in in the diagram that that Mr vanderark provided to us so you know it's kind of form over substance why would you want that when you can have this this better project with with that relief and you're what it also results in uh is that greater setback um for the driveway uh you have queuing now for two cars within that driveway area it creates a tremendous uh landscaping area in the front so again if you want to sit out there on one of the benches and and you're you're there by by the landscaping area that's that's a nice little amenity you know as well because in the alternative you're moving the building up to the front uh property line which that just could gests everything up at the front so um and I and I think also the the senior housing here is consistent with the uh the Medical District and that you want the senior housing close to the medical services again elderly people I know from my experience they want to be close to the doctors they want to know you know if something's available down the street they can walk to the hospital they can walk uh to their doctor if doctor is close to to Christ hospital so that's a benefit um and lastly you I want to touch upon uh the the small Vision plan you know there's been a talk about that it's as as uh Council stated it's not the law um this is the current zoning but what wasn't said is that this small Vision plan did not did not specifically stay say that everything had to be uh reduced in size it actually refers to a Medical District overlay so that's we don't know how that would that would turn out you know it could the medical overlay may very well be what you have here before you that's the law now so I think that's just something that that's out there pretty much should be dismiss because it's not the law and it's it's not exactly what this this overlay says um and it you know I think this this is a project that it may help to uh to um encourage others to to create senior housing uh in this location and throughout the city council I do have one question that I assume I should direct to you are these units de restricted as senior housing yeah you would that's that's part of your registration uh with with the state okay um and then you have to be in compliance on an annual basis uh to yeah cuz they're you know they're they're the component that oversees it okay understood thank you Tanya you have anything you want to add so I have no additional comments everything that was said has been said a few times already I would like to read the conditions in the record if that's good with you sure sure uh staff recommends approval with the following conditions number one all materials and color selection shown on final plans no change shall be made to the facade site design including materials that would be required by the office of construction code shall be permitted without consultation with and approval by the division of City staff and consultation oop nope I don't know what that's in there sorry uh approval by the division of City stance and the potential amendment required number two all testimony given by the applicant and their expert Witnesses in accordance with this application shall be binding number three architect of record shall provide an affidavit confirming the development is built in accordance with the approved plans prior to the issuance of first first certificate of occupancy number four Memorial resolution shall be recorded with the County register's office and proof should be provided to division of City Planning prior to application for construction permits and five this is what we were talking about um a copy of the Department of community fairs DCA registration shall be provided to the division of City Planning prior to issuance of a CO or TCO Council you okay with those conditions yes they would all be acceptable okay thank you chairman I would just add to that last condition that obvious ly the deed restriction 62 and older agreed yes okay thank you council is there any way to Tanya is there any way to add a condition in terms of Traffic Safety in terms of some kind of ballards or something in Palisade no yes I mean the board can add any conditions they want sure I would ask Council given that I mean it seems like a popular idea you know if it's going to be improved that there and it was agreed that there would be no left turn so rather than uh allow those 11 cars to come across Palisade Avenue to the left and then even go down Palisade if we can work with infrastructure traffic and Engineering to have ballards put on Palisade like they have on Ravine to prevent people coming down New York Avenue to go continue down the New York Avenue to hoboke and I think it would be a environmental design that would help uh traffic mitigate some of that craziness and we can agree to to to work with the Jersey City traffic department um but ultimately it's up to them right we can't dictate to them what's what's okay okay okay thank you so if uh if there's no deliberation that the Board needs anybody anybody want to talk before we hear a motion no okay I'll understand a motion then chair I like to make a motion to approve case B22 d189 as presented to the board this evening together with staff recommendation and conditions second it okay motion made and seconded for approval on motion to approve with staff and added conditions um Vice chair gangan I want to thank the community for um your comments this evening I also want to thank the team for a great presentation you guys did an awesome job in your presentation um in my opinion the variance requested is very minimal and it's not detrimental to the project this project meets the goals and objectives of the Medical District um again this project will be very beneficial to the seniors of Jersey City and I would vote I commissioner Cruz I vote I commissioner lipsky so the planning department has given its opinion that it favors this project um there were about 40 43 uh senior living arrangements in Jersey City I believe all them or for low or moderate income um I think there's a value to having for seniors a the carbon proposal that would U give them units on Palisade Avenue um and because I think that you know is if you have low moderate and u a higher level it keeps I think that's a great balance I've seen it in like Newport and elsewhere uh where communities come together because one I won't continue to app other than that other than say is that this is an improved project and for 3 point or 6.1 ft difference uh I think it's a great architectural rendition I think it's been explained exceptionally well by the professionals um and I vote I commissioner Dr Desai yeah they they have followed all the rules and regulations for the the seniors the even the seniors have worked so hard for all these years they they need some luxury also and especially in Jersey City Heights there are so many people who have worked hard and they need a nice living in there uh after 62 years Medical District is so near for the all the seniors they can go to the doctors the hospital is there the supermarket is right next door so I think uh I'm going to vote I commissioner green when I hear luxury senior apartments um it it seems a little intimidating because a lot of seniors let's be honest they don't make luxury in they don't have luxury incomes to retire from so granted they they deserve a nice place to live but luxury is a little it's intimidating in my opinion just a little intimidating cuz some feel like I could never afford a luxury apartment as a senior not even as a young person unretired so um but it is um very convenient to the hospital it's um I'm sure those who are approved to to live in there will appreciate all the uh those those benefits and um I'm voting I and chairman Langston so I'm going to start my comments off with a question for you Tanya yeah do you know if the what is the definition of luxury in the in the LDL there isn't one but luxury is a marketing term everybody these are market rate units um market rate means what the market will afford our master plan speaks to Diversified housing is there a market for market rate senior housing I don't think Mr Harrington's client would go through the financing of this project if they didn't explore that already I think there is a market for it um as far as the variances tonight again the height permitted um the only variance is that side buffer and Mr vanderark thank you for thinking ahead um if you look at what could be built as of right on that property you know we we weigh variances from a legal standpoint but when you look at it in a real world view of what could be built as of right this is a much better project than that as of right building um so you know again the legal side of it I think the variant um it has no detriment to the master plan it you know upholds the M District um and I I do think there is a market for and and I think it's a good project uh so with that I am going to vote I um application is approved six in favor none oppose not abstain okay thank you everybody thank you for your time thank you all right let's move on to memorialization of resolutions please chair I have six resolutions six resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City everybody could just quietly vacate the room because the board still has other business thank you 23-9 in the matter of review and discussion of the proposed amendments please everybody if we could we still have business to take care of any conversations I don't want to stop them if you can take them outside night take care to permit the expansion of Legally pre-existing drivethru and with restaurant Category 3 we're still in a meeting we're trying to get info one LLC Dunkin Donuts here ing date is Tuesday April 2nd 2024 second resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant is mat Vash Navi sip LLC for Amendment final major site plan approval with C variances address is 2323 238 Sip Avenue Jersey City New Jersey block 1502 Lots 15 16 17 and 18 case number is p2023 0111 third resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City approving a conditional use applicant vt420 LLC for conditional use approval 840 commun Avenue block 18204 lot 16 case number is p 23- 072 fourth resolution of the planning board for the city of Jersey City approving a site plan extension of the preliminary major site plan and minor subdivision approval with deviations and conditions applicant 20 carbon Poli Corp approv approval of oneyear site plan extension of the previously approved preliminary and final major site plan and minor subdivision with deviation and conditions property 20 carbon Place block 22103 Lot 12 case number p2024 d23 fifth resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant is 804 Westside Avenue LLC for one-year extension of final major site plan approval with C variance address is 84-81 Westside Avenue Jersey City New Jersey block 14803 Lots 1 and 74-76 case number is p2024 d24 six resolution is on one of the item that was on our agenda this evening resolution for the city planning board of Jersey City in the matter of Plaza 8 I'll 1X Associates LLC 242 Hudson Street and 3 Second Street block 11603 Lots 22 and 27 case number is p02 4-07 0078 decided on April 30th 2024 har Harrison Co station Redevelopment Plan East Waterfront District applicant for extension for interim use okay do we have a second second all right T can move a roll please acting Vice chair gangan hi commissioner Cruz hi I commissioner lipsky I commissioner Dr Desai commissioner green I chairman Langston I six in favor not oppose all right thank you executive session anybody no all right do we have a motion for adjournment second all right we are adjourned thank you everybody