##VIDEO ID:QGRjCqv9mjY## Catherine you set good evening everybody this is a special meeting of Livingston's planning board notice of this meeting has been published in accordance with the open Public's meeting act thank if you can please call the role Mr Ratner yes Mr Reber yes Mr Diner yes Miss F here Mr Lewis here miss coochie here Mr mhart yes yes Miss wishnu here Mr Fernandez here we have a quorum our board Attorney Richard valo Richard Valerio is present Rocka maruchi from our town uh Township engineering department and uh Chris col from our uh planning consultant thank you Catherine if you can please call the first matter the first matter for this evening is the condemnation area in need of Redevelopment investigation block 6002 Lots 1 and 1.01 Eisenhower Parkway Walnut Street thank you and uh before we start I just want to give an overview so if there are residents that are here just so everybody understands what this is and what this is not um this portion of tonight's meeting is a form uh in which an explanation of a report of whether a specific study area is in need of re Redevelopment with condemnation and that will be presented the township Council by resolution 24152 authorized and requested that the planning board undertake a study to determine if block 6002 Lots 1 1.02 2 and 3 should be designated an area in need of Redevelopment with powers of eminent domain and engag topology to provide the necessary Professional Services the scope and study uh the the scope of the study and plary recommendations will be explained and then members of the public will have an opportunity to ask questions or offer comments a stenographic record of this form will be maintained by a court reporter however speakers will not be required to speak under oath uh this study area is essentially the Livingston Mall property state law sets the specific criteria that must be met for determining whether property is in need of Redevelopment and also the procedural steps that must be followed it is important to understand that this is not a hearing to decide that the study area is required to be redeveloped or what should be developed at the property the most that can happen as a result of this hearing would be for the planning board to accept or not accept the planner's report as the board's recommendation to the Town Council if that recommendation is made the Town Council will then have to decide at at its own public hearing whether or not to direct that a Redevelopment plan be professionally prepared uh now I would ask uh topology who uh prepared the report to explain the study and its recommendations and that presentation will then be followed by the opportunity of the public uh for comments and questions and again just a reminder this is not a discussion on what y should be there what shouldn't be there there's a very specific purpose of this hearing and that's uh uh what we will be doing tonight thank you thank you very much uh good evening members of the board Mr chair thanks for that intro members of the public my name is Chris colie C o l l I'm a principal with the planning firm apology as the board chair just kindly explained we've been retained to prepare this study um I do have a presentation this evening it should take me about 15 minutes if that's okay um it's providing a general overview of the findings that are in the report um that are in front of you uh a little bit of process which we'll go briefly through thanks for the introduction a little bit of study area overview we'll talk about the criteria we'll share our evaluation and we'll close on some next steps my volume okay good okay thanks um I'm going to skip right over this because of the introduction we already received I will say one thing that the council did pass a resolution just this last Monday removing Lots two and three from the study area um so as a result our study really focuses on Lots one and 1.01 which are the the bulk of the um the mall area and you'll see those in in subsequent slides uh in preparing this report we reviewed as many documents as we possibly could uh we've spent a couple days in town hall we've made a number of site visits to the mall we've observed it from the inside from the outside we've looked at police records uh zoning ordinance master plan approvals the news articles really everything we can get our hands on to understand uh the conditions of the mall and whether or not uh the study area met any of the criteria in the Redevelopment law just so everybody is on the same page about what we're talking about and where it is although I I suspect you all know uh the study area is located at the intersection of Eisenhower Parkway and Columbia Turnpike uh the study area is really comprised of two primary tax Lots lot one which is the the The major portion of the mall and you'll see the two lots broken up in a subsequent slide and lot 1.01 which is on the Northern side which is really the area previously associated with Sears and collectively those two lots include a little over 58 Acres um significantly for our analysis and we'll touch on this the properties are the study area is zoned in the DS Zone it's the only area in the township uh with that designation uh the mall and the Affiliated properties are the only ones like that uh very brief bit of History um as you well know the Mall opened in the 70s uh it's had sort of um several chapters of its life since then stores moving in expansions uh many applications in front of this board for various items uh and today if you go there um it's uh in a bit of a tired condition and that's going to be uh what we're going to go to uh in our evaluation of the statutory criteria so as was explained really the purpose of the preliminary investigation is to see if the study area meets any of the eight criteria that are outlined in the law the reason why we write a report and why we provide this testimony is because the courts have been very clear that uh there needs be substantial evidence put on the record to support any decision or any recommendation to declare an area in need of Redevelopment that's why you have so many pages in front of you and that's why I'm I'm walking you through it this evening there are only three criteria that we are talking about in our report so those are the three that I'm going to give you uh the overview of this evening the first is criteria a and for each of these criteria they really typically have two parts um so criteria a deals with the condition of the buildings and the two parts of criteria a are first that the generality of the buildings possess one of these characteristics substandard unsafe one or more on sanitary Etc and second that any of those characteristics are found to be conducive to UNH wholesome living or working conditions sort of a cause characteristic and the effect criteria B criteria B deals with commercial buildings primarily which have um transitioned into some form of disuse and really the section of criteria B which is most relevant to our report is this SE oh sorry about that this second Clause here which is outlined in red significant vacancies of such building or buildings for at least two consecutive years much like a there's two parts first you need to have a building previously used for any of these uses and second there needs to be a demonstration of significant vacancies for at least two consecutive years and then finally criteria d two parts first that there are buildings or improvements that exhibit any of these characteristics obsolesence dilapidation and so forth and second that the presence of that characteristic is found to be detrimental to safety Health morals and Welfare so that's our playing field um I will say just as a sort of administrative note our report considers the two Parcels um holistically as a single entity and the basis for that decision is really based on sort of the fact on the ground if you are on the site it's really you don't really distinguish between parcel one or parcel 1.01 there are agreements tying the site together operating agreements easement agreements uh and as I mentioned before they're zoned commonly with even some zoning Provisions that uh require you to consider the site holistically so we've we've considered one 1.01 and I should also mention there's a additional lot associated with lot one 1.02 as a single entity for the purpose of of evaluation all right so we'll get into criteria um I'll start with my conclusion it's our finding in our report that the study area meets the criteria a b and d and qualifies as a area need of Redevelopment with condemnation um as it relates to criteria a which again is the one about buildings and un wholesome living or working conditions it's our finding that the study area um qualifies as the generality of the building is substandard in a manner that is conducive to un wholesome working conditions so what do we base that on so the first thing that you notice when you walk into the mall or that I noticed during my several site visits over the summer um is the fact that the air conditioning was not working and this was a condition that was the case on I believe all four of on all four of my visits um obviously the lack of adequate air conditioning um particularly during the summer during heat waves is a substandard condition um and sort of the best evidence for that fact is the response of the tenants and The Operators of the mall to the lack of air conditioning so what you're seeing on the screen here are a number of pictures from various tenants I think we counted about a dozen throughout the mall that had signs up that they were temporarily closed due to a lack of air conditioning those signs said a variety of sort of nominal temporarily closed due to air conditioning or handwritten sorry for any inconvenience we are closed due to AC issues store temp is 88° no ETA for a solution the response of the businesses to this condition is reflective of a substandard condition conducive to un wholesome working conditions business operators are choosing not to put their employees in a space and in so are sort of expressing um the the nature of that substandard condition another substandard condition observed on site deals with access throughout the building uh what you're seeing here is a central picture these are the two signs that are on the escalators um on either side of the main shopping Corridor it says need a lift please use the elevator located in the center Court this is the elevator in the center Court which is blocked off and not accessible um there is if you go deep into one end of the mall into Macy's you can find a working elevator but for any other employees that are working in there that might have Mobility impairments that are trying to get from Level a to level B uh they they really have no way to do so within the building sort of lack of access between levels for folks that might not be able to to use the stairs um we find to be a substandard condition and and obviously un wholesome one for for folks that are working there one of the interesting things that's relevant to our criteria a finding that we found when we were going through the records uh was a pattern of unpermitted work that had taken place on site we found six violations UCC violations for the property during the period of time that we analyzed um those ranged from violations for roof work without a permit to violations for um creating non-conforming bedroom spaces in vacant Mall tencies specifically the former Applebee's restaurant the relationship so how does this relate to criteria a right um permitting unperm the permitting process exists for a reason so a pattern of unpermitted work is creating an environment a substandard environment where employees and visitors to the mall sort of lack the Assurance of a properly uh permitted and standard a proper standard of of work this isn't one violation this was several violations um these are violations that uh sort of affect the the overall condition of the mall and the working conditions um these this is the last slide on criteria a these are pictures from inside the Sears building or the Sears portion of the building which as you know has been vacant for several years um whether related to the roof or not there's standing water through a number of sections of the Sears former Sears site uh number of images in the report showing that uh there evidence of water damage um including sort of crumbling ceiling elements um leaks everywhere there's a sort of General exposure to the elements which you know materialized in Birds couple birds that we found in the property uh graffiti throughout this portion of the building as it relates to working conditions standing water in a building is conducive to mold growth that's conducive to to detriments to air quality all of which uh in my opinion are substandard conditions and and conducive to un wholesome working conditions so uh it's our finding on a let me check my time that the generality of the building is substandard um and in a manner that's conducive to unalome conditions B so b as I said before this is about for our our analysis this is about vacancy and it's our finding under criteria B that the study area qualifies as it contains a building used for a shopping mall that has had significant vacancies for at least two consecutive years so how do we go about figuring out how much vacancy there is in the mall uh in going through the property records we were able to find a leasing plan which is included in the report and we use that as sort of the Baseline for how much leasable area is there in the mall that also provided us a map which we were able to use to sort of figure out which stores are vacant what percentage of the mall do they comprise how much total square footage do they comprise importantly the statute requires vacancy for two consecutive years right so it's not like I walk in I see some vacancy and that's it so we had to figure out well how long have the properties been vacant so in the report we we go through this a little bit but what we did was we took a video that we were able to date to 2021 we analyzed that video very closely it's a very slow walkthrough around the mall to see what was vacant in 2021 we supplemented that with some news reports for the anchor stores which were you know in the news when they went out and based on that we were able to estimate that there was about 380,000 ft of vacant space there in 2021 38% roughly of the leasable area after that we we did all our site visit or our walkthroughs we looked for vacancies throughout evidence of empty storefronts throughout and we were able to find there that today as of our last visit it's a little over a half million square fet of vacant space um in the building a little over 51% % now the statute doesn't give us guidance on what significant means and really um there's an element of subjectivity to that uh what we write in the report and and what I'll share with you tonight is that in this case significance in our opinion is really determined by the scale right the just the the overwhelming scale of the amount of vacant space that we find at the mall uh so what we did was we looked all right so half million square feet uh how much parking at your standards is associated with a half million square feet how much land under your standards is associated with a half million square feet and what we found when we did a little bit of math was that in 2021 there was about 22 Acres of building area and Associated parking vacant and today we're at 29 Acres of the 500,000 ft of um building and the associated parking vacant what's 209 Acres look like it's kind of hard to visualize uh I did put this graphic together uh just to contextualize it just for total Clarity this is just context all right but this is the intersection of Northfield Road and South Livingston Avenue so this is probably area you're well familiar with what I've outlined in red here this is 29 Acres so this is the equivalent amount of vacant area and Associated parking area that's vacant at the mall here um vacancy of this scale We Believe can appropriately be considered significant and uh then that's our finding in our report closing up so just to reiterate for the record our finding under criteria B is that it qualifies uh as it's a building previously used for a shopping mall with significant vacancies for at least two consecutive years closing out on D criteria D this is the one that deals with buildings and improvements and I have one typo on my slide here this should say qualifies under criteria d as the area include buildings and improvements which by reason of dilapidation and obsolescence are detrimental to the safety Health and Welfare of the community so I said the first thing you notice in the mall is the air conditioning before you get in the mall the first thing you notice is the condition of the parking lot and the you know the improvements the parking lot are um certainly in a dilapidated condition uh the extent of potholes and whatever comes next on the Continuum after potholes is um staggering uh extensive throughout the whole site um you can see some of them are marked with cones driving throughout this parking area because of the dilapidated nature of the improvements uh requires you to move outside of travel Lanes requires you to to do all sorts of unsafe types of vehicular motions that you wouldn't normally do um in a parking lot we looked a little bit at aerial imagery to see well has it always been that way um and it hasn't been right so these are pictures from 2012 2018 and then April of 2024 you can see overtime the striping weathering away you can see overtime the pavement cracking you can see uh generally the progressive dilapidation of the lot over that time so why does it matter right why does it matter that the improvements are dilapidated how's that detrimental to health safety and Welfare um we looked at the police records in the 5 years that we looked at there were 107 motor vehicle accidents that the police department responded to at the property um of those four had recorded injuries um obviously motor vehicle accidents have detriment to health and safety for participants they also have detriments to welfare um for folks that have uh car issues as a result of their motor accidents so the condition of the pavement the dilapidated nature of the pavement is detrimental to health safety and Welfare the evidence of that is the uh Motor Vehicles finally our last Point deals with obsolescence and obsolesence is a tricky word to Define but there was a recent court decision called manga and in that the um Court was helpful in providing some definitions one of which really stuck out to us uh in looking at this site and they defined obsolescence as no longer active or in use disused or the word we kept coming back to neglected and if you go around this property you see uh trash littered throughout the parking area you see piles of salt and old tires littered throughout the parking area you see stairways to loading docks that once probably served an active business um sitting there neglected all of this is reflective of obsolescence and I believe sort of reflective of the uh the neglected uh that that word neglected that the court used could have applied that to all the previous stuff too that we showed right the the water in the building um the lack of air conditioning the the failure to fix the escalator all of these things are sort of contributing to a pattern of neglect and and in our opinion the obsolescence why does that matter what's the detriment there um this neglect extends to the uh fiscal health of the township and the payments um that are supposed to be made on this property so as of the time I submitted the report there was a little over $2.7 million in unpaid uh property taxes on the site there was a little over $175,000 in unpaid uh utility payments on the site and sort of the failure to the neglect shown in in making these payments uh in my opinion is detrimental to the welfare of the community and that it's sort of denying the township the uh Financial stability the liquidity the ability to meet the needs of its residents uh that come with a taxpaying property um and one that's not neglected so conclusion on that uh study areal ifies under d uh as the area includes buildings and improvements which by reason of dilapidation and obsolescence are detrimental to the safety Health and Welfare okay so final summary it's my opinion the property qualifies as a condemnation area under ab and d uh we included with our report a map of the recommended area need to Redevelopment for the board and ultimately Township council's consideration uh as was mentioned in the beginning we'll close where we started uh the plan planning board is having a public hearing right now to discuss the matter ultimately you'll make a recommendation one way or the other back to the council and the council will accept reject or modify your recommendation so thank you for listening um appreciate it and I'm here for questions any member of the board uh have any questions go ahead Rich um so my questions actually don't go to the the point of of what we're listening or opining on which is it's a need of Rehabilitation um which is a separate matter but there's some facts that I think I have a question on and I just think for clarification I'd like to ask and and and get a get an answer yeah um so you're listing two properties and I understand we're looking at this as a whole regardless of the number of parcels that make up what we call the moall um in in your page three you list a a one with a one exponent as one of the parcels and then 1.01 what is parcel one with the one exponent I mean could you show that maybe on a map because maybe just yeah so the the thing there is this is lot one and sorry this a little blurry but uh this is lot one I'm going to trace it as best as I can right and which is L one uh I'll use my hand that's line across it okay all right okay and now in the tax assessor records there's an additional lot that's associated with lot one and that's lot 1.02 and that's what it says in the footnote on there lot 1.02 so that's an additional lot associated with lot one now lot 1.02 is all way up there right all right yeah um so those two for assessor records and I believe even when reviewing the Deeds are associ with each other so they're sort of analyzed together now 1.01 is the other sizeable piece here and that's the part that got subdivided off from Sears that was Sears corre basically yes okay so one for the record I actually think that there's two small Parcels up on the top besides 1.02 I think there's also 1.03 and for the purpose of making your records accurate I think you should look at that in addition um the minor subdivision Committee of this planning board heard an application to subdivide Ma's that application was approved a resolution was approved it was signed and it was sent I see no mention of that I don't know if they didn't record the subdivision if it's still hanging out but I think again for the purposes of going forward after whatever the board does with regard to the pr preliminary and main reason that we're here tonight I think that there needs to be some clarification of that subdivision because again it was approved and a resolution was signed and delivered I don't know where it stands but it's not anywhere in the report and that's the Macy side of the property also the Sears building was also subdivided right but I think they did that as 1.01 is Sears and that was subdivided and that that was uh completed and I believe that's what you're referring to as parcel 1.01 right but there is definitely more than that there and again you're going to end up getting down to notifications and you need to have owners of those individual Parcels to do that so it's a suggestion that you look into that and make sure that that's correct before it goes back to the council okay thank you well is the is the so so the Macy's what what what Richard's referring to is included in your lot one study and I guess the point you're making just about there might be a separate lot okay but it's included in the study correct right the entire mall is included in the study and that's what we're going toine on ultimately um but I just think for the purposes of the record and accuracy that we should get the number of lots correct on the report sure yeah and um so at the time I reviewed these docu I I did see the resolution about the Macy's subdivision uh it has not shown up in the tax maps yet so I base the boundaries of the study based on the tax maps um I don't know if it's been recorded So this so this is correct based upon the current tax that's correct okay yes okay any other questions from the board one of the things I I don't think you mentioned that you did mentioned lack of utility payments yeah um and I was there the other day looking around and I saw one of the one of the stores uh closed it says no electricity now the rest of them all had it so I don't know whe there was a problem with just that store but um have there also been any closures because of you know lack of utility payments where they've had to close out in addition to the you know the the air conditioning and whatever not that I know definitively okay um this is a time for any members of the public to ask any questions of this witness please come up to the microphone phone or presenter Mr chair excuse me before we start is there a time limit for the public um T typically not but if if there tends to be a um a lot of comment we can do that but really the we we'll see how many people come up to the microphone because right now I don't see have a need to put a time limit on the public so uh so no members of the public uh okay thank you uh so having heard the questions and comments um do the members of the board feel that the report of the planner should be accepted as the board's report and submitted to the township council is there any comment or discussion I just uh thank topology for their work and their diligence I think the report adequately shows the conditions that we all know exist um and I I would certainly make a motion that the planning board recommended approval you know accept the recommendation of the planner and submit it to the Town Council thank you is there a second absolutely second um any further comment or discussion I just I'll just make one one comment that um I know the I know it's going to go back to the Town Council which I sit on but I I want to thank my fellow members of this planning board for hopefully passing this because it gives the town and a little bit more strength to try to figure out a little bit you know a little more power as to where we want to go next with the mall and what we want to do next with the mall so we and the council feel this is a a wonderful first um step and we look for I certainly look forward to to passing this and moving forward with options for the mall thank you Katherine Mr Lewis yes Mr mhart yes Mr Ratner yes Mr Reber yes Mr Diner yes Miss F yes Miss coochi hello yes Miss wishnu yes Mr Fernandez yes motion carries thank you thank you uh thank you very much for the presentation thank you to apology for putting this together uh on behalf of the entire board um and as bar as also mentioned so we'll take a uh a f minute break so we can switch uh court reporters uh for our next uh applications so thank you that e e e e e e e e e okay why don't we uh get moving along please and Katherine can you uh please call the next matter the next matter for tonight's meeting is esclad Livingston LLC Kushner application number 2024-25 MSU B 8 to1 microlab road block 100 lot 15 530 West Mount Pleasant Avenue block 100 lot 17 and 18 550 West Mount Pleasant Avenue block 100 lot 16 and Mr chairman I'd just like to note that our planning consultant Graham PTO is um joined the meeting as well thank you uh very much so um I I still see some members of the public that are here so I just want to go through uh the general procedure for uh tonight's hearing uh the applicant is represented by an attorney who will explain the application the applicant's attorney will call one or more witnesses to give sworn testimony and support of the application members of the board may ask questions um and when the attorney for the applicant has no more questions for a witness interested parties in favor of or in opposition to the application May question the witness about that witness's testimony when all the applicants Witnesses have testified if there is an entity or group formally appearing as a party in support of or in opposition to the application that party May call witnesses when all the witnesses of all the parties have been heard members of the public may give sworn statements for or against the application so with that yes good evening turn it over to you thank you chairman Fernandez members of the board Craig janetti the law firm Dave Pitney on behalf of the applicant espad Livingston LLC uh this is an application uh for minor subdivision and amended preliminary and final major site plan approval for property located at 810 micro lab Road uh in 550 West Mount Pleasant Avenue uh identified as lot 15 and 16 in Block 100 uh the properties are located in the C1 commercial industrial district and in the r5s residential overlay district and that's the uh overlay residential zoning that the town adopted in in accordance with its affordable housing compliance plan uh the application tonight is kind of step one uh with respect to the subject properties uh the subdivision is seeking basically a lot line adjustment with respect to lot 15 and 16 uh and also the amended preliminary preliminary final major site plan approval for certain improvements located on the uh the lifetown property which is uh lot 15 lot 16 as you all know is the Westminster Hotel property there's no relief being sold as part of the subdivision application uh with respect to the site plan uh they're essentially doing a relocation of the football field that's currently on uh the lifetown property uh of lot 15 that would eventually become lot part of lot 16 as part of the subdivision and relocating it to a different portion of lot 16 which would then become part of lot 15 so it's effectively like a land Swap and then as part of the uh site plan applications certain improvements related to not only obviously putting in the football field um but certain minor improvements with respect to the life down property that currently exists today uh you'll hear from our witnesses there were some uh variances identified in relief identified in connection with the application which our witnesses will go over uh and discuss the applicability of and then the justifications for them as well I have here with me tonight our civil engineer Mike lonza Fama as well as our architect L Delmar Rosado uh and we also have the CEO of liown Rabbi zman Gman or gbam as well uh in case there's any questions as to operations and I'll profer some testimony on that but if there case there's any followup he's available as well so unless there's any questions of me I'd like to call our first witness please do thank you thank you at this point I'd like to call uh Michael l ofama excuse meuth truth truth I do my name is Michael Lon Zama that's L an Za f ma I'm a licensed professional engineer land surveyor and planner licensed with the state of New Jersey I'm a principal with the firm of Casey and Keller Incorporated 258 Main Street Milburn New Jersey and your license remains current uh in the state of New Jersey yes they are and do you know exactly how many times you've been accepted as an expert in the field of civil engineering in the township of quite a few i' as the board accept Mr Lance of f as an expert in the field of civil engineering uh engineering yes uh any questions from the board I guess to you know maybe we want to put it on as we get into to the uh the variance portions uh if you could provide some planning testimony as well uh maybe some background on planning as well with your qualifications right well we I'm licensed as a professional planner as well and I've testified before this board on numerous occasions and such a capacity we ask you also be accepted as a expert in the field of uh planning uh thank you Mr L ofam is accepted by the board as an expert in engineering and in planning okay what I um brought up on the screen if it appear there you go get rid of that let's blow this up a little bit what I have up on the screen at the moment is a an exhibit which we've prepared which is basically the minor subdivision uh that we are presenting uh for the properties as the attorney pointed out we're talking about tax slot 15 and 16 in Block 100 Mr L of this exhibit you're showing has been submitted to the board as part of the application uh this was actually submitted separately as an exhibit um but we can mark it if you like as A1 sure if we can mark this exhibit as A1 if you can just you know identify on any of the title block or anything like that sure the uh the exhibit is a colorized version of the minor Subdivision plat prepared uh by my office uh and it has a uh date uh revision date of August 30th 2024 and what the exhibit shows is the land swap that um we are talking about this evening uh on the subject properties uh as we pointed out uh the property is located on the north side of uh Route 10 um and it is actually surrounded on three sides by public roadways uh to the West is microlab road at the top of the drawing um M uh Route 10 is to the south on the leftand side of the exhibit and David Avenue is located to the east on the lower portion of the exhibit um the area that you see in green which is a 30, 464 squ foot parcel is the location of the current football field that is used by liown and as part of the Redevelopment project for lot 16 it was necessary to have additional Frontage along microlab road so as a result liown was approached to do a land Swap and in exchange for receiving uh the 3,464 square ft and attaching that to lot 16 um LIF toown was given or is being conveyed um an 34,1 152 Square ft which is located on the northeast side of the ex existing liown property which is the building you see uh in the central portion of the exhibit and there's also a strip of land that would allow for an increased setback at the rear portion of the building and what the plan is is in doing this is to relocate and I'll get that into that in more detail when we review the site plan is to relocate relocate the existing football field uh and the green portion to the yellow portion uh of the property uh as a result of the land transfer transfer uh there will be no variances required uh tax lot 15 would go from 187,188 3,4 546 Square ft and lot 16 will decrease from 23,2 25 ft to 247,000 52 Square ft um the lifetown parcel uh the frontage would be reduced by uh roughly 266 feet and that uh Frontage obviously would then be uh added to lot 16 so as far as the minor subdivision goes that's that's all we're seeking to do here and you'll hear in a moment what the purpose of that is and what the ultimate uh reconfiguration of lifetown property would result in and what we're asking for in the way of an amended site plan approval so if you want to entertain questions regarding the subdivision first and then we'll move on to the site plan do any of the board members have any questions any of our professionals have any questions thank you all right let's move on to the site plan then yeah sure okay thank you Mr just identify what this exhibit is Market exhibit 82 and what the title of it is um what I have up on the screen currently uh is the amended site plan that was submitted um it was part of the application however we added some colorization so you can get a better sense of where the different elements of the site uh exist and are being modified so what I a specific page of the site plan uh that's page four page of the site plan but thank you the one that you have is black and white this one has been colorized for ease of is there another is there a revision date on that uh there is a revision date my eyes are not that good let me get up to that should be uh uh August 30th 2024 thank you that should be the same date as the documents you have before you okay thank you and what you can see uh in the exhibit uh is the liown facility the uh existing building which is shaded in a in a tan uh imagery fronting on microlab Road and the football field was once to the left of the site um it is now being relocated to the easn portion of the site um you can see how it Nestles in there and um to create a flat Plateau um that area of the site has somewhat of a slope to it so to create a flat Plateau to create the field we're proposing to construct a retaining wall uh ranging in height from four to 5 feet on the north and east side side of the property there's also small retaining wall required uh as we transition grade from the proposed football field to the existing parking area uh to the West um the entire operation is really no different whatsoever than what we currently uh perform at the site it's um the same number of parking spaces that are available to uh patrons of the facility and clients of the facility uh we are adding three additional spaces off of the existing uh service driveway that exists on the south side of the building uh the purpose of these three parking spaces is for maintenance Personnel um we have a number of truck small uh van type trucks that come for maintenance Personnel that maintain the pool uh within the facility and other elements such as the AC units Etc so they're really for those those types of uh professionals come in maintain the facility and leave there'll be small trucks that would fit uh into the parking space the parking spaces that we're proposing uh are 9 by8 spaces um which would require a variance there is no availability for an overhang we could make some minor modifications in the location of the retaining wall for example to get that extra twoot overhang but we don't feel it's really necessary in this particular in instance this driveway currently exists in this location um which is about 9.7 ft from the existing building uh I believe in topology's uh review memo they cited that uh technically it's supposed to be 10 ft away I don't believe that's the case I believe the way the ordinance is written is the 10- foot setback requirement from a building is for parking spaces as a matter of fact in the 2013 resolution of approval when we got the original project approved we had noticed for that variance and the board determined that it was unnecessary L you said not necessary for the extra 2 feet you know it's basically because the limited uh scope and use of those parking spaces corre and not just general parking for visitors in the public that's correct and and I guess along along the line the talking about parking the football field identified banked parking uh shaded over it yeah you may just clarify that in case there's a question sure well let let me finish on this side of the property and then we'll work our way around um there is also shown in the uh leftand portion just to the south of the building uh we show a half court uh basketball court which was located on the parcel that's being conveyed to lot 16 we're simply relocating that um we're providing some new sidewalks uh in that area through here um to allow for Access by uh the workers that may park in that area into the facility as well as for the children to exit out uh into that area the remaining area through the south side of the building was once a paved uh Access Road we're going to be removing all that asphalt and providing Landscaping a lawn panel in there so that the children can play in that area have a little uh open air Recreation space that is safe and secure cure um the net result of removing that impervious area is that the overall impervious coverage on the site is going to go down considerably so that there will be no increase in storm waterer runoff or impact as the result of uh the uh the overall project um and then you know what you want to find out as well and is raised in Mr marci's memorandum is um well how then do we access the loading areas on the east side of the building well as part of the subdivision application we'll be granting a v um an easement excuse me from David Avenue to this facility and we will be constructing a new driveway at the southeast Corner uh of the facility so delivery vehicles and refuge trucks would now enter from DAV Avenue come uh through the adjoining parking area and then enter the site which allows them for a much EAS easier access the two loading areas that exist and the refu area that exists are uh on that east side of the building so as the vehicles come in they could simply back into position and then exit uh out to microlab Road through the existing parking area the parking area to the north is not being modified whatsoever uh it is about a 61,000 SQ foot parking area um what we did not show on the plan was existing uh shade trees that are there there's about 21 shade trees that exist in topologies memorandum they asked for us to testify that it was compliant with the ordinance requirement of one shade tree for every 6,000 square ft of parking area we are compliant with that and U that uh would not require any variance because we're really not doing anything new one of the variances that we did receive back in 2013 was a parking variant um under the ordinance I believe we're required to have 188 parking spaces and we only had 132 so as a way to justify the variance at the time because there was a lot of question as to whether or not lifetown was going to succeed and what would happen if it became uh had to transition back to an office use so we had provided for uh additional parking um on the football field we were able to do the exact same thing and maintain the exact same number of uh banked parking spaces in that field and that field if it did have to convert to a parking area at some point in the future uh we would have an access driveway directly off the driveway that's just to the east of the building um at the time we got the original approval we needed a parking setback variance for those Bank parking spaces from microlab Road well we need the same variance now from David Avenue um the old variance was for 38 ft where 50 feet is required uh and this in this instance we're at 28 ft where 50 fet is required um I believe that we can justify that variance based upon the fact that um the it's Bank parking it's truly not going to be used the idea of the 50 Foot setback is to create an open space um and the handy pack handic excuse me the bank parking spaces uh being uh oriented in such a manner that there's a minimal amount of Frontage uh along uh dve Avenue that would be potentially uh it would potentially impact and there's a substantial amount of landscaping being proposed so I don't see any uh impact uh on the zoning plan or the intent and purpose of the ordinance with regard to that I think the landscaping that's being proposed would mitigate uh any detrimental impacts from that bank parking area um also in addition to the field itself a new element that was not located on the old field was a Fieldhouse which you see uh at the Western end of the the football field this would allow for uh toilet facilities so that if the children are out on the field and they need to use the facilities instead of having them to bring them all the way back into the building we would be able to provide them with that service here right at the field it also there's some storage on the uh north side of the building um would provide for you know different types of storage that might be needed to maintain the surface of the field the field is a turf field um it allows runoff water to pass through it into a stone base um the soils in this particular portion of the site are extremely permeable we had some soil testing done so this is an added benefit it'll act as a groundwater uh infiltration system in a sense and so it's somewhat of a green infrastructure uh in its overall design and impact so again the um uh there was also a variance that was granted with regard to the what we were calling a rear yard setback at the time to the lot line that exists between lot 15 and 16 um by relocating ating the lot line that setback distance will increase from about 40t to just over 50 ft so although it's still non-compliant with regard to the 75- fot rear yard setback requirement of the Zone the C1 Zone um it we're improving the existing non-conforming condition so I don't see that as a detriment in any way you the exact setback that we um the exact setback that we're seeking is 50.8 ft is uh what is uh being proposed and 75 ft is required there are no new signs proposed as part of this application there will be some security lighting proposed on the football field itself we've experienced some issues on the existing field with trespassers and people likeing enjoying the field in the middle of the night and we've had some vandalism and things of that sort so in addition to the lights we're certainly going to have uh cameras on the field to uh monitor any uh nasty activity that might occur in the evening hours um so there there is a lighting plan proposed as part of uh the application let me just get over to that um there we go ow that that up a bit and this this was submitted as part of the application um and you can see um there are four light fixtures proposed and the light fixtures are LED type fixtures um they're approximately 18 ft in height um and they're very low profile light fixtures you can see and uh the lighting levels are just enough uh to illuminate the surface of the field in the evening it's not for for the purpose of playing on the field in the evening hours there'll be no activities on the field in the evening hours um as a result of the added lighting it's only for security purposes um as part of uh the application as well um we are also providing a significant amount of landscaping around the field uh there'll be a variety of Evergreens and shade trees proposed along the north side and the East Side uh of the plan let me just get over to that there we go um so we have a significant number of evergreen trees um there'll be a 42in high fence and then I'll be uh Evergreens that surround the field that're kind of screen it out and then there'll be new shade tree plantings uh along David Avenue um we did modify the landscape uh plant material as as suggested by topology's review memo we eliminated ated the zovas and replaced them with English o um so that's pretty much uh the application I probably missed something didn't I no I guess more you you you kind of mentioned that there's no increase in the parking um and just confirming in discussing uh with the uh CEO of liown there's no increase in programming or increase in enrollment this is just you know enhancing existing recreational features uh for the existing enrollment yeah this is just simply a reconfiguration of the existing site due to the land swap uh the only real addition is the uh the Fieldhouse which is really just uh two toilets and a storage room only 800 square feet in size and you mentioned the uh the new access way for the loading area being a more efficient uh kind of loading access for the building uh a do you know what the existing uh general or how many times a month there's typical deliveries at the site and there's going be any change to that yeah ba based upon my conversations with the the staff at at life Town they'll typically get maybe three trucks a month uh to the facility it's not not not that often that they get larger trucks you know on a routine basis they'll get UPS uh you know FedEx trucks or US mail and you know of course obviously the garbage truck will come on a more daily basis but UPS and FedEx they simply pull up to the front door and go into the facility and further no change to the hours of operation with respect to both the the the facility as well as the recreational area yeah the facility o is open Monday through Friday closes on Saturday and it's a half a day on Sunday and no other lighting you know for lighting up the basketball court at night or anything like that there be no no other than what what security lighting that we have on the building that's all that would be there any questions uh from the board any questions from I'm just real quick um just so I'm clear the variances are the 9 foot uh 9 by8 parking spot parking spaces uh proximity of those spaces to the building although you address the fact those spes are compliant they're they're more than 10 ft from the building what's non-compliant is the ACC ACC road that comes in it's already existing actually okay and then I think they were measuring from the drive as post the recreation building well first let me confirm the recreation building is not higher than the principal building no the principal building is 306 in the recreation building variances are proximity to the solar the two accessory structures gram and I had a little conversation about that Technic the the uh proposed strug structure is actually compliant it's because we placed the structure where we did it makes the solar panels non-compliant so and and it's at a very small portion and just briefly I assume any and all the variances are C2 yes sir so did you just touch on that criteria real quick yeah what what we're doing here um is not going to have a significant impact on your zoning plan or the neighborhood um it it already exists but in a different location and the variances that we're seeing are very similar except for uh the the Fieldhouse the additional Fieldhouse and that's just a small portion uh keep in mind that the solar panels are open uh so it's not like two buildings next to one another it's a structure in a building so in in my mind it it clearly could meet the see two criteria okay and uh would not have a detrimental impact great on on the township I have a quick question the I know you mentioned the variance I think at the corner of the field um adjacent to Davin Road um and that had to do with uh cars parking correct is the is if without cars parking there is no variance requirement in that corner I I don't believe so okay and and I don't think we got a variance for the field when it was located on microlab road which is about the same distance away from David right okay but the only concern that I have and just throw it out as a question to think about is that um that portion of Davin Road I guess gets traffic coming into the mall behind it correct correct okay and that corner of the road how far is the is the playing field from Davin Road um well approximately to to the there's a retaining wall there's a grade change so DAV is lower there's a small retaining wall and a fence and then the and then the field is elevated yeah if we if we go to let me go to the uh the grading there's a retaining wall on the far left corner Mike yes no the other side yeah I'm getting there here we go here we go there's a retaining wall that runs actually it's a a two-tiered retaining wall that runs along that side here's DAV and how tall is that this is just it's it's a low wall it's this is about 18 in high the front wall and the second wall is a little bit higher so it you know the the field is up at about elevation uh 20 20867 and the grade back here is like 204 along here so it's just a slight variation in grade but traffic coming down along dve and Avenue um are protected there's also a fence in here so if you're concerned about a car veering off into the field only concern that I have is going we could look at putting in a couple of Ballard coup ballards on that corner you do that I'm done I knew where you were going uh the lighting on the field is that all that be on all night uh no okay what what time will that go off you need it on all yeah we would prefer to have it on all night but we could we could Flex the the lighting levels um the the real problem is the vandalism that has occurred on the field on the existing field and we feel we're going to have even more problems here because it's even more removed from Route 10 so we'd like to leave it on all night or motion sensors or motion sensors not a bad idea we could do that because that's that's the beauty of the LED fixtures you could do that I'm just trying to think you know later on what's going to be next to the you know what will be next to the football field and will those lights be affecting what might be coming next no there's a sub substantial amount of parking area between this area and and what it what will be uh the future building okay so be really parking is the expectation to be there yeah you're going to have light more light in the parking lot that's what I was asking apartment building than the football field okay any other questions um any members of Yes follow up on the lighting question um just is there an opportunity for like a reduced level light for the overnight security lighting we can we can take the light level so say after 11:00 or something dim it to 50% and then when there's motion it comes back on perfect yeah I think that might something to consider are there any members of the public that have questions for this witness seeing none thank you you're welcome next we'd like to call our architect that'll just talk about uh the uh Recreation buildings uh associated with the football field the truth the whole truth truth I do yes my name is lus Delmar Rosado spell r o s a d o hey Mr Rado if you could just please provide for the board your qualifications experience and licenses in the field I thought he did it's okay uh provide the board your uh qualifications experience and licenses in the field of architecture yes um I'm a licensed architect in the state of New Jersey um I've been practicing architecture for about 25 years I got my master's degree from Virginia Tech in Virginia and um I've been um sworn in testimony in several jurisdictions in New Jersey and your license remain current in the state of New Jersey correct I should be accepted great so Rosado using the uh what you have up there if you could just identify that exhibit and and discuss uh with the board kind of the recreation buildings being proposed uh as part of this amended site plan application yes um this is the um the title of this exhibit is restroom storage facility um the page number is S01 and this was part of the application and including with the material yes information this is as part of the application as is do we need to mark this if it's part of the application okay okay um I will describe the uh Fieldhouse and the design and the architecture and how the floor plan is organized um the Fieldhouse is organized in two sides as it was described earlier by the civil engineer um on the left side of the plan we have the bathrooms one for men and one for women and on the right side we have the storage area um these two zones are connected by a roof um that covers across the gap between them um naturally create a pathway or a pass through um if you imagine you're coming from if you can see my cursor here um where the lifetown building is you will circulate through um the Fieldhouse building to go to the field the field area um and the idea is to have this cover area to provide some level of protection from um the weather and this on um for architecture character on the right side we have the building elevations um we wanted to make sure that the design is compatible with the existing building the existing building um has a design that it's playful but at the same time we don't want to be exactly the same so we use Concepts uh from the existing building and apply it to our Fieldhouse um one of those Concepts is uh use a variety of colors um in our case we use the colors to identify the uses um so we have one color um the red the red color and the brown color to identify each bathroom and a gray color sighing to identify the uh storage area um then similar to the existing building um that utilize um Stone As a detail um we are using the similar material to have an accent on the Fieldhouse uh as you can see in in all the elevation as L shape AC Crossing across the top of the building um and then lastly we connected the two sides with a canopy uh overhang again it's a similar detail that the existing building has that we use um you know as inspiration to implement into this building and I have a second exhibit that shows the materials sure you just identify that one mark it as A3 I also have this physically if somebody wants to take a look at closely this is a material board uh as a supplemental exhibit this this was not part of the application it's label s.2 um it shows enlargement of the materials and it also shows um some um views of the existing lifetown building just for reference um and um like I say what you can see is that the existing building has a variety of colors and textures and we use that concept into our Fieldhouse so that it feels integrated and and um that's what these exhibit represents if you have any questions I'm happy to answer seeing none any questions from members of the public from our professionals we're good thank you great so that's basically all we have from a direct presentation as I indicated we have the CEO of liown in case there's any operational questions uh but if not uh We believe We addressed all the comments and the review letters uh through our direct testimony and anything else will be complied with uh as part of any approval Rocco is there anything else that needs to be addressed just comply with uh you know your your letter um I think I think most of our comments were addressed in the report so I have nothing else okay great thank you um are there any members of the public that wish to give sworn testimony in support of or in opposition to the application seeing none thank you does anybody have any questions for uh Rabbi gpam is he's here yes no maybe you're off the hook Rabbi give a sermon you know you could you could have stayed home so we have nothing further to rec presentation um I don't think I need to make a summation I think going to ask no I think Mr Lan's testimony um addressed all the the site plan issues as well as the justifications for the various uh variances being sought um or his opinions to ones they didn't believe necessary to be sought and think he identified you know we agree to add the ballards and Dav rad uh to add further protection and agree uh as a part of a condition for the security lighting to dim at 50% after 11:00 p.m. thank you um the parties having had the opportunity to make closing statements and appears to the chair that the applicant all interested persons in the board have had reasonable opportunity to be heard and that the evidentiary record of this hearing ought to be closed absent objection in the absence of any motion for continuance the EV evidentiary record is closed and no further testimony or evidence shall be heard or received uh the board members now will have an opportunity to uh discuss their views on the application I'd like to start and make a motion to approve the application with the variances that have been um requested um I'd like to also just personally thank um you for the for the program that you run the work You' done do with the children is incredible and keep that up um I'm sure the field and the changes that are made will be Sensational um and I make the motion to approve the application is there a second I'll second uh any further discussion by the board yeah I'll just take one step further uh to what Mr Diner said in addition to what uh the rabbi runs as well uh it's also very appreciative of um what the organization the chushan organization is doing um to keep these programs going and all the work that you put in to make sure this is part of it uh and being a good neighbor to our town so we thank you the kusher organization as well uh thank you uh Catherine uh Mr chairman can we uh they are considered two separate applications so if we can that I believe those motions for the we have this motion first for uh subdivision the the subdivision yeah uh the subdivision first okay uh Mr Diner yes Miss F yes Mr Ratner yes Mr Reber yes Mr Lewis yes Miss coochie yes m Mr mhart yes Miss wishnu yes Mr Fernandez yes motion carries thank you then if I can have a motion for the application uh 20248 amendment 2 make that motion second sorry discussion Mr okay Mr Diner yes Mr Ratner the gun Mr Ratner yes M Mr Reber m Miss F yes Mr Lewis yes Miss coochie yes Mr mhart yes Miss wishnu yes uh Mr Fernandez yes motion carries thank you thank you thank you thank you uh and with that motion to adjourn second wait you're stealing Rich's Thunder that's Rich's job thank you very much for the application um and his presentation thanks and give me a call tomorrow tomorrow yeah yeah I got time if yeah if it's easier