recording all right good evening ladies and gentlemen this is a regularly scheduled meeting of the moner planning board notice of this meeting is has been given in accordance with the New Jersey open public meetings act uh and it's done by providing a copy to be posted on the first floor of the municipal building we also publish a copy in the newspaper designated by the township for notices uh we also provide notice on the township website excuse me uh the meeting will be uh broadcast uh on Channel 34 and stream live and available on demand on YouTube uh we hold a quasi judicial proceeding here meaning that the board has powers and procedures resembling a court of law and we're obligated to objectively determine facts and draw conclusions uh there from in order to provide the basis of official action and any questions or comments uh during the evening must be limited to those issues that the board can legally consider and reaching such decisions and the Quorum appropriate for a courtroom uh is expected at all times first thing on our agenda this evening is our roll call Vice chair brok I'm here Mr Graham here Mr in Wally here lockman here Mr Ortiz here Mr Pierre president councelor Terry here Miss Willis is excused chair win here Mr Jacobson here and Mr NE here okay and we also have Mr niece here and uh Joseph burn who is here uh because Peter ten Kate is on vacation this month good for him is that b RN b y r okay we have our minutes from our January 8th meeting I received edits to the minutes from Miss lochman and vice chair broock are there any other changes is there a motion to approve the minutes so move is there a second second all in favor I opposed extensions abstain okay uh we have a couple of resolutions uh first 509 Park Street LLC are there any changes to the resol I believe that Keith you had some comments I believe so yes and I the version of the resolution that I put in front of everybody is prior to uh Keith's changes and um they were not substantive changes just scattered throughout um are there any um additional changes to the resolution I I have a question maybe a clarification um where did it go I can't find the resolution but the section that talks about um not being able to subdivide the lot right I forget what number it is and I don't have it in front of me I'm sorry um I have it but I don't 12 have that section right is it 12 12 about the condition yeah in the in the conditions so my question is if you're you're already subdividing the lots for the original building and then the lot to the South and then you're leaving the lot to the north as a you know as a lot and the question is you if you were to join the northern lot with the property next to it that's not really is that a subdivision or I'm cons that would can be considered a subdivision it's an independent lot as is but if you join it up with the north I mean it's not really you're not dividing anything you're adding two it still requires it still requires subdivision approval thank you is there a motion to approve the resolution as amended so moved one one quick thing Mr I have a question I made have missed it did this set protect the historic elements the resolution it did right yeah which which number was that read seven perpetually on page seven I see it I added uh in my edits where it says shall be preserved I added and maintained that's I recall I believe I have to abstain for because I voted against uh passage is that correct say that again do I have to vote do I have to abstain from the resolution if I vot okay is there a second second can I wait a minute can I just ask I'm looking now I found it I just want to make sure that it says here um as consented to by the applicant neither of the two lots created by this minor subdivision application shall be further subdivided and the subdivision Deeds shall so note once again those two lots are not being subdivided if you add them to whatever the numberous lot the northern lot that's the big building that's you know looks like it's in a deric condition is number no but I'm just concerned that was a concern of the neighbors that you're going to start a pattern of subdividing now and if you took that lot and you added it to the uh Northern lot then that owner could go and apply for a subdivision and you're not that can't be done if if they came here this would well if you're saying that I think Mr nise your mic is not on problem let me be clear there are there's one lot there now they've subdivided that one lot into two lots what you're calling the South lot and what I would call the north lot you're suggesting that the property to the north of the North Lot yes would com could combine with that lot yes in which case there would have to be another subdivision application before this board right but it's not prohibited from going before this board for subdivision application if the owner of the northern lot were to buy the lot next to it it could conceivably apply for permission to build whatever they want to build on it if there's no prohibition because you're not subdividing the northern lot of the 509 Park well it's it's it's it's one planning board can't bind another anyway so the point is that if somebody were to come on come back years later and want to subdivide it and already subdivided lot the notes would reflect that we rejected that but a future planning board would be free to do with it what it will but my point is it's not a subdivision I don't disagree with you but what they're saying is legally they've got back but the note the notes won't won't get in the way of a future planning board saying go ahead and combine it with another I thought it was a deed restriction that they couldn't do anything with the if it's a deed restriction I thought that's what we discussed yeah they didn't they didn't consent to that no they didn't agree to that they didn't say they were going to record it in the deed I thought they did I mean that was my recollection you we were concerned about with the subdivision about the lot 509 about the making a making three lots out of that instead of two so this stops them from making three lots out of two but you're talking about something that's totally different taking taking one of those newly created lots and combining it with something else adjoining it I thought that's that was discusted at the at the meeting but that will be if you do that that would be making a giant lot which they could then the owner could then go before whatever board no they would have to they'd have to what you're saying is that they' have to come in and combine it and then redivide it yes I don't think why not I hear there's an asteroid that's got a one in 1750 chance okay all right just it just says subdividing it doesn't say adding two and then but that's still a subdivision even ifis even if you're consolidating those lots and changing the subdivision lines mhm it's a subdivision okay yeah but I I think you're covered because number seven says as agreed by the applicant this um sorry as connected as consented to by the applicant neither of the two lots created by this minor subdivision application shall be further subdivided which includes being Amalgamated to another or being subdivided and the subdivision deed shall so note so I think you're protected so that so it does say the deed right I didn't yeah it says the subdivision deed um shall so know yes so we just need to make sure the language that gets into the Deeds matches the intent and since I will be reviewing those deeds when they're prepared right you can bet I'll be watching out for that okay so you made the motion stands I second all in favor I opposed extensions okay okay um we have uh 81 Alexander Avenue and I don't believe we had it oh uh Keith than Keith you had some comments on this one I see right and yours was the fact that the new building would be seen from alexand Avenue right I believe that's what the testimony was from the applicant well if you said the original partially obscured by the building in the front they said they they definitely said I because I had asked if you could see the current structure from the street and they said you could but it was obstructed so maybe it was the second yeah house yeah I was thinking the new structure oh the new structure the new structure I I asked will that be visible from the road they said yes oh I don't recall it but it's pretty far back yeah was like it's far back and it's partially behind the house so yeah but we can take that out like the like the proposed new lot containing the existing structure the new buildable lot will not be seen from Alexander Avenue and even after construction is likely not to be seen um maybe we should say the new the house on the new buildable lot shall be partially visible we can I don't know what function it serves one way take the whole thing out like you said we don't really need it yeah I was going to say is there is there a reason we need to acknowledge that or yeah so we remove it okay is there a motion to approve motion to approve as amended second all in favor opposed extensions [Music] abstain okay that brings us to our new business we have two applications on I think we have um four other resolutions for our board professionals which I think I miss you know what I probably you're not missing it it's not on your version okay I'm I'm looking at the version that's up on that the digital version yeah they they didn't amend to include those those board professionals I kind I really like to get those contracts um going with eyes as I'm sure you would um so we have a resolution uh to retain uh batty pavano uh as board attorney for 2024 is there a motion to approve that res so moved just a point of clarification I wasn't here for the executive session am I eligible to still vote on these only if you like gu okay noted is Ser second second uh all in favor I opposed extensions thank you very much and we have a resolution uh to retain Eric Bernstein and Associates as planning board conflict attorney so moved s second second all in favor I opposed extensions we have a resolution oh did I skip we have a resolution to retain Boswell engineering uh to serve as the planning board engineer for 2024 so moved is your second second all in favor opposed extensions it's really rude you come here one time and and we have one more we have a resolution to appoint level G Associates uh to serve as planning board parking expert I'm on a roll so moved is there second second all in favor I opposed no okay extensions all right got it okay now they applications um Mr tremula I understand that you represent both parties this evening I have both applications this evening I know we have them listed in a certain order on our agenda I know there's been some discussion about how the second one's going to be presented so I will leave it to you to decide who goes first Well we'd like aush connection application because I think as you'll see in a few minutes it's not take much time discuss this with J okay so could I'm I'm going to recuse myself from this I have a working relationship with the connection so I'll sit the back for that one so for the record um good evening everyone Allan tulac appearing on behalf of kush connection LLC um Kush connection uh was granted one of the uh retail cannabis uh licenses from the township to operate uh at of building at 135 Valley Road you might recall I guess maybe a year or so ago I had an application for um another cannabis operator who was hopeful of getting this license to operate down the street at 151 Valley Road the board approved that but they were not granted the license from the town but but Kush connection was and again with the intention uh the license applies to 135 Valley Road that's the subject of this application we applied for for conditional use approval and site plan approval we um we are not ready to proceed with site plan approval tonight we're still involved in revising the plans based upon comments we received from the development Review Committee and other things that we're working on however we would like to go forward and ask that the board um consider and approve our application for the conditional use permit only um and the reason we're requesting that rather than postpone the entire application because obviously we can't operate until we get both approvals um the concern we have and why we're asking for the board to B basically bifurcate this application is because that is because my client has um a uh conditional retail license from the state of New Jersey which will EXP expire in a couple of months if that license is not converted to a permanent or full license whatever it's called and in order to make that conversion and protect their State Licensing they need conditional use approval from this board so that's why we're asking the board to hear us tonight on the conditional use we'll come back hopefully within the next month or to for site plan approval um and you know the requirements for conditional use as I think this board um will recall from the two prior applications you had are pretty simple um there are essentially three requirements unless uh um Janice corrects me one is that the establishment cannot operate from uh operate as a home occupation uh it cannot be housed in a vehicle or other movable or mobile structure that's apparent since we're seeking to locate in the the building at 135 Valley um and the third requirement is that the uh establishment not be closer than 250 ft from the primary entrance of a public or private school or child care center now um we I I think in order to establish that requirement I'd like to call our um project architect Ryan Robertson from sonus architecture for very brief testimony on that can I ask how the bifurcated application works in this case I mean do we issue a resolution after this and then we just continue the hearing at a later date how does that work well it it would be basically two two two-phased application this is common with zoning board applications where you apply for a use variance and then come back later to get your site plan approval it's essentially what we're doing here we're basically asking for the board to approve this that this location meets the requirements for the conditional use but the r board resolution that would be adopted would confirm that but would also include a condition that is subject to this board granting site plan approval so we would not be able to operate from this location um until we hopefully obtain site plan approval from this board but this would protect our license with the state um by getting the conditional use approval so as a point of order do we need to make a motion to have this bifurcated thing go forward and have that motion be voted on or we've never um done that with any kind of we've bipoc matters before we've never done it by motion it's just been uh if the um applicant presents a good enough issue then you know we've allowed to continue that way just like we would carry something from one meeting to another I mean it doesn't if they don't come back to us is there a time limit when we do this that they have to come back to us with the with the site plan approval no no so if they're not going to come back to us with the site plan approval it just dies and if it's if condition have changed since we granted the first part which these conditions are pretty minimal so I really don't see that becoming an issue you know we could raise it if it would make a material difference in the second part of it but you know I wouldn't anticipate that that would be a complication so I have a question is the conditional use conditional license is it address specific yes okay so if you were to move to another address no you can't do that the town license is specific this location also thank you yes and and just by the way I I shared with Mr nise uh an email uh from my client's cannabis attorney explaining the time constraints and what I just tried to explain to the board um so he has that um you have any objections to that becoming part of the record not at all and that's their that's the time constraint on them it's not necessarily coming back to us but they they've got a clock running on trying to get this the other elements in place in order to in order to put this license together so that's what's going to limit the amount of time that either proceed or die yeah my client spent a lot of money and plus the money every day um and so they're uh very anxious to get this business opened as quickly as possible there no be there will certainly not be any intentional delay on our part so all right okay so um Ryan Robertson uh you need to be sworn before we do that if you don't mind Mr Robertson uh I can I I pre-marked the exhibits oh okay A1 is is the application A2 is the certification of taxes paid A3 is the proof of publication A4 is the Affidavit of service A5 is the survey prepared by Richard hingos dated June 5th 2023 A6 is the planning report dated November 1st 2023 um A7 is the site plan prepared by cus architecture dated October 13 2023 A8 is the report from the historic preservation commission dated November 9th 2023 A9 is the report from Boswell engineering dated November 29th 2023 and A1 is the report from the the development Review Committee dated December 28th 2023 so I think this would be A1 this is the email from Andy sick yes and this is dated Janu 22nd 2024 pass back to you no um just can I ask Mr tulac a question before we proceed yeah so um so what if you know you we move ahead with this and the conditional licensing is okay what if the site plan then is not okay what happens uh we can't proceed without you s approval so we you know we're we're in trouble okay thank you but does it does the conditional license still stand or no well the license would become you know um unconditional I guess with the state but there's you I think there's also requirements going forward that they have to be up and running by a certain period of time I don't know exactly what that is um but it will protect the license but not indefinitely protect protects the license at that specific address but yes and if they both the state license if they're not getting site plan approval at they address for all intensive purposes itad then got to start off yeah we'd have to come with another location which would have to be approved by the governing body and and I believe the state as well so we find thank you we'll find a way to get the site approved you know if there's a if revising it or something of the wor possible we one step one step at a time just want to know the param which is why we're working on it to make get you something that we think is approvable so yeah okay okay Ryan again sir do you somly swear the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do would you please State your full name and business affiliation for the record Ryan Robertson with s his architecture 8 side after Ryan rall have you testified before this board previously you have recently um yeah okay just very briefly put on the record your qualifications sorry about that it's usually me door open um Mr Rob I'm not gonna have to swear you again am I um why don't you provide the board with your uh you know summary of your educational background and your professional qualifications cuz you're also going to be testifying on the next application so uh graduated from North Dakota State University in 2003 um I'm licensed architect in the state of New Jersey um in good standing and I've testified before this board and several others in the area and been accepted as a witness can you move the yes I'll sit closer thanks I I think I think you mentioned this but I'm not sure and you're um employed with ssus architecture correct all right and you prepared the uh plans that have been submitted to the board in connection with this application correct okay and those plans are dated 1013 2023 it was exhibit 7 okay um all right so I just want you to focus on one thing and you prepare you included in your plans we will accept him as an ex oh I'm sorry thank you Mr chair um you uh included with your plans on the first page SP 101 a radius map can you just explain what that is and what it's intended to show yes um we have a detail bubble number four and five on the bottom right of the page SP 101 shows a vicinity map and a distance calculation um showing the 250 ft radius compliance from um any schools or childcare centers and it states that Serendipity Learning Center is 3,2 11 18 ft from the subject property um in a subsequent um Google search I've just compiled all these schools that are nearby and all of the following are um the closest schools and daycares all Beyond 500t radius to the West is Montclair Kimberly Academy upper school to the north is mon Montclair Kimberly Academy Middle School to the east is the George inis School the Monclair High School Montclair Cooperative school Renaissance middle school and to the South is the shamr amuna preschool Park Street Academy Immaculate Conception High School Hillside Elementary School and Montclair Community prek those are the closest and again all of those are further than 250 ft as required fall outside the radius that's correct shown on your uh the cinity map on the plan correct okay it's really all I have Mr chairman I think it establishes the third requirement for conditional use questions from the board uh I have a question the the radius that you did did it include schools and daycare centers licensed daycare centers um didn't check licensed I mean I I Google searched for daycare centers I wouldn't I guess no I I I did check I didn't submit the report to you but I did check the list of licensed daycare centers in Montclair and none of them were within 250 ft of the entrance of this of this building thank you J I think there's a list from the state it's probably where Miss tally got it from so again we have nothing further and I think that establishes the third um condition of the conditional use uh ordinance and I will just confirm that this is in a section on the NC Zone on Valley Road where this is a permitted conditional use do I have questions from the public concerning this witness testimony thank you very much did you step up and push the button is there a green button there yes terrific thank you and this is for question if you have if you have a statement we'll give you an opportunity to make that short oh but if you if you have a question of this witness that's what this is for okay my question is we need we need your name oh I'm sorry my name is Maria Mador and your address uh 139 B Road okay thank you how this is going to be when the parking lot in that area is the more difficult situation that we have I think the parking lot is an issue but that would be part of the site plan and that's not that's the second part part of the the hearing that we've been discussing that will deal with what's going on with the building and the property and how it will be configured and traffic and that kind of thing this is just for whether or not they meet the regulatory requirements statutory requirements for uh being able to go forward to go to that next step okay okay so um it's a it's a fair question but it's not something that will be decided this evening okay it'll be decided when they come back to us with a full plan that will will theoretically address that question um in a satisfactory way because if it doesn't you know there has to be there has to be a certain level of of of um uh operability to the site you know in terms of the parking in terms of how things are going how people are going to get into it how people are going to get out of it how it's going to impact the Community around it you know those are the things that we will consider at the when we deal with the site plan in the second phase of this okay thank you very much actually Mr chairman I I'll direct this to you and not to Mr tulac but I assume that the applicant notified the neighbors of the hearing tonight M and specifically talked about the bifurcating the so we'll so I guess I'll I'll end up addressing will the applicant Ren notice the neighbors absolutely we'll have to Ren notice again when we do come in for site plan since we don't know when that's going to be Y and just to confirm the neighbors that are noticed are the owners of the property not renters so if you have renters in these buildings I know it's standard but it's all it's all we yeah I know that's your what your obligation is but and how would we know who the tenants were just flyer in their mailbox well yeah I know you always felt that way but that would require an amendment to the state statute so I'll go petition them you I mean I think renters should be considered renters should be considered in something that changes their neighborhood they could be renting for 30 years and then you know but I know that's not the statute but I can't help myself and bring it up every time I know any other questions from the public of the witness concerning what he's testified to this evening okay all right um do you have anything further Mr CH nothing further all right is there anybody who wants to make a comment with respect to what's an issue this evening from the public you would you like to make a comment concerning uh the applicant's position that it it meets the three requirements uh in order to proceed to the next phase and that's kind of so that's simplifying it but distance from schools distance from schools spot on road right that is not a home occupation or a home no that it's not operating out ofle yeah all right the only thing those four things are the only things that we're acknowledging yes correct you know and with that you know I think that the applicant you know has made a met his burden and made a sufficient presentation to show that they're qualified so I would uh move that we approve this phase um and uh that they've met the qualifications and um so we can move forward second second okay all in favor I I opposed extensions okay all right thank you Mr chairman thank you all right don't go too far we we'll give you a couple minutes to transition okay you bring that up I bring up time all good leave that part of that has to do with the record in the town the town doesn't know who a tenant is unless there's some separate ten Administration which not could yeah I mean they can also just say to the property that's left they have but they can set a different standard could you make a part of the application package it's a little more complicated than just I understand I'm a tenant get it all right so this is the 225 Way Avenue yes again for the record Allan tulac appearing on behalf of the applicants or Daniel and Patricia rodo um this is an application for site plan approval and two c variances involving the property at 225 Lorraine Avenue property is located in the neighborhood commercial Zone District part of the upper Monclair uh business district just a few doors uh off of Valley Road and the property is the home of mine cronberg cleaners um which uh fun fact for the board is probably the oldest established business in the township of Montclair certainly one of the oldest it's been in existence since 1911 was originally located where Saunders Hardware is on Valley around the corner on Valley Road it's been operating from this current this location since 1940 um business um sorry my clients uh purchased the business um in 1991 and have operated it continuously for I believe 32 years if my math is correct um they also acquired the building they also own the building they purchased it in 200 um five it's a one-story building with a a small uh adjacent parking lot to the east um my clients uh filed this application for site plan approval to add a second story to the building approximately 2100 Square ft purpose of the addition as you'll hear from my client in a few minutes is to provide much needed additional space for the existing business which is rather cramped uh on the uh on the first floor there's you know they do a significant amount of alterations in Tailoring in a very confined space and are looking to just add more space to that uh add an office on the second floor that my client can actually move around in uh and also they're also seeking to add a one bedroom apartment on the second floor we're also proposing to reconfigure the parking lot adjacent to the property but the point of what I'm just saying is that there there's no intention to increase the intensity of this business but just to allow for better more functional space for the existing uh business and and the people working there um the two variances that we're seeking um first is a rear yard setback variance the existing building is setback 2.74 ft from the rear property line which is an existing you know non-conformity and we propose to uh have the second floor align with the uh rear of the existing building to provide for the same 2.74 uh foot uh setback uh in the rear um and then the second variant is of course a parking variance we're dealing with the business in a business district 14 spaces are uh required under the ordinance we're providing six physical spaces and one electric vehicle space which gives us credit for a total of seven spaces um there are existing today probably four at most five legal spaces on the property so um I think we're picking up an additional space we're also reconfiguring the lot to provide tandem spaces um rather than what exists today where you have angled spaces and cars are still going to have to back out like they do today but we think this is a more functional parking lot with also uh a number of site improvements around the parking lot um including you know buffering landscape buffering to the rear and to the side of the property so that's the nature of the application um I have U two witnesses my first witness is marchelo rodo and uh followed by Ryan Robertson who you just heard who will review the site plan and address the comments from the board boards professionals so Mr Mr TR just want to ask you a question about your opening yeah um you mentioned the addition of a one-bedroom apartment but you said it's not going to be more intense use apartment's not going to be rented out the business use obviously we're creating an apartment which increases and we're you know we're providing a parking space for so will'll be rented out yeah pardon me it will be rented out yeah well we're going to discuss that I didn't mean to suggest I mean the business use is not not intensifying but we are since we're putting the Second Story on adding a small one-bedroom apartment okay okay all right proceed all right um exhibits I guess um Janice can I ask you with respect to the exhibits is your planning memo part of is that an exhibit yes it is because it's it's addressed to the historic preservation commission and it probably should be addressed to the planning board the same report I just doesn't matter okay right because when that was submitted in the package I hadn't received any revised plans and rather than put just take their name off and put your name on it yeah I just pointed that out in case it was me we did review it the HBC did review it right so the plans I received I think late last week and I didn't get a chance to do a new report I didn't think I needed to do a new report because it didn't change I'm not trying to point down an error I'm just making sure that for the record it's okay right and I just want to point out normally I do an amended report but I didn't think that these changes warranted an amended report and um we do have a letter which is submit in front of you I'll mark it into the record from Mr Robertson summarizing the changes in the revised plans that you received um and I think that they respond a lot to the comments from the development Review Committee and the HPC um so but the exhibits um for this application include A1 the application A2 the certification of taxes paid A3 the proof of publication A4 the Affidavit of service A5 the survey prepared by Richard hingo dated June 3rd 2019 A6 is the site plan prepared by Sionis architecture which was revised with a revision date of January 15 2024 A7 is the planning report uh dated October 27th 2023 A8 is the report from the historic preservation commission dated November 9th 2023 A9 is the report from Boswell engineering dated November 30th 2023 A10 is the report from the development Review Committee dated December 28th 2023 A1 is the revised report from Boswell dated January 17th 2024 a 12 um and I don't know if you received this we did receive a uh report via email from the township engineer dated November 13 2023 which I did share with Mr tulac about parking uh and the handicap parking in the street I don't know if you received that in your packet or if it was online but we do have his information on that and a13 it would be the letter from cus architecture dat did January 16th uh summarizing the changes to the latest plans where I don't think I got the latest version of the plans um am I missing them the latest version of the plans 115 rised I think it was in the packet January 15th 20124 so I only get the electronic versions of the packet so I didn't see it on the the link there we got I'm pretty sure it's there there's one now this this is there's two there's one up on the on new website yeah there's there's two s there's two PL one's they both have the same date but one's one's revised there's two websites there's two websites don't go to the old website no I use the link that's in the agenda I never go to anything but the link in the agenda I'm sorry you know what that's my fault because I didn't change the link I need to change the link oh because that went to the old yeah I'm on Civic live unfortunately when I carry put this on I didn't put the new link into the new website so I apologize for that I'll make sure that I make those changes so what's the date on the latest the latest it's dated January 15 2024 revised or that's that's the revision that's the revision yeah it was prepared the or the original dates March 28th 2023 I guess the confusion for that coming confusion for that's coming from the fact that there's two with that date and one is labeled rev one and the other one is not and so I'm not sure thank you I'm not sure why there's two two applications with that same date on the website I know why because I I don't upload them anymore I used to somebody else does I'm not sure why I have to double check it yeah and you know right yeah it was because we sent you PDF and then it didn't have the clouds on it so the one rev one show the class I had asked Mr Robertson to circle the changes and I guess the Rev one has the the changes are circled in the plan that's the only difference so the Rev one is the yes most current that's the one that you have here in that were distributed and that should be that's the one that's up on the township website well there's two Township website the agenda that the link the link on the agenda that's on it the link on the agenda went to the old website that didn't have the updated plan no not that one but this is it's got the Rev one so the the link in the agenda went to a totally different site it went to the old Civic live version of our website not the one that you're on okay so I'm now I'm trying to download that as I sit here well here here with a dumb question for our Council are we able to consider this under the circumstances or we have an openal problem uh as long as the board has access to the latest set of plans I don't see why we couldn't go forward yeah you received the copies and the it's on the website if you go it's just that the link on the agenda is is incorrect but the pending applications information on the website is correct so it's a matter of an incorrect link on the agenda on the website car mean what Janice just said the last thing was important is is that the the information the right information is available to the one link well it's not an I agree with that based on the last always whatever okay got to always check my links okay okay ready you need to be SM he's going to swear to me sir do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do would you move that microphone a little bit closer to you and would you please State your full name and business affiliation for the record okay my name is Daniel marchella rodo um I live in 198 Char Street in Clifton New Jersey I'm the owner or um of Molin crumber cleaners and uh that's what okay and marchel are you also one of the owners of the property at 225 Lorraine Avenue yes I am and you own that property together with your wife Patrica is that correct correct which is sitting on my left okay and that Pro that property is in fact occupied by molan cromberg cleaners correct um and how long have you is that is the business owned by you and your wife also yes sir okay how long have you and your wife owned the business since 1991 okay and and um at some point you acquired ownership of the property correct correct when was that 2005 okay have you operated the business uh at this location since 1991 since then yes do you know how long Milan cromberg cleaners has been in business since 1911 uh the first owners were Molen and cromberg uh and I'm the fourth generation um owner of the the actual business okay and do you know how long the business has operated from this location at 225 Line Avenue from my records that are in since chura 1940 okay TR Mr Rodeo could you move that microphone a little bit closer to you when you speak pick up your voice I get to insert a wow during this pause it's a pretty impressive what's that it's a pretty impressive thing it's worth noting I'm noting it fourth generation business been in Montclair for 100 years yeah um okay so the existing building at 225 the rain it's a one-story building correct yes it is okay and you've filed this application with the planning board seeking approval to um enlarge the building primarily cons to construct a second floor Edition correct yes okay can you explain to the board why it is you're seeking to add the Second Story to the building well um we need more space um we are all cramped in uh we don't have a large area where we could conduct uh tailoring we use um we use um large uh large pieces of clothing that require you know big table and uh we really are not uh we are not in the best way to do it right now we do it but it's not the best way to do it that's why we would like more space and also we do a lot of alterations for um wearing gowns and there is a lot of um a lot of ladies that would like some a little more privacy uh which is hard to get right now and um I also would like to have a little office other than a telephone booth so I could conduct a little bit of business without being interrupted every 3 minutes um are otherwise I have to bring all that home also because it's it's it's just impossible to do it um certainly that's the most that I'm looking for you know let's talk about that just a little bit um you currently have an office uh on the first floor if you could if you could call it yes yeah operating out of the space you indicated was the size of a phone booth or so correct okay so um and that who uses that office primarily primarily me and my wife you know and uh we are we are you know we marryed so we could actually fit and with you know and it's okay anybody else coming in cannot be done okay so the new office that you're hoping to construct on the second floor uh would that simply basically replace the office on the first floor and continue to be utilized by you and your wife yes okay um and you your business currently involves tailoring and alterations correct of course and that's currently done on the first floor everything roughly where and how much space do you have right now for the alter alterations for the alterations is it's not that much uh we actually crumbling into into the coing area also uh some of the sewing machines and everything will be like a 300 350 Square ft which is it's very improper to do you know sometimes people have when people go in to try and clothing we have some some of the deers have to move or get out of the way and you know it just to us it's okay but some some people not be doesn't look really right to conduct business okay so you're looking to have more more space and more comfortable space for not only your employees but also your customers sure sure for every body okay um is there any other business um uses you know proposed for the second floor other than what you just described nosiness for what we have okay I I think the plan show a small kitchenette area oh just not really it's just maybe there if there is a um a lady that wants to try on clothing uh will give us a cup of coffee or Ser a little bit of water you you know to have something and just to accommodate you know to make him feel comfortable okay okay um and um you're also proposing to um include on the second floor a one-bedroom apartment is that right yes okay do you have a tenant identified for that apartment tentative will be my son which he just joined the business uh about 6 months or maybe a year now time is flying but uh he would like to move there no guarantees but he would like to move there okay you're and you're you're hopeful but you don't know for sure that right the tenant is so if it's not your son it would be another tenant you would R to is that correct yes um all right so um based upon what you just described as the reasons for the second floor Edition um do you anticipate that there would be any increase in the volume of your business as a result of adding the second floor to the building I would like to have 300% more but that that is going to happen you know nobody knows but that would happen hopefully regardless of whether you did the second floor but no yes exactly okay and that's for Comfort do you anticipate hiring any additional employees or staff as a result of the second no right now all right so is it safe to say that the business would essentially operate the same way as it operates today but with just better and more additional space um on the second floor yes okay um what are the hours of operation for the business Monday through Fridays uh 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. okay and approximately how many employees do you have working in the business 12 okay how do those employees get to work uh most of them they use uh public transportation uh Uber lift and maybe one or two they drive okay um where do the the employees where do the employees who drive Park their vehicles they use the parking lot uh not our parking lot in the the municipal parking okay um do you restrict your employees from parking in the in your parking lot yes because we don't have a that much room okay kind of give that so they're not allowed to park in the parking lot we don't have the luxury okay um all right so I want to talk a little bit about how the existing parking lot is utilized today yes um do how many spaces in the lot are utilized to park uh vehicles either of employees or business Vehicles well we have a van that stays there overnight uh during the day is not there because it's um making its uh deliveries it's rounds which is pretty much from 8:00 a.m. till 400 p.m. [Music] um one one parking is for is for me and my wife we come together we don't take two cars we don't we don't do that okay we limit ourselves also and then the rest is for the for customers that they come in and out okay yeah so you you basically utilize two spaces one for the van which is actually out as you said during the day making deliveries and pickups and really not parking it during day business hours is that correct correct okay and then you use another parking space for your personal vehicle you or your wife okay so it's just those two spaces that are utilized by I'll say the business or business employees yes okay and the remaining spaces that you currently have and how many are there do you know how many legal spaces there are existing there three Park on an angle three spaces Park on an angle yeah Park on an angle right now that's the way I inherit the the the the building and the business and that's how it was marked so I kept it the same way and those spaces are basically reserved for the use of uh customers is that right yes many times a lot of people they just park there and they go to dunin Donuts or wherever they go and I don't see them it's it's hard to know where they went but it is what it is that's just a fact the people who are parking in that lot who are your customers and I assume you try to limit it to your customer um um how long would they typically be parked it's uh typically you going into the cleaners as you will know um a few minutes it's not it's not Park all the time no not half hour or an hour no it's in 5 to 10 minutes the most that each individual will come in and out most people are just coming to drop off or pick up correct cleaning correct correct um and I guess people who come for alterations would use the lot and be there for a little bit longer a few more minutes Jo yeah okay um So the plan that we've submitted to the board proposes to reconfigure the parking lot and um provide um a total of six tandem parking spaces where you'd have one car parking uh behind another um how do you intend to utilize those spaces or allocate those spaces the six new spaces the back of them it will be for the van I would say Maya space and for the tenant so you you intend to have a dedicated parking space um for the tenant in the the rear on the rear okay and the three or four customers in and out so the customers would then Park in uh behind those three three spaces M okay and they would back out just like they do today no difference okay um okay um I think that's all I have for Mr Rodeo no further questions this time questions from the board do you clean clothes on the location or is it pick up and drop off no we do everything in house okay do you have any environmental issues environmental issues if there is any issues they are being uh taken care of by uh by uh by environmental office so there are environmental issues yes yes okay any dry cleaning that established uh has an environmental issue in the state in actually in the whole country are you musing about the apartment cuz so am I I wasn't aming about the apartment I was just there's monitoring Wells all over the neighborhood and I was curious if they're coming from that's that's it's from it's not only from me it's from all the cleaners uh gasoline stations um actually that is also from all the automobile um uh mechanics those are all they have unfortunately those have um they have used non-friendly environmental uh uh solvents we don't use that you know since two in 2001 we haven't used any U any of those chemicals but who was there before I kind of say that they did not so that's why we there are those monitoring Wells and uh and they are all over town all over town and every and every town in New Jersey and actually in the in the country so is there a cleanup going on or is it just monitoring at this point this is monitoring you know they just didn't want it to to go into the water uh into the water table so once they get into the water then but if there is none they just monitor it and that's it okay have they done and now I'll move to the apartment have they done any indoor air testing indoor testing there is no there is no issues no issues even for a resident who will live there all the time yep there is no issues he's going to put his kid there so just I mean it could be his kid it could be another tenant I mean if if you're doing cleaning on Prop I've been there 32 years and I'm still okay sure uh you are welcome to see what I do in my in my shop so the expectation is that if people need alterations they're going to come in and walk upstairs and that's the that's the plan not all of them but most of them yes some of them they have minor minor alterations don't have to walk upstairs but the people that have you know major alterations that you know they will you see what you did there huh you see what you did there but that's not our problem other questions from the board so did you say the tenant spot is going to be dedicated there'll be a sign says tenant parking only and that'll be what spot number one on the plan here uh I think it's going to be where the spots numbered uh it would be number three number three on the east side and where will Mr Rodeo's van be uh Pro number one which is kind of where it's where it it Parks currently the van would be number one number two would be for for him his wife or or employee if they choose to gave it to an employee and then number three would be for the tenant and then four five and six um would be for customers is there still a proposed loading space in the street we're proposing that yeah subject to the town approving it now there's no loading space now so I mean we could you know we haven't requested a variance for it but we could on the basis of the fact that there you know it's existing you know nonconformity but we're we're hopeful to get the town to approve a loading space as well as an ADA parking space you know on Bell Avenue but that's a matter that has to go to the governing body so uh if the board you know favors us with an approval that would have to be a condition cuz there's no parking in front correct there's currently no parking in front of this property parking begins uh like two doors down and goes down the rest of the rain Avenue yes and would the van use that loading space during the day in and out you know for a couple of minutes drop off pick up and go away cuz it would assume if it's parked all the way in the back customers are going to park behind it and then you're kind of trapped for a period of time hard you know yes other questions from the board any questions from the public with respect to Mr Rodeo's testimony this evening oh Mr TR okay um call Ryan Robertson good job thank you thank you there full screen the T while they're getting set up I have has a PowerPoint presentation I have part cop oh we talked I have I call yeah okay ready when you are Mr CHL I think we'll mark the presentation is :14 okay thank you he's ready to swear you went again sir do you sol Solly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do would you please State your full name and business affiliation for the record Ryan Robertson sayon is architecture 8 Hillside in Montclair thank you okay well Ryan you gave your Mr can I ask you a preliminary question before we get started uh did anybody from HPC have an opportunity to review the new design I don't not yet I we didn't provide it to HBC so it didn't go to any of like the revisions committee or any uh any group any subcommittee within the HPC okay thank you we we didn't I mean unless it was I would like to address that a little bit later but I just wanted to inquire thank you okay well Ryan you provided your professional qualifications about 30 minutes ago is it safe to say that your license hasn't been hasn't been revoked or otherwise nullified in the last 30 minutes still in good standing okay good all right so so you uh you prepared the plans for this project as well correct that's right all right and you've also uh prepared a PowerPoint presentation which is typical for your office um to assist you in presenting And discussing the plans this evening correct correct and you have that on the screen and um we've we've marked that that as A14 for identification so I'm going to ask you if you would go through the PowerPoint and walk the board through um um through the site plan and what what we're proposing for the property before we do that um Mr Robertson you're testifying as an expert tonight in what field architecture ra registered arure yeah thank you okay um so you can see the PowerPoint on the screen this is mostly the drawings that you have in front of you um a few a few slight uh different images that you'll see this is the um application for 225 lurine Avenue Montclair on on the screen you see a um property survey by Richard hingos dated June 3rd 2019 uh the lot is approximately 66 ft by 59 ft trapezoidal in shape it's 0.09 Acres or 4,95 ft it's located on the north side of Valley Road between Valley Road and Norwood Avenue 70 ft from Valley Road and then a lot is improved with a one-story brick and stucko building and a paved parking area the existing parking partially extends into the rideway which is shown more clearly on a later slide which I'll talk about in more detail next slide please and so here's a photo of the existing Google Street View dated October 2021 you see um to the West here is Veggie Heaven this is the subject property and to the east is a 2 and 1 half story building which is a dental office um the operator which is here today and the subject building is Brick and stucco with a wood shingle mansart roof concealing a flat roof next page please and so here we have some rear and Alley views which are sort of important to this application the alley as you see right here where I'm pointing is on the property itself and this is a view looking to the South when standing to the west of the building so to the left of the image is the cleaner here and here's a view of a tree in the backyard which the plans show to be removed but since the date of this photo um that has already happened so the tree is no longer there um the property line in this photo is somewhere between the face of this building and the face of this fence um it's 2.9 ft from the face of the building in this corner back here and it extends to um 21 and the corner sort of behind where this photo was taken next photo photo or next slide please and here's an image of the surrounding area uh image courtesy Bing satellite 3D view from 2023 to the east is that 2 and a half story dental office to the West is an auto shop vegi heaven and Williams Sonoma and to the South is Saunders Hardware on Valley Road and that is the previous location of molan cronberg from when it started in 1911 it subsequently moved to the current location 221 Lorraine in 1940 um The Proposal let's see I'm sorry next slide please here's the proposal for the application which is to construct as Allan said a a two-story um addition consisting of one dwelling unit and an additional office space we intend to keep the dry cleaner operational during construction so the proposed location of the stair um to the second floor and the roof is located in that alley that was in the previous slide right here to the West uh we proposed new green roof spaces a repaved parking lot which is restriped as was testified earlier to six tandem parking spaces one EV charging station located right around here a new garbage and recycling enclosure located right here underneath the canopy extension which is the second floor kind of squares this building off and uh here are the six parking spaces um I don't know if we need to talk more about well I do well yeah before you do that just a quick question the the trash enclosure that's proposed does that comply with the town ordinance yes okay all right yeah I think you should talk about um the existing parking which I think is shown on this uh slide as well as the proposed parking that's right um let's talk about the existing first yeah so okay I'll go to the first so you can see the dash lines on this photo which are right here here here here here and here um this Dash extends onto the public sidewalk um all these spaces are quite bad um it's maybe only four spaces that are acceptable but right now employees sometimes Park here or the van Parks here overnight which is where we're proposing that it would it would stay overnight and then I think that's part of the reason we're asking for this um loading zone because they have a pretty healthy delivery service so the van is gone all day long and would just need to come in and have a quick spot to exchange garments um as we said earlier 14 spaces are required by the ordinance um and we're proposing seven the six you see here and and a credit for one with that EV charger um we talked about this space here for visuals that would be dedicated to the tenant um can I ask you a question about the EV space so ordinarily I'm a big proponent of putting EV Chargers wherever we can it seems a little odd for a business that's this kind of in andout I mean it see it almost seems like you're asking for trouble that somebody's going to park there and charge and disappear that's true I mean it could be these spaces are are going to be reserved for employees and the Tenant so the tenant especially could have access if he depending on where his Port is so you're thinking it's more it's more it's a good thing to have since you're going to have a residential unit there and it is what it is and it's always good to ad them we need more and more of them and it gets us a credit certainly right about that yeah it gets us a credit for it gets a credit well I I knew that well well I'm saying I'm just saying that if if he if he's asking for a variance anyway and so in other words if it it's just I it if if you want it fine it's not no the EV charging station could be yeah if someone did want to park here I don't think there'd be anything stopping especially if they're coming for a a gown fitting or something they might want to park there for a half hour or a while and they could use that but if somebody living down the street wanted to charge their car I don't think think it would be customers only yeah but I mean except he's already testified he can't stop them I just I just I have a feeling it's just going to become a anything goes leave it there for six hours but it's it's there for the credit it's also it's also it's also a requirement now think of realist it's not just it's not optional it's a requirement so that they provide the EV charging space so they don't have an option for that it's a state law oh okay so and if we're concerned about spot in front of the tenant is that what you said where's the Eevee going it's going where the tenant spot is supposed to be we proposed it right here right oh in the middle in between I see but there's nothing stopping us from locating it back here if we needed to if he it could be used for either it could be shared among spaces right I think we were proposing a one port but yeah if you had a two Port it could be shared if you have it in that one PT who can use which spaces can use it in this in the location we show it depends on the vehicle I think where the port is located so how they p and how they pull in right can the tenant get out if there's a gown fitting going out for 30 minutes or they have to wait is I see there's a gap there is there a way for them to sneak around there or are they stuck if the tenant was parked here and a customer comes in here they'll have to wait until they leave to back out but if the tenant is the sun he's he's working there and he no I I understand but if it's not if it's not yeah then they might be stuck there until that gown fitting is done okay yeah and if and if the idea is that the EV charger is going to be made available it needs to be up front it has not in the back of the sorry yeah because in the back it'll between the cars that stay there it's it's it'll be blocked all but I I guess the the law doesn't say it has to be available per se it has to say it says it has to be there well let's let's look at the law in a way that makes sense but but that is a question does the EV uh parking spot need to be available to the general public you yeah you know if if it's going to make any sense at all I mean it's the the EV charger there is inconsistent with the In-N-Out okay you know unless the one tenant or you or your truck or your your delivery van you know are electric you know or your personal car is electric you know otherwise you know if it's if it's going to have any have any benefit to the rest of the surrounding area it's got to be one of the it's got to be in the front so that theoretically somebody could go out and hook up to it for 15 minutes to get whatever benefit they could out of it just just to clarify the state Rags do not dictate how the EV spaces are managed just that they're provided so the state did its usual bang up job and draft drafting that legislation so in other words they could be confined just to the owners of the property I think they should right and you can limit it just to to workers or tenants and not provide it for customers right and do we dictate whether it needs to be fast charging or I believe our standard say it has to be at least level two which how many hours would that be or about like 6 to8 gets you a full charge 6 to 8 hours there's three levels that's like an Ian if you want we don't require a fast charging station which is a lot more expensive but at least a level two which would be overnight charging I know I'm I'm just advocating that we do something that makes a little bit of sense as opposed to something that makes very little sense I think the kind of middle placement does the best it can in that because it fits for the one in the back and allows for one in front um perhaps figuring out how that spot that would be blocked in by the electric charging port is managed um deciding what you do with that further rear spot um could dictate the usefulness I want to go in the other direction I actually want to let them let them I only because I consistent with what the chair said I just don't want I don't want a micro management but I also don't want to make you do something that's inconsistent I I don't want to make you do something that's going to cause the spot to be blocked off for a long time by somebody who's not patronizing your client's business it seems to me it makes sense that because there's usually a quick turnover with customers that in this instance it would make sense to have the charging station for customers or tenants not I mean workers employees are tenants and not customers right that's what yes yeah that's what and I think we're I think marchell is open to wherever the board recommends if it's a condition for approval if if they State you want it here if you state you want us to move it to the back I think we're open to any of those I don't think we want to I don't think we want to get into it I just I think we're I think we're musing in a way that we're not trying to we we're we're we're not going to tell you what to do with it but we're suggesting that you not make it worse for yourselves but it's going it's going to be a one one port uh charger right could it be two and thereby it could be two it doesn't get us an extra credit but we could do it to if the applicant agrees to the cost it costs more for a two port like why yeah but I think I think you're all bringing up a good point about this being reserved for the tenant if this is truly the location of the port it doesn't make sense for the tenant to be there that makes sense for that to be an employee space so that they're there all day and they may get blocked in by someone charging for 15 minutes but they're not leaving and and the van here and and maybe this one becomes the tenant but that would be an arrangement that Marell would make with the tenant whatever makes the most logical sense I think you know given the nature of the you know small property owner occupied there all the time I mean parking lot's going to require some Management on the part of the owner and of course they have an interest they're not going to let people you know from the public just pull up and you know charge their car during the day for six or eight hours I mean it's you know he's a nice guy but um you know he just going to require you maybe some management you know we recognize as we already discussed that you know we're envisioning that if the tenant is not um the son and it's another tenant that likelihood is that the you know the car would not be parked there but during business hours but there may be times where it is parked there he needs to come in and a customer pulled behind him well then they're going to just have to make sure that customer comes out and the Tenant will be notified of that that this is the situation and they might have to wait a few minutes you know if they're parking during business hours and somebody's blocking them in and they need to wait until that customer moves but all of this is really I think with signage help that be signage yeah can I ask a question Kevin are um if a non electrical Vehicles parks in an EV parking station uh charging station are they ticketed not private lot on public the public lot they would be okay can I ask you another question this is not a deal breaker issue for me at all but who pays for the electricity I think they have credit cards in them it's it's a it's I whoever use whoever using it has to pay for it I believe so I wonder if the um there's enough image in the information statute provide for that it's not determined in this St of course not I have a picture of the spec but I ridiculous for this property just think it's is that typically the way they handle I think so okay all right yeah I have a picture of the spec but I I can't zoom in close enough to see if it has a swipe well make sure make sure you get one that has a credit card um so I'll go back to this what I was saying was the interrupted you was the stripe um diagonal striping that exists right now was very suboptimal because I think a lot of the people that exit tend to head this direction towards Valley and you have to back out in like a 270° turn it's really kind of dangerous and not good and that's another reason why the tandem space will be much more safe for whichever direction you're going to travel yeah um and getting all the parking out of the sidewalk is we're going on to line right yeah yeah this is lra I keep hearing Valley this is Valley it's l okay do you have to do a wider curb cut um no we're keeping the existing curb cut which is already wide wide enough for three three cars yeah it's it goes from here right now all the way to here but even in this Arrangement there is going to have to be backing out for everyone it's just much safer um okay so we we think the tandem spacing configuration you see here will be a vast Improvement to what's there um and also on this slide uh which I've got 10 more slides um here's the the dashed line of the property line that Mr Trac alluded to that's one of our variance requests the rear property setback is 20 ft and here's how much of the existing building is already Beyond and um we require a variance to build on top of the existing footprint so and so this setback back of the second floor will match the setback of the rear of the existing build correct and another thing I'd like to note on this slide was a comment in the Boswell report comment number 22 pointed out that right here um this is very difficult to see on this slide here but if you have the paper you could look at it the property line as I showed in the photo goes through the middle of this between the fence in the building we proposed gravel on our side of the property line but the drawing shows a a granite curb extending to the fence and it shows a Ryerson Steel edging for the Landscaping right here extending to the fence um so we would propose eliminating that and stopping it at the property line so that we comply so you eliminate the encroachment the curb encroachment onto the that's right adjoining property okay uh next slide please this slide shows some more information about the site um here you see existing Arbor right here um we proposed to keep 11 of them starting at this corner by the dental office extending all the way to here and then eliminating four of them and this is so that we can have this dark shaded area is a gravel area um 3 ft wide between the the curb in the planting bed that we intend to use for snow removal or snow storage um and and vehicle overhang and the lighter shaded area right here would be proposed gravel that was talking about and the reason we wanted to develop remove the tree which has already been removed and kind of develop the back here a little bit is because we wanted to kind of be a good neighbor since we plan to take this alley and we don't know how people in these two existing buildings use the alley um but it is our property and so we would like in case some of an emergency someone needed to thought they could get out through the rear and needed someplace to go we have a a clear path for them free of obstruction so that they could walk on the property and go behind our building to get out in the event of some sort of emergency was the tree removed in anticipation of this design I um I'm not sure did it you have to cut it because something happened weatherwise yes because it fell on the roof half oh that's a good reason that's a good reason yep so I have another question about the slide I think I saw it in your presentation that you have agreement to close close up vegie Heavens windows we have reached out out to the um neighbor I don't know if want to speak I I can address that because I know this was an issue brought up at the DRC um the fact that the zoning allows us to go right up to the property line there are two windows on the first floor at the rear of U the Veggie Heaven restaurant which would be essentially closed if we could but by by us doing what we're allow allowed to do which is to extend the building to the property line so you're allowed to extend the building to the property line even though there would be windows on the adjacent property oh correct yeah okay there's no exception for that and I do want to tell you and I can provide a copy of this because you raised it at the DRC meeting about letting that property owner know I wrote a specific letter in addition to sending the legal notice um to all the property owners I wrote a separate letter which I sent by certified mail on January 9th to the owner of 631 Valley Road um in which I specifically told them what the plans were and the fact that we're proposing an expansion of the building um to the to the property line and although it's legally permitted quote I nonetheless wanted to bring this to your attention because the expanded building will block the existing walls the existing windows on the Eastern side of your building occupied by the veggie uh Heaven restaurant again that was sent out um I haven't received any response it's the most we could do so I should probably you know have copies of this not that you need them but okay um not yet yes you also I don't know if you're finished with this slide but I've got a lot more on this SL oh go ahead okay good can I just asked one more questions those windows were barred anyway were they I think so yeah I think it's kitchen windows from the restaurant what happens with the uh piping and wiring that's on the Veggie Heaven building right I I have a a slide later that's showing that when we get to the elevations but um there's a radon pipe that we've designed the stair so that it could be be rerouted under the stair and up um which you'll see in in a later slide if that's okay and is that for r on it specifically yeah we believe so um or is a Ron type fan for say an environmental issue from a dry cleaner probably probably could be yeah either way it's been there a while but you don't have one operating in your building but okay and they have an air conditioning unit too right I think on the second floor there they they have a window up there that has air conditioning unit so that'll have to get removed no actually it's not Air Condition it's just a shell it's a shell it doesn't have an air condition it's just a shell like there's it's doesn't operate it's just a where they where the actual air condition fits but there is no air condition they have a central air condition and that's just maybe it was many years ago and it was left there by them but there is nothing there just except the bracket or it's just the bracket yeah bracket actually the updated plan you have um which we'll see on when we get to the floor plans I've shown the existing Windows um these are the windows we want to block but both stories have a window here for you know for um ventilation natural ventilation and daylight both places so which we are not planning to block um so moving on on this slide um there's a clouded area a revision Cloud right here that I just want to bring your attention to because the Boswell letter made a note of this um and so I'll explain that was a the removal of a note that was there that was stating that the applicant in the previous submission that the applicant should purchase an overnight parking permit um for hours between 5:00 p.m. to 8 plus weekends but um we removed this note in lie of adding a note on the zoning chart and the revision um for the apartment resident to obtain a par parking permit in the public lot however like as we've testified today we would like for the resident um to have a dedicated space and likely marchello's son um so that he works in the building um to the east of the lot here we show this planting strip um which is 3' 5 1/2 in wide from the property line um to the face of the curb planted in the front here this light green color is five Carolina rose shrubs which are deciduous they grow 3et tall and 3T wide and to the rear from here all the way to the back are 18 Shamrock inkberries which is an evergreen shrub these grow 42 to 48 in tall and are 3T wide the red arrows on this diagram show a pedestrian path for the employees or the tenant um the green is a pedestrian path to either the entrance to the dry cleaner right here or the private entrance um to the tailoring and the apartment um we also proposed on this drawing we show the curb painting for the proposed loading zone right here and signage and for the proposed handicap uh parking space um since there's no room on the site um currently there's no safe handicap parking spaces on the site and we are required one by ordinance and by Ada so um right now when needed people will call ahead and ask for assistance getting in and out of the building and they would continue to do that but hopefully um Mr tulac and the applicant will pursue the appropriate legal process for obtaining handicap parking on the street um with the council and the mayor excuse me briefly um The Pedestrian walkway through the parking lot was there any consideration giv um or perhaps there should be consideration given to making that a slight rise it'll both slow cars going into the rear of the property and also provide a bit of more safety for the pedestrians walking through an active parking lot yeah that's an interesting thought um but we we do need the the parking lot to pitch this way for drainage reasons so I wonder if we had the rise if that um might be a problem I don't know if there's a way to have a channel in it or something um that would be a possibility but it's a good point you can't have um wheel stops or Ballers or anything because then you can't use the other spaces um but no we did not we did not consider that um there could also be um maybe the raised um the raised path like you see at an intersection well that's that's what I'm suggesting kind of like just essentially a speed table matching The Pedestrian walkway um I see I thought you meant like a speed hump no not like a speed hump but like a raised raised crosswalk essentially I see yeah I mean I think we would be open to that if the board um needed that for condition of approval a raed a raised crosswalk wouldn't continue to obstruct the drainage flow well that's why I was wondering if it has channels underneath it like what I'm not sure I haven't looked at them enough we could or just different colored brick like we sometimes use right just to distinguish it yeah sure there is the the painted stripe um right here the diagonal painted stripe but um okay uh then let's see I already talked about that um so all of these updates you see on here um result in a slight decrease in the impervious coverage due to the gravel and the planting area is um but very slight we went from 94.6% um impervious down to 94.33% and we we gathered information about that poll and show the uh show the foot candle readings there is one that is under the 05 required and it shows up on the plan right about here it says 04 um but we should probably get an accurate reading or we will get an accurate reading of what exists and we could provide supplemental Lighting in that area if needed but um and then the next slide please quick question on on on this yes sir um you don't have an engineer who will be testifying I okay so uh you're not touching the elevation of the current lot can you just describe how the drainage works now yeah yes um right now this is the high point it all pitches all of this is surface runoff on the on the parking area all the roof drainage collects and empties out into you can see it in one of the photos in the drawing um I can't remember what sheet I can tell you but there's there's a sheet that has existing condition photos and one of them you can barely make out that there's uh like a pipe Outlet right here and a pipe Outlet right here and that connects to the roof drainage and we intend to connect to the same so this entire square footage of drainage that's being handled by those underground pipes it would be the same and the survey shows that it's being almost dead flat um he's only he only measured the corners of the property um no I'm sorry there's a foot 1.25 ft from the back to the front on the right side yeah about 1.25 ft I guess I'm sorry that's yeah it goes up a bit yeah maybe a little bit less on the on the left side um did you consider um retaining anything um is there anything that although it's not required because you're not really any more in Pur surface um you can are you are you confident that you don't need I know you added the the gravel for I guess that's to infiltrate some of the water from the snow that you you canile y That's intended for snow storage when they need to plow and have someplace to put it this right now is currently um pervious because it's just dirt and clumpy grass and we just make it easier to walk on with um gra PE gravel so that that's kind of not a gain or or deficiency there yeah and then just explain again where's all the roof going to where's the roof going to flow now so all the we're going to have a green roof here this whole area that will collect underneath underneath the tiles and and feed to the perimeter we'll have a perimeter drain and find where it connected to this so the roof May pitch half to the left half to the right underneath the green roof system and then connect to the pipes that exist right now that empty on the street so you'll be dumping into the street yeah don't do it now yeah oh I guess it's coming off the roof now onto the parking lot and then going into the street anyway no it it goes comes off the roof into a pipe that's already buried underground probably right here okay this if you were to dig a hole you would find that pipe so it is coming off the roof now it is coming off the roof so you guess I guess you'll slow it down roof right while we're um sorry while we're talking about the drainage just going back to that curb in the back left that's going to be removed does that have any effect on the drainage in that part of the site or um you know I don't have the I don't have the elevation there but I mean I know this is the high point of the site um we could do you know a rough grade below the P gravel to make sure we have sort of a sale to pull it out um but yeah okay yeah that's the best I I know for about that right now all right these underground pipes have have you investigated them are they operational they're operational right marel like yeah yeah when it rains you see it coming out and you don't have any problems leaks in the building or anything no since it's already a flat roof okay we're ready for the next slide so here we move on to the floor plans uh the first floor is an existing 1,818 squ ft um that's it I'm sorry that's inclusive of this 128 squ ft² here for the addition or the stairs um we propose a new storefront system in the front here um the first Fuller business operation is mostly unchanged in this plan except for kind of this area um the counter area where you come pick up and drop off um and then there's a small space that exists right here which I believe is where marchello now is forced to do tailoring kind of right in the in the picture window no privacy and very small space um for workers and people and like he said he'd like to um he's getting a lot of demand for wedding gowns and stuff and he'd like a a more private space so um the revision clouds that you see on here show some of the plan changes since the HPC and the DRC meetings um we have called the adjoiner windows so you see that clouded here these are the ones that would need to be that are going to be blocked off and then U here's the window here that I mentioned is not blocked off that would still have ventilation and and daylight um our previous plans were for a metal canopy in the front um which we presented to the HBC but they frowned upon that and um suggested a fabric awning which we've agreed to um they suggested that we extend it all the way across the face of the building which we've done here are two employee doors um those would remain those are near the proposed trash enclosure which is right here underneath um the overhang of the addition and here is the private entrance that would lead to the apartment and also for a tailoring customer would come and check in with marchello or Patricia or Leonardo and be escorted up um so that door would just not be open to the public um you'd have to get an escort and next page please building buildings are joined it might be too much detail but do you seal up that um they're literally touching each other within a half an inch or so or um and then that little Gap do you seal it from the top so that there's no intrusion into it from yeah so do you need you need an agreement with your neighbor to do that to essentially join the buildings together right well we'd have to flash it properly um but to touch their building you can't touch their building and affect it without some sort of agreement I would assume well I I believe we're be we're allowed to put our wall up to our property line and if if it is Razor thin and they're touching the property line I believe we're allowed to construct and if a a CMU block is touching a piece of their stucco I believe that's allowed but um you know I don't I don't know the answer about yeah I haven't got to that level of detail about what happens at the top where you flash cuz that drip May overhang I'm I'm not sure it seems like well I guess although we can't necessarily require it sure be nice to see that we some yeah so we're we're working on correspondence with them I guess we're waiting to hear back well we're trying to do what you know I mean we going have our way to to the cognizant of the neighbor giving the additional notice and also constructing that emergency uh egress to the rear which I don't think we're obligated to do that but you know that issue you know something we would certainly communicate with the neighbor about okay um and this is the second floor plan here uh you see the stairwell that leads back down to the first floor and wraps around to give roof access um at the rear of this plan is the one-bedroom one B dwelling unit with a den located in this rear corner in the front is the tailoring and alteration space that we talked about here's a a private um fitting room here's a work area for the tailor this is a kind of a lounge area with lots of mirrors to show the uh to try on wedding gowns with your bridal party or your mom or whoever um and here's the kitchenet um like marello said just to provide coffee service and and beverages um for people if they're there for a little bit um so I just want to want to make sure I understand what I'm seeing here so so on the first floor plan there's a second door that leads to the stairwell that I assume the tenant would have a key to right then you come up the stairs and if you go if you turn right you have a door that goes into the dry cleaner property into that little kitchenet area but then if you go straight there's a door that would be ten only and it gets to the apartment I'm understanding it correctly yep okay yep and then there's another door here next to that tenant door which is marchello's new and improved office that's so much bigger than what he's used to um that is um accessed off the hallway so there's really kind of three doors there um and yeah the uh the tailoring area here would have its own private washroom and we're proposing for marchello's office to have a a private washroom as well next slide please so on the roof we have a new green area for the enjoyment of um the applicant and or possibly the resident um and possibly patrons depending on what marello chooses the solid parit at the rear is 42 in tall at the equipment screen area and the equipment screen here and the metal railings that show the plantings all match that height uh we proposed some potted trees in the southwest corner and interesting perimeter plantings behind the railings in these two areas uh we originally wanted a glass railing with plantings behind but HPC frowned on that so we've changed the design um to take their comments into consideration um I thought we'd wanted a solid parit period yeah we we made this piece solid and um we kept railings in between here and here but this is is uh this is solid this all is solid from there to there and this corner chunk what about the front on Lorraine this is not solid and this is not solid it's metal we specifically referenced at the meeting was to make that solid and to make it blend in more with the neighborhood right yeah I think that was HBC recommendation and we we took all the HPC recommendations and did a few of them and are proposing what we're proposing um we changed the windows we can talk more we get the elevations because that's where all those things kind of show up um just to CL clarify the green roof the three pots there and this the papers are they is are they how are they green is there any grass on the roof well this is plantings these are these those are plants are they potted plants right potted trees here okay under paper yeah this is plantings oh okay this is plantings this is SE plantings which is Sedum but we've also got a comment that um they wanted to see more green space so I have a rendering later that shows how we can make that even more green and the renderings will really show it it'll show in the power the HPC had that comment um that may been a DRC comment I wasn't at that one I had a I was there I don't remember that oh no that was Paul's notes to me how are those for who who will use the RO well the applicant has access all the time depending on who the resident is they could choose to give them access and depending if it um I suppose if you wanted to measure someone for a tailoring upstairs on a nice day they could bring customers up too but definitely the applicant and everyone else is UN undecided undetermined tenant tenant depending on who the tenant is and the agreement yeah well those how are those potted trees secured in uh inclement weather uh I guess I don't know the answer to that yeah well I don't I don't think I like that that hope I can't cross our fingers and hope they don't blow over on somebody big heavy pots very heavy pots I mean I suppose they will be secured somehow just cross fingers okay and so with the furniture there'll be an umbrella maybe someone will put an umbrella on a CH on a table up there it would have to be secured yeah okay um next slide please you want to talk about the hvc equipment I mean I think you indicated it's yes is it going to be screened from view yep yeah sorry I mentioned the heights so everything around this HBC area is 42 in high which will fully screen these three units um just refresh my memory what's to the north of the building in there to the north over like over here what right abing the back side of the building is there a house or backyard uh there's a backyard right here and then there's a um mixed use is that the realtor no realter next to that the other side of that this is a PE security p security okay so it's commercial building with a backyard I think there's a residence okay it's set back pretty far from the property line okay next slide please um just one last thing on the uh air conditioning units sure um heard the township ordinance they can't be connected directly to any storm sewer or house drain water leader other waste pipe U just can you describe how you're complying with that sure yeah we could run the condensate lines um through the roof screening and empty onto The Green Roof System so that it could evaporate or percolate into the green roof plantings okay the next floor slides are the proposed elevations um the materials that we've chose are a brick to match existing a stucco and a light brown or beige color black windows black storefront and black metal railing up on the Upper Floor up on on the roof um on this South elevation to the top you can see the tops of the potted trees um and the decorative plantings behind the metal railing the Upper Floor is a stucco finish with basement windows um redesigned as a response to some of the feedback we got from HPC um there are proposed LED sign lights right here under these three Windows which illuminate the sign um this is a 16 square foot sign which is um showing the actual existing sign to be relocated um on then a next elevation on the next page which is keep it on this one for now um there's a 31t sign facing in the parking lot where existing there is a 40t so uh the Lorraine AB sign complies with size uh but the parking lot one does not so we've at least reduced that size in the parking lot one to help uh with the variance request and here's the fabric awning that we show um in lie of the metal canopy um it was requested by HPC to extend it the full width and we agree we think that looks good that way we were asked to remove a ventilation Louver that was at the front um we've shown that on the rear now which um you'll see later and here you see the new storefront um with existing brick at the southeast corner and new brick on the southwest corner to match at the stair Edition the height of the roof here at the High Point um the roof itself not the parit so the high point of the roof there is 2410 on top of which will be pavers and plantings and the height of the railing and the parit there is 29 6 and 3/4 um the second floor height which is this dash line there there's not a dimension shown but that is 13 fo6 and there's a double dash line because we're proposing to overframe the existing roof which is something we've done in the past when we needed um the the tenant below or the business below to remain operational so we are going to overframe it we did this at 115 wung which was a townhouse wine and they were able to stay running while we built above them so the height of the second floor is at 136 which is also where we've set the top of this sign um ordinance States on wall mount to business signs 347-1122 not exceed the height of the ground floor or 12 ft whichever is greater so although we are higher than 12T um we're within what would be the first floor and the second floor starts up here um so we've proposed that both signs um in order to work with the awning are allowed to be placed there and uh at the same height and here's a rendered view of that South West Corner um next page please do you have the the height of the sign that faces the parking lot the the the sign height oh the sign height the oval um I probably don't have it dimensioned I may need to get on the computer to is it more than 24 in let's see if I can figure that out um if I mean if it isn't if it is more than 24 we can revise it to comply yeah um we just didn't want the we tried putting the same size sign here on the side and it just looked too small especially compared to the the very prominent sign they have now which is not very attractive we'd like to replicate the front sign and and just take the square footage that exists now and shrink it and so I can't tell that looks like it's more than 24 in to me so I we could agree to reduce yeah cuz the mag that that's the important Dimension is the the I see the height of the sign yeah from bottom to top so if you can limit that to 24 in sure that would and maybe conform to our ordinance in terms of that Dimension maybe we could change it from not being an oval if you if you want the text to be bigger but okay um before you before you go on to the next slide or next elevation can you talk about the lighting that's proposed within the canopy yes um so we found a spec of um the same model and look as these lights that illuminate the sign we found um the same company makes a wall pack um that we plan to hide up underneath the awnings um mounted to the wall we had shown recess lighting um but now when it was a metal canopy but now we can't do that so we need another way to illuminate right now marchello has um LED lights that illuminate the storefront uh that are on a timer and I think they turn off at midnight so we'd probably do the same thing it's just an aesthetic um an aesthetic um accent lighting that would not contribute really to the foot candle um requirements and on the other side we do have a metal canopy so we would have um actually I'll talk about those those lights when I get to that slide okay okay next slide please okay this is the East Elevation and again you can see the trees and the plantings overhead um that was important to marello to have this um to have the green roof be visible and that was something that came up during the HPC they wanted us um as Mr Graham noted they they suggested we we have a a solid parit um but it was important for the app to have a very visible um green roof and he wanted it to be a lively environment but that was one of the issues that we discussed it was determined that it was not compatible with the neighborhood historic character of the business district so that was the reason why that was presented uh I thought the uh a recommendation I thought the the statement was that the the whole aesthetic didn't fit and it wasn't just that the part of it but I mean I can read the report glass that's what they said which is different now guys said I remember is a microphone up there there light from what I recall it was said that there was no glass so we changed glass to it was it was the recommendation was that it should have been a solid parit to match the neighborhood uh the historic character of the neighborhood but uh the to read into the record what the commission had said was uh the design is not compatible with the historic character of the Upper Montclair historic district in the articulation of its material type fenestration and the relationship to adjacent buildings as defined in the township of montclair's historic design guidelines we said the design of the facade should be complimentary to the contributing resources in the district and draw upon building features that Define the character of the upper Monclair historic business uh district one of the primary recommendations what one of the only um substantive recommendations was a solid parit design is recommended rather than glass and extension of the canopy across the entire front facade so the canopy was extended across the front facade but um the solid parit uh recommendation was uh completely ignored so well it wasn't ignored I think it was considered and and it's less transparent it's it's because if in section two of that uh of the commission's report it said it the facade should be complimentary to contributing resources in the district and draw upon those other resources and that doesn't appear to be uh the case with the design does this go back to the sub no no I I mean I understand that comment but just I mean the HPC talks about relationship to adjacent buildings not compatible I mean when you're talking about adjacent buildings you've got this I mean you have to look at the the district complimentary to contributing resources in the district well but then it also talks about relationship to adjacent buildings we're making substantial improvements to this building building and we've got the large Veggie Heaven building there which doesn't contribute to anything in my mind historically or architecturally and the HBC said the same thing we didn't have an issue with the improvements with the second floor with expanding you know the business uh you know the changes to the business it was just certain design elements that did not match the character of The District and you know I would I would think this would be something that would that should be reviewed by either a subcommittee or the commission as a whole well again you know hbc's role here is advisory to the board so I mean it's really up to the planning board you want to send this back to HBC I mean we've designed something that we think is you know reasonably comp compatible you know on on that point if we were to judge how does one judge General compatibility with the district it's the purview of the HPC and you know we would make re we've made recommendations um one of them being one of the sole ones being the solid parit but um well okay then how would the HC make its judgment that a railing is not compatible there design guidelines there's um uh National guidelines there's a lot of resources that we pull from to discuss did you consider the comfort of the occupants of the top level that might enjoy that space our purview is a lot more um if they could get a little light and air through a railing rather than looking at a wall our perview is how the character of the neighborhood uh is uh for a lack of a better word protected by the design thank you of the building thanks so let me ask you a question is there a way because is it is it the fact that the trans that the the transparent part of the parit is glass that was an issue would it be different if it was some sort of iron work or or railing or something like that that might be that might be more complimentary to what's along Valley Road I mean because that's the most there's really not that much on Lorraine to draw from but if you look on Valley Road there might be something that they could draw from to to get them the transparency that they're looking for but to put it to but to execute it in a way that might be more I would prefer um more than just myself making that call um as just one member of the commission uh which is why I would would think either at a minimum a subcommittee review would uh would be beneficial my estimation okay all right so are you completely is the HBC completely gone off glass at all because it strikes me having the glass you're really it's transparent so all you're seeing are the trees and the planting so that seems to me that's compatible with the area we had a a full discussion on it we determined it wasn't I don't I can't relitigate it at the you know hearing here um but uh it just I just know that it was it was discussed was discussed yes so okay okay um also on this East Elevation wait a minute there is sorry I just does not glass that I the clouded document that I have has a railing on it yeah we've changed it to railing railing on it so just what HBC wants it solid right solid parit our specific our specific recommendation was the solid parit okay but right now so the the glass was removed and a railing was put on right and we still not in compliance with it it's essentially the same thing it's just they removed the glass and put a you know it's framed differently okay continuing on this elevation um here you see the the solid parit that obscures the um the the AC units right here um also uh one of the changes we had made as a result of the HPC comments was we we had brick originally going all the way up the front on the front facade and we changed it to be stucco on the second floor and brick and we had taken a look at an option here where we continue this brick all the way to this material change here and it didn't make it under this elevation we kind of forgot about it but we would prefer that and I think the HPC would too but um if it's going to subcommittee they can take a look at that and we could do that revision if it's okay to show brick here just from here down instead of the stuckle all the way down I don't think you'll ever get push back on break yeah it's going to be much better um okay and then in the distance here you see um this is the extension of the stair that leads up to the roof and here's the second wall sign that Janice was talking about that we need to make sure is um 24 in tall Max we have the same LED lights proposed right there and here we have recessed lights um under this canopy since these doors there's a door double doors here and there's one kind of tucked around right this corner that would be employees only um so we propose that these lights will be controlled only by molan cronberg even though this trash enclosure will be also used by the tenant and so we will have a a motion sensor that will turn on the lights in case a tenant needs to come down and bring garbage or Recycling and they can't do it in the dark um so that's our solution for that the underside of this canopy from The High Point at the rear of the property is 76 sorry on the trash enclosure the elevation shows it opening outwards um and then the other photo shows a delivery van there how much space is between that first parking spot and the opening to the trash enclosure um so there's a dimension further down in space four that shows 1 FO 3 it's probably about that 1 foot three from the trash enclosure to the painted stripe is that what you're talking about yeah basically I just want to make sure if the truck is parked there they're going to be able to get the trash receptacles out into the street it's only oh right so you so if the van was parked overnight yeah what time does your van leave for deliveries in the morning do they leave before the garbage van or no yeah around 10: so so the van will be gone and that space will be open okay yeah okay those double doors is that for bringing uh clothing and and what have you in um right now there's a big piece of equipment that's like right Beyond those doors it really wouldn't be safe I don't know if you guys do that on purpose or I I imagine inard that yeah I imagine you just load the van through those doors um in the morning sometimes yeah but but it's not for customer use and it's really not like good no but in terms of the if if the township for example were to deny your request to have a loading zone in front that would function for purposes of loading I think for the delivery loading you just do it in the front door right now right so that's what you would do doing it in the front yeah cuz you're just grabbing several racks and and dropping things off bags it's not like uh you need that 6ot wide opening to load he's just a one-man door can accommodate what the kind of loading we're talking about yeah you don't need that much opening to okay um next slide please this is the rear elevation um here you see the the three AC units and here's the solid pit in the rear um the stair Tower you see here filling the alley and it's on a structural column here um the let's see the third window you see on the elevation here is where we've proposed to put a ventilation luver um it was shown on the storefront and um HPC did not like that look so we found a new place that makes sense with the floor plan for that to be ventilation um and here you see the mounded grade that we proposed to um the tree is now gone so the the grade can be leveled out um for that uh egress path and this is what I was talking about where someone could be in this adjoining building and exit out and since they can't turn right and go through the alley we'd like to at least accommodate so someone can safely get around the back does that need to be Ada accessible no no cuz it's not a a public entrance or an accessible entrance that rear um next slide please um actually before you move I just want to confirm that um that uh that existing grade line it looks like that curve blocks flow onto the adjacent property so just to confirm that's going to be regraded to go out towards the parking lots that way it DRS back towards Lorraine okay you're saying to confirm that right yeah okay just to confirm your earlier testimony just because we weren't initially sure of what the grading was in the back but just based on that existing grade line yeah based on the existing it does pitch out towards our parking lot and so we we shouldn't level it out all the way we should continue that pitch right is that what you're saying yeah at least slightly right okay okay next slide please here's the west elevation um this kind of talks about the constructibility um that um you were talking about earlier you can kind of see the outline of the Veggie Heaven building um and you see our stuckle finish Beyond but it's not stuckle here because you wouldn't stuckle the Finish you don't see so this would be CMU it would be stucko above and it would need to um yeah they would need to be detailed in such a way to prevent water intrusion and and Ice um here is the underside of the stair you can see kind of our stair layout you can see this radon pipe we've located where that happens pitched it under the stair and wrapped it around the building to get up safely to above the roof level um so this is the area someone could exit right from right here and and travel towards that window and hang a left and this is the uh outline of the other uh Joiner um are there any requirements on distances between the discharge of a radon pipe and operable windows or doors well the discharge of the radon pipe is up above the roof it would go all the way up all the way up to the roof and empty into the air sure and you've got a looks like the top of the stairway has a door no that's a dash line of the door that's exits onto the roof there's there's no we're not allowed to put a window that close onto a property line so the windows that they have existing are are against code you can't have a window right at a property line for this reason um so no we don't have any Windows proposed anywhere near that right but there's a a distance between the discharge and the door even though the door is on the opposite side of that stairwell yes oh I I'm not sure what that distance is air can move between them yes yes and and is there any sort of requirement for how close those two things can be in space regardless of if they're on the same property line or not I I'm not sure of that distance they're probably is a regulation but I would suggest looking into it yeah yeah yes so we can make that the routing of of that raid on compliant fully compliant yes okay and including any other adjoining buildings anything else that's nearby it should you should look 360 Degrees around yeah up and down right okay next slide please I just want to get a clarification what what is it your this is a space between the door and so the adjoining properties got a radon fan so it's got some sort of contaminant supposedly that it's discharging into the air and there are times where there's regulations that say especially if you're constructing or moving it how close it can be to an operable window an operable door something where somebody could come in contact with the with whatever is being discharged and so I'm just asking if they've considered that it doesn't sound like they have and I'm suggesting they do that before they finalize these plans yeah we can look into that and is that an active radon pipe um we we don't know unless you've had any Communications with the neighor do you know if that's an active radon pipe it is it's active it's being used what was Veggie Heaven before it was Veggie Heaven anybody remember restaurants as long as I can I thought so carpet store yeah oh yeah right hubs yeah yeah is that dangerous radon's IR respective of it is corre respective and Ron's in the area it is in the area naturally occurring naturally occurring in the area plus if there's contamination in the ground that could be another reason for Radon fans okay this page um shows some of the site improvements we show the wall scon we've selected um and the directional down lights here's the lights that illuminate the sign this is the light by the same manufacturer that we're proposing to tuck up under the awning um and here is the EV EV charging station we've selected tentatively um and these are the two perimeter plantings the that are on the east side of the property the um Evergreens here are towards the rear and then I think there were five of these deciduous um plantings towards the front here is the um uh trash enclosure which will be on a a concrete pad as um Janice's memo stated and it will be extended to the underside of the sopit next slide please um just real quick while we're on the subjects uh the new landscape plantings in the parking lot those will be the responsibility of the owner to take care of and upkeep those yes yeah okay um as far as the wall fces in the canopy lighting I know you had discussed previously just some of the uh intensity and but could you just uh re-expand on that just I know so is going to be more accentual and I just want to make clear the temperature color sure all of these lights that you see here are are not contributing to the foot candles that illuminate the parking lot that's an existing light that's um that's on a public service pole so these are just accent aesthetic lights that um that don't contribute to that and we we had called the number on the poll and got some information and did a calculation of the foot candles um and that's how we got that but these lights here um I don't have the um the color temperature but they're not contributing really to the uh lighting they're just accent um but I can I can gather that okay um as far as the Illumination in the parking lot I know you said I think you had mentioned point4 proper yeah there was one point metric that said point 4 and it was in the rear um the very far rear but I don't know if that was just our software that said that or a real light reading would tell us if it maybe maybe we comply okay you could just get confirmation sure either or sure but if it's deficient after you build it you'll fix that yeah we'll add a supplemental light as will comply with the township lighting ordinance next slide please Marella um the this was just a study of an alternate um green roof because uh DRC said um we should take a look at at in increasing the green area um it's kind of hard to make out some of these um but especially this one here this is the existing chimney with a um integ ated seaing and this would be the seum area we're showing another almost bed within a bed with plantings um but after this rendering was done I spoke with um paulonis and he he didn't think we would do that it probably be seum throughout this whole area um and so this was just a study to show how what it'll look like from on top of the green roof with lots of plantings and to increase the area of the Sedum so to get this more green um the wall of the uh hbac enclosure just shifted to the north um which there's plenty of room to do so we can make it more green quite easily uh next slide please um this is just a jux position so you could see how that would look um the what was submitted in the drawings is the roof plan you see here and this is the rendering of the roof plan which you can see it has much more green uh next slide and this is the existing and proposed streetcape um the existing Ridge of molan cronberg here is 17 fo2 the proposed um top of railing top of parit is 29' 6 and 3/4 which um is close to the height of the um dental office next door um we're 29' 6 where 36 ft is allowed three stories allowed and we're only two stories and uh last slide oh before you before you move yeah on the um top of the um building yeah right yep right there is that a smoke snack exhaust stack that's coming off the restaurant yes this is an exhaust that's right up right up no it's an air it's an air vent it's an air vent yeah so where does the um and so where does the uh restaurant vent it's uh cooking if that's just air I think it's on the other it's in the back of there it's in the back it's in the north side they have a ventilation towards the north see that's what I'm looking that's what I'm going to look right now it's a stack in the back made of aluminum yeah cuz that's what that looks like it's sitting up way nice and high which is a good place for event for from a restaurant May it's just aective no but that's because no well it's it's it's elevated above the roof um let's see I can I may not really be able to see it on Google because of the way that the buildings are yeah that's it and we're um going up that's happening right here that one has one of uh we're gonna be touching that chimney though right there but there's nothing there except the potted trees that would be on the other side of the hair intake if it's intake or exhaust I'm not sure sure okay we can come back to this if necessary um okay I maybe you do want to go to um slide 13 that does show the area the chair is talking about right here is where that chimney is we don't show the outline of the aluminum on top but where that's occurring we would butt up next to that chimney I'll call it and um on the other side of the ventilation is just our potted trees so yeah but ventilation is not a not a problem uh cooking exhaust would so that's what I just want to make sure yeah okay um last slide is just um the renderings and so I'll leave it there and and turn it to Mr trul Corner yes yeah J you're right it's wrong in the um rendering there and it's updated on the elevation so the elevation is so it would wrap the corner yep okay um I think you covered everything thing um I had uh noted in the Boswell report I'm sure Mr burn has any anything else that um um just one or two things I know it was briefly mentioned much earlier um about the uh van operating you know using the um the loading space at front assuming it's approved and everything um what hours would that would that just be during business hours or what hours would the van be parked yeah it would be after business hours and right it would be like get CL what time do your delivery van come back and what time does he leave in the morning I guess he at 8 comes back well he comes back a couple of times a day but then you know to park at like 5 or 6 but the the loading space would be restricted from you normal parking during business hours right that would be restricted to only the van and just for the brief moments that he's coming for a refill on deliveries right yeah that's a good question then that loading dock area is available for people to park after say 6:00 right and the sign would say that does the sign say that or people have to know it by osmosis they never say that unfortunately people think they can't park there night which they can because I think the ordinance says restricted for loading I think till 6:00 that would depend on the what the township decides the sign should say yeah um another thing was I don't think this will come into play but just uh can you uh confirm the area of disturbance and just you'll comply with any SED requirements assuming that comes into play yeah definitely I can do the calculation um there's the the Milling I can't do the calculation on the spot but we know the the Milling will be about 12 in and both the addition for the stair and all the perimeter plantings will be like 3 feet so I can calculate the cubic yards of disturbance okay um and then just one last thing assuming that the uh the Ada space is approved uh it will comply with all of the necessary regulations and everything and be ADA Compliant correct yeah okay Joe are there any other aspects of the report Boswell report that have not been covered no I believe every Point has been covered yes all right I um I I had one brief question um based on the image in in picture three it seems we're eliminating some bike parking um from the alley there's a bike in one of the photos thought that was going to get a chuckle um we respect I think it'd be great to put a secure bike storage location for the tenant or for an employee who may want to hop on two wheels to get to work um um whether that's in the small covered area or out front um but somewhere well lit so that someone can comfortably Place their bike securely um yeah we we do have um tenant storage on the on the second floor plan um a large area at the top of the stair that a bike could fit in that's um something on the ground level you want something on the ground level yeah preferable yeah yeah yeah never mind you know what there's actually one last thing that needs a check mark um just as as far as uh existing utilities should be mapped out in case any upgrades to service are required I know that you said intensity wasn't being uh the intensity of itself wasn't being increased but with the apartment you know there might be un necessary you know changes to the utility services going into the building sure and you know Road opening permit would be required for the same so okay yeah so if somebody wants to Rite to to work that is is um on the under on the under um on the east side so there is uh between the double doors there is um Park they could park two bicycles there and they could come to work so long as there's somewhere for them to lock them up somewhere well lit to keep them secure sure sure no problem thank you I have no further questions for Mr Robertson further questions from the board we've been asking your questions all along uh what about the public anybody in the public have any interest in asking this witness any questions concerning his testimony looks like we're clear there uh okay Mr Chik um um just briefly I mean um you know talk about the parking variants and we've got a business that has been in the Upper Montclair business district for over a century um like most this building actually has more on-site parking than most buildings you have on Valley Road or BW Avenue or on on the uh small areas of Lorraine that join um um Valley Road um Mr CH be like not to interrupt you but I will um what about around the corner what i is it Oakwood Street is that what's around the corner like what's the parking like on there is it 2hour parking is it Oak Oakwood um I I I don't think that's restricted it might be it might be two hours it might be but that's it's a fair distance to go back it is most people be on yeah yeah but I'm there is parking in the area it's just oh yeah you can work on the but I'm just talking about onsite parking for existing businesses which there's very little you know all along Valley Road and um we have more than most um and there is you know just talk there is aailable public parking in the in the uh uh the lot um whatever the lot is called behind um uh the M D um you know and then you have also on street parking uh on the Belleview Avenue um that doesn't come all the way up to our uh property but is very close on both sides of of of uh Lorraine Avenue but you know we're basically maintaining the same number of spaces if not adding an additional space to what currently exists and the business has functioned um with that number of parking spaces uh for many years um and we believe it will continue to function um in fact I think it'll function better it's a better um configuration for the parking more safer um you know we're going to designate spaces we're going to have the three customer spaces for people to come in and out um and uh if there's ever an overflow you know there should be parking nearby to would handle it it's a business is operated in this manner with um this relatively small parking lot for for many many many years um and uh what we're doing here I think is um um improving the building uh substantially improving the site with additional Landscaping um and other uh improvements that are good for the neighborhood um we may not have satisfied all of hpc's concerns we've tried to address them I mean the one thing I would note we're comparing you know buildings existing buildings built in the 1920s or early n 1900s and they didn't have green roofs back then um and this building has a very attractive green roof with Landscaping seating areas up there and I think it's appropriate to have you know that open somewhat um you um you can't it's it's you know um we've tried to uh you build the building in appreciation and recognition for um uh the historic district but as I said before we're right next door to the Veggie Heaven building which is you know fairly unattractive stuck up um I think it's unfair uh where we're you know you know improving this property improving the uh uh the neighborhood and maybe not doing everything HBC would like but um you know we think it's a it's a well-designed building we tried to uh address all of the uh Township reports um and I think the parking variance is is is justifiable for the reasons I mentioned and I would uh you know uh hope that the board would uh approve this application as presented subject to the various conditions we've discussed throughout the hearing ladies Hurst I means the only lady here um yeah I think this is a great application I think they've done a really nice job um doing the design work um I think the parking there you know as we talked about there's plenty of parking really in the area you might have to walk a half a block or so but so what um I think they've done their best to try to accommodate their workers and their van and their actual the vehicles they use on site and uh it's a big Improvement and I would encourage people to vote for it before we go any further just want to make sure that there's nobody in the public here who wants to comment on this application just want to make sure I'm here oh so okay I think we have someone here did you want to speak well I not necessarily I think it's a a terrific application come on up just come up and your name please sir David St Ledger I'm the owner of upper Monclair Dental Associates 22 three Marine Avenue they're business neighbors so um no I didn't plan on speaking but I will tell you that I think it's a wonderful application um I will respectfully disagree with what maybe HPC says about the top of the building I think it's beautiful I think it's attractive I think it's incredibly complimentary uh to my building and to that area uh there's a lot of parts of uh Valley Road that are you know been there a long time I've been there almost 30 years basically and I've seen a lot of things come and go and yes F Haven is not the most attractive building um Marcado is a beautiful building but it doesn't necessarily fit in the historic plans of the build of you know for Monclair uh but it suits everyone just fine so I just would like you guys to consider uh the application as it stands that's all thank you thank you probably anybody else um I don't think there's anybody else left just just just just want to make sure family members could speak I would I would just like to say that we did consider The Eclectic nature of the historic business district um Marcado was uh specifically referenced um and uh I just think there is always a compromise to be had um I was just a little surprised that uh how um exactly the same the parit was compared to the last uh rendering we saw so I would like uh still would like to have some kind of uh subcommittee uh review discussion um some kind of HBC input um but overall I agree that it is an improvement to the district I agree this is a good project I agree uh that it can function with the park it has for years and we'll will continue to do so uh with this change I just think that there should be uh some additional consideration uh given to the hbc's comments is it just the parapet or is it more than that the design did change uh significantly not significantly I mean there were uh brick going up to the top before there was um the parit was one of the U primary uh recommendations that uh we noticed and discussed um but uh you know I think uh the subcommittee review is not as intrusive as a full commission review and it can be done at everybody's um convenience and I just think it's warranted only thing that troubles me about this application is the hbc's comments that said said I like the design of the building I'm definitely I was going to ask about expending the brick around the side of the parking lot I think that always makes sense we don't pay attention to the sides of buildings and the backs of buildings like we should um all the time um and I just wonder you know as you can tell from my earlier questions whether or not there was a way to do a compromise to get maybe some more detail I kind of looked while we were talking I I did the Google looking up and down um Valley to see what the tops of buildings look like and either they're very sterile uh which is what I think the uh solid parit would be or they they have the some old style detailing maybe along the top a cornice or um the Saunders building is interesting caught my eye because it's not it's a it's a solid front but it has relief done with the brick so that there's relief and squares and I kind of imagine those squares being being holes empty and you know maybe there's a a modern way to to to to interpret it so that it would enhance the historical um uh uh environment of the upper mountclair District but at the same time you know creating something new and something more modern um so wondering if there was a way to tweak tweak the design I look there's there's a portico on the back of the um William Sonoma building that has a little bit of detail and it has a railing sitting along the top of it um you know and maybe there was a way to do something like that I think the space is a good idea so that you can see all these plantings um on the roof and also so that it doesn't people on the roof aren't feeling like they're sitting inside a box you know they have a a little bit of a view so um you know with that said um uh I would like to encourage but I don't know whether I want to require um you know a review but I'd like to encourage maybe a little tweaking of that that Top Line maybe make it maybe make it a little bit more detailed not not a whole lot not not you know not a grand you know uh styling but you know maybe a little bit more detail just to add a little bit more flare above the top to reflect some of the other cornices in the district and maybe that would be enough of a compromise to uh give by still leaving the cutouts um and maybe interpreting if there's a way that they could be interpreted a little different way but um again um I'd like to encourage but I don't think I want to require that they that they if the if the owners of the property can't come up with something that they think is attractive in doing that then um you know I would I would let it I would let it settle the way that it's depicted on the renderings with the curve at the corner bringing the wall around because I noticed that too um you know John with the railing or the glass I'm not sure well I think the railing makes I think the railing again scales it back if they've changed it to the railing it does bring it back a little bit more makes it a little less modern um a little more classic so to speak and you know and maybe it's the maybe it's a combination of the railing and adding a a little bit of detail along the edge so that it flares out a little bit or so it's not such a straight you know that that could create that that organic um you know new interpretation of the old of the classic you know you you see it all the time in build you know where they pick up pick up on older buildings but they give it a modern interpretation so it's not it's not identical but you're incorporating elements and I think that's that's kind of what the the historic preservation commission was going for wants you know wants the incorporation and they're not against new they're not against modern but they they want to pick up the cues from what's from some of the historic buildings that are around it and yeah there's a couple of really sterile boxes that are sprinkled in but there's some really you know beautiful buildings too so if you could bring a little bit more of that flavor you know but otherwise I don't have a problem with the application at all I think it's good just to address that we'd be happy to sit down with the HPC subcommittee and see if we can do some tweakings that would you know satisfy them and that we can live with and do that essentially on a voluntary basis in I'm telling you we were we're willing to do that to try to you know come up with something that everybody likes including the HBC so we appreciate that and obviously we'll schedule schedule whenever is convenient for everyone okay anybody else not I'd like to make a motion you know that we approve the application um with the tweaks that we've discussed that aren't reflected on the drawings that drawings are going to have to be updated um and that the um what I would ask if if the um applicant once the applicant talks to the um HPC um that the that they just give us notice of what they've decided in terms of of you know how the building is going to go forward um so that at least our revisions committee can take a look at it and see but I I'm not I don't want to make it subject to the revisions committee approval because I want the parties to work it out and you know at the end of the day I want the owners to be to be satisfied with the with the way that the property looks but you need final drawings right but we do need the drawings updated we do need the final drawings as to what's agreed to and how it's going to be so those are the those are kind of the reservations that that that we need um uh I don't think we need any other um do we have any conditions we've got conditions we do sir please help out here so um the loading space and the handicap space uh approval by the Township in front of the town that uh that's going to be a condition of what if they deny it pardon what if they deny it well that's then we'll be back I think we well I mean oh we can't do that well I like it no no because I I don't I don't think that they from what I've heard the police department and the and and and the uh Engineers office do not recommend putting a handicap or a loading space in front of this building I was going to comment on that because the traffic going the traffic going to the West needs a couple of lanes there's a left turn lane there on Valley so I think that if you put um a permanent space out there you'll pinch the traffic and I think that's probably consistent with what they feel I'm just I'm trying putting that out there because I'm thinking it's highly like unlikely that that will get approved the loading zone and the handicap both of them both of what about just loading zone that I don't we talked about it and I don't think there's any support to put it at that location because of the traffic flow it's it's tight but but they use it as a no not necessarily you all but the building next door uses it a load load Zone they do but it's not a loading zone I I agree I think though and I think for the for the purposes for practical purposes the parking lot can pick up the slack on the on the loading zone because it's not going it's not long-term parking so if the truck is a little bit on the sidewalk while they're putting stuff in it you I think you can still back most of that truck up behind the spaces that are there so yeah so to be clear I don't I don't think we're proposing to make make a condition that there has to be a loading zone there we don't again it's something where we encourage you to it comp you know if you can't get it we understand this is you're right uh I have a couple of others that the app shall reduce the height of the sign on the side to comply with the ordinance uh the applicant shall bring the brick uh from the front to the side uh I guess that's the East Side uh I guess to the level of the first floor is that what we're to or are you going to bring it to like the level of the cut out that's in the back yeah the level of the material change that makes sense yeah okay um and I may not say this correctly Keith but uh uh you're going to make the routing of the ventilation discharge onto the adjoiner building compliant with all applicable regulations does that work works for me yeah is that okay by you yep uh you're going to comply with the ordinance on Lighting in the parking lot um I'm not at all clear on whether or not we're going to require a bike rack on the side I'd like to okay uh the applicant uh will update the drawings and then present uh to the revisions committee after you've met with HBC and that that presentation is not for purposes of requiring uh any change just so that uh we're aware or at least the the revisions committee is aware of what has changed should we also add something in about requiring rooftop plantings be secured since a couple of trees are plantings fixtures cows what was that he said cows but he meant couches oh and I think that does it right that's all I have so that's the motion guys second um all in favor opposed extensions okay thank you very much well good luck thank you thank you congratulations thank you okay do we have any committee reports I think we have to kind of decide what we're doing with regard to the letter that's been bouncing around I don't think we have to go into executive session for that I think we shouldn't go into executive session on that actually let me I saw the last um last emails from um from Tony this is regarding just to clarify this is regarding indemnification yeah from Tony and from um Bill Harris yeah all of those comments I think should be were good and um mean it it sounds I mean just just just to be clear for the record so what what's going on is that the the board has for across several meetings discussed the advisability of asking the council formally to amend the indemnification ordinance to clarify that it covers members of the planning board certainly and while they're at it there's no reason why it shouldn't also cover members of the Zoning Board of adjustment and the historic preservation commission even though they're somewhat less likely to be named in suits than we are um we propose specific language and thanks Mr anali's suggestion we we should advise the council that there are ways to do it right and then many of our neighboring towns do it the way we want and you know my my so somebody needs to take the drafting pen now to just take the letter that Miss lochman drafted that I revised that Mr nie revised that there have been some other comments too and the Tony came up with some excellent suggestions to add Carmel if you don't mind I mean if you can if you can I mean I think I would work with your work with Arts with Arts draft I don't mind getting you know reference to what Tony has put in as well work with our tra put in unless you want to do it it's fine by me okay it's easier to edit out I know I I can take a look at it before it goes and then and then we'll what we'll do is we'll circulate it back to the zoning board and the HPC to confirm that there because we this isn't something that the chairs ought to decide on their own every member ought to decide whether they want to attach their name to this and then there will be a a transmitter ultimately it doesn't really matter who it is because because all of us are going going to attach our names to it and then I suggest that you know when it's ready we we pick a date that there's a council meeting when a number of us can attend not for the purpose of everybody speaking for three minutes but just as a little bit of a show of force it's important solidarity all of those um I don't I don't I don't withdraw my my characterization but I I accept the I accept the Amendments um and we should you know somebody should then just kind of you know I think we we're doing it in spirit of fr ship we're going to tell the council what we're doing and then we come and we just make a quick comment and we you know assuming unless they told us that they're putting it on the agenda without our needing to be there I think we go and tell them what we're about and uh very in a very friendly way say uh this is something you should do I think um when the draft is done um I think it's a good idea to mention the towns that have a brad but only present the language from Verona and blidge almost consistent it's probably the better it's the better langu of and they have the benefit of being our neighbors right that's right okay so I I agree I'll take a first step at this if you send me your word version of what you have okay be happy to and then I'll pass it to you and Jeff and then we'll distribute something to the whole group is that correct yeah I do think I did send you the word do I have a word version I don't yeah maybe okay and if I don't I'll be in touch councilor Terry there certainly no expectation that you should or could even sign this I mean we're we're going to ultimately be asking this of you so I mean you know this we we appreciate your support and uh you know we're we're doing this because those of us that are thinking we're naked here are seeking to be clothed well I think it's a great idea and plus there are surrounding towns that uh are involved here uh my question to you is why would you not include Bonfield well Bonfield is um they don't have as BR well what I've said before is that mention to the counil that those towns have an ordinance but when you that protects uh volunteers and others it's broad but the language that's used for Bloomfield and brona is specifically good quality Glen gron is um I think we all the other towns but yeah yeah all right I got it so does everybody agree with this yeah okay and thank you to the drafters who've been working on yes excellent work any other reports nothing from me may ask a question was the time self insur I can answer it oh sorry on that topic though there was a brief note in the league of municipalities magazine um they had like an advice Q&A thing and there are some circumstances where Municipal insurance will cover board volunteers so that may be kind of a backend um for legal protection it's obviously specific to the municipality and the insurance policy they have but it's definitely something that ought to be looked into or considered in all this sure I I just did want to say new topic um we received the report from the Housing Commission about um I their recommendations for the housing element if that's the correct way of saying it but I I to be incorporated in the master plan re examination yeah and so but I wanted to say I you know I read that and maybe you all do it as well but I think they're kind of missing the bigger point of what we need to be doing which I think is we're coming up with the new uh fair share housing you know allotment or allocation or what we have to to have in our plan so I think that should really be the focus of us for us for the next year not I think that's what their recommendation is yeah but they had another other stuff as well and I think it's up to the planning board to do that not necessarily the Housing Commission I think you need to work in in conjunction because the housing commission's responsible for um oversight of our um essentially affordable housing programs right and they can give you valuable information on what's working what's not working um and how our our uh spending plan is is being the money's in our spending PL being expended I think that a lot of that information is in your office isn't it Janice I'm not administer I'm the municipal housing liaison I administer all of it I work closely with the Housing Commission and they do have a wealth of experience and just like you like to be recognized for for the experi expertise you have I think they like to be recognized for the expertise they have as well okay but I think you know just from a planning board's perspective that we need to focus on the next round of housing um it's a multi requirements it's a multi step there yeah so yeah but I mean that's going to happen really quickly if that bill we don't even know what our numbers are going to be if you looked at the calendar for the COA what do we call it absolutely carel I'm on top of it yeah I have the you know the 90 pages of proposed regulations I have the um the the judge's decision from middle sex County outlining how we're supposed to do but you can't do it until you can't do the calculations until you have the estimates that are done by an outside I understand that right okay I'm just advising the planning board that this is coming down the pike and it's something that we're going to have be I think that's exactly what the Housing Commission report says that we need to get prepared don't take my putting on my code this interested in this subject except that's what it is bills you didn't pay bills yet Jeff you you know he's going to do that in five seconds I did review the bills and I would move to approve them second all in favor opposed extensions motion to adjourn second all in favor opposed extensions thank you all