want you're on record between two hours the meeting of the township of pcip Troy Hills planning board for Monday March 4th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. announcement is made that adequate notice of this meeting has been given and it is being conducted in accordance with njsa 10 4-6 at SEC of the New Jersey open public meetings act nor would you call the RO please mayor barbaria here Mr did here Mr de Piero here councilman McGrath here Mr meth present Mr napalitano here Mr Shaw here Miss Smith here Mr stanel here chairman dmore here we also have our board planner miss winter our board engineer Mr kiano and our board attorney Miss Finley if we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please to the flag of the United States of America stands Nation indivisible andice all this meeting is open to the general public is there anyone in the attendance who wishes to speak to the board about something that is not on our agenda tonight all right hearing and seeing none we'll move right into the agenda which is application number 23 col 531 sk3 century Associates LLC three Century Drive block 202 lot 1.7 we've got preliminary and final major site plan with C variants for construction of a warehouse and related site improvements I hear you good evening Mr chairman Mr Mayor members of the board wonderful to have the new microphones for the record uh John Ino partner with the firm of Lino Taylor located here in prci we represent the applicant sk3 sensory Associates in connection with this application uh we're seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval for a new state-of-the-art Warehouse facility of approximately 64,800 Square ft and approximately 4,800 uh Square ft of that space will be uh office space on a piece of property that is approximately 5 acres and identified as 1.07 in Block 202 on the tax map of pipany Troy Hills uh also known as three three Century drop uh currently there's a vacant office building on the property uh this project will redevelop and transform uh this site into a productive use property is owned research office in laboratory and is and is in the OV l-8 overlay Zone District the applicant is proposing to demolish the existing building construct the proposed Warehouse facility and is also proposing other modifications and improvements uh to the site which you'll hear about this evening uh the applicant is requesting some C variances which we believe are minor in nature and they will be outlined to the board uh by the uh applicant's engineer and plan uh we have one uh waiver uh which we think is technical in nature and that is from the requirement that the applicant submits uh separate sheets for final uh major and preliminary site plans and we knowe that in the planers report they didn't have any objection uh with that we have some review memos here just so the record is complete we have the GPI review memo dated uh February 2nd of of 2024 we have the arh uh last iteration uh comment letter dated 228 of 24 we have District Six uh fire letter dated October 23 of 2023 we have a a letter from the SE utility dated October 25 of 2023 uh we have a mors County planning board report dated February 6 of 2024 and we have the highlands exemption determination um from Miss Winters we have four Witnesses this evening Mr chairman we're hoping we can get through it we think we can Noah crismer who's theor dor of land for k group will be witness number one we have Ronald Kennedy of Gladstone Design Inc uh he's the civil engineer so he'll outline all things sort of outside the building to discuss the things that civil engineers typically discuss drainage uh sight circulation parking and the like with have Connor Hughes of dynamic uh who is the uh the traffic engineer although this is a permitted use uh we we do have a a traffic engineer uh anyway uh we have Don Kim from KSS Architects uh who is the project architect and lastly Mr Kennedy uh is going to wear two hats tonight uh he's our civil engineer but he's also going to uh do the planning testimony with respect uh to the variances so without any further Ado Mr chairman I'd like to call Mr crismer um again who his director of land for k group thought it would be helpful uh for him to familiarize you uh with K and and with the project generally so ready we do have one waiver to talk about yes uh the waivers for the separate sheets for final major and preliminary site plan we have no objection to that okay I get the board's approval yeah I figured that not here again do I have a motion approving uh allowing as our planner has presented to us the one waiver with regard to the sep Chief motion meth do I have a second second all right all in favor say I I anybody opposed all yours thank you Mr chairman I I should note that there Z change in this area a little over a year or so ago um so this is a permitted use and that having said that I'd like to introduce Mr Kris so he's ready to be smart you please raise your right hand you swear affirm that the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing about the truth I do and could you please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record sure Noah chrismer last name c h r i m e r and uh K groups located at 515 Marin m a r i n bullevard Jersey City 07302 okay and could you provide the board with some background on your qualifications and lure sure well I'm not going to testify asert an expert Mr chismer is here as a representative of the owner to kind of give you a little background about K and uh we think some just background information uh with regards to the project which of course will be supplemented by uh more technical testimony by the uh professional so he's there in that he's here in that capacity right great thanks John I think that was a question to you Mr chis go ahead um so anyway so I let me introduce myself first um but uh mayor barberio uh chairman denor thank you guys thank you to all the professionals that worked on the application and to the board for hearing us tonight um that I'm Noah K I'm our director of land at K Group um k group is an affiliate of the owner of of the property here and uh has been the owner of the property for some years now um I do all of our planning and entitlement work across the state and in Pennsylvania as well um and so we like to start our hearings just a little bit of background on us um k group is a familyowned sort of intergenerational company it's now in its third generation um the company started off uh with uh like a single family home building business uh back in the 50s and 60s then did office development um and bought offices uh including these in the 70s 80s and 90s uh and has largely over the past 15 to 20 years been doing a combination of residential development uh and some industrial uh and Warehouse development as as well uh company owns about 15,000 apartment units right now um and close now to 7 million square feet of office and industrial space um importantly k group is vertically inated we we do everything from what I do on the very front end all the way through Property Management so um there's always a direct full-time K employee to call on our job from the time I start doing this to the time that Tom G takes over we self-perform our construction with our own Construction Group to the time that our property managers take over and they do all of the property management with full-time K employees um we've done a couple recent projects like this where um assets that we had that really had outlived their useful life and where the market wasn't there for them anymore we've converted um and we've done a couple I chose just two um that were recent and that were conversions to smaller scale Warehouse um this being smaller than those two so in Floren Park uh just a handful of months ago we got an approval to take down a defunct office building there used to be like a data recovery center for one of the banks out of New York City but they stopped needing those anymore um and so it had been vacant for a while um and was being reassessed um and we worked with uh mayor Taylor there Mark Taylor to come up with a plan with some of the similar aspects is what we hope you you guys will see tonight and that is that while the office building was being replaced with a warehouse building uh it was done with a real um a real focus on the design and making sure that the commercial Corridor there along Freeland which in Floren Park is a a pretty vibrant commercial Corridor maintained its identity that this didn't junk up that uh reeland which was important to the mayor and the town we hope we've done the same thing here um year or two before that in Woodland Park working with then mayor kasmar we also did something similar to that there was a um like a uh an industrial and almost they they tested like Warheads stuff uh at at this um and and jet engines at a facility there on McBride also a main Corridor through Woodland Park and mayor casmar was concerned they wanted to do a residential thing there but the flood uh plane wouldn't allow it and so we did a warehouse there's 200,000 Square ft and we work with the mayor on on uh on getting that done and again emphasis on like making making sure that this looks nice from the street making sure it operates nicely making sure that it doesn't um that it keeps the character of the corridor while turning it into a productive asset something that's going to be on the tax roll something that's going to be full that's going to have bodies there that's going to create jobs um and so that's what we're looking to do here as well um a little background on these properties they were built in the 7s um this property is a three-story office building um got about 250 parking spaces um the property had two tenants both under the same umbrella group um they were Emergency Medical Association and emx both did um Outsourcing in emergency rooms I wasn't really aware of this until we started talking about this a couple years ago but apparently emergency rooms Outsource a lot of their staff doctors nurses administrative staff and these companies do that um they have not occupied the building in four years now neither of them one of them went bankrupt we're not sure when the the other one is going to be bankrupt um so and and the lease on the one that has not yet declared bankruptcy whether they will or not don't know uh expires shortly they're never going to renant these spaces they've said so they also are not in good Financial standing um so the building has been vacant if you've been by there recently you may see a car in the parking lot that's either somebody there doing security or cleaning the building or doing the landscaping or picking up the mail um but you haven't had an employee in that building in about four years time um so that's our problem um and uh as John said we worked with the mayor and some of the faces that I recognize here um on the Das uh to do an overlay zone for 3 five and seven Century um uh to allow there to be a broader use still commercial but one that would keep those properties vibrant have employees in them and keep them on the tax rols at the same time taking some of the office space off of the books um because Paran uh as no mystery to folks here has struggled a little bit with its office vacancy and so to take a property off of the office roles but keep it active on the tax roles um seemed to be a desire uh of of the township and we worked with folks on that rezoning which happened at the end of 2022 so we spent the last year plus working on plans sharing them with your offices um and here we are tonight um um with the project that I think we'd like to to show you and and uh and walk through tonight so I'm going to introduce the first exhibit and was hoping I could just walk fail at this okay um and was hoping I could walk the board through the first exhibit here this is um three A1 A1 site plan rendering dated March 4th 2024 and can everybody see I'm Sorry Miss Smith can you see it okay um so here's the plan for the overall site um we have a couple there's a board I'm going to show next which is a comparison of this plan and what's on there currently what's at site today the existing condition um but thought we'd Orient you first to uh the proposal so as you can see here on the board you have a plus or minus 65,000 ft Warehouse here um you've got 11 loading Bays one of them being a ramp up for a truck one of them likely also uh we show a compactor out here but often times the compactors are located in one of the Bays as well and then kept contained uh with the dock as well um it's basically a square the building um 240 by 270 we've divided it as you can see we have a proposed office space here and the proposed office space here both at the corner when I get to the rendering you'll see how it presents there and the glazing that's there our thinking is that the building essentially divides really nicely into two tenets could divide nicely into four tenants and the reason for that is that uh folks have probably read real large uh warehouses right now are struggling there was a boom in large warehouses down near 8A eight even down to to exit 6 those are struggling and there's a lot of supplies but there continues to be a real need around this area um for local necessity based warehouses so this is the guy or gal who owns a sports equipment company and needs 10,000 square ft to store their products to get them out to the marketplace locally um that type of user Plumbing Supply Company Etc the the normal folks who used to occupy warehouses before huge fulfillment centers took them over and turned them into something that you know a new economy basically in the last 10 years this Warehouse is more geared toward your traditional Warehouse user um and I think it's important to point out what it is not it's for a traditional Warehouse user it is not for a high volume fulfillment center one it's not big enough two it's not cross docked so you don't have trucks coming in one side Goods hitting the rack and going out the other side that's not what this is for this really is for your standard necessity Warehouse user that's running a business and wants to get product out locally to the distributors in the local area um so uh got the building here oriented sentury drive here um in terms of parking we've got 51 car parking spaces here um and our Engineers will walk you through how those are laid out we reuse a very little amount of the parking um we do have the accessible spaces and the EV spaces as required by code now um like I said 11 loading Bays here for the docks and then importantly at the bottom of the plane you'll see this hash mark here this is a a stabilized Turf that could be used for emergency access so if fire Life Safety needed to get to the building uh needed to get around this side because something was blocked here we've got a stabilized Turf here it's basically a honeycomb I I've also just learned about this in the last handful of years basically like a heavyduty plastic honeycomb that Grass Grows through but you can drive right over it so it's impervious soaks up the rain but if a fire truck needed to drive over it it's rated that it's stabilized and you could drive right over it with fire truck our engineer can get in the more technical with that but importantly you've got emergency access all the way around the building um so that's the overall site before I put up the next exhibit you can see the storm water here which of course our engineer will get into this complies with all the D regulations for disturbance of over an acre is a vast improvement over what's out there for storm water today and we'll get into that a little bit there way we can do that so that the public can see it certainly [Music] so this is A1 here's the plan before I throw the next exhibit up are there any questions on the basic layout basic idea here okay so here's our next exhibit John A2 describe that yes so this is A2 and sorry guys these are brand new all right still working uh this is titled comparison exhibit also dated March 4th 2024 uh we've got four comparisons that we thought were important the first one is impervious coverage this is the existing building it's 64,000 ft of office space it's almost the same size floor plate wise not floor plate wise same size gross floor area as is the warehouse but clearly the warehouse is one sto is one story and so has a larger footprint but what's important is everything outlined in blue here is impervious and we increase the impervious coverage on this side just more than 1% so just over 1% increase in impervious at the same time as we'll get to we're adding a lot more trees here and some serious storm water infrastructure so we think we' basically kept the impervious coverage almost exactly where it's at on the site today very slight increase but adding significant storm water controls and Greening the site with the addition of another 70 trees a net benefit of over 30 trees to the site um so that's the first comparison that we have here pointed out the second comparison is The Greening of the site um with the landscape plan that we have here in the storm water so you've got 48 trees on the site right now uh when we're done 79 trees Tre so a net increase of 31 will keep seven of the existing trees 72 new trees uh including both significant buffer plantings uh in response to our neighbors on both sides of the property but also shade and decorative trees out front as well as behind the property the third comparison here is the proposed driveway access so we think important to note we're basically reusing the two driveways the two driveway entrances so they've already proved to be safe they're already set up well for the site they work well for the warehouse use uh we are reconstructing them a little bit and widening them because particularly the northern access which is the primary truck access to the site we've widened that throat a little bit which our engineer will get into but essentially we're keeping the same basic traffic pattern to and from Century as is as exists today and finally we thought we'd look at the setback of the building so the current setback here um is 50 ft and we are about just shy of 70 ft to the closest corner of the the building and something more like 100 plus feet uh from the furthest corner so we've increased the setback of the building a bit uh in its place a storm water structure here and a number of decorative trees and plantings that you see out here I have one more exhibit that I'd like to put up before I hand it over to our experts uh for their testimony but if anybody has questions on this and I can show this also to the public these were the uh the comparisons that we're talking about yes if you can show the here yep are you able to see it I'm sorry yes okay than great okay so finally this is a rendering and John this I'm going to have to I think Mark this with a pen yeah just I mean the architect will come up too just cool so this is A3 it is a rendering it is not dated or titled but it's a front rendering of the proposed Warehouse building and that was prepared by the that was prepared by our architect who will be providing testimony yes ma'am so um this is what I was talking about at first and we've learned quite a lot in the past couple of these that we've done about how important it is that the warehouse doesn't look like your standard big box Warehouse um because this is a Redevelopment of an area in an already commercial where you have a mix of uses Office Buildings you're going to have the LA Fitness you're going to have so this is already um while there's some vacancy here it's already an active and vibrant commercial Corridor and so we don't want a plain vanilla building there we want something that to the street shows almost like an office building as close as we can get to an office building so you'll notice in architect will walk you through this you've got a lot of glazing you have some interesting architectural features with paneling here you've got a lot of light and air through windows um on the building and you'll see the two sides of the building so these are the two areas proposed to be office spaces they could be further divided but they take up a pretty significant portion of the building and we think it presents pretty nicely to the street here um these are actually cherry trees on the plan we made sure of that that if we were going to show cherry trees there was actually going to be cherry trees so we do have these cherry trees out front um but this is the presentation to the street and we're hoping that this presentation lines up it's a little more contemporary this some of what you have out on uh on Century but a nice upgrade we think certainly to the current building that we're proposing to take down certainly to 3 Century right now um and so that's it um I think I've got through most of what I wanted to to talk about and share with everybody here um let's just see we got the trees the driveway access yeah all set so I can take any questions or I can introduce our uh experts for their testimony well I'm going to ask if the board has any questions on this testimony at this time Mr napalitano uh thank you for that uh just I don't see on the plans here but what sort of signage is going to tell people they can't go that way uh on that honeycomb and reinforced Road there oh good point so uh we can our expert can come up and talk about signage we can also work with the board on if you want uh you know a chain link here you want a nox boox um I can't remember exactly what we're proposed so I won't testify to it our engineer but we're happy to work with with the engineer we've done everything from signalized you know siren Gates step to a chain with a nox box anything like that yeah y thank you y any other questions by members of the board yes Mr meth so you said right now you you potentially can have this for up to four tenants yeah plus or minus yeah we made the building so that it could subdivide like that are they going to be linear so they all have access to loading docks yes sir they would all be linear they' all have access to a doc thanks any other members Mr kiano do you have any on this testimony not on your testimony who's going to talk about hours of operation I can do that yeah so the proposed hours of operation would be 247 and I think that's allowable in the zone what we find with these smaller Warehouse tenants is that while you say that and while they will operate 24/7 um the majority of the traffic in and out of the site is employees during the day and uh trucks which you will hear from our our uh traffic expert um are few and far between actually to these sites and that's not just with the it counts it's actually backed up by post construction surveys that uh that our Engineers have done um so post 247 um we don't see this as a very high volume facility again going back to what this is not this is not a high volume fulfillment center it's going to be lit up like a like a a stadium at 2:00 in the morning with a bunch of trucks coming in and out trying to get the deliveries out for the the the following morning um just to follow up on that so just considering it's 64 or 65,000 square feet yep potentially that's the largest and potentially smaller units from your experience do you find that these this size or smaller tenants utilize the 24 hours go through shifts what what can you say they do sometimes yeah and and they they may want a hate to say a skeleton crew but yeah they they might want some employees in there at night um there could be a delivery or two coming at night I mean this is sort of a commercial area but yeah they they want the flexibility um we're dealing with a potential tenant right now in um in Branchburg Township on a very similar sized building um that is looking for 24/7 they will readily admit that their overnight traffic and overnight usage of the facility is less but they do need the option to keep it open thanks yep Mr M one last question um the whole emergency access yes with h I'm just curious why do you need it is it to keep impervious down so absolutely from our perspective um is it it's to keep impervious down um on an area because you're well underneath the limit yeah but it's to keep impervious down think it's responsible it does work um and that's why we do it yeah rather than pave the whole thing and it's really not a cost uh it it has nothing really to do with cost for us we're relatively indifferent between doing this and Paving it with black top we just think environmentally it's a little better for the site um we that's why we do it I mean there's one tradeoff which I'll get into with your site engineer sure but that's that the by having all the trucks come in the other direction it forces them BL Blindside backing into the base well so it's funny and we we talked a lot about how the drivers want to come in and back in and we passed this through a number of different companies all said that if you're coming in off of of century you come round on the right that you go past and that their their backend movement was fine this way okay yeah so they they have a way that they like to back in um and we got check this because we could have done sort of either direction right we could have chosen the top or the bottom we chose this because this was a favorable movement yeah because usually if he tring the other way the driver can see everything whereas he has blind spots a lot of blind spots if he's backing the way you've got the site oriented I'll let our engineer get into that yes okay any other members of the board hearing and seeing none are there any members of the public who wish to ask questions of this witness of this testimony at this time you please come up and identify yourself and ask a question my name is Camille pese I live on muray court which is right behind century and you guys have been a neighbor of ours since I lived there 25 years and a good neighbor uh yes I have uh questions and my neighbors have questions they're not here tonight uh basically we're concerned about the quality mayor you remember we came to the Town Council you told us to come here and voice our concerns so we have concerns about the quality of our little neighborhood on Murray Court we have very small footage that bucks up to the Century Drive uh where you guys own three five and seven um almost right behind I'm right behind Five so I'm very close to three our concerns is if this is warehouse and I understand all about overlay 8 uh that the warehousing now that it's Zed for how can we be sure that we don't have noise pollution at 10:00 or 12:00 or 2:00 or 4:00 in the morning that would keep us awake and our children and in my case my grandbabies so those are number one concerns about the quality of us living in the neighborhood we've been in for over 20 [Music] years so I I understood and appreciated I will allow our engineer to cite the actual regulation um but sound is governed by the D and we are not allowed to to have noise pollution by state law and then every Township follows the D regulation on that so we can I can have our engineer cite that regulation um but in terms of sound we will comply by all the law laws of the state and is refrigerator available or allowed to stay outside to pulling into the facility the warehouse for hours and that's quite loud yeah so so I I think that the trucks are not allowed to idle okay that that's also part of the state law um refrigerated trucks and refrigerated trucks they don't have their engines on while they're going but they'll have a refrigeration unit going but that's certainly a lot quieter than the engine so it's not engine noise that you're hearing there I have a question Mr chairman Mr stanel so you uh alluding to that the building will have the capability for Cold Storage so we have not designed it for Cold Storage we would not want to rule that out though okay yeah that was my question all right any other members of the public have any questions of this witness on this testimony at this time hearing and seeing none Mr engino yes Mr chairman I'd like to call Mr Kennedy at this point who is the uh project engineer thank [Music] you [Music] Mr Kennedy would you please raise your right hand do you swear or affirm the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do and then please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the certainly Ronald Kennedy um K NN e d y Gladstone is on 265 Main Street in Gladstone New Jersey all right and could you provide the board with some background on your qualifications and LIC I'm a civil engineer and a professional planner licensed in the state of New Jersey since the mid 1980s uh in both in both uh I have uh testified before hundreds of boards throughout the state of New Jersey doing Land Development applications similar to this residential commercial industrial types of applications um and um all facets of the civil engineering design that we would typically get involved with site engineering uh myself and my firm have been involved so we requested the board accept Mr Kennedy as a an expert both in the area of civil engineering and in professional planning any questions on uh Mr Ma just one if so you're testifying as a planer later so I'm just curious when you obtained your planner license did you do it through examination or through reciprocity reciprocity in the 80s that was still low okay thank you okay that was something that was cut off I'd say in the early '90s but uh besides the the aspect of the planning lure I've been practicing as a professional planner for many many years testify regularly as a professional planner both in Board of adjustment applications for de variances as well as okay thank you any other questions on the qualifications hearing and seeing none councelor thank you Mr chairman uh well I guess m Mr Kennedy if you can please walk the board through the civil engineering aspects the application I can I just uh want to make sure I can effectively put the boards up here without having to turn around to the public and I got a fair number of those so we typically push it back in the corner Mr chairman what the put them back there so that the members of the public can board and the public can yes thank you and maybe you w't take this one down so that it's not in the [Music] way [Music] and the uh the next question were those boards entered as exhibits were they on a I'm on A4 thank [Music] you I [Music] can't all right I'm going to label exhibit A4 it's called neighborhood aerial exhibit with today's date of March 4th 20124 and by way of introduction to the property in the neighborhood uh Littleton Road is on the left- hand side of the sheet North is straight up silven way is across the bottom of the sheet generally and then Century Drive is in the left hand side of the area that's outlined of the property in question as you can see with this exhibit the surrounding uses around the property itself are all Office Buildings uh and the every one of them around there is an office building structure right now uh some are vacant others are not the outline that is in purple that is on this exhibit A4 is the area that was the overlay Zone that was adopted by this board last year and that's three lots on both three five and seven Century Drive so those three lots were rezoned or not reone but put the overlay zone of the overlay 8 Zone um onto the o RL Zone the property itself is known as block 202 lot 1.07 it's 5.01 Acres the as Mr Chrisman said it was developed in the 1970s it has a total of 68,000 ft of office uh 270 surface parking spaces currently exist right now the access to the property is both by uh two driveways that uh come in off of central drive and I'm going to show the next exhibit of the existing conditions Mr chair while Mr Kennedy's uh labeling that I just want to make clear for the record the applicant does not own five Century um I think that there was a comment before in that the applicant no three and seven does not over was going to ask that question thank you all right uh A5 is the existing conditions map and again blowing in from the larger view down into the property itself it shows the existing building three-story building total of 68,000 square foot shows the parking to the rear of uh 270 parking spaces the driveway to the north side of the building and the property and then the driveway to the south side of the building and has circulation that goes around the building uh generally the um the only storm water management feature is a small Basin that's located in the northeast corner of the property uh and we're going to show plans that going to change some of that uh developed pretty simple with a primarily rear uh focused parking lot and the building relatively close to Century Drive existing coverage is 46.7% of the property right now and as Mr Chrisman testified the the building itself's been vacated for a number of years obviously the benefits that we're proposing today is to reuse and repurpose the unutilized piece of land enhance the streetcape along the roadway uh new storm water management which is going to be an integral part of this uh with these new standards for green infrastructure which will enhance the water quality um the infiltration and attenuation of peak rate of runoff on this property versus what occurs today based on the existing conditions the change to the zoning and the intent or k the proposed exhibit going label A6 is proposed Redevelopment exhibit small R correct so as was stated before it's 5.10 Acres the building itself is a one-story building um it is a total of the 68,000 ft of building area it has and reuses the two existing driveways one to the South and one to the north the north driveways widen from a 24t drive a to a 30ft drive a to accommodate um the the uh larger vehicles for the um vehicles to the rear of the property uh a small parking lot in front of the building as you can see um and then it was talked about already of a area that's a Turf managed area that's along the southern part of the building and while the question came up why the primary reason why is the highlands exemption that we receive for this property had to keep under a quarter acre of new impervious coverage if we added this this is a total Loop we'd be over the quarter acre and we would not meet the highlands exemption so that's the primary driver of that obviously from a cost standpoint it's about it's probably more expensive to put this Turf in than it is to pave it just in general terms um of of doing that correctly but the primary driver for this W is the exemption under the highlands uh for relief of a quarter acre of new impervious coverage for that that would put us over if we had to full loop in there and we require a different set of approvals before Highlands the drive way that J so basically the highlands considers this those pavers pervious that's correct okay thank you yeah yeah it's it's ex it's not considered new impervious coverage for them okay than you the the again the layout is fairly simple around the building to the rear of the property is the loading docks themselves uh as Mr Chrisman said there's a total of 11 of those one that's all the way on the North side is a ramped driveway or ramped loading dock uh where you can physically drive into the building the other uh 10 or uh drop- down loading where it's 48 in from the finished floor of the building down to where the wheels would go in so it's a standard loading talk operation that you can back into those but we did want to make on this one side one area entrance that you can come in at grade where you can physically drive into the building with the vehicle uh there is another area in the center here that shows for a future compactor that could be put on the site itself not in the loading Bay itself or they could put those in the actual loading Bays we have pedestrian entrances into the rear of the building that the architect would go through um and the other aspect in the rear is that we have a small detention Basin that's right up against the building itself and I'm going to go through some of those details that's causing some relief on a uh an issue with the retaining wall and a fence on top of a retaining wall front of the building is pretty standard for a parking lot we have a a a a aisle with parking on both sides in front of the building itself the primary focus is to have an entrance at the corner of the building uh that would be for guests and employees in the northwest corner and in the southwest corner you could see that on the architectural rendering that you saw before uh and there'll be a total of four entrances physic into the building the um the signage that's in the front corner of The Bu of the property right now in the southern entrance we're going to basically put that in the same area we have to set it back a little farther because your zoning requires a 20 foot set back now will comply with that and I'll have a small sign that will comply with all your standards uh there is two signs actually on the building themselves over each of the entrances the architect will show those in detail detail um but we will re some relief on those signs and I'll go through that a little later when I talk about the various relief we need for some of these site improvements or building improvements as I said before um I said it wrong The Bu existing building is 68,000 the proposed building it's 60,000 ft of warehouse and 4,800 foot of office so it's actually a total of 64,800 Ft so 60,000 Warehouse 4,800 the bill Building height itself will comply with the 45 ft requirement for Building height it's measured on average grade around the building so the average grade with the front of the building being equal to the finished floor the back of the building being 4 foot below the Finish floor when we do the average grade calculations it's actually 2.7 foot below the finished floor is the average grade when we add that the 45 ft has to be measured to the 2.7t below the average around the building shown on the architectural plans but we got to make sure that we coordinated so we don't have a problem with the building height issue as far as the total number of parking spaces by your ordinance it's 8 space per thqu ft² of floor area that requires 52 parking spaces we physically show 40 one parking spaces on the property um two of the spaces by the state requirements are EV parking spaces they're not going to be EV ready we're actually going to build the EV charging stations right into those um and they count as double credit for those so equivalent we have 53 parking spaces um where your ordinance requires 42 or 52 per the requirement so we meet the requirement of having 51 physical spaces but we get credit for two additional because of the EV parking spaces I'm sorry can I interject for a second Christine is that right that's what I have8 per thousand for the overlay Zone that's what cuz I thought we were talking like one for 2500 for this for the overlay at one point that's what we've generally done in the Redevelopment plans but this overlay zone is is different okay yes I mean I like the number better I'm just so clear from it pers you know demand but okay I know I'm just curious this the first time i' ever heard of 08 per thousand for warehouse the size of the spaces are 9 by 18 we meet the accessibility requirements with the new accessibility code so there's no issues with that the number of parking spaces again we meet with the the the bonus of the two EV parking spaces that are there and as I said they're not going to be EV ready we're actually going to be putting those in um at the time of uh construction your ordinance requires um allows for a one loading dock uh door per 5,000 ft so in this we would allow 13 loading docks we're only showing 11 one of those which is the loading ramp so we meet that requirement that we're not over the number of loading dock spaces the next item which may become a variance we'll talk about this in a second but it's um the design we're still designing for what is WB 67 Vehicles okay so that's the largest Vehicles over the road in New Jersey that's allowed so it would the spaces themselves we're having are 60t deep that's over the concrete area and then we have an additional 75t pavement area for the Turning backing into the space which is 135 ft from the face of the building that's a standard design that's what you see up at 8A down on the turnpike that's the standard design for those what we found out with the comment from your your engineer is that the total length of the vehicle could actually be up to 76 ft okay the total length of the vehicle your ordinance and I say your General ordinance not the one that's specific to the Zone but your general ordinance says you need two times the maximum length so if we have two times the maximum length of those vehicles that would be 152 ft where we have 135 ft and again we'll go through the justification that later we're using a standard design that we do for loading docks down at Exit 8A on the turnpike and even other smaller projects that Noah talked about in K that we designed with them of the 135 ft and that what we're showing on this plan so it would be a 60ft deep concrete pad for the actual um uh the trailer itself and then you'd have an asphalt area in front of that that would be 75 ft and we feel that's more than adequate to make the Turning movements in and out of that space are are trailers of that size expected at this location I mean based on the they could be you just don't know I mean again the the the from what we're seeing the world keeps changing with deliveries and it keeps changing for those things so what we're making sure we're doing is we know that the state allows WB 67 in the state so we're designing our systems to accommodate that will that physically occur here it really depends on the tency that comes in there it it it really does I mean the smaller tenants tend to not use vehicles that large and if they do it's very um uh infrequent I would think they would use box trucks that a lot more than yeah and again but they make it the delivery from you know their warehouse that they're getting from Ohio that may have that larger vehicle that comes in and that only comes in once a month it's not coming in every day but that larger Supply thing that comes in over the road that they really can't control how it's being shipped you know that but their product out likely they can control and usually they'll have generally smaller vehicle because they're going local they're not going National but to get product to this property to this building you don't know what size Vehicles could be coming in there other than we're going to design it to the maximum limmit just to be comfortable that the vehicle can get in and out of there fair enough so um we we have the the the 135 ft that's there we've widened out the driveway to 30 foot in width and we think that's a normal circulation with when it has and expects um u a tractor trailer traffic what we found out also based on the comments from your Township engineer is that the maximum width in your ordinances for driveway is 12T to a Max 25 or 24t so we again it may need another relief we'll talk about that when I get to my planning testimony because we do have a 30 foot wide driveway and under one of your standards that in this design standard it talks about a maximum width of a driveway of being 24 foot and we're going to if if that's the case then we're going to ask for Relief we think the 30 foot's more appropriate for this site with turning in and out and that movement uh waste management is typic Ally handled inside the building for a facility like this but we show a compactor outside as well uh again tenant driven we're given that options available for for either scenarios that it could be inside the building or it could be in a compactor that would be outside the building is a standalone compactor or one that would be backed into the physical loading Talk itself pedestrian access um walkways that we have along the front of the building that we have for pedestrians that are in the general parking area we do not have walkways that go around the building to the rear to the Loading y we think they're two separate functions typically they're not related to one another the folks that work in the front will walk through the building to get to the back it's not a circulation that they would walk around the building so we're not showing that access we also show there's a five parking spaces that we kept along the southern side of the driveway that does not have a sidewalk now we added a sidewalk along there there's some detail comments in that making that a little wider it's only 4ot wide down but 5 foot um and so any of these parking spaces that are in front of the building for um uh passenger vehicles would have a walkway to get into the building utilities I'll get to another exhibit go to A7 A7 [Music] right uh again grading and utility exhibit March 4th 2024 uh fairly straightforward on the the primary utilities which is uh electric uh sewer water coming into the front of the building off of century uh we are wrapping around um water line to the rear for hydrant for fire protection that would be to the rear we show the fire department connection the front corner the northwest corner of the building for the fire department connection for the sprinkler system uh and gas electric sewer the biggest change that we're doing on this plan from a utility standpoint is the storm waterer management and again under the new statutes that we're redeveloping the site or repurposing the site itself we still have to meet that criteria and overall it gets a significant net benefit to the Watershed because of what we have to do and you can see on this site is we have a total of three excuse me four new detention basins a basin here smaller Basin up top a basin right behind the building and then a basin in the front um that all have to be designed to these new standards the maximum drainage area going into each Basin is 2 and A2 acres in the previous they took all five acres and dumped it in the lowest corner of the property put a hole in the ground and called it the detention Bas and that was the version of 1970s you believe it or not I've been doing it since 1970s is we've come a long way in making it a little more sophisticated uh so right now we have to handle infiltration and because we are slightly increasing the amount of impervious coverage on the site we have to provide infiltration for that increase in impervious coverage which provides no infiltration to that the second thing is the whole site any area that we're redeveloping we have to meet the water quality standards and in this case while doing that with small bio retention basins that are here and in this case they'll be relatively low in depth even during 100e storm they only have two or three foot of water in them but they'll have planted material that will be in there there'll be a 18in section of this spec very specific planting bed material in there under drains a sand layer underneath that 18 in and then a stone layer below that so the sandwich of of construction is uh to enhance the treatment of storm water management that comes off the property the other benefit of this site is that we have a very large roof area which um doesn't have the same uh potential for having pollutants as what is now focused on is vehicle parking surfaces and we have less than half the vehicle parking surfaces on this site versus the existing site itself and that means that that will have the propensity to have less pollutants there even though we're having these four storm water basins have the water quality standards where the total suspended solids have to equal 80% um as far as meet the criteria for 80% of removal of total suspended solids so netting out the project is it has a big enance enhancement from a storm water standpoint because of these new improvements all new surfaces or all surfaces that'll be on this will go through one of these basins before ultimately it's discharged into a pipe Network that's to the rear of the building that discharges out the S the silen wi um so I I think that's a it's a pretty big enhancement for what exists there today next exhibit is [Music] lighting John A8 [Music] yes [Music] okay lighting um again comparative to what's there today you have fixtures that are on these Globe bulbs that are out there now they're about 18inch diameter they have no dark skar cut offs at all on those they appear to be on uh Dust to Dawn and what we're proposing here is 15 pull mounted Lake fixtures and 11 building mounted fixtures they would all be downward facing all LED um and they would all be dark sky compliant where you're not going to have the spillage of lighting that certainly the fixtures out there today have uh your opinion Ron does that produce a a benefit to the neighbors behind the building it it does uh you it it the fact is that they're all downward light as opposed to just glowing out right now um and you know that's the evolving that we have for light pollution uh both from a neighborhood standpoint or an overall local community standpoint is downward fixtures um you can control a lot more of the lighting patterns now with LEDs than you had with the incandescent light bulbs or um that that we can control um overall the lighting we're at average of 09 foot candles if went out there with the meter today I'm sure it's brighter than that um parking lot levels will be pretty low loading dock areas we just even have an average of twoot candles so we're keeping the intensity low on that site there's no reason to overlight it um and I we we have uh again the right types of fixtures that are here to get downward lighting the next [Music] is going to go back to back to exhibit A6 and I just didn't talk about Landscaping I think Mr Chrisman talked about the fact that we're removing some of the existing trees that are around the building buildings and around the parking lots now uh and we're replacing that with new Landscaping primarily focused around the perimeter of the development portion of the site uh some new landscaping that's in the front around the detention basins uh certainly to the north and to the South and to the east we have new um landscape plantings that are there we're breaking it up with deciduous trees uh and um we have a combination of Evergreens along the two properties proper line corners or property lines the North and the South uh and then more deciduous and and ornamental trees to the front and rear on the property uh and I'll have an overall theme to it if you go out there today it's kind of old scraggly some of these things aren't in great shape some of them are decent so this will have a a new Fresh theme to the site plan when we plant this material for the most part we're trying to get native materials as much as possible on these things and then addition to that we have you know shrubs perennials cover and the typical site plane details that we would we would want for a facility like this and last is um the zoning standpoint um the the bulk standards for this property we meet and that's on the lot area on the setbacks of the building uh certainly on the density both from the building coverage the lot coverage standpoint uh we meet all the those standards there's a couple of technical Ones based on some circumstances on the property that I want to go through and just touch upon for a minute I'll come back about planning testimony but I just want to identify those at this point in there and then they're going to have other witnesses that are going to come along and talk about some of those details but I want to identify those uh the first one is the uh parking setback for the lot lines the ordinance requires a 10-ft parking setback and there is five spaces and I'm going to put this exhibit up this will be a new exhibit that would be A9 site plan variance exhibit and there's five spaces that are in the south west corner of the property and those five spaces exist today and by keeping the southern driveway it's just these five spaces in the corner they've been built when the project was originally built in the 70s and they're 6 and 1/2 ft from the property line where 10t is required we're eliminating so so just so we're clear on that the the construction of the new building is not creating those variants as those are pre-existing because that's what's there today that's correct and the main reason why I'm not getting rid of those is because I'm keeping the existing driveway that's on the southern side of the property that's the main reason I'm keeping those five spaces to get up to our 51 spaces we're eliminating 37 non-conforming spaces on the North side that are in that same 6 foot 6 and 1/2 foot and we're eliminating 16 non-conforming spaces on the southern side we're asking to do is keep those five spaces that are up at this corner that are 6 and 1/2 foot as opposed to 10 uh foot that's required it AB buts another area that has parking up against it so it's another similar use in an office building next to it that does not meet that 10t requirement already uh it has some screening that along there with some some uh shrub nass right now but we're asking for the relief there the next area that we have relief and this will be my last exhibit A1 sorry [Music] A10 it's the slope disturbing exhibit and in this case the slope disturbance exists in some very minor areas that exists in along the northern property line primarily around the existing detention Basin so even when you cut the side slopes of an Basin in you create slopes that are 3 to1 or 4 to1 slopes and they would qualify under your ordinance as steep slopes and then there's a small area on the southern side that would be a steep slope that would be about 15% these are constru constructed and made during the actual Construction in the 1970s it's not something that exists naturally it's not something that goes beyond that that's a natural steep slope but physically they were to construct primarily the detention Basin and we're going to ask for Relief on those we're reconstructing those areas and we're going to be making new steep slopes based on the side slopes of those detention basins as well the next area I'll go back to relief that we need is exhibit A9 which was the site plan variant in that area we have two areas that we have retaining walls they're small one is 4T High one is a maximum of 4.1 fot the 4.1 ft exists on this detention Basin that's off the South uh east corner of the building and it's 4.1t at at the worst case scenario on top of that because of fall protection we're putting a fence up it's an aluminum open fence that would be tubular aluminum type of fence that was there that you can't fit a 4 in sphere through but it's a very open environment according to your ordinance it's the combination of the 4 foot the height of the wall plus the fence so it actually behaves as an 8T structure and the maximum allowed is a 6ft structure so by default we need relief on that so it's at that one location here and the second location is where we have the ramp going up into the building itself at the highest point it's a 4ot loading do so at the highest point that retaining wall would be 4T we're going to put a fence on top of that again for fall protection so that would be an 8T structure according to your ordinance Max allowed is 6 foot without tiering it we can't tiar this to make it comply so we're asking for Relief based on the circumstance of a 4ft wall in case 4.1 foot wall plus a 4 foot fairly open fence it's not stuck a you can see right through it um it it'll you know blend itself into the landscape but we still need Relief by your definition and then you're going to see with the architect and I'll just go over it to set the the tone up for it we have two building mounted signs one at Each corner of the building that on top of the architectural feature of the entrance right the ordinance allows for only one because we have two prominent features of the site we're asking for two the second part of it is each sign itself or a sign on the building could be up to 150 square foot we're only asking for each of those to be 93 but the ordinance requires that you have to add both of those up so if I add both of those up we're 186 and the ordinance allows for 150 square foot okay so you'll see that with the architect I'll come back as a planner and testify I just want to set the the tone for that is that we're building smaller signs but two of them if we got two small be hard to read so we're asking for Relief will be under each of those will be under certainly the 150 squ foot we're only at 60% but the combined is 168 and then the last two I I I kind of touched on already is this the the loading the birth size the loading space the 135 foot versus the WB 67 that's likely relief and I want the board professionals to weigh in and see if they agree or not and then the width of the driveway under Section 430 275h uh as far as what I read based on the comments from your engineer review letter 12 foot to no more than 24 foot and that Northern driveway is 30 foot wide so looks like we we need relief on that to make that work but all the other components of the bulk standards the primary bulk standards we meet there's a couple of these technical ones that we're bringing up right now so I leave that to end my discussion on that although I should go probably through the few letters because they're more engineering than plan let's let's let's do that for a second if you don't mind I think um great right in the GPI review letter the primary focus I want to do is on page three it has a series of comments for the most part I want to clarify a couple of things but for the most part we're going to agree to any of the technical comments but there's some that need clarification I just want to make sure for the board's benefit of that uh testimony on the building use materials I think the architect will talk about materials waste generation and hours of operation have already been discussed uh average elevation finished grades around the building we have that on the plan if it's not clear enough we'll clarify that make sure that we have that average grade correct around the building building Heights and compliance with zoning we will comply with Building height there's no question about that we just want to make sure that we document it correctly so there's no misunderstandings through the rest of the compliance process that we don't have an issue with that sidewalk should be considered along the building Frontage for future connectivity again if there's a plan and we the applicants open for that discussion if that's something that's important I think we can foit it in it may not be linear because of some of those utilities we may have to to to Swerve it a little to get around some of the existing um Fe that are out there but I I think we can make it work with the highlands restriction on the increase in it's in the right away okay want to make sure okay well again we we looked it up and it's in the right away and we should be okay with that it says onsite all right we've had that argument from other applicants so I just wanted and again I'll say this is if if they agree we we'll do it I don't want to put the project in jeopardy with the Highland exemption that we have already well the person who making the determination on the highlands exemption so okay I already made that determination but I'll even say that though is is even if we add that amount of square footage that's there it's not a lot my guess is we wouldn't even be over the a a quarter acre cuz we're below the quarter acre now to take that whole strip the 24t aisle and make that all pavement we definitely be over okay that that you know to take that whole thing where the grass pavers are is it 24 or 30 what's that oh that's 30 foot yeah even if we made it down to 24 I think we'd be over we're pretty substantially but the if the 4 foot strip of a sidewalk a long Century that's not a lot of square footage I I'd have to go back through the numbers but we had some room in there not enough room to take that whole area where we have the the um the grass pavers and make it there but we we could do something okay along front we we would agree to do that as a condition of approval uh maybe so long as in the opinion of the board planner uh the project still qualifies for the highlands exemption if if that's the board's pleasure the next item was about uh standard Duty pavement will agree I mean it's just we'll make sure that that's not a problem uh testimony in the accessible a curve ramp in the southwest corner and the stairs I I think that's a detail we'll work out the details to to to make that work um just by the way there was a question by someone about the end of that driveway when it goes from the pavement to the actual Turf area right now we have two posts and a chain across there that would have a Chevron on it and it has a key lock and next to it would be a nox box that the fire department can get access to so that's the detail that we would show for that on both sides that would be towards the front edge and then towards the rear so the detail was fairly simple we don't see a lot of activity that would be in there so it's not a gate or something that you have a lot of people going in and out so a typical detail for that would be a post on both sides chain AC Crush there some type of Chevron so no one at 2:00 in the morning going to drive through that and then a key nox box is the simplest way that um I'm sure Pary uses is every other fire department around here uses a ox boox system um yeah there's a comment about some drainage in one of the parking spaces to avoid that we we'll make that work that's not an issue at all on number eight number nine is the conversation about those two additional relief we found in 430 275v and 275h both on the parking I say the parking the the the total width of the the parking space for the trailer plus turnaround the area 135 ft standard industry but if we use your ordinance with the 761 unit we we'll need relief on that and then the 30-ft driveway where 275h says 24t Max sight triangles will provide we checked it but we we'll provide the sight triangles and sight distan we'll put that as part of any approval that seems not to be a problem uh geometry in the northern driveway same thing we'll work that out in details to make that a little easier to to work through there there's some solutions there's a couple options in there and we can work out that detail just to make that turning radius a little simpler we'd have to widen it out a little there but not a big deal to make that work all right offsite runoff with the BMP manual we do agree and we'll we'll change that make sure that that that works in the calculations and identifying that in the BMP manual uh the underd drains clarifying the capacity that's not an issue on 13 14's not an issue uh as far as the depth of below that that 3 in on both sides of the gravel we'll put the locations on 15 concerete retaining wall uh we We'll add that for the drain on the bottom of the wall and then the onm manual will update that with the comment from the engineer on 17 so we don't have any problem with any of those comments okay thank you I I think on the planning comments the biggest thing was the sidewalk maybe let me just make sure just had a couple qu or a question there are a couple of walkways between the surrounding properties that are being removed and I'm sure that has a lot to do with the use um yeah to touch on it and it it looks I walked around there it it looked every every one of those is a different surface and a different method and looks like has was constructed over time it was not something planned it was probably something that just evolved since the 70s when you had common people or maybe you had one that had too many parking on one spot not enough parking and they were sharing it or one may have had a cafeteria and they're walking across the street to the cafeteria but it looks like it wasn't a plann event it just evolved over time we're thinking with the use it's probably not something that's going to happen and want to happen there we can keep them they don't have to go but we just didn't think the uses to an office use next store weren't that compatible to have that I I would agree um given the use I don't think that connectivity is warranted in the same way and generally when you have this loading operation you don't want a lot of people around there I mean it's just not you know with with the Turning movements and everything else so we thought it wasn't a good idea to keep them yeah and if you're okay with the front sidewalk too that that would eliminate that connectivity issue also or keep it activ yeah help in the and where they where generally the pedestrians want to be is along the roadway as opposed to cutting in and out of parking lots that have truck trailer movements so we okay sidewalk on the front and then those three sidewalks both to the north south and east that we would we we show them to be removed now okay right that was it on the review letters the other ones that were from the other Professionals of the town we didn't have any problems with those you know there's one on the SE utility that worked through the details one from the fire department on fire lanes that none of those had any issues that we had all right that's it on my direct all right actually I'm going to turn to Andrew first well he addressed he's going to addressed our comment so I'm I'm good you're good okay do we have any members of the uh board that have questions on this testimony at this time Mr meth yeah I do but if anyone else wants to go first go ahead thanks thank you for that uh assuming that uh I guess m is you as well uh you guys are the owners of three and seven three and seven but not five okay I mean is there a plan to ever try to push through into Hy from Sentry drive not that I'm aware of okay just just want to make sure on the record so that that's not any of the plans uh and and will there plans to create sidewalks all up and down sentury drive I guess 3 to seven but not five maybe five could be Co into doing that I feel like we missed a boat all this all this construction and Sentry Drive uh Sentry silven and campus we missed a boat and making these not making but suggested that these developers build sidewalks CU you know people want to get out and walk and I mean I guess we missed out on that so I just any plans for up and down uh centry Drive well clearly the applicants willing to do it along their Frontage okay as far as going to other property owners and knocking on their doors and asking them certainly we haven't done that you know I I don't think the applicant has either but I understand the need and it's it's it's it's important and it ties into some public open space that's around there too that they may want to get into at lunchtime yeah okay thank you Mr math did you have a all right so I probably have about three different questions um I'll start with the sort of the big one on noise um do you know how far the loading docks are from Murray Court distance-wise I'm just looking at another exhibit that I didn't present that I'm going to guesstimate from the scale here about a th000 ft okay from from and again I'm going to go back from the the the northeast corner the property to those closest houses all right have you done any noise modeling no we haven't okay we and again the noise that we're talking about here would be the the first of all the trucks coming in would be regulated by Dot and the noise standards associated with that we had another Warehouse application that well it's still going on um but uh they were only 150 ft from a property line and they had to do a noise wall that's why I ask so I think 1,000 feet you're probably not going to have an issue um I guess the other ones are kind of minor so when I looked at that rendering of the front driveway the the North or the South no the the the uh South with the grass um I guess we have what is that exhibit A3 that one over there this one or no the one behind with tree no no no um sitting on the bench oh at the very back so what strikes me is a little strange not strange but the driveway looks like it's basically leading to the side of the building um a lot of times if the intent is for the pavement to really go into the front of the front parking area then that pavement kind of right by that between that light post and the grass is kind of useless that right there so we can you could do yeah could you do like a like a flush curve and make itable yeah and make a radius out of it just to make it look like it's designed to go in yeah I think so that that's a that's a good suggestion yeah and then the other it softens the L room yeah and then the other end of it on the back I was just curious if the sorry making you switch exhibits the trucks backing into that this space Southern loading dock are they going to have to go over that grass as shown the the plan was not to but we it again I do see your point that they may have to drive into here a little more and we may have to stretch that out and make sure that they can come another 20 ft into this location and back into there okay thank you and I guess my last point I think you pretty well showed and testified that you need a 30t drive aisle the entire way on the North End um I mean I mean to me I I you you definitely need the wider radius on either end when people are turning but I was I was going to ask if you can if you're really short and impervious and we need our sidewalk or whatever can we uh think about trimming that it could be again I'll say is the the the waistline of that driveway would be pretty small by the time you take that turning movement in here you know around that turn by the time you get that truck straightened out and by the time you get the truck straightened out in this location it would be a smaller distance but it's a way that if we're stuck somewhere with the sidewalk we can always we can we can we can look to skinny that down okay um sort of my last little bit has to do with those five parking spaces and the walkway to get past them I mean first of all it looks like the depressed curbs basically you lead you right into the grass shouldn't there be like maybe a crosswalk we've had a whole debate about this the whole notion too for the five parking spaces we're almost and we showed it on our plan but we're almost debating whether we even need this sidewalk here because for the most part I I doubt that someone that parks in this parking space is going to walk away from the building okay walk down and go across this crosswalk here when they can just park and literally walk across the parking driveway it's not a high volume you do it in every Supermarket you go to you don't walk across the a sidewalk at all so after we did this we debated it and said we even need the sidewalk in that location I mean I agree with you I I'd say that's good I would actually even suggest or ask for those five parking spaces would you be willing to potentially landbank them I let me just check and see what yeah the whole notion was reuse the existing that's there so we wouldn't that then yeah was we're trying to keep what was there already okay I mean they just seem like they're going to be the very last spaces they're going to use just go for the variance for the less parking spaces than for worrying about what's the chance that you're going to use those five I mean my own my only thought is number one you do have even though it's a pre-existing variance you get a variance attached with that number two with those five spots yes number two I mean okay the the 85th percentile demand for warehouse is one space per thousand but the average is more like is more like half a space per thousand at best right so you're theoretically overp parked a little bit okay I mean you got 08 per thousand is what we put in this Redevelopment plan um you know so like and the fact is those spaces are definitely the least attractive to the building there's no doubt a suggestion just to make everybody's life kind of if that's what you like the will to do that and then the the sidewalk would go away in that are area find out what the board wants that's what I said yeah y not just what I want yeah I agree though thank him okay okay we got rid of a variance Mr D well no if they're Banks you still have Varian just still need the variance it just made be easier to [Music] get and those those five spaces would be removed and just replaced with grass or Landscaping correct okay Mr dich yep so a couple of quick questions one there is no plan or we are not provisioning the truck trailers being parked on site overnight because I don't see any parking for those only if they're parked in the space okay in some larger facilities we create separate parking areas for trailers this is not one of those so we do not have any other parking other than if the vehicle or the trailer would be backed into that loading spot and left overnight okay but yeah some we we go and create new spaces just for that and that is not the case here okay I mean again I asked this because we have one more application going on where they have provision certain parking spots for the trailers to be there we don't other than a trailer could be kept overnight in the regular loading dock space we don't want to eliminate or preclude that that's important to some of the operations um but they're not a storage off of the building only if they're in that loading spot itself yeah because last thing you want is those trailers parked in an unapproved you know yeah along the roadway along back here yeah I get it you don't want okay and the second question is I see there are two EV parking spots correct and there are three uh Ada paring spots uh it's not clear to me if the uh one of the e a parking spot could use the EV um instruction Department's going to probably require it the new Rags that just came out for instruction that the EV parking spaces have to have one at least one we we'll look at that to to make sure I think looks easy to me right just extend the one of the EV to so the the system that we have right now in our detail sheet is it's one post that's a twin okay so you put it in between two parking spaces m so it accommodates both if that needs to slide down one space so it'll be a regular parking space for Ev and then a parking space that would be an accessible parking space that would have the EV again it's easy enough we just take the post to move it what's happening now with the applications is we're approving them here at the board and then my Construction Division is is finding the regulations and we're the applicants are like losing a parking space so I want to make sure that we bring it up because at the time of review now say approve what it will react 46 parking spaces and you you get approved by the board and then I give it a zoning permit and then you submit to my Construction Division and they're reading the code the the my building subcode official and is saying that there has to be additional space for uh for the EV it's causing applicants to return to the board so I'm trying to say that we put something in there should that happen it doesn't cause you to come back here to the board because Bill building sub code is reviewing it as it needing extra space for that handicapped EV so and if if if the code requires X number of accessible spaces let's just say in this case we got three accessible spaces or two accessible spaces is it the EV space has to be an additional accessible space additional correct correct an additional accessible space additional accessible space and they had to have that that that almost that van parking space so there's probably like five applications right now that are being reviewed downstairs that were already board applications and now will not meet what the board here we approved for parking because of that additional requirement so starting effective now when I'm here I'm going to bring it up so that we put something in there that should that happen that doesn't trigger you to come back for an additional variant that we were aware of that there's the possibility of losing a so I haven't heard that I understand what you're saying I just we haven't experienced that yet yeah it literally it was the last month they I'm the zoning officer and I'm the department head of construction and zoning and so they came to me and said how are we going to address this with these applications so I just if there's something we could do now that we're ready so in case that does come about couldn't they just put another EV charger at the at one 886 well the problem is the charging space is not so you currently have 53 spaces with the EV credit you only need 52 so if you lose one you're still okay still I still meet the zoning ordinance you'll still meet the parking well with the land bank I think you can actually get away with losing one of the Ada spots too technically cuz we'd be underneath the 50 correct so you could actually probably turn okay so we got a couple things going for us don't want it to trigger people okay because if it changes as zoning officer I can't allow without coming back to the board so I just want to make sure during these applications we kind of leave ourselves some room to to play with that I'll say clearly between now and any resolution we can I can solve this you know we so we can put some language Loosely in there and by the time a resolution is written I think we'll be in pretty good shape I can review it with you what the building subcode official how he is interpreting it and and make sure that we're all on the same page that'd be fine fine we can make that work I mean it's it's one thing to meet the numbers but other thing is be being practical right so that the person needing assistance is able to leverage on the EV spot side so sure thank you any other questions Michael yeah getting back to the the bottom terminal there that g point to I might have a a backing turning radius can't you make that bottom terminal the uh Trish compactor station and then you won't it won't be using it uh we could it generally if we have multiple tenants you you want to put it in the middle just because they can share it easier that way but it we we could look at that so we can pick that and put it down this eliminate the problem of backing into that that bottom terminal yeah let us look at that as an option if we have the flexibility by the time again we get the compliance in there that we can look at that as an option we're not stretched out in any lot coverage or anything else other than that quarter acre so we have some playroom with some of these things that we can we can make work all right Gordon again one last question on the science um so you're looking for a grand total of 186 Square F feet of signage correct when our ordinance allows 150 ft correct our other application actually the one that we were talking about they did propose two signs separate tenants for the same reason and their signs are only 75 ft each um how critical are those extra 14 ft on each sign well I I'll give you the benefit to this look at the architecture you're not seeing that yet look the presentation from the architect listen to that I'm coming back as the planner and we can talk through those and look at the justification for that and you know see where any of that relationship could be when you look at the the details we can talk about that all right thank you any other questions yeah one more on that honeycom area um would there be any signage for the emergency vehicles to know that they could drive here that who can drive emergency services or Emergency Services yeah um typically we don't on something like that it's something that's you know approved they've had a review your uh District STS of the the fire district already looked at this already I mean typically you would have pre-fire plans for these that the department would know that they exist this way it's pretty obvious that it exists this way we could put fire lane up if the board feels comfortable sign it says fire lane something you know last thing you want is you know emergency vehicle is there but they're not aware they could drive and then not they're standing you know we we can put a sign up on especially on the front side we can put a sign up say fire lane thank you one more PL shows curb along there it does yeah Michael uh any the other applicant um we talked about if there's snow on the ground and the fire department may not see exactly where he can he can drive his truck around the back of the building there's curbs though so he they will you're going to have curbs we we for that reason one of the things we did is we put curbs in oh okay try to Define that I mean three foot of snow no you know but if if you have our you know typical snow that we get these days you'll be able to see that distinction that that that's along there and only thing with those that we're finding is that the grass dies so the grass dies and then now it looks like coverage so it's that that in between where the grass is dying and people been driving on it and it's in between so we're we're in zoning talking about how we're going to try to get people to maintain that grass that coverage cuz when the grass dies it no long and it's always an issue pleasing like else is you got to maintain this stuff and just like storm water management now that requires you know onm manuals and maintenance and recording this has to be maintained and I have some of them I've done 30 40 years ago around larger facilities for J&J they look gorgeous but J&J throws a ton of money at their landscape budget and it looks great you know other ones as you said that that don't look well at all after time if we F if we do the the chain like you said there won't be people driving on it the grass won't be maintained yeah yeah yeah I think you probably put a covenant of some sort and the operations manual regarding the maintenance but we don't problem with that no problem all right we got everybody good I've got one for myself uh sound attenuation getting to the corner that when I look at the the tax map and I see the 200t uh notice distance around the tax map and just looking at it from the East northeast corner of the of the property in question it really appears that Murray Court's only about 500 F feet away from the property not from the loading Bo dox but about 500 ft from the property that's just my uneducated guess um and I was just wondering you you're spending some good money on some trees have you looked into making it so that they are towards that corner that they would be Evergreen so that you have winter coverage with some sound attenuation I recognize you have to follow the state law that requires that at night you only have a 50 deel sound uh but shortly after hearing this other case that we've referred to I was walking out walking in the morning and I was at the foot of Celtic which is near my house and at the top of Celtic which was 1,000 ft away there was a garbage truck backing up and it was noticeable it it wasn't a terrible thing it wasn't loud but it was noticeable and at 2:00 in the morning when a grandchild is falling asleep in your bedroom they they could affect the quality of the of the living there so I'm just looking for some indication that number one you're you're planning on sticking with following our laws of 50 DB at the uh property line and something to at least modestly attenuate the sound that and what that other case presented was that they thought that they could find a combination of trees that would seriously knock down the sound uh in the winter time M and I would just love to to hear that that's in your thoughts and just ch chairman we we'll agree U to the extent that's not already the case in the plans to work with your uh planner or to ensure that that tree uh attenuation barrier is created I think given that the possibility that we might be also seeing seven here that that's a lot closer to Murray court and we're going to be very insistent that the neighbors not be disturbed by the activity at night so we we'll agree to the to that as a condition okay thank you good suggestion y all right on that note uh just that the U engineer can comment the area that we would need it would be in the vicinity of the detention Basin um it looks like you have room to I think so yeah and we got a fair amount of planning on here already that we can add some more to along this in this corner of the property right in the northeast corner I mean so there's room in here that we can add to that very good all right uh no other members of the of the board have questions hearing and seeing none are the members of the public who have questions on this witness at this test this testimony if you could come up identify yourself again again this is time for questions only on the testimony provided can p 11 Mur court and um I want to thank you guys very much for representing us with the noise I can my granddaughter's bedroom I could see the Basin that they're talking about that's how close it is so thank you for that everyone uh my second concern is the flood zone muray Court the last two houses I'm the third house from this property the last two the two houses uh are closer to that are in the flood zone and I heard about all of the basins and everything you're doing can you please just summarize how Murray Court will not be flooded because of the new construction of the warehouse so a couple things first of all um today you just have one small basin that's there for all that impervious coverage the new plan will have substantially more volume of storage of storm water with the same amount of impervious coverage that's there today right so from the standpoint of there'll be more structures or more volume being held back from that water getting to that location some of it goes into the ground some of it gets tra before it's discharged will flooding disappear from what that is today likely not not disappear but we don't get any flooding there good so I'll say this is the calculations clearly show that from this site there'll be less Peak runoff during a flood a flow than what's there today that's what the calculation show by us constructing all these new facilities on this property so there'll be less of an impact from a storm water and flooding standpoint with these improvements for this new project than what exists on the property today as the efforts from what your and with all these plans I'm sorry I'm sorry ma'am could you just speak nothing have they been taken under consideration by six Elven way which is right next to it right on Sven way yeah I don't know I haven't design that so I I can't answer that I know that's another project but I'm saying well what you're doing and what you're proposing and it looks like it's going to be approved considering uh will any of that be taken under consideration with the six silven project which is very close and you talk about Lifetime Fitness which is there and you talk about the 286 housing units which are going up right two doors from me three doors for me yeah and there's we have a buffer now you're not taking our buffer that's what I heard you're not taking our buffer down so that part's good you're reinforcing the basins that's that's very good but I want to make sure that what they're what you're proposing they're not able to come in and change any of that would that be a possibility their project has to stand on them their own you know they can't they can't take a benefit from what we're doing on this property and the other thing too just to to to remind the yourself and the board the water that goes into these detention basins themselves actually don't go towards you they actually go out to Sil and they actually go to the small stream channel that's along silvin and we at first couldn't understand that but they're literally it it goes into a pipe Network that discharges from this location here and I'm I'm going to point to your back for a second but actually goes down away from your site so the only flow that you would get off of this property is in the extreme flood conditions where it's above the design capacity of these storm water basins so this is a 100e storm plus an additional 25% that would go over there but every storm including the 100-year storm and plus 25% goes into that pipe and goes away from your property on this particular property that's probably not the case totally with the the the sixsen because that drains it looks like back toward your property okay that that does but here which is a little odd cuz we're kind of on a little Bluff right here it actually drains back the other way towards the channel and Sil any other members of the public have questions in this witness and this testimony at this time hearing and seeing none counselor thank you Mr thank you Mr K at this time uh like to talk call up Conor use of dynamic for traffic [Music] testimony please raise your right hand you swear affirm the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes I do please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record my name is Connor Hughes last name spelled h u g h e s uh business address is 245 Main Street Chester New Jersey uh that's Dynamic tra and could you provide the board with some background on your experience in lure certainly I'm a professional engineer in the state of New Jersey licens is in good and current standing I a Bachelor's of Science in civil engineering from NJIT as of 2017 uh so I've been practicing for about seven years or so in much time I've perform hundreds of traffic studies for various different uses residential commercial um industrial actually worked on a couple of the projects with krie that Noah mentioned earlier the Woodland Park project project War Park project um so we're very familiar with those as well um I've also been accepted at over 20 boards as an expert in traffic engineering um I think that Mr chairman we ask that Mr us be accepted as an expert here for purposes of traffic engine any any questions on Mr hughes's qualifications to uh present to us as an expert hearing thank you please describe the traffic expert ex traffic points of this project certainly um so we already kind of walked through all the site circulation parking and all that so I won't really get too deep into that our engineer did a good job thoroughly going through all those points um so I'll get right into the traffic impacts and how we analyze the impacts of the additional traffic generation from the site um so the first step of that is establishing our existing conditions uh we did that by perform performing manual tra accounts particularly at the intersection of silvin and Sentry um we did those during the week day morning and afternoon uh typical like rush hours peak hours um we specifically we did those on Thursday September 7th of last year 7: to 9: in the morning and it's 4:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon um we did make sure of course that school was in session during those times it was right the beginning of the school year um but that school traffic was accounted for and then once we have those counts in place what we do is isolate the single highest peak hour of traffic volume and we found that the peak hour occurred from 800 to 9: in the morning and 4:45 to 5:45 in the afternoon and those two hours are essentially the basis for our analysis in terms of the operations at the intersection and the driveways as well um so once we have those existing conditions established our next step is to look into the future project our future conditions uh the first part of that is establishing What's called the no build conditions um that's looking into the future usually about two years without consideration of the site traffic first to kind of set a baseline um so we took a background growth we utilized um New Jersey DRT publishes background growths based on uh roadway types County locations um like that so based on those uh parameters we established a background growth grew the existing volumes for two years also added in any adjacent traffic volumes um there's obviously a lot going on in the area um so we made sure to account for those as well um and that again is just for the no build conditions once we have those established now we project our traffic for the site itself and add those on top to establish our future build conditions um so we did that by utilizing the it uh trip generation rates as I'm sure you've heard many Traffic Engineers mentioned before they're essentially based on empirical accounts conducted at many similar type of types of developments across the country um so they're based on those actual count data points uh to establish their average rates so we took a look at those and particularly the land use uh 150 which is called warehousing it's essentially their generic warehousing use which as you heard earlier that is our anticipated operations here to be sort of a generic a warehouse user not a fulfillment center or anything like that um so that's why we elected to use that particular use um it also has a breakdown of for the warehousing uses uh car passenger car traffic versus truck traffic um so we made sure to break those down as well um based on the it they project 133% or based on their counts 133% of the morning peak hour trips and 15% of the PM peak hour trips are trucks the rest being Passenger cars um So based on that just the actual numbers itself so based on the roughly 65,000 foot Warehouse that we're proposing um in the morning peak hour it would be a total 31 trips that includes 27 cars four trucks uh in the afternoon that would be four total trips that includes 29 cars and five trucks um so just based on those numbers again it's a minimal number of truck trips as we've talked about um based on the size of the use the type of the use that's anticipated those truck trips are not anticipated to be very high volume they'll be sporadic throughout the day um and then what we also wanted to show is a comparison of if this existing office building although vacant right now say it was reoccupied what that would look like in terms of traffic generation compared to what we're proposing for the warehouse and when we look at those numbers we find that the warehouse projections are well below what a fully reoccupied office building would look like um in the realm of about 70% less uh peak hour traffic trips um so again obviously right now it's pretty much vacant um but just wanted to show that comparison uh just as you know another Point as to why we feel why the warehouse will be a favorable use for this particular property um so again substantial reduction compared to the potential reoccupation of that office we didn't take any consideration for any of those existing trips for the any office trips in our analysis we assume that it was basically a vacant piece of property um but again those Warehouse trips will effectively have much less of an impact than that full um that full Warehouse or sorry full office and it's also the uh Warehouse trips would be below what we consider to be a significant increase in traffic um do um sets forth 100 new peak hour trips as to what they consider a significant increase um we are at again around 30 to 40 trips per hour per peak hour so we're well below that threshold even without any consideration of what might be existing um getting into the actual operations in terms of levels of service at the intersection of silven and century and the site driveways um we looked at the no build versus the build conditions with all those considerations and essentially there was no change in the operated conditions that we found with or without the additional site traffic um in the no build conditions the worst level service for the intersection was a level of service d That's the senty drive approach up to silven um that me maintains a level service D um and the site driveways are both with such a little amount of volume on Sentry going to be level service a um so we expect favorable conditions at the driveways as well um so again effectively no operational differences at the intersection of Sven and Sentry and the driveways will also operate under very favorable conditions um so just to kind of sum it all up again and the this trip generation represents effectively a decrease if you compare that to what a reoccupied office would look like um and even without consideration of that office or any existing trips into and out of the site we're not considered what's called a significant increase in traffic um again the truck trips will be minimal not only during the peak hours but also throughout the day um those overnight hours which obviously are a sensitive issue um we don't anticipate a high volume of trucks coming in or out during those hours it can happen from time to time but the majority of those deliveries or pickups would be during more typical business hours um and again at the intersection of Sven and Century as well as the driveways we really don't anticipate any operational change um with the addition of of the site traffic for the warehouse um so pretty much concludes my direct but if there's any questions I'll be happy to answer any start with our engineer Andrew do you have any yeah did you um look at level of service at um Sven and uh Route 202 Littleton uh we didn't specifically only because with the amount of trips that we're projecting once it gets down to Sentry and silven they kind of distribute out they become less and less sorry um and with the operations at silven and Century not really changing and those intersections at Littleton or Dryden being larger capacity intersections they're both traffic signals they're able to handle more volume we wouldn't anticipate that those smaller volumes getting out to those intersections would change any of their operations but now you're adding a few more trucks you didn't have any trucks there before um as you're probably aware at Route 202 Littleton uh particularly at Route 10 highly congested yes um has there been discussions about U truck circulation and approach routes and egress Ingress and egress into um Sentry drive from Sila certainly um so we don't anticipate the trucks getting all the way up to 202 we would more than likely have them come in 287 Route 10 up dren and then Sven over to the site that way to avoid that intersection avoid that Corridor 202 and they would exit out that same way taking left on silven down drive and back out to Route 10 and 287 as it connects to 80 it can get down to 78 that way um so that would be our our primary access so you thought about it because that is the preferred route what you're describing yes um I didn't see or any hear any testimony on that as of yet what what the route is what um what you know you're intending for the for the trucks so um is that what you're saying that the truck route will will will not you know will be uh basically no left in from svin and no right out from from Sentry you're going to be going toward driv yes yeah I not not we're not I think what we're saying is what is anticipated or not going to restrict right on other applications we had kind of um had they were driveways off the sil and they they were kind of crafted to encourage the truck drivers and with and signage signage and and driveway erass and uh um to discourage movements toward route22 we don't have that here because we have you know svin and and and Sentry um is I'm looking for applicants ideas on how we can discourage uh uh truck movements using Route 202 saying 202 North you me or uh South either because you have you have congestion at Route 10 going around those J handles I mean I I think other than suggesting to to drivers a preferred truck route I think you know that's something that we could certainly do I just want to throw it out there the board's consideration Mr chairman yes sir uh just a quick question um with the apartment units that they are putting up M did you factor that into your calculation with that many talking about the 280 units right in the like yeah so it's not specifically listed in our J developments that we looked into we do have the background growth which helps account to that cter that to some degree um but it wasn't specifically noted in our in our developments I mean there's a lot of this going up all over the place that's not in a not in the equations now but I get it you're working with what's now yep and based on the existing levels of service that we found at least at silvin and Century there is some Reserve capacity there to um take on some of that additional traffic um I don't know if the traffic study was conducted specifically for that site or not work on that one but that one hasn't come to us yet right that's just the Redevelopment plan at this point yes I believe we just got that yeah it's been submitted but it's big pile on my chair okay big pile on your chair um yeah I mean we called the township too and we were in the early stages to ask about adjacent devel this it wasn't specifically listed um so that's more the main reason why it wasn't necessarily specifically included um but I again imagine that there's going to be a study done for that site as well which can help get a better idea of those exact impacts planning the plan two quick questions um first so just doing the math from what you're saying it sounds like the office building will generated about 100 trips an hour in peak hours correct um yeah that sounds about right okay so even if this Warehouse became one of the higher intensity Warehouse uses like a parcel Hub it's still well below that let me double check for you but again I'll just head that off with we don't really anticipate it based on the size or the the users that we're looking at um for it to get to that level but let me just get those numbers out for you real quick I can find it through all my papers here um so for the parts of Hub that you mentioned that would be it's actually the equations are so low or so high for that it shows us a negative number of trips okay the way it works out um but just a different one for instance for for filment Center for a for power it's 56 trips okay and be 78 so so still below right exactly all right one of the problems we've had in this campus and I don't know if it's come back after covid is levels of service at silven and Century in the afternoon were garbage because queuing back all the way up from 202 okay so everyone had to rely on courtesy gaps okay when you did your traffic counts Did You observe that or like Did You observe queuing blocking the intersection um not as a chronic issue I think it did back up probably once or twice up to that point okay um but there's so little traffic coming out of Sentry that even somebody that's exiting like I said either there was queuing would have to rely in a courtesy Gap um or they would just they'd have to merge into the traffic as as needed um but we didn't anticipate that as or we didn't observe that as a as a so it wasn't continuous through the was like for the whole two hours that we counted because before Co it was you backed up constantly there so just another quick question because I haven't seen the actual study um what was the volume on silen way in the PMP Gower per per Direction uh 17,000 along svin right so here it is sorry just a second all right here we go so am peak hour silven way eastbound was 3:45 uh westbound was 148 okay and then PM eastbound was about 140 and Westbound was about 730 730 mhm right in the in the PM so okay um where did the other 400 come from I mean I'm asking for a whole different reason but just trying to understand if we need all four L that's we we talked about this last time we had an application here where on Silver can we lose a lane when we convert it all to housing that was the question all right thanks Nick uh thank you for all that um I don't think this the traffic is be minimal uh your project compared to other ones that we have in the area I do Echo Mr kiano's um uh concern about trucks up on 202 North He also mentioned South but definitely not 202 North anything you do to keep them away from there we really appreciate uh I probably an operational thing but how many workers are during the overnight hours and will that affect the amount of trips overnight by trucks do we know that how many employees would there be roughly be overnight that would that add to the trip uh for the trucks overnight I think the I mean Mr krismer could come up and make a guesstimate but it it's really going to depend upon the tenants I think the testimony he gave earlier was it would be very minimal if any overnight uh but you know there are teners that are going to want that uh that capability um [Music] that's what he testified to okay uh and then add the it report does that include I mean I don't know when the last Edition was assuming it was more recent but this in the last four does that include door Dash deliveries and things like that or this is just um um not specific Amazon truck deliveries that are those those included uh they would be if they entered the site they were counted this doesn't specify whether they're delivery employee whatever um but if they drove into the site during conduct of their accounts it would have been okay so it's not just workers and and the trucks it could be any any anybody that comes in or out of the site all right thank you any other members Mr Mr Mayor I'm good you're good none down here there any members of the public who have questions on this testimony at this time hearing and saying n counselor okay Mr chairman i' like to bring up Mr Don Kim of the KSS Architects to discuss the architectural aspects of the [Music] project you please raise your right hand do you swear affirm the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and please state your name spell your last name for the record and provide your address my name is Don Kim my last name is k m and this address is 337 Withers Street and P New Jersey all right and could you provide the board with some background on your experience in licensure sure um I'm a senior associate KSS Architects um I'm a licensed architect I'm also a me private professional um I hold a bachelor of architecture degree from the Boston architectural College can you can you speak into the microphone either by sitting or how's that better thank you okay um I hold a bachelor of architecture degree from the Boston architectural college in 2005 um I've been uh architectural professional for about 20 years um I've been licensed for about 12 years I'm licensed in the state of California and the state of New Jersey um I'm also a member of the American Institute of Architects so we offer Mr Kim as a expert in architecture any questions on Mr Kim's qualifications hearing and seeing none counselor please provide the architectural aspects of this project to the board sure thank [Music] you you don't want to break nor microphone yeah don't break the microphone [Music] okay try to uh I'll try to keep it brief here and not uh duplicate some of the information that's already been stated here um I'll start with just a little bit about the building organization um and the features of the building uh it's about 65,000 ft as we mentioned earlier um it's about a 270 ft by 240t uh single story footprint uh we mentioned earlier that is designed as a multi-tenant facility uh we're showing two two placeholder facilities at the moment when Each corner the northwest corner and the southwest corner I'm sorry were was this exhibit provided previously was this is this part of the plan okay all right then Mark uh PB 101 uh well I think we marked this as an exhibit do you want to mark it or was it already provided that's if it was already provided it was provided so then we're good I see okay uh the obviously the loading days and the related lighting is positioned um to The Backs side of the property away from the public Street uh we have uh strategically position the uh office areas as well as all the entries uh facing the public Street uh the building will be protected by a uh uh fully protected with the latest industry St standard sprinkler system detection system alarm systems and it will be compliant with uh all the comments received from the Township Fire Department uh I think we mentioned earlier that the building height is about 45 ft which is consistent with Township [Music] [Music] orits there are uh four main building elevations shown here a little bit about the uh building construction uh we're proposing uh the main building materials to consist of uh insulated loadbearing painted pre-cast concrete panels uh also an abundance of high performance glazing uh and then some architectural accent panels for differences in color and material and texture uh all these materials will be coated with a high performance coating for longevity uh We've really put uh a lot of effort into providing an abundance of glazing um not just at the main office areas and the entries but also a series of clear stories um throughout the main building uh floor areas and then in particular as well uh significant glazing here what's called the staging Bay the staging Bay is essentially the last Bay closest to the Loading duck where the majority of Warehouse employees typically spend the majority of their time so we we feel very strongly about glazing and how important glazing is to the wellness of not only the main office tenants uh but also the main warehouse workers as well uh I think we also mentioned earlier that we're proposing uh one sign at each of the office areas to come the potential of the multi- [Music] [Music] tenants I'll just put up the new and DRS uh we taking a look at the the uh southwest corner view earlier uh this is another view um from the northwest corner this time uh we have another one that's close up I'll put up after after this one so this is a rendering of the northwest corner um prepared by your office y okay and it'll be A1 we can take a pen just [Music] he with today's date today's [Music] day uh so we we have uh endeavored here to really break down the facades uh through an expression of uh office areas um using different types of reveals and overhangs obviously the signage uh we alluded to earlier some decorative accent lighting um and really um strategic changes in material colors and textures um that are attempting to be in keeping with the existing site context and the scale um in particular uh we are looking to utilize a wood look um really because we're looking to create sense of warmth and natural feeling and connection with the existing site which is quite picturesque a lot of trees a lot of uh beautiful Turf on site currently so we're looking to make the building um feel part of that landscape that exists today um we feel uh very proud to be able to push design Beyond you know typical Warehouse um vanilla box uh we we really uh look to use a lot of different types of materials um again we really feel strongly about daylighting um the performance of the uh exterior facades um and the wellness of the people that uh will be inside the building um some of the key sustainability aspects um obviously the storm water management that we spoke to earlier is a significant one um the building enclosure will be high performance uh insulated pre-cast concrete panels uh very energy efficient um high performance daylighting um um and obviously our attention to the uh occupants um and the wellness of them is also significant sustainability fature um just and overall ultimately we're we're just looking to breathe some new life into this area that concludes your direct testimony so questions Mr chairman any questions by members of the board on architecture I'm going to start with Miss Smith down at the end uh uh we were looking at the the metal canopy the I guess what you call it the orange uh rust is that on the site plan because the metal canopy would be building coverage and it would be setbacks is that on the site plan page the canopy uh I believe the uh building facade on ground level um pushes inwards on the floor plan Flor plan time so it doesn't extend like from that it's hard to tell how it extends out does that does the orange can to be extend more than 2 feet from the facade wall it may be a little bit beyond the facade wall okay it it's not on the site Plant Page the canopy so I was just curious CU that would be build-in coverage and setback coverage the the metal canopy but because of the point it's hard to tell if it extends farther than CH I'm just I think it's it's pretty I think the first floor glazing is set in by about somewhere between 5 and 10 ft from the upper level envelope so it's more of a recess on the ground floor um at those office areas let me just have I think that's probably question for our engineer I understand the question but most of the building in that location microphone please yes all right most of the building is set back that this protrudes to the rear of this glass is farther back this line here is shown on our plane that dash line represents that so that dash line wanted to make sure yeah it's a good question because we don't want it secondary so that dash line that the end is represents that line right here okay so that dash line all across that face so it's indented and it's no closer to the building than these other portions of the building no closer to the setback so the illusion is cuz that slope there but if you can see that dash line on our plane here that is the overhang okay and it's on both ends the closest point of the building to the road or not to the road but the closest point is here this actually the line of the building that has no canopy is set back the same distance as the canopy okay good okay so we did take that in print from his view on the top and made sure that was represented correctly I think the angle makes it look it makes it look like it extends farther out thank you Mr math you had a so um Miss Smith stole my one of my questions the the other question has to do with the signage itself and the size of it um I guess I understand from the engineering testimony each of these two signs is proposed to be 93 Square fet who determined that size or were you the expert that determine that size or do we need to be asking planner we we did determine that size um it is uh little bit of an art and a science uh we do want to make sure that the signs are visible from the street uh we so we do want them to be functional but obviously we also don't want to be closly oversized either um so we believe this is a A fitting sign for this distance from the street um and it's in keeping with the building design with is 275t signs be visible uh I think we could take a look at that um they're about 90 a little over 90 each right now be about a 15 foot 15 foot I think reduction question kind of what was the analysis yes I think I'm asking a question is because each application is different each building is going to be different in terms of where it is and where they are from the street Etc what what was the analysis went into that size relative to the to the building and and the street you said part art part science what was the port science and what was the port art and you kind of what was the rationale behind that yeah there are certainly um some bench marks we do look at um but ultimately uh there's a lot of different view angles um and in this instance uh Sentry drive also happens to be I believe slightly skewed um not necess per perfectly parallel um but we use computer simulations like this computer model image that um to test in general how we feel and if if it feels like it'll be you know generally visible uh at a functional level so I'm sorry no I just think the uh these signs compared to the other one that we were talking that's kind of in the back of your mind these are much lower are they are is the sign itself going to be recessed back and attached to the facade or are they actually coming up off the canopy yeah right now they are uh resting on top of the canopy that's a variance because uh wall signs uh attached to the building have to be attached to the facade if they're on a um a a canopy like structure they're considered group type signs and the ordinance allows no roof toop signs I do signs of yeah we we did we missed that part of the order if that's an additional variance we we would be requesting we would be request requesting that relief yeah I don't want to be the bad guy when you come for your permit and I have to tell no no I this is this is really good we we have to catch all in the notice for variances that's why it's there uh if this triggers a variance so be it we're trying obviously to produce uh a very state-of-the-art pleasing building as Mr chrismer testified to before you know sort of a state-of-the-art warehouse that is going to look really nice in the area and uh this is one of the features I think that the applicant believes is going to spruce up the building and make it look nice if if that triggers a variance then that that's fine let's just make sure we not it so we're going to have uh variance for being on the roof on the canopy on the canop on the sign being considered roof it's considered rooftop because it's on the canopy and not attached directly on the faade the side ordinance is is very specific on that so as far as sign area there's no standard for it being on top of the canopy then it well it the canopy is considered just like the roof it's on top of a structure and the ordinance has no rooftop signs I think I'm getting that we're potentially eliminating the sign area SI sign area variance you need one for it would still be sign area because I still need to calculate a sign area when I issue a permit right because there's still a maximum size of a sign but but no but there's also an a section of the ordinance that talks about where a sign can be attached and there's a section that says there's no rooftop signs this was very popular I don't know if it was in the 80s you saw them all over people applied for variances for them so then they created a section that that said and and everyone just they got a variance for it so I just want to make sure that we're covered on that so if if I could kind of summarize what you said about the size it sounds like the size was necessary because Century the building is not parallel to Sentry drive and there's a very wide angle angle at one point the southern is that what I heard you testify to no that that was just um a part of the explanation that it's not um necessarily so straightforward um it is in general uh the approach here was uh try to make sure that we provide tened flexibility to be able to uh have a decent amount of presence of their signage from the street which is certain way setback from the building um I believe the one sign Limited is 150 uh we thought that with splitting that into two signs um having each one being 93 was reasonable request any other questions of the architect this testimony any members of the public have questions of the architect on this oh I just had one comment regarding the um elevations it in the center of the um sorry the west elevation the front of the building it says there's a building mounted sign we are only opposing two there isn't a third one correct that's right that was you forgot to take off that note from the Biddle okay all right any members of the public have any questions on this testimony at this time hearing and seeing none counselor like to call back Mr Kennedy to provide his uh planning testimony this will be our last wit oh good the last last time we told the people we had to stop everything at 1010 so I want to be consistent 8 [Music] minutes I'll talk quick I'm still on the record yes I'm still under thank you all right I'm just going to summarize I I went through the variances then El um I'm going to summarize um just some of the basic zoning Concepts that we're talking about here first of all the property itself is in the orl zone it's in the overlay 8 Zone that was just done last year uh we are consistent with the uses uh associated with this uh and for the most part we're complying with the bulk standards as far as lot coverage building coverage uh the parking lot standards with the number of spaces although that's a little in flux now with this Bank par but you know o overall that that that our planning attempts and the design attempts here were really to take what was a existing developed site modernize that with a new use and try to incorporate some of the features that were there already the existing driveways the general disturbance areas of the site where things were on the property and trying to reuse that that was our intent with the design parameters that we had obviously on a series of um minor um uh items we need relief on those and under the statute under 4055 D7 C2 relief that we're looking for is that it needs to comply with a couple of things for this board to understand it approve it and feel comfortable with this approval it needs to relate to a specific piece of property it can't be generalized for all properties anywhere in the town it needs to advance the purposes of zoning it has to benefits have to substantially outweigh any detriments has no substantial detriment to the public good and then lastly not impair the intent and purpose of the Zone plan and the zone or ordinance the benefits of this plan is to repurpose and underutilize property that's why this town and this board sought to rezone the property with this overlay it maintains the impervious coverage of what we have today even though we could go higher than that to a certain degree um but we all have the limits associated with the highlands and the highlands um uh restrictions we want to enhance the streetcape a long Century with a new building that has a fresher flare than what certainly exists there today update the Landscaping along there and the other benefits of new storm water management that meets a lot of the green infrastructure criteria that just doesn't exist today on a 1970s type of property for the specifics we have on the parking setback it's 430-450 where we have the five parking space that are 6 1/2 ft versus 10 ft now we're talking about potentially with the board's discretion banking those so it would still need relief but there would be a low probability that they would ever be built and certainly ever be used but if they were they would have a pretty insignificant impact um on the the the Zone plane uh in order to build those spaces and as I stated previously we're removing 37 non-conforming spaces to the north and additional 16 non-conforming spaces to the South so we're making this plan less um um non-conforming than what's there today on the slope disturbance again it's all uh made slopes that were done back when the original project was built in the 1970s primarily along that detention Basin but we do need relief from 430 345 Point C for slope disturbance in those areas again no detrimental impact it's stabilized area we're not disturbing something that is existed for a long time with vegetation that were going to cause an unintended consequences these are just grass lawn areas that have side slopes associated with the basins they're going to be repurposed we'll create new side slopes that'll be just as steep if you want to call it that for these new detention basins the next item is the fence and wall combination uh 430-1156 loud before you have a setback but because the fence is on top of it it's causing that relief again we lighten that up by only putting a very light fence up for fall protection that would just be a vertical aluminum um extruded fence that would be there that would be 4ot high you can see right through it uh from a distance it kind of Blends uh into the natural landscape so it's not a stockade fence that makes this thing look like 8 foot high it's still going to look like a 4ft hall it's not going to look like an 8ft wall so we think relief is appropriate for those the next items were about the signs we just talked about that under 430 289a about two signs versus one and then 430 287 a.2 pointb is the total area the sign of 150 ft we clearly want to have two signs on this building because there's two important expressions of the corners of those buildings that's important um the design intent is to have you know a real element that stands out at each of those Corners there and then a sign on top of that this this notion that it needs to be rooftop and Counting towards rooftop I understand that but the size of the sign and even the expression the sign was trying to make it a silhouette sign that's there so it's not a PL sign that's a box that's plastered up against the building that someone could go do it was to try to make something more architecturally interesting to create a feature that's inh hand not detract from this and make something that looks more I'll say a more of a high-end type of feature to the building rather than try to get more square footage on the sign because we want to make more advertising we're really trying to integrate something that we happy with at the end of this day not something to detract from that and I think if it was just a rectangle sign that had letters either painted or stencl on there it's a different approach but in this case as you can see on this exhibit we're really trying to make that light in the Sun that's there you can see through it you can see the fenestration that's behind it of the the actual um preast itself and try to make it again architecturally interesting so the notion is that we have two of those the next notion is that we're slightly over on the square footage we're 62% for each of those but we're over by um 150 versus 186 but it doesn't feel like a 93t song because of the fact that it's light you see right through it okay it's not trying to make one big box out of it that's a different color to display something different as far as this notion of a rooftop I'm not sure what section that is 430 283b 430 283 B 283 signs which extend more than 18 in from the wall of a building and all roof signs so it basically fits both of those projects more than 18 in and it's a roof size that would cover it perfectly okay that's actually and we're close to that 18 inches it's not a two or three foot projection it's a it's a it's a foot to two foot projection that's coming off of there so it's not a big projection just to give it some Shadow lines to this so w with that again we're trying to make something that's elegant something that's unique something that's different when you drive by there it doesn't look like a warehouse that you would see a route um uh that New Jersey throughway and and that's the the intent of what we're trying to do here uh is to make something that we're all proud of by the time it's it's done and not something that's oversized for that and I think by these Graphics you can kind of see that it's not overwhelming to that the last two which are new tonight that we didn't have originally was this um notion of the the loading birth size under 430 278 V and that is the total length of being two times the largest vehicle again we're designing it for the WB 76 or 67 which could be 76t long that would require 152 foot distance and we're 135 we're meeting industry standards I think we're fairly comfortable in saying that we're meeting those industry standards and we're seeking relief for for that and then the width of the driveway that would be under 430 275h again 24t Max we're at 30 foot we think that's appropriate uh it may be less than that if we need some square footage for the sidewalk along the front that we squeeze that down in the center section but uh we we think it's appropriate for the design and the use of this building as far as meeting the purposes of uh the zoning in order to get these relief I looked at a couple different sections of there first of all a under the purpos is to encourage Municipal action to guide the appropriate use and development of all lands in the state in a manner which will promote the public health safety and Welfare C is to provide adequate light air and open space e is to promote the establishment of appropriate population densities and concentration that will contribute to the well-being of persons neighborhoods municipalities the county and the state as a whole G is to provide sufficient space and appropriate locations for a variety of agricultural residential Recreation commercial industrial uses and open space both public and private according to the respective environments requirements in order to meet all the needs and then I is to promote a desirable visual environment through creative techniques and good Civic design I think the relief that we're asking for uh covers some of these topics that are in each of these purposes that meet the general intent of what the relief we're trying to ask for it's minimal from the standpoint of what the relief is uh it's specific to this site because of the uniqueness of the piece of property of redeveloping the piece of property in order to do all the components that your ordinance requires there's a couple of areas that we need to relief on as far as any negative criteria no substantial detriment to the public good the the the biggest element this is the sighted s we're improving water quality and storm water substantially over what's there today I think it's a big Improvement of what happens today um the the relief as far as the parking space setback it's still a good safe design the the good safe design for the the walls and on top of the walls it's a 4ft wall it's nonaggressive for that we put a light fixture or a light fence up that's on top of that um we um allow for the man-made steep slopes that we're going to not have a negative impact to this to the plan and then lastly it's not a substantial impairment to the intent and purpose of the Zone plan the master plan and the new zoning ordinance contemplated this Zone with the overlay a they want this use you want to repurpose this in order to do that there are going to be minor reliefs in order to get this thing to work to meet those General figure objectives that you want to do of repurposing the site the minor relief itself does not cause a negative impact to the neighbors cause a negative impact to the the vision that the board wanted for the relief that we're asking for and we feel that's an effective repurposing of the property and the relief that we're asking for meets into the criteria meets into the intent of repurposing this for a warehouse use on this particular piece of property so we look to that to Grant relief of these items that we just talked about all right any members of the board have questions Mr deero maybe I missed it but are those sides illuminated um not internally that that will just have a a canopy light on it external illumination external illumin yeah just really light you know type of thing that'll be a probably a strip light that would just go up on it mounted where um in the canopy if my understanding is that we would mount it just in the front of it right along that edge so it would be like a shadow line coming up okay we thought the the interal elimination would probably be too bright you know not type of thing and this would be a nice shadow line that would give up there I think it would be a elegant solution there okay thank you other members of the board have questions on the testimony at this time Mr M question actually probably for our attorney and planner six Sven right next door it does not currently count as a residential lot line correct I mean we've approved an overlay we've seen a concept we haven't seen an application for that yet we have a Redevelopment area that splits it into two zones one being a res the next one so is there a 150t buffer required here um was that specifically for I think that for residential lot line I don't know where the residential lot line in crosses if it CR even crosses this property or if it if it intersects with the the next property on Sentry okay so I I guess cu cu we haven't discussed a variance for the 150 fot residential lot line buffer tonight I think that was specific to the zone that the other application is in it's on the zoning table right here listed as a a [Music] requirement all right look as long as we're not approving that variance and if it happens to be there and they they have to come back and redesign their project I'm okay with that well let's take a look [Music] [Music] now do you know how far the loading dock is set back from that I guess it would be Western property line or no Eastern property [Music] [Music] line yeah give me a second I got the planes here let me just look at that it's the build well the corner of the building 16 2.5 and then everything else [Music] isther but the loading dock can't be in that buffer oh where's the loading dock right behind the building I don't know if that would be 150 said 100 ft of their property of the or of the building theual property so guess question is the 150 is for the S zones this is not so is it at all I don't believe so it doesn't apply to this Zone in theing requirements overlay eight [Music] zones keep check need so in the R zone it does require 150 ft this is the overlay Zone that they've applied under but our zoning table shows that 150 ft for the o ovl La [Music] Zone look if we're not as long as the approval doesn't include it and has to be dealt with later if it actually applies so I can move forward tonight section 430-450 which is the bulk and dimensional standards for the overlay 8 District principal setback from residential lot lines is 100 50 ft principal building setback so it's only principal building so there would they based on what I see it would be within and then it from residential lot lines because on the other application that we've been dealing with with Warehouse it has to be 150 ft vegetate like grass only buffer I guess the other question is time of application what was the what was the section that you just read from 430-450 as a result 430 452 is also buffers right so 430-450 doeses have a minimum buffer width from residential lot lines of 150 ft and this doesn't satisfy that no the other question like I I posed before is the question of time of application when was this application submitted and when was the um Redevelopment plan actually passed and does that make a difference when did that neighboring lot become residential right so when did this one come in2 I don't recall when this app which would be before would be time yeah under time at application rulle um that buffer would not it wouldn't have applied because that is just a commercial right now right unintended consequen yeah in other words this application was submitted before the Redevelopment plan was approved right so then under time of the application Ru I don't think that would no requ which makes sense why you would didn't even fill that in in the zoning table because it didn't apply at the time if you would have brought this application today then you would have had to comply [Music] correct so I think we're good as long as we're good thank you I'm sorry to have open that kind work it was yeah it doesn't apply cuz the time the application cuz the time of application okay yeah and I don't think looking at where it is I I don't think it's really going to I I understand from residential lot but knowing what the Redevelopment plan is on that line think this going it's not going to impact it anyway so I think we're okay with that all right any other questions by members of the board to throw things into disarray I'm sorry just to know I I think we anyway I mean just to clarify just make so even if we it appears I'm looking at this plan roughly it appears that the lot line itself for that zone L right about this corner here just off the corner but from this corner to this property or to the first developed area that's greater than 150 okay so that's all the tension basin so can tens basins be in [Music] buffer well you're also going to be talking to our town Forester about planting trees that'll help attenuate the sound right the point is we don't certainly we don't have a building but it appears that we don't have a parking lot within 150t of that corner of the property which is the closest it possibly can be to that residential for that law that's your department okay and just to note the application was received on October 13th 20123 which was two months before the Redevelopment plan was passed okay okay so we can move [Music] forward any questions comments on this testimony at this time anybody from the public have any question questions of this testimony at this time so I was at the I'm sorry you'll just have to use the microphone and just identify yourself again please Camille p 11 M Court pipy I was at the Town council meeting when we reviewed overlay 8 and we discussed all of this and one of the concerns for more than the attendees from muray court and mayor you were you were there and you told us to come to the planning board after that overlay 8 was approved I'm very familiar with overlay 8 and it did say 150 ft and that was before October all right of okay so we were told that we should come here and this is the place that we can voice our opinion about what the 150t buffer would look like and this nice gentleman and a couple of nice people down there supported us in saying we need trees we need greeneries and this is what we're looking for so thank you for bringing it up about 150 foot because that's what I thought you were referring to before and that's another reason why I'm here representing M Court in glester both streets are impacted by this so if you could put it in your paperwork that 150t would consist of trees and Shrubbery and Greenery I think that it would meet the intent of what detention Basin as well which is yes cuz I could see it my grandbaby's window we see all that thank you any other members of the public have uh questions I'm actually going to ask because we're about to ask if the public has any comments that they wish to make were those your comments all right thank you very good do you have anything further I just just want to thank the board for your time and attention and thank the the board Professionals for their time and attention thank m p from the public uh for coming out um you just very briefly this is an office building that has been vacant for four years and is not going to be utilized again as an office building and the Town Council with uh the help of this board uh transformed the zoning here in attempts to stimulate interest of a project of the likes that we believe that we've brought to you tonight a project that will help provide stabilize and enhance your commercial rable base in town provide jobs and repurpose properties that need repurposing and we've uh appreciated the opportunity to work with the board and the board professionals uh to look at ways in which we can make the project better from a community impact uh perspective and a way way that will mitigate uh any impacts on the uh on the neighbors and so as conditions of approval we'd certainly be willing to agree those things that were in the record most notably uh the trees which will act as sound uh attenuation uh the banking of the parking spaces uh if that is indeed the uh the board's uh pleasure the the mountable curbs and the other things that are in the record which we have agreed to uh we feel that that uh will help enhance the project and and and make it better not only for the applicant but also for the community which is which is really important to us as well so again thank you to the board and we hope that you'll support this application all right I'm just going to formly ask if there are any members of the public who wish to speak in opposition or in favor of this application at this time um we've already had some comments thank you very much and uh uh so this closes the evidentiary portion of tonight's hearing um any comments or somebody willing to move a uh motion Mr chairman Mr D could we confirm the conditions first all right what I have is that the applicant agreed to comply with the engineering review letter technical comments and recommendations will comply with um in the installation of a sidewalk as recommended so long as it does not influence the applicant's Highland exemption um the applicant will comply with all other departmental reports comments um to curve the pavement at the start of the turf driveway near the southern entrance um to bank the five parking spaces near that southern entrance and remove and replace the um the improved coverage with grass and Landscaping to comply with requirements regarding EV Ada parking spaces and that the applicant will not have to return to the board if changes in the parking count is uh results from those Meeting those requirements um the applicant will install fire lane signage and have curbing for the turf Drive aisle um and will install or will agree to place a covenant in the operating manual regarding maintenance of the turf geogrid um also agree to work with the planning the board planner and engineer regarding the tree barrier and buffer and suggest preferred truck routes to drivers to avoid 202 I think that was everything that's what I have okay was that your motion Mr D yep so yeah repeat it all right all right a motion to approve application number 23 colon 531 sk3 centuy Associates LLC 3 centuary Drive blog 202 lot 1.7 Zone R preliminary and final measor site plan with C variant for construction of a warehouse and related side improvements as for the conditions noted down we have a second second thank you Mr barbar uh mayor um nor would you call the r please barbaria yes yeso yes mcrath yes ma yes Alano yes Shaw yes smth yes yes yes thank you Mr chairman thank you members of the board said did you get that at the confine yesterday wrestling a pair T my B chairman motion to adjourn I uh [Music] chairman second so you've got a motion in a second without even the chairman asking I kep calling your name all in favor say I anybody oppos