good evening and welcome welcome to the March 4th meeting of the city of summit Zoning Board of adjustment my name is Joe Steiner and I'm the chair of the zoning board please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liity and justice for all thank you in accordance with New Jersey statute 10 colon 4-10 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the newspaper of record and has been posted here at City Hall this meeting is a Judicial proceeding any questions or comments must be limited to the issues that are relevant to what the board May legally consider in reaching a decision and deorum appropriate to a Judicial hearing must be maintained at all times for the benefit of the interested public this meeting is being live streamed to the city's YouTube page and also broadcast on summit's governmental Channel which is Comcast 34 and Verizon channel 30 a transcript of this meeting is also being taken using the video and audio and because of the microphones we uh have to use them in order for that to take place appropriately please note that the fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room where you entered the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs hearing assistance please obtain the system here at the Das and return it thereafter Miss Julios would you please call the role of the members sure chairman Steiner here Vice chairman lyit here Mr Yuko here Mr Nelson here miss Don is excused m Mr Kieran here Mr Malay here miss to here miss Cho here Mr feskin is expected but not present Mr Chuli here you have a quarum you may proceed thank you uh Andy ball is the zoning board's attorney sitting on my right he will be advising the board members on matter of Law and is the key interface with the applicant attorney Mr ball does not vote on the application Stephanie suos is a city employee and is the zoning board secretary she works with applicants on preparing their applications planning our agendas and keeping our meeting minutes Miss suos does not vote on the applications also present at the uh table to my right is Marie rafy from Coler engineering our board engineering firm who um and uh that's at the our right the audience's left also seated at times not tonight are uh our planning Consultants so they're not here because the applications do not require them our board consists of seven regular members and up to four Alternatives alternates not alternators uh all members can participate in the hearings tonight but a maximum of seven can vote most applications require a simple majority to be approved but before we enter executive session to vote on the application you will be advised how many votes are required each case will begin with the applicant or their attorney giving an overview of their application process to date and the variances that are required we will then hear from any additional expert witnesses that the applicant may have to help explain the application and why the variances are needed the board members may ask questions of the applicant their attorney and the expert Witnesses once the board members and the board professionals have completed their questioning the public has the opportunity to ask questions this is not the time to tell us what you think about the case that'll come a little bit later before you ask your question again come to a microphone and stay clearly state your name spell your last name and provide your address this is important so that our court reporter is able to keep that clear record for the public if needed after all Witnesses have been heard members of the audience have that second opportunity to speak and at that time you may express your opinion either positive or negative about the application at that that the then the public hearing is closed and we enter into executive session where the board members discuss the case and vote you'll be able to listen to our executive session but you will normally not be able to participate in that disc discussion Christa Anderson the City Zoning officer has asked that we remind all applicants that they must read carefully the resolution that documents the zoning board's decision and pay particular attention to the conditions contained in the resolution for example if a landscaping plan is required you must obtain one and submit it to John Linson the city's Forester if a grading plan is required you have to get one prepared by a civil engineer and submit three copies along with the application fee to the city's engineering division failure to satisfy all the conditions uh in a resolution will result in a delay in approving your application and it will cause extra work for the city's owning staff the resolutions documenting the board's decision will normally be available one month after we decide that case uh we have three cases on the agenda tonight I'm going to handle the first one quickly because we're not actually going to hear it and then 77 West End Avenue Miss julos would you explain where we are sure so the applicant has requested to carry the application to May 20th um do you want me to give the reason why but if if we have it we should know it sure sure so um they are actually in a flood flame so they're working with an engineer to come up with plans um on how to move this location forward so they do need some time so that's why they've requested until May 20th and they are going to wave all they're going to wave the board's time to act and they agreed to re notice because by then several months will have passed okay um any questions on that you said 20th May 20th May 20th would anyone like to make a motion I'll move back second chairman Steiner yes Vice chairman lits yes Mr Yuko yes Mr Nelson yes Mr Kieran yes Mr Malay yes Miss to yes the motion carries okay now back to the normal process of business we uh at this point would ask a representative from 58 Beverly Road just one person to come up and tell us how many witnesses you have and uh how long you think this case will take if you can complete it in 30 minutes hello I'm Janet seagull the architect I'm going to briefly um recap what we're here to reapply for and we have Lori and Dave here the owners and they may want to speak again you think uh you'll be able to complete it I have like like couple of minutes of discussion okay we'll stay there cuz not not at the podium stay stay up front uh next would be 7 Essex Road I believe there's an attorney here and there he is good evening Mr chairman John veter entering my appearance on behalf of Stephen and Jesse Aldridge we have four Witnesses Dy agustino from plan architecture Jeff agaran from agaran engineering Ben heler the lscape architect and John mcdunn professional planner uh I gather you're going to answer my name question in the negative you're not going to make 30 minutes I don't believe so about how long we'll I think we should be able to conclude all of the testimony and answer questions within an hour okay great all right stand by we'll we're not going number two on the docket thank you okay let's move on back to 58 Beverly Road let the applicant step forward please uh go near a microphone whoever is going to testify oh you're not you're the expert will do your next if you can raise your right hand do you swear airm the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do and whoever's testifying one at a time please state your name spell your last name uh David Schulman s hu l m an thank you okay Mr Schulman are you going to testify as well ma'am okay uh Mr schan would you uh explain to us why you're here and uh what variances you believe you need and then once you give us a a little bit of background we'll let your uh architect carry the heavy water sounds good so uh Again David scholman um we were approved for uh a few variances back in December of 2022 um and in January of 23 I started to experience a weakening of my right hand right hand um and uh basically fast forward to middle of the Year turned out to be a diagnosis of ALS um so we resop the project and at this point we're bumping out on one of the sides on the back to make room for uh enough space in the kitchen to open it up and allow me room to now navigate there in a wheelchair at some point what we're not bumping out or changing the garage anymore just as to rec scope the project didn't make sense um but we are hoping to leave the deck which puts us over um the lot coverage I believe um and the reason for keeping the deck is really twofold one is again if I'm in a wheelchair having to go and take a lift or a ramp down to get outside just doesn't make much sense either so I'd love to be able to just wheel out onto the deck um and then uh you know that's really it besides that it's really in the spirit of what the board agreed to you know back then okay uh questions for the applicant yeah I just have one you answered my first question so I want to ask about why you need the deck um why you want to keep the deck but there was another issue in the last application where uh your engineer represented that you were going to go to the city to get approval or ask for approval to keep that the fence that's in the right away and the zoning officer said that has not happened do you would you object to making that A continuing condition of the application 100% we've been preoccupied yeah okay fair enough okay and then I think the suggestion was that we put a date on that yeah and when when when we get to that in the resolution we'll put a data on it so you'll know when you have to do what you have to do okay okay and I'm assuming you wish to have your architect present the nuts and bolts of the project yes please okay any other questions for the applicant okay let's move on thank you would you uh our attorney will swear you in if you could raise your right hand do you swear from the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do please state your name spell your last name Janet seagull s i e g l thank you and I know you've appeared before us a number of times including relatively recently any changes to the your credentials since the last time you were in front of the board no I imagine the board would like to accept you once again um any questions from anyone no I U I go back to Saturday's uh presentation when the board had some training that this is the time at any point that if you think that there's something you might be asking in depth and you want to make sure that that expert has the expertise this is the only time you can challenge you can't do that halfway through the uh through the presentation so uh let's assume that this had uh had a u a water issue or something like that drainage issue this would be the time to vet out her expertise on that particular matter but I'm not sure we need to do that so let's accept her qualifications and move on please thank you um just to qualify back into December when we were here in n in the December 5th um 2022 this project was approved it had numerous aspects to it if you recall we were changing a side entry garage to a front garage we were um adapting that garage and making it larger so cars could um fit into the garage cleanly and we were um doing the rear bump out from the kitchen part of that included changing the existing deck to a patio that was our gain of um a lot of building coverage that was removed which allowed us to lower the building coverage requirement so in going back to looking at this when they came back to me and said we need to make some adjustments the kitchen was the obvious thing to keep it left the space they need to um live and operate in the home um but the deck was something that we chose to keep that has um an immediate um exit I actually have a photograph if that's something that I can share um You' like to enter it yes um it'll be A1 uh and bring it up here we're going to we'll pass it and we'll mark it A1 for you it's a photograph of the rear deck that we would like to keep initially in the original proposal we were removing it and putting a lower patio with stairs this way that does have a photograph of the door that door stays in the same location with this addition and that will allow easy access there's no it's actually pretty interesting there isn't even a drop it's a it's a flush um deck to the door so it's actually perfect for the situation we need um that kept our building coverage number higher um because we still added the Small Bump out for the kitchen no additions to the garage the F number was changed slightly because we didn't make any adjustments to the garage we were actually taking livable space and creating garage area so in the end the numbers that were created from that was originally I'll go back to the original numbers um of existing building coverage was 21.8 the approved was 21.1 and we are requesting 22% the F was 28.5 the approved previous approved was 29.2 and now our request Quest is 28.9 so minor numbers but everything went up and down based on the fact that the deck did not was not REM is not um our request is to not remove the deck how we approached this in building was we did a phase one phase two we moved ahead with the building which is the kitchen bump out by way of the building department because that was conforming the deck was the only issue that brought us back to you because the build coverage did not go down so that is our request this evening um if you have any other questions uh I'm I may have missed it while I was passing that thing F uh is brought up by our zoning officer uh proposed where uh 25 is the maximum permitted and you're at 289 right the orig the existing on the house was 28.5 so we were nonon informing we were approved for 29.2 and then our revised number is going to be 28.9 so we were approved for the larger F we're actually lowering what we were approved for so it's just a number moving but yes the allowable is 25 okay anything else okay question questions for the uh yeah have a quick question and clarification are you seeking to maintain all the other variances that were granted and the prior resolution except for the modification of those three the setback the F and the building coverage yes okay yes okay questions from the board yes Marie let me go to our expert Marie if you have no I don't have any any additional questions okay can you uh remind us what zone this is in this is is in the r just r10 r10 and what is the minimum requirement for a lot in the R1 Zone I believe it's 10,000,000 and what is your lot our lot size is 9,180 so less than 10,000 yes okay thank you and if it were 10,000 we wouldn't be here we wouldn't be here that's I just figured you'd do the math quicker than I would okay any other questions from the board Tom I thought you said you had a second one uh it was explained by the applicant of the early okay y thank you any other questions okay uh do either of you have anything else to tell us in summation okay are there any members of the public who have questions for either of the two witnesses um because I forgot to do it uh individually but we'll do it together seeing none is there anyone who has anything that they would like to say about the project directly you know not just questions opinions anything seeing none chairman Steiner before we move I'm sorry my brain's a little slow tonight I know one of the stipulations is to remove the fence in the right of way not not removing the it's to seek seek approval from the city to maintain it if they say no then that would be the city's decision okay and then what would happen if they said no they'd have to move it or yes okay right but they'll have to and um what should we put on as long as we're talking about it should we come up with a date that the application has to be made to the city M we can um that helps make things nice and clear how long do you anticipate you would need to submit that request to the city um it could be set on the close or near to the CFO of the work that's happening now they have a there it's a there's a permanent active on interior work does that work it's really a letter that you have to send to the city requesting it uh requesting what what your trying to do here and that has to be done by the app by the property owner I think ideally we'd like to see it you know a proposed date doesn't necessarily need to be immediately but something that you're comfortable with you about 30 days after the app after the resolution is adopted that sounds fine okay thank would that work great because it's 30 days till you get the applic the resolution and then 30 days thereafter perfect okay any any other comments from the board okay let's go into executive session what are our resolutions our conditions certainly so our usual first compliance with those conditions noted in the board Engineers memorandum and second as we were just discussing the applicant shall submit a request within 30 days after receipt of the resolution of approval to the common Council to retain an existing fence in the Fremont right of way okay those are the only two any who wants to start off deliberations on the board no I'll start um yeah so the um I I can support this application it's really when you get right down to it's really a fairly modest application the it's understandable why the applicant is changed mind about uh keeping the deck um the F increase is relatively well actually it's a decrease it's a decrease from what we had approved before and the building coverage increase is relatively modest and as was brought out by Mr L in his questioning uh we wouldn't be here if this were a fully sized lot for the zone I'm happy the applicant is going to pursue um City approval of you know keeping the fence in the right away I'd like to see you get that approval but that's not up to us that's up to the city council um so I I can support the application say I too can support the application particularly as it affects the deck given that the deck is already there we know the effect that it has on the lot on the neighbors um so maintaining it we we already know that the property can support the the deck you're not encroaching on the neighbors it's a very low deck um so maintaining the status quo is fairly straightforward I too can support this application anyone on this side okay what I will say is that I don't see any negatives and I see a very strong positive of keeping someone uh with a dreaded disease uh in their home for as long long as possible with their family and uh um you know I can't can't see in that I can't see a more important positive than family life especially in this community where we uh we do that as much as we possibly can and I certainly can support this um application and would seek a mo um a motion to move ahead and approve it I'll move to approve I'll second chairman Steiner yes Vice chairman lyit yes Mr Yuko yes Mr Nelson yes Mr Kieran yes Mr Malay yes Miss toad yes the motion carries okay thank you congrats good luck um please make sure that you read every sentence in the resolution when it comes and follow everything that's on there thank you thank you and we will move on to 7 essics you want to bring your experts further up we all right come on up gang I'm sorry out I don't think so he's just watching okay just I guess we're ready to go all right thank you Mr chairman members of the board um as I had entered my appearance earlier John V on behalf of stepen and Jessie Aldridge um you know before I proceeded do a lot of zoning work in lots of towns all over New Jersey I just want to thank Stephanie and Christa very helpful throughout the whole process you have a very organized approach to doing this and I can tell you many of your neighbors do not so thank you um so it's almost a year since we had the house closing for the alers they um have not moved in yet and they took a long time to go through the plans with their professionals and really come up with a very special and elegant addition to the home for a very special and elegant home uh you're going to hear a lot about um you know what we've done to preserve the Integrity of this home from the architect and even from the landscape uh AR as well as the planner the um the baranes that we're seeking this evening are two the first and there was a lot of dialogue about the first one prior to the closing that we had we were made aware that back in 2015 um there was a garage a second floor of that garage was permitted for storage only um as part of the certificate of occupancy process we discovered that the actual use was more of a finished space so we had two Alternatives one was to dismantle what was done in that area or prior to occupancy of the home come back and seek relief from the board as you'll see the use that's proposed is not for certainly not an apartment it's not for sleeping space the space that's currently used for storage is being proposed this evening for a fitness and yoga area and you're going to hear more about that there are no proposed changes to what's inside from what's there everything will be made sure that it is completely compliant from a um fire standpoint and any of the exterior is being kept exactly as it is uh the other variance is a variance that is the steep slope variance so there's a disturbance to the steep slope in the area to permit the driveway and to permit the house addition we're going to hear from the professional engineer that substantial drainage improvements are being proposed on the site whereas there are very few now that will not cause any negative impact to the neighbors to the city of summit or it's certainly to this property so as I mentioned uh the lineup this evening is we have the professional architect Dy austino uh Jeff agaran as the professional engineer Ben heler as the landscape architect and uh John MCD as the professional planner I would like to start introducing Dany austino from plan architecture Dan okay before we do that are there any questions for the attorney from the board you know I I do have a question I'm trying to find details of it was something I just wrote a note here something about a deed restriction That was supposed to be recorded at some point I forget exactly what it was about do that ring a bell I I think there I think there was something that showed up in the 2015 resolution I have a copy here and as we're speaking about it I'll find exactly what it was TR find it too if the board you know sees fit to want to you know if there's a need for a deed restriction here I'm sure that's something that will not be an issue okay okay Dan do you SAR from the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do please state your name spell your last name sure it's Daniel deagostino D Apostrophe a g o s t i n o thank you and can you briefly describe your background and experience for the board certainly I'm a licensed architect in the state of New Jersey New York Pennsylvania and Delaware I received my degree at the New Jersey School of Architecture at NJIT in 2006 uh I've appeared before many boards across the state I've always been uh considered an expert uh in my field I currently sit on the zoning Board in Township of Washington so I empathize with all of you specific to this uh residence my practice has had a focus on custom single family homes uh I have a history having worked with the state historic office of preservation um I've done many projects as consultant work so it seemed like a great fit for me on such a valuable historic home offer Mr as an expert in the area of you need to use a microphone you can use the hand help if you'd like any questions from the board or would you like to accept his credentials okay we will accept his credentials and leave it up to the attorney to move ahead okay did thank you Mr dagostino if you would um give an overview of the plans for the board certainly would you prefer that I move to the center or is this okay this is just a copy of what you've received in your packets okay so I would like to actually start with the site plan and I'm going to refer to the existing site plan that's sheet two of DG and Associates this is the existing site plan so as was mentioned earlier I had first met Jesse and Steve leave alridge prior to them purchasing this property um we had evaluated the home it had been on the market for some time uh it came across their their interest and I visited the site with them as a family at the time they had three children she was expecting they now have a one-year-old um there were a couple of things that they wanted from this home not too atypical from what other potential buyers were saying beautiful home a ton of charm small uh needs a ton of work probably needs some substantial uh additions and Renovations a lot of love and for such a large property because it is a large property there wasn't any valuable yard space for family with kids so my analysis was that this home although it's beautiful and cited it in a in a fantastic way I thought that the house was actually designed backwards and being used backwards and what I mean by that is we typically expect a front door to be on the front of the house and there is no front door on the front of this home uh there is a door that you could walk through but there's no way to actually get to that front door the other thing you ordinarily see when you see a residential home especially in in a town like Summit you come up a driveway and you of often have the ability to either pull in front of it or pull past the front door and walk along a pathway to the front door that doesn't exist here most homes you also have a front lawn that front lawn is approximate to the front door you have the ability to play there in this uh on this site and we characterize it as steep slope by your ordinance um that's not a play area in front so my initial reaction was all right let's try to figure out a way to give them a backyard that would be substantial and valuable to them second thing I did as an architect is understanding this home and the character of the home it was important that any of my improvements be done without affecting the front facade of this house so by and large all of the improvements that we've made to this home are not visible from the front the uh last consideration I had was that I wanted uh everything that we had planned to fit modern living and the home as it currently exists required me to go a little bit larger with my additions um so I I played practical mind to the zoning ordinance strictly as was noted we are not going for any bulk uh variances we're not looking for setback variances we're well under fa are um we're simply here for that uh garage as was noted and I'll touch base on that as well as the steep slope to have the driveway in front um I think it it would be valuable for me to walk you through the plans just so you have a a I won't waste much of your time on this but you'll have an idea of of the home the home is essentially characterized by a long and narrow house um you would not expect a home of this size especially from what it appears from the front to have a kitchen that's only 11 and 1/2 ft wide for for instance um you have these in your packet so I don't have to go through each individual room but the first floor is a family room a dining room a kitchen a living room and a guest Suite this second floor um basement is largely unfinished um multiple utility areas in a sitting area with not much of a head height the second floor consists of one two three four bedrooms uh the fourth being the primary there's an oversized Hall and a small sitting area on that upper level in the Attic uh which is really less than a half a story of the existing structure there's a bathroom which by today's code standards would not be considered habitable because of the amount of uh height restrictions uh an open attic and a storage and we're not proposing any work there the the first plan that we have in our set that illustrates our proposed work um everything south of the page we've actually got an indicator on each sheet so that it's easy to reference what's new and what's old the old house we're breaking up the uh storage area into an off pairs uh bedroom and then we have a lounge and a playroom for the family on the first floor we've got a three-car garage attached because there is no garage attached to the structure as there is um we've got a side entry uh through a mud room family room which is going to have an eatin area open to a kitchen a pantry which leads into the main house and then the focus of all of this is that outdoor lawn space that we were creating we are repurposing the existing home we're going to do the best to save any mill work and any uh ceilings that are are of interest but we're turning the kitchen into a dining room the uh existing sitting area into a living area uh the existing family room we're going to actually place a bar uh and have a lounge space for them for music listening that'll go out into the Terrace so we're trying to engage the existing home with the rear guard moving to the Upper Floor so we come up our main stair or the proposed back stair there's a primary Suite we've got uh one two three four bedrooms and we're keeping the second floor Lounge that's one bedroom for each kid and then the last drawing that we added to our set um this was requested at Christa's um request was uh showing a square footage of habitable areas this was how we were able to demonstrate that we're well under the F for this home this was on the plan this was on the plan no not originally um this may need to be submitted as an exhibit uh may have submitted with we can introduce it as an exhibit if you like okay if we don't have it then yes have it okay so yes should we C it A1 mark this as A1 just describe it pleas so on uh roughly February 20th Christa reach out to our office she asked that we provide this drawing which would indicate areas that's indicated in green that the attic base is greater than 5 ft but no greater than 7 ft in height and also that we indicate areas that are 7 feet or greater and she utilized the information that we provided did her own F calculation and and demonstrated to us in her response letter that um we were well within the requirements of that thank the roof I'd like to indicate that in order to preserve the look of the house at the rear we C we match the roof pitches um the only way that you could really match the roof pitch of the existing home which was roughly 28 feet wide in the addition we're proposing while complying with all the zoning regulations would be to introduce a flat roof in the center um this makes construction a lot more complex but it's something that you see in modern living so from all of the Rings you never guess it but there is a low pitched roof to conceal and make this addition possible I'm I'm sorry could could you say that again because I wasn't quite sure if what you're saying is you have a flat roof that we can't see or that you lowered the pitch of the roof no it's we match the pitch we wanted to make this look as close as possible to the existing structure so in the center and again you would never see it unless you were in a drone or an airplane the uh middle space of the addition is what we call a low pitch roof so that'll have an eighth of an inch or a quarter of an inch um it's going to behave the same way any other roof would be it doesn't I mean everyone's afraid of hearing the word flat roof because they think modern in this case this is a typical mansart roof that we're employing the one Improvement that we made beyond the driveway and the turn around space at the front was the addition of a portico which I'm going to come back to um there was a review comment that we received from the HPC um that we we came up with two options in the short time since we received that letter tonight which I'll review with this this board um this is an enlargement of the front the real front the street facing front um where we proposed a portico so that anybody that gets out of their car in this front area can walk up and actually approach the home um the rear of the home what we've done here is we've rendered we've matched all of the details of the house the board and Baton the stucko we are currently in the process of like identifying clinker brick which is the type of brick it's very hard to do uh we want to match the brick as closely as possible the brick on this house is not even a standard size brick uh so that compounds it there are certain details um floral details for lack of a better description that on the rear of the house that we are replicating um one of the things that we've tried to do and my work um with other homes with with historic significance is we try to avoid mimicking the home we try to make a distinction between what was done in 2024 and what was done originally but doing it all Tastefully so you'll notice that in our additions the expanses of the windows are a little bit bigger than you see in the other the rest of the house but all of the detailing of the windows and all the detailing of the Sills will remain with the historic detailing in the house I should uh bounce to the HPC comment so these renderings These are photorealistic before we get to the HPC I like you to address the changes um or the use in the garage go back to go back to the page that you were on yeah so I don't I don't have any knowledge obviously of what the the homeowners before did but I can simply provide testimony of what I observed there um this is uh an existing one-story detached accessory garage um it is located very close to the side Lot line I don't actually know if the former owners constructed this structure and had it approved or if it's something that would be grandfathered from you know my interpretation anytime we start a project it's something that was existing it's a grandfathered uh use a grandfathered uh assuming it was approved okay in this case what you'll see at the bottom of this page for reference I'm referring to sheet A600 the second floor at some point in time uh received a cork floor or wood uh rug floor uh shiplap in a wood finish ceiling there were were existing collar ties that they added lights to um there was a television and there was a wall unit for air conditioning um no Plumbing no Plumbing no um the I would love to be able to tell you so so these walls here they go all the way down a 2 feet off the ground I have been in this space um I would say that probably the center of the space these collar ties probably come down to about 8 ft and therefore the the middle of the space probably comes goes up to about 9 N and 1 12 ft um it they they used it as a gym and Steve and Jesse would love to do that as well um so if I can interrupt because this goes back to the restriction and I I found it was in 2008 in 2008 the when this space was approved was approved as storage uh as I said you know former owners used it um you know not as overnight accommodations but they used it as a gym we're proposing the same um you know rather than rip out the improvements that were there it's a very passive use it uh makes sense to put it there the applicant would be willing to actually make that deed restriction that there will be no overnight accommodations and we'll properly record that uh it was never done never showed up in title um and it was something that did come up prior to our closing um when we did get the opal request back from the city of summit seeing the resolutions so just for the complete record for the 2008 resolution asked for AED restriction that said the space over the garage be primarily storage and under no circumstances used for overnight accommodation so I'm going to gather since that was never recorded what you're proposing now is slightly different restriction that would be no overnight usage but would refer to some I don't know how we you would word it but AC prob just the last portion of it that you know we would agree not to use the space for overnight accommodations or you know if you want to expand it further it would not be used for a separate apartment that would be against zoning anyway but um you know we can expand that and can come up with language with Council ball with respect to that in the resolution and I just make sure right you said there is no Plumbing and there's no plans to change no no it's simply in your visual inspection of the I'm assuming you went out and looked at this garage um they have permission to put in a car LIF is there any evidence of that that was ever done no I I'd be shocked if someone was able to get a I mean I'm reading the report here that says that that's what was approv you know from my experience the ceiling height would have to be much larger than what's here you You' be lifting the car into the ceiling ordinarily for a structure like this you'd have to actually remove those ceiling joists and introduce a ridge beam to hold hold hold the roof up um not to get too technical here but my understanding is um this space would have to be inspected by the electrical inspector and I guess insulation um and then we would have to demonstrate that the fire rating is uh is completely up the code and the applicant is certainly willing to do all of those things is there there's no somebody there's an air conditioning unit yeah um right here it's one of those Mitsubishi yes yes right on the outside which actually is another thing if we can talk about it now be good you noted that it's near the property line um one of the reports one have been the zoning officer said it appears it might be over the property line or at least partially over the property line oh I didn't I didn't notice that so the the site the property engineer will speak to that and we can relocate that uh if the board sees fit so that it's comp okay um so we would have to get it inspected and it have to be permitted okay um I just noticed that on you're drawing page marked a202 um they propose second for you've also got a workout yoga room there yes should this not be approved okay okay it just seemed like the safe would the safe room would become double the size is okay thank you Marie do you have any before before we seem to be getting off off track here so let's try to bring it back it's I'll see okay you have any okay let's let him finish his presentation you have an exhibit to present to the board which is um an exhibit and explain the exhibit this came out of the HPC comment with respect to the entrance sure so we're going to mark that as exhibit A2 great and I have a large scale you would describe the exhibit well prior to doing that just for context Alone um I guess these are just the renderings of the rear of the home so I was going to show I thought I had shown it yes I did show it in here so just for for context um this was our original proposal for the front Portico um as I stated earlier I felt or I feel relatively strongly that whenever you're doing something to a structure you should distinguish between what's new and what's old um in that context I had come up with this we had received and and to further clarify ify this um it's a a very I don't want to use the word modern because it's not the best term but it's an modern interpretation of a of a traditional column so it's not turned it's not trying to be something it isn't and it's got a copper roof that copper roof has a subtle curve to it and that curve was to relate to the underside of the existing bay window that had a curve we had received comments I'm not certain what the protocol is um here we only received this about 10 days ago um so what we did was the the town uh comments from the HP HPC member directed us to the uh design guide for The Summit downtown um which was we went to and it wasn't specifically helpful with regard to this um they made a comment there other homes in the area that we could potentially reference they also made a comment that there were other uh entrances on the home so going back to where I started my presentation I went to the existing front door for inspiration I've come up with two versions um the existing home doesn't have any covered entries um most people do want covered entries it's a great place to gra your keys to give you an opportunity to stand if it's ever raining um I came up with two options one option is flush uh or slightly projecting as a pediment to the the the house uh the second option is actually providing cover similar to the other version that we did what we did was we copied this pointed Arch we introduced a roof that would be flat not have a pres presence trying to mimic what was there I'm not as I said I'm not sure what the protocol is our preference here here would be to go with option two neither option proposes any zoning uh issues there you know there's no coverage issue or setback issue as a result of either I guess we would go for a certificate of appropri I think the point we'd like to convey to the board is that the applicant's willing to work with the HBC to arrive at a final design we may not arrive at it if the board has comments on it um you know we we've come up with a a thoughtful reaction to the comment and we're willing to continue to work with the HBC to arrive at a mutually agreeable uh plan uh I would like to add a few things here first of all the main concept in changing the whole scenario of the backyard being a driveway uh reachable to a front driveway with a nice parking spot that will be uh seen from the curb really uh and will block somehow the view of the pretty house beautiful house you have uh my concern here is number one let's say the other neighbors they want of course this is an oversized property and because it's an oversized property we have the luxury of allowing that uh let's say all the neighbors want to do the same that is a master violation of the master plan please uh explain to me if uh I'm wrong here this is violation of the master plan front yard is front yard you can you can have a drive a walkway you can have a nice entrance and a nice but parking in front I think this is not what the master plan has in mind so let me just just to respond to that that commissioner the uh the variance that we're seeking tonight is for the steep slope I I don't think that the parking in the front is a is a violation or will be violative of the um of the master plan in um in any way and there there every application as you know stands on its own we think that this application and we're just hearing the architectural testimony we're going to hear the engineering testimony we hear testimony from the landscape architecture with regard to the uh the trees and Shrubbery as well as the Planter's testimony to give the board the U the legal reasons with respect to C1 and C2 to allow the board to Grant this variant should they um see fit to to do that um the the objection is the if I understand what you're saying is the area in the front that allows for some drop off and parking as shown on the plans no my comment was really on the concept of Shifting the whole driveway from the backyard to the front yard that was my exception other as as Council noted there are no variances associated with that proposal correct No in fact I I'm not familiar with the section of the master plan but most Master plans for residential districts they're encouraging the use of homes in Practical measures and for my experience it's not impractical to have a a half circle or semicircular driveway and in any residential district and I don't believe your code has a a moratorium on that either or prohibition on that yeah and and the driveway it triggers the steep slope variance but there's no there's no variance there's no variance needed for the driveway for for the parking area location or anything along those lines determines the location well that's the hardship that we're facing here it it probably is worth noting that we went through a formal application we submitted the plans to the the board um I'm sorry we submitted the the plans to the the town and I I had gotten a phone call from the engineer essentially we did um on the left side of the property we did a straight run driveway you have it in your side yeah Jeff canest the engineer can testified this but there was an analysis done showing a driveway on but I would like to to to show um you know as a designer to get up a steep slope which is a problem um because we're so much higher than the street the best way to tackle that is to go on a diagonal okay because that makes the driveway the least steep that wasn't something we were proposing our first application was to come straight up uh what that did was two things it made us put the the driveway on the lot line because we were trying to minimize steep slope we m managed to comply with steep slope by like one square foot but the result of that was another variance uh we had a to steep of a driveway your your code I believe the the requirement is it has to be no greater than 10 degrees and we were at 12 on that so you know by all intents and purposes this property does not permit a driveway um and when we were doing that we wound up with the 6 and 1/2t retaining wall to hold up this driveway and we didn't get a denial we but we got a very strong message that we should revisit this so three months later we came back with the The Proposal that's before you just for Giggles what's the degrees on the current driveway did you do that or no we didn't but it I mean it runs a little bit further but the center of it is probably about the same I mean I probably should have started with I don't like coming to boards like this I think that zoning rules are there for a reason unless there's a true hardship and I don't think there's a better example of a hardship here there would be no way that you could even get to the the back detached garage which is not a function of modern living without having this this problem uh the existing driveway was there for so long and it was working and so the garages I guess what has what changed well that's what we're asking for under this uh application for sure I I think the biggest distinction I could make that any family would want is a garage attached to their home and there if you put any garage on this home there's no way that you're getting to it without rerouting the driveway you know and then the other thing that's valuable and it's supported by most ma Master plans is having a private area in the backyard of a home and right now it's all black toop 100% of the flat area of their yard is black top I can see the advantage in that but I can't see the advantage of having a parking area in front of the house blocking the view so our engineer is going to speak to that there there's significant topography from the road and the arit the engineer will speak to the amount of distance the the Topo and um and the plant the existing plantings that are there and we have a landscape architect that's here as well that can speak to some additional plantings um I think from a visual standpoint and the experts will testify this it would be very hard to see vehicles that are parked up there if you're standing on essic right and I also don't think that it would be blocking the view of the home I have a feeling that this is going to come up again later and it's probably going to come up in executive session so let's uh take your they've given us an answer what do we have any other questions for him I have no further questions of the witness Bo um Marie you wanted at the end no I'm no I'm good thank you you're good anybody else from the board have questions yeah I don't know if this is the correct time but I'll ask it anyway was there any consideration of making that parking smaller we could it wouldn't it would either exist or not exist that's the minimum amount of space that we could pull head in back up and turn around you know obviously if you reduce that you reduce the amount of steep steep SL you correct the the only thing that we could do here is have a pull off so essentially um pull in exactly just as an as an aside or something to think about it is a steep driveway to walk up so if you park on the street and I've done it as well if they're having guests it would be nice to give the guest an opportunity to park but again that that would be an improvement that would reduce the steep slope disturbance all right any uh questions on this side I yes I have a question so you're adding a three car attached garage and then there is already a two car um garage that's separate so why do need more did you consider just having the driveway come to the front and not have the EXT those extra parking spots since you since you do have basically SP spots for five cars technically we could do that um I just recall an I'm I'm I'm reading the master plan on my phone I'm not ignoring you um I keep it handy but I I know we although each applicant's on its own we did have another application a while ago with another historic home where they spoke about basically the need if if the Amazon driver comes and drops things off um you know or or somebody's picking up their kids they need to get past them beyond the front door and certainly the need for the delivery driver to be able to turn around so I mean is is your proposed parking area beyond the scope of that no okay if you were to pull in to the back of the house whoever is without the benefit of being able to pull into a garage Bay you're going to be doing a multiple more than just a k turn you it's going to be cumbersome so that's why we did the the turn around in the front anything else from anybody else on the board anybody in the public have a question for this for this witness no questions we will move on to your next witness please thank you Mr chairman our next witness is Jeff aaran who's going to testify in the area of professional engineering can I ask a question are we getting copies of the the proposed um changes to the front yes that you mentioned erroneously hoing them oh okay okay so this is a82 I thought these were passed out already apologies thank you thank you before you start let us get these out thank you thank you thank you thank you all right if you could please raise your right hand do you swear from the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do please state your name spell your last name Jeff egarian e g a r i a n thank you and can you briefly describe your background and experience please sure I am a licensed professional engineer my license is in good standing I'm a graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2006 licensed in 2012 and I have testified before this board in the past not recently but I have and um many other land use boards throughout Northern New Jersey on similar land use matters and I take it the license is in New Jersey correct correct yes any questions from the board would you like to accept his credentials okay your credentials are accepted and uh your attorney has some questions okay uh mrar if you would give uh give an overview of the site plan there are some questions that uh we want to make sure that are answered and we take it from here sure I'll Des grabe the mic and the green light has to be okay hello can you hear me yeah yeah y okay so um this is the this is the plan we submitted to the board um on the left side of the sheet we have our existing conditions uh which is also depicting our removal plan this is the portion of this hatch portion of the driveway here is the portion of the driveway that we're proposing to remove along with a portion of an existing patio that we will be removing as well as part of the improvements of our project um another thing we're doing is we're indicating the six trees in the front of the property to be removed to allow for the new driveway alignment on the right side of the sheet on page two we have the steep slope map on the map itself we did include the building footprint line so you can see how the proposed building footprint um will will interact with the existing uh steep slope property the darker hatching is the hatching of the 15% or more which is the highly regulated slope in Summit and as you can see the proposed addition touches uh it's approximately 300 ft of that area so it is in line with the existing topography on the property uh the existing Disturbed property for the driveway and it's barely touching the uh the 15% steep slope area which is already Disturbed if you look at the existing patio area because that patio needs to be disturbed in order to create that area so as you can see from the topography the the lot does have significant topography change elevation from from east to west from the rear of the property towards Essex Road change an elevation of approximately 42 ft the property is wellmaintained with M with mature trees and mature Landscaping and Lawn the surface waterers current drainage pattern flows east to west with the lock primarily draining towards S6 Road um with I'll switch over to sheet 3 now so we can talk about the proposed plan the disturbance of the steep slope is necessary to construct improvements on the property the new building Edition which includes the garage access requires a new driveway to alignment to access the garage re uh as Dan pointed out we did have several iterations we did bring one iteration of the driveway alignment uh have the direct alignment along the northern property Northern property line uh even with that alignment we still would require a variance of f servance of 15% and also we would had about approximately 150 linear feet of retaining wall along this Northern property line with a maximum height of 6 fet uh which you know as the more we looked at that that alignment was just not suitable from a d from a design perspective so further on the construction of the new driveway along the front face of the dwelling accounts for the majority of the slap disturbance unfortunately given a topography lot is impossible to design the driveway in performance with the Sleep slope ordinance the driveway has been carefully designed to limit the disturbance implementing retaining walls in blue of regrading the retaining walls also allows us to save additional mature trees in the front yard the walls which begin right here at the curve of the radius this and end the northern property line range in height from 0t to 6 ft at its highest on a very small portion six foot portion of the retaining walls right here one small portion along the northern property line we are proposing fall protection along with guide Rail and it will be added for increased safety along the top of retaining wall the guide rail will be La uh will be installed primarily along the northern portion of the property line so from this alignment here to just about the the parking area um standard details for guide rail installation require the post of the of the guide rail to be approximately 3 ft from the front face of the wall the alignment was checked using our vehicle track and software to ensure that a standard passenger vehicle can easily maneuver the driveway to access the rear facing building addition the typical W beam guide rail which it was assumed for this application has an approximate height of 2T above the top of the wall I to have an exhibit if the board is interested in showing the actual vehicle alignment uh traversing to the back of the property through this driveway alignment in that in that area um further retaining wall calculations details structural reports along with guide ra details will be provided um given a favorable vote on the application so with respect to the driveway alignment why we Mark that as uh exhibit A3 this is the standard sheet this is oh this was been submitted yes the plan that uh Dan testified to earlier was the last sheet which was the alternative alignment that we uh prepared this was the alternative alignment that we explored originally so this was this is an examp that was yes so in addition to the driveway improvements we are proposing significant storm water management improvements for the property with the increased in impervious coverage for the proposed building Edition the the covered porch and the patio we are proposing a series of 1290 gallon steage tanks to be installed here all the roof leaders from the proposed Edition will be connected and we also are indicating some yard trains um strategically placed around the proposed walkway to account for any ponding or standing water uh that may occur in that area one of the comments that we received from the um the city engineer was with with respect to these these drains themselves and the quantities of the um is contributing drainage area and the quantity of the volume for those two tanks and in our pre um me our pre meting meeting we discussed this this system itself and we are prepared to add additional volume for these two tanks so to to account for those those extra drainage areas and those yard limits we are going to propose an additional 1290 gallon tank in the south portion of the property in theories with the two tanks that we're proposing now those three tanks alone will provide approximately 1,600 Cub feet of storage which clearly is going to be a net benefit to the project currently um all so therefore all this storm water will then be routed and stored on the ground um replenishing ground water reducing erosion and not having any negative uh impact on the adjacent properties another Improvement that we are proposing that we were discussing in our pre meeting and this is this is an exhibit um I have a sheet three of three but we are proposing some additional D drainage for the driveway area itself would you like to mark this yes sure Mar that that's different than what we have yes this is an exhibit it's the same slide plan uh I'll I'll discuss the additional drainage that we're proposing so in addition to the seage tanks we already proposing on the plan we decided to account for uh roughly 5,000 sare ft of existing driveway area that we will now be taken to another series of feure Tanks approximately 5,000 sare ft of driveway starting from the detached garage all the way up to the front Park uh front turnaround area this bump out area um we'll be routing that through a series of cach basins and again providing 1200 uh 3,90 Gall steage tanks the I'm sorry um and and where are those tanks going to be they're going to be right in the driveway one two and three okay so all combined with the proposed uh storm water management system we are proposing in uh approximately 25,000 gallons of storage capacity with the 6,90 gallon tanks um for this project obviously the benefit of having 25,000 gallon storage is significant for this project for this property and it is only going to be a benefit to the existing storm water conditions and just quickly right here too you could see very clearly that we do have our vehicle alignment accessing the driveway garage to the rear and it does make clear of the guide Rail and and has an ample width for vehicle to maneuver back through there and just to reiterate is your engineering testimony that should the board approve this application there are significant improvements not only no net runoff but there are significant improvements to drainage for this property the city of summit and the adjacent properties yes absolutely thank you and then just quickly I'll I'll I'll some the other benefits too as far as steep SL boress goes um and they're in place to protect the environment from such things as increased erosion the maintaining natural drainage patterns and protecting uh protection of water quality so given the size of lot the improvements have been proposed in a manner that limit the amount of disturbance the use of the retaining walls uh further reduces the steep slope disturbance and does not significantly alter the existing drainage patterns and the project will have an increase will project will not have an increase in erosion over what naturally occurs and the implementation of these storm Water Management Systems will be a benefit to groundwater recharge and not have a negative effect on our water thank you the only followup question I have is commissioner oo asked about the condenser for the garage can that be relocated to an area so as Not to cause a variance yes we can find a spot for it thank you all right no further questions under WT and I I think that point would probably be a condition of approval is the relocation of that condenser sry your your testimony is to place a location without permissible location Tom can we start with just we're just clarifying the condition okay so you're your testimony is you can place in location that will not require variance we're talking about the AC unit yes yes theage up okay um one thing I don't um I I don't know if I heard was about the seepage pit that um I saw in the resolution of approval for the prior application that there was a seepage pit that was installed for the garage that was in the back do you have any information we could verify that that existed we there was no cleanouts couldn't find any cleanouts we do know the roof leaders go underground you're not sure we just don't know where it it to be honest the only place that really makes sense is in the driveway itself because obviously every the slope goes up behind and the the the leaders go into the pavement in the front of the garage so the only place that really makes sense would either be right here or somewhere along the side of yard of the house but if it's under if it's under the already right the only we can do is possibly TV and camera and and see where and kind of trace it out so um so then you are you suggesting that the uh the drainage improvements that you're doing now will more than compensate for the fact that that may be a failed system that's on that garage I I wouldn't assume that it's a failed system we're we're proposing the driveway system for the driveway itself the the roof leaders would obviously account for the roof area of the garage so it would be something completely separate and have its own benefits okay um all right so I'm I'm not sure how to how to handle that would there be another source to find draw that would say where they are it I guess on the previous application that's which would be filed somewhere someone has to go down to the basement so so the applicant is willing if we're you know we don't know if it exists we've looked we've had them take a look we don't know if it exists we could certainly preate more to the satisfaction of the board engineer in that area and satisfy that long condition so put in another another yes drainage captur yes the Dr most likely would need to be milled anyway um so if it is under the driveway at that point we we may discover it if it is in fact failed we can completely tie that those root leaders into our system of opposing for the driveway itself so Marie would we need to see any particular condition or language in this resolution um you know I'm thinking just to keep it in keeping with what was approved prior you know the you know some previous board had said that there was um drainage improvements there um you know you could look at this as being you know a completely new um drainage system that's going on there that is improved beyond what was there before um even without um even even if you pretended that that system on the garage didn't function you probably still have more storage capacity in he's proposing than what's there so you know I could I could kind of see that that maybe that's a tradeoff he's he's collecting more now and as I was suggesting even if that one had failed even if the one on the garage wasn't really working I still think you probably have more capacity now with what he's he's proposing on there so I don't I don't know I mean it would be up to the board if you want to say you know what you got to collect all your water I don't don't know absolutely necessary we would just have to verify that that rain water is going somewhere it's going well it's going somewhere it's going some well but I mean I mean to the new drainage system somewhere positive now yeah somewhere positive right right so um so I mean I'm I'm sure it's on record somewhere somewhere somewhere with the original application I don't you know only because it was called out specifically in that original resolution that should be done we should be taken care of that as you know the applicant is not cutting cost in the lease so willing to do this um the let's talk about some of the other storage um seage pits um if you put one under the driveway since I haven't I haven't reviewed any of that um if you were to put the SE PS under the driveway they would be in the front area is that right I couldn't actually see the drawings very well but I'm sorry yeah we would be proposing it in the turnaround area oh in the turnaround area yes well within that within that space we can make sure we're at least 10 ft clear of the building foundation and clear of any you know geogra retaining walls so there's plenty of room in that area in the front to put those three tanks how how big is that turnaround area is it a turn around area a parking area what or of it mainly it's exactly what it is it's it's a turnaround area it's so it's 36 ft wide um and the depth of it I do have a dimension in there but I can't see it but that's that's the intent of it is just for to be a turnaround area not a formal parking area okay all right well the reason I I I asked is because um the architectural renderings do show a car that's parked in that spot but right when looking at the plans your plans it doesn't appear to me that it's actually deep enough to have a car that's parked in there I mean you could probably have a compact car there but I was I was just curious what the the thought process was on it yeah I mean I I did not design it to have a vehicle pull in head first and be able to back out as I get traditional parking space okay and the architect can speak to that you know the thought was site circulation um having participated in a lot of the planning meetings but um danv under Ro so so dantino so I want to specify that typically you would require 42 feet so you have 18 ft for parking space um and then another 24t of Lane and that's what I mean I'm using a shopping uh Center guide but essentially what that is is that's the amount of space that you need to pull back a car in this circumstance this is not going to be a convenient parking area um this is going to be somewhere that if there's a compact car that their grandparents was one of the things they mentioned are going to use to and they're not driving SUVs or anything like that so in a perfect world if this was a parking area it would be 42 ft as Jeff just noted it's only 36 um and we're doing that specifically to minimize the the steep slope so it's safe to say that the site plan more accurately reflects the depth of that area as opposed to the 3D model the the renderings are based on these dimensions um but you should go by these drawings the engineering drawings because these are scaled and dimensioned correct that rendering is exactly these Dimensions here so do we know the depth so yeah it's 36 that's the width no no that's the W not look like it's 18t deep off of the main Drive the the driveway is 16 ft to the right of the house and eight almost 18 ft to the left right so I can tell you that if it's roughly dimension of the driveway is 16 ft and you can see I was just going to say the is not even close no okay now the area the area left to the uh proposed building addition were these garages this is a a a quite suitable area for turning yes and I think if you want to this you should tell us that's all par let's get one one one question answered at a time yours was yes this area is a good point to uh do the Turning so why do we need a second one in front of the uh main entrance because they might want to park it yeah that's what I think it shouldn't be a parking it's temporary yeah and they were mentioning that right now they were there when mail was delivered on one occasion and what the mailman does is they actually drive all the way up through the the backyard to the driveway they make a k turn in their backyard and turn around I think it would be more desirable for anybody to have that occur up front as opposed to in their like private space where the garage is and presumably their kids basketball hoop is going to be yeah my my objection is the 36 front yard okay we've got that we're going to keep we'll come back I think you need to just testify as to what dimension you want separate from the driveway so it's going to be reflective the dimension that we have here which neither of us have our scale on us I don't know how that happened um but it's me and you I'm blame it myself too the driveway Dimension 16 so it's 16 and if if that's another 10t that would be 26 feet right okay okay from Curb to so that's your testimony it's 26 total [Music] correct they agree with you they're coming again if you're wrong je okay so if we have um that area as a turning area and you're thinking of also fitting in the seepage pits in that front area yes how far back do those geog grids go on the wall I I'm just I'm thinking about like you know you got water seeping down in there but you also got a geogrid system and wall the the the highest wall okay so so yes the the the wall details themselves the wall material has changed so it's going to be a brick it's going to be a brick veneered wall so no modal block no geog grid is going to be footing with a v u basically wall with a veneer so there will be no impacts no conflict with any wall system so you'll have you'll have the seepage pit far enough away from the both the wall and the foundation of the house it doesn't affect the structural Integrity of either one correct right um so just to be clear I have not reviewed any of that I think I said that before but I haven't reviewed any you know volumetric calculations or um locations of those but if you're going to put it under the driveway um I would think you're you're going to want to have some access um you know some manhole on top so there could be some regular um access to it for maintenance yes inspection yeah we'll we'll provide ways to to access and maintain it so this would be a condition then that uh you will get copies and either agree or bring it back to us I would think if the board is okay with that I'm okay with that and I term it as a storm water management plan to be submitted for your review and approval yes any objection applicant fine with that great um and it also sounds like you're adding um additional seage pits in the rear yard to account for some of the groundwater collection that you're doing yes one additional seage tank to be series with the two proposed 1290 Gall TS so it'll have essentially the same volume as as the three were proposing in the front okay all right um and I I had also I I'm not I'm not sure that I'm totally convinced about the um the access from the from the front of the house on um at the corner where it turns around into the back on that driveway you have 17 ft wide there's a wall the wall has a thickness the um Timber guide rail has to be on top of that wall two feet from the face of the wall is there I'm could you talk a little bit more about that there's 17t there well the the exhibit that I do have here I know it's hard for you see you haven't seen it but I did depict the the guide rail okay um I also depicted the guy rail 3 feet from the front face of the wall and then an additional foot and a half because you have the post and then you have the rail itself so it's actually 4 and2 ft from the front face of the wall and I do depict a standard passenger vehicle being able to maneuver that as well you know we do we can also increase this R the radius right at the corner of the house there too to give more more room that will not impact any additional steep slopes which we most likely will do but even in its configuration we can get a passenger car there without any conflict okay is it going to remain at the 17 ft or you're are you just giving me turning radiuses that work or um but the the driveway right now was currently dimensioned 17 ft right at that radius I think as a as a better design option would just be increase that inside radius a little bit to have a greater radius just to allow for some more room and you we will most likely do that okay yeah I think that might be better site circulation for the home just to have that okay um um is there any thought to giving some kind of maybe wheel stops at the um at that where that turnaround is yes yes if we we will consider that um there will be something there something some safety measure hasn't been discussed in depth but obviously it's a good practice and we will put something there okay all right good so would that be a condition then as well that there's some sort of it has to be a wheel stop it's got to be something that to stop from driving protective device we could potentially even just make raise the wall itself you know an additional you know freestanding wall in that location just to make sure that someone could have you know something to prevent them driving over but we will provide something after after discussion okay um providing something doesn't yeah does does not kind of make me comfortable I like to a free standing wall now do you need a fall protection on top of it which creates another it could create it create a taller wall now um you know or necessary or wheel stop just trying yeah I mean this also something that can be done to condition to the reasonable satisfaction of the board engineer you're okay so wheel stops or some other form or okay we'll add that in okay all right give me one second just out of curiosity where are you moving um some of the electrical equipment the generator um and electric box are noted to be relocated be on sheet to but I'm not exactly sure where they're going if I just missed that well we're calling him to be relocated we haven't they will be going in a conforming location we just haven't physically specifi the spot yet we know we know we need to move it as results of the new driveway we just haven't had the physical discussion this is of where it's going to go but it will be in a conforming location okay and and the zoning officer is um is pretty good about catching um any screening that has to happen with that we are well aware of that especially with the existing e unit in the rear theh garage I know chis doesn't miss a thing okay um because she also noted the existing pool filter equipment in it's too so we are aware all right and I think that I think that's all I had for now okay any other questions from the board I have a very silly question and it comes from my past experience uh these houses are set so far back from the street and I know the fire department signed off on it at fire apparatus is going to be pretty far from the house any consideration with the driveway to accommodate that so they can maybe get something up there as far as a truck yeah I know you have the the the I'm just throwing it out there no stipulation just something to think about maybe in the future or for your for the for the owners um I know the Belgium plock Block is laid sideways on the Cur on the uh driveway so that helps a lot but just something to think about you know I know the fire department has signed off they're the experts I get it I'm just question they want what ATV I think not that and that's going to create a whole can of worms we don't want to go down that road I just want you to think about it that's thanks lot Don just because you're a battalion chief do sorry just old habits diar you know because the the okay the only comment they made was build the code seems to be there alternate alternate whatever build a code that's what they say well but but but the fire department has shown itself capable of raising concerns when it has them exactly not but the other answer is that if they have to drive over the lawn they're driving over the lawn yeah we've done that too sorry you'll redo the lawn later we'll save the house first right exactly any other questions silly or otherwise okay seeing none are there any questions from members of the public none okay uh board members it's been a while do we want to take a break we want to take a break so we will take a 7 minute break and be back here at 12: after here usually precise s about 7 well I didn't want to go Toth quarter after because we will anyway thank you all do you have a prom are we all back no guess we yes we are we're all back on that side we're all back on this side we're all ready okay we do that only to kill out the guy in the back know what's going on okay okay we're back in order and Mr attorney it's thank you Mr chairman our next witness is um Ben heler and this is not a witness that we originally had and I think it demonstrates how the applicant is um very interested in making sure that we get this right so during the time between we got the review letters and now um he hired Mr hel's known landscape architect does beautiful work to address some of the comments and also to make this a um a better application so uh and do you swear Fromm the testimony you're about to give in this matters the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do please state your name is spell your last name Benjamin heler h l l e r thank you and can you briefly describe your background and experience sure I am a 2010 graduate of Rucker University and graduated a degree in landscape Arch ecture um I've been practicing landscape architecture for the last however many years now since then 14 years uh been a licensed landscape architect in the state of New Jersey uh state of Connecticut and state of New York for the last since 2017 I have been sworn in as an expert in the profession of landscape architecture and multiple um municipalities across the state any questions from the board would you like to accept his credentials if I could ask uh how many um of these kinds of uh cases with the U with the direction that we're talking about with the wall and the um the steep slope and hiding the things on that time what what's your experience been with that sure uh I've been involved in numerous cases actually most recently was last year in TL New Jersey uh where we had a successful application uh steep slope very similar situation had to stabilize some slopes had to to additionally screen uh some features so yeah very much so okay any other questions failed to mention uh previous chairman of the of the planning board in West Orange where I was a resident for a number of years any other questions we will save that to the no forgot to mention that sorry about that accept your uh credentials and move up thank you okay thank you all right Ben uh you have one exhibit um that you have already marked as A4 if you would just describe the exhibit and hand them out to the Commissioners sure uh so this is the landscape plan which is inclusive of the physical plan itself on the first page some details and notes on the second page the third page being a rendering which we'll discuss uh plan rendering and the fourth page being some photos and some proposed uh 3D threedimensional renderings as well who would like the large copy who would like um Stephanie got it all I'm gonna be handing out half size to everyone else Stephanie's the keeper of all thank you better should see my office thank you okay Ben okay hear me good so truth be told uh as a landscape architect you dream of working on properties like this this is a very much an olstean type of a property and for those of you who don't know what I'm referring to F GL Olstead the original landscape architect right who Central Park he did the Essex County Park systems he was the landscape architect this property is very indicative of that era hundreds of years ago where you would have the house on the hill it would sit very simply right in the middle of the property you would have lots of mature trees you would have lots of very clean and simple landscape a lot of pandra and ground covers um some understory that would generally be at that time period lots of rendin things like that right and I'm describing sort of a very picturesque moment what I'm here to tell you is that I get to do the exact same thing which is a dream for me right um I have been in contact with um John Linson uh who represents the city uh and he he the Forester he's the Forester of the city and he prepared the letter that I am in receipt of and in review of um in addition I've also reviewed the letter from the environmental commission very similar comments from both of those individuals and and parties respectively uh lots of mature treeses they might not be in the best of health now why is that right my job is to take a look at that and understand the site conditions that may or may not affect these situations right over time trees get too large from where they were planted these particular trees in general as we've all been aware of now are on a steep slope slopes and trees don't necessarily go well together especially given the amount of storms that we've had lately and the other thing that we have is we have a home that's also positioned relatively close to a number of these trees so originally what had been proposed was six trees uh that were coming down in uh shown on the engineering plan I had been brought on I went to the site last Tuesday uh on the rainy day which we can talk about in a minute because I'll get to talk to you about my experience on the property while it was downpouring uh and in addition to those shade trees that were originally being proposed and given the the letter from John Linson and given my conversation with him it was recommended that I take down additional trees uh and any trees that are to remain be reviewed by a certified tree company and pruned uh accordingly that's simple maintenance right and as you are aware the the applicant is inheriting a property uh that may or may not have been up to par with with current uh maintenance practices and certainly other measures so where does that leave us today uh six trees were originally uh planned on being taken out three trees were being shown as saved I am recommending that those three trees uh be removed as well as per the recommendations of John Linson in addition to that I also see an additional five trees that would be negatively impacted uh just generally speaking from being on a slope and or potentially uh overgrowth uh lack of Maintenance and Etc these are the recommendations of the Forester and I completely in agreeance that it's time that we replant and reforest and make this property the house on the hill with the mature trees again in the future so why am I really excited about working on the property because I get to set the tone for the next hundred years right and I get to do it in a way in which I'm not going to plant the shade trees on it on a hill because I don't think that's probably the best idea I'll plant them slightly downhill so I'll take you through through my landscape plan now having given you my why I love this property speech um and I'll take you through some of my numbers so uh on the first page of your packages that I've handed out you will see um my plant schedule which shows 14 shade trees being replanted because 14 trees are coming down um the town ordinance does not actually specify the size of the tree that needs to be planted the applicant would like to propose 2 and 1/2 to 3in caliber trees uh were applicable and 2 to 2 and 1/2 in caliber trees were applicable those are larger than what you would typically find uh in a nursery or or anyone who was just going to be going ahead and planting just to make up the onetoone ratio that's required uh so already we're trying to prove a point that we are here uh to truly make this property beautiful again um in addition to that uh and again we're going to get into some of the renderings that I have there is an existing uh under story of vegetation as I had previously mentioned some large roted engin uh some flowering trees and an understory uh basically between zero and let's call it 10 to 15 feet tall and you'll see some of the images if you haven't already seen them that are they are blocking let's call it blocking the lower portions of where the driveway is to be proposed so right off the bat you will not be able to see this wall the wall that's being proposed from day one based on just existing plants alone you will not be able to see it now that is not to say that those uh shade trees that are being removed will not also be affected right but the underst story alone will completely block the uh brick wall that's being proposed now if you don't believe me I'm now going to go ahead and plant even more in that particular area to go ahead and show that we are really going to make sure you can't not just see the wall but any cars that may or may not be uh proposed to you know doing turnarounds or whatever it may be so take you through the plan um one of the other things that I want to also make note as I take you through is uh granted we're here for a steep slope variance we want to stabilize those steep slopes right today as I had mentioned um I was on property last Tuesday when it was downpouring that was that rain that we got that was the day that I was basically brought on to this project uh and the packis Sandra which is currently existing on site so for those of you who don't know what pandra is it's low ground cover it soaks up and stabilizes steep slopes soaks up the water stabilizes steep slopes and how do I know that I was literally on the front lawn and I was not wet I was wet because of what was coming down on me but I was not wet by I didn't even have boots on so I was not wet in my feet at all so what we're looking to do is more of that at add even more pandra in add even more understory plantings in add even more shade trees than uh you know exists um today and make this property the M Ste in View for the next 100 years so I will take you through uh sort of the journey as you enter there's some existing boxwoods on either side one of the things I failed to mention there's about a 100 boxwoods on the property we're going to try to preserve those transplant those however we possibly can to preserve again the plants that that are that are on site you enter you've got boxwoods left and right got a kind of a very nice and traditional um entrance we've added uh some flowering trees to the driveway uh I'll show you what that'll look like we've added some screening some Evergreen screening on let's call it the the bottom portion of my page which is the South Side uh that is to uh for two things as you know we're putting this addition on the house we want to make sure that we're good neighbors and should there be any concerns about views we're accommodating for those views and we are blocking any of the potential views that you put out that you could or would have to this addition um along the let's call it front yard uh that's where I've added all 14 of my shade trees that's where I want to make another impact I've done them in such a fashion where they'll be heavier sort of left and sort of right uh so you still get that grandio view of the house on the hill uh but you've also um added to sort of this you know additional screening let's call it of any potential views that you may have from the street towards the driveway in addition to that I've added additional understory plants um you've got and I'll take you through some of the names uh viburnum uh witch hazel and mountain laurel at the recommendation of the uh environmental commission I've kept to all natives those are all native plants they can get anywhere up to 10 ft tall um we're going to start them about 3 to 4 feet tall they'll grow they'll grow at a pretty rapid Pace because they are um natives uh and then along the north side of the property I've added evergreen shrubs uh they'll do well there really aren't any views that I'm expecting from the north side it's mostly kind of overgrown Shrubbery to begin with on the neighboring property but we will go ahead and make sure that we're adding additional screening to make sure that you really don't see anything here all right so I'm going to actually flip ahead uh from my second page which is just some notes and details and I'm going to flip to the third page and yes I'm a plant nerd uh so this hopefully can depict you some of what I'm trying to describe there is a a major amount of understory plantings that is in the middle of the front yard that is right off the bat going to help with any of the potential concerns of views what I've added which is a little bit tough to tell in these renderings but I'll show you in some of the threedimensional renderings are more flowering trees around this turnaround area which will get anywhere from 10 to 15t tall and that will take away any of the views of the cars um existing today around the perimeter of the property is a is a nice hedge row that's about 5 feet tall that's an evergreen hedge again no views uh that you can really see from the neighboring properties so not too concerned about the addition uh and in the main main rear rear rear part of the property there's existing evergreen trees so the last thing I kind of want to point to on page four and probably easier to see on your pages than it is on mine existing view on the top left hand corner you can see what I'm talking about because of the grade the way that it exists today and looking up at the house you can see that massive amount of kind of stuff which is really kind of just an underst story of some mixes of native shrubs and how that really sort of sets the tone for the house on the Hill kind of theory that I've been talking about and it also helps to kind of block any views that you may have um on the right hand side I give you a rendering of what I'm proposing which now you can see sort of this kind of purpley kind of color that's the flowering uh version of a it's called a cus canadensis it's it is a uh Eastern red bud which is a native flowering tree it's going to get anywhere from like I said 10 to 15 feet tall uh that will take away the rest of the views that you would ever possibly have any concerns with and you can see a couple more three-dimensional renderings again I'm utilizing the same renderings that the architect had presented however now I'm adding the real vegetation that we're proposing into it so you can really start to see the scale of what adding all of this vegetation really does um on the left hand side just because I wanted to show you some of what the existing kind of tree conditions are you can see what I'm talking about when I say the proximity of some of these large trees this is one of the large trees that's next to the existing garage and I mean that thing's leaning and it's and it's it's it's heading right for that garage even if it doesn't fall itself some of the limbs that may or may not fall from it are going to negatively impact that garage um in addition you can see IV growing all up and down the trees great and beautiful looking not so great for health of vegetation has a tendency to suffocating uh living things um the next picture that I have presented there this is one of the trees that's being down you can see a nice chunk of the tree that's sort of that's missing right in the middle of the tree um and you can also see the proximity of the tree to the house again um not a good condition for any uh residents at all um and in the bottom I've shown again picture of some of these trees it was very much the recommendation of John listen that you know anything we can see we get someone out there But ultimately try to take down what we can because of the concern of the health and and really again the next 100 years right so just by the numbers because I I'm a numbers guy and I really like to to point this out we're planting 14 shade trees 46 flowering trees 20 evergreen trees 102 shrubs and just about a thousand covers that should 100% take care of any of the concern this inventory is on your plant schedule on page one of the exhibit certainly is yes thank you I think that's it for me I got one other uh thing that I'd like to point out though that none of the trees that we're proposing are are considered Landmark trees for the city I know you have a landmark tree designation uh that's from December 1st of 1991 none of these trees are on that list just just one item I'd like to draw to the board's attention is the picture on the lower right hand side because I think it really depicts what the architect was speaking about in terms of visibility of the cars and you can really see how the house is set up so there there really is not a scenario here where any car or anything for that matter would block the home the the home has significant stature to it and based upon the testimony of the plantings and even without the plantings there would be no blockage just based on the elevation of the home no further questions of this one Marine you he okay board members so the question here what kind of coverage do we have between swimming pool and the house on the right side just grass that's existing that exists today just grass the existing uh dryway that would go so that would be replaced by grass yes okay uh yes yeah we have some um some plantings in the back actually there's a sorry there's an area in the back over here uh that you can see I'm proposing some FL some of the flowering trees go back there as well and some more ground covers because it is a little bit of a slope back there again I want to stabilize just FL uh no plantings uh flowering trees uh thank you I have a question yeah um on the the last page yes where you just had all the pictures yes the existing condition street view when was that taken that uh June of 2023 that's a Google Earth image from June of 2023 you can go on okay so and in then the proposed proposed street view that looks like it's a Summer View do you have any winter views um front um I do I do not uh have any winter views of the front but the existing picture that I've taken I'm trying to think I'll tell my head let me see the existing picture that I took without ping back um some of the existing pictures that I took underneath that street view is is from last week I think you're going to see some images in the next round of testimony that'll answer sort of what it looks like in the winter as for proposed no I don't have anything proposed to show what the interviews are but I can say that the branch structures that are there today are rather dense um and what I'm proposing is only going to add to that density I don't want to propose anything there are some evergreen shrubs but I don't want to propose anything evergreen trees because that's when to get too Grand and start to obstruct the view of the of the house okay and I have another question um I know you're talking we keep talking about this driveway turnaround um so it's one thing seeing a car but then it's another thing if the car has the headlights on and the headlights is there which I would think would basically would you know would need more coverage than to actually see a car I mean how how dense is this going to be where very yeah I don't think you're gonna notice the car I don't think you're going to notice the the headlights from the street at all I I I mean very very dense we're talking about um a number of like I said in front Alone um in front alone I've got two four six eight nine nine flowering trees I've added in the front alone all 14 of my shade trees uh I've added the majority of those 100 shrubs are in the front yard so and a lot of them like I said are going in this this front area to sort of block you know and eventually they'll grow in and they'll get sort of where they are now but we'll start them 3 to 4 feet tall um I know they're some going to tell me this is here safe you apparently met with Mr linsen had a phone call yes uh and you met with him and uh in his comments he tells me that the front yard driveway uh so it appears that a front yard driveway is I'm not sure if he says warranted or unwarranted I'm really having trouble reading it but um did did you guys discuss the front driveway and yeah so his concern in general are that first of all the trees have declined over time that's that's first and foremost and secondly anything that uh any type of construction anything you do on the site is going to negatively impact the root systems of the trees trees have from what we know trees have What's called the drip line which is you know if you think of a tree as a lollipop stand like this the Roof Systems that we are most concerned with are the ones that are just underneath what's that that canopy right and anytime you do construction I've shown I've shown these large circles right that's relatively indicative of what the coverage I'm talking about is on on the canopy any anything within that canopy you're concerned that you're going to hurt the tree even more now John and I had spoken and I said you do know that these trees aren't looking that great to begin with and he said well yes and that's why I would like them to come out kind of regardless so this of course is sort of putting the the cherry on top and saying we should definitely take them down um and that's sort of what his comments are on that okay he says it's warranted I yeah his report of February 2nd saying that the home can only be added um onto at the rear so it appears that a front yard driveway is warranted my I spilled the coffee I hope that hope that answered the question okay no I think getting his yeah yeah his feelings on it either way was that was helpful especially with our prior disc having J John is one of the people we listen a lot to yes I think you said 27 years any other questions from the board just assume that there's no problem obviously johnon is not seeing your these we need to condition condition it certainly he he he recommended if that's thing he'd be happy to work with me I worked with him when I was in bu AR so yeah they are responsive to that conversation but certainly having it as a condition of approval is fine it just looks like you're adding a row of um Evergreens across the front street from just off the street at least on this plan that's the back that's existing that's the back oh I'm sorry that's the front no no no I'm sorry that that I'm sorry those are the if you look at the images um on page four on the left hand side picture the existing picture those are existing uh so you're not adding those you yeah you see these those are called I thought there was yeah no no it's okay they're shrubs they're shrubs they've been there for a very long time just a quick question I know the picture depiction from street level what about neighbors across the street that are a bit more elevated would that still be a block yeah I I I I think they're going to see what they see today which is which is just the house on the hill that's my intention is to take away anything that we're at it but not anything more that's why quite honestly the decision to go with flowering trees in that area was to purposefully get to kind of the the car height you know just above the car height let the house Be Still The Glory the glory that it is yeah absolutely any more questions on this side this side just some I think it was Allison sort of inspired this one because we should have done it um the pictures the ex the three existing pictures or existing conditions you took them last they're fairly and they represent the condition of yeah yeah yeah for sure and I think you're going to see even more images the next okay thank you Mr heler said would be any questions from the public for this witness seeing none we may move on okay uh so our Final witness this evening is John McD's going to testify in the area of planning do you swear from the testimony uh raise your right hand please it's a first for me wow do you southp that count do you swear from the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes I do please state your name spell your last name sure hi there everyone my name is John MCD that's spelled MC capital d n OU and I'm the project planner thank you and can you briefly describe your background and experience sure uh my license in professional planning is current and in good standing I have the Good Fortune of getting to testify throughout the entire state of New Jersey uh from our Northern tip to the south east west I've been here multiple times um in the past as well your surrounding communities I was um in chatt and burrow till all hours on Thursday so we're continuing with where we left off last week uh my license is current it's in good standing and uh I do testify in courts as well I'm a member of the American Institute of certified planners which is our national certification that's current and in good standing and I am also a landscape architect but obviously not the landscape architect on this project any questions or would you like okay let's move ahead okay take it away so again you've heard the relief that the applicant is seeking we're here in your r25 Zone District which has a minimum lot size of 25,000 Square ft we have a lot that's more than three times that in over 75,000 Square ft so we've got excellent spatial capacity here to provide for some flexibility and really correct what I think is a big problem that you heard at the outset with uh our architectural testimony through Dan it's a site that has some irregularity ities associated with it and towards Mr Mal's question I think it was a good one about why would we take parking that is now in the back and hidden from the public View and move it to the front where it may cause an intrusion with this with this home I looked at infrared photography and all of the dozen or so or the two dozen three dozen homes that are around this property this one stands out as the anomaly it's the only one with that parking that for some reason wraps around the back that's contrary of good planning we don't want Active Space in our private space your backyard is your private space your front yard is your semiu space which leads to the public space of the roadway itself that's where we want to have this interactive space with the public you just heard through Ben's testimony that we're what Landscape Architects do is create illusion we're able to hide things we're able to hide things that you don't want to see and frame things that you you do want to see and I think that's been achieved here but but even if Ben wasn't able to do what he just did you have a structure that is more than 190 ft from the roadway so this is certainly not going to stand out as a as a driveway if you will that will bite at you as you as you go past this home and will certainly not interfere with the beauty of the home that's there now as I said the current condition of the property looking at infrared photography and why do I use infrared because your area is so leafy and so Lush you can't see down into where the driveways are with normal photography but infrared shows where those driveways are and I was looking as the questions were coming up and of those 30 or so homes around the subject property none of them have parking in the rear so this is an odity in its current condition and the applicant is fixing that and also figuring fixing the problem of the front door is in the backyard and there is no front door in the front yard so again we have children here we don't want to put active space where it would interfere in a backyard with where deliveries and drop offs and and Pickups would be so again the applicant functionally and Visually is fixing a problem that exists with an otherwise beautiful home right now and as I said we have excellent spatial capacity here to accommodate this driveway configuration that the applicant is proposing as a predicate to my planning conclusion that the relief or steep slope can be granted here and that's really really the only relief that the board has to deal with all of the other zoning criteria are met here um importantly through Dan's testimony you heard that there's going to be full compliance with all of your bulk controls here most importantly the floor area ratio I'm sure this board sees a lot of f variances in Your Capacity um as a zoning board there's no F relief here for an otherwise oversized home the setbacks all comply the building height complies the building coverage complies the lot coverage complies top to bottom we have full compliance here the only relief is for a sloper regularity given again the rugged nature of the terrain that this lot is on and what defines your your beautiful Community here so what I'd like to do is just give the board some photographic and uh evidence to take you on a little quick little tour here of the property and show how I believe the relief can be granted without creating any substantially adverse impacts given the physical characteristic of the landscape it's just going to be five pictures here and they will give a fair and accurate depiction of the proper this is the planner's exhibit will Mark as A5 A5 for the record it's going to be five photographs they're all taken by aerial drone photography of the subject property and they were taken just a few days ago uh February 29th 2024 and as that's passing out maybe maybe I misheard or if not please clarify I believe you said the only variance relief that you're requesting is a steep slope but the accessory garage being or the accessory use of the garage being now converted to an active use with the upper story would also prompt that setback variance is that right that is correct I have that in my my Hit List as well thank the same they should be the same it's just one packet did you get one I did not we short one are we short I sorry about that so again we'll just take you through the five sheets here the first is going to be a shot from the road from Essex Road and you can see we not only have horizontal separation here from the road again upwards of 190 ft or so but vertical separation as well and you heard uh through Ben's testimony the house on the hill clearly that comes into evidence here the driveway is a right driveway comes up on the right side and the proposal here is to bend left instead of going behind the building but to keep it in the front and then snake around to match up with that detached garage that is presently there so this next frame is sort of a reverse view that first frame was looking from the street this view is now looking on page two of A5 again yes of A5 is looking back at ess6 Road and we just wanted to give you a little context here and orientation the home is in the middle the addition is right behind it it's a paved area although we do need slope relief the addition is primarily confined to paved areas and areas that have been cleared so not significant tree clearing here there's a flat patio that's going to be removed there is the existing garage that is going to remain it is nonconforming as to setback and again the conversion of that physical space is what's triggering the relief but no physical change in the building per se the pool and the pool house are going to remain as well so importantly we're taking a paved area at the back of a home and basically moving it to the front of the house where it will be mitigated by distance and by Corr next page page three is just from a slightly different angle and if you really look at these photographs what I told you about the infrared becomes evident as well the home to the left the home to the right none of them have this parking arrangement in the rear across the street there's no parking in the rear as well so we're not breaking up any I'm sorry I'm going to have to cut in um they're not hearing you in the back do you mind using the table microphone maybe yeah apparently the turning red so you're sorry I'm going to move this over here just so it turn it off is is off the circle or the line the circle it's off sorry do I need to start again no no all right basically the pictures here show you the uh paved area in the back of the house that's where the addition is going to go and then the remaining areas that are to remain we're giving you some context here we're showing the character of the neighborhood we're parking in the front is the norm not parking in the rear fourth frame is just sort of a slightly tilted down view closer to the road again again to give you a sense of context and how this is not going to create an a substantially adverse condition in terms of the site's integration with the surrounding landscape and then finally a top down view where North would be to the top here following Essex Road the addition in the back of the house uh would replace the paved area and then The Logical Courtyard would go in the front of the building not not the back of the building so taking all of those photographs together and just to tie this back to the statute it's a single tax lot black 2509 lot 26 about 1.83 Acres uh it's developed with that two-story single family home that's going to stay intact the core of the home will stay intact it's the addition coming off the back the home dates back to Circa 1929 so we're looking at a home that is uh upwards of almost a 100 years old or a century old old we're here in the Northeast side of the town near Milburn near the border with Milburn and the area consists primarily of one family homes uh here in the r25 zone District the zone is aimed at detached dwellings on as I said Lots with a minimum requirement of 25,000 Square ft we talked about Zone conformance and in terms of the 2C relief that the applicant is asking for the slope disturbance in the category exceeding 15% we none is permitted and I have 7,398 square ft is what's proposed and then with the garage setbacks we have 15t minimum requirements on the side we're at 4.33 and in the rear we're at 1.75 physically that's not changing it's just a change in use that's triggering the relief before the board in terms of the justifications for the relief I'm sure the board well knows the statutory criteria you can go down the C1 path or you can go down the C2 path the C1 path is the older path and if I go outside New Jersey that's the only path I can use is the hardship standard here in New Jersey we're cutting edge in terms of planning um and considerations C2 we're allowed to apply balancing where we look at the benefits of the application as a whole substantially outweighing the detriment this is a case where I actually find that both standards are met it's not the applicant's burden to meet both but this is an application that I would call Double good uh because it does hit on both criteria the board May disagree with me on one of them but you always got the other as well to hit so the justification under the C1 standard relief clearly relates to the land and the structures that are lawfully existing thereon we have parallels here with a case that was known as The Lang case where we had an otherwise normaliz pool we have a normal siiz home here that meets all other zoning criteria that was moved to a particular portion of the property where we had steep slopes and the court found that it was the land that triggered the relief uh as opposed to the structure itself or an oversized structure so the case law is clear clear that where the land creates a practical difficulty to construct an otherwise conforming building or building addition there is a basis for hardship relief so I think that's where the C1 comes into play relief related to the land and the structures lawfully existing thereon working with an addition off an existing building is a practical difficulty in terms of avoiding steep slopes also under the C2 balancing we look at the benefits of the application as as a whole uh that comes from what we know as the pull in case and we see here the advancement of multiple purposes of zoning in the land use law including purpose a the promotion of the general welfare because Home Improvement will add value and quality to the site which carries over adding value and quality to the neighborhood as well overall the living environment is going to be enhanced for a growing family that certainly wants to uh uh I'll say agent place here in your community or or grow in your community additionally we've got the advancement of purpose ey the promotion of a desirable visual environment with obviously highquality architecture attractive building and complimentary landscape architecture it's going to complement the existing Homestead and the overall character of the neighborhood additionally we've got the advancement of purpose M the promotion of efficient use of land working with that which is there this is a retrofit and a renovation as opposed to a wholesale knockdown and rebuild we think that's in line with the planning goal for efficient use of land and then finally our planning goal for environmental preservation under purpose e of the land use law by limiting site disturbance to land areas on the site that have been previously Disturbed essentially cleared or or paved over um mostly lawn areas and the like we think uh again are also in advancement to towards that planning goal on the flip side the project detriments are minimal if any and relief can be granted without any uh substantially adverse impacts as a predicate we've got good solid engineering testimony that address circulation drainage improvements you heard about the improvements there uh the overall site stabilization which is really at the core of why we have steep slope controls in the first place to achieve sight stability and Environmental Protection uh is why those controls are in place we've got good solid architectural testimony that addressed Aesthetics balance proportion comfort in terms of the overall living Arrangement uh and compliance with all the building codes and then you just heard the landscape testimony addressing landscape protection and introducing new many new plantings and overall design deer resistant plants drought resistant plants a variety of colors and textures that will complement the area uh this addition is going to be nestled into the hillside in the back there uh it is not going to stand out um as a sore thumb as you will but nicely integrate into the land form to the extent that will not be obtrusive or imposing and as we now stand before you based on the review reports of your professionals we're looking at clean letters and really no open issues that would go towards the negative criteria with that said I believe all can be granted without any substantially adverse impacts to your Zone plan uh likewise that existing building is there it's not changing I think that also can tie into the benefits of the application as a whole and in conclusion the project is welld designed it will nicely integrate with the surrounding landscape and based on all of the testimony that you've heard and seen I believe the statutory criteria for Grant of relief are met and approval is warranted and with that I think I'll I'll pause hopefully the mic picked me up thank you John great job as usual I have no questions okay Marine I have questions questions from the board um I've got one just because you brought up that the square footage of the entire lot is 75,000 yes it's more than 75,000 okay and and so I probably should have asked the engineer but I think you can handle this too the engineers uh the the submission said just under 7400 square feet of steep slope being disturbed as of as under this application so is it your testimony then that less than 1% of the property is going to be disturb would be disturbed as a result of this planners use very general numbers we're not as precise but yes that's an easy calculation less than 10% 10% 10% 10% 10 thank you I'm sorry it's okay our math department our supposed to be better than that okay any other questions seeing none any questions from the audience from the public seeing none at this point we would offer you the opportunity to give us any closing statement I will make a closing statement I'll make it very brief uh we've had a lot of testimony I want to thank everyone for their good questions and comments this is definitely a better application as a result of the process that we went through with your town and again I thank you for that um I think you see applicants here that are very eager to move into this town and very eager to do it in the right way we're correcting some woes of the past from uh the original they're from the owner that we purchase from and we have a very thoughtful and I think you heard tonight from all of the professionals tonight a very well-designed plan um it's the it's a more than a year in the making because the design process started prior to the acquisition of the home you know looking at you know let's call it the legal stuff here we have two variances the variance for the garage is is essentially the the structure is pre-existing the structure legally exists the use whether someone is looking at uh storage of old family photos up in a room that's been improved or is uh exercising in that room or yoga there there's really a small distinction there but nevertheless we wanted to remedy the woes of the past and ask for this ask for permission of this board because it's the right thing to do the um the exterior structures not changing at all and frankly the interior is not changing at all and we're willing to comply with the regulations of the building code and make sure that it's up to fire capacity and that um you know any issues there are corrected you know with regard to the proposed uh steep slope disturbance we've heard a lot but I think you know two things really resonate to me number one that these are huge drainage improvements you know when we looked at I think 25,000 gallons of storage whereby there may be none right now we don't know if that driveway seepage bit exists or not it was supposed to be there um we're going to put it there if it doesn't exist and in addition to that we have 25,000 gallons of storage that that is huge in addition to that uh they have four small children and I maybe we didn't hit this hard enough but having access vehicles to delivery trucks in the rear yard where your kids are recreating is is really not it's not a good idea forget good planning forget the legality of it's just a bad idea and this application seeks to correct that so based on the testimony of all of the witnesses all of the supporting evidence that we provided the commentary that we provided to all of the applications I believe that the statutory criteria to Grant the relief is there and the board could feel very comfortable approving this application and and again I thank you okay thank you um we will go to our conditions which I think are a few a few I have six of them okay so first we have compliance with those conditions noted in the board Engineers memorandum second is that the applicant shall record a deed restriction which prevents overnight accommodations in the existing garage third the existing air conditioning condenser near the property boundary shall be relocated to a conforming location fourth the applicant shall subm storm water management plan to the board engineer for review and approval uh fifth that wheel stops or some other form of vehicular protection shall be added to the plans and shall be submitted to the board engineer for review and approval and sixth and finally the applicant shall submit the Landscaping plan to the city Forester for review and approval and the number of votes required uh four because only C variances are being sought okay you agree with all the uh conditions I do Marie are you okay with the ones that affect you yes I okay who would like to open up deliberations I would go ahead um I I appreciate that the applicants are um honoring the um historic um relevance of this home and keeping all the changes to to the to the rear of the house and appreciate that I mean if moving to a town that has it's you know especially this is the north side of star District um I think that's important to keep to keep the feel of the neighborhood also appreciate that you took the um comments from the historic preservation commission um regarding the um the front the front of the house the front door area and um that also is a is appreciated um I I'm a little concerned with the it's called a turnaround it's called a in the pictures there's a car um the spot in the front of the house where there's a car parked in one picture um it's been mentioned as a turnaround and then I think the Landscaping plan it was called like a motor uh some there was there was a name same thing reference to parking so um my issues are basically that parking area in the front I understand that you can't have a driveway in the back makes sense to move into the front but um I think that the if it's a driveway in the front they're fine the fact that there's some sort of parking um I'm concerned with um and in addition the um the pictures that the ones the last set of pictures that did show the current um view of the house I mean it's winter the trees are bare um you could see right up there and my concern with the with having any sort of spot where people can park is and not only seeing the cars but also the headlights I mean the cars their led the new headlights it's it could be something that would be glaring across to the to the home across the street so um I cannot support this application chair um um yeah you yeah so um I I will support location um you know the re the reasons are it's a it's a very large very large lot which can definitely accommodate the addition that's being built obviously there are no variances needed for the addition there no variances needed for the driveway parking area in the front um it's the variances are for steep slope and for um the use of the of the attached uh garage so I I I think a lot of the properties in the neighborhood do have the parking area in the front and they have much less screening than than this property will have um I'm happy that the applicant put so much effort into storm water management and again we've had a couple of these recently very extensive effort into into Landscaping I appreciate that both that's going to make the this historic property even more attractive than it is now um what else can I say um appreciate that you're addressing some of the technicalities moving the the AC condenser off the property line into your into your property um hope we get that deed restriction recorded it should have something should have been done before hopefully gets actually gets done this time um and yeah I I for all those reasons I don't I I don't see significant negative impacts on the neighborhood um and I think the positive impacts far outweigh whatever negative impacts there are in terms of improving the specific property and improving you know the quality of of the of the overall neighborhood so I I can support it right um I agree with Tom we as a board have had a very long and ongoing conversation about uh steep slope variant I personally feel like it's an out ofd statute uh that it needs to have some sort of um connection or ratio to the size of the property I think it's easy to see uh the amount of disturbance in relationship to the uh enormity of the site makes it uh less than 10% so that is a very reasonable request and um it's very clear that the positives greatly outweigh the negatives Tom mentioned uh storm water retention which is clearly fantastic in this project um the safety for the children Outdoors it's a pretty much a no-brainer um go with option two for the door by the way and he's an architect and I I don't understand why we're talking about parking uh in front of the house I think you'd be hardpressed to find a driveway in Summit that does not have cars parked next to the house so um that is a silly argument it's something that we shouldn't even be worrying about uh if you give it the scale of the driveway the scale of the areas where the cars can be placed relative to the size of the lot the size of the house the distance from the street it really is a nonissue uh so with that I can definitely support this application anyone else wish to open up I'll just add to it I do think um any adverse impact has has been thoughtfully mitigated here and you looking at that last pict picture um you know I think the landscape plan will address that plus some um so again for a young family any family trying to enjoy this property I think it's uh you know the drive needs to be in front of the house open up the back um safety um number of factors but I can support this any other comments yeah if I May um I was a little hesitant excuse me I'm losing my voice a little hesitant about the turnaround in front of the house uh but listening the testimony and the landscape architect and the detailing he's g into uh I was worried about the the steep slope being disturbed but again on the percentage wise it's it's minuscule um and the as mentioned the storm water is fine so I originally I was a little hesitant but I can support this application and anyone else if not I will sum up that basically this has been uh it's it's a huge piece of property they did an awful lot of work on it that before they ever even got any and they still haven't gotten into it uh hopefully uh we will uh be taking a step tonight that will help them move forward faster uh because uh there really are no there there really are no negatives uh as much as I would like to look and find one and search one out but I I just simply can't find one uh and I see so many positives for four kids for uh the family for the uh uh for the neighborhood uh people going by uh you know it's it's a long driveway folks nobody's going to have a problem with that uh and uh the steep slope as everybody has said is a minuscule and uh a number of of things and yes I think a door in a house should be in the front I really do with that I would accept a motion to u to approve this application so moved second and can we have a roll call please sure chairman Steiner yes Vice chairman lyit yes Mr Yuko yes Mr Nelson yes yes Mr Kieran yes Mr Malay no Miss to yes the motion carries okay thank you very much congratulations um again I don't have to tell the attorney to read the resolution but I think your clients are in the room they should read the resolution and we'll uh we'll move forward uh we have a number of pieces of business for us to continue continue so um continue Miss SOS sure okay so we have a few resolutions for memorialization the first one we have is 24 Russell place that's zb- 23-22 25 block 4101 lot 3 the applicant was Michael Moran our eligible voting members are chairman Steiner Mr Yugo Mr Nelson Miss z Mr Kieran Mr Le and Miss to can we have a motion moved in a second second okay Mr uko yes chairman Steiner yes Mr Nelson yes Mr Malay yes Miss to yes Mr Kieran yes the motion carries the next one we have is five Robin Hood Road that's zb- 23- 2223 block 2405 lot 34 and the applicants were Kevin and Ryan Holmes the eligible voting members are chairman Steiner Mr Yuko Mr Nelson Mr Karan Mr Malle and Miss to would someone like to move that I'll make a motion to move okay chairman Steiner yes Mr Yuko yes Mr Nelson yes Mr Kieran yes Mr Malay yes Miss to yes the motion carries the last one we have is 259 Summit Avenue that's zb- 23- oh actually I messed up the number does anyone have what the application number is Handy add an extra number in the application number yeah I added an extra an extra number oh I see it so it's 2 2209 yeah it's 2 209 I added a one in there it's block 2105 lot 17 the applicants were rman and Salma ebali our eligible voting members are chairman Steiner Mr Yuko Mr Nelson Miss Zan Mr Kieran Mr Malay and Miss to would someone like to move that so moved and a second second okay chairman Steiner yes Mr yes Mr Nelson yes Mr Karen yes Mr Malay yes M to yes the motion carries and then finally we have the minutes from February 21st um we can do a voice vote for that but we will exclude our members who were excused that evening which were Vice chairman lits Mr Malay and Mr fkins can we have a motion still moved and a second second all those in favor I any opposed great the motion carries okay the annual report Scott where are we um we've collected suggestions from various committee members now we just need to collate it pull it together and then give it you know we have to give it to everybody to take a look at it because now it's possible that I could to suggest something that nobody else wants to do so um we will uh we will make sure that everybody gets a chance to look at it and hopefully by March 18th we will be able to vote on it and then submit it to the planning board and the uh uh city council okay any uh sounds good no I just note that that the compilation here there's a cou I guess two different people talked about accessory dwelling unit right they got to be pulled together yeah comb those and then there are some others in and there are others in there that uh U from our current report there are other items that we still have standing so we're going to have to bring those in and say do we want to ask them again we want to ask them what well yeah I would think so well the question is do we do we want to or not I mean historically that that had been sort of we added on to existing doc it might be something that we all still think we should be doing and asking them to do again so we'll because they've never done it we get that the in the past we have dropped things where obviously no council wasn't on we got an idea they're not going to do it so you know okay we may lose the board well but wasn't wasn't last year the first time the planning board kind of realized we were giving the manual and from what we understand at the meeting the other day they uh basically F cre created a committee to work on it I thought that there were supposed to be people on this committee who were working I mean that they wanted a couple of zoning board members to work on them with it I don't know if they they haven't asked me for one but I know that they do have a committee that's supposed to be working okay so well we do have a mole there I have a question for those suggestions are we vote gonna vote for on them or just everybody no we're g we're gonna we're going to put them together we're going to just have a discussion just like we are now and if you know if eight people tell say suggestion a should get out they'll pay is there I mean is eight is there no I'm just legally is there over no all 11 of us will participate okay but I think what she's asking a majority of board members could vote no and we could we would remove that you know for the discussions when we adopt the whole thing I think it's the Seven original members what I mean is if there's one particular provision that people object to if a majority don't want that provision in there majority can take it out yeah exactly okay yeah we we we're going to be a congenial Group by the time we're done we aren't already right uh our next meeting is on March the 18th is there a motion to adjourn moved second all those in favor please leave how some could stay longer