Mary Jacobs I'm here commey here Mr Leonard here Mr rodus here Mr G here Mr first here Mr D Martino here chairwoman DEA here adequate notice of this meeting of the Bedminster Township land use board was filed with Township Clerk sent to the Bernardsville news and The Courier News and to all subscri drivers and posted at the Township Municipal Building one Miller Lane Bedminster New Jersey on January 12th 2024 please stand flag of America the stands Nation indivisible with okay I'll open it up to the public if there's something want to discuss that's not on the agenda we have online today do need anybody we do actually I don't know why I'm not able to see oh uh for the traffic for 1525 okay that's it that's it I don't see anyone so we can close it to the public uh we have minutes that need to be approved uh from June 6 if we can have a motion so move second all favor anyone opposed vote is anybody is anybody J can't vote um let's see uh Mr first was abent so he will obain okay and we have our June uh minutes June 13th minutes sorry I hear a motion so move second all in favor not voting yeah we blue bl's abstaining okay minutes are approved uh we have a um a memo from uh Robin Ray uh regarding the ordinance 20 24-15 uh I said Frank is that you is you talking about that or I I did prepare the consistency review the governing body has introduced the ordinance they were hoping that we could get through this tonight so that they could have it on the meeting agenda for next week and ENT you're finding in these cases is always that there is no inconsistency with the master plan uh the sorry yeah thank you that F back there I apologize I left this file back at the office and I forgot we had to do this tonight the uh master plan has included a whole series of Land Management standards regarding natural resources that make the adoption and amendment of an ordinance amending thetion 400 District regulations uh consistent with the master plan but again your finding doesn't have to be that it's consistent it's that it is not inconsistent with the master plan um the kind of standards that are included in the master plan relate to things like lot coverage so what you've done is you've gone in and fine-tuned a standard that you've already said at the master plan was important but you've taken it a step further with the genius mathematics that we were provided with fire lustrious engineer so that's all you're doing here is you're saying yes pretty much we've been doing that kind of thing all along but this is a better version of it and it's not inconsistent with the master plan thank you Tom Madam chairman um it's of important public interest uh before you take an action I would recommend you open to the public on this master plan consistency review for this ordinance um but when you do make your finding it will merely be a determination by the planning board that it's uh probably going to be that it's not inconsistent with the master plan that then gets reported to the governing body and the governing body the township committee which which has introduced the ordinance uh is having a second meing I think in public hearing next week and that is the time at which it might become law if after that public hearing it's adopted it would become an ordinance which would become law so all the planning board is working on tonight is whether it's not inconsistent or inconsist or consistent with the master plan but I would recommend you open to the public okay I'll open up to board first Bo has any questions then we can open it up to the public if they have any questions about this ordinance yes ma'am come up or or comments com uh you will need a microphone you might want to sit oh there's the mic there you can use that you sit down one of the table works better I can sit down all right can you hear me U my name is Dorothy schlasser um 1904 lamington and I have um a number of questions um the ordinance so I read about in the Burnsville news um that's how I heard about it and um the ordinance appears to reduce the amount of permitted lot coverage for Lots over 35 Acres uh for 100 Acre property the permitted lot coverage is going to get reduced to five from acres to 3.7 Acres so I was just curious as to what prompted that change okay I think well I I I can get some background on that and the the objective of the planning board when creating this ordinance was to create a loot coverage standard that was going to be in place regardless of the zone that the property was in and the way and it created a sliding scale and the the planning board came up with objectives for lock coverage on various sizes once you get to the r10 zone or I'm sorry 10 acre lots The r10 Zone was 5% lot coverage and at the um at at 10 acres a 10 acre lot under this proposed Zone will have about a 10% permitted coverage and then as you go up you add 3% to that and it's roughly in the 35 to acres range where the total of the bulk you get from from being 10 acres to the excess over 10 acres where those lines kind of diverge and it becomes less than 5% and yes 800 acre lot would have 37 Acres permitted coverage versus 50 acres of permitted coverage which is the difference between 30 tennis courts and 22 tennis courts just the order magnitude of the difference at 100 acres is about 20 about eight tennis courts I'm sorry a joke um I I might be covering this might be the you might have the same answer but so the rationale or the justification for increasing the permitted lot coverage on Lots less than 35 Acres but decreasing the permitted lot coverage for Lots over 35 acres is that the is that that that that was not the the objective the objective was to create a standard right where as you went up the scale of lot size the lot area the permitted lot coverage was always increasing there were points where you could get a larger lot by a couple of square feet and end up with less lot coverage than you had if you were a smaller lot this is the objective of this was to create a consistently increasing line so it always went up but it broke off and the increase got shallower and shallower over time and the 3% was established based on discussions with the planning board based on some of the older ordinances in town where the loot coverage in the r10 zone when it was the r 33% Zone was 3% and that's that's really what it was so it wasn't intended to say all right if you're if you're less than uh 35 Acres you get more and if you're more than 35 Acres you get less that was not the intent intent was try to come up with a standard because there's always a point where you know that that has to break and there has to be a distinction between between the two right if you if you just continued that line at 5% after 10 acres then 11 12 13 acre lots would have a much higher lot coverage than they would be permitted today right and the the board looked at this uh with an eye towards the variant applications that have been seen before the board and to determine if what can be done to make it so they were fewer lot coverage variances that was that was the objective right right and I mean on the smaller side it makes total sense to me it's just really as it gets over that it breaks over that that point I what I was also um confused about is because is the intent of the ordinance to encourage people to like over that lot size to break it into smaller Lots so that they can get more lot coverage because that was um it seems to me that that could be a potential result of it obviously a subdivision is always a possibility if you wanted to have improvements on separate Lots yeah but I've I've been here for 30 some years and there has not been a then there have been changes in lot coverage there changes in Florida ratio and there's always been the the comment Well everybody's going to subdivide their properties it has not happened um people people can't do that that's that's obious if somebody has 100 acres and they want to make 250 acre lots they can do that right um so so again specifically for the Lots over 35 Acres inside how how does the decrease in the permitted lot coverage reduce the number of lot um required variances there it doesn't necessarily reduce the number of lots over 37 Acres that require variant okay um I don't know how many Lots over 37 Acres we've had variance applications for for lot coverage right I started doing some research on that I can tell you that there's an application before the board now with a 25 acre lot and that's one that would get a bonus they would still need a variance under this new ordinance got it because they're going to over six% right okay um and I guess the last one that I had was um um the Township Code requires that the outdoor riding Arenas with sand surfaces U be counted as lot coverage correct because it's not an impervious coverage ordinance it's a lot coverage ordance right no that's that's clear to me yeah so with this reduction in permitted lot coverage for large properties um the or ordinance seems to me to make it more difficult for large equin Farms to comply with the township zoning um is that um consistent with the master plan to make it more ult for those large Farms there's nothing in the ordinance is intended to make it difficult for those large Farms okay all right those are all my six questions okay thank you very much thank you I just ask you to SP your last name because get yeah sure so it's s CH l o s s e r thank you thank you anyone else can you public no one can new came on on the online no we're still if anything we I hope they come back okay we'll close it to the public then on the ordinance and do we need a roll call on this yes yes a roll call please and so it would be a motion to find the proposed ordinance uh 20 24-15 to be not inconsistent with the master plan and to refer the report that Frank prepared and a simple Memo from Carol or Janine to the governing body before the second reading that it's not inconsistent with the master plan is there such a motion we need a motion so moveed Che it mayor Jacobs hi hi Mr Leonard hi Mr Rus hi Mr gini hi Mr first hi Mr D Martino hi chair g hi uh we have a resolution to approve DNL Associates youve had a chance to read it this it the floor remember the floor I'll make a motion second met you no was stor this is a d variant so just the zoning board members okay Mr Leonard hi Mr VES hi Mr ding I wasn't there thank you uh Mr first hi Mr D Martino hi chair that okay resoltion C okay um Paul I guess we have a couple of applications we need to we have two applications for completeness um the first one is the Marino application it's on drummers log Lane uh the applications for a deck it requires rear setback variances I wrote a letter dated July 1st there were a few items for which I had recommended waivers the one item that additional information was required was checklist letter 33 on the Zone data I can tell you that subsequent to this that has been submitted So based on the waivers identified in my letters recommend the application be deemed complete we can schedule for hearing okay you welome we are not El it's a family variant c yeah just see somebody needs to make a motion um a motion first yes we do need a motion motion to approve or motion to be the application complete and wait the remaining items and that's by Lou and is there a second I'll second Jeff and a roll call on that mayor Jacobs hi hi Mr Leonard hi Mr Rus hi Mr gini hi Mr first hi Mr D Martino I wasn't here on this one so do I vote on it's a brand new this is brand new 24th May 22 so I don't know if it was brought up prior this is a brand new appli compl this that the let me just explain it when we do completeness Paul is telling us that he's reviewed it and you know if he found it completely complete he would just issue a completeness determination when it's when he finds that it's incomplete and that but that there are some items that he would recommend that you wave for the completeness purposes and the majority of you decide whether to wave those remaining items and to schedule public hearing and be complete completeness just means technical completeness in accordance with the ordinance checklist it does not mean you're approving it or disapproving it doesn't mean that you're agreeing with the application yet because it's just the first stage of whether it should get scheduled for public hearing if it then gets scheduled for a public hearing and this one hasn't yet or will now uh then you have the public hearing and then when you vote on that that might be whether it's approved or just or denied um or approved with conditions so this stage just completeness and it's only those things that are need some waivers that board votes on for that Mr chair yes okay the next application is is the treesa property on larger Crossroad this is I I just mentioned it briefly before this is one for lock coverage they're installing an outdoor writing Arena that that moves them from about 3.8% coverage to 6.1% um they my d letter dat July first identify the number of items um then I'm okay with those being weighed for complete and application be scheduled for hearing so need a motion to deem the application complete and wave the remaining items for completeness is there such a motion motion approve motion by L still a seed while support of adjustment two of us are yes okay I'll second mayor Jacobs hi hi Mr Leonard hi Mr vilus I Mr D jaini hi Mr pery yes hi Mr D Martino hi and chair G okay uh um trees is already agreed to August 8 we are trying to get the Marino application to S okay I'll keep you CL okay that sounds good okay um um I'm sorry I did not update um R 20 Route 206 LLC has asked to postpone they did not send an official letter they just said October and I asked which meeting in October and could we actually postpone it even further since we just keep doing this like every two month thing I I just don't so I haven't heard back from them yet but no they will not be coming on all so they're not okay all right so we have um a new hearing Lang now I think chose I think so yes uh yes yes for f langing f yes y started Oh I thought we need to be SW in oh you do you'll get sworn in um that's why we weren't sitting down that's all right you well we'll swear you in so please raise your right hands do you swear fir tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth to help you God yes yes and please State your names an address and spell your last name Christine IO 211 Washington Corner Road Bernardsville and Steven Lang l n g and it's 1265 rattles snake Bridge Road here in Bedminster thank you and Christina are you an expert yes I am I'm a licensed architect and planner in the state of New Jersey um I did testify before this board not that long ago for the addition on the lane property that needed variances uh but I can go through qualifications that's fine the board recognizes and accepts Christine M's qualifications as a licensed architect and professional planner and uh your license is still in in effect great thank you very much and please go ahead okay um we're here this evening uh for two variances two bulk variances um front yard setback variances the first variance that we are requesting is for a uh fence post in the front yard on either side of the driveway uh for f post um the ordinance requires 75 ft from the front property line our nearest post which is a bit away from the drive is uh 13 and2 ft of some front yard setb the next post that is a near the um drive itself is approximately 19 ft from the property line our second variance is for a generator the ordinance requires that it be 50 feet from the front property line and uh we are proposing 25 and a half fet from the front property Lun um the existing driveway um we have a bit of a hardship with this one because the existing driveway itself is less than 75 ft from the um the setep back line even though the property is fairly large uh we have the an embankment and the river running at about 77 ft from the front line um if you take a look at the site plan you better be able to see where that flows um I also have a blow up that I can distribute if that is required um but basically the dotted line uh that you can see runs which is the uh 75t front setback line uh basically misses the driveway com coming into the house right now we have um existing uh posts and gate at the driveway and there it's their wooden coasts and they're rotting and the owners would like to replace them with stone post so we're still going to have a wooden gate and a wooden fence um as per my design on the drawings the 11 by 17 drawings that you received it's going to be very very simple uh this is basically the way the fence looks the gates and the fence look right now the only differen is is they have uh 6x6 wood posts um instead of 2 by two Stone posts uh the heights are identical to the heights that are there now uh because the property does slope a bit so uh we like I said we do have a very specific hardship because of the topography and an unusual characteristic of the lot as the river running right through the middle of the lot um the other variance is the before we go there would the fence be located at basically the same place where the Chrome one is now yes got it thank you um I do have some photos I don't know if everybody had a chance take a look at the property but I do have some photos that I can put into evidence and yes those will be those will be A1 and you could just A1 yeah yeah that's fine A1 to A2 A3 A4 or yes that's fine that's exist maybe just describe what they are though by number why don't you just take sure right how many are there there's four okay may I should just to see what the and I'm really sorry that I don't have enough for everybody but they're sitting on the printer at home you we can share the um the first photograph is aiel that shows where the existing posts are and the bottom lower area of the uh property the second day two shows a street view of the existing gate A3 which I'll testify to you in a little bit is the six foot fence that is along the front of the entire there and then a another shot of that fence where the garage where right where the um generator is going is right on the other side of that picture and there's no proposed change to the fence no other than a pay job been needed for you know 2030 years now I think um you're going from wood post to Stone post correct oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to did I say that oh make that just as a clarification the pillars are permitted in the front yard right what needs to be 75 feet back is the gate so it's the it's the gate technically for the is where the variance is required and the and the gate sits between 20 and 30 feet because it is on a slight diagonal because of the way the driveway comes around um one thing about the um the gate and there was an issue brought up uh to the engineering report having to do with um uh fire trucks and emergency vehicles um I have another drawing I would like to uh out and this would be A5 and it shows that the majority of fire trucks according to um for a the differential for a U-turn radius we're not U turnning at all um the the curve is much much smaller but I showed the radius and I've also showed a picture of uh or a drawing of the fire trucks in different phases as it goes um around as it goes around the curve that it should not be an issue the other thing with the gate approximately 30 feet from the property line uh the right away is a minimum of another 10 ft so fire truck should be able to pull in uh and be out of the street uh before it hits the gate um my client uh has mentioned to me that the gate is open most of the time um but in case it is closed a fir truck should be able to pull in and not be a detriment to any traffic um on R I have a I have a question A3 and A4 shows like a wooden vertical fence is that supposed to remain how's that or is that supposed to be changed the fence itself is going to be upgraded it's it's going to be um as per the A1 and A2 other this is just informational but this has nothing to do peray with the application yeah the only thing that one has to do with the application is you can see the garage Behind the B just barely well the generator is right next to the garage and that was going to be the next thing I was going to bring up is we'll talk about the the generator so the garage is the existing Cottage site yes the site plan yes thisp approve the the garage the new garage that isn't depicted in that photo and yeah you couldn't see it from because it's totally from the fence thank you by the way um to go to the generator we just stay on this subject for a second oh sure I'm sorry um so look on your architect it says it's 17 feet and 17 feet is from Stone post to Stone post is that correct yes yes in the outermost part of the post so do we know what kind of um hinges and such are are on these Gates and will they encroach Ro also on that 17 ft and make it more like 15t or 16 ft do we know that number the the hinges are only about four inches but the road itself is is about 15 feet wide okay so they're um far enough away that they should not encroach at all into between the uh the drive itself right that's yeah so the hinges are approximately 4 in that protrude from the stone yeah on each side so 17 ft minus 8 in um would be 16 feet 4 in I think yes so that's really the you know clear yeah yeah but a fire truck is only about 8 feet wide so um they should be able to go pretty much through the gate before they have to make any turns so don't believe that it would be an issue like I said it's it's not like the fire trucks are 15 feet that would be when they're making a full U-turn they need 15 foot and as you can see this is a much much softer radius than a U-turn all right thank any other questions on the gate okay okay we'll jump to the generator um the the one picture I had uh sent by showing a closeup of the gate and you could barely see the uh garage behind um was to show that that generator would not be seen from the street there would also be Landscaping um we did look into putting the uh generator in other places but unfortunately uh we've got pavement around that garage area uh so to put it to the front wouldn't work also our main electric feed comes in right at that corner of the garage or the cottage um so it made the most sense the uh the generator company really push that this has got to be the place for it because I would have loved to have thrown it anywhere else so I wouldn't have to come here today to ask for a generator variance um but they really uh stood their ground saying that this is the absolute best place for it to be and gas gas generator uh Natural Gas Propane propan okay is there propane tank somewhere on the property there is an existing propane tank on the property I don't know if that can service the generator but if it can we'll make sure it does so in addition to this generator pad there's going to be a propane tank next to it potentially so we don't have that on the plan it could all I mean it could also be bu right I mean if we haven't determined exactly where it'sing and it may be able to be serviced from the other propane tank that's in the backyard that generator Ser serving the entire property the the home yeah the home you know all the yeah most of the electricity there's some sub panels in the home but that's why the generator company wanted to come through the main power source um and I don't believe that generator in the front yard will be a detriment at all to the neighborhood just because it it as you saw in the picture that there's heavy landscaping and that there's also the fence there so it would not be seen from the street uh and these properties are pretty big and the nearest neighbor is is pretty far long rattlesnake um I I believe that the um just second the um I believe that these two variances can be easily gr granted I don't believe that they uh would cause any substantial detriment to the public good and I think in granting these variances it won't substantially impair the intent and the purpose of Municipal land use orance if anybody has any other questions more I just have a quick question from Paul Paul if they do decide to uh install a propane tank in uh proximity to the generator would that require coming back for the board for variance and I I was thinking about that in the answer is probably a yes so what I would suggest that if the board were inclined to Grant this to also allow for an underground propane tank to be installed in the vicinity of the of the generator get it done underr underground only underr only underground right anybody else from the board that makes sense to me Z can it's a preference for us it's going to be a little more money but to be honest it's better to VAR it's just going to be on sight even on the property won't be seen in the street for the in Paul any issues um you know just wooden stade fence um behind the cottage facing the road um I there's no uh the neighbors across the street we're not here here injectors um from your experience any uh noise issues when that generator is cycling on generally speaking once you get to about 25 feet from a property line a generator will hit its um the the DP noise standard okay so close have you have you expected this liquid cooled or air cooled uh you know what I don't know really answer and and the only reason I ask is liquid cooled is going to be a lot quieter so you can you can write the ordinance St sincerely that we don't want it to be disrupting oh M you can't testify without being sworn but you can if the witness if the applicant are you with the applicant are you if you would like to testify you may but I'll have to swear you in so would you like to testify please come forward and uh speak into the mic and please raise your right hand uh do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth to help you God yes please state your name and address man bahy 1265 Ratt St Bridge Road in beder thank you please go ahead thank you I just wanted to comment that um the neighbors across the street that are our closest neighbors have a generator so we we' be sharing whatever it SS all right so so when there's a power outage which never happens in you guys will both be on and drowning out each other okay you be sharing noise doing generators is there anyone else from the public that would like to have question for the witness or comments comments see none anyone else Janine online believe it is just yes I just our our our traffic our traffic yeah for the next application okay okay anything anything further the applicant wants to add or no I don't just believe so thank you I I just like to ask one more question I just want to confirm the generator is going to be behind the fence and do you plan on putting any kind of um shrubs or any filter because you've had absolutely goodful piece of property there we want people think oh there's that generator yeah thanks appreciate we have the same concern if the board is ready it's a motion to approve the C variances uh as requested by the applicant uh subject to the comments of Paul and Frank's review reports and subject to the condition that the if a generator is served by a new uh liquid propane tank it shall be located underground um and uh the standard conditions and that it's affected this evening so the applicants authorized to proceed effective immediately provided all other uh requirements for compliance are met is there such a motion so Move Motion second V eligible um nine members so yes that's fine hi hi hi hi Mr first hi Mr Martino hi hi thank you very much appreciate thank Youk you I was just gonna bring them to two steps ahead you just like to okay we're ready for our next application uh 1525 Bedminster bye everyone yes throw out bye guys see you next one well but who uh and there is a mic that's on the podium that does uh know that think the salet is against the wall power good evening mam chairman members members of the L's board Mr Collins my name is James turle T T I'm here tonight on the 1525 bed LLC you may remind may remember me from the last time I was here when we tried putting ay Loop into this since then we've had lots of discussions and I'd like to thank uh Mr Collins for the efforts he's been putting into this as well so we can discuss all of this and I believe we have your plan appreciate more than uh tonight we're going to present you a plan we take what is today repair shop the building on the of the Shelf station on 206 now 1525 206 now at the corner of lington Road just ask you to speak into the speaker sure we're we're losing you no no problem so uh this is the Shell station for corner of 206 in lington Road what we're here tonight to present to you is an application which would take the Duncan Donuts which is in the right hand side of the building uh also where at the office of The Old Repair Shop uh and move that into where repair shop is today for all intensive purpose so we'll be uh creating a 2500 foot Dunkin Donuts which would have uh tables it would have counter service there no drive-thru no drive-thru was proposed I know in the letter today that there was some discussion about it there is no drivethru this is just strictly a walk-in Dunkin Donuts and keeping the gas station as it stands today um to present this place now with respect to the other use uh right now we have it listed as a shell office uh as we get through this application with the Dunkin Donuts which is really just expanding the use that we have there today uh my client is open to putting another use in there at some point in time uh and speaking and looking at it would probably be a qsr type of a use a quick service restaurant type of a use that might be in the evening hours have food that might be more appropriate for the evening hours whereas the Dunkin Donuts is more midday and morning hours uh but that we can address at a different time but today we're only here presenting the Dunkin' donuts with michell Office of the building we're going to keep the building basically the way it is and I'm going to have Mr Henry who's sitting next to me um describe the plan we're going to do here today he's our civil engineer Mr Henry and then we'll have traffic testimony from Cory Chase who's from Dynamic traffic who's done a study of of the traffic impacts that this uh proposed change will have which will be minimal and then we'll also have Matt Flynn who will be able to discuss the planning issues related to this application we also have um uh our architect here tonight if we need to get into the architecture if there's anything that the bo would like to discuss with respect to that so without further Ado first we're gonna have I'd like to call Mr James Henry to testify to the engineering aspect of it and get him qualified as a witness thank you James please raise your Randy do you do youir do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God and please state your name and address and SP your last name James Henry uh h n r y an address is 1904 Main Street Lake Como New Jersey but locally we also have an office in Chester now Mr Henry uh could you give the board the benefit of your background and experiences not only as a civil engineer but also in the area of uses such as what we're proposing here tonight which is a Dunkin Donuts and gas station combined paper sure uh good evening um so as far as my qualifications I've Bachelor of Science from Rucker University in civil engineering um I also have a minor in public planning I have a master's of Science in civil engineering also from Rucker University I'm a licensed professional engineer in New Jersey Pennsylvania as well as New York state I'm also a licensed professional planner in New Jersey and I did that by test um I'm a senior principal at Dynamic engineering I've worked there for almost 20 years and in particular I've worked on lots of commercial and industrial type uses and specifically uh gas stations I tend to work on throughout the state I worked on over 100 gas stations uh throughout New Jersey and then also as far as Quick Serve restaurants such as the Dunkin' Donuts I've worked on over a hundred uh of those as well uh specifically with Dunkin Donuts I've also worked with them in particular uh quite often I've worked on roughly about 50 of their sites um as well so I'm very familiar with these two uses and uh I've been accepted as expert uh in the field of civil engineering as well as planning uh by over 70 municipalities in New Jersey including this board as well as well as this board yes the board will accept his qualifications as a professional engineer and professional planner thank you Mr cin uh if you could um Mr Henry if you could just for the board um go through the project that we're proposing here tonight and the changes that are going to be made to the site types of relas will be looking for that to give us to get sure um just give one second I'm just to try and log on the zoom so I can share it uh the zoom on the board so give me one minute I apologize ready for you to share it be Mone may put on look your chair to corner see get nice little sorry a little on this give me one second wait my PDF software upload give one second should PR this will work I just have to my apology one second e a little bit of Technic ISS I know you just got through a couple to do this to you now you need a five minute five minute break or we can sit here I don't I don't want to waste your time sitting around while he's trying to get this loaded up my apologies Tech just froze so just restarting the what does he me Brey get we have plans in front of us I don't know if that helps whatever you submitted yeah I can run through I mean I can run through as well if you give me like just couple minutes on get the baseball he probably s e should be reconnected now to be admitted this meeting is being recorded stop no sounded like a different they changed it even the last half hour yeah I know I know sorry about that I appreciate everyone's patience um so I just want to get everyone familiar with the site um many of you are the property is identified as block um 22 lot 44 um on the tax maps the property is located at 1525 Route 206 at the intersection of lington Road uh it's at the northwest corner of that intersection uh it's a corner lot it's it's fairly uniquely shaped uh you can see it's um you know relatively rectangle with kind of a chamfer Corner um its principal font front edge is Route 206 um it's located with the O research Zone as we mentioned there's an existing gas station on site there's an existing quick food establishment on site as well as an existing Auto Repair which is currently V uh to the north of the site are office uses uh to the west of the site is also an office use with residential Beyond uh to the east of the site are commercial uses and then to the south of the site are also um commercial uses as far as the existing conditions um and that I'm just referring on the uh on Zoom referring to the arrow map exhibit dated 711 2024 this is just a colorized version I believe of sheet two of the site plan set that was submitted to the board I'm sorry could you repeat that please sure so it's an aerial map exhibit and it's an exhibit it's the same plan as sheet two of the site plan set that was submitted to the board okay uh it's just a colorized version of that and as you can see the yellow boundary on the exhibit before you kind of outlines the boundary of the property and then outside of that there's a 200 foot list 200 foot uh line which is a dash yellow around that uh there's white blue which indicates several of the adjacent zones uh we are located uh in the O Zone as was mentioned and across the street is the VN Zone which is where other commercial uses are on the other side of 206 just going to pull up the survey the survey I don't believe I don't think we're marking anything anyway but um the survey is just a survey that was completed by DB hold on hold on one second I think maybe someone is trying to get in the door sure maybe the door got locked somehow don't go out you can't come back in anybody trying to get in okay thanks okay thank please go ahead sure um so again just referring to the DBK survey which was a survey of property uh with topography and that is stated 822 2012 uh as you can see on the property that just for the board's reference uh for this particular exhibit um North is facing right uh you can see the existing gas station um which fronts on Route 206 there's an existing canopy for the gas station uh that gas station is really not to be changed um there is a quick food establishment within the existing building uh which is an existing non-conformity as well as the auto repair which is also an existing non-conformity um there are a number of existing principal building setbacks uh which are non-compliant primarily related to the canopy and since the canopy isn't going to be removed those are going to be maintained under the proposed conditions uh from a parking perspective uh the site is currently adequately parked there are 40 spaces required for these uses and there's 45 spaces existing impervious coverage standpoint there's approximately 74% impervious coverage um and then from a drainage perspective there are a number of drainage uh inlets around the perimeter of the site and that really collects storm water runoff from the paved areas as well as the the canopy as well as the building roof uh and then drains to an existing uh Basin I believe at the Northwestern corner of the site uh there are existing uh nine decorative pole whites on site as well as 16 recess canopy lights under the existing canopy uh those are to remain there's two existing driveways on Route 206 which are to remain and then there's um a driveway on lamington road which is also to remain uh the topography overall on the site is relatively flat and uh just one reference to the signage there is an existing free sanding sign along along Route 206 uh that is internally alumin ated right now uh then there's also uh building mounted signs which three were permitted by the previous approvals um consisting of um six square foot each as well as two canopy signs on the building going to the proposed conditions I'm going to reference the um site plan rendering prepared by our office Dynamic engineering and that is dated uh 711 uh 2024 and again for the purpose of the board North is still facing to the right you can see most of the site conditions remain the same I'm just going to zoom in on the the site itself um one big thing one big change as far as what we're doing on site under the proposed conditions is that we are removing uh the automotive repair use from the existing building and we're expanding the Dunkin Donuts use which is existing today today uh which is existing non-permitted use so we're looking at a C2 variance to expand the Dunkin Donuts into the auto automotive repair area we you mean a D2 variant D2 did I say something else D2 sorry uh D2 variants the gas where the Dunkin Donuts is currently which is on the uh Norther Norther side of the building um that is going to be converted to an office use uh for the uh gas station so that is so the dunin donuts is essentially going to shift down and really kind of take up most of where the automotive repair area um exists today and we'll get into that when we get into the architectural so the big thing is we're taking the Dunkin' Donuts we're enlarging it we're moving it basically to the South it's taking most of the automotive repair area and then we're converting most of the auto most of the current Duncan area to just an office where you can store uh windshield wiper fluid and and kind of store a lot of the ancillary gas station items as well as a for for retail facility not an office it's it's gonna be for office for the gas station people aren't going to go in there and buy anything no it's it's going to be primarily used for the office for the manager and then it's also going to be used as a storage area for windshield wipers and you gonna have a manager there no there's gonna well there is a manager there's an owner of the business but there's sorry there's an owner of the business right but there's no there's no manager on site no generally there for the gas station there'll be one one fuel tend fuel attendant on site right so so what is the office the office like a storage room yeah a storage room and then also a place for a desk you know in case they the manager who manages several of these gas stations in the area comes to the site and needs an area to to store paperwork Etc if I man to add ultimately we may come back to this board for a second use of that office right now we're taking one step at a time we like to get the Dunkin Donuts approved or the larger Dunkin Donuts approved on on the repair shop side this is going to stay in office right now at some point as I mentioned in my introduction we may come back to this board uh looking to to put in another uh service you know qsr that was generally the issue why we all denied the first time right right well the first time I think there was the use itself too the Jiffy Lube was of concern also the the type of so we're not looking to do a Jiffy Lube type you know again there was a concern I think with the with the proposed uses that we're going to have at that time um I know that the board would like to keep this or at least from from my last time to a a type of use that is commensurate with the area itself right but I thought that the last time there was an issue having three uses on the property and if there's a requirement uh for an office for a manager with a facility and then you were to come in for another use be back to three uses again well but but that's why we're here tonight only with the Duncan use and and using the remainder the there's a building that exists there today right but that's why I want to make it clear that it's the applicant's position that you require some Management Facility and such yes in terms of we're we're going to be using it for that but but okay but this application is restricted to the Shell office and and the Shell gas station itself that that it requires a management and uh some storage uh on level we're not looking to to make this into a second retail use at this application at some point the fure I just want to make sure that you understand what I'm saying and that is that in effect you're representing that it's necessary to have that storage and to have an on-site facility in that space that's what you're saying and I I just want to make it clear it's part and parcel of the application itself yes okay Tom can you tell us the result of the uh litigation as far as one one use two use three uses was there a determination no no the U matter was dismissed without prejudice litigation was dismissed without prejudice with the right of the applicant to come back to the board to seek approval of a amended use variance uh no no so so we're not obligated to offer a third use right no you're not okay and they're not asking for a third use well he's telling us that in the future he is going to but they're not asking for that now right he's told us that he is going to yeah they may and if he does we don't have to we don't have to agree to that right that's you do not have to agree to it because it's actually not requested yet and we didn't notice for that and we're not we're not going for that tonight so that was just that was just more of saying down the line potentially that's what the space might end up turning into this office just so we're clear is not going to be rented out this is entirely used for the gas station this it was represented to this board as far as I'm concern that now you can have your big Dunkin Donuts and that's it that and that's all we're asking for okay so absolutely so so that's you know well that's what they're applying for yeah but he's talking about the third use you you mentioned it sir not me we're GNA come in the future into a qsr yeah so the question came up in reading through some of the board reports about what's going to happen in that area what may happen to it I was just trying to address something I thought was was an issue that was raised but but I also wanted to emphasize and I'll reemphasize at this very moment all we're asking for for this board to decide to tonight is Dunkin Donuts with it with uh that'll be 2500 square feet on the southern portion of the site with the office to be on the Northern portion the remainder of the building as well as the upstairs and the gas station that that'll serve the gas station that exists there today just to be clear you're never going to be compelled here from one perspective you can look at comments is kind of transparency right we asked for this before might say back again someday but that's not what we're here for tonight so we stick with what we're here for tonight and you want to provide seating in the um dunin down it I understand correct we have a plan which we'll show you tonight that'll have 24 seats okay and has that uh seating been taken into consideration for parking yeah parking uh unbelief seating is uh part of the parking calculation it's one you need uh one space for every three seats and we're going to have 40 how 47 parking space yeah it's actually the the Quick Serve is based on the uh square footage of the food prep area and then the number of employees I believe it's how it's calculated so the seating doesn't have any connection the the the parking will be and our traffic engineer will get into this the site will be very much adequately parked um you know we do like I mentioned we've done a lot of these Dunkin Donuts um Dunkin Donuts usually only require uh somewhere between 10 to 20 parking spaces um so we we will have adequate parking here uh in addition to the parking for any any gas station but the the one the one one spot one parking spot for every three seats that's where a restaurant used the qsr Mr Henry said he's correct in that in that that analysis uh I was asking the chairman was wondering if the seats would the impact that would be and under the ordinance for a restaurant one for every three Mr and how many seats are there there'll be 24 so it's the calculation Mr Henry is using requires far more parking spaces which we can beet as and if and if the board has feedback as far as the number of part number of seats um we can produce that um typically Jun we're really just trying to provide that as aity the community uh most Dunkin Donuts operators actually prefer not to have seats inside however being that this site is you know really a focal point of the community we want to make sure that we have some seats inside um you know you so that if anyone wants to come in and sit down have a cup of coffee you know eat a donut whatever it might be um that there is seating available this meeting is being recorded right got go we have a new lady in the room okay continue sorry great good all right so um just going over a couple of bulk standards there are a number I think I mentioned there's a number of bulk requirements that are existing nonconformities uh specifically regarding lot area lot width lot depth side yard front yard minimum distance other buildings accessory buildings lock and lock coverage those those existing Varian is we're not proposing a building addition here where we have an existing canopy that's to remain all of those bulk standards are are to remain under uh as previously granted by this board uh so there are a number of existing non-conformities that are to remain as part of the proposed development uh from a building height perspective uh we are not changing the building height you'll see when we get to the architecturals we are doing improvements to the building uh which I think really helps bring it more into line with with with what uh this board um you know thinks that would fit it better with the community you'll see it's very Colonial looking I think it'll fit really residential character uh versus I think what we had uh proposed previously I think I think the board would like the architectural um from an access standpoint we're not changing access at all uh so there's really no modification our traffic engine Jor will testify we will be we we have obtained a letter of no interest from the dot uh so we we anticipate the access will will remain from a parking perspective um the parking CH the parking changes slightly um we are increasing the size of the food prep area inside the quick food establishment um we are increasing it to approximately 960 square feet we're anticipating approximately um two to four employees per per shift five employees total uh so the total calculation comes out to about 41 spaces are required whereas we're proposing 45 spaces on site per your ordinance um so we do meet your ordinance from a parking perspective uh from a loading perspective uh we are prop we are providing uh a loading space required 15 by 40 foot minimum so that that is provided on site uh we also have six additional kind of oversized parking stalls to the rear on the west side of the building uh for any larger Vehicles if there's you know for whatever reason if there's a larger vehicle or if there's a landscape uh truck of some sort they're able to park and and kind of stay out of the way uh from a vehicle loading perspective we're anticipating uh Refuge truck to continue to operate as they do today coming two to three times per week the tanker there really will be no change in the tanker uh deliveries uh that will continue to be two to three times per week uh and continue to do what will'll continue to do overnight deliveries so it doesn't really impact uh the Dunkin Donuts use uh but the there was a comment from your engineer as far as the circulation of the tanker truck uh so the the tanker truck does come off lamington road it circulates back uh unloads at the at the tanks at the rear of the building on the I guess on the west side of the building and then the the turn into the uh Drive aisle is actually a little bit too narrow so most of the time the truck actually cuts through the parking spaces but since we're going to be doing overnight deliveries we haven't had any any issue today we're going to continue not to have issues where the tanker will will likely drive through the parking spaces to get out back on to 206 um from a delivery standpoint the dunin donuts deliver uh fresh donuts every morning uh pretty early in the morning usually it's done around uh 2 or 3:00 a.m. uh that will continue um and then we will likely continue to have box truck deliveries for dve Goods one time per week we're also anticipating beverage deliveries to occur one or two times per week and we're anticipating those beverage trucks be able to park in the six oversized spaces uh to the rear of the building from an operation standpoint uh the the gas station currently operates from 5:00 a. to 10 p.m. and we're anticipating the Dunkin Donuts to follow that same model so we're anticipating them not to be 24 hours uh we're anticipating one fuel attendant will be on site as as well as you know two to four employees Max per shift plus potentially a manager so from a parking perspective we we counted for five employees on site as far as seats we had mentioned earlier we're proposing 24 interior spe seats there was a comment I believe in one of your board professionals uh review letter regarding outdoor sales we are going to continue to provide your windshield wipers um windshield wiper fluids but we're not anticipating on selling propane tanks or anything like that you know just really anything ancillary to uh a car so you we have motor vehicle oil that sort of thing but not not anything beyond that just just so you're aware it was in my letter because somebody came to the construction zoning department and asked that they could do it okay for this site we confirm with our client today that they're they're not they're not looking to do that like ask you just review the employees um day shift employees on site yeah so day shift employees typically with the Dunkin' Donuts they the five employees is really like your max max shift as you get past our traffic engineer will get into this really the peak of their business um is from 7 AM till about 9 9:00 am on weekdays and then it's a little bit later on on weekends so um after you get past the morning Rush uh typically the employee count drops down to you know one or two employees uh so the number of employees drops to to much less for the afternoon and G gas station attendants the gas station attendant will just be one attendant um you know the whole time so okay so have you ever been at that gas station there's two attendants there all day long we're we're anticipating moving forward we're gonna have we're gonna have one very busy gas station there's two attendants there all day long you're presenting um statistics you want to make sure the statistics are accurate for the everyone here I understand what about uh you know if I go there with my five friends we're riding the bikes where where am I going to park have you got it motorcycles or no no bicycles they're all over town okay so I mean have you have you thought about where the bicycle parking would be I'm sure I can talk to my client I'm sure we can provide bicycle parking if that's something Bo would like and where would you put it you could you could just take out uh you know parking space and put in bicycle parking well I would like to see it on the plants it's some point okay do have and I have another comment um what time does the gas station close they start a call today with with a client they said 10 p.m. but you are whereare that it has 24hour service available if I want to go by gas that was not was not myuss I can confirm with my Cent I can go there at 11 o'clock and put my card in by guess I mean I love it but you need to be aware that you're representing your client accurately because it's open so you're doing self serve at that time right they do self serve after 9: or 9:30 I don't that's that's not legal in the states well they're well I don't know if they're doing it or it's happening no they're doing it the the attendant at a certain point oh just put your card in and and that's fine I mean I've done it numerous times after hours sir sir that's the case I'll call should not Happ well it's happening I mean so I'm just letting you know the you know I will make sure that that gets taken care should the op should be 5: a.m. to 10 p.m. something going on different care take care is the here is the owner here to repres to respond to that represent uh no he's been traveling and I don't he's got back we're here I I I can make a call right now find out the answer the break I'll find that out that should that should not I I love [Laughter] it letting you know it's going I appreciate you letting know I'm sorry if I take away something that you love should be Happ you can do it with diesel but you can't do with gasoline okay I just want to jump on one point that George made about the bicycles um looking at 206 you're not going to see many cyclist but from the beginning of lington road all the way out west they're they all day long so that is like a pivot point right there where a cyclist would want to take advantage of your your services Park the bikes and then head West on or down the hiking bike which it's right on the hik bike use that absolutely that's an easy fix it's an easy change we can do that that's not an appreciate the idea I I think you just said that you were going to be selling mital wipers and other I thought this was an office is it going to go into retail So based on your your definition of the automobile service area it specifically says you're allowed to sell automotive related items in your definitions and the auto that that use already exists today so I'm just saying saying the they're going to continue to sell oil and and and most gas stations they they do that um if there's some sort of restriction you want to put on that I'm sure we can we can hear you and and and put any sort of restriction you like I think the clarification is are those sales inside the building or are they at the pumps no they're they're at the pumps pull the pump is right now yeah right now they sell it with pumps that's you can put resolution to change that this meeting is being recorded thank you almost forgot the the interior of that office space will is not will be for the shell employee okay but these supplies will be kept in the office they would be brought outside with cars they would not be looking to have shelves what want that's this meeting is being recorded the the only you know the only sales going on inside be donuts and that be operation be so there won really be public access to the offic that'll be used by the employees the yes exactly that'll be strictly in off an office for the for the like any office in any any retail operation they it's meant for just the employees and not for the general public right answer okay you thank you okay you want to continue okay sure uh from a lighting perspective uh the existing lights are remain on site we're not planning on modifying them uh the lights will continue to operate during normal business hours and likely extend uh one hour be Beyond um close so anticipating close around shut off around 11: PM we will maintain a number of the lights and we can work with the board's professionals as far as which lights we're maintaining uh on as far as security um so we're really not making any modifications to lighting but we can we can make a modification if the board would prefer to shut off certain lights during during when they're Clos so uh from a lighting perspective uh we did submit a lighting plan or sorry from a landscaping perspective we did submitt a land a landscaping plan and I'm just going to show um our rendering just kind of I think I not Shing so from a landscaping perspective there is some landscaping around the perimeter of the site but we are also adding a number of shrubs specifically uh near the caddy Corner uh with lamington Avenue uh really trying to buffer and kind of propose more of a a thick buffer to the to 206 as well as to the along the Westerly property line which is where the residential use is uses are a little bit further away uh so we're proposing nine evergreen trees 32 uh evergreen shrubs 70 deciduous shrubs 30 Ground Covers 77 perennials 33 ornamental gr grasses and in total we're proposing 251 additional Landscaping features uh that do not exist today in addition to what's out there today uh and we're not even we're not really changing any of the curving or anything we're not even ripping out any of the existing Landscaping we're just adding to what's out there today uh from a signage perspective um we as we mentioned there's an existing freestanding sign there's also uh permitted to be three signs um on the building and there's two can be signs so um from a freeing sign perspective the free standing sign uh number of signs is not changing the area of the signs how many signs are there now that that are not attached to the building um there's only one freestanding sign well I think there at least two or three uh in the middle of the lawn how do they fit into this talking about like the temporary signs I don't know if they're temporary they lasted several months so as far as permanent signs I know there's only one um I don't know how you define temporary you are you talking about the cloth signs that that were that's in the area by by The Corner lington Road to what signs cloth signs cloth clth there is there's as I noticed I was just s today there was a Dunkin Donut sign yeah there's two of them one says Dunkin' donuts and one says they close it whatever 8 or 10 o00 or whatever okay what about those signs uh those those will be removed they'll be removed if they're not permitted I I well when are they going to be removed I will make the phone call after the same time I find out about about the selfservice you know the see the frustrating part here is you never get the sense that we're given the correct story about anything and it's it's really you know it's um it's insulting so I just want go on the record and tell you that no one is trying to not give me the right story here there certain things that may happen with respect you know I'm not blaming you I'm not blaming you your applicant is flying around somewhere that's his right but it's my right to make whatever comments I want to make if he chooses not to be here that's his choice if he wants to not show up and answer these questions but the fact of the matter is that things are put up they're not in accordance with the regulations and then when someone wants a variance which is totally within the discretion of this board it's in our absolute discretion then he should show us that he cares about our discretion and he doesn't I I would say that he does care about it well he has a nice way of showing it and if I were you I would just let it rest there there certain things that the tenant does the Duncan is a tenant of of of the property and we will it's an unrelated tenant it's an unrelated tenants it's solely a third party tenant It's A total third party tenant with no no relationship the Shell gas station is is an affiliate of my client but the dunan operations two signs you're talking about thir I will check with make sure and who's who's making the application here tonight this is my Cent as as a landlord of the the landlord yes okay yeah so you're saying that the tenant put the signs up without without notice to the landlord I I I can't tell you the history of it but I would men you to say yes because it's not a sign that would go to my client's business in the Shell you're telling me there a shell sign well I told you before that if I were you I would have let it rest all right um moving on uh so as mentioned there's there's a free sending sign that is to remain uh we are looking uh for the board uh to issue a variance to allow that to be upgraded to LED price points uh I'll get into that in a little bit as far as showing you what that looks like um that is one change we're asking for on the free sanding signage uh primarily because it's able to be controlled uh digitally and then also it just gives a cleaner look to the actual sign I believe last time we did receive some feedback if the board doesn't want the LED price points we can have a discussion about it but overall across New Jersey you know LED price points are being used uh often times the the price points themselves fall off they're not easy easy easily controlled by our client um so we are asking for Led price points to be be proposed they are a lot easier to be viewed from the motoring traffic um at nighttime um so that's one discussion Point obviously it's not something we uh are steadfast on uh we really wanted to have a discussion with the board about you know what we could do there in order to get you know LED LED lights approved so that I know it is a variance that um we are requesting uh but we think from a motor vehicle standpoint it's easier to see the lights it's from a safety perspective it's easier to see lights from our client's perspective it's easier to maintain uh the signage uh pretty much all he he owns a number of gas stations throughout New Jersey almost all those gas stations have led signage we understand understand um you know that that is not permitted by your ordinance uh so but we are asking for that as part of this application um I can show you an exhibit as far as showing the LED price points but I'll do that at at the end um of this of this signage presentation where would you be placing this sign so there's the existing sign today is is out there you point to it sure it's uh it's the blue right by the uh southerly driveway and I I'll just I'll bring up the exhibit as far as what it what it would look like here it would be this oh okay right there I see it okay would they also be on the pumps no and this is for the gas station you're talking about not the Dunkin Donut just the gas station right correct so so just kind of go over what that would look like um right now the sign this is what we're looking for this sign already exists we would be removing one of the price points to make the Duncan uh area on on the on the sign and then um the price points would be have a black background with red lights and then green light for diesel and the sign Remains the Same Size yes and this sign is illuminated on the inside internally illuminated yes internally yes right now it is right now it's not I don't remember the existing sign yeah I think I believe it's internally illuminated relative to those price points there's a gas station a little further up on 206 that I know your client does not own and um every time I drive up at night the numbers are just outrageously bright I know there are mechanisms by which these can be tuned down at night and I would think that would be appropriate our if the board were inclined to Grant it I think that that really needs to be because I don't know if you've seen them one up on 206 it's pretty rough you can see it from a mile away we we have done that with uh other sites we did that at in Clark uh we are willing to do that you know as much as uh so we actually work with the manufacturer um so there's a approved manufacturer for Shell as far as uh the brightness and they're able to adjust the uh the illumination of the price points I guess what I'm asking is how we get to the point where when I drive by at night and don't need my sunglasses they're probably okay yeah I mean we could we could talk offline and talk to him about and even talk to our sign vendor as far as the different levels of Illumination and and talk to Paul about what's what's I mean I think it would be appropriate to have a site visit with the exact signs how they're going to be so we can actually see them some kind of sign some kind of light that's the exact light from the manufacturer so we can take a visit there and see how bright it is an existing if you want if you want a variance no this is this is a proposed sign um this is just a modification of the existing sign okay you does your client have these signs and other places he does if you could give us an address maybe we could yeah I'm I'm trying to think of one that's like this um I know we just got one approved uh similar to this but I'm trying to think I guess the forign park one's probably that's an exile that's an exile that's internal that's termal eliminated the issue I don't know is the price point I think the issue that it sounds like a bigger concern right the price points as well so I'm not sure whether they've been adjusted or not yeah right so I I I would need to find out where where to respond and the type of type of uh brightness you're looking for I have to be able to get get you a site location that you said that these are did you say that they the brightness is adjustable yeah so typically so typically with the LED price points you know I know I know we say we see them at light at night time but actually the brightest is when they're is during daytime um so typically what we'll do is we'll adjust that we'll adjust them down to a nighttime level uh basically the whole time um so they're very bright during the day because you can't see it because of the Sun and then they're actually darker at night um some you know there's some probably I'm GNA assume that gas station leaves it on the daytime level the whole time um but obviously I don't have any information about that but typically there's an adjustment that happens during the day where it's much brighter so you can actually see the numbers and then at night time it's supposed to dim down to a lower level uh so it's not as bright yeah how is it supposed to dim down it has a photo sensor on there so it's programmed yes somehow to go to a certain very similar like um the site lighting the site lighting has a photo sensor similar and we can certainly work with fero is you know if if we give it approv as a condition to make sure an accept see we we can show you I'm sure we can show you several examples because like I said there's a number of local gas stations that he owns and ones that have the photo sensor on there that we we built recently so um so we'll table that issue um from a building bounded sign perspective uh the approval in 1995 allowed for three different signs um which permitted up to 89.3 Square F feet uh of total signage so the way your ordinance reads it actually adds add up the building signage as well as the free sanding signage to get a total area what's allowed for between your building signage and your and the free saing signage I guess at one point um this sign was replaced and it was actually installed smaller than what was uh approved originally in 1995 so um we are asking from a building Sage perspective approved in 1995 32.1 square feet was permitted for three signs we're proposing 36.0 five for two signs so we're in the same area uh to overall the our proposal is actually less than what was approved in 1995 because this sign that you're looking at is actually smaller so the the approval from 1995 allowed 89.3 square feet and we're proposing 78.0 five square feet in area which is a reduction from the 1995 approval what's that number that you're proposing again uh 78.0 5 what were there 32 so the ignore if we if we take out if we take out the free sanding sign entirely what was approved was uh 32.1 square feet of building signage and we're proposing 36.0 five square feet for the building or for the for the building you're saying the 32.1 foot was for three signs for three signs yeah and now you're going to 36.5 for two signs for two signs Yep they're still very I mean very small I could show you details of them if you'd like um these are not big signs these These are on each sign is going to be approximately 15 square feet or a little bit over 15 square feet but um you know they're very small in nature and you'll see on the architectural plans how they fit in with the overall scale of the building and you're going to see that they're I don't think they're very substantial at all they're going to be externally illuminated uh with goose neck lights uh fitting really in uh with the you know Colonial nature of the building uh and I'll show that to you in a little bit so the shell sign and the Duncan sign are two different sizes uh according to your plan two different dimensions you know two different shapes yeah I could I could pull them up real quick if you want they're not not they're not matching right they're a little bit different yes I'm sure we could mat I'm sure we could work with our client to to match them if needed well I'm I don't necessarily have a problem with I just want to make sure that you know we're looking at we the re and our architect is here but I think the reason it's it's shown that way is really just because for the if you're looking at the elevation which is what we're looking at now um you can see the shell actually has you know a little bit of a area a larger area for for the actual signage whereas the Duncan in order to continue uh the White Band across the building kind of fits in that narrow area so I think that's the only reason there's a differentiation between the dimensions it's only about a foot square difference but yeah J you including the signs on the canopy in your numbers so we're not uh were we supposed to in that calcul I was I I'm just so we were not we were not including that not changing I don't think that was included in the original texco C I think the canopy signage was separate it were separate yeah and the canopy sign says shell corre yes yes the original approval were referring to texo was the original appr it's gonna remain shell yes and not shell Duncan on the canopy correct the canopy isn't going to be changed that that is that's that's we're gonna maybe paint and kind of give it a little bit of a face lift but we're not changing the canopy overall this this um plat that I have in front of me from KSD dated November 2nd 2023 yes is that part of the current submission or is this historical or what is that yeah so that's the you're talking about the November 2nd 2023 the one that's on on that on there right just so the record's clear that indicates that there's going to be Auto Sales ins side of the proposed man's bent office hey you beat me to it uh I didn't get to the architectural testimony yet so we we saw that when we were preparing for the hearing tonight and we actually provided we have an updated exhibit saying that not case so uh so that's really it from a signage perspective um again from the gas gas canopy there the the signes to remain the same we're not changing the signage at all on the the canopy from an outside agency approval uh we require the board approval uh sumerset County uh Somerset Union Soil Conservation District uh there was a comment I believe in the board's professional uh review letter regarding um there's there's like map for a stream adjac just to the northwest of the site uh that's really a detention Basin we're not we're not messing with that area we're staying within the paved area uh so we we do we think it's really a 50 foot buffer we don't think there's a 300 foot buffer with the the adjacent stream uh and we're either way we're we're staying outside of the jurisdictional area of the DP and we're g to we're g to uh have a permit by rule so we're anticipating that stream that's adjacent to us it's just has a 50 foot buffer P um so we're not anticipating DP approval is required we're architectural standpoint I'm just going to run through the architecture quickly uh just so we're all on the same page as was mentioned um we do have an updated floor plan and this is we do have uh our Architects here if you have any specific questions uh but I'm just going to run through it in order to you know speed things along um so we're referring to the Dunkin Donuts and Service Station office and this is dated November 2nd 2023 but it was updated um believe today 7-Eleven so um the the couple updates we we made here uh really the Dunkin Donuts relatively stayed the same we did add the seats as we mentioned earlier we added the 24 seats um as you walk into the Duncan they're seating on the right and the leth hand side and then the um really the kitchen area is directly in front of you as you walk in uh I guess from the east side of the building there are two bathrooms on the right hand side and then the uh the back office where there's going to be storage as well as you you know a back area um to get out to the the back of the building but those are the bathrooms for the now for the enhance Duncan with the seats be those on the right hand side yes so there's going to be there's going to be an external dunk there be external bathroom for the gas station um and then there's G to be two internal bathrooms inside the Dunkin Donuts on the Duncan side on the dunan side yes and and I'm meant to ask you what about the air pump that's there but you know you can put air in your tires yeah we're not changing that your what we're not we're not changing what's what's out there from a air pump Jim just just if you U enlarge the area of the shell office the change the yeah I'll zoom in on this this exhibit which is uh we just clarified it we we said it's gas station manager Office is approximately 12200 sare F feet the Dunkin' Donuts is approximately 2400 sare F feet uh in total uh so we just changed nen clature we saw that that era that you referenced so well somebody just so you know if somebody buys gas from your client at least twice or three times a week be nice if that air pump were upgraded I'll let we'll let them know that as well not an issue Jim well let's mark this as a four because you're bringing this tonight right the yes this is new yeah so I'm sorry A1 I don't think we had it any Mark um so why not I think A1 was the the color rendering oh that was different than okay sorry A1 is the aerial aerial then we have A2 which is the uh color rendering okay now this and then this yeah okay how how would you just identify this is an updated version this an updated version of the uh floor plan prepared by KSC architecture uh it's dated November 2nd 2023 last revive 711 2024 and that this will be A3 which is just an updated floor plan and the changes that occurred again were just the modification to the seats as well as the nomenclature for the shell manager's office I have some questions about the seating yes um and uh it it it seems to me that you have a lot of open area there and I guess that's that space is more catering to people who come and stand in line rather than people come and sit down and eat lunch or eat whatever or breakfast whatever it might be is there some kind of um formula that you use or method that you use to come up with that and the reason I ask that is because we're we have a complex going in across the street um for an office building that's going to be full and we have AT&T just down the half a block away that's full and is there is there a way to accommodate more people to sit for lunch or sit in those spaces or is it because of the way the traffic flows inside of the dunking donuts most people are just there to pick it up and leave or what most people are there to pick it up and leave um just in my experience I mean we could talk to our The Architects as far as providing additional seeds if that's something the board would like um but I mean most of the time they're they're in and out our our um our traffic engineer will get into the timing as far as we we've we've gone through drive-throughs and timed you know how long people are there as far as Point of Sales most people are in and out of there in in two or three minutes uh they they actually do time it with their you know when you put the sale in how long it takes them to prepare everything and then have them come out so you know it's like two or three minutes as far as getting the product to them no as far as sitting down um you know it really depends um if you sit down or not and how long you're going to be there um I would say most people probably don't sit down uh but you know depending on if you're going there to meet up for a cup of coffee and you know maybe meet up with some friends or whatever it might be so well the the reason I is is because in our village neighborhood area that the very small um area there there's very few places that people can actually sit eat lunch or eat or meet up with a friend and it's just something to keep it in mind it's fine the way it is but if you might want to add a couple seats here and there in the future that's just my thought and and just and we can thisa testify you'd like to our architect but there is the ability there's no limitation in terms of adding seats there at table so if it's something you'd like us to explore we can do that but I it's some sometimes they just want the people to come in and out you know keep them moving uh but in terms of if it's IR locational issue we can address I know I know from an operator's perspective I probably shouldn't say this but most of the time they just don't want to clean up those areas because people tend to not clean up their trash and throw it out um so from an operators perspective a lot of Dunkin' Donuts operators don't want seating because they don't want to have to clean up the seating after people leave Etc but we're willing to do it in this case um and and I think we recognize the fact that this is a little bit of the unique d d sense that just from the comments you're making there aren't as many options around this is we're adding again most of the dunk Donuts today without seating at all far less than this but be given the and what it's might be looking for out of the site it's something where my Cent would be willing to look at so those two Office Buildings I mentioned there is only one facility within walking distance that people can actually eat lunch it's it's a pizza place and if you don't want pizza and want eat pizza five days a week it's not open in early mornings either you you're kind of stuck that pizza place isn't big I've been there I let you know that because I if if it could accommodate more seats it might be a thought to think about we can add some more seats if that's if that's a desire to the community to have more places to sit and it's something that over time if they aren't used we can change that change it again too that's a flexible flexible item certainly if it's a demand world just trying to think of the community if I if I could bring something up along those lines because and it was reflected in my letter uh previously somebody I don't know if who representing the owner or who it was came in asking to put in EV charging stores EV charging stations that application came in my general thought is if you had EV charging stations and a place where the people could sit while their car was charging in a Duncan that might be a good Synergy of uses and if you're going to have those charging stations I would suggest they'd be put on these plans because then we don't have to do that do you want to go into the shell EV charging Saga so sh sh was looking to outfit all of their stations or do an aggressive program in outfitting their stations with EV charging CH had a company that was out doing it I believe is the one you're talking about and there were issues with variances and whatnot but that whole idea never really panned out and they were finding they weren't being used like they thought they'd be used the cost wasn't getting the benefit back so we in fact in our own proposal here don't have an EV charging proposed in in terms of our site here um but it was something that was explored just wasn't working itself out and why don't you have to put in the EV stalls in accordance with the state law my understanding of the state law and you can correct me if I'm wrong uh is that because we're not modifying the parking spaces that are out there we don't have to put it in um now that's way the way most the boards I've been in front of have interpreted the law uh if we were proposing you know 25 new parking spaces then I would agree with you that we do have to put it in U I'm sure my client if you do want EV charging we can talk to him about putting it in um you know we didn't want to come in here and create any problems more problems than we need to um we didn't want to you know suggest that so uh we did not show it up okay and I I understand the issues with the the shell Shell's program because they were coming in with a high-speed Chargers that were extraordinarily expensive the level two Chargers that everybody puts in are far less money I I don't know I I will leave that to the board to think about it's just a thought that I had when I was looking at the plan and thinking about the requirements right the level three Chargers I think I was talk just talking to someone today about that the level three Chargers I think are over $100,000 each um and then the level two Chargers minor standing or fall apart 50 to 60,000 no and then a level one charger is like 5 to 10,000 no I put a level two charger in my office for $850 now that's not the same one that the public would use right but it's it's it's GNA be it's not going to be a level one charger plugs into your your electrical out yeah the the level two charges is basically a drier Outlet level again if it's something this board would like us to add to the plan we I I'll I'll leave it to the board to to think about and yeah Paul I was with on your safe thought that I thought commercial property had to do this and and I don't know if if Jim is right well relative to constructing a new parking lot yeah and or just reusing an existing one I think Paul's right that people are going whenever they have to stop how long that charging half an hour it it it it depends on on what you're trying to do just to get you going got a large space with a lot of seating in it attract people to do that the the one of the other gas stations in town came in with a proposal to create a charging Lounge yeah it would be a lounge where the people would sit around and wait for the cars Char yeah no Charing the one thing if that somebody the board does want um we may need to just just kind of put everything out there um most of the time when you those type of chargers you do need um you know a c electrical cabinet and then potentially Transformer um you know if we were going to put it in we'd have to talk to our client about what type to put in uh just from a yeah you got you're got to do a level two is what you would do he might he might lease it out to Tesla and that's that's true and that those are going in at I think waas are quick so I mean there are other options there as well but Tesla typically doesn't want to put them in unless they have like eight to 10 spaces Lin that person I also heard that recently fired their entire division that does that well let's keep going yeah okay yeah um so as far as the uh the floor plan if anyone has any questions there there are stairs uh two two ways to the Second Story the second story is used entirely for storage there are three bathrooms proposed One external two dung donuts and there are also stairs on the south side of the building uh from an emerging exit perspective there there's two ways out of the second story so not much is changing the building itself is staying staying the same we are are doing interior improvements to build the ngod donut town and then we're going to do some facade improvements but generally keep the buildings U structure mostly the same uh from an HVAC perspective I know I think that was in Paul's letter as well um right now some of the HVAC isn't on the second floor uh there are I believe two AC units outside uh which may be which are likely to be replaced as part of this renovation those are to to remain uh I think it's located at the the back the North West corner of the site um so we're going we're going to leave those but so the from a the roof perspective you're not going to be able to see any of the any Mechanicals on just going through the uh the architect uh so we're just looking at the elevations which is2 again these were dated November 2nd 2023 these do not need to be marked uh as they were submitted to the board uh we do have color rendering we're BAS we're upgrading um the facade of the building uh to a yellow cement bu siding you know high durability uh we are going to be replacing the AAL shingles with more of a light gray uh we're going to be doing a Cutters of a copper color in nature the signage itself is going to be nonilluminated it's going to be boo neck lighting there's going to be framing with a tempered clear glass around the uh the windows to make them look more Colonial in nature and then the existing brick base is to remain uh likely will be cleaned up a little bit from what what's out there today um so I think actually while I was pulling up to this building it's very similar in nature to this particular building from an architectural standpoint um kind of reminded me a lot of that so I think it's really an improvement of what's out there today just got of show you again what today I'm just going to refer to you um the existing I'm this this probably should be marked this is just an existing photo exhibit prepared by our office with four sheets and I think that's A4 A5 uh know4 photo exhibit and this is just taken from Google uh dated October 2021 just kind of want to flip through so this is what the building looks like today sheet two so you can see what it looks like today it's more like an ephis doesn't really look Colonial uh and versus uh the elevation just showed to you which I think really kind of uh really looks Colonial really looks nice so uh from a building height perspective there's no changes to Building height um the existing Dormers are to remain are really to be spruced up the windows as you see on the Second Story they're more vertical in nature and they're really going to be replac more Colonial looking Windows than the proposed conditions then we have a 3D just kind of going over were um what what it would look like under the proposed conditions this will be marked A5 that's nine sheets dated um July 11 2024 and this is just a 3D repr presentation of what the site will look like under the proposed conditions it's not too much different than the existing the the real I think the real improvements are the landscaping and then also the um the building I think itself really looks nice do you can see the building significant Improvement of what's out there today you can see it looks much more Colonial in nature as I flipped through on she that's what look like as you're pull up to six that's a big large landscape area that's owned by the do but we're providing landcaping the reason we gave this perspective is really just show the amount of Shug that we're installing along that landscape island is yeah you look at that drawing you'll see that there's kind of straight line of plants that goes along the property Ed everything that you see on on this side of that line is State Highway right just like it is in other parts of the intersection so all they have to work with is this area right here and I said in my review I think given what they have to work with parts of the site that they've landscaped pretty decent job yeah as you can see there's a number there's a lot of existing vegetation and trees we're not taking any of those down we're just adding you know where there are you know some gaps and trying to add that in there we'll add irrigation and all that to make sure they U RVE the big concern we would have about visibility through and around the intersection it's not a big concern when this stuff is pulled back like this this is also state highway so there's only going to be grass here grass here I think it's those trees there are not existing these trees are here now and they're staying yeah so um while you have that exhibit up I wanted to bring up something as a bone of contention that's been brought up before in previous hearings and it's the egress um entrance and exit of that far south driveway yes and it's it's a real issue um if people come and turn right and go south on to A6 it's no problem but so many people try to cross across that W line and all that to make a left so we brought this up once before and whether or not we can have a sign I'm not sure if this is a do issue or just a property issue that says no left turn out of that what driveway I'll let our traffic engineer handle that because it is a DOT issue I'll let him address how get around I just want since it's up there and it's a good visualization of what the issue is on that our client our client's willing to do whatever it takes we want to obviously provide the safest possible circulation on the site the problem is is that a lot of times when you mess with the driveways you have do approval 18 months so I'll let our our traffic engineer handle that how we could possibly approach it uh but he'll he'll answer that question tell even if you paint sign uh paint on the on the uh asphalt you know Arrow looking like just go that way please don't go the other way sure I I'll let him kind of talk about the dot and what we could do and leave it up to him on that um so just to summ summarize I think we're looking to do I think you know we're maintaining the existing structures that are on site but I think this is a substantial Improvement as you can see in the 3D rendering um we're removing the existing use which is non-conforming moving the auto repair use it's out there today so we're reducing the number of uses from three three uses down to two uses which I think is an improvement um there are no changes to the fuel operations but we're um and then we're really improving the architecture nature of the building uh doing really high quality finishes as you can see in the 3D um and we're not expanding the building at all and then in addition to that we're also proposing U tremendous amount of landscaping around the outside over 200 uh new Landscaping features around the perimeter of the site and I think think uh it's a really a substantial improvement over what's out there today I nothing further for Mr he Bo anything this witness speak I I had a couple things left over from my letter I think he hit most of them um note 18 on the plan says that the all the underground tanks will be removed is that the tanks were staying so the tanks were uh replaced probably about five years ago I would say maybe maybe a little bit longer than that because I'm losing track of time a little bit as I get older um but approximately five years ago we put in double wall fiberglass tanks which are state of the art tanks uh so the tanks are on site are are State ofthe art right now so we're not replacing the tanks are you going to be doing any repaving or restriping we are likely going to repaint um I would most likely we might end up changing uh doing a millon overlay to make it freshen up the site but I wouldn't say we're we're going to re repave the site uh unless associated with that you'll have to make sure your inlets are upgraded to the to the yeah I saw that that's just replacing the great right yeah okay yeah that's fine the Great and the curve piece okay ons of different types of be any everything done um so our client owns a lot of different gas stations traditionally what I what I what I've seen him do is kind of he likes his sites to look nice once he buys them and renovates them he bought this 2012 yeah a number of years ago he's obviously been trying to come in here and upgrade the site uh typically he does things kind over the top I would say he tends to want to do it once do everything the right way so my guess is he's probably going to Mill an overlay uh probably most of if I were to guess but uh you can seal it if you to do that I I think you should get a confirmation on what he wants to do okay uh two questions on on trash collection in the letter number one will it be adequate for the new expanded Food Service use yes I mean the dunan that's there today really it it's the use is there it's just a little bit more space um we're anticipating the trash to be relatively similar to what's out there today and you won't have the trash from the vehicle aut and you talked about the the tanker truck where it would come in off hours and go through the parking soles how about the trash collection the trash collection can go in and and doesn't need can come during regular business hours it can get in and uh do what it needs to do without impacting parking and the um I think it's the last one are the the plantings native plants I believe so uh we had our landscape architect look at that to confirm okay just just I would like just confirm yeah and that's all I had Madam chair thanks okay I think they can open it up to the public yes sir come on out everybody my name is actually there's mic right there should hopefully be on oh it is hi James please raise your right hand you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God I do so my name is James stepm it's St D is in David T is in Thomas M is in Mary u l l r I own the house of 2300 lamington road which is 200 feet away from this site uh and so I really just have two questions number one I just want to confirm that there's not going to be a credit card or cash register inside that shell off office which would tend to lead to indoor transactions so there will not be correct gentlemen there will not be all right and then the second question I have relates to recognizing that that a portion of the property is do and a portion of the property is you and that grassy N I would like to know your owner's position about allowing groups onto the property for the purpose of public rallies or public protests that that property the grass area is owned by dos that not my clients all right but a portion of it is and I've seen protesters on a portion of your property on that grass all up along this area this entire area that entire grassy area that's I want all right well then I would ask the board to explore that with do please that's all I have great thank you anyone else from the public N I assume there's nobody um no I believe that we just have his computer on us and then we also still have the other traffic yeah okay all right and we can to the public next wi thank you very much I'd like to Now call Corey Chase he will be our traffic expert yeah yeah you want to just talk Cory do you swear fir to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God I do please state your name and spell your last certainly it's Corey c y last name is Chase c h e business address is 245 Main Street Chester New Jersey thank you please go ahead gent uh Mr Chase if you could could you give the board the benefit of your experiences in background in addition to that relates to the application here certainly uh licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey I'm also licensed in five other states license is currently in good standing uh Bachelor's of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Massachusetts uh senior principal with Dynamic traffic been qualified as an expert in traffic engineering before over 130 municipalities throughout the state uh this is however my first time in Bedminster welcome thank you board will accept your qualifications as a traffic engineer and please go ahead thank you very much and are you familiar with the report that I'm holding now uh which is entitled the traffic impact study for 1525 fmin LLC proposed quick food establishment expansions I am okay and that was dated uh last May 9th 2024 yeah last revise June 5th 2024 and if you could uh please well we're just trying to figure out I don't know why we can't share stream it still oh come back that open for you to share I changed anything okay okay uh if you could uh give the B the board the benefit of your uh analysis of the proposed impacts if any uh the site plan that's before them tonight we might have on traffic certainly uh as mentioned our our role in the application was to prepare a traffic impact study to provide a pre- and post-development Analysis of the Redevelopment of the subject property we also worked with Mr Henry on the site AIS the overall circulation to the site uh and given that the site is located along State Highway Route 206 uh we did correspond with the New Jersey Department of Transportation uh we actually submitted a letter of no interest requests to the NJ doot and we did get an approval on February 14 2024 from the new New Jersey Department of Transportation indicating that the Redevelopment of the subject property would not require any additional permitting um given as Mr Henry mentioned we aren't we are not modifying any of the existing site access points along State Highway Route 206 we're also maintaining the existing access point along lamington Road uh given that and the nature of the proposed Redevelopment the NJ do determined that there were going to be any significant traffic impacts associated with it and therefore issued that letter of no interest um not withstanding that uh we did prepare the traffic impact study as I mentioned to provide that pre- and post-development Analysis of the Redevelopment of the subject property our analysis focused on the adjacent signalized intersection of Route 206 in lamington Road as well as the existing site access points um as Mr Henry mentioned there are two site access points today located along Route 206 and then there is that existing full movement Access Point located along lamington Road to the west of the existing signalized intersection uh our analysis focused on the weekday morning and evening Peak commuter hours uh certainly given the the proposed Redevelopment and the expansion of the existing Dunkin Donuts use the the weekday warning is certainly going to be the critical peak hour uh from that standpoint we also took a look at the Saturday midday peak hour as well um as Mr Henry mentioned you know the weekday evening time typically a very small volume of traffic that are utilized at Dunkin Donuts but you do see uh traffic oriented to that use is certainly later in the day on the Saturday than you do on a typical weekday morning those trips usually coincide with people's trips to and from uh work during those times we did a trip generation analysis uh we counted the existing driveways just to determine what the actual site was generating today uh as mentioned you know we do have the Dunkin Donuts operating on site we do have the gas use operating on site as well uh if you look at Table Six which is located on page eight of our report provides a summary of the existing traffic generation associated with a subject property today as well as what we're projecting the traffic to be generated as a result of the Redevelopment of subject property again conservatively we broke it out into three uses notwithstanding the fact that the office portion of the property is going to be utilized by the gas station owner we conservatively just assessed it as an office building independent of that to provid some supplemental traffic generation again really just to provide a conservative analysis of the Redevelopment of the subject property so we look at we took a look at the three uses the the expanded Dunkin Donuts the existing gas station and then the associated office with the gas station use uh it's again come up with a worst case scenario traffic generation for the Redevelopment uh it's important to note that you know certainly the Dunkin Donuts and the gas trips uh there's a very high percentage of those trips they actually people that are already passing by the site along Route 206 most of the people you know tend to get gas get Dunkin D Donuts as a convenience oriented trip meaning that they're going to do that trip while they're on their way to or from work they're not typically going to go far out of their way just to go to Dunkin Donuts or just to get gas so we refer those as convenience oriented trips those aren't necessarily new additional trips on the adjacent roadway network but rather people that are already passing by the site and given that we have an existing Dunkin Donuts in operation today you know what we're really looking to do is better accommodate those existing customers certainly the Redevelopment will likely attract new customers to the subject property but really it's a function of accommodating that existing customer base providing a new more modern facility an expanded facility and as Mr Henry mentioned providing some seating array in there as well to to accommodate that existing customer demand uh we took a look at you know pre- and post-development Analysis of the adjacent intersection uh it's important to note that you know the Advanced realy Property obviously currently under construction now we also took a look at that additional traffic that would be generated by that development upon completion we factored that into our background traffic to assume that in the future that development was open and operating in addition to the Redevelopment of the subject property and again did that pre- and post-development Analysis at the adjacent signalized intersection during those three critical peak hours those results are summarized on table seven which is located on page nine of report we the no build condition is the predevelopment condition so it's the existing traffic on the adjacent roadway network with the additional traffic that would be generated by the Advanced realy Property and then the bill condition is that supplemented onto the fact that the additional traffic that would be generated by the Redevelopment of our property uh so we do a comparative level of service analysis to see if there' be any resulting degradations and level of service at the adjacent signalized intersection as well as to see what the site driveway operational conditions would be upon Redevelopment of subject property uh the overall intersection of lamington Road and Route 206 wouldn't experience any degradation in level of service as a result of the Redevelopment of the subject property during either of the three critical peak hours um we took a look again at all three of the site driveways and found that those were going to operate at lowo service e better during each of the peak periods um the all the driveway movements are actually at level of service de or better with the exception of the weekday morning peak hour again obviously the the most critical peak hour for the Dunkin Donuts when it's going to experience it's highest traffic generation still going to operate at level of service e um as was raised earlier we we are aware uh of the Turning movements that to occur at the the existing Southern access point along Route 206 uh certainly given the angular nature of that driveway it's intended to be a right turn ESS only driveway uh we we do agree that there is no signage there or striping there indicated that it is to be a right turn exit only driveway uh we are proposing a stop sign on site it's directly to the north of the monument sign we certainly be happy to install either a no left turn sign or a right turn only sign whatever the Border it's professionals would would prefer uh to further reinforce that the the angular nature of that driveway is obviously to restrict it to Right Turn Only uh you can see that the other driveways intersect the roads in a more perpendicular fashion that indicates that you're allowed to make both left and right turns out of those driveways but that southern access point the angular nature of it it's intended to be right turn only we do acknowledge that there's no signage indicating as such so we'd be certainly happy uh to add that additional signage as a condition should it please the board and its professionals um as Mr Henry mentioned we are proposing 45 parking stalls on site which does exceed the requirement of 41 parking stalls on site um deliveries are going to continue to occur much in the same fashion that they do today fuel deliveries will occur during off peak times so that they have the ability to utilize that parking area adjacent to the fuel tanks donuts for the Duncan facility those are always delivered fresh daily they're delivered before the store opens every morning so there's no conflict uh with the operation of the site and and potential deliveries that do occur um that's one of the benefits with the Redevelopment we we do have a site that's currently function and operating today so we know how those operations are going to occur and we can testify to the fact that they're not going to impact the future operations upon Redevelopment of the subject property um as I mentioned you know we do have the letter of no interest from NJ do so that's fortunate we've already contacted the state they confirmed that they didn't have any significant concerns with the Redevelopment of subject property and issued that letter of no interest Jim would be happy to and the county as well uh Mr Henry will'll confirm I don't believe we've made application to Somerset County yet but we would be subject to Somerset County review and approval um I know Mr corak had issued a review letter it was dated second dated July 10th 2024 um I tried to work in as many uh responses to his comments on the traffic study as I could in my direct testimony but Mr corak if you feel like I missed anything in your review letter I'd be happy to answer any of those questions as well is any of the questions that the board may have I don't know we received the um trip generation payable that you're speaking about um I just like in simple terms um how many trips does that property uh you know do today and how many will it do sure so that it's it's summarized on table six which is on page eight of our report um so we as I mentioned we break it out by peak hour uh we we have the trip generation data for the am peak hour the PM peak hour and then the Saturday midday peak hour um total trips the the existing site today consistent with what it'll be in the future it Peaks during the morning so the weekday morning is the highest generation today it's 153 trips great and then in the future again upon Redevelopment of it with consideration of the expanded Duncan it would be 313 trips um what we did was we used just to do a conservative comparison you can just leave just to do a conservative comparison this was part of the original application it was online just because many pages it was not given okay thank so it was available online and still it you get it thank you I apologize sir because I missed this sine no that's my apologies sir I'm always under the impression that everyone has a copy of it in front of them so my apologies for referring to tables and page numbers that you you all didn't have um in the future again you know we looked at we factored everything up to assume it would generate the full amount of what the Institute of Transportation Engineers suggested um so that would go from 153 trips to 313 trips during the weekday morning Peak again not all of those are new uh on the adjacent roadway Network um with that 160 trip increase during the weekday morning peak hour only 44 of them would be considered additional Vehicles the rest of them would be either vehicles that are already passing by the site uh you're also going to obviously have some interaction between the gas and Dunkin Donuts um people that choose to get gas and then go inside and use the Duncan facility uh so it's not an additional trip it's rather just someone using two points of offering at that so if I can summarize it in my own way it's going to double the amount of trips but you for the most part providing the same service gas and donuts and coffee um it seems to me like a large number you really H how I know you have all these formulas and I understand that um but it seemed like that's a lot of trips were just expanding the DCT I would completely agree sir and that was why I wanted to make mention it earlier that we have these offerings on site it's really we have an established customer base the intent is to better serve that customer base uh but what we what we conservatively did was we said the Duncan is approximately 800 square feet now we're essentially tripling the size of it uh the way our formulas work is you calculate it based on the square footage so effectively it tripled the traffic generation of the Dunkin Donuts is is that realistically going to happen in my professional opinion I don't think it will but to be conservative we just again went with what the formula said and did that analysis based on this so you tripled the square footage which increased your trips but you may not actually triple your business exactly thanks and and you also used existing condition for your account February 2024 I think correct so the auto repair business is not operating correct the base is the existing condition with vacant uh space where the Duncan is going which also elevates the number if so the gas station I mean if the gas station if the service station was operating there'd be some count obviously we all know that it's very but but uh there would be more as the base and less increase I I have one more question this question is for for our engineer Paul um Paul how do you think we could solve this issue with the left hand turn on that southern exit what would be the best and easiest way to give IQ tests to the driver come short of that I would put some striping on the pavement we right turn arrows that's about all you're going to do there isn't a good place to put a sign so I put striping on the pavement yeah we can and as Mr fero mentioned we can add H what we typically do is we stripe a right turn arrow and then the text only in front of it so yeah clearly hopefully I think that should be a condition of we're amenable to that sir only once if I could add in uh Sean corak here board traffic engineer virtually I may need to be sworn in yes John please raise your right hand do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the chuth happy God I do and please state your name and spell your last name and give us your business address John korak c r a k Stonefield engineering and design 92 Park Avenue Rutherford New Jersey thank you and Don is the for uh traffic engineer we accept his qualifications and he's with uh our stum field engineering uh traffic Consulting Engineers so please go ahead John great thanks um so yeah the the big question here that that we're all hearing um you know how do we handle these left turns I think the signage uh you know restricting the left turns out and the striping fantastic and can wholly support that and I I would even argue that that's still consistent with the um you know the the layout and intention and the Turning movements of the site as it would be grandfathered in you know back before the access code um was you know was prepared in the early 90s so as it relates to their letter of no interest I think that that kind of signage and striping is still consistent I would also add that their traffic study although we we see that their acces on the southbound uh leg of 206 their study did observe cars making that left turn even into that southern driveway so so one thing that I would recommend in addition to the stop sign that's being proposed on the back side of that stop sign and a and a smaller size sign uh so you could still see the Octagon of the stop sign essentially mount a do not enter sign to prohibit those left turns in at that South driveway as well yeah we're certainly amenable to that Mr corak great great thank you um aside from that I think you covered just about everything that we had questions on between um between you and uh and the site engineer um as it relates that letter of no interest we would just request a copy of um both your application to the do and uh the letter that was issued by them is for our review um but aside from that uh you know we're we're in agreement with the uh with the testimony that's been provided and on the trip generation right this is sort of the balance that we play as Traffic Engineers do we prepare the ultraconservative traffic study and still demonstrate that there are no impacts or do we forecast you know a more modest reasonable growth associated with a you know a fancier interior and more indoor seating now here we've taken the uh let's say the more conservative approach and you know while it's unlikely that the the business would be tripled um you know for for the Duncan use the the analysis results still bear out really no significant adverse changes to the uh the levels of service um at the driveways or the uh the adjacent signalized intersection um and La last thing I just want to add in from before about the EV parking requirements uh it's been our experience with the DCA that if you're not changing the parking spaces uh on a site you don't need to provide new EV um so just you know some some personal or or you know experience from Stonefield in that regard as well whether or not the board wants to provide it or request it anyway you know so be it but as far as the dca's requirements thank you John uh Paul um do you know how many um commercial places there are for electric cars in bed I mean is this that you know really would be of service to the community you mean public publicly available charging stations yeah that I don't think that there are many I bear with me a moment I'll I'll look on my app because I can probably find very very cute I would think very C because one of my workers here couldn't find one yeah we have we have a lot of electric part B mention yeah I think it makes sense to certainly accommodate the yeah I think so too the folks who live in the area well especially if we don't you know have um you know uh chargers right now it would make sense that this might be a service for the community absolutely yeah I'm not seeing any living in places without garages they can't charge at home so po it's pretty lean excuse me Sor it's pretty lean with there's a couple out here that aren't turned on yes right here all right um any questions for the Je Traffic Engineers have suggested in terms of painting those stripes for the right turn if I saw a sign that said no left turn I wouldn't know for sure whether it was enforcable by the police but I would wonder if I see pavement markings but I don't really see them I'm going to make the left turn there's no place to put that sign that Lou's asking for I'll buy that I mean you know it just seems to me that if there was a place for the sign and if dot wasn't going to give you a hard time about being able to install it I think it would be a much clearer signal and I'd probably do both but again I'm not the traffic guy these guys are and you should listen to them well that's County Road so would the county have something to say about that no no we're talking about the the E to yeah it's the southern driveway in Route 206 as long the side would not be located within the RightWay we would be able to place it on our property and we'd be I'd certainly be happy to work with Mr corak and Mr Ferrero to find a suitable location uh for that sign in addition to the pavement marking and also the installation of the do not enter sign like Mr corak mentioned as well I just think in this situation we have to error on the side of question agreed so supplemental signage and striping you put both it certainly reinforces it belt and suspenders I thought you were talking about the up on lamington road is that's where you were talking no I was talking about on 206 yeah the southern driveway on 206 it's it's actually angled yeah it's angled so that it's hard to make a left but people do it's horrible I I don't like to go to that site because it's very difficult do you know so I'm hoping it's G to be an improvement I would like it to be improved okay uh we'll open it up to the public for this witness oh seeing that I guess we can close it to the public thank you next witness uh before we go on U to try to answer a question and Mr RIS wanted to see what the sign would look like uh in terms of another location with the LED Point price points yes and we've come across there's a sign at Scotch plane with uh 2246 North Avenue which is a site my client owns and which Mr Henry actually did the engineering work for which he has downloaded a picture off of the Google um uh Street field be able to show you what the sign looks like to sa you possibly a trip out there Scotch blad is the most convenient we can find you something more convenient we will certainly do so but this one has a photosensitive light and it's a daytime picture and he's going to put it up on the screen now which will Mark it's a six I believe we're at now right this this is a um just a make it bigger there you go I it's really the nighttime visual you're concerned about right Paul yeah that's where it's the most harsh what was that address again if we wanted to drive by 2246 North Avenue Scotch Plains let's try to find one those local not too far there's our clients a few different gas stations this one is fairly recent this is kind of the most up-to-date technology um you know locally has he has a few other gas stations he has one in Flor park that's an Exon their LED is a little bit different than shells so we didn't want to send you there he has one in Madison that is a shell but it's just that that sign was install probably 15 years ago so it's a little bit different technology this one was fairly recent in the last five years um so it's very pretty much what we'd be expecting to see can you get that back up there part of the piercing nature of the visual comes from whether or not there's another series of lights and signs in the vicinity or whether it's a dark sky kind of area the only thing you see so I'm not saying that means it should be any different here it's just still not a highly active commercial area so those actual signes with with the numbers you know regular plus and all that are they larger than the one post here in Bedminster or the exact same size and it would be part of our Monument signed uh are they kind of a a standard thing or is the smallest they they they go as large as two feet high and they go as low as one feet I just have to I'd have to go back to check but those look like one foot or at least 18 in um I could find that out before the end of the the hearing um but that's I think our our s the price points we have on your sign are near the bottom of the uh the side L the actual the actual letters themselves are only nine inches high n inches yeah okay so our next testimony we have is I'll try to see if I get answers to the to the height of that Mr Matt Flynn I call him he's our planner here for this evening you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing about the truth to help you God I do and please state your name and address by your last name yeah Flyn YNN business address is 101 jalter drive in and I believe Matt recently testified here is that right Matt did you I think the last time I was here was 2022 for this for this mat but that's Reon enough so the board recognizes and accepts the qualifications of Matt Flynn Matthew Flynn as a professional planner so please go ahead gentlemen and if I if you would with the benefit of your experience in this in this area this application could you please describe for the board uh the variant relief that we're asking for here tonight and the basis for why we believe it's Justified to be granted sure can you just pick up the so we get all recorded please thank you so just to kind of sum up all the testimony that came uh before me we're talking about an existing development that has a Dunkin Donuts on it and we have an a vacant Auto Repair uh establishment we're simply proposing to extend that existing Dunkin Donuts into the space that is currently vacant associated with that prior uh auto repair service that has been closed for several years uh and so by doing so we're eliminating a vacant repair shop and I think there are many benefits that come along with that and we have heard from an intensity standpoint we heard from our traffic engineer that even though we are increasing the space of the Dunkin Donuts it doesn't necessarily mean that we're increasing the intensity of the site one of the nice things about this application is that we're not introducing any wholly New Uses as I said the Duncan is already there and the gas service station is already there um so the variance we're requesting is the D2 variance since we are looking at an existing non-conforming use on the property the burden of proof for a D2 variance is much lower than for a new use variance or a D1 use variance basically the essence of the test is are we improving the site and I think that the testimony uh speaks for itself the architecture is a vast improvement over what is there more Colonial in style I think it's going to fit in better with the neighborhood we heard from our traffic expert in terms of the negative impacts that this is not going to be an intense an intensification of the property so just to tie all of that in uh from the uh from the statutory criteria the positive criteria which comes from the municipal land use law purpose a promotion of the general welfare I think that there will be less uh interference between the uses it's going to constitute a modernization of what's there we're proposing interior and exterior improvements a ating a vacant space that's currently contributing nothing to the site and I would say is actually taking away from the aesthetic value of the property purpose G variety of uses in appropriate locations again we're talking about two uses that are already there simply extending one of them into a vacant portion of that property and I will add that you know the elimination of that auto repair eliminates any possibility for towing operations overnight parking and the outdoor storage of materials that would be associated with that land use uh again that's a benefit of what we're proposing this evening eliminating all of that from the equation Al together uh purpose eye desirable V in visual environment we saw the aesthetic architecture it's more Colonial in nature like our engineer testified to and we do have that substantial increase in landscaping so I think all in all this is going to constitute a substantial Improvement uh aesthetically finally purpose M which is efficient use of land we heard from our engineer that this is going to keep the existing building we're not extending the building footprint uh by any means so we are keeping what's there from a mass and scale standpoint and simply upgrading uh that the flip sites that would be the negative criteria no substantial detriment to the public or to the zone as I said expansions to non-conforming uses are typically less disruptive than New non-conforming Uses we're talking about uses that are already there that have been there for several years and I think again the impacts have been addressed in terms of Aesthetics circulation parking uh safety and as was testified this is an applicant that has several of these facilities across the state um so operations are certainly not foreign to to the applicant in terms of sea relief we heard from our engineer again that there are several existing non-conforming conditions that are not proposed to to be changed again the naal scale remaining exactly the same the only new variances are related to signage and I think the engineer did a good job at going over that I think I can simply sum it up to say that the signage variances are justified by the C2 balancing test whereby the benefits of the application as a whole substantially outweigh any detriments in terms of the positive criteria all of those benefits that I went through all of those site upgrades are effectuated by The increased uh by the additional signage that we're proposing it's all part and parcel of the improvements of the property um in in terms of the negative criteria again I think that all been addressed both aesthetically functionally safely uh safety efficiency and the like so all said I think this does constitute an appropriate use of the property again fitting out a vacant you a vacant space on the site with a use that's already there and substantially improving the the Aesthetics of the site so I would say approval is warranted uh for all relief that's requested this evening and with respect to some of the uh questioning new the uh the board was mention about some of the New Uses coming into the area how does this versus the repair shop uh coincide with some of the development that's going on in the area and the proposed changes to the area yeah I would just to add to that for a second uh the fact that I think one of the board members mentioned this we were talking about three uses at the prior hearing now we're only talking about two uses both of which are existing and in terms of the surrounding neighborhood I would say that the aesthetic quality of what we're proposing might not be conducive to an auto repair facility whereas what we are proposing does allow us to get something that's more compatible uh and less intense than than that auto repair thank you I have nothing further for this witness Bo any questions for this witness no okay we can open it up to the Public Public have any questions what comments I I just had the question Matt um yeah this I think the Dunkin Donuts was approved as a um a use variance to add on to the pre-existing non-conforming use so to some extent it's arguably a D1 and now we're making the D1 use variants bigger so in a way what you're asking for and what the board is considering is an amendment to a a prior D1 because the pre-existing non-conforming use was probably the G the service station the G the gas service station and the auto repair and strangely enough the uh bait shop okay which was not a Dunkin Donut so just to give something for the record as a professional planner you satisfied that the property is particularly suitable for the proposal that you're making here today and and under the if we had to apply the D1 criteria are you satisfied that that's met I am and just to add to to that point in terms of site suitability which would be the enhanced burden for a new use variance I say that the the site is suitable for the proposed use by virtue of again the Aesthetics the fact that we are talking about a more intense land use that's on the property now replacing that with something that's less intense more conducive to positive Aesthetics that blend in with the with the surroundings thank you Mr um I think I closed it to the public thank you man finished so uh if you give us one minute we're just trying to okay so Mr Henry's gonna testify a little bit further about the sign of scotch planes we have a copy of the site plan from that which is going to be able to now testify to the height of that those price points so we just confirmed in the Scotch Plains uh exhibit that was uh shown that is an 18inch high price point it's not a one foot and then what we're proposing here is smaller it's a one foot so it's a little bit smaller yeah thank you I was G to confirm that because I got my camera and focused in this like microscopic but it says one foot I do have one more question for the engineer you never really talked about walkability on the property um where people Park where they walk around the building is we're going to use the existing um sidewalks that are there or it's on the plan but I don't really see it I I just wanted to bring it up yeah so if you walk around the site today um there's like ramps going into each of the car Bays it's not really I would say the curbing around the outside isn't in great shape so we're likely going to replace and we'll AG to this replace all the sidewalk around the building curbing uh so that the whole building looks you know new uh you know at least from the Curbing and side and then also we're upgrading the Ada to make sure it's 88 compliant as well so we're just concerned about pedestrian safety since there's so much movement on that proper right there's I don't think there's any sidewalk in front of the on the do right away um and that that hasn't been requested of those so I don't know if we want I think it's a little sidewalk on the front but not on the side the back yeah but directly around the building there's going to be sidewalks and and uh we can you know if there's a crosswalk behind the building they could they don't get all the way around yeah they get all I I know you testified to this but the Dunkin Donuts has a rear entrance as well or just a it does it has it has a rear entrance uh it's more it's it's not going to be like a primary I would say entrance but it does have a door back there for loading sorry for loading uh I don't believe so here and we can it's a condition also you know back to back to it in these improvements we'll add a bike back in well the side we figure out a spot for it I look at to get the upgraded air I think a good spot would be um on the North I'll show on the northwest corner of the building uh there's a striped area where we can have a bike rack so near the building just just near where the 888 stalls are just near the building so when you get it on the plans well I'll see it okay we have nothing further with expected its application um I we'll look into the issue of the signs that are on the lawn not there but no we believe that we provided you here an application to upgrade this site uh to bring it more into conformance with the suround in area with a use that is more compatible with the area than a repaired shop would be where you have the cars that are outside uh that U is a use that still has function but but would probably the site would be better served by having uh this Dunkin Donuts expanded to to serve not only the customers of gas station but it sounds like some of new activi going be going on in the area so with that we would ask this for to give us an approval on this now I know that tonight I spoke to you Mr Collins but fact we about the number of members here tonight so the uh the board has se six members who are eligible to vote tonight because of some vacation absences um one of the things we sometimes do when and the applicant has a right to wait until they have seven members because they need five of the seven to vote in favor of D varant um there's a chance that someone would if you're all here in August there's a chance that at least one member would be able to listen to the tape before the next meeting or the next meeting what we could reconvene to decide this way because the transcript is a audio recording even video recording can be observed by the absent members um sometimes in situations like this particularly in with this history it's appropriate to do a polling of the board as to whether you're comfortable with this application not formally deciding yes but whether the five of you are willing to look forward to an approval here is the board interested in doing that tonight or not interested do you um you want to just wait or my only response to that is that there are a number of things that have been discussed that either required some Amendment to the plan or some clarification and I thought maybe we should get those things before we vote so that the resolution is clear and everything's in order I mean there's a I I I think that EV charging is definitely something that should be considered on that site as part of the uh approval process I would like to see a considerate thought out area for uh EV bike for the bites and I'm not prepared to to vote tonight by any means and I'm not prepared to vote tonight because I really want to see something on the circulation uh in terms of traffic we talked about the eess and all that um on the plan so that we can say this is what it is and considering the history of this not everything about this piece of property is non-conforming we all agree that and because of all those non-conforming issues I think we should make sure we um dot our eyes and cross our teas on this application if the board is not comfortable to vote we will come back with those answers for you one of the other things I'll offer to do uh is U get a photo of the scotch plane site at night since we we've discussed that here if the board would like to visit sites I can certainly provide Mr Collins with the that again that address is already been out there but I give them formally that address and or other sites we might be able to provide for you that might have the same type of lighting again Scotch BL isn't the most convenient I know you all are volunteers if I can find something a little bit closer I will help you know I will try to do that I I don't like the idea of of that uh variance issuing that for that sign for the bright lights I don't think we needed but that's just me personally well so so the the there was a concern that was expressed by the bright lights was the sign we're looking at is one that was photosensitive we cut down the bright yeah but but I I you know just as a general proposition LED okay you know it's it's not something that we allow and I think we should stick with that and we're prepared to to stick with the existing numbering spicing system uh it is again something that has been more widely used to use LEDs but we have to go what's existing today certainly do that just just recently we also had another application in in chadam uh which is another kind of historical Town um they they also have ordinances that do not allow for LEDs and theyve recently uh approved LEDs just I just not not PR you to say I just want to just show you that other Talent they can do whatever they want I know I know I just want thank you for the Chad bur or uh Chad and bur okay uh just want to point out that it's it's most gas stations are switching over to LED I I don't want to say that you know you can do whatever you want but thank you that being said I want to thank you for cooperation because I think we did make some significant progress tonight and I'd like to thank you for your input as well I mean I think this is important it's an important site it's it's very visible in town we understand the sensitivity of the site to the board and to the community and we do believe that uh given some of the discussion we had here last time as well as tonight that this will be a nice addition to the community as a community center community focal point people come and sit while we have the seating there and hopefully become a part of the community that fix it let Let's uh carry to a date certain and Janine maybe we want to make sure we have some time in the in the next meeting where we could hear anything final here including see a revised set of drawings with all the B and bues on them August 1st is completely open August 1st okay does that work for you Mr Henry that's quick quick turn around we really technically need it in at least 10 days before August 1st which would be some like somewhere around July 20 let's say 20 I don't know what day of the week that is probably that's a Sunday so let's say the 21st is how many days in July 3D okay so we could have it on the 21st we could have it on the 21st by the 21 it's only like 10 days away though I know but Mr Henry has great computers I don't know if he you want to go to September instead took you a long time to put everything together okay know we could we could perhaps you're the only one who feels that way the old days said them do all of you Janine we have two cases on for August 8th right correct but there are small cases this doesn't seem like an extremely long uh re presentation um are all of you available for August 8 August 8 yeah August 8 yeah so and then we we don't know about Anna or whoever else could get up to speed but if one or more if at least one could get up to speed that would be convenient U so that would give you uh say seven more days to the 28th to produce the drawing or you could go to September we we'll do AUST while it's still fresh in everybody's mind and you drag it out long you forget what we talked about I want to make sure we question we'll be given so I can get them to you right and that's what that's what they were troubled by so um so we'll just confirm on the record tonight that the um 1525 Bedminster LLC application for use variance related site plan is being carried without additional notices to August 8th 2024 at 7 PM this meeting room thank you everybody we thank the board for its time tonight and and continued interest in the site and we look forward to seeing you in the great thank you thank you thank you [Music] and Tom they gave me copies of all the things that they had to want any of them I'd like one set if you have one or I could take absolutely cre set you know car while we have quick minute um everybody should read their New Jersey planning officials um me newsletter for this month I believe it has a summary of the deadlines or schedule for the statutory requirements for Mount Laurel housing plans for the round four it's a summary of a section I'm sorry statutory or Bill legislative bill called A4 and it helps you see what's required going forward over the next two years to achieve immunity which we'll want to do but all I'm telling you now is it's a it's good reading hopefully it won't put you to sleep good snooze good snooze reading and uh I'll just see some deadlines okay okay um Paul is this something we have to talk about here this environmental review checklist it's on the agenda is that is that something that I'm crazy or not no I think that is a yeah I think you have to look at the page before and see that that is a piece of the one the it one of the items submitted got1 two3 then the Rev checklist traffic impact it's just a continuation of the prior item on the agenda okay so move [Laughter]