##VIDEO ID:P_VujoUr0Rw## this meeting is being held in conformance with the open public meeting act iate notice that this meeting has been posted on a Township website and S to the newspaper record the agenda has also been posted on a Township website and gold Board of Minal building at least 48 hours prior to the meeting the agenda items will not necessarily be heard in the order listen and the meeting will not Contin continue substantially past 1030 J you do aoll Mr Johnson here Mr Hall Mr Graziano here Mr Poo here Miss po here miss Kingsley here Mr mados here Mr Monaco Mr Crow Mr Steinem sternheim Mr Leo here Mr Robertson here okay first item is an amended resolution application number - 1-23 County Union Grand Street block 2011 BL 2 in the o z Mr chairman and members of the board this is really just a very simple resolution correcting a typographical error that was in a resolution from August of 2023 uh the county had asked for a minor subdivision to uh uh change the lot line designation between two properties and there a little sliver of land along former RightWay uh the all throughout the resolution referred to the property as block 2011 loot 2.01 one paragraph was tight votes said block two block 2011 this resolution simply uh clarifies uh that prior resolution to assist the county and filing and Reporting the subdivision D so that that's all it is it's a corrective resolution to put the correct block and lot number any questions do I have a motion a motion a second made the second I Mr Johnson yes Mr ciano yes Mr poopo yes Miss po yes Miss Kingsley yes Mr mados yes Mr Liam yes motion carries 70 okay we're now going to do Curtis review of application number sp-2 d24 Union County Improvement Authority 735 Springfield Avenue block 501 Lots one to three and block 101 lot one o n dh-112 z can you just and on what CES you consist of yes Mr chairman this is not an application a typical application for de development this is uh what is referred to as a courtesy review of property uh that's in question is owned by the county of Union there's a proposal from the uh Union County Improvement authority to make certain improvements related to the Springfield Avenue uh Park Improvement project and as as a general rule a higher governmental Authority such as County Union uh is exempt from local zoning and is typically not subject to the local zoning requirements the are however required to uh come before a uh local body such as the planning board or the governing body to make a presentation with regard to their proposed and to listen to and consider any comments from the that governing body so uh the uh the applicant is here this evening they will be making a presentation explaining what is being proposed at the site uh and the board is free to comment make suggestions recommendations I know that there were specific written comments and recommendations from both the police department and the environmental commission but if the board or members of the public have any comments they wish to make those can be relayed to the applicant or their consider hopefully for their consideration uh and so that's the process and I'm sure this there are people here from the county tonight that they want to make their presentation okay and one one question does the public have the opportunity to provide it's it's not it's not a public Hearing in that sense but my recomend mendation would be that that the public if any member of the public is here and wishes to comment I don't see any reason why it's up to the board but I don't see a reason why they you know they they could not accept those comments okay thank you thank you Mr chairman uh members of the board uh my name is Matthew Taris from rown cam manello um I'm here on behalf of the Union County Improvement Authority uh and as Mr Robertson has already identified this is a courtesy review on the Springfield Avenue Park project that is uh being uh performed at Springfield Avenue Park um with us today uh we have our engineer for the project Jessica harber from Remington and Vernick um they have been assigned as the engineer for this project um we also have a representative from the county um County Manager Edward opman is here um I believe he might be here to uh address any of the comments that were raised and some of the letters that were sent spe and emails that were sent specifically from uh the police department and the environmental commission um as Mr Robinson already identified this project is uh with respect to improvements to uh to the Springfield Avenue park with respect to playground areas um picnic tables asphalt walkways um there's going to be a restroom that is that is built a gazebo and a boat launch um Miss harber I'm going to call up and she's going to give you more of the project details um so without further Ado Miss Hy it's it's not an application so in my opinion it's not necessary to swear the witness it's more of a presentation than an application I here okay I think you should just identify and spell your last name and identify yourself record um my name is Jessica halber um last name is H Au B ASM boy e r with Remington aerick Engineers um like Matthew said um we are the design Engineers on um this project um just going to go through existing what the property was um there was this Berkeley Plaza um on site with a parking lot um that has since been Dem demolished and now it's just an open site in the front the back was always an open grass area so this is our original concept plan [Music] um it required a bunch of permits through New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection um flood Hazard area and freshwater Wetland fitting um also soil erosion permit through Somerset Union counties so the bottom portion of the site uh closest to Springfield Avenue is what you're going to see right now um the entrance to the parking lot is the same as the current entrance um so there 62 parking spaces um in the parking lot and that includes 3 88 spots and three um trailer spots for um like a boat trailer on on a car um towards the river there's two boat launch areas one that could be accessed um on a car um backing up and the other one's just a pedestrian boat launch um um then there's the restroom building that will include a family restroom as well as um a men and women room and um just a janitor closet and storage um over to the right there is a rubber surface um walking Track um that will be open in the middle and then on the inside of that on on the right hand side there's um an open Pavilion just with a concrete area and then as you go up is where we're proposing the um the playground areas one area is going to be a fitness area right off the track so that kind of correlates with the um with the workout um the other areas as you go up are there's a there's stuff for 6 months up to 12 um year old children the first two areas are for the younger children um and then as you go up the page um there's Pavilion area with picnic benches bike rack um and those will be shaded with um shade structures and then that round area at the bottom is the 5 to 12 um age group playground um and then there's another walking uh path that kind of goes along um and connects into the walking path along the river um which will be asphalt there's a lot of landscaping there's stormw basins that we had to design um to go along with everything with this site um so this is just kind of a rendering of the playground areas themselves um they're going to going to have some cool uh structures there for all children to play on to kind of incorporate you know the nature of the park and then here's what the restroom building will look like the elevations and the floor plan um there's the shade structures bottom black Pavilion open air Pavilion that'll be um around the rubberized track is in the middle and then there's that entrance sign is going to be off the pedestrian entrance um into the track area question anybody have any questions I do um in the uh in one of the documents I think it's the response on the environmental uh impacts it refers to a boardwalk I don't see that anywhere in the in the drawing is that original PL there's no boardwalk in there's no Boardwalk now how many trees are going to be removed um we don't have a specific amount of trees it's going to be minimal um just for getting the pathway in um and the boat ramps really other than that we're not going to touch any of the existing trees we're planting a lot of trees in addition to that um so it's really for access to for construction what was the process for deciding uh the use for this park like was the recognition of Berkeley Heights involved at all because I know they have a master plan where they did a lot of work and research on needs and wants for the community where was there a public gathering information process for this or how was this determined this was the best use the county the county looked at all their needs and all their Parks we have a lot of uh parks that have fields and things we needed a place that had passive Recreation like we have SNY in the county which is in Berkeley Heights which how the field there we we U decided that there's a need for more more of a passive um Recreational Park in the middle of the proposal that's more of a sear friendly Trail and then the the outside I guess is more you know along the river people would run and more uh active was there any consideration about pickle ball because this is such a good location given that it's not really near any housing and the pickle ball demand across the county is growing exponentially and it seems to be a shortage of almost every town we are adding pickle ball fields across the county but here we wanted a more of a passive Park so no Fields no quarts no anything there's like like as you can see there's no type of fields or quarts or or anything like that okay and one other question the sidewalk on Springfield Avenue right now I I can't it's hard to see because it's so small in my things it looks like that is proposed to be concrete but this is the entrance to our downtown technically and our standards are uh Herring bone pavers um with street lights so will the are they going to conform to what the town standards are because it's important that we kind of carry our our vision through the whole downtown if at all possible we could look at that right now free this is the first time I've heard that but yes this is the purpose of that and that's something we can consider and the same thing is we have decorative street lights that you know go along Springfield Avenue and if you go to the properties around and across they're going to have them so to the extent we can work on that and and get that in to match our Article 19 that would be very helpful we would like that too to to match the the local the core so yes we could look at that that would be helpful thank you is there a um is there a traffic study considered for Springfield ad at the adjacent roadway is that requ part of this project this is just a park IED the email uh the other day from the the local police so we will put them in touch with the County Police our engineering department who will then do the traff study and if there was a a need for the cross wall we'll gladly consider it and put one in if it's needed okay but that's not this this is just the this is just a park project sure so yeah what we just yeah we we want the access to it on foot of course because it's so local to downtown that the crosswalks are even just a his suggestions are great but it's just the start it's a 40 mile PR hour road and when you come down off the bridge it's a straightaway so it's actually very easy to do 40 and higher um we want people comfortable to access it by foot as well yeah we'll go ahead look at that in that same realm was there any is there any way or any consideration I know it's a flood plan but um there's a potential for bog Trail so that that your path that you're building that's a uh maybe not ada8 but multi-use path that's along the river we want to see if that can go further people have a loop but they also have access to go further along the River on the park areas um I think part of that's not our land but I'll turn that one over to the engineers um so you're talking like keep going along so that was originally the plan but because it's all wet that would require bog Trails basically more infrastructure yeah um yes and you're not allowed to put basically a boardwalk in there because it's a flood way so DP wouldn't allow it New Jersey DP wouldn't allow so we did look it thank you glad you did yeah lighting throughout the complex won't there so there's um there's lights in the parking lot and that's it in the parking lot Trail yeah the the park is daunted dust yeah County policies all parks are dawn to dusk so there's no for lighting because what about around the Pavilion just in the parking lot that dusk know if we have lightning then people will come past dusk are there plans I couldn't tell in the Pavilion building are there plans for water bottle water fountains so there will be a are found in the restroom building well right outside the restroom building connected to the restroom building it'll be the ones you can put your Bot down bot okay perfect that's what I was hopefully hoping for okay um are you going to address like the timing of when this is all going to happen or can I ask that question is there a plan for when this concept is going to start to become reality groundbreaking schedule for that spr um and how long is that going to take to do not both of those fields are grass fields not tur Fields correct there's no about the The Proposal material ground cover made from in place I'm GNA ask one more question in terms of the timing so you're saying spring spring groundbreaking um nine months to complete is this a phased type of constru C only because I'm sure you guys are aware of our Mount Carmel um Feast it's been a huge tradition and it's I think I'm pretty sure Mount Carmel has always used some of the county property for years and um I would hate to see there not be a last Mount Carmel event since nobody knew this was coming this fast so is there some type of plan in place to give Mount Cara one final Festival Festival the feast before we I think that's age two-part question um the current site will be a construction zone next summer but the county is always looking for ways to help and find a way to do the festival maybe you close that road I'm sure there's other ways we can all work together try to figure out a way to continue the festival while this is maybe phase the construction so you can use piece of the land I mean it's it's a big project find a way yes okay I I would ask that you guys try really hard yep it's important mention one final though I mean is there any consideration to make this not make it but is this appropriate to maintaining the activities that go on there because there are people who permit parts of those property for current activities so I'm concerned about the final piece is it are current activities considered and carrying those activities on forward such as the mount car mount carel festival or is for this is going to be a par that's um you know landscaped and trails and things so right now it's an open field so not sure you know we're always looking for ways I'm not sure that that that that the existing footprint is going to be changing going forward I yes the count I'm Vicky der the county M count permit I think is what you asking permit um appropriate usage of all of our County Parks and um this one should be no different if there are you know if there are AC that match just the um Police Department talk about a is a video camera near the you know structures what's your thought on that honestly I will turn that over to my public safety director to work out with the local police uh I don't yeah I I I'm not a a cop I don't feel the I have a standing to say what's need what's not but we have the professionals who will work that out like any other Park to make sure it's safe and secure for everybody just we always pointed out about the CRS I think that's something that direct B is you know the environmental commission talked about the Landscaping native species um I'm not a landscape expert but yeah I mean we we looked at the comments um some of them weren't um um we were uh like they said that one of them wasn't a native species but according to the USDA it is is um and the other the arbor that we're calling out is not is De resistant so it's a different type of Arbor um and then that other type that they said or damaged bya we're switching out to be yourist um but yeah we're adhering to all the other guidelines that they recommended place with 88 complying gravel that's their suggestion are you open to that suggestion well these plans um are approved by do I mean d so um the thought behind the asphalt was so it could be you know Ada accessible uh the least amount of maintenance is possible for the county um I know the water comes up and down and with those other options it would require maintenance for the county so that's why we went with the asphalt um they're 8 ft wide they're not you know really wide they don't add much impervious so we're sticking with the existing the existing grade out there just like to say I'm very happy to see green space and I'm grateful for the county because we've all been dealing with a lot of portable housing requirements in the county and especially in Berkeley Heights so the ability to have this big piece of land um be a passive Park and not um more housing units I think is appreciated by all of the residents so as long as we can work out the Mount Carmel issues and the Article 19 sidewalk issue so it all coalesces with the town I think it's a very positive issue soil tests conducted on the property for perious yeah yeah we um yeah D had to approve our old storm water design and it's their are restrictions are you know so all the storm water basins um are approved by D um they it's we basically have to exceed um existing conditions really so um it's going to be a better situation than what's out there now the county tested the soil when we bought the um the caterer property that's part of the requirements so everything came back any other questions I will now open up to the public for any comments questions good evening everybody Michael tqu Whitney Drive uh for disclosure purposes former elected official here Town Council uh Board of Education of which last year was the uh president I am a registered professional engineer in the state of New Jersey uh over 25 years of design construction and facility management of which 10 years was with uh state universities here in New Jersey I have about a half a billion dollars worth of construction under my belt so uh I just want to St my experience and everything been in front of planning boards before um Mount carel was notified about these plans back in May uh letter came from the firm here that's representing engineering but comments down in uh in Trenton obviously we couldn't get in Trend to make any comments uh we were under the impression this would take probably a year or two again I've dealt with stuff in the state d uh we were very surprised when we learned about this at the last Town council meeting that this was going to be coming this fast um as we have asked for during the meeting and we would like to ask is allow Mountain carel to have one more Feast as everyone has known it for the last 100 plus years the area that's being designed for the front walking path we do think it's a very great addition to the township a great thing we're not looking for any changes to it what we're asking for is one more year to allow us to do that and looking at the plans I would ask if the county can look at phasing this you have a lot of work to do on the property that was the old uh Berkeley Plaza there a lot of work to get your grading and everything done for your parking lot your building built and all utilities in for the new bathroom you restroom excuse me you also have to have a lot of stuff done down by the pic River in prefering for the boat launch and everything we would ask for a two-e window couple days before July 12th for setup and a couple of days after July 16th to clean up the site of which then we would have the opportunity to have one great final Feast to celebrate 100 plus Year tradition so I do ask that at the uh County please work with us we're very open to ideas of how maybe we can shift things around on the property but our ask would be to give us one more year at the at the uh County property and the mount carel property to give us one less Feast thank you Richard leer or Avenue chair of the environmental commission um wanted to correct the memo it is not correct that mulen bergia capillaris is not native to New Jersey it is native to New Jersey just a mistake in the memo um the other uh thing is I'd like to ask because the memo was uh uh looking at uh the natural resources conservation service web soil survey did the county find that the uh soil is in this hydrolic soil Group D and um could the county possibly um uh adjust the paths so that they're further away from the uh wetlands and reparan Zone and can asphalt be uh replaced with some sort of perious surface and I mentioned two types of manufacturers of uh uh gravel which apparently is rated ADA Compliant thank you thank you yeah I mean I went through basically the comments before um as far as moving the paths away um out of the wetlands and repairing Zone um the goal was to have the path as close as as we could to the river they have to be 25 ft off the top of Bank um for D we are minimizing the amount of wetland and and flood Hazard area disturbance repairing Zone disturbance um and like I said njd approved um our plans um as far as that goes so we are meeting their requirements um and again as far as the adsa path goes um the county was looking for you know the least amount of Maintenance as possible um the gravels going to cause a lot of Maintenance especially um as the as the river goes up so that's why we chose that um the asphalt I also believe and correct me if I'm wrong if the river floods and there's gravel that would put more things into the river right yeah they would wash away right that's another reason you don't want loose material near the water any other anyone else from the public hi I'm Dana 425 Park Avenue Berkeley Heights and formerly 277 Washington in the area neighborhood bordering the mount kermel area um just speaking as a resident here I wanted to address two points uh both environmental components and the future of the fireworks I am thrilled that we're getting uh open space in the park I think it's a wonderful addition to the town uh but the plans do seem to describe a lot of asphalt rubber surfacing and shade structures with less emphasis than I would hope for on the natural elements that we might expect in the park on undeveloped land along a river uh to me the importance of preserving open land in our town should go beyond providing recreational opportunities and also allow the town and the county to reduce flooding and temperature increases by planting more trees and providing natural areas that can absorb water and sequester emissions um so I hope that we can maybe incorporate more trees into the plan more shading around the playground that's more natural um those rubber surfaces get incredibly hot as I know is a parent of a young child and can be very uncomfortable when temperatures are above 70° um i' just like the county to know that many of us in Berkeley Heights want to hold ourselves to higher environmental standards than what the D requires and have a perk that better fits the river fromont property as for Mount carel um I grew up here uh I moved back 10 years ago to raise a family and it's hard watching all the bits of my childhood disappear to Redevelopment but the July 16th firework for anyone who's watched the movie Inside Out with their kids that's a core memory that's for my dad my uncles my cousins my second cousins my young son that event is joy and love and awe bringing the family and friends from other parts of town together at our house every July 16th for huge parties with crazy amounts of food staying up too late to sit out under the night sky feeling the explosions deep inside our chests and our hearts watching the lights Blossom across the sky and twinkle down looking each year for a new color a new design for what Garden State fireworks would outdo how they would outdo themselves this time it's so important to our family identity our neighborhood identity Our Town identity that my last remaining uncle on my father's side flew out from Southern California this summer to visit specifically for the fireworks make sure he saw them one last time my family has been in town for over a hundred years and we feel our the town's Italian Heritage is being stripped year after year so for my extended family and the many families who' been here for a long time too I ask uh that the county work with Berkeley Heights to ensure that our annual festival and fireworks displ can continue not just for one last time but for many kids to come thank you anyone else on the public okay um I think M halber mrman you heard the board's comments you heard the public comment I think there's some reasonable requests and I would just hope that you work with the township to you know move forward with this we will be glad to work the mayor try to find Sol a very good nice project worth of P it Mr chairman I I will prepare a resolution that outlines some of the comments and recommendations that were mentioned during the hearing and uh uh I I had a rough draft but I think there are things that came up tonight so what I'll do is I'll prepare that for the next meeting and I certainly will provide it to the county as well in case they have any comments to the resolution and uh that should be on the agenda for our next meeting okay great all right uh M Kingsley me I forgot to about the minutes of the uh June 26 2024 meeting so do I have a motion I have a motion second second all in favor all opposed all right a couple pieces of correspondents one a letter from D Mello who represents the county asking requesting wer applications fees and TCO deposits um I convers with Bill and it's common practice to do that so we wave um second piece of Correspondence was from Tom Bo Tom boo requesting to reestablish a zoning used for restaurant in the DD Zone and don't you expand on that yes um as the the bo may recall there was fairly significant uh modification Amendment to the zoning ordinance uh at the end of last year and uh this one of the changes to zoning ordinance was that the specific restaurant use is not mentioned uh now in the uh downtown district as a permitted use uh and because of a number of applications that Mr Bako has seen recently has raised the issue about whether or not that should be included restaurant use should be specified with a parking requirement uh the board's planner Liz leny she replaced Keenan uh is looking at the issue I think she agrees that to avoid confusion there should be reference to restaurant use as being specific in the district I think the concept uh uh when they changed it was that it would be considered Under the Umbrella of retail uses because uh when you go to the restaurant use with the higher parking requirement it would have and may have created uh parking variances for all of the restaurant uses as they change hands turn over enter new locations so uh I did have conversation with Mr saaro Tom bako and Liz Liz is going to look at some other towns that have sort of a denser downtown area that may have similar parking situations and kind give a report back as to some thoughts as to what whether there's uh a better way to address it or a way that we should recommend to the council look at I have all my notes and drafts because I have a feeling that we modified the definition of retail and something just got missed missed in the final print because we did talk about this so I will work with Liz okay that that would be great here more to C yeah okay um motion to return I'll move make it favor thank you