see everything okay Mr good evening everyone welcome to the board of adjustment Township B berley Heights we're located here at 29 Park Avenue in Berkeley Heights tonight is our public meeting it's February 29th on the uh calendar 2024 we have 7M on the clock and please note that this meeting is being held in conformance with all regulations of the Sunshine Law and the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been posted on the township website and sent to the newspapers of record the agenda has been posted on the township website and the bulletin board confronting the municipal Hall at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting the agenda items will not necessarily beard in the order listed and we will not continue substantially past 10:30 p.m. Regina may I have a roll call please Mr Sullivan pres Mr Coello herea here Mr Ringwood here Mr Sylvester here Mr Pera senses regrets M West Augustine Mr Dean here Mr chaurus sends his regrets this evening thank you very I'm last name cop k p p and Miss cop will be joining us as Cil this evening thank you very much let's move on to some of our housekeeping items the adoption of the minutes from January 25th Mr Ringwood did you have an opportunity to review the minutes and can you make a motion on that I did WR letter and would we accept minutes thank you and uh may I have a second by Mr Sylvester please I second that thank you very much and an adoption on the minutes uh all in favor I thank you um I believe Mr deia was not present last meeeting and the adoption of the executive session Mr Sylvester did you have an opportunity to review the executive session minutes yes I did I found it to be order they have a motion on that Mr Sylvester I make a motion to accept that second by Mr Ringwood please second uh all in favor that are eligible I thank you very much we have two app we have two resolutions uh to advance this evening application 23-19 this is the naven residence located at three rally Court block 1502 lot 20 um sorry lot 14 in the r75 zone this was a corner lot off of the Klein Boulevard area and it was Ace I proposed swimming pool and Surround Mr kovel did you have an opportunity to review the resolution I did the resolution was in order I'll make a motion to accept thank you I may have a second by Mr Ryan I'm sorry I second that motion I completely Drew that's okay it's Dean I'm sorry uh we've only known each other for five years um uh may I have a roll call on application 2319 Mr Sullivan yes Mr kello yes Mr Ringwood yes Mr Sylvester yes Mr Degan yes motion carries 5 Z thank you application 230016 this is the man residence located ated at 130 Orchard Lane block 302 lot one this was a front Portico and a relocation of a fence that was encroaching into the township RightWay Mr kovell did you have an opportunity to review the resolution and can you make a motion on that if you're comfortable with that I did uh the resolution based on the email for Amanda at 1:20 p.m. this afternoon is in order and I'll make a motion to accept that resolution thank you may I have a second by Mr Ringwood second and a roll call on 230016 as presented Mr Sullivan yes Mr kobell yes Mr Ringwood yes Mr Sylvester yes Mr deer yes Mo car 5 thank you very much the application for review this evening is application 23017 this is the gra residence located at 22 twins Road block 4502 lot three this is uh a location is off of Diamond Hill Road on the southern portion of Berkeley Heights and we'd like to introduce Mr gra and his professionals today thank you your Council will swear in the members um if you could um yeah one well one time um do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're going to provide tonight will be truthful I do state your name for the record Michael rton R coowner try to get my credentials we're gonna let's have Mr gra introduce himself then we'd like you to introduce something your creds thank you and do you swear from the testimony you're going to provide tonight will be truthful I do and state your name for the record Andrew BR proper my wife and burs I'm sorry Michael what was your last name rton r l t um and you are I'm the architect rgm designs I developed the plans only analysis and are you licensed in the state of New Jersey LIC state of New Jersey also um member of the planning board or actually zoning board of adjustment for Chester Township and I've testified as expert witness in too many Union County townships to to Really State over the past 10 years or so okay and your license is a good standing y Okay I accept as a w have you appeared before Berkeley not you look very familiar not in a new building um not not in the new building so I was actually married in the the old building by the mayor back 2009 but no I don't believe recently I've been here okay well welcome back and what I need to gentlemen take your time and introduce your application thanks so we are proposing a um really a two-story rear yard Edition but that's not why we're here we're here for the the add level Edition over the front of the residence uh the the residence if if you've been by is not parallel to the to the street um so it's it's actually on a slight angle and they step back so what we what we've come up with the maximize of square footage and really align the the house uh the second floor Edition is can leave over the first floor but it holds that setback of I think 40 uh2 feet so that's that's really the the trigger that's an existing non-performing front yard setback U so just just maintaining the the plane of that front residence uh triggered triggered a variance uh we went to some lengths to try to ultimately reduce the total coverage of the property so we re we've removed some paper patio to the side of the house um and whatnot as well so so the addition predominantly in the rear yard and the sidey yard complies with the side yard setback the rear yard setback um the building coverage is uh below the required the lot coverage is below the required as well so again predominantly it's it's that front yard setback uh purpose of the addition renovation of the of the existing dining room kitchen on the first floor uh by expanding out to the rear of the house we have a a small deck in the back of the house as well which does comply um and the second floor predominantly is is the the two pisal bedrooms uh and trying to create that Master Suite now the reduction in urbus coverage you were at 22.7 it drops to 22.1 you know a 80 100 or so square but but we are we removing patio to add principal structure is that principal structure because the deck does not count because it's yeah yeah not the deck the P the patio but you you've sacrificed a portion of the patio is the patio that's being sacrificed where the addition is or is it that area to the side it's the area to the side there's a tiered a block wall yeah there's there's actually for the driveway there's a step down and then there's a tiered section and there's a step down if you go there now you probably can't it the patio is so overgrown weeds and stuff like that you can barely even see the papers anymore it's it's so that's all being removed to reduce your impervious coverage what's the plan there what do you look over into the rear of the backyard is that yeah you do so the wall what kind the wall would stay the wall can the wall is fine so you just put grass or sod there and just put a couple chairs down so you could still Overlook that is the per that is the goal yep remains a single family house corre side load single is that a single or a double garage yeah that's a stretch yeah it's a single small it's a it's a small single yeah 1950s garage yeah yeah um I read somewhere but I don't see it uh there's a 20 foot easement in the backyard it's there do you notice there's something that goes across it's it does not appear on the survey there was some verbiage that I read earlier that there is a 20 foot either a sanitary or on the tax m not on the survey okay so in just it's not going to impact any of our discussion tonight but for your edification some day down the road if you were to consider a shed in the backyard you would need a a variance for planning board because we're we're already over on a perious coverage but you would need a whole harmless agreement or you would need to completely keep the shed outside of the limits of that EAS so it's a bridge to cross another day in the event that you need because it sounds like the garage may be tight and you're probably not going to get a c yeah the Overflow stor essentially the sh and um please continue thanks I'll turn over to home just say uh we my wife and I have lived there for about seven years we recently had twins and that's the reason we want to expand about a year and a half now and that's the reason we want to do this addition have space for our growing family Roberts a twin so look this is where uh board members questions for Mr bro or his architectural professional Mr R Mr Sylvester no question M West no Mr Ringwood I'm good thank you Mr deia Mr Degan no questions Mr coell just for person yeah we're going to talk about that it's a good point I I have I have a note here so uh the proposed deck I may have taken off the plan I think it's 171 154 or 17 171 with the steps so the only Reon I'm asking is justs it doesn't count as coverage is it is it big enough for you as the homeowner I mean it it's just one of those things that it looks you know you start to put a table chairs and a barbecue out there and all of a sudden you eat up 20 square ft yeah like that um comparison it's it's a little bigger yeah a little bit bigger the current is a little bigger to Mr kobol's Point you're at 171 we stairs yeah and I sketched out a 20 by4 deck which is 280 Square F feet which includes the steps and quite honestly I I think I would be in favor it gives you more wiggle room whether or not you decide that you want a 280 foot deck is your own but the board May entertain since it is a as Mike said it is a pervious condition and it's not going to impact your neighbors on the sidey yard or the rear yard that's available to you and we we it's funny that Mike mentioned that because we did that with another house on Twin Falls Road we were tossing around whether we include that right now from a budget standpoint the the price for MH for Dex has gone through the roof but we decided to get it uh because it's not pervious if it complied with setback so we did decide to enlarge it with the permit submission yeah would that trigger my understanding was that would not trigger a we are hopeful that you'll receive an approval tonight but I think that if you decide to expand the deck probably at a later date I don't think that will impact zoning that's what my understanding was so it's if you don't want to make that decision tonight you don't have to uh it's just something that sometimes the board considers because we realize that chairs and tables Etc in the barbecue you lose a lot of space very quickly and we don't want anyone rolling down the steps I do appreciate that consideration thank you good to know but something to think about down the road yeah other than that I have no comments looks nice I think it'll be uh can you tell us a little bit about the the features on the outside of the house what do you have any photographs of the house uh we did submit I think photographs but I I only think we submitted one to Connie so why don't you tell us about what the what the structure looks like today and what the plan is for the appearance of the structure yeah I think so so it's a pretty plain vanilla structure uh shed roof along the front what we tried to do with the new addition uh is is try to sprit it up a little bit with a double Gable um towards the front you can see on paa -3 um as well so uh I believe the house going to have new siding the roofing so it will be spruced up from from an Aesthetics standpoint as well uh right now uh there's wood siding it's it's it's kind of seen better days some rots things like that so the overall goal is to makeover in addition to obviously giving it some profile from the front uh elevation rear elevation just naturally as a step so you get that double um you get that double peak in in the rear um as well and then side elevations pretty pretty straightforward um we try to follow we tried to follow the same slope of the main roof uh so it be consistent there is a break in the roof plane on the front elevation just due to the the fact that the the existing house has clipped ceilings um so they I believe they're they're clipped at about seven feet so you don't have full height you get a little slope in the front and the back uh what we did is we raised the plate height with the addition on the front and back so you had a you know a traditional 8ot ceiling height throughout um throughout so that's that's essentially the long short of it is anything else please uh since there is an increase in the principal structure and it's somewhat offset by the patio that's being removed there will be a prerequisite as a first normal order management we saw the project but to what extent the town engineer will provide you with guidance because you know he may see this as a dominous change we realize that the water looks like it's going down towards that that easement area so Thum so farell will weigh in as appropriate when we're Advanced into the construction phase of it just to make sure that there is some complaints in the state of New Jersey you know if it's one square foot it'll trigger some level of storm management yeah I I've worked on two projects on twinfalls road and both will be did have to put in a dryw system so yeah we maybe we'll cross that bridge you did you've done twinfalls Road what yep and did you appear before the did not we did not need two with those two cases and you could look at even rain guard and and different ways to do it so the only thing I'll add is um the height of the deck because the height of the deck you know you can enclosed underneath and use it as storage e remain open okay that's that um I don't have any further questions uh let's open it up to members of the public uh Mr coell can I have a motion to open up to members of the public I'll make a motion to open to members of the public I have a second by Mr Degan I second that motion the meeting is now open to members of the public that have a question or comment regarding our application here at 2224 Road seeing no one may I got a motion to close Mr Ringwood so moved may have a second by Mr Sylvester I second that meeting is now closed to members of the public um with that said and the conditions that we discussed and Council were there any additional conditions that you've noted um so we have a removal of excess coverage prior to final approval that being the co um keeping the site orderly during construction downward directed lighting if there is any exterior lighting to be added um storm water we talked about and all sides of the dwelling are to be consistent as to materials colors and Architectural style any trees or vegetation plan to be removed there's one tree um where that patio is patio kind of dying okay that might have to be trimmed back a little bit we'll see the safety FR or removed or safety pred at the very least hopefully not remov okay uh have your Landscaping professional take a look at it if a permit is required if it's a removal check in with Tom Bako as well he serves as the tree inspector to on the one edge of the property so I don't think it'll be affected by construction it's pruned with that said considering the conditions bag at a motion on this application Mr Ringwood I move we accept the application and may have a second by Mr Sylvester I make a second on this and a roll call Regina Please Mr yes thank you Kobe ell yes Mr deia yes Mr Ringwood yes Mr Sylvester yes yes motion Carri seven so uh next month we will meet again and the resolution will likely be become available we'll adopt that resolution in the interim you can start preparing your paperwork to advance the construction department so hopefully you don't to thank you very much gentlemen for joining us this evening than you Council any questions comments I have none uh board members any question comments no I'll make motion open members of the public for General SE thank you and may have a second by Mr Sylvester I second that motion the meeting is now open to members of the public that would like to approach the zoning board with question or comment seeing no one may have a motion to close Mr Ringwood move may have a second by Mr Degan I second the meeting is now closed to the public and may I have a motion to adjourn this evening Mr Del I make a motion to adjourn and a second by Miss West I second all favor we'll see everyone next month Council thank you for joining us this evening short and sweet should have got staples button it's easy we have and we sell Lottery Mike's got lottery tickets I sell Lottery we have a big cred we sell the 50