##VIDEO ID:llYgGJVFWPE## good evening everyone welcome to the board of adjustment Township Berkeley Heights we located at 9 Park Avenue this is our public meeting this evening it's November 21st 2024 we have 700 pm. on the clock as our zor zoning board start time please note that this meeting is being held in conformance with all regulations of the open public meetings act adequate notice of the meeting has been posted on the township website and sent to the news fer of record the agenda has been posted on the town website and the bulleon board fronting the municipal building at least 48 hours in advance of tonight's meeting the agenda items will not necessarily be heard in the order listed and the meeting will not continue substantially past 10:30 P in have quote please sure Mr Sullivan Mr coell here Mr deia here Mr Ringwood here Mr Sylvester here Mr Pera here M Wester Gustin here Mr Degan here Mr torus SES regrets Miss wolf here Mr Hernandez here miss Laney and uh the planner is not required for our first and housekeeping so we will introduce Miss Lany and check her attendance when shees thank you we'll take care of some of the housekeeping right now the adoption of the minutes uh from October 24th 2024 this was our regular meeting Mr Ringwood did you have an opportunity to review the minutes I did I find them in order I make a motion that we accept the minutes thank you very much we have a second by Mr Sylvester please I second that motion all in favor on the adoption of minutes who are eligible for October 24th I moving on to the adoption of resolutions uh the first one is application 1421 first student 4 Russo place 1901 lot 40 in the light industrial Zone this was a request for an extension of time to perform the balance of the bus service work on on the lot as well as a Time extension for a traffic study Mr coell did you have an opportunity to review the resolution number 1421 I read the resolution it was in order I'll make a motion to accept and I have a second by Mr Dean please I second that motion and a roll call on the extension of 1421 uh Mr Sullivan yes Mr Coello yes Mr Delia yes Mr Ringwood yes Mr Sylvester yes Mr pereda yes Mr Degan yes okay carried 70 okay and the thank you and the next one was the resolution authorizing the execution of the settlement agreement this is application 1521 o custom Builders LLC 725 Mountain Avenue block 2006 lot 32 Connie with Amanda's assistance can you please review and call out the names for those who are eligible Mr Sullivan yes Mr coell yes Mr Zia yes Mr Ringwood yes Mr Sylvester yes carried 5 to zero thank you and moving on to our I'm sorry the adoption we we have additional resolutions I missed I'm s application 2414 mclin this is five Webster Drive block 1816 lot 11 this was across the street from U school a corner lot second store Second Story improvements putting basically a box on top of the box triggered a few setback variances Mr Sylvester did you have an opportunity to review the resolution 2414 I did and I make a motion that we accept it thank you and may have a second by Mr Ringwood seconded and a roll call for those who are eligible on five Webster please yes Mr Coello yes Mr Delia yes Mr Ringwood yes Mr Sylvester yes Mr Pera yes Mr Degan yes carried 6 60 application 24 0010 this is the the mevas parcel located at 25 Liberty Liberty is going to be a a hot ticket this evening uh block 204 lot two this was a some work done void of Prior approvals and there was a significant driveway on this project um Mr Kel did you have an opportunity to review this resolution I did have an opportunity to read it the read was in order I'll make a motion to accept thank you and have a second by Miss West um she was not at okay thank you may I have a second B Mr per I second the motion thank you and for those who are eligible Connie Please Mr Kell yes Mr deia yes Mr Sylvester yes Mr pereda yes Mr Degan yes har five uh moving on to our formal applications for review our first is carried from August 22nd this is application 24009 Jason DIY Joya Joya at 32 Liberty Avenue block 1805 lot four if you would like we would feel more comfortable taking the seat I think think you sat there before yeah make yourself comfortable and uh for the record M wolf we are still under oath and morning correct and thank you very much for joining us I know we met uh probably in June we came back once or twice and I believe you have fine-tuned your application uh to present this evening that is correct yeah I was here in June and August thank you y uh good evening everybody uh you want you okay give a brief summary I'm sorry can want me to give a brief summary brief summary would be great and then if you could highlight um what modifications were were brought up and then we will open up the meetings members of sounds good so as mentioned previously I've lived at the property for 4 years now um I purchased a home from a builder romanella back in 2020 um since then my family has grown over the years um so what I'm looking to do is replace my existing patio area with a roof covered deck a gas fireplace um an outdoor kitchen area and a walkway going from the front to the rear um I have an undersized lot um it's shallow it's approximately 11,800 Square ft um and as a reminder the existing house is non-conforming with regards to some of the setbacks um as you mentioned I took the board's feedback in the last meetings June and August and submitted revised plans where whereby I reduced my Total Lock coverage by 4.6% um my revised proposal brings my total lot coverage to 28.3% um and as you mentioned some of the recent changes include reducing my rear setback to match my existing rear setback and relocating the fireplace to the side um versus the the back um and then in addition to that I have also completely removed the side patio seating area um from a previous proposal um those are the highlights of the major changes that I made I hope um the board finds the revisions fair and acceptable and thank you for your consideration can you remind the board what the set your the the August setback was and what the November setback is is presented this um yeah so I think the the original was it had a 15 foot setback and now I have again matched my existing um setback of 177 and relocating the fireplace instead of being a seven the a setback of 177 it's even further back um because I moved it to the side you relocated the fire feature to the the side yard where the side down the new side of the and that's a covered deck correct that's correct and that was included in the calculations per that is correct the hedge row that is depicted on your plan set does that EX exist today it does not exist does not exist today and what is the vegetation plan you have a you have a six foot white vinyl fence I believe uh yeah or five foot um it's uh six foot I believe it's existing um so yeah I'm not adding any fence it's an existing no no the fence exists yeah the trees don't exist and but the we just triggered another it might be a 5 foot do you have any pictures um or do we have any pictures I don't have five foot yeah I'm pretty sure it's a five foot yeah it's five foot there's some pictures we have in the packet I did in my packet I didn't have you know why I to you know I just we'll probably be able Mr do you have any questions for the appli no I mean I think the the revisions look good and kind of in line what what we're asking to see so I think it's a good job Mr Sylvester any comments at this point for the applicant I agree with Mr par about this Mr Ring I have no questions Mr Question Miss West Mr Dean no I'm good with the revisions Mr Kell the the wood that the covering on it is it like a perula type or is it solid covering um it's going to be solid covering shingles okay and the reason I asked is um because it's going to be covered I don't remember if you ever presented that deck that wood deck as a stone decking rather than Stone platform rather than wood platform or whatever you're using mhm because the material under the roof doesn't matter correct yeah and that's factor into my uh coverage no no I mean for your for yourself like if you had presented a stone at one time that was uncovered and now it's covered and you went to deck you could go back to the stone so depending upon what you put under the roof if you change it later the side to that's why I was asking I don't remember if yeah it was it was a The Proposal was always a deck okay yeah I mean I have no questions changes and as a condition of resolution you'll meet the storm water management requirements course yes uh I'd like to make a motion to open up the meeting to members of the public Midwest I'm thank you a second 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 on Liberty we us this evening thank you Mr Joya can you just please move that microphone over to the podium have a interested party thank you very much much for joining us and if you can please state your name and address for the record and I believe you have been sworn in at another session thank you uh P only three walk them please thank and your your last name Le thank thank you very much for joining us and please share your thoughts and comments um I give you all the letter I will read them well we you need to read something so you have something written to present to the board and you would like to read something okay so we're going to mark one in as evidence with you can bring them up with Connie and then we'll just be careful on that wire we don't we don't want to trip and fold before the holidays and we have a copy for Mr Jo okay thank you very much uh please share your clotes you want yes please the floor is yours please feel free to comment okay good evening I'm here again tonight to revisit what was H discussed previously at a prior hearing back in August regarding a construction proposal to the property lot behind mine you know it's a 32 Liberty Avenue and at the last meeting the board request that deck had in the previous rejected pl we moved back five additional feet from the rear property line for a total distance of 20 ft this distance of 20 ft from the back property line is consistent with the boorder of adjustments case number 2319 resolution from October 24 2019 which tubulated that Pao deck be 20 feet from the Le property line while the plan have being revised they still do not meet this criteria asked for by the board if you look at the rejected plan presented it back in August you can see the distance to the back of the line was 15 ft on the deck 12 ft from the P the new plant move this back to a uniform 17 ft s Ines for both p and the de this change however still requires additional 2T 5 in to meet the 20 ft from the back pop the requested by the board previous I will once again request that the board's previous recommendations be met the deck and the P should be Shen at and additional 2 Fe 5 in Additionally the new plant do not indicate the heights of the roof that is to be constructed over the new area at this time I would like to reiterate that elevation of their backyard is substantially higher than mine it varies from 2.5 to 3.5 ft higher depending on the size with a Downs slope in the direction of my property it was already pevious is increased by the Builder when the exis imperal was built this extra high plus additional increase height of the pedal deck and un specified roof height will serve to both block natural light on to my property as well as cause privacy issue as SP the P deck light and the light of the sight will be done into my backyard my house this will also affect the water damage to my property assuming they will have to level some of the left to right Varan in their backyard in order to build a deck ptio outdoor stove fireplace it will further increase the heights of their property over mine as the area is not closed I will also have concern about the noise level that will be present on any given day the Builder was originally granted variant on on this property and because of that the lot was already under side shallow and down sloping with insufficient setback distance the above objections and concerns are item that would affect my property value if and when would I ever choose to sell the house thank you again for your considerations thank thank you very much for your comments we'd like you to stay there for a few minutes okay um it is the board is in a very difficult position regarding the change in elevations between your yard and the subject parcel the subject parcel was constructed if there was an objection or something wrong at that time that was the the opportunity to seek out guidance from the burrow engineer the zoning official and the construction official at this time Mr Joya a few years later purchased the property after theate of occupancy was ordered he bought the house as is with the fence that was existing with the patio that was existing and with the grounds in the position that they were I understand and I I recognize that you've done significant research regarding the 2019 approvals and it's it's clear that there was a 20 foot setback requirement at that time for the patio the applicant today as the new homeowner is entitled for an Ask whether or not that will be approved is subject to discussion this evening but I just wanted to be clear on how the zoning board works where our limits are but you've brought up some valid questions and we're going to ask the applicant right now what is the height of the deck feature and including the roof from grade to the highest point 14t 14 feet okay the house is probably 29 or 30 feet so the accessory feature is 50% lower than the house this is an ition of that the patio is an open AED structure with a a barbecue feature correct cor and the total area for each can you can you just for the benefit of the board and the resident if you could just tell us what the area is of the patio and the area is of the deck sure the area of the deck is 338 Square ft and the area of the barbecue P area is 34 squet and Miss Lee those items should this application Advance this evening a storm water management requirement is applied subject to the review of the the burrow engineer or the Consulting engineer or Township I'm sorry I'm on the wrong side of my question is the time when the Builder comes the time for the Builder you know when probably hearing Ro Roman it sounds like the name romanella properties may have may have purchased they promised 20 fet that's why for the for the patio 20 feet which is correct right and yeah in 2019 when the board of adjustment experienced this parcel that was the request of the builder at that time but the new homeowner is entitled for any an ask but are they going to keep the 420 fet even now we'll find out soon what's on the table because it's too close to my house I know oh I understand that but the the ask this evening is 17.7 rear yard which matches it's 17.7 that right or is it 17 so that is the distance from the fence to the proposed new accessory features for this yard yes there is a resolution from 2019 that says 20 however Mr Joy is asked to be fair it says does say 19 to 20 19 19 to and I'm surprised that who did that resolution 2019 the to 20 ft because it has been built but there he the applicant tonight is entitled for the ask whether or not it could be it the application could be denied the application could be approved at 20 the application could be approved at 17 we we don't we're not yet there we're getting close to that discussion but we wanted to provide you with a fair opportunity to present because I know that this is a very sensitive topic for you and the board members here may have a question or comment for you as well Mr per um my only question is uh in the back of the lot there's all these trees on the plant those exist today correct they don't exist oh they don't okay so you're going to be putting in these trees as part of the project corre and are these trees like height wise how how tall are he going to be um probably going something six foot or greater that would help with the Privacy there may be there may be a vegetation row requirement there is one presented and it's there six foot plants at installation and the plants grow approximately one foot wide and one foot in I have to say the patio because you have a fence at least you can you can cover a little bit noise uh everything but the deck you know because it's slowing down so it's very high once they uh do the deck that means the deck is all above the the fence the deck is Mr Jo is the deck at grade or slightly elevated above grade um so I have a landing right now that's 2 feet high two feet high Landing that's just get bended further out so the whole duck is going to be 2 fet off the ground you know that so in your eyes it's it's 2+ 14 is 16 so the at the highest point the deck is 16 there is a 5- foot fence and there is a six foot vegetation row that's presented actually if for my place to see once they have a deck it means I can see the whole deck okay besides that the deck your property is lower than you showed us pictures the last time you were here yeah you know besides that on that deck uh their deck they have a TV you you think the noise that's too much the noise would be governed by the pwns noise noise ordinance I mean um both of the treat will help with this well I mean but regardless the town has a noise ordinance and um whether they professionally mounted a TV on the fireplace or not uh on Thanksgiving I dragged my TV out and put it on a folding table in the backyard but I adhere to noise ordin right it's not permanently out there but it's out there so it would be very difficult to say what you can and cannot right we we governed by nors ordinance yes so if that was happening you'd have to call the cops and they would come and I'm not sure if Berkeley Heights the cops can actually do the sound measurement but somebody would have to take sound I actually think sound measurement is the Board of Health it is but I wasn't sure if the police have the equipment but the Board of Health would have to come out and check the noise levels so that's one Avenue over Lea you would have you could just call the police if it was excessive right and we have had we have imposed that condition for people installing uh pools in their backyards Etc so which way does the TV face it's going to be mounted on the fireplace do it so the TV is going to be the fireplace feature has been relocated from the backyard to the side yard so if the TV if you have the fireplace and the TV on top of it it's facing sideways not in the direction that you're looking right now it would be I'm about the noise absolutely you know they have a and they are higher governed by the the municipality there are certain time limits and by way of complaint so if there was a concern you are welcome I hope it doesn't go this way but you're you're welcome to contact the local authorities if you were not happy with the situation and we are hopeful that that won't happen but we haven't voted yet so besides that the trees I really don't you know before they asked me they would plant the tree or the the fence I told them I I would like to have a fence because the trees my is you know the the Lots is is sloping down once they have a tree all the Roots come to my yard where we the trees you as you asked for a fence years ago you asked okay so the fence is there before I want the fence the the Apple kins in a good faith effort is trying to provide additional green for his benefit as well as a product that will it will grow greater than the height of the fence that exists today so the applicant may be trying to help alleviate some of the inconvenience to you by planting a row that's got it looks like there's 30 plants on this on this planet regardless unless it's an invasive species that's illegal like bamboo homeowner has the write to plan on their yard which would also help with drainage so I mean you can't tell a homeowner you couldn't you can't put trees on your own property I think if I'm not mistaken if parts of the trees go over to her side she could trim them well we have Richard leer here this evening provide a comment from the environmental commission so we're gonna have Mr ler come up because I I know he has a comment or too and he could tell us a little bit about his recommendations as far as vegetation would you mind Mr ler thank we're going to have our Environmental Specialist provide some guidance as well for the vegetation the benefit of everyone in the room the G behind you oh sorry thank you Mr w i just to understand we're talking about the vegetation that would be uh between uh the Liberty Avenue property and the woman's property is that right and if I could just swear you in I'm sorry would you raise your right hand you swear tell the truth perfectly night 49 Summit Avenue um M have you seen I saw a previous version I don't know if I because it's not just trees be you know it's trees around the property for for complete buffering of the home I don't think this is be careful with that wire I don't think I don't think this has changed since the original is that correct or or has this changed since the original Chang the orientation of the fireplace and the size of the de but I'm talking about the the Shrubbery and other the trees so um one of the things that the environmental commission did not look at was the slope away from the house towards the woman's property and uh if my memory is correct um you know you have a right to uh direct the homeowner not to allow water to run off onto another person's property um and you could solve that with a planting of a bios swell that is you'd have a Swale at that PO point where those the trees or shrubs are and those trees would be in a uh be appropriate for a Swale in other words they could take wet or dry situation and they could also serve as a a fence so you you choose the appropriate trees that would be planted in a Swale so you'd be uh solving two issues one is the storm water runoff and the other is the view uh towards the other person's property um uh and generally those are native plants was there something else I was supposed to address Mr Joy as a condition of approval should this application advance would you consider some of the environmental commission's comments as well as meeting the storm water requirements for the borrow engineer I would consider it okay appreciate Mr so miss Le did you have any final questions or comments um we are working to make the situation better again we have not voted but there will be a vegetation row and there will be provision to respect your property and keep any runoff or vegetation matter onto your property Thee the tree uh why I know the trees The Roots will come up my uh ground because uh before before they rebuild the you know they turn down the old house yes bu the new house actually before they have some tree a big so the roots is up my ground you know the my y so since they cut it all the roots I have to pull them out okay that's why I don't like them to have a trees you know otherwise I won't notice that if there's a root system that's pushing out there's a retaining W between the two properties if the root system is pushing at your property that's an opportunity for you to discuss that with with the the owner about addressing that if there's an encroachment if you have product from former trees that were cut down that it's not the present owner's obligation just something unfortunately you stuck with but you know a root system is greater than the size of the trip I know I'm not giving you the best answer but that's your property that's his property and I I don't think one neighbor will engage one neighbor may help out a neighbor but I don't think it's Mr joya's responsibility to address root system from a product that was removed years ago unfortunately that's no that's why say I don't like to then have the trees right we can't stop somebody from yeah I know that's what usually people are encouraging vegetation Pro you know this and besides that this unusual leaves they have a whole side the trees I don't know do you know what the product have you decided on what the product is product of the tree the what your vegetation role is some some type of Evergreen all it's an evergreen so there's a few needles an evergreen doesn't drop leaves every year I don't think there's so many variations of ever you and that product has a low a shallow root system there could be magnolia trees or Evergreen and Bloom Flowers there's a ton of different Evergreen type trees we can't we can't control leaves falling off trees we we're all we all rake leaves and we're all annoyed at the neighboring property that that doesn't rake their leaves and I know on Thanksgiving I'll be cleaning up my neighbor's leaves but it happens it's just nature there there's nothing we can really do about that but we do appreciate you spending some time with us this evening and we're probably going to vote shortly did you have any final words or comments I really wish they gave me the 20 F the back that's that that's that's we understand you we heard you and we will check the applicant has asked for 17 points thank you very much uh with that said Mr Joya did you want to just other members public thank you thank you motion thank you Mr Joy did you want to just provide a quick summation before we chat um yeah sure just to to you know the elevation is not changing um from what's existing my real setback um what what was there existing is is also not changing um and you know obviously in terms of noise level there never been an issue in the past and I respect noise and and neighbors and when it comes to leaves and you know roots or whatnot I'm always respectful of and consider my neighbor so we appreciate that thank you and you where your ask is 17 the for the setback is 17.5 correct 177 177 and it's 177 currently correct so he's not he's remember there's 177 there a Pao that exists y so the current patio is not the 20 no the current patio is 177 and that's what Mr joia bought even though somebody else built it improperly and then sold it that way so he inherited somebody else's Val um with that said uh Miss wolf conditions conditions uh that he will consider the comment from the environmental commission considering native plants the trees will be six feet or greater along the rear uh storm water management will be required they'll require they'll comply with the ordinance as to lighting and storm water and then I think that's it I we just give a list of the variances that we're covering I don't have my original paper with a denial letter so just we make sure we check them all rear yard set back to the deck the rear yard step back to the deck roof rear yard step back to the fireplace might not be an issue anymore because it moved um what's the height of the fireplace chimney um 14 14 so it Ma it matches the house is it is it gas the matches the roof sorry it matches the roof um more yes okay yeah building coverage did we get rid of that one now the building coverage reduced well it wouldn't matter because now we just go on a total of 25 or 30 right right right I think it was 29.9 if I'm correct for the total coverage pre previously previously reduced to 28.3 so really we're looking at a rear yard setback of 177 and a total coverage of 28.3 of two bar and I had a front yard location for patio grill sitting area I don't know why oh because it's it's behind the house right yeah so it's yeah you P for Street that's all I had with that said may I got a motion on this make a motion to approve as presented today we have a motion by Mr PR a second i' second that Mr Co okay so I'm calling only those who are present on August 22nd also are elig yes everyone Mr PR you weren't there on August 22nd okay so then can you make so I'll make a motion to accept the application as presented this evening I'll second the motion okay Mr Sullivan um I I appreciate the efforts I know we we met a couple of times on on an informal and came back and I appreciate the fact that you tweaked the project Miss Lee I know that this is a very sensitive topic for you I had wished that if you were experiencing something negative years ago that there would have been some assistance from the the township at that time difficult position for the zoning board now with a new homeowner um I'm in support of the application this evening the the homeowner worked to reduce impervious coverage tightened up the lot basically followed some of the guidance from the zoning I would be yes V on the sou Mr coella Yesa yes Mr Ring yes Mr Sylvester yes M Miss West Augustine yes Mr Dean yes parri seven thank you very very much uh touch basee Connie will have a resolution available probably during the month of December we will adopt it during the month of December but you can coordinate with the engineer Mr lyser maybe have a sit down regarding vegetation and an appropriate storm weather management system and then you'll probably have a feature for your Memorial appreciate it thank you everybody for your time and efforts thanks thank you thank you evening Liz how are you we're GNA give you a couple minutes to settle in and then we'll we'll pull the next up you ready okay I I know that you needed to not let last minut I got it also thank you we have ins in the back of the room that are available for your use is that yours take that [Music] one on this side right which is nice some we are moving on to our next application for re review application 2415 735 Springfield Avenue LLC 7:14 730 Springfield Avenue lock 504 L one and two this is the housing HP housing and business Zone we'd like to move the like to move the application to Mr santor to introduce the appliation a narrative and then introduce the team than you very good evening everyone good see you allat on thec 735 spr avue LLC this is the site that was across from the old Berkley Plaza that was um demolished couple years back um have that little pout on it Gateway property coming in from Gillette uh folks in the back folks Mr leer if if you can please feel free to step outside thanks we we're having some difficulty I want to make sure that the public can hear as well as the the picking up on the table we do have the public audience um let's move the microphone over sure Mr s so once again 7:35 Springfield Avenue LLC is the applicant um property located um the Gateway coming in from Long Hill on the right hand side a regularly shaped property uh this particular project is a three-story uh structure mixed use restaurant proposed use on the first floor and second and third floor would be residential comprising of 20 units distribution of bedrooms 16 two bedrooms two one bedrooms and two three bedrooms we'll get into some of the different elements and components but um there is one common in particular which we can kind of short circuit relative to co units and distribution between very low low and one two3 so Mr mista's me memorandum indicated that um we needed to provide two two bedrooms and one three-bedroom which is not going to be a problem architect will take us through and show us we're just going to take one of the regular Market units and turn that into an affordable and then switch the one-bedroom back to just a regular one-bedroom regular so no issue in complying there uhy your planning topic will cover it certainly will but that is the threshold issue that they and that was that was the M that was y that was one component and I just want to let you know that before we get into any confusion about it we have no problem with complying with that as far as um you know some of the main components that we're dealing with tonight uh density this is like the lone standout uh remaining piece of what used to be an hb3 Zone it's now just called the HB Zone pretty much everything else up and down Springfield Avenue is DD now except for this one property which is was left in HP for whatever reason not really that much different relative to density and its calculations the difference the main difference being under the HB Zone there's this Plaza bonus concept that if you develop um certain amount of square footage of green space or Public Access space then you're able to increase your density in units so really ends up with becoming the same calculation under the ordinance for DD in terms of how density is translated but all things being equal um 16 are permitted we're seeking 20 and um the other main thing deals with some with the height we have a slight height variation and uh we we'll work through that beyond that some normal setback stuff which the engineer will walk us through you know one of the things in particular which he'll address through some of his testimony that's important the position of the access here obviously it's you know coming down the bridge one of our goals we spent a good year in TRC um dealing with first Keenan then Liz and then obviously Tom S faroh's office Tom Bako downtown beautification committee a lot of iteration to this project so I do want the board to understand this Project's been in the work for quite some time we've had several meetings and a lot of uh back and forth through the professionals to bring this project forward with a variety of comments um that have been implemented into it that said one of the things you'll see is you know the driveway is obviously pushed very much to the left of the property and that's just done for obviously separating it from the bridge as far as possible which then also triggers some setback minimum setback criteria in terms of how that goes but overall um really nice project uh the intended restaurant is going to be more of a breakfast lunch Place seven to five operation between uh Monday through Sunday and that should work out fairly well with uh kind of parking and everything else so they're Ted on that Mr rato who is the principal of the building um is has a restaurant background he's going to build out the space and I you briefly touch base can you tell us a little bit about the height variation and the variance because a height variance is one of the more sensitive sure variances and I'm just curious what the you use the term variation what that is and I they'll be architectural and Engineering testimony so the height itself 36 ft is permitted um in this particular Zone we are at in terms of what we had submitted for originally we were at 3997 in order for it to be considered a d variance it would have a 10% variance above that we would be at 396 we're a little bit over but during the course of um last week or so um given the fact that this is a modular construction building turned out that the parit area and that specific Place ends up resulting in 40 what it 41 40 411 and a half so it's a little bit more than we've asked for here and one of the things that we can discuss with Miss leaney and obviously um you know how she weighs in on the planning side where it's actually being measured from based upon what the actual ordinance say it talks about the what is the that exact definition Brian what yeah what what is it what it said real quick and that's where because keep in mind it is not 41 feet all away right they wanted us to build when and when I say they when we were in the initial meetings with downtown beautification and also with Keenan um specifically they wanted to make the center of this building kind of stand they didn't want this flat appearance across all the way they wanted to use it and one of the things that's kind of unique about this property is because of the bridge and the height and where it's being positioned because some of this is actually being positioned alongside you know behind the bridge for all intens and purposes when it's being built right you're not going to see it I think part of that reason is they wanted to make sure that it was you know a little bit more Majestic through the middle but overall it's a small area where it doesn't comply in the center and specifically vertical Dimension average elevation the finished lock rate roof line to the stop stor in the case of a flat roof it says finish lock rate to the highest point of the roof line this top story so the question is is the roof line the top of the parit is it what what are they considering that to be like you know from or is it the top of the plate top of the roof like because if it's the top of the roof then we're under if it's we we went with the most aggressive most conservative definition which is the center section which is a center section parit as opposed to so I don't know if they're talking about parap if they're talking about roof line so that being said that's really the main issue is um in terms of what we're dealing with on the height and as I said it's only and we'll go through and illustrate exactly where it is exactly what it is so that you can see that specifically but that's kind of a general overview of what we're looking at and uh we have Joseph fi from engineering firm coming to testify and walk us through from eka and without further Ado Mr bot if you can raise your hand and get warn in to so from a variance perspective you're looking at density head of the building and restaurant capacity restaurant capacity in what sense well right now you're proposing 51 and I think it's 35 is permitted isn't that what I read here 35 perm minute up based on what the size of the square footage based on it usually goes based on tables right so from a parking perspective just reading what was in here right where it says restaurant seats poos 51 um 35 was on one of the applications so was a request for 51 we're looking for 51 right spaces because it's based upon I'm sorry 51 51 seats based upon the parking that calculation is one uh space for every three occupants so that said and I can get into this parking deviation that we have with Miss where Miss leany pointed out she's absolutely correct what had happened was prior to miss lean's involvement we were in TRC meetings with Mr use and Mr use had said listen and and I think this board can really connect with this historically speaking on a lot of projects along Springfield Avenue where there have been parking issues they'll come in and they'll get they'll be a variance granted for whatever the amount of apartments or whatever the case may be and then the then the commercial spaces have so little parking that the minute they go to see Mr Bako to apply for any particular use they're denied and they're back before the board because there's was really no adequate parking for any real use to be identified so we wanted to make sure that we had essentially a compliant commercial space that allowed for flexibility should it not be a restaurant should it be whatever the case and he had suggested and that's why our tables off using one space for one bedroom one and a quarter for x and one and a whatever whatever that table we that was kind of his suggestion in terms of what we should propose to back into the calculation so somewhere along the line instead of looking at the ordinance our professionals stuck that in from the meeting and put that in on the table as the as the permitted parking and that's why we had a deviation so we when we had submitted the plan we had shown as if the parking was compliant but in fact we two spaces short so when you look at two two two yeah so it requires um 51 we're at 49 now realistically speaking we could cut the restaurant to 45 and we're in compliance and you know that's where we're at just piggy back off of the parking requirement Liz this may be your wheelhouse EV stations are now a requirement was the credit for the EV stations considered in the calculations for the parking re it was okay okay well thank you and the EV station is not part of the Ada right well Ada is Ada right I'm saying they're separate separ no no no the site is is well parked and I think really when you look at you know historically speaking I've obviously done a lot of applications before this board and in my mind you know density is such a function of parking in some aspects like can you adequately Park something because it's not as if we have F controlling so if you can build an 18,000 square foot building and you could put 18 1,000 foot units or 9 2,000 foot units and the only thing it changes is parking doesn't change the size of the building doesn't change the parking lot doesn't change anything and the reality of it is is that you know in this instance we have a very parkable site and um you know all things being equal we hope that as we go through the presentation the board sees these things and we're certainly willing to you know discuss those items but that's really where we were on that parking anomaly how we arrived here and you know why we're going to need to why we're seeking the variants at this point in time we want to make sure and specifically I had a lot of input on this because I've been that guy who's had to come back in to go put a salon in or to go put in a retail unit and you can't get it in because you can't park it I mean like everything that's ever been done along Springfield Avenue I I think almost everything requires a variance so you know we tried to avoid a little bit of that in that regard to kind you know more of a standard on the on the commercial side um anything else why don't you tell us your list of professionals and what what is to be presented before us tonight just so AB knows any absolutely the benefit of the viewing audience we have Joseph Bachi from eka Associates he's a civil engineer he's gonna walk us through the site take us through some of the uh engineering functions and you know site Dimensions setbacks required General bulk overview of the project we have Brian Taylor architect he'll be testifying showing some of the exhibits walking through the height going through some of the things addressing Miss lean's memo on planning Concepts from an architectural perspective and then Mr pesano is our planner should we need Mr Amato on behalf of the uh project itself he's here to testify but I don't know that we'll meet him per se that's it thank you well like to hear your first professional you got it so Mr Bachi can you please introduce yourself spell your name and um get war in uh Joseph Bachi b a c hii your address uh e AA Associates 328 Park AV Scotch Plains New Jersey if you raise your right hand do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes thank you Mr bot can you just walk through your CV real quick to be accepted as an expert can talk about your experience in engineering and your license being current and also number boards testified uh yes I'm a licensed civil engineer in the state of New Jersey my license is active in good standing uh 2012 graduate of R Ruckers University with a BS in civil engineering um and I've haven't had the pleasure to be in front of this board before but I've uh been through you know throughout the state mostly Union County plenty of boards throughout the years okay any questions regarding mr's qualifications thank you very great okay Mr bot can you please just take us a little bit through the site and uh kind of walk us through for the board's edification a little bit of an overview of the site and some of the uh bulk variances that we're seeking for the record those are the same plans that were submitted more than 10 days in advance of the hearing correct that's correct thank you yeah so uh starting with the cover sheet I'll draw your attention to the zoning map we have in the middle just to kind of set the scene here uh SS in in the center here we're kind of right on the edge of H Berkeley Heights to the West you have the pic River the tley bridge there to the north is Springfield have you have a County Properties um across the street from Springfield uh to the east you have commercial properties in this area in the South you have uh New Jersey Transit rail line with Residential Properties across the street I'm going to put to the last sheet of our set that's our survey just to show what's going on at the site right now as you can see I'm sorry um it's a very irregularly shaped site almost you know vely roughly rect shape to area5 25 sare ft the site is cly vacant you will see our survey is um show 2 and half story frame dwelling that's since been demolished so the site is vacant a mix of grass uh and beat up Asphalt so definitely a need of a some improvements there bit of an eyore right now in my opinion uh site's relatively flat has a gentle slope from the northeast corner kind of towards the rail and towards uh the river over here so kind of a Gent in terms of storm water flow already site kind of flowing generally in this direction and then offsite away from Springfield app for the most part um that's really it it's a vacant site so not much to say there moving on to sheet two thank you yeah all right with us as our attorney mentioned we have a three story mixed use building be located in the center of the site here first floor be as of right now thinking a cafe with majority of it being parking which is mostly covered a little bit Exposed on the sides and rear um additional relief we are seeking while I'm on the topic of parking um it is required by ordinance to be covered uh we're looking for an open parking space parking area here um so that's some of the relief we're looking for parking was touched on I'll stick with that so I think it was I don't have to go through everything but through the trc's we uh came up with a slightly different calculation so we do have 51 spaces required would be the correct calculation uh we have 43 physical spaces and then credit for six EV units uh we are complying with Ada uh I do want to touch on one of the comments from from the engineers letter or the planner letter um a 12 foot wide requirement uh for Ada was mentioned I will say we have eight and eight there's a couple different ways you can typically do the ada8 parking spaces but Federal Regulations 8 and8 um is is okay or you know for Van you do 11 and five I'm talking about the the space itself and the access aisle so I just want to point out that they did Federal Regulations there um going to the offsets of the site as I mentioned it's triangular in shape it's it's a little irregular so it's a little tough to fit a rectangular building on the site without some some relief for setbacks so we do have uh we're seeking relief for front yard um minimum front yard setback .19 whereas 20 ft is required you can see the way the building's oriented we're a majority of the building we do have that 20 ft you know in all these areas it's just this this corner here where we got 15. one9 so seeking relief there but and it it grows as you travel further east that's correct Mr bot I mean at that point it's more obscured by the bridge correct that's correct yeah on the east side seeking Rel sidey yard 4.02 feet here and again that also row As you move to the rear what is the um 1486 on that chart right I see the 1519 on the the left of that 15.87 is the rear yard that's the rear it's meur to the left two measurements to the left it says you have 1519 15 1486 corner to the corner where you had to set back of 15 left go to the left of that the last one that's what he's asking about that's the property line not so the the property kind of angles from there um so it's not the that technically isn't fronting on Springfield AB what's it front side yard yeah that's a side yard it it's an odd-shaped lot so that's considered a sidey yard your front is at a triangle you would only have one side front and back on a side right roughly triangular so you have this is this is your the property line here is your front that side that's rear and then another side here so roughly triangular but it does have more than three sides but is there a is there a rail parcel where the foot path is see where it says slow easement for rail is is that is is that rail is that part of the rail line parcel because that's the difference between the side yard setback and the front yard setback you not that's not part of our property I know that but is that is that a parcel I am not sure to be honest with you off the top of my heads it's a dedication I that would still be considered door it's not ours yeah our our lot ends here uh that doesn't you know I'm looking at the zoning map there's no lot designation onot so if there's not a lot then that's the 1486 is is the front yard C back right because it's not a lot it's still fronting Springfield dat fine I mean so then we'll just be to to clarify them we'll need a little since since we're in that area uh the first page that you have says slow basement for rail and the second page and then it it doesn't appear anymore what what happens to is any of this project impacting that slow basement for the rail no okay okay all right we're clarified on that then revise that 14.86 got the side yard again 14.02 in this corner and it grows uh to generally be beyond the 15t requirement um like like you mentioned for the front yard there um rear yard likewise we are looking at 25 required the minimum is 146 actually 20 I think required right okay um that kind of varies on the back it's roughly 15 foot with the minimum you know 1487 uh we talked about the building height we showed on our plans based on average grade 39.97 with you know about a foot extra a foot in an inch added we're looking at 41.1 and that's the center feature yeah that's the highest to pronounce it this is an item that was disc just at length with the beautification committee wanted to stand out yeah correct I'm sorry the beautification and the TRC and TRC and also um it was one of Keenan's comments early on um but but to be fair and clear the difference has come up because of the modular construction so when we noticed it we thought we were 3997 which was the center feature but because of the modular construction the way the gapping of the box and and how that gets constructed it's actually the one one like the 411 is what it ends up being so it wasn't that we proposed it at 411 but but the same kind of structure and how we're looking at the front of that building it's just getting pushed a little higher because of the modular construction the Mechanicals are they roof Ms or are they in the building roof roof Ms and will the architectural features demonstrate some type of masking of the roof M units yes okay and and for clarification right the rear yard it says 1487 on 20 is it 20 or 25 I have 25 foot minimum okay only because on the paper it said 20 I might have I might have that's fine mistaken like that's what I thought it was too so um we we mentioned we talked about parking generally the the covered partially covered parking in the rear number of spaces I'll direct your attention to the site access we did push this as far away from the bridge as we could so we're we're basically can't go any further east or right plan right um to make a feasible access point for the site um we do have per Union County standards a site triangle shown here so that's the dash line extend extending out here you can see visibility this kind of projects like you know what a what a vehicle a driver can see so his visibility you're basically good as is say before you even reach the bottom of the bridge which is shown here in the dash lines so you know we're very conscious of of safety issues with the bridge you know vehicles coming over cresting so we wanted to get that as far away as possible and we do have no obstructions um in accordance with the Union cter play calculations um other features of the site we have a beautiful streetscape in the front with papers um the decorative lights and then the plaza kind of between the streetcape and the building itself is very nice patio area we'll have some grass and landscaped areas um we do have a monument signed we are seeking relief there uh 7.6 foot setback whereas 10 is required uh we kind of want to center it in this in this grass area here uh and have kind of better Vis visibility from the street there we're going to have some very I'll show you on the Landscaping plan but we have just a very nice landscaped area kind of around the sign and around this area along with like I said the pavers you have these nice concrete walks you know very very connective uh site here from the street from from the parking uh and then also this area we added this gravel walkway proposed the client is in in talks with Union County uh where they have the property across the street of potentially connecting this to a path that goes under the bridge and will kind of provide more con connectivity from our site safely you know under the bridge not having to cross the road and go into the county park uh that's proposed on that area so I think that's a really nice feature but at this time the walk terminates on your property correct yeah no discussion with rail or the county at this time uh no I don't think it will impact uh rail we'll check that but but yeah they have been in uh in contact with the county but nothing you're going under a bridge you're going near Rail Railway you're going along the B River yes yeah we're not very far along that is our intent though um I think there's been some preliminary discussions with County that our our client has had um but I think if that goes through that would be a great feature of the site here one of the reasons why we suggested it is you know we want to make sure that anyone who's walking down would be able to walk under versus walking right across in front of the bridge and that was really you know it's a cost to us but it's something we wanted to try and do as an additional safety measure to try and work out so we're amable to it if they meet us there fantastic you know if they don't they don't but we're going to try our best to try and be a good neighbor and then uh should that not take place there will be signage to encourage pedestrians to cross at River Road at the the hash marks we can do that that's not a problem we can certainly accommodate that work with Mr Saro and the placement of that tou on a couple other uh other relief we're seeking we do have a nice loading area here it is under sized um we're proposing 11t wide by 28t long the requirement is 15t wide by 50 foot long uh we're not anticipating any you know big trucks here or anything FedEx UPS Amazon trucks we would expect which can definitely fit in that loading area and what's the dimension of the web uh it's 11 foot by 20 has the fire department signed off on um no I don't believe so the only reason why I'm asking is in the in the event of a fire that the fire apparatus may need to use that loading zone to fight fires I'm wondering if it's wide enough to handle a unit it's a big in here I mean I don't know if they're they had I don't know how they're GNA fight a fire but that's that's typically a question that comes up is how do we address a fire we're happy to work with them um I'm not positive about Berkeley Heights Fire department typically they're okay I don't know if you're talking about turning around turning around if just getting getting apparatus in that area in the event that you had to control the fire yeah I mean there enough room in the you know in the cas of fire you can park right the aisle here I've dealt with this issue before and I think one of the things that our research led us to at the time and I'm just speaking off the top they can't be too close because of the collapse concept so they have to be standing off so more likely than not they'll either be right at the entryway or they'll be actually in the roadway and running H in because if they put overheads right across the front of your project where overhead overhead overhead cable overhead wi utility probably okay probably yeah thinking out loud forut how is um I heard you speak to the not fire trucks but garbage and um the garbage and recycling and all of that being housed or dealt with for the property so they have an internal trash room with shoots that'll deposit it uh with this area right here trash room and then the property manager um you know I guess as needed they have a secondary trash room here that'll have kind of larger dumpster when you say here can you just specify so we have it for the record oh I'm sorry uh so I Center I'll say center of the first floor building is the trash room um then here to the east there's a standalone a secondary trash room so the property manager will collect the trash recycling from here and and put it in this room for pickup so then you have a nice garbage truck or Recycling and enter the site come right to this room here you don't have to come under doing anything so it's a dedicated kind of trash uh pickup room and again there's we have a no parking area adjacent to the Loading area for that's for a turnaround and also would it could uh secondary application would be so garbage trucks can get in there and maneuver snow REM snow push to the sides get take it off the property that yeah that was in one of the review letters uh we started we started thinking about that um it will be again this is mostly building so this you know most of it's going to fall on the building in this area you could potentially push it to this corner I know it looks a little small but I don't think it would be that much snow um potentially in the back we just have to be careful I'll get to the the grading dange plane we do with French drain back there could maybe push it back here but worst case scenario um we talked about it the other day they'll have snow you know in a big storm uh have a have someone come and and haul off the snow um okay other uh variances kind along with the uh s the building setbacks and our access and parking we are for a driveway setback property line of that's also in in this corner of the place here turn area um and step back in the building Z versos that's that's just this area here little portion of building there for the entrance way so we no setback there but it's not like a main feature of the building is that that's the four 1.4 I'm sorry that's uh that's the zero uh offset from building three foot required we have zero on the east of the access Drive entering the parking lot the 1.41 is a little bit east of that I see it on the curb I think I covered uh the relief we're seeking and then the general overview of the site um go to the next sheet unless you guys have more questions about the site layout not so much the site layout but know snow is brought up looking at the plan and right behind you is the river I'm not sure pushing all the snow back into the river the right well the river I mean the river's on the point of the uh triang the river's uh the side right but if you look at where they push the snow across the back then you wouldn't be able to park right so the Snows got to go somewhere so piling up in the back I mean snow removal is one thing but piling up in the back we're Limited in space to begin with in depb in a very large snowstorm where would you where would you put it all and that's what I'm say so yeah no I think in a large snowstorm it's GNA have to be taken away there's no question in a large storm yeah I think that you know the idea of putting maybe an area when we did 391 we had that area where you could kind of push it up and store it right and then it would kind of flow back down and you know catch the there's like a drainage crate I think that catches it over there but I think that if we had like a small storage area there because we're okay on coverage it's really not much of an issue for us you could for smaller storms maybe address it but for the most part um I think that uh you know in this particular site parameter you're going to probably have to remove yeah just you have the river and the railroad tracks right right you don't can't impact either right right yeah yeah in a large storm there's no question it's gonna have to you know come off I mean right now it was nice to see rain again today who knows if it'll ever snow again that just the next sorry yes next well doing that just one quick thing on that on that rear step back because it would bother me what had happened was I had said from this Inception I had received plans from Kean with the updated master plan in December or Jan very early in January of last year and he told me it was in the HP Zone I went to the TRC meetings and Mr bak and I had a continuous disagreement that I kept saying was HB and I said look I can read the map he said it's DD we submitted everything DD and we find out literally two days before the 10day window that it's HB and I had to change all the plans and he had to change all the plans so my stuff was based upon the rear yard was correct at 20 because it was 10 and 10 10 for two stories plus 10 more for a third story it was 20 I changed all the other stuff I didn't see that the rear yard had changed when I submitted the new use plan so that was the the difference so his is correct on the Block plan my written use plan was incorrect I didn't make that mod ification either way the ask is the same the ask is the same I just want to explain that in the DD Zone this would be a 20 but in the HB it's a it's a 25 really not really major concern for the site I mentioned before on the survey stor is generally flowing from the Northeast to the Southwest you can see from the cont Lin we're generally keep with that so we're keeping the same drainage area drainage patterns uh a portion the roof will be collected storm water from portion of the roof will be collected in undergr detension Basin underneath the parking lot um a lot of the other runoff knock in the building is going be sheat flow back here little French drain that we have along the perimeter the rear yard and will'll eventually discharge from there um again at this point here train is is kind of slope so this would be your L angle and it kind of just gently will will be release from there um and then a portion of the site is is collected the front uh through additional FR strange which will you know it looks nicer than a catch P so we're trying to keep up with the Aesthetics that I mentioned before a small portion will be piped into an existing catch Basin on Springfield da and then just a small portion here cheap blow to Springfield da but really no major change to the drainage patterns we're not increasing flow we're reducing it slightly people on also 21 100e storm that's really on theing and plan here chairman yes just concerning the storm water um modeling I mentioned it's reduced with the two1 100 Year storms believe though the township ordinance requires a 3 in over um the imperious coverage increase okay to be stored so I just want for the record to that to be clear that I think you may need to kind of revisit because I think that might ultim result in a larger storage volume being requ no problem double checking that yeah so we'll we'll take that into account and yeah if the B's got to be bigger be bigger no other issues though on the general concept um well why don't we have you'll finish your testimony Mr Bing and then it's a perfect opportunity for Mr Hernandez to to provide his report and the engineers can chat about the engineering aspect and then when we touch base on the planner we'll do the same procedure sounds good very good thank thank you covered a lot of this so I'll start but I mentioned we're g to have very nice in the front just a good mix of between ground cover and and small shrubs you know kind of surrounding these uh patio areas just making this a nice vibrant uh plaing here for for the public um that's then you know some some Foundation plantings along the building here we have a number of of trees kind of scattered out throughout the front some dog Woods um and then in terms of lighting we have a parking lot well lit we have the three Street Escape lights and then we have a fourth the same model on site to illuminate entrance when you come in um so yeah that's you know we have nice what is the length of the of your front uh two 205 ft 205 ft so and you said it's three of the decorative correct lamp standards yes and they're spaced I thought the spacing for the lamp standards was every 30t so I unless you know if there's been discussion about the number of lamps already we'll have them as needed I thought we had it appropriate I could be wrong but if it's 30 ft we I I think there's a there was a requirement of 30t spaces between decorative lamps on projects a perfect example is the the Y you you see that that line of the decorative lamps I believe it's every 30 feet but yeah double check yeah whatever it is we we'll comply with so you know we have them on here we clearly are intended 50 ft you know I thought okay could be the number as well we will definitely comply um gu on on the street skate we also confirm I know there it was pointed out in the letter U for us to kind of make sure we're we're in compli compliance with the street skate we do have one bench one trash receptacle if more are required or or bicycle rack I think was mentioned uh we can double check that but we'll we'll work with your engineer and planner to make sure that we have no problem with a bike R yeah no problem being comp with the streetcape requirements Mr Mr chair if I can interject it's uh every 50 ft on the street front but it's 30 feet internal site internal to the site so everyone was correct everybody well the 50 feet is it where does it start it's just 50 ft in between so you don't have to start at the corners of your property which means you only need three or do you start at the corners of your property which would mean you in my opinion to start at the corners of the proper so if you start at the corners then you would need more because if they have 200 feet then you would need four LS not three if you start at the interior you're coming off 50 then you would need three so your starting point is important onto the number of lamps right because 50 feet in between in between what I think the problem that we have specifically is that we're 1.4 feet off the property line where the driveway is right well the driveway setback is 015 and the driveway setback line is 1.4 on five right well I don't know how much area is on the corner to be able to drop it but this is what if there is I mean we'll obviously follow whatever the engineer needs to follow it's not a problem I wasn't sure if there was GNA be one here or if it was going to start picking up here and going down or just say either way it's not a problem we'll get it figured out we're not looking to it's not a big deal how um um high is the overhang where cars are to be able to go through just thinking back to the fire apparatus and the ambulance would they have the ability um and their Will based to make a turn and get back there should a resident 11 fall ill or something like that 11 feet 8 in I don't know if that's the height of of a fire truck but I guess a ladder truck would never get under there usually emergency service and you know to your point Mr sanor a fire engine would not drive through the building to the opposite side no they would always be on the it is a very sensitive topic and I appreciate we experience this uh often in Fanwood it's just uh it's the clearance and you have to take into consideration any duct or sprinkler work in there as well that the and that's where the actual naate under so the clearance 11 um believe that's adequate for for ambulance related to that topic does it make sense then to move the EV spaces closer to the entrance in case there is a fire because I know those can be difficult to put out oh to the yeah maybe in this area yeah a little bit closer to the entrance issue I think we touched about the TRC if I could just have you swore would you raise your right hand you swear tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth and your name and address model de New Jersey thank 077 26 thank you s what's your relationship to the project I'm the own project okay I believe that was a discussion at one of the PRC meetings and uh Matt had uh stated that I guess if there is an EV fire they usually drag the car out into the street or something like that to an area where they can put it out but there's a specific reason why and I think Matt uh you know testified to that but he's not here tonight yeah as to why I think it was one of the TRC meetings that we had that I mean I will say and they agreed that it was reason with with well the electrical room is in the center of the building yeah it it requires us to run uh you know it makes sense to be near the electrical room for the building we also I don't know if I mentioned this um one of the EV space one of the handicap spaces is EV um this is definitely the best spot for the handicap through the door locations so it kind of makes sense to keep all the EV one of the handicap has to be EV we want to keep all the EV together in this area um got a them anchored by the handicap there one of them being EV and keeping them all there um but is okay with the EV stations being there then it's that it works yeah I mean I've not that it matters really but I've done a number of projects and we've had towards the center and you in those other projects you were able to have the EV spot as the ADA compliance spot because I thought they always had to be separate you're actually required to have one depending on the number of EV spaces a certain percentage has to be handicap accessible so we fall under we need one to be so yeah there's one overlap there it's a requirement but we are SE we have separate Ada for you know non EV space as well on on the site I think that really covers my testimony just for clarification the park model light stay with on the property yes Mr the gas meters that's always a sensitive topic where the exterior gas meters where are the gas meters planned for the 20 units plus the [Music] commercial okay great thank you very much uh Mr Hernandez yes your engineering report and and comments for Mr B yes thank you Mr thank you believe you um was requested our report I just uh one thing I would like to just have on the record leave on your site plan you indicate there's an existing welcome to Berkeley Heights sign located um in your property your plant indicate that to be removed I believe it's the Township's desire for that to be relocated somewhere um so just want to see if you'll be agreable to work the that thank maybe that would be something the committee could work on right the sign I mean that's the the Gateway sign coming in over the bridge from correct J let the town beautification committee work with them to decide where they best see fit right it's just going to be a relocation of the sign if they think it's good looking the beautification is good sounds good to me and we covered the storm water so yeah yeah we'll work I'll work with you on that that being said other so you've had an opportunity to review the November 18th neglia memorandum correct right anything in particular that you had any concerns with irrespective what's been testified to today that um you know that we need any relief waiver or disagreement on that we can't comply with I think we covered uh so no issues right you would you address or somebody just for clarification the email from Tren fetus Sergeant fetus in reference to the location of the pillars yeah um that's going to be the architect the AR yep we have a render without it I mean the long and the short is is we have no problem removing them and that you know that works we just tried to create you know a little bit different uh aesthetic and it's fine to take them out Mr s your your team has reviewed the the letter from November 18th from M yes available to comply with all what he just confirmed yep so that's that any specific questions I know we've been questioning Mr botch as we went along members of the board questions for Mr bot this is the engineering only testimony at this time and Mr santor we'd like to reserve the opportunity to revisit any of your professionals throughout the course of the session and this may spill into a second session um Mr P any comments for the engineer um only question I have we may have covered it but I know we've been covering a lot can you just briefly show us from Springfield Avenue how the traffic would flow in and around the building this stor is a little busy so I'll show you here um so you're you're on Springfield here the right side of the road if you're coming from the bridge coming along Springfield I'm into the site here um if you're parking in the back you're you're flowing into here in the middle there you come all the way to the end outou spots here as well and then this I mean this is the this is the only means of ingressing erress so or you're making a left in right out out okay all right yeah it's all there okay perfect Consolidated access that's all Mr Sylvester no questions thank you Mr Ring no questions thank you Mr Dela Miss West um just one quick question is it going to be a right turn only or is it left and right turns um I think you good for both coming out of it like if somebody's coming down the bridge so they can still make a left out or is it going to be right turn we don't have it right turn only right now I I did mention the we do have the site triangle here it it is good visibility there's no obstructions here and that goes all the way to the point of the bridge the crest of the bridge where they it's you know hard to see them coming over that's even further Beyond this this is right where the bridge you know the separation is beautiful building and the plan was designed taking into consideration the uh County's design uh site triangles that's correct yes yeah I think we experienced that on another project something like that if I can note just because you you brought up the fence in the front uh we CH my address with that pointing that out so the the pillars are not obstructing the view of Medi can you can you repeat that we missed some the pillars the pillars for the proposed fence in the front we if you look at the site triangle it's not an obstruction to a driver's site think Mr Kell mentioned the and I think the architect is going to speak to it there there was some police sensitivity about the the pillars that are closest to the driveway maybe angling them a little bit different or 45 degree angle or something that provides additional opportunity for a motorist to safely navigate in or out remove change whatever you want I mean we're we're expecting you know that there'll be a county park Improvement there you know we're expecting additional 20 units of of families in your area so that there will be significant Walkabout in that area especially with the county park thank you are you I'm sorry question are you merging the Lots yes it's part of it um I think somewhere it says lot consolidation plan on one of the things and we talked about this during the TRC they wanted to just trying to consolidate it there was some discrepancy we talked remember we on the one meeting we talked about the address differentials you work tax you know addressing your density if you've got the two Parcels combined in area are a greater number than 110,000 foot parcel and 12 there you go right it it's true Mr Dean I'm good Mr K any members of the public for oh we're gonna we're gonna open up the members of the public at the end of oh I wasn't sure if they wanted to question him directly I don't think there is anyone but I I think we'll keep it moving and listen to your professionals but we will Reserve opportunity for good okay we now have H Brian Taylor architecture now comes the pretty part of the presentation was that your notes oh you don't need notes um Mr Taylor can you please introduce yourself spell your name and provide um some of your qualifications after one raise your hand the whole Tru thank you your name and address Brian Taylor t y l 95 watchong Avenue North queenfield New Jersey 7060 um I have a license architectural license in New Jersey as well as six other states um my education at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and I've been in practice in North planfield for 23 years your license in good standing yes it is thank you and you've testified before I'm assuming I think I've testified before this board but I've testified for dozens of boards in newers great thank we accept and thank you very much for joining us this evening so Mr Taylor um you've obviously heard some of the testimonies Mr Bachi went through and thought we need to address but I don't want to interrupt you please just start with your presentation and walk us through um the site the unit distributions and and the like and the height obviously doing an issue that we want to address specifically okay so uh we have a three story mixes building a590 foot that b the third floor the parking on the first floor the residential units on the other two floors uh the first floor also provides for residential storage areas there's a partial basement that contains utility space as well as additional storage um the entire building including the first floor parking area is uh fully protected with an automatic sprinkler system and the entire building meets all accessibility and ADA requirements uh set forth by the New Jersey uniform construction code um the gross area of the building is 53371 square feet uh the dwell unit mix of the 20 units uh there will be um two one-bedrooms 16 two-bedrooms and two three bedrooms we have three affordable units uh there was actually one uh one bedroom one two bedroom and one three bedroom and I think there's been some discussion over um creating an a moving the one-bedroom affordable to a two two-bedroom affordable unit which we can certainly do point that out on the plan um I guess the first thing we can well actually what what I'll do is just kind of walk you through the plan so just for the record those are the same plans that were in advance yes I have one drawing that's an exhibit 101 and this deps both the basement floor plan as well as the first floor plan so we'll start from the basement so the basement uh basically has a stair and elevator that go down from the lobby area uh we have the sprinkler um and water utility room we have an electrical room we have a Janitor's Closet we have a convenience bathroom down there we have a general storage area and then we have about half of the resident storage in the basement um so on the first floor and our site is oriented the same way as the uh the Civil plan we enter the site through the drive driveway there's some parking out in front uh the balance of the parking is underneath the building so residents would enter the building through residential Lobby towards the center of the building um there's a package room adjacent to the lobby there's a an office there's a convenience toilet and then there's the elevator and the stair um obviously to go up to the to the upper floors also on the first floor is The Cafe restaurant which is also access from the front of the building uh The Cafe restaurant opens up into a trash area which I'll explain how in more detail how the trash uh system works over on the left hand or west side of the building toward the front we have the balance of the uh residential storage units and um we have the second sterile on the left um there's an additional trash room which was mentioned uh by Mr Bachi which is um on the front right corner of the building uh this is actually where the trash would be taken away um and because the question came up before about gas meters um we intended to locate the gas meters at the end of the drive a um and they would be behind Ballers to protect them I see it than on the east side of the project East Side in addition to that um since we're talking about utilities we do have a space over on the west side of the building to the left of stair be where we put our electric meters um and you know these are us usually things that are subject to final approval by the utility company but we thought that was a good spot now Mr Taylor while we're on the topic of just dealing with some of these things um on the plan specifically there was no location of a transformer correct correct can you please indicate what it need relative size where it would go yeah so the Transformer we anticipate that with the size of the building we're not going to be able to tap off a full mounted Transformer um we will most likely have a a sight uh or ground mounted Pat Transformer Transformer will probably be four or five you know square feet it'll sit on a pad that's maybe 8 by8 um so we think we can find you know room on the site for it uh it will take up a small amount of impervious coverage but I don't think that would impact do you have any idea at this point where on the project that I was thinking over in this area so so you're on that area so it's blocked by the the parit of the of the uh the bridge you're coming off the you're really not going to see it correct probably not and we're obviously would screen iten we're under on coverage so the pad is not going to be any issue for us right and we'll work with obviously Engineering in any way shape or form to screen and appropriately screening is you know these the gas meters and I appreciate that you found locations with them and identify them sometimes boards planning boards zoning boards miss that I see a beautiful architectural design plan but all all of a sudden here it is this this the the Transformer box right in the middle of or an island of gas meters that's not what we would like to say and I appreciate that there are considerations from the GetGo of masking those as best possible and one of the reasons Mr Taylor indicated what you know we talk we have construction folks here as well the power of this the electrical Loom is down in of middle in here the building so as you look at that we don't want to have the thing so far away where we have them so we want to keep it somewhat close so it's kind of technically in the front yard but whatever relief we might need for that we would obviously want to ask for that but obviously we're tucked away screened away blocked so guess it would be very similar to what they had to do with the Paris Paris which one was that new building movie theater oh yeah okay they boxes right in the front see yeah right there any any generator on the property yes where would that be located we're GNA have two generators uh one is going to be for all the common area spaces in the building and one will be for The Cafe restaurant will'll be located on the roof plan and I can point that out to you great the one that's the um the tag or the Transformer is it any fencing or anything around it to like I guess deter children or anything yeah I mean they're they don't typically have fencing around them I mean we could put around them I mean that would all be up to the utility company what they permit we could certainly put some landscaping around it to Shield it um but they you know they generally are out in the open I don't think there's any if you go drive by Paris there's a big green box they put some decals on it to try to make it plan but it's just is where it's just locked and it's a metal box just is where it is well fortunately we have a pretty tucked away concept for it so okay I'm sorry to interrupted Mr Taylor but I just wanted to stay on that utility concept while we there thank you very I mean it's important when we do Urban projects too that's a big consideration we don't want to put gas meters on the front of a storefront of a building so we have to find alternate prices for them okay so um I think I kind of wrapped up the first floor so now [Music] to so on the the bottom part of the page so from the lobby we're coming up in this dark gray area that you see is all the circulation the corridors and the stairs and the elevator so you would come up um you would come out of the elevator or the stair into the corridor system it's a double loaded system so there's a corridor and there's units on either side um so we have you know old or you know unit with a combination of one twos and threes uh these are all two bedrooms on the bottom um we have stair B all the way on the left stair a is in the middle on this floor we also have a lounge for residents and this would be a place where um you know people could just go hang out there's a there's a kitchenet or a bar in there some PS in there maybe some games uh this would Al also be a place where possibly you know a resident can rent the space out for parties and so forth there's also convenience bathroom there in addition to that adjacent to the lounge is a gym um it's a little over a th square feet almost 1,200 square fet and it would just be a gym with some treadmills and some weights and place where people could go exercise um on this plan we actually have two of the affordables so we have our three-bedroom affordable right in the corner and this is a three-bedroom two bath unit it's a generously sized unit um 1370 s feet and then we have a two a two-bedroom affordable over on the left hand side 998 Square fet um all of the units on this floor have balconies all of the two-bedroom units are also bathrooms all the units have uh inunit washers and dryers um you said B all across the back or front and back I'm sorry balconies the units in the front and back have balconies or just in the front and back right there's only one unit on the third floor so let's go up to the third floor so the third floor is very similar to the second floor except that it doesn't have the any amenity space it's just all residential units um these are all two-bedroom units the one unit that doesn't have a balcony is this two-bedroom right here and that's because of the front facade and sort of the the entry piece of the building um so on this floor plan we have a one-bedroom affordable which rounds out our third affordable unit 633 square feet U but I know there was some I guess negotiation and talk about percentages and we needed to turn that one we needed to turn that one bedroom affordable into a two-bedroom so what we decided to do is will this will become a market rate uh unit and then we will have this two-bedroom over on the left which is 997 square feet will become the affordable and lizie will touch Bas with that yes a little bit later sure okay um so that's again we have another three-bedroom unit uh and again all the all the two bedrooms are two bedroom to bad so and the affordable units have the same finishes and materials as the market rate correct can see so we have a roof plan um some important things about the roof plan is in the center we have our Elevator Shaft and then there's a b you can see what shaft is answering question about the generators we've located the generators which are small um over the Elevator Shaft for structural reasons it's a good place to put them for vibration and such and then um we do have a uh roof hatch one for each uh stair and they're connected by uh walk walkway pads that lead you to the area where the generator's on and or and then also we have both to the left and to the right of the elevator are areas that are labeled as mechanical areas they probably won't need this big uh but as we get into doing construction documents this is where we would place all of the condensers do you know what the height of the condensing unit that the mechanical areas that are depicted on the plan are we talking four multiple 4 foot height units or what type of units the units are probably going to be no more than two and a half fet tall um we could we could also screen uh the mechanical areas as well with a with a 4T High minum you know Luber mechanical screen that you would typically see the other thing I I just want to point on I think in the ordinance it says it can't be seen from 500 feet you know I mean that's hard to really judge but we do have a parit wall um and the minimum parit height is about it's a little bit over two feet so that also serves to kind of you know obscure things from view um one other thing that we did talk about was the solar that was way to see if you were done so historically speaking I've done a series of solar applications in the town for buildings that have previously been approved and it is a extraordinarily expensive separate Standalone application giving the escros and fees associated with it and the idea that people that were trying to promote these green style of U you know alternative energies so just as a you know to avoid having to go back before the planning board for something like that in the future we would like to um indicate that we want to have the opportunity to include rooftop solar obviously in accordance with all of the normal construction requirements load requirements and obviously I think it's what no more than two feet off the and these would be flush mount flush mount flush M and I think the angle is usually not to exceed two feet right is that what something like that because I think West is facing the residential oh South is facing the residential neighborhood but if they're two feet and the parit top the top of the parit is is about two feet it's a little bit over two there's different you may not see I'm concerned about the eaten Court in Columbus Street the eaten Court area what those residents would be looking at but it sounds like if you've got the parit and the the angle of 2 feet you're probably not going to see those I don't think solar units on and obviously as a condition of any approval we would certainly work with both Mr bako and Mr Saro regarding and obviously the construction Department to follow the code in terms of location and you know load Cals and all that but we would like to have that option to be able to put it on and uh go accordingly go ahead okay your show so um yeah so that's basically the roof PL it was just indicating where kind condensing units are going to go where generators go we have roofs range from the highest about above and the majority carets are around 2et um Mr tell before you flip the page let's talk about the height of the elevator because the elevator if you go if you take elevator to the third floor it's got to be higher we ran into this in the uh the Bob Forest project doesn't the Elevator Shaft stick out greater than get an elevator to the third floor you need the Sha another elevator car um that's largely going to depend on actual elevator but you can see from the elev A1 221 drawing that was submitted um what you'll notice if you if you just look at the North elevation which is the top elevation all the way to the top right we're going to talk about height in second it's going to change this but you'll see the top of the paret is 39 feet and the roof level is 30 5 foot4 so we have a dimension there of 3 foot eight that's actually dimensioning from the top of the roof deck where the roof membrane is to the very top of this parit that's the highest parit that's over the the entrance to the residential lb record if we look very closely beyond that just to the right of that high parit you'll see the ele the top of the elevator so just about the same height about four feet is the distance that it travels above the roof line and that's because um depending on the type of elevator that we we choose whether it's hydraulic or electric in the worst case scenario it's not going to be more than four foot above that and the construction on the outside of that could be masked to look like the same Ming on the parit around the outside right so it would almost look like you could blend right in it could but what I what I always tell everyone is that you never see a building in pure elevation like this usually see it like this so I don't think you'll ever see that elevator Tower from the ground not from the ground Maybe from the bridge I mean that's certainly possible Right but but I don't think it's going to be something that's OB um but yeah I mean it could always be you know wrapped with the material that's consistent with with the rest of the okay um let's talk about so originally we had the top of the power highest power at9 this building is going to be a modular construction building um which by the way there's a lot of benefits to that it's going to be a TI construction higher tolerance bit for many reasons we like the fact that we're going modular um the issue is that normally at the second floor our second floor is going to be a concrete slab it's going to be a Podium slab normally we would just build walls right up from there and that's how we initially designed it after we submitted and then we started dealing more with the modular company we realized that those modulars come and they have a a framed floor so that that unit is going to sit on top of this concrete um slab but it has a floor system so because of that we had to increase the height of the rest of the building by about one foot it's actually one foot one and a half inches so I'll go to my exhibit which is the same drawing I'm just call an exhibit here and this will be submitted to you um we'll mark that as exhibit a11 just does that while he's doing that just one of the significant benefits and I've built modular before the houses on Washington Street a couple of them those are modular what you get because of that double plate kind of concept and the way the floor is stacked because you think they're building it on a like on a rail system right so they have to have a floor decking transport structural Integrity so now you not only have that poured floor but you also have that separation so from a sound perspective of any commercial use and quiet from the residential perspective it really adds to the kind of like that buffer and you know soundproofing component as well in addition to that it's a fire rated separation so when we talk about EV cars which I know is a concern the good thing about this building is we will have a um it will be a minimum of two or possibly three hour fire separation and because it's open in the back you know any fumes would would would hopefully you know they would be trapped underneath the building um but anyway getting back to to height so on our architectural plan we're we're basically dimensioning off pretty much off of the first floor um the total height based upon the height on the civil engineering drawings um see is at 39.97 FT as opposed to our 39 ft and that's because that's the dimension from the average level of grade to the top of the building so just to be clear and on record um when we add our our 1ot one and a half inches we're going to be at about 41 foot1 in so 41.1 ft from the average level of grade it's not going to look much different it's just that this grade kind of you know changes as we get to the uh base of the building um again just to point out and and you know in the definition um I have it here it says the vertical Dimension measured from the average elevation of the finished lot grade to the highest point of roof line of the top story in the case of a flat root so the question there is what is the definition of roof line is roof line we have the roof level which is our roof membrane um is you know almost four feet lower than the than our tallest parit so does roof line mean the highest point of a parit because it doesn't mention a parit and it even goes on to say it excludes uh Gambrell roof I'm sorry excludes uh head houses elevator shafts elevator tanks chimneys dish antenna and this this measurement was also taken from four points at grade Yes actually the civil engineer has his calculations for how he can and then the the civil engineer calculations bring you to the 41 figure or bring you to the average of 41 including that feature is the center parit that's correct right um I just wanted to bring that up and don't want to really get too much into the definition but also as we just mentioned that's the highest point so most of the power pits are 1 foot six lower than that so you know you can see this is the highest point of the building and then most of the other carpets dropped down and 39 or 41 are under the 10% does not are 39 97 was under the 10 stays as a c variance not a d variance for the height because you're less 10 10% well it depends on if you're measuring off the 35 I don't know which one are we taking from the roof line or we taking from the parit would it just be the height of the building yeah the height of the building but you're which would be the regardless you're you're under the 10% which is a variance but it keeps you no I don't think we're under the 10 though no because it's 36 396 our original We 397 now we're at 411 so we're over 10% because it was 36 3.6 I originally listed as a d because it would have been 396 on 3997 on the average grade but now we're up above that yep okay so that was the discussion about the height um the other exhibit that I had unfortunately I think I left my office too quickly and I didn't bring it with me I do have it on a flash drive if it's possible to put on the television if not really all it was was just the same rendering but the possibility of removing the brick pier and and and the fencing um in response to the police departmentment about possibly having to move or or manipulate uh the peers so that was just the way I read it was the police department was most sensitive to the two the two pillars only right that impacted the driveway they were looking you know if you moved that if you dropped that pillar and made maybe Defence line a 45 Dee angle into the property would provide additional opportunity for a motorist to navigate safely across the lot and across the the decorative totally totally understand that that the bushes are well I think what he's saying is it's the the height not it's either go back or bring it down either way it's just visibility so we understand the issue and we spoke about it internally and what we're actually suggesting is that we remove it completely um we don't think it really affects the project in fact when you upset that I don't have the rendering with I I think that the the project at that rendering with the pillars and the the aluminum fence looks very nice it's very attractive it we're looking for a Gateway part and some of the elements that you're introducing are right in line with the Gateway part where the location would be the and we can work with the police department make sure that heed it's not that fair enough offering that as a solution but um we can certainly keep it if you think it's it's important and yeah I agre I think it does look great as well um okay so we talked about Building height we talked about that so we'll I'll just show show the renderings real quick so this is just you know rendering looking part of these are all these are all submitted so this is a color colorized rendering I'm calling it view1 this is just looking from the street um towards the driveway entrance where we have those two tiers on the other side of the entrance and when you can see the building and the building um you it does have a distinct uh base which is which is Brick there brick accents toward the middle of the building we have fiber cement panel which is in a run running bond pattern um in the gray areas and all the white areas are going to be composite um you know trim and composite construction based of three major materials we do have the storefront um for the for the cafe the main entrance into the lobby has an arched cop with a storefront marked by a sign which I'll talk about in a moment and there's also another sign which is the bir Cafe which is over the ENT and the signs will meet with the yeah chapter 19 design standards yeah but let's get into that so yes so I'm looking at the planners report page six um we can comply with with with all of those requirements in terms of the the height and the size the projection the illumination method we did go through this with the downtown beautification committee we're going to have Halo signage which have a a rendering which you can see um what I did want to point out is that in terms of the actual dimensions because I did they're not marked on the Drone but I did measure them so the Berkeley claa sign which marks the residential Lobby is 11.2 square feet and the Berkeley Cafe sign which is over the cafe entrance is 14.3 square feet the other thing to bring up is the uh ground sign which we don't have details of but I will say that we can comply uh in again in the planers report on page six um we will comply with the maximum 40 square feet so this is about 9 feet wide and we'll do it about four feet and change High to make it no bigger than 40 square feet um the size of the letters we can comply with uh I guess the the only other variance there is that we are 7 fo6 uh back from the property line where the requirement is 10 we could possibly push that back if if that is important we would like to keep it there because you know for a variety of reasons visibility to also not be pushed back into the common arog but would that would be a variance that um okay so again this is just another view um kind of from the other direction kind of centering on the sign there sorry do we have that exhibit yeah you should that these photographs were definitely online on the uh the town website okay um again just just a different angle view up a little bit so we can kind of see um you know a little bit more of the facade and then there's the Elevator Shaft there in the center there's theor right now under understand that the renderer that does this is not the same person that does that so this is it's probably a little bit out of scale um this this is more accurate um so we have that one and then is there a particular reason that the sign is facing forward versus if somebody driving up or down to face like so you can see it both ways I'm just curious that I guess with with a sign like that I mean we sort of have it facing the road so somebody's walking by too if you wanted to see it from the road both both ways you really need to have double-sided sign and it would be oriented differently so um this is just a no have that one well here's a night view right so this is a night View and it shows some of the lighting that we have um it shows the the halo effect of the signage that's over the lobby and over the uh Cafe and the Berkeley Plaza sign her the sign ORS will be ground lit so this just a little depiction of what it might look like at night time and then the last one because we want to catch all the different angles of the sun this is at dusk um put the sun going down again just showing another angle of the build so those are the renderings um I'll just quickly go through I think we touched on most things but I did go through both planning and Engineering report um signage I think we we just covered that so I think we're good there storage areas uh we have one storage area for each unit all storage areas are well above the 20 foot minimum with most of them being slightly over 40 sare feet um the root plan I think we talked about that um I'm going to screen everything I talked about the generators and the condensers um trash rooms so basically the way that the trash would work and I'll just go through this quickly is on every level on every level there's a trash room a shoot room right next to the stair so residents will come into that room there's two shoots one for trash one for recycle uh so that'll happen on the second and third floor that trash will go down directly to the trash room which is right adjacent to the cafe here it will be collected in bins uh both recycle and um Regular trash and then on an as-needed basis property management will wheel these bins over and deposit them in the larger containers for pickup in the front trash room The Cafe restaurant will just take their trash on a daily basis and just put it right into the front trash room right so that in essence is how the trash works the trash will be picked up from this point by the Trasher um there was a question about the about the trash room in the front this out so we can see this is the trash room the front trash room so that wall is about N 9 fo6 high and there will be a like an overhead door coiling door uh to access that that TR I think I hit everything yeah so trash we we did a we calculated the trash um generation and we're estimating that the huler will have to come twice a week if we have trash and if for any reason there's more trash than expected we would just increase the number of description the trash um was managed internally so is there on-site um management maintenance yeah there will be a property manager that will take the trash from the residential trash area to the outdoor um um engineering report I think there was there was some overlap uh the only other thing um I think that we didn't touch upon were the compliance with the architectural design standards from 19 4.4 with regards to continuity meaning the same materials kind of wrapping around the building which we have uh just details about the facade massing and length roof design penetration entrances materials colors lighting and signage I did go through all those requirements and I think we we you know we comply with everything uh we don't have shutters because it's not building so other than that I think we're we're in compliance um and that's it if there's anything else that I missed on engineering planning I'm happy to uh unit size the smallest to the largest can you tell us what the swing is with I guess a one bedroom would probably be you don't have studios in this no studios um we have two one bedrooms one is 633 that's the smallest one because it's at the front um and then we have a 740 squ foot one bedroom um our two bedrooms the smallest is 9 1997 Square ft the largest is it's 11 1184 and then the uh three three bedrooms one is 1370 they're both 1370 for the three bedrooms so they're they're good they're good size units in general I would say um Mr Hernandez engineering comments questions for the architect uh just a couple questions um your ground level you are providing a bicycle storage room yes do you know proximately how many you anticipate can be stored in that room that room is about 10 feet wide and it looks like probably about 9 ft deep um I would say if we just put regular bikes in there without like a like a rack system we could probably fit five or six across because um you know we have we have a a door from the parking lot side so you need some area to kind of get in there to get to the bikes so maybe five or six if we use some sort of like system where you can hang some of the bikes I have some systems where you can kind of pull it down you know double that a bike requirement was you do are you doing this is it nice to have or is it requ nice to have I don't believe it's a requ yeah and then on top of that we had indicated during one of our comments that we are also going to provide Public Access bike rack in accordance with section 19 I mean the bike rack outside is required but the reason I ask is because I think you're walking into a disaster putting a 9 by 10 room with bikes in it and somebody knocking somebody else's bike over and you know you get you get the electric bikes which everybody has today who's going to charge it where I mean you're you're offering people storage facilities every unit's got its own 20 foot or greater storage unit I mean maybe you take that bike when you make some of the storage unit it's a little bit bigger and just say here you go because otherwise I mean you knock into my bike or I knock into yours and who's paying for what I mean to be honest in in many of the towns that I work in a bike storage is required so you usually are put in the building that's what I was asking is a required or icewood is and it's one one bicycle per unit so if you have a 40 unit project you have to have storage for 40 by everyone asks for a waiver on that because we need halfway your unit would come with one bike RoR you could put it in and that would be your storage because I'll be honest with you with storage too we find storage is usually a requirement um and some towns have much larger storage requirement than than you do and sometimes we find you know I talk to the owners afterwards and people sometimes don't even take advantage of the storage so it depends on the demographic and where where the project is just convert it to just storage for was just yeah I mean it's obviously we'll keep the room you got a couple options they could either redistribute it into the area we already meet the minimum area on the units or we can just make that from just like some extra management storage for some things that we may need to maintain the property a package except a room I mean we're in a world of deliveries there is a package right off of the foyer there's a door for the delivery person to come in and on the lobby side there's a door for residents to access the package room so be M mail and pack question are pets allowed in the building is there any grass area on the on the site to walk your dog there's availability absolutely I mean we don't we don't have a dog run um but I mean there are some grassy areas I mean par across your street yeah I mean usually when I've dealt with buildings of this nature sometimes we'll there'll be a weight limit on the dog size you know typically 40 pounds and down what we've seen or maybe less and then on you know there's usually a one pet per kind of unit but a lot of that is you know lease restriction specific obviously we want to make sure that we're you know meeting needs but by the same time also keeping people's you know privacy and quiet I have one more question um indicated that you'd be providing some screening for the rooftop mechanical will those also be rated for sound attenuation purposes as well we weren't anticipating that but and and I don't think the reason why we're anticipating it is because we have train tracks County Park commercial no you know there's no real residential we're not up against resal to the South the other side of the tracks you've got eaten Court these are going to be the residential homes are lot closer mature vegetation um in the area that might be able to be saved if it is some of it this this site is basically tree free I mean it's a blank canvas this particular site it's just a parking lot of this point in time are you supposing any sound attenuation from the train tracks like the actual apartment units so let me answer that because no specific proposal but happen to have a lot of expertise in this because I've built modular you're dealing with all 2x6 construction so that means you're looking at minimum r19 insulation maybe r21 um as a result of that the houses are just so quiet I I was trimming one of the houses one night with my brother and there was like a hurricane happening outside my father calls me up and says you better leave and I'm like leave what and we didn't even hear a thing like and we go outside we look we open the windows the wind's blown trees so they're very very quiet um and I think that's one of the great benefits of modular construction because of the way you're getting that you know and I know 2x6 is more of a custom Norm now with some of the energy codes and requirements but it does give you that extra insulation factor that allows you to get those buffers so that helps um the four sides of the the project will they all match yes how about how about under the you have you've got the nice brick feature in the front now if I was in the rear of the project looking back at the building are the same architectural features and the same quality of product on the back of the building as well as the front yes absolutely here's the here's the rear elevation so you can see obviously there's no wall on the back because it's open you have it open but the wall that is back there that wall I noticed that on some of your renderings that's a different color brick is looks like yeah it looks more like Cinder than it does Brick I just want to make sure that if I was walking around the project that all four sides of this project match I would say they're going to match certainly the upper two stories is going to be a combination of the fiber cement and and brick the lower level which is going to be back back back um okay is it Poss brick or that same fiber cement board that's up top of fiber cement would probably not hold up there I mean if anything if even if it were it may just be P concrete or it could be block I weine that it could be painted with an epoxy yeah it could be painted with an epoxy paint you know color to match or it could be brick I mean I'm just looking to make sure that should this project advance that the four sides of the project regardless of where you are all match so it's an attractive rear yard as much as the detail that's been presented no I and I would I would say I would say definitely yes and I mean I think that's illustrated by the elev we carried basically the same finishes and same um you know pattern of material around the back that's also the side that faces the neighborhood behind it as well that's the that's the rear that's the South elevation probably the upper portion more than anything else true I just want to make sure that any matches the bottom line is the appli would stipulate that the it would not be left as exposed cinder block it would be finished with brick or some kind of finishing not just exposed cinder block assistant with the rest of the building question I know we briefly talked about parking earlier on just out of curiosity parking the spot's going to be assigned to the actual units or just going to be kind of open parking and Vis parking comb by so it's a good it's a good question and this comes up all the time the thing that sometimes complicates that on projects like this is the EV spaces because you're not supposed to park a non a non electric car in an EV space but I think we have enough spaces that we could do at least one per unit I think really what happen you know practically speaking there'll be lease restrictions and requirements in terms of what the parking is based upon whether they have a one two or three better unit and that's going to fit and coales alongside obviously ordinance criteria or otherwise I you know whatever the town wants personally I don't know how I feel about the assigned parking because what tends to happen is that people don't always follow that and then it creates more of a disruption you know I I think that's a project management nightmare I agree not not a Township yeah you don't need don't create no I I don't definitely I don't I don't want marked spaces personally so then you have the issue of visitor parking right yeah because what typically going to happen realistically people are going to park where they think they can get to the closest stairwell at the time and I think that's what people do at the supermarket and everything else and I I don't want to really restrict parking because it creates more of a problem because then you're gonna have more fighting amongst people that who parked in whose spot why is your neighbor here just open space you know they say butts and chairs butts and seats like that we're just going to put people where the opens up and um Mr Hernandez the the parking stalls are meet staner they do Mr um any other questions from Mr Taylor regarding the architectural features or any of the El Mr Mr Dean we didn't forget you don't worry n Mr de no Mr no Mr Ringwood no Mr par no I just have a few quick questions yours um first of all with the the hbac systems for the uh individual units is there going to be um any punctures in the in the facade to accommodate those like will you see you know like a p a Pac unit or something like that so good question um there's not there's no PEX this is all going to be forced uh hot air ducted systems with a condenser on the roote um as the question of penetrations we didn't really get well I mean if there's yeah if there's if there's like toilet exhaust fans and and you know and and you know range exhaust I mean either I me we we didn't really discuss that to be honest with but but nothing above code requirements no I guess my my request would be that you allow it to to um you know either right through painting or something to to look as inconspicuous as possible yeah no we will We we'll try you know we'll try to you know sometimes you can use un brick sometimes they'll use like a like a brick colored you know Outlet um we're going to get to that and you know where we can reroute some of that stuff maybe on the side or the back or or the roof you know we'll try to do that uh we just haven't gotten to that point you know with construction documents yet but the intent is to keep this facade as beautiful as we can and without what we call facade acne um the other question I had is and I guess it's because these renderings as you said were done by different people but I like the light the lighting that you showed on the facades and they're not shown on the other on the other drawings I just wanted to double check that that yeah propose them right good question so what you know what we do is like when we work with the the downtown beautification committee we did talk about lighting we talked about signage and so we kind of communicated that mostly through the renderings um you know we can update the elevations to you know to show any light pictures that aren't there um but yeah so what you see on the renderings is what we intend on okay and I know um we talked a lot about or not a lot but we talked about the Transformer is there going to be a water company hot boox on site I I can't answer that question right now because we haven't we really haven't gotten to that point okay so if there is one because sometimes as I you know they're big and shiny and can be a aesthetic distraction is would you um agree to landscape them to the exent that you can no problem and something that we've asked in other towns I don't know is to um if if it's possible to paint it because they're like bright they're like as bright as that garbage C and so you know if it would be possible to paint green or some something that that we're happy to accommodate to make it as inconspicuous as possible I will tell you that the owner sitting right over there is he wants this to be we don't want to we don't want to detract especially from the plaza where people are going to gather so we're going to do everything within our power to make sure that that stuff is in a place where it's not going to be notic okay and um I think that's it those are really all my questions for right now thank you thank you now to that point um you know obviously we'll have the planner go through but you've already addressed any comments right through Miss lean's memorandum no issues correct no and we gave testimony on some of those items so I think we're done with Mr T now how many additional professionals do you have just Mr pesano the planner uh we're going to take a five minute pause and then we'll listen to your next perfect sounds good thank you very take five minute pause and it's 9:27 so 9:35 can you help with the pause on the sorry I just realiz oh I know I I remembered earlier and I was remember we are have returned to the de and M wol will swear in our swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and that you've told the truth thank you do thank you thank you uh Mr sansor your next professional please thank you our planner Mr Michael pesano Mr pesano if you could state your name and uh spell it for the board sure I'm Michael J pesano that spelled p as in Peter E SS o l n o licensed professional planner state of New Jersey right hand you swear tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth indeed I do thank you and your address 140 Elwood Avenue agota New Jersey um please indicate your uh educational background as well as your yes uh starting with the last question first my license remains a good standing never suspended since I obtained it in 1984 I've been practicing Municipal uh planning uh for 40 plus years now um I have a master's degree of urban planning from uh City University huder College um and have served as an in-house Municipal planner Consulting planner to municipalities and boards and now uh appearing mostly as an expert planning witness before boards such as this I'm not quite a frequent flyer here yet but you been here more than I'm not moderate range flyer with this board we accept and we thank you very much for joining us again Mr santor the floor is yours sure Mr pesano can you U you've had an opportunity to listen to our professional engineer here and also obviously the architectural can you just walk us through your planning outline and a little bit about any additional components that you know brought in from especially specifically the height and density obviously we want to talk about some of those things and especially the height as it's been altered and modified okay so you want the eight hour version right yeah is that what I'm hearing you say8 minute seven minute minut give me the E minute for free the extra minute for great um no way do I want to be standing here for eight hours so everyone is protected but um I was retained to look at the application from a planning perspective and determine if the uh for the relief that's in the mix does the application uh meet the criteria for the granting of the requested relief we have three main elements of relief a D5 variance for density we have a D6 variance for excess height and we have Abol of of smaller scale C variances bulk or dimensional variances um I want to uh start with uh a description of the property though because that folds into the reasons for my findings and Analysis and to help the board understand what I understand about the property I have a an exhibit um sure do you want to that's mine it's on the table there A2 A2 it is I'll mark one in a second let me that looks we have thank you very H2 compendium of yes an exhibit prepared by myself five sheets s thank you for Distributing that um so getting right to the exhibit um H1 proves that uh I was not aware that the railroad slope easement was not part of this Pro please say that one I was not aware that the railroad slope easement was not part of this property that came not in testimony tonight so please uh disregard the yellow of the site that's in the center of the sheet A1 that Strays into uh the slope Eastman that dash line should be regarded as the edge of the property as shown on the site plan my apologies um moving on to sheet two we have an excerpt from the zoning map that shows uh four Parcels in the HB District Two are hours on the Sor uh the garden center is another um maybe the garden center and then some going um up to the next roadway and the rail um RightWay U behind is also in the HB District the next sheet has bit more important detail for the sake of the the analysis that I did um it's an aerial map I downloaded um and then U based on my field observations and further research um determined uh how to Mark annotate the um various features of the site itself in the center again shown a little am too ambitiously not quite going to the point um like it's shown in this image but cut off at the railroad slope eement behind to in other words to the top of the sheet is north to the bottom is south so the New Jersey uh Commuter Rail Line uh runs all along the South that also creates uh an interesting um physical feature of a curved rear lot line uh forming one leg of the uh sort of triangular shape that we have but clearly the the parcel is uh irregular of shape it's pinched um very shallow at the West End opens up a little bit more at the East End uh directly across Springfield Avenue from our Lots one and two which are within the dash yellow lines uh Union County uh Parkland and then uh the Eaton Court residential neighborhood is shown um 100 feet or more from the homes there more than 100 feet from uh our Southern foundary Line um because the this is at the edge of of the township where it buts Longhill Township there I looked at the zoning um the the future of land in those wooded areas uh to the west of the pic River and both those massive chunks of land are zoned for conservation so um to underscore a point that Mr santor made earlier um oh I'm sorry and Retail Garden Center lies to the east of the subject property that being the only real occup iied uh land use that ABS this property um and where we would expect to see structures um so that is is part of what informed me and then I did uh take ground photos eight of them uh just to depict different perspectives of the subject property image number one on shoot four of A2 shows um welcome to Berkeley Heights uh sign um and then nothing else but the the remnants of pavement uh that are behind that sign the site is framed by a fairly dense uh wooded vegetation uh I visited and photographed this obviously on the summer day um image two in the upper right shows the the west east end excuse me uh of the property um going up to about that last vehicle um a little bit further that's parked on Springfield Avenue and then the reverse uh perspective of looking towards the the West End of the property the subject property that is and then taken from deep within the property is image Number Four showing just a sea of uh pavement Andor concrete um that's serving no purpose other than to block a flow of water um going on to the last sheet of A2 image five in the upper left corner uh shows the two Transportation routes that frame the North and South sides of of the subject property um Image six shows uh fencing uh along the Parkland Frontage directly across Springfield Avenue image seven in the lower left shows 12's Garden Center and then image 8 is a view of additional U County Parkland it consists of uh two Parcels directly across from our Lots one and two so that um information provides me with the information to form some opinions uh which I will share with you next you have any questions about the exhibit we can come back to it but um we have a very specific piece of property roughly 08 Acres it's a a large lot by zoning standards the zoning minimum is 7500 Square F feet this site features 35,000 plus square feet roughly 4.6 times the minimum lot area so I regard that as a large uh parcel it's comprised of two irregular Lots making a wide shallow triangular development site again framed by the commuter rail to the rear and Springfield Avenue to the front it's extremely constrained at the West End due to the the pinching down of the the two Transportation routes getting closer together to each other so that's a not a suitable place for a building forcing the the physical structure to be slid uh more to the east uh to fit it nicely on the property uh the site is vacant of of any buildings um and it is fully within the HB Zone which is adjacent to a active retail Garden Center as you know very well um and is um as I said across from County Parklands I also took a look at the distance to the commuter train and bus service that would be available to residents of this property roughly a half a mile and in the planning circles quarter acre is really sorry a quarter mile is really uh the ideal distance for walking distance to Transit but a half half a mile you want to say acre half a mile is not uh unreasonable either Beyond half a mile it starts to get a little questionable but um um in circles of Transit and planning um it's common that half a mile distance to a transit station uh makes that uh serviceable by pedestrians uh from a half a mile away the um proposal you heard described well enough I will not be going into any further detail about that unless you want me to but uh as I described the the first U major variance of in the mix is the D5 relief for density The Zone HB Zone with the uh public Plaza bonus element would allow up to 16 uh dwelling units on this property that equates to a density of 20 dwelling units per acre uh the municipal land use law density is defined in units per acre so units per gross acre so uh that's why I'm I'm giving you the benefit of that equation um The Proposal the math of of 20 units becomes 24.87 units per acre just for um the data mavens out there who want to get to the decimal on that so uh we have basically four excess units than above what the zoning ordinance uh prescribes for uh mixed use developments in the AGB Zone the standard of review for um D5 uh density variances is built on the grubs the sloth hour case which um Builds on Coventry Square versus Westwood zoning board and in those court cases the court determined that density variances do not need to demonstrate particular suitability of the site for the use or the enhanced quality of proof those are strictly for use questions the density part of this um is evaluated by the following question can the site accommodate any problems that may be uh caused by the exist density U on the property that's proposed I want to willine rate from the start that U it's clear to me that because of the the thoughtful design that was put to this project the site has ample room for all the functional and a static aspects including adequate and safe parking Landscaping amenities Waste Management utilities such that there will be no off-site impacts from residential or commercial components there are other special reasons and I can shortcut that part of my testimony by giving them letters and if you want me to revisit the letters and tell you what they're about I will but under the municipal land use law there are several purposes under Section D2 purpose a b c d e g h i and m are satisfied Advanced excuse me by this proposal so there are ample public benefits this is not benefit that just uh occurs to the developer these are public benefits yes purpose a promote the general welfare purpose B provide safety from fire flood and panic purpose C provide adequate light air and open space purpose purpose D not in conflict with uh adjacent land use schemes or the state plan for development and Redevelopment purpose e appropriate population densities in appropriate locations purpose G provide a variety of residential uses in appropriate locations to meet the needs of the state citizens purpose H to lessen congestion in the public Wass purpose I to promote a desirable desirable visual environment and purpose m to promote the efficient use of land you're welcome uh that brings us right to the negative criteria um the the density bump that we're proposing is not substantially impactful to the public good in my opinion or the Zone plan or zoning ordinance it is expected that there will be roughly the same site utilization from 20 units as 16 units no evidence that I've heard so far indicates that the site cannot fully accommodate all issues associ it with the additional four units again the focus of density uh variance review is on the excess density part so we're talking about the four units um that brings us to the second D variance in the mix which is uh for the height which was I think very well described and detailed by prior Witnesses unless you want me to enunciate that again I I'll just go right into the the proof of it the standard of review here here is Grasso versus Spring Lake Heights that decision determined that access I'm sorry that excess height should meet the following criteria related to the purposes of height controls and there are three uh it shouldn't provide an UNH unfair height advantage over another property that is met this adjoins only one occupiable site um that's hp's zoned land which also would allow three stories on that property um the second one is that the excess height does not facilitate additional density you might think that it does hearing those words but two stories of residential are permitted here um 20 units fits into the two stories regardless of the height of the building in feet I believe that would characterize this deviation as uh Dom Minimus in its nature and then finally no impairment of Scenic views by virtue of the excess height again we're talking about a very small margin of height here compared to the overall height of the building that is considered the excess height and in this D6 variance mode you also look at just the excess height there are other special reasons that track 100% with the special reasons that I enumerated uh under the D5 variants on to the negative criteria for the D6 I see no Det of a substantial nature the height above 10% is is very nominal and I think UNP perceivable without precise measurements to be taken so uh I must conclude that there is no substantial impact to the public good from the excess height as to the Zone impact uh the height of the building is generally consistent with the municipality's intent to allow for three occupied stories within 36 feet again we're slightly over um granting this relief will in no way impair or undermine the intended function or purpose of the Zone plan or zoning ordinance this this site and its setting as you heard from me and others is very unique the um the site and setting are unique excuse me that brings us then to um the SE relief and I Endeavor to be concise with that and and my testimony um I believe that all elements of the sea relief can be granted um pursuant to the C2 test which is a balancing test weighing the benefits versus the detriments um well a couple of them also wander into hardship territory um only one of the two tests needs to be met C1 or C2 I'm saying that C2 uh really covers all of the um dimensional or bulk relief in the application and what are those um they are uh for a short front yard on the west end of the building uh short rear yard setback uh sidey yard um setback uh at the minimum and on the east side and then 25 ft for both is not met uh and that again is due to the uh the side Lot line colliding with the railroad slope Eastman on the West Side building heightened stories um three is uh the maximum provided the third story is built into the roof we have not done that uh and also a flat roof is is not called for in the zoning ordinance itself we have a flat roof albe it decorated with a parapet very nicely um those are the facts um I can't change them into anything they're not um so the uh benefit of the pared of course is to screen equipment from the the the roadway directly in front of the property and the elevated portion as best it can that goes up or down from the bridge there's um relief uh also for see relief for the driveway setback for the property line driveway set back from the building the minimum commercial area uh is 20% 10.7% is proposed um the parking is not fully an enclosed garage and the parking and loading uh I'm sorry yes parking space count and the loading uh Dimension loading space dimensions are deficient and then there's the sign setback uh relief 7.6 ft where um 10 ft is required so to um put all of this in in proper perspective um all of these are are relatively minor uh deficiency situations in my opinion anyway um the rear setback and front set back you heard the reasons for that and I don't think I need to to explain that again um but there's a lot of mitigation that this application and and its design of provides to U Tamp down any sense of impact uh by these U Technical and non-technical deficiencies um but let me come to that uh in the weighing analysis which is a five-part um Step One is to determine that this is a specific piece of property and I in my opening remarks and with the exhibit I demonstrated that it's clearly a very specific piece of property I would say not another one like it uh in the township uh there are public benefits uh that accur to this which are the same as I mentioned for the the D relief uh earlier in my testimony now here I want to just touch on uh the aspects of of what I consider uh the variances that um need a little more explanation um I see no detri this is now the negative criteria uh pertaining to detriment I see no detriment of a substantial nature proposed by the granting of this relief it's all minor in nature on a fairly large development site mitigated by the following considerations um we have a building coverage that is well below the maximum of 50% I don't believe that was brought out in earlier testimony our proposed coverage is 43.494365 zoning term that means the difference between the building coverage and all the other things that cover the site imperiously that's also below the maximum underscoring the same point I just made the public open space is 30% greater than the minimum this is a gateway location we want happiness to greet people and so the the public space that's designed in the front of this building taking advantage of the generous front setback that most of the building exhibits to provide for this public Plaza is to me a real design plus especially in a Gateway location uh such as this there is also the absence of sensitive uh impact receptors Springfield Avenue and Parkland lies to the North 100 foot wide rail line is an effective buffer to the rear there are is vegetation on both edges of that 100 foot rail line so the the residents on Eaton Court I I see is barely going to be able to perceive this this building let alone here what goes on on the on the site I think it's going to be their attention will be more impacted by the activity of the train line uh personally um there is undevelopable Woodland and pic River to the West um there's a fairly intensive unenclosed commercial use line to the east uh the park working setback to the street is more than 30% greater than the minimum and these conditions I think render no basis for a finding of substantial detriment let alone a detriment of any kind for the public good I think the public good is promoted by an appropriate reasonable and attractive new building and site upgrades for this uh underproductive Gateway uh site to the township again parking is safe functional and adequate for prior testimony because of the proximity to Transit I believe a little bit of relief on the parking um the technical compliance with the parking number number of parking spaces we're proposing technically 49 with the EV bonus where 51 is the the requirement two spaces off that's um I think very reasonable considering that um access within a half a mile to both train and bus service is available the residential site Improvement standards say as much that the standards can be relaxed if there is proximity to to Transit resources and there is um as to the site identification sign I think it serves its safety function better in a more forward position uh when it's most visible to motorists um so those are I think the the important considerations uh for the package of uh sea relief that we're talking about all of this I think uh presents no impairment to the intent and purpose of the Zone plan and zoning ordinance the project tracks with the overall planning vision and Zoning classifications it is in fact a permitted use dimensional deficiencies will certainly not undermine the intent or purpose of the Zone plan and zoning ordinance again they apply to a very specific unique situation here so as to the SE to conclude the C2 laying analysis I think on balance the public benefits of the application as a whole greatly outweigh any detriments and then just some uh final points um and I'll S I believe having participated U from the beginning with this project and the team I believe that uh my client the applicant has cooperated commendably with all review agencies adjusting plans as requested resulting in a very excellent collaborative design and a future Community Asset in my opinion the project nicely upgrades the Township's Western Gateway on Springfield Avenue while fulfilling the Planning and Zoning vision of the HB Zone the project variances uh satisfy all statutory criteria and I submit to you respectfully your approval is warranted thank you for your listening and courtesy that's just briefly and quickly you had an opportunity to read Miss Lan's planning memo yes uh obviously you've addressed a ton of information any particular concerns questions disagreements discrepancies with any of the calculations or information provide no I appreciate her carefully footnoting the math for the affordable units that was a little fuzzy but I believe that the percentag are what they are um so that was it m Haney just a couple of questions um could you provide just some testimony as to why uh you're not meeting the commercial minimum square footage I think it would overburden the site and its parking to provide a a larger commercial space it's a nice fit at the smaller design manageable and I think it's going to work well okay then the other question I have is regarding are you at all familiar with the the township settlement agreement with fair share housing center I've memorized no no I well are you aware that this this site was among other sites on Springfield or in this area that was going to be used to address a portion of the Township's fair share obligation I think that's reasonable to assume given its condition and location all right just so the board is aware there was and I don't know to what degree people know the minutia of affordable housing but there's a 30 unit what they call unmet need which can be sort of taken up by by you know uh through the normal Z resoning or not rezoning but normal zoning process and this area was considered to be one of the areas this and this site one of the sites that would penally provide affordable housing that would help uh the township towards meeting its third round obligations so I think that's something to consider as well I'm glad you brought it up Miss leaney because I wanted to say that under the D5 density analysis this the third unit here is driven by going to 20 units instead of 16 so there's a very important public benefit to um Grant of the density relief in that regard so which makes sense that there would be some sort of amatory uh density density bonus for the provision of the affordable units um the other thing that I wanted to just add is um have you had an opportunity to review Harbor consultings memo regarding the affordable H housing Provisions this may be more appropriate for another witness but I um I I did take a look at it and do you have any issues with complying with some of their uh requests for you know um the minimum um income distribution or bedroom distribution or any any issues with uh what they've raised in their letter I don't make those decisions or statements in my testimony Mr Sant the two two bedrooms and the one three bedroom it's no issue obviously the distributions is a very low low moderate we to follow the guidance guideline settlement requirements no issue okay um I think that's it those are my only questions right thank you Mr Hernandez thank you questions thank you very much um Mr sansor does that conclude your testimony for your profession okay um I'd like to invite Mr leer our environmental liaison he's got a comment or question and then we will open up the meeting to members of the public short there Mr ler if you raise your right hand you swear anything else you swear to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth I do and your name and address right ler 49 Summit Avenue Mr santor left the yellow pad with solar on it actually it's the town's yellow pad that's my not um I appreciate that uh that topic was brought up although uh the environmental commission did not uh mention it in its memo uh but it would be great if uh uh solar was put on the rooftop uh the other thing that we didn't mention in our memo was uh lights um and there have been studies of the effects of Lights especially at nighttime uh that they are affecting uh certain groups of insects and our recommendation is that you use lights that emit less Blue Light which is likely to benefit certain groups of insects LEDs can be modified for example by reducing their intensity through dimming and using filters to block the blue wavelengths of light that are most harmful to insects and the commission also would recommend that the lamps have shields to direct the light downwards um the um commission also recommends retaining storm water to runoff on the property with small scale bio retention basins also known as rain Gardens we note that uh the applicant is proposing a ctech detention system for stone Water Management uh which um seems to be u a very professional system um what I don't understand I would ask that question of uh the appropriate person from uh the engineers is that there's a difference between detention and retention wondering whether this system is uh considered a detention system or a retention system but coming back to the Rain Gardens the difference with rain Gardens is they offer one of the quickest and easiest methods to reduce runoff and help protect our water resources and they are easily uh inspected you can look at a rain garden and see whether it's doing its job they use native plants that are acclimated to our local environment and they provide a habitat beneficial to the local insects and birds beyond the aesthetic and ecological benefits rain Gardens can also reduce Urban heat island effects as well as encourage environmental stewardship and Community Pride commission notes that a green area is proposed next to a patio in front of the building and trees are proposed to be planted in an open public space the green area and areas with trees can be installed as bio retention areas with appropriate native flowering plants trees and shrubs to capture stor Mor runoff the construction of Bio retention areas would complement and could potentially reduce the cost of the cultech detention system um I always put in at our memos where information on rain Gardens can be found and we recommend that at least half of all TR trees shrubs and herbaceous plants be native and we note that uh there's a calorie pair uh that is uh being proposed as one of the plants calorie pair also known by its Latin name pyrus cerana is an invasive plant that's both according to the New Jersey invasive species Strike Team and Pen state it should not be planted possible Alternatives or Fringe tree down e surface Berry and Eastern redfoot finally we recommend that the storm water management plan be reviewed and approved by the township engineer and the tree inspector should review the list of trees to be removed and replaced for compliance with the tree ordinance thank Youk you very much Mr L we appreciate you joining us as always like to make a motion at this time to open up the meeting to members of the public that have a question or a comment I have a motion by Mr Perina make a motion open to members of the public and a second by Mr Sylvester I second that motion thank you the meeting is now open to members of the public that have a question or comment regarding the application before us see no one I'll make a motion to close to members the thank you Mr second that motion yellow second by Mr Dean thank you very much um Mr Hernandez questions comments any of the professionals on the project team question I do have and what my attention with the uh exhibit that uh your planner provided does appear that that slope easement may be included so that's what I was talking about the back of the room yeah because um when I look at it especially on that map yeah and the delineation of the of rhy however I pull the de while I was back there and I reviewed it the D is consistent with the surve so that is that is the way that we've shown it on the plan at 136 because you see here it shows 154 at a different angler because it's opening up this is a wider part of the track so it's got a longer on the the 136 is running this way but you would have to think so traditionally speaking obviously when we talk easement to Mr Kell's Point ownership easement right so if we're looking at this triangle theoretically we would own the whole triangle and then the easement would be something that we granted to someone else right so technically this area helps us however when I look at the deed the deed is consistent with the survey now historically speaking I've been personally a victim to this the tax maps and Berkeley Heights are terrible okay so they're not accurate um I've put properties before where I thought I had 315 fo of frge and I had 285 and the the surveys were were just broke um so what I was going to suggest would be to certainly be it out with your office but we're going to stick with the more conservative interpretation that we own less request the more relief that we're seeking should we end up having more God Bless but typically speaking you wouldn't see an easement that wouldn't be specifically attributed to a property and what's more concerning is obviously that's property number one so if that's property one in the block and there's no other block then who would own it if not us now on the earlier tax records it showed our ownership at 087 but we're reflecting it at 08 because there's some other documents in the town that says 08 and our deed says point so you know there's a little bit of a discrepancy but we're going to ask for the more relief to be safe and the more conservative more conservative approach yeah my question would be if you don't own it who contains that land then who owns it right exactly it's it's a great question only because it would then bump against your client's property and could become a mess right because if you don't own it and it's not yours and all of a sudden it's just overgrown with against this beautiful yeah backdrop I think there's a drop off there as well right there is a drop off and obviously it's part of the landscape there of course I'll maintain it no I'm not even asking you to do it more like it would think that if it's not yours then just I just don't know how it couldn't be ours logically even though the DED doesn't reflect it it just doesn't make sense because it lot one ties off to that angle and it should theoretically be ours and we should obviously have more area which technically means we really qualify for at least 17 units really 17.4 if you do the mathematical calculations so it's actually less of a density requirement but we're going to stick with the fact that we're only entitled to 16 that we have less area and we can sort this out through Mr sar's office since you're are consult Lots exactly there's going to be if we get the appropriate descriptions but I checked the the control layout survey and I checked the deed and we tied out the corners engineer and I were in the back going through it to make sure because when I saw Mr Pano's exhibit I was like no that don't make sense to me now yeah so so that's really what it comes down to but um to your point is any other question on that or that's it okay Miss Lany I do not M wolf no questions Mr Sor summation sure so I think that uh variety of issues obviously stuff that was testified by Mr pesano and obviously all through and I think Mr pesano encapsulated it very well this is this has been a working project this has been a a work in process um that has happened over the course of a number of meetings taking a lot of feedback a lot of different um input from whether it was downtown beautification whether it was from um you know engine engineering or whether it's through planning and I think it really has uh culminated in a a collective beautiful Gateway property um and I think that the site is obviously extremely underutilized at this point in time it had the old pink house it was like five feet off the property it was there for a lifetime and I think this is going to help meet some additional uh credits and requirements especially under the new round as well I'm not even sure we complied with the old round yet but uh that being said to Mr Bano Miss Le's Point getting up to the 20 units um does trigger that third unit and helps to uh at least create some additional elements and components as indicated we wanted to keep going forward with the requests for Relief as set forth on the parking um with the discrepancy that we had obviously there was also the discrepancy in terms of the notation of the height we're seeking the height variant based upon the 411 at the parait area uh I think overall you know the distribution of the bedrooms the size of the property everything is well accommodated the public space is accommodated well nice Plaza area for that additional bonus so all in all you know based upon all the testimony I don't want to be labor because we obvious spent a lot of time on it and we for the first time in a long time I don't have 150 obors so I think that uh you know it's this is a project that is really going to make the Gateway into this town extremely attractive I think that it's scaled properly L I think the setbacks are appropriate um a lot of thought went into it and obviously we would um with the board's approval continue to work with all the professionals as necessary to accommodate these little tweaks and minor adjustments to make sure that all of the comments relative to screening and whether it's hot boxes or otherwise are most appropriately suited and um placed on the property to continue the attractive nature of what we've presented so far as to a couple of Mr Lester's comments regarding you know lighting or otherwise you know the lighting we've used obviously is really more wall washing trying to you know keep it muted uh as far as the uh you will have the light posts that are required and then the rain Garden you know to uh the neglia comments relative to the additional 3-inch capture for the 3inch uh event so we may be able to do that with some rain and garden stuff so we might be able to accommodate some of the rain and garden comments in there but certainly we'll continue to work with Mr safar's office on those and uh make sure that we continue to design the property in accordance with those requirements to meet all the needs so really without further uh getting to any other details we would just request that the board approve the uh variances as we seek them and if there's any other questions we're here to answer um couple comments from me uh the just in no order whatsoever uh we spoke about the crosswalk at River Road so the applicant is supportive of some type of directional sign in the parking lot because to safely have the pedestrians navigate to an appropriate crosswalk should they like to flex over to the Park area I mean look we can put a I'm just make a note now and say you remind me put a specific provision in the lease that warrants that like notates like you know please as a measure of safety we could just a directional sign that points them in the direction that that is demonstrating please cross the CR not a mid block from a a permit aspect how does that impact them right because if we're asking them to put up additional signage from a per that's a that's it I'm I understand what you're saying a small sign that just says head that way should you want to cross with Street do so at the appropriate Crossing not a mid block Crossing I'm okay with the sign I just don't want it to impact your other signage from a permit variance perspective if you're already over on the one or getting close I think that becomes a sight sign versus a building or other sign I think that's a directional like parking lots have one way right yeah that directional sign isn't cover right yeah a directional sign then would have to meet certain code right height size shape otherwise it doesn't mean anything from a legal standpoint if you put a stop sign up and it's not the right height shape or size it's actually not a real stop sign so if they have to put up a directional sign that says crosswalk down the road it's got to be the appropriate sign otherwise it's a decorative sign that they're hanging on a side of a column that says hey we think you should walk down there and cross the street so I I can say this much certainly we have no problem accommodating I think obviously there's a couple of people that are going to want to weigh in obviously Mr safar's office maybe the police regarding placement location obstruction view obstruction line of sight and obviously to your point the actual construction of it the height and you know where does that go um you know from a communication Point inside the building we certainly can just say Hey listen you know put a provision right in the lease it says look at this you know and bold we don't want you crossing here we want you Crossing there that can control what we have obviously part of the issue is like anything else right if you're walking from halls and you decide you're going to get a bite to eat and then you you know people do what they want to do even they look at the sign how many people like no turn no left turn I'm not going that way boom so so people are going to do what they're going to do and hopefully they're Common Sense enough to be able to cross in a safe area but um we'll certainly Go part and do our part to try and contribute to whatever we can help the width of the sidewalk the decorative sidewalk with the papers is it 5 foot is it 4 foot is it a six foot sorry the the width of the sidewalk fronting Springfield Avenue with a herring bone Style uh six foot six foot wide decorative paper the fence we're going to make the adjustment there with the fence to accommodate a greater opportunity for motorists to yep we'll either rack it back or and the four sides of the the structure will match corre in fality uh the of lamps should four be the magic number whatever is required by the Orin I know three three was discussed if it's you know I'm looking at if it's 205 it should be four based on the 50 ratio understood um what's interesting is the the commercial element is 1500 or so square foot of res uh restaurant space yes and that's how you based your parking ratio in terms of the what the to be able to have A1 SE and keep in mind what we did once again conservative interpretations which we really didn't get into and I apologize for potentially glossing over that or having our professionals gloss over it we we don't anticipate being able to see 51 people inside that place we wouldn't anticipate seating 51 people inside a 1500 foot restaurant so we're taking the plaza for the outdoor seating that public bonus space and we're kind of incorporating that to say okay well maybe somebody sits out on that bench so we're trying to say maybe we're going to have 16 or 20 inside probably 20 okay is what we're guessing but that means we're still spilling like 30 outside now let's face facts no one's eating outside in December al fresco dining could be considered on a good time right so that being said um and once again it's a 7 to five use it's not a nighttime restaurant it's a Breakfast Lunch Spot um which probably is going to really focus more between 7 and 3 to be realistic what a kind of a wind down on on the backside but that being said you know as indicated we were kind of going with that parking because you just don't know what's next and I and I hate to always be back every time something changes oh they want to put a that that's where I'm going right now you're taking the most conservative look at it it could could be a dry cleaner it could be a small retail establishment and then you're over the parking way over yeah I mean this is and you know because restaurant obviously is a highly intense calculation I think the only one that would be potentially well not even I just say the barber shop like the the salons would is one for three one three for every one chair even then restaurants are higher bars are higher nail salons are higher so I mean we we're hitting a high standard and I I just wanted to wanted to think Pro proactively to be able to you know make this make sense because in reality the utility of the site is you know there's going to be areas of time where there's a little bit more use of the commercial space probably more of a rush in the morning and lunchtime but that should work pretty well with the absence of homeowners during the daytime I appreciate the fact that we took into consideration areas for the meters and and hiding masking housing and any type of buffering for any the equipment or items and then the rooftop units will be uh they'll be masking Incorporated in yes um I'd like to hear a comment from the owner and can you tell me the history of the Berkeley Plaza the reason for that sign if you don't mind which sign the sign you you're calling your project the Berkeley Plaza of course you could please tell us because I think it's important to the history of the T of course so as you guys know he from to berley Plaza we came in in 2017 took over a 40 some ode business uh unfortunately the building was compromised and so we had to shut it down and in my uh in my pursuit to seek better use of this property highest and best was obviously to develop all the property but in working with the local community Berkeley Heights and Union County we came to the inclusion of selling it to Union County and adding it part of their open space so with that I decided to put something that would complement the area and fix that burdensome site uh how else with residential you know not overburdening it but put just enough there and uh how much more appropriate that everywhere I go in town people know the Berkeley Plaza everybody got married there everybody had some kind of a festivity there and all that so we appropriately named the building the Berkeley CL we we appreciate the nod to the history of the town because I think it's important you know you've got the monteli parcels you've got the technically it was sulur Springs the I always go back I always Resort back to the clock tower building but these are the things that the next generation of historians takes the next level so I do appreciate that I'm finished with my comments Mr per no I think it's uh obviously uh not the doesn't look like it's the first time you guys have done this because everything's well thought out it's h very good team forward to the project and no longer seeing that empty ice over there great job thank you Mr Sylvester any questions or comments for the application team looks good right like it Mr Ringwood thank you Mr deia nothing thank you m West nothing beautiful project thank you very much Mr Degan very impressive it's great Mr coella I have no further comments okay the M wolf conditions you listed off quite a few of them let me just see if I miss any uh they might need a variance for the location of the Transformer but we'll include that if that's necessary um snow removal will be have to will have to be removed from the site in bigger storms um you're going to work with the fire department to figure out access the lamps will be figured out the spacing distances you'll comply with Street Furniture requirements the sign you're going to work with Berkeley Heights to locate the welcome to Berkeley height sign maybe beautification committee merging the Lots you're changing the bedroom distribution to meet uck you're going to screen the transform armor the affordable units will be consistent with other units as to finishes and materials screen the Mechanicals you'll work with Mr Bako Mr Saro and the construction Department to follow the code as to the location of solar panels if there's a variance required we'll interpret that um you'll wrap the Elevator Shaft so it doesn't stand out you'll work with Saro and the police far as to the two pillars the signs will comply over the one setback variant all four SI of the building will match it won't be exposed cinder block in the back any penetrations into the penetration will be as unobtrusive as possible um lighting will be revised on the rendering on the elevations to be consistent with the renderings if there's a hot box it will be screened or painted think oh they will comply with the tree ordinance storm water management subject to the engineering department the crosswalk crosswalk at River Road directional sign we talked about that pillars four sides I think that's everything anry replacement and um you mentioned something about signs what did you say about the signs second again step back sign step back that was the only thing that was a deviation all the other signs will comply right right right good just wanted to make sure we're were still getting the very answer the elevator itself is it sized to accommodate a stretcher in the event that someone on an upper floor the 391 problem needed needed um do we have the spec on the elevator size we don't we'll make sure we accommodate yep thank I thought about that tonight too but redesign that elevator last time um Mr Hernandez any final comments final comments would anyone like to make a motion on this application make a motion to approve by Mr thank you with conditions we have a second by Mr deia this evening thank you very much Mr ler and a roll call Mr Sullivan yes thank you yes Mr Jia yes Mr Ringwood yes Mr Sylvester yes Mr Pera yes Gustin yes okay car seven thank you thank you guys for your time thank you for considering the gate I got a motion to open up the meeting to members of the public a second uh the meeting is now open to members of the public that have a general question or comment not related to yeah app seeing no one got a motion Miss West motion meeting CL got a motion toj Mr Ringwood all in favor have a great holiday everyone thank you thank you thank try this meeting so we're gonna try this