##VIDEO ID:57SMb90zkKA## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e there we go we're going to call to order tonight's uh meeting of the town Bernard Zoning Board of adjustment uh the first item on the agenda is the flag salute so if you can stand please stand States andice in accordance with the requirement of the open public meeting laws notice of this meeting of the board of adjustment of the township of Bernards was posted on the bulletin board in the reception hall of the municipal building Coler Lane Basking Ridge New Jersey it was also mailed to the Bernardsville News whiy New Jersey The Courier News in Bridgewater New Jersey and it was also filed with the Township Clerk all on January 8th of this year and it was mailed electronically to all those people who had requested individual notice the following procedure has been adopted by the Bernards uh Township zoning Board of adjustment there will be no new cases heard after 10 o'clock tonight and no new testimony heard after 10:30 tonight Miss keer can you do a roll call for us certainly uh Mr Cambria Miss poar and Mr hson have indicated they are unable to attend this evening chairwoman Jers here M Balman here Mr cruss here miss Pichi here Mr tenr here miss Herrera here Mr seski here Mr Quinn here Mr schy here and for the record Miss keeper is present U Madam chair you have a quorum you may proceed excellent thank you Miss kefir Madam chair I motion that we excuse the absences of Mr Cambria M poar and Mr helverson and I will second the motion thank you both all in favor I opposed abstain thank you thank you next item is the approval of minutes first the October 9th uh regular session meeting those minutes were um distributed earlier and hopefully you've had a chance to review them are there any comments uh or adjustments or edits recommended on that or a motion to approve as drafted uh motion to approve as drafted thank you Mr cruss second thank you Mr tanky all righty uh chairwoman Jers Mr Krauss Mr tankr and Miss Herrera are um eligible to vote all in favor I um those that were not just mentioned abstain anybody saying No thank you next item uh is also the approval of minutes from our special meeting session that was on October 17th of this year um those minutes were also distributed are there any uh comments or edits um for those or a motion to approve as drafted my motion to approve is drafted thanks Mr kre I'll second thank you Mr C again uh chairwoman Jers Mr Krauss Mr tank greedy and Miss Herrera are um eligible eligible to vote all in favor I opposed and those that were not mentioned will be abstaining thank you thank you Miss Keir next uh on the agenda is 6a which is the modification of a condition and extension of time to begin their project uh for Mohan uh which was case ZB 2305a are you here tonight can you come on up please m not a technal public hearing but I'll swear thank you you please raise hand do you swear orir that the testimony about to revive to the truth vure nothing about trth yes and could you please identify yourself nand wadwa great um so you're here uh we understand to ask for an extension of time to begin your project yes can you um take us through why your project didn't begin and and what your thoughts are going forward so our older one she's a senior high school can you speak right thank you our olda one she's a senior in high school and I didn't realize it between the college visits and the tours and the Act and the essays I think that year just went by so she's now almost done with everything we did get the price codes from the different pool companies so we should be able to start it but I just it was first experience I think it just took up the year without us realizing it so we would appreciate if you can just give us a little more time we didn't start anything at all so I think with the same plans and with the same layouts which we should be able to start now have you had any changes to the plans that we saw I guess it was about a year ago nothing has changed only change College apps do you do you plan um do you plan on starting soon are you confident in terms of your time Horizon yeah she's done with everything now it's like we're done so it's we can start pretty much anytime I did try to cordinate but I think we're almost at the time window so we wouldn't have been able to like start and and then get the project started so she recommended that we should file an extension and we'll start like as soon as possible now well I what we want to make sure is that as you're asking for an extension there is enough time we want to make sure that you have enough time and you're confident of that time window because we'd hate it for it to run out again on you so are you confident that if we give you um an appropriate extension that you need get to yeah as long as it's a appropriate time between the permits and like we already have the drawings the code and everything yeah okay Madam chair the uh the ordinance allows you guys to Grant an extension up to 12 months from what would otherwise be the exper for one year 12 months from Beyond a year after the resolution was adopted to begin with so that could take them out as far as I think it's November is it yeah November 8 2025 is the latest yeah that should be more than enough yeah I was ready to start but I think it we were already at the date and it wouldn't have been completed like I think she knew the process better so so you're confident that by November a 12mon extension that that will cover what you need to start this project absolutely and just so you know that's if the board does grant 12month extension if you don't start within that 12 month period that the longest they can give you it's a 12 month extension so at that point you have to come in with a whole new application and start basically start from scratch yes I can't get a double extension yeah no I got my little one is too little the another college process need few more college process is a bear um are there additional questions from the board you have it contracted already or is it just no we got the price codes we didn't sign it but we did get the price codes and you talked to the contractor that oh yeah everything was already done but it was I think our deadline was like November itself like this week itself so even if I would have started the permit but since the construction wouldn't have began so that's why they recommended that let me just file the extension but yeah everything is all lined up it was just the time was too close yeah okay anything else for us no thank you I appreciate and I apologize but I didn't realize it that was so tedious okay uh any anything else from the board thank you okay thank thank you um layout before the board absolutely Madam chair so board members before you for your consideration this is just a resolution I put together that would memorialize a 12-month extension as is drafted here um as I understand it actually if you look at the front page if I can take you back a year to when this application was initially heard um the applicant initially came in proposing Sor the applicants came in proposing block coverage ratio of about was 99.79% back resolution 1974 um they amended The Proposal during the hearing and uh you the first page of that resolution you know notes that they were going to be removing paid patio area in order to get down to 19% as opposed to 1974 so just highlighting that and uh that's really about it know the uh it's a pretty low standard they have they have to demonstrate just that they were uh prevented directly or indirectly from proceeding with the project because it delays beyond their control and uh the ordinance gives you a lot of latitude to determine what is good cause and what you know what constitutes a suspicion land so it's better than nutshell thank you thank you um okay any um comments from the board or or a mention uh a motion to deny or Grant this um extension Madam chair I motion to Grant the extension of time not to exceed 12 months I'll second thank you bman Mr tanky Miss Balman yes Mr Krauss yes M Pichi yes Mr T yes M Herrera yes uh chairwoman Jers yes thank you thank you and I think um in expectation of that vote we have a drafted uh resolution that was circulated in advance that grants the uh 12-month extension that was just just motioned so can I get a motion to uh approve the resolution has drafted still moved thank you m actually M chair real quick sorry my apologies last uh last page be a further resolve that is spelled incorrectly where is that sir right in the middle be it further resolve in bold it's resolve resolve Le I think that's a real word yes so that's the only change I would suggest yeah that's a good change approve it with a correction thank you I motion to approve it with correction thank you a second thank you Mr we resolve that resolve that one um miss kefer you want to do a vote on that one uh Miss Balman yes Mr Krauss yes Miss Pichi yes Mr T yes M Herrera yes um and chairwoman juniors yes you good luck with project thank you okay next on the agenda uh is completeness of public hearing uh the first one is CSN NJ R LLC zb2 4018 car yeah yes M Cher so as I understand it and I believe applicants council is here if he wants to say anything R I'm not I'm not going to put on the spot for I'm just offer to if you want it but uh as I understand it uh notice was effective as to being published it was also effective as to uh property owners who lived in Burnville it's a property that's got up on the border of the township but uh certified mail notice wasn't sent to the property owners in Bernard's Township and so the applicant needs to re notice to them so we'll be carrying it with no further notice required to the parties that already received it by the newspaper just requiring that notice be sent to the property owners and bur's Township that is accurate okay great here we go thank you so much moving right along right so that's the announcement if you're here for the uh the CSN njre LLC application is going to be carried to uh our the W's next meeting uh what's the date on that ttim not the next one but the next one I'm sorry uh two forward it's going to be December this is going to be carried to December 4th yes December 4th okay all right December 4th our regular meeting December 4th right so again if you're here for the CSN njre hearing that's going to be carried to December 4th uh 7:30 p.m. here in the M building um subject to the further notices I just put forth a couple minutes ago great that's it thank you thank you um next item on the agenda is 7B which is the Gruber Family Trust I think or grber and grber Family Trust which is zb2 4013 Mr zi good evening Madam chair members of the board board professionals Frederick zeli postp on behalf of the applicant uh the applicant officially I guess would be grber Family Trust which is the owner the property uh in person would be John and Holly Gruber who are both here this evening this is regarding 131 West Oak Street and Basking Ridge it's your block 1405 Lot 2 in your R7 residential Zone uh this is kind of a unique situation we don't have too many use variances involving single family homes but that's what we have tonight the applicants are seeking a conditional use variance to continue the use of an existing apartment located on the second level of a detach garage and to permit the continued occupancy of the same by their son who's also here with us this evening accessory apartments are conditionally permitted uses in the R7 Zone pursuant to section 21-1 12.3 of your zoning ordinance entitled apartment within a single family residence however the applicants are unable to comply with two of the conditions set forth in the ordinance specifically condition number one uh which requires the apartment to be uh limited to one apartment and within the physical residence itself uh and then condition number six which is that the occupants of the apartment shall be limited to the mother father son daughter brother sister grandparent in any degree and or grandchild in any degree uh together with their respective spouses and children of one of the principal occupants of the single family residence uh in this case the single family residence is uh rented out to a third party uh but the applicant's son is in the uh garage or in the apartment in question uh so we have kind of a variation on the theme that the uh uh ordinance permits um I would argue that the uh one of the intents of having this situation is that you have some control over what's going on on the premises and it's not just a you know two family rental situation uh and I think in this situation we do have that ability uh but we'll put put on testimony to uh explain the situation in a little more detail I just have one witness this evening is going to be John Gruber and unless you have questions for me move forward ready okay John if you want to come up and go under oath real quick M chair I'll just mention a second ago I found the notice that this application to be sufficient was timely served and the content was sufficient it was sent to owners of property within two Fe subject property by certified mail on October 25th and also published in the bur news on October 24th and also obtained a waiver of notice basing fire companies my legal opinion is Juris okay and you're just going to exp they're ready swear their witness as well as the board professionals okay can I get uh all three you Gentlemen please raise your right hand for me thank you very much do you swear or affirm that the testimony about to ride will be the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes I do okay thank you very much good evening Mr Gruber hi uh would you please State your full name and address for the record uh John Gruber and would that be the address your actual address where you live yes okay 253 Hanover Drive in Costa Mesa California and we're here this evening discussing 131 West Oak Street here in basing Ridge and who or what owns that property uh grber Family Trust and what is your relationship to the guber Family Trust uh I'm trustee one of the trustees the other being your wife other being h my wife yes and when did the trust purchase the property in June 2023 and for what purpose um well my son uh was working uh is working at co-action which is a morrist toown insurance company and he was working out of he was living out of town and we wanted to he wanted to move closer and we sort of all put our heads together and what can we do and uh so we were looking for a place to live and this house came up and it seemed to fit the bill so uh he didn't need a full house and uh we purchased the house um with the intent of having my son move into the uh back uh unit over the garage and the main house is rented out to a third party is that the main house is rented out uh to a third party okay and would you describe start with the main house please what kind of rooms does it have in it how big is it it is uh it has it's a three-bedroom two bath uh it has a basement um total square footage I I don't know but I know it's it's down it's it's in the package I don't exactly know but it's basically it's a two-story uh house and to be clear there is no apartment within the single family house correct that is correct no uh apartment in the house in the main house and then the only other structure on the property is correct is that the detach garage it is a detach garage yes okay and would you describe to the board what's on each level of that building okay the uh garage is on the ground floor it's a two car garage an interior uh stairway that goes up to a second floor um second floor is basically a one-bedroom uh apartment um and it has uh a small kitchen and a little front room and then it has a separate uh bedroom and uh off of the bedroom there is a separate bathroom and that's it and the buildings as you as you've described them uh are unchanged from when you purchased is that correct correct there has been no improvement whatsoever or change and there's no proposed Improvement as part of this application we're solely dealing with the ability to use the buildings is that correct that's correct you have several photographs in front of you that the board actually has already okay what I'd like you to do is take each one one at a time uh tell us which one you're looking at I believe they're lettered as opposed to number okay if you would just tell the board what each one represents and please confirm that it's still accurate today okay photo a um this is what I'm looking at we have um so you can see uh the front of the house it's the house on the left um because there's a couple that the next door neighbor is you can see in the picture but the Full House it's obscured by the trees um but that's a two-story house and you can see sort of through the um driveway there's a garage in back and that's the way we purchased it and that's the way it is today may I ask did you purchase it with the tenant already living in the house no were you aware of the restrictions on this when you purchased the house or was anyone did anybody tell you or did you inquire about um I was not aware I was told by the seller essentially that we there's no sort of guarantees on this we're not Prov providing you with any sort of guidance or Direction sort of a buy or beware kind of a thing did you inquire to the town what the status was anything about it um no and the garages that we're looking for who has access to the garages on the first level when you say who has access to it you mean ten or your son or my my son is the one that utilizes the garage B okay is that a two is it two garage it is two two cars it is two car okay but right now only your son can use those garages well I don't think well yes he's only he's the only one using it could the other person in the front of the house use it I'm sure if he asked I it's there isn't it's sort of a okay you know okay so it's not hard and F there's nothing hard and fast right now only your son uses those garages and and I guess do do the other tenants in the main house just park in that driveway yes there is one driver uh who is a um who is the tenant who's a uh I don't know an IT professional and he has a um a daughter and um they live in the house and there's one car that is utilized in there in the front house does your son use the garage to park his car my understanding is he does yes if you enter the garage does that mean you automatically have access to the apartment above I believe there's a door that separate there's two doors there's a if you can look on the photo B there's a there's a sort of a door on the left uh that is a door that will go directly into the stairwell and I believe there's a door um that separates uh the garage and you can enter from the garage into the um the the the landing of the um stairwell but it's constructed in a way that there's still privacy meaning the person that's residing in the house could actually use the garage without accessing the apartment yes you would just goe continue through the group of photos okay so um B is the garage as you can see it's the the first level is the garage and the second level is the uh apartment um photo C is the rear of the garage photo D is the rear of the house so if you were to look out the front of the apartment you would see the rear of this house on Photo D um moving on to photo d That's the living space of the I'm sorry E I made a mistake e is an Eric um you can't really see the kitchen here you can see the the the sort of the range there on the very left of the photo but that's the kind of the sitting room the front room when you when you go up the stairwell you go in the the front door as it were of the apartment this is the first room you see and again you can't really see very well the the kitchen area it's it's very small but uh it's sort of to the left and and back so it's a it's a living kitchen combined area the kitchen not a separate yes correct can I just you on Photo D is that taken from the Viewpoint of the garage sorry D is in dog yes the back at the house yes okay so that's the garage looking at the back of the house yeah so if you were to look out on Photo e as in Eric if you looked out the window that is the back of the house that you would be looking at Mr grber question is if you hadn't thought to ask the town about the disposition of such an apartment what prompted your visit here tonight i' what is the last part of your what prompted your visit here tonight why are you requesting the variant how did you find how did yeah how did it come about right we were notified by um the uh code officer who uh indicated that there was a code that said historically that this property had uh conditional use or a variance to my understanding and that it was uh it it ended uh at the uh disposition of the house by the owner the owner that had owned this house had been in this house um 50 years maybe and she was uh the Survivor the last surviving member of of her family and um she was she's an older lady maybe I think maybe mid 85 or something and um I lost my train of thought I think you're you're explaining how you came I think you question oh yeah so so she they in my understanding she told me the whole story you know they in 1980 they they had built this and went through the whole program and uh and for whom did she use it who was using the she who was using it was her mother I think at the time so this was about 1980 so that makes sense you know TimeWise and then at some point in time her mother passed away and just to make the connection between some of the additional information that Mr SCH had uncovered in his in his memo in addition to what we had in the application uh Miss glazar g a z is the person purchased that's correct and that is the same family that obained the uh variances back in the late 70s and early 80s uh I can also add I did speak with Miss Kitz directly to find out a little bit more information about why this was brought up at the time she said the tax office actually reached out to her uh and said you know there's the department of the property you need to look into that and that's what led to ultimately to us being here tonight I just take last couple okay can I I have one more question on does your son work from home uh no he he works for co-action um insurance company which is in Morristown and um I think there's you know like it is today there is some remote work but I do know he uh goes in to work at least three maybe four days a week uh he's required to be in the office and he's currently residing there has since you purchased the property essentially yes when I I don't know exactly but yes more or less since we purchased the property just for the record he's not a trustee of the Family Trust he is currently not a trustee of the family trust nobody else lived in the apartment though during your ownership beforeand no we this was yeah it was it's really you know the the the concept was he would live in it and it made sense it's it's 10 minutes from where he works and it's a beautiful place to live and it it it just sort of everything came together and that was the concept did you have ever have any intention of moving in yourself to the main house coming back from California if I were to come back from California I would certainly want to live in the main house that that wasn't that wasn't the initial I'm not the plans though that's not the plan no why no is um is the apartment only lived in by one person your son right now does he share it with anybody else no no car tenants they have a lease you or is it month a month or how do you how do you rent that house the front house there is a lease it it we had a a it's it's a formal lease and it uh started out as a year and currently it is a month-to-month lease because we've passed the year mark and I haven't um you know established an extension might question go ahead okay Mr gber um how long you envisioned your son staying in this department for is this like like a long time residence for him or is this only a short-term thing um my understanding is it's it's longterm he's 27 years old and uh he's uh in he's an actuary and he is a professional and I imagine just like anybody else he'll he'll keep working there and continuing in his place of residence for sometime uh I don't there's no end the future of course yeah know this was year thing or like you know this is a long you know I think it could be longer term State prices I wouldn't be surprised Mr gr let me cut to the chase a little bit on that issue do you understand that if the board were to Grant this application uh there would most likely be a condition that either your son or perhaps another immediate family member of yours uh it would only apply to those individuals and it would not be a situation where you would be able to then rent if you were to leave another did not Comm in you would not have the ability to rent it out to another third party so we'd have two third parties on the I I understand that 100% And that's not the intention at all so you would stipulate to that as a condition uh yes sir Mr zo could you just summarize that condition again for me I can as a matter of fact I'm going to get to a question okay sorry we're totally over the top here we cut you off and we've been asking questions apologize for that so why don't you go ahead and let I think you got maybe two more photos questions okay F photo f is um f is in Frank that shows the bedroom um and then the door that is opened goes to the bathroom that is you can't see um and then but but photo it's not a photo well it is a photo G is a sketch of the second floor um flat or apartment so uh I'm trying to so you can see it says where the sidey yard is basically you have the stairs they come up and then you open the door and then you this is the kitchen here in the living room that uh you could see and then there's the uh you go go through the door and there's the bedroom and then there's a separate door that will go into the bathroom and did we ask you did you take these photos that we're looking at yes when did you take them and do they essentially look like things do now essentially yes I um they look almost exactly like they looked and they were probably taken a few weeks ago um so yes well let's just just to be clear they were taken prior to the application because they included that application so had to be before July 11th okay okay but it's it it's exactly the way it is in the photos did you speak with any of your neighbors conversation especially Lots one and three you spoken to any of those neighbors um have you spoken to any neighbors I have not spoken personally um the the one on the right uh I believe my son they spoken they're friendly they're on friendly terms but I don't think they've spoken about the specific sort of living Arrangement um but they share they share the the opening of the I like when they drive in together there's a there's a fence that that bisects the driveway um but they're they're on friendly terms other than being contacted by the code enforcement nobody's voiced any complaints about there being two different tenants on the property one in the main house and one inage not not at all do you know how code enforcement became aware of the situation I have no idea except for I think didn't you just told me that the tax office reached out to her did their last assessment they observed that it was an apartment although that's certainly in the records of the town from when it was constructed but she did not uh do it on her own it was as a result of being informed and proded by the tax off some of my questions we've already hit on but just to be clear to your knowledge there been no disturbances parking problems or other impacts on the neighborhood as a result of your son being in the apartment none not at all if there were any such issue arising from the main house tency uh do you believe that having your son present on the property would enable you to better address it rather than having to deal deal with it yourself from 3,000 miles away absolutely absolutely I want to ask a few questions that relate to the conditions with which we do comply just so the board is comfortable with that Mr Sly indicates in his memo based the tax records that the square footage of the apartment is approximately 19% excuse me of the main house square footage so it's 312 ft of the apartment versus 1336 feet of the main house uh would you agree with those figures to your knowledge yes and just for the record the conditional use requirement is not more than 25% now of course it's worded of the home where the apartment is located obviously we know that's a little different but in terms of as analogous as we get it's 19 so we up 25 uh between the parking area of the between the parking area that's located between the house and the garage uh and the two Bay of the garage is there adequate off street parking to accommodate the occupants of both structures absolutely yes uh you're not proposing any physical changes to the exterior of either structure is that correct correct you're not proposing to reduce the size of the apartment or any of it rooms cor correct the reason that's relevant for the board's edification is there is a requirement that uh the size of the apartment comply with FHA regulations I will represent I've tried to find FHA regulations for apartments I don't think they exist anymore I think this is a uh Antiquated statute that just doesn't apply anymore but it's there so I wanted to get as much of testimony on the record I again but presumably when the apartment was built and it was built the approval uh whatever was required sizewise uh would have been achieved and has not changed uh again Mr grber if the board were to approve this application do you understand and do you stipulate that in the event that your son were to vacate the apartment and not be replaced by a different member of your immediate family this approval would become null and void I understand yes and you understand there's a requirement for annual reporting to the township to the Township's Zing offical relative department and do you agree to comply with that requirement at the board were to approve this application yes I have nothing further for Mr gr at the moment if there are questions uh the board would want to hear his son is present I don't know if the testimony would be duplicative or not but if there's questions be rather here direct from him he is here this evening he's Well Point him out that's my son kayen I have another question when the house was inspected before buying it they inspect Ed the garage and the apartment as well so that you know all of the safety elements are up to date yes they did uh all of the we had uh you know the inspectors come out and do a physical inspection and uh everything we did uh was in good condition to the to our satisfaction and what it what what wasn't the the seller you know brought it up to a satisfactory condition I don't remember the details but there wasn't a whole lot that we had issues with has there ever been any issue where your son was able to step in sort of as a representative of the ownership well yes as a matter of fact he he um deals with some of like what I might call a property management issues like trash issues and um if there's any sort of thing that needs to be paid jointly he'll pay it and then go to the to the tenant and and get reimbursed um any number of things that come up on a regular basis that that does uh he has communication with uh his name is Grant is the uh tenant and and they have a good relationship and they they take care of whatever the issues are there any is necessary to the main house would Caleb take care of making those arrangements he that's his his responsibility basically yeah I mean ultimately it's mine but but he takes care of of all the issues that come up do you think at any time he would move into the main house or was that just totally mov I can't I mean I don't know that's not what we're we're contemplated right now but I can I mean possibly if I mean that's not what the objective is at this point uh things change I I don't know I can't Envision have a rental agreement with Family Trust uh no not formally a ver agreement with the Family Trust to manage the properties uh no no it's not a formal thing but I the the Family Trust is comprised of me and my wife why he get paid by the Family Trust to manage no no except he's given residential does he pay the utilities on the apartment is it separate or is it combined with the main home is it all all utilities together or they suffer can I ask the question we could bring him up we should bring him up anyway because I I think I have a couple questions for him okay okay you can def are there any more questions for Mr grber while he's up here this time is there any questions from the public for Mr K okay your son's name okay thank you thank you you have a seat next to me okay CB you're kayen Ken I'm sorry Mr grber also raise your right hand do you swear or from the testimony about to revive the truth about the I do okay please proceed did you give it and and spell your name for us so we make sure that we get it right yeah it's c a d and can we ask you Mr guber to speak right into the microphone so that we make sure we pick it up so you you heard your father's testimony obviously yes okay uh so let's uh go through some of the questions and the board will jump in also so in regard to the utilities we'll start with start since that's the most reent go ahead the electric is metered separately between the main house and the apartment the water is not so each month I pay the bills for all the utilities uh I pay the apartment electric and the main house electric and I pay the water I have the tenant reimburse me for the main house electric which is build um on the meters so the there are two different accounts within Jersey Central um and the Tenant is charged for 2/3 of the um water utility bill and I pay for onethird of the water utility bill have you discussed this application with any of your neighbors no I have not do you have a relationship at all or connection with any of the neighbors you know them I do not know them well but we wave to each other uh has there ever been any kind of a disturbance or parking dispute or anything with any of the neighbors regarding your living there no sort of parking dispute has there ever been any kind of disturbance no disturbance anything any kind of disturbance related to the main house occupants that you might have had to be involved in none whatsoever how often are you working from home as to going up to the office in Mar about twice a week sometimes once a week I will work from home and granted that none of us could probably predict with accuracy what what's in our future but what is your intention at this point in terms of how long do you foresee yourself living in this apartment as opposed to somewhere else I Envision a time scale exceeding two years at a very minimum but if not more several years generally speaking I don't have any other questions are there any other bills that you pay did you mention trash do that yes I um pay for trash and obviously there's some payment associated with the municipal uh you know recycling that is done and so I I pay or I guess that is via VIA taxes but um yeah I do I do pay for trash you share a garbage fan or yes yes share one we share but the tenant does not pay anything for Waste um collection okay and you and the Tenant have your own accounts for phone internet all that kind of stuff yes there are separate accounts there's also in the rear uh unit there is an oil tank um and the main house there is a gas line so the the heating and systems are separate and they're managed separately I have no involvement with the tenants um payment of the Gas Utilities and I independently deal with the oil can I ask you where did you live before you lived in this apartment I lived in DOS fairy New York in Westchester and was it a job change that brought you here no I was working here but I was commuting so the primary incentive to moving to this area was to reduce the commute right and the complaints to your dad about the commute okay you don't have to F on that question yes where everybody you had two or three cars in there yes so in the in this in the center region you can see how the driveway way is narrow initially but it it fans out once it gets gets to the rear unit in between the there's a there's a lawn area which is flanked by uh a garden of sorts um there's enough room rather easily for two cars to park outside of the garage without obstructing access to the garage so right now there is only one car that parks within a space that is it's there are two two spots essentially to park external to the garage so I use the garage presently and the Tenant um Parks external to the garage we've never had any sort of issues with vehicle congestion there's there's actually quite a bit of space to maneuver um to vehicles I would say even three vehicles would be quite manageable within that space pull in and go to the left over here yes in the yes you need to pull reverse all the way we have different styles sometimes I I reverse but he he why turns so that he backs in so he's always going um you know out he's he's not reversing into the street sometimes I opt to reverse into the street sometimes I opt to do the Y turn myself but he do block the garage you're parked thear no there's never any any blockage any other questions any questions from the [Music] public we're going to have fun so stay right there okay do I just moving a little bit so that we can um title Stein 172 Her Side Drive do you pay rent for the property I do not pay rent concerning the the garage do you park your car inside the garage yes I park inside the garage do you have um carbon monoxide detectors and smokes in your apartments yes I have both smoke detectors and carbon oxide detectors inside the home it's just unusual have a living space in a garage normally the owner of the house and then I know it's a comment I'm sorry but basically ask the question is um what prevents you from moving out and renting to somebody else it's more of a legal question honestly that there would be there would be a condition disapproving that it would be an Enforcement issue with the zoning officer we understand that would be okay I'm good thank you follow to the rental question your responsibilities at the property to maintain the property yes and for that you're getting free rent yes so effectively you're paid to be the property manager on the site in essence that is the that is the agreement yesti superintend of the I don't do any repairs per se but I contact individuals to do repairs when they come up I am in contact frequently with the tenant the tenant will inform me if there are issues and I do my best to promptly resolve them there is Landscaping work which is done on a regular basis to maintain the property and I um managed any sort of billing associated with the tenants rental agreement or any um you know third parties who who do work on the property you show the property it was needed to be leas you curant moved out do you hire a property person to find renters or do you do that yourself the renter was obtained via an agent so I was not involved per se in the um in the showing of the property in the future perhaps something like that could take place but in this case it was done bya an agent okay any other questions from the public okay we have no further testimony to present uh I am mindful of the fact that this is a d variance requiring five votes uh and we only have six members I believe so if possible if we could do some kind of a straw poll or something to give me some guidance as to whether I might need to request to postpone Vote or anything like that I'd appreciate that Mr J real quick before we get to it I notic there was one condition one uh comment of Mr SCH M wasn't particularly addressed uh that was the uh his his proposed condition that the uh the application will be subject to review and approval of the sewage Authority you would you be complying with that uh just just making sure I always advise my clients to do things are required by law to do so no problem just just making sure the spoken about okay and then I just want to make sure also from Mr Quinn's memo there are no action items no action items other than the test other than the testimony really okay and I saw that there were no environmental concerns on application so I could have try to summarize yeah you can I think Mr zel is asking for you know he's trying to get a better sense of kind of how we're thinking about things so that he can best manage his case right um so why don't you please go ahead and summarize we're not in official deliberations at this time but I guess if there's anything that people want to say at this time that might be helpful to facilitate the application um might time to say it we have to figure out that right now the condition in the ordinance says they don't comply because of the the own the apartment you got a third party in there so they don't meet it so I think we have to decide as a board if we're going to go forward are we going to impose a different type of condition that will allow the current situation so I think in that sense we have not we have to discuss that what type of particular condition we're going to apply apply if we want you know if we're going to approve the the um the application of what type of condition we want to apply right well to that to your point what I was going to do is try to tee that up for you because let me just go ahead I don't want to get Mr some ask us if you would just briefly if it would be beneficial to the board for me to go through the planning aspects briefly I can do that sure You' rather I was just GNA attempt to expl that yeah by all means let me te it up first Mr Z you can come back we can try to work through this together so um so basically let me try to set the stage here so the applicant here is Seeking a conditional use variance right so the ordinance permits these accessory Apartments provided they you know certain conditions right so I I've at least identified three different two maybe three different conditions that that the applicant is intending to deviate from and that's what they need the zoning or the or the variance were here so the first condition as you were saying Miss fi uh this is this is at section 21-1 12.3 h of the of the ordinance subsection one of that section uh states that the number of Apartments within the single family residence shall be limited to one and shall be located within the principal building here the applicants you know seeking approval is intending to deviate from that condition in the sense that the apartment is not in the principal building but it's in a separate building the detach garage so that's the first condition they're deviating from here the second one is that uh this is at subsection six the occupants of the apartment shall be limited to the father mother son daughter brother sister grandparent Andor grandchild together with their respective spouses and children of one of the principal occupants of the single family residence here the proposed occupant of the apartment is the and Son but he's not related to the occupants of the apartment um the final one to the extent it's even necessary because this might be altered by the condition related to occupancy with the subsection s there which states that at such time as the apartment becomes unoccupied or at such time as the occupants of the apartment do not or no longer bear the requisite relationship to the principal occupant uh the conditional use shall terminate um so I think that I only reference that because the from the jum here they're not um related to the there's no blood relationship between the principal occupant of the house and and the accessory apartment document so those are the three conditions Mr Z that I at least I think you would need relief from but think that's a fair assessment yeah um so that's that's kind of the teos I don't know if you could you want to try to get throw some planning proofs out there representations I should say I wouldn't even think of testifying that's that's no talking talking tensions representations and arguments so it is a D3 use variant uh it falls under the Coventry Square standard which is to determine whether the property can accommodate any problems that are designed by the conditions of the ordinance to prevent uh and what you have here is a situation where this has honestly been going on fully sanctioned uh for for multiple decades uh it's kind of interesting one of the conditions that we can't satisfy is is the fact that the unit is not within the home and if you look back at Mr Sid's memo which was interesting pointed out that you know that kind of came up as a as a area of clarification I think specifically with regard to this property uh and I think the enforcement ever since this property was addressed by the town has been such that we really do mean that we really do expect it to be in the building so if it's not you're going to need the variance back at that time in in 1980 I believe it was uh took the different approach and said you know it's anywhere on the property is all we met so that has changed uh so now we definitely need to be seeking that condition but as a practical matter uh this apartment has been sanctioned by the town uh up until the time that uh his M name is Glazer's mother stopped occupying the apartment so we have a situation here that's a little bit different just in terms of the actual relation ship uh but as I stated at the beginning uh if we look at what the problem is that's being designed to be prevented uh it's to make sure that we're not dealing with a two family two different third parties type of situation uh that there's going to be some responsibility on the property by by ownership and it's I think fair to say that when the ordinance was passed the assumption is that people are are living there and it's it's it's their house it's an accessory that goes for typic mother daughter or the in this case the mother in the apartment so this is obviously different uh but the same concept still applies that we still have a member of the owner's family uh on the site just it's just the opposite he's in the apartment as opposed to the main house and being the other way around so the problems that the ordinance is designed to combat are being accommodated and will continue to be accommodated uh and by agreeing to the conditions that are similar to the rest of the statute uh we're dealing with and avoiding any kind of uh negative detrimental effect on your Zone plan on your master plan or on the public welfare uh there's no indication whatsoever that uh there was any problems as a result of this department existing either before when it was fully sanctioned or now when we have a certain different uh different relationship with the parties uh it's not causing any kind of problem I think it's still fully consistent uh with was envisioned at this point and again there would be a condition we understand that that if the existing relationship were to terminate as the ordinance provides with the relationship that it uh covers uh that it would be discontinued and that would be the end of the variance at that point so I believe under commentry square standard uh the site does accommodate the problems and therefore the board can grant this variance appropriately is that it Mr that's okay so um so I think at this point it would be helpful if the board you know deliberated to some extent prior to taking uh a vote but maybe if we can deliberate amongst ourselves uh on the Merit of this application that would be helpful and then we'll see if we need to make some further comments Mr SL made this comment number four number four G so how are we going to are we discussing 4 G before we go any further forward I just want to ask professionals did you guys have anything that you needed address are you guys both satisfied no I had no thank so m p you were asking about 4G on Mr sl's memo yeah okay here's kind of the tricky part about this they don't let me step exactly yeah the um so that's that's the issue we have to disc because essentially the current situation is not in compliance with 4G right so by granting this variance you're in essence modifying the concept of the ordinance for this property correct so the condition that we fully recognize would exist If This Were approved would follow the same concept which would be that once this relationship would end in other words once no family member of the owner were occupying that the variance would would discontinue so it would not be permitted for a nonrelated person to occupy right but we do need some type of a variance of of item G because item G itself there's there's no compliance right now right and that's what well that's what Mr seski he identified that as the third variance and I don't have any problem with that identifying it that way that's fine right right so miss Pichi just so the so with this conditionally eference honestly this is a little tricky even for me the so what the applicant here needs a variance from is is these those three things that I summarized before right so basically they're intending they're proposing to not comply with those conditions and that that's the variance is to allow them to not have to comply with those three things that makes any sense so then at that point then it's up to the board to decide what a condition what if any condition should be imposed uh beyond that if they feel that any are necessary you want to have specific wording of what the variant should be on the condition I'm not sure I understand the question the the stipulation is exactly the condition right yeah yeah of course we we you know if there's a condition then yes obviously be we're going to mention it have it memorialized I think the the tricky situation here at least to an extent is that with with conditions set I'm sorry not conditions set um subsection 7 that's forging on the memo um this's kind of where I'm struggling here because at least to an extent the the owner of the property isn't the grubers it's the Family Trust so the modification that you would be in effect granting by the variant would be to change the relationship that's permitted from being a immediate family member of the owner I'm sorry of the primary occupant to being a the media family member of the owner and so therefore the exact same concept and you can probably almost pirate the wording from the ordinance and just it would be changed from occupant to owner let me take a stab at so but the owners of the trust right that's kind of to say is is it just beneficiaries of the trust would that be more appropriate uh well yeah that's the problem right we would we would well I think we would have no objection whatsoever to it being a immediate family member of John and hollyer yeah Mr I was just about to ask is the intent here to make this of an approval in perpetuity where a new owner could come in and they you know let's say it's a different couple and then their son they want to occupi or or do you want this approval to just apply solely to these particular owners well now you're getting to a different legal issue that we don't need lot of legal issues you know there there's as you know there's recent case law determining to what degree that you can limit approvals to specific people exactly so if if we envision let's Envision just the sake of argument that this is basically a mother daughter situation right and there were there was a restriction that once that situation ended that the Varian in place would go away right if you had buyers coming in with an inlaw also wanted a mother daughter situation as I understand the case law you wouldn't be able to turn that down because the use follows the property right you can't limit it to individual people you can't say it can only be the Gruber family right but if somebody comes in and wants to use it differently that's a whole different story right but I think we want to avoid having this situation before us again somebody else buys the property and wants to let their kid live in the house you know the the apartment above the garage and somebody else and then we're in the same situation and I don't think we want that I don't think we want this to recur this should be like a onetime thing I understand you bought the house not knowing this was the situation that you're supposed to be the the relative in the apartment is supposed to be like the person in the apartment is supposed to be related to the resident in the house you did not know that correct Okay so we don't want this situation happening again this is an exception I think this is a hardship which is why we have to really consider this the house was purchased with an understanding that they would be able to have their son reside in this apartment and still rent out the main residence and they didn't know and we don't we don't want this to happen again so we have to be careful how we craft this that we're not going to have the same situation before us and I disagree with the hardship because this wasn't a you know moving into a house saying oh I didn't know something it's an investment property that was a turnkey investment property to make money and to have someone live in the property free of rent that's my child you know it's it's a way different situation than a hardship of a family moving in and not knowing something which we've heard before this is a if you're doing investment property you're doing research you're looking at everything you're making sure that you can make money on this property you're making sure you're going everything if you're doing an investment property that's what this is It's a trust doing an investment it's not a family buying a house for a kid I'm sorry a family member live I I see completely differ yeah no I agree I I also didn't see it as a hardship you know I'm not sure you know it's bought I I don't know what the intention of it is maybe it is to make money maybe it isn't may you know I I don't know what the intention is but the board would like testimony about that we could present because I do think there is um I think I heard some testimony that there was some knowledge that there were no guarantees on whether this is legal or not so I think it was gone into knowing that there was a risk that this may not be allowed and um so I I don't see it as a hardship either I I'm going to say my years on the board here anytime we've granted occupancy of an accessory building the primary owner but the owner lived in a primary residence and if we did Grant that it was usually a hardship where there may have been an older adult parent they had to take in um a medical reason that you know they had to take care of a family member um that was a hardship I I don't see any hardship here I nothing at all so I I don't know how we could approve this well hardship is not honestly it's not part of the analysis so I mean essentially we're creating a two family property here if we do this uh I'm not convinced the site accommodates it I can see parking issues and it's not consistent with our zonings the negative criteria for D3 so I would not be in favor um can I suggest a potential condition I think I'm hoping this well are there two Poss let me throw this out there first before I go to the second Poss so um as a condition of approval this is something that may work um at such time as the apartment becomes unoccupied or at such time as the occupants of the apartment are not or no longer related to by Blood marriage the owner or the trustees of the owner of the property the uh disapproval shall terminate is that make sense it's kind of a way to not make it particularly you know an indiv make to the person without making it right I mean what are the odds you're gonna my only concern is like I said I don't want to do something that I'm not sure yeah Works under that appell case that came down a few years ago well this isn't bearing to a particular party or anything we just saying you the owner or the trustees of the owner of the property in general so theoretically you get have another with that condition you could have a similar situation arise where a couple comes in you know just like he so maybe I was in so you were not being specific to the grubers you keeping okay then I don't have a problem with that right I'm sorry I think that might be the best way to solve it alternatively I was going to suggest maybe a Time cap on when the use could stop but I don't think we want to go that yeah what I was going to suggest another way to deal with the slippery slope if you will um would be to have a deed restriction uh setting forth that in the event that it were to terminate and that a new owner wanted to come in under the same circumstances uh they would have to appear to in front of the board I think if we did that by way of deed restriction uh something that would be permissible and what would be the time cap option I just do that out there in case just ask maybe five years you know okay any time cap that we put on it you could say I W see my up okay we could do both we could say purchase you know change in ownership and or five years I'm just asking I suppose only because to enforce this how would you ever enforce the first thing that you mention versus reason this is because it was change in ownership so change in ownership is easy when it's you know no one no one living there renting anymore no one's going to check it unless NE complaints we're not going to require them to provide leases every time there's a new owner or lease well they do have to Reg under your ords they do have to register every year Le the this unit this apartment has to be annually renewed registered whatever term you want to use that's one of your conditional uses and or one of your conditions and it's one that would be the or the the the garage department has to be registered accessory departments uent to this ordinance have to be annually recertified that they still exist and to keep the town apprised to what's going on okay so you guys would still be complying with all the other conditions of the right okay um with that before we go any further with these conditions um maybe it' be beneficial to have the straw poll before we try to decide on a condition at least if fa is in favor of you know granting this in concept yeah I think that would be helpful unless there's other comments from the board that are worth um debating are ready to do that okay so I guess uh all those who would be in favor of of Permitting this use um I guess raise your hands well what M keeper why don't you do a straw pole for us are we a formal and like I guess the question is is there a path forward with conditions to allow this or are you're going to be against it I guess with this is not an official vote what what makes it hard is that he's living there now yes so there's there's some there's some evidence that it's working um and that not hurting anybody um and for that I feel that um it's a consideration my fear is that we would be in this situation again and I I I think you can tell we're all very uncomfortable we're uncomfortable because nobody wants to kick a kid out of the house but the truth of the matter is is that it just doesn't fit with our ordinance and it's hard to think that you know this is just going to go on this can go on and on and on so that's what's uncomfortable and I think we don't want to be in that situation again and of course that's why we're talking about crafting conditions if if to be approved right what what is the question the question is uh is there a path forward with conditions to approve this um application or are you going to be against it without saying what the conditions are right let's just go there is um Miss Balman yes Mr Krauss pass no um you can say something about conditions if you want or yes or no you're may maybe they just have to be restrictive conditions yeah so that's a yes it was a maybe but yes he had a yes A yes subject to condition Miss pich I'm sort of with Mr kuss a yes kind of sort of with the appropriate restrictions and conditions Mr tanky no M Herrera yes M chair Jers thank you um I am closer to no um but if if I was to give it a yes vote it would have to be extremely restrictive conditions with a time limit that is is shorter than 5 years for me so I'm I'm happy to talk about that path forward but to me it's no longer than two years it's enough time to give um him another chance to find somewhere else we're not kicking Bud bu out on the street but for me it's um it's not allowed our our ordinances are very specific with the language in terms of where it needs to be and we know that there's been some changes there but specific to the family member of um of the resident which this just clearly does not fit so that's my only path forward so if if we want to offer something like that and um that's the only way I would consider yes it's really just a temporary a temporary may I make a suggestion yeah what if we table this allow Mr seski and I to work together and see if we can come up with a restrictive proposed condition uh and then the interim that would also allow a seventh member to review the tape and be eligible to vot I have no objection to that as long as I don't have to fly Witnesses back from California I would be happy to come back you come back anyway anybody have a problem with that no wait hold on You're Gonna Come Back California to New Jersey in December or January are you crazy I think so comforable with proceeding that way we'll carry this to the next available hearing take December 4th okay uh Miss kefir can um they come back on December 4th we have a full docket on December 4th um I think I gave you the pending applications list yes you did I just don't know what to be honest as long as Miss K isn't going to be issuing violations so the timing is not critical this particular that's not my department though we don't want to go too long another consideration yeah okay just January is TI I I don't do you want to carry it to January or January 8th or Mr Z is if we carry it to January 8th is that okay with you that's acceptable January 8th okay we will need an extension of time Mr Z yes ma'am no problem okay so December 8th that's going to be our I'm sorry January January January thank you all very much have a Wonder okay we'll see you all right so just uh just for the record of I'll make it official uh this matter is going to be carried to uh board's next he the board's hearing on January 8th 2025 quarter of the century here uh 7:30 p.m. here in the municipal building no further notice will be required either by certified mail or by publication right and and just to be clear the board did not vote on this application and the public will have an opportunity to make comments at that time thank you okay thank you thank you um next up on the agenda is uh 7c which is Joseph and nicholet Caputo ZB 24017 Hi how are you good how are you Joseph Caputo yeah okay give our lawyer one second sure Switching gears here okay Mr kuto I'm going need you to raise your right hand as well as our board professionals are going to SAR all you guys in do you swear or affirm that the testimony you about to provideed be the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do all right great and uh what's your address for the record sir uh 66 southstone HED Drive Baskin Ridge New Jersey okay and I'll just point out Madam chair I did review the applicant notice of this application gr it to be uh timely served and to be sufficient in terms of its content it was sent to owners of property within hure feet of subject property on September 18th and publish in the verville news on September 26 so thus in my legal opinion board is jurisdiction to here inside the case okay great thank you good evening good evening um do you want to tell us what uh leave you seat sure uh so we're asking to construct uh a fence in the rear of our uh property um we're asking for a variance for a 5-ft fence we're on a corner lot so the uh side of AR way is considered a front yard property um so we wanted to construct uh a rear fence of 5T um where we would only be up to 4T so that's where the variance is is in request for yes and why do you want it to be 5T so we have two young children um actually last year um on South Stone Hedge right in front of our house there was a vehicle accident where somebody died actually uh right in front of our property so we have two young children at home uh we wanted it to be as tall as what would make reason um so we know in the rear yard we can go above 4 feet and just because unfortunately our lot is on the corner we we limited there you have some pictures in your application did you take those we did and does it essentially look the same just less green less green green and you have a picture of a fence in there yes is that what you're thinking about that a fence yeah so it would be a black aluminum fence um with mostly open see-through so would not be covered where you can see into the back the rear uh the property do you mind taking it do you have a copy of your photos yes do you mind taking us through um your photos and maybe focusing yes um on where this fence is going to be especially with respect to the two front yards yes so we provided this survey in essence what we showed the photos for the portion that we would need the variants for so um I don't have them labeled but this photo here um is looking from the side of the house towards our AR way this is the driveway leading to our garage where we're constructing the would be uh from this uh driveway line here um to we have um Aphrodite trees that are along AR way here that we're going to place it on the inside of those so it would be on the inside of those um trees towards the back end of our Galway um and then along the back end of the property um uh kind of hard to explain otherwise um this photo here is looking towards the rear of the house Aral way is on this side here these are the Aphrodite trees I was referring to the fence would be on the inside of those so closer to the to the house and this is the rear side of the property with argal again on this side so is is that part of the fence locked you think from the street yeah you wouldn't even see it on the on the street side so the trees it would be on on the interior of the uh the trees we did we did speak actually with two of our neighbors too actually what labeled uh 16 and 11 um and both of both of them that's the nosher family and are at 16 and then 11 are two neighbors that also recently moved into to that property and have two young daughters as well so neither of them had voiced any concern about the fence so this fence is that the exact fence you're puring or is that say examples uh that would be very similar yes yes uh yes I'm only asking that was a question like is it the exact one or is different model Orion yes no that would be it I mean I I did bring in essence the the catalog that they provided us I me I just brought this here they're all very similar I it's going to be they all open all open exactly within exactly so there may be just slight variations to that but not it would all be open aluminum fence and Dave the only the only section that's technically the front yard is is the section that goes along arile way correct no everything forward of the house so it's like U shape the section along the driveway the oh because that's front I see I'm the house I to that point I aired in my letter the 170 ft I have is what you just said okay I didn't count the return back to the point where the plane of the house right intersects the backyard so it's closer to 250 ft of it is in the front yard okay any other comments for the board no I mean I think kind of the main thing is we're just asking for an extra foot of fence in essence uh you know along that that front side property um you know otherwise with code it's going to be open you could easily see into the backyard um you know the spot where they are where the trees are already that would be the only spot that would not be visible but there are trees there we're not planning I know there was some questions about vegetation being we're not planning on doing anything to any agriculture or vegetation you know construction of the fence uh 4T or 5T so and the reason for the fouret or the the 4 foot uh coordinance is just for massing correct yeah openness and air light and you're not removing any Tre or no we we're going to be on the interior side of the a of the aphrodes on AR Galway and on the posterior of the house uh there's there are trees but we're not there's no intention to remove any trees in construction of the fence so Mr Quinn any no the only comment I had was that the photo is in Dimensions so before you if you're going to go to the building department just make sure you have a little cut sheet showing how high your fence is going to be in the opening I'm sure whoever's going to do it for you can give you that cut sheet you can with your for the F okay in this example what's the opening between the bars bars uh I don't know if they actually label it here they're usually about three and a half Ines if they're a typical fence like that yeah I mean I have pictures of kind of what I know this is not obviously to scale but I but the rule is more than 50% open size right which is what yeah you you would stipulate to yeah the P what we provided there for the board that's what it's going to look like and that's more than 50% open so so yeah I'll take this as a condition that the fence you ultimately construct be substantially similar in terms of appearance to the one that you guys correct okay correct thank it would otherwise comply with all the other requirements of the ordinance transparency yes yes absolutely fantastic any additional questions for Mr Kudo from the board a new took down this fence they have to put up the same type of fence or could they put up any fence that they wanted to if for some reason they wanted to replace the fence they'd have to replace it in accordance with the board's condition which would be very similar type of decorative black aluminum very open what is the the width between the vertical poles of the fence on the fence I know that's what we were uh well I'm worried about a child could could kind of peek out of their fence and maybe get stuck uh I don't know I I I'm not a fence expert that was my first question I have a similar fence that's W wider and it's a pool fence and it's regulations I mean I I anybody has that F but I was I just concerned child safety yeah well well yeah I mean honestly we we kind of think more safety keep them in in the rear of the yard um because our property is quite open especially on that Argy side um so we do use it a lot when we're back there with the kids and like I said what prompted a lot of this was just after Christmas last year there was a fatality right in front of our property from a motor vehicle accident um the standard he of Defence in this situation is that because manufacturing is no it they do manufacture four feet it was more of a request of us just for 5T uh just to give a little extra height on the fence you could have any G yes so um on this uh more the south side of the property where Caputo's the name is uh there's going to be about a 10-ft fence there to allow if we have to get anything into the back of the yard 10 foot gate uh sorry 10 foot gate G sorry 10 foot gate and then the um there is a um a staircase down to the basement on the Caputo side as well so there's going to be a gate there so that we would have the access down into the basement um from the rear yard and then there will be another gate uh by the garage side basically any other questions from the board um Mr uh did the did the um stipulation um that mrki read covered your second point there yes I my points are covered great um are there any questions from the public on on this application are there any comments oh is that a question easy one comment oh comment okay okay are there so there's no questions are there any comments on this application you didn't get me the last time so tyin 172 R Side Drive mrin do you swear orir testimon about Prov be the truth about the truth yes please proceed when you put the fence up by the tree line we just ask that you don't put it so close to trees that harms The Roots but that's all I have to say thank you thank you that was noted in the um environmental uh commission that just be mindful of um any tree lines when you're putting um Ro it's a good point thank you sir stipulation yes it'll be a stipulation Mr edstein stole my thund rose I'm usually environment he did I know well it's his job too you want to First yeah absolutely no further no one else in the public so I guess we're good okay guys so one variant is being sought here that's for front yard fence height applicant is proposing a 5 foot tall fence in the uh the Northerly front yard there's two front yards here it's corner lot maximum permitted for a front yard fence is a four foot tall fence um as far as conditions go the proposed fence would be a decorative black aluminum open fence uh that appears at least substantially similar to the example provided in the application and uh appearance of the fence would otherwise comply with all of the ordinances applicable fence requirements I feel like I've said fence like 30 times already we'll keep going uh condition two the applicant shall provide a cut sheet of the proposed fence to confirm compliance with the ordinances fens sight transparency requirements to the township engineering department subject to their revie and approval and uh if fences to be installed near any tree shall avoid tree roots and Jog the fence as necessary and that's it just those three and one VAR okay great thank you um I'm not sure if there's that much to talk about on this one or if we can um or if anybody wants to make a motion so any comments or motion on this application I'll make a motion all right right I make a motion to Grant the variance I see no detriment I think it's in character it's a safety concern and I would approve this under seat to I'll second thank you m b yes Mr K yes M Pichi yes Mr T yes M her yes yes thank you thank you appreciate it congratulations thank you next item on the agenda is 7D um which is Hector Pera and Elizabeth Sila which is ZB 24019 y give us one second I good to organize here okay M before we I sore the parties in I'll just mention that I review the applicant's notice of this hearing I found it to be sufficient in terms of its content and its Timeless of service it was sent by certified mail to owners of property within 200t of the subject property on October 15th and also published in the burn news on October 10th both more than 10 days in advance of tonight's hearing and thus the board has uh jurisdiction hear and decide the case in my legal opinion with that I will swear as the parties as well as our board professionals could everybody please uh raise the right hands for me pred discussing it's all do all of you swear or from the testimony your abouts were about be the truth the whole Tru nothing about the truth I yes I do great so uh I guess whoever's kicking us off want don't you introduce yourself tell us who you are what your address is and we'll get uh sure Elizabeth silver um I live at 445 mountary Road in Basking Ridge along with my husband Hector ferer and our two children um do you want to just tell us while you're here you know what um what relief you're looking for we do have your application we have reviewed it why don't you summarize for us what you're looking for sure and thank you to the board for hearing our application tonight welcome um I'm here um we purchased our home 11 years ago um it's a split level home two stories uh built in 1958 um we're here seeking a variance to try to build an addition on the home uh the needs of our family have changed since we initially purchased the home our family has expanded we had a my daughter was a baby when we bought the home we now have a second child so we have a 12-year-old and an eight-year-old um and we'd like to modernize the home and expand it to meet our family's needs um we are the the proposed work includes uh using our attached garage uh to build a new bigger kitchen for the home as well as um a small ground floor addition next to that kitchen which would allow us to have an entrance on stockar Drive where our driveway is currently uh so we can better access the new kitchen that we're building um and then there's also a second level above that that we would like to build in order to create a new master suite upstairs laundry and a new bedroom for my daughter and just to clarify that's a new kitchen not an additional kitchen it is a new kitchen um we have um an existing uh Kitchen in the home but we are going to remove um the range and it will become just a what what are we calling it a bar a bar yes a refrigerator and sink basically will remain in the house I should also mention um we're going to use we have an existing detached garage on the property so we currently have two garages um we're going to use the detached garage now for our cars it's currently just used for storage and so as part of this work we'd also like to build a covered walk from the detached garage to the um new addition so that we can um walk in inclement weather without um you know being exposed to the rain and snow and um did you receive a copy of our town planner's memo Mr memo I did yes did you have a chance to review it I did yes and I understand that the variances that um we need or we are seeking here relate to the fact that there's um a pre-existing deviation from the setback requirement on Mount AR Road our house is a corner lot so we have two fronts um so on the mountairy side of the street we are at 65 feet from mountary Road rather than the 75 ft that's required for the front setb we're not moving the house any closer to mount are as part of this addition but we are building a second level above the um garage and my understanding is that creates a non-conformance because the second level will not be 75 ft from the road Mr SL you agree with that I agree okay well done what at 59.3 in your memo no I think it's I think it's the front yard Mount area yeah 6 67 no rear yard still ex vertically exacerbating right so because it's a second level there's a variance required there even though correct and top of the existing correct and the second variance is related to attaching the detached garage as I mentioned to the house with the covered walkway because um that makes it part of the house as I understand it um from the memo at least I hope I'm explaining this correctly but um that that created a second um need for a variance of the front setback on stockar because now the detached garage is is closer to uh stock Mar Drive than it should be I you did you did a good job on okay thank you um Mr Sly I think it would be helpful maybe if you take us through your second point there with with the various variances that that might be helpful here yeah October 2524 memo com number two the top of page just explain a position the B and C which are the front yard set back along stock Mar and the rear yard setback those are both both created only because of the connecting the garage to the house once you connect an accessory building to a principal building the accessory building is subject to the principal building setbacks um so the well the garage already had a variance for being where it is in the front yard um but the rear yard right now the garage is 59 ft from the rear yard the setback requirement for an accessory structure for rear setback is 20 ft so it performs once you attach the garage to the house then we setbacks that apply to the house apply to the garage so now your 59t setback is short of the 75 foot SE back the house but all the construction uh even the the connection to the garage complies with the 75t rear yard setback it's just the a new requirement is being applied to the existing garage which creates that violation and then as far the same situation as far as the front yard of stock Mar actually a very small portion of the connector where it meets the garage is actually over that 75t line but 99% of the addition complies with the front back the long stock bar and and variance the need for the variance is due to the connection to the garage and the change okay and then also there was a point about lot coverage yeah that's the next comment number three in my memo the the applicant with all the proposed improvements um it brings it to 15.76% which is over by 324 Square ft uh the this applicant has a unique case because the public sidewalk along m road is actually on their property uh which is atypical uh and that sidewalk accounts for 400 square Fe essentially all of the coverage that's over 15% can be attributed to that sidewalk um which is a pretty unique situation that the public sidewalk be on and counted on kind of coverage because it's on private property and um without the sidewalk coverage would be and that's atypical because it's not typically counted as private property not just the fact that we don't have a lot of sidewalks yeah but this one isn't why why is it here I don't know typically your right of ways at least 10t that's I thought it's I mean it's atypical it happens sometimes there's an easement on um the property U encompassing the walkway sometimes you see a um a temporary CAC that would be located within easement on the property that adds hundreds of square feet technically to lot coverage the sidewalk is in the right way on the stockk drive side but not but not on Mount AR yeah and the mount sidewalk is quite odd it ends in the middle of our front yard for some reason they didn't continue it and there's no continuing sidewalk over by my neighbor either so it just cuts off and yeah it's it's very strange and I said can I remove it cuz it's actually dangerous to lead someone into the middle of my yard but I'm not allowed to remove [Laughter] it yeah um but but we were not aware of that until we brought this um application and learned that that was on our property according to our property survey so no no only this one portion exactly so odd and she can't remove it even though it's on her property I think count is going to claim rights to it just like oh things County on stock they wanted on stock they probably could well that's in the right no they yeah and that sidewalk is good because it actually continues down stockmore you can walk down it and use it they thought it would be odd to stop the sidewalk at the corner and just create another odd condition I don't know okay um are any trees going to be removed as part of this um project that you know of no we actually are going to add a little bit of Landscaping on the stockar drive dve side we're going to rip up a tiny portion of the driveway that's existing there to put in some Shrubbery make it look nicer where the new entrance is going um sorry just I kind of interrupt you there well number four was about trees number five I think was touched on that the kitchen's being relocated and the existing kitchen is basically being decommissioned as a kitchen by removing the cooking facil which is why it is that the dwelling is not considered two dwelling and it's so it's not an apartment if uh this is just making I'm guessing the applicant already aware that the stove had to come out yes uh it's pretty clear on the plans um so this just making it double aware that uh it's got to stay that way unless you get further approval for an apartment and um Le be in the main house accessory do you um do you have any um storm water issues on the property now any issues with water flooding no and we actually put in drainage a number of years ago in our backyard because we were seeing some collection of water in the middle of the backyard so I had them put underground um piping that runs out to um the stock Mar Drive side of the property so it's much better now okay Mr Quinn um did you have any concerns or actionable items on on your side that we didn't cover no I don't think I had any action items either I mean it seems like it's pretty tucked in the rear yard I I don't I don't see this being very visible but I don't have any engineering discerners there's no topography shown here I think the only thing I advise you is that um there's a a limit of disturbance associated with construction right which is where you disturb the land once you cross certain thresholds in the township is 2500 square ft you'll have to show Soil Conservation measures Sil fence measures to keep soil from migrating off the property and if you're over 5,000 s fet which is not likely you'll have to um uh apply to the Soil Conservation District so you'll have to identify that soil my AR will do that help me with that right Tom he's right here if you have any questions for him that okay did you also get a copy of the member from the environmental Commission on your application yes yes were you able to review it and um do you agree or have any questions and some of their suggestions for example they recommend planting native trees or shrubs or consider that when you're doing your Landscaping they talk about Mor management a little bit and they also talk about you know the protection and preservation of trees during um during your work okay yes we'll take all of this into account just to be clear you're not you guys would would be complying with all their proposed conditions the uh incling storm water best management practices during site work um employing best management practices Reserve de trees during site work trees ands in compition land we need a tree removal protection replacement plans removing any trees um they did also want you to be aware of any the possibility of any inground tanks Le lead paint or disbest um you guys should take any precautions if you counter that stuff and then you make finally they suggest that you make a good faith best effort to recycle repurpose any demol okay I did have a question about the first sentence that says it would not be occupied during construction is that requirment that I not stay in the home during the construction it in the first sentence of the comments it says that that's that's I don't know why that's in the enviral commission I think there were suggest that you might need a new certificate of occupancy but no you can just ignore it okay because there's a portion the home that that is not being touched and we were planning to stay in the home it Go's there is some demolition involved in the project and under C if your amount of the board has heard this before but if you exceed partial uh partial destruction of the structure then you you're basically considered building a new house you have to confy with all zoning requirements including lot area and lot withd and Frontage and other things um this is not fall in that category one of the criteria for uh deciding whether or not something is partial destruction can be whether or not you can occupy the home while it's under construction but that's not the sole factor I guess that's what the environmental commission is talking about here right and I think there was also one more comment about um about decks uh yeah just about that go ahead I was just going to ask you opposing a deck here I thought it was just no we're actually removing an existing deck and replacing it with a back patio um the deck is is coming out but I think maybe he was just saying if I decide to put it back I don't know well if if you change you know if if in the future you to consider leaving it open like in between slots right okay um the other thing that we just remind you also with respect to the deck being replaced with the patio obviously um you know any approval will be specific to those plans yes and especially when you ask for a variance to be over the coverage it's important that if that is um granted by the board that it's specific to that number mean yes has to remain that size as it is on the plan don't go over whatever the board May Grant you if you go over you have to come back you have to come back got it okay thank you and then you may not get it right she's right when your contractor comes and says hey you know I got extra break put we just keep going you got to be you got to remember that right that that's part of the lot coverage got it okay anything else for uh the board that you want to share uh just that I spoke with um my neighbors um that we noticed as part of the public notice and I did not um they were supportive of the work and did not object to it did you hear any concerns from from any of those conversations I did not there was maybe one neighbor that we tried ringing their doorbell and they didn't answer but other than that did you take these photos yes all of them all of them were there any of them taken by you guys I don't know I think they were all meem oh I emailed them yes they were me fail accurately dep the property yes current conditions as it looks today yes yes those were taken specifically for this application when um right before we submitted which was a couple months ago October October yeah great um any questions any additional questions um from the board any questions from the public yes yes maybe you should consider sitting in the front rout the easy ones titlein 172 for srack I just I saw the paper work and you were going to ask for changing of your address to stockar did the post office give you a hard time with that did you try that the town required that if we change it that we present it to okay that was only the question okay thank you thank you sir could you just identify yourself you were sworn in but I just short Thomas beo I was the architect for the applicant and I will be quiet too just so I understand did you change your address no no so we we are putting a front door well there's there's still a front door on the mountary side but there's going to be a second entrance on the stock Mar side um so I mean if this board sofit we would like to apply for a change of address once the work is completed and there's a door there I don't know how that works exactly but not this it's not for this it's not for this board function they're not going to change addresses unless it was a subdivision involving moving roads and things got it okay okay that's fine that's not not for us to consider okay no problem um okayi uh actually real quick before we wrap up U just want to get so we got Mr beo Miss can just get your name and address for the record so they know who you Amanda 9 Drive Green how do you spell your last name k r i NE and what's your relationship to as this application uh this is my boss oh oh you one of the Architects okay I got you okay future zoning board applicant just wanted to make sure we knew who everybody was here thank you one question I didn't know if the architect was going to identify you know the exterior colors or anything like that or the type of fixture changes you're going to make to the house all yeah till 10 o' you presenting information no I wasn't we are putting new sighting on the on the house um but it's what it's white like not determined we might be doing an Alpine white which is a little soft gray it's it's white white or light gray it's going to be something in that consistent with my existing home both buildings will have the consistent signing the detached will have the same um I'm not residing the detached garage just the home it's already white it has white siding on the detached garage yes it be aesthetically uniform the the entire the additions would be aesthetically uniform with the balance of the dwelling right is that sorry I'm not sure I'm following that one it's a simple question the entire principal residence aside from the detached um walkway the sorry attached walkway with columns but it's open that is going to a garage that garage is not being resided only the house and the house will be uniform in siding thank you Mr did you have a question ex lighting that you're going to be changing on the sure the exterior lighting is going to be per code right outside the doors there's a current flood lamp that helps them light the yard as we build our addition we'll probably locate the flood lamp on there um did I give you guys electrical plans in the presentation kit I don't know if I did I did not we just kept the architectural drawings so I'll testify that there's going to be um a couple of flood lamps on the driveway side and there will be some existing flood lamps replaced on the backyard side lamps will be downward facing so we don't have neighbors they will be downward facing so we don't have lights spillage to the neighbors and on 247 motion oh they should be absolutely yeah yeah they they should not be on 247 they should be motion motion with a u during night time yeah yeah with the ability to bypass it when they have uh people over any additional questions from the board are there any questions from the public since we heard a little bit more are there um any comments from the public on this application okay all right do you have anything else for us you want to turn it over to the board no thank you for taking the time to hear my application thank you okay take exra not okay all right so hit everything okay all right so the applicant here is applicants my apologies keep doing that tonight two applicants not just one uh they're seeking uh four different bolt variances uh first is for the principal dwelling front yard setback that's to mountary road on the uh east side of the property uh 75 ft is the required minimum set front yard setback here the proposing 67.2 ft uh second one another principal dwelling front guard setb back this time to stock Mar Drive to the South uh 75 ft again is the required minimum there they're proposing 46.1 3 ft third variance is the principal develing rear yard setback to the that's to the west side of the property uh 75 ft is the required minimum there again and they're proposing 59.3 feet and last bulk Varian is for lot coverage 15% is the permitted maximum they're proposing 15.7 % as far as conditions go um I did note that they would be it was kind of the same condition throughout the memorandum we saw but that was that they would be uh prior to the issuance of a construction permit the applicants would be revising the submitted plans to show the prop proposed limit of disturbance and to indicate whether any existing trees are to be removed and that that plan would be subject to the review and approval of the township engineering department oh they would also on the plan confirm that certification is not required from either the Township or Somerset Union Soil Conservation District if is not so required um applicant the applicants also agreed to comply with the Common Center environmental commission's memo which was undated but we all know what we were talking about because we just went through it before that's we go through them again because we went through them before and other conditions go uh they agreed that the uh stipulated that the exterior parents of the entire dwelling would be itical uniform uh any exterior lighting fixtures would be downward facing or otherwise shielded and the ones in the driveway area would be on motion sensors and I believe that is it if I'm leaving something out somebody please tell no okay so good I think you got it thank you okay so any um comments uh on this application liberations motions all at once I see no detriment in anything here I think it's um it's just adding the Second Story you're mostly remaining within the footprint and you're remaining under the cious coverage um so I see no detriment I don't see a hardship here um property um I think where the garage is sitting now if it if you didn't have the open walkway it would conform correct Mr SCH um so I just I just don't see a problem with it adding the walkway in fact I think that it adds to the Beauty and the Aesthetics of the house um I think you're making an improvement to the house um not just for you but for um anybody that may come after you um for me I would see it as a C2 um again with no detriment and you know working within the confines of our ordinance and i' check that yeah I I was just going to say I could also see it under C1 for the maximum lot coverage just because the sideway sidewalk thing is so bizarre and the fact that it's part of your coverage and that's your overage so I could see it under C1 and C2 hardship because of the because of the sidewalk because the maximum lot coverage is over and requires a variance um I could see that under C2 so C1 and C2 yep I agree yeah and I second that it's in character with the neighborhood so I see no judgment here y so we got a motion in a second left and right Miss Balon yes Mr Krauss yes M Pichi yes Mr yes M Herrera yes chair yes good luck with your project thank you so much appreciate it remember the maximum lot cover I will it's ingrained in my mind thank you board thank you any um comments from Members Miss keeper I think we have uh another special meeting next week yes uh next Thursday to 14th so there's a special meeting where we will hear the signature uh case next Thursday so if everyone can mark that one down to those who it applies to thank you any comments from staff motion to so moved second