##VIDEO ID:_Ytp2dOtn7k## e e e e e the January 7th 2025 Bridgewater Township planning board meeting is hereby called to order at 708 adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accord ordance with the open public meetings act and JSA 10 4-6 on March 30th 2023 proper notice was sent to The Courier News and Star Ledger filed with the clerk at the township of Bridgewater and posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building Please be aware of the planning board policy for public hearings no new applications will be heard after 9:30 and no new testimony will be taken after 10 hearing assistance is available upon request accommodation will be made for individuals with a disability pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act provided the individual with a disability provides 48 Hours advanced notice to the planning department secretary before the meeting should be noted that this equipment is now available on site and On Demand I've been advised if the individual should require special equipment other special equipment or services such as a Cart transcriber 7 days advaned notice excluding weekends holiday days may be necessary please stand for the pledge Al to the of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands nais andice for all at this time the board attorney Mark pek will administer the Oaths of office do you have the oath forms I do not have the oath forms um we can administer the Oaths and I'll be sure that they signed with the clerk's office okay first up is councilman k for the class three member after me I I'm Michael kersch do solemnly swear affirm do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith and ALG to to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state county and Township and in this state county and Township under the authority of the people under the authority of the people that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties of the office of all the duties of the office of class three member of the planning class three member of the planning board according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me go all right congratulations all right next up is class four environmental commission for a threeyear term Mr Madura I I James mura do solemnly swear affirm do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and Township and Township under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties and perform all the duties of the office of last four member environmental Commission of a class four member environmental commission for the planning board for the planning board according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me doubt so help me down all right thank you thank you next we have Mr Wang ien do solemly swear airm that I will support the Constitution of the United States I support theit of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and theti of the state of New and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States state and in this state in this state county and Township County and under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and Faithfully impartially imp parly and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of of the office last for member of the planning board according to the best of my ability thank you hey Mr Visio I do solemnly swear do swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of St I will be faith and Al to theit States and perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of congratulations thank you my name Mr chowy I Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Saint and to the governments established in the United States in town under the authority of the people that I will faithfully and partially partially and justly justly perform all the duties all the duties of the office of alternate number one to the plan to the best of my ability okay that should be everybody correct Nancy correct thank you now I guess call the role of the board mayor mench is absent councilman kers here chairman veso here I'm sorry Mr veso for now Vora here Mr Wang here miss chardo here Mr papis is absent for the record miss sakur here Mr banga here Mr chowdery Mr Atkins yes and for the record uh Katherine sarmad William planner William Burr our engineer and Mark pek board attorney are also present and at this point I've open nominations for chairperson I make a nomination that we continue under the outstanding leadership of maritzio vesio noting that uh it's a tough job uh the coordination required ahead of the meeting running the meetings making sure everything runs smoothly he's done an outstanding job I'm confident we'll see more of the same in 2025 second any other nominations no other nominations I'll close the flo nominations and I'll take a roll call vote on nomination of maritzio vessio as chair councilman C yes Mr mura yes Mr Wang M chardo yes M Sora yes Mr banga yes Mr chowy yes Mr ains yes and chairman vessio you accept I accept and thank you to the board and thank you councilman kers and to the board members I look forward to 2025 to be a great year I look forward to work alongside all of you and yes I agree uh preparing for the meeting uh is uh not an easy task however I think the preparation also leads to some very good questioning on these nights so thank you very much turn over okay moving to section 6B we're looking for the election of a vice chairperson I'd like to open nominations I'd like to nominate Ashley sakur as Vice chair she's done an outstanding job uh when she's chaired this planning board uh she operates uh with Integrity uh she brings a keenness of insight to this board uh through her questioning and I believe that uh this year will be no different that's Mr chowri kers I'm sorry yes Mr M yes Mr yes yes Char yes sakur yes I accept Mr Mr banga yes Mr Chow yes Mr a yes okay we'll move to section 6 C for the election of a board secretary I'd like to open nominations for a board secretary I would like to nominate Nancy probes to continue as our board secretary for 2025 acknowledging the terrific work that she's done uh advising myself and the rest of the board in the preparation of each and every single one of our meting I thank you very much do I have a second I'll second that that's Miss sakur are there any other nominations that will close nominations M yes yes Mr Wang yeso yes Mr Charo yes Mr cor yes Mr Bango yes Mr Chow yes mrin yes thank you moving to section 6D for the election of an assistant board secretary I'd like to open nominations I'd like to nominate Sonia chtz as the election of assistant board secretary to continue the work that she performed in 2024 I second that's Miss sakur are there any other nominations that will close nominations councilman kers yes yes Mr Wang yeso yes M charoit I accept Mr cor yes Mr banga yes Mr Chow yes Mr Ain yes okay moving to item number seven on our agenda it's the reorganization resolutions appointment of board professionals this evening uh Mr P we will be appointing our professionals uh the first will be section 7A the appointment of a board professional for a board attorney uh that will be for Mark R peek Esquire do I have a motion to appoint Mr peek as our board attorney that's Mr chowri C have a second I second that's Miss sakur could I have a roll call please councilman kers yes Mr mura yes Mr Wang yes chairman besso yes M chardo yes Mr Sora yes Mr banga yes Mr Chow yes Mr Atkins yes thank you very much it's a pleasure representing the board look forward to a good 2025 thank you Mr P next is section 7B for the appointment of a board professional in the board engineer role could I have a motion to appoint William Burr all motion that's Miss CHT could I have a second please second that's Miss sakur could I have a roll call please kers yes Mr M yes Mr Wang yes chairman besso yes M chardo yes Mr Sora yes Mr banga yes Mr chowdery yes Mr Atkins yes moving to section 7 for the appointment of a board professional for our board planner could I have a motion to appoint Katherine sarmad motion that's Miss sakur second that that's Mr banga could I have a roll call please councilman kers yes Mr M yes Mr Wang yesman vesio yes M chardo yes Miss sakur yes Mr Bango yes Mr Chow Mr Atkins yes thank you mrman section 7e for the appointment of a Consulting planner 7D my apologies for a the appointment of a Consulting planner would somebody like to appoint uh make a motion to point Mr Michael Sullivan no motion that's miss chtz Mr uh chadri could I have a roll call please councilman K yes Mr mura yes Mr Wang yes chman vesio yes Mr chardo yes Mr Sora yes Mr Bango yes Mr chowy Mr Atkins yes moving along section 7e will not apply section 7f the designation of meeting dates Miss probes I'm going to relay this back to you as I believe you have the most current resolution um the there were two meeting dates that were eliminated from the list for 2025 I believe the copy that you received was a draft so just for clarification the resolution we're adopting does not include June 3 or November 4th if those are on the copy that you have there just please disregard that copy okay I'll distribute a new official meeting dates tomorrow M Mr chairman just just for commentary uh June 3r is in advance of the of the rescheduled New Jersey primary um at some point we lose use of this room for early voting we simply don't know exactly when that's going to be uh and then November 4th is uh uh general election day we typically do not have L use uh meetings those nights thank you councilman kersch and for the purpos of a public I'll go ahead and uh recite those dates and that will be for January 7th January 21st All Dates 2025 unless otherwise noted February 4th February 18th March 4th March 18th April 1st April 15th May 6th May 20th June 17th July 1st July 15th August 5th August 19th September 2nd September 16th October 7th October 21st November 18th December 2nd December 16th and January 6 2026 for reorg and regular meeting resolution somebody like to ad I'll make the I'll make the motion to adopt the resolution designated our meetings dates times and place subject to the amendment we've discussed I have a second please I'll second that's Miss chitz I have a roll call please counc yes Mr mura yes Wang yes chairman vesio yes M chardo yes Miss sakur yes Mr banga yes Mr Chow Mr Atkins yes okay moving along to section 7g the designation of our official newspapers be it resolved by the planning board of the township of Bridgewater that The Courier News and the Star Ledger are hereby designated as the official newspapers of the planning board for 2025 and are authorized to receive all notices of planning board meetings as required under the open public meetings act would anyone like to take the motion make a motion to adopt this resolution that's Mr chowri could I have a second please Mr banga could I have a roll call please councilman Kush yes Mr mcor yes Mr Wang yeso yes M chardo yes Mr Sora yes Mr banga yes Mr chowri yes Mr Atkins yes Mr peek unless there are any other items I believe that concludes our reorganization for 2025 5 it does very good I'll take a motion to close reorganization chry C have a second second Miss chtz could I have your roll call please councilman kers yes Mr MC yes Mr Wang yes chairman veso yes M chardo yes M sakur yes Mr banga yes Mr Chad Mr Atkins yes okay we shall proceed with our regular meeting at this time I'd like to call any members of the public wishing to address the board on any matter not listed on tonight's agenda please feel free to come forward at this time seeing none hearing none we will move on to our board minutes we have a set of minutes from October 1st 2024 are any comments change to the record hearing none could have a motion to approve the minutes for October 1st 2024 I'll motion that's Miss chtz I'll second that's Miss sakur could I have a roll call please we can do those by Voice voting I'm sorry we can do those by Voice voting very good all in favor I I next set of minuts are from October 15 20124 any comments change to the record hearing none can I take a motion I'll make a motion that's Miss Sora could I have a second I'll second that's miss charz all in favor I I next is a set of minutes from November 19 2024 any comments or changes for the record yeah Mr chairman I was not present at that meeting so that should be reflected in the minutes okay absent would anybody like to make the motion as amended that's Mr chowri could I have a second please I'll second that's miss chtz all in favor I I moving along I don't believe we have any resolutions this evening I'm yeah I'm sorry can can just um so that the the record is truly clear um on each roll call vote I should also be noted as absent not not eligible so I don't know if you need to just redo those minutes with that amendment I apologize for not seeing that sooner you could could you maybe clarify for I've seen Miss Pro is uh I uh I were you did the minutes reflect that you were present and you were actually the minutes reflect that I was present which we corrected but each roll call vote uh states that I'm not eligible to vote I was eligible to vote I was absent then you could just make a motion to you know amend the prior motion to include the latest uh correct all but probably that needs to be done by someone that was at the meeting who would like to to make that motion that's Mr chowri as amended who would like to second that that's Mr Wang all in favor I I thank you sorry for that inconvenience thank you councilman no problem okay moving along again we don't have any resolutions this evening and that will take us to our land devel applications this evening and the first we'll be hearing this evening is Chick-fil-A which is a continuance for 121724 block 164 lot 6.05 commonly known as 754 Route 202 and who is returning this evening to represent the applicant good evening Mr chairman members of the board board professionals members of the public my name is Michael silbert I'm from the I'm from the law firm D franccesco baitman located in Warren Township New Jersey and it is my privilege to return this evening representing the applicant Chick-fil-A in I see a number all familiar faces actually and I would just like to congratulate all of you um for for doing this important service to the Bridgewater Community Bridgewaters lucky lucky to have you and uh welcome back in 2025 I'd also like to thank the board for agreeing to hear this application during their reorganization meeting that means a lot to uh to the applicant and um the board is aware um this is an application for preliminary and final major site plan approval um this is our fourth hearing on this application we've appeared on on October 15th and we presented the operational testimony of John Martinez our senior vice president of development for chickfila December 3rd we presented the professional engineering and traffic testimony of Mr Zachary chaplain of Stonefield engineering and Mr Patrick Downey of dynamic traffic and then of course most recently on December 17th we presented a revised concept plan incorporating feedback from the board board's professionals that was outlined in their supplemental review memo dated December 8th 2024 so since our last hearing the applicant submitted a revised site plan consisting of one one sheet labeled c4.4 this revised site plan addresses the comments outlined uh in that supplemental review letter and incorporates the feedback provided during our December 17th hearing before the board so the the key revisions and our engineer will testify to this short ly is that we removed the partial bypass lane and replaced it with an escape driveway at the northeast corner of the site that addresses any concerns related to a singular pinch point to provide an alternate means of egress out of the site we also added Route 202 way finding signage at the intersection of the extension driveway in the pad site um this encourages right turns out of the site to mitigate traffic concerns related to Town Center Road we also took the feedback from the board and and installed a grassp with a rollover manable curb at the southwest corner of the site to enhance emergency access to the site and then finally um I would just note that we revised the bulk standards table reflecting updated proposed signage and related variance relief this provision eliminates the proposed or originally proposed sidey yard parking setback variants that was uh erroneously shown on the original site plan so that variance is not needed uh tonight our goal of courses to conclude the application I intend to recall our engineer Mr to review the revised site plan for the record uh after Mr chaplain's testimony I will call the applicant's Final witness Mr Matt Flynn Mr Flynn will provide the planning testimony necessary necessary to justify the approval of this application and uh before we Pro proceed with their first witness I'd like to briefly address the updated review Memo from the Township's Fire Marshal Mr Tom Scalera dated January 1st 2025 I'm proud to report that this memo confirms that the applicant has adequately addressed all of the Fire Marshal's initial requests that were detailed in the September 11th 2024 memo and that the fire marshall has no objections to the application at this time so uh I think before before I start I just wanted to to thank the board I think it's an opportunity um to to recognize the collaboration we've had over the previous three hearings there were uh a lot of constructive and insightful suggestions throughout the the process thus far which has helped us to refine and imp and improve the site plan um so I think it's a testament to to what can be achieved I hope the board will view it this way when when developers and and Boards work together toward a for a Shar Vision so I I believe that the township will be very proud of this project that should the board um so with that I'll just remind you Mr chairman that uh our applicants were I'm sorry the Witnesses were all sworn in 2024 I don't know if uh if they have to be reworn um they're sworn for the duration of the hearing excellent so I'll just introduce uh our first witness or engineer Mr Zachary Chaplan to continue his engineering testimony and discuss uh what what changes you see on that revised site plan sheet I referenced thank you Mr Silver need this uh good evening uh just want to reiterate and concur um what Mr silbert said I do think it's been um you know a great process so far and I think the board's had a lot of constructive feedback that we've been able to implement so um you know basically what I'd like to do tonight is just kind of walk through some of the latest changes that have been made to the plan that were actually submitted to the board um the plan that's on the screen is essentially just a colorized version of that latest site plan that was already submitted um so I don't believe we need to Market as we haven't marked the previous renderings yeah since that's a colorized version what was submitted I think you're up to A9 okay so there's really three main uh changes that we made to the plan the first kind of follows that sketch that we showed at the last hearing where we added in that um that escape ability at the northeast corner of the pad site um again we don't intend to use this really just it's just there in the event of an emergency and that allow um vehicles to get onto that um internal roadway within the shopping center um we also added some green space as well um there used to be that third lane there so reduction of impervious as a result of this change uh the second change is a sign that's essentially right in front of our curb cut um that's going to say 202 with a rightand turn arrow so essentially it's it's not going to restrict people from making a left but it's going to basically you know show people that they do have the ability to make the right hand turn to get back on the 202 in either direction and then lastly and and I thought this was a was a great idea you know just that emergency um grassp type roadway from the naked eye it's not going to look like a driveway so we're going to have grass pavers you know closest to Town Center Road and then AB buding that will be the actual sidewalk and then from there it'll just be like a depressed curb um so that in the event a vehicle needed to drive through the area they could um but it's not going to appear like a driveway it's going to look like grass pavers and sidewalk and then a striped out parking space um hope I'm hoping that with these changes the board um just a little bit more comfortable with the circulation and traffic on site and happy to answer any questions on it Mr chairman councilman kers a couple couple of comment and a couple of questions uh first first uh I do like like the changes I I think it it um is an overall Improvement um on the um the uh I I hope I get my directions right um here maybe there's a oh here on the northeast portion of the site the uh Escape uh driveway um is there signage from that feeder road that that is not an entrance correct there's do not enter signage and we can even add striping as well says do not enter okay all right cuz you know I'd hate to have someone real eager and think that's a way to get to to to get to get forward even quicker should we make that a condition that it be striped and signed uh to prevent Public Access deter Public Access well deter right DET the roadway yeah because I know that's our intention we just want to make sure that that that that's executed uh my SEC my second question question um you know the emergency presumably ambulance axis which hopefully will never be necessary um uh you know that that that that was my suggestion I'm glad to see it I'm glad to see that it works on the site uh in the event of an emergency a medical emergency uh it would allow us to get an ambulance or a police car uh to the front door of the restaurant very quickly and then just a question about that sign I think it's labeled as 6D like dog um talking about 202 um I think our intention is to inform people that 202 their best route to 202 South is that way while you could get to 202 North um I have concerns that if people do that they could create um some some traffic challenges on the road so um I I believe our you know look you can get to 202 in either direction but I think if we highlight on the S on the on the sign that that is possibly a quicker easier way to get to 202 South I believe that's that's our desire okay yeah we can do [Music] that thank you this is uh these are good improvements thank you councilman Mr chower sure thank you for taking care of that two or two signs yeah yeah you know the the the look the intention is basically I think everybody knows you can go back to Town Center Drive the intention is to divert at least some of the traffic to 202 South by going to the right and I don't know exactly how that's worded and encouraged My overall spirit and intention is is as a point of awareness that you can reach 202 20 South by going to the right um you know that that's my intention not it it's more like a friendly suggestion than an absolute guidance on a sign so so again how exactly that we execute that we could say um instead of like a double arrow you can you can put like alternate you know Al 202 maybe alt something like that yes I yeah that that that I believe that would accomplish what we're trying to because again throughout this hearing I've been concerned about you know that feeder Road being a choke point and to the extent that some number of people can realize hey wait a minute I can avoid the choke point by making a right because I'm heading you know toward toward 202 South that's the intention so I think if it's all Al alternate something like that that would definitely accompl that because you know to to to Mr Chow's point you can get there going this way too so you know I'm go with de okay all right that's a good solution R satisfaction of the board engineer that's all I was going to suggest is I think if if a condition was to work with Katherine and I we can word Smith way finding signage appropriately to accomplish the goal okay I agree with councilman's C kers we don't want to encourage people taking that route to then try to shoot cross 202 to then go north let's let them go to town center but the folks going south can use that as an alternate correct we can come up with with the appropriate language and then I guess also you know the signage on the Escape uh uh driveway you know to to our board professionals satisfaction okay thank you thank Council any other questions the uh grass pavers in the Buddy pad I I'm I'm glad that you took that suggested Incorporated that into the plan does that require any special maintenance on an annual basis uh the grass papers I know sometimes those can get um a bit um compromised it's no different than like your lawn you know it needs to be maintained but there's nothing too special about it okay very good any questions from our professionals I know that the topic of tonight has mostly been the traffic and the changes to the plan but I just wanted to touch one thing that I forgot to bring up or just kind of came to me as I was re-reviewing the plans was there was a discussion last meeting about the landscaping and some of the additions that they had based on the utilities and there it's not shown on this the resubmission sheet but it was on the old the prior set of plans that were dated November 8th sheet C9 shows those these utility boxes and I know the one adjacent closer to the building at the rear of the building did have some landscaping around it but the other one closer to that side entrance is larger and didn't have anything any Landscaping on the landscape plan around it so I just wanted to ensure that um if it's possible I don't know what what kind of access is needed from the utility but there probably should be some sort of screening around it if possible um if it is protruding um just to for Aesthetics yeah we're happy to accommodate that if we can okay thank you um as far as the the design um I think the applicant has addressed um the supplemental RW I know that the board didn't get get a chance to see that before last meeting but this does address kind of the concerns we had um Mr burn I had and I'll let him speak on his part but um and that Mr kers had brought up about the alternative papers I think they did adequately address it um and I do think it it it provides that outlet that we were looking for as far as the drive-through access so um that's all I had for this for this witness thank you thank you Mr chairman um to Katherine's point I do think it's an improved plan I think they've addressed several of the concerns that the board raised at prior meetings um couple couple quick questions so you know I think it's a welcome addition the ambulance or the emergency grassp access but in doing that I think you lose a total of two spaces correct so you go from parking spaces or one one space so one you go from 42 to 41 or 43 to 41 I thought you were at 43 should be 43 to 42 okay the only reason I raised it I just want to make sure that you're still compliant with the parking requirements and just in terms of the need on this side you have no no issues with losing that one or two spaces correct yeah I think it went from 42 to 41 I think the what it is is we're able to kind of use the striped area where we previously had a striped area it was 5T wide and then a parking space so now we can kind of consolidate okay all right we already talked about the way finding signers the only other question or comment I have is recognizing that this was just one sheet that was updated as a condition the rest of your site plan sheet or set would then be updated as well yes of compliance right if this was approved okay all right very good that's all I had thank you Mr chairman Mr Burr this time i' like to open up to any members of the public that wish to ask any questions regarding Mr yes please Phil furn please state your name and address for the record okay my name is Penny wolf I live at one tiffen place and this is a really bad place to put this Chick-fil-A I I'm I'm sorry ma'am is W this is just to ask question now of his testimony can I come back when they're done you can then you know make a speech or your opinion or all right so this is just to ask questions though of okay I don't have a question because right thank you any other members of the public okay that'll close the public portion for this witness Mr silbert would I I don't believe familiar there so um first could you state and spell your name for the record yeah Matthew Flynn L YNN oh okay and do you swear uh or affirm that's a testimony you're going to give in connection with this hearing will be the truth of nothing but the truth I do thank you and uh Mr Flynn would you mind putting it on the record your educational background professional background in the field of planning sure uh my education comes from Ruckers I have my master's degree in planning and public policy I have my professional planners license in the state of New Jersey as well as the national lenser which is the aicp uh license for planners I have testified before the zoning board for Bridgewater this is my first time before this board um as well as over a hundred other boards across the state does anyone have any objections to Mr Flynn's qualifications no objection please proceed thank you uh yeah you can go ahead sure so just to remind the board what we're voting on this evening um we are looking at a property that's in the M1 limited manufacturing Zone we're talking about an existing shopping complex um we're proposing to construct a new permitted use in the zone which is this drive through Chick-fil-A um actually there are about six specific types of uses that are listed as being permitted for a shopping complex and drive-thru is one of those permitted uses um since the October 15th hearing we have been through several iterations of the plan there has been some great feedback and back and forth between the board and the applicant and I think we've arrived at I think think a satisfactory plan at this point um so again just to remind the board the the variances that we're seeking none of which rise to level of D we're not requesting a use variance um so we're looking at all C variances here um to start we're looking at a front yard setback for the parking uh not the building um that's to Route 202 um essentially the same location as the existing parking slightly closer um but I'll get to to that in a moment uh loading area is not provided whereas one is is required I think the testimony was provided uh two hearings ago regarding the operations um and the use of the parking area and how loading is going to occur um building signage total area of 153.7 square fet whereas 100 square ft is the maximum um if you added 26 Square ft for the uh welcome to Bridgewater sign you would be at 179.50 Square ft if we counted that one um and then number of trees we have a deficit of 13 trees um but we will work with the town's Professionals in order to get trees uh where we can on the site I think the site plan speaks for itself we have put trees essentially where we can get them except for in the front of the property and I think it's it if we look at what the property looks like um if we're driving by I think it looks pretty intentional that there are no trees in that front area in order to uh accommodate visibility of that main shopping center sign um so to get into the statutory criteria for the relief I think we can look to the C2 balancing test whereby the benefits of the application as a whole substantially outweigh any detriments I think all the relief that we're seeking this evening is really uh the result of accommodating this drive-thru which is beneficial in that it does promote uh convenience um for patrons that might be elderly have disabilities might be traveling during inclement weather um all those sorts of benefits that we get with drive-through uses um which goes towards purpose a promotion of the general welfare uh purpose G from the municipal landis's variety of uses in appropriate locations again this is a permitted use in the zone we're essentially talking about replacing uh a a food use with another food use at this location purpose ey desirable visual environment again not introducing anything new from a massing standpoint if we compare this to what was uh last there we actually we are looking at a reduction in building mass as well as additional Landscaping so uh visually and aesthetically this is going to be um less intense than what was there previously and finally purpose M of the municipal land use law is efficient use of land again we're working with an existing developed piece of land um the uh the variances we're requesting are not a substantial departure from what's out there today nothing is going to constitute a overdevelopment of the property or an over intensification of of the site in terms of the negative criteria I think uh really the Crux of this application is does it work um and I think the the feedback from the board really addresses the the uh public impacts in terms of safety and efficiency um how the property Works in terms of circulation in and out um this is really minor relief that's being requested again to accommodate that drive-thru component um to the extent we are requesting a new building really all the building Mass requirements are actually met in terms of building setbacks building coverage F Building height all of those requirements are complied with and finally in terms of signage I would say that all the signage really serves a purpose this is a highly visible location with essentially uh circulation happening all around this building so we think that the signage that's proposed is appropriate and like I said each sign really does serve a purpose uh accommodating that visibility from all sides um so with that I think again this has been a a beneficial process between the board and the applicant I think what we're left with here is an appropriate application that fits well on the site and none of the sea relief rise to the level of being a substantial detriment to the public or to the Zone in fact I think this is going to be a vast Improvement um over what's there um aesthetically as well as providing a beneficial uh use so with that I I think I can close unless there's any uh questions from from the board thank you Mr Flynn for your testimony I'd like to open up to the board for any questions regarding Mr Flynn's testimony I have uh two questions um first uh Suzanne can you um U Zoom uh out slightly on on the image that everybody's seeing or is that the is that the the edge of it do I do that yep right there okay do it from here perfect that's exactly oh I'm sorry I thought Suzanne was the magic uh the magic holder um is that good yeah that's perfect the reason for so so what I was what what I want to ask about is the location of what I'll call that front line front row of parking um you stated it was a few feet closer than current looks to be a few feet closer than essentially on the Verizon site which is uh just to the if I have my directions right to the east correct correct okay my question is do you still feel there is sufficient um space in that uh grass area uh in the unfortunate event that that a car uh you know there's an accident a car leaves the roadway there there is still sufficient room for that car to come to rest uh without hitting or landing on cars um in in your parking lot and and the reason I asked the question is um not at this location but over by the Bridgewater Diner from time to time in in a particularly dangerous Corridor on 22 East um some accidents occur in that Corridor cars leave the roadway and cars end up on top of cars that are uh you know parked uh uh close to the highway it appears to me visually that there there is a pretty considerable buffer but I'm just interested in from a planning standpoint you know obviously if someone's at a massive rate of speed the answer is probably no um but if they're at a usual rate of speed and there was an accident and a car were to leave the roadway is there likely to be sufficient buffer so that the car would come to rest in that um uh uh Green Space and not land on a car yeah I understand I and I know that our engineer just sat back up here but I will say that we're really talking about a difference of less than six feet from what's permitted so when we look at what's permitted of 25 feet we're talking about 19.3 feet um not a substantial difference okay that's true yeah so if we look at the plan that's on the on the screen there um we could actually see the the property line this black line and there's actually some additional distance which accommodates the sidewalk um below that so the 19.3 Ft that we have actually doesn't contain that so there is some additional space as well okay so and you know I don't I don't know if it's possible to answer this with exactness or just a general feeling so if it's 19 ft then it's at least 30 maybe even 35 ft again unless there's some extraordinary speed occurring um you know is it reasonable to assume that if a car did leave the roadway due to an accident that it it it it would land and and stop somewhere in that buffer area and not make it all the way down to the parking lot yeah I would say to the extent the intent of that requirement is to avoid situations like that I would say that the the space that we have between the actual parking and the actual roadway um would meet that intent okay and and you know again I you know I hate to use the experience at another site uh but you know it is still within our Township and we we do see instances like that um and you know to the greatest extent possible I would be concerned um you know that that under normal and usual circumstances that would not happen here it seems as though that's the case yeah also we do have vegetation uh to the extent that might have a have an impact okay all right and then I guess the second question I have and I know we we asked this earlier in the hearing um this this this site this site's a little tight um you know I I mean I think that's a Fair statement [Music] um and and the commentary was made I think this was from the traffic engineer that sometimes um they are engaged on a project and have to deliver challenging news back to the applicant they need to say sorry you know you really kind of need a few hundred or or more square feet to really make this thing work um in your judgment um would you say that this this site it it's tight but it is sufficient for this for this use absolutely yeah and we you know we H we looked at all of those uh zoning requirements again for building massing for coverage Etc and we feel that what we have here is um appropriate given that we are able to accommodate additional Landscaping um things of that nature so we're not actually maximizing the use of the space and we're still able to I think get something that's efficient and and works on the property okay thank you thank you thank you coun any other questions any questions perhaps from our professionals yeah I have just one um thank you Mr Flynn uh I think you provided a good overview of the relief required um and I just wanted to point out um so the the relief that's being sought for the front yard setback for the parking um is 19.3 ft correct yes where 25 ft is required correct I believe we heard from the engineers testimony that the the driveway or the drive aisle width was increased um to create better separation and circulation so is increased from generally what would normally be 24t to 30 ft you're asking if that's changed since the last no no I'm just asking if that's factual if that's true yes so if the if if my Math's correct if that was a 24t drive aisle then the front yard parking setback could be complied with correct correct okay and so um do you believe that the um the tradeoff between the two so the variance request for the 19 ft it compared to the 30ft drive aisle is warranted I do and again looking at the additional space that's not included again I think it would be uh erroneous or Superfluous to to force that when it's not necessary do you think that there would be any kind of visual or functional impact um on the front yards on the front yard area to have for for the additional 5 feet or the deviation from the five feet that or five and a half feet that's being requested yeah I think it one thing the board can look at is the fact that we are looking at a six lane roadway so you know one thing that that setbacks try to mitigate is having buildings close together on opposite sides of the street and in this case there is substantial distance uh built in by way of that uh six lane roadway so visually I would say it's not going to uh result in a crammed in effect or anything like that okay and presently there's no Landscaping at the site Frontage correct I believe not it's just it's just grass correct I believe you're correct and the the applicant is proposing to put um um some shrubs are in front of the the parking Lane correct yes will that have any kind of visual impact or mitigating effect on the variance absolutely yeah positive impact okay thank you very much I have another questions for the planner Mr bur no questions thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr bur I believe throughout the course of the last few hearings we answered most of our questions I'm not sure if we discussed snow removal um would you be able to walk us through exactly what a a major um uh inclement weather um um would look like where would the snow be stored where would it be transported to I believe there was parking spaces uh in the adjacent lot above could you provide a little testimony to uh what that would look like that scenario uh sure I think um you know really to be dependent on the amount of snow um I think if it was minimal um you know probably just can go into the perimeter landscaped areas where it can fit beyond that we may work with the property owner to find parking spaces or other areas on site and if all else fails we would work with a uh a vendor to to move this snow off site if we needed to but we would look to keep the site clear and not you know compact circulation or onside parking okay uh I believe we also discussed that a fire truck would not be able to handle the turning radius would a snow removal truck be able to handle that radius uh it would be able to maneuver within the site uh it just wouldn't be able to go through the drive-thru because of the canopies right would it be able to make use of the newest egress um access that was provided in the newest plans yeah it it could it could go in that route okay so would be hypothetically speaking uh if that had to be cleared uh a snow removal truck would be able to enter the drive-thru and exit out of the um northern uh egress yes yes we can um there's like a little island there but we can actually modify that um just so that it has that ability it was one of those questions I been holding on to till the end but here we are in our third meeting now and uh I just wanted to make sure there was access for a snow removal truck to get through there given the fact that we're talking about constricted spaces and whatnot so if we could make that potentially condition uh for that to be widened or or potentially uh where's that island that you speak of uh it's right AB buding like the the parking row uh closest to the canopy okay the other thing to note is you know snow removal Vehicles vary in size so you know they do have smaller ones that we could use that wouldn't need that but obviously the larger ones you know in terms of height those would be the ones that would have challenges with the canopies I'm happy I think I think it's it's a direct directly Under The Canopy it would be shielded but in between the canopies it wouldn't I do think um there is Merit to reducing the island um just a little bit to give a little bit of room in case there was that type of vehicle there we can we can make that okay Mr bird do we feel that would be adequate to address that type of need yeah I do I think it's a good suggestion okay thank you I have no further questions Mr chairman I have a quick question for Miss sad um so we're in the midst of a master plan review um so I'm trying to see big picture here along with what's going on on this site um drive-thru is permitted here um how do we we Define a drive-thru as you park your car and get food at your car or do we Define it as a window because if we Define it as a window um Chick-fil-A has basically broken that um that mold so I'm just curious how for future reference not for this how we Define drive-thru and do we essentially need to change our definition of drive-thru I'm not I'd have to look that up okay I don't think it's it's not relevant for this hearing but I did you know it's on my mind as we're in the midst of a master plan review um you know I don't question that it's permitted here um d [Music] okay I mean really my question is beyond this hearing um don't have a driveth through definition we only have a definition for drivein restaurant which is ambiguous as to whether it means like a movie Drive-In style or if it means a drive up or a drive-thru as we know it um but you're you're correct in that um drive-throughs are changing Chick-fil-A is one of the different models of where it's not a drive-thru pickup window but there's plenty of drive-through so it is something that we will recognize as part of the master plan um I'm not sure what the future holds for zones and other drive-thru areas I I'd hate to see us Define it as a window and then someone's like we don't have a window um you know just I I I want to make sure that we're adapting to the modern standards associated with drive-through Behavior yeah and our our drivein definition currently looks very generally and that it doesn't talk about Windows it just talks about food that ready for pickup and is designed to not necessarily be eaten inside the building okay it's pretty it's pretty open okay thank you for that Indulgence thank you councilman any other questions Mr Bang great question um I think this came up at the first hearing uh the monument sign it would block the visibility of that big Monument sign for the center um so that's why we look to have like the shrubs there instead and then pretty much maximize our our shade trees everywhere else we Poss right exactly that's why thank you Mr banga at this time I'd like to invite any members of the public to question Mr Flynn and his testimony please feel free to come forward at this time hearing none hearing none that'll close the public portion for this witness thank you Mr sbert do you have any closing comments Mr chairman I I don't have too many uh things to say to conclude this application I think I said a lot of the things that I wish to have conveyed to the board during my opening remarks s um again a lot of good questions and I hope that the uh the feedback and the testimony provided from uh the applicants witness was uh sufficient to justify the minimal relief required in connection with this application it's been said and I'll just say it again it is a permitted use this was part of of the vision of of Bridgewater um dating back to the late 90s and through the 2000s and I believe and I hope that this is an application that Bridgewater will be proud of I think many residents in Bridgewater are looking forward to uh having a delicious Chick-fil-A Sandwich so I thank you uh Mr chairman and the board board Professionals for uh listening to our application over the past four hearings and that'll conclude our application thank you Mr silbert any members of the public that wish to comment on any testimony heard this evening from Mr chaplain or Mr Flynn they can just make a general statement of opinion on the application please please feel afraid to come forward at this time yeah that would be you and again if you could state your name and address for the record please my name is Penny wolf and I live at one tiffen place and I really I live right by that we're going to have to swear yeah okay do you swear affirm that the testimony you're going to give uh in the course of this hearing will be the truth or nothing but the truth yes thank you now you okay I live in the Bradley garden section so I use that suit shopping center very frequently and I can tell you right now some days I sit between two and three lights just to get into that shopping center and it's going to be I have also been um hit at that shopping center right coming coming south towards Flemington I've been trying to get into the shopping center and I've been rear ended by somebody so I'm very familiar with all the traffic I also think think that I've been by the one in Flemington the one in South planfield one in Pennsylvania this is not a place that people go in normally they all do that wrap around and it's busy all the time and the problem is traffic going into the Wagman's I always call it the wigman's shopping center is busy all the time in the morning it's got all the construction guys at Home Depot all day long the only time it's not busy is probably after 10:00 at night when I've been going by you can really move been there without no problem I just think having the drivethru is a real problem because I just think that it's going to cause problems because people that try to come out where Ruby Tuesday used to be Can't Always Get down because people are coming down all those three lanes turning left and two turning turning two turning left and one turning right there they don't get out very often and so where they going to all these people that are in there getting their and it will be all day long I've been by like I said three others it's busy all the time and especially with people going in maybe to Home Depot early in the morning they're going to stop for coffee or bre you know and people after they shop at wigman's will go through the drive through to get so it's not going to be it's going to be a problem and I've seen accidents there besides the one I've had so the only thing is I know this is I'm coming in late I was at your last meeting but I couldn't stay you're going to have to put an officer there because you're going to have traffic issues and if it gets heated then there'll really be some problems because it's just it would be better if you put it where TGI Fridays is I understand this is a problem but this only has one way out an in basically you can go in I guess to the Olive Garden if you come down going south but there is this is basically the only way in and out for most of these cars and you've got people people coming up from Home Depot and you can't turn from where you went like from Party City and Wagman's that's always a constant I mean and during the day like I said I can sit through three traffic lights at 11 o'clock in the morning before I can get in and that's two lanes going into that shopping center and during the holidays it's a disaster I mean I just feel that this is not a good idea to have that place there I know people really want Chick-fil-A but I think there might be a better site because we are going to have problems and I know people that I know they're upset some people are excited about it but some people are upset that traffic is really bad on 202 right now somehow there's a lot of tractor trailers coming up and down there constantly now there didn't used to be but the traffic on 202 even at 10:00 in the morning is heavy anymore so I just as a person who lives nearby and goes in that shopping center it's going to cause me great grief and I'm going to have to figure out whether I shop at 10 o'clock at night or I shop at 6 o'clock in the morning but then I kind have to deal with the Home Depot people so that's my opinion and I know other people in Bridgewater yes are excited but there's a lot of people that aren't happy so that's my opinion thank you Mr Mr chairman if I may throughout this hearing there's been a substantial amount of conversation about traffic and how we're going to get people safely in and out of the site and are people going to do bypasses are people you know what I keep keep um expressing is the concern about leaving the the the site I'm not that concerned about getting people on I'm more concerned about getting people off um you know are people going to leave the site make that left there isn't more than a few car queue then you got to make the left around the holidays as you pointed out that road backs up all the way and around to to to Wegman's um you know we we've we've discussed that throughout the hearing um and I I I I hear you yeah I I EMP I EMP empathize with you I look at it from the standpoint of um you know are we creating situations where there are going to be accidents are we going to create a circumstance where people are going to go out the exit down by um yeah um you know on the near the olive card and then they're going to try to cut across I'm hoping they don't um but you know unfortunately drivers make their own decisions I think in this case and you know perhaps our our attorney can chime in on this while your point of view is absolutely valid and all the questions that we've asked have attempted to alleviate this I don't know that the site's going to have too much success is a criteria for us to deny it from a legal standpoint um I understand but maybe if there's an access where you don't let the people take where like Ruby toies is you cut out right there make them go all the way down by The Mattress Place and come out that way because that would well we well we and we we talked about that we talked about that as a behavior that people may may may undertake um you know the there was also commentary about how people might figure out okay I got to go to Home Depot I want to go to Chick-fil-A you know which order am I going to do it in well you're going to do it in whichever order offers least resistance um the other reality from where I sit is that if this if this site becomes a victim of its own success um you know people people are going to are going to moderate their behaviors and you know maybe they'll be like okay I'm I'm going to go to Chick-fil-A but I'm not going near there on a Saturday um you know and and that's just that's a consequence that that the operator would would need to work through and I understand that but it's also it's going to be all the time the only day will be okay is because they're closed on Sunday so you're then pushing people that need to get groceries or need to get to Home Depot that don't want to fight the whole thing and you know you're going either going to go it's going to it's going to it's going to be a problem and all I can suggest if you are going to go through it which I'm sure you will um is that you put a police officer there for the first you know month and a half yeah that that was actually also discussed was as part of of the launch plan and if I get any of this wrong you know please please correct me but as part of the launch plan Chick-fil-A locations typically are very successful um and they do typically um uh pay uh for they pay at their expense for additional uh um uh traffic guidance uh as needed so that that is a a usual and known Consequence the other thing that they stated is they bring an extra staff from existing locations who know their way you know who who know the operation so you know I I hear you and I've shared these concerns I've asked a substantial number of questions throughout this hearing just you know you know I kind of asked the open-ended question of our attorney your concern is heard it's absolutely valid I'm not sure though that we have the ability to say to anyone this thing seems like it's going to be too too successful sorry you can't build it there am I correct yeah you can't use existing conditions uh as a reason to deny an application you know if you say hey traffic's already heavy there this is going to add to the traffic that's not satisfactory just no you're going to inconvenience the people around it no if you if you heard the testimony of Mr Martinez I he had conveyed to the board that it's equally as important to Chick-fil-A that the site functions safely efficiently because Chick-fil-A's success at this location is tied to the fact that if people don't feel comfortable coming to the to the property the the restaurant is going to is going to suffer so I think that there our interests are aligned with in some respect in the sense that this restaurant success is again contingent upon them being able to manage the traffic on the site and out of the site in an efficient manner the only thing is I I see that but when I see people do that you know I've see it in Flemington I've seen it South planfield where they do the you know the wraparound you're going where are you going to put all those extra people that are coming in off of 202 that want to get in there you know I mean yeah you have 18 cars obviously that you could probably fit around there right much more and I'm not going to detail the entire testimony that was already given opening day you're going to have o opening day the queuing lane that was previously testified to is going to be expanded it's going to be much larger than I believe the the 39 that's provided but we we also with Chick-fil-A as was previously presented I don't want to reiterate all that the testimony we have people that are outside taking orders directing traffic just in ordinary conditions versus other you know drive-through establishments they don't have anything like that so if if you listen to the testimony from the YouTube videos you'll see that Chick-fil-A makes a a strong effort to ensure that the site is is working in an efficient manner to uh ensure there isn't a queuing issue and satisfied that little the the purpose of this segment of the hearing is you know for the public to provide their opinions it's not a debate or a I understand reowing ground that's already plow so all right thank you for letting me say my pece sure thing this W thank you Mr chairman if I may just one other item that I wanted to talk about so I see there's a walkway on Town Center Road um I'm wondering what that seems to me like asking for somebody to get hit by a car just being very honest like I see this right here on the top area and I can't I don't know how to describe it really but you have it here entering in you're have cars coming in cars coming out and I'm wondering why that walkway isn't closer to the um Raymore Flanigan on the other side I thought we talked about that very early on and it seems to me that when you're taking a look at it spe you know we're talking about this traffic being an issue if let's say there is an overflow opportunity where people need to park on their side and now you're asking them to walk across an already busy intersection you know and if we don't have like you know police presence you know our has requested here that's asking for somebody to get hit by a car whereas and if somebody if if it's closer to the rmore Flanigan towards where I thought we talked about which I guess is that that other exit for the you know where the um TJ Friday's you know there's the initial entrance and then the other exit which is the emergency exit I guess what we're calling it you know um can we put that walkway closer to that side so it's avoiding that Town Center Road traffic so are you talking about the the crosswalk that's on the northwest portion yes okay so I you want to take that sorry and just your concern is that it's too close to the road yeah I mean there's going be there's going to be traffic coming in traffic going out that that is like the primary choke point for this site is in my in my opinion I'm not an expert you guys are the experts but if uh and I'm I'm wondering because I think we when we initially started having the conversations with Chick-fil-A it was closer to uh I don't know how to describe it like further west if we're uh or east like towards the towards the the right side of Raymore flan again for the East Mr Bango you are correct the original iteration of the plan that that was submitted to the board the the walkway was actually very close to where the proposed Outlet is now um and it was moved in the subsequent um November or October or November redesign it was moved over to that area so you're correct so I'm wondering if we can keep it in that same area if we if we're asking the traffic to let's say for example make a right out of if it if it is considered an emergency Lane which I don't think is going to be utilized based on your testimony people are going to be making a right out of there there's less likely of somebody to get hit by a car potentially for asking people to make a right if if if in the instance of an emergency that they need to leave Chick-fil-A uh from that that access point and allowing somebody to walk across uh just seems a more like a better feasibility than to ask them to park across the street and now potentially ask them to walk across uh walk all the way to the edge of town Town Center Road across this busy area which you're going to have cars coming in and coming out I'm just wondering if you guys can take that into uh consideration that that just doesn't seem very feasible well I think you want to have the crosswalk where cars are basically stopped you know if you have it more mid block you could have vehicles that don't see people or you know you're making a turn you don't know there's a crosswalk there so we purposely moved it to this location because it's going to be much more visible for both vehicles that are turning into the site and then Vehicles who are leaving the site where we had it previously as you're turning in it's going to be harder to see it it's more like in the middle of a drive AIS rather than right at a point of of stop so I think that was the intention um I think we're looking to just at that point is is like a stop where people are going to have to stop anyway and that's a you know a logic point to have a crosswalk where you cross the street I get that but like let's say I don't know how you know if you look at 202 all the way to I'm going to call it choke point uh that's not a lot of cars and if somebody has to stop you're going to have a lot of rear ends like if if someone's coming down 202 right and they're pulling in sorry and they're pulling in to make a right here and now you have somebody crossing the street and now they have to stop right there you're going to have car one car two car three it blocks up the entire uh Town Center Road that's just my opinion right and and you guys have the experts but if now somebody's you know and if and if we really think that this this site is going to get the amount of traffic that it is which you know probably you're going to have a lot of people parking and and whatnot potentially and if if this uh overflow area which uh you know is the Raymore Flanigan parking lot going to and you you have people coming and and and and now you're going to have to have people stopping This Town Center Road from 202 to to this area doesn't seem like a very long space it's a I could add something to that very quick as well there's only a stop sign uh coming out of that secondary Road uh onto the Town Center Road there's no stop sign or anything turning right from Town Center Road going north right but you're going to slow down to make the right- hand turn so it's a natural point where you're going to you're basically going to slow down it's it's a two-lane road right so like if a car obviously needs to stop for um pedestrian traffic a car could theoretically get behind it I mean it's probably 100 200 ft away from the intersection maybe more than that probably 300t so I don't think you're going to have like like a backup per se I also think there's enough room to have a vehicle almost turn into that space without even blocking the second lane I mean I I understand your point I totally get it we're trying to make sure that we're safe here this pedestrians Crossing I mean just looking at it like carefully I think this is a natural spot to have a crosswalk I think like I said before on one side you're going to have a stop sign and on the other side you're naturally need to slow down and you're going to have that visibility right there to see if people are crossing if we move it I think that's where cars are starting to like they don't they're not anticipating a stop right like as soon as you kind of like make a turn you're like starting to speed up so if you're not turning into Chick-fil-A you might start to speed up and all of a sudden you have a crosswalk so I do I I understand the thought process but I do think we have it in the preferred location here just from a safety standpoint I think there's more likely of people speeding up in in the area that it is now if you did have a crosswalk uh where or was proposed and if you some signage saying crosswalk or something along those lines people are going to naturally slow down I mean if that's if if the board feels very strongly about that we can planners and and the engineers feel about or even a secondary crosswalk and maybe a speed and maybe a speed hump or something yeah we're literally just discussing yes that the the the crosswalk at this point because there is sidewalk access is appropriately located I do agree with Mr Bango though that there's there's more going on there that makes it more unsafe for a pedestrian and that's not a crosswalk that's not going to go unus that's intended for their employees to walk across from the Overflow parking in the adjacent lot so it's not just a crosswalk for the sake of a crosswalk people will use it and for that reason Mr bur and I were just talking and I'll let him also give his piece but I think the original or some semblance of where the original one was located is not a bad idea um you know it's not a it's not a it's an internal roadway so it's it's it is a midblock cross but I do think that it could still provide a more comfortable pedestrian connection for people who don't want to be involved in kind of the chaos of the turns and the movements and cars coming and going um so I I don't you know even I know Mr chaplain is talking about maybe visibility or cars expecting it maybe we put up a typical crosswalk sign up too maybe we layer that crosswalk with a few layers of thermoplastic paint make it a little bit raised so it is more apparent um and I think that would go a long way thank you Miss sarmad uh would there be appropriate signage indicating that there's a crosswalk there or leading up to that point as well like on Town Center Drive perhaps we could put a sign further yes we can we can add signage we can do a thermoplastic paint for sure well I think there's two questions I think one is where is it going to be and then what's the signage going to be well I think the sign is the typical crosswalk sign the mutc D sign it's a yellow sign it's got a person walking it's a rectang diamond shape whatever um I think that goes adjacent to where the crosswalk entrances I don't think it has to be lit or you know when some of those have the blinking lights I don't think it necessarily Rises to that level but it would give it more visibility if there was one of those signs there um and I think because they've added the driveway entrance I'm not sure how the original configuration if it conflicts with that but um I you know I think somewhere adjacent to that um would be would be appropriate again they are providing a linkage to the parking lot the original one showed um disturbance along that kind of um parking Island area into the next parking lot um to the north so um probably somewhere in that area so it doesn't um it won't take away any parking spaces it'll just um add kind of a pathway on that on that existing Island area but I I think that similar to how we've treated other things if the board feels comfortable that bill and I could could approve the final I have it that signage identifying the crosswalk the design and location of those uh to the satisfaction of the board yeah if the board's comfortable with that would be happy to do that yeah the other thing that that that that dawned this is where I I thought um we were going was the the crosswalk that concerns me is the one right along 202 um because there's a constant stream of cars making some kind of a turn in into this site or leaving the site I'm not aware that there's any walk don't walk or anything like that um I mean is that the existing condition today that there's a a crosswalk uh from essentially the East to the west across town center Road essentially right at 202 there's a there's a curb ramp and basically the Sidewalk Ends and you know as part of this project we've submitted to Dot and they've made these requests so as part of their requests um they've asked for the crosswalk which again is their jurisdiction and then also the sidewalk that we're showing along our Frontage you know that was shown for their request I I I'd be concerned that un until and unless you want to start putting in walk don't walk on that traffic light which I don't think is going to be desired because then it's going to make the the uh the car traffic worse I mean you're taking your life in your own hands if you're going to try to walk across that that's where I thought you were headed well there's no ex we were you know William and I were talking about that actually uh and we were going to get to it at some point but I was trying to fight this check out this battle first over here cuz I feel like you know that to me was a as a big concern but we were looking at and if and if you look at at least the 2023 Google uh from June there is no crosswalk existing there your point C I mean I mean if we if we hatch that out as a crosswalk you're encouraging a very dangerous Behavior there's there's a so there's a crosswalk across 202 on the on the west side of 202 across um to get here and then Mr chapl had just noted I'm just looking at Google imagery and from you know what's built is there is the the curb ramp on the western corner across here where they're proposing so that so the state probably had put in those improvements with some intention and they're probably I mean I'll let the applicant speak it sounds like their per permit to do made the request in the in the do right of way to make the the crosswalk Improvement and that's generally how the state operates is they're going to create connection points where they can make right but what I'm saying is the connection Point here is going to be exceptionally dangerous because at every point of the um the traffic light cycle somebody's coming in and somebody's going out uh of that site um and you know there's no there's no walk don't walk and I don't think we want to walk don't walk because then you're taking even more time away from cars and making the challenge of getting in there and in and out of there in a car even worse I I'm just I'm just I'm raising the question of from a DOT standpoint is that a real smart idea yeah I can chime in here this is uh Patrick Downey once again uh provid a traffic testimony I think two meetings ago now so the actual intersection crosswalks curb ramps uh signal equipment are currently being upgraded by dot as part of their own project unrelated to this application their request to us was to add the sidewalk along our two frontages but the actual installation of that crosswalk and the ass assciated signal improvements that go along with it is being done by do of their own accord unrelated test I'm sorry just to clarify they would be installing the walk don't walk if if there was going to be a crosswalk current correct yes they are in the process of adding various signal upgrades at this intersection of which that Crossing with the amenities the walk don't walk so uh so so so what so if I'm hearing you correctly the signal will be upgraded will include a button it won't Auto automatically go to walk to a walk cycle but there'll be presumably a button that if a person wants to cross they'll hit that the rest of the cycle would be interrupted at some point to allow pedestrians to walk across the walk for that phase again I'm not looking at their proposed plan but for this type of situation would typically run concurrently with Route 202 so Crossing of Town Center Road would occur when 202 has the green so right turns uh as at most intersections would need to yield two pedestrians cross Crossing if they were crossing at the same time now at the moment there's very little pedestrian activity out there at all from my observations and from our traffic counts uh most of our pedestrian activity related to this project would be internal to the shopping center yeah and and I I don't want to harm your application because of what the dot is doing because I understand that they are separate operations but I'm looking at that and you know I'm concerned about pedestrian safety car safety our our our police officers they're going to now going to have to clean up more accidents problems and I I have to be scratching my head there on whether the dot made the right decision on that one from their perspective um you know if I was in dot shoes I would argue that there's some legal requirement on their end to safely accommodate a pedestrian who wishes to cross there it's the underlying Assumption of traffic regulations that pedestrians have the right to cross at intersections so if it's uh something that pedestrian can legally do they should provide the buttons and the striping and the signage to at least and you would expect that there would be a button to Cross Town Center Road that a person wanting to do that activity would push and then the cycle at some point would be interrupted to give that person the portion of the cycle to to try to uh Traverse safely so two-part question the for the first part would there be a button my expectation would be yes you know for the latest few signals we've designed that have been reviewed and approved by do they would have made us add the button in this situation as far as Interruption of the signal I do not think it would do that simply because 202 every cycle is getting plenty of green time to accommodate that pedestrian movement anyway all that button would really do would be to turn on the pedestrian's uh Walk Don't Walk indication and then essentially that would require people making the right turn into the complex to see that there is a a a pedestrian and to stop and to hope that the three cars behind them also stop they would need to yield to that P all right and again I know I can't hold you responsible for this because this is actually not on your site but I'm scratching my head on this one and and I'm envisioning let's just call it uh pedestrian vehical Conflict at that place during your traffic study how many pedestrians actually crossed did you see I don't have the counts in front of me but very very few if if if I could add something it seems there's already a crosswalk uh from the entrance to the parking lot for the Fidelity Investments building um all I see this crosswalk really doing is making a shorter path from uh the Fidelity property to the Chick-fil-A area but I I think we've established you don't necessarily need to have the shortest possible path if you really want Chick-fil-A so is there any possible leeway here that we could stick with the original crosswalk well again this isn't something proposed by us you know regardless of the outcome of this application do is doing this it's out of our hands I just have a little knowledge about it but I was passing along since so it's your testimony that these intersection improvements would be happening regardless of whether or not Chick-fil-A was making an application or not it could Remain the vacant Ruby Tuesdays for the next however many years and Dot would still proceed with these improvements correct thank you s just to clarify Mr PEC including the town the one connecting North Northwest no not the renter talking about the route 202 yeah the one's internal to the center that's what we're discussing incorporating into this application one the the Northwest correct the signalized intersection itself is completely Do's jurisdiction their project uh they've simply asked us to build the sidewalk saying uh for the 202 Crossing 202 in Town Center Road Crossing which uh uh consan cars was basically looking at the do issues so will the do will put a a sign on the 202 South that uh you know heavy intersection or something that we always see it or you do you know about that so that at least people drivers should know that okay there's a there's a pedestrian Crossing coming up so they should should be more worried about it by turning right yeah I mean the expectation at a signalized intersection especially with the striped crosswalk is that there could be pedestrians there that the motorist needs to be aware of I'm not aware if dot is providing any supplemental signage to that effect uh they may or may not I'm not certain well M coun cars I see your concern not we have a big problem and I mean just to put this to rest cuz you know I know this is now somewhat far a field um from the application I mean can I ask our professionals to follow up with the state on this one I I mean this just feels like a like a conflict waiting to happen yeah nor normally the state would reach out excuse me to the engineering department and give us an overview or a heads up of the work they're proposing this has not come across our desk so I can certainly follow up with their government Affairs official and find out what full scope is what the improvements are and report back to the board for sure because when you paying a crosswalk you're asking people to to use it and you're essentially blessing this is the place to go we can look into it thank you Mr okay Mr chairman if we can just um come back to so I'm just taking a look again at the the current existing site there is a crosswalk kind of like between the I guess Verizon building um like if you look there's a sidewalk there can I ask the applicant to go back to the initial plans and kind of have that CR like as as we've discussed with our planner as well if that's what everybody prefers we're happy to do it and work with professionals to do that I I do maintain I do think it'ser where it isy to make or have both depending on what whatever our professionals uh deem I'm sorry and we put a additional recommendation to put a sidewalk near the crosswalk crosswalk sorry crosswalk originally intended add an additional crosswalk internal the Verizon is it sorry is it additional or is it just the relocation of the side walk I'll say had had and Mr Burr were talking about and you guys can correct me correct us if we can have both our initial thought in looking at this and and and hearing some of the concerns is to add that secondary you have one at the main intersection and then one further by that emergency exit that's our recommendation at this point so um if it's it's okay I'll say but if um if we're adding the secondary sidewalk um or crossing back into the mix there might be a reduction of one one parking space on the overall site I think the idea would be is we don't want to there's some Shrubbery um on the other side right so in theory you could remove all that and put lots of sidewalk but I think the idea is just to make the connection cleaner go straight to the parking spaces lose a space to make that connection I think that'd be preferable for everyone but again it would we would lose one space as a result doesn't doesn't create a parking space deficiency I just wanted to note that sorry justar is it's yeah technically the the pad even though it's a pad it's all part of one site so the we gave two parking counts um but you'd be losing one parking space on the overall site which is uh heavily overp parked or more than adequately meets your ordinance requirements Mr banga Mr chadri is that what you envisioned having those two uh so Mr uh Barb will that be okay uh if it if they will lose one parking spot one more parking it will basically 40 instead of 42 I think that portion of the site is so overp parked by the Raymore and Flanigan that losing one bace is not going to have an impact thank you provid that both crosswalks have adequate signage for safety okay Mr peek we have that done as a condition yep okay any other questions or comments I'd like to oer to give an opportunity to the public one last time to ask or any comments any commentary generally we didn't close that out previously I will close it now closing public portion for this meeting okay Mr peek do we want to go through all the conditions yes in addition [Music] to the generally applicable conditions that go with every application uh I have adding lowlevel app will add lowlevel Landscaping to the route 202 Frontage uh to the review and satisfaction of the board professionals that the township engineer will be be provided with an annual certification of storm water management and Facilities maintenance that there will be enhanced screening of the matching block trash en closure well the trash en closure will be in matching block to the building and the trash enclosure will be will have enhanced screening again to the satisfaction of the bo professionals uh 1 hour after closing the site lighting will be dimmed to security levels there will be uh internal wave finding signs the applicant uh shall review with the board engineer and Implement those recommendations this may have already been satisfied but get Fire official approval of the site plan at the C circulation plan the what we are terming as the Escape exit uh that will be striping and and signage to deter the public use of that and that will be again to the review and satisfaction for professionals uh following up on the way finding sign condition the sign noted as 6D on the sign shall indicate uh Route 202 South alternate to the work with the board professionals regarding uh if they can uh plant and locate any additional trees on the site abide by the board Prof professionals recommendations uh uh the island on the site uh will be reduced to the board of engineer satisfaction so it can accommodate snow uh removal Vehicles there will be um a secondary crosswalk uh from the Raymore and Flanigan lot that'll be in the vicinity of that escape Outlet again that the precise location will be to the um recommendation of the board engineer and then there will be signage uh put in place identifying both crosswalks from the Raymore and Flanigan uh and again the design of those signs and location of those signs will be to the review and satisfaction of the board professionals that's all I had I might have missed one or two over the course of the four evenings so speak now or hold your piece so that it so the motion would be to um if you're inclined to Grant the um preliminary and final major site plan with the four bulk variances subject to the uh conditions that I just elaborated well I I'll I'll make the motion that has just been described I'll second that councilman kers it's Miss sakora yes no I'm sorry are we having any discussion correct we have the motion we need to open up close that portion of the meeting beber open up the portion for deliberations we'll start with Mr Muro okay uh first of off I want to thank the Chick-fil-A people uh they're very patient with us thank you very much for that I found your presentations well prepared and clear um looking at the site I think uh there's an opportunity here for development positive development of the site I think it's needed so therefore I would endorse the uh application Mr Wang Mr Banga yeah no I appreciate the applicant working with us uh to make the site improvements obviously I mean the site has been vacant for quite some time Miss chars um I would Echo the sentiments of my fellow board members I appreciate your cooperation all the necessary revisions that you've made to accommodate all of our concerns and our requests um I look forward to welcoming Chick-fil-A to Bridgewater and i would support the application councilman first thank you so I'm going to be pretty consistent with how I felt throughout the hearing um you know overall I think it's a good application um I do appreciate the flexibility throughout our multiple hearings to um hear the interests and concerns of the board members acting on behalf of our community um I I think this has been a good partnership overall um you know you know I know that Chick-fil-A and that the person that ultimately operates this will want the site to be successful shares same or similar concerns that we have about safety and traffic and everything else uh you know I I I do have concern that this site is a little too small um but again I if if the applicant uh has gone through its due diligence and feels that they can be successful uh at this location uh I I I have to accept that answer uh I think it's something uh that you know we we we'll need to just keep an eye on is um what is the flow looking like in and out of this site um is it operating the way it's expected um you know are people you know going you know are people doing unusual uh uh driver driving Maneuvers that are potentially creating uh creating hazards um you know overall though I think it's it's a it's a good plan um the uh you know investment in the community um you know is is is certainly appreciated the partnership uh is appreciated and you know I I will um uh you know I'll vote to uh support the application Mr chry Mr Atkins I think as as we all know this has been a very lengthy process on this application um I'd really like to Echo a lot of the sentiments you've heard from my fellow board members uh but I'm especially grateful for the good faith that uh Chick-fil-A has uh brought to this discussion I think the applicant has shown a good amount of willingness to find some common ground and to concede some key areas to make sure that our uh Community can be as safe as possible so I will be voting i m sakur um I'm grateful for Chick-fil-A's professionalism throughout throughout the process um and willingness to address all the concerns as much as as much as possible um I'm sick of looking at that empty building I live right past there so I drive by it every single day and I just look at the real estate opportunity for for another business to come in so I'm I'm exced excited about it I do understand the traffic concerns I drive by it to and from work every single time or every single day and my kids sports and all of that and I believe that addressing it as much as possible working with the state but also working with us as a town to to uh to make it as feasible as possible is great we cannot control other drivers I wish at some points we could um but we cannot um so I'm really looking forward to it I love what Chick-fil-A does for the community outside of business outside of the business too and I think it's going to be a great addition to Bridgewater over the course of the last several meetings we've spent several hours prioritizing discussion on traffic impact on the internal Network as well as the external Road network uh I I know for myself personally I discussed a lot of my Flemington experience visiting that site over there off of Route 202 but this is not the Flemington site uh this is a site that's uh captured internally on this uh greater shopping location and I believe that uh there was some testimony given earlier on several meetings ago about the potential for internal capture what this is going to do for that shopping center uh the ability to uh formulate a complete and vibrant shopping experience for Bridgewater I think that uh outweighs um as Mr as councilman K said before you know if if something's going to be successful does that necessarily going to be a detriment we have to take a look and see how things are going to work um I think down to tonight's meeting uh the applicant has demonstrated several different ways that they're willing to accommodate uh or put in safety guard measures uh in order to alleviate some of these traffic concerns we've talked about um changing their Dual Purpose Lanes we've talked about adding egresses uh I I genuinely appreciate that because down to every last little bit down to the last crosswalk we you discussed uh these are these are components that we're trying to um that are you know used to encourage Public Safety um signage that should alleviate a lot of the concerns as far as exiting the the area that's important um I also appreciate that's going to be a local uh member of the community that's going to be overseeing uh keeping in contact with our local Administration our local public services I think that's something important that's a value added uh for the township uh but lastly again the product I have no doubt that uh the success that it's shown uh Nationwide is going to uh emulate same replicate the same thing here and we expect a very high level success here in Bridgewater as well so I'm inclined to support it as well uh Miss propes prior to um filling that motion I do believe we're going to uh need to clarify the eligibility for voting I don't have the aid affidavit I reviewed the footage from the video or the live stream I'm I'm prepared to sign yeah sorry yes yeah yes I believe we've had the Motions already called yes yes yes yes yes yes Mr silbert members of Chick-fil-A thank you very much you we've learned quite a bit and we look forward to dining at your restaurant here in town thank you okay moving along the see uh there's an item on the agenda listed as icon Keystone njp for owner pool 2 LLC uh that's will not be heard this evening uh I believe we will hear that on January 21st okay did they I'm sorry did they notice for tonight and we're carrying it or they're noticing for the 21st okay so no further notice will be given so anybody who's here for that watching out on YouTube they'll be no further notice given on that application thank you Mr pick moving along to our last item for the evening is aenos incorporated block 165 lot two L known as 360 miltown Road and who I'm sorry Mr chairman before before you proceed um I have a a time restriction um that's going to leave you with uh eight members not nine uh is that still acceptable for you to proceed yes okay thank you good evening Mr silbert good evening hello again hello again I think uh last the last double application hopefully so um uh so just for the record uh my name is Michael silbert I'm an attorney at the law firm D Francesco baitman located in Warren Township New Jersey it's my privilege this evening to represent the applicant avanos Inc in this matter um let me just start off by expressing that this this is really an exciting opportunity for me to have been involved in this application thus far and I think it's a it's a Testament to the township of Bridgewater to host one of the latest and greatest technological innovations in the country as we'll detail over the course of tonight's hearing you'll hear about aenos as groundbreaking efforts to address climate change through Innovative carbon capture technology and as I'd mentioned I think um again it's a testament to bridgew to be at the the Forefront of technological progress throughout the country so I'm personally honored to be a part of it um this is an application for amended minor site plan approval concerning property located at block 165 Lot 2 as designated on the Bridgewater Township tax maps commonly known as 360 miltown Road the property is situated in the township C3 office and service Zone District I think the board should be aware that the that this board previously granted minor site plan approval for the property back on April 27th 2021 I was memorialized in a res resolution which I believe has been provided to the board and the improvements in that resolution speak to um uh improvements to the existing parking lot a minimal increase in the improved lot coverage and that application really stemmed from the Township's efforts and then thus the the applicant or the the property owner at that time uh his response to to convert the existing one-story building from an athletic training facility to laboratory and office uses for research and devel velopment which it seems to have uh the township took uh concerted interests to make sure that this Zone and this property was used in that fashion so tonight the applicant proposes to install an advanced direct air capture unit within a two-story 1,000 foot structure located on the southern portion of the property I'm not going to be able to detail it as well as as my Witnesses but it's a I I'll I'll just remind the board and the public it is a proprietary technology um and the macro intent of it is to help reduce atmospheric CO2 uh emissions to help address one of the primary greenhouse gases responsible for climate change this application does not involve any variances the applicant does seek one minor design waiver related to parking lot lighting which our engineer will detail uh I intend to call three Witnesses this evening to provide testimony and support of this application Mr will Kane is here he's the CEO of aenos Inc and he's just going to provide some background uh on aenos and and to the extent possible discuss the proprietary DIC technology proposed for the site uh Mr Kane is here from California and was excited to to be here and have the opportunity to address the board um the second witness is is Dr Ben MC he's senior vice president of Technology at avos Dr mcil will address specific operational questions raised in the joint professional re review memo we received uh issued by the board's professionals on January 4th 200 uh it should be 2025 there's a it just marks 2024 um and then uh our Final witness is Mr Rob michello he's our engineer Mr Michelle will present the amended site plan and provide engineering testimony he's very much familiar with the site he was here before the board back in 20121 um so before swearing in my Witnesses I just wanted to address a few items raised in the joint professional review memo um so one of the first things I just wanted to discuss I thought that perhaps could be more uh legal related was we treated the the DIC system as a principal structure um the applicant is treating the DI DIC system and and housing structure as a principal building on the property because this system represents the real primary purpose of asos's presence on the site I'll note that while the DIC structure is smaller in size compared to the over 1 almost 18,000 ft Building located to the north it's still a fairly large structure uh it's significantly larger than than your typical accessory structure which TP when I look at the ordinance it it seems accessory structures are are typically associated with a shed or a detached garage ultimately it's it's Central to aenos operations and to me it makes it more appropriately classified as a second principal structure rather than as an accessory structure or accessory use um additionally I just would point out that that Bridgewater zoning uh regulations do not impose restrictions on the number of principal structures or principal principal uses permitted on a single lot within a commercial Zone um the height of this proposed structure that I had mentioned is 34 feet which is well within the 45 foot maximum height permitted in the zone but again is more Akin probably to a principal structure so uh and then lastly I would just say that I wasn't at the the conceptual uh review there was an informal conceptual review meeting with the board's professionals perhaps they can chime into this but um I thought that it was a that that the professionals on our team discussed treating this as a as a principal structure and and I imagine it was for the reasons I had just laid out um second thing in the review memo uh the reference to freestanding signage the the freestanding signage referenced in the riew memo was actually approved in 2021 and uh I'll note that I went through the 2021 board resolution it does not explicitly mention the 2021 approved freestanding signage however it was depicted on the 2021 approved amended site plan and it was also uh appropriately referenced in the 2021 joint professional review Memo from that time the details of that previously approved freestanding sign remain on the amended site plan on sheet N9 it's located uh in a pictorial fashion in the center of of sheet n um the just just so the board is aware this this sign has not been constructed yet but the concrete footings have already been installed to accommodate the sign so believe that the the property owner still is working towards that um the last thing is not and review memo I just wanted to touch upon it um it's the floor area ratio so absolutely not a pertinent issue relative to tonight's application um I just wanted to make this comment I wanted to ensure it was reflected in the record that the applicant did include the DIC system and housing structure in its F calculations it results in an F of just over 7% very much well below the 30% maximum permitted by ordinance I just wanted to point however that uh the DIC structure in my opinion should be included from from the F calculations since it is a mechanical uh it's more mechanical equipment and it's serving the non-residential building areas based upon my review of the ordinance and and reasonable Minds could disagree the zoning regulations uh exclude mechanical equipment from F so I I would think that that the DCA system aligns with these regulations so again I mentioned it's a non-issue I understand that um because it seems to me you can either have two principal structures or you can discount the f I mean it's like yeah you know you're you're looking at it both ways there but like you said I don't know that it's really well if if the board decides to treat it as two principal structures then I see what I see what your point is so I think perhaps the board's professionals and and the board can weigh in on on how they want to treat it um I I only raise it for future development reasons um you know could be 20 years from now or wherever so with the DAC structure you'd be at 7% F uh slightly above 7% right it's it's a minimal increase in F it's I I think that that that was my interpretation also uh if if you're calling it a principal structure then it can't in my opinion count towards the f um but I'll I'll leave that issue alone I just wanted that to be on the on the record for for future development opportunities for the property um um so if if the board professionals want to address this now or later let me know but um those are really the main things I wanted to address before I called my first witness um um so the kind of Genesis of that comment uh about the question of whether it's accessor or principal really relates back to some of those initial informal concept meetings when this was brought to our attention um mostly because the structure was initially brought up at a temporary structure which kind of led to our uh determination about what the path forward for how it ended up at the board essentially um temporary structures are um zoning is not kind to Temporary structures zoning and site plan deals with as if every structure is going to exist for the rest of Eternity so there's no differentiation and so um that kind of in my mind initially triggered the idea that this is accessory to the use simply because it was ini propos as temporary now um as you know we explained to the applicant the path um the requirements to come here for for amended site plan um I I don't know if um that kind of transformed the the use or the structure in their um minds but the the other thing is that this building has the space for two tenants which is currently occupied by one which is avos um I don't there was discussions about the potential for them to expand the other tenant but at the end of the day there are there there's a principal structure that has multiple tenant spaces um and so I was looking at it as if avos only has a portion of the building then it would be it would seem a little strange to have a principal structure related to only a portion of the principal building um now I understand Mr silber's comment about understanding accessory uses in in our code um but it does also perit horse barns are permitted horse barns are not a small structure by any means the other thing is that we don't really have many there's no implications here to the to the as far as I know um from our ordinance requirements about setbacks height uh the size of the accessory structure there's nothing that would trigger additional variance relief and I don't think that there's any strong difference between calling it a principal accessory structure I think the most conservative approach would be to call it an accessory structure because even if it is part of their principal business it is still just a portion of their use on the site um so that's how I looked at it um I I I'll let the board kind of decide like I said there's no differentiation really or no triggering of any new variants relief um as far as I know um and um while it may seem a little bit strange this is not our usual case this isn't a shed so um it is unusual by the nature of it but um it's it's something to Grapple with but I think um right like practically for this application it really doesn't matter but down the road if they want to expand their site and use things could it then have an impact depending on whether it's deemed a principal or an accessory structure or is that something that could just be deferred you know if and when there's a future I think no matter what if they were going to expand this this structure outside they'd have to come back before this board right uh because of site plan changes the same reason why they're here tonight so when I look at and I don't I'm not trying to lead the board down any path um as far as its determination but there are there are other portions of the ordinance that do specifically note that multiple principal structures and uses are permitted on the site and so I get a little bit cautious also uh even though it's silent in this Zone um that that's something that's um not explicitly permitted or not permitted but in other zones it is something that is explicitly permitted so um The Silence here doesn't say that it's not or otherwise but I think the safer route in my opinion is to call an accessory structure that's the sa that's just the safer option here I'm I'm certainly not opposed to that I I thought that um I'll two two comments one with respect to the the principle multiple principal uses on a lot the the ordinance explicitly says that there shall be no more there shall not be more than one principal struct on in a single family um zone or a residential Zone um that was the first comment I'd make but anyway I I I personally don't have an objection to it being uh considered an accessory structure um unless my engineer tells me that there was some variance that we had missed but I don't believe that's the case having just looked at the schedule my my only comment would be then if it is considered to be accessory and not principal um I I would think that that again it should be considered as not counting although it'll count towards its lack coverage it wouldn't count towards the F but I don't want to belabor this point because it's not why we're here um it was a it was food for thought and I just wanted the resolution to reflect if this does get approved that I did raise that issue and um I don't have any objection if if Miss armat if you want to treat it as an accessory structure I thought there was a possibility there could have been a variance attached to it but no and and I look through that um through the accessory structure um and use requirements throughout the code I look specifically in the zone I think they'll meet the accessory setbacks which are rear and yard only there's no um size size requirements particularly we our ordinance does spell out certain accessory structure requirements like horse barns and radio towers and sheds and whatever um but this is not the typical so it doesn't fit any of those categories but it um regardless of that looking generally at accessory structures it doesn't generate any any variant thank you so that that's that's fine if the if the board uh board and the board professionals want to treat this as an accessory structure I think that would be that'd be fine um uh we can move on to our to our Witnesses if it's okay Mr chairman and is your preference I have all three sworn in Mr Sila swear them all in excellent thank you we'll start with the gentleman in front well we'll we'll all do it but then I'll have you all state and spell your names for the records so the order will go we'll start with the man in front and we'll end with Mr michelo so uh do you swear affirm that the testimony you're going to give in connection with this hearing will be the truth and nothing but the truth yes great could you state and spell your name for the record well you all actually agreed so now just State and spell your name MCC o l and you're vice president at abnos great thank you and um before uh before I ask you to introduce yourself Mr Kane you have a a PowerPoint up there on your screen that you're going to present is that correct correct and if we can just Mark the PowerPoint presentation how many slides does it consist of nine slides there's nine slides um if we can just mark this exhibit as A1 and can you provide a copy of that like in PDF format or something to miss probest sure can okay great do that tomorrow and uh N Slide power so uh Mr Kane my understanding is that you you have a a presentation prepared obviously do you want to just uh begin introducing yourself in the presentation thank you great thank you Michael uh thank you Mr chairman board members board professionals and community members uh for the time uh here today um so as Mr silbert referenced my name is Will Kane I'm the CEO here at avos we've already talked about my colleagues that will also be addressing the board um throughout the course of this slide deck and uh I started avos about five years ago uh is which has been a part of my 18-year career in early stage energy technology operations um so I'm happy to report that that I have a reasonable amount of experience in developing early stage companies and early stage Energy Technologies to tell you I'm here to tell you a little bit about avos what we're doing and who we are and you can see on the screen there this is our avos family and the 26ers avos team is focused on developing and commercializing our leading uh techn globally leading technology in the direct air capture of carbon dioxide I'll refer to that as DAC or Dak so DC is an exciting and fast moving part of the energy technology landscape and what it is uh and I have a slide here in a moment that'll talk a little bit more and give you a picture um uh of what direct air capture is but effectively we are removing Legacy carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere around us this is distinct from capturing emissions from an industrial process or a power plant for example we are capturing carbon dioxide that has already been emitted into the atmosphere through our propriety technology and part of what makes our technology uh uh uh particularly differentiated and and gives us a lead in the global landscape of direct air capture is that we are capable of producing water for every ton of CO2 that we remove from the atmosphere in fact we produce five tons of liquid distilled Quality Water for every one ton of CO2 that we remove from the atmosphere and everybody else in the direct air capture space is a water consumer that's a key technological differentiation for us and makes us more applicable in more geographies around the globe than others of our friends in the space now direct air capture RIT large uh a quick diagram here on the slide um really as I mentioned our primary consumable is air it's just the ambient air around us and at avos the only other consumable is electricity so we draw air into our system and consume electri electricity to power the system and then we run uh that air and electricity through proprietary technology which on this slide is represented by those four fan icons and inside of that proprietary technology box we isolate the carbon dioxide and water content from the air that the ambient air that flows through our system so we end up with two product streams two value streams carbon dioxide in gaseous form and liquid distilled Quality Water by en what happens with the water and the CO2 is really one of two things the first is what's called utilization and that can mean combining the water and the CO2 that we have captured into a further processing step that would result in things like low carbon fuels or chemicals and the other uh disposition of the carbon dioxide and water that we capture from the atmosphere would be in the form of what's called geologic storage so taking that CO2 and water and putting it back underground and storing uh those products uh for for very long time scales on a G from a geological perspective to be very clear neither of those two things will happen here in Bridgewater what we'll be demonstrating in Bridgewater is the efficacy of the technology of the captured technology we will not be doing any further processing or disposition of the water and CO2 that we capture and I would just note here that our water as I reference is distilled Quality Water which makes makes it highly valuable and highly versatile and that's what we'll be demonstrating and testing with what we're calling project Brighton you can see on the screen in front of you rendering of what project Brighton will look like when it's uh constructed and operational in about six months um it'll be located on site as we were just discussing uh at our technology Development Center at 360 miltown Road this particular unit is sponsored by the United States Navy uh we have existing relationships with the United States Department of energy as as well and ultimately we will be proving what I showed on the previous slide which is again the efficacy uh and and viability of what we believe to be the most advanced direct air capture technology in the world so we're bringing a very again as I mentioned an exciting and fast moving part of the energy technology landscape to Bridgewater uh and about which we are certainly quite excited and what do we doing um at the site in Bridgewater you can see there an aerial view uh on a on a beautiful Bridge water day of 360 miltown Road that's the roughly 18,000 ft technology Development Center that Mr silbert referenced previously that's miltown road in front North Branch Park uh in the bottom left of the of the image that you see there um once project Brighton is operational uh which as as I reference will be in roughly six months assuming this board uh approves what we're here to talk about today this facility will be the leading director capture research facility and anywhere in the world it'll be state-of-the-art and unmatched in its uh ability to test a variety of of different um uh uh stages of the commercial technology um that we're working on today we have 12 people uh at this site in Bridgewater we have plans to 3x that roster of people over the course of the next 18 months um in the main those folks are uh uh Highly Educated highly qualified engineers and scientists and research and development professionals um and those folks are all working on this exciting technology that ultimately we will be exporting around the world when I say exporting I don't mean we're making things in in this facility and shipping them around the world what I mean by that is is taking the technology and providing that uh in GE geographies all over the world um and will also give us the chance to host our partners and investors and customers that come from all over the world here in Bridgewater at 360 miltown U so with that that concludes my commentary and my introduction to avos and I'd happily take any additional questions and uh thank thank you very much for that presentation Mr Kane and I promise the board and the board's professionals uh we will address the uh review memo with our next witness um just uh one of the questions I wanted to ask you currently your operations in the uh the main building or the 18,000 ft building are are you the are you occup occupying all the space there is there any vacant space u we are we are the the only occupant we are occupying the entire space um as of the beginning of this year okay so that's a new that's new that's a new development y thank you um I don't I don't have any other questions I think um I I'll turn it over to you Mr chairman or the board of professionals if they have any questions very good Mr Kane uh why Bridgewater that's a it's a great question ultimately Bridgewater and Somerset County in this area of New Jersey offer the best highest quality Talent uh to underscore the development of this technology this was the place um we looked all over the country we cast a a undertook a national search cast a very wide net to identify the best um technical leadership and and technological qualifications and and the best area that we were able to locate was was Bridgewater chman I have a question Mr chowri okay technology that's good one so uh first of all in if you're selecting bridgew obviously bridgew air quality is uh far better than you know probably plane field or other townships so since you are basically uh capturing the air and coming with the carbon dioxide and water itself uh so why again the same question as Brit because you probably would like to go go to that town where we have got a more I know contamination of the air itself where the carbon is more so if my question to you again you are going to show to the all the you know your customer or your basically client coming in uh so don't you think that your metrix will basically kpi itself will basically not supporting you because if the air quality itself is a good one it's a good question um but importantly the the CO2 content in the air is roughly the same everywhere in the world CO2 is one of the constituents of of air that but for locations that are very close to high emitting uh uh um locations right so near a power plant near an industrial process there may be elevated levels of carbon dioxide but by and large CO2 is in the same quantity everywhere so the ability to test here in Bridge water um does not negatively impact our ability to project out how the system will perform elsewhere in the world so the priority really in in being in Bridgewater is as as I mentioned to the chairman is the access to talent that will help us to develop this technology and being at the 360 miltown Road site as I mentioned will give us um more so than any other direct air capture technology company in the world an endtoend technology demonstration uh location so we have the laboratory bench scale testing which we perform inside of the building as of now and this the image that you see on the screen in front of us that is a commercially relevant deployment of the technology so we'll have all of that on one site with all of our technical professionals also on that site which will allow us a much better opportunity to uh develop and deliver the technology to customers around the world so you basically taking one ton of air and making a five ton of water did I no we so uh we will produce five tons of water for every one ton of carbon dioxide every one ton of carbon yeah but that requires many more tons of of air uh water and CO2 are are only small constituents of of of air since the carbon Dix is also the you know the resulting element so uh what you going to do with the carbon dioxides so here in Bridgewater um this we will not there will no be no further disposition of the CO2 so this you can think of this as a catch and release program for the CO2 it will come from the atmosphere we will capture it in our system and it will go back to the atmosphere and Bridgewater um but it the the critical part is demonstrating the efficacy of that capture system and elsewhere in the world we will be using the CO2 and the water uh to produce things like low carbon fuels and chemicals and or store the CO2 in geologic formations okay thank you fantastic thank you any other questions Mr Kane approximately how many sites um do you have across the United States or even globally today we have two uh sites the one here in Bridgewater and we have an operating site in California as well and I'm sorry you testified earlier I think I missed it you mentioned there's 12 employees there now um the addition of this structure would require how many more there will be uh Mr mul or Dr mcul and and Mr Michelle will speak to this I believe uh it'll be three three additional three additional employees okay when Rel related to this unit okay related to the to like the operation of it because he because he had testified that there was 12 people now and that it'll eventually be three times more at the site but it's not necessarily tied to the operation of the of the equipment okay so so we we should expect on the overall site approximately 36 emplo employees over the next over the next 18 months great thank you I have some questions regarding uh parking but I'll I'll get to that with Mr mcll um any other questions from our Board of members uh perhaps from our professionals from the review I suspect um Mr mul is going to be able to answer a lot of the questions I I think the only question I had or point of clarification is just just to make sure that this this proposed structure at this facility is like you said for it's almost a model correct it's it's for testing the technology and the equipment for potential investors Etc this is not going to be put in production in any way it's it's more a it's I think uh the word I would use is a demo a demo perfect that's the word it's this is a commercially relevant deployment of the technology okay but it's a it's a unit of one that customers and investors when they build larger and larger facilities will deploy many of these units on a site that is not in Bridgewater so yeah this is this is a demonstration okay thank you I just have a quick question I know that this project or the the project Brighton is sponsored by the United States Navy um is this facility subject to any federal or state regulatory oversight uh not that I'm aware of I can I can follow up yeah no I just I didn't know if there are any like third party approvals or any bodies like Department of energy oversight no not not with this unit with our contract with the Navy gives us full discretion to to locate and operate the unit as we see fit it's it's fair to say that um any types of uh requirements imposed on the on the property or comparable to any other standard land use applications there's nothing special uh there's no special requirements or anything not not the agreement I just had a question Mr hard with you mentioned that the co two composition in the air similar you know worldwide or you know is there any adverse impact on the air quality the surrounding air quality when you catch and release it back in to the air no ultimately it is just a matter of for lack of a more sophisticated phrase it's sending the CO2 back where it came from right so we'll be capturing the CO2 from the air and and and releasing it back into the local environment so ultimately there will be no change uh in in the the local environment so no byproducts are created from this type of processing then that's correct any other questions any questions from the members of the public okay that closes the public portion for this witness Mr silbert so uh our next W witness is is Dr mul and uh just for the record again I know you've already put it on there but just confirm your role with aenos I am the senior vice president of Technology excellent and so I've mentioned I have some I have several operational questions based on the professional review memo but to begin I thought um it'd be helpful if you could just talk a little bit about your professional background we're we're not asking the board to accept Dr mcco as an expert witness but I just thought it'd be helpful to the board understand his uh his professional background as well as educational background thank you good evening uh my my resume in short I'm a chemical engineer I have a bachelor's a master's and a PhD I started my professional career at Exxon Mobile in anandale and the process technology department and then the corporate strategic res research group um I've been working in novel technology development for about 25 years particularly in the area of Separation science so what we're doing when we're capturing CO2 from the air is we're separating it from the air so this is a big separations Challenge and uh and like I said I've been working in that space for for many years in industrial R&D and process development thank you I appreciate that um so uh just turning right over to the professional review memo we start off by discussing some of the uh functional and operational powers of the D system and perhaps you could also just give a brief overview of the general operational hours for the facility the existing facility on the property as well absolutely so when the DAC system is up and fully operational we plan to operate at 24 hours a day um the facility itself operates on a a regular kind of 9 to 5ish maybe 8 to 7 PM type of a of of an operation you know Monday through Friday we do work some weekends we do work some late night you know because we're doing R&D and we are a startup company but but it's generally like a Rd lab that's it SS a stand are there going to be any employees on site um after work hours or well so like I said sometimes when we're when we're working on some experiments in the laboratory we we are you know staying late we usually make sure that there are a couple people there together so people aren't working alone in the Laboratories um I think we don't do shift work right so it's just on an as needed basis so there's no working people on the site 24 hours a day the DAC unit will eventually operate 24 hours a day but the system is designed to operate um not autonomously but operate without humans right so we control it we can control it remotely um it's set to lots of control systems so that it fails safely as anything goes with the systems down so the the maintenance of the system is General preventative maintenance right this is Process Equipment so it has F will show you um it has pumps for moving the water around it has compressors for pulling a vacuum and repressurizing the system so that we can release so it's maintenance inspection of of Process Equipment um and you know replacement of things like belts bearings new lubricants Etc instrumentation calibration on a regular schedule maintenance of the facility will be like most processed equipment we have where we're cheing things and replacing as needed or replacing on a use absolutely not little concern there is not there any I mean we're it's basically a large air handling unit right so it's the the noise that's emitted is due to the movement of the air so it could be like very a very very large you know Heating and ventilation system yeah so a system like this is and this system in particular is designed for a 15 to 20 year right operating in the elements and um and Our intention is to is to operate it as a very valuable development tool for our technology on the site we have a 10e on the site [Music] Ops is that does that any challenges tyut down take it apart use the useful Parts recyle what right not expansion uh we may make some process improvements will be minor things like we have a better design for a heat Right Moving heat around the system in a better more efficient way we may put minor modifications there we are actively like will said we have an endtoend research and development from Discovery development in this deployment so we will be gener we will be making and discovering new materials in our Laboratories that we will look to bring to install here that are more efficient at capturing water or what have so this will basically be the final stop of the technology development or commercialization that is a performance upgrade but we will not be expanding larer cool any questions for the board yes can I ask a question please Mr chowri yes uh thank you very good explanations uh what little bit noise level you said is a minimum but generally f it will be about 65 DB above or below well we'll have our engineer um testify to that um but we are going to obviously comply with all of the administrative code requirements with respect to uh decibles at the property line and I'll have Mr Michelle speak about that and confirm that on the record but we're going to comply with all noise regulations okay thank you any other questions perhaps from our professionals yes thank you um and thank you Mr M Dr mle sorry um the the only question I have um I know with the last witness um that there was questions about the release of byproducts such as CO2 back in the air one of the other um um kind of byproducts I guess of this is is water correct um I know CO2 can go back in the air what's what's happening with the water that's produced is okay thank you that was my only question and we saw the deck earlier uh and we talked about said nauseum already there are no byproducts the the actual structure itself there are no Motors running no no engines running nothing like that okay no comb storm that was my subsequent question to you whether or not there was going to be on-site storage of anything like that but it sounds like no okay very good do have a question I know you said that typical hours are 9 to5 with some people working late nights and weekends every once in a while well you said that the the equipment will be used 24 hours a day and I know you briefly talked about being able to control it remotely um or making sure there are some fail safes in case it were to go down what could happen right to it and do we have a plan if something say there were to be a fire or something of that sort I don't believe that there's a fire risk um Motors can can burn out and stop and so the system is set to fail safe so if you fail it safe things shut down power gets cut to the unit the fans stop running the pumps start running everything just stops right and so um that that's part of the the um the safety precautions in the control systems that we have in the unit limit switches all these types of things that are said to uh to basically um fail in a way that everything around doesn't let keep going okay right and so our plan is just the facts but on the 24hour operation um we were not going to let it run unattended until it is deemed you know fully commissioned and in operation once it hits all of its you know operating parameters and and we know that the system is safe and we'll run it as we're starting it up we may do some late nights or even some shift work to get it all the way up commissioned and operating um but after that it will be set to um for unattended operations and fail in thank you and AR there I know that we discussed what risk there uh you address some of the risks that we we brought up are there any risks to having this piece of equipment in Bridgewater um not that not that we've identified okay right thank you is um is the hdac um susceptible to an operation due to like inclement weather or anything like that the snow affected or uh so the environmental conditions will affect the performance of the unit but not and that would be how many tons of CO2 are we able to capture in an hour right that can vary with temperature and with the water content in the air we have systems in there that are actually managing the water there's a a portion of the water that is being absorbed and or C caught and released where we're not even making liquid water out of it so that we can control the amount of water in the you know in the the actual part that's that's producing the CO2 um so yes environmental conditions affect performance but they will not cause failure or a need to shut down or anything like that part of this demonstration and one of the reasons why Bridgewater is a good place is because it has for right so we can operate in the hot and humid Summers and in the cold and dry winters like it is out there right now you know it's that's important for us to be able to demonstrate that to any potential customers that are our operations can work throughout another reason any other questions from our professionals I did have just one or two Mr chairman um Dr mcol you had mentioned when this unit is operational it would go into effect our operation 247 right that would be our intent can you just explain to the board why that would be in my mind if this is a demo unit you could just flip the switch on and off as needed to show your potential investors why why does it need to run 247 as a data collection it would well yes so there are there are reasons in terms of us understanding its performance throughout the day night cycle as well as the seasonal Cycles right so the temperature and the humidity go up and down during a day and then they change seasonally and they change within a week and all that and anybody who any potential investor or commercial partner that wants to build a large array of these wants to know that it will run all the time because when you invest Capital to build something like this you want it utilized 247 you want it always doing its job because otherwise you have Capital that's not working for you and so a question that we get all the time is how stable is your process how long can you run it and this is the avenue to say this is a commercially relevant demonstration of the technology and we have run it for a year without loss of performance and you had mentioned um I think I think there was a mention of three new employees potentially right specific to this particular unit or product right yeah well so here here's how it lays out um right now we have two employees on site that will be heavily involved into the day-to-day operations of this unit they're the processed technology engineers um we have three openings currently we're we're actively searching to hire people in the first quarter one of those people will be a fulltime operator for the plant that will be their primary job is help commission the plant and then oversee that plant's operations two additional employees so now that's a total of five employees that will be in Bridgewater that are very Hands-On with the site only one of them were this is their their number one job but the other four will be heavily involved with the system and all five will be capable of running the system and then describe because I think I also heard testimony at the beginning of this year now avos occupies the full 18,000 square feet of the existing building as of January 1 as of January 1 right now I think there's 12 employees there are with the plan for over the next 18 months to grow that triple to 36 employees correct describe the operation in the existing building and how it's going to function and grow in light of this par particular unit what goes on in the existing building or what's planned in the existing building right so the existing building is currently outfitted with offices laborat iies and what we call a high Bay Area which is just a high ceiling Warehouse type of of an area and um we most of the people on site are chemical Engineers most of them phds um working on process designs process conceptualization new materials Discovery computational chemistry so we're basically like will said developing the endtoend from Discovery in Silicon in a computer to making the materials to demonstrating the materials in the laboratory to demonstrating the materials on a small scale in the high Bay small structure absorbance a scale suitably large to then test them in this in this proposed DAC facility so then we basically go all the way from Discovery to a commercially relevant deployment of the technology and we also have capital projects more nuts and bolts Engineers that are designing a plant for the doe we're part of these dhub programs right where we're doing feed packages for 50,000 ton per year facilities we have a lot of Engineers that are working on that they will be here too we now our Laboratories are up and operational and spinning we want to hire laboratory technicians to handle some of the day-to-day operations in the laboratory so the phds can be developing the next experim in the next concepts of things that we want to build um so we'll be building more laboratory equipment and it's all still the same CO2 and water right we're not doing exotic chemistries or dealing with hazardous things in the Laboratories necessarily but we feel like as we're ramping up and building we're bringing on more capabilities to make that pipeline more productive faster so it's just basically building up the internal capability um last question is just from a utility perspective I think what I heard was really the all you need for this unit is power correct you don't need water water is a byproduct but you're not taking public water is cor not going to be connected to public sewer just electricity y thank you uh when we talk about electricity there there's is this a high voltage um situation is there anything high voltage operating in the uh not not any higher voltage than the standard kind of industrial stuff uh so now this is proprietary technology it's going to be it's going to be essentially out in the open the way I'm seeing it now yes will there be will it be fenced in will there be security Manning it we can we can get to that in our uh and our engineering testimony if that's okay okay in terms of proprietary if we do not want you know unauthorized entry but what you see here we're comfortable sharing that this is what our technology looks like you can't see okay very good any other questions not not a manufacturing Sy I mean so when we when we when we build this we're going to basically we're we're procuring the pumps and the proprietary parts and all that putting it together onite um as we look to scale the technology and like said export it globally we're not going to be building we're not we're not making new things we're not going to be so primarily um you'll be importing uh certain types of material proprietary so on so forth but once it's built is there going to be you're going to continue to bring in materials to the site um you elaborate well I guess uh it seems like this is going to be the final prototype or are you guys going to continue to mod modify this like over time this is this is just a a rendering you know kind of a rendering this is this is the first demonstration of of a of a commercially Rel scale of the technology right and so inside this technology there are materials that capture water and the CAP CO2 and those are proprietary and we develop them in forties and um and we are then having third parties take those materials put them onto what we call cont materals Etc so what we do plan to do is continue like the research devil andc in terms of process performance those the the structure itself will continue to evolve not the structure components the components of the structure joh off of your question Mr banga the the 2021 resolution um states that it was represented to the board that there would be approximately you know one one truck trip per day delivering standard materials my question is is is anything changing in terms of of that type of um aspect to this site as a result of this system absolutely not so there will be there will be you know the traffic associated with getting all the pieces on site sure and then it'll run mhm and then you'll have our regular UPS and FedEx but we won't be seeing semi trucks full of new stuff coming in on any kind of regular basis Mr chairman can I ask a question Mr CH so if you can kindly you know explain that basically where I see it there are obviously you probably have lots of patent uh and so basically two IP issues here one is that you basically have a know some proprietary material you are developing it which can basically absorb the carbon air and make it carbon neure or water or whatever it is and then second thing is that basically process itself is the IPO process that you have it only so those are two uh you may have a lot of P pattern but out of those pattern those are two main uh things that you are going to basically have a IP on it I don't dis speed that I would I would say that I would like to have a lot more IP than just things that you mentioned but yeah I mean generally speaking it's the process and materals and use of the materials and the method of Mak aspects of it so your R&D facility will be basically engaging all the doctors and everybody else that they they're going to basically improve the materials continuously so that you can have basically you can produce more carbon dioxide and more water with the same air quantity and the same amount of capital C Capital right obviously I can make more CO2 out of this installation aftering and process basically about how much carbon it C how much carbon you can capture in a fixed am is yeah so it's ongoing R&D I mean we could we want to continue to make it better until we start to you know thermodynamic exactly yes okay thank you it might be an aggressive question but uh do you foresee U Leaps and Bounds in this technology are projected in the next few years in which you would have to minimize the size of the structure that would be a great problem to have but yeah so we we have seen we have seen um boy in the last 16 months we've seen more than a tenfold increase in our our um capture of CO2 in a in a fixed small pilot plant that we have out in California and so we're continuing to push that um would I some things like if I were going to use the same structure and all of a sudden I could capture so much more CO2 I might have to put a new fan in right because I might have to more or I might have to install a smaller chamber that's got less volume of cap the general structure here we don't anticipate having to change it I just had a question not sure if you're at liberty to say but just out of curiosity what's the endgame of the distilled water well like will said in the CO2 utilization um world like oil companies Airlines the Navy for example is very interested like so let's just use the Navy they're interested in um in theater production of right so if you have CO2 water do is you can do electrolysis to make hydrogen from the water and reduce the C can run a reverse water gas shift to take the CO2 and and then you have Co H2 that's called S gas and from S gas you can recombine those process called Fisher tropes and you can basically make jet so we have very clean water and pure CO2 two more process sorry three more processed steps and you can have jet fuel so you can basically make jet fuel from the air in in the theater of operation all of a sudden that's a way to liberate yourself from the supply chain that's like one of the one of the reasons why the Navy is interested other other other aspects are agriculture pable water mean we're in a world of potential climate change and and water is a thing where a lot of the world is starting to live in stressed environment being that's capturing CO2 from the air and also providing water to a water stress community there's good neighbor aspects there's thank you there's several other types of uh CO2 capturing um corporations out there I'm assuming right I've heard years ago there was one that they were trying to develop long tubes I think that went into the ocean to capture CO2 from what I'm what I recall is your is a direct competitor to those types of solutions um well a carbon dioxide removal you know holistically is you know there are a lot of different angles for for how to deal with it right so there's you know ocean storage there's planting trees there's you know all sorts of things there's post combustion capture which is like capturing it off of the power so the direct air capture is kind of its own space and in that Direct in the direct air capture space ours looks more like we call it solid absorption so that is a thing that looks familiar I heard one of the committee members say it's a bunch of pipes and pumps and so it looks like Process Equipment that chemical Engineers understand and it uses materials for separation so there's a niche in in that space there are you know a good 20 30 companies at various stages of development um are we the same as the guy with long tubes in the ocean I'm not sure exactly but CDR is is a large you know area and there are a lot of solutions and I think globally the world feels like we have to take a lot of shots on goal right to be successful so there a lot of people working a whole Liv this is the one that this is the one that we think is most likely to be commercialized the fast thank you any other questions from Mr mol any questions from the members of our public no questions from members of the public for Mr Michelle he needs about 15 minutes to put on his affirmative uh testimony okay will 107 what did we say no new testimony after 10:30 p.m. I believe correct so I think we can make it thank you okay so uh Mr mcello um if you can just put on the record your educational background and professional background your credentials in the field of engineering please yes Mike's out there all right we're good excuse me all right I'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey I receiv received my license in uh 2004 I have been in front of the Bridgewater Township planning board and board of adjustment over the last 10 years for multiple applications and I've been accepted as an expert witness in the field of civil engineering most recently I have three applications currently in front of the board of adjustment right now in the township does anyone have any objections to Mr MC's qualifications please proceed thank you right so I have two exhibits I'm going to put on the record this evening I believe we're up to A2 for the A2 and then A3 correct so for A2 we'll call this aerial exhibit and it's dated January 7th 2024 and just to kind of give a little bit of background on the property we talked a lot about what the DAC at the direct air capture unit is going to do um I do want to spend a little bit of time talking about the location of the facility on the property and just the property itself in general um so we are known as block 165 lot two or 6 .49 Acres we within your C3 Zone which allows office and research activities to occur on the property as you can see on the aerial exhibit here um this is the 2020 State aerial that we're looking at as the background with North being up on the plan you've got the um North Branch Park to the West the North Branch of the ren River just off the left side of the sheet there you have miltown Road running in a north south Direction property out out line in yellow like I mentioned and then we have the Conrail tracks or the railroad tracks that are actually on our east side of the property running in a north south direction as well um to the south of us is some existing um commercial development and then the north is some vacant land and we have residential tow houses and single family homes to the east um as far as the development on the site goes as mentioned we have the 17,777 square ft um building which has been repurposed from what was an original industrial building to a sports complex a couple years ago believe it was cheerleaders at one time and there were dance and now it is the research and development facility for aenos as they mentioned the existing site received minor site plan approval um three years ago for um I'll say upgrades and modernization of the property that included um the exterior of the building and interior improvements to this building the site was the parking lot was milled and repaved the lighting was replaced and upgraded with LED lighting Landscaping was installed along the frontage of miltown road as well as in front of the building um new Ada parking spaces were put in as well as Ada access to the building um a new water line was installed down miltown Road by New Jersey American Water to bring um fire service to this property um and the hot box was installed in the front of the site and all those improvements have generally been put in place as Mr silbert mentioned the sign has not been built yet but the foundation is there for it um and so all those improvements were done as part of the monitorization of the site with the hopes of attracting a tenant that we now have there as avos on the property so that that's the general aerial layout of the property and and looking at the site from a large view here so now we're going to go to the next exhibit and this will be A3 for the record and it's entitled site plan rendering data J January 7th 2024 this is essentially a rendered version of my site Dimension plan with the landscaping and and additional information added to it so it's it's a combination of a number of sheets so just to get into some of the specifics of of the property itself now we've rotated it so miltown road is on the bottom and North is off to the left of the site you've got the existing building the parking lot the site has two access points off of miltown Road and generally all the improvements that are shown on here associated with the building have been completed the focus is the DAC unit itself or the that facility which is going to be located on the southern portion of the site there's actually an area on the property today that's cleared it's lawn and it's it's it's an ideal location for this facility to the south of the uh of the building it's actually when you drive north on miltown road coming towards the site there's some good um vegetative land Landscaping that exists along the stream Corridor here is actually some Wetlands on the property so there they provide some good um screening in the winter time you see some filtered views of this coming north but in the summer this is heavily um wooded with foliage and you're not going to be able to see that from the um traveling north traveling south along miltown you will see some filtered views of this area because of the location of the building and the and the Gap in here but generally speaking the building and the trees along miltown do a good job of of screening this area um from from visibility but you will see you will see it when you're driving South so the area that's in general it's about 42.8 ft by 96.2 feet in size this is this the footprint of the gravel area that represents the entire facility just just over a few thousand square feet in size um and it's not all um structure it's it's it's the structure itself which is about 1,000 square ft but it's two levels so that's the 2,000 square ft that's shown on the plan that we talked about floor area earlier there's also a series of platforms and pads and and additional equipment that makes up this this um DAC unit itself that's shown on the property and it's actually designed with a gravel base around it and what we did was we took the gravel and made it into a basically a large drywall for storm water management so we've sized it such that the impervious areas of the building and the equipment pads the runoff from that will be collected in the dryw in that stone area and recharge back into the ground it's not major development from a storm water perspective it's only minor development but we felt we needed to address it because when we did the original site plan in 2021 we were only adding about 200 square feet of impervious coverage so was negligible with this one here we're adding a few thousand square feet of impervious coverage it's going from 6.3% to 7 I'm sorry 6.3 24.1% to 25.6% so we felt that we needed to address that for your ordinance to deal with the increase in um in impervious coverage so we're dealing that with the stone storage area on site for storm water runoff um in terms of additional utilities there's electric service already on site that Services the main building we're going to tee off of that service and run new electrical service to a transformer for power for this facility the sizing hasn't been determined yet we'll work with avos and the utility company when we're ready to do that um but in terms of the process water that we're talking about here the distilled water and it's about 1,200 gallons per day of flow and when you break that 1,200 gallons per day down it really comes out to 08 gallons per minute which is not a lot of water when it when you get to it and when you break that into CFS from a storm water perspective it's 0.1 CFS it's really a minimal amount of flow but what we're doing to handle that is it there there is some um tankage on site that'll store it depending on how they process it but there's going to be a 3/4 in hdp pipe that we're going to install from the facility and connect that into the storm drain in miltown Road and that'll just take that that that water and put it into the storm drain which ultimately makes its way into the stream there'll be no impact to a storm runoff because it's such a small amount of water that's coming off of this facility and we felt it better to put it into an inlet as opposed to putting it to the surface because it's going to run year round I don't want to have freezing issues if it gets onto pavement or anything like that so I want to put it put it into a storm drain so it's an it's in a stable um discharge location going into the uh stream that's there on the property we are proposing some Landscaping um around the facility we have seven additional trees we're putting in the front of the facility and then some shrub massing along the um southern side of the facility we are cognizant of the fact that this is pulling air in and pushing air out we don't want to put anything that would going to block or interfere with the intakes of air going into and out of the facility um so we're put those those uh vegetation more on the western side of the site um we also have because this is going next to the existing parking area we're proposing some ballards for vehicle protection so if a car were to um you know drive forward inadvertently there'll be some Ballard protection there to prevent them from from going into the facility there are no curbs on the parking lot area in in this part of the site it's just um pavement to grass so we have those ballards um in terms of lighting this is going to be a a as as um Dr mul mentioned it is a a facility that's going to operate um 247 there are going to be five LED lights that are going to be installed on the facility 15 feet high more so for the AOS Personnel to be able to um safely navigate around the facility it's not for working on the facility at night those lights don't have the kind of levels for that if something happens as Dr mol mentioned they'll deal with it the next day um but the lights are there for for being able to navigate the facility in the in the evening or at night especially in the winter months when it you know daytime night time comes early um so we have five lights we showed on our lighting plan LED lights they're going to they have the ability to be dimmed um like like you see now at LED parking L light so we can control the lighting levels but because of the locations of those lights basically at the Four Corners and one in the middle um we do have some I'll call it spill over from those lights onto the six parking spaces that are adjacent to the um to the facility here and because of that additional spill over your ordinance requires uh 1.5 average foot candles in parking lot areas and we are actually increasing the lighting levels in those spaces from 1.5 to 1.8 that's why we're asking for the design waiver from the board for that little slight increase in in light levels there there's going to be no impact offsite um the closest residence is a few hundred feet away the railroad tracks are elevated on the backside here um so those lighting level levels basically are dissipated and we meet your ordinance requirements at your property line so there's no impact to to off-site um properties due to those slight increase in lighting levels um there was mention of um sound attenuation not sound attenuation sound impact from the facility or noise um we are going to comply with the state standard at which is the nighttime decel level of 50 so the facility will comply with that so that's just put that on the record now it will comply with that standard during the the evening hours um as far as any additional um permitting goes for the project we do we did apply to suet County planning board for their approval and we will need a Soil Conservation District permit because we are disturbing more than 5,000 square feet between constructing of the facility the electrical line and the discharge line so we we're going to apply to S Union Soil Conservation District for there um approval for their certification as well um in terms of I know there was a question about parking and and for the avos employees since they are going to be ramping up employees on site over the next 18 months the site has 61 parking spaces it was designed based on the you know the 1 per 300 requirement for office research has more than an adequate parking to handle that increase in employees that are going to be coming um to the site over the next 18 months and hopefully beyond that um I think that essentially cover oh just one last thing um in terms of the bulk zoning standards um whether we treat this as an accessory structure or a principal structure however the board wants to look at it ultimately it still complies with the setback requirements of the C3 Zone lock coverage complies floor area ratio complies building setbacks comply um height um the ordinance is 45 ft this is 35.2 um so it complies with the height requirements of the zone so it meets all the all the standards of of of your C3 Zone um from a zoning perspective um just a couple questions um did you talk uh is there fencing or anything oh yes that's correct that was brought up as well so from a fencing and security purpose purposes there is going to be a six foot high fence that is going to be um around the facility chain link fence um there'll be gates at various points around the facility for access to the equipment and to the stair and to the um stairs that go up to the second level um but it'll be a six foot high fence for um Safety and Security purposes around the facility and then um in terms of uh you did touch on on Landscaping but is there in your opinion any types of any additional screening necessary for this facility no I don't believe it's necessary we have with the landscaping that's been put on the road now that's out there plus the existing vegetation that's there it it will be um you know it won't be completely screen we won't be able to see it but it'll be mitigated in a sense that it won't be right in your I'll say view line as you're driving up and down miltown Road you'd really have to look for it you'd have to make an effort to look for it have to look past the building to the past the parking to see it back there if you're driving South North you you will not see it um you made a site visit today is that accurate yes we did visit the site okay and then you also handled the 2021 application the amended site plan application corre yes um based upon your visit to the site did it look like the uh improvements were carried out based upon the 2021 approval uh and where the conditions met yes from my site visit today it looks like the majority of the improvements were put in place I didn't count the shrubs that were out there but looks like they've been put in place and it it seems like everything is in order I believe they actually have a a final Co on the building so everything's been closed out I think at the township level um but Mr Burke could confirm that um but as far as I I'm aware everything's been done except the sign of course is not installed eventually we're told by the owner that'll be put in at some point in the in the in the near future and then lastly um you confirm there's adequate parking parking obviously complies with the ordinance requirement is that correct yes and the parking lot was restriped and even though it was snow covered you can see the striping underneath parts of it thank you no further questions silver any questions from our board I do I have two questions um first are there going to be cameras on site yes so will the I know you said that there's 's a residence behind or the closest residence will the camera capture that or will it no the camera will the cameras will just be focused on the facility and there's the railroad tracks with the grade back there they don't you can't see the residential homes that are far that are far behind it got it and then I know you said you'll comply with all the sound will the residents hear the system given the distance to the to the homes on the far side they won't hear the system it'll be more background noise at that point give the few hundred feet if not more from this facility to that thank Federal Aviation basically allows 65 DB Federal Aviation allows 55 D 65 DVS so 50 DVS should be at least acceptable to every counties thank you you say the sound is comparable to an air handler from a building air right correct an HVAC unit on the building is comparable comparable too um you mentioned that it's going to have a three4 uh PD pipe there is the would you say the water runoff from this right that's going into it's going into an inlet is it going directly stored into the drywall no the the processed water is going to go into the inlet which is going to eventually drain into the stream the storm waterer runoff is going to go into the drywall system that we've designed around it that'll ultimately infiltrate into the ground okay and the water that's produced from the unit would you say that it's would be comparable to what a large air handler would be uh producing as condensation during the middle of a hot summer yeah I would I would I would put it to condensate water really and you know especially if you have a few hundred, square foot office building and you have large HVAC units it's comparable to that in terms of in terms of runoff volume and sometimes that water may go directly into a sanitary system or they put it directly into a storm system so it's it's comparable to that let's see answer my question about the fence those are all the questions I have other questions I have a couple questions I think which some of us some of you could address you have any outdoor storage containment containers drums things of that nature sorry sir did you repeat the question could you repeat question terms of soling acid Bas things of that nature any toxic or hazardous materials this no absolutely lals there still coane in there okay sorry sorry sir um we do have a laboratory right and in the laboratory we do use some solvents to do wet chemistry and things like that but we're totally in compliance this unit has nothing like that concerned about spill conment there will be no spills if I may last month a plant about a mile away from where you are had a spill which contaminated the water in Bridgewater SM it too and uh it took weeks to clear up so I'm a little concerned about that first off yeah I mean I I I yeah it's fine I think that I think that you've Mr Dr mcco I think you've actually answered the question you said that you're you're complying with all all state requirements um that there's no there's no hazardous materials being used in association with this component to the property and that you are an R&D facility but you've represented that the facility is using the utmost care absolutely so okay the drawing number one says you have a wash station for trucks and Equipment where is that located and what are you doing with the Wastewater drawing drawing one you're referring to to the side plan drawing number one item six [Applause] the only thing I could say to a wash station is we're required under it's not even a wash station it's if during construction for soil erosion measures if we have any sediment on vehicles that has to be clean before they back into the public road um but I'm not seeing a note about wash stations I must be missing okay let me read it to you oh here we go yeah clean up and wash down of trucks and Equipment shall be required before leaving the constru that's during construction that's for construction mitigation purposes I understand but what do you dealing how are you dealing with the Wastewater from the trucks when you wash off a truck or a bulldozer that's that's addressed by the scy contractor they it's just runs off into the into the grass area or captured if it's heavily siment lad and they'll capture it with some silter or filter bags drops on the ground yeah but it's it's you see how greasy a bulldozer is hydrocarbons it's part of the wash down process for construction vehicles it's part of it's part of can you just feel comfortable with all that on the ground it's allowed under the soil erosion setup control standards if if it's if it's heavily Laden if there's a leak of Grease or equipment that has to be cleaned up before you can let the vehicle leave the site so if hydraulic hose breaks or if there's a fuel leak then that's a spill contamination that has to happen during during construction um but otherwise if you have a vehicle that is you just washing sediment off the Wheels before it goes onto the um onto the public roads a bulldozer doesn't go onto the public roads it go onto a tractor trailer and be caught it off site I got a problem with that I understand that's the typical Township mitigation note that that's on our plans it's I understand understand it's on your plan but I still got a problem with dropping hydrocarbons on the ground willy-nilly I can bring that look at that gasoline diesel fuel these trucks these bulldozers track vehicles I understand your concern but again those things it's part of the process when a vehicle leaves the site if the wheels aren't clean it has they have the sents be that's when it's off the site but I'm saying it's being left here in Bridgewater on our property the dirt the contaminated material if we're talking about that I think we're talking about a contractor who's going to be using their equipment to construct the site again that equipment has to meet state standards for what they're using on a piece of property so it can't just have fuel leaking onto the site or oil AG grease leaking contractors nowadays have to maintain their equipment in such a way and I think we're dealing with a a pretty sophisticated type of construction here that we're not going to be using somebody that's not going to be qualified to do this work is that is that a is that a standard note that's included in and is this note specific to this application and I'm I'm ask I just I don't know the answer to that that if if that's why you're raising it like have you have you not seen that note before I'm not suggesting it is specific to this application or isn't I don't know the answer just ask there are ways to handle it but I can't off you the suggestions you would have to discuss that possibly with Mr Burr we certainly have no problem with dealing with that as part of construction mitigation process and okay moving along I notice there's no sprinkler system on the skid correct it's not a sprinkler the building is the building sprinkler main building has a sprinkler system in and I don't know the extent of it but we put it in when the water line was extended to the site three years ago so there is a sprinkler system in the building I don't know what it covers but it's there in the building and just off top of my head any pressure vessels or exothermic reactions the only sorry the the the only deviation from atmospheric pressure is a subambient pressure subambient that means below atmospheric pressure so we do pull a mild vacuum on the system and the other thing was pressure vessels and exothermic reactions they are zero reactions they're no chemical reactions happening in the process okay I'm just checking okay that's all I have for you know that question for our board engineer if possible Mr Burr um if I recall is there or not a conservation easement on site good question Mr chair I don't know I don't there is Rob do you know if there's a conservation I don't I don't think there is a conservation eement on site there there are some environmental constraints there's Wetlands on not there's environmental constrained areas there's Wetland areas on the southernly portion of the property I don't I don't know that there's a conservation easement I'm going to take a look at the plans here though there's some stream easement ments on the southern portion of the site but I think they're off the property looks like they're just south of the property line there's a sanitary easement there's a storm there's a stream easement there um sanitary sewer stream easement sanitary sewer easement no conservation easements on site I can tell looking at the plan did something come to mind for you did you think there was I was just recalling cuz the previous application's somewhat fresh in my mind I might be mistakenly with the with the stream EAS when said I think that's that's likely what it is then there was a there was a roadway dedication and the flood housed area be referring to from the 2021 application which was a significant portion of the property currently where the pad is or will be what's there at the present moment it's just lawn just lawn yeah okay Mr I was questioning whether or not there would be something that would prevent some type of uh runoff in that area such as an easement that's that's why that came to mind then no I don't think there is Mr chairman it's a it's a lawn area now one of the questions that I raised or that we raised in our memo was whether there were any disturbances being proposed to Wetland or Wetland buffer areas and flood Hazard areas I don't know if Rob I don't know if I heard you test testify about that I I forgot to mention that but thank you Bill for bringing that up there there are no um disturbances of the Wetland transition area or or the flood Hazard area um line itself on the plan those were all confirmed via an Loi is that what I heard corre we had gotten an Loi from the state for this for the wetlands and we had gotten a flood Hazard area verification a couple years ago as well they're still valid okay looking at the tax map there's not a conservation easement there's a sanitary easement we heard previous testimony that the there would be a dryw constructed or it would double as a dryw essentially the the drywall will that require maintenance every so often as some typically do you treat it like a normal dryw system so you'll have to make sure that it's functioning properly keep it clean and and maintain it in that regard it's an it's almost an open air dryw as opposed to one that's buried in the ground so a little bit easier to see and maintain any other questions Mr chairman Mr me I have a question about the uh do you know how high is U railroad track how high what railroad track all the railroad tracks um I think they were in the order of about 15 feet I think above the the property elevation the railroad tracks there's a good difference in grade elevation back there about 15 ft it varies a little bit as you go across the property but about 15 ft that that sounds good to me because the the light you mentioned about 15 ft right yes that didn't that wound whatever on the other side right the tracks will block the the lights themselves yeah and the existing building is higher than this facility anyway just to point that out but the lights are equal to the track height roughly so another question is um I know the new building is is you know it has a building part it has the facilities is that a reason uh you know is is putting this uh or you know Direction or we just mve like 100 Dees you know make the all the equipment all the pipes towards the track the orientation of it has to do more with just maintenance and access to it so in terms of this its layout turning it actually what happens is we do have to respect um the um I'll call it the approximate flood Hazard approximate New Jersey flood Hazard area limit line so I can't really turn it I have to keep it in the orientation it is on the property thank you thank Mr any the questions any questions from our professionals thank you Mr chairman just a a couple of questions for Rob um as far as this the site improvements that are required did you testify that everything has already been done under the prior approval and that for this application really is is is nothing other than the building of this facility and the discharge piping is there anything else that that correct I believe everything else is done on the on the other site plan um except the sign right um and and I think then what we're dealing with here is the construction of the the DAC structure and then as far as the prior approval from 2021 there's nothing being proposed right now that would in any way contradict any of the prior approvals or or conditions of that approval no and if if if it you know for the board those conditions can carry forward as well or they'd still be in effect if the board would approve this okay um when we talk about the the drainage and the runoff you have the runoff related to the 2 square fet or so pad area that's being proposed for this DAC unit which you testified your proposing to manage that with a drywall essentially um but then as part of the process there's discharge of what will be distilled water out to the road I think you said 1,200 gallons per day right that's a byproduct of this process how do we know that that is clean water maybe it's not a question how do we know it's clean and it it's distill does you know what I mean like if that's going to be discharged into a Waterway is there any I I'd have to defer to you know what I mean to one of these gentlemen to we we've tested the water from uh our other facility which this approximates that process that water is distilled quality we also say our start our startup plan when we're doing commissioning would also be to to have tankage on site where we're collecting the water and we'll do the appropriate testing and I don't know what the regulatory environment I don't know what the regulatory stuff is but we will absolutely so before we discharge one milliliter of water we'll we'll be testing the water and making sure that it is that it is suitable for discharge to the Waterway and if for some reason it is not suitable to for discharge to the Waterway we will take it off site and have it appropriately treated we don't anticipate that happening but we we want to be good neighbors we don't want to put do anything bad so we will make sure and part of our game is risk mitigation right so we will absolutely make sure that the water is good to provide yeah we can work with with you Mr Burr and and uh to to your satisfaction that the that the discharge of water doesn't pose any risk whatever testing is required um you object to providing your just water test results not looking for anything proprietary but just some certification that the water's clean before you start putting it in the township storm system yeah yeah not look for anything too but just you know enough to satisfy Mr Burr you know that the water's clean and um just one kind of followup to that so let's say the system goes down because it it needs some type of Maintenance or new parts or materials do do you then retest the the discharge water the processed water to make sure that hasn't become contaminated in any way through the process of of repairs does if that Mak sense it absolutely it absolutely does make sense so like I said risk mitigation is is is part of this and so the answer your question is not a blanket yes it is situational so what goes down with the unit what is replaced in the unit etc etc would dictate our need to to to retest the water so for example if we had to put in a new condensate pump right which is what's moving that water around or you know replace the head on the pump or do this or do that something that's in contact with the water yeah of course if we had to replace a new fan removing the air then no right so we have to be pragmatic right every time we experience a shutdown if that shutdown is not really directly impacting the produced water from the system then I wouldn't feel the need to test the water that okay okay if if I could just ask a question so this is distilled water that means it's demineralized yeah I mean so basically it's like a it's like a dehumidifier right so or air or air conditioning condensate so we're basically just taking the water out out of the air and how much water will you be dumping per week or per day say dumping or not a bad bad connotation um discharge or you know whatever um about 1,200 uh gallons a day on at full ramp so like when we're up and fully operational and continuous operation about that there are some variations with temperature and and uh not humidity level so much because of the way we control it but 12200 per day is about the Max and and then Rob gave you those kind of numbers in CFS and everything it's pretty so the demineralized water um would that have any kind of effect of leeching minerals from the ground or from any pipes or something of that nature no I mean it's going to be running through stainless steel and then through um and then through plastic yeah directly into to the Waterway yeah I mean the level I mean it's not like Ultra deionized water that can actually pull electrolytes away from things like that and it's also a small amount so if you put a small amount of say it was very very clean water like laboratory deionized water the kind of thing you would use in like a biotech lab or something like that if you took that small amount of water and put it down the storm drain by the time it actually got to the Waterway it would be full of junk anyway thank you any other questions you good Mr BR does that conclude your question that's it thank you Mr chairman very good thank you Sor I had any questions um yeah I I I had a quick question if possible um does is the unit can it be controlled remote remotely if okay and um if there was something that took place in the local atmosphere or or or in the air if there was a fire can the unit be turned off to prevent obviously taking in compromised there yeah we we would certainly want to so we so you know it's not part of this because it's not really part of the um part of the plan but a weather station that's doing some level of monitoring of you know particulate matter and various things like that should there be a forest fire a little bit closer than the one that was way up in Morris County or wherever it was there's one down here we definitely would want to shut the unit off because we wouldn't want to inadvertently pull in a bunch of you know small particulate matter and like you know partially busted Organics into the system because that would just G up the work perfect okay and one last highle question is there any advantage to running a unit like this a DAC unit like this close to Major tributary like the ridan river which is nice and close any it it benefit is there a benefit yeah I mean it's pretty sorry it's getting late for me yeah no I don't think there's any benefit in terms of performance or anything like that by being located close to waterm are there any members of the public that wish to ask any questions there are no members of the public okay that'll close the public portion for this witness and potentially this meeting Mr silbert chairman any more witnesses we do not have any more witnesses okay okay we don't have any more public okay uh let's see conditions and requests well the relief being sought is amended uh site plan approval amended minor site plan approval uh with one design waiver having to do with the foot candles to permit 1.8 foot candles where 1.5 is the maximum permitted and the only condition that would be unique to this particular application is the applicant would need to provide some sort of and I'll work on the language with M but provide some sort of certification and the test results of the water before they begin discharging into the system just so we can have assurance that the water is in fact clean as the after represents it willing Mr peek I just have one additional condition to add related to the um kind of designation of the structure as an accessory structure it does have some implications on the bulk table so I would just request that the plans be revised to show the setbacks for an accessory structure and all the other um impacts it had on the f as discussed so the reduction in the F essentially to um what exists there today because it won't contribute to won't contribute to the F question for our board engineer which doesn't necessarily apply to this uh but going back to Mr mcor's ear concern concern regarding washing of equipment whatnot how how does the U the township regulate that type of situation when it comes to construction phase of site plan so the the note actually that Mr mcera was referencing is from the Township's code the township has what's called construction mitigation measures that are required of any project that's being constructed in town with that particular issue it really falls under Soil Conservation District normally you would have with any development a tracking pad if you've ever seen like a stone entrance onto a private development site that the main point of that comment or requirement is to not allow debris material sediment that's caught on on equipment and trucks be brought out onto a Township roadway so it's it's meant to stay on site now now depending on what they're washing down there are certain requirements to contain it and dispose of it properly typically if it's just if it's just soil buildup that's caught on tires it's typically knocked off on the construction site and left on site um because presumably that's where would generated from as far as you know to Mr mca's point if if we have you know an an oil spill or hyd you know a leak of of that nature then it's got to be handled much more carefully but if it's just a typical construction equipment we're just making sure it's not being tracked off site onto a public roadway uh and then we have you know between between the engineering office and Soil Conservation there's normal inspections that take place depending on the site could be daily could be weekly um just checking in to make sure that you know the typical standards are being require you know followed um but that's that's generally how it's handled and clearly the construction equip needs to have compliance as well be compliant with with respect to its machinery and its operativity and all that right okay no other comments uh we can close that portion of the meeting and open up for deliberations and with that I'll start with Mr there should be a a motion should be moved in seconded and then the motion okay I'll make a motion that's Mr Banger okay that's a motion to and that's a motion to approve the application with the subject to the condition stated okay yes that's Mr cor or Mr banga well we have to deliberate first delber first carried away okay Mr mcor we'll start again with you I think the uh washing of the vehicles heavy construction vehicles needs to be fleshed out some more there are ways to do it but I'll look that up to the owner and his contractors I to do present it Mr for have Mr Wang thank you um I I think the site um uh it's is um it's welld designed and um I only um hope or suggestion is uh put more uh trees or you know landscape in front front of the main building um to uh block the the veil you know from the park from the um Road when we drive to um towards 202 um other than that I think you know Brewers um going to have a very good uh high technology company here uh to benefit the the world so you know welcome I I support this thank you Mr Atkins I think this is a very interesting proposition I'm excited at the prospect of Bridgewater uh being at the Forefront of carbon capture um other than the concerns raised previously I I don't have any objection at this time Mr chry yes same I'm excited uh the new technology coming into near our house so hopefully at least in a good luck and everything will will be all right uh other than what uh has been already suggested and the conditions are met so we should be okay very good technology good luck Miss sakur I have no objections to the applic application I'm excited to see what what happens over the years I appreciate you coming to Bridgewater Miss chz uh thanks so much for sharing as much as you could about your company and about the technology and giving us a science lesson chemistry lesson um in a previous life that was my dream um um but we do feel honor that to welcome you guys to Bridgewater and you know I think you're a welcome addition to all the other R&D uh space or facilities that we have in this space and uh we feel you know that we have really good talent here in this area so thank you for choosing us and I have no major objections yeah I think I would Echo everyone's sentiments as well that I've heard here on the day um think we've asked a lot of interesting questions tonight clearly uh the board members are um always keen on understanding what the environmental impact will be especially within our town uh which is why um I'm hoping that during the course of this should it get approved you know be continuously monitored and and work with our board engineer here uh in case there are any issues that move forward part of the conditions uh but other than that uh yes I I also agree that um to see Bridgewaters uh you know a Forefront of of technological innovation especially when it comes to one of the issues that's uh uh you know being um that's plaguing our our globe at the moment uh I'm would also be very much inclined to approve the application this prob a roll call please yes yes yes n yes yes yesal our planning work congratulations thank you very much thank you very [Laughter] much he say say reduced carbon tax what did he say Ang thank you very much sweet sweet charer wants to make some jet fuel right get some jet fuel that's right the third stage process that's right well we didn't close the meeting we didn't adjourn yet yeah okay okay we'll transition back to our application portion of the meeting and Miss propes we do have an update on the third application that was listed on the agenda this evening oh okay okay okay so they basically had no impact on tonight's meeting what soever okay there any other apps for the 21st just to a quick polling here uh will most of the board be available on the 21st okay okay okay unless there are any other comments I'll take a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion it's Miss Sor a second I'll second that's miss chtz all in favor I I have a good night thank you very much everyone happy New Year happy New Year happy year this the last day we can say yeah what that stop okay busy uh busy year for you are you the 21st too