##VIDEO ID:AqSc9n3Nzus## e e e e good evening everybody could we please come to order and join me in a salute to the flaged allegiance to the flag the United States of America to The Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all cam could we have a sunshine announcement please yes certainly chairman good evening everyone today is Tuesday November 12th in the year 2024 this is a Jersey City planning board meeting with a scheduled 5:30 p.m. start time and in accordance with the open public meetings act notice of this meeting has been given to the editor of the Jersey journal the Jersey City Reporter and posted with with the city clerk on November 8th of this year and this meeting was also posted on the Jersey City division of City Planning web page and all distribution materials made available to the board were published and made available to the public all right thank you Cam could we have a roll call please yes chairman um commissioner Torres here commissioner stamato here commissioner Cruz yes sir commissioner lipsky here and chairman lyson here all right we have five Commissioners President we have a quorum Thank You Bridget could we SAR in the staff please you swear or affirm the testimony or comments you're about to give in this proceeding will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes thank you thank you uh cam do we have any correspondence yes chairman we have one item requesting to carry to the December 10th meeting with preservation of notice and it is under old business item C and that is case p2024 d174 and that is for a one-year extension to a preliminary and final major site plan with deviations at 250 Academy Street um so they have requested to go to the December 10th meeting with preservation and notice and that concludes correspondence all right thank you Kim and we actually have one other item that we're going to carry right up front uh I just have to find the find it on the agenda uh case p2024 0088 uh is an amendment to a previous approval number P1 18-120 uh that's for 87 Bright Street that will be carried to a date certain and we'll recognize Mr Joseph before we do that good good evening good evening sir how are you Stephen Joseph C for the applicant um I'm aware the application's being carried I I just I do want to let the board know because I I did say it on the record the last time I was here that the documents would be uploaded the day after the last hearing they they were they were all put on the portal I understand the board didn't have access to that for whatever reason um but I did speak with with Cameron he saw them there they were uploaded on the 25th of September um and I believe that's been resolved at at this point so everything should be available for the board to see yes they're on there just you know we have the policy if I can't review it during the work day I'm not going to hear it that yeah which is obviously not within yeah your control sure all right thank you Mr Joseph uh okay so we're going to carry case once again case lost it already 22488 p2024 d88 uh for 87 Bright Street is carried to a date certain December 10th okay so let's get into Old business Thank You Bridget thank youate all right uh old business item a is case p2024 d196 is a one-year extension to a minor site plan with C variances for 270 to 272 Newark Avenue uh good evening Commissioners Tom lean from conell Foley um I know we are not required to notice for extensions the previous approval did have variance relief so I did notice just to be safe thank you Council chairman I receed the Affidavit of publication proof of mailing with respect to the extension request for the property at 270 Newark Avenue I've had the opportunity to review it this does appear to be the same original of the same one that was uploaded electronically a one for purposes of the record thank you counc uh we're requesting a one-year uh extension of the approvals granted to 270 Newark which was for a five-story building containing four units and a ground floor commercial space the holdup here was is that in the interim after they got this approval my client was approached by somebody who wanted to operate a cannabis facility uh on the property they came before this board and got approval for a one-story building there unfortunately that is no longer in play uh that cannabis operator is no longer interested in using the property my client is ready to move forward with the development of the approval I'm requesting the extension for this evening and the only thing that's holding them up from permits is the fact that the approval is expired okay thank you Council I'm glad our time was used wisely um okay does anybody have any questions no okay thank you does anybody hear from the public that wants to comment on this anyone from public no public I move to close public Mee second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed uh Camp do you have any anything you want to add um planning staff just asked that all of the conditions from the original approval remain in effect and uh are added to the resolution that would be acceptable okaying staff recommends approval thank you all right I'll entertain a motion chairman I'd like to make a motion Mr chairman I had to make a motion to approve case p2024 d196 as it was presented to the boort tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval all right commissioner Torres I commissioner Stato I commissioner Cruz I commissioner lipsky I and chairman Lon I motion car all in favor with conditions okay thank you Council let's move on to Item B is case p2024 d187 is a one-year extension to a preliminary and final major site plan for 241 MLK Drive good evening Council good evening you J con appearing for the applicant um there was no variances on this case and we're just looking for the um the one-year extension like a lot of other projects in Jersey City that's got hit with the trifecta covid cost of materials financing they're ready to move now and they're just asking for a one-year extension on this project okay thank you Council any questions anyone okay is there anybody here from the public that wants to comment anyone from public chairman see anyone from the public wishing to speak I move to close the public portion second it okay motion is made and seconded public is closed cam anything planning staff just as that all of the conditions from the original approval remain in effect and are written into the resolution of this one yes and we agree with them okay plan sta forg approval okay thank you I'll entertain a motion then Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve case P2 p024 d 0187 as it was presented to the board tonight second okay motion is been then seconded for approval commissioner Torres I commissioner Stato hi commissioner Cruz hi sir commissioner lipsky hi and chairman langon hi motion carries all in favor with conditions thank you very much thank you Council all right let's move on to item C case p2024 d174 is a one-year extension to a preliminary and final major site plan with deviations for 250 Academy Street see that's the one we adjourned apologize guys that one is adjourned to December 12th I'm sorry December 10th I'll catch up all right let's move on to item D is case p2024 d152 is a preliminary and final major site plan Amendment uh for 187 Culver Avenue good evening Council Mr chairman members of the board uh my architect is delayed so I yield to Mr Webster okay we'll come back to you thank you all right so let's call Item a is case p2024 d193 is an administrative amendment to a final major site plan for 20 long slip good evening Council uh good evening Mr chairman elardo Webster conell Foley represent nq8 LLC a subsidiary of a Newport development company the owner and developer of the proposed project located 20 long slip um Lots 3.05 3.16 3.18 and 3.19 Gabby come on up just listen let's get your computer we have a couple minor changes and I just want to run the Board Room will take me two minutes sure I don't know if we can press any buttons um I'll have it up there in a second but you're you're live looks good here uh as you may recall uh on June uh in June 2022 as part of a high-rise residential and mix U development parcel 8 to consist of three towers ground level retail related parking and amenity space and open space uh we then came before you uh and created lots 3.20 and 3.21 got minor uh I'm sorry final major site plan approval for the construction of uh the high-rise Tower known as the East Tower on the newly created 3.21 by resolution dated August 6 2024 uh this board graciously granted final M final major uh site plan approval of a 47 uh Story Tower consisting of 529 residential units comprised of 298 one bedroom units 182 bedroom units uh 49 three-bedroom units and two four bedroom units and approximately 2350 Square ft of retail space uh since then the applicant has decided to make a minor redesign of the interior of the building to increase the retail space uh doing so will generate a vibrant convenient Community Atmosphere by providing for a twostory retail operation which will most likely be a restaurant uh that will be a waterfront access and something I'm sure we'll all uh all love to uh to to take part in um I've got two witnesses this evening um I'm going to start with my architect um come on up do you swear orir test proceeding I do Jason dubowski du o wsk Ki Mr dubowski good evening we've qualified you in the past uh your license is current tonight yes sir okay thank you you're qualified um so I'm the Project Director at Hill West architects of overseen the production of these drawings since the Project's Inception as elardo stated we're here with some minor updates to the overall building uh essentially as we finalized the construction documents coordinating all of the PSG equipment in the building uh the electrical room kept growing and the retail space continued to get compromised from its original Vision so if we jump to the I guess the first floor plan you can see um we've bubbled those changes we've introduced a an elevator a convenience stair and converted one of the three bedroom units that was at the second floor to now be the upper level of the future retail Cafe Restaurant um so now just one less dwelling unit that was originally approved and we've done some facade modifications as well that's right so as part of the completion of the construction documents uh along the north facade we originally had some spandrel glass back painted glass that um had no see-through on it um is we finalized the documents there we converted that to be a stucco finish on the North facade otherwise there were just some minor uh tweaks to some exterior your drain locations uh again as we finalize the construction documents and then the one other item that Gabby May touch on I think is the um Transformer in the parking lot I have no further questions for this witness Mr chairman okay thank you sir anybody any questions the stule finish that you're going to be putting on that goes all the way to the ground level to the second floor uh there'll be a stone water table and then the stule Finish will start stle finish and um okay smooth or it's going to be a smooth finish it be a smooth finish yes it applied over a CMU substrate all thank you okay anybody else all right thank you sir appreciate it thank you do you swear or affirm the testimony or comment your this evening will be the truth the hold the truth I do and if you could State and spell your full name sure it's Gabrielle gorelli G a b r i e l l e cornelli g o r n l l I miss cornelli good evening good to see you uh your license is current tonight yes okay thank you you're qualified uh would you just show the board real quick the modification to the rear parking area sure the uh transform that we had to put in sure so similar to some of the uh interior plans as we were going through the construction detailing of the the exterior with the number of EV spaces we had have um it required its own um dedicated electric service so we do have a pad mounted Transformer in the northeast corner of the parking lot um that's the only substantial change to the uh civil and that's just for the EV cars that's for the EV parking correct and as you as the board members uh this is a interim condition uh we're actually going to put a building there at some point so it is what it is but this is an interim Condition it's a modification to that condition okay I've got no further questions for this witness Mr chair all right thank you Council anybody any questions all right thank you m gnell thank you appreciate it Council that's your presentation that is Sir okay thank you uh do anybody here from the public that wants to comment anyone from public CH seeing no one from the public ping speak I move to close the public portion second okay motion is made and seconded public is closed cam do you have anything you want to add I'm only going to ask that the applicants attorney agree to the conditions listed in the staff memo dated November mber 6th of this year AB okay um planning staff recommends approval okay thank you Cam uh Mr I just had one more thing sure I just want to introduce a new attorney in our office she's uh working in our Jersey City office Rebecca Morello she's new here uh she helped out with this application this evening and hopefully you'll see her in the future excellent anybody retiring uh well unfortunately as you know um we had one of our stalwarts uh father Schiller Francis Schiller passed away and he probably a a guy that taught a lot of us a lot of us carried his bags and uh sure at some level so uh you know he's uh he's moved on not that Rebecca took his spot but you know those are big shoes things do change uh but you know Chuck Harrington mccan Evans all of us worked for father Schiller whether we thought whether we thought we do or not we did so uh you know so we just want to let that let that be known but uh yeah so Rebecca's here and I just want to introduce her uh she's sitting in the con Foley section I guess over there right and uh hopefully she'll be here more often and uh and give Tom a break I can't spell it you spell she's gonna look it up yeah she it's too new for me so thank you okay I'll entertain a motion then Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve k p2024 d 0193 as it was presented to the board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval all right commissioner Torres I commissioner stamato I commissioner Cruz hi commissioner lipsky I and good luck in your new position and chairman Langston hi motion carries all in favor with conditions all right thank you everybody thank you gentlemen good evening care all right let's move on to item f is case 224-1 76 is two one-year site plan extensions for 650 Grand Street When You Reach 75 is when you're really old and that's when you the first thing that goes is you're hearing so so I apologize no worries uh you know k for the applicant um again this is application for one-ear extension um part of the covid and materials thing entered into it but at about nine months ago because most of the buildings on Grand Street are about five stories and the Redevelopment plan behind us was amended to allow six stories planning staff uh thought that would be appropriate to make this a larger building we met with the community and we could just couldn't work out the deals on the amount of affordable units so now we're going to extend the 4unit building and build it so that it's a one-year extension to build the existing building okay you're only asking for one onee extension yes okay he's ready to go so okay that's all I need okay any questions anyone nope no all right thank you Council um Jen Ru anything you want to add yeah I will just ask the applicants to comply with the conditions in the uh origin approval I can't hear you uh just going to ask the applicants to comply with the conditions in the original approval and yes we agree okay set for command approval all right thank you I forgot to open it up for public I apologize uh is anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this application chairman seeing no one from the public wishing to speak I move to close it second it okay motion is made and seconded and we have genen ruse uh recommendations so I'll entertain a motion Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve case P22 24- 0176 as it was presented to the board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval commissioner Torres I commissioner Stato I commissioner Cruz I commissioner lipsky hi chairman linston hi motion carries all in favor okay thank you everybody thank you very much is Mr where did he go Mr Shan oh there he is you're right up front oh my God moved up I could have missed the opportunity oh okay so we'll call once again case p2024 d152 is a preliminary and final major site plan Amendment for 187 Culver Avenue my architect uh just arrived uh he'll just set up in a moment uh but this was originally approved and it's under construction at the present time there were some modifications facade modifications and uh unit count modifications and Richard uh will walk you through those changes apologies for the delay gentl no problem we're here all night how are you you swear our affirm the testimony your BCE given this proceeding will be truth the truth I do your full name Richard Garber g a r b r Mr Garber good evening we've obviously qualified you in the past uh your license is current tonight yes it is okay thank you you're qualified thank you thank you all right let me just see if I can get this working okay you're good great so uh except it's showing on the wrong screen one second okay so um I I didn't even prepare a PowerPoint uh for for this this is a fairly simple uh project this is um uh a plan that we got approved now what feels like many years ago 2017 uh at 187 Culver the previous address 1811 191 and the good folks in the tax assessor's office told us we can just call it 187 um it is largely a um material and facade update based on um uh a change in sensibility primarily in my mind in the last seven years um but uh in in short um the project is a um a six-story building um the unit area and gross building area has not really changed with any significance it's at 77,000 50 square ft and you can see the um the units are 60 units with 191 bedrooms and 41 two bedrooms which is what we um I believe we previously had approved as well um the site is now the building's well under construction and um to just take you through to the primary changes um these are a relocation of green roof elements and so you can see this on the fifth floor plan that we had uh originally imagined where I'm circling a green roof at an area that really looked to be common roof deck uh and so what we've done is we've taken that green roof and we've relocated it to ensure that there's a one to one um there's no loss in green roof it it stays at um steady state and you could see what we've done is we've taken that patch of green roof from the fifth floor and we've added it into these two corners of the building on uh the sixth floor which is the primary roof and you can see we have a lot of green roof in the rear and the green roof in the rear remains um uh as imagined uh there is no roof deck on this area uh part of the the impetus for this change was that we actually had uh roof decks already on the fifth floor in these two locations and we thought why not put the uh another small common roof deck here relocate the green roof up to uh up to the primary roof and um stay in in steady state now where the changes have stayed on the facade um uh frankly I'm not quite sure what I was thinking in 2017 but this is a fairly blah facade that uh we've changed uh and it's far more exciting now I have uh materials and you can see it in the in the front facade that we have a fair amount of movement in it um the rear facade uh has not changed as much um but I do have a rendering that basically shows previous and now proposed and uh these are all metal panels I have some samples I'm happy to share them with the board but you can see it's a series of muted Grays uh that moves a little bit the building is also broken up in terms of its scale so it moves between a five and six story and what we've done as a sort of added feature is uh taken almost like a a goldish bronze metal panel and that's going to frame uh some of the windows as you can see in the kind of varied pattern here and what I like about this is uh what you're seeing is the building you're you're beginning to see the West uh facade of the building turning that corner uh right here and um we have this small house that isn't going anywhere and so what that does is it gives us an opportunity on that side of the building to carry some of the M these materials around to the Western uh facade and so that's what we're doing and um so in addition to the green roof this is a a fairly um simple facade update and I hope the board will agree that it's a better looking facade than what it was that's it okay thank you Mr Garber um the panels they're they're a matte finish they're not reflective they're not reflective I do have samples here if you'd like to see them um this is uh an aluco Bond finish and I'll just take a couple out and if I can approach you'll get a sense of what these are thank you they do have even though they do have a shine to it they're not reflective they're not they it's just like a nice glad that's the that's the the manner in which they're finished yes is almost like a yeah that's got like a met finish nice mramp a little delayed but I provided the notices Mr Black was reviewing them for the board chairman I am received the original notice which was published on the portal uh in electronic form so this does appear to be that same notice I had the opp to review it does appear to be in order so we'll mark it as A1 all right thank you Council A1 notice good okay does anybody have any questions for Mr Garber go ahead no I don't think so okay thank you Mr Garber we appreciate it thank you Council anything else nothing further Mr chairman okay thank you uh is there any body here from public that wants to comment on this application anyone from public seeing no one from the public wishing to speak I move to close the public portion second it okay motion is made and seconded public is closed cam anything you want to add uh yes chairman um planning staff just asked that the applicants attorney agree to the uh staff memos conditions dated November 1st of this year I acknowledge receipt of the memo I have it in my hand dated November 1st 2024 and the applicant agrees to be bound by theor terms of that moment okay planning staff finds the changes to be aesthetically pleasing and they meet all the goals and objectives of the Redevelopment plan and planning staff recommends approval okay thank you Cam all right I'll entertain a motion Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve case p2024 d152 as it was as it was presented to the board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for for approval commissioner Torres hi commissioner Stato hi commissioner Cruz hi commissioner lipsky yeah I agree that the facade update is a an improvement and I vote I and chairman Langston hi motion carries all in favor with conditions okay thank you thank you Council thank you all right let's move on to new business uh we'll hit item nine discussion of uh the annual planning board reorganization uh let's open it up how we start do we open it up for secretary first nominations for secretary okay I'll open it up for nominations to uh for secretary and co- secretary I believe we're still calling it deputy secretary okay so I would like to nominate Cameron black and Matt Ward for those positions second it second it okay we have a motion and a second do we have any other nominations any other nominations seeing no other nominations they moveed to close this and move on okay nominations are closed cam could we have a roll call for secretary and Deputy yes chairman uh commissioner Torres on the nomination commissioner Stato that's one I I commissioner Cruz I commissioner lipsky two finer men I couldn't think of I vote I okay thank you uh chairman Langston agreed um you guys do an amazing job for us and uh we appreciate appreciate everything you do so uh it's an easy eye for me thank you very much motion carries all in favor okay do we have a nomination for chair are you work going to stay on there I'll make the motion well it depends on if there's a nomination for me or not then I'd like to move to nominate our current exalted chairman I second Mr Christopher Langston ouch okay please take we have a motion and a second do we have any other nominations any other nominations no sir that case I move to close the nominating portion of this okay uh nominations are closed um could we have a roll call please cam commissioner Torres I work with this gentleman out in the field and um and when I work with him here he makes this job so much easier all the time so um outstanding in what he does um and the homework he does for all these cases that come up against the board uh so um with that um it's a big eye for me thank you commissioner San hi commissioner Cruz hi commissioner lipsky yeah yeah just to Echo Eddie's uh comments and also to publicly acknowledge that these are non-paying jobs and as a commissioner it's time consuming but to be chairperson it's that times 10 and he does it with the plum and he does it diplomatically he does it inclusively and he's a consumate professional so I vote I and chairman Langston all right motion carries four in favor one exstension um and uh motion car uh motion passes um and then on on behalf of planning staff um we also uh approve and are extremely thankful for your leadership I said it last year there's a stoic um you know uh wisdom wisdom no no Gladiator Gladiator 2 is coming out um but yes there's there's wisdom to your leadership and we we really appreciate it so thank thank you Kim I appreciate that all right uh nominations for vice chair I'd like to nominate um although he's not with us tonight uh Dr Orlando Gonzalez second second okay we have a motion and a second do we have any other nominations any other nominations seeing no other nominations I move to close Okay motion and second nominations are closed cam could we have a roll call for Dr Gonzalez commissioner Torres just want to say one of the longest chairman um Commissioners on this board uh Vice chair Dr Gonzalez um and with all the other things he does in our community in in Jersey City it's um amazing that he uh volunteers so much time to this board um he was on when I first got on and uh he made this once again made this very easy for me to transition into this position so with that I vote a big eye for him and I would like to H record to thank him for everything he does for the City Commissioner Stato hi commissioner Cruz hi commissioner lipsky yeah just to Echo what I said about chairman Langston I mean to be Deputy is maybe not to work 10 times as hard but five times and it's a non-paying job as the saying goes if it ain't broke why fix it or why change it so I vote I and chairman Langston so way back in 2013 um you know we had a political upheaval in the city and uh commiss Gonzalez was uh a hold over from you know mayor Healey's appointment and um it it was an interesting year um you know there was there was obviously some friction between the old school the new school and uh I didn't get that from commissioner Gonzalez uh welcomes me to the board with open arms Eddie too um so you know we've gotten to be great friends over the years and uh it's it's an easy eye for me uh he's always there for me uh to talk bounce stuff off of and uh yeah it's an eye motion carries all in favor to appoint Dr Gonzalez as Vice chair okay thank you that is it for uh the reorganization so let's move on to item 10 is the review and discussion of the 2025 planning board meeting calendar uh we've had time to review it does anybody have any uh questions concerns no sir David Avid no sir done think you can make a quarter of these this year okay good all right so um do we have to we don't open this up for public right okay okay so uh with that said cam we'll just do a roll call okay on a motion to approve a motion to approve please I make a motion to approve the 2025 uh working calendar second okay motion made and second it for approval commissioner Torres hi commissioner smato hi commissioner Cruz hi commissioner lipsky only if Cruz agrees to get here 25% of the time I vote I okay and chairman Langston I'm gonna say I after that all right motion carries all in favor all right thank you everybody uh let's move on to item 11 is the board attorney contract uh does anybody have any questions about uh our Council Mr lampy seeing no questions I good I second then I move I move to approve it yeah we need to make the motion to approve the contract I make a motion to a approve the board attorney contract as presented to us second okay we have a motion and a second for approval roll call please C okay on a motion to approve uh commissioner Tores you know I've been on this board for like 2012 maybe 2011 sometimes I'm not sure um it's been a while a few different councilors sat at that that table um and the reason why I'm going to bring I'm mention it because even the chairman Vice chair and the council it's like 18 working for to be under them um his guidance and his help um on the cases um it's always a learning experience here he is a really stand up on his job and uh I really appreciate him for what he does also for Jersey City and U with that it's a very big eye for me commissioner smato I commissioner Cruz I vote I good attorney good family man and he brings Canen commissioner lipsky yeah uh being on the board isn't always easy and we're not always in the best position to know everything and sometimes during the controversial um cases it's nice to have U our Council jump in front and uh lead the way and kind of buffer us between the attention so I wholeheartedly and honorably vote I and chairman Langston so believe it or not in my free time um I attend planning board meetings in in other municipalities uh as a union member and can't believe I just said that um and I I haven't seen an attorney that's better in the state at uh at what Santo does so um I appreciate everything he does for us he he's always there for us uh we talk way too much to the point that my wife sees your name come up on the phone and it's it's not good but um it's an easy eye for me okay motion carries all in favor on approving the board attorney contract and uh on behalf of Staff we're extremely thankful you're a true asset to the city for what you do and what you uh continue to do inside and outside of the boardroom on our various lawsuits because we have so many lawsuits so we are extremely thankful what you do to continue to protect Jersey City thank you thank you everybody all right thank you Santo all right so uh let's move on to item 12 last certainly not least uh the reporting contract do I have any nominations to approve a contract make a motion to approve the contract with Precision reporting as presented tonight do I have a second second okay motion is made and second to approve uh Precision reporting contract roll call please can okay commissioner Torres another 18 mother and daughter he are the best ever since I've been here uh it's been great I mean my son he not here but it's a great team uh it's a great team and they uh very very nice people um and knowing that they are originally from Jersey City so it's awesome with that i b a big eye commissioner Stato I commissioner Cruz I 100% I commissioner lipsky yeah it's been a I've known Bridget for a long time and she still looks the same and she's great and uh i v i chairman Langston I mean you're the I don't know can you answer right now I don't know you typ in away um I know right so so you know you and Mike are the the one constant that we've had on this board over the years and um I I don't know how we could do it without you um so it's an easy eye for me and uh thank you thank you we really appreciate you thank you motion carries all in favor and planning staff is extremely thankful for everything that you do for our department so thank you so much and uh thank you for continuing to stay on board all right thank you everybody let's move on to item 13 is case P22 d061 is a preliminary and final major site plan for 88 Bright Street good evening everybody Stephen Joseph casano quickly trami for the applicant um 88 Bright Street this is an existing three-story building in the historic district um the applicants proposing a renovation to the building with an addition resulting in a four-story for unit dwelling um site plan approvals required there are some C variances we have two experts this evening an architect and our planner this was approved um it was recommended for approval by the historic preservation commission after two meetings I believe they submitted a memo as well um and this was a notice application so I do have notices if we could Mark those as 81 please chairman receive the Affidavit of publication proof of mailing for 88 Bright Street it does appear to be in order we're going to mark it as A1 for purposes of the record thank you Council all right um William mman our architect this evening let's get him sworn in you raise your right hand you swear or affirm the testimony your vs if will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes I do thank you st by your full name sure it's William wenman last name w c k n m nn Mr wenman good evening uh We've qualified you in the past as well your license is current tonight yes it is okay thanks you're qualified um thanks Ken okay um so this is a this is a um nice project um located on the the north side of of bright Street um as Steve mentioned uh it's a it's a renovation an existing three-story building and we're also proposing a rear yard and fourth floor addition for the building um I'll let Carolyn text uh touch on the on the variances for the project but I I just wanted to point out um we are asking for a rear yard setback variants and um this slot is a little bit unique in that it is only 90 ft deep um the lot behind it is 110 ft so um we're asking for 27 ft which is proportional to to the lot depth uh 30% of the of the lot depth um and uh this this actually results in a larger rear yard setback as measured from the the predominant um uh condition on the Block so um even though we are asking for a variance we are actually uh we actually end up with a with a larger rear yard uh because of the the way that the lot lines are are configured um so uh moving on uh to our the existing and the proposed site plan um the lot to the West is currently a vacant parking lot um these lots are are owned by the same same owner and um uh are also um the owner also owns the the church at 4 445 Jersey Avenue which is located um on the right side of the um of the plan here um and currently both both of the Lots both of the rear yards of of of both both the rear yard of this lot and the lot next door are used as surface parking um another uh unique feature is that there's an access easement for the church which extends along uh the Western property line on uh 90 Bright Street and then extends across the rear yard of this property connecting to the church at 445 Jersey Avenue um so we are maintaining that as part of as part of the project um and it does affect uh the design of this building as we do have um a couple of lot line Windows um which would otherwise not be uh permitted um and we do have this uh access um access way maintained along the the rear property line so um we are proposing retaining um the existing building uh we are removing the rear wall and uh constructing a a rear yard addition um we're proposing a street tree as well as the usual curb and sidewalk improvements we're also proposing improvements to the existing stoop which will remain um the front of the building will remain largely unchanged as part of the application um the fourth floor that is being proposed since uh about 18 18 ft back from the front facade so the fourth floor of the project uh will not be visible from the public right away um and I'll I'll showcase that in some of the Later drawings um we are proposing a combination of green roof and occupied roof decks for um both the Third floor roof and the fourth floor roof um and then we are proposing uh to remove the entirety of the uh asphalt paving at the rear um and Rel Landscaping the backyard um I'll just skip over the typical details um and move on to the floor plans um starting with the garden level we have have the existing plans on the left and the proposed on the right so um we're proposing a a two bed two bath apartment for the ground floor with um bedrooms uh at the front and center of the plan with a uh large uh living and dining room towards the back which opens up to the to the rear yard entrance to this unit is through the existing door which is located underneath the stoop um we're proposing uh refu storage underneath the stoop as well um as well as the building utilities uh on this level um the upper three units are accessed through the main door uh which as I mentioned will um stoop will remain the door will will remain um um the unit on the on the first floor uh is similar to the lower level uh where we have two bed two bedrooms and two bathrooms um similar configuration with the bedrooms towards the front and the the living room um towards the rear uh the um second and third floor are uh duplex units so uh we split the the floor plan in half and there's one unit uh towards the rear and another unit at the front uh the front unit has the the bedrooms uh and bathrooms on the lower level uh with a staircase up um along the demising wall here um the unit in the back is the opposite configuration we have the living room and the kitchen on the lower level with the bedrooms and bathrooms on the on the fourth floor um as I mentioned previously we do have an a 17 1/2t setback for the fourth floor Edition um with a green roof and a roof deck on the front portion of the of the roof um we have uh the living room and the dining room for the front front unit on this level and as I mentioned the the bedrooms are uh for the other duplex unit are uh in the rear both units have uh private decks on the the fourth floor roof uh that are accessed through a um uh a glass uh roof hatch there's no bulkhead proposed uh and again that was that was to make sure that none of these um improvements will be visible from the public right away um we have uh on this this page we have our the existing and proposed front elevation um as I mentioned the stoop and the front entry door are uh remaining we are replacing uh the the doors to match the 38 tax assessor photograph we're also going to be repointing the brick uh replacing all the windows um and repairing the cornice um we'll also be reconstructing um an iron fence at the Garden level which was which was removed at some point um which is another um nice feature of of the project um it's a little hard to see in this view but the the fourth floor Edition here is set back uh 18 ft and you'll see that a little bit more clearly on some of the other drawings this is uh the existing and the proposed rear elevation um it's very simple design we're using fiber cement as the primary facade material um with with large large Windows large openings um and uh glass Railing at the at the roof deck the uh moving on to the the west elevation um this dash line represents the outline of the existing building um just to give you a little bit of reference when looking at this what's existing versus proposed um the existing building has a a masonry um parging on the the side side wall so we're going to be repairing that um patching it and then um using a stucco as the uh primary material for the for the addition so it'll be a seamless look on the on the side elevation we do have um several Windows uh on the the lot line here which are again we have the the the access easement on the property next door so um and there is an approved project next door um and we've coordinated these openings with the building next door to ensure that they meet all the requirements for light and air per the building code so it's sort of a little bit of an unusual situation here um here's here's a section cut through the building um and again this helps to to highlight the um uh the the sight line from across Bright Street um so again this the fourth floor addition um and the roof deck are all set back such that they won't be visible uh from across the street bright bright Street's a a wider street so it's it's a little bit difficult to uh made a little bit more challenging to lay out this this Building compared to some other streets which are um you know 60 foot right away as opposed to 80 foot 80 ft um here's a comparison diagram uh indicating the this is the existing block elevation here and then we have the um the proposed elevation here so um the overall the massing of the building is in keeping with uh what's found on the Block um all the other buildings are at least four Stories the project that was approved next door at 90 bright is also four stories so um the the the massing of the building as it relates to the streetscape is is consistent uh moving on we have uh materials um I just like to highlight the the large Windows here uh which will be used on the rear facade um as well as this um access door uh for the roof decks and this is actually a photograph of a project in Jersey City so um for an additional reference we have um another block diagram that um shows the proposed building at 90 Bright Street um again just to give a little bit more context and see how both of these projects uh will fit together in the streetcap and then finally we have um a proposed rendering of the front facade showing the um improvements and will the rendering does need to be entered as an exhibit right not this one not that one sorry um we do have a rendering of of both projects together um so again this just provides a little bit more context into into what's proposed next door so Council let's mark that as A2 thank you does it have a date on it June 1st and it's a rendering of uh 88 and 98 Bright Street 98 or 90 90 sorry 90 and just a little more context for the board 9 Z so um question yeah so this render that just showing us at 990 the is the four story one that's going to be that's correct that so that might happen no so that was um approved one of the the it's it's approved yes but we don't know if it's ever going to get built it it's it's approved right my client intends on constructing all three of these projects at the at the same time same client same client same yeah Sameer understand Now intent that's why I was I'm sorry you said all three of these projects the uh so will ref reference the church to the right rear of this one as well and and this board is not seeing 90 Bright Street or the church at 445 Jersey because they're zoning board applications um the the deviations trigger D variances so 90 bright was approved by the zoning board if I understood that's correct testimony all three were recommended for approval by HPC 90 Bright Street was um already approved by the zoning board 445 Jersey scheduled for Thursday that may get bumped to December but so can we just talk about the easement it's on the 90 Bright Street property it's it's on both properties uh it's a recorded easement um the client owns all three properties so he entered into the easement um between himself for so this rendering it it appears though the facade are touching each other correct so will if you could touch on the um the gate that we have there sure so we have a protected egress passageway that leads from the street uh through on the side of 90 brigh Street and then as I mentioned extends across the rear yard of 88 brigh maybe will you could show us that in the um go back to the floor plan go to I if it's easier to see on the floor plan or yeah so this this dash line here represents um the width of the easen on 90 Bright Street this is the property line here so that's my question the three and A2 feet is actually on the 90 bright correct the application before us the building is on the property line that's correct and um it it extends so it extends to the rear of um 90 Bright Street and then it cuts across on the property of uh 88 brigh Street at the rear along the rear property line the the egress is Mo it's for the all three properties so the church can get to the right away from the rear to meet building code okay and that's also an egress for 88 correct correct okay I was more concerned with the lot line Windows sure and the fact that the three and a half feet are not on the 88 property but obviously if the 90 property has been approved to be developed they're under common ownership and the easement is the physical egress easement is on the 90 property then they're going to have to respect those lot line Windows even if that easement were to be extinguished for whatever reason right once this building is constructed they're going to have to respect those lot line Windows that's right ideally we would have brought all three of these together to the same board but uh just because of the nature of the zone and the historic buildings we triggered we two different boards understood okay thank you Mr wenman anything else that that concludes my testimony happy to answer any questions okay any more any more questions yeah just uh one more question that is I'm confused with these um you mentioned that there is the West Side uh Windows uh are laid out in a way where the building next that it's going to be put up won't affect the windows right yeah that's correct um and that's only if it stays within the owners and nobody develops side there right so uh are those windows existing in that building or we going to be no these These are proposed they're proposed the windows on the side um I also we mapped out the loc the footprint of the upper floors of 90 Bright Street which um and it's a little little hard to see but it's basically this dash line here so again it just provides a little bit of context as to where those windows are in relation to the the the building next door um the building next door is also using this setback for their own windows so um um there's no way that they could reduce or eliminate this Courtyard conceivably because it's necessary to provide that three- foot setback is necessary to provide windows on the adjacent building as well so so that's my question that but that's or good if it's under the same developer what happens if it changes that coun so even if it changes right even if it changes they have to respect that three-foot separation so what the testimony is is the windows were if I understand the testimony the windows are intentionally staggered in 90 and 88 so that you can't see into each other's Windows is that accurate that's yes that's another component to this that's yes that's how you designed the two buildings correct with respect to that three and 1 12 ft it's on 90 90 being under the same ownership as 88 has determined and allowed that 3 and 1/2 ft separation distance for purposes of code and window to be on their property for both buildings so if 88 gets built on the property line and 90 doesn't get built and get sold and the new owner wants to build on the property line they cannot do that even if the easeman isn't there because those windows will have been established on the property line and they're going to have to respect the three they will now as we know right you can get into the window wells and and such like that but that's a code issue okay so basically if it does get approved today with the windows there on that line and they change they have to respect the space that is approved today somebody's going to be first okay just want to be I want I want to be clear on that because uh but Mr Joseph has indicated that he believes it's going to be built in this configuration simultaneously by its client based on the number of phone calls I get every day asking when they could file for permits I I strongly assume that it's uh it's going to be built as soon as humanly possible so there's no there's no light well from the roof down in that section I'm list it's just yes this this uh this extends this set back on 90 brigh Street this three three foot set back all all the way all the way way yeah the roof okay now the question I always have when we have this on the first floor window the window that's at the top will be the second floor window right CU it'll be the is they're going to be access to clean the garbage and everything that get wind up being in that space as the years pass by yes yes this is a this will be an open passageway on the side of the building from from and they will be able to access it somebody will able to keep it clean so somebody that has that window doesn't have a garbage up in front of the window that's right there there's access from the front of the street through from front of the building by a gate and from the rear yard okay that that's all I have thank you all right thanks Eddie anybody else okay thank you Mr W you all right let's bring uh Caroline up sure um actually you want to leave it on the site plan site plan ra your right hand you swear or affirm the testimony your BS given is proceed truth truth I do Carolyn worell w r s LL miss worell good evening your license is current tonight it is current this evening okay thanks you're qualified thank you pleasure to see you all again this evening um so again we're here this evening uh for 88 Bright Street uh we are seeking a couple of bulk C variances uh we're looking for a minimum rear yard setback a maximum building coverage and maximum Building height um so starting off with that minimum rear yard setback as will had previously mentioned this property itself is undersized um we are only 90 feet deep or 100 feet is typical and that's what all the standards in the zone are are based on is 100 lock depth um so the H District which uh basically requires a minimum a 30 foot rear yard setback um typically when you do the math that would be a 30% uh rear yard setback um we are proposing a 27 foot setback uh 27 foot foot step setback uh which is proportional it's still 30% um it's just we have a shallower lot depth by that uh 10 ft um and as will mentioned you know if you were to compare this to 100 foot lot depth we'd actually have 37 foot setback from that where that if if we were 10 feet deeper um so that that's how that math works out that we're we would end up with a deeper setback than you would typically find on a 100 foot lot um so I think overall like this is a hardship case your classic hardship case in that we are on a on a a shallower lot and so what we're seeking is a proportional reduction in the requirement um and as mentioned here um we are capable of of providing um adequate you know building depth and we're still providing a rear yard and we still have space for a 4ot wide erass easement on the rear of our property um uh consistent with that rear yard setback variance we are seeking a maximum building coverage uh the project is proposing a 70% building coverage uh which equates to 1,575 Ft where a maximum 60% is uh per ited in each district um you know this is conforming use we're providing conforming front and sidey yards um so that really that additional 10% of building coverage it's really not a significant adverse impact especially when you realize that we are a smaller lot than is typical um and this project really is actually providing a lot of benefits um even though we're asking for additional building coverage we're actually making the lot coverage of this lot significantly better than what it is today um currently um we're non-conforming 92% lock coverage because the rear yard is essentially completely uh impervious it's it's parking um and with this application what we're going to be doing is we're adding in significant uh Greenery in that rear yard and we're actually reducing our lot coverage to 80% um so even though we have additional building coverage we're still able to provide a conforming lot coverage on this site um and then in addition you know there's significant improvements with the the roof um including um over about 440 square feet of green Roofing so overall this project is going to be in a better condition in terms of its coverage with this Improvement than it is today and then looking at our minimum our our maximum Building height um the historic district the H District permits a maximum Building height of four stories and 40 fet um what we're proposing is four stories and 41.9 uh 41 feet 9 in so we're only asking for an additional 1 N9 in um to give a little bit of context um this we are reusing an existing structure and the existing structure has some um larger than typical floor Heights um the um starting off with our our garden level um which is um 7 feet 11 in from grade U but it is slightly um you know below uh finished grade so the actual the floor to floor height there is uh 10t and 3 in so that's a pretty tall floor to floor height for a garden level um and then our first floor level is 12 feet and the second floor is 11et 2 2 in so those are floor to floor Heights typically in Jersey City when we're looking at new construction you're seeing a lot of 10 ft floor to floor so this older building has taller floor to floor than you um expect and so that's results in a little bit higher Building height than you would typically find for a four-story uh building um and like I said it's just 1 feet N9 in is really what we're asking for to get you to that additional fourth floor um and it will not have any discernable difference uh to the public with that additional height um it's further visually diminished by the fact that that fourth floor is substantially set back it's 7et uh 6 in so it's you know you're not going to be seeing that additional height from the street and then Additionally you know where you will see the height that Building height is not going to be inconsistent with what is uh adjacent to us um as you have just saw you saw the renderings of 90 bra street which is next door that is a little bit higher um and so this building will be proportional and consistent with the other four story buildings along this block and so visually you're not going to see it as a real impact a visual impact um overall I think this project advances the purposes of the municipal land use law um it's consistent with purpose a uh it's an appropriate use and development of the property it's a 4unit townhouse which is the permitted use in the historic district uh we're providing uh setbacks that are providing adequate light air and open space um consistent with purpose C it's promoting a more desirable visual environment uh consistent with purpose ey uh with both the improvements to the facade as well as to the improvements in the streetcape with the uh the street tree as well as the uh the Landscaping improvements uh I don't believe that this will result in substantial detriment to the public good or general welfare um again it's expanding an existing uh structure to to be a a permitted use that four-story uh 4unit townhouse um and it provides all those benefits on the street as well as the reduction in your uh law coverage I don't see this will would this will not result in a substantial impairment to the intent and purpose of the Zone plan or the zoning ordinance it's consistent with the purpose of the H District to recognize significance of these neighborhoods because they're varied and well preserved historic character um and it advances the Jersey City master plan um by continuing to enhance residential neighborhoods ensuring the city's housing is balanced and meets the needs of all current and future residents so I think overall uh the various uh the three variances can be granted and that they meet both the positive and negative criteria okay thank you Mr worell um I have no questions anybody else okay thank you we appreciate it Council anything else that uh that concludes our direct testimony thank you okay thank you so at this time let's open for public comment if anybody's here from the public that wants to comment on this application please come on up say anyone from the public wishing to speak I move to close the public portion okay motion is made and seconded public is closed uh Francisco this is yours you have anything you want to add I will be very brief so staff does agree with the testimony Miss worell just put on the record um I would also like to add that the overall height increase complies with the height and stories requirement for the H District um staff does see the 1T and 9 in as di Minimus um the proposed additional height will be consistent uh the granting of the variances will not substantially impair the intent and purpose of the Zone plan and zoning ordinance with that said staff does recommend approval um provided that the applicant complies with all conditions imposed by the historic preservation commission as well as the conditions outlined in my staff report yes the applicant accepts all condition conditions okay thank you I'll entertain a motion then Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve case P22 d061 as it was presented to the board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval on a motion to approve with conditions commissioner Tores I commissioner lipsky I commissioner Cruz I commissioner stamato hi and chairman link yeah I agree with M worstell's testimony uh I don't think there's any detriment to the uh Zone plan or the master plan of the city so my vote is I motion carries all in favor okay thank you have a good evening thank you everybody all right let's uh it's 7 o'clock let's take a 10-minute break we'll be back at 710 everybody break let's go to the coun call Item 14 is case p2024 d42 it's a conditional use for 415 Monmouth Street good evening Council good evening my name is Duncan Delano of tarar krinsky and Drogan on behalf of the applicant Warrior weed LLC um we're here for a conditional use application at 4:15 mam Street uh block 9902 L 18 um we're doing a the applicant is doing a very minor interior renovation uh to build out the commercial store unit for cannabis dispensary um and we uh provided proper notice we are in the correct uh nc1 Zone um there there is a uh another applicant within 600 ft um located at uh 270 Newark AV um which has been approved appr by this board um however they have not um as of today uh checked they have not pulled any permits for that that work um which is my understanding of of when the 600 foot buffer would be put in place um and with that I'll turn it over to our one witness um the architect for the project will wenman um who's already been um qualified tonight on a prior application okay thank you Council and uh while we check your notice uh you are correct um that 600 foot rule is triggered by uh time that permits are pulled not by application Mr chairman I am receipt of the affidavit o proof of publication I've had the opportunity to review it it does appear to be in order so we will mark it as A1 for purposes of the record thank thank you Council and uh Mr wenman if you could just uh State for the record that you realize that you are still on the RO tonight and have been qualified already yes thank you thank you uh it's nice to have two back to back this right um so this is about as um simple of a um as an application from an architectural standpoint as you can get um as Duncan mentioned it's an interior fit out of an existing commercial space um there's really no work that's being proposed aside from um interior mill work um storage and display cases um and uh minor repairs and upgrades to the um to the space um there is a an odor mitigation plan in place I have I have that available if there's any questions on it um generally speaking these the the merchandise will be packaged um um prepackaged um uh within the space um we're proposing uh charcoal filters for the uh ventilation um all of the typical uh HVAC improvements that are associated with uh cannabis um cannabis dispensaries um the only exterior uh work that's being proposed is a change to the window sign um the storefront entry is is remaining um as is um uh storefront window um although it will be um um the glass will be replaced with a an impact resistant glass um and it will be will be frosted but other than that there's there's no exterior uh improvements proposed uh with this application um and that that concludes my my testimony happy to answer any any specific questions all right thank you so um as as everybody knows this board uh is only concerned with the zoning of the retail space uh you know we have no opinion on cannabis or anything else that would go there uh but if you could just um walk us through the the flow like the customer flow how do people come in how are their IDs checked um sure I also have the the owner here who who can provide some additional insight into the operations um um there is a a security desk here immediately next to the the entrance with the check-in and ID verification equipment um there is a a limited uh sales and display area here um uh there's a a a display case located adjacent to the the the register which is located here and it divides the front of the space from the rear um display areas are provided around this the POS counter um and then there there are secured C Storage Cabinetry and um uh refuse containers back in these um uh storage areas here okay so a customer comes in has their ID check that the uh the desk on the right uh they walk up to the counter they there's a POS machine right there MH okay so they enter their order into that POS machine pay for it everything comes out to the front correct okay um the uh the actual safe where everything is kept uh is there someone full-time inside there is it a a worker goes in there gets the product comes out or is it somebody packaging back there that that I don't have an answer to but again I do have the owner here who may be able to shed some light on the what council was this I I believe this was obviously approved by the that's my cannabis control board Bo yes was that addressed at that hearing and it was address it was addressed at the hearing um but the principal Jamie Moran is here I could swear her in to speak further about that and um I believe one of the diagrams with the application which I also have here is the security overlay on the um schematic that has a bit more detail about you know where the Secure Storage area and and cameras are and things like that so that's something we typically don't like to get into just because I don't know that that should be public record right probably is already but I don't think you know it should be my so my concern about someone being in that safe fulltime just which way the door swings easy as that uh the door swings out so it's a a legal egress if someone's caught in there during a fire any kind of an emergency yeah it swings out um Let me let me confirm with my client real quick can I ask Council a question sure so it it does swing out the Secure Storage area swings out yeah that's my only question got it all right Edie you got a question yeah um I do have a question but um I don't know if it's uh for the our Council to answer or the planning staff to answer but um I know we no longer go into the total operations of of these facilities but this looks totally different than any other thing we ever saw before in a good way or in a bad way in a bad way okay uh basically right now we only have no mention of security but we only have one entrance going in where most places we had to one in one out right now I see the people that are going to be waiting are going to be waiting with the people that are buying uh which was I thought at one time not to be that in that situation right and um I guess the I guess the bathroom doesn't have to be for the public right so if there's a way in uh the bath just for the customers I mean for the uh workers that's right only only for the C only if somebody had to use the bathroom they are walking right through that safe and everything else where they're actually not supposed to be at if I'm mistaken the restroom the restroom will not be available for the general public customers coming in the store so I so that's why I'm confused how much of the stuff has changed I know we're not so we're not voting on that we're just looking at the zoning part of this the the zoning and so I'm going to ask the question I'm going to ask the question that Council asked them yeah go ahead it did go to the C receipt board before control board yes it was there twice on October 16th of 2023 and on the February 26 2024 agenda and there is a uh resolution that was on the portal uh from the CCB board okay yes right and the security is be Prov is being provided by um Sapphire risk security uh which is a fairly prominent group in New Jersey cannabis security we've heard the name before okay yeah yeah now I saw that resolution okay thank you that's all I have all right anybody else from Mr wenman okay thank you sir thank you council is that your presentation uh yes that wraps up our presentation all right thank you was anybody here from the public that wants to comment please come on up I do sure my name is Swati as s w a t last name Ral r a o address is actually 4:15 monit Street which is the same as where this dispensary is supposed to be Miss Ral good evening we have three minutes for you so my name is fatti RA I'm one of the owners and residents of 415 monit Street uh I'm in unit 3 um to give you a little bit of a picture on what we're talking about it's a 4unit building with one commercial space on the ground floor as you have seen um we were we learned of this project uh about two months ago um we were not notified at all we live zero feet away uh through the Cannabis board proc C you mentioned that it was brought in front of the Cannabis board for checking on security for checking on fire Insurance fire hazards things like that we were not heard and we were not given the opportunity um to present our views at that point in time so we as residents and uh unit owners of the building this is the first and the only opportunity we're getting to present our case in front of you so pardon me if I go a little longer but I do want to paint the picture here because we are we are going to cut you off at that 3 minutes though okay um the zoning so first of all I think on the 200t rule there was a comment made here and a decision made to present the case we were not notified I have not received the notification there's one other resident in the building who will also attest to the same um the argument that was made was that our name doesn't show up in tax records and hence 0t away we don't receive a notification we don't agree um and we we flagged this issue several times with the planning board as well as related parties as a resident who is herself the owner lived in the space for a long time I think she knows all of our names and they know where we live we're we're a community and we haven't been notified or heard and this is an effort for us to be heard on the second point there is a cannabis establishment that has been approved by the Cannabis board within a 600 ft radius there is still a possibility and it is a pin on the map uh on the official cannabis Board website this establishment is not a pin but that establishment is a pin it's less than 250 ft away from us uh there's also a smoking establishment um next to us within 100 ft there's an abandoned property 45.5 is abandoned there is no security the eager is right in front or next to this entrance uh the door inward not outward to the earlier question that was asked um and as far as the security cameras are concerned we'd like to submit detailed letters that we've also submitted to the planning board on security issues security breaches fire Insurance impact on our HOA as a result of this establishment and lack of notice so we do believe that there's enough ground um in line with the five rules that this board looks at for zoning purposes that should be ground for at least our residents be notified appropriately and for these issues related to security fire hazard insurance as well as this 600t law which is a law for a reason at no point in time does it say that it needs to be operational the Cannabis establishment that has already been approved um thank you Mr Ral that was you three minutes thank you can we submit this I think I did send it to the planning board uh do you send it to the planning department correct okay yes so Francisco you have copy okay excellent yeah and and 415 your address is 415 mon Street obviously um you're a Condo building correct okay is there a condo association yes attached to it and this is in violation of our HOA bylaws which is also in the letter along with proof from our insurance and a fire Insurance um proof letter so HOA bylaws aren't understand city law we're not governed by your HOA bylaws but um if if notice went to your HOA it doesn't usually go to individual units it was R so all four of us are in the same building um we've all checked our mail repeatedly and I checked as of Friday I've called the planning department and called Francisco who also confirmed as a Friday morning I spoke to him this morning who said that our names none of our names all four residents don't show up ma'am what's the name of the condo association 415 monit condominium condomini Condominiums sorry 415 monit Street Condominiums so ma'am first the applicants allowed to rely on the list provided by the tax office secondly while you say you did not receive the notice you're obviously here this evening so I don't know how you knew to come here this evening but obviously somehow we saw the agenda on Thursday I have had to rearrange travel of a 4 a.m. flight my other resident there's no official record I'm just stating that you're here there is a record in terms of what's been uploaded and it's on page two of notification it says that the 4 the 415 uh mamit Street Association the mailing address is 112 Brunswick is it no that's I mean but that's what it has as a mailing address 112 Brunswick it is on the list one that's that's what's listed on the tax assessor unit one owner lives in 4115 monin Street unit one no but um what I said is the mailing address has it as for the condo association is 112 Brunswick Street so for for a condo association whatever address is listed as the as the HOA that's where that mailer goes to I can confirm that the condo association all four unit owners three out of four live at 415 Street ma'am ma'am ma'am the Condominium Association according to the tax office has that as its official address according to the tax office the official address of the 415 mammit street is 112 brundick Street unit number one I don't know what's at 112 Brunswick Street but that is where all notice and mailing for 415 condo goes according to the tax office if your position is that is not where the mailing should go for the Association it should go to the property address at one of the unit numbers that is something that has to be corrected in the tax office I cannot correct that the applicant cannot correct that that is something the association has to correct with the tax office the applicant is legally allowed to rely on the tax list we can rely on the tax list I understand the point I understand that you feel that the notice should have gone individually to your apartment but that is not what's required under the law so I'm happy to furnish this board with the details of the condomonium association legal documents and tax records with the actual accurate address as far as I'm concerned I'm a resident we're a community this hearing should have should have not occurred without proper notification we're all here because there's to a certain degree the legal requirement is tied to what can be checked we are all taxpayers including 415 Monument Street Condominiums and we have not used that address and it was a prior address by the original Builder who hasn't been here for several years so if there's no responsibility of this board to check that zero feet away what is being approved and what impacts our lives every day that there is no notification going to us and we don't have a right to know and nobody here cares or is pointing to a legal requirement that is incorrect tax records after I have flagged the issue for two straight months I've called every person here and flag the issue about the notifications in person I don't know what else to do to flag so the only thing I will say to you is you need to contact the tax office and correct the tax record on behalf of the association I that's all I can tell you okay so I'm happy to go down that path but not because I think it's incorrect I think there is an issue with how the addresses were pulled here because we believe that the tax records are accurate for the association we receive tax notices perfectly fine for the association and it's addressed to us not addressed to Brunswick okay I've got a certified list from the tax assessor that has that address I have to rely on that that's that's the list that this board relies on that's the list that the attorneys rely on to send that notice out we believe me I understand I hear you we can't change from that list it's our legal requirement to follow the tax assessor's list no I'm happy to I think what what I'm trying to say is a couple of things number one this is the first time I've been given an opportunity number two if this implies that I have to H hire somebody and there's a legal response needed I didn't need that I didn't think that was necessary I'm a resident I'm a normal individual I've seen this I learned of it I flagged it I called several times I tried to speak to people you're bringing up a legal point and you're trying to tell me as a resident you're not going to take that into consideration that's noted I think we will respond in whatever form we're asked to respond and I understand but I want to clarify for the board that that is not accurate I don't understand the exact reason why that was pulled but I have flagged several times that as a person and as four people who stay zero feet away from what is being considered for approval today and as residents we've learned it for the first time we have not been given an opportunity to respond there's a legal requirement where told that the notification is essential there's common sense in that everybody here is aware that we live there they know our names we're taxpayers and we receive tax notices and we keep our condominium documents updated and I can watch for that so let me just say this in the packet there's a certified mail receipt for 415 mamed Street Association at 112 Brunswick unit 1 which is by the way Stonebridge group realy so I don't know if they oversee your condo association or if they were involved from the get-go but there's a stamped uh certif certificate of receipt from the US Post Service which I don't particularly sir do you believe there's fraud or issues that exist no I don't uh okay I can I can tell you where I need one speaker oh sorry it so ma'am I guess let me just say it this way your point is noted for purposes of the record we're not going to debate whether or not the tax list that we have and the notice sent to that tax list is accurate or inaccurate the tax record is what it is the certified mail went to the addresses on that list the list has the tax list is seven pages long and contains probably a 100 addresses within 200 feet of the property I understand what you're saying but this board relies on the list that's the law that's the statute okay I just want to clarify and say that 415 Monument Street is a self-governed Condominium Association with no management company it's the four of us we're a small building we did not think we needed legal representation here to State the truth and the facts we're presenting the facts to you I understand your argument that there's an imaginary address that none of us know anything about here we're trying to flag that for you and that's all we can do jman I think this matter is Moot and I'd like to move forward yes so I believe me I get it but unfortunately we are yeah yeah we're going to give you time yeah we'll give you time yeah absolutely um no no with public comment believe me we're going to we're going to hear you um unfortunately we're legally bound to go through the tax list that's what this board is bound by there's nothing else we could do outside of that we can't decide that the applicant should send notice somewhere else that's not up to us it's up to the tax assessor's office and are you legally bound to go back and check when for two months I've been flagging that your list does not include the residents it's not my list it's the tax assessor's list that that that the tax assess list that you have received does not include the four residents I have flagged it for two months there's we're legally bound to go off of their list despite it being wrong I don't know that it's wrong or it's right I only know that we're legally bound to go off of that list okay all right okay thank you ma'am anybody else please come on up hi you swear or affirm the testimony yours given is proceeding truth truth yes thank you and St by your name sure David trabka it's d a v d t r a bka a I own unit 2 at 415 Monmouth Street I don't reside there my mailing address is 1425 Hudson Street that's in Hoboken it's 0703 3 Mr trapa good evening we have three minutes for you sir thank you um I guess the one question I'd put out there in advance I own this unit outright I get tax mailings I don't understand how I as the owner of this unit wouldn't be on that tax list again we live in that building the taxes are not paid by the Association I don't even know if that's our association or 415 A5 which is the address next door um which is the vacant building now um I'd like to reiterate some of the points that have already been talked about um all four of the residential unit owners which represents 94% of the HOA are unanimously opposed to this application um and we have found it to be in violation of the bylaws governing 415 Monmouth Street um this recommendation is driven mainly by three issues that I'll bring up uh that we've identified I know the bylaws are not in the jurisdiction of this board but I'd like to add that under Article 5 section 8h of our bylaws it states that owners will not permit anything to be done or kept in their units that would increase the rate of fire insurance on the unit or on the condominium as a whole our insurance agent has confirmed to us that if the condo is occupied by a dispensary they will almost certainly non-renew our coverage terminate our coverage placing a new policy will be difficult and certainly more expensive those are direct quotes Article 5 Section 8G of our bylaw state that owners will will not take any action that would jeopardize the soundness or safety of any part of the condominium property or impair any easement or WR a pertinent to it or affect the common elements without unanimous consent of all unit owners who might be affected um as we were in informed by our insurance agent when assessing the impact on our Master policies he acknowledged the additional risks of a business like this the increase in foot traffic at the location would cause more wear on the building increase in disturbances and is also per allowed to operate as late as 11:00 p.m. at night uh the majority of transactions are done in cash so at any given time there will be a substantial amount of money in that space making it a higher risk and more attractive Target uh and the required armed security introduces potentially a live weapon to our building um that otherwise would not be necessary on this property um and to reiterate no no direct notification was made I understand that there is some kind of loophole here where our names were left off the tax list um but we only learned of this plan business from a neighbor again about two to 3 months ago after the business had already applied and received the cannabis license and was over a year into its process the business owner made no effort to reach out to anyone in the HOA uh and took a further defensive posture when we first reached out in a totally friendly manner including her legal representation and stating that she was under no obligation to provide us with any additional information regarding the conversion of this property um and I just would ask the question how business could be approved in an HOA govern building where 94% of that voting block is against this um and wasn't ever notified um thank you sir that was your three minutes thank you appreciate it so Council um to what's your name David David's point so if you look at the list as I'm looking I mean in the name it says 415 M Street Association but the address is 45.5 so is there I mean so if they've not been nobody in that building has been notified is that a u grounds of any type of deferment or negation so I can only go by what the list says I understand right yeah but if they're left off the list commissioner you asked the question I got to answer the question and I apologize so I can only go by what the list says what is the name of the association can I grab a document absolutely and if you have a certificate of formation that would be very helpful to me we can't be looking stuff up on the Internet Council see if I have anything that states it directly on it I can't find it on a on the documents the pages of the documents I've printed out my understanding is it is the 14 415 mmas Street Condo Association that's my understanding that that's our legal entity I don't know that I have a piece of paper here though that states that sir let me just ask a couple of questions 4115 mmed Street Condo Association you believe to be the name is there a board yes 75% of it is here okay and is there a bank account for the association yes and does the anybody have the corporate records with them do you know I could try and pull something up right now if I don't know if we have a physical copy though we could submit it Council does your client know and agree that the name of the Condominium Association is 415 momas yes and we have we have here the master deed um that's recorded County can I just see that so just while you're looking at that um this issue of that not getting individually noticed was brought to our attention before the last meeting which is why we purposefully uh ask to be tabled to the next one and send specific notices not just to the 200 foot list but to the other four units so in this last set of mailings which is included whether did you receive that sorry once we so this last set of mailings which is included with this application we Reen noticed everybody on the 200 foot list and added three more notices is do that list uh units two three four five or the N the non-commercial units it seems to matter you don't even know what unit numbers these are all right hold on we're not going to have cross argument Council right now I am attempting to look for the name of the association and the master deed so we're going to do first thing we're going to do I'm going to mark this this is now A2 this document is the December 4th 2017 Master deed for 415 Mammoth Street Condominiums ma'am you can't just scream from the the audience please please okay council is your CU you're going through that I just want to make a statement can can we not I can wait thank you for remind deal I know Council you are saying in your November 7th mailing you included mailings to the individual to the individual units that's right okay because we were legally obligated to understood so we're not going to debate the law right now we're just going to get some facts out here can I add for the record that the three owners in attendance here did not receive these sir can can I do my job and then I was just adding for the record you can get it out there okay for chairman we do have four cards stamped October 31st for 4:15 mam Street Apartment 1 415 mammo Street Apartment 2 415 Mammoth Street Apartment 3 and 415 Apartment 4 addressed to the current resident it does not provide a name dated October 31st I am not seeing anything on the list for the 415 mammit Street Condominium Association for I do have a digital copy of that formation document if you still want it and there's a good way to provide it and it does confirm 415 monou Street Condominium Association is the name of it know the deed we will get it should be on the list should be on the list should be on the list it's not on the so it is 415 mry condominium it should be on the list it's not on the list makes sense well the one question I have council is the differentiation between the addresses being 45.5 half condo right that the mailing address is Brunswick versus what David's saying is is that there's an association let me ask this question is your the so 4155 can I finish sure all right so is asking the question of me I thought no no I'm I'm asking David so is the 45.5 Condo Association that has a mailing address of 112 Brunswick the uh legal entity that which you and your uh condo owners in 4115 flat report to or associate with no as far as we can tell there's a building next door at the address 415 A5 it's been torn down it's a vacant property now but we suspect that is probably the association that governed that building when it was still occupied thanks and has nothing to do with our association so my question to you council is is that if the City Assessor uh record doesn't reflect the uh three additional units that are at 415 period no 0.5 um and yet this 415s on the list 0. five but they're not is there is that illegal quandry that we have to grapp with so yes uh the board's going to have to make the decision what is clear to me is 415 mry Condominiums is a legal entity it is the entity that this gentleman and the other members as well as the applicant are unit owners of the list does not recognize it they appear to have been sent a certified mail to that address addressed the current owners and uh it's a failure in the records that this Association in this address is not on the list and out of an abundance of caution in light of the fact that they are challenging the notice uh I think the proper thing to do would be to carry the application and set it down for a another hearing to correct the notice they've obviously voiced their concern about having received the notice so that's where I'm at on it but I don't know what the chair and the board wishes to do I think we need to have the list addressed by the the assessor I I I am having a hard time understanding why this block this lot this Association is not shown on the list this is the property address it's shown on the map the block and lock are not on the list forget what name and where it should go and that's that's that's the problem that's the problem here is is there's two different condo names I wasn't aware there was a0 five until your testimony tonight nice work um but being that they're both listed as a 415 Monmouth one is Condo Association one is I forget what the other one is but 45.5 is lot 17 so we have to look at lot numbers now and this is lot 18 and it goes from lot 17 to Lot 19 which is 413 Mammoth M and 413 Mammoth Lot 19 there are four Ed names but that's 413 there is no question this is 415 and there is no question 4:15 does not appear on the list for 415 mamit street block 9902 lot 18 council do you wish to be heard thank you sure we're still in we're still in public comment we're just we want to hear from Council first if it if it's okay um so I guess um if the recommendation is to table I'm a little confused as to what we would be tabling for um given that we delivered notice in accordance with the 200 foot list and and went above and beyond that and delivered notice to these unit owners individually after hearing them despite them saying that we have not been hearing them or sympathetic um that's the reason we postponed to this meeting not only that we made ourselves available for a conference call where the other units could unit owners could ask any and all questions at my client's expense paying for my legal time um to answer any and all questions and they they did not not take advantage of that one person um two people dialed in of the four unit owners only one asked questions um so little surprised to hear such a message of uh you know this is the first they've been hearing of this and it's their first chance to object we we purposely got out of in front of this and asked if there were any concerns that we could address um and we answered every question on that conference call um and so you know them questioning parts of our project um you know it it just feels like this is a um an an effort to delay and and stop something that you know if if they were wanting to provide the input I think they're trying to provide now that was at that should have been provided at the canabas control board meeting phase um and is is it unfortunate that you know many residents can have a dispensary come right next to them without getting notice of that until it's pretty far along in the process yeah that that stinks I'm sorry for them um but it's it's it is the process we have right now so Council what was the date on the conference call uh that was toward the very end of October um I want to say October 30th and then the next day we we sent started sending out all the notices again for this postponed meeting um and we included those unit owners specifically in response to their concerns about not being noticed okay so and so I I just I would like to say that any any sort of movement or momentum to table this I think is is is sort of not seeing the bigger picture which is that this is a business owner been long and hard at this uh application for a long time and we've done everything properly and even did went above and beyond to provide additional notice um and so just to postpone to try to figure things out I don't think is fair when you know we feel like it's all pretty figured out and it's unfortunate that their their units are not on that list um um and also unfortunate that they don't get input prior to the planning board hearing well they do provide input but they just don't get an official notice until this stage but but that is what it is and so I don't think it's appropriate to table okay thank you Council so you know we we often hear about condo associ associations being sered notice and the residents of the property doesn't get served notice um the October 30th conference call you know if if only two residents were there and one spoke up you know I I understand the residents concerns here these are now my concerns these aren't just the resident concerns this is the board's concerns so my concern as board chair is that the notice is deficient and I think this should be explored if if we're wrong we were wrong but we did our due diligence okay okay so that's my concern tonight I'll ask everybody else on the board if they feel the same way 100% I I I feel that um there's definitely a big discommunication something is not on that list that's supposed to be on that list um for Council to come up here and say that he feels his client might have a hardship because of to the business and stuff that's not my concern no um you know um it's true that sometimes there's projects that go on and there's a miscommunication with the community that they're putting the project in we see that all the time you know but um we always say it's a um very good practice that they deal with the community and um he stated for the record that this has been going off over every year and the people that live in the building which is a small building um what you call it they have no clue so there's definitely a big miscommunication going on somewhere so going back to what was presented tonight with the notifications and um I be very com un very uncomfortable moving on and moving forward so when I don't see the block the block and lot number on the mailing list that's a red flag to me right there there's always entities and and different entities and real estate is a and I would like to State this to entities but this you know we go by you know let's go by address let's go by entity name but what it boils down to is lot and block number that's right lot and block number is not on that list so that causes me to have concern and just for I would like to say just for the record and everybody know um a lot of councel that's sitting in that audience and and everybody on this board knows that um this area we're talking about was my playground as a child you know and uh and the lots that of those Alleyways is where I ran and all I bring that up is for one reason to have a 307 and a half Second Street or 307 Second Street is normal in downtown Jersey City to have a half number in downtown Jersey City is a normal normal thing my brothers live at 30 you address like that um so I agree with the chairman when it goes by that block number just because the address got confused people here that's irrelevant it went by that block number and it this one didn't so I still feel that moving on with him I would be uncomfortable with okay so this is different this is unprecedented so if we could have Happ we have three people here from that building come on up guys this is different please I should say so could we provide contact information to comfortable stating your well you've already I you haven't stated your name yet yes uh my name is William Murdoch I'm a owner and the husband of Swati metop here um swatti ra I think is what she went by um so I hold on Sir oh sorry yes one sec so you own the unit with her yes we are co-owners husband wife yes okay okay and Sir obviously you own the other unit unit two okay so we have two two owners here two units here okay the other two are not here one is caring for their child and the other has some sort of conflict no worries looking at three I just want to make sure yeah I just want to make sure so ma'am we got your name on the record and you're in which unit unit three unit three yes and sir you own unit two but your address is not the property address no I have rental tenants long-term rental tenants so does all all of your mail go to your Hoboken address yes I've been there for three years now mail was originally forwarded but everything's going to that address including tax bills from the city of Jersey City where does the Condominium Association mail go to uh okay my understanding to my best knowledge uh 415 Monas Street unit number one is where it had been historically yep I could answer do we want to Let's swear s he's here come on just get you sworn to get you sworn great I missed the process right you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give in this proceeding will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do and your full name spell it and address uh William E Murdoch III w i l l i a m middle initial e Murdoch m r d o CK the thir and my address is 415 M Street Unit 3 thank you so the association mail should go to unit one nobody standing in front of me owns unit one right that is correct but um not all mail goes to unit one uh various we all have split responsibilities for instance the insurance goes to unit 3 I'm in charge of the insurance there's other pieces of mail that we just send straight to 45 mon street period and then it goes to one of the units and then we sort it out it doesn't work that way okay yeah you have an entity yes it has to have a registered address I believe the entity is unit one yes okay so for our purposes the mail for the association is going to unit one okay Council we're going to do new notice we're going to send it to unit one for the association and to each of the unit owners I want you all to write the spelling of your name and give it to council so that he can get it to you there's a very good chance that notice will go out tomorrow and we will be back here at the December 10th meeting so here's the question yes is this hearing we're in public comment now is this hearing carried with testimony taken we're Ren noticing and we're starting over come December okay so whole new presentation whole new presentation starting December I can't tell the notice issue it's jurisdictional in nature sure I've got an issue I can see it with my own eyes the board is not comfortable moving forward with this discrepancy I want you to talk to them I want you to talk to these fine people I am concerned about whether or not you folks were the folks that interacted in some kind of a telephone conference or not I don't know how the association is being ran in terms of who's collecting money obviously this is another unit owner within your Association you guys should be communicating with each other across the board on all sorts of issues so Council can I uh make a a statement pertaining to that so if we're saying that somebody gets letters for insurance and we don't know who the owner of one apartment one is and we're we're going to default to allowing them to communicate between themselves that may be nice and you know so forth but in terms of correcting the Assessor's list wouldn't behoove one of these three people to contact the assessor's office and provide them documentation as to what is the legal entity called the 415 Condo Association so it's on the list and that whatever your legal body is a corpus Corporation then it gets the mail if it's unit one or unit two or unit three or could I respond to that um well so commissioner here's my point I don't know that the records are wrong in the tax office because none of these people appear on this list not the association and not the unit owners so yes you should call them but this gentleman says that he's getting official tax mail out of the tax office at his Hoboken address so he believes that his mailing address in the tax off is correctly recorded why it's not on the list different question I can confirm that that the two of us get mail at 415 mouth apartment 3 from the tax assessor and if you go look there is a block 18 lot whatever number we are three there qualif with our names on it so I don't know why it's not showing up on that list but in their database we are there yeah I think the one other thing I'll add is I was actually in front of the tax assessor's office board not too long ago and we received several males with no problem I do think that perhaps the name of the condominium associ ation and the addresses to your point around 0.5 and my original address might be the issue I'm not sure but we certainly get all four of us get individual ma mail from the tax assessor's office on a regular basis you get your tax bill yes always less concerned about the US Postal Service more concerned about the fact that it's not on the list right yeah that is concerning sure Council last word to you so let me it wouldn't hurt to get your individual units on there as well as getting the uh condo association yes so to whatever degree Condo Association is functional or effic efficient that you know it that that's a barometer based you know that individuals will you know determine but you know actual addresses legal documents those are because here's what will happen if it doesn't come back and correct me if I'm wrong if it's not on the list come December and they sort of you know hash whatever their differences are out but it's still not on the list is that still is that a a move Point council's going to Ren notice I'm concerned that it's not on the list there should be four units and the association on the list well I'm concerned because there's three certificates of uh certific at the bottom of the notice that council is on record saying that they added it to because he didn't have to do it and yet they're saying they never received it so so I'm equally as concerned uh with the assessor's office and with the US Post Office former the former president said trust but verify so I would verify and that so he well and so we're all clear the obligation is to mail it there's no guarantee the post office gets it to you so even the ones that say current owner with the 415 mammit Street Number 2 three perhaps your tenant got it you guys didn't get it was mailed October 31st 31st from New York is in accordance with the law maybe it'll come tomorrow maybe it'll come in a couple of days I don't know but council is is going to address that and I urge you to to speak with councel but Council I did say you could have the last word um yeah so I just want to make sure I'm clear on our marching orders um Reen notice get a new list but in addition to the list we get make sure that there's uh five more addresses on there one for each of the units and one for the association at the property is that right correct and your client should be on the list yeah I think she would not dispute that she got it but she's not on on the list yes I did not see her name on the list including her unit um but yes we will um but that's that's on there um that's one of the concerns again that that's not on the list yeah no I I agree um it seems like mistake um and um chairman you mentioned the block and lot being needing to be on there front and center or I'm just saying on on the tax assessor list okay when you're when your property isn't listed by block and lot number on the tax assessor's list that's obviously a problem I cannot find on the list lock 9902 lot 18 I cannot find block 9902 lot 18 qualifier 1 2 3 4 or five okay I'll make sure those are on there and when I say I can't find it it's not on the list and let me just end by saying in the packet that was uploaded there a statement from from Warrior weed about Community impact and social responsibility 110 years ago the poet Robert Frost in his poem mending wall said good fences make good neighbors I would think that if you're going to sign off on a community impact in social responsibility statement you know begin in your own home and you know work with these people and maybe they'll come back if you was Sage their fears and support the application good luck I was never able to make a public statement it might be mood at this point but it is mood at this it is this next week or next month thank you hopefully we see you on the 10th okay so I'm going to make uh a recommendation and I'll entertain a motion to carry this application actually no we're just dismissing right we not even carrying we're not dismissing at this point in time the application is carried to the December 10th meeting the applicant is going to Ren notice so you'll Reen notice to my friends in the rear December 10th is the next hearing date on this in case you don't get the certified mailing keep your eyes open Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve to break now Harry case number p2024 D 0042 um with notice for December 10th meeting oh wait when you say with notice not these notices with new notice with new new notice new notice for the7 CM okay do I have a second Patty Okay C can we have a roll call commissioner Tores hi commissioner Stato commissioner Cruz hi commissioner lipsky hi and chairman L hi motion carries all in favor thank you uh guys we need a a quick break maybe five we'll be back in a couple again everybody okay we're going to entertain some adjournments at this point come on up Sir is that mic on green light on now it is okay Adam Lazarus of prime Tov and melli here on behalf of Benjamin wine we are seeking to adjourn 2024-the with preservation of notice please 90 uh to the December 10th meeting date with preservation of notice okay so everybody in the audience uh if you're hearing an application come up right now that is adjourning we're going to give a date it's most likely going to be December 10th you will not receive new notice this is your notice if that application isn't being heard tonight I thank you for coming out I I don't know what you're here for we might hear it I don't know um so that's item 22 that's for 34 Jefferson Avenue so if anybody's here for 34 Jefferson Avenue we're carrying that to December 10th thank you sir all right thank you very much have a good night Mr Harrington yes thank you I uh I have two matters to carry um first one is uh number 21 on my agenda p2024 d38 174 MLK Drive we ask that that be carried to December 10th with preservation of notice okay thank you Council so 174 MLK Drive is being carried to December 10th 174 MLK Drive okay and and the next one I don't think we're getting to either is uh um number 20 p2023 d55 if I could have that moved to December 10th with preservation of notice as well okay thank you Council so 326 Johnston Avenue case p2023 d00 55 is carried to a date December 10th and once again you will not receive new notice for that this is your notice anybody else okay thank you thank you Council all right so let's move on to item 15 tonight is case p2310 N is a preliminary and final major site plan for 314 MLK Drive good evening chairman you General Car appearing for the applicant which is uh blacks and law enforcement servicing the community um this is a notice case and I have notices oh chairman I receive the Affidavit of publication proof of mailing with respect to the application at 314-316 Martin Luther King Drive it does appear to be in order we're going to mark it as A1 for the record thank you Council um thank you very much but chairman uh we all like to see community policing and my client has taken that to the nth degree uh this project will be a commercial space for uh for the community and also for uh teaching young children and the um residential space will be 18 units of affordable housing I have uh one witness tonight uh Jeffrey Lewis our architect and ask Jeff to get set upir testimony proceed will truth the truth yes I do Jeffrey Lewis J F re y l e w i Mr Lewis good evening I don't believe I've qualified you in November yet your license is current yes it is okay thank you you're qualified okay great thank you very much so let's walk through 314 316 MLK Drive uh the existing property is a vacant lot it's 50 ft wide by about 100 ft deep uh we're not asking for any variances uh with this proposal and what we are proposing is a fivestory mixed use building it has a 1,176 square foot ground floor commercial space uh there's also an additional space that Jean mentioned in the back it's 970 squ F feet and it's kind of an officeclassroom space that's going to be used uh for community outreach by uh the building owner uh and then lastly we do have 18 residential units uh two of these are Studios that average 412 Square ft there's one one-bedroom that averages 795 ft and there are 15 two bedrooms which average 839 ft okay I'm going to move on to the site plan which is going to be on the right side of this drawing uh we are proposing one new Street tree in front uh looking at the building itself we are building to both uh side property lot lines uh we are setting back the building on the ground floor in the front and we're using this space for two planting areas and then a few PA walkways into the building uh in the back of the building we do have two more planting areas one along each side and then we have some private patios in the rear yard uh which are enclosed with 6ot wood fences moving to the drawing on the left this is our seller plan as we do have a Sellar in this building uh there are two stairs and an elevator in the building they all go to the basement excuse me Sellar uh down here we have our meters our sprinkler room as this is a fully sprinkler building we have a commercial storage space which is accessed directly from the commercial space on the first floor we have bicycle parking for 24 bicycles and we have our trash and recycling room um moving on on the right here we have our first floor plan and I'm going to start right in the center where we have that main commercial space that I mentioned this space has its own bathroom and the stair going directly to the storage down in the basement uh in addition we have two residential entries one on each side of that commercial space on the left is the secondary entrance which leads directly to Stair number two on the right is the main entrance it leads to our main uh residential Lobby this space provides access to the mail and package room to our main stair our elevator as well as the um rear of the building in the rear of the ground floor we have that office and classroom space that we mentioned previously uh it's going to be used for local community outreach we do have one of the um property Representatives here if you have any questions about the uses of that space uh it also has a private patio in the backyard on top of that we have two studio apartments Each of which also have private patios in the rear yard um and this is a good time to mention that all of the apartments in the building are Ada adaptable they all have washer dryers in the unit and they all have wallmounted Mini Splits to provide heat and air conditioning moving up to the second floor of the building uh we're proposing four apartments on this floor there are three two-bedroom apartments and one one-bedroom apartment in the back right corner here uh we're also adding two window wells to provide light for the second bedrooms uh we are providing a new inset balconies at the front to provide outdoor space for the front units at the back uh we are bringing the building 5 ft we're taking 5T off of the existing building and we're using that roof space to provide two Terraces for the two rear units moving to the upper floors on the right here we have the third fourth and fif fifth floor it's very similar to the second floor uh the main difference is the one bedroom apartment was turned to a two-bedroom apartment so there are four two-bedroom apartments on this floor on each of these floors excuse me and in addition we have uh two 3x8 balconies uh off of the rear living rooms in this plan uh looking to the roof plan uh the roof is served by both stairs and the elevator we have a centrally located uh common roof deck that is a 604 ft total it's buffered from the front and the rear by green roof trays that total 1,900 Square ft there's also uh some HVAC equipment up here which is screened from the roof deck by uh 42-in high wood fencing here we're moving on to the building elevation I'm going to start on the right with the front elevation uh so our two main finishes are both brick at the ground floor we have an oversized uh darker gray brick and then above we have a standard uh smooth red brick which is a red brick blend uh all of our windows and doors are black aluminum frames at the upper levels these windows and doors have cast stone headers and Sills we have black aluminum railings at our balconies uh at the top of the building we have a 42in tall black aluminum WRA cornice uh sliding to the rear of the building to the left um our sole finish is a white vinyl siding again we have black frame windows and doors and black aluminum uh railings at the balconies this is the left side elevation uh places that are the sections that are built directly on the property line will have a smooth stucco finish painted gray and the areas that aren't will have a white vinyl siding finish to match the rear elevation and those finishes are the same on the right side of the building and then this last one is just a detail of the front uh ground floor and first floor and second floor excuse me uh that concludes my presentation I can answer any questions about the building that you may have thanks chair um I have no questions anybody else yes um I do M I forgot to set my timer H forgot to set my timer I was going to Santa just quick comments too though they're really um uh once again with the same designs like always um the windows on the side of the building uh also have um light well right they come down and so um I don't know the developer that's going to build this is here that uh it is practical that somebody might not the builders that are next door to it and build something higher and block those windows you know so I just want to bring that up as a comment that it doesn't come back to this board why are they blocking out windows you know um it is possible the comment I have with that is is there access to cuz the one I see on the west side is there access from that window to keep that area clean and that well as years pass by if stuff gets drawn down there to that that area sure they would be accessed directly from the uh that second floor apartment second floor apartment right usually that's the case Okay the other thing again is the you know uh the balconies in front of the building they're only about 12 in or out from the window right okay that that's good but um just another suggestion for the back balconies was planning to have a um kids back there with a school like a classroom in the back of the building it's um community space community space right won't be so we have balconies above their heads that have no Garden on the bottom well actually the second floor sets back 5T nice balcony will be over that I didn't notice that that okay when I Wasing okay that that that would been a problem that's the safety yeah that's you know my my thing with that is always the safety mechanism we don't want nothing falling getting kicked and dropping down on somebody at the bottom of the the the Courtyard area now it'll just go on someone else's balcony good good job thank you very much I like the building and uh thank you that's all I got okay anybody else all right thank you Mr Lewis Council that's it public okay excellent thank you uh so is there anybody here from the public that wants to comment on this please come on up councilman good afternoon well good evening everyone good evening um I just want to we do have to swear you in counsil oh swim okay do you swear or affirm the testimony your bounce given this proceeding will be the truth the whole truth and nothing about the truth yes and Stat Frank Gilmore f r a n k Gilmore g i l m o r e yes so as the councilman of this area I support this project it checks all of the boxes if you walk up and down the cour of MLK you'll see a lot of empty lots so to see this area get developed um it's like a breath of fresh air and to have 18 affordable units in the same Community that's dying for affordability it checks that box and then to have a great organization that does great work in the community um who's going to be occupying a community space it checks the final third box um so I just wanted to make sure I was here on the record um my full support behind this project and the individuals that's doing this project uh that's all I had to say I have to get home I have my kids and my family waiting but I did want it to be on the record um for those three reasons thank you all right thanks councilman take care of your family please thank you sir okay anybody else from public anybody else from public please come on up my name is Diane Gibson just going to swear you okay do you swear orir proceeding trth yes my name is Diane Gibson and is G as ineter s o n Miss Gibson good evening we have three minutes for you okay um I just wanted to know are they going to have Security in this building after the building is the development is completed okay do you have any other questions I'll list them all and we'll get them all answered for you um do they have other Loc um that they've already completed building on you know we would like to get that information okay and um lastly is there parking for the tenants I heard him say something about the bikes but I don't recall anything about the um parking okay that's it all right thank you appreciate it council do you want to address those those questions yeah well the team um I've constructed about 1,500 units of affordable housing in the state of New Jersey many of them in Jersey City and uh uh in SS County so along with Cynthia blue who's their consultant who's also been involved in many many affordable housing projects we we're guiding the project through and um we have a good contractor so I think we have a good team to get the project completed uh there is no parking spaces in the building um my client is law enforcement in the city of Jersey City um they'll make sure that the building is secure so I think that's that's the ANS to the three questions okay but obviously there's you know door lock mechanism to buzz people into the building yes of course there's going to be cameras the whole nine yards that we don't have for all our buildings in jury City okay thank you Council all right is there uh anybody else from public that wants to comment anyone else from public chairman say no one else uh wishing to speak from the public I move to close Okay motion made and seconded public is closed Eric do you want to wrap up yeah um staff has determined that the proposed development meets several um objectives in the re Redevelopment plan um and to kind of touch on the parking component specifically um one of the objectives in the Redevelopment plan is actually um a about parking and it's about the reduction of of uh basically uh reducing automobile dependency so with this building not proposing any parking it's actually something that is good for the area um another thing um the development also brings more traffic to that MLK Corridor just based on the fact that it has commercial space and it's offering office space and some other recreational spaces so um yeah staff staff supports the project and um staff just requests that the applicant agree to the conditions and enumerated in the staff memo applicant agrees to the conditions and we'd like to thank Eric Beasley for sheeping us through the application process thank you right for approval all right thank you appreciate it I'll entertain chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve case p23 d109 as it was brought forth to the board tonight second okay motion is made and seconded for approval commissioner Stato yes commissioner Cruz yes sir commissioner lipsky yeah so as it said the Jackson Hill Redevelopment plan section three paragraphs 4 and 10 talk about reduction of U automobile and uh increasing U um walking and making it pleasurable so that's one thing uh secondly having 80% of average medium income for low and moderate 18 units is phenomenal I think that's uh great and as councilman Gilmore said I mean I think this particular parcel right now is um vacant right there so uh and we're blessed have bque I mean there's no doubt about that cythia as you mentioned there isn't a city thing that we go to that they're not there support and particularly the the kids and to have an additional classroom down there to make law enforcement not the bogey man but the best person I think it's a tremendous asset to our community I vote I commissioner Torres um just say What U fellow commissioner just said um I didn't want to say that I uh I stood up and went to change my glasses when I read this on the computer last week I was like 18 affordable housing units on a fivestory building I'm like wait up what's going on right um but yes like the councilman said I uh walk that block and um it does need uh it will be a great thing on the middle of that block to see um the organization that's being a part of it has been wonderful for the area of Greenville no I's should say wonderful for the city of Jersey City that's basically what it is it's a blessing and um with that 18 affordable units man that's awesome uh so I vote I chairman Langston so first of all I'm going to address Mr Lewis um I I don't know when the last time I saw you here was but you probably designed this exact same building somewhere else in the city and they're market rate units so you know I I applaud the applicant here 18 units of affordable in a building like this is amazing to me uh applicants that's you guys I'm going to speak as a resident and not planning board chair right now thank you so much thank you so much this is amazing um so as chairman my vote is I obviously um and we appreciate you thank you thank you very much all right thank you motion carries all in favor all right thank you let's move on to item 16 is case p2024 d123 is a preliminary and final major site plan with C variances for 4557 Ogden Avenue good evening good evening Mr chairman members of the the board here my name is Duncan Prime I'm managing partner at the firm of prime toel and melli I'm subin in um for my colleague Ben wine tonight we represent the applicant H2O development with reference to our application here tonight uh the property that is the subject of the application this evening is located at 457 Ogden Avenue also known as block 1703 lot 35 on the city tax map uh this property currently has a two-story residential dwelling on it the property as it stands does not meet several of your city's R1 uh Neighborhood Housing zoning District standards as you'll hear in testimony we are proposing a brand new addition which is technically four stories but as you'll hear it's it's really three stories plus a basement we meet the height requirement um and it provides a significant Improvement to what is out there now not just aesthetically which it obviously does but also to your zoning code we're going to hit that um with our planner we're bringing this site into conformance and making it look good which is a double win here um two variances uh as you'll hear one is for the stories permitted which I just referenced it it's technically four but it serves as you'll hear as three plus a basement uh and the second one is front yard lot coverage which is a variance but we're taking an existing condition which is about 100% and making it a whole lot better so that's it it two variances other than that it's fully conforming bringing this site up to code and delivering you know a nice looking new building so uh with that I'd like to introduce my first witness our architect Mr Patel you get sworn here and I've also got my notice package Council you can leave them up here you'll check it Mr chairman right I'll check it thank you check it your right hand you swear orir yes I do uh avard Patel a a v a r t p a v a r t yep Mr Patel good evening we've called ified you in the past your license is current tonight yes it is okay thank you you're qualified chairman before we start the testimony I was off the day is ushering the I got you people in the hallway so let's just Mark the Affidavit of publication proof of mailing is A1 for purposes of the record thank you councel thank you thank you Council see if this works technical difficulties here I know it's there um try uh like shaking the uh the cable oh no that's the wrong cable you have to use one right here no the one that has fabric around the cord yeah yeah that one yes I think this is the last yeah that's no no I need the adapter this is real life all the time yeah that white one's the best okay you're good all right there you go um okay so uh as counil mentioned the the lot is about 3750 sare ft um it is uh located on Ogden Avenue which is uh you know a dead end Street uh uh at this uh um location and uh um the as you can see the current uh um site has a two structures the primary uh building in the front and there is a there's a garage in the back and the um on the the right I mean left side of the property there's a driveway leading to the garage um as uh the the property exists currently it is 100% lot coverage uh amongst the the two structure plus the uh uh the payment uh and uh um the current structure is considered three story tall uh the lower level is is a basement so that technically that's a story plus uh two two uh levels on top um going to quickly move to uh the next page which uh shows the the proposed uh um footprint of the building um as you can see the uh the smaller uh rectangle the red rectangle is the the footprint of the existing structure and we are expanding that footprint uh conforming to the uh the front a setback as well as the the rear a setback uh uh of course we are eliminating the garage in the back and then including the parking as part of the uh the basement level um access from the from the street uh um directly at the front facade um on the right side of the building uh there's a 4ot setback currently exist uh that wall is uh is remaining as is and then on the left side uh we are we are uh making it conforming um uh 3ot uh setback uh we do meet uh uh twoot um minimum setback on one side and and 3 foot2 on the other so um the setbacks are fully conforming um on the front of the uh front of the property of course it's uh aligned with the with the uh you know the existing front facade and uh uh that leaves us with with a certain amount of square footage uh we do have to provide access to the uh to the garage as well as the the the steps to go to the upper level as well as the basement and then uh a little bit of prvious pavers to go to the uh the side yard uh leading to the backyard uh and uh uh the area remaining is is where um the the the landscaping and and green infrastructure will be provided we are a little uh deficient on that um about uh you know 197 Square ft is permitted and uh uh we have about 223 ft uh sorry 273 ft of coverage so um that's the one of the variants um and uh um in terms of Building height uh the since the current uh lower level or the the basement is is existing and we are adding three stories on top um overall the building height is going to be uh conforming to R1 standards which is 35 ft um and uh we are utilizing the the lower level which is uh currently set up as a as a habitable level because it's a basement uh we are making it a utilities and the garage and then uh creating three new levels on top uh fully conforming to the uh to the height requirements but the the basement contributes towards the story so that's the for uh story and a varience um let me quickly walk you through the the floor plan so you can see on the screen this is the uh the first level where we have uh uh four car parking uh in a tandem setup uh we are also providing four bike parking uh um you know beyond the the the car parking spots um gas meters electric meters and and uh some storage which is located on the the right side of the garage uh which is a common Corridor leading towards the uh uh some of the support areas on the back you know the garage recycle room sprinkler room and then some individual storage uh uh Cubbies for for the units above um this is the Mr Patel how does the parking compare to what's there now so uh currently there's no parking uh this street is is a little different than the rest of the aan Avenue because it's a dead end and uh uh it's a little narrow um so uh right now there's no parking uh we are proposing four units and and each unit will have its own parking uh located under the building so not visible not visible okay thank you um right let me go to the level two which is the um unit number one and unit number two are located here um take the main stairs come to the uh the central foyer uh and then um we have two doors uh situated for unit number one and unit number two um unit number two is a duplex it has a upper level which I'll cover in the um in the next floor plan uh but this unit the unit number one has a a living uh kitchen situated towards the front of the building and then uh three bedrooms uh uh with the windows located within the the the site setback which is fully conforming um the unit number one is about ,80 Square ft uh which is the the smallest and uh all the the the rest of the units are are little on a larger side 1300 to but, 1500 ft um unit two as you can see this is the um uh when master bedroom is located here and then uh the rest of the areas are located on the upper level which we'll go to now um so you can see uh towards the back of the building we have the living and the kitchen area for uh for unit number two which is uh you know this stair will bring it to uh to this level and then um two other bedrooms are located with one bath uh at this level uh the square total square footage for this unit is about 1350 um the main staircase will will um Circle and and keep going up um unit number three is access through that staircase uh this is also a duplex setup um and uh um the total square footage for unit number three is uh um 1364 this level is uh about uh 8 uh 70 ft uh living uh Kitchen located towards the front um and then two bedrooms are part of this level and this is the last level which is the level four um um the back of the back of the structure or the floor plan is as part of unit number three where we have uh uh two more I mean one more uh you know Master Suite with the with the attached uh bathroom rooms uh and then that that staircase will also provide access uh for this unit to the to the roof area um unit number four which is towards the front again similar setup as downstairs um and then this wraps around the unit number three uh all the way towards the you know back of the building and uh that also has access to um private roof de I'm going to quickly go to the uh roof plan uh as you can see the two staircases coming up providing access to um to private roof decks uh we are proposing uh The Green Roof uh towards the front of the building which is uh uh um the current requirement is about uh I believe uh 3 and uh uh 375 Square ft we are proposing 535 Square ft uh of a green roof uh which somewhat uh uh helps out with the with the lack in uh you know your landscape area um um the the plan on the uh the right side is the the bulkhead roof plan uh which is located about the the staircases now I'm going to go to the front uh elevation um as you can see the U the first level which is a technically a basement uh um it's almost half below um below the the the sidewalk and uh uh the three stories are are visible uh overall as you can see here um the height to the top of the roof it comes out to be uh 35 ft uh which is fully conforming to our one uh District standards um overall material wise we are using um you know two-color brick with the with some infill materials like a Hardy siding and uh uh flat panel uh Hardy uh large panel fiber cement panels uh doors and windows would be uh black um storefront type system um Windows would be black uh um uh wiy and then there is uh some lighting proposed you know just at the entry door and and uh um uh two uh light fixtures you know along the um the Box Bay just to kind of accentuate the um the facade uh of course the light would be fully compliant you know it won't spill into any of the neighboring properties uh the proper required cut off um going to quickly go to the um rear elevation uh as you can see the the smaller elevation on the left side is the the uh the existing and then uh the proposed elevation on the on the right side um similar treatment uh horizontal siding um similar Windows like the front um there is a door proposed from unit number one which provides access to the uh to the backyard um the other two units upper level will have access to the roof this unit will will get access to the backyard um I'm going to quickly go to the side elevation uh as you can see the grade uh gradually going up uh towards the back of the building um that that lower level is is uh you know more than 50% below rate uh and and really not um set up for a for a habitable space and that's the reason we are utilizing that as a as a garage and and utility space um again this is the um the other side elevation um with a similar material uh treatment uh horizontal siding um similar style windows I guess uh that concludes my testimony okay thank you Mr Patel uh just a couple quick questions I did notice that there was a new version of this plan uploaded to the portal today yes I did not review that plan can you just tell us what the differences are between that plan and what was originally on the portal correct so I make it a habit to not review plan at work no that's the the there was a typological error the existing structure was described as a as a two-story but technically with a with a base it was a three story so we corrected that okay um and uh other than that there is there's no other change okay um so what is the building condos or rentals it doesn't matter personally to me but um most likely it would be condos okay so how is the parking handled are the the individual spots deeded to certain units is it the door opens you park whichever spot is open uh typically individual uh spots are needed to uh to a unit okay so if let's say let's say it's 1 two 3 4 and unit four comes home and nobody's in there they pull all the way up right so that's that's fine yes that is I guess uh agreed upon as part of the the condo um setup okay so the keys will be left for the cars that are blocking in the second row will be blocking in the first row uh I guess that's a good question for the attorney who would figure out the condo situation but you know typically it's uh you know it's pretty standard even the two families you know you have a tandem situation sure no we see it all the time it's just we have to ask the question the answer is yes okay okay um so it's your professional opinion that there's enough room to pull a car out get another car around it and have you know pull that next car in without blocking the sidewalk at all Yes uh the the current width of the uh the parking garage is is is wide enough where where that can be that can be done I mean um as you can see that there is a little room left uh so uh of course you know if this uh parking number three is empty and and you know someone needs to park at parking number two you know that won't happen you know they have to pull Park you know car in space number four out then go in but yes uh it is it is wide enough to to accommodate uh vehicle movement in and out okay all right that's it for me anybody else yeah um off for the Chairman's question um so it can't be by deed because if it's by deed then I am parking number four I'm parking number four so if I come in early and I'm blocking parking number two and they're not there yet I'm parking that parket number four I don't have the rights of parking spot number two right yeah that's correct correct if it's by D yes so it's basically first come first serve you're entitled to a spot just not the exact one you're correct it changes all the time correct based on how it's laid out yes that it's going to be based on um middle of the night I got to step out you're going to trust me with your keys or somebody in my family with your keys to move your car basically yeah and put that car back and then I could take my car out that's correct okay that's the craziest idea I ever heard I mean I got an 18y old that I don't trust her with my kids but uh you know um I know my wife wouldn't trust him with the keys that's for sure um yeah that's that's um basically and then going back to a car Parks if fun on the sidewalk is there enough room to have a car on that in front of that garage without blocking the sidewalk uh just case somebody they do let me just it's hard to tell so uh currently there is I mean with a with a drive driveway you know there's uh not going to be I guess in front of the driveway there is cuz you have the driveway the back here with the carport that's right I I got confused there I'm sorry all right thank you that's you you answered my other question that was report thank you okay anybody else all right thank you Mr Patel one additional witness our professional planner sure Caroline and Miss worstell if you could just confirm that you know that you're still under oath you've been sworn in and are still qualified tonight yes I acknowledge I'm still under oath and that I am still qualified okay thank you um good evening so um we're here tonight for two variances the one is for the maximum number of stories and the second one is for the maximum front yard bot coverage um so as was explained and as you can sort of see in the the the image here of the front elevation um this is an existing structure that has a basement basements are considered a story so right now it's a three story structure the proposed project is proposing an addition and then it's prod uh to the side in the rear but also to go up a story so now we're creating a four story structure um in the R1 District three stories is the maximum number of stories uh but we are have a height of 35 fet so the proposed structure is meeting that maximum height in feet what we're here to ask for is just for the stories um part of the reason we're asking for this is because we're trying to utilize and reuse that existing structure um that has this basement uh area that already exists um and we don't think that it's a appropriate use for it to be considered to be residential we' like to use it for you know parking um but if you were to consider this and look at it and say if we could dig down even a couple of feet this could turn into a seller and we wouldn't be here for this Varian so when we look at it how is the impact of that additional story there really is no additional impact here uh because that space already there already exists um and so the overall height in terms of feet is cons is consistent with what is permitted in the ordinance at 35 ft um so I I just I don't see this as a substantial detriment uh because that um whether or not it's a basement or a seller it's that's where we get that definition of that story that space exists and from the front you wouldn't even notice a difference if we were to dig it out and create a seller um so I think there's really no substantial d allowing us to have that extra story for this potential use for offsite parking um the other one we're looking at is for the maximum front yard lot coverage um so this comes out uh in R1 uh there's a requirement that a maximum of 50% of your front yard is permitted to be uh impervious coverage um we're proposing something about 70% um and as you saw on the the the diagram or the the site plan um you know we have a driveway we have um stairs up to the access we have to still have Pathways for the stairs to go down into the the basement uh as well as access to the through the sidey yard so we do have a number of places where we have to have impervious or or non- landscaped coverage in order to provide required access uh but we are providing Landscaping in all of the spaces where there isn't that required access um um and overall I think this project OB substantially improves the condition at the front of this property because right now there's no Landscaping it's 100% impervious lot coverage on this lot um so by uh with this project you're substantially improving the front yard but you're also substantially improving the overall uh project um we are reducing your existing coverage from 100% to 78% and that's actually well below the maximum lot coverage permitted in R1 which is is 85% so I think overall the whole project as a whole is really substantially improving this particular lot um I think you know this project advances those purposes than Municipal land use law um it's a appropriate use and density uh consistent with purpose a um it is a uh providing adequate light air in open space consistent with purpose C by providing those conforming front side and rear yard setbacks uh as well as conforming height and feet and then it uh is consist with purpose I promoting a more desirable visual environment um so obviously not only is the building getting a new facade but you're getting again those substantial improvements in the front yard with the new Landscaping um and it's not just from the front from the rear you're removing non-conforming uh garage at the rear of the property and providing substantial Landscaping so for anyone who has to look at that rear yard that's a substantial Improvement for this property I don't see that this uh granting the requested variances would result in substantial detriment to the public good or general welfare as mentioned this is a conforming for family uh use here on this property um and it's able to accommodate those units within a building bulk that's consistent with all setback coverage and height and feet requirements in the R1 Zone it's eliminating those non-conformities including the non-conforming rear yard garage that extends it actually extends beyond the property line so we're actually making it better for the Neighbors um and reducing that law coverage uh to that 78% um while providing for the new Landscaping both at the front and the rear of the property um it's not going to result in a substantial impairment to the intent and purpose The Zone plan or zoning ordinance uh it's this is a consistent project with the uh purposes of the R1 District which en encourages compatible infill development and preserving the Integrity of residential neighborhoods the project has conformed bulk standards including the existing front yard setback at 10.5 10 and 1 12 ft the side yard setbacks the rear yard setback at 25 ft the lot coverage uh which is under uh at 78% and the building height feet at 35% um and it also advances that new that Jersey City master plan by redeveloping the property to provide the unique attractive residential uh use uh that will trct uh provide housing for existing and new residents so I think overall the the variances can be granted that they meet both the positive and the negative criteria um I'm happy to answer any questions um I I would also note um I didn't uh state it specifically but parking in this particular uh instance is uh permitted but uh and not required okay thank you Mr worstell um I have no questions anybody Eddie you good all right thank you appreciate it coun that concludes our direct testimony we're happy to answer any questions we also had the opportunity to review your staff memo we take no exception to anything in here and we can agree to all the conditions uh suggested great thank you all right uh is there anybody here from public that wants to comment please come on up hi good evening you testimon given this proceeding will be the truth the whole truth and nothing the truth I do thank you it's Anthony a n t h n y townend t o w n s n d and my address is 353 Webster Avenue Mr Townson good evening we have three minutes for you thank you U I'll keep it brief um my concerns as a resident of the heights are mainly about the way that density of this project is being misrepresented in the application and I'll just make that case in three facts so the first fact is that as of last year with the ldo Amendments that the city council pass the density maximum density permitted in the R1 zone is 42 units per dwelling acre Fact Two uh ldo defines density as the permitted number of dwelling units per gross area of land to be developed you will not find a measure of density in this application that follows that definition if you calculate the actual density using that definition you'll get a result that's 46.5 dwelling units per acre and that's 10% more than 10% above the maximum for the R1 zone so what you have here is an application where um the applicant is asking you to approve a project that doesn't comply with a really critical piece of how the R1 zone is defined it doesn't provide the information that you need to assess that compliance and then it provides a different measure of density that actually mass that non-compliance and makes it look compliant I I'm here um you know to to raise this concern with you you will do with it you know what you must um I have looked at how um some of the rules that are being used to calculate density in applications like this um are going to apply to Lots across the R1 under the new zoning uh the density uh maximums and you're going to see this problem over and over again in the Heights at least 20 to 25% of the lots are going to um result in proposals that um exceed these maximum densities so um this is a problem that isn't going to go away um I think you need to figure out a solution to it and you need to um ask the applicant to provide the information that you need to make uh a decision based on the regulations as they as they stand thank you all right thank you Mr talson anybody else from public before we address that we'll address that anybody else from public saying no one else from the public Mr chair I move to close Okay motion is made and second if public is closed um genre I'm going to put you on the spot here I hope you're okay with it um so piggy backing off of Mr Townson comments who who calculates the density on these projects is it the applicant do City staff follow up and check those calculations um yes it is sood the appc sh provide the density calculation on their zoning table and the staff will definitely check that according to the um zoning ordinance okay so are they in compliance with uh with the ldo or is um yes it is so how the LDL um says about the permitted density is that a maximum of 42 units per anchor is permitted and then for this specifically it's 8 uh 086 inchor so when you calculate that by uh multiple that by 42 a uh permitted six uh 3.6 units and then in our supplementary zoning we have a sentence saying like when a numeral calculation of zoning standard for a particular law resting a fractional number such as um such number shall be runed up for fractions five and both so for this case uh it should be runed up to four units so four units is permitted in this case okay make another comment we have one per night I'm sorry sir per application per night I would assume we'll see you again on one of these okay um okay so jenu do you uh do you have anything to close with um so I just want to say like staff agrees to applicants professional testimony and I would just ask the applicants to agree to the conditions in the Seth report applicant agrees to the conditions so with that SEF recommend approval okay thank you we appreciate it motion okay Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to approve case P 2024 D 0123 as it was presented to the what tonight second okay motion is made and seconded commissioner lipsky commissioner Cruz hi commissioner Stato hi commissioner Torres um I didn't see my um yes the um I see where it meets the um variances with the basement unit um but I am um I could never see that parking situation for a piece of property that has four different owners um and um it it's a headache for the city waiting to happen it's a headache for the neighborhood for the people living in the building that's it's just the concept doesn't um to me seems not to work so with that I'm going to vote no on this project terman linston so I I agree with Miss worstell's uh take on this I think uh the variances are warranted and um you know just on a common sense level the taking away the residential aspect on that garage below uh below grade and just moving that story up um you know dwelling Wise It's a three-story building but uh you add that basement in with the uh garages and the sprinkler room and the trash room and um you know you get four so I I think the variances uh are within reason I think uh the intent of the master plan is uh is met here and uh my vote is going to be I motion carries with four in favor one oppos okay thank you Mr everybody thank you thank you guys have a good night okay so we are going to call Item 17 but if anybody from uh 18 or 19 wants to punt right now it's you know it's up to you sure you are Council we're going to need two seconds okay we might have a situation for time just get this out of the way oh that's what I'm doing to oh God Dam so close I wasn't to notice fcking Warrior weed weed Warrior s you PR okay Mr lean go ahead chairman uh I'd like to request an adjournment uh for uh number 19 case p224 0070 uh that is 415 Palisade Avenue we would uh request that our notices be carried uh to December 10th okay thank you Council so case p2024 d70 is being carried to a date certain December 10th thank you very much and have a good night council thanks chairman on case p24 d 0112 uh 259 baldon Avenue I'd ask for adjournment I'm not going to be in the country on the 10th of December to the meeting after December 10th whatever that date is hopefully it's in December I have to notice for that can't carry that because it's in a new year just approve memorialize it though January 7th right 2025 but we didn't memorialize it they we carry him to the 10th and then carry him again to the S memorizar are we memorializing that tonight yeah yes okay can we do that okay okay thank you Council so we're going to carry case p2024 d112 to a date certain January 7th 2025 thank you councel with preservation with preservation of notice thank you so much all right have a great rest of the night you too so much all right so let's call Item 17 case p2024 36 for 20 carbon Place good evening chairman good evening Commissioners my name is Gerard pisillo I'm an attorney with janova Burns I'm here this evening on behalf of the applicant 20 carbon Place Corp LLC uh 20 carbon Place Corp excuse me uh the property is 20 carbon place it's block 22103 Lot 12 located in midrise zone B of the Culver Ru 440 Redevelopment plan uh we are here this evening requesting a preliminary and final major site plan with C Devi uh I did prepare a uh Affidavit of notice uh publication and mailing I did upload it to the portal uh with Chairman's permission may approach the de with the original so we can mark that into evidence sure always a pleasure thank you chairman no blocking Lots on there just for the record notice the lateness of the hour chairman the receipt of an Affidavit of publication proof of mailing for the property described as block 22103 Lot 12 20 carbon place it does appear to be in order we can mark it as A1 for purposes of the r okay thank you Council and and thank you again board thank you for your time uh this is an application and a project that's uh for a property that's been before this board several times um last the last time we were here was uh earlier this year for a site plan extension and at that time I did indicate that we had uh been in the process working with planning and the other City stakeholders uh to come up with a revised Project based on some things that happened on the ground and as well as some value engineering uh that my client uh you know him and their team looked at uh so what you have before you is a new application based on the provisions of the ordinance although it's really just changes to the prior building but because of the ordinance it had to come in as a new application so the board approved in under case p2025 uh preliminary and final major site plan for a project that consisted of two 12-story structures surrounding an 8,000 squ ft public Plaza uh the total number of units was 450 spread out between the two buildings as well as 242 parking spaces and again along with that 8,000 ft public Plaza this was all done in accordance with the RightWay bonus as well as the open space bonus pursuant to the Culver Ru 440 Redevelopment plan the project today still incorporates those two bonuses it still consists of a 12-story building there's only one 12-story building now so we've eliminated one building uh it's a 12 one 12-story building there is an increase of 97 units but still within the permitted F pursuant to the plan uh so there's 547 units that are proposed here uh 276 total parking spaces which is an increase of 25 spaces and then just a relocation of the plaza which also does increase uh by approximately you know 600 700 ft so the plaza is about 8,700 ft give or take uh there are a number of deviations two of the deviations were part of the pr uh the uh old approval that are just carrying over those are related to Street trees and the spacing of trees there are a number uh or three minor C deviations that are part of the new project a loading zone uh some uh coverage of the rear yard parking um and there is another uh signage is the last deviation uh I'll turn it over to my Witnesses uh but I just want to point out we did engage uh long and hard with the uh city planning to come up with this concept so we we met with them about 8 nine months prior to us filing we didn't file this until March uh we filed this in March of 24 uh we also met with the councilwoman we had several meetings with the community the community condo associations in the neighbor Hood so we did you know do that really thorough engagement to get the community's impact uh I I should note we also met with the charter school that is immediately adjacent to to our property uh so with that said I'll turn it over to my first witness John cotay from Langan engineering who will run you through the civil engineering uh aspects of the project all right thank you Council do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to given this proceeding will be the truth the whole truth and truth I do sure name is John cot the last name is spelled Co te Mr good evening I believe we've qualified you in the past numerous times your license is current tonight yes it is const standing okay thank you you're qualified thank you appreciate it what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through uh whoops screen wise it seems to have projected the wrong screen hold on a second it's not your picture is it no it's see Windows uh thing let me see if I can change this to project it onto the other screen okay so the drawings I'm going to put up on the screen are going to be based on the application package that's been submitted so these are all drawings from the site civil side of it from my testimony that came from the original uh submission so the first drawing that's up is the illustrative site plan cs71 and I'll use this for General orientation of the project as a whole so looking at the project description of the 12-story building is shown in brown the 12-story building is a 65330 ft building it incorporates a 935t retail component with the 547 residential units on the right hand side on the east side you'll see the plaza area the open space area that was referred to earlier that Plaza area is an 8,500 ft area and it'll be described in more detail by the landscape architect or testimony along the frontage of the site we're providing Street trees a total of 10 Street trees where 14 are required and the 14 uh excuse me the 10 Street trees provided are deficient because of the spacing associated with the other amenities and components we need to add to the site for Access for utilities and in compliance with other restrictions of where the tree Wells can be positioned so I'm going to outline um number of things on the project and identify the four variances so for the overall project the total number of parking spaces is provided is 276 spaces where 247 are required based upon the both the combination of the 274 that's uh per that's required minus the credit be for Ev we're actually providing those parking spaces instead of taking the credit for the EV spaces in the overall building so the 276 includes in this case 42 EV spaces where 27 are required So within the site itself as far as the layout we have the uh number of uh trees along the front is the way they're spaced we have a variance for the tree spacing on Center now I'm going to make a clarification on my zoning table identified that as a variance of uh where 12 or 22 is required and we had provided 12 on our plan it's actually 11 ft we had adjusted some of the trees for some of the um streetscape work that we had done on the plan so I'm going to clarify that to be 11 ft for the minimum spacing between uh on Center trees and where we had a Max maximum spacing of 51.9 that number is actually 59 per app oh maximum spacing of I apologize 51.9 uh we're revising at to 59 for the purpose of this application Mr kot is this in the in the portal this plan is in the portal yes okay just making sure sure no problem so that variance uh is one of the variances the next variance is the um minimum number of Street trees I spoke to earlier which is the 14 trees required and we're providing 10 uh with respect to the loading zone on the property we coordinated this plan with Transportation Planning and the layout of the roadway has been done such that we've given the lane widths that were requested and then the area for the drop off that would allow the access to the front of the building the front entrance of the building is on the east side within the Courtyard area the plaza area I was referring to earlier so that's a a length of 75 ft where 30 is is permitted so the four variances the maximum loading zone size on the street the number of tree variant number of trees and the maximum spacing between minimum spacing between the trees the last variance is the permitted number of signs where we proposing three uh where one is permitted so what I'll do just as a big picture is I'm going to go through an a bridged version of my site plan set just to identify some of the uh other items that were just discussed with respect to how the Project's designed wait John before you before you before you continue this this what you have in front of you right that that this is a selection of plans from your overall package correct this is uploaded to the portal I have it is listed as exhibit a to uh so just for references coun which one is exhibited we're seeing on the screen now that's correct yes this this is exhibit prior color version that should be on the portal I'm confirming it right now but I did upload that to the portal I was having trouble with the yeah so so this make this A2 make this A3 make the color rendering A2 okay A2 the color rendering A3 this okay okay this is the rering was previously on screen I think it was called s it's the illust illustrate illustrative site plan I'll bring that up real quick so the illustrative site plan during cs71 is the exhibit A2 okay okay so what A3 exhibit A3 consists of A3 is an a bridge set of my site plan set it'll be just the primary drawings for the set for discussion about the layout of the site and with respect to the variances I just spoke to so this plan shows the overall layout a combination of both the building the plaza area plus the roadway configuration the roadway configuration includes three off-site parking spaces sorry okay the 75ft loading zone I referred to um earlier and as well as a bus shuttle bus drop off Zone on the east side of the site the entrances to the building are two there's a 15t wide apron leading into a one-way exit on the west side of the building and then uh just to the east of that is a two-way entrance into the parking garage the plaza has a cons consists of a number of different amenities from Marine Gardens pavers and seating areas that'll be described more detail by the landscape architect and the retail is located at the East end of the building of the 9 135 ft the project will include ballards along the front of the site uh example of the Ballard is provided in our detail sheet which is the next drawing within this uh exhibit A3 and these ballards are provided along the frontage along the drop off Zone I just referred to earlier the next drawing I'm bringing up is the grading plan just to give a perspective quickly about the grades along the roadway uh the building itself will various vary in its finished floor elevation on the West End elevation 18 at the entrances it'll drop down to 17.5 along the midsection of the building and then back up to 18 by the retail and then elevation 19.5 at the front door within that area along the frontage we're going to have a combination of different uh storm water features uh basins inlets all part of the underground detention system that supports the storm water system uh to which is in compliance with ordinance the next drawing I'm bringing up is the drainage plan which identifies the two rain Gardens that are proposed in the plaza area and then a and then a depiction of the underground detention system under that Plaza area as well as the underground detention system that's within the garage portion of the building on the West End those will connect out to the local storm system and then utility plan just just identifies that all our utilities are being supported from the front end of the site there's a series of build of um building spaces dedicated to the various utility services that come in our sanitary and our storm uh as well as our uh electric and telephone so I'm actually I apologize I was trying to wrap this up really quickly so I kind of accelerated my testimony I nor would have gone into a little more detail but if there's any additional questions I can explain any comments yeah on your variances you have you said you need four four variances correct one in reference to number of signs correct that's correct and the other one had to do with the plasma what were the other two uh the the all all four variances are the number of loading sorry the maximum I could got I got this four variances are the uh number of Street trees okay the spacing of the street trees the number of the signs the number of sign proposed and then the fourth one is with regards to a section of the rear with screened parking those are the four variances or deviations excuse me okay so sign yep the signage the max trees the spacing number of trees yeah the number of trees and the spacing trees two Varan two different variances there four variances I said it yeah I said no no you're tet building oh right but that is a that is a variance that is a Vari okay so then you want to say it's five because the max loading size yes yes I apologize so we're going to make it we're GNA make it my no no I'll clarify it's five the F the four that I yeah the four that I covered yeah so number one is the max loading space size on Street 75 yep sorry 75 7 versus 30 permitted the next one is the number of Street trees 10 versus 14 required 10 versus uh 14 10 provided versus 14 required the next one is the Min and Max Street Tree on Center spacing where we have 11 provided for the minimum where 22 is required and we have 59 for the max where 35 is required 59 for the max correct where 39 35 is required yes okay and then you outline the yeah a portion of the rear where we're providing parking is not screened that'll be covered by the architect my AP we're no no no we're good okay yeah okay so that okay all right any other questions from Mr Cot all right thank you sir thank you my next witness will be G excuse me gzu from lza our architect sure thank you I do JJ first name spelled as j i e last name spelled as Z Hu s j i e sorry first name is j i e three letters starts with j last name three letters starts with z as a zebra H as a Henry and U umbrella and and u z hu Mr juk good evening um I don't believe we've qualified you in the past have we no I worked as a for HRW and and and I worked for uh the Newport ass the projects before if you could just go through your uh educational background and your Licensing in the state of New Jersey uh I'm a master of architecture from Ohio State University I also have a master of design studies from Harvard design school I'm a licensed architect in New York and New Jersey and my license it's current okay thank you you're qualified thank you and and and Jay this is a presentation that you prepared as part of this presentation this evening that's correct okay so and it's a it's segment of your plans put together for the references for the ease of the board right yes okay uh chairman I this I did upload this to the portal I would ask to move it to uh enter it as an exhibit A4 okay let's call the uh PowerPoint A4 there's a date on there Gerard uh October 22nd 2024 that's we I guess originally scheduled okay 40 slides 40 slides 40 slides don't think we'll have to go through for full just important okay we'll call that A4 thank you go ahead uh good evening um planning board member thank you very much for your time late hours I'll try to go through this as quick as possible please let me know if you have any questions see oops sorry trying to make sure I can use this computer um as Gerard has mentioned we went through a very thorough and uh I would say um inclusive engagement process with um the community board with City Planning ult meeting with the city planning multiple times community board um we met with the neighbors as well as councilwoman so what you see here is is reflectance of um what we have discussed so far and we want to present our proposed design to you um a quick overview just to refresh everyone's memory here you're looking at uh the site in relation to some of the buildings nearby the site is outlined uh in the center we have the NJCU Charter School directly to the east of our site and a property known as 49 Fisk located to the north and west of the pan handled shape site and the City Line East which is located uh south of carbon place on the south side of the of the project the project is also located roughly 200 ft uh west of the intersection between carbon place and wests Side Avenue some existing condition photos the first row on the top shows views of the current site from carbon space looking West the one in the center looked at the um temporary demising wall or fence between our property to the left and to the east side is the open space and driveway of NJCU charter school as you can see here on the picture to the right NJCU charter school is a three-story structure it has an open space uh right in front of it with uh with trees and and um other landscape features on the bottoms we have uh you can see through our site which is currently empty uh in the background is the 49 Fisk uh that is on the site the one in the middle is and and the one to the right are both the building across the street to the South known as City Line East um as Gerard has mentioned we wanted to present a um a propose a design that addresses the location of the right way of the public Plaza to you on on the left you can see here is the previously approved site plan um that was prepared by another architect um it calls for two buildings with a 60ft wide ride of way that goes from the front of the property all the way to the back and this is in accordance with the Redevelopment plan portion of which talks about creating a 60ft ride of way um that actually should is supposed to uh go beyond our property all the way to to Fisk Street which is the street to the north to break up this very long block um as you can see here we've outlined the our our neighbor or new development uh known as 49 Fisk and the way the structure has been constructed um effectively eliminate the possibility for to create a a 60ft through lot right away as called in the Redevelopment plan and uh at the time of the filing obviously there's we have no knowledge that or the previous team had no knowledge that it's going to happen it does create a few issues first of all um there's no throughway first of all and then this public Plaza which is 60t wide but super it's it's very deep I think it's 140 foot deep to create that 80 uh 8,000 foot open space uh it becomes a dead end um it's being FL uh flanked by two 12-story buildings on East and West which cuts off a lot of the daylight uh throughout most of the day did we relocate that that's right yes yes I I absolutely if you could just explain the shift and why the proposal of relocating the plaza therefore from the center of the uh site to the southeast corner has the following benefit first of all it is much closer to the pedestrian traffic uh which is the commercial and and uh and and pedestrian traffic along Westside Avenue um it also um in terms of the proportion it is much wider and less it's less deep um it also has now combined with the open space next to us to the east a lot more exposure during Morning Light and into noon and it will be shaded um by the building to the west to create some afternoon Shades that's correct it does not it doesn't any kind of by shifting it over to to the left or right site I don't believe believe so uh we have a planner that could confirm or deny that but one of the Varan that is not correct so those two towers have been eliminated and been combined into one Tower including where that that is correct absolutely U so here's just brief overview of uh the building in relation with the new open space that we're proposing um we don't have to go in too detail I know we have a limit of time but we can absolutely go back to this view but the general layout is we have a public Plaza um which will be um surrounded by the building entrances and amenities and with additional amenities for the building that is Terra back and also ties into um the main public space here it also shows a sidewalk widening our building is set back 8 ft from the property line along carbon place to create a minimum of 13t sidewalk um as discussed earlier uh quick view of the public Plaza and our landscape architect will further testify um it's showing um good amount of Green Space uh featuring a two rain Gardens a prominade and a large open space uh with terrist seating to the East and if I could just stop you one second just to confirm what what what how this becomes a public Plaza my client will be providing a Perpetual easement to the city for the benefit of the city and for the public so that this is in fact a public Plaza Council I apologize we need a two-minute break sure he's very sick abely stop I don't I I don't want to absolutely yes God see how he's for for right first obviously start taking T we got to do this one more time I hope he's okay yeah I think we'll start probably startes for for being successful you you could you could not talk to R so yeah we're going to do resolutions ready so Council um I apologize we're going to have to carry right now to uh date certain December 10th we'll get you up first on the agenda that night Cam if you can make a note of that understood chairman Commissioners thank you for your time feel better everybody thank you appreciate it thank you thank you okay so uh with that said um we have 12 resolutions to Memorial memorialized tonight I'm going to try and get through these quick uh number one is resolution of the plan Board of the city of Jersey City approving amended final major site plan approval applicant NE q8a LLC for amended final major site plan approval property is 20 long slip two long slip Washington Boulevard and River Drive block 7302 Lots 3.18 3.19 3.05 and 3.16 to become 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.16 and 3.05 case number on that is p2024 0193 number two is a resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant 26 Bell LLC for preliminary and final major site plan approval with deviations at 206 vanvo street block 14203 part of lot 30 Jersey City New Jersey case number is p23 d84 number three is resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant 26 Bell LLC for preliminary and final major major subdivision approval with deviations at 206 vanvorst uh for preliminary and final major subdivision approval with I'm sorry I read that already um street block uh 14203 lot 3 Jersey City New Jersey casee p23 d83 number four is resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City in the matter of the proposed amendment to the Westside Avenue Redevelopment plan of the city of Jersey City number five is the 2025 fiscal year planning board agreement for stenographic services uh number six is a resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City authorizing and approving the appointment of legal council number seven is resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City authorizing an approving the appointment of precision reporting services for fiscal year 2025 number eight is agreement for Legal Services number nine is resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant venat can I just give you that last name thank you I have the case number okay for minor sight plan approval with deviations at 29a Monitor Street Jersey City New Jersey block 20302 lot 17 case number is p2024 D68 number 10 is resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant uh same applicant for minor site plan approval with deviations at 31 Monitor Street Jersey City Block 20 302 lot 16 that case number is p2024 d69 number 11 is a resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City applicant jym realy LLC for preliminary and final major site plan approval at 81 Palisade Avenue Jersey City New Jersey block number 8304 lot 32 that case number is p2023 d00 26 that's it 11 you have 12 written down that's a typo okay yeah sorry okay do I have a second please okay can we have a roll call please cam commissioner Torres commissioner Stato commissioner Cruz commissioner commissioner lipsky I and chairman Langston hi motion carries all in favor to Memorial resolutions okay thank you everybody no executive session necessary can I have a motion to adjourn all right thank you we're adjourned have a good night guys yay David get out of here I feel like Alfred's hit when that guy was I'm GNA follow you home like he kept going