D you got to do it for the record you all right at this time I'm going to call the April 24th meeting of the Maple Shade planning board to order public notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the visions of the open public meetings act would everyone please rise and S the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all we have a roll call the board please Matthew Rees here Daniel McDonald here CLA walp here Susan Danon here Steve Smith present John beardon here Emily walles here Robert wi Manan Constantine here Justin banet here chairman josephan here the first item on the agenda tonight is 2840 Route 73 North block 18901 lot10 one uh the charge smart smart EV LC application the zone is business development the existing uses of fullservice car dealership the proposed uses to install an electric vehicle charging post welcome thank you all of these are fired up we want to make sure we hear you all right that's never been a problem with me worry so good evening everyone my name is Kevin Jones from zuen Jones on behalf of the applicant charge smart EV LLC uh as the chairman um so eloquently stated the applicant is proposing to install uh charging stations at the elite Acura dealership uh they're in fact repurposing existing parking spaces so they would be utilizing parking spaces that already exist uh for a total of six uh they will be installing three right away and then three in the future so these charging stations will be level three fast charging stations and allow uh the accurate dealership to uh charge its Fleet uh and it has the added benefit of the general public being able to charge their vehicles as well we do have um Stephanie mher from col engineering here I also have Christian spiero from charart as well as Tom Alano from Elite accur ioun have anybody that's going to testify stand up and we'll have maybe we can get all them sworn in at once no we can do them all at once please raise your right hands do you swear affirm the testimony tell be the truth the truth nothing but the truth and please State your names and addresses Stephanie M 52 Christiano 29 reor Road Glenville New York Tom Al 2609 Fen roadport New Jersey thank you okay so for the relief the applicant is seeking uh minor site plan approval together with a bulk variance uh the the um New Jersey senate passed the bill in 2021 um it's Senate Bill s32 23 that made um electric vehicle charging stations uh vehicle Electric Supply stations permitted uses in all zones and in fact boards uh if I could just interrupt Qui U with regard to completeness I think maybe the first thing we should do is just deem the application complete the applicant had requested a number of waivers that are identified in uh our April 22nd letter and it was items and I'll just be very brief on this items 10 13 19 20 28 32 34 and 35 of our checklist the only item I've asked that they provide is some additional information through testimony tonight would be item number 23 so Kevin that was regarding any protective covenants or anything in there that could exclude you from having this there or easements so sure there are none and I can have Tom on the record make a statement that there are no easements protective covenants or restrictions that would prohibit the proposed use as a EV charging maybe a statement on record by Tom great here please up here see oh I'm again the question is do you have any are there any protective covenants easements or deed restrictions that would include you providing EV Chargers on site 24-hour service at this location Etc are there any issues with your proper no there's not there are okay Mr chairman all the other items uh as checklist are what we really need to review it what you would need to understand the full application they're really not necessary this is a fairly straightforward application so I would recommend that we Grant the waivers and we deem the application complet okay motion to approve the waiver and the waivers and make the application complete so B I'll second okay all in favor opposed we're on all right okay thank you uh chairman um what was I going to say the proposed use is as mentioned here I wanted to talk about the BD Business Development District uh 2019 uh this board approved a similar installation at the Wawa on Route 73 South at the uh Tesla supercharging stations there for eight Tesla superchargers similar to this uh this is uh these charg actually will be able Teslas and other non- Tesla vehicles because they use different plugs will be able to charge their car at this particular installation uh but this board deemed EV charging stations as a permitted use uh in their site plan waiver application when they granted that approval in 2019 just as a matter of reference and this is a similar application obviously it's an existing um uh establishment and we're repurposing existing parking spaces at the dealership uh but for the location of the charging stations in the front yard uh this would have proceeded directly to your construction department for to the building permit stage we have read Mr tor's report and uh the applicant you know will comply with those uh conditions and comments uh I think we can briefly talk about the lighting there is uh existing lighting uh at the property as well as uh the Charing stations themselves are illuminated uh but there is U adequate lighting uh consistent with the existing site plan requirements and lighting require requirements of the original approval um Kevin will anything change Mr chairman I go through and just ask questions any changes proposed to the existing fixtures are you using different bulbs that would make it brighter Orting anything no because there's adequate lighting they're not going to exacerbate they're not going to increase or decrease the existing lighting which is deemed appropriate so we going leave it as is okay and in our letter we had just asked that they provide us what that light level is some additional engineering and the appli engineer had agreed to that yes I can have Stephanie come off and address that or we can just agree to it actually Stephanie wants to come up and just sit there and we can go through it make go quicker sure you said these charges are going to be available to the public are they going to be available when the dealership's closed yes so there's no gates for the dealership to stop the no my white dress maybe and one of the things that Fred had mentioned I'll offer that now the the maximum charging time typically uh if you're if you have an e you know if if a vehicle's at low low charge probably 30 to 40 minutes max would be the longest time that a person would be there charging um a lot of times these could you or maybe someone from charge Smart Explain uh level one level two level three so level three is the high highest level of charging that's correct okay so typically what you see not many places are installing level three so this is a very fast charge half hour correct typically and again one of the things I should have mentioned earlier is that Elite Acura well Acura uh will be providing electric vehicles I think there's a ZDX is one of the SUVs that's coming and one of the requirements of any dealership um selling those vehicles and mass producing is to have charging stations at The Establishment so this is it's kind of you're getting two bangs for your buck if you will because not only is it there for the elad acurate dealership for the general public uh if necessary but also utilize the stations to charge their EVS um I just want to make it clear that the plan right now it shows two level three Chargers and then the one further down is a level two it's actually would be considered a level two charger that's the one that sits off by itself correct that's the Ada okay and how level two just so we understand what level one level two and level three is I don't know if you can explain that to us or charge and while you're all up there if you can write your name and address down so level two Chargers range anywhere from 32 amps all the way up to 100 amps um 32 amps roughly an 8 Hour charge time uh 100 amps is about to 3 and 1/2 hours so the ones we're installing here at elad Acura are ADM 100 level twos so about a 3 and 1/2 hour charge time for your typical compact vehicle they're do with all level twos or two level twos um it's a dual Port Station so one pedestal two ports okay um the fast Chargers down the way are two individual units that will be paired together so if you use one you get the power of both or if you use both of them simultaneously it split the power so it's 60 KW each does that mean like an hour charge time like the half an hour goes to an hour if there's two people charging it's really it's if one person's charging it's going to be 120 KW if you pull in with 20% you're Li at 25 minutes to 80% so it may push it to 45 minutes if two cars are charging simous could you just repeat that there's there's three levels and there's one of the of the number two level yes but two of the number three level so level one is like your typical residential charger okay level two that we're installing here we're installing two of two parking spaces okay the level three the two parking spaces have two cables each side one unit to one unit a double side of gas exactly the level threes there two units Standalone units one in front of each parking space okay two units Standalone serving two par spes okay so so the maximum number of vehicles that could charge all the same time four would be four if they were all in use at the same time correct and it could be anywhere from like 25 minutes up to over an hour for the fast Chargers 25 minutes to 45 minutes okay for the level twos no matter what it's going to be about 3 to four hours okay you said something about eight hours what was the8 hour so are slower level twos um the level twos in this scope are the 3 to 4 Hour charger so that that is available the8 hour time frame I'm just thinking like how somebody's going to be there that long the Chargers here will be 3 to four hours they make level twos um from 8 hours all the way up to 3 hours there's a range of level twos depending on the electricity that we power them okay so the ones we're installing here are about 3 to four hours charge time PSG is providing you enough power so when you put all six in there are going not be any issues we're not going to have people sitting there for eight hours right correct so the the entire PS side has been scoped with a future in mind as well all right so and I know uh Mr Jones had mentioned this they're installing three now three units so to speak uh in the future there will be six so they're having concrete pads installed are they for level threes the addition pads yes they are okay so there still is a future component to this and I don't know if there's a timing to that or that's up to Elite Acura or it's up to your your office so Elite Acura is kind of phasing their program their e Readiness program with this is The Upfront scope to be done by the end of this year they have a scope that's 2026 compliant and then so on 2028 so we're ultimately getting all the ground workor laid out for all future programs as well all the machineries on site while we're pouring concrete while we have everything it just makes more sense to do it now as opposed to remobilizing at a later date okay why don't we review the plan okay right I'm G start with this one um so I'm looking at the partial site plan um plan C2 this uh this plan shows the entirety of the parcel um it is bordered by 73 thee 7 ramp and then Route 3 to the north the Chargers that we are proposing will be installed on the West Side the property along uhe 38 grand um access to these Chargers would either come from Route 38 or could also come from the route 73 um and as part of the S PL set we also um so so basically they're going to be facing your other your storage lot in almost like they're closest to your storage lot yeah right they'll be facing out to the off right right I know they have their storage Lots on the other side of the R I just want to make sure I had my bearings right my sign right sorry we weren't going to say it um I believe it was for the recommendation of the meeting that we had a couple of months ago to add some signage to help direct the customers around the lot um since they be coming in a little bit further away from the um Chargers so this plan depicts where we would be charging or where we would be placing the signs to direct them to the EV Chargers just in case uh it was late at night or if um you know if there were I don't know first time there yeah all all of the concerns of the site plan advisor regarding after hour use on the site during the day wander in you find uh it's all about night time all the concerns and we'll raise more as um and then this plan is just showing uh the project area um it's a little hard to see the these two spaces would be the proposed level three Chargers that we will be installing um in the near future like immediately with the approval of this plan and then these three would be at some point in the future and the level two charger the 3 to 4our charge that one is located down here and there would be space for two cars to be charging at that station including an ADA parking space correct um we show also on this plan the proposed Utility Equipment this equipment location was chosen by utility themselves they weren't out there and this is what they prefer um I'd like to point out that although it is close to our property line it is pretty far from the curve line of the road um so and and it is close to the sidewalk but there is a good amount of Green Space up into the road so um could could one of you explain or show us some visuals what are we looking at what is other than we know what the stanions look like so to speak but what is the electrical apparat like how tall is a Transformer like those types of things do you have that information you can share with us I don't have them printed out in the large General description yeah the Transformers are those large green boxes that you may see alongs side buildings so they're typical they're 2 and 1/2 ft tall something like that 2 and 1 half to 3 ft tall maybe 3x3 4x4 on a concrete pad corre and then all of the service equipment will be on a pad with EMT racking holding up all the panels and that may be 00 service that may be four 5T tall the panel EMT so that's the metal strut right metal strut racking that you seen it has the little holes I know so that's what you will see typically it's not very attractive looking so there is some buffering and we can get into that but that's so how high would that be how tall would that be I have to get your exact specs but roughly about 4 and 1/2 to 5 ft at the tallest panel at the 480 panel um it we have a Step Down Transformer there which is about 2 and 1/2 foot Cube if you would and then that will feed a 208 panel which will be 4 feet yeah they would all be at level to be serviced you know they would be like is there anything exposed or anything concerning for the community wires or panels that can open or nothing along everything will be locked um everything will be in conduit PVC nothing will be accessible to the gener thank you um any more questions on this the next plan I will show is the screening as we discussed justly um so also at the recommendation of the board previously we add screens here um the engineer recommended to swap some of the um some of the variety PLS which we have absolutely no problem doing office make sure we get what we need but um yeah we're just proposing some screening just to you know screen the unist that we talked about Transformer things like that but we're open to to do what the board wishes as far as that goes why did you decide to put the handicaps but with the bad Chargers uh with the slower charges the answer we didn't really want to waste a fast charger spot with the Ada um so that more people can use the fast charges than the level twos it's a numbers there's less handicap people than non handic quite a big for now's that for um I mean an a handicapped person could use any of this yeah right that was yeah it just a non-handicapped person couldn't use the other one if it had it if it were full how is this service there's no need to get up on the concrete or on sidewalk it's service directly from the parking lot so if you are Ada correct uh you could just walk up to the front of the unit or wheel up to the front of the unit there's no need to get up onto an 8 ramp or sidewalk so really all these spaces would serve with the exception of the van space which would need the wider that striped areas for a b accessible I think that's all the interesting sheets to talk about and the plants you're putting they're going to stay six foot high or they going to get taller than there you tell me what you think no I'm I'm trying to figure out what is I I don't know that particular uh we my thought is we keep it relatively low cover the apparatus there are plants that only grow to 60 and they start yeah I don't want to see if there point where it starts hiding this building no no green Giants right not unless you guys if the board wants to see something larger no I think you need to balance it the goal is evergreen tree that grows 6 or shrub 68 ft High you don't think that'll be any issues from a safety standpoint yeah I'm sitting there charging can somebody hide hide behind that that kind of no I mean the site's so open everywhere it's just I know you're good at that that's what I'm asking yeah I think these we were showing a shorter like a a lower shrub right right it's the equipment where we have it on the struts right stainless steel yeah I guess so they'd have to run from camouflage and a SP stuff could you show us the lights where they are there's two double fixtures right at that location one here so as all car dealers plenty of bright it's pretty bright too they're brand new LEDs that we put in there yeah it's a bright light want to do your letter uh sure I can run through that real quick just since everybody's up here I will run through this Kevin as quickly as possible sure so the first issue is uh item one was are there any employ es that are going to be here any additional employees being hired how is it being maned and is it being man so really maybe for the charge smart people it's an unmanned site it's an unmanned site uh during the day is there someone from Acura that who's out and empties the trash and does whatever and check oh yeah you know we'll uh we'll take care of that like we take care of the rest of the lives but it's existing employees there's no one being fired as a result of this the parking impact again officially there's no parking impact because every EV space counts for two so they're actually adding spaces but does this in any way hinder your operation or not at all that are all okay these spaces right now are shown for display I guess they're utilized yeah it's for storage right now oh okay but we have the uh the lot next door that we use for storage and really ever since since the pandemic we don't uh we don't fill our spots anymore okay it's a whole different program with the manufacturers these days are only building cars I can keep the price up item three was the question that there are only three proposed now but six total um so with that uh we've already heard that answer uh the guidelines of the business development Zone obviously the appearance is what it is about and with the screening I think we're going to be okay unless the board concerns with the Transformers orad I'm you're smiling so that that really is the design guidelines other than that we can't do much to a green you know camouflage green Transformer and it's it's fairly simple um the units themselves are what color units color themselves are orange oh they're Orange yes okay I didn't know that so so they're made by charge Point Acura requires these stations to be installed they're on an approved list um these are the only chargers approved by Acura HQ so when we see orange is this a brand then we'll know that's your charger when we see orang a site not our charger charge Point manufacturers this charger okay um they're on site now they're required to use this charger as per manufactur Bo have any issues with orange they different than bright red a wa right just not on St P the next one is a question you have the green Transformer to the next item five is really the question I think of the evening for everybody and it's security um your lot I guess is open now yes so maybe you just tell us about that my concern and I'll explain it to you is we're going to have more people there we're now comes a Police Issue where our police are already taxed with certain places and um do we now have to put more Patrol people out here because there are people sitting in the lot my head tells me that okay you pull up the charge uh there's a baby in the car with a diaper there's the dog um and I really have to go to the bathroom so there are the scenarios I kind of thinking about the other one is uh teenagers can own these cars also right and they can pull up at 11:00 12:00 at night and there's four of them in the car sitting there for an hour so that's my concerns and I really think they're more accurate concerns other than my the police our Police Issue so I just want to hear from you that you are on the testimony that you're aware of the situation uh I do not see currently any trash or recycling cans there and in my history I've seen the diapers and the you know even at the WW and so forth where a WWA Quick Check there's there is a brush facility there's a place for trash receptacles and and how will you handle this I guess so we will provide uh trash cans of course by these charge Point areas um recycling trash we'll cover that um we'll also provide uh cameras that will be monitored uh through a company um and that will help the dealership too um I will say though since we moved to that location we have had no issues whatsoever um yes we were getting tires and headlights and everything stolen from the old Elite Acura location and uh this location for some reason has been uh really great for US Open you can see yeah I guess so couple people just driving through at high rates of speed but running over cars but not stealing anything yeah oh yeah yeah yeah yeah got to start somewhere I I was a away for that uh that one well well see that that was good right I did get a call I was overseas I got a call from my kid what's going on at the store dad helicopters and so again our ordinance says and I'm just going to read it right site plan should incorporate design features such as principle of Public Safety uh through environmental design such may include but not limited to openness to surveillance which which we have um control of the premises which really there would be no control at night do you have somebody there at night no no okay um uh control the perimeter surrounding properties which we really just highways which we're fortunate here uh reduction of opportunities and this was my congregating kids congregating people congregating um again if there is music there are no housing there's no hous neighbors so a lot of these things that initially come to your mind but it's more concern for Acura uh neighboring properties really non illumination exterior areas uh limiting Furniture so people aren't in and and I think we haven't we have none of that onsy so so that was item six and unless you want to hear more testimony on item six oh I'm sorry five was five thanks uh six really was the restroom facility we talked about waste recycling so you will provide something and Stephan you can provide us details and it sure we can add that to the plan but there's no bathroom no bathroom not not at night okay during the day yes what then they could use we encourage people to come in maybe they'd buy a car absolutely so during the day they'll pull in they'll come into your facility and use the restroom but at night it's something that they would have to deal with because you can imagine what sign they have the charge there and drive the WWA I think that was to me the biggest difference between when you brought up Wawa because they're 247 that they're open that there's some of these issues um they have the cameras they have the bathrooms they have the trash they have the people there um so that that kind of I think makes us a little more less concerned okay okay the next item item seven was Landscaping which we spoke about already uh we went into detail with that in our conversations number eight was really some details on the landscape plan and although I don't want to bore you with that it's important when they go to build it they don't build it right with eyes and we see the UN and all that stuff um sufficient lighting U I'm fairly confident there's sufficient lighting but I would like the Africans engineer to provide that on the plan so we have some numbers that we can rely on uh refu storage talked about that already uh I don't know if 11 applies but I put it in every letter and that's the affordable housing obligation whether there's a tax increase for this I guess that's really we'll check just in case put it in there um again site safety is always your responsibility at all hours and you're aware of that uh number 13 the area that charge smart are you leasing some area or do you have just a general overall easement to access this or how is this working I guess and this may be more on your side Steve with are you leasing like those seven spots or nothing like that we're not it's just a construction project that they've hired us to complete for them so you will own you own them completely okay that that addresses that concern um 14's just a general statement and 15 is just asking that they make the revision so again fairly straightforward but I think we have to put some of these things on the record just to cover ourselves and actually to make sure that he understands what he's getting into because not everyone that comes here knows what getting into and I'm not saying that to uh speak poorly in any way but some people just don't and we try to identify that but you don't think Tom that that'll create any issues people say that for a half an hour I don't think so honestly I don't know how much these charging stations are going to be used um because there's so many other charging stations that are more convenient than this um W now are all getting charging stations they go use the bathroom they can eat they can do whatever they want um so um I I don't I don't really think we're going to see that much service department yeah Park some cars not a destination I don't you know I mean if if you know somebody needed a charging station and you know you might be surprised once it gets put on the app yeah could be you cuz like Kohl's is hidden the one at Kohl's is hidden and any time I've taken my w car there there's been people there yeah yeah yeah but I don't think it's going to be an issue um whatsoever that was my only concern looking at it I really want somebody in my dealership at 3: in the morning you know for 45 minutes yeah true they up to no good you know what I mean yeah that's the way we got to think nowaday yeah I understand that too but I think the price of these electric cars and you know what people pay there and there's there's not a lot of old electric cars out there so I think it kind of limits the the you know that type of person that's going to go in there and break stuff up you know my concern was it's open to the public now but I guess your lot's always open it's always open so okay so there's can I just ask is there a charge for charging yes and there's like some type of credit card or whatever how does that work no credit card but if you log into the charge Point app you can see the pricing of the stations right through the charge Point app so that's how you would Q code pay through Apple at Google pay okay or right through the application on the phone okay and do you charge Tesla can can a Tesla charge there too or not only with an adapter okay because doesn't Wawa have just special Tesla chargers there's just nacs plugs there which everybody's migrating to from now until 2027 this is a CCS plug so it's for any car other than a Tesla okay Teslas can charge here they need the adapter they have to have something tesas are going to charge at the W okay so in 2027 everyone will have the same charge all those units that are being made it's the way the industry is trending right now a lot of people have committed to that nacs conversion there will always be the older cars prior to them with ccs but that's the way the Futures go thank you it's almost like the USBC cables on phones you know Apple and Android had different charging cables than that cost to charge is it so much like how do they charge you by how long you're there or you're it's for the energy use so if you're dispensing say 50 kilowatt hours to get full it's 50 kilowatt hours time 50 cents we can set it to a dollar um it can be set on the back end through um Elite accurus portal okay so roughly for a full charge on a fast charger 20 to 30 just like what the hell they doing electric charge home and if you have yeah I've got I've got a level two of my garage likewise yeah start after 9:00 p super off PE for you charge at home it's the same as one of the little laundry so we used this as an educational some my car go buy an electric car I don't see that no I don't so is there a variance required for the application yes there was a bul variance and is that for the front yard or the front setback that's correct okay what is the uh well what are the exact dimensions of the the variance that's required just so we can have that on the record and just the measurements Stephanie otherwise as you said you would not be here you would have gone straight through the correct Construction office for permits per the 2021 law that's correct or what 2021 I think that was the year so um the charger will be 16 ft from the property line where the back is front yard's 40 yes that's right front yard setback is 40t we will be 16 ft from the property line the Transformer as it's shown on the plan right now will be about one foot from the line but the Transformer every development is one ft from the front I typically don't look at the Transformer it's the units themselves that I would be looking at I think the board uh would treat this as a potentially a C2 variance there's benefits of the application environmental benefits uh that that uh would be Advanced by allowing Char electric charging Jason uh to be installed uh there's not really there hasn't been testimony or or concerns uh about negative impacts any sort of public detriment I think the aghan has agreed to conditions security monitoring and so on to uh to make sure that there is no public detriment of the of the use or the structures that are proposed and uh you know I think we we had a pretty thorough run through of our our Redevelopment plan and our and what the township is looking for and it didn't seem like the uh the variant the application would frustrate any purposes of our zoning code or Redevelopment plans and so I think you know if the board feels it's appropriate could could potentially Grant this as a as a C2 variance to allow the non-conforming front y set back 16 ft for the charging station units whereas 40 ft is is required at this time I'm going to open with this application to the public does anybody in the public have any input into this application as we're hearing it seeing none I'll entertain a motion to close the public portion second all those in favor I oppos question turn board can I make a motion to approve as Steve just said it here's my question second including the C2 VAR yes Steve just read we have a motion to approve do I have a second second roll call please keep looking that way M to yes Daniel McDonald yes CLA wpe yes Susan Danon yes Steve Smith approved John Bean yes Emily Wes yes Marian Constantine yes Justin banet yes Joseph du yes good luck yes thank you everyone and if I buy an electric car I'll come out there but I'm not buying an electric you me both I'll never own one don't worry about me robing are breaking into property 700 miles thank you very much everybody new batteries the batteries are coming out 5 700 miles I won't want in my a yes can I have a motion to approve the minutes of our March 27 2024 meeting some move second all those in favor I oppose have it and we have no discussion time no sisters resolutions any more comments from the board nope I'll entertain a motion to adjourn sub second all those in favor I I opposed we're all ready to go