we're good meeting of the Somerville planning board for January 24th 2023 will please come to order adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meeia act has been provided copy of a notice specifying the date time and location was one posted on the bulletin board outside B Hall two mailed facts or emailed to The Courier News and three give the clerk administrator this meeting is a Judicial proceeding any questions or comments must be limited to the issues that the board May legally consider in reaching a decision and the decorum appropriate to a Judicial hearing must be maintained at all times um we have oath of office for um yeah so I had that in front of me I don't know what I did with it but okay want to do them all together okay hi Brian Gallagher do solemnly swear or affirm I will support the of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States theit of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and alance to the same and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the government established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I will faithfully and partially andly and I will faithfully and partially andly per all of the office of perform all the duties of the office of planning board member help me go and I would like to welcome back mayor Gallagher thank you good to be back good you may regret it but okay roll call chairman of here M vinski here mayor Gallagher here councilman vroom here missir here miss Warner here Mr CA here Mr crusties here Mr Cleveland here Mr addex here Mr aens here okay Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all okay we need to reorganize and elect officers for this year I'll make a motion Bernie NADA for chair any other nominations okay we'll close the nominations roll call chairman Nado yes Mr rinsky yes mayor Gallagher yes councilman brim yes Miss adir Miss Warner yes Mr CA yes Mr cresties yes Mr Cleveland yes thank you very much next um Vice chair I'll nominate dear rosinski any other nominations okay R call chairman aado yes M rosinski yes mayor Gallagher yes councilman vom yes m adir m Warner yes Mr kco yes Mr crusties yes Mr Cleveland yes okay board secretary I'll nominate Jenna laruso any other nominations okay roll call chairman Nado yes Miss razinski yes mayor Gallagher yes councilman B yes missir yes Miss Warner yes Mr kco yes Mr crusties yes Mr Cleveland yes okay I'm going to hold the next two nominations until after our executive session um and I'll move the uh public comment portion of the meeting ahead of our executive session anybody here from the public yes sir yes please uh come up the come up to the microphone state your name and address for the record is mik here that one okay okay my name is Rob Ambrose I live at 204 East Cliff Street uh thank you for letting me speak this evening my wife spoke at last week's council meeting concerning the proposed gun shop opening her words are on record and seeing that I am in complete agreement with her I do not feel the need to be redundant instead I'm hoping you can answer a question for me at last Monday's council meeting I was pleased to hear the mayor mention that the council would like to review and revise the zoning in our town I've read that it is fairly standard practice for towns to to have an application to request changes to zoning when I emailed the planning board secretary about this she replied that she did not believe there's a mechanism like this in place uh I was wondering if you'd be able to provide clarification on this and if there is no such mechanism uh what can be done so citizens with concerns over the uh gun shop opening so close to a school in homes can take steps to ensure something similar doesn't happen in the future well I'm Cara do you want to address this okay okay so there's nothing as far as like the uh citizens can do then to get involved until it goes through that whole process is that yeah and just to be clear I'm sorry to cut you off just just to be clear by governing body you mean Town Council and that may okay okay great so Mr chairman if I may sure if I can just add to that uh Mr am first thank you for coming in and and sharing your concerns uh what I can tell you is that uh the council shares a lot of the concerns that you have as well um we've already put on the agenda for our next session a resolution which I believe the council will fully support that will formally ask the planning board to take up up uh the the zoning behind firearm stores um and and then at that point this body will then take that up and identify what areas may be appropriate what areas may not be appropriate um but that is already what you're asking for is already in motion okay great so so the but it's a formal process so the formal process is it comes from the governing body which is the council to the planning board the planning board uh will make recommendations then to the council and then the it's up to the council then to enact it as as an ordinance so the planning board would make the decision regarding like the Zone like zones that would change they they would make a recommendation to council yes recommendation yeah okay yeah so so that is in motion okay and does that the public would the public be able to I'm guessing that's all like public record like public can see what those recommendations are it will be a public so it'll be like on the everything it'll be on the agenda everything will be in public okay okay I think that's about it thank you yeah thank you thanks anybody else okay at this point I would like to go into executive session so I would ask you all to be patient and we will adjourn to the conference room do we need a motion I'll move to correct all those in favor ju just a quick notice for all the uh people in the audience when we go into executive the camera still roll it's still rolling live so just know you're still on camera and they could possibly hear you on the live stream no song and dance want I'm sorry yes okay yes e br watch e e for vir so e e okay sure every I for e qu e it's interest I TR com e e for now e e really don't y e e yeah yes no I e e get I saw say of she I e really h e e tell yeah e can e ch what I don't [Music] know thank you we're bringing them over thank you you better be [Laughter] right in [Laughter] all right I think we need a motion to go back into uh regular session all those in favor all those opposed okay so we will resume I lost my pen that's all right I'll be all right I got um we'll resume with the agenda um we have a resolution to appoint a board counsel I'll make a motion kazinski okay Jenna roll call yes yes yes yes yes yes okay we have um resolution to award a contract for the burough planner in engineer I'll make a motion for colon Associates uh for the term of six months uh to allow the uh the board to develop a full RFP RFQ uh to undertake um all of the items that were discussed at the New Year's Day um burough council meeting including master plan Redevelopment plans pair share housing commercial zoning and residential zoning and other assorted zoning planning matters so the motion is for uh 6 months to from from January 1 to Jun okay roll call yes yes okay um resolution scheduling the meeting dates for 2024 so move okay anybody have any issues with any of the dates all right all those those in favor all those opposed okay next we have um a resolution appointing the official newspaper for 2024 to be Cura news and if needed the Star Ledger all those in favor all those opposed okay next next one is for we did that one already we did that one so we got the the resolutions passed can't you hear you yes that's where we're we're up to that now approval of the December 13 2023 minutes approve second roll call yes yes okay next we have a resolution approving a subdivision for 382 East Main okay local yes and next we have uh resolution approving the sign for second space work sues at U Avalon Somerville station yes okay and finally we have a hearing for 134 East Main LLC good evening Mr chairman members my name is joh La well as the oper also Z Di number that appeared for S2 that was approved has that time noted ctif OCC part of the reason that approval that wec rean sign is ex prial Varan and then add that as I mentioned number ofal connection application re iterated in the 23 approval and here to discuss tonight as been placed on the record previously and we spoken about tonight again that property is under contract to be sold so our request would be that we could post of those improvements in the event that that contract does close and the building is demolished all that said I'll that we have intend to put on two witnesses the first will beus unless J is the button yeah yeah it's it I think they should all be on but you can you can turn them on and off individually so it should the light should be red all right let me turn the volume up a little and see what we can do there you go the that's max volume there we go on how we doing now that's good I do Marcus Rosenau SSP Architects that's R oos n Au um does board require my AR now he's testified before this board many times I thought so okay so mros what can you tell us about the sign and the awning that were installed so the sign is a projecting sign um metal bracket uh round sign it is um mounted about SE just over 7 feet above the sidewalk which is about foot lower than required by ordinance uh overall it projects about four feet from the wall uh the canopy is uh overall generally speaking it's about 10t above the sidewalk but the brackets that support the canopy uh come down about 8 ft uh above the sidewalk uh and project a little over four feet from the building which is a little bit more than requ than Allowed by ordinance but I think if you look at the overall images of the of the sign and the canopy they do aesthetically add to the to the overall uh look of the building and really don't cause any issues with you know pedestrians or traffic along the sidewalk and is the the the sign is that a brand of the the operator yeah the the sign really is the logo and the brand of the of the operations correct okay and can you tell me where uh do patrons for this operation enter the building so mainly the the the people who are visiting the space do park on the south side of the lot the this this facade that you're seeing is off of meadow Street uh mainly people coming into the facility are going to be coming off of Meadow Street parking in the lot that you enter off of Meadow Street coming into a door that is off the parking lot occasionally there the the overhead doors that you see here may be open but generally speaking they're coming in off the doors from from that parking lot which you don't see in any of the photos here okay so is it uh would it be fair to characterize this as the sign signals to people on Main you would be able to see this from Main Street correct right I don't have any further questions okay anybody have any questions okay next Witness all right Mr Styers did you bring any additional exibit with you tonight Craig Styers not Dave Craig I know and can I assume that Mr star is also qualified as yes um as far as your question I did uh I was able to visit the site last night so to kind of back up a little bit um as you most of you know I was part of the site plan approval for the fresh restoration which was back in 2021 um the subsequent occupancy I was not part of at all so I've kind of been bringing myself back up to speed and then obviously being pulled into this one um just from the review and you know when I reviewed it the last couple days I went to the site last night looked at the lighting went to the site today just to kind of get myself up to speed and if you look at some of the comments from Mike and I I think Mike May concur with this is I think this application was a kind of a a result or uh part of covid we started in 2019 really the plans change we came in for an you know basically an occupancy it turned into a full sight plan uh Anthony redid the entire parking lot redid All the lighting uh Landscaping so it turned into a full sight site plan which went through all 2020 I even think the app uh the meeting might have been online and then even the construction of it was 2022 and as you can see there's a a lot of these conditions have kind of propagated through three applications now and the way I see it and Mike you may could concur is that we deal with these these comments in the as built and the co end of it and I think just because of covid and the things that happened or did not happen on both sides that they didn't get done and finalized um so I think the application for the occupancy kind of got brought up Mike gave it a review essentially is the things still still need to be done to close out the the co uh you know that you can see his comments about the the asil and again kind of propagated into this so what I did was I went out to the site and I took a whole series of photos I can pass these out if you'd like to see them and what it is is kind of more documentation that Anthony has done a lot of these things already um I think if the board's okay with what is out there now I you know yes we are asking for variances but this is a bit of a unique application because it's all there so it's not like we I think really need to give testimony to persuade you it's there and it's make a decision one way or the other um but like uh Mike has said uh one of the things is you know the signs for the um the flooding uh noticing about flooding in the in the area both those signs are there uh the repairs to the sidewalk on Main Street those have been done I have photos of that the repairs on Meadow Street those have been done I have photos of those um I think the biggest thing here as far as the last items are one I did check on the the the check or the fee to the uh environment environmental commission and Anthony said you know he'll pay that tomorrow should the application be approved and the obviously the other big one is the Ada because you can't give a variance from it so um I did check that today I had a Smart Level out there for the most part it is compliant uh you know if you look at some of the spot it's just when you do these things and again might I think you can concur it's it's a pain in the neck you can't really take a spot elevation here you got to take a you know a Smart Level out there and actually see what it is it's like you're trying to interpret between points and things but what when I went out there it was the southeast Corner which is really the corner that goes out towards the driveway is a little bit low so we have to reset that and that's something we can't negotiate we got to do it so I think in in essence you know if the application is approved that um in normal cases myself and Anthony would work with Mike to get these final things done and get a CE and I think if uh hopefully the board will look favorably on this is that not to penalize the tenant is maybe get the give her a TCO and you know that way you still have the hook on Anthony to get all these things done and get Mike to sign off and then you know all three of these applications are done and behind us so I think it's it's a little bit unique testimony but uh I don't know how well how what other way to put it so but I do have the photos again if you do want to see them and okay so I would still like to go through Mike's report yep and cover whatever conditions remain agreed um okay which I think is supposed to be a payment to the environmental commission that'll be Anthony wanted to give it to you tonight but like we figured we wait well till wait till tomorrow but I did I checked with uh the burrow today and I think that it was kind of up in the air but it's confirmed that hasn't been paid yet so we'll get that paid okay um so you're going to fix the slope I'm I'm looking at page five item 2B correct again that's not negotiable that's got to be done so a HVAC I think a reasonable approach to that would be if if the building isn't sold then it's got to be screened I was going to say because we are the well there should be what was the question your little button turn yours is yours is red so as as far as the Redevelopment we are my office is part of that and we are progressing on that so I'm thinking that it will will be before the barel within the next three months so I would suggest just knowing that is maybe we put if that's not done or approved by the end of the year that Anthony would have to put the screening up for the h hbac so the end of 2024 yeah because I think obviously I think that red Vel application will be well on its way before okay so just so I understand as I'm writing this down why that's loud um we're not going to do a bond for whatever's not done we'll just put a time frame as the end of the year and if it's not sold and demoed and resolved by the end of the year then these items have to be done I think we go through something got it okay it it varies because some things may some things have been bonded some things may to Beed so that's I think we deal with them each individually fine okay so 2C will be done uh at the end of the year if the other application is not whatever moving forward approved okay and you said the uh accessible parking item D is I've looked through the r requirements I don't know if there's any specific order that they're supposed to be in if Mike has something otherwise I mean all it is is taking the screws out and switching them so we can take of yeah it's it's they're there they're just not yeah you know you're used to seeing the symbol van accessible and a penalty and the two bottom ones are switched so they're there it's just right what is the order they're supposed to be in so what are we doing with that we switch them we're going to work it out we're fix it yeah uh again letter e there's a wheelchair symbol there the wrong shape again I don't know there's anything specific but we'll work it out because we're gonna have to fix the Ada space anyway so it's going to be taken off okay so it's going to have to be fixed if it needs to be fixed it'll get fixed repay right um the Landscaping the all three trees that were proposed as part of the original approval are there it they're a different type I don't think personally I don't think there's an issue I think we had um there's three Maples there I forget what they were originally but I don't have an issue with that they're in place that's why I mean it's like these things are in place um G both of the signs there's a one going into the the parking lot there's one coming out so there's two signs instead of one so but they do advise that the area is sub U subject to uh flooding okay so that's done um the lighting the lighting is slightly different from what we had on our plans I was out there last night I think it's appropriate for the location um I don't think they're overbearing I think they are it lights the parking lot ly I did not take specific light levels but the only the only neighbors are to the West on Hamilton and they're above the parking lot so the impact on them as far as lighting is I think minimal and there's obviously nobody here uh to the South it's wooded which is probably a good idea to have a little more coming exactly yes and to the south I mean like I said you're you're in a wooded area to the east is Hamilton I mean um Meadow cross the street is a landscape contractor and the other thing is the parking lot is behind the building so I'd rather see the level of lighting a little bit higher just for safety purposes so I I think it's adequate um I don't know if anybody's been out there in the evening but it's not overbearing it's not you know light pollution or anything like that okay um going sorry still got more yeah I get a couple more I uh like I said Anthony did take care of the papers along both Meadow and uh Maine it should be noted that when the PS came through and did Meadow they did rip it up I don't think he should be responsible for fixing that so there's a patch about two by3 that's just blacked out so I would expect that P should come back and fix that so so PS took out the pavers and they put in black top yeah all right Jenna can you make a note of that and we'll let Kevin know because you can see the fix in Meadow and then coming off so it was it was definitely them yeah um Jay's uh the wall mounted sign I think that was there before I I'm not sure about that again I wasn't part of that part of it um K is switching out the head I don't know Mike if we want to that one go for with considering the Redevelopment it's not comping we're talking about a grade right in the head well there're Still Still I think those things are $500 and switch them out understand you're I'm just asking we will work it out so yeah um back to Jay what are we doing with that so that that sign that's the wall mounted one on meow yeah that sign is um coming down because the the tenant no longer operates a reclaimed wood furniture business she's only operating in event space so that sign will come down okay so I think that's really gone through might kind of explains the number three there there has been a performance bond but the Ada there's nothing we can do we've kind of talked through that and then we've also talked through the lighting and that's really it so I mean if there's any any more discussion or questions okay well I I don't have a problem with the sign height or the canopy height because there aren't there's not a lot of pedestrian traffic yeah I and if I can put my two cents on again when I went to the site I kind of stood on Main Street and took I have a photo of looking down Meadow and you know they're all the way down at the other end of the building so there's only one way to really get any type of advertising and I think the other thing to note is that when we came in for the site plan approval of whoever was here there was discussion about putting a mural on that whole side and trying to dress up that wall so I think what they've done with that signage and the canopy and even the decorative doors they started moving forward on that so if say the Redevelopment doesn't move forward I think Audrey has done a good job to get that turn the corner there I guess you could say so okay any other questions Larry that one I can't answer because I wasn't here sorry you were asking if the bathroom needed to be done and has been done y correct correct correct yeah that that the occupancy did trigger the need for an additional bathroom and that has been done yep and that occupancy is 95 per council's letter of June 14th last year correct okay um this point I'll open it up to the public for comments questions he no public comment we'll close the public session um anybody else have any comment uh Ju Just a very quick comment um that area has struggled greatly for many many years to find a tenant um and I think it's wonderful that you have found space that's usable that you've made look really really really nice from what it was um the signage I think fits that area because as you drive down Main Street you need to be able to see down that that uh that side street uh and you can see it uh so it fits and the awning I think looks fantastic it just adds something to the building it gives it a little bit of that uh that that Urban feel and uh and it and it looks nice I think you've did it you've done a very nice job with it and so thank you for investing in that part of town um I just want to clarify so if we do a temporary good idea are we going to attach to that one year yeah yeah because you have to comply with the other things at that point comp yep should be to do a tcco based on the one year of not depending on what happens with the property okay and then I had a question regarding that condition so 2C which is the one with the screening that will have to be done at the end of the year if the other application's not approved um that will be tied into the TCO for one year do we want a bond for that screening or include that in the bond if it's not approved at the end of the year and then not done do we want to have that capability as well I would say yes yeah and how about a time period for completion of the other items the ones they have to do we can't Grant waivers from the signage that other those other things until they they do those okay got it okay fine okay there you go there you go okay um Carrie you want to read the conditions yes so the relief being granted will be as outlined in Mike's letter on pages three and four um the conditions will be as placed on the record by the applicant's engineer um the TCO will be granted for no more than a year uh with regard to the screening of the HVAC that must be done at the end of the year if the other application is not approved and the cost of the screening will be added to the existing bond with the municipality um then everything else is as noted you want me to go through what we de haded on each one what their testimony was on each one of the outstandings I don't think we need I think that's the only important one just to say what we're going to do with regard to that screening okay Jenna chman V yes M rinsky yes mayor Gallagher yes councilman V yes M adir yes Miss Warner Mr CA yes Mr cres yes Mr Cleveland yes okay thank you you very much thank you all right um my comments are that um and and you you've all heard them before but for the benefit of the public um we have ambitious ambitious goals for the year and we are embarking on a path to to achieve those goals and a lot of it boils down to um making people safe making the whole process to do improvements to your property easier and we're going to look at housing so um we're going to get a lot of work done this year I am looking forward to it so at this point I'll no we already had the public session I don't have to open it up again so I'll entertain a motion to adour Second all those in favor I all those opposed thank you thank you