e chairman Adair here Mr allet here M carpinet here Mr mlin here Mr O'Neal here Mr vinsky here Mr Flores Mr Alvarez here Mr Daniels here flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for allil meting I'll move second Cor move second that we accept the amending am minutes all in favor resoltion issue asked comments why are we talking about this now and not last month just came in this came in yeah February when was the hearing last month was it last month or February yeah no I'm just wondering you know we're talking about something that's kind of like there February March I think this is May last time I checked you know it's weren't we talking about this in April and the reason I'm asking a question is these resolutions are critical to people it affects funding it affects building permits there's a ripple effect on these things and I'm just asking I'm not being critical I'm just asking the question we we want things to be fluid and to keep moving isn't always isn't always faor terms that's exactly my question that's exactly my question I I'm old and gray thinking back two or three months is harder than thinking back one month and I'm just asking why is it a more fluid or should we I get that I'm just wondering why we didn't talk about this last month when did they see the light of day I don't know sat I've been sitting down with Brian things and it seems like Paradigm the sit we have hearing talk report recommendations okay we'll do it and then they come back oh we never agreed to this or I don't want to do that just straight up I don't want to do that we always in the hospital and that's what's seem to be happening I'm I'm agreeing with you that's why if we could get if we could get these things to us on a more timely basis my recollection might be better well if they get well when they get kicked back maybe we should know about it notar I don't know I think we're the board we ought to all right I I'll shut up because I'm always a troublemaker but I I'd like things to be done fast and get well we do a we do it at government do do well I know we do them well that's well but but I'm just I I didn't say that Cliff we do it very well think back in over 50 years this board has only lost one appeal I know that I've been here almost that long I've been here almost that long I know that I suspect we are too I I I I agree with you and I'm not complaining about the quality of the work I'm just saying if we got them a little faster an old guy like me might remember to hear him better that's all I that's all I'm saying so Cliff can I make a comment when I look at the transcripts transcripts are what they agreed to correct in a meeting right so when you so when you get the push on that you can't do anything arbitrarily I guess it would have to come back to us as a board to review or or change IID all I have yes asking us my response was go to the already settled form of resol don't come back and tell you I think it's right and I just want to make sure that it's they're the ones that are pushing back and slowing it down and not us I think I think know have approved in my opion iend amount effort get everything right I get this response from the that I thought was you know I don't say basically times done about why didn't you e C long they don't have to go back on of this so I see back and not Compu comp always I think we're all agree with it I think as a as a whole this board and you do a good job here it's just times things seem like it's it we should have talked about yesterday we're talking about tomorrow and it it helps me and probably others on the board I I'll admit that I'm old you know your recollection is better when it's more fresh the older it gets the harder it is and then we referring to to transcripts which I read for a business so I I get it but not everybody can go through a transcript to make sense out of it it's veryimportant yeah well we always have a little bit you know that I don't have a problem with what's I'm not having a problem with what's coming in or going out I just the sooner we get them the easier it is for me to recall it that's all okay that's a personal problem okay so my name is Michael Silber I'm from the law firm deep franccesco baitman located in Warren Township um I haven't had any issues working with Mr Gibbons my concern was with the was with the language of the way the condition was written not with the condition so if I know this was a couple months ago back in February we agreed to not have trucks within the easement but the language trucks there are different types of trucks single unit trucks tractor trailers also what if the neighbor goes in for a site plan approval and changes the use of their property so it was the particulars of how that easement would be written things that aren't really discussed in a hearing setting that that I was concerned about not the Restriction itself I have agreed Mr chairman you raised the point at the last hearing well what if it's a contractor he drives a commercial pickup truck he Parks it at his at his residency that was that's in the transcript as well so my concern was I did not mean to uh present Mr Gibbons to uh to change the conditions I remember exactly what we I I I don't it's it's going to be worked out but I did drive out here I wanted to see what what was going to be said and you know I I don't I I don't I don't agree that I tried to change the conditions or the applicant did it's it's it's common after the hearing as it is in every municipality to work out the finer points of the resolution it's it's it is g to get fixed I I agree but but it's I didn't ask them to I will speak to them clear I understand and and just to include my just so we're on the same page my email to you to Mr Gibbons was was just just let me just let me say say this I didn't say that I had a concern with timing I just had a concern about getting things right so I'm not here because I had a concern that things were taking too long things are complicated they do take time for certain applications my email was only that we try to get things right and that we work to get it right that's that's what my email was so I think we said thanks Mr all in favor iOS we did we do that Jenna I'll move that we move the resolutions to next month I'm I'm glad you are somebody's got to be Mr chairman I have to recuse myself I live next to the applicants I did too catch you next month keep we're going to change the flags on oh good okay great tell us what you want to do uh we have a dormer right now on the back um and in the process of fixing that we would like to put on a full Second Story um we've lived in Somerville for you're given you're going be given Tes oh sure would you please stand and raise your right hand you somly s the testimony you're about to give in this matter will be the truth so help you got I do please state your name and spell your last name for the record Alicia harabin h a r a b i n thank you very much welcome um so yeah so we're looking uh we live at9 West Summit Street we've been there since 2010 um and we're looking to expand that second floor of our house um and the front porch area um and it's primarily because we have a our children are growing we just using the downstairs right now so we need more space for them and the project would also sort of make our house look more like the rest of the neighborhood like Mr mclin's lovely house next door to us um most of the houses on the street are two stories ours is one from the front um um and I think this would improve the the look of the neighborhood so I'm G introduce our architect to okay you stand you raise your right hand you saw word the testimony you're about to give in this matter will be the truth so help you God I do please state your name and spell your last name for the record Joseph prano P r i m i a n o Mr Premier I know you've been you've been here recently so could you just summarize your credentials again and confirm that your license is active that's correct I am uh licensed in New Jersey several other states um I my license is active uh it's in good standing and I have testified before this board so uh so we are here seeking a couple variances there's some C variances a bulk variance and a d variance for floor area ratio uh what the applicant is looking to do is take their partial second floor that they have on the house and make it a full second floor so if you look at their house from the street it looks like a one and a half story Cape house if you look at the house from the rear it looks like a twostory house what that does on the Upper Floor is the whole front half of the house is not usable so the applicant would like to uh remove the roof and expand the house towards the front so they have a full second floor uh in doing so there are some variances that that come up um one variance is for uh the sidey setback side yard setback is uh is required to be 12 feet and that runs through the right side of the house because the house is only 4 feet from that sidey yard so that requires a a variance the existing non-conform conforming variance the intent with that second floor is to just go straight up we're not expanding back we're not expanding to the left or to the right so that I believe that applies to uh the single sidey yard and both side yards the other variance that we are requesting relief from is a floor area ratio uh currently that is at 31.5 n% where 30% is the maximum and that's going up to 4.34 and then the last variance is for Improvement coverage currently the coverage is at 41.12956 the Aesthetics of the front facade it made sense to extend that porch to the corner of the house um if you look at our elevations that we prepared you could see that we we also kept the second floor stepped back from the front facade again to just soften that look and that roof on the first floor goes all the way across so we added about I think it's about 50 square feet that got added for the porch um the intent here is is just to add some more space for the family for the applicant um currently there's two bedrooms on the first floor there's two bedrooms on the second floor the applicant uh is uh going to remain at four bedrooms um we show one of those rooms we labeled it as just a large playroom but it could be used as a bedroom there are closets in there it'll have egress windows so doesn't matter really what you call it we're going to stay at an existing four-bedroom house and we're going to keep a four-bedroom house um the intent of the uh construction is also to modernize the house they have a uh masonry house um it's got very thick walls it's the only masonry house in that area um all the other houses have vinyl siding they have clapboard siding um so the applicant as part of this Edition is also going to uh put siding over that masonry look and make the house more in line with what is in the rest of the neighborhood they're going to um go through and change out windows add new siding add the porch again so not only is it a second floor Edition but it's also to improve the character of of the the neighborhood um uh going into um you know some of the positives and negatives we kind of looked at you know how can we how can we improve the positives and how can we reduce any kind of negatives um you know obviously the positives we talked about is stepping that facade down and making the the the the house look like it belongs in that neighborhood um from a negative I would say that you know you have a taller structure now right you have a two-story structure um where currently you only have about a one and a half story structure so of course there's always going to be some kind of negative um but we feel that it's very minor in nature because if you look at the way that property is orientated it's a very narrow lot which is of course what's causing some of these setback issues the house most of the backyard is facing south um so uh the the sides that are the tightest that would have any kind of light issues are on the East and the West when your sun is high in the south in most of the day you you're still going to get plenty of daylight that comes down into uh into those side yards this particular property has a driveway on both sides so on the left they have a shared driveway the shared driveway has been like that I'm going to say probably 60 70 years since these houses were built um the neighbor on the left I believe the family's been there for probably about 40 or 50 years there's just been uh you know a verbal agreement that hey our driveway we share the driveway it splits in the back they have their garage the applicants have their own garage and everything's been working for those past 50 years um the applicants been in this property for about 13 years again uh all everything that needs to happen with the driveway the parking the maintenance there's there's been no issues um nor do we anticipate any of that nor there is there any change to any of that um touching upon the uh D variance again you know we're asking for uh a floor area ratio variance a D4 Varian so um typically we would want to show that this site is suited to uh adequately handle that additional area um so I did some studies and looked at the rsis for for New Jersey and uh this four-bedroom house would require a a three off-site parking spaces um that's currently what the property has there's two parking spaces in the rear driveway and then there's a parking space in the existing garage so again there's no increase or decrease to the number of bedrooms the parking requirements that are required are satisfied and there will be no increase to those bedrooms so I feel that uh even though this is an increase in area uh the site is well adequate to handle the additional square footage um I know there were some questions about uh air conditioning and the condenser uh certainly there there's uh with this increased volume we're going to add a new HVAC system uh up in the attic space in the new attic space uh the new condenser would be placed in the rear yard next to the existing condenser um on our site plan you could see where the existing one is drawn we' simply be a few feet from over from the existing condenser nothing close to the sidey yard no issues with setbacks on that um attic would be un unusable space uh it's uh would probably have a patch or or pull down stair um but it's not intended to be any kind of livable or habitable space there'd be collar ties that are going across for the framing that would limit any kind of ceiling height um I can thumb through if there was any other issues Joe the basement what's going on with the basement so the basement uh basement height uh is 7' 6 is currently unfinished uh just some storage down there utility mechanical spaces that's that's all that's intended to to stay there um we talked about the windows the applicant is going to increase the uh they're going to change the windows out as part so the repl window going repac with this addition so all the windows will be the same style fresh absolutely speak yes yes and the roof's going to match or is the whole roof going to be done I know that you have the a whole new roof yeah okay yeah because all that all that would be left would be maybe the little roof over the porch but that's it the whole the the existing roof's coming off um the right side currently has a little Gable so that's going to come off to to become a shed roof which will go across the porch so everything pretty much look like a new house when they're done and the proposed height complies with the Zone yes any yeah and I think there was a there was a comment about uh shade tree uh if tree is down one you have utilities should the board want a shade tree it have to be a low canop of the utility yeah so if uh any questions guys have any questions Mr chairman one I I I hesitate to bring this up but you talked about the agreement you have with your neighbor on the Shar the shared driveway what exactly ises that amount to you said there was no agreement or there's no formal agreement um but we both use the driveway we have agreed verbally that if any there's damage to the driveway or anything during construction we'll take care of that but okay um I mean only the only thing I can I mean this is as I say it's a private right issue but I guess I can recommend uh and I do recommend that you do enter into some kind of an agreement with your neighbor because uh it can become a problem down the line and uh there's always questions by both sides as to what what are their rights and what are their rights not so just just just a thought I don't know that you have to do it but you should consider it I just said to mention best efforts because obviously it takes two parties to agree so the other side if you can't reach agreement you can't so my opinion is best efforts Reas that y exactly it's the maintenance becomes an issue sometimes who's maintaining who's going to PVE it who fair share what kind of vehicles can use it things like that it's amazing back in the day when they did this wer problems yeah right right in the old days horse and carriage old days a neighbor was a neighbor no trucks and obviously your neighbor is not front of the board so you only got one side of the driveway here so that's why I say best efforts it's yeah it's the neighbor on the other side who we share with okay so that neighbor currently owned by an estate I I understand no I think I had a comment there put some notes on the plans about the sidewalks get cracked or destroyed to replace the sidewalks during construction that's fine usually what we do is uh we make compliance with Mr Cole's report a condition of approval I presume that will not be a problem that's correct okay thank youbody else anybody from the audience any questions looks nice thank you mybody else no I think you did did you have anything else you want to tell us second floor Edition over the existing footprint I'm moving comp uh compliance with the call report is pretty much it that's it chairman de Mr allet yes Miss carpinet yes Mr O'Neal yes Mr vinsky yes Mr Alvarez yes Mr Daniels yes congratulations congratulations thank you very much Mr Premier thank you thank you very good job just to give the board an update two seconds I met with the hospital on I don't have a problem just make the knows this and then the screening on the uh the cancer side there's a parking lot the uh surgeons there's a hbac unit there uh that it's off a grant that they say that it's going to be replaced in five or 10 years and they're willing to paint it now blend it in and then they'll revisit this new unit goes up in terms of screening and setback but the unit near the end of its lifestyle lifespan I meany okay didn't have a problem with that but I said I would just to give the board an update of where they are with the screening that's just an update the board has any concerns with painting the one which faces the cancer center and years it's been there forever I supp be replaced but it's a little with an ugly stick but they're going to paint it get rid of the rust just try to blend in but it's a shortterm it's not going to be there more than five or 10 years and then they're going to provide an email saying that when they replace it they will revisit screening it because it might be a much smaller unit efficiency and uh we'll address the board agrees with is screening that in terms of lce whatever at that juncture right now the proposing painting I find to be really reasonable because the unit's really old it's not exactly a cic neighborhood anyway I'm just giving you happen today because you know the resolution that talks about the screen that and the Aesthetics and we just had a meeting today on it and they want to make sure the knows fours up against the foundation on uh poost stre that to support it because they can't support it from the roof without coming out some crazy box and they're going to paint the match in so it wasn't on the plan showing the Four columns three columns to support the screening I'm fine with it just making sure the board's aware since you guys approved it all sounds like common sense to me I I I told the hospital re Jeff Reynolds that I would give the board an update to make sure you guys are all good with what's going on and that's your update having meeting with the mayor and um on January 1 he made a he gave the planning boarding that they're going to be re revisiting the master plan and the zoning ordinates and there's several things that I'd like to see changed in the zoning Orin and as we took the lead in the um the PO redesign and revision I'd like this to have a lot of input on on those the master plan so could we meet J August could you guys uh put down some things that you may want to see change or something that might be bothering you I've got about five things that I would like to be addressed in the master that Mr chairman or have a joint meeting again you had a joint meeting a couple years ago that might be very might be benici to have a might be very productive yeah there's certain things I think we're all trouble with like like the floor area ratio I don't think belongs is seable I think it belongs to Branchburg already that doesn't mean what's wrong discuss yeah subject to discussion for me street all those lots narrow they're too small and they all fall under the F they have to because where my church is you have three houses instead of all three got less 8 go all the way down that was part of Joshua field us to call the first in America Second Street still being bu res so these are things I personally want to see and I know each and one one of you have it so we can write them have a joint meeting with yeah I think that's probably a good idea but maybe we should write it down before the meeting yeah and submit it to you you know so that to say yes yeah ask right but I don't you know I don't want to walk into a meeting cold I'd rather we submit questions get something done rather supp to sit there we take a look at we come up with and talk about it and then have joint meeting these are the things that Brian has given planning board theying with us I think we should be uh let's see there's going to be a parade Memorial Day starts at 8:15 on Culver Street it should be on Main Street around 9 9:00 it's going to the cemetery uh plan on having the speakers at 10 o' they gave us back our old Route so we're going up High Street going toop see Museum I've been told to open Main Street to bridge have 3,000 new people over Year we're they going to know about it we're going to make sure they I one of nam I asked you I'll call tomorrow okay okay like