all right welcome everybody to this regular planning board meeting on August 24th 2023 Madame secretary can you please call the rooll Mr Jacobson Mr Bernardo here Mr KATU here Mr Lily here Mr Hindman oh uh Mr koodi here Mr do here Deputy Mayor McAvoy here councilman Roman here Vice chairman fresy chairperson Pearson here uh Mr tenkate here Dr Gonzalez Mr merera here and we don't currently have a zoning officer to attend um just to introduce to the board this is Kathleen MCH uh she will be the new board secretary going forwards beginning in September um she's shadowing me for the evening but she will be assisting you welcome for um and just for reference Marcy will also be doing some of the administrative work on applications as well so she will still will be broadly in contact with us so and she's done an amazing job so thank you okay can everybody join me for pledge flag the United States of America the indivis uh the notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied with respect to this meeting of the ver penny board being held in person in the ballroom of the Vera Community Center the time and date of this meeting sorry time and date of this meeting were included in the annual meeting notice posted in the community center and sent to the official newspapers of the township the verar CED Grove times on the Star Ledger at least 48 Hours preceding the time of this meeting a public comment period will be held in the order it is listed on this meeting agenda and instructions on how to comment will be provided at that time all meetings are recorded those wishing to speak during any public comment period should only provide their name and municipality street addresses are not required please be advised that should a member of the public choose to State their street address it will not be redacted from this [Music] recording okay has everybody received a copy of the meeting minutes from July 27th 2023 and all of the resolutions that passed along with that does anybody have any corrective comments on this SK public participation on the list I'm sorry said you skip public participation on the list it says public participation on d d a AR we on approval of minutes that's right you can the chair has a prerogative to but approval of minutes is e I just switched it whoops okay sorry I like to keep everyone on their toes including myself no I don't want thank you I appreciate that Greg Mark that down um sorry sorry I I went out of order does if if nobody has any comments or correct Corrections on on it can I get a motion please to move Madam chair yes um I'm looking I must have closed the document but um I think my votes were missing on the meeting minutes on the first two items just I just didn't see my name still there um that's interesting because the first here it is when somebody nominate somebody to be Vice chair as he did with Mr fresy he also votes in the affirmative and his roll call vote should be recorded oh that might be the meaning okay no well are are you first one right yeah I don't see it there yep all right this is just second one but then it is up on on the YouTube channel so could you just go back and and scooch through that and just make sure and then we could just correct this and roll it back it into uh one document I I can handle that don't worry about it and then um and then we could scooch it over to uh Alisa to post on the website besides that and that's a good catch so thank you it's my name I was looking of course so it's the vote for chair and vice chair can you just I I believe Mr coody voted in the affirmative both so um especially since he did nominate Dave so if there are no other Corrections can I get a motion to move the meeting minutes motion motion I miss Mr Bur berardo makes the motion can I get a second second who who seconded that Mr Lily seconds um this is not a roll call right everyone who votes to pass the meeting minutes I I anyone against passing them I abstain and Mr katsof abstains thank you um at this time I will open uh public participation for anybody that has a question or a comment on anything that they would like um before we move back into the hearing seeing none I will close public participation and we will move we have no consistency determination this evening doc so that I can skip through F and move right to G um and hand this meeting back over as a continuation from July 27th for application 20224 preliminary and final site plan for one Sunset Avenue block 303 lot one welcome Mr engino good evening uh Madam chair and members of the board and board professionals and then and the public uh John engino from the law firm of engino Taylor on behalf of the applicant Verona Sunset urban renewal LLC as the board is whereare we've we concluded Our Testimony at the last meeting back on July 27th and at that time uh there there was uh rather a rather technical discussion between the engineers as to what your board engineer would need to be uh reasonably satisfied I think to recommend uh approval uh with conditions uh that are typical to Applications such as this I know there was Communications between between our respective engineers in that regard there was a resubmission made by our engineer back on August 11th and there was a review letter that was issued by Boswell on August 18th uh and I me at this point suffice it to say that the applicant will agree to comply uh with the remaining comments uh in that review letter uh to the reasonable satisfaction of the board board's engineers as a uh as a condition of approval um one of those with regard to the waste and Wastewater uh comments um you know we would note just that uh that those are appropriately addressed in connection with the tww procedure uh which is the manner in which those issues are typically addressed so I mean we uh certainly if there are any questions uh that that the board has or the board engineer has I know there was a discussion this morning morning I I defer to Mr masara on that uh but that's that's where we we feel we are at this point just to I'm sorry I don't know if the mic is too far away from you usually you're very loud and tonight you're just not um can you just I I'm I kind of didn't get what you're agreeing to can you just encapsulate that sure so we can go through it there's a there's a a letter a review letter that was issued on August 18th it's dated August 18th by Boswell and that letter I think summarizes the issues that were uh open shall we say at the last board meeting and the letter was written in response to uh the applicant's resubmission on August 11th and so I'm looking at the uh August 18th letter um and just going through them we discussed the storm Water System review the substantive comments really start I guess on page three of six um and again I'm I'm sort of summarizing from the bottom of page two of six at the last paragraph where the letter points out that the applicant provided testimony on pending issues really engineering issues and again turning over on the next page we made the resubmission on August 11th and and then the rest of the letter is really in response to that and with regard to the seasonal high water table comment on On A and B the notation there is that no further action required um on oh I'm sorry on a the comment was that no further action required until soil soil borings are performed which we know we have to do uh and then upon the completion of the report uh the applicant will add the results to the storm water report and resubmit a new version of that document to be reviewed we've agreed we agreed to that um B was the storm water runoff volume calculations um and that after reviewing the technical memorandum and hydrocad models it could be confirmed that the storm water volume remained the same so there was no further action required in uh in that regard um in C there was I guess some incorrect citations which is really just you know nothing substantive to do it's a correcting of citations or notation in in the report which which we will do um in in D uh which refers to the bod detention two foot separation um there was a memo that was prepared by the applicant's engineer Mr Savage um and your engineer asked that that be incorporated into the storm water management report and into the maintenance plan which the maintenance plan we have to do is a condition of approval that gets recorded uh we'll agree to do all of that uh as as requested um um the the bio retention hydrocad modeling uh was was performed I know there was some dialogue as to having that resubmitted which was done uh prior to this meeting uh I don't know that your board engineer and I don't mean to speak for him he can certainly do that or defer to Mr Basera but my understanding is that that is being reviewed if it needs to be tweaked as a condition of approval we will do so following the direction of the board engineer so long as he's reasonable and we have no reason to believe that he won't be um so so that's uh addressing the hydrocad modeling uh with regard to the bio retention Basin details there's a number of items here which I mean I'll characterized as cleanup we will comply with all of those the ACT was address and resubmit yes we will do that um e was the assessment of the existing storm water sewer capacity and again there it's it's referenced that no further action uh is is required and with regard to the water and wastewater System review comments we we will have to we will comply with that and we have to comply with that as part of the uh the tww or treatment work Works approval process in which the uh Town engineer has to sign off on both the capacity and conveyance so this is work that will necessarily done be done in connection with uh with that process and we understand that that's that's the in the normal ordinary course of things so um I mean I if if anyone has anything to add or if I missed anything I apologize but you know I think that kind of brings us uh from our perspective to sort of the conclusion of our case do you have anything to add either of our professionals I mean apart from from the the after the review as you correctly said I mean we spoke this morning if something comes up it's just I mean I would consider that to be minor changes and would not affect the the final result of the flow coming into I mean discharging into Sunset and and Bloomfield and one of the things that probably that's uh when you're performing the um the sanitary uh analysis maybe you may want to um install also um a rain gauge so you may um also measure whether you have um um inflow and infiltration I I into your C sary you may want to make sure that if something happens it's not because of the flow that you're producing but because of the stone water going into the sanitary so you can cover yourself gotcha yeah thank you just for the board's edification um Mr Gino and I were on a call with um Mr tenkate and Dr Gonzalez and um Sean uh this morning and we believe we we closed all the open-ended um engineering questions to you know my job obviously is to make sure that our professionals are satisfied and our professionals certainly are satisfied with certain conditions that obviously will be memorialized into um uh into the resolution but retaining jurisdiction and then the modeling was the last potential um issue although um Dr Gonzalez does not believe that it will be an issue but if in fact he determines that it's a material issue that would have to come back to the board but um you know the the engineers have have agreed on the methodology um on the numbers I think it's just the the math that has to be well whatever I'm not an engineer but but Dr Gonzalez has reserved the right to to uh um to review it more thoroughly but other than that it appears that all of the engineer engineering issues um are satisfactory um from our professional standpoint on stormw stormw all engineering issues Mr merera I'm sorry Mr Mah who all was on the call um Dr Gonzalez Mr Ten Kate uh Mr Savage Mr wasino and myself thank you so just to clarify there are two potential reasons that you would come back to the board one if the modeling changes the runoff quantities to an extent that's not acceptable and no longer within compliance we come back to the board and secondly if when you do your soil borings or your test pits and you find that the the seasonal high water table is actually at a much higher elevation than you had expected you'll have to redo that and come back to the board so those are the two conditions that would reconvene this meeting well those are those are two there's going to be many conditions but of I said I don't want to limit it right but uh if if we couldn't satisfy those two conditions or others then could be could be any condition um then there may be a necessity to come back before the board uh and if we did that that would obviously be on notice to uh to the public and to property owners within 200 ft and effectively at that point the hearings would be reopened we don't Envision that to to be the case but it could be the case uh as in any application so are we going to carry this meeting no uh but I'm Bunch um were there any details that Mr Savage wanted to speak about from any of the submissions that he made he made site plan submissions with a memo that went with it were the was there anything on there that hadn't been discussed at last month's meeting I I know you went into the wall and the change of the Transformer Etc at the last meeting were there was there anything that you wanted to touch on on that no and first of all Mr Savage you understand you're still under gr correct he didn't answer me so say no I don't and and your professional credentials are the same as they were when you were qualified to be a witness right yes sir and you don't have anything further to add this evening do you I do not okay thank you and chair I just have a question on the engineering numbers the the U the pre and poost uh hydrographs and with the Del Marva and the standard so I'm looking at them I see like you know they hit the same start and end Peaks the Peaks are slightly there's a difference yes the difference with the standards and that has to do with I think the peak uh it looks like they they hit the same spot is that difference like better or worse or relevant like the uh based on the two standards I get some point to the I'm asking the engineers yeah we're happy to let Dr Gonzalez answer the question yeah I realized I I I pitched to the wrong guy there I mean it's U the the what happens is that uh the way the two um hydrog grabs meaning the Marva and and the standard um they actually what they they do is they distribute the rainfall differently so um one uh reaches the the pig sooner but also uh decreases sooner while the the other is it has a delay um but when you actually calculate the volume which is the area on below the air the the graph which is the hydrograph it comes to be the same okay this just the way the rainfall is distributed right and the curves are you know I mean on the 100 year the they're quite different I guess um yeah yeah okay I see but there's like no material difference into like uh changed it to standard yeah no I see that and did things you know improve for the applicant or did it stay the same or like like cuz just CU they're not identical so I want to know if you know what's the difference in real life what they they they want to um to manage the outlow whatever the inflow is that's the the end the the main objective of this um so to do so they need to provide detention so detention is based on an amount of of water meaning volume that you need to store so that you can actually um attenuate the pig flow so that um since the volume didn't change much what happens as a result of that the detention Basin they designed didn't change much either okay yeah all right satisfy just a lot of talk one to understand thank you does anybody else have any questions from any of the submissions that were handed in any questions for either our Engineers or Mr Savage a question for Mr merera like what is the whole list of uh what do you call it uh conditions you know do we have the have a running list or is that next well um yeah and first um I want to say that I don't know that anybody in this board realizes how much time and effort that your chair puts forth and this stuff but um it's really incredible um so she makes my job a lot easier I can tell you that but I need to spot that thanks thanks J but in any event there is uh Mr tencate had prepared a preliminary list of conditions and then um the chair has added to that list and I have um compared the list through my notes um and I think it's comprehensive the I believe it's everything captured but I sent it late this afternoon to Mr Ino um we we OB when we pass a a um if if the board votes on this this evening which I expect it will um one of the one of the um blanket conditions will be and that the applicant will meet all other conditions that were represented during the course of testimony and it'll give us an opportunity then once we collaborate on the conditions to make any additions that would have to be necessary that would be incorporated into the resolution so I have a list I think there's a couple redundancies in here um but I have a list of um 38 conditions well no I added one during the uh during this dialogue tonight the rain gauge um so um John do you want me to uh just go ahead and and read them or um I guess it's really up to the chair but uh well we haven't I mean respectfully just make this suggestion I mean we haven't had an opportunity to review all of them yet I have no reason to believe that these aren't exactly what they are every video was painstaking and I was angry at the end of watching every single one so I did take notes from the videos just to ensure that I that if something was missed sure maybe I maybe I would catch it like I said I I have no reason to to believe I mean if you want to just we need to read them out loud for the board's edification and for yours yeah it's it's up to you obviously any resolution would be uh memorialized and and these may change or be tweaked or may there may be added conditions too well I think it was going to say including but not limited to these conditions so if you have an objection to any of these it's probably a good time tonight to have a discussion but I think they they well I can I just I haven't I don't through them yeah but I haven't had input from our professional I understand but I think I don't think there's be anything that that um you don't think there's anything objectionable objectionable okay I think this this is all through my Note have been confirmed but my notes Mr Ten Kate has you know prepared the preliminary list and then um the chair has added some so um okay I I think just it probably suits everybody if we just go through them number one um no units will be rented shortterm for Airbnb by management owners or leses that was represented by um the applicant then do we want to limit that I'm sorry do want to Li that only do we need language that's you know in general number two no units will be sublet by management owners or leses is that good enough hold on I just wanted to make the first one was exactly right no you said shortterm or airbn short-term or airb okay okay three no left turn onto Sunset Avenue from um the driveway and no right turn in U into the driveway from Sunset and that's the main driveway four applicant will add sidewalks along along Sunset Avenue to provide for safe pedestrian traffic five applicant will add ADA Compliant curb ramps for the addition of the plant sidewalks at the intersection of Sunset Avenue and Afterglow a and Sunset Avenue in Bloomfield AV and to the entrance driveway to the site on Sunset AV number six there'll be a six-month review of sight lighting um period the think I'm dictating there'll be a six-month review of sight lighting the applicant will install Light Shields um as per testimony and to accommodate any future potential residential lighting issue I'm sorry I and will accommodate all potential residential lighting issues I mean if they come up like once the place is operational right yeah because we had some sort of follow the agreement of cooperation thank you number seven all utilities will be installed underground number eight there shall be no outdoor grills or dining areas in the outdoor Courtyards number nine the parking garage to have fewer suppressive sprinkles now that's something that's let's Circle nine and we'll Circle back to that John that was Mr 10 from okay we'll Circle back fire suppressions speak was right but that's kind of it's It's kind of vague so let's go back to huh I'm sorry right oh I'm sorry okay sent me you it was sent to me with fewer I'm like that sounds like dangerous okay that that's why I said let's go back to it because it says right so fewer yeah you wrote fewer suppressive sprinklers is what you're okay okay all right so the so the parking garage is going to have fire fire suppression sprinklers okay right that's why we don't have to come back to it um number 10 applicant will comply with the electric vehicles model ordinance and at a minimum have one EV handicap parking space and one EV regular space on each floor of the parking garage whatever would you let me do it okay okay it's and as per um the applicant's testimony whatever additional spots that are required by law on each garage level um number 11 the applicant will relocate the Transformers to uh so as to reduce the Wall height and thereby reduce the SI and there therefore will have to reduce the size of the dog run um to mitigate the retaining wall height the fence on top of the wall will be set back 3 feet from the face of the wall and final approval will be subject to the board engineer 12 um the applicant will conduct a sanitary sewer capacity analysis by performing a 4-we flow monitoring at at a manhole immediately Downstream of location where the applicant plans to tie into the township sanitary SE system the applicant will submit a Capacity Analysis this analysis is to be submitted prior to the township endorsing a tww application for development editorial the applicant has to do that and Mr tenkate has indicated to me and on numerous occasions and it is basically um the process is that the Town Council has to endorse the tww and the tww cannot be endorsed unless this Capacity Analysis is performed so that'll be in the in the hands of the engineering department um and if there is a problem the applicant has to come that'll be one of the conditions that the applicant will have to address and um to this board satisfaction if not first to the engineer satisfaction the engineer will decide if it's material not not to this board CWA way and then to the engineer satisfaction correct but if there is a redesign then you would have to come back here obviously 13 um the applicant will conduct a hydraulic hydrant flow test to assess that the flow available meets the fir flow demand um this has to be done prior to the certificate of occupancies being issued in standard practice um for 14 the applicant will provide an analysis of existing and proposed water demand as per Boswell's letter of June 1st 2023 15 the applicant will comp comply with all terms of the Redevelopment agreement including being responsible for costs um if expenses are incurred if a new water allocation agreement is required with the Pake Valley Water Commission to meet the demand for the development well I I that that we object to all right we'll go back to let Circle it and we'll go back that let's get through what we agreed to so we can at least accomplish something um 16 the applicate will comply comply with the Landscaping recommendations of Boswell engineering and the planning board and we'll comply with we'll U meet all of the representations that the applicant made during the public hearing with regard to Landscaping that was 16 we're going back on 15 okay 1 the applicant will install fully automatic underground landscape irrigation system 18 applicant will provide a landscaping performance bond and a two-year Landscaping Maintenance guarantee 19 the approval would be subject to the Verona fire department appr um loc locating and agreeing with the applicant of the standpipe connections call that was testimony stand pipe the same thing as where the pumper truck connects yes fire department connection okay 20 um the applicant will resubmit the storm water management plan addressed memorandum 05 from Boswell engineering dated July 25th 2023 21 the applicant will perform soil tests between January and April 2024 um at the location of the proposed basins A and B to verify that the applicant's assumption uh in the storm water design are compliant with the njde BMP manual um the applicant will resubmit storm water management report for review and approval um for compliance and if required by the uh well we can't say if required by the planning board um yeah if required by our Engineers the applicant will present an updated storm water management report and system um for the engineers and possibly for the board if if the engineer if the engineer decides that it's material just like in any condition that it would come back to the board okay um this might be redundant uh applicant will comply with the township um Redevelopment plan 23 all LED lumire shall have a color temperature not exceeding 3,000 degrees 3,000 degrees 3,000 Kelvin Kelvin okay however the landscape architect um will well I don't want to say that um not exceeding 3,000 de applicant has said they will make an Earnest effort uh to reduce that to 2700 um 24 applicant will submit copies of all will serve letters to the township upon receipt 25 the applicant will comply with the infrastructure improvements as set forth in Boswell's June 1st 2023 memo number 20 26 the applicant will replace all of the fencing on site with new fencing um the applicant will submit a style of fencing um some kind of rendering of the style of fencing to the board's Engineers for approval just to stop on that did you specify what sort of fencing did you say that you were just going to put the metal fencing I I my recollection is we did specify the fence did you you said you did can you just the remind us so there's it's on the site plan there's different types of yes there's different types like the the fence uh adjacent to the courtyards and on top of the retaining walls will be the shorter um chain link but the fence around the outside we call that out as a board on board you know the slats so it's going to be like so you could peek sideways and see a little bit through I I yeah I guess it's shadow box they call okay so it's all going to be wood or plastic like the fiber I don't know what it's called I I would have to look at the detail but I I think I think it's a PVC okay it's typically but um it's on it's we have a detail the site plans for that is it going to is it planned to be white or is it planned to be dark like a dark brown mix testimony I believe the the chain link black the black the chain link the the uh the board on board typically would either be a wood if it's wood natural color a lot of times it is white but I mean I there's any other kind of preference but I I mean I don't I know this sounds like I'm a stickler for details on this but that's what neighboring properties are going to see yeah right so I am sort of concerned but do we does anybody have any what's your preference on that what's that what's what's your preference uh well that's why chair I said to be subject to the engineering review and then when they saw a rendering then it could perhaps be filtered among the board and the board could there's somebody that lives at 15 Afterglow that's right there he's going to be staring at that fence every day I I just I know I want to make it so so either have it the board on board wood or have it comp it so that it's it's it's more um sufficient to withand the weather something composite wouldn't need as much maintenance and would look better for time main what would something composite right like a but would you say like a dark colored composite I would say darker rather than a white vinyl yeah darker Earth colored composite that's like a dark brown composite would be we'll do an Earth colored deposit or Earth Tone composite I okay if that's okay we'll add that to condition 26 the entire site fencing will replaced with new fencing the fencing around the property will be Earth colored composite that's the six foot fencing correct mrina the perimeter the perimeter yes that's correct um number 27 thank you the garage will be sprinklered with a type 13 system number 28 there will be no Cellular Tower leases permitted on the site either in Monclair or Verona number 29 all all signage lighting will only be back lit and have no other accessory lighting number 30 there will be balcony prohis on the four unit um on the Southeast SL west side of the buildings as depicted on architectural site plan sheet A2 dated 5523 31 the applicant will comply with the Verona fire department I think we this may be redundant on the Final locations of the water connections which are the stand pipes um to the building um and all fire hydrant locations we can add that okay um number 32 um all rooftop HVAC HVAC units that are visible to the surrounding streets will be appropriately screened 33 the applicant will provide the township with a recycling plan according to um Town ordinance section 44 6-9 number 34 the applicant will deed restrict and record all storm water utilities on site that perform Green infrastructural bmps in accordance with Town ordinance 445-455 I'm sorry 455 n o and 45-20 B5 and 7B 35 the landscape architect plans will be revised to include the caliper of all trees to be planted on site 36 the app applicant will enhance the buffer zones by planting additional evergreen trees um in the proximity of 15 Afterglow and any other areas where sparse plantings appear to need more trees the board will rely on the good faith of the applicant for the other areas but there was specific representation that 15 Afterglow would be would be addressed um 37 the applicant will relocate Transformers from the side of the site I think this is redundant right right okay so we'll skip 37 a new 37 will be that the applicant will um um engage or use use a rain gauge to um to measure the levels of rain when Onan system okay when conducting the sanitary sewer uh the test one other thing that was in number old number 37 that we just nexted right versus the first iteration of that was I believe Mr Savage agreed to screen the front of the trans the street side Transformers yeah with some kind of planting right that's fine I okay okaye I had a couple that had on my notes I don't believe got caught in there um the agreed to provide uh booster pumps for domestic and fire water if required um as of approval the appan also agreed that the backup generator would uh sound attenuating housing okay the the the booster pump is is that not included in the fire department uh FAL locations uh no pressure for domestic water or the fire water okay good job okay right now can we make a note on that that it's it's for now or in the future if a problem begins to exist in the future well I think that would be a regulation that they would have to that for the booster pumps yeah that would be covered by administra what the second one you got one the generator would be would have a sound attenuating housing right that's funny the roofs the roof generator right yeah the on the I didn't check off bring so Mr Gino is the only objection number 15 well again this is at first blush because we haven't had a chance to review these with the professionals but there's a few that come to mind in number eight it says no outdoor grills or dining areas in the outdoor Courtyards that that's not correct we will have grills in the courtyards we will not have grills on any of the balconies so there there there will be there will be an opportunity for people who live there to grill in a common area a common area Grill area on the ground floor in in the courtyards um but I thought the testimony was that there'd be no grills out there that from your landscape architect yeah I would agree with the board that you did you did a condition that you would not have girls did she or did she not say and also I think the applicant said no girls I believe the applicant himself said that there would be no girls it's only I I think it's a well so I'm conferring with my client he's saying on the courtyard that faces Afterglow I don't I don't recall that t Courtyard near Afterglow would not have a grill correct look that's that's what I recall the applicant himself Mr yeah yeah that's true but this says none none of the courtyards okay so that that would be the passive Courtyard because there was one passive and one soal active no Grill in the passive Courtyards was the testimony correct right right so the two Courtyards with the pool I mean I mean because the passive Courtyard doesn't the passive Courtyard faces Bloomfield Avenue well no it does not it's in the back it's labeled on the print pass you let me have Mr Savage speak to it just so we so the um it's misl this is the one they're talking the display isn't working but which way are we looking are we looking at the frontage of the building so I'm looking from if you want to look from Sunset towards the building yes the first first Courtyard which will be behind the building at that point is a passive Courtyard wait a minute is that we're looking at the building are we looking at the back left yes that's closest to Bloomfield Avenue uh correct correct that's the passive cor corre no GRS there for some reason I thought it was the opposite I thought the passive Courtyard was closer to the loop no that there that one is a passive Courtyard what is the one on the right side that's closer to AC called Courtyard yeah that one's just Courtyard and that's where there would be no grills is that correct so just Courtyard has no grilling but passive no no what they're saying is the passive Courtyard has no grill with no Grill and that faces Bloomfield Avenue at the top of the hill behind the building that's on blo for Avenue I mean I'm almost like they should flip that the right now what's proposed is are the two Courtyards the passive one closest to Sunset and the one with the pool it's the middle one would have uh outdoor gr be closest to Sunset correct closest to Bloomfield as you're facing the as you're hold on as you're facing the building there is a courtyard on the left which would be closer to Bloomfield Avenue there would be one in the middle which has the pool and it would be on one on the right orian afterlove the one on the right that orients the afterlove would have no grills so just the planal courtyard will have no grills the passive Courtyard is going to be hopping with grills and that's the one nearfield Avenue and the cool Courtyard will have grills correct but the courtyard closest to Afterglow will not have grills I think that's acceptable I don't know if anybody that's accept the two the two Courtyards in the back have a very very large buffer right to any residents or any even apartment units back there where the other one is close proximity to the house on afterno so I think that's so the regular the proper way to do to the single family residences will have no yes okay correct right um yeah number 15 well number 11 we we will agree to relocate the Transformers of course we have to coordinate that with the power company so we're kind of subject to what they say I think there was testimony from I think the testimony was that we should have some latitude there and hopefully we do and if we do we'll just adding that they'll be screened with um yes no objection to that okay at least fronting the street no objection to that okay uh in number 15 um the applicant will not be paying expenses in connection with Verona obtaining water which it represented that had at the time of the settlement agreement and respectfully that's not an issue for the board that is a that is an issue between the applicant and the municipality and it's an applicant it's an issue that we will deal with that that is uh very ultrav virus uh of the board I I think no he didn't I think Mr M would agree with that but I would say Madam Madam chair nice try I didn't even write that one I know that Mr just so the board knows the the the the Township has the obligation to provide infrastructure services and and um water utilities the it does it does I mean um so we're going to leave that compliance with the Redevelopment agreement yes right right um in terms of the performance bond I my only objection is is that the performance bond is in connection with the developers agreement which is between the municipality and the applicant we have no objection in principle to the performance bond it's just not an issue for this board it'll probably be requested in a developers agreement and we'll be okay with that but it's just not something for this board to folding it in well it's not it's not and it's it's not appropriate for the board I mean I can represent well I I we don't have to get into it because you're agreeing yeah but when the board has jurisdiction over a variance I think the board can ask for other conditions that it might not I just don't want to have inconsistencies between what a developers agreement May provide and and and what the the developers agreement is going to C for two years right I if it does and it's a redundancy I I care to say just to protect this board just uh just say whatever is agreed to in the developers agreement right that's fine we'll agree to in the developers agreement we have no problem with that it's not a substantive right uh I think in number 21 we corrected where it says if required by the plan planning board to the engineer yes correct um it says compliance with the town and applicants Redevelopment plan in 22 the applicant doesn't have a I only read Township and I left out applicants yeah so right I mean except as approved by the application I think we have three minor deviations from which we'll get to yeah and then so otherwise yeah of course uh because that's the equivalent of the zoning um we will submit the will serve letters I just want to say you know if received um we don't always receive those even if we request them but we will request them um we we'll have to go back in 25 and review Boswell's 61 2023 memo I have no read it to no I I I have to have our professional team and client read it so I can't on the spot give you okay I have no reason to believe that that would not be acceptable I'm just saying that I've got to have the folks read that um fencing we discussed um in 28 it says no Cellular Tower leases will pred on the site I think Mr msar mentioned Montclair or Verona we have no plans on cellular towers I just don't know how Verona can regulate property on Montclair what are you citing now number 28 it says no Cellular Tower leases will be permitted on this site and then Mr masara ad lived in I wrote it no no it's not on it's not it's not on what I have lived right Nei in Verona or monair or Monclair I I don't know how you you can you can we can't impose any restrictions on Monclair right but you can agree not to do something in Monclair just like if we asked that you not do it in North Arlington no we don't care we don't we don't care yeah um when he's not mad chair I have one other right John let's go back to um let's go back to number 25 okay I know you don't want to go through it but I think this is important yeah um we had talked about hopefully it'll jog your memory Boswell 6123 memo talked about the infrastructure improvements um and it says redeveloper acknowledges that certain infrastructure improvements all items listed in this section 43 itively may be necessary in connection with the implementation of the project I need you to say okay in accordance with the settlement agreement and Redevelopment plan redeveloper at redeveloper so cost and expense shall provide all necessary engineering studies for and construct and install all Municipal infrastructure and capacity enhancements or upgrades required in connection with the provision of water sanitary sore and storm water sore service to the project well there was a there was a question there and again I mean if to the extent that Verona has a a deficiency that impacts the project obviously the applicant is not fixing Verona's problem correct to the extent as long as that's qualified by as required by the municipal land use law I'm okay with it because that verbiage raises questions and ambiguities and vagueness as to whether or not it's intended for the applicant to fix Township wide problems or upgrade the Township's infrastructure as opposed to what's required for our site there's a difference and and those issues are regulated by the ML and obviously we're agreeable to that so I would want that type of language qualified by my only my only question I don't disagree with what you have said but this says in accordance with the settlement agreement and the Redevelopment plan now do you recall in the settlement agreement of any promises of the redeveloper to pay for these no and and listen I look if if anybody thinks that we're going to play word smithing so that somehow and I'm not suggesting you do I'm just telling you that we're not going to agree to langu anguage that is going to be vague or could be used to try to pass on Verona costs to the developer so that that's I I just want everything to be clear that it's qualified by the ml that that's all I don't I don't think that's unreasonable I think that's what it is I know that's the law and we will agree to that um but I we just don't want that language to be construed as meaning something far broader than what the municipal land use law provides yeah um can we wait minute let's we can go back and address that let's just keep going anything else and then we'll go back we're going to come back to this was there anything else I mean there's nothing else that comes to mind again we received this as Mr masara said very late this afternoon um I do not have any comments from you know my client or its professionals with regard to this list we've been through it you've been very kind to read through it and to hear at least some preliminary feedback what I can represent to you is we will you know review it and get back to you you know immediately but other than the comments made at least I don't see anything here that comes to mind that would be objectionable and there may be a few conditions that still need to be added based upon the review of the record which candidly we would like included because we use these conditions as a resolution compliance checklist so understand that from the applicant's perspective even though we have the the catchall language in there which is correct um you know it's it's just a lot easier from a resolution compliance perspective to have them all like spelled out so um I'm not suggesting that these aren't a comprehensive list although I do note that councilman Roman found a few that the chair not upon reviewing the video but we'll leave that aside pump I thought was included in the fire um and then Mr know there's um a waiver your sheet sizes were Max 2436 you submitted 30 by 42 that's no problem um and then two variant is front yard parking where there two spots encroach into the front yard setback and the Wall height in the front yard is greater than 4 feet with the 3ot f I think there were three um I believe the other one was going to be modified because the dog run was going to be moved because you moved the Transformers and you've revised the walls so that right according to what Mr Savage's testimony was at the last meeting there was no necessity for so I think the three that I have and I discussed this with Mr Savage earlier today we have the the parking in the front yard right we have the retaining wall near the garage entrance at the looped driveway which is needed to maintain there's an existing tree there that you wanted to maintain as well as to maintain the landscape the Integrity of the landscape buffering area and then the last one was the wall at Basin C and that had to do with the uh fact that we had to put the fence on top of the wall right and under your ordinance the fence adds to the distance s ft right that added a couple and that trigger the technical Varian so those were the three that I have is the by the wall like in the two to three foot range it's not a tall wall but you add the 4ot fence on top and we're getting to that 7et or above six I think it is so we're just just kind of hitting that just above it um what is the linear footage of that wall is it a long wall or uh the portion that that's high you know it's probably like the 50 Foot range or something like that it's it's just huge really that the one part that kind of faces down did you say 155 I mean that's like it doesn't seem possible because you're talking about right near can you show us on a on on your site plans real quick be show 50 where is I have the side of the plans if you need the hard copy the basin's on the South Side your plans are uploaded on the site revision number five on Verona's website you want to just go there and open them up pull up your geometry we have the plans we're having sheet five we're having technical difficulties I have the plans I just don't have a project I don't have what sheet what sheet are you um referring to when uh delation what what sheet is the U wall this is the grading and uh grading drainage PL at sheet six of the uh most recent set and the wall is on the south side of the building it's near that Courtyard area the one with no Grill correct um so so this wall here you know actually maybe you know looking at that I don't have the obviously scale but that that it might be less than 50 ft here yeah yeah but not it's not 15 ft but but that that wall part that is um running you know kind of faces down towards afterlove would be the section that that you're starting to hit that height of the wall once you add in the for fo fence so you saying from the bottom of the retention Bas to the top there's a 50 foot wall no length lineal foot oh okay sorry yeah yeah so I'm just looking at the height the height in that area the height of the wall is in a range of you know two to three foot you add the fence in that um Jack did you have a three foot yes I have one you have it's 4 foot on one side the close the side closest to the building open you don't have so four foot yes so there's a variance it's seven you're only putting a three foot what's that they're only putting a three foot fence correct not four we good thank so it's the mall that's in front of the Basin yes so when you're on that slope looking uphill there's a little bit of that wall that's going to be exposed that like 3 footish I think it gets a little over three foot in the one corner it's down like two foot on the other we many four foot four foot fence correct and that's what kicks us over obviously and and barely still is there a code reason why the fence needs to be 4ot in that area is that a requirement or I think we could go down to 42 in we could we can take out six Ines but we're still going to I I think just to be on the safe side I still think we're going to have that is that fence for fall protection into the Basin or uh what is the purpose of that fence anytime you have a wall that's over 30 in it's got to have a a fence so any that wall we have I would I would basically say if permitted you know I would be willing to to Grant the the variant you know I would say permitted by code if they can shrink the fence down to 42 you know that might mitigate you know then you're what maybe 6 inches over the height of the yeah obviously gets us closer and less of it meeting less of it would trigger that obviously yeah I I don't think they're that and this would be a black Jam link fence corre which is good kind of disappears I don't see a around this without changing things of the design that probably couldn't be changed um I mean I don't see a way I don't see a way around this right and that's why I'm kind of thinking that sort of The Happy The Happy medium on this is if they can do a 42 in and it's going to be black chain link I guess that's the question is what what else can we do here if this if we want to if we want to understand there cover that ugly chain link but that's where it's on your site I mean there's going to be nice plantings I mean there is Landscaping from the landscape plant in that area we already I think talked about some additional buffering in that area I mean if the wall is up high and it's visible all over the place maybe PR quiet yeah we listen we we will landscape around the Basin wall and uh to mitigate uh you know impacts of the variant we can add that as another condition so are we with shall reduced 42 permitted by code yes is that okay and land yeah we'll reduce it if permitted by code and we proval landcaping correct Jack uh yeah one other uh we talked early on because this property although part of it is a mon it touches a road in Monclair and I think I asked early on if we condition this that no access now or in the future be used for this site through Monclair from Monclair yeah that's fine dire Road I think it is right and Parker but it's steeply slop but so what are the two Road names ja Park we just going to say no access no access to mon we don't want to name the roads might be restricted could come up with different road'll they'll rename the road rame yeah I had uh two that I didn't hear mentioned um the first one was uh the height of the light poles on the top of the parking deck is that a term those are condition that was part of the application yeah those are incorporated into the plan excellent and then the second one um with the um the uh covers between the again on the parking garage uh the covers to reduce the Light Between the decks the the metal grading that th those are also in the plan that those lights would be shielded and the illumination uh is is in the uh conditions as well okay so he mentioned not only shielding lights but as Jack had added in to put those grates up to sort of dumb down headlights that might and Light Flow out of that open side yeah those are on the pl putting the decoratives thees are on the pl right those are on the plant good yes thank you just confirming Mr K anything you were satisfied with the additional space that was granted to the three-bedroom unit okay Mr Bernardo do you have any outstanding issues that you're Mr deal Mr of yes anything further down there good I'm good gentlemen anything that we left out that you might um so those are the three uh listed three or I guess three or four variances three three variances deviations or variances one deviation three variances okay or one waer three Varian one waiver and three deviations it's a Redevelopment plan so the nomenclature would be technically deviations but they would yeah same thing um the de do the deviations require Grant by the township Council or can they be granted by this and what is the deviation two it's variance okay then why are we technically technically you're in Redevelopment we're not under the municipal land use law we're under we're under the Redevelopment law and technically under the municipal land use law you can get variances but there's case law that now makes it a gray area and I think there's an overlap does that make that more or less clear basically it doesn't I don't think there's any Clarity it doesn't make a difference doesn't make a difference doesn't make a difference it's a variation from the application it's a variation variation from the standards in your Redevelopment plan standards um one thing I did have a question about because it was hold on did was there any conclus conclusion on the potential for title 39 for parking in the main driveway that was brought up at the meeting uh in dece on December 1st last year and I believe our attorney brought it up as a potential question and you said do you really want to go title thir I I actually can quote you guys I can act it out but because that's how many times I watched the meetings but um please perform we'd like to what do what do what's the uh decision on that or what what's the Thought um I don't believe it was ever resolved it wasn't I I again I I don't think that's a that's not an issue for the planning board because title 39 applicability would be only granted by the municipality it's not something that's granted by the planning board if the municipality would like to take that up as part of the redevelop as part of the developers agreement we'd be happy to have that conversation with them but I think we should as much as I disagree with part of what Mr said can be still can be condition that you have to obain that approval well suppose the municipality says we're not going to give you title 39 applicability and then we can't get a building permit it's ridiculous no no no no but it could still be a condition of anybody's approval well no because but we can't compl if we can't comply with the condition well what happens County planning board doesn't give you approval well but this is the municipality this is no so I that's why I'm saying that it's Ultra my legal opinion is that it's ultrav virus for this board to condition an approval on on title 39 applicability the board doesn't have jurisdiction over those matters the board's job and purview is to review site plans it is not to it is not to determine what the municipality's rights are to ticket on a property once it is constructed well it's just not the board's purview and we're not going to agree to it as part of a condition of this approval well wait first of all we're not going there because it would be up to the municipality in this situation but without wasting the board's time the board has the right to impose conditions on an application but not conditions that it rol for virus to it's Authority and the board does does not have the authority to regulate the use of the property once it's constructed the board's Authority is is relegated to the approval of site plans title 39 has nothing to do with the site plan Pro title 39 is something completely different I can have that discussion off the Record because I I don't agree I understand what you're saying I don't believe there Ultra baries but leave that for and historically we have done this because historically we've done it many planning boards have done it um but this is up to because there's a Redevelopment agreement it's going to be up to the council yes that I that I agree they want to impose it or not so I don't think this board should but we'll have a good discussion on that after Mr go ahead can we s can we make in because the resolution is part of the ultimate developers agreement we could make a recommendation in that uh the council include that yeah which I don't think I the council's going to include it I mean I would I would guess anyway but we could do that absolutely Pete yeah that's a good idea I mean it it the question was more right it was more about whether it made sense or not and John watch argue we don't yeah really just stop um hey can we take first of all anyone else have further additions to this list anything popped up um you want to see a document yes we want to just look at that I want to close that new end on the uh 25 number 25 so we want a couple minutes just so we can pull that document and I want to talk to our Engineers um um and Madam chair when you want to do general public comment we usually do General public comment before we formally Del I was going to but we were going to take like a 3 minute break so we're just going to take a 3 minute break so we can r mind y I'm sure or cond where you have Ric the the door doesn't have the power to impose at anybody it's a municipal in my fingers helps out some well that's what we're going to say We'll comply with we'll comply with Section we'll comply with section 4.3 the or leave it out you say it's already in the see oh Justa I'm not lying around with the couch nature V can we so we s perect comply section not limited to that they're all outside I think I saw you smile it is back I am okay um M chair SE the uh condition 25 we're going to modify that say the applicant will comply with Section 4.3 of the Redevelopment agreement as well as all other section of theel and any other conditions that might app so if there's nothing further from this I'm sorry if there's nothing further from the board for the time being I would like to open this to public participation um just as a point of order Madam chair I guess just make this suggestion that procedurally um would you rather make your closing argument no no no I I just I guess you're right it would be time for public comment because there really wasn't any additional testimony correct so I stand corrected so yes this would be the appropriate time for public comment um and just point in case you were correct he just wanted to argue I really don't I really don't okay are you still sure about the comment I made about councilman Roman okay not at all I'm sorry I apologize did you give the reaction I didn't I didn't notice so may I proceed sure thank you okay at this time if there are no other objections I would like to open the meeting to public comment at this time you may approach the mic uh state your name and just your municipality and you may you do not need to uh play Jeopardy in make questions you can make comments General as laser focused as you want whatever you would like to talk about on this application if anybody would like to please come up Chris Riley I live in Verona you know what is there a way to move that pole up for yourself you unscrew it in the middle there it'll you just take the mic out out of the thing I don't want to break anything here I think it slid right out okay is that better all right uh Chris briy I live in Verona um I guess first I'll start off I had some comments but I wanted to um speak specifically about the conditions um number I think it was number three that um Mr mcara said um was for the no right turn and no left turn um and I believe you you indicated that it was for the main driveway but I also believe that that is for the service entrance as well for either driveway correct okay that's for either I did say to a driveway you're correct so stay corrected on that thank you thank you um there was one other condition that um came early on that I didn't hear anybody you speak to and perhaps it's in the uh landscape plan but one of the residents who lives directly across the street on Sunset had asked that there was um a rather nice um evergreen or fur tree across the street that um he had asked that they keep that and uh I know the the owner specifically said that they would agreed to do that um so um I don't know if that's something that's in the plans or not but if you can take a look at that as well we'll have to look and Mr Ry what I had said earlier about the all-encompassing all other representations contained in the uh okay yeah that was important to the neighbor I know I recall but I'm not sure that I recall the the actual result so um good point we'll definitely address it okay all right thank you okay um again I been going to all these meetings so uh you know have a lot of things to uh to cover here today um again I I appreciate all the concessions that have been made and all the conditions that were agreed to um you know and again I wase of my notes here um I hope we kept track and obviously we did so that was very good that we read over the list and uh everybody's on the same page there um I guess in general my thoughts were that the the architectural design I thought that was very good I know the architect is not here today but uh I thought he he really um laid out a great plan that built this right into the hill and minimized the the impact on the land itself um I know there's a lot of other issues trees and things like that but again I did want to point out what I did like about it um the other concern that I had when this was going on was the water runoff and um again again it looks like it's all running towards Bloom Avenue so uh that's a positive I was concerned since I'm downhill uh that uh I was going to get a lot of water out of this project and it seems like that that concern's been minimized um still um my biggest concern that has not been addressed is the traffic um you know I I I know that there was a traffic expert that was here and he uh presented some some thoughts and some observations but I just say that for somebody who's lived there for over 20 years and and again I did not sit out there and and you know on a lawn chair and count cars and do anything like that so I'm going to go through a lot of observations here um you know I'll just start off with right now and I I did a count there's 145 homes in the Afterglow section and with 200 more that's 144% increase uh there's only two ways in and out and I guess there's actually a third way that uh you know Mr makoy mentioned before on Park ksten um but I know that it's not a very popular Street to go on because of the uh it's very narrow and it's very bumpy so I'll just leave it as there's really two MA to go in and go out um you know there's a lot of issues at the corner of Bloomfield and sunset that I thought were you know not considered and you know since we're only able to comment on the the testimony I I'll just bring out the things that I think anybody in town that drives through that intersection over the years would know um first of all that street especially on some days in the year there's an awful sung glare especially in the morning um you know and and if you're trying to get out and you you see cars that look like they're not going to stop your inclination if you're trying to get out from Sunset onto Bloomfield is that you stop and wait for those cars to stop because you don't want to get T-boned um there's other things that that and and again I remember the um the testimony was that that up to 10 cars could get out on the green light on Sunset um I I I have never seen 10 cars get out I've often been in the line where there's like six cars and not everybody gets out so um you know I just see that this is going to be a big mess there another instance that I I see happen a lot is that there is a Crossing um I guess for the pedestrians that are trying to get across Bloomfield Avenue you get about 20 30 seconds of your own traffic light to to cross but not everybody waits for their time to you know have the go on the you know the the whatever the right sign is down the traffic um post there where you have the actual right away people go when it when the green light goes on and as a as a car trying to turn left for example from sunset on to Bloomfield you have to wait for the pedestrians to clear and by the time they clear you know you're lucky if one or two cars gets out um you also at times have to wait for the intersection to clear out right now and I and I there's a lot of uh my fellow neighbors that go to the traffic committee and have talked about the bad traffic on the street and the the impact that ways and other um you know apps have on on how people are using Sunset as a cut through street but there's also times when it's your turn the light turn you're waiting on Sunset the light turns green and you have to wait for cars that are turning left from Bluefield on the sunset to clear out and again you know that just all You Know It All Leads to you're lucky if you get three maybe four cars out on on a green light situation and then I believe that this is rated a uh a 2-minute interval for you uh you only I'm not sure what the letters are but I think this is a a again I'll I'm I'm going to stop here because I'm going to probably say the wrong thing but I know that this this intersection has designed so that there's minimal time for traffic to go out from Sunset onto Bloomfield um my point in bringing all this up is that all of the um the rules that have been said about cars turning in especially moving vans or uh deliveries or or even just the traffic coming in and out of the development I believe that the the gentleman who was the the owner or developer had indicated that based on other buildings that they've had that this is not going to be a big deal either there's not going to be that much traffic but it but if it backs up then the cars are going to back up on Bloomfield um it's just going to be a big mess just it just you know it's just a problem waiting to happen here and again you know Traffic Safety pedestrian safety I mean that just all goes with it as well so again I I I I know this is going to happen I know that this is here and uh you know this is just one of the things that we have to deal with but you know just just it's just going to be a big mess here in terms of traffic and I don't think that that has been properly addressed during the course of these hearings um just bear with me a second so you you know one of the things again I as I um think about this in terms of solutions to these problems here um um you know I I I guess there's only so much that police can do in terms of enforcing there's going to be people that will turn left out onto sunset or you know go from Sunset and turn right into the development and you you just hope that the police can you know can get the word out or to issue tickets or whatever and and and stop that as best they can but it's not going to you know be the answer that it's always going to be I think you know nobody expects that um but what we're hoping is that um that the the town can work with Essex County to get a turning Arrow put into the intersection of Sunset and Mount Prospect that was certainly as you know you you think about there being um a lot more traffic now that's going to go um out from Sunset to Mount Prospect instead of Bloomfield and like from uh Mount Prospect into Sunset um you know it would be very helpful if you can and I'm speaking to the two members of the council here if you can use whatever influence you can to um speak to asix County about perhaps getting a turning Arrow put in there I know that's a rather old uh traffic light I think there's a uh a bumper sticker for RO for governor on um one of the traffic lights F so um you know probably it's up for uh for some type of work soon anyway and if you could um you know see about the possibility getting a turning arrow that would be greatly appreciated um flooding um again I mentioned before about I think that the plans have been very good in terms of uh the impact on flooding obviously I live downhill from the de velopment and uh one of the concerns I had was uh whether there was going to be more water coming down um you know I've had to lot I've had to invest a lot of money in my home and and in the property to get drains put in and some pumps you know to um to really deal with all the water that that is coming down um you know it was bad before and I just hope that it's not going to get worse um I I also you know I think that the the plans right now um and I know that the the engineer and and the the two Engineers excuse me have talked a lot about modeling and uh and again I I have worked with modeling in a previous job and um Insurance modeling so it's a whole different world than what you're talking about but we always did modeling that talked about what was a almost like a breakpoint like where does it fail and I know you've done these scenarios that just to show like on this 100-year um rain event that it's going to going to pass but I don't know in terms of you know since I've been on the street I think there's been several storms that are more than once in a 100 Year storms you know am I going to have to worry about if hurricane Ida occurs again or the remnant hurricane Ida that occurred last year um is it going to be one of these things that the system that's designed to take all the water and bring it down to bloomfi Avenue is somehow going to fail and as a result are are we down the street going to you know have to deal with a lot more water coming down the hill um you know same thing with with um sewage I I I know that I don't have a problem but neighbors a few houses down from me have problems with sewage especially when it floods and I think one of the um the neighbors I um repeat his testimony but he talked about something that he had to build out so that the sewage wouldn't back up into his house and again that's right now without this development being there um you know I'm concerned obviously that if you have a lot more sewage coming down the hill that it's going to back up and it's going to start backing up into more homes on the street including mine so I don't know if uh and again is this a town issue if if my my understanding listening to some of the conversation at these meetings is their responsibility is to put it out to the street and the town's responsibilities to take care of it once it's out in the street um if that's a town issue or a development issue but obviously there's concern down the bottom of the hill on Sunset that uh you know it's bad right now and it just seems like it's only going to get worse so um again if that's something that you know the the town engineer or uh somebody who's um you know in charge of these things in the town could keep an eye out for and just make sure that if it does get worse that you know it's not like the homeowners are going to have to do something to protect against this um same thing with power water pressure electricity um you know again if if things don't change it's it's really no issue for me but uh hopefully that as as this gets built that um you know we won't see any interruption in service that the water pressure we have now the power we have now um I know they're talking about burying power lines and I'm not sure if they're I think I asked the question once before to Mr Savage and he answered that the power lines that are on the utility poles are going to still remain um so I hope everything just stays the same and that uh you know the power company will provide enough more more juice to be able to service the 200 units um we talked about the um you know the the maintenance that two years from now I I think like in landscaping that you've got some um some controls in place to make sure that uh you know if we have a drought next year that all the Landscaping Burns about that you know that that will be replaced and that uh you know the the plans that show the drawings that were presented that show everything probably like 10 15 years now you know down the road in terms of the height of the trees and how everything looks nice and beautiful that that has a chance to actually grow and and look like that um okay um I would like to say you know again I've listened to um a lot of the council meetings I've been to just about all the planning board meetings um thank you to chairperson I think you've done a great job um you know I I've I I can't ask for anything more in terms of you know how you've uh spoke up for the residents and and really um you know we're an advocate here for us so thank you very much um from the council um I'd like to think that um you know the developers agreement will uh you know will cover our issues as well um you know again I know that this is something where you know we're only dealing with the Verona property and the Monclair property is going to be what it's going to be and I don't know if we can impose conditions on what they can or can't do on that lot um you know I guess they could sell it they could you know they could develop whatever Monclair allows them to do um you know I I guess that's out of our control but you know to the extent that there is anything added I mean I I I don't I'm not an engineer so I don't know what's possible I'll just assume that anything can be done but if they somehow sell it and put more Apartments down at the end in the Monclair section you know obviously it's just going to make a lot of things worse um and again one of the things that I hope that you do at the council or maybe even at the planning board is um you do an after action review in terms of like the this whole process here I I would imagine that you're going to have other developers like this one here doing um similar developments and putting them in parts of the town where there's going to be a heavy impact in terms of the neighbors and the neighborhood and the impact it's going to have um you know probably learned a lot in terms of the things that you did here and you wish you knew this or wish you thought of this when you did the um Redevelopment agreement first off but uh I think it would be great if you actually you know took some time and and uh did some lessons learned I would imagine over time you're going to have a whole different board and the Town Council already has uh several different members so you know while you still have the people around who were involved and you know before they go off and do other things if you you know write down what you learned and and just you know things that you can avoid next time and um I I guess lastly um you know I know that you're going to really do a lot of damage in terms of you know some of the people who have property adjacent to this and you know I I hope that you're considering you know what people and their property values and their property taxes are are going to be after this is all said and done I mean it it's I can tell you I live um probably a quarter a mile away from the Anon building and uh a lot of the things that you're concerned about about light pollution noise pollution I mean I see that and I'm pretty far away I mean I just can't imag imagine if I were right next door and I had you know um a house that I bought that looked like one thing and now it's going to be something completely different so I hope that you uh you know you expect that and and that you uh treat those fairly okay uh that's all I have to say thank you wait can I ask you a question sure the just backing up to the very beginning when you said that that Evergreen that's near Sunset do you remember who was testifying from the applicant side of things was it the applicant's landscape architect no no it was the owner operator so it was the owner operator himself yes okay it it was one of the early meetings it was um I I don't remember the gentleman's name but he lives in the house directly across and um you know he did speak to I guess that particular tree because it does block a lot of his view from his property Mr Schwarz was I don't I don't remember his name well I'll find it I don't think it was Mr Schwarz but it was so it was a representative of the company who was giving testimony from the operations side the operations guy it was the operations there was an operations guy who testified if we if we look by find when the resident made the comment it would probably we we can find it okay I just don't remember it I thanks for looking out for your neighbor all right thank you thank you very much good evening my name is Ken berer I'm the CEO of spectrum 360 and so I work in Verona and I used to live here but that was the 1980s so that doesn't count but anyway I I just wanted to say a few things about us and and our situation here Spectrum 360 is a charitable nonprofit organization and we serve over 500 individuals with Autism and Related disabilities every year and we predominantly are providing those services to people in Essex County and nearby communities and our mission is basically to help all of those people with Autism and Related challenges to lead uh the best lives they can to to help them with their aspirations and to get them as connected to their communities and their families as possible that's what we do and as you know one of our campuses we have two schools and we have a day program and one of our schools we call it the lower school is at one Sunset Avenue and at that school we service children from the age of three to the 8th grade and the building was donated to us in the mid1 1990s by the pharmaceutical company ha and uh we have been providing a school there for about 24 years um but something changed during that time and it's our students and because of the changes that happened with our students about 10 years ago we started looking for a new building why because the needs of our students had changed the students that we're seeing today are much more challenged than they were 24 years ago and as a result of that we have to have onetoone AIDS for a large number of our students we have to provide a great deal more therapy services so we have occupational physical speech therapy and behaviorists that are on our team and what that means for the building is that a typical classroom or eight or nine students can have as many as 20 people in the room and the classrooms are not conducive to that in Verona and so that's why we went on a search for another building the other reality is that there are more and more unfortunately more and more children with autism that need our services so we needed a bigger building as well to serve more people but the primary reason was that the classrooms just can't accommodate the students so we started looking for a building and after a 10-year search we finally found the building we wanted in Livingston and so that building is more than double the size of our Verona building our Verona building is less than 50,000 Square ft the new building is 125,000 ft and so we B the building we bought the building in November of last year we bought the building in the hopes that uh soon thereafter we knew that there this planning board was reviewing our sale to V and we hoped it would happen soon thereafter so um in the interim to buy the new building because we didn't have the money on our own so we got a very significant Bridge Loan and so during this time since November the carrying costs the interest on that bridge loan plus our other costs are over $100,000 a month so um it's really uh a challenge for us to to carry that so we estimate that by the time we are able to sell the building to b& with the uh current situation and the uh possibility of the contingencies and whatnot that will be required before a closing can occur we estimate that we will be spending probably more than 1 5 million just on the carrying costs for this building that we now have so it's not a good situation for us uh probably yeah it's going to be 1.5 million or more so what that means is it places our organization in tremendous Financial stress and it's impeding our ability it its risks impeding our ability to continue to fulfill our mission of serving local children in in the community and so as a result of that I just want to conclude by saying this to you I really I implore you please on behalf of the people that we serve uh that that you please come to a decision tonight to approve this project and to have your staff work collaboratively with us and b& uh to resolve any post approval issues so that we can close with b& get the necessary funds to pay our Bridge Loan and to move forward thank you thank you for your time are there any other members of the public I I don't think so um so if there's does anybody have any comments okay um then I will close [Music] public thank you madam chair and on behalf of the applicant Verona Sunset urban renewal LLC who is the contract purchaser of one CET Avenue we want to thank the board we want to thank the Wars professional and staff of your attention to this application uh we know you're all volunteers they who give of your time and skills to serve this wonderful Community we appreciate that and I'm sure that your residents do as well uh this is the 12th hearing on this application which commenced on August 25th of last year so I wish you all happy anniversary um as you know this is uh an as of right application for a 200 unit multif family inclusionary development with amenity space a pool dog run Courtyards and other Associated infrastructure 185 of the units will be market rate and 15 will be affordable housing units we're seeking one waiver and that is to increase the plan sheet size from 24x 36 to 30X 42 which we note um that Boswell in its June 1 2023 report takes no issue with that request additionally we have three technical non-conformities or variances which we spoke of earlier one parking in the front yard which will provide the applicant with about three additional surface parking spaces that was discussed at length during the proceedings two was the retaining wall near the garage entrance at the Loop driveway which is needed to retain the existing tree and maintain the landscape buffer area again that was discussed at length and three was the wall at B C because of the fence on top of the wall which we've also discussed previously and also this evening you also know that this project arises out of the affordable housing settlement agreement between the township of Verona and the current owner Spectrum 360 LLC that settlement agreement has been entered into the record of this hearing in section four of that settlement agreement the township of Verona agreed that the property which is the subject of this application is suitable and developable for this project section 14 of the settlement agreement provides that the township of Verona including this planning board shall cooperate with the applicant to secure all approvals for the project the township of Verona entered into a Redevelopment agreement with the applicant which is also part of the record that agreement requires a payment of $3,250,000 to Verona's affordable housing trust fund to benefit Verona taxpayers by reducing the cost of Municipal financed affordable housing in town which I think is probably in close proximity to this building if I uh am not mistaken this provision was heavily negotiated by the township Council to assist Verona taxpayers reduced the cost of Verona's financial obligation to construct affordable housing and to reduce development on this site the site will also provide a substantial tax rable for Verona over and above what it does today and will benefit Verona taxpayers and as you know the alternative to this project was 300 units on this site with no payment to Verona's affordable housing trust fund and we know that's not Verona's preference I will not uh provide a detailed overview of the hearing suffice it to say that you've heard extensive testimony from our Witnesses I believe we've answered addressed all of your questions uh and we've addressed the issues raised by your professionals there are many conditions of approval uh all of which will be set forth ultimately in a written resolution uh of approval hopefully adopted by the board I know that the applicant is excited about this project I hope that you have come to appreciate that this is a First Rate best-in-class developer in manager of luxury rental properties we know that change can be difficult particularly in such a beautiful and wellestablished neighborhood I think the applicant appreciates that and is why the applicant will develop a very high-end product the demographic of which will be renters for the market rate units Renters of choice not of necessity we believe that the community will come to view this development as adding to the beauty and Prestige of this treasured neighborhood and so Madam chair based on the foregoing uh we respectfully request that the board approve the applications this application with all of the conditions set forth in the record um and that uh that the resolution and those conditions will be memorialized by formal written resolution and once again thank you to the board the board's professionals staff and I Echo thank you Madame chair uh for your extraordinary attention to detail on this application um I've U participated in a lot of these hearings uh and set in about every seat available and I've never seen a chairperson as dedicated or committed to their community in terms of the time and effort that you put in and the detail of the work that you provide it it really is extraordinary and you should be recognized to that for that uh to your residents so with that we conclude our case and again thank you all very much for your time and attention thank you um I do want to just say it's not an as of right application if you have variances so you have to just you need somebody to help you edit because you said that the first day coming in and um with the changes it's not as a great anymore that said um thank you very much I stand by my comments um we not to be argumentative we are at this time um Mr um Mr marari you're going to have to help me out help you out we just um i' respectfully suggest that you hold the board and ask people to have an opinion on favorability or um or disfavor of the application solicit opin of board members or if you go right to a vote if you're in a hurry but uh I think you know typically you start under one side or the other ask for people's General opinions and then uh ask for a motion one way or the other and okay done so if you would like to express anything or not I'll I'll open it up with Mr Bernardo uh I don't have anything beyond what's been you know discussed tonight uh I do intend to votee in favor of the applicant Believe been Mr engo noted it's been a year uh we've gone through it it's a very comprehensive application the applicant has agreed to a comprehensive list of conditions and minimize the variances within the redevelopers agreement so we are legally bound to approve this as well and this is also contingent on the town getting money for the affordable housing trust fund so I attend to vote for resolution the affirmative of approving this application thank you um over the past year we've we've had many residents stand up and express their concerns about how this project will affect them and I in my opinion the applicant has shown a willingness to to address those concerns uh and also the concerns of the board um so I will as a result of that I will be voting yes I would also like to just Echo what my colleagues have said uh I I have sat through many things in Verona and I can say that the willingness of the applicant to work with us and to make it what Verona sees as its best needs just sort of overwhelms me so needless to say I'm voting in favor so a year ago was a you know reasonably good plan coming in I'd say from this year of uh deliberation it's a much much better plan um a year later I think we have good confidence in the uh uh based on the storm water and um the engineering that you know disaster is not going to fall from this naturally or otherwise from the place I think that um a lot of the neighbors's concerns have been addressed I think it is um you know it's it's nice architecturally and I think it's better throughout our our uh work back and forth and I also want to say uh you know thank you to the many concessions and I think you guys have been open to and working with us making that plan better it was very heartening to hear Mr Riley um uh as as a concerned uh neighbor uh saying some of these things I think the traffic I'm glad you brought that up uh that's sort of has gone by the wayside uh these are things that we we'll have to see so and then finally it's looks like a good place to live so all those are the good um aspects that I see here what I want to know as far as my vote is what and I ask this to you Mr merer you know as Mr angina said the job in purview as he says of this board is to produce a site plan is that the limit of what we are voting on here is to is to vote on the site plan they prod the on the site plan we vote on the site plan we vote on the we vote on the variances that have evolved or or were included in the in the original plan but um that's our job our job is not to revisit the Redevelopment plan it's not to revisit the the housing decision um it's to vote on what's presented and you know based on uh the municipal land use law and really the Redevelopment law but M land use law conjunction that because this aside just stepping back I think you said what you know is outside of this is you know I was looking at our uh uh opinion on the Redevelopment plan and and the plan coming in if that's not um applicable here on this vote if it's really to the satisfaction of this site plan then um yeah it would be it would be it is it is as as good a plan as we can make um with what we've done here so I have to erase my no you done I'm done yeah uh as as noted by everyone of my colleagues here this is a very long application and it it takes a lot out of all of us uh typically when you go through these applications you like to hear from residents they live there they know the neighborhood you want to hear what they have to say but unfortunately when an application takes this long as you can see less and less residents show up uh so Mr Riley thank you for showing up uh you're your your thoughts and your ideas and your advice to us is helpful uh I will say you talked about the light timing and the traffic uh in 2024 I believe the county will be doing the next stage of traffic lights coming up Bloomfield Avenue they stopped at Montclair last year and it will include Sunset and Bloomfield Avenue so hopefully you know they'll have cameras there so light timing and and delays or will be delays would be less so hopefully more cars can get out it'll improve the traffic situation there uh I will look into uh the light at Sunset and not Prospect uh people have been asking for turning Lanes so tonight even proves it it's it's good to have residents here we welcome your your input and your feedback uh so uh with that said I just uh I will obviously be voting in favor of this uh the architectural design of it I like uh but I will be voting in favor of it um first off uh my thank yous um the restance obviously um everybody who's been here throughout this hearing um you you know we appreciate all of the input um obviously we know that your homes are in this neighborhood we know that this is a big change to the neighborhood um thank you for calling out all the issues that you are aware of um from long-term residency in the neighborhood um I I've been making notes the entire time uh thank you to the applicant and all the professionals uh I do think that the architecture on this started out with a very good plan um I appreciate the professionals being willing to answer a lot of uh very tough and very pointed questions throughout all this um and the applicant being willing to make changes um all my fellow board members for going all the way through this and continuing to do the best that we can for the residents in Verona and same thing with our professionals we got a master class in a lot lot of things related to engineering in particular about this so thank you to everyone that worked on this um our job here you know we we try and do neighborhood compatibility as much as possible that's really when we were faced with this project um that's what we pivoted to when we started these hearings was how do we make it better we started out with a pretty good plan and then we got into all of the details and by being willing to spend time talking about fences and Landscaping and Transformers and garbage removal and retaining walls and traffic circulation things like that um all of those issues are extraordinarily important um I appreciate again the applicant's willingness to go through all of this and to work with all of us to to try and make this the best project we can I do think that you are producing a high quality product here and uh I'm going to be supporting this project this evening so I wish you all the best of luck going forward so thank you everyone I don't really have that much to say it's all been said pretty much I do love this guy um I you know I I do understand and I am appreciative of how many people came up to the mic from the public stated a concern and quite generally those concerns were implemented into a revision in the plan so I am very appreciative of um the fact that those those sorts of things were very were received very well um so I'm really happy that the neighborhood did come out because without the neighborhood a lot of those changes wouldn't have been made not because we don't live next door to this building um so that is a good thing um I am a little concerned about the traffic situation I am very relieved that there is no left turn out no right turn in so it's just that it will bottleneck onto the Avenue and I did agree with Mr Riley's concerns but beyond doing and putting those um changes in I think that that's kind of the best that could be done in order to keep traffic from filtering down the street the other way um I think it's good that those restrictions are there uh and as far as storm water I am and the others I am concerned but I am um relying 100% on our professionals to ensure that whatever updates they receive will be checked twice and ensured uh compliance and that the system will work so with that I will be voting yes um at this point um does the motion include the listing of the variances motion are we bifurcating everything motion with with the conditions and with the uh okay so the variances in the waiver would somebody uh like to make a motion to approve uh the application give me a second application 2 22-04 preliminary and final site plans for one Sunset Avenue block 303 Lot 1 um to approve the site plans with the following variances um do I have to say the sheet size no that's a waiver okay that's a waiver parking in the front yard setback um are encroaching into the front yard the Wall height in the front yard yard location is greater than 4T with a 3ft fence 7 ft and then a wall in the sidey yard that will look on the south side of the building that will say again retention Bas C at retention Basin C which will also be at but no further higher than 7 ft so it'll exceed the the the height with the fencing on the wall would somebody like to make a motion to approve this application with those variances and with each of the conditions have been discussed you know what and well and as as modified I mean I right the conditions that have been discussed and as modified this evening and with all other conditions and representations that the developer has made during the course of the hearings which will be incorporated into the final resolution did I misrepresent the Wall height in the front yard I said 7 ft but I think that is the sidey yard or or the sunset what we say as as depicted on the testimony and has deped in okay thank you nobody wants to I would like to make a motion to approve this application as with all the comments that were just made regarding uh the stip all the stipulations that we've agreed to okay so do uh Al de old makes the motion can I get a second I will second the motion uh councilman Roman seconds uh we need a roll call vote Mr Jacobson Mr Bernardo Bernardo hi oh does he vote um you didn't certify that you saw the meetings that you miss correct right you weren't able to see them they even took them down off of YouTube right so Mr should be so he's recused from the vote okay okay my apologies Mr KATU approve Mr Lily approved Mr Hindman Mr coody approved Mr build approve Deputy Mayor McAvoy approve councilman Roman to approve Vice chairman fresy yeah no he's not here and chairperson Pearson yes the motion passes uh at the next meeting we will have a fully drafted resolution wonderfully crafted resolution with all of the conditions of of approval Etc um and you will not be present at that meeting correct no I don't are you going to miss us you got to come I hope they'll have me back to moristown it's been about a year since I've been there I'm their board attorne I think I'll be in moristown next month but you know we'll figure it out we'll send you a copy okay thank you someone will be here I'm sure Mr orth will be here and and we will draft the resolution and Mr or Mr enino have an opportunity to review it it'll be probably co-authored and realistically because it's not going to be uh a simple task okay um with that do we have any new business but a happy birthday to our scenographer who spent the birthday that's it happy birthday what dedication do we have a stenographer or do they they do motion to adjourn thank you all very much I I don't know who I made a motion you seconded all members God what what happens if um you know we didn't properly close the meeting is it ongoing like is there is there Meer like do we get paid right it's like oh the meeting is never ended we have to go back we went home right