[Music] [Music] good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the city of Bon zoning Board of adjustment secretary lari please call the rooll sure commissioner D he's out
commissioner here here here commissioner elari is out commissioner Garvey I am here Vice chairo here chairman
here um having a quum please rise for the pledge of allegiance to flag of the United States of America stand andice this regular meeting of the city of Bon zoning Board of adjustments has complied with the open open public
meeting act Sunshine Law annual notice of the schedule of regular meetings were published in both the Jersey journal and Star Ledger newspaper the schedule of regular meetings for calendar year 2025 is filed with the city clerk's office a copy of the agenda of tonight's meeting was emailed to The Star Ledger at least
48 hours prior to this meeting and is posted on the Bolton board in the lobby of the municipal building and the City of B website um next we have the adoption of minut minutes if there are no adment yeah if there are no addends can we have a
motion to adopt the minutes from February's meeting I'll move the motion and a second a second and a vote commissioner sis Galvin hi commissioner luach I commissioner FR I commissioner
Garvey I I vote I Vice chairman Panero I chairman dula I minutes adopted um councelor do we have any Communications um M Mr chairman there were no Communications this evening okay so first on the agenda we
have um z-4 d011 Kennedy Boulevard Bon LLC site 120 JF Kennedy Boulevard block 335 lot 14 the applicant is requesting a variance relief for interior conversion
of the existing two-story mixed juice building to a two family residential dwelling eliminating the ground floor commercial use and one residential unit on the second floor thus creating two family dwelling sir good evening Mr chairman members of the board nemu vosi on behalf
of Kennedy Bon LLC for the property located at uh 120 JFK uh Kennedy Boulevard in Bayon um as you stated we are looking to convert a uh storefront into an apartment and with that um first I'd like to we have an additional
exhibit which we'd like marked as a22 with copies for everyone yeah Le uh when the uh land juice administrator gets here she'll uh pass I'm going to bring yeah give them to the uh stenographer
Shield distribute them uh would you like to move your uh other exhibit and evidence as well did uh Alicia give you a list of things she did give me a list count so it's A1 through a22 you'd like to move into evidence that's correct Mr chairman
sure sorry you can proceed and with that I'd like to call our only witness of the night he's both our architect and our planner if we could have him come up and have him sworn in yes I do joseo i z like zebra q u i e r d like
David O counselor Mr you can you can State this mic over here give you two podiums here I feel privilege tonight Mr escaro uh could you give us your architectural background please yes good evening members of the
board a I received a bachelor of architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1978 I received a masters of architecture in community and Regional planning in architecture in 1980 from the University of Texas at Austin and I
received a jurist doctor degree from the rter University School of Law in Newark in 20 2022 in 2002 I am presently licensed as an architect in the state of New York since November 1984 I have been licensed as an architect and as a
planner in the state of New Jersey since July 1985 and I have been admitted to New York practice since November 2002 thank you we'll accept his exper expert testimony thank you thank you Mr Scaro could you uh take us through your
presentation please yes thank you sir that mic will come out and you can take it with you there are six drawings submitted to the application the first drawing shows a an AAL view it shows also a front elevation of 120 jnf Kennedy
Boulevard it shows the architecture of the building which we're trying to save and we're going to be uh following Mr uh bl's uh comments as to providing Mason rehe headers here this is a uh a zoning map and we have the list of
variances here this is the project description this is going to be removing a unconforming use in the R2 Zone removing uh what was previously a lrat is now vacant and turn it it into a two family home which isn't allowed use in
the R2 Zone but in order to do that we need a number of C1 variances because the lot is undersized our lot right now is uh 25 by 52 Fe 8 whereas 30 by 100 ft is
required these are C1 variances whereas by extreme uh uh smallness of the property a the the site is conforming the lot area required is 3,000 square ft again
that's a C1 variance we have 1,400 148 Square ft a the front yard required is 20 ft but the existing house it's at zero it aligns with the other houses on the site on the on the on the
neighborhood the beer yard required is 20 fet and our rear yard is 7' 6 in the maximum Building height conforms uh we're allowed to have 2 and 1 half stories or 35 ft and we have two stories
or 25 ft 2 in that not a variance a the rear yard and the side yard are not exacerbated because the application does not entail any increas in area nor in volume the lot coverage allowed is 70% which would be a total of 2100
Square ft and the lot coverage right now is 100% that is an existing condition we're not exacerbating it we're remaining it the same and the up street parking requirements a existing we have no parking space because the the house is right on the front property line as
the adjoining properties are as well but according to our sis we're required to have a total of four parking spaces because we have two two bedrooms and according to the city of Bon we're required to have U uh two and a half uh parking spaces
however the existing condition with the lrat are conversion of that apartment of that laundry into an apartment exacerbates that parking variance where the a a ex existing laundry requires only one parking space
and uh a two-bedroom apartment would require 1.25 parking spaces so we're increasing the variance for parking by 0 25 parking spaces the front sheet also shows the approval block and the schedule of
drawings sheet O2 just shows aerial photos and some of the site as uh the board members can see all the properties are aligned here along Kennedy Boulevard this is our our house and these are the other houses
which are aligned along the front property line [Music] a this is the 200t radius map showing all the uses within the area showing that all the uses along this area with the exception of that corner property
and this other Corner property are all residential uses so turning this lrat which is a non-conforming use into a a conforming use as an apartment to a to a two family it promotes uh the land use
the master plan and the zoning ordinance sheet four shows the existing condition of this two-story building with a concrete patio in the back and shows the house as we're proposing to have a which has no extension as you see the
house aligns both in the front and in the rear with the adjoining neighbors part of the application is to provide two sidewalk trees which was a suggested and required by the by the planner the existing house the the access to the basement which is the bill Cod door and
some of the features in the front encroach into the public rway for which we're requesting a license by the [Music] city sheet five shows the existing the house basically was gutted out there's
nothing here nothing in the basement nothing in the first floor and nothing in the second floor there are no changes proposed to the roof and then these are the encroachments that you see basically the front steps for both what was the laundry and what was the entrance to the
apartment and the bill code door access to the [Music] basement the proposed construction is going to have a u an area for garbage and for recyclables which is only accessible through the bill Cod door the building superintendent will collect the
garbage from the two apartments and will bring it out into this garbage room and we'll take it out the day of collection a the apartment on the ground floor is composed of two bedrooms a master bedroom with this uh master bathroom and
a SE uh another bedroom a second bedroom with a uh a common bath a bathroom here both for guests and for this bedroom the kitchen is here here it has an open Island and this is the living space and the layout on the second floor
is identical I'd like to modify the application at the suggestion of the engineer we originally had an opening here which used to serve a deck and we created like a Romeo and Juliet Balcony here a French balcony but we're going to be removing this door and just having a
window we will modify the application in revised plans a to be submitted to the board sheet five shows the existing building that has uh the metal rollup uh Grill here for the laundry room and has
uh the the existing doors here we're preserving the the architecture of the house which we find very attractive actually but uh according to the suggestions of Mr plog blog uh we're
going to have a pre-cast simple masonry header on top of these windows on the second floor and on the first floor as well as a seal a pre-cast seal in in the first floor and in the second floor
those are going to be similar to these uh pre-cast headers that are in the rear of the building and which we have pictures for that [Music]
uh this is uh an exhibit which we submitted uh to show where the garbage and the recycling is going to go where the the man is going to come over it's going to bring it into the basement same here it's going to go down the stairs bring it into the basement and from the
basement it's going to go out to the curb I'd like to to modify the application following the planner's suggestions I a I already testified that we're
requesting a license for the encroachments to the public RightWay in the front of the building we would like to modify the a light Radiance that we have with the front lights to be no more than 1.5t
candles and we're also going to be modifying the application not only by the providing of the plain pre-cast Mason rehe header and seal as existing in the rear facade but also to modify that the width of the glass A in the front should match the width of the
outer edges of the door glass to give a wi Dimension to the window Sash on the project as a planner in my opinion meets the positive criteria because essentially we're removing a non-conforming use which is the lrat to
a conforming use which is an apartment it also benefits the adjoining owners since Municipal land use Law requires that there be a benefit to the community because the two adjoining buildings are residential and they would benefit by having a residential building and not a
lat e the negative criteria is created by the the situation that we have uh whenever you have one apartment which is two bedrooms requiring 1.25 parking spaces and the laundry requiring one
parking space that's a total of 2. 2.25 parking spaces but when we have two two bedrooms then it would be 2.5 parking spaces so it's 0 25 parking spaces exacerbated the variance for
parking according to the city of beon ER I feel that the the positive criteria at waste the negative criteria and I believe that the project is in conformance with the land use the master plan of the city of Bon as well as the
the zoning ordinance thank you Mr Scaro can have nothing further can you just tell us the square footage of each uh apartment or the bedroom the largest floor is 1,93 square ft [Music] so the second floor apartment is 1,93
square ft and the first floor apartment is about 1,000 square feet because I lose about 100 square feet here the basement is common just for utilities and for the garbage as I indicated the gar the basement is also connected to the ground floor apartment as they're
going to have like a an area downstairs uh the basement other than through the bill code door has no access to the outside so there's no way that this basement can be turned into an illegal apartment it actually has no windows thank you Mr Scaro I Mr chairman I have
no other questions of Mr Scaro thank you um I don't get this garbage situation so a landlord supervisor is going to be going into everybody's Apartments to collect the garbage on some sort of
schedule no well no well that's what you testified yes yes well yes I did but actually every tenant can come out and bring the garbage down into the bill code door and place it here so the second FL tenant will go down these
stairs bring the garbage into the basement and then it will be the building superintendent that is going to take the garbage from the basement out into the curb on the day of collection so now the superintendent is not going to enter the people's Apartments the two tenants are going to bring the garbage into the garbage room
as well as the recyclables cardboard glass Plastics whatnot and the building superintendent it's going to be taking it out on the day of collect um now just take me through the basement a little bit is there's an entrance in
the front and the back through the bill Cod door you can enter the basement but only to that garbage room there's going to be a a concrete block wall around here so the garbage is going to be completely contained the ground floor apart can access through these stairs which
are underneath the other stairs and go downstairs to the basement and it has access to that but we're not planning to finish the basement or anything okay and where would the utilities be the utilities are provided in every one of the apartments they're going to
be um a split systems you're providing here with the with the water heater here and the water heater here there's a washer and dryer here there's there's going to be a new HVAC unit and a new water heater here for the
unit number one in the in the basement level and the and the water heater and the air conditioning unit for the second unit is going to be in this closet okay and there's ventilation system for the garbage room we will provide
same um are there any other questions from the board yes Mr chairman what's the um access to the basement from the second floor there's no access to the basement from the second they can't throw their garbage out no the ba the people from the second
floor they go down these stairs to the street and out through the street they enter the bill code door and go out into this garbage room the people from the first floor likewise they go out into the street and out into the bod door and put the garbage in here oh they both
have to use the bco door they both have to use the bco door there's no there's no connection between this p and this this is going to be a concrete block wall good evening sir yes just a point of reference if I make on your exhibit
on sheet t03 you show a radius a red radius there with the properties Lots labeled with RS yes point of reference to that what's what's what's what's that stand for this is a 200t radius map and it shows on the on the
tax map of the city of Bon the uses the adjoining uses to this property this is residential residential residential residential the r is for residential the C is for commercial on the ground floor residential on the Upper Floor the one
for instance on the corner of Margaret and JFK which is lot 13 is uh business use these are all residential uses those are the uses it's a tax map with adjacent uses and structures 200 feet radius map so if I may this lot this
particular lot that uh this project is on it's an irregular size lot correct yes it is how many other irregular Lots with the r is residential are in that same area a this is lot 14 of block 335
in this very same block lot 15 is also irregular lot 13 is irregular and Lot 12 are Irregulars the four ones facing on Kennedy Boulevard the one on the corner is also irregular but that's a mixed use commercial and
residential thank you I actually have one other question um are you doing any improvements of the sidewalks in the or the patio on the back no the patio in the back we weren't planning to improve I but the the side we're going to have a brand new sideb with the trees is there any chance to do
anything with per pervious coverage there to help us as less than the the 100% coverage uh sure we can modify our plans to just have a little bit of a concrete outside
a of the door leading out here let me show you so from here on the ground floor this door coming out we can have a little bit of a concrete patio and then the rest to be green area Landscaping we cany pl for that professionals on see if
there's anything we can do there just to help a little bit I mean I know there isn't much you can do with this property and I know you're not exacerbating any of the preexisting condition any of the pre-existing condition I think it's a good idea but you're not really doing anything to help lessen the exacerbation
on any of these pre-existing conditions yeah we can we can modify the plans and and do a Revis submission if the board is kind enough almost like to give it as a condition of approval yeah yeah and then we'll have a a little bit of a patio maybe a 5x5 or something small and
then the rest to be grass and then whatever the tenant wants to plant I would like to have maybe some Landscaping along the edges maybe some arbites or something like that six foot yeah you can work with our professionals on the final but yes we can make that a condition of approval I'd be happy to
work with the applicant once planting do we have any other board questions I do um in terms of the basement I believe you mentioned that it's going to be unfinished you also mentioned that there's a water heater can you just confirm for me that there's no walls or anything that are going to be erected
and what do the floors look like is it a concrete slab maybe just a little more information about what's in the basement and where are the meters for the utilities the meters are all shown up here there's a su pump here but the meters are in the basement in this corner I'm sure that psng is going to
have the gas remote and the Folia is going to have the water red remotely but there are no petitions here this is a blue stone foundation wall this is from the time the Lincoln Tunnel was built as everything in Hudson County the blue stone foundation wall and we have a concrete
floor there there's no plans to finish the basement and the this property is going to be rented it's not going to be allowed the tenant to have partitions or anything there any other questions from the board if not any from our PL our professionals
nothing further okay if I may be clarified because I lost my train of thought I'm going to modify this here and what else am I modifi be besides the header and everything that I went through I'm modify something else right the lighting the lighting yes I know I have that
lighting the headers and then whatever you can do to the lanscaping here the Landscaping the side book we're going to have a brand new side book we already have the right of way that we're going to requesting a license from the city for that and uh the re the rear door is
going to be converted to window a window we're going to eliminate the Juliet Balcony that's all marked here okay so it's only this patio and the Landscaping yep um no other questions from the board I'm going to assume there's no questions
from the audience I think you're all together okay um with that we're going to um do you have your closing remarks uh Mr chairman we ask that the board approve this um Project based on uh my
architect and planner testimony uh with conditions of approval as to uh speaking with the uh City professionals and uh working something out as to the back Landscaping with that I submit thank you with that we'll go into close caucus
um it's tough these old buildings with these irregular lots and you know you're you're the only chance you have to fall under any kind of zoning laws is to start consolidating lots and that's just not
part of this so you're doing the best you can with what what's there and I would be in favor of this uh Vice chair Pinero thank you Mr chairman I I see that this is a unique
uh unique subject here we're dealing with an existing building where it is what it is it's dilapitated it needs tremendous amount of work to it and it is limited to what it can go it can be
there so uh I like the uh I like the outline of it I like the uh setup the apartments and I think that it's it's a much more Improvement than what's there today and uh with that said I would be in favor of it thank you secretary
lombari thank you Mr chairman um I'm in favor of this application especially because the applicant is working with the conditions that we are providing and is willing to work with the planner so yes I will be in favor and commissioner CIS Galvin I'm in agreement with my fellow Commissioners
will be voting in favor of this application I think it's a good Improvement for the community thank you commissioner luac yes Mr chairman as far as all the conditions are met as discussed today I will have no problem with approving this thank you and commissioner fr
yep I tend to agree with um everyone I think this is a great project I appreciate um you working to keep some of the facade as well um because I think it's very unique um so I'll be supporting this project thank you and commissioner Garvey I think um with that we'll come out a
close caucus and I will take a motion in the affirmative with the various conditions outlined by the board for z- 24-11 Kennedy Boulevard LLC I will move calendar Z2
24-11 in the affirmative and a second a second and a vote commissioner sis Galvin I commissioner lubach I commissioner FR I commissioner Garvey I I vote I Vice chairman Panero hi chairman dula
hi thank you members of the board thank you thank you everyone have a applications been approved uh there are no resolutions to be adopted this evening so we can make a motion to adjourn all right with that if there's uh can I have there I'll make a
motion to adjourn the meeting thank you I'll second second second all in favor for