[Music] all right good all right good evening Township of Edison zoning Board of adjustments regular special meeting today on February 25th is now in
session adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice published in the home news in in Tribune on December 13th 2024 and has been posted in the main
lobby of the municipal complex on December 18th 2024 please join me in the pledge of allegiance to flag flag the United States of America stand Nation
liy and justice for all okay i' like to uh welcome Doug Schneider as a new member welcome Doug thank you chairman okay and also um Mr uh Kyle back he's got reappointed
all right thank you all right Madame secretary roll call please Mr Carly here Mr bno here Miss Shaw here Mr aat here Mr chabra here Mr Sero here Mr
Patel here Mr Schneider here Mr D here Mr sadada here and vice chair Gorman yes here thank you okay look to um do the approval of the meeting minutes on January 28
2025 in a motion motion approve second okay roll call please Mr chabra yes to the motion Mr Schneider abstain
Mr Patel yes to the mo Mr sadad yes to the mo and vice chairman yes thank you we're still having difficulty with the YouTube live no technical difficulties we're having technical difficulties with the YouTube live just to make everyone aware
of that and also there's an executive session that we're going to uh propose settlement for z15 d222 American outdoor that we're going to do at the end of the meeting okay and then here so the announcements
uh good evening ladies and gentlemen this is a u regular meeting of the township of Edison Zoning Board of adjustments the board is composed of Edison Township residents appointed by the municipal count IL will volunteer their time and service to the board the municipal land use Law requires that
members successively complete a land use training course administrated by New Jersey Department of Community Affairs this board also holds in-house training conducted by our board professionals the board abides by the provisions of the municipal land use law in addition to
our board's bylaws the zoning board is a quasi judicial land use board which differs from the township Landing board under the municipal land use law board members are required to be impartial or not allowed to discuss any case prior to
being considered at hearing all applicants will have the opportunity to present their case before the board along with the opportunity for board members and board professionals to question the applicant and the witnesses at the conclusion of the applicant's presentation of their case the case will
be open to the public residents within 200 ft of the subject property will be heard followed by the residents outside of 200 ft all residents will be sworn in they will Pro provide their name and address and they will be given six minutes to comment on the application being
considered without the opportunity for rebuttal residents may ask questions of the applicant the applicants professionals and board professionals the board requests that these questions are asked prior to any commentary being made on the application once the
commentary Begins the resident timer Begins the applicant will also be allows the opportunity to cross-examine of their witness under the law the chair is allowed to stop any commentary which is repetitive or an attempt to Fuster the board further the chair is allowed to
stop any commentary that is irrelevant to the case or prohibit it from the board's consideration once the public portion is closed all public comments are ended unless new testimony is provided presented by the applicant following the
closure of the public portion the have the right of summation of their application following the summation the case will go to the board for a decision this procedure has been followed by the board and similar to procedures by Follow by Boards of adjustments
Statewide the municipal land use Law requires the board to engage in a balancing act and not required to strictly aere apply Township ordinance ordinances zoning plan or master plan as a board of adjustment Vari variations are when
appropriate necessarily following all legal considerations and has been case with prior boards the board will see that where we are at at the session around 10:30 p.m. I ask that all applicants professionals and residents show respect to each other and be civil throughout
all proceedings I ask that you withhold Applause booing or interrupt anyone while they're speaking the chair will not tolerate any opur by applicants professionals or public furthermore since most cases are being recorded by a court reporter I ask that speakers do
not speak over one another Madam Secretary first case on the agenda [Music] please okay sorry about that um case number um is going to be carried case number Z
02-2020 Lam more advertising of pen LLC 81 and 101 US Highway 1 is going to be carried to April 22nd 2025 and no notice will be this is the notice there will be no additional public
notice Madam Secretary first case on the agenda case number z17 2022 Bola Oil Corporation at 386 Route 1 applicant is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval and seeking bulk and use variances for use of retail and fuel
sales standards have not been met in accordance with the master plan exist in fuel station is not a permitted use in the RB zone max impervious coverage required is 40% proposed is 65% side yard setback required is 6 feet proposed is Zer feet in the RB Zone affected
property is located in both GHB and RB Zone designated as block number 240 Lot number 1.02 on the Edison Township tax map all noticing paperwork is in order thank you good evening Mr chairman members of the board my name is Duncan
Prime from the firm of prime tuell and melli you will recall my partner Jason tuell and our project team uh were here back in December and January uh for two public hearings on this application uh to very quickly reorient
the board this is a site on Route One North and Russell Avenue there is an existing Sonoco Gas station with an accessory building on site that accessory building is used as a service station or garage type use
as you heard in extensive testimony back in December and January our proposal is to upgrade and modernize the site with a renovation of the service station building to a brand new convenience store and Tim Horton's Cafe and an
upgrade to the existing fuel service operation uh you will recall that our site is split zoned roughly 80% of the properties in your gbh business zoning district and a smaller portion roughly
20% is in the RB residential Zone before the conclusion of last month's meeting we had the opportunity to finish our direct testimony answer questions from the board from the professional staff and from the public
before I turn it back over to the board I'd like to hit on a a few couple key points here uh in summation of our application first and I think the most important takeaway with this application is how much we're improving the existing site we are improving the on-site
lighting with a brand new lighting plan featuring new shielded LED fixtures we are decreasing the impervious coverage existing on site today by almost 1700 square ft we are reducing disturbance in the residential
zoning portion of this site and while reducing the disturbance we're adding and enhancing the buffer between the residential and the commercial we're adding a brand new fence on the property that is a minimum of 8 ft in height there's discussion at
the last meeting which we agreed to if we can work it out with your board professionals to make that fence 12 feet in height for privacy of the residents we are improving the on-site storm water management we have agreed to restrict deliveries onsite they get deliveries
now at all hours of the night we've agreed to restrict them from the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. and have agreed to completely restrict tractor trailers delivering on site uh finally at the last meeting we took what was the board's we felt was
the board's biggest concern which was The Proposal of the high-speed diesel at two pumps and we eliminated it from our proposal and our plan as you recall we have now opted to pursue the low-flow diesel on those two pumps which is permitted by your
code considering all of these improvements uh in addition to the justification you heard from our professional planner last month as to the positive and negative criteria and factoring in the aesthetic improvements and bringing this site into conformance more conformance with your code uh we
are very comfortable putting forward this application before you tonight for consideration and hopefully approval thank you thank you you're welcome with that I have no further case the case was closed I believe the public was portion was closed happy to answer any questions the
board has okay and you'll provide the training to the staff about no trucks allowed absolutely we not only that we'll sign it we'll agree to put no tractor trailer signage up on site in addition to the the training yes
okay okay thank you you're welcome what's the board's pleasure here Mr chair i' like to make a motion go ahead I'd like to make a motion to approve the application um application case z172
22 um the applicant meets all positive and negative criterias with the following conditions to be set forth uh no negative visual impacts uh proper signage on Route One prohibiting tractor trailers and truck fueling uh we also set forth the
condition for employees to be trained um on turning away and prohibiting the diesel fuel and circulating the traffic through on the site and lastly the delivery time set forth for 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. um Additionally the applicant
will comply with the Delaware veriton engineering report as well as the big null planning report um provided those conditions are acceptable to the applicant thank you and and all other conditions of record that is correct and acceptable Shin make the
motion is there a second second okay Krishna second it a discussion any discussion roll call please Mr ser yes on the motion Mr chabra yes the motion Mr Schneider yes Mr Patel yes on
the motion Mr de yes on the motion Mr sadaha yes on the motion and vice chair Gorman yes on the motion this is approved motion carries thank you very much always a good luck thanks Mich okay next case
please case number z25 2024 Brian kagansky at 17 n wood Road East applicant is seeking bulk and use variances to construct a second story addition to the existing single family dwelling the following standards have not been met maximum F required is0 44
proposed is 46 front yard setback required is 25 ft proposed is 20 20 combined side yard setback required is 18 ft proposed is 17.1 affected property is located in the RB Zone designated as block number 1104
Lot number 28 on the Edison Township tax map all noticing paperwork is in order okay thank you state your name please Brian killer jany okay swear sir would you raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to
help you God I do okay and I see you have with you a professional that's correct sir would you raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth to help you God yes I do and state your full name for the record yes Paul J Fletcher be here to testify as a
professional planner all your licenses are in order and updated my professional planning licens is in order yes thank you all right so my name is Brian KJ jansy I'm the homeowner on 17 Norwood East um we're proposing here um to build
up on our home uh been a lifelong as Edison resident since birth along with my fiance what we are looking to do is to outfit our home for our future family be lifelong residents I am a firefighter here in town as well and she works for
Robert Wood Barnabas health systems on my behalf speaking for me is going to be Mr Paul Fletcher of Fletcher engineering to go over the details of the project goad Mr Fletcher yes thank you the subject property uh Mr Fletcher could you bring
the microphone close to you thank you yes the subject property uh lot 28 in Block 1104 uh it's 17 East nlood Avenue it's located in the RB single family residential Zone it's currently improved
by a 1story frame dwelling uh also with a a driveway uh small shed behind the house uh the applicant proposes to uh remove that shed
uh put a second story on the existing building uh put a small addition 14 by 10' 8 in uh behind uh the foundation on the right side and make that a two-story addition
so this will effectively end up being a two-story home he's also proposing a uh about a 4ot wide covered porch across the front of the property uh he'll also be putting a new driveway in uh to the
garage area there's a number of variances associated with the application uh firstly there's a number of existing conditions uh the RB Zone requires 7500 ft for lot area uh the subject property has
6,728 31 so it's undersized uh as an existing condition uh minimum lot width 75 5 is required the existing lot with the 61.1 two minimum lot
depth required is 100 existing is 98.02% back of 17.1 where 18 is required the applicant uh because of the uh dimensions and size
of the the hom he's proposing uh requires uh several variances to allow this construction to happen uh firstly because of the uh porch being added to the front there's a a front yard violation uh to the to the
roof of the porch uh where 20.2 ft is proposed versus the 25 required uh we are complying with regards to lot coverage by building we're at 23% allowed is 23
uh we're recognizing a a variance for Combined setback because we're going up so the second story is uh the first story is already non-conforming uh however the the Second Story will also be non-conforming so we
we've identified a variance for the combined setback of 17.1 versus required 18 uh lastly there's an F violation the allowable F in this zone is
044 uh our uh total square footage including the garage is 3104 uh which is 046 so that's a uh an increase of 2% over the allowable F uh I would point
out to the board uh that were this a conforming uh size lot of 7500 Square ft uh the calculated F would be 041 well under the allowance so uh the
fact that uh we do need variant excuse me an F uh variance is largely driven by the fact that the lot is is undersized so clearly the house will not be out of character to to the
the RB neighborhood because it's smaller than could be built on on the fullsize Lots uh when the board considers uh uh a D4 or F uh variance it's it's not a true
use variance this is a permitted use single family residential uh the board must decide whether the increase uh in floor area causes any particular problems that that it would significantly uh affect the public good
or the Zone plan or the master plan uh and I would submit to the board that these are di Minimus uh increases over the allowable uh the front width of the house is not changing uh uh the mass of the of the
building is not overpowering uh we're we're complying with the lot coverage and the majority of the set facts uh we are asking for a a new front yard violation uh of 20 versus the 25 but I
think those minor bulk variances that are that are existing and necessary are are dominous in nature uh and I think they can be granted under the C2 criteria where the benefits uh will significantly outweigh
any detrim to the public good or to the Zone plan or master plan here we have an older home uh that is now being brought up to spe up to standard it'll be an aesthetic Improvement to the neighborhood uh it'll be brought to current code
requirements uh so I think it'll be an asset and for those reasons uh I think the board U has the uh ability to Grant these what I would describe as minor variances minor variances to allow this
application to proceed thank you any questions Mr chairman um is there an existing basement no it is on a slab no okay and uh there's one existing kitchen on the
first floor correct that is correct you're not adding any add this additional kitchen on the second floor no I'm not this is single family home we remain a single family home it's going to remain single family home just for your own use that is correct okay all
right thank you Mr anyone else okay thank you any I'm going to go to anyone um anything else any any other experts no he concludes it okay anyone within 200
feet want anyone within 200 feet no one within 200 feet anyone without out of 200 fet all [Music] right need a motion to close public
session motion to close public session second all right thank you all right what's your discuss make a motion Mr chairman I'll make a motion to approve this application uh this is very
Minimus uh uh uh requirement um the applicant is going to meet uh submit the uh construction drawings for the proper approval and pull the permits um I do not see any HVAC or any mechanical drawings here but you're
going to follow the codes and uh and uh provide those drawings as well you got a motion by dender any second second second by kisser roll call please Mr Sero yes in the motion Mr
chabra yes to the motion Mr Schneider yes to the motion Mr Patel yes to the motion Mr D yes to the motion Mr sadaha yes to the motion and vice chair o Gorman yes on a motion approval motion passes good luck thank you very much
thank you very much next case going to give the stenographer a minute to set up ch theography myog want to give him a minute to set up yeah give him a
minute tell us when you're ready [Music] ready about a second all take your time okay thank you Madam Secretary ready case number Z24 2024 Outback State housee at 481 US Route 1
applicant is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval proposing to add new signage along with the site improvements in included such as repave and restriping to the existing parking lot affected property is located in the gbh zone designated as block number 251
Lot number 40 on the Edison Township tax map all noticing paperwork is in order okay thank you good ahead good evening Mr chairman members of the board Ron shimanowitz from the law firm of Hut shimanowitz and plocker on behalf of the
applicant Outback Stak House of Florida LLC as was just stated we're before you tonight seeking preliminary and final site plan approval uh the property is commonly and hopefully known to you as the Outback Steakhouse on Route One uh
this board back in uh 1993 and then again in 19 uh 97 granted certain approvals to allow the Outback Stak house uh to uh be uh improved an addition was added to it and since that
time it's been operating for many years the the application tonight is really all about a much needed update to the structure uh it needs some tender loving care and that's what we're here for tonight and you'll hear the details of what's being proposed to make this a a
much more attractive uh facility uh with me tonight are just two witnesses we have a representative uh from the applicant Mr Jamie Butler and he will be followed by our site engineer uh who is Rob Murray from meno engineering and
with the chair's permission unless there's any other housekeeping we'd like to call our first witness go ahead proceed okay I'd like to call Jamie Butler we can have him sworn Butler would you raise your right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth so help you got I do state your
full name for the record my name is Jamie Butler and you're an expert in reference too uh no no actually Mr Butler is a representative of the applicant and I'm going to have my very first question is if uh you would Mr Butler tell the board
your position with the applicant thank you my position uh presently is with bloomen Brands restaurant stampa Florida at the time this restaurant was built we opened this in December of 1993 I remember because it was one of the first restaurants that I participated with back when we were just Outback
Steakhouse so I do have a history of not only this restaurant but our entire evolution in the chain um what we plan to do here as Ron mentioned uh is do a complete renovation both exterior and interior um there are
some improvements that are being made to uh better accommodate what the restaurant has become over its evolution of life in these 30 years as an example one of the things we want to do is at a door to get our takeaway um to curbside cars in a better position than it is
presently when we developed this restaurant in 199 3 takeaway was not a thing with us um going into the steakhouse it didn't exist organically That Grew we started having people just all over our host stand coming in to order food and go to the bar and pick up
food presently the door that's located to serve the takeaway at curbside is on the back side of the building and that's simply because that was the only door that was available to do that when it became a need to get it out of the restaurant and we started to go curbside
um the food right now is prepared in the kit kitchen it has to be brought through the kitchen through part of the dining room and then out to curbside it's not an attractive location at all so to to uh accommodate the great takeaway situation that we benefit from today we
want to add the door to another side of the building it's directly adjacent to the kitchen so the food will be in a prep area car drives up you see there at curbside we take it out to curbside and do the entire transaction excuse me at the at the car side um so that's the
accommodation we want to make as far as a big Improvement to the operation but the bottom line when we do this project and the plans that you've seen the plans that we will prepare for construction documents you will see virtually a brand new exterior and interior the interior
incorporates the new kitchen platform that we use today and the entire operation will be updated to our current standards it will it will look like a brand new restaurant if I uh get the approval tonight and Jamie one more question uh I know our engineer is going
to cover this but just more generically there's a sign package that's being proposed could you tell the board what what that sign package is all about in terms of the you know the most current U proposals that um Outback is is using so the the National Standard for Outback
Steakhouse is a sign with a horizon of Sydney Rock Outback and then a steakhouse uh this restaurant doesn't benefit from that it's an older sign package um to be honest the entire sign the uh lighting standard and all is
outdated so we would like to update the restaurant with our new sign standards our new National brand there'll be modern signs LED illuminated and it will really add a much better look to the exterior of the restaurant that we propos thank you I I'm nothing further
Mr buffer any questions for for the uh owner's representative seeing none okay thank you sir thank you our next witness is our site engineer Mr Rob Murray Mr M Mr Murray would you raise your right hand do you Solly swear or
affirm to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth so help you go I do and state your full name for the record Robert Murray I understand M Murray has appeared and been accepted as an expert in site engineering if you'd like to hear his qualifications we happy to do that yesly okay if you could give the
board the benefit of your qualifications yes I graduated from Stevenson technology in 2017 I've been a licensed professional engineer since 2021 for four years and I've testified in front of numerous boards including both the
Edison Planning and Zoning Board okay thank you we'll accept your qualifications your licenses are up to date and valid correct thank you uh you can proceed thank you Mr chairman Rob if you could just take us through what the development proposal is in terms of the
site plan changes and then a little bit about the sign package as well okay if I can direct your attention to the easel to my right we have our site planning exhibit I'm going to interrupt you right away uh that is board that's not part of the application package correct correct
okay so you're going to need to mark that as exhibit A1 and so that so that will be exhibit A1 um but I do ask that you provide the board secretary a um a smaller version for our records we can
can do that and A1 is an aerial exhibit correct uh Rob if you could describe what that document is it's a colorized rendering of the site plan with the areial photograph of the surrounding areas thank you and just to orientate my
drawing North is facing down the property better known as Outback Steakhouse Edison is located at lot 40 of block 251 in the township of Edison the site is approximately 2.7 acres and is located entirely in the GPH
uh Zone the site is located on the southwest corner of Route One and Buon street with access off both roads the site improvements are fairly uh light to um for our site there is a
proposed takeaway egress store on the existing patio to the souths side of the site um changes to the facade uh a tower feature with a overhang on the front facade to the South and a new s tower
element on the side facade to the east the applicant is proposing five new facade signs this include three on the south side sides uh with the side parallel to Route One uh is sign
designated as sign a in the uh site plan is approximately 72 square ft on the two signs above the South patio are signs designated as c and e in the site plans
um these signs are approximately 6 square feet and 39 square feet on the east side is sign B which is approximately 42 Square ft and on the west side is sign D which
is approximately 109 Square ft all of the proposed signs are compliant with the Ed Edison Township uh ordinance the applicant is also proposing Mill and overlay in the parking lot within the lease boundary uh
along with restriping restriping of the parking and the total number of spaces will remain at 170 spaces basis the applicant is proposing some um landscape Landscaping uh three
deciduous trees are proposed uh which according to Mr Bell's letter is deficient and we will provide the adequate amount of trees uh to satisfy Mr Bell's comments um 155
shrubs uh ground cover and irrigation for these um for the Landscaping no variances are proposed however there is a a weaver is being requested for the pipeline buffering ordinance as suggested in Mr Vic Nell's
letter I had a chance to review both of the board's professional letters um we have no problem with complying with um the comments of these letters however I would like to note and comment
9.5 of DNR dnr's letter um requesting a permit from new uh NJ do um as just for some clarification there is no work being done within the NJ do do right away therefore a permit would not be
necessary however we will work with DNR to satisfy any comments they have on that thank you so in reference to the bnell planning Consultants report Hank you're you're all good with this yes sir and you're going to comply you'll comply
with the items that Hank requested yes sir correct okay and then in reference to um dor engineering um you read the report any and on reference to the uh dot
requirement Charles yes uh that comment shows up uh because the uh property is located on the State Highway uh if uh uh the applicant's engineer can make a phone call to the uh Highway access section I don't think that they need a
permit from do we mentioned it and if you could just document his phone call uh confirming uh that there is no necessity to acquire that permit that will suffice and the same thing with the drainage permit they have some catch
basins out front uh Dot may asked you to uh clear those catch basins but that's between you and the state agency correct correct thank you Mr chair thank you you Mr Mr you'll provide the letters that Mr
Carley requested uh yeah I can provide the letters and uh um have the phone conversation he wants us to have with the do and clarification thank you all right any questions from the board any any
questions anything see see no questions any any any other experts or no that is our case Mr chairman okay I'm going to go out to uh anyone within 200 feet anyone within 200 feet no one within 200
feet anybody outside of 200 feet seeing that no one's outside of 200 feet get a a motion to close public session make a motion all right roll call Mr Sero yes on the motion close Mr chabra
yes to the motion Mr Patel yes to the motion Mr D yes on the motion Mr sadaha yes to the motion and vice chair yes on a motion okay close session all right would you like to do a summation not much of a submission I
think this's a great addition to to the town uh you know the property really needs some updating and this is going to bring it into the modern day I think this is a real a project that uh the town will be very proud of when it's done and we urge the board to Grant the
approval requested okay thank you okay reference to the board what what's your pleasure Mr chairman I'll make a motion to approve the application applicant I agree to
um agree with the DNR and signal planning comments uh they will comply with those comments uh it will enhance the this changes will enhance the property there are no objectives I second have a motion have a
second second okay roll call please uh Mr Sero yes in the motion Mr chabra yes to the motion Mr Schneider yes on the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr D yes on the motion Mr sadaha
yes to a motion and vice chair o Gorman yes on a motion this is approved okay congratulations thank you luck appreciate your time okay we're going to need a motion we're going to go into executive session on proposed settlement for z15
d222 American outdoor need a motion second I need a motion motion to approve motion deer makes a motion second and Patel second okay thank you
roll call please Mr Sero yes on the motion Mr chabra yes the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr de yes on the motion Mr sadad yes to the motion and vice chair yes on a motion thank you good yes okay
motion to go back into public session need motion motion second second roll call please uh Mr Sero yes on the motion Mr chabra yes to the motion Mr Patel yes to the motion Mr D yes on the motion Mr
sadaha yes on the motion and vice chair Gorman yes on a motion okay we have one last matter yes we need to have a motion on the resolution Z 28- 2024
and Muslim Community Center motion please I'll make a motion second second then we got a roll call please yep Mr Sero yes in the motion Mr chabra yes the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr D yes on the motion Mr
sadaha yes on the motion and vice chair Gorman yes on a motion thank you okay motion to close the meeting motion to adjourn second need a second second roll call please Mr Sero yes in the motion Mr
chabra yes to the motion Mr Schneider yes to the motion Mr Patel yes on the motion Mr D yes on the motion Mr sadada yes on the motion and vice chair Gman yes on a motion meeting is closed thank you
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