board meeting of March 6th 2025 in accordance with the open public meetings act PL Public Law 1975 chapter 231 adequate notice of this regular meeting of the board of adjustment
adjustment of the township of Franklin has been provided board members applicant professionals and members of the public please speak directly into the uh microphones so that our recording
secretary can properly process minutes applicants and professionals please fill out the sheet on the table when you have completed your testimony thank you is the sheet there okay just making
sure okay you're up oh thank you wait I need to do the roll roll call oh sorry okay Cheryl bethia here Richard procanik here uh
vasim FAS and chairman Thomas asked to be excused this evening Alan Rich here Gary Rosenthal here Robert Shephard here farz Khan is that farz no that was me because my thing was
turned off okay uh Mike Dy here uh Kunal is on his way you said so I'll just Mark him when he gets here uh shendu Singh here Ed is good okay good evening can I have one of
those things here's the mic wait one minute can I have one of those agendas wait Bob one minute because we have to read that one is withdrawn because it was carried okay oh yeah right okay so n smsa limited partnership
doing business as Verizon Wireless zba 2421 the applicant was seeking relief of condition concerning the fence material on a previously approved application zba 1633 for property at 156 Cedar Grove
Lane Somerset block 42412 lot 5.01 in the R40 Zone this uh matter was withdrawn without prejudice okay Bob now you can start okay then I
call the first uh applicant it's Jane Estefan zba 24006 C variances where the applicant has constructed an addition to the existing house in which modifications were made not previously approved at 435
wheeler place that is correct thank you um P shammy junr appearing on the beh of the applicant use the mic okay appearing on behalf of the applicant John estfan who's seated in the third row behind me
to my left is Frank anel are engineer and planner um and he will be uh our first witness Hey sir raise your hand uh do you swear or affirm that testimony you're about to give before this board
is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do can you just repeat your name and spell your last name for the record please it's Frank last name is spell a n t i s e l l thank you U Mr anel can you give us the
benefit of your education training and certifications as an engineer and also as a planner sure I have a bachelor of Sciences civil engineering from Widner University I have a master's degree from Stevens Institute of tech technology and
I've been a licensed professional engineer uh testifying in the state of New Jersey since 19 um 93 and I've testified before this board and also the planning board in Franklin and numerous other boards in the state
as both an engineer and as a planner okay well can you tell me what what was your the Master's Degree got from Stevens what was that in in in management Engineering Management okay and um do you have any particular
educational background in the planning field um yes I've taken a number of planning courses and I P and I had to take the written planning exam um I was not grandfathered into the planning license so you you're certified as a planner yes okay that would have been
important to say yeah no problem uh we'll accept you and your license is current in a good standing correct both of them are yes okay okay uh Mr anel can you describe the site for the board and explain uh what this
application is all about sure um I have a colorized rendering of the plan that was submitted to the board and the plan contains if we're going to uh put it up on the screen let's mark it as an exhibit so we'll call this A1 A1 okay thank you
sure and on the bottom half of the page is a survey from when Mr Estefan bought the property and the property contained a stone
driveway a 1 and a half story framed house and a detached frame garage um this is on Wheel this site is located on Wheeler place um it's known as
4435 wheeler it contains 0.586 5 acres and the court that you see here on here is from the tax map and it's an unimproved Street in the in the
town so access to this site along with the neighboring property to the top of the page is via the stone driveway so our our client and the neighbor share the stone driveway
now we also have a colorized version of the site as it currently exists and again wheeler place is here and there is a stone access driveway that is used by the applicant
to the north here along with Mr Stefon um the property is located in the R15 residential Zone and as um Mr Stefan applied for and
received a building permits to build an addition to the house the addition contained a added a garage to the house and during that time he also
reduced the size and moved the garage that was over the property line onto the property so um those were some of the changes that he did when he did that um and
also and as part of the house there are four bulk variances that were some of them were existing and some of and one is a new one uh the three that were existing one was the minimum
rear yard setac 50 ft is required 18.7 was previously existing the garage Edition reduced that rear yard setback to 17.6 ft the minimum rear yard for the
detached garage structure previously was at 18.4 FT and now as constructed is at 17.7 FT and the sidey yard for the garage over here
previously the garage was 3.7 ft over the proper property line and now it's 2.9 ft into the property so it's it's still within the 10 ft required setback so we're still here for a variance on
that the other um variance that's new is the maximum impervious coverage 30% is permitted by your ordinance and 31 .8% was previously existing and as constructed with the improvements 46.5%
% is what is out there right now 46% impervious coverage 46.5% yes I have a couple of questions here it how are you showing the driveway on
this uh particular um uh screen here uh is it the gray the gray is the driveway the driveway comes
in comes into his garage here goes to the neighbor's house to the north and also comes around the back of the house and uh comes over to the gar the
detached garage that he is now using as um a basically a shed to house his lawn equipment the other um purpose of the gravel driveway is there is a neighbor down here also and the nearest fire hydrant
is right over here so in the past when the neighbor had a fire the fire trucks came in around the back of the house and over to the fire um hydrant right here here to hook
up so what one of the you know reasons for keeping the driveway going around the back of the house is for to allow for fire access to the hydrant that is located on the court
there and that court is a paper street it's that's correct it's an unapproved paper Street Okay so what is the rear of the property am I looking at it in it's to the it's to the right on this the rear of the property
is this this is the rear of the house the front door of the house is right here we have pavers here and we also have a porch that is here yeah and I I do have some
pictures which I can show you which may help well well it I don't know if it can help 46% is a lot and I I'm not so sure that I feel comfortable personally I don't know the other people on this board that that I'm going to approve a
46% uh impervious coverage and it doesn't seem to be any effort that's been made on the part of the applicant to reduce that amount of coverage he's just taken what he had and put more down there and I also don't have any
understanding of how it is he could end up with uh with permits to do this building um and yet with all of these variances that are um are out there are you planning on uh on having him
testify if the board has questions for him we could have yes we could have him testified all right yes so would you like me to show you some pictures of the of the property we might as well sure so we might want to Mark these as
A2 A2 yep this is a picture of the front of the house taken from the start of the Court area this is a picture looking down the
driveway at the house in the garage this is a picture looking from the driveway to The Brick walkway that goes up to the brick front porch that actually looks like cement but okay I can zoom in
it's p it's pavers okay we don't need to do that um then we also have the grass area the applicant planted a row of Evergreens on the property line and we have a couple pictures of the Evergreens
that were planted along the property line and this is a picture of the applicant's house and the adjoining neighbor house and then here is just an aerial of the house and we have the gravel
driveway coming into the house so um Mr anel um um the point's been made by Mr Shephard that the degree of impervious coverage is is higher than the board would like
to see um do you see areas where the applicant could reduce the impervious coverage without impairing the ability of emergency Personnel to get around to the fire hydrant uh or to serve the
neighbors or to provide access also to the neighbor for his property um the applicant could definitely reduce the amount of gravel in the back of the house I mean that would be I think an area I don't know if he's willing to
give up all of it we can talk to him real quick but I know we can definitely reduce the area gravel and behind the house which would make a big Improvement if I mean we could maybe take a re a quick break and talk to him
about that can can we just back up a little bit now why is it his responsibility to have a driveway for the firetr I mean is does he have I mean are there I have no idea I don't even
know what I I don't even know what to ask I I understand that and you know it's not something that's typical typically you don't have a lot of um driveways that go around the house like this for emergency vehicles and you
typically you have a paved street so in this situation we don't have a paved Street and I mean that's the way it was when the applicant bought it is there an easement there's there's a common easement that he has with his neighbor
that they share that easement with his neighbor okay yes but not with the fire okay the the driveway to the upper part of the picture that goes to his neighbor's house you said this goes to the neighbor's house so they share a
driveway they share this driveway and that's the only driveway the neighbor has to get in and out of his property is to go on somebody else's property correct this is weird yeah okay so where's the fire hydrant
again the fire hydrant is over in this corner verica okay how does that there verica why does the fire hydrant in that location how's that related to the gravel behind the house it's our understanding that the fire company is come around the house come around the
garage and then there's also the neighbors driveway is right here come down the neighbor's driveway to the fire hydrant to come out this way but if if if but they have access to the fire hydrant by going from wheeler down the
court this is all gravel in here yeah exactly so so why do you need a driveway behind the house I can only let you know what we've been told and it doesn't even connect to you said there's a driveway in that joining property but they don't even connect so
what there was a connection there and that's been removed okay I still don't understand what a driveway behind the house has to do with the fire hydrant in front of the house that has access to Wheeler thought the Johan real quick is is the
driveway a part of their property the driveway this driveway is all on our property yes ask yeah can we have a couple minutes to talk to our client about removing more more Stone sure but
when you come back it would be don't just tell me that we're going to do do this I need to know what the what the the new impervious coverage number would be I also want to understand what he built so it's fine for you to talk to
him now but I think I want to have the the owner up here to answer some questions okay okay you can do that thank you you're welcome we'll take a 10-minute recess all right
for e e e e e oh okay that's like the one time I water glass I keep I keep losing this thing I
don't know I don't know what's going on what are you doing I I keep losing this I keep losing I don't know what's going on you me are we ready to go back yes ready to resume here okay we are
ready to resume thank you for that time so after discussion with the applicant there is a significant area of gravel that um that it's okay the applicant has prepared to remove the Mr antel will
describe keep and approximate I don't have it I don't have it well the area that the applicants willing to remove would be from the side of the garage and also all the gravel behind the house
so I mean it's a significant amount of the gray area it would be all of this area here okay all right I don't can't really tell how much that is but it's a definitely going to make a difference in the in the number
unfortunately uh you're not in a position to tell us exactly what the new number would be I imagine that's a complicated computation to figure that out Mark I mean I could give you an approximate
in a few minutes but yeah why don't you give us an approximate just that I have a couple of more questions for the for the applicant so maybe we can ask him some question would you like to ask him some questions first um we can start with your question so we write to the
concerns of the board why don't we swear a in sir if you can raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give before this board is truth the whole truth and nothing nothing but truth I do can you repeat your name and spell your last
name for the record please Jean Estefan last name e s t e p h a n thank you okay Mr uh Estefan uh can you tell
me uh what happened when you went down to the uh the zoning office or the Construction office to get permits to do the building of the house we apply all the application and we got the all the permit I build it as the uh
inspector tell me to build what's in a blueprint I didn't add one inch what the permit they gave me okay so and how long ago did you do this I start uh one year before uh
Corona I think 20 19 probably yeah and take like almost 3 years to finish it because of the corona okay the co yeah yeah were were you the one who did the construction no I had a company
ntnt name of the company they built it for me okay and exactly what it is that did they build for you uh we left the foundation and half of the the old house and we make addition and we make second
floor bigger okay uh and also did you build a garage onto that the atach garage is what is in the plan yes okay all right so how did you end up coming down here
what who when did did someone complain uh about the what you had built and nobody complained I got all the certificate after I finish the construction and after I receive a letter uh we have like over buil they
take the sidewalk and the porsch like is a as a building I didn't know Porsche it was needing a permit so I put Porsche in the front of the house and walkway is a stone mhm and and then that was when
they said you should have gotten gone to the zoning board and gotten some variances yes that's why I call my attorney and I explain to him the situation and we start with the engineer with all the stuff it's taking like maybe two years two years and a have to
get this meeting now okay let's get back so yeah let me just does anybody have any other questions well so I believe there's two main things that occurred I I I I don't believe it was
built exactly per the plan the the my recollection is that the the house the the house had been uh pre-existing non-conforming as far as the rear yard setback and that the addition was built
not exactly per the plans um and that the the resulting rear setback is slightly smaller uh there may have been other slightly smaller differences between what was submitted what was approved as far as the house the the big issue frankly as far as the big Delta if
you will is the driveway you know the driveway is they submitted one thing as far as what they were going to build and they built a driveway that resulted in 46% impervious not and that required a zoning permit not that that that's the
that's the the main difference and I my recollection is the difference in the house is again I it's order of magnitude the existing the previous setback I think was 18.7 for the rear setback and now it's
17.6 right and then so it's not a huge thing but it is different nonetheless it was pre-existing non-conforming so they were allowed to build and as long as they didn't make that worse but now when they built it it was smaller so that's why that's one of the reasons why they had to come back to you because the
resulting rear yard setback is smaller than had previously existed also the sidey yard set back is smaller but before they they did anything that garage was over the line yeah I mean that that that's obviously an improvement because there was an encroachment and now there they moved it
it doesn't comply with the setback but you know yeah it's so my next question that I have for you is that if we look at if we look at this at your property and we look at the the rear of the
house what is you're what is what is the neighbor next to you what the I have a neighbor in the north over there and it was the same driveway it's now they use it and I use
it I didn't change anything in the driveway it's a right the front part of the driveway anyway so so but what I'm asking is what about to the right you have a neighbor over to the right yes I
have a neighbor okay so they're so the the neighbor they don't use my back driveway they have their own driveway okay all right uh picture can I answer sure his question if uh if you want I
get the blueprint what I get the permit so he can see like I build it as I get permit from the Franklin Township I didn't add anything after or before that that's actually where we we understand
that lots of things could have happened to end up with something built that was slightly different than the plans you had you didn't build it yourself so the people who did the construction for you may have may have missed something no believe me uh the inspector they're very
tough and they come maybe every step they come check everything and after I build it they come take picture all the measurement and I have the blueprint I need anytime you want you can send anybody to check the measure measurement if I build it the same way I get the
permit I didn't add nothing no okay do we have any other board questions I do have one additional question here yes so the back driveway the only one who uses that is you yes
none of your neighbors no and when you built that that was you did you didn't have any issues with the um the amount of impervious the same way it is now it was before I didn't change nothing even from
the back of the driveway I left it as it was before I didn't change it change and the garage in the back I don't use it for car so I don't use a driveway right anyway in the back I don't use a drive you got your garden imp and now you're
willing to remove you're willing to remove all of of the gravel from the side of the garage all the way into the back where the detached garage is yes right okay um unless there are additional questions from the board yeah
I I can we put the other picture back up I still I'm I'm still hung up on that driveway up you're saying your neigh that's the only driveway your neighbor has to get in and out of his property yes is it allowed to have to have a
driveway that somebody else uses to get to their well I mean in in my my guess is this is you know an old situation the houses have been there for a long time you know what rights that person has over it is you know more
of a maybe a legal question typically yeah there there are situations where houses people have G gain access to their house over somebody else's property and usually there's an e access easement in place that allows that that you know if it was a situation like that we would make sure that there was an
access easement you know if he maybe Brian could answer what rights that person has my guess is maybe it's been there for 50 60 70 years and that's just the way it is I mean maybe they do have a recorded easement too uh I have a easement me it was before I I bought
this property and after I bought the property I want to renew the easement the lawyer tell me you have to make a new ement it was the same them exactly the same okay and uh what I hear about the story of all this land it was for one
person so he divided three four Lots he he uh gave one for the son after he sold it I don't know maybe you had to you know the story more than me but I know all this land was for one person that's why you you can see the are isit between
two houses the one in the back is he doesn't have a driveway like legal Drive the stone driveway the same I have a question for you what was the impervious coverage when you acquired the property before I
built it yeah before you added this I when you acquired the property uh really I don't know about the measurement and all the stuff I can answer the question to you it was at 31.8%
okay yeah that was with the that's with the the gar the the driveway before correct okay and now there's been changes to the house and has the driveway been expanded is that
really what happening driveway okay all right and Y and I calculated the area of stone in the back here that would be removed and that's roughly 3,000 square ft okay what does that do for
us um yeah that's basically what I had just about 3,000 square ft so what does that reduce the percentage to do we know it would be in the mid-30s okay all right I I have a question if if you
don't mind um you have an overhead wire running through the corner of the property on the plan there's a note that says possible utility easement is it possible you built the house within that
easement can I answer yes it was before my neighbor in the north he have his electricity and my electricity coming from Hamilton Street the cable coming in the forest in Hamilton over my land going to the my
neighbor it was like this before and it's still there no no I I understand that I didn't think it was like a high tension wire that was serving an entire neighborhood my concern is on your PL that you prepared you identified two easements potential and none of them are
depicted well since there is a utility poll that's on our property that serves both our property and then there's an overhead wine going to the neighbor's house there typically the utility company gets a letter from the owner of the property stating that they don't
have an issue serving The Neighbors property with the electric so there is a letter agreement there is no written easement that we have been able to find but again we're allowing the electric service to go across our
property to service neighbors yeah but with part of that initial agreement with the utility company you're saying you're giving them rights to your land and there's typically some sort of width associated with that well usually with that letter that says says that is if
within 30 days they if we tell them they we want the pole removed within 30 days they have to remove that pole I'm just confused by the language on your plan it's a possible easement that that came from our Sur the survey
that we had done by the surveyor so I would have to check with him to get more information on that but again that is just for the utility to provide electric service to the neighbor and what about the driveway
easement the driveway easement is a recorded document is it depicted on the plan um I don't believe there's meets and Bounds for the driveway easement it talks about just a gravel driveway the easeman itself doesn't
provide meats and Bounds it just says the gravel driveway the document that I saw Yes it talked about a gravel driveway that was shared by the two to owners of the property okay all right that's all my questions
so I I have a updated calculation so if the what's submitted indicated a impervious coverage of 46.5 which based on that size of that property means that plan shows uh 9,300 Square ft
of impervious coverage and the testimony was that they can remove 3,000 so that would bring it down to 60 6315 and that would result in an impervious coverage of about 32% 32 yep which is basically what we heard was the
pre-existing condition right right okay does uh is there anyone it's it's since we've now had board questions we uh invite anyone from the public who'd like to get up and ask some questions to come over to the microp
phone over here and uh we'll be sworn in to ask your questions of either the owner or the architect seeing no one coming forward I'm going to close the public section of the uh of the
hearing um the at this point do we have any do anyone on the board like to make any comments at this point I I just have one more question we we didn't talk about trees uh there were 20 sare ft of trees
that were removed during construction uh are we going to do anything with them yes we we went out and did a sampling like um Mr Healey requested and we came up with a calculation that requires 27
replacement trees and we've talked about that with the owner and the owner is willing to plant those trees perfect along on the property along along the boundary and also up in this green area and also in this green
area and now that we're removing the gravel it can also be planted in the back of the house good fantastic thank you and the um the pre the with the decrease now in impervious I don't
believe we need the drywalls that we were proposing no I I what I would what I would I can't I think you're right but I'm not going to do that on the Fly I mean did the bottom line is if you show that the before and after is less than a
th000 square F feet then ORD says you don't have to do it okay so it is what it is basically as far as that so I'd say provide those calculations you know Su absolutely and yeah if it's below a th it's below a thousand yep anything
further counselor nothing else okay um I'm going to offer a um a resolution uh uh I move that we Grant uh Jean is that's you said the way you see Jean uh
Stefan um a the variance is needed uh to uh conform to the construction that's already been done uh on the property uh subject to his removing all of the
gravel driveway that runs from the side of the house all the way down along the back of the house uh for a total of approximately 3,000 square fet uh in order for this
uh uh variance to be um uh completed we do need I think some more information uh from uh the applicant as to uh either some sort of a a map
showing where the gravel's going to be removed or some other kind of way to uh to do that um but other than that uh I think we're uh we're okay how uh Mr hack
how how would we do that well that's that's going to be a a post approval sorry post approval submission okay right right they'll Prov BR the calculations and if the dry well isn't needed it's not needed as Mr
Healey said so okay yeah and they have plan prepared so their engineer will have to update their plan uh and I would suggest that the motion um include the variances for the setbacks indicated in the TRC report and um I think it should also include we mentioned a figure of
32% uh impervious coverage so I think that recommend that that be included in the motion and a condition of approval is the replacement tree as well right yep and we'll show those on the plan can you add uh Mr hil's comments regarding
the uh the granting of the additional variances Mr Jack yes okay good all right can you call for a vote no nobody second second cherl bethia yes Richard pranic
yes Alan Rich yes Gary Rosenthal yes Robert Shephard yes Mike uh is it micheel Dy yeah yeah Michael Dy [Music] yes and
Kunal yes okay motion's carried you're all set thank you very much thank you you're welcome much can I just shake the hand of Mr Ro until I haven't seen him in about 40 years great to see you good to see you I was his keyboard player for the junior
miss pageant that's right a long long time long time ago is your father John sham he's my cousin your cousin okay he was a greatan player welcome how do I fix that okay the next matter is IID
Logistics zba 2410 good evening everyone my name is excuse me my name is Paul Conor attorney at Price me in darino representing the applicant IDI Logistics LLC um this application relates to the
property 1-3 Executive Drive um we are here and and IDI is the contract purchaser for that property um we are here this evening for a use variance and Associated a couple of other additional bulk variances only so in other words
there is not a site plan being requested to be approved this evening so I appreciate that uh a bifurcated use variance application is certainly unusual um I just want you to know it's it's not related to any development or zoning issue it's purely an internal
corporate kind of mechanism that resulted in this but uh having said that um the application uh submission uh included a fully engineered site plan so in other words the site plan that has been submitted is exactly hoping for an
approval this evening is exactly the site plan that would be filed promptly to be before this board again for a preliminary and final site plan approval so obviously there's a separate application separate record your professionals will be reviewing the site
plan whatever questions are asked related to the site plan you know you can be asked again different additional but what it means is uh this evening to the extent it's helpful for you to understand the site plan in evaluating the use variants and the bulk variants
you we're here to provide whatever level of detail you need because we have the actual site plan prepared and therefore to the extent you find it helpful to have answers to certains of those questions understanding you're going to have a whole another proceeding for the site plan we're here to be able to do
that for you so I just want to make that clear um with that as background um the application proposes a use which is obviously prohibited which is a warehouse uh distribution Logistics facility at this location but sides uh
and and I would say that you'll hear and I I think I want to give you a little bit of a more detailed overview because I think it's helpful when you hear the witnesses you can kind of place my overview in here as it as it proceeds um this this application we think relates to a property that's is particularly
suitable for this this use it's in a non-residential section of Franklin it's proximity to Route 287 and the traveling distance to the interchanges of Route 287 are very close the building as you'll hear is appropriately sized for
the for the property um and with with due respect the property itself is outdated it has uh vacant Office Buildings on it so it it is kind of Yearning For A Redevelopment and we think this is an appropriate Redevelopment uh All Things Considered
for this particular property now besides um the use variance uh there are a couple of bulk variances that are also requested for Relief this evening one of them relates which I'm sure I'll probably be familiar one of them relates to the uh depth of the loading birth
this is one I know having a PE for Franklin's planning board and other on other occasions this is a a variance that appears in virtually every single application um you'll hear the testimony that um it does not meet the standard in the ordinance but it is what is proposed
is essentially an industry standard that is used and and is appropriate so you'll that there is that variance there also is a c variance related to the width of the truck driveway um The Proposal in the site plan actually has a wider
driveway than what is permitted in the ordinance but you'll hear we think it's appropriate um to have a little wider and we think it it only adds to the site circulation site safety Etc the remaining two ordinance uh variances excuse me are ones that you know I would
characterize as technical variances or almost form over substance and and why I characterize it that way is one of them relates to uh car and truck parking in the front yard where the Frontage that is is the front yard relates to Route
287 the ordinance establishes Route 287 as a road as if it was a street right on the property but obviously as a common sense kind of thing the the impact that would be looked to be avoided by no front yard parking of trucks has you
know obviously not a lot of applicability to Route 287 with cars driving you know 55 65 70 M an hour that is a variance I consider it you know as you'll hear the testimony my characterization something that's technical but it is it is there the
other variance um similarly I believe is is technical for a different reason or almost form of a substance for a different reason it relates to truck and car parking in the front yard as well as loading in the front yard with the street being Executive Drive why is that
something that I consider technical form of substance Executive Drive although being a street essentially functions as a private driveway it on one end connects to Davidson the other end is a cul assat there is no other access off of Executive Drive except this property
so in other words it functions as a private driveway if you are on Executive Drive the only place you can go is this subject property so because of that um the the parking in the front yard the loading in the front yard does not have
the same impact or is not addressing the same thing that a normal nor ordinance provision where appropriately you don't want the traveling public or citizens of of Franklin to be driving down the road and now they're stopped at a light and here to their right is a property with trucks right on right on the street and
so on here the only people who will be on Executive Drive are actually coming to this property so um it is it is something that um uh you know makes sense that uh the variance although required does not apply the way it would
normally apply so we think those are are ones that are are characterized more as as technical variances you'll hear the planner and our engineer talk about them but I wanted to kind of set set that for you also I did want to also note that in relation to the site plan um because we
had to file the site plan and all Outside Agency approvals in order to get a completeness to be P before you this evening we have made a lot of progress on our outside approvals we we actually already have a njde flood Hazard permit for the site plan and we're also well
along with the drcc and the county as as it relates to the approvals we need there I say that again understanding as a whole separate site plan coming hoping for an approval this evening I say that just to give you the context that you know this is a a project and a and a plan that has already you know kind of
advanced in terms of approval um so you're looking at those variances and for that reason we think it is something that is particularly suitable as you'll hear the last thing I do want to touch on is the master plan efforts that Franklin has been on as I'm sure you're
all aware has been has been going through for the last year year and a half Franklin hired uh independent planning and traffic Consultants who for the last year or so have done an exhaustive uh analysis of in particular
the bi Zone and Warehouse use in the bi Zone they've looked at all of Franklin they've looked at all the constructed and operating Warehouse projects they've looked at ones that have approved and not constructed looked at ones in the pipeline suffice to say they' they've
done the full analysis and at a hearing on the 30th of January they summarized their conclusions uh which it seems like will then be memorialized in a report to the planning board and would eventually result in zoning changes which would um
uh make certain Warehouse es conditional uses in the bi Zone I say all that um to say this we've have part of our analysis and you'll hear have looked at the standards that were presented as the conclusion of that analysis um for the
bi Zone and among them they created a a what they called a medium intensity light industrial Warehouse use um which had 10 criteria to it in order to comply with the conditionally used standards we have evaluated our project to those
standards and we comply with every one of them except for the little glitch on Executive Drive where it's essentially a public road but but excuse me but it functions as a private driveway so the size of the building the ratio of the
loading docks the location the uh proximity to 287 the floor area ratio the parking the height of the building all of the criteria that are established are satisfied but for that you know the glitch with itive Drive are are you
hello yeah are you going to be able to uh tell us what the height of the not you but one of your witnesses will tell us what the height of the building is oh sure yeah we as I said we can answer whatever questions uh you like yes so I say that because it's it's obviously
about particular suitability and what we have is a year-long process where uh that process resulted in this in almost the same project that we have before you which which we we designed prior to hearing on January 30th what the answer
was the last thing I would say is that um the issue of the uh Executive Drive which functions essentially as a private driveway uh your engineers report did mention vacating that street because it only serves this property so um I would
just say this that we are um certainly looking into that there are a lot of uh as I'm sure Mr hack can identify a lot of of legal criteria and procedures that relate to vacating a street I can tell you that if all of those things are
compliance it would my client would be derel and not vacating the street because it it only serves their property so we would certainly move ahead to try and do that and that would only make it more conforming and and really eliminate this glitch that I've identified as it relates to 287 and Executive Drive
however we would want an approval or or an evaluation of this based on the record of granting the Varian is because we wouldn't want it to be a condition to do the vacation because standing here I don't know legally there's a lot of intricacies whether it's allowed I don't know how much time it'll take so
certainly that is high on the list of of something we want to do but we want to rest on our record here for these variances I described which you'll hear all about um for a vote hopefully positively this evening um will'll go for it but we we can't have it as a
condition essentially I think is what I'm trying to say so with that as a general background um I I have uh several witnesses this evening I have Justin Burns who's the representative he's he's the market officer of real estate in this region um I have Alex L
from bowler engineering who can provide site plan engineering or engineering perspective uh clao breida is the architect we think it's helpful to very briefly just show what kind of building we would be building uh Betsy Dolan can provide traffic engineering testimony
and lastly and most importantly Paul GLE our planner will summarize all of the very important planning testimony so um that's a lot but I think it was helpful to kind of give you an overview and and unless there's anything procedurally I can get started with my first witness
can I ask Council a question sure uh you had mentioned vacating Executive Drive if if that were to occur would you take ownership of the entire roadway yes it's and that's one of the things that that why I say it can't be a condition is because you know it looks and appears
from what we've identified so far that the entirety of the street is located on our property so in that case we would get all of it you're probably referring to the idea that when there are two different owners that get split down the middle but at this point and that's one of the reasons I say we have to look into it among other legal uh details but
that is that is one of the items yes anything else no I think you're on I'll have our first Witness sir if you can raise your right hand uh do you swear or affirm that testimony you're about to give before
this board is truth the whole truth and nothing but truth I do can you please state your name and spell your last name for the record please Justin Burns b RNs thank you and you're doing great with the microphone buddy that was uh leaning into it way C want to make sure everyone
can hear me that's great um Mr Burns can you uh provide uh some detail on your your title your position and your your uh familiarity with this project sure uh so again my name is Justin Burns I'm the Northeast
Market officer for IDI Logistics um essentially I am responsible for acquiring new uh and managing the existing projects that we have within the region um IDI we've been working on this project for uh approximately two
years um and there's obviously a lot of hard work that's gone into it so we're we're certainly excited to be um presenting to the board great and and just for the benefit of the board briefly maybe you can give some detail on IDI who they are other projects in New Jersey or or in this or in Franklin
absolutely uh so uh IDI Logistics we are a leading investor developer of uh Logistics real estate uh the company's been around for approximately 36 years um we have developed uh about 220 million square fet of industrial real
EST real estate across uh North America for uh approximately uh 700 customers uh in addition to that we we own approximately 4 million square feet of uh warehouses in New Jersey uh currently
um and I mean from an IDI perspective again we've been doing this for a long time uh the company takes a great deal of Pride um in the buildings that we construct and deliver um we value environmental sustainability which is also why our all of our projects are
solar ready um and our lead certified um and you know we we develop these buildings to stand the test of time uh for the most part we develop these as um forever hold assets great and and just as to this property we'll hear a lot from our expert Witnesses from but from
your expertise as as real estate developer and acquiring of site what is it about this site that makes it appropriate in your mind and why it was targeted for you as as something that made sense for a warehouse distribution yeah so I think first and foremost and this is consistent we we do own another
uh property in in Somerset uh 195 and 215 Davidson uh so similar to Executive Drive this is a Redevelopment and a repositioning of uh what is a non-performing asset or property um the the Office Buildings obviously are are currently vacant um and our plan is to
redevelop them into a uh Class A best-in-class uh Warehouse uh so the Redevelopment component is um something that we've targeted throughout New Jersey for non-performing uh property uh in addition to that uh the the warehouse
that we would like to develop here uh would OB obviously be consistent with uh property uh throughout the neighborhood uh in in Davidson proximate to 287 U much of the property there is commercial use it's warehousing it's it's office so
uh we feel like this this building would fit uh within the neighborhood well um and then I would say um third and certainly very important to us is uh proximity to a a major interstate highway system uh obviously we develop these generally on a on a speculative
basis and we need to attract tenants to lease the buildings and having the ability for trucks and cars to uh essentially directly access the site off of a major interstate highway system without traversing residential uh is of of great importance so that's a critical
component for the site as well um and then I would say lastly um the fact that there's city sewer uh and water is also of course important and obviously we'll hear it but just for the record uh just can you just confirm the size of the building and and maybe what you feel is
is your judgment on that being an appropriate size and configuration for the property sure uh yeah so the building that we're proposing here is 22,500 sare Ft uh it's a single side load building which means uh for those that do not know uh there's loading on
one side of the building um we will be developing this on a as I said previously a speculative basis meaning we will not have a a tenant identified uh prior to starting construction okay now let's time to jump in with a couple
more questions on on that issue sure um 22,000 Square ft doesn't mean anything to me how many stories is this building it'll it'll be one Story one story and how what is the head space on the inside
of the building how tall is it so um our AR our architect can certainly do a more eloquent job than I can but I that's okay that's why I want you to tell me absolutely absolutely um so generally speaking a modern Warehouse is anywhere between 36 and 40 clear um on the inside
and will generally be between 45 and 50 ft for total height of the of the building 50 ft so that would mean that it's four stories high and well maybe we maybe we just have our engineer answer that question but I guess it's uh yeah I wouldn't if
if you're able to answer otherwise we could have Alex yeah I think I think I mean certainly Alex can answer the question again more eloquently than I but a warehouse I mean the most important thing for a modern Warehouse is clear height right because generally most of these the tenants that occupy these buildings are racking and so the
more efficient that a tenant can R um the better for the tenant and the better for the you so no Warehouse that's being developed across the country would be below 36 clear as a modern Warehouse I mean quite frankly a warehouse that's being developed that is less than that height would be becoming functionally
obsolete is why and why do you say that because of the clearance and the cubic uh so the ability to to store um a lot of product in a warehouse is is obviously valuable for a tenant um because they're paying rent on this prod property and the more efficiently they can operate within the property the
better essentially okay um now I've been around a while and the past couple years and actually more than that maybe the almost the past 10 years there's been a proliferation of these um these
Warehouse buildings what what happened in Industry that that suddenly caused the the need for all the additional warehouse space yeah I I I would I would say it's a multitude of things uh obviously
e-commerce had a uh significant impact and then also covid right I think a lot of us are probably uh ordering quite a few things quite a few more things online than we we previously did uh so that's certainly a component and to your point that resulted in Warehouse sprawl
in in many states I think something that we've been we've really we've been hyperfocused on is uh developing warehouses in locations that make sense um which is why you know again Davidson uh 195 and 215 Davidson down the street
it's approximately a mile and a half from an interstate highway system and you're not approximate to any residential and and same thing with this property I mean it's uh you're you're on an interstate highway system um which for a tenant looking to locate here will
be critical um and it's why we're attracted to this property anybody else have any questions I have a few more here but certainly if anybody has any so far let's do that I I have one um is it anticipated only one tenant or the possibility to subdivide
and have multiple tenants yeah so generally when we develop a property we do um want to develop it with the most flexibility so in terms of demising so uh the way that we've laid it out is this building could accommodate three tenants but um we feel that it will most
likely only be uh one single tenant that occupies the building anything else and uh will this be cold storage uh kind of uh no no this will I mean it'll
likely be ambient obviously if there was a tenant that needed Cold Storage we would consider that use but most likely it'll be am ambient dry storage so anything else before I continue a couple keep okay so um just
in terms of the the uh relief that's requested um there was a comment in one of the review reports about signage um if you can confirm whether the intention is to conform to the signage or are you looking for any signage variances uh no we will not be seeking a signage variance we will comply with the
ordinance okay great um there was mentioned of the variance for the depth of the loading birth um obviously we'll have testimony but maybe you can can provide some context of the of the size that we're proposing as it relates to the ordinance and its appropriateness
Etc sure yeah um 130 ft is is standard industry standard for uh a warehouse um uh I forget the terminology we used here but we we essentially call it truck cord um I would say that's consistent across the US um and certainly it's consistent with the rest of our portfolio in um New
Jersey and consistent with what we we had approved um at 195 and 215 Davidson uh the street great and and related to that there's also a variance for the width of the truck uh driveway um 36 is the is what's established in the
ordinance ORS is a little wider at 40.6 maybe you can provide some detail on that too yeah I I would certainly uh I would ask Alex L to provide um more detailed uh um rationale there but essentially it's it's slightly wider and
that was just due to um making sure that we had safe truck flow on the site and that's why the it's slightly wider than um what you guys generally have here okay um lastly we we had talked about briefly about vacating Executive Drive perhaps just for the record you can can
establish I assume that's something uh you would like to do if if it's allowed but maybe you can just give the board just for the record absolutely yeah if um obviously there's some more due diligence that we need to do but uh we would absolutely proceed and formalize that process to vacate the road if
possible right okay um you mentioned solar ready maybe you can confirm for the record will this building be solar ready uh this as or this building will be solar ready all of our buildings across uh the United States or North America are all built to be solar ready
um it's generally sized based on the tenant so uh typically the solar doesn't go on the building until a tenant has signed a lease but uh the roof will be um will be able to accommodate a solar uh grid and lastly you mentioned lead
certification uh again confirming for the record this this building you will be seeking lead certification for this construction uh correct again IDI we we we are always looking to find new ways to um build in a more sustainable way and and add sustainable elements to our
building so lead certification is obviously it's a commercial uh certification and it's a a point system where you can you know you get a lead certification and then you get silver and gold and platinum so we will pursue the highest level of lead certification that we can and I have no idea where you
were just talking about so lead certific lead lead certification is a is a system of standards for you know sustainability environmental uh benefits so there's a system set up where there's a point system where if you integrate
certain uh uh energy saving or other benefits uh into your building you get certified and if you have enough points you can be certified silver gold Platinum so it's something that's um generally considered environmentally
uh friendly sensitive beneficial so it's something that you know people look to to see hey are you doing that so that that's what it is it's generally a standard not all developers proceed the way IDI does but that's that's what it is I would I would just add oh sorry go
ahead at this point do you have a tenant in mind uh no tenant identified at this time we generally find that uh you won't find a tenant until you start construction those are the all the questions I have for this witness um
just one more thing it looks like the property now has three Office Buildings on it that's correct and how big are those uh office how tall are they we our engineer can is coming next he can tell you okay I apologize I don't
know I don't know the answer he doesn't Mesmerize me here no he's actually very friendly and we'll we'll uh speak very very simply yeah yeah okay good thanks yeah my main man here took care that's good we're all good can I hire him all
right great anything else okay not for this witness but we still have to now open it to the public thank you and um are there is there anyone here in the in the in here that would like to speak if you would sir
please come up to the to the microphone here and and Mr chair just to be clear this is for questions for the testimony that was just provided that's right this is so um not to make a statement no questions questions so my name is Brian
gu and I represent the Delta hotel which is directly across the street from from your property um and some of the concerns that we have as the business owner of the the hotel is one um Aesthetics of the building right because we are in the business to um sell w
and we have a large backyard that we do outside of Vore so we are concerned that green space it what the current buildings have now is is appropriate right for the neighborhood um and we are concerned that a large cement looking
building is going to disrupt our business um from a wedding and social aspect um we are also concerned that um noise from constant truck behind we already have complaints through the hotel no see you're you're giving a statement
and you're telling us your story so I'm asking questions as what got to ask a question you haven't asked any yet is is this building going to be operating 24 hours a day seven days a week uh yes the building will be oper operating 24 hours
a day 7 days a week in terms of the allowable um what's allowable um ultimately I can't speak to how the tenants going to operate because we don't have a tenant identified uh I would also just add to your earlier point um if you look at what's currently there it's three bacon Office Buildings
I was on the site today and there are beer cans and lots of things scattered throughout the site so I think hopefully when you see what our architect is going to present here I think hopefully you'll find that it's actually going to be a pretty significant aesthetic Improvement yeah I mean obviously these buildings
have been emptied for several years right I think three four years now that these buildings have been emptied and they know they have not been maintained by the current ownership or the previous ownership right right so that has been something that we have addressed with them because we have made contact with
the former owner of of the property um but going back to your your statement of this building is going to be operated 24 hours a day seven days a week right as the hotel operator right we get retrieve on the weekends um from traffic on
Davidson Avenue because everything on the other side of 287 is typical um Warehouse um industrial um outside of the other hotels that are on on Davidson Avenue so we get reprieve um from traffic on Davidson Avenue so our
concern is obviously the volume of noise that's going to be 24 hours a day 7 days a week right we already have the volume from 287 that is just 24 hours a day seven days a week right so we are concerned about that um with a an operation that's going to be 24 hours a
day obviously affecting our business on the weekends with what's going on in the backyard right there is also a traffic light at the corner Executive Drive remember you're asking questions now right so if you're taking ownership of the Executive Drive driveway how is that
going to affect um traffic in and out of my Mr chair Mr chair let me let's just can you you have other people that are going to be speaking right can you explain and the reason I'm doing this is so that you can frame your questions because there there is going to be so who else who else are you going to be we
have we have a cyan engineer we have an architect we have a traffic engineer and a planner so what I I what I was trying to I didn't want to interrupt you was to say I would I would sit and listen because what you'll find is that and I know you keep mentioning 24 hours a day seven days a week but again this is what
every single Warehouse does in the entire State and it and it is not does not mean and I don't want to speak to it I'm talking as an attorney not a witness but it doesn't mean that there's constantly activity on the outside of the building 24 hours today it's going on inside so I you know so let's just say plus plus what I'm saying is that I
would want you to hear for example the impervious is going down we're actually removing it so there'll be more open so what I'm saying is and you'll see the attractiveness of the building so I would suggest listen and and and hear and ask specific questions first time
that we've been um notified that this building is going right and this is our first it's right time yeah it's our opportunity to voice our concerns what is the what is the name of the hotel the Delta hotel by Mar okay 110 Davidson
which is directly across the street um from from right and so those are things that you know obviously you know we can talk about and you can hear but obviously the there there's the process so you know but I would I would suggest to listen and and obviously you have pictures oh of course we have we have
multiple exhibits just may I am a little bit premature but so yeah and you'll sir you'll have the opportunity you'll have the opportunity after each person presents to ask that person questions and at the end whatever statements you have to make to the board you can make your statements at Point great
appreciate your time thank you why you said that b 25 Spring Street is that on I think so can you hear me yes okay um so you're planning
this Warehouse with no tenants so it's kind of like speculation like you know build it and they will come so my question to you is how long will it take you how long do you need a tenant for to get your return in investment and what do you normally charge per square feet
like well before he even obviously the the economics is not something that we would put on the record and and uh let let Trustin Ed got be a rule of yeah that's that's not something that we would get into here no okay thank you seeing no further uh any other
people that would like to ask any questions I'm going to close the public portion of this witness's uh testimony and ask the attorney handling the matter bring his next witness forward thank you very much thank you very much while he's coming I could tell you
this is Alex L from bolo engineering he's our project site plan engineer and he's going to put some pictures up on those screens right he has many pretty pretty pictures many many okay and he's very he's very straightforward in terms
of his summary so I think you'll be good Mr L if she can raise your right hand please do you uh swear or affirm that testimony about to give before this board is truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do just uh repeat your name and spell your last
name for the record please sure it's Alex l l m is in Mary EI thank you uh Mr L can you please provide the board brief uh summary of your credentials education prior experience appearing before this
board or other boards in Franklin Etc sure again my name is Alex L I graduated with a bachelor's in science from the University of Delaware I've been licensed in the state of New Jersey since 2016 I'm a senior project manager with bowler engineering with office
located at 30 Independence Boulevard suet 200 uh in war in New Jersey I've testified in front of uh over 20 boards in New York and New Jersey and I've been in front of the Franklin Township planning board a couple years back as well well then that's uh that's sufficient for us you accept it as an
expert witness here thank you um and I'm going to make this easy uh Alex uh why you know why don't you provide the board with an overview of of from a site plan engineering perspective uh things that are relevant for purposes of our use variants and other bulk variants uh
summarizing what you've done um and uh what your conclusions are sure I'd like to just start with uh the existing conditions for the site I'm having trouble with that screen Oh I thought that's was the existing condition
sry no signal should I try to unplug it and replug it in sure you'll reboot I guess it's on it's on there okay one Morey got two out of
four okay okay okay I I apologize for that I'd like to just start with the existing conditions and what you have on screen so U Mr Kori um yes I know this is probably part of your submission but since we're putting on the screen we'll
mark Absolutely I'll absolutely Mark the exhibits as we go through this will be A1 okay correct um so this is the aerial exhibit prepared by our office it's dated June 27th 2023 uh I'll mark it as exhibit A1 and North is to the top of the page I'm
going to zoom in a little bit and I apologize if I make anybody nauseous while I zoom in and the the image loads uh the site is identified on the tax map is block 469 Lots 1.03 1.04 and 1.07 and as 123 Executive Drive uh we
have Davidson Avenue to the east of the site with a hotel Beyond we have Executive Drive to the north with uh the cultural center beyond that we have I 287 to the South with some industrial uses beyond that and we also have a cemetery to the West with single family
residential beyond beyond the cemetery further to the West the site is approximately 18.33% Office Buildings on the site I know the question came up about the number of stories uh the two front I'll say front closer to Davidson Avenue uh
Office Buildings are four are four Stories the one closer to the rear is about five stories looks to have some under story uh park car parking as well the buildings are approximately uh from a footprint perspective 20,000 Square ft each so you know multiply that by the
number of stories for each building and that'll give you the kind of the the general gross floor area for each building um and then the existing condition there are three separate accesses from Executive Drive one for each of the respective Office Buildings so I'm going to move to the
proposed conditions and I'll bring up my next exhibit which will Mark is exhibit A2 uh this is the site rendering exhibit prepared by our office dated January 31st 2025 and North is to I'll say the top of the page but it's skewed a little bit to
the top left the development and I'm going to zoom in on this as well so we can see the site a little bit more clearly I apologize it's loading uh the development proposes a 22,500 ft Warehouse with Associated
loading docks driveways car parking spaces as well as storm water uh and utility infrastructure as well as some existing landscaping and uh a good amount of proposed Landscaping as well uh just before I I go too far into the proposed conditions for the site I do
want to speak to the the master plan reexamination that the the township is currently going through and uh Mr koria touched on it but um some of the conclusions that have been drawn towards a medium intensity light industrial use uh and the way that the the
re-examination of the master plan and the conclusions that have been drawn are defining that are a warehouse between 150,000 and 400,000 square ft which this proposed Warehouse meets and having uh less than one loading dock per 5,000 ft so with the calculation that would be
less than 42 loading docks and the proposed building will have 39 loading docks so this fits with the reexamination of the master plan and the conclusions drawn it fits a medium what they would defined as a medium intensity light industrial use um in that report or in the the conclusions that were
drawn for the re-examination of the master plan there were 10 conditions uh that they that they established for this to be a per for a warehouse that fits the criteria to be a permitted use conditional use conditional use conditional use and I just wanted to kind of read through them
to characterize the the proposed development how it fits within the within the conditions uh so number one it must be located within one mile of an interchange uh with I 287 measured along a truck route identified in the master plan circulation element uh this
complies the the development is about 3500 linear feet away from the I 287 interchange uh number two would be only one principal building is permitted per lot and its floor area ratio shall not exceed 0.362 which the building complies with
at 0.27 uh number three the said use will have access to a major collector or higher order Street via interior access road or a non-residential street uh which this building complies with uh David Davidson Avenue is a major collector which we have access to Via a non-residential
street number four is that would be executive drive that would be your non-residential collector right correct okay yes uh number four no Frontage permitted on the scenic roadway as I as identified in the Franklin Township master plan uh this also complies Executive Drive and
Davidson Avenue are not Scenic roadways uh identified in the master plan uh number five the minimum vegetated buffer is required pursuant to schedule six except that the minimum buffer shall be 100 feet along a residential Zone boundary uh we comply with that to the west where we have where the cemetery is
located and the residential Beyond is a residential boundary uh and we have a uh a buffer of plus or minus 190 ft number six the minimum building setback from a residential Zone boundary shall be 200 F feet including a residential Zone boundary within a
street RightWay except when the street right away is an interstate highway uh we comply with that the building setback is 335.25926 every foot of the building height in excess of 50 feet uh that won't be an issue will comply with that the building will be plus or minus 50 feet in in
elevation and height uh I know uh one of the comments in the the letter from the planner was to provide the calculation for the building height which we will do as part of any uh comments or or resubmissions to the to the board we could do that in the site hoping and assuming in approval we could
do that with the site plan sub yes and we can include the building highight calculation on the site plan uh number eight loading or service areas shall not face a residential Zone uh which complies the loading areas face the north towards Executive Drive which is not a residential Zone uh number nine loading or service areas shall not face
a public Street this is the condition that we would not be that we do not comply with currently as Mr Conor had stated uh just because Executive Drive is considered a public Street granted that it really does only service this property but it is a public street so for that effect uh we do not comply with
that that condition number n in the reevaluation of the master plan for the medium intensity uh industrial use however again it's been noted that we're exploring vacation of Executive Drive and if Executive Drive was vacated for the property then we would comply with
that condition apart let me interrupt you for a minute apart from the street vacation from obviously we have planning testimony but from your engineering point of view um the the front yard the prohibition for front yard loading and parking H how does that relate when it's
essentially a private you know street that only serves this property from an engineering point of view yeah from an engineering point of view Executive Drive only really services this property so um it's not really a true and traditional front yard uh so to speak um but the way that the the the the
townships code defines a front yard is if it's not facing any public street it's considered a front yard but realistically um it really does act as kind of a private driveway private accessway for the property number 10 the off street parking shall be provided at a minimum of one space per 1,8 00 grow Square ft
of floor space which we comply with the parking requirement based on that calculation would be 119 parking spaces and we have 152 car parking spaces proposed so I apologize that was a lot of reading of conditions of reexamination of a master plan but I I
did want to go through that for the board just to kind of uh demonstrate that in this reexamination of the master plan the proposed development does fit all of the criteria with the exception of the Executive Drive issue and having loading facing a public
Street Mr chair can I can I just provide just a little bit of context and and I do very much appreciate you going through all of those because um you know the the effort that the that the township is going through has been a significant effort but I just want to make sure that the board understands
that you know as of right now it's not part of the program it's not part of the program it's not an ordinance requirement it's not even formally you know it's not been an adopted element of the the master plan as as of right now it's a product of of Township staff
working with the consultant working with the steering committee that was formed to put this uh to you know to put this um you know draft uh master plan element together um again I I do think it is I do appreciate him going through that I
just want the board to understand that these are not ordinance requirements yet and they're not even a master adopted element of the master plan yet um that we did have a community meeting uh we've had a series of meetings and we did have one uh about a month ago um and these
conditions I think I could say were were were I think generally well received so I could say I think the township is you know seems to be moving in that direction uh but that's where we are yeah so I just want to make sure I wanted to put that in context all this testimony and I appreciate that and if I
could just add and and I appreciate it and and to even to further clarify to I think I spelled it out but let me spell it out even more clearly the reason we're saying that is that there is this very significant process that has occurred it has not formally been adopted yet you know we think that may
be the next step but it has not however to have the the town you know at Great expense kind of go through that process and come up with conclusions here we're going to we're trying to create for the record that this site is particularly suitable for a warehouse so as one of the many factors for you consider even
though it's not an ordinance that that process has resulted in criteria which are satisfied by this is relevant but absolutely it is not binding but it's it's one of the factors we think is important for you to recognize as you evaluate does this make sense that
process resulted in a a building that is essentially this building that's all as one of the factors to interrupt your testimony no thank you Mr Hil because it's a very important distinction and is important to the context of the application I think so as I understand this and you've
gone down to all the all the different I guess it's 10 different factors um if you met all the 10 factors you wouldn't have to come here it if that condition if if that was adopted formally through the board process and the ordinance
based on the reexamination of the master plan if all of that were true and we resolved this ex drive by way of vacation then we would go to the planning board as a permitted conditional use yes if we can't we'd have to actually and again this is you
know we're again we we want to proceed with with the use variant but in the future if if it were something else and the street vacation for some reason is not possible then we'd have to come before you not for a use variance but for a variance to that one specific condition about Executive Drive so we'd
be back here as a a variance from that except for the well I guess it's only that it's only those that those couple of ones that relate to drive the ones that the width of the of the road and all those uh I guess all Seas those right those yes that that would be but
in terms of the jurisdiction if we don't comply with the Executive Drive if Executive Drive is not vacated we would be back here even with the ordinance for a variance so we don't need to do that hopefully we can get approval this way and I think it's more straightforward but yes that that's the answer but if we vacated the street we'd be at the
planning board that's what the answer is okay now I couldn't help but two things I couldn't but notice uh that um this picture is much different than the before picture it is
because this picture doesn't really show any of the surrounding properties the way the before picture did it was kind of like that the your property was a a portion of it but the rest of the all of
the surrounding properties appeared uh there do you have one that shows like this is only a component in a in the larger neighborhood kind of environment or no I I don't have a
zoomed out uh version of the proposed improvements with the surrounding neighborhood that's too bad yeah I have the the exhibit A1 yeah I had the exhibit A1 which is up on the screen now but this is the obviously existing condition with the surrounding
neighborhood uh it's not very difficult to submit and exhibit with the proposed improvements on this aerial that shows that with the context of the surrounding neighborhood yeah but you're not going to be able to do it tonight have that but but but to to to answer your question if you look at this exhibit and
you see the yellow boundary essentially everything that you see in that rendering that we had the other picture is within that yellow so I mean you can you can ask like if you had a specific question so for example across the street when you put up this the proposed um you can it all is fitting in with
within the yellow so you can see the the Landscaping in the front Davidson maybe you should you know kind and Mr shephard I I can go a little further than that too um I can I can tell you that all of the proposed improvements are within all of the current improvements that are out
there and what I mean by that is all the paved areas the curb lines everything like that we are not extending that out any further than what exists there today we're actually bringing that in a little bit further with that's what with reduction of impervious your attorney just said a few moments ago and that was going to be my next question when I look
at the at the new picture of the warehouse it it's it's it seems like a a giant space that is going to have more building coverage than the than the old
buildings did the the the foot the footprint of the building will be larger yes cuz you have three buildings that had a 20,000 foot footprint so effectively 60,000 sare ft of building area yeah uh however they have they're four and five stories so you multiply
that by four and five 15 times that so what's the what's the footprint of the new building the it's 212,00 ft that's right because it's just a 1story building that is correct so you're going from
60,000 to 22,000 what's the yes and the the the gross floor or the floor area ratio is uh 27 okay which is a decrease and then decrease from existing from the existing condition yes and then what's a decrease
the gross floor area so floor area ratio which how much floor area is actually there today is going down from yeah but that's because the other ones have right but that's still that's the capacity of what what's being operating plus the the impervious is also being decreased yes
which I I'll get into okay mhm well why don't I let you do that okay uh I'm gonna uh continue with parking first so we will get to the coverage I promise it's in here sure uh so from a parking perspective we're proposing 152 car parking spaces uh located along the
south of the building uh which exceeds the minimum requirement of 93 spaces with the current zoning and exceeds the minimum requirement for uh what the master plan reexamination is going through right now which uh that requirement be 119 parking spaces uh the parking will include Six Ada accessible
parking spaces two of which will be van accessible and and it'll also include seven electric vehicle parking spaces uh both the Ada and the electric vehicle parking are located on the east and west side of the the proposed car parking areas on the north side of the site and north of the building north of the truck
Court uh we're proposing 22 trailer parking spaces as well uh the building will have 39 loading docks all on the north side of the building which face Executive Drive which I think we've talked through uh a bunch already so far um and as Mr Conor
had noted we are requesting a variance from the requirement for parking Drive aisles or driveways uh within a 50-ft front yard setback uh because we do have parking and drive aisles and driveways located within the front yards of uh Executive Drive and I 287 respectively
so there are parking spaces within the the 50ft front yard setback along I 287 to the South uh we have a driveway from Executive Drive which is technically within the the front yard setback for Executive Drive so that's the the purpose of requesting uh that variance
if I can just interrupt for one second just another point I think is helpful to to kind of give some context we have three front yards right that is correct so those so you just Mak a lot harder we have three front yards we have Executive Drive to the north we have Davidson Avenue to the East and we have uh I 287
to the South the the realistic front yard the one that is truly acts and behaves as a front yard is Davidson Avenue from that perspective we don't have any parking we don't have uh access driveways we don't have access Drive um so we are staying uh pretty far away from the the Davidson Avenue front yard
which I think is important just considering uh how Executive Drive functions and the fact that 287 is to the south of us and is not not truly a natural front yard uh especially considering um there's anywhere between 10 and 15 ft of SE of grade elevation
separation between our site and uh and I 287 below what was that again I 287 is roughly 10 to 15 ft lower than than our site 15t yeah so from a front yard perspective it's a little bit odd to to call that a front yard but again by the
letter of the law on the ordinance it's a public Street technically so it's considered a front yard so Ju Just from a practical point of view essentially front yard you know a site typically has one front yard we have three so it's a lot harder to to stay out of the front yard prohibitions when you have three of
them and and what I think Alex is saying is that Davidson is really the true front yard from from a from a look perspective because 287 is 287 an Executive Drive is essentially a driveway so we've stayed away and don't have anything in that front yard because we're looking at that as kind of the
real one I'll call it go ahead uh so just continuing on from uh we have a proposed concrete sidewalk along the south side of the building uh to service the car parking and to and to provide to provide access to the building uh you have Ada accessible routes from the proposed adaa
parking spaces to the entrance stores for the building is the is the driveway does the driveway go through the the uh Davidson Avenue side what is that what is that yeah what's that that thing there
here no right on the side of the Davidson side of the building there we go the brown what's that thing oh that is the that's the car access so it's off of Executive Drive yeah cars cars will
enter that driveway to park along Ong the south side of the building so you have separate accesses for for car and truck so you have the truck is the Westerly driveway on Executive Drive and you have a car driveway on the easterly side for Executive Drive uh we I was just discussing the
sidewalk and I think it's important relative to the site plan because the town does have a requirement to provide access and sidewalks along the frontage so we are proposing a sidewalk that comes from the building along the east side of the building and the car access drive out to Executive Drive goes up Executive Drive and into Davidson Avenue
and then we're proposing sidewalk all along the frontage of Davidson Avenue as well but that doesn't show on the picture it uh it's hard to see I can zoom in a bit yeah all right yeah but you you can't see the the driveway along kind of the east of the building yeah yeah yeah
okay and uh cross is executive and then up into Davidson [Music] um I did want to talk a little bit about the the truck court and the truck docks uh we we we noted it earlier Mr
Kor has noted it um we have 130 foot uh width truck Court we'll call it but between the the docks and the maneuvering space for the trucks we have 130 ft width we're requesting a variance from the requirement where the the width is supposed to be double the length of a vehicle that accesses the loading docks
uh the length of the truck that would be accessing the loading dock is uh 7 3.5 ft so 147 ft width is required uh where we're we are proposing 130 ft but that 130 ft for uh a depth of truck loading and truck maneuverability in the truck
court is industry standard uh any industrial use ask for 130 ft so that the trucks can can maneuver back into the loading dock and unload uh we're also as mentioned earlier requesting a variance for the loading space a maneuvering area within the front yard for portions of the truck
Court are a Executive Drive and I'll sketch it in here but you can see uh where the culdesac is there's kind of a semicircle uh that is generated for a front yard that does creep into that truck court and that truck maneuvering space uh which is driving the variant
there um it Mr Kor had also referenced it earlier as well but from a signage perspective uh we are going to have one Monument side uh in the northeast corner of the site up at the corner of executive and Davidson Avenue it'll it will be set back 10 ft from the property lines per code uh it'll be less than 100
square ft less than 100 uh 100 S ft as well to meet the the Township's code uh and on the building uh the plan that was submitted to the board showed four building signs but we would we will be revising that to to go with two building signs to not request any sign variants
meeting the area criteria meeting the number on on a facade uh and uh and also the height that's 2et of height if you have more than one tenant um if you have more than one tenant can have um you can have one sign on multiple facades of the building but we would comply with the code requirement let so let me make it
just easy in terms of obviously we'll be submitting a site plan anyway subsequently assuming and hoping an approval uh the signage whether it be the monument the wall signs um would comply with the ordinance that is correct and we'll show that on the site plan to be submitted correct
okay um going to uh just some proposed kind of environmental items for the site wait yes I want to understand better mhm the loading side of the building you
got loading docks there it only looks like you have one two 3 four five but that those are just some sort of markers right I'll zoom in it's maybe a little easier to see there's smaller squares those are each
of the loading okay again there we go there's stairs you you probably saw the stairs and thought that was the demarcation uh but you have stairs for for egress for the building okay so the trucks back in and they unload there but there's going to be trucks
that come one day and don't leave and they have to sit somewhere for the night or maybe two days where do they go we have 22 truck parking spaces just to the north of the of the truck court so they have a few parking spaces they need to
store the truck over night they're not leaving they have a they have a parking space that they can they can reside in okay and the there seems to be some sort of vegetation around that that thing what is that one if we will he's going
to detail the extens of landscaping that will be incorporated so I don't know if you want to jump to that I'll jump to that so no because it's a good question and I think it's important for the character of the development um we are going to propose landscape throughout the the entire development
we have a combination of of shade trees ornamental trees and evergreen trees as well as shrubs proposed throughout the entire uh site we'll have I'll I'll specify but we have 88 shade trees 30 ornamental trees and 293 evergreen trees so we'll have 411 trees proposed on site
uh we are removing 50 trees and by calculation of the Township Code we're required to replace I believe 295 trees and we're proposing 411 uh so we're exceeding the requirement based on what we're removing from a from a tree and Landscape perspective perspective uh and we'll we'll be using a mix of we're
preserving the existing Landscaping trees everywhere possible where we can and kind of infilling with trees uh you know along the truck Court to the north we have Landscaping along Davidson Avenue as well uh there's some existing Landscaping kind of tucked in the north uh or sorry the southeast Corner that
we'll be maintaining and we'll infill with some Landscaping right at the street as well as some Landscaping uh on the opposite side of a of a bio retention Basin that we'll have at the front of the site which will have shrubs and plantings in there as well and to the to the South I I know it's 287 but we we'll also be proposing some trees
along the South as well to help build that screen to the parking and to the west and that's certainly a better the post condition is certainly better than what's out there now yes so maybe you can kind of if if if that helps the yeah I just by by nature of the proposing the landscaping around the boundaries it
it's certainly more Lush how tall will the trees be uh the trees generally like the ever evergreen trees can get to 40 ft High um some of the when you plant them how the going when when you plant them they probably plant at 8 ft 8 ft and then they take several years to
mature okay right um and uh I I mentioned it but we're we have proposed Landscaping along the west as well just considering that's residential boundary there's a residential buffer there is uh a lot of existing mature uh wooded areas there as well as some lawn areas between our our building and our our access
roads uh to the cemetery and the residential Beyond but we'll be also be infilling with some proposed trees as well so that the gray space I see see up there toward the the left side um where's the
cemetery Cemetery cemetery is along the west I'll try and that's not right sketch it in here all right okay thanks sure um I I I'll talk about the coverage as well now since we're on the Landscaping um because I think it's it's
important to understand the improvements from a coverage perspective so uh the development proposes 9.29 Acres of impervious coverage uh which is 50.7% of of the entire lot where 60% is allowed by code uh this is a decrease from the existing condition by 1.31
Acres so pretty significant reduction of impervious coverage on site and that really is the nature of uh The Office Buildings kind of having a wide swath of parking and and paved areas so um while you have a larger building footprint overall you are reducing uh impervious
coverage by over an acre and you're also reducing these paved areas which are classified as motor vehicle surface areas which you know cars park on sometimes oil leaks and things like that we're reducing the motor vehicle surface area by 4.62 n Acres so a pretty significant reduction of the motor
vehicle surface area as well uh I I did just want to discuss quickly um to the to the west of the site uh there is we do have two areas of flagged Wetlands um those Wetlands were flagged by our environmental consultant they
have evaluated they will have a 50-ft transition area uh that associated with them uh we are not proposing improvements within the transition areas or within the wetlands in fact uh some of those areas are permanently they have pavement areas in the transition areas now so we're removing that to kind of uh
make that condition a little bit better than it exists today and there's an existing Basin for the site on the North uh just north of the truck parking uh that's also technically classified as a wetland but it has no transition area we're not proposing any changes to that Basin we're not proposing any
improvements in that Basin so from a wetland perspective we're not we're we're actually making the the condition a bit better by removing some paved surfaces out of there and when you're talking about wetlands and d and maybe it's a good spot to just mention obviously uh confirmed for the record of law I said it but you need to say it
that we do have our our flood Hazard and so the storm water and those calculations from the dp's point of view we understand that the town will also be reviewing the site plan but from that perspective that's been resolved maybe you can state that for the record that that's correct and before I talk about uh the DP permit that we do have uh from
a wetland perspective we will be filing with the D for a letter of interpretation so it's a a confirmation from the D that what's been flagged out on site is accurate and they agree with our environmental consultant so that'll be getting filed probably next week um from a flood Hazard perspective just on
the wetlands just to be clear for the record but and I know you said it but just so it's it's clear we're not going to be uh in any way disturbing the the buffer area that's associated with the wet lens that's correct I'm saying and in fact we're removing some some existing pavement and other things
within that area we're removing it that is correct okay go uh relative to flood Hazard uh we have an unnamed tributary along the west property line of the site uh and by DP requirements it it drains more than 50 acres so we were required to do a flood Hazard verification and a
flood Hazard uh individual permit with the D which we have filed the application and received our verification and our individual permit for flood Hazard um DP reviews the the storm water uh design as part of their revieww as well as the Delaware and R and Canal commission they also review
storm water as part of their review when we submit applications so uh we do have that D permit in hand and uh from a drcc perspective we have a few minor comments we're still working through but from a storm water design perspective they have uh accepted our design um U Mr Conor I I believe that
concludes my direct teston okay those are the questions I have for this witness well I asked a couple questions as we been along does anybody else on the board have any questions to ask I had a I had a question for
Mark by considering this application right now a y n or a conditional anything does it imp impact the master Planning by any ways no okay anything else I don't know if they
know is is I don't know if you want more of an explanation but I mean this application rests on its own merits and frankly won't weigh in any decision of the planning board of the council whether to adopt the ordinance or the master plan Amendment they won't consider this okay can we go back to the
uh to the do you have a a light a laser pointer I I don't but I'm happy to go up the screen got one cuz I saw something getting you can go up to the screen if that helps I want to see the the previous the previous um picture the one of the
existing conditions that's it sure okay so to the right there that's all houses over there that's the hotel to the east to the right to the right yeah which hotel is it the Delta that's the yeah the Delta by Mar the gentleman that
spoke before is the across the street across he's across Davidson across Davidson Avenue yeah he's not across from executive no no no and and just why you fill them in I mean and you'll hear from the planner but the area apart from the cemetery which is actually Zone
residential and then the residence beyond the cemetery it's all commercial and Industrial surrounding the site there is no residential well what's that to the to the left isn't that residential the cemetery the cemetery and then residential Beyond
correct okay all right but there's that buffer there's the cemetery and and would say 195 ft I think is yeah the the the we have about 195 ft of of buffer of landscaping and trees and and between existing and propose from the from the boundary um from this red and yellow
boundary here uh that we have about 195 ft of buffer just from there then you have the cemetery Beyond and then you have residential yeah all right um and again for and I say this
with all you know with the master plan stuff but in one of the criteria they talk about of course that's key is residential and the buffer and one of the things that Alex talked about was that the the masterp conclusions again for just context talked about having at least 100 ft so we have 195 to the
cemetery and then of course the cemetery is itself buffer so just again just to give you context yep and there there's a church there right as well isn't there it's a Ukrainian Cultural Center to the north uh I I
believe there might be a church there I'm not 100% sure there's a church there okay but they don't access their building doesn't matter from Davidson do they they they don't access it from executive they access from David so that strip of executive that's on our
property I'll say I'll say it that way but that strip of executive they do not access their site from that from that strip is that a typo or are there two Executives you know what I'm not sure that's something we would what one of the many things we need to look at for
the Vaca Street vacation I I agree I I don't know yeah but but certainly that that segment there uh is fully curved and there is no curb cut so the Korean Church cannot access their site by turning on to the Executive Drive that's on our property that that's right up
against our property the Korean Church Ukrainian Ukrainian UK sorry I I apologize there's a K in there and I just automatically went to Korean instead I apologize Ukrainian all right so okay let's let's
get back to the come on the the hotel oh the hotel sorry it's okay the hotel is that's Davidson there so it's a it's
a pretty good distance well looking at that it's a pretty good distance how much closer is your building new building to Davidson than where that 1.03 building
is oh it's very close much close it it it's uh I I'll get the exact measurement for you but it's 200 looks like 243 feet from Davidson Avenue it does it it looks closer but I'll confirm the existing
building to the proposed but again the then you then you look at the the trees the Landscaping that you know in terms of that plus it's an existing you know it's across Davidson I mean in itself is setback I mean I understand the concept but uh you know the in the in the post
condition here you're looking at a lot of landscaping as opposed to basically a a driveway where there's parking that that's correct and you'll also have um just given the the grading of the site the office building I think is going to be a set a few feet higher than when this building will be set this building
will be set about 6 feet below the Davidson Avenue right away I believe Davidson Avenue is at elevation 68 and the finished floor of the building is at elevation 62 so there will be a little bit of a a drop from the exist what's existing buildings to the to the proposed and will the will that drop
also be the same drop for the truck parking and the car parking or will that be higher that'll be very similar it should be at or below okay cuz the the the loading Bays will be a bit lower than the finished floor of the um
finished floor of the the building just based on you have a 4ft differential from the trucks back up to get get into the loading base so that the trucks will actually be sitting 4T lower all right that's all the questions I have if no one else on the board has any additional questions I'm going to open the just a
few questions sure the um there's a a gas pipeline to the rear of the property is that correct what's the distance what's the setback from that pipeline to the building I don't know off the top of my head but I can get that for you okay if you could do that um also in the rear
of the property um the existing situation um I should say compared to the existing situation in terms of the curb line and Lawn Etc are you is there going to be any disturbance closer to the stream than currently exists no uh
we're actually we're removing pavement from the rear of the property so we're actually setting that back further than what exists today okay what about uh disturbance in the form of grading or tree removal is any that going to be closer to the stream than than the curb line no okay
um the curb line so getting to 28 similar question for 287 um and and I'm just going to frame the question a little bit because I you know I'll I'll I'll you know offer an opinion that I think differs than what than what you've heard and my opinion
the the front yard from 287 is important um you know I know it's a an interstate but if you have hundreds of thousands of people traversing there's no other Road in Franklin where you're going to have more people seeing the building and that is you know in essentially the kind of
the gateway to the township so and we have had other applications along 287 and we've treated that Frontage with some importance um so with so with that I'll frame that question there is a curb line Al near
your front property line along 287 that has parking in it are you going any closer to 287 with this curb line or are you moving back how's the treatment along 287 going to different than the current situation uh yeah we're moving
back I don't have the exact distance but we are moving further away from a curb line for 287 and we're also going to be proposing some plantings between the curb line and 287 the property line for 287 okay and then to the when you and when you look at the aerial photos you
see there's you know predominantly within the right of way of 287 but I think going into your site a little bit there's um you know good amount of vegetation are you removing any of that no okay if you and if you can get the um
the pipeline question at some point yeah I'll look at it all I and obviously with the site plan going to have to be submitted that'll obiously well it would be it' be a variant so if if I mean I don't think you have a variance condition I think you exceed it I'll get the to know for the board to know since it would be a variance condition if it
understood okay I'll confirm that distance for you Mr Hy it's no problem okay so I think that the board has asked all their questions uh if uh a member of the public would like to ask questions of this witness about what he
testified to I get it now good and actually Mr chairman I just opened up my screen and I got the figure right right right here your plans say that the building corner to existing gas pipeline is 23.6 ft so that's what's on the plan so
and the requirement is 100 so you vastly exceed it have open to it I answered my own question there you go thank you Mr thank you you're welcome so I I get it so I'll ask individual questions appreciate that um so on this picture or on the current site there is only one access to the
parking lot to the three existing buildings is that correct sure I'm sorry you can pull it out and hold on to it no I'm good good the currently I think there's only one access to the parking lot at the current site there are three accesses one to each of the buildings
off of executive okay so you're with in the new proposal you're planning on moving that new car driveway closer to Davidson Avenue uh yes right okay which will again have 24hour 7day a week
traffic where currently those buildings that's really accurate No I mean there cars there employees once they come they Park but you know um Executive Drive is a public road and I don't know if there's um what the town
ordinance is on parking on Town streets overnight is not that's not allowed in like right now the Executive Drive is Town owned and and manage there is no overlight overnight parking allowed on that street my is the if the question is will
we be parking on Executive Drive the answer is no if that's what you're asking well I'm asking that trucks that don't have spacee in your existing over um overd parking spot for those trucks will they be allowed to park on Executive Drive if there's not enough
space no okay um because obviously from a from a a site that's not I understand oh I I get it sure sure certainly but no that wouldn't be that's that's not how it's designed and that would not be and then you know you could see where the hotel is right and all that green space
between those two white buildings is my backyard I have an outdoor pool po um that really overlooks Davidson Avenue and then I have a lot of um I have a fence line that goes around my parking lot that um butts up against Davidson Avenue um obviously Our concern is we're
Executive Drive and all those trucks coming in out of EX Drive is really going to be you know those trucks are going to be pointing right at the hotel right so that's that's obviously a concern from us from a noise and traffic standpoint um especially on the
overnights right when people are trying to rest and sleep in a hotel I already have enough issues with 287 um you know that's a big concern from us from a business standpoint right so I noticed on your other plan that the the buffer
zone in the back of the property is a lot bigger from the cemetery and than the the private homes beyond the cemetery but very small buffer zone in the front of the building that's also a function of the stream and you know those are things that we have to respect
and and that that's also why yeah so there's no opportunity to push that building further back off of Davidson Avenue no uh and we do meet the criteria from a setback perspective from Davidson Avenue and additionally we are going to be infilling and proposing uh a pretty
solid Tree Line uh and we're going to do that along Davidson Avenue and then we're going to do that again along the the car driveway to help screen the the loading operations and the building yeah from Davidson Avenue 39 bays are on that side of the building correct facing
Executive Drive Right facing Executive Drive so you know even though there might not be truck activity in and out of Executive Drive there is a lot of maneuvering going along going along going throughout the the loading docks of trucks in and out to make room for
for new deliveries coming in the morning and that kind of thing so obviously just going back to my point of noise um congestion throughout the course of the day we're currently in the current set up those buildings are really empty during the during the weekend and that's really our our main concern is more the
weekend business that and and getting that um changed is is a big issue for us um going from really dormant on the weekends to Now activity 24 hours seven days a week so that's all I on this
great job on the questions this time thank you you do okay anything else no I think that's all we have for this witness thank you very much for your testimony you want to take a break or should I call my next I'm ready I think I'd like to take a
break 10 minute break it's late enough counselor yes thank you can we have your next witness please yes uh CLA o Umar okay raise your right hand please do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give before this board is the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth yes I do can you please uh state your name and spell your last name for the record please sure uh Claudio Brea that's b r d thank you uh Mr Brea can you uh provide the board with a brief uh summary of your qualifications as to architecture and your experience
appearing before boards including boards in Franklin sure um um I a bachelor's in architecture graduated from Pratt intitute and I've been in the field of architecture for roughly 23 years now and have a I'm licensed in New Jersey as
well as several other states here on the East Coast uh and I've appeared before this board as well as many other boards in the state of New Jersey as a matter of fact I see some new faces and is your license still uh active and current yes it is okay then we'll accept you as a thank you thank you similar to what I
did for the engineering testimony Mr Brenda let's make this simple and and why don't you fill the board in on on your perspective as an architect on the project the building and the things that they would find relevant for purposes of our application tonight I thought he was the architect sure so I would just start
off with the the floor plan as you can see here um we'll mark that as A3 I believe right brian3 yes yes thank you so as as noted earlier this will be for a warehouse uh the overall length is 850 ft with a depth of 250 ft um as Mr L uh
noted earlier we have the 39 do doors here uh facing north which is um the Executive Drive with two Drive-In um ramps which is essentially used for uh smaller box trucks or Vans to come into the building for loading um on plan
South this is essentially what's facing Route 287 uh and Mr Burns noted I ideally this would be for single tendon but we are accommodating some flexibility for up to three tendons you can see here the darker Shades here um again facing 287 this is uh intended to
be potential office spaces um again you can see here the typical grid line which is pretty typical our industry standard for uh warehouses to make it efficient um racking system uh as Mr Burns uh noted
earlier here on the northwest corner of the building you see two spaces here this for your utilities one will be for electrical and the other one will be for the the fire pump the entire building the fire pump yes fire pump for the sprinkler system
oh okay so then all the exterior walls are tilt up concrete uh they'll be painted which I show on the upcoming slides and you can see here probably hard to tell but I know that one of the questions that was brought some of the
egress points um again we have a a difference in elevation between the finished floor and the truck base is a full foot difference hence why you see here it's these stairwells for erass so that's the four floor
plan this is just quick overview of the roof um we're pitching the roof both North and South so it's essentially two slopes um so all the water will be draining towards um Executive Drive uh 50% and the other 50%
will be uh draining towards 287 is there any collection any collection points yeah there'll be multiple leaders uh coming along the the building that will go to the storm water system okay and just to confirm the construction of the roof will be for solar ready correct that's
correct yes you can see here this little square this really is the roof hatches for Access which I forgot to mention but you could see here the one the utility rooms has a ship ladder leading up to the for the roof access so is the exterior
elevations so five the north elevation is really where we have all our dock doors is facing um Executive Drive as I noted the exterior walls are all painted uh concrete um throughout the building we essentially broke up the height uh
with the darker tone gray and then the lighter gray just to break up the scale of the height um essentially this is a wind coing if you will similar to what you have here in the room just to break up the height um we also the main facade if you will that's facing 287 we also
broke broke up the Rhythm excuse me with these recesses uh which essentially act as pilasters is really just to break break up the Rhythm um of the the building to break up the mass you can see here the three different uh office
components as I not earli on the floor plan uh which has these gradient Shades starting with the dark blue going all the way up to uh a lighter uh essentially white at the top of the roof but again this is really the doest
component again giving the flexibility for up to three tenants up to three what tenants tenants okay uh I know the question came up earlier today U what was the the height of the building so you can see here
across section of the building uh as Mr Burns noted earlier we're shooting for a clear height of 40t to the other side of the the roof joice uh from the Finish floor to the top of a parit we have 45 ft and you can see here the the various
colors uh the the concrete will be painted with which is essentially the The Branding colors of Idi Logistics that's really the last one and then I'll just end with the perspective our rendering um this is A6 so this is essentially a view looking
from Southwest was just I guess intersection of 287 and Davidson um you can see here the the pilasters I mentioned before which actually recess just to break up the Rhythm obviously some clear story Windows above just to bring some natural light into the
warehouse um and this is just further back you can see the overall scale of the building okay is that it that is it okay those are the questions I have for Mr bre just to be clear though this this rendering this you're not at the corner of 287 and
Davidson this you would be clearly on the site correct yes that's correct okay just wanted to make sure sure the board was aware this is not looming over the road I mean it's set back a few set back a few hundred feet I'm just trying to give some context yes yes and so this
this side that we're looking at here this is the side where if there was a window you'd be looking out at 287 right this window over here yes faces
287 okay all in fact right all faces 287 as I guess my biggest problem with this project is that is that it's a Concrete box you have absolutely no variation in the uh the walls from the point of view
of uh uh depth or anything um and it's it's hard for me to understand what you're planning on doing as far as painting it is concerned because I see you've got a little kind of like a a little design at this corner but the
rest of it is just monolithic concrete box and it's it's not pretty now obviously that doesn't really go to the question that we're dealing with tonight which is you know use variance issues but it's um
I I think you can do better because you're basically pouring a wall That's 4 feet high it would seem to me that you could you you could have some sort of variation in in what you're what you're what you're building there and there's
none now maybe that's because you're in an industry where that's accepted everywhere but I'm not really too excited about that can you explain to me why you made it look the way it looks well
again Yes again this is industry standard right uh tilt up concrete for warehouses and in the colors to answer your point is really the the colors of IDE Logistics in their branding uh can we change them yes we could change them well the color I don't think he's if I
can character I got two things I got color is one and number two is just the A variation in the surface right now the color is and I don't mean it you know the color is ID's color so those wouldn't change but you're saying something paint the whole you paint the
whole building talking about changing the color he's talking about doing and the variation as I know again this is a typical wall facing 287 which was just the perspective I had before you can see here the panels do step back just to create some variation in some Shadow lines which is probably hard to depict
here but you can see how they actually step back so again we're trying to break up the monolithic um rhythm of of the facade it's not a rhythm we if we could uh if I can interrupt for a minute and and obviously uh Mr Burns is still sworn in
but he has something I think is relevant to add as it relates to the Davidson project that we approved at the planning board last year yeah so uh shame on us because there were similar comments from the planning board during Davidson um so what we had agreed to do is and I'm not sure Claud if you remember exactly but
uh we agreed to add basically blue stripes throughout to kind of break up the the gray essentially which would make it more aesthetically pleasing um do I don't know if you recall the exact yeah I provide a testimony for that as well right uh so if if it pleases the
board we would certainly um agreed to do something like that to improve the aesthetic of the building um and in terms of the concrete box I just one comment I would make I mean generally speaking um ultimately what's happening in these buildings is we're they're racked right we're racked you're storing things so um build buildings that have
too much glass or if you had glass facade throughout the the building it becomes a security concern and tenants don't want to locate in the building so that's generally why they are built the way they are built and then you'll you'll see there are windows at the to closer to the top of the building clear story Windows uh to provide natural
light but they're higher up again for security purposes but but certainly I I think the takeaway is that that certainly as as Mr burn just indicated we can certainly between now and it sounds like we're going to be back on another night we can certainly we can certainly you know evaluate that and
provide some more detail for you we we hear you and ID addresses comments so we'll we will evaluate that and and come back with something something that was amendable to for example not that it has to be for you to but was amenable to the planning board for a building very
similar so that's shame on us for for not thinking of that ahead of time uh but we will we will take care of that my my question to you guys is is you know if you're going to stay in hotel room I just wondered what you know would
you want to see that out your window yeah and whatever we can do to make it yeah and and and I and oh there is Landscaping I'm I'm trying to kind of answer that in a way that doesn't come off in a way that I don't want to come off but uh obviously you know there is
uses that are allowed in the zoning ordinance and there so this isn't about a hotel you know and I don't mean in a bad way we spoke with you know it's about you know a hotel that was purchased you know 2 a7's right there I mean there's a certain level of of
understanding that conditions are conditions you know and so certainly it's understood I think it's absolutely essential that we're going to go back and and do something to improve the Aesthetics of this that's that's a given it's not really a matter of when I wake up in a hotel room what I'm looking at
you know that kind of thing so so that that's all I would say but I hear you but there's a point and and I would just add I mean at the end of the day I'd certainly prefer to look at a a warehouse that's providing value to a community in a Township versus empty Office Buildings which is what it is and
quite frankly what it will likely stay unless um a higher and better use is allowed to be developed here yeah I would just like to kind of echo the same sentiment um obviously we're here for a use variance and it is a warehouse understandable um but some
some consideration to the facade a long um Davidson I think would be very much appreciated by the community um I'll leave it at that um but I did have one question for the architect understood in terms of the HVAC equipment was it all going to be roof mounted and would it be um
screened yes there will be some roof equipment but again given the height of the building and they're going to be further back from the parapet lines they'll be out of sight no no one will be able to see them okay uh anything else for this witness uh since there's no additional
questions from the board I'm going to open this uh witness's uh testimony uh to the public if someone would like to come and ask claudo uh any questions about uh his testimony they can do so
now having seen no one uh move to the podium I'm going to close uh this witness's testimony and this will be the last witness for tonight okay so we should confirm for the record so we can announce when when we'd be coming
back uh are all of your professionals they can they can't do the April 17 fortunately we would have loved to but my two main Witnesses both are not available on so May 8th was the the next time the next soonest would be the one we would do yes I'm just making sure it's May yeah
May 8th is okay yes it is okay so then IDI Logistics zbaa 2410 will be carried to May 88th at 7:30 p.m. here at 475 deont Lane starting at
7:30 um I would need a a an extension date from you you could just send an email be fine absolutely yes okay yes thank you everyone and we'll see you on May 8th uh move to adjourn so can I get a second second
second all in favor okay