go on the [Music] mic of February 6 2024 in accordance with the open public meetings act PL 1975 chapter 231 adequate notice of this regular meeting of the board of adjustment of the Township in Franklin has been provided board members applicant professionals and members of the public please speak directly into the
microphones keep your mouth very close to the microphone so people can hear you so that the recording secretary can properly process the minutes applicants and professionals please fill out the sheet on the table when you have completed your testimony thank you okay I think now we start with uh uh shendu's uh swearing in I believe that was already done I just did yeah so
we can just start the roll call all right okay uh then um uh we got to approve the minutes of uh I have to do the roll call First oh okay uh Cheryl bethia had oh there she is I was just gonna say she text me saying she was running late so Cheryl is here let's give her a moment to get I marked her here uh rich pranic vasim verdas and chairman Thomas asked to be excused this evening Alan Rich here Gary Rosenthal
here Robert Shephard here farz Khan here Michael dhy here kunala shendu Singh here so funny so where are you okay you can do the minutes now okay so the first thing we need to do is approve the minutes from our regular meeting of February 9th 2025 January 9th January I'll
move second second uh Bob did you second right Bob Shephard did I oh it's Alan Rich Alan Rich okay Cheryl bethia yes Gary Rosenthal yes Michael dhy yes and that's all okay let's go let's go Bob okay so then
uh that's approved now we have to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of January 16 2025 I'll move second Cheryl bethia yes Alan Rich yes Gary Rosenthal yes Robert Shephard yes farz Khan yes Michael Dy yes okay now the next thing we're going
to uh we have the uh resolution for the uh case brought by andas Caterers um zba 2416 um do I uh have someone who can do you want to know the member the members that can vote are Cheryl Betha Alan Rich Gary Rosenthal and Robert Shephard I'll move I'll second Cheryl Betha yes alen Rich yes
Gary Rosenthal yes Robert Shephard yes and it's the same group for the next two resolutions as well well that makes it easy y um okay then the next one is Princeton Route 27 zba 2415 I'll move a second sh Bea yes Alan Rich yes Gary Rosenthal yes Robert Shephard yes can't
see okay the final resolution is milstone Valley Fire Department zba 2419 I'll move I'll second Cheryl Betha yes Allan Rich yes Gary Rosenthal yes and Robert sheeper yes okay now we're going to move on to the hearing section of this um of this meeting but before we start I want to
let everybody know that mangit Singh and ravinder core um zba 2411 will not be heard tonight it is being rescheduled for April 3 2025 and it is carried with notice needed for Residential Properties April 3rd
okay okay so then uh that's been taken care of so now we will hear the only other matter that's on for tonight that's Fleet Franklin Inc zba 2422 speak into the microphone and it's it down you'll be able the m is this better not really when you
when I gave the instruction you have to put your mouth close to it so everybody can hear have is this better oh way better all right good evening uh my name is Steven Ward I'm from the law firm of gardano howerin and cesla and I'm here on behalf of the applicant um before we get started I did want to put the plan up on the screen um do
we why isn't this moving okay okay great thank you um we're here this evening with regards to the property at block
46807 lot 4635 uh generally um we are seeking uh relief to eliminate a a community garden that was part of a prior approval from 2019 um I have three Witnesses with me this evening um if I may uh like to bring up my first Witness that'd be just
fine sir if you can just raise your right hand please do you swear the testimony you're about to give before this board is truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes can you please state your name and spell your last name for the into the microphone please yes my name is Paul schne that's spelled s c h NE i e r thank you thank you and Paul are are you a member and principal of Fleet Franklin
LLC the developer of the Grove at Somerset yes and this project was approved by board resolution zb- 2016-17 adopted January 17 2019 is that correct I believe that is correct although I did not get the approvals it was approved by someone else I purchased it approved so the the approval was assigned to you correct or excuse me assigned to Fleet Franklin yes um and Fleet Franklin developed the Grove at
Somerset is that correct yes uh and if you could just could just describe the development it's a um nice little development of 34 tow houses uh Homeowner Association governed um there's a roadway uh entering the uh the community uh there is a significant retention Basin uh to handle storm water uh and there are uh there are no
there are recreational amenities in the form of passive open space and a gazebo and the development has been fully constructed except for the subject community garden that is correct um I I just wanted to bring the board's attention to where the community garden is that' be a good start
too much I can't get this yeah is it there now no better sorry don't have a mouse there we
go so right right towards this end here towards the top of the screen there is the is the the where the proposed community garden was was to be constructed behind uh these units okay now Paul um in going through uh the
transition from from the developer controlled uh development transitioning to the association um was there an agreement made between the developer and the association yes we we reached an agreement to transition the community to the homeowners uh directly uh we agreed on old terms however the homeowners informed me that they did not want us to build the
community garden um and so uh we we put some money in escrow in case the garden had to be built and we agreed that uh I would come back before the zoning board and request relief from this condition and um there's no pecuniary gain to me I don't gain anything by the elimination of this Garden if it's eliminated the money that would have been used to build a garden goes to the homeowners and if for some
reason you you deny the request then we'll build the garden but the homeowners don't want it because it's very close to building five and I'll let the homeowners themselves explain why they feel it's uh not something they want in their [Music] community and the The Proposal is to Simply have this as uh open space and it would be just grasped with no other improvements is that correct yes we
would just leave it the way it is now it's a manicured lawn the I believe the homeowners use this for various purposes and uh our proposal is to just leave it as is I have nothing further of this witness so I would ask if the board has any questions does the board have any questions of this witness I do there's no playground for kids I mean the swings and the slides nothing like that no there is none okay is that
something that could go there maybe the tenants don't want that either you know a lot of things I think theoretically could go there but it wasn't approved with uh a playground and the homeowners haven't requested one and um and and so uh you know I guess maybe for some of the same reasons they don't want that much activity by their homes these are their backyards and they like the Serenity and the peace this a senior community I'm sorry this a senior
community no it is not it's for families for anybody what year was this developed good question it was developed I think during covid uh I forget it's been a while since um we we completed it it's been at least three years was it developed in one shot or was it like gradual one shot we came in we cuz I see the plans revised 2019 so was developed after 2019 and
there wasn't any playground play areas for this this lock this area no they nothing was contemplated other than the this passive open space which is delineated with a some fencing and some landscaping and benches and the Gazebo which was constructed and the third element to satisfy the town's Recreation requirement was to be this community
garden but you know these amenities are to serve the homeowners and if the homeowners don't want something um you know far be it from me to force them what kind of garden was it were we talking a uh vegetable and fruit patch or flowers and that kind of thing whatever anybody wanted to grow here theoretically you could see the again the proximity to building five and you
can see the layout uh I I don't know how many areas and it was undetermined how this would be divided up who would get to use it and I think there's some concern about again the proximity to the backyards of this one building and um you know not knowing who might be in the garden uh issue of Safety and Security for the people whose homes right are right here what's it being used for right now
I'll let the homeowners speak to that but uh they they celebrate various holidays and events and they they they definitely use the uh the grass area um so that is it I'm seeing the layout there is the is it just a one solid uh section of grass there's not section like it's showing on the on the map there like plots no it's just it's just it's just grass that's continuous
that's what would have been built yes got it okay well if there are no further questions from the board I'd like to open it up to the public to ask the public if they would like to at this point ask the witness any questions it's not time for the people in the um uh in the audience to uh give their opinion as to whether this a is a good project or not you can just what you want to do
here is just ask the witness questions that you believe to be relevant to the issue does anybody want to speak then I'm going to close uh the public portion for this witness and will'll ask the attorney presenting the case to introduce his next witness thank you for coming and speaking thank you very much thank you Mr Vice
chair God bless good evening Bo sir if you can raise your right hand please do you swear the testimony you're about to give before this board is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes can you just stay your name and spell your last name for the record please my name is Aditya
mapari last name spelled m o k k as in kilo kilo a p a TI thank you thank you are you a resident at the Grove of at Somerset yes I am are you a member of the board of the uh homeowners association yes that is right um and are you authorized to speak on behalf of the board yes okay um and can you confirm uh you heard testimony from
the prior witness that the developer and the association had come to an agreement is that correct yes that is right um and was as part of of that agreement um the developer agreed to seek this approval to eliminate the community garden is that right yes that is right okay so is it fair to say that the ass Association uh supports the elimination of this community garden why don't we let him ask answer that question I'll even ask
it does the uh homeowners association support the idea of uh not having the garden yes and why do are they now against the idea of having the garden for various reasons uh one uh the the homeowners feel the proximity of that Garden to the specific building there which is
close to you building number five it is called uh there is a sense of lack of privacy when uh homeowners uh other you know other homeowners go there at OD hours at their own time to uh do the potentially do activity in there um and uh secondly once the community garden is put um the maintenance activity that
needs to go in there to upkeep uh the uh community garden that we either need volunteers or we need to hire new vendors to uh keep it up and tidy and thirdly and most importantly the community wanted that space to be open so they can conduct activities during summer uh which we have conducted several times um games and events um
bringing the entire Community together um it could be you know playing um playing cats playing some volleyball out there uh so we have demonstrated multiple activities over the past few uh Summers right now with snow uh not as much but um we've done that and we have some supporters here as well uh in the audience who would uh give the opportunity would like to provide their
opinion as well great it's a nice group of people you have back there but um unless somebody gets up and objects I don't really know if we need to hear them board have any questions so was there a way to conduct a survey from the residents and what were the results of that you know survey did you like how did you ask that okay I
have a few people who say no but was there was that reached out to everybody yeah absolutely uh that was the first uh step that was conducted to seek opinion of the community members um alth the ma majority people have been you know between talk they were saying uh we don't want it we said let us go ahead and conduct an actual survey and make it objective so we conducted a survey using a survey form
um which was digital we send it out using multiple methods uh email of of the uh social media groups and uh also through the management company and uh ma the majority has came out uh have come out to uh in support of removing the community garden uh almost 75% of the votes that we received have supported to
remove the to not have the community garden and keep it open thank you how many survey responses did you get uh 24 uh units responded off of 34 and 75% of them uh supported uh not having the community
garden any further questions so really what you're trying to do then is um take the combine the two Recreation areas into one basically and have little Gatherings out there then yes I think it's a good idea yes okay any further questions uh if none then um I'm going to open this up again to the public the
public would like to ask this witness any questions um they are welcome to do so by coming up to the podium and speaking into the microphone there since it appears that no one is interested in uh making uh making any U asking any questions of the witness um I will um uh excuse the witness and thank him for his time thank you good thank
you good evening good evening do you swear the testimony you're about to give before this board is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do can you stay your name spell your last name for the record please my name is Andrew Janu J niw I'm
a licensed professional planner in the state of New Jersey uh my address uh my professional address is 3155 Highway 34 in cols Neck New Jersey I'm a principal with the firm of Beacon planning and Consulting Services uh for the board's benefit my credentials are uh as such I am a graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a bachelor's and master's degree in civil engineering currently serving as the planner for the burrow of curette middlex County the burrow of Freehold in uh Mammoth County as well as Livingston Township in Essex County and uh in 2022
I was appointed to the State Board of Professional planners by Governor Murphy uh I've been in business now for 25 years and I've testified throughout the state uh on behalf of private clients I think we'll accept him as a witness as a planner thank you thank you um Mr Janu have you visited the site I have Okay um and if you could just describe the uh the variance relief sought certainly so in preparation for this evening I've not only visited this
site but I've reviewed your ordinances I've reviewed the resolution which I believe this was approved in J uh the resolution was voted on in January of 2019 that gives you a time frame in terms of when the construction may have commenced uh as well as pleas try and speak into the Bri into that microphone yes I will thank you uh so what we are seeking is relief of the uh conditional standard to provide 400 square feet of recreation I mean it's a it's a technical variance in terms of what's
defined as Recreation because your ordinance doesn't Define Recreation it defines open space which has elements that include passive and active Recreation uh what we're seeking to do is to convert that community garden uh into a more passive space which was really flexible in terms of the type of recreation that the homeowners would use um as was described by the uh homeowners association uh representative they use it for Community Gatherings they use it for games volleyball and the like and they they enjoy the flexibility and I
think that's less intrusive particularly upon building five but certainly uh alleviates some of the concerns in terms of the maintenance of a gard and how that would happen and the variety of reasons that were uh mentioned so the relief we're seeking is from the elimination of the requirement to provide that community garden and to essentially exchange that uh Recreation space for something that's more passive uh with respect to uh the relief that we need it's a C2 variance and as this board knows a variance isn't granted
just for the benefit of the applicant the applicant in this case being the uh the builder of the prop of the uh Community uh however uh there has to be a public purpose and the public benefit well in this case the public resides within this community and a asked for this relief uh and that burden has fallen on the shoulders of Mr shy uh and Fleet uh Franklin uh and they are here tonight uh in fulfillment of a promise to seek relief to remove that uh again without financial gain the money's been
posted that if it does need to be constructed it can be uh otherwise the money goes to the community they could use it as they see fit uh so under a C2 variance or the flexible variance we have to indicate that the variance is specific to a piece of property and it is that the purposes of the municipal land use law would be uh furthered by this application I certainly believe uh that we are furthering at least two uh requirements within the ML and just to read those into the record that is the
provision of sufficient sufficient space in appropriate locations for a variety of agricultural residential recreational commercial and Industrial uses and open space both public and private according to their respective environmental requirements in order to meet the needs of all New Jersey citizens in this case there was an area that was set aside for a garden uh the community seeks to convert that that into something that's more flexible to represent how they want to seek their Recreation so we certainly believe we're on point with that uh the
next is to encourage planned unit developments such as this to incorporate the best features of design and relate the type design and layout of the community uh to that particular site and I believe you've heard the the residents of the community here we have the benefit of this being an established Community saying this is how we'd like to use our property and please let's eliminate this CU we see this being as a burden so we do uh further the purposes of the municipal land use law and finally we have to discuss that the benefits of the deviation outway any detriment in this
case uh you've heard what the benefits are the flexibility for the community to enjoy the space as they see fit uh they've they've raised some concerns with respect to the maintenance of the property to the privacy of individuals um and those are genuine concerns that led to the survey and the steps that brought us to this meeting so I think uh in terms of the benefits it's the flexibility that the community wants with respect to substantial detriment I don't see any we're not eliminating any recreational space we're converting it
to something that's more passive and more flexible it'll still be there for the community to use as they see fit uh there won't be a burden upon the community for lack of open space that's going to be uh you know continuous and then finally the variants will not substantially impair the intented purpose of the Zone plan or zoning ordinance The Zone plan and ordinance requires a certain amount of open space and recreational area that won't be touched where there's no further structures being proposed on this property it's really about granting the flexibility to the community so when we
look at this as a as a C2 ba balance I certainly think that the standards are met and that this board can grant the relief questions from the board I just have one technical question the um the figure of 248 Square ft that was referenced on the on the plan is that the resulting amount of uh of recreation space without the community garden so so that
would so the community garden would have represented 654 to speak into the mic the community garden would have represented 6,542 Square ft of of recreation space um it's still pursu to your definitions within open space a passive Recreation Area so in reading your ordinance and reading the definitions I believe we
still meet the requirement for the uh for the recreation space it's passive Recreation that that's going to be used with the flexibility of the community it's not going to be dedicated for a community garden but it's not going to be used for any other purpose other than for the benefit and enjoyment of the community okay let me just clarify something just as far as the way that we we see this and and I don't um mention this uh I don't say this uh in the context of having a problem with what
they're proposing but um when so what this requirement comes from our ordinance that requires 400 square fet of recreation space for every unit in townhouse developments and you know and I me we mentioned in the report that usually comes in the form of actual improvements you know pools club houses uh dog parks barbecue areas you know actual improvements um so you know it's my opinion and that's the way that we've applied that requirement over the
decades so again I'm not I I you I've heard the testimony I don't necessarily have a concern personally with converting um you know and and to meet that requirement the original developer proposes Community Gardens and the board you know um accepted that as a reasonable prop proposal as an actual physical Improvement to meet that requirement though my only clarification is to say if it's just lawn it technically doesn't comply and I just want to make
sure put that on the record because I don't want the next developer to come in and try to say that all of their open lawn areas are are active Recreation going towards those requirements um so again I just wanted to make that clear I understand where where where the planner may be coming from but that's not how we apply that requirement so my opinion they need Rel Lea you've heard testimony from the planner as well as from the homeowners association you can decide whether you're satisfied with that they
provideed testimony in support of that relief well now didn't I hear you say before that there was a that there was some sort of a gazabo built somewhere or some sort of other outbuilding for for the neighborhood yes there is a gazebo Okay so so that doesn't count Mark that's not enough that's that's my my point they they there is a gazebo that's on there in the walkway uh was counted there was
a an upper right hand corner there was there's a uh a a play area that I believe is fenced in with some benches you know so there was some you know as part of that site plan they were required to do some physical thing on the site plan to make it you know actually Recreation not just open lawn again I'm not saying it to be I'm not critical of this application I just want to make sure that the next per developer comes down the road doesn't say yep we
meet it because we have two areas of lawn that's not that's that we don't count that towards that requirement it's tennis courts and barbecue pits and actual things that are physical improvements on the plan and the reason for the variance that's all that's all I'm saying that's all I'm saying is that it it this it is a variance and then again you've been provided testimony by both the planner and the homeowners assocition representative you can decide whether
you've been presided presented enough testimony to to grant that variance wow okay uh does there uh is there anybody in the uh in the public here that would like to get up and and ask a question of this um uh Witness uh seeing nobody uh coming forward I'm going to close the that aspect of the testimony and now at this point um if
there's anybody in the audience that would like to speak either on behalf of or against uh this variance they can come up to the microphone and uh and as they say say their peace um seeing uh no one I'm going to close that uh portion of the hearing as well and um does the board anyone on the board have anything they'd like to say before uh we um we offer a
motion turn it on yeah just I would just like to discuss that notion a little bit because that was really the reason why asked the question is what exactly exists there if it's just lawn um the challenge is going forward how do you defend against um someone just
saying I have lawn and I and I meet that kind of picky backing on what what Mr Healey said um the whole purpose of the variance is so there is some type of recreational feature the definition of a lawn is not really any lawn could considered recreational feature if if we treat it that way well cherl let me I think I can
answer that and and and frankly that's part of the reason why I wanted to say what I said before um I think here you do I think what makes this different than a developer coming in for their original approval is that this is a community that that is in place right they are living there and and basically they're telling you that they don't need this but the that that was originally proposed by the original developer to meet that requirement you know now fast forward six years later they've been
living there a few years and they're basically telling you we don't want it I feel comfortable by you know again if the board was because of that those particular circumstances of this particular case I feel comfortable that you're not setting a precedent for the next one if we have a townhouse development and that developer says oh I've got these lawn areas between uh buildings uh seven and eight that's Recreation it's lawn I feel comfortable saying no and that's why they need the variance
that is technically that lawn area even though they might use it my opinion is it doesn't count towards that requirement so they need the variance and the next developer that comes down the road and says oh our lawn area between seven and eight the answer is no right you they're going to have to propose something real and just to add to what Mark just said is um go this isn't the original developer that's asking for this is the
people that are living there that's asking for this so I think that makes a difference uh because it's it's the people that actually are living there and using the property and they don't want it so I think that's a distinction as opposed to like moris said someone coming in new application and saying you know this lawn area is our Recreation you know is is what we're proposing for the recreational aspect of it I I would feel I would be more concerned if the
board act honestly if the board made the determination that it did count because then that would be setting a precedent for the next townhouse development that comes into you know that comes into town got this got this right your okay it's a good point okay okay um Mr Vice chair I I do think if I may um I think there are some um
residents uh here in support of the application if there's a chance for public comment what's that I said if there if there's a chance for public comment well there is a chance for public comment I thought we passed it but if you got somebody who'd like to come up and oh I'm sorry well yeah and that was a question sorry do we really need I I think just going to proceed from this point um I'm going to make a motion uh I move
that we Grant uh Fleet Franklin Inc uh zba 24-22 a use variance which will allow the applicant to um eliminate uh a garden requirement that was included in uh the original approval from 2019 and
that this is being treated as a use variance because the current use of the property which would otherwise be a garden uh is uh simply going to be remaining as lawn I get a second I'll
second Cheryl Bea yes Alan Rich yes Gary Rosenthal yes Robert Shephard yes farz Khan yes Michael Dy yes shendu Singh yes thank you very much you're welcome you're welcome Vice chair thank you board I think that's it right well that is our last um matter
for the evening I would entertain a motion to uh adjourn I move second all those in favor I I thank you the night is closed