i used to When they tell you that this will help you you got to say "Is this a fixed permanent?" No just So just Mr berkeley I guess rightason but Jason will get but Jason is coming
yeah yes yep ready Francie good evening everybody welcome to the zoning board meeting of March 19th uh call to order i hereby announce pursuant to section five of the open
public meetings act that adequate notice of this meeting has been transmitted on January 14th 2024 by the board administrative officer to the Asbury Park Press the Two River Times the township clerk and has been posted in the meeting room and in the entrance
hall and town hall all pursuant to section 13 of the Open Public Meetings Act roll call mr berkeley i think he's just running late running late uh Miss Campus here miss
Gerard here mr j Paulo absent mr luchiani here mr orphanita Pulus here mr marzola here uh Miss Castellum here and Mr friola here thank you okay uh please
stand for pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence please remain standing for that and we will honor our police and military and EMS workers pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one
nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all for the record Jason just walked in for the record 702 Mr berkeley walked in thank you okay uh minutes from March 5th
2025 did everybody get a chance to review it did they send any comments to to our board secretary no everybody's good okay so if everybody's good with the minutes can I have a motion from
somebody motion to accept the minutes from March 5th i'll second it okay roll call eligible to vote mr berkeley yes miss Campus yes
miss Ghard yes uh Mr orphanos yes miss Castello yes okay the minutes for March 5th uh were successfully um approved thank you okay uh before we go into executive session I'd like to see Angela for
John alternate number one okay that's correct okay uh Marty you want to say something no just read that there's the next item right exact exact session no I know that but I didn't know if you wanted to say anything why we're going
to just just to review uh legal standards reviewing the standards for various applications that we have coming up okay so could I have a motion to go in executive session a motion to go to executive session second second sorry
all in favor yes yeah voice vote yes okay so what do we do leave the thing running and the video running um turn the sound off and leave the video on last time you couldn't get it back up no we will just uh stop recording he will be streaming and we're going to leave
the room and uh go upstairs to have executive session we'll be back so hold on to your hats any notes you want to jump on my back i'll take you sure here with your shoulder we
should be fine no it's my back hallelujah yeah yeah all right that's awesome probably six months know what else you know what's crazy
you could just Tell me that's what I'm Oh she's knowing they're like is kind of basically
sawington the opposite actually the type of people figure it all Yeah attorney i got this restor [Music]
The engineer didn't say he was like this very nice i mean Where's that so it's really
No no I just We know our original comments i think you're interested that's actually It's actually This is It's
I guess that's You see everybody's here the mics are still on here this forward and when am I going to get it back she's locking it up oh yeah that's going
to be all locked up upstairs okay this should be easier forgot this mic is Everybody's sorry i should have just Oh you want hard copy oh I have it okay no problem
oh I didn't know you want oh yeah oh no problem yeah again all right ready we're back from executive session can I have a motion to get back into uh regular session
make a motion to get into regular back into regular session second i'll second that okay 7:35 um zoning board of Homedale Township is back to regular session thank you okay francine item number one zoning board of
adjustment 2024 Danny Realy LLC 2122 State Highway 35 Homeell New Jersey 07733 block 51.01 lots 1 two and three use and bulk variance relief
you're on get on good evening Mr chairman members of the board jason Tubal attorney for the applicant uh this is an application for block 51.01 lots 1 through three
thank you very much um the site's currently improved with an existing gas station um and convenience store i'm sure the board is fully aware of of the property but just for the record the the lot is an undersized lot it's um surrounded by roads on all sides meaning
the Jug Handle Route 35 and Laurel Avenue so it's sort of uh an island onto itself um the site is also somewhat sloped um from um from north to south so it's somewhat of a unique uh property the applicant is looking to upgrade the
site as they've purchased it in 2023 so they haven't owned it for that long the site's an older gas station with convenience store everybody's aware and the goal is to expand the existing convenience store by approximately 1,400 98 square feet to add a Dunkin
Donuts aspect to the convenience store which has become somewhat common nowadays there's no drive-thru i know everybody has the plans but just to be clear there's no drive-thru proposed with the Dunkin Donuts it's just a store that's associated with it um so in addition to the Dunkin Donuts aspect of
it um there'll be upgrades to the architecture of the existing building not only to the part that's being expanded but also to the existing um uh building as well so we think that there's going to be substantial upgrades by way of aesthetics when it comes to the building in addition to that the um
applicant has proposed new landscaping throughout the site um there'll be new lighting throughout the site as well as related um site improvements what I think is important um in connection with this application is is although we're expanding the building and although the building the lot is slightly unders
sized the application will comply um substantially with lot coverage so in your zone in which the property is located you're allowed up to 60% lock coverage and even with the building addition we're going to be at 51.1% which is exactly what exists today
in fact we're slightly reducing the lock coverage it's very nominal but we're not increasing it over what's out there today and we're also well under what's uh what's permitted same thing with building coverage your ordinance permits 20% building coverage in this zone and we're going to be at about 11% so again
well under and then finally I also wanted to point out F you're allowed a 0.2 F in this zone and we're at 006 which is well under what's permitted so the site is not we're not overbuilding the site we're just we're keeping within the confines of what's there um today
just so the board's aware while we're while we're presenting in terms of just operations the only thing from a delivery standpoint that'll change is that for for the Dunkin Donuts there'll be one additional box truck that comes per day to deliver um the goods that the Dunkin Donuts needs to service its
customers and that'll come in the overnight period not during peak hours so it's really one delivery uh per week that's changing the rest of the operations of the site will remain the same as it relates to the gas station um and the convenience store that that aren't proposed um to
change so I have uh three witnesses Mr chairman that I plan on calling in connection with this application we'll have John Palis who's our um civil engineer from dynamic engineering Nicholas Verdesi who's our traffic engineer from dynamic traffic and Justin Oiello who's our uh professional planner
um from a procedural perspective um we call this a D1 variance i think somewhat conservatively but I think it's the right thing to do in talking with your planner um although Dunkin Donuts now are somewhat I would say combined with these convenience stores regularly
that's viewed in your ordinance as a restaurant so we have two principal uses on the site which is the gas with convenience um and the restaurant so that's not permitted so that's where the Dvariance imp is implicated in connection with this um application uh
we've reviewed the board engineers report uh we think we can comply with everything um set forth in in that review letter and we will address some of the other letters that we received from your environmental commission traffic um etc so with that Mr chairman that's my introduction um I'd be happy
to call my first witness with your permission before you start sure go ahead no we're going to just have our planner sure before we before we even do that we we didn't uh conflict yeah make sure that that we're okay with all our all the paperwork we're good we're good
and is any board member have any conflicts with anybody that you see out there or with the property i mean I know we people probably buy gas maybe from there so that's not really a conflict so uh anything out anybody no no okay okay
so what we're going to do first is we're going to have our planner talk a little bit about the variances and a few other points okay and then you could begin with your witness when she's done all right thank you Mr chairman go ahead Kate thank you Mr chairman um do we need to be sworn in were we sworn in oh yes yes yeah let's swear in all both our
professionals the testims too we'll do it okay okay so thanks Mr chairman thanks Jason for the introduction um keep the mic near you okay great sure i'm not going to go through the details i think Jason Mr chuvel just did that um but essentially
this is an existing site um the applicant purchased it um per the tax records I saw and also per Jason per Jason's what he teaches his introduction in 2023 and they're seeking to do some upgrades on the property the existing fuel fueling station use is not changing
they're keeping the same number of um of pumps they're keeping the canopy where it is the change that's proposed is to expand the existing building so it would have a convenience store and a Duncan and it would also um have a variety of site improvements including landscaping
um new parking stalls uh recurving repaving um and updating the architecture of the existing building and I'll let their witnesses go into all those details there so yes so this is kind of a unique situation here in terms of the variances because there is two
things one is I will be you know brutally honest and say that there's an error in the township ordinance i'm not sure how this happened but essentially at some point the and this is on this this property is located in the Route 35 highway overlay zone and just as a brief
review um that that zone was created by ordinance in 2023 with the idea that there would be um something cohesive along Route 35 because at the time you know there was a kind of there still is kind of a mishmash of you know former industrial zones of commercial zones um
that allow different there's even the commercial industrial zone so you know there's a variety of zone zones there and the idea was that an overlay would kind of create a more cohesive uh network along Route 35 as sites were developed um and at that time one of the
principal uses that was permitted it was convenience store with or without petroleum filling stations and that was a principal permitted use in 2014 the Route 35 overlay was amended and gas stations were added as a conditional use
um with certain conditional use standards pertaining to same my reading of that was that petroleum filling stations gas stations were no longer permitted uses which I think is still the case unfortunately I was not the planner here at the time and I don't
know what the exact intention was but just going in date order um so in that sense and I know this is a little background but I just want to be I just want to be clear on this because I have this in my letter but um gas stations are conditional use they're subject to
certain standards like distance from residential zones um distance from um you know they have to comply with the setbacks of the zone etc so in this case being as conservative measure I said in my letter that a D3 conditional use
variance is required that may not be the case um because nothing associated with the with the gas station is actually changing the building that's expanding is not going to have the gas station it's going to have the um the the Duncan in it it's going to have the the convenience store in it and none of the
other standards are changing in a way that would trigger that variance so you know that's for the board you know I just want to put this out there and I'll let I'll let Marty comment on it if he thinks it's appropriate um but you know the condition the conditional use variance may not be required in this case even though I do devote a lot of
space in my letter to it that said more importantly the applicant does require a D1 variance for having multiple principal uses on a site um in my letter and I you know I I believe I mentioned that talk about three uses gas
convenience and restaurant that may be a little bit of a misnomer as Mr touvel also just said that and as I just stated gas with convenience or convenience with or without gas is technically a permitted use in this zone so we can we don't have to talk about the whole you
know we don't have to go that drill that deep into the weeds here but the idea that whether it's two or three multiple uses are proposed on this site and the township only allows that in cases where um you meet all of the bulk requirements this is an existing property it does not
meet all of the bulk requirements they're exacerbating some of them so because of that D1 use variance relief is required to permit multiple principal uses on a single property so their planner I'm sure will address all of
that when the time comes um but so you know just just focus on the D1 variance it's not a typical D1 variance in the sense where it's not um you know it's it's not that they want to do something that's prohibited in the zone or not permitted a specific type of use but
it's rather the number of uses which is you know legally speaking does require D1 use variance relief so just wanted to go through that because it's a little complicated here um and then otherwise the applicant requires we have a few items in our report where we're asking for testimony
we will look at that when it when the time comes there's a few waiverss that are required and some sign variances are required um and the applicants experts will provide testimony on all of that so really what we have here tonight is existing existing convenience store
fueling station on a site they're adding a third or second during another use onto it which is a restaurant use per the township ordinance d1 use variance is required because it's two principal uses on a site so with that you know unless there's any questions of me from the board right now I would turn it back
to Mr the chairman to you know proceed any questions of Kate okay uh Marty you want to swear all their witnesses in one shot so can everybody stand up swear affirm the testimony about this
application is the truth i do thank you they can state their names when they come up but that's fine i'll just make a note that Okay okay so our first witness Mr chairman is John Palis who's our uh civil engineer um we'll go through his qualifications so the board um can uh
accept him all right so the uh mic there is uh you can bring that over to the sign or hold it in your hand whatever you prefer to do but he needs to have it within two three inch of his mouth so it can get we record everything understood
so you got to raise it up i'm pretty comfort okay that close yeah you No yeah pulls out go ahead keep pulling that's good right we good no a little higher you're too tall john yeah i'm looking at I'm looking at where it is because I've
heard the tape and if you don't if you're not close you can't hear you okay can I just spell your name for the record uh John Palis p A L U S all right and John if you could just go through your professional credentials for the record educational background licenses held whether it's in good standing and
your years of experience testifying as a licensed civil engineer in the state of New Jersey and who you testified in front of certainly uh I have a bachelor's and a master's uh civil engineering from Ruckers University i'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey a licensed
professional planner in the state of New Jersey i have a co-founder um and director now of Dynamic Engineering i've been testifying for over 30 years primarily on gas station sites convenience store uh fast food
restaurants um something you know essentially along these lines i've designed u several hundred sites of this nature um all primarily in New Jersey i've testified before over 150 various planning boards and zoning boards in the state i don't know that I've been to the
zoning board here i think I've been to the plan familiar and it it was a long time ago as well but All right we accept your qualifications so anybody have any questions no okay welcome thank you um I have a number of
exhibits um start marking how would you like I have reduced copies I put in packages if that helps yes yes definitely whatever you presenting everything was submitted right uh except for I I have two renderings i believe I
will identify nothing's nothing's changed it's just color reduced copies are the actual plans but reduced yes yes they're the So do we even have to do anything with that i had them collated i'm sorry so we're going to start marking them as you use the plans as I
use them thank you something that's up there already so the first exhibit is the uh boundary top location and topographic survey prepared by dynamic survey that will be A1 for the purposes of uh my testimony
i'll wait a second hold on let's wait until we get all this this is one package so just give everything to Jean angela Jason John I think it's going to go to Mark i I think Arena you don't have to mark them as exhibits unless they're
colored or renderings right this is part of actually what you submitted we don't have to mark uh give one to we have we have enough you don't have to remove it leave it there
this is a lot more convenient you won't just need better a little bit more confusing initially but I think it'll be easier as we go yeah so just for the record we are going to mark it just because it's already Yeah but going forward we'll just do the
one only new stuff okay so referring to exhibit A1 for the uh the benefit of my testimony I'm going to use the top of the pages north um the route 35 on the exhibit runs west
to east so that is my testimony i know it'll be a little confusing because you're used to north south uh so the property is identified as block 51.01 lots 2 and three it's 1.91 acres uh
identifies as 2122 Route 35 south and Laurel Avenue route 35 is to the north laurel Avenue is to our our west u and then the Route 35 jug handle uh wraps around our property on the east and south sides uh it is a dual uh ramp and
that it uh goes both ways wrapping around clockwise and counterclockwise um my next exhibit is our aerial map exhibit colored which I believe is colored in the site plan package that
was submitted to the board so you have a reduced copy i am not going to mark it for the purposes of my testimony um again uh north is to the top of the page uh here uh the property is located in
the B2 zone with the Route 35 business overlay district uh it is a unique property um because it's located within the jug handle i have uh been in design of well over a thousand sites um in the state of New Jersey i think there's only the second or third sites I've dealt
with is in the middle of a jug handle um there's also an undersized lot to the north uh as I indicated is Route 35 beyond that we have multif family in the R15 zone to the east which is to the right of the page uh we have the jug
handle and then there is a vet located in the 030 zone before you uh some additional office detail further to the east of the property uh directly to our south uh jug handle again but beyond that is um it's it's now a TD bank used
to be a commerce bank um that is in the 030 zone and then there's also uh a very unique portion there's a small frontage on the jug handle as you're coming off 35 uh or actually coming off Laurel A and headed out to 35 where you would be able to
pull in and out of um a residential home it's in the R4A zone um I look I think it's a a single family at one point I do know that there were two mailboxes there so I don't know why but best I can tell it's two the only way I understand you can access
that property is off of the jug handle which is also correct very unique so existing conditions we have a gas station uh with the convenience store that operates 20 uh 24 hours our impervious coverage sits at just over 51.5% of the property which is below
what the ordinance allows uh the store is a 1457 uh 57 square foot convenience store on the that's on the east side of the site on the west side of site you have the canopy uh you have six dispensers which allows for 12 fueling positions and then there's underground
storage tanks at the southwest corner of the property uh there are total of 10 parking spaces uh they're located on the west side of the building right in front of the convenience store access to Route 35 on the west side we
have a uh 36 foot driveway that is a right in driveway further to the east we have a right out only driveway at 31.4 ft and on the west side of the property to Laurel A which is also County Route 52 um we have a full driveway with no left
in currently off of Laurel Avenue and the driveway there is 46.6 ft in width the building was 457 ft that's what you said 1,457 ft that's the existing building right now that's the existing building
did you say what about you said that left no left turn there's a sign there uh there currently there is a no left turn into the site on Laurel A as you're headed southbound oh okay but not Is there a sign also saying no left turn coming out of the gas
station there is not okay i will need a sticker for the next exhibit thank you Mr chairman yes are you referring to left turn on to Laurel coming out of the gas station yes i'm looking at the survey it says there's no left turn sign
there on the right hand side of the I just said it's actually facing the other way though for people coming in okay the way it's shown graphically it's I checked that i'm I'm fairly certain that it's u facing that way so let's just mark this as A2 john if you could
just describe what this is for the record this is the site plan rendering which is our landscape plan overlaying on top of the uh site plan and then and colored um as far as the improvements for the
site from a engineering design standpoint this is relatively simple in fact when you pull up to the site outside of some signage changes you almost won't identify any changes the driveways are staying the same the area canopy is staying the same the tank location is staying the same the parking in front of the building is essentially
staying the same the addition to the building is directly behind when you go through the ex you know the existing conditions and the vegetation it's kind of tucked away so it's a part of the site that's actually not very visible even um even driving around today with some of the vegetation that's there it's
hard to see back there so when you really look at like what's happening to the site when you drive by people who are um headed down 35 southbound you're not going to see much of a of a impact to the site itself other than some of the improvements that I'll touch base on are the parking spaces to the south are
they new or they existing on the south side that we are proposing 10 additional parking spaces great i I will touch on that so the building addition u is 1540.5 square ft and that's on the east side uh directly in alignment with
the existing building that's there today uh what we will end up with splitting that essentially right in half you'll have a 1498.75t convenience store and then also 1498.75t Dunkin Donuts the Dunkin Donuts
will have uh eight seats from an operational standpoint uh when you when you look at the convenience store uh there's a relatively small convenience store this is an accessory really to a site that has a gas station um I've done a number of convenience stores throughout my career ranging from the
7-Elevens to Wawas u this is extremely small neither neither one would take that the branding at this point it seems to be that is going to be a Welsh Farms u the Dunkin Donuts I've also done a number of Dunkin Donuts this is also an extremely small Dunkin Donuts um the
seats is really an accessory uh I don't expect that this type of use will see a lot of seating this is a a grab and go type of structure primarily what like the park even with the parking spaces we're providing 10 new parking spaces on the south side of the property uh we have a little bit of a guardrail where
it drops off um what you typically see at this type is people are going to park at the gas that the pumps run it and get what they need and then run out again this doesn't have the drive-thru component so that that extra uh convenience is not available um so that
also does limit some of the traffic i'm sure a traffic engineer will touch on that um so as I said pumps the canopy will all remain the tanks remain uh we are now up to 19 parking spot spots which complies with the ordinance
relative to size and number u loading zones 20 uh 20 ft by 35 and That's something that's not currently on the site today u the trash enclosure is located roughly the same location on the souththeast east corner uh it's a
masonary trash enclosure with a solid door uh but we have a small loading area which will accommodate the box trucks which we are expecting for both the convenience store and the donuts uh the the air the back uh propane storage will all remain
essentially the same place our impervious coverage is slightly reded we are going with pavement the parking spaces directly in front of uh the community store and the Dunkin Donuts and the 10 parking spaces on the south side of the property um
the reduction uh we're also the only other site improvement is uh in order to help reduce that impervious is we're providing a much larger island northwest corner of the property and we're landscaping that so now I'll touch base
on landscaping as well when I get to it but the area that's probably the primary focal point as you're coming to the intersection is that one island is going to be much larger than what's out there today uh deliveries uh you know the convenience store the fuel are all going
to be the same as what's out there today we now have the dunk donuts this is not a kitchen it's not they're not doing the baking of the donuts are being delivered once a day so you have the box that comes u essentially overnight first thing in the morning drop it off and then potentially
some dry goods once so from that operation standpoint I don't expect to change the hours of operation will remain the same it's a 247 facility will follow suit on
that employees uh you know convenience store is usually one to two people I think gas station this nature is probably maybe two people the Dunkin Donuts is smaller than typical it was a little bit larger my usual testimony it's about
five people on a max shift and that's usually a very short shift u but we have provided some additional parking spaces to accommodate again people who are operating these facilities often get ride share bike there i I have not got a
check with public transportation accessibility but they usually they usually find some how many how many spots do you need not counting employees that you just do you need ordinance requires I I believe it's 10 spots so how many you have uh we have 19 spots
okay um we are providing security cameras throughout the site um the applicant has done that other sites for security purposes uh storm water I testify that we are reducing it uh so it is not a major
project so there is a reduction we are below your coverage threshold by about almost 10% 5% this is all sewer so there's no issues with that's correct it is it's public sewers the storm water just goes into the sewers as well uh there there's
a seage pit we believe on the north side but the majority of it she flows to the do system that's located actually in the jug handle you guys will talk with Um and in addition with the uh the reduction or the increase of the the landscape island at the northwest and
the addition of the building um bless you the the balance in the impervious we're actually reducing the motor vehicle service area which is also from a water quality standpoint is an improvement as well uh utilities will remain as is there's no changes uh with
it owner will maintain the entire building the lighting u is essentially uh almost identical what's out there today except we're reamping the structures i think we're moving two of the uh light poles and then we have a couple uh down lights u
on the building we are reamping the canopy u and all of the area lights throughout the property are being relamped um they tend to dim over time so we went through the ordinance i can Uh every time I testify on the gas station I'm testifying to the same that
we're usually exceeding uh the ordinance requirements because the canopy itself usually is much brighter if you're handling cash transactions your uh your pumping gas you want that safety it's not like a typical um retail site uh so
for reference our average to minimum is 9.67 uh where four is required the max is 41.3 where 10 is required and U the property line you have I believe a 0.3 foot candle threshold at the property line and we do a
driveway in particular and Laurel Avenue is also a count safe and secure driveways I think we have a little bit of this over to the south but that's part of the jug handle as well but in your professional opinion John there's no negative impacts to any of the neighboring properties as a result of
the lighting no uh I don't in fact I I you know for the neighboring properties there's there's minimal impact um jumping back to I didn't it's the aerial map exhibit which is not identified in the exhibit um you'll see
that we have identifi identify the parcel in question in a yellow line to outline i have a 200 foot radius in a dashed yellow line around the perimeter and if you'll see uh the residential home that is on R4 ADA in that zone it
falls about like beyond the 200 foot from our property and when you look at exhibit A2 which is our site plan development uh you'll see that all the action or uh activity activity on the site thank you is on the west side of the property and
it essentially shelter so the the building the rear of the building um is is what really faces that residential driveway and the the property the house itself is well over 200 feet and with the angle of the driveway and the vegetation that's there I don't think that there's any impact and I think that
we're uh cleaning up what's out there today in terms of light as well but what kind of lighting is it down lighting all down lights everywhere and there's no like spotlights on the side of the buildings facing out no I think we have security lights on the U the south and
the east sides those are typically put on a motion sensor or so are they down lighting also um they are but there would be motion so the only time is if there was an activity that and it's it's almost like a residential house u when you pull up to someone's home that type
of light it's a very small light just because there is a door there for security purposes if any was to go around the building the light would pop off that door is for what emergency exit both doors are emergency exit i will testify i I think the uh the
architectural plan says that the re the rear door for the Dunkin Donuts is for delivery it says delivery i think it's just a carryover this the amount of delivery to this building is relatively small everything goes through the front door for both uses
you want to go through the landscaping John i would uh so we have a landscape architect who created a nice design um they They like their job they like doing what they're doing uh it's beautiful they focused on uh the main islands that
are located along Laurel Avenue at the intersection with 35 they also focus on putting quite a bit of landscaping around the jug handle we did get some feedback from the it's the environmental commission right correct um about there was a lot of vegetation uh which we
submitted is 38 shade trees ornamental evergreens 173 shrubs ground cover 30 perennials 37 ornamental grass for a total of 289 plantings um to improve the curb like a field does a
tremendous job but in light of the comment that we got from the environmental commission about trying to maintain some of the existing vegetation i think when you plant a site initially it looks very pretty when I put it up on the exhibit but it takes a while for some of the plants to grow so
uh we were looking possibly keeping uh 33 trees that are located on the east side of the property um as is probably clean up like it's they're not specimen trees based on what I saw but what we would do is then supplement it with some of the the
trees that we're removing that are shown on the current plan so our landscape architect would like back that up with probably some evergreens because I don't there's too many evergreens on the east side um but if the environmental commission wants those trees safe we could we could take 33 on the roughly on the east side keep them in supplemented
our our tree shrub count will drop slightly based on what we proposed but we were at 289 which is pretty substantial and we still do focus on the northwest corner the south southwest corner and the island along 35 drive around the um drive around the
um sorry can you all right now it's on um right now when you drive around the jug handle you can't see the back of the building I don't believe when because I know you said that the trees they might change a little bit from what's on the plan will you be able to see the back of the building with the new proposed plan
if if we keep those 33 trees I don't think so and like I said we'll supplement that with some evergreens as well to make sure that there's more of a a barrier the property also sits higher um you're driving you're actually lower so even now it's that's part of the reason why it's so hard to see is because as you drive around you're
several feet below the finished floor of the existing building out there so I don't think it would be a problem there there um thing I'm concerned about and I'm being that I'm on the squad I've been there for uh emergencies for various purposes including MVAs is a
left turn on from the gas station onto Laurel across four lanes of traffic i think we also I don't know if you're going to say that's a traffic engineer yeah we were going to I we saw the comment in the traffic but that's part of engineering as I'm far as I'm concerned because he has to put a sign there yeah we were going to have the
traffic engineer go over that because it did come up in the letter from the inter departments i think it was from the traffic traffic yeah so we we're happy to address it even if they didn't put it there I would be talking about it because that's definitely not a understood yeah so we'll we'll have Mr i know it limits the site for people
getting out but going across four lanes of traffic is not a good thing at all so I think when Mr vertoi testifies we can go over that and make sure we we we address it okay i was aware and that's why it was very specific in my initial testimony as what's out there today yeah
that's why I thought you said that and I said there is a Okay sometimes I have to help the traffic engineer out a little bit uh Next I'd like to discuss the signage u the the gas station is being rebranded
from the Exxon to a shell um the canopy itself remains the same they'll put a new FA on um the signage will remain the same or slightly lower so we're saying two at 24 ft we're going to hold that uh we have two freestanding signs one's at the northwest corner one is at the
southwest corner so talk about one at the northwest corner u that's going to be repanled obviously shell panel up um I've worked for Shell for pretty much 30 years they're very specific relative to their panels they actually this has to
be a very customized panel because the pre-stage sign they don't have that standard so um this sign is a height of 234 in which your ord has max 20 so
that's an existing condition area of 112 square feet um and All that will remain the same all we're going to do is swap out panels it'll be essentially the same sign with some different colors and different brands so will you will you talk about why you
want to have excessive signs as part of your testimony i can okay because I'm thinking why can't signs be combined you know instead of just one shell sign why can't it also incorporate Dunkin Donuts to market and that kind of thing so you
can talk about it when you get to it okay uh so that sign essentially will remain identical to what you have out there today the sign at the southwest corner which is articulated so that you would see it as you're driving north south u is slightly
smaller but with the the shell pectin which is the scallop essentially um we're that is being increased so it's a full square and we're going from 66 ft to 79.75 ft uh that meets the height because it's at 193 in that's changing
on that end the ordinance does allow for a maximum area of 50 square feet per service station 40 for a business but it's 90 so the one from an area straight up area standpoint the one at the southwest would tech we are at an
intersection multiple roadways the one at the north is slightly over but we're holding what was previously approved for this location um before I get into are you looking at the freestanding sign or I'm listening to you on all the signs because then I'm going to let our engineer comment on
what you're doing too on the building itself u what you have on existing is uh it's it's one you have the Tiger Mark sign on the north side uh facing 35 and you also have one facing uh Laurel Avenue to the west 19 ft for the
proposed use on the north side facing 35 they're looking to combine the two signs into one essential like panel and that's going to be 38.06 ft uh there's also one on the east side is identical to the one on the
north at 38.06 ft and then um to the west again now we have two separate doors so where it's one building uh there's different entrances to each one so there are two separate signs the Duncan at 19.25 ft they convene stores for 26.4 ft for a
total of 45.73 ft we also have a variance for the height and I'll get into building yeah why don't we put up the building so that everyone could see the wall signs on the building okay um
you're Kate are you are you going to be able to talk about the signs or bill i can talk about the signs i I just Yeah there's there's a few discrepancies in our letter based on all I can talk about it jump in when when he's finished talking about all the signs talk about
So let's We should mark these right i don't know if what was submitted was colored or not i don't Yeah just mark it for the right just to be We're up to A3 I believe a3 and A4 John okay all right so just describe those
exhibits and which elevations facing where so the board knows okay so this is the convenience store restaurant uh this is the architectural plan that shows the um the west elevation which would be the front of the building as
you can see primarily from the parking lot the parking lot yes u primarily glass around the doors on both of them and then you have a uh column that is mounted uh it sticks out for a little bit depth of character uh between the
two uses um and then we also have a little bit of a a canopy overhang because of the glass the high glass ceiling the signs have been placed further to the top um the parapit's 21 ft 11 in and we went with the ter So the HVAC units are tucked behind it you
can't see them uh from the street if you drive down the site today you'll see the HBAC units because the parapits a little bit shorter so now that'll be fully wrapped so you won't be able to see it you have the Duncan on uh the north side of the west elevation and
then the Welsh Farm would be on the uh the south side of that elevation um so they would mark which store you would enter for the convenience store and which one for the Dunkin Donuts uh the south elevation is the one um that's facing toward the jug handle there's no
signage on that uh you you have on the front uh quite a bit of glass and then you have some ephus and then uh some textured um wood paneling and then some uh brick fascia on the very top and then going to exhibit
A4 we have the east elevation and we also have the north elevation so the east elevation um is facing u toward the jug handle for traffic that would be headed uh northbound on 35 and it's it's essentially it's reboxed off as one sign
and I believe I have that why do we need that sign that's the back facing the grass area why do we need that one now uh to identify for traffic that is headed northbound on 35 from the other side they're going to see that sign that's correct going at 40 50 miles an
hour um okay I'm listening keep going and then we have the uh the north elevation which is facing toward 35 so that would capture both north and southbound on route 35 again uh a little bit of a
smaller sign boxed around it is a total of uh 38.06 square ft um and that's uh obviously the max area for uh a sign in the business district
is 40 square feet uh so we do have four frontages so when you look at them uh when I look at the signs the Duncan convenience store there is a bit of a convenience or a u this is not a
destination so there's a little bit of an impulse buy sometimes so I do think signage is important for these types of uses to be able to identify and be able to safely maneuver into the site um it's you know it's not a library like if you're going to the library you kind of
know where it is um so I think that there's a little bit of a traffic safety component to this and when you look at um 83 I think that um on the fascia I don't think that the the science itself is
u overstated yeah do you think it's proportional to the building i do okay and and John before we Oh I'm sorry did you want to stick to the ask Kate if she wanted to jump in at this at any point here talk about all these signs sure so I would just note that our review letter we do refer to in some
places um as an Exxon versus Shell that had to do with that changed between iterations of the plans and that was an oversight but the overall sign scheme is pretty much exactly the same um but um essentially the applicant is is proposing to keep the and please correct
me if I get this wrong um proposing to keep the existing pylon signs at the height that they currently are excuse me um one sign is going to be slightly increased from 66 square feet to wait
hold on look at the old one um from 66 ft to 79.75 square ft that is a variance for that and then the other sign is going to stay the same area which is 112 square ft um because this
is a gas station they are allowed additional signage which is because of you know typically because of the state statute that requires them to display their prices so here they're essentially keeping the same freestanding signs um and then the the signage for the uh
actual building mounted sign um signs is a little you know it it looks it in my opinion you know just it looks worse on paper than it is um there are two uses here they technically have two separate entrances um so in terms of the number
of signs uh the ordinance allows for two signs per business whether you want to look at this as two businesses one business I mean I think a variance is needed for the number of signs that are here but two signs per business one per wall um so even though this has four frontages they're not allowed to have
additional signs for the other frontage they are allowed to have they are not they are not okay for all not for all four I don't believe um so they're allowed to put on one side two different businesses is that correct yes that they
are allowed to do and they're allowed to have it on another side as well so two sides two sides out of the four yes and they have three sides out of the four um right yes you are correct okay so and you feel that the The one facing north
is going to allow somebody that's coming down heading south one facing south south no it's the one you're talk I know which one you're talking about the one you said earlier i'm not I don't even think this is worth going back and forth on because normally I would you know be
on behalf of the client push back and say we need that sign but you're right we don't need the sign on the east side okay it's it's that's my point it's not even worth Okay it's not even worth discussing so that's being eliminated okay there you go yes I I I think that's a fair assessment mhm let's be realistic
i agree i don't disagree i'd say I'm saving him money actually so you should thank me on Well and also with the fact that we're saving those trees per the environmental commission's letter no one's going to see it anyway that's correct you got it now we're talking that's exactly what I was about to say
is that that I think eliminates the need for that but otherwise I you know I think that the sign plan is typical for this type of use on a highway corridor so so I mean I'm just asking I'm not sure exactly about the signs but if
you're driving uh east on 35 the sign so somebody coming before they hit Laurel Avenue they're looking at your site they're going to see the Shell sign freestanding correct and so when will they know there's a Dunkin Donut not until they're in front of the building no there's a p there's a panel so there's Oh there's
going to be shell on top and the panel with Dunkin Donuts yeah it's it's all part of And the pricing is all Yeah they're just repanling it the way that it I don't know how is it on here the picture what it looks like it was on one of the Yeah it was on one of the sheets and there was It's in the site plan yeah it's in the It's in the main set the main plan okay yeah I can find the sheet
for you Mr chairman that's what's important somebody coming you know down 35 heading east knows before they get there what they're looking for and that's why I'm asking it's it's it's on sheet um 12 of the of the packet okay
i'm sorry I didn't see it that's okay all right uh Kate is that it on the signing that's it for now i would Their their planner should also put on some brief testimony because their varian is required are you okay with them eliminating one sign i am i'm absolutely okay with that all right continue that I
think that's all I had for Mr palis okay so we can open up to board questions on anything that he testified oh I can ask him just John just I know I said in my opening but any technical comments from the Kier's letter um dated That's what I was going to ask february 5th 2025 we
will comply as a condition of approval should the board approve yeah okay so all engineering questions that you have Bill are going to be complied by do you have any other comments that you would like to bring up he went over a lot of things i I think on the record I'd like to know something about monitoring wells
around site and any history of the the site monitoring well sorry I can't hear you there's several monitoring wells on site okay just like to know if there's an LSRP of record who it is and what the condition of the site is now okay uh
there is u I believe we submitted that information to the board um and as such I didn't dig in on that um but the answer is yes there is an LSRP and obviously we have to comply
with all state regulations and if if you don't have that documentation we're happy to provide it to you i just want to know if there's a problem with contamination at this time yeah and any monitoring wells obviously that were disturbed during construction would be relocated and of course with D and Mr mr
pos it was your testimony that you are not a major uh project with regard to storm water management that's correct which would negates you having to provide storm water management on your site correct sorry the fact that you're not a major project yes negates any type
of storm water management requirements or water quality requirements that is correct answer i was going to say something i was going to say the triggers are 1 acre of disturbance an additional quarter acre of impervious road surface i'm just you
know in this day and age I was always worried about you know flooding issues and I would think with the improvements on a site all the landscape you're doing you'd want to make sure that there was some additional storm water management just to kind of base in you know any runoff for the parking lot i know pre-existing is probably not there but
since you're renovating the site I would have liked to hear something additional being added for uh stormwater recapture um that back area there i mean there's a lot of land there that I was hoping
something would be added there uh we can look at possibly trying to put something up at that northwest corner to try to at least Yeah because we have an issue that floods up on Middle Road and there's a stream that goes in that vicinity correct and I don't know where
the water from 35 empties to or anything like that without getting into that but you know he said that it all goes into that right you know what I'm talking about and I just we're you know here's an opportunity to cut a little bit of it out yeah just just a little bit helping
the area certainly and this is the site's under two acres is a very small site but um I'll try to I can grade and get some of the northwest corner and get some of the drainage into there just infiltration yeah in addition to reducing the
impervious and the motor vehicle service area which is a water quality so Marty would you make the condition if you're well tonight yeah we'll make Is that okay with you making that have additional that northwest corner yeah we'll work with collars to
make yeah you make it subject to our professionals yeah that's fine uh another item that you mentioned which I liked is that you said you don't want to touch any of the rear tree vegetation so do we is that it's not on the plans obviously so do we want to make that a
condition yeah I would assume you would because John testified that that was in response to your environmental commission's um report right so he said I think John you indicated that 33 trees would be saved i'm in favor of that 100% okay okay i second that so if we can
incorporate what Sure jason said in the back there somehow however it would be great yeah in the back and I guess the northwest corner you were saying uh no no corner is additional vegetation but um there's no trees there no no I'm sorry for the storm water yeah i'm
writing I'm writing down I'm sure Mr fleger is also doing it but yes that's the storm water condition that you mentioned the back is the environmental condition that we mentioned great okay any other board members have any questions you mentioned there's no drive-thru schedule is that something we can put in that you're not going to add
a drive through the minute this gets granted or doesn't well we'd have to come back we would have to come back lori they would absolutely have to come back for this board for another D1 variance they cannot do anything that's not on the site plan let alone something as big as a drive-thru
i have a question that may not be your Sure and so tell me who would answer this i presume because I've seen these before it's not the first Dunkin Donut that the Dunkin Donuts are not cooked on the property they're correct in from some other location yeah there's there's Are we allowed to say Dunkin Donuts
anymore is it Dunkin Dunkin Donuts all right i still say Dunkin Donuts too um but um No there's no like the time to make the donuts guy like from the commercial yeah that doesn't that they don't have that yeah everything everything comes packaged and all it is is warmed up on the on the site that's
it is somebody going to talk about the operation of the inside is that something I mean John already I mean really talked about it there's nothing well I mean I looked at the at the floor plan i was trying to understand what it is oh we have the We could talk we can John can answer any question he's done
hundreds of these for this client can you just take a few minutes and talk about the floor plan and how the traffic you know how people are going to come in where they're going to walk around to and all that kind of thing uh absolutely so um this where's the entrance one second
i think this was part of the set though John this was a part of the set okay so u this is the floor plan for the Duncan and it says the Welsh Farms has the areas so on the left side of the page is the Duncan so that like when you're looking at the site that's going to be what I said would be the north side of
the site the Welsh Farms on the right side so if you walk into uh the Duncan you have an immediate area with seats um again uh we have a little bit of an open area so they put the seats in just in case really someone's waiting for
something i don't expect this to be a destination where people are hanging out um the counter is directly in front of you and directly to the right you'll have a ADA restroom for the public there is a door between the two uses that um
you could filter between the two rather than have to funnel back outside especially if it's raining um what you'll see here I we don't have a uh a cooler so the cooler because of the combined uses you're going to go to if you want um like a Pepsi not a fountain
drink but if you want like a bottle of water you would go to the uh convenience store but essentially you have your whole drink systems here located um in the middle of the store so uh so all the Is that self-service no no no so the
counter is right here in the front the counter's here right in the front okay and then behind that is all of the uh the drinks that they make okay multiple drinks now John john everywhere that says where it says Dunkin Donuts POS point of sale that's all that from there
on that's all employee area yeah that's employee area so only only the front portion of the of it where it says sales area and up to where like that counter where where really the activity begins the drink making begins that's all so it's a very small sales area for
customers so what's all that space back there for so you you have a three compartment sink for for sanitary purposes you have a an office for the manager uh to have access um and then you have a uh like a freezer cooler for the the goods uh and then dry goods are
essentially stored back there as well as well as your fountain drinks um which I think is located on the the west side all right and then just walk through the wells the Welsh farms uh again typical convenience store uh a small one you're going to have uh gondas like there's
this is designed with four gondas after you walk in to hit you right in the front your uh point of sale system is is to the right so there's a counter there um they have the roller uh whatever uh goods they have on the roller and then
um the uh the soda the beverage rack the cooler is straight back so when you walk in you see it straight back and that covers essentially the sales area behind that you have uh the storage there's again a small office for a manager um
the back area where they have all the dry goods and another three compartment sink now those doors say delivery back there but they're not going to be delivery that's correct my testimony is that because these are so much smaller that it'll be right through the front door yeah we could Mr chairman if you
want we could amend that on the on a final set as a condition if you'd like so what so then if they're not delivery they're just emergency exits right secondary means of of complant with something that you need to have emergency exits back there because that's the only employees back there that are going out that way right correct building department's going to
require yeah okay and does the Duncan have any kitchen at all you're saying no it just has like when you walk into a Duncan now and they just like put the you know I always get the like a like the omelette bites or whatever they just or the wraps they just put them in the oven they warm up for like two minutes
and then they pull them out so they're not cooking eggs bacon anything like that like another No there's no frying there's no baking there's no It's all pre-made all pre-made refrigerator it's just heated up there but there is like a toaster stuff like that yeah it's all Lori i think that it's um if you're
looking at the plans where the Duncan is it's like that that setup to the left of that i think that that's the heating stuff based on my own personal Duncan experiences back area looks so large and empty that that's going to be that's going to be the fridge and dry goods
yeah the the coolers are in the back okay does that help everybody better understand the flow okay any other questions from the board i have one other question go ahead Angela um so back to um back to the the
proposed plan on the outside so it looks like the So I see where the air um the the vacuum and the air tanks are are those Have those been moved or are those where they currently are now uh we're going to they're going to be put back they would be at this the southwest
corner away as far away from the residential as uh could they would be well within beyond 200 feet of the residential okay okay cuz I my only cuz right now it looks like that they're where that last parking spot is and my only concern is that if they move more like if they were to move more north I
like I I don't know if it would affect any sort of traffic that comes in from the Laurel Avenue side if there's a car there that's using them no it it's we actually put it for the last parking space which is going to be I would expect to be clearly the least used parking space so I don't expect that to be used except for someone who's using
that okay and and uh John would you say it's where it is now it's right along the drive aisle right correct so this is really a better location because you have to be in a parking spot to use it whereas uh currently you would just kind of be along the aisle parking along curve yes right
uh is there anything that's going to be in between the front doors like that you sell like an ice chest for bags of ice or anything else there's going to be nothing there nothing is sold in front no piles of windshield wiper or something like that windshield fluid i
know that some of that's out there now uh we would agree to there would not you would not be selling anything outside of the building no the only thing John on the outside is is the is the propane the propane which I think I mentioned before there's propane it's it's uh currently
it's at the south side of the site uh southeast corner of the site and it's it's a cage essentially it's a swap out so it's Is that the Rhino brand type stuff there's no filling it's just a swap rhino so that's a swap tank yeah and that's and that's secure with pilast right you have to go into the store they
they have the key you would have to ask them so they put the ballisters in front of it to protect it from a car hitting it are there ballards proposed John uh I there's a a cage I think yeah but I mean a ballister so a car doesn't because isn't that by the loading zone it is
yeah so shouldn't there be ballisters there um I think the cage actually is designed to withstand that a car backing up into it i'll I'll double check if we have to put a baller in I'll put one in okay that's what I'm talking about okay okay any other things from the Any other questions from
board all right uh I guess I'll open it up to the public anybody out there in the public have questions of the engineer i see none okay all right next witness is our traffic engineer Nicholas Vertoi okay thank you you want to take yes so you can take
this one so just take this one please uh state all your credentials you know what uh to say and spell your name for us uh Nicholas Vertoi ves i'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey principal
founder of Dynamic Traffic uh located at 1904 Main Street Lake Como i've appeared before this board and the planning board i've been doing this 35 years i don't think I've been though in probably six or seven i recognized the chairman um
but so it's it's been a little while but not since 97 so probably been here a half a dozen times since then yes would you accept accept Mr veresi yeah I guess we'll keep him thank you
so Nick do you want to go through your um traffic report and address um access to the site parking as well as um on-site circulation yes uh just as you heard all of our driveways are remaining as is so what we did do uh
prior uh we probably got it before we even made the original submission here we received a letter of no interest from the Department of Transportation essentially saying we don't have a significant increase in traffic we're not changing the driveways and we also got approval from Mammoth County since
South Laurel is a Mammoth County roadway so that's all been buttoned up and you know lastly we have this board to come to to get our approvals so yes we did a traffic impact study we took traffic counts morning peak hour evening peak hour midday on Saturday so we identified
existing conditions at the site as well as at the signalized intersection at 35 and South Laurel um we identified peak hours the traffic that comes to this site is similar to what we would normally see it's a little
higher in the AM it's a little lower in the PM you know every day it's probably a little bit different but it generally operates similar to you know a normal convenience and gas site um then what we did was uh adding the Duncan on we
utilized DOT trip generation they have a specific land use that has restaurant convenience and gas that actually has a restaurant with drive-thru we use the number just because there isn't another one without so we're probably a little
conservative in what we used because we don't have the drive-through component on this site uh and we showed that all the driveways continue to operate at good levels of service minor changes to the operation at the at the traffic signalized intersection i'm sure you're
all familiar with this type of use gas convenience uh coffee twothirds maybe even more of the traffic is traffic that's already passing by the site so you're on 35 you want to get coffee you want to get gas
this is your location you go to you pass by on the way to work on the way home from work to school wherever you're going uh that's uh typically how this operates so when you you know you add the Duncan to the site it's not all new traffic only about a third of it is what
we consider new to the area so what that does is it doesn't have a significant impact to the adjacent roadways uh because there's not a lot of new traffic it's just people turning in and turning out that used to pass by um it likely
takes some people from other Duncan so there's one on the northbound side of 35 that people may use jug handles etc to get to now this will kind of pick up the southbound side of 35 and the northbound
side of uh of South Laurel Avenue um that's kind of weird to say because they're perpendicular to each other but I think you understand uh my point um yeah so I mean not much has changed on the site
there is one change that I think uh that does a nice job it it does two things one it it uh ends up adding uh some imper or some pvious area up at the northwest corner but it also right now and and I'm kind of pointing to I think
it's A2 um this is kind of cut off here and this is all pavement in here on the east side so it's kind of wide open so when you kind of come in from both drivers or you're exiting those people are conflicting with each other there so we were able to kind of channelize that more onto the property so that had kind
of a dual benefit of of the additional pvious area and and channelizing the traffic so that worked out well um the loading so we've improved the loading currently there's really no formal loading i think they just kind of park along the curb right now there's a curb
on this south side they likely just park there now we've added this nice 20 by 35 foot area that a nice box truck can sit there if it has to sit for 10 minutes to offload um Duncan gets the the van early
in the morning uh that comes before most of the activity on the site so they just park in the parking space uh and load uh through the front door um the rest of the site essentially operates as it does today the only change is you know these
parking spaces on the south side um which work well there's a you know 25 foot aisle behind there so I don't have any concern with the circulation there uh lastly uh there was some uh discussion on this driveway on uh South
Laurel right now there's no sign if you're exiting to turn left out of the driveway ironically our whole traffic study assumed no one was make going to make a left out of there in the future condition which is kind of funny um but
hardly anyone does it now and the reason being is because there's so much traffic typically blocking the driveway that people don't make the left turn out it kind of selfcont controls itself um it's nice during off peak times if you're
there at you know 8:00 at night or the middle of the day when maybe traffic isn't as heavy that you can make the left because it's not very convenient for people to have to make the jug handle i did it today just to see what it was like i came onto the property i went around the jug handle around the
site got over did the jug handle on the opposite corner uh and then came back south it was kind of ciruitous um and it took a little bit of time but but I you know I made that maneuver um just to see what it would be like so what are you
saying that you don't think it's necessary to have a stop left turn no left turn there it outside of the peak hours i don't know that I would have a big concern with making it um I'm sorry disagree we're um you know we're open to you know
what the board I disagree with you i've I've driven the ambulance on first a calls and somebody was blocking the two lanes there trying to make a left turn when I went there and I've seen many people trying to make left turns and juggle their way across four lanes of
traffic so if they're just trying to get you know turn yeah you're right you have to go across four lanes of traffic not counting the other lanes coming down 35 you still have to go through past two straight lanes that becomes a disaster for that jug and this entrance that's
what I'm concerned about they're going to be fighting traffic from the I think I think you have to put a I mean that's my strong recommendation it can't be left turns out of that driveway anymore even the traffic uh officer wrote that on his Like I said we did our traffic
study and didn't assign anyone to that left because I don't think too many people try it i guess some do but if we have to you know eliminate the left um then then we would consider that so what you're asking is we put up a sign there
that indicates that basically you can't make because you can't make a left in now there's a sign saying no left in correct correct so you there's actually two signs that say no left going I guess south yeah they said the placed signage prohibiting left-hand turns from both
inside the complex to Laurel Avenue and from Laurel Avenue into the complex so yeah so it would require us to add a sign on our site essentially a stop sign and a no left turn sign have you did any research as to traffic
and accident statistics at that intersection because for a while it was talked about in town about how it was a dangerous intersection i did interestingly the I would say twothirds of the traffic accidents for some reason are on
southbound 35 as you approach the intersection and the vast majority of those are rear ends interestingly also there are three or four in the last few years right angle crashes in the intersection so people it like blowing
the red signal and going through the traffic signal that was three of the crashes we got all of the crash data none of the crashes were related to our driveway because we gave all that information to the police and we didn't get anything back we only got crashes at
the intersection there were some uh rear-end crashes on the northbound side of Laurel as well so usually the boards don't go opposite of what their police department has to recommend and I think the the chairman has indicated that
you're you really want that left turn restriction well we were advised it says due to the increase sorry due to the anticipated increase of traffic in and out vehicles should also be prohibited from making a lefthand turn out of the complex and traversing four lanes of traffic in order to enter Laurel Avenue
westbound when traffic cues up at the Highway 35 signal this makes it difficult to see approaching westbound traffic on Laurel Avenue which increases the risk of motor vehicle crashes so this is this is from the traffic no I that's what I was saying so based on
that and what the board has been saying we would agree to put that no left turn exiting the site thank you that is an improvement for that area okay that's correct so there'd be no left in no left out
correct that's right correct that's That's right okay but you you you guys got this letter that has all of the recommendations right right yes because I didn't even talk about the fire official yeah we would we would comply with all of these okay you will comply yeah the one thing that we wanted to
talk about honestly was that left out based on the data that Mr vertoi had but since it seems the board is feels it's very important we'll we'll agree to do it i'm I'm sorry i have personal experience that's fine so like like I said we'll we'll agree to do it okay thank you
you're putting that down there is that condition yes all right i'm sorry keep going i didn't have any more direct okay any other questions on traffic guys i have a comment and this might sound um But we changed the upper uh left corner there
you said you put the burm you took away the cement to channel the traffic does that affect though the site so that um somebody coming there can't see as easily that there's a car coming into the driveway that you might have a problem there do you know what I'm
saying like in other words when it was all pavement the site was very clear who was coming in that driveway if I'm channeling this way by putting shrubbery and stuff are we reducing the site um that something might happen there we'll
we'll ensure that all the shrubs in this are are lowlevel plantings all right i presume that's sight triangle yes right right okay any other comments from our board no questions guys are easy tonight
okay uh any questions from the public i see there are none okay our last one is our is our professional planner i didn't even ask Bill if he had any questions uh Justin Oiello that's a U C I E L L O
licensed uh professional employer in the state of New Jersey all right why don't you just go through some of your other credentials and what boards you've testified before in the state of New Jersey sure absolutely um so I've been licensed uh here in the state of New Jersey since uh 2008 i have a master's degree in city regional planning from Ruckers University i've appeared in
front of this board and your planning board on multiple occasions uh Mr chair I do recognize you um I think the last time I was here was during a Zoom hearing so this is going back some time i provided testimony at planning zoning boards i've been qualified uh in over
200 municipalities i've appeared all through Mammoth County through Ocean and uh 20 counties in the state i'm still waiting for uh for Kate May County so hopefully soon based on recognizing me I thank you sir all right thank you uh all
right Justin before you get into your the substance of your testimony just uh you visited the site in the surrounding area yes I did you've uh reviewed all the application materials plans reports and heard all the testimony yes certainly I have and you've also um analyzed the relevant sections of the
township's master plan and zoning ordinance i have all right so why don't you just give an overview maybe from a zoning perspective and then we can get into the D1 variance relief that's required sure um so so I did review the letter uh from from Miss Keller dated dated March 10th uh 2025 uh as the board
is aware you did hear uh you know extensive testimony from from the other professionals um we are we are seeking a uh a D1 variance and just to be conservative I understand that that Miss Keller did did state that the the D3 um
is not required due to that that quirk in the ordinance but just for the sake of the record I you know we'll put that testimony i promise I'll be very brief um you know with that as well um this this property is located in the uh the B2 neighborhood business district
as well as the the Route 35 highway uh overlay um what what is permitted of course um all of the uses that are proposed on the site are permitted but due to the requirement and the zoning ordinance uh for multiple multiple
multiple principal uses are only permitted if um all of the the yard requirements are met uh because we are we are not meeting all the yard requirements we do uh require that D1 variance for multiple principal uses um it's a bit unique but I think what's
important about that is that none of the uses that are proposed are actually um you know not permitted in the zone or or you know prohibited in the zone so I think it's just just important just to restate that I I I know our site engineer had stated that earlier but in terms of the context of the planning
analysis I just thought that was important Um the purposes of the uh of the planning justifications as the bore is is well aware for D1 variants uh there are certain proofs that that must be put on the record under the Medici
standard um the first is uh particular suitability and um and and that is what makes this site particularly suited for uh the proposed uses or yeah the prop um you know uses the the gas station the Dunkin Donuts uh and the convenience
store um I think I think number one uh this site is already developed with the gas station and a convenience store um what's changing here from a planning standpoint are um there you know substantial improvements um number one I
would say that these uses are all synergistic as you heard um from from the site engineer when when people pull up uh to get to get gas it is typical not all will but some will go in to get a coffee to get some egg bites uh maybe
to run in to get a bottle of water from the convenience store um there's there's natural synergy here uh with with the uses that that are proposed the other aspects from a site design standpoint and I'm not a uh a PE here i'm not an engineer but but I'm speaking in terms
of uh of land use and planning um I think what's really important here from the ability of of the site to carry this use and and whether or not uh this site is particular relative to uh the expansion of the building um is that
this application complies with the floor ratio in fact um there is a slight increase from uh 03 to 006 but that's well under what's permitted at at 02 uh there is actually a slight reduction of
the of the lot coverage um it's uh both both listed at the table of uh on in Kate's letter at 51% but the reduction is small uh there's a reduction from 26,527 square feet to 26,509 square ft so even though it is
slight there is a reduction um and and that's coming from the uh the pvious pavement uh that that is proposed in a portion of the site uh the building coverage uh is well under the requirement um there is an increase of course because of the expansion of the
existing building from 7.27 to 10.94 but most importantly here in terms of what makes this site suitable for this use uh the maximum building coverage is is 20% so we are you know well below um you
know that requirement um I think in terms of uh of of site suitability as well um even though you know we are making changes on this site um there there's more than sufficient room uh and I think the elimination of some of the
existing aspects of the site um you know the the ice machine that's outside uh and the the overall cleanup um there there is still more than enough room uh to accommodate all proposed changes um as you just heard uh relative to the
coverages and the F etc in terms of uh purposes of zoning or the special reasons that I see advanced in connection with this application um I would say uh purpose G of of the MLU well which speaks to the provision of of
uh sufficient space and appropriate locations for a variety of uses again um there are three uses that are proposed on the site um again they're all permitted and they're all uh you know synergistic and the previous testimony has established I think pretty clearly
that there there is sufficient space on the site to accommodate uh purpose I to promote a uh desirable visual environment um certainly as you saw from our site engineer I think the architecture is is very attractive uh it's going to be a nice cleanup on on
this highly visible uh property of course that uh has frontage on uh on four roadways um as well uh it is it is an island uh in itself and I think the aesthetics here are really going to go a long way u that's consistent with your master plan which I'll get into a bit
later uh purpose H which speaks to the provision of uh free flow of traffic as you heard from our uh our traffic engineer um you know traffic's not going to be a concern here uh he he he does feel that this site uh is uh is safe for
for circulation onto the site and throughout the site so certainly the provision of uh free flow of traffic and uh purpose m to the uh more uh efficient use of land again this goes to the the synergy of the site having these three
uses on site which are all complimentary and again as you heard from our our traffic and sight engineer these are not uh destination uses these are the types of uh pass by uses where from a planning standpoint we would seek to encourage all these uses for kind of uh you know
one-stop shopping so I think those are the purposes of zoning that are advanced uh in connection with this application um in terms of the um the negative criteria for the D1 use variance uh the first is a showing of whether or not there's going to be a substantial
detriment uh to the public good um and I understand that as as you heard uh the testimony from our site engineer um the uh the vegetation that's uh along the the eastern portion of the site along the uh the jug handle uh you know will
remain and and why is that important that's important because uh that is going towards the residential dwelling which is to the south of the site which uh I believe our site engineer testified is more than 200 feet away but it is still important uh to retain that
vegetation um and uh just just to add to you I'm sorry one of the other reasons for keeping those 33 trees is the flooding the potential flooding issue for that jug handle and causing traffic concerns correct with if you remove 33 mature existing trees that could could
create big problems with flooding on that jug that's a great point and uh thanks for that because that actually helps um you know test them with the negative criteria by having those trees but I still think adding a storm water basin in that grass area because you're adding the additional 1,400 square feet
should be part of this that's my that's my Yeah we we had I had indicated that that that we would do that two storm water bases the two no northwest and southeast they agreed to work with our engineer to minimize although not required under the
stormwater to minimize school yeah because Jason they're not actually adding any coverage on the property even though they're increasing the building um they're taking it away in other places yeah but we have problems with flooding oh I Oh I'm well I'm I'm well aware i'm well aware but yes and that's
why they've agreed to go over and above yeah I don't know if we can do it in the south we I' I'd have to ask John to come back up because the southeast the grassy area where they'll have the tree coverage there still but I still think for Yeah right behind Bill yeah exactly i think I think we we leave it that
they'll look at both areas and work to Bill's satisfaction if they can't do it though Bill will have to sign off if they can't do it okay the concern I have is you got mature trees there the root systems are huge well yeah i don't want to affect the trees yeah so basically you may what what Demetri had suggested
is right behind like right around the building where the building is where there won't be I think I think we understand the spirit of your comment which is if we can add some you know some storm water mitigation in certain places we'll try to do it without affecting some of the grading and the tree and the mature trees that are out
there should kill all the trees yeah definitely not no okay understood okay thank you thank you um so so I think I was talking about uh the retention of the trees in in that portion of the property that that we were just discussing i I I think that that is a
benefit that helps to mitigate uh any any visual impact um you know certainly and given the fact that that house to the south is more than 200 feet away um I think that does help i I think as as you heard from our site engineer as well which is very interesting and helpful the the you know the way that this
property is is set up as it is is that all the activity is really facing towards you know Route 35 so what's going to be facing the jug handle into the south where that house is uh there there's really nothing going on there there's no activity all the action is uh you know further up front um and I think
also you know this this really connects the positive negative criteria but uh in terms of uh you know detriments um they're they're all of these you know mitigating factors as well that that do help to to minimize any detriments which I don't really see any but if there are
they're not substantial that's the new landscaping that's the the aesthetics that's the new lighting and all the things the other professionals have discussed um so that that and actually there there is uh there's one more prong of course I've I've done this testimony
many times but I just corrected myself the the second prong of the negative criteria is is whether or not there will be impairment of the purpose of the master plan the zoning ordinance uh and the zone plan and also the uh the reconciliation of the omission uh of of
the use or the enhanced quality of proof i I would say that um to reconcile this is really kind of unique again because the ordinance already contemplates these uses these are these these uses are not prohibited uses they're all permitted in the zone uh but the reason why the use
variance is required um is because we don't meet all the bulk requirements um so I would say it's already contemplated so there's really nothing uh you know to reconcile here but it is a requirement of the of the D1 proof so I just want to put that on the record um in terms of the intent of the zoning
ordinance and and um you know here the these are permitted uses these are the type of uses that the uh the the route 35 corridor uh um uh zone um you know contemplates so I don't see any impairment to that i I think importantly
in terms of your master plan um there are some purposes of of the 2020 master plan re-examination that I think are are really important here and I think from a planning standpoint especially when when there's a use variance it's always important and also required to uh you
provide consistency with with the planning doctrine I would say this advances uh the purpose to encourage uh high quality design uh to seek stable high quality ratables to facilitate a positive uh business
climate in the township uh to facilitate the the upgrade of uh of existing nonresidential properties uh and to enhance the overall appearance of the township's commercial corridors um I think I think this application as you heard from all the testimony certainly
advances um all of those elements from from the master plan re-examination so that is the the D1 proofs um as I had stated earlier there is the the D3 variance for the conditional use um and I promised I'd be brief and I will be
brief the reason why um we need a requirement uh and and and as as Kate had said previously she doesn't think we need it but I'm just going to say it anyway just just for the purpose of the record um the ordinance as as you know currently stands uh controls a service
station or a gas station as a conditional use um and because there are some conditions that are not met that re that that's um you know that that uh variance is required uh the the standard for that is whether or not the site can
accommodate the deviation um since there's nothing changing with the service station I would say certainly uh it can accommodate it and and and that's that's the simple way of addressing that um lastly there are um some some bulk
variances that are required um you know typically these variances are subsumed in in the D1 use variance request but just again for the sake of the record and I promise I'll be brief here um there there there are some that I would just like to mention in terms of uh the
the the various variances um for for the signs um you did hear extensive testimony about the purpose of the signs um this sign plan is is pretty typical for for a highway corridor uh there there there are um you know multiple uh
frontages multiple roadways uh the four frontages they're really necessary as you heard from the other professionals to uh you know facilitate uh safety of the cars that are on the various roadways uh and again given that this is not a destination use typically this is
more of a pass by the signs uh help to help to serve as a beacon for people um wanting to make a quick decision to come onto this property and and also importantly from a planning standpoint uh they're proportional to the building as as you heard our site engineer um
state um so I think I think the sign package is appropriate the sign package is uh is critical to ensuring uh you know safety and since there's no real residential uses nearby you don't see any negative impact substantial detriment to the public good as a result of the signs no substantial detriment
public good uh with the signs and the variance for the uh the the setback from from residential zone um you know this is rather interesting as well because the the the zone line runs along the the center line um generally of of the jug
handle uh even though we do uh you know need relief uh for that um given the fact that that nearest residential uh dwelling is is is well more than 200 feet away and and all of the other other aspects I stayed especially with the you know vegetation a lot and and that
activity really facing the front um I certainly think uh there there's no negative impact granted that variance as well there is also um small variance for the front yard setback the building it's approximately a delta of of 3 ft i would
say that that's um dimminimous in nature but again for all of the benefits that are flowing from uh what's proposed this evening certainly I don't see any any negative impacts or substantial detriment uh with that as well and I believe that concludes yeah i was say so
with respect to the C variances you would agree that the purposes of the MLUL that you indicated for the D1 variances are advanced as well for the C variances yes absolutely and and certainly the uh the the benefits the you know balancing test of of of flexible C uh would be advanced with
this application i think the benefits certainly um you know do outweigh any detriments as well okay thank you that's all I have for Mr ociello kate comments um thanks Justin um I agree you know with I think that what what uh Mr oiello presented was you know appropriate for
what you know what the variances that we're seeking here which are not you know the typical D1 but it's it's unique and I think you know for the board's review you want to look at um what's proposed on the site and I think it's a very important point that these uses are permitted in some way shape or form
otherwise in the zone so it's not like this is some nothing that's proposed on this site is not contemplated for this zone um one thing that I didn't mention um and I don't think it came up in testimony but but yeah yeah the applicant does is technically requiring a new uh C variance for the front yard
setback i believe it's going from like 50.3 to 48 or something yeah that's that's what Justin No I know but so so I just wanted to say to clarify to that to Justin's point even more is that nothing's changing with the footprint that's actually I believe that's only a reflection of the new uh you know architectural canopies that are going in
so in my opinion you know that's not going to have a sub substantial visual impact and would probably actually have the opposite because it's really an upgrade to the site that's a good point um so you know I think I think the big picture here is that this is a very visible intersection in the township this has been a gas station service
station for as long as I can remember um sure even longer um and I think that um you know what they're proposing here is it's it's technically adding another use but these are the kind of uses that are kind of always changing and in flux where what was typically you know used
to be a gas station with service bays and and auto repair on the site and now it's more typically going to be a convenience store so um you know just for the board's consideration I think the idea that these uses are all you know kind of symbiotic in nature they do
have a relationship there um and I you know and also um the applicant uh and I'll let Jason do the his closing but you the applicant has made a few changes to the to the application in response to the board um so you know when you're looking at weighing the benefits and the detriment see if you can see if um
determine if if those changes have um affected any of your any of your calculations as well so that's that i'm happy to answer any questions or if you have them for Mr oiello in particular okay uh with that being said does the board members have any questions of the planner
just have a comment um currently there's a convenience store and I assume there's a certain amount of business and traffic coming into it now the person wants to add a Dunkin Donuts that to me would say that we want to increase the traffic coming into that
place because why would he want to add something if he doesn't think he's going to get more people coming in and out of that site so is there some you know I'm looking at there's a projection that the traffic situation might might get worse okay because why is he adding something if he doesn't think he's going to make
more business which means more traffic coming in and out and I know about the impervious coverage but you're still taking up capacity i know you put in pavers so that your impervious coverage comes down but that that's still taking up capacity for cars to be in there or or something like that well that's why
we did the whole traffic report and um you know presented Mr vertoric's testimony and I think the one comment from the board and the police department was for us to in addition to the no- left turn in that exists today to make the no- left turnout that was the one concern um which we agreed to do but I
think Mr veres's testimony was that the increase in traffic would be fairly um minimal based on the fact that it's all passed by and you know the and also the size of the addition which isn't that large but I understand your point but I think that's why the police department
said that you know if you're going to do this make that no left turnout um a condition of the approval which we agreed to do yeah i don't want to just usurp Mr verdesy's testimony but I I just did so yeah well I'll just do it um so but Francine essentially you know
with pass by traffic it's that there might be more cars entering the site but it's not necessarily going to bring more people to the intersection that weren't already there and so you know they are adding more parking spaces on the site which is over what's required from our ordinance um but that's you know the
pass by it's that they might not be going to the site but that it typically it's people who are already in the vicinity anyway and also you know maybe maybe they're buying to not not to make the case but maybe someone's going to Duncan and the convenience store now instead of just the convenience store so yeah there's a few ways you can weigh
that but yeah I think I I would say you know especially with having the two uses and you not you're never sure about who's going to use what sometimes you might go there and you might won't even get gas so I think that adding the parking space additional parking but making them impervious is a good compro excuse me pvious is a good compromise
yeah and also and also traffic there could be a little bit more traffic going or and this was all testified to but essentially it's that with use like this people are not going the vast majority of users here are not going to
be you know at home and say I'm specifically going to go out of my way to go here they're going to go whatever is on their way already and what's more convenient so it's not going to necessarily add many trips to the intersection right so it's not adding trips to the intersection it could be adding more trips in that
and I I will I will defer to the applicant and I think the answer is not I think their testimony was that it was it was not it was be negligible as was determined by the county and DOT right that's what I was about to say is that also this is this this application just confirming is that it is subject to
both DOT and county approval the two roads right and as Mr is that was due to the fact that the the the size of the Duncan as Mr pis indicated is very it's not a big Duncan it's a very small one okay any other board questions of the planner or we could even open it up to
anybody because I don't know it's getting late and we have to either vote on it or not vote on it i'm inclined to try to get it done tonight so let's uh ask all our questions and we'll stay a little extra if it has to be so we can get it done tonight
so um does anybody have more questions on the planner and then we'll open it up to the public and then we'll have a discussion or we'll open up to more questions of all the professionals okay so does anybody in the public have any questions on this
planner no okay board members um do you have more to talk about no I was just going to give a closing and just sum up i can do that whenever you want me to Mr okay then why don't you do that before Well I want the board to see if think about everything and maybe ask any more questions of anybody that might have
come up in their mind go ahead i have a question or I know you talked about the signage and I'm not as much concerned about that change of this shell with the gas and everything but the signage on the buildings yeah how can you just give me an example if I looked at a regular
Dunkin Donuts are you making bigger signs or small you know I just don't want these glaring signs they're they're very I mean if you saw them I'll let Kate maybe respond because she's the professional but I believe they were very in scale with the building and I
think the chairman rightfully so and I I agreed with this because I saw when I saw the plan also there was no need to have that sign on the back of the building right that was overkill and so now that the one there was never one proposed on the um sorry get the directions there on the southerntherly
side there was never one to froze there because that faced the residential zone but we've also now eliminated the one on the east side so there's really just signs on the building uh as it faces the parking lot and then faces Route 35 but I'll let Kate comment on the scale of the signage on the building
yes um so that is Yeah I agree i agree is that the applicant has agreed to remove the um the signs on the one side of the building because it's it's actually kind of a double good thing because they're keeping the trees so the signs won't be visible anyway um but in
general um you know so one thing is in Homedale Township there is not a separate sign ordinance for this zone so even though this is the route 35 zone it's the same sign standards as you would have in the village or anywhere else so in that context you know I think that the variances that they're
requesting are fairly minimal um and I think they put on the accurate testimony reflecting that but um you know they get an extra freestanding sign because it's a gas station but otherwise they have to meet the same standards as everywhere else um in the township that's in a
business district so um you know I think in proportion you know I and I you know I don't know off hand the exact area but I think in proportion to many of the signs that I've seen you know you may see in other municipalities you may see Dunkin Donuts will have a big cup on the side they may have a runs on Duncan
there's all kinds of wording i think these in general are very minimal any other question as someone who drives around New Jersey at night a lot I see a lot of lit up Dunkin Donut signs i'm sure Jason agrees any other
questions from the board members on any any professionals at all bill can I ask a question again and I'm like all hyped up on this driveway exit because this is my concern want to turn right that's fine but then they want to make a left to go
down what's Highway 35 North but I know my picture is probably west and what I see because I drag that road almost every day is people from the drug handler trying to do the same thing they have to go across two lanes of
traffic that go straight to even try to make that left so now we're saying they can't go left under law so we save some traffic but my concern is a very short from that driveway to the right where they want to go left and that I'm really concerned how
they're going to compete with the drug handle traffic and the people who are already going straight yeah but I don't see how that make it not an exit make it an entrance only and you have to exit on 35 that's how you fix that you can't exit that way or you make it an exit and
there's signage because there's one in Shrewsbury that's popping into my head where it says this exit for for um Laurel Avenue only not or highway 35 and Laurel Avenue only not highway 35
more that is my concern is we're add that's where the traffic I'm concerned about i'm not concerned about the necessarily traffic going in i get it it's a pass by thing but if I'm on Laurel I pass by it every day because I want to turn left and I say oh there's a
dun for me to get out and make that very distance and in the morning those cars have to be nice but that that that that's really a county issue because it's Laurel's a county road i mean I think the fact that we've even
been willing to give up the left which was also a county issue but but making changing the fact that it's an in full access driveway is really a county issue and we and we applied to the county and they they've reviewed it and that type of use basically a lot of
people that are going to those stores it's be residents like yourself after a while you realize it's too hard to get to the left lane you're not going to go there you're going to go somewhere else if you have to go northbound on on Route 35 you learn you adapt i see that's my concern it's not further away
it's just not a big That's my only issue the whole time with this one i don't know if it is actually closer is it the jug handle and then the jug but you can already do that yeah when we're
adding the Dunkin Donuts you're saying it's a pass by thing so more people are anticipated to go in oh I'm sorry i thought I thought Yeah I understand that i thought you were I thought you were saying that they that they were moving the driveway closer to the intersection wouldn't the people be coming down 35 heading east and then go in that way and
go out i'm so coming up Laurel i Lori I would just I would just defer to to and I don't remember the numbers offhand but the traffic engineering testimony where um you know the number the number of new users on the site will be fairly minimal
i understand your point understood because when you look at it if you really wanted to play it safe you would be right but I'm happy that they eliminated the left which to me isn't more of a problem yeah that is definitely an issue i've seen them so okay um if anybody doesn't
have any other questions which I'm not saying we won't go back to it we'll let the attorney do his closing you asked for public question okay public questions and comments at this point none okay none can we have a closing statement from the attorney yeah
i just had one question no I just wanted to further just answer just even though it is a county and DOT road yeah I just the difference in traffic in total just I'll give you like an example that it's this is all in the report that I'm just citing is for
example 33 cars in the morning but that's amongst all the driveways so the amount that is coming out of that one just if you divide it by by four it's like the increase is to Kate's point I just wanted to look at the report and and reinforce it is maybe a handful to
to you know six or seven more cars it's not 60 or 70 more vehicles i just wanted you to know we re we did research that okay that's that's all so just I just wanted to make sure we properly addressed your question and that 33 is the added trips in a peak hour right right the edit yeah so that and that's
spread across all driveways right correct yeah i just wanted to make sure we That was the number that was the number that I did not have on hand they were all like Yeah okay all right go ahead yeah no thank you so again I just want to thank the board for its time and all their professionals for reviewing everything i'll just stick to the to the
D1 aspect of this um even though it's multiple uses on one lot I think the trend has been as everyone knows is there are these coffee shops within these types of facilities a lot of them do have drive-throughs which we're not proposing um in connection with this application but the fact of the matter
is this is very common where you see a convenience store where those types of goods are sold and coffee and things of that nature so this is a compatible use it's not a situation where you have multiple uses where they're three separate buildings and they're three separate uses that aren't connected the uses are here are really in one building
and they're very common um uh to be together so I think the use variance although it's strange to say is really a technical use variance in this regard but we're doing a lot to this site to make it better the landscaping is is improving um the aesthetics are
improving right now if you look at the building you could see all the mechanicals on the roof satellite dishes a lot of things that really aren't pleasant to look at the applicant who purchased the property fairly recently wants to really upgrade it and make it look a lot better uh for for the public so from an aesthetic standpoint it's
getting uh better we're adding more parking spaces we're adding a loading zone um we're adding a lot of of screening and and landscaping along the exterior we're improving the lighting and I think with the conditions that we just that we discussed throughout the course of the this evening the pro the
project got even better from when it came in so these are the conditions that I have and and council if you just let me know if you agree if I if you cited any others um the when we when there's a motion soon approved let me read them and then just you follow yeah sure
that's how that that's fine i was just going to say the storm water that we've said we would add I think is going to be an improvement saving those trees per the environmental commission's letter will be not only a visual improvement but also for storm water management purposes not ripping up some of those
trees I think it was was a good idea adding the ballard by the propane I thought um also was was something that was um made the project better and also that the no left turn that we discussed so I think collectively the project got even improved significantly since we
came in front of the board but there's a lot of positives here um I think the planner's testimony regarding the negative criteria spot on there really won't be any substantial detriment to the public good and in fact I think we're actually furthering um aspects of your master plan as a result of this
application so I would request the board um grant the application with all the conditions that we talked about this evening um and with all the stipulations and representations that we made um and also subject to the comments set forth in your in Kier's letter um your
planners letter and also the interdep department comments that were made um as part of the application so thank you very much okay thank you for that closing okay board members uh if you want uh we could have a little discussion your comments on what your
thoughts are and then we I want to try to wrap this up quickly we could have a vote on this tonight and uh that's what is on the plan so anybody have any comments on what they want to say say anything
jason I know you have something yeah I Does anyone want to go first i don't want to cut anyone off go ahead go first no I was just going to say you know based on the testimony uh that's been provided tonight you know I think it's been very persuasive um you know that the positive criteria has been met i think this will be beneficial to the
community as a whole i agree that there's no substantial detriment to the public good or the neighbors um so I'm inclined to uh vote yes on this uh variance given again I'm going to state my three things again the maintaining
the exist existing 33 mature trees and uh and if possible around the back of the building since we are adding all that new uh imperous space that we're going to add another storm water basin there behind the building um no
left-hand turn signal i think from a safety perspective and you know I've heard Lori too i think that's a good compromise Lori that we're at least adding the left the no left-hand turn signal on um on Laurel there the exit out of Laurel um and then the um you know and then to Demetri's point I think
that you know the sign on the back of the building was really meaningless so I I think if all those conditions those uh I think I read out four conditions are are met I am inclined to vote yes on this variance any other board members have any comments
they talk about improving the site and there won't be any supplies on the outside of the building similar to the way it is does that have to be a condition for our approval to make sure because you know a lot of people say we're not going to do it and then they do it when you go back that's fine we have so condition yeah that is a
condition already yes only thing we had on the outside was the propane that exists right anything else any other comments from any other board members no I think it's okay uh a comment that I should have made before and I forgot is the
landscaping that you're proposing in the back i know that was uh discussed but I just don't want you to put all that landscaping in lie of cutting trees down to fit it in there so if you want to supplement some in there and I think this is going to be something that we'll
let the engineer look at i mean the the trees you have there we want but if you want to add a few more and not to the extent that I see here there's quite a bit on the plans i don't think you may need to put that much in there but I'll leave it up to the engineer i just don't
want you to strip trees and cut trees in order to plant new understood that's fine that's fine okay go ahead Angela i just wanted to just to confirm again that that vacuum is is going to stay where it is and it won't move over to where that entrance is i
know it's a small point but I am just concerned about the cars coming in it'll it'll be where it's reflected on the drawing okay yeah so Angela the vacuum is moving from where it is today but Right but consistent with this it'll move to consistent exactly with this plan yes
okay uh if there's no other comments did I leave anything out Marty all right um can we have a motion from somebody okay so we have a motion oh you can second i'll second that motion and there's one thing we have to add to your
motion is provided the special conditions that Marty's going to read is that okay yes sir okay Marty so go down all the conditions and you can check make sure conditions are what we agreed to on the record but the ones I have noted here um we're going to keep the 33 trees in the back we'll work with the
board engineer for additional any supplemental additional I'm sorry it's not on i'm sorry condition one keep the 33 existing trees in the back east side button but work with the board engineer for any supplemental uh number two is to
eliminate the east side wall sign uh number three is to comply with all the technical comments in the board review letters uh number four is to replace any monitoring wells if if they are disturbed number five is to work with our board engineer on possible storm water uh basin or some kind of
facilities on the northwest corner as well as the east grass area to the extent possible number six uh to revise the plans to show uh deliveries in the front only that front door only eliminate the notation for the back door number seven
uh to Ballards if needed at the propane tank working with our board engineer with that determination number eight to comply with the uh February 19th 2025 interdep departmental review letter which is both uh board of health director of infrastructure fire official as well as
the traffic safety officer and I'll just repeat for the record that traffic safety offers comment is the no left out onto Laurel Avenue uh number nine um is to um work with our board engineer to possibly uh do low I already said this the low I'm sorry no this is different
low shrubs in that northwest grass area and number 10 no outside storage other than the existing propane um facility that you have you say storage or display or display right yes i would I would add outdoor storage display or sales like
that all right and that's that's what I have so those 10 we're good we're good okay can we have a vote roll call for a vote mr bley yes definitely miss Campus yes miss Gerard
i have to vote now mr luchian I'll vote yes mr offendulus yes mr marzokam yes miss Castello yes mr friola
yes thank you wait he's not seated he's not seated so we have seven mark is not seated what no sorry six six to one take him off six to one yeah I know and that was for all the variances preliminary and final site plan correct yeah what
happened with the the D3 so let's So where's Jean your motion is to approve all the variances the D1 the possible D3 if it's needed and all the bulk variances is that correct correct so for the record it includes and site plan right and obviously the site plan yeah okay all right thank you very much
everybody okay it'll be nice i'm sure it will be uh okay next item on the agenda is professional reports do we have anything Marty to talk about all right um the only thing make sure
you bring all your folders your green ones leave them up front here and whatever stuff you don't want to take back to your house make a separate pile it gets recycled yeah you know I'm going to take this it gets recycled okay can I have a motion i just need motion to adjurnn can
I have a motion to adjurnn uh I move to adjourn i'll second that motion thank you have a good night amazing