good evening everyone the call to order of the meeting of little Paul's planning board March 6 2025 at 7 p.m. Mr Barry will you please lead us in FL salute stands
indice all thank you everyone Valerie will you please read a statement of public notice 202e the notice of this meeting was provided in accordance
witha n as meeting posted on board at the municipal building located at25 Main Street New Jersey on January 9 2025 a
copy of the notice sent via email to the Jersey on the same date additionally a copy of the notice filed in the office of the to please note that this meeting is being take we ask speak loud and clear the microphones please call the
RO here here here here here here here here here Mr there
here here here thank you uh council president are there any comments for the planning board from the council no one chairman came before the governing body at the last meeting our next meeting will be coming uh is this coming Monday thank you very much may I have a motion for
the approval of the minutes of January 9th 2024 one vote for the reorganization in a regular meeting may have motion please so moved second please call the
r yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes chairman votes Yes Minister approved
there are no resolutions to memorialize uh on the agenda tonight our first item is a public hearing to consider an amendment to the housing element and fair share plan attend them number one to 2024 master plan of the
township of littlea want to call on our new planner Mr Barry uh to explain what this is all about sure the whole I do so good evening all uh John Barry uh
professional planner and uh planner for the township happy to be here and thanks for having me the um matter that's before us this evening is a a relatively simple item I know the board is aware of the history behind all of this uh it has
to do with the three developments that were approved at 115 Main Street 215 and 2011 Route 23 um collectively those three developments had a affordable housing obligation that was left somewhat open and as a result of some
back and forth with the court and the special adjudicator involved with the uh Township's housing element in fair share plan we uh the township came to a to a settlement to um resolve the housing issues uh 10 affordable units would be set aside within the 115 Main Street
Building uh the and then in addition the redeveloper or the developer of that project also made a contri will make a contribution of $200,000 to the Township's affordable housing trust fund we had a uh hearing
on this matter a few weeks ago in Pay County court with judge Del sardo and reviewed the matter both with the special adjudicator myself and um rep councel for the developer and the township and as a result we were
directed to prepare this update to the housing element fair share plan in accordance with the settlement that's been agreed to and all this is doing is updating the numbers in the plan to reflect that these 10 units are being provided at the 115 Main Street site and that the $200,000 contribution is being
made to the trust fund and that's really it other than that um we're just putting a bow on the history of this these applications and the process that we've gone through the Township's gone through to um resolve the outstanding affordable
housing requirement for the applications and with the adoption of this housing fair share plan addendum basically put put to bed that whole host of issues and uh pretty much called to end the third
round of housing for the township thank you any questions for the board members there being done May so Mr Barry so what is what you presented to the board tonight is what has been
presented to the court the uh there was a draft that was uh presented to the the court in advance of the hearing this the only update that's come since then was to attach the final version of the settlement agreement and the judge's order in the matter but otherwise it's it's the same but so what we're doing
tonight is in conformance with you order of the Court which was entered I believe on February 7th 2025 yes that's correct go ahead chairman thank you very much uh again any questions to the board
for Mr Barry hearing none may I have a motion to open up the meeting to the public so moved may I have a second second all those in favor I I I all those oppose nay meeting is now open to the public any member of the public
wishing to address the board please come forward no one coming forward I close the meeting to the public may I have a motion uh to approve the amendments to the house in element for the fair share plan at denum
number one to the 2024 master plan of the township of little fall motion please I'll make the motion may I have a second second any discussion please pull the
board yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes chairman votes yes it's
approved um one applications tonight 11 Walnut Street chairman uh the mayor and myself will be excused because we only get to hear applications on fences and pools so yes that is absolutely correct no fencing no pools
yes chairman go ahead okay thank you hi everyone uh John better entering my appearance on behalf of the applicants Jimmy and Paulina Jose John veter 3 University Plaza Suite 207 hackin sack New Jersey I believe we had well we have
half of uh my client's family the other half may be in the hallway and uh while we typically don't bring the applicants uh up the applicant would like to make a short statement I'm going to give a little summary first and then the applicant would like to make a short statement um about his uh the request
this evening um the applicants he will tell you have they uh have a growing family they've lived in the town for about 20 years uh love the town like lots of other young couples uh impossible to find another home within the confines of the township and they do
love their home and would like to add on to the home to accommodate their uh growing family we've seen these applications before so as the planner has pointed out you know it's the burdens on us to establish that this is a D2 variance not a D1 variance and
what's the difference so D1 variance would speak to it's a full use variance we can't establish that there that this is a legal non-conforming use so we've seen these application there were lots of twoam well not lots there was there were many two families that were built
in the township probably at the turn of the century late 1800s 1900s uh this being one of them so this home according to with the tax records and the sandborn maps was built around 1910 um that's fully before the establishment of the zoning code that
would have barred two family homes so the home exists as a legal twoam so I believe that we have the legal authority to be asking the board this evening for a D2 variant not a D1 VAR it's a lesser it's a less D variants and if you look at that neighborhood um and we looked at
everything in between Stevens Avenue and Center on both sides of the street every single one of the homes they're all two families with one exception with the house directly across the street that backs up to the parking lot of the Civic Center um I think it's 14 Walnut Street that is a um that's a one family was
built as a one family um this we understand just based on the configuration of the home and the architect will speak to this was built as a two family now we're seeking uh some variances including the expansion of that we've had these applications I looked in my record I think the most
recent one that we had was the Lightner application which is almost identical to this one which was a two family on Syle Avenue um with an expansion of that property there have been others that go back further I think 72 Lincoln is another example celor can I can I just
ask our planner and our attorney if they agree that we're looking at D2 VAR Sir Mr Barry well based on the the representation provided uh that the construction of the dwelling predates the adoption of the zoning code and
presuming that it's been used as a two- family since it's construction if uh do we know that for a fact that in 2010 it was built as a two family in 19 yeah 1910 according to the tax records are not always the most Rel out usually I
find that the homes are older than that but the house um the house was there I looked in the sandborn map so the house shows that it was there in the 1915 sandborn map so it's that's probably right um I don't believe it was in the older one the 18 something I could bore
everyone and try to look it up but I I don't think it was in the late 1800 map so that that date is probably correct okay so with with that representation and umbly we could all go check the sandboard map if we wanted to
I I'm confident that that we can uh proceed with it as a two a D2 rather it's currently been used as a two family currently being used as a two family has been used as a two family by the prior owners and for the last 20 years 20 years for the last 20 years
that my client has owned the property okay it's been utilized as a two family thank you thank you okay so in addition to that we have our um our C variant is that we'll speak about and um and one of which actually the U the engineer has
pointed out that we don't have we'll get into that so so we're going to go over the uh the plans we have um an architect here with us that actually has been responsible for the design of lots of homes and Little Falls yet he's never appeared before this board uh Mr messic
designed all the homes at Mountaintop at great notch uh as well as I think a couple on Sally Jean court and also a couple on Woods Road um but I guess as they were um you know originally done maybe by other Architects at the at that time he
actually has never appeared before this board so we'll be happy to have him here uh to answer any questions of the board and explain the plan so with that said um if it please is the board I would like to call L up Jimmy Jose and please raise your right hand you
swear or affirm the testimony that you're at before this court is going to be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do please tell us your name and SP your last name uh my name is Jimmy Jose it's j a r oos z um so my statement is
I visited many towns when I was looking to purchase a home um I fell in love with little Foos the the town the home that we were looking at was very historic the charm of it and then as me and my wife grew so did our family and
over the time our son James is planting roots and going to school he's in third grade in town our daughter who is three will eventually be going and um we want to squeeze in one more child while we have the opportunity so living in a a
small two-bedroom on the second floor we've grown out of it um we need the space so we've love the opportunity to keep the Aesthetics of the home keeping it looking like the historic Colonial that it is while also having the ability
for our family to to live and grow in it um so that just very much uh thank you for having me the ability to speak and um hopefully will allow us to uh expand renovate the entire house uh keeping the
uh same aesthetic view of the neighborhood um and also helping out my family got to leave now Jimmy that thank you Jimmy board have any questions of the applicant no okay okay so let's jump right in our first uh our first witness
going to testify in the area of architecture um and speak to the site plan is Tom messic please raise your right hand you swear from the testimony that you're about to give before this board is the truth the whole truth or nothing but the truth I do please tell us your name tell your last name for it's Thomas messic
last name is m UK okay just for the benefit of experience sure so I'm a licensed architect in the state of New Jersey I hold 39 architectural licenses throughout the country um my license in New Jersey and
all the rest of them are in good standing um I graduated architectural School nearly 30 years ago um yes it is an expert in the I will not ask if his LIC isn't
good we accept I've appeared before many boards and like uh John said earlier I have yet to appear before this board and I've done probably more projects in Little Falls than any other town in the country at this point thank you okay
yeah give give an overview of the the existing property and the plan sure okay so um I'm going to go off the the Z1 sheet first uh the first sheet in the set um in the upper right corner we do have uh
the that's correct that's your reification we just received these plans this [Music] evening so um the upper right corner we have uh our site plan shows the existing structure of the existing house and then
the uh proposed Garage in the uh the rear yard um the garage that's existing uh we are looking to replace that garage with a new garage and the new garage is slightly larger uh than the garage that was there primarily because the garage
that was there um the it was built a while ago the doors were smaller uh the garage itself was smaller and getting cars in the garage and being able to get out of the cars was a challenge in the existing so we are proposing a 22t x 22
fot uh garage and um in the Vari so that does become as the points out because the garage is actually coming forward towards Walnut Street keeping the same line that it's in now but it is coming up it's an
expansion in seven said Zing 6et Grand there we are standing will the garage be higher sorry will the garage have two levels will it be higher no it's just a one car a one story U twocc car Village nothing
on top nothing but U you know as John was pointing out U the existing garage does not conform to the six foot uh setbacks for the garage um what we were looking to do as well is square the garage up to
the house so and it also aligns with the edge of the driveway right now it's a bit vied um and uh the front corner and the rear corner would be both be 3 and a half feet off of the
property uh one other point to bring up while on the uh site plan is the impervious coverage um the existing impervious coverage and I know that uh there's also 20 uh 2
40 square ft of the neighboring driveway that uh encroaches onto this particular lot that uh addition adds 4.3% so our number of uh for our proposed um
impervious coverage at 64.3% should be 68.6% that's also noted in the uh Engineers report um again the uh most of the impervious coverage is existing we are slightly expanding that with the uh
addition of the garage moving on so on Z2 the second sheet in the uh the drawing Set uh we have three floor plans so we have a uh first floor plan uh and these are all proposed plans the
the second floor plan and the um attic level or third floor um you know for the uh the existing dwelling so the first floor is the one uh family and that they uh looking to do some renovation on the
first floor to modern modern sorry it's been a long day um to bring this you know apartment kind of up to date second floor we're looking to expand um you the the living space as um
Jimmy had mentioned with their growing family they need the extra space right now everything is contained on the second floor the proposed attic level plan would give them uh a new suite towards the back of the property and two bedrooms towards the
front um bedroom sizes are you know they're not over large they're 96 by 12 so very you know comfortable for the existing houses in the neighborhood
confr we don't have varre the calculation is not just the simple one half of the PO area below so need to explain to the bo why we can't comply with okay the impact that it
would have doing this addition comp so we we did look at that uh in terms of the um what John had just brought up currently and um part of that you can see better on the next sheet
um but the uh the existing um attic space that's there now um with that and trying to comply with the half story uh we would have enough space underneath the existing attic framing to get two
very small rooms up there and we can't even get like a full walk up stair uh yeah that's code compliant uh to work with that so that's what we were looking to do was to increase the square footage of the attic level uh and because it's
over the half uh store requirements it becomes effectively a third floor um and that's one of the uh the variances that we do need and as John pointed out we're um only 31 feet in height where 35 is required so we are still under the the
height um requirement in terms of feet um the side walls uh we would have a we're looking to raise the side walls to a 4ot high knee wall um the dotted lines on either end that shows is where the um
the sloping ceiling hits 5'6 so uh even though we are raising it the upstairs uh rooms would not be uh a full 8 foot height we'll just have you down the kind of the middle of the uh the rooms would
be where we would achieve eight feet um moving to the Z3 sheet on this sheet here um we can see where the existing roof is and our proposed um roof line moving that line up four feet
uh we are looking to increase the pitch slightly so that we can get a little bit more head height in there and you can see here in the center that's the only area that you we would have full um ceiling height and then it rapidly slopes down uh to at the 4 foot Mark at
the uh the side walls um and looking you know at this addition and like the other houses in the area this isn't really out of scale for the the neighborhood uh we are only raising
you know the roof um a couple of feet the four feet you know at the side walls U just enough to get that uh ceiling height and some workable space on that floor speak to the elevations that everything is going to be done
right so um as John is pointing out here uh all the the siding will be replaced all the windows will be replaced it'll be a full renovation to you know bring this house up to current standards uh and it'll be a new Fresh look for um
this particular property no are there any plans for the garage uh the garage plans haven't been fully developed yet they're uh just we know it's 22 by 22 ft and we will meet the height
requirement for an accessory John can you go on record stating it's only one level yes so uh there will be no uh no height um variance it will only be one level um be no um I don't but to my knowledge
there's no Second Story at all located uh you know half story or otherwise just a one-story two-car garage that will be slightly expanded uh coming out towards Walnut Street to accommodate the cars can we discuss storm water management so there's no um no real
impact we're not required to under the going to have new leaders yes yes so there'll be all new gutters and leaders um but the um there'll be no requirement for uh a new dryw the the entire the where the grass is are staying where the uh garage is there's driveway right
there so there's really no uh new imper coverage of being Creed there's an issue with the other side of Sharon can you address that at all just just for our knowledge yeah it's something that um was there it's a a historic encroachment so the if you're facing this property
the two family to the left their driveway encroaches on this property um has from for probably 1910 I don't know about 1910 but uh it's it's probably been a long it's probably been as long as I can remember I've seen that
driveway that's there and um uh they don't they have a prescriptive easement in the law because it's been so long like it's adversely possessed at this point but um and the applicant isn't looking has a very good relationship with the neighbor um not looking to make any changes on
that okay any questions of the board [Music] members I have a question do we have a location for the air conditioning unit on the exterior of the property I think it's sign the [Music]
plane we may have to add it to the plans they are putting central air and there's no currently no central air but they will locate it in an area not requiring a variant um that also recover requires uh fencing or if not fencing
buffing Shrubbery okay any thank you any additional question question page one bar you have existing walkway to be
removed it's a very small area I don't understand what it means to be removed it's on the right side all the way up are you going to repay it are you going to put Plants there what what does it mean to be removed when you look at the garage it's
it's on your upper right there so I guess thatly that is just Mulch and concrete yeah the applicant saying it is concrete also have another question I'm
sorry on the I believe third floor what what's third FL right now is it a bedro it's just at space currently um there's this stairs to get up there would be new stairs because right now the the roof
pitch is too low to have a fall right reg are you moving the chimney the chimney coming down it does um that sounds like it appears can we ask Mr jard if he's moving the chimy good fireplace can you come a little
closer to the bik yeah there's there's a fireplace that we're just going to convert to just a gas it's a chimney for the exhaust for all the furnaces that's going down so we could open up the floor plan M chimney moving the chimney for the fireplace is staying the chimney for the exhaust that's through the middle of
the house that's being removed thank you any additional questions no could we get a commitment from the owner to uh commit to never convert the SEC the third floor to another apartment absolutely
yeah yes I will commit to never turn the third floor into apartment there's no access from the outside we have to do it from inside so yes sometimes when children grow up and they want to have their own space uh apartments are
converted all right that's a great I'll accept that I promise you that's a good answer any additional questions or comments any comments from our planner just uh a couple quick questions
um I know we don't have finalized plans for the garage but is there any intention to have utility service to the garage besides electrical electrical um right now it's manual so we have to up one side the other garage door
doesn't work we can't close it once we put the SUV in so we just want no Plumbing just electric so we open the garage and close in there lights right now there no lights okay so no Plumbing that's the key thank you um and do you have to take down any trees to
accommodate the the modifications we don't have to okay thank you and that's all I have thank you Mr calars our engineer just a clarification there a
slight increase in theous coverage improvements approximately we need to see variance uh very well if there are no further questions the board may I have a motion to open up
the meeting to the public so moved may I have a second second second all those in favor all those opposed meeting is now open to the public anyone wishing to address the planning board please come
forward I guess you already addressed the planning board okay uh knowing coming forward I close the meeting to the public any additional uh comments from the board Mr brigley aduro can you summarize
sure uh so the first variance that's required is what we call D2 variance which is for an expansion of a preexisting non-conforming use and basically under the Burbridge
case if you have a lawfully created pre-existing non-conforming use if the board finds that it cannot be eliminated the board is supposed to uh seek to harmonize the use with the environment in this case the applicant is talking about the aesthetic
improvements to the structure and keep it consistent with the character of the neighborhood uh there are the additional variances there C Varian there's some pre-existing non-conformities in regard to improved
coverage for the existing non-conformities lot are area where 9,000 ft is required 5,608 ft is proposed lot width 75 ft is required 44.5 ft is again existing and proposed
and front yard setback of 25 ft is required in 19.2 feet is existing and proposed there are new variances one is in regard to the number of stories where there's a maximum of two and a half stories permitted three stories are proposed but even though going even
though the app is going to three stories it still meets the height requirement in terms of feet 31 feet where 35 ft is permitted variance for maximum improved coverage where
60% is allowed in 68.6% is uh proposed and maximum building coverage at 25% is allowed and 29.3% is proposed and then the variance for the Lo
and setback of the accessory structure where six where six foot setback is required in 3.5 F I think the only thing uh modification I have to that is I I thought that the building coverage was no longer a variance
uh okay so you meet the 25% right okay I think we were taking yeah right than that yes that's fine may have a motion
motion may I have a motion to approve to approve may I have a second any discussion just F before so this is be so I'm sorry the motion again approved
no I understand that who made the motion who made the second motion was made by darthy who made the second Mike Poes yes yes yes yes
yes yes chairman votes yes the application is approved good luck enjoy it thanks everyone thank you very much conratulations jimmmy on person business is there any old business any new
business no bills have been presented we have a motion for adjournment so moved second second all those in favor I I all those opposed meeting is now closed thank you very much
everyone for