##VIDEO ID:jVtUoBjJtKE## make sure I on my phone phone off too okay great all right the December 11th 2024 Zoning Board of adjustment meeting will now come to order please rise for a pledge of allegiance my Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America the rep for stands one nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all this meeting has been advertised in accordance with the open public meetings act roll call please Sak kisi present B R present Laura Kiri present Jo Mortimer present Mariam B present Lou Valentino present Bill Jara present John jik present Karen R present chairman G present okay there are two items on the agenda tonight tonight is anyone here from 27 charer Avenue they're in the they're in the uh Lobby right you want me to get them yeah please attorneys here I know talking to is that going to go first Mr G well I'm going to pull the audience to see if there's anyone here for that application and if not it could go quickly so we could take it first I have to rec okay questions for us well first of all in the general public is anyone here in the general public to appear for this application okay then for you folks at psng we're going to try to squeeze this one in thinking that yours will go a little longer than this one so Joan you have to excuse yourself let me read this into the record m 27 sh Avenue block 100 Lots 14 15 and 16 Trung Nan senior application number zba 2410 Zone resident District R2 existing use residential proposed use residential application variance approval for existing non-conforming oversized garage I'm Matthew Z I represent I you want to swear him in right away sir raise your right hand please you swear or affirm the testimony you give tonight is truth whole truths nothing of the truths yes thank you if I can just give you an overview for people that weren't about the site plan let me interrupt you for one second please mat do you have any yeah for completeness Mr chairman they have submitted all the information necessary for us to do our review and they can be deemed complete by okay fam this is on Sher Street and Matt you got to pull that microphone closer to you this property was built the building in the back is what the question is apparently it was built in stages it was at one point a machine shop it is Big it was 3,300 square ft it was heated air conditioned insulated had three bathrooms had an upstairs office it was a none of it was permitted but it was built in stages and it was built not by him it was built I'm not sure the name of the of the individual probably somebody here knows him and it just was at a point in time where people weren't I don't know weren't informing or weren't enforcing these things and deboard as a flip and so we've come in with the notion that there were I know the concerns of the board is that it turns into another business or an Adu which they don't want multiple dwelling that's not a problem what we've proposed to do if we're talking with the prior the site plan review is actually removing a third of the building on the right side completely slab and everything the second drawing doesn't show the slab remov but it is coming off because our quotes to remove a third of that is like $155,000 now involves removing the actual slap that's going to come out and he'd like to have the green space and anything's for drainage it would be a problem if it's not removed and the the bathrooms will be reduced it will only be one the other two are gone and we've relocated the front door that makes it look like a a residence if you look at the picture on the first one it looks like almost the front door it's not going to be there it's going to be around the side as a drawing sh in the the lower right corner where the new wall is going to be when they remove remove the existing 1/3 it it takes us under impervious coverage the 50% mark it takes us down by doing this if we're if we don't do it it's it we're over like 50 some percent and with this it takes us to 49 we below impervious we still need the variance for for the the back and the one side yard and I believe the front steps might be encroaching but I can go over that with the engineer but the front porch is encroaching which is also pre-existing um now he is reconstructing it and turning the steps to the sides of the driveway so that it doesn't encroach anymore because there's a driveway right adjacent to the left of the house so his his architect already redrew that I don't know if have we got permits on that yet yes everything up you're describing some things that perhaps we can't see do you have pictures no I don't but he's already submitted permits to the township they have them they've approved them because they asked us to do that they called me and said listen if you're going to rebuild the steps because they were structurally on the sale the front steps so rather than rebuilding the way they were we actually turned it to side so it actually may not encroach when it's constructed I believe it it won't I believe it'll meet right do you have any back diagram of what they're talking about what we talking about the steps front steps front step the way they were existing they were already encroaching that's correct he's actually rebuilding it and it's not going to encroach it's actually going to turn to the if you look at the front it's going to turn the steps are going to come to the left of the landing so it goes right to the driveway and it wach we could take your word for it but it would be neat if we had something here that showed us that I guess I'm trying understand the steps so let me let me just ask a couple questions if I could please uh obviously the applicant is here because of someone's past misdeeds so to speak a 3,300 plus square foot garage was built slash office SL machine shop which also looked like a residence with a doorbell and all that there's a small Second Story on it that apparently was an office potentially always leads to concerns which we'll talk about a little later um the applicant currently the front yard setback is 20 feet the porch is 16 feet so the steps encroach even closer there are no Dimensions shown on here when you say the steps are turning to the left or the right is it on the side of the porch or is it still going to be in the front no the side it's going to be a side so we don't encroach the architect called me and said we have to reinstruct this from thing I think you said the porch already encroaches so it's not just the step well they're rebuilding the whole porch so because it's not structurally sound so it'll meet we'll represent that it'll meet setback you know that when you come to these boards you need to have something to show us I wasn't aware that this was even going to be on until I saw his review letter yesterday yeah my concern is the setback currently is uh the requirement is 20 ft your porch is 16 and 3/4 so I think that PCH would end up being like 2 feet wide if you're going to conform so we don't have a measurement for this new porch we don't know what the new porch is going to be but if you're saying it's going to comply it must be 20 ft from your our right of way you know Mr chairman I was unaware being surve it shows where this St are right now sure we we all have a survey in the package and it identifies this was just brought up listen I did not know anything about this or it would have been in my presentation until I got the engineer the reason why I have you on first I understand we met at this is the only thing this is the only thing I had now the enclosed porch P there yes we all see the and got the long his from the cut back a lot he's cut back a good chunk of it so it's 23 it's got to be 20 you're probably right it won't match it could be three foot wide actually this says here's the deal so if we approve something tonight it's going to have some dimensions on it I understand if those Dimensions don't conform to what you do you got to come back here I understand that okay I that so let's make a decision on what you want to do okay I want to move forward he's got to move forward on this this says 23 point the survey says it's 2326 from the actual enclosed porch am I correct the survey so that's to the front of the house is 23 correct so we have three 3.26 with am I right oh yes yes so is that what you want for a front porch yeah because it's just going to be yes or no is good yes because it's going to be enough just to have a flat spot before the steps go down to the right which is to the garage the dve what you just said is going to be in the resolution what we want to know in the resolution is it going to be what Fred said 3.2 3.02 3.02 so my concern is if there's a 36 in door on the front of the building it's I don't know what kind of porch it is but I just want to make sure you're aware of that so it's just going to be a landing is what we want to put okay it's a landing for steps to go down they're going to comply so the set back to the porch would have to be 20 ft okay so so you're going to have a compliance to what is required not variance yes okay yes I don't need to add any more than we have already why don't you to continue with the engineer report sure I'll go through this uh relatively quickly as I said the when we met with the applicant at site plan as you can tell from sketch if you have it the garage is three times larger than the footprint of the home so it's still an accessory structure the and I'll go to my first item in my letter the first item in the letter is a garage or an accessory structure the maximum size can be 768 Square ft currently this is 3,375 squ Ft so it's quite a bit over the applicant had agreed to take for lack of better terms a third of the building off because when you go out to the site it was peace meal you can see where all these little additions were made over the years so they're proposing to remove 29 plus feet which would reduce the size of the building to 2316 Square ft where 768 is permitted so essentially three times the size of what is permitted so that's the first variance that would be required some confusion on the portion that was being removed you are taking the footings and the foundation out concrete slab cor that is another quote from the I found that out this evening U so that that's a good item the next item we can deal with is the 50% that's permitted now that they're taking that concrete slab out I'm not concerned I'm not asking for that calculation so that item can go away the next item is the front yard set fact 20 ft whereas we just spoke for five or 10 minutes that's no longer going to be a variance issue you're going to conform and it'll make sure it's 20 ft for setback uh item number four is the side yard setback our ordinance for an accessory structure we're not going to speak about the house anymore it's the accessory structure which is you know much larger than the house an accessory structure requires a 5 foot side yard setback the appin is not I'm not saying proposing existing is 1.15 ft so it's like 13 14 in um so a Varan is obviously required for that accessory structure my concern is how do you maintain that narrow area I mean you turn your body and your going to rub the fence in the back and building in the front so I think just some testimony on how you're going to provide maintenance construction painting whatever you're planning on doing and what that surface will be that's only one foot wide you can't get a lawn mower so I just want to hear testimony from how you're treating that but the concern here though is that the applicant is is flipping the home so anything he says that he's going to do right he could propose a surface material stone or something along that line that would remain with the home fabric with the stone or those goose egg stones or something that would make it a maintenance free well nothing's maintenance free but less intensive maintenance so I just wanted to hear some testimony on that if if the board's concerned if you're not concerned with it we can are concerned okay the F yeah put fa and there's a pretty aggressive dog little one up cut okay yeah you can tell me yeah yeah he he's he's on board with doing exactly you said with the fabric and the stone that SES you can't get a mower in there to cuton it and that would leave it maintenance free as long as that's maintained I had another suggestion too if people are a little bit overwhelmed and worried about future use of this for something that they don't want he's open to a deed restriction well we're coming to that right now we're on the engineer okay that'll be in the engineer report also okay uh so we went through the side yard setback the next variance is a rear yard setback again not for the build not for the house but for this accessory structure or garage our ordinance requires a 10-ft setback where they they have 2.36 ft again on that I'm going to ask for the same testimony uh The Neighbors in the back have a vinyl privacy fence and the setback is 2.36 ft yes just confirming that so again how are you going to treat that area here we're a little wider you know not not this we have we have this but that much yeah uh you okay with the stone in the fabric for the back too yeah yeah okay fine okay all right the so that that addresses those variants portion of the accessory structure this was the item there the foundation was shown to remain and the footing for the portion of the building that was being removed that's no longer proposed correct just to verify yes that's coming in okay um and I recommend here John getting to as a condition of any approval if you're going to Grant an approval that the resolution clearly state that this building cannot be utilized for any other use than a garage or play area for children or something specifically stating that it will not be a business and it will not be used as a residence of any of any kind and initially you heard there were three bathrooms in here so now we have one correct so one there will only be one bathroom Okay so again the intended use is just for a garage correct no business no housing okay cu still will be a second story portion it's not large how many square feet is the second floor 700 is three uh 32 3 yeah 323 it's only 300 square feet okay 300 okay um the last thing I think it's the last thing is that currently this little lot consists of three smaller Lots so I would ask that these be Consolidated so we have one lot on the record going forward for our tax assessor and actually for whoever own the lot currently it's lot 14 15 and 16 you would apply or or speak with the tax assessor and she would give you what the proper Lot number would be she may assign 14.01 I don't know but you would have to do that as part of the deed of consolidation so that you got more work and have a legal discal new legal okay okay Mr chairman that's all I have the biggest question of the engineer report from anyone it pretty much covered every question I was going to ask see that he knew that he was cheating he uh this side any questions comments concerns from Engineers report Bill no I do have one more thing just at the end I always say Outside Agency so the Fire official I always say everything is with the Fire official if this was built without permits back in the day I don't know construction official or Fire official should certainly be involved as a condition of any approval that's all I have okay I'm going to open up this application to the general public is there anyone in the general public who would like to speak for or against this application see no takers I'm close the public portion of the meeting come back to the board members and ask them if they have any questions comments or concerns um you said this is a flip so does he you currently own it now yeah okay so it's not in the process of you being purchased you own it and now you got to resell it yeah okay he's a local he resides in town he's kind of known around as doing nice flips he has a good reputation if anybody wants to check around he has a he's not one of those guys Robert do you want to go over the variances should there be a motion to approve it well I hope I got them more uh one is for a 2,316 square foot detached garage uh the requirement is 7 68 so he needs a variance for that uh number two he is going to make sure that the front yard setback complies with the 20 foot setback requirement uh the existing side yard setback is 1.15 ft uh and the requirement is five am I right about that for that's correct that's for the assess for that uh and and what they're going to do as a part of that resolution is they're going to provide a maintenance free um covering for that area and uh he needs a rear yard setback variance the requirement is 10 feet he's got 2.26 feet and he'll have a stone surface 2.36 yes you 3ar um and the condition that the garage will not be used for any business or residential purpose and of course he has to comply with any other agencies having jurisdiction and he will be required to consolidate the three lots into one by deed the deed will have to be approved by me and by the engineer right do we have to have anything in there about the concrete pad being removed or uh testimony was provided that is being removed including the foundation for the portion of the building that's being removed Robert their testimony was that they're going to remove that we going put that in the resolution okay those being the variances and the conditions is there a motion I'll make that motion okay Mr zadnik makes a motion is there a second I second second at L roll call please sarak kiski approve be approve Laur Ki approve B JGA approved Jo morer she can I'm sorry Mariam babich approved Lou Valentino approved John jard approved Karen R approved chairman G approved thank you very much we'll get out of your way did did you have somebody in there for Joanne Jo did you put one of the alternates in for Joan excuse there should be seven votes okay got seven votes yeah okay all right thank you we'll get out of your way thank you very much thank you so much appreciate all the Insight you gave us at the uh site plan it was very very helpful thank you thank you okay thank you for your patience new business 2816 Route 73 North lock 18903 Lots 5 and 5.02 Kathy Herring psng permitting specialist for application zba 24-13 Zone Business Development BD existing use existing electrical substation and bacon land propos use Maple Shade 69k substation expansion application preliminary and final site plan use variance and bulk variance approval please step forward uh good evening chairman Joe PaPeRo from porio Bromberg and Newman on behalf of psng um we are here tonight for preliminary and final site plan approval uh use variance and related variance approvals for the expansion of the existing electric substation uh located at 286-288 Route uh 73 North that's block 189.390 uh chairman and board members is just give a very brief overview of the nature of the application the relief that we're seeking why we're before this board uh and then turn it over to the project manager from psng that'll walk you through uh the existing uh substation facility and the proposed upgrades and then equipment uh changes part of your introduction let's go through the completeness absolutely yes we do that um why don't we start there that's a good segue uh we did receive uh Mr Turk's report dated December 6 2024 uh in that report on page Pages uh three and four you'll note that there are some submission waivers that we are requesting uh Mr Turk has uh done an excellent job in identifying those for your benefit and uh we'd like to go through those and provide our explanation and justification as to why we're seeking uh that relief from those submission requirements um again utilizing Mr Turk's letter uh Roman numeral number two I normally ask people to move forward tonight could you step back sure absolutely echoing okay no problem um Roman numeral number two uh item number one uh you'll note that we are seeking a waiver from the size of the plans the dimensions uh PS andg uh that away uh typically um due to the detail of the level of detail with the electrical equipment they use utilize larger sheets um Mr Turk I know has reviewed other PNG plans for other municipalities that's a standard uh item for psng the plans are slightly larger than Mr chairman it's very common it's with every PSG application there's various size sheets in their packet and other than it being inconvenient everything is fine as far as reviewing it you know so we can move on we can move on waiver would be recommended yes uh item number four um we did submit um let me me back up item number four is a request by your code to depict all easements uh there is actually a cross access easement that's shared by our neighbor uh that's the Mavis Tire that is depicted on the plan in the upper I believe it's leftand corner but I'll I'll let the uh engineer point that out but the existing cross access easement on this site is depicted on the plan and they have provided that information to us Mr chairman so we're okay with that we can move on uh number 13 Dimensions from all property lines Corner elevations for proposed buildings and structures uh again this one due to the nature of the equipment and the structures that are on this site for a substation um in order to provide all those Dimensions the plan would be essentially illegible uh there's multiple types of equipment that are technically structures uh and again to provide Dimensions to setback uh to the property lines for all of those equipment in those structures it would be very difficult for the board to read and Mr chairman I would agree there would be dimension lines everywhere with setbacks maybe several hundred on this plan you couldn't even read the plan so we we have enough information that we can see the setbacks of the general facility with regard to the surrounding properties and I'm okay with that okay we move on thank you uh number 15 the location arrangement of all parking and loading areas this one as you'll hear tonight in our operational testimony we're seeking the uh submission waiver because there essentially is no parking um the facility is unmanned when it's visited by a staff member as you'll hear from psng tonight uh it's by one van um and that van would usually stage or Park temporarily in the drive aisle on site so there's essentially no need for a designated parking lot for this type of facility um again we would ask uh that you grant that waiver you're you're going to hear later on our presentation exactly the frequency of the vehicles coming to the site it's very infrequent uh and it's limited to only one van I think it's once a week for a routine inspection okay Joe could you also tie that into 16 because they're they're both one and the same yes thank you br uh 16 is a requirement that on our plans we provide you with a calculation for allal parking when it's required and proposed as you've heard there is no parking proposed there's a on-site driveway that's used as a staging area for the one van um your code does not have a specific parking requirement for utility structures and substations so we did not provide that information we're confident that you'll be comfortable when you hear the testimony tonight to realize that there is no uh parking concerns for this type of facility that's so recommendation would be that 15 and 16 would be waved subject to the testimony that be provided tonight and it's further in our letter we go through this uh item number 17 um speaks to a requirement uh to provide uh curb sidewalk uh and walkways uh these are site details there are no such features on this site there is later on in Mr Turk's letter um a recommendation that's a code requirement to provide sidewalks along the frontage in the public right way we've had an opportunity to speak to Mr Turk about that comment and we're prepared this evening to discuss that and in more detail however this submission requirement deals solely with showing those types of features that are on the site this is a substation there are no walkways there are no parking areas sidewalks or anything of the like so we're asking for a waiver to show a detail that essentially and again a waiver would be recommended for completeness but this is the concrete that's within the facility not the concrete that would be the in front of it it would be both so we will part for that for completeness determination okay not for site plan approv uh item number 28 uh is a requirement similar to the item that we talked about before about providing information about existing easements on the property this one actually wants to physical documentation of those easements um a very lengthy title report was sent into the town um it may not have made its way to Mr tur we're happy to provide him as a condition of approval with the actual easement documents that are part of our title that's fine so they will provide if they happen already Yes uh item number 29 is a um requirement that we disclose any prior approvals um we did have an opportunity to make an open public records act request to the clerk of May shade uh the clerk did provide some approvals um and I believe um I'll double check but uh we made the request to the clerk and I think that we did receive a response so um we're happy to supply whatever we receive from the clerk of Maple Shade we can provide Mr Turk as a condition of approval okay and the purpose purpose is that for the board to understand there may have been a requirement at their past application for a I'm just going to say 50 foot buffer and it may have never been installed so we want to see if there are things that could be outstanding uh that have not been installed that may impact this application so I I'll get a copy of it if there's anything that's pending or I I don't see that potentially with this site but um I obviously would bring it up and make it a condition or Mr kingsberry maybe write the resolution that would be condition of anything you recommend to see so let me get that straight it's going to be a condition of the approval of any approval and who's going to look into that you I would yes okay thank you uh number 31 um like every applicant we're required to demonstrate that all the taxes on the property are current at the time the application was filed we did submit one and may be outdated now that we're into a different quarter for tax purposes so we're happy to supply um Mr Turk with an updated tax uh certificate one was included way back when we filed we just didn't we just haven't updated it since we filed with the town so we could Supply that as you know we have no objection to demonstrating that all the taxes are corre current okay that was number 31 and then on the top of page four item 33 um certainly I I think the uh it looks like Mr Turk agrees that a waiver recommended this is a requirement that we give you give the township uh and the board copies of all approvals from other agencies uh this is the first agency that we're seeking approval for as we proceed if we're fortunate to be approved this evening or from this board we would Supply the town in Mr tur's office with copies of any other approval for instance the NJ do this is on the state highway you'll notice Mr Turk identified the need to have some discussions with that agency we will copy the town and Mr Turk on all of those Communications okay uh and then finally 34 uh there's a request in the code to provide a copy of a phase one environmental assessment so this one we're sort of looking for a partial waiver um we actually did Supply a phase one assessment for the recently purchased property adjacent to the existing facility where we're looking to expand and that phase one was not only supplied to the town but we received a report uh from your environmental consultant that basically paraphrasing there was no issues with what was discovered in the phase one what we haven't supplied is a phase one for the existing substation that's been here for many many years um again it's an existing facility there's no new environmental uh investigation being done that substation been in town at this location for many many years so we're asking not to have to go back and provide a phase one for the existing facility we did provide a phase one for the new property that was acquired to expand this facility I would just ask are you planning to move remove any material from the existing substation Material off the site so we will have can't swear you in first I'm sorry why don't you whisper me we yes anything that's removed will be tested and those copies of the reports will be provided to you and Mr chairman uh the attorney referenced a a letter from ER dated November 27th 2024 the Township's environmental professional had reviewed this Mark sealover so I do have a copy of it and he identifies that everything is in so you're good with that I am good with that sir yes and chairman board members that's the list of uh waivers from their checklist requirements that we asked uh for relief from um we would respectfully request that those waivers be granted so that we can proceed to the merits of the application okay Joe just a moment this is a new area for the board to have this checked done brought about by phas so what I want to do is ask any board members do they have any questions on what was done or what was said pretty job as usual yes you good all right Jo thank you chairman it okay appreciate that so now that we've been officially deemed complete we're uh in a position now to proceed with the merits of the application um very briefly uh this again is an expansion of an existing substation uh in the town of Maple Shade and the zoning of the property it's technically located in a Redevelopment uh Zone that is uh known as the route 3873 Lenola Road Redevelopment area that Redevelopment plan that was adopted by the township for this site and other sites um allows an applicant to either proceed under the Redevelopment requirements or under the underlying zoning psdg is not a redeveloper um they're an owner of this substation looking to make some improvements we are not proceeding as a redeveloper we are proceeding under the underlying zoning that's still in place for this site which is the BD Zone the business District zone um that business District zone uh however does not permit utility uh substations over I think it's 5,000 square ft uh so this proposal would be an expansion of that non-conforming use which requires D2 use variants relief from this board that's the reason why we are before you and you have jurisdiction this is under the municipal land use law technically an expansion of a non-conforming use as you'll hear this evening there are uh significant uh public benefits from this project uh PSG uh will go through great detail about the needs to upgrade this facility the benefits to the community the number of Maple Shade customers that are serviced uh with their electrical power through this facility so um our position this evening you'll hear from our planner is that the statutory criteria that you need to hear uh in support of that use variance is clearly demonstrated um due to the public benefits I would note you'll hear from our planner at the end of the evening uh in the courts of New Jersey have recognized that public utility for providers are an inherently beneficial use um the significance of that means that it presumptively satisfies the positive criteria of the statute and we have to uh demonstrate that there's no negative attributes of this and you'll again hear from our planner uh to that um there are some ancillary variances again Mr Turk did an excellent job laying those out for you we will go through this letter we will hit all the ancillary variances that we're requesting in addition to that D2 use variance um I appreciate the time to go through the uh initial discussion uh and before I call the first witness the last thing I'll mention is that throughout this process we've had a very good relationship a collaborative effort with the township of Maple Shade we actually participated in two sprb meetings which is your site plan review Advisory Board um the reason why the plans you have before you are so refined is due to that board's involvement the feedback they provided throughout the process not just at one but two sprad meetings um again we look at uh land use and and this process as a collaborative effort with the municipality and we were fortunate that we received both from Fred and the sprb committee uh that helpful feedback So the plan that you have before you everything from landscaping and the like really takes into consideration and incorporates that feedback that we received over the last couple of months so just very briefly if you could explain to the board where you started just in a few words where you started to where you are now sure um one of the initial plans that was submitted the initial plan that was submitted to the township um had the substation oriented the expansion oriented closer to Route 73 um that was just sort of the more um logical from a uh utility infrastructure perspective again this is an existing station PSC needs to be mindful of all the infrastructure that's in place already so that initial design had all the improvements sort of pushed forward to Route 73 we realized pretty clearly from the sprb that that wasn't the most desirable configuration and we went back to the drawing so to speak and and took that those that feedback into consideration and reconfigured and what you have before you is that reconfiguration uh really the most important benefit for the Township from doing that is you'll see on the plans and you'll see in the renderings tonight significant Landscaping that we were able to replace and put up front so those traveling on Route 73 now are not going to see the facility as close to the the property I'm the property line the right away you're going to see this uh very robust Landscaping plan that we've come up with again with the help of Mr Turk and the sprad board uh throughout this process Joe was the first time I heard the board referred to as spr okay I yeah I we abbreviate everything I would not how to pronounce that AC except hearing it from you and I would add that the collaborativeness was also the part of PNG thank you uh I know that you took the rejection that we first gave you and uh pretty seriously and and the plan you came back with is marketly improved thank you chairman appreciate that so without any further discussion I'd like to call Joseph graph he is the project manager from psng he's been instrumental in again taking those comments and that feedback to heart back to the company and coming up with the latest design that you have before you this evening um so Mr graph we're going to have to swear you in before we can begin could you spell your last name please uh gra g r aor say it again uh g r g g r a f Okay g r a f four letters uh yes four letters okay and your first name Joe Joe do you swear or affirm that testimon you give tonight will be the truth all truth nothing but a truth yes I do thank you Mr graph uh for the benefit of the board in public can you provide uh your position with psng and how long you've been affiliated with the company I'm want to interrupt her for one second second uh you have a lot of testimony coming and I don't want the board members to wait until the end and then ask the question so I'm going to let them know that upon hearing anything that's presented if you have a question just chime in and ask okay sorry that's okay your a position with the company and how long you've been Affiliated uh yes I'm a project manager with psng um I've worked with the company for roughly 12 years and you're familiar with the Maple Shade site existing substation yes absolutely I mentioned just briefly in my overview that this is an expansion of the existing substation and there's equipment upgrades and the like uh that are being presented can you give a bit more detail as to the need for this upgrade and and what really it involves yeah um just a brief background on Maple Shade substation um it is an existing 69 to 13 KV substation it currently provides power to roughly 18,000 residents businesses in the area um 7,600 of which are Maple Shade residents so this substation is very important to this town um so F the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission um they are the federal oversight um committee that um ensures that Public Utilities like PS and are maintaining the level of services required and that we maintain um minimal amount of Standards um FK runs studies on the grid on on a regular basis under one of these s studies they um cited that the Maple Shade substation was actually in a FK 715 violation um this specific violation is a under voltage violation and they identified um several instances um which if they have occurred Maple Shade substation um would have dropped their um voltage to outside the required limits um which would result in power outages for the residents um so with that information psng is mandated to perform upgrades to Maple Shade substation in order to become compliant with those studies so I know you have we have a number of exhibits this evening um to give the board I'm sure everyone's well familiar with this substation on Route 73 but uh can we go to maybe the aerial uh to assist you with identifying how the site currently is configured and where on the site the improvements or the expansion is going to be uh you know installed yeah okay we're going to get some we're going to present some exhibits in a second okay so this is what we'll mark and before you test if I we need to Mark these this will be exhibit A1 um I'll mark the board um as well CH we almost completed passing this out just give us a moment sure okay thank you uh Joe on exhibit A1 uh we it's an aerial that was prepared in preparation for this evening correct yes that's correct do you want to do you want to use that or do you want to copy to walk the the board and the public through the uh what's depicted in red it's outlined in red or can you do it from here yeah I think I can do it from here um it's pretty you need a copy of this um no I can see it um so it's pretty easy to understand um so to the left you have Route 73 just to describe where the the substation is um in Cas you're not aware um to the north that big building that you see that is the Lowe's um the property line actually backs up to the back of the lows we have that small building um to the upper left which is a little closer to you as you're turning you're um yeah turn you have the uh small building in the upper left of the property that is the Mavis autoare and the pillows is the building directly to the bottom of the substation property um you see that area just above the bows which is that large um vacant parking lot area that is actually psng property we purchased that um a number of years ago with the intent that if we needed to expanded station we could um there was a building there that has since been demolished um that red area on the screen including the wooded area off to the top right of the site um that is all psng property um going down right up to the Billows and obvious what lot did you just purchase that's a Jason is it where the trees are or this building with the Red Roof yeah 9.01 9.01 Joe you can take this microphone with you I I think the longer on that oneus the one you're strl so this building in this is the lot in here that was previously purchased by PS um which was roughly 3 years ago I believe um fortunately I was not involved in that property purchase okay um so obviously you can see the existing Maple Shade substation right here um it is a little bit smaller on the footprint I do want to note that with this expansion of substation the vast majority of this substation is going to remain um the three primary Transformers here and the switch gear here as well as the control house are all going to remain at the end of this project I think we so where is the expansion going to be um I think we have we'll go to the next exhibit we have a site plan that we can it'll show where the expansion is going yep good seg together [Applause] what's coming around we we'll mark As exhibit A2 and and Joe while that's coming around to all the board members exhibit A2 is a mounted version of the site plan that was submitted to the board correct that's correct okay I assume the same sheet was in the package what yeah it isect and Joe for the benefit of the question that was asked by the board member where the expansion is versus the existing maybe you can toggle between the aerial and A1 and the site plan A2 to show the how the facility is expanding into the uh bacon area excuse me so actually if you look at this just a a point of reference between the site plan drawing and the aerial view um this is the switch gear um that we're going to be referring to and these are the three Transformers um here is the three Transformer foundations on the site plan drawings um the switch gear foundations are back here um so when you are looking at the site plan drawing that was handed out um everything in this area and to the north is existing substation so the proposed expansion of the 69 KV substation is down in this area here um going on to this slot um partially to roughly this point here when you say this point here just for the record can you use north south east west or can you use some orientation yes um going down to this area southeast of the um property line Joe utilizing A2 uh now that you've identified the where the expansion is going to occur on site can you just speak again in generalities we don't need like electrical engineering testimony but uh in generalities the type of equipment that's being introduced and what does that mean for capacity and reliability y um so to as we had talked about before the FK 715 violation that this project is um going to resolve um we would be installing and what do refer to a seven breaker ring bus configuration um what that pretty much consists of is seven large 69,000 volt Breakers um Associated disconnects and switches and they would all be in this area right here um it's referred to as a ring bus configuration because it goes in a big circle um that gives us the amount of reliability that we need in the system um to deal with any faults in the line um as you can see just kind of going through here um the existing um the existing access and the future access proposed access station will remain the same um we do have an Access Road off a Willow Road that is going to maintain constant we are showing a emergency exit Road here going out to 73 and I do want to make that clear that that is only going to be used as an emergency exit that is not going to be used for primary entrance or primary um exit from the station and that's going to be um signed as such within the station to ensure that no Personnel use that um Joe what will happen with the existing driveway it's further to the this existing driveway here um so actually and you might get a better view on the landscape plan um the existing driveway and this existing paved area um that we are not going to be utilizing Within station that is all going to be um be demoed and it's all going to turn into a landscaped sorry Joe in addition to the uh equipment that you've just spoken about uh there's also you mentioned there's an existing control house and there's a new control house uh can you just speak to those uses um what they are currently and what they are for the future yes um so we do have two control houses in the future configuration um we have an existing control house now um the control House of of a substation um is really just an enclosure that houses a lot of the um the relays I I would say the electronic brain of the substation all the equipment within the substation um we want wirs to the control house and the control house controls the operation gives us all the readings that we need um with this expansion we are going to be installing a lot of new components which is why we need to install a second control house the second control house is shown um right here um the for reference the existing control house is shown right here um the existing control house is still going to remain at the end of the project um because as we can see there's still going to be those Transformers there's still going to be electrical components that is going to remain after the completion of the project um so all of the relays and all the electronics Associated that will still be housed in the old control house in my overview and when we went through the submission waiver request we talked a little bit about parking and and driveways can you speak in more detail to uh the operational needs for parking the frequency of visits to the site by psng Personnel the types of vehicles that will be accessing the site on a weekly basis in the Life yep absolutely um so access to the substation is going to be um very very similar to what you see now um the station is currently an active substation um with the expansion we're not going to see any more or less traffic in and out of the site um currently you can anticipate one to two um vehicles on a week entering the site um these are typically psng Vans um they might be um psng pickup trucks um what is going on there is we have mechanics and we have uh relay Texs which are entering the substation um basically they're performing visual inspections of the equipment taking readings ensuring that everything is working um in good working order when they enter a site they will be parking on the access road here um right in front of the substation um it's fairly common that's their the control house is the um first thing that they need to enter when they enter the site it's the last thing that they have to leave um in the event that we do have a situation where we have to perform more maintenance on site um we will bring in Crews we will bring in equipment but there uh is plenty of room on the site to allow for parking off the drive Road off the drive way um for all Personnel coming on site for any type of Maintenance activities um what else do we have uh the one thing to know um this facility um is also probably going to be utilized uh just due to its location as kind of a um a prep area during storm um and during high wind events when we expect to have storms we are typically going to have psng Personnel waiting at the substation to see if anything you know kind of comes up goes wrong um they are the first person that we're going to call if anything happens within the substation or any nearby areas that need to be checked out um so that is a little bit of additional traffic um but that is currently what the station is being used for right now and Joe you're saying that all of that traffic whether it's the emergency or whether it's the common maintenance would be contained on the roadways within the facility yep that's correct who are the two uh neighboring properties to the sale um I know that this is the Billows I don't bows yeah yeah it's and is on who is it who next to bows going going sou well then yeah then the old used to be like the old um Roy Rogers was there that old building Joe I have a question many them I see on that particular lot uh PNG trucks those who service the poles and the lines I see more than five trucks many times at the property is that the situation will continue over there or so that situation will not continue um that is with a different group of PSG but I do know that they have been utilizing um this area in here as kind of a pole lot um a kind of a lay down area um they have some other work going on in the area um obviously once this project is done and we remediate that area we're no longer going to have room for lay down for those trues how will you restrict that the the development will be there correct no how will how will you restrict the any new trucks the PSG trucks they come they park for a few hours sometimes overnight for for using as the lay down a well the the physical space um to install the equipment in the lay down area that's being utilized right now by some division Personnel is not going to be there that's going to be demolished at the end of the project and that's going to be turned into grass and um Landscaping as a condition of approval could you certify that there will be no more storage of any materials on site other than something that's coming for this site no no utility polls no yeah no storage of materials going to some other location yeah um I think we can do that yes okay yeah all you hesitate don't say it if you don't want to say it no no no it's it's not just um I I just want to make sure that before I say something um I'm speaking upon upon the projects and I want to make sure that it's something that I can um ensure that the divisions are going to maintain too but like I said I from what I hear is that there's some general stories there now there is some general stories and there asking that that General stor not continue yep and we can do that okay how long would this construction take so construction of this site is actually going to be um fairly complicated um I would assume that the construction is going to be roughly a year and a half to two years um and I want to be clear um when I say that that this is going to be phase construction um the active substation needs to maintain active um during construction and in order to do that um we are going to have to do a certain phase construction um I anticipate roughly 7 to eight months of I I would say more intense Construction Construction is what we're used to a lot of civil um then we're going to be in a lot of electrical but along with that um with that phase construction we're going to be in months of testing and commissioning um during that construction time with testing and commissioning um we're going to have increased Personnel on site but you're not going to see you know excavators moving you're not going to see large construction activities you're going to have a lot of guys on site running wiring um and then like I said we do have a phase construction um so the most of the work is going to be happen up front um we also have to account for some are not outage periods that we aren't going to be allowed to work on site for roughly there seasonal restrictions yeah so we do have seasonal restrictions so there are going to be times in that 2-year period where we are going to leave the site for you know months on the time then come back um and then we're going to have a little bit more construction activities kind of go away again and come back um but the construction off this site is is is fairly complicated well during and after construction what effects will this have on the surrounding businesses so um during construction and you know don't really want to sugarcoat it we are going to have an active site we are going to have backup alarms on equipment we are going to have increased Personnel to site um all of the construction personnel and this is actually a good point so we do have construction trailers which are going to be placed off a Willow Road all of the traffic for um the personal vehicles is going to be off a Willow Road we will not allow anybody to access Route 73 um you know for their personal vehicles um no parking will be street parking all the parking is going to be on on um on the property so with the with the exception of the impacts of the daytime noise that we're going to have and psng will perform all of our construction activities in accord with Township standards um we do not anticipate any any long construction act um hours right now but uh with the impact with the excuse me except for the the noise that we're going to have in traffic um noise that we're going to have in construction we don't really anticipate that much extra traffic or huge impacts to any of the surrounding residents are there any Residential Properties around the construction area no and I there are no Residential Properties and I believe um when we did the the letter there was when we did the you're familiar with that area I don't remember any res there is one right here it was a property that was owned by the landscape company and it's a it is a rental uh there are some residents for little children I think there okay and there are they required to notify them or uh they would have been notified yes they would have okay certainly U go ahead no I finish it seems like all your uh new construction is going to be within the same space as the substation now so you purchased this adjacent lot what are your plans for that so um we don't have any plans for the adjacent lot um when that property was purchased and as Joe had mentioned at the beginning um the actual scope of work for this substation expansion was previously much more expansive in which we were utilizing that entirety of that lot um once we received feedback at the board we did go back um we spent a lot of time in engineering and uh this was what we thought was the best option um for us that allowed psng to continue to provide the service that we need to and allow for the frontage um and the Landscaping so we don't have any plans for that area in the future um and that's all going to be turned into landscaping and there's I think there's still a building on there isn't there or did they knock that no that uh that building was demolished how many employees will you have during the construction on site um employees during uh site um I would anticipate and this is um this is at Peak of construction um probably between 17 to 20 um employees on site um and like I said that is with all three of our groups on site that's civil that's electrical or relay guys um it it will more than likely be be less than 10 employees on site um for the majority of the construction will the construction equipment or delivery equipment have any impact on Route 73 no um so we don't intend to use Route 73 for any equipment deliveries um we have an active Sub Station there we have been able to utilize Willow for all of the deliveries that we need to um to maintain that substation I don't see a reason why that's going to change um um in the unlikely event that we do need to utilize Route 73 um and this would be just for the delivery of um major material um and like I said I don't anticipate this being being an issue um but we will communicate that to the town and we will make sure we have all traffic control measures in place for those deliveries and at the he of construction when you said there may be 17 to 20 guys on like there's more than adequate parking for them to be I it looks like there is to me yeah between these these access roads coming up here and here there's a there's a lot of adequate parking um so I know we do need space for material lay down we are planning on utilizing this parking area for material lay down during construction um and again once we get done with the with construction we can it seems like you got plenty of Joe Willow Road is kind of tight especially with produ Junction and all that traffic what size vehicles are delivering your materials um uh we would typically use and I'm I'm trying to remember the the Stak body um vehicles for a lot of our material um roughly 20 foot um we do have certain deliveries that will need to uh come in on larger tractor trailers and you know we have the control hous just coming in we do have um you may have to control the timing of that because of that traffic on Well Road and and that's something that we we absolutely do um and typically just with projects I'm involved with um when we have any larger pieces of equipment coming in or larger deliveries we usually communicate that back to Township we notify the residents in the area um the businesses in the area but yeah we we we have definitely picked times of days when we anticipate um whether it's first thing in the morning or in the middle of the day when traffic's a little bit lighter to have those deliveries yeah you said that you're not going to park on the street but if you look at Willer Road a lot of people Park on so it's very tight yeah yeah Joe can you speak a little bit about sight lighting is there any anticipated changes um the result of this expansion and what's happening now and what's happening what will happen in the future regarding sight lighting and how the lighting Works what lights are on permanently motion sensors like all that just to get an idea um um So currently the the substation is kind of working off of outdated standards um we have lights that are on um and this is the existing substation here um all the time um this area is going to be lit up we do have a lighting plan that was submitted um it's going to be utilizing both upward light upward facing lightings and downward facing lightings um those upward face facing lights are task lighting um they're going to be on the switch in the control house they are only going to be turned on when we were performing switching activities or emergency nighttime maintenance in the yard um PNG does not like to perform emergency maintenance at night so it is not that often that that is utilized um however in the event that somebody does leave the substation with those upward lighting lights on um they are on the 90minut timer so if we do have somebody in the yard and they are doing switching activities and they forget to switch that light they will turn off automatically um that is a a little s safe that we have in um we are going to have we are proposing downward facing lightings which light up um the substation with our new standards um the new standards are on motion detectors so they will not be lit until somebody enters the yard um psng vehicle drives in the yard lighting will go out um when this when the the station is not being occupied those lights will drop down to a light level of 10% they're maximum um and that light is just enough for psng personnel to be able to look through the fence get an idea what's in the substation basically give us a chance to look for hazards before we go in the middle of night um but is typically not enough to um cause any issues with the neighbors um we try to have our substations kind of blend into the background the best we can in addition to lighting what other security do you have yep do you have video do you have video video security so um I mean it is an active substation we take our our security very seriously um we will have uh security cameras installed on site um the exact placement of security St uh cameras we're still waiting on corporate security to tell us um but typically um we have security cameras um which give us a 360 view degree view of the substation we also have security cameras at all of the entrances and access to the substation those cameras are linked um directly up to Newark or security group up in Nork um if they get a motion sensor hit within the substation and they do not have record of psng Personnel in there um it kind of flags it their system they can open it up see if anybody's in um and decide you know if we need to alert the authorities what we need to do at that point um in addition to the um in addition to the uh camera upgrades that the new substations have we were also um upgrading our fencing security um so we're we're proposing a 8 fo 8 in high anti antil climb fence um PG refers to as enhanced security fence um pretty much what it is is it's a fence with um small webbing that's designed to be um impossible or nearly impossible to climb um and it's very very hard to cut through um so we do have security measures on site to um to sever the substation but we also are are are making sure that we can do what we can to try to keep people out who should not be in why 8 foot not six um we typically use 6 foot with a with a foot of barb wire on top of that um it was one of the um the feedback that we had that um barb wire was not something that Maple Shade wanted um so we we raised the height to 8 fo 8 in and um in order to get corporate security to agree for me to remove the barb wire I had to go with the da8 insurance okay are there Personnel 24 hours o um there are not Personnel 24 hours um around o'clock within the substation um within nor corporate security absolutely um so we do have people who remotely monitor the site all the time um in addition to security cameras we also have um thermac cameras which are set up the vi your equipment to look for hotpots um so the site is is monitored heavily um but it is monitored remotely will there be any potential disruption in service during construction no I know that was one of the um things when I said we had to do to phased in service um we have a construction plan which is currently developed um so that when we take out one piece of equipment um to tie into the existing substation we have a redundancy buildin um so we will be factoring that in our on our construction plan uh Joe we've had an opportunity to go through U Mr tur's letter in great detail um in preparation for tonight I think your testimony your direct testimony has hit a number of Mr Turk's operational questions that the board may have if there's anything else operationally uh Fred that we missed please by all means let us know but I think we hit the items that out the circled as far as operational regarding the vehicles and the like we do have other Witnesses um to testify I guess just one more thing it would be the Emergency Services I know your engineer will probably speak to the circulation pattern but how our fires or how our emergencies handled here do do fire departments even come in here without without you or how was this handle yeah so um when it comes to PSG substations um we are the First Responders um First Responders do not enter PSG substation without a PSG personnel there um that goes with uh police that goes with fires that goes with um with ambulance lces um if they do need to enter the site they are escorted by psng Personnel um honestly if First Responders are called out to a substation um they need somebody there as the substation is probably in a um um in a situation that you don't want to go into unless you know what you're looking at kind of thing but are there signs on the on the fence or the gate that say that so there are not without Personnel we we typically don't put signs on the fence gate it's definitely something that what we that we can do um but one of the things that we definitely do is is I personally when we are approaching or in service date before any of the equipment is energized um we reach out to Township we reach out to the police chief um fire departments anybody who wants to come and you know I mean really anybody from the township um walk through the substation we can give them a little bit of training a little bit of Hazard recognition um and we can talk about with them you know hey when you show up this site here's here's what you can expect that should be mandatory so you plan to show and tell with those yeah I mean we've I've done it on every project that I've been involved with um that's good since coming with PS what's your experience with needing to have the police or fire department come to any of your sites I have not had any experience thank god with um needing any ambulance or fire um coming to a site um police coming to the site um I have had a few instances typically during construction um and those are more generally dealing with um people stealing scrap metal um you know SE thefts that we have on site than anything else but it is your plan they was Show and Tell with the police and fire department yep absolutely that's excellent and and again I'm glad uh Mr TK raised this issue about the emergency services but as you know uh as a condition of approval could you could the team Supply uh a turning template showing that the Township fire truck could access the site safely yep yeah absolutely and um just um just to kind of speak on that all of our turning radius in the station we need to be able to access and get equipment to where it needs to go um we design our turning radiuses for a 30ft tractor trailer so with that I don't think it would be an issue um supplying that we can fit a and and turn a fire truck around in here if necessary I have to ask you a question anytime we've lost electricity it's either because of a car accident something happened or they say a squirrel got into whatever is that really true um that's a that's a really good question um a Transformer yeah yeah so typically that is true um I I live right down the road in Delan I still have a lot of family in Maple shade and second they lose power that's the first thing they call me up and say hey what happened um so uh typically that is true um a lot of traffic accidents along 73 are usually the culprate um animal um contact to our lines especially around our Transformers and c banks is is always an issue um good news is typically um animal contacts are usually pretty quick to fix um the accents are a little bit harder um but I I know and I I don't work with the operations group I don't see every outage that comes through in Maple Shade but my experience in PSG um vegetation strikes accidents and animals are are usually the top culprits chairman I have nothing further on direct for Mr grap at this time okay FR do you have anything operational uh no nothing okay Joe thank you thank you very much so um what I'd like to do now is is Pivot a little bit we talked a lot about you know the feedback that we received and and really trying to do something for the frontage along Route 73 I'd like to call up the landscape architect to show you um better than this black and white drawing what that'll look like um we do have our civil engineer here however again um we had lengthy opportunity to go through Mr Turk's comments with him we're happy to comply with any remaining questions as a condition of approval we don't necessarily think there's a lot of civil engineering testimony needed um uh but we'll defer to the board if you have any questions this is our landscape architect sir name please William D ryr R York first name was William William you swear or affirm the testimony you give tonight yes the truth all truth other the truth I do you're a landscape architect yes been so for 23 years in state of New Jersey okay and that's marked as exhibit we up to A3 A3 is a rendered version of the Landscaping plan that was submitted to the board two sheets each and there's two sheets to it three three there's three St but they're stapled together yes sorry um just let me you've been sworn um for the record can you provide your education eror expertise and the licenses you hold Mr I am a licensed landscape architect been so for 23 years in the state of New Jersey been practicing landscape architecture microphone a little closer oh sorry sometimes I talk too loud too um I've been practicing landscape architecture for 30 years I am the director of landscape architecture for Matrix New World engineering and I've been there for 11 11 a half years and your licenses are currently in good standing yes they are yes chairman I would offer have you testify before board I have yes um Newark Bon uh South planfield Paul everybody uh just with these Mr Kingsbury the exhibits would there be three exhibits or would it be considered two does this a three through A5 it's stap there's two sheets on the second exhibit I didn't know if we wanted to do that is 85 also so it's 83 through A5 there's uh two packages three exibit right and and to yes ex and we have the r site plan and we also have give us a moment to pass all oh I'm sorry well so we Mark we want them to pay attention to you and not the passing exhibit A3 um okay good okay yeah okay so before I go up and talk about that the the three exhibits that I we entered one is the actual site plan rendered landscape plan that you see there the other is what we call inspiration boards that we normally do in our trade so a lot of times people ask the question of what do these plants look like so that's so you can easily go through and see I'm not going to have a board up here but so you guys can have that for reference and please feel free to ask questions time so um the site is approximately 5.4 Acres um and um there is a wooded lot portion of the lot here that's about 1.2 acres and that's going to stay so along that W Road Frontage um there is some existing uh buffer plantings that are along this side that will be remaining we rendered them after some discussion they're there there's a hedge here there's a hedge here and there's some existing U Forest vegetation that's also here you can see it on this one I'm jumping over in that location there um may I ask you to speak up a little bit more I'm sorry I'm not is this better to hold this way that's tough holding the mic out yeah I'll do the best I can M our testimoni up or I can yell louder I guess that's my my bad so um the idea is the on the Northwestern side of this there is an access easement that uh we talked about to service I think it's the Mavis in this location um and then on the south right the southwestern portion Southeastern portion we have our Entrance Drive here which works into the new substation facility excuse me um regarding the uh 15t uh side yard setbacks I think for buffer areas we are asking for a little bit of relief R to the plantings of this location here and this location here and the only location where we do not have that 15 ft setback is this tiny little pinch point in this location it's about 9 and 1/2 ft of green space and then 12 and 1/2 ft to the fence because psng standards has a they have a stone buffer of 3 feet to the fence to keep vegetation and things like that off and out of the facility so we're asking for a little relief on these two locations and then that one little pinch point in the corner here now um most of the plantings are focused on the frontages along Route 73 and Below Road approximately 84 trees will be installed and 162 shrubs at the end of this so I'm going to go over to the route 73 quter side in order to buffer this from the route 73 Corridor we're going to put a combination of landscape BMS there are two landscape burms here and they're approximately 3 to 4 feet high and along with that we're going to put um plantings both Evergreen and deu shrubs and trees a total of I think 12 shade trees 50 evergreen trees and 108 shrubs will be going in this location here and and if I can maybe get those perspective exhibits I'm I'm speaking too softly there's there's a couple other exhibits start out well and then you drop off I'm sorry I do want if you could just point out where there are some areas where you'll see there is no Landscaping but part of our process of going through the two sprb meetings was uh that there were overhead wires that we had them Place underground so could you just show us where the underground restrictions are yes there are why there's no Landscaping there other than putting a solid wall there is an underground duck Bank in this location and there is another one in here so and you can see we provided the dash line borders where the psng can't have any plant material in there we are allowed to put in some shrubs so if you look all the shrubs that are put on this plan can grow 8 to 12T high at maturity so they're not not little shrubs um and then before we do that yeah I want to get let's stick to the the buffering so we are seeking as noted by Mr Turk we're seeking relief from the 15ot buffer requirement you've identified the the areas on the site where we just simply can't do it one has an easement the other is where the facility is being installed and then there's that small pinch Point um secondly as noted that is an existing condition right along the correct correct that's correct is that correct bill I don't want to put words in your mouth um this one this one here no that one yeah which one are you talking about the Southern Proper oh yeah it's an existing rout but it's not the existing facility there's a there's all that impervious surface right here and there is an existing access drive that's there now I have no idea what you said there is existing impervious right here and there is an existing access drive from Willow Road into this facility here and so in those areas we're just not able to tear up the easement or the access drive and put in uh additional Landscaping so we are seeking uh relief just in those specific areas the other thing bill I wanted to talk about was the shade trees along the frontage and why our Landscaping is pushed back based on some of the feedback that they got too we along with all the planting that's here it is set back from the road and that's intentionally done to allow free views of anything you know people driving up and down this road we don't want to block our neighbors signage or anything like that so that's the intent so we are looking for a little relief from putting the street trees along the road Frontage in this location on Route 7 three but based on the uh the extent and the amount of trees that are being added as a as a landscape architect do you feel that adequate mitigation and screening is being accomplished despite the fact that there's not Street trees located immediately along the frontage yes FR what do you feel feel about that I think the appan would agree to work with our office in case we go through this thing in a little more detail uh going through the individual species and so forth that they agree to work us so what I think I heard you say is that uh you do not want to put trees along the roadway because it could block the access of the turn to perhaps our ordinance requires all Street frontages to have Street trees so that is an ordinance requirement would be a variance the concern was that um putting the trees that close to the property that would actually block the commercial establishment signage um so someone traveling down 73 may not see our commercial neighbors sign and not know where that business is and psng didn't want to be a bad neighbor and block other people's commercial signage and identification um that again we'll defer to the board if the board isn't as concerned about that and would like to see the trees closer I don't think there's an objection to that I don't want to have a work session on that now but if I could have your engineer work with our engineer yep that would be the way to resolve that absolutely we'll work with them Y and there's other areas where I think Mr Turk letter suggested either a different species of plant or additional plants um we've already committed to have landscape architect a landscape architect fill in those gaps okay and someone will maintain you know sometimes shy and trees get overgrown someone will maintain it so it looks a certain way yeah Joe graph can you just speak to how PS maintains their facilities from a operational standpoint yeah so we do have a vegetation management team um they are very busy and they are very active um we utilize them a lot because we need to keep trees away from our lines but they are also involved in our substations as well um one thing to note when it comes to any Landscaping that we put on on PSG properties um we do have periods of time that are contractually obligated for you know for the next 10 years that if any of those trees or any of the Landscaping know shrubs die they will be repair uh replaced um so typically after we do landscaping on site don't be surprised if on regular basis we have Landscaping in um pesticide in trees and and taking care of what needs to happen to make sure that they live Joe regarding the the maintenance regularly cutting grass and all that we're going to see that we're not going to see grass two feet high out front of Route 73 yep yeah um we do regularly cut C uh grass we do also have Outreach Personnel um who routinely reach out the township Personnel um so um it's it's one of those collaborative things where if you notice anything please let us know we're make sure it's getting taking care of and we addressed our schedules accordingly um but we do have groups that take care of but it is cut on a regular basis every week or every two weeks yes it is cut on a regular basis um so you're looking for our feedback not on the routine things but something that was exceptional yeah anything that any realistically anything that's exceptional you see something out there that's out of the ordinary let us know um we will absolutely take care of it so there's no other questions what we'd like the landscape architect to do in addition to the sort of two-dimensional rendering we actually have with technology we're able to do some photo simulation so you can see from different Vantage points what this substation will look like with the Landscaping superimposed so let's we'd like to do that now and show from different Vantage points and also we have both fall and spring as you know foliage and and tree growth is different in the season so we have both buil we but why don't we stick with one view both seasons before we go to the second view okay we starting with is that fall no it's spring it's it's spring everybody see that exhibit when that's got I'll wait hold on I'm waiting I'm waiting okay this is exhibit for the record is A4 A6 correct oh did we Mark that three other ex is that correct Mr oh exhibit okay the three are one exhibit okay so you're A4 A4 let's do A4 as spring Ro sounds a HMK what you're passing out is not let me see what you got did you do different view we'll get to that one too this this is the correct one yeah we have we have a question with all of this work being beautiful are our going to go a lot of trees so Mr kingsberry are both of these A4 this I'm looking at A4 it says Route 73 spring representation loc we have to mark them separately now we got so we know which ones are out there now okay we we have this one that's a five that's going to be five that's correct that's the one with the gate the entrance gate top Four's now yeah Four's now the entrance gate at the top I got okay this is four that's four first one you got is five that's what you know if there's a chance for a mixup with only two we'll do it we iiz for that yeah all right why don't we start okay we'll start with A4 when everyone has this this is the first so A4 is uh looking at the site and I'm going to use this as my directional from this location into the the site okay so you can see what it looks like the top view is the existing the bottom view is the proposed berm and the landscaping that's on top of it very nice yeah very a A5 u g to put this over here if it if it stays yes they'll be screened by the landscaper you w't see them so A5 is from this angle looking into the facility top is existing bottom is proposed and this is uh a few year it has a few years of growth uh from planting because we'd like to show it a little bit further if you look um on A5 on the proposed these two evergreen trees here they they would be planted at the height of the fence roughly if you look uh they have like five years of growth on them I also want to point out if I could these lines that we see up here are gone they're now gone right as part of this that was the underground that we addressed in sprb a couple of times that's what I was even without the Landscaping it's going to look nicer without the Landscaping because of the wi looks nice and the benefit to that is that we're not restricted on height so all these trees will get 60t plus same thing with the Evergreens so it'll block your view we want to we don't want to get into what PS okay so next part of this is the I want to talk about the Willow Road side okay so the Willow Road side because we're expanding a little bit out on this location there used there was a hedge don't fall there is a hedge row that in front of the Control building here that's going to come down so in place of that we're going to put in shrub border with a bunch of evergreen trees and one shade tree so I think it's one shade tree 22 evergreen trees and 54 shrubs again so if you're looking at this perspective in so those shrubs were or those they are shrubs they're in the foreground we're moving everything I mean to in the background we're moving the shrubs to the foreground so when they grow tall they're going to get 8 to 10 feet high they're going to block your view even more because they're closer to the people's eye that's someplace where you would work with us in case we want to that yes and what size trees are you putting in initially uh the street the the shade trees are about 14 feet tall the evergreens are 7 to 8T tall and the shrubs will be 30 in minimum going in the ground one thing too we want to point out in those renderings uh what's depicted on there is the security fence that Mr graph spoke to the non- climbable fence that's the 8 foot 8 in fence so you have a visual of that as well what that'll look like installed and last last thing I would say relative to this plan um when it's all said and done uh 58% of the site will be landscaped meaning lawn existing vegetation what have you so that's pretty good for development in my eyes it's uh mostly landscaped area so uh bill you had an opportunity to go through uh Mr Turk's uh review letter there was a number of landscaping comments um that were raised uh we spoke about the the relief and I know the planner will give the testimony to justify that relief you've identified where on the site additional Landscaping can or cannot be added um the other comments uh in Mr T's letter dealt with um the the street trees the shade trees you're willing to work uh with his office to supplement wherever possible yes absolutely um the plantings at a minimum height are we we're no longer seeking relief from that or we what are we doing nope I already stated it the minimum size why y okay um okay I just want to make sure we hit everything this is actually on page seven item number four and five um okay anything that we didn't that requires your response from Mr Turk's letter has everything been addressed I think so unless Fred has any questions I think you've gone through it all uh someone had asked for the size the size they're going to install meets our ordinance you always and I'm not putting this against pscg or suggesting it but this board always has the option to say you need additional screening 4in caliber trees which would be 20 ft you always have that option as part of a justification for a use variance I just present that to the board as as information but uh they are mention that this was a fiveyear growth here and I thought what's it going to look like initially you're going to buy you know little trees going to take years to grow there may be is it in your hold on one second well didn't you say that those two Evergreens along that fence that yeah so just to put it in the fence yes to put it in perspective the the fence is 8 foot high so those Evergreens would be at that right to the top of the roughly to the top of the fence or just a little bit below because they're 7 to 8 foot so there's a range when you get them from the nursery and that's at the time of planting that's yes yes so they're decent size at the time of planning yes so and then the trees would be for so these these trees here would be approximately the size of those Evergreens that they're shown after 5 years of growth and normally again barring any droughts or things like that most of these trees will put on about a foot of growth per year you know that's normal so um that's why we're representing them at that height in 5 years to give you a little flavor be since you did mention the word drought um obviously you're not providing irrigation so without irrigation and again this may goes to Mr graph um should a third of this die or various trees die you'll replace them you said for a longer period but is that replaced within the season planting season or is that something we make a phone call and you actually will respond to it is actually something that we will respond to um I know on some of my past projects that have gotten done seven or eight years ago we've responded to calls from townships um I will say that sometimes there are um restrictions as to when we want to plant new trees um obviously we do not want to plant trees in the middle of August when it's really hot so we might have to wait until the planting season the next planting season but we we do take um we spend a lot of money um with our contractors to put this Landscaping in we do take it seriously if it if something does happen to it we do want our our yard to pretty much look nice I I do have one question on the landscaping and I'm I'm looking at this exhibit here okay when I look at what's in the foreground it looks just like a bunch of trees but when I look further back which I guess goes south uh I see some some lower level different color plantings that kind of give contrast and to me that would be a nice look those are uh in Spring flow so that that there are some in there we didn't you know they they're probably blocked by some of the Evergreens Evergreens in the front we could also show you what it looks like in the fall if you're interested in that too well more talking about this looks like Bland in front of here but this does not so is there something you no there are other shrubs in here that would pop in color they're just there maybe just lost a little just break that up a little bit with some lowlevel plantings they are on the plan they're just not shown in number five you're see like you see the contrasting color here with a different view where is that can't see them again you agree to work with our office absolutely absolutely so all of these wires like someone mentioned before all of these wires are going to be gone because they're not in this picture yes they're going under they're going underground under but um and I can reiterate that too there there's one duck Bank over here there's one over here and I think this is also a new one right and there's one in the road on Willow but it's all Underground thank you U chairman I have nothing further for the landscape architect so I'm going to ask the board members if they do any further questions with regarding Landscaping no okay thank you thank you Bill um before I call the next witness there was one item that we neglected to put on the record it doesn't I don't think it requires any testimony one of Mr Turk's comments was a code requirement regarding sidewalks we talked about it in the submission uh discussion the submission waiver discussion the as Mr Turk pointed out the code requires a sidewalk be installed along all street frontages that would be on Route 73 there currently is no sidewalk here we've had discussions with Mr Turk about that and the applicant psng will agree to install sidewalk pending dot approval there's this issue could could be um something that the do may not approve because there is some infrastructure there there's other improvements there's a guard rail I believe and other things out there that are in the dot right away um if they should require the sidewalk to be set further back out of the right of way would you provide an easement an access easement for the sidewalk sidewalk easement absolutely but we just wanted to we do want to uh on the record say that we would agree to do it subject to the do if the dot down the road says you can't put it in we didn't want to have a situation have structures there for the overhead signs Maple shave all that stuff is there so would May potentially have to go around that onto PSG property so if you could provide an easement for that that would be great I'm glad you're going to do that because my consideration was this from time to time I see people walking down Route 73 in the road now they could walk in the grass if they wanted to but in that you providing a extension enhancement and the board would then approve that condition without sidewalks and somebody should get injured somebody would look at us and say why did you do that right so even if that's the only area that has sidewalks that's the only area that's being expanded so that's where we should do it understood and and your code requires it and you know we chose not to ask for that relief after having a discussion with Mr Turk so um and the one other comment regarding sidewalks there's an existing sidewalk along Willow um Mr tur asked that we just repair that if it's damaged either by construction or otherwise um and we would agree to repair any sidewalk on Willow our ordinance requires a DOT would require a 5 foot wide sidewalk our ordinance requires a six foot wide sidewalk sidewalk on Willow is four feet wide but given the volume of traffic that I've seen out there I think a 4 foot wide sidewalk would be appropriate on Willow so we'd ask that they just repair that if the board is okay with that so okay um that was the only clarification um our last and Final witness this evening is our professional planner as I mentioned we are here for a use variant technically this is an existing non-conforming use by making these improvements that's technically an expansion under the municipal land use law so we are seeking a D2 use variance um Paul Ricky is our professional planner he will not only address the use variance but also these ancillary variances that Mr Turk has noted you for your last name last name r ICI R ICI all right you swear or affirm the testimony you give would be the truth whole truth nothing but the truth I do thank you uh Paul for the benefit of the board and public your education area of expertise and the licenses you hold uh yes I'm a licensed professional planner in the state of New Jersey I've been licensed since the year 2000 I'm also a member of the American Institute of certified planners I have a master's degree in city and Regional planning from Ruckers University which I received in 1997 uh I currently uh am a planning consultant to to six towns uh I I testify regularly in front of boards I've been qualified in over 250 uh towns throughout the state and your formerly worked with Mr prip I think that knows my when he was at the city of Lyon where I serve as the consultant there and your license is currently in good standing it is Chairman I accept thank you um Paul we we talked at length uh both in my opening and and throughout the uh review of the report that this uh application requires a D2 use variance for an expansion of a non-conforming use um youve had an opportunity to review this project um as well as your familiarity with the township of maple Shades Redevelopment plan master plan and zoning ordinance correct that's correct and have you uh compiled an opinion from a planning perspective uh regarding these this relief that's being sought I have okay but continue please share uh sure maybe I'll just I mean I think beginning uh in the evening mission to paparo did a very excellent job of explaining the existing zoning the Redevelopment plan and like your Redevelopment plan was established to as an overlay which would allow for an expansion of uses we're operating under your your your BD development Zone we're centrally located in your BD Zone uh that's what I would characterize as as an inclusive Zone that allows for a full range of of commercial uses um if needed I can go through those but based on which I'll I'll I'll I'll touch upon in a minute that may not be necessary um this board typically reviews use variances in the light right and a D1 use variance is is traditionally the the most honorous to receive right for that we have to show that the use is particularly well suited uh the variances can be granted without a substantial detriment to the public good in the zone plan and then the enhanced burden approved to to reconcile that with your master plan and zoning ordinance with the D2 variants there's a there's a lower standard of proof where we don't have to show that we're entitled to the initial use um the the courts have recognized that the negative criteria should be viewed with greater liberality because this use already exists and it's less likely to create new negative impacts um with that said for traditional D2 variant um under the Burbage decision when we can demonstrate that there's significant physical improvements to a property that satisfies the positive criteria here we have another stretch you heard Mr paparo indicate that we are in an inherently beneficial use an inherently beneficial use is a use that promotes the general welfare as a matter of Law and as a matter of law such uses are deemed to be appropriate in any location in in a municipality here you know we are in an in an inclusive business BD District which makes sense and we we do have an existing station uh as well which we're looking to expand but for that reason we automatically meet the positive criteria under the law and under the under that case law and you may have heard similar case law if you ever had a a wireless application in front of you might have heard this similar testimony you rely on the negative criteria which is the four-part balancing test and essentially what that test asked the board to do is to balance the benefit benef of an application versus the detriments and if the benefits outweigh the detriments a board should vote uh in the affirmative and if I may just jump right into that and and one of the things I I just also wanted to mention and like your Zone plan um talked about it specifically talked about excluding larger utility facilities but also in your Redevelopment plan it discusses and it recognizes the appropriateness of public facilities now under under Point G and it says all public utilities will need to be evaluated for adequacy and service and capacity and improve as necessary says modern facilities equipment and construction methods including services are anticipated within this Redevelopment area so your Redevelopment plan does acknowledge this use despite that um discrepancy um in in terms of the the public benefits uh excuse me under the four-part test the first part of that test is to identify the public interest uh the second part is to identify any negative impacts and the third part is is sometimes this is really the board's Focus as well is can anything be done to mitigate any determined negative impacts and then the fourth part of the test is the balancing balance the benefits versus the detriments uh we already heard um from the the rep from from PSC andj Mr graph uh and he identified the public interest and I'm going to summarize Iz this as 18,000 customers in Maple Shade in the Shan communities rely on the substation for electricity he identify that the facility is currently in violation of the Federal Energy Regulatory commission's standards for this reason an unacceptable voltage drop may occur and there could be a loss of power so there's a strong public interest associated with improving this facility and it's not just being done because PSG says have we're going to build something bigger here they're mandated to do that um also when I go through the negative criteria there are some lightning masks in in taller structures um it's it's my opinion the public interest that those lightning masks protect and promote the public health because they're uh protecting that facility um from damage and when we did talk about the the virence relief when we talked to Mr ter earlier there was um um we very conservatively notified for height variance because your definition of Building height and you know we going to seek any variances that the board determines to be needed under your definition of of Building height and this is your for every application it's not just um that's your your actual definition it's defined as the building's vertical measurement from the main level of the ground abing the building to a point midway between it goes on to explain that um to the highest point the roof and the roof provided that chimneys spires Towers elevator pen houses tanks in Sim projections of the building and then listen to this part closely and supporting utility or transmission facilities shall not be included in the calculation of height so your definition anticipates that these type of facilities need more height than um under traditional buildings and here when we're looking at height these these how these facilities are designed L is that the height is needed inally to allow for the use to operate and to exist this is not uh we're traditional type of height varant where where where somebody's trying to have additional building area floor area they need that height for the facility to operate in into war is your argument that you don't need a height variance we don't believe we need one but we conservatively requested one thank you and and uh Paul and and just for the record the What would be violative of the height would be those lightning mats correct um the lightning mats in the the HF frame structures as well right but those control buildings that Mr graph spoke about the existing and the proposed those buildings those actual structures those comply with height yes they're very low I think they're up to 18 ft or so right yeah so what is the building or what is the thing that requires the H there's lightning sure there's lightning masks that are installed there's existing lightning Mas out there today we can show on the exhibit why don't we show you I'll lightning mask is a okay and the lightning mask obviously is for um so the lightning mask all it does is just like the word says is it tracks lightning um so if there was a lightning strike in the area instead of hitting the sensitive equipment below it will said hit the lightning M so they are the only things that would look at your application and say you might need a height height barer yes sir and and what height is that it looks small 71 ft oh is it not small at all so let's get this out of the way you're going to apply for it anyway we did we noticed for it and you noticed for it and it's referenced in our application Mr Ricky's testimony was that your ordinance excludes those types of equipment from the definition of height and I heard so Fred and robertt what what do you say with that do they need it I think they do not but I would agree with Mr kingsb yeah so you do not thank you thank you okay thank you you can continue with the other and just a last statement because as part of the what the negative impacts associated with application despite like being technically compliant with height there are some toll structures on the site right um with that said when um when I spoke to the the site engineer when we look at height and we look at Mass I don't think the actual exact design of those lightning Mass have occurred to date but under a worst case scenario at the base those would have a 20in um diameter that would taper to a maximum of 10 in so while they are tall they're not going to create a you know a significant amount of mass on the property considering the property the two properties collected together are over 6 Acres uh in in area um so I mean that's that's a potential negative impact associated with this facility um but again the public benefit we feel of of hardening the facility to protect it uh outweighs uh that detriment and and these are essentially not traditional facilities uh in the sense of when we look at most use Varian is that they create new population New significant water demand new traffic uh impacts on schools or or Community impacts with the exception of the proving the the power like these are really Standalone uh facilities so um the only real negative impact because we have to comply with noise um was that we identified that as a potential negative visual impact and that's part of the reason why the the photo simulations were were prepared uh I personally believe that overall despite these height variances that the visual quality of this site is being drastically improved as a result of its product and I think that's that's clearly shown on the visual so um to the extent that that condition exists we believe it's being mitigated at a level that's appropriate in this context um and then the third part of the test asks us to set uh reasonable conditions that the board may have right and that's from my perspective I think that's the board's opportunity to say Hey you know you're seeking a use variance we'd like to see these aspects I think some of that's already been addressed you essentially wanted the sidewalks along the frontage uh Mr Turk wanted to have another crack at the landscaping and the like and to make sure um that that Landscaping is acceptable but clearly we have here um a client uh you know someone that's that's been working with the board and uh is doing everything in their power to to to design that Landscaping to be as best as as possible with the understanding that this is a power station that does have some limitations in where uh Landscaping um can occur so we we believe that despite those those visual elements we're providing them in the the least obtrusive means possible you know building a new station elsewhere is not least intrusive so the station's already here uh and we're going to mitigate any substantial negative impact so it it's my opinion that the the public benefit associated with the facilities is significant and the impacts are are minable and being mitigated as part of of this process in in terms of of of the fencing that that we were requesting um it's 8T 8 in versus um 6 feet that's permissible and first thing is I have to note is that the national eventally Safety Code that's the naal requirement requires PSC to build at a minimum of 7 ft and they traditionally add another foot of Barb Wire the reason that they're seeking the additional 8 in that that's the height that PSG uses when they don't use barb wire and here um what are the goals and what is the intent it's toer people from climbing getting into a facility that is energized um to protect the equipment from vandalism protect people from from from Human harm as well um and also that that that fencing that's being proposed from Route One from Route 73 is a minimum of 125 ft away uh it's it's closer on the back end but it was designed everything was designed on this site to really uh keep that front edge green uh we also believe that was that was the intent to advance some of your Redevelopment goals for the caror so a lot of thought was was was given to this so so Paul I hate to interrupt you're on a roll uh the fence we did not see a we saw the rendering that showed the fence but did you bring a detail or shop drawing or something we can board can actually see it have a picture yeah we picture that's okay we can pass one picture since we're on the fence 8T 8 in versus 6 feet I just want you to see what did you say it was energized no no the the facility not the fence no so the point is to keep people outside of an energized facility that's an excellent clarification sir one thing that I do want to bring that would deter one thing that I do want to point out um on the pictures that Joe is getting ready to pass around um the fence pictures that we have are not going to be what's installed out at Maple Shade substation um the some of the pictures include barb wire on top um we are not doing that um the reason I don't have any pictures of the 8 fo8 inch fence without barb wire is corporate security um made that exemption for this project and we have not installed that yet so I don't have any actual pictures of that at another site is the mesh grid the same though yeah everything but everything but the barb wire on here is what they what the Maple Shade will see and we still want to say it that's up to the board we're going to look at what they're not going to have we see it it shows you the mesh though that's we actually see it yeah we can see it okay the other pictures but thank you for sh thank you Paul did you want to um move to the other related Varian as I know uh Mr Turk's letter has uh some variances noed on uh Roman numeral number five that deals with technically the code requires buildings to be oriented towards the frontage uh there's also some designs standards for buildings I know sure sure sure well first of all um I mean your code has standards from your Redevelopment plan and clearly it has a focus on having a certain aesthetic design characteristics in the like and it's a classic one of them is the orientation of buildings that's section 205 a12 and and essentially what that that section is is requiring that buildings bu be built parallel uh to a street and and That's a classic U design feature particularly in the downtown or residential communities where you have buildings one after the other that you have a uniform orientation of those buildings and that aesthetically there's a is a a rhythm in a streetcape and that all flows together and and that's what I believe the intent of the ordiance is here we really don't have that characteristic there are there structures on the on on this property that that you see uh and then you have two small buildings one exists that's about 850 Square ft and then the the control house I had it measured at 1,680 Square ft and that building set back 353 ft from the front property line to the extent that there's any degree of of things being parallel those two buildings designed on the site aren't parallel to Route 73 but they are parallel to each other and when I spoke to the site Engineers the rational it's it really has to do with things in the ground and the relationship of those buildings but put frankly put they're centralized in the site and those buildings are not going to be visible and not result in any type of we're not I don't believe would result in uh being a negative intent on your Zone plan and what you were trying to achieve with having consistent building streetscape in the like and and and the same with building design you have design standards that are meant for buildings not associated with a substation and I think Mr paparel said it well on our call like we don't we don't really have the ability to to do Victorian architect out here we have very specific equipment in buildings so we're we're seeking a design waiver on that PC's equipment is meant to be muted not have glare it's dull metals and the like and and really here I think as a planner I I think that the board approached it and the scrab if if that's the new name um is to try to to to buffer and hide this facility rather than to accentuate it with different types of of architecture per se uh and with that said we we we we required variances for um I think technically some of the Landscaping buffering I think the landscape architect clearly demonstrated that you know we're we're we're the Landscaping that we are proposing is resulting are result is in improvements uh to the site and its physical appearance uh overall the willingness to work with the site engineer and his landscape architect uh to to really make it as as for lack of better word again as good as possible the extent that we need those Varian is We Believe actually the benefits associated with this project and the Landscaping outweigh any of those detriment so from a from a planning standpoint I think this results in sound land use planning that that meets the burden of proof on either on even stricter standards under the law than than required for us with regard to the building orientation I think that's for buildings you can you can see yeah and you're not going to see the buildings within the facility so okay well spoken I have a question um my concern is always for safety yes uh now we've been told that uh someone will not be there around the clock and we've been told that our police and fire department cannot enter the premises without someone from public service being there all right we know that the property is going to be monitored by cameras if there is an incident at the property what time lapse are we talking about for S the Personnel from public service to arrive at that property to for our emergency Personnel to gain access um I honestly will say probably a matter of minutes um psng has traveling operators that act that just like they said kind of drive around um most of the time they're really not doing a whole lot of work they're waiting for a phone call and in the middle of the night to go check something out um this site also has the added benefit um that the main headquarters for southern division of psng is in moristown um right off of Lenola Road right around the corner um so if there is not somebody closer to the station then that area in mortown which I believe is about 5 minutes away um which I would be surprised if somebody wasn't closer um we would dispatch somebody out of Mor toown immediately so I would anticipate PS Personnel be B um arriving on site um either before or at the same time of First Responders so like the earlier question what is your experience anywhere with report respect of people reporting to the site one an emergency occurs um that realistically is my experience um talking to psng Personnel who responded to site along with uh First Responders um like I said mostly um fire departments they were either on site waiting for the police officers to show up um before they open up the gate to go and confront somebody or they are getting to site the same time as the police officers are Joan you satisfied well yes they answered my question okay so we're saying relatively five minutes so with regard to the planner any other questions on the board concerns considerations you mentioned something about noise what are you doing and how how loud is the plant I don't know yeah it seems pretty far away I don't know who it's going to affect I do know we we've um we submitted a noise subm a noise report um I just wanted and I I'm not the engineer who was involved in that um overall summary um within a substation the noisiest things on the substation are the um cooling fans on the Transformers um as part of this project we are not touching the Transformers we're not relocating them we are not replacing them um the second not thing in the substation is the um HVAC for the buildings um and just for General reference just like your house a HVAC that's the type of noise that you can expect when they are turned on um in regards to that the uh substations are actually relatively quiet um I know there is a thought process out and a lot of people who don't spend time that there's a lot of Buzz that's created and in my experience um especially a 69 KV substation which is a relatively low vol substation um there is going to be no audible buzz from the equipment and Mr Turk in his report item number 33 um recognized that the sound study that was supplied and and supported the application to quote Mr turk it says based on our review of the study we concur that this site is expected to be in conformance with all state and local noise regulations you mentioned AC does that mean that the that's to keep the equipment cool Inside the Box and stuff so we do have um um air conditioning and heat in the control houses and it's just in the control houses um that's realistically more to keep um humidity and temperatures where we need to have them um relatively room temperature um between 65 and 75° um not really for our comfort more for the um longev longevity of the equipment inside would there be facilities at these places a restroom for the workers and so we are putting fac facilities um in the new control house here um that is something that psng is starting to do more often um basically we have found that once we get done building these projects porter potties end up showing up on site um which nobody likes so we are putting facilities in okay thank you what is your did you receive any complaints with regard the noise do register um with for Maple Shade or yeah for Maple Shade no uh we have not heard any complaints or any feedback at all from any residents um that I'm wor you probably get more noise from the surrounding businesses yes and I we we have not um I have not been alerted by any of our Outreach team that anybody has reached out to us for any information or request for information or complaints yet I think the sound study chairman to your point the sound study if I'm remembering it correctly there was a conclusion in that that the ambient noise from Route 73 is louder than anything that's happening on site but again questions of the planning comments concerns thank you thank you sir thank you Paul chairman that concludes our presentation okay while the board members are thinking over any additional questions I have I'm going to open up this application to the general public if there's anyone in the General Public who would like to speak for or against this application please step forward I see Joe smiling because he knows everybody team oh my God there's a hand okay I'm going to close the public portion of the meeting and I'm going to come back to the board members for any final questions comments concerns considerations so uh then we're going to ask for a motion but before that I'm going to ask Robert to read the variances well you need uh two motions because the vote is different uh you need to vote on granting a use variance which requires five yes votes out of seven so that would be the first vote uh to Grant a use variance for expansion of the PSC and G fa facility and what is the second the second will be for site plan and variances okay so we need a motion to Grant a use variance for the application as presented I make that motion motion Karen I second second Lou Karen and Lou oh you got you got a questiony no roll call please sarak kiski approved betus approved Laur kii approved Bill JGA approved Joan Mortimer approved Mariam babich approved Lou Valentino approved John gerardi approved getting ready approved chman G approved okay uh the second vote will be to Grant preliminary and final site plan approval uh subject to Mr Turk's letter and including the variant es that have been requested I don't think they need a height variance um you're granting a variant for building alignment uh you are requiring sidewalks if I understand correctly uh the buffers Landscaping will be subject to review and agreement between the our planner and their planner their landscape man okay and and you are of course granting the submission requirements as uh recommended by Mr Turk in that motion do we have a motion the fence variant I don't did you mention the fence variant Mr Kings Kings fence yeah what is the fence variance that you're asking 8 foot 8 in 6 fo okay include that as the various fence fence height VAR and all the items that haven't been discussed in the letter you've agreed to comply work with us okay one more time we need a motion and no B I'll make that motion motion Mr zarik second second at Bill call siski approved betus approved Laura Kiri approved bill jera approved join Mortimer approved maram babage approved Lou Valentino approved join jandi approved Ken ready approv J approve thank you Joe and Joe did a great job thank you thank you for everything uh as far as this entire process the feedback through the site plan review board um it was extremely helpful to get us to where we are again it's a collaborative effort so we wanted to thank the township for all of their efforts a good partnership looks nice thank you [Laughter] we'll send you a shut off notice thank you again appreciate it thank you so much the lights go out we call you be there I Robert you have a resolution I do let's see Emily Kimbell Emily Kimble dance studio she was here on November 13 2024 she would like to operate a dance studio at Kingsway Plaza uh it's approximately 1240 square feet and uh she outlined her hours of operation she would have uh five employees including herself as the owner uh any spring recital or Christmas recital of that sort will be done offsite um the applications reviewed by uh Fred Turk and uh she he wants her to supply information regarding vehicle parking uh crossover classes and scheduling uh she stated that 90% of her students are drop offs so there is minimal vehicle parking required uh trash she will contain and dispose of uh privately uh the board felt this was an appropriate use it's not in conflict with the other businesses and the board granted a use Varian to permit a dance studio and a sight plan waiver and the eligible voters are R zarnik fich morer Mortimer Zerega Karachi and G you didn't say that right did he no he did not I know I am now an expert you are the expert corrected okay we need uh a motion Joan second call please approved Bill Jara approve Jo martim approve Mariam bage approved John jard approved k d approved chairman G approved okay we have a couple more items on the agenda one is called discussions uh the background is that high-profile was going to be scheduled in January Robert informed me that he cannot make January's meeting I did not want to go forward without Robert being here I can't make January 8th January 8th okay sorry so what date so we went back and forth a number of times and we are now at a position where we think we can have a special meeting or take our January January meeting from January 8 to January 15th following Wednesday and I won't be here you will not be here okay so that's the reason we're asking this how many board members can make January 15 we'll need seven so we only have one that two well you you're going to be replaced yeah I will be here so who cannot I can count that one okay so so let me at least who will Who are the who are ready for that chairman g m what is your question who will be here let me make a list oh who who everybody list everybody no make a list of who will be we're going to get a vote on that I I agree with you but let me make it chairman G then yeah I'll be here Mar bich then Laura kii and Bill you will be Pres I can make it and Mar yeah I can make it and B yes okay what happens is I'm I'm told that in other townships the board actually sets the date for the zoning board meetings but in Maple shave Council sets the dates so that date is going to they're going to set that date January 6th okay what we need to do is have a motion tonight that we're requesting them to move it to January 15th if that motion passes we will notify PR will notify Susan and Susan will make the agenda up for January 6th to say we're meeting on January 15th so and that will also be the reord meeting that'll be the reor meeting so we need a motion for moving or for setting the January meeting to January 15th I make that Motion makes that motion Miss bage makes that motion you're all right she second turn around and say that to him be be yeah I will not make that mistake again okay we need a roll call Sak anisi approv approved Laur Bill Jara approved Joan Mar approved Mariam bage approved Lou Valentino approved John you will be abstained I I I'll abstain from that yes well you could approve the motion you just won't be here okay well I'll approve the motion you better say yes no you say you not call me I won't be here but I still can say still approve it she can approve being and J approved okay so PRI please notify Susan that we have passed that I do all thank you okay we have minutes one more item uh the minutes so we need approval for the minutes motion to approve Mr gate second it by Blue you're very popular was going to say hand okay all in favor signify by saying I I okay those against say nay eyes have it and then before we adjourn uhad what am I going to say party okay we could not have our Christmas gathering tonight because because we knew this meeting was going to take extra long however for those of you who can make it I hope it's everybody uh next Wednesday