e e e e e e e e e e 7:30 I'd like to call to order the March
27th 2025 Oldbridge Township planning board meeting uh please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Al flag un states to the stands
na indivisible andice Miss Port Chelly is in for Daniel tonight can we have a roll call please sure Mr dama here Mr lenning Mr
Hagopian pres Miss Canon yes Mr Rena here Mr Petty Here Mr mcisaac no uh Miss Mella
absent Mr Brennan Mr Ferrara chairman lower yes here yeah uh Mr chairman uh as a new procedure that we're implementing moving forward uh we're going to swear in our board professionals before every
planning board meeting so um if I ask the professionals if you please rise and raise your right hand do you swear or affirm the testimony you're going to give this evening is the truth the hold truth and nothing but the truth do do thank you okay next on agenda we have the
minutes of February 27 2025 um do we have any adjustments comments deletions okay can I get a motion to approve that move it I'll
second Mr dama yes Mr agopian yes Miss Cannon Mr Rena yes Mr Petty yes Mr Brennan yes Mr Ferrara yes chairman lower yes uh next we have a consist
consistency review um our planner Fina sure um good evening planning board members um I'm just going to combine both uh of these um resolutions and I'll talk about
them so we have a process in which um an a developer can come to the town and ask as for a pre-application meeting prior to filing an application with either the planning board or the zoning board um the pre-application meeting typically uh
is attended by uh the township engineer myself and the zoning officer what has been happening is there were fees set in for application for pre-application fees and there was an escro deposit that was
to be taken in the past um the planning office used to charge a flat $600 fee where that $600 came from I don't know but when I got hired and I looked at the ordinance and I was like
wait a minute it's nowhere it says $600 but more so over the app the ordinance says that the township officials cannot charge their time so then it just didn't make sense
we looked at other municipalities and all municipalities for a pre-application fee they charge somewhere between um $2,000 to $3,000 for a pre-application and that whatever is
left from that uh money that is collected gets transferred into the development escrow when the application is filed so any unused amount is transferred to the development
escrow uh what I have noticed ever since I stopped charging fees because of the inconsistency in the ordinance is every person comes in asks for a pre-application meeting and some of them
are like handrawn sketches and because it there's no fee Associated it takes up a lot of my time some of them don't even come to fruition sometimes developers come back with pre uh with Concepts like two three times to
get an opinion it's wasting our time and it doesn't really help much we want only serious projects to come forward for pre-application meeting uh anybody is free to call me and ask me questions but
to set up a meeting and take take up three professionals time it's we all are busy reviewing actual development applications and again other towns neighboring towns every town that I have checked in has a fee Associated they
have a process the other thing is scheduling of these meetings it becomes very difficult because both Nicole and I'm busy back to back in meetings so now by this new ordinance we have an assigned time it will be the first
Wednesday and the third Wednesday of the month in the morning so our calendars will be blocked for that and anybody who wishes who pays the fees submits a formal concept plan will be then allowed
to uh schedule that meeting so it is more formalized process and I think anything that we do to streamline development applications is consistent with the municipal land use law as well as the master plan so I I I highly
recommend uh that you pass the resolution uh any questions on uh this proposal all right any questions are we taking two votes yes
let's do two votes okay um on the master plan consistency I'm looking for a motion to uh approve it I'll okay I'll second it and chairman just to be sure that's that's the consistency review with
regard to ordinance 25-12 that's the one amending the preapplication and Technical Review Committee provisions of section 20 25012 that's correct second yes Mr hopan yes Miss Cannon yes Mr Rena
yes Mr Petty yes Mr Brennan yes Mr Ferrara yes chairman lower yes okay uh on the master plan consistencies any questions on that one okay um I'm looking for approval for the
master plan consistency review ordinance uh code Township Code chapter 250- 104 have a motion please I'll move it one second Mr dep yes Mr Hagopian yes M Cannon Mr Rena yes Mr Petty yes Mr
Brennan yes Mr Ferrara yes chairman laow yes okay uh next uh we have a applications uh uh 13-20 22p MBM at Oldbridge uh is asking for a
continuance tonight uh to a new date which we haven't establish yeah yes yes Mr chairman they they submitted a letter this afternoon requesting that it be adjourned to a special meeting meeting to be scheduled so new notice will be provided if anyone's here on that application the MBM at Oldbridge SB
Phase 1 LLC that is going to be journ to a new date we don't have the date yet so you will be provided uh new public notice if you're here for that uh and they will advertise as required by law but that has to be scheduled through the township as to when that uh special meeting would be uh available to the
board members and available to the applicant okay if I may just add uh board members we received this um letter late in the afternoon so tomorrow you will hear from my office with a couple of dates for a special meeting please
respond with your availability so that I can get back and they can schedule um this application has been in front of the board for the last two and a half three almost 3 years because I had some serious concerns uh about the way uh it
was planned they have worked with us we created an ordinance requiring a lot of uh recreational uh elements and newer building Styles um they are now ready to be heard by the board so uh please
respond to the email that comes out your way very good um the next application is Vision at Oldbridge uh 51-20 23p a major pimary site plan with C variances and we we're going to run the
meeting a little differently tonight uh yeah M Mr chairman we know um given the application everyone was here last last meeting this is being carried continued excusing our carry continue from the February 12 uh 27th meeting and we the board understands and wants to make sure everyone gets coming out this evening
that we get through the application and we get to hear all of not just questions of the witnesses but all of your comments and testimony so what what we're going to do procedurally wise is we're going to have the applicant present all of their Witnesses present qu you know they'll answer questions to the board but they we're going to hold off on questions to the public to the
end so that way we make sure that everybody we get through that so that not only you can ask your questions but you can make your statements you can make your comments and provide testimony we want to see if we make sure we get that that tonight we don't want to make you guys have to come back out again uh so we that's why we're kind of switching a little bit up the procedure but it
works to your benefit in this instance because we make sure we get to that testimony so just please be aware that you might have questions of the witnesses please make notes be prepared hold off on those until we get through all of the witnesses and then you'll have the opportunity to ask those questions welcome Mr clauser thank you
for the record Peter clauser with the firm H Pap on behalf of your applicant Vision Oldbridge Roman numeral 4 urban renewal uh this is a continued application from last month we were here we had a short period of uh window to work in last time and we presented our Engineers uh testimony I have three
additional Witnesses this evening we have our architect our traffic expert and our planner um however I've asked Scott Turner to return um when we were here we were asked uh to prepare a cross-section uh of the the the view between two buildings the one of our
proposed buildings and an existing Madison Crossing building so we prepare that and I need Scott to present that uh so that was one of the discrepancies that existed last time we were here with regard to the relationship uh between the elevations of the two buildings one
of the others was some statements were made that the applicant had not had any Communications uh with Madison Crossing prior to presenting the application to the board that was inaccurate it um I presented a letter uh to the chairman and board members and I identified the
prior Communications there were a number of communications between uh the applicants representatives and Madison's board uh in fact one of the applicants Representatives attended a zoom meeting with the board uh nothing came from the communications but the idea that we didn't speak to any of the members of
the board um at Madison Crossing is incorrect and I wanted the this planning board to know that uh that there was communication um so then the second issue was there were some statements made that after construction our buildings will Tower over uh the
existing buildings there were statements like we would be looking down into someone's bedroom um and that's simply not accurate based on the elevation and construction that's out at the site so we've asked our engineer actually it was a suggestion from V uh that we prepare a
cross-section between the two closest areas of the buildings um keep in mind our setback variance is not along the entire line of the property it's a portion of the building so I've asked Scott uh to prepare that and I'd like to
have him present that now Mr Turner was accepted as a professional engineer last time we were here and he was sworn I would remind him he's under oath if it's the board's procedure to rewear him please do if not I'll just ask if we could bring up that cross-section and have Scott take us through what we're
looking at yes you know we're as you noticed we're swearing in our own professionals every meeting I think just for procedural purposes moving forward we're going to rewear even though we understand that he may still be under oath we're just going to rewear him in this evening sure thank you do you swear or affirm the testimony you're going to
give this evening is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes I do thank you and can you just please state your name to remind the uh Scott Turner t r NE R principal with men low Engineering Associates thank you Scott two things there there's the exhibit
that's up uh in front of the board so I wish if you could take them through that and also I believe you've had some Communications with the Township's landscape architect and so if you could describe that exhibit what it shows and um a little bit about the uh Landscaping that you worked on sure you do uh just I
think exhibit wise we're on exhibit A3 so if this is a new exhibit we should Mark this as um A3 moving forward yes this is a this is a new exhibit uh it's entitled The Villas at ml's corner crosssection AA exhibit and it's dated
March 19th 2025 prepared by my office if you need that you got one okay think we're good yeah yeah go go forward good evening everybody it's nice to see all of you again uh before we get to that exhibit I I just want to briefly explain what had happened over the
course of the last few weeks uh after our last uh hearing uh your professionals uh requested that we take a look at uh doing something a little bit different within that buffer area between uh our site and the Madison
Crossing uh property boundary uh we had um um discussions with your professionals we had a meeting with your professionals uh it was pointed out that they would like to see a different type of landscaping plan within that area so what we did is we made those
modifications uh based on those comments uh one of the things we did do is we we relocated that retaining wall that's located on our property 5 ft inward from the property boundary line so it's 5et closer to our proposed buildings from
what it was last hearing so we have an additional 5T of space to work within to uh address the the modifications that were requested in regards to the the uh the buffer planting plan uh so the buffer plantings now provide for a more
diverse uh selection of plant material uh provides evergreen trees ornamental trees and deciduous trees also now includes ever green shrubs uh which allows us to provide a more naturalized and varied layout uh which in turn in
our opinion uh would increase uh the Aesthetics and visual interest and again that was all at the request of the board's uh professionals and uh working with our Landscape Architects uh the evergreen trees that we've specified now include Eastern red cedar Emerald
Sentinel Eastern red Cedars uh Leen seus Serbian Spruce and Green Giant arbites and we specified all of them to be planted at a height of 8 to 10 ft uh the proposed flowering trees within that buffer uh include uh crepe myrtle and
service Berry and they will all be planted at 9 to 10 feet tall uh at installation uh in addition what we've done in that um planting plan and it's no longer linear it's it's a little bit more varied there's staggered rows and interspersed within those uh trees are a
variety of shrub species uh that will provide the infill and further enhanced screening uh and and those shrubs include inkberry Holly uh nine bark cthra and Northern uh Bayberry and they all planted at a uh three and 1 half to
4ot planting height and again we worked a couple of plants and and went back and forth with your uh board's professionals and at this point and I won't speak for them of course but I believe that we have a concept here that they are uh comfortable with and satisfied their
comments with respect to the crosssection uh uh missan asked us to uh put together this crosssection for this night's hearing uh so what we have here is on the leftand side we have uh our the Villas building uh we have the
property line that's situated right down the center of the exhibit and then on the right hand side of the exhibit we have the Madison Crossing building uh up on top is a key map and and in the key map is the crosssection designation and it it basically cuts through uh the
closest building uh for Madison Crossing and are the rear of our closest building as well uh what you'll notice however in the Madison Crossing building is we have uh we have there where the crosssection was cut that section of their building
is set back 39 ft from the property line uh and then behind it you can see here where their portion of the building encroaches Clos cler to our property line at 25 ft which is what we uh previously testified at the last hearing
uh off those buildings we have uh decks and then outside their uh walk out basement they have a patio uh so off the 39t edge of their building uh their deck and their patio is approximately uh 29
ft away from our property line which is this here and then from the uh projection where the uh building is 20 2 ft from the property boundary their deck and uh patio space is 15 ft from the
boundary uh more importantly than that however in my opinion is um the uh the height differential between our buildings and uh and that one uh two there's two particular buildings in question uh for Madison Crossing uh you
can see our building if you set a that I'm at 0o feet on our first floor and you work your way up there's a second floor and a third floor our third floor elevation is at 21.6 feet uh when you go
to the Madison Crossing homes compared to uh the zero foot datam elevation their walk out basement is at 16 1/2 ft so they're building their walkout basement condition is 16 1/2 ft taller or higher in elevation than our first
floor and then you work up first floor it's approximately 10 ft from at and then another 10 ft roughly to get to the uh their what I would call their second floor living space so when you look at the line of sights and that's what these
represent here uh the individuals on our inside our building and then the individuals that are either in their building or on their deck uh you know I the the K of vision uh is cited here I I do believe with certainty that there is
uh far more of an impact uh from the Madison Crossing homes to the new Villa's neighborhood as opposed to the other way around and given the fact that in the middle between both developments there is this significant and
substantial uh Evergreen uh planting space thank you Scott the purpose of Scott's testimony was to demonstrate our work with your landscape architect and then also to um really show what the elevations look like out there under our buildings um although inside the setback
certain areas do not Tower over uh and look into the existing buildings at Madison Crossing is he finish with his test he is he's available for the board's questions okay I'd like to open up to our professionals um I'll start off um just
I just want to just expound on on the landscape uh treatment that they proposed with this this uh submission um it's true they they worked with us and and I don't know if you recall but initially they proposed a wall a straight line of treats which basically created a wall um I guess it screens but
it's kind of boring right and and what happens when you get a line of trees basically the same species they grow into each other they kind of you know going after the same sunlight same moisture everything else it kind of inhibits the growth so what we did we asked them to come up with and and use
different species and and the reason we did that because they have different widths you have more broad ones narrow ones so that allows you to create spaces you can stagger it open up areas and in those open areas um they're going to be putting in um some flowering trees and shrubs which uh
again it provides a variety uh in seasonal interest we've got some of the flowering trees bloom in in the spring the other one blooms the crpe Myrtle blooms all summer long the same thing with the shrubs you get the early viburnums and you get the nine bark sort of in the summer and fall the am I mean
the Northern Bay has it was berries but you know it's a nice Leaf texture um same thing with the isix the inkberries and then um then you got Ruby spice which is a deciduous shrub which again is summer like late spring so so things are going to be changing all throughout
the seasons and and we thought that that would be a nice look for the residents you got on their decks or or paos and have something interesting to see um and the other I I guess aspect that's going to make this thing more beneficial
is that we we talked about um implementing drip irrigation I mean very important I mean everybody um probably remembers last Summer's drought how it was so hot it just when you plant things the first year it's really critical to
keep all that that watered so if they put that in there that's going to promote the growth and and even in subsequent years and it's going to really make the growth more rapid and and more healthy plants and that between staggering and SP spacing some of the plants out and giving it more room is is going to I think create a really
attractive buffer in there okay thank you uh um rakes or Vena okay I don't have any questions for the engineer Mr chairman I don't have any uh other comments I thought at the last meeting
after hearing the residents there was so much concern about um uh these buildings towering over uh the homes that I thought it was critical to have a side section that really explains the height difference and uh a picture is worth
thousand words you can see how the great change and um where the proposed building sits where the existing buildings are and how the Landscaping will be able to provide uh screening yes
we did work uh with uh the developers team uh to uh along with Tim to come up with this landscape plan and actually we have in the crowd our uh Forest
he has reviewed um the plans to this morning I had a conversation with him and um he's there to answer any questions uh but uh when speaking to Gary Gary said that he reviewed the
plans and he did not have any additional uh comments the plans were satisfactorily done but he's here for any questions or any comments the board would have one one one other thing Mr chairman that I just wanted to mention
is that the uh one of the concerns that we had mentioned at the last hearing was the location of the retaining wall with relation to the property line uh one of the concerns that I had expressed to Mr Turner was the ability to construct that that wall uh and also the ability to
have Landscaping at the top of that wall given the limited space so the apkin has actually pushed the wall uh further away from the property line so so as to provide enough space where they can actually constru the wall without having any kind of encroachments onto the
adjoining property and also provide space to uh to have the staggered plantings that V and Timber were actually discussing okay thank you uh Gary do you have any comments you would like to
make okay okay uh the board members anybody on my left have a go ahead Ed I'm just wonder there must be some growth there now trees shrubs you know
indigenous species that are there can you hear me is it on says it's on okay uh so there must be some growth there now uh so I'm just wondering has a survey been taken any of
those existing trees and shrubs be be saved the the the survey did uh locate the wood the wood's Edge uh the the the matter of construction for the retaining wall and the regrading that would have to occur on top of that retaining wall
honestly doesn't really lend itself to you know providing any of that existing uh growth that may be there to remain I think it's more of a benefit to in this particular area where the wall is 15 ft away from the property boundary and some
of the other areas uh is to uh clear that area from what is there and plant this newly created buffer planting plan which frankly will be a more attractive plan than what's there today uh no there will be no trees cleared beyond the property limits obviously but it's due
to the construction that's required what do you think the uh time frame is for you to plant that barrier uh I mean it's going to be a process that you're going to be building and yeah it'll be a process it it's not the first thing that goes in but I'll tell you it won't be the last either
it's probably you know once you're in and you start uh you know rough grade the property one of the first things that do go in are these retaining walls and then the storm water management utilities so it won't be the last thing that goes in once that wall gets put in and if it's within season uh they can
start planting that buffer any idea how long it's going to take for that to fill in I mean you show a tree there that's got to be about 25 or 30 feet tall right they they usually grow about a foot conservatively they grow about a foot a year usually you
know more than that but but that's roughly what we always estimate about a foot a year and if we're planting him at 9 to 10 ft uh the uh the flowering trees and then the Evergreens at 8 to 10 you know it'll take 10 years or so for them to become fully grown about 10 years you
know okay thank you okay um let's keep it down here well we next uh any other questions yeah I mean we we're waiting for this to be mature in about 10 years these people have to be living there looking at the
buildings why can't we get something that's already matured that we are going to get the buffer everything going on all at once instead of waiting 10 years for the trees and the bushes to grow number one number two after you planted
that's that's great I mean it looks beautiful over there who's going to maintain it it'll be you guys going to have sprinkler systems that are going to be maintaining yeah there'll be a drip irrigation system on top of that wall to maintain that buffer planting and there'll be an H away who will hire a
landscape firm to come in and and do the and do do the work and there'll be a bond in place to make sure that they survive for a period of time and then it'll be up to the homeowners association to uh make sure that they survive CU I heard the irrigation was going to be for the first year so they
could grow quickly if I'm not mistaken but is that going to be continuous be permanent I mean once you put it in you know you may you should keep it right because you never know I mean the first year is the most critical but sub subsequently years you could have droughts also so I mean I it should be a
permanent thing I mean it's very efficient doesn't use a lot of water it gets underneath the mulch gets into the roof system so it's it's a really good thing to have oh I understand but I'm saying if everything dies I mean are we in a position where if it dies and it
doesn't look good and it's not a buffer 40 40 uh families that are going to be living there you will be replacing it because everything will die eventually if it's not on top of it you could have your people that are going to go and there take care of it if they slack if it's hot there's going to be issues with
that it's like any other development we you know it it's the the landscape maintenance contractor and the HOA will be responsible for maintaining that and the irrigation system will help for sure one of the things too that we can do um is we can always Grant to the township
landscape buffer easement and if the township felt that the HOA was not maintaining it appropriately they would have the right but not the obligation to step in can I interject on that so one of the things that um we require as part of any approval that
this board gives or the Z zoning board gives uh is uh performance uh bonds being posted and maintenance bonds being posted that require the developer to obviously install it per the approved plan and then maintenance bond to make sure that the actual Landscaping takes
um the buffer also becomes part of the approval so uh if it does die the township zoning officer has the ability to actually enforce on the property owner the requirement to actually repair I mean replace and any vegetation and
repair any issues as far as grading and things like that goes regardless of whether there's an easement uh we'd prefer that uh that that would not be the case is it's it it is the developer responsibility property owner's responsibility and the township uh has
that ability to to enforce that going forward I just want to know if there's any any way that we could get the mature trees there and the bushes as opposed to waiting 10 years to give them the buffer so the issue with that and I'm probably
the fourth most qualified person to speak of that amongst your professionals fifth actually counting Bea too uh but but I'll talk anyway uh the uh the issue with the uh with with mature plantings is viability uh the the larger
the plant plants are the less viable they are and less less likely they are to actually take uh so the idea of having mature trees planted it's it's just not a feasible practical thing to actually get them to to take you they can't be more than a certain size um
because they they're just not going to be able to to survive uh Beyond you know the initial planting time you have to keep in mind that when they um dig up these plants they take a lot of roots so now you got this big
tree used to have a pretty broad root system now it's a very small you have a big bulb right so I mean so it's going to take years trees don't start growing initially when they're cut like it takes take the first thing they do is get their Roots established grow those roots because that's what they need to support
the tree so I mean my experience is you know like with some some towns like four or five inch calber deciduous trees right but but some sometimes I mean you do you put in a two and a half to 3inch caliber and it's the
the ratio is better with the roots to the size of the tree and they actually grow faster and they're you know more viable and healthy so you know it's going to take a couple years for these things to get established and grow but once they do they'll they I mean especially some of these leand Cyprus
and and the um Green Giant AR they they grow pretty rapid so one of the things that we've done for other applications where buffer has been a concern is we have required uh that the developer plant uh that perimeter
buffer uh early on in the development process should the board actually act favorably on this application that's something that that I think uh would uh would be applicable to this application where that buffer gets planted as soon as uh possible that you know that back
wall has to get built because that's all part of the grading so as soon as the site is graded that back wall gets built and then the Landscaping would have to get planted not necessarily all the rest of the Landscaping because the site's being developed but the buffer would get planted uh initially and we've done that uh for other uh developments in town I
agree with that I would recommend that also to have these people wait years before they get a little privacy I would strongly recommend that they do the buffer first you put those trees up give them some privacy I wouldn't want to wait
years as soon as practical those plantings will go in well the way you said that they would do it rather sooner than later or whatever the time span but once the rough grading is done and the wall is installed that's when they they can be planted I would recommend doing it as quickly as possible just helping
them out yeah we have no issue with that so so Mr chairman just to just to clarify this discussion I think what the applicants agreeing to do is that when the um when the after walls constructed as soon as depending on the season obviously because we don't want them planting in the middle of the winter when they won't survive either um
working with our Township professionals they'll make those planting it as immediately as soon as they can within the season after construction of the wall and as well I I hear testimony that the HOA to remain will you agree to put that in the HOA documents specifically
that the HOA has to maintain that buffer landscaping area yeah and you can review the HOA documents yes that's just want to make sure remember on the record residential to residential yep we're not buffering a gas station no but the buffer weigh testified to okay in
between their buildings there are not buffers you know so just just keep perspective of what we're doing here and we are permitt at use the Madison Crossing was approved as part of a use variant over several several years so I just want to keep a perspective these
are neighbors this is residential to residential it was a warehouse gas station it was a use variance I understand that this is planned for this so that's just want to point that out okay uh do we oh Barber I just
wondered maybe I missed it the stuff that you're initially planting what's going to be the height you know like on day one it's varied in accordance with recommendations from your professional but I think Scott's testimony was somewhere between 8 to 10 feet between
Evergreens and deciduous trees that's correct and these thing like all right because I know around um I live in lakel and they planted pine trees there about three years ago and they I don't know if they have longevity though or not but
they grew really quick and and form a very dense you can't see through them but that's exactly what your professional asked us not to do not to create a wall we had initially designed it that way but it you're you're as since we're buffering
residential to residential your landscape architect is is and and state as such the idea to create a more visually um pleasing uh landscaped area rather than a just a you know a green wall and just just to reiterate they're they're going to be staggering those
plants so again that they're going to have more room to grow which is what they really need I mean you need sunlight and and the more you can give it to them faster they're going to grow so uh um I just want to chime in uh to um Vice shair uh Canon's question with
um the one thing that I just want to remind or reiterate is when the crossroad Redevelopment plan was written the reason why this area was uh zoned for Flex District was the idea was that
either the developer for Madison Crossings or somebody would come and develop this site with uh consistent I'm sorry [Music] sorry sorry
sorry with uh consistent uh development or similar land use patterns so having a wall or um you know creating that visual barrier or segregation would be against what was the vision of that plan um so I
think that's why Tim and I had suggested that instead of having a barrier wall why not have something that is more aesthetically pleasing and we had assured that we'll ensure that the Landscaping is such that it provides a
screening so that was the whole point of not wanting a wall okay uh any we're still on the left here anybody else have a comment okay now you get your shot
a my comment looking at the illustration I'm concerned with water runoff I mean the new proposed structure is 15 ft lower than the adjacent grade I understand you recently repositioned that retaining wall but that adjacent
property is running off onto your property yeah that is correct that's not a deep span that you have so I'm sure that's been calculated or thought through but I'd be concerned about potential flooding on that low floor sure we and we we have a number of drainage inlets and a drainage system
that's at the bottom of that wall uh to accommodate that we did make sure we accommodated the drainage area that's coming from Madison Crossing onto our property It's Not Unusual to have a drainage system at the bottom of a wall uh to make sure that the the grade is sloped away from the homes sloped away
from the retaining wall we have enough inlets there to capture all the water that's going to be coming to that area and uh wrap it and get it away from the buildings I thank you for that I just uh yeah the planning professionals to take a good look at I I can I can confirm
that that the um there's a drainage system in between the wall and the the proposed building and and and there is actually although this illustration because the purpose of this illustration was really to illustrate the sight lines the actual finish grading in between the wall and the building there's a Swale that's created with with several storm
inlets that'll collect the water and and the calculations um do provide for a runoff that's coming off from Madison Crossing onto the site that's uh the applicant's uh obligation to make sure that they they actually manage that water as well um and then the retain
wall has drainage that will actually get tied into that drain system as well thank you for that uh the other question was the the the required setback on the rear yard we're in compliance with the new proposed structure it appears to be I don't know if I'm looking at 37 ft is
that correct what is the required sub still need a VAR 50 ft is required and they are at 37.5 ft my last question is relative to decks
or any structures that would be proposed on the new structure I don't see any all the illustrations show beings inside the building L of the opposite side where we see decks their proposed so you'll hear from the architect who will explain that
facade uh there are no exterior decks there are balconies that are in recessed inside into that facade that's it for me okay go ahead Eric thank you guys for um one thank you
for moving the the wall up to get that to get more buffer I think everyone said their piece already on the buffer so I'll stay away from that I I I do want to talk about the and and ask questions on on the cross-section that you're doing right so I haven't really been out
to the site um I do remember being on the the Wetland portion a long while back when I first became a council person but um the question I have is right now where you're at the the I guess the ground floor level is that the
current level of the of the ground as we stand today or is it being regraded lower is there um dirt being brought in so that that first floor elevation will be approximately a foot to a foot and a
half lower than the grade that's there today okay so it's dropping down it's dropping down a little further than it already is so right now I which is not atypical because you have to scrape the soil in yeah so you said it was 16 feet from the walk out
basement is that what the correct yeah our our first floor elevation if you set that at zero and run everything off of that the uh Madison Crossing walk out basement is at elevation 16.5 roughly okay and this is and the top of
the so I I know when we look at the top of the buildings there's a lot of attic lack of a better term attic space what's the elev the elevation for the third for the third floor where the silhouette is standing it's 21 ft at the bottom right
21 ft to the bottom yes then it's 21 and it's 9 9t ceiling I'll defer to the architect but roughly 9t ceil let's say let's say 9 to 10t ceiling 31 ft so 31 ft from the bottom would bring it up so then
it's theoretically the top of the third floor is roughly 15 ft above grade of the grade of the walk out basement roughly yes okay okay so that probably puts that
just in line with what I would say is what the deck would be yeah and that's what this projection really shows if if you have someone here this red line projection this horizontal red line if you if you project that onto the uh Madison Crossing property it would uh
you know hit the deck Scott can you speak into the mic and repeat what you said uh because I want the um residents to hear that there was a lot of concerns about it so I think uh you need to explain that uh better and thank you Eric for the question yeah so if you
were to look at at the third floor elevation uh for the Villas and you have a person standing at the window in the back uh their line of sight uh looking straight ahead is this horizontal red line and if you were to project that
into the Madison Crossing development uh they'd be projected into the the either one of the decks honestly the the one that's the from the closest deck to the property and the deck that's further away but that's where they would uh they
on of site would would be so then if there was a sec and I'm not sure if there how the second levels for Madison Crossings come out so in theory if you're on the second level of the Madison Crossings building you would be and really staring at the top peak of
the of the building correct and when you say second level I yeah so the the highest level on their to person so here yeah if you were project his line of sight or her line of sight uh you would project that across and you'd basically be looking at the the
peak of the roof and the the the wall itself right what is the distance from the retaining wall to the the new building uh the retaining wall to the new building is 20 ft
okay so 20 feet so you probably so what do we have about 15 feet of of buffer for corre property that that would be that would be planted that's that's correct okay and the additional two feet in there because we
have our our building is 37 fet away the additional two feet is the wall itself primarily okay and I don't know if if there's going to be testimony on this because I know one of the concerns I would have is on these levels where are the like the HVAC systems going to be
are they going to be in the back portion of here and I don't and if if I'm if I'm jumping ahead I'll I'll keep AR then I will I'll hold we uh we can talk about that then I don't want to jump ahead um okay well that's all the questions I
had for now thank you okay so are we all good to let Scott take a seat okay thank you Scott I could call Michael test up the applicants architect we get him sworn and have his
cred placed on the record thank you Scott now everybody remember that you'll be able to ask Scott questions at the end of the meeting uh and make comments at today meeting so the next witness do his testimony
now um Mr test would you raise right hand do you swear or affirm the testimony you're going to give this evening is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do and could you please for the record just state your name and spell it sure first name is Michael last name Testa teest thank you do you share with the board your educational background and
professional affiliation and Licensing yes I'm a graduated New Jersey Institute of Technology uh Bachelor of architecture in 1991 licensed architect in good standing in state of New Jersey since 1996 owner and principal of firm Michael Vesta architect man Alpa New Jersey
since 200 to and I've had the pleasure of presenting in front of this board a number of times you're accepted thank you sir Michael if you could just take the board through um your designs here the buildings and kind of the general overview I think you heard a couple of
questions about some decks and some HVAC equipment so if you could incorporate that into your sure I'd like to walk the the board through the buildings we're we're basically presenting three buildings here tonight there's building one which would be on the southernmost uh part of the project that's um the part the building that's abing the
Madison Crossing uh property line then off to the West there's building two and then at the northern part of the site is the clubhouse uh building one is basically a L-shaped building we're going to call it that building consists of 39 units it is approximately
58,59 Square ft there is 19477 square feet on the first floor and each of the floors above are 19,29 uh this building is comprised of 39 units there are 12 one-bedroom units
two I'm sorry 21 two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom units uh the units uh most of the units have balconies at the front of the building the balconies prod protrude beyond the front face of the wall to give the building uh additional
shade and Shadow and character at the rear Mr chairman what he's talking about is not depicted on the screen yeah can we uh pull up pb1 please it should be one PDF that has all seven drawings in it I think it's are we referring to the uh
architectural plans that were submitted as part of the application okay would be the was um it's actually on the website as well the architectural plans I looked at them this afternoon on your website yeah and I have a flash drive with the PDF files if you'd like to have them as well and while they're getting that just
uh Mr C clausers just to clarify this is the architectural plans he's going to be referring to is those that's already been submitted as part of the packet so we don't have have to mark those separately as exhibits that's correct they don't need exhibits thank you I'm us I'm usually old school I bring the boards with me this is the first time and I think 20 years I
haven't brought boards to me to a meeting that's the full [Music] set just PB one the first image [Music]
okay as I indicated the building is like an l-shape here and it is located at the southernmost edge of the property AB buding the Madison Crossing property this is where the section that Mr Turner had uh Illustrated to the board and the
public and as I indicated uh the number of units oops that's good thank you um as I indicated uh the front facade has balconies that protrude out beyond the face of the building whereas
the rear wall along the Madison Crossing have recessed B balconies so there's nothing protruding beyond the rear uh building wall line as indicated in Mr Turner's cross-section uh the height of the ridge that Mr Turner had referred to as well
is 47 feet I'm sorry 41 feet 7 in I'll get into that when we get to the uh building elevations the entrance into this building is right here at the center it has a vestibule area for um security purposes there's also ajason a
separate door for uh deliveries of mail and packages off to the right of that is a trash room that contains a compactor and two yard containers that are on Wheels the um staff maintenance person on garbage days will go into this room
roll these containers out to a area designated on the site plan and then roll them back in after the garbage is collected this um this room is centrally located to all the rooms above there are trash shots in those rooms we'll go to the next floor you please
be the next sheet right in here is that trash room you can see this trash room is is a fairly large space it has two trash shoots to allow for garbage to be brought down larger um items such as cardboard boxes would be typically stored in this room and taken down
separately by the maintenance person uh there's a centrally located elevator that makes ease of access to both wings of the building there's a large uh open area Community area in the center of the building with access to it all of the units are handicap accessible the entire
building is handicap accessible the ADA Compliant the elevator is a stretcher compliant elevator uh for ease of um emergency emergency Personnel to move patient or people in up in and out that are incapacitated you have a three-bedroom
unit over here three-bedroom unit over here and it's all interspersed throughout the building the mix of the units we do have a total of 14 affordable units uh throughout the site uh the one-bedroom units are approximately 759 Square ft the two
bedroom units range from around 1,230 Square ft to 1,460 square ft and the three-bedroom units are approximately 2,40 Square ft so each of the units have um uh open kitchens large living spaces
uh at adequate size more than adequate size bedrooms very comfortable living areas throughout the throughout this building as well as the next if we could just scroll to the next image please this image here is the front facade that'll be facing the parking lot
this building as you can see is three stories we've basically articulated the building both horizontally and vertically we use can we just zoom into this a little bit for the for the community thank you as you can see here we have a mix of materials we have a
cultured stone base we have horizontal siding going up two-thirds of the building and at the upper third we have vertical Batten board siding um all um high high quality materials low maintenance items we have double hung
Windows uh double hung Windows as well as uh shutters and we have these vertical elements where the balconies are located that basically break up the facade vertically across the building these elements are carried around uh three of the all three of the sides as
well as the fourth side facing the um Madison Crossing property if we could just scroll down to the back of the side of the next page please this is the facade facing Madison Crossing as you can see very similar with the uh different braks of materials
different color tones all in the Earth Tone palet we have the the recessed balconies in here and someone had asked a question about the air conditioning units in these little areas here these little closets per se on the balconies and inside those closets are heating and
air conditioning unit typically called Magic packs they grab their fresh air from here there's not they're not sightly it just has a Louver or Grill on the face of the wall that's painted the same color the face of the wall and it Blends in with the facade uh all four
SIDS again carrying the same colors and materials throughout this was building one for everyone one we can scroll to the next building please and here is building two as you can see just a standard rectangular building opposed to the l-shape this is
located on the western western portion of the property and this building here is approximately 54,4 34 Square ft there's 18,250 Square fet on the ground floor 1892 square feet
for the second and third floor this building contains 31 units where the other building contained 39 uh we have two one-bedroom units here 22 bedroom units and nine three bedroom units this building if we could just
zoom in here please this building also has a centrally located entrance at the ground floor adjacent to a u mail room package room for the for the um occupants we have a large lobby area for lounge space for the occupant come down uh use their
computers we have a centrally located elevator again to access both wings of the building and what's different here is we also provide 32 I'm sorry 32 storage units so we have approximately 16 bins here 16 bins here
again this building is fully sprinklered it's fully handicap accessible all the units have been designed to be candy cap accessible and um as well as all the amenity spaces we can just scroll to the next image
please and again you can see this building is the same architecture we like to call this a modern Colonial appearance where we have a lot of colonial Elements Incorporated using multiple different building materials to give it a more modern and um contemporary look and feel yet still
being contextual with the rest of the township of Albridge as far as their style of architecture as I had indicated the top of this roof the highest point of this roof is 41 feet 7 in and the unit sizes are all the same
it's 759 Square ft for one bedroom 1,230 to 1,460 Ft for two-bedroom and 240 ft for three bedroom if you can scroll to the next page
please and the third building on this site is is the clubhouse which is located at the northernmost part of the property here can we just zoom into this plan please can we just zoom into to that this area wherever we'd like to zoom in is
fine so this building is is an amenity to the community this bu building will be used primarily for the residents it will not be rented out um this will be just used for the residents of the community this building is a one-story building that is
4,834 Square fet it also in this area contains a one-bedroom unit this one-bedroom unit is for the onsite maintenance person that's going to be living here at all times so that way he's on site if there's ever needed for any purpose can we just scroll up a little bit so I can give a little more
of the amenity thank you the rear of the property you can see is a pool with some Lounge area for the residents as well so you walk into this building of a central entrance area you have a leasing office and backspace we have a community Lounge area here we
have a community Lounge area in the back with card tables um coffee area this is the resident residential unit as well we have a gym Space Yoga studio and multiple bathrooms that could be used for both the interior occupants and the
exterior occupants and a small meeting room at the back corner can we just move over a little bit so I could just see the elevations great thank you so these are the two side elevations can I just I think it's down below yeah if you could there it
is this little guy right here so can we Zoom down into here [Music] yep just scroll down to the bottom of the page right in that area great thank you um as you can see the building is a one-story building with a u little more
decorative hip style roof to give it a little more um a little more a differentiation between the other buildings but still carrying the same architecture through with a rusticated base vertical cultured stone elements here accented entrance with columns in a
in a portico with a pediment horizontal siding and asphalt shingle roof this is a small canopy on the left side of the building that's the entrance to the residence here for the maintenance person and we have a small decorative Cupa here
again just to add character to the structure and to help differentiate it from the other buildings the other three sides of the building again are common to Common design elements is the main facade with horizontal Stone horizontal siding asphalt roof stone fireplace for
the interior space and again a complete complement for the other two buildings that would be the end of my testimony thank you Michael I have no no questions for Michael but he's available to your professionals and the board members for any questions they may have
hey let's open up for professionals any questions comments I don't have any questions I don't have any questions but uh I'm sure you will be willing to work with us on the materials when uh we're do going through the compliance review
stage absolutely and I from what I understand the Rec's balconies you have have looked around for other projects in Oldbridge the recent projects and that's where you got the uh idea from I'm sure yes we've done many projects in the
township we've had the direction from the boards previously to kind of look around town see what's being built and complement those those buildings so I want the board to hear this because we have been working with Architects some of the buildings that were designed especially the ones that were part of
older gdps the ones that were approved like 20 25 years ago their architecture style used to be the typical Garden style Apartments which were uh the planning of the 80s or the 70s and we are working with Architects or on any
development residential development that comes in to modernize them in terms of the architecture the look and the uh architectural features that are being used um so uh Mike has worked with um us
before on many other projects and um for his testimony he is ready to work with us in future to finalize these elevations okay thank you uh rkes any I don't have any questions Mr chairman
while we're on this side uh Eric or I have a a couple questions one on the recess balconies about how wide are they they're approximately 5et Deep by about 8 to 10 feet long and and the AC units can you just so
these aren't the typical like I have like some of the older developments they have just huge units in the back right right similar to residential units these aren't that no what's outside typically is a condenser unit that's usually for your air conditioning and an inside like you'd have in your regular house is a t
typical split system which would provide heat and air conditioning what we've done to to minimize the impact on the site is produce a different unit that's used a lot in apartment buildings that is self-contained and it's located on the outside wall typically it doesn't
have to be on a balcony but it's done in an outside wall so it has constant fresh air so it get air change and it runs much more efficiently that way so you don't have the typical noise that's coming out of the condenser units that are consistently running like anre residential house and it's contained
inside a closet more or less except for the L that's open for fresh air they're probably typically fairly quiet then right I would I would say your expertise it's okay I'm just I'm just trying to obviously you hear you've already heard folks questioning and you know with the
buffers I'm the outside of also looking at things you also have to hear your neighbors as well correct so I just want to make sure that the folks understand what what they're actually getting versus what the what you would have saw about five to 10 years ago with the large units in the back you're not
getting that anymore yeah this is a self-contained unit that will produce Some Noise no no near what the condenser on the ground with the fan blowing and everything and the the majority of that noise is probably pumping right into that residential unit more than pumping out it's the noise is contained it's an
insulated wall so it's it's just like an okay um like a sound transmission separation between the exterior interior okay and um on the back wall what's between the
building and the retaining walls is it just Landscaping like Landscaping yes gr and everything okay V so uh I just have a quick question can you talk about the trash collection uh that happens at the
buildings and on the site yeah it indicated if you just go back to one of the first drawings bam thank you there are trash rooms on each of the floors the upper two floors have a room which contains two trash shoots and a
larger area so this is the in building one this is the trash room here you can see it's a fairly large space there's two choots that go down into these two bins they're compressed and the bins roll out so there's typically a couple of 2 yard trash containers on Wheels
there's double doors here usually it's six feet wide to 8 ft wide that would open up and the containers would roll out they'd roll out into a site a spot on the site by the maintenance person and those contain ERS would be picked up once twice three times on as needed
basis on when it needs to be removed and those are loaded also from the first floor there's a little room here with doors so You' open up the little door like a old bank deposit box and you dump the garbage into that garbage container that room's self-contained it'll be cooled there'll be a drain in there to
minimize any kind of odor and um this comfort for any of the occupants adjacent to that room thank you Dan any questions okay anybody to my left Ed you're can you go back to the drawing that shows the back elevation of the
building that's uh facing uh the uh existing residence sure that would be sheet four that's okay I get it you go yes it would be the one up top here one up top and there are how many
how many units are in that building alone there are one two one two three four five six units facing the rear property L but there are only one 2 3
four units that are up against that property line CU remember the building is like an L so it angles away from the property line yeah so there are four units that are parallel to the rear property line do you have any idea is it on the right or on the left side of that building it would be on the right side
here the right side so the so as I'm looking at these yeah so this is again you have it's it's in it's like a vshape and L shape so it's kind of hard looking at it in perspective but again it's going to look like this if you're looking at it
straight on where everything is straight at you this is all fun an angle right now there's there's access from those back decks to that space that 20 foot space between t w there's no access no there's no access from those balconies no not from the balconies up above we
have a a fenced in area along the ground so no but a person could easily step over that into the backyard on the lower level to gain access if they wanted to well it's a 40 2 in high rail I'm 58 years old I might have a little hard
time getting over just I just have to you know thinking out of the the box here and the the air conditioning units you it's it's you know one unit but we're talking about six units now six air conditioning units that will be functioning all the time so you increase
the level of uh of Noise by six as opposed to just one so you have that that noise that uh is cumulative if they all ring at the same time um you and you're looking for um a
variance because it's a 50 ft okay and and you're looking for a variance because it's now 50 feet to set back but you're looking uh because you're going to have what 30 was it 37 feet or what Mr Turner had spoken to the purpose of that based upon site
conditions I would allow I'd rather have Mr Turner respond to the location of the building relative to the proper line well there there's it's there's a an an item here that's uh has to be uh the setback is an issue would you be willing
to make that a a two-story building instead of a three-story building well I think the height of the building we showed that is not basically the impact on the adjacent property the height of the building is actually lower than the buildings on the adjacent property so I
don't I understand that but you know looking at from the resident's point of view if you were were in that property and you've had this beautiful Woodland area behind you all these years and all of a sudden this building
appears I I'm I'm concerned about that uh you know either that or or or do away with the I'm sorry Mr do away with the uh yes either that do away with the uh the back uh deck
areas uh completely uh so that there's no possibility of noise from people having parties on that side um you know there's got to be a give and take here thank you Mr fr I I appreciate your
comments are you finished yes sir okay any any other comments or questions anybody else thank you Mr thank you very much our next witness is Frank misovich traffic [Music]
expert hi would you please uh as you raise your right hand do you swear or affirm the testimony you're going to give this evening is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do can you please state your name and spell it for the record it's Frank movich it's spelled m i s k o v i c h thank you
Frank if you could just share with the board your your licensed professional engineer in New Jersey I think you've testified in front of this board a couple of times it's been a quad while before the planning board but I've testified for the zoning board I a licensed professional engineer at the state of New Jersey I have a bachelor's of Science and Master's of Science
degree in civil engineering uh from Nork College of Engineering back in ' 69 I have 55 years experience now in Highway and traffic engineering uh I served 20 years at middlex County where in the late 70s and 1980s i functioned as the
County's traffic engineer I then went on to Private Practice where I was manager or vice president of transportation for two Central Jersey firms and in 2013 I went on my own thank you you're accepted thank you thank you right if you could take the board through your analysis of
both the you know the on-site development and circulation and uh and the traffic impact uh first if it pleases the board we have a lot of residents here maybe hearing the first time what happens at a with a traffic study so let me just briefly explain
what a traffic study does and what we do we do a side inspection of the area we set up doing traffic counts we look at the what the traffic might be generated by a particular development we then distributed that onto the area roadway
Network and then we then do an analysis to see what the operating conditions will be of a site driveway or an intersection either before before or after development and then we look at the site plan to look at circulation parking everything else to make sure it
complies with accepted the engineering standards and also the township requirements having said that we had submitted a traffic and parking assessment report to the town that's dated September 28 2024 uh subsequent to that we received a
review letter from your engineer environmental resolutions uh on February 27th 2025 in there they had some comments relating to traffic and if you recall on the 27th we did not reach traffic testimony that evening so that gave me
the opportunity to go back and address some of those traffic comments uh which was included additional traffic counts and that was we did prepare a response those traffic comments a written response that's dat March 15
2025 so let me first go through the database that we collected in the traffic counts originally in the 2000 excuse me 24 study we counted traffic on Texas road over at the site Frontage we did that for a full week and
we summarized the data at 15minute intervals now typically we would look at studying the week commu weekday commuting hours morning Rush Hour evening rush hour for a particular development but in this case we decided to not only look at that but look at
traffic on a Saturday and traffic on a Sunday so we expanded the typical what I would call typical scope of a traffic study so looking at those counts we found and those counts included all vehicles that were on that roadway both Eastbound and Westbound on
Texas road at the site Frontage uh we found that the weekday peak hours occurred from 800 to 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. nothing unusual those a typical communting hours on Saturday it happened midday from 11:
a.m. to noon Sunday from about 12: to 1: now that might have day to day Might Have Been Changed by 15 minutes thereabouts but those were when the pig volumes were recorded during the count period other hours of the day it might have been a lesser
volume what we found out what was interesting is that weekday pm. and Saturday the volumes were about equal on Texas Road they're about the same and then we had the weekday am Sunday they were about the same so it was ironic that we had that kind of
consistency The Next Step that we look at is projecting traffic out to some future year when this could be development could be built constructed and occupied so we looked at the now this year 2030 what we did was we took our 2022
traffic counts projected out eight more years to a year 2030 and to do that projection we look at rates that have been compiled by the New Jersey Department of Transportation where they have data and establish certain growth factors certain
percentage growth per year and certain various types of roadways main highways principal arterials local roads Urban arterials Etc they classify Texas road as an urban excuse me as an urban minor
arterial and they classify the section the recent data that's available from mbour road to Route 9 at a 2.75% growth rate per year ironically just to the west of marbor road and maror road south
of Texas the same classification they have as 1% per year a little bit less historically going back in the data Texas road and in our portion of it has always been 1% per year for they've increased that percentage for this
particular section U having said that we took the 2.7 5% the higher growth rate projected that out to eight years to come up with a future traffic volume and that was used then for our traffic analysis your traffic consultant in the
review letter had a concern that the fact that we used counts that were based in 2022 and thought they were a little bit dated maybe maybe affected by covid so since we had the time since the LA me last meeting we again went did a traffic
count on Texas road at our site Frontage again counted for a 7-Day period we counted summarized at 15minute intervals and we looked at those volumes and the peak hours in 2025 that was done in March
this year what we found was that there is very little change in the traffic numbers between 22 and 25 during the weekday weekday p.m am p.m. and Saturday but Sunday did show an increase in traffic volumes in fact the average
growth for those weekdays and Saturday was about 1% a year Sunday was about 5.1% so there's a big increase so what we then looked at to see if our analysis that we originally done was valid we
took the original counts that we projected 2022 2030 at the 2.75% we then took the new counts went from 25 to 2030 using the 2. 75% again for the
weekday and Saturday well we did the Sunday at 5.1% so we projected those out and we compared those volumes in 2030 what we found was our original projections were still less than using the projections from the new counts so
the analysis that we performed with that data in the original report I feel were valid they still remain valid what changed was Sunday so we redid the Capacity Analysis for Sunday with the higher traffic volumes having done that we looked at
then the traffic generation for this development and what that might generate onto the area roadway networks to do that we looked at data that was again compiled by The Institute of Transportation Engineers that data is published in their trip generation manual and we're now off to the 11th
Edition and we looked at senior adult housing that nman equature has been used in the past as age restricted different categories but they've kind of grouped them all together now but it's basically 55 and older type
communities we included the 70 units that's proposed for this we added the superintendent unit so we have 71 units that we project the traffic volumes on and we looked at two particular periods traffic is usually jined by any
kind of development during the peak commuting hours that was well know but there's also a ma Peak traffic during non- peak hours for example like a school may let out mid-afternoon not necessar at the evening peak hour so there's two different types of
periods the peak hour of age restricted based upon the data tends to not be during that commuter hour it's a little bit earlier during the day as an example during the morning if we look at rush hour it's 14 compar it to the
generator's hour is 20 PM the weekday it's 18 and 21 during the peak hour the generator Saturday and Sunday are about the same because obvious those peak hours are concurrent so what we did was what we do is we took the higher number that was in
here we added it to the higher traffic volumes on the roadway which gives us what we call a worst case scenario the highest volumes on the roadway and then we do an analysis determine what's the operating levels but we look at levels of service vehicle delay
Etc having done that we found that that our driveway itself the exiting movements continue to operate at level of service C that was in the original report and as on the Sunday it's still a level service C but there's an increase in delay will been a 5-second delay for
people trying to get out on to the roadway the left turn into the site still operates at level service a so those are well within reasonable levels of operating conditions for the for the site uh the next step in looking at we
looked at the site itself we looked at the parking requirements based on New Jersey residential site Improvement standards we look at the roadway configuration does it comply with rsis and we found that it does we have a 28t wide roadway entering the site that
narrows down to 24 ft when we get down to the interior areas where we have perpendicular parking rsis for the length of this entrance roadway which is greater than 300 ft they consider that to be excuse
me a multifam access cold toac meaning there's really one way in and out of development but on that type of development they limit traffic to a thousand vehicles per day we less than 230 per day so we're well within the con
the parameters that rsis has set if I even took it a step further and said this was a cuac would they limit traffic to 250 vehicles per day we're still less than that so it does comply totally with roadway width curbing sidewalk
everything it is full compliance we then looked at the parking Supply and as it as Mr Turner has indicated we do meet the parking requirements for this particular development uh but I took it a step further I looked at how that parking is distributed on the site we have parking
at the clubhouse we have some parking along Main Road a but if you look at the parking around each building the number of spaces that's provided around each is proportionate to the number of units in for each unit so you're not walking from one end of Tire development to the other
you're pretty close to your particular building on the other side of that Supply there's demand what is the peak demands you might expect at any particular time of day obviously evenings are usually to Peak demand when everybody's home and The Institute of
Transportation Engineers also provides data on part parking parking rates based on number of units uh the current one is the parking generation sixth edition and for an age-restricted Community they're estimating about 48
occupied spaces at Peak time which may seem a little low so but then I looked at non-ag restricted it's a multif family housing which are promly two bedrooms or more in that type of development and if I look at those rates compared to our number of units we're
talking about 82 to 90 vehicles Peak at Peak parking demands so that's well within the parking that's being proposed for this site so in my opinion we do satisfy parking and I don't think that's going to be particular issue with uh having parking try to park Elsewhere on
the site we have more than enough I'm offside I'm sorry Texas road as we all know is have some is pretty heavily traveled Comm especially during communic hours and we'll forget Route 9 for a moment but we've had discussion with the county we
had a virtual meeting with the county April 16th of 2024 which included representatives from the township and we presented several concepts for improving Texas Road the widening of the roadway at our driveway whether we needed a left turn lane we
needed to widen the roadway a little bit more uh those type of discussions uh the township also was looking to have a sidewalk constructed from our site to Route 9 at least to the CVS driveway or that vicinity so all those items were discussed what we did
find out number one is the county definitely wants a widening basically across our entire Frontage about 2,000 ft of roadway widening the question is whether it's all on our side some on the other side or what the config configuration will be but it it was
acknowledged that any widening in that roadway because environmental constraints could trigger right individual freshwater wetlands permit with any road widening relocation of ditches or utility poles we're not sure to that extent the applicant has agreed
to work with both the town and the county to come up with a plan for improving the roadway and actually he's in the process now having the entire length of Texas Road surveyed and the wetlands delineated across the entire length from Marble road to Route 9 and that will allow us now evaluate the
impacts and to come up with a plan that improve the wide imp widen Texas Road maybe improve operations but something that we can think is reasonable to fit in with that that plan so that's the problem we are working towards we don't
have a final resolution at this point obviously uh I think the first step is to get an approval from the town so in summary I know I talked a lot but I want to get everything on the record especially for the public to hear too is that the traffic generation this
is very little you're talking about one movement either in and out every six minutes on average or in peak times so it's not a very high traffic generator uh we use higher growth rates project future traffic volumes and the results the analysis show they operate well
within accepted engineering standards for operating efficiencies um again the roadway Network internal and parking comply with RSI and all industry standards and uh that Bas of the
report Frank I just have just a couple of questions to sort of highlight um you talked about the levels of service with the condition that Texas road is in now and the levels of service for that intersection would operate within uh reasonable parameters from an
engineering perspective so any improvements to Texas Road would only enhance those operations well it will enhance it there's a couple and just to digress a little bit uh from a capacity standpoint uh the amount of traffic that
would be using the driveway intersection uh really doesn't require a left turn lane however there is always the concern that someone getting behind someone that's making the left turn and can't get around them is impeded so one of the options was a left turn lane some options are widening so there's room to
bypass uh both of those have impacts on widening obviously and wetlands so we're still evaluating but then definitely any improvements going to help reduce traffic flow cause reduce impacts of traffic flow in Texas Road caused by
this development so and as as a result of the proposed development and the Count's uh ultimate review and approval and should the D cooperate this development could result in approximately 2,000 feet of improvement to that Texas road as we
leave up to the CVS that's correct okay I have no further questions for Mr M he's available to your board and board professionals to answer any questions they may have okay our board professionals yes I think uh Frank's
covered you know I raised several questions I think Frank has pretty much covered all of them um the one couple things here the county of course working with the county that's still unresolved and depending what they come back with could I guess in the worst case scenario
require an ended submission if if it really had an impact it's probably mostly widening along the road but there'll be some changes to the plans to address whatever improvements I guess that they require right knowing the county having worked for them and and other projects too now uh there's going to definitely be an improvement at this
point I cannot categor tell you just what that is but they are looking for an entire Improvement at least on our side which we feel we can accomplish but we don't have all the survey data completely yet to give you that answer so once that's worked out with the county I guess we would have the
opportunity to look at it and give some input on it I guess uh I mean it's their Road I understand but uh if there well I'll I'll I'll leave it to the town because I don't know at what point it stays with the board it goes down to the town engineer okay and and the county to
work out those issues understood but if that's something that the board wants to see those that's not a problem like to yeah certainly once they come back with something we would at least like to get that information so we see where where they going with that uh and see if we
you know I don't know why we disagree but I just you know would like to see what the county is looking at the only other thing that I had uh was about the clubhouse I had mentioned about the uh you know concern that this might be rented out or used for and U I think the
response was that it's restricted to residents of the community um probably based on that I would suggest some kind of a deed restriction to prevent it from being rented out or from having events over a certain size where the parking
would be over you know there wouldn't be enough parking in this and people would be parking on the road they'd be parking on Texas Road they'd be parking all over the place and I've seen that at other even age restricted developments in near where I live you know where where they they have an event there and certainly
would want to not have you know this is a club I assume this is going to be a clubhouse just basically for the use of the people that live there maybe small gathering with their family or something like that but certainly wouldn't want a you know a wedding or something at this that's not the intention I don't think the applicant would have any objection
to that kind of a restriction okay that was I think that's basically it also if you look at the floor plan that Mike showed it doesn't really kind of lend itself to something that would be rented out there's not a large Hall area I think everything else has been answered thank
you rkes thank you Mr chairman um Frank you you talked about you're working with the county for the left turn lane and and and possibly a bypass area uh have there been discussions about sidewalk yeah discussions of sidewalk
were included in there okay uh again the issue is you wi in the roadway you have to relocate a ditch and then you have the sidewalk so there's a where where do you put what where and obviously that's adds a little bit more to widening but definitely we're working
with the town one once we get all the survey and the wetlands completed we'll be able to evaluate putting evaluate putting the sidewalk in the what and then determine what those impacts are you know but historically on Texas Road any kind of widening is triggering some
significant Wetland permitting let's say we we had significant experience on Texas road so but there will I have to there will be something knowing the county to definitely we're keenly interested in having sidewalk along
along that stretch given the fact that there's a shopping center right down the end and you know you have a 70 senior units so it would be it would be be good to get some folks the ability to walk down to the shopping center that's understood the applicant aware of
that it's not necessarily an objection to the request to install sidewalk out to the right to go up to CVS it's whether it's feasible we all are subject to the state we could say we'll do it all we want and if the D says you're not allowed we can't do it so for the benefit of the
board I have been involved in all the meetings with the county and um uh in the first meetings itself I had asked for that sidewalk because I think it's important when you have um age restricted housing and you have seniors living there there has to be an ability
for um the the seniors to be able to walk to the grocery store or a pharmacy so um the applicant had agreed need to do whatever they can but again there are significant Wetlands on the property but
they have agreed to work with us and County and then DP to see what can be done but I have I I just wanted the board to know that the applicant has been working with the county we had two
or three meetings already in I think it's two every time we set one up at the county the county calls Vina and the Cole and and puts them on on the zoom call so they're always they're always there okay thank you um anyone else on our profess
okay anybody on this side board members I have one question Franken my understanding of the calculations for a traffic study ought to include any other known developments in the area now when I overheard your testimony I didn't hear
that factored in well back when I started this didn't have any that would impact that I don't know if that's changed I would be honest with you in that one however I think using the higher growth rates and rejecting out would AC would accommodate
some any additional traffic right I mean I presume the county is certainly factoring that but I think that's part of what you should be doing as well so I don't know if there's another bite at the Apple but that should be factored to your best ability well we will that's something
the county will asked for at this point we haven't made application to the county for the plan yet we've had discussions on what improvements would be required but there's no formal submission to the county yet once that happens those things may occur uh
however on that side of it when we look at the levels of servers the level of service C we have a range when we go from a c to a d we're kind of in the middle of that so we can absorb additional traffic on the roadway and still be within that range
in my opinion uh and then if it triggers higher that means it's a left turn L that has to go in type of thing so just to answer what might be a question that's on someone's mind you know why didn't you go to the county and work all of that out um there's a very
clear Statute in the municipal land use law that says we get to come to you first there's a couple of cases some really really unusual uh D permits that that had to be uh taken first um but other than that you have to have a starting point and if I come to this
board and this board says go to the county first and then I go to the county and the county says go to the D first and then we just run around in a circle so the legislature came up with the idea go to the local board first because you may make changes to our project that we can then take to the county things of that nature understood and I'm clear
that our requirements are to factor other known developments I'm not talking about County requirements so just all asking is that you look into that part of it and I'm sure the county is certainly okay on my left
Ed Frank if I call you Frank that's fine um the first part of your presentation I know it was English but right over my head okay um but the the second part was was clear enough uh my concern is the
traffic backup on on Texas Road uh you know you have how far is it from the entrance and erress from your property to that that intersection I had a feeling that question would come up okay okay from our
driveway to the stop line on Route 9 is 1,800 ft we're about 1,400 feet to the CVS driveway so we're quite a distance from there operationally we're only adding
maybe less than 10 cars peek out to that I don't think that's adding significantly to any backups you'd have to back up 70 80 cars to get to our driveway operationally the problem at that intersection is not necessarily I'm going to say I'm going
to categorize the traffic volume is the fact that The Jug Handle from Route n to make the left turn at the your turn that gets backed up because it's very close and anybody in that Jug Handle that wants to go east across highight has to cross not only the left turn lane but
the other and that's always congested uh but we're quite a distance from that drive where I don't think there's any issue operationally likewise going to malor road we about another 1,600 ft so we're
kind of right in the middle so operationally our driveway activity is not affecting what goes on at that there's no like spill over where we have that interaction where it's problem and how many how many calls you
in in the uh process how many calls would you say would be in that development two two per unit would you say be average you think what do you what are you basing your your calculations on how many cost well we
look at rates and it's actually studies how much traffic exits on into the roadway reated to number of units and those are done over you know period of time the morning during the evenings too so when we look at the peak hour we looking at a certain amount of traffic
that may exit during that time but that doesn't mean there isn't traffic exiting throughout the day in and out there's flow both ways uh you'd have to look at vehicle ownership in the area for that type of community determine actually how many cars might be there but the studies
look at parking demands looking at probably about 90 cars at Peak time for this unit 70 units so you're probably looking at just one over one per unit a little bit over per unit which other studies I've done
other words of some of the age restricted you're in that range as far as vehicle ownership per unit that's not to say that's going to be here but that kind of gives you an idea some may have one may some may have two but it's never yeah it it's
different with a multif family when you have children as a larger family you're going to have more but when you you get into this type of community is a little bit less but even if we're two per unit we meet we have enough parking to accommodate that sure is there any school buses that
would Traverse along that area on Texas Road uh did did you know it I don't I can't say for sure I know if we counted they were in the counts yeah uh but obviously we're not having any school traffic with our
development no I understand think I'm thinking about the backup of traffic on on Texas road because you as I indicated if there's any backup it's not really getting to our site we're quite a distance from any of that uh so all right thank
you anyone else yeah I just had a backup question for the architect is that all right or of course yeah right now is that okay yeah I mean maybe if if you want to ask if anybody else has any more questions for Fring you know we's finish with good
traffic U Let's uh finish with the traffic first okay okay Eric go ahead just um I just wanted to clarify when you were doing some of um your calculations did did you testify that
some of your calculations you did with the over 55 and then without and you still met we still met the the criteria either way yeah I was talking about I was looking at parking because not the on the demand side what would how many
cars might be parked at the side on at peak times the data that's provided for age restricted would show about 48 to 50 cars parked at peak times that's slightly less than one per unit however what I looked at as a comparison if I
took a multifam type development non-ag restricted I'd be 90 or less peak time so just to show that we 140 spaces are more than adequate for for this development that would just probably confused but I just
kind of give you an order magnitude what the range might be okay and what I had one clarifying question when you were talking about the culdesac what what was that it like was it was like a culdesac a residential culdesac versus rsis has criteria for
developments that have a single point of entry inbound and outbound right you you're typical you have a single road that comes in with the bulb as a culde saac right that's not what we have but if it was a typical cuac as you envision
they limit traffic on that to 200 vehicle 250 vehicles per day or less than that when you have a multif family development like this a single point inbound and outbound and it comes into the site if it's greater than 300 ft
they consider that a multifam access road okay all right because at the end we do have the parking areas to turn around with that with the single point of entry they limit it to a th000 cars a day so we're still well under that it's
just the classifications that they use for types of residential development that dictates the width of the roadway whe it needs curbing needs sidewalk okay thank you okay um um let's see um I have one
question uh if the county rejected all your proposals okay with within the right away um would you still be able to use the current access to continue with this development I know there's an access now
and I I believe there's a gate there the let me answer it this way we look at capacity we look at operational efficiencies we look at how much that turny traffic let's say will be delayed and what the cues might be it shows very
little delay for that entering traffic into our site very little delay and part of that is because we have the traffic to that Mar Road which is another 14500 feet away it's quite a distance what happens is someone that's behind them
that wants to go straight may have to wait till he makes that I understand so is it needed from a capacity standpoint no but operationally if we want to keep traffic moving on Texas Road we'd have to do some type of widening okay and we did look at some
options for that but if that didn't happen my question is do you have currently have enough access because there was a house there uh some time back do you have enough withd accents to
put the Ingress and egress yes the our driveway can be accommodated and we have Uplands area at our entrance on our side that we can do some type of widening for that uh if that that's your question that's my question okay thank you yeah
welcome I think we're done yeah I I yeah I believe one of the board members had a followup question to to Mike make sure we get that in yeah I I just had a question I just want to follow up uh the buffer zone should be at 50 feet
correct between both properties and we're going for a variance to keep it at 39 is that correct it's 37 37 at this our planner is coming up next to talk about the variance at this we're 50 in in a particular area not the entire development so let me ask you a question
what happens if you keep the buffer zone at 50 the way that it's supposed to be and you don't go for variant what happens to the units that you currently have between between the end of your building to the retaining wall what do
you have left over there Mr Mr Turner indicated the impact basic on the constraints of the wetlands around the property pretty much eliminate one whole half of that building so you're it's going to be impossible no no I'm just saying you you said you have four units that are buting up
against them so if you just take away and you keep the 50 ft variants how much are you taking away from your side the depth of the building with the corridor this is 6 I say 75t 35 so
you're removing if you remove half that building you're removing approximately 25 to 30 ft the building along that along that edge okay that's all I needed do I thank you thank you okay uh we're going to
take a five minute recess okay okay see e e e e e e e e
e e e e e oh the I I understand that yeah how's that going okay we're
back where's the uh we need we're gonna need our applicant get going and uh where minina yeah we need we definitely need her for this say I was here all right uh Mr chairman before we start
just as a just a side note and this goes for everybody on the on the board as well as in the audience I know I appreciate everyone whispering to try to keep it uh you know to to to uh you know quiet comment but the transcriber needs to hear and sometimes it gets a little distracting so anything you know that
might be substantial if you could take it to the back of the room or outside uh otherwise it's just it's becoming a little difficult for that so I just ask for your uh your your help with that issue okay it's going to be another two minutes but Mr Portell can we have a
roll call for the uh members that are at the call ER we don't have Mr Palama yes Mr H hopan yes Miss Canon yes Mr Rena here Mr Petty Here Mr
Brennan Mr Ferrara yes chairman laow here okay okay we're back on the record um our next and Final witness is Allison coffin she's a professional planner but I see that the board's planner is not yet in the room um so yes for a couple
minutes yeah so I'm gonna I Can't Have Allison testifying without being here okay I'm sorry I missed what was that discussion oh yes but in the meantime um Mr col I could swear in the witness maybe we can go through her qualifications get that on the record and then um we'll just wait for Vina to
start raise your right hand do you swear or affirm that your testimony this evening is going to be the truth the whole truth and nothing about the truth yes I do okay could you state and spell your name for the record Allison coffin it's c ffi n share with the board your educational background a little bit your your
license I have a bachelor's degree from Boston College I'm a licensed professional planner in the state of New Jersey I'm also certified by the American Institute of certified planners I've had my license and certification for almost 20 years it'll be 20 years this June uh I work for James W Higgins
Associates we're located out of Ocean Township in the 20 years that I've been a licensed planner I've been accepted as an expert witness in front of boards in more than a 100 communities throughout the state I primarily stick to Mammoth ocean in Middle sex counties and I've appeared here in Oldbridge quite frequently though I am more typically
found in front of your zoning board okay you're accepted thank you 20 years we're our career match yes I've been with Ken and Jonathan this September will be 20 years and I remember Alison starting
so Allison if you could just share with the board what you did to prepare uh this analysis and then take us through uh the analysis I would just remind the board that this is um a Redevelopment plan uh that we're operating under not a typical zoning ordinance so Allison will be speaking in those uh terms sure to
prepare for tonight I met with the applicant I reviewed the application materials met with the other uh members of the applicants team I reviewed your board's professionals reports I visited the site and I've read the Redevelopment plan and looked at your zoning ordinance the subject site that we're looking at
is a 39.6 5 acre a regularly shaped lot with Frontage on Texas Road the property is undeveloped and heavily encumbered with Wetlands leaving only 5.4 acres in the middle of the lot available for the proposed development the applicant is proposing to develop the site with an
age restricted multif family apartment community in two buildings with 70 total Apartments of which 14 are affordable and a Clubhouse which contains a superintendent unit site amenities include that Clubhouse a pool and pickle ball courts as well as parking landscaping and lighting uh the property
is located in The Crossroads Redevelopment area Flex District the proposed Aid restricted apartments are permitted and are governed by the prcc which is the planned residential retirement community districts requirements the applicant is requesting what are called design exceptions for
some of these requirements the design exceptions are different from bulk variants and the criteria for granting these is different than what you would typically hear for variance or waiver relief and it's laid out within the Redevelopment plan itself and the Redevelopment plan says that the planning board can grant
design exceptions from the crossroads Redevelopment plan when they quote will not substantially impair the intent of the Redevelopment plan and will not present substantial detriment to the public health safety and Welfare so the design exceptions that the applicant is
requesting are first the minimum tra boundary setback landscape buffer where 50 feet is required and 37 feet is proposed this design exception is driven in large part by the environmental constraints of the land and a challenging sewer service area boundary
which creates severe limitations on where development can be located within this parcel resulting in a portion of one building extending into that 50ft tra boundary the applicant is proposing extensive landscape buffering in this area to mitigate the in intrusion uh and
the setback proposed is greater than the setbacks existing to the properties of the South which indicates that the setback is consistent with the character of the area furthermore given the grade change uh I think that mitigates part of the deficiency in the setback and that the building appears lower than it would
be uh if it were at grade and still the same height the next design exception that the applicant is requesting is minimum active Recreation Area now the plan requires 3% of the tract which in this case would be 51 8119 Square ft the applicant's proposing
9,315 Square ft the applicant has scaled the active Recreation Area to be appropriate to the usable area of the lot that 5.4 Acres as opposed to the full tract size when this Redevelopment plan was drafted 20 years ago it's not likely that the extent of the wetlands on the site was fully known and the
strict application of this requirement would result in 22% of the developed area being set aside for ACT Recreation which would severely impede the ility of the site to accommodate the permitted use and the residential density that allows for this project to work if we
apply 3% to the developed area the active Recreation component would be 7,057 square ft so the applicant exceeds this and that indicates to me that the intent of the requirement is being achieved uh the next design exception is the minimum building setback from
private streets uh from a private Street curb 20 ft is required and at the clubhouse we're at 10.3 ft the severe Environmental constraints on this site again require that the Development Area be used efficiently and the result that results in this building being located closer than 20t to the internal Street
the site plan proposes Landscaping in this area to soften the appearance of the building so it does not feel like it's imposing on the streetscape and there are a few more design exceptions proposed uh within the crossroads Redevelopment plan it has some fairly hyp specific requirements that appear to
have been aimed at enabling a very specific housing type that was commonly built when this Redevelopment plan was written 20 years ago U those quadruplex style units that Vina mentioned in the last hearing this style of housing unit is not consistent with current market trends and therefore the applicant also
requests design exceptions from these hypers specific standards and those include minimum dwelling unit floor size maximum dwelling units per landscape parking Court uh maximum dwelling units per story minimum balconies per unit minimum balcony patio width uh minimum
balcony patio area and minimum unit storage space uh when the board is considering these design exceptions the Redevelopment plan provides us very specific guidance as to how to assess them and it says to gain approval of such modifications or waiver of
development requirement or design standard the applicant shall demonstrate the resulting change well one generally satisfy the Redevelopment plans goals and objectives I've reviewed the Redevelopment plans goals and objectives and I think that the proposed development even with the request to
design exceptions satisfies the intent of the plan more specifically the plan has goals to advance the site plan advances the goals in the Redevelopment plan of having an appropriate development at a key location in Oldbridge Township enabling a carefully
planned use of environmentally sensitive lands in a way that enhances the value of forested wetlands to the land uses developed in Upland areas the plan respects and protects extensive Wetlands on the site by making efficient use of the Upland area and a by the requested design exceptions uh
providing for alternative housing types for senior residents in a planed retirement community setting and enhancing the beauty of natural forested Wetlands the proposed plan limits impacts to the existing Wetlands leaving much of the site Frontage unchanged and allowing Texas road to maintain the
existing enjoyment of the wetlands natural beauty uh secondly the site plan has to be designed in accordance with the Township's normally acceptable engineering planning and or architectural practices and the proposed plan achieves this even with the design
exceptions third it's not have an adverse impact on the physical visual or spatial characteristics of the overall development plan for the parcel or track to be developed the proposed design exceptions here do not have an adverse impact on the overall development pl's
physical visual or spatial characteristics and they allow for an efficient and attractive use of the Uplands portion of the site uh fourth is to generally enhance the overall development plan for the track and that's the same and fifth is to generally enhance the streetcape the
proposed design exceptions do not harm the streetcape along Texas Road internally the proposed overall plan will have a desirable visual character six is not reduce the useful life or increased cost of Maintenance of the Improvement to be modified or otherwise
have an adverse impact on the long-term function of the development the design exceptions the applicant's asking for allow for a project with a useful life and maintenance costs that are improved by the efficient and effective overall design and seventh is to not materially
detract from the Real Property Dev value of the development or adjacent nearby properties it's my opinion that the design exceptions allow for a high value project they do not detract from the value of the development itself and given the grade change and the extensive Landscaping along the southern border I
would not anticipate a negative impact on the adjacent property from the requested setback design exception and the remaining design exceptions will have no impact on adjacent properties as they have no off-site impact uh there are two bulk variances that are also being requested from the
township ordinances in addition to those design exceptions and these are the minimum distance from building pH to parking area and the maximum building facade length uh this variance relief this is the typical bulk or C variances that the board hears there are two tests
within the municipal land use law for this type of variants the first is the C1 standard that's the hardship variant and that's appropriate When A lot's unique shape topographic conditions or pre-existing legal structures create hardship and the second standard is the C2 standard which is Justified when the
purposes of the municipal land use law are Advanced by the requested variance and the benefits substantially outweigh the detriments uh it's my opinion that the requested variances can be granted under that C2 standard uh variance is Advanced the purpose of the municipal
land use law purpose a promoting public health safety and general welfare purpose C by providing adequate light air and open space purpose e by promoting the establishment of appropriate population densities and concentrations that would contribute to the well-being of persons neighborhoods
communities and regions and preservation of the environment purpose G by providing sufficient space and an appropriate location for residential use purpose I by promoting a more desirable visual environment through creative techniques creative development techniques and good Civic design and
Arrangement purpose J by promoting the conservation of open space and valuable natural resources and by preventing urban sprawl and degradation of the environment through improper use of land and purpose M by encouraging a more efficient use of land the benefits of these variances include advancing those
multiple purposes of the municipal land use law and enhancing the development of this process consistent with the intent and goals of the crossroads Redevelopment plan it's my opinion that there is no detriment to the variances proposed the proposed building to to curb setback um could be considered di
Minimus in this case and the proposed facade length is required due to the extensive constraints of the site limiting the size and shape of usable areas uh these buildings are deep within the property and not easily visible offsite and therefore any impact to that variance would be limited to the
residents and visitors on site and has no impact offsite and lastly the variances that are requested do not impair the intend and purpose of your master plan and zoning ordinance in fact they allow for this property to be used consistent with the Redevelopment plan and for all of those reasons it's my opinion that reasons do exist for the
granting of the requested design exceptions and the variances and that they can be granted without detriment to the health safety and general welfare of the public the granting of the variances would result in the Improvement of the site in a manner which is consistent with your master plan and development
ordinance but most importantly the crossroads Redevelopment plan Alison I just want to clarify a couple of points the 50 Foot setback that we've been discussing and the 13t deviation is within the design standards under the
Redevelopment plan that's correct so that's analyzed as a design exception under the standards that you testify to sort of halfway through your your uh testimony correct and that's not part of something that's analyzed under the C1 or the C2 criteria that this board is
commonly familiar with that's correct and is there in addition to the 50 fot setback from which we are about the length of this table violating um there is a buffer design standard as well yes and does the applicant meet
that buffer design standard we're only requesting the design exception from the the boundary track from the setback the the buffer that's in place that's designed we meet that yes okay I have no other I just wanted that clarified the two different standards um and if I
could U you know Allison is available for the the board and uh and your professionals to answer any questions um Allison a question for you since there for all the variances or design wavers that are requested do you really
think that um there's something that really stands out which would have negative impacts or these variances or waivers are a result of a plan that was written to a specific type of age
restriction Ed housing because age restricted housing could be single family two family like detached attached multif family um so would you shed some light on that yeah I I do think that the crossroader development plan was so very
specific it seemed to have a very particular uh site plan in mind that was not subsequently built have you have you really looked at Madison Crossing the development um have you looked at the
zoning the uh densities uh no I have not okay okay uh I'll I'll hold that thought for a minute um but I don't have any further questions for the planner any anybody else on outside I don't have any
questions I I don't either okay board members am I right Eric so I don't know I think this is more of a a question fora um so for folks listening we're now
entering the round four of affordable housing and as part of the township we have to go through a plan for what our fair share affordable housing would be Mike I am I'm talking into the mic can you hear is it better
now okay so we're we're entering into our fourth round of the the affordable housing re requirements that the state sets for us um and Vina can you just clarify how this property would be
affected by that load that's my job so Joe and I have been working for the last almost two months now uh on uh
affordable housing and the way it works is uh and what has happened what the numbers I'll leave that aside but assuming that nothing gets built on this property now assume that the board denies the application the developer
goes away it becomes waken land for the state as a planner or as the township we have to create a housing plan that addresses or creates affordable housing so uh I would be most
likely uh and Joe please chime in uh whenever I'm incorrect but most likely I would have to create an inventory of vacant land within the township and that would include private as well as
publicly owned Parcels this is a Township owned parcel um it comes under class 15 C it would be included for affordable housing and what happens is when you conduct a vacant
land analysis you look at the zoning on the adjacent parcel you look at densities you look at the land you analyze it to come up with a realistic development potential if this land is waken when it
goes to a fair housing center or DCA and they are evaluating it to them this is 39 Acres of land and um Madison Crossing because usually the way planning works is they want to develop or have
consistent land use patterns so they will look at the surrounding area for densities they will look at the surrounding area for types and then they would tell us how much or what we need to build so
if Madison Crossing is roughly 43 Acres I was just looking up on the maps uh thank you rakes for helping but Madison Crossings is roughly 43 Acres that has
228 homes so if you translate that that is a density of 5 units per acre now typically with my past experience with affordable housing the assigned density is 8 units per acre it can go to 6 16
units per acre depending on the land however I am being conservative I assume that at 5.3 units per acre where Madison Crossing is developed if this waken piece of land was to be assigned a
number it could even come up to 200 units on that site and I bring that up because it's it's a hypothetical number but what happens is if the land is
constrained then they opt for cluster zoning or where you preserve the open space that is constrained and you go higher so all the concern about the three story building there is a potential that we
don't do anything the state comes in and then you're forced to go higher and you have taller buildings the other another instance is when um they say okay now this site because it's municipally owned
could be a site for 100% affordable units and because it's Township owned now you have to develop the site with all 100% and again remember the underlying zone is something that
allows residential as well as non-residential what is being proposed is age restricted housing I understand because when I was using the restrooms I was hearing people talk that oh these are
Apartments it's not the type of housing we live but it's age restricted and from what I understand these are condos right they're not we always use the word townhouse I was going to speak to that right so it's a
different style but they are age restricted there there are no school kids uh it is the similar type of development that is coming the building type might be different so uh I mean and that's why I said it's a loaded question
there are lot of possibilities The Zone allows for a warehouse The Zone allows for a data center The Zone allows for Extended Stay The Zone allows for uh
nonresidential development such as as restaurants offices so among all the permitted uses and this plan was written years ago this plan was written when Madison Crossing was being developed so
out of what the Zone allows and the permitted uses what would then be the best choice for that area right so there are multiple things that the Board needs to think about when uh you know you're
reviewing this application I think this is one of the tougher applications the board has to uh review and weigh in on because there are multiple factors and we are in the fourth round the township is compelled by the state to have a
housing plan uh in place by June 30th 2025 so uh in the next few months Jo and I will be busy looking at all the vacant property that are there Eric did I answer your question yeah oh yes to the
to the fact that based off of the fourth round and just the affordable housing mandates that happened should this go into the vacant land the state can force us to build 200 some odd units Plus on this
property and it would actually take the power that we have as a board to ask for certain things for buffers for design and things like that away from us and kind of really the state mandates what we have to put there correct that is
correct okay so just want to make sure that folks understand with these with the affordable housing mandate that comes out and unfortunately we're sitting at the starting line of the next round right if I'm not mistaken the state had
came back to us with something along the lines of close to 700 700 affordable units when developers come in those 700 units are at best 15 to 20% of what they build so calculate that 700 number as
just 20% of what would have to be built throughout the town that's you extrapolate how manyy units are built so some of these the questions that that that we're being asked that what we're requiring of the the applicant and what
they gracious enough to do should it go into the affordable how housing mandates these opportunities start to go away and I I think Mr you would agree with that as well how how some of this works is you know as being has testified
we can we can have these conversations with with developers with their attorneys their professionals and get certain things out of it but should we go into a mandate we no longer have that that ability to have lack of a better term
than negotiations with developers just in my if you if you were asking me I me just in my experience with it um as we as we sit here you know and and the board sits here your concerns are your neighborhood your
neighbors Oldbridge Township once you get out of here and you get in front of a judge in State Court their primary concern is the Constitutional mandate for affordable housing not Oldbridge um not to say that they're mean people but when you when you get to the judge
they that's they that's why you know the case law the Joe talks about Judges defer to boards um because they know the character of their their area but when it comes to uh affordable housing that judge has got a job and that's to get those houses
built the there's one more question and not related to affordable housing but that's a question for Allison because um I mean as a planner and typically when I work as an consultant I work with the site Engineers to see how they're could
be a minimum impact to the surrounding neighborhood right in this case do you agree that the environmental constraints that are on this side actually impose some sort of hardship I know we're not talking about a use variance but because
of the way the developable portion is out on the side it's narrower at the entrance and it widens at the back so the only place to put a building is towards the back because otherwise we
would have preferred in many instances we the ordinances where which I have written in the past seven years have a minimum and a maximum front yard setback because you want buildings closer to the street right of way but in this case
because of the constraint the designer is kind of compelled to push the building to the back and in that instance a material of whether you're building an age restricted housing or you're putting a warehouse that would be
the place to put a building and I'm I'm just talking in terms of side design is and would you agree to that yes I absolutely agree if we were talking hardship it would absolutely be present here the site design is dictated in large part by the wetlands and the wetlands buffers the sewer area thank
you so then on the subject of affordable housing since we have been an Allison here in their attention I'll ask Allison but being I would invite you to comment why not just get rid of more units what happens when we get rid of more units is the is the affordable housing
availability from this site in any way related to the market rate units oh yes it's a percentage of the market rate units as we lose market rate units we lose affordable units correct V saying anything that's incorrect no you're correct okay M Mr chairman I just kind
of um I think this is an important discussion but we really got to focus on the application before us just given the hour and we know still have the public here that needs to be spoken about that wants to address and ask questions and make comments so I would suggest it you know kind of focus a little bit back into the actual application okay Eric
thank you for the question ven thank you for the answer anybody um I left it's fair Allison um getting back to you said something about the uh active Recreation Area yes it's 3% and you calculated that
on the um 5.4 Acres yes right I just want to it seems to be inconsistency here we're we're now looking at the 5.4 acres for calculations but when we look at the
occupancy uh density of it you were looking at the 39.6 Acres I was providing that we do need the design ex we absolutely need the design exception um but if you strictly apply that requirement it takes 22% of the usable
area away so by I was offering the board some perspective at how it the open space in Recreation Area is scaled to the portion of the site that's being developed um but yes the density is calculated through by the entire parcel as it's defined in the municipal land
use law that just doesn't seem right to me but I guess if that's the way it's calculated yes that's above my pay rate I guess okay um is that it okay finished everybody dan do you have anything no I
I do um I don't know where to direct my question I'll start with you in terms of the community impact statement I know your testimony globally covered it but there may be parts of what was documented in that statement that could address some of the community's concerns
obviously seeing a larger majority than the here is there something that you could speak to that could address some of the items that are a detriment that were outlined in the community impact statement I don't think the community impact statement addressed setbacks
which is what um a lot no no it deals more with um Public Services Municipal services do you need additional Library space additional schooling and and the financial impact of the proper property um but it doesn't it doesn't directly address the setback
issue okay thank you you're welcome okay we're g to uh are are you finished with your testim okay absolutely okay thank you uh we're going to open up to the public I just just with the hopes of maybe cutting off uh you know an issue that comes up and and with Mr cardillo's
permission the question I know is going to come up you know are are this are these apartment buildings are these rentals or these sales it is not a proper discussion in front of this board the ownership of the property um these are meant to be for sale units but think
about it I could sell it to someone and they could decide to rent it um these are constitutional questions these are economic and socioeconomic questions that are not for this board um to hear it's not within your jurisdiction whether someone's going to rent it or own it just trying to cut that off I know it's going to come up anyway but
just trying to get that out there yeah M yes and and and I I agree if this was you know a rental project that's something different than whether the individual units are going to be owned or rented and and in that situation I absolutely agree that with um with uh Mr
clauser that that's not something that's before this board these are intended be rented into excuse me for sale units but if an owner decides to rent it or not rent it that's not within the perview of this board so Mr low I'm going to ask Scott to join me because probably I
would think most of the questions might come to him but all of the professionals will be available okay uh if there's an appropriate answer to to give okay anybody would like to make a comment or ask a question raise your hand comments yes yes yes and and for
the recordkeeping purposes who when when you come up can you please identify your name uh address and spell your name for the court report it will just be helpful uh so that we have it and it's accurate in the record so you're not refer to someone who you're not no no no no we have to we have to
you have to the mic because we're on TV so it actually has to be picked up and and you don't necessarily have to give the address I I that's just something that historically we've always done which is if you can say your name and your my name is vitki and I live 8 underscore last name l u h o v i TS k
y and I live at 8 hernandes squ and if you're going to present an exhibit if you can just identify it if it's a picture tell us if you took it what it is of okay would you be able to bring the first picture from the developer you show to us with the and
everything please would have been last month Morin no no the overall plan the site plan or do you want the crosssection yes the first crosssection I'm sorry may I use your pointer please thank you there's pointer okay it's not mine you
can use it is it pointer would you help me please thank you works thank you okay I have prepared the presentation based on the proposed development outline in the vision Oldbridge major C plan and would like to
highlight several key points for your consideration up of reviewing the drawings which I had um I have note that the actual distance from the deck to the bound line is only 13 ft not 25 ft as
proposed the new building will be just 15 ft away from our houses not 16 ft as indicated in your plan uh I like your picture but this picture survey work done is this man a surveyor a professional
engineer um he has not been asked to be qualified as a professional he's speaking as a member of the public and it's l lay opinion that he's providing as to T so how were the measurements taken um was there survey markers utilized I master degree in civil engineer with 20
years experience in my former count country and here I'm 25 years in real estate business so are you a licensed engineer in new not I I'm not but I'm leing this development I would like to bring all points I have you can but I
have to protect the applicant that you're giving out measurements and I don't know how you came to those numbers I believe the board supposed to tell us what should I do next you can you can provide lay testimony because you're not qualified as an expert if you are going to give specific
measurements you have to be able to justify them you say if it's 15 ft you can say I went out there with the tape tape measure it's 15 ft if you're estimating you have to identify as I mentioned here I used the drawing which was available in the planning office for
me and I saw those drawings and took all sizes from those drawings I never saw this plan before yeah this has just been identified no one seen that except for just today this is what I just said did you make a statement earlier that the new building would be 15t from your
building 50 5 50 ft 50 by your drawing okay I thought it was 15 that's why I asked 5 okay not 60 how shows on your drawing okay the proposed building will also have common
area elements AC units which is usually located on the back of the the building and these units gives much more noise than units inside the balconies our we have our bu on our property we also have buildings the three floor buildings and
this drawing these pictures will show you how many units we have on the side of the building which covers hallway corridors and common area elements of those buildings and it's going to face let me just slow you down for a second you're you're presenting the board with photographs we're going to Mark those as
exhibit 01 MH um and can you please identify what it is depicted into those well first off did you take those photographs yes I when did you take those photographs in our development from the building similar to this three floor
buildings with the AC units on the side for the common area elements inside the building so I'm just protecting your test I'm trying to get your testimony out so please I'm not trying to interrupt no I understand so that those photographs are are uh buildings within the your Dev vment the adjacent development and you took those
photographs and were theyve taken recently were they taken with the last month was a year it was taken uh at time of the first meeting couple of weeks ago okay all right thank you continue all right and this units really big units and it's like
your home units probably not not like balcony units and you're going to impact us definitely the develop developer plans to plant these trees but I urge you to consider the following details they PL the drawing which I saw shows us
27 red cedar trees which PL in height 6 7 ft which will mature to high of 25 ft growing only one 2 ft per year then just five white o trees which is pling high is 12 to 14 ft which will mature to high
60 ft growing only 1 ft per year and the third one is four red maple tree which is pling high is 1214 ft which is Will mature to height of 60 ft growing 2 3 ft per year total of the tree pH to our the
to our buildings it just 36 compared to 172 which was presented by architect on the drawing I saw now based on this drawing they show us high of 10 ft
correct retain wall now this size very similar to size of this tree which is also 12 ft as I mentioned to you they planning to plant 12 ft or 6 ft tree this is going to be first year this tree going to comes in 20 years take a look
here on my drawing you can easily see same tree unfortunately let me just I want to clarify for the record so now as part of exhibit o on the back side uh in addition to the photographs you have a handdrawn uh diagram did you did you draw that
diagram yes I okay and it's and what what is depicted the diagram it looks to me that it is a similar type cross-section as what's been identified as exhibit A3 uh but with to your hand drawing and your Dimensions that you're proposing correct
this this is made in scale 1 ft equal 5T one 1 inch 5T this is this is 12 foot Fe foot three right there in next
here it's going to be 15 ft take a look here 20 ft and 35 ft is going to be only in 30 years and if you stay on our deck you're going to see all of them even during
first 15 years and and just to to the how it's drawn in your depicting and I understand why it was drawn this way but I just want to clarify it it shows the retaining wall as originally proposed not as proposed in exhibit uh A3 where
they have proposed now to move the retaining wall and I understand you didn't know that at the time but I just want to clarify for the record that drawing shows the original position of the retaining wall yes but you see I took my tree which is same size as they and put it here on the top as they shows
you and this is high of the tree right now at time of planting okay now the next uh if all the we asking them these new trees will not be sufficient to mitigate noise and lighting impact we
request we request the Pres pres preservation of the existing wood trees which is 60 foot high right now this is 60 foot in in scale and it's going to if they going to put this kind of trees it's going to look completely different if they save these
trees but in this case they need to move they building far from us next we okay we ask that the proposed building be moved as far as possible from our boundary line to achieve this the developer can construct underground
parking as we have on our property and in this case they will save uh above ground parking space and they can definitely move their buildings also they can build an underground detention system or connect
to the Township's stormw system line this also will allow them to increase buildable area for the buildings uh we request that all construction moved at least 100 ft from our homes in accordance with the zoning regulation the proposed building can be
moved closer to Texas Road based on 100 ft zoning data rather than the current plan which place them 230 ft away from Texas Road bringing construction 1230 ft close to us thank you for your
consideration of our concerns okay thank you U is there anyone else would like to actually Mr chairman I did want to just mention one thing um um before you leave Mr lowski yes you did hand out a a
handout that was left on top of the um deis uh for the board are you submit looking to submit this or is this is this from you or is this from somebody else this was left in front in this is mine yeah this is second speaker
third and fourth speaker speeches this is signature each so this this is from multiple U members of the public who're going to speak we need to give a copy of that to the applicant attorney um do you have a copy or do you
need okay all right um thank you and and are you making any reference to any of the document and your testimony this this evening before the board are you making any specific reference to any of the documents in here that relate to your your documents yes okay uh can you
just identify which ones they are and what what I I just want to make sure that's clarified so the board knows what it's looking at this is all signature from all members okay so it has a has a signatures from all the members which will affect everybody yes
it m is number next going to be this one then this is mine okay so all right so there's a page within it looks like it's the fourth page in that's dat March 27th 2025 my
name statement okay I just want to make sure I I it's for the there's a there's a record being kept so I'm just trying to do and protect it so that everyone understands okay and so the other documents that are in here are going to be from other speakers that are going to come before the board aside from the uh the signatures that were submitted so
Joe I'm looking at I'm looking at this and the May 20th 24 letter for its content and signatures should not be accepted uh by the board as you know a petition is heay and it can't be to the extent that these other letters um that
members of the public are here and speak to them I have no issue with them being submitted to to the board I I I I understand and agree and and just so everyone's aware while the boards appreciates you know uh signatures and and petitions being submitted but the
the law in New Jersey is planning board cannot consider any evidence that's not presented before it at the public hearing so the actual petition even though it might be signed by everybody and people who aren't here the board can only consider evidence and information that's provided by those who come up to
the de so I just want to make sure it's clear and I that that's what uh the objection that was made by the applicant attorney I would point out that I actually submitted the very same letter with signatures to the board uh for the purpose of demonstrating that we had Communications with no neighbors I appreciate that sorry I didn't want to
interrupt you is this1 that's 01 oh yeah um no the only reason I'm I'm hesitating if Mr Greenberg comes up let's have them put it into yeah let's let's let's do each one individual because that way
it's clear for the record so the fourth page on the packet that was hit that was from um Miss lowski dated March 27th that's going to be 02 and then we'll just Mark each one of these individually if you if anyone comes up to the to the mic that has a letter that's in here
that wants it part of the EV you have to identify it let me know and we'll mark it okay thank you good yes sorry I just want to remind you that the meeting ends at 10:30 so if you have more than speaker okay this is exactly what
happened no that that it's it's you're allowed to speak okay but these people are volunteers and they have live too so I appreciate that I appreciate that but at at the last meeting we ran out of time also yeah hang on SEC Mr chair just a little order so Angela could hear sure
no problem my name is Jack mckenery MCI n r NE y I live at 12 Sandra court and for the past 45 years my wife Judy and I have been proud residents taxpayers and voters in Oldbridge and I stand before you today as a member of
the Madison Crossing community to express our deep concerns regarding on the proposed development of this this development um the property is currently owned by the township of Albridge and we feel it is imperative that the planning
board prioritize the well-being of existing residents and taxpayers over new developments specific concerns landscaping and buffer zones we recommend planting faster growing trees such as we looked it up such as an
Italian Cypress or La lalali Pine that is spelled l o b o l l y I knew you'd smile at that one any which can grow 2 to three feet or more annually and can reach Heights of 40 to 60
feet uh planting and would provide a much more substantial buffer additionally planting these trees in in the stagged pattern as they mentioned before rather than a straight line will allow for greater horizontal and vertical growth enhancing the buffer
effect these are more costly but while these options are more costly the value of our privacy and our quality of life is immeasurable uh furthermore given the significant number of trees slated for
removal I understood at the last meeting they said something like 600 trees were being removed uh we would like to have a uh we propose that the Builder provide an allowance for us to plant the additional trees on our property and
also on the line of their property going back in back of building number two in a straight line towards the Wetland fire safety concerns in light of recent devastating fires in Los Angeles we are increasingly
anxious about the proximity of the proposed development to our community regardless of what the fire department has said to you this CL post proximity raises significant concerns and the US Forest Service has now come
out with new regulations I understand recommending that an increased distance between structures with an increased distance required on slopes such as the one such as the one up there right now uh we urge the planning board to
mandate a wi buffer zone even more than that between our residences and the new development to enhance fire SA safety that was put out by the okay HVAC system concerns um my understanding is
that the uh the individual units in each apartment or dwelling is going to be internal but what about my question is about the um the hph T units being
utilized for the hallways and walkways inside of the main buildings so specifically we're concern how they're going to be installed specifically their efficiency ratings and Associated noise levels higher efficiency units typically
operate more quietly for instance Some central air units have noise levels um operating at 50 DB some are at 70 DB we urge the planning board to consider mandating the use of a specific
low noise High efficiency HVAC units to minimize auditory disruption I'm the second speaker and I signed that paper in conclusion we ask that your decision reflects responsibilities responsible
responsibility to your fellow Oldbridge homeowners we are your fellow Oldbridge homeowners and demonstrate respect for our community and the character of our neighborhood thank you uh before you
leave just just to um just to uh clarify there was a a letter looked appears to you two pages that was identified looks like a lot of what you testified to uh do you want that marked for uh introduction to the
the record as 03 absolutely okay that would be very nice of you thank you you want me to get Mike up real quick to talk about the uh the common area there was there was question question regarding the the air the air conditioning unit so the applicant
answer that I'm good yes yes thank you very much I appreciate it yes the a conditioning units serving the common areas ground floor and the two floors above will be self-contained units as well will be limited to any kind of exterior noise similar to the way we're
shielding units around the perimeter from the you got the units serving the uh interior common areas are going to be similar in the units that are being used around the perimeter they're going to be self-contained inside the building it'll
be designed in the same system that we're using for the individual units on the interior to the building there'll be utility closet created with the access and ducted to the [Music] exterior thank you
Mike all right I'm Dr Joel Edmond I did submit a letter um that's uh in the packet okay and before you start do we want you want that marked yes so on the um second page of the packet there's a
two-page letter from Dr El edman Edmond and um we're GNA Mark that as exhibit 04 okay and my name is spelled Joel Jo Edmund Ed M um I'm residing at 11 Hernandez court and Madison Crossing development I'm a
retired pediatrician having practiced Pediatrics in Middletown for over 40 years my wife and I have been residents of Oldbridge for 19 years I'd like to formally object to the proposed variant and waver relief requests would allow construction Beyond setback requirements at the property to be known as the
village of Merles Corner as a resident and property owner directly impacted by this project my wife and I have significant concerns regarding the effects on our privacy and overall enjoyment of our home our home backs up to the proposed development we paid a
premium for for a lot that backed up to the Woodlands that value would now be diminished of those variances are granted I would object that statement Mr chairman the the value of of homes and the fact that he allegedly played a premium for a lot that backs up to a
developable piece of property is is not relevant okay I'd actually like to refer to exhibit the A3 that's up on the slide there and if you look at that figure standing on the deck of the uh Madison Crossing development on the left on the
right side that's actually our home and the trees I appreciate this extended barrier that that's been presented today however it's going to start out at 9 ft so I'm going to be looking directly at the
gentleman in on the third floor of the of the new Villas um and it's going to take 10 years before those trees grow out I'm 72 years old so uh you anyway the current reg zoning regulations are
in place in part to protect current residents granting this variance would negatively affect my property as well as those of my neighbors I urge the board to deny this request in order to uphold the intent to the existing zoning laws and preserve the rights of current Oldbridge residents I thank you for uh
the opportunity to voice our concerns thank you [Applause] okay hi uh my name is Alice Greenberg I'm the fourth speaker on that list okay so the first page um of the
packet is yours and you want that marked as well yes all right we'll mark that as exhibit 05 g g g nbrg Alex GRE g r i n b r g
okay so my name is Alex Greenberg I am the current board president of medicine Crossing and before you vote on this project like uh the board planner just said the picture is worth a thousand words I would like the board personally
come and visit the property and see how close those buildings are to our property line and our development I mean if you look closer they're probably going to be where the township sign is um Allison
here mentioned under C2 standard a variance is permitted when one of the purposes of the ml would be Advanced from a de deviation from the bulk requirement and the benefit from the variance outweighs any
determent to the public goods importantly the benefit from the from the grant over C true variance cannot benefit the property owner only in instead it must actually benefit the community and serve as a better zoning
alternative for the property even if we believe you meet one of two standards above it's also important that c variance cannot impose a substantial determent to the public goods or substantial empowerment to the intent and purpose of the township master plan
or zoning coordinance substantial detriment to the public goods involved a consideration of impact of the variance and will have a nearby property you must be certain that your development purpose will not damage the character of the
surrounding neighborhood so can you somebody well actually Alison can you please explain me how is that going to benefit medicine coing Community Mr chair I'll ask Alison questions and as I pointed out earlier um the bulk variant
standard that this gentleman is citing is not applicable to the setback area it's governed by your Redevelopment plan okay so when he's finished speaking if Alice wants to wants to address it I'll allow her to amplify her her findings okay very good okay so so
basically in in fact I believe it's actually quite opposite it will destroy the residents quality of life and their property value uh based on this law that I just read you it's clear that the variance cannot be approved we have
228 units approximately 500 residents who voted for you guys to represent us so now we're looking for you guys to vote no for this variance preserve medicine Crossing quality of life um that's basically
it thank you thank [Applause] you do you want to answer I mean yeah Mr chairman yes you you can go next we just want to see if there uh the applicant wants to provide an answer to the
question that was raised yeah is there anything that you want to add Allison to your testimony or amplify from earlier just to clarify that building setback is not a variance it's not addressed under the municipal land use law criteria it's a design exception from the
Redevelopment plan which does not require that it benefits off-site uh conditions the only two variances are the the building facade Lane and the setback between the building and the parking okay thank you uh you're next
we're getting closer to witching hour yeah I know I'll talk fast Frank Ben Nintendo Frank Ben Nintendo b n i n t n d o I'm a resident at Madison Crossing I'm next board president I have two questions only um one is to the traffic
control uh we know that taxes Texas Road does flood when you speak to the uh when you speak to the county will you take that in consideration that Texas Road does flow flood during heavy rains and then widening it you're going to be taking
out that trench that runs the water out off of that property I can answer maybe Scot okay so with regards to the flooding
conditions that are potentially uh occurring along Texas Road uh that that's a county issue and I I would certainly um suggest that you reach out to the County engineering department and voice your concerns with them uh this applicant has uh no
obligation to uh address any flooding conditions on a county roadway uh Our obligation is to make sure we don't aggravate any existing condition and our site plan does not aggravate any condition our application with the county will go through another drainage review uh with their uh local engineers
and they will confirm uh that we are not creating any adverse conditions with respect to that okay I have another question and I looked at the plans we do have two drainage pipes that drain into that
Wetlands right at the point where they're building that home when they put that retaining wall up will those be the uh will those draining pipes that go into the wetlands be compromised and I am not an engineer but I'm going to bring it up I want to bring these two
pites into evidence so um you got to give a copy to the applicant uh applicant's attorney yep and then we'll um now just just for record keeping purposes uh once you get back to the mic thank
you did you need do you all right so we're going to mark this as exhibit 06 I believe we're up to another one now can you just identify this what what this is a picture of okay at the
base at the back end of Maguire Court going towards the property line where their retaining Ru I think ends there will be two pickle bow courts on their property now those drain out
into that Wetlands at that point U so so um so the angle that this photo is taken from it's looking into Madison yes I'm in the I'm in on their property looking into Madison Crossing I'll give you this one
so are we marking this as an exhibit to or okay well you can't just tell me we're going to have to present it to everybody so F first let first let the applicant attorney see it make sure he doesn't have any objections to it after
those one here one here retaining r ends during construction will they be compromised no and we are aware of those I'm sorry yes okay so first off we're going to mark
that okay all right we're going to mark that as exhibit 07 so when you're done you need to give it to me exhibit is showing the position of the two drainage pipes question is will they be compromised during construction because those drainage pipes move water out of
Madison Crossing into that wetlands and if they're compromized during construction or after that retaining roll is put into place that could affect Madison Crossing so I didn't see it on the I didn't see it on the drawings when I looked we we are aware of it it is on
our site plans it's on the grading plan and the utility plans it is an existing uh flared end section that does discharge water onto our property it's actually sitting on our property it's it's not on the Madison Crossing uh property itself our plans proposed to
relocate that redirected away from the pickle bable court and indirectly into the Wetland area so there will be no compromising of that structure it's going to be rebuilt and relocated thank you you can yeah I need now that it's in the record I need a
copy and I appreciate that I just have one question no you have gentleman was waiting and that's all I have at this time thank you very much for your time thank you my name is Norman kabiny k h a b n s
k y 10 Del cour uh I'd like to bring to your concern based on this picture uh look for this tree right so my question um from the retain wall to
the tree what's the distance who can tell me from the retaining wall to what tree the everen tree what's shown in this picture roughly 10 ft roughly 10 ft yes okay and this three will be 60 to uh 40 to 60 ft
long right so think about this if this Roots would come on would it destroy a t w or not think about this right and another way 40 to 60 ft long right and how
distance from the this deck to the three tell me 15 ft I guess right or 13 I don't know because I can see 13 right 1 three so if this three would fall down
guess what happened to the side so what's the distance supposed to be from the tree to the to the deck think about this so my my understanding this not suitable to make this design that's what I wanted to say and
also what you like to add in Finish we will not up for this we would address to the press to the news and we will fight for this to make sure it will
be right and nice decision to make sure all people will be happy not only these people or us people and also not my concern but look for this person on first FL what he would see retain W right it's supposed to be very happy
person right that's what I want to say thank you thank you for concern I guess you going to make right decision and I I I heard people people from all other side would tell us nice very Tales
but it's not nice very T it's just opposite thank you Mr chairman if I may um before the no you can come up I just um we are going beyond what we originally said we would no no and and we want to make sure get everyone's comments so just to kind of get an idea
is could you raise your hand if you intend to come up just so we know whether or not we'll be able to finish tonight or whether we need to continue okay so we have two yes so Mr chairman if it's okay with you even though we're past 10:30 I would recommend that we continue to make sure we get the the remaining people who want
to come up to speak opport very very good thank you good evening Jay CTS McAllan Court um just j a y Curts it's common spelling sorrys yeah yeah one question at the entrance to the new
development uh on Texas road is there going to be a traffic light no no hi Ricky Ricky swed swe so with all of these issues is this the last piece of property that Albridge
has has to offer for developers I mean we're trying to squeeze something this big into into a site that's shoehorned in and we're fighting it they're trying to squeeze it in they all these representatives represent the Builder
the owners is this the last parcel uh that ald has to offer that's my question because go somewhere else I don't understand sure the number one it's not a use VAR so we don't have to prove that the property is particularly suitable for
it the the the legal standard is when there is a use VAR which this is not that you would have to demonstrate the particular suitability of the property so whether there is other and even in that instance whether there is other available properties or not um is not
relevant to that analysis well relevant to us I understand it's very important to you believe me and and you have an investment I understand when you talk about shoehorning in all these problem squeezing things in you're mischaracterizing the development it is
a 13t difference from your design standard that is it 13 foot 13 feet it's 50 we're proposing 37 on a design standard otherwise a lot otherwise it is not shoehorned in it is not squeezed in
that is the only standard that is coming up right now you can't put the building towards the front of Texas road because of the wetlands you sho horning it back to us closer to our buildings that's shoehorning it okay I understand that you represent the Builder the developer
you've had years and lots of expense but I mean surely there's got to be a better development a better parcel of land in overage if you have to build that doesn't give you that kind of wetlands
um restrictions thank you because we'll still keep fting well it before before repeats does anyone else want to come up uh that has not had a chance to speak no okay no well okay um you had mentioned before that if this is just
identify who you are my is Jack Macker MCI n r any y okay so um if if you if the board here turns this down we'd be very happy but we feel bad about it but sorry but if it is turned down and the
state does decide to come in and the state mandates that it has to be affordable housing what's the maximum number of units that you could put there because it's still going to be it's still going to be at Wetlands well v v v if I if I might just
answer that one and I I will be able to say I'm not just the planning board attorney I'm the special affordable housing Council for the township so I can say this with authority we don't know and it's it would be I couldn't tell you but as as the planner had tested ified earlier you know at minimum
the state would require a a density of 8 units per acre that's a minimum it would only go up from there and what she was making the point of is when you can't fit it in because of wetlands or whatever type of restrictions they let you go up and that is a true statement
does that mean it's definitely going to be the site or the township would roll over and allow the site that's not what we're saying but we're saying sometimes it's outside of our hands no matter how hard we fight and it's a possibility that was I think the point that was being raised but not that it's it's a def you know a definite outcome okay and
uh what that gentleman there was saying about the tree about the trees before uh what as high as I have removed many trees on my properties before and I do know that as high as a tree grows that's how deep it goes also so those roots
those roots from those 60 foot trees are going to go down and out and they're going to knock that aining W down and that's from my personal experience can't speak only one person speaks the time who's at the mic anyway I thank you for your time and by the way
thank you for volunteering to do this job I don't want it all right last last comment if you come to the sorry that's right that's vitki again l u o v TSK y based
on the previous speaker those three routes can destroy our underground sprinkle system our Communications our pipes wherever and also I'm personally okay with affordable housing even if
it's going to be 100 units over there my question is this who going to be will you able to find investor who going to build 70 affordable units is it possible who going to finance it if the developer going to
finance it well it's that that's a theoretical but I can tell you there State the state financing the state funding and there's a lot of money in affordable housing okay let's then find it but we just now our our situation is next we just would
like to stay 100 ft away as the zoning required to be away from the next Community this is it you can't no Mr chairman can I just I just want to correct the record uh the gentleman it
keeps indicating that it's a 100 foot setback requirement and we're at 37 ft it's a 50ft setback requirement and we're at 37 ft okay from the boundary line that's correct 50 fet all right this is not this is not an ongoing discussion outside if you want
to have further discussions outside of the this board hearing that's fine but but that's not how we we operate here how we're legally allowed to operate here so U Mr chairman I believe we we've allowed the the public come up we' we've heard all the comments questions that were raised is I just want to finish he
was saying it's only 13 feet what's the percentage 13 out of 38 or 50 it's a it's a large percentage thank you thank you okay Mr claer thank you so the public
portion is is closed our evidence presentation is complete um I would ask if the board um carry the application for a vote um I would like to absorb the comments and notes that we've taken from the public before we
decide that this is the plan that we want to ask you to vote on um if we do make no further resubmissions or provide any additional information I would simply come up and provide aimation and ask the board to vote uh at your next meeting but I want to give my team uh and frankly the public to do
consideration for all the things that we've heard before I say to this board vote on that maybe we're going to come back and say vote on that but I'm not going to I they they all spoke and said very important things and I want to make sure that my team has the opportunity to absorb that and say Peter if we can or can't do anything Mr chairman I would
agree with that um I think the board members want to have an opportunity to listen consider what with the uh you know all the documentation that was submitted to them in consideration of all the documentation that was submitted by the the public as well as the public concerns before a vote is taken so I would cons concur with carrying this uh
Vina what would the the date this so the this would be carried members of the public uh I I hope everyone's still here if anyone has left please pass the information along this meeting is being carried to April 24th at that time uh if there's no has been no change by the
applicant then the the board will just will hear closing arguments from the applicant attorney and make a vote if they did make modifications well then they're going to present new witnesses to testify to those mod ifications and you'll have an opportunity to question and comment on those after that additional testimony um so no further
notice is going to be provided we will reconvene here on this application on April 24th either for a vote or for further testimony for any modifications thank you very much thank you okay motion
to we need a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor go home and hi see what it looks like e