on record we're on record very good the meeting of the township of precip Troy Hills planning board for Monday February 10th 2025 at 7:30 p.m. announcement is made that adequate notice of this meeting has been given and that it is being conducted in accordance with njsa 10 col 4-6 at SEC of the New Jersey open public meetings act we have the Pledge of Allegiance we could all stand please I pledge Ali
the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation indivisible justice for all Nora would you call the role Please Mr deero Mr dier here councilwoman Hernandez here Mr meth present Mr Napolitano here Mr Shaw yeah M uh chairman Dinsmore we also have our
planner miss winter our board engineer Mr kiano and a board attorney miss this meeting is open to the general public is there anyone here who has something that needs to be brought to the attention of this board that is not on our agenda tonight hearing and seeing none we move on to the correspondence we received correspondence from Lawrence CI of Cali law requesting application 24 col 52430 hell road block 338 uh
to be carried to April 7th 201 25 without further notice and with the grant of an extension of time for the board to make decision on the case through April 30th 2025 uh do I hear a motion agreeing to that motion second second Hernandez all right thank you very much all in favor say I any opposed hear and seeing none all right we'll have that for those of you
who might be here for case 24 524 30 hell road we have moved that case to April 7th and this will be the only notice that you would get here so Mr Mayor good to see you all right we just uh moved to move uh 24 col 524 to April 7th and I was just telling everybody here
that this is their only notice so we move next to application 25 col 504 salal andican Seven pting Stone Road Block nine lot N9 Zone R1 major soil moving permit yes you can come up make sure the microphone is working you can sit down that's fine hi hi if you please raise your right
hand do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record Jal andon last name one can you pull the microphone closer to you just pull the whole thing closer there you go all right tell us why you're here a soil movement uh permit we had to Great
the new house it's like slope pill we had to Gade the backyard to make a backyard and uh it triggered a soil movement perm not moving out of property just moving around the property and it was all approved by the engineer it's done it's finished properly but this was something I had to get done okay I'm going to have our engineer ask you a few questions well this is an
interesting one for the board uh as the applicant just mentioned the let me sure I understand this so the so the site work is done the um and U uh there there's some this is some housekeeping that the soil movement application was not secured and it needs to be secured in order to get your certificate of occupancy is that is that correct yes okay but all the work is already done yeah everything's all the trucking's been done all the soil me has been done
and uh okay so this is sort of like a housekeeping uh item um the work was previously U what year was the work done last year last year okay um I really don't have any questions regard the typical stuff regarding root and amount of soil since it's all been done uh the this has been uh work has been done and the township engineer had the proper plans for for construction and uh this looks like this again this a housekeeping item that that this was this wasn't
done uh um and he he says he has no objection to the Sol Moon application the fees have been paid um so I don't have any other comments than than to just to mention that that this was a housekeeping item that's it that's all I have okay should we talk about restrictions not any members of the board of questions of this witness on this testimony at this time
uh never happy to have something be overlooked like this but it's done yeah uh and you would just you you've received the reports from the township engineer from January of 2025 the letter about the soil moving yes and you'll agree to work with him to wrap everything up and comply with
all of his comments okay any other questions by members of the board hearing and seeing none any members of the public have any questions on this testimony at this time if you could come forward and identify yourself I'm sorry you'll have to use the microphone and I'm going to have to get you to state your name spell your last name dude do you have questions at this time or I have one question you want me to State my name so we'll we can just swear you and if you please
raise hand you swear affirm the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes all right and please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record Carmen D Pasqual d p a s qu a l e nine ping Stone Road mailing address moris ples thank you what is your I know there's there's a lot of issues with and I'm not not saying this is anybody particular fault with the water runoff the water runoff
I know is flooding Guys across the Street I guess it would be 5 or it' be 6 and 8 maybe um I'm right next door to 7 um and I can't tell if there's any runoff yet because we had such a dry end of the summer and fall everything's frozen now um I don't really think my property is a is a big issue it's a big piece of property it's not really near the house
um but I know that the runoff is affecting people on the Block um now I don't know if that's cuz there's no storm drains maybe because it's you know there well this has this runoff occurred since the Landscaping was done or is it something it's got It's it's a lot there was always a little runoff but it's got a lot a lot worse not from that property though it was you know comes a little bit from mine a little bit from the guy I guess it would be 11 um you know
that side of the street it's a little higher um it's built up in the back so it comes down there's no storm drains um so there's a you know now there's a river down going down the street when it rains I I can comment on that um again this was a an application part and when you have a single family home going up it doesn't get reviewed by this board it gets reviewed by the township engineer and and the building department um I don't know if if the plan is in full compliance and it's all completed your best
bet is to talk with the township Engineering Department and ask those particular questions if if if this is completed if there are any issues it looks like as required by law just from looking at the plan and we didn't do a full review but I see it they this house has the required dry Wells to capture some of the runoffs but by all means touch base with the township engineer and regardless if it's coming from this property or not let them know your concerns about the runoff going down
the road Road that's that's that's they're there to answer the questions like that all right yeah I can um put on the gutters into the tank all the stuff minimum run off the property but there is a lot of water coming down your especially on your property I because that's because the plows took out the curve I see like more coming out because when I started the uh the mors County Soil came by and they
looked and you can see the color of his uh gravel coming down the front of the property and I know I don't have any runoff there's always little but not like no major I know I mean like I I look at my prop and you know you had your hand up the same thing as I did right we the the engineer has made it clear that we will have an engineer look at this and determine what needs to be done
thank you yeah well with that I will tomorrow I'll speak to the township engineer um with regards to the prop s and nine thank you I have a a comment real quick so I again we didn't review this plan at all but you have a uh Mr and sorry if I pronounce your name properly and Anderson and uh 1,000 gallon drywell is that is that standard for this size property the sizing is based on the size of the house and the roof it
picks up so batteries right I think there two um two proposed thousand gallon drywalls yes are those installed already yes yeah it it'll be up to the engineers to determine where there's a problem and if if there is a problem then they'll propose a solution and you asked if there were concerns I gave you my concerns that's uh that's fine that's what we're here for thank
you I'm good thank you any questions on uh that discussion hearing and seeing none from the general public sure you have the right to ask questions so if you please raise your right hand do you swear affirm that the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth please state your name spell your last name and provide your
address for the um my name is Tony damato it's uh d m at I live across the street at six puddingstone um my neighbor Ralph Mendoza he lives at for puddingstone um and I guess my main question is is we never got to see any of the any any of the engineering on this property um the Topography of the property has completely changed based on what it
was 2 or 3 years ago so me and Ralph Ralph takes water in his garage at this point now the town Engineers Paul and Salvador were kind enough to have the road guys come out and redo the edges of our driveways to not take this water but now with the topography changed and he did a great job on the house Kudos but with the topography change and nobody asking
us what's up now we're so much more water that those BMS at the edge of our driveway are not working and I feel more sorry for Ralph who's on business right now he can't be here he is taking water in his garage and that's just not right at this point the street needs some form of storm water management there are no drains there are there's nothing in place the Builder whatever his name is moscowitz got to do his destruction of that mountain he was never asked to put in any any kind
of storm water management we have no curbs no Cobblestone the road pitches towards us and now this gentleman built a house where he took a level piece of property and basically put 8 ft of dirt in the front of the house and now the that house runs down into the street weather like this we get a pretty much an ice strip from Carmine's house down to number
two living Stone and it's a it's just a slick ice so I guess I really need to know before I leave what's going to happen with buding Stone Road it's been long enough the road has been destroyed by mosow it's never fisted by mosow it was fixed on our tax and now here we are back at square one again nothing done and we're going to try and blame him which is not fair this stuff has got to be addressed because we're taking water Ral is taking water
who's paying for the destruction of our property it's too much water it comes down that curve so fast that it fills Ralph's backyard it fills Gretchen's backyard in number eight and I wind up with water running through either side of the property down into Denville to those houses on the other side of me behind me so we we we can't sit here and blame him for everything but we got to understand what the town Engineers are thinking in
when they allow the Topography of that property to change so drastically that now water is coming off down the driveway off the front off the left side it's it's just a little out of control now you know and there's only so much the guys on the road crew can do for us they did a Salvador and Paul really mixed the situation it was really under control but now it's you know the water
comes off of him right straight at me comes up over the curbs like it splashes up over the curbs when it really really comes down and you know we got to deal with it you have uh um I I do have a comment but with regards to the roadways um I don't know if they still belong to Mossberg or the township that's what I have to find out a lot of the roads um that the gentleman built and would never de it over to the township I don't know if this is one of them I have to
check in to that there are roads that the town doesn't have any control over cuz we don't own them but if we own these roads um which I'll find out then what we'll do is we'll have we'll have to come up with a plan uh for that area now I know they're right now they're putting sewers in in over there putting Stone as well so if there are roads one of the reasons why we probably haven't repaired them is because we're waiting to complete the sewer project as well so what
I will do is I'll speak to our again this poor Township engineer is going to be busy the township engineer and also our water and sewer um Engineers uh with regards to that area cuz I know pingstone Road High Ridge all those are being marked for sewer and water we have water already but sewer so and I would assume that the roads do belong to the township because this is the first time I'm ever hearing you know about putting Stone Road now wait a
minute there's two pone Road wait a minute that's off for Union correct yes all right okay that's different then they might belong right that might belong to the um the Builder so I'll find that out now I know what road and exactly what road you guys are talking about I'm put on road I apprciate give him what he needs so he can get see thank actually Mr chairman just a point the um I I recognize looking at the engineer's report the amount of soil
moved does need Council approval so this is not the end all and be all of this discussion anyway so my my suggestion is bring your concerns to Town Council with regard to drainage when this has to get heard there our role right now is only to recommend approval for the township Council that's it yep our role is very narrow in this but the council and the mayor I it's here tonight at least but no I will look into bustone Road
I know exactly now what you're talking about off of Union and um that's been an issue for a while pingstone Road right did you have any comments no I don't thank you thank you any other members of the public have comments or uh questions in this case uh so our job here tonight is to recommend to the council that we approve
this all right very good uh are there any comments from the public on this case hearing and seeing none this and do you have anything further to add no this closes the evidentiary portion of tonight's case uh do I have a motion recommending to the council that we uh that they approve this Mr chairman I'll make a motion that um to recommend that we uh approve that uh this be
brought before the Council we approve it all right do I hear a second second nor would you call the rooll please barberio yes DPO yes Hernandez yes math yes apolitano yes sha yes dinmore yes all right you get the next step coming up so now we move on to the next case and I've managed
to move my paperwork around we have application number 24 col 531 psip Saxon 7 Campus Road or Campus Drive block 202 lot 308 amended preliminary and final major site plan major soil moving permit to construct a warehouse with loading docks trailer parking spaces surface parking facilities and Landscaping there
it is good to see you again Mr you too Mr chairman uh Mr chairman mayor members of the board councilwoman uh board Professionals in public Johnny Gino here on behalf of psip saxum Campus uh
Drive Urban LL see uh the applicant regarding this application uh the applicant is a contract purchaser for property located at 7 Campus Drive here in pfy also known as lot 3.08 block 202 on the tax map and before I go too much further uh ciano raised in his letter a question about whether it's 3.8 or 3.08 and we had the same question so we called Mr CIS I'll read
to you an email that he provided to me today which we can include into the record if it pleases the board as exhibit A1 it says that the tax list shows lot 3.8 and the tax map shows lot 3.08 for t for seven campus drives both lot numbers are for the same location sever seven Campus Drive as per our prior discussion I advised your office to use the
numerically corle correct Lot number 3.08 eventually the tax list will be updated to show lot 3.08 that's from the tax ass so me I think we had a similar problem right down the road on campus they they did it's an ongoing issue I I don't understand that Mr Cass says that before he became the assessor I didn't know there was a time before Mr ciss was the assessor but he said that before he became the Assessor didn't do the Lots right
and this is what he says it is so I uh I've learned enough to know that uh we defer to Mr ciss on such matters so I'll provide this can that issue um as you'll hear at a moment the property contains a large vacant office building and kudos to the township who under the leadership of the mayor
recognize the needs to re need to repurpose uh properties such as this to provide Revenue uh for pany uh to reinvigorate the commercial sectors so that they can assume more of the burden for the cost of services for proci residents uh this project will also provide jobs for those in the local area uh and will assist Paran meet its goals as stated in the Redevelopment plan you'll also hear testimony regarding the significant environmental benefits that
will be realized from the Redevelopment of this Antiquated site uh the Zoning for the property is governed by the S campus Redevelopment plan the applicant is seeking preliminary and major final sight plan approval and major soil removal permit uh to construct a new state-of-the-art 128,50 ft squ foot Warehouse which includes 5,000 squ ft of office 23 loading docks seven trailer parking spaces 103 parking spaces including ADA
Compliant and EV Make Ready parking spaces all of which are rather permitted or required under the Redevelopment plan uh the applicant received approval from the Morris County planning board uh based on letter dated January 15 I think miss winter has concluded that a waiver from Highlands that we have a waiver from Highlands since the applicant proposes a reduction in the impervious coverage on the site we are seeking a waiver from the Eis uh this is
a a Redevelopment of a fully developed uh site which we're redeveloping and that's the basis uh for the waiver request uh that said the applicants uh we do have an environmental consultant here who will provide testimony during the application to address some issues raised in the uh in the GPI uh report um the application is nearly in full compliance with the Redevelopment plan but the applicant is seeking some deviations or various relief from two standards in the plan uh one from
the maximum turning radi in section uh 6.2.2 of the Redevelopment plan particular testimony that that's for better circulation and better safety within the uh within the property and the second is seeking relief from section 7.3.2 B from the maximum height of the fence um we have just so the records clear we have four reports uh one is the GPI report dated 2525 we
have the moris county report dated 115 2025 which also grants the approval we have two a a reports one dated 12264 and one dated 2725 uh our Witnesses have changed a little bit tonight I feel a little bit like uh the Kansas City Chief's uh offensive line came down with the flu here uh uh we have four Witnesses who've come
down with the flu but uh but we we we have H we have a a good team of Consultants here uh so we have Alexander L sounds French but it's Italian um from bowler engineering who is the project civil engineer and candidly he's worked all weekend and afternoon to get ready for this evening because am men sharifi uh came down with the flu uh similarly Dave moscit from
ecoscience es also came down with the flu but we have the infamous Laura nouar from Eco Sciences who I think everybody knows uh Ben Mueller is the project acoustic expert uh Betsy Dolan of Dolan and Dean is the traffic expert and claudo breida of where Malcolm he also came down with the flu uh but Brendan Leed Vader uh is here to testify with respect to architecture and we don't know what happened
John mcdna um but uh in place of John we have Alex McAn who I know will do an admirable job uh and last but not least if there's any questions for ownership uh we have David Lisa here as well bratting sth uh he's a senior development manager for saxum uh who is a development partner in this project so without further Ado Mr chairman um I'm going to turn to our planner here and she's going to tell you w what the Ado is um so there there's a waiver request
for the floor plans and that really just has to do with the scale that they were at um no objection there the environmental assessment as uh Mr engino mentioned before and for not having separate sheets for the preliminary and final site plan so we don't have an objection to any of those all right do I hear a motion to approve the waivers mentioned in
the arh uh memo of 2725 anybody willing to move that I'll make a motion thank you Mr Nano do I have a second second all right nor would you call the r please barberio yes Deo yes Hernandez yes math yes Nano yes Shaw yes D yes I guess in relation to the highlands a municipal exemption was issued because
of the decrease in impervious coverage right okay thank you Mr chairman Alex L is our first witness from bowler engineering so if you please raise your right hand do you swear affirm the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and not but the truth
I do please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record sure my name is Alexander L uh L M is a Mary eii I graduated with a Bachelor of Science and civil engineering oh you got that okay so you'll okay F tell the board a little bit about your qualific okay sorry as far as qualific qualifications I graduated with the Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from University of Delaware I've been licensed in the state of New Jersey since 2016 I'm a senior project manager with
bowler engineering for the last 13 and I've been with bowler engineering for 13 years with office located at 30 Independence Boulevard uh it's 200 and More in New Jersey and you testified before more than 20 boards in in New Jersey and New York that is correct okay Mr chairman we like to submit him as our expert witness with respect to civil engineer by the board on his qualifications hearing and saying none counselor thank you Mr L if you could kindly describe the civil engineering aspects of the project for the
board sure uh I'll introduce the exhibit that's up on the uh on the easel to my right here this is we'll introduce this as exhibit A1 Mr that'll be A2 now we have the uh email from the tax assessor right so we'll introduce this as exhibit A2 uh and I'll mark that and that's just to today's date or correct yeah that this is an an
aerial exhibit prepared by our office dated February 10th 2025 with North being oriented to the top of the page and this is just to to briefly go through some of the existing conditions for the site uh the site is identified on the tax map is block 202 3.08 uh seven Campus Drive existing there today is a four-story office building with parking garage on the first floor the site is approximately 10.0 one9 Acres um it's ported
to the north by Campus Drive with additional office uses located Beyond to the South by the hotel with Route 10 Beyond to the east by Hilton Court and office uses Beyond and to the west by uh the Avalon multif family residential with office use beyond that the site is situated uh within the seven Campus Drive Redevelopment area where warehouses are permitted use the current access uh along Campus Drive is through a there's two accesses long Campus Drive currently there's a right
in right out driveway in the northwest corner of the property and a full movement driveway uh I'll say centered on the Northern property line to Campus Drive uh additionally there's uh a full movement driveway along Hilton Court located in the Southeast corner of the property the site currently has 44 surface parking spaces and has additional parking in the garage located underneath the building with that uh that's the existing conditions for the site and if
there's no questions uh from the board I can move to the the proposed conditions with a colored version of the site we are parking spaces also located on the western side of the building correct in the in the current configuration uh the majority of the parking spaces or all the parking spaces are located on the west side of the of the property west of the building uh with the building located to the Eastern side of the property and what about storm water in the current condition yes so storm water in the current condition is collected via several inlets through through through located throughout the site conveyed
to the existing wet Pond which is located to the East and that wet Pond ultimately discharges into the existing storm water conveyance system within Hilton Court right away for the proposed conditions I'd like
to just introduce this is a color colorized version of the overall site plan I'd like to introduce this as exhibit 83 which I'll mark and this is simply a colorized version of the overall site plan which is uh submitted to the town with the package with the overall site plan package uh was prepared by our office dated February 10th 2025 with
North still to the top Orient towards the top of the page the development proposes uh 128,50 squ foot Warehouse with Associated loading docks driveways car parking spaces and storm waterer and utility infrastructure uh before we go into the a little bit of the nitty-gritty of the proposed conditions I I do just want to point out to the board that uh with the reduction of the impervious coverage on site it's about four a little more than 4,000 feet and the reduction of the
the motor vehicle surface areas on site which would be paved parking areas for the most part uh that reduction is a little over 60,000 Square ft uh with those two items along with the implementation of a bio retention Basin on the west west portion of the site we do believe that this is the development and what we're doing here is a good opportunity for us to improve the environmental conditions of the site historically you know storm water runoff uh for the pavement areas has not been treated before being discharged into the
existing on-site wet pond so with the the implementation of the bio bio retention Basin gives us an opportunity to uh take some of the car parking that's located to the west of the the proposed building and run that through a bio retention Basin and provide some some treatment of the storm water runoff from the from the parking area which didn't exist there today relative to the building uh the building is oriented such that the truck docks and the loading are facing East toward Hilton Port uh the building
will have 23 loading dock spaces including two drive up ramps from a a parking and circulation perspective uh we are proposing 103 parking spaces which satisfy the requirements of the Redevelopment plan want to talk about the the loading dock spaces in terms of how uh WID and so forth sure the loading dock spaces for the building will be greater than 12T wide and will be 60 ft in length uh relative to the the parking
spaces and the and the circulation for the site I I just mentioned uh we proposing 103 parking spaces car parking spaces uh which satisfies the requirements of the Redevelopment plan uh this does exceed the required number uh of the parking spaces in the Redevelopment plan which 52 are required uh however for a building this size uh I think the the parking is appropriate for the type of operations for for a warehouse perspective it's about a ratio of uh one parking space for every
12,000 444 Square ft uh of building square footage and that's down from 404 current surface parking correct so there's there's a reduction of 301 surface parking spaces from the existing condition uh the parking does include 58a spaces uh two of which are are van accessible spaces and it also includes four EV spaces one of which will be an ADA accessible space as well uh both of those items meet the requirements the the ada8 parking the number of
ada8 parking spaces meets the requirements set forth by the the Ada the federal Ada guidelines and the EV the 4 EV spaces meet the requirements for the the New Jersey State statue for electric vehicle parking uh the proposed parking stalls will be uh 9 ft by 18 ft minimum uh we're also proposing seven trailer parking spaces to the east of the site uh kind of along the existing wet Pond uh the trailer parking is angled and will be uh 12 12 12 ft x 60
ft in Dimensions we are proposing to remove uh the driveway at this kind of Center W on the North property line along Campus Drive so there will only be one driveway in the proposed condition along Campus Drive uh that driveway will be located similarly uh to the the driveway that's uh there now in the Northwestern portion of the property we are we kind of reshift redoing the driveway and shifting it about 35 ft to the east to pull it away from the Westerly property
line but there will be one less driveway access coming off of Campus Drive and trucks will not be permitted to use the the driveway along Campus Drive in compliance with the Redevelopment plan all truck access will come from Hilton Court one more time all truck access will be on and off of Hilton Court no problem and uh from a truck perspective the the site is designed to consider operation of a of a WB 67 which
is a New Jersey title 39 truck uh the overall length of that truck is approximately 73 1 12 ft I had mentioned it previously but uh we are proposing the driveway along Hilton Court for truck access which is located in the Southeast corner of the property uh in a similar location to what's there existing uh we are shifting the location slightly about 3 ft to the north talking about sight lines yeah so we we we've evaluated the sight lines
for both of the proposed driveways as well um to limit any sort of obstructions I know there there was a comment I believe in the GPI letter to talk about you know making sure all of the existing conditions are shown on the survey so that we can confirm no obstruction or interference with sight lines which we have no issue with we will comply with that requirement uh we're also proposing striping along Hilton Court Frontage for a 4ft wide shoulder to provide kind of further separation of traffic from the proposed driveway on Hilton Court
uh we're also proposing a truck turnaround area uh on site kind of with the North End of the truck Court to allow trucks uh a space and area to turn around from a trash perspective uh trash and recycling reciprocal are uh will be stored inside the building uh there'll be a private hauler to handle unloading of trash and recycling operations from a I'm I'm going to move on now to to kind of grading
out away from the parking and the site circulation um from a grading perspective the site is graded to mimic the existing grading that is on site today and the drainage pads generally slope from west to east toward the existing wet Pond uh and Hilton Court and the ultimate point of of discharge from the property remains to the existing weet pond so storm water runoff all still is routed to the existing weet Pond from a drainage perspective uh STM Water Management proposed on site is designed in in general compliance with
the the njd storm water management regulations I I do want to knowe I I say General compliance from a from a storm water recharge perspective that's not required by the DP regulations being uh in a planning area one uh from a quality perspective we're reducing the motor vehicle surface area on site by 1.4 29 Acres about 64,000 Square ft so with the reduction of overall motor vehicle surface area we're not triggering the
requirement for water quality from a New Jersey D criteria standpoint however we are we do still have the bio retention Bas at the west side of the site to help collect and treat the storm water runoff from the the car parking spaces located to the west of the building uh from a quantity perspective and this is a comment that came up in the GPI letter uh that we would work with the board engineer on uh we do have some slight overages uh from a post-development condition relative to storm waterer runoff in the in the hydrograph from what exists there
today there there are minimal overages from a uh kind of a flow perspective but it does it is exceeding the existing hydrograph so there are some Alternatives that we could explore from that perspective uh some of which I think might be detrimental to the project and kind of trying to promote a little bit more of a green infrastructure design uh we can move some ovious coverage areas around we may lose the bio retention Basin uh and in the worst case scenario I think we would have to implement some
porous asphalt uh measures but I'm confident that we can work with the board engineer to have a design that complies with the DP requirements and and kind of Meet the intent of the code from that perspective we we went with this design implementing a bio retention base and we thought that was a nice touch to have green infrastructure on site have some treatment for the storm water and uh candidly with the new storm water requirements from the d uh calculating times of concentration can lend itself to them wanting more ovious coverage with it which I think against what their intent when was when
they wrote the code and Riz the storm water regulations a few years ago so um we'll work with the board engineer on that to come up with a a a a compliant design with the dp's storm water criteria I did just want to talk briefly on it because I think that I would like to see the bio retention Basin through all the way to the end and kind of implement that with the with the project uh I've mentioned it a few times but just for for purposes of of giving the board the the exact numbers uh the reduction of of impervious coverage overall on site is 4,315
Ft uh the reduction of Motor Vehicle surface area on site is 62,400 uh utilties are are fairly
straightforward we have water surface tapping off of the existing main from Campus Drive and looping around the building and tying in for fire and domestic service on the south side of the building uh the sanitary sewer service will tie into the existing manhole located at the Southeastern corner of the property and along the Hilton Court right of way uh similarly gas will tap off the existing main uh from Hilton Court and again Electric telephone cable will also be pulled from an existing utility manhole located at the
Southeastern corner of the property and uh other uh pull boxes as well from the site lighting perspective all the proposed light fixtures will be led they'll be dark sky compliant and they'll include uh 18 pole mounted area lights all the area lights will include house Shields to focus the lighting to the subject site and limits sply beyond the property lines uh they'll be mounted at 25 ft we have nine wall I'll call them scon lights uh with a mounting height of 8 ft installed
along the front the front facade where the the car parking is on the leftest side and we'll have nine wall wall mounted lights as well which will be on the loading dock or the east side of the building uh mounted at 25 ft high and uh there to kind of shed light on the The Loading Docks and the doors on that side of the building and uh the proposed lighting does comply with the Redevelopment plan from a landscaping perspective uh we are proposing a mix of
181 trees and 182 shrubs on site we'll also have various perennial grasses ground ground cover shrubs as well and we will have a a landscape screening fence we will have one along the north side of the along the north side of the building near the drive up ramp that's about a 60t long wall kind of connects off of the building there to screen the drive up ramp and the loading from Campus Drive and we'll also have approximately a 420 ft long uh screening fence along the E the
west side of the property bordering the multif family residential prop the multif family residential uh throughout the site we'll have supplemental landscape buffering along all property lines uh with additional plantings to improve the screening and kind of beef up the the Landscaping uh in a way that's compliant with the Redevelopment plan the mixture of 181 trees will be along the various all four property lines to kind of infill any existing trees that are to remain and create a nice buffer
and screen from Campus Drive neighboring property is in Hilton Court we also have shrubs located uh throughout the site in parking areas to kind of buffer some of any of the car parking and kind of break up any of the the the asphalt areas and kind of a lot of those shrubs will also be in the bio retention Basin as well from a signage
perspective uh we'll have two facade signs proposed we'll have one sign proposed at the north on the North Face of the building along Campus Drive and one also on the east side of the building facing Hilton Court uh both sides will be 150 squ ft in area uh we'll also have two Monument signs we'll have one proposed to to the west of Campus of the of the Campus Drive driveway and we have one proposed to the north of the Hilton Court driveway both signs will be set back 10 ft from the property line they'll have an
area of 64 ft of or less they'll have a width of 11 ft or less and a height of 10 ft or less and the proposed signage is also compliant with the the Redevelopment plan uh quickly just to summarize a lot of the items that I I did talk through uh in the proposed condition we are reducing the number of parking spaces by 31 spaces reducing impervious coverage reducing motor vehicle surface area we're consolidating the two driveways along the along Campus Drive on the
north side of the property into one providing additional landscape screening along all property lines providing a 6 foot high screen fence along the western property line and adjacent adjacent to the Avalon development a similar fence along the truck docks to the north for to screen from Campus Drive and we are pushing improvements further away from the existing drainage swell located along the south side of the property uh there is a offsite beyond our property line to the South side there is an existing drainage swell
but you know with the realignment of the driveway to the South we are pulling that driveway further away from that swell having more green space between uh the driveway entering the site and the proposed and the property line to the South thank you any question bring it back to you Mr chairman for any questions from the board board professionals and the public could you provide testimony on the so movement application
and um also did you have an opportunity did you review again the Township's um soil movement um letter for the project I've reviewed historically I haven't reviewed it today um but from a soil movement perspective just by the nature of the disturbance of the of the property and the amount of improvements that we are doing there is a soil movement uh application that was submitted with the the site plan application as well can you give testimony on it I don't have the
the numbers or the information in front of me so not at this time but I can go back and look at some of the documentation put that on the record sure all right I didn't want to hijack but I figured I'd get that that out there we'll bring him back yeah Mr math just a quick question the parking Rao for th000 Ft what's it at uh 1,244 based on the proposed building and the proposed parking on site
and that's not a requirement that's just what's on site just considering how uh you know in exceedence of the the required 53 spaces we are or 52 spaces okay all right thanks Mr kiano did you have anything further oh yeah yeah I got a few few items I figure it's good to get the engineering questions out of the way there are D regulated areas on site um will you be giving testimony on those or was that uh eal Sciences eal Sciences
okay um mention the soil movement um I agree that it is a very delicate balance with the storm water um but what submitted as you mentioned does not comply with the state standards and we have to comply um with the state standards so yeah absolutely we welcome to a discussion and some some some uh scenarios to uh try and get some compliance uh with that yep um can you um go over at you don't have to go
this second I have a few other items but uh considering to on the west side of the property there's a residential development being constructed I wanted you to go over a little bit more detail on what you're proposing for this board to see and understand regarding landscaping and lighting but just give that a moment um you can go over that and after these questions that I have for you sure um so you reviewed our letter um uh of particular
I wanted you just to make sure do you have um item eight um uh refers to you're doing some uh median changes and the the left turn lane um on Campus Drive uh we had since that's getting torn up pretty well we had recommend it that uh you do a full Mill and Mill and pave of the area um of that those improvements across the whole width of the roadway any issues with that I don't believe there's any issues
with that no um also the sidewalk along uh Campus Drive I see that you have it sort of Meandering I'm I'm assuming that's to to avoid miscellaneous obstructions correct uh for the Porche again in the letter for the portion of the sidewalk that's um on the applicant's property um an easement would be needed uh for that to have public uh public Improvement on private property um that would I'm
guessing there's no issues with that no issue okay um and again just touched on it the the uh you're proposing 103 parking spaces um I missed what the rationale was uh that's double the uh the the one for 2500 that required what was the rationale typically for a building of this size or a warehouse of this size the uh developers or tenants like to see
anywhere from 1 per 1,000 to 1 per 1500 so we'll write kind of in the middle of that range of one per 1,244 so from an operational standpoint I I believe that is uh normal for a building of this size I don't want to use the word normal but it's sort of typical for a building an operation of this size um let's see and and generally speaking um
you have you you will comply with all the the comments and recommendations in our letter that's correct okay any item that you want needed to discuss are you okay with all the items I I don't have any questions on any of the items I just again circling back to the storm water I think we'll have more discussions on that to come up with a solution I um my their comment on regarding the existing wet pond that's kind of in a state of dis air yes
um I realized that is um uh ordinary value uh and I miss nugar testified to what the value is and and the wetlands and what permits would be needed to maintain that Basin and get that Basin that existing Basin up to standards and what it was either originally designed for and I realize if you can't get those calculations and those documentation I don't know if you have those we don't we don't have there are minimum standards required for wet Pond by best management practices D um that is
a condition and we realize it takes time to get a permit so we are um recommending to the board that that's a condition of uh certificate of occupancy it could take many months to get that that that permit at least to 3 or four months um I don't see the need to hold up any starting of construction uh based on a wetland permit but that is a a condition that we're we're we're asking to be put on the approval that um that existing Basin be uh permitted to
DP and maintained and up and uh brought back to uh uh standards uh prior to you know prior to completion of construction well we just asked that the board indulge to hear Miss nar's testimony in that regard okay um and again maybe just a little more information particularly on the Westley side where it is a residential uh uh um um apartment complex there uh showing the uh Landscaping plan and lighting plan
you have that exhibit for that uh the the the Landscaping is shown on the coloriz sight plan exhibit I have smaller I have 11 by 17s if you'd like to see that I mean it's the same as this here but I'll just quickly go through the the Landscaping proposed on the leftest side of the property is uh will'll be 36 evergreen trees as well as that uh that landscape screening fence about 420 linear feet um of being 6t tall I believe it's 25 ft off of the property
line so there there will be a an infill of of trees along the western property line as well as the the landscape screen uh the the screen fence uh from a lighting perspective uh there are area lights proposed in the car parking along the west side the West Side stalls uh but all of those will have house Shields and be shielded from spill having light spillage on the property line to the residential to the West wall mounted units on that West flea side as well well mounted uh yes SC lights on the
on the building they shine straight down to the ground okay so not to be a nuisance toward any residence on that side that is correct and the mounting height of those lights will be 8T high so they're not going to exactly going the mounting height is 8 feet 8T so it won't be the building mounted on the west side will be 8 ft so not something 30t in the air shining down on the residentials next door um that's that's those are my questions chairman okay thank
you you have um I had a question that you're asking for a deviation for fence height could you just explain that so uh the the tallest fence that we are proposing is 6 feet that said I we do have a fence a 6-ft fence proposed on top of a 5-ft retaining wall uh east of the the truck parking spaces as it borders the the existing weapon so uh I did a quick look at the underling code and I do do believe the code is a little bit up for interpretation in terms of a fence height but
I do think it it you can read it to be inclusive of a wall as well I'm not I'm not really sure what the separation would be to separate those the horizontal separation but I think that's where the deviation comes into play we have traditionally interpreted a wall and a with the fence on top as being one um structure per se and that height being the total is there a horizontal separation that you could see that would separate the two items
so that we could eliminate a deviation or look at separation I mean it's it's a full protection item we we have done that in the past I don't know that we specifically gave a distance um many of these they come in and it's straight up basically on top of the um and those had been and those had been granted by the board yes so similar situation here you have the fence right behind the ret the retaining wall of course for fall protection because you have a you know a 5 foot drop from the retaining wall so I guess we have two options we can treat it
as we have in the past with the so be 11t high fence and Grant the deviation or um considering a specific setback from the retaining wall that would eliminate the deviation actually would it eliminate deviation cuz it's 6ot tall fence in the front yard yeah let me double check the um it's for fall protection yes it's for fall protection so we'll we'll just
ask for the deviation easy enough Y and then my other question was about the other deviation for the Turning radi I I believe that's a deviation for the width of the driveway um I think Mr Gino maybe mentioned the a radiat but I believe it's a WID deviation for the driveway uh the the requirements 24 ft but off of Hilton Court the driveway entrance and the driveway is 30 ft and that is to allow for truck circulation coming in and out of hilt
Court okay members of the board of questions Mr napalitano thank you uh thanks for the sidewalks sure uh where are they going to though are they going to keep going across the Avalon property are they stopping at uh your property are they going to across Hilton Court we have them stopping at our property all right that's a start at least we got sub Subs over there on campus dri so I know that you know historically working with municipalities there's a complete streets initiative where you have to
start somewhere right so you put sidewalk it's a requirement to Redevelopment plan so there's a sidewalk along campus Dr I love that um the the the six spaces you have for truck parking I guess uh are those Refrigeration trucks going to be there uh it's seven spaces and I don't believe there will be Refrigeration trucks I think that's more of a spec tenant question or a question for the owner but I I don't just worried about those running overnight with the two hotels there uh do you guys need to have some sort of truck approval for the hilt Court to use that truck approval I mean
that's not a a truck road right now is it I believe trucks do access Hilton Court right now currently all right fair enough and then uh the on Campus Drive is there going to be a sign as says no truck entrance there will be okay yes and I think there's a comment in the GPI letter for additional signage no trucks no left turns things like that thank you other members of the board I do hi thank you for your uh very thorough presentation on short um I'm I'm curious about what's happening with
the median on Campus Drive the yeah the median on Campus Drive and the traffic engineer probably talk a little bit more about that but we are we're just kind of modifying the meeting on campus drive with the shifts of the driveways so with eliminating the driveway in the center uh on Campus Drive the center of the property on the North property line for Campus Drive and Shifting the the driveway entrance in the northwest corner further to the east we're just modifying that median to allow for cars to turn into the property okay so you're not eliminating what okay thank you and I concur with the engineer
on the uh bio retention and all that whatever you can do to make it wonderful is important that's the goal it looks good thank you other members of the board have questions on this testimony this time I'm assuming that everybody will understand and that that it will be made imperative to the trucks that there's no off-site parking anywhere just want to make sure that that area doesn't suddenly find itself lined with
trucks waiting for something that's correct that's correct okay cuz there is another uh Warehouse going at the end Camp of the Tilton court so that's going to be a busy truck area do we do we know who the tenant is no we do not maybe one or up to two all the years I've been doing this nobody's ever told me who the tenants are going to be then they
will come Mr we can fig sometimes we can figure it out nobody's ever told me Mr chairman I have just one more question I I I left off and I I think I know the answer I just want to get it on the record um on one of your sheets and maybe in the utility sheet called out for future guardhouse accessory structure sure it's not shown anywhere else what can you offer on the accessory structure guard house just uh an area allocated for a potential guard
house but that's more of a tenant uh request are you asking for this accessory structure under this application or if that comes in the future that would be a future application because there is no information on it not now we'll come back for a f in a future application if it's needed thank you you no problem all right no other questions here are the members of the public who have questions on this testimony at this time hearing and seeing
none Mr engino thank you Mr chairman thank you thank you like to call Miss La nard do you please raise your right hand you swear affirm that the testimony that you about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record
for new guard NE w g r d my home address or my office office was going to say uh equal science of the 75 Fleetwood Drive Rockaway New Jersey Miss nard we're going to offer you as an expert u in environmental uh how are you usually environmental science and and so if you could please provide the board with uh your educational and professional background in
that regard I have a bachelor's degree in forestry and Wildlife Management from Purdue University I have a master's degree in wildlife and fishery Sciences from Texas A&M I've been with equal Sciences for a long time leave it at that note about 30 years um I am a professional Wetland Scientist by the Society of wetland scientists I'm a certified wildlife biologist by the wildlife Society um I've done thousands of wetland delineations and a lot of Permitting
in the state and I've also do a lot of threatened and endangered species surveys and you've been recognized as an expert not only before boards but also before courts in these matters is that correct yes I have okay we offer Miss nard as a expert in the area of environmental science particularly with regard to Wetlands any members have any questions on the qualifications of this uh expert hearing and seeing none okay so there new if you could
please address the uh the items in Mr kiano's letter with regard to Wetlands and permitting I think there's two areas that I highlighted um item number 13 there are Wetland Flags along the southern B property line as well as around the existing tension Basin the O testimony on the lines and the status of any required wet perity so discussed the uh wet pond on the
site I'm not going to get the direction East the uh the offsite to the West is a ditch so in under the D regulations both detention basins ditches and swes are all considered ordinary resource value which was brought up by the engineer and that means that they have no buffers so in terms of Permitting at the moment we don't feel there's any per needed and I want to go to the next
comment because that's where it's brought up and that was comment 44 and there was a photo of the pond and it talked about the fact that um the C Bas has not been maintained as evidenced by the fragment in the photos to follow fragment Bas on plant that thrive in unmatured unmaintained facilities and drop FRS that can fog the outet control structure is recommended the applicant for form
maintenance so I just wanted to address that um there's no fragm on the it's broadleaf Cattail which is a native plant and I kind of brought just a couple of photos so let's mark as an exhibit so this would be exhibit A4 want you write A4 initial it and date it 10 pH
a 10 good let's these out I just have a a couple copies but I just thought it might be helpful to kind of see what this pond looks like because it's a detention Pond but it's more than a detention Pond and it is characterized by a lot of native vegetation not invasive vegetation Cattail will not clog up the outlets because it doesn't have those kind of adventitious roots that
will kind of expand all over the place and it doesn't have FRS that drop um that may also cause a problem with being C in fact if you look at those photos what you have there is actually a nice little ecosystem in a very developed area yes and it uh when I was there doing the delineation we had green frogs calling we had mads on the pond we even had a painted turtle so I'm going to to suggest that if it ain't broke don't fix
it right now I think you should enjoy the amenity and if if down the line it becomes a problem then that can be addressed with a permit from D called the general permit number one to C out p and I agree with you anything you try to guess through d right now will take forever in a day um so it's it's functional it's I think it's more than functional as a an amenity to the site itself and I would suggest that we
leave it alone but that's my professional opinion um this may be more of an engineering question regarding the design standards for wet Pond uh based on the BMP manual as as there's no original design C I'm more concerned and thank you for the education you the applicant brought on the 18 bringing it on eco Sciences in Laura newart um but uh I'm concerned about the requirements of dep we were going to ask for bath metric survey and I thought that was over
the top um but um uh can you offer or is this more for the engineer um if the I I realize from an environmental standpoint it's it's it's it's has benefits but is it functioning as a wet Pond uh engineering wise for depth of uh of wet Pond death particularly for um I know mosquitoes are one of the type things that they need a certain depth of uh of uh water volume and treatment that was originally intended um I can't I
cannot address depth but I did talk to the engineer a little bit about it because theyve now put in the pre-treatment so the water that's coming into the pond is actually coming in treated whereas before it was just coming in as whatever was running off from the developed surfaces so I don't see us getting the kind of buildup that you might get in a normal detention Pond that might need some some dep the maintenance of it but in terms of the actual engineering that's not much
yeah again my concern is that it's U not functioning as a wet Pond and and if it becomes a a nuisance in some way from mosquitoes or other parameters again so my my uh I would still like well there's a again I I think it's safe for this board to kind of uh uh rely on the the best practice for a wet Pond that it this thing does not not currently meet the uh the the standard for
a wet Pond that it it should be uh maintained and the gp1 um um applied for to for whatever it needs to be done to bring it to the to the standard of of a weet oh I'm trying to understand so if it's if it's not functioning as it should there's there's standards for depth and volume and and and uh and slope and and all engineering type like
a basin requirements uh outside of any kind of plant life um and that that if we're going to make keep this Basin which we are and that's the basis of of uh uh the storm water management plan it should be uh functioning as it's intended under the the state rules for a wet Bond and I don't know this is a heavy lift at all it's a it's it's a
gp1 it's maintenance of an existing storm water facility this is yeah the the permit is not the issue it's just that when you get done implementing that yeah there there that will not look like what it does no it it probably would not but it would meet the requirements of a web Pond I but I I'm not going to get into this is I I guess our our issue was is there what triggers the the need for the permitting um I
guess Laura if you can kind of discuss that I mean what what would ordinarily trigger the need for permitting if it doesn't function yeah you have to get an you may need an excavator to go in there and start removing some material that's the bottom line and it's it's a regulated activity if you get accumulations of material in there and it no longer Clos the way it's supposed to can we agree as a condition of approval that if it if it's not functioning then we will
do that it's based on Geometry of the weet pond and I don't have the rules in front of me right now but it's based on Geometry that it it that it meets if it if if it's if it meets the uh BMP standards for weet pond
so we we'll agree to as a condition that we'll go through the geometry to see if it meets the standards if it does then we're done yes agreed if it doesn't then we would have to get a gp1 and that gp1 would not be uh required to be issued until a co uh was uh was delivered on the property correct yeah prior to
the co prior to the co okay what to make sure my client understands all that yeah got understands all that okay good yeah it's really a function of the survey or an engineer looking at it
and and and and checking it okay that's great thank you all right uh there any questions for this witness on this testimony at this time I do yes sir thank you in the unlike the event that one truck collides into another and the fuel tank ruptures will it drain into that little ecosystem that's going on over there right now I think you need to ask okay
sounds good do you have any more questions from Miss nard okay any other members of the board have any questions of this witness on this testimony at this time now are there any members of the public who have any questions of this witness on this testimony at this time hearing and seeing none Mr engino um do you want to bring back the engineer that's okay uh at this time I'd like to call up Mr Ben
Mueller who did not contract the flu no might be raise your right hand you swear affirm the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record sure Benjamin Mueller mue l l r I'm a principal at ard acoustical Associates our office is located at 1460
Route 9 North Suite 209 in Woodbridge New Jersey okay uh I think you've testified recently before the board has any of your licenses any changeed to your licenses since that time no they have not we offer Mr Mueller as an expert in the area of Acoustics okay any questions on the qualifications of the experts hearing and seeing none excellent uh so as
part of our diligence we've looked at um obviously the question of trucks and the sound producing so we've looked at evaluation of that activity on site with our local and state code compliance uh to just again very high level I'll go into as much detail as as is requested uh but we have a very robust State noise ordinance uh NJ c729 uh there are prescribed limits for daytime hours nighttime hours for
residential receptors and then for commercial receptors it's the same limit uh around the clock and there are no limits that apply for industrial receptors as they're non noise sensitive so the focus of all of our all of my study has been to the West for the Avon Bay the new uh residential development that's uh in in production right now uh for them during the nighttime hours as our site will operate 24 hours a day would be that we would need to meet 50 DBA DB being
the abbreviation for decb and a being that it's a weighted which uh mimics the response of our hearing of the human hearing uh so with that being the most stringent that's what we looked at to evaluate here um the site is going to produce steady noise uh produced by HBC equipment at this stage in the design those details are never really fleshed out but based on on the distance the geom R uh the fact that warehouses
are majority um only heated and not conditioned uh we we will have a rooftop equipment and exhaust fans etc for our our office spaces uh I have no concern over this project complying with nighttime limits to the West uh regarding truck operations bit more of an interesting uh topic now uh trucks are are mobile they're Dynamic um they produce a variety of noises within the truck Court we might have instances
of of air brake releases backup alarms uh couling to coupling which would be connecting or disconnecting of trailers and then we also have driving all those produce a variety of of of levels and a variety of frequencies uh but all are high in magnitude um typically we say that trop cord activity would range anywhere from 74 to 79 DBA at a distance of 50 ft so the good news is though is that with the geometry we're proposing here in the layout all of our noise mitigation comes along for the Ry right
we have our residences to the west and if I can refer to exhibit A3 which is the current colorized version of the site plan that's up um let's see can I if I can point to this um while this is set to uh look nice for us here um I would like to draw your attention to the southern prop line being at a at a bit of an angle um with respect to uh
Campus Drive and that you could see uh slightly that some of the um uh foundations for the residential development to the west and and what you can see though is that our building is uh parallel with cabage drive and what that results in is that the entire truck court is screened from any residential receptor to the West so not only do we have a distance of about 800 ft or so uh from the truck Court to the nearest facade of residential facade uh but we also have a large
building that affords an additional level of screening um doing some initial analyses we show that there'll be full compliance with the nighttime limit and that AF that goes for backup alarms uh air brakes all the other uh different kinds of noise sources that I had referenced before the only one area where there is some slight exposure is at the southernmost uh where the trucks are entering and exiting the truck Court and then for a brief moment for a brief geometry there will be line of sight
down the southern drive to the West uh but that even that being the case a driving truck produces a lower level than a lot of those other U major sources that I discussed and we show that at the 650 ft um that we will also fully comply with night code I should also point out that that is also regardless but we do have a belt and suspenders uh treatment here because as part of the agreement with the um residential development there is going to be
a 6 tall solid fence along that western boundary and and I although my analysis shows that that's not uh we don't need to rely upon that it's obviously going to give us some additional screening uh for when for that brief angle that the trucks are are coming in and out of the facility um I haven't talked about it much but but I should touch upon the fact that we have hotels in the area they're an interesting unique Source uh they're a commercial receptor uh but they can be treated as a residential they're a
commercial uh Source but they're treated as a residential receptor because they do accommodate sleeping um however by 25 years I have never responded to a complaint from hotel occupants uh their their transients um I also been involved in development of of hotels in my career and any noise mitigation that is typically warranted or driven by the uh the the hotel agency they take to consideration for their um in their facade design right everyone has
personal experience with hotels we don't have operable Windows um hotels are in every within 5T of every major airport around the world there those that's not a typical element to have uh a development adjacent development uh caused that to be highly disruptive so so in your your opinion do you believe that the noise created by the project will have any negative impact on the surrounding property no I did not and obviously there'll be the General catchall provision that we have to
comply with all of the state standards and as well the council will recall at least I know Mr deiro at the time of the Redevelopment plan Avalon Bay had uh represented they had entered into an agreement uh with the property owner with regard to noise mitigation which has been built into uh this application so there's no objection uh coming from them either now one of the applicants had a a sound diagram and it
showed that in fact we were I was one of the ones I was always preferring as the building be part of the Shields and that the truck terminals always be on the opposite side to any residential area that that makes this and so yeah I'm happy with this I was not happy with one of them where they didn't do that I I'm just a lawyer I can't take credit but I I
understand so yeah this is uh this complies with all of that it's definitely facing the right way yeah okay I have no further questions for uh for Mr Mueller any questions by members of the board of this applicant or the uh expert no any members of the public have any questions of the expert hearing and seeing none counselor okay thank you thank you van like to call Miss Betsy
Dolan bringing out all the big guys tonight Bessie was on the 18 by the way she no no flu a couple weeks ago there we go please raise your right hand do you swear affirm the testimony that you're about to give away the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes I do please state your name spell your last name and provide your address for the record Elizabeth Dolan d o l a n Dolan and Dean Consulting engineer 181 West High Street in Somerville New Jersey I'm
assuming that M Dolan needs no further introduction to the board except to know that their licenses are still valid I haven't been here in a while but yes my license is still in good standing and um and here as a traffic engineer which I've testified uh as and been accepted in hundreds of municipalities throughout New Jersey but it's been few years since I've been any questions by members of the board on the qualifications of this expert hearing and
seeing none thank you please provide the your testimony with regard to the traffic aspects of this application yes certainly our office prepared and submitted a traffic impact analysis dated December 2 uh 2024 uh it's a full traffic impact evaluation of the proposed warehouse and also compares the traffic characteristics of the warehouse with the um office building that had operated on site for several years um
we also reviewed the application uh materials for the well the traffic studies for to Hilton um which is that site's been cleared and it's just across the street uh from this site and we also reviewed the traffic study for the Avalon uh site next door um our findings are are somewhat consistent with the two Hilton Court uh trip generation characteristics we referenced the trip generation manual we're up to the 11th Edition Now
by The Institute of Transportation Engineers um and the size and type of Warehouse that's proposed would generate approximately 22 driveway movements or trips during the morning peak hour 23 uh entering and exiting during the evening peak hour and over the course of of a day 24-hour weekday uh we'd be looking at about 120 entering 120 exiting for a total of 240 trips uh that is not considered sign ific by traffic engineering uh standards uh the it
and our state highway access management code indicate that at 100 or more trips in one hour uh development May create a significant impact or a measurable impact we're falling well below that 100 trip per hour at 23 uh trips um during the evening peak hour and for comparison the trip generation associated with the office uh would do an additional 200 trips uh during both the morning and
evening peak hours so this is a much lower trip generator than had historically been associated with the office use um and uh over the course of a day 1,400 trips compared to 240 um so even though this is a reduction of course the office isn't operating right now but it is a reduction in trip generation uh it's not considered significant the guidelines again both it and the uh State Highway access management code indicate that where you have a hundred or more trips
in an hour you may create a negative or measurable impact uh nevertheless we followed the um the um full traffic impact analysis scope and that's what was also done for the neighboring developments that are under construction um looking at the weekday morning weekday evening Peak periods We performed traffic Counts from 7: to 9 a.m. from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the dren way and Campus Drive intersection that's the closest intersection where we expect
the majority of our traffic to to travel and when we perform the full impact analysis by adding growth the traffic from to Hilton the traffic from the multif family next door uh we found that there would be no changes in the operational levels of service at that intersection so uh while it is a small or low traffic generator the formal analysis was performed submitted and does show uh no no negative impact associated with this development um you
heard from the site engineer Alex about the site design the layout the circulation uh this has been designed to accommodate trucks because this is going to uh cater more to Trucks Than The Office development would uh the 30ft driveway uh on uh Hilton has been designed to promote the um movement of trucks uh in a safe and efficient manner that is the desired location for the truck so that that they're not impacting Campus Drive uh so the site
has been designed following recognized design criteria to promote safe and efficient uh access and circulation we've got the truck um geometry specifically designed uh for the warehouse use uh there was some comment about the uh left turn lane on campus drive into the one driveway that will be uh provided uh the stacking in that left turn lane well exceeds the um anticipated demand but we we carried the existing um left turn
lane all the way through to the new driveway location so it's a very comfortable queuing area uh longer than had existed for the office and certainly uh more than probably necessary for the the new use um with regard to parking I know we're providing a little bit more than the um ordinance or the it average but what I would tell the board is that the proposed parking Supply Falls between the it average and 85th percentile so it's certainly in
keeping with um the it standards and anticipated uh demands that have been studied for this type of use um so with that I I think I've hit on all of the Salient points of the traffic study and if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them Mr kiano do um just a question in the past applications as uh Route 202 Littleton Road is um b overburden as it is is
it the intention for the truck traffic to do what we've been what this board has requested on prior applications is to have the truck traffic go U out in and out through Dryden yeah and I think that makes sense because it's roughly 500 ft that's the closest intersection and it's easy on and off of Route 10 so that makes sense to me um uh I think in the past that was sort of a condition of of approval um that that that the trucks would be not used utilized Littleton
right I think that that's appropriate for this uh site location thank you you're welcome other members of the board have any questions of this witness on this testimony at this time Gordon you have anything no no other members professionals any members of the public have questions of this witness on this testimony at this time hearing and saying none counselor thank you Mr chairman I'd like to call
Mr Alex McLean as our planner and last witness mran you've appeared before this board correct I am yes is your license still valid as a professional planner in the state of New Jersey it is and you're here from Mr mcdna I am okay like to request that he'd be accepted any questions by members of the board on qualifications you the last name
for me please sure uh on don't mess with the buttons you heard at the beginning of the meeting I am uh yeah m c c l e a n thank you and if you just please raise your right hand do you swear affirm that the testimony that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do all right thank you and once again your licenses are still valid in the state of New Jersey as a professional planner right we get that the okay okay if you
can please address the two uh variances or deviations that are being requested in the application sure so yes we're looking at um what I would say is are two C2 variances uh one for maximum drive by width but where the requirement is 24 ft and the proposed is uh 30 ft uh and the maximum fence height of uh the requirement is 6 ft the propos is 11 ft uh this is a make you this a technicality but as mentioned before this is for fall protection um and with that I'll just dive
into the uh the proofs here I won't belabor the board with and going over the site I pretty clear on what the surrounding uses are um so um with regards to the positive criteria uh here the applicant is supposed to Dem supposed to demonstrate that the granting of a variant uh to allow the departure from the zoning ordinance would Advance one of the purposes of the ml uh and that the benefits of the the deviation would substantially outweigh any detriment also known as the
special reasons uh here the applicant advances several purposes of the ml uh which include purpose a uh the requested deviations Pro would promote the public health safety morals and general welfare since they are intended to improve circulation and in traffic safety on the site in addition to providing better security on the site uh purpose C overall the project promotes the Township's goals for adequate light air
and open space so the project complies with all bulk requirements for building coverage prate surface residential buffer and front rear side yard setback requirements uh purpose G promoting a sufficient space and open in appropriate locations for commercial industrial uses purpose AG for encouraging the location uh encouraging the location uh design and transportation routes which would promote the free Flow Free flow of traffic uh purpose I
for the promotion of desirable Vis visual environment through the uh thoughtful landscaping design that the applicant has pursued uh so here it's clear that the benefits were substantially out weigh any de detriments as there would be little to no detriment resulting in the deviation relative to the benefits of the overall project uh which are substantial in terms of Economic Development on a proper that's almost entirely in compliance with the Township's lus ordinance under the Redevelopment plan and with respect to
the negative criteria uh it should be clear that the requested relief would not result in substantial detriment to the public goods since the project site is within the dedicated a dedicated commercial District or corporate part uh of the township and is Far From Any residential areas uh which obviously speaks to the uh noise analysis that we heard earlier and in the screening that be that'll be mitigated uh mitigating the noise from the truck traffic um
and the project would result in a reduction if over a few 200 parking spaces which would allow for the site to achieve its planed impervious surface uh coverage of 52.2% which is 13% below the uh limit of 70% um and it's also well below the threshold for uh impacts from traffic volume as we heard from the uh previous uh expert so furthermore uh the uh requested relief would not result in substantial
impairment of the intent and purpose of the Zone plan or ordinance as the project site is in a relatively isolated a area with limited impacts to streetcape and the overall project would largely be compliance with the zoning zoning regulations for the Souther campus dri predevelopment area uh the Township's 2020 master plan includ public survey identifies the uh uh attraction of major employers as a top Economic Development priority
uh one of the recommendations calls for the removal of barriers and entrepreneurs and businesses and business types and experiential retail and the Redevelopment plan uh recommends removing and replacement of substandard Andor underdeveloped buildings uh there is no doubt that this project would not result in a would would would would result in substantial impairment of the uh Township's uh Zone plan or ordinance with that I believe that this
uh application meets the criteria for Relief no further questions Mr chairman M winter do you have any uh uh I agree the two uh deviations are relatively minor and they do improve the safety of the site so okay members of the board have questions on this witness of this witness on this testimony at this time hearing and seeing none oh my members of the public have questions of this
witness on this testimony at this time hearing and seeing none counselor uh Mr chairman I just want to thank you and the board for coming out tonight I know it's a cold night out here in February um appreciate your time and attention to the application and we're excited to present this application as uh forany continues to um rebuild Itself by repurposing these vacant office buildings putting them to good use putting them back on the roles of the taxpayers for the taxpayers uh
and providing jobs uh and other benefits in furtherance of the Redevelopment plan we think this is all very very positive for the community and uh we're happy to present this application and respectfully request that the board approve it all right other members of the public who wish to speak in favor or oppos to this application at this time Hearing in saying none youve summed I assume this
then closes the evidentiary portion of tonight's hearing uh anybody willing to make either a resolution move a resolution or a uh have a discussion what do we got here I'll make a motion just have to say I appreciate the fact you have sidewalks I've heard
you Mr Napolitano that's right I don't have the number in front of me of the uh application well You' moved it have a second second second Gord you me read it out I'll give it up Gordon you can have it all right thanks all right M joli could you uh call the RO please yes C Pio yes Hernandez
yes mat yeso yes Shaw yes yes thank you all right that brings us to should we do them together or should we do I guess sear all right we have uh four gate Hall block 175 lot 52 Zone r rol statement to basis in preliminary investigation of
anr yeah got more items on our agenda so we want to get home in good order all right um so let me get started with for gate Hall uh so tonight we're going to determine whether or not for
gate Hall Drive study area meets the statutory requirements to be determined in area need of Redevelopment and after we do this we will do two Sil in way also yes um so you'll hear a lot of repeats but that's okay uh so preliminary investigation essentially an existing conditions report the study area is one lot at forgate Hall Drive block 175 lot 52 uh it's a
13.67% occupancy rate for the last 3 years and the largest tenant will be vacating this year bringing the occupancy down to just 8% as we are all well aware perney is in the midst of historically High vacancy rate for its Office Buildings many of the older
buildings have become functionally obsolete with the rise of remote work and corporate tenants downsizing their office spaces into higher quality buildings and new construction in November I did a site visit um the property has extensive cracking in the parking lot uneven walkways which are trip and fall hazards the outdoor water feature is nonfunctional it used to have a fountain that no longer works um standing water has potential breeding ground for mosquitoes and disease as was mentioned
as part of the previous application the interior of the building has another nonfunctioning former water feature which is now covered in mold growth um it was quite disgusting there were other areas of the building which showed water infiltration building moisture can cause a variety of health problems and the potential for growth of bacteria mold St rodents insects and can release volatile organic compounds from what building materials uh five out of the six elevators were broken the doors were
stuck open the elevators were actually not level with the floor so you had another trip and fall Hazard there they just had a couple of cones in front of them um in addition many of the mechanical systems are at the end of their useful life and need to be upgraded so that's what it looked like when I I went to visit the Redevelopment law provides for eight different Criterion to determine if an area qualifies as in need of Redevelopment uh the important thing to note is that study area only has to meet one of these criteria this property qualifies under four
uh the first is Criterion a as discussed the generality of the buildings are substandard unsafe unsanitary dilapitated and obsolescent criteria B the disc continuance of the use of a building or buildings previously used for commercial purposes has had significant vacancies um for at least two consecutive years this one's been over three now the study area qualifies under Criterion D which
Builds on the previous criteria that building is doated obsolescent in the current Marketplace and chars faulty Arrangement and design and obsolete layout the increasing vacancies result in a lack of productive use and offer um limited public benefit the combination of these factors is a detriment to the safety Health morals and Welfare of the community and finally it qualifies under Criterion h which is that the study area uh along with most of parsipany is located in the
pa1 metropolitan planning area of the state plan the intention of which is to provide for much of the state's future Redevelopment Revitalize cities and towns promote growth in compact forms stabilize older suburbs redesign areas of sprawl and protect the character of existing stable communities while listing specific Redevelopment activities for the study areas beyond the scope of this report the Redevelopment of the site may be expected to result in economic development for the township and its taxpayers which is consistent with smart
grow planning principles as embodied in the state plan so in conclusion the study area qualifies under the local Redevelopment and Housing law under four of the eight criteria I therefore recommend that planing board find as such and recommend the council that for gate Hall Drive study area be declared an area in need of Redevelopment any questions I do yep I I just I I always forget how these work okay so we're only saying we agree to this and it's going to go to the council and then eventually someone's going to come with a plan and
they come back to us right so we're recommend process right we're only just saying to the council based on the conditions in the report this property qualifies based on the Redevelopment law okay um once assuming Council votes and determines it is an area need of Redevelopment The Next Step at that point is to develop a plan okay once the plan is developed and passed at some point in the future after that then the applicant comes in with their plan like
they did tonight so we're only approving to go to the council yes so I'll make sure I'm clear on thank you I wish for good Mr meth yeah first of all I mean I hate the idea of rewarding bad behavior with people who don't take care of their buildings I just hate that by giving them this tool but I also recognize that this building is never going to rent again right and you know whatever tool we need to redevelop our office space I'm in favor of yeah I think the
problem with some of these larger buildings as the vacancy rate goes up is that you don't have people in them they're not seeing the problems that occur early enough so they get much bigger than they need to even even when they have regular you know um Property Management walk through you know if they're only there once a week something happens on Monday then they're not there till Friday it's much bigger problem and creates these issues with these buildings Mr D
just just a comment um even if they spent the money to upgrade the building to current standards and current desires for people to move in it still stay mostly empty most likely the expenditures will not as a matter of fact we did see that in l de East um the owner of that property fixed
up two buildings out of all of them fixed up two of them and couldn't fully occupy them even though he brought them up those two buildings up to standards so um it's it's not just uh these owners are letting it go there there's no demand for them at all even if they were faed down so repurposing them makes all the sense in the world other members of the board have any comments or questions I have another question too as well so this one
actually seems to me like the worst one we've ever seen I don't remember ever hearing one about elevator stuff that I've seen my four years it's not the worst one I've seen but it it was pretty bad and the the water fountain inside like literally was you so this is this is a non- condemnation so what would make it a condemnation then how do we condem it you don't condemnation in the the sense of Redevelopment um that that's when you're taking the property okay so
the to public need right yep so so when when an area is deemed a non- condemnation area in need of Redevelopment that means that the town cannot take the property through eminent domain okay so right so does that mean that the owner of the building asks for this because of their inability to is that how it comes about in a
lot of Redevelopment yes yeah okay so that's why we see this a lot in parcion because of our office space as opposed to other towns that might like pan overd doing their BJs and all that because it's not and and other towns have it but much as cly have different uh they have different opportunities okay the difference between parpan and all the
other towns is simple they do not have the mass amount of commercial that we have with the third largest Corporate Center in the state of New Jersey and the number one suburban and as nor I think it's Northstar said that we're not going to see recovery till 2035 if we even see one okay I did have one additional comment
um an earlier version of the study referenced um lot the lot being lot five but it is the correct lot is lot 52 um and there was some confusion about the notice um the notice did have the correct address of the property so the public would be made aware that this is the property that we're talking about tonight okay any other questions or comments public have any questions
or comments I don't see any questions drinks on me do you make him go into the buildings too as an A Way team with a red shirt on by he's in a different exactly um no other questions comments public has no questions or comments I drive past there all the time I had no idea it was like
that inside look okay from a driveby yeah yeah we almost had an office in there so that would have been 10 years no 15 years ago we looked at so all right well I guess this closes the evidentiary portion of tonight's hearing uh do I have a motion suggesting to the the I do I have I'll make a motion to uh send this to the Town Council for approval of uh 4
gate Hall block 175 lot 52 Zone RL uh basis for preliminary investigation of AI NR so we find that qualifies yes I think it qualifies yes do I have a second second barar thank you Mr Shaw all right if you call the role please barberio yeso yes Hernandez yes ma yes apano yes Shaw yes yep all
right that's moves us on to uh two silen way study area for statement of basis for investigation and maps for non- condemnation preliminary Redevelopment investigation for an area in need of Redevelopment all right so similar to forgate Hall um two silen way is a 6 acre parcel it's block 202 lot 1.1 it's a 3story 54,000
ft commercial office building has associate parking lots and is also in the r District this building was constructed in 1977 and last renovated in 88 um it's of the brutalist style of architecture being very blocky with poorly placed Windows which result in a very dark interior um it has a weird kind of split level design it's kind of built into the hill so only one of um the
entrances is accessible for people with mobility issues the other one enters into a split level staircase um there's also some disconnection on the two sides of the building and order to go from one side of the thir third story to the other you have to go back down to the ground floor um so as previously discussed we know pipia has a high vacancy rate and this particular building is very Antiquated in its style and design making it truly functionally obsolete in the marketplace
um the occupancy rate has been 35% or less for the last 15 years uh they are also losing additional tenants this year and projected occupancy rate by the end of the year is 18% so we did another site visit in November um there were evidence of leaks water damage and mold in the building the basement had previously flooded due to a broken water line severely damaging the electric switch gear which requires
replacement um the same issues in regards to building moisture would apply here too um Additionally the roof and HVAC systems are reaching the end of their useful life cycle and will need to be replaced the parking lot showed some cracking uh exterior structures like the trash encloser and picnic tables were in disrepair so again we've got eight criteria and this property needs to qualify for one and it qualifies under four the same for as a
previous Criterion a for the generality of buildings being substandard unsafe unsanitary dapt and obsolescent B for um the significant vacancies for at least two consecutive years uh 35% over 15 years I think clearly qualifies and the study also qualifies under Criterion D which again building dilapitated obsolescent in the current Marketplace and the faulty Arrangement design
and all the obsolute layout the resulted increased vacancies and is limited public benefit um and finally under Criterion H again it's in the pa1 metropolitan planning area of the state plan um which is intended for much of the state's Redevelopment and R vitalization so again uh this qualifies under the local Redevelopment and Housing law under four criteria and I would also
recommend that um the board recommend to the council that it be deemed an area in need of Redevelopment any questions Mr math so is is is brutal style architecture really a thing yes yes I mean I I don't know that this is and I I will put on my brief study in architecture school um that it is a strictly brutalist structure but definitely has a lot of
the same callings of it it's that kind of it's like rough and blocky and okay yeah and I think I also say in the report that it Brut style like was out of Vogue by the early 80s so it really like came in at the end and was like out of style before you know it was developed in the 20s or 30s in German yeah no it' been around for a while but it Heyday was over around that time
okay any other questions can we confirm that the two the two tenants are are now gone it says here they'll be vacating by the end of 2025 January 2025 um I don't have that information we would have to um consult with I know one of the companies a thriving company it's an authentication Service and then I'm wondering why um I mean I guess it's just going to well I think one of them had some space in the basement which is
flooded and that was an ongoing issue so I think that was one that was explained to leave okay jda isn't it JSA yeah Jes Spence yeah um just they're pretty active on social media I never saw them write anything about uh you know that they're leaving New Jersey but uh maybe they're stay in New Jersey just parity might just be that building okay thank you other members of the board have any question questions on this on the ruling for the qualifications any
members of the public hearing and seeing none I'm going to close the evidentiary portion of tonight's hearing and ask for a motion my usual motion makers are not here tonight to approve the
uh two7 lot 202 lot 11 I'm sorry lot 1.1 Zone R all right second second oh good J can have it thanks yes yes hernandz yes yeso yes sure yes yes all
right now nothing else on our agenda tonight do I have a motion to anybody oppose meting I want to start a meeting
SE no I know I can you know more than one person