##VIDEO ID:cwEV2jeXtLM## a zoning Board of adjustment meeting will please come to order adequate notice of this meeting was provided in the following ways notice published in the carer news notice posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building notice made available to the Township Clerk notice sent to the curry and news and the Star Ledger will the clerk please call the role Mr Weissman here Mr Tillery here Mr Patel cowp Mr reio here Mr hia here Mr Mondo here Mr rilei here and chairman K here will everyone please stand for a salute to the fled by pledge allegiance to the flag flag of the United States of America and to the and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Liberty Justice for Mr Canal are there any changes to tonight's agenda yes there are the application of on switch 51 New England Avenue is adjourned until March 27th 2024 with no further notice by the applicant the application of Francis Resco 135 Stelton Road has been withdrawn and will not be heard those are all the changes that I have thank you sir let's start out with item number 6 24- zb- 83v new Singular Wireless Mr Quinn are you present uh um here from Mr Quinn Gabriel Halper of pelis Halper uh ready to proceed on behalf of new Singular Wireless which everyone probably knows better as AT&T um this uh this this is an application for an interpretation and waiver of sight plan for 151 West e Road it's an existing Tower um that we're going to be looking to remove uh six antennas installed uh four new antennas um so we will actually be reducing the number of antennas on the tower from 12 to 6 uh the application calls for no additional height um there's certain equipment that's going to be uh replaced and upgraded but there will be no change es to any of the structures no increases in height and we are replacing eight radio heads we have submitted an EMF FCC uh report as well as a structural analysis report and shows that there will be no change on the site as to the operation of the site Mr chairman I've reviewed the submissions of the applicant and I concur with Mr halper's representations there is the FCC report there is the uh structural report there do not appear to be any new variances created by this proposed work thank you Mr can any other members of the board have any questions for this application any comments hearing none I'm going to open it to the public anyone in the public have any comments or questions about this application no one chairman okay hearing that I'm going to close the public portion I make a motion to approve this application I'll second it thank you col roll Mr Weisman yes Mr Tillery yes Mr reio yes Mr Haka yes Mr Mondo yes Mr Ali yes and chairman kahill yes Mr Halper we'll memorialize this at our next meeting thank you very much appreciate it have a good evening sir let's move on to item number seven 22- zb-1011 12v 429 Bell Street Mr friends are you present uh good evening Eric friends Simon Law Group on behalf of the applicants 429 Bell Street go ahead Mr friends this is an application uh for a use variance um the applicant uh 429 Bell Street is a wholesaler uh operating out of a non-conforming district we seek it has it had it has operated for a number of years stretching over 20 years uh recently um brought to his attention that it's not non-conforming um use we seek um to have the the use the current use approved uh through uh um D variant the use variant I have before me um Lyle wette the representative of the applicant 429 Bell Street along with our um planner uh he should be on here um and our engineer as well now you were before the board back in November is that correct uh November yes yes and in November at that meeting uh you addressed most of um the professionals reports from Piscataway yes there were some outstanding issues uh there were and then the the town issued a supplemental um supplemental report of supplemental requests um based on their uh visit with uh uh 429 Bell Street's applicant or representative Mr wette so there's no there's no reason for you to go over all the testimony from November uh so you should just address the unanswered issues or the new issues very good thank you so I would call Mr wette um Mr wette you were sworn in to tell the truth at the last hearing you remain sworn in to tell the truth please identify yourself for the record uh my name is Lyle wette I live in hacktown New Jersey thank you uh so thank you uh Mr wette you had an opportunity to meet with uh individuals from Piscataway Township um uh back in uh December is that correct yes and they issued some um requests or directives regarding the the site uh that you had an opportunity to review yes uh I'd like to go over that with you um the specifically for what for what what you as a representative can do or represent uh for the company uh the town said that the damage curving um especially the depressed curb at the parking lot entrance will need to be replaced and repairs will not be acceptable um in in place of a replacement uh if we could if you could address that issue yeah uh we need somebody from from the town on that to come and and show us what that do need to be replaced in their opinion I did walk in with um you know their representative and uh you know we saw a few places but he said he wasn't the one that would be making that decision so I'm going to need somebody else to to kind of show us what to do and and you know that's stuff we're gonna we're going to address okay uh there was also discussion of requirement for landscaping screening along the back of the structure um that may be substituted for a uh mix of uh different types of plants um to supplement the veg vegetation yeah so um we we settled on doing Arbor bites uh 8 foot on Center we are actually going to cut the asphalt in one of the areas that it was asphalted all the way up to the existing fence so we're going to um go ahead and and cut that asphalt and put some plants there I'm sorry someone have a question no it's a call oh okay um and so the the only thing that uh seems to be kind of one thing we don't want to do really is to put plantings actually between the building and the fence it's about a 15 foot area uh that it's not going to serve any purpose to put Plants back there we don't operate anything back there there's no Machinery back there there is some existing plants and that stuff that are hanging on by a thread so it it's it's just not a great place to put Plants uh there's no sun back there so what what I would like to do is do plants from the corners of the buildings of the building the East and West Corner out to the property line with plants okay just for a second Mr FS let me try and expedite this a little bit if I could sure Jonathan who works for the township has a list the same list you're reading you're going in a different order if Jonathan could just go through the five bullets that he issued here on the report I dated December 8 I think we can expedite because he's only going to profer testimony after your expert to either go back and forth I I don't feel like going through each one of these items twice no that's let my expert Jonathan Mahi come on address what he wants and his requirements and what he's asking for the township and then you can address that or you have your expert Mr uh have Lyall address it after that so Jonathan here are you here yes thank you Mr chairman so uh following following my meeting with Mr olette uh 18th of December we had several follow-up conversations internally with staff which generated some of these comments that are in this memo we were very willing to compromise on the location of the dumpster essentially allowing them to remain where they are on site just formalizing that enclosure and uh making up the parking Elsewhere on site we feel comfortable with this being a condition of approval uh the second Point uh we looked Mr olette and I observed the curbing on site following that conversation on site I spoke with the supervisor of engineering and that is when we identified specifically all the depressed curbs at the entrance that's damaged needs to be replaced not repaired so that is coming not from myself but from the director of engineering as a direct result of our conversation Mr olette following that inspection uh there was also a clarification on the policies with the township sidewalk fund a sidewalk must be installed here along the frontage secondly the uh landscape plan that your expert provided or sketched rather during the November meeting was rather heavily screened the compromise that we discussed during that December 18th site visit was that we could supplement the existing Landscaping with some additional plantings out there not necessarily the full extent uh that your expert provided but a compromise that would still provide some screening and then lastly exactly what Mr olette said he would comply with uh reducing some of the asphalt area and replacing that with a more dense Evergreen screen to screen the uh storage en closure areas so yes please close up close it up oh so if the applicant is willing to condition the approval of the items in this report provide us an updated site plan with updated uh details that are also requested in the October 18th uh staff memorandum we'd be able to move this application along and bring it to a vote I I agree hold on Mr chairman I apologize for being late was there a discussion discussion on lighting no there hasn't been I did discuss it uh with this applicant what is the position on the outdo outdoor lighting now so the the outdoor lighting we're removing what is in that storage area that we have and we're going to put shrouds up on the there's you know some nighttime lights that we have shining from the building into those storage areas uh and we're going to put some shrouds on them to prevent that from shining into the residents houses how about the old freestanding ones you g to remove they're coming down that's all coming down so there will be no parking lot lights there'll be wallmounted lights with SC screens yes okay that's it the other the other subjects were discussed I was here while you were doing that that's okay thank you John appreciate it uh Mr will let uh after the testimony of Mr Mahi do you have any issues with every point that he came out with because if you don't I think we can push this along and get you guys the approval you want um I the S the side walk uh I'd like our planner to speak to that's okay okay hey Mark Mr friends put on your we have our planner mark um he was not previously sworn so he would have to be sworn but um he's currently here Mr Remo are you here I am okay I need to swear you in could you raise your right hand you swear the testimony you're about to give should be the truth I do your name and address please my name is Mark a Rema R MSA addresses 10 duberry Court out Laurel New Jersey thank you you're welcome so uh Mr Rema if you could just give uh the board uh just a little background on your qualifications yes um uh I'm in New Jersey I'm a licensed professional planner and a landscape architect I've been in those fields for over 45 years uh I currently serve uh three municipalities as their planner um I've also uh appeared before New Jersey Superior Court as a uh professional planner so you qualifications your qualifications are fine we can proceed thank you thank you so uh Mr Rema if you could just address the uh the curb uh not the curbing I'm sorry the sidewalk uh that is pretty much essentially holding up this uh Mr friend you are also here for a use variance I think we need use variance testimony from the planner yes no absolutely so um yes I I certainly understand the importance of having uh sidewalks um uh and the complete streets uh concept for uh municipalities um but but we have to um look at the uh the application of of where sidewalks go uh in terms of the context of the area that they're located so uh when I visited Bell Street I noticed that of course it's it's a deadend street uh there's there's only a few uh uh uses that really gain access at the end of the street is that multi-tenanted uh light industrial building and uh uh there are no other sidewalks anywhere uh in and along Bell Street uh there's there's a a vacant wooded lot there's a construction yard with storage and so uh uh what I did was I looked at New Jersey transits bus U uh lines uh because sometimes you can have public transportation uh that would provide uh pedestrians to uh uh to their jobs so in this case though the closest bus line is in New Market area and I uh looked at the uh Google Maps to see the length of time it would be to walk there so the closest is roughly an hours walking distance away uh so when I looked at the uses that are on Bell Street there are no pedestrian traffic generators uh at all uh it it's a it's a dead end Street and most of the tra all of the traffic actually is all vehicular based so in this case if I were to look at the application of complete streets for for uh sidewalks uh they're really not um would be warranted uh on Bell Street so that that that was my review uh of of the application of of of uh of putting a a a sidewalk along Bell Street and could you also speak about the uh conduit well the the conduit uh I know there's a request to put a conduit uh I I couldn't find anywhere in the ordance that required the the the uh an applicant provide a conduit and and generally my experience is conduits are installed by the utility companies uh because they have the specific specifications uh for for conduit uh if they're going to have one for any kind of underground utility so um I I'm unsure why why you the applicant will be required to put a conduit uh along along your property okay um could you also address um the you know we're here seeking also a use variant if you would address that for the board yeah so um uh I am going to provide you the background and then the proofs for for the uh use variants um I don't want to belabor this I'm sure the board members are very familiar with with the property uh just just to recap the surrounding land uses to the north are are the single family homes uh to the east is a a wooded uh uh wooded lot across um uh uh Bell Street to the South is is a very large construction yard with storage of equipment and material and at the very end is that multi-tenanted uh uh light industrial use so so the the character of of the surrounding area is principally uh light light industry and um looking at the um uh use variants uh yes uh when I looked at the ordinance uh wholesaling not um specifically uh permitted in the zone uh in the li1 zone however retail is permitted uh as long as it doesn't exceed 5% of the gross floor area in this case um uh the uh there's a little 150 square foot area uh that that may serve uh some retail component of of the operation and that's well below the 5% so it actually meets the uh condition use aspect uh in the LI Zone um so let me go to the jump right to the proofs uh uh you know the positive and negative criteria uh are important for uh uh the uh application so in terms of the positive criteria there has to be special reasons for um uh granting this and so we look to the municipal land use law and uh section njsa 40 Colum 55d -2 and then what I'm going to talk speak to are the the small U uh letters of the paragraphs that I believe apply to uh this application so first one would be G and that's provide sufficient space and appropriate locations for variety of uses in this case uh industrial uses are cited in in the law and certainly the property has been used as an industrial site for many decades uh and also the proposed use uh fits into a light indust type type of use which is essentially the host selling of of the uh irrigation products uh next one is I to provote a desirable visual environment uh we just heard extensively about how how the uh appearance of the uh in screening of the property is going to be enhanced uh that doesn't need to be belabored uh J is to prevent uh Urban spraw and the degradation of the environment here we're reusing an existing developed property uh that's been light industrial use so so reusing that rather than building a new building helps prevent the urban sprawl and and M is uh encouraged the more efficient use of land and certainly uh uh reusing the property for this light DV use does that and then I come back to a uh which is given all the uh foregoing factors it certainly would promote the public health safety morals and G General Welfare uh in typ of in Terms terms of the other uh part of the positive criteria site suitability um does this site demonstrate that it's particularly suited for the proposed use and I would say that it does uh it's been uh used as a light industrial use very small building uh the type of use here doesn't require a very large building uh and also the The Limited um uh outdoor uh storage that's that's required the site can provide uh and it can accommodate uh uh the uh uh parking demand uh even though there's a variance there's from your ordinance for parking uh certainly the uh number of employees are very low and the number of visitors to the site is also very low and and so and also the the area has already been paved uh on the outdoor for for uh outdoor storage uh next one is negative criteria uh we have to look at does this uh proposal uh acrew any substantial detriment to the public good we have to look at the uh effects it has on surrounding land uses to the North or the residences and and certainly uh this use uh could have an impact on them however with the enhanced uh landscaping and screening will certainly diminish any kind of negative impact from that to the east is a wooded lot there's no impact there to the South is that construction yard no impact uh and to the West uh which is the multi-tenanted building industrial building uh I see no negative impact there either uh reconciled with the master plan uh not to belver this but I did review the uh professionals reports and they cited in there that indeed uh this kind of use is contemplated of uh uh this kind of light industrial use is is contemplated in this area so I would say that reconciled with the master plan so in conclusion I believe that this promotes the purposes of mpal anus law uh the site's particularly suited for it Crews no sub substantial negative uh detriment uh and also it does not substantially impair the intent and purpose of the Zone plan and zoning ordinance so th those would be the um proofs for the use variance Mr chairman thank you for your testimony I don't think we have a problem with the use variant however I would like our expert to uh chime me in again on the Conduit and the need to have fully replaced sidewalks so Jonathan if you could help us out certainly uh so Mr Rema thank you for your testimony I would direct you to the zoning uh zoning chapter of our ordinance specifically section 614 that's where we discuss fiber optic conduit in detail it's at the discuss of the Planning and Zoning Board at the direction of the supervisor of engineering heing uh if there is a hardship which it does not sound like there is that's something that can be discussed in further uh offline with the director of engineering um and then in regards to sidewalks I think I I I would defer to the I would defer to the the board on their opinion however uh our code again section 713 of the zone chapter states that pedestrian sidewalk shall be provided along both sides of all new streets and in locations wherever normal pedestrian traffic will occur we can't assume because it's a deadend street that there won't be pedestrians again that's my professional opinion I'll defer to the board uh for their vote on this matter but those are my my opinion on those two points Mr chairman thank you Jonathan I appreciate it um Mr F you want to wrap it up if I could just one comment the the sidewalk issue is it's like when do you start the fact that there is none in inmediate vicinity doesn't mean you won't ever need them and that's always I think been the policy of the countship thank you John I appreciate it well then I would just uh ask I guess again Mr wette if he is willing or able to accommodate these requests uh that we can get the you know potentially get approval on this application uh yeah we are we are going to do what the board decides yes okay let me chime in here just for a second this board relies heavily upon the testimony and the expertise of someone like Mr Miss Rahi and John chadwood um 99% of the time we vote along the parameters and the guidelines they provide us so if you can agree to the five bullets that we just went over um uh and and the expert testimony that was provided I think that you could have a good outcome with tonight's vote that's the last thing I'll say okay Mr chairman we do need to open including including including the elimination of the parking lot lights yes that would be included as a condition that wasn't one of the Five Points that's why I mentioned oh thank you John I apologize yeah you brought that up and it was offline okay um any other members of the board have any questions or comments about this application hearing none I'm going to open it to the public anyone in the public have any comments or questions about this application no one chairman thank you close the public portion and I'd make a motion to approve this application with the testimony that was provot provided tonight can I get a second yes I'll second it thank you please call the rooll Mr wsman yes Mr Tillery yes Mr regia yes Mr Haka yes Mr Mondo yes Mr Riley yes and chairman kahill yes the application has been approved uh we will memorialize it in our at our next meeting in a written document and send that document to you good luck thank you thank the board for the thank you gentlemen thank you very much let's move on to item number nine 24- zb- 57v 900 East 92nd Street LLC excuse me good evening Donna Jennings for the record from L Goldman and spiter on behalf of the applicant evening good evening D good evening would you like me to begin yes please please proceed s thank you um as the board is aware the applicant is here this evening seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval with one bulk variant and one design waiver to construct a three-story approximately 127,00 722 Square ft self storage facility with related site improvements on property located at 1659 South Washington Avenue and identified as block 5601 Lots 2.05 on the Township's tax map the property is located in the R20 Zone on approximately 3.72 Acres Self Storage is not a permitted use in the R20 Zone however as the board may recall it granted a prior applicant a use variant to permit a self- storage use on the property at at the same size square footage the board also granted several bulk variances with respect to one minimum number of parking spaces two maximum Building height three maximum parking setback from a residential Zone and four maximum building coverage the applicant is entitled to rely on the use and bulk variances as they previously they run with the land this application subsequently follows as a second half of the bifurcated application to construct the proposed self- source facility the applicant further requests uh one new bulk variants related to the maximum permitted fence height and a residential Zone it reques requires a fence situated on top of a retaining wall that combined will exceed the ordinance maximum of 6 feet and the applicant also requires one design waiver relief with respect to providing an access driveway to a non-permitted use in a residential Zone whereas a self storage facility is not permitted use and is located in a residential Zone uh the record will reflect that the applicant satisfies the positive and the negative criteria required to Grant the variance The Proposal furthers multiple purposes of munal land use law including a promoting the general welfare G providing sufficient space and appropriate locations for a variety of uses including commercial and I to promote a desirable visual environment the record will also further reflect that the applicant satisfies the traditional negative criteria which requires the applicant to demonstrate that the proposal if granted will not one create a substantial detriment to the public good and two uh will not substantially impair the intent or purpose of the Zone plan and zoning ordinance uh this board has already ruled that this site is particularly well suited for a self- storage use the variance requested will allow a combined fence and retaining wall to be installed thereby inre inreasing the safety of the property uh the increased height will not have an adverse effect on the surrounding Properties or the zoning ordinance the property is located nearby other commercial uses and granting the relief will not add substantial noise traffic odors or other negative effects to the community in support of the application uh the applicant will rely on the three Witnesses Josh sewald who is the engineer and professional planner uh Lewis Vanderloo who is our architect and Craig Pary our traffic engineer just as a matter of recordkeeping I did want to acknowledge that the applicant has received and reviewed the following reports a report from your division of engineering dated December 3rd 2024 a report from the public works uh Department review dated December 6 2024 the Dolan and Dean traffic review letter dated January 9th 2025 and the Delaware Ren engineering review letter uh dated January 23rd 2025 so with that uh if we could have our first witness uh brought up and sworn in we can begin Our Testimony who's the first witness it's going to be Josh sewald he's right there Mr sewald are you present I am yes sir could you raise your right hand you sway the testimony you're about to give should be the truth I do your name and address please Josh seaal SE W from Dynamic engineering Consultants my address is 1904 Main Street in Lake comoo New Jersey 07719 thank you if you could Josh for the benefit of the board please give your background and qualifications uh certainly and thank you Donna good to see you again I have a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science in civil engineering I've testified before over 100 L sports in New Jersey I last testified in Piscataway in January of 2020 and April of 2020 but it's good to be back here and I'm a partner at Dynamic engineering consultant and you're testifying both as a professional engineer and planner that's correct and would the board accept his qualifications please proceed thank you so much uh if you could Josh just for the record uh describe the uh existing site conditions and if you're going to rely on any exhibits I think they've been pre-marked I do believe not you could please no problem I'm going to share my screen shortly let me know if I can get a thumbs up from someone that you can see your screen yep fantastic so this is the aerial map exhibit I do believe we provided it to the board Bo um it's uh prepared by my office it it also is very similar to sheet two of the record civil drawings um basically what this exhibit is is an areial map outlining the property so we can go through the existing conditions for orientation purposes because I'm not standing before you in person uh to the left side of your screen is to the north to the South Side is uh to the South the Bold yellow line is the actual property boundary the dotted yellow line that you see in the center of the map is approximately 200t Property Owners list and then the light blue color are the different Zone lines over the existing property as Donna mentioned in her opening of course the property is block 5601 lot 2.05 the address is 1659 South Washington Avenue which is also middle sex County Route of 665 it's approximately 3.72 acres in size and out there today there is two existing curb cuts um if you've been to the property or driven past it in in your time in Piscataway you'll see that there are a couple of uh residential dwellings out there and other um residential and shed-like features that will be completely removed should this board vote favorably this evening to the north of our property again which is to the left side of our plan you'll see Do's Creek and then you will see the piscatway Town Center to the south of our parcel is uh hundreds of linear feet of woods and then you will see a landscape uh yard and area and business to the South to the east of us is additional woods and un undevelopable area do the stream but located between the SC Zone and R20 to the west and across South Washington Avenue which is at the bottom of the exhibit that's before you is uh an existing Warehouse that's out there today so overall you see that we're surrounded by commercial industrial uses to the south of us is a a landscape yard um and it's it's looking for us to talk about the site plan approval with the prior use variants um as Donna mentioned and I don't want to belabor the board waste your time but 23 ZB 24 did permit a um use fence for this project uh and multiple bulk variances I'm happy to report that none of the bulk variances that were approved are being modified with this application tonight what I'd like to do then is flip over to my site plan rendering which is currently on the screen so same orientation uh to the left of the street is to the north to the right is to the South it's much more zoomed in so everyone on the board can see what we're proposing you'll see South Washington Avenue is at the bottom of the plan that's running in the north south Direction um this is the site plan overlaid onto the landscape plan from the record civil drawings and then colored for tonight's presentation purposes um what you will see uh from the prior approval is that essentially we took the same building size same number of spaces which I'll get into the detail shortly and we made it uh parallel with South Washington Avenue so what we're proposing for this evening uh is a three-story climate control class a modern self storage facility that will total approximately 127,000 Square ft that building is located in orange color box that you see on the plan everything else surrounding the building in light gray is the parking aisle and the um Drive aisles and then outside of those areas you'll see various different colors of green and that's existing woods and the new Landscaping that we'll be discussed this evening um again as Donna mentioned in her nice opening the use variance runs with the land uh and the only two relief that we're seeking which I'll get into shortly is the size of the fence and then a design waiver associated with the driveway overall the intent and purpose of this site plan layout uh again is to match that prior approval one of the main reasons we mirrored the former layout made it parallel with South Washington Avenue is based on the grading and the drainage of the property which I will get into shortly as well operations is always very important um we are going to comply with the conditions of the prior approval however just to reiterate them for the record based on the new applicants business operations the facility will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. and our customers once they're leased up will have either a key fob or a key code to be able to enter the facility however there will be office hours operating between 9:00 a.m. and about uh 6:30 p.m. Monday to Friday Saturdays and Sunday days were usually open half day 9:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. approximately two employees will be able to run this facility although it's 122,000 feet the office is pretty small and really that one person is helping leasing up units uh loading and deliveries we have and you'll see in the architectural drawings coming up shortly from my colleague Lois that there is a covered loading area as well as a large 30X 150t striped area on the Northern facade of the building my cursor I'll put the hand so it's a little bit more clear referencing the cyan rendering and 30 by 150 ft of striped loading in addition to that there's 10 foot loading striped area around the building and that's associated with our drive up unit lastly we want to confirm that there's no outdoor storage all of our storage is located inside the building whether in driveing uh units rollup doors or inside to our interior units and of course our facility will have security with cameras on the outside as well as the inside area of offices loading spaces and the hallways but they will not be located within the units overall this is a traditional Self Storage layout nothing too fancy about it we have a right in right out driveway on South Washington as I mentioned in my opening during the existing conditions that there are two curve kits out there today we are removing both of them and doing a more commercial style driveway design right in right out on South Washington Avenue we do I'm happy to report have a conditional approval from middle sex County overall the property is proposing 17 parking spaces which is the same number of spaces that you previously granted for approval of the 17 of course we comply with Ada standards and the EV statute we went through the loading of the facility and one of the nice aspects of this site plan and this the room that we have on the property is to provide full circulation we have two-way 24 and 25 foot access aisles all around the building that allows our customers to be able to utilize the drive up units it's allow uh the trucks that will be coming to the site to access it well and maneuver well and of course and most importantly fire and emergency access can able to operate on all four sides of the building we are proposing one Monument sign that is located along South Washington Avenue near the driveway it's fully compliant and conforming with your ordinates it's about 32 squ ft in size 6 feet in height and is set back about 25 ft from the road why the monument sign simply to be able to safely identify the driveway since it's one sole point on South Washington Avenue and because our building is set back a little bit of a distance from the road home water management uh overall the property has about 15 ft in grade change from the south side to the north side which is right to the left on the screen heading towards do brook our Stow Water Management Facility of course will comply with all standards we will certainly comply with any requests from the D engineering review letter as well as your other professionals I am happy to report that we have um our D approvals on the property both with the flood plane and wetlands in addition to that uh our stor Water Management Facility will comply with all four prongs of storm water which again just for the record is quantity quality groundwater recharge and green infrastructure we will be proposing Gas and Electric to the county right away and brand new water connections of course to service the building domestic connection as well as a 6inch fire connection to the building and in working with your Fire Marshall we'll make sure that there's a fire hydron on site as well what you can also see on here outside of just the site plan aspect you'll see that we have a robust Landscaping plan I do believe that we have complied with all of the board professionals questions comments and recommendations and again just for the record we have 28 shade trees 34 evergreen trees and approximately 100 different shrubs between Evergreen and deciduous I'm happy to report that we comply with all of your Piscataway Landscaping standards last component of us the site plan design and aspect is the lighting plan we have five LED area light poles they are spread throughout the outside of the access ises and the parking area as well as 12 LED wall packs on all four sides of the building I'm happy to report that we are not spilling over any of our property lines and the lighting plane complies completely with the piscatway ordinance I went through a little bit of some of the Outside Agency approval letters again we are conditionally approved in Middle sex County we have our dap approvals we've also been approved our septic system that will be on site uh because there's no sanitary sewer availability within the roadway um finally in our opinion basically the the layout that's presented before you on the exhibit that's in the screen um complies wholeheartedly with the original use variance approval and what we've done here is prepared a full set of robust civil drawings traffic reports architectural plans as well as our stor Water Report to show that we comply with a vast majority of all of the standards and requirements um from Piscataway and I think there's probably a good pausing Point see if anyone has any questions Donna before I get into some formal planning testimony any members of the board have any questions or comments at this point yeah I do Ry um how many yard hydrants are are are going to be on the property or how many fire hydrant we have one proposed right now and that's located on the Eastern side of the property to the back of the building and the building will be fully sprinklered as well is there any is there a hydrant out in the front anywhere or you're just having that one hydrant there I'm not I have to triple check the street view I could do that for you in a second to see if there's any existing infrastructure along South Washington based on the prelim review we've gotten from piscato fire department is that they know that we will have a 6inch firemain going to the building fully sprinkler there will be ft connections around the building and then what they wanted was a hydrant in the rear so uh for redundancy purposes if there's a request for a second hydrant we can currently work with the fire department on that but um we've got their preliminary approval on on what's being proposed this evening okay thanks Ry any other members of the board have any questions the testimony it's been I have one question is there a light lights out policy on this property Mr cha the applicant because they limit the hours from 600 to 10 we expect that the area light poles and majority of the wall packs other than the ones over say the front door for security and maybe the driveway will turn off after operating hours right so you you agree to that yes sir right thank you John any other member members okay you can proce if you could now Josh just touch on the variance and the design w we were seeking absolutely um so the single variants that we're seeking is uh ordinance section 21 6191 it talks about fences not being more than uh six feet tall and residential zones again I believe this ordinance discusses this so that when you're doing a residential house and maybe you're doing something in the backyard next to your neighbor you don't have an 8 10 12T tall uh fence what we're seeking and it is applicable because we are in the R20 Zone uh we're seeking a variance um because if you take the fence and you put it on top of our retaining wall that's located in the Northeast section of the site um it's approximately 13.23 feet so because of the dropping grade as you heard in my existing uh conditions testimony there's over 15 feet of grade change across the site based on the pink point in the corner of the property and uh the turnaround for our full speculation we need about a 6 and 1/2t Tall retaining wall due to fall protection standards we are then proposing a six foot fence on top of it so essentially what we're seeking here is a a straightforward C2 variance that we believe the deviation can be granted by your uh your Township Zoning Board of adjustment simply because the benefits outweigh any type of detriment the retaining wall again like I mentioned uh is due to grade change on the property it's a safety consideration that's required by the building code requirement and in my professional opinion there's no impact of the wall/ to any of our surrounding neighbors to the north of us is wooded area and a stream but even beyond that is the Piscataway Town Center to the east of us is woods and and no neighbors so there's really no impact of that fence and really it's just a a safety measure like I mentioned there's no substantial detriment to the public good certainly no detriment to the Zone plan or the zoning ordinance this board has rigorously reviewed this site not just in their prior application with the use fance but now with the full set of Land Development drawings I believe that is consistent again with the master plan and like Donna mentioned in her opening it advances several purposes of the municipal Lan use law of a g and I overall we're seeking this variance from the board to put a fence on top of a wall for safety purposes from the design waiver standpoint um the it's a simple ordinance that talks about not allowing a driveway to be permitted to access a non-permitted use within a residential Zone um but as this board is aware we've gotten use variants of approval for the self storage facility we're seeking here to Simply provide Land Development approval um and we believe that kind of the the approval of the driveway will be subsumed into the rest of the relief as well as the program that we have but overall there's no negative impact if we anticipate this site to be successful with the self storage facility we need a commercially driven driveway again we're on South Washington Avenue and we have conditional approval from the county so I believe that the driveway can be permitted and approved with without any negative impacts thank you and I guess just as a matter of record keeping you had an opportunity to review the four review letters from the board's consultants and is there any issues in those reports want to discuss I don't believe so that there's a couple comments left for ala for cleanup that could be conditions of resolution of approval Donna and that we will comply and work with them uh in that post approval condition that's all the direct uh questions I have for this witness thank you Jonathan can you jump in with any issues that you might have the only thing I saw was a lack of conduit on the Civil drawings uh otherwise uh the drawing and the testimony have addressed all all of my comments hey Jonathan we'll be providing that conduit along the frontage we can withdraw that from the variance request application and we'll make a note on the plans accordingly perfect thank you certainly any other members of the board have any questions or comments about this Miss Jennings you can proceed I'd like to call this time our architect Lewis Louis are you present yes I am could you raise your right hand you swear that the testimony you're about to give should be the truth yes I do your name and address please Lewis vandalo v n d l o c HT 229 Greenbrier Estates St Louis Missouri 63122 thank you if you could Lewis for the benefit of the board give your background and qualifications certainly uh graduated in 1996 with a bachelor's in architecture from jury University in Springfield Missouri uh currently licensed as a licensed architect in the state of New Jersey and it's current um licensed in 46 additional states with all of which are current and testified at 20 plus boards there in New Jersey Boards of adjustment your qualifications are impact thank you we can proceed thank you thank you if you could leis just uh describe the floor plans and elevations for the benefit of the board and if you're going to rely on an exhibit just identify it for us please certainly let me pull these up here if I could is everybody seeing them on screen yes we are yes we are okay these are the exhibits uh that were submitted I believe end of last week first of this week um so a1.1 you're looking at here uh just the only comment I'll make here is a change in orientation from what Josh presented um his North was to the leftand side we flipped ours North to the bottom just to get the scale of the the drawings larger um so what you're seeing here is the first floor plan here on the right hand side would be Washington Avenue here on the south on the page bottom would be north um what you're seeing is the typical Self Storage layout uh this is the loading area that was referenced to the backend loading for you know vehicles of back in unload straight into the elevators with the small office located right here um in that office is a small restroom for you know the office employees and then additional restroom for users of the facility fire pump and electrical room located right next to it and then the typical kind of layout Runway of a self storage unit our self storage facility um there's approximately 970 units in this facility over three floors ranging anywhere from uh five 5x5 unit to a 10x30 backing unit that you're kind of seeing here on the the left hand top and bottom side of the page um flipping to the second floor uh you see the same similar layout to it the cutout for the loading area so I get you know oversized truck or higher truck bay truck into that into that bay same racetrack facility and then the third floor that cutout gets filled in because I'm over the top of that bay and then the same kind of layout track of that um flipping then to our elevations what you're seeing on screen are probably the most prominent elevations uh the north elevation and the west elevation facing the streets um this is what we typically use for a modern self storage facility it's a mix of metal panels and what we call a nichiha panel it's a a cement fiber panel um similar to a sighting with a mix of glass then at the office and at the loading area and then prior the feature that that we've we've done most prominently on all of our self storage facilities what we call display window area this is a shallow recessed area inside the building that when you see it from the outside you'll see display doors you know of the of what the storage unit looks like on the inside so this is all Vision Glass but it doesn't show you know into somebody's into somebody's uh storage unit or storage space um the colors that we have here are fairly typical for a self storage facility usually you know whites and whites and Grays whites and tans with usually one pop of accent color um the other thing I'll note on these two elevations are the signage locations we're proposed to the wall sign approximately 50 square feet we're showing two locations for those signs um depending on where the operator comes in they may choose one or the other regardless to which one it is they'll comply with the zoning ordinance you know as it as a as we pick the final operator um one thing I will note is a lot of times we get asked you know will the colors change when we pick a final operator the answer is no what we're presenting to you guys is is what will be built on the building um the last note I'll make here on these two elevations is in regards to Mechanical screening this the mechanical units on these facilities usually very low you're not talking of a large box unit like you see like on an office building these are more what I would call more small res itial style you know compressor units on top of the building once we get those located we will locate them so either via line of sight or you know unit mounted screening that will comply with the the city's ordinances will be will be provided on these two units most of the time these things are you know 75 100 feet from the corner of the building so from the street there's no way you can see them and we ensure that um flipping then to the last two elevations we had the South elevation and the East Elevation the South elevation shows the slope and the gutter line as the as the roof dra slopes from call it north to south it'll be picked up in the drainage the continuing of the drive-in units and then the East Elevation is just as simplified you know of the other two elevations because it's the farthest one away from the street um those are the exhibits we have and Don if there's any other questions that' be more than happy to answer them that's all the direct testimony I had for you okay any members of the have any questions I have one question please John SEL selection of the color for the doors it it it just seems it takes away from the gray the blue the white of the principal building yes we if I'm asking a question to the architect yes I mean we we match that with what our typical kind of color pette for this piece is to to emphasize usually those doors kind of become an accent point for the building you know I be more than happy to discuss it with the with the applicant if if a different color is if that would be the hangup for approval I'm sure we can work something out with staff I mean the other slide you had of the other uh walls that I mean that one one of can you flip back to that yeah that one it just seems those I guess they're orange or OPAC or whatever color that is takes away from the building itself it would seem something that's more into the gray and the white would be more appropriate but are you suggesting I'm just making a comment what you whether you thought about it it it's something we do with a lot of our self storage facilities again they kind of create that accent of of where those doors are um we have modified it in the past you know for for another code that kind of Blends in it's if if the board comes through and says hey we can do something more neutral we'd be more than happy to to work on that I would suggest it okay understood thank you John any other members have questions um John you have any questions Jonathan not at this time no thank you okay great all right M Jennings sure then our last witness is our traffic engineer Craig is Craig present I'm here could you raise your right hand you swear the testimony you're about to give should be the truth yes I do your name and address please name is Craig perago p r g y business address 245 Main Street in Chester uh more importantly home address is here in Piscataway so I drive by this site probably a dozen times a week for the past 15 years if you could uh Craig give the board the benefit of your background and qualifications sure uh I have a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech I'm a licensed professional engineer in New Jersey and I testify pretty much on a nightly basis in front of uh planning and zoning boards including here in town a few times awesome thank you so much you can proceed okay if you could just um confirm for the record that your office prepared a traffic impact analysis dated July 29 2024 we did yes and if you could just describe the existing roadway conditions sure uh as as was mentioned in the uh Mr Seal's testimony we're on South Washington Avenue that's a county road so we're under their jurisdiction we have conditional approval from them uh which is some I to cross and uh uh eyes to Dot and teas to cross uh to finish that up um you want me just keep going Donna yeah if you want to address the site traffic and what do your findings in your report sure uh in terms of uh traffic impacts Self Storage is one of the lowest traffic generating land uses that there is I Dean and Dolan letter acknowledges that just to give you the numbers during uh a week day peak hour this would generate about 19 trips a trip is a vehicle entering or exiting so about nine or 10 customers or visitors and then on a weekend on a Saturday 22 trips so around 11 customers those are very low numbers typically what's considered a significant traffic increase is 100 or more peak hour trips so we're well below that threshold uh so certainly I don't see any impacts here negative impacts here from a traffic impact standpoint and I say that not only as a traffic engineer but my wife would kill me if there were negative traffic imp impacts here so you can really take it to heart this particular case um the second thing we looked at uh obviously the site circulation I think that testimony was already provided uh but the parking Supply uh I referenced the it uh or Institute of Transportation Engineers parking generation manual it gives us uh for different land uses the uh actual counted Peak parking demand and for this size Self Storage if I look it either based on the number of units or based on the square footage it uh says that the peak demand will be 13 spaces we have 17 uh striped parking spaces most of the vehicles visiting the site use those loading areas in front of the garage doors anyway so certainly we have more than enough uh parking and I know that was previously approved with the use variants so all in all this is you you know this fits perfectly in terms of uh traffic impact sit's laid out well and has plenty of parking thank you Craig that's really all the direct testimony we have in the traffic engineer thank you m CH any other members of the board have any questions comments yes Steve Weissman yeah Steve um drivers heading to this facility from Centennial they'll be taking a left-hand turn into your lot the county has asked us to restrict the driveway to right in right out thank you then You' handled my issue awesome thank you Steve any other members of the board have any questions or comments Mr Kennings if you want to wrap it up with any final testimony before we uh give it out to the public oh no that's essentially our our case so you could open it up to the public thank you with no members on the board asking any questions I'm going to open it to the public anyone in the public portion have any questions or comments about this application no one chairman okay close the public portion and um I'd make a motion to approve this application thank you can I a call Ro Mr wisman yes Mr Tillery yes Mr reio yes Mr Haka yes Mr Mondo yes Mr Ali yes and chairman K yes Miss Jen memorialize this at our next meeting thank you we appreciate it have a great night everybody night everybody bye bye I believe we're up to item number 11 Flor yes resolutions first resolution new Singular Wireless would you voted to approve Mr Weinstein yes Mr Tillery yes Mr Patel um Mr blunt Mr Huka yes Mr Mondo yes chairman Cahill yes next is Kim Vorhees which you voted to approve Mr Weinstein yes Mr Tillery yes Mr Huka yes Mr Mond yes chairman kahill yes next is Jeff sundelof which you voted to approve Mr Weinstein yes Mr Tillery yes Mr Huka yes Mr Mondo yes chairman Cahill yes finally Eva cook which you voted to approve Mr Weinstein yes Mr Tillery yes Mr Huka yes Mr Mondo yes chairman kahill yes those are all the resolutions for this evening okay uh I number 12 adoption of the minute of the regular meeting of January 9th 2025 all in favor to say I I was that you Mr Weinstein yes it was Weiss item item number 13 German all in favor say I hi okay guys great meeting thanks so much for coming out again stay warm feel better Sean night good evening everyone good night night everyone