Bank zoning board of adjustment will come to order this 15th day of May, 2025. Time is 6:30. Roll call, please. An Tory here. Mass here. Eileen Hogan
here. Benurro here. Sharon Lee here. Vincent Lee here. Paul Kagno here. Anna Cruz here. Amanda Califano. Eugene Horowitz here and Chris
Havens. Okay. Adequate notice of this meeting has been posted at B Hall filed with the Bur clerk and mailed to the Edbury Park Press of Two River Times. This meeting is being tape recorded in the event the applicant uses service of a court reporter to transcribe the tapes
or requires a copy of the transcript. We will break at about 8:00 p.m. for deliberation of testimony heard thus far in the conference room on the first floor. Public is invited to attend. However, discussion between board members and the public is not permitted at that time. No new cases will be heard
after 9:00 p.m. The Red Bank Zoning Board of Adjustment has maintained a policy cut off hour of 9:30 p.m. for its cheerings. Any applicants not heard this evening will be carried over to the next scheduled meeting. U pledge of allegiance to the flag United States of
America to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we have a administrative matter. We have a minutes for uh April 17th
meeting. Somebody like to approve that? I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. New business. Uh we have Clay
Street and Harding Road and Hudson Avenue. Okay, Mr. Chairman, as the applicant teams come comes forward, uh we'll just do a couple of preliminary procedural things. Uh the applicant notice for this meeting, is there anyone here who had any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the sufficiency of the notice?
I don't see any. The board secretary and I reviewed the notice and found everything to be in order. So, it' be my opinion that we have jurisdiction to proceed tonight. Um Shauna, let's swear you in. Uh Shauna Ebanks, you are professional planner and you are the director, the burough's director of community development. Do you swear that
the information and testimony you're about to provide to the extent you provide any will be the truth, the best your knowledge to help you guide? I do. Thank you. And uh Mr. McKenna will walk will mark into the record uh things that we have before us. So A1 is the intent
to proceed and that's dated April 16, 2025. A2 is a disclosure of ownership form and A3 is the denial of uh application dated April 17, 2025 and A4 are the floor plans prepared
by uh FPA and it's last revised September 12th, 2024 and it's consisting of uh four sheets. Uh Sean, I don't have any letter no review memos. Perfect. Uh good evening uh Mr. McKenna and welcome to
the Red Bang Zoning Board. Good evening everybody. It's great to see you all. Um I I if you don't mind me saying so um it's really great to see this many people here on an application of this magnitude. Many towns when you have a
minor application like this, you're lucky if you get four or five people show up. And the the attendance here tonight is awesome. I really appreciate everybody. Um, I know it's a ridiculously simple application, but please allow me to
explain why we're here this evening. Um, as you can see from the construction that's being right now, Zelia Gardens is moving very quickly. Um, one of the most important factors dealing with that
particular site was the installation of um, the electric service for the site. And I believe the board's aware of this. Um, the bureau has no jurisdiction whatsoever when it comes to the placement of where the electrical
facility will go. New Jersey um, I'm sorry, our electric company, New Jersey Central Power and Light, they come in and tell you where they're they are requiring you to put it on the board of public
utilities of the state of New Jersey as their jurisdiction. and we have really nothing to say about it. Unfortunately, in this instance, they they told us where to put the facility. Uh what was even worse was
said, "Well, we're going to go back to the zoning board." Um get permission to do that. And they said, "You can do whatever you want. We don't care, but this is where we're going to put the facility." And by the way, uh if you
don't have it poured and ready when we are prepared to deliver your transformer, three-phase uh transformer, um the next one that you will probably get will be nine months to 13 months from now. Uh it's shocking to me that this
still goes on in our state, but that's that's the things that we have to live with. Um if that had happened and we did not have the pad in place um this project would have gone bankrupt essentially because to wait 13 months
without having any electric um and can't have any sales you can't get any cos I mean it's it's a very very difficult position for anyone to be put in so we needed to get a variance for the placement of that's number one number
two. In addition to that, the condensers for the units that are being constructed were originally planned to be in the front yard area. Um, after reviewing the garden area
that's going to be developed, it we we clearly found out that it would be much better to put the condensers on play street behind the buildings, which would give us a lot more room in the garden area where we anticipate people be um
act active outside their own units. um they'll be able to enjoy the garden area etc. Whereas on Clay Street all you have is the garage and people. So we did some uh reviewing and what we are asking for
tonight is the ability to place the units uh the condenser units on Clay Street as opposed to in the garden area. Um and we will heavily landscape them so that they will have purple aelas aelas
sad and trees on clay street. So instead of having just a few dressed up pretty nicely and uh allow us to get more active area to the garden area of the
project. That's it in a nutcase. I have with me tonight uh Lena Baron from um French and Perau. She's here to testify if you'd like to hear any engineering testimony. Um we she's here and available and uh Mr. Moford the
developer, he's available uh if you would like to ask any questions. Um, I'm representing this to you and I think, um, I've spoken to Shauna and I and I know that she she understood the application, but just wanted to perhaps
save everybody some time. Um, I I really do appreciate you coming in being here, but I would I don't want to take up more time than is necessary. So, if you'd like to hear from the engineer, do that. But not then. Um
we're really prepared to turn it to the board for their comments when possibly I just have a question. Is is there going to be anything around because that's pretty big unit, right? That I'm sorry. Go ahead. Okay. Do I need to
be Yeah, you need to be sworn in. Sure. If you could just state your name, please. Roger Mford. You could use a microphone and address. at 94 Church Street, Little Silver, New Jersey. All right. Good evening and welcome. If you could just raise your right hand. Do you swear that the information and testimony you're
about to provide will be the truth, the best of your knowledge, to help you God? I do. And you are a principal of the applicant, correct? That's correct. Thank you. So, to answer Mr. Mass's question, um, ironically, Lane and I were looking earlier on the adjacent streets. Um, and when you start to look
for transformers, it's like an Easter thing. You see them all over the place. It's not unusually large. And I was telling Ed prior to the meeting that utilities and you'll start to see this including New Jersey American water are insisting on tractor trailer sized above
ground hot boxes on all new water. So thank God we're not dealing with that here. In terms of what we can do as you know from the original plan there's tremendous amount of pavers and soda and landscaping. is a big part of the attractiveness of the site and we will
augment the best we can. I mean it's in my best interest as well. I will say this, we'll keep it a little bit from the transformer because the the electric company has specifications in that regard. So I can't just jam a bunch of uh green against it. You're also not
allowed to paint them. You know, in my opinion, the transformer is a smaller item than the electric poles. And incidentally, they're in the process of being placed. You'll see them if you go down the street. Um, but there's other polls coming out. For example, the one on Clay Street having nothing to do with
me that's just about to fall over. We have to pay for because it's a Verizon poll and not JCPNL. The whole thing is takes almost daily management on our site for these utilities. So, if the engineer can just
explain the distance from uh the JCPNL's um utility pole to the transformer and because that would I think would help the board better understand why it needs to be in the front yard. Uh and just the
reasoning behind why JCPNL decided Yeah, if you could just state your name, please. Uh, my name is Lena Bolarda Baron. And how do you spell Lena? It's J E L E N A. J E L E N A. And last name? B
as in boy. A L O R D A B A R O N E. B A R O N E. Yes. All right. Uh, and your business address? Uh, business address is 1800 Route 34 Wall, New Jersey. Okay. And if you could just raise your right hand, do you swear that the information
and testimony you're about to provide will be the truth to best your knowledge to help you God? Yes, I do. Just for the record, you're testifying in your capacity as professional engineer licensed in the state of New Jersey. Okay. And your licenses are current and up to date and certifications are all in good standing. Yes. Thank you.
Okay. So, as Mr. McKenna was describing JCPNL came out to the site. I believe this was in March of this year and said that we had to place the transformer off of Hudson Avenue. That's where they're going to feed the project from. And they said that it had to be um no more than
10 feet from the face of curb, which puts it 5.09 feet from the um from the property line. So, it is within the 10 foot setback. And on this exhibit that I'm showing that it's the color rendering of the landscape plan, you can
see the transformer between the two proposed trees. So their requirement was to be 10 ft from the face of curb. We did ask if it could be pushed back and they said no. In order for them to reach it with their equipment and have accessible, it had to be in that
particular location. And I would also like to point out that this site is of a particular shape because we have three front yards. we front on Clay Street, Harding Road, and Hudson Avenue. So, whichever way you did it, most likely it
had to be in the front yard. And then if you can um explain too with the uh AC condensers, even though you don't need a van for it, um being that on Clay Street is technically the back
of the houses, we we consider this the rear of the houses. So yes, it is a front yard because the fronts on Play Street, but did here um again it's being used for garage access. So what we did is we're placing these condensers 10.1
ft. So more than 10 feet outside of the front yard. Um and that's their location, the proposed location. And what this allowed us to do is also where we um you know were able to add some landscaping. You can see the trees that we're adding in purple as well as more
aselas. So we feel that this is going to enhance the views along Clay Street from the original approval is the um the JCPL I mean just what you were saying I my benefit maybe just to know but they do this at the like this
time in the project then you just find out where they have to put the transfer it's like that not what you can't do it obviously you would have done it ahead of time but is this how it is they just come they they will not take your project until you get site plan approval let me just respond. Um, this um speak
into the mic, please. Just to be clear, in a in a project that I completed homes a year ago in Homeell, I can't deliver an entire subdivision because the Union Beach branch of JCPNL is taking one to three years to respond to things. People
have no idea how crippling this is. There's builders in Ocean County who've abandoned subdivisions because they can't get electric. And so this is nothing you can plan in advance. You have to have all your approvals then and I'll say this very quickly. They do what's called a red line which is one
division and it's operated out of First Energy in Ohio and they have to check anything. You get the red line, you wait months for somebody to give you a price and and you'll never get a call back. Once you get the price, we immediately send the check and the contract to Ohio
and then six months later maybe we'll get a job meeting. It's unbelievable. And we see that on projects we you cannot get them to look at your project without receiving site plan approval. So you don't know exactly what they want where.
Yes. Because when we give the site plan approval, we don't Okay, that that's one of them. Yeah. Just as an aside, I've had this problem with four other buildings. Thankfully, three of them not at Redneck, but it it's unbelievable how
insensitive and ignorant they are as far as trying to cooperate with you in any way whatsoever. Very dictatorial. They come in, they tell you this is where it's going to be. This is where you're going to do it. And if you don't like it, you're not going to get elected.
Period. Period. Okay. Any questions for this witness the board? Any questions from the public for this witness? Don't see any um any comments from the board.
I'm watching it every day. Every day. So yeah. No, I swear every day for a couple of days for a lot of years. But thank you. Yeah. No, I I was watching the electric the
polls. Yeah. So, any comments from the public on his application? Okay, let's move forward. Anybody make a motion to approve this? I will.
And Mr. Chairman, if I may, I would I need a second. Oh, sorry. Second. I would respectfully suggest that our typical standard conditions would be compliance with all the promises, commitments, and representations the team made um and uh obtaining any
necessary outside approvals and comp uh obviously comply with all the conditions of prior approvals unless specifically ovated herein and um obviously compliance with the affordable housing rules and regulations. Uh shield the transform as
per the testimony. um and perpetually maintain that which you would obviously be doing. Um comply with the obviously the prevailing JCPNL uh specs and I think um that was the gist of it.
Anor uh yes Ray Mass yes Hogan yes Benuro yes Karen Lee yes Vincent Lake yes Paul Kagno yes and I think we're good. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Now, Mr. Chairman, I just I took liberty and no one asked me
to, but I know there's sensitivity with time frames and I know I have a resolution I can speed read into the record if the board wants. There's no requirement that I do that, but I know there's a lot of things per uhing and watching. So, if if we want, I
can speed it. As long as it's not funny, right? No. No. Um so anyway, the resolution would reflect all the testimony and the history and basically uh the fact that after the construction process commenced and after prior approval um is when the
uh utility company had made the determination and we're going to say that the um um the developer at least initially uh was under the impression that maybe that transformer would not necessarily necessitate site plan uh
review when there was uh some uh high level discussions on that. And basically we determined that given the nature of the uh proposed utility improvement, given the size of it, given the fact that it was below ground and above ground and um given the fact that the definitions of the burough's site plan
and waiver and exemption and and given the fact that variance was ultimately needed. Um we determined that the zoning officer determined that site plan was uh approval or waiver of site plan approval was required. Uh and then particularly with the amendment and basically uh if
you um are agreed with this resolution uh the resolution will say that this board has proper jurisdiction and the um a fores um uh uh move at least with regard to the transformer is driven by the utility company uh which has uh
large or almost exclusive jurisdiction over the issue as Mr. McKenna indicated and the desire to place the transformer uh in this particular case was made by the utility company after the approval and after construction has already commenced and um um under the
circumstances site plan or waiver site plan approval is is appropriate. Um but um while the applicant could choose to attempt to fight and litigate with the utility company, it doesn't ne necessarily mean that that would be successful and that would cost time,
stress, uh delay and aggravation under the circumstances and given the reasons cited before. Um the bureau does feel that site plan andor waiver and variance approval is is necessary. And uh basically uh we're talking about obviously uh the life sustaining and
life affirming electrical service to be provided. It's necessary. It's essential and uh without electric service as Mr. Mford indicated there can be so basically you'd be approving this application uh with the amendments and you'd be finding that uh with these
amendments there'd be uh no change to the density of what was previously approved. No change to uh the intensity of what was previously approved. No change to the height of the buildings. No change to the orientation of the buildings. No change to the previously improve approved ingress and egress. Uh
no uh change to the previously approved architectural elevations. No change to the parking spaces, no change to the the location of the driveway, uh no change to the appearance of the site except for a few uh things that we talked about. And
um let's see, there's uh no um uh based upon the testimony information presented, these changes will not uh lead to any health or safety issues. There's no changing to the affordable housing uh pictures. Remember, we have
two um on site um cottages on site and there's no change to those obligations and um there's no increase uh in the number of bedrooms, no increase in the number of bathrooms. This is not going to change any conditions of approval unless specifically ovated. Not going to change the terms of any previously
issued developer agreement. And basically, um we're going to say just a couple more things. We're going to say that uh clearly this was not the the fault or result of negligence of the developer. It is just the way the utility companies work and we're going
to say that in all in all based upon the testimony and presented um what Mr. McKenna indicated there's going to uh be more room in the gardens which is probably a better design alternative and there is going to be uh uh landscaping
uh to shield the issues uh the the transformer and the condensers and under the circumstances this may in fact represent a better overall zoning alternative and we're fortunate that there were no uh known public objections associated with this um uh proposed
modifications. And um I think that's it. So if that is acceptable, we can adopt that resolution as modified. Um if that's the pleasure of the board. Okay, we have a motion to approve that
resolution for Mr. Kennedy's speed reading. I'll make a motion. Second. A second. Anor. Yes. Mass. Yes. Eileen Hogan. Yes. Euro. Yes. Karen Lee. Yes. Vincent
Light. Yes. Paul. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. All in favor? I everybody. Does the exhibit stand?