The meeting of the summer rule planning board for September 24th, 2025 will please come to order. Adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meeting act has been provided. A copy of the notice specifying the date, time, and location was one published to the Courier News, two posted on the bulletin board outside of Burough Hall,
three posted to the municipal website, and four given to the clerk administrator. This meeting is a judicial proceeding. Any questions or comments must be limited to the issues the board may legally consider in reaching a decision and the decorum appropriate to a judicial hearing must be maintained at all times. Roll call.
Andrea Dear and Art Akens are both excused. Chris Addex here. Larry Cleveland here. Jason Kraca here. John Manilio here. Barry Van Horn here. Mayor Gallagher here. Council member Vroom here. Chairperson Warner here. Please stand for the pledge.
I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for its one indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. I need an approval for minutes from September 10th.
So moved. Second. Chris Addex. Yes. Larry Cleveland. Yes. Jason Kasa? Yes. Yes. John Manilio. Yes. Mayor Gallagher. Yes. Council member Vroom. Was I here for this one? I may have I may have the minutes wrong.
You may not have been present. Um so abstain. Sure. Yeah. Chairperson Warner. Yes. Safer that way. That's okay. I All right. And we have a resolution for
Shantaa LLC at 132 North Gaston. So moved. Second. Blair Cleveland. Yes. Jason Kroska. Yes. Barry Van Horn. Yes. Mayor Gallagher. Yes. Chairperson Warner. Yes. Okay. Before we moved on to our hearing,
I just want to check with the public. Is anyone here from the public with Cornell Boulevard and the Just want to I'll give you the opportunity to come up. Okay. If not, we're going to close that. All right. So, we're moving on to our hearing. Application for Somerville Estate LLC, 157 East Main Street for
minor site plan approval. Your microphone just hit the button. There you go. There we go. Thanks so much. Appreciate that. Uh Erica Edwards, Langes and Zoning lawyer here in New Jersey. uh here on behalf uh tonight of uh the
property known as um the applicant known as Somerville Estate LLC. The property uh the subject property is 157 East Main Street uh in the Burrow of Somerville. That is block 68, lot 17 in the ECBD
E-B2 zoning district. Uh we are here this evening um for uh a series of um requesting a series of variances that are um I would direct your attention to
uh the board planners um review letter for the most succinct um list of the variances we are seeking. We have uh three witnesses with us tonight. We have two expert witnesses and a fact witness namely the applicant. Our experts are uh
Frank Farrell as the project engineer with Grotto Engineering and then we have um Sam Bellamy with Dresnner Robin. uh he is our planning consultant uh out of Jersey City. Um and then we have Mr. Henry Patel who is the um primary
representative of the applicant. Uh if it would be um okay with the board, we would like to swear everyone at once. That is our normal. Does that make sense? Thank you. Yes. Okay. So, if I could ask the witnesses to step forward, would you do likewise?
Okay. Do you swear the testimony you're about to give this board is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Okay, thank you very much. And then when they come up, they can give their name and and qualify them. And just before we start, we're going to mark as exhibit A1 on behalf of the applicant the application and supporting
documentation. A2 will be your notice and proof of publication. And PB1 will be Mr. Kohl's review letter dated July 2nd, 2025. Very good. Thank you very much. We're going to start with Mr. Frell, our project engineer. Please,
Mr. I'll qualify you once you get situated there. Sure. Mr. Farrell, would you provide your uh educational and professional credentials for the board, please? Certainly. Uh my name is Frank Farrell. I graduated from Rowan University in
2009 with a bachelor's of science and civil engineering. I've been working at Grotto Engineering since that time. I've been licensed in 2014 and I've appeared before numerous boards across the state of New Jersey. Most recently, I was in New Brunswick on September 8th in front of their planning board. My license is
current and in good standing. Very good. In engineering? Yes, I was. Thank you. We offer Mr. Farrell as a as a an expert in the field of civil engineering. His qualifications are accepted. Thank you. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Mr. Farrell, would you provide an overview of the
site, please? Uh, the plans I'm referring to are the same plans that were submitted as part of the application. Does that fall under A1 or unless you'd like me to number it? Sure. U, so I'm actually going to skip page one. It's not all that interesting.
So, we'll go right to the existing condition and site plan sheet. Um, and if it's the preference, I'll sit I think we can I can do this right here. and normally preparing uh an outline for these presentations, but as Erica pointed out, Mr. Cole has done uh a very
nice job of identifying all the issues. And so I'm I'm mostly going to use his report as an outline and we can sort of walk through that step by step. But a brief uh introduction first, the site is at the intersection of Route 28 and Park Avenue. It is identified as 157 East
Main Street. The East Main Street is also New Jersey State Route uh 28. The site has two driveways, one on the bottom or south side of the property and one on the northeast side of the property. It's roughly trapezoidal or
triangular in shape, a slightly oddshaped lot. U however, uh it does meet most it meets a lot of the lot criteria. It's 16,542 square feet or 38 acres. Um, and now I can begin mostly going through Mr. Cole's review and giving you
uh um the various uh conformities or or existing uh deviations from the variance because there isn't any site work proposed. So any of the variances that we're seeking today are existing conditions uh that we would hope uh to receive
uh variance granted for. So the minimum lot area is 10,000 square feet. The proposed existing is 16,542 which complies. The frontage minimum requirement is 75 but as it's on two frontages here there's 338 ft of total
frontage. The lot width minimum is 75 ft. Either way you measure it from Park Avenue or from East Main Street. You greatly exceed that 75 ft about 186 or 151 relative to Park Avenue or East Main Street respectively. The minimum lot
depth is 125 ft whereas the lot is 145 ft in depth. The maximum improvement coverage is 95% and clearly we're less than 95%. There's some green space out at the corner of Park Avenue and East Main Street. The maximum building height
is two stories or 30 feet and we're clearly at one story and approximately 21 ft. There's no F requirement. The maximum building coverage is 20% where we're 10.6% 6% which are all compliant. Now we move on to some of the other
standards in the ECBD redevelopment zone. Uh the minimum front yard is zero uh where and the maximum front yard is 10. The building exists uh on the site today at a depth of 42.4t or 41.5 relative to Park Avenue and East
Main Street respectively. Uh and just to back up a second, the application here today is for the addition of a kitchen uh to allow the service of hot food and deli food in the in the building. It's a convenience store and it's going to remain a convenience store with the addition of
the food the food service. So, um the the reason for the application today is just that adding the kitchen. It's all we're doing. No site improvements are necessary. Um should be pretty straightforward. Uh but moving on, the minimum rear yard is uh 25 feet and it
measures approximately 40 feet. The minimum sideyard is 12 feet whereas the rear yard here relative to the church property which is plan left or west of the site is 5.5 ft which is a variance. There's a number of street trees that are required. Uh street trees on this
site are kind of unique. We're at an intersection which complicates it. And there's also a requirement, which I'll get to in a minute, that the site have 15 feet of sidewalk uh between the curb and and what would be the face of the building. Clearly, the ordinance,
this the ECBD zone, uh considers a different uh configuration of this of this property. Um but uh nonetheless, there's one street tree that's out there today. Uh and we would intend for that to remain. The remaining I believe it's six trees uh we would request a waiver
for and subsequently there would be a payment made to the I believe it's the environmental commission as would be appropriate. We are compliant with the minimum number of off- streetet parking spaces. Uh seven are required based on the square footage of the of the site or the square footage of the convenience store and 15
spaces exist and will remain. Uh the the potential I won't say exception to that is we're going to re-evaluate and take a look at that ADA stall um subsequent to what we hope would be an approval by this board um to make sure that it's compliant with the current standards for
ADA parking that that may include a slight modification to the sidewalk adjacent to the building, but that's just to make sure that everything is up to the current standard uh in regard to accessibility. Uh the parking location is prohibited in the front yard. Again going back to the standard which clearly suggests the
building should be between zero and 10 feet in the front yard. The parking would be behind uh the site exists on a corner and the parking again is existing and is going to remain uh in its current configuration in both front yards both relative to Park Avenue and to East Main
Street. We have a loading space. One is required, one is there. So we're good. We have fencing and the percent of the both height and how much of it is solid. The requirement or the allowable fencing is
four feet in a front yard uh with a maximum solid percentage of 60%. The entire the property line is generally surrounded on the two non- street frontages by six feet uh six foot tall fence that is not
uh that is completely opaque. It's completely see-through. Um those are mostly what we would probably consider side or rear yards relative to those other properties. So we believe that that's an appropriate uh screening measure uh relative to those to those. So we'd like that fencing to remain. Um
driveway location greater than 10 ft from a property line. Uh we comply because we're 18 or 19 feet depending on which property line you would orient yourself to. Uh we also comply with the driveway location. Uh the requirement is that we are greater than 50 feet from an
intersection and we are greater than 50 feet from the intersection of Park Avenue and from East Main Street. The driveway width is compliant. 24 feet or 20 feet are proposed where they're required to be between 20 and 35. Uh I mentioned sidewalk width is a
variance that we're seeking um relief from. The requirement is 15 feet. There's really no more room for sidewalk. The curb is there. the property line is where the property line is and the sidewalk occupies the entirety of the space between the the curb line and the property line. Uh and as a result, there's really no more room for more sidewalk. We believe that the
10 ft that's there is adequate uh and uh would request that a variance be granted for that condition. Duration of illumination. Uh this wasn't stated in the application, but I can tell you now that the the lighting is either manually operated relative to the
light immediately inside and surrounding the building. Uh but the remaining site lighting is on a timer and the intention is to provide lighting that is in compliance with the lighting ordinance which we believe that it is and that goes to the timing of the lighting as
well uh which indicates that it should be off um I believe after certain hours and that is the intention except for the minimum lighting that's required to maintain a safe site. So uh note one uh in Mr. 's report was that we should revise the cover sheet of
the site plan to match the table that he provided, which is mostly why I skipped going through my own cover sheet. Uh, we would be we would be happy to do so. Um, I don't know that I'm need need to go over every uh comment in this report, but I'll certainly do my best to go over
the ones that that require additional attention and discussion. Uh, the driveway apron has cracks or is disrepair. the applicant is is prepared to comply with the statement here that we uh repair or
replace the driveway apron. The there's a couple areas where the sidewalk is uh lifted based on nearby trees and those will be remedied as well. Uh we intend to provide
repaired sidewalk that would be compliant with the accessibility standards for sidewalk. Uh the other one is the dumpster. So there's a dumpster on the northern corner of the property. There's an enclosure where the garbage is held. And then there's also there is a dumpster out there today for recycling that's not
inside that enclosure. Our intention is to do one of two things. to provide a slightly expanded enclosure such that we can pro get that second recycling container inside the the refu area um or
and or um change the timing and the dumpster configuration that's already inside that area. So, our intention is to have twice a week garbage pickup. Right now, it's once a week and it's more than adequate for the site. With the addition of uh food waste that may come from a deli, we're anticipating uh
an increased need for uh garbage pickup. Um, and that's both based on volume and and to maintain a non- odorous condition on the site. So, the garbage will be picked up twice a week by private hauler. Um, and we would we would hope that we could work with your professionals to provide a a dumpster
enclosure that's adequate um and appropriately screened. There's an existing enclosure there now. Um, and we could we could add to it. We could expand to it and occupy or use some of that loading space. We could reel the dumpster out into the loading area where it could be accessed by a truck. Um, and that's our intention.
Uh there's a comment about number four is related to the ADA stall where we'll be updating the ADA compliant signage and at the same time look at the striping, the size of the stall, the slope, etc. to make sure that accessibility requirements are all met.
Uh comment five is the applicant should provide testimony regarding the the small 10- foot right of way along the northern property line. I don't have any information related to that and I'm I'm not sure that we as a group have any to say about
it, but I can tell you that we're not making any changes to the site. So, there really isn't anything that would be impacted by this application relative to that uh existing easement along the northern property line. We can only guess as to why it's there.
I believe um testimonies regarding the types of vehicles. Uh it's mostly box trucks making deliveries. There's no tractor trailers that are entering the property. Um the site is operated for some time. Um and it has for as long as anybody can
remember, I think, uh has been a convenience store. Um and it would continue to operate in the manner in which it does. They don't have any issues with deliveries. Um so that loading space we believe is adequate. Um going into section B1, uh there is there are two catch basins
located on the property. I'm going to gesture to them. You can't see them. So there's two here and then there's a pipe that extends northward. The survey doesn't show where that pipe exits, but I believe that there's an
inlet on Park Avenue that's just beyond the limit of the survey here on the plan. And it it seems logical that that's the discharge location for that pipe. Uh it's an 8 inch pipe. And based on my my estimated uh drainage area and the size of that pipe, again, we don't
know exactly what the slope of that pipe is, which plays into the the capacity characteristics of it. But we believe that this is adequate for a 10-year storm. Um, and in discussing this with the applicant, they haven't noticed any uh nuisance ponding or uh storm water
issues on the property. Those those they're not constantly underwater. There's no ponding there on a regular basis. I believe those inlets are probably going to get cleaned um as they get in there to do some other um internal improvements. Um, but we believe that there's no real improvement
necessary beyond the the maintenance, I guess, of that existing storm water management feature on the site. I believe I covered lighting. Um, the the intention is to provide or um lighting that is compliant with the
burrow's ordinance for lighting uh between whether it be site lighting or um the perimeter lighting that's on the poles. uh we can measure that with a light meter and provide uh confirmation of that effect if the board if that would satisfy the board um should they choose to act favorably on the
application. So you can amend the plan to show spot spotful candles. Sure. We we could certainly take a light meter um or have an electrician have a light meter. We could we could measure on a couple different locations and then indicate what that lighting level is at the property line. Uh and certainly that
would be relevant if there were more it would be even more relevant if there were more residential uses around the site. There's a park on the northeast side. Uh there's a church on the west and then there's various commercial uses in and around the site. But we can we can provide more information to that
effect if that would be sufficient. I mentioned lights are either manually operated as they're nearer to the building or on a timer. Site landscaping. Um can you just one of the things was address the uh store hours. Can you address that? Yes. Uh, my store hours, my notes
indicate we are 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. for the store with the exception that the kitchen portion will likely close at approximately 6 p.m. That's based on uh the demand, perceived demand. There's there's really not a lot of demand for dinner, but there's a
there's a demand for the lunch hour uh and probably probably for the morning as well, but we anticipate the kitchen closing at 6 p.m. and the site closing at 9:00 p.m. Thank you. I mentioned the deficient trees. Uh the intention is to provide the financial
contribution as is required for the trees not planted on the site. And again, there's really not a lot of opportunity to plant them um in the already slightly narrow 10- foot sidewalk area where we need 15. Um should landscaping be uh planted, we can
include the note on the plan uh that would that would indicate any plantings would be required. as shown in comment three. I mentioned I think I covered solid waste and uh cooking oil. So having discussed this
with the applicant, uh the there's a cooking oil drum inside the kitchen area which will be which is where the oil will be stored and then it'll be picked up as necessary from a um a disposal service. So there's no intention of storing cooking oil outside or having it
anywhere else that's going to be in the kitchen except when it's getting picked up and taken away. And I believe it might be more of an architectural comment, but um sounds and and at the perimeter of the site um I recall being one of the one of the
issues or potential for an issue. I know that the with the kitchen closing at 6 PM and the fan associated with the kitchen being one of the primary drivers of the conversation related to the acoustic effect fans off then the K when the kitchen's off. So when the kitchen's done at six
o'clock that fans off so we're not talking about noise out into the into the early evening even uh on the site. Um I'm going to skip the architectural comments because that's not what I'm qualified to discuss. Don't let that stop you.
Respectfully, I am going to let it stop me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to skip the planning ones for the most part, too. Um uh so flood plane. So, the site isn't loaded as located within a flood plane. There's nothing that we're doing on the site that would be a regulated activity under the D's uh flood hazard area
control act rule. Um there is however requirement for local building code that any new uh utilities and outlets and whatnot be located above the flood elevation and and certainly the applicant would be compliant with local building code and um in a similar in a
similar nature actually related to the flood. There's a requirement that there be no floatable material located on the site. So those dumpsters are in an enclosure and it's not just a little fence. in an enclosure and they would be restricted from from floating and and migrating to some other site should the
flood waters enter upon the property. We should be we should be all right there. Uh we don't intend there to be any new sanitary or other utility connections. The requirement related to a connection fee
is I'm not entirely familiar if that would get triggered under a building under the building application, but we don't have any reason uh to make a new connection at the moment. Yeah, just the SRVSA wants to see it. Any land use application, okay, the sewer authority wants to see it to
sign off. Noted. Okay, so that would be a condition of approval should the board act favorably. making sure they get a copy and they say there is no fee associated with this. So, okay. Should the board report during compliance, we handle that. That's not our policy.
That's the SRVs. We changed their policy about two three years ago saying they want to see all land use applications. Okay. We can certainly comply with that and provide them with a copy of the application documents to determine um whether they have I guess jurisdiction andor whether a fee would be required.
Okay. Um no issue adding notes as as mentioned. Um there is a classification exemption area contaminated soil potentially on the site. There's I believe there's still a monitoring wall out there and the applicant's aware of it that doesn't
restrict the use of the site. There's no um airborne contaminants. There's just the prior um I imagine it would be a prior owner actually the entity who's doing that. I'm not entirely sure, but there's somebody that comes periodically to check on the groundwater and monitor it. Doesn't have any impact on the site
operation or or use. Um there's no outdoor dining proposed. There's no outdoor um tables or chairs and whatnot. It's going to be kind of graband go. It might be, you know, order out Uber Eats kind of stuff, but there's no intention for people to be dining in or at this
facility as a restaurant. Excuse me. story hours to that one. And if there's any missing uh similar to the sidewalk, if there's any missing granite block, curbing or or similar site features that are required along the street's frontage, the applicants indicated that
they're willing to um make those repairs as would be necessary. So, I think that I've covered all the things that I'm allowed to cover. And Mr. Kohl's, he's got a couple extra initials that I don't have. So, um, I believe that completes my I believe that
completes my testimony. I'm happy to field any questions. I just want to ask I don't if I missed it, I apologize. Did we cover the hours for um pickup? Um, we normally restrict them nothing before 7 a.m. and nothing
after 900 p.m. So, that would be for your recycling, solid waste, anything like that. Yes. Okay. Um it's it again it's the applicant's tent to do everything that that would be required to be in in compliance with the ordinances that govern uh the use of the site. So I'm sure that they'll off peak hour to make
sure that it's not conflicting with you know general traffic in the area or the operation of the site and then also compliant with the requirement yeah that it be not after 9 p.m. or before 7 p.m. Same thing with loading deliveries. Yeah. My only comment that I have
the only comment I have is regarding site lighting. Okay. And I would just and I know you're going to address it. Um but I would just ask you to take a a good look at it. I I passed by there at about 5 5:30 every morning and the wall units are angled towards the road. So it's you're getting
a lot of direct light going into the road as people are driving. Okay. Westbound. Okay. Uh we can probably add shields or adjust the adjust the angle of those. Okay. Noted. And the street lighting is so much street lighting around there. You might
find during when it's not being used that you have adequate security lighting just from the street lighting. But yeah, I'm sure being at an intersection, right? You have the decorative lights on East Main and on park. You have lighting there that obviously it's we need
visibility of course, but you might find that you might be able to turn all the lights off and have adequate spillage. Sure. Save us on an electricity bill. Right. Great. Just two quick questions. Um, you mentioned the kitchen is going to close
at 6 and the store at 9:00. The kitchen will open at 6:00 a.m. also like the store. Yes. Okay. And then when you were preparing the plans, do you happen to have a copy of the rightway easement that you could provide the board? I don't. Um, when I prepared the plan, it was based on the survey that was
provided. Um, and the survey noted it, but I didn't have a copy of the actual document that would have suggested why the surveyor would have added it to the to the plan either. Does have a meets and bounds. Yeah, I'm sorry, a deed book, a page number um on it on the plan or the survey by chance.
I'm just wondering, we might just want to get a copy of that just so we could see and make sure there's no issue. It's it may be more complicated than that because the survey indicates that it's based on a tax map. Ah, so it says a 10- foot private right ofway parenthesis tax map.
Um, so that means that it's shown on a tax map. Yeah. But why it's shown on the tax map? Tax maps don't always really provide a lot of um supporting documentation as to why the lines that are on there are on there. Maybe a little more complicated. Yeah, I would just like to see some best
efforts. I if it's not being used and there's no need for it, I would love to see it discharged so we in the future clear the title for the property. It would be is what we could work to see what we can find and what if anything is there. Right. Yeah. Could Could that that access be for the
drain pipe that you were talking about that's a couple of properties down because this used to be a gas station. So that's why you have all the testing and stuff. But maybe that was some sort of access to train is off the trench train is Larry
is off of uh Park Avenue out near the roads. This easement goes up against the search. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm It's just a question. I just didn't know if it was an access to a drain pipe or something, right? I mean, if we get the found. Yeah, usually right away.
If we can get the D book and actually read it, it would shed a lot of light on this. If it's there, if we can't find it, I can only guess and and I try not to. Yeah, we'll see what we can find. Anybody else from the board before you
move on? Thank you. Can you just make sure your microphone's on? I shut it off. Reminding me um want to bring to the board's attention that in fact we have a third expert witness uh that I did not identify in the initial my opening
comments. Uh I'd like to call our architect up please to have him sworn and then we'll qualify him and he will be the next to testify. Okay. Thank you. Okay. You can raise your right hand. You swear the testimony you're about to give this board is the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth. Thank you. Alex, would you state and spell your name for the record, please? Alexander Zavasaga. Um, A L E X A N D E R. Last name is Z as in zebra. A, B as
in boy, A, S as in Sam A, J A. Very good. Thank you. and would you please provide your educational and professional credentials on the record for the board please? Okay. Um I have a bachelor's degree from University of Minnesota licensed architect in New Jersey in New York.
I've been practicing architecture for quite a few years licensed do a lot of projects in um New York done a lot of testimony mainly in New Brunswick and other places in Atlantic City. Your license is current in good good
standing in New Jersey. Okay. And I'm sorry if I missed it. Have you been qualified as an expert in the field of architecture before these sports? Yes. Thank you. We offer him as an expert. Thank you. Thank you. So basically basically as you can see um
the amount the changes interior sir sir if you could use the microphone just so that the audience can hear. Yeah either one. Okay. Okay. So the changes on the interior of the Delhi are limited to the installation of a six-foot hood. Um the entire existing exterior and the
interior of the Delhi are going to remain the same. Um I know I saw in the architecture comments there's a comment uh referencing uh the exterior signage and the owner is going to testify that that is going to be removed. Um all the signs on the glass. Um um outside of
that everything else is going to stay exactly the same. Alex, are you uh able to address the comments specifically in Mr. Cole's letter? The architectural comments. Okay. So, basically um so the comment is exterior modifications
to the building other than the installation of rooftop HBAC equipment is not proposed. Um it's the understanding that uh a few years ago uh there was renovation to the uh exterior wall and there was a sign that was
mounted and approved by the burrow zoning officer. Um and uh as stated uh the storefront glass is covered with advertising material that does not comply with the burrow ordinance and the owner is going to stipulate that this is
going to be removed. Um um as far as the existing and proposed signage, if any site signage, including the existing advertising of catered on the building facade and plate glass, again that's all going to be removed and the only signage will be only that
approved by the board. Okay. Okay. Would you like to cover the additional comments or do you feel you've already done that? I think I've already done that. Okay. We offer Alex for any com or questions that the board has
question comments from the architect. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. The only comment I had is just best efforts. The AC compressors which are up against the church, the property towards the west are lower than the flood held
hazard elevation. It would just behoove everyone to raise those should they get changed out or people are motivated. The question is if you get a if you get a flood, which we all know it floods, those AC compressors
are underwater. So, it'd be nice if you have the whole wall to raise them to above the flood hazard elevation, which should be easily done. It they're right there. It's just if you seal, they're on wood platforms just to put an L bracket and mount it on the
mainream wall higher two more feet. I think it said 6 and 1/2 ft would raise them so that you wouldn't have potential damage to the AC compressors if there was a flood. See no problem with that at all. Uh just one one comment and it may sound
minimal, but what about trash cans, public trash cans in that, you know, you're now having food to go. I don't know how many trash cans are on the site. I think there's just one uh out front. You now have people walking to and fro with, you know, they get a
Taylor ham egg and cheese and the rapper kind of goes somewhere and you've got a pork roll mayor. Sorry, it's Taylor Ham. Um, how do how do you anticipate handling that, you know, at the driveway entrances and exits?
Um, I think I'm going to defer to the owner and let him answer that. Okay. Would you like him to do that now or come up at the end after the exit testimony? That's You can come up now. It's fine. Okay. Very good. Good evening. I'm the owner, uh, Henry
Patel. Uh, for your comment, I think, um, right now we really don't have a garbage issue outside the parking lot, but if we happen to have it, we would add additional garbage can to the right side of the property. But we would make
a lot of effort to take out trash maybe every two hours. So make sure that the trash is always empty. Right now we're doing it twice a day, but we would probably end up doing it maybe six times a day. We would have my employee go out as a part of the checklist uh as far as
a their job credential to go out and clean the parking lot. Right now we would say keep uh uh take out the trash. trip. Um, I assure you guys there won't be any trash at the uh I wouldn't want to go to place and eat some that's trash. I'd expect the same for folks
coming to my place. So, you're not proposing any additional garbage cans. I would do it. Um, but I think right now is adequate. Uh, we have other sites that I own. I feel like the more trash can you add, it it just gives tacky look
and it gives a more people coming out of the car. Put more trash into the into the existing trash. But I would That's kind of the point, huh? That's kind of the point. Yeah, but we would do it. But you don't want you don't want their trash in your trash. That's
It just makes it real dirty then. Uh it just I I understand what you're saying, but I would do it. I would do it. the the adding a trash can would not be a it would be a zero issue. I I think I I my my sense would be more towards the park side on the Park Avenue side, right?
Because you get a lot of pedestrian activity of you know kids coming across the street for their ice creams and Taylor ham egg and cheese and uh Yeah, we would do it though. We would do it. We I assure you all that the site's
going to stay clean and uh uh fresh. Yeah, I mean it's not a big issue, but it's just it's an issue. We would do we would do it. We would do it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Patel. This might be a good time to address directly the um the issue of the advertising material on the front glass.
Yeah. So, hi. Um the site's been closed for four years before I took over last year. Um it was um pretty dump garbage. So, we came in and you guys approved the um the new look. What was happening is customers in the
area just for four years was closed. So they didn't realize that we're open. It took us a while, you know, from us going day one five customers the whole day to now getting about close to 300 customers
a day. Uh and reason we put that advertisement uh because the sun hits so hard. Um and it damages our merchandise inside. So I I told my team we would take it
out. Uh we really don't need any advertisement now like we did last year. And I used to tell Ryan all the time that we had no customers at all uh because the place was just closed and people didn't realize we were open. uh now is not the case and now is actually
um people appreciate us and they really are looking forward to us um opening up of a a breakfast program and we would take out the signage. It wouldn't be a problem. And as far as the heat's coming, we'll figure out with my team
and you guys to see if I can put some sort of um material, clear material so it prevents the heat coming inside the store. Okay. Thank you for Sam. Would you provide your educational
and professional professional credentials uh for the board, please? Sure. My full name is Samuel Bellamy. Last name Be Ly. I'm a licensed professional planner with the firm Dresnner Robin. Um my license is current and in good standing in the state of New Jersey. also certified by the American
Institute of Certified Planners. I have a masters in city and regional planning from Rupers University and I testify frequently and accepted as an expert witness in planning before multiple boards throughout New Jersey. Well, for Mr. Bellamy as an expert in the field of planning, he is accepted.
Thank you. Great. Thank you. Um, so Mr. Fel really did a good job of covering a lot of the the the variance uh relief that we're seeking. I'm just going to recap and summarize that and provide some um additional detail as far as the uh statutory justification for those de
that deviation relief. Uh so we are located in the EB-2 district of the Eastern Central Business um redevelopment plan, the EC D uh D uh DP. Um, so this this redevelopment plan does
do a good job of both have uh outlining a long-term vision for this area as well as allowing for adequate um improvements to existing uses within within the plan. So that's exactly what we're doing here. Um it's a permitted convenience store that's been operating on the site and
historically on the site. Um that we're seeking to add a kitchen um with a fryer, a griddle um hood to provide for a deli and and hot food takeout. Um, so those are permitted uses within the redevelopment plan. Both the convenience store that's operating now as well as
the the deli um takeout service that we're proposing with the with the added kitchen here. Um, so we are seeking that um approval of the the additional use of this property as well as for um improvements um related to the
non-conforming conditions. Uh, as Mr. F testified to we're not proposing any changes to either the the building itself, any bulk changes or the layout of the site, the parking operations will uh operate as they currently do, but there are a number of existing non-conformities that we wanted to
address and and get clarified for the record. Um, so the existing building does have u maximum front yard setback variance relief uh 42.4t from Park Avenue, 41.5 uh 5t from East Main Street. and that's where a maximum 10
feet is permitted. Um the building is oriented along the west side property line. Uh it's about five and a half feet off of that property line. So where where 12 ft's required. So given that orientation, kind of the irregular nature of the the site where you have
the parking surrounding it with the two curb cuts, um that does require relief. Uh adjacent to this property is a is a church property. um that church building runs almost entirely um and and deeper than our building does with about a 7
foot setback. So really the location of the building as it exists I don't think has any impact um on light air and open space on adjacent properties. Um as far as the parking location um so we have parking in the front yard along both frontages. Front yard parking is not
permitted. Um we do have a landscaping buffer between the sidewalk and that parking area. Okay. So, I think that does provide a little bit of a buffer area and separation between pedestrians walking on the sidewalk and and vehicles. So, I think from a safety aspect um and from a visual aspect that
the existing landscaping on the site does a good job of um providing some screening and buffering. Um as Mr. Fell said, we we also have a sidewalk with uh deviation that we're asking for. It's 10 feet existing along East Main Street
where 15t is required. Um, I did have a chance to visit the site prior to my testimony tonight. I think there is adequate space for pedestrian circulation around the site and really the the sidewalk actually tapers down as you go further west along East Main Street. So, increasing the the sidewalk
width would really just provide at this point a sidewalk to to nowhere essentially. Um, so I think given the existing conditions of the site, I think the sidewalk width is adequate um and can be granted by this board. Um there are two waiverss that we're seeking. Uh
I I think one waiver now uh we agreed to the site illumination to meet um we're going to study that and and meet the the ordinance requirements. Um so now we're down to the street tree requirement. Uh as Mr. Fel testified to, we are going to do the payment in L. So I think that
addresses the the street tree um deficiency where seven's required and one exists. And we also do have uh four existing um pretty mature trees on the site itself. So I think again that that kind of um provides for that shade tree aspect that the the plan does envision.
Um I think this variance relief um there's certainly elements of a hardship here given the ex existing um building layout and and site circulation really to comply with what the redevelopment plan calls for would require complete
demolition and and reconfiguration. Again, I think this redevelopment plan allows for continuation of existing uses, which we're trying to do. Um, and uh, I also think all the benefits and overall project um, out outweigh any detriments uh, with those existing
conditions and and dev deviation relief we're seeking. Um, overall, this project does advance the purposes of the municipal land use law. Again, this is a permitted use, the added deli and hot food takeout with the convenience store and is an appropriate use in development
of the site and uh will promote the general welfare. I also find that this uh the building and the site itself does provide sufficient space and appropriate location for this use. Um and that's consistent with purpose G of the municipal land use law. Um moving into
the negative criteria, I don't see any substantial detriment to the to the general welfare here. I think we agreed to many of the the conditions that bring the site um as far as in in as in closer conformity as far as sight lighting,
landscaping, um ADA compliance, um raising the HVAC equipment. So, I think we are making a lot of improvements um as far as uh as far as those design um standards go. I likewise don't see any substantial impairment to the zone
planner zoning ordinance. Again, I think we're directly in line with what this redevelopment plan envisions and appropriate improvements to existing uses and um overall we are consistent with the redevelopment plan objectives um which in line is also consistent with
the the general master plan and land use plan of the bureau. Um so just to summarize, I think this project does meet both the positive and negative criteria. Uh I think that concludes my direct testimony, but I'd be happy to answer any questions the board might have.
questions from the board. Thank you. Thank you. I think that concludes our testimony for this evening. We'd be happy to answer any questions. of any of our witnesses at this point if the board has any remaining questions. Any remaining questions for the board
right now? I just have a couple just I mean one is I had mentioned that some of the pavers have settled. So uh I think the testimony was that they would be reset if we eliminate the tripping hazards. Is that just for clarification? That's all.
Yes. Thank you. That answers it. Okay. And to clarify the dumpster, you're proposing either to enlarge the dumpster to accommodate the dumpster enclosure, I'm sorry, enlarging it to so the two dumpsters can be in there or
increase the frequency so the the existing dumpster will be sufficient for everything moving it out. Is that the two options that that it's one or the other or both? It may be it may be a combination. Uh the existing dumpster that's there is dumpsters garbage and then the second
one that's outside the enclosure at the moment is recycling. So the applicant is weighing with the with the refu pick up the hauler uh what the options are whether they can get two smaller dumpsters or if they need one dumpster still and and potentially expanding the
ex enclosure. um if they needed to expand the enclosure, we would be working with uh the board and your professionals to provide a an acceptable um enclosure and screening for that. Um we're not exactly sure what
that solution is now. We're still working that out with the with the hauler. Yeah. If the dumpster is going to be expanded, I don't think there's impact protection on the inside from from the trucks. So if if we're going to Yeah. So, if we're going to expand the dumpster, right,
itself, we would probably be lengthening it toward Park Avenue and then reconfigure the opening so that they would open into the loading space and then the hauler would come onto the property, pull the dumpster, wheel the
dumpster out of the enclosure, have the truck pick it up, put it back, wheel it back into the enclosure. That would be the intention if we're going to expand it. Yeah. I'm just mentioning or the idea of impact. We typically put on new dumpsters enclosures, we typically do 4 in concrete fil bowlers just to protect
it from Sure. when the when the truck's picking them up slam truck's not real delicate. So I'm just throw I I have I understand what you're saying and it makes sense. I'm just bringing out to you this I'd like to see if board feels that way
some impact protection to keep the structure. I don't I I think a couple of ballards are are very acceptable. Thank you. I think there's actually two there now. So, if we have to add another couple, it wouldn't be an issue. Yeah, there's two on there's two on the front face so that if a truck is pulling
up to the dumpster enclosure, which right now faces out toward Park Avenue, uh there are those ballards there for for impact protection. Typically, they're the inside, but we all know we're talking. Yeah, it's good. Anything else from the board? I just had one thing for clarification and again I
apologize if I missed it. The uh screening for possibly um possible screening for on top of the roof for the hood. Did we address whether that was going to be needed or not? I I know the answer for the ex for the exhaust.
Let the architect. Yeah. Yeah. Alex, can you speak to that? Well, typically uh you have the um the exhaust fan on top of the duct um with the mushroom as it were. Um but again,
if there's any need to screen that that is again very easily done, you know, so that there would be no issue with that. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. and using using a color that kind of disappears, you know. Yes. Thank you for clarifying. Thank
you. Anything else from the board? All right, I'm going to open it up to the public for comment on this application and questions. Sorry. None. I'll close public session. Cara, can you recap where we're at?
Yes. Can you turn your microphone? Sorry. Um, relief requested would be as outlined in Mike's report, which has been marked as PB1. Uh, based upon the testimony, I'll just put certain conditions uh into the record. Obviously, our standard conditions,
escrow, compliance with any and all other approvals that may be necessary, and also compliance with Mike's report, except as may be otherwise uh outlined during testimony. Um, the applicant indicated they would use their best efforts to locate the easement or
information regarding that right of way. Um, And then if possible, if we're able to locate information to uh file a discharge, I'd be happy to work with the applicant and the applicant's council uh to see if we can get to that point. Um but we understand it may not exist.
Um, no. All pickups, loadings, deliveries, uh, will not be before 7 a.m. or after 900 p.m. Uh, we're going to shield the wall, uh, light units, uh, as requested by the mayor to, uh, decrease any impact
on, uh, passing by cars. Um, payment will be made to the environmental commission for the six street trees that they're deficient at a cost of 650 a tree. 650 a tree. uh plan will be amended to show light meter
phototric data um and adjusted as necessary to comply with the ordinance the satisfaction of the board engineer planner. Um hours of operation uh are agreed to be 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. for the store, 6 p.m. for the kitchen. No storage of cooking oil outside except
prior to pickup. Um, all general comments within Mike's report will be complied with, uh, including that a request will be made of the SRVSA to, uh, provide a no impact letter with regard to or no fee um, letter with
regard to the application. Um, the applicant has indicated there will be no outdoor dining, so no need to amend the plans to provide for that. Uh the exterior will exterior will remain unchanged but all signs on the glass will be removed and only the board
approved signage will be installed. Uh the dumpsters uh dumpster enclosure will be expanded as necessary to accommodate more dumpsters and will be screened and uh additional ballards will be placed as
necessary. Um or the frequency of pickups will be increased. Uh the applicant is weighing both of those options. Um the HVAC will be raised above the flood elevation. A public trash can will be placed along the Park Avenue side of the property and the hood
on the roof will be screened from P if it is in public view to the satisfaction of the board engineering planner. Thank you. Need a motion. So moved with all of that. Chris Addex. Yes. Larry Cleveland. Yes. Jason Kra. Yes.
John Manilio. Yes. Barry Van Horn. Yes. Mayor Gallagher. Yes. Council member Vroom. Yes. Chairperson Warner. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. We appreciate your consideration. Congratulations. Thank you for reinvesting in your business and in Somerville. Thank you.
Okay. We're going to move on to our open business and discussion items. First on uh floor area ratio. Just an update from mayor and our liaison on I think it's still at Yeah, it was introduced. Uh I don't know if it's on for this coming meeting or if
it's the following uh for adoption. So, but it was introduced. Was introduced. All right, perfect. Thank you so much. And that's going from I believe it was 25 to 30. Yes, 25 to 30. Uh zoning for the B5 Route 22. This was where council asked us to review the area and the zone specifically to review
allowable uses and adjust as needed. Um, Mike, have we what do you have on the status update for that on this? I thought we were uh I thought the council was already in front of council for educational facilities in the B5. Yeah, I believe that one may have been
introduced as well. So, already introduced, I believe. So, all right. I like checking things off our box. I'm good with that. Well, I wouldn't take it off until we're it's adopted, but we don't have any action to take. Correct. All right. uh redevelopment plans, West
End redevelopment. Um this is it. We're waiting for the public noticing to be finished on this. No need to continue to discuss and once that meeting date for public uh comment and public hearing is set, it will be noticed appropriately. Uh East End redevelopment plan, you're
complete, you're currently working on that one, correct? Yeah, I received an email from that. Uh I haven't drilled down on that. That's tomorrow. Okay. Okay. Momentarily to get that moving. Yep. Uh master plan update and review.
Uh so as of today, all of the sections have been sent to their relevant committees. Um and with the deadline of November 1st. Um this is just for public record. This is our initial review only. We are not at a point of looking for a public uh hearing or anything. We're not
there yet. This is our internal review, but that will be forthcoming and that will be noticed appropriately as well. Any comments, Larry? You had asked specifically, I thought you wanted to have a comment on this. You're okay with this?
We had questions about the storm water and the tree. Okay. And people from the environmental commission are here to present a basic overview and that's it. Not a big discussion, but just an introduction and handing over a lot of paperwork. But nothing on the master plan update
right now at this point. No, we don't. We don't have anything from environmental yet. We still have to go through it and then present. That's why we asked for November. Okay. Storm water ordinance. Um, for everybody's reference, this has been referenced uh referred back to the
planning board by the council for review to ensure that we're meeting all the new uh NJ requirements. This is not going to be discussed tonight in its entirety. The board has not had any opportunity to see anything. We just received the documents. Uh this item will be open for discussion at a future planning board
meeting and will be noticed on a meeting agenda. However, we have people here who want to have a little discussion and submit some reports that we're going to ask for from the envir commit environmental
commission. It's coming to the planning board and we're going to say what does the environmental commission think? We have a report that's ready to go. We can look at it. Nothing has to be adopted. It's just going to be here for us to use
it for reference point. We've worked hard at it. It's going to be five minutes of time. It there's an appropriate time. It's not to discount them from coming out. There is an appropriate time for them to come. There is no, it says right on the agenda there's no discussion. So,
no, it's it's not going to be a full discussion, not in entirety, but let them give five minutes of talk and then we're done. This item will be open for discussion at a future planning board meeting. We've we've noticed the public that there isn't discussion tonight. Well, so now we have to give the public the
and this is this is the reason for this expanded agenda. So, let me hear me out. There there is a time and a place for it and absolutely this is and we said this is the time. This is the place. right now is not the time. All the chair is doing is getting this on the agenda as an action item at a future future and
and they will be noticed to come and participate in that process. Well, because now it's jumping the gun again and we're not going to but but a couple of weeks ago we were jumping a gun because we didn't go through the planning board. So now we want to present it the report that these people have worked very hard at
and we just said that will come. The planning board has not had an opportunity to look at any of these documents. they just got them tonight. I don't think it's fair to to to present something to the planning board that they're not they're not prepared to to address.
And and Larry, I'm just going to step in. Also, it's not that we don't want or nor are we going to be seeking for those comments, but I think we as planning board members need to do our due diligence of reviewing the documents first. Oh, no. That's all I'm asking. What about the documents that the environmental commission has already
gathered up? Those are also documents that should be in our hands. Can they send Can they send them to Ryan to decimate? I don't have a problem with them being sent, but to present tonight is not really fair. We have no idea what we're even looking at. This is the first time that we're receiving these back in the
entirety um to include the tree ordinance, which is next. And I want to give it them the ample time. The same, it's the same discussion. Yes, the same discussion. We're prepared to present reports that these people have put together for the last six or eight months to present it and then we
can discuss it as we want to as correct and that's what I'm saying and and I agree with the with the mayor at this point is the reason it's not open for discussion is we'd like all the material. So yes, having everything sent to Ryan to our planning board uh secretary, he can take those and then he can at that point disseminate them to us
so that we can have everything in its entirety. that is extremely and then come back and we would hope you would come back so that we can discuss them with you. Yes. Okay. Madam chair, the other thing I would say is the public would want to take a look at that also. So once they are transmitted to the
planning board, they'd be available for public review that next meeting. So I'd be a little concerned about that as well. Okay. Um I'm going to I'm not going to repeat myself again. The same comment goes for the tree ordinance. This is not for this is for a future planning board
meeting and we will uh notice accordingly. Any documents associated with that as well, Larry, please make sure that the environmental commission does forthcoming as well. You're going to have everything. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Uh
that that's what I wanted to talk about. I guess maybe it was misunderstanding. Yeah, that's okay. This is what we wanted. We wanted five minutes of time to just a basic discussion and then we're out. That's what we wanted. That was more
than fair to ask for five minutes of time. ARB approvals. We had nothing. It's been I don't use the word in my world of Q or anything. So, but we have had none. So,
there is nothing for us to over overall review. I have no comments uh future com or further comments on anything. Um I would like to open up the p meeting open to the public. Uh, anything that is not listed on the agenda, um,
open it up to the public. Okay. Come up to the microphone. Please make sure you state your name and address for the record. Hello everybody. My name is Jeffrey Kaiser, 23 Vandervir Avenue and Somerville, and I'm the vice president of the Somerville Environmental
Commission. And if you don't know me, I have some details about me. I've lived in Somerville for six years and I've been an environmental commissioner for about five years now. I have a bachelor's in physics and engineering and I was also a part of the flood zoning advisory committee uh that
council member Vroom uh had issued. So, and I'm also just wanted to say uh since I didn't get to be here for the meeting before uh how excited we are and appreciate the opportunity to work on the uh master plan. So, thank you very much. I just wanted to extend that to you. Um, I did come here just to make a
public statement uh and to hand over um uh some documents to you. Um I came here to provide the environmental commission's recommendations that we've developed for the storm water control ordinance. Sir, I'm sorry that that we have already closed that part. This public uh comment
and question is anything not listed on the agenda. those documents. We would like those documents provided to the secretary, but we're not we're not allowing for comments or anything that right now. It's not open for discussion. I'm I'm not looking for discussion.
I was just about to just say what I'm bringing. That's all. Okay. But we we've already closed that item. It's on the agenda as a a future discussion item and it's not open for public comment right now. Okay. So, what would you are you can I
just say what I brought and that I can email it to you if you want me to. That's all I was going to do. Yeah. And I think I was just going to bring what I had and then that was it. And I think that was I was not here to I wasn't going to discuss anything. I'm just here for making a public statement about what we did and that we studied these uh these
things for over a year and that I was just going to offer them all and and we do greatly appreciate it and the board does want to hear everything you have to say. They want to read everything you have to say. I think you heard that um there was a request for that discussion to happen tonight, but the board would
like to have the documents in hand. Yeah, they can get the documents. And also the other issue is there are members of the public that I'm quite sure are very interested in hearing what you have to say. By looking at this agenda, they are not aware that this discussion was going to happen tonight. In fact, they were
told that it was going to happen at another meeting. So there's a specific reason for that. So, no one is going to stop you from speaking at the next meeting where it is. We're looking very forward to having you come and after they've taken a look at everything, you could say anything that you'd like. Okay. All right. I think we're on the
same I'm all right. We We are on the same I'm just a little confused. I can't make a public anyway. Um, we would like to request an opportunity to make a formal presentation of the material and here is the material. I can send it to you in email. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much. any just so just for formality on a request Ryan anything that you needed to request or send can go through Ryan so that we can make sure that it doesn't get missed and you can get scheduled accordingly. So we would appreciate that too. I have a soft copy ready to go. I'll I'll send it directly.
Thank you so much. Any other members of the public? Okay, hearing none. We'll close public session. Uh motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All in favor?
I. All opposed.