the meeting of planning board burough of Somerville for February 26 2025 will please come to order this meeting is called to order pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting act both adequate and electronic notices of this meeting have been provided in the way of publication in The Courier news on December 24th 2024 in addition
notice of the meeting was posted on the bulletin board outside of the borrow Hall located at 25 West End Avenue posted on the municipal website provided to the municipal clerk and distributed to all persons if any all if any requesting copies of same this meeting is being recorded with both audio and
video and may be rebroadcast this meeting is a Judicial proceeding any questions or comments must be limited to the issues that are relevant to what the board May legally consider in reaching a decision and decorum appropriate to a Judicial hearing must be maintained at all times roll call Andrea Dar is
excused Chris addex here art aens here Larry Cleveland here Jason krasa here John manelo here Barry Van Horn here mayor Gallagher here council member V here chairperson Warner here please stand for the pledge I pledge to the FL flag of the
United States of stand indivisible all right I need a motion for approval for minutes from February 12 2025 so moved second anybody second
uh Chris addex was I wasn't here for that meting Larry Cleveland yes Jason crasa yes John manilo yes mayor Gallagher yes council member of room yes chairperson Warner yes all right next up we have our hearing for a preliminary site plan for
avalan Somers Somerville station urban renewal um this for everybody's edification this is a concept that had been already approved what they are here for today um which has already been agreed in our Redevelopment agreement or is an agreement within our Redevelopment
um agreement for a preliminary site plan for the next phase all yours good evening nice to see everyone again Michael Bruno on behalf of Avalon um Somerville station urban renewal LLC uh this is a request for preliminary
and final maybe just preliminary tonight site plan approval for what is known as the phase two of the Redevelopment project as the board will will note uh phase one has been completely built out and is a huge success uh what was once a Brownfield
and a dilapidated train station has now become a clean site and a with a new train station uh phase one that was developed by Avalon uh contains two buildings there's a70 units in one of the buildings and
204 in the other the other element of phase one is the 156 townhouse uh homes that have been sold by P uh this is now phase two which is the vacant 2.36 Acre Site I guess it's
to the west of of uh where we're sitting uh and is proposed for a five-story 171 residential rental unit project that we the final phase of the Avalon project um shared amenities shared parking and
we'll describe on how tonight how that's going to operate there's also 179 additional parking spaces within a parking garage underneath this building so with that said I'd like to introduce uh
ludine uh on behalf of of Avalon Lino tul on behalf of Avalon sure so we're GNA have ludovino tul who's the representative from Avalon Mario ianelli who's the civil engineer Arthur Michaels who's the architect Tom
Carmen who has done the landscape plan and uh Carl Panky who's our traffic consultant of okay lud if you could introduce yourself and your affiliation with Avalon okay my name is lud I'm a senior director of
development in New Jersey for Avalon big communities uh I've been a developer in New Jersey for 10 years and I um developed the phase one of avalance and reel station okay could you um just quickly summarize the project as a St
today and how this second phase will complement the existing phase y I will do a brief summary of the operations as it stands today and then we'll talk about how it will work as a whole Community when phase two is done so the first phase of avalance su station uh which construction completed at the end
of 2023 includes 374 units the existing Community is spread out in two buildings the north building which is labeled as building a on the plans and the south building which is labeled as Building C on the plans uh the north building includes 204 units and the south
building 170 units both buildings function as one large community and they share and they share complimentary Amity uh spaces so the north building includes the dising office the co-working space uh the Bike Room the pet Park and the rooftop deck and Lounge the self
building includes the fitness center the pet spa the lounge the pool deck and the bike storage area both buildings have outdoor mity spaces for the residents and both buildings have their own mail room Amazon package locker room and oversized package room the north
building is connected to the shared uh commuter parking deck which includes 28 parking spaces that are reserved to the 204 units for Avalon Bay each unit in the north uh building has one Reserve parking space in that shared commu
parking deck North building residents that desire a second parking space are offered a space either within the self building parking deck or they can elect to rent a space with suet developments um in the shared commuter parking deck the south building is connected to
a private parking deck which includes 318 parking spaces currently the community is more than 95% occupied which is considered fully leased 191 of the 28 parking spaces of the shared commuter parking deck are occupied 13
residents of the north building lease a commuter parking space from Somerset development and another six occupy of space in a self building parking deck the self parking deck has 233 occupied parking spaces out of 318 total parking spaces so
overall avalance somville station has 102 vacant parking spaces as it stands today the current demand parking ratio of the community is 1.13 and the current Supply parking ratio is 1 1441 so the whole Community including
the parking decks have controlled access to the latge application for our residents and their visitors the community is currently managed by a team of three leing staff and three maintenance staff trash and recycling pickup is scheduled for both buildings on Mondays Wednesdays and
Fridays the phase two building of the west building will be fully integrated into the avalance Somerville station community and will add 191 units the amenities within the west building are limited to a large outo outdoor rooftop deck located along Robson Street however
residents of the phase 2 building will have full access to the amities of the North and the South buildings similar to the other two buildings residents will have their own mail room Amazon package locker room and oversiz package room within the building the uh parking garage of the west
building includes 179 parking spaces similar to the north building each unit of the west building will have access to one parking space within the west parking garage the garage will be gated and access will be granted to the building's residents for a licensed fate recognition system similar to the north
building residents West building residents will uh that desire second parking space space will be offered access to the self parking deck uh which currently has uh 85 vacant parking spaces overall once space two is completed uh we'll have 705 parking
spaces that will be exclusive to avalance Arville station residence uh which is a 1.3 parking ratio significant significantly above the 1.2 parking ratio required by zoning and above the current demand parking ratio of
1.13 and the uh existing trash and I think pick up schedule will remain unchanged uh any quick thoughts on when you think you'll be able to start construction of this project probably at the end of the year okay thank you any
questions that's some clarification um so I don't know if I misunderstood did you say 191 units or 171 171 okay um and then my second question with the parking um so on the south building um I think earlier you stated there's 102 vac in
spaces is that correct I think it's overall overall is 102 it's 85 okay that was my second question thank you any other questions okay let's I'd like to call uh Mario Elli civil
engineer for this project exhibit uh where do you want us to put the exhibits the hard are on the board or we use boards are we using the computer how the computer no I don't um I have a thumb
drive yeah Ryan can help you out with that ex sure uh Mary won you give the the board the benefit of your education affiliation and experience sure uh my name is Mario Elli I'm a senior vice president sorry vice president with
dubber uh I've been in front of this board numerous times on this project we've started working on this project 2017 I think it was or 16 uh I have a bachelor's in civil engineering from NJIT I graduated in 1999 I have a
masters in civil engineering that I received in 200 2001 and I've been a licensed civil engineer in the state of New Jersey since 1999 uh appeared in front of many boards including this one before uh and my license license isn't withstanding and
you were you were a lead civil engineer on this entire project from the Inception of it correct that is correct okay so the board Knows Mr ianelli uh he gets credit for the design of the site yes he does he's good all right thank you Mar as you as you go to the first
exhibit which you'll identify just want you give the board the benefit of um where this particular lot is I'm looking for it its designation what's currently there and what is proposed no they were not but right now
I'm not finding it on the thumb drive which is strange I'm not finding it on the thumb drive got the right thumb drive uh really you have the hard copies I have hard copies and Boards I apologize that's fine here why don't we use the easel over there
yes please can he manually car for purposes of marking I might have a reduced set yeah do you need him to can you help him show where him thanks Ryan you going use one or both
would you like me to describe them please and these were prepared under your direction correct that's correct so ex1 dated today is an aial of the existing site um
ex2 is a wider aerial shot proposed development overl on it short so what you want ex1 with what this microphone if you if you can Mar ex1 was what a ex1 was
A3 and ex2 was A4 and ex ex 03 would be A5 I'm assuming yep and what's ex03 e exo3 is an aerial just a larger scale
so it's a blow up of the same area with the overlay of the new development okay that was an interesting start to the meeting it's all uphill from here okay so
um existing conditions yes so hold on a second please of course it's over there you do not want me to try this without my glasses so let's hit reset button let's try this again um so the existing
conditions the existing site is known as lot me two uh block two 123.5 lot 2.03 that is the site it's roughly 2.36 Acres um I'm going to be referring to
the um the exhibits that are in front of you um ex1 shows the exhisting site as it stands today uh as you can see the site is currently paved um
the site is located within the as mentioned before the station area and landfill Redevelopment area and the neighborhood uh within that land Redevelopment area is a The Hub was it's it's called the Hub neighborhood within that Redevelopment
area uh the underlying zone is a B6 um and permitted uses within the Redevelopment plan include uh residential multif family um including rental and for sale are permitted uses other permitted uses are
ground Flo ret live at work units and Tow houses uh the site plan was approved in 2018 and we got subsequent approvals from the njd in
201 in 1819 and we got subsequent approval from do for Station Road in 2022 phase one consists of the New Jersey Transit garage uh I'm going to refer to to the
overall aerial which is ex2 I'm going to have to stand up for this you have the existing Transit garage I'm pointing at ex2 you have building a which wraps around the build the garage then you have Building C
which is located south of that south of Robinson it's also including the private garage and then to as you go west you have the 156 tow houses the majority of them and as you can see from ex2 this
existing parking lot that is currently paved is where the proposed development is uh slated to go and you can see from ex2 we've overlaid the proposed development onto
the aerial for context um building a as you heard before has uh 204 units with 208 stalls Building C has 170 units with 318 stalls
the New Jersey Transit garage has a uh 533 units of which 325 are reserved our transit in 208 spaces are for the Avalon garage uh there's 14 stacked
towns uh that includes up 156 total units there's the, 1400 ft commercial space which is located in the southwest corner of building a and of course the assembly space which we're sitting in right
now um phase two again is uh proposed to go on the existing pave site so it's basically a Redevelopment of an existing develop site The Proposal includes 171
units of which they're multif family residents including uh 16 Studios 95 one-bedroom 59 two bedroom and one three bedroom approximate square footage is about 245,000 square feet the majority
of the improvements will be on site um when you compare if you look at ex2 you will see that the building in its shape and context kind of fits in to the surrounding neighborhood it kind is very similar to the patterns of the
development that we got approved to date um the as I mentioned before the existing lot is paved uh that lot was an interim lot for Transit parking when the deck was being built it was not being utilized for current
parking um and uh as I don't believe I've been out here numerous times and there's really been no parking on that lot uh the building layout I'm going to refer to ex 3 if you don't
mind not so EX3 I'm referring to um I want to describe it briefly uh basically what you see in EX3 is a larger scale of the development uh so it gives it a little
more context uh I'm highlighting here robots and a the proposed building will be between robots and a in New Jersey Transit RightWay um you can the lobby will be in the south west corner of the site the
existing bike path will be maintained between building a and the proposed building uh the entrance to the garage is located directly across from the entrance for the existing townhouse which is the optimal location because
you'd like to align up the intersections um as you work around there is I'm highlighting about Center South of the building that is where the mechanical room is the trash room is that area there the trash room is inside
the building as you work around clockwise there is a loading area for movein on the northwest corner so as you come up and around there's a slip right here where a moving truck can back in and movein will take
place where them unloading that truck coming down a sidewalk and there's a rollup door that goes to a interior space that has a freight elevator for them to move in um we really tried to work as best we could to minimize any
offsite improvements the we are to accommodate the driveway to go into the building and to accommodate a striped area for the trash to be picked up we are losing four on street parking associated with the
project uh Che my notes the project basically the site as it stands today is grades from the railroad to this uh to robinn the grades along the railroad are roughly 64 65 and
the and the low point on Robinson is about 55 so the ideal location for the garage is at the low point so you can get under the uh proposed Podium so the parking occurs under the building so
your ideal location is to put it as and where the road is the lowest um amenities there's going to be three Courtyards you'll hear more about that from the landscape architect and the architect uh but you also heard from ludine that there is a shared element to
the amenities so um this is looked at as a three-building community that have amenities that are shared um and also on top of amenities there's also parking that is shared between the South deck the south building or Building C and the
proposed um proposed garage underneath the proposed building operationally like I said they're sharing amenities and when I think ludine touched on it that uh when you look at the number of parking stalls
that they are providing between the three buildings it's 705 spaces is when the required is 654 so they're exceeding the ordinance or I should say the Redevelopment plan requirement um
overall the parking required for the site post development is 11 1190 and we're building 1312 now those are actual spaces that's not me taking any credits for the EV bonus uh as you
know the state of New Jersey allows you to actually count every EV space as two spaces well we did that on the plans but I'm I'm talking parking the parking these are spaces this is not taking advantage of the EV bonus um so you're
looking at a about a 122 overall spaces and I'll say approximate because there's still some coordination obviously uh that we need to work out but our goal is to minimize any impact to the on street
parking and so uh aund we are 100 about 100 to 122 over um as part of the improvements too you'll see that uh we're incre we're we're going to if you walk the site now you see that the streetcape has not been
done there's the trees are not in uh the lights are in but the trees are not in so the lighting for the site will include all the street lights that were originally proposed along Robinson um um and the lights will also
include uh Lighting in the rear along uh Transit so basically the front of the site will be lit very similar if not exactly like the rest of the uh the the community except for some wallmounted lights over uh by the the uh Transformer
and also by the utility rooms because they just need lights to be able to go safely in and out of those accessways uh and the rear of the building they're going to have roughly 10 wallmounted lights about 10 ft high and that's to light the rear of the site and I like to touch upon the rear of the site if you
don't mind um we worked extensively with Transit to New Jersey transit to come up with a configuration in the back that was acceptable to them uh because the goal here was to not only provide you know an
over a good development but also to make sure Transit can continue to operate and had what they need it from an access perspective so this road that you see along the back is actually going to be gate shut right so vehicles cannot drive
back there except for Transit Vehicles it's not a road I don't want you to think it's a road behind the building but it is there for an event of emergency or if Transit needs to access something for the uh uh for the maintenance of the track and also want to highlight again because it was a
really important part when we did the original design original approval I mentioned before the bike lane that comes from I'm looking at EX3 comes from the station and it's going down through west of building a and east of the new
building it will continue down through the town housee development and down to the Green Scene all of that is being maintained the lighting along the the the uh the bike path will be either complement to with wall packs on the new
building in the existing Ballers will be replaced most of them are being reused but some of them need to be replaced just because of the change on the building so my lighting perspective the streets are going to be basically lit identical to every part or every the
rest of the uh community and um there will be a DI Minimus change in the back the lighting along the rail line is really more about Safety and Security uh storm water uh from storm water perspective we're basically reducing impervious coverage uh that was
a goal of ours and we're also increasing the amount of landscaping so between those two and reducing what they call vehicular pavement are vehicular Pavements being dropped by almost an acre and a half because what is an owl parking lots being replaced with a
building and from a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection perspective a building is considered clean runoff while the um uh pavement or vehicular traffic does Drive is considered uh requiring water quality so
we are reducing overall impervious and we're are reducing from a uh water quality perspective uh the system Downstream of it has been designed to handle this it designed it goes out to a 72inch outfall to the green seam and it is always contemplated to be completely
paved so the system has more than enough capacity to handle the site um from a street tree perspective just to touch on the street trees uh the original project had 13 Street trees proposed along this were putting 13 Street trees in so it'll have the same
number of Street trees um and there was a typ all on the plans the original project was approved with 204 Street trees not 304 so we were just I meant to say in the plans that were matching the 204 but I mistakenly wrote 304 so I apologize
for that um you're going to hear from the landscape architect that on top of the street trees there's also an extensive amount of planting along all sides of the building along the transit uh just so you know in the rear of the site we had
we had more Landscaping originally uh and but Transit wanted more um pavement to allow them to bring their vehicles in and out um from a solid waste perspective the trash room is inside the building like I
had mentioned again I'll reference to ex2 it's located right where I'm highlighting here so basically the the trash room the mechanical room the water room is all located about Center West on the southern uh part of the building
along Robinson uh the trash will be kept inside and Do's recycl recycling pickup in trash pickup twice a week each that will happen in the morning they will be wheeled out picked up and they would be
be the containers will then be returned into the uh into the trash room within the building there is no exterior storage of trash at the site and that's consistent with the Redevelopment plan requirements that is correct so we don't have just for
clarity there's no recycling plan submitted but the outline of what you just testified to is in the Redevelopment plan the outline yes the Redevelopment plan requests that the it all be done inside or in a screen compound okay uh so it's all
inside uh I think I touched on a movein because this will come up in a second the movein again uh there's something within the Redevelopment plans that talk about loading in on the front part of the site um we believe well by putting the
loading in the northwest corner off to the side that's We believe We comply with it because we are putting our loading off to the Northwest again if you look at EX two it's up tucked in along the rail so when somebody so that's a really only loading and
unloading that's going to occur except for the trash that's got to be picked up like I said in the mornings four times a week between Recycling and trash it's two times each by the way so it's I want to make sure I say that uh you'll hear from the architect there was some signage proposed uh there
are three signs on the new building uh the signage includes two on either side of the new building and the architect will get into more detail and one at the lobby um the leasing office is going to remain within building a where it is
today um there is a request though to Pro provide more um wave finding signs to find a leasing office so we're proposing three wave finding signs uh in the grass strip along the road which is uh basically when as you enter the site
I'll highlight where they are basically so when you enter the site from South Bridge Street you come in here there's going to be I want to go to the other one I'm going to go to ex 2 again when you enter from South Bridge Street the goal is to direct people as
they're pulling in to come into the plaza area and the leasing office is here so they're looking to add some signage as you enter and also for where the new building is to direct them back to the leasing office so the leasing office itself is not changing but they just want to have better wayf finding for their their future residents when
they're trying to find the leasing office uh from a utility perspective all the utilities are going to be serviced either along Robinson or down through the drainage that goes down to the existing outfalls um the sanitary sore
will be picked up on the Westerly side on um and that's going to go down uh to South Davenport uh the waters uh I've been in touch with New Jersey American Water there's an existing 8 in line that's fed from 28 Ines from the 30
inch that's down South Bridge uh I'm sorry not South Bridge uh South Davenport um I have we're going to have meetings with them but you know we already talked to them about the metering and every all the details so we'll be working the details out with
them um the storm water like I had mentioned will be handled from the infrastructure that was designed from the initial design to contemplate this as a paved site and Gas and Electric we believe is going to be coming in from Robinson
so there was two reports uh I would like to touch upon Cha's report uh Chris was good enough to meet with me twice we went through the report and there were just a couple most of the stuff most of the comments we can comply with so there's really no need to go through a
bullet by Bullet and if I miss something Chris will definitely let me know and um so there was an item number 4B where uh there was a note just it was just a numeric issue that I numbered wrong so it was just a typo and this is
the February 12th letter year referring that is correct um grab that uh number five the new driveway uh there was a question about site distance and we both agreed that the driveway is
located in the most optimal Place considering the grade and lined up from the adjacent driveway across you like to have your intersections lined up it's more uniform and driver's decisions are easier when they're lined up um and you have plenty of sight distance uh it's
going to be in the range of 250 you know plus or minus so you have plenty of sight distance um the loading we touched upon uh there was a comment I think it was number seven about whether the striped area for the trash was you know compliant with the re
uh Redevelopment plan again in my opinion it is because the loading is really occurring in the northwest corner and this is just a simple area for them to pick up the trash um number 11 um we had some
conversations about New Jersey American Water I did confirm that they still have a master permit Chris and so we'll be meeting with them and I'll let him I'll advise Chris as we're meeting with them to go through the details I'm sorry what number was that that was number 11 okay
thank you and 11d um there was a concern about we're on I'll show you on the screen it's a little easier uh when we're running the new sanitary down uh sternad Dori road down to South
dport uh we have to do a little more utility investigation so he had asked if we can try to raise our drainage to try to interrupt the road as least as possible um so we have no problem with that but we just have to look at and make sure we know where the water lines are so if we can accommodate that we
absolutely will actually we want to but we put in the worst case scenario um I believe the majority of the other comments we went through we went through the storm water and everything else and most of the comments we found were just housekeeping items uh
that we can address so Chris if I missed anyone and he wants me to touch on please let me know let's touch on uh an issue that we saw in this letter as well as the fire prevention is the EV spaces could you describe where they're located and what the what the protections are in
the building that will address any concerns that were raised I'll touch I will touch on those and uh but I think some of the sprinklers I'll have to defer to the architect but um the EV spaces that are being proposed I believe there's 31 and they're within the garage
underneath the building um this is not uncommon you know EVS are going I'm working on numerous residential developments and you'll hear from the architect certain things about the construction of this being a concrete Podium uh also uh it is sprinklered and
the level of sprinkler you'll hear from the architect is what the Fire official was requesting there's also a fire blanket and we've had this come up in the past where there's actual blankets that are made to cover EV type fires to smother it uh and the applicant has no
problems providing that um from an Eevee perspective like I said when we looked at the parking one of the things I tried to stay away from even though it's on the plans is taking advantage of one space equaling two because I felt you know parking was critical here and I wanted you to know the real
numbers uh but the E will be located um I believe along the perimeter wall but again I'll let the arit walk through it um but they are within the building this is not uncommon and I would defer to the architect to touch upon some of the
sprinklers and also the Concrete Construction that completes our direct any other questions any any additional testimony the engineer would like to hear that we didn't touch on we tried to touch on all your comments so if there's anything else that you want us to testify just can you touch on the uh the
generator the on-site generator uh emergency generator sure I well the the generator that's on site is actually for Transit um and the site has been designed for a portable generator to be brought in if and when required there is not a proposed
generated currently on the site okay because we we obviously our OEM has taken positions that um and I don't know whether a portable generator would comply um yeah and and and you know it's not to power the entire building with full
service uh with all the lights blazing it's it's an ability to power it so people can shelter in place charge their phones keep their uh uh some of the lights going well as of now I was just talking to the client um the right now there's
really no indoor amenity space on this site but um I think this conversation could be had uh I mean I know right now there is not a generator proposed I know that they are comfortable with the fact that there's not a lot of amenity space in internal
to the building uh but obviously that's something we would have to work out with the township if if a generator is required and and the portable generator is not adequate I mean that's really got to be worked out I I think this issue came up on the first two buildings and I
think we have generator for the common space I'm going to call it so that would be envisioned to be available for these residents so they all share the common elements and are those uh installed emergency generators yes okay so that
yeah so the concern at the last meeting I moved on back six years now s years was that we just got done with super storm Sandy and people didn't have anywhere to like you said congregate with some electricity for their phones and and lights and so forth so we agreed
at that point to put those uh generators in for that type of limited uh generation yeah it's part of an overall Emergency Management plan which I believe is also required under the uh the Redevelopment so if if there is an additional uh generator although
we don't have this level of common area in this building well I just got word it's okay for us to add a generator on the site and on site okay okay the details of which you'll work out because this preliminary the details
you work out for final absolutely okay any other questions um I just have a question about your EV charging stations are there charging stations within that parking deck parking structure the proposed deck yes is there any way of moving them external to the
deck the one thing that um we've been trying to keep outside of obviously you can't keep EV cars out but the charging stations themselves adds an element of Public Safety that we are trying to deter away
from um so charging stations themselves is there any way to move those to the exterior well when when you look at the site there's no exterior parking on the site so there's really no way to move them I would not recommend moving them on street parking because I think you
will you know then those spaces will be prior PR ized or maybe used up more by AV spaces uh again I think there's it's not uncommon for them to be inst structures it really is not um and I think if when you hear the testimony
about the construction and what's going on with the sprinklers but on site there's really no way to have an exterior 31 spaces there's just no 31 spaces so all 31 spaces are charging stations yes yes so we we saw that comment in
fact we we had an internal debate whether that was a typo we meant exter inter external to the interior walls interior space because there's just simply no no area on the outside to put these so in any event all of the fire
prevention techniques mitigation systems type of construction um fire suppression with the with the sprink I can tell you all the fire suppression you have in that is not putting out those fires so the fire blanket and the blankets so every that was mentioned as a as a request the
applicants agreeable to the the the challenge we well challenge you have not we have is that this board has already taken positions on applications very recently uh that required the charging stations be um outside and not adjacent
to the building yes so there's physically there's just no area to do that here it wouldn't be wouldn't be we wouldn't have them that so U uh hopefully when we present the testimony of the architect we can get
you satisfied that all of the mitigation that your fire department uh talked about we're able to provide to give you a level of comfort that it's safely constructed and if God forbid there is a fire it's it will be suppressed yeah that's that's uh it's a
hurdle I I can tell you that from the board's perspective it is a hurdle certainly certainly permit it in your Redevelopment plan but we'll we'll let us get the testimony in and we'll talk about what we can do so um the road in the back the the transit access would
would our Emergency Services also have access to that through a nox box or absolutely okay um and then probably more for the uh landscape architect the the trees that are going in are they little tiny trees or are they somewhat nice trees that have a little bit of
maturity to them so it doesn't take them 10 years to be a small tree why don't we why don't we bring the archit I'm still Thunder but why don't we bring the landscape architect up now cuz that's that's the that's the site element that we haven't really covered in depth so I'd like to if I could and and Mario can
stay here but if I could I'd have Tom Tom Carman come up from Belo and Bower who designed the amenity package as well as the Landscaping plan and and show you what is proposed if you don't mind I have actually a couple questions about parking as well sure if you want to
stick with the engineer um so in here so I know there's 179 parking spaces proposed for this building yes where there's a higher demand correct so there's a shared parking element yes um I didn't hear any testimony as far as how far is the um
shared parking deck from this facility I think the Redevelopment plan has a requirement of 500 feet or less this is a 50 scale right I'm going to double check it right now so the garage itself I'm highlighting on E ex2 this is the garage
it's sharing if I do a straight line it's about 300 feet so to the other side of the garage 500 feet would land about
almost three4 across the garage okay that's measured from the corner of the new building the closest corner of the new building what about practical from the entrance that is the entrance that's the lobby what about the couryard
area the lobby is the entrance that's where people will be going in that's the only place you you can't come out through the this is I I'll my understanding this is utility access here and then here I the green area that's in the middle I I can't see it so I don't know the green area here these are actually elevated you'll understand
that those are not at the ground could see they they're okay so let do and then I'm not sure if this question is for you or maybe for the applicant um rep as far as parking so how is the parking designated do all residents get a parking spot or is it
paid or how's that work you want to come up and respond to that uh all all unit will get one parking spot they have to pay for if they want a second space then they can have one in the self parking deck of course A New Jersey Transit parking deck and they
will pay for it too so they get the first spot but they have to pay for it correct but it's mandatory oh okay it's mandat that's what I'm afraid if they're not paying for it and they're looking for parking outside no they'll have to it's it's part of the rental agreement yep okay
same thing for the north building okay and and we we spoke with the um the manager of the transit deck uh for this meeting and there's on average 200 Open Spaces during a weekday and 300 Open Spaces during the weekends you can
rent those by the day the week the quarter the month uh so those who who wanted to have an extra SP spot they could get it if it's wasn't available on the street okay and another question with the parking so I know we are losing I guess two spaces or is four spaces on
the street now we look to see do we still meet the parking requirements for the town houses I'm not sure who parks on the street um but in general is there enough parking still or we shanding the uh well the tow houses have you got to look at areas the tow houses um in
the I'll call it the northwest corner have parking along the rail so this is I'm talking about the northwest corner there's some parking here the townhouse is south of the building see have little
driveways in front the area I'm going to focus on is area between South Davenport and Robinson um we're only losing four spaces I know that one's too many but we have to create the entrance and we have to create an area for trash I mean it's
just unfortunately that's what we have to do uh they were designed to use their garages you know that's number one so the garages within the tow houses is parking space number one and then obviously that that
the the roads have not been taken over by the township yet so operationally there may need to be some review of IT of How It's operating and who's using it how they're using it because operationally is probably the single
most important thing I think here is how the who's parking in the street how they're when they're parking IND the street how long their parking industry you know so that's our in my opinion it meets and exceeds the ordinance but the reality is is operationally it has to be
addressed I think when the town takes these over and put in more operational controls on who can use it and it's also really important for the the garages within the tow houses you know be used I mean that's point1 and I'm not saying
they are or they're not but I can tell you that if when you have one garage and they're not being used that would be you know significant if if if a certain percentage of those were people were doing that so if between the garages and the on street parking and a better
management system of who's using them I think we exceed the ordinance and I think that operationally can be improved does that make sense yeah I think so I'm not sure if you actually answer it if if we meet the requirement for parking the we're
meeting the parking exceeding the parking for the tow houses cuz the Redevelopment plan encouraged the on street parking to be used it was part is actually within the Redevelopment plan that on Street would be used as part of the compliance that's why we have handicapped parking in the streets it's
why we designed it the way we did so the parking itself is distributed well across the site again you can have enough parking but is if it operating correctly or not or if it's being managed correctly or not not that's something different okay so I can I just
add on that I think my question still is is taking away those four spots are you now taken away from what you were approved is mandatory required training from the first phase mandatory what was required for phase one no we we had access and we still had access yes we
had access I mean the way it's designed now overall the the parking itself is overp parked by roughly 122 spaces but it's spread around the whole site so as per the ordinance and the Redevelopment plan but again you know there's there's
got to be some plan in place on how and who are using these spaces and to prioritize you know uses that have the need more than others so to respond we're not creating any variances or waivers or anything of
that nature we're still over parked but we understand tow houses like a lot of parking uh and and and it's a sensitive issue we did everything we could to try to design this not to lose any parking spaces but overall the site is more than
amply parked and if you really had to use part the transit garage that's always available hundreds of spaces a day on weekday and more than that 300 Day on on weekends so refresh my memory how many are available in the South
deck on average two extra no South deck was 85 on average 85 extra average 85 okay so it I don't think the issue is for the residents of the apartments they have plenty of
parking and some it's the issue of there a townhouse people who have the garage driveway and and parking spaces will will they miss the four spaces and the answer is that was it's over it's overp parked as it is and there's ample parking in the garage if they if they
needed extra parking so so it's your testimony there is infringement on the parking might be commuter uh parking it might be people parking on the street that are taking the train well yeah there's four less spots on the street okay still overp parked but four less than we had and we could certainly discuss a a
condition um whereby the applicant could work with the burrow as he indicated once there is a the time frame is is satisfied everything that's constructed where the Bur going to take over those roadways um you know discuss how's this working do we need to make some changes do we need to uh you know and assess it
at that point when we actually know if there's going to be a problem yeah I I think well I think we know there is a problem um and I'm I'm guessing a lot of the folks that are here tonight are here for that very specific reason um a number of which are familiar faces because they've come before the council before regarding the parking um and and
it's it's obviously something that is not an issue that the burough can control at this point yet nor the this planning board but um I actually like that idea where um and I think you you you you would be amendable to that as well is to create this transition plan
of parking um from the property owner uh to the burrow at the at the appropriate time when the uh when the burrow takes control of those roads and we can Define what that is yes okay thank
you um it's probably going to be sooner than later also as the roads are I we have to we have to get the heavy stuff out of the way on this the phase but roads are pretty much done and ready to be transitioned so we can have that conversation in the short
term just one last question again not sure if it's for the engineer or maybe for the architect uh you know do you know what the clear height is in the garage that's for the architect okay no problem so let's do two things let's bring the landscape architect up first try to address the trees and size and so
forth amenity package and then we'll go to the architect of the building to talk about some of the fire issues we're concerned about the look of the building any other concerns you have and then finally we'll have Carl Panky who's the traffic engineer just touch upon some of the comments that we heard in the review
letter and that would complete our testimony thank you very much thank you thank Tom as you as you put your exhibits up that you're going to refer to and we're up to um no A6 is the landscape P right yep
and Tom this was prepared under you or others under your direction that's correct it was prepared under my direction okay could you just identify your background education and experience as a landscape Ark I sure can good morning uh good
afternoon our good evening everybody I'll get it right my name is Thomas S Carman uh with the firm Milo Bower Carman we're Landscape Architects uh 200 Union a in Briel and uh I'm a licensed landscape architect in uh in the state my license
is valid since 1997 uh I have a degree in landscape architecture from Rucker University and your firm was involved with the initial phases of this project correct that's correct that's correct okay why don't you just give the board for the benefit of a summary of what you were trying to
accomplish here with the exterior uh landscaping and then the amenity package that you've designed very and we're going to accept him as an expert in of landscap okay just wanted to put that on the record thank you thank you very much so the graphic that we have up here it's entitled streetscape level landscape
plan it's dated today and we're going to mark this one as a six so uh same orientation as the previous uh exhibits with Robison down at the bottom and uh Transit line at the top of the sheet um we've prepared a
richly detailed landscape plan that includes a variety of plant material is uh Native uh as well as some adaptive plant material along the street frontages um the sides of the building as well as the rear of the uh the
building itself there's about 30 different varieties of plant material that make up this kind of diverse pallet um we have deciduous trees along Robison as well as uh sternad and uh as uh Mr
iel indicated we have um the same quantity as what was previously proposed there were 13 trees in original we still have 13 along Robison they are a um Sergeant cherries so they're proposed um with smaller root ball so that way to
accommodate some low grade utilities on the the West Side those three trees are a red maple and uh in terms of the size of the trees right we're kind of um what we're limited by is the dimension between the curb and the sidewalk um
that's a dimension that the the tree root ball itself can go in so uh we're proposing a three to three and a half inch caliper Tree on the West Side um but down along Robison we have a it's actually a little a little bit of a
smaller tree um hearing the concern I think we have the ability to upsize that to that same size that same two and a half to 3inch calber um and accommodate that root ball within the curb to sidewalk Dimension the uh one of the other
requirements just based on the lot size there's a requirement for trees also and uh when I get up to the amenity deck you're going to see that there are seven trees proposed up there also that um meet that requirement of six trees based
on the lot size itself along the building Foundation we have uh some evergreen trees as well as shrubs and uh deciduous evergreen shrubs and uh we also utilize some ornamental grasses so we look at the architecture we locate
them to complement the architecture and provide kind of a layered and textured effect with that native uh plant material condensers are uh screened with the uh the plant material itself and then any utilities like a Transformer we
work with the utility provider to make sure that we're providing access that they that they require as well as then screening it um to soften the visual experience of it planting along the bike
way uh respects the existing ballards any of the lighting along there as do the rest of the uh the site all planting is uh coordinated with the overall site lighting at the lobby entrance which is kind of the southeast Corner we utilize
some decorative pavement to accent that Lobby and uh complement the uh the architecture I'm going to Mark the next graphic as A7 and this is entitled composite landscape plan so same orientation and
now what we've done is we've layered the architecture as well as the courtyard space on top of that parking garage I'm sorry really quickly the date of that one today's date as well it's today's date uh the 26th thank you on the uh North Side there are two
Courtyard spaces that are um open to the uh the transit line they uh include some private Terra so the residential units that open on that level have a private patio for themselves there is uh some extensive green roof planting so that's
like shallow soil volume that takes up some storm water as well as kind of mitigates some Urban heat island effect and then there also is some um utilities for the the mechanics of the building that are proposed over there and those are screened with a fence
enclosure on the South Side there's a larger Courtyard again we propose some uh private residential Terraces for the the units over there and then um just a nice complement of outdoor passive Recreation amenities similar to the
other Avalon Bay Community buildings such as barbecue grilling um Lounge seaing spaces uh we're utilizing some Lush planting also the planting in this location we have to work through some engineered soil um being that it's on a
rooftop that's lightweight but can sustain the plant itself this is where there are um seven additional trees up on this level and those are within uh larger scale Planters to uh to accommodate those
trees all the planting down at the street level this upper area are all selected based on sun and shade conditions and certainly Hardy for the application that's an overview of the uh the landscape improvements thank you any
questions um yes you had mentioned on the western side they were red maple that's correct you had said three to three and a half inch caliper tree yes but then you said you would match the ones on
Robison is it going to match because we've had discussions about calipers of trees and three-inch caliper really means two and a half because it still qualifies that's nice we want want to see some trees that are going to be
there and look like they're not scrawny and they're going to survive understood yeah so um the way it is from a nursery uh standard you specify the calber in that range as you indicated um and that range then directly as I mentioned
relates to the root ball size that they dig the tree which then directly relates to that Dimension between the curb and the sidewalk in terms of getting it actually planting when it's um time so on the West Side yes we have we're proposing
red maple over there and those are at that those are at the two and a half to 3 inch caliber so when it comes time for us to further specify work with the contractor I hear at the board we will
um try and get it towards the 3-in calber certainly that's what I'm concerned about because as soon as you have a range it goes to the lower range instantly understood and it's stuck like that forever understood Mike is there a requirement in the Redevelopment agreement or plan for maintenance bonds
for in time periods for landscaping not other than as provide in the land in the land use law okay that I'm aware of okay now when I did indicate that we would match on the the Robison uh Street we're not I'm not saying that we're going to
match the tree variety but we will match the size we will increase it to that size you want species diversity that's that makes sense and that's not a problem just right you want to see something substantial well at least that's what the environmental commission wants to see something substantial
that's going to actually do its job which is to create shade right and Beauty very good thank you thank you um a question about the green roofs and the I guess the north side of the building how are those um accessed or
maintained uh there is an actual there's a a utilitarian stair on the north side of the building that brings access for maintenance up to that location to maintain the green roof as well as any of the mechanical equip okay and then the screening for the mechanical I'm
looking at the architectural plans and again maybe this is for the architect is the screening for for the Mechanicals from the apartments or to the uh I guess the north side as well for the Mechanicals uh it's primarily from the view of the apartments is the way we
have it detailed right now okay and do you know if the Mechanicals will be visible from the other side of the tracks I do not know the answer to that but our goal would be to screen it as well so we will look into that okay anybody have anything else
all right let us uh bring the architect up who's also our planner and we're going to talk about the buildings some of the fire issues that you're concerned about as well as the signage and we do need one item for
Relief with respect to the signage that we're going to describe in a moment and present the um the testimony and support of that right Michael what why don't we um Arthur why don't we have you introduced and and sworn and or you've been sworn
but introduced but your your experience education and affiliation sure my name is Arthur Michaels I'm principal Michael and Wen uh Architects and planners uh I have a Bachelor of Science and a bachelor of architecture degree from Kent State University School of
Architecture and environmental design I've been a licensed architect in New Jersey since 1986 a licensed professional planner in New Jersey since 1987 uh both of the licenses are current I have licenses in numerous other states
um I also a member of the American Institute of Architects NCA already certified lead professional I've testified before hundreds of planning boards over almost the last 40 years which I can't believe chairman I'd offer Mr Michaels
as an expert we we ac thank thank you thank you very much so um why you just generally describe what you're designed here and uh how it will flow and what the elements you use to create the the look that you've created here sure well
just going through the building real quick it's a five-story building um you know and uh and about 245,000 bedrooms uh 59 two bedrooms and one three bedroom unit okay um the uh
the plan I have up to my right here was in the set that was submitted uh and in a sheet A2 it is the garage level it is the lowest level plan it's down on the grade so we'll mark that as A8 garage level plan yeah so and this
was in the package but it looks like we've got package it's exactly as what was submitted y looks like we've got some highlighting on there so we'll mark it as A8 I think the highlighting was on was it on there too okay that's all right we'll we'll mark it and and which sheet was that again it sheet
A2 thank you uh so this is the the garage level plan um it shows um 179 parking spaces over on the right side uh which is on the Southeast Corner uh is the lobby for the
building uh a Stairway elevator going up uh and it includes the mail room package rooms uh in in the center of the garage as Mario described is the entrance to the garage uh that you go through and over to the left area the area yellow is
the mean trash areas in there um it was noticed in one of the reports uh that the the immediate first two aisles as you come in uh our dead end parking and the one in particular on left has parking spaces that are right up against the wall and there was a concern that we
should have at least the parking spaces being one foot off uh the parking space sizes that we have in here are 9 by8 spaces the Redevelopment plan uh recognizes that in parking garage 8 and a half by n uh 18t spaces or permitted
in parking garages uh we would propose taking the two spaces immediately next to the exterior wall uh diminishing those down in size to eight and a half by wide spaces thus giving an extra foot clearance uh to be in conformance with
uh uh with the engineers uh request uh also in the garage there's six compact Space six handicap spaces three compact spaces the compact spaces are the upper right hand corner uh there's a little niche in the wall so it was an obvious
place to put them uh they really don't affect any other units and they're set off to the side by themselves uh and they're uh they were put in virtue the the footprint that we had to work with
um I'm going to go before we get into everything deal with the EV right up right up front we have 31 EV spaces I've um seen the letter from the uh fire department uh we're proposing putting the 31 all 31 spaces on the back
exterior wall uh where there's plenty of ventilation uh the garage is fully sprinklered uh we we will put the blankets in and the dispenses for the blankets as the fire department requested and we will uh conform to all the other alarms uh the specifications
for the uh sprinkler system and so on uh that he had talked about Mario touched a little bit about the construction of the garage this garage is a little bit unique because it's a pre it's a port in place concrete structure uh in the building code it's it's classified as
what they for the garage portion or what they call type 1A construction is the highest level of construction that the building code recognizes for separation for Fire and Fire Protection of structural elements and separations from the building you know the slab to the
upper occupancies is a three-hour fire rate rated separation and likewise The Columns and the building structure itself is three-h hour rated in this uh this is very unusual you know the code in most cases uh doesn't require this
parking garages are allowed to have as as little as a one hour separation from a parking garage to um to other occupancies like this up above so we are providing triple that in the fire resistance rating and that fire resistance rating is a rating that is
tested uh with assemblies that have been tested by the underwriter assemblies uh that are State accepted and they're all tested assemblies uh so that's and and we put them there the other thing I'd like to point out the way the garage is going to be ventilated um is we're going to be
ventilating out towards the back and uh out towards the back and drawing fresh air in off of robers inside so in event that there was anything any kind of problem uh the natural ventilation of the garage and the mechanical ventilation of the garage would be uh
enhancing pulling any smoke out of the garage thereby adding another uh level of safety into into the garage construction and and you as a licensed architect designed this building you're satisfied at the EV station absolutely
we've done many buildings you know uh that have have EV in the garage and this this particular building I'm I'm very comfortable saying is is as safely designed with cognizant of the
situation as any and probably more so than 90% so um okay going through some of the other issues I think that are the fire department we have the trash room over here electrical rooms the mechanical
room fire department also raised another uh question right now the water meter room and some of those mechanical rooms we had originally designed for just access to those rooms from the exterior the fire department requested that we provide access from the interior the
gids to get into those rooms uh to do that once again uh utilizing the ability to have8 and 1 half foot wide parking spaces I would take three Fades of these parking spaces um and narrow the parking spaces up in those uh down to8 half foot
versus nine uh the 4 and 1/2 ft that I would pick up will give me an Access aisle uh to get get from the garage itself to that mechanical area and then I'll make adjustments in that mechanical area to make sure that there's access to all the spaces to satisfy the uh the
fire department's uh question on that um the other rooms that are in the garage is down the other end there another electrical room uh we do have another Lobby down that end which primarily for uh the move in and another
support it has an elevator that's two-sided uh that you know residents can either go into the elevator Lobby go up to the building from the parking garage or if there's a move in it can come in there and they can get there and it it's uh separated and that's one of the
advantages of having the two-sided garage um let me just see uh I guess one of the other questions was is it gated um line answered that yes we have a gate and it'll uh and'll be operated by um uh
license plate recognition um the next plan I'd like to just put up is a three out of our set um and it is the it's the ground floor plan um it it shows that there's 42 units on
this level very simple similar to the units uh the levels above the levels above actually have 4 units on it the difference is that this one has the two points of access uh to get to the amend the outside Courtyard off of the lobby and off of that back hallway once again
the fire department referenced uh having some stand pipes at those locations where were certainly amenable to that as well as all the other issues that they had in their letter about the uh um alarms and uh there were a few things I guess some uh fire extinguisher
locations and sou on were were good good with all those let's mark this as A9 yep and that's the ground floor plan does that have a number or it just says ground floor plan A3 thank you um uh let's see um so once again we
have um two remote elevator lobbies two remote stairs we have what they call a horizontal exit between the buildings that which separates the building with a fire rating uh to that basically uh are partition support building off free movement of people but um increases fire
safety in the building um we have um a a trash room uh centrally located in the building the trash room has two shoots in it uh a trash shoot and a uh and a uh recycling shoot it also has room in the
shoot for for larger things that can't go down the shoot where residents can go and leave it there and staff will come and bring it down to the trash room uh later those TRS go right down into the compactor gets compacted and uh in in the main trash room uh and Mario spoke a
little bit earlier about how those are all uh taken out um uh just one thing the the building is and all the units are all the units are Ada adaptable per the building code all spaces are
accessible okay uh the um the elevators are stretcher compliant okay um the difference on the upper floors is uh as I mentioned before there's one additional unit because those corridors I go away and we incorp
incorporate that in spaces uh also the fourth floor um there is um 29 of the 43 units on the fourth floor have lofts in them The Lofts of them are spaces that um are up and they're open to with a
railing down into the living room uh they're not intended to be used as a bedroom in fact uh only the studio ones I even have closets up there so they're open spaces not bedrooms that was uh referen in one of the one of the things
one of the letter um like to I have all the I have all the um floor plans here um and I wasn't going to put those up
sorry we'll mark this as A10 this is the roof PL yeah and this is sheep what of a so um on the roof plan you can see that we have um slop roofs going around the entire perimeter I'll talk about that a little bit more when I talk about
the exterior design uh but you can see there's a large flat area in the middle that's really a a well um that's set back uh the intention is to put mechanical equipment uh just in the middle over the Carter down the center
of the well uh the walls go up three and A2 ft the majority of the mechanical equipment up there are just little condensers that are only three three and a half fet High um so all the equipment that would be put up on this roof would
be um be fully um shielded and not visible from the ground at all and they're located so far back there' be no acoustical uh impact to anyone from that um one thing I'd um like to talk about a little bit is that the fire department
had requested um that we provide some areas uh for two locations for a ladder to be able to come up and then not have to put the ladder over the slope roof uh they they asked it to be somewhere in the Northeast and north or south the two
corners of the building um um we're we're happy to uh comply and work with them out as as as that letter just really came out yesterday uh we hav't time have fully designed it uh what I would suggest is that we will as
a condition uh for uh resolution compliance we'll work with the fire department uh facilitate it um and the areas that we're planning on putting it um would be right by where the stairs are on the North and the
are the East and the West Corners or sides of the building you know and but we will certainly work with them and and planning staff uh to to to go through that um uh just some other little house cleaning thing is on the RO just so
everyone knows the building is intended to be lead certified um it's state-of-the-art with all that with the energy compliance uh we're expecting we' probably get silver or something to that gold I guess going to get gold I've been
corrected um as well as energy star compliant and it is an all electric building to reduce the use of fossil fuels okay um then I'd like to turn everyone's attention to the rendering that we have done won't we
switch things so you can refer to that and this rendering was prepared by your office correct under our supervision yes so this is A1 so I'd like to use the the rendering to talk about the Aesthetics of the building and what's the perspective that we're looking at is we're looking at it
from the that doesn't have a number on it right it's just rendering it's just rendering okay I I think it was sent over to your office electronically yesterday today I think it so I think that you have it electronically but I have electr I didn't know if it had the other one at A3 a I just didn't know no
this is just marked up so the perspective is is from the southeast east corner looking up on Roba right you know looking up and showing the building entrance uh down in the corner and the the facade of the building so once again
I talked about the building being five stories tall uh your zoning ordinance permits five stories 75 ft uh this this building is five stories 68 ft 10 in we measured the the 10 68t 10 Ines from the
average grade to um to the level of the highest part of the roof flat roof area uh actually uh your zoning it could be construed that we measured to the mean part of the roof would actually be several feet lower um but we took the higher number to put in our application
so it's 68 ft 10 uh this building is is uh it was asked about the relationship of the size of buildings uh A and C on the site um the four-story portion of it is is very close to the the um a andc
building what makes a difference is it's sitting up on a 15 foot high parking garage you know so you know so those depending on where you measure and where are the grades uh you know I I would I would answer that question is that it's up to 15 feet taller than the other
buildings um but once again it's um it's well within the zoning Orin its height restrictions okay um as part of um designing the the building um we reviewed the red development uh plan and some of the guidelines and looked at
their U building design guidelines uh and I'm going to go through a few of them quickly you know one was the building massing you know it talked about breaking up the building massing with with bays and having those Bays going in out and that's exactly what you see in here they have the building set
back it's undulating around uh and there's and it's happening um frequently across the building okay uh and those Bays uh create are further identified um by varying materials textures colors and
some height changes in the facade uh or is described in the building massing section under the building design it also talks about vertical differentiation and uh what that means is that buildings buildings should have a base a middle and a top well um this
building clearly has that uh we have a nice strong base uh all brick material uh different um articulation of the openings down there down at the base to uh to reinforce it we have a middle you know which is more of the residential
portions which once again we break we break up that middle with um various changes materials different fenestrations and it's clearly different from the base and then we have a top uh that that is the that is the shingled roof uh that is a royal element which
all ties into the relationship of the adjoining buildings okay um they also talk in the Redevelopment plan about the Upper Floor massing and even further breaking down the Upper Floor uh and that's achieved by some places the upper Flo we got bands going AC us but we've
broken out materials where we've had just different materials and and textures at the top floor to to further break that up and make uh architectural interest in it and break up that that uh massing um then and we've introduced a
corner element you know which is the the entry u the balconies that we've put in are all inset balconies as described uh in the Redevelopment plan uh and is regarding the architectural style we're consistent with the adjacent buildings
we've picked up pieces and characters of the based of the building uh the the Redevelopment CH plan says that we should Design This or the all the site as an ensemble you know and that they're all um they work together uh creating a
piece of neighborhood um we I think we varied a little bit in the colors a little bit of materials textures how we put them together but we've use the same par pet to create that assemble uh and to create that you know uh the materials
of the building is on the walls or walls or brick um uh mixture of uh centi boards and and vinyl um and then there's the asphal shingles up on the roof um I've already about the Mechanicals all
being uh then uh Mechanicals being um uh shielded um I guess the the next thing really to talk about is the signage that that was previously marked so uh I'm going to talk about which one are we
looking just so first I'm I'm going to talk about um the a12 it's on our set a12 it was a signage sheet and A2 is the other board we just put back up okay so a12 is your signage sheet does it have a different number
it's a it's a12 what what oh it's a12 there as well just happens to be our exhibit a12 as well it's it's our exhibit a12 how could be right okay perfect okay so um on our
building and I'm going to so I'm referring to exhibit this one A4 um on the proposal we're we're proposing um three
signs we're proposing a sign type A which is at the entrance to the building uh we're proposing a sign two S Type BS which are on on the on the east and west
elevation towards the back of the building up high on the building okay and go to ret a12 and exhibit a12 um we we Illustrated those and
located and the the first sign probably shows very well in the the rendering which was the exhibit a11 uh it's right down here on the grade uh right out of the
entrance and that's a 10.5 square foot sign okay it's right at the public entrance and it's back with lettuce okay the two signs that are on those end caps of the building are
23.75 square feet okay uh they're located up high on the building and we have on this exhibit a12 uh we show them in elevation uh locating where they are up at the top of the building your zoning
ordinance permits um in this in this particular building two wall signs it permits a wall sign uh by the entrance in the street front which we can form so so that sign is fully conforming the
sign a the sign B uh when we're on a corner corner lot we're allowed two additional wall signs that don't need to be related to the entrance uh so one of those other two um is one of the two is is as of
right the second one is what we're requesting a variance for for additional one uh we think it's very important for way finding to identify uh identify the building in the site uh from the railroad side and from these joining
properties okay um on the phase one building and I'm going to go back to Mario exhibit A4 in Building C um um avalan is found uh that there's
us there's no signage out here on this building and wanted to put some signage for recognition on it uh we have one small sign uh right in front at the entrance which on our sheet is um signed type c it's 4.7 square feet it's on a a
little retaining wall right out in front of the building and entrance and that is nonilluminated uh and then uh down on the endcap of building C uh looking stra to the the
South okay um we have a sign up here that's running vertically uh that's 53.2 s square feet um once again that sign is uh internally illuminated uh and that will give
recognition uh down the street as you're coming up and approaching and enter into the property uh that sign is also an as a right sign requires no variances um so from a can I get clarification those are in currently in
phase two you're talking or the original phase that was in phase one so you're adding we're adding a sign on phase one yes and that's conform two signs on phase one actually it's the the endcap sign here and then the little sign at
the entrance of that building and I think that that was identified in the notice as well right so what what is the sign we need relief from and then put your planning hat on for a moment okay the sign that we need to R from is having two um a third sign you know one
of the uh type uh two signs and which building so we're not in phase two building the new building okay so the second sign is what we need relief from in the phase two building correct the second wall sign second wall
sign that's not at the entrance okay yes show just show us the location one more time so we're clear on what we're asking for for the one that needs the variance well there's one here and one here take your pick I I you're allowed
one and the second one would need a variance and they're identical okay okay yeah and when you relief for two wall signs on the phase 2 building one we need we for to have in order to have two wall signs yes okay all right so let's
talk about uh the benefits of having having the sign and what the justification of the board is to Grant the bearings you're seeking and what kind of impacts negative or otherwise that might result yeah so I I see this as being a C2 variance okay and going through it I think there's in um this
sign uh in is is helping in way finding it's identification to the building uh particularly back at the railroad and so on coming back in there um it's uh um you know the the the benefit goes to Beyond just the land owner it goes to
the general public uh and noticing that and being able to recognize the building in the development okay uh it's to this specific piece of property um I do not see any adverse impacts uh to any of the adjacent properties you know it's it's
in the back of the building and it's you know Town owners it's not going to impact I don't think it my opinion is it doesn't impact anyone okay um it's an appropriate signage for the building it was designed it's very understated nice back wit letters um I think that the um
that there are purposes of the municipal land use law that are uh Advanced being a b c e and I you know um from the the property being appropriate use in development of lands secure for fire and safety light in that in air um promotion
of proper densities and promoting a desirable visual environment okay and I think it can uh it can be granted without U substantially impacting the intent of purpose of Z plan thank you last issue we want to cover yes
there's some questions about bike storage battery or otherwise uh is there any bike storage provided in this building there's no bike storage in provided in this building the bike storage like the other amenities are provided in a phase one project
okay uh anything else that we you want to touch on with testimony by way of either the fire buo or I have a question about that phase one I think he's got to finish his testimony first no I just want to get a clarification on he said
about the bikes phase one has it phase two does not have bike storage correct so if you if you have a bike and you live in phase two you can you can put it in Phase One bike area put it in bike room there across the street yes and it's it's right believe the Bike Room is
right by the stairs right yeah right close where we're sitting and then if we could just clarify the signage phase one just so because we can all the Lots from phase one and two were included in this application so technically we could do
amended preliminary and final of phase one just with regard to the sign was also in their notice and then we'll just do preliminary for phase two okay but that will cover everything that was my I was going to next I just want to make sure that uh we know exactly what
that relief is so if you could just spell that out again for us so so in in in phase two uh the relief is for one additional that I've got pH y they're
they're well as of right they're uh let's just identify the location one more time so the record we're adding two signs um One sign here uh one sign is indicated on
our plans is a type c sign which is a 4.7 SQ foot wall sign Loc located along the public entrance along robot so let's point to that on the overall campus plan that we have
up right the corner okay and that's and which sheet is that you're referring to which exhibit referring to exhibit A4 it's it's it's Exhibit 2 A4 sheet A4 got
it of the set thank you okay uh the the second sign is 53.2 squ foot wall sign it's on the facade um it's approximately 218 Ines
above the grade to the bottom of the sign okay and on the facade of which building it's on on the facad on the um on the build building C okay okay um and it is on the very uh uh Southern
elevation in the corner and there is a plan on my exhibit a12 that specifically key plan that Flags out all those locations
specifically on it perfect thank you uh A2 key plan uh advies all the locations great thank you questions yeah just on the signage on
the new construction building yes in the back it's tough to see it's it's very difficult for us to see the is the lettering is is that horizontal and it faces East and
West okay so that's I'm not that blind okay all right now that's that's that was my question so so you're really looking for the train ridership uh to be able to view
those okay and the the lighting of it is not going to affect the apartments that are right underneath it it's going to be less lighting than if someone has their blinds up it's it's it's letters they're back with it's like silhouette letters
so it's really uh very subtle and understated um I'm going to jump back to these EVS that I'm going to question you on here yep um two questions and so you have 31 spots along that back wall inside the deck with a total of 179
spaces yes and 171 units yes apartments and everyone's mandated to have have one in the release everyone's everyone will have there'll be access to it so I believe maybe Ludy can talk more about the operation she
did so my question is what if you don't have 31 people within electric cariously so I guess the question question is why do you need 31 EV spots with charging stations yeah so that's that's a
relatively new law that is required so we're complying with that the question though is if they have more parking because I think the testimony was you have sufficient parking without counting the EVS as double we didn't we did not take the bonus that you're entitled to
so we have we have more than we we're entitled to a bonus that we didn't take credit for so we yeah I'm not worried about the number of parking SP I was more concerned that I was looking to get that number increase well that's what I was trying to figure out you need the
15% so you did the 15% of the regular parking that you're required but if you decreased the regular parking and took the credit is there any no I think I think we want to have the parking spaces okay I mean what's the use of you you have EV at the South deck uh um did we
do anything don't we don't in phase one we don't wasn't wasn't is there EV in the uh the transit deck no I don't know no so I mean I would Envision if somebody has an electric car and they live in the south building they'll
probably take the spot in this building I would think that's important to them but yeah they're required now we're complying with the law and uh we don't want to give up any spots I mean going to your point you know we don't we don't want people to have to go on A Street
and Park we want the residents to use the garages it's it's this board's position uh to not have EV charging stations in underground parking uh understand about the
sprinklers uh there are a limited number of um studies that have been done at this time to even show the benefits of sprinklers on EVS um what we do know is that it takes thousands of gallons of water it takes
multiple hours and EV fires can rekindle up to 72 hours later those are worst case scenarios what do we know about the temperature of an Eevee fire what is the temperature do we know I'm not qualified to answer that
it's about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit 2,000 degrees CSUS uh at what at what temperature does concrete start to break down spalling I can't tell you off the top of my head okay so that that's that is the major concern that this board has and it's
something that we've discussed here in in public session um is our concern for life safety um an EV fire the the smoke from an Eevee fire is is as black as black smoke can get um and inside of an
underground structure there are concerns about uh from the fire chief and from the uh from the um Board of Engineers which is our fire chiefs and our fire administrators uh their concern is walking into that kind of a structure
underground okay well um just a clarification what is meant by underground I mean we're at grade level here I mean the back interior structure anything inter any interior considered underground and just for record the fire
marshal the Fire official in his letter states that the EV charging station shall not be interior so we we we can we can we have one second we might have a solution for it okay maybe take a five minute break yeah
let's take a five minute recess sorry everybody please remember the cameras and microphones will still be operational for e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e okay all uh we're back so uh our Final witness is Carl Panky with Langan engineering he's a expert in traffic engineering if I could I'd like to have
him introduced and uh your experience and background for the board certainly again my name is Carl peny car with a k peny p n ke associate principal with Langan engineering uh one University uh Plaza
uh Princeton New Jersey I am a registered professional engineer in the state of New Jersey my area of expertise is traffic engineering I've been before this board many many times in the past including on this project I'd offer Mr peny as an expert in traffic engineer he EXA Carl if if you could could you just
identify what studies you undertook in connection with this project in this phase and what your findings are sure yeah very briefly we did prepare an updated traffic impact study that was submitted with this application uh dated December of uh of 2024 as youw I was
involved and prepared the original traffic planning uh and design on this project uh uh that studies been uh basically following the standard methodologies that this board board is aware of I also did have a an opportunity to review the cha comments
dated February 12th it was a series of about seven questions comments uh requests for additional backup and and I'll run through that real quick uh generally from the the traffic standpoint uh the site as you're aware has been designed with the AIS from South Bridge Street with the the traffic
signal and the widenings we did along South Bridge Street uh and also the uh the uh Street connection out to Route 206 which has been completed and uh in the process of dedication and and hopefully soon to be opened as part of that that process that establishes the
access for the uh Redevelopment area and the train station Redevelopment area uh also part of that the the uh the design is the uh this the internal Street system grid system that was uh well thought out and and designed to accommodate the development of this
project phase one phase two and it its entirety uh basically the traffic study is is finding that things are operating as we anticipated as as was designed uh the traffic signal is operating uh well and accommodating the volumes that are
coming in out of the site uh phase two of this project will generate some additional traffic uh uh that traffic was not unanticipated when we originally designed the site uh and again will'll be accommodated on the access system and and Street grid system which which has
been established don't need a plan to show it you guys have all been out there you've seen what's there and what's been created by this board uh and the applicants uh that have been before you uh there have been some questions and comments in the cha report uh the first two comments really just asked for some
additional backup data average daily traffic on South Bridge Street uh whether we have vehicle classification information uh speed data and so forth all of that's sort of related to has the analysis been done right and uh The Pedestrian environment uh in terms of
speed data and what I will tell you is in the traffic study uh the traffic counts did incorporate a classification uh count of of uh of the vehicles that are traveling along South Bridge Street and entering the site more importantly that data was incorporated in our
modeling and Analysis that's the more important aspect of it but it is in the report and it is reflected in the analysis uh we can provide cha data on the average daily traffic on South Bridge Street uh dot does have some data over the past years uh basically South
Bridge Street's accommodating close to 11,000 12,000 vehicles per day about a 5050 split that is consistent with the count data that we've collected in the past and and more recently with this with this update uh so it confirms the
data that we've been been using with regard to speed data we generally don't collect speed data as part of a a traffic study but I think the question relates more to the pedestrian environment and I think what I would respond to that is uh we spent an awful lot of time on the planning on this
project uh and The Pedestrian environment uh designed in this project is extremely robust uh it's evident by just going out there you can see that we've accomplished what I think what our goals were to create a pedestrian friendly environment with all the
appropriate uh signage crossw walks uh and identities and and creating created a grid and Street system uh uh and and and and and uh and uh street typology that is designed to both uh accommodate
The Pedestrian V and the vehicular needs of of the environment while inhibiting speeds and and I think we've accomplished that uh uh I don't believe that we need to do any enhancements uh we're not really changing that environment at this point in time uh and again I would just refer to I don't have
we're not referring to plans and and presumptions here the environment exists you've seen it I've seen it I believe it's working I think it's uh actually uh accomplished much of the planning goals that we uh pursued over the many many years uh CH they did ask for some
additional backup they asked that we provide an existing analysis we can provide that uh as a as a condition of approval they also ask for backup on the distributions that we've uh prepared in the traffic study and we can provide that backup too that it all dates back
to the original planning of the study basically the the patterns we're seeing out there are uh there's always some variation but similar to what we anticipated certainly no major uh uh differences uh and it all comes down to
really the uh the operational analysis uh and there was two questions that probably go to that aspect of it in the cha report that really is do we look at the cues and and delays on linkages and Lanes uh which we did and is actually in the analysis that's documented in the
traffic report uh and they did identify as we did uh that the operation of the traffic signal uh on the erress from Robinson uh Robison d uh uh place in the morning is operating at a lower level of service uh for just on the CD range
versus the higher level of service that we maintain on Bridge Street uh that's purposeful uh we maintained when we designed the signal uh the prioritization of South Bridge Street it is coordinated with the traffic signals at at veterans uh Memorial Drive the
level of service is adequate the cues and delays and and and spill backs to linkages linkages are as we anticipate from the operation of the the you know the cycling through of a traffic signal there's nothing happening out here that is unusual or
untenable uh and what I would say is uh really based on the analysis we've done to date there's no recommendations I would make for adjustments to that signal at this point in time uh and we are talking about simple programming so at when the community is done there's
always the opportunity to go back and tweak a signal timing and an adjustment uh we don't need additional Lanes we don't need additional capacity uh so uh that that look see occurs over time as traffic signals are maintained so at this point in time I don't see anything
in the analysis and report that we didn't anticipate and design for uh nor that I would make any recommended changes at at this point in time uh you know quite frankly from a traffic standpoint uh I'm quite pleased with what we've developed here it's it's
actually a model of uh some really good planning there was a lot of work again that I think particularly went into the The Pedestrian environment on this site uh I know there was a ton of time spent on that uh and to make sure that the street typologies are right and uh I think uh the uh it speaks for itself
when you go out there I think it's operating well so I think that's really the summary on the traffic study we will provide a full response as a condition of improval and the back up data that's requested uh and it all supports the uh the traffic study that's really it any
questions just lar go ahead well um what do you anticipate Station Road when it opens how much traffic will that take towards away from the traffic light will that improve sure traffic light sure so
the modeling we we've done when we designed Station Road and permited it with uh basically around 15% of the traffic from the residential comes from the south on 206 and right now is turning on to South Bridge Street and coming up and making that left clearly when you open
Station Road the majority of that traffic is just going to go straight up and come in on Station Road so that left turn in from South Bridge Street which works will lighten up a little bit you're always going to have some people that heading to the transit so it's like we expect maybe 5% will continue on South Bridge and maybe 10% probably the
biggest change is uh the right turn out onto 206 uh coming down the bridge coming down Bridge Street through Route 206 has a lot more delay than you're going to see on Station Road so there is a a chunk of traffic that actually makes the left out onto South Bridge Street goes
over to Veterans sneaks up veterans to go up to the circle and out that way we would expect that that left coming out of Robeson onto South Bridge Street to Veterans is actually going to divert and we expect that up to 20% of our traffic may divert and go directly out onto 206
Northbound so that's where we expect to see the biggest change uh and that uh was always the benefit of that that direct connection out it's a nice clean quick Direction gets rid of the friction that's on South Bridge Street the traffic signal that operates at South Bridge on 206 so that's where the
benefit of that that that connection comes in and uh so the relief will be more towards the uh the Somerville burrow side uh traffic impacts which is which is what we wanted to do when we designed that thank you did did you do any
parking analysis Street side street parking analysis or really focused on uh traffic on the traffic we didn't do any you know we're aware of this the situation uh I think Mario really touched on the overall numbers uh we we're meeting numbers this project is self- parking so it should it won't be
aggravating the situation out there you know if you recall back when we when originally this this was part of the discussions when we originally designed design this and we always knew at the end we might get to a management situation because part of the concern was people would the transit people would not use the deck and park on
Street might have to go to residential parking stckers the the other aspect of that is the use of the town home garages uh town on garages are required space it's in the homeowners documents they're supposed to be using those spaces we know that when you a community like this
starts up you'll always have a percentage of those spaces that are being used for boxes and Storage Furniture in a young Community uh but over time the homeowners association will have to enforce uh the the docks and and those spaces need to be used properly and you know there could be 20
25 30 spaces that are not being used properly at this point in time uh and that's a management thing and that might be part of that discussion we have in that that condition uh that residential sticker uh that was discussed uh that might be a need and you do that you have a you have an ordinance for that you
have a basis for for residential sticker program so those are things that can be employed particularly when the municipality takes over jurisdiction of the roads and has full title 39 enforcement thank you anybody have anything
else all right I'm GNA open the thank you all right I'm going to open this up to the public for those that have comments or questions concerning this hello my name is David Chang I'm res can we can we move that poster we're going ask actually ask you to go to the
standing microphone and if everyone could just speak loudly slowly um just so we can get everything on the record yes uh hello my name is David Chang I'm with uh 31 davp South Davenport Street um just a couple facts uh based on the wonderful
presentation uh avlon does charge for the first parking spot of $125 second parking spot $75 unfortunately people are cheap and they're going to have more than one car in their resident where they Park paring I would say that you go outside and see how many illegal parking
spots are being taken up by the Avalon I have a dozen photos of me addressing residents at the Avalon asking them where they live and they are parking on the streets and walking over to their to their home I am here to publicly and uh
formally object to Avalon Bay Phase 2 uh located on Robeson Street um in Somerville I am addressing uh violations uh I me one one thing that you addressed and I thank you for the questions regarding parking above parking is
safety uh you're talking about a couple square acres and inducing another 131 171 families I don't even understand how that would be even addressed on a traffic scale I would disagree personally as my opinion that there is a
lot of traffic a lot of cars coming through here it is not just families it is door Dash It's people visiting on the weekends um I would also like to point out that people don't move with moving services they move with their U-Hauls
and they're parking their commercial vehicles all over the street uh my car has been hit at least twice by the pet animal van I've addressed it with them multiple times also a resident of Avalon so there's a lot of things that are
being told here and un not told um on top of that I do understand that ropes and will be the part that's under construction the black top when it is removed it does flood um the storm drains sewer drains are about I would say about six inches
higher than the black top is so if the Avalon is working on it I would encourage the council to really know that it floods and if they're going to constantly keep on black topping which we all know you can't BL top during the winter we could expect winter storms and
winter rain to be flooding our streets uh in addition to that um I just wanted to also point out that concrete does melt at 3,000 Fahrenheit and rebar does melt at 2800 degrees Fahrenheit um my formal objection has
been sent to the clerk of the uh of the township I've emailed it to her uh me being here and me being here with my neighbors I would like to address that my neighbors should announce their name address and be uh let you know that that
this is your first time speaking here outside of that we do I mean me and my neighbors we do utilize our our garage parking it is again it is like a nightmare at night to fight people for parking spots because I'm not fighting
my neighbor I'm fighting the avlon I will tell you that New Jersey Transit garage is being utilized the parking numbers that were given to you they are empty because you have to pay for them so I would ask the counsel would you choose to pay or would you choose not to
pay for your second car and the answer to the most obvious person that's paying $4,000 a month in Avalon rents or to park on the street and that would be the total of my objection thank
you hi my name is Marissa Wilkins I live at 1042 Station Road directly south of our current Loc occasion um t uh tackling on to what David said and great to put a face to the name we hear from him on the HOA board a lot um my concern regarding one of the state requirements
made about the 500 feet rule um based on where I live I if I have a second car needed I now am being asked to pay for parking in this parking deck here I am happy to pay for parking but one suggestion I might make is can we open the sou Building C Parking Deck with
those 85 free spaces to be additional for rent spes for the residents of the Town Homes to be more centrally located to where our units are regarding The Pedestrian concerns I believe that the current Parking State regarding parking in fire Lanes parking too close to
Corners Etc is causing risk to pedestrians I don't think the design is wrong I think it's an issue with how the parking is currently being managed and particularly from Robison Street turning left onto Station Road I can't see pedestrians that are trying to cross and I've had a couple close encounters
either with dogs that are running out of people's front doors uh or with pedestrians walking as well um and the last thing I would say regarding Station Road in that opening all the way to 206 I would please ask that we complete the par uh bike lane or a bike path right
now it ends at kind of a driveway going into the field and the only way to get to 206 is to hop the uh vehicle fence which could is sharp and could cause harm to somebody that is walking um I frequently go that direction and today I
able to do that safely because the road is closed uh but if it was to reopen the lanes are very very skinny even for vehicles not enough room for pedestrians to kind of make it all the way to 206 thank you thank you my name is Peter rabinsky uh I live
on sternad dor Road I'm actually a trustee on the HOA Condo Association but the views I expressed today are my own um um I just want to point out that I think at on some original site plan there was almost 30 more on street
parking spaces in the northwest corner there was basically a row of parking against the the rail line I'm not sure when that got changed but I think that is part of the issue that we face today because that's a lot of
spaces um I would love if we could get a copy of some of the parking details that were outlined by uh the applicant today because there was a lot of numbers very quickly and I think that'd be good for uh the residents to understand um I
think David hit on this already but if it costs extra for two car couples to park in a garage when there is free on street parking I think it's kind of a no- bramer what people are going to do um I'd like to understand how avlon intends to enforce the residents park
within their garages I'd like to understand where the visitors are designated to park I'd like to understand where the construction vehicles will be parking during this construction um I'd love to get involved or have my comments heard in the parking
transition plan that was potentially floated I'd like to understand how fire apparatus will handle incidents in the northwest corner of the building as well as the last two units the condo uh buildings as uh being a former firefighter myself I could see that being challenging in a 40ft
truck um I'd like to understand what Avalon plant do about the dumpsters uh right now one is usually always out in the street with trash all around it uh a big question of mine is the uh emergency right way or whatever
is going to be in the rear of the proposed structure it'd be nice if that could be ballards instead of a gate so that those walking it is a Transit Village they could walk directly to the um stair the the westernmost stairs on the eastbound platform which a lot of us
take in the morning and then I'd um you know there's just not a lot of greenery around here um this is going to be another big structure it's sort of related but how can any of the residents here get more information on the green seam or or how are we going to make this
place a little more green I think 13 trees or whatever it is isn't really it thank you for your time thank you good evening my name is clar Jimenez I live at 37 Robison Street and it's my first I'm speaking to the council uh my primary concern as many of my neighbors
is the same uh in addition to the parking concerns which have been addressed at length here uh the width of the roads and how we're going to have sufficient emergency response Vehicles making it through especially at night we have had incidents where we have fire engines that then preclude our ability
to come back home because it is so tight and narrow and so I just ask that now that we have additional buildings additional families is coming in if that is what's going to happen that that get addressed um another concern that I didn't hear rais but certainly is one of
mine is I imagine most of these uh temporary residents will bring with them their pets and I just didn't see anything in the plans that were presented today for additional space for those pets to relieve themselves uh in spaces other than the front of the town homes in the way they are being kept and
so that is not something that I saw addressed um something else that I didn't see addressing may have been address before is uh the availability quite frankly of the water pressure in this area I know is is generally low and I don't know if that is being taken into account where you're thinking about in
um over 150 units and I joined my uh my neighbors and I probably also raise my formal objection to the expansion in the way that has been presented today thank you thank you anyone else from the public
sorry Donald wa I get to the microphone Donald Storm's uh Veterans Memorial Drive uh I didn't hear any mention about affordable housing so my question is uh how many units are going to be affordable housing and are they going
to be spread throughout the project I have a second question about the lighting um on the engineers report it says verify foot candles M minimum Max maximum average coverage and I didn't hear any testimony about lighting except
a very vague about no specifics on foot candles and the coverage that maybe that will be shown on the plans in the next meeting but that was my only two questions but thank you very much thank you anybody
else hi uh my name is Bria L I live at 24 South Port Street which is sort of like directly south um I just want to like formally object I guess to the removal of the four spaces I don't know how with everything that's been proposed with all of the parking issues that four
spaces being removed could be acceptable there's been to my knowledge no concessions being made by Avalon to provide additional parking to the people who those spaces were initially provided for um so yes um and additionally with the 500 uh foot measured directly from
like the very very furthest corner of um the corner unit of Robison to the parking dot is like exactly 500 feet and I think reasonably most units are not on that very specific corner so that is not um really adequate additional parking
for us thank you thank you anyone else all right we're g to hello my name is s chin and my forget my English is not that great okay but you know one thing is I can you just State your address too for the record
please I live in the 73 Roberson street thank you okay and one thing I really want you to look at seems the Avalon right the apartment they promote the pet I have first I have nothing against the
dog or any any any animal but the thing is if you promote to have a pet right in the apartment you should have a space for them to run free and then I would like to invite you guys if you
have time to walk to our community and walk by the sidewalk and then you will see what happened when the dog didn't really have a natural place to to pee or to poop and then also so a
lot of uh I believe a lot of homeowner or the the renter they are responsible person but sometime you have someone I cannot say someone most you know you can walk around the you know
Roberson Street you can see the poop around and the Storia also the same people don't pick up their poop the dog poop so I think is and environmental issue
also so I really want you to look at it I really wish um they have a space provided for the dog uh maybe in the Wetland area I don't
know but just my suggestion and my concern thank you thank you anyone else okay we're going to close public session public comment um all right how do sorry how do
I do the car I can just carry um so we made a formal request oh I guess we have two choices we could yeah we could um request a
carry C can we address some of the Public's concerns before we get to that sure yeah I I think so there there was a number of you okay with this I am fine with that so number of issues and some of you have been to Council meetings before um and I think I had said at that
time uh some of you may know that essentially this area is still private property the burrow has no control over this property uh at this time um at some point in the future um whether that be the near future or the extended future
the burrow will take control of the roads they will be deeded over to the burrow and the burrow at that time will take control I've stated it public publicly before once the burough takes control we will Implement some type of controlled parking on the streets we have no choice I see it's a problem I
think everybody on the council sees it's an issue and everybody up here sees it's an issue but it is not an issue that we can address at this point in time we we just legally it's it's not ours to address so so a number of the issues that you brought up whether it be
parking whether it be um dog stuff um those are issues that at this point in time we cannot control um the green seam the green seam will be opened soon um it's it's our somerville's own little Central Park you
know there's very few communities that actually created a new park in their almost in their downtown we happen to be able to do it so um we are look there's act there's trails in there there's access points and uh and we're looking
to open that uh fairly soon um as for affordable housing um at the same time that uh your project generated an affordable component um I had gone to uh this developer as well and they also agreed to Affordable component um and
that component came in the form of a donation an affordable housing donation to a newly established affordable housing trust fund to get our affordable housing program off the ground um and again as you did and as they did it was not a requirement of the site plan uh
this developer did it because of uh a community conscience and uh and again I've said I've stated I've stated to them privately and to them publicly and thank them for for doing that I think it's uh it's laudable what you did and it's also laudable what uh what what
what you did as well um ju so people are aware th this this building is not a new project if you go back in time time this whole area you may or may not know was a portion of it was the train station but most of it was
contaminated land um it was an old railroad siding and back in 2004 2005 we began the approach of trying to identify what we wanted this new neighborhood to be because that's really what it is it's a new
neighborhood and and we went to the community this isn't something that the council plan it's not something that the planning board planned um our community came together and defined what this area will be um and this building is the last
phase of that um one of the uh uh folks made a comment about parking spaces well it may not have gone away the additional spaces it that may have been an early initial concept plan it may have been I don't know what you're referencing but but over the course of time there were a
number of concept plans before you ultimately get to the final site uh the overall site plan so so this is not you know a building that's coming out of the blue and we're saying oh you know we're going to add this to the project too this is something that that has been at
play for two decades for 20 years um and our goal was to take uh a contaminated area and turn it into a wonderful part of the Somerville community and and we think we've done on that every neighborhood has issues I can
tell you that i' I've been you know since 2001 is when I first came to the council table so every neighborhood has issues and these issues come and go we can't address those issues right
now will we address them when we take control absolutely I have the council president here he's shaking his head I can see that and it's something that I've committed to you in past meetings as well we don't have control I thank the uh uh the developer for saying that
they will work with us in that transition so that we can understand what those challenges are as we work towards uh the the uh taking control of those roads and we can Implement then something very quickly um I've asked for a little patience in the past I'll ask
for a little bit of patience again um it will be addressed when we can address it um but we know you're here um I appreciate we appreciate you coming here um it's it's actually nice to have a
full room um that means you care about your community and that's you know that means we've done our work well in creating a neighborhood in summer so thank you allall for coming out thank you for making your your comments known and your concerns known and know that we
hear them everybody at this board hears them um and we want to help make our Community every part of it you know a little bit better so thank you thank you mayor one more if you do want documents uh if you want to see
anything any documents that you can look online uh you can also file an Oprah request an open public records act request and everything that pertains you can have all this this two can be yours and and you can have every
report every every piece of data it's all available it's all part of the public domain it's it's ready ready and accessible you can either uh file an Opa request online or you can go down to burrow Hall as well in file one and and they will comply so thank
you so back to you Mr yes so I I think we kind of have two choices we could we could pursue the preliminary tonight and come back for the final when we have some of these issues you've raised uh exam to see what we might be able to do or we could carry the entire application
to another date give us time um do do you have a preference what's your to you want to carry everything okay so we we heard the comments I mean I'm
not sure we have a good solution for you but we we'll put our thinking caps on and see what we can come up with and uh you know carry this to the next available meeting without public not new public notice uh and I think there's a there's a couple things that the
resident said that we could maybe try to come up with some easy stuff um what I can also do Mr Bruno is I've been writing down some conditions and and things that I know the board's going to want to consider we could start betting
those out as well um okay to the extent that you could address them and have them ready for the board at the next meeting if you provide those for me absolutely so your your agenda all right so I think the next available is going to be April
14th April 9th April 9th okay wrong board right that's the other board that's the other board all right so April 9th uh will carry with no further notice needed so maybe if you want to explain to the
public what that what just transpired so what we're doing is we're there will be no action taken tonight we're not going to do a vote they're not asking for a preliminary site plan they're not asking for anything um what it will do is it will carry so basically we're holding off basically taking a pause on this
evening and the testimony they will come back on the 9th um and present on some of the issues that we are just not at a resolution for um and they'll work on some of the conditions that they know are on with there um and then we'll pick this back up on the 9th the no motion uh
no um notice is letting you know that there won't be any other notice this is the notice that that meet the next meeting for this will be on April 9th so you won't be receiving anything else in the mail it won't be anything else in the newspaper or anything uh do we Ryan do you want to keep the exhibits you want them to bring
them back next time what do you want them to do I'll take them so Carrie you'll provide me with the list of what you think are the conditions that the board has talking about we'll examine the EV issue I mean I don't know where we're going to go
with that but we'll examine that and um we'll come back at the next meeting hopefully to address these concerns open conditions and at that point we'll request to vote okay uh while you and we have some other business that we'll take care of we're going to take a five minute recess while
we do this while you go uh step down thank you thank you again remember the microphone and camera is still running e ter e I knew where you're going I was doing the same I
correct it's just an awareness original just a sign I just want to make because she came back but the reason I asked him to have these on here I think that is just awareness us should be aware of that's going we saw we you know
um I agree you got a lot of comments tonight I do not think we'd be here this long tonight I told Hank a 7:30 8 o' yeah they have to for the record
okay they well well and the other thing was him throwing in something for the phase one that's why I was looking at camera I'm like wait a minute oh he's looking at a pointing at a building it's on phase one yeah like we have to we can do it but it's got to be done and stated and done
separately theying sence they're not asking for any VAR or Rel uh no so he could have just gone it here may you know how to do that all on your own Colin I don't think anybody needs to help you with that
should I say well maybe if you would discuss things with us you wouldn't be in the dogh house all right car's in the bathroom but hold on all right uh all that we have left uh is uh I just wanted to go over so on our
agenda you see that we have two ARB approvals uh this is not for us to approve this is something that I want the board I feel like you should be aware of what the ARB is looking at even if it isn't really coming back to us for a final approval you should be aware of some of the things that have gone through these are two signs they were in
your packet you can look at them um two West I think it was two West right um yeah it has has another issue with a Pergola that is we had some questions and some concerns that's gone back so that did not go through so these two were for the signage only um and they
were put back through um and they will be they were given approval on those um under the pending business uh affordable housing there's really no true update right now we're still working on adjusting our timeline and sticking to that timeline um making progress I know
that the committee is meeting again tomorrow but there's really no new updates for the board um Improvement coverage ordinance uh we have you guys met on anything further I know we'll get together what's Ong goinging through Council yeah there has been no meetings
since okay uh so I think that we just want to make sure that we continue to have those meetings and keep it moving forward so maybe if we could try to have at least some kind of discussion on that next level um maybe before the next meeting at least some kind of update so we keep it moving sure thank you um and
then yeah the uh the pool and deck ordinance is up for uh final hearing and adoption if the council so chooses on Monday night okay um and then the last was still obviously this conversation we've been having about EV charging
stations um I did have some conversation with a few not a few almost all the Fire Marshals again um today they seem to cap them make them captives when they come into my building now and then they know what I'm about to ask um Bound Brook is
currently in the C same situation they are putting an ordinance through um so I'm trying to get a copy of that what that will look like um it is something that every Fire Marshal is stating the same thing on record um but unfortunately they're not the ones that
put you know what those local ordinances so they're all recommending they all state the same thing including our own Fire Marshall has um so I know that we're moving forward on that and we're still doing some research on figuring out the best way to get that taken care of so that we can protect any new residents coming through um any
questions or comments on pending business or anything okay I have absolutely zero comments after this it's been long enough evening um I am going to open it up to the public for anything that on that was not on tonight's agenda okay closing
public um then I need a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I all opposed