welcome to tonight's meeting of the zoning board of adjustment of the township of union which is being held pursuant to the open public meeting law C231 laws of New Jersey dated 1975 Notice of this meeting has been advertised in the local source newspaper
of record The notice has been posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building adjacent to the municipal clerk's office Roll call Mr Wy here Miss Martins here Mr Bena present Miss Scott
here Mr Johnson here Mr McNeel is absent Mr Graves is absent Miss Rickets here Mr Champy here There being a quorum present this meeting is now declared open At this time I'll entertain a motion for the approval of the minutes from February the 26th and March the 5th May
I have a motion and a second I move that the meeting meetings of February 26th and March 15th be approved as written and dispensed with their reading Second All in favor I
opposed So moved At this time are there any communications There are no communications Our first order of business this evening will be the adoption of a resolution for calendar number 3448 Ronald McCarthy located at 120 Elmwood
Road Board members you've all had a chance to read the resolution at this time Are there any board members that would like to make comments changes or modification to this resolution as it has been written Hearing none May I have a motion and a
second Mr Chairman I move the board adopt resolution for calendar 3448 model 120 Elmwood Road as read and modified as accurately memorialized the previous findings of this board Second
Roll call Miss Martin Yes Mr Benagna Yes Miss Scott Yes Mr Johnson Yes And Mr Jeffy Yes Her next order of business will be another adoption of a resolution for calendar number
3381 NATC Donuts Incorporated located at 320 Chestnut Street Applicant wishes to construct a drive-thru Dunkin Donuts with new signage Again members you've all had a chance to read the resolution At this time are there any board members
that would like to comment make changes or modification to this resolution as it has been written Just for the record Mr Chairman Rob Pansul board attorney this one had been passed at last meeting but I did make a change We updated some of the blocking lot information That's why it repeated onto the agenda tonight So
the corrections have been made uh and we can move and and adopt it as revised Thank you Mr Pansula May I have a motion and a second Mr Chairman I move the board adopt resolution calendar 3381 NATC Donuts Inc 320 Chestnut Street
as read and modified as accurately memorializing the previous findings of the board Second Roll call Miss Johnson I sorry Miss Martins yes Mr Johnson yes And Mr Champy
yes Her next order of business will be calendar number 3449 611 Springfield Road LLC located at 925 through 929 Springfield Road block 3306 lots 11 and 12 Applicant wishes to
combine lots and build a contractor's facility Mr Hail good evening Uh Stephen Hail representing the applicant 611 Springfield Road LLC Great to see you all tonight Thanks for coming out Um yeah this is an exciting development project for this property Uh if you
recall for a number of years there were some old uh homes right there Kind of really didn't fit in It's kind of surrounded by the White Castle parking lot As you come down 22 you make the right you got the tire facility and then this kind of isolated piece of property
In fact I think years ago my late father-in-law owned it and had employees for Union Paving living there But uh the uh Lator family Nick and Carmelo are here and they're excited about opening a satellite facility They're in
Kennallorth in in the township of Union Uh I probably have to say no more than the beautiful rendering that uh Nick Raviano put together which we'll testify about uh just briefly but again it's a a one-story contractor's uh facility Uh
it's got a good landscaping lighting uh and and layout uh and and again just a very low intensity use It's in the zone the reason we're before this board it's in a zone it's the zone that's out on Route 22 but I think as you see this
really is more fitting for this type of use than a retail type use And again uh it's surrounded by commercial uses on all side We do have the Collier's review letter which we received Uh Mr deck our engineer will review that but no problem
with any of those issues And then Captain Guzman sent over his comments from fire Again no issues with fire Uh and uh uh again Mr Graviano will testify as to that and he will also provide the planning testimony If there's
operational questions we'll we'll cover that in our testimony but again uh the representatives from uh Tory Construction are here to answer those So what I'd like to do first is call upon Ed Deck We'll have him qualified and take us through existing conditions and
then what's proposed by way of improvements and then we'll get back to council chairman and board members Okay I marked A1 the application as it was submitted with the supporting materials I I marked A2 the architectural plans of uh Thomas
Gillis consisting of two sheets and I marked A3 the site plan prepared by Guerilla and Deck consisting of four sheets So we have A1 through A3 for the record Mr Deck can I ask you to swear raise your right hand and swear or affirm if the testimony you provide this
evening is the truth and the whole truth I do And for the record if you could state and spell your name with your affiliation Uh first name Edward last name Deck DEEC Uh my office is at 131 North Michigan Avenue in Kennorth and I'm the principal of that Uh thank you
organization And Mr Deck I know you've been before this board on many occasions but briefly give the board your credentials Sure I'm a graduate of New Jersey Institute of Technology I'm a licensed professional land surveyor and a licensed professional civil engineer Uh also a certified municipal engineer
I've been a municipal engineer in Barrow Gros Park I'll accept Mr Deck's credentials Thank you Mr Chairman Thank you very much Okay Uh so Mr Deck I think we have exhibits We'll take down the rendering and reintroduce that when uh Mr Graviano testifies but why don't you
take us through uh briefly your site plan existing additions and then what's proposed by way of improvements I know you have perhaps one that we'll need to mark as as an exhibit because that's a colored rendering that was not previously submitted So did you correct
did you want to start there or Yeah I'll start there and then we'll go on to the more detailed aspect of the site So perhaps we could mark that as A3 A4 or A4 I'm sorry Okay It's called concept plan And what we're
showing here is where the green space will be and obviously it's highlighted in green Uh we have along the entire perimeter of the site So uh that's the purpose of this plan is to show where the differences are between pvious and
impervious coverages Uh I'll now go to uh the more detailed aspects of the plans What you see here uh is a
um drainage or the improvement plan that would include all the infrastructure that's part of the improvement of the site Um the right to the right of the zoning box is the uh picture that shows
how the site will be graded and it also adds dimensional uh distances for the size of the parking lot the distance that the um buildings are in relationship to the property lines And then there is that
third drawing that's to the bottom left which shows you how the site will be lit So uh what I'll start with the upper leftand corner one uh we show here primarily the purpose of that is to show how we are addressing storm water
management for the site What we have is an underground detention system and what that will do is collect all of the runoff from the building itself and also all of the runoff that's generated from the parking lot And what you see here
uh like the dash line or block line and also across the driveway are inlets and a trench drain that will collect those uh the runoff from the pavement Uh the u roof runoffs are tied directly into the system So what that'll do is retain the
water for the two 10 and 100year storms and then release it into the existing san storm sore inlet that's out in the street So that worked out well for us we're we're able to connect to it without going out into the street The uh
site to or picture drawing to the right is the dimensional plan And what we show there is the sizes of the parking lots the way the parking lot is laid out And as you can see we have double stack parking on the right hand side of that
uh plan Um what we're doing there is maximize the parking area that we have for the lot for parking And the thought is that stacking wouldn't work obviously
for some type of a commercial use where people are in and out unrelated somewhat to the use of the building But the reason this works so well for this site is that the primary uh occupiers would be
the contractors themselves of the building and they'll be parking in that row of parking right up against the curb on the right side Then you'll have parking behind that which can be used for additional employees uh or some visitors And also the parking on the
left is primarily for the use of people that it will coming to the site to uh maybe discuss business or uh or for additional employees or however that may generate what the type of use the use is going to be commercial but the type of people that be coming
there So we feel that that uh double sack parking lot is a good idea and will prevent any type of um parking where people won't will have to park in the street or anything like that We have more than adequate parking with that double stack uh scenario Then we have
the bottom left picture which shows the way site will be lit which will be a light on either side of the parking lot And as far as the the light duration obviously from dusk till I would believe till the end of operating hours but
that's something I think that the owner might want to discuss that when he testifies And as you could see in the um the zoning chart um just try
to zoom in myself How do you zoom in on the picture Just want to zoom in on that All right Thank you All right The zoning chart uh shows what is existing and what is proposed and what is
required As you can see the required uh area is 40,000 square feet for a minimum lot size Lot width is 200 depth 200 50 feet for a front yard set back uh 20 feet for a side and 50 for a rear And
percentages for coverage is 30% with a uh building coverage of maximum sorry building coverage 30% maximum pvious coverage is 80% So what we had previously um were two lots side by side
um and they are both residential uses but by combining the two lots we are able to generate a one lot that uh the um proposed improvements we gone is about
15,000 400 square ft Uh the width is 10 um3 feet for the width of the along the frontage depth 149 Uh for the front yard setback we have 67 feet which exceeds
the minimum requirement The uh the asterisk alongside those first three items require a variance and that would be area square footage of the lot variance a lot width variance and a lot depth variance These will go detailed
explained more in detail by the planner Mr Graviano when he's testifying Uh the sideyard setback um we have as 10 feet on either side for a total of 20 and that's also a variance that's required
and the rear yard of 10 ft which is uh proposed and that's also where the variance is Um the use as Mr Hail pointed out is um the um type of use that was initially there and what we uh
had there were res residentials in a commercial highway zone which is also a uh non-conforming use So what we're proposing here is a commercial use but it's not what's this for construction is not what's allowed in that zone Right
And I think I mentioned in my opening uh you've had an opportunity to review the March 11 2025 Collier's review Yes I have Any issues complying with any of those terms There's nothing here that we won't be able to comply with And I think the fire department was all related to building construction but again no
issues from fire department standpoint Okay I have no further questions at this time Mr Deck are there any board members that would like to question the testimony Mr Deck has given hearing none Are there any members of the Yeah just have to Nick why don't we
have uh Carmelo just briefly introduce himself He's the owner of property and lator and just talk a little bit about his uh presence in Kennallorth and now expanding into union So he didn't want to testify but let me just let me just finish what I was
saying Um are there any members of the public that would like to question the testimony of Mr Deck Hearing none So you're going to be sworn in Hold on Good evening Can I ask the witness to raise your right hand if you could swear or affirm that the testimony you provide this evening is the truth and the whole
truth I do And for the record just state and spell your name with your affiliation Carmelo Lator C A R M E L O Lator L A capital T O R R E Yeah And
Stori you're obviously the owner of the property You purchase property uh and looking to uh have a satellite facility for Lator Construction here Uh I think when you purchase it the homes were there You demolished the homes I demolished the first home right The
single family and I intend to demolish the second one Great All right So tell us just briefly a little bit about uh your fac you have an operation in Kennallorth Tell us a little bit about this ancillary facility Generally hours of operation what's going to occur here
I know in our preparation it's low intensity Don't expect visitors and the like And Nick will take us through the floor plans but just briefly address that It would be a secondary storage for inside you know small stuff Um where we can you know repair it and keep it out
of the weather Um and then there won't be too many visitors other than people that work for me Um you know unless a salesperson or somebody walked comes by or a delivery of some kind but it'll be all low key cuz our main facilities in countorth I just wanted this for
something you know like the smaller stuff to keep it out of the weather cuz right now we have it all outside and just want to keep it in Okay And generally what would be the hours of operation this facility It would be sometimes we get there early as 6:00 but nobody's ever there past 6:00 at night
Okay How about weekends very very rarely I mean Saturdays maybe a few hours but never on Sunday or anything Okay And from an ownership standpoint no issues with either the Collier's letter or the fire department letter No I assume
you're excited about Yes a presence here in Union Yep Okay No further questions to sign Mr Chairman are there any board members with questions Yes Mr Chairman Are you um parking cars there overnight any construction
vehicles Um I don't think it'll be overnight There might be a pickup truck in a parking lot or a car at time from from time to time but I don't think it's an area where I would like to leave stuff outside It's kind of high uh traffic area volume I just don't want to
So everything would be inside as much as I possibly could And will you be getting deliveries um daily weekly or I'm sorry Will you be getting deliveries there weekly Daily Very seldom You know it's whatever we have we would put inside the
building We don't get much deliveries The deliveries usually go right to the job site itself unless there's parts they drop off or something that we ordered you know Thank you I also had a question Mr Chairman Will there be any hazardous materials or anything like
that that's kept inside Not that I would be aware of other than maybe oils for whatever or grease things like that Okay And how will they common automotive stuff Mhm And how would they be stored They're usually stored in metal containers and you know they have we
have metal c uh shelving that we put it in like we do in other we're not allowed to leave it you know un just laying around Are there any other questions Yes Mr Chairman Uh so based on that question will you be doing any type of mechanic
work in there from time to time Pos possibly Yeah Will you have any jack uh lifts and stuff No just minor stuff Anything major we send out Okay Most of the stuff they'll do is clean something Really grease it oil it that kind of
stuff Very minor Any other questions of Mr Lator Are there any members of the public that would like to question the testimony Mr Lator has
given Hearing none Great Thanks Romelo I'd now like to call upon Nicholas Graiano Good job Good evening Mr Graviano Can I ask you to swear or affirm that any testimony you provide this evening is the truth and the whole truth I swear yes And for the record just state and spell your
name with your with your affiliation Yes First name is Nicholas with an H Last name Graviano G R A V is in Victor I A N O I'm a planner partner and designer with Graviano and Gillis architects and planners with a business address of 101 Crawford's Corner Road in Home Del Thank
you Great And Mr Graviano I know you've been before this board on many occasions If you could again just briefly give your credentials Yes Uh my my playing license is still valid Um have a bachelor's from Ruckers masters from Ruckers law We'll accept Mr
Graviano's Thank you Mr Chairman All right Uh Mr Graviano if you could now take us through you've heard the testimony of Mr Deck as far as the site from Mr Ltori as far as the operation Take us through the uh floor plans elevations and and layout of the
building Certainly Uh I think uh Mr Pensula this would be A4 the rendering A5 I'm sorry A5 Um just start with the rendering Uh what you see here as Mr Hail indicated is a a onestory
uh contractor uh storage slashoff building Uh the building was designed to make it look more office in appearance Mr Lator wanted me to add those second floor windows to give it some curb appeal from Springfield Road
Uh the building will be constructed of a decorative textured block uh with you see here with the gray block with the lighter color belt courses going through to give the building some definition Um there will be a door to
the main storage area as well as a door to the office area Now I'll get into the floor plans and elevations And these are these have been submitted and are part of the package Correct These are unaltered plans part of the
package So what you see here is the building is 72x 74 12 The main bulk of the building is the storage area You'll see in the right corner of the building is a modest office which is a
little more than 16 1.5 by 14 1/2 ft with a bathroom that'll be utilized to uh service the building Here you have the elevations Uh the front elevation which you saw on the rendering this is the platform of it Uh this is the rear elevation There will be
an egress door and both side elevations uh are the same Uh all the building will be the same decorative textured block with uh decorative elements to break up uh the the blank walls that are on those
sides So that that is the building in a nutshell if anybody has any questions on that Okay And just again touching on it I I don't think there were any Collier issues that they had with respect to the building and can confirm that the comments from Captain Guzman from fire
will be incorporated into the plans Yes Okay great And then if we could turn to now the planning proofs and I know in my opening indicated where it's located off 22 the zone and and again frankly surrounded by the White Castle parking lot but yeah I
got some chicken rings when I did my site There you go Um yeah you set it up perfectly in your intro This is an area of transition as you go off of 22 down Springfield Yeah once you get past the STS and the
White Castle parking lot it definitely gets to more of a office industrial nature in that neighborhood Uh this parcel is located in the CC zoning district When you look at the purpose of the zoning district it's larger lot autodominated highway commercial uses on
40,000 square ft So that certainly is not this lot This lot is a lot that's off the beaten path at 15,000 square ft Um this is certainly a use which is respected for the site Um the applicant while requesting a modest building
coverage variance of 4.82% is 11% below the permitted impervious coverage requirement So the applicant isn't uh creating a a an excessive amount impervious coverage on this lot So the applicant is requesting
a D1 use variance Uh and D1 variances as you all know could be granted in particular cases and for special reasons Uh that's the positive criteria the Dvariance Now the purpose of zoning uh which clearly amplifies the term uh
special reasons is purpose A of the municipal land use law promotion of public health safety morals and general welfare And in a case where it's a non-inherently beneficial use which here you have a commercial enterprise uh the
benefit to the community is when the site is particularly suited uh for the enterprise that is proposed Uh when you look at that term particular suitability here you have an undersized lot that does not have highway frontage Um it is in an area which transitions to more
industrial type uses So it's certainly a lot through the lot size and its location which is particularly suited for the proposed use Uh the applicant must also demonstrate that it advances purpose of zoning of the municipal land use law It certainly advances purpose a
development of lands in a manner which will promote the public health safety morals and general welfare And that that's done by providing a commercial ratable with a low inensity use on a site that could certainly accommodate it Additionally it advances purpose G
sufficient space and appropriate location for variety of commercial uses to meet the needs of New Jersey citizens And then lastly through uh Mr Deck site plan and our building which is designed to look like an office building it certainly promotes a desirable visual environment through creative development
techniques and good civic design and arrangements Um there's certainly no substantial impairment to the zone plan or zoning ordinance with this proposal Uh moving on to the C variances The applicant is requesting a lot area lot width and lot depth variance Uh those
are all existing conditions not augmented by this application Uh relief can certainly be granted under the C1 criteria where strict application of the township zoning ordinance would create an undue hardship upon the developer Now the variances that are created by
this application the applicant is requesting a sideyard setback variance whereas 20 feet is required and 10 ft is proposed Uh maximum building coverage variance 30% is permitted where 34.82% is proposed And then lastly a
rear yard setback variance whereas 50 ft is required and 10t is proposed Now when you when you look at the site in the site context it's surrounded by parking lots on all four sides Uh the applicant uh certainly is not creating any light error open space issues with the request
of these variances and they certainly could be granted without substantial impairment to the zone planner zoning ordinance Okay Thank you very much Uh no further questions Mr Chairman are there any board members that would like to question Mr Graviano's testimony
Hearing none Are there any members of the public that would like to question the testimony the witness has provided Hearing none You have another witness We have no further witnesses but certainly those that have testified are here in case the board had further comments or questions for our witnesses Any comments
Just just one more question Um on the Kyers report it does say uh how would you guys provide access to the dumpster the trash dump Oh Ed can you touch on the uh Good point Thank you The uh proposed uh refuge area would be to the
right of the building if you're standing in the street looking at it and that'll be enclosed And the way to access it both for the uh occupants of the building and for the emptying of that uh uh disposal area would be in the area
where that double stack parking area is and whatever cars may be behind it And again the people that'll be utilizing the double stack area would be PE occupants of the building So those and more than likely as far as the removal
of the trash would be done usually in the morning or at night by a private hauler and um they would have access um on the I could show you on uh take a look at the site plan and
yeah you could see I guess I have to go back into the right area here is the refuge area and they have a sidewalk that goes from from the front of the building to that area and also to around side So there is access for the pedestrian traffic to to
access that uh trash enclosure area and then as I said the private uh holeer would utilize these spots here which if in the event that there were cars parked there uh they belong to the occupants of the building and they' be able to remove
to move them if they were asked to Thank you Thank you Are there any other board comments Hearing none Are there any members of the public that would like to comment on this application Hearing none Council would
you like Yes Just very briefly again it's an exciting project Uh he said that two old homes there one is gone Build this new beautiful building Great location for this type of use Transitional as Mr Graviano said no issues with the Collier's report
providing landscaping lighting drainage and the like And uh again no problem complying with any of the fire department comments And it'll be a nice low intensity use for this area right off Route 22 So with all that said we would look forward to the board uh
granting this application and move forward with the project So thank you At this time I believe we could counsel this Mr Bentegna would you like to begin Yes Mr Chairman Thank you
Um based on a testimony this evening I feel the variance is justified and the property is well suited I also like to compliment on the rending it's definitely eye-catching Um it's definitely going to be a nice improvement for that area and I think it's a good application And so I'll be
voting yes tonight Mr Johnson Yes Mr Chairman I agree with my colleague I see no detrimental aspects to this application and the appearance will definitely enhance the area and I think it's a good application Um good testimony by the the experts and
I will definitely be voting yes Miss Martins Thank you Mr Chairman Um great rendering beautiful rendering I think this is a great improvement to the site So I will be voting yes as well Miss Scott I agree
I also can agree with my colleagues Um great rendering Building looks very nice Um very straightforward application The the testimonies were good Um I don't see any detriment and we'll be also voting yes Thank you Miss Rickettts Yes Thank
you Mr Chairman I too concur with all of my colleagues and I will be voting yes and Mr Wy Yes Mr Chairman I think this is a good project The location is suited for this type of project I think the
benefits outweigh any type of detriments and I don't think this uh project has any negative impact on the neighboring property So I'm going to vote yes as well As for myself u I feel the applicant has
proved and justified the variance variances requested Uh the proposed plan adjustments uh plan adjustments site plan adjustments will allow the property to be better utilized Uh it's a well-designed and very nice looking
building And Mr Lator uh the board wishes you good luck on your project So I too will vote yes At this time may I have a motion and a second to move this resolution Mr
Chairman I move that the board grant this variance applicable to this application No you Mr Wley you have to move the resolution Oh the resol resolution Okay I'm sorry I'm sorry
You got to we have to move and second the application You were right I was wrong Mr Chairman I move that the board grant this variance applicable to this application and that council is directed to prepare a resolution consistent with the board's
decision Second a motion Roll call Mr Wy Yes Miss Martins Yes Mr Bentegna Yes Miss Scott Yes Mr Johnson Yes Miss Rickettts Yes And Mr Champion Yes
Thank you very much April 2nd We'll add it to the board's agenda to formally pass the resolution April 2nd Well thank you all very much Have a great night and hopefully see you on Saturday Mr Chairman there being no further business comment before the board I move
that we adjourn Second All in favor I opposed