the everybody coming in okay Brian and Kevin are coming in why does he decline cynthia's in the attendee pull too yep we're ready yeah Councilwoman Holland's in the Oh the good evening i call to order this
special meeting of the Verona Township Council for Tuesday April 1st 2025 madame Clerk would you please read the Open Public Meetings Act compliance statements the notice requirements of this special meeting
have been satisfied with respect to the meeting of the township council the meeting time and date were included in the public meeting notice along with the public internet link and telephone call and information said notice and meeting agenda was posted in the municipal building and published in the official
newspaper of the township the Verona City Grove Times on Thursday March 13 2025 the agenda can be viewed online at vereronj.org/countsilme org/countsil meetings and a public comment period will be held in the order it's listed on the meeting agenda and instructions on how to comment will be provided at the
appropriate time thank you Madam Cler would you call the role please councilwoman Holland has to unmute i'm asking her to Councilwoman Holland i can't hear you she's not muted
though councilwoman McGrath here councilman Roman here deputy Mayor Mackoy present mayor Tambboro may there mayor also present on this uh Zoom
meeting is township at Township Manager Kevin O Sullivan township attorney Brian Aoya myself municipal clerk Jennifer Kieran all right uh would everybody please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America to America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all okay uh good evening everyone the purpose of this special meeting is to
review proposals for the Bloomfield Avenue streetscape um we have three firms that will be presenting this evening uh the first will be the Neglia group mrs kierin if you could arrange
for them to enter please yes and just for the the council just because we're on Zoom and uh we'll I'm just going to call on people and um we'll just do all questions you know we'll just go one person by one person
to do questions rather than going back and forth and we just wait until the end of the presentation to ask questions that manage the Zoom mr inendola is there anybody from your firm attending that I should promote as well
uh Dave Joski and Anthony Kuras okay okay um do you want me to make meeting host if you can give them um sharing privileges what however you have to do that
i do i'm just not sure who should be I could do the uh I have the PowerPoint loaded up i could do the screen share and we could take it from there good evening is that Mr who was speaking i'm sorry i was
speaking okay all right sharing is not turned off i'm going to send a request did you receive that i said I um Yeah I think you got it try it again all right pick the right screen
okay I think I have it yep okay so um uh thank you uh mayor and council and uh Mr lawyer and Mr sullivan for taking for taking the time to speak
with us uh we are Neglia Group uh uh along with me is uh Anthony Kuris who you may be familiar with with the um baseball field that he's been working on on Bloomfield Avenue oh are you and and also uh David Jesy is uh
another one of our veteran designers um the team that's presenting tonight uh has on average 19 to 20 years um working for a negle group and this is what we do municipal scale projects that are you
know worked through and feasible so we this is you know this is what we live for so we're so happy to present so we're here for the um the RFP that we submitted uh back in uh September and uh so that was the cover page for it and
then we've been invited uh to talk about our experience so I'll get right into it uh the experience-wise uh so our office has three or six streetscapes of this scale like for
Hackac a in uh Carney that was a uh quasi federal project that had um federal inspection process um we qualified to be federal inspectors on that project and saw through um and that
came out beautifully um Dave who's on this call with us uh did the Abbott Boulevard streetscape in Fort Lee and that was an interesting one they're all interesting streetscapes because that had the uh protruding basements into the
rightway and so we had to rebuild roof sections uh uh in several locations uh and so we worked through that uh and then we also did uh Wallington uh uh
recently uh and these are what you know these are pretty straightforward for us but it's not straightforward for the people on this call because you know you're vested with coming up with a
vocabulary of uh appearance for this run in Bloomfield and uh it's an important run because it has a couple characteristics that it has um the park on the left hand side as you come up from uh Montlair and
then there's a major left turn where people go on Pleasant Valley Way and then you have your town hall which is so it has like micro um uh not climates but like uh each has its own mini neighborhood in the stretch that we're
going to be entrusted with and this is what we laid out for uh uh Bergenfield which Dave and our planning group uh worked through um so what I'm going to do is just tell you what our design approach is to a streetscape we listen to the aesthetic
of the stakeholders right the uh the people on this call and you might have a subcommittee they they have a pretty good idea of what they want to see right and then we take your vision and we we apply our experience and our design
acument to fruition and we know that you know some things cannot happen but some things may happen if we're creative and we work through the uh the permit process whatever it may be and we can't promise pie in the sky right behind me
is a a French street scene behind Sakraur it' be nice to build that but this is not Paris right this is Verona is a hardworking road provides access it sometimes it when 280 backs up it takes that same type of traffic and
we're we're mindful of that because you know the the the three of us grew up in the area uh Dave grew up in Clifton i grew up in Nutley and uh Anony's from Saddlebrook and so we understand what we're doing here and then when we go to
design and it goes to bid we whoever the design principal is going to be it's going to be Anthony Dave or myself we respond immediately when we go into construction because we can't wait around and the contractor can't wait
around and block sidewalks can't wait around for the design engineer to say "We'll get back to you we don't have an answer." in neglia world that is not acceptable and that's how we operate uh someone calls us a mayor or Kevin or Mr
a lawyer calls us we respond basically on the spot as as fast as we can and and we also understand the process of working with agencies like you know if you look at Bloomfield it has a mix of the old Cobra heads and the newer PSG
acorns and you may need that for the lighting uh for security and we understand that too and we want to be judged but you get to the 36 months when everything's said and done and the sidewalks are not cracking the
decorative treatments are working and the landscaping that we designed and a contractor installed is still alive we believe that's where the the real proof of success of our project and safe to say that all of our projects meet that
criteria uh so that's what we really pride ourselves on so now I'm going to have uh Dave speak and he can give a little bit more background about the nuts and bolts on how we do that as well thank you Brian um good evening mayor
and council uh we appreciate uh the opportunity to present before you um like Brian said every uh shoecape is unique every shoecape brings its own uh challenges and um every shoecape project
we've ever had um it's the the businesses whether it's the residents whether it's the businesses in the area are the biggest impacted uh uh you know um stakeholders if you may of the projects and that is one of the more um
where a lot of our experience comes in to make sure you know you can get emergency vehicles in and out of projects your your retail owners your residents are happy they're we you know we We're we have a lot of communication
with them and um you know we use our experience to to to promote the project as a whole you saw some concepts and some uh plans we've done in the past one of the more challenging ones was the one
we completed in Fort Lee recently as Brian said where the retail uses of of that of that streetscape their um basements were under the sidewalks and under and within
the rightway and they're aged um the shop owners and the retail owners didn't even know their um basement extended into the rightway so we had to come up with um you know ideas and and um
structurally to um to mitigate those conditions to make sure the the roofs can take the capacity of the new vehicles that would be um on the project that project as a whole we incorporated several elements we had we had street trees we had uh decorative street
lighting we had EV stations we had security uh security cameras uh with fiber optics we had make ready um EV stations uh we had um mixture of materials uh pavers
concrete asphalt everything you can see in a streetscape um so I think um our experience um really would help any uh streetscape project just because we know and we've been through the trials and tribulations of these types of projects
and you know we welcome the challenge that Bluefield A will bring um to to our team ryan um that's all I have i don't know if uh you know we take questions now or Again I just want to understand that
we are we appreciate that for most people that live in Verona Montlair and Nicole Wells Bloomfield A is our lifeline so we have to balance
throughput right for rush hour and also make an aesthetic that is comes from you and and put that together no Dave and I and Anthony we all have ideas of what to look for like when I when I drive down
this section of uh of um a it's kind of like an amphitheater when you come down from Route 23 or Pompton A and this and then and it goes down and then it bellies out and then so you can really create a a nice um
platform for landscaping um right now uh there's not a lot of street trees on Bloomfield Avenue and that might be by choice because you want to create as uh much pedestrian uh walkways as possible
but that doesn't mean you can you don't you can uh preclude um putting in uh vegetation or landscaping because in my experience that is really after a couple years um is how is the difference of a
really beautiful project and a project that's okay like if you look at Bloomfield a you um this area this section did the first or second generation of the colorized crosswalks um that um they're no they're no longer
used because they were uh a hot application uh and they tile and they chip and if you don't maintain them every year they kind of like um they tile the brick individual brick looking pieces come up and we're mindful that so
we don't recommend them anymore we use a a different product that emulates that and um so this is a these are the things that we've learned over time and you know again touching base we understand that this is we're like we're like a
guest for Bloomfield AB meaning that it's ultimately there right away um and and we respect that and we don't overpromise beyond that expectation that we can get the county to agree to this if it's a non-starter to non-starter and
we don't want to waste anybody's time we really like to get to a bid package in as soon as possible but we want to make sure we exhaust every avenue of input that Verona presents to
us no matter um what the experience of that person is or or how that and on and whatever venue that you want to do that we will participate as an active participant or as uh someone to go to a listening uh situation or something like
that and we understand that and I think for this section buy in is really important and so that the design doesn't come from the three of us at negle group but it truly is uh that Verona is
looking to refresh this section of Bloomfield Avenue and we just want to be the helpers to get you there right we help you we help the biders understand what we're doing we help the county
understand that we're uh within our um area of design uh if need be by the stream in Verona Park will help the D understand that we're not causing a major permit that would hold up the project and we're mindful of that so all
these things our role is to help get the project to get boots on the ground and to get it under construction and and and we also have a a veteran inspection team that understands how we drive projects um so that's really where we're at and
if you guys have any questions for us I'll stop um sharing my screen for now and uh we can take it from there sure um we're going to go through this council member by council member if we have any questions i'll start do you
have any specific recommendations for Verona i know a lot of the presentations the other two presentations we're going to hear this evening based on what they submitted to us put some tenative recommendations out there things that we should be looking at um different
options for various different parts of the of the project i didn't see a lot of that in your presentation so if you have any specific items as far as what analysis you've done of the issue in Verona and then any recommendations that you would have
to address even on a macro level those issues that you've identified through your research into this specific project that would be helpful for the council to hear right so um we we believe we should not make that presumption of setting a
table for an aesthetic we believe we need to listen first and you drive the aesthetic in larger terms as we have said um I don't believe that uh you have a four-lane cross-section on Bloomfield A for the
streetscape i don't see uh a dramatic change in that uh because you need the throughput uh but you can also make it enhance the aesthetics uh by using
street species um tree species that are salt hearty and there's any number of species i think there's an opportunity uh going into your town hall that that could be a part of more of pedestrian
access uh it seems like it's a really nice uh area to enhance as basic landscaping right now and the Christmas tree but I think that can become like uh a centerpiece of this if uh if that's the way you want to go with that and I
believe that because of the topography you could have from both the west approach and the east approach as you come into uh Pleasant Valley you can have that's like a stadium seating and
you can really place showpiece plantings uh where MRFs used to be and those corners and working with the county uh to make that um really something that you remember when you drive through that that would be my initial uh take uh
which um you know some towns have done that successfully but if you have a concept that is not maintainable in three years I believe it's worthless right if if the DPW ultimately takes over a project it has to be maintainable
right and we we want we want to understand what you can maintain in that third year because anything else that's uh labor intensive to maintain unless you want to go to the expense of hiring a landscape company you know on an
annual thing and you may have an annual um landscape company that would supplement your DPW but we're not making that assumption right now sorry my computer wasn't cooperating for a second u Thank you deputy Mayor do you
have any questions uh Brian uh I noticed in your uh presentation you had a line in here we designed to the third year of implementation that was one of my questions i think you just answered it right correct okay like you hire us right you hire us you go through the
pain of of a contractor detours and pedestrian moves and and then there's year one looks okay year two still looks okay but you come to the third year you get a harsh winter and
the species that we recommend they die because of salt you know that's that's where we want to be judged and we we we understand that you want it to be beautiful but it is a public facility that needs to be battle tested and you
know there's a lot of traffic i think the ADT on Bloomfield Avenue uh last time I looked at the NJ DOT was 26,000 to 30,000 cars a day it's a lot of cars and so we have to be mindful of that and
so that's uh and so we have to make it we have to make pedestrian enhancements that work that don't cause accidents or uh lessen accidents and we put that all into perspective when we design so quickly uh touching on what you just
talked about the amount of traffic I know the Route 23 uh Bloomfield Avenue intersection is one of the busiest in Axis County uh do you you know if you've been in Verona do you anticipate that changes we do to you're basically
looking at our town center from Fair View to Park do you think those plans that we decide for there would should be implemented in our extended town center and even to the west going towards Caldwells no once you come up with the
design aesthetic right the the typical way a town would advance that this is how we like you have the the first generation 2x4 um struck joints in your in your concrete which is a similar um pattern
that we have in Rutherford it was very popular 15 18 years ago i think you did your last streetscape about 18 years ago if I remember correctly uh when you did that and you put the brick band in there and so and then the decision was made
not to put uh to make tree pots because maybe it was not sustainable to put the trees in these sections or Verona Park was good enough that that was our greenery you know so um we would not I don't think that if I take a lane away
from Bloomfield Avenue to enhance the sidewalk area or planting area I don't I don't think that's a promise I could keep i think as a county would push back on that and I think that as a mayor and council that would be a hard sell
because it's from like you said from uh Route 23 and uh Bloomfield Avenue one of the busiest intersections in Essis County and that left turn uh going westbound onto Pleasant Valley Way has
to be one of the heaviest left turns in Es County as well i remember was a single lane and it it it backed all the way up to I think by high Henry's or something like that it was it it took a while to
process that left i think it works okay now so I really don't think that that needs to be revisited but maybe we're going to the streetscape is to beautify was there thank you council Roman
thank you um you touched on a couple of uh of points uh that I found interesting number one was uh discussing that sort of stamped uh brick work simulated brick work that we have and how it's breaking down um I agree with you on that one i'm kind of curious if there's any other pitfalls that we should avoid that
you've seen in other towns and then my second question I'll make this a compound question one of the challenges we face is that the sidewalk widths are variable through the downtown um by quite a bit uh cautioning that we're not going to take traffic space away from Bloomfield Avenue how would you deal
with that in the design so then um you know unfortunately you have nice wide sections of sidewalk when you go to the um west of of town hall right it's they're almost 8 feet which is nice cafe space right uh and then it goes down and
next down if you have utility pole and it makes the the five or six feet with uh 34 in being a minimum for wheelchair access is what we look for so how do we make a singular sidewalk that has a uniform say like five foot minimum you
have that now uh and the areas that you don't have it that are wider are like bonus areas like uh so I don't think we can create new sidewalk space by pushing the curb out into Bloomfield Avenue but
there may be opportunities where there's dead space against building fronts uh uh or doing being creative that where they do have planters and building fronts they go to the building face and then we add movable planters to make the
sidewalk wider but like you don't want to make it an obstacle course and then getting back to uh so that's the wide widening the other pitfalls we see is that um like say for instance you do a curb bump out to make the path for the
pedestrians to be shorter than it was before at an intersection and what we find is that it's great in design on paper but you also have to account for the moving of the catch basins that are at the corner
that have to be moved out and doubled when you bump out the curb to make that uh and that brings up the price from a simple sidewalk move to a drainage improvement which in a streetscape you want to get your most bang for your buck
by making it a drainage project that all of a sudden is led by I'm sorry a streetscape project that all of a sudden is left by is led by drainage and to be honest as a design engineer you have two hills that go down into Verona Park so
whatever we do we're going to be brilliant but I I don't that's the pitfalls we see that sometimes you make it so the drainage gutter lines are blocked and we have to make a way of ruining yeah uh not ruining that but
managing that and the other thing was the uh uh the other pitfalls I I'll let Dave or Anthony chime in on that because uh we've lived it sure you know one thing that uh always drives us crazy not crazy but we have to manage it is you'll
do a project and then all set to go and then the landlord or the business owner will say "I need a new basement door on the sidewalk." So if you don't budget for it or if you have wishful thinking that you're not doing basement doors in your project you
are doing basement doors and you have to embrace it in management at the get-go so those are some of the things we've encountered yeah and some of design components that we've incorporated over the years is not placing pavers simply on stone uh if you
have a paver band or if you have pavers at all within your when your walkways those usually with the temperatures they fluctuate pavers pop becomes a maintenance nightmare for your DPD for your DPW becomes stripping hazards uh
becomes nonad compliant any longer so we've been um constructing um basically concrete subbases perforated concrete subbases to to address that condition and um and helps Definitely with the durability and and
Brian's comment with the three-year uh look look ahead the durability of a project when your pavers haven't moved just like your concrete walkways haven't moved that's that's a positive thing because we don't want to create any um
negative impacts with respect to ADA compliancy and you know tripping hazards and you know indue hardship on your DPW to try to maintain a streetscape Thank you the woman McGrath uh thank you uh I want to thank you all
for this great presentation i am the council liaison to the Shea Tree Commission so I definitely appreciate and they are looking forward to putting in more uh street trees you know in general in Bloomfield Avenue so they're going to be excited to participate in
this project um I have one lengthy question and just uh two shorter ones this is an area that gets a lot of flooding you already mentioned the Pin River um unfortunately our business owners in particular right where Verona
Park is have experienced a lot of flooding uh when we have those very intense uh rainstorms so how does streetscape design um can streetcape design mitigate some of the flooding
risks we have with these downfalls where do you see that as you um see that aspect in this project so I'll I'll I'll speak from experience uh at the Pekman River that drainage area is basically a third of Essis
County that comes that intersection at Pleasant Valley and Bloomfield AB and our run is marginal you know relatively speaking into the contributo area of that uh drainage basin but it's not to say we you know we give up or put our put our hands up in the air if it
becomes very important to the towns that we work in to have mitigative drainage uh like rain gardens uh which were like you you I mean you you may have seen them in Hoboken uh I've installed them in um East Orange uh nearby East Orange
and if that's important to the township uh like I said we did not presume to come up with drain uh concepts because we want to hear from you first and if that's important to the township then we would uh consider those mitigative strategies of best management practices
that's in the D toolbox toolbox for that and and then so sometimes a paver band can be porous uh that you you know it's not as durable uh as David said on a rat slab or a a a concrete slab but maybe
the upper areas can be porous but that's what we look at we try and do a mix and match uh I wouldn't recommend that down at the Peekman River because it does go underwater about I don't know uh you can tell me better I think every like fourth
year when you think you're clear it's not going to happen again and then it happens again so uh so you know we're aware of that that's why we I don't know if we're overstressing durability but you know that's what you're paying for and you want it to last you know it's a
20 year 25 year investment and then very quickly um do you uh have direct experience working with Essex County so you mentioned that that's key what um what did you work with them on
so specifically uh uh myself and uh John Sable my landscape our landscape architect we did just did Belleville Park Fields uh in in um off of Belleville Avenue in in Belleville so there's a lot of Belleville there so uh
we finished those and we also um leers heavily with um uh Essis County in our role as the Monontlair uh township engineer uh uh with various traffic issues drainage issues uh because
there's a disproportionate number of county streets in Montlair and for that we we leaz with them a lot and uh they we have a good rapport And um you know we can pick up the phone and say here's
our situation what do you think and you know we respect that uh cuz they have experience well and and they respect that we bring that to them like we're not like it it has to be in a collegial environment for that so that that's in you know and the same with
PSEG you know getting the new street lights where are they where is the service you know that's typical drama in any project that we do but we know how to manage it and we try and stay ahead of it great thank you
thank you can you hear me great mindful of where we are on time i'm not going to belver the point um some of my questions regarding drainage and what your recommendations are have already been asked by my colleagues so just before we close out I think you've said it a few
times your position is you really want us to be making these recommendations and that you would then advise on that is that correct uh not exactly okay what we want what we want to understand is what is your
vision what what do you want it to look like do you want it to look at like do you want it to look like um Ridgewood downtown do you want to have it look like Westfield downtown or or some downtown that you really love maybe
something up in like a New Hope right it's something like that once we get that design aesthetic right that's what we need to elicit from you and then we turn that into a project that is you know road ready and we'll get the
durability and the beauty that you want from it that's that's that's what that's we want to listen first we really do understood so and but I also view aesthetic as different than for example addressing drainage things so for example in the context of the drainage
discussion that you were having with my colleague a moment ago you indicated that well you know if we wanted to be like hoboken we could do this that and the other what I would really welcome from you all as an engineering firm and perhaps this is my question then um is
what would be your recommendation i mean we are a valley town we had even a heavy rainstorm last night there's a significant amount of drainage issues that are well established on Bloomfield A so I would really like to hear from you if you think that the rain garden
approach is the right way to go to help mitigate some of that on Bloomfield Avenue so that we aren't having torrents of rainwater coming down the hill um and creating issues for traffic for pedestrians washing out the street trees
that we would have just planted and the like so I if you have a recommendation on that that's that's excellent if if you think you know it's a variety of options consistent with the D recommendations I I hear that as well right so that's what we would look at
like when when we design a project a streetscape we have to understand and manage expectation that it is not a drainage improvement project and will not solve the PCM river you know to to be fair to the process we will do
everything we can that balances drainage improvements to address those issues on that stretch of uh Bloomfield Avenue but to say that that's going to solve Bloomfield and Pleasant Valley Way flooding because because the area I
believe I didn't do the anal the point analysis i believe it's like a third of Essis County comes through there so it's that and we want to make something that I know is going to go underwater and and I'm we're not going to be able to avoid that in the context of the project that
we are working on but we can do what we can for our strip of Bloomfield Avenue make it beautiful address the aesthetic and make it durable and where we can put as much drainage in as possible if
that's the priority of the people or the selection committee that we're working with thank you hey thank you gentlemen have a good night and um we'll circle back thank you thank you for the
opportunity again and thank you so much hey Mrs kier if you'd bring in the next group please i'm bringing in the next two yes thank you this will be TNM Associates correct antonio's Pentagos and Mark
Vaziniti we go uh good evening um Mark Visini should also be in the waiting room yeah I'm bringing him in right now thank you thank you there he goes
mayor I'll turn it back over to you great thank you welcome to our meeting we look forward to hearing your presentation thank you uh we'll give you time to make whatever presentation you'd like at that point the council will ask all the questions when your presentation
is over council member by council member will give you the opportunity to answer as you go uh Mrs karen will give you permission who would like to be the presenter of your uh slide deck so Mark's going to present
um I'll I'll introduce myself uh my my name is Antonio Pentagopoulos i'm a department manager here at TNM um I'll be the assistant project manager on this project uh the main project
manager is out on uh out for some health issues but uh we expect him back within the next few weeks so uh he'll be stepping in as the prime uh project manager uh and then I'd like to introduce uh Mark Visini uh our
landscape architect and I'm going to hand it over to him hello everyone um again my name is Mark Vzini uh I'm a landscape architect by education and license i'm a regional market sector leader uh heading up our land development practice out of our
Bloomfield office uh in New Jersey um I don't know how much you know about TNM Associates but we're uh an engineering firm established in 1966 we have over 300 and between 350 and 400 professionals with over 200 uh
licenses and we perform surveying civil engineering landscape architecture environmental engineering water uh water resources um health and safety we do FEMA flood studies so we're a very well-rounded
firm we also do municipal and private sector engineering so Antonios is on our private side uh on our public sector side and um I'm more on our private side but together we're part of our community and land development practice which um
you know we're very integrative and collaborative so we work together even though I tend to work more on the private side um you know we work a lot with our with our public sector and municipal practice um we're very excited for this opportunity um to help uh
create or you know help you vision a new streetscape for Bloomfield Avenue and um I guess that's it about our our uh about the firm and we'll get going we we think this is a a great opportunity for um Verona to kind of create a new identity
for your your downtown and um while it it comes with some with some challenges in that you have very narrow sidewalks within this area um uh some right now some of the sidewalks are are kind of worn they they've actually held up fairly well considering
I think they're about 18 plus years old um but it it's due for a change and um we'd like to help uh Verona get to where they're at and maybe solve some issues help with the aesthetic um sorry my dog of course is hounding me as I'm giving
this presentation um so we think there are definitely um some benefits to streetscape there's aesthetic appeal community and economic impact uh social and environmental benefits uh accessibility and
connectivity and of course safety um some of the essential components of a vibrant Can you share your screen with with President the whole time I thought I've been sharing my screen i've done this for four or five years now and I should have
sorry uh presentation here we go sure my apologies um again I was just speaking of some of the existing conditions of the downtown and the streetscape that you have you have some nice lighting a decorative pavement band that looks nice that
traditional flag scored um running bomb pa or scored sidewalk um obviously there's benefits to enhancing the streetscape uh which I just talked about aesthetic appeal community and economic impact uh social and environmental
benefits accessibility and connectivity then of course safety um some of the essential components again we talked about accessibility we want to design sidewalks that are good for everyone whether you're impaired or or not uh
clear visibility no trip hazards ADA compliant uh sustainability we have a very narrow sidewalk so to the extent we can do it here whether we can add some planting uh bumpouts or bioails tree pits light
colored pavements to reduce urban heat island effect i I see it in the streetscape that we're doing the sustainability portion is a minor one in this but we can add small elements uh to the streetscape constructibility is
definitely key um clear uh pedestrian circulation there's different means in which we can uh provide aesthetic benefits uh and then of course cost um again accessibility we want to make sure that our streets are inclusive
and they can accommodate all users with disabilities or or not uh while promoting a vibrant downtown again we can try and incorporate some uh green uh infrastructure sustainable materials energy efficiency if we do new lighting with the LED
lighting uh constructibility we want to make sure that it's practical to build within the constraints of the time the budget and existing infrastructure we want to phase the construction um make sure that we're specking material that's readily available and
make sure you know we plan accordingly with the town the DPW uh even so far as if there's any special things that happen with any of the existing businesses to try and limit the interruption uh during the construction so for pedestrian circulation we want to
enhance the safety and convenience um provide connectivity safety features the truncated dome clear lines of sight less interruptions you know keep stuff out of the walking zone uh of sidewalks
less trip hazards uh with aesthetics you know we want to make sure we can pick up the character and comm you know of the neighborhood in the community establish a design harmony try and incorporate some public art uh landscaping improvements whether it's
street trees in key locations planters with seasonal or annual plantings they provide a vibrant punch um and then cost you know we really want to make sure that we understand the um budget that that that you all have and that we
design within that framework and make sure as we go through that process that we're constantly checking it against that budget so that when we put this out to bid you know it comes under budget and uh we don't have any cost overruns you know here's just some
examples of uplighting flower beds we can pursue opportunities for bumpouts that's a bigger lift we'd have to deal with the county there might be some drainage there's typically drainage rework there might be some instances where you can maybe design it where you
didn't have to do it but um you know that's something that we'd have to work with the county on because they own the road um walkways we think that's where you're going to get your biggest bang for your buck if we wanted to provide a real punch i know right now we have a concrete sidewalk and a paver band we
could look to do the whole sidewalk as a color uh you know to make the statement here here's a bigger um you know instead of your narrow band this example in the corner here just provides a bigger punch of color and that typically where you get it with a narrow sidewalk where you
can't always get trees in and you do want to make that that statement you can do that with a pavement whether it's a stamped con and colored concrete brick pavers um again it's a balancing act
between cost maintenance um and it's something that we'll work with you guys to establish and you know we'll we'll help guide you there once we get your input i know i think originally they wanted to have um a design concept but
there's also a public participation aspect to this so rather than be presumptuous we really want to work with you and key stakeholders to kind of get some input as to what you'd like to see and then we use our professional experience and our engineering to come back to you and say
"Hey I think this is how we can incorporate some of these we never can incorporate all of them but we at least got your input and your feedback and then we will present the design alternatives back to you um and you'll have an opportunity to weigh in and say
"Yeah I like this or no I don't want this or I really need this in here not that." So you know we really want to work with you all to to develop what that those key programming items are or I know it was mentioned like site furniture lighting and those are some
simple things but if there uh are more specific items that come up during that process we can try and incorporate that into the design um we think that there are some key steps to a successful streetscape and that's one let's work with you all
to to define the goals and objectives and what we think the outcome uh what we want the outcome to be we want to make sure that we analyze all the existing conditions have a great survey base map walk the site talk to the um retailers
in the business find out you know where are key pedestrian crossings key pathways uh you know where people hang out the most and you know then we can incorporate those existing conditions uh into the design um we will work with you
to develop a a conceptual design where you guys will get to weigh in on uh different aspects of uh you know this the lighting the paving site furniture um again those are key elements we will incorporate into the streetscape we will ensure you know
accessibility and safety and access at intersections at entrances to storefronts um we'll integrate you know the key thing to a streetscape is we make everything fixed you know the second you need to change something it becomes impractical so where you can incorporate
flexibility and adaptability if you have some spaces that are you know some spaces have bigger you're right in front of the the town hall there you know design it so that it can meet the multitude of things it's not just designed for one activity or one use uh that you get multiple uses out of it um
we want to engage the community um present the final design and then key is to you know implement it and monitor it as it's being constructed to make sure it meets you know rigorous standards and you know we provide a or the contractor
builds a a final um good quality product at the end of the day that is our presentation we're excited and uh want to thank you for taking the time to uh listen to us and give us this opportunity
thank you um if you could stop sharing we'll do a council questions you could just return the meeting to There you go all right we'll start this time with Councilwoman Holland
i'm happy to go later thank you Councilwoman McGrath um thank you so much for your presentation and um some of those um concepts that you talked about uh this is an area unfortunately that floods um
during high frequency rain events um we've had several where our businesses across from Verona Park uh where the Pacman River is they do get flooded um from time to time in a massive amount of rain does um uh flow you know down
Bloomfield Avenue across the sidewalks you know into that area how do you incorporate um best practices with storm water management and some newer concepts that towns have been starting to put in like rain gardens etc is that part of the
streetscape um project as you see it so and Mark you're muted but um Mark mentioned it earlier we'll limit our space that's one problem right then
we have the county it's their roadway so that's that's another issue so anything we do we would have to use a space that we have and work with the county uh to try to make more space to to store water or or uh whatnot um I mean this project
that the way um we looked at it I mean it's a streetscape project so the the opportunities are in the sidewalk and the streetscape that that you're looking to to upgrade um Mark mentioned earlier some rain gardens that that would take
some bumpouts if the county would allow it um we you could do some bio swala or or maybe in the paper strip alongside the roadway you know the first couple feet behind the the curbing maybe allow some
entry points for water to to get in there to absorb the water uh with some stone or something under under the curbing drops in the bucket i know it's a bigger problem than it's it's a huge problem that's something that would have
to be studied and looked at on a more global um project and that's I I want to say it's probably the county would have to weigh heavily in in that type of uh project uh because of
the limitations that we have here to see any improve you really frankly wouldn't see any improvement with what we do in the streetscape due to the lack of space with the flooding that Being said you more you know more trees more green help
anything it's it's a little drop in the bucket you're at the valley you're on the downstream end a lot of times it's people on the upstream end that cause the problems for the people on the downstream end so we really can't fix that but you know adding as much green as you can doesn't hurt you you can play
with some different cost items and I'm I'm forgetting the name of the chamber now that you can use under a streetscape um but it's very expensive first of all you got to remove quite a bit of soil hopefully it's not impacted environmentally the chambers themselves
are expensive but that is a means to put storm water the other thing is you are narrow with sidewalks so you really don't want to put storm water too close to basement right so we're really tied here on any real benefit that we're going to get with storm water i'd advise
not you know there should be a certain distance away from the building that you you kind of put any storm water management but you know if we can do any landscaping more trees we can do the better um we can look at using some permeable pavements but again then you
run into a maintenance and longevity issue and what is the town happy you know what are they looking to get out of the the years before they have to do this again and you know sometimes you know I don't know if uh we we've seen the uh historic data on the permeable
paving how far we can get but those are things we can look to incorporate i just don't know that we're going to do anything of substance that helps with the flooding unfortunately what we do need to do is in the area where it floods we do need to make sure that we are designing to withstand those floods
right so we got to make sure that our pavement sections are good or any furniture that we're putting in that area is locked down or maybe we avoid putting furniture but just we we got to understand that that area is impacted and we got to make sure that we design
that it can withstand the flooding right thank you for answering my question you're welcome thank you Councilman Roman thank you um we will probably have some significant redevelopments um along this corridor
that'll be at various times some may come up during the course of work on this corridor some may come up after i'm curious how redevelopment impacts streetscape how to plan ahead so that it integrates well uh what are your thoughts in that concept because we've just we've found this is a a corridor
that people are always looking to do things in so new construction you're talking about like mixed use or commercial correct if if someone for example if there was a building that was to be redeveloped and someone wanted to replace an existing structure with a mixed use or something
like that how does that affect streetscape are there opportunities there how do we ensure that we restore what we had if they have to tear it up etc oh so uh I I work in some other towns um in one town we're actually doing a streetscape uh right now uh or
we're in the process of designing and there's some developers ahead of us there's some developers behind us um but we know what we want with the the design is there so so my point is once the design is made or once the the the town
agrees to a certain design of the streetscape um in in that particular town we have the contractor install the the streetscape after their construction so we would put it on them to pay for it in front of their site uh and match whatever uh the
standards are or uh the type of streetscape that we're looking to install i'm sorry that's fine um one of the specific challenges that we deal with with this streetscape is our sidewalks are variable width in front of some buildings they're narrower in front of
other buildings they're wider um how do you deal with that in the context of maintaining a harmonious design and using space well uh when you don't have a consistent sidewalk width throughout the project it is a a tough one because not only do you have you know typically you have
your zones like where you'll have street trees parking meters traffic signals they're all within usually the first couple feet then you have a pedestrian zone and then you have another zone up against buildings where if it's wide enough they can get seating or not and I know that is varied here i've seen some
instances where the traffic signals are actually pretty deep into the sidewalk yeah I that is something we're going to have to look at and see how we can keep that pedestrian zone clear so the walking zone I'll call it um
and you know it because it's so varied I think we're just going to have to look at it on a case- by case basis and see how we can use either sight furniture planters or something to define the the we'll call it the edges and maintain that clear walk space but I think we're
going to have to go through and see how we can you know make the the maneuvering work clear and concise where you're not in and out but you you you typically want to create a consistent pedestrian zone so people aren't walking into things and and whatnot so those that's one of the things we'll definitely look
at um again it becomes a balancing act too like if you can provide spaces for restaurants outside for seating you want to incorporate that we'll look to define those zones each you know block by block and then last one for you um bicycle
infrastructure we kind of have relatively minimal bicycle infrastructure through this corridor um even you know things like public racking and uh and and other things like that um people you know kids ride bikes on the sidewalks uh any thoughts on integration of you know recreational and transit um
for bicycles into a corridor well again our our sidewalks are so narrow i we're never going to get on street like a dedicated bike lane uh on the sidewalk i think if anything within
the street it have to be via the county but I think what we can do is where we have the space and where people do congregate with their bikes is definitely look to see if we can put bike racks for bike storage but to the road yeah what's that parallel to the
road not not like not not perpendicular um or the kids could just throw them in the middle of the sidewalk like they always do um but yeah the the bike lane issue is a whole separate issue uh with safety and that would have to be that would end up
essentially taking a lane within the roadway eliminating a parking lane um to fit that whether it's both on one side or split but so I don't see that being accommodated within the sidewalks it's just not wide enough um to accommodate
both the pedestrian uh and the bicyclist with that standard um obviously kids are riding their bikes on the sidewalk so it happens but um if we not enough room to put a true bike lane or a dedicated bike lane thank you
without losing a lane deputy Mayor thank you mayor uh first thank you guys for your presentation uh the bike question was one of mine but I want to go a little further on that uh we talk about bumpouts and we talk you
mentioned something about key crossing areas so my question is if you put them in a design plan uh do you go to the county and present it to them and have you had times where I'm sure they they say no we're not doing this or yes they
will do this but if you presented uh I think I saw somewhere where they actually did a bump out where there was a parking spot but they used it for EV bikes only uh have you have you seen that in other places uh I did see it in one spot and you can probably I'm just
going to ask both my questions here uh as far as the construction plan I mean this stretch of Bloomfield Avenue is about it's under 3/4 of a mile uh an idea of how long of a process this would be and would you tackle this in two
stages say Verona Park West Verona Park East or do you split that up so so for the uh first question I've seen like Hudson County is big on biking
and bike lanes especially in Hoboken um and on on county roadways and Jersey City I believe has a bunch of uh bikeways in in um county roads um it's really I don't I don't know uh uh I
don't know that Essex County would want to give up a lane of roadway in this on this very busy street uh to I'm not not saying necessarily a whole lane but say one parking spot two
spots for because a lot of people use these bikes now for Oh you mean for bike parking you're talking about yes okay i'm sorry I misunderstood the question um it's I mean that's I would think that's it's still a county issue but
that's more local i mean what do you what do do you the the town value more parking for two vehicles or parking for six bikes or eight bikes you know it's it's really something that you I
think you would have to make the case unless there's a way to maybe fit some like I I mentioned parallel bike parking instead of uh making them 90° off the road just you know park two bikes next to each other like a foot off the off
the street it's this way they're not sticking into the walkway area of these narrow sidewalks and then you you space those out every you know 100 feet or whatever or or strategically where you know that more more bike users uh park
their their bikes um you know I think that's the easiest way to do it without having to get in uh the county involved this way you know you're it's your sidewalks they they they're they really curb the curb the county so um
that's that's kind of what I'm thinking so Antonio if we wanted to present something where we took a parking space and converted it wanted to convert it to bike parking we would present a figure to sent to the county and we'd have to meet with the county engineer absolutely and they would have to buy in yeah
but I I think that's if you're losing a parking space again that's that's a something we would have to sell to the county but I think it's an easier sell than than uh losing a lane of roadway for a bike lane or something and
timeline for a project like this for the construction of it i I'd have to to touch honestly touch base with our construction group to see what they'd say but you'd want to we'd have to develop a phasing plan to make sure uh you don't want to close too too big a
section and close too many keep too many stores out of business right they got to be able to to function so that's something we would work uh when we put our plans together on how this could be phased and implemented and potentially even work that into the bid to make sure
the contractor follows a a schedule but off the top of my head I'd have to honestly revert that's not my area of expertise thank you you're welcome councilwoman Holland thank you again i I don't have any
further questions i apologize that I'm having some technical difficulties with my internet connection this evening so my camera keeps going in and out um but I will say that I think that you offered a comprehensive uh proposal and robust responses to my colleagues questions i
will just flag for you though that uh where you discussed the streetscape needing to be prepared for flooding to be aware that the length of Bloomfield Avenue floods especially in heavy rains like we had last night um and so what we've often seen is that the trees get
washed out um and that the infrastructure is damaged as a result of these torrens of rain coming down uh the side of the mountain so thank you i think what we should uh well not we but look at the county you know what they do a lot of times is convert the parallel
spaces into permeable paving right so they use permeable asphalt as a means to um you know mitigate water have it um assuming the geotechnically there's enough separation from groundwater and it can permeate um a means to help
control but you'd have to do that at a a larger cliff on our narrow sidewalk unfortunately it just um tough to get anything that would make any impact to the flooding but to your point we got to make sure we can design and maybe implement some things you know water
when it gets speed it erodess right so if there's we may not be able to stop the speed of the uh the amount of water but if we can design something into the streetscape where we're breaking up the velocity um and it's not as much damage we can try and incorporate that or just make sure our design is robust enough to
be able to withstand the flooding one one final question um and you don't have to take too long on this just in the interest of time what in your experience is the biggest mistake a municipality that you see have seen has made related to a project like
this goes into a streetscape you make yes um not thinking of the local residents enough and um doing the construction in one big shot and allowing the contractor to get
out of hand um that causes a lot of phone calls a lot of headaches and you know limiting the amount of disturbance at one time is is huge in preventing that um then you have
using like in in this case you have um I I think you used um imprint asphalt as your uh paper strip i think that's what it looked like yeah um that is not a robust material you can
see where it's breaking up and and just falling apart after you know all these years uh I would recommend in that location use a more more robust like a stamped concrete not even pavers because the pavers will wash out uh if if the
treere is getting washed out the pavers are going to get washed out and then you're going to have that issue to deal with so um I think in that those are my my two biggest uh concerns those are all
those are all good ones i uh our former township manager and I both uh definitely wanted to do the stamped concrete instead of the the asphalt so what you want to make sure and I this happens a lot and it's usually because of a utility company is you really
overdesign something and then the next day someone needs to put in a utility lateral and they patch it with asphalt or concrete and you have this beautiful design and this material is not readily available it's too expensive so kind of designing for something that can
accommodate a sidewalk replacement or you you know like so if someone does have to do something or there's a repair you can match the repair and that it just doesn't totally look different or they can't find the material you know some pavers they don't make until you have over a certain you know so many
thousand square feet so someone has to do a little repair they can't get the paver so just trying to figure out something that can accommodate a fix or a patch in the future that doesn't you know now look totally out of the uh what
what's there now thank you gentlemen have a good evening thank you for hopping on our meeting tonight you're welcome for the opportunity appreciate it thank you good to meet you all right Mrs kieran we have TNM
over TNM oh sorry uh strands i'm looking at the u the order in my folder instead of on the agenda all right strands engineering next mute can you hear me yes uh I'd like to turn on my camera is that
or do you have operations of the camera i have my camera here how's that we can see you and we can hear you great is anybody else joining you yes uh Brian Darl will be joining me from uh
Lero Hill Engineering mrs karen will get him in as well just text let's see what he says he is in the waiting room he's coming in okay need to be brought
on thanks for having us okay looks like we have Brian as well welcome Brian hello everyone can you hear me yes all right um who is going to be presenting mrs kieran will make you the meeting host
so uh Brian's going to pull up the PowerPoint uh unless you have it on your end uh I'm going to be presenting and I'm going to be passing it on to uh Brian from point to point uh we have our PowerPoint about 15 minutes and we left 15 minutes for your uh actual questions
perfect all right Brian you should have share privileges now uh you have to bear with me where is the share button it'll be a green button at the bottom of your screen okay thank you
can you see it yes awesome not the presentation though you have the presentation up we see your screen yes okay should we start okay uh I want to thank uh the mayor and
council for inviting us to present our uh presentation uh for Strand Engineering along with Laurill Engineering uh we're very excited to present our uh additional information for the engineering design services for Bloomfield Avenue streetscape
improvements for Verona New Jersey next slide i just wanted to introduce some of our core competencies of both Strand Engineering and Laurel Hill Engineering uh we are landscape architecture urban design firms we are a multidisciplinary
design firm so we are always looking for uh design excellence on every one of our projects uh we also have environmental planning uh understanding all the NEPA and seeker uh requirements environmental aspects uh we are civil engineering structural engineering all engineering
uh practices uh we also have architecture within our facilities recreation educational and governmental um next slide i just want to introduce you to some of our uh leadership team uh my name is Jim Laauo i am the vice
president of uh Strand Engineering i am uh the director and uh design for environmental i am a licensed landscape architect for the past 40 years uh I have design and construction experience uh I've had 30 years of New York State
DOT experience uh on their transportation infrastructure projects um I want to introduce Evodia Abraham she has over 15 years of practical experience in design and uh construction she's presently in charge of all of our
uh design projects that went into constructions to sure make sure they're all in compliance uh and meets the client's needs uh we have uh Veronica Sitine who is also a landscape architect with over 36 years of experience with
design and construction transportation and infrastructure projects she is our ADA specialist uh bike pedestrian coordinator and our cultural resource coordinator uh I'd like to introduce you to uh Brian Durr uh from Laurel Hill who
is our partner on this uh project brian hi everyone good evening my name is Brier um I am from Lero Hill i recently joined Lero Hill um I have over 17 years of roadway design experience uh in New Jersey and various other states um my
experience includes projects just like this and um also other uh multimmodal uh conversions of corridors into uh uh including road diets um I uh had the pleasure of being selected by
engineering news record uh last year as a top 20 under 40 engineer in the nation young engineer i think I barely made it under that young bar though um uh and then uh on my on my team I have Anthony Weber he's our senior civil
engineer uh over 15 years of experience for him he does a lot of site development design traffic engineering and utility coordination and then Francisco Gomez is our electrical engineer he'll be handling our uh lighting design back to you Jim
next slide next slide uh this is basically uh a breath of our projects again these are all excellent design projects uh like I had mentioned we are a design firm looking uh to have a an impact on your community with uh
the development of uh Bloomfield Avenue as you can see here Swindler's Cove is basically a 5 acre uh new park along the Harlem River Drive we transformed this into uh basically um from a dumping ground we had wetland restorations about
a half an acre uh we ended up uh developing a floating uh boat house with a dock uh the FDR Drive along Sutton Place Park these are all renovated uh new parks five vested uh five fest uh
pocket parks along the uh the river this is all on roof deck uh with all decorative pavement plantings uh lighting as well uh overlooking uh the east river to the 59 street bridge uh under the K park uh I was involved with
all the uh restoration of under the K uh phases one and phase two who I was responsible for all the environmental permitting uh the NEP bus seeker uh the EIS as well uh this park included about a mile uh segment uh did all the urban design work in reference to assuring
that there was a park at the New Town Creek as the magnet uh for this uh uh for that project we developed a park on the Brooklyn side and the uh uh Queen side along the Kbridge there's also a
multi-use path so there was never a connection between uh Brooklyn and Queens and now there is through bicyclists and walkways uh Bronx Greenway was about 2 miles of length of trails uh this started as a restoration
of Starlight Park which was a playground uh we ended up doing a master plan ensuring that all the communities were connected uh along the Bronx River we ended up uh closing uh the Sheran Expressway by turning it into a boulevard uh with all you know ADA
bicyclists uh crosswalks uh lighting as well uh we had four pedestrian bridge so all the communities were basically connected uh assuring that the you know better quality light for that ent entire Bronx area uh just a smaller scale project but still made a impactful u
change within the community uh this is Carney uh public library it's a children's garden uh this was through a green acres grant uh the greenacres grant was matched through the town of Carney uh I did the design basically uh it's a trellis wood trellis small
sitting area uh ADA access and perimeter fences uh uh so these are all aspects I would like to bring forward uh to the redevelopment of Bloomfield Avenue and Broad uh Brian's going to give you a breath of Lero Hills experience brian
so we have um two phases of the Grand Avenue complete streets traffic study uh phase one we did the traffic analysis and identified the feasible improvements and measures and did all the public outreach and coordination um it was through this phase that uh it was
decided that a road diet was the the the preferred alternative and then phase two of that was designing that road diet and implementing that design um the Highline Park reconstruction um this is a I think everybody's pretty familiar with the Highline Park reconstruction in
Manhattan um Lero performed as the resident engineer and construction support and inspection on that which um is important to this project because you know the the RE and construction support is is included in in this Bloomfield Avenue project as well um so we we bring
that experience the route uh 347 uh Pleasant Road to Terry Road uh was a design build contract um where we did complete street and safety improvements as well um and and made that a safer route for all um and then finally the
Route 112 reconstruction Granny Road to Route 25 was a project that um was a rural corridor and it was converted to accommodate all modes of transportation um including adding a a two-way center left turn lane um and then uh improving
all of the complete street and ADA aspects for bicycles and pedestrians jim uh next slide i just want to say that Lear Hill and Strands Engineering have uh multiple uh tudes of projects that we're teaming
on but I just want to bring you uh just a general understanding of uh specific sites specific knowledges uh I actually uh lived in Verona for probably 15 years growing my uh my older two kids i'm familiar with uh you know the the park
system um you know where the uh police station is uh you know the middle school uh I understand that uh Verona is a diverse uh community uh especially with Bloomfield Avenue having parks and recreations uh basically the ball field
closer to Montlair and Caldwell uh the connection points of this quarter is in reference to the entrance into Caldwell i understand that there's a hu huge commercial retail uh hub that is want that you want to uh retain there uh we
understand there are some really nice restaurants uh I understand that the schools and churches are are critical to this quarter along with Verona Park which was uh designed by Mstead or the Mstead brothers um and then we have uh the public facilities in reference to
the fire station and the the courtyard and you have actually two um uh sort of uh side entrances into your parking spaces right now they are slightly designed i think that should be incorporated into the development of the
streetscape uh that's key in reference to your uh backend parking uh parking and on street parking is critical in reference to Bloomfield Avenue we understand that there are a lot of uh traffic that pulls into these kind of uh
driveways such as the Krowers the gas station uh some restaurants that have pull-in parking so those uh safety aspects where you have pedestrians and vehicles crossing are going to be critical we want to make sure that those are a all ADA compliant in reference to
having the the flat uh surface as you enter into a driveway uh we also understand that the electric poles along the uh west side and the east side are still uh apparent but you do have a great section uh in reference to the
middle of town where you don't have any high-rise electrical poles uh where you know you can actually accommodate more of a a greener space um also in reference to your uh electric poles they are fairly high uh starting from Verona
Park heading towards uh Monontlair as you can see in the blue dotted lines so there is uh capabilities of uh still putting a a good amount of greenery uh and next slide we did our due diligence knowing that this is critical for the
understanding of uh the project i am familiar with it but several our team actually went out to the site and actually did an existing conditions evaluation of of Verona uh understanding the current state of any project is key
uh to gather gather information and identify key issues uh to ensure that we uh we have the solutions moving forward um establishing a baseline this establishes a baseline in reference to the conditions of your assets you know are your sidewalks in good condition
could they be retained uh understanding that this is going to be cost-effective uh in the long run only uh correcting measures that particularly need them uh this informative decision making is going to be uh key in reference to the design process and bringing this forward
to uh the mayor and council uh your engineers and your planners and also the community as well as the county right we're always looking to uh engage our stakeholders uh to make sure we get their buy in before we move forward with a particular design and that's just cost
inveing our design resources are efficiently spent uh five key areas that we looked at were the curbs and crosswalks uh we noticed that there are some uh you know uh inconsistencies there uh the street elements um in
reference to their conditions uh next slide uh the parking management system that you have now is uh diverse and I know that you have within your uh public spaces you do have kiosk and I think this is probably something that you're
going to be looking forward to i did talk to an officer and he said they couldn't really express you know what the new parking policies will be uh he wanted to but he said just couldn't uh we did notice that there were uh QR codes for parking uh there's uh still
parking uh meters we're not sure if they're uh still viable and you do have some uh public signing in reference to where your parking is i thought that would be key to bring up uh again you know sidewalk and pedestrian buffer zone uh this is a streetscape project depending upon the level of uh
commitment that you have uh you know I think safety is going to be the key issue here in reference to restoring the uh that quarter uh and also the utilities and infrastructures we know that a lot of the utilities and infrastructures are are throughout the the avenue in reference to your fire
hydrants drainage uh electrical uh junction boxes lighting uh even sellers we noticed that there are a couple of sellers uh entrances that are still viable whether they're still being used can they be closed off can we talk the to the actual owners of those and of
course the uh the electrical poles uh next slide uh our design approach uh design uh downtown redevelopment process requires coordination and integral complex infrastructures and pedestrian friendly elements uh that's key right in
reference to enhancing the commercial and residential development uh we want uh the main streets to be viable you know instead of just uh uh we want those uh we don't want vacancies on our on our uh in our you know commercial districts
we want them all to be um within the community and that's just going to increase your quality of life um both uh Strand Engineering and Lero Engineering are contextsensitive designers uh as you can see with all of our projects um they
are award-winning and we want to bring that to Verona uh context sensitive design is looking at the existing conditions of the community whether you have a brick facade or a concrete facade uh these are elements of architecture and design and landscape architecture uh
besides being a true engineering firm uh we have those design aesthetics that we want to bring forward uh we'll make sure that we discuss it with all sorry there you go back um uh key aspects are vision you
know vision zero placemaking we want to make this a destination point uh beautifification uh and safe streets for all uh is a federal infrastructure grant uh that hopefully Verona we can help you actually apply for those grants uh for any kind of additional phases of the uh
streetscapes uh next slide um we actually went and spent some time doing some renderings just to show you what our capabilities are uh we can develop street sections uh using existing photographs just showing just
uh aspects of uh street sections next slide uh street elevations again just showing our capabilities conveying this to the mayor and council uh to your engineers and also the community and the county uh next
slide we have uh 3D rendering capabilities this just shows some of the crosswalk intersections you know looking at consistencies in reference to your crosswalks uh your M UTC signs ASHTTO standards uh making sure all of your ADA
standards are in place uh along with ProAG or federal standards um you know for your lighting dark skies make sure that uh we don't have any splash into these residential areas because you do have residents within uh some of your uh you know structures uh
next slide uh then also you know we can do plan view renderings uh we looked at where you have yellow lines where you where where you can't park due to the corner intersections again we would look at the sightelines to make sure that
there's no uh disturbance but this areas could be used for you know general use such as bicycle parking uh storm water capture uh rain gardens uh we feel that resiliency is key to any uh new infrastructure that's happening within
this corridor as you develop and put funding into a resource you want to look at multiaceted uh solutions not just beautifification of you know a buffer but looking at all the possibilities of a of a a betterment for the community uh
next slide uh we just looked at just in reference to the inconsistencies of the sidewalk and just visually when you had a uh fading um you know uh one line is just
as any uh uh basic designs you could see that having uh continuity between your uh streetscape is key uh and just moving that uh one line over it's not going to change anything but visually just uh
makes it better and these are just several options that we looked at again these are not solutions that we want to bring forward uh but just our capabilities uh next slide we looked at uh the existing pavement the surrounding areas where it
might be brick or concrete next slide we noticed that uh you have a lot of u meters by removing the meters it just declutters things uh looking at the vocabulary and color and texture of your streetscape is going to be critical
adding trees and green infrastructures as well for storm water capture next slide as you can see here your concrete pavement is in very good condition next slide some of our design vocabulary we feel uh uh linear pavements or uh
permeable pavers is key in reference to the flexibility if you did have utility uh removals and stuff like that uh you can remove the pavers and replace them uh we always look to have an inventory within uh the DBW uh to ensure that uh
when we do purchase or uh any kind of uh residual you know materials is available uh next slide um quality control and quality assurance is critical for the success of
uh any firm in any project uh we understand that this is a uh developing the scope understanding the design process the schedule and goals and our deliverables understanding that uh we would convey that to you up front so that there's no so we meet your
schedules and also your budget as well uh quality control plans ensure a success of uh uh building checks and balances so that everybody's accountable uh we have quality management teams that are uh knowledgeable uh and we set
milestones for all of our staff um stakeholders we make sure there's public engagement in reference to your town and community uh we are landscape architects so we are great communicators uh both as well as visually and uh uh verbally uh
we'll make sure that uh we have buyin from all the aspects and this is key to any kind of environmental process or planning process uh if it's not uh accepted then it won't be successful in the long run uh communication and documentation is critical to success of
the project i think everybody knows that uh next slide uh the strands uh advantage along with our Laurel Hill teammates um we're solution-based thinkers right we want to have a solution we don't want to say uh
no to something there's always some some kind of alternative that uh is a betterment and you know if you ask us a question we're going to think about it we're going to come up with a solution uh we're going to be open to uh having that um with all of our teammates
knowing that their uh um their as their outlook might be slightly different so we're always looking for a fresh outlook we have in uh impactful leadership our leadership are knowledgeable in reference to all of their uh expertise um you know whether they're uh ADA
specialists pedestrian specialists bicycle specialists culture resources uh whether they're uh traffic engineers so that's critical uh we acknowledge uh critical thinking right we want to be able to bring solutions forward uh solution-based thinking is critical to
to assess any projects because uh with discussions you have a um an open uh forum to discuss uh uh alternatives uh communing ideas and solution openly so that's key um next slide
uh I just want to let uh Brian talk a little bit about uh uh Lero Hills construction support uh and also uh for the uh procurement processes brian yes um so Lero has a lot of experience
with uh helping out with uh procurement um we will assess or assist you in in um procuring a contractor or contractors if we uh split this out into phases by helping you with the bid analysis and support and answering any RFIs
um and any other questions and and and then during construction we will we will uh answer the contractor's questions in a timely fashion and make sure all of that is recorded with our our already uh in place QAQC process and and recordkeeping
thank you um I guess we'll leave it for any questions if you have any thank you uh Brian if you could stop screen sharing we'll be able to see everybody perfect thank you and if you can return the host to meeting host
Verona uh we'll start with Councilman Roman this time certainly um one of the big challenges that we have in Verona with this streetscape is that our sidewalks uh have variable width um by quite a bit there are some areas where the sidewalks
are very wide there are some areas where they're very narrow uh how do you create a cohesive streetscape design throughout the community given that challenge so we took the measurements I think uh right now you have about 15 feet uh your present buffer is about 4 feet uh we
we're I think a solution would be just to have a consistent line right in reference to having that zone as you can see in reference to some of our renderings you're not going to be able to expand on on too much of that but if you have a lot of street furniture
breaking that line it just becomes too busy uh so just having a straight kind of definitive uh line we're looking at probably 5T is probably a little bit more optimum that still allows you a nice width uh for pedestrians to walk uh
we did notice uh closer to that new development um uh with the two new buildings closer to uh Mont Clair that streetscape is a little bit wider and they did have yellow lines as well in reference to no frontage parking that
might just be an aspect that they didn't want parking in front of their building but the yellow lines that you have throughout the quarter could be a bulb out uh those bulb belts are going to increase your width for planting and green infrastructure right now if you
only have 4T of uh uh planting area we make it five uh we can add another 10 for your uh these ballouts that gives us 15 ft for probably at least uh two to three parking spaces uh again you know
we would have to get all the buyin from all the uh municipalities along with the county uh and that's going to be critical again we had discussed that in reference to our stakeholders but that would give you 15 ft um which is um more plant friendly
they'll be able to survive and any storm water capture we can uh capture in that those uh pockets as well i hope that answered your question thank you much um no my uh I'm having some internet connection difficulties so I'll
let you jump over to someone else thank you all right deputy mayor oh thank you Mr mayor uh am I I am muted uh first uh Brian and Jim thank you for your presentation and your the RFP was very informative uh and you went through uh
several things in here i did like a lot of your ideas and you're the one I held uh my stormwater uh management question up for uh because I think that's our number one problem with our downtown parking is always an issue uh it's been
an issue forever but I always say to people if you want to walk a block you have parking for any store you want to visit or any location you want to visit uh so I did notice along the street line uh your pictures which were very
specific to Verona which I loved uh you can see that we have erosion issues uh and it goes even the mostly the west side of Bloomfield Avenue from Verona Park goes all the way up to Fairview Avenue where the town center starts you
can see where the tree plantings are when we get a heavy rain all the mulch that's been put in there in any time is completely wiped out there's some areas where it's probably 10 to 12 inches deep so I think it's a hazard uh I noticed in
your plan you actually triple the size of those areas left and right of the uh trees and put the steel grates on which I thought was a really good idea uh I will say no to the wood chips that you have in the other part and expand the
steel grates but I do appreciate that you even a little bit uh took in some of the storm water in those areas a little bit more my question is are those areas connected to the storm sewer system uh
yes so there are there are green Yeah so there are green infrastructures that we work with in reference to New York uh D they've been including these green infrastructures where you have a the drainage you know you have to have a curb cut to allow some of that water to
flow into these uh these green spaces and these are uh pretty much uh design alternatives that are you know fresh right they're fresh designs uh we're looking at all these new alternatives uh in reference to the storm water capture
i know that you do have uh asphalted stamped so you by having that you don't have the imper imperous uh water right we would like to look at more of a um a modular pavement and
aesthetically linear pavements are going to extend your viewpoint um just visually it's just you know longer longer elements along the um perspective it just has a better better view shed Uh but that would also allow for uh
permeability uh into these basically that entire strip 5T strip could be storm water captured and that's just general rain water right instead of rain water hitting into these little trenches and washing into your storm system flooding the system uh that just allows
rain water to seep into the uh into that strip again any kind of conveyance is going to be critical um also in reference to um you know the drainage system you know we can run a drainage analysis in reference to do you need
more catch basins uh you know are your pipe sizes uh critical again that's a hugger development question but if uh storm water and flooding is an issue that's the problem and every everybody will think about the solution what what are the solutions what are the
alternatives uh you know is it a cost effective or it's not cost effective uh and we're always looking for long-term long-term betterments are uh are good along with working with your uh DPW in reference to maintenance um you know I talked about
having pavers if you have if you replace a utility line having a uh pavers to you know to take out and reinstall is a lot better than having you know uh sort of scarring of your environment uh through
utilities but that's always critical because you're never going to be able to afford everything right away so there's always going to be a phasing within this entire quarter but I will say I do appreciate in your in your uh presentation you you also talked about the other part of Bloomfield Avenue
which is our extended town center uh and I saw that you did put the the the bumpouts in those areas which I think are appropriate because we do have some room there to do that uh I appreciate your time that you spent on this thank you councilwoman McGrath
you uh thank you so much for your presentation you know one of the keys to success is going to be stakeholder management on one front um what I didn't hear you really speak to is um how the public gets involved in this project
clearly there's going to be a team involved of stakeholders but I would like your thoughts on the larger public and then the other piece is Essex County so can you talk specifically have you had any direct experience with Essex
County thank you guys um so right now we are actually the uh town engineer for Monontlair uh Montlair is basically where their uh historic preservation through their historic preservation uh so we're their engineers um again in
reference to stakeholders you I've been with New York State DOT for 30 years and working with them you're always going through the environmental process whether it's a seeker process uh or a NEPA process and uh their formula is um
buyin is so critical because um with reference to public funding you got to make sure all the stakeholders are accounted for and let's say we're working with the county and then we find out that they have a project that might be impacting this project or if we could
uh you know discuss uh resources that they could uh um you know develop on same thing if you have a developer coming in i noticed that there are some uh empty lots within Bloomfield Avenue so if those parcels are going to be uh developed as commercial uh those
developers will be uh key stakeholders in reference to that development um you know all your uh your residents as well you know they live on Bloomfield Avenue so their their entrance uh and exit points are going to be critical you have
commercial uh facilities you have the car dealership uh you have Race Pizza i think Race Pizza is still there again they're towards the end of uh Bloomfield Avenue but that's a huge establishment right i don't know if our touch points are going to go that far but pulling into their parking lot was into any kind
of pull-in parking lot is going to be critical and those sight lines are going to be critical so the streetscapes should be integrated in reference to that so every stakeholder is important uh we usually set up a uh public outreach uh plan that we could share
with Verona and that public outreach plan would be something that we would sit down with you uh our Lero engineering and strands engineering team would uh outline those you know are there any environmental permits uh are there any uh specific permits that are
required uh before we actually uh you know start our plans so the planning process is critical for our budgetary constraints as well as assuring that when we do move forward with the design uh there's no questions right everybody's got a buy in uh schematics
are fairly inexpensive before we're getting into contract documents uh so that's critical like to add add to that for just a little bit um something that we've done in the past uh recently is you know the
the um you know we live in a you know we're meeting via Zoom right so we're digital age so I think creating like a website and giving people access to the website and then having um you know having being able to post questions and answers on the website is a good way to
interact with the public these days because everybody is attached to these things right um so and even um you know at Raised Pizza you could you could send out to the local businesses uh you know like a little thing that had with a QR code that while they're waiting in line for their slice of pizza they snap the
QR code and and that'll take them to the to the question and answer or or to the presentation that was held last week at the at the public information center so you envision kind of a presentation getting feedback but then furthering
that with a website where more feedback can be collected for a period of time from the public in particular and possibly the business community as a piece of it and and what Yes yeah that that that's a good way to engage more people because not everybody I mean everybody you know might be on the the
Verona Facebook page but you maybe maybe they miss it if you have it posted in different places it it it catches more more uh people yep all right thank you yep councilwoman Holland thank you um first of all I just want to
say I really appreciated your presentation um I thought it was really well put together and I'll echo statements um from uh Councilman Makavoy about you know your using the depictions in Verona was very helpful um I also
just want to say that I really appreciated your proactive statement about the benefit of kind of a multialue approach to the streetscaping design um because as I've said a couple of times this evening you know we do have
flooding issues down Bloomfield Avenue um I had likewise referenced the fact that the street trees are often washed out that there are torrents of water that are coming down the mountains and as a result you know it it kind of is very damaging so it's not just planning
for around the Peekman River portion it's actually the full length of the Bloomfield Avenue corridor um so I appreciate that you had some of that proactively in your presentation um I also noticed that you did have the inclusion of the grates which um the
green infrastructure elements i really appreciated visually though as I was considering the grates um I think that's a good opportunity i loved the fact that you were kind of evening out the line as you were saying um and I think that adds
a lot of value and it's that multialue right where you're addressing perhaps some storm water management issues maybe not doing a whole storm water you know pro project but you know making it multialue with the streetscape but with the grates one of the thoughts that came
to my mind on that is the maintenance and the durability and the cost associated with those because it is a heavily traversed corridor i do anticipate that we will have damage to those grates um how easily are they repaired replaced what is the cost
associated with them do you have experience so we're so as a designer we're at materials and how they could be used so these are just industrial grates right they're not specifically uh tree grade so we're
always looking at materials used in different manners and a lot of these materials could be relatively cheap you'd be surprised they could charge you $5,000 for a tree grate because they're saying it's a tree grate uh but we're just looking at industrial materials
that could be uh you know cut to size you know uh and just placed again it had to be framed out in some manner to make sure that it's stable uh ensure that the you know the spacing is tight enough to uh to be able to traverse over but we're
always looking at materials in reference to uh different uses in a in a least a least expensive manner right so our design solutions are not just even though they may be custom but they're a
inexpensive custom right uh under the K all we used was concrete and asphalt the cheapest materials possible uh and we produced that park during the pandemic um and I think we designed it and built it within like 15 months uh using you
know in-house forces so materials is critical in reference to it could be durable and yet inexpensive but you got to look at all all the aspects and something that's off the shelf may be um
it may not be as you know the solution so we're always looking to to ch you know look at the environment and see what's out there all right thank you as you know was stated earlier this evening you know wanting this to you know whatever solutions are are ultimately settled on
wanting it to be something that can endure and not wanting to have situations where if there is an issue with something if there's a car accident or something that resulted in damage that we're then not without a stretch of the sidewalk or or you know losing some
of the advantages of the streetscape investment that we just did absolutely thank you okay um couple questions first is Teresa Laauo your daughter teresa tell her tell
Dr lao that I say hello uh it's been been 15 years or something like that but tell her I say hello u she's she's she's with the Mets now so is she with the Mets now i know she was she was out in the Midwest for a while but that's Milwaukee she's with uh she's actually
the personal trainer and PT for Lindor okay well tell her tell her Verona is thinking about her uh even us Yankees fans um just one one uh little question or I guess it's a big little question but you've done a lot of pretty
largecale projects right that you've included that have been pretty impressive if I've had the opportunity to actually see some of them in person um what lessons can you take from some of these very large scale projects to
apply to our smaller scale project here in the streetscape of what worked what didn't work um how does that experience help you with our with our streetscape so um in reference to you know I'm a designer at art uh like that's why I
included the Carney Library uh the budget there was only $250,000 $275 with the design fees um and it had a wood trellis right so the detailing of that trellis was all custom uh but it was really relatively
inexpensive it depending on how you uh put things and puzzle pieces together to make it aesthetically pleasing uh again we're a design firm we're with all the expertise of an engineering firm uh but
that's what we want to bring forward uh and we want to make it um transformative right uh to make it you know Verona a place you know we're placemakers as well um so it depends on how the materials
are and how they're put together and aesthetically and um you know are they in reference to engineering I know how deep a footing needs to be i need I need know I need I know the connection points
but the artistic availability uh is critical to our team and are there any regrets that you have had clients express that we should potentially avoid in this process that
something looked good and then in the end it didn't turn out to be a good idea uh regrets in reference to design solutions you mean yes yeah if there's anything that that folks really wanted that we might push for that we should
probably avoid based on problems that have happened after the design phase yeah uh so for streetscapes I feel what is critical is uh safety for the most part right if we discuss uh safety and
the aesthetics becomes something that is part of the design team uh so functionality in reference to anything is going to be critical uh public safety and public awareness uh so if there's any regret we would try to move away
from those regrets um to assure that there is success uh any regrets that I have for the projects that I worked on um I feel that once you create a project and it kind of has a breath of its own I then it means that it's a success right
um because it just uh it just but if it fails you know I don't think I've had any failures I don't want to say no I'm not I'm not asking you for that if it's any common pitfalls we should avoid I guess is maybe the better I think I asked this question better a couple couple people ago but any common
pitfalls that you have seen we should I think that I think what's critical is uh you don't want a commonality of uh you just put a bunch of street furniture out there uh you know pick a bunch of uh offtheshelf um trash
recepticles um you know is a trash recepticles required right if you don't have a trash can you're not going to have trash people throwing trash there so there's always uh alternative thinking right in reference to uh Like right now we have EV vehicles you know
EV vehicles are going to change the uh the the uh the landscape uh similar to bicyclist right ev bike you know bicycle is powered bikes uh you know so it changes the landscape uh so we have to look at alternatives that are uh you
know aesthetically pleasing but also safe uh I did notice that you did have several trash recepticles and are they used does that increase your maintenance um you know things like that uh and also benches there was no benches but as you
get older and our community is getting older as they're walking along the streetscape it's nice to have a couple of benches in some key locations i know that as you head closer to Monontlair u I think there's just a few uh few stores
here i think they're kind of antique stores um and then there's the uh 7-Eleven there 7-eleven right yep is it yeah uh so the streetscape's different and then you have the that new development the commercial development
and those are things that uh we would look at uh in reference to assuring that each segment of uh the quarter is slightly different uh but having some level of consistence all right well thank you gentlemen uh appreciate your presentation and the
thoroughess of it and um we will be in touch through the tent manager and at this point you all are welcome to sign off great thank you thank you have a good night thank you thank you John
now is the time for public comment on any matter that the public wishes to address with the council madame Clerk would you please read the public participation statement sorry I haven't anyone wishing to speak uh any
better please raise your hand by pressing the raise hand button on your monitor or if you're dialing in by phone press star 9 if you're attend Oh nope we're not attending once you're recognized clearly state only your name and tangible of residence for the record you're not required to provide your street address however if you do please note that these
meetings will be posted the township's YouTube channel and addresses will not be redacted for any purpose you have four minutes to address the council after everyone wishing to speak has been heard council may address your comments and or questions and it's open mayor
thank you Madam Clerk okay seeing no public participation I will close public participation um Mr o sullivan you we will be adding on the agenda at some point in the near future to have a discussion on these proposals
yes mayor i'll have this added to my monthly report okay excellent and is that any other business from the council members is there a motion to adjurnn so move Well moved
well I think we all agree on something so um I'm gonna I'm gonna give it to Councilman Roman because I got to adjourn on an airplane so um so he has the motion the uh the second will be Deputy Mayor Makavoy they're people I
heard uh and I saw a lot of lips move but uh that's it um all those in favor i I Anybody opposed is welcome to stay on the Zoom motion is carried everybody have a good evening we'll see you on Monday for our regular meeting all right
everyone thanks everybody