July 30, 2024 Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

ZO VITE: Mr. Guarino? 12 VICE-CHAIRMAN GUARINO: Yes. 13 MS. BAQUERIZO VITE: Chairman Bagoff? 14 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Yes. Motion 15 carries. Thank you. 16 At this time, I would like ask to Mr. 17 Plocker, who represents the applicant, to join us. 18 MR. PLOCKER: Thank you very much, 19 Chairman Bagoff, Madam Mayor, members of the Board. 20 Good evening, it's a pleasure to be here. My name 21 is Bryan Plocker, I'm with the law firm of Hutt, 22 Shimanowitz & Plocker in Woodbridge, New Jersey. I 23 represent the applicant, West Essex Highlands, Inc. 24 Chairman Bagoff, you really stole my 25 thunder. Much of what you were going to say, I was Page 17 1 going to address the Board with, so I will make my 2 comments brief before we get going with our first 3 witness. I know brevity is sometimes appreciated. 4 I do appreciate the Chairman's 5 reference to the township's declaratory judgment 6 lawsuit which was ultimately settled in this matter 7 and from which our settlement agreement and the 8 ultimate IH-1 zoning ordinance was born. That was 9 the product of many, many mediation sessions down 10 the hall here with the township's professionals 11 representative my client, Fair Share Housing Center, 12 and the court-appointed Special Master. As a result 13 of countless sessions and follow-up communications, 14 the township ultimately settled its overall Third 15 Round affordable housing obligation and did receive 16 a follow-up judgment in its favor in that action. 17 Just a couple of the salient points of 18 what drove those negotiations that wound up in our 19 zoning ordinance and, accordingly, in our plan 20 today, is that the town was insistent that the 21 disturbance of this 120-1/2-acre site be limited to 22 no more than 30 acres and we are proud to say that 23 our plan comes in under that. The remaining 90-plus 24 acres, as is provided for in the settlement 25 agreement, will be deed restricted by my client as

6 (Pages 18 to 21) Page 18 1 open space in favor of the Township of West Orange. 2 Importantly, the settlement agreement 3 referenced by the Chairman and the applicable 4 affordable housing regulations, more importantly, do 5 require the township to cooperate with my client 6 regarding the bringing of this project to the 7 proverbial finish line, including the granting of 8 reasonable relief if necessary. The regulations 9 also provide, importantly, that the focus of the 10 Board on an inclusionary development that is part of 11 the town's court-approved housing plan is that the 12 Board focuses on whether the development complies 13 generally with the zoning ordinance. We understand 14 there are many people in this room tonight who 15 disagree that the zoning ordinance is adopted or 16 that the town settled its case on -- affordable 17 housing case on certain terms, so what we are here 18 to say is that the Board just needs to look at the 19 plan and look at the zoning ordinance requirements 20 that do exist and not which don't or which used to 21 exist or which some people may wish existed. 22 So with that being said, I have nothing 23 further, I thought the Chairman did a great job in 24 covering the history and I am ready to proceed with 25 my first witness. Page 19 1 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Go right ahead, sir. 2 MR. PLOCKER: Okay, the applicant 3 would like to call Paul Anderson, our civil 4 engineer. 5 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Raise your right 6 hand, sir. 7 P A U L A N D E R S O N, P. E., is duly sworn/ 8 affirmed by the Board attorney. 9 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Will you voir dire 10 him, please? 11 MR. PLOCKER: Yes. Thank you, Mr. 12 Anderson. Could you please give the Board the 13 benefit of your credentials. 14 MR. ANDERSON: Yes, I have a Bachelor 15 of Science -- 16 (Public outburst) 17 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Woah. Ladies and 18 gentlemen, we're going to try, as best we can, to 19 have everybody in the room hear. If somebody in the 20 back can't hear, raise your hand, one of us will 21 identify -- I gotch ya, I got -- can you not hear me 22 now? Can you hear me? 23 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Yes, we can 24 hear you. 25 (Public outburst) Page 20 1 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: I'll work on it, 2 I'll talk louder. 3 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Talk slower, 4 not only louder, talk slower. 5 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Okay. Thank you. 6 Go right ahead. 7 MR. PLOCKER: Mr. Anderson, please 8 give the Board the

2 I'll talk louder. 3 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Talk slower, 4 not only louder, talk slower. 5 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Okay. Thank you. 6 Go right ahead. 7 MR. PLOCKER: Mr. Anderson, please 8 give the Board the benefit of your credentials. 9 MR. ANDERSON: Yes. I have a Bachelor 10 of Science in civil and environmental engineering -- 11 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: I'm sorry, Mr. -- 12 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Can't hear you. 13 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Can't hear you. 14 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: I got it. I got it. 15 Trust me, I got it. 16 MR. ANDERSON: This one may be better. 17 I have a Bachelor of Science in civil and 18 environmental engineering from Clarkson University, 19 1983. I was licensed as a Professional Engineer in 20 1988 in the state of New York and New Jersey. My 21 licenses are current and in good standing. I'm a 22 principal with Anderson Consulting Services, the 23 firm that prepared the plans that are before you 24 this evening. I've been accepted as an expert 25 witness in planning and engineering throughout the Page 21 1 State of New Jersey, including this Board at one 2 point when we had the single-family residential 3 application for this parcel. And that's... 4 MR. PLOCKER: Okay. Thank you, Mr. 5 Anderson. 6 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: And you are 7 testifying today as a civil engineer? 8 MR. ANDERSON: That is correct. 9 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Okay. Unless any 10 member of the Board has a question about his 11 credentials, I recommend that we accept him as a 12 civil engineer licensed in the State of New Jersey. 13 You have the floor, sir. 14 MR. ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr. 15 Chairman. I have a PowerPoint presentation which I 16 will start momentarily. 17 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Okay. PowerPoint? 18 MR. ANDERSON: Yes. 19 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Okay. Ladies and 20 gentlemen, this is going to be a PowerPoint 21 presentation so I am going to move off the dais but 22 still remain in control. 23 MR. PLOCKER: And Paul, just so we 24 have a clear record, you prepared the site plan set 25 that was filed with this application?

7 (Pages 22 to 25) Page 22 1 MR. ANDERSON: That is correct. 2 MR. PLOCKER: Okay, thank you. Go 3 ahead. 4 MR. ANDERSON: All right, so the 5 property is Block 179, Lot 32, it's 120.49 acres 6 located in the IH -- 7 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Mr. Anderson, talk 8 into the mic, please. 9 MR. ANDERSON: Still. Okay. 10 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Thank you. 11 MR. ANDERSON: -- located in the IH-1 12 zone. With regard to where it is, there is -- the 13 green parcel is colorized, a portion of this plan is 14 the subject property. To the north or to the top of 15 the sheet of it is Howell Drive, partially -- again? 16 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Yeah. 17 MR. ANDERSON: I'm going to stick it 18 down my throat. 19 All right, so to the top of the sheet 20 is Howell Drive, which is partially in West Orange 21 and partially in Verona. To the left side is Essex 22 Fells and single-family homes on that -- on those 23 properties. To the bottom of the sheet is the condo 24 association and Warner, uh, Warner Road coming into 25 the subject property, and to the right side is the Page 23 1 community -- the roads of Rosemont and Mayfair, uh, 2 Mayfair Road. 3 So this -- the settlement agreement, as 4 was mentioned, establishes the location and the 5 density and the building as you see them here are in 6 the general vicinity of what was approved in the 7 settlement agreement as part of the exhibit in the 8 settlement agreement. 9 One of the specific requirements in the 10 settlement agreement was setbacks from the property 11 line so that this property -- so that the 12 development would be buffered from the adjoining 13 properties. There's a minimum 100-foot setback 14 required. We have a 106-foot setback from the 15 Building D, which is on the right-hand side. I'll 16 get my blinker. Right here is 106, uh, 106 feet. 17 Now, as we -- thank you -- as we go to the left, 18 other properties to the -- what is to the north, 19 towards Howell Drive, we have 218 feet from the 20 property line to Building C, we have 301 feet from 21 Building B, which is the building right here, to the 22 property line, and then as we go to the west, we 23 have 988 feet from Building B to the Essex Fells 24 property line. That's this dimension here. We have 25 658 from what is the maintenance building to the Page 24 1 Essex Fells line. As we go towards setbacks to the 2 association property, we have 471 feet from the 3 maintenance

dimension here. We have 25 658 from what is the maintenance building to the Page 24 1 Essex Fells line. As we go towards setbacks to the 2 association property, we have 471 feet from the 3 maintenance building down to the property line, and 4 we have 534 feet from Building D to the property 5 line, so we have exceeded the settlement agreement 6 setbacks significantly and that was anticipated in 7 the, uh, in the exhibit -- the concept plan that was 8 approved for this project, so you can see there is a 9 very nice buffer all the way around. 10 The second thing that was paramount in 11 this concept was that we were under 30 acres of 12 disturbance. We have 27.85 acres of disturbance and 13 it is primarily in the Center of the site, allowing 14 for large buffer areas to the east and to the west. 15 That leaves 92.6 acres of undisturbed open space 16 that can be deed restricted in favor of the 17 township. No further development. 18 The buildings that you see in orange 19 here, the larger buildings, the residential 20 structures are four-story buildings over parking, so 21 there's parking underneath each of the buildings to 22 minimize the surface parking and the limit of 23 disturbance. These are accessed by -- from Warner 24 Road as the main roadway coming through, it comes to 25 a traffic circle, and you can come around the Page 25 1 traffic circle and go to the right and go over to 2 what we are calling Building D on Road D currently, 3 there's no name for it as of yet, or you can 4 continue around the circle and go towards what -- 5 this is the clubhouse; go past the clubhouse to 6 Building C, B or A or down as far as the dog kennel 7 or the maintenance building. The access continues 8 along, we plan on building the roadway Kuzik drive 9 to make a connection, but as was mentioned, we are 10 seeking a de minimus waiver for keeping that roadway 11 open. We currently have on the plans a gate that, 12 if the de minimus exception is granted, would be 13 left closed so the traffic would not go through 14 Kuzik Drive unless someone thought better of it that 15 it was required at a later date, the township could 16 ask, you know, ask for us to -- 17 (Public outburst) 18 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Okay, I got it. 19 Talk louder, please. 20 MR. ANDERSON: I will try. 21 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: That's better. 22 (Public outburst) 23 MR. ANDERSON: All right, so -- 24 MR. AFRAN:

t) 18 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Okay, I got it. 19 Talk louder, please. 20 MR. ANDERSON: I will try. 21 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: That's better. 22 (Public outburst) 23 MR. ANDERSON: All right, so -- 24 MR. AFRAN: Mr. Chairman, the 25 explanation beginning with the granting of the

8 (Pages 26 to 29) Page 26 1 waiver -- 2 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Woah, woah, woah. 3 MR. AFRAN: The explanation beginning 4 -- 5 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Wait, wait. 6 MR. AFRAN: -- with -- 7 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Sir -- 8 MR. AFRAN: I'm sorry. 9 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: -- sir, you have to 10 be identified. He's in the middle of testimony. 11 Let -- 12 MR. AFRAN: I'm concerned about the 13 record. Bruce Afran, objector's counsel. 14 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Ms. McGovern? 15 MS. McGOVERN: You're looking for 16 qualification on what he just said or you want him 17 to repeat what he said? 18 MR. AFRAN: Let me explain. 19 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Time out. Guys, you 20 must identify yourself for the record who's 21 speaking. 22 MR. AFRAN: Bruce Afran, counsel for 23 We Care New Jersey. 24 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Thank you. 25 MR. AFRAN: I simply wanted to note Page 27 1 that, beginning with the statement from Mr. Anderson 2 that "we're seeking a de minimus waiver," I don't 3 believe the rest was intelligible because we 4 couldn't hear it, so I didn't want him to move on 5 because I don't know whether we can hear that, 6 that's all I was pointing out. 7 MS. McGOVERN: Okay, so it's just a 8 question of. 9 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: That's fine. 10 MS. McGOVERN: Will you please repeat 11 what you just said. 12 MR. ANDERSON: I will repeat it. 13 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Thank you. 14 MR. ANDERSON: So the applicant is 15 seeking, as required in the settlement agreement, a 16 de minimus exception from the RSIS requirements for 17 this roadway connection. If granted, we will have a 18 gate across this roadway and have it closed and only 19 used in emergency situations where there's some need 20 for a fire vehicle or an ambulance to get through 21 there, but it would be closed on a regular basis. 22 The traffic engineer for this project will go over 23 the traffic considerations of the volumes of traffic 24 and how that relates to how the granting -- or 25 considerations that the Board can make in granting Page 28 1 that de minimus exception. 2 So we also have one other exit to the 3 property and that is an emergency exit to Howell 4 Drive, which is a 15-foot-wide asphalt roadway that 5 has a gate -- this is proposed to be closed at all 6 times, unless there's an emergency where they need 7 to get in. 8 The roads are all designed as high- 9 intensity minor collector roads. To the left or the 10 west of the circle, they're designed

ll 6 times, unless there's an emergency where they need 7 to get in. 8 The roads are all designed as high- 9 intensity minor collector roads. To the left or the 10 west of the circle, they're designed without parking 11 on the street, and to the right or to the east by 12 Building D, they do have parking on both sides. 13 So if we look at the zoning schedule 14 for this property, it conforms to virtually 15 everything in the IH zone requirements, the one 16 exception being, which I will go over last, the 17 percentage of foundation exposure. So it conforms 18 with lot area, disturbed area, total number of 19 units, total number of affordable units, bill of 20 lading height, parking space size, sparking space 21 number. With regard to the exposure of the 22 foundation, the zone permits a 50 percent exposure. 23 Building A has 76.5 percent, Building B has 76.4 24 percent, Building C, 69.1, and Building D, 54.8. So 25 this property is ungulating, has topography that Page 29 1 goes up and down, and you could see that the 2 topography -- well, maybe you can't see, the 3 topography goes up and down and what we've tried to 4 do is build these buildings into the slope so that 5 we minimize the actual disturbance around each 6 building. Instead of creating a large-level area 7 and sinking the building into the ground to limit 8 the foundation exposure, we have, for example, we 9 have this entire side of Building B exposed, same 10 thing for Building A, the entire side is exposed so 11 that we don't have to grade further down the hill by 12 burying it, and it goes on like that, so in my 13 opinion, this is a better zoning alternative to have 14 more limited disturbance, less clearing associated 15 and working with the existing topography. Also, 16 what's important is if you recall the setbacks, the 17 large setbacks that we have for each of these 18 buildings to the property line, the impact to 19 adjoiners is -- is negligible at best, being, like I 20 said, 900 feet from this property line because no 21 one's going to see some additional foundation. Our 22 planner will go over the plan proofs for that 23 variance when he gets his opportunity to testify. 24 We have -- this is the parking 25 analysis, this is part of our set. The project

9 (Pages 30 to 33) Page 30 1 requires 966 parking spaces and we have 1,070, and 2 those are the spaces that I have -- the way I've 3 counted is 1,070 spaces that are associated with the 4 buildings themselves, so that means under the 5 building and immediately outside the building, but 6 we do have other uses which don't have a parking 7 demand associated with the zoning ordinance, like 8 the clubhouse and then animal -- a dog kennel and 9 maintenance building. So we felt it was appropriate 10 to have additional parking in those locations, so 11 the 1,070 represents only the parking associated 12 with the buildings. We have 102 other spaces, 55 at 13 the clubhouse surface spaces, we have a lower garage 14 in Building C that is under the main garage for 15 tenants that will be available for overflow parking 16 for the clubhouse if there is an event, and there's 17 18 parking spaces at the dog kennel so that people 18 can park there as they're dropping their dog off or 19 picking it up. The -- I want to point out that 20 there's adequate spaces for each building, so each 21 building stands alone in terms of having enough 22 spaces, there's not, you know, an over amount of 23 spaces on one building and not enough at the other, 24 each stands alone in its own accord. All the spaces 25 meet the size requirement. Page 31 1 We also will meet the ADA and EV 2 parking space number and all the parameters with 3 that. Currently, we have a limited number of EV 4 spaces located on my site plans outside the 5 building, it's similar for ADA spaces, because most 6 of those two types of spaces will be provided in the 7 under-building parking for the tenants who would 8 have first shot at it, but we do have some guests 9 who tend to park outside the building. 10 This exhibit is showing accessibility 11 -- thank you -- for a fire truck, so it's emergency 12 vehicle access. So we took a fire truck as close to 13 an ambulance, it's a larger vehicle, and we have a 14 turning radius coming into the site to come from 15 Warner Road, it goes around the circle and all the 16 way past Building D where it can turn around in the 17 cul-de-sac outside of Building D and return and 18 leave the site via Warner Road. 19 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Can you show us 20 this with your laser, please? 21 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Yeah, please. 22 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: We don't know 23 what you're talking

the site via Warner Road. 19 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Can you show us 20 this with your laser, please? 21 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: Yeah, please. 22 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: We don't know 23 what you're talking about. 24 MR. ANDERSON: So -- 25 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Ladies and Page 32 1 gentlemen, at the end of his presentation, the 2 public will have a chance to ask questions, this 3 will be left up, he'll go over it. Let him finish 4 his presentation, the Board will ask questions, our 5 experts will ask questions and then the public will 6 ask questions. Thank you. 7 MR. ANDERSON: Just to clarify, this 8 exhibit demonstrates that a fire truck sized vehicle 9 can come down Warner Road, around the circle, 10 staying within the roadway limits and easily turn, 11 all the way through and get itself through the site 12 so that it can do what it's intended to do, fight 13 fires or if it's an ambulance, to, you know, to help 14 someone in need, and this is accessed to the eastern 15 portion of the site with an emergency vehicle, fire 16 truck. 17 The second exhibit is the same, the 18 same type of presentation, only it comes up through 19 Warner Road and around the circle and goes towards 20 Buildings A, B, C, the clubhouse and the dog kennel 21 and maintenance building. It would leave Kuzik 22 Drive, uh, Kuzik Drive through the gate; if there's 23 a fire, they can open the gate, provided the 24 exception is granted. 25 And then I have one further, which is Page 33 1 what happens if there's a tree across Warner Road, 2 what do you do? Well, we have the emergency access 3 -- I'm sorry. We have the emergency access on Kuzik 4 Drive and this demonstrates the truck turning 5 through the site coming in Kuzik Drive, all the way 6 around, and has no difficulty maneuvering through 7 the entire site and it can leave via the emergency 8 access on Howell and also this works equally well in 9 reverse where you come in Howell and get all the way 10 through the entire site with an emergency vehicle 11 the size of a fire truck. 12 This is the overall utility plan. The 13 first thing that is important to understand here is 14 that the limitations of the project were to not 15 build to the east of the ridgeline. The ridgeline 16 is a line at the top of the hill all the way through 17 the eastern portion of the site. This building, 18 Building D, is located to the west of that 19 ridgeline, and