November 13, 2024 Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

9 1 MS. VITE: Ms. Kapferer? 2 MS. KAPFERER: Yes. 3 MS. VITE: Council President Rutherford? 4 MR. RUTHERFORD: Yes. 5 MS. VITE: Mayor McCartney? 6 MS. McCARTNEY: Yes. 7 MS. VITE: Mr. Guarino? 8 MR. GUARINO: Yes. 9 MS. VITE: Chairman Bagoff? 10 THE CHAIRPERSON: Yes. Vote carries. 11 PB-24-01 West Essex Highlands, Inc., Block 12 179, Lot 32 Zone: IH-1 Warner Road. We now have Mr. 13 Wayne DeFeo who was in the middle of questioning by the 14 public about his testimony. 15 Do any members of the public have any 16 questions for Mr. DeFeo on his testimony? Please come 17 up to the mic. 18 MS. McGOVERN: And just for the record, Mr. 19 DeFeo, you’re still under oath. 20 MR. DeFEO: Understood. 21 THE CHAIRPERSON: State your name for the 22 record, please, young lady? 23 MS. WHITE: My name is Barbara White and good 24 evening to everyone. And, Mr. DeFeo, this is actually 25 a continuation of questions I started asking the last 10 1 time. 2 MR. DeFEO: Okay. 3 MS. WHITE: And the first is, during your 4 testimony, you cited one or two successful 5 reforestation efforts through the use of deer fences. 6 If there’s an opportunity for members of the community, 7 and I am, I wanted to ask a couple questions on my 8 behalf and on behalf of my friends and neighbors. 9 With respect to the reforestation projects 10 that you looked at, are any of those in what I would 11 call encapsulated neighborhoods, in other words, 12 similar to what we have in this particular petition 13 which is 500 plus residences in the middle of an area 14 that is highly restricted? 15 MR. DeFEO: I can’t speak to the demographics 16 of your question -- are they within 500 home or is it 17 encapsulated. The closest fenced areas to you, or to 18 West Orange, to be more specific, would be the 19 reservation, South Mountain Reservation. There are 20 encapsulated areas in there, meaning there are deer 21 fenced areas in there as well as open areas. And, 22 clearly, South Mountain Reservation is on a much larger 23 as a piece of property is surrounded by residential. 24 MS. WHITE: Okay, so that’s really -- my 25 question really is, and I probably wasn’t very clear, 11 1 is within the areas are encapsulated. And we’re 2 looking at a property that has one road in and one 3 emergency road out. Have you seen any areas where you 4 had large condensed dwellings where most of it has deer 5 fence and other barriers to

’re 2 looking at a property that has one road in and one 3 emergency road out. Have you seen any areas where you 4 had large condensed dwellings where most of it has deer 5 fence and other barriers to be able to readily get out 6 in the event of a project-wide emergency? 7 MR. DeFEO: I’m not certain about the 8 question. None of these are generally planned around 9 that -- 10 MS. WHITE: Yeah, and that’s actually is my 11 question -- 12 MR. DeFEO: -- but there is more -- as a 13 point of -- I’m not the planner but as a point of 14 information, as I’ve read the plans, there actually are 15 three points of access and egress to that property, not 16 one. So that would not be an accurate statement to say 17 there’s only one egress or access point. That’s the 18 only thing I could answer to. 19 MS. WHITE: Okay. So, I guess -- make sure 20 I’m very clear in understanding that, in the work that 21 you did in determining that there was a like-kind 22 situation -- other properties versus this one, you did 23 not look at or encounter any area where you had heavy 24 forestation, limited access on uneven terrain that had 25 a large apartment unit or many units in the middle of 12 1 it? 2 MR. DeFEO: Specifically, it was not a site- 3 specific analysis, no. 4 MS. WHITE: Okay. That was question one. 5 MR. DeFEO: It wouldn’t be relevant. 6 MS. WHITE: I have another one. And this 7 one, again, may be out of your primary background and 8 information, but I am also curious since you’ve had the 9 opportunity on several occasions to walk the full 10 property and get, you know, some pretty decent 11 familiarity. 12 Based on your qualifications, I’m curious 13 about if you have any thoughts about what you might 14 have seen or might have been thinking in terms of the 15 ability for anyone to respond if we were to have 16 something similar to what we’ve had right now in New 17 Jersey -- fast-moving fire in a relatively small place? 18 MR. DeFEO: Well, again, I think this 19 question had come up last -- whatever week that was -- 20 I’m not sure of the date now -- 21 MS. WHITE: Yeah, I’m losing track of time, 22 too. 23 MR. DeFEO: But to answer your question, I’m 24 not a qualified fire expert, but I would say to you 25 that as of right now, the property has limited access