August 25, 2025, Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 TOWNSHIP OF WEST ORANGE DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2025 6:30 P.M. RE; PB-24-01 WEST ESSEX HIGHLANDS, INC. BOARD MEMBERS: ROBERT BAGOFF, Chairman JERRY GUARINO, Vice Chairman SUSAN McCARTNEY, Mayor KEN ALPER LORI KAPFERER JOHN CARDOZA SUSAN SCARPA, Council Person JORDAN RIZZO, Engineer GERARD HAIZEL, Planner JAMILET BAQUERIZO VITE, Board Secretary GENIECE GARY-ADAMS, Zoning Official JOSEPH FAGAN, Zoom Moderator WITNESSES: JOHN HASSE JULIANA GARREFFA MICHELE BYERS JONATHAN REDWINE FISHMAN COURT REPORTING AGENCY 89 HEADQUARTERS PLAZA NORTH 4 SPEEDWELL AVENUE, SUITE 1440 MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY 07960 (973) 285-5331 - FAX - (732) 605-9391

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 A P P E A R A N C E S: HUTT, SHIMANOWITZ & PLOCKER, ESQS. BY BRYAN D. PLOCKER, ESQ. Bplocker@huttshim.com 459 AMBOY AVENUE WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY 07095 Appearing on behalf of the Applicant GACCIONE & POMACO, ESQS. BY DIANA P. McGOVERN, ESQ. ONE BOLAND DRIVE, SUITE 102 WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY 07052 Appearing on behalf of the Board BRUCE I. AFRAN, ESQ. 10 BRAEBRUN DRIVE PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 Appearing on behalf of the Objector, We Care NJ Corp.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 I N D E X O F E X H I B I T S EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION 0-22 OVERLAYS 0-23 STATEMENT - SOUTH ORANGE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION 0-24 STATEMENT - WEST ORANGE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION 0-25 RESOLUTION - WEST ORANGE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Application PB-24-01 West Essex Highlands, Incorporated, Block 179 Lot 32 Zone IH-1, Warner Road. The applicant is proposing to develop a 496 unit inclusionary multifamily residential development on a vacant 120 acre property in the northwest corner of the Township. For the applicant, Mr. Plocker. MR. PLOCKER: Good evening, Mr. Chairman. Bryan Plocker from the firm Hutt, Shimanowitz & Plocker. Here on behalf of the applicant. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Are you done? MR. PLOCKER: I don't have anything right now. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Good. Okay. Up to you. Mr. Afran. Thank you, sir. MR. AFRAN: Good evening members of the board -- good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. I am Bruce Afran, counsel for the objector, We Care. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: You have the floor, sir. MR. AFRAN: Thank you. We have three witnesses tonight. As the board may know by now one witness, Mr. Hadascko, had an injury last night or this morning and is unable to be here today. But we do have Professor Hasse from, John

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 Hasse, from Rowan University, Michele Byers, retired from New Jersey Conservation Foundation and we have Al Litwornia from Litwornia Associates who will be presenting our traffic, RSIS and interrelated civil engineering issues. We are going to begin this evening with Professor Hasse. Now, I understand he's going to put the record into the boards computer so he can control the board directly in presenting and making his presentation. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Go right ahead. Q. If I could introduce him very briefly, he'll qualify himself. Professor Hasse is in the Department of Geography and Planning at Rowan University. He is a geographer by academic discipline. He also teaches in the planning field, though he's not a licensed planner in New Jersey, he has a national planning certification. He is the director of the Geospatial Lab at Rowan University and as you may know, that is a depository of the states documentation, photographic and other documentation, concerning land development sites which is regularly used in state planning matters. And he'll be presenting from the data base of the GIS and Rowan, which is also

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 the state data base, which he is the custodian with respect to materials relevant to understanding this particular site. MS. MCGOVERN: Do you have a spelling of his last name? MR. AFRAN: Yeah. He'll correct me if I'm wrong, H-A-S-S-E. THE WITNESS: That's correct. MR. AFRAN: And it's pronounced Hasse? THE WITNESS: Hasse, yes. MR. AFRAN: Thank you. A. Good evening. Do I have -- can you hear me? Do I need a microphone. MR. AFRAN: Can you voir dire him. MS. MCGOVERN: Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth. THE WITNESS: I do. J O H N H A S S E, having been duly sworn testifies as follows: Q. Professor Hasse, I would ask you to project whenever possible. If the air-conditioning goes on it becomes hard to hear. So my voice isn't so strong right now, try to project if you can. A. I will try my best. Q. Professor Hasse, you have been sworn in, let me

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 just ask you a few questions to qualify as an expert. I mentioned earlier you are on the faculty at Rowan University, is that correct? A. Correct. Q. What is your academic position? A. I am a professor of geography and I am the director of the undergraduate program and planning, also the director of the Geospatial research lab where we do GIS analysis. Q. And just describe generally what is a GIS analysis? A. Geographical Information Systems is a way of essentially doing mapping with computers that are powerful. You can ask all kinds of questions of the GIS and I often say that geographers -- three most important things that geographers study are location, location, location. Real estate people have stolen that from us, but that's what we do. Why there. Why does it make sense there and why not someplace else and what are the conflicts in the space there. GIS is probably getting a lot of attention right now because there are districting projects going on across the nation, potentially, and computer mapping is technology that allows analysis like that to happen. I will correct one thing that you said about

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 8 Rowan being the depository. It's a depository, it's not the depository. We use safe mapping data to produce our own series of state atlas, but it's not the state atlas in New Jersey, it's Rowan's version. Just wanted to be clear on that. But I'll be demonstrating that, that's why I wanted to have the ability to have the computer control. Q. Thank you. MR. AFRAN: I would like to proffer Professor Hasse as an expert in Geospatial analysis and planning analysis based on Geospatial presentation. MR. CARDOZA: I have a question. Would you speak more to the national certificate, I believe Mr. Afran mentioned, as opposed to the New Jersey license? THE WITNESS: So nationally there's only two states that require a state specific license, that's New Jersey and Oregon. The rest of the states, it's Association Institute of Certified Planners, AICP. I have my AICP. I have my planner in training from New Jersey, but as of academic, I never finished the actual transfer over to my planning license because I am not in a practicing planning situation, I am teaching. MR. CARDOZA: Thank you. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: What is this information going to do for us?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9 MR. AFRAN: I couldn't really answer that until I see it, but it's going to analyze, my understanding it's going to analyze the site in conjunction with the geographical area around it, which is critical because one of the tasks under the MLUL, whether there's an ordinance or not, is avoidance of environmental and ecological harm from any site plan application. In addition, traffic analysis for example, is another critical area. Flooding we've heard about from this project, or potentially from this project through Princeton Hydro, all that relates to the surrounding geography of the region and what impacts it will have on areas surrounding this particular site. One way to understand that environmental impact is to see visually the environment around the property. We can't look at the four squares and say we understand the impact. So this is -- generally this is a tool that's used in state planning, and Professor Hasse can into that himself, to analyze the affect of development and to planned developments throughout the state. GIS is a fundamental planning tool and so that's the purpose. And it's used in the state planning process, so certainly relevant here. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Will you be evaluating the

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10 Township of West Orange or just this piece of land? THE WITNESS: This presentation is just over the proposal. But the mapping that I will show, it's available through Rowan, it's freely available, there's no pay wall, no log in. It's meant to be a public service and many planning boards use New Jersey Map, which is what we post at Rowan, because there are literally hundreds of layers of information that you can use for any project. You can zoom in on any proposal and see what data is available. We have most of the state and then we create our own interpretation of that, that are intentionally designed for public interest. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: You're basically testifying to the geography of the area? THE WITNESS: The geography of the proposal and geographic significance of this layout, this location and the implications of that. MR. AFRAN: I will stress it is a common planning tool. To go through the GIS analysis is perfectly proper as expert testimony. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: We used GIS planning previously, I'm trying to understand how this is going to speak to the zoning ordinance. And more particularly talk about it's either there or hypothetical. The GIA tells you something's physically there. Everything else