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 11 is hypothetical what could happen around it. So they're not speaking to areas that are around there that were also built and how -- I'm pretty loud. MR. AFRAN: It's actually hard to hear. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: We're looking for objects of information, so if you testify to the application as geography, talk to the geography, we had other experts speak to different areas, so we'll go slowly and we'll see how that goes. MR. AFRAN: Fair enough. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Because we don't have things entered into the record that are not speaking to the application directly or hypothetically. MR. AFRAN: Well, I differ. I don't think anything's hypothetical, except to the extent when we have had testimony about geostructural problems that may arise, flooding that may arise. That's not hypothetical, it's based on actual data that's known, though it's never known precisely what the ultimate limitations would be. So when you speak of hypothetical, I think that's an overstatement. We've not had hypothetical testimony, we've had testimony based on actual data that experts say will reasonably lead to the potential for the following. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: We also had experts on

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 12 both sides of that coin -- MR. AFRAN: Right. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: -- so that means the information becomes hypothetical because they're over to the left or over to the right, there's something in the middle. MR. AFRAN: No, it could be on the left or right, doesn't have to be in the middle. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Usually ends up in the middle. Mr. Plocker. MR. PLOCKER: Respect to qualifications. I'd just like to make clear for testimony in the record, are you a professional engineer? THE WITNESS: No. MR. PLOCKER: Okay. Have you ever made any type of application to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection? THE WITNESS: No. MR. PLOCKER: Okay. CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Thank you. Go right ahead, sir. THE WITNESS: Okay. Thank you. A. So the New Jersey Map Project, which we run out of Rowan, is an online public service map of many of New

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 13 Jersey's GIS data layers and we packaged them in a way that makes it accessible to the nonexpert user. Planning boards are a big target that we're trying to provide this information to, to make the most informed decisions. I'm going to be talking to you about looking at this development from two different angles. One, I had been working with the Office of Planning Advocacy on the State Plan Update and we have a map that is -- a couple of maps that is here directly for serving the estate planning process. And we also have been working for about ten years with a number of conservation groups, including a GIS model that helps to prioritize woodlands that are most valuable for conservation and because you can't, you know, preserve everything. So there's priority models that we have done for that. So we're going to look at it through two different lenses. The smart growth planing and from the conservation, what I call, smart conservation planning. We have many other map layers here as you can see. The proposed project, as you know, is a 496 unit, multifamily residential, 120 acres currently forested land. And the question is, is this the most appropriate use of this land or what are the costs to West Orange. So this idea of smart growth, is it efficient, is it

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 14 cost effective. We're going to look at some of the ways of measuring that using the computer mapping technology. Okay. So when we think about land systems, we think about smart growth, we think about conservation. It's a system. It functions in the way that things have to be connected. This is da Vinci's very famous diagram of a perfect human, right. These are at the right spot, they're connected in the right way, the right scale, and this is really analogous to form follows function. So think about it, the components are where they should be, at the right scale, efficient, connected, flowing, integrated. But form follows function. Think about sprawl, a lot of New Jersey has had a lot of development that's not connected. It's in the wrong scale, it's impacting the resources that shouldn't be impacted. We can think about that not functioning very well. So this is in like a smart growth context. Urban sprawl is something that things are just scattered, in the wrong place, at the wrong scale, inefficient, poorly connected, congested and segregated and wasteful. Sprawl development is documented in many places as being much more costly than a smart growth development. So we think about the smart growth of having things that are designed in the scale of humans. The image on the left,

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 15 this is from the State Planning Office. Same amount of development as the right picture, the left is idealized on here. What makes smart growth. A communities a place. On the right sprawl, everything goes anywhere, inefficient, costly. Okay. So can smart growth be distinguished from sprawl. Well, before GIS technology it was very difficult to do. But we've been developing a way of looking at any proposed development and seeing what are the implications. You can call it smart growth, you can call it whatever you want. The coefficient and affect is it on the landscape. Let me show you how it works. It is really based in a lot of principles that were from the State Office of Planning Advocacy, as in this case, and in many of the planning journals over decades. So what does it mean to be smart growth. It's not just a nice sounding term. So my first part of what I'm going to be showing you is the ten measurements of smart growth that we developed at Rowan and then ten measurements of smart conservation. So quickly going through this, and I think my diagram makes it clear. First of all, high density of smart growth doesn't consume so much land. So the left-hand image is less unit consumed per housing unit, per person to

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 16 house. Second one is, is it infill. Is it contiguous to existing development or leapfrogging out into areas that aren't developed yet. That's our second measurement. We can measure that, again, with computer mapping. Third measurement, smart growth is mixed use. It's things that are creating community assets that you can walk to, that have a sense of place, where sprawl is large areas all the same thing, homogenous and so forth. So we can measure that, again, using computer metrics. The fourth measurement, is it, is it, is it create a community streetscape or are the streetscape's highway strip sprawling ribbon growth. Fifth measurement, regional planning consistency. Right. There is a state plan. It's important for towns to be able to work together, to be coordinating with a state plan. But the state plan is not something that has hard teeth in it. It is something that is voluntary. So how well does the local development proposal comply with the state plan. Or, or a regional plan. These are metrics that can be used all across the country. Another thing we look at is road infrastructure. How efficient are the roads. And typically when you have blocks you have a more efficient road. There's

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 17 alternate ways to go. You're using up less land miles per house. And, again, it creates a neighborhood versus loops and lollipops of what we ordinarily consider sprawl. Sixth measurement is, do you have access to non automobile transportation. What's the closest that any particular unit proposal is to something other than a car. And if you are close enough to it can you walk to it or ride a bicycle to it. Seventh measurement is transient sensibility. Eighth measurement is community roads. Well, if you're going to go somewhere in town it's probably going to be to something that is common for people to do, so for example a grocery store, a school, a library, a hospital. We can actually use GIS to measure the distance from every single unit in a proposed development and get an idea of how much it is going to generate. And, again, if you're closer, ideally within walking or biking distance to your, to your community destination, that would be ideal smart growth. And then nine is our land resource integrity. Is the proposal consuming important natural resources or impacting that in some kind of way. So, again, if the development is done in such a manner where it avoids the most sensitive lands that would be considered smart

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 18 growth. Whereas, indiscriminate consumption of resources is considered problematic sprawl. And finally ten is the measurement of what is the impact of this particular growth project on the whole town, on the whole region. Explosive growth is often considered synonymous with sprawl. When things are just growing so fast or, in the case of West Orange, how much land do you have left. Is it consuming your remaining lands and that would be more so the case because you are largely built out. Down in Gloucester County, where I'm from, it's more of the former. Where we have explosive growth in towns that are growing faster than anyplace else in the state. So let's take a look at this. If we look at the project, and I encourage you to follow along and for each one of these you can give your own grade, you'll get a little report card, I'm a professor, I like to grade things, right. So as we go through this, I'm not going to tell you what my grade is, at the end I'll give you a little glimpse. I invite the board and participants here to make their own notes about what they grade each factor for this particular proposal and in doing so I will probably jump out and show you some NJ maps that are behind this. So let's start with density, right. You have 120

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 19 acres of parcel, 496 units, that's a quarter acre per unit. How do you feel about that? Is that sprawling? Is that smart growth? Smart growth you give it an A. If it's sprawling, give it an F, is it somewhere in between. And so that's the first measurement. So number one, what's the density. Is that density that we'd identify as smart growth. Okay. Number two, infill versus leapfrogging. All right. Well, is this adjacent to existing development or is it leapfrogging out into areas of open space. Well, these are rough measurements, probably within ten percent, but we estimated to the north is about 300 feet to the closest housing unit. To the east is 800 hundred, to the south 604, to the west 885 feet. Again, these are estimates, they're pretty close, I almost guarantee this, but this was not, you know, done to the level of detail because the plan frankly was not detailed enough for us to put that kind of detail measurement in. So, again, is this, in your mind, a leapfrogged development or is this smart growth. Are things like contiguous or infilling spots that are vacant lots within the community. Number three, mixed use versus segregated land use. Okay. What is this land use. Is it, is there some kind of mission use here. Are there other things

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 20 to do besides a bedroom to sleep in and housing units. As far as I understand this project is multifamily residential, it's only residential. So single land use. Okay. Again, you're free to have your own grade here. Number four, community streetscape, is it creating a community in it's street layout where you can walk to the neighbors house, you can walk to a grocery store or is it creating streets that are ribbon or highway without sidewalks where you can't safely walk or ride a bike or use a stroller. Again, what's your grade for this. Number five, is it consistent with a regional plan. This ones a little bit of a trick question. The state plan has this area as, does anybody know? What is our planning area in the state plan? It's a Planning Area 1, Metropolitan, that's where majority of growth should happen. Right. If you read the state plan it doesn't mean fill it up entirely with development. It means that's where you should focus development, but it also says there's a concept of centers. You're developing centers and you protect the environment and the environment could be within Planning Area 1. So, again, what's your sense of whether this is fulfilling the state plan.