June 4, 2026 Special Meeting

board to grant those variances and in that regard, in particular, with how the negative criteria is considered, which you've heard a lot of testimony on that, both from the applicant's planner as well as the residents who testified. It's important to keep in mind since this is a D3 variance and not a D1, that it should really be applied to the fast food restaurant to the extent that it's not permitted because it's a conditional use, and not necessarily to what would be otherwise permitted on this site. So, a restaurant, not fast food restaurant would be permitted on the site. So, regular impacts from a standard operation of a restaurant on the site, which the IHOP is a regular restaurant, that one's not fast food, that would otherwise be permitted, and if this were at the Planning Board, the standard impacts, if they didn't require any other variances, you know, you just kind of have to live with whatever those impacts from a restaurant would be if you live somewhere near it. So, keep in mind the impacts, particularly of the fast food and I think that relates a little bit to the drive-thru, even though they do meet the conditions for a drive-thru, they're not conditional use requirements, they're just bulk standards. They do meet those conditions. The drive- thru is associated with the Popeyes half and not the HOP, so that is part of the fast food. He continued stating that just because several members of the public had mentioned that they feel fast food is maybe not the type of, quality of restaurant they were looking for, that they feel like maybe doesn't meet the the profile of their vision for West Orange. He agrees with Ms. Kinback that the perceived quality of a restaurant, fast food or not, is really not an appropriate consideration for the zoning board and not a reason to be voting yes or no on this application. J. Hess noted that there have been seven (7) review letters on this application back on April 9: 2026 and they have been limited to compliance with engineering design issues, and in the April 9th letter, no outstanding engineering design issues were remaining. It seems the case is strictly on the grant of the various variances that have been requested by the applicant. BOARD DISCUSSION T. Dubovy spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, including the shade tree requirement not being met to reach a 50% level. T. Ben-Zvi

requested by the applicant. BOARD DISCUSSION T. Dubovy spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, including the shade tree requirement not being met to reach a 50% level. T. Ben-Zvi spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, including the safety factors of this application. M. Dannemiller spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, including that either of these uses could be great and nice on the site and the variances requested are not due to hardship but a desire to fit too much on a small site. M. Sussman spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, including the proximity to the residential homes, trying to cram too much onto the single lot, and the Traffic Studies being done before Target opened. A, Weiss spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, including the hours of operation for both proposed restaurants, in disagreement with their noise studies, and the traffic study not taking into account West Orange Plaza’s recent opening of Target. B. D. Scott spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, but stated that it is nothing against Popeyes as an organization just that this is just not suitable due to proximity to residences. R. Miller spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, including non creditable testimony referencing the April 16, 2026 meeting where testimony stated that there would only be 120 cars per day. She believes that it be more similar to 120 per hour during high volume times which is just unacceptable in her opinion at that site. L. Cohen spoke in opposition to this application due to many factors, despite liking the food at both restaurants (IHOP and Popeyes), having such a detriment to the neighbors because of the two (2) restaurants in one deal not being acceptable to him as it’s just not safe.