9 12 24 West Orange BOA ZB 24 06 PSEG Full size Transcript

Page 21 1 engineering license in the State of New Jersey? 2 A. I do. My original license was in Kansas 3 in 2009, and my New Jersey license I got in 2019 4 through reciprocity and it is currently active. 5 Q. Great. Thank you. 6 And what specifically is your current 7 title and the nature of your present employment? 8 A. I'm an associate civil engineer in the 9 Burns & McDonnell transmission and distribution 10 group. And my main responsibilities are overseeing 11 the civil site team for development projects here in 12 our Kansas City office and in some of our regional 13 offices as well, mainly focused on site development, 14 stormwater grading, drainage, utility updates, et 15 cetera. 16 Q. Thank you. 17 And, lastly, have you previously 18 testified before land use boards in the State of New 19 Jersey? 20 A. Yes, I have. Borough -- the most recent 21 ones are Borough of Englewood Cliffs, City of Orange 22 Township, City of Camden, Borough of Roseland, 23 Edison Township, and the City of Bayonne. 24 Q. Thank you. 25 MS. PORTER: I would respectfully request

Page 22 1 that the Board deem Mr. Blake an expert in the field 2 of civil engineering. 3 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Does any member of the 4 Board have questions with regard to credentials? 5 Seeing none, I will happily recognize 6 Mr. Blake as an expert in the field of civil 7 engineering. 8 MS. PORTER: Great. Thank you, 9 Mr. Chairman. 10 THE WITNESS: Thank you. 11 BY MS. PORTER: 12 Q. Now, Mr. Blake, could you begin by 13 explaining what your role has been with respect to 14 the application that's currently before the Board 15 and if you are fully familiar with the application 16 that is the subject of tonight's hearing? 17 A. Yes. I oversaw the design for the 18 stormwater grading and drainage, site development 19 package, and I was also the engineer of record. I'm 20 fully aware of the aspects of the project and I -- 21 what was the last question you asked? 22 Q. And specifically if you're fully familiar 23 with the application. 24 A. Okay. Yes, I'm fully familiar with the 25 application.

Page 23 1 Q. Great. 2 So could you please begin by describing 3 the existing conditions of the site? 4 A. Yes. First I'd like to start presenting 5 an exhibit, M-1, which is the boundary and 6 topographic survey. Let me share my screen. 7 Q. And in sharing, if we could just provide 8 the name and title of that plan and date. And I 9 believe that this was part of our prior submission 10 package to the town. So this is not a new exhibit 11 that would need to be marked. 12 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Correct. 13 THE WITNESS: Are you able to see the 14 drawing on the screen? Because it's not showing the 15 red square. That's why I'm wondering. 16 CHAIRMAN NEUER: I can see it. I don't 17 know about anybody else. 18 COMMISSIONER DANNEMILLER: It looks fine. 19 I can see it. 20 THE WITNESS: Okay. Good deal. Thank 21 you. 22 Okay. So -- 23 CHAIRMAN NEUER: The name of the drawing 24 and the latest revision date, please? 25 THE WITNESS: Yes. Well, it's Exhibit

Page 24 1 M-1, but it's a boundary and topographic survey and 2 it's dated May 2nd, 2024. 3 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Thank you. 4 A. So the existing conditions. The West 5 Orange switching station is located at the 6 northwestern intersection of Mount Pleasant and 7 Prospect Avenue. There's two sheets to the plan, 8 because it's a rather large site. So there's a 9 match line at the -- here in the middle, kind of 10 right across from Marcella Avenue. So all you see 11 right now is Prospect Avenue, which is the northern 12 half of the station. 13 The parcel is identified as Block 155, Lot 14 26.01 and, on the West Orange tax map, 88, and it is 15 approximately 23.4 acres in area. The existing 26 16 kV station consists of crushed rock surfacing, 17 several concrete foundations, dry paths. On top of 18 the foundations is miscellaneous electrical 19 equipment. 20 In addition, there's a lot of underground 21 electrical duct banks and utilities that crisscross 22 throughout the site. 23 There's also an existing control house 24 which is kind of the yellowish-orange structure 25 right in the middle. That's existing as well.

Page 25 1 And then we're going to go to Sheet 3 of 2 this exhibit, which is just the bottom half. You 3 can see the match line here as well. 4 Q. Could you just read the title block and 5 the date of that? 6 A. Oh, sorry. This is "Boundary and 7 Topographic Survey." It's also May 2nd, 2024. 8 And then in the bottom right you can see "Sheet 3 of 9 3." 10 Q. Great. Thank you. 11 CHAIRMAN NEUER: I'm sorry. I apologize 12 to everyone. I have a personal emergency that just 13 came in. I need to take a ten-minute recess. I 14 apologize to everyone, but it's unavoidable to me. 15 So please turn off your videos. Turn off your 16 microphones. 17 MEETING MODERATOR: Can you unshare the 18 map? 19 THE WITNESS: Oh, yeah. Sorry. 20 MEETING MODERATOR: No, that's fine. 21 Thank you. 22 THE WITNESS: I forgot that part. 23 (Whereupon, a recess is taken.) 24 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Thank you all for your 25 courtesy. It is 8:40. We are out of recess.

Page 26 1 Ms. Porter, please continue with your 2 witness. 3 MS. PORTER: Yes. Thank you, 4 Mr. Chairman. 5 BY MS. PORTER: 6 Q. Mr. Blake, if you could please continue 7 where you left off and reshare your screen. 8 A. Okay. Where was I? I was describing the 9 existing conditions. I think I covered that. 10 Sorry, I had the wrong drawing up. Oh, I 11 was talking about the south -- south half of the -- 12 of the Sheet 3 of 3 of the boundary and topographic 13 survey. 14 So the existing control building is the 15 orangish structure in the middle of the site that I 16 was discussing on the previous sheet. You can see 17 that's kind of where the match line is. Existing 18 equipment and foundations are in this area. The 19 lighter gray is the existing gravel and then the 20 darker gray hatching is the existing access 21 drives. 22 There's currently three access drives at 23 the existing site, as you can see: Two off of this 24 sheet off Mount Pleasant, and then on the previous 25 sheet, on Sheet 2 of 3, in the northernmost corner

Page 27 1 off Prospect Avenue. 2 Proposed conditions. I'm going to stick 3 with Exhibit M-1, but I'm going to now go to the 4 site plan, which is dated May 2nd, 2024. This is 5 Sheet 2 of 3 of the site plan. Similar to the 6 survey that I showed earlier, there is a match line. 7 So half the site is split on this sheet and then on 8 the next sheet. 9 The items that are in red are the proposed 10 equipment and access drive. This drawing basically 11 depicts or is overlaid on top of the survey to show 12 what items are new compared to the existing. The 13 proposed upgrade to the existing 26 kV substation 14 yard is anything basically to the right of the main 15 access drive. That is the darker hatch down the 16 center of the pad. 17 Access to the site will be secure and 18 parking for PSE&G -- PSE&G employees will be 19 available on-site through various spots between the 20 equipment and along the internal paths in the 21 station yard. 22 There are three existing access points 23 that I had mentioned earlier and those will be 24 maintained. On the south half, which is where one 25 of the existing access drives, will be updated.

Page 28 1 It's the one in the center and I will zoom in so 2 it's easier to see. 3 We reconfigured the access drive off of 4 Mount Pleasant in order to better accommodate 5 turning situations from either direction on Mount 6 Pleasant. So the existing drive was very difficult 7 to turn left into the station if you were going 8 eastbound on the road. This will provide better 9 access from either direction. 10 Additionally, there's a gate that is set 11 back 30 feet from the property line which allows 12 enough room for vehicles to pull in and not have 13 the back end of the vehicle hanging out into the 14 road. 15 The two other access points that I 16 discussed earlier will remain the same with no 17 change. 18 The station will also be upgrading the 19 perimeter fence. As you can see, there's a thin red 20 line that basically works its way all the way around 21 the property, up Prospect Avenue. We'll go back up 22 to the previous sheet as it comes up and wraps 23 around, and then it turns back into the station just 24 south of the existing entrance off of Prospect 25 Avenue.

Page 29 1 This fence will be an 8-foot Ameristar 2 fence. And the removal of the existing fence will 3 happen first, so it will be installed basically in 4 the same location as the current fence. 5 The station -- the station's interior 6 drives will be macadam -- will be a macadam 7 material, and then the rest of the station areas 8 that are the lighter gray hatch will be replaced or 9 updated with new crushed rock gravel. It's a clean 10 rock so there's minimal fines and this is due to 11 safety reasons. So it's not a compacted-type 12 crushed rock, so it does allow for some stormwater 13 mitigation. 14 On this drawing as well, as you can see, 15 the new equipment is expanding to the south. So the 16 existing gray hatched, you can see where it stops. 17 That's the old limits of the station. Because the 18 station is now expanding to the south, we will be 19 adding crushed rock in the areas that are in and 20 around the circle drive. There will also be kind of 21 a perimeter offset from the access road. 22 There are five stormwater management 23 bioretention basins: Three are located east of the 24 main access drive, between the access drive and 25 Prospect Avenue, and then there are two located on

Page 30 1 the south side of the property on either side of the 2 access drive. 3 With that, I will give a little more 4 detail on the stormwater management. So the project 5 is considered major development, but it is only 6 required to -- 7 CHAIRMAN NEUER: I'm sorry, Mr. Blake. I 8 apologize again. I'm going to step down from the 9 Chair and ask Mr. Schwarzbaum, our Vice Chairperson, 10 to take over the rest of this meeting tonight. I 11 apologize, but there's a personal family emergency 12 that I have to attend to. 13 So please continue the meeting under the 14 tutelage of the wonderful Irv Schwarzbaum. 15 ACTING CHAIR SCHWARZBAUM: I hope 16 everything is okay with your family. 17 THE WITNESS: I likewise. 18 COMMISSIONER SUSSMAN: Likewise, yeah. 19 THE WITNESS: Hope everything's okay. 20 (Record notes Chairman Neuer is no longer 21 present.) 22 THE WITNESS: All right. So stormwater. 23 The site's considered a major development, but we 24 are only required to treat quantity. A series of 25 bioretention basins and underdrains are proposed to