12 12 24 PSEG West Orange BOA ZB 24 06 PSEG 35 Mt Pleasant Ave Full Size

Page 1 TOWNSHIP OF WEST ORANGE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT ------------------------------x IN THE MATTER OF: CASE NO. ZB-24-06 TRANSCRIPT PUBLIC SERVICE ELECTRIC AND OF GAS COMPANY PROCEEDINGS 35 Mount Pleasant Avenue ------------------------------x Thursday, December 12, 2024 Zoom Remote Videoconference Commencing at 8:06 p.m. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: PHILIP D. NEUER, Chairman IRV SCHWARZBAUM, Vice Chairman JEROME EBEN BRENT DRAPER SCOTT WILLIAM MICHAEL BARBEE PETER T. RICCI ALICE WEISS (ABSENT) MICHAEL DANNEMILLER, ALTERNATE (ABSENT) MARK SUSSMAN, ALTERNATE (ABSENT) A P P E A R A N C E S SAVO, SCHALK, CORSINI, WARNER, GILLISPIE, O'GRODNICK & FISHER, P.A. BY: JOHN J. DELUCA, JUNIOR, ESQUIRE 56 East Main Street, Suite 301 Somerville, New Jersey 08876 908-526-0707 Deluca@centraljerseylaw.com Attorneys for the Board PRECISION REPORTING SERVICE Certified Shorthand Reporters (908) 642-4299

Page 2 1 A P P E A R A N C E S (Continued) 2 CHIESA SHAHINIAN & GIANTOMASI, PC BY: JENNIFER M. PORTER, ESQUIRE 3 -AND- ERICA ANTONYA PARLAVECCHIO, ESQUIRE 4 105 Eisenhower Parkway Roseland, New Jersey 07068 5 973-530-2071 Jporter@csglaw.com 6 Attorneys for the Applicant 7 THE TURTELTAUB LAW FIRM, LLC BY: JAMES M. TURTELTAUB ESQUIRE 8 98 Main Street, 2nd Floor P.O. Box 458 9 Madison, New Jersey 07940 862-276-2593 10 James.Turteltaub@turteltaublaw.com Attorney for the Kevin Malanga 11 12 A L S O P R E S E N T : 13 DIANA CHANDLER, Board Secretary 14 JOHN HESS, PE, PP, CME, Board Consulting Engineer 15 GEORGE WHEATLE WILLIAMS, ACIP, PP, Town Planner 16 MEGAN BRILL, Meeting Moderator 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Page 3 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 WITNESS PAGE SWORN 3 JOHN HESS, PE, PP, CME 8 4 GEORGE WHEATLE WILLIAMS, ACIP, PP 9 5 JOHN D. LINSON, SR 18 By Mr. Turteltaub......................19,23,95 6 By Ms. Porter..........................42,104 By the Board...........................21 7 By the Public..........................88 8 ROBIN BLANTON, P.E. By Mr. Turteltaub......................110,117 9 By Ms. Porter..........................113 By the Board...........................115 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Page 4 1 EXHIBITS NUMBER DESCRIPTION PAGE 2 Exhibit 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Page 5 1 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Good evening, 2 everyone. With the power vested in me as 3 Chairperson, I call this special meeting of the West 4 Orange Zoning Board of Adjustment to order. Today is 5 December 12, 2024. It is 8:00 p.m., and this meeting 6 is being conducted virtually using the Zoom platform. 7 Notice of this meeting was given to the 8 township clerk, the West Orange Chronicle, and the 9 Star Ledger, posted on the township bulletin board, 10 all in accordance with the Senator Byron M. Baer Open 11 Public Meetings Act. 12 I ask all to rise as we'll Pledge 13 Allegiance to the Flag. 14 (Whereupon, all rise for a recitation 15 of the Pledge of Allegiance.) 16 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Please be seated. 17 Legal counsel tonight is John DeLuca. 18 Mr. DeLuca, would you be so kind as to 19 read the opening statement? 20 MR. DELUCA: Absolutely. 21 Thank you for welcoming me. 22 The Zoning Board of Adjustment is a 23 quasi judicial body. It hears evidence from sworn 24 witnesses and makes decision as would a court of law. 25 The Applicants are here because the

Page 6 1 projects they propose do not meet the requirements of 2 the West Orange zoning code, or they have been denied 3 permits by the building inspector. 4 We are their first avenue of appeal. 5 Board Members have a two-fold responsibility; first, 6 to see that the Applicant is treated as fairly as 7 possible, since no zoning code can foresee all 8 possible inequities; and second, to protect the 9 welfare of the community as a whole, which is the 10 basic purpose of the municipal zoning. 11 Our procedures are simple. The 12 Applicant presents his case. Objectors present their 13 case. Citizens in the audience are then given an 14 opportunity to speak, both for or against an 15 application. We expect the conduct of these 16 proceedings to be dignified and orderly so that all 17 parties may obtain a fair and impartial hearing. 18 As our proceedings are public, so is 19 our decisionmaking, which usually takes place the 20 same evening. Because appeals from the decisions of 21 the board can be made to the courts and in some cases 22 to the township council solely on the basis of the 23 record before this body and since the rules of 24 evidence and case law are technical, we would like to 25 advise all persons have a right to legal counsel in

Page 7 1 these proceedings. And we, the Board, will consider 2 an adjournment to anyone who wishes additional time 3 to obtain counsel. 4 Thank you. 5 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Thank you, Mr. DeLuca. 6 Ms. Chandler, kindly call the roll. 7 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Barbee? 8 MR. BARBEE: Here. 9 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Dannemiller? 10 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Excused absence. 11 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Eben? 12 MR. EBEN: Present. 13 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Ricci? 14 (No Response.) 15 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Ricci? 16 MR. RICCI: Here. 17 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Sussman? 18 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Excused absence. 19 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Schwarzbaum? 20 VICE CHAIRMAN SCHWARZBAUM: Here. 21 MS. CHANDLER: Mr. Scott? 22 MR. SCOTT: Present. 23 MS. CHANDLER: Mrs. Weiss? 24 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Excused absence. 25 MS. CHANDLER: Chairperson Neuer?

Page 8 1 CHAIRMAN NEUER: I am here. 2 Thank you. 3 MS. CHANDLER: You're welcome. 4 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Announcements are, 5 with respect to future meetings, regular meeting will 6 be held on December 19th, 2024, which is one week 7 from this evening. 8 Our first meeting of calendar year 2025 9 will be January 16th, 2025. That will be our 10 reorganization meeting. I expect that we may have -- 11 we may have a new member or members at that time. 12 Mr. DeLuca, we have two professionals 13 here this evening for the Board, George Williams and 14 John Hess. 15 Would you be so kind as to administer 16 the oath? 17 MR. DELUCA: Yes. 18 Please raise your right hands, 19 gentlemen. 20 Do you solemnly swear to tell the 21 truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? 22 MR. HESS: I do. 23 J O H N H E S S, PE, PP, CME 24 849 West Bay Avenue, Suite 16, Barnegat New 25 Jersey, having been duly sworn, testifies as

Page 9 1 follows: 2 MR. WILLIAMS: I most certainly do. 3 G E O R G E W. W I L L I A M S, ACIP, PP 4 105 CR-623, Suite 1, Montclair, New Jersey, 5 having been duly sworn, testifies as follows: 6 MR. DeLUCA: Thank you. 7 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Thank you all. 8 We have one application on our agenda 9 this evening, that's application ZB-24-06, Public 10 Service Electric and Gas Company, for property 11 designated as Lot 26.01 in Block 155, also known as 12 325 Mount Pleasant Avenue. 13 Counsel, your appearance for the 14 record, please. 15 MS. PORTER: Good evening, 16 Mr. Chairman. Jen Porter from CSG Law on behalf of 17 the applicant, PSE&G. 18 And I also have with me my co-counsel, 19 Erica Parlavecchio. 20 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Yes, we saw 21 Ms. Parlavecchio at a prior meeting. 22 MS. PORTER: Yes. 23 CHAIRMAN NEUER: Welcome to both of 24 you. 25 MS. PARLAVECCHIO: Thank you.

Page 10 1 CHAIRMAN NEUER: This application has 2 been heard on four prior occasions by the Board; 3 August 15th, September 12, September 19th and 4 October 17th. 5 Mr. DeLuca, we've already verified that 6 notice was in order and -- from each of those prior 7 four hearings, carried until today so the 8 jurisdiction has been obtained. 9 I will also note for the record that 10 based upon the roll call, a quorum is present so that 11 we may move forward to conduct business this evening. 12 Ms. Porter, the floor is yours. 13 MS. PORTER: Great. Thank you, 14 Mr. Chairman. 15 So, as I indicated before, good evening 16 everyone, as the Chairman indicated, we last appeared 17 in front of the Board back in October. 18 At that hearing we presented further 19 testimony from two of our experts, our civil engineer 20 and our landscape architect. The basis of that 21 testimony was to indicate that we had conducted 22 further due diligence in terms of the site design, 23 tree preservation and various other site design 24 considerations for the site. 25 We also met again with township