Clark Planning Board Meeting December 4, 2025 Part 1

001[Music] Welcome to the Clark Township Planning Board meeting, Thursday, December 4th, 2025. In compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231 PL1975. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing the annual scheduled meetings to the star ledger union county local source the leader formerly known as Union County Hawk and tap into Clark by posting such annual meeting schedule on the bulletin boarded town hall reserved for such announcements and by the proper filing of said notice with the township clerk. Formal action may be taken at this meeting. This meeting is a judicial proceeding. Any questions or comments must be limited to issues that are relevant to what the board may legally consider in reaching a decision and decorum appropriate to a judicial hearing must always be maintained. I'm going to take attendance. Mayor

002Albanese >> here. Mr. Olrich >> here. >> Councilman Niti >> here. >> Mr. Cotch >> here. >> Mr. Triayola >> here. >> Mr. Alman Mr. Steinberg, Mr. Gri >> here, >> Mr. Granowski >> here, >> Mr. Gersonner >> here, >> Mr. Cecil, Mr. Cruz >> here, >> Mr. Okconor >> here, >> Mr. Ricky, >> Jim Wner, and Mr. Troutman >> here. >> Okay. Can we stand for the pledge of >> allegiance? Has everyone had a chance to read the minutes of our last meeting, November 6, 2025? If so, any questions or comments? >> Hearing none, I make a motion to approve. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mike. All in favor? I >> I. >> Any nos? Opposed? Okay. Passes. Correspondence. All correspondence to the planning board is available at town

003hall for the public perview. They can come in during normal business hours and review. As such, I make a motion to dispense with the readings of the correspondence. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Eric or Bill? Bill. Thank you, Bill. resolution to approve the meeting dates for 2026. Does there have any questions or comments? I make a motion to approve those dates. Do I have a second? >> Bill, you? >> Nope. Eric. >> Thank you, Eric. >> I all in favor? I >> Any opposed? Subdivision site plan application memorialization Primma Vera Park View LLC 7 act drive block 21 lot 17. Has anyone had a chance to review the document? Any questions, comments? Seeing none, I make a motion to approve that. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mike.

004All in favor? Is this a roll call? A >> roll call. >> Yes. Mayor Albanese. >> Yes. >> Mr. Olick. >> Yes. >> Councilman Niti. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cotch. >> Yes. >> Mr. Triayola. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gribb. >> Yes. >> Mr. Grankowski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gersonner. >> Yes. >> Application memorialized. >> Our site application tonight is for Clark Broadway Associates, 52 Westfield Avenue, block 105, lots 10 1.01, 01 22 21 22 and 26.01. I'd like to have counselor give an overview of this application and previous ones. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh this matter originally came before the board on October 2, 2025. However, the applicant requested an adjournment until tonight, December 4, 2025. At the October 2, 2025 meeting, I announced that the application would not be heard that night

005and that it was being carried to tonight without further notice. I reviewed the affidavit of publication and service for the October 2, 2025 hearing and find that the board has jurisdiction to hear the application tonight. This application is governed by the redevelopment plan adopted by the township council and where the redevelopment plan does not establish a standard by the underlying downtown village uh district ordinance. Uh by way of further background, this property uh and its potential redevelopment has uh been before uh the board uh previously. Uh the introduction to the redevelopment plan for this property provides a history of uh the the redevelopment process. Um and I'll uh briefly review that. On June 4, 2018, uh the township council directed the planning board to undertake a preliminary investigation to determine whether the Westfield Avenue study

006area, 81 Westfield Avenue uh and 52 Westfield Avenue uh uh at the corner of Broadway and Joseph Street met the statutory criteria to be designated a condemnation area in need of redevelopment pursuant to the local redevelopment and housing law. Uh this board completed that preliminary investigation study and deter and held a public hearing on August 2, 2018. At the completion of the public hearing, the board recommended that the township council designate uh the area as an area in need of uh condemnation redevelopment. The municipal council on September 17, 2018, determined that Westfield Avenue, again, the same the same location, uh met the statutory criteria and designated it as an area in need of condemnation redevelopment. Thereafter, uh Clark Broadway Associates LLC made an application for preliminary and final site plan approval. On May 6, 2021,

007the board held held a public hearing on that application and granted approval on June 3, 2021. That approval was memorialized by the board in a written resolution. That approval including included residential apartments with 12 affordable units to meet a portion of the township's third round affordable housing obligation, which apartments uh would be over retail space. However, that approval was not constructed and a portion of the township's third round affordable housing obligation was not met. Since then, the bank building at the corner of this L-shaped parcel became v vacant and has remained vacant, allowing the township to reconsider the scope of the area uh as an area in redevelopment. Uh on June 21 of this year 2025, the township council I'm sorry um that approval has remained dormant. Uh but there is a further step and

008that step is that on June 21, 2025, uh the township council introduced ordinance 2025 proposing an amended and restated redevelopment plan for the property. On August 7, 2025, the board found that the amended redevelopment uh to be substantially consistent with the master plan. The purpose of of my reciting this this history is to indicate that this property has been under active consideration and review by both the township uh council and the planning board. Uh and uh prior to tonight, uh a portion or all of this property has been before both bodies in public hearings uh and public meetings uh twice to study whether the area was in need of redevelopment. uh twice to review redevelopment plans once before this board for preliminary and final uh site plan approval. All of these actions have been in

009public and have been with public participation if uh the public so desired. Uh again the point of this presentation is not to bore you but to describe to you that this process has vet this process followed a vetting process uh and the potential for redevelopment of this property. Uh this public process follows tonight with this hearing. Uh with that with the finding that the board has jurisdiction and the above background Mr. chair, the applicant um can proceed to make their presentation. >> Thank you, counselor, for that overview of the history of this application. Counselor. >> Yes. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Cruz. Um for the record, my name is Peter Flannry with the law firm of Biscerhoff on behalf of the applicant, Clark Broadway Associates LLC. Um with respect to the property at 52

010Westfield Avenue, it's located in the Westfield Avenue redevelopment plan area. Um, the applicant tonight is seeking preliminary and final major site plan approvals to construct a fourstory inclusionary mixeduse building consisting of approximately 138 residential apartments over approximately 5,900 square ft of retail um ground level um as well as over parking and there are various other site improvements. Um, this would produce approximately 21 affordable housing units. Um the project is governed by and in full compliance with the amended and restated uh Westfield Avenue redevelopment plan um ordinance 25-25 which was adopted by the township council on August 18th, 2025. Um project also assists Clark of course in satisfying a portion of its affordable housing obligations. Uh it's part of the uh latest 2025 uh fourth round housing plan. Um still satisfying a portion of the third

011round uh obligation. Um there was a technical review committee uh meeting that was held where a lot of the issues in the review letters were discussed. Um and we'll hear more about that in testimony tonight. Um the applicant has also been designated as the conditional redeveloper of the site um as of November 17th, 2025 by the township council. Um there's a conditional redeveloper agreement which has been executed by the applicant uh and escro funds per that agreement um submitted. Uh eventually the applicant will enter into a redevelopment agreement um with the township um setting forth various uh uh responsibilities and uh obligations regarding the proposed inclusionary development uh before the board tonight. Um I'd like to bring forward um with the board's permission our witnesses. We have three expert witnesses we plan on presenting this

012evening. Um engineering, architecture, and traffic engineering. Um all these professionals submitted materials as part of the application. I'd like to start with uh Trevor Curtis who's our civil engineering expert um with L2A land design. >> Please raise your right hand. Uh repeat after me. I state your name. >> I Trevor Curtis >> solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> I will tell the truth >> that I will tell the truth >> and nothing but the truth >> in this proceeding. God. >> So help me God. >> Please state and spell your name and your employer. >> My name is Trevor Curtis. T R E V O R. I work with L2A Land Design based out of Englewood, New Jersey. >> Mr. Curtis, if you could just briefly for the board state your education experience, lure.

013>> Sure. I have a bachelor's in science and civil engineering from Ruckers University. I graduated in 2013. Uh I've been a licensed civil engineer in the state of New Jersey uh for the past seven years or so. >> Make a motion to approve. Do I have a second? >> Second. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Thank you. You may continue. >> We have some exhibits that we're going to be presenting this evening. >> Mr. Flattery. Um, as you go through the exhibits, would you please identify them as A1 and describe what the exhibit is? >> Yes. So, we'll mark this exhibit A1. Mr. Curtis, if you could just briefly describe the exhibit. So to to start off, I wanted to bring up uh just a simple Google Earth aerial exhibit of the subject properties

014to get the the board as well as the public familiar with uh the site as it currently exists today. So on this sheet is just a Google Earth image uh the most current image on Google uh which indicates the existing ger uh on the central portion of the property um in the black color uh which has been vacant for a number of years. I believe nearly 20 years uh surrounded by a rather large area of asphalt uh the former parking areas. Um and the site is accessed via Westfield Avenue um to the south, Broadway to the north, and Joseph Street to the west. Uh at the southwestern corner of property lies the existing bank with dual drive-thru uh with additional asphalt um surfaces surrounding that building as well as a number of curve cuts. So,

015I wanted to familiarize the board with what the site looked like today um prior to going into the plans. So, the civil plans and the color renderings that I've prepared for tonight's hearing. Um a little additional information on the existing site. The existing site slopes um in a southerntherly direction with Broadway being at a higher elevation than Westfield. Uh storm water runoff is is not uh currently detained with any known storm water management measures. Uh essentially storm water runoff from existing conditions can flow off the site undetained nearly all of it being tributary to Westfield Avenue. There are a number of existing curb cuts around the site. Uh, in fact, there are five exist existing curb cuts throughout the entire property. There are two existing curb cuts on Westfield Avenue, one existing curb cut on

016Joseph Street, and two existing curb cuts on Broadway. A total of five curb cuts uh for the entire property in question. The property is about 2.23 acres in total. Uh it consists of a number of parcels as Mr. Flannry outlined. Uh the proposed improvements would include the entirety of that 2.23 acres as well as the surrounding streetscape uh including a reconstruction of all of the sidewalks, curbing uh and associated street trees and streetscape with uh around the entire perimeter of the site. I'm going to go right into the site plan that was prepared for this except we're going to mark this as an exhibit because it was not submitted to the board. >> This will be A2. Exhibit A2 is a near replica of the sheet CO4 site plan that was submitted to the board

017um as part of this application. The major difference is that this plan is colorized to identify the proposed improvements uh including the building uh grass or landscaped areas uh new asphalt areas, curb cuts, striping, etc. There is one additional change that is on this plan that resulted from the TRC meeting prior to this hearing. Uh and that resulted from a comment regarding curb radi. Uh if anybody is noticing the minute details uh some of the original curb radi for the driveways was 15 ft and I changed it to a minimum of 20 ft to comply with those comments. Before I forget, going through the the testimony of this plan, the large brown area in the middle would be the extents of the proposed building. The proposed building is a three-story residential overgroundfloor parking and uh

018commercial retail. The commercial retail component is is at the southwest corner of the site consisting of about 5900 square feet. Uh during the architectural testimony, we'll go over more about the interior workings of the building, but essentially all ground floor parking can accommodate the required 1.7 spaces per unit. There are a total of 138 residential units on the upper three floors. Um, these 236 parking spaces in the garage are accommodated through 77 tandem spaces and hold on 82 single spaces. Uh, and we do have additional testimony prepared for that during the traffic testimony regarding parking and circulation. Access to the ground floor garage would be proposed via Joseph Street and Broadway. Two full movement access driveways. Um I highlight that because there are five, as I mentioned before, existing curb cuts, uh including two on

019Westfield Avenue that would be eliminated as part of this proposal. uh essentially continuing the pedestrian sidewalk and on street parking along Westfield Avenue. In addition to the on street parking on Westfield, uh we do have a 45 foot long loading area um which through the through the more recent years has become more and more important um for temporary uh loading specifically UPS, Amazon Prime, uh things of that nature. Uh this area could also be utilized as a movein moveout area um which would be managed by the building and coordinated with management. Additional on street spaces on Joseph Street and Broadway are provided in an angular fashion which is required under the redevelopment plan. There are 11 new spaces along Joseph Street which are angled at 45° and there are 16 spaces along Broadway angled at

02060°. The redevelopment plan requires 11 along Joseph and 14 along Broadway. We're providing two additional spaces uh then required on street. Uh and ADA space is provided as well on Joseph Street uh to facilitate and activate that corner um especially with the retail component at the southwest corner of the site. EV parking will be provided in the garage for the residential use. That is a state law. Now 15% of all residential uh parking spaces uh would be required to comply with that EV requirement. I note that we are not taking credit um for any spaces uh for zoning purposes. The current law for EV spaces allows a two space uh credit for up to 10% of the proposed parking. So if there are 236 spaces, essentially you would be allowed a 23 space credit. We're

021not taking the credit. I acknowledge it because it's it's relatively uh new law and it comes up from time to time during hearings these days. Um we are providing the EV spaces as required. Um but we are not taking the credit. Uh and we'll have further testimony from the architect and the traffic engineer that will um elaborate more on the parking requirements with the tandem and the single spaces and management. Addition additional improvements per the redevelopment plan include approximately 20 foot wide uh sidewalk along Westfield Avenue and 10 foot wide sidewalks along Joseph and Broadway. Uh it it it really interconnects this corner and provides that that looping pedestrian access from Westfield Avenue to Broadway. uh creating these large gener generously large sidewalks uh along the facade of the building. And to further activate that

022corner, there are additional uh streetscape amenities that are provided. Uh benches, uh new PSCNG street poles around the entire property, uh trash receptacles, um uh things of that nature. The street cheese I I do note, are spaced about 40 ft. Uh the planners letter, uh Mr. Richie outlines that some minor adjustments to the street trees uh related to the spacing which I have no issue with. Um there are also some minor comments uh that we had discussed prior to the hearing regarding some sidewalk. Um I have no issues with making minor adjustments to the streetscape. The streetscape is buffered by a landscape strip or a planter uh strip between the building and the sidewalk. Um and additional street trees are uh proposed around the remainder of the site in less standard street street uh street

023tree style than Westfield Avenue where you have a typical tree pit. Uh these street trees uh essentially would just provide that aesthetic look and you know that that shade for the sidewalk areas. Uh in total the site proposes 19 new shade trees and 163 shrubs. Uh you know we thought it was important to uh to really landscape especially up against the building just to provide that nice aesthetic walkable environment around the property. Um, and the building includes undulations, which is contemplated in that redevelopment plan. Um, so that it doesn't look as much of a a long linear building. It it breaks it up as you walk through uh these brand new streetscape areas. [Music] And I'll quickly go over zoning. Um and I mean I brush over it because the project uh meets all the

024requirements that the redevelopment plan outlines. Uh there are no variances associated with this plan. Um and I mean that that's really all I have about the zoning. It's totally compliant. uh coverage as compared to existing conditions is actually decreased and I have it on the plan. We're decreasing coverage or increasing the open space pvious areas by approximately 1377 square ft. um which is important as we go through the remainder of the testimony talking about grading and drainage which I think um the entire site is mostly a building. So the the civil is mostly limited to you know storm water management grading around the perimeter of the property. Uh so I note that it is important because under proposed conditions we are providing storm water management which I believe is one of the more significant uh

025improvements as compared to existing conditions. As I mentioned earlier the existing site drains almost entirely to Westfield Avenue with no known measures of storm water control. Essentially, all the runoff is captured by inlets or roof drains and piped directly with no control to Westfield Avenue and Joseph Street. So, under proposed conditions, what the building does is it eliminates all of the nearly all of the asphalt surfaces that are there under existing conditions. The D um has hammered in their most recent rules the um the significance of reducing regulated motor vehicle surfaces, what are essentially asphalt or drivable surfaces. uh the the water quality impacts that drivable surfaces that are left untreated and uncontrolled uh is one of the more significant uh rule changes from 2023 that the state issued under their new regulations. So what

026the proposed improvements does is it takes all that asphalt and it changes it to clean roof runoff. NGD stormwater rules consider runoff from roofs uh as a clean source of runoff as opposed to asphalt which is uh a negative impact to to water quality especially tributary to existing municipal systems. So under proposed conditions, not only are we reducing the impervious coverage, the site decreases asphalt and concrete by 54,159 square ft about. Uh so it it it may seem like an insignificant number, but when it comes down to water quality, it's a significant improvement as compared to existing conditions. Part of the stormwater management design was to show or prove that the site does not increase runoff uh tributary to Westfield Avenue uh or Joseph Street, that intersection uh which is at the southwest corner of

027the site. It's not enough to just show that it doesn't increase storm water. We did implement uh as per my discussions with Mr. Okconor the engineer. Prior to finalizing the design of the plans, um a series of stormwater detention tanks below the building, these detention tanks will control runoff from the roof. uh essentially roof runoff will be piped down the building columns into the subsurface detention basins and control that runoff prior to going into the Westfield Avenue and Joseph Streets uh municipal storm water systems. Why is that important? because under current conditions, all of that runoff uncontrolled during a large storm event uh for example a 25 or 100year storm, those pipes are at at or below capacity. So slowing off the runoff, slowing the runoff underneath the building in these storm water uh systems

028is a significant improvement because it allows runoff to leave the site slower and miss the peak and improve the capacity of the downstream systems. So that's essentially one of the paramount designs uh design aspects is that it it provides a significant quality and quantity um improvement to the site as it currently exists today. There are a number of other improvements related to utilities um that would be related to to sanitary, water, um gas and electric. Uh in particular, the sanitary will discharge to Broadway and to Joseph in two separate locations to split up the flow and not concentrate it all in one spot. Water will connect to uh Joseph Street near the southwest corner of the site. Gas will connect to the existing gas main located along Westfield Avenue. Uh and electric will be pulled

029off Broadway um to a transformer. I do note that utility coordination is ongoing. Uh we have contacted utility agencies in particular uh New Jersey American Water to ensure that we do have the adequate pressure for fire which is something um that came up during the TRC meeting um with the fire official. So we have reached out and coordinated hydrant flow tests uh as well as uh where exactly connection points should be made to provide the you know the the most pressure for the building to to to get that fire suppression. Uh additional testimony can be given from the architects um uh regarding all of the interior improvements and utilities that are being proposed for the building. See, so from from a jurisdictional standpoint, the property would require approval from the county because Westfield Avenue is

030a county uh under county jurisdiction. Um so county approval would be required as part of this application. Um so erosion approval would be required as well as uh various utility permits and approval from the D for a treatment works approval um due to the effluent being discharged under proposed conditions. Um I have no objection to any of the comments that were issued from Mr. Okconor's engineering report u or Mr. Richie's planning report. I have spoken to them um prior to the hearing to coordinate and agree that for the um you know if approved that any of these comments would be addressed during compliance. Uh I would note that one other item that did come up during conversation is that a one of the light poles was mowed down by a U-Haul truck uh that that

031would be replaced as part of this uh project. We do have a number of new PSEG polemounted fixtures proposed along the facade of the property in addition to some wall-mounted fixtures to provide that safe and adequate pedestrian passage throughout uh the Westfield Avenue, Joseph Street and Broadway rights of way. One item that I didn't bring up is that Joseph Street does have that new angled parking, whereas under existing conditions, it is a it is a two-way street. Proposed conditions will um change the the direction of Joseph Street to a one-way street. Uh and we we do have additional testimony on that from our traffic engineer. I just wanted to bring that up as a as a precursor to uh one additional change that was that was essentially generated from the redevelopment plan due to the

032angled on street spaces. There there is sufficient backup maneuver uh for Joseph Street and Broadway. Um, in fact, Joseph Street has um 15 1/2 ft of backup maneuver for that one-way street, whereas 13 ft is is required under the general land development ordinance. Uh, and that is for the 45° spaces. 60° spaces need about 18 ft and we have just over 18 ft um to the first yellow double line. Uh one more quick item is that as part of the reconstruction of all the streetscape, we would uh reconstruct the ADA ramps in in accordance with uh you know the current federal ADA standards uh and maintain the required slopes to provide that ADA access throughout the site. That's all I have for my direct testimony and I leave it to the architect and the traffic

033engineer. >> Thank you, Mr. Curtis. Um, that's all we have at this time for direct testimony from Mr. Curtis. I don't know if the board would like to ask uh him questions or >> how I I see you've got uh towards West Hill Avenue there's hashed outline. I guess that's for accessibility um for the tenants. It also butts up against and you have tandem parking all across there. It also butts up against what's labeled as a trash room. How is garbage going to get picked up? So, we we have uh testimony prepared for that, but from my understanding that trash would be picked up from the from the Joseph Street side, walk through the building to the Joseph Street side, not on Westfield. >> Our architect will go into a little more detail on that.

034Mr. Chairman, >> does anyone on the board have any questions regarding this testimony? >> Seeing none, any >> I have a couple of follow-ups. You indicated that there was an on street loading area. >> Yes, that loading area is actually would be required uh to get mayor and council approval. We are proposing it um but it is subject to approval by mayor and council. We we think it's it's it's something that provides a significant benefit especially uh in an area where double parking is a potential. So, if the board were inclined to grant this application, that would be a condition of approval. >> Yes. >> You also indicated that all of the comments made by uh Mr. Okconor in a September 10, 2025 letter are acceptable to you and would be acceptable as conditions? >>

035Yes. >> And the same is true for the uh Mr. Ricky's uh letter of September 25th. Is that correct? >> Yes. you did not address the fire uh chief fire officials uh memorandum of September 11th, 2025. Is are you uh going to address that or is someone else going to address that? >> We have uh the architecture planning to address it, but I I would note that if any comments translated to civil changes, I would agree to make those changes in coordination with the fire official. Could you just show us where that loading would be? >> You can see the the striped loading area uh 45 ft long along the uh frontage of Westfield. >> All right. Thank you councelor you. >> No thank you Mr. Mayor. >> Okay hearing nobody in the board has

036any questions. If anyone from the public wishes to come forward regarding this testimony and this testimony only you have a chance at the end of meeting for general comments. Please come forward. State your name spell it and your address. >> Sure. Uh Eric Rodriguez Bartell. Um, so I had a question regarding the um the lighting on Westfield A. Uh, is are the existing lights going to be are the existing lights going to be retained and are you going to add any similar to it on the other sides of the property? That this question did come up. The uh PSNG fixtures have actually been updated since these were installed. Um, even if I tried to save them, I don't think it's going to be possible. They would be replaced with the newest PSCG fixtures uh and

037and spaced between the street trees uh and and they would continue around the perimeter of the property to provide that safe and adequate pedestrian passage throughout the site. And then the other question I had, uh, the angled parking, um, is is that taking over a portion of the street or is that all on your property? >> The the angled parking is not on our property. It's in the public rightway. Um, but it does not encroach upon with any within any existing facilities on Broadway. >> And then one last question on that. Are those going to be all public or will any of them be like designated as part of the building specific tenants or anything along those lines? >> So, those spaces are for public use. All of the spaces within the garage would be

038for the um for the building itself. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else wish to come forward? >> Please state your name and address. Barbara White, 7 Harding Avenue. Uh my first question is, are you going to fumigate the current pro uh building? I know it was done several years ago when the the planning was started, but I'm sure it's full of wildlife and I don't want to see rats and things coming down my street when uh they start tearing down the building. >> Yes, that's a requirement for demolition permit. So, prior to getting the demolition permit, they would have to um bait and trap anything in the building. >> Okay. >> And then if I have questions about parking, should it be addressed now or when the traffic >> probably best for the traffic engineer?

039>> Okay, I'll come back. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Uh excuse me. Uh we were going to go through everyone with their questions and uh let me just give a word of caution. Uh we're going to do one round of questioning. Uh so if you have a question, get it ready. Uh this is not a round, Robin. Okay. >> No, you >> No. No. For this witness, for this engineer, it's the civil engineer that we're asking questions about. There will be other witnesses. you will get that opportunity. But what I'm talking about is Mr. Rodriguez already uh questioned once, he was standing up for a second time. The the rest of the public has to have an opportunity and then the next witness will go forward. >> Hi, Claire Labuno, 20 Post Road. Uh my

040first question is you spoke about the setback on Westfield Avenue being 20 ft. What is it currently >> to? >> I guess like road to building and and then the same for Joseph Street. You said it's going to be 10 foot and I wondered what it I think it's a little more now. What is it now? >> So I'll I'll zoom into the existing and proposed So the zoning table outlines the existing and the prop sorry and the proposed setbacks from Westfield, Joseph and Broadway. So Westfield existing 11 a 12 proposed 20.8 Joseph Street existing 24.2 proposed 12.6 6 Broadway existing 65.4 proposed 11.9 whereas you can also see what the permitted redevelopment plan um requirements are. So we are meeting the redevelopment plan requirements. Some may be closer but some may be further away.

041>> Uh I'd also like I think uh it detailed and you mentioned tree replacement. It looked like nine trees and again like how many like what's being removed I guess and that's the replacement of >> we can go to the plans that were submitted as part of the application. So, I'm bringing up the civil plans that were Do we mark the plans? >> That's what the Yes, the the chair just said you should mark it. Uh >> and those are the landscaping plans. >> So, this is the demolition plan and highlighted in blue X's would be the existing trees that are being removed. Um, if you can zoom in, a lot of the trees are actually within the public rightway and being replaced. Um, on on site there are, and I'll count approximately one, two,

042trees um that would be removed. So, as part of proposed conditions, we're proposing 19 new trees and 163 shrubs. >> Hello, good evening. My name is Gabrielle Aruda. I live at 33C Parkway Drive. Um, my question was also related to the trees. Um, and I was wondering if um the committee council might hold the business to um the idea of having to supply uh non-invasive um and native to New Jersey trees and shrubs. It's one thing to take down old Oh, yeah. Sorry. It's one thing to take down, you know, old growth trees and and put up something that's quite inexpensive from a landscaper as opposed to uh or something that's invasive and will bring more pests um to our community. Um, so I would like to see that they're responsible for putting native trees

043and shrubs in. And perhaps also for the old growth trees that they're taking down, perhaps you might make them have to plant additional trees elsewhere in Clark uh or within Union County to um as Trevor I heard your name say, uh, as Trevor mentioned, uh, he talked about the trees as being aesthetic and I think the trees are far more than aesthetic in our community and we're losing a lot of >> comments. Oh, thank you. Sorry. My first time here. I appreciate it. >> It's It's a good question and I think I believe Mr. Ricky's letter outlines that um there's a the condition of approval is to get um shade tree approval. I believe I'll find it. >> I could jump in. Yeah. The township has an ordinance that's pertaining to the number of trees

044and the breast height diameter that you take down. based on the breast height diameter, you have to replant um specific trees uh to replace the trees that were taken down. So that is all part of the township ordinance and that would be a condition of approval after we see what trees you're going to be taking out, what the breast height is, and how we would approach that. >> 40 Broadway. Uh thank you for coming tonight. Appreciate it. and thank you for being the first one up. So, first thing uh electrical load. So, you mentioned right so obviously PSG has to come out the load on existing homes in the area. How is that going to change? Right. Sorry. How's the load going going to be assessed and then adjusted as appropriate? >> Right. It it

045it goes through a a very actually rigorous coordination with PSNG. uh we essentially give them all of the metrics for the building uh that get included in the load data and PSCG makes a determination of whether or not a transformer uh polemounted padmounted transformer is required uh and what the electric load does on the surrounding area. Uh they provide an opinion and whether or not infrastructure has to be improved prior to doing that. We don't anticipate any of uh the surrounding areas being impacted, but that does all go into uh in fact before even submitting an application just to have a discussion with them. All of this information is provided almost upfront for that particular reason to ensure that it has no impact on the surrounding area. There are existing or were previously existing uses

046on the property. I realize they've been vacant for a long time. So they take into consideration existing and proposed and they do look at that. >> Okay. Yeah. Just it it is a you're right 20 years ago there was something there but 138 units consume a bit more than what was there right. So thank you though. Um wastewater that's the other topic. So the there are reports in the area right at times of certain homes having challenges with wastewater movement. this is going to significantly increase obviously 138 residents right uh or units how is that treated as well >> so there are a number of approvals that uh wastewater or sanitary effluent goes through in order to get approved um it's layered so on top of getting uh approval from the planning board uh review

047from the uh the engineer uh it gets reviewed and approved by the engineer. Uh a form is signed, it gets reviewed and approved by uh Rawway Valley Sewage Authority. Uh it gets signed uh and then it gets reviewed and approved by the state of New Jersey under a treatment works approval application and then an permit is issued. It's actually one of the longer permits to get. So there's a rigorous review that goes into this to ensure that there are no negative impacts and that the treatment facility can handle that flow. And I did mention that we are splitting the flow as to not concentrate it into one spot. Um but any comments that are issued from any of these jurisdictional agencies have to be addressed in order to to connect the physically connect. >> Thank

048you. And so parking on Broadway, if you could could you go back to that drawing if that's okay. So >> I'm changing back to the colorized site plan. Uh A2 >> A2. >> Thank you. So I I'm those spots on Broadway. You mentioned that there's plenty of you're not encroaching onto this the current property today. So that means that it's this essentially the blacktop that's there today. The asphalt that's all that remains that cuz to back up onto broad and maybe this is for the traffic person, but I did want to talk to you about the clearance and then I have another point for the traffic individual. So, >> so is there enough clearance I guess is where I'm going. >> So, between the back of the angled space and the center line of the

049road is 18 ft, which is what's required for a backup maneuver of an angled space uh of 45° 60° 60° on Broadway. So, we do have a traffic engineer not next but after the architect that will further elaborate. They just for your knowledge which I haven't testified to during the TRC meeting uh comments came up about um traffic on Broadway. So after the TRC we went out or the traffic engineer and his team went out and did additional counts to ensure what you're saying there are enough you know gaps to make turns onto Broadway and to facilitate testimony for the backup maneuvers for the cars. I don't know what the right challenge is. Um I living across the street where the uh the spot there is no way that today that's 18 ft from the

050curb to the center line. Impossible. Impossible. I mean just cuz I live there. If I didn't live there for 25 years be different. So maybe if there's something I could review that's great. Show you a measuring tape and a picture. Awesome. >> Oh and and and the plans are public. So you have a you can definitely have a chance to go look at the plans and the dimensions are on the plans and uh it it may be deceiving. I don't know. >> Okay. Uh and who do we talk to about schooling? Is is that the architect >> about what >> in terms of schooling? So 138 units. How's our town going to address that? Is that in the open forum or >> that would be a a public comment? Um, this board is concerned with

051whether or not the town ordinances are met in this particular case, the redevelopment plan that's been uh referred to and if the redevelopment plan has a gap in it, then to the underlying zoning for the DV uh the DV uh district um DTV district. um the the law presumes that when the council adopts that kind of legislation that it has considered that. So that is really a township council question not a question for for this board. Uh this is that the issue is does the plan conform or not conform to the >> okay >> redevelopment plan. >> Fair enough. Thank you. I was asking only because the number of units that's being that's part of this proposal. Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. Uh and then height is that is that civil or is it architect?

052>> Architecture. >> Okay. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> One one quick note. I don't want to overdo it. The the on street spaces are are not something we're proposing. It's something that's required. Those angled spaces are we're required to put those in under the redevelopment plan. So all of our parking is satisfied in the building. We don't anticipate using those spaces to facilitate parking for our building. >> I understood. So I should have been here in 2018 is what you're saying. Understood. Thank you. >> Does anyone else wish to come forward? Seeing no one. Counselor. >> Well, there's a a lady that in the corner. >> Good catch. >> I do want to call Rodriguez again because I had only one set of questions after. Everyone, my name's Jackie

053Tamilo. I live at 96 Ivy Street. Um, I had a quick question about that grassy patch by Joseph Street intersection. Can you tell me how far that is sticking out? This It looks like it kind of comes out onto Westfield Avenue to make room for those parking spots. >> Yes. So it it's it's I guess the technical term is it's a it's a curb extension. Uh it's a traffic calming um for the on street spaces uh and pedestrian movements in that area. Um but what the design does is it does not encroach into the right of way of Westfield. So, we maintained everything that was uh outside the travel lane and manipulated the curb line to provide that traffic calming for pedestrians walking across the street. Essentially extend the area uh into Joseph Street so

054that people don't have to walk as far to get to the other side. It it's it's pedestrian safety thing. Um, was there any consideration of a crosswalk across Westfield Avenue or is that a county question? >> It's subject to a to county approval. Uh, anything within the rightway. In fact, all of the improvements being shown here are subject to their approval, but no no crosswalk going in the southerntherly direction was contemplated. Would you be open to considering that or I is that something the board I know that there's going to be another apartment complex across the street and there are no crosswalks in that area. It might just be something. >> I would I would say that at I couldn't agree that we will do it, but I can agree that we could talk to

055the county about it and and there is there's traffic testimony who would talk more about circulation and maybe he has a better opinion than I do, but I couldn't agree to it unless the county says it's something that they want to uh uh tackle in in this application. um as best as >> you're willing to make that a condition of approval that you will raise this issue with the county uh without any further action of this board? >> Yes. >> Um I have a question about asbestous abatement. Was that done in 2020 or does that still have to be done at the current property? I found something today, an application that was made in 2020 for asbestous abatement. >> Part of the demolition permit, they have to do the rodent extermination as well as provide

056a survey that the asbestous is free or that it was removed. So when they come to get the demolition permit, all that will be taken care of. >> Okay. So if they do find a speestous, I guess they have >> they'll have to abate it before they take it. Okay. Or it becomes more expensive for dem demolition material disposal. >> Okay. Um, I think that's all my questions. >> Councelor, just one second. >> M Mr. Chair, uh, Mr. Rodriguez got up a second time and I had not informed the public that there would be only one opportunity for questions. So when you got up a second time, you didn't know that what what the procedure would be. So if you have a second question for this uh, engineer, that would be fine. >> Sure. Uh,

057Eric Rodriguez, 12 mortal. So the only question I had, someone else already kind of hinted at it, but it related to the uh utility electric load and whether or not um this particular development would be um paying any sort of amount of money towards the cost of any upgrades that the grid may need that would otherwise be passed on to the rateayers in the community. Well, that is a different question that was asked before. >> This property is in a redevelopment area, a condemnation redevelopment area. >> Uh it would be eligible for a a pilot program, a payment in lie of taxes program or a financial agreement, but that's for the township council to consider, not for th this board. But uh a pilot agreement or financial agreement would be part of uh the >>

058talking more about utilities. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Utilities. >> Yeah, cuz like if there was like a like if they had to upgrade the substation, let's say by Shopright in part because of this particular development and the load that it might create. >> I I apologize that I'm You could go ahead. Go ahead. >> I don't have the answer at this time because we we haven't gone that far into the process. I don't anticipate nor in my experience have seen uh extensive substation improvements due to one development. Um but at this time I don't know the answer. It's possible. Anything's possible. >> When would that be determined? Upon review by the utility company of what the needs for this development are? >> Yes. So when we submit any kind of question, PSEG does not answer

059the question unless they have a project number. They don't uh get a project number until we give them load data. Once they get the load data, the questions come in about whether or not uh the infrastructure can handle it, if there are additional improvements uh or if there are no additional improvements um essentially that's how it it comes from PSNG. So we wouldn't we wouldn't know at this time until you submit an application. And typically you don't do PSCG applications till you get approval from the board and you start doing your construction drawings. Um these are board uh architectural drawings. They're not construction drawings. So there's a lot that goes into the load data. Um but from a preliminary standpoint, we know that certain requirements are required from PSCNG. Um but their system itself we

060would have no knowledge of. They would have to tell it to us. >> Got it. So that that was really the only thing just that they if there were improvements that that would be considered that they might contribute some portion to offset the impact to the community uh of the cost of those upgrades for all of the other rateayers. Thank you. >> Anyone else wish to come forward? >> Seeing no one council, you may continue with the next witness. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um we'll have our architect up next. Please state your name and repeat after me. >> Avalino Martinez. >> Do solemnly swear >> that I will tell the truth. >> And nothing but the truth. >> This proceeding >> in this proceeding. >> So help me God. >> Please state your name

061and spell it. And your employer, >> Avalino Martinez. That's a v l i n o. Martinez, m a r t i ne z with blackbird group architects. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Martinez, if you could just briefly for the board state your education, experience, and lensure. >> Sure. I uh I hold a bachelor's degree in architecture. Uh I'm a licensed architect in the state of New Jersey as well as a number of other states. Uh I appear regularly before uh >> I move to accept. Second. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? They continue. >> Thank you. Mr. Martinez, I believe you also have some exhibits. >> I do. Um so if I may, I'd like to begin with um this is the set of uh architectural drawings that were submitted with the application. It's

062a total of 10 sheets. uh last dated August uh 26th of 2025. >> We will mark these exhibit A4. >> Okay. Okay. So, um as you heard, we we we spoke a little bit about the orientation of the building, the placement um of the project. Um in terms of overall data, the building is a total of 138 total dwelling units and that is broken up into a combination of 117 market rate units and 21 affordable housing units. Um the affordable units are broken down in a combination of three one-bedrooms, um 12bedrooms, and six threebedrooms. And the market rate units are 17 1-bedrooms, 88 2bedrooms, and 12 uh 3bedrooms. So, referring to drawing A1 of exhibit A4, uh which is the ground floor plan, um this exhibit is very similar to the site plan we saw

063where Westfield Avenue is located along the bottom of the sheet here. Uh we have Joseph Street uh on the left side and then Broadway on the the top side of the page. Um along the Westfield Avenue um elevation, we have the p pedestrian I'm sorry, the the residential pedestrian entrance, if you will, would be at the center of the building. So that's the area I'm pointing to here at the bottom of the page. Um, and that would um take someone to the elevators, uh, mail room, package room, um, and some amenity space for tenants, uh, in this area as well. To the left side of that, or on the corner of, uh, Joseph and Westfield Avenue, we have a commercial retail space. It's approximately, uh, 5,900 square ft, and there currently is no tenant um,

064selected at this time. um and it's currently shown as one space, but the possibility does exist that that may be broken up into two smaller tenants depending on um the final tenant selection at that time. The the primary entrance or ceremonial entrance, if you will, we'll see that on the exterior elevations, but that is uh oriented towards the corner of Joseph and uh Westfield Avenue. Um the remainder of the ground floor, the blue area we see here, is dedicated to parking. So that's a total of 236 parking spaces uh for the residential um use and tenants from that garage which would be entering either from the Joseph Street or the um Broadway um driveway access points would be parking in the garage and then entering into the building either through the lobby area uh down

065here at the bottom of the page or could access the building above through either the stair towers. um on left and right side. Um there was also discussion about the uh the trash um the area located here. The TR room is is our trash room. Um and that is both for the retail as well as the residential uses. On the upper floors, we'll see the operation of that, but uh it does have a compactor system to handle uh traditional household waste. Um, so somebody would deposit trash in the upper levels, it would go down through a chute, be compacted at roughly a 5 to one ratio, and then directly into a small dumpster. Those are uh typically 2y dumpsters, which are roughly 3 feet in width and six feet in length. Um, and those would

066be wheeled out to either of the the driveway points at the rear of the um of the site. Uh in terms of the vehicular pickup of how that works, our traffic engineer will speak to a little bit more of how um how they gets picked up, but these are typically easily managed by just rolling them to the to the entrance points. Um so going up to the upper floors and this again, exhibit A4 drawing A2 is our first floor plan. That's the second story of the building, but it's the first residential floor. Um and this is a typical overall floor plan. So, we have a double- loaded corridor around uh the building with apartments on on both sides. Again, on the bottom of the page, we have uh the lobby with two elevators and a

067stair tower. Um and then we have a corridor around the perimeter uh which would take you to to the apartment. In addition to it, there's two amenity terraces um where the these interior units face those terraces. Those are uh passive recreation spaces. So, they're really just some um some seating and some some landscaping and things of that sort. It's not active uh uses uh like pickle ball or any sort of um amenities of that type. In addition to it, and and what sets this floor aside from the rest in terms of layout is that there's also a uh 30 3,300 square foot amenity space. So, that is uh yet to be programmed, but it would typically be a lounge, a co-working center, uh or also um the game lounge or um just interior amenities for

068the the tenants. Um in terms of apartment areas in general, um one-bedroom apartments are averaging by type uh 780 square ft. two-bedroom units are,300 square feet approximately and the threebedroom units um 1,700 square feet. The affordable units are close in size at uh 777 square ft for one bedrooms, approximately 1,100 for two bedrooms, and approximately 1360 for uh threebedroom units. Um, all portions of the building are fully handicap accessible in accordance with the federal and state regulations. Um, all portions of the building will also be uh sprinklered um in accordance with the um the requirements. And um in terms of construction type, the building is what we refer to as a podium building. So that is a non-combustible um first story of the building with a um woodframed fireresistance rated construction for all the upper

069levels above. So in terms of the exterior um design of the building, I'd like to refer to the rendering which is a new exhibit um which has not been submitted as part of the application. We'll mark this exhibit A5. >> So, exhibit A5 is entitled a proposed mixeduse building uh prepared by my office and undated. And that is a artist color rendering of the exterior view of the building as viewed from the corner of Joseph Street and uh and Westfield Avenue. So, as we saw in the plan, the the element we have here would be the entrance to the the retail or commercial space on the corner. Um, and as you can see, the building is a three-story residential over one story of commercial and parking uh on the first floor. And in terms of

070the exterior materials, what we try to do is break up the facade using a combination of uh vertical and horizontal demarcation. So by doing that we can break up the facade uh and provide visual interest and we do that with those demarcations as well as um combinations of colors and materials and variations thereof. So the materials you see here the the um the light beige color if you will is a cast stone um veneer. The remainder of the building uses a combination of brick in two coordinating um shades and those are true masonry materials. So they're they're full depth um real brick and real um caststone. And then uh in combination with that we use uh fiber cement panels in two coordinating shades as well. So by doing that we can get a very um

071traditional and timeless architectural design with a a base, a middle and a top um to break up that facade. Um so along the the bottom here we can see the um in this case it shows some outdoor dining presumably if it were a restaurant tenant. Um and towards the right we can see this would be the middle of the building uh which is that residential entrance we saw on the plan. So, it'll have a canopy um and um that entrance at that point. Um terms of the building height, the the height of the building is just under 50 ft. Uh it's at 49.92 ft where 52 feet uh would be permitted by the redevelopment plan. Um the building has a will be referred to as a flat roof. So, it'll have internal uh roof drains

072which then get connected to the system Trevor um described in his testimony. And um in terms of mechanical equipment for the apartments, these um don't use any throughall units or anything that would be visible from the facade. They're traditional uh what we call split units. So, it's it's what you commonly find in a single family home. So there's a the furnace or an air handler inside the apartment and condensing units located on the roof. Um so any of that equipment on the roof is uh set back behind parapits or oriented such that it wouldn't be visible from any uh point at along the street uh from grade. Um, and I believe unless I missed something, I believe that concludes my >> We want to talk a little bit about um moveins and trash pickup and

073and that sort of thing. >> Sure. So, I'll just go back to the plan real quick. Um, and if we go So, back on uh ground floor plan. Um this was exhibit A4. Um so that loading area that we saw at the front of the building um would be typically used for moveins that would um have direct access to the lobby which has two elevators. So moveins and moveouts would take place at that area and that would be coordinated with management uh to schedule timing um by way of trash removal. Um, I described how that would get to the entrance points and then our our traffic engineer will explain a little bit further how the the vehicular pickup uh of the truck would operate. >> There were also some comments in the um the fire

074uh memo that were architectural in nature. >> Um yes, I believe one of the comments was with regard to um lock boxes and um horn strobes >> and horn strobes. So, we would absolutely provide those uh and we'll coordinate with the fire department in terms of best locations for those. Um there was also a question about the the uh EV charging stations and their locations and those were shown on the the civil engineers uh plans and there as required by um by state law. Were there any other issues in the other review letters that were architectural in nature that we had an issue with or are we going to comply with those? >> Um, I believe we we will comply. Just one other comment on the fire that that I missed uh with regard to

075a radio test. Um, and that's a requirement of the building code. So, of course, we will provide that. Ultimately, what that means is that we test the building for emergency responder radio coverage and if they have insufficient signal, there's a booster system that would be installed on the building. So that will absolutely be provided. Um there was a comment in uh the planners report which I failed to speak about in the in the description of the garage but the the garage that we have here is a ventilated garage. Um and uh what that means it's a naturally ventilated garage. So it doesn't use a mechanical system. Um so there's openings around the perimeter um which allow the free flow of uh of air and and fumes to be uh exhausted. So, um I think the

076the elevation that we submitted had some very simple um uh grill pattern shown on these louvers and uh we'll work with the planner to do some improved um design and something aesthetically uh pleasing. And I I believe that was all of the um there was a question in the planners letter also uh item G which was uh asking about the affordable units and um how they're integrated and whether they have washers and dryers. They do have washers and dryers just as the um all of the other market rate units do. And in addition, all of the finishes and finishes will be equivalent to those in the um in the market rate units. >> Thank you. >> Can you show the layout of the other two floors? >> Sure. >> So this uh this is going

077to be the first residential floor. Um and then if we and this is again exhibit uh a >> the amenity terrace is just an open >> correct. So this area here is an open uh it's an open terrace that these apartments would face. Um there are two access points. For example, on the on this side, the amenity space has doors that would open onto that space and there's also an access point here. Uh the left amenity terrace has an access point here on the left side and another one on the the south side. Um, and so typically this hasn't been fully designed yet, but typically what it'll have is uh landscaping directly around the perimeter of the the space. So basically it keeps someone from walking up to your apartment windows and offers a little

078level of privacy. And then just to flip through the upper levels, uh the two remaining levels are identical to those we saw below with the exception that these upper floors don't have that um that indoor amenity space. And then lastly, that would be the the third floor plan exhibit uh A I'm sorry, sheet A4. >> So it's not open all the way up. >> It is open to the sky. Yes, but it's only accessible on one level. So, it's only accessible on the first resial >> floor is it's just open air. >> That's right. >> Will the market rate and affordable housing be similar or will affordable housing be finished differently? >> No, they'll have the same finishes. >> Is there any reason then you're grouping it all in one spot or >> um >>

079seem to congregate? >> No, I think we I mean we so we try to distribute them. For example, here the the C1B is an affordable unit. Um, there's a C3A here. There's one here. There's one here. >> That's grouping. >> There's another one uh on this end. I mean, I I think we try to uh to distribute them throughout the building in the um in these areas. >> We have four right on top of each other. Would you consider spreading them out more? >> Um, yeah. I guess we could look at uh >> No change in the finish. The finishes are all the same. >> The finishes are all the same, right? The the finishes and the um and the the fixtures are all the same. Um yeah, we we can look at um at

080at moving their locations. >> Anyone else on the board have any questions? Sure. >> Good. >> Okay. Good. Mike. >> Yeah. How you doing? >> Um, was there any consideration to more retail space than what you have now? >> Um, I mean this was so this was the program that we were given from the client. So I I mean I I'm not sure I can answer that. >> If if I'm not mistaken, back in 2021 when the other plan was submitted, there was four retail spaces. I could be wrong, but I I do I think I remember that. And here we have one, potentially two. And then I see a amenity area which is facing Westfield Avenue, which is great for the people living there, but it doesn't really bring anything to the town. >>

081So, as much as residents of Cranford and Fanwood don't like what's being built, what's being built there is beautiful and is bringing in a vibrant downtown area, which is what this area is supposed to be. So, we're getting 138 units in one store. I'm just wondering, that's not creating a downtown. Was there more consideration to more frontage on Westfield out for retail and not more spaces to accommodate for more units? Um I think part of the problem is you know in recent years retail has been hard to um come by in terms of filling spaces and we want to make sure that this space is is filled and actually has tenants. So um that was as one reason and also we want to this is about providing affordable housing. We wanted to make sure we

082have enough space for uh the units and also provide amenity space. So >> understood but we won't know if they'll get filled until they're there. But if they're not there, they can't get filled. So, I'm someone who's trying to be promoting this downtown area and unless potential retail is there, there is no downtown. This is going to be the biggest structure on this street. And we're setting a precedence now by saying, "Hey, we can have 138 units in one store, >> right? One or two." Um, but I think what would be worse if we had a bunch of vacant space on the ground level. um you know despite our efforts to fill it. I mean that was >> well like I said Fanwood doesn't think that way. Cranford is not thinking that way and those

083residents aren't happy but they're going to have the ability to walk up and down that road and shop and eat and dine and enjoy what's being built on the on the property of their town, not the builder enjoying what's being built on the property of this town, which is what my concern is. >> Understood. I um I also have a question with the retail. Can you go back to that drawing of where you had the uh bricks in the building where um so where the signage is, that would be your entrance into the retail space? >> Yes. >> So if you had two stores there, two storefronts, you wouldn't have a second entrance or would you on that? >> We would. So any of these locations that I'm referring to here on on the this

084exhibit, uh we're showing them as windows, but any of those can be replaced with doors. So if there's was multiple tenants, they would have additional uh doors and >> and have their own entrance. >> Yes. Mhm. >> And in that amenity space, what is what is that for? >> So it hasn't been programmed yet, but we we expect it's going to be the fitness center. So, it's going to be the the gym, which could be retail. >> Is it big enough? >> It's 2100 ft. >> Small deli coffee shop. >> It's big enough. >> It could be. >> I think it would take away from the amenity space in the building. you know, having a a gym there, I think, is important for, you know, bringing in tenants. Um, well, we need the apartments in

085part to provide more affordable housing. On the first floor of the apartments, there's a many room there, almost twice the size. Um, you said there's no plan for that one right now, so that could become the gym. >> Uh, yeah, we haven't uh designed the interior of that space. I mean typ our expectation is the gym would be on the first level and the upper level would be a combination of co-working uh and the tenant lounge and game room but the space itself has >> any other questions for the board members? >> Yeah, one more. I know you said you would work with the uh engineer. So the the parking spaces that are open to Westfield A. I saw in the notes that there was thought about doing glass instead of open bars. Correct. >>

086Okay. I I I think that's at least on the Westfield A side a much better look than looking in at at the cars. So I I did like that note there. Re regarding that though, the note that I made regarding the glass, um I had a conversation with the architect today about that and that glass would um take away the open air aspects of the building. So they did not agree to that aspect. they agreed to um come up with a more decorative look to that to those open air elements because the glass itself would change the building to and I'll defer to the architect on this to a ventilated style building if they take that route. So that's so that's the discussion. Yes. Is it because it's not all four sides then? >> Because

087they have to have a certain amount of um open air as a percentage of the building and alternatively it becomes a >> like that front area that would be left open is not a big portion of of the building. But you're saying that would push it over. >> I'm saying if if that's something that would occur, it may end up resulting in a ventilated building. And I mean that's those are like just I'm just making a factual statement at this point. Go. >> Yes. I I have a question, a few short questions regarding the affordable units. Um, is there a notation either on the architectural plans or the engineering plans what the income mix would be of the unit? I know you described one, two, and three bedrooms, but is there an associated u income

088level with each type of unit or you just simply going to follow the uniform uh housing uh affordability? >> Could likely follow the applicable U-Hack regulations, Mr. K? >> Okay. >> And with respect to affordable housing, obviously there's no developers fee for the re residential portion of this development, >> correct? >> But there would be for the commercial portion. >> Yes. >> Okay. and and you would agree to pay that, >> correct? >> Okay. Um, this was raised. Um, if if the board were to um approve this application, you would agree as a condition of approval to review the distribution of the affordable units uh in a different manner than currently shown. Correct. >> Correct. We'll look into that. >> Okay. Where is the exter uh outdoor amenity area? So I seen general comments amenity

089area built as an indoor amenity room, another indoor amenity room and access to the outdoor amenities on the residential first floor and an additional outdoor amenity area. >> So I believe that's referring to if uh if I can go back to the architectural drawings uh on the first floor plan. So that's this amenity terrace uh on these two amenity terraces on the upper levels, >> but they're not outdoor. >> They're outdoor. >> It's exterior space. Yes. It's open to >> It's open to the sky. >> All the way up. >> Like an atrium. >> Correct. >> Provides light for the units as well. Yeah. Are there going to be is there going to be any outside patios? >> Uh like uh like private patios or bio? >> No, no, no. For for example, the um

090commercial space if you have a restaurant, an outside patio, anything of that type. >> So the the commercial space opens directly to the sidewalk. So, we anticipate if there's a restaurant, they may have dining on the sidewalk >> and that's that would be subject to approval by the council. >> We if that's required, Mr. Cruz, we follow all applicable ordinances. Um, if an outdoor seating space for a restaurant use requires approval of council, we'd have to obtain that approval. >> I asked because I forget when CO um came back. No, it's a valid point. those rules were all changed, right? >> And I can't remember whether it was a permanent change or or just a temporary change. >> Um >> I have one more question. Um on this drawing, the amenity space, how big is

091that? I can't see the square footage of that. >> Uh the the amenity terraces on the upper levels there. Um >> space in the front >> says amenity space. This one here, the one that I'm pointing to at the bottom, uh, 3,39 square ft. >> So, I'm a little stuck on the retail space of the 2100T on the amenity space on the first floor where you said there's going to be a gym. Could that be split into a gym space of 2100 ft square feet and maybe additional 1,700 for, I don't know, you're going to put games, uh, you said a game room or something like that. >> You know what we could do? we could agree to consider retail in that amenity space on the first floor but not be required to put retail

092in there just simply because if we can't find sufficient retail attendants for all those spaces we want to be able to keep that as amenity space and keep in mind too the existing retail space is relatively large I mean it shows one right now but that could be three or four different tenants depending on on the use and how that's divided Just a quick question back on the retail space. Would that run into parking issues then? Because you're going to need to park additional cars for the additional retail space. >> Excuse me. Excuse me. If you want to make a comment, there's a public comment period. If you have a question, then you can you can ask the question. >> We can have uh the traffic engineer address the the uh parking issue. When would

093that occur? >> We have uh him here tonight. So >> tonight, so you would Martinez, correct? >> Okay. >> So if the board were inclined to do this as a condition of compliance review, you would review the parking, the the amenities. Is that what you're saying? >> Correct. A first floor amenity space. >> First floor, >> the ground level. ground level. >> Can you bring that plan up on the screen? >> No, it's not. Is that plan up? Yeah, we we have the the ground floor plan A1 sheet A1 of of A4. >> I'm sorry, this area here. So you have uh one, two, three, four spaces along I assume these are the ones you're referring to the the ones directly adjacent to the this yellow amenity space or four um spaces in this area.

094Um and then one, two, three, four, another eight uh over here. better. restaurants. I don't know. possible. >> We could have the traffic engineer talk uh about that, but I think we're getting into an issue here now where we may be deficient in parking if we eliminate those spaces. >> Correct. But I I think we're I don't know that we have too much in the way of excess parking spaces. >> Jim, can you speak into the mic? >> That's without the >> All right. Board board. No, no side comments. Paul, on the record, if you've got something to say. >> Um, we Sorry about the sidebar conversation. There was a conversation discussing between us about the availability of of parking should the amenity area be converted to retail. And I believe Mr. Troutman said there

095was a five space surplus today. Um, you heard the Mr. Um the site engineer initially testify as well regarding the the amount of um off- streetet parking that they did not take credit for the EV credit. So at least per the law um the parking could additional parking could be credited per state law on the EV credit and not create a plan deviation under that pretense as well. But point being what the applicant said was that they were trying to meet the parking requirement without taking that EV credit to their credit as well. >> Well, just to confirm uh to the extent that Mr. Okconor in his September 10th, 2025 report have any architectural comments, you'll comply with those. Uh, and the same thing is true with Mr. Ricky's September 25, 2025 report. To the

096extent there are architectural comments in there, you'll you'll comply with those. >> Yes, there was a comment about uh bicycle parking and and uh a cover for the bicycle parking. Um, you didn't address that. How are you going to uh address bicycle parking? Um I apologize if I missed that. Um I believe there's uh proposed bike racks to be in the garage which were not identified on the parking plan. Um but we we will provide bike racks uh inside the garage. >> We know approximately where those would go on the plan or >> um so we need to just finalize some utilities and things like that, but there's some open areas. For example, at the the northeast corner of the garage here, we we allocated a space which could be used uh as well as

097some other areas along the the layout. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. One other thing I I saw in the notes, the the units facing the interior, are they going to have balconies or No, >> no, none of the So, it'll be just a window or just Okay. >> Okay. Seeing no other questions of the board, uh, anyone from the public wishing to come forward and address the testimony of this witness, please do so. General comments can be made at the end. Please come forth. State your name and address. >> Barbara White, 7 Harding Avenue. Um, when you were saying about the trash with the compactor, is there going to be a recycle unit? >> Yes. >> That will be separate. >> You have to speak into our >> uh I'm asking if they'll have

098a recycle unit by the trash. >> Yeah. So, the so there's a there's a on each of the floors there's a trash shoot and then there's a recycling shootute as well. So, somebody would deposit recycling goes right into the dumpster. Um, you showed what the front of the building will look like. I'm going to be looking at the back of the building for my property. What's that going to look like? >> So, we have We don't have a colorized rendering. I can show you the elevations, but the idea is it's all the same architecture. It's all the same materials. It's all the same colors and finishes. So, it's the same around all four sides. >> Okay. >> But with no color in it. Okay. >> The the image we have, we only have one color

099image. Yes. >> Why don't you bring it up for >> Sure. So um this is drawing A6. This is the this here would be the front elevation. So this is Westfield Avenue. So if we go through the other pages, um this would be along um Broadway, I believe. No, I'm sorry. This would be the the right side elevation. This would be the Broadway elevation and this would be the Joseph Street elevation. So, you can't appreciate the colors on on these images, but as you can see, it's all the same um the same architectural features and uh materials. >> And um how close is the building to the actual curb of Broadway? the build the building itself. >> So I would have to refer to the civil engineers drawing. Um, so on Broadway, his um proposed

100setback is 11.9 ft to the property line. Um, the property line appears to be pretty close to the front of the parking spaces. So, let's round that to 12 feet um to the parking. So, from the building to that property line again on the front of the building, I was at a meeting a while, yes, a couple of years ago where it showed retail on one side and retail on the other, either a th00and or 2,000 square feet each. Now you're going to have a gym looking out onto Westfield Avenue, possibly a gym and gym equipment out there. That doesn't sound very pretty. >> Um, so I mean I think from from the exterior it'll look like a retail space. It could be a public gym. Um, it's all going to be the same type

101of glass type of glazing that you would have on a on on the on a retail space. Yeah, but you're going to look at people on on bikes and treadmills are lifting weights. That doesn't that doesn't seem very good to me. That's it right now. Thank John Rafo 40 Broadway. Uh could you just mentioned the the height again of the >> uh it was just under 50 ft I believe uh 49.92 >> and um what's a typical two-story house height plus or minus? I know it's varies but 25 ft >> I think 35 is typical zoning requirement for a two-story house. So, this will look that and I know you don't control I think you mentioned it's part of the red development plan you're in compliance with. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> Permitted 52.

102>> Well, let's Yeah. I don't want you looking into my daughter's bedroom. That's the challenge, right? So, the height um is there anything that we can do to accommodate a lower height? >> I don't know. Drop a floor. >> That would result in substantial reduction in >> that would result in a substantial reduction in the units. And again, this is in compliance with the zoning requirements, right? Okay. Uh, balconies you mentioned, yes or no? >> No balconies. Windows open, windows close, >> meaning operable. They're operable. >> They're operable windows. Okay. >> And then I should have asked this maybe I don't know if you know time for construction if approval like how long does it something like this usually take? I should have asked Travis, but I I two years I couldn't tell you for

103sure. The would help to >> Okay. Thank you. >> James Skolo, 73 Holiday. Can you bring up the uh parking garage again? Sure. >> 73 Holiday Street. Oops, sorry missed. >> Now is 138 is set number of apartments or can that be that downsized? If you take away these parking spaces to the right and add um the uh retail as M Mr. Trail has said you can downsize some apartments and then you can have enough spaces for smaller apartments and then more uh retail on the on the ground floor. Is that a possibility? >> So I'm not sure I can answer that as an architect whether you know I mean this is the project that we have. I I don't know that uh I'm the person to answer that. >> Just to add to that

104um I don't think even if we reduce those parking spaces that would result in a reduction in units. Um, and we'll have our traffic engineer touch on the whole >> parking space issue. >> He was saying you need uh 1.7 uh spaces for apartments, right? >> Correct. >> And uh the gentleman before me, he said he lives on Broadway and that part backing up will be impossible. If you downsize the building a little bit, take away some apartments and make retail in the whole first floor, you should have enough spaces for apartments and spaces for people to come and go to the the retail stores cuz we don't have paid parking like Westfield and Cranford do. We don't they don't none of these spaces will go back to the community. They give back to Clark

105when they come in and >> we can have our traffic engineer talk about all those issues. >> All right. Just want to see a possibility or not. Thank you. Anyone else wish to come forward? Seeing no one. >> Gabrielle Aruda again, 33C Parkway Drive. I'm uh wondering if there's any possibility to have the with the availability of time before the building is constructed to see that one of the retail spaces is uh sorry I'm working on it. um that one of the retail spaces could um if you could help support a Clark resident to start a business that would somehow um better, you know, generate more well-being for the community because I hear the word revitalization um being spoken and I'm not sure what we're what we're going after. At the end of the day,

106it's a >> question. Do you have a question? An architectural question. It's only so I again it's the first time I've ever ever come to one of these meetings. So I only have be able to direct questions to them and not to you guys in relation to what could happen. >> Correct. It's it's a questions for the witness if >> his testimony. >> Understand >> your general you have like a general statement which sounds like a nice one. At the end of everything you could come up and make any statement within reason that you would like and this sounds like that would be at that time because it's not a true architectural question. So, as the property owners, and that's you, not you, right? >> I'm the attorney. >> Oh, the attorney. Okay. The attorney

107can't say anything, >> but the but the property owners would be could potentially lobby the state for funding to be able to provide some kind of uh more creative use of retail space where the property owners are making their rent, which I can't imagine would be that my parents own the oldest building in downtown Cranford. It, you know, rent is is rent. I feel like it's would be more expensive in Cranford than it would be in Clark to rent out a space where we could actually do something to improve the lives of the citizens of Clark and actually create more of a downtown as a priority given the tax incentives that everybody is getting to be here so that the the community would get something out of it. >> That's a comment, not a question

108for the architect. You can make it at the end. You can also take it up with the c township council. >> Hey, thank you sir. >> Hi Coron Sevoka 46 Broadway. Uh I was just wondering why could you put the park in this island once in front of Westfield A cuz you have all your stores in the front. You want to make that like a downtown now you got parking in the back. Why could you put the, you know, the park and like all the sidewalks all down Westfield A? >> Is there an architectural question for this witness? That sounds like a traffic engineer question. So, you have >> whatever. Okay. >> So, do you have a question for this witness? >> No. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. There's been some discussion back

109and forth as to the retail. Um, and I'd like to ask Mr. Ricky a question. Does the redevelopment plan provide for a specific amount or square footage of retail or is that left to the discretion of the developer property owner? >> Want to confirm, Mr. Mr. cruise, but there is no um specific requirement in the in the plan. And that's something that was um historic for the plan when it was initially adopted in 2019. I did pull up the old plan for the property while sitting here, and you know, the the board is accurate. The old approval I believe had 7,850 square feet of commercial space compared to what's it 5800 square feet today. So there's a there is a reduction from the previous plan. >> Is there any requirement in the uh DTV zone

110for uh commercial space on the first floor with uh units residential units above it? In terms of the the amount of space, no, it's it's it's written with a use basis that that use has to be, you know, dedicated for, you know, not non-residential commercial purposes. Um so what's really occurring here is um the the amount of parking that's required for the for the residential spaces at at 1.7 spaces per unit. You know arguably is a conservative amount of parking for for this type of land use. Um, historically what I've seen in u since I've been involved in the town and and at previous projects that the town is quite concerned about delivering adequate parking for for residential uses and the way that this project is set up it it's set up that all the

111parking is really on the interior of the building dedicated for that purpose. So if um what you're almost suggesting in a matter of speaking is is there the ability to to share some of that space and I don't think that's the intent of the applicant here. Um so um to encourage the retail and to have additional parking that's why you see the streetscape um the angled parking being proposed in a public purpose to to assist in the purpose these purposes in this size space. I always thought with the wide sidewalks at 5,800 square feet it's almost perfect for a nice restaurant is what it is. Uh, I'm not sure if the applicant is at liberty to discuss any type of future tenants here, but it it seems like it's a it's a restaurant type of

112it seems like would fit quite well. But so what I'm really trying to say is that you have um competing uh interests, parking, retail. Um, and I think if you wanted to encourage more retail, you would have to reduce the amount of parking that's being required for those residential units. So, it comes to be what is the township's objective here, more or less. Um, >> but but the redevelopment plan does not address a specific amount of retail. >> Yes. But I just wanted to say some of those additional um thoughts that that you have to consider. It's not as easy to just say, "Hey, we want more retail." Something would have to be given back for that to occur. >> Mr. Chairman, before we get to our next witness, which would be our traffic engineer,

113I think we're running on close to two hours here. Could we take like maybe a five to 10 minute recess so we could maybe talk over the issues internally regarding the retail and parking and come back? We could give you a 10-minute recess. >> Thank you. >> When are we coming back? >> 9:30. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] Before [Music] we moved on to our traffic engineer, I just want to have uh Mr. Martinez just briefly go over a proposal that uh we have um taking into consideration some of the comments from the board members

114about um eliminating uh additional parking spaces to create about 3600 square ft of retail at the corner of the property. and we'll have our traffic engineer talk about the the traffic impacts of that, but uh Mr. Martinez, if you could just briefly go over what we'd be proposing. >> Sure. So, again, >> so again, uh on the ground floor plan on exhibit A1, uh what the applicant is proposing is to take the uh the parking at this area, uh which is a total of 12 parking spaces, eliminate those and replace it with additional retail space. So that would be uh resulting in roughly an additional 3600 square ft of retail space. Um and I think in addition it would also satisfy one of the concerns about the facade uh where it would continue the the

115the look of the of the windows across. So again roughly uh 3600 ft² additional elimination of 12 parking spaces >> that include the amenity space >> and I'm sorry the amenity space would remain this would be 3 3600 square feet in addition to that. So the amenity space would be there and then to the right of that would be additional retail space. >> Right. So generally if we were to take that that yellow area and just stretch it out to the to the east it would um expand that that that use. >> I know it's hard to say right now without re rer rendering, but would that almost include the same type of entrance from the corner as on the southwest side >> or would that be a frontage entrance? No, I think it would

116be just the regular entrance with the awnings that we have. I I think having that unique element on the corner should stand. So that's not something you're considering. That's something you'd be offering us. >> Yes, that's something that's being proposed. Yes. >> Does that offer result in any waiverss or deviations or variances? >> No. um if we take a an EV credit or a partial EV credit and we'll have our our traffic engineer talk about that but um provided we take the EV credit there would be no variances or design waiverss. >> Do you agree with that Mr. Ricky? >> We we'll confirm Mr. Trump but yes I agree and with my knowledge of this project yes >> thank you for taking the time to do that. Um any other discussion on this matter hearing

117none you can bring your next witness up. >> Thank you. have our traffic engineer next. >> Please write your your right hand. Uh, repeat after me. I state your name. >> I, Nicholas Kennedy, >> solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> I will tell the truth. >> Nothing but the truth. >> And nothing but the truth. >> So help me God. State your full name, spell it, and your employer. >> Sure. It's Nicholas Kennedy. N I C H O L A S. Kennedy is keen ny. I'm a project manager at Stonefield Engineering and Design. It's located at 92 Park Avenue in Rutherford, New Jersey. >> Mr. Kennedy, if you could just briefly for the board state your education, experience, and lensure. >> Absolutely. I'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey. My

118license is current and in good standing. I hold a bachelor of science in civil engineering from >> motion to accept. >> Second. All in favor? >> Any opposed? May continue. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Kennedy, I believe you have exhibit A2 before you. If you could just briefly go through um an overview of the traffic. >> Sure. So, not to repeat, sorry, just getting set up. Not to repeat too much of the testimony that was already given, but um the site as it exists today is a it's an old grocery store. the uh the AM grocery store. The existing site also has a bank which is located on the corner of Westfield A and Joseph Street. Um really what you have is the property is bounded by Westfield Avenue to the south, Joseph Street to

119the west, and then Broadway to the north. Um again, as Trevor mentioned, there's five curb cuts on the site today. There's one full movement driveway on Westfield Avenue that's closed. It's fenced off today. Uh there's an ingress only driveway to the bank. Uh again on Westfield Avenue. There's an egress only driveway or sorry there's a full movement driveway on Joseph Avenue to the bank and then there's two full movement driveways on Broadway. So again that's just to give it a little context about what's on the site today, the existing curb cuts that exist um and really an overarching um look at how the property uh looks in its current state. As far as what's proposed on the project um or on the site, 138 units, as we went over, ground level parking, um and then

120floors 2 through 4 would contain the residential units. Um there's been obviously a lot of discussion about the retail space, which at this point is close to 9,000 square ft, I believe. Um when you when you look at adding the uh the retail space on the right, it's about 9,000 square ft. And really what we're trying to do as far as access on this site is consolidate the curb cuts that already exist. So as part of pedestrian safety and vehicular safety, the more access points you have is the more conflicting points um along a roadway network. Obviously, as I mentioned, there's five exist existing access points, and we're limiting that down to two. So we have the what will be a rightin, right out driveway on Joseph and then a full movement driveway on Broadway.

121Um, one of the the parts of this application is converting Joseph Street into a one-way northbound roadway. Uh, really the idea behind this was as part of the redevelopment plan, angled parking is required along Joseph Street. I believe it's 11 total spaces. Um, and the the width that we have along that roadway, you can only have one way with angled parking spaces. So what we did was along our frontage we would angle the parking spaces at uh 45 degrees and then provide one lane of northbound travel. Uh what we really also wanted to understand is how would this affect the traffic volumes on Joseph but also in this not only on Joseph but also in the surrounding area. So obviously people today could drive southbound on Joseph between Broadway and Westfield. They could drive northbound

122between or from Westfield to Broadway. um and that southbound movement would be eliminated. What we found when we went out there, we conducted counts is Broadway or Joseph, sorry, is is not a very highly utilized roadway. There was about 30 cars within the peak hour that traveled southbound, most of which were turning right, probably towards the parkway. Um and what we what we looked at in the general area is this area kind of operates as a grid. You have Westfield Avenue, which is the Southerntherly Roadway, and Broadway up to the north. And then there's about 12 streets that connect the two. Most of which are two-way streets. Obviously, Joseph Street here would be converted to oneway. Um, and what you're going to see in the future, if Joseph gets converted to oneway northbound, is those

123southbound vehicles will use any number of the different streets that are, you know, to the east or to the west to travel between the two roadways. It's our understanding that they'd probably be dispersed throughout the roadway network. And again, this is this is not a highly utilized roadway. You get about one car every two to three minutes. Um so we don't think that that conversion from a two-way roadway into oneway northbound will cause a sign significant impact to the roadway network as a whole. Um, moving on to the parking, which I I suppose has changed a little since the beginning of the plan, but in total we have 77 tandem spaces. So, a total of 144 or 154 parking spaces. Um, if you look at them as tandem, that's 77 tandem spaces. And then 82

124regular parking spaces. So, obviously not tandem. Uh that's a total of sorry 236 parking spaces. We have agreed to eliminate 12 of those which brings us down to 224 parking spaces. We are required 235 parking spaces. Uh looking at the EV credits um we can take a credit for up to 23 spaces which brings our parking requirement down to 212 spaces. So we would provide in the updated plan with the additional um retail space we would provide 224 and we would require 212 when taking that credit into account. Um looking at the on street parking spaces again we are required by the redevelopment plan to provide angled parking spaces both on Joseph and on Broadway. The total count was 11 on our plan is 11 spaces on Joseph and 16 spaces on Broadway. We also

125provide a total of 11 parallel parking spaces on Westfield Avenue for a total of 38 on street parking spaces. Uh not all striped out, but just to give some context, today between the three streets, Broadway, Joseph, and Westfield, there's only about 18 uh on street spaces. So, we're more than doubling the on street parking in the general vicinity of our site. Again, I just want to reiterate that we are required by the redevelopment plan to provide those angled spaces along both Joseph and Broadway. And with the closing of the curb cuts on Westfield, we're providing an additional three or four parking spaces on Westfield Avenue. Again, a loading zone would be provided uh along Westfield Avenue, 45 ft. It would be used for move in, move outs, deliveries, and the like. Uh trash would be

126privately hauled and coordinated with um the property manager. That would be picked up likely on Joseph Street uh utilizing the the driveway there. Um and again, that would all be coordinated with building management. It would be wheeled out, picked up, and uh the the trash would go on its way. I just want to try to touch on a couple things uh that were brought up. The the retail space associated with this project and this redevelopment plan doesn't necessarily have its own parking requirement. The requirement is 1.7 spaces per unit that we comply with. And obviously changing the plan a little, we comply with the EV credit. There's no actual requirement for square footage of what the retail space needs in terms of parking. I think the idea of the redevelopment plan and uh requiring the

127on street angled space on Broadway and on Joseph was that would cover uh the parking that would be needed for the retail space. Again, we do provide just in the vicinity of our site and along our frontage on those three roads 38 parking spaces for about 9,000 square feet of retail. It's about uh four spaces per thousand square feet give or take. Uh which again I I think is more than sufficient. Obviously these spaces are open for public use. They could be used for things across the street and whatnot, but I think we're trying to provide as much on street parking in this area as we possibly can. Um really just to kind of put things in perspective and kind of tie a bow. Uh I think this plan really conforms with the redevelopment plan

128and the ideas within that redevelopment plan. Obviously, as we mentioned, the parking is compliant. We're taking the EV credit at this point. We're providing the angled parking spaces on Joseph and Broadway. All the tandem spaces on this site will be assigned to two or threebedroom units. There will be no uh two one-bedroom units that would share a tandem parking space. The tandem spaces would all be assigned to one individual unit. Uh we're promoting the pedestrian safety here. We're closing curb cuts. We're providing bumpouts at at the corner of Joseph and Westfield. Uh we have wide sidewalks 10 feet on Broadway and Joseph, between 12 and 20 feet on Westfield. So, I think we're really promoting the pedestrian safety and walkability around the site. Um and again I this is a site that would not have

129a detrimental impact to the roadway network. Comparing the traffic volumes albeit understanding that the grocery store has been closed for many years now. Um the traffic volumes at this site are substantially less than a grocery store. Um and again that's not to say that there won't be more traffic because again the grocery store is closed. But it's more to say that this site has seen more traffic volume than this proposed development will generate. Again, that was 15 20 years ago. But again, it's a site that's seen this much traffic volume, and we're substantially less than that. Um, I've went over all the review letters, the traffic review, the the engineering review, and the planning reviewer. Um, as far as traffic comments, they're they're fairly minimal. I think we touched on most throughout uh all of

130our testimony, but I have no issue complying with anything within any of those three letters. >> Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. Um that's all we have in terms of direct testimony at this time. >> So, you're saying that the absence of any specific requirements on the commercial units, um you didn't consider that for parking requirements. The redevelopment plan doesn't have a parking requirement that specifically says you need this many spaces per square feet. It just I think it contemplates the on street spaces being utilized for that retail space. What I will say with about 9,000 square ft of retail, a 4 per thousand square foot um parking ratio is pretty sufficient for uh the size retail we'll have here. Again, obviously these aren't dedicated to just this retail space. Um, but I I think we're we're

131trying to maximize the amount of on street parking that we have. >> I believe other applications have come before us and they've assumed usage in their commercial space. Um, so you're saying four spaces per thousand and there's 9,000 square feet. So be 36 more parking spaces may be generated. >> Yeah. And that's what I think I'm saying the 38 parking spaces just that we have around the vicinity of our site. I think that's why the redevelopment plan contemplated those on street spaces that they would be utilized for that retail space. So we provide just on our frontage 38 spaces out of four per,000 um square feet for 9,000 square feet of retail. Uh that would be about 36 parking spaces. >> Mr. Connor, do you have any thoughts on that or >> I believe that's

132in compliance with our ordinance standards, >> but other applications, not this one, but other applications have come forward and used given us parking for their commercial spaces. They've given you parking for the commercial space and these gentlemen have added 27 spaces that don't exist out there right now to account for that as angled parking. They don't exist, but there's space out there that cars could It's not exactly that amount. Maybe they've increased it by a percentage, but there's still parking that could occur. Just normal street side parking. >> Correct. There's a their testimony is that there's a total of going to be a total of 38 spaces provided after this project is completed and I believe you provided a number that there were >> Yeah. So, so today I think this will help clarify a

133little today with the curb cuts that are in place right now there's about 18 parking spaces total around the frontage. So that counts Broadway, Joseph, which no parking is allowed on our side of the street, and Westfield. There's about 18 parking spaces. They're not all striped, so give or take one or two. Um what we would have is 38 total striped parking spaces. So we're more than doubling the amount of parking around our perimeter uh compared to the existing condition. Again, that that goes along with the number of curb cuts we're reducing. Obviously, today you can't block a curb cut. Um, so we're only h we only have two today. There's five. Um, and then obviously we're providing parking along Joseph where it doesn't exist today. And I'm sure the EV locations will be reconfigured

134with the changes here. Um, there's 12 shown. How are they going to be assigned? They're not go they're going to be open all the time or they're going to be specifically assigned to a unit. >> They're usually signed and marked. Um, >> no. Assigned to a unit. >> Assigned. Yeah. So, all of the parking will be assigned. So, if you have an EV car, um you know, that parking space could be assigned to you. Obviously, if you don't have an EV car, an EV space won't be assigned to you. >> So, they're not for general uses. They're just specific to the apartment >> complex. I did notice one of the EVs were showed as a tandem unit. I guess a lucky person would have two electric cars. >> I I think we could work to

135pick out the best EV spaces. I know that was part of the fire letter, too. So, we are more than happy to work with the engineer to pick out the best locations for the EV, but again, our idea is that all the spaces would be assigned. So, no EV car would have to or no uh non-electric car would have to park in an EV space and vice versa. >> And you did mention that on Joseph Street the uh there's still parking prohibited on the apartment side as well as Broadway there's parking restrictions times. I guess that's all been discussed and that'll be all lifted by the town on Broadway. You can't park from 1:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and then from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. It's a town sign, so I assume somebody's talked about

136lifting it. >> Yeah, we'd have to, if necessary, we'd have to go back to the township council. Um, but that would be addressed as a condition of approval. >> Anyone else on the board have any questions, comments? >> I have one question. Um so Joseph Street is now going to go from Westfield to Broadway. >> Correct. >> The street prior towards Rawway which is um Lincoln is also going from Westfield to uh Broadway. So we have two one ways consecutive streets. Is there any have you done any study any thought about Joseph Street going the other way? One way >> I think the problem there is the businesses across the street. There's three driveways um on that side of the street going down Joseph. You would never be able to fit the 11 parking spaces

137that are required with those driveways. And again, there there's multiple streets to the east and to the west that are two-way um that could facilitate facilitate southbound movements. Any other questions from the board? >> Um, I have just I know you you indicated that it's been covered and I agree with you, but I'd specifically like you to address Mr. Troutman's letter of September 29, 2025.78 and 9 on page three. >> Absolutely. Let me just open it up. And actually, Albert, before he gets to that item two, it would have been nice if you could have submitted those traffic counts I asked for. Can you submit those, please? >> Absolutely. We can submit those. >> 7 8 9. I'll start with seven. It's about the trash removal. Again, trash would be uh the trash room is

138located along Westfield. It would be um rolled to one of the driveways where it would be privately hauled off site. Uh move in, move out. Again, we have that uh loading zone along Westfield. It's 45 ft long. Move in and move out would be scheduled. Um so that no two times overlap. Uh and obviously that's where your your typical moving truck, U-Haul, uh really of any size could fit in a 45 ft loading zone. Um and deliveries, same thing. They would utilize that loading zone. Again, it's 45 ft. your typical uh FedEx, uh Amazon, UPS trucks, that's more than enough to accommodate the uh the sizes of those vehicles. >> I don't have anything else. >> All right. Um seeing no other questions of board, if anyone from the public wishes to come forward and

139ask any questions of the specific testimony you just heard, please do so. Any general comments, concerns can be addressed after all the witnesses have been >> Barb Barbara White, 7 Harding Avenue. Um, for the parking on Broadway, how much of the street's going to be cut off now? Because it's not a super wide street and it's it's heavily trafficked. >> So, can you hear me? Oh, >> yep. >> So, the street heading eastbound is going to be 18 ft wide. For 60° parking, that's what is required. Um, you know, as a traffic engineer, often streets are only 12 ft wide. So, we're providing more than ample space. Um, as far as street width heading in that direction. >> And I think there was a dimensional question from the public. They don't understand that the angled

140parking spaces are eating into the rightway. That's how you're gaining the dimension. They're they're concerned that you're just putting angled spaces against the existing curb line where you're whereas you're recessing the curb line up against the rightway line to create that add additional dimension and it does work. I verified it. >> Yeah. So, so the angled space is also uh a majority of where the angled spaces are today is sidewalk and landscaping. Um, again, we'd provide an 18 foot lane, which is more than sufficient uh to accommodate movements there. >> Is that 18 feet total width of the street or just >> just heading eastbound? >> Just this one direction? >> Yes, just so just I'll say our side of the street heading eastbound would be 18t wide. I I don't have an exact dimension.

141>> The street will still be 40 feet or so wide. >> Yeah, I I don't have an exact dimension, but it'll be 36 Broadway to 40. Um, how are they going to back out of those spots? There's a lot of traffic. I can't even get out of my street and make a left turn onto Broadway. And I'm on Harding right behind you. >> Yeah. And that's now before you have all these This was very poorly planned. Uh, it's it's too big. The scope of this is too big. Too many apartments, too many cars. What about when somebody in an apartment who only has the two cars can go in their space if they have it or if they have the one with a one space? What if they have company? Are they going to be

142coming down my street and parking in front of my house? I don't want that. I don't want these extra cars. It's bad enough on Lionel Street around the corner from me. There's a grandfathered four family house with no off the street parking. There's no room for a driveway. My husband shovels the snow in front of my house and they come and park in front of it and then I'm going to get other people from this apartment building and having their company coming in front of my house. I mean, you're ruining the values of our property. >> Is there a question? >> I'm not happy about it. >> Is there a question? >> Yeah. Um, how are people going to what are you going to do when they start parking on the side streets in front

143of the residential houses? Are you going to do anything about it or are you going to put signs up residents only? >> You could go before the council and ask for discuss it with them. In the other areas of the town, they've had resident permit where you have to get a permit. um when they had issues with the school in this area, uh they need permits to be parked across the street to keep the kids from parking there. So, the town council will work with you um if that situation occurs. >> Um I'm not happy about it. Um let me see what else I had. Um Again, these are specific questions to his testimony. If you have general comments that you don't like the project or you love the project, there will be an opportunity

144to state that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now, you you mentioned the bumpout on Broadway. Where is that going to exist? >> Uh, if I said Broadway, I misspoke. I meant Westfield so I could show you real quick. Sorry. So the bumpout is here and that's really as Trevor mentioned pedestrian safety. It slows vehicles down from making this turn and it generally just provides a wider and bigger pedestrian area at this corner. So it's really a safety mechanism. Obviously it also um kind of blocks off where the parallel parking spaces on Westfield are. So there's only one bumpout, >> I believe. >> Only one, >> I believe. So, yes. >> Oh, I apologize. There is a bump out here, too. You'll see that the the landscape and the sidewalk goes up towards the end of

145those uh angled parking spaces and then down. So, again, all for pedestrian uh measures in this area. And again, that was part of the redevelopment plan to enhance the uh the safety for pedestrians in this area. >> I I'm not a fan of bumpouts because on Lincoln Avenue, it's a mess. Uh let's see. Um >> I guess that's all I had right now. Thank you. >> Thank you. Claire Lebruno, uh, 20 post. Um, my question was, you like referenced several times saying, uh, the redevelopment plan required the angle parking on Joseph Street. Could you just clarify cuz I'm not familiar. When you say that, are you talking about like a town's redevelopment plan or you're talking about this project's specific redevelopment plan? It's not clear to me. I'm talking about the redevelopment plan for this

146property and I could read the exact language out of the uh the plan. >> It's a township document. >> So So that's based on the township's requirements to meet the parking requ parking aotment you need. Is that correct? So, in order for you to meet the town's required spots, it requires taking part of Joseph Street and altering it. Okay. >> Yep. >> So, the next question is you spoke about the traffic study that you did on Joseph Street. Did you do any traffic study on West Avenue? because my concern is uh traffic traveling eastbound on Westfield Avenue that's then going to turn onto Joseph Street. And I mean, frankly, if you go down Westfield Avenue almost any time of day headed in that direction, it is backed up. So I guess was there any study

147detered the traffic on Westfield Avenue as in relation to you know what the plan is for the street? >> Yep. We we did traffic counts at actually both intersections. So Joseph Street with Broadway and Joseph Street with Westfield. Um as I mentioned earlier, we're more than happy to submit those to the board. Um, but again, a a development like this, a residential development, uh, would not generate a substantial amount of traffic. Obviously, we have two driveways. So, you could use either the Broadway driveway or the Joseph driveway. It wouldn't be every car coming into this site is making that left turn from Westfield onto Joseph and into the driveway. Uh, traffic would be more dispersed throughout the network than that. Um and again we're more than happy to submit the counts uh that we conducted

148>> and and when you spoke about uh you know this site going to like I did shop at the when this was a grocery store. So when you say it's going to create like less traffic than the store had, it's a little like what is that based on I guess? >> So essentially uh how traffic engineers analyze sites like this is we we project the trip generation of each site. How many cars go in? How many cars go out? When you look at the size of the grocery store and again albeit it's been closed for some time now. When you look at the size of the grocery store that existed on the site and you look at how many units would be on this site, uh the grocery store generates substantial more traffic than a

149residential development. Um again, I I can't mention enough. We do understand the grocery store has been closed. It's more to say that a this property specifically has seen traffic volumes greater than 138 unit development uh would generate. Okay. >> Thank you. Hello. Uh, John Grie, 30 Parkway Drive. Um, I actually had a question on Joseph Street. So, you have these um spots that are taking up the street. Um, I guess one question would be is like the benefit to the town for giving that space up is just the additional spots that were created by the angle. I'm trying to figure because we're kind of giving up a little piece of the town's land, right? >> So, the extra spots that's sort of the benefit for the cost. >> And I'll I'll I'll address that question.

150And what has occurred as has been described is this property went through the redevelopment process. There was a a study done as to whether or not the property as a whole met the redevelopment criteria. The planning board reviewed that study in a public hearing, recommended to the council that it designate the property as an area in need of redevelopment. The next step after that is preparing a redevelopment plan which is specific to this property and it acts like a mini master plan. It also acts as an ordinance. The council introduced the redevelopment plan as an ordinance. That ordinance was referred to the planning board for review as to whether or not it was substantially consistent with the master plan. The planning board found that the redevelopment plan for this property was substantially consistent with the

151master plan and referred it back to the council and the council then adopted the redevelopment plan. The redevelopment plan specifically says on page 13 parking requirements and it talks about uh non-residential no off- streetet parking is required rather angle parking improvements shall be made on the shall be made on the easterly side of Joseph Street right ofway and the southern side of Broadway rightway. A minimum of 11 on street angle parking uh spaces shall be provided on Joseph Street and 14 angled on street uh spaces on Broadway for public use. That is what this testimony has centered on. Okay. And it is the council, not this board, the council adopting what is in essence a zoning ordinance for this property and setting forth the parking requirements both off street and on street. >> Okay. So

152that cost benefit was weighed by the council previously and that's how that that came about. >> Whatever the council does in analyzing the costs and benefit of a zoning ordinance, that's what occurred here. The law presumes that the council knows what parking requirements are needed, what the traffic requirements are needed, and they act accordingly. And so that was the basis for this this re the basis for the testimony you've heard and back and forth is all on the redevelopment plan. >> Okay. Thank thank you for clarifying that. It's very very good explanation. Um uh one other question I had and I I think you maybe an answer is um so that's the one side of Joseph Street, right? Those are those spots, but right now you could park on the shoulder on the other side

153of Joseph Street. Would this narrowing of the street make it so that you don't have parking on the other side of the street? I know this is like kind of on the edge of what you're doing there, but >> correct. Uh you you wouldn't be able to park on what I'll call the left side of Joseph Street. Um, it's 15 feet proposed. So, you know, taking that back eight feet to try to put parallel parking spaces wouldn't work. What I will say is that the parking provided on Joseph Street with the 11 spaces that we have that are angled is far more than the parallel parking spaces or presumably parallel parking spaces that are there now, I think, >> but only on one side. So do you count is that counting the side the parallet

154you would have on the other side of Joseph Street too or was that counting more compared to >> Currently the right side of >> Joseph Street is a no parking >> can't park on the right side of Joseph Street. So the left side >> there's about five spots that you could probably use on the left side and 11 spots are greater than those five. So we're probably getting a net of five or six spots. >> Exactly. >> Okay. And then just finally you know the angled spots um they're a little different than parallel parking. um how is that going to affect like snow is actually the first thing I was thinking about with this. Um I'm sure there's some idea. I just was curious what um changes or adjustments like DPW or anything might have

155to do. >> It's a great question. Um snow would obviously have to be removed from them. There's a few landscape areas that they could be um either snow blown or shoveled into uh kind of around the angled spaces. Uh that could all be coordinated with uh you know property management um and the township. >> Okay, that was that was it. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Hi Eric Rodriguez Bartell. So I have just one question um regarding where the trash room is located and you know trafficking the trash from there to one of the uh egress driveways. Are there any potential, you know, health concerns or anything with that amount of volume of trash having to be, you know, ced that way as opposed to had they located

156the trash room closer to those locations? >> I don't think I'm particularly the person to answer this question. What I can say is I've worked on hundreds of residential projects very similar to this. Uh it's not necessarily a very far distance that it would be essentially traveling. Um, as far as the health concerns, um, I'm a traffic engineer, so it's not really in my my realm. >> Thank you. >> Times the charm. >> Hi again, Gabrielle Ruda, 33C Parkway Drive. Um, when you work on Joseph Street, will you're gonna have to jackhammer up the street to change its orientation in some manner? >> Um, possibly. The actual construction, how it would be constructed is is not determined yet. Um, but obviously that would go through the township and and all the the agencies that it

157would for would have to um as far as construction of the roadway. >> Gotcha. I was just wondering if any consideration had gone into the um dry cleaners that have been across the street for decades and the use of perk which is now um uh legal I think with the EPA rule is is not allowing people to use it after 2024. So, the um chance that the ground might be contaminated with perk and then if that's dug up and then what would happen to the project if it ends up being um contaminated land there? >> A civil engineering question, but um I believe that we've looked into that issue. You know, we've done the appropriate due diligence and there's no contamination on the site. Anyone else, please come forward. State your name and address. John

158Rafoa, the 40 Broadway. You guys should know it by now, but uh couple things. So, just want to point out uh I won't say that then. Um so, we are we we are indeed cutting into the property. It's not the existing curb line that's there for the for the angled parking on Broadway, right? We're cutting in, right? Because that's the existing right here where the green is. That's existing curb. Am I interpreting that correctly? >> Let me just flip back to the uh the existing conditions plan. So the existing curb line is right here. Oh, sorry. That's the the walkway. The existing curb line is here where kind of this red line is. Now the proposed I believe is actually in the same spot. And really what we're doing is putting the parking in this

159area that you you see grass here. I guess where the fingers are. You see the concrete walk and then there's some additional space between the property line and the sidewalk. That's where the angled parking space are going. The actual width of Broadway is not getting smaller. It's the same size. It'll be 18 ft wide in uh you could go ahead. >> Yeah. No, I I get it. But so where the curve is today where someone could technically you're we're not doing that. We're getting rid of that. Yeah. That's what >> we're cutting into the property which is fine. That was just clarifying.