- 1 - 1 HUDSON COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2 RE: ) 3 MONTHLY MEETING ) TRANSCRIPT OF ) PROCEEDINGS: 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - ) County Annex Building 5 567 Pavonia Avenue Third Floor Freeholders Chambers 6 Jersey City, New Jersey Wednesday, July 18, 2007 7 6:30 p.m. BEFORE: 8 DANIEL CHOFFO, Chairman 9 JUDE FITZGIBBONS, Vice-Chair 10 RENEE BETTINGER, Commissioner 11 HON. DOREEN DIDOMENICO, Freeholder 12 KENNEDY NG, Commissioner 13 BORIVOJ JASEK, PE, PP, Commissioner 14 MICHAEL A. HOLLOWAY, Commissioner 15 DEMETRIO ARENCIBIA, Commissioner 16 17 ALSO PRESENT: 18 THOMAS P. CALVANICO, ESQ., Board Attorney 19 STEPHEN MARKS, PP, AICP, Planning Director 20 21 Reported by: 22 Mark Weinberg 23 24 REPORTING SERVICES ARRANGED THROUGH: VERITEXT/NEW JERSEY REPORTING COMPANY 25 - 2 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Good evening. I'd 3 like to call the meeting of the Hudson County 4 Planning Board to order for this evening, July 5 18th, 2007. Counselor, has this meeting been 6 properly advertised? 7 MR. CALVANICO: Yes, Mr. Chairman. 8 The meeting has been properly advertised in 9 accordance with the New Jersey Open Public 10 Meetings Act. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can we have a roll 12 call, Steve? 13 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 14 Not present. Commissioner Bettinger? 15 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Here. 16 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 17 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Here. 18 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Dublin? Is 19 not present. Commissioner Fitzgibbons? 20 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Present. 21 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 22 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Here. 23 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Here. 25 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? - 3 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Here. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 4 COMMISSIONER NG: Here. 5 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 6 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Here. 7 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, we have a 8 quorum. 9 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Please stand to 10 salute the flag? 11 (Pledge of Allegiance) 12 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Anyone that's 13 going to address the board tonight, if they 14 could just speak clearly into the microphone 15 and spell and state their names for the 16 record. Go ahead, Steve. 17 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, for the 18 adoption of the meeting minutes from June 19 20th, 2007. 20 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Is there a motion? 21 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Motion. 22 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Second. 23 Mr. Chairman, if I may, before the board 24 adopts the minutes as is -- sorry. There are 25 a number of items within the transcript where - 4 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 people are not identified as to particular 3 speaker. And in light of the situation with 4 regard to the 6th Street project last month, 5 I'd like to go through it with Steven so we 6 can identify those people and they can add 7 that to the transcript. So my recommendation 8 would be to adopt it conditioned upon the 9 changes that Steve and I make with the 10 transcription company. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 12 MR. MARKS: Identifying the 13 speakers. 14 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Yes. 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: The board's okay 16 with that? 17 BOARD MEMBERS: Yes. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 19 MR. MARKS: Okay. So, Mr. Chairman, 20 on a motion to conditionally approve the 21 meeting minutes from June 20th, 2007 made by 22 Commissioner Holloway, seconded by 23 Commissioner Fitzgibbons, Commissioner 24 DiDomenico? 25 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Mr. Chair, - 5 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 I wasn't present at that meeting but I have 3 familiarized myself with the minutes so I'd 4 like to vote yes with your approval. 5 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Yes. 6 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, that's an 7 aye. Commissioner Fitzgibbons? 8 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 9 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 10 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 12 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Mr. Chairman, 13 also I was not present at the meeting but I 14 read the minutes and I vote aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 16 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 17 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 18 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 19 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 20 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 21 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 22 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. 23 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 24 passed. Mr. Chairman, we're at the point in 25 the agenda where we would normally memorialize - 6 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 resolutions either approved, conditionally 3 approved or denied at the last meeting. I 4 would like to, on behalf of the county, I 5 would like to apologize to the board with 6 regard to four applications: Application SD- 7 19-07, which is 317 Jersey Avenue, LLC; 8 Application SD-20-07, which is 280 Erie 9 Street, LLC; Application SD-21-07, which is 10 389 Monmouth Street; and Application SD-22-07. 11 There was basically a material fact that was 12 overlooked during the course of the public 13 hearing and the review of these four 14 subdivision applications. The county owns and 15 maintains a bridge on Newark Avenue 16 approximately between Dickenson High School 17 and the St. Joseph Cemetery in Jersey City. 18 These four subdivision application, which were 19 denied by the board at the last meeting, do 20 have an impact on a county road facility being 21 the Newark Avenue bridge and I would request 22 that the board consider removing these 23 resolutions to be memorialized tonight and 24 then at a separate motion to rescind the 25 denials. And then we could -- I would ask the - 7 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 board that the board consider requesting the 3 applicant or the four applicants in those four 4 subdivision applications, to prepare a traffic 5 impact study. Each application has 6 approximately thirty-two units of housing 7 which they are proposing through the 8 subdivision application, in total and in 9 aggregate, creating 128 new units of housing 10 on a very congested roadway. And that 11 subdivision application is going to have an 12 impact on a county road. I don't believe that 13 was part of the deliberations and 14 consideration decision making process by the 15 board during the public hearing. That's my 16 fault. That's my omission and I apologize to 17 the board for that omission and I ask that the 18 board consider removing these four items from 19 the list of resolutions to be memorialized 20 this evening. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. I 22 would like to make a motion to remove those 23 four items. 24 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Second. 25 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman , on a - 8 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 motion to remove the four subdivision 3 applications for applications 19, 20, 21 and 4 22 from the list to be memorialized this 5 evening with a motion made by Chairman Choffo, 6 seconded by Commissioner Holloway, 7 Commissioner Bettinger? 8 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 9 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 10 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 12 Fitzgibbons? 13 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 14 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 15 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 16 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 17 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 18 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 19 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 21 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 22 MR. MARKS: And Chairman Choffo? 23 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. 24 MR. MARKS: Okay, Mr. Chairman, 25 those four applications are now removed from - 9 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 the list of applications to be memorialized. 3 So we are now at the point to memorialize the 4 applications which were approved or 5 conditionally approved at the last hearing 6 beginning with Application SD/SP-100-06, 7 Felipe Neyra, Applicant located at 4108-4110 & 8 4114 Kennedy Boulevard, which is Block 239, 9 Lots 54, 55 and 57 in Union City; Application 10 SD-39-06, Harrison Commons, LLC, located on 11 Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard, which is Blocks 12 114A, 115, 116 and 117 in Harrison, New 13 Jersey; Application SP-09-07, Harrison 14 Commons, LLC, located on Frank E. Rodgers 15 Boulevard, Blocks 114A, 115, 116 and 117 in 16 Harrison, New Jersey; Application SD-61-06, 17 Fraternity Meadows, LLC, located on New County 18 Road, Block 5, Lots 3 and 5 in Secaucus, New 19 Jersey; Application SP-31-07, Fraternity 20 Meadows, LLC, located on New County Road, 21 Block 5, Lots 3 and 5 in Secaucus, New Jersey; 22 Application SP-33-07, Allegro Sanitation 23 Corp., located at 278 Secaucus Road, Block 62, 24 Lot 7.01 in Secaucus, New Jersey; and 25 Application SD-39-07, Bayonne Residential - 10 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 Limited Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor -- located 3 at Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, which is Block 4 404.15, Lot 1 in Bayonne, New Jersey; and 5 finally Application SD-42-07, Robert O'Neill, 6 Applicant, located at 17-19 Winfield Avenue, 7 which is Block 1431, Lot 17 in Jersey City, 8 New Jersey. 9 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Do I have a 10 motion? 11 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: I'll make a 12 motion to memorialize these resolutions. 13 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: I second. 14 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, apparently 15 I overlooked one of them. I apologize. If I 16 could go back and there is one that I 17 overlooked. It was SD-29-07. It's the Jersey 18 City Housing Authority located at 320-340 19 Duncan Avenue, Blocks 1615 (sic), Lots 1, 2, 3 20 in Jersey City. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. We'll 22 include that. 23 MR. CALVANICO: Mr. Chairman, just 24 one item before we continue. The last two 25 resolutions are not in the board's packet. - 11 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 Unfortunately, I brought them with me on a 3 small travel drive for the computer which we 4 were unable to get to work tonight to print it 5 out. So I'll have copies of that sent out to 6 the board. 7 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 8 MR. MARKS: So that was a motion to 9 approve the memorialized applications made by 10 Commissioner Bettinger and seconded by 11 Commissioner Mehta, Commissioner Bettinger? 12 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 13 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 14 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 16 Fitzgibbons? 17 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 18 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 19 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 20 Chairman, yes on everything except SP-33-07. 21 I will abstain. 22 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 23 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 24 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 25 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. - 12 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 3 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 4 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 5 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Yes on all the 6 applications except for SD-39-06 and SP-09-07 7 since I recused myself. 8 MR. MARKS: Okay. Mr. Chairman, the 9 motion passed. Mr. Chairman, the next item 10 since the four subdivision applications were 11 removed from the list of items to be 12 memorialized, I would ask that the board 13 consider rescinding the denial of the 14 subdivision applications for Applications 19, 15 20, 21 and 22-07 for 317 Jersey Avenue, 280 16 Erie Street, 389 Monmouth Street and 354 Coles 17 Street based on the material fact that those 18 subdivision applications effect on a county 19 road facility was overlooked at the last 20 meeting. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I'll make that 22 motion. 23 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Second. 24 MR. CALVANICO: Mr. Chairman, I'd 25 like to add if I might to that resolution that - 13 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 it's being -- the previous approval is being 3 rescinded based upon the discovery of the new 4 material fact that the application's now 5 deemed incomplete and that we're requesting a 6 traffic impact study in order to complete the 7 application. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Thank 9 you, Tom. 10 MR. MARKS: So, Mr. Chairman, I have 11 a motion from you as board chair and the 12 second was? 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Commissioner 14 Holloway. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway. 16 Okay. On a motion to rescind the four 17 subdivision denials for SD-19-07, SD-20-07, 18 SD-21-07 and SD-22-07 made by Chairman Choffo, 19 seconded by Commissioner Holloway, 20 Commissioner Bettinger? 21 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 22 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 23 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 24 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 25 Fitzgibbons? - 14 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 4 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 5 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 6 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 7 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 8 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 9 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 10 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 12 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. 13 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 14 passed. Mr. Chairman, the applications 15 scheduled for public hearing tonight begin 16 with MSMP-05 which is the Municipal Stormwater 17 Management Plan for the city of Bayonne. In 18 your packets this evening or in your packets 19 for this evening is an e-mail from the Bayonne 20 City planner, John Fussa. He regrets that -- 21 they didn't have staff. The Bayonne Municipal 22 Stormwater Management Plan was prepared by 23 consulting engineers from Hatch Mott MacDonald 24 and he regrets that nobody from Hatch Mott was 25 available for testimony tonight to come out on - 15 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 behalf of the city. And he's not a qualified 3 expert in the field of stormwater management 4 so he would ask that the board consider 5 tabling this application to next month where 6 they should be able to have their expert 7 witnesses available for testimony. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Do I have a motion 9 to table this application? 10 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I make a 11 motion to table it. 12 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: I'll 13 second it. 14 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 15 motion to table Application MSMP-05 made by 16 Commissioner Fitzgibbons, seconded by 17 Commissioner DiDomenico, Commissioner 18 Bettinger? 19 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 21 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 22 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 23 Fitzgibbons? 24 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 25 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? - 16 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 4 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 5 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 6 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 7 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 8 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 9 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 10 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 12 passed. Mr. Chairman, the next application 13 scheduled for public hearing this evening is 14 MSMP-06 for the city of Hoboken Municipal 15 Stormwater Management Plan. It appears, Mr. 16 Chairman, there's nobody representing the city 17 of Bayonne. I would ask that the board -- I 18 mean, Hoboken, rather. I would ask that the 19 board consider tabling this resolution. They 20 may have faced a similar circumstance. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Do I have a 22 motion? 23 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I make a 24 motion. 25 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: I'll second - 17 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 the motion. 3 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 4 motion to table Municipal Stormwater 5 Management Plan-06 for the City of Hoboken 6 made by Commissioner Fitzgibbons, seconded by 7 Commissioner Bettinger, Commissioner 8 Bettinger? 9 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 10 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 11 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 12 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 13 Fitzgibbons? 14 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 16 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 17 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 18 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 19 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 20 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 21 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 22 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 23 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 24 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Aye. 25 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion - 18 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 passed. Mr. Chairman, the next application 3 scheduled for public hearing is MSMP-07, the 4 Municipal Stormwater Management Plan for the 5 city of Jersey City. I was in communication 6 with a representative from the Jersey City 7 Municipal Utilities Authority who said they 8 were going to be here this evening. So is 9 there anybody from the MUA here? 10 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Batting a 11 thousand, Steve. 12 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, seeing 13 that there's nobody from the city of Jersey 14 City here, I'd ask that this application be 15 tabled to next month. 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Sure. Do I have a 17 motion? 18 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I'll make a 19 motion. 20 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: I second. 21 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 22 motion to table the Municipal Stormwater 23 Management Plan for the city of Jersey City 24 made by Commissioner Holloway, seconded by 25 Commissioner Mehta, Commissioner Bettinger? - 19 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 4 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 5 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 6 Fitzgibbons? 7 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 8 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 9 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 10 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 11 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 12 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 13 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 14 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 15 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 16 MR. MARKS: And Chairman Choffo? 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. 18 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the next 19 application scheduled for public hearing is 20 SP-25-07. The applicant is T.R. Suratwala for 21 the Best Western located at 2650 Paterson 22 Plank Road in North Bergen. 23 MS. BERKENWALD: Elaine Berkenwald 24 from the Law Office of Dennis J. Oury on 25 behalf of the applicant. I have the architect - 20 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 here who will testify briefly first and then 3 the engineer. 4 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Mr. Chairman, 5 Architect Jose Izquierdo is working for me on 6 the separate project. It has nothing to do 7 with this but being the conflict, I'm excusing 8 myself. 9 MS. BERKENWALD: All right. Thank 10 you. 11 MS. BERKENWALD: Mr. Izquierdo has 12 been qualified before this board as a licensed 13 architect. Do you want me to requalify him or 14 just swear him in? 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: No. If we can 16 have him sworn in, though. 17 MR. CALVANICO: Please state your 18 name, spell your last name for the record, 19 sir. 20 MR. IZQUIERDO: My name is Jose 21 Izquierdo, last name I-Z like zebra Q-U-I-E-R- 22 D like David O, New Jersey architect 09143, 23 New Jersey planner 03385. 24 J O S E I Z Q U I E R D O, having 25 been first duly sworn according to law, - 21 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 testified as follows: 3 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. Good evening, 4 members of the board. This board gains 5 jurisdiction of this application because what 6 the applicant is intending to do is to 7 construct a building on a county road, 8 actually located on Paterson Plank Road. The 9 building is actually going to be built on 10 Block 50A and will encompass Lots 7, 12.01, 11 12.02 and 13 in the township of North Bergen, 12 New Jersey. This project received a planning 13 board approval from the township of North 14 Bergen since this zone in Paterson Plank Road 15 is specifically zoned for hotels. What the 16 applicant is intending to do is to build a 17 nine-story hotel consisting of eighty-eight 18 rooms with 120 parking spaces. There will 19 essentially be four levels of parking above 20 ground. There will be one level of parking 21 underground just for buses and there will be a 22 total of four stories of rooms. There are 23 adjacent hotels. We have Days Inn -- we have 24 a number of hotels in that area. The project 25 is totally consistent with the area. The - 22 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 hotel will be called Best Western Lincoln 3 Tunnel Hotel. It has been accepted by Best 4 Western. It is a franchise of my client, Don 5 Suratwala. He actually owns and operates the 6 Super8 Hotel adjacent to that. 7 My office prepared a couple of 8 renderings that I would like to show the board 9 members so that they see what the architecture 10 of the building is going to be and if the 11 board members are kind enough, I only made 12 four. 13 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Mr. 14 Chairman, before the documents are passed 15 around, could we have them marked for 16 identification? 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can we mark them 18 as -- 19 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: So 20 they're identified. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Did you get that 22 marked? Will you give it to Renee? Give it 23 to Renee. I can see it from here. 24 (Site plan drawings for Application SP-25-07 25 was hereby marked as Exhibit A-1 for - 23 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 identification, as of this date.) 3 MS. BERKENWALD: I've just passed 4 out four sets of A-1. 5 MR. IZQUIERDO: The drawings of the 6 building that identify exhibit A-1 show a main 7 entrance which is a big archway kind of 8 echoing the Lincoln Tunnel entrance. 9 Essentially, this is a hotel for people that 10 come to New Jersey and specifically come to 11 the township of North Bergen because we offer 12 better rates than hotels in New York. Most of 13 the residents and our guests are going to be 14 tourists that come from other parts of the 15 country wishing to visit essentially New York 16 City but hopefully also Sanato and the other 17 amenities that we will shortly have in the 18 Meadowlands but they come by buses. That's 19 why the ground floor level essentially the 20 ground level, the cellar level, is going to be 21 for buses. We have the capacity of holding 22 three tour buses underneath. This is a very 23 difficult project to build. Essentially, we 24 have about forty or fifty feet of excavation 25 and blasting of which an approval was given by - 24 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 the township of North Bergen because, 3 essentially, the street here of James Street 4 up here is going to be about fifty feet higher 5 than Paterson Plank Road. So, essentially, 6 from James Street you will see a building that 7 is approximately about four stories high. 8 From the Paterson Plank Road and from the 9 Meadowlands you will see a building that is 10 nine stories higher than Paterson Plank Road. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can you just 12 identify and mark that exhibit also for the 13 record. 14 MR. IZQUIERDO: A-2. 15 MS. BERKENWALD: A-2. 16 (Drawings for Application SP-25-07 was hereby 17 marked as Exhibit A-2 for identification, as 18 of this date.) 19 MR. IZQUIERDO: The hotel will have 20 a very simple lobby that will be located on 21 the ground floor. We're not planning to have 22 anything else other than a small seating area. 23 We're going to have a small kitchen for people 24 to have, like, warm up sandwiches or something 25 like that. We don't plan to have any - 25 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 restaurants or cocktail lounges. We still 3 don't have the market for that on Paterson 4 Plank Road right now. However, on the fourth 5 floor on top of the canopy that you see on top 6 of the big arch, we're going to have an 7 exercise room and a spa and a fitness room for 8 our guests. 9 The structure will be steel 10 structure. Should be erected in very short 11 time. And we actually expect to receive 12 approval from this board so that we can 13 finalize our development agreement with the 14 township of North Bergen, finalize our 15 financing agreements with our financing 16 institution and we can get started. We expect 17 the construction to take about a year, a year 18 and a half of construction. At the township 19 of North Bergen there was some concern about 20 the residents and actually what the residents 21 wanted was for us to put a restaurant and a 22 cocktail lounge at the hotel. But we did not 23 do that. But at the end there was no 24 opposition. I have nothing further. 25 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. - 26 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 Chairman, I have a question. It's on the TMA 3 report. It says here that you're going to 4 eliminate a retaining wall -- several of them. 5 Are you putting anything back there or you 6 don't need the retaining walls? 7 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. Essentially, 8 what we're doing is we're removing -- there 9 are a number of dilapidated structures. This 10 section between James Street and Paterson 11 Plank Road has not seen development in a long 12 time. And development along Paterson Plank 13 Road is at best haphazard. What we're trying 14 to do is knock down all these structures that 15 are wholly owned by the applicant and we have 16 to build a retaining wall on James Street, big 17 retaining wall -- 18 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: So you're 19 replacing the ones that you're tearing down? 20 MR. IZQUIERDO: Oh, definitely. 21 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Okay. It 22 didn't say that. That's why I was asking. 23 MR. IZQUIERDO: Oh, definitely. But 24 the retaining wall that we're building on 25 James Street is not our building wall. We - 27 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 have very uneven footing conditions. We have 3 very uneven soil conditions. Like, for 4 instance, the rear of the property, it's 5 totally rock and I'm able to do my footings on 6 40,000 pounds per square foot. But the fence 7 is only 4,000 square feet. So it's not an 8 easy project to build. We feel confident that 9 this board will see us favorably and we think 10 that the township also looked at us as 11 favorably. 12 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: One more 13 question. I understand that area. When it 14 rains, the water comes down very fast. You 15 have -- 16 MR. IZQUIERDO: We have stormwater 17 retention. I will leave that to the engineer. 18 Our engineer here is from Burton Engineering 19 and he'll -- we have addressed all those 20 issues. There were a number of site plan 21 issues actually raised by the Hudson County 22 engineer and I believe that all those issues 23 have been fully addressed. 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Thank you. 25 MS. BERKENWALD: Our engineer is - 28 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 from Burton Engineering, Drake Stinson. Drake 3 Stinson is a licensed engineer with Burton 4 Engineering. I don't believe he's been before 5 you. 6 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Not in front of 7 this board, no. 8 MS. BERKENWALD: Are you licensed in 9 the state of New Jersey? 10 MR. STINSON: Yes. I'm an engineer 11 licensed in the state of New Jersey and my 12 license is in effect. It's been paid. And 13 I've been licensed since 1991. 14 MS. BERKENWALD: Accepted as an 15 engineer? 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Yes. We need him 17 to be sworn in, though. 18 MR. CALVANICO: Please state your 19 name, spell your last name for the record. 20 MR. STINSON: My name is Drake 21 Christopher Stinson. That's S-T-I-N-S-O-N. I 22 work with Burton Engineering. 23 D R A K E S T I N S O N, having been first 24 duly sworn according to law, testified as 25 follows: - 29 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MR. CALVANICO: He's been sworn in, 3 Mr. Chairman. 4 MS. BERKENWALD: Mr. Stinson, would 5 you just describe the stormwater plan to the 6 board? 7 MR. STINSON: Sure, absolutely. We 8 did great detail of the stormwater management 9 system. The roof drainage is collected and 10 it's directed to the front area of the hotel 11 where we have underground detention which will 12 be located underneath the circular drop-off 13 area in front and then it discharges to the 14 existing sewer line in Paterson Plank Road. 15 Because the site is entirely in a roof, we 16 were able to collect almost all of the water 17 that is collected on the roof of the building 18 and it's directed to the front underground 19 detention where we do in fact reduce the 20 stormwater runoff to much less than existing 21 conditions and we meet the New Jersey 22 Stormwater Management rules for reduction and 23 peak discharge rate for the stormwater. 24 I did want to mention a change in 25 the drawings that we submitted. This is the - 30 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 current plan. As you can see, there's an 3 island here. This was a revision from the 4 last plan. 5 MS. BERKENWALD: And we're referring 6 to A-2 and the last plan, I guess we could 7 call it A-3. I'll mark it. 8 (Site plan drawing for Application SP-25-07 9 was hereby marked as Exhibit A-3 for 10 identification, as of this date.) 11 MR. STINSON: This was the previous 12 plan that we had. We just recently made a 13 change which showed the additional bed, that 14 landscaped island in front. We believe it's 15 better circulation. We isolate the 16 pedestrian -- oh, this was the old one. By 17 adding this landscape island right here, we 18 have a grade -- the buses come in this side. 19 They go underneath where we have the three 20 buses and the drop-off. Here we have an 21 isolated pedestrian drop-off area and this is 22 the entrance to the car parking decks. So we 23 added this landscaped area. Other than that, 24 we worked with the engineer to increase the 25 stormwater detention in front and we meet the - 31 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 requirements for stormwater management. 3 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All the vehicular 4 parking is underneath the hotel? 5 MR. STINSON: Actually, underneath 6 is the bus parking which comes in on the first 7 driveway. The other side is for the car 8 parking where there's two levels of car 9 parking inside the building. 10 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 11 Chairman, I have a question. The runoff 12 coming from Paterson Plank Road from the 13 top -- 14 MR. STINSON: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: How do you 16 address that? 17 MR. STINSON: I'm sorry. Pardon me? 18 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Paterson 19 Plank Road on the top coming down off the 20 rocks, how do you -- 21 MR. STINSON: Oh, the water is 22 collected through the -- the retaining walls 23 have a porous gravel back fill behind the 24 wall. It's collected up under subdrains which 25 go behind the retaining walls, it's collected - 32 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 up and will be brought into the system. 3 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Okay. 4 MR. STINSON: And the roof -- as I 5 said, it's mostly roof and that's where most 6 of the water is collected from. 7 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Thank you. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any other -- 9 Commissioner Jasek, any questions? 10 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Mr. Chairman, I 11 read a report from the consult on T&M and I am 12 satisfied. 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Mr. Klein? 14 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. 15 Chairman, I have a question. 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Go ahead. 17 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Where will 18 you be making deliveries for the hotel? 19 MR. STINSON: I believe it's the 20 lower level. 21 MR. IZQUIERDO: In the cellar level 22 where the buses are located. This is Paterson 23 Plank Road, as you know, and 495 is over here. 24 This is the entrance for the buses and also 25 the service entrance. As you enter through - 33 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 here, you will be going underground. And we 3 have buses 1, 2 and the third bus leads to a 4 garbage area, leads to a delivery area and 5 leads directly to actually a different 6 circulation system. We have three elevators 7 so all the deliveries and everything will be 8 able -- like, linen and things of that nature, 9 the cleaning people, they will be able to 10 enter and exit the hotel without interfering 11 with the guests. This will be our entrance to 12 the four-level parking structure that they 13 will start going in a counterclockwise 14 direction and this is the main canopy that 15 leads to the entrance to the hotel. What the 16 engineer described is that previously this bus 17 was connected to this but by the engineer 18 incorporating this long area, the circulation 19 is separated. So our guests will be able to 20 walk into the hotel and out without having to 21 interfere with the bus traffic or with the 22 vehicular traffic. 23 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: How many 24 units all total will be at the hotel? 25 MR. IZQUIERDO: Eighty-eight rooms. - 34 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 We have some king suites, we have some queen 3 suites and we're planning to have 4 (indiscernible) standards in terms of the 5 (indiscernible) analysis that they did of our 6 area, that they be (indiscernible) to us and 7 they would give us the franchise if we could 8 (indiscernible) this road. And so we have a 9 fair ratio of the cheaper units and the bigger 10 ones for families and what not. The building 11 is fully accessible to the handicapped and 12 (indiscernible). 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: We need -- the 14 record needs to hear you. 15 MR. IZQUIERDO: So I didn't say 16 anything? 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: No, he -- 18 MR. IZQUIERDO: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 20 Chairman, I have a question. Dealing with the 21 deliveries, is there one or two lanes going 22 inside? 23 MR. IZQUIERDO: For the parking up 24 on top? It's a two-way. When a car comes in, 25 he's able to park. All our spaces are - 35 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 regularly sized. 3 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: What I'm 4 asking is, let's just say that the deliveries 5 coming in and someone's coming out. A bus is 6 coming out and a delivery truck is coming in. 7 Are they able to pass each other or do they 8 have to wait till one -- 9 MR. IZQUIERDO: No. We have two-way 10 traffic. 11 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Okay. 12 MR. IZQUIERDO: Everything here is 13 two-way traffic. The delivery vans, the buses 14 for the passengers can go in and out of the 15 service area. It's very wide. We were able 16 to coordinate the columns so there is no 17 impediments. We really don't anticipate any 18 problems with the building actually. 19 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you. 20 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Bob, the 21 sewer line, is that a county sewer line? 22 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Yes. But the 23 fact that they build the filtration and 24 retention system, it will actually help to 25 detain the flow for a few minutes not to - 36 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 overload the system. I had one question 3 actually. I have seen on Paterson Plank Road 4 that heavy rain river running down that 5 Paterson Plan Road. Will that impair your -- 6 will that go into your basement or how are you 7 going to deal with that? 8 MR. STINSON: Paterson Plank Road is 9 lower so the water that comes down the gutter 10 flow from Paterson Plank Road is lower than 11 the site. It won't come in -- into the site. 12 COMMISSIONER JASEK: All your 13 entrances are above the gutter of the Paterson 14 Plank Road? 15 MR. STINSON: That's correct. 16 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Okay. 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Has any 18 construction started yet on this property? 19 MS. BERKENWALD: No. We're awaiting 20 your approval and then we could do a 21 developer's agreement and construction could 22 start. I would ask that the board approve 23 this application. It's been reviewed by your 24 engineer. It would be a welcome addition to 25 Hudson County. It's really an attractive - 37 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 looking project and we hope you'll grant 3 approval tonight. 4 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any other 5 questions? 6 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: North 7 Bergen did approve this? 8 MS. BERKENWALD: I'm sorry. Was the 9 question -- 10 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: North 11 Bergen did -- 12 MS. BERKENWALD: Yes. This was 13 approved by North Bergen. 14 MR. CALVANICO: Mr. Chairman, the 15 property just north of this location, those 16 are residential properties that are going to 17 remain? Is that -- 18 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. Actually, at 19 the edge of the properties to the north of our 20 application are residential properties not 21 owned by the applicant so the applicant has 22 not been able to acquire same. But the 23 applicant has been able to assemble all the 24 properties shown in this application by 25 removing a number of residential properties. - 38 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 The residential properties that you're 3 referring, I believe, pertain to two buildings 4 that they kind of, like -- they have no 5 parking. They are placed amidst a rock and, 6 yeah, they will remain. 7 MR. CALVANICO: And the same thing 8 for the properties that are south of this up 9 the hill? 10 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. 11 MR. CALVANICO: There's a number of 12 residential properties. 13 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. Before you 14 start with the condominiums because once you 15 finish with a couple of dilapidated structures 16 that you have to the south of us, then you 17 start with the newer condominiums that are 18 kind of like town homes that they put there 19 maybe fifteen years ago. 20 MR. CALVANICO: Oh, okay. So is 21 this part of what's now an empty property? 22 MR. IZQUIERDO: There is a portion 23 of the property that is vacant. And there, I 24 believe, I may be demolishing either two or 25 three structures. - 39 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MR. CALVANICO: Okay. Directly 3 across the street is the recycling facility 4 down below, right? 5 MR. IZQUIERDO: Directly across the 6 street? Yes. It's the Days Inn and then 7 that's the -- yeah, the Dip. 8 MR. CALVANICO: (Indiscernible). 9 Okay. 10 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. 11 MR. CALVANICO: Thank you, Mr. 12 Chairman. 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: You're welcome. 14 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, Lee Klein 15 is here from T&M & Associates who prepared the 16 May 8th review letter which was revised as of 17 July 16th. I would ask Mr. Klein to comment. 18 MR. KLEIN: Good evening, Mr. 19 Chairman, members of the board. My name is 20 Lee Klein. I'm with T&M Associates. Over the 21 past I would say two months, I've worked with 22 the applicant's engineer in part to reorganize 23 the driveways and the circulation for 24 vehicles. I'm satisfied with the way that has 25 turned out. We had a few comments early on as - 40 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 far as drainage went and those all have been 3 addressed as well. So I'm satisfied that they 4 addressed all our comments and concerns. 5 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Thank 6 you, Lee. 7 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Mr. Chairman, 8 the county has in future for later this year 9 repaving of Paterson Plank Road. It might 10 happen, I would say, in the late October. 11 When they will completely repave the road, we 12 will fix the retaining wall on the western 13 side. We will put a new fence there. How 14 that will collide with your construction? 15 MS. BERKENWALD: Could you give me a 16 second? I think when we build the building 17 we'd have to rip it up and then replace it. 18 So ideally, if the county could pave other 19 roads that are needing repaving and do this 20 one a year later, I think that would make a 21 lot of sense. I think that would make a lot 22 more sense. 23 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Unfortunately, 24 it cannot be done this way. So the county 25 will proceed. I was aiming at your need to - 41 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 close the lane of the traffic. 3 MR. STINSON: I would suggest that 4 we could do our utility connections in advance 5 of your work. We can do that first -- 6 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Yes. 7 MR. STINSON: -- and then when you 8 come in, we'll be able to do the final paving. 9 COMMISSIONER JASEK: During the 10 construction, do you require to close one lane 11 of the traffic to give you the room for the 12 construction? 13 MR. STINSON: I believe there might 14 be a temporary closing of a portion to make 15 the connection. It would be a momentary, one 16 day perhaps to close maybe one lane. Because 17 we're not extending very far out. The sewers 18 are right there. 19 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Okay. I just 20 want to remind everybody that any road opening 21 will need a permit from the county. 22 MR. STINSON: If you could let us 23 know in advance of when your work is going to 24 be scheduled then we'll schedule our work 25 to -- - 42 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Yes. We will 3 notify you. 4 MR. STINSON: All right. 5 MS. BERKENWALD: All right. We'll 6 keep in touch with you. 7 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you. Go 8 ahead. 9 MR. TRIDENTE: I have a question for 10 Mr. Izquierdo. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Go ahead, Mario. 12 MR. TRIDENTE: Mr. Izquierdo, can 13 you clear up -- just clear something up for me 14 on these photographs and where the project -- 15 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Excuse me. 16 Mr. Chairman, if you could just let the board 17 know what you're looking at so we understand 18 what -- 19 MR. TRIDENTE: I have a tax map. 20 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: And what 21 photo are you looking at? 22 MR. TRIDENTE: I'm looking at page 23 20. 24 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yeah. That's the 25 same one he has. We're impacting on 58 7, 8, - 43 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 all the way to here. 3 Both facing on Jane Street, also called New 4 Road -- don't know why and Paterson Plank 5 Road. 6 MR. CALVANICO: Is this the one? 7 MR. SURATWALA: Yeah, that's the 8 one. 9 MR. IZQUIERDO: That's the one but 10 in addition to that we have a couple of -- 11 MR. SURATWALA: These two houses, 12 right. 13 MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. These two 14 houses. That's all going. 15 MR. SURATWALA: This one is going to 16 stay over here. The one on this side is going 17 to go. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Wait, wait, wait, 19 I'm sorry. Can you state your name and spell 20 it please, sir? And we need to swear you in. 21 I know you may be the owner but we need it for 22 the record. 23 MR. SURATWALA: I'm Tonsoch (ph.) R. 24 Suratwala and I'm the member of the LLC who's 25 going to be building the Best Western Lincoln - 44 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 Tunnel Inn. 3 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Right. Can you 4 just be sworn in by our attorney, please? 5 MR. SURATWALA: Yes. 6 T. R. S U R A T W A L A, having been first 7 duly sworn according to law, testified as 8 follows: 9 MR. CALVANICO: Please spell your 10 last name for the record. 11 MR. SURATWALA: S-U-R-A-T as in Tom 12 W-A-L-A. 13 MR. CALVANICO: Thank you, sir. 14 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you. Mario, 15 can you do me a favor? Can you mark that for 16 the record and just mention what it is once 17 again that you were discussing with the 18 client? 19 MS. BERKENWALD: That should be 20 perhaps B for the board. 1. Would that be 21 all right? Tax map. 22 MR. TRIDENTE: Tax map, page 20, 23 North Bergen Tax Assessor's office. 24 (Tax map, page 20, for Application SP-25-07 25 was hereby marked as Exhibit B-1 for - 45 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 identification, as of this date.) 3 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 4 MR. CALVANICO: Is there also a 5 photo? 6 MR. TRIDENTE: Photograph B-2. 7 (Aerial photograph for Application SP-25-07 8 was hereby marked as Exhibit B-2 for 9 identification, as of this date.) 10 MR. CALVANICO: What? An aerial 11 photograph of the site? 12 MR. TRIDENTE: It's an aerial 13 photograph. 14 MS. BERKENWALD: May we see it, Mr. 15 Tridente? 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Mr. Marks, did you 17 have a question? 18 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, not so 19 much a question. It was a comment by the site 20 plan subdivision review committee to suggest 21 that the site plans be amended to include a 22 bicycle rack in the parking area, in the 23 common parking area for the Best Western. Not 24 anticipating any visitors or guests to take 25 bicycles there but I believe the staff of the - 46 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 hotel -- generally, hotel staff is -- I don't 3 want to say lower rung employees but, like, 4 lower paid employees and many people can't 5 afford automobile transportation. Many people 6 do take bicycles to work. So that's something 7 that I would ask the board consider making a 8 condition of the approval. 9 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 10 MS. BERKENWALD: We agree to that. 11 We'll have a bike rack for the employees. 12 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Any 13 other questions? 14 MR. TRIDENTE: How many parking 15 spaces will be lost due to this project on 16 Paterson Plank Road? 17 MR. IZQUIERDO: Actually, I don't 18 think there's any -- I don't think there's any 19 parking on that side of -- 20 MR. TRIDENTE: Yes, there is. 21 MR. IZQUIERDO: Three parking spaces 22 will be lost. 23 MR. STINSON: There will be a couple 24 parking spaces missing right here. 25 MR. TRIDENTE: The parking spaces in - 47 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 between the two driveways are going to remain? 3 MR. IZQUIERDO: In here? 4 MR. TRIDENTE: Yes. 5 MR. IZQUIERDO: You will keep the 6 parking here. You will keep all the parking 7 here. And then -- so probably a net loss of 8 three to four. Maybe two here and three more 9 here. 10 MR. STINSON: The point is that no 11 one uses those parking spaces as it is now. 12 There's not much need for those parking 13 spaces? 14 MR. TRIDENTE: When I went by there, 15 there were cars parked there. 16 MR. STINSON: There were? 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Anything else, 18 Mario? 19 MR. TRIDENTE: No. That's it. 20 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Do I 21 have a motion? 22 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I make a 23 motion to approve. 24 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: I'll second 25 the motion. - 48 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 3 motion to approve Application SP-25-07 made by 4 Commissioner Fitzgibbons, seconded by 5 Commissioner Bettinger, Commissioner 6 Bettinger? 7 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: It looks 8 like a wonderful project. I vote aye. 9 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 10 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 12 Fitzgibbons? 13 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 14 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 15 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye 16 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 17 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 18 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 19 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. Good 22 luck. 23 MR. IZQUIERDO: Thank you very much. 24 Good evening. 25 MR. STINSON: Thank you very much. - 49 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MS. BERKENWALD: Thank you very 3 much. 4 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, it appears 5 that members of the Jersey City administration 6 for the Municipal Stormwater Management Plan 7 which is MSMP-07 which the board considering 8 tabling before. So I would ask that the board 9 reconsider scheduling for the public hearing. 10 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Towards the latter 11 part of the meeting or now? 12 MR. MARKS: Well, they were up at 13 the beginning of the agenda when the board 14 considered -- 15 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I think 16 they should be the latter part of the meeting. 17 You got other people waiting. 18 MR. MARKS: Okay. Mr. Chairman, the 19 next application scheduled for public hearing 20 is SP-32-07, Lafayette Management located on 21 Paterson Plank Road and 22nd Street, which is 22 block 44, Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and a 23 vacated portion of 22nd Street in North 24 Bergen. 25 MS. BERKENWALD: It's Elaine - 50 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 Berkenwald from the Law Office of Dennis J. 3 Oury on behalf of Lafayette Management. I 4 have the same engineer for this application, 5 Drake Stinson. If you'd like him sworn again 6 or -- 7 MR. CALVANICO: No. We'll consider 8 him sworn. 9 MS. BERKENWALD: We'll consider him 10 sworn? Mr. Stinson, would you just describe 11 this project? This, by the way, was 12 previously approved by this board in 2005 and 13 then the applicant required some additional 14 property on the side. A paper street was 15 vacated by North Bergen so the applicant 16 converted the previously approved forty-one 17 bedroom project to forty-two bedroom project. 18 And so it's a little bit bigger and the 19 driveways are moved and I'll let the engineer 20 describe that. 21 MR. STINSON: Yes. This -- Elaine 22 had mentioned before we had a previous 23 approval from this board for a forty-unit 24 residential building similar to this one. 25 What happened was the property for 22nd Street - 51 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 right here was obtained by the applicant and 3 he was able to extend the building slightly, 4 move the driveway over and instead of having 5 forty one-bedroom units, he now has forty 6 two -- he has twenty one-bedroom units and 7 twenty two-bedroom units. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I'm sorry. So it 9 went from forty-one to forty? 10 MR. STINSON: There was forty one- 11 bedroom units in the previous approval and now 12 there's twenty two-bedroom units and twenty 13 one-bedroom units. 14 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I'm sorry. 15 Long day but this is a little confusing to me. 16 MS. BERKENWALD: This was approved 17 for forty one-bedroom units. Then North 18 Bergen vacate 22nd Street, giving us a little 19 more land so the plan was modified. There was 20 still forty units. Half are now one-bedroom 21 and half are going to be two-bedroom. The 22 footprint of the building's a little bigger 23 and as a result the driveways have been -- 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: So you're 25 minus one? - 52 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: No. 3 MS. BERKENWALD: The same number of 4 units but now half of them are two-bedroom 5 units. Originally, they were all one-bedroom 6 units. So this way we have a mix. 7 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: You got that, 8 Mark? Go ahead. You may proceed. 9 MS. BERKENWALD: If you would just 10 show them where the driveways have been moved, 11 I think that's really the only change as far 12 as this board would be interested. 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can we just 14 identify what we're speaking about and mark it 15 as an exhibit? 16 MR. STINSON: Yes. This is a site 17 plan rendering -- landscape rendering drawing 18 which is no new information. What it is, it's 19 a site plan drawing that was previously 20 submitted with the landscaping shown on there 21 and then it's been colored to make a landscape 22 rendering drawing. 23 MS. BERKENWALD: I just labeled it 24 A-1. 25 (Landscape rendering drawing for Application - 53 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 SP-32-07 was hereby marked as Exhibit A-1 for 3 identification, as of this date.) 4 MR. STINSON: I was looking to make 5 sure I had the levels of floors correct. We 6 have four levels of residences which, as we 7 said before, were twenty units, two-bedroom, 8 twenty units, one-bedrooms. Over two levels 9 of parking. The way it works is Paterson 10 Plank Road slopes down to the left when 11 looking at the drawing. The driveway that's 12 two-way traffic enters here. On the lower 13 level, there's a level of parking and on the 14 upper level of parking would enter this 15 driveway. And this drawing here has the 16 parking underneath the building shown for the 17 upper driveway. So we're taking advantage of 18 the Paterson Plank Road roadway slope and it 19 sloped inside. So there's two levels of 20 parking and above that there's four levels of 21 residences. 22 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: How many 23 parking spots? 24 MS. BERKENWALD: I think seventy- 25 six. - 54 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MR. STINSON: There's thirty-six 3 parking spaces required for the one-bedroom 4 units. There's forty parking spaces required 5 for the two-bedroom units which according to 6 RSIS requires a total of seventy-six parking 7 spaces and we have provided seventy-six 8 parking spaces. 9 I could talk about the stormwater 10 management also, if you'd like. We met the 11 engineer's requirements for a reduction in 12 stormwater flows. There was an issue that was 13 brought up -- there was a contradiction in 14 some of the calculations where the size of the 15 work was for the detention. And the 16 calculations are correct. We need to revise 17 the details to coordinate them with the 18 information in the stormwater calculations. 19 But in fact there is a reduction in the 20 stormwater flows again. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: There was no other 22 changes in the traffic flow? 23 MR. STINSON: No. 24 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: There's 25 no changes in entering the building? - 55 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MR. STINSON: Pardon me? 3 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: There's 4 no other changes to going into the building? 5 MR. STINSON: The only change, as I 6 said before, once again, the applicant 7 acquired the right of way that was vacated 8 from 22nd Street. So the building was 9 extended down and this driveway moved 10 slightly. But I would like to say that this 11 project is just down the road from the Best 12 Western Hotel. We've done the same streets, 13 gave pattern with the shade trees, brick 14 pavers in front and the sidewalk will be 15 consistent with the Best Western Hotel. And 16 there was minor changes in this just to extend 17 the building a little bit. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: And North Bergen 19 did approve these changes? 20 MR. STINSON: Pardon me? 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: North Bergen did 22 approve these changes? 23 MS. BERKENWALD: Yes. We got 24 approval a while ago. 25 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can you just get - 56 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 to Mr. Marks a copy of that? 3 MS. BERKENWALD: Yes, definitely. 4 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any questions, Mr. 5 Jasek? 6 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Yeah, I have 7 one -- oh, I'm sorry. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Oh, I'm sorry. 9 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: You going to 10 be a little consistent with Best Western, you 11 say? 12 MR. STINSON: That's correct. 13 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: It's going 14 to have a bike rack for the bikers? 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Good question. 16 MR. STINSON: Not a problem. We can 17 provide a bike rack. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Okay. 19 MR. STINSON: As you can see, the 20 streets take the trees that we specified, the 21 brick pavers and the sidewalk are all 22 consistent to give a uniform look along 23 Paterson Plank Road. 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 25 Chairman, I do have a question about the - 57 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 trees. I'm not an expert on the trees but are 3 these type of trees that just grow as high as 4 they want or they stop at a certain level? 5 MR. STINSON: They're trees that are 6 designed for an urban environment. They're 7 shade trees that are resistant to pollution. 8 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: The reason 9 I'm asking is that some trees just grow out 10 of -- they have to be cut and sometimes the 11 city doesn't cut it. Who's responsible to 12 maintain it? Are you? Is the owner? 13 MR. STINSON: Yeah. Well, the 14 owner, is in his best interest to keep the -- 15 MS. BERKENWALD: I think if it's on 16 the property the owner is responsible. If 17 it's on the street, he may have to get 18 permission but if certainly it's growing 19 towards his house he'll want to keep it 20 trimmed, keep squirrels from visiting and 21 nesting in the property. If they're on the 22 city property, usually cities do take care of 23 that. 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Is there any 25 electrical wires on that side of the street, - 58 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 do you know? 3 MR. STINSON: I'm not sure. The 4 size of the trees that were proposed right now 5 are eight to ten foot. They are trident maple 6 trees. 7 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Okay. Thank you. 8 MR. STINSON: They're not drooping. 9 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. 10 Chairman -- oh. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Go ahead, Renee. 12 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Is this a 13 rental or a condominium? I'm sorry. I don't 14 know if you mentioned it and if I've missed 15 it. 16 MS. BERKENWALD: Usually the owner 17 hopes to do condominiums. Sometimes market 18 forces change and then rentals are provided. 19 But usually the hope is that they will be 20 condominiums. 21 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: And will 22 the parking spaces be designated? 23 MS. BERKENWALD: I believe usually 24 they are designated with apartments. Usually 25 have a few designated as guest spaces. - 59 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Right. 3 That was my next question, are you providing 4 guest parking. 5 MS. BERKENWALD: Well, recess takes 6 into account guest parking. 7 MR. STINSON: Yeah, that's correct. 8 MS. BERKENWALD: There's a bit of a 9 difference in height between me and my 10 engineer here. Try to get it right. 11 MR. STINSON: The requirements for 12 parking as stipulated is RSIS include a 13 provision for visitor parking and that number 14 that's required. 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Commissioner 16 Jasek? 17 COMMISSIONER JASEK: No question, 18 Mr. Chairman? 19 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Question? Mr. 20 Klein? 21 MR. KLEIN: Again, Lee Klein with 22 T&M Associates. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The 23 discrepancy that we found between the 24 calculations for stormwater and their 25 detention chamber suction on their Sheet C 3.2 - 60 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 just shows different elevations for their 3 hundred year, ten year and two year storm 4 event and they need to change those numbers on 5 the detail to make it match the calculations. 6 But other than that we have no other comments 7 on the project. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 9 MR. STINSON: But as I said before, 10 we'll correct those coordination issues and 11 make the adjustments to the board's 12 consultant's satisfaction. 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. And 14 there will be a bike rack, you said, Mr. 15 Stinson? 16 MR. STINSON: Yes 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 18 MR. STINSON: Absolutely. 19 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Mr. -- 20 MR. TRIDENTE: How close will the 21 top elevation of the building come to the 22 electrical substation above it? 23 MR. STINSON: I'm not sure if I know 24 where the substation is. 25 MS. BERKENWALD: Here. This is just - 61 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 an aerial photograph we're calling B-1 for 3 Board 1 aerial. 4 (Aerial photograph for Application SP-32-07 5 was hereby marked as Exhibit B-1 for 6 identification, as of this date.) 7 MS. BERKENWALD: This one -- 8 MR. TRIDENTE: How high is it? 9 MR. STINSON: There's an elevation 10 difference of approximately forty feet from 11 Paterson Plank Road to the top of the 12 property. I see there's a chain link fence 13 here that is along the property line on the 14 property owned by Public Service Gas & 15 Electric where the substation is. We are into 16 the hill so it won't be that high up. But we 17 are adjacent to that property. 18 MR. TRIDENTE: The building won't go 19 up that high? 20 MR. STINSON: We're four stories of 21 residences over two levels of parking. You 22 can see Paterson Plank Road slopes down so 23 that's five levels, probably about fifty feet. 24 MR. TRIDENTE: Fifty feet at the top 25 floor, they'll be looking right at the - 62 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 substation. 3 MR. STINSON: Probably about one 4 story above in the back, that's correct. 5 MR. TRIDENTE: Will you have to do 6 any blasting in there? 7 MR. STINSON: I believe there might 8 be a little blasting in the back of the 9 property. Any blasting that will be done 10 would be done of course in accordance with the 11 state requirements for blasting. 12 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 13 Chairman? Mr. Jasek, is there any 14 environmental issues with this building so 15 close to this power station, electrical 16 station? 17 COMMISSIONER JASEK: I'm not aware 18 of any. It doesn't mean that there are any. 19 I just don't know. 20 MS. BERKENWALD: We've actually -- 21 the Law Journal had an article. There've been 22 a hundred studies about people living near 23 high tension wires and electric stations and 24 nobody has actually proved a connection 25 between ill health effects and electric - 63 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 substations. So nobody has ever proven that 3 that's a problem. 4 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I'm sorry. 5 Mr. Chairman, how many feet did you say the 6 building would be away from this station? 7 Fifty feet? 8 MR. TRIDENTE: It's the rear of the 9 building. How far is -- 10 MR. STINSON: Yeah, I'm looking at 11 that now. It's about, I'd say, thirty feet -- 12 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Thirty feet? 13 MR. STINSON: -- from the property 14 line. I don't know exactly where the 15 substation is. On the other side -- 16 MS. BERKENWALD: I would ask the 17 board approve this application. It would be a 18 welcome addition that would -- there are 19 similarities in the streetscape with the 20 adjacent Best Western and it would be a 21 welcome addition to North Bergen in Hudson 22 County. 23 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Any 24 other questions? Go ahead. 25 MR. CALVANICO: Mr. Chairman, one - 64 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 item prior to the board considering a new 3 motion. In the past we've made as a condition 4 for approval the owner accepting 5 responsibility for the maintenance of the 6 trees in the area. So I'd ask -- I would 7 suggest to the board that that would be 8 something that would be appropriate under the 9 circumstances. 10 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you, Tom. 11 MS. BERKENWALD: We would accept 12 responsibility for the trees. 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Go 14 ahead, Steve. 15 MR. MARKS: And also, Mr. Chairman, 16 the PSE&G has a list of trees which don't grow 17 to any heights in case there's overhead 18 utility lines. They have a list of suggested 19 trees that are both open tolerant and that 20 don't grow to a height to entangle the lines, 21 that don't raise the sidewalks. So I'd ask 22 the applicant to consider using the A-trees 23 suggested by Public Service Electric & Gas. 24 MR. STINSON: We'll review that and 25 comply with that requirement. - 65 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Do I 3 have a motion? 4 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Motion to 5 approve. 6 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: I second. 7 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 8 motion to approve Application SP-32-07 made by 9 Commissioner Holloway, seconded by 10 Commissioner Mehta, Commissioner Bettinger? 11 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 12 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 13 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: Aye. 14 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 15 Fitzgibbons? 16 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 17 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 18 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye 19 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Jasek? 20 CHAIRMAN JASEK: Aye. 21 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 22 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 23 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 24 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 25 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo. - 66 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. Good 3 luck. 4 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the vote 5 passed. 6 MR. STINSON: Thank you very much. 7 MS. BERKENWALD: Very nice. Thank 8 you. 9 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the next 10 application scheduled for public hearing is 11 SP-44-07, Clifford Adam & Richard Adam located 12 at -- applicants located at 2158 Kennedy 13 Boulevard which is Block 1783, Lots 19 and 20 14 in Jersey City. 15 MR. ROSE: Good evening. Steven 16 Rose, Rose & Zuckerman in Bayonne. I 17 represent the applicant. Unfortunately 18 because of short notice, the applicant is on 19 vacation out of state. I discussed the letter 20 that we received and I'm prepared to make 21 representations on his behalf. I brought with 22 me tonight the architect, Ms. Rosas, who will 23 testify. 24 Just briefly, the applicant owns a 25 two-family house in Jersey City on Kennedy - 67 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 Boulevard. That's in a multi-family zone and 3 he wishes to add another story and add two 4 apartments. This will not -- the application 5 will not be making the footprint to the house 6 any larger. He intends to go up and utilize 7 the existing footprint of the house. Also, 8 there will be no off-street parking -- I mean, 9 all the parking will be off-street so he will 10 not affect any of the present parking. And 11 there will be no change in any driveway cut. 12 I would like to introduce the 13 architect who -- well, I'll ask her. 14 MS. ROSAS: Good evening. 15 MR. ROSE: Do you want to spell your 16 name? 17 MS. ROSAS: My name is Carola Rosas, 18 C-A-R-O-L-A. Last name is R-O-S-A-S. 19 MR. ROSE: Okay. And are you a 20 licensed architect in the state of New Jersey. 21 Yes, I am, registered architect. 22 MR. ROSE: And how long have you 23 been -- 24 MS. ROSAS: Over ten years. 25 Licensed in New Jersey. - 68 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MR. ROSE: Have you appeared before 3 any boards in New Jersey? 4 MS. ROSAS: Yes. Jersey Planning 5 Board, North Bergen, West New York, Union 6 City. 7 MR. ROSE: And you've testified as a 8 professional architect? 9 MS. ROSAS: Yes, I have. 10 MR. ROSE: I request that the board 11 accept her as an expert. 12 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Sure. Can we just 13 have her sworn in? 14 C A R O L A R O S A S, having been first 15 duly sworn according to law, testified as 16 follows: 17 MR. ROSE: Are you familiar with the 18 letter that we received from the board dated 19 July 12th? 20 MS. ROSAS: Yes. 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Excuse me, Mr. 22 Rose. Can you just get a little closer to the 23 microphone? 24 MR. ROSE: If I had spoken louder -- 25 in that letter there are certain requirements - 69 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 that a tree be added. 3 MS. ROSAS: Yes. 4 MR. ROSE: Will that be added to the 5 plans? 6 MS. ROSAS: It has been added to the 7 plans, to the final ones. 8 MR. ROSE: Okay. And the signature 9 table -- 10 MS. ROSAS: Yes. It has been added 11 also to the plans, yes. 12 MR. ROSE: Okay. I don't -- 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can you just set 14 up and show the board a brief overview of the 15 project so we have a visual -- can you just 16 move that up, Steve? Can you slide it up a 17 little bit more so the board could see it? 18 MS. ROSAS: Okay. I can't refer to 19 the site plan at the upper right hand corner. 20 Basically is an interior lot, again, located 21 at 2158 Kennedy Boulevard. The lot measures 22 roughly about forty-seven feet by 104 feet, a 23 total of 4,794 square feet which is the lot 24 area. 25 The existing zoning district in this - 70 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 case is R-3 and it's a mid-rise district. 3 Again, what we're proposing to do is to 4 convert the existing two-family to a four- 5 family dwelling unit. Now, the footprint -- 6 first of all, the footprint will not change. 7 A total of 1,615 square feet. The existing 8 second story will be 1543 square feet. And 9 the third story is existing a total of -- that 10 is 1,027 which is a total building area of 11 4,185 square feet. Again, a total of four 12 units. A combination of two one-bedroom, one 13 three-bedroom and one two-bedroom. As far as 14 the building setback is an existing condition 15 so we have an existing front yard of about 16 eighteen feet point two five and site yard of 17 8.28 and 1.06 feet and a rear yard of thirty- 18 three feet. 19 In this case, we have a layout -- a 20 combination of kitchen, living room and dining 21 room and the two bedrooms or in the case of a 22 one bedroom. Sometimes separate kitchen will 23 combine. And the type of work that will be 24 done in this building will be a combination of 25 just some partition work, in this case, - 71 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 general construction, some plumbing to add an 3 additional kitchen, partial electrical and 4 fire-rated walls, upgrade the fire rating 5 between the units. And a new rear fire escape 6 at the rear of the building. And there will 7 be additional parking at the rear yard. Let 8 me also mention that we've added that tree 9 which is about four inch diameter Gallagher 10 tree ten foot height to the site walk and 11 there's also an existing tree in the front 12 yard which I included also. And the curb cut 13 and driveway is existing so that there's no 14 change. 15 So mainly, the work is going to be 16 interior. In terms of density, we do meet the 17 requirement. We're under. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any questions? 19 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Did you 20 receive variance for the conversion? 21 MR. ROSE: No, no. Application has 22 been made but we haven't been heard yet before 23 Jersey City. But we're asking for approval 24 subject to Jersey City's approval. 25 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Mr. Chairman, - 72 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 one question. Do you need increase any 3 utility? 4 MS. ROSAS: No. In this case we 5 don't. Just some minor electrical work. 6 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Okay. So -- 7 open the street, open the sidewalk? 8 MS. ROSAS: In that case, this 9 probably -- 200 amps to the building. It 10 really depends when we get to the -- when we 11 file the plans with the building department, 12 if there's additional upgrades or requirements 13 then we will address that. We will fulfill 14 all the building code's requirements. 15 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Thank you. 16 MR. TRIDENTE: Is the site going to 17 be required to have a sprinkler system? 18 MS. ROSAS: At this point, it's not 19 required. But if it's necessary we will have 20 to provide it. Once we enter the building 21 apartment -- 22 MR. TRIDENTE: Probably at that 23 point we will have to open up the street. Tap 24 in through the water main. 25 MS. ROSAS: Right. It depends how - 73 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 many heads we'll be adding on. If it's maybe 3 on the third level and not the rest of the 4 facility, so it depends how it gets 5 interpreted. Because it's an existing 6 building, it might not be required. 7 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I think 8 you're adding two units on it, I think you 9 have to cover the whole building under the 10 fire safety law. 11 MS. ROSAS: We will do whatever it 12 takes in order to meet the regulation. 13 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: So 14 there's only two units -- is any of these 15 units occupied right now? 16 MR. ROSE: I believe so, yes. 17 MS. ROSAS: They are occupied, okay. 18 MR. ROSE: At least one of them is. 19 I don't know about the second one. 20 MS. ROSAS: Yeah. Maybe -- maybe 21 one. I mean, it's been a while. When I went 22 there, the building was purchased. So I don't 23 know. 24 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: So this 25 work will be done while the tenant is in - 74 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 there? 3 MS. ROSAS: If it's occupying one 4 unit, yes. It's really -- it's an existing -- 5 it's an existing building. So maybe the unit 6 that's occupied is the second floor which is 7 really no change as existing. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I do have a 9 question since you're going from two units to 10 four, it falls in the Multiple Dwelling Act, 11 so the state -- DCA is aware of it? You have 12 to register with them, I believe? 13 MS. ROSAS: Um-hmm. 14 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: That's all taken 15 care of also? 16 MS. ROSAS: Yes. 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. 18 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. 19 Chairman, I have a question about the parking. 20 The board was presented with a photograph from 21 Mr. Tridente. Is this the parking garage 22 that's -- 23 MS. ROSAS: Existing two-car garage, 24 yes. 25 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Okay. So - 75 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 how are you going to convert this to four? 3 MS. ROSAS: No. That's a rear yard. 4 It's open space parking. 5 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: It's open 6 space parking? 7 MS. ROSAS: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: So are you 9 knocking down the existing garage? 10 MS. ROSAS: At this point, there's 11 no plan to remove the existing garage. 12 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Is there 13 ample space for the cars to turn around? 14 MS. ROSAS: What's required in terms 15 of the density, the number of parking spaces 16 is three. 17 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Three? 18 MS. ROSAS: Yes. Three is 19 definitely sufficient. More, if possible, but 20 three for sure. So in terms of variance, 21 we're not asking for the variance on parking. 22 We do satisfy the requirement. 104 roughly -- 23 it's slightly irregular but 104 feet deep, the 24 lot is. Forty-seven feet by 104. 25 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Will the - 76 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 cars be backing out or will it -- 3 MS. ROSAS: One at a time. 4 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Excuse me? 5 MS. ROSAS: One at a time. 6 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Well, I 7 know one at a time. 8 MR. ROSE: They back out or they 9 cannot (indiscernible), can they make a K- 10 turn -- 11 MS. ROSAS: No, no, no. You have 12 to -- it's like a broken U-turn. Back up and 13 then come forward. 14 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Okay. 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Steve, when we 16 looked at this at the site plan, did we have 17 an issue with the parking scenario? 18 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, it wasn't 19 anything that jumped out at the site plan and 20 subdivision review committee but does the 21 county engineer have any comments on it? 22 COMMISSIONER JASEK: No. I have no 23 comment. 24 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: They won't 25 be backing out onto Kennedy Boulevard? That's - 77 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 my concern. 3 MS. ROSAS: Oh -- 4 COMMISSIONER JASEK: Even if they 5 have to back up, that's a residential area and 6 every driveway practically, every carport, 7 every garage, has the situation that they have 8 to back out. Very few residences have the 9 luxury to turn out and pull out from the 10 driveway. 11 MR. ROSE: Is there enough room to 12 make a K-turn to come out frontwards? 13 MS. ROSAS: No. Most likely you're 14 going to have to back out onto the street. 15 Right. It gets a little tight unless you're a 16 very good driver. 17 MR. CALVANICO: Mr. Chairman, if I 18 might, just reviewing the plan here with the 19 planning director, according to the plan 20 submitted, 3.5 parking spaces are required and 21 four parking spaces are being provided. So 22 assuming the (indiscernible) the two in the 23 garage and two additional spaces. 24 MS. ROSAS: Right. Actually, this 25 was already made -- reviewed by the New Jersey - 78 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 Planning Board and what the calculation was it 3 came out to a total of three parking spaces 4 required and we're asking for four. But three 5 is sufficient. 6 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: You said 7 the variance to convert from two to four is 8 through the Zoning Adjustment -- Board of 9 Adjustments? 10 MR. ROSE: Yeah, but we don't need 11 a -- 12 MS. ROSAS: We don't need it. 13 MR. ROSE: It's zoned before them. 14 The only variance that we need are -- 15 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: The only 16 (indiscernible) is that you got converted. 17 MS. ROSAS: Exactly, the conversion. 18 But we're not asking for a variance for 19 parking. We do need it. 20 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: But you 21 didn't get the approval from Jersey City yet, 22 right? 23 MR. ROSE: Right. We're on the 24 calendar. We're waiting to hear from 25 (indiscernible), that's correct. - 79 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Well, if 3 we approve this, it's -- I'm going to make a 4 motion to approve it but only if Jersey City 5 approves it. 6 MS. ROSAS: Of course. 7 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: 8 Everything is null and void if they don't 9 approve it. 10 MS. ROSAS: Of course, yes. 11 MR. ROSE: We had to do one first -- 12 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: You're 13 supposed to do Jersey City then come here. 14 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any other 15 questions? Is there a motion? 16 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER DiDOMENICO: 18 Commissioner Mehta. 19 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Oh, I'm sorry. 20 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Regarding the 21 parking, same issue that you are saying you 22 are providing four parking but those are the 23 tandem parking and usually like 24 (indiscernible) and that, yes, most of the 25 houses are -- garages or carports they have - 80 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 exist or they back out on Kennedy Boulevard. 3 But usually they have only one car. That one 4 car backing out. Here even if you have a 5 tandem parking three cars so that means you're 6 going to pull out the parked car, you have to 7 pull out the two car and two car will block 8 Kennedy Boulevard and they have to wait on the 9 Kennedy Boulevard for the other car to -- 10 MS. ROSAS: No. You don't have to 11 pull out the two cars in order to come out of 12 the space, no. There -- 13 MR. ROSE: Could you describe the 14 parking? Is the parking in a row across the 15 back? 16 MR. ROSE: Side by side and then 17 there's a two-car garage over there. 18 MS. ROSAS: Side by side. They're 19 side by side. Exactly. Toward the rear 20 they're side by side and there's a garage. 21 MR. ROSE: Is it possible to back 22 out of the garage and then go north and then 23 go out frontwards instead of going out 24 backwards? Is there enough room to make the 25 turn out of the garage and then go -- - 81 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 7/18/07 2 MS. ROSAS: Possibly. 3 MR. ROSE: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: How wide is the 5 carport? 6 MS. ROSAS: About twenty by twenty. 7 Twenty by twenty existing two-car garage. 8 COMMSISIONER MEHTA: Yeah. So 9 you're going have twenty available feet 10 carport is very hard to -- you're going to 11 make a K-turn because usually cars are sixteen 12 feet long. 13 MR. ROSE: I would -- thank you. 14 MR. TRIDENTE: I think you need to 15 explain to the board that the existing two-car 16 garage is in a forty-seven foot area and if it 17 is twenty foot by forty-seven feet, you have 18 an additional twenty feet where the cars would 19 park alongside.