- 1 - 1 HUDSON COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 2 RE: ) 3 ) MONTHLY MEETING ) TRANSCRIPT OF 4 ) ) PROCEEDINGS: 5 - - - - - - - - - - - - ) County Annex Building 6 567 Pavonia Avenue Third Floor Freeholders Chambers 7 Jersey City, New Jersey Wednesday, March 21, 2007 8 6:30 p.m. BEFORE: 9 DANIEL CHOFFO, Chairman 10 JUDE FITZGIBBONS, Vice-Chair 11 MARY E. AVAGLIANO, Secretary 12 RENEE BETTINGER, Commissioner 13 MICHAEL A. HOLLOWAY, Commissioner 14 DEMETRIO ARENCIBIA, Commissioner 15 16 ALSO PRESENT: 17 THOMAS P. CALVANICO, ESQ., Board Attorney 18 STEPHEN MARKS, PP, AICP, Planning Director 19 20 Reported by: 21 Mark Weinberg 22 23 24 25 - 2 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Good evening. I'd 3 like to call to order the meeting of the 4 Hudson County Planning Board for this evening, 5 Wednesday, March 21st, 2007. Counselor, has 6 this meeting been properly advertised? 7 MR. CALVANICO: Mr. Chairman, the 8 meeting has been properly advertised in 9 accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act. 10 It's been properly noticed and posted on the 11 board of the clerk of the Board of Chosen 12 Freeholders and on the county clerk's board in 13 the other building. 14 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you. Mr. 15 Marks, a roll call, please? 16 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Arancibia? 17 COMMISSIONER ARANCIBIA: Here. 18 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 19 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Here. 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 21 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Here. 22 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 23 Is not present. Commissioner Dublin? Is not 24 present. Commissioner Fitzgibbons? 25 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Here. - 3 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 3 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Here. 4 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? Is 5 not present. Commissioner NG? Is not 6 present. Chairman Choffo? 7 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Here. 8 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, we have a 9 quorum. 10 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you. Will 11 everyone please stand to salute the flag? 12 (Pledge of Allegiance) 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Want to start with 14 the review and adoption of the minutes of the 15 last meeting? 16 MR. MARKS: Sure. Mr. Chairman, the 17 minutes from the last meeting were sent out in 18 everybody's packages. Are there any 19 additions? 20 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any questions? 21 Commissioners? 22 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I make a 23 motion to accept the minutes as read. 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Second it. 25 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a - 4 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 motion to accept the minutes made by 3 Commissioner Fitzgibbons, seconded by 4 Commissioner Holloway, Commissioner Arencibia? 5 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: (Audio cut 6 off) 7 MR. MARKS: (Audio cut off): 8 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: (Audio cut 9 off) 10 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 11 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 12 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 13 Fitzgibbons? 14 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 16 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 17 MR. MARKS: Commissioner -- I'm 18 sorry. Chairman Choffo? 19 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 21 passed. 22 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Okay. 23 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, at this 24 point in the meeting, it's time for the status 25 of site plans and subdivision applications. - 5 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Part A on the agenda, memorialization and 3 resolutions approved at last meeting, 4 beginning with Application SP-69-06, Church 5 Hill Road, LLC, located on Church Hill Road in 6 the township of North Bergen, New Jersey; 7 Application SD-108-06, Grand Liberty Harbor 8 North II Urban Renewal, Limited Liability 9 Corporation, located at Grand Street and Luis 10 Marin Boulevard in the city of Jersey City; 11 and Application SD-02-07, Cameron Bayonne, 12 LLC, located at Block 453.01, Lots 2, 5, 6, 7 13 and 9 and Block 503, Lot 9.01, located in the 14 city of Bayonne. 15 MR. CHOFFO: Do I have a motion? 16 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: I'll make a 17 motion. 18 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I'll 19 second. 20 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 21 motion to accept the resolutions made by 22 Commissioner Bettinger and seconded by 23 Commissioner Fitzgibbons, Commissioner 24 Arencibia? 25 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye - 6 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 3 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 4 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 5 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 6 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 7 Fitzgibbons? 8 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 9 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 10 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 12 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Aye. 13 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 14 passed. Mr. Chairman, the next part of the 15 agenda is 6B, Applications Declared to be 16 Exempt, beginning with Application SP-11-07, 17 Quick Chek Corporation, located at East 52nd 18 and East 53rd Streets, Block 41, Lots 8 and 19 13, located in the city of Bayonne; 20 Application SP-12-07, Omnipoint 21 Communications, located at 59 Garrison Avenue, 22 which is Block 1844, Lots 11, 12 and 13 in the 23 city of Jersey City; and Application SP-23-07, 24 Commerce Bank North, located at East 53rd 25 Street and Broadway, Block 41, Lots 14-18 in - 7 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 the city of Bayonne. 3 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Do I have a 4 motion? 5 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Make a 6 motion. 7 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Second. 8 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 9 motion made by Commissioner Fitzgibbons, 10 seconded by Commissioner Avagliano, 11 Commissioner Arencibia? 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye 13 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 14 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 16 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 17 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 18 Fitzgibbons? 19 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 21 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 22 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 23 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Aye. 24 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 25 passed. Mr. Chairman, the next section of the - 8 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 agenda, 6C, Site Plans (SP), Subdivisions (SD) 3 and other matters scheduled for public 4 hearing, the first application tonight is a 5 Municipal Stormwater Management Plan, known as 6 MSMP-03 for the town of Secaucus. 7 MR. SWAYZE: Good evening, members 8 of the board. My name is Dan Swayze. I am a 9 representative of the PMG Group. I'm also 10 here with the town engineer for Secaucus, 11 Jerry Perricone, and our staff engineer from 12 (indiscernible), Karen Dome. 13 We were commissioned by the town of 14 Secaucus to prepare the Stormwater Management 15 Plan. 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Could you be sworn 17 in, please. 18 MR. SWAYZE: Yeah, sure. 19 MR. CALVANICO: Just spell your last 20 name for the record, please. 21 MR. SWAYZE: My name is Dan Swayze, 22 S-W-A-Y-Z-E. 23 D A N S W A Y Z E, having been first duly 24 sworn according to law, testified as follows: 25 MR. SWAYZE: Thank you. We were - 9 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 commissioned by the town of Secaucus to 3 prepare the Stormwater Management plan which 4 we did starting in 2005. We submitted a draft 5 version in August 2005 to the county which was 6 also subsequently adopted by the town of 7 Secaucus, which we prepared in compliance with 8 the guidance documents prepared by DEP. We 9 received a letter dated March 9th from the 10 Hudson County Planning Board requested two 11 items, the first of which was to comply with 12 T&M's December 29th letter which we now will 13 be resubmitting the entire Stormwater 14 Management plan on or about April 1st. 15 The second item was requesting 16 sweeping records pursuant to an interlocal 17 agreement with the county. The DPW 18 superintendent for Secaucus will be providing 19 that. And, in short, we'll comply with all of 20 the requests of the county. We have a revised 21 document just about ready to submit and I'll 22 take any questions that you may have. I can 23 go into extreme detail on the stormwater 24 management plan if you're interested but I'm 25 sure you've already heard this. - 10 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you. You 3 have any questions? 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: No. I 5 think it was all taken care of with his 6 responses to the T&M letter. So, 7 (indiscernible), too, from Janet and -- you 8 know, maybe she can answer it for a -- 9 MS. SANTOS: Good evening. Upon 10 receipt of the documents we conducted our 11 review based on the DEP's guidelines and we 12 noted six minor comments which were outlined 13 in our December 29th letter which we forwarded 14 to Stephen Marks. 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Sorry. 16 MS. SANTOS: Based on -- I'm sorry. 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: For the record, 18 could you just say your name? 19 MS. SANTOS: Yes. My name is 20 Rosario Santos from T&M Associates. We 21 forwarded the letter to Stephen Marks based on 22 the testimony that the town of Secaucus has 23 provided. They are going to comply with the 24 comments that we had stated so we recommend 25 that at this time the board issue conditional - 11 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 approval and then once they resubmit the 3 documents we will review them for conformance 4 to our comments and then we would issue 5 approval. 6 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Questions? 7 MS. SANTOS: Any questions? No? 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Do I have a 9 motion? 10 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I'll make 11 a motion to approve. 12 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: I'll second 13 the motion. 14 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 15 motion to conditionally approve MSMP-03 for 16 the town of Secaucus, made by Commissioner 17 Fitzgibbons, seconded by Commissioner 18 Bettinger, Commissioner Arencibia? 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 21 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 22 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 23 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 24 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 25 Fitzgibbons? - 12 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 4 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 5 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 6 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. 7 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 8 passed. 9 MR. SWAYZE: Thank you for your 10 time. 11 MS. SANTOS: Thank you. 12 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the next 13 matter scheduled for public hearing is 14 Application SP-08-07, Red Bull Park, LLC, 15 located on Cape May Street, Block 174, Lot 16 1.01 in the town of Harrison. 17 MS. JENNINGS: Good evening. For 18 the record, I'm Donna Jennings from the law 19 firm of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer on behalf 20 of the applicant. As the board is aware, Red 21 Bull, LLC is planning to build the new Red 22 Bull soccer stadium to seat 25,000 in 23 Harrison. 24 I have with me this evening Leann 25 Beebe if you have any particular questions but - 13 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 we do have a March 9th letter from the county 3 with a total of ten comments which we have 4 reviewed. And the applicant is of course 5 willing to comply with the comments and 6 suggestions of the county planning board. 7 Most of the comments are actually just 8 statements of fact. One comment that was 9 looking for some additional detail was item 10 number 6 regarding bicycle racks and the 11 ornamental bus shelter which, of course, the 12 applicant will supply. And then of course we 13 will obtain any outside agency approvals 14 required. 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Would you give us 16 a brief overview of the project? 17 MS. JENNINGS: Sure. Leann, if you 18 could -- where is she? Oh. Just give you a 19 little -- 20 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can -- 21 MR. CALVANICO: Spell your last name 22 for the record, please. 23 MS. BEEBE: Sure. Leann Beebe, B-E- 24 E-B-E. 25 L E A N N B E E B E, having been first duly - 14 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 sworn according to law, testified as follows: 3 MS. BEEBEE: I should also state 4 that I am an engineer with PS&S and a PE in 5 the state of New Jersey. 6 Okay. This is the Red Bull stadium 7 site. It's located in the town of Harrison. 8 It's bordered by Cape May Street on the south 9 and east sides and it has 6th Street bordered 10 on the west side. The stadium seats 25,000 11 people and it has approximately 151 parking 12 spaces on site and there will be approximately 13 4,000 parking spaces off site in various 14 parking facilities throughout the 15 redevelopment area. 16 The majority of the utilities that 17 serve the stadium connect on the south side in 18 approximately this area near the loading dock 19 and they connect down in to Cape May Street 20 area. So the water comes in here, the fire 21 water ,the gas main and the electric comes in 22 over in this area. 23 The only utility that really doesn't 24 connect down in the southern corner is a 25 sanitary sewer, which is going to be going - 15 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 right down MetroCentre Plaza area and we'll be 3 connecting in with an inverted sewer, an 4 inverted siphon, into the system that's going 5 to be designed by Langan Engineers. 6 MS. JENNINGS: Which is the 7 engineering for the -- 8 MS. BEEBEE: The redevelopment. 9 MS. JENNINGS: -- redevelopment. 10 And I think -- just one other thing that she 11 pointed out, the lot, as you see it there 12 today, and the site plan is designed -- is as 13 the site would be subdivided. There's another 14 application on your agenda that the Harrison 15 redevelopment agency will be doing and that is 16 exactly what the lot will look like once 17 approved. 18 MS. BEEBE: We have no variances 19 with the township. 20 MS. JENNINGS: And we're still 21 before the Harrison Planning Board. We have 22 another meeting on Wednesday and we believe 23 that will be our final meeting. 24 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: How far is this 25 from the PATH train station? - 16 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MS. BEEBE: I'm not exactly sure. 3 Maybe a thousand feet. 4 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: The traffic 5 engineer just showed up. Maybe he -- 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Twelve 7 hundred feet. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: That's pretty 9 close. 10 MS. BEEBE: Good guess. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any questions, 12 Demetrio? 13 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: We had 14 the -- at the site plan review committee there 15 was a presentation and a lot of the questions 16 were answered at that committee. So the 17 project has the master plan and it's also 18 going to be -- a lot of pedestrians is going 19 to be -- going to the stadium. But the 20 parking, I understand, is going to be also 21 amongst the buildings, the new parking 22 buildings that are going to go up. 23 MS. BEEBE: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: So there's 25 going to be, like, a shared parking plan going - 17 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 on. And then, you know, hopefully, there's 3 the two-way ramp there, the new ramp that gets 4 constructed is going to provide an access to 5 this directly off 280. So that -- it's years 6 to come but this is obviously going to start 7 sometime in the summer. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: So the letter from 9 Mr. Marks, the ten items, all of them have 10 been addressed? All ten items? 11 MS. JENNINGS: They will be. I 12 think the only one we need to give in details 13 was on item number 6 regarding the bicycle 14 racks and the bus shelter. So that'll be 15 added. 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any other 17 questions? 18 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I got a 19 question. There's, like -- you're going to 20 subdivide -- you have here Harrison 21 Redevelopment Agency. Same block and lot 22 number. Do we have to subdivide this place 23 before we give approval with that? 24 MR. CALVANICO: No, I don't think 25 so. We can approve this contingent upon the - 18 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 site -- subdivision being approved. It's not 3 a problem. 4 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: The 5 subdivision's here. Later on in the agenda. 6 MS. JENNINGS: Yeah. It's actually, 7 though -- we're just making the lot a little 8 bit smaller. And you'll see when he comes up. 9 So the lot actually stays a little bit bigger. 10 Then a small piece is being subdivided off. 11 So the lot's actually becoming smaller than 12 it's here now. So you could do the 13 subdivision later. 14 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Go ahead, Mr. 15 Marks. 16 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, Mr. 17 Pavlovich is here from Edwards & Kelsey so I 18 would recommend that -- he's the traffic 19 engineer who prepared the traffic study so I 20 would recommend that he come up and describe 21 the traffic impact of the project. 22 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: It's a good idea. 23 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. 24 Chairman, were there any issues at the site 25 plan committee meeting that should be - 19 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 mentioned for the record that you're aware of 3 or -- 4 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I wasn't at the 5 meeting. 6 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: -- Mr. 7 Arencibia? Commissioner? 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I think 9 they were covered in the letter but the letter 10 was before the meeting, right? 11 MR. MARKS: No. The letter was not 12 before the meeting. 13 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I think this 14 is the traffic engineer. I think he can give 15 a little small detail of what you had 16 presented to the site committee for the record 17 anyway. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Sure. 19 MS. JENNINGS: Do you want to swear 20 him in first? 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Yeah. 22 MR. CALVANICO: State your name and 23 spell your last name, please. 24 MR. PAVLOVICH: John Pavlovich, P-A- 25 V-L-O-V-I-C-H. - 20 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 J O H N P A V L O V I C H, having been first 3 duly sworn according to law, testified as 4 follows: 5 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Go ahead. You may 6 proceed, Mr. Pavlovich. 7 MR. PAVLOVICH: Okay. We have made 8 a presentation to the technical group of the 9 Hudson County Planning Board a couple weeks 10 ago and just to give you the highlights of 11 what he had discussed on the traffic 12 perspective, we did a traffic analysis of 13 about twelve intersections in the area along 14 Rodgers Boulevard, Harrison Avenue and some of 15 the intersections that are on the local 16 streets of Harrison just to the west. We've 17 done analysis for the weeknight when the 18 soccer events or events at the stadium are 19 expected to occur and also Saturday evenings. 20 There are no weekday daytime conditions where 21 they'll have traffic being generated that 22 would conflict with the a.m. or p.m. peak hour 23 traffic. 24 Based on the analysis of those 25 conditions for the design year 2008 when the - 21 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 stadium would start having some events, we 3 identified areas that had to be mitigated from 4 the standpoint of signal timings or slightly 5 different lane utilization areas where there 6 would be a left turn lane versus just a three 7 lane, whether that would be required. And we 8 put together a proposal for single timing 9 changes. We've had an initial meeting with 10 Hudson County engineering to start working 11 over those procedures. And we're also meeting 12 with the county pertaining to what the final 13 configuration of Rodgers Boulevard would look 14 like because on the southern end of Rogers 15 Boulevard near the stadium, the town is 16 looking to remove on-street parking to allow 17 two thru lanes in each direction to better 18 accommodate traffic that would be going to and 19 from the stadium and to the other development 20 and the redevelopment area along the 21 waterfront. 22 We had also identified two 23 intersections, one at Essex Street which 24 currently is not signalized, but because they 25 anticipated traffic flows that would use the - 22 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Essex Street ramp and to get better 3 utilization of traffic coming off of the Essex 4 Street ramp to have a traffic signal installed 5 at Essex Street and Rodgers Boulevard and to 6 reduce signal timing changes at the Bergen 7 Street signal at Rodgers Boulevard. 8 The signal at Bergen and Rodgers is 9 a state signal but we've also initiated 10 discussions or communication with the New 11 Jersey Department of Transportation pertaining 12 to that signal also. 13 Basically, as I said, with the 14 signal timing changing and the modifications, 15 we're talking about lull in the service that 16 wouldn't be any different in the short term 17 from what the situation is during the p.m. 18 peak hours in the area. The various 19 developers are all, as part of the resolution 20 with the town, are required to make 21 intersection improvements regarding the 22 traffic signals at those intersections that 23 are adjacent to their properties and the 24 Redevelopment Agency is supposed to be working 25 out the arrangements for the fair share - 23 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 improvement cost for the Essex Street 3 intersection and the one at Bergen Street, 4 which aren't close to either one of any of the 5 properties, but which affect all the 6 properties developing within the waterfront 7 redevelopment area. 8 The other issue we talked about is 9 there is a requirement for 4,167 parking 10 spaces. The Redevelopment Agency has an 11 agreement with Red Bull -- I believe it's Red 12 Bull. It used to be AEG or the Metro Stars -- 13 to provide 4,000 parking spaces off site. 14 There is a plan that the Redevelopment Agency 15 is putting together where there are 4,000 16 spaces at existing facilities on the west side 17 of Rodgers Boulevard plus locations that are 18 adjacent to the property. One is a parking 19 lot that will be created on a parcel of 20 property that's owned by Advance Realty or 21 Advance at Harrison which will also be coming 22 before the planning board for site plan 23 approval for some of the areas. 24 They are also -- Advance Realty are 25 the ones that are going to be doing all the - 24 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 street improvements extending -- developing 3 Guyonne. Let me get my bearings. Guyonne 4 Drive is north coming in off of Rodgers 5 Boulevard at this location just at the 6 north -- the left top corner of the map -- 7 MetroCentre Plaza and also improvements to 8 Cape May Street. And also, the construction 9 of 5th Street which would run between Guyonne 10 and Cape May. And also 6th Street between 11 Guyonne and Cape May. Those improvements are 12 all going to be done as part of the 13 construction work by Advance at Harrison. 14 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Are 5th Street and 15 6th Street are going to run all the way to the 16 stadium? 17 MR. PAVLOVICH: They're going to run 18 just to Guyonne Drive but -- from Cape May. 19 So it'll be about two blocks long. 20 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 21 Chairman, I have one questions. Frank Rodgers 22 Boulevard. You said that the city is going to 23 pass an ordinance where there's no parking 24 during the games either -- 25 MR. PAVLOVICH: There will be no - 25 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 parking on Rodgers Boulevard permanently as 3 part of that redevelopment plan. 4 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Full length 5 of it? 6 MR. PAVLOVICH: From -- well, right 7 now there's no parking from Middlesex Street 8 to the PATH station and then south of the PATH 9 station there's maybe about a hundred feet 10 that there's no parking because of driveways 11 and access to the PATH station entrance. But 12 south of that point there are metered parking 13 spaces and the town proposes removing those 14 parking spaces. 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: They're going to 16 need to, I think, both ways. Actually, from 17 Bergen Street to the PATH, there's no parking 18 on Frank Rodgers Boulevard but -- go ahead, 19 Mr. Marks. 20 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, I would 21 just ask Mr. Pavlovich to describe the mode 22 split and the number of anticipated guests who 23 are expected to arrive by mass transit and the 24 applicant's, I guess, conversations or 25 understanding with New Jersey Transit about an - 26 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 entertainment loop. 3 MR. PAVLOVICH: Okay. Roughly, 4 the -- once again the Metro Star, now Red 5 Bull, have done various marketing studies and 6 their analysis shows what their people will be 7 coming from -- their patrons are coming 8 generally from the area. The people will be 9 working in the area either in Newark, the 10 Harrison area, the ironed out section of 11 Newark and as a result of a lot of 12 information, this looks like it's going to be 13 a mode split of about fifty-five, sixty 14 percent coming by transit and the balance that 15 would be coming by automobile. However, 16 because of some of the people that are in the 17 area, they may be parking in other lots that 18 aren't even in Harrison. They could be coming 19 across by PATH and the PATH system by itself 20 does have the capacity to handle anywhere from 21 ten to twelve thousand people that will be 22 coming to the stadium site alone. There 23 aren't a lot of people using the system, 24 especially getting off at that station in the 25 evening hours around Saturdays when there - 27 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 would be events at the stadium. 3 MS. JENNINGS: I think there was a 4 question regarding the entertainment loop. 5 MR. PAVLOVICH: The entertainment 6 loop -- yes. The AEG that's going to be 7 operating the Prudential Financial Center has 8 had discussions with New Jersey Transit 9 pertaining to operating a fixed loop system of 10 buses that would run from Rodgers Boulevard 11 going across -- from Harrison going across to 12 the Newark Bears baseball stadium. They're 13 going up to the Broad Street station, coming 14 across, stopping off at the NJ Pack, stopping 15 off at Prudential Financial Center, stopping 16 off at Newark Penn Station and looking over 17 the Jackson Street bridge back again in front 18 of Rodgers Boulevard. Those areas also have 19 access and the management who has control of 20 about 4,000 parking spaces, they're also 21 associated with where that loop would be 22 stopping. So they not only have access from 23 the standpoint of the PATH system, they would 24 have that loop system tying in with any of the 25 communal rail service that New Jersey Transit - 28 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 operates that comes into either Penn Station 3 Newark or the Broad Street station which is on 4 the Morris and Essex line. 5 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. 6 Chairman, Mr. Tridente, our special project 7 manager, brought up a situation and maybe he 8 can elaborate for the whole board. 9 MR. TRIDENTE: Mario Tridente from 10 the Hudson County Improvement Authority. 11 There's a tract of land about 606 feet by ten 12 feet wide along the Newark East extension of 13 Cape May Street. Do these site plans reflect 14 ownership of that property? 15 MS. JENNINGS: I don't know if the 16 site plans do. The survey shows that, is that 17 true? 18 MS. BEEBE: Yeah. On the cover 19 sheet. 20 MS. JENNINGS: On the cover sheet. 21 MR. TRIDENTE: And has that 22 litigation been rectified as being -- 23 MS. JENNINGS: There's no litigation 24 right now. So, no. And we don't have any 25 access going off of that northwest. We - 29 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 changed the access so it actually comes out of 3 the other drive so we don't cross his property 4 at all. 5 MR. TRIDENTE: Okay. Will you need 6 that property to complete your projects? 7 MS. JENNINGS: No. It's not part of 8 the site plan at all. It never has been. 9 MR. TRIDENTE: Okay. 10 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I'm sorry. Is 11 that the Lecter's property? 12 MR. TRIDENTE: Yes. 13 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: That's what you're 14 talking about? 15 MS. JENNINGS: Yeah. A little piece 16 that goes basically right here. You see the 17 end of our property? There's this little 18 green space and then here's the road. His 19 property is a little strip right here. It was 20 never on our site. It's not on our property. 21 So we never included it but we did have a 22 driveway that used to go out this way. And it 23 would cross over the property but he -- you 24 know, obviously, the city is going to condemn 25 his property eventually. And so what we said - 30 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 was, forget it. We're going to go ahead and 3 revise our plan so we have it all going out 4 this way so we don't go in and out and touch 5 that ten foot piece. So we eliminated the 6 problem. 7 MR. TRIDENTE: Okay. That's it. 8 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Thank you. 9 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can you just 10 identify that exhibit for the record so we 11 have it? 12 MS. JENNINGS: Sure. That's Sheet 1 13 of 1 prepared by Paulus, Sokolowski -- I can't 14 say it right -- and Sartor, dated March 21st, 15 2007. 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Can I ask 18 a question? How many seats are going to be in 19 that stadium? 20 MS. JENNINGS: Maximum, 25,000. 21 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Twenty 22 five thousand. Are you going to use that 23 stadium other than soccer? 24 MS. JENNINGS: Yes. They're going 25 to have concerts, other events for the town, - 31 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 perhaps the county, kid events, high school 3 events, stuff like that. They think overall 4 there'll be about forty events total, twenty 5 games and then twenty other events. 6 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: With the 7 concerts, are you going to have them during 8 the week? 9 MS. JENNINGS: No. They're going to 10 be on the weekends. No, they are. On the 11 weekends. You did a whole traffic analysis on 12 the concert and the events. 13 MR. PAVLOVICH: We had done the 14 analysis based on the 25,000 seat event, 15 the -- and in consultation with the AEG 16 people. The stadium, when it is going to be 17 operated for concerts, the whole southern end 18 of the stadium, those seats aren't used 19 because they're in sight lines. They have a 20 stage which comes out of the southern end. So 21 the seats that are more or less developed on 22 the floor of the stadium supplement -- replace 23 the seats that are along the side of the 24 stadium on the south side. 25 So, it's 25,000 people and our - 32 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 analysis was for Saturday night and weeknights 3 of a 25,000 seat event. 4 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: And 5 weeknight? 6 MR. PAVLOVICH: Yes. Saturday 7 evenings. My understanding, the events that 8 would be held would be in the evenings. Those 9 events that might be held on weekdays or I 10 should say weekend day times are lesser events 11 like instructional sessions for a soccer camp, 12 things of that nature. 13 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: And then 14 you'll have Bonjo will be coming there on a 15 Tuesday night. I mean, you ain't getting in 16 to that town. 17 MS. JENNINGS: No. I don't think 18 that's -- 19 MR. PAVLOVICH: I -- I don't know. 20 I'm not much of a Bonjo fan. 21 MS. JENNINGS: But the point is that 22 the maximum that the facility can handle is 23 25,000 seats and that's what we've planned 24 for. 25 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. - 33 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Chairman, I have a question about the parking. 3 The off-site parking, what are the plans of 4 transporting the guests to the stadium? 5 MR. PAVLOVICH: The parking spaces 6 are all in existing lots where presently -- as 7 of right now, except for a new garage that's 8 going to be on the Harrison Commons site, that 9 garage is being bonded by the Hudson County 10 Improvement Authority, would contain 1500 11 parking spaces. That's situated between 12 Rodgers and 3rd just south of Somerset Street. 13 Other than that garage, all the other 14 properties are existing lots which at this 15 present time the Harrison Redevelopment Agency 16 has control over through agreements with the 17 various developers for about 3600 or 3500 of 18 the total spaces. And with eighteen months 19 still to go, there shouldn't be any problems 20 with getting control of the remaining 400 they 21 need to meet the requirement with the people 22 that will be operating the stadium. 23 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: But they're 24 within walking distance to the stadium? 25 MR. PAVLOVICH: Yes, they are. - 34 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Okay. 3 MR. PAVLOVICH: Yes, they are. 4 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Okay. Any other 5 questions? 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: The 7 pedestrian walkway from the PATH, how is that 8 going to happen? Because I think they're 9 supposed to be (indiscernible) on the event? 10 MR. PAVLOVICH: The pedestrians that 11 we get off the PATH now, I haven't seen a 12 recent PATH station improvements. At one 13 time, there were going to be stairways from 14 the PATH station that were going to be going 15 down on either side of Rodgers Boulevard. I 16 don't know if that still is what's being 17 proposed but I do know that for those people 18 that come down, they would come down the west 19 side of Rodgers Boulevard and there would be 20 adequate crosswalks at Guyonne Drive for the 21 pedestrians to cross at that point to reach -- 22 to get access into the stadium and to walk 23 those remaining two blocks in a much more 24 pedestrian friendly environment. It's very 25 wide sidewalks on that side of the stadium -- - 35 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 well, that side of Rodgers Boulevard on their 3 way to the stadium. But it would be all 4 pedestrian access from -- most of them 5 crossing at Guyonne. 6 There are also going to be widened 7 crosswalks that are going to be constructed as 8 part of the intersection improvement at 9 Middlesex Street. So some of the offsite 10 parking lots that are up -- you know, adjacent 11 to the Middlesex Street area, they would cross 12 or they'd be able to cross at Middlesex Street 13 on Rodgers Boulevard and come down the east 14 side of Rodgers Boulevard. There are two 15 pedestrian sidewalks under the northeast 16 corridor tracks that parallel Rodgers 17 Boulevard -- those pedestrian crossways. 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: No 19 pedestrian related improvements are 20 necessary -- 21 MR. PAVLOVICH: Only the sidewalks 22 from the standpoint of as the developers are 23 coming in there are standards that are going 24 to be in the development plan that the various 25 developers have to adhere to in terms of - 36 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 sidewalk width materials, street furniture and 3 clear pedestrian pathways. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's 5 going to happen at a later time. I'm saying 6 at this time, when this stadium opens next 7 year, will there be any -- 8 MR. PAVLOVICH: When the stadium 9 opens, the -- I would imagine that the 10 Harrison Commons Improvement will be 11 constructed within the area between 12 Middlesex -- and that's on the west side of 13 Rodgers Boulevard and that improvement should 14 be done from Middlesex Street down to the PATH 15 station. On the east side, I don't think the 16 developers can select into that parcel yet. 17 HRA would have to respond to that. And south 18 of there, Advance is expecting as part of 19 their improvements the whole -- all the 20 sidewalk area on the east side of Rodgers 21 Boulevard between Cape May up to Guyonne would 22 be constructed as part of their obligations 23 within the redevelopment plan. 24 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I'm really 25 more concerned about before they develop from - 37 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 the time the stadium is open next year and 3 before Advance builds their project. 4 MR. PAVLOVICH: Advance -- my 5 understanding, Advance is required to have 6 those roadways and sidewalks in place as part 7 of their agreement with the redevelopment 8 agency. 9 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Are you 10 saying -- 11 MR. PAVLOVICH: That would be 12 constructed as part of -- that would be in 13 place when the stadium is set to open. Even 14 if Advance doesn't even have a building on 15 their parcels that are in that area between 16 Rodgers Boulevard and 6th Street, they'd have 17 to have their streets completed. 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Advance 19 Realty will be responsible for doing that? 20 MR. PAVLOVICH: That's correct. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: What 22 control does the town have over that? Is 23 that -- 24 MR. PAVLOVICH: Control? We know 25 the agency has an agreement with Advance at - 38 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Harrison LLC. I'm not privy to all the 3 particulars. All I know is they are obligated 4 to construct. 5 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's very 6 important to -- 7 MR. PAVLOVICH: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: For this 9 project. 10 MR. PAVLOVICH: There will be a 11 whole schedule put together and, I think, part 12 of those details will be on the concept plan 13 we're giving you for Rodgers Boulevard in 14 another few days. 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's in 16 the other package? 17 MR. PAVLOVICH: That's correct. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Steve? 19 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, just for 20 the record, can I ask Ms. Jennings to label 21 the sheet here Exhibit A1 and submit it as 22 evidence? 23 MS. JENNINGS: You want me to put 24 today's date on it? 25 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Sure. - 39 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 (Applicant Red Bull, LLC's Sheet 1 was hereby 3 marked as Exhibit A1 for identification, as of 4 this date.) 5 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any other 6 questions? Do I have a motion? 7 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: I'll make a 8 motion pending Harrison's approval. 9 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I second it. 10 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 11 motion made by Commissioner Bettinger, 12 seconded by Commissioner Holloway, 13 Commissioner Arencibia? 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I vote aye 15 but I would like a condition -- condition 16 added that they provide documentation of this 17 agreement from Advance Realty that they will 18 construct their sidewalks for the soccer 19 stadium before the soccer stadium is open. 20 MS. JENNINGS: That's fine. 21 MR. PAVLOVICH: Which sidewalks in 22 particular? The -- Advance Realty will be 23 building the sidewalks -- or streets and 24 sidewalks in the area from -- on the west side 25 of 6th Street, the new 6th Street, out to - 40 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Rodgers Boulevard and on the east side of 3 Rodgers Boulevard. The sidewalk on the east 4 side of 6th Street will be done as part of the 5 stadium building. That's the limits of what 6 Advance is doing. 7 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Talking 8 about from, like, the PATH area towards -- 9 going towards the soccer stadium. 10 MR. PAVLOVICH: They're doing 11 everything on the east side of the street. 12 I'm not sure there's -- the development hasn't 13 been presented yet on the west side. That 14 would be something, I think, that the 15 Redevelopment Agency would have to give 16 clarification on. 17 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: But I believe that 18 developer is the Advance Group, the PS&G 19 property. 20 MR. PAVLOVICH: Right. And I know 21 there's some mitigation issues in terms of 22 when they can access to the property. I'm not 23 sure of all the details on that but -- 24 MS. BEEBE: The township has put a 25 conditional approval on the application so - 41 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 that all of the Advance roads and sidewalks 3 that need to be -- provide access to the 4 stadium will be in place before the stadium 5 can open. 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 7 That's what -- 8 MS. JENNINGS: We're saying the same 9 thing. 10 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's what 11 I would like. 12 MS. BEEBE: They're going to have 13 that agreement and they can -- 14 MR. PAVLOVICH: The town's imposed 15 that? 16 MS. BEEBE: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: So we would 18 like to see that agreement. 19 MR. CALVANICO: Mr. Chairman, just 20 so that the record is clear, what we're doing 21 here is we're making -- Commissioner Arencibia 22 is making an amendment to the original 23 resolution -- motion to include this condition 24 at this point. I just want the record to 25 reflect that so we're all clear and that the - 42 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 commissioners understand what we're doing 3 here. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: And also 5 that the issue that Advance Realty has not 6 come to the planning board yet either for 7 their project, so, you know, it's unusual. 8 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Do you know if 9 Advance went in front of Harrison yet? I know 10 that AEG -- 11 MR. PAVLOVICH: They're scheduled 12 the second week of April. They were supposed 13 to be the 28th, this coming week, but they 14 were put back a week because of having to 15 finish up the stadium application. 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Go ahead, Stephen. 17 I'm sorry. 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I think we 19 can just say that the conditions that are in 20 this agreement that the roads and the 21 sidewalks have to be constructed by Advance 22 Realty, that's part of this approval vital to 23 the stadium function. 24 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, there was 25 a motion on the floor made by Commissioner - 43 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Bettinger and seconded by Commissioner 3 Holloway, subsequently amended by Commissioner 4 Arencibia. Does anybody object to the 5 additional conditions or the conditions that 6 Commissioner Arencibia has made? 7 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: No. 8 MR. MARKS: Okay. Commissioner 9 Arencibia? 10 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I vote aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 12 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: I vote aye. 13 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 14 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 16 Fitzgibbons? 17 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 18 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 19 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye. Good 22 luck. 23 MS. JENNINGS: Thank you very much. 24 You want me to just leave this with you then? 25 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Please. - 44 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MS. JENNINGS: Okay. 3 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the next 4 matter scheduled for public hearing is SP-09- 5 07, CJUF II Urban Renewal Co., LLC, located at 6 Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard, Blocks 114A, 115, 7 116 and 117 in the town of Harrison. 8 Mr. Chairman, the site plan and 9 subdivision review committee had recommended 10 that this application be posted this evening 11 with the provision that there was a follow-up 12 meeting last week which was the intermediate 13 week between the site plan meeting and today's 14 meeting. And it was with the condition that 15 this application be posted as long as all the 16 conditions were met or the problems worked 17 out. Apparently, the conditions weren't met 18 and it was still -- the application was still 19 incomplete as of last week's site plan 20 meeting. So I would recommend that this 21 application be tabled at this point. 22 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Do I 23 have a motion? 24 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: I'll make a 25 motion to table -- what is it? SP-09-07. - 45 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Second. 3 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 4 motion to table Application SP-09-07 made by 5 Commissioner Bettinger, seconded by 6 Commissioner Avagliano, Commissioner 7 Arencibia? 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye 9 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 10 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 12 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 13 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 14 Fitzgibbons? 15 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 16 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 17 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 18 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 19 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I abstain. 20 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Okay, Mr. 21 Chairman, the next application is SP/SD-14-07, 22 Carlos Dan Negron, located at -- who is the 23 applicant, located at 910 Palisade Avenue, 24 which is Block 186, Lot 132 in the city of 25 Union City. - 46 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. BELL: Good evening. My name is 3 Eric Bell. I'm the attorney for the 4 applicant, Carlos Dan Negron. This is a 5 subdivision and site plan application to build 6 a small one-family house on the eastern slope 7 of the Palisades. The rear of the property is 8 approximately 140 feet from the north wing 9 viaduct which is an elevated road. It's about 10 twenty-five, thirty feet above the grade where 11 it's located. 12 The one-family house is part of a 13 lot that fronts on Palisade Avenue in Union 14 City. And the subdivision involves two side 15 by side lots that are next to each other and 16 both front on Palisade Avenue. Each of the 17 two lots is thirty feet wide and 160 feet 18 deep. There's 910 and 912 Palisade Avenue. 19 The subdivision will take the rear thirty-five 20 feet of 912 and add it to the 910 so 910 would 21 be a long lot with an extra piece on the -- 22 like an L or a B on the back. The two lots 23 and their original dimensions are thirty feet 24 by 160 feet each and they just run side by 25 side adjacent with the rear thirty-five feet - 47 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 around the eastern slope -- the rear thirty- 3 five feet of 912, the plan is to add it to 910 4 so 910 would be thirty by 160 but have the 5 extra thirty-five by thirty on the back on the 6 eastern slope where the one-family house is to 7 be built. 8 The only access to the property for 9 pedestrians and vehicles would be from 10 Palisade Avenue so there will be no vehicular 11 pedestrian access to the north wing viaduct. 12 So there will be no traffic impact on the 13 county road. 14 The applicant has an easement 15 picking up two parking spots on the rear of 16 912 to park in the back lot for this one- 17 family house to be built. 18 The county road being elevated, the 19 storm runoff from the one-family house, there 20 would be no drainage onto the road because the 21 road is elevated twenty-five, thirty feet 22 above grade at its location and there would be 23 no wall opening either because there's no 24 storm line there. The existing rainwater hits 25 the eastern slope and some of it perforates - 48 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 into the ground and some becomes surface water 3 running down going underneath the elevated 4 viaduct. With the one-family house, the 5 stormwater would come out in two liters facing 6 east where it would just go out and either 7 perforate into the ground or go underneath the 8 viaduct which is elevated. 9 The one-family house would be 10 situated between two retaining walls. One 11 retaining wall is in the process of being 12 rebuilt because it had partially collapsed. 13 The new wall is -- the upper one is steel and 14 concrete going down to bedrock and the other 15 one is pre-existing and that's in fine shape 16 and that's just remaining. 17 Pursuant to the discussions at the 18 pre meeting, the applicant has revised his 19 plan to add a fence along the rear of the 20 property on the property line -- 21 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I'm sorry. Before 22 we go any further, can we just mark this 23 exhibit -- 24 MR. BELL: Sure. 25 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: -- since there's - 49 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 multiple pages. 3 MR. BELL: Okay. Want to mark it? 4 MR. WEINER: These are marked A-1, 5 A-2 and A-3. 6 (Applicant Carlos Dan Negron's site plan was 7 hereby marked as Exhibits A-1, A-2 and A-3 for 8 identification, as of this date.) 9 MR. BELL: The plan as revised would 10 construct a fence along the -- a six-foot 11 fence along the rear of the property right by 12 the lower retaining wall protecting the people 13 in the backyard of this one-family house from 14 falling off the cliff. At the rear wall of 15 the house to be constructed will be a ten-foot 16 backyard at the eastern end of which would be 17 a six-foot fence as a protection. 18 The house to be constructed -- it's 19 foundation is going down to bedrock. It'll be 20 sitting on rock so there will be no lateral 21 forces aided to anything. It's just going to 22 be sitting on top of the rock. 23 If there's any questions about the 24 nature of the construction, the architect is 25 here, Mr. George Weiner. - 50 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Are you finished 3 with yours? 4 MR. BELL: Yes. 5 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: All right. Would 6 you like to be sworn in, sir? 7 MR. CALVANICO: Please state your 8 name and spell your last name for the record. 9 MR. WEINER: My name is George 10 Weiner. I'm an architect. My last name is 11 spelled W-E-I-N-E-R. 12 G E O R G E W E I N E R, having been first 13 duly sworn according to law, testified as 14 follows: 15 MR. WEINER: This last Exhibit A-3 16 shows the existing profile of the building 17 which is the current two to three story 18 building in the front. Palisade Avenue is 19 located here, which is on the west side of the 20 property, and gently slopes down toward the 21 rear section where there is currently a deck 22 and a deteriorated retaining wall which has 23 been reinforced and rebuilt. Those 24 engineering drawings have been completed by 25 Allied Engineering and have been submitted to - 51 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 the board for the board's review. 3 The platform that would be below 4 this profile -- first of all, the building is 5 meant to blend within the profile of the 6 building -- I'm sorry, the cliff. And with 7 this platform sits neatly partly integrated 8 right at that retaining wall and ties into 9 lower section. It's currently and had been 10 quite deteriorated and loaded with 11 neutridosone and had become a kind of a -- an 12 odd area along the -- this is in the steep 13 slope section of the area and so consequently, 14 there are a lot of maverick buildings in this 15 section including some that project to this 16 distance further to the north. 17 The modification of this lot has 18 been done so that we can have a livable -- 19 approximately a thousand square feet footprint 20 for the owner of the property, Mr. Negron, to 21 reside. It will have, as I said, a kind of a 22 low profile that won't disturb the views of 23 the upper area and will afford commanding 24 views of the city and be -- less distance 25 between the road which is down still further - 52 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 about to here, I would say in terms of the 3 overall topographic -- let's see. I'd say, 4 the height of the building is going to be 5 approximately twenty-two and a half feet to a 6 break line where we'll have a clear story that 7 lets in east light. That's shown here. That 8 will be a kind of a general edge here. It'll 9 have access to the parking. We're providing 10 two new parking spaces on -- that'll be the 11 easement from the northern property, which is 12 912 Palisade Avenue. And so access will be 13 enabled from here across the section 14 downstairs to the principal level which will 15 be at this section. And, again, it's very 16 solidly supported by the revised -- the 17 upgraded retaining wall which is now completed 18 and the existing really solid rock retaining 19 wall here. 20 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 21 Chairman, I have a question. Is there a 22 reason why you have two retaining walls? One 23 is concrete and steel and the other one is 24 steel and wood? 25 MR. WEINER: The -- I don't know if - 53 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 you -- or do you have a copy of the 3 engineer -- 4 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: No. I'm just 5 looking at some photos. 6 MR. WEINER: Well, okay. The 7 photos -- this existing section here that 8 has -- it was badly in need of repair and had 9 been crumbling. It was a combination of wood 10 and steel and Stahlman and sort of the 11 miscellaneous batch of concrete and rock. 12 That has been totally reinforced and 13 resupported. There are temporary steel -- 14 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Is this 15 steel? 16 MR. WEINER: That's temporary, yeah, 17 until the final connection is -- when the 18 building itself is installed then those steel 19 members aren't going to be necessary. Then 20 the overall thing will tie together. 21 They have sunk steel rods laterally 22 into the solid section. 23 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: What's the 24 life span for this wood? What's the life span 25 of it? - 54 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. NEGRON: Twenty year for the 3 wood but that going to be out. 4 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Okay. 5 That's what I'm asking. 6 MR. WEINER: Yeah. That's -- 7 MR. NEGRON: It's twenty years, yes. 8 MR. WEINER: All right. It was an 9 extremely -- we started looking at this about 10 a year ago. It was in extreme state of -- 11 MR. NEGRON: Very dangerous, yes. 12 MR. WEINER: And it's been totally 13 stabilized and really -- they've spent about 14 150,000 dollars upgrading this. 15 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I'm sorry. Is 16 that the owner back there? 17 MR. WEINER: Yes, it is. 18 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Can he be sworn 19 in? Will you please state your name for the 20 record? 21 MR. NEGRON: Sure. My name is 22 Carlos Dan Negron, N-E-G-R-O-N. 23 C A R L O S D A N N E G R O N, having been 24 first duly sworn according to law, testified 25 as follows: - 55 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: It's easier if we 3 do it this way where you come up to the 4 microphone. 5 MR. BELL: The wood is a temporary 6 retaining wall to replace the very old one 7 that was starting to fall and that's going to 8 be out very soon when the new one is built. 9 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. 10 Chairman -- oh, I'm sorry. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Go ahead. 12 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Has this 13 been approved by the -- 14 MR. NEGRON: The retaining wall, 15 yes. We have a permit already. Not for the 16 building. For the retaining wall. For the 17 building, we're getting it on the 21st -- I'm 18 sorry, the 12th. 19 MR. BELL: And site plan approval 20 for the one-story building is scheduled to be 21 heard at the -- 22 MR. NEGRON: April 12th. 23 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I got a 24 question. You stated about the runoff from 25 the water going down to -- under the viaduct. - 56 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 'Cause I know there's a problem there in the 3 winter with the ice -- water runs down that 4 viaduct and then mounts up the -- I think the 5 sewer lines down there can't hold the -- it 6 freezes up. 7 MR. WEINER: Well, this runs 8 underneath the Manhattan Avenue viaduct on 9 natural ground. So it doesn't really affect 10 the 4th Street viaduct. The wall that we're 11 concerned with is the one that's along the 12 property line -- 13 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 14 MR. WEINER: -- that is a stone 15 masonry wall -- 16 MR. NEGRON: Correct. 17 MR. WEINER: -- and that's the 18 county's wall, or it could be the county's 19 wall since we have similar walls around that 20 area. So we wanted to make sure that that 21 wall which is not really a structural wall -- 22 MR. NEGRON: No, it's not. 23 MR. WEINER: It's just retaining the 24 soil -- 25 MR. NEGRON: Retaining wall because - 57 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 they're all -- 3 MR. WEINER: All right. 4 MR. NEGRON: They're all 5 (indiscernible). 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: So your 7 engineer provided a letter? 8 MR. NEGRON: Yes. The letter is 9 here. I gave it to Mark. Certification and 10 the fence -- everything he asked me from the 11 last meeting is here. 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. So 13 that letter basically is certified that the 14 foundation of the building is built on the 15 rock -- 16 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- and it's 18 not going to have any -- 19 MR. NEGRON: Correct. 20 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- bearing 21 on the existing wall? 22 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: And the 24 type of fence you're installing is a chain 25 link? - 58 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. NEGRON: Chains link, yes. 3 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Six foot 4 high? 5 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 6 MR. BELL: We noted that on A-2 and 7 I believe it's on the engineer's drawing. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: How far 9 back from the retaining wall? 10 MR. NEGRON: Ten feet. 11 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: They're 12 going to build that back ten feet -- 13 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: From the -- 15 MR. NEGRON: No, no. The link chain 16 will be right on the border line. On the 17 property line. 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 19 Right on the property line? 20 MR. NEGRON: Yes. But the new 21 building will be ten feet away from the 22 retaining wall. 23 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: So the 24 stone masonry retaining wall is going to be 25 ten feet away from the chain link fence? - 59 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 4 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 5 MR. BELL: The chain link fence is 6 going to be ten feet further east from the 7 eastern most wall of the new building -- 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 9 MR. BELL: Right on the property 10 line -- 11 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 12 MR. BELL: -- essentially, right on 13 top or -- as opposed to that other retaining 14 wall is property line allows you to -- 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 16 It's going to be right on -- almost on top of 17 that retaining wall, right? 18 MR. NEGRON: Almost, yes. On the 19 existing one. 20 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Your 21 contractor has to be very careful to make 22 sure -- 23 MR. NEGRON: Yeah. We already have 24 a contractor, everything, yes. 25 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: We're going - 60 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 to need to inspect that. 3 MR. NEGRON: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: County 5 engineer's office before you do that work to 6 get a permit to provide insurance for the 7 bond. 8 MR. NEGRON: Oh, I see. We need a 9 permit from the county to begin the 10 construction. 11 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: For the 12 fence. 13 MR. NEGRON: Oh, for the fence. Not 14 for the construction -- 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Because 16 you're going to be right on top of that wall. 17 MR. NEGRON: Right on top of it, 18 yes. 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: And that 20 stone masonry wall is very old. 21 MR. NEGRON: Very old, yes. I'll 22 agree. 23 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: You know, 24 you have to be very careful around that. 25 MR. NEGRON: Yes. - 61 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: As far as 3 the drainage to the back. 4 MR. NEGRON: Try to walk to my turf, 5 that's what I say before at the last meeting. 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: But are you 7 building any pipes that outlet out to the 8 back? 9 MR. NEGRON: No. No, we don't. No. 10 We're not going to put no pipe draining to 11 the -- out there. That's no good. 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All your 13 drainage will go out in -- 14 MR. NEGRON: The same thing is now. 15 When it's rain -- when it's rain now, the 16 water go right down there anyhow even 17 without -- 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's fine 19 but what if -- 20 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- in a 22 drive or whatever drainage you have from the 23 building -- 24 MR. NEGRON: To the portion of my 25 turf. Not into the state property. Into the - 62 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 portion of my turf. 3 MR. BELL: -- sewer line -- 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 5 MR. NEGRON: The sewer line going -- 6 MR. BELL: We have basically a -- an 7 injection pump -- 8 MR. NEGRON: Injection pump, yeah, 9 going to Palisade Avenue. 10 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 11 MR. NEGRON: Going to -- 12 MR. BELL: As opposed to going 13 directly back -- 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: The 15 sanitary, right. 16 MR. BELL: The stormwater is going 17 to come out -- 18 MR. WEINER: All these utilities as 19 well. 20 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. The 21 natural flow. 22 MR. BELL: Sanitary -- 23 MR. NEGRON: Sanitary go to Palisade 24 Avenue. 25 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. - 63 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 3 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I have a question, 4 Commissioner Arencibia. How would a fire 5 truck get back there if there was a fire on 6 that rear property? 7 MR. NEGRON: We have a big driveway, 8 ten feet wide between 910 and 912 and 916. We 9 have an easement. Any fire truck or any 10 emergency vehicle can go right through the 11 house a hundred feet away from the street. 12 Right through the driveway. As the houses 13 there now they go through that same driveway 14 also. 15 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 16 Chairman, did you say you do have the easement 17 now? 18 MR. NEGRON: Yes. I have -- yes. 19 MR. BELL: It's recorded with the 20 county. 21 MR. NEGRON: And we recorded with 22 the county. For the two parking. Also, to 23 access the rear property. But we're going to 24 have two accesses from 910 on the south side 25 and from 912 on the north side. We can have - 64 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 two accesses. 3 MR. BELL: But for -- as far as 4 vehicular, it's on the north side. 5 MR. NEGRON: On the north side, yes. 6 For person for walking into the back, it's two 7 accesses, yes. It's right here. 8 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I have 9 another question, Mr. Chairman. While this is 10 being built, I notice that there's a huge 11 crater. When you're not working there -- 12 MR. NEGRON: A crater? No. That's 13 a -- that's -- 14 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: When -- 15 MR. NEGRON: That's a small crater. 16 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: But when 17 you're not working there, what kind of safety 18 fences are you putting up so no kids will go 19 back there and play? 20 MR. NEGRON: Right now, we have a 21 yellow gate and an orange fence but tomorrow 22 we bind the whole thing there to make sure 23 nobody goes into the property. 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: That's a 25 serious drop. If kids want to play -- the - 65 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 weather's getting nice -- 3 MR. NEGRON: Well, we have a gate up 4 front. That's a gate before you go in through 5 the driveway. That's a big gate. 6 MR. WEINER: Right now there's a 7 fairly gentle slope that allows for tractor 8 access -- 9 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 10 MR. WEINER: -- easement way that's 11 really gentle coming down into this leveled 12 area, which is shown in the photograph here. 13 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 14 MR. WEINER: It's not a direct 15 drop -- 16 MR. NEGRON: As I -- no, that's only 17 fifty feet to the back before you go to the 18 drop. 19 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Mr. 20 Chairman, I have a question regarding fire 21 safety. 22 MR. NEGRON: Fire safety, yes. 23 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Okay. 24 Where is the nearest fire hydrant? 25 MR. NEGRON: Hundred and fifty feet. - 66 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 It's right in the next house. It's hundred -- 3 it's about fifty feet from my turf and about 4 hundred and fifty from the fire hydrant to the 5 back. It's right over there. 6 MR. WEINER: That is -- 7 MR. NEGRON: From the south. 8 MR. WEINER: South. 9 MR. NEGRON: We got two. We got 10 two. We got two over there. One in the 11 north, one in the south. That's the one 12 (indiscernible). 13 MR. WEINER: A fireman could have 14 direct access from here straight down and over 15 here. Not vehicular at this point but they 16 could basically get from the hydrant strip -- 17 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I'm sure 19 you have to get permits from the fire subcult 20 official for that building, right? 21 MR. NEGRON: Yes, correct. 22 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: He'll 23 probably ask you to sprinkle the building, 24 too, right? 25 MR. NEGRON: Yes, he did. I already - 67 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 talked to them. And they was pretty 3 consistent. They want the alarm system 4 connected to the fire department. 5 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: All 6 right. 7 MR. NEGRON: For their remote. They 8 want also a (indiscernible) on the outside of 9 the house. They want five (indiscernible) 10 outside, yes. 11 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: The property in 12 the rear, that's a one-family house? 13 MR. WEINER: A detached house. 14 MR. NEGRON: A one-family house, 15 yeah. And it's below -- 16 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: With a basement? 17 MR. NEGRON: No basement. 18 MR. WEINER: No, no. 19 MR. NEGRON: No basement. 20 MR. BELL: There's a hope that 21 (indiscernible) -- 22 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 23 MR. BELL: -- and the top of it is 24 going to be below the grade. Also 25 (indiscernible) property on top of the - 68 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Palisades. So from the Palisades you wouldn't 3 even see it. It's just from the front of 4 the -- 5 MR. NEGRON: So you wouldn't even 6 see the house, no. 7 MR. BELL: It's not going -- the 8 lower grade 9 MR. NEGRON: That's a low grade -- 10 MR. BELL: That's the cliff and 11 basically is -- 12 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: That's the one- 13 family? 14 MR. NEGRON: That's the one, yes. 15 MR. WEINER: And the usual line is 16 at about the deck level. 17 MR. BELL: This is the building to 18 be constructed. The one-family building. 19 This is an existing five-family building. And 20 the owner is going to move into this when it's 21 done. 22 MR. CALVANICO: I'm looking at the 23 application and it indicates that -- it 24 appears to indicate that it's a one-bedroom 25 house. - 69 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. NEGRON: One-bedroom house, yes. 3 MR. CALVANICO: Is that right? 4 MR. NEGRON: Yes, correct. 5 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: It's a one- 6 bedroom? 7 MR. NEGRON: One-bedroom house. 8 That's for me and my wife and my two dogs. 9 That's all. 10 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Oh, it's -- 11 okay. It's your house. You're going to live 12 there? 13 MR. NEGRON: Yes. Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: The only 15 way to -- Mr. Chairman? The only way to gain 16 access to your home would be to go through 17 that easement? 18 MR. NEGRON: Through that easement. 19 Also, through my property from 910. We got 20 two sidewalks. 21 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: You own -- 22 you also own -- 23 MR. NEGRON: I own 910. 24 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Oh, oh. 25 MR. NEGRON: Yes. I own 910 and my - 70 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 grandmother owns 912. 3 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Oh, okay. 4 MR. NEGRON: That's why she gave me 5 that little piece in the back so I can dig one 6 out under here. 7 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Oh, okay. 8 That makes more sense. Okay. 9 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: 'Cause I 11 couldn't understand why -- 12 MR. NEGRON: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: She's not 14 really my grandmother but I know her for 15 thirty-three years. I taking care of her for 16 everything. She's in a wheelchair. So she's 17 planning to move back to (indiscernible). We 18 can rent the front so she can maybe get a 19 little money in the rent. 20 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Good for you. 21 MR. NEGRON: Yes, thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Mr. 23 Chairman. Mr. Negron, in one of the photos 24 that Mario -- 25 MR. NEGRON: Took. Yes? - 71 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: It looks 3 like there's debris below the stone masonry 4 wall that -- it looks like it may have come 5 from your property because I'm not sure where 6 else it would come from but it looks like 7 there's stone -- 8 MR. NEGRON: As far as stone, yes. 9 They follow me, yes. I understand. We're 10 going to remove the whole thing now and we're 11 going to make it grassy. I do understand and 12 I agree with Mario. I've seen him couple 13 times there with me. And I'm not going to 14 stand for that by mistake. We didn't mean it 15 to throw it down. No wood. No wood. Only 16 just a stone. We're going to remove it. 17 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Now, when 18 you're done, you have to clean up. Do a final 19 cleanup. 20 MR. NEGRON: And I'll bring 21 pictures, whatever he needs, yes. 22 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That will 23 be a condition, too. That -- 24 MR. NEGRON: Sure. 25 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- as part - 72 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 of the process. 3 MR. NEGRON: I will take care of it. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 5 MR. NEGRON: That used to be grassy. 6 It's going to be grassy again. Everything 7 going to be the same way it was. Don't 8 forget, it's a big fire that been there 9 before, remember? There was -- 10 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I know that 11 fire very well. 12 MR. NEGRON: Well, that was a big 13 fire on the county property. And then they -- 14 I cleaned it up. 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That job is 16 out to bid right now to do the repairs. 17 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Do you 18 know where the homeless people are? 19 MR. NEGRON: Yes. They live right 20 behind my property. 21 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: They made 22 condos out of that, right? 23 MR. NEGRON: Yes. They got 24 seventeen condos now and none of them been 25 paid. They still live there and it was a big - 73 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 fire. I save two of their lives there. And 3 another one helped to (indiscernible) 'cause 4 he don't look good. 5 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I imagine 6 if you do build there, you're going to ask -- 7 MR. NEGRON: No. They friendly. 8 No. No problem with them. I supply them 9 water sometime. 10 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Well, we're 11 going to be doing some -- 12 MR. NEGRON: Oh, please. 13 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- to 14 prevent that. You know, we're going to be 15 starting the fence and the writing. 16 MR. NEGRON: Well, not so matter how 17 many fence you build in their rates, they come 18 from Hoboken -- by themselves. 19 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: They go 20 to Hoboken and Union City, too. 21 MR. NEGRON: Oh, so maybe both. 22 Maybe both place. 23 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: The rent 24 in Hoboken's a little higher. 25 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Any other - 74 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 questions? Do I have a motion? 3 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: I make a 4 motion to approve as long as Union City adopts 5 the resolution -- the approval, the zoning. 6 MR. NEGRON: Sure, yes. 7 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I second it. 8 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 9 motion to accept Application SP/SD-14-07 made 10 by Commissioner Fitzgibbons and seconded by 11 Commissioner Holloway, Commissioner Arencibia? 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye 13 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 14 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 16 COMMISSIONER BETTINGER: Aye. 17 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 18 Fitzgibbons? 19 COMMISSIONER FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 21 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 22 MR. MARKS: Chairman Choffo? 23 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: I vote aye with 24 the understanding that Union City approves 25 this also. - 75 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 MR. NEGRON: I will. I understood, 3 yes. 4 CHAIRMAN CHOFFO: Congratulations. 5 MR. NEGRON: Thank you very much. 6 Thank you. Good night. 7 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the next 8 application scheduled for public hearing is 9 SD-18-07, Harrison Redevelopment Agency, 10 located at 600 Cape May Street, Block 174, Lot 11 1.01 in the town of Harrison. 12 MR. BRUNO: Good evening. I'm James 13 Bruno. I'm with the firm of Castano, Quigley 14 in West Caldwell returning for the Harrison 15 Redevelopment Agency. This is the companion 16 application to the site plan application you 17 heard on the Red Bull stadium. The order of 18 applications -- I guess you took them as we 19 applied. There is a third application which 20 will eventually be coming here which was 21 referenced before, Advance at Harrison. They 22 are one of the designated redevelopers and 23 I'll explain in a minute how they all work 24 together. 25 But by way of background, the - 76 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 Harrison Redevelopment Agency acquired this 3 site by condemnation. It's the former Speedo 4 Trucking Company site acquired by condemnation 5 for the purposes of building the stadium and 6 it was financed through bonds issued by both 7 the town of Harrison and the Hudson County 8 Improvement Authority. 9 After the acquisition, we then 10 embarked on the plan to subdivide the property 11 and that's the purpose of the application here 12 tonight. The subdivision application was 13 prepared by Boyd, McDonnell and Watson. It 14 was submitted as part of our application. The 15 date is January 11th, 2007. Mr. Watson, many 16 of you may know, is an elderly gentleman who's 17 a well-renowned surveyor but because of his 18 age he prefers not to travel at night which is 19 why he's not here with me. I think this is 20 simple enough that I can present it and hope 21 that I can answer any questions you have. 22 This is relatively simple. Just 23 want to orient it in connection with the site 24 plan. The application sits below. This would 25 sit this way. So, as you can see this shaped - 77 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 parcel here matches the site plan there. 3 There was mention at -- if I can move this 4 over here -- you can tell I'm a lawyer and not 5 an engineer. The Spiegel site was 14.84 6 acres. The stadium site is 12.34 acres which 7 leaves two and a half acres left. I crossed- 8 patched in pen right here what would be left 9 once the subdivision is divided -- once the 10 stadium is divided off. The balance of this 11 will be for roads. This right here roughly 12 corresponds with what will be 6th Street, the 13 reopened 6th Street. 6th Street is now 14 vacated in this part of the town. There is a 15 small portion on the western side of that 16 which will be going to the other developer to 17 be incorporated. It's roughly about seventeen 18 feet to be incorporated into their site plan. 19 That's Advance at Harrison. 20 This property is about a thousand 21 feet from Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard, the 22 nearest county road. And, as Mr. Pavlovich 23 said, Advance at Harrison will be building the 24 infrastructure, the streets, which includes 25 6th Street. It will include Guyonne Drive - 78 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 which will extend out to Frank Rodgers 3 Boulevard and we'll be improving Cape May 4 Street. 5 There will also be some cross 6 streets which will intersect into here. 7 Again, Advance at Harrison will be building 8 those. None of those is part of this 9 application. This is just by way of 10 background. 11 This is merely an application to 12 divide the land so that the stadium piece can 13 be leased and it will be leased. The Harrison 14 Redevelopment Agency is retaining title to the 15 property, long term ground lease to Red Bull 16 stadium to build the stadium. The balance of 17 the site, this cross-patch piece -- again, 18 part of it will be a road and the balance will 19 be conveyed to Advance at Harrison to complete 20 their development on their side of the line. 21 It was approved by the Harrison 22 Planning Board. This subdivision was approved 23 in February. Just to supplement what was said 24 before, this shaded piece here, that's the 25 strip that was referenced before about the - 79 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 600-foot long strip that's not owned and it's 3 not part of this subdivision. I will say for 4 the record, however, that the prior owner had 5 been using that in his issues about adverse 6 possession. You know, for purposes of the 7 record, the Agency is not conceding ownership 8 to someone else but it's not included at this 9 point. At some point, if that's not resolved 10 then the town will by condemnation -- intends 11 to -- would have to take some piece here to 12 connect Guyonne Drive to Cape May Street and 13 then they'd also take that piece just to 14 square it off so there's not a ten-foot strip 15 sitting there. 16 And then to confirm also the 17 statement the Agency -- the Harrison 18 Redevelopment Agency does have an agreement 19 with Advance at Harrison, the owner of the 20 balance of the property on this side, to build 21 these roads and to have the roads and the 22 utilities in place by the time the stadium 23 opens. 24 And I think that's basically what we 25 propose to do. We do have the planning - 80 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 board's May 9th letter. There's a few 3 conditions in here which I don't believe are 4 applicable to us because -- county road 5 opening permits? Again, this is just a 6 subdivision application. We have no 7 development proposed. To furnish as built 8 surveys? Again, we're not doing any 9 developments, just drawing lines on a piece of 10 paper. So, I think a lot of the conditions 11 are really just statements of what we're doing 12 rather than conditions. 13 CHAIRAMAN CHOFFO: Questions? 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: The parcels 15 of both are going to be owned by Harrison 16 Redevelopment Agency? 17 MR. BRUNO: Well, no. The Agency 18 will retain title to the stadium site. What 19 will become 6th Street will be dedicated to 20 the town of Harrison as part of their street 21 network. And the balance will be -- title 22 will be given to Advance at Harrison for them 23 just to square off their development parcels. 24 That will be a future subdivision application. 25 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. So - 81 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 3/21/07 2 that's coming later, right? 3 MR. BRUNO: That will come later. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: For now, 5 the town of Harrison will own it? 6 MR. BRUNO: For now, the town of 7 Harrison owns it, correct. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: At that 9 time, Advance Realty will come in for 10 subdivision? 11 MR. BRUNO: Advance Realty has to -- 12 right. And they -- right now their 13 application has not been approved by the 14 Harrison Planning Board but they have an 15 application before submitted to the Harrison 16 Planning Board to just build a street network, 17 which will include a subdivision, which will 18 divide out the lots, and a site plan 19 application, what they call the horizontal 20 subdivision just to build the streets. And 21 t