- 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, October 17, 2007 7 6:30 p.m. BEFORE: 8 JUDE FITZGIBBONS, Acting Chair 9 MARY E. AVAGLIANO, Secretary 10 HON. DOREEN DIDOMENICO, Freeholder 11 MICHAEL A. HOLLOWAY, Commissioner 12 RUSHABH MEHTA, Commissioner 13 KENNEDY NG, Commissioner 14 15 ALSO PRESENT: 16 THOMAS P. CALVANICO, ESQ., Board Attorney 17 DEMETRIO ARENCIBIA, Assistant County Engineer 18 MARIO TRIDENTE, Board Inspector 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, LLC 25 - 2 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Before I 3 open this meeting, Commissioners, please, when 4 you have to speak, speak right directly into 5 the mike. I was requested by -- and anybody 6 that gets sworn in, please announce your name 7 in full and correctly spell it at the 8 microphone up there. 9 I'm about to open the regular 10 planning board meeting of Hudson County. Has 11 the open public statement -- 12 MR. CALVANICO: The meeting has been 13 properly advertised in accordance with the New 14 Jersey statute and Open Public Meetings Act. 15 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Please rise 16 to salute our flag. 17 (Pledge of Allegiance) 18 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Do we have 19 a roll call? 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Arencibia? 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Present. 22 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 23 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Here. 24 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Bettinger? 25 Is not present. Commissioner DiDomenico? - 3 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Here. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Dublin? Is 4 not present. Commissioner Fitzgibbons? 5 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Here. 6 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 7 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Here. 8 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 9 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Here. 10 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 11 COMMISSIONER NG: Here. 12 MR. MARKS: And Commissioner Choffo? 13 Is not present. Mr. Chairman, we have a 14 quorum. 15 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Adoption of 16 the minutes of September 19. Do we have a 17 motion? 18 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Motion to 19 accept the minutes of the last meeting. 20 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: I second. 21 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 22 motion to adopt the meeting minutes from 23 September 19th made by Commissioner Avagliano, 24 seconded by Commissioner Mehta, Commissioner 25 Arencibia? - 4 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 4 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 5 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 6 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Abstain. 7 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Commissioner 8 Fitzgibbons? 9 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 10 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 11 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Abstain. 12 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Commissioner 13 Mehta? 14 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 16 COMMISSIONER NG: I wasn't here last 17 time. How do I vote? 18 MR. MARKS: That's an abstention? 19 COMMISSIONER NG: Yes. 20 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 21 passed. 22 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Do we have 23 some memorialization of resolutions? 24 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, under 5A, 25 memorialization of resolutions approved, - 5 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 conditionally approved or denied at last 3 meeting, we have Application SP/SD-48-07, 4 Regan Development Corp., applicant, located at 5 4908-14 Broadway in the towns of West New York 6 and Union City; we have Application SD-61-07, 7 Hartz Mountain Industries, Inc., located at 8 300-400 Park Plaza Drive, which is Block 227, 9 Lot 4.06 in the town of Secaucus; Application 10 SP-62-07, Louis Stefano, applicant, located at 11 833 Willow Avenue, which is Block 170, Lot 13 12 in the city of Hoboken; and we have 13 Application SD-63-07, Bayonne Local 14 Redevelopment, located at the Peninsula at 15 Bayonne Harbor, which is Block 404.1, Lot 14 16 in the city of Bayonne. 17 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Do we have 18 a motion to accept? 19 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Motion to 20 accept. 21 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: I second. 22 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 23 motion to approve those memorialized 24 resolutions made by Commissioner Avagliano and 25 seconded by Commissioner Mehta, Commissioner - 6 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Arencibia? 3 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye. 4 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 5 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 6 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 7 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Abstain. 8 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Commissioner 9 Fitzgibbons? 10 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 12 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Abstain. 13 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Commissioner 14 Mehta? 15 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 16 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 17 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 18 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 19 passed. 20 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: 21 Applications to be exempt. 22 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the 23 applications scheduled to be declared exempt 24 tonight are Application SP-57-07, AMB/Botund 25 Farkas, applicant, located at 219-295 Route - 7 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 1&9 Truck, which is Block 1639.1, Lot 5.C in 3 the city of Jersey City; Application SP-64-07, 4 which is 430-52nd Street Associates, LLC, 5 located at 430-436 52nd, which is Block 96, 6 Lots 36 and 37 in the town of West New York; 7 and Application SD-65-07, Newport Associates 8 Development Company, located on River North, 9 which is Block 20, Lot 3.15 in the city of 10 Jersey City. 11 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Do we have 12 a motion to accept? 13 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Motion to 14 accept. 15 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I second it. 16 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 17 motion made by Commissioner Avagliano and 18 seconded by Commissioner Holloway, 19 Commissioner Arencibia? 20 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye. 21 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 22 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 23 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 24 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Aye. 25 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Commissioner - 8 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Fitzgibbons? 3 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 4 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 5 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 6 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Commissioner 7 Mehta? 8 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 9 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 10 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 11 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 12 passed. 13 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Site plans 14 and subdivisions. 15 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the first 16 application scheduled for public hearing this 17 evening is MSMP-06, which is for the city of 18 Hoboken, a Municipal Stormwater Management 19 Plan, in the city of Hoboken. Mr. Chairman, 20 in your meeting packages, there was a comment 21 letter from Rose Santos of T&M Associates -- 22 oh, there she is. Okay. And is the city of 23 Hoboken here? The city's -- 24 MR. MARSDEN: I don't represent 25 Hoboken. I no longer (indiscernible). - 9 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 MR. MARKS: Right. 3 MR. MARSDEN: Okay. I just wanted 4 to make that clear. 5 MR. MARKS: Okay. 6 MR. CALVANICO: Please state your 7 name, spell your last name for the record. 8 MR. MARSDEN: Jeffrey Marsden, M-A- 9 R-S-D-E-N. 10 J E F F R E Y M A R S D E N, having been 11 first duly sworn according to law, testified 12 as follows: 13 MR. CALVANICO: Witness has been 14 sworn in. 15 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: You can be 16 seated. 17 MR. MARSDEN: You'll have to excuse 18 me. I am not clear as to exactly why I am 19 here. My understanding was we submitted a 20 Stormwater Management Plan to DEP. We met 21 with them. It was originally approved. 22 Handle was at tier A. Once we met with DEP, 23 it was agreed that it would be tier B 24 community because there are only a very small 25 number of directors charged that have no - 10 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 association with any development with the 3 exception of the waterfront along Frank 4 Sinatra Boulevard. 5 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: I -- 6 MR. MARSDEN: As a result of that, 7 we submitted the plan to the DEP. We made 8 some minor comment changes for them and they 9 approved it. I then submitted -- or my office 10 then submitted the application and the plan to 11 the city in which they were -- subsequently 12 submitted it to the county for approval. 13 The first time I saw anything from 14 the county was on -- in my records as October 15 11th. But there weren't any specific issues 16 listed. And then I received a comment letter 17 from the county. Ms. Santos had contacted me 18 because apparently the city was not responsive 19 to their attempt to contact them. And I 20 reviewed the comments and I personally and my 21 office doesn't have any issues with the 22 comments. We can make the changes. However, 23 I need to discuss it with the city as to who's 24 actually going to make the changes, whether 25 it's going to be myself under the old contract - 11 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 or it's going to be the new engineer under the 3 new contract. 4 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: So does the 5 city have a new engineer right now? 6 MR. MARSDEN: Yes, they do. 7 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: And -- 8 MR. MARSDEN: That would be 9 Remington & Vernick. 10 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: So we're in 11 between engineers? 12 MR. MARSDEN: I just had a 13 transition meeting with them last week. So we 14 are -- and this was part of -- 15 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: I think we 16 should hold off on this until a new engineer 17 comes in. I don't -- what would you say -- 18 MS. SANTOS: If I may? 19 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Yes. 20 MS. SANTOS: We -- I'm Rose Santos 21 from T&M Associates. We've been working with 22 the county to review stormwater management 23 plans as they come in from each individual 24 municipality. We conducted our review based 25 on the documents that were submitted by the - 12 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 city of Hoboken and we supplied them with 3 comments. At the time -- in our letter, which 4 was dated back on June 13th, we recommended 5 conditional approval. That gives the city 180 6 days to address the comments that we have 7 listed whether or not it's done by the 8 previous engineer or by the new engineer. It 9 does give them about six months. 10 I mean, if you look through the 11 comments there's nothing -- there's nothing 12 that's major of significant change. And if 13 there is something that, I guess, the new 14 engineer does have an issue with, he can 15 submit to the county planning board, I guess, 16 in writing. I don't know if that would 17 withhold the conditional approval since we're 18 not outright rejecting or approving the 19 documents as is. 20 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Steve? 21 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, just for 22 the record, under the New Jersey 23 Administrative Code, at 7:8, essentially, the 24 New Jersey Department of Environmental 25 Protection has deputized each county to review - 13 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 and either approve, conditionally approve or 3 reject/deny municipal stormwater management 4 plans. That's why each of the municipalities 5 has come before the planning board in previous 6 months and that's why Hoboken is here this 7 evening. It's really per -- the county of 8 Hudson has retained the services of T&M 9 Associates to review the municipal stormwater 10 plan. It was review by Ms. Santos and her 11 comment letter was in your packages for this 12 evening. 13 So it's really up to the board -- 14 the board does have jurisdiction on this. The 15 board has to make a determination whether, 16 again, to approve, conditionally approve or 17 reject Hoboken's municipal stormwater 18 management plan. But, as Ms. Santos said, it 19 can be -- she had recommended in her comment 20 letter that it be conditionally approved and 21 it gives the municipality 180 days? 22 MS. SANTOS: Correct. And I had 23 contacted the director back at the city of 24 Hoboken and I was directed to Mr. Marsden to 25 forward any communication regarding comments - 14 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 since they did prepare the initial document. 3 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Who is the 4 director? 5 MS. SANTOS: Joe Paluzzo, correct. 6 MR. MARKS: In addition, if I may, 7 Mr. Chairman? In addition, the DEP has set up 8 timelines where municipalities have to comply 9 with the stormwater regulations. So it may, 10 if it's held -- it's of course up to -- it's 11 the prerogative of the board, but if it is 12 held basically in limbo, if it's adjourned 13 till a future month, it may adversely affect 14 the city. Am I correct? 15 MS. SANTOS: Well, correct. There 16 already -- you know, this was supposed to be 17 submitted back in April of 2006 so there is 18 already -- they're way past the deadline for 19 when they're supposed to be submitted. 20 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: So you're 21 going to say we can conditionally -- 22 MS. SANTOS: Correct. 23 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: -- accept 24 this, give them 180 days -- 25 MS. SANTOS: Correct. - 15 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: If they 3 don't come back to us in 180 days, we could 4 tell them well, that's off. 5 MS. SANTOS: Correct. In order to 6 get formal approval, I mean, they have to 7 respond to our comments, either addressing our 8 comments or providing additional information 9 as to why they did not address those comments. 10 And then at that time, we would do a second 11 review and issue either another conditional 12 approval or an outright approval. But until 13 they get the approval, they're not in 14 compliance with the DEP requirements. 15 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Has -- any 16 of the commissioners have anything to say 17 about this or -- 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Mr. 19 Marsden, you're saying that you're no longer 20 the consultant for the city? 21 MR. MARSDEN: No, I'm no longer the 22 consultant for the city. I represent Board of 23 Adjustments. I still am the Board of 24 Adjustment consultant -- 25 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. - 16 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 MR. MARSDEN: But I do not represent 3 the city as the city engineer. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: But you 5 were told by Mr. Paluzzo to attend tonight's 6 meeting? 7 MR. MARSDEN: Right. I had a real 8 bad conflict the last time and I couldn't 9 attend and I apologize for that because I 10 found it very late. But this meeting, I 11 talked to Mr. Paluzzo about it and he 12 basically said, go to the board, discuss it 13 with them and come back to him and then make 14 recommendations as to who should make the 15 changes -- he'll make recommendations as to 16 who should make the changes. My gut reaction 17 is I would think Remington Vernick will make 18 some minor changes to it and probably resubmit 19 under their name. But it doesn't matter to 20 me. If he wants us to do it, we'll do it. I 21 just haven't been directed to make the 22 changes. 23 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: So any 24 other commissioner want to speak? Anybody 25 want to make a motion? - 17 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I'll make a 3 motion to approve with the conditions. 4 COMMISSIONER NG: I'll second it. 5 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: With the 6 conditions? 7 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Conditions 8 of giving them 100 -- what? Twenty days? 9 MR. MARKS: 180 days. Based on the 10 comment letter of T&M Associates. 11 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Okay. 12 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Can we 13 actually send the director, Paluzzo, a notice 14 that they have 180 days? 15 MR. MARKS: They've been -- as of 16 next month, we will have a memorialized 17 resolution from the planning board which we 18 will forward to the city of Hoboken. So they 19 will be essentially put on notice. The city 20 of Hoboken, the mayor, the municipal engineer, 21 I'm not sure if Mr. Paluzzo himself. They 22 were sent copies of T&M's comment letter going 23 back to June so that's unfortunate that it 24 never made it to the consulting engineers but 25 we will make sure that they're apprised of - 18 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 what's going on. And if the board were to 3 conditionally approve this tonight, it would 4 basically bring Hoboken into compliance with 5 New Jersey's municipal stormwater rules. And 6 unless it's approved or conditionally 7 approved, they'd be out of compliance and 8 possibly subject to fine. That's -- 9 So, Mr. Chairman, there's a motion 10 on the floor made by Commissioner Holloway, 11 seconded by Commissioner NG to conditionally 12 approve Hoboken's municipal stormwater 13 management plan. Commissioner Arencibia? 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 16 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye with 17 the conditional. 18 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 19 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Aye. 20 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 21 Fitzgibbons? 22 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 23 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 24 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 25 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? - 19 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 3 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 4 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 5 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 6 passed. Mr. Chairman, the next application 7 scheduled for public hearing is SP-37-07, New 8 Cingular Wireless PCS located at 410 Palisade 9 Avenue which is Block 190, Lot 131 in the city 10 of Union City. Mr. Chairman, in your meeting 11 packages this evening is a letter from the 12 attorney for the applicant requesting an 13 adjournment until next month. The Structural 14 Integrity Report that the board had requested 15 I don't believe is ready yet so they're asking 16 for another month. 17 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Do we have 18 a motion to table? 19 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: You want a 20 motion to table? I'll make a motion to table 21 SP-37-07, the New Cingular Wireless PC -- 22 COMMISSIONER NG: I'll second. 23 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: -- S until 24 next month. 25 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a - 20 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 motion made by Commissioner Avagliano and 3 seconded by Commissioner DiDomenico, 4 Commissioner Arencibia? 5 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Aye. 6 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 7 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Aye. 8 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? 9 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Aye. 10 MR. MARKS: Commissioner 11 Fitzgibbons? 12 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 13 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 14 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 15 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 16 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 17 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 18 COMMISSIONER NG: Aye. 19 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the motion 20 passed. Mr. Chairman, the next application 21 scheduled for public hearing is SP-43-07, 22 Avalon-Alfran North Bergen, LLC, which is 23 5601-5607 Kennedy Boulevard, Block 195, Lots 24 61 through 67 in the township of North Bergen. 25 MR. BERTIN: Good evening. I'm - 21 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Calisto Bertin, the engineer for the 3 applicant. 4 MR. CALVANICO: Spell your last name 5 for the record, please. 6 MR. BERTIN: Yes. It's Calisto, C- 7 A-L-I-S-T-O, Bertin, B-E-R-T-I-N. 8 C A L I S T O B E R T I N, having been first 9 duly sworn according to law, testified as 10 follows: 11 MR. CALVANICO: The witness has been 12 sworn, Mr. Chairman. 13 MR. BERTIN: Good evening. This is 14 a parcel of property along Kennedy Boulevard 15 at 56th and 57th Street. We were here once 16 before in 2001 and got approval for a similar 17 project but a larger project. What I have on 18 the board is just the plan with the old 19 project and I just want to compare the two. 20 The project that was approved in 2001 had 260 21 units. It was a seven-story building above -- 22 seven stories above Kennedy Boulevard but 23 there were another three -- four stories 24 behind the building so it was an eleven-story 25 building. There was also 23,000 square feet - 22 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 of retail space. And there was a drive-thru 3 for a drug store. In total, there was about 4 330 parking spaces. 5 After redoing -- you know, adjusting 6 for marketing conditions and so forth, the 7 project was changed and it was drastically 8 reduced. So the project we have before you 9 is -- well, that project -- the prior project, 10 excuse me, was called Meadowview Square and 11 this is Avalon-Alfran North Bergen. And if 12 you're not familiar with Avalon, they are 13 developers of apartment complexes all over the 14 United States. 15 So this new project has 164 units. 16 Remember the original project had 260. So 17 it's a hundred units less. There's just under 18 18,000 square foot of retail space. So that's 19 been reduced. And we have 285 parking spaces. 20 So even though we've lost a hundred units and 21 made the retail space smaller, we've only 22 reduced the parking by about fifty spaces. 23 Many aspects of this project are the 24 same as the prior one. We have 56th Street 25 and 57th Street across from the site. And now - 23 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 we have two driveways and both driveways align 3 with those roads so that our two driveways are 4 now controlled by the traffic light. 5 MR. CALVANICO: Excuse me, Mr. 6 Bertin. When you refer to the documents, 7 could you please identify where in the 8 documents they are? 9 MR. BERTIN: Sure. I'm referring to 10 a drawing called Landscape Rendering. It's 11 just a clean-up version of the site plan and 12 landscape plan. Should I mark it? 13 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Yes. 14 (Applicant SP-43-07's Exhibit A-1, Landscape 15 Rendering, was hereby marked for 16 identification, as of this date.) 17 MR. BERTIN: I've marked it as 18 Exhibit A-1 and I'll leave it with you 19 tonight. So A-1 is a colored version of the 20 site plan. 56th Street and 57th Street are 21 both one-way. 57th Street, the northernmost 22 street, is one-way away from Kennedy Boulevard 23 where the other one is -- 56th Street is one- 24 way towards Kennedy Boulevard. And again, our 25 driveway is aligned with it. We will have to - 24 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 make modifications to these traffic signals. 3 We have to move the controller and mast arm at 4 57th Street and the 56th Street inters -- I 5 mean, the 57th Street intersection, we have to 6 add the fourth leg of the intersection. The 7 same is true with 56th Street. So we'll make 8 those modifications. 9 Something that's also a carryover 10 from the prior project, it's not shown on A-1 11 but I'm going to show it -- I guess I'm going 12 to call this Exhibit A-2, which is the prior 13 site plan called Meadowview Square. It's 14 drawing C-2 and it's got a revision date of 15 November 15th, 2002. 16 (Applicant SP-43-07's Exhibit A-2, Drawing C- 17 2/Meadowview Square, was hereby marked for 18 identification, as of this date.) 19 MR. BERTIN: We do propose 20 improvements along Kennedy Boulevard to create 21 a left-turn lane into the 57th Street 22 driveway. That's not just for the site. 23 We're also creating a left-turn lane into 57th 24 Street for southbound traffic. This came out 25 because there are a number of accidents at - 25 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 that turn and, if you recall, this is the 3 section of Kennedy Boulevard that has the 4 concrete barrier in the center between 57th 5 and 58th Street. So to reduce the number of 6 rear-end collisions, we're creating this left- 7 turn lane for the southbound traffic and since 8 we're creating that, we get the benefit of a 9 left-turn lane into the project. 10 We're going to replace all the curbs 11 and sidewalks along Kennedy Boulevard. We're 12 also the engineers for the project next door 13 which is adjacent to 58th Street and so we've 14 tried to coordinate these. And you may recall 15 that the 58th Street intersection is also 16 going to be improved. So hopefully, 17 everything will happen at the same time and 18 we're going to improve at least the west side 19 of Kennedy Boulevard for three blocks. 20 In addition to curbs and sidewalks, 21 we were able to eliminate all the overhead 22 wires on the west side of the road. So there 23 will be no overhead wires for three blocks. 24 And then we will put in new street lights, the 25 regular aluminum poles with the cobra head - 26 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 lights, but we're going to try to dress up 3 that part of the street as best we can. 4 Anyway, one other aspect I should 5 bring up, the new application does have a bank 6 as part of the project. The bank will be 7 located in one of the wings of the building 8 but we have remote drive-thru lanes on the 9 other side of the property. 10 We have a surface parking lot which 11 is primarily for the retail component. And 12 then there's a garage off of that parking lot 13 for residences. And all that traffic comes in 14 from 57th Street. And then underneath the 15 building is a parking lot with the majority of 16 the residential parking that comes off of 56th 17 Street. 18 So that's an overview of the 19 project. I'll answer any questions. 20 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Has the 21 county reviewed this? 22 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, we have 23 Lee Klein from T&M Associates who prepared the 24 comment letter and reviewed the plans. 25 MR. KLEIN: Good evening, Mr. - 27 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Chairman. My name is Lee Klein with T&M 3 Associates. I've reviewed this site plan 4 application and traffic report and drainage 5 report. We had a couple of issues with the 6 drainage that we've been able to work out with 7 the applicant. We had some traffic issues 8 early on where we had an extra -- there was an 9 extra right out driveway onto Kennedy. We 10 were able to eliminate that. We had some 11 issues with the drive-up teller windows -- the 12 ATM and the drive-up teller window in that the 13 way -- the direction of travel, people come in 14 from 57th, they could cue up and block the 15 driveway. So, I think, Demetrio and I have 16 had discussions and we're recommending that 17 possibly they consider relocating or 18 reorienting the drive-up window so that when 19 people come in, they make a left turn, go 20 through the parking lot and stack up in a 21 clockwise direction throughout the site. That 22 way any cuing of vehicles would either -- 23 would just cue up along the loading area or 24 hatched area and along the sidewalk in front 25 of the building and it won't affect operation - 28 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 of the county road. 3 Of course, when they do come up with 4 their traffic signal plans, the county 5 engineer is going to have to review those 6 plans to make sure they're designed adequately 7 and follow MUTCD regulations. 8 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: I got a 9 question. They're going to pay for all of 10 this? The county's not going to pay for this, 11 right? 12 MR. KLEIN: That's correct. 13 MR. ARENCIBIA: Mr. Chairman, if 14 I -- could Calisto show the other diagram, 15 too, because on this diagram you don't show 16 any widening on Kennedy Boulevard. 17 MR. BERTIN: Okay. I'm sorry. 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: The other 19 drawing, you show a widening. 20 MR. BERTIN: Well, we're not really 21 widening the street. We're working within the 22 existing pavement. What happens is on the 23 west side of Kennedy Boulevard, there is some 24 street parking. It's seldom used and the town 25 of North Bergen or the Parking Authority - 29 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 agreed to eliminate the parking and that's how 3 we've created this additional lane. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Well, I'm 5 not sure about the Parking Authority, you 6 know, removing parking spaces when parking is 7 a premium. So I'm not -- has T&M Associates 8 seen the plan with the removal of the parking 9 spaces? 10 MR. KLEIN: Yes. When I visited the 11 site, I believe it was, like, a midday or an 12 early afternoon. I don't remember seeing any 13 cars parked on that side of the street because 14 there is the barrier so if you're going to 15 park on that side of the street and try to 16 walk across, you have to walk further. 17 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Well, the 18 barriers are on the curve. The area where 19 he's going to be removing parking is between 20 56th and 57th, right? 21 MR. BERTIN: Well, just one other 22 thing. We have 88 spaces more than we're 23 required to. So we've tried to put ample 24 parking on the site to accommodate all our 25 needs. And I guess people might park in this - 30 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 parking lot and walk across the street. 3 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's 4 fine. I'm -- but that's parking spaces for 5 your site. My concern is parking spaces for 6 the public. And I think this should be 7 evaluated a little bit more as to if we really 8 need that left-turn bay going into the site. 9 How much traffic are we talking about 10 turning -- 11 MR. BERTIN: The left-turn lane was 12 also created for the southbound traffic 13 because as people come around the corner there 14 are rear-end collisions there. This is -- I 15 didn't prepare to discuss this because this is 16 something that we've been working on -- I 17 think you even asked me about it a year ago. 18 I said we're coming back. So -- 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 20 MR. BERTIN: Well, we can review 21 that further. This is not a condition -- I 22 don't know that this should be a condition of 23 this approval, what we do. 24 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: You recall, 25 I think the previous design had a widening of - 31 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Kennedy Boulevard. 3 MR. BERTIN: No. Here's the plan. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: No but I 5 had talked about widening the boulevard. 6 You're not widening the boulevard at all with 7 this design. 8 MR. BERTIN: That's correct. And 9 we -- that's why I brought the old plan. 10 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: This was 11 the plan from the older project? 12 MR. BERTIN: Yes. This plan -- 13 right. From the older project. The last 14 revision here was in November of 2002. 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 16 Well, I really want to run this design by the 17 Township as well. I mean -- 18 MR. BERTIN: Fine. 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- we have 20 to get some feedback because removing parking 21 in Hudson County is always a problem with the 22 public. So if we need it -- to remove parking 23 because of the amount of traffic, you know, 24 that's something that we should consider. But 25 it's -- at this point, I want to really make - 32 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 sure that we really have to do it. 3 MR. KLEIN: Are you questioning that 4 North Bergen Parking Authority is able to 5 remove the parking? 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: No. I'm -- 7 MR. KLEIN: Or are you just in 8 general -- 9 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I'm 10 concerned about the people in general if they 11 have -- you know, removing parking. Every 12 time we remove parking on the boulevard, we 13 have a big problem, people complaining they 14 have no place to park. 15 MR. BERTIN: Right. In this case, 16 again, there's very little parking on this 17 side of the street because, just remember, 18 just south of us is the Flower Hill Cemetery 19 which wraps around it. So -- and the property 20 north of us is a residential building. So 21 we're not going to be creating demand from the 22 stores that normally front on Kennedy 23 Boulevard. We have, as I said, eighty-eight 24 spaces more than required for this project so 25 we have sixty-five parking spaces for the - 33 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 retail space when we don't really anticipate 3 needing nearly that much. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Well, 5 what's the number of left turns going into the 6 site, like, during the rush hours? 7 MR. BERTIN: Site-generated traffic. 8 On a Saturday there's seventy per hour making 9 a left turn in. On a p.m. peak hour, there's 10 forty-five. Now, just so you know, the 11 existing -- or for the build -- your traffic 12 for the -- for the street traffic is about a 13 hundred cars on the p.m. making a left into 14 57th Street. 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 16 Well, I'm just saying, eventually you're going 17 to have to prepare traffic signal plans. 18 And -- 19 MR. BERTIN: Well, the plans are 20 prepared. I even sent them to Jose. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Oh, you 22 did? Okay. 23 MR. BERTIN: Yeah, but not the 24 electrical plans. We had to wait till we got 25 through here in case you moved something. - 34 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 3 Has he reviewed them and given you comments 4 yet? 5 MR. BERTIN: No. I just made him 6 aware of it. 7 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 8 MR. BERTIN: I thought it was 9 premature. I figured we had to come here 10 first. 11 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 12 Well, my only concern is parking and the 13 configuration of the new signals and the 14 county will have to look at that. 15 MR. BERTIN: Part of our 16 application, the last set of plans we 17 submitted, we did submit all the signal 18 geometry plans. 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 20 MR. BERTIN: That was submitted with 21 the set. 22 MR. KLEIN: Mr. Bertin, what's the 23 length of the frontage between your two 24 driveways along Kennedy Boulevard roughly? 25 You have stationing or -- - 35 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 MR. BERTIN: Just 280 feet. Between 3 the -- it's a regular block. 4 MR. KLEIN: That's ten, eleven 5 parking spaces and he's saying that there's 6 eighty -- eighty or eighty-eight -- 7 MR. BERTIN: Eighty-eight extra. 8 MR. KLEIN: Eighty-extra. 9 MR. BERTIN: Right. 10 MR. KLEIN: And then in overnight 11 parking, I don't see -- would there be a 12 restriction for parking overnight? 13 MR. BERTIN: There's no restriction. 14 Yes. Right. Although we could say we have 15 parking along the entire frontage, I'm not 16 sure if parking would be permitted, you 17 know -- well, not within the intersection 18 anyway. 19 MR. KLEIN: Right. That's what I'm 20 saying. So minus fifty -- yeah. So you're 21 probably down to less than 200 feet of 22 frontage, right. 23 MR. BERTIN: Right. And as it is 24 now, there's no parking permitted between 58th 25 and 57th Street on our side -- - 36 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: On the 3 curve, right. 4 MR. BERTIN: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Mr. 6 Chairman, I have a question. I don't think 7 North Bergen Parking Authority has the 8 authorization or the powers to remove or add 9 parking spaces. That goes through the 10 engineer's department. 11 MR. BERTIN: Well, my point was 12 everything has to be approved here. But we've 13 already talked to North Bergen. 14 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: But you had 15 mentioned the Parking Authority itself. 16 MR. BERTIN: Yes, because at some 17 point during this process -- you know, I've 18 been on this project for seven years now -- or 19 six years. It was discussed with them and 20 reviewed by them and they were involved in the 21 process. 22 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: I 23 understand. But to get the approval to remove 24 or give, you have to go to the engineer 25 department not the Parking Authority. - 37 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 MR. BERTIN: Correct. I understand. 3 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Was this 4 approved by North Bergen? 5 MR. BERTIN: Yes. This project was 6 approved. 7 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Not the old 8 project. The new project. 9 MR. BERTIN: The new project, yes, 10 was approved by North Bergen. Just to be 11 specific, the exact site plan approval was 12 slight different. We actually had a loop 13 driveway in front of the southern wing of the 14 building. We removed that in coming here but 15 we -- that's the only difference really 16 between the site plan that was approved by 17 North Bergen and this one. And this plan is 18 currently before North Bergen to get 19 reconfirmed. 20 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Chairman? 21 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Just for -- my 23 experience I can tell that particular Kennedy 24 Boulevard western site, North Bergen site is 25 no parking. Usually nobody parks there. And - 38 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 58 to 57th Street is a curve and there is -- 3 they are planning to do -- from 57th Street 4 south coming make a left turn. But from 57th 5 to 56th Street near the cemetery, I don't see 6 any time -- I travel every time and I don't 7 see any parking what people park there during 8 the daytime. 9 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's true 10 but that's because there's nothing there 11 really. Right now that site is vacant. You 12 know, in the future we'll have people coming 13 to visit or use the site. 14 MR. BERTIN: That's why we have all 15 this parking. 16 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 17 MR. BERTIN: And if you recall on 18 the project next door, we created some parking 19 in the front for visitors as well. 20 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: So does the 21 Township approve the -- they approve the 22 deletion of the parking spots? 23 MR. BERTIN: Yes. 24 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: They 25 already approved that? - 39 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 MR. BERTIN: Well, they've agreed to 3 it. Whoever has final approval which, I 4 believe, might be the county -- 5 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: It's the 6 county engineer and -- 7 MR. BERTIN: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- we have 9 to -- actually, the freeholders 10 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Have to -- 11 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- have to 12 approve an ordinance, you know, to remove the 13 parking and make it a no parking zone. 14 MR. BERTIN: That's right. So I 15 guess really what I should say is the North 16 Bergen Parking Authority has confirmed that we 17 can go ahead and remove that parking. They 18 have no objection to it. 19 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Well, I 20 don't know if the freeholders will have any 21 objection. 22 MR. BERTIN: Well, we'll see. You 23 know, we'll take that up next. 24 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All I'm 25 really saying is before -- I'd like to be very - 40 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 assured that your plan is what we want to go 3 with. So if it means that we have to keep 4 parking, we have to keep parking, on-street 5 parking. And you may have to modify your 6 traffic zone design. Either way, it's 7 something I think we can work out -- 8 MR. BERTIN: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- with -- 10 you know, through the engineering of the 11 traffic signals and any improvements. 12 MR. BERTIN: And we'll work that out 13 with your office. 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 15 MR. BERTIN: Okay. 16 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, was the -- 17 I guess, acquiescence of the Parking Authority 18 done by resolution or letter or how did they 19 convey that authorization to you? 20 MR. BERTIN: Actually, it has been 21 verbal in recent times. And we did ask them 22 to give us something in writing as we were 23 approaching this end and wrapping it all up. 24 And we are waiting for a letter from them. 25 MR. MARKS: Okay. I think before it - 41 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 goes to the freeholder board for their 3 ultimate approval, we'll need something from 4 North Bergen Parking Authority. 5 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: I would 6 like to let anybody know that the Parking 7 Authority does enforce parking on the 8 boulevard and it includes meter parking. I'm 9 not sure if this site is metered but they 10 oversee enforcement of the -- 11 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Only. 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: But they 14 don't have the -- 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: As far as 16 creating the -- 17 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: -- powers to 18 create or take out. 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- parking 20 ordinances, it still has to go through the 21 freeholders. 22 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Exactly. 23 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: As far as 24 the drainage, what -- 25 MR. BERTIN: The site splits. Some - 42 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 of the drainage goes to the rear; some of it 3 to the front. And we've maintained the flows. 4 We even put -- we put in some water quality 5 water treatment unit for the parking lot 6 runoff that goes to the street. Basically, 7 we're actually reducing the flow because 8 there's been a recent change in the design of 9 the building where all the roof goes to the 10 rear. In our design that was submitted to the 11 county, part of the roof came to the front but 12 now all the roof goes to the back. And the 13 only drainage that comes to the county is that 14 exposed parking lot which is much less than 15 what flows to the county drainage system now. 16 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Well, all 17 the improvements, storm sewer improvements, 18 you're providing inlets on site? 19 MR. BERTIN: Yes. And there's on 20 site detention. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. As 22 far as on Kennedy Boulevard, are there any 23 additional drainage inlets? 24 MR. BERTIN: Well, what we're going 25 to do is replace some old -- there's a couple - 43 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 of very small inlets and there's some broken 3 up inlets. But we're going to replace them. 4 Now, at the same time, you've got a road 5 improvement project going on so we're trying 6 to get these things coordinated. 7 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Well, the 8 improvement project is almost done. 9 MR. BERTIN: Yeah. Well, I don't 10 know, did you get this far? 11 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Yes. 12 MR. BERTIN: Okay. But if they 13 have -- on this plan shows to upgrade the 14 inlets along the street or several of them. 15 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 16 MR. BERTIN: And with the new 17 project, we do not have to go underground or 18 open up the street because all of the 19 utilities are under the sidewalk. 20 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Um-hmm. 21 MR. BERTIN: So we won't have to 22 open the street at all. 23 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. All 24 right. So you'll accept the conditions that 25 we just talked about with the traffic, parking - 44 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 and reorienting the direction for the drive- 3 thru on the bank. Instead of having them 4 coming in directly to the drive-thru, they 5 have to go through the parking lot? 6 MR. BERTIN: I'm going to say yes 7 because I don't think I have a choice. Okay? 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Well, one 10 major issue is the parking on Kennedy 11 Boulevard, who has the authorization to remove 12 it. And I know it's not the Parking 13 Authority. 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. The 15 county -- the county engineer has to approve 16 the parking, removal of parking, the traffic 17 configuration, the traffic signals. So that's 18 still in the preliminary stage where 19 eventually we'll have to recommend that to the 20 freeholders. 21 MR. BERTIN: As a matter of fact, 22 once we received approval here, the next step 23 is within a couple days we're going to send 24 these -- send the engineering plans -- well, 25 they were submitted with this set -- to the - 45 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 county engineer's office to start their review 3 of the traffic signal modifications and 4 parking modifications. 5 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 6 MR. BERTIN: So we'll make sure we 7 spell that out. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 9 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Okay. 10 Anybody have any further conversation? Do we 11 have a motion? 12 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: I make a motion 13 to approve it. 14 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: I'll 15 second. 16 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, on a 17 motion made by Commissioner Mehta, seconded by 18 Commissioner DiDomenico, Commissioner 19 Arencibia? 20 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: With the 21 conditions that I laid out, aye. 22 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Avagliano? 23 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: With the 24 engineer's conditions, I vote aye. 25 MR. MARKS: Commissioner DiDomenico? - 46 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER DIDOMENICO: Aye. 3 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Commissioner 4 Fitzgibbons? 5 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Aye. 6 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Holloway? 7 COMMISSIONER HOLLOWAY: Aye. 8 MR. MARKS: Commissioner Mehta? 9 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Aye. 10 MR. MARKS: Commissioner NG? 11 COMMISSIONER NG: Abstain. 12 MR. MARKS: Abstain. Mr. Chairman, 13 the motion passed. 14 MR. BERTIN: Thank you very much. 15 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the next 16 application scheduled for public hearing is 17 SD/SP-52-07, Advance at Harrison, LLC located 18 on Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard, which is Blocks 19 138 and 143, 150 and 174 in the town of 20 Harrison. 21 MR. LIEBLING: Good evening. 22 Charles Liebling, Windels Marx Lane & 23 Mittendorf representing Advance at Harrison, 24 the designated redeveloper for this project. 25 Our co-applicant on this application is - 47 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Harrison Redevelopment Agency. The project is 3 a mix use redevelopment project under the 4 Harrison Waterfront Redevelopment Plan. The 5 site is approximately thirty-one acres. 6 As the engineer will point out to 7 you, the site is located immediately to the 8 west of the Red Bull soccer stadium which this 9 is by -- is already approved north of Cape May 10 Street and east of Frank Rodgers Boulevard in 11 Harrison. 12 MR. CALVANICO: Excuse me, sir. Can 13 you please spell your last name for the 14 record? 15 MR. LIEBLING: Sure. It's L-I-E-B- 16 L-I-N-G. Our application this evening is for 17 subdivision and site plan approval. Just to 18 set the stage for you, there's no vertical 19 development proposed as part of this initial 20 application. We're putting in the roads and 21 the utilities to service the stadium as well 22 as future development on the site that you 23 see. The site plan components are extremely 24 limited. There is some surface parking as 25 well as a sign announcing the project. - 48 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 The subdivision will create ten new 3 lots for future mix use development in 4 accordance with the Redevelopment Plan. This 5 application was approved by the Harrison 6 Planning Board in May and the westernmost edge 7 of this project runs along Frank E. Rodgers 8 Boulevard which is a county road which is what 9 brings us before this board. 10 I have with me this evening our site 11 engineer, Lenny Savino of Langan Engineering 12 who will walk you through the plan. 13 MR. CALVANICO: State your name and 14 spell your last name for the record, please. 15 MR. SAVINO: Leonard D, as in David, 16 Savino, S-A-V-I-N-O. I'm a partner with 17 Langan Engineering and Environmental Services 18 located in Elmwood Park, New Jersey. I'm a 19 licensed civil engineer in the state of New 20 Jersey for ten years. I have a bachelor's of 21 science in civil engineering and also a 22 masters of science in civil engineering from 23 the New Jersey Institute of Technology and 24 have provided testimony before many boards 25 including this board. - 49 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 L E O N A R D D . S A V I N O, having been 3 first duly sworn according to law, testified 4 as follows: 5 MR. SAVINO: Thank you. Just to 6 give you a more detailed overview, I guess you 7 can call it that -- I'm going to speak up, is 8 that okay? Step away from the microphone. 9 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Yes. 10 MR. SAVINO: The subdivision is 11 going to include -- 12 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Do you hear 13 him? 14 MR. SAVINO: -- the lots east of 15 Frank Rodgers -- 16 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Hold up, 17 hold up. 18 COMMISSIONER AVAGLIANO: Move the 19 mike over. 20 MR. SAVINO: Okay. I'm speaking 21 from Sheet 0501 which is the major subdivision 22 plan dated 3/30/07 recent revision. It was 23 provided in the package that was submitted as 24 part of the application. To get you oriented, 25 again, north is straight up on the sheet, - 50 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Frank Rodgers Boulevard is to the west, 3 westernmost edge of the site, Cape May Street 4 is on the southern side of the property which 5 actually goes east and then north and back a 6 little bit to the west. And the railroad is 7 across the northern portion of the site moving 8 north -- southeast and northwest. 9 The applicant is proposing a 10 subdivision to create new streets and new lots 11 for future construction including the stadium 12 which is proposed in the lot furthest to the 13 east. The new roads to be created are Guyonne 14 Drive running across the northern portion of 15 the site, Metro Center Plaza across the center 16 of the site, also east to west, Crucible 17 Drive, east to west, south of that. As I had 18 mentioned, Cape May Street is existing. Two 19 new north and south streets, 5th Street 20 basically bisects the western portion of the 21 site and 6th Street is to the east creating 22 the stadium lot to the east. 23 There's also a portion of the site, 24 if you look at the upper right-hand corner, 25 it's a shaded existing conditions map. You'll - 51 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 see there's a small portion of the site is up 3 to the north. That is also part of the 4 subdivision in the application and it will 5 remain in its current shape. So there really 6 are no new lines proposed in that location. 7 Any questions on the subdivision? 8 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: It's just a 9 subdivision. I don't think there will be any 10 questions. 11 MR. SAVINO: The next sheet I'd like 12 to speak from is titled "The Overall 13 Improvements Plan", Drawing number 20.00, 14 recent revision, 30 March '07 as well. You 15 can see again the new right-of-ways that are 16 going to be created for Guyonne Drive, Metro 17 Center Drive, Crucible Drive and 5th Street 18 and 6th Street. As the attorney had 19 mentioned, this application has no vertical 20 components, no vertical construction. It's 21 all for new roadways and infrastructure in 22 preparation of the vertical construction. 23 There are improvements proposed on Frank 24 Rodgers Boulevard to the west, a widening of 25 Frank Rodgers Boulevard approximately three to - 52 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 four feet on either side. And there's new on- 3 street parking proposed throughout the site. 4 Within Frank Rodgers Boulevard, there will be 5 two lanes of new traffic in both directions 6 and a center aisle for a left turn into the 7 site. 8 In the northern corner, we're 9 proposing some parking. We're calling it 10 interim parking which is going to be primarily 11 for the stadium activities. 12 As part of the application, we did 13 receive a comment letter from Medina 14 Consultants and we had an opportunity to meet 15 with them and go through the comments. I'm 16 not sure if you need to get up. You need to 17 get up at all or not? 18 MR. REIMON: Edwin Reimon from 19 Medina Consultants. We have a meeting about a 20 week ago to review the comments that we issued 21 to the applicants. All the comments were 22 resolved. I only have one questions to 23 applicant and is that in the permit request 24 that they stated in their response to our 25 comment, they have three permits. One is soil - 53 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 erosion control permit, the water extension 3 permit and the DWA permit. And I want to ask 4 if they have to apply for the waterfront 5 development permit and the stream encroachment 6 permit for the outfall. 7 MR. SAVINO: Yes, we do and we have 8 submitted our application. It has been deemed 9 complete and is under review at the DEP. That 10 permit will be provided when we receive it. 11 All -- the other three permits mentioned were 12 provided. 13 MR. REIMON: Yes. We have copies of 14 a permit already. 15 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: The one 16 that -- there's one that hasn't been provided, 17 right? 18 MR. REIMON: They provided copies of 19 the three permits that were issued by the 20 NJDEP by the local soil erosion control 21 district. The permit that are outstanding are 22 the permits through the NJDEP for the 23 waterfront and the permit through the -- also 24 DEP for the stream encroachment. 25 MR. SAVINO: That was submitted as a - 54 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 joint application. 3 MR. CALVANICO: I just want to make 4 sure the record's clear. The permits have 5 been provided except for waterfront 6 development permit and the stream encroachment 7 permit? 8 MR. SAVINO: That is correct. It is 9 a joint application at the state now. 10 MR. CALVANICO: Okay. That's been 11 filed. Okay. Thank you. 12 MR. REIMON: Usually they take about 13 six months to get the permit. 14 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Demetrio, 15 do you have any questions? 16 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Yeah, Mr. 17 Chairman, I recall there was a problem with 18 the storm sewer on Frank Rodgers Boulevard or 19 the inability to build on Frank Rodgers 20 Boulevard. Can you tell us what's being 21 proposed? 22 MR. SAVINO: Certainly. In the 23 existing condition, there is an outfall that 24 exists on PSE&G's property to the west, the 25 wedge to the west. That conveys flow from the - 55 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 wedge itself and also from Frank Rodgers 3 Boulevard. The low spot on the site is 4 located above this location. It's about two- 5 thirds of the way up the sheet. In the 6 current condition, the flow from Frank Rodgers 7 goes into that collection system through the 8 outfall all the way -- at the river, Passaic 9 River, which is where the ultimate discharge 10 point PSEG's property. PSE&G is doing a 11 remediation on their site and they are 12 abandoning that pipe. They had informed us of 13 this maybe a year or so ago. We had to do a 14 redesign to accommodate the flow from Frank 15 Rodgers Boulevard and also we took a little 16 bit of flow from within the site and have 17 conveyed it through the pipes in Frank Rodgers 18 Boulevard to a new outfall which is located on 19 the applicant's property down at the Passaic 20 River. There is an existing outfall there; 21 we're basically increasing the size of it. So 22 we have gone through the process of 23 redesigning the stormwater management system 24 to convey flow which used to go into the PSE&G 25 property and now the applicant is actually - 56 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 paying for the construction of a new line to 3 accommodate Frank Rodgers Boulevard. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 5 MR. SAVINO: The rest of the flow 6 goes to the east into the existing 6th 7 Street -- and out to Passaic River. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 9 So you're saying that Advance Realty is going 10 to construct a new storm sewer to accommodate 11 the -- 12 MR. SAVINO: That's correct. 13 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: -- the 14 drainage on Frank Rodgers Boulevard? 15 MR. SAVINO: Correct. 16 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Where is 17 this outfall you're talking about? It's not 18 the PSE&G outfall? 19 MR. SAVINO: Existing one or the 20 proposal? 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: You're 22 saying the proposed one is going to go where 23 the existing outfall is? 24 MR. SAVINO: No. It will not. It 25 will not be on PSE&G's property. - 57 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 3 MR. SAVINO: The new line runs down 4 Frank Rodgers Boulevard on the west side, 5 crosses underneath a PSE&G manway and then 6 continues to the Passaic River through the 7 applicant's property. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: So as I 9 remember, there was a blockage -- there was, 10 like, a massive utility blockage by Cape May 11 Street that made it very difficult. 12 MR. SAVINO: That's correct, yes. 13 We had to lower the system by about two feet. 14 PSE&G required a minimum one-foot clearance 15 from the bottom of their manway to the top of 16 our proposed system. We provided about a foot 17 and a half just for comfort. 18 MR. REIMON: The meeting that you're 19 referring to is the meeting that you and I 20 went to at PSE&G office. 21 MR. SAVINO: Right. 22 MR. REIMON: The existing facilities 23 on the west side of Frank E. Rodgers. Now 24 Langan Engineering is proposing to use a new 25 system on the east side of Frank E. Rodgers. - 58 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 That's why they need the stream encroachment 3 permit because they're putting a new outfall 4 and also a waterfront development permit. 5 MR. SAVINO: Right. 6 MR. REIMON: I also have in here a 7 copy of the layout of an existing and proposed 8 facilities. That's was one of the comments 9 that we had regarding the elevation of the 10 outfall, that it's very low. So they proposed 11 also a gate to control the outflow -- 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: The back 13 flow from the river? 14 MR. REIMON: The back flow from the 15 river. 16 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: There's no 17 need for a pump station there? No? The -- 18 what size -- have you sized the -- designed 19 the system already? 20 MR. SAVINO: Oh yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: What's -- 22 MR. SAVINO: It's completely 23 designed. It's about a forty-eight inch pipe. 24 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Forty-eight 25 inch? Okay. And there will be inlets -- - 59 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 right now there's hardly any inlets. 3 MR. SAVINO: Right. You've got 4 inlets along the way to pick up collection. 5 Just to give you another picture of the site 6 here, this is the intersection -- a blow-up of 7 the intersection of Cape May Street and Frank 8 Rodgers. This is the highest point on Frank 9 Rodgers as you go up the Jackson Street 10 bridge. So the grades go down as you move to 11 the north to that low spot I mentioned before. 12 There were only two inlets and they were at 13 the low spot. 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 15 MR. SAVINO: We've added, I believe, 16 four additional inlets, two on either side 17 along the way and a reasonable distance to 18 pick up the flow and get it off the streets 19 quicker and into the system. 20 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: As far as 21 when you do the widening on Frank Rodgers 22 Boulevard, can you explain how that's going to 23 get done? Is it going to be done on the 24 Advance Realty side or is it going to be 25 centered? - 60 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 MR. SAVINO: It's going to be 3 centered and even three or four feet on the 4 Advance side and on the west side. 5 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. You 6 planning on leaving the existing concrete 7 pavement? 8 MR. SAVINO: Absolutely. There will 9 be an overlay of the completion and new 10 pavement sections on either end where we're 11 widening. 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. And 13 what about the traffic signals? 14 MR. SAVINO: There are -- there is 15 an existing traffic signal that's going to be 16 shifted and a new one will be proposed at the 17 intersection. I'm sorry. There are actually 18 two existing signals. One is at the southern 19 end of either section of Cape May and Frank 20 Rodgers Boulevard and that will remain. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 22 MR. SAVINO: There's another signal 23 that's located about midway -- I'm sorry, 24 closer to the round north side. That's going 25 to be shifted a little bit to be even with - 61 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Guyonne Drive. And then a new signal is going 3 to go in at Metro Center Drive. 4 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 5 What you're talking about the north end is for 6 the PSE&G driveway? 7 MR. SAVINO: No. That's for the 8 parking lot which goes in between the two 9 buildings. There's a driveway there. It's 10 right at that -- 11 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 12 So -- 13 MR. SAVINO: To the east -- 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 15 That's south of the PSE&G driveway then? 16 MR. SAVINO: North. North of the 17 PSE&G driveway. 18 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 19 MR. SAVINO: Just south of the sub 20 station. A little bit south of the sub 21 station. 22 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Is there a 23 signal for the PSE&G -- 24 MR. SAVINO: There's a signal for 25 the driveway. It's only a left or right in. - 62 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Is that 3 going to be modified as well or -- 4 MR. SAVINO: That is going to be 5 shifted to sit right on top of Metro Center. 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 7 So is the driveway for PSE&G have to get 8 shifted or -- 9 MR. SAVINO: I believe there is 10 coordination going on to accommodate the shift 11 in the driveway. I think it's, like, fifty 12 feet or something like that. 13 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 14 So I guess the applicant's going to do 15 whatever it takes to relocate that piece in 16 your driveway? 17 MR. SAVINO: That has been 18 discussion with PSE&G along the way. 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. 20 MR. SAVINO: In fact, probably about 21 a year or so. 22 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. So 23 all together -- 24 MR. SAVINO: Actually, there is 25 three signals. I apologize, yes. - 63 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Three 3 signals, okay. 4 MR. SAVINO: Have the middle one 5 there. 6 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: The signal 7 at Frank Rodgers and Cape May, will that need 8 any reprogramming? 9 MR. SAVINO: I'm actually did not 10 give the traffic -- we do have a traffic 11 consultant here who can answer that question. 12 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 13 MR. SAVINO: I know it's not moving. 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Yes. Well, 15 maybe we should have him talk a little bit, 16 too, about traffic. 17 MR. SAVINO: Yeah. There's a couple 18 of comments at the end of the Medina letter -- 19 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 20 MR. SAVINO: -- at which time he can 21 get up and then he can discuss that with you. 22 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: That's all 23 I have in questions. 24 MR. SAVINO: We need to read his 25 letter into the record, is that correct? - 64 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 Or -- and that concludes my testimony if there 3 are any questions. 4 MR. LIEBLING: All right. Let's 5 bring up our traffic engineer, John Pavlovich. 6 MR. CALVANICO: Please state your 7 name and spell your last name for the record, 8 please. 9 MR. PAVLOVICH: John Pavlovich, P-A- 10 V-L-O-V-I-C-H. 11 J O H N P A V L O V I C H, having been first 12 duly sworn according to law, testified as 13 follows: 14 MR. PAVLOVICH: Continue with my 15 testimony? 16 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Yes. 17 MR. PAVLOVICH: Answering questions 18 or just go in to what the traffic signals will 19 be. 20 MR. LIEBLING: Well, if you could 21 just talk in general about the traffic. How 22 much traffic you're expecting, you know, 23 traffic on Frank Rodgers Boulevard is 24 horrendous so you should talk about what -- 25 MR. PAVLOVICH: Well, the traffic - 65 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 right now what we're talking about there's no 3 traffic associated with this application. The 4 traffic that's been analyzed and put onto the 5 network was traffic associated with events at 6 the Red Bull stadium and residential 7 development that's going to occur just north 8 of the site at Harrison Commons. Both the Red 9 Bull and Harrison Commons have been before 10 this planning board with their testimony. 11 As a result of all the work along 12 Rodgers Boulevard, I'm well aware of the 13 traffic issues. We are working for both 14 Harrison Commons and for Advance in the design 15 of the traffic signals on Rodgers Boulevard. 16 Back in March, we had a meeting to meet with 17 you and your staff came to a constant section 18 of what Rodgers Boulevard would look like in 19 an interim basis and also in the final design 20 for the redevelopment in the Harrison 21 Waterfront Redevelopment district. In 22 particular, on interim basis, the unusual 23 situation is that you have developments on the 24 north side of Rodgers Boulevard -- on the west 25 side of Rodgers and for the Advance site which - 66 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 is on the east side of Rodgers. So in between 3 there, you're going to have a little bit of an 4 offset between the curves. I think Mr. Savino 5 had indicated that right now the improvements 6 on Rodgers Boulevard would include the full 7 widening on the entire section of Rodgers 8 Boulevard south of the PATH station. So that 9 issue is taken care of. But there would be 10 some temporary striping that would be located 11 in the median area along Rodgers Boulevard 12 until the development is set in place for the 13 west side of Rodgers Boulevard. 14 The traffic right now that's 15 associated with the -- there will be traffic 16 signals that would be coordinated along the 17 corridor -- we'll work with your staff in 18 terms of whether it's a hard wiring to connect 19 or just a coordination with respect to the 20 signal timings. We have signal plans that 21 will be coming to your office for the 22 intersection at Middlesex and Rodgers 23 Boulevard very shortly. And we will be 24 following the same procedures, equipment and 25 all, for the two signals that would be located - 67 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 in front of the applicant's property, one at 3 Guyonne and the other signal that would be at 4 Metro Center Plaza. 5 The intention right now is to 6 coordinate the approach at the PSE&G driveway 7 to the traffic signal that they have that 8 would be coordinated as part of Metro Center 9 Plaza. And there'd be a new signal at Guyonne 10 Drive. We have had discussions with your 11 staff and there is also concern because of the 12 volume of traffic or pedestrian traffic 13 accessing the PATH station that there was an 14 inclination to keep the signal that's right 15 now closest to the PATH station. So if that 16 would be the case, that signal would not be 17 relocated; it would just have a pedestrian 18 phase to it. Of course there would be no east 19 or west movements coming on to Rodgers 20 Boulevard at that point in the future. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. Now 22 you mentioned in this area, in the Advance 23 Realty area, Frank Rodgers Boulevard will be 24 widened to its permanent configuration, right? 25 MR. PAVLOVICH: Right. - 68 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: But you 3 said something about the striping before the 4 median will be -- it will be kept there until 5 PSE&G site -- 6 MR. PAVLOVICH: Correct. The intent 7 is to have Rodgers Boulevard as two lanes in 8 each direction with no parking from Railroad 9 Avenue south to Cape May Street. There would 10 be two lanes in each direction with the center 11 area being a partially raised median with an 12 exclusive left-turn lane at the appropriate 13 corners where it's signalized. 14 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. So 15 that -- 16 MR. PAVLOVICH: Until the 17 development is decided on either the west side 18 where the driveways would be, we had worked 19 out -- arranged with the redeveloper. And I'd 20 also talk with Jose. Your staff had -- it 21 seemed reasonable to go with striping rather 22 than building medians and have to relocate 23 them or reconstruct it because not knowing 24 what type of development and what the length 25 of those left-turn cues would be. So that - 69 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 would be an interim arrangement of just having 3 pavement striping and eventually going with 4 the raised medians on Rodgers Boulevard. 5 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Chairman? Just 6 one second. You're going to -- with all 7 testimony our traffic engineer is giving, if 8 he could show it on the map that they -- which 9 road or which traffic light he is mentioning 10 then at least we can have a better idea. 11 MR. PAVLOVICH: Sure. 12 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Okay. 13 MR. PAVLOVICH: There'd be a 14 signal -- presently there is a signal on -- 15 I'm using the map Overall Improvements Plan, 16 Sheet 20.00, prepared by Langan and this is 17 just for reference purposes. There is an 18 existing signal that is located just south of 19 the PATH access points and basically it serves 20 the traffic coming out of the central parking 21 facility. That signal in the future would 22 either be taken out or be used -- just having 23 a pedestrian phase for the pedestrians to 24 cross on either side of Rodgers Boulevard. 25 The need for that signal may be eliminated - 70 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 with the improvements that the Port Authority 3 is proposing for the PATH Station which may 4 include stairways on the east side of Rodgers 5 Boulevard. As I said, I haven't seen any 6 plans but I know the Port Authority is 7 reactivating the design elements for that 8 particular improvement. 9 The new signal would then be roughly 10 about 200 feet to the south at Guyonne which 11 would be a new street serving the facility. 12 That new street would go from Rodgers 13 Boulevard to 6th Street. And an additional 14 signal which we've all catered at Metro Center 15 Plaza which would service the main part of the 16 future development that would be on the 17 Advance property. And the existing signal for 18 public service driveway is just about maybe 19 fifty, seventy feet to the north of this 20 location. 21 There were discussions with the 22 public service about relocating the driveway. 23 There were some issues involved in terms of 24 them not wanting to relocate the driveway but 25 that's still under discussions. But the plan - 71 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 right now is to coordinate that requirement 3 into the signal design for that location. And 4 after that, you have the signal down at the 5 south end of Cape May Street. 6 Regarding your question, yes, the 7 Cape May signal would be reprogrammed with a 8 different phasing and timing plan. That would 9 be there for event days and also for a.m. and 10 peak hour biases. 11 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Mr. Savino 12 brought up, too, I think, whether the 13 intersection should be interconnected and I 14 think they should. Right now the Cape May 15 Street intersection is interconnected with the 16 bridge, the Jackson Street bridge. You 17 mentioned, too, that the Port Authority has 18 something in -- planned to do some sidewalk or 19 streetscape type of improvement in front of 20 the PATH station. So that's something I think 21 the applicant should find out about as to what 22 they're doing and as to where their limit on 23 their project is. 24 As far as timing of the drainage and 25 traffic improvements in relation to the - 72 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 overall project, does the applicant have a 3 schedule for this project? 4 MR. PAVLOVICH: I can't answer that 5 question. Either let the attorney or Mr. 6 Savino. 7 MR. LIEBLING: The -- I have 8 representative here of Advance at Harrison, 9 LLC, Edward Condolon. I thought maybe he can 10 be sworn in and respond to the question. 11 MR. CALVANICO: Please state your 12 name and spell your last name for the record, 13 sir. 14 MR. CONDOLON: Sure. It's Edward 15 Condolon. The last name is spelled C-O-N-D-O- 16 L-O-N, Advance Realty. 17 E D W A R D C O N D O L O N, having been 18 first duly sworn according to law, testified 19 as follows: 20 MR. CONDOLON: In answer to the 21 question on the timing right now, we plan 22 first quarter of 2008 to begin the 23 infrastructure construction that you've heard 24 from the testimony thus far from Mr. Savino 25 and Mr. Pavlovich. - 73 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: All right. 3 So that's after the New Year, start working on 4 the roadway improvements, drainage 5 improvements? 6 MR. CONDOLON: At this time, that's 7 correct. 8 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Now what's 9 the schedule -- I guess what I'm asking is in 10 terms of phasing of the project, do you have 11 anything set already? Were you going to start 12 working? 13 MR. CONDOLON: We are working on the 14 planning stages right now, the vertical design 15 but we do not have a set plan at this stage. 16 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: So you're 17 basically saying that you want to do the 18 roadway improvements first and then proceed 19 with the building construction? 20 MR. CONDOLON: That's correct. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 22 That's important. 23 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Do we have 24 any other commissioners who wish to speak? 25 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Chairman, on - 74 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 just the traffic expert that he just now 3 mentioned the proposal all off of Frank E. 4 Rodgers Boulevard but what are the proposal 5 about are you going to propose a new street, a 6 new intersection there. I see, like, a three 7 or four intersection on the proposal plan. How 8 they are going to control the traffic there? 9 They are going -- 10 MR. PAVLOVICH: Which locations? On 11 the site itself or -- 12 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: Yeah. 13 MR. PAVLOVICH: Presently, since the 14 traffic that's there is destination traffic or 15 originating traffic, those intersections would 16 be controlled by stop signs. 17 COMMISSIONER MEHTA: So you are not 18 proposing any traffic light on -- 19 MR. PAVLOVICH: Not east of Rodgers 20 Boulevard, no. We don't see any need for 21 that. 22 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: I got a 23 question. When you have a fence at the 24 stadium there, how many seats are in that 25 stadium? - 75 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 MR. PAVLOVICH: The stadium will 3 have -- it's not part of this application but 4 it will have 25,000 seats. 5 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: It's not 6 part of the application but it will affect 7 Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard. 8 MR. PAVLOVICH: That's correct. 9 There was testimony presented for the Red Bull 10 stadium several months ago. But there will be 11 a transportation control plan that will be 12 submitted. It will be submitted to the 13 Harrison Planning Board and it will also be 14 submitted back to Hudson County which will 15 show all the details about having agents -- 16 the traffic signal timing plans, it would be 17 in effect at the beginning of events and after 18 events. 19 VICE CHAIR FITZGIBBONS: Yeah. 20 That's what I mean. I want to know about when 21 that -- 22 MR. PAVLOVICH: There will be a 23 whole plan that will be put together. 24 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: The only 25 last thing I have, Mr. Chairman, is on the - 76 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 time frame. For the applicant to mention 3 about first quarter 2008 and just 4 realistically in terms of getting the 5 engineering plans together and approved and 6 permits and all of that. Is that possible? 7 MR. PAVLOVICH: We have a schedule 8 getting plan sets to the county. And once 9 again, the signals themselves, they're 10 approved through the county agency now. They 11 don't have to go down through the department. 12 So we're looking to work closely with the 13 county in getting those plans approved. I 14 think at this stage, though, I think Mr. 15 Condolon was also talking about for all the 16 infrastructure, not just Rodgers Boulevard. I 17 don't know how it's going to be staged but 18 they may be doing improvements on site and 19 working out to Rodgers depending upon what set 20 of plans are ready to go. 21 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Right. I'm 22 just saying because all of this stuff has to 23 go through our office in terms of getting the 24 approvals for all the drainage and the traffic 25 plans and all that. So, just wanted to make - 77 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 sure that the schedule -- I need to know that 3 eventually if -- you gave me a time frame but 4 we'll need to have a more concrete schedule. 5 MR. PAVLOVICH: With the traffic 6 signal plans, you'll be getting the plans 7 within the next week or two for the Middlesex 8 intersection on Rodgers. And then within, I'd 9 say, five to six weeks after that or so, 10 you'll be getting the signal plans, the 11 initial preliminaries for the two signals at 12 Guyonne and at Metro Center Plaza. 13 COMMISSIONER ARENCIBIA: Okay. 14 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, also for 15 the record, we apprised Mr. Pavlovich of the 16 Site Plan Subdivision Review meeting. The New 17 Jersey Department of Transportation had 18 prepared what was called the East Coast 19 Greenway Plan which runs through this area. 20 And we would ask the applicant to include for 21 future phases -- I don't know if it would 22 affect this application but for future phases 23 incorporating the design guidelines into their 24 future projects. That was something that the 25 DOT prepared using, I believe, The RBA Group - 78 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 which is a pretty well known consulting 3 engineer firm. Mike Danamiller (ph.) was the 4 project manager for RBA and Sherry Davis from 5 the DOT is the director of bicycle and 6 pedestrian programs at the DOT. The state had 7 proposed running essentially a bike trail, if 8 you will, through this area along Frank 9 Rodgers Boulevard. It's a long term plan but 10 that was basically a consideration that we had 11 asked the applicant to look at. 12 As a matter of policy, both the town 13 of Harrison and the Board of Chosen 14 Freeholders endorsed the East Coast Greenway 15 Plan essentially making it county policy/town 16 policy. 17 MR. PAVLOVICH: Regarding the East 18 Greenway plan that the state has endorsed in 19 the county, the width of the sidewalks on 20 Rodgers Boulevard can accommodate non- 21 motorized travel. Also, the plan calls for a 22 section of Rodgers Boulevard but when you get 23 to the north end of Rodgers Boulevard, the 24 plan doesn't show anything. It doesn't say 25 whether the trail is supposed to go along - 79 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 North Harrison Turnpike or if it's going up to 3 Route 7 through North Arlington. It's just a 4 segment of Rodgers Boulevard. But I think 5 with the removal of the parking on Rodgers 6 Boulevard, it provides a pretty clear path of 7 bicyclists if they're on the roadway in that 8 particular section and there's also area along 9 its rather generous sidewalks. Along that 10 corridor, too. 11 MR. MARKS: Mr. Chairman, the -- 12 north of there, it was proposed by the state 13 to utilize the former Newark Industrial Track 14 which is an abandoned railroad which 15 essentially links West Hudson Park in 16 Harrison, Kearney through the abandoned 17 railroad line to Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus. 18 So that's the off-road alternative immediately 19 to the north of there. There are no -- 20 unfortunately, there are no off-road 21 alternatives getting through this area. The 22 immediate concern of the DOT was to get from 23 North Penn Station over to Manhattan in the 24 easiest, safest way possible. So they looked 25 at several alternatives including Truck 1&9 - 80 - 1 Hudson County Planning Board - 10/17/07 2 through South Kearney which was just not 3 possible. So that was a consideration that 4 was mentioned in the plan but it's strictly 5 not feasible. So this was probably the best 6 alternative. 7