Planning Board - Regular Meeting

DVD or kids. No. Yeah, my neighbor hasn't YouTube. Okay. No a children's teach. Just shows tractors.

Child was obsessed with the open public meetings. Please note the Bernardville Burough Planning Board meetings will be held in person at the meeting hall on the second floor of the Burnsville Municipal Building at 166 Mine Brook Road. Effect effective February 12th, 2026. Planning board meetings will begin at 700 p.m. Meetings will be live streamed on YouTube with no opportunity for public comment on YouTube. Members of the public wishing to offer comments or ask questions will be required to attend meetings in person. The YouTube live stream access for all meetings is uh YouTube at burnernville buraustreams. This link will also be available on the agenda for each meeting which is posted on the burough website burnersville.gov and on the burough hall public bulletin board at least 48 hours prior to the meetings. Notice of these changes has been emailed to the Burnersville News and Courier News, posted on the bureau website and filed with the municipal clerk wall on January 2nd, 2026. It's the intention of the board not to continue any matter past 11 p.m. at any regular or special meeting of the board unless the motion is passed by the members then present to extend to a later specified cutoff time and saying shall be announced at the opening of each meeting. In addition, the board does not intend to begin a new hearing after 10 p.m., nor begin testimony of a new witness after 10:30 p.m. Any hearing conducted by the board is a quasi judicial proceeding. Any questions or comments must be limited to issues that are relevant to what the board may legally consider in reaching a decision. The quorum appropriate to a judicial hearing must be maintained at all times. Ro.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mr. DeMarco present. Miss Geller present. Mr. Graham here. Mr. Malia here. Mr. Sass Sassa here. Mr. Morrison is absent. Mr. Trainer is absent. And Mr. Vipiano here. You have a quum, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Um, one quick thing. I mentioned it to Anthony on these. We have to He'll talk to you, I think. But he did. Oh, this makes whatever adjustments necessary, but we don't need to make any because it's still okay to say burn and sell news. Well, because at the beginning of the year for January and February, we were still using the newspapers. So, it's saying that we provided it

right in the in the Burnsville News is scheduled for the year on January. I think it was 22nd. As long as you figured it out. I just wanted to figure out whether we had in fact the the annual schedule was put in before March 1, right? So it was put in March one forward notices from all public agencies by posting them on the website. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. So what's the story with our minutes? We have December and February, but not January. Okay. Any comments on any of the minutes? Yes. Okay. I'll take a motion to for the for I guess we have to do each one. Motion for December 11th minutes. I'll move then. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? And for February 12th,

motion to approve the minutes for February 12th. Second, sa. Oh. All in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Okay. Uh, we got a couple soil conservation notices here. Um, just letting us know. Is there anyone here that wants to talk about anything that's not on the agenda? Yes. Okay, come on down. Angela, stand on the X there. There's an egg. Whatever she says. Okay,

Denise, where do you want me standing? Um hi Angela Dcasta 5 Center Street but I'm here for 97 and 5. They're doing a lot of uh water well they've been doing water work and water. Um the street is completely torn up. Uh they just came back last night for me at 5 and redug. Uh my sewer line backed up. They had cracked nine sewer line. Uh seven is backing up. Uh, but the water, American Water says their sewer line's not cracked. I just had a plumber out to mine today. Um, and they they were able to sneak it, but there's definitely some sewer issues. Um, but why I'm mainly here is they've torn up the sidewalks. They've replaced it with um ashvault and not concrete. They say American Water says they're going to come back April, May to when it's warmer to relay that concrete, but they said the street is uh Burnersville and so we want to confirm because right now it's sort of like driving over cobblestones.

Well, it is Burnersville Street. However, they're obligated to restore it. Not Burnersville per se. American Water is if they open it up. So you would talk to Well, they said it's going to be Burnersville because it's on one of the streets that's supposed to be retaved and that the curbing is supposed to be redone on five. So, well, there is some repaving going on over in the corner, but yeah, but Well, I got ahead. The water company has to put it back to passible, right? And they probably made an arrangement with the town.

How would we know? That's probably have to call the town DPW department. It's the best person to Okay. Right. They they keep track of the schedule. Okay. Um and then the road paving jobs just started because asphalt plants are closed in the winter. So they open up and so it's probably on schedule, but it should be the American Water has to put it back to a passable level or it shouldn't be potholes. It just No, they've patched it, but I mean it's already one of them is already starting to sink. Yeah, it's starting to separate. And like I said, they just came back last night and basically did did a dig that's about the size of your table, put a car in it,

but then they probably made a a swamp with the municipality or they paved the municipality and the municipality said, "I'd rather do the whole job." Okay. Sometimes what happens with water companies is the limit of disturbance is the limit of repavement. And that's not really great because they don't do the whole road. So they might have made a contribution to the town. I don't know that, but that's traditional how that ended. Okay. So, call DPW. Call the town DPW. Ask them what's going on with that. And I would ask them when they anticipate road to be paid by the town. That's what they're getting. Well, also the one spot that you mentioned, if it's, you know, a serious spot, DP devil can send out somebody.

They can patch it patch on, you know, it's really bad. Okay. And do did American Water contact I'm assuming they contacted the town to say that they were going to be doing this. I mean, that's three houses that have sewer problems. So, they they they don't do work in the public street without what's called a street opening permit. So, they have to come in and get that approved by the town and they schedule it with the town, right? Okay. Um they do a lot of quick temporary stuff because that's the construction for hire a paving crew or concrete to put the sidewalks in. But if you're having issues and not not doing it properly, then you should go to again the DPW department.

Okay. Yeah. It' be good to ask them also about any issues you have with that you seem to be with the sewer. Yeah. Okay. It's been since October center streets like this long. So yeah, it's been a big project. Okay, that's it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good luck. No questions for our scribe. I'm sure he's going to report on it now. He needs he needs a story. You can get ahead.

Okay. Okay. Uh that's it. And so new business, review and approval of the bills. Any any comments? Denise about anything? No.

Make a motion from anyone. I'll move to pay the bills totaling $3,78725. Second roll call. Mr. DeMarco, yes. Miss Geller, yes. Mr. Graham, yes. Mr. Malia, yes. Mr. Sco, yes. And Mr. Yes. M Paris.

Okay. Uh, still no additional new business. Okay. No resolutions, no public hearings, discussion items. So, resolution compliance regarding penico which is um walkers or that's that so any changes to architectural Open the resolution in Thank you. So Mr. Chairman, board members, yeah, revised plans to recognition compliance during the course of the hearings. Um, some of the items that were presented on the plans that were referenced in the resolution that changed, notably the air conditioning units. They were closed with the variances granted from 0.2 to 2.7 feet of the rear property line. There were ground mounted air conditioning units. Current plans, they're showing those on the roof with a 2.8 ft set back off the rear property

line. I'm sorry, what's the setback? 2.8. 2.8. Thank you. And then the generator is shown uh tucked closer to the building with a 1T setback that has been shifted out. I believe it's 4T or 4.1. Still within a 5 yard zip back, but it's less of a deviation. They're also showing three uh electric cabinets associated with that uh generator 3 ft off the property line. So since those items required, three cabinets,

three cabinet space and you know the plans I gave you the first copy which I wrote in red 319.6 six revision. That is the current site plan that's been submitted for resolution compliance. Do we need to This isn't a public hearing. So, no, no, this is not a public hearing. This is We don't need to mark things.

Don't need to mark anything. As I understand the current law as well, you're uh addressing some deviations in the compliance phase of the process post approval and I anticipate that they get guidance from the board with respect to whether amended applications necessary or these changes could be addressed as we should say changes but that's the much colloquial term.

Okay. Sorry. So there's two copies reduced copies of the site plans. Uh the top one's revised March 1926. That's the latest plan that's been submitted for resolution compliance. The plan below that is revised November 18th, 2024. That is the site plan that was referenced in the resolution that was presented to the board. Then below that architectural plans sheets of each set. The first set is revised T126. They are the current architectural plan that have been submitted for solution to clients and the plans below that are revised November 22nd 24. And those were the architectural things presented to the board during the course of the hearing a reference and resolution. And so we look at the biggest thing that jumps out is the architectural elevation where you can see where they're putting the air conditioning units off to your elevations. Sheet Z2 of each. So that precipitated the question of whether or not this could be approved administratively or if this was something that you'd want the applicant to amenocation come back to the board. We do out of condition 19 in the resolution which indicates

that's the one they get from every time.

Yeah. Yeah. Catch all the applicant shall construct a proposed improvements and strict importance of the documentary and testimonial evidence including but not limited to the site plans and architectural renderings and all of which submitted to the board and testify by the applicant. Speaking with the applicants engineer, he is hopeful this can be done administratively. But in our latest resolution compliance letter, we indicated that we would need to have an informal discussion with the board just to get some guidance on whether or not we could approve this administratively or if they should come back with their group. I wonder what the decibels of those uh air conditioning units are, but they're on the roof. They're going to reflect back over the tracks to the on the other side, right? Basically, and housing.

Yeah, but they're pretty far out. I do have a copy of the full size plans if it's helpful. I thought these would clarify the the main change was the air conditioning units were in the the rear of the building. Yeah. On the ground. On the ground. And now the rear and they're just creating a platform over the roof to put the unit on. Yeah. Still see it from just Well,

you may be able to see it from the side as you're driving. But it's still screen. Well, it's Yeah, I did ask the engineer they could be shifted more towards the center of the building, but he was the bold with his discussion with his with their architect that they would need to leave it on the side just for Yeah. And then the other ones are deviations that have increased the setback. Is that an interesting?

Well, the generator is has a larger setback now than what had been proposed. So, but they're also shown three uh cabinets associated with the generator which were not shown. Generator is actually further than further. Yeah, it had been approved with one foot set back. Now it's a four. Okay. And then the cabinets are 3 foot seven. still within the one that was approved. Yep. Yeah. What was the magnitude that were previously not on the plane? Oh, just another deviation. Well, I mean size. I wasn't there. How big?

I think they're just electrical. Yeah, I mean they're not I mean I didn't see dimensions on them, but yeah, they're not what I consider. Can't fathom the need for free cabinets, electrical cabinets for a generator, uh transfer switch. It's uh certainly not according to electrical standards. So be curious to know what they are doing with three cabinets. Not not appropriate. That's one generator, right? Yeah. So, it's connected as far as Yeah. One generator connected to one cabinet and the cabinet controls the generator has its startup and that cabinet has a single

relay in it that trips power. So, three cabinets, not for the generator. It's possible they decided they need a cabinet for the service to run down to, but that would be the real unusual here. Just a copy of the latest utility fun. overhead to the pad. The only one the first set wasn't the generator generator caverns. three is it was three

panels in a row that you know but I mean I could see running something you know with a main draper and a meter in one cabinet right you're another one but it's not going to matter one might be for refrigeration and something else so the automatic shutdown modules they're usually located in the uh they're located at this the location they're Well, where the circuit main distribution is does this say? Is it anywhere here how these things are? They're pretty small, right?

Yeah. I mean, there's the dimensions on. Yeah. So, anyway, the larger thing just I know Steve, you ask, but so the generator is shifting further away from the property property line. Yes. Instead of a one foot setback that we now it's getting forward. Okay. Um and the generator size is the same. They're showing a bigger pad. They are. Okay. Yeah. And it's shielded, right? There's noise there's noise shielding on it. Correct. I don't see any noise.

Make sure there is some noise shielding on it. I can't just be hanging out there. It's got to be enclosed. But I'm glad to put that in there. Was the dumpster enclosure always there on the over on the left? Oh, you mean now? Yeah. Because I recall we had a big conversation about a truck being able to turn around to pick up the dumpsters. Now looks like they're actually creating a little garage to keep him, which is a nice Yeah, I think we had a whole discussion about shielding it and little critter animal. So that's and we didn't want to walk the way. So I think they probably designed it, right?

And it's probably not a an exception and it's that is a field change. Design. Yeah, design. Okay. So three boxes generator shifting. It's got to be sh, you know, noise shielded. It's larger. It's It's a larger generator. The pad's larger, but that could just be that someone said you have more room. Does it say the size of the generator here? Doesn't fill 20KW on page three. But I don't know.

Is it This is the old plan. I see is there you know where to look 20k is a resident You have any?

Uh, when I saw the air conditioner going on, um, yeah, I thought something at least. No, I'll be aware with the generator or the panel, you didn't see any. I don't see any. I didn't see any. moving up farther away from the property line and probably farther away from the building. This is the H5 architectural sheet. I don't know.

There's somewhere. I do dinner. see anything whatever it's going to have. It has to be in an enclosure. Normally a generator that size, it always does come in an enclosure. It's not an outrageous thing. So this can't be an open air generator. I will relay that to them and make sure you know something where you live. Most likely it's in a box. In a box. I don't have an issue with the generator or the panel. No, that

it's not impacting the access, right? I think the question is are we comfortable change for air conditioners. It's next to train tracks. Yes. It's not going to be that much more noisy. It's hidden behind the the unit and we allow or many buildings in the town that have air conditioning units on top. Yeah. Okay. So, that allowed for the setback too on the generators. That's Yeah. And the garage is a nice impression in my in my eyes. Yeah. Yeah, I think they went way above. Yeah, they needed on the draft. Yeah, it's super nice.

You good with the with the air conditioning? Is it going to keep you up at night? No, this make sure you do. I said, okay, I just we have to always consider the people on the other side. Listen, that's why we like our professionals. They brought it to our attention. They didn't just do it themselves. Is that any other Was there any other item? No, that was uh cut. Do you have a status check? Are they all right with D yet?

They're in the process gone through their permits. Uh they do have an agreement with the railroad to clean up the property. It just has to be finalized signed. Is this all that outstanding from our side on the resolution as well as finalizing? Yeah, I believe developers agreement is required by I think that can be done after perhaps everyone. Did they get sewer is sewer extended to it now or is that what they're waiting for? I believe that's been approved but not implemented and that'll bring them and the uh

car dealership car repair and uh the dealership right the Audi they'll I guess be on that same leg of the sewer and then they just have to cross over I guess somewhere cross over okay it's underway hasn't been done yet Oh yeah. Yeah. No. Okay. Going through the process. Any anything else? No. My biggest concern was the visuals, but trying to think of when I drive that way onto it, too. I don't think you can see it. It's pretty far back because it's the currents are pretty far back. Yeah.

Okay. I appreciate your thought. Oh, thank you. Sorry. I think you may have noticed. So nothing has to be adjusted there at all. Yes. closing the carrier. Yeah, he's going to double check.

And just note uh Steve also just note have a note on the plans. It could be red or whatever what the size is kilowatt that generated. All right. Okay. recreation and open space master plan. You're we tried formatting multiple ways. Turned out the AI that we did in the meeting the last time was the best of the worst. Uh we currently have a word document that all the languages in there. I I

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we tried Bob's Bob's way. The problem with the formatting there is it almost set it up like a PowerPoint where the headers and footers you would actually have to move around and it's just going to be a pain in the butt. Overly thorough. Yeah. So proposed we redline the current Word document and then we could work on getting all the other pictures and everything in at a later time in the document that's currently in Google Docs which I've tried to give access to everybody. I finally got it.

Okay, you do. All right. If you have any more problems, send me an email, what have you. But anything I'm getting, I'm pressing and approve. I moved chapter 8 and nine. I haven't changed the the the uh the headings yet to a new chapter two and three as we discussed in the last meeting. We have the introductory chapter and then it goes right into hey here's the future plan and then the details how to get there and then the rest of it is and you've used not what was translated. You used the revised stuff for chapter two. No, what was translated is there now and then we

we need to replace it with the word files and the Excel file that they essentially for chapter 7 and chapter 8 there's a there's an Excel spreadsheet that you have and there's a word file I believe that you have. Okay. I mean, I can double check myself. Uh, but yeah. No, I think you sent it. Yeah, I think I think everybody has that.

I know, but now they're paying attention. So, it's okay. Anyway, so that's a to-do. It's not a problem. It's just a to-do. Okay. You position the spot for it and then the the the survey, did you like move that to the back matter? That's one thing you or is it automatically happen as long as we just do what they did? Everything after is additional documentation. Correct. Okay. What's the approach we're going to use for getting the pictures? I think we were talking about the interns being able to pictures.

Yeah. Let's reviscel spreadsheet. Yeah. into that section. And so you brought it up just like before. So in terms of let's say at least like formatting the headers, how do we do that with and we're saying an intern or we're saying

internally we can each individually do it as we go. I just wanted to ensure everybody was okay with the document and then we could start redlining all as a team and and go go through it that way and then once we have that we can work on the formatting. I'd rather get the language right and is it something we all have access to. Does anyone know if AI will take a word file and if you tell it to do something it'll create an adjusted work file if you give it very specific parameters. I don't know how to do it, but I know people if you give it a lot of information, right? And

well, or a very simple task like go through this and anytime you see header one, you know, change it to this font. Yeah. Which I don't know which AI we use car source. Jeez, my company. Um, but yeah, M365 to convert the PDF to a Word format, which it did an okay job with, but lost some of the some of the formatting in terms of the pictures and it flipped some of the c Yeah, the headers. It went from capital letters to lowercase, which is fine,

but now it's at least in a Word document that's editable and and in decent shape, so we can revise that once we get the revisions through. We're all all okay with the red lines. Then we could play with an AI component to change the headers instead of individually doing it, I think. Yeah, I was just just well, you know, the idea. Yeah, like a filter something where it just sucks it in says, okay, here's a header. I'm going to put it all into whatever font, you know, as opposed to now the headers sort of look like someone sends a ransom note.

Yeah. where that might be and maybe you have somebody that's more familiar with it. I I've never said, "Okay, here's a question and here's a file for you to work on." So I my experience with AI has been the more you draft, the more unexpected changes happen. Yeah. It's like a game. Yes. So I do think because I looked at the document and I do think it was probably the best version of whatever tried but I got overwhelmed with the amount of formatting. Yeah. cleaning it up

that I think the approach of chunking it out and dividing and conquering probably and selecting something like you're going to need to select the font or the I think once you or the gave me a section said this needs to be five I'm doing right this needs to be this bullets are this you know whatever those kind of things watching the Mets But I'm a Met fan. That's that's it. See? Okay. Wow. I know. You got to spread them out. That's

uh what else? Just everyone go in start editing as you see fit. Just when you uh it should redline as you go. I think you have to put it in s and I'm not a Google Docs expert, but you put it in suggestion mode. Okay. Which will put it in red lines and that way everyone can see what we're doing. And then um and don't get freaked out if someone's making changes at the same time. Exactly.

And once we're all happy with it, we'll convert it. I can pull it out into Word again and then we can run it through AI and start playing with the formatting or having specific people fix the headers. But I wouldn't touch the headers until you're happy with the the actual language. Okay. So that would be a guidance. Just don't mess with our headers. Just leave it as ransom note font. Yes. And uh and what about bullets?

Just as long as you track changes, we're we're okay. Put it in and then you know like there's Okay. And um Do we want to invite um some rec department, you know, other rec people to edit? Why not? Right. That's up to you. It's easy to get the it's just by email, right? Basically, right? Yep. I think that would be happy with it.

Okay. I I think something that we're required to present there should be someone that the burrow as not just a group of us who may or may not know what we're doing. I really think that this is I think we need someone who does this for a living to do this. Does what the formatting and and and everything else and get it in order and then we can comment. But to have each of us start going in and trying to edit the formatting. We're not Yeah, check. You're not doing formatting,

which is okay. But don't leave. Well, I was just saying it'd be easier to edit if the formatting was done first. What you're saying is like, you know, just to read through it in its current state. It takes a little bit of Yeah. I I'm not I I was impressed with the suggestions that are in it and the ideas that are in it and I thank you for doing it. I just think that for something that we are required as a board to do it should be properly formatted before we start making comments so that we don't miss something that we can really

I have to disagree with you. I don't agree with that. I agree. I understand that there should be a point at some point you say well we have someone finish do finishing on it okay and consistency doesn't require a lot of knowledge of even the content it's just looking at it as the finishing step and we were kind of hoping okay you could get an intern to do that but not a pro in terms of doing it just someone who understands the edit you know the word capabilities Um I think we got to get through the material first.

So there's no one who works for the ver would do word professional words smithing but the I mean I just find it's um much easier for me. I mean I I still when I review a document I still print it out. So I just it's easier for me to come without

I don't think we do. I mean I don't know for sure. I doubt that we do have someone that's like if there's an ad who works for the better. That's all that's what I was I mean I could ask but then the other thing is the time that would be in

that would that would be a Nancy for sure and maybe someone at the library might have somebody that knows you know anyone that produces newsletters but a newsletter is a lot easier than Um I see all I have to know is to find out then I'm just one one vote.

What about the um is there an intern program? Is there anyone at the school that you know that would be interested is there process? said this is a document we are here to produce and I think it we're hard to accept it like yes it's just but we're we're not just accepting it we're having to modify it because it's old you know out of date so if we don't do it it's never going to get done

right or we pay somebody to start over story paid the original firm but it sounds like the original firm is saying I didn't have to pay a lot of money I'm sorry it was a suggestion I'm the who finds it um significantly easier so we will move on during this conversation because everyone has places to be well how do we find out if there is program at the high school or whatever we're in would just just to cover that.

All right, we can move on changing color. All right. 220. It's a lot with no pictures. Down from 400. Uh, no visitors, no executive. We can wait till election. People keep asking me about Palmer and I don't know. They just asked me. So said, well, as far as I know, they're still when we adjourn,

they're still waiting for DOT approval. As far we we can u we don't need to go I don't believe we need to go on executive session to discuss the litigation. Yeah. Yeah. This we're not we're not pending litigation. Well, uh, for Palmer, you can't tell me unless we're in executive session. Wait, but this is a conversation you can have after the meeting because order's not on the agenda. On the agenda. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anything just

anything else? Everything's okay. And let's leave the date. What was that? She takes the ball. They're all set for the next meeting. I will not be here. I remember that. Yes, I actually saw it in my notes. Thank you.

Okay, thank you.