Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Uh the first uh item is our reorganization of new officers for 2026. Do I have a motion? I

I move to nominate Steve Saddle Meer as chairperson of the planning commission for 2026. I move to appoint Dave Diola as vice chair of the planning commission for 2026. And I move that we appoint Mark Shapiro, secretary of the planning commission for 2026. There a second. A second. All in favor? All opposed. Motion carried. Okay. Congratulations. Mr. Chairman.

There we go. All right. Uh we'll go ahead and get started with the business tonight. There were three things. The first one being the annual our annual reorganization meeting which we had and we just approved. The second is approval of the September uh 2025 planning commission work session meeting minutes that we had. And I think everybody got a copy of that in their packet. Uh, and were there any comments on that at all? Anything that anybody wants to add, comment? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the mic? Okay. I second. Everyone all All in favor?

I

I Anybody oppose? No. Good. So, passed. Okay. on to the uh on to the discussion about the Russell Gardens and just for everybody's benefit uh this is a this part of the meeting is to discuss the proposed development um and let me let me read it out here. Preliminary and final plan of subdivision and development of subdivision and land development Russell Gardens SLD25-2 at 600 new road and I think the first thing that we will do is we will have a presentation by then can you folks uh introduce yourself?

Sure. Good evening. I'm Ed Murphy. I'm here on behalf of the applicant. To my immediate left is Justin Janady civil engineer from Dynamic Engineering. Uh Justin and Dynamic prepared the plans that are in front of you for consideration this evening. Um as chairman indicated, uh the plan uh that we're going to discuss tonight involves what's more typically or commonly known as the Russell Gardens property, which is located on New Road immediately south of the intersection of New and Cedarbrook. Properties in the R2 zoning district. It's slightly less than 15 acres and Justin can quickly describe the plan, but essentially it is a uh loop road that has 18 fully conforming lots on it. Uh the minimum lot size in R2 is 20,000 square ft. These lots range from 23,000 upwards to a little over an acre. So, uh, public water, public sewer, uh, will be provided for each lot and, uh, but Justin can talk quickly about the layout, uh, what improvements are proposed in terms of storm water management and, uh, we can talk quickly about the review comments that we've received uh, throughout the fall from uh, your consultants. And uh essentially they're all will comply comments, but there are a handful of waiverss that we can discuss and seek your recommendation on those as well.

Great. Yeah, Mr. Murphy did a pretty good job explaining it, but the plan up on the screen in front of you is just a rendered version of the site plan that was included with the land development set. You'll see uh new roads running, you know, east west along the top of the page. Uh this site's located the south side of North uh New Road proposing two points of access. Uh the first one lining up with Cedarwood, Cedarbrook Drive. You'll see the loop road that swings around creating the new 18 uh single family building lots on both sides of the property. You'll see two areas reserved for storm water management. Uh there's no infiltration available on site. These are these are going to be conventional rain garden designs managing all rate volume and water quality for the site in accordance with your ordinance and the uh state's requirements under PAP. Uh we are showing connectivity through the neighborhood. We do have a single sidewalk along the north side of that internal street known as we're actually changing it to Founders Lane, not Founders Court. Um, and the sidewalk along New Road will connect along the entirety of the frontage. Um, and also connecting to just slightly off the page here. If we can maybe pan out a little bit, you can see it connecting to the neighboring uh communities uh sidewalk networks. But I think Mr. Murphy went through everything else. It's just every all the lots are uh conforming lots. The the subdivision overall is by right in accordance with all bulk standards. So site capacity, everything is compliant. And um really that's that's really it. I think we can

waivers. Yeah, there's uh nine waivers that are were included with the the packet. There was one actually added on today. It should be a new revi revision in your uh packet that was handed out. We added one more waiver, but I can run through them quickly if uh if everyone would like. Yes, sure. Okay. And I think short circuit a little bit of it. I think those waivers have all been reviewed and discussed with Dean's office and I think the office is supportive of those waivers.

Yes, it's it's noted in the Bowman review letter too that they do support the waiverss including the additional one that was added today. So the first one um is a waiver to allow the preliminary uh to wave the preliminary plan requirement. So we did preliminary final plans. The plans have been designed to meet all final plan standards and they have been already revised and resubmitted uh one time to your township engineer. So it's already had the benefit of going through a whole round of revisions with the township. Uh the second waiver requires a minim minimum center line radius for horizontal curves to be 150 ft. Um you'll see that the two curves on the internal road um they that radius is actually 110 ft where 150 is required. Now due to the narrowest narrowness of the site um 150 is actually you know not necessary for residential streets of this volume and we did provide that there's uh fire trucks, trash trucks, all delivery vehicles can navigate that turn without a problem. Um 100 feet is usually typical for that. So 150 may be a little bit much. Um, but we also provided site distance that around that curve you could see as if it was 150 foot radius, but that has also been reviewed with the township engineer as well and does meet all um functional requirements. Uh the next waiver is uh a waiver from providing sidewalks on both sides of uh internal streets. So you'll see that just based on the fact that it's only 18 lots, we're only providing sidewalk on the north side of the internal street, but we are adding sidewalk along the entire frontage and new road as well as connecting a little bit offsite of the page here to allow a a connection to the the neighboring communities as well. So uh overall we're providing a equal amount of sidewalk that would have been provided if we did both sides of the road, but it just doesn't make sense to add the additional impervious internally for uh for this site. The number four was added today. This is

a requirement to have a minimum of 4 foot of a grass strip between the back of curb and the sidewalk. Um we do provide 4 foot with the exception of areas where uh there's required to be 5 foot wide sidewalks for ADA passing. So every so often you'd have a 5 foot wide sidewalk so someone could be passed on the sidewalk. Those areas it actually gets to be less than four feet. So, it's just in a few areas throughout the neighborhood where it is less than four feet where that waiver would be required. The fifth waiver requires conduit and wire wiring to be installed provided even if you're not providing lighting fixtures. Uh we are providing lighting fixtures at the intersections and where necessary on the job and we do not think it is necessary to add any additional light fixtures. Um and it would just you know create additional glare to put more fixtures internally. That's not necessary. Um number six is to allow a fee in lie of uh undeveloped land and open space. Uh this has also been discussed and reviewed with the township engineer and the requirement is provided in the uh in some of the reviews. Number seven requires a minimum driveway width for residential homes to be 20 ft. Uh as you see on the sketch in front of you, these are side entry garages. So, the driveway entrance off of the street is proposed to be only 15 feet wide. Uh, we don't need 20 the whole distance, but you'll note that the the area outside of the garages at the side entry is like approximately a 30 by30 area that allows for vehicles to be parked off the street. Um, number eight applies to tree protection and replacement standards. Um so there are trees that are going to be disturbed as part of this application and we are providing a substantial amount of replacement trees on site. Um we are not able to plant all the required replacement trees. So there's going to be a fee in lie of proposed for

those plantings that cannot be planted in a good area on site. And lastly number nine requires that storm sewers within all road rightaways and township own easements be reinforced concrete pipe. The new industry standard is to use HDP pipe. And so every area that's onsite is going to be HDP pipe. Anything offsite in the township township road will be um RCP pipe at the request of the township engineers. So this is only for the new rightway and on-site drainage. If there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them with the waiverss or the the application. Before we get into our comments, why don't we go to the uh um the folks over here for public comment if anybody has anything that they want to get up and talk about, ask questions, whatever. Uh you're you're welcome to come up to the microphone, identify yourself, and uh ask whatever question you might have. Anybody have anything they want to say? I do.

You can come up to the just state your name. Hi, Pam Petrain. Your address? 219 Prague Hollow. So, we're directly behind behind. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was just wondering um could you go over what you were planning to do with the trees again? Are we getting rid of everything or there's a lot of trees back there?

Well, sure. So, yeah, there um there are trees on site. There are going to be a certain amount of trees that are disturbed in accordance with ordinance requirements. But you'll see the plan in front of you and there's also a plan in the plan set that is our landscape plan which shows how what's going to be replanted in accordance with township standards. So yes, trees will be coming down, but you'll see there's there's street trees being lined on the new street. Um there's basin plantings around all the basins and then there's also going to be some landscaping scattered throughout. But um any Sorry, sir. I I just going to say I think your concern is between the back of the new house and their house on Frog Hollow. Is there going to be anything as put in there as a barrier?

U there's nothing proposed as a barrier, but there are going to be some of those trees are actually not located on this property which will obviously remain. So if there's anything there that's on the individual properties behind us, they are going to remain, which is hard to see on the plan in front. Well, that's where we are. We know I mean we know what trees are there. We're just wondering if they're leaving anything like you said as a barrier between us. Um there there may be a few trees that are left as the what you know which aren't affected by grading but there's a majority of those trees are not located on the property line. They're actually closer to the the interior of the site. Okay. Okay. I think that to answer your question. Yeah. And I was just wondering about the timeline the timeline.

Yeah. Any idea? Um under the agreement of sale uh I think closing assuming all the approvals are in place would occur sometime uh mid year. Uh and if that happens u it was designed I think originally to allow one more season of operation in the spring. Uh so if that happens uh we would not acquire the property until mid year and then uh the project would commence sometime in the summertime thereafter and my guess is it would probably take two years probably to from start to finish to uh complete the construction. Okay, great. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you. Hi. Hi. I'm Liz Ya. I live on Devon Road, so not that close. Um, so I just thinking of my questions right now. Is this being um televised right now or will it be available in the future? Um, are these plants available to see? Yes, sure. Are they online currently or I believe so. Yeah, they were they were submitted. Sorry. You can contact me if you need a plan set. Okay. I just didn't know what's publicly available.

Yeah, that's Mike Solomon, the the township engineer. So, you uh he's able to get you anything you need. Okay. And has um you you mentioned something about the agreement of sale. Did you say if it goes through? I was just wondering how finalized this is and who has have the supervisors approved this? I'm sorry. I'm a little late to the game here. But don't worry, if we approve it here, it goes to the supervisors, okay, for their approval and then it's it's done. Yeah, we're considered an advisory group and and we look at it, advise on it, and then it goes to the supervisors for final approval. Okay.

And um but you had another question in there, I thought. Um agreement of sale. Um well it it was was the agreement of sale still pending is I think that was my question. Yes, it's still pending. Okay. And that is between the heirs of the former owners and the township or or no and you guys with the estate representatives of the Russell family and my client and your client. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Come on up. Come on down. My name is Terry Petrune. Um I was wondering I'm sorry. Where are you located or where's your own Frog Holler Road?

Okay. Um I was wondering if anybody had looked into what kind of if there was any hazardous waste or any kind of stuff there. Yep. So as part of the due diligence for this project, the client did take on what's known as a phase one and a phase two environmental study for everything that's been on site. Um the phase two concluded and it was you know basically the conclusion of the phase two is that there was no known there was no known environmental concerns on the property. So everything's been fully vetted out as part of the client's due diligence and there's nothing hazardous on site. Okay. There's a couple of dump sites there. They were all evaluated for for contaminants. How did you do that?

It's all it's all part of our environmental engineer did a full investigation. So there's depending on what the contaminant is. They either do boring samplings, lab testing, but all that was done as part of our client's due diligence because obviously they don't want to take on a contaminated site if they if without knowing about it. So, it's all ruled out. There's no further investigation required and it's clean. Is that something that could be reviewed by this gentleman? That would be Sure. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anybody else? No.

Okay. Let's move to our group here. Does anybody here have any questions for the consultants? Uh that has not been asked or brought up already. No, nothing. Okay. Um then sorry, can I ask a question? What is your timeline for your decision and when will your decision be final before you go to the supervisor? Well, we we'll we're going to approve it tonight or or we're going to vote on it tonight. tonight. Yeah. Um Okay, then I think we are ready for a motion.

Okay, go ahead. I move that we recommend that the board of supervisors preliminary final approval of the Russell Garden subdivision SLD25-2 subject to the compliance with the township engineers review letter dated December 3rd, 2025. It is also recommended that the requested waiverss be granted. Okay, everybody heard that? Um let's uh let's vote on it. Uh, all in favor say I or raise your hand. I. Any nays. No nays. Passes. Um, I think that uh Good. Thank you.

Yeah. That any other comments from you folks? You're You're good. Okay, we're good. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Well, then uh do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. So be it.