City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council Committee on Public Works and Transportation will come to order. Clerk will call the roll.

Council of the Canual? Here. Council of the Heart? Here. Chair Kamara.

Here. We have four items before us today. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any media. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made, whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible. We have four items before us. First, a citizen's input time. Has anyone signed up for a citizen's input? No one has signed up for a citizen's input time, so we will go on to Item number two.

Motion to accept the minutes.

Which is accept the minutes of February 19th, 2026.

Second.

Motion to accept the minutes have been made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item number three. Part of the Massachusetts Electric Company doing business as National Grid in Verizon New England, incorporated at Locust Street, one new jointly owned pole location referred on 4-14-2026. Do you wanna come down? Are there any objectives to this item number three? Why don't we come down and just clarify?

Where's that, Locust Street? How you doing? Good evening.

Yes. Yeah, this was the objection.

Are you familiar with the objection that was sent to the council? I apologize. That's okay. It was sent in to the council.

It was sent in by the abutter? Yes. Okay.

Have you had any conversations with the abutter? I have not.

Okay.

Could you just look at his concerns, please, and let us know if that's going to be okay or if... Worst case scenario, we can send it back to the council to recommend approval, and then if he is dissatisfied, he can show up at the meeting.

Okay. Is that person here? No. And they didn't contact you? No, they didn't.

They wouldn't contact them. They'd do the proper procedure, which is sent to us. Okay. You want to take a quick recess or you?

No, I understand, you know, just like every other part of who, or National Grid or Verizon requests a new pole. This pole doesn't immediately, like it doesn't sit directly in front of the house. There are two poles, one to the left, one to the right of the front facing part of the house. We're installing one intermediate. happens to be probably 10 if you're looking directly it's in the sidewalking line with the other poles it's probably about 10 feet um from the corner so it doesn't block their view you know directly uh to the road but it i mean from where they from what they're stating it um what's the word they used um could it move to another location to appease them so Ultimately, yes, it could, but before I say it can.

Would you be comfortable with us tabling this to try to work an alternative out and see what we can do to help these people if they have concerns about it? I think it's legitimate. Whatever we can to make it easy for them instead of just saying, let's just approve it because they didn't show up. Let's try to see if we can make it easy for them. They live there. There's no poll there now. If we're going to do this, let's just see if we can... all right work with them come to see so you will invite them as well well we can but i mean even if they don't come it's pretty simple what they want to do yes yeah if we can come to a compromise and make it easy for them then why you know what i'm saying let's help them okay yeah i mean i don't think you yield yeah i yield yep council can you thank you uh i i don't think you know we should require the residents to come here when they've entered a written yeah no one's saying we didn't we're not going to ask them to come here okay

I guess, can you show me, I went by the area. It's just for me. Can you show me where the pole location is relative? This is the corner. This would be the house.

It's actually, I can show you a light bulb. I don't know if it's still pictured.

And just to point out, I'm sure, I don't want to invite, but I'm sure they might want to. They would like to come in, but they don't have to, of course.

No, I agree. We know what the concerns are.

They were invited.

Yeah, they were invited. They just didn't come up. And it could be a number of reasons. We don't know.

the existing pole there, and then this existing pole that you showed on your photo there. So it'll be, like I said, probably about, if you're looking dead on, it's probably about 10 feet left of the front corner where the surface drop comes off the line. It's probably right there.

So what's the harm if we don't move forward with this to National Grid in terms of impact? What alternatives would you guys...

I don't think it would harm. So how this location came to be is really all luck of the draw. So we're spending a substantial amount of money improving our circuits and our reliability. Really, I can go into the nitty-gritty of it, the little details, but ultimately it came down to the way the company designed this. We're putting up these reliability devices to handle 500 customers in between, so we're putting up dozens and dozens of these in the city and our local area, Swansea, Westport, whatever. And the way it was designed is to have 500 customers on one of these devices. So if something happens to the feeder, we would lose 500 customers and pick up 500 customers from another area. But in the worst case scenario, we would lose 500 customers. And where it came down to is that on this side of this pole and where this device is there was 502 customers and on the other side it was like 501 customers so it just happened to be that ideal location where uh ideal for you guys not necessarily for the home right exactly but that's that's the chance that we run it that we run it you know we we come across these meetings and we have to work them out so and that's why i'm here so would you be okay if we tabled this and absolutely what you can do and maybe move location come back to us another time with a different

Yeah. Okay.

I actually, before I came to this meeting, if it came to this, you know, if it came to where the customer or the city council didn't want us to put this poll location here, we could find another location.

Okay. So let me ask you guys this question, right? If we table it and stay in this committee, do you want to send it back to the full council and see what their changes and recommendations are? This way, if they need to do anything, we can just...

Well, I think if they had to change the location, they'd have to file an entirely new application, correct?

Possibly. It may require setting a new pole in front of somebody else's house, and we might run into the same issue. It may require putting it on an existing pole, and we might not have to come back yet.

So I think for me, we don't see written objections too often from residents. I think 90% of these or more go through without any issue. I'm inclined to, I think, recommend leave to withdraw on this one and ask National Guard to go find another location for this.

I think that's my motion.

Motion to leave to withdraw.

And you're fine with that? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Yeah, all good.

Second? You can always submit it. Can we table this and I get a confirmation? Because I wanted to come up with an alternative in case something like this happened. Can we table it and come back? And I get a, like, stamped confirmation saying, hey, yes, we can go through with this and then come back. Or at least send an email saying, hey, we can design it this way without having to set the new pole in front of the house.

I mean, I'm against the poll on this location. So, you know, that's my position. I don't know what my colleagues feel.

Yeah, so I think everyone is. But we're saying to just expedite it. I'm not against it. I'm not visible at this location either. And then they want to listen to that.

You can always just put it into that file.

Right, but does it have to come to this council? Does it have to come to the committee again?

It would have to be submitted, but what I'm saying is if you table this bill, you can always bring it up again, and then they end up putting in a new one.

No, I know that, but they'd have to bring it up in committee, not in a full council. No, in committee.

But it would get sent back. It would get sent to committee from the full council.

Okay. Whatever you want to do. It doesn't matter. Okay. The motion is to give it at least to what you are.

Okay. I don't see that being an issue. Okay. Could I just, could I get an email? But you're saying two different things. Oh, okay, all right, okay.

So. And I want, I think. No, no, all right. You know, I know the issue. We're trying to work with the residential.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And we'll work with the customer, no problem. So I do have word that we can relocate it. I just want to get confirmation that it can process through, you know, we can do it on our end, 100%, because it was just a phone conversation that I had, you know, for this, I was preparing for this meeting. I can go ahead tomorrow and send that email and get a full written confirmation from them, and then I can send an email to you saying, hey, we can relocate this without another hearing or with another hearing. Can I do that?

That's fine. I won't second that. I'll make my original motion to table.

but we can leave this meeting tonight and say this poll is not going good. We can say that.

Yeah, because I'll tell you right now, you don't have to vote.

Yeah, right, okay.

So regardless, but I'm trying to make it easier for you guys. We'll table it, have the discussion, figure out what we're going to do, find a location, change it. That's fine. So your motion is to give a leave to a draw, correct? You're not going to withdraw the motion. There's no second. Motion to table takes precedence anyways.

Okay.

Motion to table.

Yeah, I made the motion originally.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Do we know that? And just, just make sure you come back soon with the, you know, I think, I think the counselor, uh, you don't have the votes to get the bullet.

Right. Do we have to come back and sit at a table like this or an email be sufficient for that?

We don't know yet. We'll probably have to come back and have another hearing. You don't have, you might not have to show up as long as we support it, but we'll see. Okay. All right.

Okay. Thank you. No, thank you. I'm like 99% sure that the alternative will be putting the device on an existing pole, so we won't have to re-petition and come to another hearing.

I'm 100% sure you're not going to get it at this location you want to put it at. Okay.

Just so you know. Could we get an email from? You will. Okay. Great.

The council table. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Have a good night. Yeah, me too.

Move on to item number four, order the curb removal, Jessica Ortega-Urquiles, 53 Adams Street, Newark, New Jersey, 07105, removal of 19 feet for a total opening of 31 feet at 3436 California Street. All right. Do you want to come down, please? The people who are in favor of this and also the objectors here as well, come on down as well, please. Mr. Aguilar, I don't think we're going to need you quite yet. If we do, we'll have you come down. Can I have a seat, please? If everybody could just grab a microphone, Paul, give them that one of the microphones. And then please state your name and address for the record so we'll have who it is.

My name is Luis Mendez. The address of the house? Yeah, the address of where you live. 53 Adams Street, Newark, New Jersey.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Tanya Kishby, and I reside at 754 Penn Street in Fall River. Thank you.

Hi, Nicholas Sicilio, 44 California Street.

Thank you. All right. So you want to get a curb cut, correct?

I'm sorry?

You're looking to get an extended curb cut? Yes. Okay. Why do you need the curb cut?

So I'm here to help him translate?

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay.

So what he said was he's got enough room to put in one car. He wants to get two to three more cars on the street. Okay. He's saying he wants to put one inside the garage and three outside.

Okay. That's the only reason. Okay. Do you want to tell us your objections?

Yeah, I actually have four.

Okay.

So I'm going to go through them as far as I can. So first I'm just going to state I don't think there's any confidence on my part or my wife's part that this is going to be done correctly. Okay. My first point is just negligence on the job site. We've had contractors blocking our driveway. We've had work performed before the city noise ordinance. The city noise ordinance says there's no loud banger or anything that can be performed before 7 a.m. and after 10 p.m. We've had 5.30 wake-ups, 6 o'clock wake-ups, 6.30 wake-ups. Trash and debris from the job site has gone to my yard and neighbors' yards. I had a bucket of nails dumped into my yard where I have a 9-year-old daughter and a dog that go out in the yard, and I had to pick it up. We've had other debris in our yard, and we've asked the contractors to pick it up. They have, but I don't know how long it's been there. There was an actual fire on the job site about a month ago that him he he was basically unaware of i hopped up on the retaining wall and started with my hose yelled for him to get out here told me get off his property stop hosing it he continued to hose that's fine but then there was still smoke in amber next to a 30 foot tall pine tree and it was windy that day so any amber would have hit that pine tree that pine tree would have went up and affected a lot of houses in the area fire department was called on public record they came they showed they took care of it um also to the city inspectors made basically visits to the site because it's just trash and debris, urine bottles. Do inspectors have been to the site? Yes, as of last month, I think April, right after the fire. So they've been there, so there's probably a record of it down in the inspector's office. That's the first point. The second point is there is a curb opening. They already have one. I think the fact that they built the garage opposite of the curb opening, I mean, that's their decision, what they wanted to do. But it just doesn't make sense that you would put a garage 19 feet away from a curb opening that you already have. Also, too, the curb opening, the curb they want to remove, the gas company who replaced gas lines about there three years ago repaved that area. So that's like fresh paved. like city street now, nice and smooth, you know? So they wanna dig into it. I don't have confidence that they'll do it right because when they connected to the sewer and the gas lines, they had to dig into it and they had to repave multiple times. Like the first time they did it, they put the pavement down, pavement sunk. They had to come back out and redo it. The third point I have is the loss of two parking spots in the street by removing this curb. Now, 44 California Street is a dead-end street. There's a little over 25 houses on it, half of them are multi-families. When there's a parking ban, everybody parks on the side of the street where he's trying to remove the curb, so you're gonna lose two parking spots by doing it. And the last point I have, which is the most important point, California Street is a downward slope street. It's a dead end street and it's downward slope. The water flows from the top to the bottom. I'm the third house from the top. The water, if they mess up this curb, this water's gonna travel through their driveway onto my property. I have a little retaining wall, like probably a foot because that's where it ends. That water's gonna come right down that driveway right into my property. and possibly flood my basement. I don't know how bad, we've had bad storms. You all know that. So that's the most concern I have, the biggest concern I have, because if they do this incorrectly, that water comes into my property now, and that's the problem I have to deal with, which I don't want to.

Gotcha. The crib that's there right now, does that affect your property at all?

No.

Just real quickly, did he understand all that? I don't know. Or did they need to tell him what he said?

No, not all of it.

Just certain parts of that.

Do you want to tell him what he said?

Were you listening? Yeah.

Okay, you want to tell him. He has four points against it, because he doesn't agree with this. The first one, because there is a lot of negligence in the work with those who are working there. There has been garbage thrown at his property. clavos y él tiene una niña de nueve años y un perro y no se le parece justo que seguir haciendo trabajo ahí aunque ya lo están haciendo no le siga afectando a él que hasta el día de hoy se ha pasado segundo hubo un casi juego ocasionado que usted ni siquiera supo que se ocasionó cuando él intentó apagarlo y no sé si fue usted o quién fue que le dijo que se saliera de la propiedad de de en la que estaba y esa persona siguió siendo como había ciertas humos que podía ocasionar un árbol al lado que se podía quemar por completo y eso podía ocasionar un fuego mayor tuvieron que llamar al departamento de bomberos y ellos se encargaron eso tiene que estar registrado por ahí The other thing is that removing that curve would remove two parking spaces from the street. And in this state, when the storms pass and they remove that you can't park on the other side, those two that you are removing are removing two parking spaces for people who can park on that street. And the other thing is that... You left out the part about the 5 o'clock wake up.

At 5 in the morning they are waking you up. At 6 in the morning, at 6.30, they are waking you up because there is a lot of noise. And the city doesn't let them make noise at work before 7 in the morning. Not even after 10 in the morning? after 10 o'clock at night.

Y ha habido negligencia en esos horarios, entonces han tenido problemas con eso. Otra cosa que el garaje que usted mandó a construir está en el lado contrario de la abertura de donde entrarían carros. Entonces no tiene sentido porque ahora donde usted iría a poner la línea de gas o lo que sea eso, como eso corre debajo de la calle y está justo en eso, no hace mucho acaban de... put all the new pavement there, reopen, it could be that they do not leave well done and that would also cause a problem and he does not have confidence in that. And finally, remove that curve from there when it rains, as it is a street that has a dead alley and it is a little down, it would affect him because that water would enter his property and therefore into his basement. and it is a problem for him because every time there is a strong storm it can affect him in the construction of his house and he has to deal with that problem of having to build every now and then or fix every now and then.

First point I'm going to explain about the fire that he says. I was present there. My children came on vacation. They were here. They lit a small bonfire. The man entered the house. Yo estaba adentro, él entró a la propiedad mía adentro de la casa, abrió la puerta y habló malas palabras y me insultó y cerró la puerta bien duro, azotó la puerta. Él obviamente estaba con una manguera afuera, yo dije, okay, discúlpame, yo sé lo que está pasando, discúlpame, pero no quiso entender. Entonces, okay, obviamente, yo también dije, okay, sal de mi propiedad, le dije que saliera. Y dos, nosotros empezamos a trabajar a las 8 de la mañana. Yo desde que empecé a trabajar aquí, yo he empezado a trabajar desde las 8 de la mañana. El contratista máximo, a veces los muchachos entran a las 7, pero eso fue el año pasado. Después de eso, nosotros siempre trabajamos a las 8 de la mañana. Nunca trabajamos antes de eso. Y trabajaron hasta las 8, hasta las 11.

Can you just translate those two so they'll know exactly those two points?

Yeah, so first thing he's saying is that he was aware of the fire. It happened when he was present in the property. He has two sons and they were here with him for that week of vacation time. They did like a little small fire, like to lit up fire. The neighbor must have seen that he came. The problem was that he came unannounced, it seems like. And he himself took, went, opened the door, went through, cursed at him, said, you know. He went into his house. Yes.

And he says he was cursing at him and swearing at him. So he told him, get out of my house.

And that's why he told him to leave. He apologized.

And that's fine.

And I won't object to the swearing, but I said, you need to get out here because you have a fire. That's exactly what I said. It wasn't a threatening or something. But when you come home from work and you smell fire and you go let your dog outside and you see a fire, unattended, regardless who said it. It was unattended. It was a windy day. And even the firefighters said it to him. It shouldn't have been, you know. I don't just, I don't discourage. The threat wasn't made. It was just get the out here.

Okay.

El dice que si dijo alguna mala palabra no era en insultar, sino que él llegó a la casa del trabajo, vio que había un fuego que no estaba atendido por nadie, que podía ocasionar un problema mayor. Entonces, cuando él entró de esa manera a la propiedad, lo que él le dijo a ustedes que, o sea, es como una manera de advertirles que salgan de aquí porque hay un fuego que podía ocasionarse algo mayor. Incluso el departamento de bomberos cuando llegó también dijo lo mismo, He said he was sorry. He didn't mean it. All right. So he also said that...

The workers there haven't started working before 8 o'clock. Sometimes they get there prior, but they're not doing, they're setting up at maybe 7 o'clock to get there for the most part, but there's no compressors or nailings going on prior to 8.

Just a rebuttal to that. This project's been going on for over nine months. Started back in August. It's now May. It's still going on. I have neighbors that can confirm that this happened. I've talked to them before I came here. They obviously couldn't make it, but if I need to get sworn statements or written statements from them, I can.

Okay. Algo mas?

About the water, the City Hall gave us permission, that is, they demanded that the rainwater and that kind of thing go inside the land. Everything has a well-made drainage for the back of the yard. What can we do? What can we do?

So what he's saying is that, would you concern about the downhill and the rain coming in and the curb not being done properly? He can do something and change it in some ways. Not that we're going to let him do anything he wants to do. Right. The engineer is here for a reason. Right. So he can come down. Does anyone want to come down now? You might be able to help out in the situation if it even happens at all. But let's just... So first of all, I have a couple of questions. Number one, if the garage is on the opposite side of the driveway now, can he get a smaller driveway put in there without permission from the council, or does he have to get permission? If he wants to get a 14-foot curb removal.

Sure. So let's back up a little bit. This project has been through site plan review entirely. This is a construction of a two-family home, requires four off-street parking spaces by zoning ordinance.

Requires it.

Has to have four parking spaces.

So he needs the curb removal.

Their engineer designed it in this manner, where there's a garage space and then there's three spaces in front. Two off to the side and one in front of the garage space. There is currently a 12 foot opening. They were removing four or five feet of curb to the left of the 12 foot opening and then the remainder of the new 19 was to the right of the existing opening for a total of 30. So first of all, went through rigorous design, rigorous grading, curb opening, all of that. Part of this approval requires that they reconstruct the road from curb to curb. So as far as roadway at their cost, they will not get an occupancy permit. And I am very stringent about this. When a contractor comes in to build a house somewhere or a private citizen, before we used to have a gas trench, a water trench, a sewer trench, and we'd have this hodgepodge of trenches that would all fail. There's no more of that. We go from the outside of this utility trench to the outside of this utility trench and go curb to curb, totally have to resurface the road. So the road's actually going to be in better shape when the project's completed. How wide is that road? 26 feet? I don't know, but it's probably... probably about that's a 40 foot layout and then okay standard size width but that is in their site plan that is on their site plan approval as a condition of approval one thing i would also note and this is in all of site plans especially where the crib cut is requested to be larger than 16. the applicant is notified immediately and it's part of the approval that that process needs to come through you to get a curb opening of 16 feet greater than 16 feet they were a little bit lax with when they filed for this this should have been done before they even started building because now there's no guarantee that they're going to get it so could their engineer come back and theoretically design it differently and only have the 12 foot possible but it may be worse for the neighbor because they could now have to park along the grass strip that's along the right side of the property. And as far as the drainage goes, we've required that this entire parking area is porous asphalt to make sure that this is not creating a runoff problem and a lot of coverage problem. So I can guarantee you that they will not get an occupancy permit or sign off from my office. And I have to sign off for four different lines until this is done correctly, until there is guarantee that there is no water problem for the abutting neighbor. That was the purpose of site plan review. Right.

Well, there's a site plan review guarantee that the site plan review would guarantee that you're not going to let the water run over.

100%. So the gutter line has to be maintained.

It has to be done by a bonded social company.

Absolutely. All of the work in the street has to be done by a licensed drain line.

Six months from now, the problem with water is getting into the things. You've got to come back and do the whole thing over.

I've heard a lot of what I heard, it's kind of beyond the scope of transportation and what we're dealing with. It shouldn't be in this committee. I agree with you. So if there's been a complaint, it should go to the building department. I think they have been called, or there's been some...

The issues that they have are not about the curb, per se. The last point I made was... Correct, but his part is to identify that part of it.

So I can assure you that this road and sidewalk... will be left in better condition. With the curb cut? Once they're done, even without the curb cut. Because even without the curb cut, they still need to resurface the road. Because of the tie-ins? Because of all the utility connections. Now, we made them go for their curb to curb outside of the new curb removal. So it's going to be fresh from curb removal to curb removal. So as far as what they need to do, can't be to a higher standard. I can't speak to anything else that that's going on at the property. Could they theoretically design this differently? That would be up to their engineer to come up with a different design, but they possibly could. But it may end up being worse. I would also offer that the removal of 19 curb or required parking space is 18 feet long. I can't say that it would, you would lose two spaces on the street. At least one though, 100%. Sure, but you're gonna get four cars on the street. But now you're getting four vehicles off the street. Correct.

Can I ask a question? Absolutely. With the 12-foot right now, why couldn't they use that? Why would they have to cut?

I just said that their engineer could potentially redesign it. This is how they chose to design it. So we don't design things for people. They go through the permitting process. And what they actually had to do to make this work It's fairly intense. So you could ask the engineer to look at it differently and could they reduce the size of the curb cut? I really don't think it would have much bearing on anything other than theoretically the space on the street. As far as what roadway restoration needs to be done or worrying about that the gas company just paved, that that's going to be the same no matter what happens um those ladders have to be put in yeah but even if they do all the paving stuff is there somebody in the city that comes in the spectrum okay all right yeah so like i said listen the city is not going to let any homeowner take this upon they will not have to get a bonded license will not be signed off as complete until this work is done to my satisfaction and that's written in in their permits okay but you did say that we would lose even though they're

They're putting in four parking spots because the occupant sees the house. We are losing spots on the street.

You could theoretically be losing one spot.

Because I know from where my driveway and curb ends, I can park three cars currently on the curb that's there. So if they remove 19 feet, you're probably going to lose those two spots because...

Well, they're not removing 19 feet in one spot. They're removing some of it to that side of the corner and some to that. So it's not 19 feet in one spot. So yes, there is a section closer to you that they are removing. Right. Five feet or three feet? Do you have off-street parking at your property?

I have a driveway for me and my wife, and then when we have people over, we have people park in front of our house.

But understand, the street is public parking for everyone.

Right, and then there is public parking for the residents that are also there, too, when parking bans happen. We have, like I stated before, a little over 25 houses and half are multifamily, so when there's parking bans in place, there are cars from other residents that park in front of my house, and there's nothing I can say or do because it's a parking ban.

Correct. But to that point, that's when it's going to really come into effect, where you get forecasts

off the street during the parking ban yeah but they will be off the street regardless because of the driveway in the garage well no no that's if if they could theoretically redesign this to still provide the four because they can get in and they can use the asphalt as parking and they have a garage so you're essentially still getting the cars off the street

it's just but right now they have a garage here they have a parking space in front of them right and they have two parking spaces on this side where i'm not saying this yeah i'm not saying that they can't redesign it i'm saying this is what they submitted for designs that was approved and this is what was approved if this commission if this board wants to have the engineer look at it for a redesign before they vote on this then i don't see an issue with that either and they can they can submit a revised plan to my office as long as they can accommodate the off-street parking spaces, then the building department, through zoning, shouldn't have a problem with it.

Okay. Do you want to explain it all to him, or do you want me to do it? I'll do it for him. Probably easier for you to do it. Lo que el dijo fue que de la manera que está ahorita, los planos que tú pusiste para el planning board en enero, que hizo los planes, a lo mejor van a tener que hacer otros planes enseñando cómo se puede tirar los carros de la calle I'm just saying we're probably going to table this. from which the engineer presents a different plan to teach them how to put the cars outside the street, in front of the property, using that distance of 12 feet. Do you understand?

So you're saying that in order not to open the curb more than it is right now?

Not right now. We haven't decided that yet. We haven't decided whether we're going to open it or not open it. But we want the engineer to make a new plan that shows that with what is there right now, you can take the cars out on the street and put them on the property. He has to, because the way he is there, he has two cars here, the garage on the other side, a car. So if he can do it, that he has an area where the cars can use that curb to go in and out, it will be more difficult, but the best remedy for now is if he can do it. If he can't do it, then we have to see what we can do.

But can I, for example, put asphalt and that kind of stuff inside my property?

Yes, he can put any driveway inside. He can put asphalt on his grass to put parking spots.

He's not having asphalt. This is porous asphalt.

Yes, it's not asphalt, but it's similar to asphalt. But can he put that down now to put the cars on if he gets them in there? He can put. He's not going to get an occupancy permit.

until we're satisfied with either a revised plan or if this gets built according to this plan. Okay. What I would offer, what I would suggest is that we table. I will email his engineer tomorrow and explain to him what transpired today and ask them to reconsider the design and how they've laid out their part.

All right. Before we get to that, Councilor Kendall? I do have a question. He's speaking as a proponent, but the applicant of record is a Jessica Ortega or Giles of Newark, New Jersey. I'm curious what the relationship is.

okay okay any questions no no all right

Yes, but more or less, how long can this take?

Your engineer has to decide if he can do it. He will call the engineer tomorrow, the first thing tomorrow, and then the engineer will decide how long it will take to do what he is doing. He wants to see a different plan. If there is a remedy and he gives a different plan, we are resolved. If not, he will have to do it again. Or we will have to do this, a decision, if we approve or not.

They have to find somewhere.

They have to be able to get to the spaces. I understand, but those are other cases. I want you to understand very clearly. What we are doing here is separate from the problems you have with her.

He just said that you know he feels like This is an obstacle. He's not gonna overcome because the name is not gonna get along like that. That's complete separate situation And said no we understand I'm just trying to protect my property I just a one quick question to mr. Aguiar. I'm just curious if they go through the redesign.

What's that? He wants to know how long it'll take I told us up to his engineer

What's that?

He asked how long it'll take for it to redesign. I said it's up to your engineer. That's up to his engineer. So I'm just looking at this. It can be redesigned, but it may not be a better design. So they can accommodate the parking spaces required utilizing the allowed 16-foot curb opening. Now again, that 16-foot curb opening may shift. because they're allowed 16. So they can close the 12 and move the 16 so that they can get spaces in correctly. So I'm looking at this. I can draw four parking spaces on this with a 16-foot curb open. Maybe more work on their end, construction-wise. It may require some retaining walls. It may also bring parking closer to the abutter's house, which there is none now. On the private property, we'll close it to that property line. But it can be done.

Do you understand what he said or not?

What did he say? First of all, it all depends on the engineer. How long does it take your engineer to redesign the plan? Because the question here is, that is the original plan with the opening of 16, but they want to know if it can be maintained with the opening that is currently there. He can't get the night 16 feet, correct? Excuse me? He can't get the night 16 feet of curb? No. Okay. So, for you to know,

The maximum you can do right now, without anyone's permission, is 16 feet. You can do it anywhere. So the maximum you can get now is 16 feet without permission from anybody.

Without coming to you.

But the engineer has to decide where he's going to put that to make it work. The permit you got based on coming off the street into that property. So it's a benefit if you can do it with 16 feet. Do you understand or not? All right, so, Councilor Cangell.

When you say 16 feet, is that, right now the existing opening is 12 feet, so is it 16 or 16 additional? No, no, total of 16. Total of 16, okay.

Every property in the city is afforded a 16 foot.

So what they're asking for is just well above what they're. Right. 19.

Which is often the case, yeah. Yeah. So they're asking for an additional 19. Right. Which is big. Yeah.

Oh.

Councilor, you a councilor? I do. Councilor Hahn?

Yeah, I would just maybe say that, from what the neighbor said about cleaning the place, cleaning this and not putting nails in the yard and what he's saying. I'm sure it's happening because he just wouldn't make it up. So maybe just be more aware of that. Lonely go get it. Not be more aware, but just make sure that

What the councilor says is that, going back to the first point that his neighbor said, the cleaning. Please, the employees who are working there, keep in mind that they are not throwing nails from one side to the other. He has a girl and he has a dog, which is obviously his concern, that they do not get hurt. So the work that is still being done there, that everyone is well aware that, please, do not throw garbage on the ground or on his property.

We have always tried not to bother with anything because since we arrived we realized that Just something you want to say?

No, I'm just going to say, that's what the inspector came out for in April, was to tell them to keep the place clean. And just as far as nails and stuff, when they parked in front of the property, all the contractors that came out just dropped nails there. I mean, I've lost a tire. Luckily, I had hazard coverage on it, so I was able to get it replaced for $20. But that part, I think, is done because that was in the beginning stages. This has been nine months in the making here. It's up. But just going forward, I haven't seen a problem yet. I'm sorry. One last one. I just want to reiterate, like I just said, there was cut into this concrete already for sewer and gas lines, and it wasn't done properly the first time.

Because they're not done.

What do you mean by they're not done?

Whenever you have a cut in the road, it's going to settle? Before they get an occupancy permit, the roadway restoration needs to be done. It's not going to be done complete halfway through. It's going to be done complete before we give them occupancy. Before, there's additional work that they need to do. So if they went out and just repaired the patches that they have there now to the fullest extent, then you want them to come back again after they do the work with the curb. So once construction's done, they repave the whole street. It's always the last item.

And I understand that, but if you're cutting into sewer lines and you're connecting gas lines and you're paving, just patch it. The patch has to be done right the first time, though.

Well, it's a temporary patch.

Right.

Yeah, but those patches are notorious. They're going to settle.

Oh, they settled and it was a roller coaster.

Well, when that happens, I'll just call the city and they'll have to fix them again because they're bonded. They're just going to keep doing it. Right.

It's fine now, but just it was multiple times. Sure, sure. That's what I'm fearing was that they cut this curve. They're going to keep coming out and out and out.

It's going to be inspected by the city.

Understood.

All right, is there a motion? Motion to table. Motion to table has been made. Second. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is now tabled. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to adjourn.

Second. Motion to adjourn has been made.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. City Council Committee is now adjourned.