Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Yep. All right. It's going to go back on the record. Uh

Parker Landing Lane, PB202603501 East Avenue. The applicant proposes a new independent living and assisted living facility on block 437 lot 8.01. The new facility will provide 190 independent living units, 30 assisted living units, and 32 memory care units for a total 171 units. The building will be a total of 14 stories and structured parking and a roof pond medine Thomas Kel members of the board Thomas F. Kelo on behalf of the applicant Parker Health Group Incorporated. Uh I'm pleased to be before you this evening on what is really an exciting project uh by a very credible and longtime well-known operator of these facilities. U it's It's a process that we've gone through through the city and you as the planning board. Uh this is actually the uh culmination of the development of the Parker Landing Lane redevelopment plan and uh my client is the designated redeveloper for the project. Uh and it's been a long time coming uh in the sense of developing the plans and being able to design and engineer it to get us to where we are this evening. uh are pleased to have uh a few witnesses with us today which uh first I would like to introduce Mr. uh Roberto Miz who's here. He is the longtime CEO of Parker. I think many of the members of the public are with him and the work that Parker's done. Uh it's my intention to call three witnesses for you this evening and we'll be calling uh the c chief operating officer of Parker to provide testimony and give you an over overview of Parker, its role in in the community and the vision for this particular facility. I

will also call our uh civil engineer, Mr. Christian Roach. Uh [clears throat] and also we will provide testimony from our architect, Mr. Curry. I I would indicate as the board is aware we have submitted a detailed traffic report uh as part of our responsibility as the applicant and I do have here this evening Mr. Eric Valoria um to answer any questions that the board may have with regard for that report or the members of the public rather than do any type of testimony since you've already had the report submitted as part of the record. Uh once again as as an overview uh this is a longstanding um site for uh the the Parker homes. I think as the board knows this was the original location of the first Parker home and there are now others in in the region. And so uh uh this is a a I guess a complete come around after approximately 100 years and making this facility a state-of-the-art facility providing different types of services in a brand new facility that uh is designed specifically for this purpose. So with that as an overview I would call um is Beth Sparing for testimony.

Just before that is there any member of the board or professionals that have a conflict with this application? We'll still have

Again, I quote Beth Sparman for testimony. Can you please state your name and spell your last name for the record? Beth Sparman. Can you spell your last name for the record? Sorry. S P A R L I N G. Do you swear or something about the truth? Yes. Uh Beth, again, I did introduce you I believe as the chief operating officer of Parker. Is that true? Yes, I've been there for about eight years. Okay. And in that capacity, you certainly are familiar with the proposal before the board this evening in many aspects, operations, development, and so forth. Correct. I am.

Okay. Uh I think it would be nice if the board heard from you what the vision of this site is um and the various uh thought processes that go into it. of the uh and give us an overview if you will operationally of what what is engaged here the different types of uses that we have and uh give us just a sense of the operational components that thank you good evening everyone um I think what would really help in better understanding landing lean is to understand us as an organization because this property particularly is um about how we connect as a community as what we call a continuum of care um as you heard so far already this evening is Parker. We're celebrating 120 years next year as being a proud member of the New Brunswick um uh with our uh community here at Landing Lane on Eastn Avenue where we currently provide services for 45 residents. Um Parker has is uh Landing Lane is part of um a variety of different communities um that are in the area as we currently have four nursing homes. um Landy Lane as well as our community in Somerset uh which is a long-term care and post-accute community and we also have Parker at River Road and also Parker at Monroe providing the capacity to serve on any given day 350 residents um for long-term care and post-accute services. Additionally, we also have an um assisted living community in um uh the town of Highland Park, which uh we have the capacity um to serve up to 80 residents there. Something that we find take tremendous pride in is our deep commitment um to those in the local area and to provide what we call very person-directed care. um putting the resident and the family and um our care partners first and

making sure that it is a seamless experience for them to live. Um in our um uh through our experience, we've had um over the last 20 years some sizable growth um and some of the properties that we've currently mentioned this evening um where we have um personally been um uh put a team of individuals together to manage the project. We have also self-funded those projects and have done a um very deliberate job of understanding of how these communities work together which I'll talk about very shortly. We also serve about 10,000 people in the state of New Jersey um that uh uh live in their homes recognizing that uh living in a group environment may be for some but not for all but it's to make sure that um they know that no matter where they live they will be able to provide um uh healthc care services. And as we're really proud um being here in New Brunswick have been long-standing partners and being a good neighbor is really important to us um and have taken great pride to um contribute to many different if it be dialeride or um other the uh senior center and um want to continue to do that um going forward. What I thought would really be helpful because when it comes to health care it can be um uh needs a kind of a a a decoder ring sometimes of what the levels of care are. So to talk about the project which is independent assisted assisted living memory care, I thought I'd just give you a little little background. Independent living is someone who typically drives is um anywhere from um 75 to 80 years old. Uh they live independently as if they would in their home right now. They do have the option of being able to maybe um have some supportive services. Uh we have a medical clinic. We will have a health and wellness and longevity center. Um variety of meals and amenities and those residents come and

go. Um and uh they will have apartments in which they will um be selected be able to select to live in. Um in assisted living, assisted living is kind of a independent living with supportive services. [clears throat] Uh those residents still can drive. Typically um you know they may move in with a car but over time that uh they would use our transportation and with that they have availability of uh someone that can assist them with dressing, bathing or changing do that the day. Um but that is optional. There are some people that still work that still drive but like the comfort of having people that are there should they're having a bad day or need some additional support. assisted living, memory care, which we will also have in the community, is um those that uh are able to um be more independent, don't drive, but provide a little higher level of care, but still can do some things on their own. It is not a nursing home that exists there now, which provides a higher level of care, greater staffing, as well as um 24-hour um nursing services. Though, assisted living will have a nurse there. Um it is but is not a a nursing home that is more um uh dependent on on um uh the team. Um what you will find um in the community is that um compared to Landing Lane now um when it comes to um uh those that work there the the staffing is about the same. We have about the same what we call care partners rather than staff. But our care partners, it's about the same number, but it's going to be less on the evening times and less on the weekends because it's a hospitality model. It's not the 24-hour nursing care um uh that you would find that at Landing Lane now. So, those are some significant um uh differences. Um, what is unique about this property compared to our other communities is because it has the three different levels of

living, it also is offered to be able to um, utilize any of our other communities that we have that are nearby that I'd mentioned in Somerset and um, uh, Highland Parkway. Um we might just want to touch upon one of the comments in the planning report and that is the the idea of a relocation plan for when construction will begin. Just want to touch on that. Yeah, you know, this is as with our past projects, particularly most recently at Parker Somerset, if you're familiar with that project, which is um which we did a a sizable construction in which residents needed to move within the property, as well as we are currently um uh doing a a project down in Monroe on one of our communities already um in existence. And intentionality and the person-directed approach is so important to us. We are in the relationship um uh uh work and um what is important to us is that the residents are cared for. Um we have take great pride with our we're fortunate to have other local commun uh homes in which uh we plan for the residents to be transitioned to those locations. We our plan will have very intentional um uh opportunities in which we would have availability in those locations where those residents um can move to.

And I think that I guess that's that starts maybe a year or so before you actually are in a position to start taking the building down. You are correct. Uh I have no further questions for that. Any members of the board or professionals have any questions for this with us? Say no. Thank you. Thanks. This time we call Christian Ro. [clears throat]

Please state your name. Say your last name for the record. Sure. It's Christian Roach. R O C H E. You swear the whole truth for nothing but the truth. I do. Mr. Roach, you have been before this board. I've been here for it the last five months. I started to run out of suits to wear. Uh, have your credentials changed in any way since the last time you reported? They have not. And you're still licensed uh in a signature? Correct. All right.

Thank you. So, I'll start by marking the first exhibit. It's entitled site aerial with today's date. We'll mark it as A1. So the project that we're to talk about tonight is identified as block 437 plot 8.01 on the city tax map. It's approximately 2.3 acres and currently bound by Parkview Drive and residential uses to the north, the city park to the east, avenue to the south, and Landing Lane to the west. The site's presently occupied by Parker at Landing Lane Senior Home, which is accompanied by 50 surface parking stalls with access to the property being provided both off of Eastn Avenue as well as landing lane. There is a fairly significant break change across the site. Elevations are highest in the eastern portion of the site and then they slope down by about 20 ft to the landing lane side of the property. As our attorney noted, the project site is entirely within the Parker Landing Lane redevelopment [clears throat] plan area and we have a fully conforming application with that redevelopment plan here this evening. So, I'm going to move to accepting exhibit that I'm marked as A2. It's entitled Parker at landing lane plan rendering again with today's date. It really is a colored version of the site layout plan that was submitted as part of our site plan application package. What the applicant is proposing to construct um the property is a multi-story building which is going to contain 109 independent living units, 30 assisted living units and 32 memory care units as well as structured parking. In total, the building is going to be 14 stories which two of those levels would be reserved for the structured parking. The building is going to have a footprint of approximately 39,610

square ft and in total it will provide 416,300 gross square. Site access to the property is going to be provided off of East Avenue as well as Landing Lane. Both of these areas will provide access to the structured parking and they both have drop off areas as well. One thing that's changing from the existing conditions though is we are providing vehicular movements through the garage. Meaning that if you enter from Eastn Avenue, you now have the capability to leave your landing lane and vice versa. If you enter your landing lane and you prefer to depart the vast avenue, there's circulation within the structured parking area that allows for that. Lastly, we're proposing pedestrian sidewalks, new sidewalks I should say, along landing lane as well as on Eastern Avenue. From an overall parking compliance perspective with the redevelopment plan, the redevelopment plan parking requirements dictate one parking spot for independent living unit, 0.5 spaces for each assisted living unit, and then they require 45 spaces for employees and 40 for visitors. If you do the math on the unit mix I provided previously, 209 parking stalls are required whereas the application is complying with that by providing 209 stalls. We're also meeting the requirements for ADA parking as well as ED parking requirements. I should note too with the visitor stalls, those will also be readily available for motorists coming into the site. They won't be behind any type of security gate. So let me know if you're a visitor, you go directly to parking with no restrictions. Loading and trash operations are going to be provided in a dedicated loading area when it's accessible off of landing lane. The way we've designed the loading area is to allow for all the turning movements to be done on the property. And most importantly, we're not going to be trying to back in any type of vehicles off of landing lane. All those movements will be done on site. The loading area

has been designed to handle WB40 tractor trailers. Those tractor trailers have a trail length around 33 ft. So, we're not talking WB67s with the 53T trailers. This is more of a midsize delivery vehicle. Trash operations will also be handled in this area. We're proposing a compactor and those trash operations will involve pickups as necessary throughout the week, probably two or three uh each week. Storm water management projects been designed to comply with both the city and state standards. We are reducing impervious coverage from existing conditions, but we're also going to be proposing an underground detention system and green infrastructure rated mechanical treatment devices. The reason for that is although we meet the city and state requirements without those, we are within a Delaware and ground canal review zone and we anticipate that those will be required [clears throat] to meet the ERCC requirements. Utilities are pretty straightforward. It's t typical players in New Brunswick. City will be providing water and sewer service. PSNG will be providing electric and gas service. I will note though that we are proposing a generator at the northeast corner of the building. That generator will have an enclosure around it to make sure we're meeting both the state and city noise requirements. Landscaping, we are proposing 100 new trees along with 228 new shrubs. The vast majority of the landscaping is focused around the site perimeter between the proposed building and existing residential uses as well as new street trees along Landing Lane and East Avenue. Uh we did respond to one of the planning and engineering comments. If there's a shortfall in the amount of new landscaping repair compared to the true removal calculations, any deficit would be made up through a contribution to the city's tree fund. Site lighting is fully compliant with the redevelopment plan. We're proposing to hit the required lighting levels through 12t high poles rather than typical larger poles. The reason for the 12T poles is to try and make sure we don't have any additional spillover. I shouldn't say try. We will

not have any additional sto any of the adjacent properties using the 12 foot high light fixtures. So I had the opportunity we did a I'll call it community workshop meeting. It was probably around 18 months ago to meet with some of the neighbors. I have had detailed discussions with Ann. She is the property owner most close to the site development and we did agree on a few things. Ann has reviewed our latest plans and she's certainly welcome if I mistake anything to the China but what we agreed to specifically was we had proposed some um giant green vis and asked would you mind if I make some of those plant selections I it'll be something similar we have no objection to working with the neighbor what those plant selections are um we also agreed to coordinate the fence color I think I called out bright white which was I'll say less than desirable from man's perspective so we agreed to go with a more neutral color that will and will um date to us. We agreed to meet all noise requirements. There's a condition of approval. We certainly will acoustic study showing that we meet different noise requirements. And then lastly, there's a little bit of a unique situation with the drainage in place right now. Um there's a pipe system that comes from the park and then when it gets to the two adjacent residential properties, it opens up into a ditch and enters a pipe system. Again, there was a request to potentially fill this ditch um just to allow for more usable backyard space. The applicant has no problem fulfilling that ditch as long as there's not significant NJP permits associated with it, which I don't think there will be because it drains less than 50 acres. It's been rerouted previously, but again, the applicant has no problem doing that for neighbors and providing additional landscaping within. So, the last thing I have, Mr. Kelso, is we did review the engineering and letters. Jamie and I had a conversation earlier this week. We have no objection from the client if you have any comments from those letters.

I have no questions for Chris wishes to direct questions. Any member of the board question? Just a quick Mr. Roach. Um do you anticipate that you comply in terms of parking? You're 100% compliant. Um, realistically, you anticipate that all of the residents will be parking in the parking structure on the site, right? There there's no possibility of street parking. Agreed. If you Right. Yeah. I'm sure everyone's been around there. There's no possibility. It is assigned when we do the That was my question. My followup was is there a process you assign parking spaces to the first parker? Okay.

Yes, that's perfect. Parking Perfect. So, Mr. Chair, technically again, you have a residential building in a residential zone. So, theoretically there there could be the possibility of those residential permits. So, again, we would recommend to you that Thank you. Mr. The generator for the whole building, is it going to will it be able to use the whole capacity for the building to generate the whole building if power failure? Oh, wait for I was okay. So, [laughter] we'll be getting five minutes. No problem.

So, Mr. Chair, too, if I may, just the one other item that was testified to um because you have a backup generator um relatively close to residential properties. You might want to just get some testimony on when it's going to be tested, for how long it's going to be tested, and what that's going to sound like so that the neighbors Okay. Um, at least the inconvenience has been minimal in terms of when and how long it's going to run. We'll provide testimony. Thank you.

Any other questions on board professionals? uh at this time for testing. Can you please state your name? Spell your last name for the record.

Yeah. Eric Craw R U L. You swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yes, sir. Eric, licensed professional architect of the state of New Jersey. Is that correct? That is correct. And in that capacity, you are familiar with a plan development for the landing lane facility from an architectural aspect. Yes. Could you give the board the benefit of your professional qualifications and experience?

Yes. Um I'm currently with THW Design located in Atlanta, Georgia. We do uh nationally and internationally nothing but senior living. Our firm has been doing that for over 35 years in its 70 year history. I personally have been doing uh senior living ever since uh college for my thesis. So my entire career has been doing communities like this is high as 52 stories to very low scale over a thousand acres. So uh got quite a bit of experience. Have you testified through four boards? Not before you. No, but others. Okay. We will accept you as a professional partner.

Thank you. Eric, if you would, rather than me asking specific questions, I would ask you to go through all the architectural components of the facility. Um, and feel free to use the exhibit including [cough] the elevations and and the floor plans, give the board a sense of it. And to the extent that you you're able to try to answer the question that Todd presented with the testing of the generator. Very good. I will start with the exterior and I don't have all 14 floors. We'll give you about two or three samples of the building. I'm going to start with East Avenue just to give you a flavor. Lanning Lane is off to the the left here.

Can you turn it this way?

The former planner of the city was always sensitive about that in the city of the back. I was walking. All right. East Avenue for right here. A submitted with the uh city. the the tower is about 172 ft in height. The first floor which is facing east is the entry to you heard what Beth was talking about the lifestyle independent living. This level right here has a lot of the community spaces for the residents. It would have the entry with reception area, administrative area. It also has a coffee shop and some other common that the entire home would be able to use with mail and marketing offices. On the next floor, which is two, that houses some of the memory care that Beth described. There's actually two floors, the second and third floor. They stack. They have an outdoor memory garden for the residents that's secured. Off to the right is [clears throat] the dining room for the independent living which also has an auditorium and some other support state uh spaces some community spaces for them as well. The next floor has half of it is the memory care over here and pretty much in this zone of the building has the healthcare which is the memory care assisted living all the way up to the sixth floor which is this level right here. That is where the independent living starts and I'll

show you in the floor plan how you move vertically through the building. Then on the seventh floor is the wellness floor. Half of it is wellness and some more independent living that overlooks the park. And then moving from the seventh floor all the way up to the top floor here which is the 12th floor is all independent living. And then the very top is an amenity space. There's some dining out there and some more activity spaces for pretty much anybody to enjoy in the community. I'm going to turn up to the next board which is A4. I'll label that A4. This is the landing lane. You heard Chris mention earlier the service area in the back. Not only is the service area here protected by this retaining wall and all the shrubbery that we're going to put in here and the evergreens, it is also shielded by another row of landscape here that allows the entry into the healthcare. what I'm calling the healthcare would be the assisted living and memory care entry. So, we have because of the grade change between Mandy Lane and Eastston. It it laid out a very nice secured entry point in the back for staff and visitors coming into the healthcare building to come up through an elevator in the center of the building and then the independent living on Manning Lane. So, we're using that grade change right here to distinguish the two entry points. There's an entry into do the parking garage here. And on the landing lane, there was also an entry on the back that I didn't point out, but you can get in from both the back and the front into the building from a secured parking

garage. Again, [snorts] down here is the assisted living memory care entry. And right here is the first floor. We're one floor down. So that's the entry on the independent living, which then you come up to these floors right here, which is assisted living. And these two uh floors here, memory care, then this is that first floor of independent living that comes across. This is that wellness floor that has in this area right here. This is where the gym is. There's exercise. There's program spaces that you can go outside terrace. Bless you. And over in this area from the seventh floor up is all the system or all the independent living that looks out uh to the west and [clears throat] the north. And this is the top amenity deck on the very back here. We got some mechanical that we're going to be uh shielding with louvers and things on on this floor as well as down here. You can kind of see it where we're hiding some of that. And go to the last rendering. Uh, I'll mark that as exhibit A5. And this is the um overlook of the park that's literally looking downtown. And the park is right here in the foreground right here. [snorts] And you [clears throat] can just see up here on the second floor, which is where the dining room is. And then you've got independent living in this zone and again some of the uh facade right here. A lot of large waiting overlooking the park. We've also took some end zones here to give it some architectural character knowing that it's really the front door coming into the city. So we've got a mixture of pre-cast and stone that we're using.

We're also looking at some metal panel just to give you some ideas of some of the character. We haven't worked that all out. So, needs to have some very durable materials being a high-rise. And a lot of the units you'll see, we've got balconies. Um, right now we're looking at a variety of whether it's aluminum or some glazing or maybe the top, but we haven't worked out those details. So, we'll have a a mixture of storefront windows. The colors being worked out right now as more of a light so the building has more of a light character as as a backdrop to the park and the city in general. A lot of our concepts, you've heard words like facility. This is not a facility. This is the resident's home. So, we come at it with a very residential feel. Really designing from the inside out because of the care and the love that Parker puts into the community. So, even down to the nurses station area. We like to say I don't have a nurses station my own home. So, a lot of times we're designing the inside to be a living room environment. You know, very wellappointed, not shiny wax floors, but something that's got a very residential hospitality feel to it that you heard Beth talk about the lifestyle change from what's currently there. So, with that, I'm going to walk into the the floor plans and just walk you up the building on a few floors. I'm up to exhibit A6. And I'll start with that on East Avenue, which is the main entry into the independent living. Um, at at this level, right here is where you would come in. Whether you're visiting or dropping a guest off, you would come right here to the front door that comes in. It may feel like a hotel

because of the porticare there. We keep the uh rain and snow off. Then residents that live here would turn right to go into the parking garage that's in this zone. It goes down two levels. [clears throat] Guests would come in to the left. That is not secure. This is secured. This allows visitors to come in this area and come into the building to visit uh loved ones. In the center of the building, we have five elevators. One's dedicated to a lot of the service. So you've got the service running in the background while the general public is in this elevator lobby right here. We were meeting all code requirements for all of our our stair towers. We've got them sprinkled throughout the building. There's actually a total of five stairs all pressurized for the high-rise code requirements. The generator that we talked about earlier, it's sitting back here. It will run once a week currently. The exact same operations that they have. We're somewhere between 50 to 75% of the building will be able to be under that emergency power. We're just going through the analysis and depth, but for sure, of course, all life safety is going to be covered and we're going above and beyond because of some of the services and care they provide. Going to go up to floor number two, which I'm going to label A7. That floor has the the first floor of everything in purple is the memory care. So as you come up and you're visiting a loved one, you would come up this set of elevators here and you move to the left. It's a it's a secure unit. This actually has the memory terrace garden outside to the left and the dining and the kitchen area for their dining is right off that service elevator that I mentioned

earlier. So all the back operations happens in this area. The other half of the building that's yellow is the dining and the main kitchen and the auditorium. Multi-purpose for the residents for large town hall meetings, whether it's that or resident performances and things like that happen on this floor. I'm going to take you up to one of the typical floors with independent living. Label that exhibit A8. on that floor. This gives you a sense of I mentioned earlier the terrace on the seventh floor which is part of the wellness program. Again the center of the building the elevators you can come up and down from the different locations that go to the wellness here which also has a clinic and also a spa area and a beauty salon. all functions that you would typically [clears throat] see in a CCRC. And then the independent living is all the green area on this floor. And then it goes all the way up the building now to the top floor, which is all independently on this side. This spaces the park right here. So you can see right off here. And then the entry is down on the page, which is Eastn Avenue. And then the last exhibit, I'm going to label it A9. It is the amenities uh floor on the top. And on that floor, it's a destination dining venue and another area that would have a kitchen supporting that and a lot of our mechanicals up in this area that we will be putting up louvers and things both from uh noise and also just visual from from this deck. Stairs coming up.

We meet all the code requirements for having a any kind of a load up here for residents and again the five elevators that come up to this one service area that [snorts] takes care of the mechanical and the back of house as well as the four here for the resident use. So with that I try to be brief Tom and that's pretty much everything I have. Just one question I have for you. I don't know if you mentioned about the package delivery package where where would that be located for Yeah, right. Right now the package delivery is down in the first floor lobby right here. Amazon deliveries and things would come into here and there's actually mailboxes that you would see that you go down and get your personal mail and also any kind of deliveries.

Speaking of deliveries, I I don't remember if Chris covered it. Uh deliveries into the facility for food and other types of things. Where does that take place? Right back here in this loading dock right here, we have our you'll find housekeeping storage. All the food deliveries for the kitchen pops right into this service elevator that I mentioned right here that's dedicated so we can take it straight out to the floor above and it's totally separated from the public. I know for the question any member of the board professionals have any questions for this

is the layout of all the apartments the same like the assisted living versus the independent living apartments. No, when you're in memory care, think of it as a small hotel room or if you've been into the existing nursing home. There's basically a bathroom that has a shower in there. And the room might be about 300 to 350 square ft. And there's a lot of extra care that we take into account. For example, you want to cue residents at night where the toilet is. A good design. You can see where the toilet is from your bed area. So, there's some very, very specific nuances that we take in account in designing memory care. Assisted living, sometimes they're a little bit bigger, a small studio, but a lot of times they're a a very nice small one-bedroom unit. It might be in the 6 7 800 ft² range. When you get to independent living, some of them are actually very nice, two bedrooms, two and a half baths, and they're very much probably like a condo that you might have over the Not that I've been in those, but it's it's got uh you know, nice kitchen that you might see in a condo here. So, the residents coming on your community are transitioning into an environment that's very much a home and they get very comfortable because you may have a loved one that's not down in memory care and you may be in independent living or maybe, you know, you may be even sharing uh services on assisted living.

Mr. Crawl. Uh, have you had an opportunity to review our memo dated May 8th? You don't have you don't have to open up. I'll walk you through it. Walk me through it. You got a lot of paperwork I've been getting from Chris. Okay. Uh, one of the things that we asked for uh there, you know, uh, based upon your testimony, you're looking to make this like the eastern a like a hotel entry. You're looking to put a water feature out there. Can you give any kind of description for that?

Yeah, it conceptually right now the the parking is under there. So, we haven't fully developed it, but we do want when you arrive, there's a sense of tranquility. It picks up on the park. This has been important um storytelling for our client. How do we bring the outside in? [snorts] Instead of coming up into a very institutional hospital setting, this is a home. So, something you might see there, will the water be totally like that? It mean art and landscape. We're trying to warm it up. It's all about the senses. When you arrive, you might hear music and the senses brings kind of a calmness down, especially if you got a level of memory care. You know, it's very high anxiety as we all know. If you've got anybody that you know with memory uh services that need accounted for.

Thank you. Um, one of the other questions I had, I know Mr. Roach had told me that, you know, garbage is going to be stored down on by the loading dock inside the building. How is trash handled within the building from like the independent living, let's say? Yeah. Um, is there trash shoots or is there just

There's not a trash shoot, but what we've got is trash rooms. So, they have kind of like a hotel. They have staff that will do housekeeping, collect trash to one so central location. We'll use this service elevator so that it's behind the scenes. Take it down to the very lowest level at the loading dock and it will go over because it's in the back here and it goes right right into this zone right here on the lower floors right right in that area. It's that piece that's coming across here. So that allows in everything back in the house we're trying to separate from the public.

With regard to the generator, some of these enclosures can be very unsightly. institutional to say and that's not something that you're looking to do. Do you have any thought of giving some ar some aesthetics to it? Yes. And if uh when Chris was saying that green line right there right now we're looking at that as a total just walling it right in. Yeah. trying to make it as hidden as possible that most people [snorts] that see it may be seeing it from actually the air from up high. So, we're trying at ground level to disguise that generally.

Yeah, they come in yellow or white. Yeah, sometimes I've been able to get them in greens. Have a line. Yeah, we have a lot of the evergreens. we might be able to, you know, look into possibly getting painted, you know, colors in. And last uh question, can you describe to the board, you know, we discussed at the TAC meeting the seventh floor deck and screening that from the residents? Um, can you give a little testimony on what you're proposing? Yes. And I wasn't at that technique. I had a a colleague working on this, an architect with me. [snorts]

Can you uh just elaborate a little bit on the screen of our residents or neighbors to the neighbors from the deck. So anybody Thank you for asking questions. The neighboring the the top the seventh floor perspective wise you actually won't see much because it's so high by the perspective. It's more of having the residents look down into their backyard. that the residents up here looking down there. Yes. From that patio.

So, um right now you saw where we've got labeled planters. It's just as important to our client that we create that comment about bringing the outdoors in since it is an urban solution. All we have is terraces to try to warm up the building and bring in greenery. So, we we definitely plan on doing it there. And also on the top floor, you saw some where we got planters. Some of this um where we say architectural loomer and screen walls, we we've got to be respectful for what you can do mechanically. You can only cover up so much because we need free air. Otherwise, the equipment won't work on the building. So, we're going to do everything we can to screen that as possible with the architectural lubers and the green the green stuff would just be on the terrace area. So, so the question [snorts] planters is a very broad. You could have a 12-in planter box. You could have a 30-inch planter box. You could plant it with ivy that doesn't go vertical. You can do a green wall. Try to elicit some testimony from you with regard to that.

Yeah, we we we actually did in another package I've got, we are looking at some screen laws. Exactly. And you probably see a lot of restaurants that have rooftop bars and stuff. They create a a backdrop and a screen with IV. Some of it's real, some of it's not. So, we have we we know we want to do some things like that wall right there is a backdrop to hide all that mechanical. So, we're looking at this area right here to give this an outdoor room with as much of that greenery as possible. Okay. So, so you can't see through it right here.

So, again, we're talking about residential uses adjacent. Would you stipulate that you will develop because your design's not developed. It's it's clear because you're not giving me a direct answer. That you'll work with the city on developing the planner scheme and the type of plantings that will go there to make sure the residents will have a will not be looked down upon from the seventh floor balcony.

Right. Yes, we are. We're looking at also if we can put some trelluses that also helps. Again, we we can't put it too tight because of the air movement, but we are looking at areas there to cover horizontally as well as around the edges because really what we're trying to do is now they understand is the down is [snorts] the view looking down and you see it around here probably on certain buildings and hospitals they try to hide a lot of because that equipment is going to be big. We we absolutely know that. a sensitivity that we all know they have to market it. They can't market that unit. That's not good for them either.

Yeah. For the record, we recognize we're the privacy of the the adjacent residents is just as important as the privacy of people. Thank you, Mr. Council. That's all I have, Mr. Chair. All right. Question. Can you describe um delivery access to the loading dock? So, a food truck, a truck delivering food for the kitchen. What What group does it take? What is it access to the load?

Yes, it will come in off a landing lane, make a right hand turn. See this big swooping arch here? That allows a truck to come in, go into that point, and then back all the way up to here. [snorts] Yes, sir. Scott, are you the proper person to answer questions on you know access and exit and or civil? But I can internally I know how it works.

Um the question is uh there will be two entrances and two exits. Each each will serve both and exit. Correct. When vehicles exit the required to make a right hand turn

onto landing land. Yes, it's got to be right. This is one way Eastern Avenue right now is being coordinated with Middle Sex County. It's under their jurisdiction. Um right now it's full. Could the county come back and say right in right out possibly and whatever the county says we're going to abide by. certain times of the day you're just not going to be it's tough certain times of day completely and the this generator that you've been discussing I mean how how under the best of circumstances like how loud is that going to be the testing of these generators so just on the testing it's typically once a week

and it's one hour um but with the enclosures they're designed to minimize the noise and there's certain decel levels that you have depending what time you test it and we're certainly not going to test it at night. It would be during the middle of the day. There's state noise standards that we have to follow to meet certain decel levels at the adjacent residential structures. I don't quote the exact number. Todd again I think I'm in ballparks like 45 to 50 at the property line. Okay. 45 to 50. So we will select the enclosure good generator to meet those requirements. One other thing to just point out though with the generator there is a retaining wall in that area. There's this obstacle going to set up, but the generator is actually going to be this area here is 13 ft lower than the adjacent properties. So, it does also provide enough nice from a vertical perspective too where it's not right up against the um properties should help with noise attenuation as well. [clears throat]

Uh those delivery trucks when they're coming, how will they access the building other than uh landing lane? because they can't make a left up Eastern Avenue. So, they are only going to come down East Avenue from New Brunswick. Yeah, a lot of the deliveries are going to be frequent deliveries in the sense that not multiple times per day, but I'll call it to similar vendors where we deliver the facility. We'll work out agreed upon routes with them. And given the turning restrictions that the county has in place now, that's the only route we're able to take. So, yes, they come down east and make a right and then follow the movement. Mr. should

just for the record, it's the same as what they're doing currently now to service the nursing home. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, if you ever go through there, many people try to make that left hand. That's what I'm just saying [laughter]

because everyone wants to beat the uh the the left her at their life, but I just don't want trucks going over because it's bad enough to begin with, but we don't need trucks doing it. All right. Any other questions, comments from the board of board professions? Just a quick ones. Um, for the independent living units, can you give the board a sense of these tenants, do they are the units furnished or people bringing in moving in furniture to the rooms? How does that work? And then generally the these independent living units, are those residents going grocery shopping for themselves or is it sort of a daily or regular sort of movement of deliveries and things in and out of the building by themselves or how does that typically work?

Yeah, that's why I referenced a condo because that's many times in our urban cities where we're designing these kind of communities, they tend to come out of some of the apartments or condos that may be in the urban environment or maybe at a five mile radius they could be coming out of homes and they're moving right from their threebedroom, four bedroomedroom home and they're literally moving right into the same kind of environment just a lot smaller. They still could be driving and going places and traveling. They do that now in some of their existing communities. It's just this will be the first time they've got actually independent living within the continuum of care. They bring their own furniture. That's why we have service elevators. So moving uh companies will come to the loading dock, load the furniture up to their kind of apartment and yeah, they're they just happen to be, you know, looking for care for the future, a loved one that wants to be here with additional services.

Sure. Based on your experience, are these independent living tenants typically grocery shopping and cooking for themselves or are they going to a cafeteria? And what's what's the typical if there is a typical?

Yeah. Um well residents have the option if they wish to drive as you typically find even if they come in with a vehicle and my career is all about retirement living and the multiple types of living on one campus. They traditionally transition we provide transportation so they'll get on a bus just as with any of our communities now. They go on a trip or go somewhere we will bring them to a local shopping establishment. Um they can either drive themselves or they can get on our bus which we typically drive within about a 10 to a 12 mile radius. So this um they will get on our vehicle. They'll come in with their packages come into the lobby. There's many times there's little carts there or things that we provide for them so they can bring those items to their home. They do have the option to um these apartments they are able to have full kitchens in which if they wish to cook. I'm not going to be that person when I go to retirement living because there is um several restaurants for them to choose from. They have a beastro. They'll have um uh a graband go area. um uh meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as destination dining just on campus. So, it gives them that option. Traditionally, you find residents will at least do the [clears throat] evening meal potentially do um if it would be someone like myself um living by myself, I would probably pick up at least two, maybe three meals a day made by the community in which I would go get. But I do have the option in my um uh kitchen as well. Even in assisted living, they have a little kitchenet that has a refrigerator and microwave, which is standard um within the industry and code. And then the residents can have something in there, a little light meal, or they go down and and get their three meals a day.

Does that help? Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions, comments from professionals? Yeah. Am I correct to assume that there'd be significant number of like take out, you know, deliveries to the

most likely. I mean, uh, we take tremendous pride and through my history of retirement community, the takeout is from a graband go within the community. Now, they do have the opportunity if they want to do a an Uber Eats or something like that. Um, I would tend to hope that, uh, and through my experience that they get those meals through the community. There's also places in which um, uh, in the restaurants if they don't wish to come down, they'll place their order. they'll come down and pick it up, bring it to their home. So, their um order to go will be within the community. That's rarely see someone bring in um an Uber or something, but that's possible. Mostly would be just from our full uh commercial kitchen that makes um all the meals for them if they so wish.

Yeah. Just getting it at how much traffic type of you know trucks constantly coming in and that sort of

I will tell you from again my ex over 20 years experience just in retirement living is that they rely upon the community for all their services, their amenities, their services. Um they may drive maybe initially but then we'll utilize the um the bus services and we fully want to support the town of New Brunswick and open the opportunity for the residents that live there that will go down and use the theater that will use the different establishments maybe a trip out to the restaurants that are there. That's a destination dining within New Brunswick. Any other questions? Seeing none,

just one other item. I I would just want to point out again the the facility is adjacent to Balo Park and uh there is an expectation that there that the residents will have access to the park. We are in discussions with the city's administration with regard to what if any improvements that the city would look for us to do in the park. So it's not part of this site plan application but we would cooperate currently negotiating with and discussing with the city what we may want to do along that particular location. I think today they do a lot of storage there vehicles and other things. So there may not be a lot that the city wants us to do there no matter what the residents here will have direct access into the park like the others that are adjacent to the park colony house. They all have access.

Thank you. Anything else? That's it. [clears throat] Uh, at this time I'd like to open up to the public. If there's anyone from the public there was a comment questions on this, please. Yeah. I won't be. You're still sworn in. You can um [snorts] You have your five minutes. You can start now.

Thank you. My name is Freddy P. I live in New Brunswick and I'm just a little bit younger than your target audience. I think you said close to 75, but I'm 73, so I'm getting close. But I'm a vibrant 73 and I'm excited about this uh what I'm hearing about Parker. Um I do go to the senior center in New Brunswick and I know you're a good partner to the senior center. So um I see what I see here. It sounds exciting to me. I'm not ready for you yet. Um but um it sounds like a place that I would love to move to if it's a vibrant location. You know, sometimes you go by places in Florida. I was just down in West Palm Beach and you see some of these seniors and they sit in front of these places and they have nothing to do. There's nothing going on. They wake up, they eat in there in the common area. Then they sit in front of the location. And I'm hoping that this place is not like that. that that maybe you might have I don't want to say you don't have a pool because I didn't hear you mention that but something for the seniors the people that work they have a structured day and they know what they're going to do. They go to work and but the other people I do hope that their life is going to be more than just waking up and sitting in front of the location. Um you mentioned the park. I go to Bugalon Park several times a week. It's a beautiful park. It has tennis courts. I think it might even be a volleyball court there. Um I don't expect you're playing softball at 75 down to 80. But there is a great park there that maybe the two um the retirement home, the assisted living can work in conjunction with the city. We just heard about this new restaurant that's going to come that's going to be built. It's only a couple of blocks from where you guys are talking about. So maybe people can actually walk there. Um maybe you might

have some kind of shuttle service for them to get into the state theater and and live and enjoy the Bronx way. Um but again it's I just hope it's not people sitting in front of the the location what I might call that pine shuffle where they're just they're just waiting to die and I've not heard that from what you guys are proposing. So I'm very excited about what you're doing. Thank you. Why am I the only person in this room that I realize fits the demographic? [laughter] No, you're not. Okay. Yes, I forgot. Oh, maybe that's why I asked you to be their attorney. [laughter]

That's my vote. Thank you.

I appreciate that. Good evening, chair. So, okay. Can you please state your name and tell your last name for the record? My name is Jasmine. My last name is Panco. P O L A N C O. Do you swear we're affirmative? I swear. Okay, you have five minutes.

All right. So, good evening. Thank you for the time. I live directly across the street from the proposed Parker Alley development. I live at 38 Eastern Avenue and I do understand this is a redevelopment area and I am not here to oppose the project. I am here just to ensure that any approval includes clear enforcable protections for the residents who already live there. I mean across the street about 15 ft from Parkers, right? And given the size of this 14story project, construction will be significant and longterm, right? We haven't touched on how long is this construction going to take. I am requesting that construction hours be strictly limited to possibly um no work before 9:00 am. Um and what about weekend construction? What are we expecting during the weekends? And we need to protect sleep, child care routines, and the well-being of both um young and um children and older adults in the immediate area. I'm sorry guys, I'm a little um nervous. English is my second language and I'm trying my best to speak as clear as I can. And noise and vibration and will this project involve pilot driving or similar high impact activity. Um we need to have a formal noise and vibration mitigation plan including from the city monitoring and enforcable limits. And regarding traffic, we did get a very ambiguous answer with the traffic on from 3 pm to 6 pm we have more than 300 cars per hour. What are we expecting in terms of traffic with those on patients and residents that are going to be constantly leaving the building? Is the route around Landing Lake going to be

rerouted? I saw in your paintings that you had two routes. As of right now, we have only one one way to turn right. Like what's the expectation there? I'm also very very concerned about dust and air quality because as we know micro exposure to um these elements and in your older years can significantly affect your respiratory system. So what is the company going to do to um sorry to have a do control on measures and and for the city how are how are we going to be enforcing this and I finally I do ask the board to clearly state on the records any variances or designs waiverss that are being requested and how can they be justified without negatively impacting the surrounding residential community like just me walking out of my house and I have, I don't know, 30 residents looking down at me. How is that going to feel? I I I really do appreciate that you thought about the residents that live right across the street from Parkers like me, 318 Eastern Avenue. Um, if the board is inclined to approve this application, I respectfully request that this protection be included as formal conditions of approval, not informal asurances. Uh let me just respond to the one item. There are no variances and there are no waiverss [snorts] fully compliant with the redevelopment plan. I think Chris can answer several of the other items. I may bounce around a little bit. I may miss some. But as far as a construction timeline, you guys can chime in. It's approximately three years, a little bit less than three years. What we typically do in the city of New Brunswick and we're doing it right now as a helix is probably the best example. Um, we do do vibration monitoring during our deep excavation work. What that includes is placing vibration monitors around the

perimeter of our property. There's certain threshold levels and if those levels are exceeded, work is stopped and that's for protection purposes. So, you never see exceedences on your property across the street. We also do air monitoring during not only demolition activities, but we'll do it for the excavation site work activities. Um, we set up the monitors again around the perimeter of site. particular air monitoring levels are exceeded. Again, we stop work immediately, rectify the situation, and then move forward. And then the other point I heard you ask about was the noise, the hours, and the weekend work. There's standard hours in the city of New Brunswick um during the week for work and then you can request the city council to do extended work on the weekends, but that's not something we have a request in for now. That would be a request. If for some reason the contractor wanted to work on specific weekends, we would have to go to city council to get that approved. All right, sharers. So, I actually had an answer prepared for um our what's your name? I'm sorry.

Chris. Chris, you have 22 seconds.

22 seconds on construction hours. So, basically, I just want the chair to on the board to look more specific into this situation because not only do you have um students, I'm a student myself going to graduate school right now. Um we have I work early mornings. I do um have small children and also the letter that was sent over to us, it was only sent on English. We do have a lot of Spanish speaking people in New Brunswick that didn't really understood what this letter was about. So that's one of the reasons too why you only see people here that are speaking only Spanish that should have been sent English and Spanish for three neighbors near me that didn't understood what was going on.

Right. Thank you. [applause] Let me just respond to that. We follow the law with regard to notice requirement. We actually notice beyond in in certain area beyond the 200 ft to be be safe and it's my client's intention to comply with the city's ordinance with respect to work hours limitations and we'll comply with that. We're obligated by law to do that. Yeah. Do we know we off day is 8 to 8 I think. Okay. I don't I don't know off the top of my head what the weekend. I think Sunday's done, right?

So, I do know the hours of 7 a.m. Your time's up, but I'm just trying to ask. Um, but they will stay within the hours permitted by the city. Now, if they there there are times if they did want to like um they said they could always ask the city uh council for additional approval of hours, but I you know like they said they don't look into uh asking for those hours. So, anyone else from the public have any questions or comments?

Please stand next to our last record. Carlos Ramirez, R A M I R E D. You swear a firm though about the truth. I do. Your honor, go ahead.

I want to start by um saying that there is law and that there's also common courtesy for your neighbors. There's many citrins laws sewing planning. But I think if you have neighbors and you're trying to get along with them, considering you're going to block their sun from different areas building a huge highrise, even the ones that are three, four feet tall, they will look down up on you if you're out there playing with your kids, kicking the ball, or out there in a pool. Regardless, I think it's coming courtesy to send notices in all languages. Not just because the law says it has to go in English. You also have people that don't know how to read, people that don't even can't even see a paper and need other types of methods of communication. So, I think common courtesy for your neighbors would be a good start. Moving on, I want to start by asking, has there been a full traffic impact study completed for Eastern Avenue and the intersection street especially during peak hours? Yes.

And why have those studies revealed? Pardon me. And why has that study revealed? Well, you can get a copy of it. Just get an open request to the city and they can send you a copy of the full report. You know, it would be courteous if you provided some of that information.

Provided it the way we're supposed to provide it by law. We did that and it's on file with the city. We'll make a request. Now during construction, how would traffic lane closures, sidewalks, access, and pedestri managed? They'll be managed through a a a uh development plan that is prepared by the applicant, submitted to the city, reviewed by engineering and the building department to determine whether or not it complies with the requirements. and we we'll it incorporate whatever recommendations the city may have in in specific areas or locations. It's common practice with every project that's ever built.

So, should neighbors expect sidewalks to be closed or part of [snorts] the intersection closed for machinery or can answer that question, but I would doubt it on the other side of the street. It may be right in front of where the the facility is right now, probably. What would be the clearance for the parking lot or the deck for vehicles to access? I'm sorry. The clearance being proposed. Yes. What do you plan on having the clearance? You know, because I'm assuming people might have [clears throat] a small car or a truck or a bigger SUV.

Which one is I don't exact dimension yet? Typically somewhere on the order of 12 to 14 ft. Okay. Now what would be the clearance if will there be clearance for emergency apparatuses such as ladders you know if you can yes try to reach from the street but within the property itself what would be the current clearance for those apparatuses for a fire apparatus correct I don't know the answer to that but I can tell you that this application was reviewed by the fire department

and their apparatuses would they be able to manuver were from there was a limited with the houses. Um the they would have full access to the entire perimeter of this building either through the park on East Avenue landing lane or behind the building through the access road. Uh I did see an area view. It appears that from the two main mentioned intersections they were have clear visibility. limitations might be uh probable on the [singing] neighboring residential sites, but I do believe there's also another area that won't be accessible and that's connecting near the park side. Am I correct?

No, I don't think you are correct. Okay. So, that means all four corners of that whole structure would have uh accessibility for all these vehicles for the for the fire department. Correct. Okay. It wouldn't have been approved by the fire department if we didn't. Is this structure in a flooding zone? Has there been any test done or is there any history in a what? A flooding zone. No, it's not in a flooding zone. Okay. Now, how many trees are planning to be removed? Will there be any replacement for that? If so, what type of trees will be put up? Yes, that was testified to us. Okay. Perhaps I missed it. Can you probably Chris? You want to get it again?

Yeah, I'll look at my notes in a second. There's 100 new trees going in. It submits some American holidays trees, red maples and dogwood trees. I think based on the amount of trees being removed, it's not a huge number of trees being removed, but given the diameter of the trees, we're required to have a replacement count on the order of 200. So what I testified to was any delta between the amount of trees we're planting compared to what's required. We typically make that up to our financial contribution to the city's tree fund that those trees can be planted elsewhere in the city. Now it's time. Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Anyone else in the public have any questions or comments on this application?

Um swerve s e r d l o f and yes. Do you swear the whole truth about the truth? Yes. You're on five minutes. I just this is just a question because I haven't seen all the I haven't been paying attention to all the allegations. Yes. So, can you given that this is my property? What is this again? I'll hold this answer. Okay. [laughter] What is this? I I'm here. This is my house, right? So, I'm looking at this and this is lit up. Is this going to be all lit up all the time?

Uh, no. Some of it is during the day. There's office spaces back there, but they're more than likely.

Okay. And is this this looks like a different is this the same elevation? This and this, or is this higher? Yes, just the same elevation. All right. So this is one, two, three stories behind me from this lower level. Your house too cuz we're down a whole level. Great. Okay, that was all. Anyone else from the public have any questions or comments on this? I don't have one more question. time.

Sorry, I have a second to switch. Ma'am, ma'am, it's one time. I'm speaking for five minutes. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we're going to close the public portion of the meeting um for discussion. Anyone have anything?

Fantastic questions.

Dad, if we were to do we have The board act favored that the following condition shall apply. Complying to the terms of great view engineering report dated May 8th, 2026. Submission of all necessary easements and or cross access agreement review and approval by the board attorney city engineer prior to filing. Same payment of a site performance bond and amount reviewed and approved by city. Submission of site inspection escro deposit for the uh engineering inspection fees and amount calculated pursuing the title 16.24.160. Payment of all water and sewer connection fees pursuant to title 13.04 and 13.08. Issuance of road opening permit from city engineer if required. Compliance with terms of the big nail planning report dated May 6, 2026. Payment of a redeveloper fee if applicable to the city of New Brunswick. Mandatory monetary contribution to the city's tree preservation trust fund amount to be [clears throat] required by title 8.48. Planning review escrow funded for all anticipated post approval reviews. Payment of any other fees due to the city of New Brunswick related to development or use of this project. Payment of all outstanding tax and water or sewer fees. No sex county planning board approval or waiver. DNR canal commission approval or waiver. Freehold soil conservation district approval or waiver. Submit engineering segment to comply with any changes required by the planning or engineering memos or plan amendments offered at the hearing. Submit architectural plans to comply with any changes required by the planning or engineering memos or plan amendments offered at the hearing. Execution of a title 39 parking enforcement agreement. Uh voluntary waiver of the right for occupants of subject property to obtain residential or business on street parking permits. And we'll work with city for plantings and planter scheme for screening from the seventh floor terrace. I don't know if that should be worded differently. Did that cover the that item adequately? Correct. Uh all utilities and other site improvements by the applicant at the show expense. All on util to be constructed underground. All temporary

encroachments into the public right away shall require city council approval. All construction staging shall be done on site unless an encroachment allowed into the public right away is approved by city council. Street shall be kept clean of sediment and debris. The applicant shall cause the streets to be cleaned if directed to do so by the director of public works. Track and patch shall be installed at all construction exits. Replacement replacement of damaged streets, curves, and sidewalks as per the direction of the city engineer. any was access to east to and from East Avenue in there somewhere from Middle Sex County. I mean they'd happy to have Middle Sex County Planning Board approval which would be subsumed.

Yes, sir. And I'm sorry I may have missed it. Did you put in uh I believe the applicant did stipulate to post construction acoustic testing if the board required it? Uh I did not put that in but I will gladly read it. Is that correct, Mr. Sorry, Mr. Wait, what's the what's the post post construction acoustical testing for the generator? Post construction testing for the generator.

Okay. I have a second. Second. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yes. Carina Melendez. Yes. Alex Horos. Yes. Daniel Lopez. Yes. Zach Wright. Yes. Partica. Yes. John Cox. Yes. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Other to the public. Anyone else have anything to bring to the board's attention? Seeing none have a motion to motion. Congratulations.

This is City New H Planning Board uh meeting of May 11th, 2026 7 p.m. Roll call. Elissa Czecho here. Kina Melendez here. Luck. Al Toro here. Anthony Cameion. Diana Lopez here. Zack Wright. Mike Blackwell may here. Bob Cartica here. John Cox

here. Public announcement. Please be advised that those requirements of the open public meeting act have been complied with and satisfied under the annual notice which gives sufficient notice the time place and conduct of all public meetings of the planning board of the city of New Brunswick board city hall 78 street newspapers of the city of New the name of the home to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I should have all gotten it Friday, Thursday. Eligible voting members who are present today are uh Elita Czecho Melendez, Alex Norm, Diana Lopez, and John.

Yes. Lopez. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Resolution memorialization. All right. Uh first up we have 149 Livingston LLC. Uh eligible voting members. Uh motion. Motion by Megan. Second checkup. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's the LLC organization. Same voting number. [laughter] Yes.

Yes. Toros. Yes. Lopez. Yes. Yes. Public hearing. Sam Algar PB250918 Eastern Avenue. The applicant seeks to convert the existing funeral home into a sit down restaurant with outdoor seating in a second floor bank room. The garage portion of the existing structure will be converted into a kitchen. There will be no additions to the structure, but windows and doors will be updated and relocated. The existing access to East Avenue Gilman Street will be maintained. James Clark.

Good evening, Chairman Cox, board members, professional staff, attorney James Clark of the firm of Clark and the applicant. [cough and clears throat] The chairman took half of my opening statement. Um, no additions to the structure, but there will be revisions. Doors and windows will be relocated, and this is in addition to everything just indicated. We will also uh have some decorative columns uh and some ballasters. Uh the existing accesses to Eastern Avenue and William Street will be maintained. We are seeking both preliminary as well as final site plan approval and three variances. The first variance is for imperous coverage. Uh currently the site is at 91%. Although we are slightly reducing ever so slightly the coverage, we are still in excess of what the ordinance uh allows. The second uh variance is with respect to parking. Uh 66 uh spaces are required under your ordinance and we are proposing 52 which I would dare say has to be a record for a restaurant in the city. I can't think of another one uh that would have that many. Um, lastly, we require sign variances. Uh, for some reason, a sign is not a permitted use for a restaurant in this zone, although it's located along the busy east corner. Um, that's okay.

It was the It was the the freestanding sign. It was the freestanding sign. I can have a sign is the type of sign.

Okay. Well, there's really no location on the site where we could put a traditional two-sided freestanding sign. Otherwise, we'd lose apartment space. So, if those of you have been by the funeral home, you'll see that they have a sign which is attached to the front row iron fence. And that is what we proposed to do as well. Size of the sign will be, I think, nominally 5T by 5T. Um, we have three witnesses this evening. First is San Adar. uh who is the owner and advocate. He will take you through how the restaurant is going to operate. He will be followed by our architect uh who will give you uh elevations and floor plans and finally we will have the engineer here will take you through the site improvements. Uh I will then uh finish off with a proper to justify the variances that the opportunity see. Uh that is it for the initial remarks. I don't have any initial questions. I'll feel them now.

Does any member of the board of professionals have any content with this application? Same. Go ahead. Wonderful. Sam, we'll swear. Can you please state your name? Spell your last name for the record. Spell your last name for the record. A LG. Do you swear or affirm the whole truth? Sam, you're now the proud owner of the old Boil and Fuger home property? Yes. And when did you purchase it? Four months ago. Four months ago. Keep your voice up so they can they can all hear. Okay. All right. Can you tell the board your vision for the property?

Well, I'm trying to do like something outdoor seating with open the whole place, change the whole building, make it look different than what it is now. Some landscaping. It'll be a sit down restaurant. Restaurant. Yeah. It's something fresh. Some seating on the first floor inside. First floor and a mezzanine. A mezzanine on the second floor with some additional tables. Yes. Just like the way the table is, we will sit here under. Okay. And have you chosen a name for the restaurant? Uh, Zeno. Z E N O. Okay. And what will be the cuisine?

Uh, it's going to be like Italian fusion cuisine. A little bit too old like European style. Okay. Okay. So I don't have to go with one. Okay. What will be the hours of operation? We will be open 11 to usually 11 but let's say to 12 in case there's a party. Yeah. In case we have a party that's all. Okay. 9th day and week trying to do like a family. All right. And will you be open seven days a week? Yes. Okay. What will be the maximum number of employees on the site at any one time?

Okay. What can you tell the board about deliveries to the site? Deliveries. How many would you get on a weekly basis? How many delivery trucks? Oh, okay. Delivery truck is twice a week. Okay. And what kind of vehicles will these delivery uh vehicles take? Minivan. Minivan. Most of the stuff come from ranch. Skyway. It's very close. So, we bring everything daily. Daily or twice a week? Twice a week. Okay. All right. Will there ever be any tractor trailer deliveries? No. All right. What will be the timing? What time of day will you have deliveries come? In the morning.

Okay. Will trash and recycling be handled by a private partner? Yes. Okay. All right. And when will we schedule those? Uh in the morning. Before you open for business. And have you selected a sign? Yes. Is that the sign? Yes. Okay. Exhibit A1, please. 2026. What's the application number? Uh PB 20259.

You may circulate. Thank you. What would be the approximate size of that sign? [clears throat] 5x5. Will it be illuminated? Yes, it might. I'm still working. Okay. Would it be interior? No spotlight. No. Okay. All right. That's all I have on director Mr. Chair. He's available for questions. Any member of the board have any questions for this uh with us? The anticipation that the employees will park on site or are they going to park like we'll be taking [clears throat] some of the 52 spots or will they

probably I'll tell them to come mo most most of them local so they can walk. Okay. Or they can We'll see how two come in one car. We also have some stacked parking that's going to be signed for employees only. Okay. Is that included in the 52? Yes, it is included in the 52. Okay. So, it's not on top of Yes. Um Okay. Any other say in your next call the Can you please say your name? Spell your last name for the record. Sure. It's the NSAR elitar. K L M U K A H T A R. Do you swear we're as a whole? Yes, I do.

Thank you. Slide over. Sure. Okay. Did you prepare the elevations and floor plans for this project? Yes, I am. What's the date on the plans? Uh February 9th, 2026. And you personally signed those plans? Yes. Okay. And the plans are entitled up at the top restaurant/banker wall. Correct. Correct. So, is there a banquet hall any longer? Uh, no. Initially, we were intending to uh apply for banquet hall on the second floor, but we eliminated that. Uh, and now it's only the restaurant. Restaurant seating only. Correct. Excuse me. Yes. I don't believe he is for us. Can you Oh, I'm sorry. Let's do his credentials. I'm sorry. Yeah. So,

education and [snorts] so yeah, I have a bachelor's degree in architecture. I It's accredited by the National Architectural Opportunition Board. I went to NJ. Uh I am licensed at the state of New Jersey with a current license in good standing. I'm also licensed in New York and Pennsylvania. I testified in front of numerous boards. I've been accepted throughout the state of New Jersey. I've been accepted in all of them as an expert witness in the field of architecture. This is my first appearance in uh I didn't realize I Mr. Chairman. We will accept you as an expert in architecture. Thank you so much. you can we first review the elevation that will be most visible from Eastston Avenue.

Uh sure absolutely. So this is the set that was presented to the board members and it consists of uh six total sheets. First one is T01. Uh the top facade that represents the proposed elevation the facade that would be facing Eastern Avenue. Uh basically we're keeping the same footprint of the existing structure but we are adding some uh excuse me uh some columns and some ballasters to give it a different look a little bit of a classic look. Uh we're also you know concentrating on this which is the center of the existing mass. Uh the proposed outdoor seating would be fully covered. This is the proposed outdoor seating and this is a roof that we're adding. This is the existing roof and we're adding some uh emphasis on the main uh central area of the existing structure. Will the building height change at all? Building height is to remain the same.

Yeah. Uh and then to the bottom of the same sheet uh this is the Logan uh street elevation. Uh as you can see the lower portion this is the garage that will uh the floor of the garage is lower than the first floor elevation. So we are proposing to raise that floor uh and this garage will be converted into a kitchen area that would be serving the restaurant. And then we have some uh area calculations. As I mentioned we are not changing the footprint in the indoor seating area. However, we are proposing to add uh outdoor seating.

What type of finish do we anticipate the facade? Currently, the building is brick. So, we are attempt to keep that. Uh and then we add some stone finish and the monasteries will be all the classic stone look. Okay. Colors. Uh mostly probably earth tone colors. Okay. Please continue.

Sure. So the second page which is a [cough] this uh indicates the basement floor uh there's some uh restrooms areas and storage areas. Uh we're doing some minor demolition there and then the first floor would be all cleared up. move to the first. We also have our mechanicals in the basement. Uh yes.

Okay. And then the area on the garage is unexavated. We have labeled it as unexavated. So it's only the existing structure. Uh and then if we go up to the first floor which is the lower portion, the drawing on the lower portion of sheet A1. Uh most of the interior partitions are being demolished except for the uh structure. We have a steel structure and then in between we have wood framing. Uh so we are proposing to have an open space, clear open space. Before we had some uh different uh assembly rooms if you will. Uh and then to the left side we are demolishing the three cargo doors. The there's a ramp, there's a staircase. Uh we're demolishing all these and raising the floor uh to provide one uh level for the entire first floor. These plans were exactly the same ones that were submitted the application. So I haven't asked them to correct

uh on AO2 uh on the second floor there there was a residential uh unit very large residential unit. So again, the proposal is to demolish uh all the uh uh the partitions there, the interior partitions, and also raise up the ceiling to have it some sort of cathedral ceiling just to provide a space. Uh you know, when you're sitting in a restaurant, it would be nice to have a higher ceiling. So it would be a nice decorative ceiling. Uh on the same sheet, the proposed basement floor plan is at the bottom. Uh this would be just some storage areas and walking boxes for the restaurant. So uh and then on the right side there will be just a uh this is for the usage of the applicant. It's a private space, his own bathroom and his own small office and storage areas.

And building correct mechanical art and it's going to remain as a mechanical. Uh AO3 depicts the first floor plan, the proposed floor first floor plan. On the left side is the commercial kitchen area and this will be access will have access to the main dining room area. Uh this is this will be the main entrance and then to the outside you will have the uh outdoor seating for the proposed outdoor seating area which would contain 76 uh seats. Uh and then we're also propo proposing a small uh fountain uh there. And then as you enter uh we are proposing you know a nice monumental uh staircase and then the central area of the first floor the ceiling of that central area of the first floor you are proposing to cut uh the floor there. So you would have a double height excuse [clears throat] me double height entrance. So those sitting on the first floor will be able to see those on the upper floor on the mezzanine and those who are in the city will be able also to see those on the uh first floor. Uh at the same time we did keep the uh two staircases on both ends of the building. So because those are emergency exit stairs cases. This is not an emergency exit. This is just a a decorative monumental staircase. Uh we are also proposing to add a elevator on the left side of the building and we're adding uh toilets for both sexes for men uh for women's restrooms and men's restroom. All right, second floor uh second floor. So all this area on the second floor will be open. So there's no seating uh

except for the perimeter of that area. Uh and then we're also providing proposing to provide uh restrooms for both sexes so they don't have to go up and down. And there's also an elevator that goes up between the two floors. Also the second floor, we're proposing to have an outdoor seating area that will contain 76 seats. All right. After that, finally, we have the rear and the side elevation. Uh, you know, as you can see, we're trying to do, you know, double height windows, arched windows, just to make it look nice as opposed to what the building looks like now. It looks very residential. So, we're trying to make it look more commercial, more geared towards like a restaurant use. Uh, those are just, excuse me, those are the garage doors that would be blocked. Uh and we're providing some uh overhead uh clear story windows to provide some natural light and at the same time those will be solid decorative arches so that they can have any kind of equipment. At the same time we would have the light from above and then this is the rear elevation. There's not much change on that rear elevation. It's almost very close to the

All right. That concludes that testimony. Any member of the board of professionals have a question. Where where exactly is the outdoor seating going? Because I'm trying to picture it and I know that building well. So I'm just trying to picture where is that outdoor seating being placed. It's taking a portion of the parking lot. If you enter on Eastn A, the entrance of the building is on the right side. So it's as you enter from east, it's on the right side. So it would extend outside. I think it might be easier to visualize with the engineers. Okay. All right.

And will there be a accessible ramp or is it Yes, absolutely. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Please move the engineer. Thank you. stand.

Can you please state your name, spell your last name for the record? Yes. Adam K, you last name spelled K A N D I L. Um, do you swear to reference temperatures? Yes, I do. Also not in front of the board. The benefit of your education and expertise. Yeah. Graduated from Ruckers School of Engineering. I've been in the field of civil engineering, specifically land development for the last 21 years. Um, I've testified in front of several boards across the state as well as this county. Uh my license is into extend the field of engineering engineering. Did you prepare the site drawings which are on that easel?

Uh yes I did. Okay. So board the location and size of the property. Yes. So the um the size of the property is 746 acres. Um the location of the site is uh on East. Uh the back part of the site is on uh Gilen Street and the closest cross street is uh Bristol Street. Um and the property is uh the property is south of East and that 7 acres comes out to 32,500 ft. Yes, that's correct. Okay. What is on the property today? Uh currently on the property is a existing funeral home with uh 55 existing parking spaces.

And what does the applicant propose? The applicant is proposing as the architect uh described is a restaurant with outdoor seating. All right. Can you take the board through the site improvements that are being proposed? Certainly. So, um I'll go through the um I'll go through I'll go through the um the bulk requirements first just uh for the record. Uh just no change no money we've already indicated. I'm going to comply with just about everything. We've got one existing condition and we uh are requesting three bars. Okay.

So, I'm gonna pass through existing conditions very quick and then go to the site plan. Go ahead.

Uh so, on existing conditions, just want to show the location of where that parking is going to be for the chairman's benefit. Uh so, this is the existing parking lot. There's two curb cuts currently on Easton. will be closing one of the curb cuts and at that curb cut will be where the patio will be going over there. So that that oh actually sorry there's one curb cut we'll be relocating the curb cut to this other parking bay over here and we'd be eliminating that curb cut to provide the patio in front of the building and then opening up another curve cut in this pane of parking. So that's in the just translating it to the existing conditions. Um and the building other than the modifications as for the architect, we're not doing anything else uh any further expansion to the building. And there's currently 55 parking spaces. We're going to be modifying and uh we're going to be also upgrading the spaces to make sure they're conforming with ADA and the new uh uh New Jersey DCA EV parking spaces. Uh just going on to the uh site plan. Uh just going through the improvements. So it's going to be coming in from [snorts] east, oneway circulation coming from north. Is it better if I go there? Let me go there. Uh so one way parking coming from north to south. Um and you come in through the um to the access uh curb cut on East. oneway circulation. You can come and drop off parking and continue out to park and exiting through the um through the uh southeastern uh access drive. This exit on this drive is not going to be uh used for exiting. That's going to be used for deliveries and emergency vehicles if needed. But the [snorts] main uh course circulation

will be coming to this drive aisle and continuing down to the uh souththeast portion of the site and exiting from that curve cup. Will there be an automatic gate with access control there at that gate? Uh the um the site and I just want to go to this one over here. This is the site plan which has been submitted with the documents. This is sheet CO3 for reference. Uh so we have oneway circulation. We have conforming parking spaces uh throughout. Um we have uh we have currently um so we have a total of 52 proposed parking spaces, seven of which that are EV, three that are uh ADA including one van accessible. Um and in addition to that uh to mention we also have nine on street parking uh that are along the frontage. So when we mark out the parking spots along the frontage, there's an additional nine. Although it's not with included in the parking calculation, just notating that along our frontage, there are nine on-site uh parking spaces as well. Uh but on site there uh off-site parking spaces. Onsite there's a total of 52 parking spots. Uh here is uh in this area here is our 10x4 trash enclosure, which will have both recycling and trash in there. Um, and we also are providing uh, so here's the patio area and this is how it's integrated with the parking. So there's stairs over here and there's an ADA parking uh, ADA ramp to allow ADA um, uh, parking and um, ADA access to come up the ramp and into the building. Um, and here's the um elevated patio with landscape landscaping between the parking and the patio and also additional landscaping on Gilden as well. Um, Gilden Street, sorry. Um, and

uh that's essentially essentially you have some stack parking for employees. Yes. So the stack parking is over here also by the um the uh trash enclosure. So that's stack parking for employees. There'll be employees. It'll be known everybody who's parking here. Uh, as the owner testified to earlier, deliveries are going to be prior to the application uh application. I think prior to the opening and operation of business hours. So, um, that'll be dealt with prior to uh, business hours. Location of the sign.

Location of the sign. There's an existing sign here on the uh on Eastn A which will be renov which will be modified and and modified to the uh the sign that was circulated. All right. Have you had an opportunity to review the city engineers report? Uh yes I did. Mr. Chairman, with your approval, I'm going to start on the middle of page three with the general comments and recommendations. Sure. Uh we're only going to hit on the items that are still uh open and require discussion. Item number two,

can you respond to that? [clears throat]

Yeah. So item number two, soil erosion sediment control. Uh we submitted we submitted uh on uh April 21st uh to so erosion sediment control. Uh we did submit as part of our package uh showing and that was one of the comments from engineering to show the limit of disturbance that is reflected now in our current uh site plan package that was submitted and that was submitted for approval on April 21st. With regard to item number three, I can tackle that. Mr. Chairman, we have uh obtained a letter from Delaware Canal Commission indicating that it's an intent application. Okay. Thank you.

Uh and we'll provide that obviously to to Dan. Uh item 10. Yep. Adam.

Yeah. Item number 10. Um so item number 10. Uh we uh also did a survey looking at the water and sewer and I'm going to address both water and sewer with this one. So with regards to and I'll turn to sheet C 04. With regards to water, domestic water, we have evaluated with our uh building engineer architecture team and the domestic water is adequate for the building, but we do need for sprinkler. We do need a fire connection which we will need one fire connection on East. And with regards to sanitary, we evaluate and also as one of the comments on engineering was to um to explore this 3-in pipe in the back. That 3-in pipe has been demolished, but there's currently an existing 4-in pipe that goes to Easton. And based on the new uh the new improvements in the building and the new bathrooms in the kitchen, we do need another line. So, that is going to be a 4 inch line. and rather than going to East County, that's going to come on the low side of buildings coming to Gilden uh Street on the on the back side. So, that's not currently reflected on their drawings, but something that we will be updating on our drawings.

All right. I think that items 11 and 13 as well. Okay. my best quietly. All right. So, that testimony covered items 10, 11, and 13. Obviously, if the city engineer wants more clarification, we can provide it. We'll move on to the next page. And item 15, uh, they ask for the limits of disturbance to be delineated. Uh, it's on the freehold soil plants, correct?

Yes. It's part of the set soil erosion and sediment control. It's it's on our plans that have an element of disturbances 7,872 and 90 square ft 90 ft already. Uh we've already hit upon uh item 21. Uh the timing of pickups for trash and recycling will not pose any type of a conflict uh with the use of those parking spaces. Uh can you uh touch on drainage and utility comments please?

Uh yes. So again um I I I touched on it. So we we have our uh on our cover sheet we do have our water and sewer demands. There is an increase in demands on both water and sewer. Uh the water is adequate for what's there with regards to domestic. The sewer is also adequate. However, it for operations and functionality in the area where there is the existing garage that's being re renovated that doesn't have plumbing there. So, we will be bringing a new 4-in line to this section again going down to Gilden Street. Uh we also will be uh providing an engineers uh report for both water and sewer stating that the last bit of information we're waiting for was the clarification on that 3-in pipe and the 4 in which we did get. So we'll be uh finalizing that report and submitting it um as a result of resolution compliance to our commission.

All right. Moving to item 28. There's a list of details that are requested of us and we will comply with that request. Yes. And we will also comply with items 29 and 30. Correct. That's correct. All right. I believe we've covered all the points, Mr. Chairman. Uh and that concludes his testimony. He's available for questions. Any member of the board or board of restaurants have a question, please? These street parking spaces that you mentioned, you intend to make those exclusive to restaurant users? No. Okay. So, that's not included in the 50 spaces that you That's correct. Just for the benefit of the board, just wanted to bring it up that it was informationational, not proof. Information.

Okay. Where would the hood uh exhaust for the kitchen be? And where would we located? Would I have asked? Should I have asked that the architect? Yeah, the architect would be better. Okay. Yeah. Rather than hear him laughing at me. So, it would just go up because the [clears throat] the kitchen will be in the garage and it's a one-story structure. So, we don't need to provide shafts or anything. We just [clears throat] have to go up. And the fire suppression line, where is that going to come off of Eastern Avenue or uh Gilden Street? Off of Eastern Avenue. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? The the uh outdoor seating areas which would be two levels, right?

Correct. Yes. Um and uh these would be kind of enclosed in cooler weather and or not or just not used. Not not used pretty much in cold weather. It's covered. It has a roof up, but it's open on the sides. Yes. Sure. Any questions, comments? Seeing none, next witness.

The next witness is uh not me. It's the prophet. Okay. As I mentioned, we have three variances and one existing non-conforming conditions. We believe that they can be justified both under a hardship theory as well as what we call the flexible C2 analysis. Uh that C2 analysis uh involves us identifying the benefits of the project, telling you if we foresee any detriments that might be caused and then engaging in a balancing and weighing of the uh benefits and the detriments. You have to come to the conclusion that the benefits from the overall project substantially outweigh any possible detriments. Uh with respect to the impervious coverage, uh we're slightly reducing it. uh but it still remains a non-conforming situation. The hardship is the site is already completely laid out. Uh if we were to eliminate uh pavement, we would lose parking spaces and we don't think that's the right alternative to go with. Uh with respect to uh parking, uh we could demolish a portion of the building. Uh that seems to me to be counterproductive. Uh we could also have less seats in the restaurant. Uh we want our businesses to thrive and we don't think that that would be an appropriate use of the land. Uh keep in mind with respect to the parking demand that you do have people that will walk to the restaurant. You do have lift. You do have Uber and we're going to have driverless taxis. Uh with respect to uh the sign variance, uh the hardship is as I mentioned previously, we don't have room on the site to have a two-way sign easily visible from traffic coming both ways on Eastern Avenue. So, it's going to be facing out to the street and it needs to be a little bit bigger. Uh with respect to the non-conforming condition, once again, the building is there. It's

only 15 in of nonconformity. So, we think it's basically Dominics. Um, possible detriments. There will be times when the parking lot will be full and like every other [snorts] restaurant in the city, people will go for parking on street and they'll go to our parking garages. Uh, we're not not going to be in any different situation uh than anyone else. Uh, as to the sign, I can't conceive of any detriment. Uh, it's minimal. It's 5 by five. Uh we think you can comfortably conclude that the benefits from this project uh outweigh the detriment. Um and let me just back up on the uh the benefits. What we're doing is we're going to adaptively reuse a vacant building which is in an industry in a downsizing mode. Elaborate funerals and expensive caskets are things of the past. The new use is permitted. Uh and we think it's going to be the benefit to the city. The last part of the uh weighing analysis is that we have to identify what purposes the municipal maintenance for will be uh uh furthered by this application. We see purpose A uh which is satisfied because we think this is an appropriate use of land and a manner that will promote the general welfare. We're taking an abandoned outmoded business and repurposing it for a permitted use. Uh as purpose G, we believe that this is an appropriate location which is borne out by your zoning. a permitted use. Uh finally, we think that the barren [snorts] can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and without substantial impairment to your zone plan and your master plan. That concludes the uh direct case. Mr. Chairman, uh I'll sum up if necessary after we hear from the public.

Sure. Would your claim be uh be okay with giving up um residential permit parking if there is any around that area? Yes. No. No. But don't don't businesses get it. I mean, they could I'm just could the So, let's not call them. Well, but I know what you're saying. Parking permit park. He said yes. Okay. All right.

Any other questions from the board? Seeing none, could I open it up to the public? Anyone from the public have any questions or comments on this application? Please come forward. Seeing none, I'm sorry. Uh, Barber Matichin, 7 Livingston Avenue. Hold on. I have to swear you in spell your last name for the record. B U R T O N. Do you swear reference to the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Yes. Wait one second. I have to You have five minutes starting now. Okay. Um, will there be a liquor license? I didn't hear anything about will the alcohol beverages. No, [snorts] sir. No liquor license. It's a bring your own.

It's going to be bring your own. And why would they need residential parking? They had 52 spaces. Well, they're forgoing it. They're they're waving their rights to it. So, they're How many of those 52 will be handicapped? Three. Okay, that's all my questions. All right. Thank you. Anyone else from the public have any questions, comments?

Can you please state your name by your last name for the record? Ray Pettit. P is repeated either. Tell the whole truth nothing but the truth. I do. You may begin.

Thank you. Um, I live in New Brunswick. very excited to live here and I'm very interested to know if [snorts] this is going to be an upscale restaurant if it's what kind of clientele do you anticipate is it going to be like the old La Fontanas that we had on 27 that I thought was somewhat upscale [snorts] a great place to bring a date on a Friday night or is it going to be something for the college kids maybe on the low end that might be a little noisy I'm just very interested in how is this going to change or maybe even enhance the brand. Sam, if you could tell the board and this gentleman what's your target patron?

Uh my target is is [snorts] everybody. It's a middle class upper class. My prices will be arranged for from 30 $35 place is not that much compared to the downtown. So I'm trying to get everybody to go in and we have a lot of people from the family of the student they come in. We have a lot of people Rogers they come in both the student and also the hospitals Johnson and Johnson. So it's going to be upper middle class.

Yes, that answers my question. At $35 a plate, I see it as being a little on the pricier side, which brings in maybe a little bit of an upscale clientele. That's a man start and you save the money by bringing your own wine in. Okay, that answers my question. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Seeing none public [clears throat] question. Uh I think I can forgo a summation, Mr. Chairman.

All right. Thank you for discussion. Anyone have anything? Okay. Um, can we have the conditions? Yeah. One second, please.

All right. Uh, comp should act favorably. The following conditions shall apply. Compliance with the terms of the city engineering report dated March 4th, 2026. Payment of a site performance bond and an amount reviewed and approved by the city engineer. Submission of a site inspection escro deposit for engineering inspection fees. An amount calculated pursuant to title 16.24.160. Water and sewer connection fees. Payment of all water and sewer connection fees pursuant to titles 13.04 and 13.08. Issuance of a road opening permit by the city engineer required. Compliance with the terms of the city planning report dated March 10th, 2026. Planning review escro funded for all anticipated postapproval reviews. Payment of any other fees due to the city of New Brunswick related to development or use of this project. Payment of all outstanding taxes and water or sewer fees. Middle Sex County Planning Board approval or waiver. DNR nomination approval or waiver. Freehold Soil Conservation District approval or waiver. Submit engineering site plan to comply with any changes required by the planning or engineering memos or plan amendments offered at the hearing. Submit architectural plans to comply with any changes required by the planning or engineering memos or plan amendments offered at the hearing. Execution of a title 39 parking enforcement agreement. Uh trash and recycling to be collected by private hauler. waiver of on street park marketing rights. All utilities and other site improvements to be maintained by the applicant at the shuttle expense. All-sight utilities to be constructed underground. All [clears throat] temporary encroachments into the public rightway shall require city council approval. All construction staging shall be done on site unless an encroachment allowing into the public rightway is approved by city council. Streets shall be kept clean of sediment and debris. The applicant shall cause the streets to be cleaned if directed to do so by the director of public works. Tracking pads shall be installed at all construction exits and replacement of damaged streets, curves, and sidewalks as per direction of the city engineer.

[snorts] Did you put in there about the permit? Yes. Okay. Uh do I have a motion? I'll move for approval with the conditions and with the variances.

Check off. Yes. Melendez, yes. Alaso, yes. Lopez, yes. Zack Wright, yes. Mayini, yes. Cartica, yes. John Cox, yes. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next application. Peter from Mat PB 20264 338 Street. The Afghanist plan approval and use and park con order to constru.

So I just want to say hold on I just want to say that my staff person did this and she must have used a mobile letter of principal points because they don't have a used variance anymore. Okay. Um, that's why we're here, not as the zoning board. I just want to be very clear about that. Yes. Yeah, that like perked me up. Okay. Sorry about that. Please continue.

James B from Clark and then Mr. Chairman. Uh, application to construct a twotory four unit uh dwelling on the subject of property which is currently vacant and in one of your C-1 zones. Each proposed unit will have two bedrooms. Four parking spaces are being provided. We are seeking your approval together with two variances. First variance is for parking. Eight spaces are required. As I said before are proposed. The second variance is for the setback of the HP HC units. Required is 10 ft and proposed is six. On the positive side, the application meets all of the bulk and setback standards as well as building and height coverages and floor area ratio. We have two witnesses. this evening. The first is our engineer Ron Sedaski who will review the proposed site improvements. The second one will be Bill Glor who will open the floor plans and elevations. I will then give you a proper to justify the variance relief. That's it in a nutshell.

Does any member of the board of work professional have any conflict with this application? We'll call uh Doran first. I'm sorry. One board member. [snorts] We still have only one. Okay. Um, okay. Please go ahead. Can you please say your names by your last name for the record? William Doran. D O R A N. You swear to Mr. Do you have uh Fed before this board before? Correct.

Many times. Um have your credentials changed in any way? They have not. And your license is still under the Senate? Yes. We'll accept you in the next building. Thank you. Wonderful. Did you prepare the elevations and floor plans for? We did. You familiar with the site? Have you visited? Yes. Okay. African is proposing a twotory structure. Yes. Okay. Can you take the board through the elevations and the floor plans?

Sure. So, uh, this, uh, building is a, uh, twotory, four unit, uh, building, approximately 3,300 square ft. Uh, there are four units with two bedrooms each. Each bedroom is designed to have one occupant. Uh, the rest of the unit will have a kitchen, living, dining area, and a bathroom. all of which uh will be large enough to uh meet the required living space uh that the ordinance requires. The uh building itself along with each of the units will be on the first floor will be ADA compliant. Uh the building will be fully sprinkler. There'll be a partial basement underneath uh the center of the building that will be for utilities and some minor uh storage. uh behind that basement will be uh 6'10 uh on the exterior of the building.

Once again, Mr. Chairman, the plans are the same that he's testifying for us was submitted with the application. Okay. Thank you. What is the revision date on those plans? 121625. We do have uh a color grade. Okay. You generated it. Yes. Okay. Give I'll take them all but one. I believe that would be A2. No. Be A1 for this application. Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. Thank you. Give a moment to circulate

one. When it comes your way is the middle structure in uh the vendor. So, this is a residential area. We've designed the building to conform uh to blend into that uh have a residential feel to it. Um, go ahead.

The uh uh on the the front facade will be a combination of stone uh beaded board and hardy plank siding with some uh not beaded board, board and batten siding with some board and batten accents in the gable uh facing the front. The the color scheme will be a light gray uh and with white contrasting trim. The height of the building is uh 26'3 which is under what is required. Anything else to add though?

No, that's it. He's available for questions. Mr. Okay. Any member of the board professional have any questions for this witness? What is the sliding on the the rest of the building in the rear also? Yes. Any other questions? Next one. We'll call Sidowski right here. Can [clears throat] you please state your name, spell, and last name for the record? Ronald J. Saddowski. S A D O W S K I. Do you swear or affirm yourself? I do. Mr. You have been before this board before, correct? Yes, I have.

Um, and have your credentials changed in any way since last time you uh came before this board? No, they have not. And is your license still in good stand? Yes. I've walked accept you as an expert engineer. Thank you. What you have on the board is uh a slightly colorized version of what was submitted with the application. That is correct. All right. I guess we can mark it. Uh, A2 A2.

All right. First, what's the uh size of the property and its location? It's uh the location of the property is uh at the southeastern east side of Thousand Street. It's 5,000 square foot in area, 50 foot in width, and 100 foot in depth. So, it meets the requirements for lot area, width, and depth uh in the zone. Yes, it does. Okay. What's on the property today? It's a vacant block. Okay. Where's the applicant proposed? A twostory 4unit park building. Take the board through the site improvements that are being proposed.

Okay. What we are proposing is a 16 ft, it's actually 18t wide paved area with a twoft striped buffer between the building and the parking lot or the parking spaces I should say. It's four stacked spaces, two and two behind them that would back out onto Talisin Street. Uh we have a ADA ramp for access to the um rear building, the rear uh unit um and the stair tower to take you to the upper floor. [snorts] Uh there's uh lighting in the back just for the recycling and the trash area. We have landscaping, foundation landscaping, uh a street tree, and a row of uh trees in the back uh property line. We also have white vinyl PVC fencing along the sideyards and the rear property yard or line. We have underground drainage uh in the rear yard to uh compensate for the increase in impervious coverage that will be uh introduced to the property. Utilities will um tap off of the existing which is in towns and street underground gas underground water underground sanitary sewer above ground electric and telephone. uh the drainage patterns, the grading, it will be similar to what's there today and [snorts] uh we are eliminating any runoff onto the adjacent properties. We have refu and recycling areas in the rear yard or outside of the rear yard but behind the building with a concrete area uh for access from the building. Have you had an opportunity to review the city engineers report?

I have.

Mr. Chairman, once again, with your consent, we'd like to start on page three, uh, general comments and recommendations. Ride number one, uh we will provide a response letter uh outlining all of the uh changes as required. Okay. With respect to item two, don't you have the calculations about maximum building height? Yeah, the cover drawing in the bulk schedule I showed 33 I'm sorry, 35.25 ft as the building height where 40 is the maximum per minute. All right. Item three, as a condition of the hopeful approval, will we show the limit to the proposed trench board?

Yes. All right. With regard to item four, can you explain uh how a resident can leave uh the structure? Uh there are there are two locations uh through the front entrance for the front unit and then also again we have the side uh buffer between the building and the uh parked cars which then leads to a landing and set of stairs up to the rear unit and then the two units on the second floor. All righty. Uh comment six is with respect to the stacked parking. Uh from your perspective, better zoning alternative than not to have the stack parking.

That is correct. Yes. All right. With respect to item seven, uh how are we going to handle getting the refuge containers to the curb? The refuge containers will be wheeled to the front uh and picked up on Townson Street by the individual residents themselves. They will be got wheeled out there by the individual uh residents. Yes. [cough and clears throat] Will there be room to move these out with the vehicles in the driveway? Yes, there will be. Moving to page four. Uh with respect to drainage and runoff and climate concentration, uh will you prepare an updated report? Yes, I will.

And we would do that as a condition of the hopeful approval. Mr. Chairman, uh landscaping plan uh just foundation plans. foundation plantings, a street tree as I had mentioned earlier on Townsen and then a uh row of six uh trees uh to buffer the the building in the back. And I would note for the record that your planner was satisfied in his report with respect to the landscaping proposed as well as having no issue with the lighting plan being made. Item 18. Item 18, we will seek freehold soil approval as a condition.

All right. And with respect to logistics plan. Uh we can handle that. Yes. Um do you recognize a pre-construction meeting as necessary as well as all other necessary governmental approvals? Yes. And uh furnishing of bonds. Yes.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes his testimony. He's available for questions. Any member of the board of professionals have any questions for this? All right, that's me. Time to justify the variances. All right. Uh there were two of them. Uh once again, I'm not going to repeat the C2 analysis and weighing of the benefits and detriments. Uh we will identify the benefits. We believe that it's uh responsible infield development on the vacant lot which is not contributing to the city's tax base. We'll be eliminated dumping ground for trash. We're providing residential housing. As we all know, this state and this region uh has a sore need for additional uh residential units possible detriment. Uh there may be times when there's a tenant that won't be able to park except on city streets or garages. Uh but once again uh we contemplate that many of the residents here uh will not be owning vehicles. Uh they have the availability of goods and services close by to them as well as public transportation. Uh we think you can conclude that the benefits substantially outweigh any detriments. Um we have three purposes in municipal land use law which we think that we uh are meeting. Uh we satisfy the appropriate use of lands and we promote the public and general welfare [clears throat] taking a vacant lot and developing it for permitted use. Uh IMC we are providing adequate light near and open space. Uh and that's uh proven by the fact that we are not seeking any setback variances, coverages or height variances. Uh with regard to item G, uh it's an appropriate location for residential use. Uh it's an entirely uh well mainly residential area for the center of this block. Uh once again, no impairment to the zone plan. Uh no detriment to the public good.

Thank you. Thank you. [snorts] Any question or comments? See at this time I'd like to open it up to the public. If there's anyone from the public that has any question or comments on this application, please come forward. Seeing none, I'm going to close the public portion. Uh, Mr. I do not. Discussion say nothing.

Should the board act favorably? Following condition shall apply. Compliance with terms of city engineering report dated March 9th, 2026. Payment of a site performance bond that is not reviewed and approved by the city engineer. Submission of a site inspection escrow deposit for engineering inspection fees. The amount calculated to title 16.2 24.160 of all water and sewer connection fees pursuing titles 13.04 and 13.08 8 issuance of a road opening permit from the city engineer required. Compliance with terms of the city planning report dated March 17, 2026. Uh planning review escro funded for all anticipated postapproval reviews. Payment of any other fees due to the city of New Brunswick related to development and use of this project. Payment of all outstanding taxes and water or sewer fees. Middle six county planning board approval or waiver. Frequent soil conservation district approval or waiver. Submit engineering site plan to comply with any changes required by the planning or engineering memos or plan amendments offered at the hearing. Submit architectural plans to comply with any changes required by the planning or engineering memos amendments offered at the hearing. Um did do we do anything about parking permit parking?

Well, they were in the plan review comments. U it said will parking will applic for the record. Yes. Thank you.

Voluntary waiver of the right of occupants of the subject development to obtain residential/ business on street parking and permits. All utilities and other site improvements be obtained by the applicant at their expense. All on-site utilities to be constructed underground. All temporary encroachments into the public right of way shall require city council [clears throat] approval. All construction staging shall be done on site unless an encroachment allowing into the public right of way is approved by city council. Street shall be kept clean of sediment and debris. The and shall cause the streets to be cleaned if directed to do so by the director of public works. [clears throat] Tracking pads shall be installed at all construction exits and replacements of damaged streets, curbs and sidewalks as per the direction of the city. Can I get a motion?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Lopez. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much. [clears throat]