PLANNING BOARD MEETING
BOROUGH OF WANAQUE
MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING
December 21, 2006
Meeting called to order by Chairman Gilbert Foulon with a
salute to the flag.
ROLL CALL:
John DiMeglio David
Slater
Joseph Graceffo (came in at 8:05 P.M.) John Shutte
Kevin Platt
PRESENT:
Attorney Steven Veltri and Engineer Michael Cristaldi
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Mayor Thomas Balunis, Members Eugene Verba and Ed O’Connell.
This is a Regular Meeting of the Wanaque Borough Planning
Board and adequate notice has been given and it has been duly advertised by the
placement of a notice in the Trends and the Herald News, mailed on January 20,
2006 and a notice thereof has been posted on the bulletin board in the
Municipal Building in the Borough of Wanaque and a copy thereof has been on
file with the Borough Clerk.
MINUTES:
from the “Special Meeting” of November 29, 2006 for “
MOTION TO APPROVE:
made by Member Rucci, seconded by Member DiMeglio, voting yes were
Members DiMeglio, Platt, Rucci, Slater and Shutte. Chairman Foulon abstained.
COMMUNICATIONS/REPORTS: No questions asked.
APPLICATION STATUS:
APPLICATION #16-02 “RSK Development Corp.”,
Atty. Roger W. Thomas with the law firm of Dolan &
Dolan. Atty. Thomas explained that the applicant is seeking an extension
pursuant to the MLUL Section 52 D and is seeking a one-year extension. They
have been prevented from proceeding with this development due to their
continuing review concerning the “
had a hearing before the Administrative Law Judge in Newark about a month and half ago with regard to their position in regard to this case and they have not heard anything as of yet. Atty. Thomas explained they have been before the Council on Affordable Housing and before the “DEP” which took them to October/November of this year in order to get a hearing.
MOTION TO EXTEND THE EXTENSION FOR ONE YEAR FROM THE DATE OF DECEMBER 18, 2006: made by Member Graceffo, seconded by Member DiMeglio, voting yes were Chairman Foulon, Members DiMeglio, Graceffo, Platt, Rucci, Slater and Shutte.
PUBLIC HEARING FOR INVESTIGATION OF AREAS FOR
REDEVELOPMENT FOR BLOCK 436 LOTS 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,13,3.01,
4.01,6.01,11.01, BLOCK 437 LOTS 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,1.01,1.02,1.04, BLOCK
448 LOTS 1,2,3,4,5.
This hearing has been adjourned for tonight and will be heard at the January 18, 2007 Meeting.
APPLICATION #15-06 “Water’s Edge at Wanaque, LLC”,
Block 468 Lot 2, Block 469 Lot 2, Block 470 Lots 1 & 8, Block 471 Lots
1,4,8 & 11, Block 472 Lots 4 & 7,
24 Townhomes and 72 Condominiums for Preliminary Site Plan Approval.
Authorized Agent is Atty. George M. Capodagli:
Atty. Sam Presti came forward on behalf of the applicant and explained what professionals were here this evening to give testimony. Atty. Presti proceeded to say that the Environmental Impact Statement that was submitted to the Board by Raymond Walker, PH.D. and marked Exhibit A-6 dated October 19, 2006, Traffic Study submitted by their Traffic Consultant dated October 6, 2006 and marked Exhibit A-7, letter from the Wanaque Sewerage Authority dated September 15, 2006 and marked Exhibit A-8, letter submitted by a Maser Consulting P.A. dated November 17, 2006 also addressing sewer and water and marked Exhibit A-9, a letter signed by Eng. Michael Cristaldi dated December 20, 2006 and marked Exhibit A-10, and a December 15th letter from Eng. Cristaldi which addresses the Traffic Study and marked Exhibit A-11.
Raymond Walker, Environmentalist with a B.S. in
Environmental Biology, PH.D. in Ecology and worked for the Army Corps of
Engineers, taught at Ryder College, Trenton State, Mercer County Community
College and employed for almost 20 years as an environmentalist consultant with
two engineering firms in N.J., most recently with Maser Consulting for approximately
15 years as their head of the Ecological Department. Mr. Walker went over the
site plan that was on an easel and described each sheet. The site is entirely
forested with trees between the ages of 40 and 80 years old and the site has
wetlands, steep slopes and blasting will be necessary, “DEP” Permits will be
needed and there are approximately 34/35 acres and only 7 acres will be
disturbed. As far as endangered species, there are two species of special
concern and they are the Northern Copperhead, which is a venomous snake,
and the Veery, which is a bird. There
are no historical buildings on this site and might have been used at one time
by Native Americans.
MOTION TO OPEN PUBLIC DISCUSSION: made by Member DiMeglio, seconded by Member Graceffo, voting yes were Chairman Foulon, Members DiMeglio, Graceffo, Platt, Rucci Slater and Shutte.
Attorney Michael Kates came forward. Atty. Kates represents “Skylands Clean” and eight households in the neighborhood that he represents. Atty. Kates said as he understands a Letter Of Interpretation (LOI) has not yet been issued by the DEP and Mr. Walker agreed. Atty. Kates discussed the steep slopes and that they are steeper than other areas in town. Atty. Kates mentioned that there is no storm-water detention facility plan for this project and Mr. Walker agreed. Also mentioned was the fact that there is a sanitary sewer system leading to nowhere and doesn’t have an origin or destination in terms of the Waste-Water Management Plan and Mr. Walker said a portion of the site is and a portion is not in the Waste-Water Management Plan. Atty. Kates asked if on site water quality testing has been provided and Mr. Walker said no. Atty. Kates wanted to know how much blasting would be required and Mr. Walker said some blasting will be done and it probably will be low-impact blasting. Atty. Kates asked if significant amounts of soil and rock needed to be exported from or imported to the site and how many truckloads of soil and/or rock material will need to be trucked on and off the site? What will the cost be for the 30- foot high retaining walls proposed? After these questions, Atty. Kates asked Mr. Walker if they were fair questions being asked and Mr. Walker said yes but cannot answer them at this time.
Atty. Kates added that on the issue of affordable housing and alternatives acceptable under the present ordinance there is no discussion about that in the Environmental Impact Statement.
Chairman Foulon said he would like to make a suggestion to Atty. Kates that he go back and read the Environmental Impact Statement and be more prepared with questions that can be answered.
Peter Gonzales, 41 Buena Vista, Bloomingdale: Mr. Gonzales said he’s new to this river thing and he did notice that Mr. Walker talked about the historical significance of the Indians but he did pass by the fact that this site is Federal Hill the site of the Pompton Mutiny. Mr. Walker said this is not part of Federal Hill and Pompton Mutiny is located somewhere else.
Engineer Cristaldi said he went through the report and there is a new ordinance in place which states this is a permitted use and they will be using about 20% of the site and 80% is going to stay as is. The problem with the property is that it’s all steep slopes and wetlands and you can’t go into the wetlands, therefore, you really have no choice but to deal with the slopes and use the retaining walls. The drainage and wetland issues are in the jurisdiction of the DEP and they have their own rules and regulations in place. As far as the blasting, there has been blasting done in more than one place around town and that also is regulated by the state. As far as losing open space, loss of some vegetation and wild life habitat; but this is something that’s going to happen no matter what you develop even for a single family house you will lose some open space, trees and vegetation.
Chairman Foulon said the Board is going to have their own expert do an Environmental Impact Study so the two can be compared.
MEETING WENT OFF THE RECORD AT 9:11 P.M.:
BACK ON RECORD AT 9:13 P.M.:
Atty. Veltri explained to the public why he went off the record and met with both attorneys. Atty. Veltri said there is a unique situation, since the last meeting the Board Secretary did receive a copy of a letter written by “Skylands Clean, Inc.” not written to the Board and not cc: to the Board, but did receive the letter. Without going into the full content of the letter, part of the letter indicated that “Skylands Clean” had retained an expert, an environmental engineer and had a report. The Board does not have the report as a Planning Board. Atty. Veltri went off the record to explain to Atty. Kates that the Board did have the letter and Atty. Veltri didn’t think that Atty. Kates knew that. Atty. Veltri also requested a copy of the environmental report and Atty. Kates agreed to give a copy to the municipality. Atty. Veltri went on to say, at that point, if the Borough does hire an environmentalist, our expert would want not only the documentation submitted by the developer tonight but also that report. At a future date the Board will have an environmentalist testify for the Board and Atty. Kates can present his expert and certainly the applicant would have the right to cross-examine and supplement the record. Atty. Veltri went off the record because he did not want to prejudice the record if he did not have an agreement with Atty. Kates. Atty. Kates has asked if the Board’s Engineer writes any future reports, that he be given a copy. A copy of the report done by Thonet Associates Inc. dated December 21, 2006 for “Skylands Clean”was marked O-1.
Harold Maltz, Traffic Expert, came forward and was sworn in by Atty. Veltri.
Mr. Maltz is a licensed professional engineer in the
State of N.J. has a Bachelor of Science & Civil Engineering Degree from
Newark College of Engineering, Master of Science in Civil Engineering with a
Major in Transportation from the Newark College of Engineering, and Master of
Science in Environmental Engineering from the N.J. Institute of Technology and
licensed in the States of N.Y., Conn., & Pa. A full time transportation
consultant for the past 37 years with his field of specialization being both in
Traffic & Highway Engineering and preparing Traffic Studies for most type
of Land Use Development for developers. Mr. Maltz is also a principle in the
firm of Hamal Associates, Inc., Traffic Consultants, 19 Porter Road, West
Orange, N.J. Mr. Maltz went through his report dated October 6, 2006. Mr. Maltz
proceeded to say there are 96 units of Multi Family Housing, 72 Condominiums
and 24 Townhouses distributed in 4 buildings. The site is to be served by
dualized access road extending West from Susquehanna Ave. and Susquehanna Ave.
in turn extends North to an intersection with Union Ave. Borough Administrator,
Tom Carroll, specifically identified the project study area of the
intersections to be studied to Mr. Maltz. Mr. Carroll identified the scope of
study and specifically it extended on Union Ave. extending west from and
including Ringwood Ave., which is a signalized intersection; the next location
was the 287 South Bound Ramp and Stop & Shop driveway signalized
intersection, thirdly the location at Haskell Ave., fourthly Susquehanna Ave.
intersection and lastly the Greenwood Ave. Burger King drive intersection with
Union Ave. Mr. Maltz said based on his discussions with Mr. Carroll there are several other projects being
developed or approved that could generate traffic through the area and
therefore Mr. Maltz included these projects in his evaluation such as Valley
View at Wanaque Project, which Mr. Maltz prepared, the Wanaque Reserve which is
the Pulte site, and also the Holiday Inn Hotel. Mr. Maltz went on describing
all the intersections at length, such as their speed limits and turning points.
Mr. Maltz obtained the site plan and statistics from the site engineer at MCB
Engineering, reviewed the Borough’s Master Plan, and met with Mr. Carroll to
identify the intersections to be studied for this project. He also stopped at
the Wanaque Reserve Sales Office to identify how many units were actually
occupied at the time he did his counts. The background traffic growth rates
(yearly traffic growth in the area) he obtained from the N.J. Dept. of
Transportation who provided sheets to him, he contacted the N.J. Dept. of
Transportation Bureau of Traffic Engineering to obtain the current signal
timing directives at both Union Ave. & Ringwood Ave. & Ringwood Ave.
& Rt. 287 South Bound Ramps. Mr. Maltz also performed traffic counts at
several intersections to be studied in this project and were performed around the
middle of September 2006. The traffic studies were done from 7 A.M. to 9 A.M.
and 4 P.M. to 6 P.M. at all of the locations. The peak hours were 7:30 A.M. to
8:30 A.M. and Union Ave. West of the 287 intersection was by far heaviest in
the East bound direction and most of the traffic continued East bound towards
Ringwood Ave. and about 70% of that traffic made a right turn to go South on
Ringwood Ave. There were some backups at the East bound right turn lane at
Union Ave. at the Ringwood Ave. intersection which extended back several times
to the 287 South bound off ramps. There were occasional backups on
At this point, Chairman Foulon interrupted Mr. Maltz and
asked him that in his report it said “the access to the applicant’s site from
Chairman Foulon said to Atty. Presti, he’s puzzled because Atty. Presti is coming before the Board with an application and he doesn’t even know how he’s going to get to the property that they want to develop and doesn’t even know who owns the access to it. Chairman Foulon went on to say that this should have been done prior to the filing of this application. Atty. Presti said they know what the records indicate and depending on what this Board decides to do for them to put the cart before the horse is a little bit presumptuous on their end. Chairman Foulon said, he doesn’t think the Board can even consider this application until they know they have access to the property. Chairman Foulon wanted to know who would take care of the roads for this development? Atty. Presti said normally the roadways get eventually turned over to the town and the condo association or the home owners association would ultimately be organized and establish who is going to take care of the common elements. Atty. Presti said they are here for Preliminary Approval and will have to come back for a final and between preliminary and final is when they will tie up the loose ends. Atty. Veltri added that the Board has the right to ask for the information on who the owner is prior to the preliminary vote and its also more complicated because Mr. Maltz indicates in his report that that portion of Susquehanna between Burger King and the proposed site needs to be widened. Therefore, the Board would like to know who the owner is and whether or not that owner would consent to that being widened. Chairman Foulon said he doesn’t see how the Board can act without that information. Chairman Foulon asked about on street parking for this development and Atty. Presti suggested the site engineer come forward.
Patrick McClellan, Engineer came forward:
Mr. Maltz continued his testimony. He added that the P.M.
peak hour was identified as 4:30 to 5:30 P.M. There was a commuter traffic
pattern identified in the area roads; the heavy flows on Union & Ringwood
reversed from the morning.
Mr. Maltz added, that for 96 units of Townhouse/Condominium the traffic projections for the site would be a total of 50 trips in the morning peak hour that’s broken down as 9 in and 41 out and 58 trips in the evening peak hour broken down as 39 in and 19 out. These are very small volumes and consequently have negligible impact at any location within the study area.
OPEN TO PUBLIC DISCUSSION;
Diane Schlesinger, Brookside Heights came forward:
Ms. Schlesinger wanted to know when was the last time the standard number of
parking spaces was evaluated and if it reflects reality or the 1950’s when
families only had one car. Ms. Schlesinger said if they didn’t have visitor
parking at
Chris Scilingo, 125 Greenwood Ave. came forward:
Mr. Scilingo said to Mr. Maltz that his counts on the traffic in that area are
inaccurate. Mr. Scilingo said he has sat in traffic on Rt. 287 for 45 minutes
trying to get off. Mr. Scilingo also said he has sat in traffic on
Richard Walters, 3 Seminole Path came forward: Mr. Walters asked if Mr. Maltz looked at the worst-case scenario; the expert is estimating that 58 cars will be added to the traffic flow. Did anyone look at the worst-case scenario when all the residents of those 97 units will be leaving for work? Mr. Maltz said, it is 96 units and that’s not how you do the analysis. Two methods were developed to do the computation; one is an average and one is based on an equation lot. Mr. Maltz took the one that gave the higher number. If he had used the average he would have been about 5 to 10 trips lower in each peak hour.
Diane Schlesinger, Brookside Heights came forward: Ms. Schlesinger just wanted to remind the Board that the public was told that no one at Wanaque Reserve is going to be on Ringwood Ave. because their over 55 and not working; and now there’s a police officer there 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. Chairman Foulon responded by saying that’s only because the traffic light hasn’t been installed yet.
Jean Bakula, 21 Gorge Drive came forward: Ms. Bakula wanted to know if the traffic from the Holiday Inn is being taken into consideration with these projections. Mr. Maltz said he included the trip generation for that project and went to Borough Hall to look at the documentation on the application.
Genaro Salierno, Architect came forward and was sworn in by Atty. Veltri.
Mr. Salierno said he graduated from the N.J. Institute of
Technology with a Bachelor of Architectural Degree and is a licensed architect
in the State of
Chairman Foulon told Mr. Salierno to submit the revised plans to the Board so they can look them over and intelligently discuss it at the next meeting.
Atty. Veltri asked Atty. Presti if the applicant was willing to waive all time restraints on the Board and Atty. Presti said yes.
Chairman Foulon asked for a report from their planner to be submitted to the Board ahead of time. Chairman Foulon also announced to the public that this application will continue at the January 18th Meeting at 8:00 P.M. and the Reorganization Meeting will be at 7:30 P.M.
OPEN TO PUBLIC DISCUSSION: No one came forward.
Resolution on Application #22-06 “Holiday Inn
Express”, 303 Union Ave., Haskell, N.J., Block 468 Lot 3.01 for Amended Site
Plan Approval:
MOTION TO APPROVE: made by Member DiMeglio, seconded by Member Rucci, voting yes were Members DiMeglio, Graceffo, Platt, Rucci, Slater and Shutte. Chairman Foulon abstained.
VOUCHERS: submitted by Atty. Veltri for “Holiday Inn Express” for $1,475.00, Richard Alaimo Engineering for Invoice #027346 Project #PO495-0175-000 Waters Edge at Wanaque for $180.00, Invoice #028106 Project #PO495-0000-000 for Meeting Attendance for $185.00, Invoice #028107 Project #PO495-0171-000 Valley View at Wanaque for $30.00, Invoice #028108 Project #PO495-0175-000 Waters Edge at Wanaque for $840.00, for a Grand Total of $2,710.00.
MOTION TO APPROVE: made by Member Shutte, seconded by Member Graceffo, voting yes were Chairman Foulon, Members DiMeglio, Graceffo, Platt, Rucci, Slater and Shutte.
MOTION TO ADJOURN AT 10:27 P.M.: made by Member Slater, seconded by Member Shutte, carried by a voice vote.
_______________________________
Gerri Marotta
Planning Board Secretary