Plannng Board

City of Trenton Planning Board Conference and Public Hearing Thursday, February 9, 2023 Via Microsoft Teams or phone: 609-436-9298 The Conference ID is 412 046 968# Members in Attendance: Charles Romanow, Chair Randy Baum, Vice Chair Jamie Carpenter Jeff Halpern Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed Anthony Santora Adam Weiss Members Not in Attendance: Markus Green Wanda Swiggett Staff in Attendance: Michael Kolber, Senior Planner George McGill, Planning Board Attorney Cherry Oakley, Planning Board Secretary PUBLIC HEARING Current Planning Board Membership (as of 2/9/23) Class Term Ending Date Board Member I (Mayor’s Representative) Mayor’s Term Markus Green II (City Employee) 12/31/23 Anthony Santora III (City Council 12/31/23 Vacant Representative) IV (City Resident) 12/31/26 Patricia Ni’ma- Mohammed IV (City Resident) 12/31/23 Randy Baum IV (City Resident) 12/31/25 Jeff Halpern IV (City Resident) 12/31/23 Adam Weiss IV (City Resident) 12/31/25 Jamie Carpenter IV (City Resident) 12/31/26 Charles Romanow ALTERNATES IV (City Resident) 12/31/23 Wanda Swiggett IV (City Resident) 12/31/24 VACANT 1  CONFERENCE 6:00 P.M. o Approval of Minutes o Memorialization of Resolution(s) o Announcements PUBLIC HEARING: Item #1 22-P-ROEB3: Roebling Block-3 Site Plan Amendment -Trenton NJ The applicant is seeking to amend the Final Site Plan previously approved by Planning Board on December 13, 2012. Site Plan for additional residential units and revised parking. To construct one additional residential building (Building 103) on lot 1.04. Building 102 is to be amended from mixed-use residential/retail to 100% residential with 30 units. which is part of the premises to construct 30 loft rental apartments. Amend plans for Buildings 104 and 105 to increase commercial/retail space by ≈ 2,000 SQFT and reduce residential units by 2 units on lot 1.05. Also, amend the surface parking area with a reduction of 11 parking spaces and a change in traffic circulation within lot 1.02. The site is in the Industrial A (IA) Zone District and the Roebling Complex Redevelopment Area; Location Addresses: 10 Elmer St., 41-55 Clark St., and 30 Elmer St., City Tax Map Block (s) 15901 Lot(s) 1.02, 1.04 & 1.05; Applicant, Block 3 Urban Renewal, LLC 105 Mercer Street, Trenton, New Jersey 08611 Meeting called to order at 6:04pm by Mr. Romanow read the Open Public Meetings Act a quorum was verified. Amend the minutes of 12/19/22 to reflect Charles Romanow as Chair Member Aye Nay Ab- Motioned Seconded stain Charles Romanow X Randy Baum X Jamie Carpenter X X Jeff Halpern X Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed X X Anthony Santora X Adam Weiss X Approve January 12, 2023 with edits Member Aye Nay Ab- Motioned Seconded stain Charles Romanow X Randy Baum X Jamie Carpenter X Jeff Halpern X Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed X X Anthony Santora X X 2  Adam Weiss X Mr. Kolber announced that at the February 23rd Planning Board meeting there will be a presentation of the Transit Oriented Plan for 7 sites where feedback from the community will be collected. The engagement will be on this platform. Additionally, on February 22nd at 6pm there will be a Green Team meeting. 22-P-ROEB3: Roebling Block-3 Site Plan Amendment to be carried to March 23rd at 6pm on this platform, with a waiver of the time the Board has to act. Member Aye Nay Ab- Motioned Seconded stain Charles Romanow X Randy Baum X Jamie Carpenter X X Jeff Halpern X X Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed X Anthony Santora X Adam Weiss X Item #2 22-P-40ENT: 40 Enterprise Avenue - TRENTON NJ Applicant/Owner seeks preliminary and final major site plan and (c) bulk variance for fencing to construct a new warehouse in place of a previous industrial building. The site is zoned Industrial B (IB); The site is in the Enterprise Avenue redevelopment area with a zoning of Light Industrial/Commerce Center; Location 40 Enterprise Avenue; City Tax Map: Block(s) 23201, Lot(s) 1; Applicant: 40 Enterprise, LLC, 51 DeForest Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901. Mr. Robert Casey, Esq. introduced the project. He indicated that they were seeking a waiver and variance for the fencing that intrudes into the front yard. Also seeking a waiver for the landscaping. Mr. Jonathan Fox, the Applicant, was sworn in and presented his vision for the property. He works as a business analyst for the owners. The family that owns the property has been taxpaying residents of Trenton for 50 years. It will be used for vehicle access and stormwater management. He provided the history of the property as a contaminated site that the family invested in its environmental remediation. It has such things as an oil spill on the site, underground tanks, and high levels of PCBs. The cost of the remediation has just passed $3.5M along with a $2.5M asbestos remediation expense. The vacancy rate of the warehouse space continued to decline over time whereby at the end of 2020 the property was completely vacant. A pre-fabricated warehouse is being erected to attract high-quality tenants to the new warehouse space. There are not any tenants currently identified so there are some questions from the Board’s professionals that are unable to be responded to because of the lack of an identified tenant. The Applicant has approvals from Municipality in Lawrence and now is seeking approvals from this Board for the Trenton portion of the property. 3 Mr. Scott Murdoch, the Architect, was sworn in and presented his credentials before this Board and was accepted as an expert in the field of Architecture. He described that this project is trying to be a modern Class A distribution site. Marking the Basic Plan for the building with elevation as Exhibit A-1 and PB301 Exhibit A-2 Elevations In Plan he showed how daylight would be introduced into the facility. Exhibit A3 A Perspective Rendering he described the façade. Exhibit A4 was images of the current site. Exhibit A5 Panoramic Perspective from Route 1; Exhibit A6 Proposed building from the same viewpoint; Exhibit A7 & A8 Perspective of Proposed building; The roofs will be constructed to receive solar arrays from future tenants. The fencing is either behind or off to the side of the renderings, which is why it is not featured on the rendering. Mr. Bradford Bohler, the Engineer, presented his credentials and was accepted as an expert before this Board. Referencing Exhibit A-9 and Aerial view of the existing site he described the existing conditions. Referencing Exhibit A-10 Overall Site Plan Sheet C300. He noted that the overall development will reduce the impervious coverage with a 60% current coverage decreasing to about 20%. He described the water quality measures and the water run-off planned. He noted that it meets DEP criteria. Overall Landscape plans were marked as Exhibit A-11. Mr. Bohler described the evergreen trees planted along the Route 1 corridor obscuring the parked trailers. Shade trees will be added to the western portion of the property. All of the curbing and sidewalk will be replaced with 10ft. wide sidewalks. There are more trees planned for the utility crossings and the planters required will also be inserted. There are currently Maple trees on the property and evergreen shrubs are interspersed between them to provide additional screening. There is a proposed black vinyl-coated chain link fencing along the property line. They are looking for it to provide separation from the neighboring property line and help keep the property clean. Lawrence asked that the fencing be installed if permission from the City of Trenton was granted to keep trash from the adjacent property from blowing onto the property. The adjacent property is occupied and it is recycling facility. Mr. Bohler used Exhibit A-12 Drainage Plan A Sheet 405 to detail the flow of drainage and where the inlets are located. They will provide MDT details, that will describe what upflow model the Applicant will use. Bioretention basins will be used. The upflows are not green infrastructure requirements The Board requested additional trees wherever possible to reduce the volume of the view from Enterprise Avenue. Some white pines and eastern red cedars are planted there. The Board suggested they look at a hardier tree in case the DOT does another herbicide spray that might kill them as has happened previously. 4 Mr. Bohler described the trash truck circulation that is planned. Mr. Bohler indicated that they do not have a permit from DEP to clean up the area along the trail. DEP was insistent that the Applicant not do anything in that area. The Board was curious if there was any possibility to connect to the trail system Trenton has developed in the vicinity of this property. Referencing Exhibit 11 C701 The Board requested that with the size of the lawn more shielding with evergreens is preferred and privacy slats are planned instead of fabric. The mesh should be oriented vertically instead of diamond with no slats for the first 150 feet so it won’t appear like a wall. Mr. David Fahim, was sworn in and presented his credentials. He was accepted as an expert before this Board in the area of traffic engineering. He described the traffic report generated for the 275,000 sq ft. usage. He noted that there will only be 2 additional trips from what the previous use was. That increase is de minimus. He noted that the trucks will be primarily on the Lawrence side. He described the trucks will likely not be cutting through the City of Trenton. He described the routing of the trucks. He noted that the parking proposed is suitable for what will be occurring on the site. At max 108 vehicles will be parked at max. Referencing Exhibit A-13 Atlantic Report of 2/1/22 he described the aforementioned. The Board’s professionals agree with the trip generation determination of a de minimus increase, however, they do not agree that further analysis was not warranted given the changes in what travels in the area. Not sure if the driveway configuration will work given the changes that have occurred over time on Enterprise Avenue. An analysis is warranted to determine if that is the situation. Specific to vehicular circulation and parking, not truck circulation and parking, A Level of Service analysis may be warranted to clarify if that driveway operated at its peak level of service would be safe and efficient. If it did not then adjustments to the arrival and departure of trucks and delivery times and the circulation plan for entrance and exiting may need to be altered. Parking is not desired in the Enterprise neighborhood. The non-truck driveway is 24ft. Mr. John McDonough, the Planner, was sworn in and presented his credentials. He was accepted as an expert before this Board in the area of Planning. He noted that he was also a licensed landscape architect. He presented the reasoning for how this project aligns with the Trenton 250 Master Plan. Drone photographs from April 1, 2022 marked as Exhibit A-14 (aerial to the east), A-15 (aerial to the north), A-16 (aerial to the west), A-17 (aerial to closer to the ground so streetscape is visible), and A-18 (aerial tilted towards the northwest and the frontage) this gives a view of the neighbor and the reasoning it is good judgment to run the fencing down to the road. He noted that this project will have a positive interface with the Assunpink Creek. There is a bike rack planned for the front entrance of the building. A shuttle would likely drop off at the front entrance of the building. 5 Adding directional signage for the car driveway to encourage safe circulation. A type of facility like this likely won’t attract a company like Amazon because they usually want more car parking. Mr. Michael Kolber, City’s senior Planner, was sworn in and reviewed the Redevelopment Plan for this project. He noted that the setback is minimized to encourage an urban feel. This area has design standards that are not addressed by this project, although this Board has not been able to evaluate those because the building is in Lawrence. Mr. Bohler indicated that for a potential IT tenant parking would be adequate. He noted that the City is concerned about potential truck traffic that might pose potential problems for safety and increased traffic. Peak truck traffic is 1 every 8 minutes. The Board’s professionals indicated that control gates are not desired on this site as they can negatively affect trucks moving efficiently in and out of the site. Additionally, the Applicant is not opposed to putting outdoor seating for the employees. The applicant indicated that usually tenants like to design their own amenities so they did not initially place these items in the plans because of the potential to overprescribe amenities that might have to be changed once there is a tenant. In the time that the family has owned the property, which is 50 years, there are no known problems with accidents or safety from vehicles moving on the property, as per Mr. Casey. Mr. Romanow asked if there was anyone from the public who wanted to speak for or against this project. Ms. Shereyl Snider, a resident, was sworn in and described the traffic pattern around her home and the school crossings. She noted that she was excited about the refurbishing of the building and asked that the Applicant work with the City to repair the street and consider a traffic light to regulate the increased traffic that will likely occur once there is a tenant. The Board discussed their preference for a Level of Service analysis for vehicular traffic and determined that Approve the preliminary and final major site plan and (c) bulk variance for fencing subject to the conditions in the review letters as well as Additional trees and evergreen shrubbery, Remove privacy slabs from first 150 feet, submitting updated turn movements, vertical patterning instead of diamond patter, directional signage to direct trucks to the proper driveway, benches and or picnic tables on the Trenton grass slab, removal of invasive plant material along the creek if permittable by the DEP, no guardhouse and driveway gates without returning to the Board, obtaining the MDT details. Member Aye Nay Ab- Motioned Seconded stain Charles Romanow X Randy Baum X Jamie Carpenter X 6 Jeff Halpern X X Patricia Ni’ma-Mohammed X X Anthony Santora X Adam Weiss X Adjourned at 7:42pm. Respectfully submitted Cherry Oakley, Planning Board Secretary 7