Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the uh sorry, um uh September 10th uh HLRB meeting uh uh for the uh city of Newark Department of Development.

We have a few things on the agenda.

Um and tonight uh we will start with the uh attendance.

Sure.

Uh Rose Bofamante here.

Lucia Elliott is out, Jim Fleming here.

Leanne Merchant, here.

Belkies Ray's CUNY here.

Don Richards?

Here.

And staff members with us today, Saraya Ben Habib, Deputy Building Official Kevin Kane, Director of Planning Sustainability, and myself, Benito Seha, Senior Project Manager.

Okay, we uh have enough to go ahead.

Uh there's no minutes to approve today, so we're gonna go right into item number two, public hearing.

Uh uh number one, application HLRB four two oh two six by Mario Canteros for a certificate of appropriateness to legalize existing improvements, include including a porch enclosure, pool, gazebo, outdoor kitchen, detached open porch, fire pit, pizza oven generator HVAC unit, four-foot IPE driveway gates, and a four-foot uh cable rail fence along the side yard, as well as construct a new garage, installed papers, and add new front steps to a walkway at nine the court block eight two eight lot fourteen in an R1 historic zone district.

We are adjourned to the October meeting for that one.

Uh that we go right to number two, application HLRB five.

Two oh two six by Nichelle Arjuny for a certificate of appropriateness to construct a raised patio and detached garage in the front yard uh for an existing one family dwelling at 14 the boulevard, block eight two seven, lot four two, and in R1 historic zone district adjourned until further notice.

So that brings us right to number three.

Uh application HLRB seven dash two oh two six by Jody Lucina Picardo for a certificate of appropriateness to legalize a wooden enclosed fence at the side and rear yard at 40 Earl Place, block eight seven nine, lot thirty-five, and in R1 historic zone district, returning from the June meeting.

We thank the boards especially for their helpful feedback in June, and we hope that we have met the board's uh or address the board's concerns.

We also want to acknowledge at the outset, as we did before the zoning board, that the fence was constructed without first approval uh seeking a C AOA or building permit.

I'll address the full circumstances in a moment, but we want to say plainly here that this was not bad done with bad intent.

We erected the fence in good faith during the COVID-19 pandemic to address an urgent safety need at a time when municipal offices were we understood to be operating at a severely limited basis.

We've engaged openly with the zoning board and this board since the issue was first identified by the city.

Since our last appearance, we've taken steps, including new landscaping in direct response to the board's feedback, and we look forward to presenting our updates and to continued dialogue with the board tonight.

We especially appreciate having been given the opportunity to adjourn the June meeting and reconvene today with additional information and context.

Over the next few minutes, I'll address a few points in order, including landscaping, safety and security, good faith, and why our fence satisfies the uh standards of this board reviews.

Okay.

First, new landscaping.

Just want to make sure I'm not that view.

Okay.

In direct response to this board's concerns at the June meeting, we added the following alterations.

We've grown the hedges along the driveway, which is on Rockland Place on the Rockland Place side to approximately the height of the fence, creating a continuous green buffer.

We have hedges all around the property, so it just sort of raises up towards the back.

Continuous green buffer that naturally blends the structure into the surrounding landscape.

We will, of course, even out the top once they've fully grown in, but they're still in the process of growing in.

Second, we've planted five skip laurel bushes along the front fence line.

Skip Laurel is a fast-growing lush and dense evergreen that can reach fence height within a few years, and it provides year-round screening.

We specifically selected five bushes for the area based on the growth pattern of these bushes.

They grow tall and wide to cover as much ground as possible.

These are examples, samples of how skip laurel has grown.

On the left, that's just a sample from the internet.

On the right, that's 175 Hamilton, those are neighbors, and you can clearly see how full and tall they get, certainly much taller than their car.

And then, hold on one second.

We also note, just going back for a second, I don't know if I can use, can you see the pointer if I move it around?

No.

Okay.

I just wanted to flag on the right picture.

There's a small young tree in the front.

And then the back you can see a bigger, more mature tree.

We just wanted to flag that the two trees, these two trees flanking the fence.

One is already grown well above fence height, and the second planted last summer is a fast-growing species that will add significant canopy within a few seasons.

Roughly the hedges to look like once they've grown, and once the tree is in full bloom in a few years.

The steps we've taken reflect the spirit of collaboration embodied in the city's own historic district brochure, which states the HRB is keenly interested in helping owners find appropriate and cost-effective ways to meet modern requirements without seriously affecting the architectural integrity.

Next, I'll very briefly address the safety and security concerns and how we addressed them before the zoning board.

So the 1988 pardon me, the 1988 design criteria guidelines expressly contemplate that fences are sometimes necessary, provided they're made of quote naturalistic materials.

More on the materials later, but for now I'd like to discuss what may make a fence necessary.

Okay.

As you know, the governing legal legal framework for the design guidelines is chapter 170 of the new Rochelle Municipal Code, which governs this board's review.