e e you're ready all [Music] right calling the work session of July 22nd to order at 607 p.m. all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher council member Coyle here council member Harris here council member Patel here council member ptil here council member po pointer council member schmuel here Madam clerk please read the adequate notice adequate notice this meeting is required by the open public eting act has been provided by the annual no sent to the home News tribun Star Ledger Desi talk in news India times on December 12th 2023 and post main lobby miso complex on that same date okay uh going from the list for number four the first person is Marie Barber is it the first person on the list oh is this Sor it say yeah sorry Sue hello I didn't recognize your handwriting but uh your name and address please uh sumone Barber 85 Pleasant Avenue you're recognized thank you um so as you're probably aware the planning board approved the master plan it recommends lowering the building Heights along Amboy Avenue but still makes allowances for stores four stories 45 feet development on large Lots defined as Corner lots of half half an acre or more with 100t depth on a corner uh the Amboy Avenue analysis that was done with respect to the council's March 20th resolution to the planning board has also been completed and recommends the same thing the new study basically told us all what we already know four story buildings do not fit on small lots and we need more places to park according to the new study there are nine lots that meet the criteria for four stories as stated in the master plan the new study also says and also notes that these lights are unlikely to be developed for various reasons but of course that is not guaranteed so one might ask if they are unlikely to be developed then what is the problem with protecting the abing residents homes and the character of the neighborhood and making them all three stories 35 ft but that is not what the planning board recommended and the door has once again been left open in favor of developers and so after residents have given the same unwavering input on the 2016 Redevelopment plan and on the 2024 master plan for more than a year along with a delay of four months on the council's resolution to the planning board we are in exactly the same place we have been for the last eight years so we did meet with mayor josi and um we're very grateful for his promise to introduce an ordinance that will amend the current a uh Redevelopment plan uh ordinance 1936 2016 and lower the building Heights along ambo Avenue without exception to three stories 35 ft he discussed that there would there could be an allowance to go slightly higher if a developer seeks to create usable but uninhabitable rooftop space that ordinance is on tonight's agenda but it doesn't exactly say what the mayor promised um it it's getting there but I have a lot of questions um one uh there are four building types specified in the Amboy Avenue Redevelopment plan the fourth building type is offices and there's no mention of that building type at all and that allows for uh 40t four stories 40 feet 3 and a half 40 feet 4 40 ft being the the really relevant Point um I I want to ask why and and how does this hold up when when each section in section one the first the first section calls for building type one two three to be a maximum height of 35 ft and then the next section says um building type 1 two three shall be restricted restricted to a maximum of three and 1 half stories so my question there is if a developer comes in and says I want to build three and a half stories um but I I need 40 feet like why doesn't that language combine and say 35 feet 3 and a half stories whichever is fewer so I think that exposes us now I know this town knows how to write a tight ordinance and I feel like that is that's exposure then the the third Point under section one is um mixed use building type 2 mixed use retail residential and building type 3 residential shall be permitted to have either roof decks or rooftop access for residents and Retail clients is that the half story or is there can a developer say well what does this mean and is that open to interpretation to go even higher than three and a half so I I feel like the language is here but why isn't it together like it what is the half story is that the rooftop is that the rooftop plan like what is that and and then finally so the question question about the fourth building type why is that allowed to be one minute why is that allowed to be 40 feet um and four stories and then I I have a real question with regard to the master plan which clearly states there's four stories or four story recommendation for large Lots on Amboy Avenue so does this Amboy Avenue Redevelopment plan um hold up a against the master plan if a developer wants to go higher like what Trump what trumps what and certainly would it hold up on on repeal if if it was denied and then um went to a an appeals court um so those are my questions I feel like this needs to be tighter even though we are grateful that it's here at all um it's been a really long time um but it it feels a little squishy and I'm worried about that thank you thank you you can answer my questions uh with your times up so I just wanted to uh recognize anybody wants to answer any of these questions from the council no okay uh any of yes please I didn't I didn't hear that sorry I was I was asking the council president if he wanted me to address some of those things um so to address your first issue the 35 ft um or three and a half Stories the height requirement exists right if you can fit three and a half stories into 35 ft you're fine after that it becomes variance Town um the same as with any other zoning ordinance so if you can get that into the three the the 35 ft uh with the minimum first floor requirements on height uh then that is what you've got to deal with and then you've got to go to the zoning board for variances and uh try to make your case for going higher there that is just how it works and there's not anything that we can do to say you're not allowed to Grant variances ever to the zoning board that's that's what the zoning board's there for those two points you're not your time is you can't okay yeah we we can't exactly engage those two points aren't in Conflict right uh a half story are not sorry I can't I have a hearing I'm going to ask you to sit down if you keep talking okay okay I just didn't hear him yeah that's fine those two points are not in Conflict okay um a half story is not a habitable story uh it's generally used for attic space uh things of that nature so that is where that language comes in um but the three stories are what was asked for and what that restricts it to okay uh the second issue that I can address for you is does it hold up against the master plan um and the answer is yes okay so what happens with the master plan and with any of these zoning ordinances is that it will be uh if it's passed on first reading it's sent to the planning board uh for the review for the statute uh if they say yes this is all okay then it's passed and it becomes part of the zoning ordinance uh if they say yes but you have to address this issue it can also be passed without amending it at all and with the language that's been presented uh so long as an accompanying statement of reasons uh for uh not exactly complying with the master plan is also passed at that same meeting in a resolution okay so that's the master plan isn't law the master plan is a suggestion for how the development of the Town should be and it pro provides a framework that you should work within because a lot of time effort and planning goes into developing a master plan that doesn't mean that it is sacran and you can't do anything outside of the master plan you just have to make sure that you justify why you're doing it and how you're doing it so if the master plan doesn't comport with what the council feels is necessary for this area and what the people have asked for the ordinance can do that so long as the the correct steps are followed uh those were the two I don't think I can answer on the uh the fourth building type uh the 40 foot allowance um I do think it's it's Hank you can address that issue okay so Hank would have to add if you sit down I'll have Hank all right thank you I don't think she had a fourth I think it was just three it was just yeah okay yeah the um the issue of whether or not you can seek a variance to go higher than the 35 ft if you exceed 10 feet or 10% you create a d variance and we the boards are not allowed to Grant any kind of D variance change unless you amend the Redevelopment plan okay so that that would solve that yep and uh so does that answer the 40 feet question to why or is that the recommendation from the planner that recommendation was to at 35 ft that's what the a Zone had said way back when at 2 and a half story mhm so if you want to have um retail or commercial on the ground floor you're looking at like a 12T to maybe 13t ceiling then you have two floors of residential it would just leave space in the Attic area um that 5 foot of of half story it would be uninhabitable or you could create that space for um if you're going to sit up there or whatever you're going to do and have a space on the roof okay all right but you can't Grant a Dev variance to a Redevelopment plan okay so no devarian on Redevelopment plan uh next person on line Joel bassoff Joel bass off 17 Beach Lane uh several questions uh one is there an attitude uh among the council and the administration that if residents questions are ignored long enough that the the residents will just forget about it and and uh go away and here are some questions uh why I raised that uh question number one regarding the budget uh this has been asked many times before why did Edison miss the deadline set by the local Finance board for uh introducing and adopting a a budget uh another question about warehouses distribution centers and fulfillment centers when is the council going to adopt an ordinance that brings the definitions into the 21st century uh there's now been an application filed with the um technical Review Committee for a facility on Whitman Avenue that's across the street from single family residential how many more are we going to wait for before the council brings the definitions into the 21st century so that there's a chance of limiting truck traffic on residential streets and finally Amboy Avenue it it looks like the the current draft of an ordinance is smok and mirrors when is the council going to implement the will of the residents of claraa Barton and just limit building Heights to three stories period the council has the power to do it yes there was a contrary recommendation from the planning board and from the planning board's consultant but the council doesn't have to follow that you have ample reasons for putting in your minutes why you will just repeal the ordinance that allows for four stories and limit development to three stories so those are the questions I'd appreciate answers thanks thank you Joel um anybody from the council wants to take them you can answer the budget question yeah so when you were last here in May you asked the question about the budget and why we missed the deadline and I expressed to you that we didn't actually miss the deadline that we had a a difference of opinion I did speak with um Ken about this I I did ask him um since you won't take uh our word for it that we're in compliance with all the applicable budget submission deadlines uh I don't know if if Ken can address that issue did we miss the the budget deadline and and have we somehow violated uh when we're supposed to get our budget done let me just begin and I'll give it over to Ken we have not violated anything in terms of the law we've submitted all of our budget documents within the appropriate uh time frame um but certainly Mr Roberts can uh add to that the while what you're referring to for the budget deadlines is prescribed by the state the local Finance board through the division of local government services has the ability to extend the deadlines uh which they have in the past several years and those are merely suggestive uh there are communities who still haven't introduced let alone adopt their 2024 budgets yet so we have not missed a deadline uh we've had our budget approved and signed off of by the state without any negative comment or feedback uh the reason I asked is that there was a local Finance notice that was issued in December of 2023 that did extend the deadlines but Edison didn't even meet those extended deadlines under the local Finance notice and I'd add also in that regard the the Edison Charter actually calls for public hearings in November prior to uh new calendar year uh public hearings where the various departments would um make their requests for funding for the upcoming year council president I don't necessarily want it to be a back council president point point of order if we're going to do back and forth for him we need to do for everybody yeah that is true Joel unfortunately you're not recognized I I will let uh I will recognize you if you finish the thought and then I'll recognize Jo sure I mean I don't mean to be repetitive but we've answered it we uh we submitted we actually got the approval from the local Finance board um our budget's been approved um and I would I would take the word of a professional who deals with this regularly that we are in uh compliance I don't believe we are not in compliance as he stated that other towns are still behind and they haven't moved as far that we have so I would like to trust the professionals that we hired for this job all right uh if you want to say something Joel well I also had a question about he so that's time right okay yeah yeah I also had a a question about the uh Warehouse definitions just I was we were going to get there I just Avenue yeah okay the warehouse I'm going to repeat what I said earlier it is a process unfortunately I don't have a timeline on it we are working on it I know that's not an answer that you're looking for but that is the answer that we have um and then the aboy AV um I understand that is your opinion uh but I think the Administration has worked really hard with the community they have met with them uh this is not just one portion of the community's uh request everything they want they get I think it's some cor compromises plus a professional was hired to do this study as I understand is that correct tank I would like you to come up to the board but okay uh so this is something it's a process we have done the process to get the answer that we're looking for I understand again you're not happy with the answer that we got but this is what was returned to us based on the study that a professional did um and we have to make judgment call on that we cannot just uh you know just make up whatever we like I understand uh we do have something that we have to fall back on to say Hey you know this is the study was done this is what they recommend and you know where we going to go from there uh any other council members that would like to speak on this all right uh seeing none moving on to the next person uh Morris Kaplan good evening um I just want can I get your address Morris pardon your address please 41 marlot Avenue East you recognized Edison about me I was a volunteer firefighter for 58 years deep before I just have to get this off my chest and that's why I'm here the township and the Edison fire department disrespected the volunteers and do disrespect the volunteers recently we had a fire a fellow firefighter pass away we requested a fire truck what we received was a tack van and a young man who was helpful not in uniform show up I think that's disrespectful second of all mouin sent firefighters okay he was a veteran veteran showed up we as volunteers and Amanda put in 35 years cannot get a fir trck from the township of Edison no matter where you go in the United States if you're a volunteer firefighter I went to California and I stopped at a firehouse and I said could you come to my grandson's birthday they said we don't do this I said listen I'm a volunteer in Edison I was Chief could you please come they said brother we'll come that is the difference and here we just celebrated 100 years Edison Volunteer Fire Company not one mention of the 100 years we put in I have a history that I would have liked to pass out young lady said she would take them and pass it out and give you a little insight of the Edison Volunteer Fire Company we've provided protection to Residents we had no career firefighters we did JFK we did Rosell hospital we did menal Park we served well and a disrespect and not not one mention of the 100 years that we put in and when we have a a fellow firefighter pass away not one time not one career firefighter showed up that's totally disrespectful guys served with him we put guys on when I was Chief four of the people that I put in became Chiefs in this town paid the other disrespect is that they gave me a proclamation from the town okay this it right for 50 years years of service you know how it came just like so much to outet paper in a mail we had a dinner do you think somebody showed up fromont of town no that's no way to treat the volunteers I was putting up with this stuff for a long time but when it came to this funeral and a man putting 35 years in and nobody showed up and we got a tack van totally disrespectful 100 years of service not one mentioned you open up parks and stuff and you have big thing on Oak Tree Road 100 years nothing it's just totally disrespectful years ago they respected us I put 25 years in they had me in town hall right here gave me a plaque gave me a citation um we did a lot we bought our own equipment we went on the corner and all the equipment that we bought and we were like the first ones to have one and threein hose automatic nozzles bridge fire K tools rabbit tools gas meters before anybody and we bought this on our own we did a lot but we don't get any respect I thank you for your time it's been a pleasure thank you Morris council president first of all I want to thank and recognize Mr Kaplan for all the years of service he has put in as a volunteer firefighter and for his passion about that the work that he he did in his fellow volunteer firefighters have done this is an unacceptable I don't know if it's an oversight if it's protocol or what but it really to me is unacceptable and I'm wondering if there is any kind of remediation that can be done about this situation it's not right thank you thank you Council vice president council president I just I'd like to to Echo my colleague and and thank Chief Mars for all your hard work could you could you say to me your last name again because I wrote your first name as Morris cap Kaplan last name is Kaplan Kap l n Kaplan thank you and we did ask and all they sent us was one Tac van and Tac van they could have sent us a fire truck which they didn't it's total disrespect I mean if a brother firefighter passes away and he put 35 years in town There's many we work 24 hours a day we were always on call I remember going to durhan Woods I spent the whole night there and I had to go open my gas station on 27 apart which I was there for 38 years and I had to work another half a day but that's thing in the past we did it because we wanted to do it but when it comes to some thank you Mr unfortunately your time is up so I would ask you to sit down okay okay thank you uh Mr thank you I just want to thank Mr Kaplan uh Mr Kaplan as for me I want to thank you for all your services and I agree uh if there was any disrespect I believe that town we'll try to uh REM remiy the situation Rectify if we can uh if I am not sure what the process and how we ended up in this situation but I'm sorry that we did it was if we could correct it I would love to all right Mr Kaplan um council president um is the battalion chief uh or yeah do you have any do you have anything to add to this in terms of what kind of remediation might be POS possible council president and Council vice president I what I would like to do is the administration's point of view is look into this exactly what happened and if such request was made that we would obviously look into and discuss that with mayor as a public safety director and the fire chief who's not here tonight I don't know if there's any other information that we could share with you tonight okay let's just have a discussion and make sure that we have a policy in place as absolutely and I'm sorry that that happened thank you council president uh Council fire chief Kaplan I am sorry to hear this and I hope it was a miscommunication our chief uh Andy to is usually on top of this I thank you for your service and your family and all the work you've done long before they were paid there were volunteers who did all this work and thank you for all the time you did in building the fire department all right uh moving on to the next person in line John Vitali uh just your name and address sir John Vitali 228 Central Avenue I'd like to briefly comment about the item on tonight's agenda regarding the Stelton neighborhood parking permits first uh thanks to council member Harris for adding this item I'm a 45-year resident of Edison about 40 years ago I was one of three residents who worked with the council to draft the original ordinance for residential permit parking in the neighborhood adjacent to the train station the purpose of the ordinance has always been to prevent commuter parking on those residential streets since the ordinance was first passed the residents and the Edison police division have successfully worked together to keep the streets around the train station mostly free of parking commuter parking unfortunately during the past 16 months that collaboration has hit a disagreeable problem so what we have here is a tale of two ordinances beginning in March 2023 the resident at 12 Lennox Street has been giving a visitor's permit to a commuter who parks on Lennox and uses the train station on almost a daily basis the Traffic Unit starting with Sergeant Winters then Lieutenant Turner and now Captain moris has said that the 12 lenux resident using the visitors permit for routine on street parking by a commuter is not a violation of the ordinance meanwhile presumably based on that same ordinance the traffic has directed about four other residents who are recently giving their permits to visitor to commuters for on street parking to stop those residents have stopped as if there's some kind of double standard with Police Department approval the resident at 12 lenck Street continues to give a visitor's permit to a commuter nearly every weekday same ordinance same behavior from different residents two very different police enforcement reactions we believe the best way to fix this is to strengthen the ordinance language so the police have a clear understanding about how to enforce the ordinance regarding the use of visitors permits for ongoing on street parking by commuters as one Township communication to resident States due to abuses of Resident and visitors parking permits existing rules will be enforced under no circumstances May visitor permits be used for commuter parking our hope is that the council will acknowledge that this double standard approach to enforcing the ordinance would stop and that the best way to stop it is to strengthen the ordinance language as we propose as we've done several times in the past we volunteer to work with the council to make that happen thank you thank you um uh jum Mr rali do you have those suggestions did you email it because I'm not sure okay yeah if you can email it to the Madam clerk we can try to incorporate it because I do agree that we couldn't have two different standards in terms of enforcement uh anybody else that would like to speak to this all right uh moving on to Octor Nasser name and address please Octor Nasser Pleasant Avenue you're recognized it's been a minute for clar barn residents to breed over the four-story building height it was hailed as one way to redevelop Amboy Avenue but it crashed and burned at this very moment and 8 years prior anyone on Amboy Avenue could have built four stories but they chose not to even with a thriving economy this shows that Building height is not what is stifling Redevelopment and anyone that stands by this argument better take a crash course in economics in eight years we have only had two applications in four story buildings and one four three story building the four-story building that they've developed has not spurred any Redevelopment rather if you look objectively there's actually more for sale for lease buildings on Amboy Avenue than any other time and before we celebrate that one building was built during the course of eight years under the Redevelopment let's know the applicant had planned to develop that vacant land since 2010 with two stories three stories and then finally four stories when it got greedy for the last two years clar bar residents have gone to the master plan meetings and asked for four-story building Heights to be removed the chair of the plan board was aware that clar Barn residents continued to attend addressing any more CL B residents but yet we were not listened to had they listened the study that was initiated by the council resolution would have been ordered two years ago not last minute this makes us suspicious who is pushing for the sto for stories and why we keep G to narratives that we are the residents stifling millions of dollars to the area without Force story development or that it's not feasible to go ahead and develop anything when you're not allowing four story development none of these claims are documented by way the study that we just got back validated everything that the residents have continued to say we have wasted so much time from February to now the whole process that we have gone through since February in which the council rejected the ability to do repeal on the ordinance for two months then to magically figure out that we could do a resolution to request a study that all seems just like a game even the way that the resolution was done seems like a game we ask that there be a time period for the study supposed to be I believe 45 days but somehow we put it in without a time frame so my Spidey Sense is telling me that something's a little up and wrong here I want to thank the mayor for getting involved and supporting us saying that he would get rid of the four-story buildings on our fourth meeting with him he said that in mid July at the planning board somehow everything will magically be resolved and the four-story issue will be gone unfortunately this wasn't true we did get some suggested language removal of the four stories but not cross everywhere so that presents a huge problem we asked for a last minute meeting last Thursday and that was our fifth meeting with the mayor and before we even spoke the mayor knew exactly where we were there and he already told us that he was working on an ordinance that you guys have before you not quite sure why everything didn't get magically done with the master plan um and as was promised the the previous week but it's clear that if he's meeting with us for five times that he supports us now when you look at the ordinance want to be perfectly clear that no story buildings of any kind are permitted anywhere on Amboy Avenue as Sonia stated downtowns typically have 35 tall buildings so I'm not even sure why we had taller buildings to begin with the other thing I want to keep in mind is the maximum height of any building should be 35 ft nothing more with the ability to have a05 story addition for a rooftop deck where nobody will live in the current ordinance that we were only able to review just just 1 hour ago I am not sure that the ordinance is clear and meets the conditions that we've been talking about for instance section one building type 3 says 3.5 stories it's ambiguous and I think it should be redone as saying building type 3 withs three stories in parentheses 35 ft and an optional 05 story for rooftop access that is non-habitable the other thing that's missing from here is building Type 4 which allows for 40 feet I would like that also to be on this to say that it can only be 35 ft again I want to thank the mayor Sonia cat and Mr deal for the support is there any way that we can button up this ordinance so it meets what we've been fighting for for eight years thank you thank you out out there um any questions that you want to answer U council president I I have it on my discussion items I know several people are here to talk about it so I'm not going to elaborate at this moment I just want to be courteous to let you know I will discuss it but I don't want to take away from their time thank thank you council president all right um so what about the building number four that I was saying about the 40t I'm not sure if that was part of what you're going to talk about or I think that should be should be Universal 35 feet across there so there is no discussion or the 0 five um the balcony area I think that that should be set as an optional I believe otherwise I think that somebody might say oh well it's 3.5 you know what let's just go to a fourt story because it's it's 3.5 for four stories is very close to each other so I just feel like there should be some buttoning up I don't know I'm guessing that none of you guys feel like it needs to be buttoned up uh I mean we don't we have our opinion but we can so just to repeat What Hank addressed earlier with a 35 foot maximum Building height if you go above 10% of the maximum Building height um it triggers a d variance and a d variance in a Redevelopment area is not permitted so that would be 38.5 ft um they could go to the zoning board and try and get that extra 3.4 ft uh but with a maximum Building height of 35 ft it keeps it below that number a building type four already has 40 fet and that has not been spoken about in this ordinance so this is what I said before is I I don't have an answer for that particular aspect of so can we get an answer to that like unfortunately we didn't develop the suggestions I think that was came to us from the planning board that we did not you know come together and write that particular language if that's the suggestion this is what was presented to us from the planning board and this is what we're voting on so if we can either wrote it down and then work on it completely fresh which is a lot of the council members feel that we could vote it down and do a comprehensive plan all over again but I believe clar Barton will be really unhappy about that because we're not moving forward so there is always a compromise where we we have to make either we move forward and take what we have on the table or we delay and you know people be unhappy so I you know it's a rock in a hard place either way we go there is going to be a compromises all right all right thank you council president I just want to counc you recognize thank you counc president I was to some extent involved you know I was getting the feed on and off what was happening with the Clara Barton three story four story if you all remember few months ago we the resolution saying repeal the ordinance and this Council expected some sort of I would say the report from the planning board in a very short time 45 days didn't happen it triggered another study but on the docket we don't have the outcome of that study nowhere this ordinance lands in the email box at 4:00 it this ordinance is very very important for or the residents of the Clara when this topic is so sensitive and you can see the audience they care their neighborhood we have spent almost 6 months going back and forth on this topic I don't know why it is so hard for us to get to the bottom of it start with three story if at all you want to go back to the four stories again this Council has a power to change that but let's start from the basic didn't happen here are my objections all along we give a good reason saying hey because our master plan is not up to the mark the developer is going to the court they appeal the court overthrows the case they end up building what they desire we are in the same position as of today there's a tall promise of 100 days master plan we are two and half year much longer yet that is not yet fully ingrained what the future of Edison stands for and Clara Barton is a classic example of that so my point here is is there a true intent to help the resident or this is just a wishiwashi solution let's start with something and just push it I heard council person saying it's going to take more time if we don't adopt this my question is why it took even 3 months for us to get here we could have easily repealed and then moved forward with again with the good thought process we could have form a subcommittee would have sat with the again the residents of clarton which I know mayor did you know there were several meetings happened some of us also individually met the residents we heard them but yet here is the day not we are not there and it's I'm very disappointed when especially when it's a sensitive issue we cannot put something on the agenda without giving through thought without analyzing what's the impact whether it is it's not just about the master plan but on the entire clarton section my worry here is because we are now talking up in public there are people who are watching you will anticipate few application they will be sneaked in and here you go now we'll have the spot zoning you'll have the master plan they will go to code they will give the reference here you go it will be overturned so no matter what we do we'll end up getting four story even though there is a desire to get three story so if this Council doesn't act in good faith and serve the resident this will never happen thank you council president thank you councilman p uh moving on anybody else that would like to speak thank you yes sir name and address please yes my name is uh Keith Ryan 50 Lafayette Avenue you're recognized I just have a couple questions I've been involved with these uh a lot a lot of people in clar Barton uh and uh great people that really care about their community so after doing some work with them and do some talking and I talked about the residents back and forth and I'm going to speak for some of our residents they asked me some questions now we're bringing up all these numbers and everything else about this so three stories four stories I agree with all that stuff and uh uh everything that has to do with uh of a lot of this stuff with numbers we just we'll just call it basically numbers but a lot of people are asking me some basic questions so um what these are some of the questions I were asked is uh what benefit does this master plan ring to clar Barton the community what benefit does it bring us we have people here that aren't happy now a lot of people aren't happy but they don't make it here all the time they got jobs they got other other uh things to do and then then they want to why is it being forced on us now I agree with them people about the four stories three stories I don't want any stories two stories whatever I agree with that so why is it being pushed on this what is the benefit of this how does it benefit the people out here if they're here going against it why does the government want to push this on us and what and if we do do this were there any adjustments on to the infrastructure we already brought I could speak for my street on Lafayette we have brown outs regularly when there's storms or anything else like that flooding on my side of Lafayette that's been like that since I lived there I when it rains or something like that it pours it comes all the way down Echo we have this much water coming down our road we call it Township so we didn't even fix problems that are years old we're going to create new ones we don't have any solutions these are the things that people are asking me and not to mention the obvious parking traffic and schools just like everybody else it's like nobody builds schools we convert schools to something else we don't build new ones and then do we have another thing here we have another thing this is going to be a touchy one but people ask me it's like why is there a council M uh member involved in property sales some people did the research and a lot of people feel that's a conflict of interest those are my questions I'm looking for answers now but uh thank you Keith are you those are your questions all right any council members that we want to take it okay uh as for the what benefits does the master plan master plan is more of a guidance and it's supposed to based on the study that the ma planning board does and approves they are the essentially setting the guidance for the town as to give a someone who's coming looking into coming into the town and invest or to plan anything to invest money in they want to know what you know the town needs and that's what the master plan is supposed to do for the whole town not so this master plan is for the investors not for the residents it's a guiding that's how it sounds guiding plan right it's a guiding plan for to communicate with each other as to what we're doing because if we don't have a master plan you don't know what the town is building I don't know what the town is building we don't have a cohesive vision and ultimately be build you know not necessarily to the plant it's a master plan is a guiding uh prin a master plan is essentially there to lay out a road workor for a road map for the future development of the town so that you don't get Patchwork zoning laws um that don't necessarily mesh well with each other so that you don't end up with um things coming into the town that don't fit in the neighborhoods that they get access to um so that investors can understand what they can reasonably ask for in certain areas and what they can't um so that the town can plan future roadway expansions so that it can plan future development expansions open space expansions Park expansions um knowing what the use uh and restrictions are on those parts of the Town um that they want to expand into and that people want to develop because there's always a push and pull on that there's always a little bit of give and take when you're you're talking about a growing uh and and popular quite frankly uh location like Edison so that is the the the balancing act that the master plan kind of has to thread so it's not just for any one particular group but it's to make sure that all of those conflicting interests um are essentially developed in a way that is sustainable um that is in the best interest of both the business community and more importantly the residents um so so that you you don't have some of those issues so that that's really what a master plan is for master also to We Can't both be talking so let me answer your questions because you asked the questions I was just resp council president point of order I don't mind it we doing the back and forth I don't want to do back and forth It's either I'm talking or you're talking one way or the other you have more questions you can ask me right now and I'll wait for it do you have any more questions okay all right so let me continue answering the questions that you asked now the master plan will also help us with the infrastructure if we know we're building something we can plan for it uh that will be the plan of the master plan we will see hey we are going to be we need we need to grow as a town we can't stay still because if we do we're going to become stale and not appropriately to the times that we need to be uh we will not have enough housing uh when we need it we might not have enough schools like you pointed out so if we know hey we're going to be growing around this much we need more schools we need more infrastructure we need to worry about you know the sewage pretty much everything needs to be planned out and that's what the master plan helps us do uh in terms of the situation with the Lafayette uh Sonia do you have anything to add with the Lafayette flooding okay she does not and the traffic parking school again this is all be issues that should be tackled with a good master plan they should be worried about this hey if we're going to be building this how are we going to worry about the parking where where are the cars going to go if this we build this here how much traffic would it build this is all something that should be thought out again that is why we called the master plan we think these through so that way when we build it we don't run into issues hopefully and that that will be it sorry Kei that's all that's all I have for you okay just one more question your time is up sorry ke yeah all right um yeah but you got to raise your hand there were other people that were ahead too you can come on hello I'm uh Anita from 20 Parker Road you recognize Anita um so I'm here to talk about uh garbage uh collection so the township collects my garbage today and assesses me a tax based on my property value um but my neighbor who lives back street they're able to use a private provider I end up paying three times as much as what a private provider would charge me if I use them so and same goes for all of the residents on my street we are not able to use a private provider we end up paying significantly more because the township is collecting our garbage and um we've discussed this a couple of times before I've raised it with some Council people and we were here in the last council meeting and we brought this up and the council said you would look into this so I'm here to ask if you have an update for us we really would like to understand what the council is doing to make this more fair because I don't think it's fair that that I have to pay more um to the township compared to some of the other residents who are able to use a private provider I should also be allowed to use a private provider and pay what the free market allows me to um pay for this same service but uh it's not fair that the township is imposing their service on us for a significantly higher price and not giving us that choice when some other residents are allowed to have that choice so I would like to know what the township is what the council is doing to make this more fair for those of us who are not currently able to get the private service thank you thank you thank you I'm going to ask the legal counsil to help me out here as to what our options are so what can we do as a town to help alleviate the situation so the short answer is not a whole lot unless you want to suspend garbage service okay okay um so I did spend some time after the last time uh the residents were here um asking about how it works and and uh why some areas are private some are public public and why there's a a price discrepancy um and that price discrepancy actually goes both ways there are residents With Private Collection who pay more than some residents with with uh Municipal collection as well um there are also some additional issues with private collection with regards to accountability um and there's been a number of complaints about that uh we don't hear those because they have nothing to do with the the township itself so the the issue with um saying okay well everyone can go out and um get their own private collection uh done uh essentially means that the collection that the township pays for ends up not being funded and that money has to come from somewhere else um which the way that it's done as an adalum tax your property value determines what the the cost is right is the same way that all property taxes are done uh you pay a higher percentage because your property is more valuable right um or you pay more money because your your your property is more valuable that that's why a million dollar house has higher property taxes than a $250,000 house in the same town and why different percentages of that go to schools libraries to the town itself um so the it looks like what happened um at least from a historical perspective is uh in rough the 70s uh Edison began to establish garbage districts areas in which uh collection would take place those have expanded over the years um and it doesn't Encompass the entirety of the township as of yet uh it may at some point if the council decides that they're just going to hand a municipal collection um solely through the municipality it may reduce uh but if it reduces again that means that those those funds won't be available it doesn't change really the cost for any individual resident if you stop collecting here um it just compresses them uh yes you have less that you have to do but does it it without some kind of actual economic study to tell me what that ends up being I can't answer your you as to what would the be the impact of suspending service in a certain district and allowing it to go private um or how that would play out if eventually it phased out or if you eventually expanded all the way out um that would be something that the township would have to take a look at and say how do we want to handle Our Garbage Collection some townships do purely Municipal some townships have gone entirely private um and the the the costs are there um but there's also drawbacks to that so um so like you heard from the council is not an easy uh fix uh just like pretty much anything I'm not sure what the right solution is uh anybody else would like to speak I councilman pel has really looked into this as well first thank you for coming tonight to speak you TW 20 Parker Road you said and um you're not in District you paid for private today correct no I you have public garbage picked up yes so the township picks up your garbage yes and I pay three times as much as what the private provided that I got a code from is offering to do the same thing I pay 1,00 today garbage your time's up so unfortunately you won't be able to answer anymore so okay um if everybody had a choice to pick their own vendor the mapping alone would be chaos you know we have enough to problems and again I hear you out I'm not looking for you to comment and I could speak to you offline but think about 33,000 homes picking whoever they want when they want and the snow plowing and the storm management and the flow processes of work it would be very challenging maybe that's one of the scenarios but I certainly will look into it the garbage district and the private from public is always been a very deep 1940s discussion that started way back when where one District can be private over another but I'll ask the council president and support him looking into this Anita I think we did talk about this long time back when I first I think I W I walked to your house and we talked about this U and this was something that you brought up even back then and I looked into it and all I essentially found out at the time was it's a historical change and it's uh really complicated to change it but I am open to looking into it but like councilman Coy suggested I don't think we can do a patchwork like we can't let half people pick resident I mean unfortunately you can't there's a portion of the town that does have already have a choice and I'm not sure as to how that ended up in that situation but we could looking into expanding it to them so it's even across the board uh or completely removing it I don't necessarily agree with having both as a choice because then it just adds to the work without making any more efficiency for the township and council president last I just want to add that as we have Public Works handling your garbage let's not forget during the storm they're also pushing SN no so that you're getting a dual service at the same time on that day just throwing that you know the extra complication at you as it one Department may be handling three things for you as a taxpayer and you know Council also garbage thank you thank you counc is there a possibility of having like a flat charge for tax collection and having a tax for DPW separate so it's not I'm sorry a flat charge for tax collection I mean for the garbage collection and then having a DPW charge for tax like a separate DPW charge um I would have to look into how that would work but I don't believe it's it's I don't believe it's permissible okay um obviously I can look into it but I just I I don't think it's permissible with how you have to assess the cost for that under the statutes okay all right okay thank you neita I'm s uh we will look forther to it but fortunately it is not easy solution anybody else that would like to speak you come on good afternoon my name is B Reas I uh can you speak closer to the mic please my name is B Ras I moved into 52 Lafayette you're recognized um I moved in a year ago the reason I moved in I came from New York downtown Brooklyn which is where all the big buildings are at I moved into my block because it was a very low block and I like to see the views and stuff like that so now with a four story or three story it's blocking off the views that's one two where I used to live was a three story and the parking there was also not very good about that so with everything that's coming am I going to relive this again like I move from there to over here so we don't go through that so what's going to happen with that scenario like how are how am I benefited now from moving there to here like doesn't seem to be a big change for me in that scenario so from three stories how many people would be living there how many cars are we talking that's a it's basically going right back to where I came from so that's my biggest concern right now that I'm just like what was the point of me investing my money into my own house if I had to relive something that I was living back home and and I have a baby so like it's just not my vision or my plan that I came to live in I understand over here so that's what I want you guys to take into consideration and I'm probably not the only one it it is a new house but again people are also migrating over here to live that low count life so I just want you guys to take that into consideration thank you thank you council president I just want to thank her for coming in renting and choosing to buy in Edison some people have commented that renting is not good and I'm thankful you decided to make Edison your home good evening Diana joffy 86 Laurel Hollow Court you recognized uh it's been about a year I've been coming up here about the sight line from in man Avenue and all Raritan Road I was told there was an ordinance being written I don't see it can somebody explain what's going on why this ordinance hasn't been written the the sight line is worse than ever the hedges are higher the blind spots are worse and I'm standing up here I feel like I'm just nagging and going over and over and over again this is dangerous where's the ordinance can somebody talk to me uh Sonia can you answer that sure um there is an upcoming meeting between um our internal team to discuss the sight line uh the sight line triangles you're referring to so that's forthcoming I believe it's this week I'm just just looking in my uh calendar so we're going to discuss that this week what what exactly are we discussing well we're discussing the issues with the site with the site and the restrictions so once we come to um we come to an agreement rather uh we'll bring a recommendation to the council okay thank you sure maryan Hennessy Carmelo drive you recognize Maran you're not going to like me I know you're not I feel sorry for that lady waiting so long to get this resolved and all I can say is God forbid there's a major accident at that intersection because nothing's been done since she started asking for it my major issue is you want want a second work order for the little building at the end of Central Avenue for cheerleaders and the football team why did this town not hire a project manager before you even conceived of doing anything where that project manager would Overlook things and get in touch with your construction people and go over details before this happened and let us know that there was the potential for these overs you just gave a $190,000 what two weeks ago three weeks ago for a roof that roof shouldn't have created a problem if you had a project manager on the site looking at the plans I worked as an ad administ ministrative assistant in the engineering department of sharing plow and we built buildings and we used ton and we never had the problems that this town is having and don't anyone tell me you can't compare apples and oranges because you certainly can when it talks about building buildings here this is an absolute in my honest opinion a disgrace the other disgrace is the to Health Center that's been shut the fencing is still across the parking lot and that's from November of last year the other thing that aggravates me the Senior Citizen Center on Woodbridge Avenue was shut for months because it was in violation you finally got it out of violations and it wasn't open very long and it was shut again they are now going to mini BV Recreation Center not Community Center not Senior Center those are my three major things and I also am going to say something and the business administrator will not like it because the comment was made that they didn't feel that they needed a project manager the administration and the business administrator could handle it haven't handled it from day one those are my angers because it keeps costing more money for stupid reasons I also want to know why do we now have to have purchase orders out there for vehicles from 2025 what's wrong with leftover 2024 look for them they're cheaper they give you probably the same thing that you're going to need for 2025 but you never look at that you always look at going forward my next issue is I do not live on Amboy Avenue I go through Amboy Avenue from time to time and I have great respect for the people who have been coming here and to the planning board and telling you they don't want four-story buildings and the planning board totally ignored them and has left the four-story building in the master plan that's a disgrace and unfortunately the people have no recourse to it because they can't elect those people so they're stuck with them those are my comments okay um any council members would like to take any comments all right uh come up good evening Tom OA 165 Echo Avenue um want to comment on the proposed ordinance on Amboy Avenue uh first I would want to say I would I would encourage you to support the ordinance and vote to approve it uh because it is a a large step in the right direction for for the area um but I have three different three questions for clarifying purposes uh in the master plan it contemplated allowing four story buildings in the larger properties which were defined as roughly larger than a half an acre does the ordinance as it's written um eliminate that car out so that it covers the entire Redevelopment Zone with the height limitations as proposed uh the second question is on the three and a half stories is it defined anywhere in the code or the or an ordinance what a half story is to to be very clear that it is not uh habitable space or living space that it's just utility space or you know stairways and and things like that and uh finally uh is there a reason that the uh building Type 4 which is only offices it's not residential um allows only for three floors but it allows for up to 40 feet is there a reason that that is not that might be a hank type question for how it's for the building design but I would think that even at uh you know normally an office building has higher ceiling so there might be a little need for more space But even with that the design still could allow for the 35 ft with that up to that 10% 38 it prevents the building from going to 44 40 you know 43 44 ft it brings it down a little bit more and still gives them the room I would think they need to build that building so those are my three uh questions um and the two comments I would I would encourage as we look at the re um at the master plan and the Redevelopment plan that it not be an overlay the Redevelopment not be an optional uh approach for a builder that it be that the Redevelopment plan replace the code that is presently in that area um and I'd also encourage the council to look to establish a Redevelopment agency to serve Edison so that any of the areas that have been found to be in need of Redevelopment can be driven and managed by a body that is focused strictly on that uh on that type of property thank you Tom uh I think we can answer these questions uh legle Council can you explain if the four Stories the master plan eliminates the car while so before you start I think you know the dialogue between two of you is not helpful if you can answer the resent straight speaking in my looking at him would be helpful yeah I I was just looking off that way while I was thinking so um my understanding is that the master plan leaves a carve out right the ordinance that's on for tonight doesn't actually permit that carve out that the master plan would otherwise have permitted it makes a very clear distinction in the Redevelopment plan limiting the height of the buildings and limiting the number of stories without exception okay so what the master plan does is says we should do these three stories but I'll allow four stories here here and here the Redevelopment plan is going to be What could controls and by amending the Redevelopment plan and changing the language of the Redevelopment plan to restrict it to three stories that is ignoring the recommendations of the master plan because again I think we said this before that is what the master plan is it is a series of recommendations and suggestions now you have to work around them right you you have to take them into account and if you're going to make a deviation from them it has to be justified but they're not again set in stone as to what has to happen it's a bad idea to ignore your master plan um in total uh but uh there are times such as this where uh doing what is necessary for the residents and doing what the council needs to do uh you can ignore parts of the master plan so long as you have valid reasons uh can you also answer the half story is it defined um I if I'm that what I was just looking for was my copy of the the Redevelopment plan because um I wanted to see if it was in there and I don't know that it is in the actual Redevelopment plan itself it's 170 pages so um but I do believe that it is in the building code um at some point uh and that is what our ordinances are based off of they adopt the the construction codes and our enforceable through there um so uh at the end of the day though a half story is not a habitable story um under any definition of the term okay and uh Hank would you be able to answer at the podium the type four offices as to why you don't know and Hank and I were were talking about this um just just before trying to remember uh what exactly the r development plan says about those type four buildings and it's part of the reason why I was looking for it so I could have the exact language I don't know the evening I can find out for you I didn't write that plan it was done by uh Susan GRL way back when um and as far as the half Story by definition I believe it's a space that is only five feet so it's not a habitable space you could be for storage or you know Utility Equipment things like that okay okay thank you okay so it's not a half story that's half the size size it's half the height yeah okay great thank you thank you uh anyone else would like to speak hi good evening everybody Karen Halo 551 Street next okay so looking over I'm here for the Clara Barton issue because I'm a Clara Barton resident um I think you've seen us all a bunch of times and we're coming out and we're trying to we're cutting into our family time and our personal time we're not politicians we elect politicians hopefully they'll understand where we're coming from and I think that we've all kind of really spoken as clearly as we can that we're not into the four stories um having said that I do support the ordinance for the three stories I mean things change you can't have things stay back in time I get that but ironically to me the most interesting thing was one of the first lines of the master plan was just this little bullet and it said it encourages the preservation of distinct and cohesive neighborhoods now claraa Barton is a distinct and cohesive neighborhood it's a little pocket it's like a World War II Boomer Cape Cod houses and so I don't really see 4story buildings maintaining a distinct and cohesive neighborhood so um and that's in the master plan that's one of the first five or six bullets that go down and it's pretty simple when you read it and everything else that I read after that says wow how does that fit underneath that bullet and how does that make sense so um that's what I have to say about it a lot of people are a lot more Technical and legal and a little more little more verse than I am in this but I really encourage you think about the Integrity of the neighborhood and the nice little pocket that we have so um anyway thank you again thank you anybody else that would like to speak Mark BS Lafayette Avenue you're recognize I'm with the Clara Bart people and I'm coming late to this process process but could I recommend or has there been a presentation by the planning board about the master plan or a focus for the master plan or a direction that we could all hear do they ever make reports to the councilman for the public to hear as well uh if you have any more questions I'll take all the questions and then I'll get to it because there seems to be a an embarrassing lack of information about this topic thank you okay uh Council poter would thank you council president in regards to the master plan itself there were a series of meetings um there was a subcommittee that uh was formed uh several um meetings amongst the public for feedback uh the planning board did have several meetings over the past two years in regards to discussing the master plan uh what was going to be placed into it um I don't have those exact dates in front of me but they are on uh on record in video in regards to the Amboy Avenue specific to the Redevelopment plan that was brought forth by to the planning board in April it was discussed at the last meeting um that was not as elaborated on so to say as compared to the master plan but part of that is because a lot of those discussion items are involved in the master plan um there's a lot of overlap between the two so that may be the reason as to why but hopefully that explains um the leadup as to how we got to here thank you council president thank you uh anybody else that would like to speak 79 6 Street Ed here in New Jersey thank you I I'm quite sure a lot of people have spoken from the community and um I support what they have told you that the height should be three and um the council woman has been to that place and she has seen whatever is going on up there I think whatever decision that should be taken they should con everybody taking decision concerning clar should consider the the life of those people that live there because after the old mess is constructed and put together either by the council man that's supposed to represent us and all those people on planning board everybody goes home except him but I think he has a way of going into his own property but we live right in the middle of whatever mess is going on so whatever decision that will make us not to come here whatever decision that will make us not to be here every meeting and um give us opportunity to be thinking that we regret ever voting some people in tonight should be the night that that decision should be taken we tired of living family to come and sit here to push people to do whatever they're supposed to do we tired of people not representing or talking about the plight of Clara Bon when to they get today seat and they just concern about their own selfish and greed we tired of it whatever decision I know there are a lot of good people on the seat tonight should be the decision we tired of coming continuously I'm quite sure if there's anything on the table of councilman Patel or Breer or Maro it will be about us just to make us comfortable I know call can never have anything I don't know about John the president kindly do the needful we outside that thank you uh anybody else that would like to speak all right seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close second all right motion by Council vice president second by councilman Coyle all in favor I the public portion is closed uh moving on to number five review of minutes any comments the council members uh seeing none uh mov on to number six reports from all Council committee starting on my right Council M Coyle none sir all right uh Council vice president I have several um the monthly animal shelter report is more good news um the with the current heat they've been staying mostly indoors with the animals they're going to go into a few nursing homes for the residents to see the puppies and kittens but they will not do any big events until the weather break uh the current census felines uh the cats there are nine cats 25 kittens one nursing mom and one pregnant uh can9 14 dogs five puppies one nursing mom and small for the small fers or feathers is a bird I believe that bird was found somewhere in North Edison it was a red tailed hawk and it was I think a broken wing and it was brought to the uh Raptor Trust over in Millington to either rehabilitate or to live there adoptions this is an incredible number 50 cats were adopted in the month of June four canines uh redemptions there were 11 canines two Felines and Animal Control calls 137 so they're continuing to really rocket there the uh human relations commission that was held on 72 I was not presid but I did get the minutes thank you from Maria Orchid and so since Maria wise has departed new election was held and so the new chair is Maria Orchid congratulations to you new secretary is uh Mony mathur and the new Treasurer is Rashid Khan the goals and objectives will be forming subcommittees such as a fundraiser creating list of events to attend explore potential collaborations with other commissions and groups motivational speakers are and open to the public bike safety with they decided not to meet in the council chambers next month but we'll have a table a National Night Out on August 6th looking forward to this great event and meeting everyone on the field the mayor's quarterly meeting they need to review we need to review the good the goals for the next meeting one Milestone has uh to be accomplished each quarter uh need a member appointed from Edison schools and they decided to keep the meetings to be held within 1 hour hour the next meeting will be at the National Night Out on August 6th uh Library board that was held on August on on July 9th and uh the 2023 audit is still in progress it should be available and done at the end of July the book Moville Sprinter van is repaired and it's up and running again the library Foundation uh they are developing brochures for the capital campaign North Edison Branch is moving quickly to the planning board main library branch Furniture designs are being submitted CLA Barton Branch a full uh they have a full program schedule for this month the bookmobile is in motion around town they're going to increase their presence at festivals and farmers markets the ILS motor uh ILS migration integrated library system is very slow right now in its progress um um new business the uh resolution to designate the township of Edison public libraries a sanctuary library was approved it's the freedom to read including endangered and would be banned books um finally I had brought up the concern that had been raised by some residents about asbest being removed from the main library and so as it turns out what happened was that this was on the second floor and uh it was noted when a few 9 by9 tiles had been removed uh this is the 9 by9 tiles go back to 1963 so they are in the process of remediation that that floor has been closed off so nobody is in any kind of danger they're doing air quality tests there is no danger to the public the next meeting will be Tuesday August 13th at 700 p.m. finally there was no Cultural Arts commission meeting this this month that will also be on August 13th of next month but just a few things to note um the uh fante house uh Ry poro had given me who had been kind enough to give me a tour of the progress on the fante house and it's coming along really really nicely it's it's transforming and um it's uh it it it's it's looking it's really beginning to look like something that's going to be usable in the not too distant future I also wanteded to uh report that I had a conversation this is following up on what I spoke about last at the last meeting about the idea for the greenway The Greenway which is is insufficient for benches for seating areas for people who want to take a break and I had talked about the possibility of uh benches that for the at least for the Edison cor Corridor that businesses or private people could sponsor they would purchase a Ben and have their names put on there and that that we could have a local artist do some painting of the benches and so I spoke to commissioner Santi Nara and she thought she really liked the idea she she liked the idea for being able to extend that to the other towns that are involved and that will be involved when the greenway is extended and so she was going to speak to commissioner Charlie tomorrow our own Charlie tomorrow and uh have him get in touch with me so so I'm waiting to have a a deeper conversation but I'm hoping this is something that we can realize it would be pre there's it's a win-win win we would have seating for people's Comfort um we could do some fundraising for the cultural arts commission and have local artists be involved in painting them so um so I'm really happy that this might be moving along that concludes my reports thank you Council presid than Council vice president councilman Patel at this time Council none at this time counc M at this time all right uh none for me as well uh moving on to Points of Light any council member with points of light yes council president Council vice president yes um Tuesday July 9th was a very dark day for this town um we lost a a valued and beloved police lieutenant and that was Don ship Lieutenant Don ship also known as tiger who was so well liked in this community he had been a in the community policing and he was such a huge presence in this town and we are we were shocked and so saddened by this untimely passing um we also lost on that same day the firefighter Howard tarlo again way too soon and uh another well-liked individual and just the fact that these two events happen on that day and then it was it was um sandwiched with uh Someone who lived a long and well-lived life and that was uh red Ellis uh the World War II veteran uh passed away at the age I believe of 98 but he was uh he was a hero and uh so well liked by the residents here we were proud to have him among us so I think um Edison has sent uh into heaven three really great angels and so condolences to the families and friends and in the case of in the case of of uh firefighter tarlo and in the case of Lieutenant ship uh condolences also to the Brethren who served with him thank you very much thank you I'm sorry one more thing I also wanted to um on uh a positive side with a storms that we had over the last couple of weeks a lot of damage done to Edison and matou and a lot of trees down that some that fell on houses a lot of limb damage and I was just amazed by the response the rapid response of DPW in getting those those cleared up I I couldn't believe how quickly that was and also Public Safety for getting out there and being on the scene so thank you all great job thank you thank you Council vice president any other council members right seeing none councilman pointer thank you council president um just because it's been that long since our last meeting we had the July 4th celebration since then it was very well intended despite the uh rain that occurred uh I was happy to see everyone come out thank you to Department of Rec uh DPW police fire everyone that we know that uh plays a vital role in getting these events set up and executing so thank you for that I had a great time with my family there and I hope everyone enjoyed thank you council president thank you Council pointer I too enjoyed the July 4th fireworks they were amazing they were very memorable so thank you to all the teams that made it happen uh and I do agree with what council vice president said we lost good people and Edison is sat for it um but I do want to uh make some announcements Edison house music Festival is going to take place on Saturday August 24th from 2: p.m. to 10: p.m. at papani Park and uh moving on number eight from the business administration a through F any questions or comments council president Council pointer yes I have a couple um this is going to be in regards to the clar Martin ordinance um first do we have the ability to do this by ordinance or do we have to submit a resolution to the planning board for them to uh with a Redline document for them to approve which one are you talking about sorry sorry in regards to item e in regards to the uh ordinance amending the Redevelopment plan for Amboy Avenue so the way that we're doing it right now is um by ordinance uh that's how we're required to make the amendment to the uh to the Redevelopment plan under the local Redevelopment law um what that does is it goes to the planning board for the review and then the recommendations when they come back to us uh and then it can be adopted um accordingly uh once that is done we can then Redline or have them redraft or whatever we need to do for the actual Redevelopment plan itself so that it is consistent taken care of um depending on on what the planning board recommends or what they send back to us there might be additional changes that we want to make based on their recommendations there might not be um but at this point this is the document that is going to the planning board okay thank you for that explanation um I guess I'm a little disappointed if I'm going to be straightforward about this because the master plan specifically calls out that parking is an issue the master plan calls out that design standards should be established for Amboy Avenue and this ordinance if we're going to be redoing the Redevelopment plan we should be taking all these things into consideration and doing it once this does not do that then let me be clear like I don't agree with the four stories people know that let me be honest I don't agree with the three stories because in my experience now on Council and on the planning board that half story to me does not have a detrimental impact to the quality of life of the residents in the neighborhood and let me just say for the record I live in the neighborhood this will impact my life my children's life and everyone else after that as well as my neighbor and friends in the surrounding neighborhood with that said um it's tough for me to be enthusiastic where if we say that there's parking issues on Amboy Avenue then how do we not allow for properties to have parking allowed on their sidey yard setbacks you would think that allowing that as an option would provide additional parking which the neighborhood needs now I understand the overall objective maybe initially was that by doing the zero zero feet side setbacks you would go block the block and therefore creating a more downtown like feel however Amboy Avenue has blocked the block of 200 ft that is not consistent with Red Bank with matachin with Jersey City Hoboken where all those streets are 300 400 500t in width so if parking is an issue then why are we not allowing that as an opportunity for anyone who may want to develop on Amboy to be able to satisfy that parking in regards to the design standards I made a I made a comment after the resolution to send it to the planning board that several design standards should be incorporated the awnings the rooftop the stylistic uh type of the brick none of that has been taken into consideration here which the master plan does ask for it does say that we should consider these in total when reviewing this plan so I guess I'm just disappointed in that fact are we able to amend this ordinance with any of those items of consideration because I held off I listen to my colleagues say hey wait a minute don't hold on the resolution sending it to the planning board let's send it to the planning board see what it says come back here I made all these recommendations I don't know when else at this point then that I can make the recommendations with it possibly being implemented so is that something that we uh would consider as a councilman pointer is asking can we make amendments to this ordinance so like any other ordinance uh sorry uh like any other ordinance uh minor amendments are uh permissible um those recommendations may come back from the planning board to incorporate some of those changes uh if after their review and then we would have to incorporate them there um the main goal I believe here and and Sonia can correct me if I'm wrong is to address the very immediate issue of the three or four stories this doesn't mean that I I I saw you you start i that's correct right yeah that's correct that doesn't mean that there can never be any additional changes to the Redevelopment plan that doesn't mean that we can't incorporate new design standards parking issue things like that the problem with that right now is that based on how the planning board I guess reviewed it and what they sent back to us not all of those can be done effectively right now and it would take additional time it would take additional um opportunity uh away from the residents currently so this addresses the immediate issue of the residents with respect to the three stories versus four stories issue um but still leaves the door open that we can do additional things with the Redevelopment plan in the future we might need to to adjust it further down the line we might need to adjust it from this if it turns out that it creates a conflict within the Redevelopment plan itself that needs to be addressed by this Council I don't believe it does we went over it I I I know that there have been a number of meetings I know that that this is a refinement on trying to get it to a point where we can at the very least say you're not going to have any applications come in and say I want to put four stories in but if there are additional things that need to change about it that is something that we can take on uh going forward without having that time pressure of worrying that someone's going to come in and say I want to put a four-story building right next to your your house I know it's not ideal um but I do caution you don't let you know perfect become the enemy of the good right it's it's incremental it is a step in the right direction um it may not make everyone happy but it is it is not a fixed development that can never be addressed Again by this Council don't think that yes so my issue um isn't necessarily I'm not viewing this from a height and a story argument I'm viewing this from a density argument so you can say hey three stories is permissible and all that's fine but when you have a minimized rear yard set back that means the actual square footage of the building that could go up is actually larger which means that you can fit more units inside which means a higher density so when I'm viewing this I know the immediate desire of many of my neighbors but I think the underlying desire of the neighborhood actually has to deal with the density of any proposed development and I don't think this tactical it Fly thank you council president thank you Council poter ouncil P thank you council president and I have lot many issues with this ordinance but if the residents choose to go this route I will support them because that's their will the best thing could have been probably just to repeal the current ordinance that was the ass didn't happen so we went with a different route I have not seen this supporting document from the planning board any report that talks about the density that talks about the safety traffic school board School impact how many students are going to come the water and sewer infrastructure is it capable of handling if you put all the three and a half stories building all all along ambo Avenue I have not seen any metrics so we are just shooting in a blind at this point in time and I don't think any council member has that data uh with them having said that I agree with my Council colleague you know there were few things that were asked but the way this Redevelopment the ordinance is written I don't think it is fullprof because this is going to leave a lot I would say open areas that will promote the Redevelopment I would say applications for the four stories I don't know what is the advantage of half a story is it some sort of you know giving the addition again if you look at if the developer is smart he construct three and half story will be a four story believe me or not they will sneak in Hank you said that it is a 10% guess what mixed use it will be four story with 35 ft they will end up going that and you will give end up giving the 10% variance on that and and believe me we have seen enough in this town how the developers take the advantage of the situation they will sneak in they will give the reference of another property and if our master plan is not in sync with ordinance guess what it will go in a court it will get denied or application even if the application is denied by the planning board it will be appealed in the court and they will say hey your master plan guideline is this your ordinance is this what's going to happen it's going to be overturn and here you go back yeah we have a law but we are just doing the our master plan which is not in seing why is it so why can't you make if it is three and a half story and if the resents want that I would prefer to have that plan in the master plan not to have any deviation from the master plan we should not leave any stone unturn to make sure this is fullprof and there is no weav around anything that the redeveloper wants to do and as I said like I have an objection but I will leave it to the residents and I will live to my counil thank you councel person thank you Council P council president counc I just want to Echo some comments that councilman Porter made um first I just received this today at five o'clock so I didn't get a chance to read it most people probably in this room may think I was a part of the architect I read it I mean there's always 10 stories that well if you watch Facebook I guess you believe everything but I know most people in this room know uh what we say is true we're just this a first reading I didn't even look at it at all I got it at 5:00 but I will agree with my Council colleague in the changes that need to be looked at but as well as a comprehensive discussion with the business community and I have yet to see us Engage The Business Community I think the mayor took his first step in engaging the business Community which is is great but I have not heard from anybody uh the challenges I have is when I hear from a few people in this room they don't matter that's it's a problem we have to weigh the business Community who make the investment to keep to keep a store open to be there to work night and day I mean having specialty stores is the fabric of our downtown you don't want to turn into a service Community but that being said we won't go there I support affordable housing and as we look at taking this apart we Blockbuster to move into a community you know with moderate or or low income should be able to it's not a lot I mean people start to believe it's so much going to come our way if someone builds 20 units it it's four apartments that go to a family and we forget all the great stories that come with affordable housing there's a lot of great stories we you know think sometimes the wrong direction some of us not all of us that a for Housen is bad for a neighborhood not true but at as we look at reducing this we've taken no input from the from the business Community which is a problem again we councilman for discussed uh with the parking we haven't sat down and talked about parking that's a unified discussion I'm open to have and said you know we point fingers of what's I'm for or against I'm fine with sitting down with anybody I've mentioned before reach out to the clerk you want to meet in anywhere in the downtown tell me where the traffic is tell me that the building AC Crossman sub way is destroying the neighborhood I'll have that debate I'm open to that debate how this $9 million building is destroying your neighborhood whereas we just have to look at some Fair things in Balance there's some blight on the Block and we have to look at that people are selling cars on the Block fixing cars on the Block There's overcrowding issues on uh with with multiple family residents in in one home and multiple tenants not a family but they're renting the basement R the upstairs these things have to address so I just want to go over what's truly impacting us as a group together and let's talk about a factual discussion that's all asking for I may not win every argument with you I'm fine with losing a few but least let's at least have the discussion had zero discussion and I do want to thank the may he met with this group six times I think this ordinance has gotten more play than some than other life-saving measures we have in in there or or crime of Public Safety and fire I mean we there's been a lot of discussion on this one matter so I mean I think it's fair opioids we don't talk about opioids but we're talking about this and the mayor's given a lot of attention to it I'm just asking for a comprehensive discussion anyone can call me I'll sit anywhere in the block at your time just to openly have that and any colleague that wants to take a walk just to measure this in a proper way but first let's talk about the parking where's the parking still since since uh 1994 and in this or in this uh overlay Zone it says it would provide parking we have not discovered that yet so again I know we may disagree on some things but let's not argue that some of us on this council do a lot on the Block you know there are people selling cars there are multiple tenants in homes we've gotten rid of truck parking these things impact your neighborhood when someone moves in and Parks a track a trailer in front of your house that's a problem so I just hope we collectively understand some of the measures we've accomplished on this Council and some stuff we may disagree with or you may disagree with me thank you council president thank you Council MCO uh any other comments yes please what are our options going forward on this I it I didn't feel comfortable getting this at 5 o'l I it just leaves no time to really look this over and give it the attention it needs needs and um so what what are our options with this particular ordinance as it stands right now you want I mean I think it's just like if any ordinance we can either table it or to delay it uh I mean we do have till Wednesday to review the material and you know if you don't feel that you're ready we can you know discuss other options but at this point we don't have to make the decision today we do have time to review and if you you also have to remember um once it's introduced on first reading it does go to the planning board you do have to wait to to get it back from the planning board or for that 45 days to elapse whichever comes first before it can then be done at a second reading um so there will be a significant period of time for either become familiar with it ask any questions that you might have um make any recommendations for any potential amend ments review the planning board information that they get back to you um for as to whether or not there's any recommendations for changes amendments or additions to it uh and remember if the planning board does send it back with amendments and those amendments are Incorporated it doesn't have to go back to them for another review it can then simply be amended and um taken care of so uh there are options Beyond today today is the work session meeting I know it was introduced a little bit late on the uh to the agenda um but you still have time to review everything and ask everything that you need to ask and get familiar with what what needs to happen thank you right uh anybody else council president just want to if there's an opportunity to I've heard from the residents I'm happened here that they don't like the ordinance not to mean that nobody likes the ordinance but I'm just open to request your support to pull this from the agenda thank you thank you Council MCO anybody else that would like to speak on this uh any other questions from uh please no no talking from anyone who's recognized can talk otherwise no talking thank you anybody else that would like to speak on a through F council president councilman P go ahead on F the cost of living adjustment of certain employees of the township is there a reason that we don't have uh building construction department head included I'm sorry to repeat that building and construction department head he's also at the director close to director position and happy to see the other employees there you know DPW definitely deserves but from the building construction that's that's what I'm talking about I think once upon a time we we had that in the original ordinance but then it was removed for some reason it's still in the original ordinance my understanding this just amends what the current ordinance lists and the attorney can answer that so that hasn't changed yeah my my understanding is that these there's three on this one right there there's three additions to that did not already receive um the the cost of living adjustment or the the additional adjustment the the one that you're asking about was included already in the the ordinance that was was that January and it was earlier this year maybe February now my recollection we pulled that out there was a discussion on that you correct in saying that that it was pulled out but it was included in the original ordinance from 2022 so I can pull that up for you and provide that to you yes but but I don't think we reacted or acted on that particular designation except three I would say four were excluded from 2023 January ordinance and then the I see the three from those four excluded I have don't know the building construction head is in that salary range but if you can help me I I'll give you the history of the original and where it is and this just amends that okay thank you uh anybody else counc president f f the call PA who when we say certain can we on a separate email can I know who certain employees who are the certain employees should be on the back of do you have that okay I just with the um meltdown we had on Friday I just got most of myself today but okay m i don't need to discuss it now but I a separate conversation sounds good anybody else council president Council M I have a question on ad for the uh for the ba um Sonia a a D so it's my understanding that we're we're terminating the the current architect of record for this project and we're hiring an someone else to manage project that is um I don't necessarily want to provide an answer that we may have um issues with regards to litigation or potential litigation um our intent is to engage with a new firm for the architectural services but at the same time engage in construction management due to the issues that have Arisen out of the um uh change order Roofing change order okay so do we do we owe them any money on on on their contract we Council so um because of the issues that arose out of the original um this is probably a discussion that is better held offline rather than um out in a public forum it it has to do with contract issues and it has to do with potential litigation issues okay we we'll talk offline then okay thank you I have question on D so this is for the sport building $378,000 finally we are getting the construction manager uh my Council colleague was pitching hard to get that and finally it's happening what is the cost impact because we had the first change order and I I think we have another change order and this is 378,000 so is this going to cost us additional half a million dollar in net from the original original was 45 million it's now 11 is this going to be 11 and a half so this obviously will this is an increase in the cost of the project um however we're hoping that with the construction management oversight that it'll be a lot more efficient um in terms of the cost and any other potential issues that may arise having someone on site um to see exactly between the contractor subcontractors that everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be including all of the architectural design work um so that um there is um a much higher level oversight enhance on approach to this to this project given the um pricing as you mentioned understood but we are halfway in the project right or maybe 70 80% done of the project correct um I have to just confirm on the percentage of the project um exactly how much has been done I it may be 50% or so um is there reason that we are not doing the same thing for to Center we learned from the mistakes right now we are bringing the construction manager the to Center is still being handled inhouse is there reason that we are not following the same protocol across the large projects so the scope of the work for the tote Center is much different um in terms of the uh there's no necessarily A a complete tear down of a building and reconstruction of a new building however um the issues are much different between the two so at this point in time we don't feel that there's a construction management oversight necessary at the to building um again we've learned from our mistake in that we're now coming to the council that a construction manager is necessary and if in the event that happens with the tow Center we'd certainly want to approach the council and let you all know that that would be a necessary move sounds it sounds good and from where this fund will come now because this is $400,000 additional than what we budgeted for is it coming from the capital or it is going to come from operating from where so this will come out out of capital um and so uh with this Council having adopted a new Bond ordinance uh we certainly feel um that there's a cost to cover this but that means you'll have to move the funds now between the accounts the projects but again I don't want to necessarily get into the potential litigation portion of it we're hoping to recover some some of these costs okay thank you Council pres thank you councilman pel um as for me uh on E I agree with councilman pointer I think this ordinance does not necessarily go as far as I would hope uh the stories is definitely being addressed but I think the underlying issue that the residents feel is the density portion of it with the traffic and uh parking and all that issues that come with greater density of development so I think we do need to address the design and the parking uh I'm not sure how quickly we can do this I don't want to stop this train if we don't have to because that think this is the right approach to protect the clar Barton section as fast as possible and then we do need to Target the parking and design uh we do need to have a cohesive vision of clar Barton uh in the long run as to how we want to build it out uh in terms of the project management I do hope that the administration considers having a separate project management department uh go ahead Sonia just just to clarify on the tote Center CME does have a portion of that as a construction management oversight so te from a technical standpoint on their proposal um so I just wanted to add to that I looked at I relooked at their proposal in there it is in there thank you Sonia uh but uh I think the point still stands I think having a a manager that's specifically targeting all the projects we're doing a lot of projects around the town and having someone that's specifically just making everything's on track if there's any issues I think it'll be good to have uh moving on to number nine from the Department of Finance a through J any questions or comments council president councilman poter see if I can find it but wanted to call out particularly the item H in regards to the items of Revenue and Appropriations um I know a couple of the items included like claan community is receiving the grant for that uh to a comment that councilman Coy made before in regards to opio op opioids uh one of the items is uh from a uh settlement uh I forget the name of the carrier but I'm hoping that you can discuss with the administration what some of those funds are used for because it's a a good amount um again I apologize I don't have all of them in front of me but there were a lot of good items uh in there and several several million actually thank you council president thank you uh anyone else that would like to make a comment on a through J all right as for me uh I am glad to see F which is the resolution authorizing extending grace period for taxes in the third quarter I think we were delayed heavily into give the tax uh to the residents and I think we do they do deserve a grace period as it's only about 2 weeks before the taxes were due um and as I also agree with councilman pointer the resolution especially there are some pedestrian related uh that I'm really happy to see that we're applying for yes Sonia would you like me to go over the list of items that are in the chapter 159 Revenue yes if you don't mind sure um so there's a clean communities Grant that's for $235,400 question on the opio settlement are they specifically um you have to use it in a specific ways or specific things there there are and U we've discussed that with a couple of council members and open to any discussion uh as well if anyone wants to reach out to Karai okay and we can discuss exactly what we've started to do some programming um with police and Health Department um so some positions may be covered under the opioid uh funds um so regarding Public Health Awareness so that that is one thing that we've looked into there is also $5,000 for uh home safety initiative Grant a um Addison station pedestrian Improvement project for 675,000 can you talk a little bit about that one as to what that incompasses sure so uh it's my understanding over at the Edison Train Station so uh the uh and traffic Beacon signs um several several items I can okay cover there um there's a King George's Post Road rehab for $332,900 I'd have to get more in detail with that uh Kilmer Road face three roadway improvements for K Road phase 3 project for $53,900 uh Public Health Capa stren strengthening local public health capacity Grant 74,4 um and that's what that's what we have in total for now y all right thank you Sonia and uh I'm also just want to make a quick comment on I andj I am happy that we're doing that's the cleanup of the books to hopefully we can have more focus on the grants that we are applied to all right moving on to number 10 a through Q any questions or comments all right seeing none moving on to sorry Council um a question in regards to M and I apologize I didn't send this with my other list this uh plotter is it anticipated I know it's for code enforcement but would there be anticipation of other departments utilizing this uh you you do share and do you know if this has capability of scanning the 24 by 36 AR that's fantastic by the way so other I'm hoping that the support is for their for this yeah and um just in regards to digit digitizing our records U because they come in an architectural D that's your 24 by 36 size having this uh capability and resource I think will be very beneficial uh thank you Council vice president councilman P thank you uh s question on B the Grant application for Marywood drive and Brunswick Avenue intersection there are two I would say one entry exit but there are two on new Bruns Avenue so which one we are talking so there is Hana Road there is Marywood drive and again there is Marywood drive it makes the U turn there I'm going to have uh Brian explain to you councilman this is going to be the intersection closest to the bus stop close to the bus stop okay that's where The Pedestrian crosswalk is correct right now The Pedestrian crosswalk for whatever reason is not perpendicular to the road so it's longer than it really should be right so we're looking to redo the crosswalk orientations stripe everything make the all Crossings a lot more visible uh including a pedestrian Beacon and new Ada ramps this way it's a safer Crossing to get to and from the bus stop and hopefully we're talking about the commercial equipment there right for the cross it's it's going to be thermal plastic as proposed which has the best longevity of striping thank you you're welcome on 10 okay pres Council MCO I just wanted to look at inj um if I could have a separate discussion later with the engineer and that position I received a few complaints and I met with some residents about the car Max I just want to make sure that everything uh before we give them back their bond that everything's completed okay thank you I'm sorry Cil M I didn't what what are we confirming I I want to speak to the administration about I andj before I vote out on a Wednesday okay sure okay all right sounds good all right any other questions or comments on 10 all right moving on to number 11 from the Departments of Public Works A through Z any questions or comments council president councilman p on F Cricket PES at wro Wilson I I don't know what's going on in fact you know I was expecting uh some more discussion before this comes on the agenda uh at this point in time you know when I'm closely I spoke to R I spoke to Chief of Staff Bob De today uh this is something we need to have the discussion during the Board of Ed and Council leaz on meeting so that we are not disturbing any sports that any matches that are happening cricket matches that are happening on with Wilson also we need to understand the expansion plan of w Wilson that's not going to you know again if we are making the investment that will not impact that expansion I think you know we this really needs study whether we are spending the money in the right direction at this point in time maybe until we understand the plan from the bord uped so I don't know you know why there is a disconnect we only have handful people involved borded and the Council leers on meeting that's one and the second one is if they had any communication with the the cricket fraternity that would have been helpful but I think you know this is not really a good direction I hope this Council will pull this off the agenda on Wednesday okay thank you councilman Patel any other questions or comments okay uh for me I also had a question on F who owns this turf field Sonia when we build it out so this is part of the shared services agreement with the school okay so this is on school property okay but who will be maintaining would we be responsible or the school be responsible so the township according to the agreement is responsible for the mainten the rolling in the maintenance coun pres if you want me to share the light on this because I'm very closely aligned and I was part of the meeting where the you know mayor spoke about the combining the Township fields as well as the board of fields the Shar service agreement is to maintain not to do much Beyond on the maintenance what the maintenance again it everyone can understand a different way the understanding was if there is a need of soil that will be added and it will the peach will be rolled and the grass will be cut on a regular basis that was the ask because all these cricket teams they use their own mat they have their mat they always play regardless whether you put any type of uh cricket pitch there they are going to use the mat and that's what I was asking you know let's this again this is a good thing to happen by the way for Cricket but this is too early to call because we are in a peak season of the the cricket second thing is when the shared services agreement talks about maintaining the fields again we you can probably say hey maintain means let me redo certain things that is where I think the direction is slightly misaligned and my understanding is that was not us and that was not the expectation thank you sir any other questions or comments canc presid on the turf field itself is it a sports field for the students or is it aun in the field uh Sonia it is a sports field for the students um but just to Echo councilman pel's comment um with regard to what is currently happening with which what the administration just found out today is that there are improvements um the uh we just found out about those improvements certainly we want to do the right thing by the shared services agreement um so it's up to this body whether you know they want to pause this or uh re you know whatever it is that you choose to do however we're just going toward we're just following what the shared services agreement has us to do and that it's rolling and maintaining the pitches so it's my understanding these were not safe to use so in order for us to go ahead and do the scheduling and and uh make good with our agreement we wanted to make sure that they were done correctly and therefore that's why we went through this and to this body to get this resolution approved okay uh we can further this discussion offline I do have more questions uh uh any other questions or comments council president Council M um 10 Q so this is now a change order for $96,000 for um the field now no we're on 11 now no 10 Q right uh no sorry we're on uh do you want to go back to I don't want to go backwards so can we keep it on 11 we're on 11 yeah yeah sorry I missed that sorry can we go back to 10 uh can you take it offline is that okay sure all right thank you council president councilman appointer thank you um 11 L regarding the pickle ball Courts at yanis Park uh if we have drawings from the bid if that can be sent to me I'd appreciate it uh I know I had asked um in regards to additional information for item n for the various Park and playground equipment it may have been provided uh with all the Microsoft issues this weekend um was a little funky getting the info but if I can get some elaboration can be offline or backup documentation uh just elaborating where some of those items are expected to go thank you council president thank you Council M pointer uh all right any any other questions from 11 A through Z right seeing none moving on to number 12 from the Department of recreation a through D any questions or comments all right seeing none moving on to number 13 a any questions or comments moving on to number 14 from the chief of police a through C any questions or comments number 15 from Township Clerk a through e any questions or comments Council pres councilman p on D is this a new license we are adding or this is the one that we earlier went out for bid no one it's it's a rebid we didn't receive any bids thank you okay uh any other questions or comments all right seeing none moving on to number 16 from the council member of the planning board thank you council president I'm going to do this a little off the cuff because normally I review the agenda then do my planning board overview it's quite a lengthy agenda so I'm sure you can understand but um the planning board held its monthly meeting on Monday July 15th 7 p.m. here in council chambers with the following items acted on first in regards to resolutions P 5242 smir 90-day extension for minor subdivision that was approved resolution P 08-20 23 779 New Durham Road LLC final site plan approval also approved and P 02-2020 blueberry Village Incorporated pre preliminary and final site plan approval again that resolution was approved appr D under miscellaneous we had resolution R134 which was the council's request for the planning board's review in regards to Amboy Avenue which uh we've discussed a lot tonight uh item number two the vote on the master plan as presented by bfj planning this was approved and finally r 346-6244 that was the 18 10 Route 27 Redevelopment plan that we had asked the planning board to review and comment on found to be in consistent with the master plan and it is before us again under new business uh case p52 256 kishan Patel 98 Bernard Avenue applicant was seeking a minor subdivision approval this uh Pro property is in the RB Zone uh which is a minimum 7500 square feet they were seeking a a bulk variance for lot width they met the other criterias in regards to depth lot area and uh all the other bulk requirements um the board did approve the application um unanimously with some conditions of the approval in regards to location of the AC units uh proximity to where the building are in comparison to the neighbors and a couple of other items outside that there were no additional items for discussion I apologize I don't have the next meeting in front of me but uh it will be in August actually uh 7 pm here in council chambers usually the third Monday of the month thank you council president thank you councilman pointer uh moving on to number 17 unfinished business ordinance for further consideration in public hearing and final adoption ordinance 222 25- 2024 an ordinance amending the 1,000 Inman Avenue Redevelopment plan in the township pursuant to the local Redevelopment and Housing law any questions or comments all right ordinance 2226 d224 an ordinance adopting the 1810 Route 27 Redevelopment plan uh Route 27 in Schuler's Drive study area uh pursuant to local R development and housing law any questions or comments and ordinance 2227 d224 an ordinance amending the township code to add an address to the list of persons entitled to handicapped parking space any questions or comments all right moving on to discussion items uh starting with councilman Coyle thank you council president just want to skip through my agenda and just I know other colleagues have mentioned just Public Safety I just uh we lost a a few great people this uh last week and I just my condolences to the family the families and uh truly sad um I just want to mention that thank you um storm water management I have been working with some volunteers and I just recently sent an email to councilman Porter um some volunteers have visited different areas of the state I also visited an area at the state which had an interesting stormwood management uh process of of infrastructure whereas a curb line had a slit in it and it would basically absorb the the curb line storm water into the plant area it also offered other opportunities to separate storm drain water as well and I did some homework with some volunteers and I passed it to councilman John porn to look at before we can ask the administration to look into any grant opportunities that may come forth with that but with those grants come infrastructure improvements and you know throughout the town this can happen I know we looked at plants road to Road and different opportunities people here tonight complained about Amway Avenue in the flooding this is a strong fix uh to add to some of the problems we're having um will it be a fix all no but it's interesting to look at methods other towns have been doing and how that comes together um to the council president to the administration uh switching over to D economic developer what is our status with that sure um so as had mentioned we um had candidates none were really qualified it is one of those positions that we're looking into potentially hiring a professional uh a Prof uh it's a as a Professional Services contract in the sense that um it doesn't require someone being here 9 to-5 I think that's the reality of what we're looking well rather what someone in that position would be doing rather it is a position that is um throughout the township and really putting together a better scope because we are a unique Town we've have so many different elements to us our our zoning we need someone or a firm rather who has the capacity to look into all of the different locations we're looking to potentially make improvements to so we're engaging and soliciting um with professional Ser service contract professionals at this point to look into who have planning experience and understand Economic Development okay so I think we need we need a good outline of of a service like that rather than hiring someone and putting them in office space and quite frankly I don't think that would be fair to anyone here we need a plan we need a we need a big scope of work I don't disagree I mean I think someone who's qualified for the position you probably don't pay enough for that person who's qualified for this position that's my first uh thought but perhaps we can consult with somebody uh when I look at this economic developer I listen to the residents I've spoken with and some residents are here tonight um although some of us may disagree on certain subjects um at the end of the day uh a downtown the downtowns or oaki road where or there our business communities what makes up the store uh Motif is a collective culture of organiz of different retail stores and I'm doing my best with some volunteers to collectively grow through multiple downtowns to show the difference of what some have and don't have from a corporate uh downtown like Westfield to a a downtown like eastern Pennsylvania or Kingston New York each one has a different culture uh I mean you'll you'll see more vintage shops in some areas more more record shops in some areas how we collectively bring that here and what you know how that comes together is a huge change and as I look at all the things people talk about how things impact the neighborhood or what's detrimental to the neighborhood and I get confused when I hear the word detrimental because there's truly no factual evidence to what anyone has said here in this room that it's detrimental to their to their Community a building or some change how we leave something blighted and how we build something new regardless of the height difference investment is important but I hope that when we do get this person it'll be wonderful if we don't uh what homework I'm doing with volunteers I hope could be shared or discussed uh with this consultant and I would hope the same uh will share the homework with the residents here from uh the clar Barton section that are still left the few people that are here and with that Economic Development opportunity I still ask our colleagues to plead with me on some of the things we have not discussed we're listening to some Community residents that are important that have that have gotten together with other residents who disagree not all residents disagree with development on Amoy Avenue let's face the fact that we need to look at this collectively and that's why I talk about the economic development person so that we take a one snapshot at everything rather than just you know cap the height of the place of of the downtown so I just through the to the administrator I hope we can hire a consultant we hire consultants for Grants they do a fantastic job for $50,000 a year some people complain that come to the microphone what a great investment the amount of Grants they've brought us um I'll vote for that any day of the week for the for the for the members and and residents last I'm going to make a strong call for affordable housing and and and um caught in a difficult place where I listen to Residents who have come to this microphone who have made a public statement who have said we don't want renters here on Amboy Avenue we don't want them here this is not you know a fair statement to make and we know how wrong that is this is a a factual thing has happened here has happened in other rooms and I'm making a strong call for affordable housing as we want to cap this I I there is you know an issue here because people don't want affordable housing and affordable housing should be looked at each council person here should understand the opportunity to give a family a place to live at a low rate and it being just minimal impact on some neighborhoods minimal is so important and I'm going to make it a point from now till January we talk about affordable housing and I will not support reducing uh the language of this ordinance until we have a comprehensive look at everything I mean we're just doing a hop skip and a jump over the entire you know neighborhood we're not talking to the business Community you know we're not sitting down like we said we would we're not discussing parking like we said we would there were complaints that came to this day as long long before anyone talked about four stories which was parking in fact townsman John poter was here at the day as as a resident talked about parking it's so when it com to affordable housing again I'm going to make a strong pitch at it I will not stop I'll be Relentless there are so many great stories with those who get a chance to live in the community and then buy something today was a perfect example of the lady here came here at 65 Lafayette she moved in to a new building she wasn't exactly happy it was perfect for her it's an apartment but she moved to buy a place and now she's improving uh a location on Lafayette which she's happy and raising a family so you know I have a problem when I hear that and I have a problem with you know moving forward on some discussions without having a collective discussion on all ends and I hope we do so when it comes to affordable housing you know again I'm going to talk about it further and on the student level itself we should all know that every student who graduates is being priced out of Edison they can't afford to live here and they're moving someplace else because it's cheaper and we have to look at that as we as we decide to change this ordinance that's been passed in 2016 and very little has been done three buildings in 30 years right we have to look at the opportunity for affordable housing when it's going to come to Edison we can't just block bust and say we're not having it here because there are people who spoke to this microphone and said they don't want it here and we need to listen that's all I ask is to listen again and collectively look at each situation uh last um I just want to mention to back to Public Safety and Public Works we had a short tornado come through here short Windstorm call it what you want uh the heights of Edison and and um Rosell Park and uh parts of Edison were truly impacted uh I was there on site to drive around I want to thank all of our departments you know from our water department handling issues with flooding from our Public Works who went out there tirelessly during lightning putting themselves In Harm's Way we forget about this let me tell you I stood out there for a while I saw lightning and I tell you I got back in my truck and I said I'm not doing this and when I spoke to the director he says we got to be out there you know this is you know we forget Police Department Public Safety for they got to be in a place some days where you don't want to be and I want to thank them for the work they' done and and cleaning up the roads immediately and helping out uh to the community so thank you council president thank you Council McCoy um Council vice president yes um well we discussed the Stelton neighborhood parking permit issue and Mr vital I'm uh thanking you for bringing this to our attention obviously this is a discussion that will continue to be in progress I know you have uh a meeting with Captain morath later this week I believe yes um so keep me posted you have my information okay all right um I'm back to the council meeting rebroadcast issue and wondering where we're at in terms of moving it up to a reasonable time for our resident who who cannot stay up that late to watch longer meetings so any news on that uh Council vice president I Echo to the council pres well just communicate that to the mayor um who made that decision I've been addressing this at just about every work session meeting and I this is a heads scratcher I don't know why this is such rocket this is such rocket science I don't understand why because because you had indicated that you were going to be discussing this and here we are now it's the July meeting uh and I'm going to keep bringing this up until this is resolved but this is this is unacceptable and so for our seniors in particular and for those who don't have access to um to to computers that uh they would rather they'd rather watch it or they have to watch it on the TV um I don't understand what the holdup on this is this is doing a great disservice to a lot of people and particularly our seniors so I'm hoping I'm not going to be at the August meetings I but I'm hoping even so that I get some kind of update on this within the next within the next month or so this is just not this is just not acceptable um my last issue was wondering do we have any adopta Highway programs here I I had mentioned at the last work session meeting about the trash that's along some of the major the major uh avenues that we have and on whether it's Amboy whether it's 27 or any oak tree and I was wondering if we have any kind of adop a highway program in Edison excuse me I'm sorry I don't believe that we do that's more of a county and state level um so are you saying that no matter what whether it's whether it's Amboy I don't I don't remember which ones are County Roads which ones are are the uh the Edison roads are there any of are there any of them that are the major th major thorough fars that would be under just our jurisdiction where we could do Adopt A Highway again it's either County or state highways those are the ones that would be that are you're referring to all right I guess uh that's something to bring up to the county all right thank you that's all council president thank you can I comment on her op later or I can speak to her triply uh Council Patel thank you Council I'll start with the first one council meeting governance I think you know if you watch those meetings I would recommend every single council person to go and watch the meeting the way we conduct on these ties there is a resident asking question to attorney attorney is talking to council president some council person is getting up going in somewhere else someone is in back room someone in the front room I think we need to start giving the respect to the residents as well as to the council colleages again I'm not singling out on any specific person most of us around this D you'll hardly see me walking out unless there is an emergency but again I think our meetings are not that long two 2 and a half hour if you can hold ourself on this Council Di and respect the resident respect the council colleague and let's get to the council agenda and then we can do whatever we want to do second thing is council president I think you know when resident is speaking and you are addressing another councilman interrupts the meeting not a good idea I would say that we all need to have some patience to wait at the end we can always react to each other I'm not denying on that but let's respect so my whole goal is I would say my ask not the goal is how do we establish giving the respect to each other in fact one time I did ask you and the attorney while you were talking standing and talking while I was asking question which was not acceptable to me how do we improve because people are watching us believe me or not you know I get the feedack back from the resident saying hey you are not behaving like adults it's like bunch of people sitting there they have their own agenda and they are just discussing some line so I would ask everyone to think through and let's see how we can improve this process my second topic of discussion is Splash Park I don't know I know why there is a reason that we are hiding things with a splash park it's a good thing to have in town uh s my quick question here is you know this was our Council woman Joy ship you know who pitched in this Council to have the splash partk two in fact half of these council members who are on this di were not even part of back then when we approved I don't know the exact number but 1.7 1.8 million for two splash park my question is how much money we spent building one Splash Park which is half the size than what council imagined back 3 4 years ago do we know what's the how much money we spend on that I can get that to you thank you second thing is there is yes there is a lot of PR there is a lot of emails but no one definitely knows what's the process what's a protocol because not everyone has an email not everyone is going to look at your Facebook post there has to be some better way to coordinate that and how people you know explain them how it's going to work uh last few weeks people residents are calling me and asking hey how do I register I heard there is Splash Bar uh can I take my son or daughter to Splash bar again I say it's wonderful thing to have but there is a disconnect so again I'm kind of lost myself not knowing that process then I looked at the the email that came from a PR firm that's my another line atom here and then I look at a Facebook and again this Council this Council approved the funds I think it pass with 70 but mayor chose to selectively call few people and inaugurate that which is insane this is not for politics guys this is the facilities for the residents not for your PR not to Pat on your back it is the hard work of everyone including DPW and I'm not discounting mayor himself but this Council has passed the funds so again foood of thought there and how do we respect the other people I saw you know bunch of the uh the resolution approving the uh the road paving program have we finalized the 2024 Paving list onia do have the clearcut list because I did speak about few Street very specific they were very bad and I don't know they are part of this list now we haven't finalized the 2024 list list okay the roads okay let me correct the road that are going to be paved this year 2023 so is that finalized setting that's done yes okay do you mind forwarding re forwarding that to me so I can thank you next one is very interesting I raised this issue several times on the lawsuit I think this the first admission has the highest number of lawsuits which are which unfortunately we find that through Facebook or some WhatsApp group I'm not going to go into the NR what those lawsuits are in fact I did ask for the closed door session to inform the council saying what lawsuits are active what lawsuits what lawsuits which lawsuits were settled and what's the what's happening in the town unfortunately that's a black box so my question to attorney is these all lawsuits are routed through our chief I Know Chief is working with Administration to settle the lawsuit who has an authority to accept or reject the settlement is it the mayor himself or is it the group of people in the administration or how uh the the the less complicated version of it is that it depends on the nature of the lawsuit itself as as well as the nature of the settlement and where the funds are coming from uh this Council um under certain circumstances has the authority to weigh in when it comes to paying out of funds if that is as the result of a lawsuit um or certain other actions that are within the purview of the council itself if that ends up being part of a settlement agreement so uh if you think back to the the matter with the tree planting um that was something that had to do with the release of funds and also had to do with the planting of of the trees under the ordinance in compliance with the ordinance so that would have to come to this Council for approval on the actual terms of the settlement um some of the things that uh don't have to do with with this council's Authority would be if the money is coming entirely from the insurance company um there's no Township funds being expended or paid out as part of the settlement that wouldn't come here um and then it it boils down to the nature of the suit itself whether that is purely a mayor mayal decision whether there is some other kind of um uh factor in how they make that decision and how they arrive at that and some of it is just a you can either take this from the insurance company it's it's you can either take this um and resolve it this way or you could be on your own about it uh and so that is is a determination made by the insurance company so like I said it's not an easy question to to answer but that's as as hopefully simple as I can make it no my my question was very specific to the insurance company because the lawsuits could be individual on mayor himself or it could be on a on a Township or maybe a specific Department again there could be variation by process is very simple right if someone Su the town or mayor or anyone employee of the township it goes to the insurance again if that's a case I'm talking very specific to insurance settlement who has an authority to accept what the insurance company is recommending in terms of the settlement if the mayor if the lawsuit is on mayor and mayor is the decision maker we are in conflicting situation now so that's the reason I'm asking the process I'm not saying that that's a case here but I'm just asking the process so it's it's not as as black and white as that um and it looks like the business administrator has something she wants to add but um so so in terms of personnel matters that really isn't um it's a attorney client privilege in terms of like if it has to do with an employee or the terms of their employment I would be in part of that discussion as the business administrator and alongside with the attorney um it's not one siiz fits all I mean we have to go into close session to talk about the particulars of what matters your your your um I I don't have question on a specific case General General process so the general process in my experience and and here and other places if it comes to the issue of a Personnel matter then that is discussed at length with uh myself and the attorney and the GIF attorney there there's quite a bit because of the um not just the technical but obviously the very sensitive topic that someone's employment could change with the township if there's potential I mean if there's criminal activity that's one thing that that in itself but there's terms of employment that could potentially change that is then discussed with a team of attorneys and myself um there there could be times where um in this form of government the mayor could be brought into those discussions not necessarily the decision making as a whole but it is a team effort much like the gif as an executive member and this is not the only GIF I've been a part of that it is a collective conversation decision making just like this body would make so it will be labor attorney m will get involved in in case it's and that happens occasionally as well the labor attorney is brought in discusses the township attorney discusses the matters the the mayor may or may not be involved depending on the nature of the matter and where the Authority for making a determination derives from the nature of the matter itself will that change our policies and procedures from an employee standpoint those things so at the at the beginning of the year when all of you appoint professionals that we've solicited through a fair and open process that exactly the team that we bring in and discuss these matters understood and and the reason I'm asking the question is because I do hear that again I get to see these lawsuits on Facebook and WhatsApp it's a very credible Source no I'm but they are legitimate by the way know some of those are legitimate they are settled and there is a verified information so my ask was very simple I'm not seeing in in the audience but at least in a back room you know Fair of fairness of I would say discount even the attorney you said that it's no impact to the township budget that's not true is not paying the money out of their pocket we are self insured yeah no that wouldn't be a statement that I would be comfortable in making correct but this is self-insured so we are ultimately responsible for that and I don't know why this Council or this body is kept in dark not disclosing those in a close session I used to get I used to hear those a lot with the prior Administration this is the first Administration I'm seeing this Council has no idea about what is happening unless we hear from social media but I will leave it to so in practice um I I don't know how it was before um but if there's any potential litigation or something in litigation if there's a report that you're requesting then I can certainly work with the attorneys and at the request of the council president if there's a close session that's being requested I don't see an issue with that so I'll take I'll have you guys take the lead on how you want want us to proceed with reporting to you is that fair yep that's fair thank you I appreciate that the next one master plan updates I heard you know my Council said it was approved I would have expected you know some sort of a report to this body to understand what it means it's approved it's somewhere else right it's probably 500 page document I don't know thousand page the way we prepare the budget document the same way if this Council have got received the master plan which is approved it's electronic or it's a printed copy would have been helpful because at least we can go through and see what is there and what is not there and the reason I'm bringing that up is I'm sure again I'm not saying 100% is true I'm sure there might be provision for cannabis business future because we don't do the uh master plan every day but to bring the transparence again to have this dialogue with the council member have some input head would you like to see some of those thing or is this detrimental to some of those neighborhood that again that discussion was missing and I felt you know the whole body is in dark except the council uh uh representation of the planning board and my last one is resolution of recognition baps uh baps is a wonderful organization completing 50 years of their community service in America and they deserve the recognition so I'm proposing this resolution oper thank you Council presid thank you councilman pel councilman pointer thank you uh council president I do have additional comments in regards to master plan DPW and adopt the highway but I will hold off until afterwards I just want to make a note of that uh the first item that I have is in regards to committee and board appointments current vacancies uh I won't go into the detail as to what's expired versus what's vacant I will just let everyone know what boards can actually take on new members so you have the abilities advisory cable television Cultural Arts environmental commission Fair rental Health advisory the historic commission human relations Municipal Alliance open space advisory the planning board Redevelopment agency which I know we've been discussing uh in part upcoming will be the smart City advisory committee the technical Review Committee does have a position for Citizens rep but is not on the uh committee List veterans memorial and the zoning board has one alternate uh position that's available so for the residents awareness if you want to get involved those are several committees where there are expired terms and or vacancies where new members may be appointed uh there's been discussion in regards to the economic developer and I mentioned potential utilization because there's been comments or there's been discussion for instance in regards to a public Advocate we had discussion in regards to the economic developer potentially needing to be modified to include a background in planning so if we needed additional testimony before a application before one of the boards that uh this just call what is most likely it would be before the zoning board which means that it's not in conformance with our zoning therefore having additional testimony in that aspect in regards to feedback may be viable and I think that this position could offer an opportunity to fulfill that that opportunity in regards to the master plan um one of the items I had in here was in regards to Amboy Avenue and the Redevelopment plan in general planning I know I made many comments before so I won't try to belabor on on them but I want to address some of the comments that were made by residents that were here before um the I apologize I lost my uh my my space um if we want to have like a vision for Amboy Avenue we need to make sure that we're taking care of the basics first and foremost now I'm not here to belittle any of our departments I understand the Township's 32 square miles 107,000 residents it is not a small task to achieve however when I'm driving down some of these side streets and there's cars parked in front of a stop sign while now from a safety perspective I have cars coming in I may not be able to get out Additionally you may not be able to actually see the roads because of this well if we're talking about potential development where the buildings would be closer to the street closer to the sides it's not exactly a feel-good moment in the sense of like hey if we do this type of development I'm going to become safer if you took if you look at the current trees that are on Amboy Avenue a lot of them have started to uh grow the the side branches for lack of better terms because there hasn't been that type of Maintenance so if we're looking at the safety aspect if we're looking at from a visual aesthetic we need to make sure that we're taking care of our bases and again that's not I'm not trying to jab at any of the Departments but as a resident that frequence Amboy Avenue I that's what I see um couple items that we have not talked about in regards to Future planning in the orience it specifies and I know I mentioned this before about the maximum allowable square footage for one commercial um one business on a development I had a conversation with someone running a restaurant who is actually looking to move from their current location their current location is400 square feet they're looking for a bigger a bigger location I cannot definitively say that hey we're going to get these types of businesses with the current guidelines that are in there because I don't know if that actually meets their need and let me just be upfront if I were to start my business now instead of 2010 and I were looking at anywhere for a first story commercial building the cost of rent that would cost me and the amount that I would actually need to generate in Revenue to make up for that would become extremely difficult and this is not just on Amboy Avenue this is throughout the entire state in my personal opinion uh we talked about the the design standards um parking I'm just going to make a crazy recommendation we have the opportunity in my eyes to actually dead end some of the streets off of Amboy Avenue and I say this because from a thorough Fair aspect in terms of getting out of Amboy most people either take Lafayette Third Street Fourth Street or seventh right that leaves all the intermittent streets not as frequented as those main thorough thorough uh streets my recommendation would be to go up to the end of the commercial uh commercial depth of the block cut that off off and utilize that for potential parking spots that we def that we need along the block that would help in my eyes a satisfy some of the parking requirements that are needed for any potential development and B actually separates the residential neighborhood from the commercial block because now you actually have a barrier in some in some instances so those are some additional items that I wanted to bring to the table in regards to Amboy Avenue when we're talking about it on the master plan it talked about potentially rezoning uh some of the light industrial areas what I would like for the council to First focus on is not necessarily the entire light industrial zones we under we know that there are really two types of light industrial zones in Edison Township you have your industrial parks and then you have your just Industrial areas so when you take out heler and the RAR in Center you're left with Silver Lake you're left with an area off of Main Street and you're left with Jackson Avenue it's my recommendation that we actually take those areas and create a separate Li Zone that would eventually allow for different types of opportunity outside of industrial use in my opinion I think because of the potential Cola oblig that we going to need you transition that from the industrial use to residential use satisfying some of the affordable housing that we need mitigating uh the industrial detriment that many residents have uh offered comment on there is much to go into on that you know you can just say hey add residential and not consider the infrastructure not not consider the traffic potential with that but when I'm looking at the grand scheme of Edison and its development if we're going to look to try to make those conversions that's where I think we should focus on the master plan recommends uh historic designations updating that I think that we should absolutely do that the most recent add-on to that was the St James Church which um Walt stal had mentioned this is actually the 320th anniversary of that church so something for us to to consider and the last item in regards to sustainable construction and general practices I would just like to see us update our ordinances so that we have some uh green purchasing practices I understand that there's a cost analysis that has to go into that type of stuff but something that I would like for us to look into speaking of ordinances I wanted to bring to attention some of the ordinances that have been drafted for consideration uh one that I have not presented to the council but just to bring it out and actually Mr Nasser brought this to my attention last year uh Edison Township in regards to alcohol sales on Sundays does starts at 12: p.m. whereas other municipalities on Sundays it's 10:45 a.m. so the ask would be to update our ordinance so that we are in line from a competition standpoint to our neighbors the second item is in regards to the PDF application requirement I know that there was issue in regards to the placement of it online so I would like for us to reconsider the the ordinance taking out the language for the request for it mandating to be placed online by having the PDF application the PDF submission as part of the application what I'm going to do real quick is actually show the amount of paperwork that I've received this year just from the planning board there's more this is for Walmart SL shopping bags worth of paperwork I've received just this year this is not account for the box that I have in my basement from all 2022 please this is cumbersome we need to update into the 21st century these things are heavy the other items I just want to bring up I know we talked about the the minimum fine for anyone that uh clears trees without a permit truck Depot def definition I think that still needs to be updated and the utility hop offs guidelines I would like for us to update some items that I think we need to work on environmental impact study right now the only requirement for that type of study is for anything that is over 20 acres do we have many properties that are over 20 acres in Edison anymore not really so I think that we should take the approach similar to what Bon did and have a smaller lot requirement you can do 4 Acres five acres whatever it is but what that does is it forces an application to get professional um a professional study done that gives background to the area and the environmental impact as the name may suggest of what the application and potential development would do there was a resident that mentioned about the light trespass from a neighbor's yard uh I have not been able to put together any recommendations but some municipalities that have done similar include Jackson and Brook Township and what they did is a variety of items in regards to height restriction angle restriction and um the luminares that are permissible at certain Heights so it's something that I would like for us to look into and last year council president and I had started when we were working on the billboard ordinance put together a quite a hefty draft in regards to sign regulations now I'm hoping that we can continue outside of that just a couple of project updates for everyone's reference in regards to the municipal Broadband uh we authorized the receipt of grant that is being worked on with purchasing to be put out to bid and I know it's been questioned why do we need to put why is this needed in regards to Municipal Broadband for this part of the project is my opinion that going forward we need this infrastructure to make sure that the Township in the event of a a blackout or something similar to what happened this past weekend with Microsoft that we have the ability to actually maintain our systems inhouse the website I'm told that the 90-day timeline for the roll out of the website is still on track the Edison Light Transit there's currently uh work with um the federal government in regards to the fundings being received and it is currently being worked on in terms of next action steps with the health department uh finally in regards to Grant applications uh Jackson Avenue last year there was discussion about applying for a grant to widen the street there is no update at the moment and in the Angels uh soccer field um apparently we were not selected for the open space Grant but we are looking at next action steps in regards to initiating that project I apologize for the length of that council president thank you very much thank you that was very insightful uh mov on for me uh I think pedestrian safety the 3bs program the Benes as Council vice president talked about I would love to do it in-house in Edison I did propose the area of uh hail Park I the engineer asked me some questions I am getting back to him as to exactly what the idea that I had in mind uh and we're working through that uh bike racks do we do we go through purchasing to get more bike racks do we have bike racks that we can put up in I would actually go through DPW um who who's working much on the paths and different recreational areas so I'd probably consult with them first can we find out if we can get it during at the community centers the senior centers if we can get some bike racks there sure thank you um bathrooms I think that's going to be a long-term project let's start with the simple ones first and we'll move up to that I know we are moving forward with the jpnl power line I saw the one of the we are submitting a grant I hope we get get that um and same thing with the pathon central AV I did ask for a visual comparison which I am not sure if I received uh it might be lost in the emails but is that something that you can provide I was trying to see what is what are we going to do compared to the plan that we originally had from uh the previous plan that I I provided and I wanted to compare and contrast to see how things changed is that something we can get Sonia I don't have any updates right now but certainly I can follow up okay and uh I think we already talked about the for the road dieting I am going to meet I will plan to meet with the residents in those neighborhoods to see what they Envision and how I can help them get what they want out of their in their neighborhood uh in terms of town finances we discussed the economic developer already I do want a Redevelopment agency uh I am not sure how we go about getting one because I think we do have a lot of areas in town that need to be redeveloped and having a Redevelopment agency that specifically focused on getting things done right maybe meeting with the residents such as clar Barton having those discussions I think is important and uh tax bills we already discussed we're giving a grace period uh lighting Council pointer discussed and the last item was the marijuana as a gift I did bring this up to you in email and you said we just have to move it to the AG yeah um the chief's still here um so it's an enforcement mechanism on the sale of marijuana so it would be the same as if they were in another violation of the the statute and the AG's office has the um the authority to enforce those so it's it's the the state law um that controls I believe and so real quick I I'll speak with the chief about this to see how how best to approach it um since we're here and you've brought it up um but I believe it just needs to be referred to the Office of the Attorney General for them to enforce okay that that's my understanding the reason we're bringing this up because there's a business in town that is essentially giving away marijuana as a gift with the purchase of something else to kind of bypass the laws um and obviously we don't want that in town so we are trying to figure out a way to make sure that that doesn't happen in our town and I think the next step is to make sure that we get enforced and get that shut so in the period between when it was legalized for sale and before any of the mechanisms for actually having a legal retailer um were in place this was much more of a problem uh and the AG's office took the lead on cracking down on that um you know at the time so that that's where it would come from Chief this the first I'm hearing about this particular issue I will talk to Legal offline as well as our vice and our con un get some uh Insight maybe from our County prosecutor's office and we'll move forward from that so um we just got to get some more information if you could pass that along the legal and then we can have a a conversation from there sounds good thank you thank you Council and now I'll open up to councilman Coyle you wanted to make comments on Council Vice President are you okay now I just wanted to share um first when some of our council members leave the de we also listen to the meeting while we leave the Das and we also go and have a bathroom break I think we're here three hour three and a half hours today but while listening to uh uh Council vice president yes we do have an adopt the highway program and it's live and awake I can direct it to the website as most of the Clara Barton residents know here one of the first adoptions happened uh for Highway adoption was the route one exit ramp right there so there are several you can do you can get a sign it's quite simple I can direct it to the site it's available and again I just wanted to uh comment against councilman P's comment some people leave the Das for certain reasons it's your choice of when they leave the Das we're elected officials it's not a babysitting match here we leave for 90 seconds we come back I apologize Marlene don't give me any water okay and uh I just want to impose a bathroom break thank you thank you councilman Coyle uh just councilman pointer I know you wanted to add something to council vice presidents uh yeah I was just going to kind of mention what uh councilman Coy had said uh the Adopt A Highway program for the state and the county is run through their clean communities program uh so that would be your Route 1 27 um 440 287 those types of uh roads uh I would like for us to have a more localized adopted spot aspect I know I've talked about that before but um that is technically separate from the Adopt A Highway uh aspect that that is the run through the state maybe that's something that you and I can talk further about AB thank you uh a question to our business administrator this goes to uh the comments about the the storm if anyone has any branches that are still left over is is there someone they could contact potentially get yes that would be DPW you could just put a service order in and we'll go there even after the fact okay I'll let the uh the residents no uh councilman ptil had asked about the Master Plan update if there are specific action items at the end of the master plan is a action item guide I will print out those sessions and send it out to the council And in regards to cannabis as a gift it is a unfortunate workaround in regards and look I say this as someone that supports the legalization and uh retail of marijuana but that is not what the guy what the laws are for so what's happening is that you are permitted by law to gift marijuana to someone that is not in and of itself illegal however if you were to do that in somewhere under the age of 21 yes that would technically be legal but what I'm hoping in these further discussions is if the state is developing those mechanisms where that becomes prohibited for lack of better words because the one location that is being brought up I visited and it's not a location where you have to be 21 to enter and that is the concern I think from many of the residents outside of the fact of if whether you're for or against it's the fact that there may be locations that utilize ize this loophole in the in the state guidelines for other uses to try to promote their business so thank you for that bringing that up council president thank you Council council president the about the cannabies and I did call Chief uh as soon as I got to know this the bigger problem is the sign outside on the door or on the glass has the Cannabis sign oh the gift is second part to this but again when someone is looking from the outside they see the picture so that motivates our to visit the store yeah I think they're not allowed to advertise with the leaf yeah no so technically if you are a marijuana retailer you're not allowed to advertized with the leaf that doesn't mean that you can't as a non- marijuana retailer use it in your decorative motifs because you're not selling it that's it's not necessarily a loophole it is a deliberate misinterpretation of what the law allows and then attempting to utilize that to increase your own business and to increase your own profit margins by effectively giving away um the thing that you're actually selling and that way you don't have to get licensing you don't have to follow the regulations as to age limits as to advertising uh and that's why the the AG's office cracked down in the beginning um and and to begin with so that's it's something I'm going to talk to the chief about it's something that is definitely going to be addressed um it's just a mechan matter of of the actual enforcement mechanism needs to be involved all right uh so with that said I think we are at the end I just need a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn and may I have a second second so motion by Council vice president second by councilman pointer the meeting is adjourned at 9:16 p.m. oh all in favor sorry this meeting is adjourned at 9:16 be my