[Music] this meeting is called to order in accordance with the open public meeting act notice of this meeting was provided to the home News Tribune The Star Ledger and the Highland par planet on January 5th 2024 and was posted on Bor Hall website at w ww. hpb.com and on the bulletin board of b h 221 South fth Avenue in Highland Park New Jersey and has remained continuously posted as required by law now we're going to have the pledge of [Music] allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call please mayor Foster yes councilwoman Cana here councilman George councilman hail here council president H here councilwoman cam Chan councilman cik here special Council Balman here her administrator H here and now we're going to move on to discussion item the first one up is 810 South Second Avenue and I'm gonna ask our cler to give us administrator sorry oted you or promoted you're one of the two sorry and I'm gonna pass along just like a quick visual um I meant to get them in front of you before we sat down and I was running late um so really briefly uh 810 North Second Avenue is a single parcel on the north side of town on North second kind of wed between the residential area near Cleveland Avenue and Wayside Drive which is the kind of corridor Road in the uh uh Overlook uh project on um that part of town next to where the railroad line is and it first came on my radar a while back when it went for sale and then um it's a it's a lab building I should mentioned uh on the North side um which kind of is a legacy from kind of the light industrial Corridor that kind of used to be in that area um the um the pro it came to my attention again probably six months plus ago probably longer because the county reached out to me their Economic Development and their uh real estate folks because they had looked at the property because they had been desperately looking for some either it was lab or life sciences or some sort of space which she thought it was a kind of a strange property and brought it to my attention she had said it was not adequate for uh what they were looking for and and the reality was it was pretty out of date was kind of the gist of what she told me and and I kind of left it that that and then Flash Forward we were approached Again by this time a couple of investors from town uh who had an idea for an Adaptive reuse for the site um um I I met with them I I I listened to kind of what their thoughts were and I'll talk a little bit more about kind of what what what we discussed um and then they posted an escrow and so to cover the cost for our planner to meet with them uh Chris Cassens and I met and we went through kind of some ideas for the site um where we landed on was kind of an Adaptive reuse of the building for residential it's a residential area um making somewhere in the order of about five Apartments might be possible this was based on a very kind of cursory look at the site and what we thought would be what it could yield without really making much change to the limits of the building um so I put my head together with Chris uh to see well you know right now it's not zoned for that you it's not zoned for a lab nor is it zoned for that um and you know I talked with Chris I C talked with our special Council boundman about um ways we might address this site because One Way Or Another We're looking at either a continuation of a non-conforming use if a lab were to come in there but frankly it's been on the market quite a while I don't see that happening uh or if uh someone wanted to do something different like this adaptive use it would be a variance they'd have to go for it the zoning board and they they don't have any certainty about how what the outcomes would be um and so we we kind of landed on the Redevelopment option a very small the thought was to do a smallscale uh Redevelopment plan that would accommodate adaptive reuse of the building for residential um as a possible way to move forward um so I brought that idea to the economic development committee um there seem to be some general support although I'll let them speak for themselves um so I'm bringing it to the group now because um I I think it makes sense I I don't know if uh Joe wants to weigh in at all but I think we have an opportunity to uh enhance a kind of a deteriorating site provide additional housing do adapter use which is kind of something we haven't done at least not in a long time in Highland Park um provide a different type of housing option and and also an affordable housing option in this neighborhood so um on a very small scale it's only 5,000 sare it's a small building it's it's a 5,000 square feet so um just wanted to use this opportunity to kind of discuss this because basically if we we don't want to go this route I'd rather know sooner than later uh but if we're interested in pursuing this we could engage lrk to assist with the plan and we could um and we would notify the neighbors and we would go through normal Redevelopment albeit a we think a very targeted and streamlined one because of the the scope of the projects relatively small um and uh advanc it that way and I have no way to predict if these people we spoke to will end up purchasing the property or but I I actually think it's a good idea and it would be beneficial to the bureau to consider this option and I think we can take it on um and it' be a nice example of a small neighborhood scale project in the midst of some of our other projects that we trying to against so that's about all I have to present probably more than you wanted um no no no it was good because when I when they reached out to me um I decided I thought that you should have a conversation with them and council member H do you have anything that you want to add to this no I would to say that this is sort of the the um we've talked about doing this uh for a while it's been part of the master plan it's doing infill development um along this this sort of lines um it's a manageable project um it's a building that would likely sit there and do nothing um uh unless there's there's some movement on it and so I think this gives us an opportunity to uh um uh create something out of of an shell and I think that's um a good thing we got to be doing that and it fits with the neighborhood think that that that's the other other point is that this is a housing neighborhood and so it fits with a housing uh area and it would um be um uh subject to our affordable housing um requirements if it's if there's a a number of units and so at least probably get one but it's uh you know one is better than none so I think it's think it's good project Terry could just um explain why you know just just like a normal application where they would go through zoning can you can you explain the benefit of of doing a re Min Redevelopment the I guess the main benefit I see is if someone makes an application to the zoning board which if you want to do anything that doesn't conform with the underlying zoning that's where you end up is we don't know what they'll propose you know this is one group that's proposed that some investors won't want the risk because they could get through that whole process and May not be one and done meeting wise and so it could also deter reinvestment if they're relyant upon and they don't feel like they have the support of the community behind the project they want to do um and um there's no real Vision you know there's no you know for for that building in any of our plans right now because it really doesn't conform with what's around it or the zoning that's there so um to me the benefit is also we get a little more control over the final product there' be kind of a mini redeveloper agreement so we can hold them a little more accountable to what we're our expectations are and we will whoever it ends up being so this is regardless of who ends up with the property um and it would also basically straighten out what I think is kind of a non-conforming property in the town and and maybe maybe nudge it toward a a better use Joe would you add anything to that no I mean this is we call scattered sites you know in the Redevelopment world so this is sort of a prime example of the scattered site it it's a you know an outlier and otherwise residential area um we do we have a relatively simple Redevelopment plan which as I understand it doesn't change the footprint and fully parks on site so not totally controversial gets an affordable housing unit and then we'll have some controls of the agreement on things like commencement completion design standards that know beyond and that will all be discussed as part of the yeah we developed the plan you know we're not here to decide those things now but that's what we would look to include in the plan that for you and go before the planning board and you know Circle it does seem like a lot of steps to take for such a small thing but it it's it probably is the most uh strategic way to move it forward any other questions I just a question um Terry do you know about how long this property has been vacant I don't I I am 99% sure it's over two years at this point but I it could be longer I did look at some of the Google map pictures and I thought I saw the realtor thing as far back as 2021 but I didn't confirm that so that's my my best guess but it has been a while I take no no other bites no other interest not that I'm aware of I mean I haven't reached out to the broker I um but I can only assume it's been sitting there for a reason it's an outlier and from what I understand it's not like St the art lab space you know so it it's not attracting what it was meant to do so um you know we're looking at change maybe a change of use is appropriate there was an interest quite a while back I would say back in 2019 but so yeah so and then it just went away as Terry says it's not it's a non-conforming use in in that particular era so sure whoever wanted was to do say create a lab or office f it wouldn't fit I checked it out yet myself and I've seen it does not fit with the rest of the neighborhood just like it's pretty un presupposing it's funny it's just there andiz yeah it was it was that was when they well that is interesting uh council member Hil no oh you're good okay anyone else so what I was hoping if if there's General support I have uh a draft proposal from lrk um which I can circulate um that I'd like to um put on the agenda for an upcoming council meeting with your commission yes I'll circulate that around and we'll pencil that in right council members and then we're gonna move on to track C and basically track C is the host of updates that we're going to provide and um Terry I'm G let you jump in because uh the reason why Terry jumps in a lot is because she's uh the economic development person in in the borrow for the for the borrow so we refer to her a lot on these projects um so she in her full-time her part-time full-time position this is what she does ah thanks mayor um this is a brief one as well and it's not major news flashes but it's more to pick up the thread from where we left last year um because I know you have said numerous times as is the rest of the governing body we're we're working toward a public meeting to talk about track c um and I just wanted to just let everybody know that is still Our intention we had hoped to get that done last year but we hadn't made sufficient progress on um design issues um and but now we have made some strides and we're trying to get this done in the first uh quarter of the year um this meeting but you know to do that we need updated renderings that we're all confident represents kind of what we think is workable for the site so we're still waiting on some different perspectives uh from the developer um also um looking at that same public meeting we would like to present publicly any amendments that might be needed to the Redevelopment plan in order to effectuate that plan so we're we're trying to go through the designs and identify any conflicts with our existing plan hopefully they're minimal but that would be something we want to present at that community meeting as well um and so we just need a a little more time and lastly um we're on day 60 of uh waiting for response from njdot from our last submission on the South Third Avenue uh pedestrian Plaza proposal uh and the Street intersection permit specifically uh supposedly a 90-day turnaround so we're basically a month out and we'd really like to have that uh as part of that community meeting so that we're kind of presenting a full package to the community about you know what's going M and where and so forth not not going to say we're have it all figured out for the community meeting but at least we know we've got the permit lined up and we know where we're going so things are coming together I have no I'm not no reason to feel pessimistic about the permit but it's just a slow process and we're just but hopefully this might be I think our one of our last back and forths with them on what we've sub so um so that was my track the update I don't know if I left anything no you didn't leave anything out the the commitment of having open meeting to the public and in a large enough space where everybody can take a look at the rendance and what have you that still holds we're hoping that this will be done in the first quarter of this year so we are very much on track and very much looking forward to a community meeting where everyone will have an opportunity to see the plans that we're looking at and we can have some healthy discussions uh that's it anyone else okay no questions all right okay resolution uh resolution 20 sorry resolution 20241 executive session reading uh number one will be uh Redevelopment negotiations on 20 420 to 424 ritin Avenue number two Redevelopment negotiations and 433 Cleveland Avenue may I have a motion to adopt aour or adourn resolution 2024 41 motion to adopt second okay with that said roll call councilwoman Cana yes councilman hail yes council president H yes councilman yes okay and and now it's time for public comments each session has three minutes but you may speak on any topic the Bor clerk will monitor the time and offer a 30 second warning when that when she indicates 3 minutes has lapsed the session will end up will wrapped up by 9:00 p.m. B clerk will monitor the time and indicate when the 3 minutes have lapsed she will give you a warning when there is 30 second remaining there will be a hard stop at three minute at the three minute Mark and to make sure everyone has time to speak as a reminder I may interrupt warn or terminate a participant statement if it does not adhere to the 3 minutes provided or if the statement is disruptive to the orderly conduct of the public meeting it is disruptive or not un topic and is not relevant to the governing body comments from the members of the public attended in person will be heard first followed by those attending on zoom on Zoom you can press either the raise hand button or Star nine on your keepy on your keepy pad and when to to raise and you can to raise your hand you can press the star six button to speak uh we'll take questions for the member of the public at this time if there's any see that there's none is only one on Zoom I don't see any hands raised on Zoom mayor okay oh a hand just hand keeps popping up and down give me a second there okay I do see a hand rais and for the record we have 11 attendees on the zoom uh hands the hand that I see up is Jessica hunson if you could just say your name and confirm it you thank you good evening this is Jessica hunston um I live on Montgomery Street um thank you Terry for the overview of the 810 North 2 Avenue place I came just a minute or two late so I I might you might have answered this um but what is the current I have a couple of questions what is the current zoning I was just looking at it and and I noticed that the property um has been had been listed in uh September I believe and that it's Mark is contingent now and that it had you know I'm looking at the listing and it seems like it's already being kind of sold as a a Redevelopment opportunity perfect for single family homes town homes or stack town houses so I think one of my questions is what is the current zoning and then you mentioned the benefits to the um the burrow for having it be a part of a Redevelopment plan but can you um talk about what the benefit is to the owner or whoever kind of approached you um regarding this uh I'll take your first question um one of the current zoning I'm sorry mayor with your permission sorry um the current zoning that's actually an interesting question one of what we will answer more definitively uh when we finish the study uh because our zoning map shows it as purd one or two which is the zone that the Highland The Overlook uh excuse me not Overlook what's the other one the one that's right next door development with ways like Crossing uh is but then when we started looking at the ordinances to answer that very question um there was there was a a debate but I can I I I believe it could potentially be our two depending on we have to actually do do a look back on the various ordinances to answer that but either way what's there does not conform uh the lab building the office building whatever you want to call it doesn't conform to either of those zones so that's something I stumbled into I was relying on the zoning map and when I saw it was the PRD Zone and so we started doing a kind of a due diligence look back and we stumbled into that and we have to do a little more work in the in the um codebook to make sure we we nail down the use uh more precisely um for future as to the the benefit um I don't know specifically what the benefit would be other than in my mind and I could defer to to others uh potentially the attorney is the they get a little more security as to what they can do with that property should they buy it um but the marketing it sounds like they may have overstated what what the the uses are uh that they can do there if if what you're reading was accurate um and then what we get are some of the benefits I mentioned as well as we also get a little more Assurance as to what gets built there um and if it you know and uh uh and a little more control over the outcome and I you want to add anything our attorney I was just going to tell you I think what we're saying is we think it might be a townhouse like the multi M multi I we believe it's part of the planned Urban Redevelopment Zone whatever which which but in looking at it it may not be but either way I'm not sure as right you could do any of the things you just said Jessica but we certainly before we do the Redevelopment plan we'll nail down the answer to that question may I ask just one more question because I missed it at the beginning can you tell me who approached you regarding the Redevelopment plan was it the owner or the prospective buyer or because it does seem like the the it is in like it's being purchased at this time it it was not the owner it was someone a local resident in town okay purchas perspective purchase a perspective yeah that lives here in t okay great thank you so much okay I do see another hand there um it's Mary forsberg um let me unmute you um Mary could you confirm it's you hi uh Mary forsberg 317 Dennison Street U I came in a little bit late too and I wasn't sure what you were talking about what talking about a Redevelopment plan and I thought you were talking about the 433 Cleveland which I guess maybe you're not um so I'm curious about four 433 Cleveland because it seems to have paid no taxes since 2008 and it's listed it has two separate listings in the tax forms and it one of them is as a pumping station and so I'm curious what is a pumping station what does it do and who owns it why doesn't it pay taxes would you like me to answer administrator uh I'm not sure what what records you looked up 433 Cleveland Avenue we have an existing Redevelopment plan and agreement uh it's where the school is being built um and we'll be discussing a matter regarding that in executive session later that's how it's listed on the agenda um and the pumping stations burrow property there is a a a bit of mechanical it's it's actually bual property but maintained by the mcua that's a fun fact I only recently learned uh so that's that's why it pays no taxes I mean 433 Cleveland Avenue I went down and looked at it there's no land there there's nothing there it's it's the big school school it's it's the school that's being built over there I mean 4:31 is the school or 4:30 yeah 431 is the school but what is 433 is they've Consolidated some properties Mary and the the matter we're discussing is related to the school so it will be tax exempt along with the school we have not discussed that as yet we have not discussed it we're we're going to be having a conversation later on to discuss 43 433 shows up in the tax roles as a pumping station in one place and as a um as some property that has paid no taxes since 2000 since 2008 I think so is it a pumping station or what is it it's not very much the school Mar tax no no it's a tax exempt area and if you are looking at 4301 I believe that's a pumping station but has a public easement on it no 433 is a pumping station um from all indication and what we know 433 is the school that's being built it's just about completed actually well you better check your your um tax records because that's what that's not what the tax records show thank you Mary will do that [Music] right no other hands raised mayor okay may I have a motion to adjourn adjourn to Executive session move second all in favor good night thank you all we won't take any action when we return no no action will be taken it's