let's evening everyone uh nice to see you all we are have already opened meeting so we are going to begin this evening by uh standing for the Pledge of Allegiance and then we'll remain standing for moment of silence in remance of Judge Ron former count person and the municipal judge years [Music] the United States of America thank you please seated uh we're going to begin this evening with uh the second reading of uh ordinance number 15-22 this is an ordinance renaming the lamberville nature trail as the rust lamber nature trail before I open this up to the public for a comment I'd like to invite u m Lambert up to speak and maybe say a few words you could step up to the podium please Russell welcome I'm not mentally prepared but going I try my best um I just wanted to say thank I just wanted to say thank you guys so much for uh thank you to the community for allowing um this wonderful opportunity for both me and my mom we need a lot and I appreciate all the wonderful support both neighbors and friends have done for me and for that well me m we just say thank you and we appreciate everything we done for you and appreciate everything that you guys have done me for that so thank you Martha you want anything you like to say I'm Mar Russ's sister many people know me as an and like R and Ben I want to thank you all the support and comfort that youve given us this past here oh Russ be very happy he would probably be he was humble and he'd be a little embarrassed but he'd also be very pleased and it's perfect way to remember thank you and if Maran the chair person of the parks and commission like to step up hi I just wanted to say that um was a really important member of parks and rec was a really important member of our team and want wait to remember him and honor him [Music] and thank you for accepting this recommendation and does the counc president have anything to say before I turn it over to the public um I second everything that my my son and my sister-in-law said um and I really am so grateful to Maryann and the rest of Parks and Recreation Commission for honoring Russ this way I hope you have a par Ste for the port part and child right um these months have been difficult but it made so much easier by the people in this community um it's unbelievable and um it word is very honored that Russ is being remembered um in this space he would it's what he would have wanted thank you now I'll open this ordinance up second reading and public hearing ordinance up for public comment there are people who wish to make a public comment in regards specifically to this ordinance I would ask you to step to the microphone you have three minutes of uninterrupted time I see no one in the room is there anyone online who would like to speak to this ordinance hands up uh I forgot to note that councilman Stegman is joining us uh via Zoom this evening so he is here we just can't see him um may I have a motion to close the public comment period for ordinance number 15224 so move second um all right let's do a voice please next 24 Council M kinsky yes to Russell Council Li yes councilman Stegman yes the president Lambert yes mayor no yes thank you now to adopt mayor that was I was that was to close the public hearing and you have to adop oh gosh sorry I didn't mean to do a roll call on the public cling the public oh my goodness I'm sorry it's a little early in the game for me to be night tra um so at this time I would enter a motion to adopt ordinance number 15224 so moved second all right we'll have a roll call this councilwoman kinsky most definitely yes councilman L yes councilman Stegman absolutely council president lber yes please mayor no yes thank you let's just sit for a few seconds right uh this is the time when I will open the meeting up for public participation uh as we always remind people uh unless you have mobility issues we ask you to step to the microphone and state your name and your address you have 3 minutes uninterrupted time uh to make your comments ask your questions uh Lindsay will let you know when you've got 30 seconds left um I do ask that uh everybody you know if this is a good moment to silence your cell phones and if you feel as though you want to talk please step out of the room if you want to be sure that we hear everybody's everybody's comments and uh questions so uh keeping that in mind if there's somebody in in the room who would like to offer public comment this Ty CH K 33 Wilson Street bille and I Al just want to say that I appreciate the effort TOA bench and everything else after us it really was dedicated to this community I'm really sorry to fishing with them but then again I don't like standing in Cold War um I'm here because I wanted to talk about the the academy Hill stre development plan or whatever you want to call it um I was concerned at the meeting a couple weeks ago some the residents about sort of there's a Mis knowledge that D is in charge of cleanups of landfill or oversight of contaminant sites it's not the truth anymore in 2009 it was privatized and in 2012 it was expanded and how it works is that the the the site is under the jurisdiction or the property owner who hires a license site remediating professional who then does the soil sampling the testing comes up with a work plan uh oversees the work plan and then certifies the work plan as being complete there's also a lot of issues with GDP on alternative cleanup methods and the reason I'm saying that is that what we're doing is we're trusting the cleanup of this site to Eric Wilson who many people in this community do not trust and the concern I have and I was local opponent of the law at the time that it was the box of Designing the hen house building the hen house and certifying it safe u in many towns that I've worked in over the years I've asked them to hire their own um professionals to oversee the work going on there and the plans because no public comment on on the cleanup plans or anything else and I've been up on the site and I've tried to stay along the edges and my concern is you don't really see where the landfill ends and the woods begin it's it's older but there's dumping up there from talking to neighbors up in that area they've been continuing dumping since the Landfill closed uh if you walk around the edge of the property there areas um in the property you can see drums a couple of them buried a couple of them sitting on the surface there are piles of De gree um and the area around the school is a big mess uh and there's a lot of stuff there you see electric motors and other things PVC pipe um there's also some areas on the site and I don't know if it's because ball fields or others where there's very little vegetation and I was a person who actually uncovered every Super SL many years ago and one of the things I was to tell was that weeds weren't growing and and so I really think there's a bigger concern up there than we currently know and I just wanted to leave it at that because I'm really concerned that we're going to be building up there whatever it's going to happen can have a big impact Down Below on that people who may end living there and and my other point is you know we're talking about payment in L with taxes potentially for the site and you know when you're getting 4 to1 Market through portable and you're selling units between 900,000 or more they're going to probably make about 400,000 unit there's not a need for any kind of additional subsidy especially something like Pilots brought money from this and my last point I know I'm going to go over because it's on the agenda tonight plus and F would make a wonderful project Massachusetts on taking an Old Farm area and building within the existing structures and I'm not talking about stor house but the other building housing and is something we should look at thank you yeah I'm G to ask uh once again if we could not clap I just think that sometimes as a courtesy to people who may not share may have different viewpoints that could sometimes uh [Music] be not appreciated um and before before we go on I'm GNA ask there any response from the Council on the first speaker only other than uh I Jeff was good enough to take me on a little bit of a tour I got a couple ticks but they didn't bite me but there there's a lot of I have to there is a lot of dumping there that I was very um surprised that a lot of very drum that that we saw and um it's a very very complicated piece of property it was it was a great tour um really helped in my understanding of it and my increase you know concern about about you know go your head any else hi Brian to Hancock I just want to Beck back on what Jeff been talking about the possibility of using a portion of the Clon farm for affordable housing today I had a conversation with Habitat for Humanity in Alon they um they have a history with lville they renovated the um American region building after so they're familiar with our town and on quick lamp the young lady said her well actually her engineer to the quick PL and he said you know I think we can get 45 duplexes up there family duplexes and be able in the historic architectural theme of land we would be very cognizant of the entry of the county and uh talked about the storm water mitigation and actually alleviating any kind of storm impact when they do their building and and so I just ask them you know having be engaged if it's a possibility so I'm asking you if it could be a possibility someone from habitat in humanity would like to come and have a meeting or come for a city council meeting to begin a conversation and yeah I'm familiar with habitat they've done some great work in in our community um my friend Helen the street has an habitat home there's a habitat home up on the hill you guys are and um you had a great relationship with them they're a great organization I would welcome them coming back yeah I I Echo car's comments on that I think they're a great organization work with them as well um you know I think that's a really interesting thanks okay thank you um I I too would welcome habitat coming in and taking a look at the property um uh prior to my taking office councilman Stegman and I had some conversations with the former mayor and habitat people they didn't they weren't real optimistic but it sounds like maybe attitudes have shifted um and that's a good thing um and I'm very familiar with their workers I actually worked on the York Street house I have photographic evidence that I was holding a drill it was really nice it was really nice be able to fulfill the family requirement yeah which was so desperately looking for it so we just got to throw that up thank you sure sorry yes I I would I would just like to add that during that time period that Ben was speaking of is I actually met with habitat um and uh went to several locations unfortunately at that time uh habitat was uh not set up to do rental buildings or rental units um uh I don't know if that's changed over the years but it is my our deficiency is not in homes as far as fair share is concerned our deficiency is in affordable rental apartments so um unless habitat has uh changed their stance then working with habitat will not fulfill our requirement uh of fair share housing units yeah I I think that we uh it would be a great opportunity though that we should welcome them back because we will have additional units to provide even though there is a rental component to our obligation that we will also be looking at you know at uh for sale housing as well and so I I think in the future um and in the near future that they it could become relevant so I think that they would be uh again I don't I don't disagree that's why I said what I said that at that time they might have altered the the were their responsibilities that's all and I think you know regardless if it's rentals or or homes I think the court would be really happy with the direction and you know the opportunity for more affordable housing in af sell please um Sean Ellis 21 beler Avenue um I I want to reiterate I think the um theme uh here that this site for the you know the lamberville high school uh site is not viable it's dangerous and it impose it it presents so many risks to our community um and it's unnecessary because we have other viable options and um one option being you know again I want to say here habitat great idea it gets us away from this you know kind of corporate de deal with the devil kind of uh thing but um I think that just amongst the the council you know the um lack of certain certainty as to what habitat could or couldn't provide is uh something that I think everybody feels I we feel like it's complex there's these bonus points there's all these things we have you know certain requirements and it's never been hosted it's never been it's just people saying stuff right and so we need information we need a guide we have rental units that people have been wanting to turn into affordable rentals we don't have to do any development it's in the aesthetic of of Lambertville because they already exist adus we need to have a guide for people to get good information to take up less time of City officials and staff and um essentially have an idea of what the process entails um I know that mayor you said that that is a uh something that should be looked into you didn't think it was um you know would yield much but I think maybe that's something for this a commission to explore affordable housing commission that I you're also um interested in pursuing um and so you know if we have to hire experts to bet the information there's an affordable housing trust fund that's meant for that that very purpose um so that's number one number two uh I had sent you an email and um uh toson was you indicated that you wanted that to be all open space the exception of the market um what happens to the building the cabin that's there if that becomes open space um you know uh it's been empty for four years now we're talking about affordable housing I I think a lot of people are are teally interested in that and um I also you know heard that other people have reached out um other landlords in town other property owners in town and have struggled to get any traction even though they've wanted to put affordable housing on their properties they've wanted to convert their rentals they've gotten misinformation they've gotten resistance from the city they've gotten just never followed up on um and so why that's thank you council members have any remarks or questions um I think your point about information Sean is really good um you know if there are people in town that want to convert and make an accessory unit for affordable housing one I think it's a much better location because it's in the town area you know it's very walkable part of the community um and you know I think the the government has an obligation to provide that information if we can work on a packet or something like that for people to be able to determine hey you know I might have this garage that I want to turn into an accessory unit I think that's a really good idea um I know another Resident brought up the idea of the commission and I've been doing a lot of thinking about that as well and um you know I I think that it's a really good idea because maybe this commission could you know continue to explore new places for affordable housing you know we've been talking about what's going to happen in a year or a year and a half to two years with the pinkles property um so by having a commission um you know makes sense we have other commissions with other things in town so I think that's an idea worth exploring um I agree with councilman Li and I support what you what you stated I think it's I really like the idea if we could kind of sprinkle affordable housing throughout the community that really kind of fits the entire the whole essence of what it's supposed to be right um you know C and property uh I I kind of go back and forth I understand where you're coming from but that's a segregated right and B I'm G to you know this is like the elephant in the room for me but we don't know like I don't know what that does to our budget if we're counting on those monies coming in like half a million dollars if we're getting that or not I don't know but those are worth exploring but I think I think we should be exploring things sure yeah I also think that show to your first point which I might get hung up on process I think we're long overdue to understand what our housing element and fair share plan is walking through the numbers I've never really seen the out of all and because it it it it ships around what is how we put it together I mean and we need a little bit of a teaching on it and and I know that high do I get and I'm supposed to know get get confused on it and and then where are we going from here year to year because the state has some new regulations as well that I'm pretty you know concerned about so I I agree I agree with that wholeheartedly and I think if we're going to do something with setting up a community you know mission and that I'd love to be able to have like a point people here to be able to you know work together and take it in and and really have a discussion well maybe that'll work maybe that won't you know um but to be able to have a governmental committee as well so we can kind of uh do some collab uh I would just say that I uh I met with El this past week and I think that we'd like to plan uh kind of an affordable housing uh teaching session in early September um we talked about a little bit about about doing potentially over the summer but I think just because of Summer schedules it's probably not uh right the right time but uh uh I'll get with her and we'll plan something for the first second week of September where we can have an open uh meeting for the public the last time we did this was the first uh was just a couple of weeks or a couple of months after I was sworn in unfortunately you know was done virtually so you know it's a big difference between doing things virtually and and doing them in the room so uh we'll plan on something in early September uh and uh I'll get back to everybody on thank you councilman St yes so that that sounds like a good idea um to get to get someone in who can actually uh explain the ins and outs of it for us and I I also you agree with um what the other council members have said uh so I think we should start taking a deep dive into what would work and what would be acceptable at this point thank you uh also just to remind people that the uh on the city web page we do have an affordable housing page that's under the resident tab it has all of our reporting requirements it has all of the income requirements it has everything from the the the plan to the court settlements all of it's right there so it's worth taking look at some of it is uh difficult to digest but uh if you you look at it and you have a question you should feel free to call me and if I don't know the answer I will get it for you what happens to the cabin if you make it open space I asked that question in my thing you just aren't answering it that's right okay we have next person could we um just the open the go back to the fin fin question that Sean had nothing about about the status with the cabin um right we can answer that question I think the status of the C it it's still staying on the property there's no no one is buying it or selling it at this time but um I believe that the cabin is in the exclusion zone of the uh of the property so is not being is not part of you know the receipt of greener's money understand as I as I understand it so I just I just felt like we really should want to answer that question and that was what the mayor said he wanted to make it all open space in an email to me if that's what I want clarification we do not go back and forth from this if you want to follow up I just need clarification for my question please uh next speaker think at least answered is I wanted to at least answer Sean's question that was that he asked at the podium so I hope that that I asked it multiple times in email and now and I'm thank you I answer I we want to talk some more uh Judy gleon 86 North Union Street um also talking about the Redevelopment plan also talking about what we have on the people and also talking about where we are now it seems as though and particularly in the last few minutes it seemed obvious that there seems to be a certain commitment among some that this idea of the 200 spots up on the old High School site is the plan and all the other discussions are just sort of random things that people are talking about I'm asking please the council has it within its power to say we will look at at all the other things that people are doing not we'll see about a councel and maybe because no one has told us more than you all have and I understand this you're on a deadine you don't have a lot of time you want to move on it I respect that I get that but don't hold us back you have an enormous number of people in this town who are doing every possible thing to find options to find ways to have housing here housing there housing we don't have to do it in 40 units we don't have to do it in 20 units we have always been able to put it around town and it's just sort of hurtful living here to see what seems to be some resistance in trying to do that because Mr Mayor you have made known that you want to see the 200 unit thing go forward I respect that but don't let that hold us up to try to find an alternative because the Alternatives will not have the flooding will not have the trees ripped up in the number there will be will not have the complete separation from town will not have all of the kids who can't get to school without this and that and Roads and all the things so why not use the free help you have you have it in meetings here every time now people are coming people are doing people are communicating so please please send us the message yes we will work with you yes bring us ideas and we will take them seriously yes we will talk to affordable housing if that makes sense yes we will do it because right now that's going on out here and the difficulty is it's sort of sporadic for the for the whole un of yall to to to be embracing that and we really want to be working with you because you're our people we put you there so please help us out thank you um I would just say Judy you know if we do have this commission I think you'd be great on it uh to help out so if we do I'm going to be calling you up so but said it very well received and you know although this plan un proposed I can only speak for myself um I'm more than willing to look at wherever we to avable housing you know the plan uh does or does not go forward it doesn't eliminate our need for affordable housing this is going to be something we're going to be dealing with for a while it's not you know we've got a fourth round that's coming out um so whatever approach we take we can't just be thinking about you know complying right now it's you know complying for the next 20 years so um that's why I really do think a commission makes sense because the problem is not going to go away and that's the best way to address it um in my think so thank you I agree I think the commission makes great sense Judy you're at least a vice chair if not but anyway um I didn't really mean to take your your thunder but the thing that keeps going through my mind recently is we have so many people that are engaged in this and that's great and we have a lot of smart people that live in this community smart committed dedicated energetic accomplished you know people who know this stuff and I I think um you know we have an opportunity I was I was reminded of that when I read filina Hanks lamberville Ms and she she reminisced of the pen East um success and and this is very similar right so um I was supported commission and if necessary participate right yeah no collaboration and consensus all for it would be welcome Council anything [Music] that's next please D bird 255 buns Avenue in lberi as a followup the discussion we've had so far and I was not able to hear the like mayor who's going to be putting something together in September to tell us about affordable housing I'll remind everyone that the planner at a very early meeting was going to take that as a task and get some simple document out to explain very clearly what Our obligation is today what your obligation is today how many we got how many we short all right and what the deadline is uh because there is a lot of people working on things right now and I really would encourage that to be done ASAP so we're all working with the right data all right and plan for today don't plan for tomorrow uh you know you know you know what I'm saying but you know we don't know what the next numberers going to um as something different I just want to bring this up resolution number of the 2024 one 11 that is the use of this facility for the movies okay uh you have a new contract coming uh I know there are some consideration of different screens and and devices uh you know that you know to help in meetings like this and uh I think with in the contract you want to make sure that you have the right as a property owner to you do the use the screens or do whatever we need to do for the business of the business of the of the city just a thought yeah that's a great point I haven't been really involved in it in term I think uh uh council president Lambert has been involved in and the the audio stuff that we're doing here and Cindy right um so may think the two compliment each other you can speak to it much better than I I haven't been involved lately that you know there's just been some things but I did work with Cindy and Lindsay a while ago and we have the some proposals not really we're working with people yeah it it's a kind of thing that gets moved off to you know to the back burner very easily so yeah we need to step up all of us it's it's a budget thing yeah yeah there's yeah there's money um but I think um at one point and I can follow up with him I I believe Scott Elliot sent an email about possible grant opportunities for that because it would qualifies as like an ADA uh compliance renovation so you know there's probably probably something at least for the sound right yeah yeah I think what we have to do the first thing we have to do is get together the the um requirements what are we looking for specifications right and that's kind of where where we got to and then summary yeah so um we're stilling things yeah we did ask um the various uh city services and boards and commissions that use this facility to provide feedback and you know I worked in it for a long time nobody has feedback until you build it and then everybody hates it so exactly right yeah so you know I think we have to probably be in the bushes and get something yeah in writing uh the AC screening room C I believe owns their equipment they paid for it and they own that correct okay next good evening April wll 45 Delan thank you so much for having this open for where we can talk um my concern is with the 200 unit unit Redevelopment plan on top of all the other kind of scary things we've talked about it occurred to me that if there going to be 200 units in one area that's going to be an addition of about 600 people our current census according to the the 2022 census is about 4,100 people suddenly adding 600 people to our population is a sudden growth of 15% it's going to be a 15% strain on our services and utilities whereas if we meet our needs for the affordable housing which as I understanding currently is 28 that's a growth of like 2% which we can handle and over time we can gradually handle the growth of the affordable housing as necessary I found that the 200 unit is too great a price to pay for getting our 28 that we need thank that's true um just to just to clarify one thing April the the 200 unit would actually uh give us 40 units we only need 28 but the 200 would give us 40 so just to just to clarify that it would be an excess of what we need on that site anyone El Council respond toil Street uh she kind of said everything partly what I wanted to say said um I moved here from New 14 years ago so I have a little bit of experience what the development does to town uh as anybody's traveled to New Town last few years it's very evident let me just say no matter how much taxes we pull in from these phones it's not going to cover the cost it'll be increased cost through all our Public Services the roads we're talking Fire Department Police Department there's just increased costs that I'm sure so many people have probably considered but let's just really take a step back from letting this go through because the evidence is out thank you very much thank you uh councilman s if you have anything just jump in verbally don't don't wait for us to okay we'll do no he was just saying he would do thank you master7 North un Street um I know we can only handle one thing at a time but not far down the road there's this big development that's going to occur at the finle site that's going to be I don't know how many but a lot of people I think we can't just make a decision about this without having a vision for how we going to handle that too 200 seems like an awful lot 600 people that's all Finkles is going to be site is much more manageable because it's not going to be contributing to the flooding but it's going to be a challenge so I ask you to keep the vision on this and in the future when we have to deal with f thanks yeah yeah I'm really glad because that that it it BLS mind it's it's going to be a big undertaking and it's going to be there's a lot of generational change I call it on that we're going to witness and we really need to I always sure like we really need a couple of year plan you know we really have to think now to the Future because of these generational changes and these properties becoming available that were never you know it was unthinkable hope for that there wouldn't be fingles or maybe there wouldn't be or or and and really do it's time for us to take go back and take a look at our our master plan and and and what we want to see there and know what we want because I always say when people are coming here to build and develop they have what we want and that's for us to protect you know we we need to you know know what we want want in our community and think about and and take input from Resident and and and kind of vision you know where we want to be because there's a lot of philosophies out there I'm not of the philosophy that you build on every inch um I'm on the philosophy of preserving the character and the life you know and and what we have protecting what we have but providing and then providing some opportunity for others but to delicate balance we need there's a lot to think about in that regard and I'm really glad to BL that out appreciate youbing on that I think Danny's example of what's happened in New Town is a good example I used to hang around New Town in the 70s it was cute it's new town I have to build a bypass I mean yeah this exactly I would just add connection say Jim um you know I another reason why we need to look at our strong waterer ordinance and really address that you know in line for this you know potential development that's there too I think we need a really robust uh you know we had the gentleman from The Watershed come in got a lot of really good ideas and um you know I think we just got to get ahead of that project and so as you're saying we make this decision you've got to be thinking about that as well and I completely agree with you you don't have to no good okay uh yeah I I welcome these uh comments from both Jim and Council in my 2023 state of the city speech I specifically referenced the idea where the or the concept that we should be having these conversations in public and uh I think this is a perfect opportunity for the public to speak to the council about these kinds of things because I'm ready to have these conversations uh and I think it's important that we do so uh I think we should absolutely be engaging with uh with property owners and having conversations about what what their ideas are what our ideas are said this in 2023 we know the thinkle site you know had had a ticking clock on it uh and uh I would ENC heard all all all the residents who care about development in this Committee in this town to be talking to the council members individually and the council as a whole because I'm ready to have conversations uh next please joh 14 hand um many of you I email questions one of the things I the last impromptu meeting we had with the mayor um we discussed changes in the city's decision as to where to build these 200 units and that whole properties were taken off that docket that was put in by the court or submitted to the court and then the previous mayor and councel should be changes now I wasn't there for that so that'll me for be relate to part but that's really I urge the council to look back make the correct changes put back in place that whomever is building whatever in town whether it's the finle site the CL site the High School site they are required to put in a minimum number of low-income homes that's the way the the the rules were originally written and the city changed that so if that's on you now that's on us as the voters the next time the elections come up now I get it it's difficult being what you're being but from where we're sitting it's not very uh very very good picture of our now than you moving on um I agree with the gentleman whose first name I didn't catch sorry it's John John um and and I agree with um people that talked about my C fellow Council woman uh kinsky about preserving the character of the community that's the reason I ran for this office okay was to stop a development that would have taken place on this site that we're sitting in um I have I do have reservations about the size of this project and quite honestly I don't know if I can vote for something that could cause people to lose their property or even a life I can't do it I just don't know but having said that I think we do need to have Community engagement active Community engagement organized commission so that we can move this forward because we do have a ticking clock and that's the hard part okay we don't have a lot of wiggle room here we got to get stuff done and 10 months and that's not a long time so that's my point um hi suzan Davis eight gr Avenue mville and I just wanted to say that in terms of our future affordable housing neighbors research has shown that they do much better when their housing is interspersed within the community that to have them all sort of segregated in one building is not really helpful to them they need to be integrated in the community so um yeah I think having different parts of affordable housing around the town would be the best solution uh yeah I I agree and I think that planners U perhaps Council Kaminsky or other planners will agree to that as well um I will say that in regards to the amendments to this plan they were supported by fair share housing who as I've said I think before has to take has taken a more trag IC approach to making sure that units affordable housing is actually built right there there's not always we don't always get exactly what's we want or what's probably best um but uh you know in our conversations with the judge and fair share housing you know this was something that they were fine with um and uh whether or not we're fine with it as individuals uh is another matter uh but but it's not uh ultimately you know this is a court matter this is something that's part of our settlement agreement uh and and hours that be that are above kind of our pay grad say that it's okay and that that this is something that can move forward to get something on the books then uh then then that's that um so I just wanted to point that out we may think that and I agree I would love to see greater diversity in our neighborhoods uh and throughout the city um but uh you know these are challenges to to try and to try and affect these changes right um so I don't want to unell the importance of it of it but at the same time you know be pragmatic and realistic it it's not always possible Jeff Klein uh 22,000 South Union Street uh when I get all my thoughts together here like I think the council and the mayor and everyone involved and US ultimately have to make a decision are we doing this for the money of the income of the taxing for that whole area and for a couple people to make big bucks on it or are we doing it for the affordable housing and for the uh for the town in general now if we're doing it for the affordable housing then I think that the uh committee that you want to get together to nobody really understands most of the people in town don't really understand how many affordable housing units do we have to have when do we have to have why what's the process that you go about get them and get C and if you have have a delay which I've seen happen twice before when that happens what's the process in which that happens and how long of delay can you get but we really have to decide are we doing this and Andrew mayor I talked to you at length a couple times on the street you were very graciously spoke with me and you said that the primary reason you're doing this or even considering this whole thing is for the cornal hasard and we get this done you noted your head and didn't we had that conversation we did if we're doing this for affordable housing we don't want to take that whole area up there tear it up flood waters become you know worse than usual I don't want to you know talk about all the things that everybody knows all the things that will go wrong if that's up there but we can't put the town at risk that much we have to have this committee we have to make sure that we have options I don't want a bunch of developers or people from out of town people want to make money on L take advantage of me and make my house flood which floods bad any more than it already does so we have to have that committee we have to make a decision I think you sort of told me you already had made a decision the primary reason in your brain was to get the affordable using uh housing units so if that's what it is let's have this committee and let's do it correctly please please please comments from the council or well and two well just to kind of Orient too I I've just been you know we do have a document back from the planning board which found the development to be inconsistent with the master plan and making C made certain recommendations of and it really is incumbent upon you know the the the city to do some things to in response to that and to talk about those concerns and and push back and fight for the town like we haven't we really do need to um we've talked about the storm water system we talked about scoping the storm water system we've got to evaluate our storm water system ASAP so we can answer these questions it's like the great unknown we keep talking about but we're not going to be able to tell anybody whether or not that who wants to tap in the system even if they're going to build that you know anywhere else in town whether or not our system can handle it those are the kind of things we have to look at right away we really do need our professionals look at the brute Network up on the hill and it's not just this development it's been neglected for a long time ter the drainage and it's it's it would be tra you know we we and and the site is a a mess and we do really have to get a better idea of what that it's there um and outside of you know maybe somebody in when they sell it it's going to deal with it it it it's really alarming when you see you know some stuff that's there and you know that's in your community that you really do have to get to work on some of those things now and that's my that my JB brought that you know we we we've got it you know again it's our P we've got to act in larger B else just yeah and also um you know what Karen just said about how this is our town you know even though fa Shar may have signed off on this as affordable because they want us to have affordable we do know the town better than they do and I think we know the limitations better um so yes I completely respect the fact that fair share has you know signed off on this but you know the people here that live here we know this town better than anybody and if there's no other chance that we could put these accessory units in town I think we're the ones who are going to be best to be able to identify them so if I could jump in here um the current the current plan for the well let me take it a step back I think a lot of things that we planned in the past um years about the use of uh the high school property uh I think that we learned a terrible bad lesson um with Ida and I'm really concerned about how how many units or how much uh development is going to be happening if it happens up on that property the the current and please correct me if I'm wrong the current approved plan that the city got from fair share was for 28 affordable units that was the plan that was in place before Ida and and since Ida we have a plan now that has 200 units and 40 Avail 40 uh fair share units and the previous plan I think it capped out 150 that's where I'm a little foggy on the numbers or 139 or 140 um and and I'm there are so many unknowns on that Hill uh but uh that I I think it's too aggressive to think that someone can go up there and and yes provide 40 fair share units in one spot but at what risk in the long run what risk and um I'm there's not enough information still about what the risk would be uh if this went up we and to follow up on what councilwoman Kaminsky said is is the the plan was uh uh not approved by the planning board and said it wasn't consistent with the master plan so when we start working on that um you know we'll see what what part can be changed and even if it can be changed to put it in successfully into how the master plan reads so right after I and previous administration um my my response was well we we know where the water came from let's make sure that water as we know and I've said this many times water does not run Upstream it's the responsibility of people that live higher or the city to make sure that people who live higher elevations do what they can do on their property to help slow down the speed of water coming down down and that's more of a challenge now than it was four or five years ago it's worse so and I know we're working on a revised storm water management plan which is great that that will help us at our present condition and what's going to happen in our future if we don't find a way to satisfy fair share housing in a place that is s much safer for not only the project where it's being built but down in the flat part of town and and that's just a um so important to the future of the city so uh if there is going to be a safe future you know we're working we're starting to work on it now which is great uh but I I have uh uh said for several years that the way to do it is to start scoping the system to get a handle uh before it becomes a problem and rectify the problem um and I Comm you know I mentioned the that I commended the mayor on getting involved in this since Ida and you handson involved and the lwh hanging fruit fell apart during Ida and and we continue to find sections of the system that are all have already formed Fallen apart so until we get a handle on how the existing system is going to work at its present capacity and then make decisions on how aggressively we want to build on parts of the city and not make it worse so um you know it's it's it's it's a challenge but uh but there are so many unknowns here it's almost paralyzing so um that's that's pretty much my my Overview at this point uh just a a couple of points um so you know when we talk about uh the landfill uh you I just want to point out that as long as that property is not developed that landfill will be an unknown to Lambertville um obviously right so uh I think that's a point worth mentioning um that whatever is up there is going to stay up there as long as that site is not developed as long as something is not dealt with in terms of uh looking at it and and as long as responsibility is not taken by the property owner right so that this this site can stay like this and who you know we don't know what it is right up the first one to admit I have no idea I don't go up there I haven't walked along the property it's not my property to to walk into so you know unless there is some kind of development we have no idea the only way that that site will be remediated is if uh there's some kind of development there whatever you think about the the thought of development that's a fact that's just a simple fact um the only other couple of things uh I I I would point out is that you know and I'm not an engineer and I don't know do we have any engineers in the room um so so in terms of storm water management you know I don't want to go out on too much of a limb here but during Ida you know and in subsequent storms I've seen the runoff that comes off that Hill without any you know there is no storm water management on that hill at all right now so we have people in the room who can attest and I have personally seen water come rushing down uh Washington Street in moderate rains and leaving trails of debris and all kinds of things so I would just make another Point here that as the state is about to adopt very strict uh laws in terms of thror water management that storm water management with some kind of development on that site is going to be managed for the first time ever right so I get that there are trees up there and there are rocks and there are soil and and and there's pervious surface but for any and I'm not talking that about 200 units but any kind of development that goes up there is going to be required to manage Str water in a way that it just never happened so I just want to make those two points in terms of uh Council men seg conversation points about the master plan consistency we will be talking about this um I've already had some a few conversations with council members about the consistency review and uh we will be talking about it so you can look forward to that conversation um so please go ahead uh Lauren mcmanis N9 Washington Street um thank you Evan and Steve for your comments I was coming up here really to respond to what um Andrew you had said about you know we've got these entities above us that are putting pressures and you know there's laws and there's um you know I I want to say that I recognize the tough spot that you're in um I recognize that you know there are these legal matters there's potential litigation from the developer or the site owner up there we don't do this I understand the complexity of that um but I just want to say that you know just because theye there are pressures doesn't mean that you throw your hands in the air and cold um that there's room negotiation there's room for asking questions this is why some kind of committee whoever it may be needs to come together and make another plan and I understand that you know the city has changed its tune in a number of times with the courts and it might not look great but I don't think it matters like what is the difference if we ask one more time if we actually go there not saying he we're not going to do it you know this just doesn't work but if we go there and say this isn't going to work because of these very rational reasons and here is the plan that we think actually is going to work and maybe we do need an outside consultant to help that committee to really understand what's possible um and maybe anyone in here is saying nothing should get built on that site to your respons about you know storm water management happening up there I think that our response is to you know the the nature of this particular plan on that site and just how gigantic and disruptive it is looking like it's going to be and I think that is the pressure not of fair share but of the developer it's a pressure of financial you know issues and I don't think that that is thing that that should be guiding us I think that we should really be looking at our values here thank you just comment one day what laen said um you were actually one of the ones brought by the ID commission and I also appreciate when you emailed us you said you were the first one to we're willing to raise your hand to to look at these other things too and I think that's what we need to do um you know everyone who's you know concerned about this we need you part of the process and you know when we go through this hopefully we can you know come with with a a solution to address our our needs because we do have compliance issues but um you know as you said we don't just throw our hands up in the air and pull I mean you got to come up with the solution so thank you yeah the idea that we fold up up our hands is not a good visual for me I don't that um that was a hard that was a hard thing for me to hear personally uh I've never thrown my hands in this job so um I just wanted to make that that response 394 [Music] Street interestingly it took me back to some of the first conversations you and I had may u when you first El and taking office um and I was talking to you about a couple of things one of them is a lot of people in this town that want to do things to help out okay they're creative um there's no La of human resource here and that's one uh the other one was in my view I explained to you that the previous administration when it came to affordable housing reason everything failed and SP forward was they were oneoff projects they were tacnical and weren there wasn't a strategy in place and you've heard me talk about strategies when it comes to long-term capit Capital budgets it also applies to affordable housing and that is you come up with options there is no perfect option and when you just FL individual when a person just went off project ised it's really easy for the contractors to tear that one down and just wait for the next one to come around but when you have options and you have to make an assment all right you have to do something which is what's happening now okay you can give people to coess around what consensus gives if the best option and that that was the guidance I gave all right was having options to look at and having a strategy in place so I'm glad you said 23 affordable housing was going to be where you wanted you wanted to get everybody involved and here we are in midle of 24 and now you have that opportunity take advantage of it please hi andela bed 91 Douglas Street I'm actually here to represent theber um I thought you never thought you want to hear a question about Bridge closure but that's what I'm trying to ask about um do are we on track uh do we has time of is that your only question that's it I I'm going to say I've been I've been elsewhere I don't have I'm happy to provide an update we can provide it via lber matters next week I'm happy to call you tomorrow but I don't have that information like to yeah you know I'm looking at I was in the lane sh you know I was thinking about that myself I think it is going to but following looking at I picked up the timeline and of and it's pretty much tracking that it's going to take the longest amount of time happening you know they have that oh maybe we'll be done by that and it just it doesn't really toing to that um but we'll uh should get ask them for an update there there you know I saw the bridge is now looking at the Frenchtown bridge and then they're looking at the Washington crossing bridge and they're in a lot of water we even started yeah I'll touch Sandy Hannah 249 South Street um it seems like everybody's saying let's create this commission or let's do this can you not make that decision tonight put it forward and say yes we're going to do it and put elements together that I'm not gonna do that during I'm not gonna propose that during public comment s happy to put this on the agenda for our August meeting as a discussion point I I think that I need to think about it a little bit uh certainly I want to make sure that I confer with the bill about this I want to make sure that we do it properly if we are able to do it if we can do it I also think that it's important for our professional to uh probably have a meeting before we form a commission or a committee because that way people will have understanding of what what what what we're have better understanding it's long thank you anyone else in the room John Ellen would you like to go ahead Johnny can go ahead and unmute John we'll come back to you how about Mark would you like to go ahead and unmute Mark do you want to go ahead right uh comment per please second all in favor please say I I I thank you approval of minutes uh tonight we're looking to uh adopt the following s of minutes May 16 2024 Clos session minutes May 16 2024 meeting minutes May 30th 2024 special session minutes June 6th close session minutes June 6th as well would note that the um June 20th uh council meeting minutes will are not ready uh and we'll we'll take a look at those in August and just uh for those council members who may have looked at the minutes this afternoon there was one addition I had a statement that I read into the record on the May 16th meeting uh that statement was included any minutes uh later this afternoon I had I had to fin a file so it was a rebate statement which I included um so unless there are any questions about the minutes uh entertain a motion please I I do have a question about the close session um minutes or was it June 6E 6 yes yeah I thought we were G make a statement about that I don't know I don't think we need to make a statement about those in six minutes June six uh session yeah the um so the the June 6 Clos session meeting minutes um when they're approved tonight um they'll be posted on the website as any other minutes would be um often times when there's a closed session the meeting minutes are posted either in redacted form or if the entirety of the minutes are not available then um then they won't be posted but because you know after after that meeting took place it became aware the city became aware that there was no privilege or confidentiality it's required that they can um they'll be released in un rejected one website minutes on the website yes we put the minutes on the website just after they're approved by the Govern right all right you have a motion please all in favor please say I I Steve councilman seg you with us there he's just muted himself okay councilman did you want to vote on the minutes please I shall I how okay yes thank you minut fre uh everybody chance look at the administrative reports this month yes okay um I just note two things about that uh hotel tax we took in $18,700 if do not have the candidates numbers because the uh checks are due on the 20th so I don't have those for this this meeting um I have a motion to uh uh approve the or adopted administrative reports please second all in favor please say I I councilman San you V tonight councilman statement didn't hear your vote on that yes I think I just became unmuted I thank you thank you thank you Lindsay resolutions consent agenda the following resolutions on the consent agenda are considered routine it shall be enacted by one motion if anyone on the council wants to seek a separate discussion of the item it shall be removed and discussed separately so I have just two notes to make here I think um resolution number 108-22 24 uh this is an approval to submit a Grant application to execute a grant contract for New Jersey do for 2025 Road jobs um next year I propose that we take a a little lighter approach to our roads I think we're in pretty good shape and I'll talk about roads a little bit later on the meeting um but we have submitted an application to uh to Mill and pave um uh South Union Street here from Ferry Street down to Swan Street and then there's the block of Swan Street between South Main Street and Wilson Street that's in pretty rough shape so those will be 2025 five jobs uh as long as we get the grant are able to move forward I just wanted to highlight that because I always love talking about Road jobs um and then the second thing I wanted to just note is that resolution number 11111 d224 this is the resolution to authorize a negotiation of a contract and a seller and and select a vendor for the library lead abatement project so we've now put this out to bid twice um the city architect Michael Burns made 10 calls to certified State contractors to uh let them know that we were putting this job out to bid and we got zero responses so this is the second uh go around with uh trying to find somebody who will handle the job of removing the lead paint uh from the library and uh and at this point this resolution will now allow the the city architect to uh actively uh go out to try and find a tra so I thought that was worth highlighting um does any on the council have any question about any year the resolu Solutions no question okay that I okay I'm going to take a motion like second second all those in favor please say I I we have adopted all uh resolutions on the consent agenda number 104 2024 through 116 2024 next resolution is resolution 114 d2020 or I'm sorry this this bills list right bills list okay sorry about that uh bills list everybody got a chance to look at the bills right motion to pay the bills please second all in favor paying bills please say I I you moving on to ordinances first reading this now the third time you had a first reading for the this particular thing uh ordinance number 13- 2024 it's an ordinance city of lamberville County of Hunan state of New Jersey amending and supplementing the lamberville city C 2014 chapter 11 fire prevention article one uniform safety standards to establish a designated local enforcing agency responsible for the enforcement the New Jersey uniform fire code amending ordinance number 72024 to correct clerical errors in 1116 annual registration non-life Hazard uses commercial property and 11-3 Point C false alarm fire protection system penalty letter C so we reintroduced this ordinance after last month after there was a a really just scrier error um and uh the state contacted us and asked us to make uh just a couple of other changes in this ordinance and it related to um the feed structure uh and I'll just give you an example which everybody understand so for example uh the former version of this set um 500 feet but not but but n but not more than 9 99 um and uh STS requested that we close that one that one square footage Gap um so so it's uh pretty minor but we need to reintroduce it so there any question from the Council on this enough all right uh would like a motion to introduce ordinance number 13 -224 sound like um ordinance number 13224 public hearing schedule for August 15 2024 some some move second all in favor please say I I I next is ordinance number one 16224 this ordinance of the city of lville and County of H New Jersey provid various C approvement of and for the city appropriating $857,000 therefore and authorizing issue in issu of $4,150 in general approvement bonds or notes of the city to finance the same uh so I will just talk a little bit about the following projects which are involved which come which are part of this ordinance um $72,000 for a police vehicle this is a regular Capital expense uh various intervals um uh Central business district upgrades we're putting in $75,000 to make this business district a little nicer the planter for example at the North Union Street parking lot when the trees are fall fell apart probably seven or eight or 10 years ago um so uh I'm not sure how how we're going to forward in terms of planning this um but uh we wanted to put a little bit of money aside for Planters forbication um and just make the place look a little bit fresher so I'll be reporting on that looks like what proposing and more than happy to talk to the council members about specific ideas they have yeah I think we need to work with the chamber and with the business Community to come up with something that you know we do collaborate rather than oneof conversation to kind of come up with a vision because it's enough money um usually you know I think Michael Burns have worked on it before um of coming up with a cohesive plan um you know it's uh it is or downtown you know it's our you know our you know it represents who we are I it does need some sprucing up and but like to do it kind of collaborate cohesively meet as a group you know ground ideas come up with something but but then have our uh professional be able to uh you know draw have a plan so we know we were buying and costing it out sure I think it's great we'll reach out to Liz and certainly Angela um be great to have you part of the conversation and uh you know to be truthful $5,000 go very far unfortunately but we can always uh come up with a plan yeah plan that's one there's five year plan we need to keep an eye on it uh next uh in the or in the ordinances storm water management measures we have $100,000 um this is an estimate for debris removal uh in the creek behind the school uh we are in the process of getting approval from the state for that plan uh as I've noted in past meetings I don't think that debris been cleared out from behind the school probably since Irene um and uh there's a lot of it back there so it's uh we can probably have our own crew do it but we have to have dumpsters brought in and the debris has to be properly uh sent off to the right place so uh and you know I don't know that I don't know the cost of that but this is a this is this is an amount that's probably realistic in terms of uh getting getting that done you know I just have a question in that regard um I I I know we applied to the county for a grant to buy this camera to scope the storm water system I talked to the county today you know they think that they will have some decision you know August September but I I don't know if we'll get all the money or get it completely so I would almost like us to be able to um uh be a little vassel to be able to we or try to get the grant for the out that we're able to complete the purchase so we can go go ahead through the bond rather than wait well my first priority is to get the debris cleaned up because that's been a decade right but then perhaps we need more to you know be able to supplement or do something or be prepared to purchase and thing and not not wait well yeah that's it's it's also important too so I I didn't know if there was room in it and that to do that or not I'd like to introduce this the way it is uh as I said before I would like us to have a conversation in the fall about a storm water you know Bond ordinance that we're going to need for next year um certainly uh you know even if we got the camera in the next two months in terms of scoping the system we're heading into the fall and the winter uh so you know this is really I think more practically speaking a spring matter so we will be doing it uh it's been a priority of mine uh and and I I would like at the beginning of the year to do a bond important specifically for storm water infrastructure and needs so that we all understand kind of what we're what we're facing in terms of what what our requirements are for the MS for TI permit Etc so we will continue to talk about that I also you know need to talk to the council and uh beginning conversations with other communities about potentially hiring a storm water management um um uh professional for the city um that can handle all of these things that I've doing um myself over l couple of years maybe uh working with Frenchtown reached out to uh mayor Meyer about uh potentially doing a shared service agreement for what a storm water management uh professional would look like uh because all of the community in the area have the same requirements as we do so uh I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like you know could we you know could Lambertville support full I don't know part time F so I'm trying to work all that out and my expectation is that by um the beginning of the year as we begin budgeting process I'll have a clear understanding of what I think is appropriate for lamber field may be possible for us to do in terms of working with other communities well I'd like to include our mua in that as well course um you know doing some shared services um with them would be really helpful because I just think that you know we're really into the doing process of of the stor watero system and getting it together is obviously a priority since we've been talking about it a lot tonight yeah and they have people who are trained to use these cameras so we don't have that person on staff so they will be uh there will be collaboration um moving on Library upgrades we have $300,000 in here um the the elevator I don't remember how old it is 40 years old it's been uh I don't want to say dangerous but it's not been good it get stuck between floors uh I think a couple of us got trapped in it when we were doing our facilities so you know the best estimate for a new elevator we've looked at repairs and this might be a question of throwing good money after bad because the elevator is so old um we've gotten some estimates on what it would cost to repair the elevator we're going to have a little bit more conversation about that but an elevator for the library could cost $250,000 like that so so so we've got $300,000 in here for that that may also U the bond ordinance is structured in such a way that if we need a little bit more money for the painting for example that we could you know we we could access sometimes there um Public Works we have $300,000 uh for a new street sweeper our current sweeper is more than 20 years old and while it's still operational you might want to wait like the tra trucks uh till we spend 10 15 $20,000 every year repairs for a machine that's 14 15 25 years old so uh and this is another place where hopefully we can do some shared services with stock um who will you know all all municipalities now have to have street sweepers at at least quarterly so uh we'll put that in also in there tucked in is a little bit of money for a boom mower which I'm hoping that we'll be able to purchase that auction for much less than the full value of of a new boom mower um so stay tuned on that we had a boom mower Arrangement it took a long time to to do a Shar search agreement with West anal and so for I think the better part of a year we have access to a boom mower and then unfortunately the lnu sold the vacuum truck which was our share to West dwell and West dwell as gracious as they've been in terms of loaning that to us uh their goom mower is not operational at the moment so you know this is something so basic we need to have this we need to have the the vegetation on Hancock and Washington Street and and South Franklin Street yes I'm watching someone shake their head um it's we need to do that so so that's included in there last couple of things uh pump at the police station uh went put U not that long ago we did replace it um that was $6,500 so we'd like to pay back the current fund that money uh and then we we'd also like to buy a small battery power radar sign so we currently use uh go hund in sign so whenever a resident says oh you know I think the people are going too fast on my street you know we we we we put a request in from go hund into borrow air sign and we do a we do a traffic study a two we study um of speeds and average speeds and all of that um for the cost of $3,500 I feel like we should just have one so when somebody on the you know C sh or con Hill says I think that people are driving too fast up here we can actually just put the machine up there ourselves and generate a study people's minds at rest so that's everything in the bond ordinance um that I have at this time are there questions from any of the council people about this um just going back to the camera I really do think we should take a look at that just because I you know it's there's a lot that is holding up on that piece of equipment and if we are sure with this grant it just seems kind of shortsighted did not include that in here I don't know how much money talking about but I would just urge you to maybe take a second look at that um well I'd like to I'd like to move forward with this ordinance we don't hear from the count I don't know when the when the county is going to respond but I think County said that they would respond um probably they'll make decisions that both and and a but so we'll know you know probably by September U but I don't know you know there's no guarantee that we're going to get all the all the funding right you know so that's you know I would still like to I would still like to move this forward because I think that cleaning up behind the school as soon as possible is a priority for me um you know we have we had problems back there so I'm not saying it's out of PRI I completely agree with you it's a long overdue I just think that you know just yeah and if if it's possible to include it in this I'm happy to do that and I'm happy to I'm happy to introduce a new Bond ordinance in in August if we want to do that so that's fine as long as we commit to doing it Council I've committed to doing this months before anybody else is steding about it so please question we haven't done it yet and that's why we're just making this suggestion again that is all you motion to introduce ordinance number 16- 2024 our first reading with public hearing scheduled for August 15 2022 second okay M call vote please Cindy councilwoman Kaminsky yes councilman L yes councilman Stegman yes counc president lber you only vote once Steve yes yes yeah we we got G me a hard time oh okay mayor mayor before we move on if I might say if you're looking for someone the spearhead the uh the uh CBD project if if if your schedule doesn't allow you to then I'd be glad to uh do that um I have a long history of of uh working uh improving the CBD long before I was on any boards or or counil when I first came to town and uh just as a little factoid uh I paid for and had installed the first meter sleeve in front of uh what was y Dell's office so that's uh I can hold that above my head well if I work out I can hold it above my head but uh if you're looking for someone to pitch in I'd be happy to assist thank you councilen and right here and right now I will say I would be very grateful for you to take this on I have more than enough to do on my own and given your history and your uh your commitment to past relationships with the chamber and uh and everything else I'd be very grateful for you to do that so my pleasure the meter super big super important so please yes uh happy to talk with you happy to provide whatever support I can provide you but by all means uh I'd be delighted to to to to have you do this for us thank you you're welcome um ordinance number 17- 2024 this is an ordinance to amend the lville city code 2014 chapter 7 traffic ping section 7-17 Valley parking so um this is an ordinance that we've been talking about and uh thank you very much to the council president and Council m man for getting the ball rolling and sticking with this uh I hope to introduce us a little earlier in the year but uh it's one of those things that uh just got kind of put aside while we were doing other things so pleased to be able to introduce this tonight um and talk a little bit about it uh you know we we've had uh a lot of conversation about about valet parking and Valley Services here in the town over the last year uh under the moon has run what I think is a fairly successful operation uh there were a lot of concerns and questions from the public and from us uh but uh I think with diligence and Care uh that the program rolled out we've extended it once um or twice I think is that right tce twice twice right so uh it seems to be working out really well and uh and so so we you know thought that there might be a need to consult more generally and what protections we could uh you know include in an ordinance and what kind of service would be available to the to the public so um thanks to Phil opal and and uh council president and Council Stegman for helping craft this ordinance um and I'm sure the council had a chance to take a look at it and I don't know if there were any initial questions from anybody yeah I just thought that we might want to um since it allows for Valley parking in the SE Zone which I understand all permits then um the A and like V to do it but it also then allow somebody to to decide that they're going to start a valet parking business in the AR I I think we have to fix the definition of like who could do it because it's like the it's a big big area and like somebody could say oh I'm GNA have a valet parking business on Jefferson street because the definitions don't really talk about who can run a valet it doesn't really it it kind of defines a valet park business but it doesn't and it says you can operate it in the R2 Zone but it doesn't say like oh you have to be a already have a business there or you have to so I was just thinking that because I since parking's an issue I know it's a little outside of the box but we might want to take a look at at that because it is pretty broad you know um you origin BR gu uh and uh I don't have it I'm I'm happy to pull it up but uh can you elaborate on on what the council when is uh do you see any language in there that we could potentially I don't know if we could change it on the fly or just fold off in next month but uh I think it's certainly a good point it might be a of definition or something because you know who can run about you know I because I I know we were thinking always oh existing businesses want to run about any but like you know um there are creative mindset about you know people look people now have there's the app that you can um rent out your um your driveway you know um that people do in some places so it just seems that a natural extension some it's got to be something that we aren't thinking about here but it's something that thein doesn't doesn't address um I think it's policy um issue so I'd rather get some input from the council but there so there's nothing in the I mean the language well the language permits it so and the language is open to it you could I could start a valet business tomorrow front of my house could be interpreted that way so the council has suggestions about B should well can we can we um think about the kinds of businesses that typically use it and limit it to those types of businesses obviously restaurants dining establishments but I don't know well if I can oh if I can it's hard for me to tell uh if let's see wait a second can anyone can you hear me because I just went dark on my screen thank you yeah um yeah the there I I uh I had a a conversation about this today with councilwoman uh Kaminsky and uh it it it is Broad um I think in the second whereas it tells you maybe we can work on the second whereas where it lays out what businesses can have a uh that this includes restaurants is one and then there are like a couple of other whereases but as you go through the uh the rest of it I think we can be clearer about you know who can have if we want to extend it to R2 and my thinking was there are existing restaurants in some of in the R2 zones uh that we would make it specific to the type of business that people have that would have the biggest impo impact on making it making one Park easier residential parking by having uh that option in businesses that are are restaurants that are in the R2 zone so I I don't want it to to to to uh Karen's point I I don't want to give I don't think we the intent was to give the green light to someone to start a side business because they're up there on in an R2 Zone and figure out a way to turn it into uh you know an alternate way to you make money so yeah yeah I think that you know that's a valid concern need to operating like we're only allowing a restaurant restaurant could of course then contract with a a valet business so you'd have to be able to write the definition to a lot of the restaurant to contract with a valet business because he can't but we are we Banning you know that someone can't just set up a valet business only in the R2 Zone which I think is probably um we wouldn't want that unless I think there probably something we can add to thats that are there you know or certainly but we really you know you gotta kind of throw down in terms of we're not looking for a standal Val businesses and okay if I may I think I'm just going to suggest that we not move forward with this we haven't done a motion and uh and introduce it in August is that rather than kind of work through language now you I'm fine I think that's a good way to proceed mayor okay I'm sorry did thank you coun okay I also noticed that there's a k is blank under Section CER 7-7.5 so I don't know if that just needs to be I keep King it out and every time hit safe back in maybe that's why I because I didn't see it before but I didn't see it before either but I just saw I was like yeah I took it out I've taken it out twice okay so we hav't made a motion on that right so we're good to just uh say we'll we'll we'll come back to this in August um ordinance's second reading uh ordinance number 06 2024 this is an ordinance to amend storm water Control Ordinance uh this is not ready to uh to to it's not ready yet so I'm going to ask for a motion to carry the ordinance to August 15 second B would please say I I I I motion carries um ordinance number 14- 2024 this is an ordinance to amend the revised General ordinances the city of Lambertville chapter 16 cannabis sections 16- 12 16-12 maximum number of permits um this is uh an ordinance that amends cannabis ordinance to remove the C2 from the allowable zones and permit two licenses in the C3 Zone specifically North and South View no we have to carry it we have to carry it yeah planning board's going have to review this because there's a change to the zoning ordinance planning board's going to have to review for consistency and then the accounts so got it sorry we missed that one folks uh so I mean yeah meetings fall on schedule so um it can be referred to next to the planning board to their next meeting and then should be able to consider the August Mee do we know when the next meeting is is it was before our meeting so yeah well they me that's meeting on the fth or the sixth I think [Music] um so uh all right everybody understands that I would ask for a motion to carry this until August 15 please yeah I agree okay was that make motion so a second second thank you jam say I I I thank you we'll refer this to the planning board and uh we'll be able to deal with it at our August 15th meeting correspondence um just one thing j pnl noed petition filed to approve its deferred balances relating to adjustment that the societal benefit charge Clause of of its file ter uh for appointments um I'd like to make the following nominations to the Green Team uh Lindy Hans from the environmental commission representative Parks and Rec commission representative Maran bour the shade cre commission representative art leir resilience team representative L Pier the city clerks and simply igy Public Work Director Lester Myers and myself there any questions about this Nom nominations you want to do them together or you do through we'll do them together then if that's okay um also uh uh to the Lambertville Municipal Utility Authority uh Robert do taking the alternate two position hly Havens moving from the alternate 2 to alternate one jacn Middleton moving from alternate one to uh position so any questions everybody got Robert Do's p on that and okay I have a motion please to approve these appointments second all in favor please say I I I um I'm going to give a couple of uh just general updates and then I'm going to ask for specific updates uh uh on EV charging Grant and land registration Cindy and Lindy if you haven't done so please fill out the resilience action plan survey please please please please please it's on the city website the landing page we're trying to get as many responses by August 1st as possible it be very helpful for our work um just wanted to riew some of the projects that that are going either underway or have just finished uh We've made repairs to 10 uh storm inlets in the city uh over the last couple of days um we replaced the damaged storm sewer pipe on Delan street that just was completed uh today I think um that was a great job they did a really nice job as probably everybody knows we have finished uh repaving stford um from Douglas down to Swan and Swan to a point uh westly point a couple hundred couple hundred yards down um from stford also North Franklin from Route 179 E field uh we are waiting to um finish the work start to finish repaving Corel Road it's a very small section of road hill uh there's been some convers La conversation between the engineers and the the contractors about that job so as soon as I have the date on that I will uh make sure that everybody knows uh about that there's a there's pretty significant punch list of items uh for these jobs I spent a lot of time out this week um meeting Crews and talking to Residents there lot a lot of smaller concerns that residents have these big projects are done you know adjacent to their houses so um those are there's a very active punch list on meeting with the engineers tomorrow we'll probably do a complete um complete walk of the sites on Monday or Tuesday to make sure that everything is done from signs to every Last Detail um grants alley unfortunately was paved without being milled um and I met with the residents up there uh this past week and uh told uh the girl instruction that they need to unfortunately pull out the entire Street and redo it again it's not a very long section but unfortunately by not Milling it what they did was just put pavement on top of it and that allows for the water to run into everybody's yards I was up there taking pictures and uh that's been that that that will be corrected and as soon as I have the date of that job that everybody know that job was not a city job the city did repay um Grant S last year I think or the year before um and then the the water company wanted to lay new water lines there water uh water services so they are responsible for paying for that job and I'm just making sure that it get done properly um U DPW barage is coming along the addition uh the concrete slab is in installed the wall framing is underway the ref framing should be complete in the next couple of weeks hoping expecting thinking the job will be done by October um couple of other things the uh Governor Murphy signed some changes to the Oprah laws recently and uh a number of City staff and and I will be attending training specifically around kind of those changes to the Oprah uh laws on August 28th so I think there's five or six things supp be important for us to to to be informed on um um and let's see the um still waiting to hear back from the state on the um waiting on the permit permission for uh cleaning IL cre behind the school and also um princeon Hydro is working still on the design for um the Gully behind the the the stor Mary behind the firehouse um we're hoping to have it signed out by both the city and USDA and RCS by September and lastly the CLG ordinance is still under review from the state uh historic preservation office so when I have more information about that that everybody now um and I I wanted to take a couple of minutes uh to uh have Cindy and Lindsay talk about a couple of things in City H let's start with landlord registration just because I think it's a little bit easier I just want Cindy to give an update on the challenges of landlord registration in Lambertville and kind of our ongoing efforts which uh take a lot of time uh to to make sure that people comply uh Property Owners comply with Landmark registration a lot of time it's a lot of L mostly a lot of Lindsay's time um but we have about we've identified about 251 properties in the city that are rental properties rental units I believe we have more but that we have to start with as our base as of today 158 are registered and complete and they've received their C certification certificates to P um seven 17 of them are in process which means that they have complied with a portion of the requirements you know that you have the lead based paint uh certification and you also have the um Certificate of Insurance that's required um in some cases people have filed things but have not filed their um have not paid their fees um Le B paint then I said that no okay anyway so we have that um and so we have 17 in process we have one gentleman who has 10 properties who have actually spoken to um and we're still waiting for him to file um and so far we have 66 that are late and we've mailed letters to them in some cases when we mail a letter they call and say listen it's no longer a rental so we just take them right off but these are people that have been unresponsive to our our uh our requests so they will be receiving a letter along with um late fees now they're to late so it's $100 which means now the minimum payment is 350 um it's it's really an intense thing last year you can do things in sdl in two different ways there's um and I'll ask Lindsay in a minute to to correct me make sure I'm G say it's wrong but there's um like an overview that you can go in and we used that differently last year this year we moved it to an inside where we can gather more data and we can retain it Year from year right because what when you do the other way you you can't go back in and and and uh re you know update and refile for the next year so we wanted to make it easier for people but what we've done is made it more difficult for us because Lindsay probably spends two to three hours per application wow yeah so um when you hear complaints about it costing so much that's why and then you know you get it's filed but then you have to call because they've messed up something else or they' forgot to upload something or you know they're not they didn't pay their fee yet so um there's a lot of tracking and a lot of Correspondence and a lot of calling and emails and um I want to say this taken up about 80% of your time it's a tremendous amount of work and and I thank you for doing it at the same time it's hard when we uh when we have so many people who Lang we not complying kind of willingly or on time it's a it puts a burden on the city for sure and uh we do the best we can but think it's it's important to highlight the things that we work really hard on and also to point out that these are not they don't always happen um and you know public health and safety is you know Paramount to the reason why we do this it's not because we want to do $250 it's because we want to make sure properties are inspected that people are living in h housing that's safe and so forth and so on so it's also the state of New Jersey putting these requirements on us right and you know we're a small municipality it's it's losing on this is it so to handle all the licensing and and it's a heavy load um but we want to do it we want to do it right and we're committed to it so um you know $250 to register your landlord rental unit um may sound like a lot but a lot of time goes into it sounds um are there any questions from the council for it just concerns me that there's so many landlords that are not responsive and I'm just wondering what our enforcement mechanism is for this so um you know it's taken us a lot of time to get to this point uh a couple months ago we talked a little bit about it but my next thing is to to you know I want to give them another chance so we're going to send another letter but after that I've got to S start signing complaints in court right which I will do but I wanted to try and get it knocked down a little bit less than 66 you know um and so we'll go from there yeah to to to your credit uh all of the short-term rentals are they all done yes right so we've got that down and I'm very pleased that uh that that that ordinance was passed that we worked hard on it uh and that we have a system that holds uh these Property Owners accountable for all meeting all of the requirements so that is good news because that is that's a completely different uh set of require it's not completely different but they don't really duvail I me do they well in terms of they're not online system have to do separate databases really uh for those so that's okay that's easier to manage because it's 45 properties I believe yeah that was much easier so go so I guess there's really concerned that the tool that was supposed to make your lives easier has actually made your life your life a lot more difficult and I'm concerned that you're spending so much of your time on this one you know particular aspect of all the work that needs to be done are is there a different way to go about doing this are we committed to this to using STL I mean I have my own thoughts about why even have it that's a difference s part of why this year has been so time consuming is because it's the first time we've transitioned everyone into this more reusable system so 50% of this time is set up and getting all the ducks in a row so it's one theoretically and I am Crossing all of my ve next year it will be smoother both on our end and also for the property owners okay who are renting because the renewal process in this program is very straightforward and very fast okay okay good so hopeful an initial complexity is that really this is the first year that we've had the lead paint compliance right I mean this people were doing it last year but but it was July 1st of this year that it was a requirement so that did add some time for people because people then have to go out and and get certifications or whatever I would expect that there's always going to be new stuff that they people are required to do you're going to I think the biggest time uh labor aspect is you know it's transitioning people which you know it always takes a long time to do that so okay thank you but you know Lindsay's done a bang up job on this and I do want to just say that you know it's really mostly been har although I've done question so I do like the letter writer she's awesome letter writer question um so with the enforcement so if you do have to sign a ticket against the municipal court I'm just looking is it is the fine only is it just a $50 penalty or is there more fines as well there's more that's $50 late F and everything is tied back to the general violation which I think Bill on and this is from memory goes from um $250 to 2,000 or something per violation yeah I mean it's the judge discretion right right so I would bill out the paperwork go to court and the judge would would have decide on the violation I just would hope that the longer they're out of compliance the higher that penalty would be because I think that'll you know resolve the situation faster so okay uh moving on we uh we received a grant for $75,000 a couple of years ago for uh e charging um station um and we bonded I think 72,000 to cover the cost of that Grant linday has been working really for the last couple of years trying to sort this out uh and I'm gonna ask her to give a quick review of it it's uh she she's been working very diligently and I think we're at a point where we just want to bring the public in on kind of what the where we are the status of where we are councilman Li is very graciously offered to work with Lindsay and um uh and some people from the state potentially to to to flesh out possibly another Grant um but I want lindsy just to give us a quick rundown of what of how complex this has been and kind of what you know beyond the grant what we're looking at in terms of just a rough estimate to complete the job uh that we would be responsible for either through another Grant or bonding sure so we received the grant money for the units themselves of two EV Chargers we went ahead and selected the ones that we would want and we submitted that to the ngdp they gave us the thumbs up in 2023 since then we've been trying to figure out how to pay for the other aspects that c along with installing EV Chargers and that includes what's called Make Ready costs which come from the utility companies and running wires to power these new high powered units as well as installation costs because somebody has to put this thing on the ground and actually pluged it so in mid-march of this past year we had reps from Verizon and jcpnl on site at City Hall to assess our site that we chose which is the back two parking spaces behind City Hall close to where the ADA Compliant glass door is behind our building we chose that site because of the accessibility from the utilities not necessarily because of the layout of the parking lot um but when the the guys were on site they identified that there would both need to be Verizon work and jcpnl work in order to prepare the power supply for this charger uh we got the quotes back from them about a month later Verizon said their work would be about $18,500 and jcpnl estimate came in right below $40,000 so right off the bat before we even are trying to put a charger in the ground we have $60,000 in prep workk to even get the utilities ready after we got those quots back um there's a gentleman I've been working with pretty closely since we got the grant who's kind of been guiding us through this process his company provided a quote for the installation which is um a totally separate cost that has to come after the utility prep work is done and that came in at almost $170,000 yeah so we we got the the grant money to the charger units themselves that's wonderful and we're facing down a very large cost to actually get them off the ground um the past month or so we've started to look at different grant funding opportunities that will cover Make Ready costs our grant does not it covers the unit itself it's very explicit about that um councilman Li offered to reach out to the BPU because we have some contacts there and perhaps they can help lead us to find an opportunity that might help us get this off the ground um and that's about where we're at we've talked about other options we've talked about other locations and we haven't really found anything else that's more feasible than what we've currently kind of considered we actually even looked at the North Union Street lot give like a couple sentence on on why that didn't work yeah City Hall is our our third choice location um we started out with the Union Street lot because it's in the CBD we thought it would be great for the chamber we thought it would be great for having it so Central uh we can't dig up that lot to bury the utility cables because it used to be the hardware store but fire they cannot um unearth that ground without doing a lot of remediation so that was kind of a noo from the start well we also looked at going in from St John's parking lot but in order to do that upgrade on the power line it would have been cost prohibitive too they said they wouldn't even give us quote we we considered down by Cherry Street on the park it it floods we considered the library it floods we considered here it floods were you know between water and a mountain so you know we're kind of we're kind of stuck we're looking for your creative ideas to try to get this done so thank you I can't I can't tell you how much work this has been every time I ask about it I like leave the room cheers and I'm not even doing the work so um thank you for all of the work and we'll see where this goes you know I think that um I personally think that that you know these kinds of costs are there are other ways that we I would prefer that we spend a couple hundred thousand dollars even though I think it's really important to be moving forward in the direction that you know is inevitable um you know technology is changing there are new systems coming out that you know maybe connect directly to poles and that kind of thing um but uh this is where we are and it's been a lot of work and the three the the the major amount of infrastructure on the poles on the southwest corner of North North Union and Y work and then in front of the the funeral home and then in front of the the city hall three major you know sort of sets of infrastructure would have to be strong on all of these it's a it's pretty mindboggling the infrastructure that's required so again thank you and uh you know keep us a breast of what uh what if any Barbers you make uh in terms of additional funding uh and we'll we we'll talk about it again I think sometime soon um announcements just the convenience center hours Saturday August 3rd and 17th from 9: to noon and Wednesday August 21st from 3: to 5: Now open up the meeting to the second public participation session same uh rules apply before 3 minutes uninterupted time pleas state your name and address and over us here comments or questions Paul 39 Cory I had a quick follow up on the landlord registration stuff you mentioned that some of them said oh that's no longer rented anymore I was just wondering if they may follow up and verify that they just kind of give out of the fee by saying it's not a rental uning anymore and then second in terms of that in shortterm rentals I understand yeah that's not in a database anywhere so I mean if I want to find out if a certain uh place was listed as a shortterm well would I you guys after you is such and such [Music] call us whatever we have we have our own independent databas it's not on major one but as far as the landlord registration goes um we make them submit a letter okay to us you know stating because if any at any other point somebody else says they are renting I have something that says they aren't and then we can take other actions another question like it was really useful this week for me to be able to go back and look the last Zoom meeting um and prep for otherwise questions about but is the meetings are those available easily without filing for you know yeah I think they're only a yeah what I think they're only audio that's right well another um resident actually brought that up I think one thing like to look at is you know having Zoom access for that be in favor of yeah that's definitely something I'd like to talk to the planning board about brisal to see if we can make that happen just you know accessibility and you know more people having the access to it so um and we already have we have the equipment so well it also makes it easier for the public to participate you know I might miss a meeting and I do go back and look and see you know it's thank you yeah I have a question for Bill on that so you know when I started in 2022 uh we left those decisions up to the individual boards and commissions and I believe the Human Rights Council is the only one that does a live Zoom uh feed uh obviously I've been committed to doing it here at our Council meetings um since day one and we continue to um you know it's my it was my understanding one bill I don't this is correct testimony in a planning or zoning board being has to be in person is that do you know do you know what the law is around participation via zoom and secondly this would be a question for the planning board to reconsider it's not I don't know that we can Council can necessarily dictate planning board before its meetings that way and just the last point I would make is I think that uh even though our Zoom meetings are uh available for viewing the actual public record or the minutes so so you can watch the meeting um but the public record the official legal public record is not the zoom recording it's the public minutes so Bill you have any thoughts on those two questions the yeah the board individual boards would make the decision as to how they want meetings conducted I know that boards did move away from Zoom after the public health restrictions went away just because the there was issues with there was a lot of issues with um obors trying to object on zoom and saying they weren't recognized but you know they wound up in court people you know had a problem with an approval afterwards said they tried to object and couldn't and then filed the challenge saying that they couldn't whe I don't know whether it was clear some of the cases that my firm handled it was clear that they didn't object there was they were able to track that so I think to be to avoid that scenario a lot of boards did move away I'd have to look at the um the land use as to whether the the any speaker has to be in person I have to follow off well that would be something that the planning board attorney or zoning board attorney could do as well right I'm sure they would know yeah so uh I see chairman Co here in the room so it's a conversation just to have with uh the planning board attorney yeah Scott um just to verify you know kind of the legal any things and you bring up a good point about the testifying of experts and everything even people but even if we could have the ability to listen for home that would be a big Improvement and again we already have the equipment so that's again we can't dictate it but we can ask for it yeah it does take a little bit I I know a lot of folks have questions about what happened at the the boards that they ask me about and there's a delay you know in getting the minutes and getting the minutes that be made available and so yeah something there's got to be something in between those two issues that to help in that regard Judy GLE 86 North Union Street um a couple things one I have asked about M maintenance and maintaining the storm water pipes and stuff in the city many many many times and I was just sort of shocked and dismayed to learn tonight that the camera and the scoping of that system is being put over until the fall when in favor of some cleaning up of the debris removal which as you said been there for a decade this guy I just I was just surprised at that decision because we've been talking about this and we've never been able to talk about maintenance because we don't have the scoping well now we know we're not going to still have scoping which is disturbing in many ways um secondly the Green Acres money I don't know whether that's final how the Green Acres money that we're going to get if we're definitely getting it or what's the rules around that or what's going on but it seems as though how that affects the clost and property is going to be really important as we try to figure out ways to deal with possible affordable housing options um and I just I just have to say that the cost of property was purchased by all of us so this isn't just the city council or this isn't just the mayor this isn't just somebody on the council we're all paying for that there's a lot of interest in using it if possible as an option to consider for some affordable housing and every time somebody says well but the green ACR we have we need to know exactly and are we done with all of our position on that with the Green Acres people or do we still have room to do something around what we say or what we want or what we talk about with them in terms of what land is available which would be potentially buildable so I would hope that that could be taken consideration thank you does anyone have any comments I'm sorry we you could just wait a minute I want to make sure that Council had any response to that just point out about the camera I do think the mayor you know think that if we do not get the funding that with the grant that we need um you know we're going to introduce the ordinance so we can fund that because I do think that's important so hopefully that's not g to hold us up that's great uh I'll just talk about the the cost of property for a minute uh uh we are we haven't accepted any Green Acres money yet but we are toward the tail end of that we've already uh been awarded money from the county this is a a conversation that was had uh and that we have worked forward um you know funding and open space uh and um I'm personally not prepared to until we look at all other potential locations and considerations for affordable housing I think that the intent of that of the former Council and of the and of the the community was to preserve the open space there and that's what we've been working on for three years and that was I was member of the community advisory team and uh there is information you know surveys that back that up so uh you know I'm not prepared to to do anything other than to continue moving forward with the with the funding that we've already committed to and with the county money that uh we just were awarded recently so that's what I to say on that thank you Jeff TI 33 Wilson I talk about another issue but I'm G to bring this up um many people didn't F fill out that survey because they thought it was very biased secondly there was never an appraisal done and at the time it was um had been an area that was looked at for affordable housing but what I will tell you this you do go forward either way but I mentioned before about six units they can be fit on the inclusion in the existing Footprints of the buildings and you can keep the outside except for probably Farmer Market because that's a crappy building not using it ter it's s standard uh it would fit within inclusion also into the green anchor rules you're allowed to have conversion it's 100% affordable that's in the rules but I know because I was part of the community that road on Road so so even if you go up for with green ACR you still have a piece of land if you can sell off a piece to private entity you could also instead sell that piece or lease that piece or do something with it um for 100% affordable and I I'll send you a picture of a very nice place up in Western Massachusetts where they built six units including three rental using existing F structures um anyway what I really came up to and the other thing too one the biggest cost drivers that blocks of affordable housing in New Jersey cost of land it's the largest problem that they have so we have land and we can try to get a nonprofit building that way um what I want to just mention is about on the hill because of some things over said so wonder the the law how how the laws have evolved from E isra and now to lsrp the developer will be considered an innocent purchaser so you cannot so if for some reason after the property is sold uh and turns out to be more contamination up there of naan is held harmless there will be an EA you know so but you know that takes over in two years and the concern I have and believe me I had this argument for years is that if you don't have a way of going after the original original owner and he leaves that on the property or the lsrp um somehow misses it whether it's accidentally or not um in most cases where this has happened in the state of course the people start screaming and they HOA fusing with through group and the town ends up bailing them out so really it's important to get it right the first time and to make sure that mer Wilson who most people don't trust does the right thing up there otherwise we could be ended up with that headache down the road from the landfill or anything else that could be up there um but I also would suggest something else you know I think the council should I only so the edes I State we stay within the rights of way so we would be you know on the property but I think you should have a site Vision to look Vis to look at the properties because you do have a flat here but then it drops off the table you should really see what it looks like and land as it is so you can get a better understanding of the plan and my last point is many towns allow Zoom or planning board meetings but they say you can't comment if you want to comment come to the meeting so that maybe one way around that also many accounts and I was part of that uh have a cable advisory committee that actually gets equipment and has things while on table in Ringwood used to say we didn't need a council we didn't need a comedy club we could just go onad avue um yeah actually just to Jeff brought up I think a good point um you know having uh a few of us are on I'm on the cable advisory Council um Dave bires as well John Weber um and um you know we I think it it has been done South Brunswick in all a bunch of places all over New Jersey we've they've had Comcast or Optimum pay for equipment we could get for you know that could be part of the budget um we already get you know um feed from them um you know to allow them to get their franchise I don't know where that money goes but it it could go into a budget or uh broadcasting we you know um don't have to only broadcast the cable we can also broadcast the zoom and other things and so that should be something to consider and I'll bring that up um at at the next uh meeting with with um that group uh I also wanted to um say I in full support of moving forward as quickly as we can on the storm water um you know assessment we need to have a baseline we need to know what our capacity is and um anything we can do to move forward quickly on that uh it is is something that I would like to see happen um I don't know about hiring a teal until we've already done an assessment because professional you know a staff member an additional staff member costs a lot of money you know in the future maybe we only need Consultants maybe we need consultants for a few years I don't know but you know that's something to consider um and I don't we would know until we um you know really have an understanding of where we're going so um uh and finally the um can I have some clarification on the clo and like the there's an exclusion Zone and there's an inclusion Zone mayor is your proposal to make the entire clo and property open space no there's an exception area and there's an and there's the open space area it's well delineated on maps that have been on the on the web page for years we did change that uh last year to uh reduce the amount of open space uh to allow the city a little bit more flexibility with part of the parcel just to the just below the farm market and uh on the North side so all those maps are there's an entire page devoted to Hulen Park that will have all the maps with what with with the exception areas and the open space thank you thank you for clarifying that because in recent emails it was not it's sorry it's been on the website for years I know but I thought that you might have changed your mind um so uh the final the final thing I want to ask say about that is you know yes a lot of people didn't complete the survey because they felt it was bias the people who did complete the survey would um like to see the city use that for some public good if we're paying tax P your money on it it shouldn't just be sitting with empty houses um and uh people were really excited about potential and the possibility is there and I think you'll see you know I think maybe the moods changed a little bit mayor that people might see affordable housing there as a public good and might rally behind that I think you're looking at old data maybe if you think that it would um you be best as not just open space all right just point out too Sean that when people filled out that survey they thought they were getting more money for the open space than we actually got to so obviously you know you got to we up all5 um I was what you were saying about the um high school property and that in its current state something should be done because of runoff because of the toxic leas and because of of these have been dumped up there we've heard testimony from people who live there and I'm just wondering if it poses a threat to our community is there any mechanism by way that City Hall can insist that the owner uh clean it pay his taxes and be responsible for the um the the things that threaten our town just in its existing point so if it's already a toxic piece of property isn't the owner responsible especially to us that it's going to affect to can they be made responsible to do so question uh Bill might have to ask you to feel that one we're in court the owner now on property to enforce property code violations so that's it but that cost um there's you know there signes that we the TR Force hopefully findes in our favor and City gets the money to do it but um you know there's been SES violations written on that on portions of that property for going back 25 years so City the answer to the city has taking every for Action 10 up there it's just you know dealing with property or something if I can respond just seems that that makes it even less desirable as a location for the city to become involved with Avenue um number one uh the uh councilman attorney appreciate your willingness to help get us through this very complicated process of you know affordable housing which is not your Forte as I as I understand it uh and I bring this up again and I ask Council you know to join together to say maybe D bird has an idea all right and that is to bring in special there's real special attorneys and I think EV you would agree with this that have assisted uh municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey deal with their difficult affordable housing all right we're up we're against a point right now A P that changed everything okay uh and I think to we to continue on without a specialist okay in the long run pay for it one way or the other so to bring in an attorney that specializes in this like other municipalities have where they have certainly gained more time which is right one of the concerns we have right now it's going to cost money everything costs money all right but uh again not any you know negative against you but that's not your specialty okay and I think it's something you really need to look at and related to that all right is is the the green anchor thing you know I think we need to to say let's wait give us all the time to make the decision of what we need to do that little bit of money all right well three million we paid for it that little bit we're going to get it's not a big amount of money for in the big picture all right let's keep all our options open all right and I'd ask Council to get together on that and make it happen I uh a couple of things about that we do in fact have an affordable housing attorney I spent about 25 minutes on the phone with her this week talking about the situation so we do have uh an attorney that we use for affordable housing uh she's in on every single call I have with the judge and the court Master uh so uh I do seek her advice and we do have conversations regularly and she is there to answer any questions that I have certainly any questions that the council have they can always forward to me uh and I can get an answer and the determination so at this point in this process I have to rely on her uh on her expertise and her wisdom when I start to talk about how the city is Shifting away potentially from what's something that's in our plan to potentially posing other things so I've had conversations with her and uh and we do have we do have an expert um I I would say that uh the green acre is funding you know almost 500 well it's 200 what's the I forget what the number is it's 250,000 half the I wouldn't well I don't remember the number off the top of my head but I would I know but you know paying down the debt is important right I mean we've worked hard uh in our budget to bring not only to to to pay down unused debt uh but to lower our tax burden I would argue that it's an important part this C has already talked very publicly about the need to pay down the Coss and the debt that was purchased to to use that we've already taken half of the money that was put aside for site planning and cancel that debt uh you know we're we're looking to sell the markets we're looking to pay down the debt so I think it's also important to not underplay the value of that property in terms of our debt relief and uh so I just I note that as well yeah and again I didn't underplay it I just brought up as a point because we got a lot going on in this city and we want to protect our shiing thank you anyone else in the room there anyone on L okay I have a motion we'll close the public comment period please thank you all favor please say I I thank you councilman uh and I would ask for motion to adjourn at 9:30 please say by thank you thank you what tell about