[Music] hello good evening ladies and gentlemen I'd like to call this a work session meeting of the mayor and Council to order at this time I'd ask everyone to please rise for a moment of Silent prayer and our reflection as we think about the conflict in the Middle East and the United States military service Personnel home and abroad please move the flag andice thank you please not the fire exits my left to your right to the main hallway and out the back door into the main parking lot New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and attend any meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discuss their active upon in accordance with this act the mayor council the B Milford have caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the B Hall and notices have been sent to the record in the Ridgewood news the mission of this governing body is to provide essential Services through the establishment and implementation of public policy that will safeguard infrastructure provide Fair honest courteous and Professional Service Services establish a sense of trust and accomplishment between all residents and to research and prud and planning seek to minimize risk while improving our services we are sensitive to the needs and satisfaction of our taxpayers while realizing that this governing body cannot be all things to all people within the revenue constraints imposed by state mandates economic conditions prevailing attitudes about taxation at this time I would ask to cler to please col Ro Council San here councilwoman sari Hurley present councilwoman Duffy here councilman gry here councilman Seymour here Council President Grant here mayor patrino here uh before we start just a couple things on our agenda first thing you'll notice that's different is we have a couple of ordinance reintroductions tonight the reason for that is after we introduce the ordinance they were sent to be published by North Jersey Media Group and somehow they failed to publish them I think we should get a refund from them but we have we did excellent we have to reintroduce him the other thing is I want to add two appointments tonight so at this time I'm going to ask for a motion to add Cheryl keron as alternate number one to the zoning board Mo second all in favor I okay you will be listed and the second one is can I get a motion to appoint Grace uren as the high school representative to the mford municipal Alliance committee motion second all favor any oppos okay thank you [Music] okay we're going to start off with a proclamation for mental health awareness model Office of the mayor Proclamation whereas mental health is essential to the overall health and well-being and all people experience times of difficulty and stress in their lives and should feel comfortable in seeking help and support to manage these times and whereas like physical illness mental illness is a medical condition that can be treated effectively through prevention early identification and early intervention and with effective treatment all individuals with mental illness can make progress toward recovery and Lead full productive lives whereas mental illness affects one in five people in the United States and experiences can be devastating for individuals and families with little knowledge or access to Mental Health Services whereas the covid-19 pandemic has created a multitude of mental health challenges for our community members of all ages and connecting people to care is more important important than ever whereas May is annual recognized throughout the nation as mental health awareness month whereas local resources are available to treat disease of mental illness so that no resident needs to suffer alone or feel hopeless now therefore be resolved that I Mayor Michael patrino do he by proclaim the month of May 2024 as mental health awareness month in the burough of New Milford and to increase public understanding of the importance of mental health and to promote identification and treatment of mental health needs okay we're going to move on to appointments may I get a motion to appoint Joseph Cony to Fire Company number one may I get a second second all in favor I any opposed may I get a motion to Cheryl Kon to open number one zoning second all in favor any opposed and may I get a motion to appoint Grace uren as the New Milford High School school representative to the Milford Municipal LS moot second all in favor I any opposed okay moving on we're going to have to have a public hearing on our 2024 Municipal budget and at this time I would like to ask our auditor Mr Steve lot to take the podium and walk us through it sir good evening good evening we introduced the budget uh six or seven weeks ago it was advertised it went to the state they did their review they found something that needed to change by I think it was $1350 so you have after the hearing before you adopt the budget you have to adopt the resolution to amend for that one change and then you're free to adopt the budget um couple of highlights uh this has not been a great year anywhere uh in terms of costs inflation um it's been tougher this year than it has been in previous years to try to wrestle with um getting the budget balanced getting uh a tax levy and a tax increase that makes sense generally speaking um some examples uh of the Burrow's increased cost for 2024 uh workers comp and liability insurance is going up almost half a million dollars that has is directly related to how the The Joint Insurance Fund is modifying their billing methodology it used to be you paid four quarters and the fourth quarter was due in January the following year they've changed that to billing twice a year and we had to build an additional quarter into this year's budget uh that's just not New Milford that's everybody that participates in that joint Insurance Fund um we have statutory increases in the library uh Bergen County Utilities Authority for sewage treatment State Pension bills contractuals obligations to all employees and uh some additional money we put in capital this year in order to fund some some projects uh the bottom line is that the municipal tax levy increase to the average homeowner which is about $330,000 of assessment is $185 for the year so that's a little over $15 a month when you break it down so again a little bit more than we're used to doing but again combination of of you know double digit increase and some costs um you know you you you've done some some um making young of some of your departments by retirements and bringing in younger people at lower salaries part of that issue is that when they hit certain steps on the guide there their increases are you know a little bit higher than it might be for some other you know seasoned veteran at just getting a coal in increase obviously they're still making a lot less money than that person retired but again it's it's the annual cost that uh we need to be concerned with when it comes to the budget so all in all that's where we are we've gotten approved to adopt after the amendment and uh I would be glad to entertain any questions from the governing body thank you well I was saying you you know I don't think anyone is thrilled with the budget but as you said there are so many costs this year and last year that we just can't control such as tipping fees we're hoping eventually that those are going to go down EA fees have gone out pension and as you can see we've cut 70 over $70,000 from all of our committees and departments where we can cut which that's a last resort we we never want to hurt our boards and committees but we had to take a little extra this year just to you know the things you can't control you continue to control the issue is that there's so many pieces of the budget that are you you're presented a bill and you have to pay it and mean it's just it's unfortunate but it's that simple pension garbage sewer it it's right and we're in a situation where we've lost the member houses to the blue acre program and we have a number of houses slated to be taken down in the next year so we'll be losing more we are hopeful that we do have some residents have entered the house raising program so hopefully we will be able to save a few houses in certain areas rather than than them coming down which just helps everyone MH absolutely yeah um as part of the uh budget committee I just want to thank uh the department heads that came to the meetings uh presented their case and were willing to help us on the budget and making reductions that we had to do um it wasn't a very happy moment but it's what we do to keep the B going so uh thank you to the department heads and their participation absolutely thank you to the budget committee actually I know how hard you work and how many hours you put into it so appreciation to you I would just also Echo um What U Council Duffy said earlier which was that I would also thank the department has for being very um conscientious of costs and budgetary impacts and asking uh our committee for that which they really need rather than just simply want uh I really admire and respect them for being as candidate and as honest as they were you know in our [Music] we're all this together i' like to thank Chris her help uh we have real difficult okay thank you sir thank you I just have to wait so at this time may get a motion to approve resolution 2024 colon 113 which is amend the 2024 municipal budget to address comments from State review second we get a roll call please yes councilman San yes councilwoman saki Hurley yes councilwoman ducky yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes council president gr yes okay may get a motion for resolution 2024 114 which is wave the reading in full of the 2024 Municipal budget second get a roll call please councilman San yes councilman Rocky Hurley yes councilwoman Duffy yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes Council President Grant yes yes now may I get a motion to open to the public for a public hearing on the 2024 Minister budget motion to open in the public second you all in favor any closed ladies and gentlemen of the public if anyone has any questions about the 2024 Municipal budget now is your opportunity seeing that there's no member of the public that wishes to comment on the budget may get a motion to close to the public motion second all favor I any opposed may get a motion to pass resolution 2024 call 115 which is adopt the 2024 Municipal budget second make get a roll call please yes councilman San yes councilman Rocky Hurley yes councilwoman Duffy yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes Council President Grant yes Mr will thank you for all your help this year you great good night okay now we're going to have a public hearing on the buron county trust fund Grant application for heart Castle Palm path Improvement project yes uh as a requirement of the application uh we need to hold a public hearing the public hearing is advertised uh at least 10 days prior to this hearing and as we discussed the project is to um repair the path rep the path around heart Castle p and place new benches and trash cans may get a motion to open to the public for a public hearing on Hard Castle all in favor iOS ladies and gentlemen the public if anyone has any questions regarding Hard Castle Pond Improvement Grant now is your opportunity motion close to the public second all in favor any opposed okay unfinished business may get a motion for the approval of the minutes from the April 15th 2024 public session meeting second all favor I you went there right so we have one exension you have that someone one before I think it was all favor po okay here's our first reintroduction reintroduction ordinance 2024 colon 09 when M cler has the opportunity i' ask you please read the ordinance again Bond ordinance authorized the Improvement of Boulevard from MTH Avenue North approximately 2,150 ft in by for the bar of New Milford in the county of Bergen state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $264,000 to pay the cost thereof to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issu of such bonds okay the purpose of this ordinance is to appr the dot Grant and authorize the issuance of bonds to pay for the balance not covered by the grant may I get a motion to reintroduce this ordinance on its first reading make a roll call please yes councilman s yes Council councilman s Hurley councilman Duffy yes councilman gry councilman C1 yes Council President Grant yes the public hearing for this will be at our May 29th meeting which is a Wednesday because Memorial Day yes [Music] okay the next one up for reintroduction is ordinance 2024 colon 10 has the opportunity i' ask you please read the ordinance an ordinance to amend chapter 19 of the revised General ordinances of the bman Milford entitled Parks and Recreation section 19-3 fees purpose of this ordinance is to modify fees for certain recreational programs um some examples are summer Recreation $180 for single $270 for double $360 for family um tennis Keys $15 per key travel spring soccer from $150 to $350 travel basketball $250 to $350 and travel fall softball $150 to $300 and CED umpires between $40 and $50 per game for a go kick making a motion to introduce this ordinance first read motion second make it a roll call please yes councilman s yes councilman sty Hurley yes Council yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes Council President Grant yes the public he will also be at our M meeting [Music] next one for reintroduction is ordinance 2024 col 11 when the clerk has the opportunity I ask you please read the ordinance an ordinance to amend chapter two of the revised General ordinances of the Barb and Milford entitled Administration thereby amending subsection 2-20 entitled fire department purpose of this ordinance is to amend certain sections of ordinance 2-20 to conform with the duly adopted firematic rules and regulations of the New Milford Fire Department make it a motion to introduce this ordinance on first motion to Second May a roll call please yes councilman San yes councilman Rocky Hurley yes councilwoman Duffy yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes Council President Grant yes may29 and moving on to adoptions ordinance 2024 col 12 and when the clerk has the opportunity I ask you please read the ordinance yes Bond ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of new additional or replacement equipment and machinery and new communication and Signal systems equipment in by and for the bar and Milford in the county of Bergen state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $445,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance have such bonds purpose of this ordinance is authorize the appropriation and issuance of the bond to finance a 2024 Road program acquisition of police and fire department equipment may I get a motion to adopt this no may I get a motion to open to the public for a public hearing on this ordinance motion second all in favor I any opposed ladies and gentlemen of the public if anyone has any questions regarding this ordinance now is your opportunity seeing that no member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance I her motion to close to the public motion second all in favor I I any Clos making a motion to adopt this ordinance on its final reading s you a roll call please yes councilwoman San H yes councilwoman scky Hurley yes councilman Duffy yes councilman Grodsky yes councilman Seymour yes Council President Grant yes orance adoption 2024 col 13 and then the clerk has the opportunity I'd ask you please read the ordinance Capital ordinance of the B and milord in the county of Bergen New Jersey authorizing the making of various public Acquisitions and improvements in buing for the burrow appropriating therefore the sum of $162,600 and providing that such sum so appropriated shall be raised from the capital Improvement fund of the burrow okay the purpose of this ordinance is to appropriate fund fund from The Bu of the milford's capital Improvement fund for various Acquisitions and improvements to the public library fire department Department of Public Works police department and office of emergency management may get a motion to open to the public for a public hearing on this ordinance motion second all favor I any opposed ladies and gentlemen of the public if anyone has any questions or regard this ordinance now is the opportunity seeing that there is no member of the public that wishes a comment on this ordinance make it a motion to close the public motion second in favor I any opposed making a motion to adopt this ordinance on it's final reading second a roll call please councilwoman sand yes councilwoman Roi Hurley yes councilwoman Duffy yes councilman gry yes councilman sour yes Council President Grant yes okay on 14 adopt ordinance 2024 col 14 and M clerk has the opportunity I would ask you to please reviews an ordinance to amend chapter 8 of the revised General ordinances of the bar New Milford entitled parking and parking lots thereby amending subsection 8-3 entitled handicap parking on public streets purpose of this ordinance is to amend section 83.2 of the ordinance to add a designated location for a handicap parking on Fon Drive may get a motion to open to the public for public hearing on this ordinance close second all favor any oppos ladies and gentlemen of the public if anyone has any questions regarding this ordinance now is your opportunity seeing that no member of the public wishes to comment on this ordinance may get a motion to close to the public motion to close all in favor I any opposed may get a motion to adopt this ordinance on its final reading second get a roll call please yes councilwoman s h yes councilwoman saki Hurley councilwoman Duffy yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes Council President Grant yes moving on to new business introduction of [Music] ordinances 2024 call 15 and when the clerk gets the opportunity I ask please read the ordinance an ordinance to then Chapter 30 entitled land use of the revised General ordinances of BB Milford thereby amending Article 5 entitled historical preservation okay purpose of this ordinance is to attend to amend the ordinance to add a list of designated historic properties of Interest outline the historic designation criteria provisions and historic preservation committee guidelines yes at this time could we get our chairperson of the historic preservation commission to come up and tell us a little about it first of all thank you I'm just thrilled that we've been working on this ordinance for quite a while so I'm just thrilled that it's finally coming before you to consider uh the purpose of this ordinance uh we want to there are two uh properties um in the bar that we would like to add to our list of of local historic sites um the art center of Northern New Jersey which was the original home of St Matthew's Church that was the first church in Pittsburg which um if you know that New Milford history petsburgh was kind of like the uh the Hamlet that really used the birthplace of modern day New Milford we also um want to list the demoris grand house on a Boulevard and this is a very unique structure it was an auxiliary building that was part of property owned by John demist and you know the demerest family they were very much the founders of luring County um so we wanted to have those added to our um preservation ordinance we also added um wanted to identify areas of historic interest these are not historic districts which is a whole other process where you have to go through rather extensive process of getting approvals and and everything this is just to kind of point out to Residents the history of the Barrow that New Milford when it was incorporated it was a consolidation of a number of different hamlets communities uh along the hackin saac river including pet petsburgh River Edge Manor Old Bridge New Bridge so we just wanted to have that on on the ordinance um and that information then would also be uh included into the master plan we just think it's part of the commission's mission to educate the community about our history um we also think by having these um properties on the ordinance it does offer some measure of protection um there have been changes in recent years to the building code where you don't necessarily need to get permits to do certain work on your house like you don't for siding or Windows or um putting on a new roof and those are all elements that contribute to the historic character of the house typically the commission gets involved when a permit is pulled and then we would review it so there's a lot of stuff that doesn't you know that we don't because we're not notified we can't weigh in on we've looked at you know is there a way to trigger a review for historic properties only but it's you know the our our previous bar attorney worked with us on this didn't think we could be singling out a particular group of homeowners but where the ordinance really does work is the fact that if somebody pulls a demolition permit on an historic property then we can get involved and it does we and we've actually been successful in two in in recent years saving two properties one was the Eli Lions house that you see at the corner um the other one Paul you know they've made some interesting siding choices there but the house is there um we try to take a like a holistic approach to Historic preservation try to save as much as we can work with the homeowners that you know we are an ally we're not trying to make their life more difficult and so by considering this ordinance we really helping us to our job so I just wanted to thank you and if you have any questions I'd be happy to try to answer them for you I want to thank you so much Nancy for doing you and the commission for doing all this work I know it's been a while a long time undertaking and I personally witnessed you and members of the commission uh inspect the art center and also my house right and um I was impressed with the depth of knowledge um that you have and that other members of the commission has so I'm I'm very impressed with everybody unfortunately I have to um abstain from the vote since my house is one of the his things being added to the list but thank you so much and thank you to the commission being part thank you for your kind words it we it's important for people to understand this is not arbitrary when you just because something's old you just can't put it you know that there's a process behind it there's research that goes into it it is a you know carefully fled out process anything to that my head you're welcome I think it's great um you know the more we can educate homeowners and work with them the more likely they are to save something we've lost far too many properties in this to over the years yeah no we we agree but like I said the more I think if we're not seen as a burden if we're a resource um that's really what we're trying to do like I said we take a more holistic approach to preservation I know the focus is often on the interior of properties and we certainly encourage homeowners to use you know the um original materials and everything often some of the most interesting historic elements are inside the houses the the the fireplaces the the floorboards and actually that's not something that's covered by the ordinance somebody could gut the inside of the house um but if we can keep those houses standing you preserve the possibility that somebody's going to be able to to restore it it even like the Eli Lion's house when that house was being restored people only had a certain budget that they could work with and if we demanded that they had to do all this orig they couldn't have purchased the house they couldn't have kept it going a lot of the original details underneath that s so it's been saved so at some point somebody wants to take off the replacement siding they have the original siding with the work so I mean that's maybe a little unworth it Bo but that's kind of been our approach that to try to save as much as we can and and educate people about why it's necessary to do excuse me NY can you just say where theale on the boulevard is and the uh the P Ali house is on River Road so it's as you are going north it's about a block or two north of the post office I can't recall the uh cross street right off so was that by the block that you would turn down for Grand can canterberry uh it's no it it's it's still far A little farther north I I'm blanking on the uh the cross street it's a little yeah it's closer to yeah like past the post office past uh the church and everything you look at it it's you know it's from yeah it's been it's been set back that again that's so much clearer to me we so good in Direction yeah but I'm being put on the spot I'm not good at directions and we're looking forward to the whole may get a motion to introduce this ordinance on this first reading L and make it a roll call please yes Council yes councilwoman sari hurle without any moment to was yes Council Duffy councilman gry yes councilman seamour yes Council President Grant I public hearing on thisness will be May 29th meeting thank you everyone okay new business introduction of 2024 15 CL has the opportunity please read an ordinance to amend chapter 10 of the revised General ordinances of the bman Milford entitled building and housing thereby amending subsection 10- 1.3 entitled e [Music] okay purpose of this ordinance is to add and amend certain building and housing permit fees they get a motion to introduce this ordinance on its first reading second me a roll please yes councilman s yes councilman s councilman Duffy you have a little more special do let's see okay I General fees General fees such as certificate for resale $100 they were no nothing in there to address uh solar these are things that they they had to add and there were some modification to certain things that were increased like photov voltaic system panels up to 51 to 100 Kow 150 write that one down it so well and there was one with uh pool inspection $65 that was change chimney liner $65 good to know hot water boiler went from 100 to 125 steam boiler 100 to 125 hot air furnace from 100 yes yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes council president gr yes to tr public hearing on this ordinance we are May 29th okay we are done with ordinances move on to schedule of events okay on Monday May 27th is M milford's annual Memorial Day Parade it is sponsored by the mford public events committee the time will be 9:00 a.m. and it'll be from the nights Field parking lot to the bar hall for more information you can find it on the B website or through social media on Saturday June 16th is the New Milford senior class car wash sponsored by Project Graduation it'll be from 10: to 2: p.m. at the nights Field parking lot for more information it's all over social media a little bit out of order but Friday on June 7th is the Milford Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony sponsored by the New Milford historic preservation commission will be from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the New Milford Athletic Club which is on the west side of the earth and for more information it's on the burough website and the preservation commission's Facebook page uh tickets are on sale for $40 I don't know is there still some left or we tickets are available so get them all you can um on Saturday June 15th is a mental health awareness sponsored by the Milford Municipal Alliance it will be from 9:30 to 12:00 p.m. at the nights field Pavilion it'll be on the Milford B website as well as Facebook and also on Saturday the 15th is dance sing and drum at the Pavilion sponsored by the nil Arts committee the time is from 2: to 4:30 p.m. at the nfield Pavilion through the busy day at the Pavilion and it'll also be on our website and social media [Music] mayor may I ask when that car wash again the senior class car wash is on the 16th Project Graduation from 10 to 2 thank you and on late edition on June 18th is the New Milford classic car show which is sponsored by the New Milford Swim Club it'll be from 1: to 7:00 p.m. at the New Milford Swim Club parking lot and it's on their Facebook page and social media classic cool is there any events that I missed that anyone this aware of okay next time we'll move on to the administrative report thank you mayor um I'm sure many people have noticed the traffic signal at graphic and the boulevard has been installed controller should be in within 2 to 3 weeks and then it's just a matter of public service connecting the power or expecting traffic light will be functional within 2 months uh MJB Municipal aid grant program for fiscal year 25 has been announced with applications due by July 1st and we are currently reviewing possible resurfacing projects for this grant uh we're looking at some of the streaks surrounding the middle school back to something the mayor mentioned earlier fat actually has awarded the 20122 private residential structures elevation grant for 15 residential flood properties in Milford it will be administered through the New Jersey OEM the grant period runs from March 2024 through March 2027 and New Milford will be executing a subgrant agreement with New Jersey OEM to start the process and following that there'll be a kickoff meeting and in the process of preparing an request for proposal for a grant administrate somebody to help us with the grant Administration um because that's also covered by the grant the primary election will be held on Tuesday June 4th and polls will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in addition early voting will be available from May 29th through June 2nd polls will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 10:00 a.m. to 600 p.m. on Sunday at nine locations throughout Bon County any declared registered voter can go to any of the nine locations to vote through the ex same process they would on Election Day the deadline to register to vote in the primary election is tomorrow May 14th also of note the polling location for districts 8 and nine which have been at the library are moving to Berkeley Street School the gymnasium multi-purpose room and that's beginning with this June primary the meeting room at the library is too small to properly accommodate in voting machines this information will also be printed on the sample ballots that will be mailed in advance of the election and then the only other thing is that our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday May 29 any questions for the administrator okay has everyone had a chance to look at the resolutions are there any need to be pulled for further discussion Andor vote so let's go around do some um let's get a motion to file Council committee reports at the B clerk to be spread and full on the so we don't have to do that sorry I got confused let's go around quick do you have any highlights or updates from the Committees since we're here you've already reminded everyone of the U dinner on June 7th I believe the tickets are 4045 40 a person we still have St left so please follow up let us know just come enjoy evening and um of course [Music] hope we have good just put that St Jose oh thank you mayor so the mayor's Wellness campaign is uh busy preparing for a Saturday September 7th health fair so there's a um some of our partner partner participants are going to be Champion martial arts Dance Dimensions um shoppr uh will be hosting some nutritionist education the YMCA the senior center and the library so there will be events all throughout the month but there will be a kickoff health fair on Saturday September 7th uh the time is from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. so all uh committee at the is going to be at the YMCA um Outdoors indoors at its raining so it's a ring and shine and all the uh uh council members are uh invited to to have their committees participate so it's a in process uh program coming together so there's going to be lots of exciting um events happening all throughout uh September including walks with mayor so so that's that's the uh mayor Wellness campaign and sustainable Jersey the green team has been busy um with certification so round two for certification uh has is uh completed on May 10th so we are have submitted for our bronze so we've achieved all of our points plus some for bronze we're waiting for um the uh review from sustainable Jersey and then the third round in July the gold the green team is going for silver excellent yeah so the burough has been very busy and the green team gets to highlight all of that good work and that's my report for today thank you I'm going to foro my report until our public session after my parade uh the Board of Health did meet this week and we also received a report about uh the event that uh the mayor's Wellness uh committee is planning down a in so um but I'm going to call since we have a presentation excellent C thank you uh week two ago uh there was an article stating that mil the fourth state safest state fourth state safest municipality in the state of New Jersey uh whoos to our Municipal people and our Police Department uh and it's great have live abolutely I Concur and yes once again it's a team working together Council SE thank you mayor I also would just like to Echo what councilman gry said and thank our first respond especially police and fire for keeping the Milford as safe as it is for our families and our communities and I also just wanted to uh give great compliments once again to our Recreation advisory committee they did a fantastic job this year and and a very successful uh spring Sports season and uh I'm already looking forward as many residents are to the summer rec program which is coming up up very quickly and I just wanted to point out that it was a lot of fun to have an opportunity to go to the high school to watch Beauty and the Beast the students did an absolutely fantastic job uh with the show so kudos to the students and their fames BR thank you mayor the newford artist committee will be presenting its first event on June 15th as the mayor mentioned it's going to be I forget what we called it singing drumming dancing event in so the go unit should be great fun and also uh last week we had the Antiques appraisal at the library the friends of the library raise some money for the library and it was a fun event as it always is and some interesting items there and people had a wonderful time and next year thank you thank you and I just want to give a shout out to the DBW um earlier in the month when we had we early last month when we had some flooding kind of destroyed the uh paths we had at the mil woods and new trails dead end of Henley DBW has restored all of that with the wood chips and the um barriers on the side so if anyone has not had the opportunity go down and take a walk in the woods it's amazing the amount of birds and animals and Wildlife that you will see it's so cool I did it yesterday it was great yep everything looks great okay at this time I would ask for a motion to open to the public second all favor I I any post ladies and gentlemen the public anyone has any questions or comments regarding the good and Welfare of the burrow give us your name you will give you 5 minutes seeing that there's no member of the public that wishes to comment I'd ask for a motion to close the public motion second all in favor I I any opposed make it a motion to adopt resolution 2024 col 116 2024 127 motion second all favor opposed okay at this time we are going to have a presentation from crossroads development this is going to have to do with the old shopr property in Milford and River Road and this is a part of the settlement agreement that happened in 2016 which gave us the shop right the field and this is the second part of that agreement so uh good evening U thank you for being here to share this with our our thank you and thank you to the members of the council my name is Andy noren I'm an attorney at gree Drinker bidle and reath in Floren Park uh New Jersey uh with me this evening is Steve Hitman the owner and founder of Crossroads and Anthony vpy he's a partner at Crossroads and is spearheading the development of this uh site um as you indicated it's 810 River Road um it's the former uh shop right site um I want to um take a few minutes to give a little bit of a background um what's L us uh here this evening um and um tell you a little bit about what we're seeking uh procedurally from a legal perspective um and then Anthony is going to um tell you a little bit more about Crossroads and show you some of the concept plans that they prepared for the site and what they're um and plans are for the for the site um so um as you indicated Mr Mayor the site is the subject of an affordable housing settlement agreement um it was executed in I think late 2016 um and um um that that um settlement provided for 135 units um 27 of which are affordable units uh it's a 20% mandatory set aside also allows for uh 12,500 ft of retail so it is a contemplated mix use uh development um Crossroads has been eager to develop this site for several years um they were um engaged by the owner of the property the inera family um in late 2018 after the shop right was moved or right around when the shop right was moved that was obviously the focus of uh of the inaras to get the new shop right open and once that happened um they shifted to try and develop uh redevelop the the the old Sho right site um Crossroads uh made many attempts both to find a developer uh another developer of the site or to attract the equity that's necessary the capital necessary to develop the site um they they have been unable to do so um despite numerous attempts over the course of um I think we're going on six years now um Crossroads is now the contract purchaser of the site um and is um you know eager to um you know try again essentially and that's what we're here for um this evening so the bad news is that they have not been able to redevelop the site over many years the good news is um they have a very good idea of what it's going to take to redevelop the site and what that is is a pilot a payment in MO of taxes um and so what we're requesting is that the Council designate this property as a non-c comination area in need of Redevelopment which will make the property eligible for a pilot um I'm not sure how much um you all know about Pilots or how much experience the buau has with Pilots um I've done a lot of them across the state um and I'm happy to you know talk details but the gist of it is that instead of paying conventional taxes um the developer will pay um in lie of taxes a percentage of gross revenue generated from the project um so there's two key things to to know about the pilot um the statute the long-term tax exemption law that governs pilots and Redevelopment areas um it sets up the structure of Pilots to be a win-win situation for the municipality and the developer so it's not just a free giveaway to the developer obviously the developer is going to pay less that's the whole purpose of the that's the main purpose of the pilot right is to facilitate the development of a project that is otherwise not financeable by lowering the tax burden but the municipality benefits greatly by taking a much greater share of the revenue so it is a win-win situation that's set up by the statute second important piece is that when you're comparing um you know what you know the project with the pilot the appropriate comparison is not the project with the pilot and the project under conventional taxation because there is going to be no project under conventional taxation the history of this site has proven that okay we've been at it for six years it's it's not happening so the appropriate comparison is what's there today right you have a uh a blighted site vacant obsolete deteriorating site um that's generating less Revenue than what you're going to get from uh a redeveloped site with a pilot and we think that there's numerous other benefits that you're going to get obviously the primary benefit from this project to the community is going to be the alleviation of this area in need of Redevelopment which um is you know has a negative impact we think on the community right in its place you're going to get a new highquality luxury rental residential Community um it's going to be significant aesthetic Improvement of the site amongst other significant improvements from the Redevelopment you're also going to get a net fiscal benefit to the borrow residential developments of this nature um they take in more money than they cost the town um and um we see that over and over again um and so it's going to be a net fiscal benefit to the town um to the burrow um and in addition to that these projects are an economic stimulus to communities right so the target renters for a project like this are usually going to have significant disposable incomes they're going to be young professionals they're going to be empty nesters and they have money to spend and they spend that in the surrounding community so this is going to be a boon to local small businesses restaurants shops um in the burrow and in the surrounding area area um people are going to spend money it's going to help customer bases and that's going to have a ripple effect right because those businesses are going to have uh additional income they're going to be able to invest more in their businesses and in their properties and you have this economic stimulus that is more than just limited to this property so we think a lot of benefits come from uh Redevelopment of this Pro of this property and you're not going to get that unless the pilot um happens um so that is the Crux of what uh Crossroads believes is necessary to facilitate the Redevelopment of the project um in addition to the Redevelopment area designation and the pilot there will be a Redevelopment plan that will act as the new zoning ordinance for the site as part of that Redevelopment plan uh Crossroads will be seeking an increase in the density from the 135 units currently the plan that Anthony is going to show you the evening has 180 units on it with the pilot in place we understand there's some flexibility in the density um but we also know that the municipality the burrow has a significant um affordable housing obligation there significant unmet need from the third round um there is going to be a fourth round that's coming next year so it's not that far off in the future there's going to be an additional uh obligation um presumably that's coming the Burrow's way and so um you know it certainly would make sense to us if the burrow viewed this site as an opportunity to satisfy as much of that obligation as possible we think that this site supports more density than is currently in the zoning ordinance and so Crossroads is happy to help the burrow try and satisfy its obligation by increasing the density on the site if that's what the burrow uh chooses when it goes through its affordable housing process the affordable units that you including at 180 um well that's still I think an open question but we certainly would not be reducing it it would be at least the number of units that um are currently in the plan so it would only it would only be would only increase from that if the density went up would Theos burrow well the the burrow when the burrow goes through its fourth round process and It prepares a new fair share plan for the fourth round once that gets approved and there's there's a new statute that was just adopted so it's a kind of a whole new process that the B will have to go through and there's a uh a new it's called the program uh affordable housing dispute resolution program that will um approve the uh the plan for the fair share plan um and once you have that then you will have immunity and our project obviously would be part of that plan and would help the burrow have a plan that would obtain mun so we will be throwing out the old agreement going back in 2016 is that what I'm hearing because the agreement was for 20% affortable housing so should not if we do 100 units 20% the pable housing well that's certainly and I let Anthony discuss the details of that and that's certainly a possibility um but yeah the the old the old zoning would go away there would be a new Redevelopment agreement so and what I've done is I've prepared um an outline of the process so the Redevelopment process is sort of a five-step process the first thing is designating the property as an area in need of Redevelopment then you have a Redevelopment plan that gets adopted so that would supersede the existing zoning would create new zoning we think the zoning would large you know largely be the same but there'll be some tweaks including the density that we're seeking um and then there's a redeveloper designation and a Redevelopment agreement that would be entered into between the borrow and um the redeveloper so any prior settlement agreement would be superseded by the the new Redevelopment plan and the Redevelopment agreement and then there would be a financial agreement for the payment and R of taxes and then the fifth step is your traditional site plan approval process which U comes after the Redevelopment plan is adopted so in a Redevelopment area you have to go through site plan approval process before the planning board just as you would with conventional zone so that whole process is a detailed process obviously um and I I'm happy to share a prepare this outline which sort of lays out timelines that we think are realistic to accomplish this and the the first Milestone that we would need and that we would like to see happen is at your next meeting to um adopt a resolution directing the planning board to investigate whether the property is qualifies as an area in need of Redevelopment that's the first that's the very first step and we'd obviously like to see that happen as soon as possible Crossroads has been at this like I said for six years and you know we're obviously eager um to get this done um typically in my experience the Redevelopment process is a 12 to 18 month process so that that's the you know what this outlines and I'm happy to answer any questions or if you want Anthony to you know tell you a little bit more about it and then you can ask questions to both of us whoever is appropriate to answer whatever whatever the council would like sure [Music] that the best place for that and we go over there okay I have hand outs as well but if you put that board here yeah we'll stand there this way the people live streaming can see [Music] it down this is thank you [Music] [Music] good evening everyone uh my name is Anthony VY I'm a partner with Crossroads companies um just a little bit about us to start Crossroads is a regional development firm local we're based in Maran New Jersey we develop all over Northern New Jersey New York and CH that's our core Market um our executive team has over 90 years of combined experience developing uh real estate throughout the region in that time we've developed over a million square ft of commercial space as well as 1500 luxury apartments throughout the area um very similar to what we're going to be discussing tonight um so we have in the handout here is a conceptual pack conceptual plan package which outlines uh our vision for the proposed lead B of the former shop right located on River Road um so with that I'm going to I can to talk about the plants I'm going to get right into that um can you just think this is River Road yes this is River Road right here here and so this slide is also the second slide in your hand outage um so you have River Road in the front right here so starting at the south of the site the small building is a one-story commercial path with 2,300 ft of the idea there is that correct apologies I meant the the bottom of the the picture so that is so that's a commercial pad site that we would look to attract uh a retailer for a national retailer such as a Starbucks or a p they would have a d through location there on that that's where the health center is right now correct so moving to now the south of the site we have a four story building the first level in blue is about 10 a little over 10,000 ft of commercial and then you have three levels of residential above that which would total 24 apartment the height the height it's four stories that building is uh should be around 50 yeah we tried to um stick with as close to the current zoning as we um so then moving to the back of the property where the main building is uh we have four stories of residential over one level of parking which is at the cellar at the seller level which actually as you can tell from the slide here you can't really see it from the front we have another picture for you in the back if you can see that building houses 156 of Apartments a little over 8,000 ft of interior then space and 164 garage parking spaces so you can see up here in the the top corner of the slide the total um proposed development would be 180 Apartments 12,500 Square ft of commercial space total parking with 324 spaces which is 154 in the garage and 160 on the surface now would meet the rsis requirement with a Shar parking provision between the commercial and the residential um so and to answer a couple of the questions that came up when Andrew was speaking about the affordable housing component the answer is yes if we were able to obtain a pilot for the project that will make it feasible we could continue to honor the 20% that was previously approved so if 180 units was approved that woulding 36 affordable units instead of the 27 that's when you talk about the parking are you including the parking at that restaurant yeah part of the 324 res it's all it's all included so if you go to the third slide you P you can see the same 3D massing from the back who wanted to give you an opportunity to see it from both sides so you can see there that that Cellar parking level is actually built into the existing grve which exists there today um so it does appear from the back to be five stories but it's four stories in the front and that meets the code uh the building code to comply with the current Z of full stories 50 um moving to the next slide in your package to Virtual space in there's um so moving to the next slide these are now 2D aerial views of the property which give you a little additional context um in this level this is just showing the seller level of the property so right what you see basically here is the parking garage which is 164 parking space is there a sign parking I'm sorry is there be a sign there would be a sign parking for our residents yes many uh it it would be everyone would get One automatically and then the excess parking would be first one first um so moving to the next slide this slide right here this is our ground floor plan so you can see at the top of the page the blue is commercial space the yellow at the main building is Apartments which we have an interior Courtyard amenity space for the residents and then the pink is the lobby entrance which would be like a hotel side a Lobby entrance as well as a little over 5,000 ft of Amity space connected to that which opens up to the Courtyard um moving to the next slide this one is called typical upper floor plan this is just shows you what the property looks like from the second level and above and and it's it's mainly residential residential units in the small building as well as in many stat is all sorts of things it's a resident Lounge where people can come and hang out there's TVs there's couches pool table game table there would be a fitness center cor you put there would not be not dur po yes there a fitness center there would be work from home space conference room there would be probably a small child child's room ret the retail would all be at the currently contemplated the retail is the BL area to oh it's not an open area it's inclosed it's not like an Atrium or open space which space Courtyard is enclosed res which is very typical um and the courtyard would include so this is a green space roof so we would also um propose we would also propose a rooftop amenity on the top level of the it' be like a rooftop deck you know that's got again sort of landscape heartscape so that would be open that would be rooftop but below the rooftop this part is closed that courtyard sits right above the parking garage so it's it's essentially on there's no roof there's no roof on that it's open open there might be like lounge chairs grills that sort of that sort of thing Clubhouse and and chairs so this is what we Flor thank I think it's important to know and corre this is all very conceptual right you haven't even done any architecture we will V this plan and there's still I think a lot of flexibility when it comes to design and architecture and things like that um and through the Redevelopment plan once the Redevelopment designation happens and then the Redevelopment plan process starts that's when we'll start to you know Define the um the architecture and the layout a little bit more and then when you get to the site plan process then you get into a lot even more detail so it's sort of an inter process that you know get more and more Det as we go on the key right now is to get the designation and to and then to just get the broad brushes of you know the pilot and the and the D this is this is to give you an idea okay maybe I'm naive about this but what is the definition [Music] ofy so it's a good question so the last three slides of the package have some theme inry of similar buildings that this would look like so the first slide of the THD you get there is exterior architecture so we purposely don't design architecture at this stage for a number of reasons one of which is we want the burrow to tell us what kind of architecture they would like there's lots of different options we've given you a few different examples some are more modern and nature some are more traditional and we're open to your in so that when we do develop the architecture it's something that bur is excited about in few years he excited about um um the next slide after the exterior architecture are pictures of Interiors so this gives you an idea of what some of our amenity spaces and apartment finishes would look like again this is a luxury apartment community at the upper end of what you would see in northern New Jersey towns similar to um and the last the last slide shows you some examples of at the exterior amenities such as the card we were just talking about so really nice landscape area heartscape areas barbecues Fire PS that kind of stuff so where with these landscape areas be inside so the landscaped areas would be inside this Courtyard and then as well as on the rooftop amenity that we get and so are you filling any kind of L gaping on the outside there will and this is this is just a very conceptual yeah if you go to one of the the Arial slides the first one the ground floor which is right here you see a little bit of the green space but that's going to be develop this is not a fin conal yes one of the things that I see right away is maybe flipping the small commercial p with that the other smaller build mhm because it's next to Woodcraft Center or k one which is already tall way you get that gradual height up rather than burying the restaurant in between two large buildings yep that's absolutely something better visibility under the corner y the other thing is will will there be uh generators generators um it's a little premature to answer that question we don't typically put generators in our buildings it's not usually necessary sometimes there is a need for one so I have to get back on I considering it what is that a traffic FL where need um I'm sorry yes need Riv a road there more traffic okay you can certain yeah and just to add when it comes to traffic so there'll be a traffic study done and it there has to be a a traffic warrant for a light so that's that's it's not it's not something that we can just do because we want to do you have to have a study that meets the traffic warrant and you have to get approval for that light so if you need it you'll get the light and that'll be something that that want to deal with and if if not then there won't be a life because it won't be good want I'm just CU there any research or study on an anticipated number and I know you know one here let it anticipate a number of new students in our school system resulting from this plan we would put together study for you but it's it's very and these type of luxury buildings we have a high of one bedroom units a lot of our two bedrooms are on this small they do not generate a significant amount of school so know three bedrooms uh the only three bedrooms that would be contemplated here unless the burrow wants them is the affordable three bedrooms yes the requ correct right and yeah so there are some Statewide studies of how many school children typically are generated by these units and that's generally what um is relied on to determine to estimate the number of students and yeah Anthony said really the the units in in a building like this that generate school children are the affords right you usually have the one and two bedrooms where you have young professionals Anders they're not generating very very few school children the affordables where you have the two and three bedroom units that that's where you get some sub school children and that's that's just that's part of your affordable housing obligation there's nothing nothing that could be done that's mandatory I'd like to just make one comment me I'm not representing but you said that you have some photos in here that gives us the idea of some Town further up what South these are bu apartment my whole is New Milford is not a r c or whatever the other towns are along New York and these are not these are not um New York City burough buildings these are in towns like no I know Park rdge Ridgewood Park rdge South waren all sorts of but ber County but again Crossroads is very open to having your input as to what type of architecture you guys think is appropriate for New Milford and and through the Redevelopment plan process you know we we'll we'll take we'll take in that input and make sure that the architecture is consistent with I mean it looks very pangular as opposed to so you might be interested in a more Village type yeah it's architecture is always challenging Everyone likes different Aesthetics but um we just fit a little more into this this is a small town small community I'm so generally they're they're integrated in there may be more affordables in the smaller building um so the smaller building may have um mostly all affordables and then the rest would be you know distributed evenly through larger building but all of the affordable units would have the same finishes same access to it just so happens that in this design we have a satellite building which acceptable to be affordable units there would be a lot in that building but there would be some in the main building as well but if the design ultimately changes a little bit that change well why do you have satellite building build because uh of the commercial space having it as close to River Road as possible is that for that and rather than cover more of the site from a lot coverage perspective it's more residential we decided it would be better to build off that level of commercial but again something at [Music] [Music] so maybe this is sure to ask about I see that that's or parking L right yes um and you don't have a l and design so so part of the challenge is we were trying to stay as close to the current zoning as possible in terms of lot coverage and also at the same time meet the parking requirement so in order to do that we had to a lot of the site and surface parking if the burrow was open to a higher lot coverage then we could look at less surface parking and more structured par that would be an option it's so it's those kind ofs that what we like one of the things we like about this is sort of the Maring between the commercial and the residential and the roundabout it makes for sort of a nice it's on the smaller side of a nice mix use community that could be active residents can walk to the commercial uses and vice versa and it kind of creates a little Community within it what the entrances an to thiser I see one over Road it would be yeah this would be a a driving ping out right is there another area place to P in or not is that the only entrance and ex yeah that's those are the those are the existing driveways there is a connection we are showing a connection on she's got River correct this blue area right here that's about 10 a little over 10,000 square ft combined with the 2300 is the total [Music] 12,500 it's not not necessarily r the idea behind a pad site was to attract someone like a Starbucks or a Panera but if neither if there's no one who's interested in that PAAD site we would probably consolidate it into the bigger building get it there's angle with health angle with health we have a relocation clause in our so assuming they would like to stud if they will we would relocate them into the big into the bigger which is one of the reasons right now why we have it there but we can figure another whether it's reduction in height moving shipping the buildings around there's a few different way we can so again very very early on as far as design goes and you know welcome the input from the council and the planning board as well as we go through the Redevelopment plan process um and but you'll see from the timeline again the first steps are the Redevelopment area designation to get it going and the governing body you directing the the planning board to undertake this the study and then the planning board would then hold a hearing um uh once they have a planner that prepares um an area in need of Redevelopment study um and then they would make a recommendation to the governing body and then uh the council would vote on designating it then towards the end of that process usually we would start working with the uh planner to start formulating the Redevelopment plan and start getting into the you know more than any gritt of the design and the nice thing about the Redevelopment processes the Redevelopment plan really sets the design so we would get into all the details at that stage layouts coverage is high architecture and then at that point we're pretty much we're ready to go to site plan and we're conforming there'll be a little bit more detail obviously at the site plan here but you're kind of getting ahead of the the process that one what's the estimated construction compy this would be pretty close to a 2-year Bill somewhere between 20 to 24 months three years after the 18 12 to 18 yeah that timeline is basically to get to building permit and then so this is 20128 yes we'll go as fast as you want us to and um for what it's worth I know we we don't have to get into the the financials tonight but um at 180 units rough Justice a pilot estimate for what that will generate in terms of payment and L of taxes would probably be somewhere north of 500,000 to to the burrow 95% of which the B would capture in 5% correct so that should be a significant increase from what the properties current I haven't looked up the property taxes recently but last time I looked I think they were around 200,000 annually something along those lines which gets split in so you're getting much less so be significant increase in Revenue to the [Music] burrow full uh full on-site management 247 this will be a very high-end building think of it somewhat like a boutique hotel that's the kind of vibe Gage being in the garage yeah experience how it after a good question so we start releasing it before it's finished be preed um usually by the floor and uh we usually shoot for somewhere between 15 to 20 leases per month so if we were at 180 total units we would be leased in approximately 9 to 12 months may I ask where the rent will be where the uh rental rates yeah um it's been a little while but I think that one bedrooms will probably range from on the lower end 21 2200 up to 26 27 two bedrooms would be high two well into the um we may even hit some foures if uh it's it's a pretty high rent and there will be noal um we don't do a lot of balconies they don't they surprisingly they don't get used a lot by the residents and they don't look great frankly um like rooftop the rooftop is exactly what we do in L of theal exactly people love the courtyards and the rooftops and we make we try to make the courtyard a little bit more passive in nature a little bit more relaxing the rooftop a little bit more fun we've got those clothes at a reasonable hour the way that noise but yeah those are really the outdoor amenties that people look for there'll be a dog run somewhere there'll be probably a dog wash area inside the building um very fa every unit has their own washer dryer sometimes if we have sometimes if we have room we'll do uh a room for oversiz extra and and just to add on on the rents obviously you is thrown out sort of a guesstimate right now as part of the pilot process and um the negotiation of the financial agreement and the pilot application will do a more detailed estimate of the rents and the revenue that would be generated so that you have a better sense of the revenue that's going to come in once the building is completed and the and the pil is how still these units will actually rent is that new development in that just seems to be relatively vac after seven years we're married yeah I I do hear an it toally from time to time people say oh that building is having trouble leasing up typically there's usually a story associated with that we keep tabs on all of the all of the buildings that you built every year throughout Northern New Jersey and I can tell you they're all well above 90 usually closer to 95% these sometimes it takes a little time if you deliver a 300 unit building that can take a year and a half sometimes to Le up um and you know sometimes you're delivering a building in the bad months in the winter it's a little tougher the least those but it's there's so much pent up demand in these towns that SL has been there a while how would this been there with iness iness um well I think we're going to have a way bigger amenity package for one um you know our interior units will probably be a little bit higher end as well I think the nest was a pretty nice looking building from what I saw but um you know we have a lot more units here a lot more opportun I think for upgrades also design is always involving every 3 to 5 years so Vesta is probably 5 years old at this point yeah so you know we're going to have the newer kitchens the the newer specific type ofil we would like we we want lifestyle retail ideally to serve the residents but for example obviously um the medical the medical gr will stay and um so it'll be could be a mix of both there's not a tremendous amount there's only ,500 today so um we would love to bring in like I said a Starbucks Earth there because it's a entity for the residents and the town um but it it's all based on the man who wants but we won't we won't have any problem getting some lifestyle Services I am well can't bring that Starbucks lights could be close to that I don't know you tried to get a CH Chick-fil-A but it didn't work questions I'm gonna wait by pH no any any questions uh I'm happy to address happy to address owner of our companies here tonight um but I know this is a lot to digest so take your time and we're eager to come back as soon as you'll have [Music] us thank [Music] you hang it's a little messy and I can email you keep [Music] come did I get [Music] [Music] no we'll put this as a topic on our next agenda um doesn't mean we will or will not take action but we'll be up for discussion is there any other business for this councel the [Music] end we're going to wait make a motion to adj Second all fav anyos thank you ladies and gentlemen for hanging out and yes Memorial Day pray it's always a good show 9:00