I didn't know hey everyone please be seated all right here we go friend hi good I call this meeting to order is the June 24th 2024 uh business meeting of the township Council roll call got Jers here Mandel here Weiss here Whitfield here have we been adequately noticed for this meeting yes on January 19th 2024 to the times the Princeton packet filed with the cler posted in the township if everybody would please rise for the salute to the flag okay tonight we're going to switch ceremonial matters and public comment um because a uh representative from New Jersey American water is just running about 5 10 minutes late so we're just going to uh wait for that person to arrive so uh we will go um on to public comment if anyone would like to make a public comment please come to the microphone and state your name and address and you will have up to three minutes to speak Ben steinhauser good evening Susan Abby Bob Scott Avenue okay um I had question about the tree ordinance that was introduced I'm just wondering that's about the tree removal has that that's already been introduced is that right it's been approved it appr adopted yes I'm wondering when it takes effect what is the what is the date well I mean we're seeing trees coming down us right and left 20 day is a stoppable period after any ordinance is approved but this one it will be is late octo sorry late October early November why why so long because give um members of the public enough time to to see it read it absorb it figure out what they're doing with their plants or not so that the D was okay with us doing that so so it gives you more time I know yeah I know was introduced but it's already been voted on yes yes it's okay been adopted yes and so now you have to write the ordinance for it or hasn't the ordinance been written period until yeah okay okay thank you okay you hello all right uh my name is uh Ben steinhauser from 42 coverly Road West Windsor uh Council mayor I've been a volunteer firefighter in town with West wior Volunteer Fire Company number one Station 43 for 12 years I'm here to talk about some serious concerns about how recent changes made by the Township's division of fire and emergency services are impacting our two volunteer fire companies I'll be referring to them at station 45 their Mercer County designation number uh I also want to say that I'm making this speech on my own without the coordination or the permission of the chiefs of either Volunteer Fire Company in the last 12 months station 45 abruptly moved out of our station at South Mill Road with no warning to the volunteer Fire Chiefs until the move was complete without coordination or consideration on the impact of this move we're having the second location the purpose was to provide better coverage to our town during the day simultaneously they permanently moved our engine 431 to their headquarters at Everett drive again without coordinating or planning with the Chiefs and under false pretenses keeping the miles low on the apparatus they are responding apparatus now an apparatus that was our first due for motor vehicle accidents and carbon monoxide incidents and a backup to our engine 43 when it's out of service like today it is just this past December another change through using their title and role as Fire Marshals a 45 career employee Act acting as a fire marshal will respond overnights and weekends to every fire call big change March this year another change by email memo career shift times changing to start at 7: am instead of 8: am on weekdays changing along withstanding schedule good or bad again no coordination with the Chiefs as I understand then two weeks ago the volunteer Fire Chiefs and the mayor were informed by memo again without prior coordination or communication that engine 431 will be responding 247 hence forth with a full crew of paid firefighters along with being permanently re rebranded as engine 45 we are now a town with a career staff fire engine responding 247 how far we've come in such a short time in my opinion and concern the volunteer fire companies are now assisting and supporting station 45 in direct contradiction to their purpose and our Town's ordinance let's read what the ordinance has to say article 8 CH 4 4-34 the division of fire and Emergency Services is a established to provide assistance to the volunteer fire division in the control and extinguishment of fires 4-35 the volunteer fire division shall have complete responsibility for all fire suppression and control activities in West Wier Township with the support of paid staff within the division of fire emergency services does that match reality anymore I have often been assured in the past year by the mayor and by Chief Lynch they say paraphrasing here the Township in 45 have no plans to replace the volunteer firefighters it doesn't seem that way to me nor should it to any rational person that's been paying attention these recent changes are making it perfectly clear which direction we are headed if not already there just look at what happened to volunteer fire companies in Hamilton Robinsville Princeton and Plainsboro how much is that costing their taxpayers after the volunteers are gone easy millions of dollars per year the township needs to strongly consider the direction this is all going and the impacts of these changes and surely more to come we need your help before it's too late thank you for your time and your continued support thank you I have a question before I get started is this name and address my name's Warren mlac five MIT l a k five stonely Drive West Windsor so my question is is this the time in the in the meeting for public ments on the storm water um no we will have the hearing coming up shortly and then you can come my name is Willa inlander three Carlile court and I actually have a storm water comment which I will hold back but my first comment I think this might be the right time and correct me if I'm mistaken and actually I'm going to direct it to you chairwoman uh Linda gers on May 28th this um meeting room was packed with your constituency and we were all treated to a very inspiring and award-winning presentation from a group of Grover middle school students on their problem solving project in their conclusion they requested that the council support a resolution to facilitate legislation for the freedom to read act and I was just wondering can you give us all an update on that thank you yeah um we can comment on that after but we don't we don't do a dialogue back and forth during public comment evening Dave Kimmel 11 Scott Avenue I saw on the agenda that there's a resolution to authorize the May clerk to execute execute settlement agreement between West Windor Township and CP Princeton Junction LLC about acne woods so I just wanted to share a couple comments and questions as you recall uh April 17th there was a Baran city planning zoning draft study a lot of turnout there a lot of interest in seeing the preservation of the Acme woods and uh that's just a draft so I'm concerned that it may may be premature to come up with a settlement that's contrary to the wishes of the community as well as uh I'd be interested in hearing more about the rational now for coming up with a settlement when a developer land owner is kind of suing the town about the development potential uh I think the town's interest would be best served by preserving that area um and uh interested in hearing the council's and Town's thoughts on why we' be moving forward with that at this point thank you William rutage 19 Scott Avenue good evening I want to thank all of you um because you rarely get thanked enough first of all um the I'm also curious to know more about the authorization of the uh the settlement I understand that the lawsuit has been going on for a very long time and as you know that piece of property is in the master plan to be designated for uh future Green Space I think the future is now I think we have to assume that we were not going to be able to get that property as Green Space unless we take it by imminent domain which is well within the rights of the township to do so if the property owner if the developer wants to continue to move forward with development my understanding is that now there is a settlement the settlement should be able to establish fair value for that property not an exorbitant value not a lowball offer fair value and that the township can then use the funds that we have in the open space uh funds to make that acquisition so as I'm sure you know this is very important to the community who lives in that area including me and the other neighbors um it's been a very long time and it's always been established that that was the intent to maintain the Green Space there so always been the intent and always in the master plan since I've been here as a resident which is 14 years please make it so is there anyone else who wishes to speak hi Kevin rello 106 Harris Road uh I just want to agree with the two gentlemen that spoke prior uh it should be preserved and just doing a quick search to refresh my memory because it has been going on so long I came up with a real quick search from an article in 2013 and the article was basically discussing purchasing the 5.3 Acres uh I think that that he's right that we should preserve that land it'll be a detriment to uh develop it thank you thank you is is there anyone else who wishes to speak good evening Heather cheny 971 Alexander Road I've been very involved in the aamy woods seiser ongoing lawsuit since 2012 I've had the unfortunate pleasure to deal with Mr seiser having been the house right next to his property I understand and have been informed by the township of a lot of things that we've tried to do to keep this preserved and I'd like to say that it is very important for our neighborhood to keep the woods as much as possible including traffic studies that need to be done if they aren't going to be done I don't really understand how he's going to have a daycare on Alexander Road with traffic coming in and all of these things that are important to the community and we should have an opportunity to understand what this settlement is and how it's going to impact our neighborhood thank you thank you Dave Richie 15 Scott Avenue I just want to Echo what everyone's saying we want the woods preserved they've been a buffer for a long time and there's don't see any reason to change it um especially if you're considering there was a thing resolution about a path going through the woods and the developer how to develop that path I don't know what that means um I'd like to understand that better okay okay thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak during public comment okay if not we will have American water come in we'll have the Bakers come up front mayor can you explain little yeah you want to explain first yeah so um come up to microphone here oh he wanted to answer the question all right so every year at the M's conference American water is very generous and they donate $3,000 checks to the um choice of May choice of Charity um you just have to put card in the ball and hope you win uh so you have to be lucky every time I say prayer and drop a uh card so this is the second time in my seven years as mayor that I won and every time I win I always donate to the charity that's recipient of the mayor's ball and this year charity is here attitude in Reverse they have I've known the them for a very long times the kids and my kids were in school together and they do a very valuable uh service to the community talking about mental health they go to all the schools not just in our schools but all over New Jersey uh to help and they work very closely with West win police and and so I'm very happy and proud that I won this year and they are here to present a a check for picture and a real check that you can deposit in the bank both they have it they promis me they have the check so congratulations and thank you American water power I've been PID you for last 30 years so this is something in return so thanks I'll put it right back than so then when I SP um oh you want you want to talk then talk yeah got okay okay I have several announcements everyone um please be quiet thank you thank you as of this morning Public Works is collecting brush and leaves in zone four this week also several days ago on or about June 20th the Township Road resurfacing project began um Earl Construction was awarded a con contract by the West Windsor Township Council the there will be milling and Paving along the following roads Melville Road and steel Drive Channing Way Birdsall way Colonial Avenue Carnegie Center Boulevard West Dunbar Drive Landmark dve lanarch Drive Green Drive Forest Lane Lake VI Court when this work is going on the local area may be detoured between the hours of 7 AM and 7 PM Monday through Friday weather permitting in terms of Carnegie Center Boulevard West that work will occur overnight due to heavy traffic along US1 and Canal Point Boulevard local detours will be established each day as determined to be necessary by the police department normal traffic flow will resume outside of designated work hours all Paving operations are expected to be completed by the July 4th holiday weather permitting please honor All Temporary traffic control measures for your safety and the safety of others and then um Independence Day is Thursday July 4th and end in observance of that day there will be um our offices here at the township will be closed and there will be no trash collection on Thursday July 4th for homes that are serviced Monday and Thursday garbage collection with will occur on just Monday July 1st that's a week from now recycling collection for the township will be on Saturday July 6th please be sure your bins are out by 6 a. and the public work site will be open for drop off on Saturday July 6 from 8:00 a to noon have a safe holiday thank you thank you thanks Linda a lot of you are here for ACT Mew so I'm going to start with that or probably just do major comments on that uh since I moved to this town in 1994 everybody told me that AKs was protected everybody assumed that everybody uh thought that was the case unfortunately nobody had documented that the property went in front of the planning board twice once in 1970s and another time I believe in 1999 both time nobody wrote down that the Acme Woods were protected or they were off of development so when the developer uh Mr seiser realized that he sued the township and someone mentioned 2012 this has been going on for a very long time so he sued the township arguing that the woods are no longer protected the town ship argued uh very strongly that U the woods were protected everybody thought the woods were protected in in fact Mr seiser thought the woods were protected because the way he was paying taxes on the woods was as if the woods were protected that was because there's a different assessment if a land is protected as opposed if a land is developable so he was even paying taxes since he bought the property as if the woods were protected unfortunately there was no documentation we went back up to 70 we looked at 1999 planning board approval nobody bothered to document that the woods were protected everybody just assumed that was the case so when we went to court we lost the case in the sense the court said that the woods are not protected so the next phase of the case was whether the zoning is proper because when he real when he won the case that the woods were not protected he sued the township saying that the zoning is improper and the zoning needs to be changed his proposal was to build a much larger daycare center that he has always been that one thing has been always constant at least till uh since last seven years when I became mayor I don't know whether he discussed any other Proposal with Mr Shay but uh oh by the way happy birthday Mr Shay celebrated his 80th birthday last last week so happy birthday me share since I mentioned his name so anyway so I don't know if he uh if he discussed any Proposal with Mr sh with me he was always a large very large uh large very large DEC Center and we kept telling them no no no you can't do that you can't do that and we went through several plans and several hearings and um I don't know if anyone of you were deposed but several uh people in the township who were involved in government long before were deposed as to for the lawsuit um we spent considerable amount of time considerable amount of money and we finally came up with a this settlement where um the two-thirds of the woods would be preserved it will be documented so they will be preserved into perpetuity uh we will be allowed to the woods will be open to the public one of the sticking points was whether the woods we will be allowed to use or develop Trails through the woods um it would we will be allowed to develop trails to the woods if you so choose doesn't mean we will do it tomorrow but if we so choose in future we can do that and it it removes uncertainity in case we lose in court that the zoning is improper if the court does rule that the zoning is improper I don't know what the zoning would be I mean it's not that the court can impose on us what the zoning would be but still it's very uncertain what the zoning would be so um as as uh as much as I want the woods to be protected and saved this is a good outcome uh for the West Wier given with the cards we were dealt uh couple of you mentioned about using the eminent domain to purchase the property you can't do that once there's a uh there's a active application or once he has sued you you will lose in COD uh you can you can try it you will lose a lot of money in CT and you will lose the case so we did we did talk about that we did discuss that if it is on our open space acquisition list so that's a big hurdle but if that process was started before there was any application or any discussion of developing the property uh that would have been uh that would have been possible but since everybody thought that the woods were protected nobody thought about buying them I mean I never heard any serious discussion about buying them either with the previous mayor or or since I became mayor but when I became mayor the lawsuit was already going so there was no way to do it so what has been agreed on is that he will develop um a a daycare center the uh the daycare center would not be any closer to Alexander Road than the current current development and there's a diagram uh that I can share and um the woods will be protected by by agreement in perpetuity and if we do decide we can develop the woods into um uh whatever uh we want to do as far as trails are concerned and he will pay back taxes as if the woods were not proted going back to whatever first year he soed us there's some stipulation in that um this is just the beginning of the process what the council is voting on tonight is the settlement agreement that is an agreement between us and the developer that he will withdraw the lawsuit and we will allow him we will make use development of daycare center of permitted use within the certain parameters there's an ordinance on the agenda that is just for introduction it's not going to be voted on today that specifies what can be done like any other zoning ordinance it will specify the setbacks it will specify the maximum height and other things required in that in that property that's just the beginning of the process once if the council approves the settlement agreement and the council adopts the ordinance then the process starts like any other development process he will come up with um he will he will come up with the fully engineered plans he will come to the planning board with those plans the community members the neighbors will have a ample opportunity to comment and uh discuss what they like what they don't like about the plan and the planning board can impose any reasonable restrictions I mean planning board can't say you can't do it whatever is allowed by the ordinance the planning board will have to allow them by the ordinance but they can impose restriction one of the one of the concerns is how many how many trees will be cut down usually the planning board requires the developer to put at least as many or more trees than our cut down in development of the property and I don't expect in this case it will be any any different um so I can't talk details about the uh about the planning board application because we don't have that yet and that may be few months in future but that process will take place as any other development process that will go in front of the planning board I have met and talked with a few people in your neighborhood whomever I knew and whomever I had corresponded with in the past I do know your meeting scheduled on 26th I offered to come and talk to you if if you so choose or if you want any other day I would uh be happy to come and uh talk to you about and answer any questions you have but what is being voted on today is the settlement agreement and then introduction of the ordinance the ordinance will then go to the planning board it will probably come back here in August because of the dates of the planning board and the date of the next U next council meeting are conflicting the council meeting is before the next planning board meeting so it will go to the planning board in July and come back to the Council on August if the council does adopt the ordinance at the next August meeting then the whole process starts then he he knows that he is allowed to develop he will do in fully engineered plans and come back to the planning board uh with that so again I've been dealing with the gentleman is very difficult to deal with if anyone of you have dealt with him um dealt with him for seven years uh given the cards that we have on the table I think this is a fairly good deal in in in uh for Township in the sense that um it does preserve the woods or two-thirds of the woods as much as we can and then he will be prevented from cutting down any trees randomly that he wants currently I don't want to say that in public but anyway um if he he cuts the trees down like he did few years ago then we didn't even have the tree ordinance at least he will have to follow the tree ordinance now but um if we decide not to do this then we go back to court and we litigate and if we win the zoning is proper good if we lose that the zoning is not proper then I have no idea what will be uh what will be imposed on us or what we will have to accept in front of the judge so I really wanted to there are three things positives about this settlement for me from my point of view as mayor first the two3 majority of the woods are preserved we are allowed to develop trails to the woods if you so choose which in other words means it's a public space not he can't say it's my wood so nobody can go in there and third then the uncertainity is removed we know we know what what can be done and what can't be done in there so that's why I've presented the plan to the council they have asked questions and we have iterated many iterations and I am encouraging them to vote on the settlement agreement and vote on the ordinance in August so again uh generally this format of meeting doesn't allow question and answer but at the end of the meeting I hope it's a short one I will be here and I can answer any questions anybody has no problem with that or I can come to your uh community meeting and answer answer any questions you have so thank you thank you mayor and I I think many of us including myself over the years did think that that we were going to be able to totally preserve the woods we thought we had the right we thought there was documentation there and with the research done by by the attorneys by the township professionals um probably even in Residence too no one could come up with that that document that said it is to be reserved so I mean if anyone has anything let us know but no one no one after all this has has come up with any documentation that we could preserve that and if I may if I may uh there's mention of the master plan uh that the master plan is designated for open space and just so the public understands and I know most people do understand this the master plan is an advisory document only it is not the law of the land it's just what the town would like to see on the various properties it doesn't say what has to be there so just everyone understands right and the developers also our owner is going to provide uh $50,000 for the installation and maintenance of a commemorative plaque to honor uh West Windsor Veterans of the Vietnam and Iraq uh Wars and then we'll also be getting the back taxes of $ 68,4 3768 okay um there was also a question about about the book ban legislation um what oh okay yeah right freedom freedom to read so um in that legislation it's about 26 pages long um it sets up a review process for public schools and for public librar so if someone saids I don't like this book and I don't want it to be on the shelves in the in the in the school library or the public library there would be eventually developed um a policy and a form the state will be working with the school districts and and with the uh public libraries so um imagine probably States you know your name address what you know what book why you think it should be pulled from the shells and then there's um a committee that is that is put together uh and they go through the process and then eventually the person who fills out the form complaining we'll get an answer up or down um and I think I think it say and why so that's where that legislation um I think was I don't know if it's approved by the assembly Senate sen approved it they they moved it forward but the Senate has not not yet um so it's it's still out there I I don't know whether it's going to get approved or not we just have to wait and see yeah um well you know we some of us felt that that res that that resolution really should be uh I would think approved or or discussed by the school board or the Mercer County uh Commissioners because it's it's really something that comes under their jurisdiction um they've already made made some some changes to it um since the public hearing um so it's it's it's you know it's work in progress but it it's really something that that will get taken up by by the uh schools or or the you know the county level for the public liaries so that's that's the update it's just you know it's going it's going through a process through the legislature okay so let's move on Administration comments we're done with that and all right council member comments sure thank you chairwoman um regarding the comments that were made this earlier today um thank you Ben you still here no um I was not aware of that issue but I will look into it and regarding the Acme Woods um well I would love to be able to maintain the woods entirely um the reality is that it's a privately owned property been the subject of litigation for years and we really had no legal standing to completely prevent development there I'd not thought about the eminent domain option but believe that's not a real option either um so in the grand scheme of things I think the township has done a pretty good job in negotiating with the owner to to maximize the preservation of the existing woods and formally restrict any additional development essentially there's not going to be a deed restriction of that property so the agreement is mindful of the current setbacks and and design of the shopping center trying trying to be mindful of nearby residents it includes the deed restriction of 2third of the woods it includes a 200 foot buffer along residential border um and as the mayor mentioned it allows for the township to build trails and paths in the remaining Woods if we choose to do that so all things considered it's actually it's pretty good agreement in the perfect world um it would be wonderful if the whole thing could be preserved I wish we could do that but there doesn't seem to be any path to get that um I would like to make a a few comments about um the next chapter um group from Grover Middle School who was here on the the 28th um when they were here they had recently won um first place in the New Jersey Community problem solving conference and they were on their way to the International Community problem solving conference where they placed second in their group earlier in this month I testified in favor of the freedom to read Legislation during the New Jersey assembly education committee on the bill the bill has been modified it's it's about less than 10 pages now um and it cleared the assembly committee by an overwhelming vote the Senate education committee is expected to schedule a hearing in September um so there's still time to express support for this legislation so after the next chapter presentation here I prepared a resolution for this Council to consider I was distributed to all council members and while I'm disappointed that we did not move forward with this resolution despite broad support I do have some good news um because I shared the resolution that I wrote with the Mercer County Board of Commissioners and tomorrow at the County Board of Commissioners public meeting uh our Grover Mill students will be doing a short presentation for them and the board will be voting to adopt this resolution of support for the freedom to read out we do have the county Support there uh have some comments about the storm order stuff but I think I'll wait for the hearing to talk about that okay thank you right thanks uh Martin I will be very brief said that before but I will I just wanted to um take the time to um once again I did this a couple weeks ago but now that they have graduated last Wednesday our West Winds are High School South and High School North graduates just want to wish them and pray that they have optimal success and all of their Endeavors I have five kids um have gone well two are currently in the district three have already graduated so I just uh know the education the importance of education and Academia in this community I value that very much myself being a former School Board member and at the same time just want to wish um all of our high school north and south graduates the best as well as any other graduates because we have many kids who live in this community who attend private school so I just wanted to wish any any graduates college graduates the same um I definitely wanted to um I concur with councilman Weiss and uh I won't repeat exactly what he said about the Acme Woods in in that area um having um previously ran a property a large 55 acre business here in this town totally understand um the preservation to an understand we had obviously next to next to our property is a lot of open uh open areas open land right right now the property I used to run um at the same point time so I value that as well also want um take in consideration residents concerns and things of that nature um so anytime residents do come before um this day as and before this Council uh we do take in consideration your concerns and thoughts without a doubt um that's all I have for this evening thank you thank you Andrea um as far as the Acme Woods um if there was some way to buy that property um with some kind of open space money or whatever I'm pretty sure you know I'd buy it in a heartbeat and I think everybody up here would um I've been watching um not as long as Linder but um we've been looking at what's being what's been proposed as this whole ordeal has gone on and there's been some stuff coming in uh that they wanted to do that had us somewhat I won't say horrified but um very unhappy we're very glad that the mayor turned turned those things down um stayed strong with that um we've been uh some of these things that have been coming in the sizes of U of this daycare center I think there was another proposal for something else he wanted to wanted to put on there uh in that area and what what we've wound up with is obviously viously not the entire woods but being able to not only Preserve 2third of the woods to have a large say in uh the daycare center and decreasing the footprint decreasing the parking where the parking goes um there was a lot I know of heavy negotiation that went on U between the administration and and seiser um and when they finally came back with something that looked like was going to be the best we could get uh then that seem that's that's the way we have to go I it may not be ideal for everyone it isn't what we want um the but as far as what can actually happen it's probably about as good as we can get and when you get something like that and the other option is you don't know what a Court's going to do um you've got somebody who owns a piece of property that you don't know what they're going to do at any moment uh you're better off going going with what is a decent deal and I look forward to us settling this not having to worry and have this sort of democles over over the head of those woods uh I enjoy looking at them too I think we all do and uh at some point hopefully putting some trails that will help the community through there presumably with Community participation and that's um uh that that's where there's a whole history of this and then and that's where this is coming from um there's been a lot going on over the last few weeks since we met U um we had there was a shredding event a h hunger packing food collection um we've uh we heard uh County Executive dad Benson give a talk on open space in merer County I think a few of the people I see here were at that I'm very proud that West Windsor has over 50% open space that was mentioned at the meeting um I also want to I want to congratulate human relations Council and all the volunteers on a terrific diversity day I enjoyed the entertainment and the personal stories from our diverse residents so thank you to Jad and the human relations Council and on Saturday I went to the annual juneth celebration which I'm also happy to has been held here in West Windsor again in Mercer Park um I want to thank West Windor gives back for another enjoyable Dive Into Summer Event this past Friday this year was in support of air who you all just got to see uh a little earlier in this presentation of the check so thank you to the various businesses volunteer fire department Girl Scouts Who provided informational Community tables the Waterworks pool complex is a West Windsor Township treasure and I urge everyone to consider joining the pool I've already been swimming every weekend and the summer is first starting so there's a lot of time left for enjoyment so I do encourage you to check it out uh at a previous council meeting as councilman Weiss mentioned we were introduced to both next chapter from Grover and Bloom from Community Middle School future problem solvers teams as they were preparing to go to the World Championships um councilman I guess scooped me on this one but I'm happy to report that next chapter um was placed second in the international competition I was very proud and happy also to be able to help them in a small Way by preparing them with a practice interview at Grover middle school before they left I found them very very engaging I enjoyed listening to their answers I hope I gave them some good advice and both teams were very impressive and successful and I hope they continue to work on their projects and their passions finally yesterday was International women in engineering day I'd like to give a shout out to some of our women engineer volunteers for West Windsor Township first I'd like to thank Maya morathe for appointing me to the West Windsor planning board soon after he took office I'm probably the first woman with an engineering degree to serve on that board women Engineers Who currently serve include heer Shanker on our environment Al commission Helen Rankin on the shade tree commission and Aron Bosley as our representative on the Stony Brook Regional sewage Authority thank you to these volunteers and good luck to the young women who are entering who are entering engineering today and will have the backgrounds to be the leaders of tomorrow thanks thank you Andrea thanks to uh West Winds GS back for organizing Dive Into Summer Event last Friday at the Waterworks uh pool facility in Community Park temperatures were in the uh High 9s so a lot of children and the adults were uh in the pool there was also Aqua uh yoga uh was a lot of fun uh with the uh music from the DJ so if you've never done the uh Dive Into Summer Event at the pool then maybe next year you know consider it because it is it is a fun family event uh donations uh went towards supporting attitudes in Reverse which is a 501c3 nonprofit that starts a ations about good mental health and how dogs can improve our lives uh Kurt and Trisha Baker um were here earlier uh in the evening uh while speaking of the heat the township website under Health topics and reports has a section on hot weather topics uh one of the tips uh talks about um quickly dehydrating so make sure there's all sorts of tips but one is to make sure you drink water before during and after uh if you're going out to exercise because between the high temperatures and humidity um anyone of any age can can dehydrate pretty quickly and we don't want to see anyone um you know passing out on the streets uh on June 15th I attended a presentation on Open Space by merer County Executive Dan Benson so we uh thank uh him for coming into our our West Windsor uh public library and and giving uh an update a presentation uh West Windsor human relations Council had a very nice diversity Day celebration at Grover Middle School on June 15th which I attended and thanks to chair Jord Prasad and all the members for organizing the music presentations uh and food uh Happy Father's Day to all who celebrated this month and congratulations to all the students graduating from high school north and High School South and to all those graduating from uh public schools and priv from private schools uh and happy juneth uh to all too uh G you um I think you've covered it all yeah should sorry madam president I just wanted to add something um last week uh was juneth uh as it's known and I just I'd be remissed not to mention you know the importance of it not only to myself but to for Humanity um I take great pride in being the first African-American male ever elected in West Windsor's 227 year history um obviously the first female was Diane Sone here in West Windsor first African-American female I'm the first African-American male I was also the first African-American male on the West wisor School Board um which I take great pride in uh but I'm mentioning that not for accolades or accommodation or any type of pat on the back for myself I mention that because of just how far we have actually come as a community and the diversity in this community and respect of persons in this community um I'm a son of two retired teachers and Educators my grandfather was very instrumental in the early parts of the civil rights movement in Georgia and South Carolina and my parents are from Georgia and South Carolina as well so I just I just always like to mention just so that we have a greater understanding of each other um and what others may have to go through in life um I've never played victim and anyone who knows me knows that I've served this community extensively um I always look at Humanity as being a blessing to others regardless of your skin color it matters not your race um but I do like to say and just make note of it that so many atrocities that we have going on in this world right now and we all push and fight for peace I just want people to recognize that you know the largest atrocity for people of African-American descent or African descent took place on this land and in the United States of America that we all love and value so much and so many of those individuals who participated in some of those atrocities four three to four maybe five six Generations ago was not that long ago so I just wanted to mention you know the importance of juneth the importance of historical months ethnically for all of us which is very important I value it um you know I've had to go through so much disc mination bigotry in my life and like I said I don't play the victim card and then never done that U my kids have gone had to go through it um even here in this community my kids have had go through it from touching their hair to being told that they're too dark two years ago uh being told that they were too dark on one of our school buses and you know myself and my wife having to explain that so I just you know I know people hear about juneth and they hear about these different holidays and things that nature but I just think as a community um um as we value each other's religious practices ethnic practices backgrounds and experiences I just think it's very very important that we get to know each other even more so and respect each other because you just never know what people are going through you never know what people have gone through in their history of their family and things that nature so I just wanted to add that note um because juneth was last week thank you madam president thank you for your uh very thoughtful comments gay any comments from clerk's office nope we're good okay so we'll move on uh we have one public hearing tonight on 2024-25 by modifying Provisions pertaining to storm water control regulations and driveways the proposed changes to the storm water regulations are based B on the New Jersey Department of environmentals model ordinance the amendments to article 21 storm water control are required by the state in order to reflect the provisions of the state's adopted Inland flood rules at njac 7 colon 13 and njac 7 col 8 passage of the Amendments also allows for enforcement at the township level in addition L use code standards for driveway design are proposed for sections 20-29 and 20-62 a driveway definition is also proposed to be added to the code I now open the public hearing on 202 24-14 if anyone would like to make a public comment please come up to the microphone and state your name and address and you will have up to three minutes uh to make a comment hi good evening uh my name is Warren mlac five stonely Drive um I went to the planning board meeting uh last Thursday uh where there was also a hearing on the storm water ordinance I was disappointed in the discussion and the outcome there were about eight speakers from the town who spoke that about their desire to strengthen the ordinance to protect the town from flooding using ideas of thought leaders in this area like the Watershed Institute I specifically asked for the pl planning board my my request was to let us know if the township had reviewed the recommendations proposed by council person Weiss at the previous Town council meeting no one answered my question it seemed to me that the easiest thing the board could have done at that meeting would have been to say to the speakers thank you for your comments we know you want to protect the town from flooding as much as we do we will get back to you instead the planning board voted to approve the ordinance as is and did not give any assurances that they would look into the speaker's requests to strengthen the rules to regulate storm waterer runoff during the discussion I could see that a few members of the planning board weren't sure whether to approve or reject the ordinance here are some of the arguments that the mayor who was a member of the planning board gave to convince the other members of the planning board to approve the ordinance which was um ultimately approved with one objection in my opinion none of these arguments hold water the mayor said that making any changes to strengthen the rules would increase the cost to homeowners my comment the planning board did not present any cost benefit analysis of the ordinance and they did not present any cost benefit analysis of the effect of strengthening the ordinance there was no data presented to make a decision using this criteria next the mayor pointed out that two of the public speakers asking to strengthen the ordinance were in lawsuits against the town for warehouse projects that had previously uh been approved my question should Township residents be ignored because they are fighting the town on other matters especially if they are engaged in local environmental issues that are related to the topic that is being considered this is an ad hominum attack the mayor said that he and the planning board represent about 30,000 people in town and he has heard from other many other residents that they are happy with the ordinance so the board shouldn't feel the need to put any weight on what the speakers who spoke at the hearing had to say I'm paraphrasing here he didn't say exactly that that's how I took it my comment the mayor did not offer any data to document who in the town has weighed in on the details of the ordinance isn't the point of the hearing to let the public speak in support her opposition to the ordinance if the mayor has other public feedback shouldn't he bring it to the hearing and present it to the board uh finally the board's mayor's final question to the board was whether the ordinance would be better whether the township would be better off approving or rejecting the proposed ordinance my comment I'll I'll finish in a sec as everyone on the board knew the town must update the ordinance to reflect new flood maps approved by the D so this was a false Choice the choice was really to approve the ordinance as is or amended to include additional rules to regulate storm waterer runoff the p d said that their required updates were the minimum leaving the township townships to add additional roles as they see fit thank you thank you hi my name is Willa in ler three Carlile Court I don't want to Echo everything that Warren mlock just said so I just would like to really say that I'm in concurrence with what he shared because I was also at that pting board meeting p a Warman five stonely Drive I live in the same house as Warren mlac and I concur in his comments um and in and in will inlanders I just want to have us look at this like from 30,000 feet up are we going to adopt an ordinance that is Builder driven or Community Driven and I want to remind everyone because I see a through line between our discussion about land use and warehouses and storm water management that the Watershed Institute Sophie gavier presented a letter back in July 2022 um following her comments to the planning board in which she warned that this area that Mercer County was at Gater risk of precipitation compared to other parts of the state um and her letter said precipitation is likely to increase by more than 20% from the 1999 Baseline by 2100 and recall that the bridg point Warehouse project which sadly is being challenged in the appell division by The Watershed Institute relies on maps drawn in 19 1999 we now have an opportunity to do the common sense thing because this is a very smart set of folks sitting here on Council and look at the very reasonable enhancements suggested by The Watershed Institute and proposed by councilman Weiss and say yes this area is more at risk than other parts of the state and you know Close Your Eyes For a Moment imagine the Avalon Bay development which comes to the very edge of the road on Washington Road without any trees any best man management practice of rain Gardens that would absorb water and compare it to what the school district did at High School South those are the kinds of Common Sense enhancements that councilman Weiss and the Watershed Institute were talking about in terms of requiring more for redevelopment areas which Avalon Bay is so please please take a moment in this discussion tonight and look at the changes that watered Institute and councilman Weiss are suggesting they make sense for this community thank you so much thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this ordinance yes my name is a Fran books and I live on excuse me 26 Indian runroad but I'm here uh talking to you as a chair of environmental commission and I'd like to read to you the resolution adopted by environmental commission regarding the subject we are discussing so worse is the desire West Windsor Township environmental commission to promote matters which enhance the health safety quality of life and environment of the community and whereas the state of New Jersey Inland flood protection rule adopted in July of 2023 recognizes the negative impacts of extreme rainfall events which are expected to intensify uh in New Jersey whereas the Inland flood protection rule ensures the new and reconstructed improvements are designed using the best available climate informed precipitation data so as to provide protections from these negative impacts both now and for the future whereas the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has provided a template for amendments to the storm water control regulations for municipalities within the state that reflect the protections provided by the Inland flood protection rule that can be enforced at the local level whereas 2024 draft amendments to the West Windsor Township storm waterer control regulations at article 21 Within Chapter 200 of the township land use code prepared to address the municipality requirements to to comp with the said rule were reviewed at a special meeting of the environmental Commission on May 23rd 2024 with minor comments and suggestions on the draft provided by commission members to Township staff and whereas amongst the purpose of the West Windsor Township environmental commission is offering advice and recommendations to the West Windsor Township Administration mayor and Township Council and planning board regarding matters related to the environment now therefore be it resolved that West Windsor Township environmental commission endorses the 2024 draft amendments to the storm water control regulations at article 21 for adoption into the township land use code by the West Windsor Township Council uh it is further resoled a copy of the resolution to be sent to the mayor hont maratha Township Council and the planning board of West Windsor Township a role call vote unanimous in support date May 23rd 2024 thank you you is there anyone else who wishes to speak during this public hearing if so please come to the mic state your name and address for the record seeing none all right seeing none um I need a motion to close uh the public hearing and public comment so move second roll call mandal yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes motion to adopt 202 24-14 so move second yeah we have to um roll call on the motion to adopt no oh public you're going to do Council Council you're gonna let Council discuss first okay right okay uh anyone have any Council comments that you want to say first no no okay no um Dan yes I have a lot to say actually so you might want to settle in um I'd like to reflect on my experience over the last six weeks regard ing the revisions to the storm water ordinance this process started on May 14th when the mayor sent a draft of the ordinance to the council as well as a detailed timeline of the upcoming meetings and process to move this forward while I felt the schedule was a bit fast-tracked I was appreciative of the clarity provided and expectation per set Council was given two weeks to review and prepare for a discussion for the first public meeting with a stated goal to to quote go over the draft ordinance and to quote get Council input after receiving this notice I got to work I only had two weeks the ordinance was 44 pages I read it multiple times I read the NJ DP guidelines and the model ordinance I reached out to other townships to learn what they had passed I found a great article on this topic in the April issue of the New Jersey state League of municipalities official publication I contacted residents and subject matter experts to learn and to listen to their perspectives I found a wealth of information from the Watershed Institute who had a written who had written a model ordinance and held a workshop on this exact topic so after doing the work which took the entire two weeks I gathered my thoughts and prepared my remarks my statement presented during the prescribed time frame of the council meeting on 528 and sent via email to the council and administration the next morning was a recommendation to further strengthen the ordinance I detailed six areas where I thought there could be improvements I provided my input my guidance my counsel if you will because after all that is my responsibility it's our responsibility as council members to provide Council it's in our title we are counselors my recommendations were not radical but I'm also realistic I didn't expect every recommendation to be included verbatim in the final draft but I did expect them to be considered and discussed I welcome debate and discussions that's how we learn and that's how we collaborate effectively and reach the best decisions what happened next and in the following weeks is rather troubling there was no council discussion about the recommendations that I provided there's not a single question from the council not a single comment from the council about any of my recommendations why any of them were not feasible no one expressed their opinion on why any of my recommendations were not to be discussed and no evidence was presented of objection to these recommendations as the legislative branch of our mun ipal government we are supposed to be a deliberative institution and a body of equals as per the prescribed schedule two weeks later an updated version of the ordinance was presented for introduction it included all the changes that my colleagues had recommended but did not include any changes regarding my recommendations again not a word from the council as to why my Rec recommendations were not viable during the council meeting on June 10th when the ordinance was formally introduced I repeated my recommendations and expressed my disappointment that none of them were considered and instead of a discussion of any substance about the recommendations councilwoman mandal made a statement that attempted to dismiss them altogether misrepresenting my participation in the process and falsely claiming that my recommendations had come too late even though they were given during the prescribed council meeting this is all reflected in the public record last week the ordinance was on the agenda at the planning board to get their input in recommendations I once again shared my recommendations to further strengthen the ordinance and asked the planning board to consider these recommendations eight other members of the community attended the meeting as well all making statements in support of strengthening the ordinance and once again not a single question was raised about the specific recommendation that was proposed also during the planning board meeting the mayor stated that the ordinance was reviewed by the council and that they quote fixed whatever they thought needed to be fixed that would be a true statement if it included except for council member Weiss's recommendations he also stated that the choice was to accept or reject the ordinance which was not truthful the actual Choice was to accept it as is or make recommendations to modify and strengthen it and just and act and finally despite overwhelming public comment in support of strengthening the ordinance he stated that the desire to strengthen the storm waterer ordinance was not representative of the broader Community yet offered no imperal data to substantiate this claim a motion was made and adopted to return the ordinance to the council as presented with a couple of minor edits and that it was in compliance with the West Windsor master plan even though throughout that entire meeting there was no mention or any discussion of how it comply so that brings us to today and as I reflect on what happened I'm reminded of something a boss of mine had shared with me many years ago over the course of my professional career I've had the opportunity to work with some really great leaders and in this case my boss was also a client I was the program director for a massive project at a financial services uh firm on Wall Street the project impacted every Department in The Firm so the team was highly matrixed it was a challenge to get every Department alignance with success since each group had different priorities and he said to me Dan people need to hear things three times before they actually hear and as my career progressed his statement continued to resonate some colle colleagues even suggested that the number was more like 10 times but the principle remains it's not easy to hear and absorb new information especially when it might conflict with your predisposed position or opinion that's why curiosity listening collaboration are vital for local governments to achieve optimal results that align with their constituents concerns curiosity drives leaders to seek Innovation innovative solutions and stay informed with current and emerging Trends active listening encourages that all voices are heard Fosters trust and responsiveness to genuine needs and collaboration brings together diverse perspectives harnessing our collective experience and resources to address comp lexity and complex issues effectively together these qualities create a responsive inclusive and proactive governance model ensuring that decisions reflect the community's best interest and lead to sustainable and impactful outcomes we claim that we have a diverse Council but diversity without inclusion is meaningless and inclusion without Equity is also meaningless so in summary over the past six weeks I've been deeply involved in the revisions to the storm water ordinance despite the tight review period i d diligently examined the ordinance I consulted numerous resources and subject matter experts my comprehensive review culminated in six recommendations for strengthening the ordinance which I presented to the council disappointingly my input was never discussed when the revised ordinance was introduced on June 10th none of my suggestions were included and my contributions were disparaged by a fellow council member the planning board also overlooked my recommendations despite public support for a stronger ordinance this experience underscores the importance of respect curiosity listening and collaboration with without these elements diverse perspectives and genuine deliberation are lost leading decisions leading to decisions that do not reflect the community's needs and concerns diversity and inclusion must be coupled with Equity to ensure effective governance that serves the best interests of all constituents thank you for your patience thank you Andrea okay um I wasn't planning out a large speech on this since I've probably already made a number of comments on it but since we're discussing what happened at that meeting um you did make a very long and involved um speech and yet you had two weeks you were asked to send any of your comments ahead of times so that the engineer that was going to review the ordinance with us could see them so that they could look at them so that they could be discussed at the meeting so the engineer wouldn't essentially be shocked that there was suddenly going to be a comment at the meeting um you could have taken that written comments and sent them to the engineer even that morning so that he would know there was some additional questions that he would be prepared perhaps to answer some of those questions and instead of doing that um what you what you did was you waited until the entire discussion Page by page of the ordinance took place at the meeting with the engineer there with people asking intricate questions which at any point uh you could have asked any of your recommendations to the engineer during the meeting um even if you hadn't given them to him ahead of time which personally I feel like that was that was kind of oh a nasty trick to do on the staff not to give any warning like that um and yet you chose basically not to question any of the parts of the ordinance and then at the end after the staff had come back sat back was done with the discussion it was now a council discussion um when we were pretty much done with that talking you um you read your speech uh which which is essentially I guess the preamble to the the watersheds um hope for a ideal ordinance um and so and even during this if you're saying I never answered anything at several points I told you that one of the things in the Preamble we actually had in our ordinance in matter of fact we had parts of it before this version because a number of the things from the um from the uh Watershed they have put in previous iterations and you and even that's been ignored if you want to talk about ignoring what somebody says um just everybody it seems like you just keep asking for it no matter how many times I've said hey that's already in there so um that's and and that's on a point of view of the of the process so my comment on the process is that we do try um to give the staff some sort of idea if we are going to question things that they have some time to do that we did set this up councilman Jers fought for and got a early discussion usually something like having the staff member coming and wouldn't be done till much later but both councilman Jers and I said no we want we want an early work session where there's a lot of open discussion where we're still talking about a draft ordinance and we still can make changes as opposed to what's happened in a number of times in the past which is somebody com in who's a staff member and then we can't make as many changes anyway that's that's just an answer to this we can go back and forth on who said what forever but that's my belief that you should have um given the staff some kind of an idea that you were looking to do something you obviously wrote this out you obviously contacted other people uh so so you did have uh you were taking action and it would have been nice to give a heads up um and you could have asked uh other members of council hey this is a particular idea instead of instead of giving a very broad essentially saying I want to replace your ordinance that you've just worked on for the last six months with my ordinance which is how that pretty much came across there was not it was it was not a um you know specifics anyway um l as far as I'm concerned I've I've been probably dealing with the storm water um since I joined the environmental commission uh I think we're up at seven years ago I don't know I'd have to add all that up it's late um as a matter of fact my first introduction to storm water was um we had members from the uh stor from the um Watershed come in to the meeting and and uh give some overview of some of the what at that time was a new idea which was to use green infrastructure as part of storm water control and I looked at that and really liked it and so I've been looking at things with that ever since um I've watched a number of the The Watershed videos that they've had over the years uh there were some some that had to be looked at by the way the planning board was required to watch some of them I brought those into the environmental commission and said hey there's more out there um suggested that they they watch it also and I've been involved in some of the in some the storm water ordinances and in a number of things involving storm water so um I've been anxious to see this ordinance also the mayor can tell you that I've asked for it a number of of times um and was glad to see that it was finally ready and that we would have this chance to have this have this discussion and I and I've looked through that I've looked through the Watershed model ordinance I've looked through things that have happened here in the past I've looked through other things I looked through the D ordinance I've looked through our draft ordinance I reviewed our current ordinance the model ordinance from De various proposals and models with addition potential changes and the draft ordinance in various stages since it was provided by the administration I want to thank the mayor and Engineering for giving us chances for input and discussion and council president Jas for hosting the work session with our Township engineer everybody put a lot of work into crafting a good ordinance that improves our storm water handling yet minimizes the impact on our residents and their ability to enjoy their homes I particularly like that our engineering department enhanced the ordinance with strong maintenance requirements for storm water handling infrastructure as this regulates not only potential projects but existing development I know how hard this will actually be to implement and I appreciate the effort as it will see benefits throughout West Windsor I feel this is a good ordinance that goes beyond the state requirements that matters in areas that matter most outside of this ordinance I'm going to continue to work on the bigger problem of major flooding from the millstone River by pursuing a regional initiative and I look forward to further discussions with the D thank you thank you Andrea and thank you everyone for your comments the ordinance we are voting on tonight was reviewed by the Township's environmental commission including the township engineer at its special open public meeting on May 23rd with a few recommended comments the commission unanimously voted to endorse it on May 28th at its business meeting after time for review and written comments and questions the township Council publicly reviewed the proposed ordinance on a page by Page basis with the township engineer comments and suggestions were made and some were incorporated into the final proposed ordinance during council's June 10th business meeting it introduced ordinance then referred to the planning board at the June 19th planning board meeting its members publicly discussed the introduced ordinance with the township engineer and voted to send its endorsement and minor wording changes back to the council the planning board also stated that the introduced ordinance is in compliance with the Township's master plan after extensive Council environmental commission planning board in public review the final introduced ordinance does put the Township in a stronger more more environmentally sustainable position with higher standards these improved standards will enhance storm water Control in West Windsor as well as bring us into compliance with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection requirements motion anyone else may you want to say something me it's my recommendation so I know would like to defend it so um then I wasn't uh planning to talk about some topics but in your speech you used every Focus tested word in the vocabulary so I'll have to talk about it respect diversity Equity respect also means that after you have made your argument if people don't agree with you to accept that this time you were not successful next time you'll try hir respect doesn't mean uh oh I instead of three times and next time I'll just have to yell 10 times from them to make me accept the argument um the the you keep claiming uh there was overwhelming support overwhelming support four people spoke today the same four people plus five extra people spoke at the planning board meeting just the environmental commission members equate to that number of people and these are the people environment commission members who have spent years studying the issue they went through the ordinance Page by page page by Page made suggestions and every suggestions that was made was either accepted or rejected and people can go online and see thankfully our Council meetings are taped when we had Francis here going through the ordinance Page by page I don't remember you making a single comment that on page five I would like to include this or page eight I would like to include this every comment that every other council member made was either accepted or rejected with the reason why we can't do that why that's not feasible uh to claim that you are not listen to um it's completely blatantly untrue instead you just read a prepared speech either by you or Watershed Institute or somebody else prepared speech saying that I don't like the ordinance just exchange everything and make it so tight that nobody else can develop anything in West Winson as the mayor the challenge is twofold the challenge is to make sure we prevent flooding but at the same time not be so honorous and I'm glad some of the people with smaller homes are here to hear this uh make it so honorous that people are in convenience greatly without any any payback to the community and most of your suggestions you gave would not have resulted in any any Improvement in in uh flooding except making it inconvenience for anybody who is trying to develop the property make modifications or add a garage or something else especially those in small rooms the major flooding in West Wier is caused by Upstream water from other towns for instance the area around Washington Road is part of the Stony Brook Millstone River Watershed and flooding is a result of mstone river in January 2022 the West wi Township Council approved a resolution asking the state of New Jersey to get involved to to address the flooding in this watershed area that is 265 mil square miles and spans 25 towns and five counties and I have to give a lot of credit to Andrea for spearing the uh uh effort this problem that's created by 25 towns in five counties and 265 square miles is not going to be solved by saying that you can't put additional driveway on your property one town alone cannot fix it we have asked some of the towns most prun to flooding to pass a similar resolution and we are still getting responses so far only West Wier cranberry heightstown Manuel Boro Princeton and Lawrence have passed similar resolutions we have met with d and trying to get them to address that issue unfortunately the meeting scheduled in June had to be postponed because the D person had conflict we will be meeting with d in July to discuss a real solution that is a regional solution not simply saying making political statements that we should just restrict what we do in West wiir we have always scared about flood removing new development for its effects on storm water is a top priority for our staff for all approvals and you will notice it if you come to the planning board meetings in most cases the final approved applications exceed legal requirements for storm water handling unlike in many towns in New Jersey we are in Forefront of assuming that we comply with DP timing requirements for new regulations we did so with the recent tree ordinance the 2021 stormwater ordinance and now with tonight storm water ordinance required to be adopted by July our engineering department works very hard for a long period of time on the new ms4 sewage permit requirements in May Francis attended a watershed Institute meeting on Regional approaches to the asmic Watershed Improvement plan that will be part of the new require ments the West winster storm Water Ordinary includes several announcements our engineering department reviewed many options before producing the final draft ordinance the result is a balance that meets and exceeds DP requirements but takes into account the needs of West Wier residents just some of the enhancements include maintenance and inspection report requirements for both existing and new developments that's something that Andrea mentioned which me means every development will have to maintain proper uh Records to prevent localized flooding this is a major project that will affect properties across the town and will take considerable staff time as many properties are older it provides a storm water detention improvements to be installed and working prior to any increase in imperious cover while a project is being worked on it enhances designed standards for storm water control water quality and placement and it requires additional pre-treatment measures as Town Township engineer Francis stated at the planning board meeting some of the suggested changes by Mr Weiss will go Way Beyond DP requirements and could negatively impact our residents by making it cost prohibitive or impossible to make minor changes to their homes and property this would be particularly hard for smaller Property Owners such as in pnck or Varian City yet will pay little or no dividend to solve our for learning problems the critics claim they care about flooding this action speak otherwise as Andria pointed and I pointed out when the ordinance was being discussed here at the meeting not a single suggestion when you can go on on the council uh uh uh video and check for myself not a single suggestion was made simply a statements a generic statements saying we don't like the ordinance and adopt other ordinance that is not what what we do we have to adopt an ordinance that is best for West Wier and West Wier has large properties small properties various challenges and when we come up with an ordinance we try to make sure that it is is not greatly inconvenienced anybody um uh any specific property owner and especially when the changes suggested won't improve the situation for anyone so I'm in conclusion the ordinance has presented strike a fine balance between taking effective action against future flooding while at the same time not be honorous to existing residents I will strongly encourage the council to adopt the ordinance thanks okay ready for me I got the motion to adop you've already done that done okay you've got your motion and your second right are you ready for a roll call yes yes roll call vote Mandel yes Weiss I abstained Whitfield yes Jers yes ordinance passes okay all right move on to the consent agenda okay does anyone need anything P want me to read it you can May 13 2024 business session is amended May 28th 2024 business session amended bills and claims okay I see no one indicating that they need anything pulled so a motion to approve the consent agenda so move second Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes okay recommendations from the administration and Council clerk 2024 r140 approval of liquor license renewal for 2024 2025 2024 R1 41 approving the appointment of Gan Ward as the registar vital statistics for the interim period of June 25th 2024 through October 31st 2024 sh could you please be quiet thank you 2024 r142 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a memorandum of understanding with Mercer County for the purchase of a vehicle from the West Windsor for the West Windsor Township senior citizen Transportation program 2024 r143 authorizing the insertion of a special item of Revenue into the 2024 Municipal budget from the state of New Jersey clean communities program for 82,2 2.91 2024 r144 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute amendment number one to the Professional Services agreement with Martin appraisal Associates Inc in the amount of $650 for the acquisition of the RightWay easements from block 15.03 lot 46 and lot 46.01 Hunter property for a total not to exceed of 5,150 and 2024 r145 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the settlement agreement between West Windor Township and CP Princeton Junction LLC for litigation involving block 6.20 lot 22 commonly referred to as the Acme Woods does anyone need anything pulled no seeing none can I have a motion to approve 2024 D r140 through 2024 D r145 so move second Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes motion approved 22415 an ordinance to amend and supplement the code of the township of West Windsor 1999 chapter 200 entitled land use by amending the r-1c district and the rp7 district and the pl and the parking standards I have a motion to introduce so move second roll call vote Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes public hearing will be August 12th 2024 that's where you'll make your public comments at the hearing that's just an introduction just introduction Lind want to explain it to no well it's introdu introduction it's not a it's not the hearing it's it's just to introduce it Noti future he right right and that that's what we do on all of them all right additional public comment um you'd like to make a comment please come up to the microphone state your name and address and you'll have up to three minutes William rutage 19 Scott Avenue I appreciate everybody taking the time to address the comments from earlier um of course I haven't seen any of what is being proposed as part of the settlement um I would be interested in finding out more um I would also request that if there is any way as a nuclear option to go take that final step and take the property by eminent domain I do believe that it is within the rights of the township for the public good to make that move and utilize the funds because it has been in the um the master planning documents the property owner was aware of it when he bought it that it was designated for that use so I do believe that you shouldn't dismiss it outright and to research it some more please uh for consideration um also the Acme hasn't been in that shopping center for quite some time um I would respectfully request that we refer to it as the Baran woods so that we can move beyond the Acme shopping center and the image that some people have about what that property was and instead what it could be thank you very much Mr rutage if you email me tomorrow to the Township Clerk I can get you those documents for you to to have just to give me a quick email yep Susan Abby 5 Scott Avenue um I'm very familiar with the uh court case with seiser as a matter of fact I even had submitted on behalf of the township affidavits uh in favor of preserving the woods and was wonderfully treated with getting subpoenaed by Mr seiser to uh undergo question um I understand how long and how much money we have spent on this issue I still believe the the woods should be preserved if they could be I don't think Mr seiser is going to agree with it unless somehow he was forced I do have a question about the process you're voting tonight on yes or no to the settlement is that correct did and then you also are introducing the ordinance but the ordinance isn't that part of the settlement so in a sense you are also voting for The ordinance even though it's supposed to go here and supposed to go there and supposed to come back and all that stuff essentially you're voting for The ordinance Itself by by doing that so there's really is not going to be much that we can say unless we're willing to go back to court with Mr seiser if he doesn't agree is that correct yes yeah um also my question is this property is one property with two zones commercial Zone and the acne Woods is residential is zoned residential it's the only piece of parcel in all of West Windsor that has two different zonings on one parcel my question is does that now make the entire parcel zoned commercial are they giving you're not giving up the residential so that's sort of so the the daycare center is going to be in the residential Zone okay okay um my question about the trails which I believe is also part of the settlement is that true requiring him to create Trails no that's what township do that gives us permission to have the to do the trails technically property still because the the ordinance says the developer is required to create that was taken out if you look at it there should be brackets around that oh okay that's not the yes that would change and that's put into the agreement okay it says the the agreement stipulates that shall be done by the developer when they develop the property is what the ordinance says right but that's if you take a look it's the brackets around so that's that's being removed from the ordinance it's been taken out okay my reason for that is the woods were so heavily wooded that we created just walking paths just by walking through it over the last 80 years and when Mr seiser bought the property he immediately took down onethird of the woods so what we used to look at Woods we now look at the back of shopping center and so now we don't need Trails because he took down so many trees you can just walk through the woods you don't need a path I'm a little concerned because I it says that they will create multi-use Trails I don't know what that means whether that means Paving or our bike's going to go through that you know because we're interested in conservation not Recreation for the woods so we don't want to be told as we have in the past I will comment let all we'll finish public comment then I will answer your question and I'll be here as I said I'll be here after the meeting as long as you get tired I'm here I don't get tired easily so we don't go back and forth so um we can address what your your concerns but we're not going to have a dialogue back and forth right now all right that was just what my concern was and also it just would have been nice if we could have seen the settlement before you voted on it thank you thank again Dave Kim 11 Scott Avenue thank you again for answering the comments uh I would also be interested in seeing a copy of the settlement agreement and it exhibits or attachments to better understand what is being AG to more okay yeah and uh similar to previous comment um I understand I think I understand the process that now the council town has agreed to a settlement agreement the next step is to do it has introduced an ordinance but I'm confused about the ordinance has to go through a public process with uh comments and consideration but if it's already been agreed to then does that short circuit and preempt the public process um no no it does not it it's part of an agreement and there's a process we have introduced the ordinance we will um have a public hearing on that so it's it's it's the same type for any ordinance when it gets introduced then usually a couple weeks later we have the uh the hearing so yes it's so public can can get up and and make any comments that they want as they always can during public hearings okay and they would be considered an if compelling or there's a good reason to consider then this ordinance would not be adopted or or um amended in some way well I can't get into hypotheticals I can only say we follow the the legal proper um procedure on this so it's been introduced and then there'll be a public hearing and anyone can come and make their comments right I'm also interested to hear what was the argument for the zoning being improper and what was the argument for it being proper okay this the reason for the settlement was because somebody the developer said the zoning wasn't proper the Township in defense was saying that it was proper right but what's the town's position for white would be property I will answer every question after the public comment is over yeah I don't know but I'm interested in the council's response to that question it's not it's not a dialogue back and forth all right I appreciate it thanks thanks anyone else Mr ralo Uh Kevin rello 106 Harris Road um just a couple real quick things uh earlier the mayor stated that he never heard anything about the town buying the property um however once again as mentioned an article in nj.com dated May 9th 2013 was an article about mayor Shay discussing the town buying the property um another question would be so there are countless daycares and Child devel Development facilities in the area what would happen if this facility fails at that point now we're stuck with a building that's from my understanding is uh probably going to be around 6,600 square feet with 45 parking spaces in the front facing Alexander uh so if that facility doesn't work what would be in what would go in its place uh how will the property be landscaped will it be landscaped similar to the existing property where there's absolutely nothing blocking the building so when you drive by you're seeing his big building and his big obnoxious green sign that lights up basically all of Alexander and Harris in the surrounding area um and then what's going to be done to improve the intersection at Alexander and Harris that really shouldn't have been there in the first place it's it was in a bad intersection when it was a t now it's a horrible intersection that you can actually go across or people can make a left there rather than making a left at the real entrance to the shopping center that has been there now with the daycare being on the left as you go through directly you would make a direct left turn into that parking lot I'm assuming it's going to be minimal footage from Alexander that's going to cause a real problem when there's people saying oh do I go left do I go right towards PJs and then it's going to back up on the Alexander and Harris causing a real problem uh I think these are some things that should be considered um just just so you understand that'll all be part of the site plan no I understand that I'm just bringing it up now so but it's not appropriate so it it can't be a concern of mine now but it's not something this Council reviews that is something no okay all right well I'll just state it it's good comments no and it's I I wouldn't say it's inappropriate I would say it's appropriate for a resident to State that's concerned about his neighborhood I will see thank you anyone else okay seeing none uh we'll move on to council reports yes I'm sorry I'm sorry yeah so uh let me ask answer some of the questions um first about the trails I mean the idea is we not looking to develop the trails I mean in fact everybody I've talked to I have said that we have the option but don't expect that suddenly 15 Trails will pop up there the whole idea was to make a point that those woods can't be restricted to anybody enjoying the woods the Mr sner wanted them to be private in which case he could have uh prevented any body from going in the woods the whole point was to make sure that the woods are accessible to the public if we so choose in future so that's why that provision is in the that provision is in the uh in the agreement that if we so choose in some future date we will um uh we we we have the right to develop the trails and maintain the Trails um regarding what arguments were made for or against the U zoning uh um frankly there have been so many hearings I don't remember but I don't think we quite uh reach to final Point uh because there were so many depositions and like Abby said I don't know if you had deposed I was deposed I know Alison Miller was deposed every person who has dealt with that act Woods was deposed um but once the once we lost the argument that the woods are preserved because we always thought they were preserved and even Mr seiser thought they were preserved because he had paid taxes as if they were preserved once we lost that argument our hand became a little weaker if we had won that argument we would have been much stronger position um and again we did look at one of the reasons why no attempt was made by even prior mayor to purchase the property because everybody assumed it was preserved why I spend money on buying something that's already preserved I mean I've talked to a few people and that's their explanation that we never seriously looked at buying it um since it was preserved and I've talked to I mean we have done condemnation as Township in last two few years so I'm very much aware of the process we condemned H property and bought it uh but that was before any application was made to the planning board or to the township we just in the discussion phase it's a lot easier so I have talked to the lawyer and I've been told that you you won't win that argument in court in which case uh there's no point wasting money and time and uh at the end of the day uh you don't know what to expect so um this was a hard decision I mean it took me seven years and however many years May sh before that um to come to that conclusion and lot of questions you asked about our s plan review questions as Mike pointed out you are you will get every opportunity to come to the planning board uh when that plan is presented and this this adoption of the ordinance simply says that that um um that U use is allowed uh the daycare reviews in that zone is allowed so he will spend money to do fully engineered plan which will answer your traffic questions which will answer your Landscaping questions which will answer your every other questions and you have every right to come and ask those questions and planning board can restrict um um impose limitations on the developer for example they can say you need to construct a BM you can need to put trees on the BM to make sure there's no light shining in somebody's house and I've served on the planning board for six years now they're very conscientious about that they will certainly do that and and make every effort to make sure that the impact is minimum what the ordinance does do is set this uh set the setback requirements and every other requirements and I will share the conceptual plan with anybody who is interested I've already given to whoever few people I've talked to um and you can look how the how the plan looks but that's just conceptual plan he will have to fully engineered and once he Engineers the plan he may realize that he can't do certain things or not do certain things but he will still have to be um be in compliance with the ordinance I don't think um given our history planning board will give them many variances from the ordinance so they will have to come up with the plan that's fully compliance with the ordinance as as it will be adopted if it's adopted so and again I'll be here after the meeting I'll answer any questions you have okay thank you quick statement just to respond to some of the comments um for the gentleman who sort of tying the settlement agreement with the ordinance yes there is definitely a correlation there um the settlement agreement requires the ordinance to to be passed um we're following the process process um that has to be introduced has to be available for public comment um if you look historically it's pretty rare that an ordinance that gets introduced and doesn't get passed statistically um there is an opportunity to make amendments to it but it is intricately po to the settlement agreement and there would be risk for the town if we didn't pass the ordinance because that effectively would invalidate the settlement agreement and as as Michael mentioned it would but is liable to all sorts of could result Financial challenges so um the core really of influence here is really at the planning they're ultimately the ones that make the core decisions about how it looks what can be built the real you know nitty-gritty of those specifics so um that's where you should put your energy in as far as um several people have asked to see the settlement agreement I encourage everybody to look at it and read it um and the course the the ordinance is already available for public but um take a close look at that and um and be prepared you have a a couple months to to dive into so I think it's it's it's a great opportunity for the residents to make their voices heard what they want what they don't want I mean we have to also be realistic but we know again as we said at the beginning we would love to make it free space but open space but we we don't have that option set um with the exception of maybe some nuclear option with a eminent domain I'll leave that for our attorneys to really go there about sanctions that could really be sanctionable because we have a yeah so the micro decision out micro uh the town really taken the task by the courts because they tried to condemn an area of Gren space out yeah yeah so um but thank you for for coming and making your voices heard and I encourage you to keep doing that because that's how we learn and that's a model that we want to use to improve um the community for everybody thank you okay okay we'll move on pleas that's okay public comment is closed the council reports discussion new business uh Andrea let's see the um have that that's FAL commission met on June 13th um trying to see if I had a copy of agenda here NOP um basically we listened um to the um uh clean water action they came in with a suggestion for a uh skip the um skip the plastic ordinance uh where they discussed uh Li limiting uh getting plastic forks or spoons from a restaurant for take out uh um unless unless people ask for it um we had several presentations by some Girl Scouts uh who are doing some projects for the township uh including one in the community park where there's right now if you go look at the where the rain garden and pollinator Garden is you'll see a formation of a little Free Library a spot for a bench and a new little uh Garden area with some trees that's being put in and we also um had some uh General discussion on some of the other kinds of um outdoor projects that are being done the affordable housing committee meeting was held on June 6 which I already gave that uh report at the last meeting and there won't be a meeting on July 4th so the next currently scheduled meeting is probably going to be August 1st thank you yes planning board met on Wednesday June 19th uh first discussion presentation was by represent representatives of the New Jersey Hospital Association regarding specific signage size additional signage and Wall of their property on Alexander Road uh the second lengthy discussion was pertaining to the already aforementioned topic of discussion this evening the storm water ordinance uh we did hear from residents of our Township uh we heard from the board and we heard from Township professionals regarding this ordinance um next planning board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday July 17th thank you thank you Dan uh yes the parking authority met on 12th and uh they are moving forward on the repaving project on the west side of the parking lot they've selected are all Contracting has done business with us in the past we're familiar with them at most bit so that's um moving forward and the only other item really of of interest to us is the um the the dis the ongoing discussion about the um renovation of the old bus station garage not station bus bus garage um I know they're in contact with the mayor's office uh maybe you can make a few comments about sort of where he stand on it's coming I mean we have given them the OU for their comments so it will so I'm really excited about that because it's um it's been a a sore spot for me since I moved here in 1991 and be delightful to see that um turn into some something green and of functional use for the town so thank you good good uh the next meeting of the shade tree commission will be on Wednesday July 24th at 6:30 pm in the municipal building okay any more further Administration updates seeing none you need a Clos session no okay so motion to adjourn so move second second second Andrea all in favor say I hi hi this meeting is adjourned and thank you for everybody for coming and sitting