we're waiting uh councilman Pap good and councilman contract we trying to join by Zoom so hopefully they'll be up there pretty soon they're both traveling um so uh good evening uh an adequate notice of this meeting was required as required by the open public meetings Act was provided through the posting mailing and filing of the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings of the Town Council on December 12th 2023 the notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building provided to the Westfield leader and the star lger and filed with the clerk of the town of Westfield Miss laim May I have a roll call Mayor brindle here council members hoodia here domala here kefir here Saunders here armento here contract here please rise for the invocation which be given by councilman kefir and remain standing for this salute We Gather to make decisions for our community may we use only our best skills in judgment keeping ourselves impartial and neutral as we consider the merits and pitfalls of each matter that is placed before us and always act in accordance with what is best for our community and our fellow citizens and not our own Egos and sense of PR to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all so Jim whoops I oh and we have Council and half good can she hear I mute her can she hear she's I don't any specific comments mayor but I think the first thing tonight is the uh don samit presentation got it okay so don samon presentation for for great okay great so I um so we want to do that now or after my comments we'll do it now I think maybe do it now okay great well good evening everyone um it's good to be here why am I here um our requirement of our settlement agreement with fair share housing center which then became part of our court judgment for our affordable housing plan and we actually codified it as well is annually we are required to discuss at a public meeting uh We've chosen the council meeting in the month of February um the efforts we've taken to provide for 20 additional homes um affordable homes half for families by the construction by nonprofit housing developers that requirement is part of our approved housing plan and although my report is brief I like to not only discuss those efforts but give you you an an overview of the status of our affordable housing PL so um a municipality's affordable housing obligation it's important that we remember it's not it doesn't end with the adoption of our housing plan we have to implement it and we have done so or are doing so in a number of ways um we have inclusionary zoning districts which require as the name implies the inclusion of low and moderate income housing in part of those examples of some of those districts include the Williams Nursery site uh the Parker site uh five um and these were actually in place prior to this this current housing plan that we have now um they holdovers from from prior plans we have affordable housing overlay districts in town these are created as a compliance mechanism under our current plan and they allow for affordable housing development as an option to the underlying zoning which is in uh many cases is uh mixed use or strictly commercial we do require that affordable units be placed in projects that are approved by a zoning change or a use or density variance granted by the zoning board we have dedicated funding from our affordable housing trust fund and I like to always remind everyone that the affordable housing trust fund is funded by development fees it's not a separate tax on homeowners and we use some of those funds for the creation of uh affordable homes by nonprofit um housing developers we also run an affordability assistance program where we provide three months rental assistance for affordable units uh approved under our plan we have an emergency generator program for nonprofit um uh developers and we also can buy down or help create very lowincome units as part of affordable uh uh developments now our housing plan implementation has continued smoothly um just a couple years ago we had to complete what's called a a midpoint um review of our housing plan to ensure that it was working that's a very important step because very often you'll see developers come in and challengeing municipality's housing plan and say it isn't working you need to change it to allow me to develop we had no challenges to our housing plan during the midpoint uh review um and the how affordable housing is occurring in town is part of the summary report which I know was in your Council packets it's been on our town website now for um at least a few weeks and that report is important because we're required to do it number one for our uh Court settlement or fair share settlement in court order and it gets submitted to fair share housing center and it gets submitted to the courts by our special affordable housing legal council so what happened in 2023 we saw site plan approvals for projects which resulted in 12 new uh family affordable units um at 500 North Avenue East 200 South Avenue East and uh Westfield Crossing phase two so a total of 12 affordable units there we saw another uh household take advantage of our 3 month rental assistance program so we've had six separate Awards to date under that program and the big one in 2023 which I believe everyone's very proud of is that we saw the adoption of the American Legion Redevelopment plan which paved the way for 22 units of affordable housing for for veterans so um and then of course uh just this year approve the Redevelopment agreement to see that project come to fruition but in 2020 uh 2023 we saw the adoption of the plan which paved the way for that um specifically for our nonprofit program again we have a responsibility to work with nonprofits for to provide 20 additional homes um by our court approved plan again we have housing uh uh affordable housing trust fund dollars dedicated to that and we have provided funding to assist with the creation of uh eight uh special needs housing units with nonprofit developers since the program is inception uh interesting that I was just talking to um uh Mr fero who will be um working with uh one of those nonprofits in the future um we've also dedicated uh again funds to nonprofits for emergency generator program um we are also required to host an annual meeting with nonprofits and we do that in December of each year we had a number of uh nonprofits come and speak with us the greatest hurdle we're seeing for nonprofits and creating affordable uh developments anywhere but especially in communities like westfields that are well served by mass transit are land costs whenever they go to seek out um or whenever they find an available property they're usually out bit on it and we saw that um uh at least a few times over the past uh few years where nonprofits have been eyeing a property they've spoken to us and they were simply out bit on it um so they very often look to communities and say well what land does the town have available what land does the municipality have available well we're land for we don't have the land to offer up for nonprofits we have slivers of of um vacant land nothing really that's buildable so um they've asked us to perhaps look at a way where we can amend our program to um make it where it's sort of like a pre-approval for a mortgage we're approve funding for the organization prior to them having an actual piece of land or property to to purchase this way they can bring that to their lenders and say hey we already have dedicated funding from the town um so really our housing plan is is going well um we've taken all the necessary steps to provide that realistic opportunity to provide affordable housing in town in accordance with our court approved housing plan and I always like to sort of conclude with a uh what I call a public service announcement and that's for anyone who's listening are watching if you're looking for an affordable unit and there is great demand in New Jersey there are two places you can look online one is through um an organization that we use they act as our administrative agent they handle all the application for Westfield affordable units as well as many other municipalities throughout the state and the website you can look to for that is affordable homes new jersey.com and it's New Jersey is spelled out completely a affordable homes new jersey.com you can fill out a pre-application you can get on waiting lists for um all the affordable units that they have in their system another excellent online resource is the New Jersey Housing Resource Center and you'll find affordable housing um listed from throughout the state and these are both for rental and ownership opportunities so um I'm pleased to see that say that we're we're doing well that our plan is working well we have our next affordable uh round coming up uh shortly and we think that the work that we've done so far is going to help us very well for that next round so I'm happy to answer any questions um but that's that's really where we are a brief overview for you said I was in Trenton today um in my capacity as an executive with the New Jersey League of municipalities and this this is top of mind the 2025 affordable housing legislation that is our going to be our fourth round of negotiations um and so the pending affordable housing legislation which I know I addressed our concerns last time um there's a senate uh committee meeting to be held on March 22nd we are advocating for many of the Amendments that I had referenced in our last meeting um just in terms of the need this they've they've quoted anywhere that this the state needs between 200 and 230,000 was how short we are in affordable units I think the goal of the next round is 89,000 and for people to understand uh in inclusionary housing where 15% of affordable or set aside that certainly our ordinance 89,000 is the equivalent of almost 600,000 units of affordable housing that of housing that needs to be built to deliver 89,000 affordables so um so it's it's a lot you know we're try trying to do it in a way that makes sense for all of our communities especially ours we are land poor as as Don mentioned but um uh more to come on that but it's going to be all of this is mandated to be resolved by I think May of next year right 25 the our existing housing plan has if you will an expiration date of at the end of July 2025 yeah July right so we as a governing body are going to have to come to agreement on Westfield's portal housing settlement by next summer so um anyway thank you Don as always congratulations on a job well done so um so before we get into the agenda tonight I just want to council one ha good is here Linda can you hear us she just said yes Linda you're on mute all right we'll speak yeah I just want to make sure you were here all good I am here great thank you um so I do have a few highlights that I just wanted to mention to everybody first and very importantly a big congratulations to um two boys Westfield High School teams the boy swim team and the boys winter track team uh for their recent state championship wins for the boys track team it was their was it their first state championship in winter track there's third in a row third in a row for them two in a row for the swim team which is unbelievable so uh anyway they will be recognized at a future council meeting which is always a kind of a fun thing for us all to do um I also do want to address um uh some uh about one West some updates on One Westfield Place uh yesterday following nearly a year of litigation we were pleased to learn that the Court ruled in favor of the town in the One Westfield Place lawsuit initiated by the Westfield Advocates similar to the favorable ruling we received in the case against the Sophia the judge's decision was very definitive it reaffirmed the Integrity of the process our extensive due diligence and the sound planning advice we received from our exceptional professionals which guided our decision-making regardless of how you feel about these Redevelopment projects the recent Court decisions in the town should reassure you and all of our taxpayers that we are committed to operating with the utmost integrity and to a process that meticulously follows every legal legal protocol and is transparent well reasoned and informed since the Westfield Advocates have been very public with their allegations most notably that one Westfield place is inconsistent with the master plan among other claims I would like to read some excerpts from the judge's ruling into the public record which specifically addresses them the plaintiffs contend that increased building Heights Building coverage and increased traffic flow of the Redevelopment plan are inconsistent with the mastered plan but yet PRI provide no record support instead the record demonstrates that the Redevelopment plan addresses permitted uses building Heights setbacks and coverage and other criteria in the Redevelopment area along with a multitude of circulation considerations including analysis of traffic and pedestrian matters the Redevelopment plan also addresses building design parking sidewalks and Street Scapes and other asent of the plan demonstrating how they work consistent with the master plan as to building Heights the master plan specifically permitted increased Heights within the Redevelopment area the record simil similarly rebuts the plaintiff's contention that increased traffic flow is not appropriately considered traffic matters were appropriately considered based upon the analysis of a professional planner and traffic engineer the plaintiff's burden is to establish that the Redevelopment plan is not substantially consistent with the master plan however the record demonstrates no inconsistency as such the plaintiffs had failed to meet their board burden but most importantly had the plaintiffs established that the Redevelopment plan was not substantially consistent with the master plan which they did not the plaintiff's burden is to demonstrate arbitrary and cpre action by the governing body here where plaintiffs contend there was a rush to judgment and rubber stamping the stipulated facts alone demonstrate an appropriately supported and developed well-reasoned careful and Sound Decision in issuing his conclusion the judge stated that the court finds that the plaintiffs had failed to meet their burden and the court finds that the record demonstrates that the governing body was not arbitrary capricious or unreasonable and was appropriately and adequately supported by the record and the full judges rolling can be found in the One Westfield Place section of our website and I encourage everyone to read it it's also important to know that the Westfield Advocates litigation has so far cost taxpayers $70,000 to defend $50,000 for One Westfield place in $20,000 for the Sophia they have now filed an appeal in the Sophia case where taxpayers once again foot the bill to defend a lawsuit that The Advocates themselves have admitted they have little to no chance of winning while they also continue to solicit donations to support their legal fees in both cases with that being said and with the litigation behind us I want to reassure those who have concerns about One Westfield place that we hear you in spite of the heated rhetoric we have never stopped listening and neither his street works as details of the plan are finalized we we continue to look for opportunities to address your concerns within the framework of the Redevelopment plan without compromising our complex and favorable Financial agreement while remaining true to the original vision for One Westfield Place specifically a street Works formalizes potential tenants for their office space we will be advocating for any compromises that could be considered in their leasing conversations we can which can address some of the input we've received and still deliver the best possible outcome for Westfield so moving on to tonight's agenda we have a few important legislative items to highlight this evening on the finance policy committee front we'll vote on a resolution to appoint our construction official which will authorize a new four-year term for Frank buoso where's Frank ah um Frank is an incredibly valued member of our professional staff and has done an exceptional job of overseeing the building department and streamlining many of its Pro processes if you have requ acquired any type of construction permit over the last two years you will have experienced the online permitting system that Frank implemented the expediency of the process and the responsiveness of our service oriented staff as a result of his leadership so his appoint reappointment is very well deserved also in finance we'll hear a bond ordinance on first reading authorizing the purchase of the single family home at 1037 Central Avenue on the corner of central atland Sycamore adjacent to the Firehouse number two property the owner is finally ready to sell his property that the town has been seeking to purchase for over 15 years to accommodate the future expansion and Reen renovation of firehouse number two into the new Fire headquarters facility this renovation became a greater priority in the last several years as the existing Firehouse became less capable of accommodating new equipment proper contamination protocols and female firefighters mayor and Andy scbis Administration began an assessment process in 2015 which has led to the action we're taking tonight I also want to clarify that the plans for our new Firehouse headquarters are completely independent of the plans for One Westfield Place once the new high headquarters is completed which will be years away the current Historic Firehouse will serve as the second Firehouse indefinitely until an alternate location and funding sources are secured which may or may not happen and plan plans for an Adaptive reuse of the historic building or approved so lastly on the code review front we have two ordinances on first reading one to clarify permitted awning signed dimensions and one with recommended amen amendments to the projecting side ordinance so we'll vote on a resolution awarding a contract for grinding of brush material following a public bid process so with that I think we can move on to the agenda this evening so may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the Town Council conference and regular meetings of February 1 13 2024 so move by councilman Macky second second second by councilman D any discussion all in favor yes yes oppose this motion is carried now it's time for open discussion by citizens anyone may come up to the microphone and speak to the Council on any subject on which we have jurisdiction please state your name and address for the record and limit your comments to five minutes please thank you mayor Town Council Steven Goodman 322 arenda Circle my first question is for Dan met uh um what exactly is affordable housing what does that really mean what is the cost to the renter and Is this different for different municipalities and what size units are considered affordable that's my first question um why why are we FASTT tracking Quimby place and squiggle way versus doing other important projects in town this particular project was not contractually supposed to happen until much later after at the third phase if at all and mainly I'd like to address the Council on procedure I know that recently with the code review there was discussion about extending talk that we're having right now that we had before interplay between the citizens and the council and I attended the 7 o'clock meeting tonight and I was very much uh encouraged by that talk and I'd like that to be reconsidered for a 10-minute talk five minutes of which will be talk personally and second in interplay if necessary thank you very much Christine Bender okay 404 Dudley Avenue hello and thank you all for your time tonight I don't want to take up too much of your time but I did just want to personally thank councilman Saunders armento dagala and kefir for taking a significant step in continuing to fight against Rising crime in our town and state by introducing assembly bill 8386 when I attended the last Town council meeting two weeks ago I was hoping to learn a little bit more about this bill including when it will be voted on and the current status of it however the meeting quickly became more about the fact that other council members were upset about the way the bill was introduced I must admit that I was both surprised and disappointed to hear the conversation go in the direction that it did because it became politically divisive again and hostile rather than what I thought would be a non-c contentious bipartisan discussion about a bill bill that could help serve our community as a whole as an outsider looking in I'm not really focused on which party or person initiated the bill which is what we heard a lot about but rather I am just appreciative that it was introduced I also remain very grateful to the Westfield Police Department for all of their continued efforts to help keep our community safe while I also feel grateful to those who took additional proactive steps to help establish stiffer penalties on criminals and I think it is fair to be appreciative of both efforts without taking away from the other lastly I want to thank councilman kefir for explaining that vacancies in the Judiciary are also a big part of the problem and for letting us know that making phone calls to the governor and Senators to request that more nominations be put up for the Superior Court judges can be helpful as well I think educating the public on things like this can help Empower us as Citizens to try and get more involved by doing our small part so thank you again for that suggestion in closing I know that when councilman Saunders asked the mayor if she was behind the proposed bill that she hadn't read through it yet so I was wondering if any of the four councilmen who introduced the bill could elaborate a little more tonight on exactly what the bill is intended to do when they think the bill will be voted on and the current status of it I know that some people in the community including myself are eager to understand this better as well as looking forward to your emails with updates and legislative advocacy plans thank you again to the entire Council for your time and for all that you do Neil Brown 543 Prospect Street good evening I'd like to address our four new Council councilmen I'm Westfield resident of 45 years and award one constituent I've had some questions relative relevant to the social media post your social media Post in recent weeks about Public Safety I thought it'd be C cour courteous to send questions directly to you each via email so I did that on February 14th but not one of you has seemed fit to respond so now I'll ask these questions here did you engage mayor brindle and council members have good Macky Daria and contract to work cooperatively with you on this issue if not why not did any of you discuss the issues at the council's Public Safety Committee before publicly issuing your declaration is on official Town letterhead if not why not also before uh did you dis ever discuss with the mayor and the full councel the possibility of enacting an official Council joint resolution to forward to the appropriate State Legislative committees and the governor's office now since we know mayor brindle has already led a successful effort to have state legislation enacted to enhance auto theft penalties why did you not engage her on this initiative and by the way did you ever consider how a democratic controlled State Legislature with Democrats chairing relevant committees would react to this obviously partisan initiative that ignored and excluded the Democratic majority on our council did you think about how that might impact our Town's reputation for governmental Integrity those were the questions I emailed to each of you your Council email addresses since none of you replied or even acknowledge receipt of my email I came here to give it another try thank you Rich pusi 233 Charles Street two weeks ago I read a three-page letter to the mayor and Town Council I'm a licensed professional engineer affiliated with the Westfield advocates for responsible development we have tracked over 20 large construction projects that have been built or approved since 2017 four of these projects the sopia One Westfield Place Westfield Crossing and the Williams Nursery Redevelopment site include large numbers of new dwelling units and small Footprints with vertical construction to previously unprecedented building Heights there been approximately 950 new dwelling units approved for construction which is in addition to approximately 350,000 Square ft of approved non-residential use space the Westfield Advocates are unaware of any coordinated investigation which takes a cumulative all-inclusive approach to identify and establish the combined impacts of all planned and approved construction the master plan reexamination report as adopted in 2019 does not incorporate projects like the Sophia and one Westfield Place such widespread construction will have a major impact on the traffic infrastructure and everyday life activities of the Town although no past benchmarks likely exist the changes in things like domestic Water and Electric requirements sewage flows pedestrian vehicular traffic lighting levels Etc can be predicted using proven scientific and Engineering methods in response to my letter mayor brindle and Mr Gilda offered some commentary at the end of the meeting which I wish to visit here tonight mayor brindle advised that all of the construction that we see being built as part of the 2017 affordable housing obligation agreement yes mayor approximately 200 units which have been built were a part of that agreement but that only accounts for roughly 20% of the approximately 950 units that had been approved to be built I was surprised to hear mayor brindle advise that the administration is expecting legislators to tie support for infrastructure Improvement to affordable housing obligations not only is this realistic but it is Impractical and not achievable there's no direct relationship between the number of new dwelling units being constructed and the number of affordable housing units required as such there is no logical metric for legislators to fairly differentiate and delegate support for different projects to different towns the state has not mandated that approximately 9 new 50 approximately 950 new dwelling units and approximately 350,000 Square ft of non-residential space be constructed the state has mandated the minimum number of affordable housing units to be constructed the rest has been devised and approved by the town as such the town Bears the responsibility for any required infrastructure upgrades thereof mayor brindle advised that she is part of a council that is looking at development beyond our borders mayor unfortunately neither you nor the Town Council has any jurisdiction beyond our borders let us participate in and learn from any ongoing Jo joint efforts with other towns however let us not rely on those efforts to answer questions regarding what's happening in our town Cranford Fanwood and Scotch planes do not control what happens here in our town mayor brindle you and the Town Council do Mr gildia mentioned the results of an impact study related to police and fire services that was issued this past February now correct me if I'm wrong but that study did not include the Sophia or One Westfield place which when combined increased the total number of dwelling units being constructed by a factor of approximately 50% and also which increased the amount of non-residential developed space in downtown Westfield by approximately 350,000 square feet lastly mayor brindle referenced a frequently asked questions resource on the town's website and advised that many answers can be found in that resource I read through this resource several times as a licensed professional engineer with almost 40 Years of design construction forensic investigation and expert witness testimony experience I am distressed to report that in my opinion very few meaningful technical or budgetary decisions could be derived from The Superficial level Layman's information that is presented therein mayor I am again hereby presenting the concept and alerting the town to engage in accumulative Impact investigation this small investment will provide valuable information to current and future capital budget priorities thank you good evening uh Rob galgano 939 Boulevard uh to start tonight I'd like to play a brief audio clip of a statement made in 2023 by then candidate Todd Saunders regarding his father's office building in Downtown Westfield if you'll bear with me my dad's been in this building for for a very long time he pays almost $150,000 in property taxes and he's scared and I'm scared cuz I'll probably be one of the people that inherits and helps manage the building what is this building going to be once one west of the place comes what's going to happen to all my dad's renters and all my dad's income and someone that's PID tax and is Lim here since Jefferson School days for over 50 years what's going to happen to him as you hear in this clip Mr Saunders is concerned about his father's building uh that he is going to inherit someday this is in direct opposition to his statements two weeks ago that his father is alive and therefore there is no inheritance so the question I would oppose POs to Mr Saunders is one that has been asked to politicians since time IM immemorial Mr Saunders were you lying then or are you lying now I'd like to remind this Council that not too long ago we had another councilman that had an ethical dilemma that was former councilman Jim boy of Ward one who served for a little over two years before resigning the reason he resigned was because he had the Misfortune to own a residence between two proposed major construction projects the Sophia and the Lorden Taylor project Mr Boyce felt he had to recuse himself since these were two of the most pressing issues that Ward one residents were concerned with at the time being unable to participate he felt he could not adequately serve the ward therefore he resigned at the time his resignation was applauded on all sides as a shining example exle of good governance and doing the right thing in short Jim boy resigned for Less to prevent the appearance of favortism and self-dealing at a minimum Mr Saunders needs to recuse himself from all matters regarding One Westfield place the question is will he do the right thing finally two uh questions for the mayor I would like the mayor maybe to discuss further about the firehouse unless you feel like you adequately covered that additionally I'd also like to hear more about the process to vet legislation I observed councilman saers Saunders attempting to Badger you at the last meeting into voting on a crime bill that you were not familiar with what would have been the correct process for the councilman to take thank you good evening Drew Kellerman 534 Boulevard um let me start by saying thank you all for your service good evening to everyone um I'm here to speak about uh the recent lawsuit by Westfield Advocates um Westfield Advocates filed and lost two lawsuits against the town of Westfield leaving the taxpayers on the hook for over $70,000 I for one don't appreciate that and Counting By the way because now they've we' found out that they appealed an article in the leader covered Communications by Westfield's Advocates admitting that they had no chance at winning the lawsuit and I quote the judge may find in our favor but it's a long shot even if we lose the courts are so backed up it will delay the project for one to two years that was from Mr frisaro as they expected they lost the lawsuit but now are filing an appeal they also filed and lost a lawsuit against the town regarding One Westfield Place Additionally the Westfield's Advocates raised well over $10,000 the required amount to register with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs registration shows they failed to follow the state requirements and have refused to register with the state nor have they submitted their earnings to Consumer Affairs last week councilman Saunders do Galo armento and kefir sent a letter to Street works on Town letterhead indicating changes they'd like to see in light of the judge's decision in light of the judge's decision how does the loss of this lawsuit impact your promises to the public and your plans moving forward while appreciating that Westfield's Advocates fully endorsed and campaigned for your entire slate of candidates knowing they never expected to win the lawsuit do you support Westfield's Advocates moving forward with appeals and increasing cost to the taxpayers we'd like to know thank you good evening Carla bonach 603 Lawrence Avenue registered architect state of New Jersey New York professional planner state of New Jersey office officer of Westfield Advocates uh based on the affordable housing reports and thank you Don for your presentation we've gone back to read the report in more detail and also to double check the record of past affordable housing approvals we want to make two points first we want to clarify the record the town had already approved sufficient amounts of affordable housing units under the previous administration to meet the current third round affordable housing requirements and I believe there are about 260 affordable units the current Administration has also approved additional projects of about 352 units and 75 affordable units since 2021 that facilitates developers to further exploit affordable housing Provisions to justify maxed out performas and Advance overdense development projects second we want to note and ask about the four scattered sites of the scattered site Redevelopment plan that appear in the affordable housing report in the last two years we has re as residents have asked about future plans for the scattered site several times in the past year with no update given and now potential new developments on the scattered sites are being incorporated into the planned affordable housing counts the four scattered sites include approximately four acres of land and there is no forecast on the total number of housing units only a commitment of afh percentages Westfield Advocates from this Podium have asked on several occasions what's going on with the four publicly owned scattered sites and there's been no information shared why are the four publicly owned scattered sites included here the Redevelopment plan does not provide any type of land use or bulk standard requirements or design guidelines and I brought up what Morristown created I've brought this up before the design gu guidelines they prepared for the entire town um of Morris Town let me see um is existing zoning going to be overridden by three times as you and the planning board did for the sopia and one Westfield place these four sites are within 500 to 1500 feet about a two to five minute walk of each other within the tightly knit retail restaurant District they are also adjacent to the Gap that was just sold to an investment group has anyone performed any impact analysis that includes traffic building massing and Skyline to fit in the existing context have you consulted with the adjacent retailers and restaurants like Barons and the town bookstore are you thinking the dilapidating Rialta will just fall down it's imperative that a cumulative impact analysis be performed and professionals develop guidelines to advise how these projects should be designed to fit contextually with the existing fabric of the downtown to continue the total loss of downtown character with out of scale buildings that are characters of architecture or as Bob ventu and Denise Scott Brown so Apple coined decorated sheds such as Westfield Crossing Williams Nursery the Franklin on North and one Westfield place would be a huge detriment to the core downtown district especially where many buildings have been identified with historic character in the draft historic preservation study recently prepared by h2m Easton why is everything advanced in a peac meal segmented fashion without a full understanding of cumulative impacts on infrastructure and the community and without an architectural Vision that maintains the integrity and soul of the town at the prior meeting we asked about the Quimby acceleration this week we're asking about the scattered sites we again call in the town planning staff mayor and councel to adop adopt a community-based planning approach to address these vital issues of Redevelopment under the scattered sites you should want to engage Town residents and businesses to actively participate and collaborate on future development goals and visions that can be accepted by most of the town there is too much at stake for the future of our town to make Hasty developer-driven projects without fully addressing purpose and need assembling the facts impacts and Alternatives analyses NE necessary to make informed decisions regarding public resources and priorities and lastly the residents want to actively collaborate with the government in developing these important plans that should not be issued as top down Fate or complete nor via imposition of Standards promoted by special interests who don't have to literally live with the impacts of these policies and projects thank you anybody else hearing none um I'm sorry oh I'm sorry hi Liz mahalan Westfield New Jersey um I just want to say that I am astounded at what I'm hearing I mean the judge's ruling was very clear that this was all done I also find it just amazing that the master plan hasn't been reviewed this is affordable housing and all of these units are all part of our master plan and the master plan relied heavily on the fact that the affordable units were approved back in 2017 even before this Administration so I I just can't believe that we're still having a discussion that the Court's already a judic uh but regardless that's not why I'm here I'm I'm here because I just heard somebody that asked about the bill that was being brought up in the assembly and Senate and I say this as somebody who attends and has provided testimony at Senate hearings and meetings assembly hearings and budget meetings for over a decade I took a look at the bill that was proposed here and I have to be honest I was absolutely floored by what I saw in that bill the level of thought that went into that bill is never going to make it through this day I I'll give you an example it was claimed that they created this bill and moved forward on it and I and I want to be specific about about this first of all let me me start by saying this I'm going to go through each of the four items since somebody asked the question it says establishment of a rebuttal presumption of pre-child DET detention for motor vehicle theft defenses now had anybody done their research they would know that this was already brought up numerous times at the state by both Democrats and Republicans and in a bipartisan manner this was not something that's new this is not something that was just created out of thin air and in fact what is most bizarre about it is when it was brought up in the Judiciary hearing it had a full yes vote for it except for two people and one of which who chose not to vote was Senator bramnick so I guess you'll have to ask him why he didn't vote for that you also said that you wanted to have an enhancement for penalties for motor vehicle offenses elevating them to Second deegree crimes regardless of the value of a vehicle well I mean if we've done our research we know that the vehicles getting stolen are all already second deegree offenses so what are we saying they're not here to steal 1985 Honda Civics we know this so what is the point of that bill another one is that you want to ask for home detention for minors that commit car thefts and you want to remove a license for somebody who has committed car thefts these are people who are working with international criminal crime rings that are ra ing through the streets with stolen cars do we honestly think that anybody here believes they care about a driver's license nor the miners who aren't even eligible to get a driver's license who are out at 2 o'clock in the morning do you think that they're afraid of their mommies keeping them at home I also don't understand how this bill helps we know that there hasn't been by the way car thefts are down in this town and to my understanding there hasn't been a car theft yet today which is not normal this is good this is a good positive thing so obviously we've been dealing with the car thefts and that's a great thing so what happens people are keeping their key fobs in their houses and what happens when that happens they go into the they do home Burg glories so my question then is how does any of this help the home burglaries because that seems to be what this new council is really concerned about and I will tell you that not one of these things helps home burglaries what's going to help home burglaries is for us to get more judges so that these cases can be heard and so we can take these Danger criminals off the street but that's not what you're doing you're not working with the mayor you're not working with the chief who have vociferously been pushing for this and if you really want to help and you really care about this issue then maybe you'll do the research and maybe you'll get behind the mayor and the chief and you'll join them so that we can all as a town and as a group in a bipartisan matter just like they do with the state work together to get stuff done because this bipartisan stuff it's not going to work it's just not and this is not what the residents want so I would really prefer that we get educated on these issues and that you work together and we just stop the grand standing I know that you knew I appreciate that and I appreciate you're trying to make your mark that's wonderful I'm glad you're so motivated but be careful Summit just went through a whole situation where they had a new Council also very excited yay this is great we're going to pass a crime Bill well unfortunately they passed a crime bill that is actually a violation of state law and something that was adjudicated they didn't bother going through process it is so important that you follow the process because this protects us taxpayers from lawsuits that needn't happen so please you're all great people just work together and make sure that we follow the process instead of just throwing things out there and trying to bully someone into voting for something they've never seen I'm Sorry Miss Mahal I'm so sorry anyway I want to thank you all because I know you're all here trying to do the right thing so thank you very much you good evening Frank fusaro 422 Stanley Avenue Westfield just want to clarify several uh items that were discussed here this evening uh one of them being uh some of the verbiage that the mayor read from the recent court decision uh and the reasoning that she gave was that the owp project is consistent with the master plan the owp project is not consistent with the master plan you circumvented the master plan by using Redevelopment law so I want to make that perfectly clear had the project been proposed under the current zoning in the town of Westfield it would not meet the zoning standard the mayor and Council chose to use Redevelopment law to circumvent all the Town zoning period that is a fact in addition as I mentioned in the conference session earlier there is I had asked why the township of w the town of Westfield has not asked the developer to contribute towards a new Firehouse which the town is required will be required to build in the future this Firehouse will cost approximately $15 million or more since the mayor and seems to be very concerned about the legal fees that were uh expended by the town with respect to the lawsuits I would also ask that it is our understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong that in the development agreements with the Developers for owp and possibly the Sophia as well that the developer is required to absorb all legal fees in any litigation pertaining to those developments please let me know if that is correct or incorrect because you keep saying that that cost a Township $70,000 to represent themselves in legal fees however it's our understanding that those fees should be reimbursed to the town from the developer and I would really like to know why as I mentioned the developer was not asked to contribute to the town by way of a new Firehouse a new municipal building a new park a new recreation center a new field anything that is customary throughout the state of New Jersey with any developer so please address that situation thank you and have a good evening Allison carry 408 East Dudley Avenue I just want to make a couple comments as well about the litigation um unfortunately we don't agree with it with one judge's decision that's the way it goes um what is really unfortunate is what got us there the fact that you ignored your residents we had residents night after night stand in this chamber lined up to the back of the door asking you to meet them halfway halfway all of them were ignored petitions were ignored requests for a referendum that would just be an opinion poll were ignored I sat at this Podium twice at least three twice or three times with a list of 35 detail Ed and very specific Financial questions about One Westfield place from people Financial professionals that live in this town who were extremely concerned none of them have been answered meetings were cancelled promises to respond to those questions in writing have not been addressed so night after night after night week after week for nine months the people of this town asked you to meet them halfway and you did it unfortunately that's what led to litigation we're not three people here who are just having fun filing lawsuits we're doing it on behalf of people who were trying to help and thankfully the people of the Town made their own decision with four new council members who hopefully are going to bring some balance to this Council thank you I just want to oh Marcy bandelli 209 tutle Parkway Westfield I just want to say that um I am really in favor of One Westfield place I think many people in the town are really in favor of it I know we only hear the negative about it but I have a lot of friends who I talk to I've lived here for 23 years I'm excited I just need to put that out there we have a court process that already adjudicated this issue and we need to start rocking and rolling right we've had a lot of obstruction around this and there's a lot of people like me and I know you know I I know what people are going to say well the election the election I get it was a low turnout election but there's a lot of people that feel the way I do so I'm just putting it out there on the record and I have one more thing to say um this comment is directly um I'm going to direct it to my Council my w one council member uh Mr Saunders I find it really kind of surprising that you're still a moderator on the Westfield New Jersey page um it's a page that I left a long time ago um I I just feel like now that you're you have your own kind of Facebook page and you're a councilman and you have your own kind of forum that you really shouldn't be on that page is 23,000 people and anybody who doesn't agree with your views or a republican view is either talk lost or comments um are removed and I just it's a bad look so um I think that you should seriously I'm not I'm not trying to be Petty this is an important page voices need to be heard when I got on to it I thought it was a town page I didn't know that it was a private Facebook page and if there was a democratic council person as a moderator Ator I'd have a hard time with that it's just it's a bad look it's inappropriate as my word one councilman I hope that you consider that okay thank you thank you Ry Jessica raldi 150 Harrison Avenue Westfield um I really didn't plan to speak tonight but um just hearing everything that's going on with um people coming up I just want to give my um opinion that I'm very excited about Westfield 1 I've lived in this town for 33 years I'm a senior citizen I am also a crossing guard in this town for 18 years and I'm very excited about what's happening to our town and I'm tired of the bickering I wish we could all get along and just move forward and so we can see the beautiful things that this town right now I'm I'm experiencing with all the shops that have been opened up I mean it's like a revitalization okay and when I moved here in 1991 the town was sort of dying and then we had the you know the um the stores that came like William Sonoma like like the the mall stores and that was great for a while and then everything came down but kudos to This Town Council and everybody to get us through this pandemic because it was really terrible but we had to go through but anyway I'm I'm digressing I just wanted to say that thank you everyone and the new people that entered I hope we can all get along and work together for the better betterment of of the whole town because I for one do not want to leave this town I want to stay here till I go okay thank you thank you okay anybody else okay hearing none um I close uh this portion of the meeting and public comments and um just give me a minute to go through so uh don samon do you did I hope you wrote down Mr goin's questions okay I figured you did so maybe want to address and there some of the other comments that people made about affordable housing in general maybe you can just try and address them as well I heard um uh for the gentlemen I heard two questions essentially what is affordable housing and is there's is there required um unit size so so affordable housing is really defined by um housing that's considered affordable to um households that make the a certain percentage of median household income within one of six housing regions within the state of New Jersey so so Westfield is in housing region number two which includes um Essex Morris Union and Warren counties um so the median household income for a four-person household just using that as an example is $123,800 low and moderate income housing and there are specific definitions for those terms low and moderate and even very low so a moderate income household which is considered a affordable housing uh affordable home a moderate income is between 80 and 50% of median income lowincome housing is 50% or less of median income and very low income is considered 30 30% or less of median income so again using my four-person household example we have 2023 numbers 2024 hasn't come out yet but a four-person median household income in our housing region $3,829 a moderate income for person household is has an income of $9,600 a loow income forers household $61,900 a very low income for person household 31$ 37,1 49 to the second question and I'm sorry Don you may say this and it varies by market like what what's in Westfield will be different than what it is someplace else correct it well for the region it'll stay the the the um housing costs remain and the median remains for our region um as far as the size of units the folks who drafted up the affordable housing rules we're sure that to write into the rules and regulations that you can't have all one bedroom or Studio affordable units they want to ensure a mix of household sizes so the rules require that you can have no more than 20% of the total number of affordable units as efficiency or one bedrooms at least 30% of the affordable units need to be uh two bedrooms and at least 20% of the affordable units need to be three-bedroom units so um there are um income limits to qualify for affordable and uh affordable housing low moderate and very low and um there is a required bedroom distribution mix for affordable units I hope that answers the questions of the gentleman and and Don I think there was one more question that Miss Bachi asked about if we' already met our affordable housing third round why are we doing more s fun paraphrasing our opinion is that we have right and when we went through uh our last affordable housing plan preparation and our um ultimately our settlement with fair share housing center there was a lot of um back and forth with fair share on this we feel that we have met it we have met all of our prior round obligations we've met our Rehabilitation obligation um what wound up being our uh third round obl that we had to create all these affordable housing zones for overlay zones for was to address unmet need and we had to provide again a realistic opportunity so we have by adoption of our plan and it's it's Court approved we have met our obligations and that we have provided the opportunity to allow for the construction of affordable units in accordance with our court approved plan so we've met it now what our numbers will be in the next round we're not sure yet but I think we're on very firm footing with what we've done so far and so just to paraphrase so even if we met the Baseline number that they've been provided we still have an obligation to prove that we're providing a realistic opportunity for the cor corre that's and that's a and I think that's where people get a little bit lost on that we can't just say we're not trying anymore we have an obligation and we have to prove the measures we've taken toct that we have to prove we can do it and if we can't we have to prove that why we can't why we can't for example we've shown that we have very little vacant land to develop so that allows us to take our number uh lower than what a municipalities say that just made up with Farmland would have to provide for thank you Don um and just to go through I know there was some um questions on the crime bill I don't know for one would prefer not to relitigate um what crime bills were supported and our resolution and so forth but um uh I I think we're all in a good place I do want to say though when I was in Trenton today um I did talk to the league to get a summary of all the crime bills that are currently um under consideration and just for the record there's nine assembly Bills currently and there are seven bills in the Senate um I'll be honest with you a lot of them generally kind of say the same thing some are there's a few that are directed cataly catalytic converters um so there is the also includes the bill that these gentlemen referenced um Senator branck recently added a companion bill there's no text associated with his it hasn't really gone anywhere so um I think the plan is is that the league will take a position on each of these bills I think you wait till they get to committee and I think as Miss mahand referenced some bills have a better shot of moving forward than others um and you and you hope that maybe they take kind of the best of some of these bills and put it into one but the ones that do the best are those that have bipartisan sponsorships um and those are those are a little bit harder to come by so um but anyway I'll continue to stay on top of this all the legislation as it moves through and to the degree that we think we can there's a specific bill that everybody's rallying around um that we think in consultation with like the County prosecutor and the police chief and our Council that that is the one that makes the most sense for Westfield we can decide if we want to take action on on one of those bills that moves forward so um I don't know yes Council finish no no go ahead on the topic of prop I want move off it because there was some specific things raised I just want to speak to it um agree with everything you said by the way um so there were questions on both the substance of the bill and also the process by which it came about and I'd like to just talk a little bit about that um on the substance it's important to note I mean it's obvious but in some some of the comments it didn't seem like it was that this is a bill that's in the state legislature okay it's not before us the mayor is not going to vote it none of us are going to vote on it so no one's voting on this and the second thing to note is how the bill came about it was the product of a piece of advocacy that myself and the new councilmen signed on to we wrote a letter and we sent it to the state legislators for our district the Assembly women and Senator bramnick we copy the governor and the attorney general and it was not put this in a bill it was do something at the state level because we're seeing a big problem here and here are some suggestions now the first suggestion off the bat was fill the Judiciary all right fill the Judiciary is not part of the bill but that was to me one of the biggest problems that's going on it also had to talk about enforcement which is why the Attorney General was copied to miss mallen's point there are organized criminal rings that are driving this problem and we we wanted something to be done to that effect also to miss mallin's point the rebuttable presumption that we brought up we specifically cited to senator scutari 's bill which does the same thing so she's absolutely right didn't need to be done from scratch and frankly I don't care who gets credit for it I just we wanted something done so what we did I just want to be clear on what we did was we we advocated we advocated just like you any of you could do you could do the same thing uh we also made very clear in the letter it was not the voice of this Council we made very clear that fact now on the process Point had I known then that we'd be sitting here right now talking about this and that my fellow council members would have felt alienated by our actions I would have done things differently and I would have discussed it with them you shaking your head but why ask me a question if you're not going to believe what I'm going to say that's the truth all right so and I've had discussions with them after this so I can only speak for myself on that point but I can say that the benefit of this is that we're all sitting here talking about the state needing to do something about crime and I think that's productive uh now whether or not the bill goes anywhere the mayor knows more than I do I don't know goes on the ballot of the State House hopefully something good it comes of it so thank you for that and I agree at the end of that on a which Bill we'll end up moving forward but the good news is there are lots of bills under consideration both on the assembly and the Senate side um which I'm sure ultimately will hopefully get us to where we need to go um just to um oh just one other thing Mr Goodman I know you mentioned about you know the engagement with the community there you are um so no that's exactly what the purposes of the conference session so I was glad to see you there anytime you want that the purpose of this isn't the isn't it's not a c town hall it's not a Q&A it's about trying to move legislation forward and get people to comment on the public record on PO I Mo usually it's about legislation that's being considered but it could obviously be about anything so the Q&A is EXA as you experience in the conference session is exactly that so please come and every week that's so um so so um um let's see uh and then just on Mr fararo um I'll just uh you mentioned about legal fees um we did not have a financial agreement with um the developer for the Sophia so the town taxpayers were absolutely on the hook for any litigation and you are right in the One Westfield place um we we anti we the street Works was responsible for the litigation we wrote that in the Redevelopment they paid for the litigation taxpayer were on the hook for our professionals and our presence there so we spent $50,000 of our money I can only imagine don't know how much Street work spent on litigation to defending it so it is never free ever and in this case it was $70,000 that cost taxpayers um and you know you mentioned why aren't they giving us a firehouse the firehouse was always contemplated but we that's why we negotiated what are we getting you mentioned the park we're getting two plazas we're getting a ton of public approv was 10 traffic intercessions Etc knowing that the firehouse and Equipment were always contemplated prior to One Westfield place it made most sense to keep them in that consideration and use this process to generate other public benefits that we would be able to that would realize the ultimate benefit of the entire Community um and I don't know Mr Saunders I know that there's I don't know if you had any wanted to address any of the comments that were addressed to you yeah if I may okay sure um just to address Mr gano's comments about um in that we continue to talk about um the majority I don't know the number but I think it's the majority of Westfield residents own property in Westfield and one Westfield place is going to impact everyone's property values whether that's a homeowner a business owner or the town that owns property um values will change but when I made those comments it's about we should all play by the same rules right current business owner should have the same rules whether it's my dad or a different business business owner should play by the same rules that one west of place has to play by and that means height that means zoning that means all of it you continue to ask me you come up here to ask me to step down because my family invested in the town I I continue to say we want people to invest in the town I would encourage every councilman every person out there to continue to invest in the town continue to open up businesses continue to buy businesses and we shouldn't be putting people down for doing that I actually think we should be propping them up um you okay um you also continue to ask me to accuse myself and I would say again I don't know I think a lot of people on this Council own property as in they own a house whether it's close to town or not close to town whether they live in town which some do I'm wondering why you continue to come after me and not everyone who owns a house up here to recuse thems and I'll just end with this listen we're all up here Civil Service working hard to talk about one west of place we make may agree we may disagree we're talking about vehicle thefts can we please get off the topic of someone's personal finances and inheritance and get to like real topics here that's my first ask and my second ask is there's a lot of business owners some that are here some that might be here in the future and I hope you don't ask them the same questions and ask them to accuse thems every time they're up here because they invested in open a business downtown so all right all right so um okay so I'm sorry let's um uh I think um okay I think just and I'll just say the last thing that seemed to come up a couple times with this um uh impact study I think this comprehensive impact study and I'm just gonna it might not be what you want to hear but I'm going to tell you it again um we did an impact study on on on resources and so forth that I think Jim had directed to you on the website and I know you had mentioned you said something something about it does you know we're responsible for within the borders we are but what happens beyond the borders also impacts What's happen in Westfield and vice versa so so we are doing a quarter impact study and we believe that's sufficient to to deliver on what you've been asking um and that's and that's what we're going to continue to do um so with that um we are going to move on to um bills and claims councilman dagala in acting for councilman contract this evening thank you oh I'm sorry um I don't know I just want to make sure I don't know if he can read or not councilman contract I just want to make sure you're there can you hear yeah unmute yourself David if you're there do you want councilman do you want councilman dagala to read on your behalf okay that's what we're going to do all right sounds great we got it right thank all right Council no you're on thank you councilman contract I'd like to move uh to bills and claims in the amount of 33,258 may I have a second second second by councilman armento I think um any discussion all in favor yes yes yes yes opposed this motion is carried next on the agenda is reports of standing committees begin with the finance policy committee councilman Del maala thank you uh I have 11 resolutions 10 of which I'd like to move as a package resolution one authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to refund Recreation Department fees two resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to draw warrants for participant payment Westwood for the annual Me and My Gal dance number three resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to draw a warrant for dog licenses for January 2024 number four resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to draw warrant for the board of adjustment escrow monies number five resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to draw warrants for overpaid taxes number six resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to draw warrants to pursuant to Tax Court of New Jersey number seven resolution authorizing the tax collector to cancel sewer fee balances number eight resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to issue warrants for special district taxes number nine resolution author izing the Chief Financial Officer to issue warrants for Union County open space taxes and number 10 resolution to appoint the construction official may I have a second second second by councilman dardia all in any any discussion all in favor yes yes oppos and I just want to say congratulations too I just want to say congratulations to Frank and again FR I just said mayor um it's uh Frank is really transform the and Frank started like some of our department has started in 2020 really as Co just started so to deal with what he's had to deal with there as new employee and then do what he did as again just want to publicly commend him thank you thank you thank you thank you Frank for all your efforts so this motion has carried congratulations um next I would like oh I'm sorry I'm reading your lines thank you may again uh next I'd like to move resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to adopt temporary capital budget may I have a second second s by councilman Saunders any discussion please call the role council members have good yes Daria yes dagala yes keeper yes Saunders yeso yes contract contract yes M yes mayor rle yes this motion has carried all right unless I'd like to move special ordinance number 20241 on first reading Bond ordinance to authorize the acquisition of real property for future use and connection with the expansion of the fire department facilities in and by for the town of West in the county of Union New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $725,000 to pay a cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes and anticipation of the issu such yeah I have a second second second by councilor Mackie any discussion please call the role council members have good yes Daria yes domagala yes keeper yes Saunders yes armento yes contract yes Magie yes mayor brle yes this motion has carried next up is code riew and town property committee councilman Mackey thank you mayor I would like to make a motion authorizing the mayor to ENT enter a contract to purchase of real estate may I have a second yes second second by councelor naria uh any discussion please call the role council members have yes Guardia yes sagala yes Keir yes Saunders yeso yes contract yes Mackie yes mayor rendle yes this motion has carried next I would like to move General ordinance number 20245 on first reading an ordinance to amend the land use ordinance of the town of Westfield to clarify permit permitted awning sign Dimensions may I have a second second second by councilman who said keeper keeper I'm not that fast I'm sorry you fight over it um any discussion please call the rooll council members H yes dardia yesal yes keep yes sers yeso yes contract yes Mackie yes may yes this motion has carried last I would like to move General ordinance number 20246 on first reading an ordinance to amend certain provisions of the land use ordinance of the town of Westfield related to rejecting signs and mayor for the public I just want you to understand these are the decorative blade signs that we see in downtown Westfield we're just amending our existing ordinance and they're Charming too they're we hope that they're Charming to everybody may I have a second second second by councilman keeper any discussion please call the role council members H yes Daria yes gagala yes keeper yes Saunders yes armento yes contract yes Mackie yes mayor yes this motion has carried Council Mackie please move Public Works committee resolutions I would like to move a resolution award contract for the 2024 grinding of brush material may I have a second second second second by counsman Saunders all these men up here I can't um any discussion All In favor yes opposed this motion has carried may I have a motion to adjourn no move move by councelor Macky second second everybody councilman Daria all in favor yes opposed this motion is carried and this meeting is adjourned