good evening good evening and welcome to the bedord township committee this is our regularly scheduled meeting for July 15th it is 7:04 p.m. recognize that we have a quarum of Township committee here in person at Town Hall we are missing uh committee woman Hernandez who has some excused absence and here in person Comm Stevens commit hickey committee woman mesy and myself Miss Ray may we please have the open public meetings act St yes mayor adequate notice of this meeting of the township committee was sent to The Courier new Somerville Bernville news whiy and to all subscribers and post at the Township Municipal Building on January 5th 2024 great thank you please join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all so we've had a uh active uh weekend here in Bedminster um as everybody knows president Trump survived an assassination intent and um came back to Bedminster uh there was one fatality and some injuries at that uh at that event um at the rally in Pennsylvania um president Trump came back here created a little bit of heightened um alarm in Bedminster uh Bedminster Police Department responded to request from Secret Service for additional um security um along perimeter and um wi in what i' like Library we had [Music] oh maybe around 15 to 20 maybe 25 um media Outlets uh broadcasting I've got my first uh media inquiry around 10:30 um maybe a little earlier Saturday night uh some additional inquiries uh yesterday I gave a statement to the Burnsville news Jake you can certainly um ask Pat if you need a copy of that but I'm sure you've already seen it um so once again edminster finds itself um the national news hopefully for uh you know just one little a little flip and um we can go back to uh small quiet town that we uh we used to uh now is the time of the meeting that we open up the microphones and zoom for public comment if anyone in person I wish to make a public comment you can raise your hand come up to the microphone and if you are participating by Zoom click on participants click on raise hand and M Ray will put you into C for public comment three participants there but only um two are showing up on screen okay well I I suspect that um some of them are here for as is Paul Fox um so let's move on um approval minutes we have one set of meeting minutes to approve that's T committee meeting of July 1 any comments or questions regarding those meeting minutes I have not otherwise been provided to miss Ray see none take a motion to approve those minutes so moved second all in favor thank you and I we have one two three four five six seven permits rles to go through first social Affair permit to Ben Brook Healey Foundation Inc on September 16 2024 from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm at F OFA Country Club a social Fair permit to benefit center for contemporary art on October 25 2024 from 6:30 to 11: p.m located at the center for contemporary art and off premise 5050 raffle to benefit the Senate from Contemporary Art on October 25 2024 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the center for contemporary art an on premise 5050 raffle to benefit the Society of the sisters of Christian charity on September 23rd 2024 at 11:00 am to 8:30 p.m. at Fiddler's Elbow Country Club and on premise 5050 raffle to benefit Trinitas foundation on October 16 2024 at 2 p.m located vler Country Club and on premise 5050 raffle to benefit Autism New Jersey on September 9 2024 at 11:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. located at fitler's elbow Country Club and the last raffle and on- premise merchandise raffle to benefit Autism New Jersey on September 9 2024 at 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 pm at fidler's elbow country class okay we are moving two monthly report discussion by sub committee chair committee we need to vote we need to vote we need to vote I'm sorry that's why we're moving so fast that's why we're moving so can I have a motion to approve those permits and routs so second K we all do I I I I thank you monthly report discussion by a subcommittee chair committee M Stevenson um I was going to use this time mayor to report on DPW by not giving a report but by addressing Kevin but if you'd like to table that for another part of meeting no started now okay go ahead um well then let me just state that the stor pres is not yet met we're going to be meeting coming up so I'll give an update next time I believe there's a meeting scheduled for this uh Thursday so I'll give you a report next time but with respect to DPW um I mentioned last time that Kevin has um going to be leaving us to go to our neighbors down the street and um you know I've had the privilege of working hand inand with Kevin as the liaison to DPW and I can tell you firsthand you know you will be missed Kevin um one of the things that I'm very vocal about at home and stuff that I always admire someone who's doing his or her craft and doing it well like I'll say I don't care if you you flip Burgers but be a good burger flipper right watching you handle this department and taking every single task that was thrown at you and you just knocking the pins down like it was nothing was awesome to watch it was fun for me to sit there and watch you do your thing your Aces um you know our loss is Bernardsville gain there's no doubt about that um I just wish you nothing but the best but I want you to know that it doesn't go unnoticed how you evolve out your day and how you go about taking on these tasks and the professional demeanor customer service orientation that you always display is second to none and I just think that you're getting everything you deserve um and I just wish nothing but the best for you and I think you're leaving here I hope you understand you're leaving with um nothing but my best wishes for you and I wish you nothing but success thank you for everything you've done for me thank you Doug I'm going to leave my comments for um count committee comments and this way be for Kev stay throughout the I love great that's a good idea just give a little more captive audience yeah yeah keep them around for a bit commitment Stevens he gets another crack at the did you step at burnt Mills on your way no time no time no time got a long meeting no we got a short meeting hopefully and mayor I we have library on Wednesday and Board of Health on Thursday so I'll report back next time that's all I've got okay committee women moresa all right well I'm going to take Colin's time um so this month's meeting of jacobas Vander house has been postponed from our normal Wednesday the 17th to the 23rd but in the meantime uh we had a great day yesterday several of us several of us met at the house to have a paranormal investigation done by ghost is clear hey with these people here from in the years past did they previously come here that they were here a couple months ago I don't know when they've been here before they were that was intense that was pretty creepy this was fun so they used lights that the ghost could turn off and on scanners that the ghost could talk through and then finally divining rods that they would um we would ask them yes or no questions and they would could answer um we the ghost the ghost we talked to General Knox General Knox yeah we talked to a tenant of the house Mark and we saw images on these scanners that they have uh they look like Ghostbuster machines it's so cool but they were two kids that were in the the blue room um ghosts ghosts yeah just his rent huh General Knox wanted his rent so somebody had mentioned this over at uh the farmers market and I mentioned to the friends that they are going to consider having a fundraiser using uh this kind of thing as a um as a basis around Halloween so we'll see what happens with that um it was a good time we had we were there about two hours and we went into different rooms it was a lot of fun uh in case anybody is going to notice that field of Honor Flags will come down this week sometime um they were supposed to come down Saturday but it got too hot I think nobody wanted to go outside um let's see so on to environmental commission committees uh no meeting this month they will have one uh August 7th so let's see last uh Tuesday July 9th the mayor myself and officer AA met with the hills Highland Master Association up at the rec center on hansome mode in burnard's Township we focused on sh sharing information on community policing initiative the safety actions being taken by nearby communities such as the camera program and an update on the fire and encampment drive one part of the community program that officer Rivera highlighted was the home security self assessment tool that actually is in our website so if anybody wants to take a peek go to Bedminster us uh the mayor discussed how Bedminster and surrounding towns have been working together to deal with recent car thefts and home break-ins as he shared with us at other Township meetings he described the camera program and how it will work I reviewed the status update from the encampment fire that I received from the wilen management group um quick update there were four units that had limited damage so they'll just need some painting um two had more extensive damage they'll need some work and then four units were a total loss their engineer is working on um developing uh um plans because nobody could find the original plans even if they were were to work so they have to do that um there was a quick Q&A with the residents many of whom were concerned with the origins of the fire just in case there was something that they could currently do uh to prevent this from happening again we left some handouts that Robin was kind enough to hand to give us such as the resident resource guide and the senior and disabled um resident services guide just in case they they wanted to pass that out to their members um let's see so this was last Thursday um we had a meeting about Southfield Drive traffic mitigation um so after hearing back from farhill Bedminster Fire Company Potter Volunteer Fire Company and far Hill's Bedminster first a squad um we had this this meeting at Town Hall last Thursday in attendance also was our engineer Paul feraro Chief Bernardo and our DPW team of Kevin and Jason uh we discussed caling issues such as be speed humps and no through traffic signs um but all of these um bring up more issues than actually they solve so the group determined that the two most important factors in how to proceed with any type of action were the results from the traffic speed study and the input from the First Responders on closing off the road the speed study shows that most cars travel between 30 miles an hour on Southfield which are within reasonable limits also note there have been no motor vehicle accidents that the police um Department could tell us since 2012 and maybe more importantly the consensus of all our First Responders is that closing off the road would lead to public health and safety concerns when first aid is needed over there and as we all know seconds can count so I'd like to meet one more time with Mr anelto and any other residents who would like to talk about this a little further and we'll see if we're able to go from there great and that's all I have thank you that's that's a lot um so I do want to talk about um some of the issues that were discussed up with uh Hills Highlands with the mass Association um as Renee mentioned we did talk about um summer cical Public Safety Committee along with the um B's Township and a good chunk of the representatives at the hills of Helen Master Association probably majority um are burnard's uh residents that Association is essentially the top of the hill so it's know certainly encampment Parks side some of the single families on Autumn Ridge and off of Autumn Ridge uh Signal Point G cresmont Highlands gate house that's the bedminister side but as everyone knows you're on road the rest of it is is bur Township um so one comment that came up is we talked about um public safety concerns and a resident this is a resident from Bernards um had mentioned that you know there was an incident where there was a strange vehicle in her neighborhood vehicle that certainly um was parked in front of her house was not her just not hers was not her neighbors asked another neighbor if they knew didn't know um and so in keeping with the you see something say something she called 9911 and she said you got a little bit of little bit of grief um from the 911 one um operator and she said she checked her ring camera she had to go off to work did not see if um Bern's PD ever sent someone to do the search and and her thought was that there was a disconnect between um dispatch at the county and uh PD so officer Rivera um and and a little bit what little I know about dispatch um we talked about the issue that that the county runs dispatch that is not earn PD it's not V PD we all going to the county for dispatch um and it did raise the issue of um a concern that both burners and Bedminster PD certainly um if you see something say something you have to call it in uh one of the residents said well maybe you should call the police to directly well calling the police directly certainly embedments are doesn't work we've got uh one Administrative Assistant who is doing a lot of things in town hall and 911 really should be the call and to me it just raises the issue whether there's a gap in public policy where we of our Police Department certainly our chief and our Lieutenant saying and and our sergeant and really all our Police Department um saying you got to call it in right we can't respond to a situation even if it's not a situation we can't respond unless we know about the only way we know about it is by those calls and those calls go 2 911 so perhaps this is something that um we I was not able to make we'll talk about this uh Robin will do the report for the somerset Public Safety Committee um I scheduled for um work event that day so I couldn't make the last call but I asked Robin to put it on the agenda and hear from the police officers um what their response was but it's just something that I think needs to be elevated down to the county and who's ever in charge of dispatch to make sure look it's a tough World a lot of lot of folks are on you know um the term is Tinder hooks I don't really know what that means John maybe can explain what Tinder hooks means but people are on edge and the concern is that if there's something going on if there's someone that you don't know in your neighborhood and needs you know checking out doors or checking out um you know uh or she um stalking houses right call the police that's that's what we've been told didn't she say she called and didn't get an answer and they called her back um no I thought you said she called got someone got a little bit of push back back and then nothing ever happened I think she said she called she didn't get an answer but they called her back and then gave her grief but in any event they should have given a grief so um it's something that we want to see that I certainly would like to see elevated at the county and hear back from them um I have an answer on the tender hooks issue that I'm sure everybody tender hooks it's tenter tender it's okay te n t r hooks means waiting nervously for something to happen the word tenter means a frame used for dry and stretching cloth and is related to tent so being on tentor hooks compares the tenseness of the stretch fabric to the tension of nervous waiting tension of nervous waiting from stretching out some fabric I that's first for discussion governing body how well you know as a fan of eological um you know Origins W um that's interesting thank you John I did not know that Ain wrong all I'm missing Jeopardy tonight so consider yourself even we'll be moving your item to the end of the meeting so so Kevin you're safe Paul's gonna go last thanks Paul just working out for you Farmers Market um little bit of rain on Saturday morning still ended up with 950 955 955 uh again tremendous show um you know once again the threat of rain or the actual rain we had morning always pushes tendance a little low but didn't matter um folks came out and folks came out and droves um land for we did have a land Ford meeting last week uh a replacement of a gate at a residence was approved very exciting um also the first hearing for the Dunkin Donuts um up at the Shell station 206 uh that started committee hickey and I were not eligible since that is a board of adjustment matter um I believe that we uh that hearing will continue in August and uh also I think it's September isn't it is it September I we weren't there so I don't know I I I don't recall I know the the engineer was having some trouble getting the plans together I don't recall the date okay so so it's going to be carried there'll be additional um there'll at least be one additional hearing on that matter um so if you're interested please check the um L use board agenda um also at the Lan's board and we'll talk about this um actually uh right afterwards the land use board um agreed that the pending ordinance changing loot coverage was not inconsistent with the Bedminster master plan and I believe Carol gutel the planning board chair um put together a memo for Robin indicating the consistency statement there was no act committee meeting last month there was no Library board meeting there will be a library board meeting this week this Wednesday this Wednesday okay I think both you and I will be attending that and um that's it for my end Miss Ray may we have the administrator's report and since the cheapest in here you can also combine it with community policing yes oh okay um number one which is really going to be the Somerset Hills Public Safety commit it is it is so just a reminder to everyone if you see activity um at riverroad Park in the um North Field that that's hunch of research in Princeton they're going to start plotting out their U plots at the end of this week and then starting the last week in July um for the archaeological study with the community garden site been working with um debster and we're preparing for the B um which we had budgeted for earlier during the budget process for emergency services radios the pville fire trany tender and um the remounting of the ambulance for part V for State Squad um HR wise employees and supervisors are working on performance reviews right now with employee goals is the focus for this year's effort and uh attended various meetings uh over the past two weeks since our last meeting we had a second quarter safety meeting jip meetings and more recently today we had a hurricane preparedness meeting um with representativ state which is very helpful uh get yourself Grant ready feemale Grant ready for hurricane season so that would good couple takeaways from that and um lastly I just want to since I'm not going to have time to speak later but I just want to say publicly to Kevin um Kevin um I really sincerely wish you good luck in your new position um you're going to be missed by me tremendously uh everything you've done has been very professional And Timely and I can't say enough good things about you and it's just been an absolute pleasure so thank I really wish you the best of luck thank you yeah so to take the somerset Public Health Safety Committee and might as well just bring it here do it now sure so mayor as you know on bridgew was the last of the municipalities to adopt their um resident uh protection ordinance um that being said um mayor corano of pek livstone uh constructed a press release which has been sent out to all the various news outlets um and next steps are to try and get some support at the legislative um level um some of the other topics that were discussed were Robin just on that I will say that the um Courier already picked up on that and wrote a little article about it uh mayor Parker forwarded to me so that was great to see great um you know when that was was that over the weekend he sent I think he sent to me this yesterday may have been Sunday I'll look it up I want to keep a record of all those um the other thing was uh on this topic for discussion was the effectiveness of the um the License Plate Reader cameras Bernard Township has had tremendous success uh Bernardsville just um installed one they have two more to install um and bar Hills just installed two themselves so um which is interesting and both the cameras are on private property so they don't have to work through the red tape at the state level with the highways and um County Roads so that was a we learned a lot from that experience and the price of those uh license flate reader cameras have gone down but apparently they're very powerful tool and the state police actually once you decide where you want the camera the state police plugs it into a GP PS and determines you know um if that's an appropriate place for if it needs coverage elsewhere and um the other topic that we had discussed was um the um people from around the state New Jersey uh that are attracted to our rivers and streams along um the North Branch uh it's become a problem here in Bedminster and I know Far Hills has also experienced some issues it was just making the other municipalities aware um and last on the agenda was the discussion that mayor Jacobs had pointed out um regarding the treatment of calls to the non1 emergency center down suon County um no one had reported that they had any other issues experienced but there were only two other police Chiefs that were there at the meeting at the time so the different mayors were going to check in to see if there were any accounts you know by their police officers of similar treatment of a resident that report something see something say something um and then the next step would be to um direct our attention to the count uh call center to see what can be done so I did so I did get I actually just forwarded you the article I think it was this morning so this morning's Courier but and they certainly had picked up on the um press release that we just following up on the issue of um so there you know to committee knows certainly knows about this um that there's been uh folks coming out to hang out literally in the river along our hike and bike trail um and they're coming out um and staying for the day and which which is fine um except they are um green food and barbecuing and whether it's Habachi or gas grills um and drinking and leaving all forms of garbage um including diapers and sometimes not typers and I've heard a uh complaint actually it's not really complaint an incident that the fire department had to respond because there were burning embers um left in I'm not sure if it was in woods but it was not too far back back from Miller Lane and fire department was not pleased that folks are um grilling uh back there and it is not allowed and there are some Municipal ordinances that we do have in place uh Bedminster PD has been controlling um and issuing summonses um so we'll see what happens with that if that um AES what's been going on out there um I've also heard from residents and received an email um and also at the farmers market folks were coming up to me and saying something needs to be done because people are walking from the hills and they're just turning around because the the garbage and the crowds are so big that they are just you know staying away and so we do need to look at it and make sure that everything is maintained appropriately um I do believe that Chief Bernardo has reached out to DMP and to some of the um State forestry because there are concerns about damage to the woods damage to the river um some cases they're daming up literally taking the rocks in the uh in the North Branch and uh creating dams and to generate waiting areas um presumably for kids or or not and um certainly messing up with the operation of river so it's something that we wanted to see if any of the other municipalities are dealing with and if anyone has um any other enforcement ideas we wanted to hear from those other towns um but right now certainly B PD is on top of it and I think we did hear that in one day at least 10 summonses were issued um so hopefully the work gets out um you know the parks and the hike and bike um are there for recreation and enjoyment uh but not to the detriment of the environment itself introduction of ordinances we have none tonight we do have a public hearing of ordinance 202 24015 once again this is the lot coverage ordinance that we discussed at introduction and the intent of uh this ordinance is to increase lot coverage across all residential zones and this would have essentially one lot coverage calculation uh that would apply whether based on the size of the property whether you're in quarter acre Zone half acre Zone one acre Zone through 10 acre Zone uh the impetus for this ordinance was that um over the last couple years years the L use board has been giving variances for folks who needed relief and in some part it was because um of our setbacks whatever Zone you're in um some of the setbacks were requiring um longer driveways which eats up into your lock cupion so if you we're giving folks a longer uh setback that requires greater lot coverage and less lot coverage for them to build other elements so we thought uh we would change it um Paul had worked up a chart that was uh that was going to work and it did until um an engineer Paul Fox brought to our attention that the way this new calculation worked there was an inflection point that it was providing additional lock coverage up to a certain um area and that after that area it actually diminished lck coverage from where it had been so Paul Ferrero and I uh discussed making some adjustments to it uh ran it by John Bardo and based on the calculations that Paul Ran So what we're going to what we're going to do just so we yeah we'll get we'll get there the inflection point for where all of a sudden you know you're getting increased lot coverage and then it drops was 35 Acres so the solution was to leave the chart in place for lot sizes up to 35 acres and then for proper properties above 35 acres to leave the current lot coverage in place so we're drawing the line at 35 Acres below 35 Acres you fall into the chart above 35 Acres you stay where you are at 5% total Lo coverage so John what let's do this why don't we open the public hearing as we normally do on the original ordinances published okay take a motion to open the public hearing so moved second all in favor okay now I understand that there is an amendment proposed which amendment I've deemed is non-substantive thus it would permit you to adopt the amendment tonight if you so please and so Paul and I I think are going to work through exactly what that Amendment is do you want me to take a first shot at it Paul and you can jump in or do you want to do that it all depends on your confidence and your algebra skills well I'm not sure they're that confident but let's do this the original your schools know that they were the engineers at the time yes but I was not an engineer I was a I was a finance and economics major so if you want to invest money come to me but if you want to add it up go to Paul Lexy's West Point um if we go to under 13- 41.3 a there is a table one which is lot coverage in the original ordinance there was a category that was a singular category that said we're going to leave everything else the same in the table but in the original ordinance there was a category that said for lot area in excess of 10 acres and and then it provided a percentage coverage for increment a base coverage and a maximum permitted coverage in terms of SAR Fe what the amended ordinance is proposed is going to do is is going to have two categories there's going to be a category for the next 25 acres meaning 10 to 35 acres and then there's going to be a category for all Lots in excess of 35 Acres the percentage coverage for increment for 10 to 35 acres is 3% 43,4 for the first 10 acres stays the same and then what changes for that 10 to 25 category is the maximum permitted coverage in square feet is 43,6 4 square feet plus 3% of the lot area in the excess or increment of 10 acres to 35 Acres now when we go for Lots in excess of 35 Acres uh it's simple it's just 5% of the total area um is the maximum permitted coverage did I get that correct you want to jump in you got that correct all right so that's your amendment I can explain why but you got it correct why don't you disappointed you're disappointed in me that I didn't that you have no criticism or you're withholding your criticism out of difference to John what happened with the ordinance was was it's all about the slope of the line of the increasing coverage and it flattens out as you go up in lot area and there was a point and it happens to be at 35 Acres where that flattening out ended up in something less than 5% lot coverage for Lots in excess of five acres very simple fix just find that point like John said we're going to five acres for the lot area for those lots so there's no change I I I can say this across board nobody gets less lot coverage than they had before and there's no change for Lots in excess of 35 Acres so if you w to make a motion to amend the ordinance as as so indicated uh why don't we do that and then if that motion is accepted you can make a motion to open up the public hearing on the amended ordinance okay I'll take a motion to amend ordinance 2024 015 consistent with what's before us consistent with the uh description from John and from Paul so moved second all in favor I okay so now we'll take a motion to open the public hearing on the amended version of ordinance 2024 015 so moov second all in favor so once again this ordinance sets a new LW coverage there's an incremental so if everyone just turns to um table one there's an incremental assessment so for the first half acre the lot percentage of allowable lot coverage is 30% for the next half acre you get that 30% for your first Halfacre that essentially establishes the Baseline and for the area you have Beyond a half acre so you go from 05 you have 610 so you start with that first 30% for your first half acre and then that next 10th you get a 20% lock and that continues all through so you start with uh there's a increment for first half acre the second half acre then for the next one acre then for the next one acre then for the next two acres then the next two acres and then for the next three acres that brings you up to 10 acres so for each of those there's start with your Baseline at the 30% of a half acre and then whatever the other increments they all add up cumulatively and then when you get to 10 acres so for anything um from 10 acres to 35 Acres so you start with whatever base you get at 10 acres then from 10 to 35 so that 25 acre you get a new allocation percentage of whatever that wind area is above 10 but below 25 if you have a property that is in excess of 35 Acres you don't get any Baseline you just get a flat 5% which is exactly what folks have today question I have a question um we are doing this because we've identified areas where we you know folks are coming and get asking for Relief when they really shouldn't otherwise need it right part of that initiative to say let's give the residents a bit of opportunity to do something with their homes put on an addition put in a pool or something right this is the same discussion okay have we done a look at the need for that at the 35 acre level because this doesn't get that done for them follow it's like we're giving a release everybody up to 35 and then it's like yeah but you still get the same old if we made the determination we need relief do the 35 acre folks need similar relief so from the L use board and I'm going to turn to Paul who's done some of the U this analysis certainly the land use board looked at where we were getting the variances seeking relief from law coverage right and those variances were primarily coming from um five six S 8 9 10 11 12 20 Acre Properties we weren't really seeing it to that extent for larger Parcels Paul you want to jump in yeah there that just to roll back and and talk about another purpose of the ordinance I'll get to the numbers in second part of this was to create lock coverage standard so if you had a two acre lot it didn't matter what zone you were in you had the same permitted lock coverage because that that is not the case before this gets done and it varies significantly from Zone to Zone as to what you could Co have amount of coverage you could have for a lot so for example if you have a if you're in the r10 and certain we've seen this at the land use board if you're in the r10 10 acres Zone you have a 5% um you currently are subject to a 5% lot coverage so if you have a non-conforming lot in a 10 acre let's you've got a six acre property still so it's a pretty significant size property you know there's very little you can do it's actually different than that for the 0 zone is the one zone that does have variable lot coverages for non-conforming Lots in that zone but the other the other zones do not if you're in the two acre Zone and you have one acre you stuck with a two acre Zone coverage not what have what would have been the one acre Zone coverage so this kind of levels the playing field across the different zones so whatever lot size you have you get the coverage based on the lot size and then to the second point where we're seeing the varing yeah they're they're mostly on the smaller Lots I can't think of more than one or two over years and years and years that are greater than or lots that are greater than 35 Acres where those variances occur and those are unusual circumstances where you may have uh common driveways that are very long that serve properties in the rear and in my opinion you don't necessarily that that's a perfect justification for a variance and you shouldn't set your ordinance for every potential outlier because then you'll get un unintended consequences there as well so I think this strikes the balance to reduce the number of variances that the board would have to see therefore giving more relief to the residents but also keeping an eye on overall a lot coverage in the municipalities yeah I mean my only other concern I think it's alleviated or addressed by the statement that it is not inconsistent with our master plan and that is are we sure that uniformity of lot coverage is what we want throughout well doesn't matter where you are if you're if you're in the historic district or if you're not in historic district are we sure that's what we want that you can have this lot coverage that's one size fit all so to speak you know and I guess that would be my concern is is sort of a master plan concern that wait a second what have we decided as a municipality as a and that that we want this section to be so limited and if we've already thought out and gotten the determination that it's not inconsistent that I'm fine with right and that and that's the finding of not inconsistent you will not find it that it that anywhere in the ordinance it spells this out but it's it is consistent with the number of goals and objec objectives of the of the master plan as far as limiting cover or providing reasonable opportunities for development on all properties and the the Lots in the smaller zones or in the historic areas tend to often be some of the smaller Lots right and you know what we've seen at the board you know relates to some of those lots and um but also when when you get larger and it was brought up the other night the question was was it the intent of this ordinance to make it more difficult for people to have agricultural uses on 100 Acre Lots the answer was no that was not the intent thank you for pointing that out and I think we remedied it thank you and certainly uh Frank banish who is the U Municipal planner he went through it and he was at all the debate and discourse about um putting this ordinance together um and he ISU a memo to langus board saying that he agreed with the concepts in this Coes for that consistency did anybody take into consideration environmental impacts with this I mean I'm just imagining on these smaller properties you're going to have larger lot coverage it's going to cause problems with rainwater stuff like that you still have the storm water Control Ordinance which regulates what you have to do depending on the additional coverage you put on the Lots so okay so depending on how much you put on we'll regulate how much you have to do for storm water control all those LS okay it does not does not change that you're still subject to those requirements okay and Paul based on your experience like you've been here a long time you also work across other towns nothing in here would be considered in any means excessive I don't want to put words in your mouth but I mean I think it's quite the opposite we have such limitation that in some of the zones prior to this ordinance you had the house the driveway at the front walk and you literally could do nothing else and and part of that relates to what this ordinance regulates it doesn't regulate impervious coverage right it regulates lock coverage so things like gravel driveways sand riding ARs they're all considered lock coverage yeah yeah so Paul and I did have a discussion about you know the alternative is to look at what constitutes lot coverage and that that really could open up a bigger hand Wars uh maybe addressing some of the concerns that you have and that you have so we felt the best way of of accommodating um was giving greater um latitude in the lot coverage percentages themselves so this is um a consistent approach once again whether you've got a two acre property in the R1 the two acre property in R3 you know what you can do the other thing that um Paul said that he can develop um he's going to work into our online ordinance or this might be online on it be tool on the website it will not be any ordinance it'll okay so it'll be a tool on the beder website you put in your lot size it'll spit out your allowable lot coverage so we think that's um a tremendous uh tool that would be very useful to all our residents and to folks who are looking to sell people looking to buy in Bedminster um to know what they can do with that property um in context of coverage limits so any further questions from Township committee hey let's open uh the hearing up for public comment any member of the public wishing to make a comment or question regarding the proposed ordinance if you're in person raise your hand and come on up give your name and address Paul Fox with appar Associates in Far Hills I represent homeowners uh 250 Holland Road 1510 larger cross 1904 lamington 815 long Lane 251 fer 461 spook Hollow and 400 larger cross uh on behalf of our firm I thank you for making the final adjustments to that I think that makes sense uh a lot of these property owners have preserved large properties for a long time and they want to be able to maintain the opportunities uh however limited they are presently at what they are now and not look at a reduction in in potential improvements in the future so thank you for making that adjustment and we appreciate it great thank you Paul and thank you for bringing it to our attention thank you for listening if you are participating by zoom and you'd like to make a uh question or comment regarding the proposed ordinance once again bring your cursor down to the bottom click on participants click on raise hand or is it reaction is it reaction or participants reaction reaction I'm not seeing any com okay see none take a motion to close the public hearing so move second all in favor I thank you take a motion to approve ordinance number 22415 consistent with the changes that John and Paul described and consistent with the version ordinance uh in your packet and I have deemed those amendments nons substantive as I've indicated before such that the committee can adopt this ordinance tonight if it so desires okay so move second will call please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hicky hi M Mori hi and mayor Jac hi thank you okay thank you thank you Paul thank you John and thank you Paul Fox thank you thank you Paul you I know Mr Fox is dismissed am I anything you want say about Kevin I've got nothing else no place would you like say Kevin I'm sorry would you like to say anything to Kevin just thank you and good luck thank Kevin Kevin's done a a great job and has been has really been awesome to work with breath of fresh air in the township I think it's I think it's gone really well my son lives in veril so I've already given him Kevin S on those snowy days thank you Paul thank you we have H one two three four items on the consent agenda these are items of a routine nature any member of Township Committee Member any Township Committee Member want to pull one off for all of them for individual consideration saying none take a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda moved second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson Mr hiy M i and may Jacobs I thank I'll note that resolution 2024 103 points Evan Elliott uh to the short preservation commission um Evan is um recent graduate from Syracuse where majored in architecture working at an architectural firm now and is also um you volunteer uh with The Farmstead so he's got some historical um experience and so welcome addition to the HP you'll be see we have no resolutions not on the agenda we'll take a motion to approve the bill list pending review of individual invoices moved second call St Mr hiy hi Mr Ry Hi and hi any items for discussion under new business nothing there let's go back to Old business to improvements as far as I I know there's been no further input or response from do on the crosswalk improvements uh utilities man hicky thank you mayor uh couple quick updates jcpnl as you may be aware there were two outages last week unfortunately first was an areawide outage last Tuesday that impacted many Somerset Hills towns it was deemed by jcpnl to be a transmission trip which likely means either a piece of Upstream transmission equipment failed because of the high demand due to the high temperatures or it was struck by lightning we had a separate outage on Wednesday that was limited to the N Crest neighborhood and was caused by primary failure that outage unfortunately lasted about nine hours and a permanent repair will be made within the next several weeks with no additional downtime anticipated what do you mean by is there so there's a primary so there's a C running between Transformers in that neighborhood underground that failed oh that was internal that was internal to no chis correct so technically basically they back fed from Hills Drive and they will go in and replace that cable from transform to Transformer within the next week or two like I said no downtime for the residents we checked on that um in spite of that local failure I think what we've been seeing more and more is that these power failure failures like Tuesday's example are occurring Upstream in the network we have spent a lot of time ensuring that our local neighborhood networks especially those in the hills are up to speed but the upspeed sub Upstream substations and transmission facilities are where the failures are originating these days and that's why you're seeing entire regions go dark like we saw on Tuesday so I know mayor you personally appealed to the BPU a couple months ago to make sure that jcpnl is investing in modernizing and hardening its up Upstream transmission Network that really will get to the root of a lot of the problems that we've been seeing across the area so we're patiently waiting or perhaps impatiently waiting for the BPU to take some action which I anticipate will come later on this summer uh if there are no questions on that Alti uh speaking of n Crest construction has officially finished there so residents of n Crest can now Avail themselves of the new fiber Network it is the fifth neighborhood in the Hills to be cut over for or Fiber as I mentioned our last meeting been working with several of the associations to address some startup issues in most cases those involve the handoff from the Alti Construction Group to the field operations team the latter of which handles the new new service installs so we're working through some issues there mayor that's all I have I don't know if Kevin has anything on New Jersey American water or pscg I do not uh I do not have anything on American order PNG the only thing I have is the local for the project here for the town hall this I met last week with the the service rep what we're going to do is we're going to ensure that the line is big enough for future expansion if we do decide to do a boiler system here um the gentleman who does the scheduling was off I have an email after him I'm just trying to get a better time while we're touching on that um on Friday they're going to switch generator over to tie the lines in for the electric the building will be shut down at 12 uh it's like a three to four hour process for them to do that um so then the only thing we're waiting on is PSC for the gas so oh wait and so on Old um Old St house still I don't believe there any serves to the houses yet okay but that should be what's next excellent great thank you for John and Doug U puckman Park no mayor I have told the zoning officer to keep me in the loop on any um new developments concerning the outstanding violations and whether there has been any compliance or remediation so I I haven't heard anything lately so but she's she's aw to keep me in the loop so which brings us to Township committee comments we do have an executive session and we may be taking action after that executive session so hold the uh TC whether you want to go through comments now or whether you want to um wait till after executive session and we return to public for action in The Resolution you were gracious enough to let me say my comments so I I don't have a dog in in the race we do it now okay let's go through Township committee comments so we're gonna go through Township committee comments we will then adjourn to Executive session to discuss a Personnel matter and then we will come back for consideration of a resolution Stevens good luck don't be a stranger thank many many hicking thank you mayor so Rene you always said it's hard to follow you know Doug and I it's hard to follow him a lot of times because he's Aaron judge right but Kevin I just want to say thank you you I've described you before as the action hero of bedminister which you truly are and you know folks may not realize not only does Kevin have his daytime job but then he has to answer to all five of us and trust me and because we get calls from the residents about problems issues concerns you call up Kevin no matter how small or big the problem is Kevin gravity isn't working okay yeah I'll get I'll get that fixed it'll be fixed by tomorrow I swear I'm like and it is Kevin you are a credit to your industry to your job to the residents you're always there for every body it's been a pleasure working with you it's been an education working with you I wish you the best of luck in your future career I know our loss is Bernard ville's gain we're sorry to see you go but like Doug said don't be a stranger you're always a friend so thank you thank you many women rescue what the heck am I gonna say softball that was barely right I know all of us in town appreciate all the work you do we're going to miss you don't be a stranger and we'll see you we'll still see you a little bit so and I'm not going to cry not yet no I'm working up to it and we will miss it so it's interesting because I I I think Kevin as having been here 20 years and he and he has it he hasn't um so Kevin came to us and was working under John for John nass for years but not that many years but John I John saw something in Kevin and usually John saw bad just but he saw something good in [Laughter] Kevin and um identified Kevin as um you know the upand cominging director and appointed him in Deany and Kevin got an opportunity um to be a director of the public works and what was that that was um byon Alami Alami um went to Alami things didn't work out came back here to once again serve under John matz that that says you gotta really like the town you were to come back for round two with John matz but he did and you know when um John announced he was retiring and we went through a process and Kevin was considered we went through another process um and uh Kevin was the guy Doug you were instrumental in um you know going through the interview process and sitting down with Kevin and sort of laying down expectations for the position of director um and there was a concern because you know John had been here for 40 46 47 years and certainly no no one was even close to that um the transition John with Rodney as an inim to Kevin um was I don't want to say was seamless because seamless isn't enough they actually was an uptick an uptick in um there I say it the morale of DPW um the production we saw out of DPW new ideas the new ideas the coordination and cooperation with the other departments which we didn't always have so there was an open Channel between the police department between wreck and even environmental and the other committees JB and departments directly to Kevin I don't recall at any time Kevin ever saying no we can't do that it's just give me some time let me think about it and we'll take care of it um whether it was the parks the fields roads the dirt roads plowing the me pickup um somehow um we ended up with a Santa chair for the farmers market um and just going above and beyond and also certainly you know I'll come back to it um the camaraderie within DPW right it's um it's a hard job these guys are there early in the morning super early and they're there on the coldest nights and they're there on the hottest days and they're outside and they're working and the maintenance of our facilities is right up there and we talked about bike we talked about fields we have and the reason they're in such great shape is because Kevin and his crew really put their all in there um Kevin was working with us not just just um here and getting the calls can you do this can you do that but also like budget and taking a committed interest in how the town puts together our budget and was there was always a great sounding board for uh fire safety equipment CPW equipment what you know Kevin saw that it was a tough year maybe we can maybe we can squeeze out another year or two of this piece of equipment but this other one we need right away and you know oftentimes you know we might look at that and like okay we got we need to bet this further no with Kevin it was Kevin we trust you implicitly we took your advice and um you know we war with it um you talked about you know in his day J right it's stum DPW director here a liutenant on Lieutenant Captain Captain I'm sorry so captain on which which fire vehicle oh we don't differentiate okay he's captain in Far Hills beder fire department he Volunteers in your hometown fire department are you on your school board yet I've been on yeah he's been School Board how did he have time to have a kid husband father active with um sports with your kids sports those basketball and soccer do you sleep renaissance man and unlike his predecessor he never gave a single legal opinion at these meetings so it is it's just you know Kevin you were so for you know certainly compared to John you know it's it's a short window but you're so ingrained in the community um we wish you all the success in Bernardsville um our losses their gain uh but the other thing that Kevin did and this is something that um Gina and I have been preaching and Doug I know you've done this as well and certainly with Robin is that we have succession plan and Kevin has done that with the B through DPW and um I don't want to discuss any more of that because that's for executive session um so Kevin good luck thank you we know we'll see you around we'll see you with Miller Lane for sure yeah I'll fall fast yeah well yes we you know since there's only 24 hours a day I'm sure we can squeeze a couple couple minutes of you once in a while and um Robin are we going to keep Kevin for Zack no Okay Kevin good luck I'll pop I'll pop out I just like to say thank you all for your support um each and including Robin especially each and everyone who been crucial to my success Jason my entire group nothing would have been done without all of your support and having a good grw so thank you so much for the opportunity truly appreciate it thank you Kevin okay um I'll take a motion to go to Executive session once again for the public out there we will be returning to public session after executive and we may be taking formal action on a resolution take a motion that 813 I'll take a motion to return to Executive session so moved second in favor I thank you okay we will be returning so if you want to stick around you're more than welcome okay it is 8:30 Bedminster Township committee has returned from executive session we are now in public session we do have one resolution to consider which is resolution number 2024 102 this resolution would appoint P Jason Randolph uh to take the position of acting Public Works director at a salary of $110,000 for a one-year term um the position is acting uh there's a certification um that's required and Jason we understand that um intending to uh complete that certification within the year any further questions or comments regarding the resolution seeing none take a motion to approve resolution 202 24102 so move second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson enthusiastically yes Mr hickey absolutely I miss moresi of course yes and mayor Jacobs congratulations Jason all right and at 8:31 say no further uh business to take care of tonight take a motion to adjourn so move second all in favor thank you and good night good thank you Amanda thank you take care congratulations