can you hear me can you hear me also you mayor this meeting has been called in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting at and that announcement of the same and the mail to the local newspapers and to the clerk from the and that the minutes of this meeting will be available after the board approval and at a subsequent meeting roll call commissioner Lynch commissioner Sher commissioner cerly commissioner [Music] Masano commissioner Orchard pres uh grainy yes is she I don't think she's here Ellen's not here though and commissioner mcra here you have a call okay actually we're going to go into um a workshop right now um the B of bmar and relist to Affordable oh I'm sorry again and we're going to go to a workshop right now in relation to the buau of bmar and their affordable hous so mayor would you like to address I can start yes okay you need this uh yeah sure why not up thank you everyone I'd like to thank uh the executive director for inviting us here tonight to um to make this uh make ourselves available to the board to answer any questions that you may have regarding the uh the proposal that was given to director to santis on May 21st I understand that the last uh Council Rond and I appeared uh and the board had not received the the May 21st letter as of yet so um this is giving us another opportunity to uh to answer any questions that the board might have not being an expert in affortable housing I've asked uh two of our uh professionals here to actually answer some questions the first person is uh one of our Redevelopment attorneys Les in London uh who's been intimately involved with uh the borrow and our Redevelopment of work housing um yeah they can if you guys want to come on up uh and also Jennifer beam who's a planner who is working with the burrow also in our affordable housing uh efforts to uh to get certified for the third round but they're the experts um I'm going to ask them briefly to just maybe give us a two-minute uh summary on their background like how many years they've been doing this their experience so I'm going to turn it over to lesie just for her brief introduction and and Jennifer and then the board is welcome to ask whatever questions like they're empty now they're empty okay you want to use good evening everyone uh my name is Leslie London I'm with the law firm McManaman Scotland and Balman I've been practicing law for 37 years and doing affordable housing for about 15 years and I currently represent the burrow in your affordable housing litigation before judge Gro Jones um that is currently pending good evening I'm Jennifer beam I a licensed professional planner in the state of New Jersey and a member of the American Institute of certified planners I have been practicing for more than 30 years and I've been doing affordable housing for the entirety of that time and have been accepted as an expert in affordable housing before for the courts in various langes okay it might be best to start off with questions if anybody in the board has any questions and I was going to just uh not suggest but you might want to uh think about how you might want to incorporate public questions that's up to the board that's not how you want to do that I do I want I want an exp actually and it might help everyone else I'm actually I'm very confused with this whole thing um I always thought when a developer came to the Bur with the plans that it was mandatory that they had to provide a certain percentage for affordable housing now I'm reading the co- store it do the sound it sounds as though the developers was not mandatory so does that mean that hypothetically I'm a developer I come to you I have my plans is it up to you the Barrow to say oh it looks good but you we expect you to give a certain percent of for for affordable housing is that to the burrow to request that it's not mandatory I don't understand that I want an answer to that sure I can do I can answer that so participation in compliance with affordable housing even though it's a constitutional obligation has been um up to each individual municipality it's not mandatory it's up to you however not participating creates a risk so up till now the risk has not been really evaluated or taken into consideration because you don't really have a tremendous amount of property available for large scale development so what you're talking about is every development has this obligation that's growth share that was the what unconstitutional by the courts in like 2008 2009 pardon it was made unconstitu it was determined to be that that process where every town every development on sorry was uh creating an obligation was deemed unconstitutional by the court and this is why it's taken so long so that happened in what 2008 2009 and then there was additional uh legislature proposed that was also deemed to be unconstitutional no legislation was adopted there was another five plus year Gap and the Supreme Court finally ruled and created this obligation which is our constitutional obligation excuse me what year was that 2015 okay March of 2015 every Community every town within in within the state was provided the opportunity to opt in in in July of that of 2015 so you had like several months to evaluate what the obligation was most towns op in a lot of the shore communities like yourselves did not because you do not have a tremendous amount of developing land you're not wall you're not howl you're not upper freeh hole you're not manalan you don't have these Farms Etc however you still do have a constitutional obligation so what happened recently two years ago 3 years ago was there was the threat of a builder's remedy lawsuit so when you don't participate voluntarily you run the risk of a builder's remedy lawsuit a builder remedy lawsuit means you lose absolute control of your zoning developers can come in 10 stories 15 stories density is crazy that you don't want and because you have not participated and protected Yourself by participating you run the risk of issues and development that you don't want and there was a threat of that happening so the buau opted to file a declaratory judgment action which is an action in the court saying we're going to participate in this process and that was Leslie FM P you know put that together submitted that and that protected you from that Builder's remedy location how long ago was that we filed the DJ action last year it was an excellent timing because we were just on the heels of having a developer going on this Builder remedy lawsuit the builders did intervene in the case they are allowed to intervene so in our DJ action we have four um interveners so they are sitting at the table the key difference with with burrow filing the DJ action is that we are in control we ride the bus or steer the bus if you want to say that versus the Builder telling the court what they want to do in the burrow if you had not filed that DJ action the builders would have gone into court to say your honor the burrow has not adopted a plan this is what we want to do and the judge would follow them versus now the burrow is in first and we are leading the way so we're trying to put together a plan to reach our obligation the obligation importantly is based on a region it's not just belmar's numbers alone Belmar is included in Region 4 which covers all of Mama County Ocean County and Mera County so the formula is based on numbers taking into consideration those Three Counties so at this point we've been in court for about year the builders are very aggressive they want a lot we uh for them at every Avenue that we can but we still have a number to reach and the mayor and Council have been there you know Stu from the very beginning trying to bring the numbers down Jennifer's firm did what's called a baced land adjustment which brought the number significantly down we started out with around 200 some odd units of affordable housing we were able to bring it down to 96 which isn't a public number per se but because we're still working with fish share but it's a significant difference and you have to keep in mind for every affordable unit you have to build four or five Market units and that's where the numbers come in so you try to not have to continue doing inclusionary zoning and inclusionary projects because for every one affordable you have five more um markets so what happens it's helpful if you can get credit for other things such as senior housing that's why we came to the um Housing Authority we saw that the senior units here don't get credit to help us unless they are open to the region so that's why we do essentially mayor any other question thank you you guys we're here to answer questions do you have a question identify who you are and uh Jen question for you sure so the buau received in 2019 a letter from the law firm that was providing legal council in Bur with at the time that the burgo um was not complying with its obligation um you were part of the the administration at that time and I know you work very closely with the attorney to develop an ordinance which was ultimately passed a couple months later that would um bring the the town into compliance with its affordable obligation now I realized there are different ways of looking at this and different ways of um seeking remedies but what you're saying is that um perhaps that ordinance didn't accomplished what it should have at the time and and things have potentially changed not really so I agree and that ordinance is similar to a mandatory set aside ordinance which was the the burrow never affirmatively acted through a declar judgement action to participate in the process so what that ordinance did was say if we can get units which there are a couple of developments that got approved over the past several years that had provided commitments to F units not that they actually provided them but they provided commitments to do it that ordinance was trying to capture units where they could the difference between now and then is that now there's a declaratory judgment action we're before the court we were not before the court when that ordinance was adopted there's an obligation of 24 units between the prior round and this current third round which is scheduled to end come January so we're looking at another round coming up quickly we've been very aggressive with fair share much to Leslie's dismay because I'm not super nice and have been very aggressive with fair share housing center on what Our obligation would be between the different interveners which there are four correct um and other properties within 90% of not I I would say 100% of which are within the Redevelopment area we come up with an an obligation of 96 un we can take 24 bonus credits right so that reduces that a little bit to um 72 physical units that have to be built so the difference between what happened then was we were not committed into the into the process we were capturing what we could through the Redevelopment plan the ordinances Etc but we never physically jumped in and were participating in the process once you participate then fair share is at the table fair share for those of you who don't know fair share housing center is a nonprofit affordable housing advocacy group who has been given a very significant Power by the Supreme Court they are allowed to be at every table they negotiate with us they say yes they say no the court pretty much takes what they have to say so that ordinance that was adopted previously was not subject to their approval because we're not physically participating in the process now we are they're involved they're difficult to say the least they so we have this obligation of 96 units and we've been working with these four interveners over the course of the past year I think it's longer than a year not long year it feels longer than a year and we have been battling it out with them and trying to get as many units as we physically can to comply there are 12 units that were captured under that ordinance under you know the prior situation which we're going to have to battle out too but at the end of the day why we're here tonight and I know it's a it's a controversial subject and I'm happy to answer any questions that come up is that the units that are in this facility the 50 units are physically affordable if you look at the criteria we don't get credit for them because they're not quote unquote affirmatively marketed which means they have to be marketed to the region MTH oan Mercer so because there is a residency preference the burrow gets zero credit for those 50 units and so there was a request and I'm happy to answer any questions regarding it as is Leslie to lift the residency preference at least for 24 of the 50 units because that's all we can get credit for in order for the burrow to receive affordable housing credit the units are affordable the the residents are Income qualified they p absolutely not be displaced from the unit at all there's no like to do this doesn't mean you have to move that's 100% not happening understand that the weight list is closed the weight list can remain closed as long as it needs to be but the request is can would this board acely affirmative to lift that Resident preference from at least 24 of the 50 UNS something sure also one advantage of being part of the Burrow's plan is that we can include you in our spending plan to provide financial assistance to be used for rehab and other um expenses incurred by the Housing Authority we cannot do that without being part of the plan or being part of the spending plan also the DJ action provid Ides what's called a judgment of compliance and repose to the burrow it protects the burrow for the term of the third round which ends uh July 1st 2025 which means that no other developer can file the lawsuit against you and your plan is in place so uh there's an advantage to having the DJ action the ordinance alone didn't provide that type of protection sure so just to be clear the units that were built in fifth and Main Street and the units that were inverted from the old Bank building yep have zero affordable units no how many so 500 main hold on I have this information 500 Main have two units or should have two units 800 meain four units and 10th Avenue 10th Avenue associate six units you say you should have does that mean they are or they're not no I I just don't understand how this this occur it was so much controversy I know on the bank I agree and that priates the two of us so like we you know it's really but that's that's not to say that we're not going to go after the units we are going after the units and the developer is going to ultimately have to provide them it's just going to take while to get through the litigation but it's not something that the bur is not going to is not going to pursue we are pursuing it he is going to have to provide those units okay and for argument say let's suppose the board does decide to the 24 unit yes does that mean the other 26 units they could have a preference yes they could yes so locals would have a preference 100% yes and my f my final question is if it goes for the 24 units if it goes into this region for uh is it a normal process where you begin to top of the list and go down there's going to have to be a lottery that's what I thought okay but all of your nobody ever brought that up I understand that's that's the requirement I totally understand I but I I don't want to mislead you that would be what was is required is a lottery and and that would be administered by the Burrows administrative housing agent that has to be hired also it doesn't change your admission and occupancy policy and all of your requirements that are in here for your residents that will not change but we we basically lose control on intake for 24 why lottery I mean the short answer is yes I what I can say can I so what I can say is this has been a concern in other communities that I work there are ways to somewhat mitigate it because when you have the lottery the people have to have 100% of their paperwork in line before they get put into the criteria who does that the administrative agent but what I have seen in other communities let's say hypothetically how we theoretically have meetings with local residents to get their paperwork in line so when things open up they're 100% ready to go as opposed to those that perhaps don't live is in the Comm it's not 100% but there's ways to help it can not believe you're actually saying this good job what you're descri I mean it's a it's a reality I just cannot believe you are saying that that that's your your recommendation that that's what we could get that's not my recommendation get around what is already a dumb idea but but respectfully no respectfully no respectfully I'm not addressing you I'm addressing them and we can go at it whenever you want fine with it but my point is is that you you do technically have to have a lottery you can help your residents get their paperwork together to give them an advantage in the lottery but other than that the face to face yeah and it's important to remember that you will have a um administrative agent who is now required under the new legislation to be certified and they have to follow specific procedures so uh your administrative agent is the Burrow's person that they would hire and that agent will set up the program for you know the um for the region who from the region will qualify the list another another one well the salaries can come out of the trust fund your trust fund um trust F the the the burrow does have a trust fund it can't be used until we complete the DJ action we can't use it until we have an approved spending plan how much is that I believe there around 63,000 and it currently it will be going a part of our proposed settlement is to receive monies specifically from some of the developers that will be used for rehab and other purposes significant amounts of money come to us no and citizens who build right um you know on the homepage of our website for the Belmar Housing Authority it clearly says is the Belmar Housing Authority's mission to provide safe affordable and clean housing to the residents of B so this is a drastic change for this community and a housing Authority that has been loyal to serving its residents for decades um I do have a question about the distribution of these funds which I realize are are minimal frankly in the overall scheme not going to make any impact in improving the or the quality of life of the residents that live here it's minimal right now but in the ordinance that uh was passed ordinance number 20234 States in that the expenditure of all funds shall conform to this a spending plan approved by COA or Court competent jurisdiction funds deposited in the Housing Authority trust fund may be used for any activity approved by COA or the court to address belmar's be share obligation so we have a letter from the administration saying that we were to adopt this change and no longer prioritize Belmar residents and have this region of mammoth merer in Ocean County we would have access to these funds but the way I read this ordinance is that uh or that the buau would have the authority to grant us these funds for improvements that um may be needed but the the way I read this it says that's not not the case the mayor and Council can't do that that uh it's done by COA or Court of competent jurisdiction so can you explain how that would work first of all the ordinance that you're reading from will be superseded by another ordinance part of our DJ action requires the municipality to adopt a group of ordinances which are pretty standard the spending plan is part of our DJ action it's part of our settlement with fair share housing and the court Master court adjudicator now and the spending plan is created by the burough so it will be approved by the court COA is gone the new legislation dismantled COA um so COA is no longer in exist existence the court has jurisdiction right now and then the fourth round changes a little but right now judge grao Jones has jurisdiction over the DJ action and the burrow is preparing to Jen's firm the spending plan and we we we decide what goes into it and that plan will go to the judge as part of our settlement she will approve it and that will be in inforced you know going forward it can be amended whenever just going back to the court however the burrow controls how the money is spent and there are some codes that say certain percentages have to be spent doing certain things but the burrow will craft the spending plan thank you for that clar yeah just um have a several questions but I think you know one of the things that I think we just need to keep in mind here as Commissioners is uh is you know our role in the position that we've been appointed to and I see how costs in this town are rising dramatically we have apartments on Main Street that are getting $2800 a month in rent up to 3,200 um and I know that we have a lot of seniors who live in various areas of the town and apartments who are receiving pretty drastic increases monthly to their rents already and my concern is as the cost in town rise we're going to have more of our own citizens that are going to need access to the safe affordable and clean housing cuz they're going up dramatically and if we dilute their ability to be able to access that I think we're doing a disservice to the people who live here who deserve to be able to move move in I understand that the buau is in a very difficult situation and we can sit here all night and finger point about who did this right who did this wrong and this strategy was better than this or that but the fact of the matter is what we're really talking about here is the ability of belmare residents to be able to access safe clean affordable housing to this building and I know that that will be greatly reduced by the tens of thousands of new people that will be eligible go on this list and I do not think that we should um I don't think we should put our diminish the ability of our residents to access this building that's just my philosophical opinion now as far as the affordable I'm not denying that the town needs to do this and I know that there's you know four developers and there's probably others who want to do stuff you know I think they should be required to include in their unit counts a higher percentage of the they're going to build the units anyway right if they build 100 and they have to build 17 affordable they're going to do it they they're going to build 100 and they're going to put in 21 affordable they're going to do that it's not going to make a bit of difference to them the unit counts going to remain the same there not going to be less units so why not just say to them hey guys this is your obligation you've got to do this um and I I don't think we should put it on the backs of of the folks who need to access housing here in response to that each developer is required to give a high percentage towards affordable the problem is when you ask or require more affordables they're happy to do that however they want to go up they want to put more units in so you're faced with that choice of do we get more affordables from them and just build higher units you know instead of a 100 do we give them 200 so they can give us more affordable that's what we've been toying with to keep the uh buildings low and to maximize the number of affordable units coming out of it so the developers are very happy to give more affordable on the other hand they're going to want to go up and I just want to say I understand what you're saying that there are people that are renting Etc that need this affordable in order for the burrow to take credit for an affordable unit let's say it's a accessory apartment on a piece of property the homeowner has to be restricted for 30 years and the occupant has to be income qualified so we can't just create affordable rents there are definitely steps that have to happen and what we've seen is no one's stepping forward deed restrict their garage apartment for 30 years for a much significant reduced rent than they could get currently and that's been the battle that we've been dealing with and that's my exact point right so things are getting more expensive so there's going to be more of a demand for residents bmar to access this building and if we move to get I I I get it I understand % I'm not advocating one way or the other I'm just giving you the information that what we're dealing with one way or the other by participating in the DJ action that's all I don't want to dominate the conversation I would like I just ask that you talk one at a time okay okay okay absolutely hi you address you it seems me our major concern right here is the developers suing is that's an issue they're not suing us now but okay but they they are communities in other communities that have not actively opted to participate yes they have and have they won yes okay that's I want to know thank you you're welcome when you ask a question please give your name and and what town you resign my name is arene Nel I've been in belmare for over 35 years I've paid between $ 20,000 and $40,000 a year taxes depending on the amount of properties that I had owned I've lived through May Pringle which I remember when you said if you gave your back house that had no heat you'd let them have heat if it could be an affordable unit and our wonderful new mayor we didn't want the Belmar in to become 24 units 54 ft High um I'm disgusted that they promised fifth in main eighth in Main and 10th in main have promised affordable housing units they hav't they should be F and let me tell you $3,000 to $3500 a month rent there um I'm I'm appalled that they can get away with this um I know that the town recently the past few years gave up the first aid building and three beautiful $2 million houses were built which of all were built and sold so the rich get richer um I'm disgusted that the Belmar in is going to become 24 units I would love for our new mayor to eminent domain the belmare inn and just build there I know people love this belmare Arts Council but take that parking lot and that art center I'm I'm sorry Let them fight like we're fighting here for the senior building build 24 units there let us be done with this threat over our heads if I wanted to live in Beverly Hills California in a $15 million mansion I couldn't because I can't afford it why can somebody come to Belmont that can't afford it it makes no sense to me but you know what Mount Laurel whatever how this whole thing got started where people deserve affordable housing they do the seniors in town deserve this building I have dear wonderful friends here and the building is nicely maintained and there's no crime beautiful laundry room beautiful break room there's no reason for you to take 24 units from these people than that need it like I said if you can think of another I don't want to take away that part because we walk our dogs there but any open property that's near the tracks maybe the recycling center put the recycling center off to wall but build the units here in town and leave the senior building alone thank you thank you is it only limited to new construction the the 96 unit obligation is new construction there's also a 60 unit Rehabilitation obligation on top of that separate and apart but that's over the what about complexes that have been no that's here what about complexes that have been sold and now they're renovating and upping if they're not deed restricted we don't get credit for them they have to be deed restricted and the occupants have to be income qualified that's the concern so in their new when they buy use new complexes the town P say and by the way you need to have extra affordable housing in here we can't force a private entity to participate in the process Force us I'm not forcing anyone I'm just we're just no we're just here asking the question we're not forcing anyone if I may part of our DJ action as I mentioned includes ordinances that we will be adopting and those ordinances will mandate anyone else building to put aside 20% affordable housing so it'll be a mandate that's in as part of our settlement with fair share housing and a directive from the court so if someone else coming in after this is done has to build 20% affordable housing if it's new construction new construction so that the White House Down on Ocean Avenue those new tow houses going up for a million dollars are going to become one of them is going to become pable million and at the meeting they said they' be 600,000 they predate the go ahead um just I'm GNA ask a couple questions and then have to give your I'm sorry ke Pringle um First Avenue one um can't hear you back sorry um couple questions um and then a couple comments the um it says here that and I I don't remember this and point to cases happened but somewhere it says that Belmore used first page frequently Asked question Belmore used to be able to pay other towns to provideed share of affordable housing when did we ever do that we didn't because we were never fully participating but that that option was eliminated in 2010 so it's wrong we never did that we never did what we did actually was we took money from other correct we used the money to renovate homes that belong to closly seniors can't hear you we we used it to renovate homes that belong mostly to seniors because they didn't meet the quiteria to be habitable housing in our town so it it um provided weather proofing provided new furnaces more efficient things to make it easier and cheaper and nicer for mostly elderly people but but also low-income people who owned houses couldn't keep them up got to live in a nice home for many more years than they might otherwise right the other towns got the credit correct but we didn't care about the credit just like when we try to create the opportunity for people to convert their homes in the back we weren't looking for credit we wanted a place for people to be able to stay for people to put their mother or their aunt or or a neighbor or friend a place to stay and and we never really worried about Builders remedy suits we because what we did was when when when I won in 1990 never wanted to run never expected to run but when I took office in 1990 belar we had a we had a a thing in New Jersey called the distressed municipality index and it was a calculation of the pressure a community was under financially and socially because of a variety of factors I don't I don't profess to remember what they all were what I do remember is out of what 5 56 municipalities or 65 I don't remember um we were 54th from the top of that list meaning we were the 54th most distressed municipality in the state of New Jersey Looking Back Now from where we are can you believe that but but but we were a a Blue Cow Town mixed everything um and and I don't remember remember think it it was a great community at the time but but we had we had struggles um and we fought our way back from that but we not to become the kind of town where we don't want low and moderate income housing in our town I mean we've lost so much low and moderate housing in our community we're not like a a town with mcmansions or townships where we zon for five acres to make sure it stay the way it was that was never us still not us I want to think maybe outside this room I I'll I'll hear differently but that was never us and and to hear no offense but to hear kind of talking about how we can keep it some way that's that's other than playing fair in terms of giving everyone a fair chance to to to live in the place fine I have no problem with the preference for bmar residents that's fair in 196 4 when our commissioners did what they had to do and they and they did it through Congressman Howard by the way who had just gotten elected on the big uh when LBJ um took over and there was a gigantic sweep uh he he swept into office he had his office in town he delivered uh the funding that we needed to make that HUD project go and it was designed to help our seniors we had did a whole urban renewal project in that period of time that that cleared a lot of the what had been really really rundown housing near the train station all the stuff around you that you enjoyed then it's having a Renaissance by the way can't me a parking lot on a parking space on a Saturday night that was all from that era but it was designed to help belmart people it was designed to create a place for seniors to go so so they didn't have to move out of Belmar when they got too too old or couldn't afford to keep their homes anymore and it's worked magnificent it really has and I think anything that changes the character of that and and this is I think what bugs me the most about this idea is that it's it's a gimmick nothing's going to happen you you have you the turnover here is so slow that by the time 24 units are occupied by people from middle sex County or Ocean or is it ocean momth in Middle sex County no ocean merer oh merer better not not ocean um so by the time that happens most of us aren't going to be here anymore I don't mean just in the building I don't mean here anymore right so so I don't really get what this is except a gimmick to get out of meeting what really is legitimately our fair share of of of making sure that people who have low and moderate income and and it's 90 people 90 units God forbid that we should have 90 units of of housing for people who meet these this financial criteria which by the way not not I mean there's a lot of people I know who who would who would meet this and I would love to have his neighbors some of them I think I already do have his neighbors so um I I I think this is I mean and I hope mayor this is a we're going to try every single thing possible before we you know submit to 20 units per per developer or hired whatever um but this is just not not us as a community and I want to say one other thing and I kind of want to go back to the history of the soup because it's not how I remember just a little bit that leaked out it wasn't there was never really much transparency on this I I'll give you credit mayor it's been more now although more recently now um but I dealt with developers here we we started the Redevelopment plan uh it was a much more modest concept when we began it I was just hoping to get some of the places you know renovated a little bit um but none of the developers ever threatened a builder's remedy suit that I can remember until this mayor right not once and that's why no one had to do anything because it was never an issue it was only no offense to the council members who were here who were part of that but it was this no to R to Redevelopment at all thing that shut the door and then actions that didn't wer weren't was there an ordinance done that that limited the height of buildings in the so it wasn't that you would now have to give a a story higher to to to get them to do more units they already had that story that extra story it got taken away from them when this Administration took office so so we we get it backwards in terms of how this played out we're in this Jam because you guys took a super tough no development no Redevelopment position yeah it is you can shake your head all you want mayor but that's what happened so so and I'm not saying you shouldn't have been tougher I think that it's outrageous that developers have done such so little either required to do or or or ultimate or permitted or I'm sorry required to accept the side in their buildings and certainly required to the extent they didn't comply with their obligations once they had those to do and I don't know where the ball got dropped whether it was on the government side or on the developer side but that's wrong um but to to I don't want to make this all seem like it's you know we're going to rescue things by by this DJ action it it kind of like it kind of threw the ball in the air and it's and it's coming down this is the only recourse we have but but to to put on the backs of this building to to to make these folks worry about what the future holds for them here is just wrong I mean there's just no basis for that so all right so please vote tonight just to put an end to this we'll find the unit someplace else it doesn't have to be here but but these folks our community deserves better than that anyone else yeah I'd like to ask question from the we are faced with the circumstance that has occurred over the last several years finding thought is easy to do I'm going to ignore that at this point I want to ask what is the liability and the responsibility consequences really for these Builders who have not come thank you okay we're in the middle of this as a board as a residential area and a community and I don't see a representative of you st I I certainly welcome your response of at least one and maybe more where does it fall out this is this is an onus that's on our community is cusing a great deal of uh interest and concern I I find it very difficult to have to understand and and take into consideration nothing there is nothing that can be done that's not that's not what we're saying I that's we're saying and it's one Builder it recently came to our attention and we immediately filed a notice of default with this one developer and we intend to fully pursue it uh through litigation if necessary to force those 12 units that that is the resp move I think it may be and from what I hear from these two Lely ladies it seems that there'll be doing that for the good of our community abolutely yes yes yeah I wanted to go back to um the more practical issue of how do you have a split building or I don't even know how that works if you have some of the units fall under one uh process application and some units fall under another um do are they have to be unit specific is that what you're saying so I mean just just in terms yeah I think they would have to be unit specific the occupants of those units would under no uncertain terms have to leave at all but yes I think that and I'm not to have the kitty one way the other guys I'm really not but if the board were the to to vote in the affirmative we would have to identify specific units only when that unit became available would it have to be affirmatively marketed through the administrative agent so there will be you're right there will be two separate processes that would have to take place one will be managed to the administrative agent and the other would continue to be managed to the housing authority and I think that's that would cause great confusion I understand not only for management which is I 100% understand polias of the problems but also for the residents not knowing exactly who who's in charge here uh I I would pause ser issues I I totally understand and I also want to kind of echo what uh former mayor Pringle said about uh what the waiting list we have now um it's all well and good to say I I guess what would happen the waiting list would go byebye is that what you're saying too we have let's just say for the I don't know what you know what the waiting list many so there's 83 people on the waiting list now what happens to the waiting list now which dominantly residents from Belmore or okay okay a waiting L from November 2019 to June of 2020 then we close so what happens to that waiting list because I have a fair housing issue if you're going to say to me I hope you're not going to say to me it goes bye-bye that's what you're going to say I think it should stay and then anybody new would be added to a new weight list separated apart that would be my recommendation ultim ultimately anything that we say has to get approved by the court like we don't have the ultimate decision making but that would be our recommendation considering that they've been on the weight list since 2019 it would be wholly unfair especially considering they're not Belmar residents correct so it's not even like the residency preference is being taken into consideration with that weight list I think we could make the argument but is my dat application that would be and then anybody new would be in a different category that would be my recommendation if you guys decide that this is what you want to do which I'm getting the vibe that may not happen but I'm just saying that we would work as hard as we could to make you as comfortable as possible if this is something you want to do if it's not that's fine we'll go back to the court and tell the court this is non this is a non-starter we're not here to put pressure on you in any way shape or form we're just asking that's it okay actually this is a very small community I think we're 7500 and I think everyone that's in here because we're local and we've kept it local is very conf they feel very comfortable with each other they either know each other or they know somebody that knows and they're all very very comfortable with each other and I just don't think it would work the other way understand that's that's just my fin I totally understand anybody else mayor I just wanted to say in conclusion really the the whole point of tonight is really is not to persuade as they have said it's really to provide information to the board okay I don't want anyone to come out of this to say well the mayor Council are trying to force the housing authority to do this or that that is not the intention okay the intention is you know you could have a little extra money we could pick up 24 units that would be a win-win if we don't get the 24 units that's fine okay the burrow Will Survive we'll meet Our obligation one way or the other okay it it's not uh it's not something that we absolutely must have right we can build a building for 20 four units which will cost multi-million we have to give the land it will cost to borrow millions of dollars to do that or we can you know through the process of you know again permitting Builders to build in town we would have to build 160 units at a % share to come up with 24 units of affordable house so we will do what we have to do right there is no pressure to do this it is your decision to do it's your decision all right absolutely in fact what we're going to do is if there are no more questions after this I'm going to suggest that we leave the meeting so that you can discuss it one way or the other but I want to say it again we are not here to persuade okay we are here to provide information I'm a little Disturbed that the board attorney is not here because I don't know where you get your legal you know uh advice from but we went the extra mile we put our attorney and our planner here to answer any questions that you might have again we're just telling you how it would work we're not looking for you you know to twist fors to do that right it's your decision if it's no that's fine we will still work as much as we can to help own more housing authority and I will say one thing though through affordable housing once we do get units built it will help people stay in town you know it will help people who are policemen and firemen and Young professionals whatever have that affordability to to live in Belmore which you don't have at this point so um again if there are no other questions I'm going to suggest that we leave and that open it up he's got one more question one more one more one more question real quick can we just make the the builders that are wanting to do projects in town everyone we are are years why can't we get build for and I'll just and I'll just I'll just answer mayor pringle's question about why they never got build a remedy suits because no one ever wanted to build something more than three and 1 half stories the first week I became mayor a builder came up to me and said I'm going to build a six-story building over there I have the plans I saw them on my desk and I said guess what it's not going to happen and guess what would have happened build a remedy suit we didn't move fast enough so the reason why you didn't have one is because no one wanted to go higher but now the economy being what it is you know we had to do this because they were on our Tails we were seeing building we had four story building on Ninth Avenue the trend was up up up and up so we had to do something to try to cut that Trend off what are you calling what are you calling a four story building 10 10 10th and Main's four stories nth and Main I'm sorry nth and Main n m is 10 I didn't mean did I say 10th main that was a mistake not 10 I'm sorry 10 road is four stories yeah only counting the living space not the I I miss your point I'm missing your point you said no one ever did more than three and a half stories I'm telling you of course they did that was only last year and the year before what's 10 10th Avenues well they weren't in the they not in the Cort Redevelopment Z oh so they didn't even need to be in the development Z I can't be responsible four things that I was in said no one went above three and a half stories before you and that's just not true they even go to six really sound like my you know one of those things never clarify I okay thank you very get your back back yeah oh I'm I'm coming I just wanted to can I quickly do we have the microphone can I take the mic for a second no oh okay you know I just want to say one last thing because again there's a lot of un there's a lot of finger pointing and that's in my opinion not been accomplished anything and it's just a matter of unhealthy Behavior but the Belmore Housing Authority Commissioners did receive a letter from the mayor with a specific request the letter that we received States something very different than what he just said and I'll read you what the letter said the burough respectfully respectfully requests that the Housing Authority revise its Admissions and occupancy policy to remove the local residency preference and Implement in its place a regional preference does not not say the buau of fmar respectfully requests the the commissioners of the burough um the Belmore housing authority to consider this option he specifically asked in this letter it was very straightforward for us to make that change and that's when I became very very concerned when I read that I said this is not fair to Belmar and this is not fair to Belmar seniors I have that thank you Jim but I also want to point out what was reported in the most recent Edition mostar by in a very wellone article that the Border excuse me past administrations that includes people from both sides of spect were willfully deficient willfully deficient and the author of that letter was the attorney of the community who represent said in our town as an employee under a specific regime and I the only thing that I regret about tonight all together is I wish the mayor was here so he could have responded to you in one way or another and that is indeed the case Jim you're 100% right but I think the issue of finger pointing and trying to portray that as negative behavior I don't think it is and it goes back in my heart in my mind to the issue of consequences I brought up before so I'll leave it at that say thank you and I'll pass this to respond to that if that comes then I'm going to expect to respond too if you had your say I'm going to have mine listen that is 100% reported in the coar and my first remarks that I made when Jen was here I brought that up CU that is 100% true the attorney did send that letter the advice we received from our planner who was sitting here and our attorney at the time who was giving us advice on affordable housing was to adopt a new ordinance which we did that was not reported in the coastar in that article but we did that we were led to believe that we were in compliance and doing what we needed to do to meet Our obligation and I think Ken Pringle our former mayor was here for 20 years very smart guy very accomplished do wonderful things for this town you know address that too this wasn't something that we were ever faced with before so we were just following the pattern of what need to be done but as water under the bridge at this point at this point we need to make a decision as Commissioners whether we're going to maintain the priority for Belmar residents and control over our waiting list and admissions process and as a commissioner I feel very strongly we should do that that's just my opinion I'm only one vote but that's how I feel you're waiting you're waiting L isn't even all about more folks come to the top your waiting list doesn't have I'll give you this in a minute thank you very much but again please don't portray people who have an opinion and believe that some matters should have been undertaken and obviously they were deficient in in in substance from what you just said J it didn't work that winess for some reason and let's leave it at that because we can go back and forth all night but I'd like to pass this over to someone who speak somebody had a question back here yes hold on hold on hold on there you go sir just say your name please put it higher to you mark G I just wanted to make the comment that you're in AAL and you're reaching for the lowest tingum fruit you can find in 24 units from this facility I'm sorry that will get you out of a jam until 2026 when you'll be in the same jam and you might possibly or will float the idea of coming back for 24 more that'll get you made at the jam until 2027 when you're going to have to address building up or dealing with the contractor I agree with the um this gentleman the U commissioner that it's water under the bridge you need to address them now and leave this facility for the seniors that come from belmart because if you don't hit it in 2026 you don't hit it in 2027 you still have the same issue and coming here with your hide out asking us to make up your deficit just this is not the way to go thank you anybody else anybody else any else Maria your Council Leon I just want to let you know that the mayor and council do respect I seriously respect whatever decision you all come to it I'm glad that you all came and showed up um I think that that's very helpful that the community has say in what the Commissioners especially the people who are in this building um and seniors from from bmar so thank you for coming out we respect whatever it is that you do um one of the reasons why this did get floated was not just to um help with with our what we need to do for belmare but it also was that in towns like manisan right now they have $600,000 in their affordable housing trust fund and we were told that we could see over a million dollars in the next you know two years or so um that that money a percentage of it so 70% 30% has to go to something else 70% of that money could have been used um for housing projects here to make things better um and I know that this building although it's you know beautiful in in the heart um the outside of it is does have crumbling issues that I know you've all worked very hard for I've worked hard for um to find funding for and that won't stop I I promise you that that won't stop whether you know no matter the choice uh made today but I just wanted to put that in there that the the buau was considering how this might benefit the BJ and I also I had um one question after the council meeting which was would this affect age requirement in any way and I want to make sure that I I address that which it it wouldn't it would remain a senior um facility I think you own uh you have seniors and persons with disabilities um in in the building and that would remain the same um so yeah it would be two separate weight lists but I'm going to give my mic up it seems that that I'm feeling the FI um so I just wanted to let you know that I will continue to support and help the BJ no matter what the commissioner has decide today thank you Maria I think we're gonna come back into our meeting okay okay all right Maria can I Sandy Caputo thank you Maria that was my question uh would this open up to people in their 20s it will a senior building absolutely thank you um you want mic Anita we're not done hi Hi H Rella I've been in this town for for 68 years this is a building that was built in approximately 1964 1965 was made for a senior building I'm myself am now a senior affordable housing is this affordable housing going to be only for seniors this is a senior building I don't want to see 25y olds in here I don't want to see 30y olds in here I don't want to see 10-year-old kids in here it should be nothing but seniors and if the seniors that live here right now should have their affordable housing discount they shouldn't be paying higher Sal higher rents so that's I don't know what they're paying I have like no idea but I'm just letting you know that I think it should stay all seniors and it has to be if it's going to go affordable it better be all seniors CU that's what this building was initially built for and it should stay that way anybody else 1 I have a a home in B New Jersey as well um the senior the senior buildings that a matter of fact that attorney who was at the last meeting represented Bon which is now a complete disaster after H H uh requirements came in and they did offense against defense it's a disaster it is but the senior buildings that they that they promised would stay senior are now overrun with very young people the seniors there are absolutely terrified in those anybody just go to Bon drive through there head on to Avenue a go down to the senior buildings and you will see what I mean that's all I'm going to say and anybody who wants to know anything else about these redevelopments and the parking and the school system and then no tax base because nobody's going to own these these rentals they all going to be rentals that that are getting built so nobody's going to take pride in them there's no tax base and you'll understand just drive through Bayon I left when my son became a firefighter I gave him my house the premarital ass St paid in full I left it $750,000 I don't want ever go back to Bon again other than to work my tugbo company that's it because Bon is a horrible place now and the seniors are terrified in those building that's all I'm going to say move this all right Tom woke us up right let's try that again okay I came here to learn and I've learned I don't know as much as you guys do but I have learned want thank Jim for his comments and also Bill uh you're really have the heart of the seniors at heart and and that's where I'm at so whatever you do I know I feel real confident that you'll make the decision in favor of the residents that's what we're here for thank you can we go back you going everyone agree okay anybody anybody going to approve the minutes for the June 3D I'll make motion I'll second commissioner Lynch yes commissioner yes commissioner cly yes commissioner Masano yes commissioner orer yes commissioner mcra yes have we the bills for July and if so are there any questions anyone anyone make a move to um approve them I'll make a motion second any reports from the executive director oh I'm sorry I I have to vote commissioner Lynch yes commissioner Sher yes commissioner CLE yes commissioner Orchard yes commissioner mcra yes justor no in the interest of time I will just report that as I stated earlier there are 83 people currently on the waiting list uh the times were from November 2019 to June 2020 so we still have the significant waiting list and none of the people on the waiting list currently are Belmar resid but explain if Belmar comes up they go to the yes someone from Belmar FR they would get first for that's all I have to rep three two once in a while once in a while you get a a pattern of maybe four or five in a short period of time but generally it's not point to turn over okay any old business any new business okay yes we have to is resolution 2024-25 the audit review for the fiscal year ended 93023 can we take a vote on that okay commissioner Lynch yes commissioner sharck yes commissioner CLE commissioner misano yes commissioner Orchard yes commissioner McCracken yes okay any reports from misses any more remarks from the general public in relation to anything building or anything like that I just have a question on the status of the bids the new bids oh sorry uh at the current time the bids are not going out because we're still waiting for an official letter stating we receive the funds okay so makes no sense to go out for bid if we T pay the bill okay but the bit the bit proposal has been changed somewhat to make it a little bit more attractive economical and hopefully this will spur it'll spur them to commited a more reasonable price wonderful and then I have just a few more things I just wanted to uh let you all know that the belmer public library has some wonderful events this summer and I'm going to give on this if you can put this up I will um also our um fireworks show is on the 6th not the 4th um so if you want to come at at us to Third Avenue Beach is actually where it's going to take place but if you stay by The Pavilion uh you'll get a great show um and anything south of the Pavilion otherwise you won't be able to be um allowed on the beach uh north of it but anything south so that would be wonderful and then also I had said that I would bring some more of the handouts for the mmth County Wellness Transportation uh information and so I will leave sorry I will leave this all with you as well oh there go my too much stuff okay and then we've got vmar events so if there is a place there is a place executive director where we could put some of these and resources uh that would be wonderful and that's all I have thanks El I have a question can you hear me okay um it's in reference to the elevator the elevator by the way the elevators are absolutely but um what about the railings um are they going to put more railings in there for people that yeah that's scheduled it is scheduled yeah they're going to continue oh okay you do you know when I don't know I'll Che I'll you will okay how long does the elevator have to be shut down that's they do that within like an hour great okay thank you anyone else okay thank you Mar so happy about the elevator and so happy that you're all happy it's gorgeous it's gorgeous okay everyone thank you for coming we're going go into executive session yes