okay uh well to start the meeting um I'd like to give everybody an update for membership uh Jeff Link's um term expired last year and he was reappointed to another three-year term unfortunately he was um unable to join us tonight he had some work obligation so hopefully uh his attendance will get back on track um he's a valued member the EC but he hasn't been able to make it recently so hopefully that changes soon uh bill petravic was appointed as an alternate member um and Mark fella was appointed as Township committee liaison uh Bill and Mark are both here tonight with us um unfortunately our planning board liaison uh Frank cahoot was reappointed um and that's disappointing because he hasn't attended an environmental Commission for a year now um I went to a Township committee meeting in December and specifically requested that they replace the planning board liaison because I feel that that that position is the most important voice for the environment in Franklin Township um and I also requested a replacement for the first Alternate which has been Giovani cavone who has held that position for the last two years and he hasn't attended an environmental commission meeting in two years um and he was also reappointed so so they refused you John they refused to listen to you they well in action they refused they seem to be receive my message well or my my recommendation but you know based on their actions that's a different story um and I don't really want to harp on that it's disappointing and it's kind of frustrating but we can still proceed the same way we always have and try our best not to let that interfere with what we have to do so there's not really much more we can do about that so I think we should just move on and do what we can do um the only thing it really denies us is a vote on the planning board other than that it doesn't doesn't really hurt us because we can go to any planning board meeting and say what we have to say uh speaking as a member of the public it won't be as impactful as someone that's speaking up on on the Das but you know that's what we have to deal with and and who was the L on John Frank cahoot Frank cahoot oh okay yeah he attended one meeting which was a year ago last January so anyway so we'll move on um if someone would like to make a motion to approve the minutes from December 27th 2023 I'll make a motion I'll second all in favor I all right minutes pass um so to acknowledge our guests tonight I see we have well I don't see but I hear Roger in there so and I see Barbara Halper as usual so thank you both for uh attending the meeting tonight um so I have appointments on the agenda in new business but I think that's something that we should do first so I will ask for a motion to for a um chairperson a vice chairperson and a secretary I doubt we'll get any nominations for a secretary so hopefully Suzanne if we don't have any nominations you will continue in your role as acting secretary doing the minutes um so I will start by asking for a motion for um environmental commission chairperson for 2024 I make a motion John for John stipp to be chair yeah I think I second that one okay uh I'll take a roll call on that uh Jason is not here Margaret yes this is the yes or no okay Franko is not here link is not here suzan yes Evan yes giovan's not here um we don't need an alternate vote because we have a quarum um and well I get a vote and I vote Yes um I don't think the township committee liaison have a vote in that all right so I am your environmental commission chairperson for 2024 or Better or Worse thank you I'm I'm happy to continue in the rooll and thank you for uh appointing me and nominating me so second I will I will ask for a nomination for Vice chairperson of the environmental commission for 2024 I nominate um Suzanne McCarthy if she is willing yeah I'm I'm willing all right we just need a second I second it okay Margaret second uh roll call vote Margaret yes suzan yes Evan yes and I vote Yes as well four votes congratulations Suzanne thank you Suzanne thank you they don't have to do anything specific a you'll find out yeah true and now I don't expect any nominations for this but just as um just to go through the motions would anyone like to make a motion to nominate a secretary for the environmental commission for 2024 well I know I I do not want to do it that's what I'm so sorry I did it for what a month and I you know I just lost so much of what's going on in the meeting because I'm I'm busy writing so then I can't I can't it is easier with the recording you can go back and watch the but that being said I see no nominations so we will continue as we have for the last several years as Suzanne as acting secretary and maybe one of the people that has attended some of our meetings would be interested in it as a job um yeah I mean Roger and Barbara are the only members or non-members that pretty much come to every meeting but other people who have come fairly often like Mindy maybe would be interested or Debbie baradi was it um perhaps we should ask them yeah I can reach out to them and ask them although neither of them have attended in the last several months no Mindy and and Debbie um well Bill's here now and he's now an alternate so he can't be a oh can unless you want a volunteer bill but he can't be a paid secretary all right now that that's out of the way we can move on to the next um agenda item Emergency Management and hazardous wa sites uh we have nothing to review this month uh so we'll move on to the next item which is zoning and planning board applications there are four uh applications on the agenda uh but just today I received two more applications two planning board applications of applications that have been previously reviewed by us but we didn't have um all of the information but we do now so those applications are PB 2315 white and p2304 lober solar um so we'll do those last and we will start with p2317 uh that applicant is Newfield DG LLC also known as Dollar General this application for Block 7202 Lot 10 located at 1444 Harding Highway is in the HC Zone uh the applicant proposes to subdivide the property into two lots and to develop upon one such lot an approximately 10,640 square foot Dollar General retail store together with related site improvements um so they are seeking a a c variance uh variance for minimum parking there would be 43 spots required by the ordinance or by zoning but only 35 are proposed so uh they're under the minimum requirement by eight parking lots or uh eight parking spots which I I can't imagine that has any environmental impact I guess it's probably better actually having less because it's less impervious Sur surface uh they're also requesting a wa for minimum landscape of interior parking lot um as the zoning requirement reads there is 10% required they are proposing 3.3% and to break that down in the square feet were to meet the 10% requirement there would be 2,450 foot of landscape area within the parking lot and with the 3 3.3 that they're providing it's 675 square feet H so let's see here I for that it's ugly he's already ripped down all the trees there you know um no um I'm not agree to them that just giving us the 3% instead of a 10% we want trees and John this is uh right next to you isn't that doesn't that road flood uh not down that area no and they're doing Road improvements to that intersection you know what it does flood you're right on the opposite I remember Orange orange cones there yeah no you're right there's like a big puddle there um and and it does flood now I assume that will be taken care of as they're doing Road Improvement because they're um adding like turning Lanes um and this is the opposite side of where it usually floods so I don't think the flooding is um related to any development on this Pacific site and if anything it would help uh the flooding because this there will be storm water basins and any storm water on that site have to be directed into the storm water site storm water basins that are proposed uh but I entirely agree with you about that they should be held to the standard of um the landscaping and even if it's not within the interior of the parking lot I think the 1,800 square foot of landscaping that they're trying to not have to um provide should be provided somewhere on the site so if it's not in the interior of the parking lot there are two large grass areas where instead of just grass they should um either plant trees or uh like a wild FL Wild Flower Garden or a rain Garden or something so yes my comment or as our comment I would propose that we um that we propose exactly that ask them to implement some kind of pollinator Garden or rain Garden somewhere in the site to make up for the 1800 square feet that they're not willing to put in the interior of the parking lot well I want I want more I um so in other words they're they're not going to we won't insist that they put it in inside the interior of the parking lot we could if if we feel that that's appropriate I think it's appropriate I also wonder management the storm water management needs to be more than just the Basin um it needs to you know in order to do it according to regulations now they really need to try to break up some of the impervious cover uh with some other effect and and Landscaping is the easiest way for them to do that right in the parking lot right islands that are recessed or or you know at grade level that can absorb some of the storm water or um yeah I agree I don't see any reason to give them a waiver on that it's a Dollar General come on it's a national company have the money to uh to do to do it how many do we have now two in unfortunately we can't we can't say oppos to a Dollar General store because we have too many of them already unless there's an ordinance pass that put some limit on them how is not it's not an environmental issue environmental at all right just it's just so ridiculous that our entire retail Wing is nothing but dollar stores or they're not you know not all with the same name but did you see their self-description of what a dollar store is it's a neighborhood store providing name good name brand products at good prices for the Neighbors oh my well I'll be honest I I'm a frequent Shopper of at Dollar Source well for who they are name brands and you know for food items the other that's about all I go there for is food when I need something in a pinch like if we're short one ingredient if we don't have hamburger rolls or something I'll go there um and there's always multiple Shoppers in there every single time I go there the number of them is so seems so ridiculous I don't see how I don't see how this one's not even in an ideal location you know MH yeah the other it's going to wipe out the store that's caddy quarter it's gonna wipe it out yeah that's probably true and I I go there often too and that's owned by a you know really friendly local family they always have their kids in there and really yeah well I mean the only difference they have is they actually the corner store serve like hot food so maybe that'll be enough to keep them going but now you're right it'll definitely take away some of their business for sure all right so our comment will be Landscaping inside parking area is important for um storm water management I will uh come up with a more articulate sentence to express the import of have breaking up the parking lot instead of just having one unimpeded imper and put that on our Comon sheet H there's also another um isue uh the landscape trees that they propose are all great native trees which was encouraging there are maple trees red bud trees Dogwood Cedars but one of the uh flowering plants that they propos to use is um spiria japanica which is listed as an invasive species in the in invasive species atlas of the United States so I believe we should make a comment um suggesting some other plant other than the Japanese spia considering it's um noted as an invasive species I wonder if they're putting them in the other Dollar Generals is this Family Dollar or Dollar General I plain forget en Dollar General I wonder if the other Dollar Generals are putting those plants in um I would imagine they're not putting any plants in retroactively you mean on the ones that already exist in the town yeah no I haven't yeah I don't know I haven't I haven't noticed any of those plants at the other Dollar Generals but if um everyone's in favor of me adding a comment to advis I'm in favor area I'm in favor I will include that in her comment she what what is the plant again it's spiria Japonica so to spell it it's s p i r e a yeah and then j a p o n IA or it might be j a p a n IA Japan p n okay yeah um even though Japan is spelled with an a japanica is spelled with an O but I haven't heard about that plant being a big problem even if it is in that Atlas yeah I don't I don't know if it's uh super invasive to this region um because the atlas covers the entire United States so it might be invasive another region but either way there could be a better um better alternative a native alternative is always better so I figure it was worth commenting and do we can we suggest something is that what we wanted to do is suggest a specific plant um we can find a suggestion uh I would like to research it a little more to find the perfect alternate there are other Spas aren't there I don't know there are other spas that maybe are native I have no idea I don't know I'm not too familiar with those plants honestly Barbara do you know no okay but if we do suggest something I would like to make sure it it would work well that it would fit in the same location okay it's it's pretty easy to find Alternatives there are many resources online that will give you specific alternatives for almost every invasive plan country all right if no one has any more comments on that application we can move on there was a ZB right ZB Dollar General was PB it was PB okay yeah that's right our next application is ZB 2313 uh the applicant is K2 Properties LLC it is block 802 lot 33 that is located at 2141 Sheridan a it's located in the ra Zone it's 3.8 Acres applicant proposes to construct a single family home a variance is requested as the lot does not have Frontage on a street the applicant also intends to provide a 28 foot wide access easement through lot 32 which they report to also own a variance is also needed for a front yard setback so this uh lot 33 is a um landlocked lot there's no Street Frontage so they basically want to make this into a flag lot uh the applicant claims to own the lot in front of the potential flag lot um so there's a variance needed for no Street Frontage uh front yard setback and that's it so the proposed front yard setback is 50 feet where 75 ft is required um 150 feet of Street Frontage is required and zero is proposed here well I guess the 28 foot easement would have 28 foot of Street Frontage the site plan that was submitted to the township is impossible to read it's tiny I know little spot right here yeah couldn't even tell which yeah even on the digital the digital copy it it wasn't a JPEG so you can't zoom in on it I yeah um what's the acreage of you uh 3.8 and that doesn't include the E right which I guess the easement technically wouldn't be part of this property so it wouldn't it wouldn't have 28 feet of Frontage because the easement is still part of the other property um that's probably true yeah so I can't see any comment that we could make on this considering we can't really see the site plan um and even if we could it I don't know there would have to be something really egregious for us to have any comment on on this application there is a a isn't there a house on on um 32 or is there I can't remember now I looked at it the other day is that the lot in front yeah the lot in front does it have a yeah okay which is why they need easement because they'll probably sell that off um yeah well like I said that the applicant owns that property also right there is a vegetated buffer between the the existing house and the proposed house they the applicant is going to have to submit a site plan it's in the engineers review that um it's basically unreviewable without proper site plan yeah something that we could actually read will we get that or is that just gon yeah I think we would okay because one of the items that were reviewing tonight is a plan that was similar to this where we where they didn't any so I would say we reserve any comment on this until we have a site plan that we can read unless anybody can come a comment with the information that we have I can't yeah we probably are going to have no comment at all in the end because but you know if something shows up in the site plan that's environmental MH all right okay all right next item we have ZB 2314 the applicant is Irvin H green this is block 6101 lot four and five located at 4583 coln Road it is in the Pinelands rural residential Zone uh the applicant or the application states that Mr Green seeks approval for class one adult use cannabis cultivation business a variance is a d variance is requested for non conforming use which would be cannabis cultivation uh and this application has the exact um issue as the last application where the site plan this guy hand drew his own site plan um and it it's lacking all of the information that we would need to do a site plan review so this guy is going for uh the VAR the use variants and I believe a site plan approval and obviously without the proper site plan we can't do an environmental review on uh and I believe this in the application the engineer comment also um states that the applicant needs to submit a site plan a proper site plan what's the road on this one uh Kohl's Mill oh this is the CO's Mill okay okay uh let me see if I can based on uh so the engineer has deemed the application incomplete because of the uh site plan so this is another one where we can't we can't make any comment um on a site plan with the site plan provided so I think we should Reserve our comments until we have a proper site plan to review and this was Cannabis cultivation correct oh okay now there our next application has to do with cannabis cultivation and Manufacturing are these the same company I I um is it the same that I don't know uhuh uh so this doesn't have a a company name it's just an individual it seemed like it was in the house did I that is it the one in the school no it's the okay uh yeah so this one of these applications has a single family home on it and they the applicant did not disclose whether or not they on having the single family home remain as a home because then they would need a variance for having multiple uses on the same lot right but they have to um decide or declare whether they are going to use that single family home as a separate use or if it would be part of this use it seemed like it it seemed like they'd have to be using the house because they didn't say anything about adding another building or converting the garage or anything right yeah so the the site plan was just a handrawn site not discernible I mean it's kind of well done for this guy doing it definitely has someting experience well we shouldn't have to you shouldn't have to pay a fortune to an engineer to do a site plan for you you should be able to do that but you do have to get all the right information onto it right and you you can do it by hand by your you know for your own site plan as long as it contains the proper information but doesn't wasn't one of the engineers objections that or statements that it had to be full size uh he said it had to be to scale so oh to scale oh okay yeah which this does say it's to scale it says one inch to 20 feet but um maybe that's incorrect yeah uh there might be some kind of minimum like one feet one inch cannot exceed this many feet right so like I said I would recommend we reserve our comments on this application ZB 2314 until we um receive further information right all right moving on ZB 2403 um on the agenda I had this as ZB 23-- because I didn't know um the application number but it is ZB 2402 the application or the applicant is Garden State Harvest LLC this is located at block 1 02.03 Lots 89 and 10 uh street address is 1746 Stant a in the ra Zone the three lots together are are 3 and A2 Acres the applicant seeks approval for class one cannabis cultivation and Class 2 cannabis manufacturing facility within the existing building is a former School building this is a bifurcated use variance application meaning if the use variance is granted the applicant will return to the board for site plan and Associated bulk variance approvals meaning they're just going for for basically permission to operate their non-conforming use and if they get that permission then they'll come back with a site plan and all of the site plan details how much you know what class one means versus class two I have no idea I don't know you know what's the difference between cultivation and manufacturer now I believe manufacturing would be packaging yeah making gumur and use product they can't be sold estment so anything that's not the actual plant if you turn the plant into oil or if you turn the plant into uh gummies or even if you package or even if you package it okay that's that's manufacturer correct okay and I would guess or speculate that class one cannabis cultivation is just simply growing it oh I would oh okay um so as as this being a bifurcated application um I don't think there's we can really make a comment on allowing this use will this use have any environmental impact allowing this use will that have any environmental impact Barb my only concern is that both of these are in Resident zones and last time we had one in a residential Zone they were didn't have enough electricity supplied by Atlantic City Electric and they were going to use a generator fulltime to produce that extra power you know and that's environmentally a problem they need to specify whether they have enough power and the generator if any would be just for blackout backup a great point I love it that they're going to use the school though it actually look like a good use yeah I think so I I agree with you it's a beautiful school yes it is and you know they it looks like they they had you got to see the interior design and everything it look pretty good yeah where which one didn't have sufficient power Barbara was one of Forest Grove it was on a farm property I think it was on Kataba was iTab um okay so how can we articulate that into a comment um uh supplemental energy well yeah the question is whether they will have sufficient power and not have to rely on a generator not enough El power provided to cultivate will require supplemental energy and the problem with the generator is the noise and the air pollution oh that's right yeah well exhaust fans yeah that's right the smell of the the marijuana right to some degree that would be part of the planning board application that they'll come back with though only applying for a use variance but one of the questions about power would be a good one uhhuh and I mean they can be it can be suggested to them that they need to be very careful about because that isn't that would get in one of them I forget down but well when you're doing to use variant you had to you know talk about the negatives impacts and the positive impacts so at that point I think we do need to know if there's going to be the negative impact of a 24hour operation of a generator in this neighborhood Zone yeah right that would be part of the negative yeah so it's something we need to know now not later after they've given them a variance it should imp they're giving it to them or not well I I do think what but what Margaret was saying was the issue about the smell and uh not the of the generator but rather of facility itself it's manufacturer or it's cultivation or whatever and I I think that would be a matter of what containment uh devices they have and that would be part of a planning board application that's all I'm saying yeah that would come later yes yeah but the exhaust of a generator I think it's a valid question now yeah I agree now there's also um the three lots that are part of this application um there are three separate lots and they show it on the application um where they are applying all three of these Lots like three separate Lots in one application so the lot that the building is on is only7 Acres uh the other lot so that's lot 97 Acres that's the lot that has the building on it the lot next to that is26 acres and the lot behind that is 3.46 Acres so the majority of this 4 and a half acres is the three and a half acres that's the lot the vacant lot behind this building that isn't part of the actual building um that would be on the deed do you think it would be appropriate if we recommended that they merge these Lots so that they have um and maybe this is a recommendation for if their use gets but having a commercial in a building on a lot that is only seven cents of an acre would it be appropriate that we recommend that they merge lot nine the 7 Acres with Lot 10 so it would give it actually uh conforming lot size so instead of having this build because I don't know why they would include lot eight and Lot 10 on this application I've never seen it where they include two adjoining Lots on an application that aren't being um proposed no proposed development on the site well they might already be listed under the tax uh record like the property that I have over at malago Lake it's listed on the lot one but then it says it includes lot two three and 11 combined at the tax office level so Poss could possibly E1 lot already yeah okay although it although not with the same number right and I don't know what the legality is of that you know and maybe that um question is more appropriate for the site plan review portion of this application but I thought it was worth noting also what's the minimum for a business it's isn't it express well I think in the ra I think it's just 1.5 that's for it's in the ra Zone and that's minimum acreage that's probably they not shown and the one the building's on is only Point what 7 715 to be exact okay all right so our comment will be um concerning the possible necessity of supplemental energy via a generator that could lead to exhaust and noise all right next application is PB 2315 all um we previously reviewed this application as I stated already but weren't able to fully review it because of lack of site plan uh the applicant is Matthew white uh block is 6101 lot 11 located at 132 kmill Road in the Pinelands rural residential it's a 73.4 acre lot um they are seeking a minor sub subdivision approval the applicant proposes subdividing one existing lot into three lots so what we did notice when we reviewed this last time is that there is significant Wetlands on this property right along kmill Road in the form of farway Branch so now that we have a site plan we see that this lot extends from Kill Road to tuo road now there is a farm an active Farm that's accessed via kl's Mill Road um so that is going to be isolated as proposed lot 11.0 01 that has Frontage on Kohl's Mill Road and then the other portion of the property so that would be I believe the northern portion of the lot Southern portion of the lot which is about 31 Acres uh that would comprise of the other two lots proposed lot 11.03 which is 17 acres and lot 11.02 which is 14 AC and that has Frontage on tuckaho road so it looks like the applicant is intending to create the two new lots to um make them conforming lots for single family homes with rage on paho road they do not seek any variances or waivers so this is a by right uh subdivision and I other than the Wetlands which don't look they're going like that lot will really be um changed at all or that portion of the lot I don't think there's any comment that we can really make on this [Music] application can you give me theages again for the northern lot is 11.2 that's what the number would become uh so the northern lot would be 11.02 that's the lot number and the acreage is 42.5 Acres okay and then the next the southern ones it's 11 11.02 is 14 acres but that's the same number wait a minute that's the same number as the first one that I'm sorry it's 11.01 is the northern lot okay that's 14 acres and then no no the Northern lot 11.01 is 42 and a half oh oh okay I get it all right yeah and then there's two lots on the southern portion 11.02 which is 14 acres and 11.03 which is 17 Acres okay so um yeah like I said it looks like to according to the plan now there's no um they're not proposing any development on these Lots but they look like they will probably sell them or use them to build single family homes and specifically or strictly as a subdivision um I don't see any environmental uh problems with this now the wetlands one KES Mill Road the wetlands extend through the entire portion of the lot you know from the eastern boundary to the western boundary there's Wetlands so to access the active Farm they their access road which isn't shown on the oh actually it is shown and it's like right on the edge of the lot line and it actually looks like the lot to the West the D way is like right on the border of uh Lot 10 which is just to the west of this which is not within the wetlands that they're barely getting by not going through the wetlands through their access here but the Wetland buffer the 300 foot Wetland buffer um it is cleared because they show the limit of clearing on the plan and it looks like there's approximately 200 to 2 of the that which you know leads us to believe that it's probably being cated which could be an issue now that I look at it you you can have a farm in a wetland buffer right that would be a violation you have active agricultural practice within a wetland offer no so I'll try to hold this up and show you guys exactly what I'm talking about here yes all right so uh you can't really tell but this is the uh limit of clearing so this is the tree line which it looks like it's really hard to see um and this is the Wetland buffer right here so here's the the Wetland buffer and here is the tree clearing and here is the actual Wetlands so this is the wet land buffer and then this is the tree line so I would assume that since that's the tree line that it's act being F that's speculating on my cleared then you would assume that it's it's already cleared that it's already cleared or that they're proposing that no it is already cleared and even with that being said I don't know what kind of impact that would have on a subdivision approval how much do that Lage be fored it looks like pretty much everything that's cleared because you can see it from the road as drive so and you know when I take a look at going 50 miles per hour down the road when I take a look at it it looks like it's all being fun h so maybe we can just make a make a note of that and pass that along to the planning board but I don't really think it would impact subdividing this property no I think all they want to do is what they do later so who now this is in the pine lands so they would need Pineland certificate of filing um and I don't know who who would have get it I don't think they appli for it yet did they no it it wasn't submitted with the application packet right they don't need it yet they only need it when they prior to development of the Lots they don't need it to subdivide the lot I asked asked Joe that question already okay and the fing may be historic before Wetlands before Pinel lands so yeah it may be exempt due to the amount of time it's been fed yeah probably right it grandfathered in basically fin lands will look at all of that when they go to get their certificate of filing to develop okay well in that case I would suggest that we make no comment on this application unless anyone hope they don't cut all the trees when they go to develop yeah because the other are entirely wooden yeah right I would have thought their their Pinelands credits just for a woodland management plan would have been just as good as subdividing and selling off the Lots but who knows unless they want to build homes for themsel or for their family yeah if that's what they to do that's a different story kind of all right we will move on to the final application that we have to review tonight um that's PB 2304 applicant is Gloucester solar 1 LLC um it concerns block 1902 lot one located on fres Mill Road between Washington a and Grant a uh it's a total of 262 Acres uh I didn't write what zone this is I believe it's actually it's in that manuring that that light industrial zone or manufactur um yes business business use uh so they would be seeking a use variance I believe now I didn't read this but I I'm guessing that they need a use variance for a non-conforming use um because I don't think so I think they down and they sued and they won that's why they're going to planning board it's now a byright application okay yeah that's right so they're going for site plan approval they're asking for a waiver from uh no fences in the front yard um even though they don't they're they're claiming not to have a front yard um because it's got Frontage on all four sides uh but I still believe they might need a waiver for that but they also need a waiver for sidewalks um so the waiver they're requesting is so that they don't have to put a fence or that they can put a fence or the waiver is actually they're not they wouldn't be allowed to have a fence and they're asking for a waiver to allow a fence oh okay so I might have stated that backwards now is it the height of the fence that they're asking for no it's just having a uh fence in a front yard Oh I thought you were allowed to have a fence in the front yard there was just a height limitation uh let's see if I can find that there's a lot to this application so I may have missed that detail uh let's see Barb you have a front a offence in your front yard yeah okay so this is what the applicant proposes the proposed development includes a fence along all property lines the entire property is surrounded by streets therefore each yard is considered a front yard according to the ordinance the proposed fence is necessary for security purposes and is set back 75 ft from property lines behind the landscape buffer the ordinance defines a front yard to include the area between the street line and the front of the building the required minimum front yard set back in zoning dist district is 50 fet def fense is proposed to be set back 25 fet more than the required front yard with all yards acting as front yards there exists a unique situation impacting the placement warranting variance relief in this instant so what kind of are they talking about um I believe it's a chain link fence but I would have to look at the plan to see for sure and then they're gonna have they're gon to have plantings also along with that yeah but just to clarify on the fence it says fences are not permitted in the front yard with any commercial or industrial district I wonder why oh so it's only commercial industrial districts where the front yard fences are not permitted and they say they need it to uh protect the property yeah people uh uh try to break the solar panels yeah Mark said people could get El electrocuted which is a good point and I think it's industry standard to have a fence around uh solar Fields I think they usually always have fences okay uh and as far as sidewalks um the ordinance State all major site developments are required to provide four foot wide sidewalks within a 10- foot utility strip no sidewalks are proposed a 10- foot utility strip has been added around the per perit perimeter of the site uh the applicant is Seeking a design waiver from the sidewalk requirements it uh so as far as design that is all that they are requesting why would you put sidewalks in yeah I don't care if they have sidewalks yeah but there nobody uses it no I mean I don't care that they're not going to put side walks in and in fact I I kind rural community like this I mean except where they're obviously appropriate where people are actually going to walk between stores yeah there there's nobody for a solar field right it doesn't make sense it's stupid it's more impermeable surface right that's right now what about the Landscaping what does it say about that because that was one of the things that we felt was so they plan to uh have a 25 foot wide planting of evergreen trees uh and those trees are holly trees white pines and Arbor VY so those trees will be the Evergreen buffer will be set back um 25 yard or 25 ft from uh the uh from the from the 50 Foot requirement of a f the fence the whole thing will be 75 ft back so maybe they the trees will be in front of the fence they'll be within that fet right so from the road I should have started from the road they plan on adding Street trees every 50 feet and those Street trees would be uh Maple uh plain Tree Maple which is Sycamore uh red maple cultivars common hackberry swamp white oak Golden Weeping Willow and weeping willows that's not Evergreens much well these are Street trees they have they have Street trees around the perimeter and then sounds Charming about 25 feet back from that will be the evergreen trees oh okay consist of the species that I already noted so there will be a Tre a street tree buffer which won't really add too much of the buffer because they're planted 50t away so in 50 years it will provide a buffer uh but the ever green buffer is what would really provide uh a site buffer any type of sound buffer um and so there are comments when we reviewed this last time let me find my comment sheet here security we reviewed this application on May 22nd of 2023 and we had uh six comments the first comment being landscape buffer consisting of multiple rows of staggered evergreen trees recommended along border of entire property which they addressed in this latest revision of the site plan uh another comment we had was proposed plan creates potential for heat isid effect that could increase temperatures in surrounding area um so if that is the case then this buffer would at least mitigate that to some extent um now to what extent thatat effect could be imposed I don't I don't know about that and it's a possibility but I think it's kind of impossible to determine um exactly what kind of heat island effect that this would have I don't know of any research that has been done to uh find numbers did you say we reviewed it in 2022 20233 23 it was 23 okay yes it was May 22nd 2023 oh that's where the got to2 okay our third comment was noise emissions from proposed plan creates potential noise disturbances uh now the buffer would also um limit the amount of noise not entirely but to a degree fourth comment was substation inverter building could potentially emit harmful EMF radiation which that is not a subject that I am uh that I really know a lot about I know somebody else brought that up we also put that on our comment sheet for uh the um satellite or the pole Tower yeah the cell tower and nobody brought that up at the meeting so I I don't know how how much that is likely to happen to radiation and I thought the substation was not on the site am I wrong about that uh there is on the site there is one oh it is on the site that's right initially it didn't look like was but then yeah that you're right okay our fifth comment was light intrusion on neighboring properties presents potentially harmful impacts to people and Wildlife so the buffer Evergreen buffer would eliminate any light intrusion possibilities potential glare created R six comment potential glare created by large scale solar field could be harmful to neighbors and motorists uh this is an issue that I brought up to one of the planners for this uh solar array at the hearing for the um the Scotland Run um the hearing for when they about the the line that they want to run through the park and the engineer for this company told me that they had to do surveys for the FAA proving that there is no glare that would impact uh pilots and you know their research indicated that there would be no potential glare and the FAA has approved that research so I think you know we can take that off of our next comment sheet because that issue has been addressed about any potential glare um another question the Evergreens do they tell you how frequently they'll be planted the street trees apart and they deciu trees know 10 feet apart yeah so the rows are 10 feet so it's two rows right each row is 10 feet apart and each individual tree is 10 feet apart so there that's good well from center it's still 10 and 10 right so tree will grow five feet out with the other tree yeah are they going to plant nice mature trees it'd be nice if they plant L large you know tall trees already growing instead of little seedlings would they let trees get um counter the estimate of the um trees will be uh Eastern White Pine and green giant Arbor VY are estimated to grow as tall as 50 feet and the Holly trees 30 to 40 feet that's what they grow too but I guess what we're asking is how big will they be there'll be saplings they're not going to be oh yeah planting there are um uh all deciduous trees shall be 2 in caliper or larger at the time of planting what does that mean uh so that means the trunk of the tree only has to be two inches wide when they plant it but that's a lot more than a Seedling for deciduous tree but what about for the ever uh that I don't believe is specify but I just want to clarify that Mark made a good point about the trees being on Center so since there's two rows and they're centered every 10 and they're staggered really five feet between each tree yeah okay question yeah why are they putting arbites which are nonnative and tend to get bag worms and why white pines they're going to lose all the leaves at the bottom as they get well we could make a recommendation on different tree species um instead of AR Eastern red cedar is a great replacement for that and white pine yeah they do eventually lose they the lower limbs they get shaded out but that often takes several I mean Holly trees tend to be really good yeah they're shade tolerant so they usually bulk up from the bottom and stay at the bottom if they get to be 45t tall I'm just curious and I'm sorry to interrupt uh is anybody else having problems with the the um hearing it's all jarble JBL and and uh I'm getting some it's hard to understand what's going on it's all uh I guess you know it I don't know the words are hard to the yeah the audio well we're just discussing it's not happening on our end no okay and but it is we're just discussing the evergreen trees what they I did gather that but I was just curious if people are having trouble so I'm the only one I seem to be the only one yeah you sound clear as can be okay I do hear an echo when I'm talking but I don't know what that's from so yeah no I don't so everything is fine on our end until Margaret just started speaking and then it started breaking up so I didn't really hear anything that was said in like the last 30 seconds and it was completely fine up until then oh I'm so happy that it broke up for you John I'm so happy you know at least you know know that it's very hard for me to say I approve the minutes because I don't really know so you know has it been has it been breaking up on you all meeting it yes but it's very bad for the last five minutes and it and you didn't break up for me at all so you know okay makes makes no sense uhhuh yeah it it's getting it's getting worse and worse over here oh I'm thrilled um so unforunately there's not much we can do okay do make a suggestion about everen other than the arbor in place with the arbor uh yes I think we should recommend Eastern red cedar instead of the aror it's a native truth it's fast growing right it's um um and it's native so it supports local Wildlife right right right and it's it's Hardy it's as Hardy as they get as far as trees go it can withstand drought it can withstand extreme temperatures uh as far as the White Pines um I don't think White Pine is a terrible idea uh they do eventually lose their leaves after several decades but I think that this that the solar panels would have to be replaced before that's an issue um but we could make a suggestion the only problem with that is there really aren't any native um conifers that make a great replacement for that now Norway spruce would be a good replacement although it's not native it does uh tolerate shade on the lower portion of the branches uh it also grows somewhat quickly and it's used quite frequently so Norway spruce could be an alternative to an Eastern White Pine if we wanted to make that suggestion yeah no now you're now you're freezing all together so I don't even hear any noise I think Norway spruce does make a better tree than the White Pine and it does grow quickly that's for sure and it definitely keeps it lower limbs you have to cut them off if you if you want to be able to walk under it it'll screen a lot better yeah in the long run are you able to so you guys were breaking uping I know you were discussing White Pine but you were breaking up we're saying Norway spruce is a better alternative we think could you hear that no I heard it okay yes I got that we can suggest nor Spruce as an alternative to E White P ultimately the American holly is the best screener of all them but it probably grows a little slower yeah okay um so yeah I think that's uh that that pretty much covers that is it's I mean there there is a lot of information on these on this plan there's actually there's 53 drawings in this packet 53 full-size plans covering everything from the grading to vehicle circulation landscape substation plan so you know I've only had these these plans for a couple hours so I didn't get a chance to go through every single plan here but I think we hovered the most important stuff what about management of the turf they propose appropriate native naturalized solar farm seed mixes will be used for ground cover stabilization for the project mixes under and around arrays will contain low maintenance grasses that grow less than 2 feet tall unless additional higher growing species are identified that may be compatible with needed maintenance regimes so they don't say what kind of plants they'll use but they will be using a specific native slash SL naturalized seed mix specifically for solar installation so we don't know if they're going to be mowing or spraying or what their intention is uh well let's see there's a little more here in addition pollinator friendly plant species such as white clover will be used to promote the presence use and health of honeybees and other pollinators by improving the quality and quantity of overall AC acreage for the pollinators experts will be consulted and their recommendations provided to local conservation districts for review the ratio of white clover to grass seed mix will be approved by Gloucester County Soil Conservation District office appropriate pollinator seed mix will be utilized for planting landscape buffer pollinator locations this seed mix will provide a variety of native wild flowers and grasses if necessary overseeding by 10 or 20% of multiple seeding applications may be performed in order to establish acceptable levels of coverage well sounds like they won't be spraying because they would defeat the purpose of right what they just talked about yeah so I mean and the fact that they're putting a a tree buffer around the entire thing is great yeah that was our um main complaint main concern yeah they listened they listened maybe they already would have done it anyway I don't know I don't know if anybody listen to us I don't know it seems like they were just waiting for our uh comment sheet to proceed any further on this application oh I love it we wish we will I'll sleep well tonight um so like I said there's a lot more information about this project if anybody's interested in uh seeing that the plans are at the municipal building but I I feel comfortable uh leaving our comments to uh the tree suggestion now as for our previous comments um the six that I described earlier should we um I guess we should edit those whereas we should remove the potential glare because that's been addressed and the landscape buffer will address light intrusion uh will address well how high are the powers how well the engineer for the company told me that they had to get FAA approval and prove that there isn't a glare that's neighbors yeah well I I don't know I mean put in you know foot shrubs to start with directly to uh well they won't be directly to the ground but I'm sure it says in here in out now I've never noticed glare going field there is no glare there's no glare I have a solar array and there's no glare I have a solar array and there's tons of glare so I don't know why yours would have glare all depends how well maybe we should leave it on the sheet just to um you know put that issue out there and hopefully one of the maybe our planning board liaison will bring that up at the meeting and just have the applicant testify to it which I'm sure they will anyway the applicant will testify to glare I'm sure if they had to go through the process of getting the FAA uh certification um but yeah we should maybe we can keep the glare uh so let's see what what's our thing say on that potential glare created by large scale solar field could be harmful to neighbors and motorists should we leave that comment on here yeah okay it canh all right so the other one the light intrusion that will be mitigated by the Evergreen buffer noise emissions from proposed plans creates potential noise disturbances um I mean that could still be an issue and having it on our review sheet or our comment sheet will possibly make them or provoke them to bring up the issue so we should the initial comment is saying noise from what uh I believe it had to do with the inverter building one of the bu right okay that that's a different so I can I can um I don't know I would have to go back and watch the recording of the meeting to know exactly because it just says from proposed plan but I believe someone specifically was bringing up the from the substation or inverter building do they normally have noise I don't know there's a hum the hum oh yeah they give off hum and noise and it's clicking and will buffer will the buffer help reduce that I mean I would imagine it mitigates it to some extent but I don't know to what extent it's also inside a building so it may be less noise than when you're standing outside next to the inverter like in oh it's still not an annoying noise but we're only talking about a small scale situation in my yard not 200 and something acres worth of inverter right does every panel have an inverter no they're fed to the inverter oh okay uh now similar to the uh comment about glare I don't think that it would hurt at all to keep this comment on here no yeah because you're I think it should relate back to the um inverter and the the building or whatever the substation the substation yes okay I will uh I don't think it was very clear um okay next uh one was proposed plan creates potential for heat island effect that could increase temperatures in surrounding area should we now I believe uh the environmental commission member that had many of these concerns was Jeff Link and he's not here tonight to um expound on those concerns unfortunately well leave it on there then perhaps they can address all right the other comment was the landscape buffer which is addressed and the final comment substation inverter building could potentially emit harmful EMF I don't know enough about that one way or the other to claim that it should stay or we should remove that comment does anybody have any insight on EMF radiation I think we supposed to have done some research about that and I just didn't do any research about that were you supposed to do it Mark I don't know if I was I thought that that's what we were we decided that maybe we should all investigate that yeah and I did not well I didn't I didn't remember that a charge I know nothing at all about this and I don't feel like it's necessar the comment that we need to leave there okay I agree I don't want to put stuff on here that uh we're not certain about um that can kind of delegitimize our other comments that's right exactly so we will extract that from the comment sheet okay all right so the three comments that we have just to reiterate proposed plan creates potential for heat island effect noisy missions from proposed substation inverter creates potential noise um and a third potential glare created by large scale solar field could be harmful to neighbors and motorists right we might want to put a positive comment on for a change that the vegetated buffer buffers it sounds beautiful sound great you know we are grateful we are grateful I don't think we have to say that but I think certainly mtig any concern about vegetation and appearance yeah and maybe flooding make even though we're going to make a comment about specific trees but still you know yeah maybe it's part of that comment you can put in a little complimentary verbiage or choice of words okay we need to go on that's a lot of apps yeah that's that's a lot of applications but that was the last okay all right let's see what's next on the agenda old business Piney Hollow all right Piney Hollow um I haven't been able to make it out to Piney Hollow recently I was hoping to but I haven't uh but I did see um on the township committee agenda for tomorrow night there is a resolution authorizing the soliciting of bids proposals for Green Acres development project commonly known as Piney Hollow preservation Trail improvements uh so Township committee will vote tomorrow on approving this to go out to bid I haven't seen the bid I'm going to uh ask the administrator if he will send us a copy of the bid so that we can see it yeah but it's encouraging to know that it's going to um go into the township committee to vote and this keeps on moving forward so once I contact the administrator I will let everyone know um if we get that I'll forward it to everybody okay did you see Jason's comment uh that maybe the township could mail each of us the applications instead of you getting them and having to send them out to each of us yeah and I'm going to forward that recommendation to the zoning and planning secretar who include all of us on because I email them every month and ask them for any applications but I've never asked them to forward them to all of us at the same time which is something that I should do so moving forward I yeah because there was 43 attachments um all right so next is Mal Lake Park there's been no word on any grants for the park um so I don't really know where that goes I know time's running out very quickly and I imagine if they haven't submitted grants yet then it's probably not going to happen but I can ask uh Mr Finley about that if they ever actually submitted the grants for it because I know there's about two weeks I believe for the until the deadline yeah um I did walk the trail on Saturday the nature trail really nothing to report it was snow covered um and I could tell from all the footprints that there was a lot of people using the park even in the inclement weather there was a lot of footprints which is good meaning a lot of people are using the trail and getting out of the trail uh so nextal projects for 2022 I came up with we still need we still need to get together a list of materials that we need to replace the posts Etc right yeah so that's I was going to allude to that in the potential projects 2024 um we could have a malago Lake Park and of the maybe make that a Comm event clean and the replacing the trail markers um so we typically have our cleanup there in April around Earth day but we don't get much participation um I think one of the reasons is there's like little league so there's kids playing baseball and softball and a lot of other activities going on in the spring I was thinking possibly moving it forward to March 23rd which is the first weekend of spring so that's like an advertising uh point there come celebrate the first weekend of Spring by helping to clean up the park um and we could ask for if we offered any kind of any kind of drink and cookies I think we might get some we could get some people yeah well cookies always sweet in the deal yeah um yeah so that's one of the potential projects and I you know thinking about it now I should have made a list of potential projects and forwarded them that list to everybody so you could all see exactly what I was thinking here um but another potential project uh we as we stated last month is updating the ER the environmental resource inventory um but Suzanne I wanted to get your opinion on whether it would be wise to pursue that the same year that we're doing the master plan reexamination you think that would interfere and I know you're on the master plan reexamination subcommittee so that might stretch you kind of thin because I think on the ER update you would kind of be the leading the leader on I don't think it's a problem um to do both I don't really think they can but um because we're probably going to have to get some money to get this the updating of the er done by some other group I did put in a call to dvrpc but I haven't gotten a call back to find out if there's still doing them because um I wanted to get some idea of cost for update the the problem with an update is you almost you almost are doing the whole publication from scratch except for a few sections because you're pulling all the current data and then looking at it mapping it um summarizing it Etc so it doesn't really it doesn't really reduce the work level you you can leave your history alone but it doesn't reduce much else um you can leave your soils right up alone things like that but you can't but your land juice will have changed your contaminated SES May probably will have changed um hopefully gotten better not worse your water condition your aquifer condition Etc there because you have to use a more updated data it changes it it creates almost the same level of work so I'll try to get an idea I also went uh Sustainable New Jersey site to see but I couldn't really tell how much money you could get from them they have grants that come through PS and um and they they have $2,000 grants and then they seem to have 5,000 and 10,000 well for an ER you need 10,000 for sure um probably uh and then the town has to match it which it can do out of its open space fund um so I'll keep on going to try to get a little bit more precise idea of where it could be done who could do it and what it would cost because it should be done you know that that's one of the Prime documents for the township actually um they may think do you think the master plan reexamination any changes to the master plan would impact information in the ER not much I know it's an inventory of Natural Resources basically um yeah it's not a plan of action it's it's just an inventory but it's the only impact would be from any changes to zoning that are that come out of the master plan process but they would still not be major I don't think all right well we will uh wait to hear back from the uh information that you're pursuing um I mean it it's it's good information now but it's not as current as it needs to be and if you look at Sustainable New Jersey um we are actually registered with them we registered a long time ago I I went in to see like what's the advantage well you can get some money but but it's more of a reputation thing more of a Prestige thing it's really what your town should be working on it has they have a whole lot of things you accumulate points for different projects and one of them is having a current ER you get 10 points right off the bat for that you and then you ultimately get enough points to become certified or um other things energy analysis we've I don't think we've ever done it I mean except what the environmental commission did we did a tree survey um for example but we got no credit for it in the Sustainable New Jersey count because we didn't have anything else how much have we ever assessed energy use of the buildings that the township owns um you know just as a start but in order to do anything with the New Jersey you have to have Green Team and we've never put together a green team nor did any of us want to run a green team when we're already sitting on the environmental commission although we might be willing to serve on it so that's a bit of a problem you know suggest I'm sorry I think a long time ago Barb suggested that they get a free audit on their buildings on an energy audit yeah and that would be um that would be all done up uh by somebody else like um yeah the Atlantic City Electric and um but they basically reimburse um so the town has to put out money initially that's the way it what worked before um and for it um if you implement any of the suggestions something to that effect I can't quite that and then we we did do an energy audit with the Stockton students we have that document as well but that was really more U that was more limited they weren't doing building they were discussing traffic and recycle aspects well that kind of leads me into my next project potential project along with the survey that was um I want to make an attempt to digitize now I have boxes and boxes of old environmental commission documents that I received from Suzanne and from Jay Jay MO you a lot more so I was thinking it could be a potential project to digitize all those documents basically just taking pictures of them and converting them into PDFs yes um so we could have all these boxes of old documents um in in digital form so they're easily accessible um so that's something we could somebody could do in their downtime time Evan it seems like you're pretty good with computer stuff maybe that's something that you could spend some time on if we choose to pursue that yeah um and also I thought it might be beneficial for the environmental commission to come up with um some guidelines or maybe guidelines isn't the right word but a document that um States the the potential environmental impact of cannabis cultivation and Manufacturing because we're getting a lot of these applications lately and I'm sure there's going to be a lot more of them and if we had a specific document that we did some research to provide uh potential environmental hazards that are associated with the cultivation of and manufacturing of cannabis it would be helpful for us to know that and to have document but we could just leave it up to the neighbors who will raise all kinds of uh Ruckus at the meetings because they don't want it within 10 square miles of their home I figured they'd take care of it all Yes um they certainly will but I was hoping we could have something that you know has more something more fact-based than opinion based uhhuh and you think that what the environmental Commission puts out would be accepted by the the township people uh well even if we just used it for our own use or every time we um reviewed one of these applications almost have a checklist like um of poal Hazards all right just an idea uhuh um so that that was what I had for potential projects I don't know if anybody else has any IDE I came across I didn't get a chance to copy this so that I could send it to everybody but um I found an an document U 40 feasible projects for environmental commissions and some of them were good ideas I mean I'm not going to read you all 40 um but one of them I thought was a good one was to organize in catalog your environmental commission Library I'm not even sure what we have in either files or library and we need to make sure that they don't get dumped they're in that old ambulance building there's one file cabinet with documents in it when most of those file cabinets are empty so I'm kind of concerned about that I'm not sure that's the right place for it to be to start with and secondly it would be helpful to know what's in there do we have a library anymore did we ever um those whatever books we do have if any um should be available to anybody who on the commission or working with the commission that would like to have access to them um also other suggestions on here have to do with running an environmental movie series uh broadcasting on cable TV a public service announcement related to the environment things like that in other words getting out the word more to the public including um having somebody present to the environmental Club at the high school um developing a walking tour for residents um you can develop an energy conservation week if we want to pursue the sustain able Jersey stuff a display on environmental issues for the library or the town hall or some other meet meeting place um coordinating with historical and Recreation commissions better um creating a brochure to distribute about our environmental commission activities which then might bring more people when we try to do an event if more people knew about us um enlarge your Workforce it says appoint associate members that not well nobody there's no legislation that says that you can't have associate members I still say that's a whole teacup you know Tempest in the teacup kind of crap um you can adopt a stream a landfill a woodland historic structure or Park well we kind of have the parks yeah or a roadside yeah or roadside prepare a slideshow on the features of the town and um take it on the road to schools and civic association meetings you know that those are easy to say and harder to do but um and do a build out of what your zoning means if every if you look at your zoning and it actually got built the way it's laid out in the zoning law and map what would it look like in this town it would be horrendous but anyway um and plant a tree on Arbor Day we could actually do that I don't know that it would bring anybody else out at that time of year um environmental photo contest and talk to your high school environmental Club about your commission's activities uh work with your public works department and Board of Education to adopt integrated Pest Management those are the main things that I saw on that list that I thought were all good ideas I'll send you out this list you can look at it yourselves but I really like the idea of a promotional video for the Environmental commission um I saw one of those recently on YouTube from another environmental Commission in New Jersey and it was basically just uh an environmental commission kind of explaining what an environmental commission does the goals of the environmental commission and how to get um or encouraging the community to get involved in a environmental commission so and it was a video not a slideshow yes right it I it was like a six minute video yeah little harder to put together but not impossible I like the idea of going and meeting with the uh environmental Club at the high school every year we've always talked about it but to have the K the students come to us a student come and say sit on the commission or attend meetings um one they don't have much time and two it's kind of tedious for them they're more interested in the Natural History world I think and than they are in the applications that are going in front of the planning board or whatever um so it's hard to keep them coming but if went to them I'm trying sorry guys I didn't even hear anything they can't hear us now yeah we didn't hear it wouldn't turn off I literally just you guys right um I do know that there are environmental commissions with student members oh yeah but I I sort of feel like the student members who've come in the past not often didn't ever stick around and I thought maybe it was because it was I don't know yeah or something I'm not sure yeah all right well in the interest of time I am going to move on I feel like we got a lot of potentials for projects for this year right so we can send out a list to everybody and everybody uh kind of think about those projects and thinks think about what would be appropriate for us to pursue this year okay uh so the next agenda item was the meeting dates I just wanted to remind everybody that our meetings this year as always will be on the fourth Monday of each month with the exception of May uh the May meeting will be the third Monday of the month which will be May 20th uh because the fourth Monday can is on um Memorial Day so other than May every meeting is on the fourth Monday of the month and that has been published in the Sentinel and will be uh recurring monthly before our meeting to inform the public of our meetings uh we already did EC appointments um and Jack Do's um so anj du this year have gone up quite a bit it's $425 for s s Members Plus $45 per additional member so for all 11 members alter and leaon it would be $65 for the year of 2024 well I pay I don't know does that does that count I pay my way well well yeah I mean that would subtract $45 and Suzanne I know you have been a private member so that was $45 so total so we basically allocated our our memberships we we thought that the township should pay for the seven Commissioners and the two leaon and the alternates and that we would pay for um additional people like Barbara well you know it was buil would have been bill but he's now an alternate um so we could allocate one of our memberships to Barbara and one to an alternate well if yeah now this will b seven eight nine 10 that would make 10 10 memberships which is just a little bit better so that would be $560 now our budget the last last couple years has been $500 a year and this an du had comes out of our budget so we not only will we ex you know use all of our budget for an do but we will exceed our budget ask budget increase we could ask for Budget if they were paying if they were paying for a secretary there'd be an additional $1,000 added onto that and they and they haven't paid that for over a year what is it how long have I been doing the it's a year and a half uh longer than that at least the fourth year fourth year this is the fourth year yes Suzanne well ,000 they can allocate $4,000 to us this year I think it's I think it's probably the fifth year it's more than that because Carolyn quit my first year as chair and I was doing it for years well remember we did have Sarah for a while but we only had her for about six months Susanne you've been doing it for years you could have bought yourself a new car oh yeah if only I were getting paid yeah um well I don't know we have to figure out if we W to what do we get from anjac um for the last several years all we've really gotten is the pamphlet that they mail to us that's up to us though as to what we use I I've gone to several of their things you know so I don't agree with it not being a I think it's an important membership if if we don't want to give it to everybody officially you know fine we only need to pay for five regular members and two alternates or just one alternate because only one is actually participating well the minimum you can do is uh it's $425 for seven members so I believe that would be the minimum uh and the reason that I bring this up and I'm somewhat hesitant to proceed on this is that it would use up all of our budget for things like posts for the trail at Malaga Lake Park we less likely to get that approved because that would probably come out of the environmental commission budget well I'm sorry they have to increase the budget it's just ridiculous it doesn't need it's for the park it doesn't need to come out of your budget it could come out of Public Works it could come out of open space it doesn't have to be your budget that's right yeah um we can try to pursue it that way absolutely and I'll I will try to do that um basically what I'm saying charging I might start charging the township anyway yeah maybe I'll resign and just start charging the township and then I can give it to the environmental commission and you'll have a budget yeah you could do that and then we would have double the budget we have now that's that's right you hear all this mark down here um all right so if we want to pursue and Jack membership we have to take a vote on that um so if anyone would like if we want to decide right now and if someone would like to make a motion to um become members of an for 2024 we are open for that motion and can take a roll call vote on it I am I propose that we become members of ANC for 2024 I think it's a good organization and it's about exactly what we ideally would be doing and you know I think it's inspiration as to what we could be doing if we had sounds like a second to me so there's a motion on the floor that we um become an members uh so I will take a roll call vote on that like I said uh for seven members it will be $425 um we should specify before we make a vote exactly how many members we will include um there and I are taken care of so for the seven members and the two liaison and two alternates that's that's 11 members so we we need two less than that so we need nine members which would be 500 or no I'm sorry 55 $515 do we want to include Liaisons and Alternate no okay well we have to include seven members anyway so that would include um seven members so that would cover the seven environmental commission members and because two members have private memberships that would open two other members between the two liaison and the two alternates two of them will be basically two open spots that we can add on that well let's put our two leaon into that and then add one more membership to the seven and that would cover one alternate which I think is all we need to provide yeah I agree so that would be eight members for a total of uh let's see $470 okay I just wanted to get the cost exact before we moved forward on the mo on the vote for the motion and it's under our budget yes so the the motion is to become an members for 2024 at a cost of $470 uh roll call vote Jason is absent Margaret yes Frank is absent Jeff is absent Suzanne yes Evan yes I vote Yes as well and those are all of the applicable votes so we have four yes votes so motion carries and I will fill out the application um the do's application and forward it to the clerk okay I'll include the administrator on that also Suzanne may I clarify something with you did you say that you couldn't get paid if you're a member of the environmental commission correct get paid for being a secretary I can't get paid for being a secretary correct specifically states that in the ordinance that created the environmental I see I see yeah all right so the very last item on the agenda is the 2023 annual report which I forwarded to everybody uh there is one thing that I added um I wanted to put on the annual report that um that the E the EC worked with the Communications Commission to publish video recordings of each environmental commission meeting for public viewing recordings are played on Channel 9 and the official and published on the official Franklin Township YouTube page so I made one slight addition um and if everybody agreed or approves of the um report for 2023 I will forward that to uh Township committee yes so unless unless anybody has uh um is not happy with that then I'll proceed with that no it was great report was very nice great love the photos of course everything that's in there is stuff that you did John yeah well if anybody has any photos in the future that they would like me to uh incorporate into the annual report I would be happy to yeah I just scroll through my phone and find pictures that are appropriate well they were it was perfect John yes thank you do we we don't need them to vote on that we just I don't think so pleas send it yeah yeah all right so that's all that I have on the agenda um does anybody else have anything that they would like to uh there's no mail right no mail no mail no mail no correspondence okay can I ask can I go back just this only take a second everybody I know you're tired that dollar store did is are we going to hear about it again or we going to see the drawings of it or the drawings there are drawings yeah there t i mean this this whole stack here yes is they uh so what about the the lighting you it doesn't mention lighting uh there may I think there is a lighting plan in here I don't want you to have to look it through through that John I do believe there is a lighting plan so it would be in one of the 82 pages that you sent to me yeah uh actually I may not have sent that one I tried to send everything that was uh tangential to our uh review um like I said I tried to cut it down so that we weren't I didn't have to send out every document that I received impact study Propst retail building my heart sank when I saw 82 pages uh let's see there's I'm not seeing there's electrical plans there are a lot of things here lighting plan yes there is a lighting plan C7 now there aren't any residents that are even really close to this so I didn't think it was uh imperative to look at the lighting plan I guess I just don't want something hideous or something that used to be open land you know now are the lights shielded and facing down not if they Shield facing down they should they should still be shielded you got Critters and stuff like that they should still be shielded the lights in the parking lot are shielded to prevent shielded any light migration from off of the site it shows how they are shielded and they're shielded so that it reflects all of the light towards the building as for the lights on the building it doesn't specify if they're shielded so I would assume that they are not shielded on the building spotlights um it shows where the light candle is the it shows on the plan the extent of how far the light will reach and it clearly shows that none of the light will um migrate off of site except for a very small portion that may go onto Harding Highway um but not even to the midline of parting Highway uh and actually that might only be to the sidewalk so they have actually the most detailed lighting plan that I've ever seen that shows exactly how much light is emitted it almost looks like a grading plan with the amount of light that is emitted uh and yeah there is zero light that is that migrates off site according to the lighting plan all right we'll see if they hold to that um one other thing in the same vein back to the solar farm the business about sidewalks were we making a comment about the sidewalks no we did not shouldn't we I mean we're talking about sidewalks creating imper impermeable surf uh yeah and uh it's necessary in that area so why do it um yeah now our comment sheets typically only recognize environmental concerns I don't even really think there's a place on the comment sheet to um make a comment in uh support of a certain detail well the notes space at the bottom would be a place to put that in okay so we because because I mean it is an environmental issue to try to keep the amount of impermeable surface yeah absolutely and and sidewalks in an area where they're not connected to anything and are not likely to be simply in um undercuts the agricultural aspects of the town for to for no gain uh yeah I I agree certainly doesn't need to go around all four sides that that's for sure so I will add a comment if everyone is in favor uh a comment of supporting the I'm in favor or relief um against sidewalks I'm in favor okay good point I mean they're not that obtrusive as far as appearance is concerned but it's just more impermeable surface yeah they are absur they are absurd looking all of a sudden sidewalk and then all of a sudden they stop it is absurd where there are no sidewalks well the idea of course putting that into ordinance requirements is is that eventually they'll hook up to other sidewalks as things are developed but I think I don't think that's the right approach I think you should think about sidewalks only going where you need them and and concentrate on bike Lanes instead or Trails or something you know all right all right well um with that we will take a motion for adjournment if anyone would like to propose that I [Music] do it's past my bedtime I second there Evan or Suzanne all in favor any opposed no all right well that was a very productive meeting tonight we covered 938 and I didn't talk bad about anybody I had a lot of things to talk bad about but I was told last month not to talk bad about not to name names or talk bad about anybody so well that'sit this time right yeah I can just imagine you liing people Margaret uhuh there something thanks for coming night turn off the recording thank you oh wait turn off the recording right okay oops