##VIDEO ID:N8QqJ8gTH2o## Mary would you like to proceed yes please good evening this is the meeting of the burough Highlands mayor and Council regular meeting on Wednesday September 18th 20124 the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was properly given by transmission to the as Park Press in the Two River times and by posting at the burough of Highlands municipal building and FAL with burough CLK all on January 1st 2024 items listed on the agenda are subject to change please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pled aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I will now do roll call council member sanes here counc M La herec here Council presidi mayor bruan here first we have approval of minutes September 24th I'm sorry September 4th 2024 meeting minutes I will offer I will second Council memb amount council member yes Council main mayor Bulan yes thank you motion carries to approve September 4th 2024 meeting minutes next we have resolutions r24 161 acknowledging receipt and review of the land use board consistency report for ordinance 02415 uh just to review the L use board met last uh Thursday and we went over the changes uh pretty much they consisted of cleaning up some languages to make it easier to understand was a little bit chunky um and also we added some uses we um changed some uses and um we feel it's just a more streamlined uh document now and by far easier to understand than the previous one um so they found that it was consistent with the master plan and voted unanimously the uh Fort and so now it is before us yet again so do I have an offer I second any discussion does anyone have any questions for Francy that's for ordinance okay I'm saying does anyone have questions for our planner no no okay no then roll call please council member sanes yes Council M yes yes c m yes mayor bran yes motion carries to adopt resolution r241 161 next we have r24 162 authorizing execution of the shared services agreement between the burrow of Highlands and the Henry Hudson Regional School District I'll off for that second council member svantes yes counc yesc yes mayor Bulan yes motion carries to adopt resolution r241 162 next we have consent agenda mayor would you like me to read the resolutions by title yes please R 24163 authorizing purchase of enforcer software mobile version through MC system Solutions r241 164 authorizing the refund of a bulk permit fee R 24165 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for Professional Services in connection with the Highland tide F installation Project R 2466 authorizing payment of bills caller call second Council memberes yes counc yes yes mayor yes motion carries to adopt resolutions r24 163 through R 24166 next we have public hearing on proposed ordinance 02415 adopting the amended Central business district development plan pursuance to the local Redevelopment and Housing law njsa 4A colon 12a one EP okay do we have any questions from the public regarding this ordinance seeing that is a no of Grancy would you like to make any statement regarding this ordinance good evening frany McManaman McManaman falman we serve as Redevelopment Council to The Bu so this ordinance is adoped opting the amended Redevelopment plan the amended Central business district Redevelopment plan this Redevelopment plan was originally adopted in 2022 upon review a recent review with the within the the burough team uh it was noted that the plan would benefit from um an amendment to update current flood plane regulations streamline development standards to in an effort to facilitate development within that Redevelopment area limit residential which was an initial goal of the Redevelopment plan plan itself and clarify the Redevelopment process specifically requiring that anyone who is going to um develop within the Redevelopment area go through the process in accordance with the local Redevelopment and Housing law which involves being designated as a redeveloper and also executing a Redevelopment agreement with the bureau in order to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Redevelopment plan thank you see no other um people wanting to make a comment close public portion sure on that yes okay does anyone have anything any other questions or statements then can I have a motion please a motion uh to adopt okay second council member santes yes council member CH yes counc Mel yes mayor ban yes motion carries o 2415 passed on second and final reading next we have o 2416 amending chapter 4 licensing General section 4-14 short-term rentals section 4-1 14.4 short-term rentals permit permit registration fee SL application and certificate certificate of occupancy section 4-4.5 application process for short-term rental permit and inspections um so what we changed here is we had we used to have two separate types of fees we've just consolid that Consolidated that into one fee um we also had um a process in which uh there were four inspections per year one per quarter and the um now that we have our we first started this um ordinance before we had our building department back now that the construction official is with us he said that one inspection per year uh should be fine uh so we made all these updates uh with a lot of his input um here and uh I will open the public portion if anyone has a comment question um I have one time did I read then I'll close public portion go ahead the uh the application fee the licensing fee did that go up for yes it did to was it 750 yes 750 per year and that includes your inspection okay very good so I'll offer it I'll second council member Sanz yes counc M yes Council Mel yes mayor buan yes motion carries 02 2416 pass on second and final reading next we have introduction of proposed ordinance 02 2417 designating restricted parking in front of residents occupied by person with disabilities um I'll offer it second Council memb of aners yes counc Mel yes counc Mel yes mayor bran yes motion carries to pass 024 17 on first reading with a public hearing to be held on October 2nd 2024 next we have administrator report I'll keep it brief tonight um just wanted to go over a conference I went to last week for the New Jersey film ready uh by The Economic Development Authority uh since Highland has seem to be getting a lot of attention for movies and commercials and whatnot there is a um five-step certification process by the state uh in order to be named a film ready town uh the first step is attend the film ready Community workshops which we've completed I attended last week uh designate the liaison adopt the formal permitting process which we have then we get to upload film locations and submit a list of local resources to the state database in October I have another meeting scheduled with the film commission once that's completed will get access to upload locations and different areas in town that we want to highlight for the commission uh basically this once you're designated film ready you uh everything about the town is put in the database and access by directors producers of different movies and television shows um just to to break down and the last numbers they had that they gave us in 2022 filming Revenue in New Jersey there were 617 projects for a total of 71,9 182,000 of Revenue that brought into the state so uh I think it' be nice if we got a little chunk of that for sure mik is there is there any data that shows how much of that goes to those towns that were designated as film ready versus not it wasn't broken down that far but I can ask it my next interesting what we're going to and I I think it's a great idea just here and here's why right here's what we can also be Ving on the outside great thanks okay that's all I have okay uh before we go to public portion I just wanted to remind everyone that on September 30th at 6: pm. we're going to have a town hall here regarding the uh regionalization ballot question um because some people had some questions and we just want to be um as open as possible about that process uh the even though it's uh going to be a little bit later on I believe it's the 7th um of October again at 6 PM but over at the cafetorium at Henry Hudson Regional school is going to be a town hall in for uh the other public question and it will be attended by the Army Corps of Engineers and the D as well as our professionals here um it's going to be um not just about the question it's also going to be an overview about a lot of the projects that we working on ourselves as well as the chors project and uh background information uh I've personally been working with d of putting up not a this but a really small questionnaire of maybe under 10 questions um that they came up with that uh would be really easy to do on a tablet or a phone or on the computer uh as we usually do I'll print out uh just a page and uh get that over to um Renee DeMarco over at Pac Tower and Jenny Parker for people that don't have internet access or or otherwise computer uh adverse I'll put it uh so we'll also print out and have some of those uh questionnaires here and I'm expecting uh um the counterpart at d to get me final questions tomorrow so I can begin programming that um again those two dates are September 30th for the regionalization question and October 7th at the high school uh for the flood wall both starting at 6 p.m. I know that the they still the is not sorry too close but like as far as that meeting without the wall um or not the wall the project I mean more accurate um have they Advanced that plan any further than the previous meeting or is it still basically the same content maybe with additional questions they'll respond to but as far as the plan itself the plan itself has not been Advanced any more than it was in May perfect uh to the best of my knowledge uh my contact has been I should say our contact me and Mike has been PR primarily through uh njd and uh they are that's why they want to present as a more holistic approach of all of the projects that we've are working on as well as that so that that's not the only topic of information it's one bit but they will be there to address specific questions regarding that project awesome cool okay any other questions regarding those two meetings no but I have a question for Mr ref uh Over Look park can you give me any update on what's we're expecting something I think it might have been in my email ler we we did a a we did a a presentation that is nowhere near final um but if you want to speak to it more since you know the uh the slides better yeah basically what we did was a conceptual review based on one previous meeting to further the idea of can over Park and basically my team is come back and re it there are political over late today okay but basically from there we're going to evaluate pricing phasing and then bu design development based on what basically to look at various engineering parameters structural is needed geotechnical things are not needed right now more simple so that due diligence is going to be going on the next few weeks you have any ETA I maybe by next screen would I it's not a lot of work comp right exactly good okay thank you that's it and I'll get that over to you guys as soon as this meeting's over there's some pretty Grand ideas in there there that are um quite frankly a lot more than we would ever be willing to spend on a park that no one can get to driving in a car um I mean they're really super cool ideas but it's you know we have to be mindful of spending taxpayer dollars yep any other questions we good to go to public portion public portion individuals wishing to address the council be recognized by the presiding officer and shall give their name address and the group if any they represent although the council encourages public participation and reserves the right through its presiding officer to terminate remarks to and or by any individuals not in keeping with the conduct of a proper and efficient meeting if any individual refuses to conduct themselves in a proper manner they will be removed from the meeting the council will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or discipline of any specific or perspective of current employee there's a three minute time limit okay Joseph Doran 102 Valley Avenue um just briefly um I don't know if I'm asking this question tooo soon but um the land use board dismissed the application for the 14-32 North Beach Street project so my question is about enforcement of U some of the violations there um most importantly the steep slope violation as to how that will be addressed by the burrow at this time I don't I don't know if I'm asking too soon because it just happened last week um a letter was sent by my lawyer to the administration L to zoning and to code enforcement um is any comment that can be I I can tell you I got a copy of the letter I think it was yesterday uh I haven't had a chance to sit down and discuss anything yet withy or building some grounds for code okay you only received it yesterday it was yesterday big packet certified mail yeah yesterday the day before I was only aware of a letter that was sent to you by my lawyer no I got something I got something different I can show it to you interesting okay okay yeah had the different copies of the picture oh there were pictures there were pictures on the left yes that was yeah but that was the extent you correct okay it was the pictures your refer yes okay yeah which was evidence of of recent storm um order coming down um so there's nothing to report so not today not at this time okay so there no conversation between you and code enforcement no I haven't yet no hopefully by the next meeting or before that I'll give you a call all right also contact my lawyer I would appreciate that open is basically representing me this point okay most things okay okay yep all right very good thank you thank you Mr dor Bob zolinski I live at 68 Portland Road and I only thought I had two minutes so I'm good I have three minutes um okay uh I think if you ask residents of pilings you know do they want to go through another storm like Sandy I think it'd be nearly 100% of saying no um I think if you ask people uh do you love living in the highlands people are here I think the answer would be yes I also think if you ask people do you want to protect Highlands infrastructure homes businesses from another storm like Sandy or even stronger than Sandy the answer would be yes you know we don't want our businesses or infrastructure homes destroyed um and I think if you ask people would you like lower flood insurance rates I think everyone would say yes to um and then if you ask them would you like 179 million do of free federal and state money uh that's a double use um and then I think you would could ask would you want uh your property values to increase and again I think that's also yes um the valid question we have to me if you just summarize it in in just a few words it's basically do you want higher taxes and do you want the feds to take your property possibly take your property um I think what missing in that question is anything positive about the Army Corps of engineer study um and I think uh the residents need to know what a no vote what the ramification of a no vote really is and um one of those is that the core of engineers there $128 million uh for the project uh I'm estimating 51 from the state would be gone and Highlands would have no funds to protect themselves from future Storm surges which are coming and they're going to be stronger than than you know what Sandy was um again I think property values would decrease if we got hit by another storm like Sandy and uh without having any protection in place and this might uh increase um uh or decrease the home values in businesses when um the community and other people in the state realize that Highlands is Ved no if that's what the outcome is on protecting um our our burrow um again taxes would go up if there's another storm like Sandy to repair infrastructure um flood insurance if it's available if we have another sand or two or three you know would the flood insurance program cut off Highlands from having that available um and then also I think it's there's a concern that FEMA would be hesitant about spending recovery money in a town that refused to help themselves um and again I think it's a thing to note that uh if the wall project was in place for Sandy that um uh again I think there they're using an elevation of 14 ft above um sea level or their mean sea level and Sandy was I think 13.1 ft so most of the town would have been protected if we had the wall in place and I believe to have a fair and representative vote on that question the council should send out a postcard a letter or something to all residents presenting both sides the positives and the negatives uh of the project and so that Highlands um can keep discussing this project with core of engineers and again I think a Novo you know might cut that off entirely they'll take the money and go um you know the the Burl has um uh initially I guess in the in 2010 there was talk about funding and um there was no interest and I think it was for the whole Bayside Community in um uh 2017 uh the burough rejected the project in 2018 um the core of engineers and DPE came back and asked them to reconsider and I think in m in April the council uh voted that down and then there was another meeting in August uh when workshop and then finally in September um of 2018 uh the council agreed to um uh resend the negative uh that we would not support it and that they would um um uh see that the project would wanted to see the completion at no cost to to the burrow um so there's been you know several times where we've been kind of difficult to the core of engineers because we've turned it down so many times and um again I think that uh you know to get a fair representative vote we need to get information out to the the residents uh rather than just you know the two negative things but get some positive things out there because this this could save the town and save businesses and save save infrastructure costs so thank you okay I invite you to look back at your history though because a lot of the things that you said are not true uh like uh lowering flood insurance rates the core and DP said it will have no effect on flood insurance flood insurance is your height of your property and your proximity to the water that's it that's it okay um also your recanting of it was never the project that we were voting yes or no for it was completion of the study okay so you kept on saying the project the project the project it wasn't about the project it was about completion of the study okay which is still what they're doing now is cor which they're still only 35% complete after nearly 3 decades M so I just wanted I just want you to make sure that you've got your talking points correct when you're going to talk about it okay okay right thank you see no one else I will close public portion and I will motion to adjourn I will second all in favor I I thank you meeting adour at 7:25