##VIDEO ID:wCGKEgOGPAQ## good evening everyone welcome to the township council meeting Monday November 25th 2024 this meeting is now called to order all please rise to salute to the flag fles stands indivisible andice Madame clerk please read the statement of public notice take notice the adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with njsa 10 4-8 and njsa 10 4-10 as follows a notice of the meeting was prominently posted on the bulletin board at the municipal building located at 225 Main Street Little Falls New Jersey on January 4th 2024 a copy of the notice was sent to the north Jersey Herald in news and the and the record on the same date additionally a copy of the notice was filed in the off of the Township Clerk on said date a link in a telephone number to join the meeting virtually can be accessed on the township website at www.j.com electronic Provisions have been established for the public to participate during the public comment portion of the meeting thank you madam clerk at this time please call the role council member Patel present council member Murphy pres council member habblet present council member van Cherry president council president scova president have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of October 21st 2024 so move move by Council Murphy second by councilwoman habetz please call the RO for the minutes of October 21st 2024 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member haet yes council member vaneri yes council president scova yes have a motion to approve the workshop minutes of the meeting of November 18 2024 moved by councilman V Cherry second by councilwoman Patel Adam clerk please call the role council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member habblet yes council member van Cheri yes council president scova yes at this time mayor Damiano the floor is yours thank you council president this evening be before we get to our seventh and eighth grade boys soccer team we have a couple of other individuals that we need to recognize here in our audience and I'm gonna ask the two of them to join me up here together because they both had a wildly successful year at the kns of Columbus soccer shootout one of them both of them winning our local districts actually I'm G have them join me up here first before we get through it so I'm going to invite up here Vinnie martinello and Victoria Macaluso to join me up front so this year Vinnie won the Local District shootout he took first at the regional shootout and he went down to Trenton and competed with the entire state of New Jersey and took second place in the shootout competition we got a medal for you here and Victoria had a wildly successful year this year taking first place at the local District first place at the regional shootout and first place in the state of New Jersey congratulations all right let's get some family and friends here and the council up here to get a picture come on got one more and this year in Little Falls we had another championship soccer team here led by coach Janice Ted lasso O'Neal we ask you to join us up front come on and you know what they say about every great coach they also have wildly incredibly tremendous assistant coaches and we're GNA start with assistant coach introductions before we get to all of our players this year this is where I hand it off to you and I know you've been dreading this moment but here it is I'm gonna leave that for the assistant all right so we have Cody organisat Chase O'Neal and Benjamin orar so first of all guys I want to thank all of you for being here and I want to thank my team for being with us this entire season it's been a really special time with you guys I'm so proud of of how much we've done you know I'm very happy with the results that came with our season and how we worked through the issues that we had but overall I think we just did a tremendous job and I'm so happy that I get to coach this team I know that I didn't show up to every single practice and you guys probably did better than I did and there were a lot of jokes about that but we were St to have fun the whole season and I always enjoyed whenever I came and we were winning a lot so that was always fun too so thank you guys for that all right and with a 10-1 in one record and a Championship win it's now time to call up all of the players here you go okay um Alexander there isari Anthony Lena Christian rosowski Evan Anton josea Brew is he here he's not here all right we'll just take haraldo who what Caleb Rodriguez Luca castaldo Lucas rosowski Madam de Mato Mark badji Mason rudo Xavier na but Lee you're not like us come on Max not trying to do last here I think we go all right come on everybody get up here spe all all right now this is the part of the meeting where everybody is more than welcome to stay if you want to sit through the rest of the hour of this meeting or you guys can feel free to leave now if you'd like get some photos on the stairs and again congratulations to the entire team and everyone in the nights of Columbia shootouts Ma they get Civic to see hi Richie don't Ru it for the kids yeah have nightmares they'll never get involved in government never get involved in government man May why don't you um discuss 1506 and 1507 um this is this is an important part of uh this legislation that these ordinance that the council is going to pass tonight is really important to this Township yeah especially to those that are in the flood plane absolutely thank you council president so uh this evening like you said there are two ordinances 1506 and 1507 that really go uh hand inand with one another and they have to do with the new D requirements uh affecting everybody that lives within our flood Hazard area and who may be impacted by the base flood elevations and them not having a structure in excess of the base flood elevations uh and as we heard a couple of well now a couple of months ago from our flood plan manager James D Maria there are new regulations that towns are being required to enact it is no longer a suggestion or a recommendation it is a requirement that towns enact them if they are looking to ensure that all of their residents continue or able to continue with their nfip which is the national flood uh plan insurance so the issue here has really become that what will be required of any Resident that is within the flood Hazard area is going to change for them moving forward and what that means is for work that they may do whether it be uh Paving their driveway whether it be changing their air conditioner whether it be redoing their sighting or their roof or making improvements inside of their home all of the residents and all of the homes and structures that are within this this flood Hazard area are now going to be required to not only pay the regular permits for these for this work but include as part of what their maximum amount that they can pay in a three-year period it will be charged against that in determining whether or not they need to elevate their homes and as we've had discussed in the past the homeowners will only be able to do work not in excess of 50% of their Improvement value not their entire property value just their Improvement value so this is really going to handcuff people's abilities to do any or make any substantial improvements to their homes if they live in these areas uh and one thing that many towns are doing is and one of the requirements is that we set a fee structure for all of these improvements and what these fees will cost so many towns are requiring that not only homeowners pull a permit which you pay the regular permit fee if you're looking to change electric or you're looking to to do any sort of building Improvement but that in addition to that fee many towns are charging a fee associated with the categorizing and keeping uh track of all of these improvements that uh these homes are making and they're charging an additional fee on top of that and I have to be honest and in speaking to some of the council members we just don't feel that it's right to pass a fee to Residents in these flood prone areas that they be required to incur these additional fees to uh make these improvements or modifications uh sometimes or many times required that uh you know within their home whether it be a roof replacement or changing an air conditioner uh and I was recommending that this council do is eliminate and not charge fees to any homeowners for any types of projects in these areas uh however commercial users will have to pay the $500 fee uh for any types of improvements that they're making there and this is a lot more there is a lot more information than I am simply stating here tonight for purposes of brevity and this is going to be important to uh never never mind dozens hundreds and hundreds of residents here in little fs and because of how important it is and because of how uh not well attended Council meetings are generally what I do want to do and what I'm going to schedule is a town hall style meeting for all of the residents in these areas I'd like to hand deliver or mail out a letter to any residents in any of these uh flood prone areas and in the flood Hazard areas and I want to have people that and while I think I'm fairly well versed in this at this point I want to have Representatives here from the state of New Jersey because this is really a d requirement through federal regulations and some other local uh you know County and state representatives that may want to join to explain this to the residents because in my opinion frankly this is just completely unfair what is being required of residents in our flood Hazard areas as if they don't have enough stress and they're not going through enough dealing with everything that comes along with living in a flood prone area this is in my opinion adding insult to injury to anybody who needs to now keep track and very careful track of any improvements that they make to their home because if they want to improve their home too much the state of New Jersey through the federal requirement is going to say you now need to pay on your own dime to elevate your home this to me is just it's uncomprehensible and more information needs to be given to our residents from the real professionals who have helped put this in place again theoretically with good intentions in the sense that they are looking to ensure that the federal government the state governments and then pass down to local individuals like all of us no longer have to pay these Federal claims for flooded uh for floods anymore uh but it is putting a burden on individual homeowners and taxpayers that I just just does not sit right with me uh so that is what these two ordinances are about we have reached the 11th hour here with respect to passing ordinance 1506 and 1507 that is the fees associated with this and again although most municipalities are charging additional fees to pull the permits uh I just don't think it's right I think it's a cost that the entire municipality should take on because again this is salt on a wounds when you are trying to make minor modifications or improvements to your home uh so that is what these two ordinances are again I'm happy to add some additional information if there's any questions from the council that I may be able to answer but I do want to host a town hall for everybody in town who is impacted and one other very important point that I would like to note is that there are options as to how many years a town will look back or that the the state or federal government will look back as to how much you spent on your home making these improvements and I am recommending that this Council and I know we've discussed this in the past adopt the three-year provision Vision to this ordinance where there is only a three-year look back versus a five or 10e look back so that any improvements that you've made more than three years ago do not count against or towards the total that you've spent making improvements to your your home in any period of time we will lose a few credits in our CRS rating we have I believe we still have the highest non-coastal CRS rating east of the Mississippi and we work hard to to achieve that to give our resident the greatest discount possible but losing a few points to really protect our residents in the long term I think is certainly well worthwhile here uh to allow them the ability to to make improvements over time to their home uh without the risk of having to elevate it on their own diet uh with that council president I just want to wish everybody a happy and healthy Thanksgiving I hope everybody is extremely full by Thursday evening and has had enough turkey that they are ready for bed by 8:00 pm thank you mayor we'll move on to council reports councilwoman vatel uh thank you council president just a few things so our health officer John Bagel will be at our next meeting which is going to be on December 9th to give his final report for the year um I am looking for residents who want to join the public health committee for next year so if anyone is interested um just shoot me an email um a reminder that all of the monthly Health reports are weekly covid-19 and respiratory illness reports and the weekly Vector borne surveillance reports are still being linked on the health department um portion of the township website so please go there for any additional information that you require and finally for those of that you for those of you that don't know um the health department did start a little Falls health department Facebook group so I would just encourage residents to follow them um they provide informative articles you know upcoming events and just general information for little false residents um and I too want to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving and that's all I have council president thank thank you councilwoman habz thank you council president uh so first I'd like to say that I am happy to announce uh that I've been working with the township and our Recreation Department on our new social media Pages uh starting January the township will start a new Facebook and Instagram page uh that will have all things Little Falls all things up toate uh information so that's a great thing coming to the township um Library updates uh the library will host its monthly royal tea party this Wednesday at 11:00 a uh sip tea and chat about everything Royal uh you can register on the library's website uh also Health chair 360 will host a Medicare meeting tomorrow at 6 PM going over all Medicare options for 2025 um the ABC will be hosting their breakfast with Sansa on on December 7th uh they'll have two seatings one at 9:30 to 10:30 and one from 11: to 12:30 at the Civic Center um it's $10 per ticket um you can uh go to the ABC Facebook in order to register I also like to say uh with the holidays coming up our Christmas tree lighting and holiday Marketplace will take place on Friday December 6th uh starting at 5:30 so come join us to meet Santa and bring an unwrapped uh toy for our holiday toy drive drive sponsored by the PBA and then lastly don't forget to enter our holiday uh light up Little Falls decorating contest uh you can register our community pass and voting will take place on December 18th and a Happy Thanksgiving to all thank you councilman uh Ben Cherry thanks council president um just a friendly reminder this saturday is the TR toown parade uh it starts at 5 o'clock I know the communications went out this week and I know reminders will follow because we'll get those questions there's going to be some road closures starting I believe at 3 p.m. so just everyone be prepared but it should be a great night and I know a lot of people are looking forward to in the three towns and you know I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving everyone be safe and enjoy the holiday thank you councilman Murphy thank you council president a quick update we have a domestic violence PR committee meeting on December 10th it's Tuesday in the upstairs room at Town Hall which is actually our last one of the year um so looking forward to that uh just also a friendly reminder uh for any businesses that are looking to advertise we do have a few spots still left in the town calendar uh for the upcoming 2025 years so anybody looking to advertise could reach out to Tyler perero at the Little Falls Rec just shoot them an email or give him a call because we do have a few spots left and I'd also like to wish everybody a happy and healthy Thanksgiving president thank you Chief anything tonight uh just want to reiterate uh Happy Thanksgiving to everyone uh as councilman bentu just mentioned is the holiday parade this weekend we are expecting to close browertown Road at 11 o'clock detours will be in place um the main uh Parade route will be closed at 3 pm so just we're gon to have plenty of sign boards we already put it out on our social media so we just encourage everybody to follow the little false Police Department on Facebook um to stay you know up to date at 4M prior to the start of the parade everything will be locked down and shut so if if you want to get a good spot do it before you know do it around 3:00 or before that thank you chief for the update councel anything tonight thank you uh council president um the council knows that I've updated them from time to time over the past few months about the affordable housing issue um that all municipalities in Jersey are facing and um since the end of October uh DCA has issued numbers with regard to what they under the law believe are the appropriate numbers for or as they said the league of municipality seminar their suggested numbers not sure what type of suggestion it was seemed more like an author authoritarian number but they say it was a suggestion uh by the way so everyone is aware the Little Falls numbers are zero for present need and 285 for prospective need I think it's important to highlight that the present need being zero is unusual because uh I believe other than Little Falls North Halden and maybe Bloomingdale I could be wrong about that but I know North Halden as well uh every other municipality in the county has a present need which means present need is what needs to be done now what you have to do now what you have to project for now in the in in the near term the fact that we are zero is because of the good planning that this Council has done this Administration has done over the past 10 years um with regard to ensuring that developments in town do have affordable housing um so we've been able to utilize that as a means to demonstrate the good faith that this Township has to provide people with affordable uh units in the community uh as far as the present need need I'm sorry the perspective need issue and whether or not it's really 285 I've been in communication with the township planner about uh reviewing that and determining what our re uh suggestion is to the council come in January by January 30th uh the council has to adopt a resolution either agreeing to those numbers or presenting alternative numbers um and so we're in the process of reviewing that and will'll be back before the council uh probably in early January with regard to those suggestions uh in terms of how to proceed but I just wanted you all to be aware of it I know that um it's been in out there recently was talked extensively down the league of municipalities so just something to continue to be aware of thank you council president councelor the seminar I attended at the municipal league for this very issue it was quoted as saying by the those that ran the seminar no one knows the formula that was used or the equation that was used to come up with the numbers so how is it that numbers in your opinion came up with how did how did the St come up with the numbers so you know you have to uh unfortunately I I'm I'm ready to admit this in a public meeting that I cheated my way through calculus 2 which was basically the methodology used by the DC CA in coming up with these numbers um because you have to start out with a concept that there is an overall growth in the state in terms of number of households okay and then you get into this whole uh phrase issue of what is a household right because a single person could be a household six people could be in household but needless to say there's been an increase in households there's been an increase that increase is then put into each County you see what each County's increase is and then you say okay there's been this increase how are we going to deal with that because these are in essence in the DCA mind unhoused people even though I'm sure they have housing but you have to start out with the concept that there's more people therefore we have to plan for more housing which may be a fundamentally flaw concept but that's where they're going and from there what ends up happening and what what the first step is that you have to appreciate here is that there's a need this present need exists across the county including communities like Patterson Clifton and Pake now what ends up happening is because Patterson Clifton and Pake I'm just talking about Pake County they are all qualified Urban Aid municipalities which means that their present need while it's acknowledged as being in some cases I think Patterson's is something like 3,000 units but then the perspective need is wiped out it's zeroed okay so they don't have any technically Patterson Clifton and Pake have no obligation to provide for affordable housing because they're considered qualified uh Urban Aid municipality what that means is the obligation is then shifted onto other towns so then it shifted to Little Falls Wayne TOA and so on and so forth in fact I happen to have seen the uh the TOA mayor in the Halls at the conference and uh he was uh sort of bemoaning the same point here that he had a number assigned to him which was second only to Wayne okay because then what factors come in is what's your available land and if you know TOA uh there's a lot of indust and commercial property well according to DCA those are all available I I would think that the people that own it probably think otherwise but nevertheless is the way they they consider it so you have to take a couple my point is uh council president there's a couple of leaps of logic and then there's a very indepth two-page explanation of the calculations that are used you get it this percentage comes here that number is decreased this number is increased it's very complicated but what ends up to be is what is your available what is this number that's assigned to you and then what land is available to you and for certain communities like todua they're considered to have more available land because of this uh commercial industrial land as opposed to other communities and for years I represent Woodland Park for years the be share housing center who's in favor of more affordable housing which is not necessarily a bad thing but when you start thinking that you can build property over reservoirs that's a problem so we we end up having this back and forth here and this is where this is where I'm going with saying to you that this number that is provided by the DCA this number has to be evaluated by somebody on the ground which is your planner okay uh and and myself I'm not going to do any of the calcul calulations trust me she'll do the calculations um but eventually to come up with a number that is more reasonable now I think the the council president may have also attended a seminar given by one of my colleagues um about what that affordable number should be when you put it into a different type of calculation when you look at building permits when you look at actual available land which you start looking at some real numbers that are supposed to actually evidence what your actual growth in the community should be and the numbers plummet deeply um and once again this is all about this is not about building anything let's remember that this is not about building anything it's simply about what you have to do in order to Zone if you have to Zone to identify specific areas for affordable housing that is the end result here of what that number ends up to mean because once you have that number once you agree with a number then you have to do something with that number you just can't say that's our number right so you have to zone for that and you have already some inclusionary zones but they've been used okay because you've built which is why your present need is zero okay um so now the question is what is what do you do with that those future numbers so that's all part of this uh calculation but it's it's still a uh TBD thank you counselor c c a motion to open the meeting to the public for agenda items have a question the floor councilman Patel thank you um Council in Prior meeting we were discussing the pending lawsuit and our thoughts on joining it I just had a question if we were to join let's say in January hypothetically does that stay our need to pass the resolution by the end of January or do we still have to pass the resolution with a projected number okay two-part question yeah so so so here so let me give you a status on the litigation status on the litigation I believe they have a hearing scheduled on the ORD show cause because one of the things they asked for was a stay of the implementation of the law if they achieve that then all of this ises okay it all freezes until a further hearing is held okay if they're successful in that that will be sometime in December so if they're successful then the all the discussion I just had about what you guys would have to do in January is off the table right because you'd have you'd have to see what the resulting uh of the the next step of that litigation is if that is unsuccessful but that litigation goes on the order show cause is not granted but the case is still going forward okay then yes in January you will have to take that that step thank you does that answer your question any other questions we'll move forward have a motion to open a meeting to public for agenda items only move by councilman Murphy second by councilwoman habets all those in favor all those opposed Madam clerk anyone wishing to address the township Council may do so to the council president it is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to three minutes however if appropriate you may be granted additional time and the sole discretion of the council president members of the public who have joined the me meeting virtually and desire to provide comment shall raise their virtual hand in the zoom application the meeting moderator will cue the members of the public that wish to provide that wish to provide comment and the council president will recognize them in order members of the public who have joined the meeting by calling in must press star six to mute and unmute themselves and star 9 to raise their hand members of the public who have joined the meeting via the zoom application must click the re reactions icon and then the raise hand icon once the process is complete we will return to the regular order of business thank you is there anyone that'd like to speak to us in the chat anyone that'd like to come forward forward here in the council chambers have a motion to close the public comment so moved moved by councilman Murphy second by councilman Venter all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries have a motion to approve the consent agenda moved by councilman V Cherry second by Council Patel this is a roll call please call the role council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member H council member van Cherry yes council president scova yes madame clerk please read ordinance 1506 introduction of ordinance number 1506 an ordinance entitled an ordinance by the township Council amending the township of little Fall's code of ordinances to repeal chapter 86 in its entirety to adopt a new chapter 86 to adopt flood Hazard maps to designate a flood plane administrator and providing for severability and an effective date with a second reading and public hearing scheduled for December 16th 20124 thank you have a motion to deduce 1506 that move move by Council Patel second by councilman Venter please call the RO to introduce 1506 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member H yes council member van Cherry yes council president scova yes madame clerk 1507 introduction of ordinance number 1507 an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the township Council of the township of Little Falls and County of pic state of New Jersey amending chapter 71 fees with a second reading and public hearing scheduled for December 16 2024 have a motion to introduce 1507 some move by councilman Murphy second by Council habets please call the RO to introduce 1507 council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member H yes council member V Cherry yes council president scova yes have a motion to to open the meeting to public and general matters to the public for General matters I'm sorry so moved move by councilman Murphy second by councilman V Cherry Madame clerk I'm there a Voice vote all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries Madam clerk anyone wishing to address the township Council may do it to the council president it is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to three minutes however if appropriate you may be granted additional time in the sole discretion of council president members of the public who have joined the meeting virtually and desire to provide comment she'll raise a virtual hand in the zoom application the meeting moderator will cue the members of the public that that wish to provide comment and the council president will recognize them in order members of the public who have joined the meeting by calling in must press star six to mute and unmute themselves in Star 9 to raise their hand members of the public who have joined the meeting via the zoom application must click the reactions icon and then the raise hand hand icon once the process is complete we will return to the regular order of business thank you does anyone like to speak uh this evening in the chat thank you anyone like to come forward here in the council chambers have a motion to close the public comment so move move by councilman habits second by councilman Patel all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries have a motion to go to Executive session for discussion of a p for personnel matters move by councilman V cherry second second by councilman Murphy this is a voice vote all those in favor opposed action will be taken after executive session are we all ready Mike's on have a motion to return to open session move by councilman Mur second by councilwoman habets all those in favor all those opposed motion carries have a motion to approve resolution e at this time some moveed by councilwoman Patel second second by councilwoman havets please call the role Madame clerk for resolution e council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member Haas yes council member van Cherry yes council president scova yes have a motion to approve resolution F moved by councilman vent Cherry second by councilman Patel please call the rooll to to approve resolution F council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member hin yes council member Venter yes council president SCA yes have a motion to adjourn this meeting so move move by councilman Murphy second by councilman habets all those in favor I all those opposed this meeting is now closed