all right All right Welcome everybody I'm going to read our statement of compliance This meeting is being held in accordance with the open public's meeting act and adequate notice This meeting has been provided as required by law Specifically the annual notice was
emailed to the West Sussex Tribune and Star Ledger on January 3 2025 The agenda and resolutions for this meeting are available at livingstonj.org Certain portions of this meeting may be closed to the public for purpose of personnel and their other matters outlined in the sunshine law Decisions made and or
discussed in close sessions will be known to the publics at a later time Notice to members of the governing body and township staff Any use of electronic devices during the meeting shall be used solely for the purpose of township business and any communications are subject to the Open Public's Record Act To the extent possible this evening's
Township of Livingston Council meeting will be livereamed via Facebook at facebook.comlivingston Township Questions or comments will also be accepted by emailing live comments at livingstonj.org by 4 pm on that day and meeting and at of the meeting and shared
with township council before the meeting Each speaker shall follow the rules of order in Livingston Code 2-15.3 Roll call please Council member Anthony here Here Vierra present Deputy Mayor Klene here Mayor Minhart I am here
Uh we are going to rise uh for a moment of silence followed by the statue by by the pledge of allegiance Uh this evening um we all could please remembered uh Bill Gart who passed away Bill was a library custodian a town crossing guard
and a volunteer fireman and a dear friend to many in this community He passed away over the weekend So we like to keep him and his thoughts uh and his family in our prayers this evening Thank you to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all Okay I do not see Eileen Fishman from the county So we will move on We do have
uh one presentation this evening Uh thanks to Ally and her group who are here I'm gonna um I'm gonna let uh Councilman Anthony who was the Llays on to the LEC uh lead us on this evening Yeah sure Um well Ally you're going to
speak on beh Okay So just real briefly um first of all it's my honor to be the liaison from the town council to the LEC And the LEC um if uh any of you don't know and anyone listening here tonight
has really um had such a great year and a half two years um since we um since Ally you've been involved and since the kids uh kids students uh young adults have been involved with not only um
being members of the LEC but also just just a a flourishing of ideas in the high school and what they've brought to the the table as far as just I always kid the OEC's got a bunch of people about my age on there Uh and now we're
getting all the the great ideas from our youth and um one of them was this Envirro art uh mural competition uh which Alli's going to speak about and we do have some citations uh to give out because um all of you are winners Uh we
I I had the again the great honor of being a judge along with Councilman Bhutani uh and some other people who know art better than me I don't know about you but uh but we we got a chance to look at all the art and like I said I
think Councilman Banani and I both thought you're all winners It it's it's a tremendous initiative It's going to get people talking in town What art does beautiful artwork always gets people talking is something to look at inspire ideas and I think that's what this
entire competition uh has done and will continue to do once these are up at three locations in town I went from one to three because it's such an outstanding idea Uh that was not mine I I I got out of the way and as a liaison
uh just watched it happen on the LEC Um so Ally if you want to come up and uh talk a little bit about it I know we have citations from the council for each and every uh participant of course Is this working okay Um my name's Ali
Bamas I'm a member of the Livingston Environmental Commission with uh Al and like he said um this mural art competition was really driven by Chloe who was one of our first student members So it's an initiative to bring um environmentally themed art to Livingston
as a way of um both starting a visual conversation which these amazing students um are participating in but also to find out which issues they're passionate about and to really hear young voices So not only the six students who are standing here with me
who are the finalists but also all the students who participated really got to share with us what their ideas are And so more than just the competition it's a chance for all of us to really listen to what they care about and to help support their ideas for their future which we
share Um so I think that was really important part of this And then um we had a launch in September uh at which point we had all of our entries mentored as we went through the students And then um we selected our six finalists who then continued with us for um some
additional mentoring facilitated by uh Jeremy Moss at the Heidi Gallery near the JSDD Um and uh from there they've had individual mentoring too So it's really been about the growth of their ideas for them as people for um their art and also for understanding their
environmental um voices and uh passions So uh I can introduce you to Sophia and uh Lynn and Retatika who were a team Jacob Loretta Karolina and Aana And um I was just been a personal pleasure to
meet all of you um and to see your art develop Not only are they amazing artists but amazing orators much better job than I am doing right now when we had our presentations right for the judging it was extremely impressive and I think it's a reflection on our school system and on the adults who are
involved with their lives um that there's such accomplished young people uh present there's so many different things to do at the high school as I'm now learning it's very busy uh and so for you to take the time to really prioritize this and deliver such an amazing set of uh ideas um has just been
a pleasure So we just want to support uh you with whatever journeys you're going on and um applaud our three winners as well which was our teams uh Lynn and Matika and Loretta and Karolina Okay And I'd love it if you could all hold up your murals so we can just get an idea
of um all the work that you've done Is there anything I know it's putting you on the spot but is there anything you would like to add i mean you all did so well in your presentations Do you want to say what your theme was have we got time or no yeah Do you want
to say briefly what your theme was about um for my theme I chose 52 different species from the WWF conservation wildlife list And I focused on global warming and how the impacts of many different um many different human impacts have on variety of different
species So I did that with each individual card and the fire of course Hi So we wanted to do a combination of environmental impact in the urban city um settings and also like forestry So we focused a lot on incorporating green
cities with um like forestation on the towers and etc and also clean power such as windmills and then we also added a forest full of filled with different animals that are considered endangered right now So you can see like the Indian elephant um the cockatu the deers etc
And we put this in an environment where they live together to show that we're striving for a future of inclusivity and connection and moving away from like the current damaging practices that have caused pollution and global warming I made mine really focus on Livingston
and New Jersey wildlife and animals in hopes that it started something like na a national park type environment in Livingston where we can protect and enjoy our wildlife here So that's why there's deer flowers and wildlife that
are all New Jersey local So mine was all about the importance of our natural predators within our ecosystems especially wolves and cougars in New Jersey Um and due to the lack of these natural predators we've had a cascade of issues Um especially the
overpopulation of deer You might have seen so many in your backyard eating your gardens eating your flowers Um and this mirror really draws attention to that um and things we can do to um really combat the effects of the
overpopulation Um since there have been new invasive species taking over all sorts of other effects that are um kind of like a chain reaction from this um lack of natural predators Um with mine I just wanted to remember
people of the the beauty of the ocean and just to not let fade these colors the beauty that we don't like see every day because I know we don't live close to the beach but there's just so many glowing colors on this word that we shouldn't lose So we just shouldn't let
that fade Um I wanted to highlight that saving the environment is that is a choice that we make Um I kind of like split my piece into half where one is focusing on green energy like um windmills and solar
panels and the other one is the effects of um over consumption and fossil fuels and how that can leech into our neighborhood communities Thank thank you guys very much I think I think the council will come down We have um we have citations for everybody So
we're going to come down and join you and then we'll take a group picture Thank you Sure Since we're just moving anyway I just wanted to say thank you to Beth Litman at the business improvement district who's helped facilitate this from the beginning as well as um uh as well as a
number of businesses at the Pink Jewels Maria Pink Jules and the Salad House who've helped facilitate some of the sponsorship for these murals so that we could have more than just the one Um so that's really been a a huge help and uh town council itself obviously as well for trusting our young people and
letting them um just go for it with their expression and not put any uh limitations So thank you It's coming Yep Now it is All right So the citation reads "The mayor and the member of the township Livingston Township Council are pleased to honor
Livingston Environmental Mural Competition winners." So I'm going to start with uh couple of names I have two certificates Uh Loretta Chan you want to come here and grab your citation
[Applause] congratulations Loretta and Lin Sen and um Retatika Chanala Did I get that close All right And um Karolina Romero
Vasquez So I had the runners up Um Aana Agraal [Applause] Congratulations And Sophia Pepparas congratulations I always get the hard
ones And we have one more Uh Jacob Glazer [Applause] Maybe I'll take a we'll all take a picture All of us together You guys want to come closer this
Hold up All right Now we'll go on to the uh the the business parts Uh can I have a motion for the approval minutes pending corrections of the March 12th 2025 regular and conference as well as the same dates close session meeting
minutes i'll move it I'll second it All those in favor i All right Thank you Uh before we ask for a motion on the public comment just a little bit of housekeeping on the uh consent agenda Uh
we will be pulling uh resolution 25-134 as well as resolution 25-141 So can I have now mayor that's pulled from the agenda not from the consent agenda It will not be voted on tonight for clarification It will not be
voted on Can I have a motion to open the public comment on agenda items so moved Second All those in favor i Okay The meeting is now open Public comment on agenda items only All good Hi Mr Mayor Justin Albert a resident of
this community Um I don't know if we ever reversed our mural law but we ought to uh have more murals up in this town Other towns have murals We ought to do the same Uh if we haven't reversed that law we should seriously take a look at doing so
Um with respect to the consent agenda can we please pull um 25132 with respect to the climate super fund did notice that the uh New
Jersey Business and Industry Association is taking a position against this bill saying that it opposes retroactive liability that it will drive up cost to consumers and that it does nothing to reduce greenhouse gases is I don't think we should be taking an anti- business
position This doesn't really affect the town We don't really need to pass this resolution If you're going to do it perhaps you could do it as a matter of council speech that doesn't reflect the community but throw it into that class of speech that's exclusively yours Otherwise we're probably better off
having a deeper community conversation over the course of time Uh the other thing would you please pull um 25140 authorizing execution of developers agreement with Mount Pleasant Partners Um I'm not sure that we're
ready to authorize more development We have a ton of units coming online Not sure who's going to be filling them Uh we have yet to have a five on five and make sure that we're prepared uh to build out the schools for the Sorry
Uh perhaps we uh need to wait for the five on five and see if the schools are ready I I'm not sure why we are pushing for even more development We have the units coming up out on the state highway We have the units coming up uh in
Northfield Center Um perhaps it would be wise just to slow down development here Thank you Mr Mayor Just a point we have asked for a five on five waiting for the board of ed to get back to us And on the item the last one you just asked
25140 This is a 55 and over community So um as far as kids coming out of that there probably won't be too Why are we doing 55 on the edge of town wouldn't we want to do that like in the middle of town where people can walk to shops and whatnot there's nothing over there It's not for It's not for us to decide That's
where developer wanted to do it Well you're in charge Mr Mayor Thank you Thank you I I would just comment on on uh um to say that we're not pushing development I think Justin someone you come to these meetings very regularly and you know that none of these uh developments are
being pushed by us forward right these are obligations that we have to fulfill So your language it's not it's not your language is uh is unreasonable in that respect to say that we're pushing it forward It's just not true Thank you Deputy Mayor
Hi I'm Bob Palestine I'd like to speak on behalf of the New Jersey Climate Super Fund Act And he's got to speak He's got to speak a little bit closer please I'm sorry Yes Bob Palestine I'm a member of the interfaith climate action group in Montlair a consortium of 16
faith communities And this is a non-binding resolution that the town council I totally thank uh deputy mayor Sean Klene Alanthony for supporting this And what it is is a way for us to begin
to reclaim our environment which is getting totally destroyed um by pollution by what's going on in the in our townships And as a faith community it's our sacred obligation to protect this earth for all religions Um Muslim
Christian Jewish Quakers and what we're doing is lending our support to this bill which is still has to go through the Senate but the more voices we have um especially when you think about what's going on at the federal level where they are taking away
EPA rights and um you know is rolling that back FEMA is being decimated and we need to have a way to recover money whether it is past present or future Um polluters knowingly
have pushed our trash down Bloomfield Avenue into we have to stop this So I appreciate your leadership on putting this forth and thank you Thank you Thank you North Drive There have been so many
changes in town that it's kind of hard for many of us to really know what it means at the Livingston Mall I I know you're redeveloping but does the town own any of the property at all i'm just curious No we do not No Okay Then in
other words you're really just doing redevelopment plans Is that correct so what if you're referring to what's being passed this evening this is this is a this is a this is the second reading of the redevelopment plan that was read a few weeks ago This is for the 367 units
at the Sears property which uh we need to pass so we can get our third round compliance in ordinance and and what this is it for the whole thing or just for that uh so if you let me finish So what this does is that it gives us we do
not have to build if we do not want to any other units on the entire mall That's the most important part of passing this to make sure that we have our third round compliance uh signed off for by fair share Uh councelor I think Jared when our hearing date is the end
of April I think Yeah I was saying my it's April 21st No I realize that you have to follow a certain regimen and that you have rules you have to follow but it's it's a little hard for those of us who live in the community and just read in the paper you know tidbits here and there to
really know what various things mean because everywhere we look around town we see you know things are torn down and things are built back And I don't know how much authority you have there and how much you don't I was one of those who fought for fair housing I didn't
expect it to be implemented this way and I don't think you did either We we did we did not unfortunately you know as uh the deputy mayor uh so rightfully said a few minutes ago to Justin that all of these developments are not something that we are pushing for or that we are
actually going out and asking developers to come in They had the law on their side and this is coming from Trenton And so the people who did fight for the fair share housing all across the state this is a this is what happened this is what we have to do It got out of hand I mean
the way we envisioned it and the way it's being done are two separate things because you know Bob Leopold would certain he was instrumental in that group and he certainly would not have done anything like this Um but what I'm curious about is you're just talking
about the redevelopment what is possible for that one section for the Sears Correct So that's correct and I think you'll hear a little bit later on We had this past week we had a very successful sharet week where we had open engagement from the entire community on the entire
mall itself Uh last Saturday here at 1:00 we had a final um uh final meeting which was very interesting It was well attended Both all the sessions were very well attended We had a great we had over 4,000 people um answer the surveys online that was put out as well So there
was a fair amount of engagement by the community as well and this is a long-term project Nothing is going to be decided today tomorrow or the next day Um this this what is what 072025 is what I believe you're talking about the that that ordinance the second
passing is really on the Sears property and that will put us in compliance for third for the third round Okay All right We'll be we'll be informed I assume as everything comes up Good luck Thank you Mayor may I make make a comment sure
Because even if I have to just win one person over at a time with that Sears Mall project you know that that whole mall project is 62 acres If we didn't do what we did and negotiate with the Sears property okay there could have been
thousands and thousands of housing units on that mall And you know what thank God we did what we did and we were able to lock ourselves into that mall Uh and right now 376 units are yes are going to be built over at the Sears property
However builders cannot come to us again and the state cannot come and force another housing unit on that property because of what we ended up doing So you know what unless we want housing on there there'll be more housing But right now we are capped at 376 units over at
that 62 acre mall 66 66 I was corrected I'm sorry I wasn't talking about the tear drop had mentioned as an idea that maybe they would want Scandinavia has developed u
many towns within other towns where everything is there the place you work the place you shop the place you live and I thought that that might be a consideration for this area and also that you might have a contest
But you don't have control over everything No you don't But if you ever did have suggestion control um to have a contest for architects to come up with a plan and all things might get some very
interesting ideas Thank you very much J Any other comments on agenda items only seeing none Motion to close public comment on agenda items Second All those in favor i I Okay opposed All right So we're now on to the
final reading of final hearing of two um ordinances Caroline would you please read 072025 thank you mayor Ordinance 7-2025 adopting Livingston Mall redevelopment plan Have a motion to open the hearing I'll second it All those in favor i All
right The motion The hearing is now open for 07205 Comments please Hi Mr Mayor Justin Albert a resident of this community Um you know the deis can sit and pat itself on the back for
having negotiated 376 units but that was really done behind closed doors and then it was put on the agenda and the council quickly you know approved it And there should have been more of a public involvement in the decisionmaking
process itself And it's not you just heard it's obvious to people in this community that we don't have leverage over the property And it may be worth holding off on the development agreement There is a huge
election coming up in November And there's broad agreement across the state that development policy got away from us And uh the Republicans seem to be coalesing behind the candidate Uh the Democrats are still have room to make
arguments here If we slow down this process we could actually be leading the statewide conversation about how the third round actually got away from us and how we need to put the brakes on and we honestly need to put the brakes on the fourth round and uh rather than
giving leverage to Eddie Lampbert and his financeier Scott Kapnik um with respect to the Sears property let's just hold them at bay a bit and and negotiate with them and and
and say you know we want control over the real property We don't want these mistakes that we've been seeing in other developments where the affordable housing goes back to you guys at the end of 30 years You're going to build affordable housing It should be here in
perpetuity for the benefit of the people who actually live in the community Let's take a break We don't need to pass this developers agreement today Let's hold our ground and and and fight the good political battle here because under the Murphy administration
the localities lost and everybody's looking forward to the election in November Thank you Mr Mayor Thank you Any other comments on You have to come to You have to come to the mic Jean so people can hear you I'm sorry
the trees that the county cut down will they be required to replace them somewhere in town this is the public hearing for an ordinance So there'll be another public comment session at the end No but I'm I'm just asking the question Yeah but this is relates to the mall
property there That's county property That's not You're talking about the roundabout you know about the roundabout or they that's that's this conversation I'm going to do with the roundabout Okay I can't wait But will you answer that question then please thank you
Any other comments on um 072025 i'll make a motion to close the public uh hearing on ordinance Second All those in favor i Okay So we want to call the question Mayor we should just note on the record um under
the local uh redevelopment and housing law redevelopment plans are required to be submitted to the planning board for statutory review Planning board did review it provided back a memorandum Uh I provided a memo to the council um earlier uh addressing the
recommendations Uh there's some differing opinions as to whether uh the council is obligated to disapprove or approve of only comments and recommendations relating to consistency with the master plan which is I think the majority opinion But nevertheless I
addressed each comment they had Um they are and and would suggest that the council adopt the memo as the position uh on on each of those recommendations Very briefly um three of them were perceived corrections or typos Uh one
was it said Eisenhower Avenue should be Eisenhower Parkway Obviously accept that and we made the change Uh one was a typo on a block and lot number That typo was already previously corrected So accept that change Uh the third one from the planning board I think was their misinterpretation of a particular
section that referred to and was intended to refer to block 60002 law one uh which simply meant that the balance of the mall property at this time remains uh subject and controlled by the DS1 zoning Um those were their
corrections They also had four recommended additions Uh the first one was to include a requirement for elevators and the second one was to add a requirement for emergency generators as outlined in the memo Uh the concern there is the state already regulates elevators and has provisions as to when
you're and I know what the the genesis of this was of course the uh property over the py homes property where they had a standalone separate affordable housing and based on kind of gaming the system there was no elevator Uh nevertheless in this property it's inclusionary so there is not going to be
a separate affordable housing Um the state already has requirements for elevators This project as proposed would already have to have elevators In addition um there is no current state requirement other than certain medical facilities and other certain facilities that have to have generators or a
generator Uh the concern is that the Mount Laurel uh law uh is very clear that the realistic opportunity has to be provided to develop affordable housing cannot include adding unnecessary cost producing requirements Uh and the concern is if we had some local
requirement for more generators than the state would require more elevators than the state would require uh we' be at risk of a legal challenge that it was adding an unnecessary cost producing requirement And thus the recommendation is to just not approve of that
recommendation Um the third one that the uh planning board they suggested that we specify the number of acres total units and units per acre permitted within block 60002 law 1.01 The plan does specify the number of units 376 and the map in the plan uh demonstrates that the
acreage is 15.8 So the only missing is the map to do the division So it's 23.8 units per acre Um I don't think it's necessary to amend the plan or or add to the plan just doing the math but uh because the information is there for anyone who wanted to know the units per
acre plus I'm now stating it's 23.8 units per acre Um and then lastly was a recommendation which I I think and and certainly I'd invite Township attorney to weigh in as well but it it had a recommendation to ensure that the development on the Sears parcel is
cohesive and consistent with an overall plan for block 60002 lot one Uh one there's a concern that cohesive and consistent is sort of vague and uninforceable Um but two uh we we don't have the overall plan yet for the rest of them all so it's hard to prospectively make them be consistent
with it And three we are obligated under the settlement agreement to adopt this plan So for that reason I would also recommend not approving that that and and I just wanted to put all that on the record And I I concur with everything Mr Lewis said and make the same recommendations and we just want to
state that the planning board found it consistent with the master plan which is why we're going this way So the planning board has reviewed it and found it consistent with the master plan Okay U we we Okay Do we uh did you we call the question we had a second We didn't call
the question yet I'll make a motion to uh move ordinance Second Move the ordinance Oh move the ordinance Seconded Okay Discussion Yes Uh yeah So I think I'll just pick on the last point uh first and then want to address um
something that that Mr Alpert said that it's not behind the closed doors This is um so so going back to the master plan I think that really boils down to everything that we're not baking the rest of the mall rest of the mall is open for conversation and that's what we
had it in last one full week so if we if we hear that you know this is something behind the closed doors it's untrue uh what we have because of this ordinance is that rest of the 45 or so acres of property open for planning for visioning
for that's where I would say hundreds but maybe several several residents over the over the period of one full week and we saw the final summary here The the hall was almost full Um and we had tremendous amount of interest from our
residents giving ideas from all the way from a having a data center to a to a pond to a you know to a recreational gym and stuff like that Um and we already have a concept of a plan Again none of this was behind the closed doors None of
these was behind behind the uh in the conference room you know or whatever right so it's it's really an open conversation Yes In order to open the door for the 45 acres the ordinance we are passing is the way we have we have
it settled I think that's an important aspect that everybody needed to understand I think most of the people who came understood that Um so I think from my participation perspective uh I've been on the council for for a little while now a little over an year now I'm really proud of saying that this
is a transparent process Uh this was really appreciated by township residents I spoke to everyone and they appreciated at the end of the day that how how open this was They were happy about the concept of the plan that came up on the screen right behind us And that's the
result That's the engagement we always want and I'm really happy that that we ended up doing that Just want to make that comment Thank you Thank you The other comment I was going to make in relationship to Mr Albert's comments is that about holding off The idea of holding off doesn't really work well for us because what happens is our
compliance hearing coming up in March The uh the window of being only able to have 376 units on that would go away because chances are somebody would come along and probably ask for anywhere between who knows how many more thousands of units at the mall until we
have that u protection from the uh from the courts And mayor I also want to add that um the 376 number it was a transparent process There was a negotiation of a settlement agreement That settlement agreement was brought up by resolution It was voted on in public And at that time we knew we would have
to zone for the settlement agreement The tribune reported on it Tap into reported on it When the when the agreement was and and additionally the agreement went before the superior court at a fairness hearing The fairness hearing was noticed to the public The public was welcome to come and discuss it It was it's been
known for a long time to the public that this zoning was coming and it was part of our settlement agreement which has been well publicized by this council uh by the tribune by TAP and by this township Thank you Any other discussion a quick
roll Roll call please Council member Anthony yes Pupani yes Vieira yes Deputy Mayor Klene yes Mayor Minhardt yes Mayor K will you please read ordinance 09-2025 ordinance
09-2025 appropriation of 2,ion35,000 bonds for various improvements I'll make a motion to open a public hearing A second All in favor i is now open for
Hi Mr Mayor Justin Albert a resident of this community Can you speak to the wisdom of putting $250,000 for annual stream cleaning in a bond ordinance please barry you want to Barry or Ann you want
to hand up please you mean what do you mean by the wisdom of the wisdom of cleaning the stream the wisdom of putting an annual expense into a bond ordinance You'd figure a bond ordinance would be for capital expenditures or you
know this is an annual stream cleaning including sediment and debris removal removal For how many years are we going to be paying interest on this so the uh this is a uh an appropriation that is allowed by explicitly by the state Uh I
think it's in recognition that it's considerable expense to try and bear in one year in a budget It's also although it says annual it's not perpetual That'll be every year for the next 50 years Uh this was part of an overall project There was phase one done This is phase two There's about three more
phases Uh and then so the totality of that to try and absorb that in one-year budget would cause a significant impact on taxes Uh the state allows us to spread it out over a number of years I don't know the exact useful life that it's allowed Um but it's just more you
know a method of recognizing that the benefits cleaning the stream are going to last longer than the few years that you actually do it So the when it says annual stream cleaning that's not it It's just stream cleaning We can read out the word annual Well yeah it was written as annual but it's not it's not
an annual for the next 20 years It's an overall project We did the first phase last year so perhaps the word annual was not accurate Thank you sir Sure Any other comments on 092025
motion to close public uh hearing Second All those in favor i Okay Someone call the question please I'll move the ordinance Second Second Any discussion from from the uh council seeing none Uh roll call please Council
member Anthony Yes Banani yes Vieira yes Deputy Mayor Klein yes Mayor Reinhardt yes Okay we are down to the consent agenda There's nothing for introduction this evening Excuse me All matters listed with an asterric are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the council and will be approved by one
motion There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the governing body so requests in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda as part of the general orders As mentioned earlier uh we will not be voting on um
25-134 and 25-141 Are there any other consent agendas that the council would like to be pulled out for separate voting mayor can I request 25140 and can we pull out 132 as well please mayor sure Okay Um All right All
right So Caroline will you please read then uh 133 135 136 137 138 139 Yes mayor Um this is resolution
25-133 budget appropriation reserves Resolution 25-135 authorizing a contract with Sellian Sun General Contracting Inc Resolution 25-136 authorizing a contract with Direct Flooring Inc Resolution
25-137 authorizing the award of a contract to Selective Insurance Company Resolution 25-138 authorizing purchases under the state of New Jersey Cooperative Purchasing Program and resolution 25-139 Environmental Infra
Infrastructure Trust PAS I'll make a motion to approve the resolutions remaining on the consent agenda Second Okay Uh roll call please Council member Anthony yes Pupani yes Vier yes Deputy Mayor Klein yes Mayor Minhart yes Will
you please read 25-132 resolution 25-132 New Jersey Climate Super Fund Act Before we have discussion I think we have to make a motion Motion I'll move a second Second Okay Discussion please Um
thanks mayor I I just wanted to um first of all say what we're doing with uh by passing this is expressing our support for um holding liable these large fossil fuel companies that have uh caused carbon um uh pollution in our air um and
uh gives us a mechanism for uh for obtaining funds uh to go after uh in order to recoup and and um help uh fight climate change So this is crucially important and I really want to thank um Bob Palestine uh for bringing this before us uh and for making the effort
and and for coming here again tonight Um thank you for for the effort that you're making Uh it's helping us to do meaningful things Thank you Any any other discussion bob as well I want to thank you for uh bringing this to us Um I know I love the work you do Uh one of
the first groups I ever represented in Jersey City was the Interfaith Community Organization and we were able to um certify uh I certified the first environmental class action in the state of New Jersey for a chromium contaminated ball field and we got a
30-year program at Christ Hospital for everyone to be checked out And it was through the ICO the Interfaith Community Organization that uh got in contact and and I love the work you do Second of all um and I did flip you that article last time that the statewide initiative um
was dismissed It's it's going to be appealed uh for climate change I know that um and and Justin to your point of local level Hoboken brought a climate change suit Theirs is still alive Uh they did include a RICO claim in it Um
but it does show that towns um can get involved in this and bring their their own action or merely show our support like uh you brought to us So we uh we did go 50 on that and support that and thank you for all the great work you do
Mayor just a quick uh quick question um on two parts Uh one Mr brought up I think that's that's important Uh retro you know retroactive liability Um do we have any leading on the law like you know what are we looking at and what is
the business impact um do we we do not have any large corporations at this moment at this juncture Barry I don't know that's that's information is handy um that applies to this but I'm generally very much in favor of
protecting ourselves uh but are we exposing anything um by doing this um I But I'm not aware of any the certainly any you're talking about located in Livingston Yeah I'm not aware of any local businesses that would be
subject to this None that would be defendant here right uh in a climate change suit I know the the statewide one uh Bob and you probably know this was with Exxon and a few other defendants that actually knew
their behavior would change uh climate going many decades back Actually I'm not sure we have that in Livingston Thank you and and and that's exactly the point right that we do not have an exposure we do not have those large
corporations here it's important that we uh we protect ourselves uh as councilman uh Anthony said they will be defendant if it is in in future that something like that happens thank you okay any more comments
uh we call the role please council member Anthony yes yes yes deputy mayor Klene certainly yes Mayor Minhart Yes Will you please read resolution 25-140 resolution
25-140 authorizing the execution of the developers agreement with Mount Pleasant Partners LLC relative that certain property known as block 2100 lots 22 through 25 35.01 35.02 and 35.03
We have a motion I'll make a motion Second Okay discussion Yeah Uh thank you mayor Just a couple of quick comments One is this this has been in works for a couple of years I think this is an important piece
Um I would certainly like to have uh sort of a quick summary of it Um I'm not sure uh Barry if you are if you are going to be able to do that Just I'm putting you on the spot right here But also uh 16 and uh I'm going to do do a quick summary of my reading Right This
was before my time So I went through dug in uh and and find out uh you know what we are uh what we are after here 16 and a half acres um with number of units that was all approved and I see the planning board date as well that happened in 2023 Um so if you can
summarize this uh for everyone to have a you know another set of information Generally I mean in terms of the project itself it was one of the uh properties we were approached uh by a developer Again we haven't been caught out looking for any of these Um it was the old uh
gospel church and a number of other there was a one very sort of almost a mansion on a large parcel property number properties that they assembled Um they proposed and and uh were welcomed by the town to do a 55 and over Obviously we like those because they
don't have any impact on the schools Um again their site selection versus downtown walkability that that's sort of they own the property and they proposed to do it but it was an opportunity for us to provide affordable housing credits without any impact on the school So it was approved um by the council uh went
to planning board got planning board approval Uh this is the final step as a development agreement Um Mr Caner's office negotiated it Uh he can weigh in as well but generally developers agreements are done after the fact They govern the obligations of the parties in terms of insurance in terms of on-site
improvements in terms of offtrack improvements putting up bonds ensuring they complete the project on time Uh generally that nature is fairly standard Yeah So so Councilman this this agreement if like like Mr Lewis said they've already gotten planning board approval Um this is what protects the
township It incorporates the planning board resolution It provides certain timelines which in which developer has to has to complete projects It provides allows the town to go on and inspect It provides the bonding It provides what happens uh if they don't live up to everything that they're supposed to do
This agreement largely protects the township This doesn't obl the the obligation to build was already we've already it's already been zoned and it's already had site plan approval So this isn't more development This is development that's already been approved and this is protecting the township's rights Thank you Thank you councelor I
think that is the the key point right it is not brand new and it's it's important to have maybe a history revisited Uh it's been two years Um but this has been in the works Uh not brand new Thank you That's all Mayor any other discussion
you please call the role Council member Anthony yes Baptani yes Vieira yes Deputy Mayor Klein yes Mayor Minhardt yes Can I have a motion please to open the meeting of public portion so move Second Okay All in favor okay
The meeting is now open Public portion on any subject The mic please come up to the mic and just state your name See if I can reach this Whatever Hi my name is Diane Fineran and I've been a member of this community for
over 50 years Uh my husband and I when we were looking for a place to buy a home this is where we settled after a lot of research We settled in this town because of the beautiful area that it is And it's always been kept lovely And I'm
still proud after all those 50 years to live here My husband passed away four years ago but he always loved this town also And when we when we got to this town we looked at a lot of the rules and
regulations that are required in this town And we like them and we still like them because it makes the town beautiful And I know for a fact that all of you people sitting here care so much about
this town Now interesting because I don't think any of you remember this because you're all younger than I am but when we first moved to this town Toys R Us came and there was an ordinance in this town that Jeffrey the giraffe's
neck was too long and you don't remember it was too long So they had to cut him down And on route 10 you saw a smaller Jeffrey giraffe But those were good things because that impacted the
entire community And I also feel that this community I don't wake up in the morning knowing that I'm going to have an industrial park in my backyard and no one ever told me So that's all good My thing is here tonight that I have some
uh reservations about a property that is located on Hillside Avenue and Northfield There is an Exxon station there It's been there Actually it was an Exxon station when my husband and I
moved here There were two bays in the Exxon station and Bernie who owned it did oil changes rotating tires whatever Now there is something else going on there And I brought some pictures to show you I took these pictures I didn't
go on the property I did park my car illegally on Hillside but I stayed on the sidewalk to get these pictures The Excuse me We don't believe you You're just telling us part of the story The place on this corner is an absolute mess
And every time I go by it which is often because I go to the bank shop right whatever I see this mess And it has 20 to 25 cars parked there all the time Now you have to remember there are two bays
that fix cars And I brought pictures of the cars And I thought this was kind of interesting because some of these cars have no license plates We're We'll just keep going We'll forget the We're going to keep going please Oh I'm I'm over three minutes
right okay Okay So please keep going Some of the cars have no license plates Many of them are luxury cars Porsche Mercedes BMWs which strikes me as odd because if you have a car like that I wouldn't think you bring it to the
corner gas station to get service on it Quite frankly I don't know what goes on here It might be all fine and dandy but it is an eyesore Can I show you these pictures can I get up there and I gota move this over Hold on
I'll get them in order Okay You can look at one I have notes on this Sure I did call last year about this problem and I was told it was grandfathered in I
guess because it was an Exxon station But if you look at this there's no way this ever existed before on that corner It's it's terrible It's embarrassing to be honest with you Yeah I I I do think I So I've driven by
there before I have seen the amount of cars I don't think there's anything any illegal work going on I do know that there's that there is mechanic work going on there I don't think anyone is selling the cars It's not a used car lot No No Because I do hear from people who have dropped their car off I do think
the issue might be and Barry I'm going to ask you to please have someone take a look at it There must be a rules and regs about how many cars are allowed on a property at a time I think that might be something that we might want to look into I happened to stop at I happened to be stopped at that red light the other
day going west on Northfield Avenue and I did look over to my right and I did notice you know I'd say 15 to 20 cars parked on the per That's on a good day on the perimeter of of the uh parking lot Well if you look at one of my pictures they're parked three deep Yeah
So So there might be something I know towns I know in other towns that I do some work in um they have restrictions of how many cars are allowed at one time on a site So Barry maybe we can send we can send somebody over there to look into that and see what our rules and
codes are to see Property maintenance already went there last year He told me it was grandfathered in Well the business yes but not the amount of cars No Yes The business the business I I don't disagree is grandfathered in They pump gas and they have they pump gas and they have the bays I But I I would like
to know um I've seen this before or I'm going to not take a look at it right now but I do know exactly what you're talking about and I do think I'd like to have property maintenance take a ride over there Some of those cars have no plates on them Yes And I think that's against the law Yeah that that um from New Jersey Yeah that caught my ears when
you said there were no plates because it obviously if you bring your car to get repaired probably has plates on have license plates on your property So we will uh I will certainly have code enforcement I'll I'll personally speak to them uh review whatever grandfather's status they did or didn't have You can't
even if you're a grandfathered non-conforming use you're not allowed to expand that non-conforming use And it sounds like certainly uh what you're telling me is in your 50 years here in the past they never had that many cars there Okay Never So um I will I will follow up on that And then also the
issue of u cars not having license plates which might suggest they're being sold as opposed to because if you drive your car to get repaired I assume you have a license plate on And then you leave I would think so Thank you very much But but I but I but I just like to point out so I just want to thank you because I talk about all the time people
who don't come to our meetings often So we don't have a we we learn a lot when people come and tell us information like this So I just want to thank you very much for coming taking time out of a Monday evening spending time with us on a Monday evening um and telling us some
of the concerns that are in this town because a lot of us just you know we don't we don't know everything and we're not all over the place We all have we all have jobs that that pay our family's bills and so it's it's great when residents come and tell us stuff like that so we can then ask our employees to go to go check it out on your behalf So
thank you very much for coming and thank you for keeping this town so lovely Pleasure to live here I'll take my pictures back We get some progress Thank you very much Okay Justin you're up
Hi Mr Mayor Justin Albert resident of this community Um as previously mentioned there are a lot of people across the state a lot of people across this community who are really really excited about the upcoming election know this November We feel like we could bring the state in a new
direction stop the mandates that are coming down from Trenton create the space for uh responsible innovation and development of best practices in the localities Given the possibilities going forward
there's a broad sentiment in this community that uh it doesn't make sense to have a town council where everyone is represented by a single party Could you please ask the township attorney to
report back to us at the next meeting about what we would need to do if we wanted to move to nonpartisan elections and have a nonpartisan council you have a minute and 55 left How you doing good Thank you Thank you
Mr Mayor Any other uh comments on any subject seeing none motion to close the public uh portion Second All in favor i Okay Uh we are now Thank you We are now up to reports on
township officials and council members An nothing today Thank you Mayor Adam nothing this evening Good this evening Thank you Russ Councelor Uh mayor just to continue the transparency of the fourth round of affordable housing I reported at our
last meeting that the New Jersey Builders Association filed a challenge to the reduction our DCA number Um all challenges to the township's number uh were to be completed by uh March 31st Um the builders challenged 156
municipalities numbers Those were the total number of municipalities which um did not um confirm DCA's number Um the courts at least have ruled on Livingston's um and I think they've decided basically the builder's challenge was not that our number wasn't right but that if we reduced our number
and the overall number was reduced that um there wasn't enough affordable housing in our district and that the ratio needed to be changed Um they've decided to um to kick it and to the next phase of compliance So it doesn't sound as though the builder's challenge is going to be
heard in this phase This phase was just to determine what our present need was Um and the court found that they're going to deal with this in the compliance stage Um and the courts seem to be looking for direction from Trenton as there's no statutory um there's really nothing the statute that provides for this scenario So uh it
doesn't look like the builder's challenge will be uh dealt with in this in this round of in this phase of fair share housing Was that the same for every town all 156 or were there some no So um so 90 towns were also challenged by fair share housing
corporation and the builders agreed that in those towns whatever number fair share housing and the municipality settled on the builders were going to agree to that but continue their challenge as to the reallocation based on the number So they were asking each
municipality to go back to DCA's number Uh in those towns where fairshare housing corporation also filed the challenge they're accepting fair share housing's negotiation but we were nice We were happy to see that the fair fair share housing didn't go after us They they they thought our number was reasonable Yes And that that that's a large credit to uh Mr Lewis and our
township planner and all the hard work done by the township and and obviously the governing body uh supporting that number Thank you Carolyn Nothing for me tonight Thank you All right the deputy mayor has the honor of giving the remarks uh for
the council this evening Um so uh this is for representing everyone on the council and um uh one of the things that uh we're going to highlight is that I think tonight was the the generative AI uh seminars we're starting tonight Um so just wanted to say we had uh um a couple
gentlemen who were leading those seminars come and present to us uh at the last meeting Um and uh hopefully those will be well attended but we just want to publicize that those those were happening again And uh if anyone in the community wants to learn more about AI and how it might affect us in the future that may uh be a good way to go
Um we uh everyone here was aware that we had the uh mall reimagining process this past week which I think was just incredibly well attended Um council was just really excited to hear uh all the ideas that people are coming up with Um
I think that there were two really positive aspects to it One was how many people were coming out and how many interesting things they had to say about it on the one hand and on the other hand once we saw on Saturday um you know a a formulative product It's not final by
any stretch but just sort of a coalescence of of all the different kinds of ideas and what we could imagine the mall property looking like Um it was just an overwhelmingly positive response from everyone that was sitting in the audience Everyone had just wonderful comments about it They thought the process was great Um and uh that was
great feedback to hear from us because that's what we were hoping to get to and uh hopefully the process is going to keep moving forward and the town can be excited about uh you know what might be possible Um I know that uh my fellow councilman Michael and Kaitton uh went to the uh Young Men's Service League and
spoke uh was it yesterday last night Um and I think all of us have had an opportunity to do that before It's a really rewarding experience to be able to talk to them and uh they were grateful for the chance to do that Um there was a ribbon cutting at uh Golf Cave on Route 10 Um so hopefully that'll
be an exciting um uh opportunity for people who want to uh especially on rainy days get out there and and use their golf clubs Um and then we also went to an IFAR dinner uh that we were invited to with a lot of different uh people from from the community including board of ed members Um it was a really I
think uh warm and inviting event and uh that was the second annual dinner and we appreciate the invitation and um the delicious food uh and we would say Ramadan Mubarak uh for all of those who were celebrating Um thank you mayor Just
real Oh yeah just real quick I was going to say we had another ribbon cutting Uh we have a new restaurant in town Crave that was that we had a ribbon cutting last Wednesday as well So we look forward to everybody participating I I didn't I missed Councilman uh Anony's uh uh email on that
That's okay And and just check your next next week Check your inbox next week Sorry Um and then you just to follow up on what the deputy mayor said I just want to um thank uh my fellow councilman for all their participation as well this past week at the Livingston Somal
reimagining process I think everybody um really enjoyed I think we really enjoyed ourselves I think we had a we learned a lot Like I said to Diane it's great when the residents come out because you get a chance to hear what's on their mind That's exactly what took place all the sessions last week Um I think I attended
almost all of them if not all of them and we saw a lot of new faces at each one Some repeat faces and I think it was just wonderful And um while the council while deputy mayor said it's certainly we're nowhere near the conclusion or just really almost much more at the beginning of this stage but it certainly was a good start and we look forward to
um what happens next for this process So thank you m I'm okay So Al Councilman saying thank you for your work also on the animal shelter as well So okay on the Yeah and and Al and Ally thank you also for for the you know for all everything
that you did the last couple weeks get and for this uh for this lovely presentation that we had today as well So thank thank you uh we're going to go back into the closed mayor So yeah so yeah so we're going to be yeah we're going to be going back into the closed session which was continuing from where we opened and there no formal action taken after close session Right Thank
you all very much Motion mayor we're going to do the motion out here Motion to adjurnn No motion to go into close Oh motion to go into closed Motion to go into closed The madam clerk is going to read the close session resolution Oh we're going to do it here Okay Resolution
24-25-143 to go into close session number two Where is the open public meeting act public law 1975 Chapter 231 permits the exclusion of the public from a certain meeting from a meeting in certain circumstances And where's the township councils of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist and where is the township council wishes to
discuss Livingston Mall attorney client privilege communications department p personnel and attorney client privilege 576 to 586 route 10 redevelopment plan attorney client privilege Uh deputy mayor Klein will be recused And then
block 601 lots 75 and 100 Cedar Hill Country Club zoning attorney client privilege and Mayor Minhartt will be uh recused from that And then fair share housing litigation attorney client privilege Uh roll call The roll call Council
member Anthony Yes Pepani Yes Vieiraa Yes Deputy Mayor Klein Yes Mayor Minhardt Yes Thank you all