a we're on the air that I bring the uh meeting of the Long Hill Township planning board uh to order uh could we please have the intros and call to statement of compliance absolutely call to order and statement of compliance adequate notice of this meeting hearing has been provided by posting a copy of the public meeting dates on the municipal bulletin board and website by sending a copy to the echo Sentinel newspaper and by filing a copy with the municipal clerk number two meeting cut off announcement is made that as a matter of procedure it is the intention of the planning board not to continue any matter past 10:30 p.m. at any regular or special meeting or hearing of the board unless a motion is passed by the members then present to extend the meeting or hearing to a later specified cutof time number three electronic devices all in attendance are asked to mute cell phones or any electronic devices as to not interrupt the proceedings number four Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all roll call I don't have a p anyway uh Deputy Mayor lavender present committee man ray is excused this evening Miss still present Mr Hans here Mr melanowski here Mr opala here Mr Sandow is currently absent Vice chairman Jones present chairman Richardson here have she's been I'm not messing it up again she got a note that over there great so uh our first agenda item item number six is uh review and approval of the meeting minutes of April 9th 20124 for those who were present any comments suggested changes if not is there a motion to accept these minutes so moved second all in favor I I great uh the next item uh is item number seven which is the draft hopefully final resolution item number eight um no I think you're on the you're on the wrong oh I'm still on April 9th I'll CCH I'm sorry this is the April 23d it's April 23rd I got it 24 so we have a resolution uh that's been drafted for the uh F Zano Family Trust application number 24-3 P 05 P sorry hopefully everyone has had a chance to review this this was distributed earlier today if not you can take a moment to look through it Mr chair I think there's only a certain number of uh individuals that can vote this y it's also a typo in first sentence yeah so let's Peter oh perer perer I I saw one uh application number should be 24- z5p instead of 245p at the the top block there I just Noti that one as well yes 245 correct hopefully it's just a few uh minor misspellings and nothing substantive oh one other thing I noticed on page three um we have uh Fred zel's old business address in there from when he was at a different firm so that's got to get corrected to uh 425 Eagle Rock AV uh suet 200 rosand New Jersey which I can easily plug in um I don't see any changes and you know while I'm on the soap box here I'll just mention to the board this was an application for uh minor subdivision approval to adjust the common boundary lines between the uh the three existing Lots there was lot 15 lot 44 and lot 50 the uh the proposal was to adjust the common boundary between 44 and 50 take it to the West uh bisecting lot 15 cutting lot 15 into two lots and then each of those two portions would be a portion to Lots 44 and 50 thus creating going from three lots to two lots that are much larger and there's a few items of well one item about bulk variance relief just to permit the continued presence of an existing uh shed that isn't was on lot 15 and would be on um proposed lot 50.01 so that's really the the application in the nutshell so in the resolution six the relocation of the shed six on page nine oh paragraph six yes okay uh oh in the decision section okay in the decision section yes I believe that on page8 in paragraph 24 it says that uh the proposal would result in the elimination of the non-conforming condition posed by the deficient 8.9 ft side yard setback so correct if that happens then they don't need to relocate the shed right no reading it incorrectly y by virtue of them stipulating to relocating the shed and that being a condition you're therefore eliminating that non-conforming condition okay right make sense yep okay okay I guess other than some clean up of a few typos and the adjustment of that is there a motion to approve this resolution from one of the eligible voters you can see in the last chart there are the folks that are eligible to vote on this particular resolution motion to approve with the noted uh Corrections second roll call Deputy Mayor lavender yes Vice chair Jones yes Mr melanowski yes Mr alala yes motion carries and I get the vote to got the Big B sorry I forgot chairman Richardson yes still screwed up can't I thought one of these days maybe you should sit down there to sit right next to yeah right exactly that's what she misses I used to sit next to you it's got to be okay great uh oh yes thank you that was just a banner yes excellent okay so uh our next and this is the more a significant discussion for this evening is going into a work session uh tied to uh ordinance development and the way I'd like to structure this is to First have Miss uh Miss leaney to talk a little bit about a primer on the ordinance development process just to kind of ground everyone on the board I know it's going to be review for a lot of us but doesn't hurt to at least uh see this and its colored Glory right that's correct well she got a flowchart going yeah thank you heavy paper nice good stock we can make this available in the minute um up on the website for folks at home sure to see at their Leisure so Liz if you went mind taking it away uh and speaking to this ordinance development process and then we'll turn it over the time okay so I I'm just gonna do some bullet points and you can read some of the finer print later because I think um it's too much if you try to take it all in at once but obviously the first thing is the ordinance is drafted and that can be done by um this board can be done by the township committee and it could be done by anybody authorized to do so um it can be done by your professionals it can be done by the board you know it comes from from anywhere I mean that you know anyone can be authorized to prepare it um but one thing just to note is we couldn't sort of make these ordinance changes until we had adopted the land use um element plan element and that the housing plan element had been adopted a few years ago but with the recent adoption of the master plan we're now able to make some of these ordinance changes because we can then um as you'll see later on check for consistency so once the ordinance is drafted um you know and I think sometimes people get confused that of course this board doesn't adopt ordinances I think so it particularly even during the master plan adoption process I think some people not necessarily on the board we're getting confused and I understand I understand why but um it really it it comes out of the township committee and the first read they have what's called a first reading of the ordinance and they don't have to read the whole ordinance they could just do you know this is an ordinance that does X um and they have to sort of agree to kind of pass it on the first round and it's not adopting but it's sort of saying okay we're we're taking this as drafted and we're moving into the next stages um so one other thing to note just because if this becomes an issue the way and I don't know if it's case law or if it's just law um it it has to be introduced and adopted by the same governing body and by that I mean so you can't let's say reorg is in January you can't have first reading in December and then a new group comes in in January right it has to all be first first and second reading and adoption and public hearing always the same group of people um so once you have first reading that's when everything sort of goes to the public um it has to be published in the newspaper in its entirety or you know essentially with a by title and summary um and it also has to provide for the location and the time of of the second reading which usually is where you have the public hearing and copies um are posted and made available I think I I'm not sure where Deb you may know if they're posted on a bulletin board in this building I don't I think we just keep copies at the clerk's office I don't know that we actually hang it up on the bulletin board I've not seen that done okay all right so but but then you know it has to be made available to the general public for no fee you know people have to be able to I mean we always post on the website and have a copies available so it's an electronic Bolton board correct thank you um so then uh the TC by by law has to refer to this board the ordinance for review and master plan consistency and the this board has 35 days to do it um and I think the 35 days allows for you know sometimes the way schedules of the meetings run let's say the township committee you know I'm going to make it up but they meet tomorrow and they do a first reading then that gives us enough time to do everything by the next time we meet um and basically this board we've done this before is has to evaluate the ordinance and whether it's whether or not it's inconsistent with the master plan and I think somebody I guess Steve once said it's like you can find it consistent inconsistent or not inconsistent right d it's a double negative yeah yeah so that is the standard but hopefully it's all consistent I mean that's the best option um but and the township committee can't adopt and you know the ordinance until um the planning board has made this report or they they until if the sorry if the planning board has made the report they need to review it and consider it before they adopt it let's say you all find that it's really you know inconsistent they can still adopt it um but it has to be a majority of the full you know full Council so um who would be eligible right and but if you guys don't do or you know the planning board doesn't act within 35 days then the township committee can just go ahead you know they don't have to come back you you have a window and if you don't need it then right then you're own right nobody cares um so then prior right before then then you have a a 10day notice prior to the second reading and this is all I guess done by your clerk who files notice with the County planning board and if any properties um within 200 feet of the municipal boundary then those property owners and that municipality gets noticed um so something you know whatever it's not that's not unusual um so I did this this is a very simplified thing that I feel like every time I've worked on resoning it becomes an issue which is the notice which is who gets noticed because there's a classification change which and there's questions of what does that really mean is that changing the permitted uses is that changing the intensity of the uses you know let's say you go from two story maximum height to 20 story maximum height and then there's changing the actual Zone battery and a classification change it's just um did I get that wrong is it properties within the Zone yeah within the zone and I think also within 200 feet of the Zone I did this backwards on here so I apologize and then if it's a Zone boundary change I wrote that it was property owners in the zone and then within 200 feet of the zone mhm and so that can be quite significant because it's not only let's say you only care about one of the r2s it has to be every R2 in the municipality and everybody within 200 feet of the boundary of every R2 and so that at times can get well it gets costly honestly for the municipality because all of these people have to get noticed it's even crazier when you get into like homeowner associations and apartments and things like that and you have to notify every single person within the you know the apartment building it's yeah so um it I will say that it's something to to consider when planning for ordinances because you don't want to have to keep sending out humongous notices to so many people so it's you know in some ways better to consolidate um but once everybody has noticed you know within the 10day uh window or you know prior to the 10 days then there's the second reading and that's when the public hearing and that's when you know members of the public are invited to speak and this again in front of the township committee um and that at the conclusion of the public hearing the township committee can either you know adopt it they can reject it or they can say well we we have revisions and if the revisions are substantial enough and that usually is a lawyer determination judgement call really that sensitive you have to go back kind of you know it's not completely redone but it it's basically has to go back to FR it's essentially treated as if you know practically speaking it's treated as if it's a whole new ordinance and you to kind of start from at least from from the noticing procedures um that you would have to go back to the first reading State St I believe the that that the second reading hearing all right let's say you got an ordinance that comes back to Second read you make substantial changes that that meeting would then constitute the first read and then you can jump into the notice but you still have to start from the notice so it's like right yes and then once it doesn't take effect immediately it only takes effect once it's been a notice that it was adopted it's um put in the newspaper right and also follow with the county and that's you know sometimes ordinances will say this doesn't take effect until law but usually it's just you know it doesn't take by law it just doesn't take back so um so that's it that's that's the process good any any questions from the board any other comments yeah I so just to kind of um estimate the work that's in front of us I had several questions how many ordinances do we anticipate that we were Drafting and passing I think we're going to talk about that next that's part two yeah so that's an unknown number right now because I haven't gotten a full list of how about a high low it's G to be a high number yeah I think I I I can't even give you a number from like five to 20 no more than that okay so that's a lot that's a couple of years yeah all right um I'm going to say in excess of 50 all right and then um as far as figuring out you know what the um what the timeline is for one ordinance if the planning board is drafting it and sending it to the committee best case we review it we agree with you we send something back you get it at your next meeting we could potentially turn it around in what uh 35 days right I kind of I guess it really depends on the structure when does the the township committee meet second and um fourth Wednesdays second right they're right after all right well they have two meetings so the question is like you know how it's a pipeline right how many are you comfortable doing per cycle see right and you know then we can figure out yeah how much time it's going to take to chew through this how many ordinances Tom have you identified already so I right now have two for sure M um and that is the signs in residential zones mhm the business signs residential zones and um also the uh the shed at 100 square square feet those are two and those are two small ones right you would think within 45 days after we start the process that it would be an ordinance uh from front to from front to back right but there's going to be more complicated ordinances that is going to take more time because it's going to be you know we get it we do what we do you know talk about it make decisions make revisions make decisions before we finally have a piece of uh of artifact that we can send up to the TC saying yep we're good with this we've agreed we send it up to the TC TC does the first read then it's going to be another two weeks if there's no iterations coming back to uh the planning board MH if it comes back to the board we do the process again and then it goes back up to the TC and if the TC then has to redo another first reading and then if there's no coming back to us then it waits uh till it comes to Second reading where then you have um uh feedback from the public and if it's deemed that it needs to go back to the planning board for yet another revision then go you could see this in going 120 days easy I think the minimum would be 90 and yeah I think 45 is optim is overly optimistic well I think 45 for the more simple ones right right I think is doable and and I say simple with a caveat because even if it looks simple all of a sudden it could it could morph into something so so where is going from that then is you know tactics to get through this efficiently and with as least friction as possible and the most um agreeableness um it' be good to have a couple members from the planning board at the TC meetings where these are being talked about because we'll ask you to come up and answer questions and secondly on first reading we're not required to let the public have input and that's generally the the rule yeah right but in the process radioactive situations we might allow it right right and it might be to your benefit you know save yourself from having to make substantial changes in well prevent false narratives yeah from taking rote and you know slowing things down and just in rare cases we've opened it up like that it just people have misunderstandings why wouldn't sash the misings and explain what the intent is so as long as you're okay with that we kind of Tuck that as a way as a you know one option when things just get a little bit sure that time may always arise you know that that that may show itself yeah where and you and the public expects you to be reasonable and they'd like the comment we're like all right well fair enough that's what we'll do but we're not going to do that in every case because it just grinds everything to a hall correct on the 35 days I just want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly that we have 35 days we don't need to take 35 days so presumably if we're drafting it and there hasn't been public comment yet we can get it then two weeks later or no yeah it's got to your agenda would have to be so let's say let's say you gave us something tomorrow and we reviewed it we passed it on first reading so then when's the next meeting here in two weeks two weeks or sometimes three right and then our next meeting has to pass and then it's the meeting after that so it would be the second meeting in May that it would be finalized I'm just hoping that we like in the few years I feel like all the ordinances we get we haven't drafted we actually have had to do that analysis but hopefully we won't have to do like a super deep analysis about whether it complies or not we we will have drafted the key the key here should save some time yeah hopefully the key here is to keep keep the pipeline filled yes yeah we ought to have yeah a couple ordinances maybe you know three or four even if it's their small we should have ordinances every meeting so as long as you're keeping that pipeline filled then we're making progress but with things stall and we don't see something for a month and a half well let's just see how it goes all on applications yeah because the board has to then address you you may want to bundle some up together so I that's exactly it so I wouldn't I would start as soon as possible yeah yeah certainly start um just on prior not so anything I'm going to flip it around for two seconds so the intention when it comes from the township committee we always struggle a little bit there and I think many occasions we've had some ordinance come down from Township committee and we've always said well we need that intention some sort of description as to what it is because often it's just the text so we have talked about this many times about having something from the township committee so I would add a little box in here if it comes in toship committee include an explanation letter to us so we know what the intent is I I I don't expect anything to come from the township committee after all the work that this body put in I understand it and I know that it could and we should it has just just past experience and um and it always gets into the last minute as well because it it means up we have to do it today so you can have your second reading tomorrow yeah so best intentions still there's always going to be that and then last last point before I stop talking because lid says all has to happen this fiscal year right so there's a cut off of probably first meeting in November there isn't if you get done what you done you just can't start something in December and adopt it in January the effort the effort the efforts to draft in this calendar year can be Advanced next year with the start of a first reading yeah but we can't do the first reading one year got right so like maybe a cut off date of like no more first readings past this point waste our time Thanksgiving realistically right first first meeting of November right yeah unless you have to guess by the end of the year true so even if the composition of the body doesn't change you still have that cut off yeah it's it's reorg so for example if if a town some some towns do reorg on July 1 and so it's the same thing they they can't start like have first rating in June and second rating in July okay but is that the reor that shouldn't be for us that should be I'm sorry you're J I'm just giving you an example I'm saying I'm saying it's not our reorganize there's new election it's the township committe Township committee any elections this year if you're the same people does it or does position matter it it it it does you're really constituting a new it's essentially a new governing body every year even though same people yes oh okay so it does matter okay okay that's good to okay any other uh questions on the process thank you Liz for pulling this together helpful now the deputy mayor took my my question thanks actually I do have one more just so um the complications of getting the notice out to all those different parties how much do we worry about that or is that the clerk it's the clerk what what it it just becomes really costly and that I'm just that that's the thing I caution because you know if you want to have a certain level of assurance that it's going to be adopted right because if you do the notice and then everybody you know it's like wait what it's like you've spent all this money and it was for nothing if you do some thoughtful bundling does that save okay so that would make sense to think strategically about bundling but that's that's more sorry that's more to Zone wholesale zone changes as opposed to individual right stuff so got be relatively Rish correct but you know for example some people will get noticed and they'll find out they're going into all two instead of all three two right or you know and their minimum lot size is now 10,000 squ Fe was was 20 and they I mean and I don't mean this in any negative ways that most people are going to what you know like how does this apply to me unless they're really well versed in zoning and so they potentially will come out because it it it involves their property so we should yeah yeah so for example using the the signage for a home business and residential how many zones of residential does that apply to all of them okay so to your point when we send out a notice if there's something else that applies to the whole town we should be thinking doing that all at once but that doesn't impact this no no so his own change in in geographical change as opposed to right things within you only get that individual type of notice if you're it's like impacting your property yeah or you're within 200 feet of the Zone B I know it's it sounds a little strange but like something like changing the the size of the shed would just be a typical note a Dev doesn't do it the clerk would do it but um it's not like every single person in the town right but 200 feet of the zoning boundary if you think about how many little individual zones there are in town if you're 200 feet of those that's going to be a large portion of the town is what I mean so even though it's not specifically that you have to send it to everybody when you're talking about 200 ft of all those lines over the deputy mayor's head it's quite clear that we're going to be doing this for a lot so if there's other things but how can of just why you just be clear what what when the mass mailing needs to go out on the Zone CU what situations it's a classification change which is the uses you know Chris please pipe in and then sometimes it I think case law has said if you really change the um bulk requirements you know like you're allowing I think be good to have the rule to so we're not doing it unne unnecessarily but there may be those specific situations that we should then very conscious of when we do the ordinances CU they have a bigger impact yes that's kind of what I was going for if there's something else that's on the list that might be something along those lines we bump it up to be something that we do two or three so I want to try to explain this and see if I'm like on the same page confusion zone changes if you're if you say to somebody in the R4 Zone we're changing your Zone to an R2 Zone just for example when you're doing a zone change whoever in that Z in that area not the whole Zone like cuz there's are four zones all over the place so if you're taking just a small portion of a Zone you're going to change that zone then the notices are extensive you have to send a 2 200 foots because it's affecting specific properties and correct me if I'm wrong what we're talking about here Zone zoning changes are basically changing the rules so we're updating the zone so that that's not an extensive notice those are notices that have to be sent to the paper and maybe surrounding municipalities but we don't send anything out to homeowners let's say like Liz is talking about we're talking about changing signs in residential zones sheds and there's also a fence that I want to add to that there's a problem with the fence one too but I digress but you know because that's happening in every Zone R2 R4 R3 you don't have to send notices to everybody in those zones does that make sense mhm yeah yes it's just a way that it was when I was reading through it it made it sound like anyone who was within 200 feet of a border of that zone that's why I was getting okay yeah that's why this is this is really very basic sure no no no and I understand but it's it's bulleted I mean it's it's very nuanced and quite complicated to be honest like who gets noticed totally and that's why I just wanted to make sure that if we were talking about some of these things that there was some consideration to why we have talented professionals to help us yeah Str so if I think I think if I understood Tom correctly Tom you're building a spreadsheet it's going to list all these things and I know you you probably have columns in there that specify them on level of difficulty and complexity and are these quick or are are these going to be long right and so you're going to prioritize them for the board so that we get through them as efficiently as possible yes there's there's going to be a whole approach on how we tackle uh the um recommendations from within the master plan as well as the ordinances that we need to look at and make adjustments to and I just made a notation to myself so as we develop and work through each of these items then I'm going to create some additional um columns where we say is this a notification to paper is this notification to resident is it notification to other municipalities and why am I doing that it's so that way was we're going through the process of it's the Streamline right we're ticking the boxes as we go it's like a mental checklist because I'm not going to remember this every single time I need to look at a spreadsheet with Ros and colins so I can put that so one other thing is like you did with the master plan you're probably going to superimpose this on top of a schedule or a calendar and what I forgot to mention was I think it's July August and November we have one meeting in those months so you know it's going to take a little bit longer to get stuff done during the summer y yeah if you guys want I'm just throwing this out there I could try to put a very short memo together kind of explain explaining the different noticing requirements and such yeah absolutely be good good to help so that' be helpful I think this is great it's a great overview and I would absolutely call this an overview and not not just a process because if somebody starts to read this they're going to think this is the owner's task and this is what they it's been oversimplified we know there's a lot of moving parts that go on in here so I would absolutely call this a high level overview just to so people are aware that this is a view of the process yeah did you put this together yourself Bo I do this is stuff I like this are provides you some help yeah all right so I mean I think we're in agreement though that we would like to make a couple of the modifications I like the qualifying language and then have this available so the public can see and understand the process as well F so want to be as transparent as possible so Tom why don't you take it away with now talking a little bit more specifically about the approach here yep thank you uh so first of off I just want to thank everybody for their input and guidance and uh I look forward to the copious amount of work that I'll be giving to all of you um and yes I will create a spreadsheet which um Deputy Mayor lavender has seen as so has uh chairman um why am I blanking on don't get that last name Richardson Richardson King Richardson um see it's not just me you're rubbing off on me I'm like the invisible man so uh you have seen the tracker and we've actually shown this uh um this book of work to a couple of uh subcommittees like open space and shade tree have now seen it and the hopes there is to keep people focused on a task at hand on what we've agreed to and we can all head in the right direction and remember what we put in the master plan are recommendations they are not much dues they are recommendations so uh the approach is for the um what I call the the ORD the ordinance review board uh will begin the the process of assessing changes or amendments to current ordinances changes will come in SE from several different sources they'll come from the guidance of the master plan results from applications that have come before the planning board or the zoning Board of adjustment laws passed by state federal or other authorities or and or the township or some other governing body so these this is where these things can come from uh all matters will be brought before the board and the and the orb uh for discussion recommendations will be provided to support those discussions and uh seek any additional considerations that are raised by this group our goal is to address ordinances to have them uh that have become conflicting outdated no longer relevant new Etc in an efficient manner so this does address bulking putting uh so we're not just onesie twosies through it's taking a methodical approach on how we're going to address these in the most efficient way possible um it is also fair to say that some as I stated before will be complicate more complicated than others and some will be prioritized uh over others um the objective is to work through these with that methodical approach and um once agreed by the planning board will send that to the TC for first and second readings keeping in mind that they may be sent back for further reviews so does touch exactly on what uh Miss leaney has uh covered so earlier this year uh the chair and myself met with um uh the uh Deputy Mayor and committee men uh Brendan to discuss about what would be the planning board's priorities for 2023 um and then we applied that and or I should say I applied that to the uh master plan recommendations and we'll do the same with the ordinances so one of those was the zoning Maps which we know that um Joe's going to be working on getting the zoning map because that is the Baseline you know if we don't start with a with a solid base we're never going to get uh we're never going to get there so once we do the zoning Maps um of the existing Z of the existing one which was last updated in 2016 MH um right now I think Joe you're putting together the plan and the and the costs around that uh so we can understand what that looks like and if there's any way we can secure funding from Grants or anything else I would say let's explore those opportunities uh as much as possible um we'd also like to include in there um there are several maps in the master plan like so so the vision is we get a baseline on the zoning Maps then we can build on top of that because we have the Baseline we can address maps in the land use the zoning the uh future land use and Commercial centers parks in open space existing proposed bike path those maps are in there as well as the roadway Network and hopefully we can get the paper maps in there identified another priority is uh is is storm water that is a big problem here uh in in in Long Hill it's also uh focusing on areas in need of Redevelopment and also uh the next round of fair share housing so those are our priorities for 2024 did I say 2023 I did so I'm going to correct that strike strike to move uh last statement 2023 to 2024 so those are the four priorities um I did do a review of uh the um master plan there are over 257 recommendations across six elements in the new Master Plan uh I did take that and broke them those uh recommendations down to se several categories like best practice zoning project storm water ordinance education architectural etc etc etc of those 257 recommendations 84 fell into best practices so that's what we do today and what do we need to keep on doing going forward the next would be 74 is zoning so those are all your maps that we're going to need to start leveraging and then we move into Project work um and then storm water so I I did list out um definitions for all of these and I will share that with everybody so you have it and so they're all on the same page and that's what the um uh uh ordinance review board will also use as a basine now this was my first attempt to go through that to classify it's not written in stone if you see something that should be somewhere else sticking sticking with the themes that I've put together happy to move them around I think to uh Deputy Mayor lavender's question we wanted to distill out how many ordinances should come out of those that count because I don't that that that that it's not that many because there well I've got 12 listed here I've identified 12 that fall into the ordinance uh section but like I said after you know reading 257 I'm sure I glossed over a few of them that's fine um but that's what we'll do at at at at the ordinance uh review board I also uh took a look at the elements uh to see to prioritize and uh I prioritized everything into three classifications high medium low anything in the high category was aligned to the priorities set out for 2024 anything medium is something that might touch it or it's going to come up uh in in in a possible application and low is just something that we can keep on working on but doesn't need to be done right away so I'll have that break down and and and we'll be able to provide that um the actions that I that I'd like to task this board with is one we need to ensure that each element is covered off by a member of this planning board um and Associate that with a possible a relev another board or a committee or another commission because we have shade tree commission we have open space we have re and all this other stuff want to make sure that we're liaisoning with those uh individuals and I think you had a great conversation with shade tree uh and I we had a great conversation with open space we also want to uh Ure we also met with the environmental and you met with the environmental okay so so great excellent um we also need to ensure that we have planning board representations at these committees so that way we're making sure that they're staying aligned with the master plan and if we have ordinances coming we have to have a conversation we need we need to make a change or review that we're there to to discuss and to uh deputy mayor lavender's uh comment earlier about making sure that we're that we have representation at the um Township committee meetings as you know Scott I like to come to these meetings and and show face so I'm always coming here if I can't be here I'll uh I'll let you know uh and I also know Dennis sandal likes to attend the meetings he may attend them virtually or he may come in person but he's also on those calls so uh those are two things um where different committees rely on the elements so the mass plan we should have them review and agree uh with the classification prioritization so it's like talking to shade tree showing them recommendations how did we classify it and and and what priorities we gave them um and then compile a list of ordinances that we need to review and apply with the same approach now I have a template and that's a template I'm going to share I don't want people to just send me a whole that we got a problem with this ordinance this ORD this ordance now you're going to follow the template that I have laid out so this way it can be incorporated in and we can methodically go after all these issues and and go after them and get them done so that's what I've done at the outset um there are two uh ordinances that uh have been contested um in the last two um uh planning board meetings where we had applications uh one being the permitted signs in residential areas that's lu1 55.4 and it says a single sign a single ground sign or wall sign indicating a permitted home office it shall not exceed 4 feet in height or four square fet in area so that's 1x4 or 2x two the recommended uh action based off of a a previous um application is to amend that ordinance to reduce the size to be no more than 8 in high and 1818 18 in Long the other uh being Lu 1347 is sheds in residential zones uh in there it says maximum shed size is 100 square fet and we know that based on that conversation that that's not uh it's it exceeds and up to like 200 before they start to enforce any kind of and I would say uh recommendation is to increase to 200 square feet so those would be my recommendations um and that would be consistent with current uccc code cor correct and and the language should say something to the effect of anything over 200 square feet will require construction permits in addition to a zoning permit because that has tax implications then correct right anything under 200 square feet and there's a similar and I'm sorry to put this in but I what I just looked at today again and I and I wanted to I totally forgot uh there's a situation in the fence ordinance that's very similar where we have a maximum fence of I think it was I I I forget the number off the top of my head but the UCC code has changed so it's a similar situation in our fence order ordinance as well so that would be that would just be a minor update ordinance so so I think what I would suggest to you is for these two uh ordinances that we start the process and that we all kind of walk through it and this way we actually have a working knowledge of how the process actually works um whatever makes the most sense from an efficiency standpoint Point okay right that's the big thing I mean I don't think that's yeah and look I didn't I didn't make these uh suggestions on my own it was based off of conversations that took place here um while we were in session and then just applied those pieces and I guess the last thing I will just cover off at a very high level is is is the book of work that I've been putting together with regards to recommendations um I've really made this I I've taken the master plan and transposed it into Excel so I have table of contents we have goals here we have definitions I've laid out uh outcomes of discussions with open space I'm not asking the same from uh but if you have it send me the minutes I'm happy to include this where are the maps that we can use I even created a pivot table for myself uh so I kind of live in Excel I mean would it make sense to develop something a shared document site that people can input information yeah collectively yeah I mean as long as we're not encroaching on any uh should not dos like if we're having conversations and it should be in a public forum then we should not be having those conversations I'd have to look at it a little bit deeper just to you can't constitute a quorum that's that's that's where I was going as if if we're having if that's a side vehicle yeah to just for individuals to send you emails I would prefer to do reports and updates at the meetings from what when the U the orb comes together so I think the takeaway besides those two pieces of uh uh um land use uh uh ordinances uh the other actions is people should look to see uh members of this board should look to see what committees they they are going to join and I think we have some that are already doing that now um and making sure that we're active uh in those sessions and I'll stop there for any any questions and inquiries any questions or comments no it sounds like a good outline a good place to start yeah absolutely so thank you for that my only comment and Don I don't want to step on your toes is um for efficiency sake to the extent we have already debated certain things let's not let's just try our hardest to stay focused when we're talking about these ores some of the parts some parts of the master plan may have been a little more vague where there does need to be some debate but for the parts that we've already spent a very long time debating let's just try to remember efficiency is done at all levels not just getting information up to the TC but it's at our conversation level too we look forward to the dill the principal right is that know we have a dill principle regard second that stated simply we're not rewriting the master plan thank is for sure correct and from your Township committee perspective everything told said including the support of the other committees and uh such is that something that you will know Ure say that whole sentence again my jet lag's curing up on me got to sleep I just want to make sure from Township committee perspective that that message of cooperation with the other committees and um you know shade tree and others is something that you guys Township commit abolutely support encourage Don and I have been at the environmental commission and the shade tree commission and yeah I just want to make sure that the road show around doesn't get lost the folks in the township committee understand that you guys have the ball on this and uh yeah we have some really talented volunteers out there in these different committees and I look forward to the extension to this group I mean to make this happen we've got a tall order of business and yeah but D David brings up a good point I mean we're not not throwing it over the transom to other groups we're walking it over and talking this is a partnership yeah this is a partnership we all live town this is all volunteer yeah I think it's it's it benefits everybody if we're all walking in the same direction yeah and I think um uh Daniel Rogers even proposed to the mayor that uh the various committees once a month should or once a quarter should just come together and meet here to have conver ation well we did talk about once a year or so at least once a year that we would hear more than that get off the ground with this we need to get going which whichever frequency but some sort of semi happy to meet semi-professional type of approach with the Committees and response that's great any other questions or comments for Tom no this point Tom what are just the next steps then what what can we expect you've kind of laid out the priorities so what would you expect say in the near term and I don't believe correct me if I'm wrong do we have an application coming in next meeting yes okay Millington Firehouse Firehouse Firehouse okay so they have something that needs to go past a TC tomorrow right there fire they don't need a t TC the fees the waiver of fees uh I don't know that's on that's on the agenda oh is the the Millington fire department that's on the agenda for tomorrow yeah yeah okay is this a big application for the fire it's not a big application now it's the extension to incorporate a ladder truck I think it is the new ladder truck to this Bo yeah okay the bump out in the back yeah yeah I haven't seen I haven't seen the drawings yet but if you say it's a bump out yeah it's very small okay so we should be able to so so next steps is I'm going to send you the template to the group adjust the template and I'll have an example so you can see what it is that we're looking for as um I know Dennis knows a lot of uh the ordinances that have issues but I'm sure members of this group here know issues with ordinances just start sending them to me in that template and then that way we can start getting it into the book of work and then we start working on it um I will set up a I I think the RB should meet maybe EV on the off cycle of the planning board meeting um if that works for you uh and we can come here and meet um for an hour and just work through uh because I don't want to spend copious amounts of time here because we all have take jobs too um and start getting that bage of zoom and others we can do Zoom happy to do Zoom so we don't have to come here we can do Zoom um and start getting the book work going I'll come here if you buy the coffee how's that okay and and and the other two action points I had was about uh let's start signing up to these other committees making sure that we have representation thank you very much Tom thank you appreciate it great work to put on everybody's radar um one of the first things in this outline is anybody can initiate the process right anyone that's been offer under the ms4 that there are CommunityWide ordinances that have to be addressed some of those were addressed last year the remainder is um the tree removal and replacement ordinance and so that ordinance was proba contested for a while disputed a lot of public hearings so it's finally gotten no point of a model draft by the D and it's been circulated in it's the intention of D to have it adopted this calendar year it was ideally supposed to be by mid year but there's been some extensions um that is a task that the shade tree committee is working on currently on looking at that ordinance and taking the model draft and incorporating the two into a first polish draft to bring towards the DC so um just wanted to put that on everyone's radar so you could follow their process see how they've done it see how we're going to be doing it and and like you said getting it into this workflow and trying to do of everything we we do as one approach and perhaps it's something that we could share to other committees as we on so that they're not only understanding what our purpose is and what we're proposing but they get an understanding of a process that they could emulate later and just help everybody get on the same page across the by Design it's just supposed to be repeatable that that's the whole purpose of that Joe are there any other um state kind of driven or D driven so needs for ordinances I thought there was something with the flood Hazard but so there were 10 total CommunityWide ordinances I believe double check them but I believe that we're on nine or 10 so it would be we're at the end here we did salt stories last year okay there were eight original and then they added salt private salt storage and this tree ordinance we should be so that would round out that should round out the D ms4 um then there's the the storm water um control coordinates right um and so we'll take a look at that that we're we're by citation reference so we're covered um but we could we could amend it and reopt it to foler it again if we needed to in the future but you know that was address I think it goes without saying we'll distrib this template to our board professionals as well so please we we need your input as regards to anything you see the other category where these things can come from exactly we're I mean we're pretty well covered on the the storm side of Master in terms of the first efforts of compliance with ir this SC you know concerns through the efforts of EPA and others over the last or 18 months and then getting to the point of our Inland flood protection being properly codified so we're we're right there as a great Baseline and foundation for that and then we can look at what other someware management things need to be addressed and blood plan management things need to be addressed you know for especially specialities that's good great good great thank you all right uh on to any older new business anybody have anything they can think of something we did before we had committee reports like Township committee now and again so just mention it don't have to do anything now but maybe worth on adding to the agenda is anything else yeah I so may be aware of ordinances coming down the pipe and stuff right we wanted to spend some time with the ordinance committee tonight but um yeah we still have uh our site plan review group that's working through some of the procedures for that as well as Dennis and I are still working on the uh standard operating procedur and bylaws yeah it might be just worth a additional agenda item for committee updates exactly that's all could we just get a a cliffnote overview from the shade tree and environmental uh meetings that you had I think very simply I mean and and please Scott you can chime in I think uh both meetings were very productive first to just introduce the concepts of the recommendations that had been called out thank to your efforts with regards to what intersects with those particular commissions um there was um I think a broad acceptance of the recommendations um we also highlighted the process uh the one piece of feedback that was given from both groups is gez we're we're not being utilized we're not seeing applications we're not I'm com an opportunity comment on applications and I quickly kind of dispelled the myth that we have all these applications that you're not seeing um and that we do filter out for the sake of their uh sanity and their um you know efforts as volunteers to ones that we feel are really applicable but I you know I said we would pay much more attention to that Deb is the traffic cop you're you're working the air traffic control on these things and I think it's important that we don't um uh filter them too much that they that they're not seen or given an opportunity to comment I don't think we've really had that situation at all uh with regards to that um uh can you think of anything else C more broadly as far as feedback POS I I I do though think it would be helpful if we you know like this is flowchart here right that's a good flowchart we probably should have one for floating things through the commissions MH and give it to them and it's the kind of thing you you laminate in plastic and put it above your desk so you know what the Playbook is right they don't know what the Playbook is right so let's put together a Playbook like this for that cycling yeah and for that key input absolutely right and and you know also with the time frame around it so we can chug through things quickly right um I think the key thing then is getting you know their action items and and uh meeting notes minutes so to speak so that we see uh what's going on I I definitely um made mention that whether it be on a regular basis or certainly periodically that uh there would be certain members of this board that would attend their meetings as well so that there was a sense of continuity so all good and and that we need to be receptive I I encourage you I it was fascinating to go and just listen to uh just some of the expertise that EX exists in town I learned a lot in two meetings just in regards to a lot of the work that that that the the these particular commissions are doing with especially the two that with the environmental commission and shade tree was a lot of attention toward this invasive species and the concerns around invasive species and the concern about biodiversity um you know and disease that that could affect that biodiversity in our so while while we're on that topic of I mean because really we're talking about communication right between all the different groups in town um and one of the things that we're going to do to we're going to address tomorrow um at the township committee meeting you know we we we took apart the communication advisory committee so that's going away and we'll vote on that tomorrow I assume that'll go through and we're creating two separate committees one that just deals with AV you know the microphones Zoom everything in here and then a second one which is uh going to be called the digital engagement um advisory committee and that will be website social media um document management as it surfaces to the public um because we've really moved into a new age over the last 14 years now the one thing I've noticed I know danene is the um going to be the head of this digital engagement committee one of the things he's looking at is a website and and how do we get our documents out to the public and stuff like that what we need to do is encourage this board the zoning board and the commissions everybody that's generating official minutes and get them up on the website because none of these boards have them on the website now and we have the ability to put them there but for whatever reason um you know maybe we don't do that because we consider that the video is the record the you know the document of record but it's really not we have minutes the document should be put up there because I guarantee you as we go through this process there will be some well-deserved criticism from the public for not having it out there and I think we just owe it to ourselves to get ahead of that and not create headaches for ourselves so you know Deb belong if you can help with that I don't know who posts things if it's Colette or whatever right well there's various people like I'm in charge of the board's uh call it probably in charge of the commissions you know the committees or what um Megan was probably in charge of the town committee we all kind of have various responsibilities over different sections of the website right and so that may be something that I'll bring to the meeting tomorrow in public session with Randy is said we need to get that whoever is going to curate this stuff has to be one person maybe that curates it but the bottom line is it's like I wanted to go back and look at that the minutes for the meeting in January when we were talking about this acupuncturist M so I wanted to see who who actually testified I didn't see the minutes I had to Wade through that video and I think that frustrates people right MRE so and and I don't see shade trees commissions or environmental commissions stuff out there either and we we know they do they do a phenomenal job right right but you know let's surface all this stuff so that everybody sees it and I think that'll help you know we we've been talking about cultural change right you've heard us talking about that and it starts with trust and trust starts with transparency and openness M right so that's that's where we're taking it and taking advantage of the technology as well yeah very good great generally yeah and that's my I just am behind in getting updates to the website so I will definitely be more diligent boards to make sure that it gets up immediately after approved cool good okay so the the final item if you would just indulge with me for just two minutes uh we're one day removed from Earth Day as everyone knows it's hard to believe we're over a 50 plus year anniversary of Earth day and I just wanted to do a big shout out to our library did a a wonderful job of calling out some very interesting books that tie in with Earth a you know we have just such a wonderful Library here and they had it and I just happened to walk by the table and I picked up a book that's just been fascinating I just wanted to read two exerpts real quick with regards to uh it's by Douglas Brinkley it's right F Heritage and it's a book about the Roosevelts and what they have met both Teddy and uh Franklin um and Delano their Uncle not as well known that were instrumental in conservation in this country in the early part of uh the last century and I just wanted to read two quick excerpts from this book that uh I think resonate well today Roosevelt's Legacy in conservation was large and contained multitudes between 1932 and 1945 the president had also established numerous national forests many through the acquisition of abandoned or cut and cover land all of these native forests as Pino believe Pino was another very well-known Forester out of Yale University who worked with Teddy uh previously and worked also with Franklin believe were living testimonials to Roosevelt's unshakable conviction that no landscape not even the move Mojave Desert should be bereft of robust trees it is an air to say that we have conquered nature Roosevelt told Congress more than a decade earlier we must rather start to shape our lives in more harmonious relationship with nature this is a m Stone in our progress toward that end the future of every American Family everywhere will be affected by the action we take mhm and then just finally um just another excerpt at the end I thought that was interesting was just after um FDR won the 1932 presidential election there was a number of biological articles uh bio I'm sorry biographical articles that were written about him uh when asked what differentiated him from his distant cousin Teddy president-elect turned instinctively to forestry Franklin unlike Teddy Roosevelt disliked The Lumberjacks axe I like the plant trees FDR said not cut them down and plant he did from 1933 to 1945 Roosevelt's New Deal conservation programs planted around three billion trees from California to New Hampshire Alaska to Puerto Rico planting trees was to FDR a god affirming act determined to avoid the long Bley Hood Timber famine sickened by much publicized stories of soil erosion and depletion of Nations the nation's Forest resources Roosevelt during his two terms as governor of New York and his entire four terms at the White House became America's Visionary Forester and chief so um interesting read uh politics aside they Spann a very broad political Spectrum when you consider Teddy to Franklin uh and what was going on but the the commonality in regards to preservation and looking at U preserving our Earth's resources seem to really resonate so I leave you with that uh for Earth Day and with that is there a motion to adjourn motion to ajour Second V in favor all in favor I I e