##VIDEO ID:hBdA4JmC3VA## e okay we're on the air uh good evening everyone this is welcome to the planning board meeting for January 14 2025 it's our reorganizational meeting and hearing um one call to order and statement of compliance adequate notice of this meeting hearing has been provided by posting a copy of the public meeting hearing dates on the municipal bulletin board and website by sending a copy to the echos Sentinel newspaper and by filing a copy with the municipal clerk number two standard board procedures any meeting or hearing conducted by the board is a quasi judicial proceeding any questions or comments must be limited to issues that are relevant to what the board May legally consider in reaching a decision and a Corum appropriate to judicial meeting hearing must be maintained at all times 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 allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay now we have the Oaths of office that will be administered by our board attorney uh Mr Christopher seski the new appointees and reappoints for we have new appointee Pamela oens as class one member expiring December 31st 2025 welcome we have Teresa Dill Class 2 expiring 12312 uh she will be out she's excused this evening she will be sworn in at our next meeting in January uh committeeman Scott lavender class three expiring 12 3125 uh new member Robert lavario okay good I got it class 4 member expiring 12312 and William Mitchell welcome back class 4 member expiring 12312 okay great turn the phone over to turn the phone yeah the metaphorical phone yes metaphoric thanks de okay so do you all you two have a copy of the Oaths in front of you okay great so you know what class you are when I say okay all right so we'll take it from the top please just repeat after me I state your name Scotch do solemn we swear do swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will the contitution of the United States raise your hand and stand if they want to it's not necessary but yeah if you guys want yeah raise your make a little more official yeah go ahead uh and the state of New Jersey and the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I will bear true faith and ALG the and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of people and that I will faithfully impartially and justly and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of State office perform all the duties of the planning board class member according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability and that I will not use my office to Grant preferential treatment that I will not use my office to Grant preferential treatment nor to seek personal gain favor or Advantage nor to se personal gain favor or Advantage not available to the general public not available to the general public so help me God so help me God you want all right great thank you very much you're really really welcome aboard and uh Pam and Bob you can turn your name tags around yeah standard practice right I just put those there like that when we sit down then when you come in turn okay and before you leave just make sure you sign your forms and I'll notorized them and you guys will be official to me there you go okay I'm now going to take the role committee man lavender present Miss D was excused this evening Mr Hans here Mr Jones present Mr lavario here Mr Mitchell uh present miss oens here Mr opala here Mr Richardson here great okay next on the agenda is the election of our chairman with the term expiring January 13 2026 I will now open the floor to nominations I'd like to nominate Don Richardson as chairman I'll second that okay any other nominations okay there being none I'm close it to nominations and as we have a motion in a second I will take the roll call for for chairman for the new chairman uh so it was committee man lavender yes and the second was Mr H yes Mr lerio yes M Mr Mitchell yes Miss oens yes Mr opala yes Mr Jones yes Mr Richardson yes motion carries welcome V thank you welcome back same you're doing so great you now I'll take the role you do everything else thank you all uh I look forward to serving you again this coming year we've got a busy year uh we'll talk a little bit more as we talk about the Committees and some of the priorities a little bit later in the agenda but let's move forward with now uh entertaining a motion for vice chairman uh do are there any motions from the floor please yeah I'd like to nominate Tom Jones please and I'll second any other nominations nope there being none I will take the rule uh committee man lavender yes Mr Hans yes Mr lerio yes Mr Mitchell yes Miss ojans yes Mr opala yes Mr Jones I accept chairman Richardson yes well done motion carries congratulations okay moving right along on our agenda uh the next are appointments we have a number of resolutions 20251 DBP through 2005-0 5- PB and they are attached uh what we'll do is go through I'll read uh essentially the resolution it's very short we just need a uh a motion in a second and I believe a vote correct each of for the one through five under the uh appointments so first the board is charged with appointing a board secretary to serve until January 13th 20126 is there a motion to accept that so move second I'm sorry who was the motion committeeman lavender yes Sharon Jones yes Mr Hans yep Mr lavario yes Mr Mitchell yes Miss oans yes M Ro Pala yes chairman Richardson yes motion carries thank you uh next is the board will appoint a legal firm and a board attorney to serve at the pleasure of the board for the term expiring on January 13th 2026 I have a motion to accept that resolution so moved second committee M avender yes Vice chairman Jones yes Mr Hans yep Mr lavario yes Mr Mitchell yes Miss oens yes M rala yes chairman Richardson yes motion carries thank you all very much on behalf of the firm really appreciate your continuing compl us thank you next uh the board will appoint a planning firm and a professional planner from that firm to serve at the pleasure of the board for a term expiring on January 13th 20126 I have a motion to approve that resolution so moved second May lavender yes Mr uh Vice chairman Jones yes Mr Hans yep Mr lavario yes Mr Mitchell yes oin yes Mr opala yes ice chairman oh chairman Richardson yes motion carries very good thank you uh next the board will appoint an engineering firm and professional engineer to serve at pleasure of the board for a term expiring on January 13 2026 I have a motion to approve this resolution so move second comman lavender yes Vice chairman Jones yes Mr Hans yes Mr lavario yes Mr Mitchell yes M oin yes Mr alala yes chairman Richardson yes motion carries very good okay and finally the board will appoint a traffic engineer as well as an alternate planning and engineering firm in such case that a traffic engineer uh expert is required to review a site plan or subdivision application and if the board professionals have a conflict of in interest with any specific application for development I have a motion to approve this resolution so moved second committee lavender yes Vice chairman Jones yes Mr Hans yes Mr lerio yes Mr Mitchell yes M oin yes Mr oala yes chairman Richardson yes motion carries okay the next series of resolutions I think we can adopt in aggregate uh and these are noted in your agenda items 10 through 14 they have uh to do with the resolution uh 20 2506 07 08 09 and 10 and they have to do with our meeting schedule our notice of publication resolutions for adoptions meeting and hearing cut off and our Robert Rules of Order sorry just a correction resolutions for application I'm sorry great thank you is there a motion to approve the series of resolutions yeah I make a motion to approve resolutions 25-06 through 25-10 as written M second commit lavender yes Vice chairman Jones yes Mr Hans yes Mr lavario yes Mr Mitchell y right Miss oens yes Mr opala yes and chairman Richardson yes motion carries very good great okay so that's a lot of our housekeeping uh for uh our board organizationally I now want to just move quickly into uh discussion on committee assignments uh we have a guest Jessica Our Town planner uh who's going to share a little bit about uh some of the background uh on the first assignment but before I turn it over to you Jessica I just wanted to mention that I think this year is going to be an important year uh for us to uh work especially through ordinances that are going to support the master plan that we developed the end of the previous year uh this is going to require a lot of effort and uh I look forward to uh discuss with the committee and making sure uh Mr Jones has the support that he needs who I know I've talked with uh about taking on that important role but this is going to be really a a full board press as they say uh to get through the work we need to do on ordinances but we have other uh priorities this year um my goal this year is to really think about uh effective efficiency uh the d& uh that this Board needs to really have to get through the work that it needs to do so with that said Jessica if you wouldn't mind uh I guess in the last meeting that unfortunately was not able to attend it was touched upon uh with regards to the state cross acceptance process and it was quickly ascertained that we needed an expert to come in and and help us understand that so please the floor is yours okay thank you Mr chairman uh the state plan commission issued its uh draft state plan on December 6th 2024 and that started What's called the cross acceptance process and that's a process mandated by the state planning act whereby all of the municipalities and other interested agencies within the state have the opportunity to comment on consistency of the proposed state plan with their individual master plan so that's quite an undertaking and there are there are deadlines involved obviously uh with 564 municipalities in the state so there are what's called negotiating entities and um unless it's not accepted by that entity they are the counties so Morris County has accepted that um position as negotiating entity and has reached out to uh the township for an appointment of a subcommittee to be the cross acceptance uh subcommittee uh of the planning board and what that group will do is it's actually kind of a short time frame now but there's what's called a cross acceptance response template that the county has put together with a series of questions uh which would allow the subcommittee to review the master plan of the township against the draft state plan and to make a series of you know statements or findings as to consistency or inconsistency and where there are potential concerns uh where you may have questions where you may differ on uh some of the policies of the state plan now the state plan is going is you know Broad and in general in a lot of ways but there's also the state planning map and you there is guidance and different ideas that go on with the state plan and it has changed quite a bit because the last state plan is from 2001 so we're you know fast forward 24 years it's a the state's quite a different place so while the the general uh goals of the state plan are the same there will be a lot of of differences and I I think it's important for uh the township especially with the new master plan to look at the state plan and at least voice the concerns uh the county and the state will have at least one public hearing within the county the county will compile all of the cross cross acceptance response templates from all the municipalities uh give it to State planning and state planning will respond and then there there will also be public hearing so uh there will ultimately be a report done by state planning to respond to all of the Cross acceptance um comments whether it gets incorporated into changes into the state plan is to be determined but uh that's the process this report template is now due to the county by the end of March so it's kind of a short time frame uh but it it's it's a series of about 10 to 12 questions and then there's a review of some arcgis mapping um but you know everyone on the committee would need to review the state plan is 10 some 160 Pages or so you know to review you know um plus um I'm not sure how the gis template would work if you want to work with my office or um you know Liz Laney's office it just depends on how you want to work that out um to check the map against your mapping and what your ideas are on that uh and then essentially after the public hearings uh the state hopes to have the cross acceptance process done by September and they hope to adopt the state plan in the fall but to be determined the state plan was supposed to come out in May it came out in December so time frames can be somewhat fluid uh it was hope that this would come out in advance of the um housing and affordable housing um push but it did not so it's a little bit of the um tail wagging the dog in a way but it it did come out and I I think because it is difficult to update a state plan and we did see that even though the idea is that these plans would be redone every decade or so it did last a long time in the state so I think it's important to at least you know comment and be involved as much as possible is the planning board or the township committee for Long Hill do either of those entities have to do a public hearing the public hearing is is with the county I I don't believe we're required to do any public hearings within the township on on the report at all but there is a response report it does become public uh when it gets transmitted to the county and when it gets transmitted to the state can we just get absolute confirmation that we don't have to have a public hearing at the town level you say I believe that little fluid like a definitive answer I think you I didn't see anything that required in the do I'm fairly certain yeah I mean you don't have to again it's it's what an it's an elective thing if you would like to involve the community I don't see why you couldn't right but I don't think there's any requirement certain mandatory if it's mandatory I'd like to know that if it's not mandatory right and it can be it's on a county level pett I just don't want us to be in breach of deliver 100% confirm that for you but yeah couple go ahead dve I have oh you go first yeah no my question really stems from what does this board need to do in regards to then from the subcommittee's recommendation I would assume do we need to vote on and then approve this in some regards or how is this there's no but I think that would be good form because you would have the whole body maybe I don't know three people on the committee so I think the whole body should review it and approve it before it goes to the state so that everyone's on the same page um and then of course you know the whole planning board you know could maybe not do as much of a deep dive in the state plan but you could review it you know in general um I mean it's you know it's a little bit of a heavy lift but you know I think it's good practice and then just before David you go the only question the only other question I have is is there any flexibility to meeting that deadline since the state's kind of given us to to us late do can we get another 30 days if we need it or whatever there maybe I mean I can ask the county I know they've been really um once the plan came out they've kind of reached out on a couple different occasions trying to make sure that we have the subcommittee in place and someone to send the documents back and forth to so I know they're uh they stand it's a tight time frame um I'm sure we get we'll do our best and it may get pushed off anyways who knows but that's at least the the target deadline right now two quick questions this is a planning board only um response so it's not a Township committee it's not zoning it's purely tning planning board correct they requested the planning board I mean the governing body is welcome to join in or you know if you want to have the governing body on board but it's really sort of because it's the master it's really the master plan yeah that is been reviewed against the state plan which is the document of the planning board and to that point just set the scene a little bit as to how many is it element is or is it more broad than that how how would you reconcile a master plan with two or three mandatory elements as opposed to maybe the 15 or 10 what we we have versus what the state and the county so is is there a relationship there or is it just here's a plan that's B broad I would say it's more of a broad document than okay a not set up like a master plan for a municipality okay question so so we'll be getting 10 questions I'm sorry you said we'll be getting 10 questions from from them yeah there's a series of questions um they're available now right they're available now they they sent them out already yeah the basically they're meant to elicit the board's responses on so there's a section on agreements and disagreements so like for one question is specific changes the municipality would make to the preliminary plan in this area identify policy disagreements propos tax changes areas that would be stressed or DM emphasized need for additional information clarification so I it's really trying to elicit a way for the the committee to review and respond to the state plan so that those they can come up with an agreements and disagreements list that they kind of give the state and then the state responds it's supposed to be a negotiation with the state we'll see how that goes but okay fantastic thanks all right so what I'd like to do is just uh while we have uh Jessica to also give us a little bit of a primer too on the next item which we know is very important this year which is our master plan housing element uh going into the fair share plan uh Jessica as many of you might know is very uh instrumental and and the work that we're doing with the negotiations with fair share so so yeah still on the stage so yeah so the fourth round obviously has um begun in terms of the the state adopting new regulations that I'm sure you've heard about established the deadline for the end of this month for the governing body to adopt the um either the proposed obligations or provide its own obligation for the fourth round uh what DCA issued for the township was 102 prospective units for the fourth round and zero Rehabilitation or present need uh that means that you know there aren't any um units that were found to be lacking of you know basic code requirements in the municipality which is a good thing uh so the 102 units um basically came were came up from a formula of three different factors one was an income factor which essentially measures how much higher the average or median income of the community is as compared to the lowest income community in the region the other is a non-residential valuation Factor that's the percentage of non-residential uh development that's occurred during the third round the percentage of that that occurred Within in the municipality and then there's a third factor which is called the land capacity factor and that factor is how much available land is in the community so the first two factors really stem from census data so in my opinion they're not factors that we can go back and look at and say this should be a different number because we all would have to use a census data and we would all essentially come up to the same number the third Factor the land capacity factor is one that we've been looking at for communities to see if the land capacity or the developable land that was identified in the community is is correct or if they came up with say sometimes you know we' found some where there's recently approved open space that was still identified as developable land or um recently developed Properties or things like that or something that was already identified in a previous housing element fair share plan but sitting at vacant but it's zoned for affordable housing so those types of properties if if there were a lot of those types of properties in a community we would go and look at and adjust that land capacity Factor uh within Long Hill Township I don't have all the numbers in front of me but it was a very very low number like less than half of 1% it was like 17% or something like that where it was so low that it didn't make any sense to go in and try to say we think it should be a different number because even if we did it might change it by one unit or maybe not even change it because it's a you average all those three allocation factors and then you multiply it by the total allocation that the statute says should be spread across the region so even if your land capacity factor is zero you still end up with a with a unit allocation so since that number was so low we essentially recommended that the governing body accept uh the obligation and and move forward from there that doesn't mean that we won't be looking at a vacant land analysis which I think at this point uh as I'm sure you're all aware there's not much of any vacant land available in the community to Zone for affordable housing so we'll be looking at that as well as a durational adjustment that will still apply as long as there isn't sewer available and I know that that's kind of coming to a head maybe there will be some will there be enough capacity for additional to round three that will have to be determined as well uh I can tell you that through the round three process uh a bulk of the units were addressed we did go back and look at um while some of its zoning and approvals and not all constructed yet uh there are all except for maybe 10% so we're looking around 200 of the 220 units were addressed in some fashion so that's um that's good news we're not carrying a large number through to the fourth round and then we'll be looking at ways to address that 102 perspective need through the housing element fair share plan which I know the chairman was asking about which is an element of the master plan so obviously the planning board will be heavily involved in that so you know the housing element itself is you know pretty much set up by Municipal landus law on the Fair Housing Act what goes into that um demographic data and and information about existing housing units areas where uh housing could potentially be developed some review of you know you know what land is available or what zones would be available but then there's What's called the fair share plan which is really adopted by the the governing body but is attached to the housing element uh that includes a review of how the municipality determines it will address this obligation so you know one way is through the vacant land adjustment might look at and say because we only have this much land left we're not able to address all of the units but we'll address this number of units and this is where we would do it and then it goes through all of the calculations uh that have been you know sort of prolongated over the years of how uh we determine what units have been met and then there's all these kind of micro requirements of you know low very low moderate income units how many senior units you have how many group home units how many family units um so all those calculations are done to show that the efforts from the municipality are addressing the obligation uh that's set out in the statute and that the uh oblig the plan is fair to low and moderate income uh residents is ultimately where you want to get to Great thank you it's a very quick you go first we went through this a few years back right right oh is it very similar sort of because there were deadlines and there was many public hearings is it as as detailed and as lengthy as that process was or is this and then just remind me the number of units on the PRI one versus the 102 for this one of you so the units are are less so we had 220 in Prior but you remember that went from 1999 to 2025 so that third round got really extended um because for a whole variety of reasons but this is a 10-year period 2025 to 2035 so it's really you know it's about half of what was in the third round so it kind of makes sense as it's a shorter time frame uh 10 years 102 units but that will see through for next 10 years we hope right uh the time frames are much shorter though we are it is due by June 30th uh of this year it the statute does well there was a directive issued by the by The Entity that's overseeing this was called the dispute resolution program that was created by DCA and the directive said that municipalities can request extensions it sounded like you know they would be small but if there was some reason that you needed to request an extension of that deadline um but I would plan on trying to get it done by the June 30th deadline which is really quick we didn't have those types of deadlines in the third round we were in the court process deadlines came up because of the the court process and the judge saying we're going to meet on this day we need to have X documents but it it wasn't the sort of thing where you had a hard and fast deadline that your plan had to be done is there transparency into the numbers that were used in the formula to get to the 102 yeah actually this is the most transparent uh round ever they issued all the data all the background data uh we went in and looked at everything you can pretty much check all the calculations U some of them are a little bit complicated especially that income capacity Factor but all the data is open and available to review and where do we get that uh DCA has it on their website and know probably our board attorney received something I know we've been talking about it on the committee I'm sure he has it my office has all of it yeah publicly available documents looked at their sort of their workbooks and I've attended sessions with DCA and reviewed how they came up with the numbers as well they'll they'll do a zoom call with you and talk about it all and show you everything um it's just actually nice because it did at least give you an idea of how these numbers were calculated whether you agree with how they came up with it it's really based on the statute you know the way the regulations were set up that is 40% of growth for from the last uh 10 years that's how much the obligation became it was just this this was a growth 40% of it is now going to be the obligation that has to get spread throughout the state it's a high number so we just started out with a high number and and the exact deliverable that the town has by June 30th is what consenting to this or something more detailed than that by January 31st you have to consent to the obligation by June 30th we have to have a housing element and fair share plan that addresses that obligation so those are the two big deadlines there's opportunities in between by the end of February any interested party can object to your obligation that you accepted or presented and then um after you submit your housing element and fair share plan any interested party can object to that as well and the dispute resolution program while not in the courts is kind of of the courts it's uh retired judges and and whatnot they've been appointed to this uh dispute resolution program so if you do get an objection you go through the program right so for that OB end of end of February is the deadline for objections to the obligation the obligation and then objections to the plan can happen August I believe of a objections to the plan and if it doesn't get objected to the Assumption although this is all new and know we don't really know how these are going to go uh the assumption is if you don't get objected to that it goes through and then you have until uh I think it's January of 2026 to adopt all your implementing ordance es and to finalize you know those the zoning and they're actually we're required to pull all the Deeds for all of the units that have ever been built in the municipality and provide those so there's all kinds of fun things that we get to do for compliance uh documents I guess you know unlike the state plan cross acceptance without hearing this will require hearing so we'll have to back in hearings you know before this uh June 30th deadline yeah it's an element of the master plan so just like your master plan that you adopted it's the same hearing process six months so couple questions does the statute State the density for the units per acre so do they say that the units have to be a certain size that you can't or is that up to the township to decide what their appropriable appropriate density is a lot of the um affordable housing regulations that were in place for round three still apply for things like that so density for zones there's minimum densities that have to be met for different types of inclusionary zones and then there's uh uniform housing affordability controls that govern uh how units are constructed size number of bedrooms things like that so all that carried over so there's nothing new that's in it's that the Board needs to worry about that wasn't previously considered there's a few things that changed uh like the bonus credits and things like that but the underlying like sizes and densities and and that type of thing stay the same the one difference with the vacant land adjustment we are able to consider now environmentally constrained land which we weren't really able to consider in the prior round so that is helpful uh in a place like lill where you have a lot of flood Hazard area wetlands and things like that um but is that already been accounted for with 102 or is that is it was any account for that for the 102 units uh well yes and no I mean the obligation was lower because you were determined to have less vacant available land but you still get some obligation by those other two factors the income factor and the non-residential factor okay so even if you had zero vacant land it doesn't you have to suspend all your thoughts about it making any sense so even even if you have zero available developable land you still get an obligation right because you have two other factors that play in and a lot of communities that I represent had zero as their land capacity factor and still got 6200 units as an obligation so that's and that you know you still have to address you can address it through a vacant land adjustment in the housing element and then say yes we understand this is Our obligation it becomes what's called unmet need which is something that just sort of sits there until you know like if you do Redevelopment then you have to incorporate if you do Redevelopment with housing and things like that so our neighboring towns do we know how much their requirements are and I can get you that information in fact you can look up any municipality in the whole state it'll tell you exactly what they're calculated so were there any surprises when you were going through it for towns that are in this general area right because there's a development that in a neighboring town that people have in town are worried about you know off of 78 was is there anything there that you know kind of popped up when you were looking when all this came out that uh Morris County what I found throughout the various counties that there are a few municipalities that have chunks of land left and they got enormous obligations because of that land capacity Factor so um it's a little bit north of here but like rockberry Township in Morris County got over a thousand units so that's you know that's the difference if you any municipality that has like a chunk of land like 20 acres or something or more right huge obligations so like the the towns around here we probably don't need to worry about it as much because they're I think they'll be in a similar simar boat situation where you're largely built out except for environmentally constrained lands which you can exclude so um um that being said with with one new uh twist with this new regulation is that vacant land adjustments so when you do a vacant land adjustment you come up with with an adjusted number so just say you had 100 and you adjusted it to 25 what the new regulation says is that you have to address the 25 and that was in the prior regulation but then you also have to Zone for an additional 25% of that obligation as potential overlay zones or Redevelopment or something like that so there is a new obligation to so even if you went down to close to zero you still have to provide some overlay or you know Redevelopment type of opportunity and I think that was the way the statute was getting at the idea that a lot of communities are getting built up okay just any last questions yeah just very quickly sorry so last time we settled with fair share right and we went to mois County court is that similar step here or is this something that is there such a thing as settling with fair share or is it just accepting the obligation and hopefully don't get challenged initially it seemed like we weren't going to have to do settlements because the develop the dispute resolution program and in my opinion at least what it looked like from the statute was it was trying to be more of an administrative program than a court program but then when this new directive came out it turned back into more of a court program because they required that municipalities submit declaratory judgment actions which is exactly what we submitted last time to the court in order to be under the dispute resolution program now to the extent that fair share is going to object to anything along the way in the process I think will elicit settlements with fair share housing center as part of the case now if they if we accept dca's number and they don't object then maybe we don't go through a settlement but maybe they object to our housing element when we adopt that and then you have to go through a settlement with them so there are a couple different places where any entity could jump in and you would have to do a settlement and if a developer isn't part of that or in addition to a developer it may be fair share housing center okay so the objectors that uh were talked about earlier is that the government the the DCA or is that people from the public coming in and objecting to our acceptance so who I guess I'm just not clear who objectors what that an objector can be any interested party I I don't know if they're going I mean I assume they would have to hold it to someone who has some skin in the game I don't know maybe you can standing in this context standing's very liberally interpreted sort of like yeah that's kind of what I was trying presumbly it's developers and fair share housing center could it be the public I don't know you can make an argument for it certainly I guess a Township resident just like you could you know get up standing on on a development application to challenge if you live within 200 ft or even if you don't live within 200 feet you know interested person's been you know interpreted very liberally so right you know so the land owner for one of the properties that would be part of it or just someone who might be interested in purchasing down the road so that that might be too nebulous of a connection but certainly a pro a present property owner somebody who's a property that's identified as a vacant property right that's they could be one of the obors but somebody who's from out of state looking at you know I I would hope a court wouldn't give that P find that person a standing but okay you know courts do crazy things all the time you know it's more than likely someone who has a contract to purchase yeah contract purchas makes sense or some some type of reasonable thought that they want to develop a piece of property most likely look to get in we said 30 now we have power you have power now thank you sir thank you um so a scenario would play out possibly that looking at a property and we say 30 um we're obligating 30 uh units to that property but a developer can come in and say no I'm going to do 20 or I'm going to do 15 that would be an objector would that be a position an objector could take or potentially um trying to think it's more likely the other direction you we Zone them for 20 and they want to do 50 you know um well I think they would want 50 they would want more Market less uh less that's what you get huh it's a percent yeah that's kind of set by the statute so they don't really get the opportunity to say they don't want to do the minimum D you know density that's a standard unless we said well we want 50% then obviously they could say yeah we're not doing 50 we do 15 or 20 like what's required by the statute um but it's it's more likely that you know developers won't make that objection for less one thing we do have to do Under the new regulation is we have to do concept plans for um properties that show that they can be developed under the zoning that we're proposing MH which is also a new thing that seems like a lot more more specific we would need very specific and more work I'm trying to think of ways to be very general about it because it is a difficult process and expensive for municipalities to try to conceptualize the zoning but I think they're trying to get out some of the potential zones that may have been created that are unreal were unrealistic in the third round I promise my last question yes one last question SP the whole night talking about well just ordinance process because typical ordinance it's a good segue because that's where we're going next right so the ordinance process that we had talked about a lot last year now with this are you more involved in the ordinance process do we go if the ordinance is written does it go to you and then to the lawyer does do you dra like just kind of the mechanics of how the ordinance will actually flow through given that we have a pretty tight time frame to get it through public hearing and then to the Town Council so the master plan of the housing plan is due June 30th we do have time fortunately after that to do the ordinances that's where I was confused I thought that that was due by 6:30 so there's still there's still about a six month time frame to do those um but yeah I'm typically involved in drafting in coordination with the attorneys and then in coordination with any sub committees okay sorry so is it yourself or Liz for us well that that's one thing we're going to be determining because I mean we're going to clearly we can tell that we need a lot of technical assist we need a lot of technical assistance for this uh you know the the goal would be to have Liz really take on and be the quarterback for the the uh master plan element tied to this then working you know closely as with you as a resource on the township side uh but you know there's a lot of work to be done and and we've really got to turn it quickly over to a professional this is isn't you know committee correct uh writing for 6 months cuz we'll never get there no and it wasn't last time either right exactly so okay good thank you very much Jessica very to see appreciate it good to see you too uh so if we didn't have enough work we're going to just turn it over to Tom to talk a little bit about uh ordinance and the the momentum we need to regain with regards to what was initiated last year on that point Thank you Mr chair uh yes we do have a quite a bit we have a serious book of work uh with regards to ordinances that need to be written need to be changed need to be reviewed uh and so forth uh and then uh follow the process of uh approving it here submitting it up to the TC and then T the township committee then do what they do with that uh where it's read in public um we have met several times last year uh and I want to kick that back off again with uh those that will be part of the ordinance committee um and we're going to approach it from uh a couple different angles one we're going to look at bundling things so not to take away from all state but um we're going to bundle where we can uh so this way we can be efficient to follow your guidance um so that way uh we're addressing things in bulk that they come to us in bulk that we can have a book of work that we review here and whatever changes whatever comes to that we have to go through a couple iterations we do that um if we can be efficient and send it up to the TC to put them to work then I'm happy to do that as well there may be some one-off items that uh will come before us where we have no choice but to deal with it as a one-off so we will address those as well um I know David and Teresa um were instrumental in helping last year uh so I'm going to make a Shameless plug that I hope that they join again uh so that way we can work on that and we will do it through virtual uh and Deb if you if you could allow uh me to use the zoom account when so that way yeah thank you um and then we'll set it up on off cycle so when when we're meeting at the planning board we don't meet as an ordinance but on the off week we'll meet as an ordinance and we'll just keep that going and we'll be respective of people's holiday time and personal time as well great thank you thanks very much so U Mr chairman we need to actually pick Representatives yes so what I wanted to get through right is get through all of the different committees so you know what yeah before before we get volunteers but but you know last but not least and real quickly uh is the passing of bylaws uh which we started to talk about and I think we even have uh back office draft that we started to circulate but that's something uh that we need to finish off we'll be working with the board attorneys on that and then uh standard operating procedures but these are really really more of the policies that aren't really part of bylaws that help us as an organization to be more effective and efficient in regards to understanding what our roles are uh in in and on the planning board uh so with that said I I didn't really want to put anybody on the spot but I I think we we need to quickly uh assign a group for the state cross acceptance so while I have you here I mean are there is there anybody that's burning right now that would like to uh join in that group uh review what was it about 164 page document and uh help to draft up some responses to questions we we can only have four members yes at most right yep I I'll be happy you had said it when we brought this up last year you said I I'll would be interested because of the work we and this will be a group that we can Sunset fairly quick is not a whole year term this is just get through the deadline the end ofch hopefully a lot of it can be done on Zoom too whoever's on the committee well thank you David anybody else interested in joining that group shamelessly okay Bob thank you nice because Bob as well just you know Bob and Pam both helped on the uh master plan subcommittee a couple of years back so they have have gone through this exercise to degree yeah anyhow so that' be a great ad Bob would be a great ad fantastic great are you soliciting Pam yes so all right so I see the committee assignments um Pam I was hoping you could help me out with the uh bylaws and the Sops if that would be possible that would be possible and I gave you a draft of where we ended up with the Sops yeah so that would be great and then the other thing is uh possibly considering or you know being on the ordinance group okay so potentially too joining joining to get another person on your so on ordinance we would have da David Teresa and Pam yeah so I'm looking at master plan housing a fair share plan I'm not on that one or I am on that one no no not necessarily unless that would be better served I mean again well is that something that you might be interested in uh which helping to shepher this would be the Fair Share Group the one that we were talking about Jessica that's going to be heavily reliant on our uh board planner uh so it's really just being and helping to Shepherd that along working with the board planner I'm going to be involved with that too just because of yes in De my preference where my willhouse is Right ordinance and the bylaws but if those aren't available then I'd be glad to join the others well why don't you come over to the bylaws and we I think we I'll join the master plan okay uh for share that'd be great okay so Tony you and I and Deb and Liz y we kind of ramp out that group okay so master plan and fair share is filled that's not necessarily you can we can have up to four members M where do you feel called well just having worked on the master plan that's where I feel I could contribute most youan the state you mean the state plan cross acceptance or the I think the master plan the the housing element yeah that'd be great I don't think that's a big lift the the bylaws of theop real quick point on that so the zoning board we did an entire new set of bylaws last year I think we could fairly easily adapt that to this board so that's not too heav lift the SOP I think we need to have a little more of a discussion about that because quite frankly I'm not entirely sure I want to sit with you and decide where the guard rails are and the guide that's not really a policy that's more of a guidance document for how how the um the board operates right I think we could we we could probably even introduce Chris I mean I might but we can probably even introduce if you were to work up um the board bylaws just a draft for this for this board for the next meeting on 28th sure we could even start as soon as that the next two weeks have them start reviewing and then have the discussion start right with bylaws do we want do we want to bring that to the larger group or do we want to bring that to the subcommittee first I think is kind of the question uh I think we want to First have the subcommittee work on that before we bring any of this I think that's back to the efficiency I think if the subcommittees are doing their job we'll we'll be less time in a right right right okay that's what I figur so just to kind of go through y we for ordinance we we have that we have our four members I think so Deb can you take them off David have David Teresa Pam and Tom Jones correct okay unless Pam unless you were Pam were more interested in master plan and we put will on the ordinance yeah that master plan is going to be a lot of work so maybe will take ordinance and you take master plan does that make sense yes it does okay okay okay so ordinance is closed fair share fair share fair share will be myself Deb Tony Tony John myself Liz pan y Mr Mitchell Mr Richardson Mr apala Miss Hawkins those for don't could you repeat that yes yes so master plan is for board members it's John Tony Pam and then of course myself and Liz our board Planner yeah hey wait is Mr Mitchell on did you say him the master especially the town do you want to do bylaws in addition to ordinance sure okay yep okay all right and and uh Deb just if you could add Scott to the master plan I think we still have absolutely we have one more of course I'm just trying to go through all the so we know trying bylaws and sop right now we only have Pam and will M are there any other members that would like to join that particular committee I thought I heard Mr yeah I think I've been involved with that too so I would like to finish that off okay so we'll put Bob obviously our board attorney okay yep and then we only have two members so far for state plan Crossing we have Mr Hans and Bob Bob everybody's on one right yes I can I can work with the you want yep that's that's a short fuse so yeah but we got already milestones for end q1 end of September and then fall which I think September is fall but so that means I'll come together and there probably going to be some uh project slippage coming down from the state so but I'm going to work against the ones that we know now all right okay sentences I mean volunteer positions aren't no it's volun told at the same rate same pay just make sure whoever's on the last year oh nice the fair share plan master plan do take a look at the previous agreement yes because it's very detailed and had all the calculations from prior which are not straightforward either so I'll make sure you read that newer members that 2018 was the last time that the board did the master plan housing fair share plan they are online and I don't know where since it's a new website they're still there but if there if there's any problems with the please let me know immediately because you know we've had some it was a good document fun times uploading the new website have to look at this website it's nice yeah look at it okay great thank you so much this this is the this will be the backbone in the work of the board this year so I appreciate your willingness to look forward to working with all of you on this okay uh we are ready now to move on to meeting minutes for approval for those I guess we have to do for those who were present uh at the so why don't we start with the uh review of the September 24th 2024 minutes the folks who had attended if if uh one is ready to make a motion in a second I'd appreciate it so moved second all in favor I I and of course those members who weren't present or weren't on the board at the time were all right abstaining for this yes of course just wanted to be clear uh the next would be the minutes for November 12th 2024 that was fine it's waiting again so I motion to accept them November 12th favor I and then finally uh the December 10th 2024 meeting minutes motion to accept do have one change it is the um second paragraph that reads at 7:30 p.m. chairman Richardson called the meeting to order oh look that was not there Vice chairman that's right well CAU thank you thank you that's a first that one that's my homage to uh Mr Mr that's the line that I always my homage to Mr Sando and it's acting chairman not Vice chairman that day I was acting chairman that day but did you guys proud okay do we have a motion to accept a motion with uh with the recommended am uh Amendment uh so I'll make a motion with the recommended Amendment second all favor excellent thank you for cleaning that up we're all caught up right through 2024 thank you excellent job right I noted in the when I when I emailed out these the copies of the resol the extension resolutions I noted that and I confirmed with our board attorney that new members are eligible to vote on the exens correct very good okay so we do have uh now some application business uh the first is an extension request for a minor subdivision uh this is uh for Block 12806 Lot 21 at 57 Dogwood Terrace application number 23-10 P order to for attorney you could just provide a quick overview as to the extension right so you guys might actually remember both of these applications uh we granted extensions uh back in the case of benabe back on December 10th and in the case of the Fano application back on November 12th uh the applicants both cases were seeking extensions of the 19 90day filing period that you have between um resolution adoption to basically perfecture subdivision record your your Deeds so I guess there was some kind of miscommunication between Deb and and the applicants attorney and they weren't able to get the resolutions that we initially adopted on time so they missed their filing date so we're just kind of giving this kind of requesting or trying to make right on that and give them an additional uh few days till the end of uh January 2025 this month to uh get everything recorded so again same you know essentially the same resolutions you guys saw before just kind of you know updated new dates yeah nothing too crazy here going on and again if the board doesn't adopt these then they' kind of be forced to come back and redo their entire approval which you know arguably might be unnecessary yeah any comments any uh anything found in the resolutions you're concerned about the first one the Pine Street just a minor thing on the board of actions 24 memorization 24 see Deb you're going to just change that got it yep Oh My Oh 2025 just that one you're allowed that in January yeah you get two weeks right in January to use 20 still you know I'm doing better this year than I did last year I didn't cat either I just a mind we don't write so many checks anymore so true go ahead and there's a minor point on the second one we got 75 day extension I'm just trying to figure out the math from that versus so that was can you mind 75 I just didn't remember so it would have been 75 days from the day that from the 190 day period expiring right so they got it was approved on uh say here resolution was adopted on April 9th you add 190 days to that you get October 16th m so they were seeking I think it was a postao which you can grant um extension so 75 days from October 16th would have brought you to December 30th by my calculations that's how we arrive at that date okay and the other one was 20 days but with similar time frame right similar situation so that was um days their resolution was adopted on April 24th you add 190 days to that and you get um November oh I'm sorry October yeah November 20th then you give them wait a second no wait my M's messed up okay April 24th resolution got adopted you had 190 days to that I should I thought I had the math in here somewhere while you're sorting on that we're going to be voting on these separately right right good yeah I mean uh you guys are so efficient you blurred right into the next extension request I'll tell you what I know you've embodied the theme you carry a big stick so confusing oh so it would have been November oh no October 31st I'm sorry yeah so uh April 24th at 190 days that you get October 31st thought I have that in here and you did have October 31st right and then you add you know 20 days on top of that you're going to get November 20th here so that's that's how we get to that MTH that one 75 days you're comfortable with 75 days that's just that's just reciting what you guys granted last time last year this is an updated version so we that's kind of just setting forth the procedural history of the was 75 days is what we agreed to was it right prior yeah prior as long as that's what we agreed to I have no problem okay oh also I just noticed sorry Mr chairman um on the box vote on extension re oh look at that yeah yep request yep just kill that eye think we're good yeah okay so do we have a motion to uh this extension request for fin minor subdivision for the uh the first application clarify this so this is a motion to accept the extension and to memorialize the resolution correct it's a two so move with the changes mentioned second and that's the 57 Dogwood Terrace application 57 Dogwood ter committe lavender yes and the second was M Ral right yes M rala yes M ojin yes Mr H yes Vice chairman Jones yes I was saying it's so good before right yes okay Mr Mitchell yes chairman Richardson yes motion carries uh so then the next would be a motion to both accept the uh extension request and the resolution tied to uh a minor subdivision for Block 13101 Lots 15 44 and 50 at 20 and 32 Pine Street application number 24-5 P with the amendment to the date yep yep with an amendment to the date and correction of request on the back page so move second sure okay Vice chairman Jones yes Mr alala yes Miss ojans yes lavender yes Mr Hans yes Mr Mitchell yep Mr La yes Richardson yes great all right the uh last application is a carry uh this is for a minor site plan application for Block 14602 Lot 10 Zone m h h I'm sorry uh 632 Myersville Road application number 24- 16p so this will be carried board's next meeting with no further uh notice required by the applicant we need a motion a second all in favor motion second all in favor and this is the official announcement that if you're in the public sitting in the audience which nobody is or if you're watching online the uh that application concerning 14 block 14602 law 10 uh 632 Myersville Road will be carried to the board's January 208th 2025 meeting 7:30 p.m. here in the municipal town hall building have to do that and so thanks for with yeah thanks okay uh on to old and new business I I just have uh one quick item I wanted to mention because I wasn't here uh in the December meeting I just wanted to again express my deep thanks uh to the volunteer efforts of Dennis Sandow and Tom maleni uh who were uh dutiful fantastic members of the planning board I just wish to uh extend my personal thanks I know the board had an opportunity to thank them in December as well thank you Mr Jones Thank you and wish everybody again a happy new year and we've got a lot to look forward to yep uh great reorganization meeting by the way with the township committee uh very excited to work with mayor dorsy and your team so yes yep um some old business um I think it would be good to get an update uh on the NJ American water and where they're progressing because we do know that they have a due date this year and I think it's the October time frame uh in spirit of that um I will also uh reach out to prism to have another conversation with them about what they're planning to build on that site um and if any member of the board would like to join me on that call um I did have um um Mr Ray uh joined in previous conversations so um I'm going to extend out talk to prism again so if there's somebody here that wants to join that call yep okay thank you uh Tom I'd be happy to join that call too okay Mr lavender who's going to join as well um and then have a conversation oh thank you and I appreciate you bringing that up I I am on the working group with the township committee for the sewer uh and I can report that New Jersey American is coming in for an important status meeting in the January 22nd meeting of the township committee uh I encourage you all to at least listen in uh or attend in person this is an important uh Milestone meeting in regards to their uh deadlines to effectively uh lift the moratorium in October of 2025 so would if the board would so wish do you would you like uh Joe V our board engineer who happens to be our Township engineer as well come and speak to that on the next meeting after the meeting uh yes I think that would be helpful um and I Joe would probably be here potentially for an application anyway so I think that would be efficient from that standpoint good thank you good anything else I just wanted to uh comment a little bit about the new website if we find challenges do we report those to you you the help desk if anyone wants to know how to find the videos I'll be happy to share that because took a considerable amount of time to find the you know it's funny you say that I went through that too and it's right now everything's on YouTube yes oh really once you find it it's easy right once so I it's funny because I I was addressing that yesterday well over the weekend as well so there were some members of the public that were struggling to find the agenda and all those different things so we'll get all that sorted out correct and be good we should be up and rolling now 100% so great thank you I'm looking at it right now looks pretty good and then finally again welcome to Bob and Pam look forward to working with you so thanks too late to back out now by the way you have when do we give the tattoos when do they have to get the tattoos yeah that's the next would one of our new members like to have the honor of a motion to adjourn I so say second