you ready just like no I know it's on YouTube all right we're good okay pursuant to section 5 chapter 231 Public Law 1975 this is to State for the record that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice of regular meetings on the bulletin board of the municipal building by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings for 2024 to the news record and Star Ledger in December of 2023 and by filing said notice in the office of the Township Clerk right here daf Luca here SLE here mayor Adams here thank you chapter 231 public laws 1975 commonly knows the open public meetings act all meetings of public bodies be open to the public and where section 7A provides the governing body has a discretion to permit prohibit or regulate the active participation of the public at any meeting and where desire the governing body to comply with the provision this act same time to conduct its business in an orderly and expeditious manner now therefore be it resolved by the township committee Township map does hereby prohibit accept a set forth in the formal agenda active participation and deliberations of governing body by the public and accept as otherwise subcribed by law those liit the public to the observations of the actions and discussions of the governing body through all of its regular and special meetings moved second cor yes Luca yes SLE yes mayor Adams yes thank you may ask everyone to stand for a salute to the flat 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 if you don't mind remain standing unfortunately this is like every meeting we have um but tonight we have a moment of silence for 52-year Maplewood resident um husband of Sabra Sabin who was on the board of ed and father of Chris Sabin who is also on the board of education um he's a maple leaf volunteer Award winner attended every Maplewood Veterans Day program and passed away this week he just loved Maplewood so I asked for a moment of silence for ED Sabin thank you good evening everyone uh welcome to the April 16th Township committee meeting Township of Maplewood uh we have a couple of proclamation this evening one for Robert McCoy better known as Bob Bob McCoy um and one for youth week uh boards and committees there's no items presentations we had a presentation item on for Community energy plan but that's moved to a discussion item the other presentation is a feasibility study for the creation of a storm water utility for Maplewood when we have public comment agenda items only we have one ordinance on Final passage actually two ordinances on Final passage uh one for uh establishing a code of conduct for municipal facilities and events the other is to amend the chapter 123 of the code of the township for municipal pool fees uh introduction of the bond ordinance for Capital Improvements and then we have uh no reports from departments we have administrative reports we have reports from elected officials Committee Member Engle Deputy Mayor kpe Committee Member daffis is not here tonight and Committee Member Duca discussion items code of conduct ordinance demolition ordinance Maplewood Community energy plan in in inspired by Somerset development it's the authorization to negotiate proposed changes to Redevelopment area three and the greenway which will be Miss angles and then we have a consent agenda and public comment on any subject matter and then we will adjourn so with that I'll move on to the podium down there and ask Mr McCoy to join me while I honor you to on yes okay stand wait you should probably stand next Miss is kind of weird here come it's awkward yeah so we are honoring you tonight well deserved this is a proclamation honoring Robert McCoy for two decades of exemplary service to Maplewood Township whereas Robert McCoy has dedicated over 20 years of his life to serving on Maplewood Township environmental advisory committee demonstrating unparalleled commitment to leadership and whereas Bob has has served as the municipally appointed chair of the committee for an impressive 19 years showcasing his steadfast dedication to sustainability initiatives and whereas Bob's exceptional contributions to sustainability have positioned Maplewood Township as a Pioneer in environmental stewardship leading to the certification by sustainable Jersey in 2009 and maintaining certification ever since and whereas Bob's Visionary leadership has been in instrumental in the implementation of numerous programs aimed at reducing Solid Waste cutting greenhouse gas emissions promoting Energy Efficiency and supporting renewable energy init initiatives within Maplewood Township and whereas Bob's tireless efforts extend beyond administrative roles as he actively participates I know firsthand in Hands-On activities like the annual Maplewood River cleanup where we've all gotten dirty and wet cleaning stuff up that's not in here I just added that exemplifying his dedication to environmental preservation at the Grassroots level and whereas Bob's expertise and advocacy have been recognized on a Statewide level with his involvement in the sustainable Jersey energy task force and his frequent speaking engagements at events such as New Jersey sustainability Summit and whereas Bob's unwavering optimism fueled by a profound belief in the possibility of positive change serves as an inspiration to all as he continues to Champion sustainability efforts and advocate for a cleaner Greener future and whereas Bob's early experiences shaped by a childhood spent in diverse environments across the globe have instilled in him a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental sustainability and whereas Bob's leadership extends Beyond Municipal boundaries as evidence his instrumental role in the for formation of the sustainable essics Alliance Energy procurement Cooperative fostering collaboration among neighboring communities to Advan renewable energy goals and whereas Bob's personal commitment to sustainability is reflected in his own lifestyle choices definitely from reducing his home energy consumption to his early adoption of solar technology setting a shining example for others to follow and whereas Bob's impact on Maplewood trans transcends his environmental advocacy as he and his wife Laurel Karns have been integral members of the community enriching it with their shared dedication to social advocacy and environmental causes see you've done so much it's like the longest Proclamation I've ever read now no don't be now therefore be a Proclaim that I Nancy Adams mayor of the township of maple on behalf of my colleagues on the Maplewood Township committee do hereby honor and commend Robert McCoy for his outstanding contributions to environmentalist sustainability and his unwavering dedication to the betterment of our community thank you this is for picture yeah no you hold it not in my face remember I'm short yeah you can tell we've worked together a little bit you good all right would you like to say a few the only thing I want to say is thank you I you know it's um um you know I mean I'm it's good to be appreciated and um and and I do feel very appreciated not just here but but in general so and the other thing I wanted to say is um um I think all all these people here are part of the part of the team and it's really not a it's not a I mean it's an individual recognition I appreciate that but really throughout this period it's always been with I mean I don't think any of these things you said I you know I did by myself they were always um members of the environmental advisory committee the Green Team am I gonna have to argue with you here because you have led this you know yeah yeah okay so I'll thank you and I I did want to include the one of the things about this is um um you know because the there Statewide recognition on some of this and a lot of that has to do with the the the township committee the town employees um you know who are you know who've never been a a challenge I mean when we go to other places um you know you have you have uh governing bodies and you have Township staff that that are resisting sustainability efforts here it's it's how can we do it better so absolutely so that um you know that's an important part of it so yeah well important part of it if I might argue with you a little more is your your knowledge and your the information you have I learned so much for you from you in the what eight years or seven years I was liaison to environmental advisory and that has fueled my and inspired me to move toward more sustainable things and so you do have an influence even though people help you like we all help but it's but it's because of your expertise so okay thank you do I get to keep this yes you do oh no you don't okay thank you congratulations Bob great well deserved well deserved so we have another Proclamation for youth week Moman angle thank you mayor whereas the benevolent and protective order of elks has designated May 1st to 7th 2024 as youth week to honor America's Junior citizens for their accomplishments and to give fitting recognition of their services to the Community State and nation and whereas BPOE South Orange lodge number 1154 will sponsor an observance of this week in tribute to the junior citizens of this community and whereas no event could be more deserving of our support and participation than one dedicated to these young people who represent the nation's greatest resource and who in the years ahead will assume the responsibility for the advancement of our free society and whereas our youth need the guidance inspiration and encouragement that we can give in order to help develop those qualities of character essential for future leadership and go forth to serve America and whereas to achieve this worthy objective we should demonstrate our partnership with youth our understanding of their hopes and aspirations and a sincere willingness to help prepare them and every way for the responsibilities and opportunities of citizenship now therefore be proclaimed that I Deborah angle on behalf of Nancy Adams mayor of the township of Maplewood and the full Township committee to hereby proclaim the first week of May as youth week and urge all Departments of government Civic fraternal and patriotic groups and our citizens generally to participate wholeheartedly in its observance thank you thank you Miss Ango now we're going to move to uh presentation for our cre potential creation of storm water utility in the township so Mr DeLuca you want to Le that thank you mayor you know um as you were talking and had uh Mr McCoy up there I was thinking with Mr McCoy saying how on board uh the township is when you look at this ordinance tonight we're going to be talking about the community energy plan where talking about this storm water utility we have a bond ordinance which talks about putting money in for electric buses M we have um a res resolution to set up a tree fund uh we're talking about the greenway so sustainability uh both environmental and social sustainability is throughout all of what we do so it's ingrained and thank you for all that you have done uh to do this so um tonight we are going to be having a presentation and I just want to say a couple things before to sort of Tee It Up you know climate change is real it absolutely is real and we face it here in Maplewood uh everyone knows it we feel it every day uh our storms are more severe increasingly our storm sewers are over taxed and we're not able to to get the water out our pipes our coverts our discharge locations they were built a 100 years years ago and now is the time that we start to Future proof our storm sewer system by improving capacity and efficiency and we're talking about storm water which is different than our sanitary soures and I think it's important to to make that distinction so we understand that so storm water is the runoff from rain it's the water that runs down our streets runs down our sidewalks some of it comes off of our uh roofs through the gutters out into the street and on all of our streets we have pipes underground and we have catch basins which are to catch this water put it into pipes and take it out to some of the creeks and rivers we have around town and then eventually it goes out to larger bays and rivers Downstream and that's our storm water system and then we have our sanitary system and the sanitary system is different it's a closed pipe system when we discharge either we flush a toilet or we put something down the sink or a washing machine it goes out a pipe and goes into the sanitary seore and that's a different piping system and on the sanitary side we've had a sore fee for a very long time because we understand the importance of reinvesting not only in our system here but also in the treatment plant in Elizabeth so back in a couple years ago in in 2022 Maplewood applied for a technical assist Grant to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to help think us through help us think through our storm water management how are we going to get this rainwater off of our streets out of our yards out of town as efficiently and better than we're doing right now so this technical assistance grant was received and we've been meeting the past few months with representatives from an international engineer ing firm arcadis and so we're going to have a presentation to hear about the feasibility study for the creation of a storm water utility for Maplewood you'll hear about that you'll hear about other municipalities around the state who are also considering this I think it's worth saying and you're going to hear in the presentation but I just want to say it up front that no minicipal in New Jersey has yet to adopt a storm water utility so we we are on the cusp here we're really ahead of it and I think we want to show we want to do this in a thoughtful manner because not only do we want to address the problem here but if possible as we have in the past serve as a model for other municipalities right that's important we've done that in a lot of different ways so I'm going to ask our presenters from arcades we have Anthony Dill here he's program manager who's here in person and then Richard GRL is on on Zoom he's a principal engineer is he going to be joining us I think and there he is he's right he's looking over your shoulder so be careful he's letting me do okay so Anthony and Richard I'm gonna turn it over to you guys I just want to introduce Bal Shaw here's too he's a contract manager for the work we do Under the the D you're gonna have to get close to that microphone sorry yeah there you go is that better yep well um yeah thank you for the uh introduction um it seems like we're in the right place you know where you're thinking about the environment in storm water so uh it's it's really nice to see there are many uh communities in New Jersey that are currently evaluating storm utilities some through the technical assistance grant as you are we're managing a series of these as well as some others are and I know a few others along you know that aren't through the the same program so it is being um evaluated just so Patrick I think we want to put up okay okay so if you want to turn you can well I'll kind of There You Go part turn I I can see a screen there I got a cheat cheat cheat screen there so um we're this is our agenda we'll go over just a brief background of kind of why we're here what we're looking at and then we'll step through these other parts of setting rate and talk about a little bit about credit policy which is something that's actually required by the legislation in other states it's sort of optional some communities have credit policies some don't so I'll just touch on that and then we'll give you some examples of the fee and where we're going from here so you know what in the basic sense is a storm water utility it's a public utility that's collects Revenue charges fees for the purpose dedicated to storm water maintenance and Improvement of your storm water system so those funds come in and aren't to be used for other things they're coming in just for storm water and I Mr Duca gave some of the background there but in 2019 the state passed the New Jersey clean storm water and flood reduction act I call that the enabling legislation you might hear me refer to that and then as he said you you applied for the technical assistance grant and in late 2023 um our cadus was uh identified to partner with you for this study which we kicked off in January so why do we need stormw utilities well we have aging infrastructure um increasing regulatory requirements usually each ms4 permit cycle that comes out there's something new in there some additional obligation whether it's to reduce stor water pollutants or other types of things so you'll tend to see that over time we see that in other states as well each time it comes around there's something new that you got to do and it's usually not in your budget um and we're seeing you know increased uh intensity of rain events and more storm water just you know really to manage and kind of most importantly we're seeing throughout the country storm water is finally starting to being recognized as utility as electric natural gas Wastewater drinking water all these things that have had dedicated uh funding sources forever because you know you need to have that to do a sustainable management of these utilities and people are are finally starting to recognize we need to consider storm water the same way and have dedicated funding so the benefits of funding the storm utility through a fee rather than just through you know taxes and the general fund is that that money is dedicated to storm water so we can plan projects long term and know the money is actually going to be there if we if we want to plan a big project and bid it out that the funds are going to be there next year and if we have that consistent Revenue you can also finance things knowing that you may be some bigger projects you can't afford all at once but you could borrow that money and then pay it off over time knowing you'll have that that that funding there to to do that um a credit policy which is required by the naving legislation and that's basically way a property owner can get a discount off their bill if they manage storm waterer on their property if they have certain things that qualify and in order to get that credit they have to properly maintain those facilities and typically provide periodic reporting evidence of such so it can provide for an increase maintenance of those things and in some cases even some voluntary upgrades say hey if I if I improve the management am on my property I can get a discount off my storm water bill and then um one other thing is being a functioning storm utility and having a consistent Revenue equ can help position for Grants or other types of of funding because you know they tend to like to see that they know that money is going to be used in an efficient way and if you're already in the process of having a storm utility that can help you in the future so as you know you have a storm water system right there's uh 1,800 inlets there's almost 40 miles of storm water pipe all these uh different components of the storm water system have to be maintained forever right they there so you need to have a consistent source of Revenue to do that in the long term now there's been a lot of projects that have have gone on here related to storm water you know we have every time we have severe rain events there's usually erosion that creates some new problem for us somewhere and you can see these are the types of projects and really the the money it starts to add up you know we spend $100,000 here $200,000 there it's money that uh needs a source of funding and as we look forward into the future we can see there's quite a few needs that have been identified some of these are annual needs uh dealing with uh discharges uh from property owners that have sump pumps or things that need to be managed that storm water up to Major flooding projects and other just uh reinvestment into the storm water system so you can see this this adds up to you know over a million dollars a year in the next five years of needs uh to be met so when we look at rate structures for how we charge fees um typically we look at impervious area which means rooftops parking lots pavement those types of hard surfaces that don't let water infiltrate into the ground and properties that are undeveloped in a sort of natural vegetated or wooded state are typically not charged a fee now the legislation in particular says the fee has to be you know based on a fair and Equitable approximation of the storm water run off but it doesn't have any other specifics on how you do that and as you know there's no flow meter on each property to measure the storm water that comes off so that's why we look at the impervious surfaces as sort of an indicator of how much runoff is likely to come from a property and just as a final note there as we create the rate structure we're really trying to find the right balance between precision and accuracy getting everybody's bill you know just right versus Simplicity and ease of management we don't want it to be so cumers some are complicated that one nobody can understand it or two it's it's too administrative burden to manage and you spend too much money managing that so we're trying to find that right balance and we think we've done that uh with what we'll share with you here in the next slide um this right here just shows within Maplewood the distribution of impervious area on single family Residential Properties so not everybody has the same amount of impervious surface and I's house is the same size but it shows you a fairly tight bell curve senator around the weighted average which is 3,213 square ft that's the average amount of impervious surface on a typical residential property here in Maplewood uh sometimes I've seen this curve for other property other communities where there's a big bulge out at the end or something maybe there's bigest states with tennis courts or whatever I don't know but here we have a nice curve around here and it shows a pretty uh good distribution uh for the fee structure that we've looked at so as we mentioned the eru is 3213 the rate structure we've tentatively uh been discussing is where everyone would pay a minimum of one eru that's sort of a base charge or a base fee that contributes that has a developed property with the impervious surfaces into the system now if you have more impervious service than the typical residential you would pay more and we're looking right now at increments of half eru and the reason we're looking at the half eru increments is sort of recognizing the Precision of which we're measuring this from aerial imagery stuff we don't want to get down to Tenth or hundreds of erus because it's just hard to get it that accurate or the amount of effort you have to spend to get everybody's that effort is is not um may not be justified at at this time and it also reduces the number of appeals you know if you start billing down to accuracy it's more likely someone might appeal their square footage on their on their lot these are just some examples of when you do the calculation if you measured someone's impervious surface on a property we divide it by the 3,213 Square ft that's the eru value the typical residential U amount of square footage and then it gives you a number and we round those to the 0. five so it just shows like on the bottom if you had 8,900 square feet divided by the 3200 you get 2.79 that would be a bill of three erus in other words they would pay three times as much as the typical or or base unit uh this rate structure sort of simplifies things especially on on the bottom over 5,000 residential priers just pay that base unit so rather than trying to measure 8.7 or 1.1 or something we we would have a lot of them are just the 1.0 so it would help with the administration and and we believe this is uh Equitable because you know those with more pay more so we think we're you know being consistent with the legislation here so how do we calculate the rate well in the simplest terms you take the budget or how much money you need you divide it by the number of billing units you have which are these equivalent residential units or erus and then that calculates the rate so you can show here if you had if you needed a million dollars a year and and just click one more time uh and you had 10,000 erus divide one by the other and then your rate would be $100 per eru that's how that would generate $100 a year if you were trying to generate a million dollars a year in that example so what is the budget we need here what are the expenses um we we're just sort of in the preliminary stage of this we haven't like cooked a final budget here together but we know there's about $350,000 a year of pipe repairs that are are needed we know we have um some proactive Rehabilitation want to start doing as we start looking at these systems proactively in the future rather than just reactive and there's the capital projects we already identified on some of the earlier slides one thing we're not looking to roll in to this budget at the time at this time is things that are related to storm water management like leaf collection street sweeping uh Inlet cleaning and Regulatory Compliance some utilities include those things everything in them some of them are just focused on just certain capital projects there's a wide gamut of what folks decide to fund through their utility so this graph shows on on the left or vertical axis the amount of annual revenue that's generated and on the right is based on what fee is charged so this just shows a a point on that line where if you were to charge $85 a year per eru so that's the typical residential what those 5,000 folks on on the base fee would pay it would generate about 72 12,000 in net revenue there's some nuances to the calculation uh if you're think it doesn't quite add up about collection rates and and there's a a payment into the D fund they have a clean storm water uh fund that's 5% or 50,000 whichever is less of revenues collected in the stormw utilities so there's some things that factor into that but this is based on an estimate of 9,28 8 total erus in Maplewood and that accounts for assuming 10% of the erus are lost to the credit policy that's enacted it hasn't been written yet so how generous it is or how easy it is it credits or how difficult hasn't been really defined yet but there's just a budget of of assuming 10% of those are are off the top so you might be curious well how does this rate what what are others charged for rates there's over 2,000 storm utilities throughout the the country Pennsylvania is kind of your closest neighbor with lots of storm water utilities and if you if you click forward here there's about 74 you know I I keep a little database myself with some information and they range from about $24 a year to $240 a year for that typical residential property it's a big range right it's an order of magnitude and really you'll find it's not so much that one Community knows how to manage storm order that much more efficiently than another it's just somebody's put in street sweeping and leaf collection and all these things into their budget and others have said well it's only for certain maybe capital projects and so the scope of those varies but they average about $93 a year so um credit policy uh it's important to understand that you know credits are how you can get a reduction on your bill an exemption is something different that's where your property just doesn't get a bill the enabling legislation only exempts certain Farmland property that doesn't really apply in in this community but we do see typically undeveloped properties in their natural state are Exempted as well but credits are where if you have a stormwater Basin you have a green roof you have infiltration rain Gardens whatever it is that the policy allows um you can get a reduction off of your your bill you click forward um you benefits of that are well one it's complying with the legislation we have to have a policy but also it allows a sense of equity so if somebody's had to build and maintains a storm mot Pond and somebody maybe with a much older property didn't have to do that and they're not treating storm water at all um they don't get a credit but the one that that does have that on their property can get a credit so there's a sense of equity there uh if you click forward you know the the primary concerns with credit policy is one we don't want to make it too complicated so the calculations and how you calculate your credit get get too involved from either the applicant side or your side to to evaluate them and we also want to make sure we still have enough Revenue at the end of the day after we give out these credits that we haven't given too many ways so we've already as I mentioned accounted for an assumption of 10% typically I see they end up averaging less than that to be honest with you for most communities I've worked with more in the three four five percent but because we haven't defined the you know what it is and all we we're using the 10% at this time so now we're just going to go through some examples the of what different types of properties would pay on an annual basis if we went with the $85 that's a big caveat that that hasn't been established as the final budget but if we use $85 per eru you can just show in this residential neighborhood there's a couple of properties that are one eru you know they're they're the typical or average size but a couple ones that are larger maybe they have a separate garage or a bigger extended patio area um a bigger house and so you can see they they can range up to in this particular Community like two and a half are use so one property bake two and a half times as much as maybe another in in this community in this neighborhood uh this is an example of a Condo building where our typical practice what we've observed is most communties want to send one bill to the HOA and then they can build that cost into the HOA fees back to the condo owners rather than build each individual condo owner a little slice of the impervious area on that property but the total on this is 16 erus now there's 92 dwelling units here so that only comes out to about $15 a a dwelling unit per year at the $85 rate this is some more just showing some other non-residential including in the municipal building here itself is 17 erus worth of impervious surface when you look at the driveways and the buildings get you a sense of kind of what the fees might be then we just have one more slide after this just again some larger you know uh commercial type properties can can get up in the you know over a 100 erus so obviously their bills would be be larger and these rates here don't reflect any potential credits that you know these properties might get if if they're turn out to be eligible so with that uh really just the next steps in terms of going forward is you know the D has is strongly encouraging everybody to engage external stakeholders in this process the public want to make sure you're getting enough feedback input into the process along the way they have some guidelines on their website that they're they're really trying to encourage people to to follow so we need to just continue to Define how we want to do that we do have a presentation with the envir environmental advisory committee uh next week um we'll be doing it to get some of their input I'm thinking mostly on the credit policy is an area where we typically seek that kind of feedback and then will will put a report that documents everything we've done together and then you know you guys will decide do we want to move forward or not is this right for you and if so there's as you do the implementation there's some additional steps in terms of putting an ordinance together finalizing a credit policy getting your billing database all these types of things that would would get to the point where actually getting bills out the door great that's what we wanted to cover no I think you did a great job thanks off sorry um so does the statute that per that the enabling legislation does that lay out exactly how the fee is decided on or can it be done okay so when you talk about uh the different size is it are you is and maybe I missed it so is this based on the size of the lot or the amount of per impervious coverage on each lot that's a good question so this is based on the impervious surface there's some aerial imagery and state provided uh polygons of impervious a so it's actually looking at uh estimates of the driveway and the part and in the house not not the green spaces and stuff on the property okay so so basically the smallest slots in town would would have the base fee of 851 eru right right I mean I small property that was 100% impervious could potentially have more than 3,200 square feet I mean if the lot was you know 5,000 or 6,000 sare foot lot it's a small lot but if they had 100% of an impervious that could actually trigger them out of that low base base so is it possible to do this and I'm just spitballing the um like we have an open space trust fund right that we that is like a dollar per hundred dollars of valuation on a property so it you know and that goes into a separate fund that's just used for open space could storm water utility be funded the same way or is is it better to do it I worry a little bit about those who are on small Lots paying the same as somebody on a larger lot but you know what I'm saying like a house can only be so small you know so somebody with a bigger lot is benefiting from having more herous surface just by virtue of the fact that they have more so I'm wondering whe what right well if someone has a big two acre lot but if they still just have the you know the smaller house and driveway then they they could potentially pay just the same one eru as someone on a smaller property it really kind of ignores the way this race would ignore the the size of the lot it really just focuses on the the impervious right whereas the the example I gave with open space sort of BAS it on the value of the property as opposed to the impervious coverage and I'm just thinking that maybe um more Equitable um just asking your thoughts on that typically people when they look at these say assessed value isn't always a great indicator of storm waterer runoff I mean in a in a extreme example if somebody had like a municipal parking lot they they own or you know a park lot that they rented spaces in but the No No buildings no whatever maybe the cess value isn't that high because it's just asphalt but it creates it's all paid it creates a lot of runoff whereas somebody else might have a high-rise condo you know with millions and millions of dollars of condo space but you know the footprints actually pretty small so the storm waterer off isn't high so generally we don't see assessed value as the basis for storm water fee I understand that it's not necessarily the basis my concern is um you know inadvertently charging people who have um live in a smaller house and less value because that's what they can afford paying more because they have smaller property compared to people who have much larger property I think you have also have to remember that this is commercial property too yeah so in the commercials you could have um a building with a large parking lot that would have a a depressed value because there's there's really no value there's no improvement to the parking lot although they're throwing off more rainwater than a house I think what we need to do is to take a look at all the are you saying there's 5,000 properties pay the one the one eru um I think we need to take a look at that and see where those are compared to the other ones and and I think it's a valid point but when we talked about you know using ratables it it does throw it off a little bit because um you have to factor in the commercial properties and the commercial properties are based on sales not values and it doesn't take into consideration again the you know the right the the parking lots and all that kind of stuff so is it possible to or legal to our lawyer to do to to kind of look at them differently commercial different from how how the uh fee is assessed to look at commercial different uh than residential so I think the overall um guidance of the statute Right is coming to an equitable allocation I mean for example one of the things that we have I don't know if it's possible to quantify is if we have properties that we know are problem properties with causing a great deal of runoff which maybe isn't to impervious coverage but also to other site conditions right um so I think we'll we'll go through right after this meeting and you know kind of spit allall different different ways that we could try to comply with the statute and come up with yeah I mean originally when it was talked about it was like a Rain Tax right when that first came up yeah nodding his head yeah it's it's sometimes referred to as that but it's supp to say it's not a tax right yes well I know it's a it's utility it's part but it you know it feels like a tax right to the to the person who charged it so um yeah I just those are some of the questions I just wanted to um throw out there and I know we're not at all final but I do worry a little bit about you know that Equity issue or that you know overburden on one than the other issue because of you know they naturally live in a smaller which is obviously going to have more perious surface than perious I can just share the city of Philadelphia is has a rate structure that's different than most that I'm familiar with they have two rates they have a gross area rate so the total size of your lot gets a fee that's lower and then on the impervious surfaces it has a higher rate so it's it's a dual rate most folks don't do that they just focus on the impervious and kind of ignore the the perious surfaces but we all know I mean everything creates runoff in a big enough rain event even grass and tree you know other properties so that was their their basis for doing that most folks doing that just because they want to keep it a little simpler and easy saying not now have two raids to manage and measure both but you know it's just another option out there if you really wanted to focus on the bigger property so Anthony when you did your bell curve there you have that um geographically laid out so you would know where those properties the smaller properties are versus ones that are larger so we can take a look at it on a map yes see where in May would yes the burden Falls yes right okay I would also want consider the fact that we also have residents who have Mobility devices and so they end up having more impervious surfaces because they can't get in their houses any other way so for us to consider that as well as a part of it did you hear no I it's a Mobility surfaces that are yeah people who have ramps people have more hard surface be done in a credit right for that the they have a ramp and they can't get you know they have to put a ramp out there because they need to get a wheelchair up or have to use you know just be able to walk up and can't go upstairs we could take that into consideration for credits and stuff yeah I've not seen that done before but I that's why if we do something in New Jersey we can GNA do it well it's the difference between like a temporary handicap ramp which is pervious technically as opposed to a concrete one right right my read again the the enabling legislation hasn't been tested yet right there's no well here it says the things you need to provide a credit for it doesn't my read of it doesn't say and it's limited to those things that's why we have this attorney I'm not an attorney I want to make that clear so we'll need someone else to opine eventually on what we can put in the credit policy or or if there's another vehicle to achieve what you're looking to achieve yeah so people need to get their rain barrels from Essex County right um I just can I just I wanted to just concur with the mayor that I'm a little nervous that some of the homes that um have smaller lots and lack of Green Space are going to get a higher tax um when they're already almost disadvantage with less Green Space on their property that's not their fault it's the only place that they can live so I'm um in favor of looking at those geographical maps and making sure because I don't think it is Equitable necessarily to have smaller plots with a H with a small house to pay a higher tax than bigger Lots um because they have more grass and green space right I want to be clear um there's no deductions somebody's getting for the grass on their property or the or the wood at least maybe so you have a bigger plot with more grass and no no no it's the size of your house the house and your drive and your driveway and your patio for a house that doesn't have much Green Space has maybe two tiny squares in their front and a house and a very small patio in the back they're going to get charged more because the formula is they have less runoff it's not a percentage of the property that's impervious it's the total square footage right small point is the one I made earlier right so we'll take a look at that so just just so that that house typically would probably have less imper surface than a larger house which would have a larger footprint maybe a larger driveway and a larger patio so they would pay maybe one and a half versus somebody who would have a small so it's it really doesn't have anything to do with a lot I think we can create this map it may help yeah I think we should so this is what we're going to do so they are going Wednesday night to the environmental advisory committee and then we're going to ask the environmental advisory committee for their advice to us as a Township committee and we're going to this is going to be parked as it well has it as it has been in the uh engineering Public Works and planning committee and we would do the deeper dive there come up you know back and forth to the township committee answer those questions go back any more questions keep digging because this is not going to happen this year whatever we Implement would be at Best Start in 2025 right yeah like if we I'm in favor I mean I brought this up when I was chair of engineering Public Works I think or maybe it was after but whatever I remember bringing it up like three years ago or something to try because knowing the cost of just trying to fix our storm water you know system was is ridiculous it's it's like super expensive um the other question I just had is uh basing it on uh like so coming up with a budget first what concerns me about that and maybe I'm is is that we we determine we want to raise a million dollars and and would that be an annual thing like we always raise a million dollars or we we set aside because we're gonna we're going to need millions of dollars ultimately to to fix our system so I'm not quite sure I understand of of working it backwards from a budget number because what I don't want to have happen I want the steady source of funding personally I'm in favor of utility but I don't want it to get like um turn down a discussion every year on how much should our budget this year be and then figure out I'd rather be more steady than that so that then we say okay every year we have a million dollars um for that and then we don't have to argue over which capital project we're going to fund in the capital program and then that make sense yeah I think I think when as we've been thinking about it we're thinking about the latter that it would be a steady thing similar to open space trust right at every year we know we have X amount of thou thousands of dollars coming in the other thing is as you say we need millions of dollars and these projects are larger than we're going to raise in a year otherwise we'd over you know the fee would just be out of sight yeah this money can be used to pay off a bond so if we wanted to do let's say a 10 million project right we can use this Revenue correct we can use this Revenue to pay off that Bond over 10 years so that we can do a major project or projects under a bond right just like we do with open space we've used that for for obtaining land and and paying off a mortgage and just to add to that and we do have a bond ordinance on tonight any utility um if it's determined to be self-liquidating which is funny in this instance but if it's determined essentially that you're bringing in enough fees to um pay off all of your obligations it does give you additional uh flexibility in um certain of the bond limits and other um obligations that you have with law so it could give you additional flexibility in financing capital okay any go ahead Sor just to add to what you're saying um could you pull the mic down yeah add to what you were saying and what Tony was this is preliminary uh numbers that we're presenting this is our sort of a first cut input we received from your team on what we need what we need to set as an eru and what that dollar amount is this is all work in progress this is a first cut this is the type of input we want to hear from your team as well as some of the advisory uh committees that we want to take that back and figure out what's a fair and Equitable as the regulation then be enabling regulation wants us to right uh Implement here understood thank you and this had set up as an ordinance right to yes an ordinance that and then uh our finance department sets up like a separate fund sort kepts it keeps it separate and apart from the regular tax revenue yeah and I think I think one just one thing on that is that we want to find The Sweet Spot 85 has been talked about it might be 85 it might be less it might be a couple dollars more but it has to be enough that we can make something different because if we if we don't raise enough to right start addressing some of these things then it's not going to be practical I agree and and I also think that we were talking about let's set it and let it ride for a few years you know five six years or so before we raise it again just see how it works keep raising the money keep spending it so that we learn from this and so that we're not raising it every year but we're just understand that for the next so many years this is what we're going to get every year we can do the planning and and um the financial planning both the the project planning and the financial planning on something like that and that uh raises another question to me so we uh would assess this as part of our taxes like the OST is or would be bill for it Bill we were thinking exactly we were thinking that it could be an addition to the Sewer fee yeah so that we I know everybody gets nice and mad when they get their sewer bill after they pay their taxes so I don't know that's well I mean we can we can look at the TA I mean the problem with the taxes is based on assessment yeah so but some jurisdictions do put in their taxes we talked about that since we do have the Sur Fe structure we thought about making it as a suror fee definitely we don't want to send out a third Bill tax bill a sore Bill and a storm order so we've Gonna have to figure that out yeah most people try to find some existing Bill to put on whether it's a tax bill or some other Bill uh I do know some that've created a single annual storm water Standalone bill that was just their preference and and just just to you know here we have discussed in the past of even working out an agreement with New Jersey American water which is our yeah private water vendor to build in the our current sore fee in their monthly fee and so we might even think more broadly and say is there a way that we can contract with New Jersey American so that people are paying off monthly both a sore fee and a storm water fee as opposed to an so there's a lot of things as long as they don't take some of the money well they'll take some they'll be a fe you'll I figured that's that's why I said it I I don't know I'd rather keep it all if there's any properties that have impervious surface that don't get a current water bill they'd have to be added account that right right and that also is one thing about not building it into the tax base is that we do have churches and other nonprofit organizations that would be built directly just like we build them for the suror FEI New Jersey Transit right uh the government you know the public uh other County and and state governments anything we have here utilities um you know we have reservoirs and all that stuff so this would be something that we would they would have to pay as a fee that we don't get in their uh at all and even a pilot you know the or the the entities that have Pilots they would still have to pay the full Freight here and so I think really interesting is the churches and what about the school district they're Paving a lot of their land let's not talk everyone gets their electric bill their water bill their stor water bill too yeah I mean you know I mean I'm one of those people who thinks that if we're not going to tax religious institutions or some nonprofits for property taxes that at the very least they should pay things like this toward like for our fire department for our police for all the things they use our roads our bridges are storm sewers so anybody else have any questions no and and besides my comment I do think this is a great idea and I'm in favor of moving forward with it just figuring out that rate to make sure it's Equitable yeah it's important that we get the funding for this so thank you so much for your presentation and all did Richard want to say anything or is he is he still there thank you Richard for joining us I'm still here thank you let's see if is he going to come up there we go there you are no thank you Committee Member Dua knows I'm usually not this quiet okay I I think you said you were very happy thank you very much all right thank you so much you don't have to stay but you're welcome to you know I mean you got nothing better to do all right uh this brings us to uh public comment for agenda items only do we have any members of the public who are present tonight who want to say anything about Mr McCoy or anything else on the agenda any members of the public would like to speak on agenda items only please raise your hand you can be moved into public portion how do you know there's nobody coming up from the public anybody coming up here's somebody rightor they still raising their they still wait you usually wait though you guys I haven't attended a meeting for a while a lot of things happen I'm sorry what's your name oh I'm sorry I'm Tracy woods and I live at 253 Bernette Avenue and um it's been a little while since I attended a meeting we have a new Municipal attorney lots of changes the microphones are fancy now uh but um what a meeting to pick to attend to really showcase uh you know all of the things that are happening here in me I'm all for a glimp and honor Bob McCoy who everybody who knows him that knows what a you know important Force he's been to Maplewood sustainability so it's great to see that um so many great things are happening here thank you are you speaking on behalf of sustainable Jersey officially as no that's just me anyone else want to come up and say anything or on public comment or whatever the bike I'll take it go have overdo it Bob still here out the door but I do want to say after having been working with Bob for all this time I think you stated it well Bob certainly deserves the recognition and I think it's it's not easy for Maplewood to to live up to being a sustainable place it's a hard thing to do uh this seemed what the presentation we just had seemed like a good direction to go in but uh thank you for honoring Bob for all of this we all all of us on the envir committee appreciate it believe me and your name is oh Rich wenner 37 North Terrace thank you appreciate it thank you uh is there anyone else here who would like to speak on any items on the agenda or on Zoom I'm now moving over Joan Crystal to panelist Miss Crystal welcome to public portion you may unmute yourself and have three minutes to address the committee thank you I just have one question regarding the presentation that we just heard you mentioned concern about people who are in smaller homes what about those seniors who are receiving senior frees which is really the way in which they can continue to live in town would some thought be given to them in setting the fees for the stor water utility thank you Miss Crystal I think that could be considered with everything else yeah we'll we'll put it into the uh consideration I just credit yeah I mean I don't know what's we'd have to take a look legally what we can do with the credit but you know folks who have senior freeze they do have to pay the sore fee and their Water fee and utilities so um but we can certainly take a look at that and and have a better answer for you we haven't looked at it yet anyone else Mr War any members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to speak in public portion on agenda items please raise your hand now I see no hands mayor thank you okay we'll move on with ordinances on Final Passage uh Miss fritson 9A mayor uh 9A ordinance number 3114 d24 it's an ordinance establishing a code of conduct for municipal facilities Andor Municipal events implements code of conduct for municipal facilities done I could barely hear you okay thanks this uh the ordinance has been published copies posted on the bo board in Municipal Building copies made available to the general public in accordance with the laws there anyone who would like to speak on this ordinance seeing no one if any members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance please raise your hand I see no hands mayor thank you um M this was for Mr dafis to um move so so I will do it for him I move this ordinance to be adopted as a whole clerk be directed to publish the same as a past ordinance in mwood South Orange News Record according to law second mayor yes um I I was gonna expl okay you gonna explain okay good um I was going to take the roll call first but I think that's fair let's take the roll call First and after that I'll explain what happened right yes oh hold up with dou Mr Luca no Miss angle no mayor Adams no thank yes the reason for uh voting down this ordinance this evening is we have it on as a discussion item after the uh ordinance was introduced we had several discussions um in committee level to um make some changes to that in our legal advisor um Miss cido did um um amend the ordinance and so we'll be discussing it further um M Miss angle will need that discussion okay Miss priton next ordinance uh yes mayor 9B ordinance number 3116 24 is an ordinance to amend chapter 123 of the code of the Tanish mood entitled fees municipal pool this ordinance will establish the municipal pool rates for 2025 okay is this when I move it or no isn't this on for this is on for final that's what I thought okay this ordinance has been published copy bulletin board in the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law is there anyone who would like to speak on this ordinance seeing no one in here Mr where is there anyone online any members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance please raise your hand now I see no hands mayor okay thank you can I get a motion I move this ordinance to be adopted as a whole and the clerk be directed to publish the same as a pass ordinance in the Maplewood South Orange News Record according to law second right yes Mr DeLuca yes M zle yes mayor Adams yes thank you than you we have an a bond ordinance for introduction for various Capital Improvements in and by the township of Maplewood in the county of Essex appropriating the aggregate amount of 7,745 1110 and authorizing the issuance of $ 7,486 bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the cost thereof um I move the passage of this ordinance on first reading it's publication according to law in the Maplewood South Orange News Record and a hearing to be held on Tuesday May 7th can I get a second second second yes Mr DeLuca yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you we move to administrative reports Mr warry thank you mayor just one report the Department of Public Works started to deploy the street Aries today so we deployed uh four Streeter along Maplewood Avenue and Baker Street and we'll be putting out another two tomorrow uh there's then just one additional that has requested it but isn't ready for setup so uh so that's good and it went out pretty well we have um a few more planters that we want to put on order we had greater demand for Street Aries this year than we expected we're still able able to accommodate everybody now but you'll notice on Baker Street those are smaller but concrete um bin that we put out there instead of the decorative planters so we'll order a few more decorative planters you'll see that on a resolution at the next meeting uh but all in all it it went well and people are happy about it I drove down Maplewood AV on the way to the meeting and there were people eating outside enjoying them so it's good to see okay that's good well it was a nice day do you have anything else that's all um nothing about the PO or yeah Miss I didn't know we had kind of gone back and forth on that okay thank you any questions for Mr wary seeing none we'll move to miss cedia no report mayor oh any questions for our legal genius legal eagle I should say nope thank you our clerk Miss p uh yes mayor just report that we did conduct uh eight event planning meetings uh since our last Township committee meeting and uh more to follow uh couple of more but we're getting caught up okay and that's all that I have all right any questions for M fritson none everybody's mom tonight okay we'll go to uh reports from elected officials Committee Member angle thank you um I'm going to start since Mr McCoy is still sitting in the audience I will start with the raway cleanup that the environmental advisory committee is organizing this Saturday April 20th from 10:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. it is rain or shine um wear shoes that are okay to get wet there's two check-in areas 1 124 Dell or the CHS parking lot and we hope you all come out rain or shine it's a really fun day to help clean up the river so wait it's what time uh Saturday this Saturday April 20th from 10: am to 1 pm I thought I usually went till two no no never mind this year it's 10: a. to 1 p.m. I think last year was pretty cold and wet yeah um next is the pool which you just alluded to um so there's a couple of things on the pool first um which Mr we was going to report on is that um the construction is finishing up we're going to start filling the pool but we're still aiming for a Father's Day weekend to make sure that we pass all the inspections everything's running smoothly um and if we can open earlier um we will and we hope but um Father's Day weekend is still the target date um to open um and then I also wanted to bring up here for discussion um pool pal fees because this was not introduced with our original ordinance but because registration is going to open up tomorrow we wanted to see if we can just talk about um pool Pals so it's been discussed at the health and Community Services meeting it's been discussed last night at the pool advisory committee and Mr warry and I have been talking about it along with um our director of community services Miss manuso and our health officer um Miss Davenport and what we have um agreed upon is that we believe for this year pool Pals for those who need um assistance um for our our pool fees that we would give a um 70% reduction of rates last year we gave a a a bigger one um so they'd have to pay about 30 30% of the rate um and then they must qualify they must they have to um click a box and a test that they the family qualifies for free and or reduced lunch they receive Section 8 housing assistance they're beneficiary of snap or WIC they're beneficiary of NJ cash assistance program they receive SSI benefits they're eligible for medic a or currently receiving unemployment so any of those um areas would qualify them for pool assistance anyone anyone yeah you don't need to receive all of them and so that was what we were thinking um we do have some money into the in the pool assistance pool Pals line to help cover um we've talked to the health officer about really doing Outreach with our school guidance counselors with our seniors um to really make sure that we are um reaching the families and the individuals who might need subsidies to join our pool to cool off this summer um so those are the recommendations that we came up with well I I agree with um having the qualifying parts or you know a qualifying thing because you know last year we did not um so I think I think it's important to just um there are people who want to take advantage of it without having to prove anything or claim that that they're they're not doing so and this is going to more people who who actually need the assistance um I wouldn't mind it um I think last year it was 85% which is really high um and now we're talking 70% I just want to make sure um that's enough I know we talked about 50% um so 50% we talked about 50% at the pool advisory committee and it still made it like $200 for a family to join the pool which is still if you're on any of these benefits you cannot afford that so when we looked at um the 30% it came out to an individual membership would be this is the wrong list the individual would be 7965 a senior citizen would be 5130 uh two adults or an adult and child would be $14.75 a family two adults plus 1 to 7 children $133 65 a family with two adults and8 plus children $157.9 and a family plus caregiver $157.9 and could you just clarify is this limited to um a number of like an amount of money that the township is putting in toward the fund So So currently we have $25,000 in the pool assistance fund so once that runs out we wouldn't be able to cover but we have in the past promoted our pool Pals fund and so the idea is that we would would promote that again and try to get people to donate to cover um any families that on their waight list as well as to build that line so possibly you know if we raise enough money perhaps you it can roll over till next year so that we'll be able to keep funding pool assistance without us maybe having to always put in the money okay anybody have any questions me okay so procedurally do we have to do anything to in order for we have to vote open up tomorrow take a vote yeah think you should move it yes so I move that um pool Pals pool assistance um subsidy be uh 30% of the rates that we just passed today on our ordinance second yes Mr Luca yes Miss Engle yes mayor Adams yes thank you you have anything else to report oh um I know it felt like a official anything else to report I that was it because my other stuff is on the um discussion item okay great thank you um anyone else have questions for Miss Ango no oh okay we'll move to Deputy Mayor CRA all right I'll try to make this fast um youthnet is seeking new mentors as well as our summer internship Mentor program which begin well they're starting applications being accepted by CHS counseling offices um mentors need to visit Soma youth net.org internship to offer your services as being a mentor this summer for our high school students looking to get work experience the S softball baseball kickoff parade is this Saturday also we've got a lot of Saturday things um that's going to be at New waterlands Park in South Orange at 9:00 a.m. immediately followed by the Habibi Fest at the Woodland from 12: to 4: a celebration of Arab American Heritage Month um so come on out and uh to the vendors listen to music enjoy the food um and then finally Saturday April 27th from 10: to 3: p.m. is dhs's maker Madness the annual stem fair so if you haven't gotten your robotics nerdy geek on in a while come out um to CHS and be a part of the approximate thousand people who come to that every year so come on out for that and that is my report mayor thank you any questions for Deputy mry NOP she's got three out of four of my things go ahead Mr DeLuca would you like to take the fourth thing I have on my list it depends you tell me what it is no uh thank you Mary I have three items first I just want to thank everyone uh who was involved in the 47th Annual s Interfaith Holocaust remembrance March service we had um over 50 people in the March and 200 plus people at the service at Marl Church um it was uh a very Moving Service and I do want to thank um I mean to be totally honest there was some some concern that they would be counter protest or protesters and what have you but I do want to thank the folks the ceire folks who have been um demonstrating in either of our towns over the last uh few months um for respecting the Holocaust service and I think that was important and I think it goes to what we've been asking is that we can disagree but we have we should be doing it respectfully so I do want to thank you um for respecting the the March and the service uh and uh I think that was important um this Thursday night the 18th at 7:30 p.m. at the community center in deart park the Hilton neighborhood association's annual Township committee candidate Forum will take place and um I have to tell you I was the moderator of the first Hilton candidate form for school board back about 29 years ago was that about about 150 years ago before Maplewood was even a speck in anyone's eye I was there so yeah we told someone today that you know if you do a lease for a hundred years uh that would be fine I'll be the only one left on the township committe yeah yeah um and then the third thing I want to say is uh I you know it's amazing how it's hard to believe but information travels that's wrong um so I want to give you the clearest information about the library the library is going to open in mid October going to have grand opening at Mid October of this year um the windows are in they're fantastic looking from the inside you can see them from the outside but when you're in there and you see the park and the train station and everything is just incredible um so construction will be completed at the end of August and then it'll take about six weeks to move all the books and materials in there and stock the shelves and get everything going and that'll take you know as I said that time that should take us right into mid October there are some dates in October which are blackout dates due to religious holidays and other holidays so uh we're looking at as I said somewhere between the beginning and mid October to get a grand opening so uh it will open it'll be fantastic and so um if you haven't given we're still accepting contributions because we could use the the support so uh I just want to give you the we're I'm there every Friday and I see the progress It's just incredible so that's it okay any questions for Mr Duca seeing none you got my my last item the Garden State um art weekend opens this weekend at 1978 Art Center um Friday from 4: to 8:00 p.m. I can't believe starting as 4: that seems early but uh that's for wine and beer like opening um also internally we've talked about um some uh concerns people have had with residents feeling I've spoken to a couple of our uh uh rabbis and uh concerned residents who are feeling unsafe and I've asked the administration and um our assistant administ Ator to um make the statement that we issued I guess it was about a month ago um by the township committee on our website and on any social media that we have and it's so it's on the looping part of the website tomorrow it'll be what and on our website as well okay I just wanted we I I thought it was worth magnifying the statement um because you know time goes people don't even know and and just to remind folks in town so I'm just going to read it here just uh for the record again just to remind our community uh in Maplewood we stand for inclusivity respect and understanding recently some protesters who are exercising their First Amendment right to free speech have used language that is hurtful and unnerving to many of our neighbors we urge all participants in public protests to refrain from engaging in hate speech or discriminatory Behavior targeting any group including our Jewish and Muslim community members we must remember that freedom of expression does not justify the spread of har harmful rhetoric nor can it be used to incite violence against any individual group we are mindful of the close connections many community members of many faiths have with Israel and Palestine we can publicly protest against the war and express our anger or support for one side or another but we must not use phrases or words that will hurt or frighten those on the other side of the issue causing them to feel unsafe in their own town Maplewood needs to be a safe space to disagree we do not and will not ever accept bullying harassment discrimination and bias of any kind in our community local residents and outside s in citing vitriol amongst neighbors has been documented here and across the country let's not buy into the social Discord narrative that is gripping our nation we are Maplewood Home to all we must be a safe space in these turbulent times the Melwood Township committee strongly condemns the behavior and the use of language that tears the community apart rather than bring us together together in our desire for peace in the world let's start with peace here at home so I just wanted to reiterate that and please remember that Community we are all here we should all respect each other so does anyone have any questions for me nope thanks for doing that yes um and that's all I have so we have a consent agenda no discuss sorry damn I was trying to get out early I think we're going to pass the discussion items to the next meeting no discussion items so we have code of conduct Miss angle yes so I'm filling in for Mr daffis although we talked about what I thought I was mentioning um so we did not pass the code of um conduct ordinance that was up for second reading because we had a lot of discussion here as well as in committees so we've revised it to really focus on our youth programs and just um making clear about the kind of conduct anti-bullying and just respectful play and respectful talk um amongst coaches kids people who are at our youth activities and so I think it's been circulated and stuff um so I don't know if it's any questions or anything else I was supposed to mention but that's why we um did not pass the earlier one was because we made a lot of changes that it'll be up on our agenda again so if no one here has any issues with the updated ordinance then we can put it on for introduction at the next meeting everyone everyone okay with that yes all right so demolition ordinance Mr Duca thank you mayor so uh I guess about a year or so ago the mayor uh as their liaison to the historic preservation commission began working with commission members to think about drafting an ordinance which would protect potential historic buildings uh and this really was prompted by couple of demolitions that occurred of buildings that um we really didn't have a chance to decide whether or not we even wanted to think about them being historic they came down so we are now at the point where we have a draft ordinance and I'll just you all received a copy of this but I'll just run through it quickly um this sets up a demolition review process so someone who wants to demolish um a residential structure more than 50% by either 50% or more would have to have a demolition review and this would be done by the historic preservation commission and there are various notices that are required to adjacent Property Owners putting a sign on the building um and notifying the commission that they intend to file a demolition uh permit so even before you file a demolition permit you have to give notice that you're doing that then the demolition permit goes in uh our building department would uh determine when it is a complete application and then once it's deemed complete 10 days after within 10 days after that it gets sent to the historic preservation commission the historic preservation commission then has 45 days to determine one of two things one if they determine that the structure and we're talking about a primary structure so it's the house it's not a garage it's not a shed so it's the house and that's important because there was a concern about what if you wanted to demolish a portion of your garage to build an accessory dwelling unit we didn't want to have a contradiction because in our master plan we're promoting accessory drawing units so once the historic preservation commission gets this uh it has two things two two decisions to make one if it determines that the structure is not not worthy of historic designation and it submits a no further action letter to the building department says no problem if they want to demolish it 50% or more we don't believe there's any potential historic designation it's not worthy uh of historic designation so it can move forward if the commission determines that the structure may be worthy of historic designation then it has to have a review a meeting with uh um in which they would decide whether or not to begin the nomination process so all that has to happen within 45 days so here it is I put in my applic let's say I want to demolish this house 50% or more I want to blow out the back of it or something or take it completely down um before I even bring the permit upstairs to the building department I've got to put a notice out I've got to send noted letters to 200 200 feet from my property got to notify the commissioner okay I then come in and submit the paperwork it gets deemed complete so then 10 days after that it goes to the commission then the commission has 45 days so all that we're talking about close to 70 days as a process so a little over two months so once the commission determines that it's worthy of historic preservation then it goes into the normal process that we have on the books for uh the nomination process and that is the commission may make a nomination proposal for the designation of historic site and then you have to notify the owner there has to be a report done there has to be a public hearing um and there has to be uh you know the various reasons why it would meet the criteria so that would take some time and and I want it's important I just want to go reason I'm emphasizing the time is because I want to go back to that in a moment good the other thing that the proposed ordinance does is it allows for an informal non-binding meeting with the commission so say I wanted to think about demolishing this house before I even start the process I would go to the commission and say hey let's sit down and I want to talk to you about this so it gives me a sense of is there going to be opposition do you think it is maybe worthy or not worthy blah blah blah so that has to happen within 30 days so again this review process is a way in which we can do our due diligence as a municipality to make sure that if a property has some degree of historic uh designation or potential historic designation that we have enough time to review it and make a decision uh going forward so when we reviewed this in our code committee two issues came up one was we say in here that you have to send the notice to your neighbors by certified mail it was suggested by the Department of Community Development that we include regular mail too and I think that makes a lot of sense so it's you know that's just a technical thing but then the question became well what happens if you deter if the commission determines that they do want to nominate the process because there's nothing in the the underlying historic designation um process that is a timeline so what we suggested at the code committee is that we we add some kind of a time period so that if you decide that you want to consider this for historic designation that you have to do it in a certain period of time so that you're just not stringing this applicant on forever so I would suggest that we look at another 45 that within 45 days they have to have the nomination before the commission so that at at at most we're now adding another 45 days to that 70-day or 60-day period that I mentioned before and it allows us it it puts the onus on the commission to get their act together if they want to pursue it and that we um we we you know protect the interest of the property owner we also protect the interest of the town okay thank you for that long overview I don't know if that's good or bad no it has to be thorough but I do I do want to clarify a couple things for um uh this this there aren't that many demolition permits that are asked for so this isn't like every time somebody wants to do an improvement to their house this is going to kick in it's only when it's more than 50% of the building and the reason that's important is because we didn't we don't want to make anything onerous but on the other hand we don't want to make it um so easy to just tear down a house without it being looked at and I think you know all of us remember a year and a half ago or so when what would have been probably designated historic house but wasn't on the list was torn down and um rebuilt so just trying to um because this does happen in Westfield there's been something like a thousand demolitions over the last decade um and built in their place are usually larger you know so and this can happen so we're not trying to stop anything necessarily with this but just maybe slow it down so that um we can take proper look at um at what the house is what the property is that's being dis you know possibly demolished so um does anyone have any discussion on this besides me and Vic um mayor also this is external demolition exterior demolition so if you wanted to let's say do an interior demolition to widen the room or or uh con you know converge a kitchen with a dining room or something like that this would not apply this is just to the external part of the building okay 50% of the whole house right did you have so uh can I just clarify so basically if you want to demolish 50% or more of your house you could first say like hey HBC will you just chat with me a little bit here are some of my thoughts whatever then when you want to you submit this application to them they have 45 days to rule on it and then if they decide that it should be a historic house they have 45 days to do that and then we're done yeah okay right now right now the the draft does no I know oh that's what you you put in a per you come to the building department to get a permit and and that gets reviewed right and then they say then it gets flagged if it's more than 50% of the building and then it goes through that process so it kind of goes through zoning and then and historic preservation at the same time for that initial review thank you yeah nope okay so um can we introduce this at the next meeting sure yes so I'm going to bring this to Historic preservation tomorrow night with the uh recommended changes the two the the regular mail and addition is certified and the 45-day and assuming you know everything's okay I will work with our attorney to do the final draft and we'll introduce it at the next meeting okay Mr D you have Community energy plan are you moving me along mayor well it's your turn I'm just following the agenda at least let you talk I was ready to thank you thank you m thank you sent agenda before I mean you know you can split these up so I don't have to go run after one another you know because I know my colleague here gets a little nervous when I have all these items so so I want to uh I want to hold up our Maplewood New Jersey community energy plan you can't see it because we got the wide view but in any event zoom in on Mr it it'll be on our website so you don't need to look at this you can actually really like to zoom in here we go okay so here it is our uh it is um 49 pages and let me just give you a quick uh rundown of what it is in in mayor just so you know it'll be an extensive rundown here so okay um and I just want to recognize uh Tracy wood and Bob McCoy because without them this would have not happened uh Tracy brought it to us for sure from sustainable Jersey and gave us uh the the ability to move forward uh we argued about different points what we wanted what we didn't and then Bob brought it to the Finish Line um working with our Consultants to get this report out so and when I get to the uh to the end of my two and a half page comments here you'll understand why this is important to do so about two years ago the township committee on the advice of sustainable Maplewood expressed its support to create a community energy plan and to apply for a planning Grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and lo and behold we did we got a $10,000 planning Grant from the BPU Board of Public Utilities and what is the community energy plan well it's an implementation and action plan and it is designed to generate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for both Municipal operations our responsibility and The Wider Community it's important that we talk about what we can do to try to get the wider Community to reduce its energy use and it supports the New Jersey energy master plan which has a goal of getting to 100% clean energy by the year 2050 so in Maplewood approximately 2third of energy use is in the residential sector mostly from heating our buildings our homes and from vehicle tra and although Municipal energy use is only a small part of that just a few percent the township plays an important role as a leader and setting an example for the rest of the community and therefore we actually have an outsize role in this community energy plan there's a lot of things that we as a town need to do to show that we can reduce our energy use and therefore encourage both the residential sector and the commercial sector to do the same so I want to thank the co my colleagues on the community energy plan working group that put the plan together I mentioned Bob Tracy uh we have Vita trusdale Rich Warner was here before Ru sen Andrew how and Anette depa and we worked on this and um we we had a number of meetings and put it together and did a lot of back and forth uh on on editing and and really really thinking through what would make sense we also want to acknowledge the work of the ruer center for Green Building which we contracted with provide information on maplewood's existing building stock and energy use and also to show us the potential for more solar installation throughout town now this is not going to be a report that sits on the Shelf this was not what we did it for it's an action plan and we've asked the township business administrator to share the plan it's in our resolution to share the plan with department heads to ensure that Municipal policies and practices are developed and implemented in a manner that's consistent with the c so what is it what do we have in here what are initia and I mentioned it's going to be on the website but what are the initiatives one we're going to purchase more alternative fuel vehicles two we're going to improve the efficiency of our municipal Fleet and the non-municipal automobile Fleet we're going to work with businesses and residents to think about how they're using their vehicles and and what alternatives they might have we're going to support zoning and permitting for solar installation making sure it's easy and that we encourage that instituting a townwide solar purchasing program supporting participation in community solar so that no no one in town no sector in town is left out of it um we're going to upgrade Energy Efficiency in our municipal buildings we're going to do an Energy Efficiency Outreach campaign that's going to Target as we have before through our sea program the residential structure we're also going to work with the commercial promoting Energy Efficiency we're going to make new energy investments in municipal buildings and I'm going to get to that at the end we're going to adopt energy storage policies and we're going to train our First Responders and other staff on how to respond to emergencies with electric vehicles and charging stations you know this is something that's very important because we want to protect our workers and learning how to um deal with emergencies when you come up to an electrical fire electrical vehicle fire or crash or even a charging station is very important just like we did with solar collectors right because there's a way to do it and we have to do that so tonight we have resolution 15624 it's pulled out as a special standalone resolution because it we are adopting the Maplewood Community energy plan and by adopting this plan tonight we are are on target to submit an implementation proposal to the state in late May and our submission is going to be to make a new energy investment in the police and Courts Building what we plan to do is install an energy efficient heat pump that will cost nearly $700,000 so we are going to make the application to get this grant so that we can do this we're committed to moving forward we're actually in our capital budget tonight we have money in there to put a heat pump in the green houses that are behind us that's right so that's another step and we said we're going to focus for this Grant on the police and court building so we're excited about the community energy plan we believe it'll open the door to Future funding opportunities I mentioned one we think there's going to be more coming down and it also advance es our master plan emphasis on environmental sustainability so I hope we're all going to support resolution 15624 and if you don't mind mayor I'm just going to invite if Bob McCoy or Tracy Woods wants to come up and add anything that I might have forgotten or just want to say how wonderful this is please feel free to come on up and say yeah he's pretty thorough so you might want to just talk about how wonderful pop on it still on yeah yeah um couple things I wanted to say was one is one of the things that's been um good about participating in this it's going on for I don't know if you gave this starting date but it's been a year and a half how long have we been talking about some of the things are like you mentioned are already getting adopted you're um you're excessively modest about the library but you know the library is really an example of the kind of thing we're you know we're doing and and I think that's that's important that things are already the implementation is already starting and like you said the bond has has actually a number of items that that are relevant to that um and um one of the things that U just I think is important for this is that the the broad philosophy of it is is Electrify as much as we can because you can clean up the the supply of the electricity Supply is is part of the state's plan to to clean that up and so the idea is um you can clean the electricity but you can't clean burning gas and in in fossil fuel so no matter what you do they they're still going to have emissions and they're going to they're going to continue to damage the climate um let's see the other the other thing I wanted to say which was important about this is um you know we've been working on this as a town for uh since 2006 at least U trying to find a way to to make a significant dent in our in our climate impact and we've um you know we've gone from um almost too broad a goals um and then other times we've done a we've done like narrow um narrowly focused a solar campaign or something like that this brings it to together and starts to be the kind of comprehensive thing that can have a that can have an impact and in sort of in in that context one of the things is that it it also puts us in communication this is a this is a BPU and sustainable Jersey project it puts us in communication with those we're we're responding to their plan and saying what do we have to do locally to make this work um to make their plan work if if um you know if they put uh you know um 100% clean electricity and we continue to to demand gas in our in our from our heaters um it won't work so they're they're communicating that way but we are also communicating back to them what we're going to need as a community and I think um we found in doing this that there are some neighborhoods that are already reaching their capacity for for installing new solar so they need to be thinking about um the grid and if we if we go to all electric heat in the next uh couple of decades which we really need to do um we're going to need um we're going to need um support from the grid we're going to need U support on um on how to you know on how to afford the electricity um there's various things like that so we're it's a back and forth communication and this plan um and the you know the grant process does that so those are the um you know sort of in addition to all what you said which you covered it really well but um those are some you know sort of contexts that I think is important to to think about in all this so thank you Mr McCoy Miss Woods would you like to say anything I 253 Bernette Avenue just uh one uh quick note is uh just also again to um you know his longtime volunteer working in sustainability issues in Maplewood the support the ongoing support of the staff and uh the township Council has been um so great to help support all of these initiatives and remember you know Chief Deval was the uh police chief that you know adopted the first electric vehicle in the state of New Jersey for the police department which you know and he also talked to other police Chiefs and you know was a proud part of uh Maplewood sustainability Legacy and had a big impact on um police departments around the state accepting that technology so that's part of our proud Legacy here as well and your sustainable Jersey hat for a second um they are allowing credits are they not for working on credits for gas powered leaf blowers for municipal is that restrict the use of those yes I know you can get up to 30 points yes and I'm on that committee and I made sure it's retroactive that's right I just wanted to point that out we may be getting that bumped up some Platinum okay thank you thank you Mr Duca so we the next discussion item is uh changes to Redevelopment area three you want me to go through them I'm tired of talking okay um so Redevelopment area three on Springfield Avenue um is uh I don't know how to describe it like what it's like by uh Maplewood tire and between Maplewood tire and Walgreens between Vermont and Bernett ver you're right okay so uh the current plan calls for um 11 includes 11 part tax Lots we are um adding an additional one so there'll be 12 tax slots so we've changed the plan the proposed changes are to include that other Lot number 158 and then uh all but instead of two lots all but three lots in Redevelopment area three will have Frontage on Springfield Avenue um the permitted uses we just expanded a little bit to include three bedroom units that are permitted to meet the Township's affordable housing uh requirements which was not in the um Redevelopment plan years ago when it was written um also to include eat in Andor takeout restaurants not including fast food restaurants and including Health Spas health clubs and wellness centers um the area and bulk requirements the change we're looking for and proposing here is still four stories in height but to change 50 feet to 55 ft um the building height is measured pursuant to section 271 3B definition of Building height contained in the township zoning ordinances and we would add the building's highest point shall include screenings around chimneys mechanical equipment elevator towers and flag poles none of which shall extend above the highest point of the building and then lastly the architectural design standards well second to last um all exterior construction work including but not limited to sign or awning installation shall be approved by the Springfield Avenue partnership prior to site plan review by the planning board which is those of us who've been on the planning board a while um know the bumps in the road that we've hit when reviewing a proposed site plan approval for um the exterior improvements in the facade and all that kind of stuff and it always has to go before uh the Springfield Avenue partnership or the Maplewood Village Alliance and so this is nice that it calls it out ahead of time so it'll go to the Springfield Avenue partnership design review before coming to the planning board which is really helpful and getting it moving at the planning board level especially since the planning board's not really supposed to opine on design so um off-site parking requirements it uh this plan the Redevelopment plan did call for one and a half spaces per unit and and it's being proposed to one space per unit so I'm in favor of all these changes we've discussed them um but I'm looking for any questions of people who haven't mayor I think their plan was um to authorize the Department of Community Development and our Redevelopment attorney to negotiate these changes with Somerset development and then bring them back to us okay so I would we weren't going to change them ahead of that no we they're going to negotiate a Redevelopment agreement I'm sorry a change to the plan and then we'd have to bring the plan back to get then the planning board has to look at the plan so it's a very detailed process we have to get that moving so um I don't know who we're using as a Redevelopment attorney someone in your office okay yeah so if we could I would move that we authorize um I ask a quick question sorry under permitted uses maybe you just said this and I missed it but it says C professional offices and D offices but not on the street level professional offices are usually things like real estate offices or things that generate more pedestrian like dentist office maybe or where people are coming and going more frequently than an office where you know you're an accountant or but worse something like me like I have my own office you know what I'm saying like so it's it's more of a a pedestrian generator that's kind of the thought process or at least it was Once Upon a Time decades ago I mean I could nitpick that a little bit but I won't I'll leave that to the attorneys okay I don't know I don't I don't know never heard that before professional or off because like you Sid director so I would think you ground level people do come in and out have ited have it oh yeah they are a defined terment both offices and professional offices are defined in the code okay thank you so yeah so so like uh my office like or somebody's office like who's just whatever I hear with like real estate offices or Banks that's one thing but you but there's other offices that does generate Street traffic that could be considered you know a first floor Office Space versus second floor so that I I just didn't I've never heard professional office but office but not level it's contradictory to me it is defined in the code but I don't have it in front of me do you have it no all luck thank you um so I would move that we authorize uh Community Development and our Redevelopment attorney to meet with Somerset development and uh make these changes in the Redevelopment plan for areas actually it's areas one and three and then bring it back to us for uh review and action I'll second now take a vote there m friton m k Yesa yes yes mayor Adams yes thank you um this brings us we V on theway for the we am not okay it feels like we did I moved 15624 there you go that's a resolution to adopt the community energy plan do I get a second second second but are we going to go back to the greenway discussion yeah we're going to come back okay oh I thought you guys were going not a hurry de I were looking at that's okay my one but let's let's vote on it since it's moved in second SC yes Mr yes zle yes mayor Adams yes thank you we have one more discussion item that I passed over accident yeso thank you so this is about the greenway so the greenway has been talked about I guess for like over a decade um when I first moved here remember hearing about it and then it came up in the environmental advisory committee on like my first meeting in my first month of my first term and I've been working on it pretty much ever since and the sticking point has always been so South Orange um has already done phase one and I I can report that they have All Phases either done out forbid or under negotiation for their Greenway which would connect South Orange to Maplewood and Maplewood sticking point has always been that in order for us to connect with South Orange which has so many benefits a bike and walking path which will help get kids to School help get people to the train help get keep cars off the street make it safer for biking and walking um but the school district land lies in the middle to connect Maplewood with South Orange so I guess it's always been stuck here but now somebody in this room developed a great um Redevelopment plan for Community give back um for a developer of the West Parker development to fund the repair and Improvement of one part of this proposed Greenway that connects from like the parking lot down to Parker Jefferson I'm I'm directionally challenged as Mr warry has learned from Jefferson and then the other piece is through the student parking lot connect by the chiso itz field which would connect us then to South Orange so the um school district has in their possession a agreement from the developer for a construction easement for them to improve that portion of the path they've had that agreement since May of 2023 and there's a deadline coming on May 15th or 16th um that if the agree if that agreement between the developer and the school district is not signed then the developer does not improve that pathway instead gives Maplewood $100,000 for us to use to work towards our connectivity and circulation um but we don't want that money because we want to build this Greenway and we want them to do the work so um we have been talking to the school district at our Municipal Partnerships our um director of community Services has been talking to Mr bernside Mr warry has been talking to everybody we've been trying to fill them in and try to get this moved along um with this impending deadline we feel like real urgency um so one of the questions that came back from the school district was about maintenance of it so we negotiated with them that Maplewood could maintain this portion of the greenway and Mr cdio and Mr wary um created a shared services agreement um which we sent to them but we put it on the discussion item here because procedurally I felt like we need to talk about it and get us all on board so Mr wary I can turn it over to you to talk about the specifics or if you guys all have it in your email if you have any questions I just first want to uh move to extend the meeting past 9:30 since second second right yes Luca yes ble yes mayor Adams yes did you send out the shared service agreement yeah yes it was on Friday on Friday just after the committee can you just briefly run through it yes so high level the ownership of this so this is the the paral as Miss angle described between West Parker School par school kids park yes the and But it includes the driver to South which will be improved by the developer but then we would be responsible subsequent to that for maintenance so the agreement covers ownership which remains with the school district maintenance which would be the responsibility of the town so that means things like pulling in potholes sweeping plowing in snow icing or salting with the ice we want to make sure that you know we're now reserving this space as a Greenway and it can function the township would take are you is this plowing the entire lot or just plowing just clarify Green Way clarifying yes I'm sorry when you say the green way you're talking about that stretch between the parking lot and Jefferson because it will be the whole stretch because there will be there's the peak between the parking lot and Jefferson no no I understand that but would we just allow that one stretch in the parking lot and then the school district would plow the rest of the parking lot that's right because this will be separated a bit we're proposing at least initially we'll separate the parking lot from The Greenway with the concrete uh wheel stops that you'd feel like in a parking lot so and what they may deem to be sufficient for Paving and salting and and plowing a parking lot maybe different than what we'd want to do for a pedestrian pathway for a pedestrian walkway that's right that's right and so we'll maintain that uh we'll take liability over since we are the ones maintaining it just that portion and just when has been being used as a uh pedestrian walk bike way um and the term of the agreement is for 10 years or four months notice we want the school district to feel somewhat comfortable with this um and so you know we want to have give them some opportunity to to get out of it um should they want to only so that we can get them into right because we think that's in our best interest you have anything to add Mr ctio U just that the term we chose 10 years because the shared services act suggests 10 years unless there's some compelling reason to pick a different term um and what happens after 10 years it just gets renegotiated and um all of this is dependent on them maintaining that identified swath property as open to the general public if for some reason at any point they cease to do that we would cease to have any obligation to maintain okay any questions from anybody is there General agreement yeah absolutely I think this is I mean the school district has been the biggest pain on this because they yeah have talked a big game and haven't done anything and that's correct so I'm glad I would to totally agree a good solution yeah and when we were talking about this part I suggested it in the developers ridiculous we got we got a developer they got somebody do improvements to their own property and their students now walk on that stretch that's right which we're going to improve for their students to walk on that stretch in a safer way right and it helps with their integration plan the way the place are going because it gives people a safe way to get to the high school right where they don't have to go on to get to SS or to get to MMS it just creates a safe walking group and um helps get cars off the road and might help with their busing and there's just so many benefits to it people come in that way yep okay vote on it or anything like do we need do we need a motion or anything no right now this is just a draft agreement we we will discuss this agreement with uh a group from the school district tomorrow at their TT fft fft meeting um and if they are in agreement or if they require revisions we'll go through that process and we'll bring it back before uh this body okay thank you thank you Miss Ango you thank you for all your hard work on that mayor I move the consent agenda second can I get a motion for the [Laughter] consent right yes Lucas yes SLE yes mayor Adams yes thank you public comment on any subject matter is up next is there anyone from the public who would like to speak to the township committee hi Dave nope would you like to look up online yes if any members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to speak in public portion please raise your hand now I see no hands mayor thank you can I have motion to adjourn I move to adjourn second right yes DeLuca yes angle yes mayor Adam