e e e e e e good evening everyone in accordance with Section Five the the open public meetings act be advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding forwarding to the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at Town Hall at 7M Tuesday March 19th 2024 meeting details and the draft agenda were also posted on our Township website please stand to salute the FL the United States of America and to the repblic for stand roll call vote Please Mr Collin here M herey mayor Sandy present Mr ster May Romano here may I have a motion to approve the agenda may I have a second second all those in favor I I uh may I have a motion to approve the March 5th 2024 regular Township committee minutes so moved may I have a second second all those in favor I any any opposed no I have a motion to approve the March 5th 2024 special Township committee minutes so move may I have a second second all those in favor I I okay reports I am going to go first uh create senior citizen advisor board uh met last week the creative hands ladies received a thank you note from the Department Department of Veteran Affairs uh just today I believe thanking them for the donation of baby items they donated hats sweaters and blankets they will be given to the women's veterans program at a baby shower that's going to be thrown for them in uh June just a reminder the senior bus is available four days a week you can sign up phone numbers on the township website under the senior citizen Department it's a free service for residents over 62 years of age and it trans it uh travels throughout the township the Friday friends have an upcoming fire safety and smoke alarms seminar and previously had a speaker on Medicare fraud so all the trips and offerings and all the information is on the township website on the senior citizen page and you can also sign up to receive the newsletter either in paper form or digital flood mitigation I attended a meeting for the first time last week it's a great group of people that work very hard it's a lot of planning going on within surrounding towns and community and count and the county so I look forward to working with committee man Stoler on that and Mr McDonald with the other municipalities and reaching out to the county uh the Wyoming Avenue cross walks I want to uh thank those residents that brought that up at the last meeting arle aison uh Mr kamacho was on the phone the next morning with the our business administrator and the County engineer and they're going to be working on installing and imp painting and painting crosswalks at those uh intersections on Wyoming Avenue so great things happening when everybody works together and those are my reports Deputy Mayor sure um so the environmental commission met um and they're exploring a potential resolution recommending the Banning of bamboo and other invasive species they're also looking into making recommendations for Banning gas powerered leaf blowers so those are um more long-term projects they're working on um and then finally the EC put forth a resolution uh asking the township to add a referendum item on November's ballot for the uh open space trust fund and that's going to be discussed a little later later tonight um the planning board uh unanimously voted that the ordinance revoking the Redevelopment plan for 9 Main Street was not inconsistent with the master plan um so I know that that terminology may seem um a little difficult not inconsistent with the master plan that's basically them saying they approve of it and it goes back to the TC uh and we will be addressing that later tonight uh the historic preservation commission uh met and unanimously passed resolution recommending that the TC directly designate the Short Hills Village as a historical district the first read of the ordinance that will enact this designation is on the agenda for later in this meeting um also the chair of the HPC sent a letter out to the marrywood Nottingham residents announcing that the proposed designation process that started last fall will be removed from the table because it was previously tabled so sort of suspended so it'll be unsuspended and then they're going to officially end that process uh for those designations so they should hopefully provide Comfort to the residents of Marywood Nottingham that the HPC is no longer pursuing uh that District um those are my reports thank you could weall sure thank you uh Recreation committee uh Township resident Bob Ghul presented to the rec committee on Wednesday he has a proposal to add a map kiosk near one of the entrances to Taylor Park commemorating the Forgotten Victory Trail which passed through Milbourne during the American Revolutionary War maybe something for the HPC uh also uh just residents all get your pool golf tennis pickle ball memberships the par three opens on April 1st so right around the corner uh from the Sid uh mil bur Hills restaurant week uh started on March 17th and goes through March 23rd over 40 Restaurants and bakeries are participating uh I've eaten out twice so far so I we're on day two so it's fantastic deals out there uh we're having a webinar for New Jersey businesses um starts at 8:30 on Friday to RSVP you can email Steve gillo uh and then it's the last chance to submit promos for the Metropolitan uh which is opening uh it's the last week to provide content and postcards uh to to Du to the Explorer's office trying to get everything uh put in place nothing to report on the joint Fields right now uh nothing to report on the dispatch uh mayor Romano discussed the uh flood mitigation and a big thank you to everyone on that Committee just doing fantastic work a lot of big things to come uh and then a big congratulations also to Mayor Romano she was honored by the Essex County Township for women's uh history month so congratulations thank you than you committee men Co yeah um the arbor medum had their monthly meeting and J mro Petro was elected to the Board of Trustees um and we also discussed the uh historic preservation ordinance that Frank just mentioned as the Arboretum is part of that District um it is it Township only but of course uh they uh they are part of the district and they were in uh unanimous support of the designation um at the library um just let everybody know that the book Dro that um had been uh taken out of service after the car accident has been reinstalled and the the library trustees wish to thank the DPW for it's putting that um in place so quickly so that's back uh and usable um and then it's time to start getting ready for the book sale it's and it's a huge event um it's the collections will be starting in early April and if you have uh books that uh you no longer want to keep in your house that uh it's a huge fundraiser for the library and I would also encourage you to attend the book sale if you want to add to your collection so thank you thank you uh cane woman Pro us thank you next Wednesday the March 27th at 800m in this room is the downtown circulation Improvement meeting where the um concept plan for two-way on S6 Street will be discussed so please come out and there's also a zoom option thank you uh Mr McDonald uh yes just a few brief reports um just a reminder that uh the budget uh will be forthcoming for introduction to the township committee on April 2nd uh after which we will have a budget information session not the week of Spring Break um in between uh the introdu and uh adoption which is scheduled for the 1 May meeting uh just wanted to provide some information to the public and to the committee that the fire department is the proud recipient of a $75,000 grant for U PPE or turnout gear uh the police department has also applied for a grant for distracted driving uh and the rec department is currently in the process of applying for a grant for uh additional tailor Park lighting um so we're continuing our activities to find grant money and grant opportunities doesn't mean that we don't necessarily get them all but uh but happy to report that the fire department got another firefighter assistance grant for $75,000 um just to those uh neighborhoods that have been impacted uh by uh quite a bit of PSC work um we have met with psng and we went through the paving plan for uh this spring and we are uh pleased to report that we are um in in particular in the Washington section going to be able to get uh between the Township's efforts and PSG and's efforts uh all of the roads that were impacted uh paved curb to curb um so uh the only street that is left out of that uh is meer because there was no work done on Meer uh but uh but Blaine Church Rector Taylor spring Willow um mechanic ocean Orchard will all be paved uh curb to curb uh in addition to Glenwood section um will also be addressed uh from the impacts of uh psng um we are um we're currently working through that but pine pine Terrace East Pine Terrace West um uh Wellington you know and and various streets over there are also going to be paved curb to curb our goal is continuing to get uh curb to curb through uh credits that the township has done through its Paving process um so that that PSG can uh pave a road curb to curb um beachcraft area that is currently being worked on and nearly complete uh that will be later later on um in the spring uh so they can have time for The Trenches to settle uh just a update on the Fairfield uh Drive issue um with regard to the paving project that was um uh halted up there as a result of an underground conduit uh in the roadway that is uh too shallow for us to perform Milling uh we've been in consistent contact with jcpnl since November uh trying to uh get them to go out and address the issue uh I'm happy to report that till request a company that will be doing the measurement of the depth of that conduit to ensure that it is either at a is at a safe depth or whether work needs to be done to create it uh put it at a at a new depth a safe depth uh is is forthcoming they they finally gotten a contract with utel request and and are scheduling that work so uh that is also forthcoming thank you Mr thank you mayor good evening um the only update I have is I know some following the filings on our fair share housing uh litigation um the current return date for the Motions um is March 28th it has not been officially adjourned yet but I did get a call from the court today and it looks like it will be rescheduled for either April 8th or April 9th uh with April 9th probably being the preference um it's not official yet I know a lot of you follow the docket uh once it's official we'll make that announcement um but it looks like there will be an adjournment of that date based on Fair Share houses request of an adjournment of that date thank you thank you okay um so now i' like to introduce priia Patel uh from the environmental commission who will be presenting this evening on the proposed open State open space tax referendum to bring to the voters great welcome thank you all right well thank you everyone for allowing us the opportunity to present to you about open space um I'm just going to run through some slides as quickly as I can just to give you an overview of what we are talking about here so um conserving open space managing growth through local financing so next slide too the real question that we're trying to answer is how can we protect the open space that we currently have in town and also create more wherever possible so that kind of leads to the question well what is open space so many of us know what it is sort of um figuratively it's open land um but definitively it's undeveloped or can be undeveloped property it can be privately owned publicly owned um it could be somewhat improved or partially developed um it can be underutilized and they're purchased and then developed um and preserved into open space and in New Jersey Sports Fields like um are the ones that we use um by that are used by our rec department are also considered open space so some examples of open space in our town are obviously South Mountain reservation Taylor Park um old Short Hills Park um the Fox Hill preserve which is up in Deerfield section and and often um called the Oki tract and why open space matters I mean this is pretty self-explanatory but um you know I think it it certainly enhances the beauty of our town um provides recreational opportunities reduces noise and air pollution and it gives water a place to go we obviously have a lot of experience with catastrophic flooding in this town and open space Al allows water to to drain properly and not flood our streets and enter our drains we conducted some surveying earlier this I believe it was and we found um that people in our town really love open space they're very heavy users of it um they want more and they prioritize certain things such as you know more amenities they want safety so perhaps more lighting and they also voiced an interest in protecting the the water and the natural resources that are in our town so a way to pay for open space is through local financing and local financing can take the form of bond or dedicated tax um and past decades many local governments around the state have adopted measures to um to locally finan open space through um ballot measures and that's what we're talking about today is actually putting a question on the ballot this upcoming November that would basically create a fund for open space um you can see by the numbers that it's a pretty popular um mechanism 440 and Counting out of the 562 State County Municipal questions um 80% have been passed in the last 30 years so the fund can be used to buy property that's for sale or to convert it to open space we could also use the fund to um to accept donations from individuals that are you know moving on from the township and are looking to um sell their property and then they could sell it to the the township um you know for fair market value and then we could convert it into a pocket park um it can also be used to maintain what is currently open space and sort of the downstream effect of it would be to address some the problem somewhat of overdevelopment by taking basically this land that could be sold to a developer and purchasing it and preserving it as open space so the benefits again I think are pretty um you know self-explanatory but certainly one use could be to convert unused Lots into Green Space restore Forest Meadows and woodlands in our town which would then increase biodiversity which would mitigate flooding um combat heat island effect increase our climate resilience as a municipality and also fund Parks and Rec fields which many people have expressed in a real need for and one thing I forgot to mention was that open space funding in New Jersey can also be used to preserve preserve historical sites so the benefits local funding is really the foundation of any long-term conservation effect effort and we see this across the state and you know and the and the reasons are are many but primarily because external funding you know oftentimes requires an upfront match and you know external funding can also be hard to procure it can be unreliable you know it may be available one year but then may not be the next year so you know local financing is as you think local it's hyper local we the residents dictate the priorities so it's it really affords us a level of autonomy so how's it funded um essentially it would involve leving and additional tax per $100 of assessed property value all 21 counties in New Jersey have a tax and they range from anywhere between um 025 cents per 00 in Bergen all the way up to 6 cents in Warren and so these are some of the towns in Essex County that have one you can see that they all kind of fall in the range of one cent and then Madison which is obviously not in Essex it's in Morris but I wanted to give an example of some comparable towns Madison has a two cent tax and new prob has a one cent tax and New Providence is in Union County so we've talked to other towns um and they are very happy with the results um they're able to convert you know unused property into beautiful gardens they're able to pay for um playground upgrades um and maintain open space and every town again because it's very very local um they're really able to dictate what their priorities are so if Town priorities are um maintaining you know more grassy grassy areas creating pocket Parks then that's how the money can be used if the priority is on um you know recreational Fields then that's how the money can be used so to give you a sense of what the steps would be first the environmental commission would draft and pass a resolution which is what we did at our at our last meeting and we passed a unanimously passed a resolution for one cent then we introduced the resolution for a ballot measure to all of you and that's what we're doing this evening and as you can see we passed it on January 23d and it was for a 1-cent tax the ballot measure would be for this upcoming November election and just to give you a sense of how the math Works um again there that's an error in the slide um it shouldn't be two cents it's actually one cent so for example if a home is assessed at $1 million a resident would pay and that's incorrect would be paying $100 annually and this is what it would look like you've seen this on a ballot um for or School bonds it would just go as a question in the corner and that would be the wording and this is just an example from P Point Pleasant so if the if you all approve the resolution then it would be submitted to the county to be put on the ballot and the deadline for that is mid July and then between now and the November election the environmental commission us along with the rec department and other um stakeholders would engage in a very intensive public Outreach and education campaign so that residents are informed they know exactly what this is about um we would hold information sessions at the library at the schools um obviously push out as much information as possible via social media and print and broadcast um and just make sure that everyone is is informed as possible and then you know the last step would obviously be to vote so after November if the measure is passed the next step would then be for all of you to pass an ordinance which would establish this fund and that ordinance would clearly State what can and cannot be funded by this um trust fund and also would be could dictate terms so for instance there are some towns that indicate a sunset like after five years the fund will shut down um you know that's entirely up to all of you so this is just really the time frame and nutshell so January we introduced the resolution we're here now in March um our clerk would then submit the measure to the county and then over the summer really is when we would do the the really um the hard work of educating our Township and November they get to vote Yes or no so just to give you a sense of Revenue potential Revenue um the average assess value of class to that's Residential Properties is 1.3 million and with a 1-cent tax that would raise $128 roughly per household times the number of those properties so we would get be able to raise about 800,000 a year for open space and some eligible projects this is just from talking to um folks that work for wreck and um historical preservation um Forest restoration at the Arboretum um apparently many trees I think 80% of their beach trees are being impacted by beach leaf disease so this could potentially fund Forest restoration there um purchasing or leasing of new fields for sports and recreation lighting of existing fields or lighting of Taylor park I think that was mentioned earlier new Community Center jop Park some of these things are you know on the W Department's wish list parcel House rehabilitation and the Short Hills train station Rehabilitation another eligible project could be preserving the 32 acre Oki tract is a mini forest with Trails or um potentially convert in 132 mbour app which is the former Exon station um right on the corner of box Hall in Milbourne and turning that into a pocket park so you can see there's like at the upper right corner is what it looks like right now which is kind of a hideous eyesore and and somebody kind of created a collage for me that would turn it into a like a a site that would commemorate the Battle of Springfield um with this you know with some seaing along the river so that's potentially something that could be funded by this project I mean by this fund so I wanted to just throw out the big picture opportunity so we have about 119 Acres of class um one vacant land and we have um about 480 Acres of class 15 so that's publicly and privately owned vacing land so in total 600 acres of open space are in our town right now and you know the fund could potentially be used towards purchasing those acres and converting them into open space giving water somewhere to go reducing the flooding in our town improving water quality and in in general enhancing the quality of life in town so the question today is really about the ballot measure and we really believe that this ballot measure would give voters a direct opportunity to weigh in on this issue of open space and you know obviously it's an extremely powerful way for voters to you know to to Really Express you know what came out in the survey which is that open space is a huge priority um overdevelopment is a huge concern and we believe the trust fund could address both of those priorities in our town so that's really it um thank you for your time and if you have any questions Renee and I can answer them thank you thank you so [Applause] much any committee members have any questions or comments committee Cohen so on your slide where you had that estimate you looked at residential property but commercial would wouldn't commercial property also then be taxed so the number would be the annual number that you have that's much lower there would actually be even a lot more when you when you add in all the commercial property yes that is correct so I had a question um are there matching County funds that are potentially available uh to us um you know for projects that we do with the funds that would be established by this reserve and if there are is that something we can only get if we have an open space I believe yes now I know for sure that there are state funds available through the Green Acres Program that 100% yes um we in fact one of the criteria for accessing that money is to have a local funding mechanism they want to make sure that a municipality has skin in the game so the only way you can access that that money is by having a trust fund and that's why half of Essex County towns do have this because they know it's way for them to get these State dollars regarding the county money I believe that's also true but I'm not 100% certain um but we can find that find out for you yes so we're basically at a disadvantage if we don't have this tax in place because there's potential sources of outside funding that we're not able to take advantage of and it certainly seems like for most households it's going to be a very small fee and it sounds like it could go a long way towards combating overdevelopment and also addressing Recreation Fields right absolutely I mean Deputy Mayor um money and that's been brought up many times before I gave this similar presentation two years ago and that was brought up by other folks um on the committee who said you know it's it's money that we're leaving on the table and other towns are being able to access it so you know if we could if we could set up this fund and we get to control it it's a local fund we set up a um a committee and there's very direct oversight by the elected officials and by stakeholders um um so it's it's yeah I I that's really why we are strong advocates for it and if it you know after certain amount of time five years 10 years whatever you know you guys decide you know what maybe we don't need this anymore we've built up enough of a reserve is it something that has to continue in perpetuity or can it be assessed no not at all in fact um I don't know the exact number of the towns that have a sunset period of three years or five years but um some absolutely it's it's the terms of the fund are controlled by the elected officials so again once November comes around if we get to the point where it gets on the ballot and people weigh in and everyone weighs in on the yes side then it's really up to all of you to create those terms for this fund um and just like any other commission or local government body which is comprising stakeholders um folks from town hall you know everyone gets to weigh in and it's it's done all sort of in the the light of day great that's great anyone else have any questions yeah sure so it also gives us significant autonomy and flexibility and and also being able to move very nimbly when opportunities arise uh so for the builds and the other sporting activities and uh things there's no ambigu we can use it for sporting fields and wreck fields and things along those uh those absolutely yeah I mean I know that Renee and I as members of the environmental commission would prefer pollinator Gardens and forests and you know and all of that all the birds and fairies but um there are there are there are definite priorities in this town um we need recck Fields as many people have expressed so yes absolutely in the state of New Jersey wck Fields count as open space and similarly um historical preservation um the money can be used for historical preservation right good and and obviously you know giving the water situation we have having somewhere to go it's you know very top of a list right now in terms of uh reducing flooding so it's you know we're going through a lot of measures there um you know Sean Klein the mayor in Livingston did you have a chance to sit with him and understand how he's used utilizing uh the uh overid space tax honestly I haven't spoken to him about this in at least a year um but he was a very strong advocate for this um the reality is is that New Jersey is the most paved over state in the country so you know we need more open space for the water to go somewhere and Livingston has done a really great job of creating those Open Spaces to address you know certainly the the concerns of the community and the needs um for recreation but also to help with I'd certainly be willing to set that meeting up with you and rene' like to have that fafe done fantastic with that open space tax uh also you know what Frank was mentioning uh with Essex County tax and we pay a lot of money to Essex County we're the first or second largest taxpayer in Essex County so we should definitely be participating and not leaving uh you know we get very little back in return so we're leaving any money's on the table we should be uh matching receiving back Etc participating in any open space funds matching that they have y so I know they yeah Livingston acquired a few properties using their open space fund uh that really has benefited the community by keeping it green and providing you know Green Space for living and they did it through this this money and this the raising of this money I think you the tax up as 2% for living yeah I think it might be three now Jared the more land that we designate as open space does that help us in the vacant land analysis when it's time to compute fair share numbers uh well it gets put on The Rosy potentially but that's a whole process so the answer is is it's unclear okay I just want to thank you for all your hard work on this presentation I know that we've been discussing this for a long time and I I think it's going to pass at least to get on the referendum so it's really exciting so thank you well thank you persevering I'll give yeah you were one of the original Advocates so I I do appreciate your support thank you I just want to add to that there's already up on the environmental commission's pages on the Township's website you can click on open space trust fund and it will give you an overview everybody who's listening out there um about what what this is all about and what the parameters are so you can get your questions ready for all of the coming info sessions that will be held yes SL deck up there awesome thank you so much not yet SL there yeah all right thank you all right thank you thank you thank you very much public comment when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector clearly state your name and whether you were a Milburn res resident and or property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public for the convenience of our community there is a remote option if you call in and would like to comment please press star six now if you are attending by computer or or electronic device please click the raiseed hand button and be sure your video is on when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session you will be prompted when there is 30 seconds remaining a reminder this is not a time for dialogue or to debate a matter and this is time during our business meeting for the Public Public to offer comments I will now open the public comment period Carol kers Wyoming resident and I wanted to thank you all on the committee and the county for the amazingly rapid response to our request to address the White oming Avenue situation while thinking about crosswalks I had some additional thought which I would like to add while a motor is stopping for a pedestrian while they are navigating a crosswalk may seem to be common sense it certainly appears that many motorists are likely not even aware that the state revised its crosswalk law in 2010 which now requires drivers to come to a stop for pedestrians in a crossw and remain stopped until they are one Lan away as well as an awareness of the fine imposed for failing to do so while there may be some who would choose to ignore this I firmly believe that the vast majority of motorists and pedestrians may very well be ignorant of the law and its penalties as there does not appear to be any established or at least effective communication Avenue that would update already licensed drivers or pedestrians to new state laws as they become effective this being the case I would like to urge that as the county puts in these much needed crosswalks homing Avenue that they also put signage alerting motorists to the requirements of the law and the implications for not following it um I have information that the countyy put out including a nice picture of what could be a sign so I wanted to just give thank you thank you so much Leah Cruz resident um I hope nobody throws Tomatoes at me but I'm against Banning gas powerered um leaf blowers at this time um to me I don't really know many people who do their own Lawns and it feels like a little bit of an elitist attitude to say well we're going to force these um hardworking landscapers to change and buy new equipment I could be convinced otherwise so I'm hoping tonight there'll be some discussion about um what other towns have done because I know other towns have banned them and I wonder how it has worked out so um I hope somebody can answer that question at some point tonight thank you thank you hi Renee paparian I'm a resident I would like to answer Leah's question even though I know I'm supposed to be addressing you I invite you everyone here and everyone in the township to come to an environmental commission meeting that is scheduled for April 11th 7 o'clock April 11th correct I believe so 7 o'clock right here in this room where there will be a presentation all about banning gas powered leaf blowers so we will try to advertise this again but Leah please attend I'll be away but thank you thank you hi Antonio brona M resident um the gas Lea blower thing was new to me uh I didn't realize we were going the way Maplewood went um I have plenty of friends that are land scapers that are they're they're they're they're affected by it because they cannot raise their prices due to the fact that it takes twice as long to clean the properties without the gas powered Lea blowers it's not really what's the difference between running a low mower or a gas blower I mean it's to me it's just nonsense uh number two is uh the um the Revival of the main street closure possibly this year um again I think it's nonsense I don't think it needs to be done I don't think that there's any reason that they need to take that space away from traffic I I think it hurts the local business owners more than it helps um I feel like it's cattle in a pen and I feel like there's no reason for it to be closed on Monday afternoon every restaurant closes one day a week there anything can happen on any day that that could hinder somebody being well or not well um so uh again I just I I I just don't understand why that's coming up again I understand people want music and people want chalk art and people want this and that whatever there's a 13 acre Park right next to it where all the music and all the chalk art and all the programs and all the yoga and all the whatever else people want to do here can do in the park I just don't understand why that main vein section needs to be closed for 10 days 15 days 20 days 70 days whatever it may be so that's that's all thanks thank you suan Val I'm a resident in town I have to second what Anthony brought up talking about closing street are we doing this again have we not learned from last year's incident what happened or or are we going to wait for somebody to die this time it just really irritates me that you guys are thinking of closing Main Street again it's a main artery to a hospital we need to get to a hospital if you live south of Milbourne avenu you live in Springfield you're you could be dead by the time it gets to the hospital diverting around this town and the congestion in it it does not need to be closed go to the park have your dinners at the park have the parking lot you got the parking lot over there by uh on off essic Street in Maine there's a big parking lot pergola uses it kame uses it why do you have to close down Main Street a main artery to a hospital because you know what doing that somebody's main artery is going to close in their body it's ridiculous I don't know what we haven't learned from last year you know my husband almost died last year trying to get to the hospital on June 30th he almost died next time somebody might and this town will be stuck with some lawsuit over that because it's senseless it's pointless it's dumb okay I don't know really if who's getting paid off for this but to close it down what business businesses are wanting this can't go and serve on a sidewalk you're doing it now it wasn't it we're not in covid anymore don't close Main Street because somebody is gonna literally die one day we we've come close to it last year and I'm telling you you're waiting for a law suit and you the town's going to suffer the town is going to suffer and it should suffer if somebody dies because they can't get to a hospital in time I talked to you in the park I talked to you Ben in the park one time I talk to another gentleman they all agreed that's why I'm here because closing it is just ridiculous and you should really think twice thank you thank you kers mour resident um I was really very excited hearing uh Miss Patel's presentation and I was thinking um you know we're really fortunate to have we've got a big bucket in this Township of of residents values and property values and it's one of the reasons we keep our our tax rat so low and I think we can use it you know if my math is right this fund the way it's presented one cent on $100 is going to be 110,000 of assessed value of properties which is pretty dramatic I mean dramatically low I think people hearing that fraction you know would it would help them to support it um I think it's a tremendous tool for the town to have we're lucky to have this much value in here um we're we're giving up an amount that I know for for myself my property we're never going to miss it and it's going to be the power of numbers to I'm I'm amazed at the number that can be raised the first year and that's without um commercial properties um and I can't wait for the town to make plans to start using the money it just gives us control I know West Orange has a group that's trying to preserve a forest up there for this flood control the same thing and I guess if they had the funds they would probably go ahead and buy it and it's going to be crucial for flood control um and thinking of the property that was mentioned at the corner of H boxhall in Milburn Avenue we're by there all the time and you know there's always a water problem down there so to take one small example if that was deconstructed and could absorb some of the water that overflows you just would not have water in the streets you know down on Vall like we do plus that tremendous isur that's been there for 10 years or so would would be gone so I I'm very excited about the possibilities for this I think the one thing that'll be important is uh assuming this goes through and I think it will is to have um some kind of um group that represents the township and the residents to see what to do with this money because I can see right away there's going to be all people are going to have all kinds of ideas some people are going to prefer recreational things some people lighting some people more natural types of things or or flood control so I think that's down the road but I I just think it's a fantastic idea and I'm glad that we finally got to it thank you thank you Char DWI Short Hills resident I think the open uh space fund is a great idea I think it raises a lot of questions though as far as mechanism because we're talking about a tax and if it's been report I saw a report today that's saying that gas tax new jerseyy got go up by about two cents so what happens when you say tax it changes the whole mindset all a sudden my costs are going up if you include commercial in that that's going to be passed along to the consumer costs are going to go up I think you have to look and think about what should be the mechanism to get the funding a thought could be on transfer of property so in a sale of a property put a put a fee on that that 1% buyer pays that off to the fund if the if my numbers are about right I think in 2023 there was about 127 million in residential Property Transfers purchases of properties take one% of that it's 1.2 almost $1.3 million right there in one year so if you and you can do that on and on it's a great way of doing it a lot of places do that Massachusetts they do it they get a lot of money they're able to do exactly what you're want to do I think you got to think about that before you vote on this what's that real mechanism you really want to put in place and then also questions will come up about how does this get administered as the gentleman before me said you know how are you going to govern this how you GNA put the body together to really oversee it because you know what what people would think put politicians in charge we we could end up in a bad spot no offense to anybody at at the days I think about it the writing how this is written before you vote on it thank you thank you um good evening my name is Jeffrey Feld longtime resident of the poet section um most of my comments now are gonna be based on the agenda but first I want to go back to a comment that I made about September 2020 especially in light of the litigation I make my call for like a public library of the pleadings I think the community needs to see the pleadings that have been filed they should be posted on the public website also I think the the township and Township committee members need to see the Main Street New Jersey application that was filed last week and everyone could draw their own conclusions from that as to the agenda the bill list when you look at the attorney's requisitions at the February meeting you paid his January retainer when I made the op request there was no backup this on this bill list there's payments listing requisitions for work that's done are we getting a $6,000 credit like we did um with mariz Falcon I don't know that also on this bill list the payment to defending the fair share housing litigations coming from General funds in February it came out of the trust account and the judge made that an issue there's a payment that we're paying for the Sid to send out the assessment when the Sid gets the payments from the assessment will be netted out of those cost of collection I just asked that um also there's references to payments for seminars for a controller do we have a controller I'm not aware of if there is an employee that's being designated controller I guess it should be listed on the finance public U website because there seems to be payments for someone to go to seminars you know for public um purchasing and um being a controller also did we ever close 22 East Willow Court because from the billis you can't tell whether we paid off made the the closing and we paid off those monies um as to the historical preservation resolution you look at the eth whereas Clause it indicates that there was a public hearing held today I don't think that's a true statement this is the things that courts are looking at to see how honest we are as to the proposed anti-nepotism ordinance which is best practices um what's the source the template um why the delay for adopting it and what advisory committees will be carved out from that um coverage and how do you enforce it if a citizen sees that there is a appearance of PR priority or conflict how do we enforce it do we go to the the ba I just think that needs to be clarified and also a shout out to um Richie we were talking about the march of Springfield uh battle on your daughter's wedding in Union that one of the churches is holding a uh historical seminar on that sat Sunday um April uh 8th that ties in because I think the area is looking into the history of this town but to just answer those kind of questions because the bis because the bis is very important thank you because bis is what we call shami Cooper Charles Bambara uh uh resident for 27 years um uh in 1872 uh Stuart harson had a vision uh it it was the first planned commuter suburb in the country and that was Short Hills Village with the uh beautiful train station and the surrounding neighborhoods that is for certain historic there are other sections of this town that are historic I'm sad to see that the uh Nottingham district and and the the adjacent District uh uh was removed from the list I think it's a lost opportunity I think that the people uh are looking at it the wrong way and perhaps need to be educated uh perhaps there can be some kind of an incentive for residents as being stewards of a historic property to to offset uh some of the limitations um but uh historic properties have a benefit to the town and protection of those historic properties is protecting the heritage of the town and if done properly it doesn't have to be limiting to those to those residents so uh sad to see what happens in one section of town and I'm hoping that the Short Hills Village does pass and the residents are educated and understand the benefits of that it also protects those properties from other people coming in and tearing it down and putting up some monstrosity of a house that's out of character with the rest of the neighborhood it it's not just overdevelopment from uh from multiple family units but it's also inappropriate unfitting architecture that doesn't match the neighborhood that becomes an eyesore and that's the way to protect that I hope that the residents see that as a protection for themselves as well thank you thank you yeah before I start I would like to if you don't mind just and I apologize Council may I give this okay I got five so I didn't I apologize send a link but is development guidelines for Summit New Jersey the city of summit this is just a part of the packet that they have on their eode development regulations neace sorry I like it okay start sorry about that okay so I'm speaking um start with your name Christine best and I live in Short Hills and um 27 years I should have not said I lived where I lived but whatever um so I'm speaking I'm speaking tonight about Builders and overdevelopment and I want to speak right after Charlie because I totally concur with what he speaks about and I'm very concerned about possible protections that may not be put into place for the Short Hills Village um so this is an important comment I really believe in what Summit is doing with their development guidelines and I think they actually have a list of dos and don'ts in architecture and building codes and it's fabulous and we should really look to it as a model for our Township so I just want to start off I'm going to probably read in both of my comment sections there is a reason why Builders shop land in our town because we have lacked zoning planning and Engineering codes who benefits from Builders developing residentially as a home flip I've come to many conclusions as to why some communities succeed and others fail after living in msh for 12 years I can see the cracks in the facade that is our community a Broken Foundation chipped Away by special interests of individuals primarily in the development business or that have their own pet project goals as it relates to development one might question why we have the head of a planning board that has an urban planning background running a village like a city what are their interests is M Milburn a personal Vision to create into an urban Utopia with the likes of so much egregious Downtown Development one must raise an eyebrow can a prior mayor who was real estate brok or make those hard decisions about partnering with builders that lack design or Community planning initi IES that benefit the continued responsible development of your hometown should we consider making such an occupation a disqualified for disqualifier for TC committee or any planning committee in the township can a local engineering firm that comes up for approvals in front of Township employees also be the engineer that works for our Town's interests conflicts of interests such as this break foundations of our physical Beauty and functionality and our town has many along with numerous residents I do not want to see our well-planned municipality fractured Milburn does not have to accept the type of cookie cutter development that is infiltrating our town and turning it into another Suburban faceless Place let's capitalize on our distinctive assets the architecture the history and natural surroundings rather than adopt a new soulless identity one of the main reasons townships hold their value is the physical Beauty and unique characteristics of the township as well as Unity of the community valuing such things the school in proximity to work and access easy Transportation or other factors but not the driving Factor luckily Milburn is currently the trifect on this with a solid School epic Transportation with no parking weight list and on both stations and beautiful housing stock along with gifted open space thank you to you guys the downtown is another story and seems to be attracting what I call architectural designer and developer parasites I know there will be a lot of naysayers on this comment and I'm going to finish later thank you thank you hello Adam mayor Deputy Mayor Township committee administrators fellow residents of Milbourne uh thank you for giving me time to speak about the open space proposal my name is Bill brazelle my wife Victoria and our three daughters live in Milburn a short block from Taylor Park uh our two older girls walk through the park every day to get to Milbourne high and Milbourne middle schools um I jog through it early in the morning most weeks and it's lovely to pass the pond and the open space around it just as I'm waking up when I'm upset about something I'll often walk in that Park to sort out my thoughts it doesn't always solve what's vexing me but I always feel better more human uh after seeing the trees the moving water and the other people and whatever my mood I can't help smiling when I see a toddler learning to walk on that path Taylor Park in its playground helped lure us to murn from Brooklyn many other families have likewise been drawn here by the sight of kids and grown-ups walking laughing reading riding bikes playing softball and soccer flying kites this is a big part of why our property values are so high more trees less pavement that's why so many of us gave up cool Urban Apartments for lawns that need mowing we wanted our kids to have grass to play on our family is lucky to live soose close to Taylor Park and we would like more Town's people to have more public green spaces nearby I believe most residents feel the same way that we would like to see more public green spaces rather than fewer and would be willing to pay a small amount to make that happen I won't ask you to accept my opinion of course I'm asking you to please let's put this to the public let's enable milburn's voters to tell us what they want let's put the open space question on the ballot please so can all decide together whether we would like Milburn to offer its residents more open green spaces thank you thank you good evening my name's Armand valis I'm a resident homeowner uh in Milbourne I'm uh the gentleman that almost passed away uh June 30th trying to get through town once I got to the hospital because we had to detour once I got to the hospital I had two more heart heart attacks um prolonging me getting to the hospital just does more damage to your heart I was actually at the hospital today um I don't know if it's necessary anybody have it has anybody seen traffic going through town down Main Street trying to get up through Short Hills or coming down through Short Hills trying to get through Town um I don't know why it's got to be closed up you know it's a direct route to the hospital um have has anybody considered uh some kind of option or something to do so this way people don't have to detour around around town to get to the hospital has anybody talked about it we'll respond after all the all the comments are done oh yeah you'll respond I'm just asking if somebody talked about it like what can we do to open up town but anyway thanks for your thanks for listening thank you phone on the phone I'm sorry sorry is Al Carlin I've been a resident for a little more than 30 years and what this gentleman just spoke about about dying on his way to the hospital possibly uh he's correct there is absolutely no reason to close uh Milburn Avenue uh well main train uh it's called Disaster Recovery should there be fire and lack of Iana uh Milburn Milburn Diner Goes Up in Flames uh during the summertime how does one get to the hospital it's called a disaster has anyone timed it out what happens if there is a catastrophe downtown there's a flood it rains all of a sudden the roads can are closed how does an emergency vehicle get to the hospital from Springfield from Union multiple multiple crash multiple people are injured someone could die has anyone done the timing I used to work Disaster Recovery what if worst case scenarios have we looked at the worst case scenarios what happens if the tree falls down two different uh roads get blocked off there's a fire what happens someone could die someone will die it's up to the town committee to look at these possibilities before they vote on these issues my opinion this is what I used to do for a living make sure people don't die thank you very much thank you hi Richie cyber resident so it seems like there's a lot of people in the room here that came to talk about the main street closure tonight some people like it some people don't um do I like it no you should ask the people in the room here to raise their hands get a feel from the community how many people would like to see it closed that's it thank you thanks sorry okay I'm sorry hi uh Jean Pastor neck um I I completely support what Bill Roselle just said about the open space putting that on the ballot for referendum I think that's the fairest way to assess the community's desire um and I'm really glad to hear that that's being considered that's a really big step in the right direction um as far as the main street closure I mean I hear both sides and I think each has a valid point Point uh there has to be balance and the solution doesn't have to be all or nothing there are other locations you can limit times we can find a way to keep everyone a little unhappy which means that you've got a good solution I think um on the on the other hand seeing this gentlemen come and speak I mean there really is no price on a life um and I think our safety and your protection of us is your Paramount job and so I hope that will be strongly considered in this solution and um this is the last time I'm going to ask but I've asked several times and I'm going to ask again hoping that it will be answered this time uh will there be a long range planning effort strategic type planning effort initiated for Capital spending for Milburn Township I don't see how you can assess the approval of projects and all the infrastructure work that's going to have to be done with our fair share housing plan when there's no overall plan so I'd like to hear from you on that thank thank you thank you so good evening can you hear us oh yes hi thank you hi um I'm sorry I couldn't make it in tonight I would have really rather been there in person um but I wanted to talk about um the status of the legal proceedings on Fair Share housing um me many residents signed the P petition to reject the nine Main Street Redevelopment pro project which is on tonight's agenda for approval um of repealing the ordinance um I'm one of the many who were and still are concerned about our legal vulnerability the expense of defending the township and the potential punitive action the court or fair share housing might take um even someone with a legal background who doesn't specialize in affordable housing would need a tutorial to translate the documents and assess our current position and I've read the Redevelopment agreement and all everything that's been filed that I could read that was on Facebook posted by fare housing or RPM Township or David Cosgrove I think all residents um those who were and continue to be so stridently against the nine Main Street project and in favor of the township committee's decision to withhold the execution of the redevelopers agreement with RPM need and deserve a uh a comprehensible up date as far as I can tell from what I've read and I know this is going to be overly simplistic four of our primary defense arguments seem to be asserting that we should have been seen as operating in good faith by virtue of our having committed to or built affordable housing units without being pressured that maintaining the development of the site um is now known or maintaining Our obligation to redevelop the site is now known to be far more expensive than it was thought to be when it was designated to the amount of Hazmat that we now know is present uh demanding the judge should recuse herself due to bias and asserting that we can and will find an alternative site soon for a 75 unit affordable 100% affordable development um I'd like to suggest that an information session prior to March 28th I understand now it might be April 8th or 9th much like the one we have for the paper mold Playhouse with a Q&A a public Q&A session um is should be held because I really believe it could avert um the flare of emotions that results from either not having enough information or having too much misinformation and thank you for your time thank you anyone else ons okay can you turn your camera on there you go the options before Susan Blackburn I live in Short Hills and I'm I originally called and I still agree I mean I'm in support of uh designating Short Hills Village a historical area um disappointed that the historical district in Nottingham wasn't uh properly explained to the people that were objecting because usually in these places you can it doesn't affect your own house unless your house is historic but in any event um I'm totally a th% in favor of doing it on in the chadam road area and I only wish we could have done it five 5 years ago the other thing I just wanted to uh clarify is the 1% of 1 million because 1% of1 million is $10,000 so we need to be clear that it's 0.01% because our real estate taxes now I think are 8% so we don't want to add and make it 9% so just uh putting my two cents of since it's only about five days since Pi de that's it thank you thank you good evening good evening Mar Mano um can you guys hear me I can hear you yes all right perfect thank you good evening everybody um just a little bit louder I think if you could just okay um hello everybody good evening my name is anurak padan and I'm a resident of Short Hills and our home is in the marrywood Nottingham District I've spoken to you before uh to share mine and our neighbors opposition to the designation of our district as historic I'm here today to cover two topics uh related to the HBC and and our district uh last week we received a letter uh dated March 14th from the chair of HBC Miss ganfield uh that she'll be proposing a motion during the April 4th HBC meeting uh to discommendation of our district as historic I must say I've never heard that word before and when you hear some words like that you know you are in policymaking now um anyways U this is a a welcome development and I know that some of the members of the committee have been speaking to many of us listening uh our um views and HBC is doing that too um but we I'm here to reiterate that we continue to oppose that historic designation and we hope that on April 4th the HBC members will vote to pass the motion to disc commend the designation of our district as historic uh second topic uh there's a vacancy I believe an alternate um on the HB and one of our fellow residents Mr vanesh chatal has submitted his interest to be appointed to that uh open slot and I'm here to encourage all of the members of the committee to unanimously vote and appoint vanes to the HBC just like how you all unanimously um appointed the other members in during the reorganization process that would be amazing now briefly I would change where I was going but I did hear some of my fellow residents be who came before me today who spoke in favor of preserving our Township's historical uh characteristics and save our town from overdevelopment I want to say that many of us who live in marrywood Nottingham District do not want overdevelopment either but let's understand that we cannot solve that problem or accomplish those goals by just cherry-picking only 153 homes in the entire town and putting them in a historic designation so that's one comment I would make in response to all of my fellow residents thank you for your time and I hope to be back here after the HBC meeting and celebrate the passage of the disc Amendment thank you thank you good evening good evening can you turn your camera oh there you go there it go sorry I'm trying to get it all um Perry erso 514 M Avenue in Short Hills um actually calling um from Enzo's tonight as we do not benefit from the main street closure we'll perhaps maybe the adverse effect however together with my husband as a restaurant tour of 30 years we would much rather be slow than busy at the expense of our valued patrons families and friends therefore there is no good time to have a street closure as one cannot predict an emergency thank you very much for your time have a nice evening thank you thank you good evening Jerry Kung short House resident um I apologize I know this has been brought up before and if it has been produced um it'd be good to have it public have the Police Department fire department and St Barnabas signed off on the street closure um and if so can that be made public and shared with the town's people um I know the Tera you mentioned sorry committee womaning purpose you mentioned uh there's the two-way Essex proposal going on next week um what's the time line for this is that going to intersect with the proposed main street closure because if main Street's closed and Essex is two ways I don't know how emergency vehicles can navigate um I if I mean I I don't know it just seems like it could be complicated and if that's going to intersect then maybe the Police Department fire department and Hospital should be made aware of it in case that changes their determination as to whether or not that's a good idea um so just some things to think about I know there's a lot of moving pieces uh thank you for everything you do and have a good evening thank you okay I will now close the public comment period would any members of the committee like to respond to any public comments committee Moler sure I'll start where did the oh there he is good um so the main street closure that's coming it's going to come up uh you know it's really we've asked we've requested Studies by fire police traffic and St Barnabas so those are the four studies we've requested they are the experts on emergencies without those studies I'm G to be hard pressed to close anything now all during the heat of the summer and the closure of summer when you know most of the when the town empties out we're going to ask police and fire and St Barnabas and a traffic study to be done and tell us what they feel is appropriate and they are the resident experts so we're looking forward for those studies to help us make that decision and we will do the analytical work but as I've said time and time before when a person's life is on the line a resident's life is on the line you know it's very difficult to make a decision and you never know when an emergency is going to happen now I've been told by many people that we can change lights the lights and emergency vehicles change everything on the Fly and there's never going to be a backup well I do want to see it I want to be proven that that could be done so that we are not risking anyone's life I don't want there to be those those delays um on the rest of the items here uh gas powered leaf blowers I didn't know we were going to get into that tonight that's going to be fun um so I'll leave that to Renee and Pria uh for for when was the date on that April Thursday April 11th 7 P.M right here okay I'm sure I'm going to be going somewhere for that okay I'll be I'll try to be there um Mr DWI had a good point but I think those numbers you know we just have to make sure those numbers work uh but uh uh so do we have any flexibility I want to know if when we get to that discussion on that do those numbers work but I think that is the mechanism that you are to institute there's like you're not going to be able to get into real estate transactions okay okay good so just understanding that but it's a good idea uh and then um I had one other thing here oh and Mr Feld uh you know on Mr caner retainer you know when you use up the retainer it gets replenished but I'm sure that is matched up against the bills but I'll let him discuss that at some point I can do it now or I can do it during my response you can do it during your response and then uh and if you could answer uh Miss Morgan Harris that'd be great to during your response that on the uh legal vulnerability of the arguments for the fair share housing she was on the zoom uh and then uh always good to see Susan black hadn't seen her in a while uh all right very good that's all I have in color yeah it's never easy to follow comme with Stoler um but it's true we haven't we've started the process on the on the main street closure we have certainly not made any decisions and clearly the Emergency Services reports and sign offs are are critical to whatever decision that we make Deputy Mayor sure um so with regards to the gas powered leaf blowers um I simply brought that up during the reports so that people in the room would be aware that it's something that's being discussed by the EC at this point the EC has not even passed a resolution and they haven't made any recommendation to the township committee um I imagine there are a lot of people with a lot of very strong feelings on either side um and uh I would encourage all of you uh that have those strong feelings to come to the EC meeting uh and hear the presentation ask questions um I know that in my time researching this issue I've learned a lot uh and there's still probably a lot more to be learned um so I would definitely encourage you you know to get involved now while the EC is still trying to to figure that out um Mr braa uh Miss Valdez Mr valz I think I'm butchering your last names I'm sorry um I I hear you on the street closures um I I am at this moment adamantly opposed to the street closures for many of the reasons that you guys brought up um I think Mr Stoler made a good point that you know we really shouldn't even be considering another street closure unless we have all of the data and you know one thing that I think might be good is maybe we don't close it this year and actually conduct studies over the summer uh to establish a baseline of traffic patterns and and see what that looks like because just doing theoretical modeling you know during a different time of the year I I don't think that's as good as getting some actual um you know firsthand um you know people say that the uh definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results um I think we had a very close call last year um and you know look if if these businesses make a few extra bucks over the summer that's not worth someone's life uh so I would really hope that the rest of the committee members here will think long and hard uh before they um take a position on the uh on the main street closures um um see uh for those of you that Express disappointment about the marrywood Nottingham designation um I hear you I think that there needs to be a lot more education uh for Town residents uh with regards to the benefits and you know any potential drawbacks of historic designation uh and I know that's something that I'm working with the HBC on as Lea on uh and um we are hopefully going to be having some public info session soon um so just wanted to put that out there um let's see here I think that that covers what I wanted to cover woman Pro this no good the only thing I want to say is um to to Mrs kersch I think we do do a campaign for stepping in the crosswalk if I'm not mistaken we've done enforcement in the past we've done that before but I think um it's a good suggestion to put some variable message board up to alert people as to whats are we've done that in the past as well yeah and um as far as the main street closure I know there's going to be a lot more discussion about this in the coming weeks and um it's good to see you Mr valz and thank you for coming tonight thank you Mr McDonald um yeah just a few uh I just want to uh there's a resolution on tonight for uh the crosswalks on Wyoming um and it's the township support of the county installing or painting crosswalks just want to set some expectation with that we are listing uh a number of streets there that we feel are are uh reasonable uh for those crosswalks to be placed uh certainly that will be the County's ultimate decision and just want to also uh set expectation that uh in my conversation with the County engineer um the uh any any curb ramps that need to be redone or replaced will be done will be done when they repaved the street um it will not be done when they paint the crosswalks those crosswalks are going to be put in as as as indicated but um any construction of curb ramps and and and that will be done at a at a later time just want to set some expectation do do you have a list of those streets uh they're in the resolution yeah okay y um just again and and I know that I don't really need to say this but I just I do um uh with regard to the main street closure uh obviously it is a very difficult decision um for the T committee it's it's one of those things that um that that will take um some study and understanding um but I just don't I no one's getting paid off I think is really what I would like to just say I don't I don't I don't want to uh have that rhetoric out there I don't think that's um fruitful or productive um Mr DWI I think we answered the question about the mechanism for um for the open space uh tax I think that's also why it's being touted as an open space trust fund um because um that is um probably a nomenclature that is better suited for what it is it will eventually be although the mechanism is uh through an assessment um that is uh that is essentially how it will be housed if it should pass uh it will be in a trust fund with the township Mr Fel to answer your question about the um comp troller um we pride ourselves as a municipal educate our staff uh those are education classes that somebody is taking um uh they are not necessarily com controller classes but as many of you may know there's a certification to become a certified Municipal finance officer those or what those classes are that you're referring to um did uh uh and the 22 East will will be closed on April 5th just to answer that question and I think that is all I have you thank you mayor uh to answer the question about how my Law Firm bills the municipality um the retainer isn't money that's being held the retainer is our firm is on retainer to the township um we're pay that money monthly to provide the regular Services which is are attending these meetings Fielding calls uh doing the regular business speaking to the committee when they call the clerk handling simple opal requests um that's the minimum bill for the month and there is no credit uh towards any other services the other services we provide are fair share housing a separate detailed bill is is given for that we also build for complex oper matters um and we also have a billable uh we also consider a billable trunch and that's when we do services that are outside the regular normal course um and weren't contemplated when we entered into retainer so those are bills that are provided and I know Mr Fu Oprah our bills every month and we redact them appropriately and we take the time to do that so um you're aware of all our Billings um as far as as far as the um fair share housing consequences um I'm not going to get litigation strategy um we do know what fair share housing and RPM are proposing as penalties uh for not passing the RDA um they're seeking uh daily daily fines or increasing fines of the township that those fins cannot be used from our affordable trust fund um they're seeking the enforcement um of that of of specific performance that that non Main Street should go forward and the court could it could issue any orders to allow that to happen um there obviously is legal fees associated with it um there seeking RPM is seeking its legal fees the township would have to pay their legal fees fair share housing is seeking that the township will have to pay their legal fees um so those are all potential consequences um of the township um we're fighting hard those of you have read the papers um I think we've made some good arguments um I think we've made some motions um I do think you know there will be you know obviously some there may be some repercussions to the township perhaps um but we're doing our best um we think we think the settlement agreement provides for what we're doing which is um providing those units in a substitute form which the agreement says um so uh this committee is working really hard um and doing that um and expeditiously um there's really not much more I could say Comm unless you have any specific questions yeah I just want to offer up that um on your on your retainer I speak to Frank and I and Alex and the rest of committee speak to Jared nonstop this fair share housing fight literally is like a second third job for for us I'm on the phone with Jared all weekend my wife's like who's Jared I'm on the phone with Jared when I'm in Florida for winter break when I'm in Toronto on work when he's on V when he's on vacation with his kids so he's literally picking up the phone on a Sunday night or Saturday morning he picked up the the phone I think on when he was on the Golf Course once uh so you know we're in constant contact so we're literally speaking non-stop so uh it really is it's uh it's it is a hard fight and the hours are being put in So yeah thank you thank you Comm are there any comments from the committee in regards to resolution 24- 095 I have a motion to approve resolution 24- 095 so may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mayor s yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes thank you the Township committee will now consider consent agenda resolutions are there any comments from the committee in regards to any items listed on the consent agenda may I have a motion to approve resolution 24-96 through 24-104 which are listed on the consent agenda so may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes M pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes thank you Mr Stoler you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2 665-2437 bur to add a new section 3-4 entitled resident protection to prohibit trespass for the purpose of committing a crime including tampering with or committing the theft or on lawful taking of a motor vehicle breaking and entering burglary and home invasion this ordinate ordinance is an effort by the township committee to use its local legislative powers and provide additional tools and resources to the Milburn Police Department as it works to protect our residents from motor vehicle and property Prime the ordinance is intended to allow for the prosecution of Acts that violate the ordinance should such crimes not be pursued at the county level or for some other reason are remanded to the local court system we believe this is a positive step in our continued commitment to explore all avenues and resources available to us as a governing body to make Milburn a less desirable Target I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with law in the item and for hearing in final passage on Tuesday April 16th 20124 may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes committee woman prus your scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2666 d24 right and before we I read this we have to make an amendment so Mr caner can yes so um so there's going to be a motion to amend this ordinance um section 2- 49.3 the last sentence um reads um this policy does not apply to present employees and shall not restrict nor prohibit the continued employment of individuals to a position or positions with the township where a relative of a permanent employees elected and it says before it should say after so we're going to move uh to amend the ordinance to say after the date of the permanent employees start date of the employment with the township um so before a motion to change the word before to after so on oh sorry I was saying on this ordinance but on ordinance number 2666 okay so moved second roll call vote all in favor roll roll call vote Please Mr pman yes M brus yes deput mayor Sandy yes Mr stroler yes mayor Romano yes I would like to present the amended ordinance entitled ordinance number 2666 d24 in ordinance amending the Township Code of Milburn by amending chapter 2 entitled Administration by creating new section 249 entitled nepotism policy Alex is there anything else you want to say about this no uh as it was indicated this is a best practice we had always add this as a policy and our policy manual uh now we were C great I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with the law in the item for hearing a final passage on Tuesday April 16 2024 may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M puus yes sub mayor second Mandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes okay Deputy Mayor sand you will be sponsoring ordinance 24-105 are there any comments from the committee in regards to 24-105 sorry um I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number two I'm sorry but can I you mind if I just inter go sorry um as Mr F had pointed out um that La that eth whereas does indicate that a hearing was held tonight um it should be revised that it will be held on April 16th at the second reading of the audience y so uh I make a motion that we uh amend that resolution uh and change the date in the eth whereas Clause uh to indicate that uh you know uh we change the date to April 16th right yes so roll call vote Mr Cohen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes okay so now we do 24105 right should I explain the resolution yes goad before we get into the ordance um so what this resolution does um is uh refers to the planning board um our proposed designation of the Short Hills Village District uh and we have a corresponding ordinance which we're going to vote on um the Short Hills Village District encompasses the train stations uh post office the um commerci uh tutor style building um it's to the right of the post office the cor haror Arboretum uh and then I think also the uh the Silverman uh property and then the apartment building behind uh the Short Hills Village commercial District um I actually reached out to all of the affected landlords uh except for Silverman have their contact info uh talked with them and and got their buyin um so you know most of this land is Township own Township owned property um and uh you know it should hopefully not be contentious um and I think it's very important that we protect uh these historic resources um so with that I guess I'll now introduce the ordinance um I would like to present report so now I have does anyone have any questions or so may I have a motion to approve res resolution 24-105 as amended as amended so moved May a second second roll call vote Please Mr colan yes Miss prus yes Deputy Mayor sck Mandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes okay Deputy Mayor second you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2667-20 I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2667-20 ordinance designating the Short Hills Village historic district as a historic district pursuant to the historic preservation ordinance of the township of mburg so just briefly again this will be the township directly designating the Short Hills Village District as historic I move that this ordinance be taken up and passed on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with the law and the item and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday April 16th 2024 may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr cin yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes thank you committee m co and you scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2668-20 uh I would like to present an ordinance entitled ordinance number of Milburn chapter 8 Parks and Recreation areas the purpose of this ordinance is reestablishing the shade tree Advisory Board and establish the appointment of members by resolution and simple majority vote of the township committee the township further wishes to establish the general functions of the Shak tree Advisory board for reference to Future members of the board um basically the the the only change I think in the in the new ordinance as opposed to what was there before was the previous uh resolution specified that they met four times a year now it says a minimum of four times a year which was at their request because they'd like to meet more often and they that was not part of it and as I said when we talked about this in the new business this changes the appointment process of the members of the board I move that this ordinance be taken up and pass on first reading and that the Township Clerk be authorized to have the ordinance published in accordance with law in the item and for hearing and final passage on Tuesday April 16th 2024 may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Colin yesus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes committee M sto your schedule to sponsor ordinance 266 0-24 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance 2660 d24 Bond ordinance to authorize the making of varable public improvements in by and for the township of noar in the county of Essex state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $3,510 th000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation not anticipation of the issuance of such bonds tonight is the time for the public hearing or as advertised in accordance with law I I declare the hearing open I move that this public hearing be closed an ordinance be adopted on Final reading and the township clerk clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with law may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr cin yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes thank you committee MCO and you are to sponsor ordinance 2661 d24 I present for consideration ordinance entitled ordinance number 2661 d24 an ordinance to repeal chapter 2-33 CH Tre Advisory Board the purpose of this ordinance is to repeal is to repeal chapter 2-23 shade tree Advisory Board from the Township's code the township wishes to reconstitute The shry Advisory Board the appeal of chapter 233 is not to eliminate the township shat Tre advisory board but to add flexibility to the way mbour Township addresses boards and committees tonight is the tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open I move that the public hearing be closed and that the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and that the Township Clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with law am I have a second second roll call vot Please Mr Cohen yesus yes Deputy Mayor sakandi yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Romano yes Deputy Mayor se you are scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2662 d24 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 266 2-24 ordinance of the township of Melbourne County of Essex repealing ordinance number Main Street Redevelopment plan dated June 20th 2023 in accordance with the local Redevelopment and Housing law njsa 4A colon 12 A-1 etq don't make up the names tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open um Jeffrey Phil longterm resident I support the repeal of this of the Redevelopment plan however I think the record should have as part of the record or planners report that was presented to the planning board when they had to do the not inconsistent um review because it sets forth all those reasons I also urge that that report and the resolution of the planning board be immediately sent to the judge tomorrow as an exhibit because it explains why we acted in good faith I also think that you should attached the minutes from when it was originally approved when I stood up and I told you it was wrong at some point we had to create the record that this town has acted in good faith that we got bad advice from prior professionals and we had to retain our our rights against them um interesting yesterday the Wall Street Journal published an article about cost of affordable housing it seems that when you do 100% that's based on Government funding the cost is about two to 300,000 regular greater than when you go to um the private Market thank you thank you I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and that the Township Clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with the law so have a second sorry a second roll call vote please Mr Cohen yes Kus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler yes mayor Roman yes thank you so seeing we have no old business and no new business public comment do you want to all right sorry the public comment period is to allow for final comments from the community when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lecter clearly State your name and whether you are a Milburn resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public a reminder that in order to help facilitate new early meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to one three minute session Judith Christian milour resident I just wanted to come and express my gratitude for the quick response to my request for uh crosswalks in Wyoming Avenue um the mayor called me the day after the meeting and uh I'm just very happy that the response was that quick and anything that we can do to maintain the uh pedestrian safety and the community um nature rather than just having cars speeding through the town I think is a a great thing so I just came to say thank you again thank you I just again my name is Jeffrey Feld and I reiterate the need for the pleading library in comments uh Mr old respect Mr Ben um on our prior practice when the retainer amount was being paid to maraziti a falcon they set forth the amounts that were under the retainer that's a difference I'm just saying just Shing the policy procedure this is the Redevelopment handbook I've shown it to you many of times the best practice is that we have a separate Redevelopment Council and a municipal attorney the reason I said that is that at the last meeting I said I would offer to file a certification in supporting us to oppose the monetary sanction motions I sent it to shared with all of you you know the only person I heard from back was Mr staller there are many arguments that we have not made in opposition I think we had to create a record because this might go up on appeal such as the original RPM conditional designation there are no performance deadlines in it the idea that we waved our right because this whole case comes back to what happened on July 30th 2021 citizens were never given the right to be heard to know the terms or to heard on the final terms before you adopted either on J July 30th or August 17th that argument has never been made because the idea that we're having here is there should concept discuss debate decide align there is no discussion with the public regarding nine Main Street and let's not forget about the wood project that's on the reservoir that the state's going to approve I still offer my certification the exhibits that they need to be Ram's memo needs to be filed immediately I praised Mr cosgro to writing to the court and explaining to how we acted in good faith about the Upton Wells Fargo right now that's not in the record there needs to be certifications and make facts and I'm here to help you with that um also you need to look at a case that came out today from United States Supreme Court FBI versus fkin because it C about the voluntary session because one of the issues that we I have a fight and we disagree with the municipal council is whether we citizens have the fundamental right to be heard prior to action an agenda act action items I take the position I think a lot of other people do that we had the right and that right was deprived but in the papers that we're submitting we never support that argument and judge pasamano clearly reserved and did not decide that issue and I think that issue should be preserved to defend us against the attacks from fair share housing and RPM thank you thank you Charles vanar uh Short Hills resident 27 years um I also want to want to point that regarding the uh the nine Main Street property I I'm a chemical engineer with uh uh 54 years of experience um and uh in my business I design and construct uh refineries and chemical plants uh I I know uh contaminated sites and the treatment that needs to be done for them this Township did not have the proper time to EV evaluate that site for the pollution we still don't know and you will never know until you drill a grid of core samples on that site and go down and do GC analysis and other soils analysis and and determine the level of contamination and map the contamination and and pollutants in that site we never had the time to do that so we never could have possibly evaluated that site within the time frame we were given to make it decision and and that's another point I think we should raise thank you thank you braa no resident uh just one more quick question um the section that I often refer to miss mayor uh is the redhead stepchild Milburn is the Washington section um there has been plenty of gas and water um Works done to the streets which understandably was needed um if you don't have an SUV it's very hard to drive down any of these streets now because of the patches and the dips and the dunks and this and that so I was just wondering if there was any plan to once Public Works is done with the water and the gas and whatever else they need to do to repave those streets they they're they're honestly they're terrible and I have a truck and it it it's horrible um so that maybe on you maybe not I don't know but I just wanted to express that point that it's all the patchwork has been not well done Mr McDonald said it earlier they're all being paid they are all going to be paid when they're done okay thank you you're welcome coming back to finish my earlier statement thank you for your time so going back to what I was talking about people want to live in an aasis and if we yearby year keep destroying it by making poor development choices in terms of locations selected poor design and material choices proportion choices unethical grading approvals and loosened zoning restrictions this blight will spread slowly bit by bit eventually eviscerating the beauty that is this town towns such as Summit do not have this problem as they took great action in developing design standard into their codes and you'll rarely see an unsightly piece of architecture in their Township or radically graded lot or improperly built out subdivision msh was completely on par with Summit in terms of design standards in the early 70s it is complete it's completely begin began to lose its foothold Summit has an incredible dues and don't list which I shared with you with images for Builders and Architects that cannot understand design aesthetic they go down to some incredible detail on facade Aesthetics roof design standards window types awning Styles overall home proportions landscape requirements detailed grading plans Etc flat roofs on homes or low pitched roofs are basically outlawed in Summit we have quite a few of them that were designed by Studio 1200 I guess that's why they don't have a business Summit there is an explosion of quite unsightly homes that have these types of Aesthetics all over town quite a few of them are on heart CH dive and if you want to get a sense of what I'm talking about next time you drive up um the Garden State Parkway take a look on the right before you hit the i78 intersection and look at the Whitney Houston rest stop such a classy elegant woman was defamed by such an illicit piece of architecture so what I wanted to talk about just going to give you some sort of examples of some concerns um and I prob won finish it but um one of the one thing that I wanted to talk about was home at 346 Hobart Avenue that was designed by um the famous mismatch architect while just uses their initials TB and pedal to clueless buyers by um somebody that uh was involved in real estate and politics our to sorry really trying to be um discreet if our town for me if our Township had designed standards poorly designed homes like this which Do not sit Harmon harmoniously into the old Short Hills environment would not exist more importantly must one must really look at the ethics of our planning board to understand how a builder can put in his accessory structure patio a foot from the property line and build up the grade of a backyard so much that it now sits above the other properties and we're talking 10 to 12 feet another example that I want to talk about is a property close to me that had was built a number years ago with massive steep slope implications that really I don't even think could be regulatory approved there were 12 to 15 fet one Builder can roll into town cut a profit for himself sell the house to somebody an unknowing homeowner and then cause distress for up to six homeowners in the vincinity and that's what I'm trying to talk about it's very very concerning the next time I get a chance to talk I'll I'll go into more detail and thank you so much for your time anyone on yeah Char DWI Short Hills just one question with nine main street now there was preliminary testing that was done and we recognize there's contamination there may not be as extensively as it should be real question is what will the town do or what's the town's plan to remediate now that you know it's contaminated thank you thank you good evening good evening Perry uro I think we need to investigate the last uh March 14 2024 Sid meeting and the approved closed executive session minutes I bring you back to a comment stated by my husband in 2020 during the adoption of the expanded five district Sid this organization will have tentacles here we are today the township still chooses to litigate and not mediate commercial Solid Waste has been eliminated without any tax relief property owners are taxed without any right to vote taxation without proper representation I requested at the end of 2023 by way of Oprah all events dates times locations and attendees from calendar year 2020 to 2023 the sit attorney response can be found in the S agenda February 15 2024 based on a submitted email the response in my opinion is questionable and concerning do you find my request to be unreasonable clearly seeking that type of data would show how districts are being represented equally the executive directors at collaboration with the current Sid chair prior mayor suggesting at the March 14th meeting to expand code enforcement regulat at Authority by implementing Powers enabling the executive director to make determinations to apply violations and fines quote to derel Property Owners this is egregious reach and totally not within the ordinance bylaws and certainly not in the scope of any administrative contracts as I've stated at the meeting once again tonight that over the past 30 years our property deed is not recorded with having a HOA attached to it it is very scary for a property owner with no voice to be threatened with such policies in my opinion implementing a retaliation quote mechanism which may have a tremendous impact on private property and could be debilitating to one's livelihood speaking of contracts I've asked the question at this last Sid meeting regarding expenses listed on their bill list categorizing as general oper in expenses my question was left unanswered it is concerning that it seems that there to be nothing be stated within the administrative cont contracts regarding expense accounts and stiens it is is it in reasonable to ask such questions and I would now request that there be proper documentation supporting all charges also according to the closed executive session minutes provided by the Sid executive director has suggested a assessment increase in 2025 was his recommendation to offset the public statement that 60% of the Sid budget goes towards administrative salaries this recommendation also brings me to the latest Main Street application thank you misso with limited shortened boundaries your time is up I would ask the body the executive director was he required to state that there is a ongoing lawsuit thank you so much thank you is anyone on Su no okay I'm going to close public comment with any Committee Member like to address any comments sure um real quick um Miss best I certainly hear um what you're saying with regards to you know wouldn't it be great if we had some design guidelines similar to what Summit has um I guess the question would be for either Jared or Alex um is it is it legal for us to establish design guidelines similar to what Summit has and if so is there an enforcement mechanism or Summit guidelines just guidelines that's what I wrote downend good idea but are these only guidelines no teeth are they supported by we do some research on that great um Miss erso with regards to the Sid um I believe that your your case uh is going to be going through some sort of mediation or that's going to be coming up soon um so I'd say let's let's wait and see see what happens there um before we do anything with the Sid um and I think Mr Brock's question was answered oh uh one final thing um so uh Mr Feld has rep repeatedly requested a pleadings library um can we just put all of the court filings which you know get circulated on Facebook and elsewhere somewhere on our website is there any reason for us not to do that M Donald we posted we've posted a bunch of other documents with regards to fair share housing is there any reason not to just post the uh bleedings I mean I would I would have to discuss that with with the the attorney I mean look I mean does that apply to everything or is that just applying to fare housing or is that you know every lawsuit that were involved in or you know there there there's a lot more questions than than just sort of stating that that we do here now but I think I I would agree I think something to be looked into just in in the uh in the vein of transparency a central repository of data may be categorized under legal Etc if it's public and these are constituents and taxpayers and and and you know maybe it is worthwhile to have just public documents nothing not public but public documents that are filed Central repository of data you know may be appropriate uh you know I think if I you know I think it would be worthwhile and I would probably desire it if I was sitting in the uh I have a question aren't they already up somewhere me they public documents they were filed with the court so they're available to the public so if you went on the court system under Milburn whatever is that how they would come up I'm not sure how I'm not sure how the public accesses court documents um I've never attorneys obviously have readily accessibility to the to NJ forts I don't honestly don't know how the public I believe they have access but I don't know but we let's let's look at it just as a I just don't want to say yeah I understand no but let's look at it it's a certain courtesy as a easy you know we have number of great Professionals in the community uh you know you know Morgan Harris Susan Blackburn Feld and David Cosgrove these guys may want Central repository make it easy for them to have a central repository data um right but public for us I mean for for everyone for everyone to be able to pull it um are you done Frank or yeah okay and just to to to Frank's to Mr F's Point Jared um for the the items he mentioned for a public record for uh Mr Cosgrove's letter to the to to uh to uh the judge uh and actually there was a response by RPM uh to us or to the court that it was not allowed um should that be on record as well in in ter in the topology memo and the kind of the citizens rights Etc uh you know I'll defer to you on all that as well but it kind of makes sense that we wouldn't want some of that on record to make sure there's a record for it for the future I'll just defer to you on that why don't we all think about this and then like come back so I think many of the issues raised uh by Mr Feld cro were actually the certification of Alex McDonald which was already filed at the court it lists all the actions taken by Milburn it lists all the reasons um why the township didn't so I'd ask that you please reread the certification of Alex McDonald as far as attaching the planning board's report to the ordinance it's impossible because the planning board's report has to come after the introduction of the ordinance and if we were to materially change it we'd have to reintroduce it have to go back to the planning board and we'd have to get another report so what you're saying is actually not Fe it's not feasible as supported your action tonight so it's not feasible it's in the record we we we've seen the resolution um so that that's my opinion my opinion is that we made those arguments certification I agree with the court that um non-parties cannot file um letters with the court it was filed I understand Mr cos grov wants things can't be unread so I understand the point of reading it but I think M cos gr understood that it will not be considered by the court however I'm sure it was right just wanted to address this best you know um you you know one person's one person's design standards doesn't necessarily me everybody's and we heard you talking about imposing design standards and then we heard Mrs erso talking about taking over private property so those two things are kind of at odds with each other I will say one way where we do have or we could have some imposition of design standards is when we have historic districts and as you know there was hardly unanimity in the in the township for that as well so that's where we are may I have want follow I'm being advised that the public does have access to any courts and can access it there is a public access to it so if they went in and put milb in they could find all the documents Associated I'm not saying that doesn't mean not to have a repository I'm just stating I wasn't sure if the public could get those documents I've been advised by my office that the public can get those documents readily on engine fors maybe we could just post instructions on how to do that on the website and maybe that would be a good compromise good anyone else I have a motion to adjourn the meeting motion I have a second second