e here we go meeting call to order today's the meet council meeting of April 9th 2024 starting at 7 p.m. uh would the clerk please read the statement of Co compliance this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meeting Lor duly announced advertised and posted in the municipal building the meeting will adjourn no later than 10 p.m. unless a majority of the council members that are present vote to extend the time please arise for the Pledge of Allegiance Mr Kachi would you lead us in the pledge of leader I can't to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one na under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all stay stand for moment silence thank you roll call Mayor Cala pres councilwoman gofredo here councilman mccan here councilman patelli here council president Sani here councilman slinsky here councilman talamini here thank you CL uh at this time we have a very exciting uh opportunity to give away some awards to the basketball team so I'm going to invite our leaz on to the rec councilman talamini and myself and at the end I believe they want to take a picture because we have a check presentation so I'll be inviting the council up afterwards this time I'd like to invite uh basketball commissioner up there he is uh it's my honor to introduce our seventh grade girls team this year uh we uh I'm very proud of this group they completed an undefeated season uh coach 14 and up 15 and0 something right uh all the way through the championship game for the Northwest Bergen uh basketball league they uh won the championship game 51-30 which is actually one of their closer games that they had so we're very very proud of these girl so I want to introduce our coaches coach TAA and Coach Taran come [Applause] [Music] onla who's T this certificate of a want to say thank you so much for all the hard work you do with the girls thank you and Taran this is also for you thank you very much what I'd like you to do is uh since you're the coaches of these fine young ladies I would like you to call them up present them with you you Charlotte [Applause] Barrett stand Rosie [Music] [Applause] brna Reese [Applause] Canary Sophia Camano Brook curtain Lexi enr Kira [Applause] hav Annabelle [Applause] Nelson Tiana [Applause] Pon Anna [Applause] V can we take a picture with you guys sure let's get the uh let's get the hall Council up here please and then we'll take we'll the check can I just say for for one second I just want to say I've coached boys basketball for a number of years and we never had that height I am so jealous I am so jealous you congratulations girls yeah good job you guys move right in the front right across the front make a couple [Music] rows okay ready one two you want have a seat girls you want have a seat first so uh I also want to introduce while you guys here uh we did a a fundraiser this year we at openland R we love sports because not just the winning and losing not just the lessons we learn on the court but everything we do off the court and it's such a great opportunity for us to teach those life lessons and we had two students this year two sixth grade students from Oakland cavia and Anthony uh as a part of their uh student council presentation right they were running for student council right I think so right it was their idea to do this so we decided to run a fundraiser for a covenant house uh which is uh a program that helps youth dealing with homelessness we called it Hoops for the homeless and it was a multi here program where we had as a first part we had our players shoot a free throw shooting contest they all made a donation to be able to participate uh and we had two of our players actually on this team here hit 22 out of 25 free throws very impressive Sophia and Brooke right here on the end and there were uh donations from Frank's pizza and L Valley Grill to um honor them and theyve got theirs but our actual overall winner sh I saw you over here right come on out a uh aay hit 23 out of 25 free [Applause] throws try to grab before I told everybody actually Frank's Pizza was uh nice up tooni uh a free pizza and 2 L bottle of soda every week for a [Applause] year playing [Music] football so everybody else keep working your free throws if you want pizza another part of our fundraiser another tier of that was we raffled off a football signed by saon Barkley while he was thr the Giants C House people were nice enough to help us out with that c and we raffled that off and our winner of that raffle uh was the TR family uh ton come on [Applause] [Music] and then the third and final part was just direct donations um these guys it was their idea when it was brought to me to say could we do this through basketball I love the idea I thought it was wonderful so we supported it and uh I think it's only right that you guys help us present the check to the COV now so uh CS if you guys come up you guys want to present them with our check we were able to raise a program three [Applause] $725 and then our team that raised the most money was actually our sixth grade boys everybody get the picture get a first you want K you want to get in get in the commission you want get in there I just want to say it's a testament to this community our families that live here and the children to really be able to pull off you know a donation like this and I want to thank everybody all the parents involved guys you work really hard ladies also with the basketball team and I mean this is really what makes Oakland great so thank you everybody nice [Applause] job I also want to thank K Kachi for doing this because she was uh a big part of getting this on and making everything work so there are a lot of people that are a part of making this kind of thing happen and a lot of credit goes here want who just yelled at me to get the picture on behalf of Covenant House and all the young people that we serve across the state we just want to say thank you so much and you know Stephen and I have the privilege of working with a lot of great students throughout the state uh and we truly believe that students are solving the problem that is youth homelessness and helping surviv of human trafficking uh so may this be the start of the conversation of cant house in Oakland As you guys all hope to get further involved the way a lot of your kids already have so thank you very [Applause] much thank you thank you [Music] we're just G to take a five minute break till we [Music] can make it we [Music] got okay I don't want to turn it on he told me I know if it goes on what to do but he told me but you have to turn this red you have to hold and then when it goes red it's um but you ready it will if not we it's public can just do it right from here and we'll push it back I'm good um well right now it's not even on so over here microphon here we'll just tell them volunte else guys is everybody ready meetings back in session at this time I'm going to do the mayor's report uh a lot going on in town here number one uh let's talk Paving real quick I know there's a lot of uh rows being ripped up with Public Service our sewers um we had a meeting as I told you last meeting we did meet with Public Service uh last week and we're working together with the public service and our engineer and to work out the paving program uh bid notice bid notice is is currently being finalized the bid notice notice will be going out next week and the following week uh the awards will be awarded and then on the April 30th council meeting we will award the the biders that won and hopefully we'll start Paving as early as May so in the past we always paved in the fall now we're going to be Paving right now in the spring instead of waiting the entire summer because I know there's a lot of problems at Lakeside down by Truman and everything else like that we we have some problems that we're going to deal with right away uh se la at bottom phase four of the sidewalk project is going to start which goes right around miror Lake so you're going to see that happening in the next couple weeks uh Bush Plaza Park uh that is currently underway you can see the machines down there I believe the bricks are coming this week for the sidewalk uh the only hiccup we have is the flag pole and clock or back order for five months but they once they're going to put all the footings in and everything and five months from now after they come in will'll drop and we'll have a grand opening for the park I don't if anybody saw the new signs on exit 57 and 58 coming into town we've taken down the old metal ones we now have nice 4x4 black post going up with the signs we're going to have flowers at the bottom so when people come to Oakland it's welcoming and you know we're really improving our you know our downtown and really cleaning this up and this is one of the small incremental changes that we've made which is currently has been completed uh we expect New Jersey do to come out I believe next week to fix the guard rail and West Oakland AB that same piece that's been dented for the last 10 15 years so they are going to come out fix that so once again you're coming into our town you got the sign the guard is going to get fixed and we're slowly moving to the center of town uh want to talk about the earthquake real quick um we had the earthquake last week uh just want to let everybody know we immediately ordered inspections of all of our bridges we asked our water department and DPW to check all our water system and sewer systems uh immediately we put it out on social media to let us know that we were in good shape at the same time the county was inspecting their Bridges New Jersey was ECT also the bridges up and down the highways and all of their assets so uh it was a it was a real event even though it didn't feel like much you know we don't get Hur we don't get earthquakes around here but uh certainly we took a proactive approach on that an update on the dump uh we had a meeting last Thursday uh if you recall I had reported on the fact that we went to the County Commissioners meeting and we asked them to come to Oakland and really understand where the dump is and what the effect it's going to have on our citizens and our community at large I'm happy to report that chair chairwoman Ortiz and vice chairwoman Emar ruso did come out and at the library we had a presentation from our burough engineer talking about where the property is located we had our planner who you're can to hear from today on another matter uh talked about you know the use and how it's really prohibited in the area and we also had Lee hyon from an environmental commission give an environmental report on the arious effects of this dump in our town we also had Senator shaizy and the mayor of Pompton Lakes in attendance as well uh Pompton Lakes mayor is living this on a daily basis and it was important that the County Commissioners hear you know what they'll be voting on should it ever get to their desk uh Patriots way Bridge uh we have a meeting tomorrow uh I know we had a town hall meeting about a five weeks ago we're the we are in the process of watering the signs the mirror the reflectors and the speed monitoring equipment so right now we're in the procurement process so that we can get all that equipment installed up in the reserve including Paving the exits which are currently pretty rough it right now uh I also want to address the the water real quick uh there was a a letter that went out today concerning a water is a little bit of confusion uh and at this point I just want to turn it over to our wh engineer Mr bosel to address it thanks mayor um every year um you're required to is isue what's referred to as a consumer confidence report CCR it is it is issued in the first quarter at the at the end of the first quarter of the following year so what it does is it summarized prior year 2023 in this case and our our operations our water quality and pardon me and all of the uh uh testing any any issues that any challenges that we Face unfortunately what happened was is the letter is written based on 2023 data and not current data so as we reported uh to the to the uh mayor and Council back in February uh our wells that had a PFA violation uh two of our wells uh five and 10 uh were placed into service in uh late February 10 was placed in service I think it was February 22nd and um uh well 5 was placed in this service on uh the 23d uh and as of that time they've been operating effectively with no detect so uh it's it's kind of misleading because the detection Li limit is virtually almost a regulatory limit these days so when we say no detectives it's really what you can even test uh but the the letter was written uh the consumer confidence report that was submitted had to reflect what was uh the state of the condition as of December 31st 2023 so it effectively contained outdated information you were reading it three months four months later so it's a little misleading in that uh the the uh report if you didn't understand what you were reading you could think that you were Cur reading current conditions on top of that the letter uh in front there's a letter that's in front um is not uh required as a as a as a measure of the consumer confidence report frankly it doesn't need to be there so that refers back to the conditions and it even refers back to the fact that we were uh completing the installation of the well treatment systems when in fact they're already completed and in service so uh the explanation that I'm trying to provide is what you were reading was something that was current as of 123123 not current as of April 1st the date it went out and was sent to you so there will will be a correcting letter that goes out that explains this and I would assume that in the future you won't have this letter in the future because it's it's not part of the CCR reporting requirement but again that's a decision to be made by the mayor and Council in in future years but uh the the uh initiative to get these Wells cleaned up uh in accordance with the the ACL the administrative consent order was successfully implemented and completed in accordance with all stipulated guidelines and schedules that were that were agreed to uh with the D and that were that were reported back to the public thank you Mr thank you um that's all I have for uh my report uh do we have a motion open to public so move I'll second all in favor I any sorry anybody wish to address the councel not seeing any oh hello mayor and councel uh nice to see you all again Frank Raco 51 Lakeshore Drive um I think I might be becoming a familiar face at these meetings I hope that's a good thing and not a bad thing um so I'm here uh again to uh sort of speak on behalf of the residents of of Crystal Lake and also some residents of miror Lake uh people that live you know on the lake across the street from the lake around the town folks that are on rml are involved in the beach club there are a lot of folks here that are begging the town to help us out with you know the problems that we're having in maintaining the lake um one thing I I I want to say very quickly I see a lot of familiar faces here tonight a lot of folks that are here from the Lake Community from rml from lak Shore Drive from miror Lake I want to thank everybody for coming out and I hope I hope to see that a little bit more in the future I think we need to get out to these meetings more often and and speak to the mayor and Council uh so basically the main point that I want to make which I've made before um is that I feel very strongly that the town has a responsibility to help with the repair of the Crystal Lake Dam um obviously you know rml is a is a is a private business it's a private Community but the lake serves a number of very very important purposes for this town and obviously it's a beautiful Lake it's it's serves environmental purposes recreational purposes uh many of us live on it many of us enjoy the lake but also it provides a key utility to the town of Oakland in providing a place for storm water to go storm water from a large percentage of this town runs into allerman Brook and comes crashing into Crystal Lake especially when it's storms and in the many years that I've lived on this Lake the dam has just taken a beaten in every single storm and if you walked over and looked at the dam right now you would see huge trees on top of that on on top of the spillway jammed into where the water is supposed to flow through this is not these are not trees from the lake these are trees that come crashing down Alman Brook coming in with all sorts of all sorts of debris we get sediment buildup and we get flooding and the the lake is a very very important part of storm water management for our town and the fact that Crystal Lake Dam needs to be repaired and the repairs are going to be very expensive um is causing a huge amount of headache for a large number of taxpayers in this town for different reasons for those of us that live on the lake obviously we want the dam to be functional um for all of us in the town as I said it will help with storm water for people that are in rml that are currently managing the lake many of them want to be uh de annexed from rml but rml needs funds to be able to do that right now the place they're looking to get those funds is by selling off Mirror Lake and I know we have a bunch of folks here tonight who live on who live on Mirror Lake hopefully we'll hear from some of them um but I don't think anyone in this town would really like to see uh more pieces of of beautiful property in this town just get sold off uh to developers get sold off to the highest bidder it's a shame this town has so many beautiful assets um and we can't just keep selling them off one by1 uh every time we we have a problem so I'm really here to implore the town um and also to implore uh you know the rest of my neighbors who live who live in this town um to please please speak up on behalf of the lake uh please give us a hand I I really do think the town has a responsibility I don't think it's this is a private company asking for a favor I think we do a favor to the town all the time the lake is an important part of the infrastructure of this town whether we like it or not um and seeing the direction that it might go if we can't find a way to fund the repair of this Dam um it's very upsetting to me I imagine it's very upsetting to many of the people in this room and and many of the people in the town um so I just wanted to you know thank you mayor thank you Council for listening we we've had an initial meeting um we really would like to have a follow-up meeting to see um if the town has looked into this at all and maybe considered um how the town can possibly help uh we have you know we have formed a small group of concerned uh lak from homeowners that have volunteer to form a you know form a nonprofit homeowners association if that helps with with manag the rml properties in the future um and we're trying to work with rml we're trying to work with the town we're doing everything we can we're trying to drum up support of this meetings um so I really would would love to hear what the town thinks um and I would really love to see some uh increased support from the town in repairing to Crystal Lake Dam and also helping us reach uh come to a future that that keeps these Lakes intact um keeps the beach club available keeps the the Lakes intact for the town and and for the Lakeshore community thank you thank [Applause] you good evening Mayor Michael Richard how you doing very well Mr back I'm here about miror Lake again and we got this thing in here where they stood there and they're talking about selling it and so forth like that however maybe you people don't know it and re rehash to the Town Council which I gave to you on February 27th but it all starts with the Ramapo River because you see the Ramapo River comes under the freshwater Pollution Control Act that's what it comes under it's also classified as Waters of the United States and it's a purveyor of pable water to North Jersey water supply District having said that I didn't stood there and I went and I looked at ation on it and I looked at it I started off with the US code and it's and it's it's excuse me I got to catch my breath it's 33 us code 1251 at SEC it's 137 pages long I'll get into more detail on that but you'll be surprised what happens here but then I looked at the litigation the Supreme Court of the United States says that that that freshwater pollution act goes down to Rivers Lake oceans and streams that means since the element element Brook flows into the Ramapo River so does the stream from Mirror Lake flows into it so if Mirror Lake comes under Federal jurisdiction it also comes out the state jurisdiction I'll show how that's done too however what the Supreme Court stood there and said on that that you know you're able to have it goes oceans River streams and lakes which includes the lake itself and also that stream going down underneath into it includes that Gully now and looking at the law I found out two states all of a sudden popped up Michigan and New Jersey what the hell is New Jersey doing with this well New Jersey has a very excellent clean water facility and they take over a lot of the administration of it in order to go they had to qualify to the federal government on this and they did and what they did was they they stood there and they said to the de you are to obligate and enforce regulations dealing with this stuff and what the DP then stood there and said well okay they did and in the D then put this thing under administrative code and it's 7 col 7-21 filling you can't fill in that lake period not only because the state of New Jersey says you can't do it and the federal government says you can't do it now if you go and sit there and you fill in that Lake you're in a lot of trouble big trouble because the fines the fines are this way and it's in the federal code anywhere some 2500 to 25,000 per day if it's 25 Grand a day in 30 days you're talking almost 3/4 of a million dollars so the federal government and the state of New Jersey look at this very strongly they're very strong about it you can't do a lot of things where they think they can now there something else dealing with rml and I'll do this give it to them rml changed how the state of New Jersey changed how you they collect their funds before they could sit there and say well you're part of Fai see let me sit there go like this I'll pull it out it's easier New Jersey statute 45 calling 22A 43.4 and it's called certain assessments prohibited what it was is they stood there and they said well we can assess all you people whatever it may be the state of New Jersey said no what the state of New Jersey said unless it's on your deed or on your title they cannot assess you anything so that means the funding that rml is looking at was out the door now they also stood there and were given they they put on things on to the the person's title they have to go take that off they're required by this and if they don't do that well then they become the defendant the plaintiff who would put that on becomes the plaintiff and they get to pay for the plaintiff's attorney it's right here so they're in a lot of trouble and they don't know it but the bottom line is you can't do anything with miror Lake nor that goalie they talk about putting uh land on that you can't because the federal government of the state of New Jersey will come after you you're in a tough luck now what's going to happen that's not my call but I'm just looking out for my backyard this is of my neighbor's backyard that's the bottom line Thank you Mr P yeah you don't like going get this guy out of [Music] [Applause] here anybody else from the public wish to speak good evening mayor and councel on the same subject I'm sorry I need your name and your address oh I beg you pardon my name is Mark skanga my address is 141 Lakes Shore Drive thank you okay another Crystal Lake person I want to add to what one of the uh earlier people said Crystal Lake besides being an important part of the waterways of Oakland is also an important part of the um let me say aesthetic appeal of Oakland in that this is where people in Oakland and nearby communities can come to swim and besides you know what it would do to those of us with homes in proximity does Oakland really want to lose that valuable asset of this is this is where we go to swim this is what makes our town so I want to add to imploring and say gwiz we really we need help here and I also want to point out that uh in my personal opinion I don't know how anybody else feels about it the current rml was voted in because of the confusion around uh who owed money you know I'm sure everyone is familiar by now that the last AR ml board uh served I don't know the exact number some 1500 people that didn't know they were at one time part of this thing those people don't want to be part of it this is all understandable but now we have a situation where those of us myself for one I paid over $1,200 this year in fees to rml and then I'm being told that the folks over there who are paying $40 to $60 in fees to rml have the same vote that I do J whiz that doesn't really seem Equitable and you know the whole thing is a mess no doubt about that but I think that we have something so special in this town it would really be a shame and a sin to let this go by without you know giving it a college try thank you Mr SK thank you hi hi uh my name is Liz parletta I live at 161 Lakeshore Drive I was here a few meetings back also to speak about this matter um and before I forget to say this um Frank I appreciate you saying this because there thanks I was you know I'm having some allergies I'm not sure how I'm going to get through tonight you know my three minutes but um I implore everyone who is here tonight because I do see a lot of faces that I recognize if you're here to support the town and the mayor and Council in getting involved in taking charge of the Lakes the dams the waterways in some way please speak up even if you just come say your name and address and say what you support and then sit down you don't have to be as eloquent as some of these other speakers tonight um I'll lower that bar for you right now um but uh what I what I wanted to say again and and and Frank said this but I'm just here because I was afraid no one else was going to stand up um and a lot of us are here for this reason um and you know and what Mark just said and thank you for your information which I knew nothing about I really appreciate that um but you know I moved to onto Crystal Lake I'm a Lakefront homeowner um in 2015 and in less than 10 years my rml dues went from under 400 a year to I think it's like, 1300 a year or something it's kind of ridiculous but the point and you're not here to control rml and I understand that as well um but what you do have control over is helping all of the constituents of this town and taking responsibility for this public utility that the town of Oakland I realize not all of you have been mayor and councel for all of this time but the town of Oakland and the mayor and Council and everything that goes with it has been using this as a free public utility since the beginning um I think it was Frank who mentioned all the trees coming in the lake I live directly opposite of Allman Brook that comes in the lake trees end up in my yard they're not my trees they're not even from Lakefront homeowners they're all the water that comes off of 287 there's no reason not to involve the county the state Etc in this it's a water runoff issue Oakland is known for flooding and it does come across my yard across the street into the Ramapo River and affects Downstream as well um it's not fair for uh, 1500 households and fewer and fewer by the day to really be managing Oakland's storm uh water management and I really want to know I appreciate the first meeting we had we haven't had a second um what you're going to do to get involved in this and everyone else please if you're here step up and support it thank you Miss [Applause] Carla okay Trudy Derbyshire 181 Lakeshore Drive and I'm here to uh you were talking earlier about beautifying Oakland and we're going to have a new downtown and everything's beautiful Crystal Lake is beautiful it's a beautiful part of Oakland it's something that you can boast about and you want people to come into our town this is a great way to get people into the town uh yes we need help and I truly hope that the town will come in and and take control rml will ruin us uh you know they're out to destroy us let's be honest and um we need you so hopefully you can help thank you thank [Applause] you hi Joseph fuo 24 haata Boulevard I am one of the residents who live uh directly on M Lake um there are so many issues uh it's hard to pack at all but uh at the beginning rml came and uh thought that they can get uh you know 40 bucks from a lot of people and would solve all their uh money problems they should have thought that one day there was going to be a backlash this is the backlash there are probably about in my estimation I don't know who they are but probably less than 30 people who really hold on to I want to get everybody to pay there are probably hundreds of people who said hey this is this wasn't right it serves serves them right and then there are people like me who are a little bit more fair about it I was with the people who did not want to pay at the beginning even though I was on the lake nobody ever asked me to pay a due I know some people will say I was asked to pay a due that I liveed on the lake but nobody ever asked me to pay a due I lived in this town for 8 n 10 years before they started requiring ing uh Duce and there's something wrong with that there should be a there's an inherent fairness that is completely absent in this case I live on the lake I think I'm one of the people that should be paying for it if somebody doesn't live on the lake I and for 70 years nobody has paid a do I understand why they don't want to pay for it but we are going into a destruction mode where all rml is thinking I don't want to pay $100 or whatever uh their fees are I am going to destroy the Lakes destroy uh uh everything so I don't have to pay money it was bad enough when somebody stuck their hand in the pocket it's like stealing now it's like uh uh here's the revenge and I'm chasing you down with an axe I'm going to take everything that you love away from you that is uh um what's going on we need to have some involvement with the government and rml and the homeowners who who love this Lake and we need to come to a reasonable solution we can quotee the laws that we want how are the laws enforced how are the judge interpreting the laws all these things have not gone uh the way anybody would have expected in this case we need cooler heads to uh to come to the table and come to a reasonable agreement um and I don't know if that can be done with rml I talked with their president he seems like a reasonable person when I talk to him you you leave him and all of a sudden a week later uh the words coming out of his mouth and the decisions that he's making are completely different than uh uh what you talked about just a week early I thought we had a reasonable solution that we could somehow fulfill all these um uh wants uh uh uh that uh we have we thought we could do something to make a little bit of money to pay for the uh uh uh Dam repairs and make this uh uh solvent to let everybody out and then only the people who wanted to be in and the people on the Lakes would be left and they have not been willing to work in good faith with anybody on the lakes to do that and we need support from some uh somebody um and the final thing we talked a lot about the laws and a lot about the environment uh one of the things that that I has come to my attention is there is a relatively new uh environmental um uh item in New Jersey about blue heron and uh uh their uh habitats uh I can uh uh show you this is a picture from Sunday this is a blue H this is on my neighbor's property I can show you a picture from the prior Thursday on my property I can show pictures from last year and the year before and the year before I even have the most interesting video you never would believe it these things can even hunt Chipmunks and eat Chipmunks merly this um U bird was more or less standing at the edge of the lake and it's looking for fish and when it finds fish it it Dives in and uh it eats it it it flies away I can tell you if I were to stand out there every day of the week I would probably see it three or four times a week I uh just uh by Happ I look out my backyard and there it is we have laws uh uh uh to protect uh this um we it's not going to have a supply of fish if there isn't a lake there's no Lake unless that Dam remains and if somebody starts filling it in it's not going to have um the food that it needs this is uh all part of uh part of uh the D the D is also responsible for the waterways I don't know where they stand uh uh with the waterways and what they intend to do to protect it it's very unclear to me but I think there are plenty of things that have been discussed tonight that there could be Extra Protection put on the lake even uh uh even though we don't want it sold and we don't want it uh to fall into other hands other than uh the home if something uh did happen there should be some sort of prote on this Lake even beyond that we should essentially say we have lakes we have streams we have waterways let's do something to protected keep the character of the town uh intact so that's what I want to impart with with you I'm not sure if anybody even realized um that these uh uh that blue herens were on Mirror Lake and I I'd be happy to provide you with any photographic evidence and testimony to that effect thank you so much thank you anybody else wish to speak hi I'm Greg Simon I'm on 99 Lakeshore Drive in addition to the blue herand we have bald eagles there is a family of bald eagles on the lake obviously without the rich diversity of fish in the lake these Eagles would go elsewhere so I I just think that's a very special thing thank you thank you thank you Adam elen 147 lak drivee your name sorry Adam Elin 147 lak drive it's good to see you all again um I'm just building on what everybody said tonight there's a trillion reasons why this lake is important to Oakland and the people that live here I think we could all acknowledge that the people that have been taking care of the lakes and the dams for all of these years have been doing this town a tremendous service and over the last 20 years my taxes have doubled my fees on the lake have doubled none of that money has gone to that infrastructure not a single dime meanwhile throughout the years the town continues to allow development along the Waterway collects taxes from residents who are developing commercial developments gas stations cleaners all that water is going into that Lake amen let's talk about something about that Lake it is resilient as heck that that lake has natural aquafers that water is cleaner than any water you'll find anywhere in Bergen County anywhere it's a miracle given what goes into that Lake what it looks like today clearly over the past that Lake in the dams and the waterways have been a critical part of the town's storm water management plan what is that storm water management plan look like now where do those waterways sit within that plan where does our Lake sit within that plan where does that Dam sit within that plan and unless I'm blind it looks to be smack dab in the middle of it all and as such do your part and help us it's a small group of people literally that have been holding this thing up for all these years you see the development you see what's happening to it you see the garbage on the highway every day that's all coming in we need your help we're doing our part we want to keep it we're not looking to fight with anybody we just want to make it right and be able to sleep at night knowing with Comfort our properties are safe the ecology is safe the water is safe that's what everybody wants to get done and yes I understand it's private property but it's all of that water that you're sending down there that's hitting our private property and damaging our Pro private property it's an encumbered Waterway it's encumbered by a privately owned encumberment that's being damaged over and over again we're not asking for you to come and do everything we're asking for help we're asking for some Runway we're asking for you to acknowledge it's a part of your plan that it's a part of the Town utility that it has a viable purpose not just for a utility but for recreation for our ecology for its natural reserves everything we're talking about tonight the town has has never once acknowledged we want this we think it's important we think it's beautiful for all of these reasons too the town has simply said it's A Private Matter that's really hard to hear for somebody that's been paying their taxes like everybody else all these years that's been paying that money to you know make sure these dams and waterways are working after all these years just to find out that hey sorry you we didn't fix any of it we're not going to fix any of it the town's not interested it's all private you're of a few your so well that doesn't do and it shouldn't stand for the town and that's not the kind of town I want to live in frankly and when I talk to others it's not the kind of town they want to live in and this will really be a smear on this town if we allow Mirror Lake to go down the way it's going down and if that follows with any dis disruption of Crystal I understand the town may have limitations into what it can do say help with but at least stand up and say this is important for the town we care about it we care and we want to help and we don't want this to go away cuz right now we don't even have that assurance and we need it thank you thank you [Applause] m hello Chris Rosman 127 Lake Shore uh joined by my wife I have three kids um third gener well second generation my my family has been here since the been '90s and seeing the ceremony earlier with all the kids and all the children and knowing that's the fabric of this town I think that's the only thing we forgot to bring up is just how special this lake is for the kids you know especially at some of the worst times like Co we had fantastic people dedicate their talents to make sure that people were able to reconnect with something so key and vital and so in a world where it seems like everything that we love and share is shrinking in front of us I mean this is an easy one you have so many people that are willing to help and do the right thing and no one's asking for a favor we just want to continue to give these kids an amazing town to grow up in I mean we have this gigantic trampoline in our backyard and any given day there might be 15 different kids who some we know some we don't but they're laughing they're smiling they're not worried about the dayto day they're actually being kids so we appeal to all of you I'm so grateful to everybody here that's speaking up on behalf of this issue because it's it's near and dear to all of our hearts so thank you so much for your consideration thank you hi Alexandria Evans at 141 Lakeshore Drive I am a board officer with the Crystal Lake Community Beach Club and I'm also a marketing and Communications officer with the Oakland Chamber of Commerce um we have as everyone has said blue heron on our Lake I actually have video of two blue heron male and female they mate on our uh Lake the Eagles are mating on our Lakes we have fish who are spawning you know uh depositing their eggs in the brook that leads into Crystal Lake all we want is a meeting to discuss what possibilities we can work out together Crystal Lake Community Beach crystal lake lake home Lakefront homeowners and Mirror Lake please anybody else not seeing any do have more oh one more uh my name is Tom aasi I live right across the street from me Lake and I'm what's your address oh 14 seal Avenue I'm just here to support the preservation of mar Lake I live right across the street from it it's beautiful my kids played hockey on it and kids continue to play hockey every winter and it's a beautiful Lake and I hate to see it filled in and whatever you know the plans are put houses or condos or I would hate to see that I pay a lot of money in taxes I've been here since 1985 and I love that Lake thank you [Applause] sir hi good evening hi K nappy 29 KY mid Avenue I live on miror lake and I'm just here like the rest of the residents here to say that we love these Lakes It's a Wonderful part of our town it's one of the reasons why I moved to this town 28 years ago we don't want to see it go away and we're really asking the town to help us out sit down with us talk to us and see what we can get accomplished all right thank you so much I'm very BL 21 Kell you might have in your sorry your name I Andre Clinic 21 Kell M Avenue uh same for me uh the only reason we bought a house because of the lake and despite my parents were saying we crazy that we did it but that was a Sentimental emotional uh decision that we did it we they we rebuild it they almost doubled our taxes they tripled our dues for the the rml we keep paying it I don't mind because it's beauti because my kids growing here I want the nature the for you know not only for my kids but for all the town residents I've been observing since this issue happened I've been observing for the past few months the other kids that come I'm not sure whether they are part of ourl or not but the ones that fishing the ones that bringing little strollers with parents they not like front uh owners because I I know most of them and all the value that that legs give I think is very important for town to do something about it plus hypothetically if somebody buys this L they start development there are going to be I'm sure there are going to be a lot of lawsuits because of all the reasons that previously people mentioned uh and what's then going to happen they're going to drain it they're going to start something and then the the amount of water that goes there is like the the way how it spells out recently again I noticed a lot more things since all these issues happened uh so I really ask you to to do something and step in and and help out because I think it brings enormous value to the to the town thank you thank you anybody else want you speak perhaps you'll let me speak again my name is Liz careta because I do own two hes in Oakland so Rocko um which I moved to in 2011 because of the lake so thank you for saying that because I was walking distance to this awesome Lake and then when something opened up on the lake I jumped on it so um I was just thinking to um the the town has like an open space fund right so if if Mirror Lake has to be for sale or is it is already for sale from my understanding you know perhaps the town could use some of its open space fund to purchase Mirror Lake and and offici and truly make it a part of their town of our town um and I know I've been reading I I don't follow it very closely so I don't want to misspeak but uh there a lot of Grants have been received for infrastructure for the bridges and things like that um perhaps there's some money in some of those grants to fund Dam infrastructure as well I don't know if it falls under the same thing or not but um if if someone has to buy Mirror Lake why not the township of Oakland burrow of Oakland rather uh with some open space fund and just keep it just as it is thanks thank you anybody else motion to close I a second second all in favor I okay right now we have a presentation from our planner and Mr Giblin this is probably one of the everybody's talking about what's going on in the town in the character uh this has to do with affordable housing phase four and the new law that was passed and the S Governor signed I believe a couple weeks ago uh this will have a profound effect on town so we ask our planner to come up here give us a presentation not for the governing body but the residence of Oakland and with that M Ryder You're you Mr Giblin or you're [Applause] up you give it a minute you press do we need a five minute break no we're good again said give it a minute takes a minute we go got it coming takes a minut it takes a minute but then when that turns on the other ones all turn off what you oh when they One turns on the other one turns off there you go there you go that one I don't know why pring I didn't press any button well while you guys are working on a technology Mr Gilson would you just kind of set us up with the give us an overview affordable housing in New Jersey sure so the court mandated uh affordable housing began in the 1980s under the Mount Laurel one decision since then we've had three additional Mount Laurel decisions including Mount Laurel 4 which was in 2015 which the one that everyone seems most familiar with these days which took the basically this declared Co in active return the affordable housing obligation to the courts uh most towns chose to uh file declaratory judgment against themselves the courts were determining the numbers for what was the third round of obligations we're now moving on to the fourth round of obligations and the Democrats with no Republican votes passed a bill that will allow the state to Simply impose a number upon us which our professionals will get in more and tell us how how many units we have and we'll have a very short period of time to challenge that number and it's taking it out of the courts and putting it into this unelected appointed by Governor Murphy body that will be determining Our obligation going forward it's coming back thank you m Gilson okay are we ready with the technology think so I think so so so if I have this screen on and this screen on it means that people can still see at home correct and then the public toist and you have that make it work we'll make it work two out of what's the expression two out of three ain't bad right so thank you for the introduction and for the background information from the attorney um I believe most of you know me but in case you don't I'm Caroline Ryder I'm the burough planner with t and M Associates um and this is Brian Giblin I'm your affordable housing Council so um as uh your bur attorney indicated we're here tonight to talk about the new affordable housing legislation which um so this the bill was originally introduced in January actually was actually there was a bill introduced at the end of 2023 that did not move forward then there was a similar but slightly changed Bill introduced in March and January 9th pass both houses March 18th and signed by the governor on March 20th so that everyone's clear this is this was fast fast tracked through the legislature um some it's interrupting you right what's going on behind you it's okay it's okay so um so a couple of key points is that it does completely abolish COA the Council on affordable housing it does change the way that Municipal that provides municipalities with certain responsibilities with affordable housing and it also establishes and funds a dispute resolution fund um this slide shows some differences between what we'll call the old legislation or the old regulations in this new legislation um and I just want to step back for a minute just to make sure and add on to a little bit of some of the background information that your um attorney did advise you of and just talk a little bit about affordable housing very briefly affordable housing we all know it I'm sure you all know it as the requirements of of via the round what do you need to zone for a bill your affordable housing component up until this point had three components your obligation had three components what's called present need which is often referred to as your Rehabilitation obligation prior round which was round one rounds one and two combined and round three which is what we're in at this moment round four actually officially begins in July of 2025 however this legislation is starting things a bit early um with once we get to the timeline you'll see theoretically everything should be done in advance of the start of of 2025 so and as we're going to go through tonight um we'll talk about some of the changes that have been made and I also want to just highlight the fact that as I indicated this bill was fast-tracked it was literally just signed by the governor on the 20th of March not even four weeks so we this is all very new for all of us and everyone's just trying to digest it there are going to be a series of informational sessions for attorneys and for planners and for other professionals starting in the next month or so so I really commend the burrow for jumping on this so quickly because as we're going to see things with this legislation things are move moving very quickly and getting in front of it is I think the best way to to approach it so some um couple of key changes there we go um have to do with the cap on age restrictor we might call Senior units actually increases from 25 to 30% the way that bonus credits are handled is going to be changing and I have some slides on that later on but we are we have always been allowed and will continue to be allowed to meet 25% of your obligation number with a bonus however the bonus credit that in my professional opinion was most relied upon which was the rental bonus credit is no longer part of the legislation so there are other bonus credits that we will have to seek to maximize in order to gain in order to have the full opportunity of reaching that 25% goal uh just as your as your attorney indicated the way that the uh obligations will be calculated is is diff is slightly different and relies on a methodology established by a case known as a Jacobson case um unmet need when we talk about the vacant land adjustment that's a little bit different as well um this being a Highlands Town we're going to have to be addressing a couple of extra things because of the Highlands responsibilities um and the vacant land adjustment is also um although still permitted it's changing a little bit with respect to um densities and how that is calculated this is a time frame of what I'm calling the slide is entitled key dates in new legislation this is these are important dates for the burrow and this is not the separation is not meant to be fancy it's actually proportional based on what needs to be done there are a couple of dates that are not on this Slide the dates on this slide have to do with dealing with your obligation and dealing with plan adoption Etc but there are a couple of dates not on this slide but I think you're administrator is going to be very interested in them because by June 18th 2024 although not on this slide is a deadline to submit accounting of all non-residential development fees collected that means the trust fund fees non-residential have to be have to be accounted for and and uh provided the listing of it by June by September is a deadline to submit accounting of residential development fees again not on this slide but these are more internal burrow responsibilities similarly on December 16th is a deadline to submit a unit and pro program monitoring report to the DCA the Department of Community Affairs that's just a listing of your affordable housing units that are built what is on this slide has to do with dates having to do with your obligation calculating of your obligation plan and the plan that is put forth by the bur so the the first date is March 20th that the uh the legislation was signed in into law by October 20th DCA is responsible for providing the affordable housing obligations the fair share obligations and the methodology to each municipality by January 31st is the deadline for the municipality to adopt a binding resolution committing to the obligation either the one put forth by DCA or the buau can come forth with its own obligation I will tell you that's really not a lot of time at all um DCA is going to has a very significant responsibility put on it we're going to have some slides about very general slides about how the the obligations are calculated in a minute so January 31st that's a very important date should the burrow not meet that date there is uh language in the legislation about losing the uh protection from exclusionary uh zoning ation say that again should the burrow not meet the date of January 31st the legislation does reference the fact that they could could be open to exclusionary zoning litigation build no longer protected oh Builders REM January 31st date does everyone understand that yes may I ask a question Mr GB and I know this is new for all of us sure Brian in your experience I mean that s a very aggressive timeline for for the DCA to meet across the state would you agree it is and I and and frankly I have serious doubts that they're going to meet it um and it's also if you look at the timeline for the municipality the end of January a lot of things happen in municipalities in December and January including you know swearing in new Council people sometimes to change over in administration uh a lot of things happen it's going to be tough to meet that even if we get the number on October 20th is is there anything in the legislation that outside of the fact that we can submit our own obligation uh is there anything to indicate that uh is going to if these deadlines could be extended if DCA for example only does half of the state in that time period we don't know the answer to that right I don't think we do but I can hear other people asking the legislation is in my opinion is silent with respect to what happens to DCA if it doesn't meet its deadline okay it's not silent with respect to if the municipalities don't meet their deadline right just indicated right so um we we need to move forward is if DCA is going to meet the deadline in my opinion it have our own numbers prepared otherwise potentially yes okay so January 31st is the binding resolution that needs to be adopted February 28th there's a full I guess 28 days is should there be an interested party that wants to challenge the obligation that's that's contained within the municipality's binding resolution so there's 28 days for an interested party I would say an interested party might be the fair share housing center or a developer so they have 28 days to challenge it um if there is no challenge let's say the CH no come back no you got to press it again no wait a second now give it a minute okay so I can talk so if there is no challenge there we go if there is no challenge um then by March 31st your obligation is established then if there is a then there's a process if there's a challenge however the next important date and this is really for your planning board the planning board needs to prepare and adopt a housing element and fair share plan by June 30th 2025 that's very that's another very important date failure to meet that date again puts the municipality at risk for loss of its immunity and and protection against exclusionary zoning uh type litigation and just as a reminder the housing element and fair share plan that's that's a m the housing element is a master planning document it's required part of your master plan that is adopted by the planning board at a public meeting with public notice so that's another very important date is June 30th should there be an interested party that wants to then challenge your housing element they have a couple months to do it until August 31st then this in then the all the challenges are going to be settled by the end of the year of 2025 and then there's a few months to adopt um the ordinances to implement any changes that are within your housing element for example should there be an area that's going to be considered for an overlay zone or any type of rezoning those ordinances would need to then be adopted by March 15th of 2026 so this is the de this is sort of the time frame that the municipalities all municipalities not just not just you but all municipalities that are going to be participating in this process will be following and looking to looking to meet all these deadlines okay so calculation of your perspective need or your affordable housing obligation the slide is supposed to show the different you know quite often quite often a municipality I have a client will say to me look at this affordable housing number it's like they don't even know Oakland or whatever Town they're from and I just want to make it very clear that affordable housing obligations do not start at the municipal level they start and I'm going to talk about this a little bit they start at the state level and they're filtered down to the region and then what's called factors are applied and then they're filtered down to the municipal level so when whatever the obligation ends up being if you look at it and say boy it's like they don't know Oakland it is entirely possible that that it's because it it has comes down from your region I just want to make that clear so I have no intention of going through the entire process of this these slides will very very much provide an overview of the calculation process and my point is to show it and that it's it's a whole process is what I'm trying to say so you calculate your Regional need um you look at household changes within the region between the last two fed census and you divide so by 2.5 that's your Regional need then it's factored down to the municipal level and there's three factors according to the legislation there's a non-residential valuation Factor an income capacity factor and a land capacity factor and again this is a very brief over overview the non-residential valuation Factor has to do with assess valuation and the change is in that level and that's just basically it's detailed on the slide but I think that's a very brief overview the income capacity has to do with median household income and how that's calculated the land capacity Factor this is the one that I'd like to talk about a little bit more so the land capacity has to do with an estimate made of developable land in the municipality and then there's a factor applied and waiting factors within this legislation it does actually recognize the state planning areas and assign various factors to each area which is actually sort of interesting because there is a new state plan being prepared right now so I'm unsure what if that's going to change and how that would change it um the highlands areas also have their own waiting factors um and and then there's an estimate a municipal estimate that's factored by a regional estimate my point in bringing this up is this is something to keep in mind is that those of us who've had experience with COA in the past and how land capacity or developable land was looked at is it was looked at Via mapping um of what was a called a land cover and vacant land and sometimes I would look at you'd look at the towns and say boy there's so much vacant land here there's really not this much vacant land but it's factored in as if there's a lot the way that the land cover mapping works or has worked in the past unfortunately is it would show things like cemeteries and the Garden State Parkway as vacant land so and I'm not saying that that's that's that's a Truth uh so it's I'm not saying that to be flippant is what I was going to say that is actually something I dealt with for a client of mine in the past so we have to be very cognizant that's that's something we can really truly look at is your land capacity your vacant land what's a park land where what's where within the highlands Etc as we go forward in this process so and this EXC sorry um so would 287 be considered vacant land well it shouldn't be but if it could have come up in your in your mapping that's something we're going to have to look for so and again this is just a little map of Oakland and the and the land cover map as it exists today so these three factors the non-residential valuation the income cap which is a tax assessment information the income capacity which is census data and also uh there's also building permit information in there as well and the land capacity factor which is a consideration of vacant land is all average and factored into the regional need my point in telling you all this is I want to show you that the calculation of the obligations is a complicated situation that again always starts with the state down to the region down to the municipality it sort of filters down if you will so I just want to make sure everybody's aware of that process question Brian for both of you how so as that calculation how does that our current zoning situation just as for the residents how does our current zoning you know whether it's commercial uh whether it's you know Zone one single family how does that in in our overlay plan how does the current plan fit into that calculation so I don't believe with respect to looking at the land capacity factor that zoning or your master plane documents will be considered I believe either going to take a some sort of mapping that the state has available and look at what is considered to be land use or land cover they're not going to look at your zoning map and make a determination with respect to what's commercial and what's residential I I think the only um reason that your zoning uh ordinances are going to come into play is they're going to look at them particularly the overlay zones and the things that we did in round three and if you haven't had development yet they're going to say well you know what that's not a realistic uh development potential there so it could hurt us I I don't think it's going to help us and that's accurate that's what my point was actually more in terms of of determination of your obligation I don't think that your zoning map is going to be looked at right but thankfully we don't have what some town has they've been like rezoning golf courses with 50-year weights to get in as affordable housing for the last three rounds and now they're saying okay you can't keep doing that but we don't really have any situations akin to that in Oakland so I don't think that'll be big of a problem for us I think that's that's good to hear so then once a municipality has its obligation there is a process it can go through it's called the vacant land adjustment process this has been around for all of the co rules Oakland did utilize a vacant land adjustment process in its round three um its round three plan basically the vacant land adjustment is an is an understanding by the town and an understanding by all the parties that Oakland does not have enough land for which to build or to zone for its affordable housing therefore you go through a process it was previously laid out in the round two and other Co of rules of how you calculate or go through or calculate what was called an RDP a regional de development potential so um and basically what that what that amounts to is a study of vacant land as well as land that may be has buildings on it but is not being utilized to its capacity um and then there's a process you exclude certain properties Parkland um contiguous land that could accommodate five units uh National register properties preserve Farmland um active Recreation uh environmentally sensitive land such as you know properties within the highlands Etc you go through this process you come up with a final number um and then there you apply what you apply a density factor and and there's a whole process that you go to go through based on the round two based on the prior rules and you come up with what's called an obligation an RDP the difference between your obligation and your RDP was what's known as the unmet need one of the big changes with this legislation is with respect to the unmet need in that the first 25% of your unmet need must be the your plan must to provide zoning or Redevelopment plan that will address your first 25% of your unmet need unit for unit with specific properties identified so in the past again you had the full obligation you had the vacant land adjustment which would lower it somewhat to an RDP and then you the difference was the unmet need and with the unmet need what you would do is apply adopt an overlay zone or something similar and while it was not a one for one um zoning situation you provide overlay zones that provided an opportunity for the potential for me for a future affordable housing should it arise as your Council just mentioned the the golf courses many many towns have done these type of overlay zones over the golf courses it's a little bit different now in that your first 25% has to be very specifically addressed within your plan and that's a big change and something that we're all going to have to talk about that's a one for one yes the durational adjustment of course Oakland also had what's called The durational Adjustment within its last plan it's a deferral of your obligation based on the lack of the infrastructure um while not specifically addressed in the new legislation the legislation does permit any kind of adjustment or any other rules uh that were within COA rules to continue unless it's so Changed by the legislation so we foresee that the durational adjustment would continue of course depending of you know assuming that Oakland still was was eligible for that so what are our comp in other words then you finally get your numbers down you and you you think okay what do I do to meet affordable housing requirements how do I how do I plan for this what kind of options are there um so the first one is what's called inclusionary zoning and that's probably the one that many of you are very familiar with that's where you Zone uh property or a certain Zone District um at a higher quite often at a higher density and then that would a certain percentage either 15 or 20% of the total units need to be what's called set aside for affordable housing so that's inclusionary it includes both market rate units and affordable units a 100% affordable development is exactly what it sounds like it's 100% affordable quite often these are municipally sponsored um a municipality May uh work with a non for-profit or another interest a group in terms of developing a you know 100% affordable development there's an age restrict restriction an age restricted type of development that can be affordable and 30% of your obligation can be met through age restricted units special needs um that's uh sometimes referred to as Supportive Housing sometimes referred to as a group home and I do know that you've met some of your obligation with uh those types of units you have sale you have rental units obviously um Veterans Preference um I am seeing that in some of the towns that I work in now um 50% of a project of the units in one project can be what's called Veterans Preference so it's not actually required to be for veterans but it's they get a preference based on the way that the lists and the um the the lottery process works transitional housing um is another option for uh through the legislation bonus credits I touched on this a little bit before we are able to claim 25% of Our obligation with bonus credits there is a limitation with how many credits you can take for the age restricted units um the rental bonus credit which many towns relied upon is no longer available with this legislation um what types of units can achieve bonus credits supportive and special needs housing units and Market to Affordable that means that there's a unit that is presently serving you know it's not deed restricted it's for a market rate it's a market rate using unit that is then transferred and made into an affordable housing unit there is a deed restriction placed on it for a certain period of time and then uh it like all other affordable housing units goes through a lottery process and is vetted and affirmatively marketed um and then units in a municipally sponsored 100% affordable housing development also are eligible for the one for one bonus credit C can I just ask a quick question so this simply so what about senior housing it sounds like we're not going to get credit for that you'll get so you're you are able to get credit you're able to actually fulfill 30% of your obligation with age restricted affordable units as opposed to 25 you just don't your bonus credits um are are more limited for the senior units so what I'm talking about now is the bonus credits but yes your correct mayor you can utilize you can you can have senior credits or age restricted credits for a certain percentage of your obligation okay thank you so half units of bonus credits are there's several listed again working with a non for-profit if you're close to Transit um age restricted to a certain limit uh Redevelopment of retail office or commercial space um and then basically quite often if there's any type of um limitation that's exceeded for example if you have a certain number of three if you see the number of very low income units you're eligible for a bonus or if you exceed the required number of three bedroom affordable units you're eligible for the bonus so my point in showing these is that again we're just going to have to try you know if we want to try to achieve our maximum bonus credits we'll have to just make make oursel aware of all of these so as I indicated earlier there is a there's a dispute process um and there's this legislation establishes what's called a resolution a dispute resolution program this details the members um it's going to be be selected from current re retired or recalled Superior Court judges um and there's a process for establishing how the resolution program is set up they resolve disputes um render determinations they're supposed to work with the municipalities facilitate communication between anyone involved in the dispute and the municipality and if you recall I indicated there were option there were places within the time frame where if there was an entity that was going to dispute your obligation they had a time frame to do that and then if there was going to be a dispute raised regarding your housing element that that there was a time frame for that too so this is the group that works with the towns and the enti and whomever whomever puts forth the dispute or the challenge this just talks a little bit more about the dispute resolution program how the you know and what they're supposed to be doing the procedures are going to be following um talk a little bit about the highlands so with respect to the highlands there will be there will be with when there's the land capacity Factor calculated um there will be consideration given to those properties within the highlands should there be you know a new residential development there is supposed to be an affordable housing set aside within the highlands as well um housing elements are supposed to are supposed to include certain anal anes with when you have a Highland municipality consideration of the buildout report consideration of any opportunities for redevelopment um of developed properties um as well as any other 100% affordable developments so the 100% affordable developments I just want to make clear some towns they looked at you know some towns do look upon them differently be in a different eye because it's unlike inclusionary zoning the in inclusionary zoning the or in in an inclusionary development the affordable units are What's called the set aside they're the smaller portion 15 or 20% of the total development a 100% affordable development is just that it's a it's all affordable units the issue is with that is that quite often the town is involved in either donating land providing land from its providing money from its trust fund and also is potentially helping out should there not be sufficient funding to cover the cost of the development is that something new no no it's no this is no this has been an option all along affordable housing yes 100% affordable I have a town in um well actually I can this is public record cluster is uh CL cluster has a uh development going in one of its old schools known as The Village School um it's going to be 35 units I believe of affordable housing um and that's around three project that we're still working with with a developer and Etc on that one but you have to understand with that the municipality has to agree to cover shortfalls should there not be funding or financing available and quite often as I indicated the municipality can either a donate land B give money from its trust fund and or C provide other financial assistance so that has some benefits in that you have you have you meet your obligation in one you know in one area without the market rate units however it comes there is a cost to it a financial cost so there's a weighing of pros and cons with it it's not widely used throughout the state is it I think so ground on 112 unit one like last week yeah 112 unit all affordable we we did one in Verona about four years ago 95 units and we're just uh doing the finishing touches on 120 units in paramas all 100% affordable that's a great way to get a lot of credits yeah um you know if there's a a a perfect spot for it really but there's a cavity out there which it's there there can be a cost to so I don't know what happened pramis if you know in the other towns but quite often like I said I you know there is well both towns donated land land they donate land okay one one reason why they could do that yeah in Brian in those situations the developers tend to be very Cooperative with the town I know you've had experience with that absolutely and there's always you know tax credit financing has to be involved in it and pilots and yeah the town is involved in it for the for the whole process but again it's a way to get a lot of credits when you know when you have a big obligation and if you um Locate the property in need propriate location or other or or have other bedroom distributions you're also able to get your get certain bonus credits um so that you know you can help to achieve even more of your obligation um MH but as we indicated there there is a financial component to it um and with respect to the tax you know the tax credits there are the 4% and the 9% the 9% are competitive the 4% are not they will not cover the whole cost so the town has to agree to quite often You Know cover what is not covered so I just want to make that clear so everything there's a it's a Wayan fact it's right it's it's a it's a juggling act so to speak um and this is all did this is all coming from the top down well this is the the yes in terms of the legislation for round four these types of things inclusionary zoning 100% affordable developments these have been around as Brian and I indicated um you know through through the past uh co- rule past years of the co of rules um but yes this is this is a state requirement um let's go a little bit about the highlands so next steps what should we do so first of all as I indicated I think that it's it's a great start to have this discussion tonight to get you know to try and make everybody aware both on the council and whomever is here and whomever is watching at home that this is legislation that was adopted by the legislature your state legislature it was signed by your governor and now the municipalities have a responsibility to do you know to go for to to follow the regulations and to meet the deadlines that we talked about um they are it's an aggressive it's an aggressive time frame um and and that's why it's it is great that you're starting now um so some of the things that we've been starting to do is we've been reviewing um prior vacant land lists making sure those are accurate looking at your um your um your Park land making sure everything is in your you know your open space Planner on the the rosi which is the state list the recreation open space inventory that D keeps um or that you're supposed to V to D so making sure everything that you know that all your open space and your Parkland is appropriately listed in the rosi and appropriately contained within your master plan didn't that you say something in your presentation about going back to 1997 that's for certain properties yes that that certain Municipal properties do go back to 97 but properties that open space can be deducted from your calculation of your affordable housing obligation um checking the obligations of course calculated by DCA which are coming in October um and um basis for potential dispute of the DCA obligation as we had discussed you know looking in particular at the land Capacity Analysis because the other factors that go into the obligation in my opinion they're Census Data building permit data tax assessment data those are that's data that's facts the land capacity is going to look at what is vacant land and what isn't vacant land and I think that that's that's an area that we definitely should be following up on um as well as I indicated you know looking through your vacant land list that was done we utilize and preparation of your of your round three plan to see what is still vacant and having discussions about what the town you know what what the town thinks as its best steps moving forward and recognizing that this responsibility is coming and what would be the best steps and places and mechanisms for addressing it Brian I I you're an expert in this just for public edification it's a whole group of people that don't know about Matt alluded to round one round two uh m lauro one can you just give us a brief synopsis of the public policy how this developed how this came out of how it was born and I've heard talk throughout the state that this is quote unquote the urbanization of New Jersey that's the talk that came out of the original the public policy from the from the original decision of Mount Laura one not many states I can't think of any other state that's tried to follow New Jersey Through The Years uh back during the Obama Administration they tried to do something similar to this to this legislation through HUD uh and it was ruled unconstitutional so could you mind just giving us an overview well the yeah the the original decisions came out of the Supreme Court as uh and Matt said uh and it was based upon the fact that the Supreme Court our Supreme Court the New Jersey state supreme court said that it's a constitutional a state constitutional obligation to provide for housing uh affordable housing that's where it came from and for a long time we did have an administrative agency that took care of it which was COA and it worked for quite a while um until Governors didn't appoint members to it they couldn't get a quorum and so the rules couldn't be updated they couldn't have meetings finally the courts took it over and frankly that's been a complete debacle um everybody submitt all all the towns submitted their complaints in 2015 as recently as a couple of months ago I was still going to court on behalf of towns to get courts to approve of our plans that are now you know 9 years old uh and we're going into the next round so that clearly hasn't worked but now you know we're starting with a new administrative agency uh all new rules and Frank nobody's sure what's going to happen um so we're going to have to pay attention to it and John Brian I don't know the name it I can't remember what it is but us to be able to sell your credits correct you could transfer Regal contribution you could send them to someplace where it made more sense and now it's we're going to put it in places that it doesn't make a lot of sense instead of where it does make sense because of some weird regionalization method and there's also some other things that happened with some communities for example that uh our Urban Aid communities have no obligation so all the other communities like Oakland have to make up for that that's the filtering process that Caroline talked about how it works to your disadvantage because there's some communities that don't have to participate but there're they're still part of the region so if you have you know if you have 20 communities in your region and you have five that don't have an obligation the other 15 the obligation doesn't go away the other 15 are picking it off right so the other side of the county where I move from Alpine was that was that the contributing factor where they were selling their credits to fly yeah you could do that in rounds one and two you couldn't do it in round three but everybody that could did it in the first couple of rounds right so basically there was a fee associated with it and then your a certain percentage or amount of your um affordable housing obligation was was moved or transferred to a different Community within your region um and there was a fee paid and that was permitted as Brian indicated rounds one and two and uh removed from the possible uh options I believe in about 2008 can I just ask a question obviously you stated in the beginning this was FastTrack through the legislature and the governor signed sign signed it into law is there a possibility when we have regime change next year new governor this could be changing and this could be a moving Target moving going forward or I mean it feels very well we're not gubernatorial election until after these deadlines pass so so Eric what they did this time so Brian alluded to it there was a Governor Christie who did not um fill the seats fill the seats for the count for for the Council on affordable housing so it was a caus caused a backlog so the court stepped in which is essentially the round three that we've been living with uh not ideal because you get Mercurial decisions but again what is ideal in this situation when when the state is saying there's a constitutional right and uh the character of your town really doesn't matter what so what they did with this legislation is they've taken out the guess workor and keeping another Governor from doing something similar again except maybe they don't fund a dispute resolution uh I mean I don't know what they would do but uh also a new governor this is legislation you know it would have to be presented to them correct but you know and right now you have Gerry Manda districts in this state uh where there's is very really not me it's essentially cited towards one party versus the other anybody else from the council have any questions no I don't think so would we want to open it to the public so I'd like to do at this point I like a motion open to public being that this is going to have a profound effect on the character of Oakland so second any frombody from the public wish ask any questions or address this or professional hi choer 392 rampo Valley Road deal with this Highlands all the time there's Parcels up along behind shop rate and we all know are familiar Pinnacle so because that's hope that's uh Highland preserv preservation versus planning so you're telling me there's some large swats of land up there that a builder could use What's called the Builder's Remedy or use whatever Murphy's laying up for us and use that to basically say I'm going to do this and the town has to let me do that well it needs to conform I'm sorry let you I say it has to conform with the high with whatever the highlands requirements are and your Highlands properties um in particularly within within the preservation area should not really should not be resulting in an obligation but um and and we're not subject to a builder's remedy suit unless we don't meet some of the timelines that you have to meet if we meet them then we're not subject to that kind of Lo all right so I think we need to explain to the public how to make them Teflon against all these builders remedies cuz I mean these guys did a good job with the situation behind behind the high school but on the build's remedy they could have put over 440 units people think it's outstanding you know it's terrible they're putting in 191 but they don't know the other side of it and Franken L is going through it with the old IB property and as Franken laks did with the golf course but we got a lot of land up behind shoppr right you know plus you have that old Pinnacle thing so this seems to be falling right into well that's why we're here tonight that's why the mayor invited us and that's why we I tried to talk about the time frames and the deadlines and I think for at least two of them I said this is a really important deadline and if you don't meet it you could be subject you could lose your your immunity you could be subject to exclusionary zoning litigation such as that so let's just say we don't get Teflon proof it looks very they're saying we could build in the highlands preservation where here to for we can't really even touch without going through litigation but if we're not Teflon proof a builder could come in and load up our Highland preservation area with affordable housing units well I think I don't think I think it would have to conform to whatever the highlands requirements are I think you have to there are some there as part of the analysis within your housing element you do have to look at the Highlands preservation and the planning area and what could and couldn't be done there and the properties that are there but I think that what's more important is the recognition that this that the mayor and the council are giving to this and the importance of it and again we're going to as Brian indicated you're only subject to these things if you lose your immunity and you don't lose your immunity if you miss deadlines and don't do the work that's involved yeah understood but D1 Highlands preservation and planning it's so contradictory that they're showing that as an area that could be used well again it depend I'm not sure the specific areas that you're talking about some areas in the high lines can't be developed so right you know you have to look at what and there's different you know there's planning areas and preservation areas in right so you have to look at what specific regulations apply to those specific that but it looks like they developed loopholes and you know what it might be that they're developable land and we'll have to take that into account but again as long as we have a plan that meets the number that we uh are obligated to come up with we're not subject to those kind of lawsuits so no one gets to dictate to the mayor and Council where the development will go so you may not have the answer we have a lot of properties are high slope is that going to protect us from getting developed on not as much as it has in the past not as much as it has in the past that was something that we used to when we would do our vacant land adjustment we were able to eliminate certain properties one of them was steep slopes that's May no longer be the case so we may no longer be able to that's why I was bringing up about Highlands I mean it's you know but Highlands it's different than understood understood but okay I'll keep I have a question thank you the differ between Mike 95 Walnut what's the difference between affordable housing and low-income housing and is there a difference in obligation so um affordable house that's a great question actually so affordable housing in state of New Jersey includes three different there's three different categories there's moderate income low income and very low income so lowincome housing is affordable housing to answer to your question and it has has to do there's of course formulas that are a little complicated it has that has to do with the percentage of median income within the region and the size of the household but yes it's lwi income housing adjust requirements for development as well correct So within the development what the developer has to do is say what's what I called what I refer to as a set aside so a per a percentage of the total units need to be set aside or identified as affordable units and those units are deed restricted as affordable units there's a process for marketing them throughout the region and there's a process for vetting whomever might move into or buy those units to make sure that their income is at the right level for that unit okay with within that group of affordable units just the overall category of affordable units there are also regulations as to how what percentage has to be very low income what percentage has to be low income and what percentage has to be moderate income so there's a mix and that's all spelled out in the in the rules okay all right thanks anybody else from the public wish to ask a question 48 Trail also trusty of the board of educations so I'm sorry I didn't get your name Peter miselli thank you um could could you just come over here by the microphone so that uh they can public can hear your question um so I'm here there's a formula right so that suggests objective but there's a lot of subjectivity I guess in judgment on what qualifies for Highlands or is there how can we uh sort of handicap what Our obligation is going to be looking into the future so how you know can we is there a way we can get ahead of that formula and say here's what we think it's going to be in terms of you know the number of units that would be developed over the say five year or whatever that time Horizon is plan or is that the plan that we put together prior to October to say okay whatever we get from the DCA if we want to challenge it here's here's the plan that we challenge it so I guess I'm just trying to drive to some way of kind of handicapping what's the what's the obligation going to look like over so so one thing I can't tell you is what is your obligation number going to be I I can't answer that question right now first of all I don't think anybody can answer a question any that question with respect to to any municipality in the state right now what will your obligation be um what I think you're asking is how can Oakland best protect itself so that it's ready when the obligation numbers come and when it has to prepare its plan and that was a couple of things that we tried to talk about was look at your vacant land make sure your Park land is is appropriately categor G because we can exclude that from Our obligation number you know make sure your mapping is up to date things like things like that those are the things that we could do in my opinion at this point to make sure that we're as ready as we can to be to meet the deadlines and to move forward right yeah the preparation is is also for the school district right so to say okay we're going to have an influx of X number of units over the next X number of years with limited resources and limited capacity so how do we do our part right to say we're prepared for that influx and you know time is our best asset right you know to be able to plan uh financially to be able to meet those obligations so it's it's it's you know that's That's the basis of the question is to try to understand um you know how best we can predict the population growth yeah as Caroline said it's it's impossible right now to determine what your number is going to be but the best thing to do is as the mayor and Council done get started early get your professionals involved and be prepared when your number does come down to challenge it if there's a basis to do that right right okay all right thanks also it is don't the boards let me rephrase that the Board of Education don't don't quite often do they hire an an ex like a demograph someone to do demographics and they usually work with the building department and to see you know what's can they do there's an analysis they do like looking at 10 years I believe or a certain number of years and what's approved or what projects are kind of coming down the pike so they do their they absolutely we've done that but there's there's there's an X Factor right which says how much are we going to be uh you know compelled to develop right so we can only we can all go only go by what we know so we know about Indian Hills property and so take that into account but it would be nice to have some kind of vision over a five or 10 year time Horizon this is what we this is what we need to be prepared to do so whatever we do today you know is is is going to meet that OB preserve the value of the properties of the town right because that's the right that's really I'm trying to do and the the rounds this round four is supposed to last for 10 years so if that gives you any you know any confidence but as indicated we are still you know we're all supposed to be done with our round three plans but we are still in some towns not here but other towns working still with the courts and you know as this goes along this but N Net right so you know at the end of the year October the town will have an idea of of what we think it should be whether or not DCA fulfills their obligation to give us the plan to give us their to give us the obligation number in a perfect world they'll give us an obligation number we'll say that sounds great now we know that would be the that that's the Hope very utopian thought well the thing is Pete you can take your demographic study yeah and that you recently spent your money on and just rip it up that is yeah so that's the that's the unknown right mean we could come around in October and say well it's it's about the same as what we thought it was going to be right or it's completely different no really that that Mr I have a question for you are you is the School Board Association notifi ining school boards of this legislation and the impact it may have or or are you basically on your own I I have not been know F so yeah yeah as far as I know there hasn't been a lot of uh it's very recent though evidently four weeks ago yeah but it's a good question yeah we're we're going to address that at our next meeting and see yeah um you know not not just for the benefit of Oakland I mean we know now and so we know what we have to do but uh other towns are fighting the same same battle sorry excuse my back mayor I have a question thank you appreciate so um in in L closer on ra Road Avenue they have an affordable housing project that is all studio apartments and I think that was designed that way to not burn in the school system so are we able to do like Studio you can't do that yeah you can't do that so sorry I was going to say there's there's a regulations called do you hack uniform housing affordability control and uck specifically dictates the number of one two and three bedroom units that must be in an either a any type of affordable development or even a situation where there is a set aside and there's only a small number of affordable units that's part of a larger development so I can tell you that no more than 10% of excuse me 20% of the total affordable units can be one bedrooms or Studios a minimum of 20% of the units must be three bedrooms a minimum must of 30% must be two bedrooms and the remainder can be either two or three bedrooms so that's in order to be credit worthy you have to meet uck unless you have a situation where you have either specialized housing such as a group home that doesn't qualify for that that those rules aren't required or a situation with age restricted housing doesn't have those same bedroom distribution requirements anybody else from the public still open not seeing any motion to close close motion second moved all favor anybody else from the day have any questions for our professional thank you thank you for having us I want to thank you so much for us thank you for your last talk thank you I think that sh is not bad we just give them a minute to [Applause] leave okay we're up to the approval of minutes March 26 2024 executive minutes we have a motion to approve so moved do second second roll call Council woman goo yeah yes councilman mccan yes councilman pelli yes council president Sani yes councilman linski yes councilman talamini yes okay I've got a authorized raffle license RL 1494 for a 5050 for the parents athletic Council of Indian Hills to be held on April two dates 26 26th and May 23rd any have a second second all in favor authorized Raffa RL 1495 5050 for Marine Corps League Detachment 744 on May 3rd 2024 at the American Legion building in Oak Street Oakland New Jersey do have a second second all in favor I authorize raffle license RL 1496 for casino night for the Marine Corps League it's going to be held May 3rd at the American Legion building have a motion to move a second all in favor authorized social Affairs permit for the Marine Corps League DEC the de hatchment 744 for casino night May 3rd so move wait a second is this a duplicate noal okay may 2024 American Legion do I have a motion to approve Tove second all favor authorized raffle license RL 1497 for the sports Association of Oakland for May 22nd 2024 5:00 p.m. for the benefit of the Oakland softball beeld a law or drive in Oakland do have a motion to approve do have a second second all favor I okay I have a proclamation for Arbor Day Harbor Day 2024 whereas in 1872 Sterling Morton proposed to a Nebraska Board of agriculture agriculture that a special day be set aside for planting of trees and whereas on this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind water cutting Heating and Cooling cost moderate the temperature clean the air produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our city increase our property values enhance the economic Vitality of business areas and beautify our community and whereas trees wherever they're planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore I Eric Kamala mayor of the burough of Oakland do hereby Proclaim Friday April 26 2024 as Arbor Day in our community of Oakland I urge all citizens to support the efforts to protect our trees and Woodlands to support our City's Urban farry program and further I urge all citizens to plant trees to Gladden hearts and promote well-being of present and future Generations have a motion to approve second all favor I uh one more piece of business uh the county came in with a last minute request to do some work prior to the paving of Route 20202 North and they wish to work Saturday the 13th from 8:00 a. to 4:30 p.m. so move second is that a roll call is that excuse me mayor yes the time is again it's going to be from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 correct yes thank you have second second second first all in favor I okay we are going to appoint the following attacks appeal attorneys Chase Lampo and also clear jacobe alfredi and Jacobs do I have a motion to approve so moved do I have a second second roll call please councilwoman go fre down yes yes councilman McAn abstained councilman Pig melli yes council president Sani yes councilman linski yes councilman talamini yes okay I have an appointment to the arch committee this is um this is with mayor council consent Laura Bell has put her name in motion to approve so moved second all favor okay moving on to resolutions we have 24128 through 24 uh 137 anybody wish to pull any out I'd like to pull out 24134 which is to uh authorize to Revis Oakland Franken Lakes inter local SE sewer agreement at this point Frankin Lakes has not taken any action on that so I'd like to pull this out for the next meeting anybody else have anything else they wish to pull out not seeing any to do I have a motion so moved do I have a second second roll call councilwoman goo yes councilman mccan yes councilman Pig melli yes council president Sani yes councilman cinski yes councilman talamini yes okay for ordinance we have final adoption 24 code 944 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits to establish a cap Bank per it to njsa 44-454 Mr cin uh thank you mayor uh so this ordinance is something that we do every year it's part of the annual budget adoption process uh and it simply allows us to increase the appropriation cap limit from the statutory 2.5% to 3.5% to reserve that extra 1% for possible spending in subsequent budget Years thank you any discussion from the Council not seeing do I have a motion open to public so move second all in favor anybody from the public wish to discuss 24 code 944 do have a motion to close some move second all in favor who's good we have final adoption 24 code 944 motion so a second second roll call councilwoman goo yes councilman McAn obain councilman Pig matelli yes council president Sani yes Council Council Miss linski yes councilman talamini yes okay work sessions there's nothing on here for work sessions does anybody on the council have any new business I wish to bring forward yeah may just we we talked about it briefly two weeks ago um we had this presentation tonight about establishing um a committee uh for forward planning for for the burrow um as opposed to being reactionary um if we had something like this last year instead of hustling in the professionals tonight we may have been better prepared for it um but I think you know it's prudent that we got them in right away but I think we need input in terms of the Town what the town wants to look like and what it wants to be going forward 10 years from now I mean there's a lot of people tonight that come in to voice their um their their desire to have the town step into their their their issues with regard to what they're claiming to be a w waterways that that somehow that we contribute to it and that may or may not be true but I think um those are the types of issues where you have a committee uh and you have professionals on you would obviously want a planner uh some attorneys and Realtors uh and other Professionals in town to you know to come forth with the with you know and identify specific things that could it could be the rml issue or the the miror lake issue uh things like that um may have been avoided you know with with this type of a committee in place uh I've seen it done in some other towns and some some disasters averted um and uh so I think that the way to do it is to uh just assign a couple of council people to put together a plan on what a committee like this would look like and then propose it um and even come up with potential names uh how many people we would have what what Authority it would have in terms of it's really just it's just really no government Authority except for input of the community uh working with the elected officials with the school board members too as you brought up tonight uh so it's a broad range of issues to look at this town over the next 10 years and um I I would like to make a recommendation that we put a put a committee like that together any discussion Mr mccy you think you would have a framework in place for the April 30th meeting possibly well depends upon who's with us or how about we just get an update for the 30th so how we're moving okay is that fair enough sure do you want to sign any anyone want to work on that sure uh obviously Mr McAn you seem very interested in it would you be willing to work on it I I've done it before I'll do it again anybody else from Council wish to work for the planning committee don't we have a Lage committee shouldn't they just be part of it bruss myself and you a little different a little different but you would be welcome who else wants to be involved uh well I'd be happy to be involved okay Mr T me okay so Mr um councilman McAn and Council tal me okay thanks we'll start coming over with a framework for rather the next meeting then terrific thank thank you any other new business any old business going out to council liaison reports I think start with Mr Talam uh sure um with Recreation there's going to be summer camp signups uh it's going on right now until April 30th if you sign up uh on time before April 30th you're guaranteed a spot if you sign up after April 30th will be put on a a wait list and you'll have to pay um u a late fee uh that's that's all I have for uh Recreation um and then the only other thing um if I could just um just just uh quick I just want to say um over the last month I if I if I Dro dropped the ball on any of my committees or anything I I just want to apologize um uh the last four weeks have been a little rough and um and I just want to say thank you to everyone in Bur Hall and and and everyone up here on the Das who who um had uh well wishes for for me and my and my friends for everything that they they've done and I and I can consider you all my friends um and um uh just concerning the death of my father my father was a very special man uh to many people in beron county and and and Beyond and uh but most of all he was very special to me and um I just want to say thank you to all um for all your well wishes and um uh it meant a lot to me and my family thank you councilman Pig yes I have two announcements one I I made uh last meeting uh team team up to cleanup April the 20th 9:00 a.m. you can register at the Danny Delia building make sure to bring uh gloves and bug spray and the other one is April 16 is our next Board of Health meeting and that's it mayor thank you council president saliani thank you so from the board of ENT update K through 8 kther has a budget meeting on April 29th at VMS at 7M so people uh please come out and join if any questions they'll review their budget I also want to call out the kther board for uh something they've done I think everyone's heard by now but I want to reiterate it they um they did a great job working on a lease with olph um you know obviously we're running out of space in some of the schools we have some programs that we want to make bigger and instead of trying to put a referendum together to the town where we have to vote they they found a more economical way and they've leased some space a fiveyear lease in um olph they'll be starting moving some programs over there at start of of the school year next September mostly I believe k um prek programs will start there and they'll be building over that next five years so um uh the board did a very good job doing that I think everyone should be aware what's going on there for the flood Commission we had our meeting last night first of all the flood commission is looking for some new members so anyone wants to join the flood commission please do so um Mr Coons I want to do new business but I have to do it under the under under my report um 141 142 iroy we have to get um the engineer to go look at those properties they did a property walk there and there's um there's some there's dear dear River deterioration that's coming down and it's affecting the home owners homeowners property and we just need to make sure that we uh have engineer go look at that okay also they were um is the when is the meeting for the kickoff of the river restoration project uh that the kickoff meeting occurred already that was a few weeks ago uh drar ra and the Aerials were taken as well uh the Drone footage for all of that uh so dreser Robin is uh you know doing their their work right now thank you and public events we had a meeting last night public events is also looking for one or two more members so all are welcome and the next big event is going to be the Memorial Day Parade anyone they're looking for Walkers anyone who wants to participate please reach out to M her email is ATI M 1953 at yahoo.com I believe I said that I don't hope I spell anti- 1953 yahoo.com we're looking for people who like to walk in the parade and help out that's all I have counil mcken um yeah a couple minor things uh actually that's so minor um I want to talk about bart talamini for a moment Russ's dad I known Bart for almost 30 years and uh he was a pillar uh to the uh establishment in Bergen County uh whether it was government related or volunteer uh Russ exemplifies his father's values with his volunteerism here in our town and it's a it's a real loss uh and uh it was an honor to uh to attend uh the my only lament is that Catholic Church needs to put in some some kneeling pads um uh the second thing is on the earthquake uh mayor um you know we had another town water main break is uh nearby or here in New Jersey uh the only one I've heard about recently was down the Randol right right so uh I want to commend you uh our burough administrator and the entire uh DPW crew that acted fast uh to get out out there and inspect make sure and secure uh the critical infrastructures of Oakland especially in light of the fact that we have the the new water wells uh in in place and so forth so as uh although was relatively small in California standards at 4.7 or 4.8 depending upon when it was reported it was the largest earthquake in over a century here in New Jersey and we are in an earthquake Bel so uh but I want to commend the the staff for doing that and I want also just throw throw a compliment the mayor's way because you don't Mayors don't get a lot of compliments Eric your leadership on that was great uh getting the word out to the people what we were doing and what needed to be done was was well done and efficient and you didn't abuse the 9 mon the nine the 911 system and you weren an not an alarmist and I want to thank you for that that's it C thank you mayor uh see from the library uh yoga with Sonia is back at the opl on Tuesday nights uh this free yoga program is great for beginners and experienced practitioners registration is required for each event so check out the events calendar on their website or call the library to register they also have a new children's yoga program on Saturday mornings with a certified instructor again please register in advance for each class on Sunday April 14th at 2 pm they will host a jazz uh concert live on the library stage featuring local musician Ellen lafern and on Thursday April 18th at 6:30 they will have a program with Lori Corone about downsizing and how to plan and prepare for that change the children's department will continue its regular week L programs and activities including the music program jiggly Wiggly this Friday a registration is also required uh also as a reminder the opl has renewed its Museum passes for 2024 and they encourage everyone to take advantage of these passes for more information call the library or visit the website that's all I have for tonight thank you Council thank you mayor um on April 1st the shade tree commission met and they discussed uh they're doing a Arbor Day presentation at dog Dogwood school um on April 21st they are doing a saplin giveaway at the library um that's Sunday April 21st from 10:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. uh they also um commented on the large response from residents they had for the adopted tree program many residents have now been placed on a list to roll out over the next few years to receive a tree that the residents will take care of um Additionally the shade tree really wants to thank Tony SMI um they thank him for all the many years of service that he uh volunteered on the shade tree Commission on April 3rd access for all met um no new updates they're planning for the Oakland Carnival and the Memorial Day Parade on May 6 um OCC will hold a regular meeting at 700 p.m. uh just a reminder OCC does always need volunteers that's it thank you uh bills to be paid Council woman bills to be paid one moment total bills to be paid 37,7 2016736584 second roll call councilwoman goo yes councilman mccan yes councilman Pig yes council president Sani yes councilman cinski yes councilman salamini yes you will have a motion to adjourn so move all favor next who is the second okay uh just remember our next council meeting is on Tuesday April 30th because Passover is uh week prior to that so it's Tuesday April 30th 700 p.m. at council chambers meeting ad Jour thank you everybody e e e for