##VIDEO ID:Hoz7fJfMtwE## uh Taylor is getting ready yep there we go thank you John okay um call to order the notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied by the placing of a notice of this meeting on the bulletin board at the municipal building filing the notice with the Township Clerk and transmitting the notice to the 100 in County Democrat the career news The Star Ledger and the trend times roll call please chairman Mr Edward gettings has asked to be excused Vice chair Miss Donna Drews here miss Robin Fatu has asked to be excused Mr Scott McDade here Miss Michelle kakiri here Mr Dennis conanan here Mr James Miller here Mr Glenn Sosi here board attorney Mr John Bardo here by telephone Township planner Mr Jeffrey Vella here and all other board professionals have asked to be excused thank you good we please SL for the Pledge of Allegiance and I'll ask you to join me for a moment of silence [Music] afterward America and Inter for which it stands one nation under thank you all right we'll start with uh comments and reports I don't have anything as the acting chairman this evening anything from the board anything no engineering report planners comments Jee at this time no just that there's a TRC meeting scheduled for the September 30th um for to applications F Associates 2 Junction Associates 2 Warehouse on mini mini accounting Road and European homes subdivision uh we have not confirmed that one so so so just one what time does it start again 9:00 am N9 thank you okay great anything from you Mr Bardo no thank you Vice chairwoman all right okay correspondence discussions and recommendations uh first in the agenda we have ordinance of the township of Raritan amending section 296 131 entitled schedule of controls of chapter 296 entitled Land Development of the code of the township of Ron um to establish a Prohibition on shipping containers throughout the township and this is a master plan consistency and in our packets uh we received a copy of the proposed ordinance that was sent to us for consistency review by the township committee um Jeff would you like to provide some um background context and some um master plan comments on this for us yes so the reasons of it not being uh inconsistent with the master plan is that it's it actually provides context to a regulation that's that's in place um that has been really regulated by the boards and there's been the applications in front of the board of adjustment where D variances would be required just because there they it's just not a permitted use and was was designated as prohibited um there's been many applications where there was talks of the temporary shipping container on sites shipping containers where uses weren't it wasn't um it wasn't consistent with the use on on the site and there's been there's been Residential Properties where shipping containers are are used for storage and creating hoarding uh um uses on site so this is really it's more of a context for regulation that's been enforced and regulated by by Boards and also there's there's reference to uh tractor trailer units being stored which there are consistent regulations in the sections regarding uh tractor trailers being used for storing goods are not permitted so this is reestablishing that that regulation okay any questions regarding this ordinance or yeah what is the timeline I mean it says prohibited in all zones does it say 30 days 15 days 60 days because shipping containers this is what they're designed for an iso tank specifically you can get into where that's the purpose is for it to be a land storage for a short period of time you know be before it's unloaded everything you're going to run into now with the port shutting down anybody that received a container now will be in violation of a sh of an ordinance and they can't get it moved so because they've received it in good order they've got 30 days to return it they're unloading it under order what is the time frame that you're considering storage typically in all of the examples that I've come across of they store the shipping container for more than 30 days and it's not part of any operation they've purchased the shipping container and they're using it part of green initiatives in transportation is use rail containers with isot tanks which would are sit they're designed to sit for about two months between rotation so um I think so is this you got to define the timeline of storage and and then there also must be exceptions because there are unusual exceptions this Port strike is going to happen right now going to create big exceptions as it did during covid where people had to sit on things for six months in the normal course of business so I think we just need to be clear yeah is this so in a business Zone if someone had tractor trailer parking and it was part of their business activity and it came before the board this ordinance would would not prohibit that type of an activity that previously had gotten approval for no no I mean if they got approval for that operation say that again Don I'm thinking of Johanna Farms they have tractor trailers that come in there every day wait is a tractor trailer if they take the trailer off and park it it says ISO ISO containers a bulk intermediate size container sea containers transmodal containers and transportation from tractor Trail units that remain in stationary location I think we have to Define stationary location and what that means okay that that could be a recommendation back to the to the township committee then to you know I I my impression is this is to keep people from like um the hotel making them permanent right putting a a trailer in the backyard and putting all their L Linens in it and calling it a permanent storage place or residents getting track that have become a defect Warehouse that's fundamentally different than people who just have too much Supply correct yeah gr that's not specified in here but those are two fundamentally different purposes 100% And I think maybe you can get into purpose you can get into time FR that and I think that's that's where we have to put the fenses on I'm assuming you're towards what I yes exactly I know you're not trying toose the local businesses no it's somebody right now there's a whole cottage industry on on taking containers that are no longer fungible for in the in the ocean market and they sell them and people turn them into hes they become an extension you know I just looked at a place where was I and they had put two on the roof of the building and cut them out and made them into outdoor patios with a a shell so I understand what you're saying I think we have and that's also a distinction because there are residents that come in with a with a spec a spec shipping container with Windows Doors something that really doesn't look like a traditional they're sold that yeah yeah think that when I read this but like no that's got to be totally different yeah and so I'm just saying is you we don't we want to be accepting to the business is and not Define it but we need to put in order to make sure that people don't set these up and put a container there the next see PL places y so John um we can go back with uh some general recommendations around improvements as well as a finding of not inconsistent that's that's correct the uh statute under the municipal land use law um allows you to make a finding of not inconsistent or inconsistent plus um as I've often said you have the ability to make recommendations to the township committee concerning the ordinance that's been introduced and that would be in a report that would go from the board secretary uh back to the township committee clerk okay so do we have consensus around it sounds like you know they might want to re-evaluate timing of storage yeah a little bit more detail on that to differentiate between a business activity versus just the parking of a trailer you know I mean that's the shorthand word word words for it you can sus it out and then it sounded like was the second stationary location defition yeah yeah and then I think at some point um they may want to look at further clarification of the definition when a shipping container is used as an accessory restructure as opposed to a storage unit so because it seems like yeah we do see that happening yeah distinction between the structure and and the use of structure yeah so um those would be and I would I would recommend that before the report uh go back to the township committee clerk that both uh Don and Glenn have a chance to review it and make any necessary revisions Glenn certainly seems to have a um technical expertise in this area so that that should be done before it it goes over to the clerk that sounds like great advice it's nice to have a logistics person here to and can you put in a clause for uh strikes or I don't know what extraordinary circumstance I don't know something like that yeah or like a temporary um I mean sometimes if there's if there's a construction on site we'll say have a shipping container for either their in office or even their materials or something that's that's been very common going on and is there more than saying the cut office 30 days you don't want everybody have to come planning get excep because they just can't it even though they want to okay and the environmental thing you mentioned too that's SP because the world is changing one thing you might want to consider is adding some verage in there to prohibit somebody from moving that trailer across the parking lot on day 28 and then turning around and saying oh it's not stationary we yeah we could put something as on site yeah where because either way they're gonna have to wherever it is they're goingon to have to apply for a permit so it's going to be exact for that so yeah okay okay all right so can we have someone um a motion um and a second for that please going forward with the recommendations that we came forward with those recommendations that it is not in consistent with our master plan to the township committee oh was that you making a motion Michelle or no sure oh sorry I'm sorry okay uh Vice chairwoman Miss Donna Drew yes Mr Scott McDade yes Mr Dennis quanan yes Miss Michelle kavaki yes Mr James Miller yes Mr Glenn soosi yes all right thank you uh next item on the agenda um we have a request to the for for the use of planning board funds that conducts traffic studies with in the township um Township committee did reach out to our traffic consultant to ask for some support in coming up with uh studies I don't know you want to speak this at all Scott or well we we I don't know how much I can well you can just say yes we we are concerned with traffic Pennsylvania Avenue there um overweight trucks truck driving school um people going too fast uh heading toward 31 uh so there's things we'd like to do but we we have to look at what the traffic conditions are now the traffic pattern so we need to study to do some of the things changing um speed limits or putting weight limits on the roads whatever we come up with right what leads to so the traffic stud for Road wait wait the microphones I there's two of them I'm at Pennsylvania Avenue and River Road on the far side I believe so yeah so there's two traffic studies one for the Pennsylvania Avenue yards Farm site and the second is for the River Road Traffic study to evaluate um roadway conditions along the River Road and surrounding areas makes sense don't vote yeah yeah because up by throughout 202 right you can barely make that little s so so so um Jeff do we because it's coming out of our budget I assume we should do a motion and a roll call Vote Yes Yes okay so U basically this was a request from from the township committee to utilize planning board funds to conduct these studies I know fund I was just wondering the same thing do we have enough funds to cover why is the first time hearing about this I yes I will say yeah to answer your question we there are funds to cover this okay yeah so can we have a motion to approve the use of the funds to conduct these two studies well well can I first ask question is there any reason why we wouldn't want to use these F use PL board funds for this I mean the intent so the intent is always to provide some funds in case the planning board wants to do a circulation study or any master plan okay um studies that's really what the money was for um this is kind of in conjunction with it a little bit it's really applicable use of planning Fort funds okay yeah yes fine with me all right um so there are two separate studies is there a reason there two separate because they're so interrelated because two separate studies can come up with two different conclusions without being interrelated and these are two very interrelated well they are in the art I think it's the distance between the turning points and radius and where the traffic impacts coming from so I would guess that's why probably they were broken out there was probably a half mile part or whatever maybe they inter not okay come on guys all right so any more questions or discussions all right can we have a motion to approve the use of the funds for the two proposed traffic studies Vice chairwoman Miss Donna Drew yes Mr Scott McDade yes Mr Dennis conanan yes Miss Michelle kavaki yes Mr James Miller yes Mr Glenn Sosi yes all right thank you there are no minutes for us this evening or resolutions uh there are no citizens in the audience I'll note for the public record uh and no public hearings uh one last thing before we officially adjourn I will um mention that um Ed and I have been working we spoke at our last meetings about requesting um that the township committee provid some funding in future budgets to do a complete circulation plan and um what was the second one storm water I'm sorry storm water and yeah an updated storm water management um master plan element so that memo will go out this week asking that those things um start being looked at and I know the environmental commission is looking at potential for natural resource inventory update as well so all right thank you very much I have a motion to adjourn motion second all right adjourned 18 minutes good job thanks John he already hung up okay well he's away right he's in main yeah oh all right