##VIDEO ID:EzX_MRR1z88## um the adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and the Press on January 5th 2024 by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of the notice Christine can you do roll call please councilman Daniel shirell chairwoman Kimberly Noel here Vice chair Neil sarne here Christine dumbar Ted G Ted here Christine Rogers here Linda Tower here Barbara kazaka here Landon tener here Robert Otto here John grth here all right please join me in saluting the flag allei to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right um we have approval of minutes of August 8th 2024 um did anybody have any changes questions comments under the electric vehicle section Neil's first name is spelled wrong yeah cat that any other comments or questions good catch Christine thank you [Laughter] Christine all right do I have a motion to accept the minutes with that change I'll make a motion to accept the change do I have a second I second Lind thank you all in favor I thank you um next item on the agenda we did receive a draft open space and Recreation plan um and we have the open space and Recreation public survey results um as this is a draft form at this time um I ask that you don't share it because it hasn't gone uh to Town Council yet um um just Dan who is a member of this committee also so um Barbara has submitted some changes do you want to go over those slightly or was anything material or it was um nothing major some small just commment changes that say okay but nothing major okay yeah they don't look like material Chang just editing yep okay um did anybody have any other comments or questions first did everybody get a chance to review it if not we can have some time now are we planning on passing this today or what's the well so we can't officially adopt it I mean pass it to the Town Council that's the goal today yeah if everybody's had the opportunity to look at it and there's no um substantive concerns like if we have editing issues we can still pass that on to Barb and she can make changes um but if there's substantive issues then we should probably talk about them and then decide if we're going to pass that on then so I've I've had a brief chance to look at it not not entirely um due to the time of receiving it but in one of my major um notices was the historical and cultural sites mhm um in regards to that in fact actually in the zoning board meeting last night we received an application in the historic district over in Monroe that's not listed here so I think that's a really significant um addition that should be added okay um under private lakes with Lake Mohawk I didn't see any beaches noted I think that's open space Recreation I think that should be noted um and then under pimple Hills I was really happy to see that that under the wildlife um excuse me I'm just pulling it up here um connecting wildlife habitat mhm um I the map that shows some of the Farmland I it I believe there is also other locations uh nearby on the original maps that we saw owned by the njd and I think that's a note to show in the larger pimple Hills proposal here um to show kind of the gravity of what that proposal is um I'm not I I think I will have additional comments I just haven't really had a full chance to to go through it yet okay but but that's currently what I have right now okay so historical sites further details are needed is that correct at least uh I've only identified the Monroe historic district that's Zone as a c1h in our town so it's actually our only historical zoning in the township I believe and then Lake Mohawk the beaches and then there's additional D owned property by the pimple Hills area Okay anybody have other comments or questions I just think it's very impressive I'm I I skimm through a lot of it and uh uh one thing uh what's a splash pad it it what it's like a sprinkler in a playground yeah a they they often like look like mushrooms and they have like water coming out of top and then they might have water coming up from the bottom and okay K can play little kids oh it's for little kids that's cool um and I was wondering it looks like uh we haven't had any open space funding from the county since uh 2006 until now wonder why that was new I don't know but that's not you know that that has nothing to do with that yeah editing this um the only thing that I saw that was substantive is I didn't see the cluster ordinances mentioned um I I'll have to look further but I didn't see them um highlighted so there was I don't know if folks will recall but there was at least seven cluster ordinances that various HOAs had agreed to keep some spaces open um and we did a bunch of research to try to make sure that that was in the Deeds um but then I didn't see it mentioned in the open space plan um page 76 did you see something in there uh I just searched for cluster I'm trying to find it on the page now uh golf course and related facilities for I'll be used for recreational purposes and clustered open space 9.6 acres oh what it's under one appendix B uh number one preserved land just below Fox Hollow Lake which page is that on uh it's page 80 No appendix B it's not 80 it's page 73 no sorry it's not all we we got to look for it some more got to be 70 it's between 73 and 80 okay I see it here yeah it's on 75 so they're not this is why it's not called cluster ordinances they don't have it called out that way they just have it labeled preserved land 76 yeah is that what what we're talking about or oh yeah there is some that's called clustered spaces yeah this was the the stuff that's on page or the properties that are on page 75 those are the some of the ones that were identified all right so shall we take the next two weeks do a deep dive on this too we'll submit Barbara's comments and then talk about it at our next September meeting I think it's September 27 yeah sounds good to me okay a question um just as far as next steps it says adopt into the master plan but I know the master plan um process is interrupted um it's not really interrupted oh that's I just wanted to make sure that when we do present this we have like a a thought out path forward for them regardless of where the master plan is we're continuing work that's great I'll update you on that um yeah I'll ask Barbara what usually they do but I think the next steps are we um after the changes have been made to the draft that people have requested then it gets shared with the planning board zoning board Town Council um the master subcommittee then I think is responsible for adopting it or maybe the planning board adop yeah I'm not sure board okay all right um we'll send barbra's comments now to this Barbara here to Barb Davis we'll send her comments now okay and then um any additional comments we have we'll send later um there was also on the open space and Recreation public survey results there was um a discussion about how some of the graphs are a little bit unclear and so they're looking to um clarify some of those also I think particularly the one on the second page number five it's unclear like how many people were asking for add more playgrounds tennis courts Etc so there was a request to clarify that that number four this one here oh number five was unclear right thank you to my subcommittee uh open space of recreation planning subcommittee members we got a finished product just got to bring it [Laughter] home and that was Neil Linda Chris Dunbar so thank you everybody all right um we had no applications we were going to have applications but Christine they got move to a new date is that correct yeah October all right open it up to public comment we have nobody from the public here because John is now up here with us and I forgot to introduce you I'm sorry our new student LS on everybody John C gr gr okay yeah thank you for having me here welcome yeah welcome all right um reports so we have no report from Dan since he's in Greece so no report from the Town Council and Chris Dunbar is not here also so we don't have a planning board report so we have Neil master subcommittee master plan subcommittee sorry okay um I think we've met twice since um since the uh environmental commission has met um it's work is continuing on refining the community survey and the C Community website Hub is expected to launch in about two weeks and that'll provide information on the committee work uh the master plan and how it works uh it looks at old Master plans and other pertinent information regarding the master plan review so that was that came from Monday's meeting I believe so in two weeks can we can I ask what the um what the charge is for the master plan committee now that is there new funding in place are they seeking new funding yeah there's enough funding to keep us going till the end of the year I believe um I might not I might not be correct on that but uh and I don't know where the um the the uh Grant status I know what that is right now but I think that's ongoing so okay all right um unfinished business I already talked about the open space plan up above um do we want to talk about the municipal tree replacement ordinance any comments from anyone I thought it looked good I thought and we just have to like put uh but we have to the township put the fees into that draft which I think will be done when they're reviewing it and if we want to decide to keep the whole list of the of the trees SL straps or we want to kind of like shrink it to maybe some of them so if we want to keep them all let's keep them all there all of the trees from the the native species in Sussex County so that's what I that's what I put in there okay I don't know if anyone has any PRS with it I thought it looked good I don't know okay I did too and I would keep it all just so we're not yeah so there's a plethora of options right not to limit any exactly yeah right okay so we'll send that to um Jim now I think that's the next step thank you for doing that oh yeah all right um Dan is not here so I don't have much update on the Green Team appointment um and so that will will'll shelf until next time um we have our student lison John GRA with us today he was appointed on Tuesday so welcome John we're going to do a brief orientation at just before our next meeting just to tell John what we do and what we're responsible for share our ordinance Etc if anybody wants to come um and hear the Spiel you're welcome too we're going to do it at 6:30 at our next meeting September 27th right before that next meeting all right um next thing is the green infrastructure plan from 2021 I think rob you brought this to our attention I was just curious if we had used it because I saw it I was like should can I tell everyone the the backstory on this yeah please so the organization I worked for is ruer is the walkill river Watership Management Group we partner a lot with a group called ruter Water Resources program who produced this document um before I was on the environmental commission they had come to my organization and said we're looking for towns that may be interested um in the highlands region if we have any connections so I directed them at the time uh to Dean blumetti when he was the chair of the environmental commission and so they had funding they being ruter had funding to produce a set of three documents um related to Green infrastructure adoption in Sparta MH so this is one of the three um the other two would be in impervious cover assessment and then the last one is the green infrastructure strategic plan so um at the time I had met out in the field with Neil and with Dean we had visited a bunch of sites um and that's how this plan was developed as of potential sites but ruter did have a grant to focus specifically on Delaware drainage so that's how we end ended up doing the Pope John rain Garden Project instead of the ones that were in this plan because the walkill walkill drains to the Hudson River so it was not in the funding boundary of the grant that they had at the time oh got it so that's when we did the um Pope John rain garden and these projects have not been completed there is one at the sparta library that I think you had referenced but that was done previously and it's in a different spot than what's in this plan yeah but I think the other important part and this is something I brought up to Neil when our sustainable Jersey subcommittee met is all three of these documents that I referenced were not counted for sustainable Jersey points even though they were completed previously so that's something in the next round when we get recertified we can count um the impervious cover assessment would be five points this document uh would be another five points and then the green infrastructure strategic plan would be 10 points so all of them have been completed and we just haven't gotten credit for them yet oh great great can we pull do we own these this and the other two can we pull them into the open space and Recreation like plan I yeah I mean I can ask the contacts I have at ruers but they are just posted on their website right now so we probably seems like let's just it's like good stewardship and future but these projects are um they have been looked at by recers they analyzed the sites so they are ones that we can pursue and try to get implemented going forward but um none of the ones outlined right now have been completed so it's mostly churches schools VFW public yeah because they usually prioritize public yeah okay you know I had forgotten about this when I was reading it today I thought it was new then then I then I saw the the churches and this the the middle school middle school I particularly like the Mohawk AB school because um we've been working with uh one of the teachers there for some time and not at the not at Mohawk AV but at the middle school um and they I know the schools have been talking about doing their own Sustainable New Jersey application so this would be something they could really consider doing there's there's there's a like a private site that I have in mind um but it would affect us all because it's the headwaters of the walkill uh so I'm kind of curious about um splitting funding or looking into that it's basically the the Lake Mohawk pool property adjacent where they're looking to possibly not develop it and establish some good practices like um in concert with um like the crew team so I'm just I know that they were looking maybe to establish something in the spring but so right now it's open space but privately owned it's yeah it's privately owned by the membership um the membership purchased it because it was at risk of development Shoreline properties um and it's a whole it's a bundle so there's the pool there's the rental apartments and the shoreline properties and the shoreline properties are adjacent the headwaters of the well kill so that's a very sensitive area so the the logical thing would be to EST Lish kind of what the Lake mall Lake committee um best practices would be like a shoreline buffer in that area but it makes sense to me Shoreline buffer and then maybe a little bit more um and I I think they're looking at that and they they're already fundraising um just through the Lake Mohawk preservation um I think just privately through people that are on like the crew team and interested people uh in membership but talk about the rowing team Yeah Tim holac yeah so um because they're looking to relocate to that area and kind of establish a low impact use that you know and and so it's kind of like a good an offshoot of that would be like a good stewardship environment like green the area make it look nice for the neighbors and it's low impact versus you know throwing a bunch of housing on there right are they at Sleepy Lagoon now is that where they are yep so they've had a few kind of discussions about relocating yeah I thought I think I remember seeing something about that wonder if there are any grants available to that's what I'd be curious about I know what Kim had just referenced the Lake Mohawk preservation Foundation does have a small grants program so that might be a good option yeah I I owe I'm working on something for them but when I saw this I was like oh and then we also have the open space and Recreation plan and again it's the headwaters of the wall kill so like be good to get something there well is it listed in here is an open space probably not because privately owned but it's I noticed that some of these were listed the privately owned you know Bridal paths yep Parks pocket Parks beaches are not but should be it'd be interesting to look do you know the lot in the block number yeah I could I could send you okay I don't know it off hand but you haven't memorized I can get that well I'm I'm working I'm working on a map uh but yeah all right so what next steps did I hear um approaching the school about the Mohawk AV potential retention basement drain AG area um and then talk I guess incorporating this as like a future next steps that's oh in the open space yeah what about the other two reports well yeah we might as well the other okay Christine you'll get the other ones can you can you like send it to everyone yeah that be awesome because that's like right in our action plan right for the open space um I'll send them to Barb and see if it's appropriate to add it in the open space plan I don't I don't really know okay she's our adviser so other okay um now as far as adding those into sustainable Jersey do we just do that at the time when we are need to be recertified oh that's right that was the other we can start doing it now okay there's there's no reason why we we can't what's our due date when we have to recertify by for 2025 oh for well the this that would be the probably the second or the third round which is in July so July of 2025 we have to submit by right but we can we can open the you know start the uh process yeah we should start it now we we should do it be by the time of the first uh round yeah I think we should start start working on that now okay who's do you still have an established subcommittee for that or we need to kind of reestablish that well yeah it's Christine and and Chris Chris okay so I should set up let me set up another meeting sometime when when everyone's available okay start talking about this again should we add that to your to the reports too for next meeting or sure or do you want to have it as like a unfinished business yeah let I think it would be good to have it as unfinished business because this open space and Recreation plan must also be having one of those redone I bet you we can get a lot of points yes oh definitely yeah okay all right can we look into the list and see what we already have from like the last submission and what we could like subit again and then like look through the other actions and basically see what we could possibly uh do in the next like year because then we have almost a year yes do you have access to the uh sustainable Jersey yes so you can find the reports there yeah but maybe we can like create one we like one spreadsheet what we already have and what actions we want to work on sure and maybe something like that so sure there there's an existing spreadsheet now okay um I believe okay from from our you know from the last certification so okay do you want to be on the subcommittee too Barbara uh yeah because I think yeah that would be great can we have four people on the subcommittee do you know I think so now that we're bigger I think we're allowed to okay okay yeah all right because that way we can also like look into and discuss what we could possibly work on yes even looking into the municipalities that are adjacent to spa and see well like not necessarily next door but like maybe in Sussex County and see what they have that we could possibly uh have as well yes there's you can that's all available on the syst yeah yeah I look into that before but I'm just like saying like creating some kind of list so we know what we are what we are working on basically yeah that's that's the spreadsheet that uh you can download from there okay so we can start working on that so you're on the subcommittee I guess you get you get intimate knowledge of it all right great um there was a new new business item added uh just before the meeting so it's not um typed here but we wanted to talk about um the EV recognition program Neil you wanted to mention that me go back to the it was just an email from an email that uh Christine sent find here n yes um I I'll read the email greetings from Easy Ride I hope this message finds you well I'm reaching out with an exciting opportunity for Sparta Township that Champions organizations with sustainable transportation and worker commute EV adoption leadership certification uh EV eval it's called um the it's a doe funded program it's managed by fourth mobility and easy ride is responsible for implementation in New Jersey and the certification comes in four different tiers from bronze to platinum Sparta can car earn points on various actions some of which were already completed uh namely our EV charging stations so it's free until the end of October 2024 and recertification is not necessary so we've created lots of resources to help you apply in less than 30 minutes um what's the deadline October what end of October 2024 yeah well we should apply I'll send the uh the link or I'll forward the emails so we can all have it what does everybody think that we should apply think it's a good idea if we had started at the beginning of this we could have already applied 30 minutes you should have started it before all right um we'll go ahead and apply and see what the results are free is good yes okay um anything else for the good of the environment or Sparta Township and its citizens yeah I have a couple updates I just wanted to let everyone know that Ethan The americore Watershed Ambassador who helped with our rain barrel Workshop has completed his term of service um and graduated from the program and now we do have a new water Ambassador who just started this week um her name is Jenna black and I told her that she's welcome to come to our meeting so she's planning in the future she's going to stop by introduce herself and see what projects we can continue to work on together and then this week I heard from Cara Johnson who's the um teacher at Sparta Middle School who we worked with to plan the Earth Day Fair she wanted to let us know that she's working on a new partnership um to recycle soft plastic materials so any kind of bags plastic film um and that's going to be starting with the TX program t x and Ocean State Job Lot is going to be a center where they can drop off plastic film material so it's starting with her students um she's going to get it piloted but then she's hoping that we'll be able to help and and we can promote it as a town and then even down the road there might be an opportunity to uh have the town be a collection site or to earn sustainable Jersey points but this is the first step trying to just get the student plastic being able to be recycled at Ocean State Job Lot and then we'll I'll touch base again with her um in the next couple months and we'll see how it's going and if we can expand it then I'll bring it up again and we can promote it that's great is that where um Stop and Shop and uh uh shop right yeah it's GNA be do they work with the TR yeah yeah um I don't think shop right right now I think it's Stop and Shop and Ocean State Job Lot and Weiss um markets but um I'm not I'm not positive on that but I know that she's working right now with the Ocean State Job wat headquarters to get this going and then our local um business is going to be the drop off site so they're going to be able the goal is to collect a th000 pounds of this plastic um film over the course of this school year yeah and then Spartan middle school will be able to earn uh benches over time for the amount that they collect so it's going to start small and hopefully we could build it over time and the EC can help with that and then the last thing I just wanted to tell everyone about is the northwest New Jersey rivers conference is coming up again this year it's going to be on Friday October 18th at Centenary University in hacketstown and it's going to run from 8:30 to 4:30 the registration right now is open online at Northwest New Jersey rivers.org and you write out that name completely uh take are $35 per ticket there's going to be 12 workshops that are focused on pollution and its impacts lands and forests working together and unique projects in protection and restoration so some of the workshops that that people here might be interested in are focused on microplastics uh road salt armful Alo blooms forming a coalition and Barbara from Sparta responsible development is going to be one of the speakers and then there's also going to be a workshop on stream restoration that I'm going to be speaking at with Dean blumetti uh the deputy mayor of Sparta and that's going to be highlighting the sparta Glenn Brook restoration project that took place several years ago so I have some cards if anyone wants to uh take one and I can leave some out in the municipal building if anyone wants to pick one up yes I went last year it was really really good thank you I can't believe it's already been a year since the last one I anticipated going to it but now it's coming around so yeah it's coming around again but the whole theme is water this year so all our workshops are focused in one way or another on protecting water quality so it's really relevant to every Township are any of them on the posos yes okay good see I can get off work all right anything else I just wanted to say that I'm really excited about this open space and Recreation plan I think this is a first a great first draft and I'm excited to see the final one that's all I yeah I think it's really impressive all right do I have a motion to adjourn I'll make a mo motion to adjourn Christine second I'll second Linda all in favor I I thank you everyone thank you I'll definitely take one of those I meant to go last year with arst in historical and then I had a conflict so I'm excited to go that's not far at all it's like theth Year we're doing this has going well cuz we've been able to continue you have the block and lot for the head