##VIDEO ID:OMlfFMtq0p8## e e e all right good evening Springfield Welcome to the today's date I'm yes welcome to the October 10th 2024 Township of Springfield planning board adequate notice has been given accordance with the sunshine laws notice was published on September 5th 20125 in the NX building uh which notice was published on September 15 2024 in the local source with official newspaper of the township Springfield for 2024 and posted in the Annex Building on September 5th 2024 let's do a roll call I mean a salute to the flight red eye flight k i to the flag of the United States of America to the repic for stands Nation indivisible andice serves me right for taking the rede flight again uh let's do a roll call and Rich's walking in now so he can count who is hi uh committeeman Alexander Kaiser comman Rich Huber Mr David Barnett is absent Riso rerio is absent Mr Aaron laugher I'm here Mr Richard Cedar Quist here uh Miss Julie too here Mr Brian kallo is absent Mr Scott wishner here Vice chair Sharon kessle is absent and chairman Jeff tiger yes here okay today's meeting should be a very short meeting given that we had three meetings in a row that were very lengthy um so the first thing is the dates for 2025 these are the dates we're not Mo we're not approving them we're not motioning we're not doing anything it's just a FYI feel free to look over them it adopts our second Monday of the month with the exception of our re potential reorg which we still have to look into and then uh towards the end of the year where you have um Columbus Day and you have Veterans Day we have to revert time so just out there for everyone to look at if anyone has concerns shoot Jen a note if there's anything here if not will this will be something we'll take up later in the year rfps we always every year we take we send out we ask the Township Clerk to send out on our behalf rfps I just wanted to we have to make a motion and second and a roll call approval just to agree that we're going to send an rfps for Township planner Township engineer excuse me planning board engineer planning board attorney and planning board planner should we do board secretary to or we can avoid that so if anyone has any concerns if not can I entertain a motion to we're going to authorize the clerk on on behalf of the planning board to send out the rfps for those three positions we could just do a roll call right y yeah roll call I think we could just do a voice all in favor I anyone osed no seeing none yeah it's not an official okay master plan everyone knows that this year uh we've had I mean Alex and and uh the mayor has been on our master plan committee two people from zoning board Mr Barnett and we've met a several times um our planner is going to kind of give us an overview of some of the things that we've done we still have a little bit work more to do I understand we're going to have some homework too to do as well uh from him but he's going to have like a a brief five minute overview on what's going on as far as the affordable housing some potential changes to ordinances and so forth so and Jen the temple one is off right we just we just so yeah it's too much work to we couldn't finish but I'll make an announce for anyone watching and thanks for the work I know that you you your team has worked a tremendous amount of time on it Mr disco as well our Township uh administrator has been worked a lot of time so let's see what everything looks like um this is what I just handed out is a it's our summary of the new affordable housing bill that was just adopted this year and there's some very key dates and all the information in there I will not take up your time right now to go through it but I would encourage you when you have an opportunity read please read this memo um I tried to highlight a couple of what I think are the highlights and I just want to talk about on I'll start on page 4 of 13 essentially the memo I just handed out summarizes in pretty good detail what this new law requires this planning board to do because it's a housing element and fair share plan which is a planning board document so this planning board needs to put this document together and we're going to work obviously directly with the township committee each step it away but ultimately the governor signed a new law this year and we've already satisfied the initial dates that came across which were June of 201 4 2024 this year and then September 16th of this year also we've already satisfied satisfied those two dates so we don't have to worry about that those were more reporting dates um what I want you to focus on is and it's highlighted on page three four of 13 at the bottom this planning board needs to adopt a housing element fair share plan by June 30th 2025 but it really doesn't we really don't have as much time as that appears years because to have this vetted they wanted on file 45 days earlier and we're not going to do it on June 30th we would imagine that we're probably going to be somewhere in the middle of June with a public hearing date right does it have to be by us and then go to the township committee we have to we have to schedule it so that the planning board adopts it then we have to bring it to the township committee so two things April March yeah so and then with the 45 day public period that has to be on file and published so everybody can look at it you know we're really looking at doing this work at the end of March early it has to be finished in April so we're in October and you think it really the work has to be done in March throwing the holidays and so forth time's going to go by pretty quickly so I'm going to come at you almost at every meeting from now on and just give you some updates we're doing the background work all all of the statutory requirements and putting the document together but once you read this uh memo it'll give you a very good summary of what your responsibility is and that is October which is the next highlighted date that I have on page six of 13 October 20th so this later on this month every municipality New Jersey will receive a new fourth round of affordable housing obligation that we have to design a plan based on I don't know what the number is yet we have estimates I don't want to start estimating because we're going to get it in a few weeks and that's going to put everything in motion we're going to have to put together a housing plan housing element plan that identifies where this new obligation is going to be located in our town so we have between October 20th and I would say March mid-march to get the work done so that's not that much of a window when you're taking on such a you know such a large task as this but all of the information is in here I'm not going to drill down into the numbers right now I want to jump to page nine of 13 our prior round plans are highlighted our prior round obligation was 127 and 283 the RDP and the unmet need um and we summarize well how did we do on page 12 of 13 we have 126 so we've substantially addressed our RDP the town is the town committee is considering two Redevelopment projects we know him as a Scotties uh the Scotties bar and then the Bank of America property earlier this year we did the Redevelopment studies now the town committee is considering those Redevelopment plans if those two projects move forward they get folded into it and at the end of the day the chart ends with the remaining third round obligation unmet need is 274 that's a pretty large number and then on October 20th that last line on the chart on page 12 of 13 will be filled in we will have our new fourth round number so whatever that new fourth round number is it's going to be that plus the 274 pretty significant number is there a vacant land adjustment yes they going to be we're going to have we're putting together a vacant land adjustment that essentially tells the courts fair share housing special master and so forth we're a built out town we don't have a whole lot of room okay from that because look better than what we yes and I could jump to the map right now if you will very quickly I gave you two maps and these are just working drawings these are not public Maps they're not going to go out anywhere these are to be marked up and you're going to get everything that I sent out to you tonight electronically we can blow it up Mark it up but what I tried to do was show where are we right now you can see Bolter on there it shows up better on the second map but I give you the aerial view and then the second map is more of like the zoning map and you can see the amount of green that's the undevelopable land you could then look at our s60x s75 Zone our single family zones really eat up between those two zones and our green our open space takes up most of the town so what the takeaway for tonight is and nobody's supposed to have any answers I just want to get people thinking this is going to go very quickly where are we going to address this new obligation of additional residential density multifam density in our town couple of pointers the new law requires us to take a look back which requires us to say all right you guys adopted a plan in 2015 how did you do what got built what didn't get built and what didn't get built there is a Why didn't it get built and in the memo I highlight the o the ah-1 which was the Township's affordable housing overlay one zone and that's highlighted in red it's a red outline and you can see there's on 22 and then there's two sections on there's two corridors on Morris Avenue a lot of those properties were redeveloped um and and are moving forward right now and some of those projects uh some of it and other than those Redevelopment projects we haven't had any so that's a good place to start we're going to have to go back they're going to force us they're forcing us to go back and say okay if nothing got built in these areas Why didn't it get built and what can you do to further incentivize development in these areas so something does get built at the end of the day they want you to increase density height and so forth so it becomes more economically viable so I want to stop there because I could go on for hours but what I'm going to ask all I'm asking you to do tonight is take this home with you read it think about it I'm going to be working directly with the township committee simultaneously but at the end of the day the housing element and fair share plan is a planning board document it's prepared by the planning board it's approved by the planning board at a public hearing and then then it's endorsed by the township committee and that whole process has to be done by June of 2025 and with the publication requirements the work really has to be done by the end of March in order order for us to meet these deadlines so we we I'll open up for questions but I I'll start first I know Park Place is listed there and I know there's that rule that you have to have 80% or whatever it might be I mean the town looked into with our r attorney or whoever to see what ability we have because that's a perfect place for we haven't yet but that's one of them that's on one of them that's on the table and then what about in some places like I know that we talked about Christmas tree shop and whatever if the in the public good does the T educating the township committee on what we can do with a condemnation with with getting a developer that will do it so it's the cost doesn't cost anything to the township whatsoever everything's funded by a developer using the power of condemnation that may be another thing to discuss absolutely the the one one of the key Provisions in this new bill is we had large numbers in round three and we really got away with a lot of it by putting in overlay areas and we I put it in all in all my towns you put in all these overlay areas at low densities and the courts recognize the fair share recognizes that it did nothing very little got built out of there so they're really pushing us to go back relook at your overl areas number one another thing is the power of Redevelopment they either want you to use Redevelopment or rezone tracks so that it is only for multif family housing not overlay and that lands exactly what you just spoke to and then I know we have X dollars in the affordable housing fund that we've collected it I mean we one of the things I know we we should be looking at is you know whether it's garden homes or whoever we're working with on other Redevelopment is to kind of help them make some of those units affordable even though they typically they were past the point of time back in the day but if they use some of the dollars to refurbish them Market to Affordable we're allowed to do that that's one more mechanism so you already have units and you already have apartments in your so it's netting right so can we take some of the market rate units and make them affordable so we don't have to build more units and dip into and use affordable housing trust fund to do that that's where our relationship with garden homes would be a good start Okay cool so there you know the idea is to put as many of these ideas together and come up with a plan that we can defend those are three make anything add Richard Scott it's all existing everything is existing we haven't proposed anything yet I'm starting at where we are today and we go from there yeah no I could I could add that to the add that to the index bottom it's good Scott it's a good point yeah I agree when you that's good so November 7th when we have our virtual planning board meeting you take five 10 minutes to go through it maybe you're going to give us deadlines and dates that we have to meet so that way we back into it for the township committee your dates are preset you have ours from a standpoint and if we have to add a special meeting to make it work we obviously have to do understood this is I know that there's a I'm not sure if this applies to this or not a bunch of at least 20 municipalities or 20 towns are actually fighting this thing is this is this what they're fighting uh yeah they're they're arguing that they're not fighting the bill there's s there's there's I don't want to play attorney I don't want to go too far outside my Lane but one of my t multiple some of my some of them just added so some of my towns are in there and I I know I know the law firm that put that lawsuit together um they're challenging procedurally that the bill that was adopted requires they they said procedurally it's unconstitutional and they explain why that they're given power to people that are not elected officials and so forth to make these decisions they have this Advisory Board now instead of special Masters and so forth um and there's a number of other items in their in their lawsuit that says procedurally why explain procedurally why this bill does not work and there's a there's some sound points in there um they also say that it's also unfair another major topic of that bill is the Urban Aid municipalities are exempt under this bill so the new brunics of the world and Ain sacks and the Jersey cities of the world do not get an obligation what that does is does the the need the number doesn't go down because of that the number just gets pushed to the other municipalities in that region so they're saying wait a minute time out that's unfair you know we're here in a union and Elizabeth does not get a number is there an Urban Aid municipality so the number that's assigned to this region includes Elizabeth but they get zero obligations so that gets pushed to Springfield a portion of it and they're saying hold on that's not fair um so those are two of the major items and they're going to litigate as all day long on that issue at the end of the day is they've already said that we are to proceed and adopt our plan as that goes on its own separate track and we're going to have to amend and adjust as we need to depending on the outcome there's going to be more lawsuits against it there's two at least two more that are coming and are challenging it the problem is we were given a date of October 20th to get this number to prepare to plan DCA is already telling me and telling everybody they're like we don't have enough staff we're not we we don't think we can make this deadline um we're not ready they're not sure about the methodology we're not sure how the town's going to get that number on October 20th or if it's going to come on November 20th or any day in between and are they just going to email us a number and then the township committee has to adopt a binding resolution by January 31st on this number and how's the number going to be delivered is it going to come with all the homework is it going to show all the data sets and the calculations because it's it's pretty complicated there's 16 variables that are taken into consideration to to calculate the number for each municipality um I would want to see the homework of the person who put into the computer all 16 of those variables and make sure they got our number correct but I don't know what they're going to deliver us so I'll stop there I can go on for ever so there's a lot of questions about it um the problem is the bill the way the bill is written if we if the township committee and the town planning board does not meet a deadline there's like six or seven or eight different deadlines that if we don't meet them the town loses its immunity it's immunity protection your protection is is is gone from from law from Builder lawsuits and so forth and the builders could come in and say they have they have not done what they're supposed to do we're going to do it at this density over here and file a challenge against the town yeah and right now we're clean until July 1st 2025 the town's in very good standing we want to stay in good standing town has a very long history a very proactive history of doing the right thing and putting together uh plans and so forth this new bill it almost makes it very they they try and trip you up like six different ways that if you miss one deadline one of them two in two instances they have to adopt a resolution if they have if they don't send it to the DCA within 48 Hours you lose immunity I mean that's how ridiculous it is it's all in here you can read about it so as these you're going to hear about challenges we have to do our work at the same time so we don't so we stay in good standing and we get always we're going to have to adjust on the flight yeah it seems to me that based on what you're saying and from what I heard there's going to be a lot of changes to yeah this is what I have as of today it could change next month um I know there's challenges we've already started for the township because we don't want to get caught behind you know behind and we want to work proactively with our board and with the township committee and make sure we meet our deadlines okay after you're good okay then you can I think this member will help I really do yeah our job is and the planning board's job is to create the plan and adopt the plan that creates a realistic development opportunity town committee's uh responsibility is to endorse that plan and then enact all the ordinances and Redevelopment plans and then we've done our job from a Township we don't we're not Builders they're not expecting us to be Builders so we can't force anybody to go build afterwards however if nothing gets built you open yourself up to a challenge because then the argument is you came up with a phony plan or an unrealistic plan and it didn't produce anything however that's not the case we have multiple projects going up and that all address our round three we're in really good shape we want to stay out in front of it you could you could to Milburn there's M there's three there's three projects in our third round plan that didn't get built and so we have to go back and make a decision as a board and as a town committee do we increase density do we find other properties or you know we have to address why they why they didn't get constructed that's part of this process all right well we we're getting together on the 7th and the subcommittee is going to meet before so we'll have some more good stuff for that point okay uh the first we have a couple things on the agenda first is uh the Jersey Mike's PCR store 17 LLC 8-24 s 201122 block 307 Lot 2 uh 372 Lot 2 preliminary and final site plan for condition use the resolution was populated on the website our attorney put it together I don't think there was any concerns any have any problems with it if not can I entertain a motion to approve it I'll move to approve it I'll second it we have a roll call Mr laugher yes chairman tiger yes comman Kaiser I don't have my roll call sheo I I don't remember hearing this application so either I shouldn't be voting on it because I don't remember the app I don't think I was there all right Mr Cedar and Julie T okay uh next one is Kenneth gruskin that was here before us the other night last meeting for minor site plans variances generator wall signs and and onings block 206 lot 3 294 Mars Avenue I have a motion to approve that that was also on the say Richard second it can we have a roll call Mr Mayor yes Mr Cedar Quist yesan Kaiser that was a yes I remember that Mr laugher you yes Mr wishna and Cher yes okay anyone in the audience uh I see ton of people for congregation Israel of Springfield that uh resolution will be carried to uh November 7th which will be a zoom meeting check out the township website for instructions on how to connect to that um on that will be carried till then for that resolution to be adopted the last thing on their agenda is a waiver it's Mars I have Center this was the goms Redevelopment project that we had before um Vice chair kessle and I had an opportunity to meet with the business administrator and our board engineer regarding uh what we call given that it has been out there for a long time we spent a a lot of time kind of reviewing Sharon and I concluded that this would be a field change but we wanted to still have the board have an opportunity to hear it and agree that they agree with us with the field change uh so we're going to Mr disco uh present to us very briefly what the field change is with the net zero parking kind of rejiggering things around and then uh hopefully the board agrees with what Sharon to say Mr disco I I think I want to have you sworn into this just because we did appliation Mr disco do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I do 2015 we granted preliminary approval to the gom's Redevelopment project I think it was 2020 we had the land amended final uh in the preliminary we did not have a oneway on Center Street in the final we had a oneway with angled parking that was subject to the uh uh Township committee approving that and uh authorizing the conversion of Center Street from a two-way to a oneway the developer approached the township it wasn't the other way around and said I can do this and maintain two-way traffic and the Police Department fire department and really every Municipal department and official thought that was a good idea to maintain two-way traffic on Center Street rather than go one way and so uh when we analyzed the plan it didn't really have any impact on parking worst Cas is one parking space but most likely zero and so we uh think it's wise to maintain the two-way traffic and so we're asking for it through since it was in the last uh application so basically it's it's either a net zero or losing one spot at most yeah most likely a net zero Los one spot now I think you discussed with us that you felt that it would be better planning with two ways better planning better for the Neighbors uh who would have a two-way street you know go to a one-way street so would require different traffic patterns if you trying to get to Morris Avenue especially going east forces you go to go down to Hannah make a left make a left on Mountain could be at a bad time and then go to the light on Mountain Avenue which is about a three minute red cycle so it's not a great um thing so why why was it ever one one way why was it was proposed to add angled parking on Center Street got you but what when we eliminated the oneway and the angled parking putting parallel parking back and then the saving of the reconfiguration of the what we'll call the DMV parking lot entrance which would have lost parking space which nobody probably looked at back in 2015 the net is really no change so makes sense and then from what I also agree that the reason they're going to get started on this tomorrow or Monday that's yeah they actually started moving barriers yesterday so anticipating this is moving the project along right contractors marking out and they're basically going to start doing the Center Street site plan improvements that were approved previously okay that don't have to change other than the the angled parking okay essentially Mike anything you have to add Mr wner normal normal on Street curb parking uh I think we had 13 angled you're going to get nine or 10 in the parallel but they've been reconfig the angled parking mandated a reconfiguration it now we had one way we would have had an island there we had to shift the driveway the entrance to the DMV parking lot and we would have lost most likely four to five parking spaces yes right the other side of the street is posted by signage as no parking and and that parking those spaces wouldn't be for residents it's like you're running to the street street parking right they're not parking overnight there they can't only two to six they well they get the agreement is 45 spots offsite spots at Duffy's lot which is the one by Hunan spring yeah and then that was later amended to include the DMV lot because due to the flooding concerns we didn't think we had 45 parking spaces in Duffy to give and they the developer to uh their credit has said that they're not going to seek the 45 spaces certainly not initially only as as necessary okay Richard that's correct that wouldn't change the one way would be uh if it was a one way it was from morish Avenue in so there would be no way to get that right turn now and again this normally would have been a field change where it would have been but just because this application's been in the media and everyone's been talking about it I just want to make sure the board is in agreement it makes sense J okay so then what I would like to do is just we're gonna I guess we'll do a motion motion to approve the field change as outlined by Mr I'll make that waiver the W the waiver we have a roll call I did it yes I just want to vote no on something one time but no no no it's a yes something you can vote no on the minutes you can vote no on the minutes yes no but TR truly thank you guys like I know I know this was you've been having fun with this application good okay so last thing any of members of the public that wish to speak on any business before the board perfect you came in perfect Tim Michael I live at 317 Mars Avenue Apartment One it has nothing to do with their subject but um I was here a month ago and I spoke about um Springfield Truck Center and brings Brothers Holdings LLC about the infestation problem my apartment they're trying to give false information to you and the health department so so let me stop you we're not the township committee we are the planning board planning board we don't have anything to do the township committee and the health department I'm sorry about that I mean he looks he's part of the township committee but it's it's it's a separate board well no well I mean you could set up time to meet with him at time because I know that we were afterwards is schol after the meeting are you sure sure thank you sir thank you I will see you then I'm sorry guys no no it's okay but your your best bet is to speak to set up time with the township administrator because he's yeah the township administrator is the right person to address some of those concerns with any other members of the public seeing none uh can I have a motion to close the hearing and adjourn until November 7th which is virtual at 6: PM not 6:30 at 6 p.m oh virtual virtual at 6 PM is that what who said 6 I think we had to do six but we'll call there's no there's no business being carried so it's fine but it's November 7th virtual check the Township's website for it motion to approve anyone Jour motion to adjourn I'm gonna make I'm in a second all in favor okay no oppos you can vote no no okay e