you think they'll probably open by we're going to start um Su everyone please be seated we're going to start in a second yeah I call this meeting to order it's a special meeting on March 19th 2024 roll call Jers here Mandel here Weiss here Whitfield here please stand for the salute to the flag Alison I'm here as well on Zoom okay with us this morning is uh land use manager Sam certies and he's going to give us a presentation on open space I'm just gonna make um a note of the statement of adequate notice that this meeting was noticed on March 12th 2024 to the times in the Princeton packet and posted on the township website and at the Township Municipal Building good thank you good morning council members members of the public thank you for coming out so early sorry for the sniffles and the rough voice but uh the allergies have kicked in today is the first day of spring so I'm not surprised just what I wanted to do because a lot of members of the public and some of the council members here haven't been around on Council when the open space tax was first established and we adopted our open space Recreation plan but back in 1994 it is when our first open space tax was um approved by the uh by the public by the members of West Windsor Town ship um as of today um we have a 2cent tax which generates somewhere around 1.2 million dollars a year that go into our open space fund um we have approximately $3 million in that fund right now um we're restriction working on two properties for preservation purposes so about million or so of that is going to be earmarked for that if we're successful in preserving those properties also the township uses about 35% of open space tax or about $420,000 a year for open space maintenance Park development and such with that um the map I have over here to my right it basically just shows all preserved open space that we have in West Windsor Township that's about 2100 Acres about 50% of the town so 50% of the town is preserved and that's either through um State acquisition County acquisitions AC positions homeowners association open space that's deed restricted uh we have an extensive Green Belt plan in the township we have a number of Acres that are preserved um through um through the green belt um that 2100 acres is basically the amount of open space we preserve since 1994 as it relates to our open space tax we had about 2500 Acres that that plan calls for preservation but a number those properties um the town was unsuccessful in preserving in were developments pending on some of those applications but totally we have just under 8600 Acres that's totally preserved in a town like I said that's about half the uh half the acreage of the township the open space plan is it's twofold it's the open space Recreation plan which is one of the elements in the township master plan of several elements um in order for the township to apply to Green Acres they have what's called a planning incentive grant program one of their requirements is that a town adopt have a public hearing and adopt an open space Recreation plan uh that plan has to be updated every 10 years the last time we updated was in 2018 so we have a number of years let go on that one um we applied this year for about a $1.1 million Green Acres Grant um the council approved that Grant application a couple months ago typically we'll find out in the fall whether we were successful in getting any funds from that I always ask for a little more because I know we're not going to get that much last year we got about $700,000 and like I said this year we're looking for the 1.1 million so hopefully we'll hear from the state on that what I what I thought I would do is maybe just take a look at the plan that I have up on the screens there that is the open space recck plan that's the plan that's part of our master plan that is also the plan that we have filed with the state uh the plan lists 100 uh 101 properties on there for acquisition as I stated earlier some of those properties we were unsuccessful in preserving there's some development on those I left the council members you have a copy of that number 11 by 17 with you you can take a look a little bit closer on that if you look at some of the developments that are on there and it has a a number next to it but it's subdivided that means it was targeted for preservation but we were unsuccessful in preserving that so development has occurred on that property uh the other properties that are in the light gray or in and numbered those are properties that were still targeting for preservation purposes either through um purchasing development rights through Farmland preservation um using our open space tax and green ACR and County funding to preserve it through fee simple acquisition so those are our two um areas of of preservation Farmland preservation and we apply through the county um agricultural development committee and also through the state sadc which is State Agricultural Development commission the um typically when that happens the town will get two appraisal on a piece of property and then we will um take the average of those two appraisals and that'll be what the offer is that we'll give to the property owner in the past when we Pres Reserve farm land we would purchase it fee simple from the farmer and then within a year or so we would turn around and sell the development rights to the state uh and in the past about 20 years ago we were purchasing so much open space at that time we were actually affecting the value of open space properties so the town was able to purchase some property back in 2000 2001 for a certain amount of money for fee simple and a year later we were able to sell the development rights to the state still retain ownership of that property and basically make money we basically got all the money back it cost us to purchase that and then we sold the development rights at that time which was about 80 or so percent of the value to property so there was a residual of about 20% left on those open space properties that we owned if you take a look at the map up on the screen and the map that the members of the council have most of those properties are located down um in the southern end of town down about by the Community College which would be down in this area here on the screen and you can see those properties um are in pink with slashed lines or they're in green with slashed lines and those are B basically Farm preserved properties so those properties um 13 14 16 17 18 20 21 18 19 23 and then if you look over the Windsor Road you'll see some properties there 28 uh 29 and 30 those are our farm preserve properties in the township which means they're farmed in perpetuity we cannot use them for open space or anything at all like that um they are preserved through the county and state Farmland preservation program and there's a distinction between uh Farmland preservation and open space preservation Farmland preservation the state the purpose is to preserve Farms which means it has to be a working farm it has to produce something um Green Acres preservation of open space you can Farm it or you can turn it into active or pass of recreation so there's the two distinctions for preservation purposes um here in West Windsor the pink with the lines are privately owned they're owned by the farmers and the Farmers on their own work through the town and the county and the state to sell their development rights to the state so those are privately owned Farms that are preserved as Farmland the other properties that are green with the SL lines are Township owned so we own those properties fee simple ownership of those properties and we lease those properties out to local farmers to farm for the township so they maintain the properties we don't have to have Public Works go in there and do any mowing or or anything any maintenance whatsoever the township has lease agreements that last six years with those with those farmers and we our lease agreements I believe for the farmers end December 2026 so we would have to um typically in 2026 early that year I'll start working with the farmers to find out whether they're interested in continuing to farm if they're not then we would go out to public bidding to bid out those properties for uh for farming on that um I don't have the numbers with me but I know when I submitted the lease agreements the other year we get about $100,000 a year leasing out those properties to Farmers so we get more money in revenue from Farm leases than we would if they were privately owned and if they if the farmer was paying missable taxes in school taxes and state taxes so it's definitely profitable for the town to own those properties and Lease them out and as I said before the farmers maintaining those properties we do have in the town an agriculture advisory committee it's one of the Committees that my office is responsible for providing staff support to it's made up of three farmers in the community um so we meet uh quarterly uh to go over the farm leases we take a look at uh soil samples that we have the farmers do for us just to make sure that they're not depleting the nutrients in the soil and if some of the tests come back um and they needs to have some supplements put in the soil that's something that we'll ask the farmer to do and or lease agreements they're required to do that we also make sure that they're um they have their appropriate pesticide license for whatever um pesticides you're going to apply or fertilizer they going to apply on the ground with that so those properties I would probably say there's about 500 tillable Acres that are Farm preserved in town and then there's several Green Acre Properties that we own that we Farm out also um so with uh probably with the farm preserved and the Green Acres there's probably I would say about 1500 kable Acres of farm land that we own in town and we collect rent on so that's a I think that's a pretty pretty good balance considering the town was you know a farming Community the town seal kind of gives that away with the tractor but um our open space plan um as I said has been about 20 years now 20 30 years into making there are some properties that we're looking to Target um as I said before there's two properties we're working with the property owners now on um I don't think this is the appropriate men venue to talk about that we're in negotiation with that but they're it's an active program we're actively every year looking to acquire the remaining properties on our open space plan Sam one quick question when we say we're I believe we're now something like point something open space in West Windsor do that includes the farmlands it includes the farm everything on the map right includes the Farmland as I said State County Properties anything that's preserved Green Acres or green easements that are on private properties that's all shown there so it's really more about 50% of preserved land since open space is very yes 50% preserve land um on that the state back or probably 20 years ago uh developed what they call the planning incentive grant program um the township along with Foos friends of West Windor open space that's one of our local open space preservation groups a nonprofit organization um both of us appli to the state we both both were accepted in that program the Foos plan mirrors the township plan so we're in sync with one another um how foas helped the town in the past and I have a couple spreadsheets I left the council members one of titled the open space supplemental funding chart and it basically just lists all the properties the Township's preserved over the last 25 30 years um kind of gives you a breakdown of the funding sources from the county the state faos uh State Agricultural Development Committee uh the year it was funded what the apprais value is it also indicates what um grant money we receive from those different state agencies and also from fos because fos was very helpful um in the past helping the town preserve open based properties actually about $585,000 we did receive in grant money over the years from Fall us to help U preserve three properties in particular um one of them is the ynr property which is property 94 which is up along the millstone River off of Joanne Street the other is the Gunther property again off of Joan Street it backs right up through the millstone River and then the um Jewish Community Center it was a Jewish Community Center it's the Windsor Athletic Club right now out on Clarksville road if you're entering that facility and Mark would know this to your right uh all that Farmland there is owned by the town it's not preserved Farmland it's preserved open space so the town could use that for recreation purposes in the future if it we so inclined to do something like that um what I also want to bring your attention to is another sheet I gave you it lists the um open space actualization and utilization table this chart is in the township open space Recreation plan that plan is available online for the public to take a look at um it's like I said this was updated in 2018 18 so some of these properties on here we have preserved but what's good about this it lists the properties it gives a a location of them the number of acres and more importantly it lists what the ultimate goal is one of the requirements in applying to uh Green Acres and also to a lesser degree the state ad board is to have a rationale while you're preserving these properties so what this does as it relates to open space through Green Acres it lists what the primary uses of those properties would be and why the town's interested in acquiring it the state a board has something similar um the county does also where they target Prime Farmland so if you want to purchase or if you want to sell development rights in a um targeted Farmland preservation area that the count the county and the state have we get uh additional funding from that Source if we were to purchase the development rights outside of that area uh the state or the County May decline to participate financially in that um Farmland preservation on that we've acquired one property um that was outside of that area and we purchased a development rights from that property owner we're not eligible of any funding on that we are working with another property owner in the state um and we're in negotiations with the county and the state on that property so that's on goinging for another Farmland preservation piece with that um are there any questions so far far through my presentation what I want to do I'm just going to get up and change the math effects down on the easel it's similar to the one up on the screen except I've indicated a couple properties that were targeted for preservation that the that either are preserved and are updated from the map or they're um have approval or under development or a pending development approval on those properties for first property I want to talk about is property 57 and 58 it's the Bristol property many folks here for long time residen of the Town remember um the Bristols they were very active they lived over on be Brook Road they were very active when the countryside application came in which we know now as the Estates at Princeton Junction their property um is about 9 and a half acres it was sold and the township PL board granted approval for seven single family homes and three tow houses so that's under construction now so that was one of the properties that backs up to Little Bear Brook that we were looking to Target for open space preservation but we're unsuccessful in doing it that was property 57 on the and 58 be Brook Road yeah you see it up there it's up on the screen it's got the CAC with the subdivision in it already okay right there so um that's in the middle of a bunch of properties that we want to preserve that back up to the little bar Brook it's right across from the Estates at Princeton Junction it's across from the U portion of the Estates that are the single family homes that are there um oh is that the one with the seven houses and the three town houses correct yes okay and that's across from gr if I remember I'm sorry it's it's across from gryan gr is that that one okay okay yeah I remember that going to planning board okay the good thing about that though we have another preservation tool that we have in our toolbox so to speak is open space clustering and uh last year we amended that again to mandate clustering if it backs up to existing preserved open space or if it's a targeted property for open space preservation so about two-thirds of this property is preserved it's own it'll be owned by the Home Association for that development and it's uh deed restricted in perpetuity so at no cost to the town we did preserve about 2third of the property but the front third is developed with the uh single family homes in the tow houses and one of those tow houses would be um an affordable unit that would help us meet our affordable housing obligation the other property I want to bring everyone's attention to was property 62 it's right down the road from the municipal building it's on Clarksville Road it's in the bend in the road just before you cross over the railroad tracks to get over to Quaker Bridge Road it's the Applegate property um we did preserve this piece of property um for open space preservations there is a corridor on that property though that um we Exempted from preservation purposes as the council's aware the uh staff is working with the Department of Transportation and their Engineers to replace that bridge I think 2028 2029 is the construction date on that but that changes a lot so um basically the road if you follow my cursor here where it cuts up that way now it's basically just going to cut straight across that way and come in and then where it intersects with Meadow Road there'll be a roundabout put in there so what that'll do besides helping with the traffic situation in the area uh the cell piece which we own here 64 and then 51 which we own and it backs up to the duck Bond park over here there is the opportunity to put a trail um through this area the community and the only thing that was preventing us from linking to the community the Duck Pond Park is the lack of pedestrian and bicycle access across the railroad so part of the design that we're working with the state on there would be um a shoulder uh bicycle um paths and also a walkway on both sides of the bridge that are going here so there'll be an opportunity in the future at some date to um to connect that trail um from both ends into the town typically the railroad is kind of like the Great Wall of China in town it prevents anybody really from Crossing unless you are accessing uh one of the highway bridges to get across the next partials be parel 48 here many longtime residents remember this as the shac property it is um off of North Post Road Ward Road connects to it through the West Winds development and um this applica there's an application pending before the planning board right now it's about 22 and a half acres uh the application is for um six plots there will be a lot of open space dedication on this this is one of the properties where the planning board is requiring the applicant to Cluster their subdivision and basically a cluster subdivision is if the zoning is let's say three and a3d acre you would do a traditional layout to show how many Lots you could get on three and a third acres and then you would be required to if you had sewer and water which this site does to Cluster it down all the way down to about half an acre if you could and then basically the remaining property around there you would either dedicate to the township or the homers Association for that development would own it and would be restricted and the important thing about that is right here north of uh BAC piece this is what we call Sunrise Park and back in the late 80s there was a plan that was developed we still have it um on the book so to speak to put active recreation in there but at that time the residents in that development the sunrise development did not want any active Recreation so um the town just has let it pretty much go to Forest so it's a forested area there are some uh Turf trails that go through that area and then this piece of property right here is the West Windor little league and then this property right here is the detention Basin for uh this development here which was called Sunrise 2 and that came in back in the mid to late 80s on that so basically um property 48 was targeted for preservation because it would link these properties together on that we will have a link with it with the open space that's going to be preserved as part of development going on here uh one of the requirements in the township master plan is for Ward Road to go through and connect North Post and Pen l so there'll be bike pass and walkways that would be able to connect through there and also uh Green Belt area along the property there and as I said that's about 22 Acres or so another piece of is is there any um possibility of buying any property like buying that that area and for open space I guess saying there's the active uh application there is there yeah there's an chance for for preservation the town the town tried unsuccessfully over the years to acquire that property what the property owner wants is more than what the appraised values will come in and as it works with Green Acres there is a list of approved appraisers that Green Acres has there's hundreds of them you would need to hire two appraisals they would do independent appraisals of the property to deter what the value is and Green Acres would accept the value as the average of those two appraisals so if the appraisals averaged out just say for argument say a million dollars that's basically the certified market value that the state would put on that and with the township we would get a 50% Grant from the state so 50% of that cost the state would reimburse us on if the town was to pay more than that we would not be reimbursable for anything over that c market value on that could M be could money be raised privately to make up the difference it could be this property owner has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in soft costs to get to the point where they're at right now so what they are asking for on the property is well in advance of what the apprais value would be on that also we have to keep in mind if the town was to use public and private funds to acquire that property well above the uh appraised value that will change the value other open space properties the town's looking to negotiate in town because typically appraisers will use the latest sales in order to determine what values are so by paying more than what the appraised value is on this piece it increases the value of other open space properties in the town that the town's looking to purchase right well right I mean but but the it's sort of in a sense a little bit artificial maybe because you're paying for costs if private money were raised to cover all of the expenses that the owner had um well the you know professionals and attorneys and and and everyone that that was hired all these years um it does would an appraiser say that raises the value or is it this is like a special appraiser deal that if it had if the subdivision was approved that would um increase the value of the property so the appraisal would even be more if the property was approved they'll factor in if an application is pending but until it's approved that's not going to affect the total value of that property it's as far as they're concerned it's um vacant property right now and an approval is pending so I mean this approval is been around for eight years so right now there's there's no complete application iner the application's complete it has what's called the ml clock it's running oh so it's current currently I don't want to get into the details of the application I don't think it's appropriate here but there are many hurdles that that applicant has to go through at higher governmental agencies before they can apply to the planning board so they're going through that process right there and I assume eminent domain hasn't been mentioned anything like that excuse me I assume eminent domain has not been no mentioned or anything like that no nothing and as you know the last eminent domain we did with the hall property was about 125 acres and it took years and years and years on that and we were litigated the whole way through that y uh next property I want to talk about and this is probably familiar with a lot of folks is the Ry property it's over here on Southfield Road it's right back behind mcaf to kind of give everybody an idea where it's located uh that property is about 24 Acres and the planning board last I believe it was last November or maybe December the school district had an interest in purchasing that property for a potential new School site um it's on our open space acquisition list um the school district entered into negotiations with the family um one of the requirements if they're using uh Municipal funds or in this case Schoolboard funds they need to appear before the planning board as a courtesy there's no approvals or anything the planning board gives they basically need to appear before the planning board and U the planning board is to make a determination whether or not that location for that school would be in compliance with the township master plan and the planning board had a informal meeting the public was invited uh the school Bo made a presentation and the plan board found that uh that property was in compliance with the township master plan the various elements and that it was suitable for a potential new School site uh my understanding from speaking with Dr aderhold is that the school district has now indeed closed on that property they do own that property that property consists of um if you look there's a little out parcel here they did purchase that too um uh Mr Pine's daughter and family live in that house um I think they're going to be vacating that in the near future so the school district will own that house and then there's an old farmhouse and several outst structures out buildings on that property of the school district will own um they did not give any indication that a uh a school uh was going to be imminent on that property there's just a limited open space um the Township's been pretty successful and airing open space properties as you can see so the school district want to to be able to get this as one of the last pieces that's large enough for them for a potential school and it's also centrally located between Plainsboro who we share a school district with in our toown so it's you know a half a mile down the road from Plainsboro so it was a perfect geographical location for the school district to to Target property I believe they said it was elementary school yeah for the acreage that is on that property I don't think they could do anything more than an elementary for that and the primes use it as a nursery so it's um if you took a look at it and drove by it looks like a forest but it's basically just planted trees they have there I believe the trees are a little too large to be moved so I don't know what the school district would do whether cut them down or attempt to move them whenever they decide to build on that property and again when they do come in for construction on that it's just a courtesy review front of the planning board the planning board will not approve it or deny it we'll make recommendations for uh you know what we' like to see them do but they don't necessarily have to abide by those recommendations it's a higher governmental agency Cur you review uh another property just wanted to you is down small property property 79 it's off the South Lane down here this is the dividing line between Robinsville and ourtown um property 79 it's owned by the landal family they I think they came in last year Linda when you were on the planning board or maybe it was the beginning of this year for a subdivision of that it's in an rrc zoning District which is three and a third acre zoning and U Mrs landal has an indoor riding arena there she there horses that are on the property so she runs her request business out of that property but they did subdivide a three and a third acre piece out in the front along South Lane um about I could probably say a good third of that property is in Robinsville um and one of the requirements for the planning board and graining the subdivision in West Windsor um and the landal were agreeable to this is that the back piece that U is Farm now in Robinsville is going to be deed restricted even though it's in Robinsville the planning board here in our town required that to deed restrict that property I was the one on the planning board that that was my requir so so Robinsville can thank you so that that piece is preserved in the B B on that um also while we're here partial 78 um many folks who lived in town a number of years remember that as gem Stables again about um about I don't know maybe four or five acres or maybe six acres is in West Windsor and the remaining of that uh that Farm is in Robinsville property owner came in sold the property a developer came in two lots will be built on the West Windsor portion of that and right where that Municipal boundary line is is going to be the road that goes in and it's going to service five Lots in Robinsville and two lots in West Winds are Township on so um that property was targeted for preservation when the esposas own that property we were unsuccessful in purchasing that from them they were able to get U significantly more money from a developer so they want the developer on that property there with that another piece I just want to mention is right down on the corner here uh parcel 70 and 71 parcel 70 again longtime residents in town remember that as the Cox junkyard and it was a junkyard when I first started working here with the township we had to do inspections yearly on that but because it was a pre-existing non-conforming use um it started back after World War II and as you can imagine you know up until the 90s when Mr Cox passed away um there was junk buried and all over the propit there if you were in the old cars you could find the remains of old cars and tractors and everything back in that area the town was looking to purchase that property in the adjacent property 71 a number of years ago but um we entered into a contract negotiated a deal um the property owner was agreeable to clean the property up for the town but when they started doing their Environmental Research on that there was well over an acre of that property has buried debris in it and if it has an acre or more it's considered a solid waste landfill so the permits and the cost to excavate all that ship it out to a landfill in Pennsylvania bring in clean fill was cost prohibitive um the township of course didn't want to take on that responsibility so that property pretty much is vacant and probably will be unless someone wants to take the task on of of digging up the remains of what's buried out there and clean the site up the zoning again is a three and the third acre zoning there is not much many homes maybe two houses you can get on that um there's also flood plane issues and there are Wetland issues on that property we also have something called an environmental constraints ordinance which the members of the planning board are familiar with the council members whereas it's uh if 30 if more than 30% of the property has environment Al constraints flood plane wetlands and so forth there's a sliding scale reduction in the permitted density on that property so there is more than 30% of environmental constraints on that property so even though the zoning would say mathematically you could potentially get maybe two lots on there if you factor in the environmental constraints the best likelihood is one lot and it probably would be in the front and it just so happens that's where the one acre landfill is in the front of that property there so it's very unlikely anything's going to happen with that property um parcel 71 though the town was unsuccessful in acquiring that um as you probably noticed if you go down pen l Road you see two homes being built on that property now but what the township did it part of that cluster subdivision ordinance I mentioned earlier is that even though it's three three and a third acre zoning the planning board required them to Cluster the Lots down to half acre in size which they are and then if you notice the green that's around that that is um actually was a third lot that was created and it was given to the township and the township accepted that so we own that property back there so that's like I indicated another tool in the open space preservation box that we could use as open space preservation so we were able to preserve a portion of that profit in the back area there with that um that's pretty much it for the map I just wanted to and I know when um when I appli for that Grant uh the beginning of the the year I provided council with a lot of statistical information on grants received and grants pending and so forth I just wanted to put on the record that um and it's the January 2nd 2024 memorandum I sent up to our business administrator um that's in the packet I left for you folks it just kind of breaks down what we apply for where we're expecting money from so if you take a look you would be able to see that the Mercer County um we appli to Mercer County open space fund and we received just over $5 million from them over the last 25 years in Grants Green Acres we've received about $8.5 million we're looking for about another 3.2 million the reason for that is um typically a lot of towns who aren't Blessed Like West Windsor where we have a um a vibrant business Community we have a 2% a 2cent open space tax we're able to acquire properties and fund it 100% And then years later seek reimbursement from the state or the county a lot of towns don't have that ability their open space tax doesn't generate that sufficient funds so they lose out to a developer who can offer a lot more money um and so a lot of open space is lost so what we were able to do over the years is to um borrow money um purchase property outright and then through the planning and incentive Grant with the state is applied for funding and the funding we're receiving now is for properties we acquire 20 years ago so if we did not acquire those properties 20 years ago they wouldn't be preserved and there would be homes or businesses on those properties right now way up yes absolutely with that so so my my question in that is is there any need to consider raising the open space tax to be more aggressive in buying properties I I would say no I mean our open space tax was I believe it was up to seven cents at one time and we've we've reduced it over the years again remember a penny gets us more now because we have more commercial ratables coming online um we're we're pretty much winding down our open space acquisition some properties that um we have on a targeted list I don't I don't want to go through that now in the public forum but we do have properties we're targeting that we actively look into pursue to acquire and preserve either through Farmland preservation or open space fee simple acquisition other properties we are uh that Amendment to the um cluster ordinance we did last year it enables us to preserve a good portion of those properties at no cost to the taxpayer it reaches our goal it may preserve properties that back up to um a pond or a lake or a um irrigation Pond or a creek or something like that and um we're able to preserve that at no cost to the tax pay on something right I'm I'm just concerned because the fourth round of affordable housing I believe it's been been passed or made its way through the legislature so what our obligations will be um isn't isn't quite clear I guess we haven't had that analysis completely done yet um so I'm just saying you know we should be as aggressive as as possible I I think suff we have sufficient funds that we generate from the current open space tax and we have funds in reserve and every year we've been getting ahead a million or $700,000 in Grants off the 3.2 that the state owes us now when I say they owe us they they actually owe us we've submitted all the documentation from them we've got a letter back from them saying there's no more documentation the town needs to submit to them the only reason they haven't provided us with that funding is because funding is um highly sought after by communities and nonprofits in the state so we have a very good reputation down in Green Acres um so we're pretty they're very impressed by our open space acquisition program so we we pretty much get money every year I don't think we've gotten anything less than $300,000 in any one year and as I said last year we got 700,000 so I'm hoping we'll get at least that if not more on that yeah I know the money money will flow back to us y it's it's just the timing of all this and the you know the state uh the rules and the fourth round and uh where would this housing go and on what properties and so it feels like it's a a race to buy as much open space as we can quickly every property that is on the open space plan that isn't preserved we've spoken to the property owners about and um at this time other than two um nobody else is is interested in selling one other property the Conover Farm we again were unsuccessful in acquiring um one for potential environmental issues the other was that there was a developer who was able to um you know out bid the town and acquisition that property so um that is going to come in for some development that's down on the corner of South Lane in Windsor Road with that um just to kind of go quickly go through this um follow up on that question so maybe the same question but asked in a different way if we had more money or revenue generated by the open States Tax would that to be more successful CF regard to that what would we generate and what we even need but again if we're going to pay more than what the um two appraisals come in on something like that that is additional money that we're not eligible for reimbursement on so if the governing body and the administration is willing to do that then yeah then you know I would say we would probably need to increase our open space tax or if borrowing money and again the CFO would answer that is at lower interest rates then we would just borrow and we would pay that back through the open space tax we collect on a yearly basis so in the past we did not have um a reserve in our open space fund everything back from the early 2000s we took out millions and millions of dollars of either short-term notes or long-term bonds and so forth on that so we did borrow a lot against the open space tax that would generate on a yearly basis got it thank you you're welcome um how many acres would you say are out there that we would want to purchase that's on our list at this point on the open space our open space wreck plan I would probably say there's about another 400 Acres on that but again some of those 400 Acres um as I just went through here um are under construction for development for pending approval from the planning board on that so if you exclude those I I would probably say there's maybe 300 or so Acres that we would look to acquire we reach our goal so there were like 200 Acres that aren't pretty much spoken for in some way we can still look to acquire correct and to put the the third fourth Way by now so at this point for those 200 Acres which may be somebody's just sitting on right now and maybe a family or somebody for those 200 Acres you don't see increasing the the open space tax as a way to get those or needed to get those at this point you know I'm not the C CFO I believe with the reserve we have and the amount of Revenue that the current space tax generates I would think we would be able to borrow money in order to preserve those properties and we have enough in the current tax to keep up our what the 25% to keep up our open space not quite the 25% of our tax goes to keeping up our 35% we're up 35 okay I thought you had said 25 35 so with all that is that is that enough to keep up the open space we I'm not responsible for open space maintenance Mr Dober milsky does that in my office I'm not all right so then you're currently we seem to have enough you guys you you approve the budget so there's money in budget yeah usually what happens is we take some from that and then we take some from the from the budget obviously um so the 65% of that is enough to be going after these 200 Acres then correct yes on that um just again to get it on the record uh Mera County foreign land preservation we've got about 5.8 million in Grants from them and as I mentioned earlier the friends of West Winds are open space it's just under $590,000 in Grants we receive from that nonprofit group and again about 3.2 million is what we currently approved for once money is available at the state level we will get that in so that is money we're getting in drips and dravs over the years and I know I don't have enough time to go through the other charts and graphs but Cel has a copy of all that I left with you in your packet if you have any questions just relay them to the clerk's office and then I will be able to respond to you so all these materials are public documents um have they been shared with foas I believe Foos did submit an open request to the clerk's office and these documents were provided okay is there any place on the website Township website that they can be put well the maps that I showed today are on the township website they're in the master plan they're under um the open space Recreation plan element same thing with the um the open space acquisition and utilization table that lists all the open space properties and and what we are purchasing them for preserving them for that again that's part of the township open space Recreation plan council members any questions F questions comments um by the way Alison I believe Sonia's on son is on yeah is on she is on on Zoom thank you Sam for the present for Sam I'm good thank you for the presentation I just want to make sure we have enough um money in our open space funding for any um open space that we are Township is looking to acquire son if you could just repeat yourself we can I'm G to turn my volume up for you oh can you hear me now um barely well she's not coming over the system just coming on just can you hear me now that's better all right thank you s thank you Sam for the presentation I just want to make sure that we have um Township has enough uh funding in the open space funds for all the um open space that we are uh Township is looking to acquire in the near future I caught bits and pieces of that could you repeat that Allison FS purchases yeah between the funding that we have and the revenue we we currently get in and the potential for um borrowing money I think we're suff sufficiently funded thank you okay so um we'll move on to public comment if there's no further questions from Council Members okay thank you Sam appreciate it very much we have to do public comment now yeah public we'll start public comment now so if anyone would like to make a public comment please come up to the microphone state your name and address and you have up to three minutes okay on up hello my name is Frank lavandera for when we drive uh thank you for uh an excellent presentation uh this is really I've been involved with Boos for a while but really understand this process and it's it's very helpful um my the comment my observation sitting here for a while is that we've been very successful in the past plan however the plan was drawn up 20 or 30 years ago and is there any opportunity to reevaluate the plan at this point in time and Mrs Cy said that uh you know we are winding down our program shouldn't we fact you winding it up at this point in time because every piece of land that's used for something else is gone forever and should we be looking for more opportunities I think you said there's 200 is there anything else out there that we should re-evaluate now before it's too late and see if I don't know if the plan can be modified but if it can be should it be reevaluated at this point so that's just a general question or observation thank you thank you I I just want to State too the plan was looked at in 2018 so we we it's only been a couple years ago we did look at the plan and we did add a couple more properties to the original plan and it's it's always ongoing someone says they don't want to sell their property today maybe in a month or a year they may and that that changes things're in with it's ongoing correct correct the um yeah 2018 we redid the master plan and that that section of the master plan uh was redone and it's and it's the wreck and and open space uh one other I'm sorry well I didn't want to keep going back and forth um just just one more observation so is there is there any open space requirements to to the Bridge Point no well requirement yeah that we're in L there's I guess uh an approved plan by the planning board so we are when it was approved by the planning board about a third of that property will be preserved and mostly because it's environmental constraints is there anyone else I'd like to make a public comment if so please come to the microphone okay seeing none can I have a motion to adjourn this meeting all right Dan second second okay all in favor say I I I None opposed okay this particular meeting is adjourned thank --------- for seven and eight in seven and eight in the summary yeah the uh operation yeah I think next year I'll do page break so they're all on one page okay everyone we're going to start um I call this meeting to order it's March 19th 2024 and this is budget meeting number two call to order here daas here she say she's logged in for the zoom oh got LED in Sonia G yeah here can you hear me can she raise her hand just to ackowledge she can hear you something can you hear me can hear us can you hear us I yes I can oh she gives us a thumbs up okay she can hear us okay good all right is here um gers here Mandel here voice here Whitfield here have we been adequately noticed for this meeting yes this this meeting was adequately noticed on March 12th 2024 to the times and the Princeton packet posted on the township website and the Township Municipal Building please rise for the food to apply so we'll be talking about the uh division of recreation yes and if Council would go to their uh current fund budget summary page seven and8 under Recreation Oe Ken Jacobs your manager of recreation depart yes Ken Jacobs manager of recreation parks um I'll just give you a brief overview of our department uh what we do we plan and administer a full range of Youth and adult recreational programs we oversee the finances of the department through the recreation trust fund we are liaz on to the township sport associations Youth and adult oversee the operation and finances of the community pool oversee Park improvements approved through the capital budget uh we schedule group uh Park use and we plan and administer special events um quick synopsis of 2023 uh we were back indoors in the summer of 2023 at the schools uh so we were happy to be able to use those again um camps were were held and uh we well attended uh happy with our summer um programming uh special event wise I think it rained almost every weekend uh last year and um Community day was a total wash out in SE in September both days it rained um we were able to squeeze in um a few of our events bike fest uh was in we had movies movie Nights that got cancelled and rescheduled our big movie was the Bollywood movie that we had our well most well attended one uh we showed cholet with probably 5600 people attending that um yeah event we um we had the trunk Retreat uh we also did the house decorating contest and the tree lighting con uh tree lighting ceremony as well um so it was a good year last year a lot more back to normal than we were the previous year um we also brought back the youth recreational basketball league uh last year uh which just ended actually last uh last weekend um and we've gotten a a lot of positive feedback from from that program as well okay you mentioned um under accomplishments um about possible travel basketball teams um so how would that work so that would that's like the next step from the recreational league right for those better players to be able to play and travel that there's other towns uh that run travel basketball we would work with them to you know get our teams if if we are able to put teams together to uh to do that play against other other towns travel basketball teams we couldn't have done this without the help of uh Jay Thompson who uh is a past high school basketball coach and I believe he's uh he was doing the grover Middle School team but he he was huge uh help to us being able to run the uh the youth basketball all right this will be done through the schools the indoor basketb schools were really great and accommodating our last second changes and and you know switching up things so they were they were really supportive of this of this proog for sure okay um moving on to the to the budget so our operating budget is pretty much the the pool uh complex we are anticipating um Norine re retiring this year uh so we had we increased our Consultants uh fees you know substantially you'll see to if we need to bring somebody else in to help with water quality and and maintenance over at the at the facility so that was that was that increase um but other than that I believe everything else is fairly stable there is there any major projects with the pools how how pool is 20 25 years it is 26 or 27 yeah 25 was a few years ago yeah Okay so we've done a I think we've done a good job of staying kind of in front of any of the major things like the motors in the pump room we've replaced uh we have backups uh to in case we need them what we do is we get the old ones old Motors fixed and so we're we're in pretty good shape we are replacing some of the door other doors there because they're you know kind of rotting through rusting through could they do something about the showers they were supposed to have fixed it we we are replacing the hot water heater at the in the women's room this year yeah it was it was pretty yeah yeah I I issued that PO last week okay and um like Ken said we also issued a PO to finish up the door project which was two three-year project and I think the next step is to replace the sinks and vanities of both okay I mean I'm not I'm not talking about a beautification I'm talking about about not you know water going hot cold hot yeah we just we just issued the P so it'll it'll be up safety issue essentially yeah yeah it'll be up and running before the okay okay so then that'll be good and people will actually be able to use it and stuff like that good thank you I do want to say we had a really good year Revenue wise for the pool it it really bounced back compared to the last three years um people are you know in um our dailies are are are are flat and we had a great increase in membership which is what we want you know we want people to be members of the pool so they take owners MIP and uh the plan seems to be working because um there was a dramatic increase in in in membership last year right so we getting a lot of high what percentage West Windsor we were at like 60% West Windsor 6040 um West Windsor nonr but I do believe you know going forward we're probably going to get more uh non-residents because of our policy that we instituted you know a couple years ago with the non-residents not being able to come on a daily basis so someone from Robinsville or they want to join then they have to join which they've been doing y yes right but there's a lot of apartment buildings rentals condos tow houses there's a lot of growth coming into the town so should you should be able to tap into that a lot of them have their own Sometimes some of them do do but not all yeah it's a little different environment there than it is at your you know local loc pool okay okay um Sonia has a question yes we're gonna see if we can get her on here she I'm gonna un we're gonna unmute you in the back right can you hear me now okay go ahead sonan all right um hi Ken um I just wanted to um ask you like there were some some talks about possibly adding a splash pad or something to the to the pool is that something that we are considering can you hear me okay we're gonna unmute her from the back Sonia try now all right can you hear me now can you hear me say she's unable to hear you're not able to hear her right no okay can you hear me oh wait since she's unable to hear you're not able to hear her right I hear nice piano okay um she uh Sonia had a question on one of the capital projects so are we going to do the capital projects separately yeah yeah yes okay um son had a question okay so these problems it's it's with the technology from Zoom or is it something in our system system he it's it's with the technology from Zoom or is it something in our system system problem with theology from Zoom or is it something in our system while we're doing that um just what pages under Capital will we go to under um we get Human Services page 56