okay everyone we are uh ready to begin the meeting I call this meeting to order it is the May 28th 2024 Council business meeting okay um have we been adequately noticed for this meeting would you like roll do that too gaas here Jers yes Mandel here Weiss here Whitfield here and yes we were uh adequately noticed on January 19th 2024 to the times the Princeton packet filed with the clerk and posted in the township building please stand salute to the flag so tonight we have a few topics under ceremonial matters and uh we will begin with a proclamation from the township on um gay uh on pride month uh I'll make a few comments first just to set us off uh lesbian gay bisexual transgender in queer lgbtq pride month is celebrated in the month of June it honors the 1969 Stonewall in Uprising in Manhattan which was a Tipping Point for the Gay Liberation movements in our nation West Windsor is a very diverse and inclusive community we celebrate everyone from all walks of life together we live and learn from each other's religions cultures race experiences and orientations for the first time in West Windsor Township's history the township officially celebrate pride month through a Proclamation signed by the mayor and council tonight uh councilman uh Daniel Weiss uh will read that Proclamation into the rec thank you so much uh it's so great to see so many people here especially when there's something to celebrate um I'd like to thank council president Linda Jers for her collaboration in this Proclamation as well as the rest of the council and the mayor uh for their for for their support uh over the course of time West Windor has made many proclamations that demonstrate support for a variety of topics um but this this is as Linda said the first time in West Windsor history that a proclamation is being issued in definition of problem so thank you and congratulations West Windsor um the proclamation uses the term lgbtq plus which is a shortened version of lgbtqia a plus which stands for lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer or questioning intersex and asexual or Ally A Plus represents other orientations gender identities and expressions that are not specific to the preceding letters uh this community adopted the rainbow flag as a symbol of Pride diversity and solidarity the flag spectrum of colors represents different aspects of the lgbtq plus experience and underscores the inclusivity and unity within the community the rainbow flag has become an enduring symbol of the fight for equality yes there are a lot of letters and a lot of colors in this community uh but the intersectionality of this group is rather unique we are members of every race and religion we are your children your brothers your sisters cousins Aunts Uncles parents and grandparents we are your colleagues your neighbors your Physicians nurses police officers firefighters teachers Bankers actors musicians and artists for decades this community has been denied basic numerous basic civil rights and suffered great injustices while the state of New Jersey is one of one of several states that offers comprehensive laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity many other states lack such protections it is still possible in this country to be denied employment or housing or Health Care adoption and public accommodations because of one's sexual orientation in my lifetime one could be arrested and criminally charged for simply gathering in a bar or wearing an artic article of clothing deemed incorrect or holding somebody's hands while times have changed in the past year there's been a significant surge in the introduction of anti-transgender legislation across various states in the US these bills Target a variety of issues including access to health care participation in sports and the use of public facilities such legislation perpetuates discrimination stigmatizes transgender individuals and undermines their rights and well-beings discussing historical facts is important even when it sheds light on aspects that we are not particularly proud of because that is how we learn and that is how we grow for example the Magnus hersfield Clinic also known as The Institute for sexual science was a pioneering Center for research and advocacy on sex ual and gender issues founded in Berlin Germany in 1919 the clinic provided medical psychological and educational services and was a proponent of lgbtq plus rights and gender affirming Healthcare in 1933 the clinic was targeted by the Nazi regime The Institute was rated its extensive Archive of libraries and and books were publicly burned and destroyed this act was part of the broader Nazi campaign against sexual and gender identity because one of the first things that the Nazis did was to go after transgender children we cannot allow history to repeat itself I'd like to finish with some quotes from Harvey Milk an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California in 1977 as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in his first year of office he sponsored a groundbreaking Bill Banning discrimination in public accommodations housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation the supervisors passed that bill by a vote of an 11 to1 and was signed into law by mayor George musco also in his first year of office milk along with Moscow was assassinated by a disgruntled former city supervisor the one who cast the sole vote against his bill milk said it takes no compromise to give people their rights it takes no money to respect an individual it takes no political deal to give people Freedom it takes no survey to remove repression rights are won only by those who make their voices heard so let's make our voices heard and celebrate the tremendous progress we have we have we have made in civil rights for the lgbtq plus Community from the decriminalization of samesex relationships to the recognition of marriage equality we have witnessed remarkable strides towards just Justice and inclusion our journey has been fueled by the courage and resilience of countless individuals who dared to live authentically and fought tirelessly for their rights today we honor their Legacy by committing to a future where love acceptance and equality are the Hallmarks of our society together let us continue to Champion diversity embrace our shared humanity and build a community where everyone can proudly really be who they are happy pride month and now for our Proclamation whereas this nation was founded on the principle that every individual was born free and equal in dignity and rights and the mayor and Township Council of the township of West Windsor calls upon the people of this municipality to embrace this principle and work to eliminate Prejudice everywhere it exists and whereas while Society at large increasingly supports lgbtq plus equality it is essential to acknowledge that the need for education and awareness remains vital to end discrimination and Prejudice and whereas lgbtq plus indiv individuals have had immeasurable impact to the cultural Civic and economic success of our country our state and town and whereas June is celebrated as pride month on the national state county and local level throughout the United States and whereas the township of West Windsor is committed to supporting visibility dignity and equality for lgbtq plus people in our diverse community and whereas celebrating pride month influences awareness and provides support and advocacy for West Windsor lgbtq plus community and is an opportunity to take action and engage in dialogue to strengthen alliances build acceptance and Advance equal rights and whereas West Windsor Township joins the state of New Jersey and County of Mercer in honoring the history of the lgbtq plus Liberation movement and supporting the rights of all citizens to experience equality freedom from discrimination now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and Township Council of the township of West Windsor hereby recognizes and proclaims the month of June 2024 as pride month in support of the LGBT community one one final note please join Mercer County Executive Dan Benson and the County Commissioners for a pride flag raising ceremony celebration at the Mercer County Park Marina and Boat House this Monday uh June 3 at 5:30 pm I hope to see you there thank you thank you Dan for your thoughtful comments and for reading the proclamation thank you all right next under ceremonial uh matters uh tonight we have a special presentation from the sixth grade students at Grover middle school as part of the prism program students can partake in community problem solving which is a component of future problem solving this team has placed first uh at the New Jersey future problemsolving State bowl and received an invitation to the FPS International conference in Indiana in June their topic of concern deals with censorship in the form of book bands uh Justin douy masolo Garrett who is a a grower Middle School uh teacher resource specialist g&t and prison facilitator uh will lead us off uh for the presentation I'll be very brief because this is the show right here um but I just wanted it was something interesting uh Mr Weiss uh councilman we what you said um something to the effect of rights are one when our voices are heard and I think it's poignant that you said that with this group here fighting for the right of individuals to read and and to have access to literature so um I'm not going to say more because they're amazing and uh they're going to present so up to the microphone if You' like to state your name please do so uh so my name is C and I'm a team member of next chapter um we are thanking so much inviting us you can hold the mic in your hand or go very close to it so my name is cush and I'm going to thank you guys for inviting us today here to share what we have done this year um my teammate kahill will continue on hello hello my name is kahill so we are next chapter a community problem solving team at Thomas Grover Middle School our mission is to bring awareness to censorship in the form of book bands and educate our community of the importance of books remaining available to read so that people can be able to benefit from their resources uh I'll hand it over to Neil now we we formed our community problem solving team in early October of 2023 Community problem solving is a global competition part of the future problem solving program we follow a six-step process to identify an issue in our community and then find solution to it with the goal of making the world a better and happier place when deciding on a topic re reading remains something we were all passionate about and interested in after reading articles about book bands and how these empowering and insightful stories were banned it was something close to our hearts where we wanted to make a change now I will hand it over to ran to continue however we also found that found many other topics interesting that had to do with other social issues these included education in underprivileged countries and even house pricing but we realized book bands were was the one where we can make the most change and were most applicable to us as students so it became our one clear topic where we focused ourselves again why are books so important they allow us to see new ideas see ourselves and give us New Perspectives they give us so many opportunities and resources to learn and grow as individuals Banning books blocks the freedom of speech of not just readers but also Librarians and authors sharing their voice even making certain marginalized groups practically invisible I'll give it over to my teammate Ariana we quickly started to research the scope of the issue and what was really going on in detail we researched articles and relied on sources like the American Library Association and the New Jersey Association of school librarians which also helped us recognize what's happening year us we were shocked to know that attempts to ban books were happening as close as Hamilton after serving students across the community and our district we discovered that over 60% of students and teachers were unaware that book bands were happening at all and had different views about it as you can see on the slide some were appalled and immediately against It While others thought the reasons for books could be valid this made it clear that we had to educate our community and bring awareness to what is going on so we identify challenges regarding the issue how did book bands affect Librarians teachers authors and students why was this so important on different levels and regarding these seemingly controversial topics why we identified over 15 challenges that come a result of book bands and then developed our underlying problem a statement with issue and our goal for our underlying problem please please turn to s for next chapter our underlying problem was because censorship in the form of book bands has been on the rise over the past few years both nationally and in New Jersey how might we the community problem solvers of 2024 educate our community about the importance of books remaining available to read so that people can benefit from door resoures in 2024 and Beyond we then found possible solutions to overcome these challenges we just spoke about how would we educate we found different things we could do in our school and Community to make a difference after making 10 to 12 Solutions we made a we made a scoring Matrix to value each one of them we scored our Solutions based on topics like budget stakeholders and time after each one was scored we picked the highest scored ones to focus on after after all of this we finally created a plan of action highlighting how we would tackle this problem then we got to work integrating everything we had previously planned first we created people to connect with us such as a Google Classroom a bulletin board and a website these were easy Windows to share and promote our work while facilitating change at the same time afterwards we wanted to learn more and gain more perspectives we communicated with experts on the issue including our School principles and District district members and stakeholders we broaden our scope and met with authors and Librarians from around the tri-state area this included hosting Miss Ava dik Elliot the past president of the New Jersey Association of school librarians and we met with Mariah green author of good things to learn more about the current landscape of our problem Miss green gave us a perspective perspective of how censorship affects books before they are even published good things have been challenged because a de was the topic of grief starting to move into the school Community we hosted a viewing of the Oscar nominated film called the ABCs of book Banning highlighting several banned books and voices of young children speaking out against them we also spoke with the principles of mstone river and Village and ended up presenting our cause to the gifted and talented students at Village Elementary School we even hosted a poster contest in a book ban related week in our school for students in early may we presented at our local Farmers Market collecting surveys and teaching people who are interested in our topic here is what our survey shows 100% of those surveyed support the right to intellectual freedom and 92% of those surveyed agreed that individuals and groups should not have the ability to ban books that others may want to access as part of a diversity Festival we are performing a street play to educate others this Saturday so this leads to us today our vision for the future we want to create a community that is educated about the current landscape of censorship and book bands understands the consequences of censorship and book bands and recognizes that books act like mirrors windows and sliding glass doors that we want these people to advocate for all books to remain available and we believe the choice to access a book should be an individual or a family one you can help us by showing your support for the freedom to read act this Bill establishes requirements for materials in public schools public school public and libraries and libr and school libraries and protects Librarians from harassment it includes rights for readers parents libraries and Librarians this would be a revolutionary change in the state of New Jersey and you can help make an extremely positive difference we have already written to legislators supporting it and have gotten many of our peers from our school to do so as well we hope that you would consider consider creating a resolution of support for the freedom to react on behalf of West Windsor and help us continue to advocate for the right to read for the right for everyone to read together we can write the next chapter thank you I just want to thank all of our students parents everyone coming out uh this evening and I think all the skills that you've learned for this presentation of doing your research selecting a topic um talking to teachers Librarians and all sorts of officials and tonight you're you're publicly here before Council so we appreciate the hard work and good luck in the competition in June so keep us posted okay thank you I'd also like to let the parents know that they can go on the Township's website uh all of these meetings are out Live on YouTube so you can watch reruns or download or however you do can do it so that you can see the kids and their presentation that was that was really incredible um I sure put the kids guys behind them is there any other council member that wants to make a comment before we take the picture quickly yeah I you get ready so that that was really incredible I know doing a presentation in the setting can be uh quite intimidating even for adults um so kudos to all of you and I think we should give them another round of applause thank you I'm I'm continually reminded of the multi bassed role of our Council how our Council plays shaping our community here and um while our duty in compasses approving budgets and expenditures and ordinances we also hold the responsibility to amplify the voices of our residents these guys who sit down even with sitting down is taller than me I'm the everybody want to come closer all right we're ready camera I just want to say very wonderful um work that all these um young kids are doing advocating at a young age is very important so um cers to all of you yeah yeah um I'd like to thank you for doing this just is just on um and the your kids did a really good job I like the way that you did look at some places that are This Is Happening Here and that you've interviewed a number of people that are experts on this and I'm can see why you uh won for the states so it was a terrific job thanks guys one one wonderful work um as someone who grew up and was very very shy to speak Believe It or Not uh just seeing the young people and just seeing your your talent and your ability to be orators because that's exactly what are I have a nephew who's an oror and we've been doing public speaking for many years so just not only to be able to speak in front of a crowd is very very important but also to have the passion for what you believe in and and to be able to recite that and be able to deliver that passion to others is a very very important uh attribute so I just want to commend all of you for for your work and keep it up keep it up because there's going to be many more things in life that you're going to believe in many more things in life that you're going to want to speak about speak out against or speak upon and for so just continue in your work and just uh always believe continue to believe in in in the things that are important to you and always understand that you have to convey that message to others so thank you so very much for coming here this evening we truly appreciate and and don't forget just because something's popular doesn't always mean it's right and that's that's the key there it's it's easy to put in books that everybody agrees with but putting in books that not everybody agrees with that's that's where the freedom of speech and the freedom of reading comes in thank you for your um for your advocacy for a resolution I will work with my peers here to see if we can make that possible I support yeah and if you could if you could tell me that copy of that resolution to me and I'll take a look at that for distribution uh to the council thank you you mayor yeah yeah uh thanks thanks Linda so your reputation has uh spread far and wide not only you have mayor and Township Council but a mayor from neighboring Town came to hear you jice mirov she was here yes yeah I want to acknowledge her there uh that she's here thanks Janice for coming um I remember prism I mean my kids went through school system man it's a great activity and congratulations for making it possible for the students and uh I hope you continue to get involved in it advocate for what you believe in and at the same time listen to an opposing view which people may not agree you don't have to agree with everybody but you have to respect and listen to whatever they saying that only will expand your horizon so again congratulations best VES in not only this competition but any other competition you face in through Middle School and High School best of Love okay I'd also like to get a picture of council uh with Proclamation with pride Proclamation take a quick picture um do right now do it let's do it now Starts Now listen I heard the basketball game on hurry up all right uh now we'll move on to the uh discussion on the draft ordinance revisions related to the New Jersey D Inland flood rules adopted in July 2023 these revisions were uh reviewed by the environmental commission at last Thursday's special meeting Francis gzik director of Community Development and Township engineer will lead us in a discussion of the revisions which are required to reflect the provisions of the state's adoption of the Inland flood uh rules from last July yeah Francis starts is this on I just handed out yes mayor I just handed out the resolution from the environmental commission for all of you to have thanks Linda uh so this is uh uh this is an ordinance that's uh required by the by the state this is the second revision we just revised it um maybe last year or year before uh based on the state requirement um we are going around uh collecting input from all concerned parties Francis met with the environmental commission they gave some input and they issued uh a report uh recommending it um today is the time for council members to comment on the ordinance what we will do is uh we will Page by Page ask you if you have any questions comments any suggestions for changing it uh then we have received a set of questions from Individual council members once we finish that finish the ordinance going Page by Page we will go through the questions we have received we will gather all the input and then the uh ordinance will be um it circulated and then ordinance will be on the June 10th agenda production um it will go to the planning board for their review on June 17th and then it will be back on Council agenda on June 24th for adoption that's the existing expectation of uh how the timetable will work out um if we need to do major modifications other the changes uh this timetable May shift but that's the current thinking so whatever input you have you have had chance to look at the ordinance for considerable amount of time so whatever input you have uh please give it to us and then we will come up with the draft ordinance for introduction on June 10th so Francis uh question as we go through this I know the environmental commission there were some comments made indidual comments from Council Members you will take at the end of it if you have have a comment or questions that you have sent regarding a particular section you can ask it when we come to that particular section no I'm saying the environmental commission had gone through this and had a couple of comments so will that be told to the mention to the council those those we have those we will incorporate yeah all right so it's page by page page by Page you want me to read it or no just start with page one Whoever has question going from page one through page two page one through five any questions comments can we start with an overview of why we're doing this and before we even start that please yeah yeah sure thank you sure yeah basically the the state adopted um the Inland flood rules in July of 2023 um and basically they were done uh in the state's attempt to modernize the the uh development standards and protections that stormw Control ordinances that provide uh basically there was a realization when statistically reviewing the climate uh rainfall data over the last um over the last last 20 years uh what a lot of the models have been based on and the numbers used was data from 1950 to about 1999 and when they took it look at the rainfall since then from 2000 to about 2019 with some reports issued in 2021 they realized that there was an an upward Trend in the rainfall amounts for the the different design storm years that uh have to be analyzed by developers and towns and even state agencies when they do development projects and and have to control their storm water runoff uh what they found is that if Trends continue with current climate change and um a moderate emissions uh continuation scenario that the the rainfall amounts are only going to increase going forward so what they have required in these new rules is that um there's an an increase factor that has to be applied to storm events when developers do storm waterer modeling and for the current condition it it's about a 4% increase over it was over what it was up to 1999 uh but projected going forward to 2099 they're projecting an increase of up to 36% for Mercer County uh in those rainfall amounts so basically this this rule requires that developers model storm water control improvements as part of their projects not only for today's conditions with that minor increase but then also have to analyze and make sure their sites continue to work for that 2099 scenario with the much more significant increase because they don't want they don't want things oversized now where they're they're letting too much water go out because they're designed for the future condition but they also don't want it designed for today where in the future all those sites are going to wind up flooding so they actually have to they almost have to run two different storm water reports and submit those to the township or whatever agency they're getting approvals for um so that's that's the intent of a lot of these updates uh what also was done with the rule which really isn't for the town to enforce but um what the state did is they took the existing flood studies that are done for the waterways throughout the state of New Jersey and they basically uh FEMA uh flood insurance rate maps The Firm Maps is the acronym that they go by and they blanket increased those delineated flood elevations by 3T across the board so there there was there's no new studies that were done they just took the studies that have been done and for an increased factor of safety added three feet so if you had a piece of property with a stream and that stream had a map flood elevation of 100 ft uh it after this rule became into effect you have to treat it as if that flood elevation is now 103 ft with any improvements that you plan on doing to the property uh based on both anything outside with the physical property or with regards to floor elevations within the building um and that's that's uh the gist of what the state requires what the the staff has also done with regard to one of the first sections in the draft ordinance is the landscape standards so the the prior rules that DP adopted in 2021 were the green infrastructure rules which basically um reduce the size of the drainage area you're allowed to um send to a storm Water Management Facility so um to put it in layman's terms the days of of uh big developments coming in with one giant grass swimming pool for all the stormw to go uh have been changed to now having smaller facilities scattered throughout the development for storm waterer management purposes and those uh storm waterer management facilities have to be designed using green infrastructure meaning more natural uh devices a lot more Landscaping a lot more permeable soil uh less Reliance on man-made structures and and man-made devices in controlling runoff because the more man-made facilities are involved the more maintenance is required and one of the big problems in the past has been nobody knows what's where on a site and how it's supposed to be maintained so if a person's not out there clearing debris and making sure things are working properly chances are it's it's probably not working properly so they required a lot more natural uh devices um natural systems for for storm water to be incorporated um so with the landscape standards that have been in place uh up until this point they recognize the old style of one big grass swimming pool and adding Landscaping to uh screen that get it to blend in more but since the green infrastructure rules came about uh the planning boards have been granting a lot of design waivers as a result of that because those higher landscape standards really aren't applicable because a lot of the green infrastructure rules satisfy those Landscaping requirements so there's uh in the first section of the draft ordinance changes to the Landscaping standards not so much to to give developers a break but to reduce the number of waivers that the planning board has to Grant as part of these development review projects so it's not that they're easing restrictions on developers they're just easing um what the board members have to consider and recognition that the old concerns of having these wideopen grass planes um flooding with storm water every so often aren't the case anymore that they're a lot more uh aesthetic pleasing there's a lot more Landscaping thought and required by the the state um design manual so um another section that we'll get to uh isn't mandated by the state but it's uh requested and put in there for more of the the staff's um reinforcement of current policies in the township uh what what's been done in the past and what's currently been done with regard to development applications from um single family homes all the way up to the the major retailers and shopping centers um so it's it's when we get to that section I can talk about it a little bit more but they're really more so that when push comes to shove the T staff can point to Something in black and white say this is this is what the township requires because right now some of those things aren't in the code so all yeah well thank you for that synopsis um and many of the topics that you um you know mention we're going to get into the nitty-gritty Page by page right right there just two clarifications the green infrastructure itself that was passed in the idea was from 2021 I believe so what's been done in here is uh modifications based on our experience with with the previous law I believe uh only with regard to the landscape standards that before our landscape architect in-house Mr Dober milsky retired he and I sat and said that if we're going to do these changes for uh everything else that the state is requiring we should also make our jobs a little easier with the number of waivers we have to identify and defend to the planning board with the lands AP standards but the standards for the green infrastructure were part of the 2021 yes correct so that's that's not a change for the green infrastructure we're just um making some improvements to it correct uh we're well I guess we're we're updating those green infrastructure rules to reflect the Inland blood rule requirements correct and the um the main portion of this is about the increase in the rain uh rainfall correct that's the main issue the the main Crux of it is yes is getting developers required at the local level to do an analysis for current conditions and Analysis for projected future conditions so they have to do that it also tells them what table and values they have to use in order to model the current condition and that projected future condition um the state uh model ordinance that the Township's proposed ordinance is based on has a lot of uh other little sprinkled updates to it um as a result of of their staff dealing with the the model ordinances since they were adopted in in 202 21 based on the green infrastructure rules okay we'll um we'll begin on page page one anyone have any questions comments page one um if we're gonna should we have a discussion about what the changes are rather than just make it a generic well I think be here all if you wanted that Chang the way it reads and you need to say that now yeah it's over 40 pages so if we got to go hold on okay uh I've got something on page two well we're on page one okay we start on okay I I will say one thing quickly uh the sample Municipal storm order Control Ordinance at the very beginning it has a policy statement and has and has a purpose to it um I just want to say that's something for you to consider to add uh to the ordinance that's from the sample Municipal it's a different document so we have two documents so um just as well that that starts on page four uh this this first section the first uh first three pages three and a half pages of what's in front of you deal only with the landscape standards that 200- 91p the landscape standards go from page one to three and halfway down to four to where it says section too all right consider whether we we put in policy statements along the way or or purposes um to explain things a little bit better just consider it we don't have to have any change to that tonight but yeah P four in beginning of yeah okay yeah there's a scope and purpose section there but this um just so you know that the the whereas is that you nor Al see those Clauses will be added to the version that comes to you that really wasn't okay felt to be the meat of what we're asking you to look at so those those will be coming yes all right um anything else page one all right let's move on to page two um yeah I think I had mentioned this before um under 20091 under P landscape standards where we have uh and this is this is actually from the last one all Woody and herbaceous plants shall be species indigenous to the area and or tolerant of typical wet dry flood plane conditions I would like to limit that more so that we don't have invasive plants in that mix uh and I if possible even um say a preference for indigenous plants and if indigenous is not possible than non-invasive um because there's plenty of plants from other countries out there that could be introduced that may have wet feet or may be beneficial for the Basin but not beneficial for the rest of the environment so um I would want to have a little bit more limitation on that kind of plan so so is your suggestion just to limit it to indigenous or to add prefer if you if if engineering thought we could limit it to the indigenous and it would work well under all conditions if you want to leave it a little bit but make sure it's non invasive we could do something where uh instead of having the and or we make it just the and tolerant and then after that line um including include a line where non- indigenous uh would be reviewed and approved on an as needed basis right and I don't think you mean end or because you would want the indigenous plants to be indigenous to the area and tolerant of typical wet Drive they have to survive in order to work too so understood yeah okay thank thank you yeah we can come up with something also uh on D it says that the specific blend shall be approved by the township landscape architect and your its bracketed so you're taking that out um why why don't we we keep that in because he does that anyway plus we don't have an in-house landscape architect so but someone will look at all all oh yeah yeah it's it's consultant you someone else on staff so but you could easily have landscape arcet or Township engineer and every one of these comments so it's there's really not a need for it because it is part of what the landscape architect reviews well um that that may be so but you when you have it in writing and just one more place that developers have to refer to and say it's it's in our ordinance you want to left alone we can leave it alone or just say Township and whoever we have in the township that's doing it yeah just say specific shall be approved by the township yeah just say Township because it may be a different title or yeah we can put Township aost stre for yes townships landscape does that work yeah I think that that would work this way if it's a consult and then an i you took out plantings are not are not permitted upon any dkes associated with a detention Basin unless approved by the township engineer you taking that out is the suggestion yeah because it's moved to a a different section okay you where's that where's the bracket start in front of ey starts um where I starts yep I see okay anyone else page two no moving on page three no okay page four on page four uh number number four it says planting quantity may vary but should include at least four shade trees and four evergreen trees for every 100 ft of perimeter Dimension as measured along the normal water surface elevation um instead of saying should include at least four can we put sh so I think that's we want to make it mandatory correct well the language before it makes it mandatory that they have to do something uh putting a shell here specifies [Music] um yeah I don't think it hurts either way all right then let's let's do thatan it says shade trees isn't it the the um first sentence talking on more more in general terms this is unique to shade trees correct what's proposed well the first couple lines give a general idea of the goal and then this last new line now specifies the uh the intensity you use if you use shell they must then they but then if there's a you want to change it you can't correct well well then be a design waiver it would be a waiver yeah which happens explain why they need that then we're using planting shall include and we're using that word um shall okay and it comes up at least twice before that so I just want to be consistent is that okay we got it we will gather all the input we'll go process it in it's in red good okay all right um anyone else page four you see none page five when uh in number five when you say reached an equivalent Milestone uh like what does that mean which which C C5 C5 on page that is a state required language um preferred alternative refers to the federal process for how projects get done um so they first start with uh Concepts and alternative developments and then they select a preferred alternative then they start preliminary design then they move the permitting and final design and then they issue bids for construction so that's basically um probably mostly because it refers to Railroad project but preferred alternative is a um set standard when looking at langage GP wants in there that comes from model ordinance I believe yes okay yeah all three of these changes you know the rationalization behind the date of March 2nd 2021 there's Yeah March 2nd 2021 is the date of adoption of the green infrastructure rules that is I was referring to before and in five that July 17 2023 that was the state's approval of the Inland flood Ru that was that was the I was referring that's what I was referring to later that the original Green infrastructure was March of 2021 which was March of 2020 when the original came out from d y all right page six no changes proposed yeah page seven hey J no changes proposed page nine no changes proposed oh sorry infiltration definition there's a minor yes yes yeah I want to ask you about that because you're taking out the word seeps and you're you're including moves but the d uh uses seeps so to be consistent with the D language should we use seeps um it's right seeps comes from the D language moves uh comes from a uh I forget where we looked it up um but it was a more generally understood because it does seeps implies that it's a downward movement um as opposed to just moving in any direction in the soil and I think that's why we wanted to change it because it can considers lateral movement because sometimes if you have um stored water underground or a deep Basin uh especially one that's not draining then the water not only tries to move down but move laterally through the soil well do do you want to mention anything about the lateral movement in that definition um no I think moves just leaves it to any direction because yeah moves moves can more generic is more generic it can go in any direction right attorney like more generic okay page 10 nothing comments down page 10 seeing none page 11 right page 12 we got that c p see the word movement is it Movement we have movement there y right yeah okay that's right yeah page 133 no changes 13 no changes 14 14 the uh EC did point out a spelling error with the Latin name for the bog turtle so we'll fix that that was at B at the bottom right yeah okay so you got that 15 they did a good job yes 15 no changes 16 no changes um on table one at the top there should there be a mention of a statute on the chart some of these charts have have um mention the um MJ a AC isn't that mentioned in statute numbers and yeah in in F there's a broad reference to all the tables at the top of page 16 but what I'm saying should it be also on here because the other ones have it there too right two two and three have it because it's defining the waiver or variance process that someone would have to go through to get those approved those aren't the typical waiver or variance process that a town board or the town zoning officer would go through that's why there's references to the state code for those waivers and variances because they're they're superseded by the state law on how they have to get those waivers or variances all right 17 18 uh 19 19 just adding a title to G on the uh under G on the six line says uh the removal rate shall be provided to the to the department should should we say the engineering department Community Development Department it's it's what department it says just say department so I just want to make sure it gets to your department yeah we can clarify that yeah okay page 20 the uh under number six and then it reads that pre-treatment measures may be may be designed in accordance with the New Jersey BMP manual um how about pre- treatment measures uh shall be designed in accordance with that best management practices inste of May yeah may I mean it right it should it should be sh I believe I don't think that significantly creates a problem okay so yes then all right good uh page 21 page 22 22 on the chart pre uh prvious pavement systems uh says area of additional inflow cannot exceed three times the area occup occupied by the BMP so we say shall not exceed we cannot exceed say shall not exceed said a cannot exceed canot probably works better yeah we've not had a problem with it that way and that comes from the state's model so Mike is that canot okay and not sh okay all right we'll keep we'll keep Canen on EX page 23 page [Music] 24 and you know most most of this isn't isn't really changed this no yeah page 25 page 26 page 27 um a number two there uh where it says uh differing from wooded land with good cover that good cover is new wording um do we find good cover anywhere it's defined in the nrcs methodology so since we're requiring them to use that all those things with parentheses they make reference to um that standard okay all right as long as this like documented somewhere okay yep uh page 28 um yeah I had a bit of a question down at bottom at 2101 point2 um you're talking about all development are you referring to um if somebody doing something with their driveway do they we're talking about uh page 28 now yeah the bottom of where we where we're talking about like it says all development shall be designed to account for storm water and natural drainage water yeah one 101.2 was what I was talking about earlier in my opening remarks about right and some of the standard practices that we do um at the Pol I'm sorry at the staff level policy um and and having those these standards uh 101.2 a through k um standardized and put put into the ordinance there's there's a lot of different reference for a lot of this uh in the NJ dcas rsis uh and a lot of the design manuals um that are utilized by the engineers But to answer your question yeah I'm talking about like am in particular yeah so all all development does mean all development it's whether somebody's putting in a landscape firm whether they're putting a patio in their backyard whether they're widening their driveway or putting an addition if somebody's putting in a patio they would have to do an analysis of how much water's coming off and how much is no that's that's not what's saying this is saying at all that that's stormw management this is language that requires people to consider their neighbors when they're doing any project on their property that they can't do something that negatively affects the adjoining property owners they can't block the natural flow of drainage if water comes onto your property before your project your allowed to address it on your property and do something about it but you're not allowed to just build a BM and and block it and nebor you can't put a dam around your property and stop water from coming coming in or anything like that well without this being adopted you can try to and staff will fight you on it but we don't have it in black and white to to make that you can't somebody doesn't necessarily have to hire somebody to do a no this doesn't require them to do storm water management that would be a major project if hit that major project trigger then you have to do storm water control these are more design standards for just like it says design standards for all so this would be on the level of when it comes in from a permit because something like a patio would generally just go in for a per patio zoning permit um even some fences some people don't realize they have swes on their property or run through the yard and they they put up a solid vinyl fence only to find out that it's blocking wood or now on a neighbor's property yeah so somebody once changed the entire level of their backyard and I always wondered how they if and how they got permission to do that but um so this is something more when it gets into that range it's when it's looked at that's one of the things that's going to be looked at whether or not it's it's doing all these other things and making sure nobody's running a pipe out into the street to to uh put their Stone water out that way which I guess isn't see and stuff like that so correct yep thank you this is the happy neighbors section don't don't throw your water there and don't don't stop taking the water okay so 20 we did that was 28 okay on to page 29 on on C it says uh over the sidewalk under the sidewalk Andor through the curb drains for the purpose of discharging of roof drains or some pumps is prohibited um is there grandfathering in have any any residents doing it this way we've we've had this um this language was in a prior version of the code uh up until I think it was 2021 when the state gave us one of the templates and in the process of us us updating it somehow that got dropped so this is one of the policy things that um staff does often get out on uh when there's a nuisance complaint about it so we don't go looking for it but if you're causing a problem with that uh then basically it falls under a nuisance and the health department gets involved prohibited so right so you're not suggesting a grandfather clause I'm sorry you're not suggesting any type of Grandfather Clause I would not know uh because when a problem does occur if someone's causing a algae growth slipping problem or a uh freeze uh ice condition on a sidewalk or in the road or in an intersection um and we knock on their door and say hey this is happening as a result of your pipe and they say well I'm grandfather you know it's your problem now um how how far does this go like um Can somebody run something across their lawn to the sidewalk I mean I me this was they could is this go far enough to prevent a problem because I've seen people with pools Run Outlets that kind of go across their lawn and come really close to the sidewalks now things like that they uh pools are different pools with a pool permit you're usually allowed and I think it's somewhere else in the code that allows you to have a temporary discharge where you get one of those rollup hoses so if you're backwashing a filter or lowering your pool you can run uh a roller pose out and pipe down for a day or two but again if it causes a nuisance problem uh they can let somebody at to Township know and the owner can be asked to move the point of where they're discharging it or get a longer hose so that it actually reaches a drain if there's a drain available but those are considered to Temporary condition they're not a hard pipe knock through a curve let's say hard pipe though is can how far can somebody how close to the road can somebody come with that hard pipe and should do we have to tell I don't want to give an answer because I don't want to have to live with people coming say you said on TV that we could put it well should there be something to tell people they can't put the discharge that goes over the sidewalk uh we we look at at a case by case basis you know it's hard it's hard to give one blanket rule it's rather it's easier to say what you shouldn't do than say well this is what we will no I'm not saying somebody should I'm saying should we be prohibiting somebody bringing this down where it discharges over the sidewalk or is that just normal that we would bring well sometimes that's where swes are designed to go so during a rainstorm that Swale is sending water or the downspout from the house that's discharging to that Swale 50 feet or 100 feet into the property is all sending the water that way anyway so that's unfortunately that's um how a lot of these developments were built okay and uh and inde says minimum pipe size for any public drainage system is 15 inches in diameter um and I believe at the environmental commission meeting you said that's a recognized standard yeah that's for something that the town will have to own and maintain and they've just been statistically shown to be the least that's the smallest side least smallest size least prone to clogging from debris uh such as Leaf litter okay page 30 another issue that came up at the EC meeting um in I approval for drainage structur shall also be obtained from the appropriate Municipal County state and federal agencies and offices so um I guess the approval should come from uh the township instead of just saying Municipal right I think yeah we were we were asked to add this add the specific names instead of being generic yeah so you're gonna correct that page 31 yeah 3 31 okay think 32 33 34 35 36 that's um under C1 a topographic Bas map it say is North American vertical datum of 1988 there's nothing newer no it's the recognized standard that's the most recent standard that's been set 37 I think there's typo in 5A right in the middle NAD 1983 state plan New Jersey or is it it says plane but is that supposed to be plan it's supposed to be Plane State plane okay 30 page 38 page 39 the approved in five the approved maintenance plan you need to add by that's approved by by who um Township engineer planning board zoning board All the Above All the Above you we need to be more specific or no okay uh page 40 almost there folks page 41 page 42 um yeah um we're now outside of the um storm water uh section at this point right 42 43 and 44 um sections three and section four of the draft ordinance relate to uh driveway standards um particularly some are some are uh section four is General driveway standard design standards and section three on page 42 is for single family two family residential driveways right and I'm a little concern um that we're combining two different ordinances here um I know one under our rules for the um uh Council where not supposed to combine ordinances we're supposed to have each ordinance have a title and essentially that title is supposed to be on one subject and it looks to me like we're combining well they're they're land they're land standards it's it's all land use standards yeah it's all land use but it's not really the storm water piece of it and I'm I'm saying there's it says pertaining to storm water control regulations and driveways in yeah Drive sep from but the driveways isn't part of the storm water control regulation right so it's um well the the driveway ones the driveways totally not it's a different article it's a different section um but I would I would want more information on that as far as like we don't even have a definition of driveway here anywhere um yeah I mean I we did get the questions that you had sent it uh we did talk to I did talk to Francis uh we don't have driveway defined anywhere else so unless this is one opportunity to put in there and with lot of clear Downs coming up in town people then we need then we need to have a definition and there is to what's that's the whole point of putting the driveway width in like height and that what what do you consider a driveway is the area outside of a garage that's like a right angle garage is that considered the driveway or is that an entry to the garage that's the entry to the garage generally looking there's there's two references that um generally get defaulted to one is the uh dca's residential site Improvement standards which defines driveway as a means of a paved or unpaved Surface providing vehicular access to a street um and a driveway is not a road Street Boulevard highway or Parkway so it's vehicular access from where to the street from your house so then that so then what you're saying is that the part outside the stre garage would be considered the driveway well not if you're um not if it's providing the egress uh I'm sorry I'll take that back so the other one is Mercer County just adopted their update to their Land Development ordinance they have basically the same definition for driveway with a little Nuance um to address what you're saying Andrea a defined paved or unpaved Surface used for egress or egress of vehicles and allowing access from a street to a building or other structure or facility so then that would include that whatever comes outside of the garage under that kind of a definition I'm I'm just concerned that there a lot of different when when you say outside the garage the driveway is from the street to the garage so everything in between is considered driveway that's what that's what's I'm hearing about driveway sometimes in sidewalk there's a lot of different the apron separ the apron's separate and that's specified here and that's pretty obvious but I'm just concerned there's a lot of different designs in the town a lot of different homes were put in here where you have to make essenti a right angle turn into a garage yeah that's those have large areas outside the garage and and of course this has nothing this the Mis the U maximum Improvement coverage is still the same so that's that's not really related directly to this because whatever you do you still have the same um micas so um so I'm I'm just concerned that without any kind of definition there may be a lot of different houses that are in the town that will wind up being outside of compliance because if there is a what right angle turn driveway that's considered a driveway unlike a drainage problem caused by a standard and over wide existing driveway isn't isn't an issue for anybody it's not like the zoning officer is going to knock on your door and say your driveway from the 80s is is at a compliance you need to saw cut two feet off of it you need any kind of chart because some people have sorry do we need any kind of chart I mean some people have um single car and it's a double other people have triple maybe even a little bit larger but usually it's one of those three for residential right once once you get to where the drive oh sorry where the garage is and you're widened to to meet the door of a garage I would not consider that to be the driveway because that's not generally causing complete uh egress to and from the street as you said sometimes you have to back out and then you have to maneuver either to do like a little send to get yourself over to get out to the street but basically the reason you have to do that is because most driveways aren't the width of three or four car garages they're only the w with of at most a two-car garage which would be within that 22t maximum that's specified in the ordinance before we voted on something like this I'd want to see a couple of pictures or something saying here's some typical houses this this is what the driveway is for this yeah we could we could submit that with the uh revised ordinance true uh so I mean that doesn't whether it's in the ordinance I mean I'd like to get an idea of what we're actually referring because I don't want to put a bunch of people out of out of compliance uh because we I think we're trying to move the other direction where we are trying to bring uh most people's homes into so that every I mean we we can put a we can put a clear definition of driveway I mean Francis and I talked about one option was just to take it out but that's there to prevent fut I'm saying there shouldn't be something and and if we want to regulate future developers fut Pro yeah yeah then want to go there but yeah I don't I don't think it's really going to be future developers developers want to build as cheap as they can it's uh more the individuals who come down and build the knockdown and mega uh Mega Palace yeah it's just this this is sort of a one-sized fits all for everything from town homes to to these I don't know what those no it does it doesn't fit Town Homes because that the one section with the width deals with single family and two family okay well those are single family residents right but not attach all right um anyway I would prefer see okay we will put some kind of definition of clarify water driveways and before we vote on something I like say 22 ft where we are going to measure 22 and if we want to separate it out because you need more time for that and we want to get this thing pass then that's fine too and then see it you know it says the Terminus of the driveway at the Township Road um I mean there's private roads there's County Roads did you just you mean just at the road or yeah you know not just Township I sometimes people pull out it's a County Road just a or a road in the town well the county has County standards the state has State Standards well this says at Township Road so what it's just a yeah to I assume it applies to everybody it applies to somebody who has a driveway but it happens to go on a county road too right I mean applies to everyone yeah it would it would but they wouldn't normally be coming to us for um a permit uh for work within the county raway for a driveway intersection so that's when the county standard would kick in well we could reference uh just make it road instead of Township Road a lot of County Roads around your main concern is that anybody who has a driveway doesn't suddenly become yeah I think then now we' haven't really thought about all the different types of designs houses in this kind all these widths and lengths that's the the asphalt part so if someone puts in decorative pavers outlining the asphalt part of the drive that doesn't count as part of driveway it's any surface that could be driven on so whether it's grav papers can be taken up they're not well so could gravel but that's so oh then maybe um should you reference that then because a lot of people might not realize that I A lot of people are getting getting that and they they're not thinking that's counting as part of the uh driveway well you can't drive on some of those it kind of stick up well a curb is different right a curb isn't a drive it's not made to be driven on but if it's if it's flush and level with the pavement it's to the pav then okay because there are there are whole driveways people are putting in with pavers stuff I don't know how often they're fixing them but I don't okay so you'll get back to us um get back to us before the before the next meeting so we can review we'll be you finished everything at 42 was 42 Page 42 Page 40 page 43 page 44 that's it wasn't there a chart with um rainfall and stuff in it someone I'm sorry wasn't there a chart with rainfall in where in the ordinance chart with rainfall yeah the chart no it there's a reference to the rainfall tables okay because when we went over on the environmental commission the um the chart with the changes in the rainfall was was in this what we went over now someone might have been looking it up and showing it but yeah the pages page 28 is the reference to current precipitation adjustment factors and future precipitation factors okay because when we went over there if you remember there was a chart with the entire State and the discussion was should we only include Mercer County in the ordinance so yeah someone someone might have pulled it up during the EC meeting but it wasn't in there's a link there's a link that no it was in it was in one of the handouts but um all right so so then that's so they were just referencing those numbers and then presumably if the state changes them that'll automatically well the the EC had asked that um it be revised to label uh and insert the Mercer County zes so that um people didn't have to go look up in a table well if we if we just reference it and the state decides in two years to modify it slightly then we would just be referencing the the uh modified one correct if if we insert the actual numbers in here then anytime the state changes it we would have to do an ordinance Amendment but we just reference the chart then if the state changes it we automatically update it right anytime anybody does work or a project they would have to go and look up the table to whatever number the tables are at that point in time so we're probably a lot safer for referencing the state chart it's less work for us yeah yeah and and it would be a lag between when we could make that change in this way it would happen right away obviously yeah I'm I'm either or because normally the people doing this type of work who need this information know where to look for it anyway and they would normally double check that anyway because they're usually not just applying to the town but the Mercer County to dvrpc I'm sorry drcc and um njde for some permit or the other so they got to satisfy those other agencies as well any other comments or questions I would like some time to make some comments thank you um the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections model ordinance sets minimum standards for storm water management also affirms that municipalities may quote undertake additional actions including ordinances with standards stronger than the Statewide minimum requirements end quote last year the Watershed Institute released an enhanced storm water management model ordinance based on the njdep model and held a webinar a webinar that provided a technical overview which was recorded and is available online on their website for those in the room the Watershed Institute is a New Jersey not for-profit organization keeping water clean safe and healthy is the heart of their mission they work to protect and restore our water and natural environment through conservation advocacy science and education flooding is an urgent problem for M municipalities the problem is exasperated by continued increase in impervious cover according to an njd report the state is experiencing significant increases in precipitation and storms resulting in extreme rain events due to climate change the report predicts that the size and frequency of floods will increase as annual precipitation increases as a result of this report among other factors D adopted the Inland flood protection a significant contribution to flooding and poor water quality is inadequate management of storm water runoffs the goal of a municipal storm water ordinance should be to protect and improve water quality while mitigating flooding for the public health safety and Welfare of the community existing state regulations and many Municipal storm water Control ordinances are inadequate because the current quote quantity requirement quote is misleading it's based on a rate and not on a volume so new developments meet this requirement by reducing the rate of storm water runoff yet the total volume of runoff has increased leading to flooding and stream erosion revising ordinances to manage storm water volume through on-site retention and other reduction measures is essential The Watershed Institute enhanced storm water management ordinance includes the following reduced threshold definition for major development major developments to treat runoff from all impervious services for water quality requires a storm water management for minor development addresses Redevelopment and requires the law the use of low impact development techniques and includes maintenance and inspection and Reporting requirements I believe that municipalities must act aggressively to address the serious problems of water pollution and flooding all the enhancements found in the Watershed Institute model ordinance should be considered for adoption um as allowed in the current Municipal separate storm sewer system permit it's the ms4 permit furthermore the new ms4 permit will require towns to come up with a plan to reduce flooding by 2027 uh we should be doing everything that we can to minim flooding now especially in terms of new development because if we ignore this it will result in an significant future taxpayer Bill to remediate the flooding problems in West Windsor which are only going to get worse so uh I really urge you to take a closer look at what the Watershed institute's model ordinance looks like um it's it's out available for public it's in a form similar to the njd ordinance where you can copy and paste put stuff in take a look at those changes thank you may then that was a nice speech and you have a fan club on to look at it good but one of the problems of using waterers shed or some other institutes they try to make a standard once SI fit all doesn't work like that the aim of the township is to do what's best for the residents of Township people feel that oh you do it it becomes harder for developers which is very true but like Andrea was so struggling to make sure that it doesn't affect the residents this affects the residents too and as she was struggling that to make sure that whatever we do here doesn't affect somebody whose driveway is little 17 ft that's the aim of the township to make sure whatever we come up is works for the township not blindly follow something that somebody has said who has no skin in the game in West wi having said that West Wier is one of these leaders in acting that uh acting on this lot of flooding in West Wier is not of our doing it's the water coming from 28 other the towns up up River and that's not me saying that's the state saying and the council passed a resolution last year or two years ago I forgot when to encourage the state and the county to take a regional approach not each town is not going to be able to solve the problem by themselves no town will be it's not just west wi no town will be I mean if we dump Waters to somebody who is Downstream they can do whatever they want but if we keep dumping more and more water to them nothing they can do and in fact Andrea has talked to the assistant commissioner we have a zoom meeting with the assistant commissioner with our encouragement and with passing lot of surrounding towns have passed exactly The Identical resolution and we we passed it first encouraging state so if you really want to tackle the problem encourage the county and the state to join us in in addressing the issue on a larger scale which is needed rather than simply saying oh you need to put so much restriction can no development can happen we can do whatever we want if somebody Upstream is going to dump water that water is going to come water flows by physics not because H says don't come here right so that's the whole aim of the every ordinance that we have done we have been as strict as we can at the same time protecting and doing what's best for West spcer and what's just for West Wier residence not blindly following something that somebody who has no skin in West Wier has to say so we did we do read input from everybody we don't ignore any input whether we agree with it or not like the same thing I told the kids I will listen to people who disagree with me first before I agree because people who agree with me I know what they are thinking I will listen to First People doesn't mean I have to agree with them doesn't mean I have to take care all their input but lot of it has been working on it for a long time the ordinance took a lot of effort to come up with something that works for West Wier and this is a good ordinance and this works for West Wier well thank you for your response I don't agree that the statement that the W shed has no skin in the game I mean their their mission is about um clean water and flooding they're part of central New Jersey so and not I'm not doubting their mission I'm just saying that because their mission is good it's not gospel oh if doesn't work for West Wier I'm not going to do that simply because somebody else says that I agree that's why that's why I stated that I would like you to consider consider looking at the options that the Watershed has provided to see if they can be integrated and absolutely some of them might not be appropriate and I accept that but some of them might be appropriate spending the time to take a closer look and I will emphatically said that last time the audiance was presented and this time we looked at every input right we will not come to the council without looking at all input we know there are some council members who are very expert and will ask a lot of tough questions not that they simply that's exactly why we had this page by Page by Page going just so that later on somebody should say oh I had a comment I didn't get to make you can always come up with new comments on June 10th absolutely possible but nobody can say that oh we didn't get a chance everybody had a chance and I will sit there and listen to every public comment that's going to come and if there's anything useful that we can modify we will definitely modify and we will definitely make it better no nobody's input is ignored but we not going to do that doesn't work for us okay thank Francis you also uh gave us a resolution um of endorsement from the environmental uh commission correct yes we uh reviewed it with them uh at a special meeting last week um they provided some minor comments uh also requested some clarification on some of the things like the dates that that were a question um for Council as well uh what the basis for those and there wasn't anything that they came up with that would be objectionable or unable to be incorporated in fact as I think I said earlier they pointed out the misspelling of the Latin name of the bog turtle so they're experts in different fields yes yes yeah we did have um a lot of input from uh from Anis spag who's not only been on the planning board for a number of years but is a professional engineer I believe um he kind of led the discussion we do have um uh F books who's the chair of the environmental commission here with us today too uh so the environmental commission did look at it pretty much like we just did here and uh came up with some discussion and changes uh by the way I'm very familiar with the Watershed I know a number of the people there as a matter of fact uh got a meeting uh that uh from a committee that this week that I'm on with them um and uh they do basically put everything I I did when I was reviewing this I reviewed hours I reviewed the state and I reviewed the watershed's suggested uh changes some of the things we already do for instance uh Francis added last time a um what was what was a um optional which was the whole idea of looking at what everybody plans are getting them to submit um some sort of a certification that they've been testing it and that they continue to meet the plans I know that hasn't been easy Francis correct following um following that whole thing through with the with yeah there's manual there's still a lot of public education going yeah all the you know following all of those um um everybody who's done development including people who have already done development there's a whole bunch of things that have to be followed up on and most of what's in there tends to be um something that is high that is sort of smaller on eventual impact because we're now looking at small pieces of property and small pieces of development uh yet on the other hand probably very high on aggravation in exchange for it and so there is somewhat of a balance um and what what you're how how much you're willing to torture people for what might what be might be minimal gain and um when I look through a number of these things that there's a there is a balance there and um I think I think we have to look at it and as the mayor did mention uh and it's one of the things that we've been pursuing we have several towns that have um already uh got gone along with us now uh and the Watershed by the way is a big supporter um is that we are trying to get the state to look at uh the entire region of the millstone River and look at all of the because each town is contributing a lot of water and that water's coming down and we're sort of close to the bottom and no matter what we do we can only control certain little pieces at a time um there's just so much you can do when you're getting uh for a major storm event all the water that's coming from every town that's that's essentially north of us so one of the things we are trying to do is to get the state to be serious and to look at the Army Corps of Engineers initial study with a different eye and to try to get some federal money and see if the problem can actually be solved and not little Pac meal uh pieces of it here in there we have approved resolutions on that vote but you just have to keep pushing pushing and pushing on that yes we're pushing I did get yeah an agreement from uh the commissioner I did speak to commissioner uh they have setting up meetings with the assistant Commissioners to try to at least discuss this this project this problem so well speaking about listening to everyone Francis you're welcome um to stay but I'd like to move on to public comment now we have a lot of residents and members of the public who have been very patient listening to uh to all of this uh and so I'd like to start the public comment period now anyone who would like to make a comment please state your name uh and address and come up to the microphone and you'll have up to three minutes I have Eileen dub Eileen dub B Meadow runroad I have um New Hope for the future after listening to the uh Grover middle school students to Kill a Mocking Bird Of Mice and Men A Wrinkle in Time slaughterhouse 5 these are the books of my childhood they helped to develop my values and help me to understand the world I can't imagine a world in which such Classics would be bound would would be B banned and yet this is where we are today I would not have been able to read James and the Giant Peach A Light in the Attic even Harry Potter to my children when I learned about the Banning of the piser prizewinning mouse art spiegelman's graphic novel about his parents experiences under Nazi persecution I immediately went to bookshop.org to order copies for my grandchildren interestingly the ban had actually led to a spike in sales the book had to be reprinted our hunger for literature prevails these titles may not be among your favorites but take a look at the hundreds of books being banned by some Regent Hamilton I learned tonight and you'll certainly find some of yours there and others that will shock you according to a New Yorker cartoon the handmaids tale is no longer in the fiction section it's now it's now non-fiction but it too is banned fortunately we live in the great state of New Jersey where Senator Andrew wicker has introduced the freedom to read act the freedom to read act defends one of our most basic human needs the right to choose the books that you want to read should not be taken away by individuals who may disagree with your beliefs I am grateful that West Windsor a leader in educating its children and that has knowledge in the township seal supports the freedom to read act thank you thank you mayor M miroff welcome hello mayor how are you so I am mayor Janice Mir wisard Township 16 Landing Boulevard and I am here as mayor so let me apologize I have a little bit of a sinus so my wind and words are a little strained um but um I did thank uh council president Jers and mayor thank you for that uh kind shout out um always good um I hope you'll still feel that way so this was an appropriate time we had a council meeting tonight I'm joined by uh four of my council members and I wanted to just very briefly I know I don't have but three minutes but you're going to see and hear a lot more from me in the coming days so I wanted to fairly open the door here um appreciate good good discussion uh good exchange and an important issue so relevant um both to the inlet flood protection act as well as many other good land use planning policies and priorities and approaches that uh we all try to share together as neighborly municipalities want to express once again I have had Direct exchanges with your mayor with members of your governing body so this is not a new subject but it remains an disagreeable one is that a warehouse of 325,000 square feet is being um pushed on the border of East Windsor Township just to the east of McCaffrey's well I respect Municipal self-rule I practice it myself and we all try to do it in a good and Smart Way respectfully uh this is not inappropriate uh or smart uh land use development in that area it almost is basically a spot zoning and it will have very severe implications for your residents I've heard from many of them I know there are actions that have been implemented as well as my town where the Border down to Route 130 is basically in Einstein's Alle it will um severely impact uh quality of travel and life in West W Windsor and East Windsor I'm here tonight to say that very publicly and to assure any uh of you as well as any citizens in West Windsor I'm a partner I'm here to work with you and to support efforts to alter the use of that property on the East Windor and West Windsor border to an appropriate and agreeable use for all of us and you'll hear from us more thank you thank you mayor you can go up you can go up and make comment so thank you so much for your time today so we're a group in prism called um C uh Bloom so um to start off we um we give your name and address yeah you can say school you don't have to give home address come my name is vit my name is an my name is mahati Kumar and my name is Magna kundu so to start off we would like to talk a little bit about our group and like what FPS is so FPS is an international program where students could learn to thoroughly research and analyze real world issues and then apply a six-step creative problem solving process to develop relevant action plans Community problem solving is a subcategory of future problems of the future problem solving program in which middle school and high school students identify real problems and imp Implement Solutions in a community to initiate a project so we are bloom bloom is a community problemsolving team in prism to um to bloom is the community problem solving team from Community Middle School Plainsboro New Jersey this team is composed of six female students in 8th grade our project aims to spread awareness of the falsities presented by social media among teenagers we work to develop we work to help teenagers to accept and embrace their bodies and develop a body a positive body image so recently we also went a went to a regional competition and we also got first place in the middle division so we will also be going to Internationals so we have um had many accomplishments throughout this year so recently we um have hosted many Girl Scout camps about um promoting promoting body positivity so we did many activities like presenting a slideshow about body positivity and doing Rock paintings and a caho we also did something in our school called Bloom week during Bloom week we hosted multiple activities to um make our school more body positive so for example one of the main days that we did during Bloom week was chalk day so during this chalk painting day all the students were allowed to go outside and write positive affirmations on the ground students were also able to write body positive informations on posted and hang it up in bathrooms so students could also feel more body positive about themselves and let others feel more body positive um another accomplishment that we had was working with the Helen Cody foundation so the Helen Cody Foundation is a mission statement that aims to help kids better their community so recently we received a $750 mini Grant to help um the not just Plainsboro and west winster but also cranberry and neighboring communities to spread spread more awareness about body positivity addition additionally we've also worked with the body positive which is a nonprofit organization that works to like spread awareness about body image issues and just help teens to feel more confident about their bodies and we've um conducted a Q&A session with one of their members Kayla drasna and this helped like answer many questions that um teenagers or just people in our community might have about body image so so another thing that we we've been working on is um we're trying to add body IM more information about body image to our health curriculum and tomorrow actually we're going to be having a meeting with our School's principal and the um superintendent about adding that body image to our health curriculum and this will actually go into effect from next year and onwards okay so according to the National Organization according to the National Organization of woman at the age of 13 53% of American girls are unhappy with their bodies this grows to 78% by the time these girls reach the age of 17 further research conducted by Science Daily reports that 90% of women have used filters and edited their pictures to even out their skin tone shave off weight and whiten their teeth and more the alarming part is that photo editing Behavior may cause individuals to view their body as an object which reinforces risks such as body dorph eating disorders and many more in summary these statistics highlight the issues of a negative body image among Adolescence in the United States alone this led to an alarmingly high rate of Eating Disorders Nationwide affecting thousands of adolescents these findings underscore the critical need of intervention and support to promote positive body image and self AC acceptance especially for Our Generation Um also social media contributes to a large populations of teenagers who struggle with not accepting their body image and attempting to change themselves to embody the ideal looks posted on social media popular social media platforms portray individuals with a perfect stereotypical body type achieved using filters and editing tools within the app this results in the obsession with unrealistic beauty standards and these concerns with the ideals of social media increase the risk of adolescence engaging in harmful life behaviors as discussed by the National Institute of Health personal unhealthy lifestyle behaviors that are correlated with body image dissatisfaction include OV exercising anorexia nervosa B bulimia nervosa and more and um this is our underlying problem due to the fact that 81% of social media images have been edited before being posted how how might we the cmps team Bloom spread awareness about the falsities of the perfect body presented on social media platforms so that teenagers within our community have a more positive body image of themselves throughout the 2023 and 2024 years school year and Beyond we go ahead okay thank you we believe that with your support we can Implement a series of initiatives to combat these issues effectively our proposals centers around four key points one providing resources and support for teams we aim to offer workshops counseling services and mentorship programs designed to help teens develop self-love and confidence two collaborating with local news organizations by partnering with local news we can promote body positivity and share stories that celebrate diverse body shapes advocating for policy changes address the root of un address the root causes of unrealistic beauty standards we must advocate for policy changes this includes supporting legislation that promotes and advertising she has disclosing photo edit and ENC and encourages the inclusion of diverse body types in media and marketing four our upcoming Mentor mentorship program moving forward as we enter High School our team plans to shift our Focus slightly onto Eating Disorders to tackle this challenge our team is seeking assistance in developing a mentorship program that will Connect middle school students struggling with eating disorders with high school students with your support we can establish a community group dedicated to fostering self-acceptance and resilience among our youth by addressing these issues both locally and at the policy level we can create a healthier environment for all thank you thank you very much ladies that's very very important topic and I wish you the luck in the competition in June national competition and this is very very important issue of how how um young girls um you know feel about themselves and what they see on social media and what they think is acceptable not acceptable and and and all all the health issues that that follows um the council is also the board Board of Health in West Windor Township and um perhaps I I can work with you on this and and the head of the health department is Jill Swanson um so I consider you know a health issue too uh so maybe you can keep in contact with me and we can we can work on that um a little bit more um so good luck only a few more weeks being eighth graders and then you're in High School freshman how exciting right all right we appreciate your work you work very hard and um it's great experience and and and good luck with the competition thank you and please send us your contact information you can find all of our emails on our website so that we can get back to you and um especially interested in understanding the legislation that you referred to and how I can help move that along and and thank you I meet a lot of girls like that I speak to a lot of girls who are in Girl Scouts and there have been a lot of projects because that's such um you go are e8th grade yeah so when you go to ninth if your girl scouts she may work on your Gold Award there's actually a number of girls who have done that as a project that uh it's it's very very important it's it's rampant in the schools um it's been rampant for a while but now with social media the pressures have just gotten so high and um so I'm familiar with a number of projects that girls have done similar to what what you're talking about older girls and some of the younger girls it's out there um and we just have to become comfortable with ourselves and not try to try to be something we're not um and and that's the only way we're going to we're going to do well and we're going to survive so thank you for doing this and if there's anything I can do to help I'm you know always around to help girls like that thank you hold on hold on Linda is the public comment period over I'm waiting going to comment after the public comment period is over is just I I I understand that um can you wait a few more minutes till we end public comment okay good thank you thank you Patricia farmer please state your name and address for the record absolutely I'm actually mayor Patricia Krick farmer from Lawrence Township my address is 123 drift Avenue Lawrenceville New Jersey go ahead I just first of all I want to thank all of the young people who have presented here today it is exciting and in invigorating to hear their passion about the issues and there are Future Leaders so it has been quite um a treat to sit in the audience this after this evening um I just wanted to first of all thank councilman Weiss for his comments um regarding flooding and also I believe councilwoman Mendel your comments as well with regards to the Watershed um I come from a neighboring town where flooding is also an issue um and it is very important that we all work together and I am looking forward to more discussions with regards to this issue which impacts several towns in our County just today I read a letter from a high school student in my Township of Lawrence asking me to help preserve and address the flooding issue in our town in our community due to climate change so when I heard the students here today it just really touched me of how important this issue is for our community both in Lawrence and throughout Mercer County and as Council of woman mandelle said later this week there will be a workshop where many of us will have discussions about this issue um led by The Watershed so I just wanted to again thank councilman Weiss for his comments and uh all of you as we go forward with this issue together thank you thank you Ben Li hey good evening my name is benley I live at 29 rington Circle thank you for giving me this chance to talk about this uh yeah about this uh U JC Inland flood protection R this has been a long waited Ro alness I think it is already belated now the weather the changing weather has become very urgent issue and is also like a life streng life uh threatening issue and we know that uh the before this uh ordinance was adopted that they use their precipitation the status as of 1999 and that's already been 24 years old and we have seen since last year that uh the weather changing the pattern of the weather has been changing more and more rains remember the end of last month in the beginning of this month we have a week long raining and that has left my backyard or water based water stayed there for longer than one week and then that will cause a mosquito as you know so this has been a the concern and the water level in my area in my community is quite High my basement's some pump kept running day and night I noticed that and one of my neighbors uh some pump even get burned because of the continuous running and but I for my some pump still keep running but I got to worry about that uh I'm thinking about maybe I need to have a redundancy of pumping my basement from pump war and so uh we need to really yeah seriously consider adopting this uh ordinance and just now I heard of discussion about that the wether we we should not blindly adopt this which not listen to other towns that live near the rivers so actually we are dealing with the strap from the sky above us not just from the river or from the Upstream even though I live in an area that very close to St Pro that we are Downstream and found after t but the real Strat is from the sky above us if we keep having this rain coming down for a week two weeks what would happen yeah it's quite different than before so I strongly yeah and respect all this council members because you to yeah adop high quality we don't expect developers to design their project with high standard as a lawmaker we should adopt as high quality as high standard regulation as possible it's better to be cautious than saying I apologize sorry thank you thank you thank you Andy hont can we check in the Basin out that I said that Basin shouldn't have water for a week can we somebody check let me I'm making all comments my name is Andy way on the 21 is K drive to my understanding this new ordinance will use Simple cut off date to decide whether an application should follow the new stone water rule or not um I'm not sure if this the correct way or optimal way to do that uh in my opinion even if an application uh submitted before the new ordinance adoption date the township or the applicant should carefully evaluate whether or how under siiz or inadequate the stone water system is if the new stone water rule are enforced uh ensuring absolutely no safety issues for the Resident Life and properties therefore I would suggest that um the applicant should provide an impact analysis using the new uh reinfor rates and demonstrate that there are no safety issues for the Resident Life and properties even the application are submitted before the new ordinance application date so here I have a actually very simple questions to all council members if a project would create safety issues for residents life and properties under the new rfor rate would you still approve the application even if this project is submitted before the new ordinance of adoption date and compl with the Old ST Stone water roof so I hope you can get answer from your committee so in based on this I wonder if you can consider following motion if that makes sense to you if a project falling within 200 fet of residents property the applicant should provide some impact analysis using the new refor rate at least to demonstrate that there are no safety issues for the residents lives and properties even if the application is submitted for the new ordinance adoption R thank you thank you thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak if so please get in line and if once you're done if you would please sign the signin sheet so we have your proper name and address hi there Stacy Fox 29 Baran Avenue um I want to piggyback off of what mayor mirov said um I've been focused on the warehouse sighting guidance that the New Jersey state Planning Commission um put forth a couple years back actually right before um we went ahead and gave the thumbs up to bridge point8 um one of the things on the warehouse siding guidance was about being a good neighbor and um I recall a specific meeting and many of you were there where I was holding up a picture which is often my zoom backdrop of Lake route one it's actually quite lovely but it is in fact route one and you need a canoe to Traverse it at times and it was as recent as 21 and um and it's a major problem and I was holding it up because we are going to add water to that problem with that particular warehouse and mayor you specifically said to me that's Lawrence's problem so I can uh say without any doubt we were not being good neighbors we didn't invite them to the table nor did we invite friend or East Windsor or Lawrence Hamilton any of our neighboring communities and blaming um other towns for sending their water to us is is preposterous we have a high water table we have flooding all the time and just to continue to add pavement it is absurd um mayor mirov has had the presence of mind and concern for her constituency enough to put restrictions on Warehouse developers so she would have some say in what kind of tenant moves in and um they're not inviting uh big tractor trailer magnets into their town and I remember in June of 22 saying that statistically you can't deny that where there are more tractor trailers there are more truck accidents and where there are more truck accidents there are more truck fatalities so I would like to speak the names of the three young people two from West Windsor and um one in neighboring Town Daniel vaita of West msor just recently on April 12th because South Brunswick built it and they came one of their new tractor trailers failed to stop at a red light these three young people were traveling in a Mercedes Sprinter van it's a large enough vehicle the debris was long enough on Route One to have covered a football field all three of them died the driver of the truck did not again if you build it they will come Sharice Nelson Bailey from Princeton Junction also in her 20s April 12 died in that accident Maria pelaris from skilman she was in the Special Olympics she's 25 also died on April 12 all on Route One so it really broke my heart that it had there was nothing we could have done even if we got rid of every Warehouse proposal that's facing us which nobody wants um they're gone the other thing I wanted to say if you'll let me is I know somebody who drowned in storm water runoff we all know someone who drowned of covid we're coming to a place in time where we're all going to know somebody who drowned in storm water runoff there's something we could do to reduce pavement go ahead and build a warehouse but the excessive amount of pavement and always impervious payment um that is required for tractor trailers and all the other reasons why you know that they're a bad idea it's something we can control so the Inland flood protection rule should not be something that a project that is grandfathered is exempt from the warehouse that mayor miroff was talking about Ben leye he's going to get it right through his backyard and Andy as well they were all referring to a warehouse that's going to be grandfathered and find itself exempt from the Inland flood protection Rule and I feel like you all are aware of a legal loophole that allows you in the interest of health and safety you can actually revisit that it's not a given that they are exempt you can actually thank you thank you very much is there anyone else who wishes to speak if not will the four young ladies come up and stand behind the council members for a photo op ch ch okay the public comment uh period is uh over and we will move on to Administration comments BPW um began collecting um leaves and yard waste in zone four this morning um once they've gone through your neighborhood please refrain from keeping from putting out any more material at Curb um excuse me for one minute um Stacey and girls can you just talk in the back please thank you wait wait till the wait till the council come and okay go ahead no um the last announcement I have is on uh Saturday June 8th from 8:00 am to 2m there will be a hazardous waste and e-w recycling event at the Dempster fire training school 350 Lawrence Station Road Lawrence New Jersey there's a listing of what accepted hazardous waste and accepted electronic waste will be permitted at this event um again it's a rain or shine event from 8 to 2 and it's a great opportunity um to um get rid of um computers and printers and um electronic devices as well as um pesticides antifreeze um tires oil and the like that's all the announcements I have and mayor announcements thanks uh lot of comments on different topics first it was very nice to see two group of young people coming and commenting on it uh one set left but uh when they talked about boot vanning I was reminded that early 90s when we were in Syracuse the hot topic was whether NYPD Blue should be shown by abbc that was the Hot Topic and now that they'll probably show it to Elementary great kids so things change fast but you did a wonderful job and best wishes to you with the FPS program uh the problem that you outline is affecting I mean between six of us we have more than 10 daughters between six of us here sitting at the table so the problem you say affects all of us uh and it's very real luckily when my daughters were young cell phone was just coming out so social media no Facebook existed no Twitter know Instagram so they dealt with easier and when I was a kid they wasn't even the four so there was no social pressure so you have to handle very difficult and it's best to be friends with each other have a real friend whom you can confine and don't be afraid to reach out reach out to your guidance counselor reach out to your friends reach out to your parents most important I mean build a community build a family that's that's what's going to because there will will be people who will pick on you I mean it's unfortunate but true I mean you can't change everybody they are people like that to just build a very strong Community that's the name of your school be confide in your parents and always have a best friend whom you can always confide in and is always don't just be confident about yourself don't worry about what others say about you nobody can pull you down I mean you you you if you don't listen to me I mean a lot of people criticize me all the time if you don't listen to them you you'll be fine I mean just be confident in your ability you spoke so well today you don't have to be afraid of anything you each were very eloquent in speaking so congratulations and best wishes to you not only in this but all the competitions throughout high school and Beyond school offers a lot so thanks yeah so unfortunately everybody else left but since at least for the record I just want I wish the lady from if you have to go go you have school tomorrow may mayor mayor can I just say something to these girls um so I my daughter is your peer in Community Middle School in eth grade yes and um you may or may not know this but she has been bullied for last three years for her appearance many many times won't go into details so like mayor said it like just sitting here we have and girls we are daughters which affect um who get affected by you know what the project is that you're working on so I kudos to you um for taking on this very important subject um growing up we didn't have social media and a lot of stuff that you girls are dealing with right now so taking on headon is I think um very important um one thing that I've been working on with mayor is um um and um being on Board of Health is also um Health in Township mayor's Health uh uh in every Township right so contact me I think you all have my contact already we can see what we can do to support you guys um I'm sure mayor and my colleagues here in Council would support that as well so we can we can definitely take it further okay I want I wanted to add something as well um I'm telling a personal story um and I I absolutely advocate for what you believe in and things that you talking about very very important body imagery um I went through something very similar to that even males go through it because I was in the sports world and back in the 80s and early 90s uh height made a made a big difference in terms of making it to a high the highest level of college basketball that I wanted to get to weight and strength made a big difference and I was a stick you know I graduated high school at 511 a half 135 pounds and everyone told me that I would never play Division One Division 2 or any Collegiate basketball but I had an incredible belief system in myself spiritual guidance obviously from God a support system and my family my older brother who believed in me so very wholeheartedly so it made me work made me work if I had just listened to everyone else I would have never ever got there so I became a junior college allamerican had five division one offers and played my Junior and Senior year starting on the University of Texas San Antonio which is a division one Institute tion so body imagery in the sports world is very very similar obviously affects more boys um than than girls but people will tell you you're not big enough you're not strong enough you're not fast enough and especially back in the early late 80s and early 90s obviously strength and speed and size was a major major thing and I just at times you know I had to deal with listening to others tell me that I'm not tall enough and I'm not good enough but you know I had to listen to myself and the confidence I had in myself so it is a very very important topic that and subject that you are dealing with and obviously with social media and the negative effects of social media and negative effects of movies and TV and even actors actresses entertainers telling you how you're supposed to look or presenting that imagery you know the imagery is really not supposed to be from society uh the imagery is who you are as a person who you are deep down in what you believe in and who you are who you think the way you think of yourself and I think self-identity is very very important we need more um young people like yourself advocating for that understanding yourself your value who you are your purpose I always say the two most important days of your life is the day that you were born and the day that you figure out why because the why is your purpose and the purpose and assignment that you have from God is the greatest thing that you can do for Humanity and even for yourself so just keep striving keep striving for excellence and keep doing what you're doing very proud of you thank you thank you thank you very much so you should be very proud of them thanks yeah thank you I okay so I wish I mean this is for record these people have left who made comments no thank you so much yeah I mean we always wish somebody's there to listen but they have school tomorrow so no no issue yeah uh the lady from lawrenville I didn't get I would have encouraged her to go and talk to their Council I don't know if they have passed a resolution similar to ours to supporting us a lot of townships yeah the mayor oh marence passed one on April 5th they passed they um they just passed one on April 5th 22 oh good good so that's that's the way it's going probably a different mayor by that then but by okay okay but thank at least that yeah that's that's that's the way to get it done not beat up on thems I mean don't want to criticize any Township but lenville has every inch of Route One developed um they have that big Warehouse they just they pass by every they have they have every town except us have warehouses I mean I wish I wish Jan is said stayed here she's talking about spot zoning she built 1.4 million square feet of Warehouse right on West wi border and uh I wish Stacy Fox was here I would have encouraged her to go and tell Jan is not to send her trucks to West Wier I mean trucks are coming not coming from West Wier and everybody wants to make it a big issue and political issue to beat up on West Wier West Wier there's no Warehouse yet um and uh every other town has built a warehouse Janice has built 1.4 square mile and she talked about spot zoning uh the neighbors one of them who was here had filed a lawsuit and the judge disagreed the judge disagreed it was a spot zoning just disagreed it was improperly zoned they filed an appeal with the D the D disagreed with them uh they filed another appeal with DP DP disagreed with them so these are all non West Wier bodies that have made determination that we have not done anything improper and properly so um I wish they stay here for comment but at least I wanted to get it on on record that uh it's very easy to complain about I mean I can give 50 suggestions to how East Wier should run their town but I won't do that uh she's a better politician than I I am so it is what it is and then one last comment is I did get a um questions about r123 from the U shry commission and I didn't get a chance to I got busy later in the day didn't get a chance to respond or forward it to anybody but r123 we we are appointing um there's a $26,600 contract for Chestnut Arbor arboriculture um most of the properties covered by that are open space we are not using that to help any private uh property owner um our land our sh the tree ordinance will not be effective until November of 2024 so um once the tree ordinance becomes effective if we need to modif mod ify their contract we will modify their contract based on our experience we have no idea how many requests or applications we are going to get but uh whatever we had uh we have done is proper and we are using it only for or majority the way for open space and we will use it on as needed basis and the most important thing is they have no authority to issue summons or issue fines I mean it's if we if we have to investigate an um complaint we can you request them to investigate a complaint but they have no authority to either issue a summons or issue a fine they will investigate a complaint and then report it back to us and somebody in the township uh if needed will issue a summons or a warning letter or whatever is appropriate just like what Dan used to do before right n consultant is is under the supervision direct supervision um yeah engineer Francis his design will be supervising them this is just a first first contract we are doing because we need certain services from them and uh it is not for um it is mostly for open opens open spaces but this has this has opened up a another um this has raised another question and with the next contract if we do sign with either this entity or another entity we will come back to the council and uh talk about it um but they did interview a lot of as you can see uh they did interview a lot of uh different entities before um before uh choosing this entity and they did talk to mandro and one other Town who are using them for their service so all due diligence was done before uh this contract was proposed to the council right the fundings coming from the open space trust fund um but that'll be sort of strictly monitored oh that will be strictly monitor appropriately oh absolutely absolutely right and if other funding needs to happen you'll no absolutely different account should that happen and they um if um they're used for evaluating an applicant I assume the applicant pays for their fee yes yes yes through the right we are very we are very religious about as Cru so right and mayor while you're here or or Francis is here or even Mr Herbert it's it always comes up that there's applications come in and at the time the applications come in the the rules that are already been approved by you know state or our ordinances th those those are the ones um that that are in effect it's time of application factrow I'll be teaching all wasn't it time that the application isn't it the time that the application is deemed complete yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean lot of people will ask you to do illegal things you're not kingsing you're not understand that all this legislation is coming out it's it's about to get approved or was just approved but an application comes in six months eight months and it it's um doesn't affect it all these issues that already the courts courts have ruled and it's on a fi now but of course pretty clear about it it's when Steve complete and uh that's what's in place all right that's when the paperwork is all in deem complete it's not when the planning board or zoning board um you know takes a final vote it's when the application is deemed complete all right okay so that's my from time to time that so you make your comments I me you need to use the restroom okay all right well okay council member comments um you're good all right Andrea good good good um okay by the way I went to the motor vehicle today which I believe a few of you did are going to do so yes um actually worked pretty well for us because we got there pretty early and um we had an appointment and hopefully in two weeks we'll get our real ID so uh people who were there were happy they didn't have to go to motor vehicle so that was good um yesterday May 27th was Memorial day and the annual memor Memorial Day Parade to honor our fallen soldiers who gave their lives for this country thank you to the veterans Girl Scouts Boy Scouts Lions Club and sports teams that participated in the parade along with our police and fire departments and thank you to gay for organizing it and this is I guess Gay's last harah parade before uh retiring and it and and the weather held up special for you so did um watching the crowd along the prade route not our ceremony reminded me of all that's good about our town and about America we were one people United in gratitude for those who gave the role so that we could not only enjoy our barbecues and families but votes speak our minds own our own businesses live and prayers we want and even run for office the weaves and colors of our tapestry change over time but we are still one community on Saturday May 18th I went to the attitudes in Reverse annual event at Community Park Park and once again was moved by the stories of young people also taken to Young This Time by the ravages of mental pain that lead to Suicide air not only brings awareness of mental health problems but has visited thousands of children with therapy animals these visits are especially important in times of crisis on Saturday May 25th I attended a cricket match with West Windsor teams formed to raise money for this important cause thank you to West Windsor gives back for choosing Heir a West Windsor based nonprofit this year thanks to Trish and Curtis Baker for all they do and to Alcan R rash you're gonna hit me for that aluk and rasher and all the teams and volunteers who are helping raise money on May 19th I attended a Girl Scout award ceremony I'm proud of all our Girl Scouts who received their gold silver and bronze awards for outstanding projects that help the community the projects range from starting a youth group and doing public speaking workshops to those involving mental health and environment sustainability I BR to probably 20 or 30 of these events in different capacities and I'm always amazed congratulations to all and on Wednesday May 22 Sonia and I held another chitchat with residents this time at tours Le jurs thank you to those who came out to talk with us and give us your thoughts and feedback we learned a lot afterwards I visited h heavy in East Windsor and was able to review and even test drive their all electric excavator and front loader this was good information to have as we constantly look at new ways to be quieter and economically environmentally PR thank you I don't have much to say I think I already said um what I wanted to say um just um piggy back on backing on what um Andrea mentioned about um attitudes in Reverse Westminster gives back um um charity of choice is air this year and they're raising funds next event is on June 21st Dive Into Summer at Waterworks so keep a lookout for information on that um event um thank you to mayor for donating his uh $1,000 winning to the charity this year um to air so thank you for doing that you have gotten U us a head start in um raising funds for air so um let's um keep doing that um uh after Dive Into Summer is going to be mayor's ball um in November so we have two at least two more events coming up um I hear the cricket event was a very um big success as well um for the very first time and since we moved here um I missed the Memorial Day Parade um because of family commitment um I was out of town I I was actually on my way but then got held up in storm so we slowed down um didn't make it um but um and um that's it that's it yeah I think I've said enough tonight so let us continue Okay so yesterday was Memorial day and the township paid tribute uh to all the men and women who died during their service in United States military We Are Forever grateful to those who bravely served and gave their lives so that we would have a better life filled with freedom thanks to Township Clerk uh gay Huber and Joey Gooden for coordinating the parade and ceremony and Michael McMahon of American Legion Post 76 uh Gina Mastro signed to National Anthem with an accompanyment uh on the accordion uh by John rer they do that each year the past decade at least uh thanks to our Honor Guard police fire and EM Ems for your participation and presence along with the Girl Scouts Boy Scouts little league and many organizations in town on behalf of the West Windsor Lions Club uh I did eight hours of weeding and uh some plantings at the Veterans Memorial sites at grower form Dutch neck uh and in the front of the municipal building so it was warm this uh winter and and it was kind of wet so uh the weeds were were were getting very very high and I couldn't um stand looking at them any longer so out I went and I want to thank the uh DPW Department uh for also completing the Landscaping detail so that these sites looked uh respectable in honor of our veterans uh finally I also attended the uh cricket tournament to raise money uh for air and contributed uh to that event okay we will now move on um can I make a few comments to yes may as much as I don't want to delay the meeting I do want to remind everybody that early voting starts tomorrow Wednesday May 29th and runs through Sunday June 2nd uh hours will be 10:00 a to 8:00 pm Wednesday through Saturday and on Sunday 10:00 am. to 6: p.m uh you can check the Township's website for the early voting location I also want to remind everybody that the primary election will be held next Tuesday June 4th the polls will open at 6:00 am and close at 8800 pm and the clerk's office will be in at 5:00 am on Tuesday Morning uh and the last thing kind of a little side note uh the Historic Society is holding Farm day this coming Sunday June 2nd from 1: to 4: please come out we're going to have scavenger h prizes for the kids uh we have some demonstrations from how living farm and we also have uh the white C house uh youth group coming to help us with our daily events very good thank you okay we'll move on to uh public hearings we have uh two this evening yes okay real business 20241 an ordinance amending and supplementing part two General legislation of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Windsor New Jersey chapter 4 administration of government section 4- 37e police division of the Township Code of the township of West Windsor to add two additional officers I'll open the uh public hearing uh anyone who wishes to make a public comment please state your name and address and you'll have up to three minutes and there is no one here um but I have to say that so uh motion to close the public hearing so move second roll call Vote gaas Yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes okay motion approved thank you all right a motion can I have a motion to adopt Salute You Second Dan second um was wait and I have say any any comments no sorry it's getting late gaas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes 20242 an ordinance amending and supplementing part two general legislation of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Windsor New Jersey chapter 168 traffic and parking Article Five traffic and parking regulations on private properties section 1683 37c control of movement and parking on public and private properties of the Township Code of the township of West Windsor This is for W Squared okay open to public hearing anyone in the public that would like to make a public comment please state your name and address you have up to three minutes seeing uh no one in the audience uh motion to close the public hearing so move second gaas yes mandal yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes okay motion approved um any comments okay um then roll call vote to motion to adopt motion to adopt second gawas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes okay um consent agenda April 29th 2024 business session as amended bills and claims does anyone need anything pulled no no okay motion to approve moved second who gets it roll call the song sure was yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes okay recommendations from the administration and Council Clerk 2024 r123 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with Chestnut aricultural and his forestry services LLC for professional Urban and Community Forester services for 26,600 2024 r124 authorizing the business administrator to execute change order number two with Montana construction Corp Inc for emergency generator for the project known as Duck Pond Interceptor Phase 2 for an increase of 31,900 2024 r125 authorizing the business administrator to purchase annual licensing renewals from Shi International Corp under New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance contract ck4 subcontract contract 22-20 with the county of Bergen for $7,295 77 2024 r126 authorizing the business administrator to purchase new service weapons and equipment for the police under the New Jersey state contract 17 Fleet 00767 for $ 35310 40 2024 r127 author authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a Professional Services agreement with spel Architectural Group Inc for architectural Design Services for the project known as West Windsor Art Center roof replacement for $9,900 2024 r128 authorizing the mayor and clerk to request approval of the director of the division of local government services to establish a dedicated trust by writer for donations acceptance of bequests and gifts for the project known as Conover Park lighting improvements 2024 r129 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the 2024 Amendment to the interlocal services agreement between West Windsor Township and the parking authority of West Winder 2024 r130 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the repayment schedule for the parking authority of West Windsor Township for reimbursement of outstanding balances as set forth in the 20 24 Amendment to the interlocal shared services agreement between West Windsor Township and the parking authority of West Windsor Township and on go ahead Linda you were going to say on the on the one parking authority were you g to mention the resolution change oh we should mention that yes yes so on that was 2024 129 right sorry I didn't keep one for myself we took out the original uh fourth paragraph was taken out that dealt with we removed the paragraph whereas njt is now the responsibility for enforcing parking violations and parking lots owned by njt Alexander Lots including the gravel lot this was removed per um the chair Andy Lupo's conversation with Administration uh late last week after you got the I just wanted to put that on the record yep okay so I to say Revis resolution or no this was on good okay y okay um all right so I need a motion to approve um 2024 D r123 through 2024 4- r130 so moved second goas yes Mandel yes we yes Whitfield yes Jers yes motion approved uh we will move on to introduction of ordinances okay 202 24-13 Bond ordinance amend amending ordinance number 20 23-9 of the township of West Windsor in the county of merer New Jersey finally adopted on August 14 2023 in order to amend the description of the project the amendment is to add to the original um the wording on the shank form yeah to the original from the paragraph we're adding skank Farm improvements and general improvements to the skank Farm in the description sorry I was getting tongue out that's the only changes okay so with those changes motion to introduce so move second second Ral gas yes Mandel yes Weiss yes Whitfield yes Jers yes public hearing June 10th 20124 one all right additional public comment anyone wishing to make a public comment uh we can you can please come uh up to the microphone say your name and address three minutes um seeing no one um in the audience uh we will move on to council reports discussion new business um no report board of ed u is was meeting tonight as well so I will report on Bard ofed um after watching the video because obviously they couldn't be there and um par and Rec meets next week okay good Andrea um yeah the environmental commission held a special meeting on May 23rd to discuss the storm water ordinance which I think we've discussed tonight so um the result was the um resolution uh agreeing with it and their next regular meeting is June 13th and the affordable housing committee has not met since the last meeting they canceled the May meeting and the next meeting is June 6th very good Martin no reports at this time next planning board meeting is next Wednesday June 5th at 6:30 very good uh the shade tree commission met on May 22nd members review the 2024 arer Day event and art contest the drawings will be um put up if they're not already there they will be put up in the Township's website under the uh shade tree commission area on the website uh the Comm reviewed the community Forester consultant Services contract the chair Helen Rankin sent the mayor some comments uh and questions on that contract which uh the mayor addressed earlier this evening uh as for the newly approved ordinance chapter uh 170 on tree removal uh Helen Rankin and Mike Shu will look at writing a document on frequently asked questions if completed during the next couple of months this information could uh possibly be added to a letter that the township usually sends out in August uh would also be placed on the Township's website and other methods of uh communication uh would be considered too uh there is one vacancy on the shade tree commission so if you're interested uh please complete the volunteer application form uh for consideration by the mayor finally the June uh meeting of the shade tree commission is being cancelled I also listen to the environmental commission's uh special meeting on the draft ordin uh revisions as related to the njd Inland flood rules adopted July 2023 and um at my urging today we received the environmental commission's resolution of endorsement on that so um thanks to the mayor Francis for for getting that out um to council um for this evening uh any further Administration updates I forgot to mention I was going to mention to Janice she was here before 7:30 and she said she had a council meeting I wish I was like that I go home at 7:30 this is a this is a comment to actually this Council not not to Janice but she was here before 7:30 we make you work hard okay any need for a closed session no no okay so a motion to address you're not eligible motion motion to adjourn to do I have a second yes all in favor say I I okay this meeting is adjourned God right