##VIDEO ID:QQIfG7enJ4Y## a [Music] [Music] I would like to advise all those present that notice of this regular meeting of January 22nd 2025 has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting Act of the state of New Jersey notice of time and place of this meeting has been included in the annual notice of meetings which was posted and filed with the city clerk and with the Jersey journal and the Star Ledger an additional notice of time and place was posted in file with the city clerk and was forwarded to the Jersey journal and Star Ledger on January 16th 2025 the regular meeting of the municipal Council of the city of bay own is now in session miss Medina please call the rooll Mr Booker here Mr Carol here Mr Perez here miss weer here Mr laaloa here please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pled allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay our first item is a resolution ratifying and affirming the actions of the municipal Council amending the annual meeting schedule for calendar year 2025 to change the council caucus and regular meetings of the January February and March meeting it's moved by council member Perez Mr Carol will you second second on the resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weamer I Mr laaloa I 01 is an ordinance amending a supplementing the revised General ordinances of the city of Bay on chapter 37 historic preservation which was introduced to pass the first reading at the meeting held November 13th was published in the Jersey journal and posted on the bulletin board as required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passage following a public hearing at the meeting of December 18th and was postponed to this meeting of January 22nd 2025 is now before the council for its consideration and the public hearing and resolution given the ordinance second reading is moved by the council president miss weer Willi you second second on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer I Mr laaloa hi second reading is by title an ordinance amending and supplementing the revised General ordinances of the city of Bayon chapter 37 historic preservation the council is now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance an opportunity to be heard concerning it the council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak please raise your hand we'll do it by hands and um we'll try and be as orderly as possible please state your name and address when you come up please thank you uh Adam fella um from the law firm of Sals com and gross we represent blessed Miriam Teresa dejanovich Parish the property owner of St Andrew the apostle church located at 125 Broadway 10 West 4th Street block 355 Lot 10 um and as we had spoken uh off the Record we respectfully request that we be permitted to explain our objections to the historic designation at the end of the public comments if that pleases the council if that's okay I'll grant you that word thank you but the council will make comments after you understood yep thank you yes Patrick Costello 128 West 8 Street and I have the pleasure of serving as one of the trustees es for the parish I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak with you this evening regarding St Andrew's Church delighted to connect with you despite the cold thank you for allowing me the opportunity to have input on your decision let me start by saying if this ordinance adopted three things will UND doubtedly happened the first some will leave here tonight with the false hope that a developer will either restore or save St Andrew's Church not going to happen by adopting this ordinance the city council continues or shall I say picks at the scab of a wound that our parish is trying to heal from third it will result an unnecessary and expensive litigation for our parish and the city as well well the city does not need to adopt this ordinance it already has the power to control the destiny of St Andrew's Church through its zoning and planning commission 125 Broadway is zoned as a church the sale and the transfer of that property can only be achieved by the approval these departments hence the city has the hammer to come down on on any of our plans now I have served as a trustee for the past 6 years in that time two contracts to sell the school property when there was real optimism for restoring St Andrew's Church the buyers were unable to close because they could not they couldn't get the first base with the city either in planning or zoning now I listen to Mr Carol and Mr lapoa speak at the Historical Commission meeting they blame the arch dasis for St Andrew's closing I respectfully disagree with their comments and their opinions of the arch dasis from that night and I need to explain to you briefly how the closing of St Andrews came about since neither of you were at any of those meetings now I spent the better part of the last year in meetings with Cardinal Tobin his Leadership Council construction officials our finance committee and members of our Parish the arch dasis is not to blame for the declining enrollment at our to worship sites not a single member of our Parish has come to me and disagreed that we are much smaller in number than we were 10 years ago or 5 years ago our power Irish not the arch dasis is responsible for our financial dealings we do not possess the Magic Pen that the city has when it has a budget issue or expenses have to be met by raising taxes I'd like to see that Magic Pen because I haven't found it yet so well my bill went up $500 last year that's what you consider the Magic Pen how many thousand homes are there all right I I don't want to go back back on forth sorry sorry after reviewing the condition and cost associated with restoring St Andrew's Church our finances and more importantly the declining attendance we decided to proceed with the closing of one worship site now on September 22nd Cardinal Tobin symbolically closed the doors of St Andrew's Church I doubt those doors will ever open again as a member of the parish for over 30 years it was heartbreaking to take part in that that decision had to be made and it was the right one all are welcome at the parish we are fortunate to have the city's only remaining Catholic grammar school the future of our parish and the church requires us to support the school School some in this room will disagree with me and some will not be able to accept it but you cannot have a Catholic grammar school without a church it's unconscionable that any member of this city council would vote tonight to cause any economic harm on our Parish the parish will not spend its resources on maintaining the building and I doubt the city will contribute anything to the maintenance the church doors of sters are closed the walls are crumbling the stained glass windows that the historical commission cited as their rationale for the meeting for this meeting can only be viewed from inside a sealed off church until it is sold the chapel will serve as our food pantry fences will eventually go up because the sales process will be delayed and delayed then the stained glass window windows will be broken because that's what happened when fences go up the only ones who will benefit from tonight will be the attorneys the Paris has retained Council to protect itself from the unknown the city will no longer hire outside counsel to represent itself and the coming for Unnecessary litigation should this be adopted all this is too late in the life of St Andrew's Church what is the parish matter needs to be settled as a parish metal now I believe that each council member has the best interest of our city and tonight more importantly our Parish please do not be conned by those who post erotic self-serving social media messages and are more concerned about themselves than the future of the parish I trust we will conclude that the historical design ation for St Andrew's Church is unnecessary and we'll do the right thing no matter what is said or posted on the web so we as a parish can move forward and continue to heal thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight anybody else like to make comments [Applause] you'll go next okay okay no it's okay please state your name and address Lenny copz 114 Newman Avenue first thing I want to do I don't know if there's any representative from uh the Historical Society here but on behalf of myself the parish that are here tonight and over 240 parishioners that have signed a mandate which we have sent to vat to the Vatican and we are still in the process that St Andrews may still be open I want to thank them and especially for our founding Generations that were here in the 1920s that work so hard diligently to get the funds to build St Andrew's Church this is an honor for us it's more of an honor for them and it's an honor that should be shared by everybody in the BMT Parish not just St Andrews this is an honor for us as a parish unfortunately it seems it's only the St Andrew's people and the St Mary's people look at this as some kind of detriment that's going to cause them some kind of financial problems that I just can't buy once again I want to thank the preservation Society the St Andrews building it fits all the requirements it fits the requirements of the architecture the significance the integrity and the importance of its location in terms of the financial situation it's very very hard for me and everybody else that I'm associated with to buy the fact that it's going to cause some kind of problem they received $5.1 million from the sale of the school from the sale of the convent they're down to 3.8 because they put a million dollars into the rectory at St Mary's you could still get two to3 million for the rectory property you could still get another two to three million for the church that comes out to maybe close to8 n91 million depending on who buys the the properties and they get 100% of the collections it's no longer our money you know we need to St Andrews they've been doing this for over a year to say it's a financial burden I really think the word bankrupt is just a scare tactic that it's a term that's thrown out there like we're going to go bankrupt if we don't sell St Andrews in my opinion the reason why there's a financial problem is because of the leadership they never opened up the steering committee the pastor they never opened up to say who else would like to serve on this if we work together we may not have been in this situation but right from the beginning I remember the first meeting that we had at St Mary's we were promised and I believe the father's here father Gaff he promised open dialogue we're going to have a true conversation this is going to be a series of meetings that we want everybody to get together and we all sat there like ladies and gentlemen for 45 minutes we listened to the presentation at the end of the presentation I raised my hand and as soon as he seen my hand it was oh we're not taking any questions I said to myself oh brother here we go the typical uh Catholic school you're going to listen to us we're not going to listen to you and I'm sorry about that I don't see a financial burden I don't see how the building itself fitting the criteria that has been set by the Historic Society has any kind of bearing to the financial situation of St Mary's thank you ladies and gentlemen and I hope you do the right thing and follow the guidelines follow the recommendations of the preservation Society gentleman in the back Wayne Shivers 14 George Street I'm a third generation parishioner of St Andrew um I just want to talk a little bit about why uh I think that St Andrews should be preserved this uh get together is about a landmark and I always thought growing up where few blocks from St Andrews a true land walk was St Andrews because that was the centerpiece of downtown people used to base where they were going from St Andrews that makes it a landmark I live on George Street people would say from Uptown they B they own their whole lives George Street where's that I would have to say you go down to St Andrews and then you go left for two blocks and left again and you're there I never had to explain to them how to get to St Andrews I just said you go to St Andrews that's the landmark let's talk about the building the stained glass is spectacular even if you don't have an autistic bone in your body when you look at that stained glass you know that that's special unbelievable stuff looks like St Andrews in France only even more enhanced is the front facade the circular stained glass on our Parish looks even better than the one which is the circular one in France that it was based off let's just say this in our church there's not a bad seat in the house if you go into the other churches St Vinnie's St Henry's Mark harl there are pillars that are there that if you get squeezed out you don't get to see everything you blocked off St Andrews is freestanding on its own it's Unique it has a unique design there are no obscured views or anything like that the place where we go to worship needs to be preserved I hope you all decide in that way and thank you for your [Applause] time would anybody else like to comment please raise your hand yes ma'am hi good evening my name is Deborah Lana and I live at 112 Broadway I just want to say I've been a parishioner at St Andrews for 40 years of course I'm upset that the um Church closed now all these people are talking about these stained glass windows I live directly across the street from St Andrews you cannot appreciate those windows at this point you can see you of course you can see the outside but they're all darkened and blackened because there's no light you only see those stained glass windows when there's light from the inside otherwise there's nothing to see the outside of the building in spots I'm sure it's um a little decrep and leaking coming through but there is no way that if we had the money or not me you know if the parish had the money to make the repairs on the church they would have done that and I I just don't see how I mean of course it's an old church it's a building yes it's a church church and will always be a church but it's a building people can worship wherever they go to another church God will always be there for them but unfortunately St Andrews needed to close because of the finances or the money that it would have taken to repair the inside of the church regard regardless of the the stained glass windows being of Museum quality it it's just doesn't make sense to me to spend all that kind of money on something that was probably going to close down the line so it's and and and the people talking about the the all the money that they get that the church gets now I mean if they spent the money on the on St Andrews there wouldn't be anything left because the amount of money that it would have taken to repair that church and you know I'm sorry to say but some of these people that used to go to St Andrews they don't even go to church I mean they don't come to St Mary's and I'm there every single day and on the weekends and I don't see the people that used to come during um mass at nine o'clock you don't see their faces at all and these are the people that have the most to say but don't even come to the church and to support the church so you know I I think it's pathetic and that's all I have to say thank you yes sir uh my no picture my name is Bob Russo I live on Lin Street I've been a member of the Parish of blessed Mary Teresa Parish now but St Mary's for over 50 years and I would just like to correct or not correct but to add to something that the whiteair gentleman I missed his name said at that first meeting at the meeting that he spoke of where he said there was he was not able to ask any questions he's correct that meeting was built as informational and there was a presentation at that meeting as to what the building needed down at St angels in terms of repair and maintenance and estimates of what it may cost several weeks later I don't remember exactly how many weeks but several weeks later there was a meeting where many people attended that meeting I didn't count but the the U the auditorium in the school was pretty full and everyone at that meeting had an opportunity including that gentleman to say and speak up uh as to what had been done so I just wanted to pass that along so that you don't think that it would just the parish the pastor and the dasis just offhandedly uh dismissed people it was was not the case my other point is that churches have closed in the past in this city uh the example I want to give you is St Joseph's St Joseph's closed there was no historical society that I can remember that got involved in that uh after St Joseph's closed that property was sold uh there two multi buildings multi uh occupancy buildings put up on that property along with a school you so um I guess it is a difficult and emotional um issue there's no question about that and I feel bad for all those people who are hurt and upset at the closing of this but we have to understand the the finances of of what goes on uh and it would be a burden on the rest of the parish if we had to fix that and restore it to its original site which would mean putting the tower in the front or the the uh BTS the church bells back up in the front because years ago they were taken down because they were about ready to collapse that's my understanding of it as I said I've been a member of St Mary's for the longest time but I just wanted to pass that along nothing was it's been said things were done in the dark nothing's been done in the dark everything has been out in the open and and above board thank you very much is there anybody else that would like to speak this young lady in the my name is Lydia Oliva my address is 81 trusk Avenue um I I I'll be very brief it is good to have it the church preserved because it's beautiful because of this because of that but the thing is the Paris does not have money the arch dasis is not going to pay and it doesn't have the fund allocated to pay for the maintenance or whatever expense will be incurred now to to to to start with the preservation process and going forward the Paris itself do not have the funds to pay for those expenses because the collections for St Marys you have to remember the Paris is made up of St Andrews and St Mary now St Andrews Clos so we have St Mary right the people from St Andrews as one of the uh people said did not move to St Marys in other words they don't go ero no collections whatever bit they gave before is gone I'm not saying that everybody did not go but most of them don't they probably they probably went to another Paris Etc but the point is whatever collections that the Paris St Mary have is made to pay expenses and it's not even enough that's why we we have the collections also the annual appeal and we're relying that if people give to the annual appeal then a certain portion blah blah blah so that's all I have to say it is nice to have St Andrew preserved beautiful and all but the arch dasis will not pay the bill the parish will not pay the bill nobody will pay the bill because there's no money at all thank you yes Nancy copz 114 Newman Avenue good evening we are here tonight to discuss why it is important to honor and preserve historic places like a 100-year old church building according to saving places. org which is the website of the National Trust for historic preservation historic buildings re represent the stories the people the events that shaped the community acting as a tangible record of our past in a world that's constantly changing our places provide people with a sense of being part of a continental in honoring preserving the St Andrew's Church building we are also honoring the people who built it work worship there and we are honoring the Beloved first Pastor an illustrious citizen who was buried in the front yard you see when monor Charles Doyle died in 1944 a former commander of the Bon post 195 said monor Doyle's many works of Charity through the blackest days of the depression will be known only to the recipients of his charity the families that were kept intact by his own personal sacrifices and his Aid to the poor of Bon regardless of race and Creed will be known only to God I would like to make it clear that although I am a lifetime member of St Andrew's Church and BMT Parish the pastor's attorney does not represent me and many people in the room here the muddle dialogue tonight stems back to a town hall meeting run by the arch dasis in April of last year year the 200 parishioners who attended were told they could not speak or ask questions this wall of Silence has created an atmosphere of Us Versus Them you see the people who are complaining about their rights being ignored are the same people who watched in silence when our moral rights our spiritual rights and even our right under canon law to seek recourse was ignored they have been led to believe that only their history is important only their history deserves to be remembered history has taught us that is a very dangerous way of thinking thank you for your time anybody else want to speak Mr Ryan good evening Council I'm Joe Ryan for the last 26 years I've been the staff person of the Bayon historic preservation commission and I just wanted to respond to some things that people have said this evening um there are actually more reasons than the stained glass for preserving the church they're spelled out in the ordinance it's the the glass it's the architecture it's the historical associations that the church church has um I agree with my friend Pat Costello that uh the city does have the power of zoning ordinances and indeed a historic preservation ordinance is a zoning ordinance so the city does have the opportunity to use its zoning power tonight uh for the church's preservation if it so chooses um a number of people mentioned the historic uh uh preservation commission and the Historical Society I just wanted to point out the historical society is a private club the Bayon historic preservation commission is a municipal body that advises the zoning board and the planning board um now the criteria that are used for historic preservation are set by Municipal ordinance and they are cited in the uh ordinance set up for the council's consideration tonight um now there will was some um discussion this evening people said that there wasn't any reaction when uh other buildings uh in Bon of historical significance have closed in some cases unfortunately that's true I will point out the city of Bon did intervene to save the Bells from St Joseph's Church and if you're interested in seeing one of the bells that the city preserved you can look at it uh in the lobby and there other bells that were put in the bell tower in the park up the street here Fitzpatrick Park so the city did play a role in salvaging what it could from St Joseph's Church um one of the speakers tonight said that if this ordinance passes there'd be a requirement to restore the church's towers that is not part of the ordinance there's no uh requirement to do that um a lot of people have mentioned the money issue now the possibility does exist there could be a different owner in the future who might have different finances from the arch dasis I would point out that that in London uh near the houses of Parliament there's a former Church St John's Church that uh was closed as a church the upper part of it was turned into a concert hall the lower part of it was turned into a restaurant so people should think outside the box there may be other possibilities for the future of the St Andrew's Church building um it could be used for a variety of purposes uh whether by the church or by a different owner in the future I think there are a number of great possibilities here for the building thank you thank you okay Mr fiello thank you um so again Adam fella uh for the record from the law firm of sales com and gross we represent the uh blessed Miriam Parish uh we had previously objected to the historic designation at the October 22nd historic preservation commission meeting and the December 10th planning board meeting we also submitted a formal protest letter to the city council dated January 16th that I hope the council had a chance to uh receive and review so we're here today uh to reiterate our objections on procedural substantive and constitutional grounds which I am going to explain in more depth but first uh father Philip Sanders would like to address the council and talk about um a little bit about the background of some of the different things that said I don't mind Father Phil but you could have raised your hand I promise I thought we were since we were together I thought would go last so if he's going is he going last or you're going last he's going to speak and then I'm going to speak after him because you as an attorney should know that you should be specific when you speak to me since this is my council chambers and my Council here that has to listen to that my apologies for not being specific about that but it's going to be him and then myself okay good evening and thanks for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is Father Philip Sanders and I'm the pastor of blessed miam Teresa parish and I've served its parishioners and the local community for about the last 11 years during the city's public meetings on whether to declare St Andrew Church a Historic Landmark many things have been said some true and some false so I'd like to take this opportunity to briefly address those remarks and remind people why the church was closed and ask you the members of this Council to seriously consider the potentially crippling effect your decision would have on the Catholic citizens of this city who worship at blessed mam Trea Parish I'd like to begin by talking briefly about the corporate structure and how the decision before you directly affects the parish not the arch dasis of Newark some mistakenly believe that the Arch dasis is responsible for the finances of the parish that is simply not true each Parish has its own independent Corporation in other words every parish is sort of like an independent small business that means each Parish through the financial support of their parishioners needs to one meet their daily operating expenses and two pay for the necessary Capital Improvements notice that both of those conditions must be met not just one or the other at least since 2000 when St Andrew and St Mary were separate parishes neither Parish was meeting those financial requirements by 2013 neither was a viable independent Parish St Andrew did not have enough V Revenue to begin paying off their tremendous debt to the arch dasis let alone make Capital repairs though St Mary had no debt at the time they were unable to meet their daily operating expenses St Mary was depleting their savings just to pay the daily bills so in an effort to secure Ministry to the Catholics of Southern Bayon the two parishes were merged in 2016 to form blessed miam Teresa Parish The Hope was that serving a combined Community with one staff and lower operating expenses would be financially a viable solution and for several years that strategy had worked but since the pandemic hit BMT has started to run an annual deficit so for the fiscal year ending June 2024 just this past June the deficit was based on daily operating expenses was $122,000 this fiscal Year's projected deficit is 45,000 very simply the parish today is unable to pay the bills it only stands to reason that if there is insufficient funds to pay the bills every year there is certainly insufficient income for much needed Capital Improvements when I became responsible for the parish in 2019 just before the pandemic I anticipated that the Board of Education would finally close on the sale of St Andrews School in Convent and I began to make plans to complete the badly needed repairs and improvements to St Andrew and St Mary churches and so we hired an outside firm to complete facility condition assessments or fcas on the properties nfca estimates the cost of the needed repairs and suggests how soon such repair should be completed the FCA is a budgeting tool for making Capital Improvements the fca's completed in May of 2022 estimated that the necessary repairs for St Andrew would cost a minimum of $3.5 million the estimate is so high in part because no work had been done on the building since the early 1980s at the same time time that estimate is too low because it underestimated the window repairs by about a million dollars and because the FCA didn't anticipate the complete collapse of the heating system last January or the needed enhance enhancements and so when accounting for those gaps it was estimated that the church alone would need $5.4 Million worth of work the actual total amount may be higher due to increased costs of Labor and materials for the improvements analyzed in the FCA since May of 2022 now at the same time the FCA estimated the need to repair at St Mary's to cost just less than a million again that underestimated the cost of repairs because it didn't include repairs to the collapsed underground drainage system the need to air condition the church repairs to across its leaning which need structural repairs and the need to convert the lower Church into a meeting space and so when accounting for those items it's estimated that the work for St Mary totals at least 2.1 million together the necessary Capital Improvements for the two churches is $7.5 million the sale of the school and convent did indeed close in March of 2022 while the Board of Ed paid about 6 A5 million for the properties the parish received 5.75 million the other 3/4 of a million was paid to Claremont realy the original buyer then then after paying off the parish debts owed to the arch dasis the parish was left with net proceeds of about $4.1 million we came to the Stark realization that the parish was faced with $7.5 Million worth of needed work for two churches and only 4.1 million at its disposal and on top of that the parish was not able to pay the bills so once I presented the gravity of the situation to the parish and finance councils they requested the formation of AAR larger group of parishioners to discuss the problem after months of consultation let me just make an addition there the majority people in that committee the majority were from St Andrews after months of consultation with the arch dasis and parishioners including at two at large public meetings a decision was made that it was in the best interest of the parish to close St Andrews and Mr laaloa and Mr Carol you will recall everybody had an opportunity to ask questions even at the first meeting they weren't answered then they were collected and answered at the second meeting it was a horribly painful decision for everyone and it was driven primarily by the dramatic decline in Mass attendance and the corresponding decline in Revenue as well as the overwhelming cost of needed repairs as an illustration of the challenges we are facing I distinctly remember showing the parishioners a photo I took from St Andrew chir Loft and again Mr palapus and Mr C you were there at this meeting from the choir loft at the 4M Christmas Eve Mass in 2023 that was just over a year ago when they saw the photo there was an audible gasp from the parishioners because the church was half empty compared to the standing room only masses we were used to before covid this is the sad reality that exists today I have heard some say that the proceeds from the sale of the convent and school should have been used to repair St Andrews however the projected cost just to repair St Andrew again about 5.4 million was much greater than the 4.1 million available even had it been possible to repair the building the parish's annual revenue is insufficient to maintain the church and that's the precise Point as I said at the beginning a parish must be able to pay their daily operating expenses and make Capital repairs to its property finally there is always great sadness anger and bitterness when a parish or a church closes that is understandable but sometimes those sentiments are directed towards the Cardinal and or the pastor some say to themselves I'll show them I won't contribute or I'll take my money and go elsewhere or we'll make them pay for the decision which hurts us but as I said at the beginning the parish not the arch dasis and not me is responsible for Parish finances the reality is that vengeful sentiments only make things worse worse for the person who Bears the heavy weight of harboring them and worse for those parishioners who are invested in care for and love their Parish in other words those who bear the burden of decreased Mass attendance and who have been trying hard to support its Mission they are your neighbors and they recogn I that the viability of a parish depends solely on them and them alone which brings me to the matter at hand the proposed ordinance to designate St Andrew church as historic to some that might sound like a nice idea because the church building is beautiful and has been around for a long time but make no mistake if enacted The Proposal would substantially burden the parish and threaten its mission The Proposal is intended to preserve and restrict the parish's property at the parishioner's expense let me repeat that at the parishioner's expense and it would be at the absolute worst time when they cannot even cover their own operating expenses through ordinary Revenue historic designation will not change the sad reality that the church is closed and that the parish cannot afford to maintain it so before you vote I ask you to seriously consider how this ordinance will impact the already burdened parishioners of BMT Parish please do not put a yoke around the my parishioners necks anymore please note vote no thank you you know sir please forgive me um my name is shcn wymer and I have several questions for father Sandra if you don't mind mhm father thank you very much for your heartfelt words I I appreciate it tremendously if you don't mind I do have a couple of questions okay what exactly is the arch diis intent for that property if it is not declared a historical site I don't know the reason is we can't we can't do anything with it because it was mentioned earlier that we had declined canonic the right to a canonical appeal that's not true parishioners have appealed to Rome and so we're waiting for that decision to be made so the dasis can't do anything with that property until that is made who knows when that will happen the Vatican works at their own pace okay I I appreciate that thank you I'm I'm not quite done yet um what exactly is the is each individual parish's responsibility to support the arch dasis so let's let's assume each individual parish is responsible for its own maintenance upkeep um you mentioned several times and I noticed that after the sale of the school in the rectory that first and foremost the debt to the arch dasis was paid first so um one might think that the arch dasis is clearly operating um in putting thems first not necessarily the parishioners now that's just my that is just my opinion I don't necessarily know that that was their intent it is just what from the outside looking in that is what I see okay so that debt was paid first M so one was their interest charge on the debt to the arch dasis yes there is I don't know what it is I mean because the reality is because the D every parish is its own small business yeah it would be like any business here in town if they need need money for repair they go to the bank and you have to pay back the principal plus interest yep I I understand but it's not the same interest as you pay at a bank right of course it's not the same interest would you happen to know what that interest rate was no it varies and I don't know what it was to the best of my knowledge the Catholic church is the richest organization in the world for it to charge its individual parishes a rate of interest is is quite honestly somewhat disturbing to me but that's neither here nor there that's an opinion um what went into the decision to close the individual parishes so I I understand that they didn't have the ability to financially support um both their expenses their maintenance um and of course the the debt to the arch dasis so would the arch dasis ever consider you know defraying their debt so that the church could become self-sufficient for a period of 5 years 10 years um the city gives pilot programs all the time to developers that are that were hoping for them to be successful and we reduce their annual taxes so that we help them sort of get back on their feet what was the arch dasis willing to do for the individual parishes that might have assisted them I don't know what the dasis is considering at the moment what I can tell you is that in 2000 um then Cardinal mccarrick or Archbishop mccarrick yep forgave all Parish debts and in the spirit no 2000 in the spirit of the Grand Jubilee but when St Andrew's School closed they had such a low enrollment or in deficit spending that they that's where the million dollar debt accured before all the schools were condensed in Bon I I do realize um and I I greatly appreciate you answering my questions I do um I realize that attendance is down everywhere um inflation is up uh families no longer have the ability to tithe specifically and and obviously even to support their local parishes um and I'm and I'm deeply sorry for that I I wish that there was something that I could do to assist them I am torn between watching the church deteriorate and not being able to support itself um and losing an entire it is a landmark um it was a safe wonderful place for many of us I I was not a parishioner of St Andrews but I didn't did attend toally Family Academy and I I went there often um it was a wonderful um part of my teenage years and I I look back on it fondly um I too hope that uh perhaps someone will come along um and and give back to the community perhaps uh develop it um and I I must tell you I'm not concerned at all about designating it a historical site because all that would prove to me in my mind is to limit the arch diasis ability to sell that at an at an overblown profit and I think that the people of St Andrews deserve an opportunity I might take exception the dasis doesn't sell at overblown profits the dasis it sells at market value thank you I appreciate that thank you Father I appreciate it good evening Adam F again um and I'm here to uh discuss why um I I think it's important for the members of this Council to understand that the there's an inadequate basis under law for this historic designation uh to begin the applicable requirements for historic designation of the property under Section 37 of the bay owned ordinances have not been satisfied uh the pending ordinance asserts that the church meets the criteria for historic designation for the following reasons but those five reason reasons that are mentioned are merely re uh recitations of the F five criteria that appear in the Bayon ordinances without any explanation for why or how the church meets the governing standard the historical property report that the historic preservation commission and planning board based its decision on was an insufficient attempt to check the boxes for the requirements in the historic preservation ordinance and it was barely more than one page it didn't explain why the property met the criteria uh um and instead it simply listed some of their criteria after it list a few alleged facts about the property a member of the historic preservation commission uh belatedly prepared a revised property report which was sent to us this morning and we do appreciate the courtesy of being sent that report after it was um prepared but it didn't really provide much time or notice for the public or for our client fairly review the REI revised report it also was not reviewed or um uh approved by the historic preservation commission or the planning board uh clearly if it was prepared today uh then it was not used as part of the basis of the historic preservation commission's decision and the planning board's recommendation as well also under the city ordinance the planning board is required to issue its own report to the city council about a historic designation the ordinance requires that this must be a report not a resolution um memorializing their prior decision to recommen uh recommend the historic designation however we requested but were not provided any report prepared by the planning board if the planning board did not prepare its own report then the ordinance requirement for historic designation was not met that's a fatal flaw to the designation so um there's some significant errors that are contained in the pending ordinance itself that we I wanted to briefly touch upon it's in our uh um most of this is articulated in our protest letter but I also wanted to uh put it on the record as well uh the findings in the pending ordinance speak of a structure which is the present day Senior Citizen Center that was built before the church was even uh constructed the designer of the Senior Citizen Center is identified as is the manufacturer of the church's stained glass windows but that those identities lack any apparent significance to the historic designation even in the more detailed revised property report the historical significance of the manufacturer of the windows is not not apparent uh the revised report detailed the history of the manufacturer but the mere fact that someone designed an adjacent building or manufactured a stained glass window no matter how much experience that company has Isn't proof of that um the buildings or the windows historic significant nor is it clear why the windows being Munich style um matters for purpose of historic designation and notably we understand that approximately it's understanding approximately 120 other churches in New Jersey including some in the local area have Windows made by the same manufacturers there was also some testimony or or statements today that the windows can only really be seen from inside um neither the Senior Citizen Center nor the windows demonstrate that historic status for the church the pending ordinance also states that the church's exterior Bears some architectural similarity to a church in Bon France um but neither the pending ordinance nor even the revised property report explain how the similar architect Cal features are or whether the church in French has any uh historic significance itself the two churches just from a picture side by side that we submitted they don't look very similar they consist of different materials colors and Architectural features uh the St Andrews Church exterior is also described as consisting primarily of reddish brown dress brick with Limestone trim but brick color hardly seems indicative of historic meaning and if such significant exists no explanation was offered we've stated multiple times now also that the cited intricate Steeples on the church were removed about a decade ago due to significant deterioration and are no longer part of the facade we brought this uh error to the city's attention multiple occasions and yet the former steeple is continued to be cited as uh grounds for historic designation of the church just as concerning as the city's attempt to use a historic site survey from nearly 25 years ago to justify the historic designation and that survey was uh cited as part of the planning board's decision um and I believe may be uh cited in the pending ordinance that two that survey was from the year 2000 and it simply codes the property as one of dozens of other sites as being potentially eligible for state and national uh designation as well as being eligible for local landmarking a um those hypothetical codes don't support a historic designation of the church and in fact the survey it's itself did not state that the property should be designated historic it said that further research is required the parish is respectfully requesting that the city council not designate the church as historic because the city has not met the requirements under its ordinance for a historic designation and all uh we believe that the designation should not go forward as it will substantially burden the parish and violate its rights under state federal and constitutional law the pending ordinance designating the property is clear that the historic designation is to preserve the exterior of the church through the passage of this ordinance and as father Philip testified the church requires extensive repairs at millions of dollars a staggering sum that the parish simply cannot afford foing these exorbitant costs on repairs of repairs onto the parish through a preservation obligation imposed by local government would be unbearable for the parish and its parishioners and to make no mistake about it the people who would bear the cost of this are the par not the arch dasis it's the parishioners despite multiple inquiries by us and members of the public um City officials haven't so far um specified how the parish's burdens and obligations would be mitig mitigated or otherwise limited if the pending ordinances were enacted we spe um there was a specific question at the planning board meeting will the parish be financially obligated to preserve the facade and the question was met with silence I've heard uh Solutions even here today of uh being the parish being forced to sell the property or um other potential uses some of those other uses aren't even permitted at the site it seems like these are just uh hypothetical Solutions without real consideration on the parish that would be burdened if they have to preserve it and spend these millions of dollars the city silence uh in regards to the burden on the parish adds to our serious concerns about the ramifications of the proposed designation as well as the cities and ention with respect to the property and keep in mind obviously this is not a normal property it is a religious institution restricting the parish's property would jeopardize the parish's ability to carry out its essential religious Mission the proposed designation would trespass on the parishes fundamental rights including those guaranteed by the federal and state constitution as well as Federal statutory law relig religious organizations such as the parish possess the right to church autonomy and the freedom to exercise its religion the government may not enact zoning or Landmark measures that substantially burden the religious exercise of churches absent the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest requiring the parish to preserve the church especially if the parish is bearing the financial responsibility for doing so infringes on these constitutional rights we are open to continuing conversations with the city and trying to resolve this matter amicably however those efforts will be that much harder if the city designates the site as historic and hinders the ability for the parish to function the parish has a responsibility to its parishioners to protect them from undo harm and to protect the parish's rights for these reasons we respectfully ask that you do not enact the pending ordinance thank you very much can I ask a question Mr Phil just a point of clarification because one of the council members has a question on this maybe later you stated that the planning board because of its failure to provide a report if it indeed failed to provide a report causes this to be not in comp comport with the ordinance is that correct yes okay then why does it say in here failure of the planning board to transmit its report within the 35-day period provided shall relieve the municipal Council of its obligations relating to the to relating to the referral of such a report to the planning board it's obvious they have the ability to either provide one or not provide one failure to do so just means that they're not passing one way or the other and doesn't obviate uh this whole proceeding I that's my answer to you to councilman but I I just think it was you could have been a little more uh complete with your with um reference to that section it does say they shall prepare but the very next line says if they don't so be it understood Mr fiell this is not question and answer now but I just want to let you know you mentioned things that were in the ordinance and things that weren't in the Ordinance one of the major things that's not in this ordinance is to consider the financial repercussions Financial I don't have Financial papers nobody in the council got anything about money transfers the the point of sale I don't know both sides are pointing at each other about money that I have no idea about so just like we said at the historic meeting we're going to stick to the facts not the financial situation I I understand about the financial situation but I have both sides claiming one thing or another and so it's difficult and I don't want to take aide against one or the other so I'm going to stick to the facts one of the the people who came up and spoke talked about uh myself and Mr Carol and how we blame the orchard dieses I don't consider that blame I consider that facts and when I came up here I talked about the facts and unfortunately it didn't make the arch dasis look good but I didn't make the arch dasis not look good they made themselves not look good and I had all those facts in that speech and I stayed very factual I didn't let emotions get involved or anything of that nature it was factual and tonight I myself am going to stay factual and I hope my colleagues do the same and I'm going to let them speak now after Mr scer okay thank you thank you thank you uh so council president uh just a you know point of clarification to uh about the uh planning board role uh in this matter on the historic preservation uh just as every zoning ordinance uh uh there has to be a master plan consistency review for that and uh given the presentation uh you know that I myself did to the planning board about this uh ordinance uh the uh the resolution uh that was provided to the council after uh the uh planning board you did review it looked at the uh the master plan which the 2000 master plan list a bunch of properties uh throughout the city and St Andrews was listed in the master plan as one of those potential sites that may be uh designate may have meet the criteria for historic designation so for any issues on the you know the planning board's report for it uh the presentation was made and I think the the resolution uh you know kind of supports the findings of uh you know the uh board's uh you know findings of facts on that so but just you know for clarity sake on uh the role and the purpose pursuing to the ordinance on the planning board's role it's for the master plan consistency review okay thank you thank you Mr skill um Lloyd do you want want to speak first yes uh councilman Booker here I uh just would like to add my little uh segment to this whole uh situation I am a commissioner on the planning board I represent the uh Council and Mr Skil is absolutely correct we did review that according to the Redevelopment plan 2000 and the council the information that was provided to us uh did suggest that St Andrews can be uh designated and should could be and his Historical Society uh site I'm sorry now as I sit down here and I think listen this is a very sensitive very sensitive topic there are people on both sides that are pro and con against the situation I like to think uh Mr Ryan made a suggestion and far as the historical society that thinking outside the box is not a bad idea that's my opinion okay I believe that St Andrews does and I sit down and I've looked at this site is a very very very significant part of the downtown area I think that it can be um designated as a historical site that is my opinion I understand the argument and along with the council president but he just stated far as the financial aspect of this I have no idea what the money is or where it's coming from or who owns what when where how why the fact of the matter is the information that was given to me I approach this from a historical perspective not a financial one and that's the way I looked at it and far as being on the planning board again information this has been this C has been kicked down the road a couple times and I've been trying to look at both sides and I sympathize with people that are for and I sympathize with people that are against but at the end of the day my opinion if everybody decided to work together they could resolve this situation without going back and forth and US versus G them idea and that's not my that's not my saying so that's all I have right now okay we let everybody make comments and then we'll come back for the vote after the comments Jackie you want to go next I I have a uh a few uh parting comments you know I I I wonder um Mr fiell why um a historical designation would hinder the arch st's ability to continue our discussions I guess I I don't understand that I also wonder how much of the funds from the sale would have to revert back to the arch dasis as opposed to being maintained in Blessed Mariam uh Teresa Parish to allow for the ongoing stability of that Parish and so lastly I wonder if there is a monor buried on that ground why is it not considered consecrated ground why is it that the arch dasis has the ability to change the rules when it suits them [Applause] in in either case I I do believe we owe it um to our forebearers I believe we owe it to that Parish Community to give them a chance thank you Juan do you want to speak next yeah this is a very emotional decision we have to make here tonight um as a Roman Catholic I lost my Parish which was assumption so so and eventually the property's probably sold and they're probably going to do something with it but this church I think it's a majestic church it's a beautiful Church um and my concern here is who is going to take care who's going to maintain the uh facility if we vote either way uh if we vote to make it a historical site who can answer my question and who would be able to take care of the church and maintain it I don't know uh this is one question that needs to be answered by someone um and I know we don't have anyone here to answer it but I feel just like my councilman Booker just like that it's uh let's think out of the box like Mr Ryan said we can maybe utilize it for something else and probably maintain it so I'm in favor of someone taking over the church and maintaining it and make it even better than what it is now Mr car I I would agree I'd agree with the way has been described thus far as an emotional issue I'd agree with my colleagues that raised the point that there is potential for that building um the term has been used and reused so I'll reuse it thinking outside the box I would applaud um my colleague councilwoman weer for raising those several questions uh one of which was the intent which led to an answer that seemed to suggest that well the building's going to lie there indefinitely because that you don't even know it's going to happen to it and so that made my ears perk up because we're we're talking about uh following as the council president said following the ordinance following the prescribed uh requirements whether or not this passes tonight based on those factual do you know information that we've been provided without having been provided the uh financial documents to which you alluded to although you gave a description here I would also take this time to correct my statement which was mentioned at that meeting uh not blaming the arch dasis but imploring them to be the to be the Savior that was needed at the time I believe my comment at that meeting was the mission has started the means will come and so I looked at the bishop excuse me the Cardinal and I said you're the means that was my statement that was my intention when I spoke from the heart that day it wasn't to besmer the church it wasn't to denigrate the organization it was to implore them to come to the aid of the parish as a whole not just the ones that are seeking this be a historical site not just the one seeking that it not be but as as we go forward there is no denying that that area is both based on the information we've been provided historic in its description as well as and and it Bears uh I'm looking through my notes Here I wish I wrote your name came down when you said it Mr Shivers I believe it Bears noting that that has been the center of a community for Generations not just the spiritual center but the rock on which that Community was built and it's it's it's worth noting I was glad he he said it in the way that he said it when he came up to the podium so as we go forward I think think I think it's important to note no one up here is looking to tear a community apart no one is up here is looking to turn brother against brother uh I understand there's been a talk even from the pulpit uh casting aspersions on certain people but that's not what we're here to do we're here to look after a community when I when I think of St Andrews and I looked at all the facts we all got reports and people gave some flowing praise about the windows um the rosec colored uh glass at the front even these Steeples that are no longer there these are all things that people remember you know the church is so much more than just what we described come over the Bon Bridge what do you see you see St Andrews that sticks out I happen to feel bad about this whole situation for St Andrews and yet I'm a St Vincent's parishioner and I feel such a sense of Pride when I come off that that Turnpike and I see St Vincent we go do ribbon cuttings we go up to the rooftop I could see St Vincent's from wherever we are I could see St Andrews when we're downtown that means a lot St Mary's too but I'm you get my point Lloyd all right there's a lot of a lot of good landmarks and it's true if I was giving directions to somebody I would point out that Landmark on Forth Street and Broadway as not just a building but go go down to the church St Andrew's Church I wouldn't say Fourth Street and Broadway I didn't mention anything right now about the gothic style and the the um special France Meyer uh Windows which we know are important but that area of downtown St Andrews meant so much they talked about Irish immigrants coming all kinds of immigrants were welcome at St Andrews all the things in the history when people look back in their mind and they go okay I remember being there when they had a memorial mass for Kennedy being shot I remember 911 after 911 the Memorial mass that was there all of that has an effect on all of us I've been there for Memorial masses for people who passed away I've been to weddings there how many people made their confirmation their communions and all that we're not looking for really V big VIPs that had some Epiphany moment there this is the parish like we said thousands of people had what they consider a special moment in that place so I can look at the criteria of the windows and look at the building and the certain things that we all talked about and that's true but it goes beyond that and that's what I'm looking at the facts as far as the money I'm not accusing anybody of anything but it doesn't add up to me you sold all these properties and everything else and you brought it to a different place you didn't even fix up the place that had the the property in the first place that you sold that should have been the first thing that you would have thought let's see about fixing certain things on this church and I know the one woman mentioned about the people not going to mass I live down the block from St vinc you Clos my church I'm not going back to Catholic church and again the Catholic church that we talked about the school at St Vincent's falling down they let St Joe's go St Michaels all these different things Marist is gone did anybody stick up for any of these places I'm not here to denigrate anybody the arch dasis or anybody else I happen to be on the finance committee at St Vincent so I know how difficult it is but I think there are other ways and I think everybody should get together if you want to have another meeting Father Phil have another meeting and ask for suggestions because you know what if they don't have suggestions then you could say talk is cheap but there are ways I know Mr Ryan called it thinking out of the box but I can go through a lot of big cities have repurposed churches already we have a history you have a precedent that you could look at if the arch dasis truly wants to sell that church they still can do that and the church from the outside can keep the facade the the arch dasis will obvious viously profit from that and the people will still get to see the church work in a different area work in a different thing than a church so having said that I'm going to pass it to miss Medina to call us for the the vote motion second and on the motion to close the hearing Mr Rooker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Mr weamer I Mr laaloa I and a resolution ordering final passage move it second and on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weamer hi Mr Lao I the ordinance has passed 02 is an Ord a bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of a new water chiller and various additional Heating and Cooling improvements to City Hall appropriating 3 3,250 can you just hold for a moment so this way we can allow these people if they want to leave they can leave okay that works ready M Medina please start again it's a bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of a new water chiller and various additional Heating and Cooling improvements to City Hall appropriating $3,250,000 there and authorizing the issuance of 3,952 bonds notes to finance a portion of the cost thereof authorized in and by the city of Bayon County of Hudson New Jersey which was introduced the past first reading the meeting held December 8 18 was published in the Jersey journal and posted on a bullettin board as required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passage following a public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council for its consideration and a public hearing and a resolution moved by the council president given the ordinance second reading Mr B will you second second on that resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carrol I Mr Perez I miss weer hi Mr laalo hi second reading is by title Bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of a new water chiller and various additional Heating and Cooling improvements to City Hall appropriating $3,250,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $ 3,952 bonds or notes to finance a portion of the cost thereof authorized in and by the city of Bayon in the county of Hudson New Jersey the council is now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance an opportunity be heard concerning it the council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak no protest against objections to or statements in favor of this ordinance or its passage has been filed with me may have a motion to close some move on a motion to close Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez i m weer i Mr laloo I and a resolution ordering final pass some move second and on that resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr I 03 is a bond ordinance amending inart Bond ordinance number 0 24-42 adopted July 17 2024 providing for the improvements to various roads in order to increase the appropriation therefore by $800,000 for a total appropriation of $3,500,000 to increase the authorized bonds and noes to to be issued to finance a portion of the cost thereof by $800,000 for total debt authorized authorization of $3,500,000 authorized in and by the city of B County Hudson New Jersey which was introduced and passed the first reading at the meeting held December 18th was published in the Jersey Journal as and posted on the bulletin board as required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passage following a public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council for its consideration and a public hearing and a resolution moved by council member Perez given the ordinance second reading Mr will a second second and on the resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weamer hi Mr laaloa hi it's Bond ordinance read by title is Bond ordinance amending in part Bond ordinance number 02 24-42 adopted July 17 2024 providing for the improvements to various roads in order to increase the appropriation therefore by $800,000 for a total appropriation of $3,500 to to increase the authorized bonds or notes to be issued to finance a portion of the cost thereof by $800,000 for a total debt authorization of $3,500,000 authorized in and by the city of Bayon in the county of Hudson New Jersey move it you did already we already did that that was second reading second okay the council is the council is now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance an opportunity to be heard concerning it the council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak no protest against objections to or statements in favor of this ordinance or its passes has been filed with may may I have a motion to close motion and on the motion to close Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weamer hi Mr laaloa I and a resolution ordering final passage move it and on the resolution for passage Mr Booker Mr Carol I Mr Perez I Miss weer hi Mr laaloa hi 04 is an ordinance of the city of Bayon County of Hudson New Jersey approving the Redevelopment plan for the property located at 361-373 Kennedy Boulevard which is identified as block 36 262 lot 78 and9 as shown on the official tax map of the city pursuing to the local Redevelopment and Housing law was introduced and passed the first reading at the meeting held December 18th was published in the Jersey journal and posted on the bulleon board's required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passage following a public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council for its consideration and a public hearing and a resolution moved by the council president giving the ordinance second reading Mr Perez will you second second on the resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa I second reading is by title an ordinance of the city of B County of Hudson New Jersey approving the r vment plan for the property located at 36137 373 Kennedy Boulevard which is identified as block 262 lot 78 and n as shown on the official tax map of the city pursuing to the local Redevelopment and Housing law the council is now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance an opportunity to be heard concerning it the council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak no protest against objections to or statements in favor of this ordinance or excuse me before we go forward a question for the attorney hi Mr melli council president um can you tell me what is the setback for the uh the top floors um I believe part of it is uh it steps back as the building goes further back I think at the ground floor uh but only the parking podium it's right at the property line but as you go back it's uh 15 ft and then I think 20 something feet as you step back like the last two floors I know there's a set back yes I think it goes to 20 and Mr slow actually prepared this Redevelopment plan but I think it's 20 over 20 feet by the time you get to uh the upper floors um so it's a pretty substantial setback if I remember correctly is that like rooftop property too is going to be used for the plan that we have right now does not have a rooftop amenity it doesn't mean it won't but um it didn't show one on the concept plan that that we prepared um I assumed that they would want one just to compete with everyone else but but they didn't show it on this plan just yet that there was something about a rooftop I saw there's there there are things on the rooftop it's equipment and such but it's uh it's it's not what we're used to seeing rooftop I yeah I guess it's Mechanicals and things that yes and there there is open space up there to do those things so I assume when we do the final site plan that something will be up there okay but but nothing's been and it's not on the area that's set back then on that it is not no it's right okay thank you anybody else have questions for Mr M was there a unit count I've been waiting for6 6 uh council president yeah so with the setbacks on that that's uh on the the fifth floor so uh fifth and sixth floor would be setback so the apartment theoretically on the fifth floor could have a bigger uh balcony Terrace you know that is private for themselves uh but again that's for the setbacks um you know from floors five and six okay thank you thank you for that information Mr those balconies face Kennedy no yes well no not the back the rear we're talking about the rear rear yeah no there won't be any balconies uh there might be some in the on the upper floors but nothing like in the back the back has a lot of open space how many parking space uh it's over 70 I think we had 71 or 70 yeah 71 66 Apartments 71 correct and that's an entry and exit on Kennedy Boulevard on 12th I don't yeah we're closing all the curb cuts on Kennedy okay uh and I think we're we're looking at if we if that will add parking spaces interior move in move out interior loading space Lo space okay San sanitation also Interior right private uh yes I think we we're looking at what trucks we can get in there but whatever it takes it's either going to be the truck will drive in and park in that loading space or the trash will be collected in at the collection time the people it'll be dragged out when it comes up to the Redevelopment agreement uh that will be a condition uh listed in the Redevelopment agreement that they have to move uh have a private huler and a traffic traffic study please absolutely yes made not that is uh part of a site plan submission uh all the time yes and we we did reach out to the client who is is retaining a traffic expert now thank you thank you very much thank you with that I'll take a motion to close I move second on the motion to close Mr Booker Mr Carrol to close I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa I and a resolution ordering final passage move second and on the resolution Mr Booker Mr Carol this is a former gas station is our director available sorry so used to be many many that land's all been remediated or is that a condition of their going in no that would be um you know condition uh that they have to do phase one phase two for the reports if any environmental contamination is founded to get it to uh residential standards so but yeah this is the old gas station car sales on uh 12th and Kennedy Boulevard right um I'm willing to vote eye on this I want to see uh when they you know as part of the Redevelopment agreement I would hope to see Workforce housing component at 66 units at 20% Workforce housing that would equate to 13 Apartments 13.2 I'm sure there's room for negotiation in there but as they're going to have to remediate that land I could see the value of such a development in such an area we we'll look into it again again all that's based off the performa so you know part of the the process that we're uh implementing and have been implementing is to be more financially focused so we're trying to see the financial numbers at the start of the projects uh you know for the city's uh Financial professionals to evaluate the costs with that so thank you that's an i Mr Carol yes and Mr Perez I miss memer I Mr laalo hi 05 is an ordinance of the city of B County of Hudson New Jersey accepting the dedication of Avenue G and other roadway improvements which was introduced past a first reading at the meeting house December 18th was published in the Jersey journal and posted on the bullettin boards required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passes following a public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council fors consideration and a public hearing and a resolution removed by council member Perez given the ordinance second reading Mr Booker will you second on the resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr Lalo hi second reading is by title and ordinance of the city of Bayon County of Hudson New Jersey accepting the dedication of Avenue G and other roadway improvements the council's now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance an opportunity to be heard concerning it the council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak no protests against objections to or statements in favor of this ordinance or its passage has been filed with me may I have a motion to close move second on a motion to clst Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi M weer hi Mr laalo hi and resolution ordering final pass second and on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carrol hi Mr Perez hi M weer hi Mr laalo hi 06 is an ordinance amending the scattered sites Redevelopment project Phase 2 site 14 Route 440 West Redevelopment plan to include the inim temporary use as permitted uses and to study block 42.0269038 public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council for's consideration and a public hearing and the resolution moved by the council president and given the ordinance second reading Mr Perez will you second second on that resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laloo hi second reading is by title an ordinance amending the scattered site Redevelopment project Phase 2 site 14 rout 440 West Redevelopment plan to include interim temporary uses as permitted uses and to study block 42.0269038 have a motion to close move it second and on the motion to close Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa I and a resolution ordering final pass second and on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi M weer hi Mr laaloa hi 07 is an ordinance authorizing and approving title 39 traffic laws enforcement for applicant Redevelopment Bay viw JV LLC designating designated redeveloper a certain property located at 219 West Fifth Street and it's known as block 300.0 Lots 1.01 3.01 3.02 3.03 04 05 06 and 3.99 and block 31.03 Lots 1.03 2.01 and 3.01 and part of block 511 lot one pursuing to the planning board's application p2320 and amending the supplemental supplementing section 738 of the city of Bon's Municipal Code which was introduced and pass the first reading at the meeting held December 18th was published in the Jersey journal and posted on the bulletin boards required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passage following a public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council fors consideration and a public hearing and the resolution given the ordinance second reading is moved by council member Carol Mr Perez will you second second on the resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa hi second reading is by title it is an ordinance authorizing and approving title 39 traffic laws enforcement for the applicant redeveloper bayw JV LLC designated redeveloper of certain property located at two 219 West fish Street and the council is now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance an opportunity to be heard concerning it council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak no protest against objections to or statements in favor of this ordinance or it passage has been filed with me may I have a motion to close so move second and on a motion to close Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi M weer hi Mr Lao I and a resolution ordering final pass move on that resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa I 08 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the revised General ordinances of the city of B chapter four licensing registration and business registration which was introduced and pass the first reading at the meeting held December 18th was published in New Jersey Journal posted on the bulletin boards required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passage following a public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council for its consideration and a public hearing and a resolution given the ordinance second reading is moved by council member Booker Mr Perez will your second second on the resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carrol I Mr Perez i m weer hi Mr laalo hi second reading is by title an ordinance amending and supplementing the revised J ordinances of the city of bound chapter 4 licensing registration and business registration the council is now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance and opportunity to be heard concerning it the council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak yes Mr Mike good evening Mike mno on the ordinances I can under the under garage sales I didn't get a chance to actually go read the full ordinance at the city um what would that entail The Neighbors come out they want to do garage sale in front of the house or what so you uh it says flea market not garage sale but um there's a 60-day application deadline for that yeah it's a pretty all-inclusive thing and it does include garage sales uh so there's we just need to have a central repository for all this stuff yards garage sales and yard sales and just people just showing up on the street uh started to happen a lot last summer and um it was debilitating for the police department and for the law department and for the other the health department because um you know the people were planting things they were selling food that you know vendors were showing we and we weren't aware of it so we had to get control of this this um somewhat mirrors what they have in Jersey City it's a little more inclusive because we looked at other um municipalities that were a little bit more like ours and um so it just says if you're going to if you're going to let's say have um a a block party we need 30 days notice if you're going to have a parade we need 90 days notice you're going to have a garage sale I I forget whether it's a week's notice or 10 days but but the smaller the event the less leadup time that we need the less we have to involve the cops the less we have to involve the Law Department Health Department uh but we found out that people were you know if you want to have a garage sale you have one in the spring in April and maybe have another one right before it gets cold in November there were people having garage sales every single week it really wasn't a garage sale it was a you know it was it was more like a a street sale so the full ordinance and everything I'll get it at City Hall in sou because there's different dates involved in it uh times I mean okay thank you I'll give you aop now oh okay yeah and and again some of these events depending on how big they are insurance is required and there are some fees involved anyone else on 08 okay no protest against objections to or statements in favor of this ordinance or its passage has been filed with me may I have a motion to close some move n a motion to close Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi M weer hi Mr laaloa hi and a resolution ordering final pass I move and on that resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa I 09 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the revised General ordinances of the city of bound chapter 7 traffic which was introduced and pass the first reading at the meeting held December 18 was published in New Jersey journal and posted on the bulletin board as required by law with notice that it would be further considered for final passage following a public hearing at this meeting of January 22nd is now before the council for its consideration and a public hearing and the resolution given the ordinance second reading is moved by council member Perez Mr Booker will you second second and on the second reading Mr Booker Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa I second reading is by title in ordinance amending and supplementing the revised General ordinances of the city of bay chapter 7 traffic the council is now ready to give all persons interested in this ordinance an opportunity concerning it the council president will recognize anyone who wishes to speak no protest against objections to or statements in favor of this ordinance or its passage has been filed with me may have a motion to close move and on the motion to close Mr Booker Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer I maposa hi and the resolution ordering final passage and on that resolution Mr Booker Mr Carroll I Mr Perez i m weer i Mr lapalosa I our first speaker is Mr Clark state your name and address please my name is is Dennis Clark I live at 4547 Kelly Parkway okay oh um I found out on I was trying to pay my rent on December 18th online on their on my landlord's tenant portal then I found out that my landlord sold a building while I was trying to pay my rent and I'm under rent control but there's other tenants aren't and I feel that rent control is important for Bon because the new landlord he's trying to they're trying to raise the rent everybody up to uh $2,700 and there's people paying 1,200 it's did you contact our rank control board uh I called them today they said I was under rank control but for other tenants uh I don't know I heard that they did away with rent control so they did what they they decontrolled rank control back on the Mark Smith I don't know what year that was 2012 um and when somebody moves out the landlord could come in and take the apartment and do improvements and raise the rent so that apartment is no longer under rent control at that no I mean I've been you must have been there before 2012 yeah yes but I'm talking about how about other people we got elderly we got people on disability their rents are going up 12 133 $1,00 more than they're paying and residents in in my my building don't think is right yeah again I would contact the rank control there there is a board and they can help you with that um we'll get you the number okay okay that's where I think you should go and good I look I would would you state your name again so uh Dennis Clark Mr I spoke to you Mr yes sir I just want to address you with respect um so Mr Clark we did speak other people in in your immediate neighborhood have reached out as well I tend to get a lot of those calls because I've been out in the Forefront of trying to get a return to rent control or some level of affordability and rent stabilization in town what I think they they all suggested and it's absolutely the right course of action to contact the rent control board to contact the beof in the event that anybody needs uh legal representation and that they meet the requirements I gave information on that out the people but gather your friends and neighbors contact me tell me when to come down there there's an issue on the agenda tonight R seven that we're going to talk about related to affordability it's pressing as I know you know and just yes the and I hope you don't mind me saying the fear the concern in your voice when we spoke when you got that initial notice oh yes because that's what people are suffering with all over M and I I have enormous respect for you coming here and speaking on this issue tonight it needs to be heard it needs to be understood and the major I'm Excuse me but the majority people are afraid of if I come to a meeting like this is they're going to be repercussions against me and other people tenants for speaking up I I understand and that shouldn't be the case and maybe in years past that was the case and it's not from public officials like oh no I understand but here's just this last Tuesday I saw my my my new landlord he was oh how's the there's the Tre maker because I'm the one trying to go around and get people to come here well it's understandable and like I said I'll come down there because this is something that people should be informed about they shouldn't have to live with that fear yes and going forward you know I do hope more people come to the meetings because there's a silent majority out there I gave out 40 about this just this being 40 flyers for the 40 tenants in my building I mean 40 40 apartments in my building one of them showed up God bless you sir I appreciate you coming out tonight and it's you represent many people so let's hope we can get something done would you state the address again uh 45 U my ADD our address is 4547 Kelly Parkway the next building all next to us is 4143 Kelly Parkway thank you you you got my number I have email and I got yours and and I'll share it as well and all I can say is I hope it it it finally hits home I hope so I I contact the rent control and they said my apartment is under rent control but there's other people AR and I believe if if not vent control at least put a cap on it if you're paying $1,000 a month and then a new owner comes to buys and you're they're raising your rent to 1,200 more than the Thousand you already PID pain it's lud ludicrous that's the perfect work and Bon Bon's got a homeless population problem you're just adding to the problem but 18 months ago uh that's what I said I said you need to address it before these individuals fall into the safety net or below the safety net address it now and you alleviate it's not like you could say oh cut back on your grocery Goods you can't even buy a dozen eggs for $2 anymore uh but just so you know that under rank control if they want to increase they have to justify the increase but when it's not he can raise up to whatever he wants but again they talk about market rate and he's still has to do improvements to just no I understand improvements but here's improvements but thing is I understand that the Gap you're talking about it's large I mean you're paying a th000 here paying 2700 now we all syp with that because that would hurt most people oh yeah I mean me I mean I work down the shore I live in Bon if in five years I plan on retiring my pay gets cut right right in half then I'll be sleeping in the park with the next homeless man I mean seriously SE that obviously I represent an older population as well in the first board and they all have those same concerns and you in my building there's people that's dis disabled senior CIT people families and they're being displaced because all these highrises and so on okay thank you m before Mr Clark just want to let you know that in 2014 we had it on a ballot um Mr laaloa myself we uh we assisted the people who wanted rent control um nobody came out to vote just to let you know no no I understand failed no I Flyers out collected money to to organize and everything else and the people who was going to benefit didn't come out to vote they got overwhelmingly no no I understand so you don't come out and vote for what you have I mean you put 45 Flyers out and two people show you know and we're not again we're not against it but if you're for it you got to come out for it oh no that's why I'm here show your voice yeah which I thought honestly I thought it' be the only one but this gentleman came and the council president's right you know so people have to come out stand up for themselves but it is also the nature of our roles here to act on behalf of the people whether they show up or not when something is right it needs to be done whether you have a thousand people behind you or one but we listen to people who come to the meetings so your voice can be heard here we will listen no and I appreciate it so the more obviously the better voice you have I appreciate it thank you right and Mr Clark real quick councilman book here I just also want to say that listen this is not just a Bayon issue this is a nationwide issue no and I I personally have done my own research and this conversation can go on for quite some time as a council I can only speak for me but as my colleagues we understand the whole idea in terms of affordable housing and people need uh a place to live an affordable place but the research and all the data that's out there right now it is really a difficult uh time time for people and a conversation and what we're trying to look at is trying to come up with uh possible solutions to make it better for everybody we're not sitting here and ignoring the whole idea but again my colleague said you have a room that people don't come out we really something's got to be done with this this problem I I agree with you 100% right thank you sir thank you ma'am Mr pla he basically said everything I was going to say but basically what it is is I have i s I moved there because there was a fire from in my building and they put me in the in in the place then as I I got to the point when I had to go to to the ey doctor and that I I kept on putting it off putting it on and then what happened was I had a stroke that's that's all that so now this guy is coming to raise my rent no that's the only thing so that is why I want to get my voice heard because I don't want to lose my apartment thank you thank you thank you thank you next one is an ordinance for introduction it is a refunding bond ordinance of the city abound in the county of Hudson state of New Jersey providing for the refunding of all all or a portion of the city's General Obligations refund Bond refunding bonds and school bonds dated June 10th 2020 that date is wrong should be 2015 appropriating a combined amount not to exceed 22 million 700,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of not to exceed 22,700 th000 combined amount of the general obligation refunding bonds and school refunding bonds of the city of B for financing the cost there thereof and a resolution fixing Wednesday February 19th at 6 p.m. in theor the E Harington council chambers as a time in place for a public hearing and final passage intruction Mr Booker hi Mr Carol Mr Perez hi M weer hi Mr laaloa hi 0 11 is an ordinance of the city of B County of Hudson New Jersey adop ing the Redevelopment plan for the property located at 1012 d1022 Avenue C which is identified as blocks 64 Lots two and three as shown on the official tax matter of the city of B pursuant to the local Redevelopment and Housing law and a resolution fixing Wednesday February 19th at 6 pm and Ador the Harrington council chambers as a time and place for a public hearing and final passage move it second second who like the second ju second oh I didn't hear him sorry and on an introduction Mr Booker Mr Carrol Mr Perez Miss weer has a question it's the Redevelopment plan I apologize director sker this is the this is the synagogue property on Avenue SE in 48 and 49 I apologize I'm sorry it escaped me for a moment I wanted to make sure I knew it was thank you thank you I V while you're there could you just do a quick units and uh stories uh units haven't been decided uh cuz it's a Redevelopment plan um that uh it's given parameters but it's um under it's uh five stories and uh again on the setback issues uh because there's it's not a budding up to residential there's a condo uh unit behind it for the driveway uh we have it uh between 3 to uh 5T depending on the height there so and then uh the parking ratio uh is kind of standard with the other Redevelopment plans that we've have and they're going to try their best to have that um internal yeah I I recall now I'm sorry thank you yeah thank you and Mr laaloa hi 12 is an ordinance of the city of B County of Hudson New Jersey adopting and affirming the vacation of a portion of Avenue I previously approved by ordinance 08204 on February 24th 1982 but not perfected and a resolution fix in Wednesday February 19th at 6 PM in the D Harrington council chambers there's a time in place for public hearing and final passage moving second on a resolution Mr Booker Mr Carol no for introduction introduction I um it was a little vague what the director described and again given what we just heard from members of the audience I would ask that in the 30 days between now and next month you know you gave me one of the politest and kindest brush offs when I asked for 04 you said we'll look into it but I'd like either a a inperson meeting or some memoranda regarding the potential for Workforce or affordable housing that structure for next month sure so but for this ordinance on Avenue okay pass already V good lord well on 12 it's this similar issue adopting and affirming vac it's a vacation of a road that was paper street it's well we can go back that's how wonderful we are with respect to 11 that's what I'm asking for before next month's meeting okay thank you so for for Avenue I it's an old paper Street by imtt uh it wasn't perfected back in the 80s and for the RightWay just to get it off our tax map that's what this ordinance is in play so Joe does does for all intents and purposes does Avenue I disappear or does it it's already been built upon huh on on our tax map it exists on paper it's a a paper street but it's already been built upon off of uh East 22nd Street all the way way down on Constable hook quite Frank vacating is just saying you're giving it to the other entity basically it the city's no longer using it or we haven't perfected what was done back in 1982 this is they're correcting something that didn't take place before Joe was born yeah so just explain it explain it not just for me but to the public so so we were supposed to have vacated A A A Street Avenue I in this case what happens then is that normally if you had a Street and there's a property owner on one side and on the other side 50% of the vacated Street goes to Mr a 50% goes to Mr B if there's 10 along Avenue y 10 would get on one side 10 would get on the other side and apparently this just we go through title searches and everything now they discovered that this was never perfected it was approved that there's a there's an ordinance that says we're vacating the street um but then nothing was ever filed up at the county so that approval means nothing because you have to had public notice of everything so Joe was curing something that we were in Little League when this happened yeah so you're forefathers you know okay all right well thank you for the explanation because it's it's a little a little vague it's just if you look at some of the the maps really uh on Constable hook it's it's the wild west out there like and when we start dealing with that on a more regular basis in the years to come as that gets it's it really will be there'll be title companies uh churning paper out 247 365 because trees dying everything down there is is a mystery yeah so I mean like look even just looking at the the tax map there I know there's a an Avenue H we're going to have to do at some point uh there's going to be uh Hook Road there's a small little road that you could walk to the cemetery on paper down there it's just correcting some of these old mistakes that you know might not have been perfected or you know some other reason or another uh we you know didn't take any action on okay thank you Joe Hey Joe real quick uh director um just uh just for my own my own uh education a lot of these paper RS or the paper RS that you're referring to they were to accommodate at one point in time the industrial area that was in that in that area correct well the industrial area also probably years ago uh you know the Constable hook uh you know community that lived down there I mean there are some houses uh that are on Prospect that were picked up and moved because Rockefeller decided all right you know I can't have uh you can't have houses next to an oil tank in catch in case they catch fire so you know by defacto you know current zoning came you know was in play and all right let me keep oil tanks down separate from residential thank you so Mr Ryan just to add to that that the street maper bon in 1888 had lettered Avenues going from a all the way out to n uh on the Eastern end of constable hook and then the letter to Avenues continued o to W across Bergen Point the Bergen Point streets gradually got uh names rather than letters and finally there was Avenue W which was hanging out there by itself and then that got obliterated by industry the same as most of the lettered Avenues on Constable hook did but yeah there were people living out there uh before there was industry thank you we appreciate the history that's I I have the map in my office if you want to see it I will I'll come by that's how we like it downtown name streets I notic it's spelled so on the introduction of 02 Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weamer hi Mr laaloa hi oh 13 is an ordinance ending and supplementing the revised General ordinances of the city of Bon chapter 17 Property Maintenance and it fixes Wednesday February 19th as a time and place for a public hearing and final passage move it second and on that resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weamer hi Mr lpo hi 04 is amending and supplementing the revised germinal ordinances of the city of B chapter 7 traffic and a resolution fixing Wednesday February 19th as a time in place for public hearing and final passage Mo and on the resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi M memer hi Mr Lalo hi all 15 is amending chapter 7 traffic and a resolution fixing Wednesday February 19th as a time of place for public hearing and final passage move and on the resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa hi and Communications is a resolution removed by the council as a whole ordering the following Communications to be received and filed it covers C1 through C15 any questions on the communications Communications Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laalo hi pause before we go on to the oh or you know what I'm sorry I apologize we just want to take a look well I'll let the council president Define it oh sure so um for 08 we talked about um the festivals and parades and flea markets garage sales Etc uh there is a $10 fee in there for um garage sales that we would like to we we want to do this next month actually so we don't have to reopen it again so we're going to suggest that people can do three per year without paying a fee a waved fee yeah so my colleagues I don't know if you're in agreement with that but um we thought that would be pretty fair for the garage sales only it's a small scale you know I think it helps the the regular guy or the elderly person but $700 for the fourth one you know got to draw the line somewhere Joe you want to add something to that no as if the council so decides just knowing uh some Tracy's burdens on one of the properties that as Jay was describing that under the guise of a you know garage sale they're basically operating a flea market they you know they have you know stuff that's every two weeks out on you know Boulevard I I've seen I got calls for some of them they're Uptown and uh there's some all over the place but they're they're even like sloppily put together I hate to say that so it'd be nice to have a little oversight on that yeah but but just on the if the the fee waving of that if you know they're operating a business some of them blocking the side precludes that this limits this provides parameters time frames we we'd be able to this year with this ordinance go after the person and enforce some real measures to make sure that they're not abusing the garage shell system because we'll say no this isn't a garage shell this is your seventh week in a row this is this is actually uh a flea market yeah it's like it's it's almost like a retail shop think about it the one Uptown was like a retail shop they were Wheeling stuff out and it's almost every week you're right about that but also this will um take care of people's private property sometimes the line for some of these events go past private property and then some of the people on the line do things to the private property that the person who runs the event will be responsible for and we've had Damage Done to people's personal property only because they just happen to be where a line of people are thank you Jo officers reports is a resolution moved by the council as a whole ordering the following officers reports to be received to filed and any resolutions Incorporated within to be adopted it covers o1 through O2 any questions on the officers reports and on the officer reports Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez I miss weer hi Mr Lalo hi we're on consent resolutions I am pulling cr4 because the information has changed so it will come after the adoption of the consent resolutions which is moved by the council as a whole ordering the following resolutions to be adopted it covers cr1 through cr18 any questions on the consent resolutions nothing there Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa hi cr4 is authorizing the purchasing agent to to execute any and all documents and take any and all actions necessary to effectuate the purchase of four police patrol equipped 2025 Ford utility Interceptor police vehicles from paramis for doing business as allamerican for of paramis pursuant to its quote through the Bergen County Co-op ck4 for the amount of $174,500 and it's being funded by the city of Bon's Federal Credit Union right so so the amount did not change just the location just the just the provider right okay so who would like to move that I'll move it second and on cr4 Mr Booker Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi M weamer hi Mr laaloa hi see or 19 and 20 are first 19 these two are going to be subject of a public hearing cr19 is authorizing the execution of an enable enabling resolution application and agreement with the state of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program Jake lore Initiative for 500 $5,250 for from the state and $1,750,000 local match from the Hudson County open State open space trust fund to fund the following project a complete inclusive playground at the North Street Mini Park and thank you for your patience waiting for this to go through so okay thank you Miss Mack I appreciate that you gave her some she gave you something you got the teacher C you got the teach I thought you especially would appreciate that yeah sorry yeah right had the answers in it you know yeah we we do use the uh we used this during planning board and unfortunately I was not set up for planning board see yeah I think that's yeah we got to do uh North Street Mini Park first do you get North Street Mini park I think I think there were two they they're there get there there's two there yeah yeah those that's going to be next sharing is caring yeah we're very good about parks and sharing again I have to thank uh our law director for helping me so much anyway I'm gonna this is my uh annual WR of Passage the uh Green Acres Program is usually um due just about now uh so we have been working as a team uh to decide whether we would be able to utilize Green Acres funding Corey V from uh New Jersey D Green Acres Program is here tonight as she joined us last year which is uh I thank you for doing that and uh commissioner lack from the planning board is actually the person who helps us with the Outreach on these programs and uh we appreciate his his participation also uh so tonight we're going to talk about um the Improvement to the North Street Mini Park uh this project is very special it is the last year of the Murphy's Administration offering of of a law which is Jake's law uh it was designed for um designed around the state each County must have an inclusive playground that exceeds the um normal uh the normal work that is done for uh playgrounds um in terms of ADA accessibility and access for are citizens little citizens and adults who have disabilities and as uh we all know the council has supported many of these types of applications the opportunity is here is because it's the last year uh that uh practically every project that has been applied for has been granted uh but it will not be available after this year so uh we made a concerted effort with director carer and Miss Mauer to see how we could take advantage of this special program before it goes out of existence and um the criteria is 75% from DP and 25% match from uh from the city which sometimes is difficult for us to do but through director carer and his relationship with the county of Hudson uh we were joined by our Hudson County open space uh Personnel a couple weeks ago uh Franchesca guitano and Sam Schroeder and um the county said that walked into the meeting said they'd be very happy to provide the match as they have done um for the other projects in Hudson County that uh have received Jake's law funding so um with that this application was actually we had worked on it um as you know um Rob brusso and Darren misel from his staff are excellent uh designers of all of our Park projects um that that are not on the waterfront the local ones and um we were able to dust off the one that we had worked on last year but last year we couldn't couldn't think of where to get the match uh so we can now Advance it and um I'll go through this pretty quickly but I did want to say that the Jake law is a program that was enacted by the state of New Jersey uh in 2018 it was uh set into motion by named after a little boy who was two years old who died of brain cancer but enjoyed use of the parks uh up until that time so um they did name it after uh this little boy and uh it has um it's it's a very special type of improvement now the um the North Street actual Park area I think everybody knows where that is um in my haste your your hard copies only have four slides my presentation has seven so we will I will ask director I will ask director coffee uh to move ahead and um well I think well you have the hard copy yes so those are two repeats so even one you're good um director and I I will go from here so some of the elements of first of all I'm going to just tell you how much it costs so that's not until the last slide but it's easier to tell you that now um the total application is for 727 th000 it has a 172,000 match so the total project cost will be the 727 and Green Acres will uh will provide $555 $55,000 uh for the project and if it is approved um we will get we will get subsequent agreements from Green Acres uh later this year and then Hudson County will provide for the application which is due on February 5th a letter of commitment for those for the match funds so the difference uh and this is on your third slide U which you already have up on the screen um the difference is is that um the trees will remain that's always a question um but there will be ramps uh with adaa features that will be applied throughout the property there will be Ada accessible game boards Ada accessible equipment now there's going to be 5 to 12 playground uh structures there and as I said they will all be Ada accessible um there also will be decorative benches and I think we've all seen some of the great work that can be done around town what we've been able to do with color and figures um that make the area much more lively for our children uh concrete sidewalks uh dedicated uh trash facilities which is important uh to clean up after but one of the uh one of the things that is different and we are also doing it in Field of Dreams which is our HUD project and I think everybody has been there and knows what's going on there there's a proposed quiet area so an area where the children when they're running around there's a little area where they'll be quiet and they'll be able to go over there and and one of the really nice things about this park or I find very interesting is is that there's a shaded play area so there'll be a triple a swing set set up but it will be shaded because if you're a parent and you have your kid go to daycare uh and things you see that it's nice to have the children have an area to run around with but you don't want them to have sunburn either so um this is being a more sensitive context um the and also many of the things that will um that are features that are there now now will be taken out all of the things basically will be taken out and replaced but there is a spray area in that Park and that will be taken out and new equipment will be put into it also so again the reasons um the reasons will be to um to provide play for all children and adults with disabilities and the public I mean all our children and all our adults uh that has physical sensory cognitive social emotional uh and communication uh needs to be um to be met so I've SE I know you've seen these on play equipment where they're actually basically uh they are equipped with uh this communication devices so that uh people with disabilities can use them and our children and the ex existing uh trees will remain and we'll provide for more more trees so that you'll get more shade and a shade an additional shade canopy um is proposed over the um triple Bay uh area of benches and again um director C's vast experience with this uh and all the other good things that he's put into parks that we have not U been asked to do but we Bon through his his offices have just included uh we were able to incorporate this we me we meet the criteria very easily with this uh the next is just pictures of the existing play area I think we all know that our Parks our parks and our play areas are overused and um and most of them except we've done a great many new ones but um they they need refurbishing and um with the availability of this this special fund uh we will be able to provide that to um to the public now one of the other things about this program that Green Acres has asked us to do is to reach out to the public uh to get their comments and so back in uh December through m uh we were able to post information uh on this application and the information includes everything you see here and includes an environmental assessment of the property so that that's upfront and taken care of all of that material was posted to our website uh before the end of December and uh then also they want a second means so actually uh commissioner lack designed a survey for us um and uh that survey was put up and we um basically had UH 60 uh 67 responses and and it basically asks you do are you in favor would you like this and also do you have any suggestions and there were suggestions in it those suggestions have been passed over to the engineering department and um they have looked at them Incorporated them and and we still have about another week and a half uh if more people answer and uh again one of the criteria that you listen to the public and you um and you incorporate what the public public wants um so in this case um as one would suspect uh the U the uh response from the public is positive and there were very good good things Shay trees was also in there uh they discussed the water Futures and um the different things that they felt would make the park uh more more acceptable and more useful to our citizens of Bon uh so again I I thank um I thank everybody so then after that um we we also got the help of Eduardo fante or OEM who helped us get the notices out and also uh pet Amadeo uh handled the um handled the notices on Facebook and Joe Ryan Dr Ryan as usual is in charge of us all when it comes to public Outreach uh because he has uh he has the feel for it he has the pulse of the people and uh so it's been going back and forth uh but tonight um you you know it's a great group effort well it everything we do as team you know I mean and we you're our team leaders up there we thank you you're our team leaders I have my law Director D helping me with the computer so how much more of a team can you get but I have to thank everybody I I have to just thank you because I think it's all of the efforts we spent on not only this program of Green Acres the Hudson County open space trust is wonderful and um also the work that we've been able to do um with HUD for the larger projects we're hoping to see more of that uh come before you um before you this year and of course uh we have Field of Dreams opening in April so um again I think we had a review Miss V couldn't comment on that we had she doesn't have to comment tonight but we had a review by D they came out with director carer and toured um all of the our Parks um that have been funded by Green Acres and they gave us a couple of suggestions some new signs uh the county also uh directed us uh you know on a little tour and they also have new signs just to make sure that uh that everyone knows uh that it the group effort also includes uh in in in these cases the county of Hudson uh who is known for open space and also uh d uh who through their Green Acres Program has provided us with tremendous support through the years and so what I would ask is is that um you let any other members of the public that might be here if they have any comments or or if you would advance mlin is the best at this U there is a uh public transcript uh minutes of the meeting uh that uh she will over the next couple of weeks certify and uh include in the packet as a necessary uh necessary portion and tonight she'll have more time because last time we had gave her an hour to do that after the meeting so uh so we were we were very happy that we were able to uh come to our regular meeting to ask you to consider this for us so meline is this adopted tonight or are we going to wait that no there's a there's a resolution of there's a resolution in the packet to uh to ad the title is public hearing and adoption so yeah there is a resolution um I'm I don't know so we are yeah yeah you would adopt it tonight then she would do the she would do the necessary certifications and uh as I said the whole packet will be put together uh by U by our grant people Millennium strategies they they send that into us they don't do all of our grants they do uh we do our own open space grants but Hudson County and the HUD the federal but they they really do a nice job at making sure we comply with all the things on the checklist and again I can't thank uh said it before can't thank director K and Donna Mau for helping us develop the project um our engineering team for our engineering team CMM for CME for um for uh putting it together and also um you know uh you're you you will thank you thank you thank you m mine so AR cr19 you want to move it as a whole yeah are there any question any questions I don't know if anybody's here any questions from the audience before we move on to adoption G I'd just like to make little comment here uh North Street Park we tried to do it a few years back and we were having a hard time securing funding in the match with which is the most important thing and it got put on the back burner and Sue's been up here talking about how everyone did this and that yeah we all do our part but this project probably wouldn't have happened if Sue didn't stay on it right and she never gives herself credit Su you deserve it for this one thank you stuck with this you made sure we got it and I know sometimes we go back and forth and we get you know we can't do it we can do it yeah and but want to thank you for sticking with this and making it possible and then working with the county and we all pitched in together but as the driving force behind this getting done this year and I want to thank her for that recognize it because you never recognize yourself so every once in a while you deserve little all right I appreciate it more than you know more than you know so on cr19 Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr Lelo cr20 is authorizing and executing and enabling resolution application and agreement with the state of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program Urban renew Urban Parks Initiative for $2,690 th000 from the state to fund the following project which is the Veterans Park Shoreline restoration and resil resiliency project you move it as a whole yes give Jay a second to pull it up I hope otherwise otherwise you have it it's a very short uh packet yeah if it doesn't as I said I have it um up before yeah it was open before we had the same problem back at my desk we thought it was me it usually is so so I see the I see the outline yeah um existing Riverfront walkway right so we have one of those down 16 Street Park yes are we going to do that down veteran Stadium like that small Boardwalk or whatever you want to call it I could is that what we're talking about because right on the second page there a there's a picture I believe that's 16th Street of that Boardwalk that I was talking about yeah these are previous it says Boardwalk on it so yeah so but is that where we're going to get on that shaded part of the yeah yeah I I can I hope I can answer your question three as I go through it so um this is an area and and you know how I feel about the hack SEC River projects um B own because of the what we were talking about earlier about Constable hook and mopy and all those other things you know the people couldn't get to our Hudson River for decades um more than a century almost and then we opened it up the Hudson River but the real the real Gem of Bon is the hackin river and the uh the projects that we've been doing for the last 20 years starting with rowski Park and moving all the way down to you know to Greg Park and then the parks that really have been done um under this Administration um and the end of the last where we were doing veteran stadium and then veteran Stadium we moved down and there've been over the past few years there's been total emphasis on doing the public improvements at 16th Street to open that area with kayak launches and launches and other things so this some of the things that have been done and it it's 16th and 255th Street it's not Avenue projects we've done Waterfront walkway construction there we've done Waterfront referment and resiliency improvements we've done landscaping and lighting and we've done board work uh we've done board works at 16th Street we've done them on 25th um and you know we've we've done what we can but we've we've gotten a great deal of funding for these projects again under director CER these projects are um done by our other engineering firm with who you're all familiar with uh Waterman uh Andy reel handles the as you know the Waterfront projects and the water projects since he is a he is a um he is a uh underwater engineer and he's also our environmental engineer so the projects that we've gotten just just right now on the books we've done phase one of uh DP in this area for over $2 million we have another project that was approved last September which we're getting a um getting a contract on now to complete that that's another 2.4 million ion uh tonight we're looking at an application for 2.6 million more and the dot actually gave us through the governor uh last year they gave us $500,000 for the same so you know the the total totality of this is this to take that hackin River um and also the county has an initiative now where they're doing hackin River um they're doing we have a committee um Miss V sits on it as some of the rest of us do and they're trying to open that whole area so they're doing a signage plan a walkway plan the Hain River uh baykeeper is on it so again we have another team that we're on with the county uh leading it and DP is a large part of uh of doing these things so Mr CER when got an opportunity to apply for this this year he met with Mr frel they went through where they were what they've been able to do what's on the books and now to do more completion of it and um the elements of it Shoreline stabilization we're putting all these walkways in and cleaning up the area but we got to make sure that they continue to stand up so um this Shoreline stabilization is an important piece of it the retaining wall for resiliency as you know we do nothing we spend s director Skiller we do hours of resiliency work on the hackin SEC River and for the development projects that we approved there had to raise had to raise uh togus had to raise Mr um pada is left but he represents nasara Mr Meli is probably here he represents the uh we we are working in every project to handle the storm water handle the flooding uh I sit on the OEM hazardous mitigation plan which is uh which is uh done by uh by Junior fante and and through um Suzanne kavor here I mean we have have a whole team of people in this building with John Armstrong that work constantly including Joe Nichols who was retired but works now for uh Balman Associates where we work on what can we do to make these areas uh make these areas uh open to the public what can we do to make them to maximize the development potential of them and um all of these grants for open space public improvements the D Hudson County they they have become a key player in in us doing our work out on on what we call the Avenue a corridor so um but so as I said uh Shoreline stabilization retaining W replace the existing fishing perer everybody wants fishing replace the existing exercise equipment replace and extend existing Waterfront walkway and then uh landscaping and lighting improvements so I feel with the uh with this application um anytime you get $2 million for anything this is almost $3 million on top of 2.4 that we have yet to spend it gives me uh the pleasure of saying that we can move what was Mr carer's um Envision Envision would happen on the uh on the west side of the city and really it really does director doesn't it like really help us complete not only this one off the um onrr we we we have several millions of dollarss that can go to bid um and and this can really help to uh to push them um on the last yeah so on I think the next page may be the last um but anyway you you have the budget in front of you so the budget is for 2.68 n ,000 and um the major elements are for that stone referment reinforced concrete wall um and then um the solo lighting the timber here those are those are the the the the really high items the 400 and 300,000 items and then there's General work clearing site earthw um I think I found eight that I thought were mentioned and straight again concrete walkway and S um shade structure the uh beauty of this program has no match so it comes out of two different uh D funds one for urban parks and um then a supplemental fund that we can apply that they roll the application in um and uh as you know because you I think you were all apprised of it D um through um through their manager uh spent hours with Bon to try to finally clear up it it wasn't our it was our problem we had parks that were built in 2000 that that were we're out and enjoying and we hadn't been reimbursed because they were part of the Tideland program and we couldn't get anybody to sign off a on the tieland uh we were very lucky after years of working on it to have uh someone uh who uh works with the tieland commission um be able to float a resolution and it was resolved and as a result Mr Coffee has done nothing but uh process agreements for millions of dollars worth of reimbursements and Donna Mau through her staff has been signing those reimbursements and finally taking projects off the book that we paid for uh that are public but we did not get the U did not get the financing back and and also U Miss Russo was uh in instrumental in uh advancing reviewing Mr reel's recommendations and getting that paperwork down to the state so again um I am very happy uh to be here tonight to say this uh I did get one very um adamant request and I discussed it with uh director um oh with Dr Ryan we had we had a request from someone um downtown that really felt that the money would be better used for Brady's doc um and we did consider um director K when he was discussing it with uh with Mr reel he the we had two projects one would be the veterans uh veteran Stadium stabilization project the other was Brady doc so we did look at it we do have a cost estimate on it and we went back to DP and D said for various reasons it would not be uh a fundable project this year they felt that this was the project that was ultimately developed was stronger and um unfortunately I have to deliver that message back to the resident uh who believes that there was a commitment made somewhere along the line to do Brady doc I agree we should do something with Brady doc uh but um we were advised you got to go for the stronger of the two projects and I would I would also say that we should continue to look at and see what we can do uh because if that is a priority of some of the residents in town it's definitely going to need work I mean we did all that work down on the on the kilin cul so it's definitely going to need our work whether it's fundable under the D program or not question for another day uh but I did take you know I did take that into consideration there were some other comments there were some people who came last week thinking the public hearing was last week they seem very supportive of just the walkways and there definitely were people we looked at the same area last year and we did have several people who actually came out uh we did get some responses this year was lower we only had 16 responses to the survey but sometimes that's the timing of when you put it up and we believe we'll we'll still get more from the end uh before the end of it but again I don't think anybody can uh say that uh Bon has not been at the Forefront of opening the waterfronts and using every resource getting contributions from the developers um develop have some responsibilities out there we've uh We've held them to task when it couldn't be built we've asked for contributions in lose so that money could be spent other other places but always on walkways and opening up areas to the public and we continue to uh Advan that concept through director Skiller with the new developments coming up and I think it was said before Constable Hook is 20% of the city so as we advance as we advance and embark on that um we may not be able to do things down there because contamination but we will be asking for funding um for either our in town Parks or you know the we're not not just ignoring the question and with that if anybody has any questions and also our city planner uh firm is here our our Redevelopment council is there any discussion yeah about some of the parks they're close to the water so maybe D money could go towards the the newer park down the old military base mayor Brady I believe we named the park after him and we did a dedication I believe it was 2015 or so right I think Tommy right around that time dunan sorry dunan I'm sorry dunan mayor dunan um right I just meant as a future project to look at that because now there's a lot of people living down there that could use that space um but not in Le of this I I agree with you this needed to be done and and uh I I just wanted to acknowledge that you know John Walo our Redevelopment Council for all these projects is here uh Brian slow our planner for all these projects is here they he on another subject tonight but uh they bring this up every week uh you know what we can do and I know John there is stuff going on down at M that you know you've been at the Forefront of I think there's some deals going on down there and some stuff that wasn't done and I know this park I I don't think I knew it under this name um has been considered um and I believe you also have some projects uh director ker that are coming up on the Hudson County open space where that type of thing is being uh where we're trying to get the MP developers to fund the projects at mby and they do have some OB oblations to do it it's just the timing on it some of them haven't reached that phas but that's not but if you keep a list and send it to us I will make sure that everybody knows about each council person here has a list I'm sure I'm sure but Lloyd has 19th Street and Jackie has a couple you know direct I have Golden Park obviously and hold out hope for Cottage Street important Street and 40th Street um Ziggy MAA all you have to do is so all you have to do is send send make sure I know about it and then I will uh connect the dots or I think Dr has another word for it what I do uh you know follow you know I I just try to keep every anything I hear I try to bring up so sure uh as long as I know about it I will while I'm here I will definitely bring it up does anybody have anything they want to come up yeah Mike you want to come to the mic and speak please thanks Mike my mic mik signal uh these projects and everything Green Acres and the City of Bon and uh Public Works Carter and everybody and and sumac and whole group it's been amazing to watch this whole operation and uh you know I'm member of the Bayon nature club and we do river cleanups and we do bird walks all around Bon uh twice a week do the bird walks and the cleanups once a month and the walkways and the development that the city has been doing has been just terrific and it's opened it up to the public to get to this water and I don't think a lot of people realize when you have to rebuild that Waterfront walkway we're across actually the west side of it one of the largest shipping ports in America and that causes so much backup on waves and shipping that causes that water coming up and washing away the uh walkway washing away Bon so these walls to build them and everything is really really important to keep Bon where it is and it's also on the uh the east side also and the work that everybody's been doing has just been terrific and I've been just you know wonderful that they keep connecting it and also and I know in working with Green Acres and everybody involved with d there's also a organization the American canoe Association which I'm a member of and they've been around for since 1880 it's a huge organization and I have some letters where I wrote to them about getting kayak accessibility on the east side of Bon over by the M where everybody's building and Sue and everybody's also working where the the walkway there has just been fabulous I mean you can pull over now you can see the seals you can see all the birds the herons the Eagles and it's just been fascinating and uh I got some letters and I can give it out but the American canoe Association will work with you and also with the high schools in in water safety and boating and Olympic sporting with kayaks and stuff and so this is another good group that you can reach out to that's ready to help and us being surrounded by water would be a great start and again thanks to everybody absolutely involved with this with the walkways around Bon has just been terrific and thank you so very much and I I received this letter from the canoe Society um late last week I'd be happy to forward it to the council yes definitely definitely there's an area down off the w walkway um where they created for fishing back in I'm going to say about 2008 or n and uh that area could be used for canoe launch as well yes and and Mike um and P met with me asked me you know drew it out Drew out some things and uh I'm going to pass that along to Mr reel because again it's the walkway the water the water edge issues okay thank you make sure that's done thank you very much thank you for the the uh great team effort and the presentation meline okay so on C R20 as a whole as a whole yes Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laalo hi okay r two is approving the temporary emergency appropriation number one in the calendar year 2025 budget move it on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi M weer hi Mr Lalo hi R three is authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into an agreement with Nila Engineering Associates for planning services in connection with developers and redevelopers for a period of one year commencing January 1 through December 31st 2025 for an amount not to exceed $100,000 moving second on resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Prez hi Miss weer hi Mr laloo hi our four is authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into an agreement with Consulting Municipal Engineers LLC doing business as CME Associates for planning services in connection with developers and redevelopers for a period of one year commencing January 1st through December 31st 2025 for an amount not to exceed $100,000 move on that resolution Mr Booker Mr Carrol Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr Lalo hi r five is authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into an agreement with Clark kton hint for planning services in connection with developers and redevelopers for a period of one year commencing January 1st through December 31st 2025 for an amount not to exceed $100,000 move it second on the resolution Mr Booker I Mr Carroll I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa I on behalf of the firm thank you authorizing the preparation of a Redevelopment agreement buying between the city of Bayon and Nova group urban renewal LLC for the property located at 474476 Broadway which is identified as block 205 block 10.01 somebody refresh my memory this is the old Irwin site on Broadway the plan for that s uh so this allows us to negotiate and enter into a uh Redevelopment agreement uh allows us to negotiate with the the developer the site's kind of sat vacant so um you know know we're pulling it you know dusting off the uh the plan and you know negotiating to see uh what it works so right now we have no um concept of it we're just you know going to talk with the developer we want to get authorization to prepare the um Redevelopment agreement to them put in front of you okay sure Mo second okay on our six Mr Booker Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa hi our seven is authorizing the preparation of a state affordable housing dispute resolution and declaring the city of Bon's fourth round affordable housing obligation move it second will I get a little clarification on that yes so just on this uh we have uh our affordable housing attorney Mr uh wit Galla and our affordable uh housing planner uh Mr slow so uh you know they can uh kind of give a quick uh overview as to the uh the state obligation regarding our uh the city's affordable housing obligation um you know kind of a supplement the memo that Brian uh prepared a couple months ago okay yeah hi everybody John much Scala pleasure to be here tonight I'm here with Brian I'm actually going to turn it over to Brian shortly but I'll give a little bit on the legal on this just very quickly uh this all started with uh it all its root start in the New Jersey Fair Housing Act and the federal fa Fair Housing Act we've probably all heard about Mount Laurel Mount Laurel Doctrine goes back to the 1980s projects were going on uh uh and you know through the court system ultimately there was a mandate uh to create the opportunity for the development of low uh and moderate income housing throughout the state of New Jersey uh there's a lot to it there's a lot of history to it uh it is what led to uh the creation of the counil on affordable housing which was part of the uh DCA Kaa as we call it we still a lot of people still refer to this as coah housing we still hear that terminology although that's a uh an organization within the DC that has been disbanded uh particularly by the uh the most recent legislation uh we have been through uh three rounds of of COA so to speak we are now in the fourth round period uh what we have before you tonight is a resolution it really isn't a a ministerial or an administrative action uh by this Council uh it's actually a resolution very similar to one that we presented to you I'm not sure if it was three years ago or so uh through this process uh you know there are a lot of municipalities that uh DCA came out with a report in October that had projections for prospective need for creation of affordable housing created numbers that each municipality would have to achieve um a lot of those municipalities are suburan municipalities they're located west of us West North South or I'm sorry yeah West thinking where we are um what I can tell you and what if you look through uh through this particular resolution the memo that Brian put together uh city of Bayon is what we call a uh qualifying Urban Aid municipality re we receive funding through the through the state for various Municipal Services Etc what does that mean when it comes to the necessity to create new affordable housing where we would you know impose that obligation on developers that are creating you know new projects Etc uh we have a perspective need here in the city of zero we do not have an obligation as an Urban Aid municipality to create new affordable housing uh as we did three years ago or four years ago whatever the time was we did have then we had a present need we and we now through the new numbers that DCA put out uh we have we also have a present need what does that mean uh our number is 749 units I think that's the number I recall correctly thank you um what is what is a percentage of units is does that there is no percentage of units in this regard so this is our this is a present need maybe I'll ask Brian to speak to it this is the number that the DCA projected for our present need which really is a reh rehab obligation same obligation we had number of years ago I I was just curious how they got to that number that's yeah well I'll let Brian speak to it a little bit more but that is that's actually the number uh why we're here before you tonight uh under the under the uh statute uh which was adopted legislature adopted changes in in March of 2024 and they set forth a pretty rig rigorous schedule for municipalities for the DCA act and for municipalities to respond uh and the the time frames are tight DCA numbers came out in October and the municipalities have until this month to either accept that number or or to respond with a resolution we disagree with your number we think you're imposing too many prospective units on us or whatever the case may be um and then it's going to go through the court system the same way it did uh through the third round process if you don't take these actions what the ramification uh it does impact a municipality's immunity from Builders remedy lawsuits or a builder can come in and say well this municipality hasn't met its its obligation we have property we can satisfy that is the city of Bayon really in in Risk I can tell you not really again because we don't have a prospective need in this regard we do collect uh non-resident IAL fees State through the Statewide non-residential fee act we have an affordable housing trust fund uh that's set up so those are monies that are available for the city if it's you know to assist with Rehabilitation and it's not to say that those monies can't go towards we've we've contributed monies from those funds towards various special needs housing projects that that comply that do in fact actually create new units I mean that's been the history on it uh uh but again what's the action we're taking here we're just we're really just acknowledging and following the statute um we're not disputing the fact that the DCA has determined we don't have a prospective need of of zero units to create um and we're just really accepting the fact they came up with a number on the rehabilitation share which is our present need and that's the action so this will still give us the ability to if we wanted to contest the amount the number well no I think through this resolution when're we're agreeing we're agreeing to the number we're agreeing to the process um there's funding that's available we can impose obligations to address the rehabilitation share and it can it can be through any number of means it could be you know Rehabilitation of senior housing or whatever the case may be Brian do you have numbers like what do you think they're maybe I can uh maybe I can talk about this a little bit more um so I did send out a memo early part of December hopefully you had a chance to take a look at that um so there are these two legs in the municipal affordable housing obligation the present need or Rehabilitation share um and it's a set of complicated uh formulas um and so this time instead of an agency of the state telling you this is your number the legislation said these are advisory if you want to do your own numbers you can do your own numbers and in fact our firm did its own entire model for all our clients in the state to give our clients a Counterpoint where they could compare ours versus what DCA came up with and we had no sense that DCA might actually meet the deadline frankly and the law didn't give you any leeway in case DCA met missed its deadline you had to declare a number of course we would want everybody to have a rational basis for that so we spent the summer building this model 40 spreadsheets GIS data looking at 5 million Parcels in the state hand-checking visually 15,000 vacant Parcels to make sure they were really vacant anyway big effort on our part but the point is when we went through the process our President E number was a little higher for Bon so our recommendation is except the DCA numbers they did meet the deadline we had discussions with the people who put it together um we read through their workbook about how they did it it's a credible approach we think ours is a little bit more precise but it just shows that there's more than one way to build a model because the legislation said use these different means of finding it which are not necessarily compatible with each other uh and so uh there are the stringent deadlines once this action is taken then John's got a got to file declaratory judgment action in superior court within 48 hours and mine's got to put on the website the resolution uh that this Council adopts the deadline's January 31st so unless you want to do a special meeting we recommend you to you pass it tonight because it's but again do you do you have a roundabout cost for this like I know it's it's going to come out of the affordable so the affordable housing trust fund has a lot of money in it generally speaking about $14 million I think Mr Skiller said this evening um and so the there are several means to meet that so one of the things where we've done is we've entered into a dialogue with the Bon family community center to provide Rehabilitation money for that uh SRO which would go towards it you have to spend at least $10,000 but that's such a a low number with these today's construction costs um but um that would provide credits for 105 units the other thing you can do is you can actually have new affordable housing units count towards your Rehabilitation number and we did that with the last housing plan which was some Rehabilitation units that uh Department community development did there were I think a handful from Hudson County that we included in the plan and there were a lot of um units that the Housing Authority had done so we cobbled together a number of things and then there was like maybe 40 or 45 that the city itself needed to continue with working on trying to uh do uh and engage uh homeowners to uh get their houses rehabilitated so it was uh a set of things that we could already count as credit and then uh a program to do that Rehabilitation work it might be I would say probably this time we'll have to have some rehabilitation program operated by the city or a third party on behalf of the city um to engage that I would say um Justin Hudson County so I do affordable housing work for C caucus as well they've run an operation like this for some time I would say their average cost runs maybe 35,000 so for yeah about 35 so say three for every 100,000 so that's that's 30 for every million um so there means to uh develop a program um to meet your your obligation um and the city will have a dialogue as well with the Housing Authority uh because they also have Capital Improvement program to improve their units would would you mind I just have a few questions with respect to the numbers and what counts as far as meeting our requirement so if 749 is our number and I just want to make sure I understand and put it in as plain of terms as I can what you just described yes for the sake of generality if we if 500 new constructed units were made tomorrow then the rehab requirement would be down to 249 you would have 500 credits towards that number and and I I didn't mention the time frame it's a 10-year time frame starting in the middle of this year you also mentioned uh the 10 ,000 figure for Rehab stating that that's fairly low if we considered it to be 15,000 then to do 749 rehabs would come out to roughly 11,200 th000 thus significantly depleting that affordable housing trust fund yes but of course you would be uh presumably um more money would be coming into the trust fund in that's 10 years after it so by which money still so you're still the money that are in the trust fund are the monies that are coming in uh by and large from collection on non-residential projects so we have a Statewide non-residential fee uh that is charged and you know back in the old days they used to actually charge commercial developers with growth share uh uh for and and actually impose obligations to for them to create residential developments which didn't work that's why they they created the Statewide F Act but just mind you those are not monies and sometimes people get tripped up and think well hey this is City money it's here in the cers it's an affordable housing trust fund so those monies that get collected from from the commercial projects are there the the fund is actually there to be depleted for these purposes and as you still unless unless there's another moratorium or the Statewide fee goes away we're going to we're going to keep on collecting those monies and to be honest with you we do want I'm sorry goe we actually do want to be in a position where we use those monies uh and I don't know you may you may recall uh we had a governor a number of years ago uh who came in and uh threatened actually to take the monies uh from all the towns and bring them into into the state's general coffers because they weren't using those funds that were deposited into affordable housing trust funds to create those opportunities whether whether it was from Rehabilitation projects uh or or or creation of special needs housing or veterans housing here's why I asked John for several reasons one I I have concerns about the rep the replenishment of those funds as we go forward with as many residential structures that are being passed with some frequency here as opposed to commercial structures also if that fund is available for Rehab which should be done anyway with the units that currently exist aren't there means by which we can meet our requirement at no cost to either that fund or the City by simply changing our policy and making uh changes to our Redevelopment plans and making requirements for certain affordable and Workforce housing yeah you're the legislature was the answer yes you are the legislature you can you can make those policy decisions and so forth there's nothing make those decisions would that count towards this number I mean let me say that if there's if there's new affordable housing and it would have to be the co- housing it would have to be available to people making 80% of the median or less if you looked at my definition of Workforce housing if it was people making between 80 and 120% you couldn't use the affordable housing trust fund for that that housing but as you would indicate and it would not count towards the 749 if you want to do something above that you know then it's it's a it's a policy decision um but yes if there were an inclusionary component that was part of Redevelopment plans that would be a means whereby as projects are um built in Bon that a a per percentage of residential units would be earmarked as either coah housing or coah housing plus Workforce housing and would free up the remaining money in that trust fund to do these rehabs other things other things Yeah so basically because what's going to be said here is this is a quality of life issue which it absolutely is to do these rehabs but it can be done while also tackling the much larger issue so we can have two bites of this apple as opposed to depleting all the funds in that affordable housing trust fund with a simple wave of the pen and a change of a policy we can cut into this number while also doing repairs elsewhere um that's your choice yeah so what I would say is uh so the money in the affordable housing trust fund just to tell you how this process works one of the documents will be putting together is what's called a spending plan that projects revenues that we could anticipate coming into the fund During the period of time uh in the next 10 years we would have a starting point and then we would show how that money is intended to be uh spent and it would be spending the whole thing so it does show how that would do how we would expect to to spend it and usually there's a fair amount of guess work in it and often times they spending plans get amended uh because new new projects show up that you weren't expecting um so it's not uncommon that the spending plans need to get amended over time so that's part of the process too it's almost like a budgeting projection uh for funding the the housing plan and and we know several projects that are coming online that have not paid into that fund that are going to pay into that fund and you have 10 years to do the re reab so that could be done over time and what you were saying is the fund is getting replenished at the same time you're spending but you're taking in new funds so it's possible that we could spend some money on new apartments New housing and a combination of rehab at the same time and that's what you asked right so no I want to clarify what you just said we can do exactly that but by changing our policy and requiring Workforce elements we don't have to spend any money that would be incumbent on devel we all know up here what you want CU you've beaten the dead horse enough I don't think I'm the only one feels that way but you have not actually sat down with me like I said to you you the very next week inac the very very next week wait wait Brian hold on one second because I would say this as well there's been talk of research and numbers and this and that and as a teacher if you don't show your work it's a failure okay it doesn't matter well I'm just saying I've presented this body I've presented this body several several outlines of things that could be done and I've received none in return there's been talked that well we're going to come up with our own plan it hasn't happened well let's turn this into a study haven't gotten the study back on on R so I've I've met my obligation I've certainly come forward with plans ideas and things that we could do to improve the lives of the people some of whom came tonight so I'm available let's not say that I didn't do my part I'm waiting for everybody else's research to show up what you did was you came and you surprised us all with something that you wanted to add a study on that's what you did that was one issue that was okay that was one issue that you did do that we didn't want to go out in the limb without seeing it in in advance and the same thing with your plan there were holes in your plan as a matter of fact we had 18 months to fill the sker was supposed to come back back with the report right yes and talk about the holes that were in your plan uh where is it so but again on this for working on getting for the resolution in front of you just to kind of re refocus the conversation onto what's being voted on tonight tonight is very simple of it's a resolution affirming what our round four obligations are so we can make a a motion to the court to for a declaratory judgment accepting the dca's findings I just want to you know kind of recenter the conversation here f it this is only for low and moderate income housing this is not Workforce housing right as Brian has stated this is from 80% of Ami which in the Jersey City metropolitan area is the average the area meeting income as was provided is $100,000 for a family of four the that is $107,000 so that is the middle ground right here so it's 80% of that and again you were provided with the scale of what the a or immediate income is so this is again this resolution is very simple of do we accept Our obligation of 749 units to rehab over the next 10 years from there as provided in that memo there are going to be several other deadlines that we have to meet but this is the first step of a six seven month process you know just for us to get all our paperwork in order for them to actually uh for uh for the city to implement its uh spending plan you know on how we actually you know rehab these units build new units you know however we achieve this objective that's I just want to make sure that we refocus you know the conversation on this and so my my follow-up question to all of that to anybody who can answer it for me please gentlemen out of those 749 units we are required to rehab them which would be are we are we is it fair to say that we could all be in agreement that that would be a benefit to our existing Bayon residents is that fair it would certainly be okay thank you br now now if we were to add additional units rather than rehab the existing units or if we were to require our developers to allocate a portion of their units and they do qualify they would give us our credit so we would have less rehabbing to our existing Bayon residents and we would add additional units how many of those units are we permitted to dedicate solely to Bay own residents you're not permitted to do that we're not permitted to do that so thereby I have no guarantee that I would benefit anyone living in my city that's correct it's because that's how the rules work uh you can limit it to your region but that's a 4Count area thank so in other words if the mayor of New York City or the governor of New York City of New York decides to send all these individuals that were buzzed In from from Texas and Florida over here at Bayon they also available for the housing they wouldn't be because they wouldn't be residents of New Jersey but it is a it is an area that is designated Within a 4 County radius so the Mandate of additional units or the tradeoff of rather than rehabbing our existing units where we have current bound residents living in them would mean that we would open up the availability to anyone that would qualify within that 4 County radius so we would foro and forsake our own current residents to be able to check a box on a piece of paper that says somebody spearheaded the initiative to allow for additional affordable housing may I say that um from a practical standpoint when that is done um it does tend to attract people that live in the place where they are but it can't be mandated simp can't be mandated nor can it be guaranteed that's correct right so it's sought by the people who need it and are available close to it it's a DAT it's it's rolling the DAT it's a list there's a list and they qualify and they're ped off the list and uh and it is stratified in the sense that it's somewhat complicated effectively there's um so when new construction's done there's certain you have to have uh one two and three bedroom units and you can only have so many have to have mandated so many three bedrooms and no more than so many one bedroom or efficiencies and then the rest can be two bedrooms typically and so what that and then you have to have a a family size that fits within those bedrooms right and so yeah yeah and so uh and then it's stratified by income as well so you get this kind of Matrix there's Lottery done and then whoever family fits the unit that's available gets slotted in there that's ranked the highest so that's how that works thank and uh councilman Booker here I just wanted the professional say I want to thank you for that clarification and director the reason why I pose the question is because I just wanted to reintroduce myself and be aware of the fact that I'm making a vote on a very very very sensitive and serious uh topic and that's why I I just want to say thank you for that clarification so the vote is for rehabbing 749 units yes that's correct and a and a zero new build obligation which again is the that's the recommendation through the DCA okay Su you want to add something sure sounds like a big number it's a big number I just wanted to point out so uh COA changed their rules in 2015 we had to go Superior Court we had to present a plan to the Superior Court Mr wal's firm was the one that went to court successfully Mr sla's firm created that document at that point I just wanted to tell you this one thing we had 648 the last 10 years and we met it so we were able to do that by taking credit for the work we had done and continuing the work that we have done done so I I don't want my only point for clarification is is that we're only going up really a smidgen from where we were we were able to do it and the beauty of what's happening and director Skiller pointed this out but we need to uh go through a little bit more later all of this they've laid out strict things that have to happen be in the next six months and a lot of that goes right back to you it had they have to create a new plan that plan has to go to the planning board there have to be meetings with the council they specifically outlined that in it so I see this tonight you never say no because then you're you know that we're in good shape because we comply and we work with the program very successfully but you know so I'm with director Skiller you know the matter of hand is just to adopt it take care of what you have to do let them go back to court but please take take yeah this as an opportunity for this Council to develop the policies and programs for that are going to guide us for the next 10 10 years intice SK is going to be here to make sure that happens thank you I'm your affordable housing monitor so I just okay thank you sir so so council president just want to address the you know the legislative body here on a from a policy perspective um on this for two things kind of from some of the open conversations that we've had on what should be in the Redevelopment plans currently you know if it's been a policy with the with the city of Bon to not have three bedroom units within Redevelopment plans again you know we kind of only put them at two we want to make sure that as people you know move in renting you know that third bedroom apartment kind of again tense grade families you know creates kids you know living in the apartments we want people to buy the houses here in Bayon you know that was kind of the plan that uh you know was implemented and I think the city has been very successful with that and you can kind of see just along the rents going up housing stock going up being desirable people wanting to live here in Bayon the other thing too is also from another policy perspective that is up to the council's you know wisdom as a legislative body on some of the other uh you know programs too on what you want to see you know money being spent on within the Redevelopment you know planning agreement if you want Park improvements if you want infrastructure you know storm water you know those are all things things that again a Redevelopment plan considers along with the affordable housing you know component of it from a policy perspective it's generally in the past that we've met that obligation we found other sources to fund that um you know and that's why you know the current status of it is as such if it's up to the council's wisdom you know if that policy wants to change that's up you know for consideration but I just want to bring that you know to attention all right we get back to the resolution then so you're ready to vote Yes so on R seven Mr Booker hi Mr Carol I I vote I while I'd like to see an requirement for new or for some element of new housing I'm very happy to see a rehabilitation requirement this is important it's not just a social issue that we're facing here also there were some things said about uh you know as it pandering only to the voters because if they're not going to get the the apartments then it's not worth doing is is insanity also when it comes to Rehabilitation there are things we can do to rehab all that needs to be rehabed while also providing new opportunities for people in our region as opposed to our city but in our region which as the professional stated tends to skew towards the people living in the city in which it is placed so this is important I'm proud to attach my name to it but ju enough isn't a good word for us to adopt we should be always acting and doing more Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa so Neil just so you know we're in agreement that we want the rehab and we want new units that's what I want as well okay whether you called it affordable Workforce whatever I'm in agreement with you so we will find a way to get this done because I'll make sure of it it's just like you will okay on that this is very very important to rehab those apartments that haven't been done in a while uh there's definitely a need out there and I'll vote I R8 is directing the director of planning zoning and development and other City administrators to implement the traffic controls on the Matt B area move by it's move by Council as a whole any questions on R8 Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa and just so everybody knows there's some changes coming down the mai with the traffic department um we had some people here last month I believe it was that uh talked to us about the problems down there which we were aware I was working on this already but I had several meetings with uh the director of planning and zoning and the traffic uh Lieutenant as well and you'll see some things implemented in there very very soon so it's going to make a a major difference and then a few months down the road there'll be a few other changes that unfortunately um we have to go through channels to get approvals so so with that I vote I okay or nine has been removed R 10 is authorizing the purchasing agent to secure Genentech AC systems upgrades for the municipal building located 630 MC from shei International cor pursued to the quote 2559 3738 dated octo December 2nd 2024 for the amount of $34,636 move it on that resolution Mr Booker Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa hi R11 is for the Genentech security card access system and installation of the same for the police training facility and gun raid from sh International Corp purum to quotation 256 04539 dated December 4th 2024 for the amount of $ 58126 66 move it second on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol Mr Perez M weer hi Mr laalo hi number 12 authorizes the purchasing agent to execute any and all documents and take any and all actions necessary to effectuate the procurement and installation of a caterpillar emergency generator for use to Bay City Hall and the police triple redundancy emergency stamina by power system from fly Power Systems for an amount of $341,500 Services related to the planning and facilitating of the planning and compo composing of the five final 5-year plan for the Bayon Urban Enterprise Zone for an amount not to exceed $ 58,60 second on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weamer hi Mr laaloa hi r 14 authorizes the mayor and city clerk to enter to execute and exercise the one-year option with Millennium strategies for grant writing and management consulting services for a period of one year conven in January 1st through December 31st 2025 for an amount of $72,000 move it second on the resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa hi R 15 authorizes the man city clerk to enter into an agreement with Matrix New World engineer ing Remington Vernick engineers and montros environmental as a pool General environmental consultants and lsrp services providers for a period of one year commencing January 1st through December 31st 2025 so move second second on that resolution Mr Booker hi Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer we're on R15 and Mr laalo i r 16 is a resolution qualifying all the firms that submitted in connection with the city's rfps and rfqs for the professional Engineering Services on call to remon verick Engineers Matrix new world KES Waterman LLC tnm Associates and CM Associates for a period of one year commen in January 1st move it second on that resolution Mr Booker Mr Carrol I Mr Perez I miss weer I Mr laaloa hi R 177 is actually awarding the contracts for the Emergency generator West 63rd Street home station to farone Electric for the contract amount of $480,000 move resolution Mr Booker Mr Carol Mr Perez hi M weamer hi Mr laaloa hi and I do have two additional items that are not on the agenda the first one is a resolution approving and authorizing the settlement of litigation related to to the countywide equalized assessment valuation okay and I'll explain that quickly um Jersey City submitted their books uh to this to the county and a bunch of municipalities here B being one of them noticed that four of the uh four pieces of property weren't included as part of their ratables and that would have changed their um Equalization ratio from 91% to to 79% to 91% which takes money out of the other 12 um municipalities Pockets so uh C caucus was the lead Council uh every other town in in um in in nson County joined in and we ended up um having several and David rashy handled it for the city uh had several conference calls with the judge with with experts and everything and finally as of yesterday um all came to an agreement and the net effect of it is that um we're going to go back to a um TW 12% difference they've given up on two of the partials um are going to be eliminated so so we ended up doing very well in this lawsuit in Jersey City now it's to put more money back into the other Town's coffers so uh judge wanted is approved by all the municipalities by today were the last ones meeting um so every other municipality has signed off on this and the State signed off on who would like to move it move it on that resolution Mr Booker Mr Carol hi Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr lapalosa hi I asked Donna ma to explain add two for us um since it has a a decent amount of money in involved in it and um for now on again the policy is if there's an add-on that has money to be spent we need the director to explain it or else we're going to hold off till the next month thank you Donna okay but the reason I apologize for this one I held that ping sheet the director was out sick well not the director uh Anthony from it was out sick had the flu I couldn't contact him I had questions so I held it um but this is for uh new server at City Hall it's also updates that are required for cyber security compliance the licenses that go along with it new computers so we can be compatible with Windows 11 and we have to do this tonight because this price is only good until the 24th so that's why I need to get it on tonight's meeting otherwise the price will go up has this started already because it says January 3D in here no okay no can't start until you approve it okay I'm just wanted to make sure okay so it would be with she International Corp for the bid amount for the contract amount of$ 136,137 okay and and there's no maintenance component to this or anything okay who' like to move it second and on that resolution Mr Booker Mr Carol hi Mr Perez i m weer i Mr laaloa I and with nothing anything else I'll take a motion to adjourn second and on a motion to adjourn Mr Booker I Mr Carol I Mr Perez hi Miss weer hi Mr laaloa have a good evening everybody I