Mayor Jacobs, I am here. Committeeman Hickey here. Mr. Walter here. Mr. Orabana here. Mr. Leonard here. Mr. Rodelius here. Mr. First here. Mr. Wild here. Mr. D. Martino here. Chairwoman Gacha here. Adequate notice of this
meeting of the Bedminster Township Land Board was filed with the township clerk sent to the Burner News and the Courier News and to all subscribers and posted at the Township Municipal Building 1 Miller Lane, Bedminster, New Jersey on January 10th, 2025
to the flag of the United States of America and to Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, I'll open it up to the public if you have anything that you'd like to
discuss. It's not on the agenda. Anybody on the line there? Uh, yes, we have a Jess Burgerer who's online and there is one person in the audience. So, if you have anything you'd like to discuss that's not on the agenda, you can either unmute yourself or raise your
hand or come up to the mic. Yes, there's also some at the back of the room. Okay. Anyone on on live on Zoom? Yes. Not. So, we'll close it to the public. Uh we have minutes that we need to
approve from May if they've had a chance to look at those. We need I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. All in favor? I opposed if anybody uh I'm abstaining.
Annie and and Steve abstain. Yes. Okay. Okay. Minutes are approved. We're having the uh 2005 housing element and fair share plan. Uh I guess we're getting started. What's that? Right away or Yes. Yes, madam chairman. That's a
public hearing. This is now the public hearing on the amendment to the master plan of the planning board landings board of the township of Bedminster U from 20 for 2025 and uh Mr. Banish will describe it and
summarize it for you and the public. Then we'll open to the public for comment and questions. And then hopefully you will adopt the uh housing element fair share plan and proceed on to uh the governing body committee for
their endorsement. Both will be filed within 48 hours of their adoption by Mr. Bardo and they will allow the township to continue its immunity from builder's remedy lawsuits which is a very good thing. So without
much further, I'll just confirm that Frank, you understand you're still under oath from prior testimony in this board. Is that correct? I do. Thank you, Mr. Banish. Please, the board recognize and accepts the qualification of Frank Banish as professional planner.
And please go ahead, Frank. Thank you, Tom, Mr. Collins. Thank you. The board has had an opportunity to discuss this before. This is a public hearing, so we will talk about the entirety of what the plan calls for. But let me just say a couple of things as a starter. The
document is somewhat uh massive compared to, you know, the typical memo you might get from us. And so it's like any elephant, something we want to be able to eat in some bites. And the bites on this one are basically there is a substantial body of
information about the demographic and housing conditions in town. that's a requirement to be included in the housing element and it is most of the first 18 pages. So other than an introduction and some language about what it is what we're here to do in the beginning of the document the the guts
of what we're here to approve tonight certainly the whole document but the fair share plan portion and that starts on page 18. So we're going to talk about uh to the extent that I'm not going to make a presentation of all those
demographic and housing data for the purposes of this discussion or may remember that we provided that to you previously before this document was produced. So I'm assuming that I don't need to talk about that. If you don't think that's the case, I'm happy to
proceed differently. I think everybody's here to find out what it is Bendage is going to do to meet their fair share. Right. And I'm happy to tell you mostly you already did it and you already did most of it a long time ago. So what this fair share plan
has to do according to law as the fair housing plan fair housing act was amended is it has to basically give a complete accounting for your obligation since 1987 and up through 2035 10 years from now. What were you supposed to do
and what did you actually do? So, how many units did you owe? How many of them needed to be rentals or family rentals? How many could be senior units? There are variety of criteria that the units also need to qualify under besides the gross number of units that constitute
your obligation because of the fact that the settlement that was resolved with the Hills PUD and planned residential development produced so many more units than you were ultimately assigned for the first
portion of the COA allocation. You were assigned 819 affordable units in the court settlement or yeah it's a settlement and when the council on affordable housing calculated your obligation it was 154 units and so if
you had to b build five units for every affordable unit you didn't certainly didn't have to build 5,000 or 4,000 units total to get what you owed. So what I'm saying is you did an awful lot of paying in advance and you we're taking credit for a lot of
that paying in advance of this plan and the way the plan lays itself out. It outlines what the fair share obligation is for each round. And so when we talk about the words prior around, I won't go too deep into this, but when COA was first formed under the Fair Housing Act,
they were assigned the job of coming up with housing obligations, and then administering a process without the court that would let a town come in, show them their housing plan, say we're doing what we're supposed to do, and COA could say, "You're right." And they always used to say, "Coa is your friend." And people would laugh about
that, but compared to what we've been through, COA probably was your friend. Nonetheless, your first round, those first two rounds, which amounted to 12 years, was 154 units. Like I said a minute ago, they initially thought that
each round was going to be six years. So this far away from 1987 would have been we would have been pretty further down the road than the fourth round that we're going into now. And what happened was 1987 to 1999 were sort of consolidated for purposes
of these discussions as the prior rounds. The third round was the one we dealt with when we had our settlement with fair share after the last Mount Laurel Ford decision and you've been compliant and that was all taken care of quite a while ago. Um you now had a third round perspective
need obligation of 225 units. We demonstrated previously that you met that and we'll show how you did again. In round four you had a 72 unit obligation. Round three was 1999 to 2025. It was a 25-y year effectively
period. And what most towns got hit with that you didn't get hit with were very substantial obligations where they got they were told here's your 25-year obligation but instead of us letting you start to make that payment first year we're going to tell you when it's almost
the last year that you owe the whole thing before the deadline which is what happened to an awful lot of towns that are still watching thousands of inclusionary unit and developments that haven't even come online yet getting built from the third round. So, in one
respect, the fact that the hills overdid it when it did, it put a lot of housing in a good place, made a lot of great neighbors. I don't think anybody complains anymore about the fact that the hills here, in fact, enough of you have lived there or still live there, so to speak, that that it's not anything
that we think of as a negative, but certainly you paid a lot more than your dues up front. I guess that's really what I'm trying to say. So, as we go through these numbers, I demonstrate how you had the first round up, the prior round obligation, and you met it. And that's the table
two, I believe. Yeah. And that shows that 694 affordable units were the product of Timberbrook, the neighborhoods at the hills, and Flickerman Park. So in that period before 1999,
you had done 694 units when you owed 154. In the allocation for the third round, you had enough credits left over from the extra units that you did before that we were able to apply those credits. And
I I hesitated or failed to mention 269 of the units at the Hills that were deed restricted for affordability when they were built have again been deed restricted for another 30-year period voluntarily by owners who now get the benefit of paying lower taxes and the
unit stays affordable. Has to be marketed through the affordability criteria. Nonetheless, that affordability has remained instead of disappearing as the deed restriction would expire in 30 years and be gone. So, you also got credit for those 269 units. And I I
don't need I don't think I need to read you through the list one by one of these credits on table three that end up at 934. But if you look at the number we're shooting for and you look at how much we're over overshooting the number, uh,
here we had to only apply 225 units to the third round because that was what we owed. So the 934 after we took the 225 out ended up I don't know why it says 702 because that there's something slightly wrong there. But we're we got
seven more than 700 extra credit units going into round four. Now, we have to demonstrate in part how we met those other criteria. So, if you look at David Fullet, there's a requirement for minimum amount of family
units and we've identified what those numbers are and how we've what we've met them with and you've been able to meet those micro criteria that are limits on bonus credits, limits on age restricted units. So, these numbers all comply and
you fully satisfied the third round. That takes us up to how do we meet the fourth round obligation? That's really since the rest of this was pretty much already baked and done. Uh and I have to say when I say baked and done, you had the right to take credit for the
approval that you granted in Plleman. We know because we've been advised that development is going to come back in a different form and it's going to give us some more affordable units than we thought we were getting before or more. So that's been factored into this plan. But we also had to take a debit to get
the credit, right? Because we they we didn't get it before. So I couldn't give us credit for it in the third round. But in the third round plan, we were allowed to take credit for it because we were going to do it. And all we actually had to do to get credit for it was to zone for it. We didn't even have to come up
with an approval or anything like or even a development. U present need obligation is six units. Present need is basically how many units in town are occupied by lower moderate income households that are in need of
some repair because one of the major building systems are not functioning properly. Well, complete kitchen, you know, or working uh sanitary facilities, exterior envelope of the building that's secure and complete and roof and windows
and all those kind. So typically the way towns prove that they actually are not six of those units in town is the building inspector drives around. He already knows most of the town, but he drives around town, looks around for the places that he thinks might qualify, but it's not it's not an easy fit because
then somehow you have to figure out are those people also low and moderate income or are they just not really interested in fixing the and there's some of both sometimes. So, uh, I don't see a reason for you to worry about that because you have so many extra credits that you're always allowed to use some
of the extra credit to do the present need obligation. So, it really gets us down to those 72 units. And when we start to do the accounting for that on table five, we end up being able to show that there
are 812 available credit units, 683 of which are sales and 78 of which are rental. We did not get full credit for the rentals that we had. We had 102 rentals at Parkside and Courtland that
had the restriction and were rentals through the restricted period and then they came off restriction. When we did the plan last time, Fair Share was insisting that we do a family rental portion of what we owed last time, like we owe again this time. And they didn't
give us any credit for the fact that we had extra family rental units from all the ones we did before. So in this plan, I've taken credit for those that still had reed restrictions in place when we took credit. We could have taken credit for them in the third round and they're
in the third round and the I've advanced other things into the fourth round. So the way we're essentially the only thing we need to do to satisfy the obligation is the reformatted version of what was the name of the pluckman development, the KRE development. I don't know if
they ever had a name, right? But this was the mixeduse project that had the apartments. And when when we learned that the uh structured parking became too expensive, we got a haircut on the total number of units, but the law requires them to increase the 20% the
number of affordable units. So, we're going to get 140 total units, 28 of which will be affordable units. Um then the identities of the crediting
that that are shown for table 4 are further identified on page 22 where 18 Pluckman Park units are being credited. the five bonus credits from elite elite because in the third round there were bonus credits that were
applicable to a family rental unit up to a certain or a rental unit up to a certain percentage 25% of your total units. We haven't fully used up all the age restricted units or we those bonus
credits we couldn't get right now if we built the elite units in the fourth round but because they were done in the third round and occupied the five bonus credits got carried into the fourth round. So, that's part of how we're meeting our 78 number. KRE I mentioned a minute ago, we have the 28
uh family rentals and there's a substantial compliance credit for having done such a good job in the past that we didn't finish using of the credit on before. So, that's also applied here. So, as I say, what has already occurred
and all the construction that's taken place plus what KRE will build in Pluckman fully satisfies the obligations that you have under the fourth round. And what and once you get a judgment of compliance and repose means no one can come after the township for a builder's
remedy lawsuit until July 1st, 2035 when I hope to still be your plat. No, just thank you for all this time. I really have enjoyed it. It's been fun. Does Kerry have to start construction on the property? They've reformatted it before
they ever got that far into it because they knew they couldn't pencil it out. Okay. So, they and they we were lucky that instead of just going on to something they had much better figured out that they came back to this one right away because they've got based on the third round stuff, they've got
inventory around the state that they can still build in jobs that are more shovel ready, so to speak. So yeah, they had a complete uh perfected site plan approval. Could have gotten building permits based on that approval, but didn't because of
this other situation. Is based on our zoning for the for the complex, not their construction. Anna makes a really good point. We put them in the plan for 28 units. As long
as our zoning requires and allows them to build what we say and we get the 28 units, they don't ever have to approve it in the fourth round. You don't even have to approve the development. You have to zone for dissolves. But we know they want to do it. We want them to do it. So, you know, I'm not playing games
here. I don't mean to make it sound like that. We're not shuff. There's no shuffling the deck here. You already the deck got played against you a long time ago. We're just trying to get, you know, better hand. board. Anybody questions for Frank? I have I have a question.
Um Frank, last meeting we talked for a few minutes about group homes. Did we satisfy that that requirement? We don't have an an obligation for group homes, Lou. If we had them, we would get expert credit. We tried to pursue
whether or not the the one uh home in town for the retired pastors that we knew functioned as a group home was eligible and it was not which is the because it's not available doesn't qualify the way that they credit
this thing. But we're at a point where we still have seven or 800 extra credits. So, it's not something where to the extent if we had them, we would take credit for them, but we don't. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for asking. Mhm. Can't
tell. I'm looking at him at all. Can he? I thought I was looking right in his face. Anybody know? I'll open up to the public. Anybody online? Uh there is one woman online, Jessburg. So if you are interested in
stating something, you can either unmute yourself or raise your hand uh and let us know. If you're interested in the audience, you can just come up to the deis and give your comments. Michelle Hoffman, I'm sorry, I didn't hear Michelle Hoffman. Hoffman. So I I
have a question, but this is probably not the forum report, but you can tell me when there is. So since uh Bener has met their requirement as far as the number of um housing units they have to have and therefore affordable housing units, my question always goes back to
the affordable housing trust fund account that just sits there and I want to know what forum I can discuss that in. here Frank. Well, it's not at the it's not here land use. Right. Exactly. So, that's why I'm asking what forum
committee. Okay. And Frank, you is working on Yeah. Part of this process will involve amending the spending plan that guides what the trust fund can be used for. Okay. Okay. So, before the court ultimately approves the plan that we're
going to be submitting to the court as a result of this hearing, they will come back to us and talk about how we're going to spend that money. And we won't get a settlement with the Fair Share Housing Center unless we've developed a spending plan that appropriately
allocates those trust fund dollars according to the categories that the law requires and you know, practical purposes that make sense. Is there a specific interest that you what's the timeline because the last spending plan was 2018.
So we're so should be seven years out. So just wondering how frequently are the spending plans supposed to be done? They don't there isn't a regular frequency like that. Is there a specific spending interest that you have that you want to talk about? Well, I can remember
in the past um I I serve on a condo board and um I have for 10 years. So, in the past there were issues with regards to capital improvements and at this point um COA had come down on the BHC
because they were sitting on well over a million dollars and made them give out some grants for some capital improvement project. I've been asking about that for years and I know that the account sits in excess of $2.8 $8 million, but it doesn't seem that any funding is going
back to help the communities that have affordable housing units. Now, I will tell you, my community is not 100% affordable. A lot of those units went to market. I believe we have like 60 units that are still affordable, but we had asked for help with capital improvement projects like roofing and we just
replaced stair landings. We're replacing stairs. We have to do parking lot. Now I granted we have you know maintenance fees to pay for all of that but since 60 units qualify as affordable housing and they are being used in the quota to meet
fair share housing requirements then shouldn't we be entitled to a portion of the projects based upon those 60 units? the subsidy that applies to affordable housing can occur at a number of
different ways. And there are certainly are times where trust funds help in situations like the one you're describing. One of the biggest issues is that it can only sort of touched on it when you said some of the units went out of restriction. Because the money can't be spent on
anybody that doesn't qualify. So I think the last time this came up because I remember hearing about it until that was a sticking point. I thought that maybe I'm misremembering. So, I've I've been told by four different people, members of township committee, um, town clerk,
that in order to get any funding, um, all of the units that are deemed still affordable in our community would have to be financially re-qualified. And that would be at the cost of those individuals. So, we would have to hire a third party company to re-qualify
everyone, which doesn't quite seem fair. If they're allowed to be counting those units as part of the fair share requirement, they're count they get counted one time because they were built. Mhm. And then when they come off restriction, unless we extend the
restriction, they don't count again. So, we're not counting them in a way we're not entitled to because they were built when they exist. So, that's sort of why they're counted. Okay. The other part of what you're asking about I think is a little more complicated. I don't think the planning board is really formed. No.
And that's why I'm asking, but I I wanted to find out. Important question. Yeah. I wanted to find out tonight to make sure that we met our fair share requirement so that at that point now I know that I can't be told again, oh, we're saving that money to build new units because that's what I was told by
uh Mayor Jacobs back in 2021. So, um, that being said, I'm still looking for, uh, information on how we can acquire some of those funds to help with our capital improvement project. I think it's only fair to say that we fully anticipated needing those monies to meet
this obligation. Didn't know that we were going to end up in this situation when we got here. So, I think it's Well, that's awesome. So, then now there is no obligation. So, now there's in excess of $2.8 million, and I would like to see that go back into the communities. As I've mentioned to many people before in
many of my many many emails saying that if the funds were going back into the community, maybe people wouldn't be so averse to paying the recapture fees because that money is just sitting there. So that's my point. So I can definitely come back to a township committee meeting if we can put it on
the agenda. I would love to talk about it and find out. Um, I don't think the process of making one every make everyone re-qualify at their own cost when they're already living in an affordable housing unit is fair. I'm trying to do what's fair for the
community. So, that's my goal. Oh, I think we all are. Yeah. Yeah. But I I can tell you that I have been battling this since 2022 and I just get spun around in circles and no one will give me a direct answer. Um, one other question I do have and I don't know if somebody maybe you know because no one
else seemed to give me an answer. Um, once KOA was no longer overseeing a lot of the affordable housing who took on that role of overseeing how those fund how those funds are being spent because I was directed to DCA, reached out to
them and they told me to go fairshare housing. Fair share housing doesn't respond to me. I've left numerous messages, sent emails. I finally got someone to take my call and she's like, "Oh, email me." And still nothing. No one will give me any of that information. So, do you know who I can
contact? Fairshare Housing Center for the people that approved comp the compliance plan that Bed Mixer submitted with the last spending plan that approved. So, again, that spending plan is seven years old. Sure. And there was only $1 million back then. Now there's almost straight. So,
Right. And and part of the process of going through the court and getting the compliance judgment for our plan involves presenting the court with the set with the spending plan that fair share plan fair share housing center will have. Okay. Or else they'll give us
a hard time. Okay. So fair share housing is the organization that does oversee the spending. And I think if you were to ask them, "What are the complications of your group with your mixed income status trying to do what you're trying to do, they probably could tell you quicker than I can, but I can't get anybody to
answer. I've emailed. I've called. I mean, if you can connect me with someone, I leave voicemail messages. Nobody ever calls me back. So, it it has been a battle for two years. I just need somebody who ma'am ma'am they ma'am I'm the board I'm the board
attorney and okay I think you're I think you're sort of misunderstanding the process of how this works and Frank is helping you but fairshare housing center is a not is a nonprofit entity it
does not act as a governmental entity and it it did not replace KA KA was eliminated by a statute called A4 and
certain aspects of it are basically allocated or to an alternative dispute resolution program. Okay. That we are the township is participating in. So
really, it is probably the courts that determine whether a spending plan amendment is acceptable or not. But first, all discretion on that subject rests with the township committee of every township or the governing body of every township, including the township
committee of Bedminster Township. So they keep telling me that everybody has to financially to qualify and we have company to to do that and and that is that that that may I I don't know the detail of that and I'm not trying to help I can't answer that question right
now but I don't think it's as simple as saying who is in charge of it because fairshare housing center is just a party and interest in the alternative dispute resolution program. They're not even actually
opposing the township's um declaratory judgment. So, it's just much more complicated than you are arguing. And well, I'm just bear with you. I think these are future I think these are future I think these are all future
these are all future discussions that we you can continue at the township committee about the spending plan. But they are not they are not like uh there's no there's no clear um uh authority
entity governmental entity for review and approval other than arguably the alternative dispute resolution program the courts. Okay. It's basically a it's basically a replacement of the
declaratory judgement process of round three. So that's a little it's very complex what I just described and I you know it just is not really germanine to this housing plan. No and I and I get that and like I said I just
came because I wanted to make sure that we've met the requirements because then I will um at that point we know that we're not spending money on new construction. It's no we we we might end up the committee has the discretion to decide how to spend the monies in a housing trust fund and that is very
broad discretion in fact if you've seen the plan from 2018 I think it was updated in 2023 but basically you see there are categories of expenditure that are possible in a spending plan percentages allocations and they all can
it can be changed over time and the key is that it it can only be spent in accordance with uh the rules, strangely enough, of a no longer existing entity, the Council on
Affordable Housing and perhaps court uh review of whether a change in a spending plan can take place. So, it's all very complex. I don't think it's gerine to this this particular hearing tonight, but uh and I'm just trying to help you
know that it's it's not like to money from a housing trust fund. Well, I assume that those funds that that 2.8 plus million dollars would go back into affordable housing since all of those funds did come from recapture
fees from affordable housing units. So, I would assume that it would stay within that program. Correct. No, no, they it it it's it stays it it not necessarily the way you're describing it. It's and there are funds in the housing trust fund that come from other sources besides the recapture program. That
being said, I think I think uh what what you're getting at is can it be spent on certain things? It can be, but the discretion to spend it rest with the township committee, not the landings board. Okay. And again, like I said, I just needed a starting point because I've gotten nowhere in my efforts over
the past three years. So, I appreciate it. I will be back the next time. Thank you. Anyone else? Janine. Uh, anyone else? There is one person online. If you have anything that you'd like to say, you can unmute yourself
again. Raise your hand or or just start to speak. No. All right. I'll post it to the public. So, madame chairman, uh, if the board is ready, you have before you a short resolution which is would be effective
tonight. If someone moves it and seconds it and it is voted in in favor of it will adopt tonight the housing element fair share plan of 2025 as prepared by Frank Banish. It
will then become part of the township plan landings board master plan. It will then also be referred over to the township committee and John Bolardo for eiling within 48 hours of tonight and to the township committee for endorsement I believe at its next meeting and uh after
its endorsement by a resolution of endorsement that becomes the fair share plan uh uh of the township itself and it then gets recorded within and he filed with
program court program within 48 hours of that. And all of this is great because you are accomplishing it before June 30th, 2025, the deadline for immunity uh under the uh statute A4. So if there's
someone who would move that resolution, we can move on. It would be great. So move. Second roll. And a roll call. Mayor Jacobs. Hi. Commission Hickey. I Mr. Walter. Hi, Mr. Orabana. Hi, Mr.
Leonard. Hi, Mr. Rodrias. Hi, Mr. D. Jveni. I Mr. First, I Mr. Wilds. Hi, Mr. D. Martino. Hi, Chairman Matcha. Hi. Resolution is approved.
We have um another resolution for uh AT&T need motion to approve. I'll make motion to approve. Second. Mayor Jacobs. Committeeman Hickeyi. Wait, this is AT&T. Yes, you were you
were accused. Yeah, you're accused. It was I think it was board adjustment. It was planning board. Sorry. Yeah, you but you but I'm I cannot you can. Thank you. So it was Mayor Jacobs. Hi. Mr. Walter. Hi. Mr. Arbani were not here. Mr. Leonard. Hi. Mr. Das. You were
recruz. Mr. Dini. I. Mr. First, you were not here. Uh, Mr. Wild. Hi. Mr. D. Martino. Hi. Chairman Gawa. Hi. resolution is approved. I forgot, right? Yes.
And we already did the um amendment to master plant. We did that resolution. Yes, we did. Okay. Um since Paul isn't here, are you going to speak up for for Paul? I would love to pretend to be Paul. Hold on.
Um no. Um so we have two determinations of completeness. Um both Tigerclaw and Varnish h uh were deemed incomplete earlier this year. They both resubmitted their information and now Paul has given
us letters which you guys have in your packets where there are some waiverss but he do believe that they are able to be complete and to be heard. Both of them however requested August 7th. Nobody seems to want July. So um I don't think it's a problem. I asked Paul if he
thought we would be able to hear both. We'll probably hear Varnish because it is a homeowner first and then Tiger Claw, which is the gas station. So, um I I do believe though, Tom, we have to have them vote for a determination of completeness. Is that correct?
That that is correct. I will help the board with that motion. So it it is a motion by the board to um wave the remaining items for completeness for uh the tiger paw application first uh and
to deem the application complete. Is there such a motion? I'll make a motion. Second and a roll call. Uh let's see. Tiger call was not you young men. Mr. Walter.
Hi Mr. Arbana. Hi Mr. Leonard. Hi Mr. Rodilius. Hi Mr. G. Jvenini. Hi Mr. First. Hi Mr. Wild. Hi Mr. D. Martino. Hi. Chairwoman Gotcha. I Okay. And now on the varnish
application. It is a motion to wave the remaining items for completeness uh and to deem the application complete. Is there such a motion? So moved. Second,
Mr. Walter. Hi, Mr. Arbana. Hi, Mr. Leonard. Hi, Mr. Rodius. Hi, Mr. D. Javini. Hi, Mr. First. Hi, Mr. Wild. Hi, Mr. D. Martino. Hi, Chairwoman. Gotcha. Hi. Both applications are ready to go to uh
our August meeting. We have date service. Oh, yeah. August. August 2nd. Okay. Um, I don't see anything else on the agenda. Um, any board members have anything they'd like to
discuss? I'll just mention that we had a u meeting uh with property owners and business owners uh meeting at Mr. village 8 street corridor. Uh similar to the meetings we had down in pluckman
regarding the vitality of the commercial uh market down there the retail office space that issue involved in town. We had um really a great turnout from the businesses being
village and um getting ideas and and what it's working, what's not working, parking, always an issue issue came up about signs and
what are we doing on signage particularly in historic district and just about that entire corridor is in historical district. And honestly, the the next round of meetings we have may also extend the
same invite to folks in Park Hills Welsh. So we can talk about not just the corridor that ends up bridge, but corridor extends into Hills as one B Street, Florida's business district.
relative ideas and Frank Colin is to um some steps. Uh probably the most important thing to talk about back up. We have similar ambitions for Bminster and Plug them in,
but they have differing abilities to deliver. We we'd like really nice walkable, engaging streetscapes, lots of restaurants, retail, blah blah blah. And what we came to the conclusion today was we also like the financial services and other offices that are paying the rent
to keep it main street looking pretty nice and nice looking signs in front of the properties and it's not going to and we don't want to divest those people so that we could put in retail and obviously at a time where the footprint of retail is sort of shrinking
particularly in this scale of retail you got to wonder you know we would watch a series of faces change like we've seen from the place here in town for. So it was really it was a great sentiment about working together. I think that was
really encouraging. The pastor obviously is a very magnetic personality who really gets people going and uh inspired some kind of a conversation I think was the start of something that really you know Larry and Bon have led
this effort twice there and in Bedminster village I was really we are still finding out what the results will be but I think it's really positive and I think what we're going to find in Bedminster is that they're going to have complaints Like we always hear about
signs. This time around, we probably really need to figure out the answer, make some changes. The issue with signs is always, it always drives me nuts when I go to one of these towns where the shopping center was only allowed to have signs that had all the exact same letters of the same
color scheme because branding the signs are there to help you for a couple of reasons, right? The guy wants you to know he's there, but for wayfinding purposes, you want to know he's there. So when you pull over, you saw you saw it. You know, you never been here before. Driving down the road, you
you know you're looking for a certain kind of place. The sign helps. But I think what we want to do without giving away the bar is be a little more sympathetic to the idea that some of our dimensionality like an 8 square foot sign 2x4 is going to be challenging
even at speeds that we have traffic going by on main street. I I think it was encouraging. Sure. I'm really glad to see it. There's also some misunderstanding about u what the zoning is, what towns, what has permitted in
the past and Paul noted that the uh board of planning board adjustment only reviews the plans that are submitted and requested.
So for example for those who remember the Rio team application which builds the former deserios or that scripts and the said well you know
repurposing that building is is just too much. The building's falling apart. It should be demoed. And um we were told in Kuntown and question came up did you ever request it to be demolished?
No. The mayor says misunderstanding, disinformation might be no consider. So you know there is a fair amount of that perhaps some result that meeting that
I don't get what you don't answer and that would potentially be building demolition construction. It was nice that you were able to dismiss that misunderstanding in
that setting where everybody heard the fact that he was claiming something that was just happening wrong and you straightened them out. That's good. So, um, you know, we'll see. Yeah, that that would improve, but it years ago
and once again the building is not going to get better on its own and uh sits there faking and uh so maybe now the information is back and actually see something um in place.
By the way, just to add on to what Frank and Benner said, Grace Fellowship Church has become a hub of activity, right? It is an amazing building that they've renovated. Um, it is attracting services on Sunday, but they've got a whole bunch of other things going on. They're actually uh Little Pickle's biggest
bagel press. So, they feed 200 bagels to people just on Sunday alone. But, it started to talk around what can we do to attract foot traffic? Maybe it's a street fair or maybe it's, you know, partnering together with some of the other businesses to do something special to bring people down there. So, and they
all heard that and they were all kind of starting, you know, starting to jo me in terms of what what could be done there? What's possible? Because again, people are attracted to that time. Chris said get on a weekend 500 500 in person and then um couple hundred
on on on video. So, far too, right? from all across and across the world. Yeah. So they've really built something from as you recall that was a a failing building and that parish was going nowhere until he took it over. So something to think about in terms of you
know using that as a as a magnet for attraction of other other businesses, other uses whatever. And it was interesting because we did have um representative from design appliances. We had the owner of Mediterranean uh
there as well. and uh you know each of them had some parking issues. So um a lot of the discussion came back to parking zoning requirements and
public standards or setbacks not reached. Uh so there are some takeaways for us to consider looking at village areas seeing and people, you know, need to take a
look at the neighborhood zone for the village businesses there to thrive and some of them are, you know, are doing okay and others um some of those properties need
a little help. News flash cats is pharmacy coming back and ice cream and ice cream. Good. Uh advance are they moving forward? I
know they're doing um fresh pet. Yeah. Yes, you know that almost. So, Fresh PE um the expectation is that Fresh Ped may be doing um they may be opening for business, you know, the thought was June. So,
maybe they do finish in June or perhaps more likely July. Uh they needed a utility permit for PSG. I think that was issued last week. conservation of gas service installed
building and they have sidewalk issues. They have a sidewalk issue um that's associated with uh DOT and that's probably more germanine to the rest of the project. Uh DOT is asking for a
sidewalk to run along group 206. Uh what the board approved, what this board approved was a sidewalk that comes down off the intersection by the white property and by the
intersection of Lington and 206 and then passes the fresh pet building heading south. Comes in towards the project by maybe about 15 20 yards. runs
along the parking lot and then comes back up by the entrance. That was planning bill approved. That's where we all want to be. Um DOT wants a sidewalk immediately
adjacent to the highway. Adjacent to what? I'm sorry. The highway 206. Oh, the highway. so that you can walk and if anyone's walking there other than walking down to George not really sure where anyone going
there's you know that that property ends at that crazy split between 202 and 206 there's no pedestrian access biking access from DOT that gave a policy that uh
there should be pedestrian bike access highways and would like to get that policy implemented. They implemented it anywhere else along
Highway. No, actually there cars are going left and right. So um you know discussions I've had discussions with um advance with their construction guys. I've had uh
discussions with Paul Fero. Paul's had discussions with them. gone back to a leazison at DOT and saying the administrative planning board disagrees and liked the proposal to bring the
pedestrian and biking access closer to the buildings, the parking lot rather than up along the highway, which we thought would be just visually unappealing and perhaps unsafe. Um so that will be continued
discussions with deal but as to the phase two of their project. Yeah I think that this is one of the issues that that um needs to be resolved for the contin okay but the landscaping the refresh pet is in I believe you're starting
landscaping um for the properties on some road in those the back areas. So, uh, think that they have the best commercial going out soon. They have the best commercial. Oh, the Fresh Pet one. Yeah, that is so
cool. Yeah, Fresh Pet is very, um, very anxious to get into the building. Um, once again, I I think we're looking at just a few short weeks. He moved along quickly. We just want more national headquarters.
We're looking. Anybody else? Anything else? Anybody? No. So, we have nothing further in July. Uh, Janine, that's it. July 3rd. We had already said we were not having a meeting because no one will probably be around. And at this very moment, no, it
does not look like we will be having a July 10th meeting unless something else comes in. Um, we don't have any applications that are ready except for these two. And I guess they were probably in the same position where their professionals were going to be away and didn't have people that would
be here. So as of right now, we don't have anything in July. I will keep you post it maybe, you know, in a week or two, but you probably have the month off. I I know. I'm just Okay. No. Need a motion to adjurnn.
So moved. Second. All in favor? I have a good summer everybody. Good night. Good night everyone. Night. Thank you. Good night. Janine, mark me in. Okay, you got it. I got you, Lou. Okay.
Thanks. Thank you, Janine. Janine and Frank sign sign the resolution and the you resolution. Thank you. Me too. hearing. Yes, sir.