the official newspaper of the Burough of Belmar and the Asbury Park Press and notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board of the missile building take roll call councilwoman Donovan here council McKenna here mayor Becca Fusco here councilman Ro here council Le here
please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing for a moment
of silence for our troops their families our first responders and also tonight let's include Michael Farber who is a beloved resident of the VHA building he passed away recently and also Joe Sanzio
a longtime resident of Belmar thank you before we start the workshop I just like to take a moment uh I wasn't here last week but I understand uh that the Elmore Fire Department uh our Goodwill
Company and Hook and Ladder they did a great job in fighting the fire on 13th Avenue i saw pictures it was um it looked pretty intense to me and obviously you know quick response quick thinking and uh help I believe from
other uh fire departments really limited uh I think the damage could have been horrendous you know with buildings being close together so uh I'd like to thank you guys all and keep any other
comments let's move on to workshop we want to start with the proclamations sure yeah i'm going to change things around a little bit well let's let's do the proclamations the first we have the first one for Arbor Day
okay arbor Day 2025 whereas in 1872 J sterling Morton passed proposed proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than
a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cut heating and cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce
life-giving oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our town increase property values enhance the economic
vitality of business areas and beautify our community and whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore the mayor and council of the Burrow of Belmar do hereby proclaim April 25th 2025 as Arbor Day in the Belmar and the
Burrow of Belmar and the mayor and council hereby urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations
thank you and next the council president Robinro proclamation april is child abuse prevention month whereas we all have a responsibility as individuals neighbors community members and citizens of the burrow of Belmar to help create
healthy nurturing and safe experiences and whereas healthy and safe childhoods help produce confident and successful adults and whereas child abuse and neglect often occur when people find themselves in stressful situations without community resources and don't
know how to cope and whereas incidences of child abuse and neglect can be reduced by making sure all families have the support they need and deserve to raise their children in a healthy environment and whereas courtappointed special advocates CASA is authorized by
state statute and federal law to help the court and child welfare systems make best interest decisions on behalf of children removed from home because of abuse or neglect and whereas CASA volunteer advocates in Belmar help to ensure that abused and neglected
children who are placed in foster care and other out ofome placements are safe and receive the services they need to achieve well-being and whereas CASA advocates reduce the number of moves between placements help shorten the overall time a child remains in
placement and serve as a consistent person in the child's life until that child achieves permanency in a safe home with a loving family now therefore the mayor and council of the burrow of Belmar do hereby proclaim April 2025 as child abuse prevention month and urge
all citizens to support the CASA network across New Jersey as it straightens families and helps children learn grow and thrive thank you let's move on to workshop any items for tonight's discussion
seeing no hands i guess we'll move on to uh petitions i have not received any petitions okay moving right along approval of the minutes i have a motion to approve the minutes of the March 25th meeting
i'll make a motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor Becca Pesco yes council Rinro yes councilman Leis yes a reports of council councilwoman Diamond
so on April 26 the environmental coalition will be hosting a cleanup at Silver Lake uh please consult uh the Facebook page for more information um I should also say that we have very good news from coming out of the environmental commission which is that
we were notified by the Army Corps just this week that even though they did not receive new appropriations they have put together enough funding to go forward with our project so I want to say a very special thank you to Diane Villow and Gary Hener
who are here today i can't see anyone else's but they did a tremendous amount of work on this project they continue to do a tremendous amount of work on all of our projects and the entire town really thanks you both and all the members of the environmental coalition
um there is countdown to seafood festival uh we are working on the tourism commission with the uh Belmar Chamber of Commerce to come up with ideas to spread some of that traffic around town to benefit the benefit the businesses
um in other news um I invited Assemblywoman Margie Donlin to meet with us uh along with representatives from Spring Lake Avon Bradley and other neighboring towns um Counciloman McKenna and Councilwoman Maria Ronin are there uh we we're all in accord uh that we
have con though we appreciate the um good intentions behind the bill to provide clarity on public access we are concerned that the vague way is currently written would actually result in more incidents like we had last summer rather than fewer so we are hoping to continue working with the
assembly woman and um our other representatives to um get to some type of agreement um the I met also with a group of residents the friends of Silver Lake we went over all of our current outstanding grant opportunities and the general
goals for the lake uh we will be continuing to work with them and update them on that progress um and finally I really want to again thank the Belmar Fire Department for their work um along with our neighboring fire departments um you guys do an incredible job you are
all volunteers i think it's really important to reiterate that for the record um as we always say you guys have all the training and responsibility of paid firemen but uh none of the pay so thank you very very much okay Councilwoman Penny thank you Mayor
yes I would like to echo the sentiment of thanks to all the fire departments who helped us espe especially Belar Fire Department you guys were first on the scene it could have been a lot worse from what I understand so thank you so much at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning for coming out and helping put
out that fire okay uh recreation Easter egg hunt has been rescheduled from last Sunday to this or rather last Saturday to this Saturday 11:00 a.m sharp between fourth and fifth a beaches uh signups are happening now for summer basketball
kids running club kids and adults tennis lessons all the information is on the recreation website uh she tree commission yesterday the third graders from both St rose Grammar School and Belmar Elementary School planted trees um in honor of uh our Belmar's Arbor Day
celebration so even though Arbor Day is this Friday it was spring break for a lot of the kids so they just did it this past week and so they had a great time great weather um and so that was a good another good event uh the next shade tree commission meeting will be in
conjunction with the environmental commission so you know we always find many of our thoughts and ideas kind of or work congruently so we decided to do a joint meeting and that's going to be the next meeting May 8th and that's here at Burough Hall uh the next EADA meeting
is scheduled for Thursday May 1st couple things uh St grammar School and the high school would like to announce their first ever musical theater camp they are hosting this summer kids from K through 12 so 5 through 17 years old there's
going to be two sessions June 23rd to the July 18th and July 21st to August 15th you can also pay by week all the information is going to be on the St rose um Facebook pages so look out for grammar school or high school Facebook pages for more information about musical
theater camp sounds like it's going to be a really great program um they al all the kids start spring break um tomorrow or Friday rather Thursday or Friday half day Thursday for Belmore Elementary my kids were done today so nice long spring
breaks everybody was looking forward to it uh Belmar Elementary has been participating in ascending district enrichment program selected students were able to participate in woodshop Jeopardy academic challenges and STEM challenges so they went to different schools to learn how to participate in
these belar Elementary also did a penny wars between the grades so everybody collected change from what I understand but they were able to raise $4,000 for Atlantic Farms which is pretty cool um and then I have a couple good things happening around the skate park so skate
park committee we will also be at the seafood festival selling t-shirts accepting donations and then we have a special guest artist Jill Hawthorne she's going to be customizing blank skate decks so if you would like to bring your skateboard over she could customize art on that all donations are
going to the skate park i'm also happy to announce that Belmar Porchfest this year is advertised that all proceeds from Porchfest is also going to the skate park this year so we are grateful to the Porchfest um folks and organizers for making up their donation this year
which is great june 21st is National Go Skateboard Day we are going to do a townwide dying to donate or as we like to call it a spend to shred event all businesses that wish to participate will donate a portion of their sales back to
the skate park um we're going to create a list of businesses who want to participate blast it out on social media so it'll drive traffic to those businesses and all the money will um go benefit the skatepark if you'd like to participate um you can reach out to me at
jkinyfillmore.com and lastly our next big fundraiser for the skatepark is going to be in uh October October 11th at bar bands giveaways prizes more information to come so stay tuned all right and that's all I have thank you thank you Council President Raeroa thank
you Mayor uh the library has some great upcoming events for everyone to enjoy uh the poetry power hour jam is this Thursday uh featuring New Jersey spoken word artists James C ellerby and Don Krypton and eight local poets so that's
at Taylor Pavilion at 6 p.m it's free and open to all get your e tickets by registering online at elmart library.org uh the next financial education series is Tuesday April 22nd at 6 PM at the library focusing on financial decisions
for young adults uh high school graduation is coming get your graduate ready now to navigate post high school financial decisions uh also free and open register online uh while I am thinking about that a reminder that we
have until May 13th if you have a senior um that is looking for a scholarship um that's Belmar or Lake Ko please go to the Belmar website um and uh I just typed in women's club in the search and it came um up with where you can get the
application for it um applications and all required documentations listed above and then you'll see this sheet that comes up um must be submitted to Belmar Women's Club Johanna Rover Robinson education chairperson PO Box 95 Belmar
New Jersey um and that is by May 13th 2025 and each scholarship amount is $1,500 um so please this is one of the most wonderful things that our community does for our community and the Belmar Women's Club knocks it out of the park um so
financial responsibility okay I I'm back um the 2025 speech uh Spring Beach readers book fair is Saturday April 26 12 to noon I'm sorry 12 to 4 at Taylor Pavilion and that has 40 different
Jersey Shore authors uh there's children young adults adult fiction non-fiction there's something for everyone uh stock up on your great Jersey Shore summer reading free admission and free parking um I also believe that the Chamber of Commerce is doing their shop and jam uh
that day as well um is that I'm Oh okay um I believe that they're doing a shop and jam so hopefully we'll find out more about that please uh look online um I think they're going to have musicians um coming downtown i want to
say that that is also um the 24th or 26th Saturday April 26 it was Yeah it's been advertised um sorry I'll get the more details and we'll put back up on Belar website um as well if that's okay
um also note that the library will be closed this Friday Saturday and Sunday for the Easter holiday weekend um and then Belmar Housing Authority had its meeting last Monday where Johanna Johanna Roer Robinson was appointed as
the newest commissioner on the board uh this is following the vacancy for Mary Lynches who recently resigned after serving the board for many years uh congratulations Johanna uh there was a recent inspection of the units which highlight highlighted some issues of
clutter and safety there was some mice activity um the residents are to report anything that um is is going on in their um units especially mouse activity or there's been some recent flaking of paint um it's very important that they
um put out a work order which is a triplicate form um that you can get directly from the the superintendent um so we talked about that in response to the graffiti on the building and the scaffolding um there have been new cameras installed on the west and east
sides of the building and the $676,000 grant from HUD is in its last stage um and the BHA is now able to access the program themselves it specs are ready to go out on the facade repair when funding is received in addition we're hoping to use an additional
emergency fund um repair funds um from HUD and then last but not least uh May 3rd we have the unveiling of our piano and piano plaza um we invite everyone to
come and enjoy musical performances by David Sanctuous himself um he's coming from Hawaii to to play for us and to dedicate um the piano to his mother and um and it's going to be a wonderful
celebration this is from 2 to 4 May 3rd um please come and and be there and celebrate with us it's something that the burrow is really proud to be a part of and the Belmar Art Center has done such a great job planning uh thanks Lewis thank you Mayor uh the
shopping is April 26th from 1 to 4 thank you just to just to clarify uh I don't have much i just want to thank uh the friendly sense of the challe uh Delmore Police Department and the surrounding police department's EMS water rescue
team our chief of lifeguards and DJs for another really successful plunge for autism uh this year the water was about 45 degrees and the air was a little bit colder with six foot seas um and they still managed to raise
$92,000 so big big congratulations to them uh that's all I have Mayor okay i'm just going to use this opportunity to to answer two questions that I uh had uh today i ran into two people during my travels two of my favorite commenters
who come to the meetings one Claire Hiner she had a question on the um Third Avenue bathroom she wanted to know what was going on with that so I told her I I know I had a a report from our engineer i don't know if you have anything more
than what he put here but it seems like we have um we had a pre-application meeting with the New Jersey D um and plans and applications for the CAFRA permit and the flood hazard permit are in the process of being prepared and
maybe have been submitted already i'm not I'm not sure about that and um so it's it's moving it's moving along and the Third Avenue bathroom had been added to that um for request so heard
anything with with Jim Morris our our burough engineer on this so that's why I'm asking her if she has any last minute updates we actually um yeah I had intended to bring this up in my report but um Council McKenna and I met for with uh our business administrator for
over two and a half hours with the burough engineer to go over our uh streets and the plan on um streets road and uh water and sewer um which was extensive and we saw all the funding for it the potential timelines and it also included the plans for the new bathroom
down on 16th uh which are beautiful really um and a lot of thought going into that process and about whether or not we have to shimmy the playground over or not um but uh that also would affect the third avenue bathroom and the potential to use
once we put a permanent bathroom on 16th Avenue with some of our grant funding that is coming in this year the hope is to be able to move the portable trailer bathroom back to Third Avenue so it won't happen this summer but fingers crossed we will get it done by next summer
if if okay in any event we'll keep you updated as soon as we hear something we'll let you know perfect and I think that we're also still pursuing other options if we can't have it this summer um for something temporary as well for those
who have a hard time u making it to Taylor Pavilion my other favorite person who usually ask questions is Neil Sheek i don't see him here but in case he's watching uh I he had an issue about a when inlet terrace
was paved part of D Street was paved between fifth and fourth and they painted the the curb yellow and for some reason it's peeling and we both walk our dogs in that area and you know he was concerned about the peeling and the getting on the grass and and so on so uh
if you're listening Neil I spoke with Billy and he said he'll take care of it it needs to be scraped and all the peeling removed and repainted i don't know why it's peeling so quickly but we can always ask the Jim Morris our engineer to take a look at that okay um
and that's it for me i have one more thing too i spoke to Billy about the toilets in the ladies room here at the wall that there's been many complaints about and Billy's on it so it's we're in the works right Bill just say guess
okay um now that we're through all that let's go to the public session on the resolutions that are on the agenda if one has a comment or question about a resolution on the agenda please step forward state your name and address
hi Mike Delasio Avenue i'm commenting on ordinance uh resolution 202508 um full disclosure I sit on the plane board uh I'm very familiar with the developments that have come up see redevelopment plans um sorry Mike are
you talking about the ordinance ordinance yes that'll be later comment on later this is just resolutions anyone with questions on the resolutions okay everyone okay can I have a motion to close the public session i'll make the motion second all
in favor i can I have a motion to approve the resolutions as listed on the consent agenda motion second councilman Donovan yes counciloman Kenny yes mayor Musco yes council yes councilman Leitz yes and then we have
resolution 202574 this is a resolution permitting special events uh do we have a motion to offer this resolution for adoption i'll make a motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny
yes mayor Bosco yes council Rodo yes council Leusing myself uh now we're on to ordinances this is ordinance 20257 second reading and public hearing this is an ordinance amending chapter 19
traffic setting uh restricted parking on the west side of Main Street between 11th and 12th Avenue during certain hours it's open for public comment if anyone would like to speak on the ordinance i have a motion to close the public hearing motion
second all in favor and a motion to adopt ordinance 20257 i'll make the motion second councilman Donovan yes council McKini yes mayor Mafesco yes councilman Randero
yes councilman Le yes and next is ordinance 20258 second reading and public hearing this is an ordinance approving and adopting an amendment to the amended redevelopment plan for the Seapport redevelopment area is it open
for public comment so you guys all know I I've I'm Mike Blazio of 379 i've been following this since April of 24 when we had our first hearing on this and what was going on with the DJ action that we filed um and just so much of this is not adding up to me
um first of all multiple times I've heard from our planners our lawyers the council that no affordable housing would be in any of these three developments if we did if we did nothing and we were subject to these build the remedy lawsuits um I've also heard u multiple
times that we didn't have any affordable housing plan no resolution no ordinance um but that doesn't sit well with me because I sit on the planning board i come in front of the zoning board we never heard any development proposals for any of
these um developments in the seapport redevelopment they could it's seapport redevelopment you're supposed to develop here they're supposed to follow ordinances they're supposed to build this is you know what the town looks for here um but hearing that we didn't have
any affordable housing didn't make sense to me because we never heard from them we didn't know what was going to go there so we never actually talked to them um and I feel like that's where we got into the situation um I also found in ordinance
2019-25 which was dedicated to affordable housing and it did speak to fees and buyouts and 10% um so I don't know why they weren't held to that and why we just made a new ordinance in
23 without referencing the 2019 25 ordinance i've heard a couple times that we didn't have an ordinance um that existed but it did so what happened to this ordinance would be my first question if I could give you the summary and I we have our redevelopment council
here you can break in any time i I think the the as far as you refer to speaking to affordable housing it didn't work that way the our borrow was under an obligation to prepare an affordable housing plan as of
2015 that plan was never done okay so um things just kept going on and that ordinance was passed in 2019 but I think we had heard at previous meetings that that ordinance really could not take
effect until we had an affordable housing plan i think that was I don't know if Francis you think that was correct that's why no funds ever went into the affordable housing fund until what was it February or March of 2023 so
the key thing was the burrow needed to have an approved affordable housing plan so without that you know that ordinance was null and void so why don't we do a plan instead of following a lawsuit why
didn't we bring these developers in say "Hey we know you want to develop here we know you're in process of purchasing these properties we knew Sacman owned 8th Avenue we know that's in the redevelopment zone why didn't we talk with them and say "Here's our affordable housing plan you have to meet our
ordinances you have to meet our parking you have to meet our heights and we need affordable housing these could have got this this all could have happened but instead within 60 days of you coming into office you file a lawsuit so I don't know the thought process in 60 days that that it ever even went with
the developers that would be it just doesn't sit well with me i'm looking for more if I can explain it to you I'll see if I can clear it up a little bit the process was we could not we didn't only have to meet with the developers we also had to meet with this group called Fairshare Housing and they have been
deemed by the Supreme Court of New Jersey to be the entity that basically advocates for affordable housing so we would have been remiss if we had just went had gone to the developers and said
"Oh let's let's make a deal." They would have wanted to become part of that deal because it's in their interest to get as many affordable housing units as they could having said that once we had already known that there were four developments
willing to come into the town but uh we would have been subject to these builder remedy suits and also a suit from Fair Share Housing had we not included them so we really had no choice but to file a declaratory judgment action now it
sounds like it is a lawsuit but unfortunately that was the way that the courts and the state said that you need to in order to institute a plan you had to file this action in other words there's no other
way that we could have gotten our redevelopment plan unless we filed a declar declaratory judgment action okay okay and all of that was was saying "Okay we're interested in complying with the constitution the constitutional mandate that we have a plan and this is
how we do it." And at that point then the builders came in and that's when fair share housing came in and that's the process that every town needs to follow when they want to do an affordable housing plan and meet the third round requirements
okay the build this does remedy portion of that that we were so afraid of you know we reference Belle a lot i know which there was an attorney that gave us a presentation in April i referenced Bel referenced Bayon a lot um and that they they lost these builders remedy lawsuits
but in Belle it was actually an article just last week about the process they went through and the developments that are coming up and those lawsuits from what I can see didn't even start where they weren't even discussed until after those developers came to their boards and the boards rejected them probably in
you know may I don't know if it was wrongfully or whatever but again it just seems like we were afraid or we started something way too soon and we lost big time this is bad for the town they are holding to none of our ordinances and it was just a big miss that's all I can see
as a resident as you know someone that has worked with developers before it just was a huge miss because this what they're proposing now I don't know if this was negotiated or not but the these are rough i mean they're holding to almost none of our ordinances and the parking is terrible i mean 1.3 you per
you know uh spaces per unit anybody that live has has a spouse lives in a one-bedroom unit you have two cars where are these cars going and we can't get these developers to work on our roads we can't get these developers we have no rights to get them to pay for their site
improvements route 35 is a disaster how is the town going to handle that well I'd be willing to meet with you at any time to review all of this from from the beginning to where we are now so I mean if you would like to do that just let me know and I'll um you know I can make the
time to do that and and provide you with all that information so you'll understand it thank you okay any other comments good evening adam Fel of SS Gross uh we represent Klein's Fish
Market the adjacent property owner of the development proposed in sub area B uh Ali Klein here wants to say a few words and then I would like to continue about our comments on the redevelopment plan sorry what was your last name fiella f A I E L L A
hi I'm uh Ali Klein Klein's Fish Market 708 River uh I'm kind of like Joe Biden i have to have my notes here so I don't miss anything this is uh I want to first be clear that we're not opposed to
redevelopment uh over the course of the last 30 years I personally have worked with numerous proposed and completed projects uh none of them did anything to improve the overall parking situation in Belmar
and that's my biggest objection there are currently as the last gentleman just spoke of three major projects uh that have been settled through lawsuits uh the ETH and uh the Route 35
between 8th and 10th Avenue I believe that's called the Russo project the Sackman pro project at the corner of 8th and Main Street the Mark Built project between sixth and river adjacent to my property and across the street from my
property and also um another plan that apparently wasn't involved in the lawsuit but it's a development on sixth in Maine these plans add almost 400 apartments and condos to the burrow
and as the last gentleman just said uh it's between one and 1.3 parking spaces per unit um and as he said most people today have two cars per unit plus they have
visitors um the amount of parking provided is less than 500 spaces and it's going to be a minimum of 800 cars all all day every
day all year long every business in the north end of town from 11th Avenue is going to be affected uh from 11th to to the bridge is going to be affected by this parking
there's going to be 300 cars looking for parking daily year round existing businesses will go out of business you're going to have a lot of empty stores and this affects everyone because there was no thinking or plan in
advance in my particular area this plan calls for eliminating the 17 parking spaces on the street closest to my property these uh parking spaces were permitted
after the 2016 revisions to the Seapport redevelopment plan which eliminated 11 other parking spaces on sixth and on the south side of
river so now there's going to be no street parking on river and no street parking on six so I got a two twob block area around my business but no street parking um so there's no street parking
west of Main Street and and to be quite honest it's unacceptable what is your plan to make up for the loss of these parking spaces i haven't seen anything from the town i haven't heard anything
i've been involved in most of the projects in the Seapport redevelopment since it was first mentioned to me in 1989 and uh I've heard nothing from this mayor or
council so I would like to know what you plan on doing and then also uh so I guess we don't know cuz we're not hearing anything back each developer for the past 30 years has been required to contribute to a parking fund for
Belmar i don't know how much money is in the fund if the fund still exists but I do know I do know that some of those funds were used to purchase the Belmar Elks on 7th Avenue right out here in the back um even though that's still not
fully into the parking lot uh since uh you know but these developers apparently no one asked them to contribute no one thought to negotiate before the uh lawsuit was
concluded which is a huge mistake on part of Delmare they should be required to contribute to the parking fund we've been pro promised the parking garage on the site of the Belmar lot right here in
the rear of the building we're in since 1990 i've been promised that that's 35 years um and since these projects are going to be built anyway from from what I'm told
uh there's no reason that the burrow can't take advantage of the situation now if you do something but it seems that we're doing nothing we can turn this situation into a huge
opportunity and finally create a major parking environment for Belmar uh if we work with each of these developers on a pilot program that's a payment in lie of taxes that can target a portion of the
uh project's uh taxes property taxes to pay for the construction of the parking garage for at least 200 to 250 cars i've been involved in a couple of other
projects with the the old Delmare um business partnership and uh the the thing that preceded that forget the name of it at this point it was a long time ago um and um a couple of other projects
in Delmare working on the um parking garage i I'm only a phone call away but I haven't heard from anyone uh the municipal parking lot is basically the last area left in town that's within
walking distance to the train station the business district St rose and actually it's only seven blocks to the beach and many people on weekends for the past 10 years have been parking from the Belmar Arts Council
around by me in the daytime on weekends to walk to the beach so it's not impossible to walk to the beach uh working with a pilot program with these developers can help us get that parking
garage and alleviate a huge mess that's going to be in town from and it's going to affect all the businesses from 11th down to the river where I am and I urge uh the mayor and council to please take this into
consideration thank you for your time thank you for your comments Mr klein thank you um and so as Ali discussed uh Klein doesn't object to the proposed use or the general parameters of the development and in fact supports the
additional residential and affordable housing but our concern relates uh as Ali was mentioning to the particular design for sub area B the Mark built uh project being proposed specifically its impact on necessary public parking as currently designed and without further
safeguards in the redevelopment plan we believe the development is not consistent with the master plan the goals of the redevelopment plan or sound planning uh our client is concerned that without any changes this development could potentially threaten the viability of its business and as I'm sure you're
all aware clients has been a staple in Belmar for almost 100 years it's a fourth generation family-owned business uh over the years Ali described how the amount of on-ree parking in the area has been reduced despite the immense need for parking approximately it It looks
like I'm going to use some numbers but I apologize because I'm basing it off eyeballing it off of concept plans without any specific numbers written but it looks like about 36 street parking spaces are being removed by this development and the concept plan uh
appears to indicate about 17 street parking spaces being added so about half of the ones being removed so first and foremost we request confirmation in the redevelopment plan that these 17 spaces or so will be open to the public and not reserved for residents of the development due to the demand for public
parking uh while most of the spaces being removed and added are within the property lines of the private property being developed the property line appears to go through the spaces so part of it uh is public land it's not clear is the burrow donating that land to the
developer if so then in return the burrow should receive the right for the public to use the spaces and if not then part of the property is public property and even more so that the public should have the right to continue to park in these same locations they're parking now
uh our co-consel stated at the planning board meeting on March 17th why we do not believe the proposed amendment relating to sub area B is consistent with the master plan specifically recommendation number 18 in section 3.1 of the master plan re-examination report
references a parking deck to be built on a portion of the Seapport Plaza um and the redevelopment plan was amended in 2018 and the need for the parking deck was reiterated if the parking demand exceeds the capacity of the plaza surface parking and other municipal lots
in the redevelopment area we're likely at that point now and we certainly believe we will be there after this development removes on street parking spaces the bureau has an obligation to determine the capacity and demand of parking in the area if it is reducing on street parking as part of this
redevelopment plan amendment even if the bureau does not currently have funds for the parking deck it should require contributions to a fund for the future development of the parking deck which as Ali mentioned has uh been done for many years it's also noted as a possible requirement in the redevelopment plan as
currently drafted uh if the bureau has collected funds from prior developers should be able to account for those funds and either alternatively or in addition as Ali mentioned the bureau can uh especially if it's already planning on potentially entering into a financial
agreement for a long-term tax exemption for these developments the bureau can designate a portion of those annual service charges that it receives or you know also called pilot payments um 95% of the pilot payment dedicated towards improvements is kept by the bureau and
it can designate it for any uh specific use i've seen other municipalities who are concerned about impacts on schools for pilots for residential programs uh or um pilots for residential projects where they designate a portion of the pilot payment for uh directly to the
schools you can do the same here for schools for the parking deck or however um the burrow sees fit but we certainly think it should go towards a portion should go towards solving this parking issue um there's also it also seems as if the burrow might be underutilizing
parking spaces in the municipal lot here um some spaces are rightfully reserved for police officers and city officials but at night there's less of a need for that i know some spaces might have certain time limits on when they're reserved but we respectfully request that the bureau looks into that a little
bit more see if some more spaces can uh reduce that reservation or the time limit for it think that could be a win-win where it's not being used by um public officials to open it back up to the public um the recommendation number 18 in the master plan examination report
that I referenced it doesn't only include a reference to this parking deck it does specifically mention it but the entire recommendation relates to the consideration of circulation and parking issues in the redevelopment area it notes that the prior master plan update
recommended that the need for parking must be addressed in relation to the proposed commercial and residential development of the Seapport Village redevelopment plan clearly the need for parking in this area has been a long-term concern and the bureau should not at this point ignore or abandon that
concern the bureau can meet both its constitutional obligation to provide a reasonable opportunity for fair share its fair share obligation and also ensure adequate parking in the area it shouldn't be a one or the other there there's a way to solve this both um the
redevelopment plan itself also has specific goals that are are mentioned and the need for additional parking is stated specifically in those goals and objectives in section 1.3 of the redevelopment plan and then other goals include making this area a family destin
destination extending tourism this can't be done without adequate parking the tourists aren't going to circle the block over and over again um and without sufficient parking they're going to move to other areas rather than park and shop or eat in the vicinity uh the description of the redevelopment area
itself in section 2.1 states the partial reliance on public parking combined with the n natural attraction of a waterfront location requires restaurants and shops to be within a comfortable walking distance preferably along the walking route between the parking and the
waterfront to encourage impulse spending along the way and then section 2.1.1 of the redevelopment plan goes on to emphasize public parking supplemented by on-site or off-site private parking is intended to satisfy the overall parking requirements for the land uses within
the Seapport Village redevelopment area and to reduce the need for on-site parking this has been an issue for many years um that was from the 2018 amendment 2016 it was dated and 2016 it was stated as already being an issue um
reducing parking while um adding more residents but um having the parking requirement for uh the off street but reducing those on space on street spaces in addition to that could be disastrous for the area so reducing parking in the
area also impacts the goals of land use and zoning enumerated in the municipal land use law so I I get this is a redevelopment project enacted under the local redevelopment and housing law but I just want the burrow to be aware courts have said in multiple cases that the two statutes are interrelated and
act in parry materia they deal with the same topics and they're read together in conjunction the municipal land use law has 15 enumerated purposes anybody who goes to a planning board meeting that sees variances you'll know uh planners will discuss what goals of the uh
municipal land use law are promoted as part of the uh positive criteria you always hear promotion of the general welfare one of those goals is uh goal number eight it's to promote the free flow of traffic that is so important for this state that it's is specifically um
listed as a purpose of land use and zoning in the entire state and obviously reducing the amount of on-ree parking without contemplating alternative solutions is anti uh to this purpose and that's not to say that Klein opposes any inclusionary residential development at
this site um besides requiring entree parking to be built to be open to the public and either or both of a contribution to a parking deck fund um and uh the dedication for pilot uh or portion of the pilot to the parking uh fund we encourage the bureau and the
developer to look into these issues further in the design of the project we're sensitive to the time effort and money spent to date the bureau has been going through with this declaratory judgment action for two years the developer has been here for a very long time and has put together a very good
plan but still we don't think this needs to be the end of the story um there there has to be other tweaks small or big that can improve the project we're aware the project design can and very well may change from the concept plan to the site plan stage but right now the proposed amendment to the redevelopment
plan incorporates the concept plan to a degree I personally have never seen where it says if any other requirements in the redevelopment plan conflict with the concept plan the concept plan controls and supersedes the redevelopment plan because you don't want any uh variances or waiverss which is fair to a developer but also we need
to make sure that since it's just a concept plan some of which has writing over where some of the spaces are and you can't see exactly what's going on you need to make sure that redevelopment plan providing the zoning is adequate so we encourage the redeveloper to look into the location for example some
things just looking at the plan maybe mechanical and loading areas in the garage be moved maybe street trees there can be one or two reduced or moved um so possibly additional on street parking can fit um we personally are not opposed to uh if the sto the building is a story
higher and then the units are pushed in so that way there can be more street parking or if there's fewer two-bedroom units it can reduce the amount of off- streetet parking that's needed but also reduce the amount of on street parking being removed um I know our client has written a letter to the bureau there was
also an issue about the trash and recycling area current lo current currently located near the pumping station along Railroad Avenue that's proposed to be eliminated um we think that cause health and safety issues because it doesn't look like there's an alternative location i know that this is
kind of more of a site plan issue i just want it to be clear in the redevelopment plan that they need to adequately account for uh trash and recycling uh I hope it doesn't come off of this way but we really are not trying to be obstructive we want to get to yes with
this development we do believe this has the potential to be a benefit to the area but only if it is done in the right way we encourage the bureau to revise the redevelopment plan amendment to address uh our concerns we understand the bureau has certain deadlines required in the settlement of its
declaratory judgment action but we do believe that adopting a flawed redevelopment plan amendment quickly is worse than slightly delaying the adoption to improve the redevelopment plan standards and ultimately improve the proposed development to reduce the detriment on the public and the
surrounding area uh finally just one more thing I want to state for the record if the bureau chooses to move forward and adopt the proposed redevelopment plan amendment we just encourage that the bureau makes it clear that there's a provision for these sub areas being severable um we don't want a
challenge to one it sub area to hold up all of the development in this uh redevelopment plan amendment um we really do hope that the burough takes our concerns seriously addresses these concerns adequately and so for that we thank you for your time and consideration
thank you thank you for your comments um I I do just want to say one thing in in my and these are my own personal comments uh I sympathize with the parking issue 100% and I I wish I was back here in 2016 when you know it might have been
easier to to resolve the issue back then than it is now um I've we've uh discussed parking garages very generally and I've been told by engineering that it costs $35,000 for one spot in a
parking garage so if you're looking at a $250 uh space parking garage you're looking at $8.75 million to build a parking garage um of that size even a 100 spots
would be 1.5 million but I I I haven't you know I think the answer to BMAR's problem blue parking may very well be some kind of a parking facility i don't know where i don't know when i don't know you know uh how we would
afford it but I think that's probably the the best thing moving forward to try to figure out a way if we can do that uh obviously we need the land and we need the money in order to do that but I think you know I would like to look into
that and I agree with you i would like also to look at some of the parking area that we have around here that's probably not utilized you know uh 100% uh to to what it could be to offer more public parking so you know that's always been
in the back of my mind to just generally look at parking throughout the town and see if there's any way that we can improve it to either provide more spots or um take take the the property and and do something else or reconfigure the the
parking but is definitely on our radar i I just don't know that um much is going to be able to be done through the the redevelopment process um and I'm sure you know all of your comments have been have been noted by our attorney and
planner so that they can uh you know advise us as to how we move forward with this any other comments um it it was my understanding that be during this process and the way it was done that we the bureau couldn't make parking or
streets part of what the developers were had to do is that wrong fr mat in Balon we serve as redevelopment council so good evening so if you could just elaborate on your question what do you mean you couldn't make parking what kind of Well my my understanding was that we couldn't make
a condition of or part of their final plan we couldn't say you have to do some of these utilities you have to repave roads that was not you cannot impose cost generating features on a redevelopment project that includes affordable housing so yes I mean they can be responsible for the cost of the
utilities and the parking that serves their project but uh not uh you can't enforce other conditions like off- streetet parking or off-site improvements that would be not permitted that could could have been part of a negotiation but as you know the
negotiations really focused on density and height on-site not so much negotiating off-site improvements want to make sure I understand what you're saying so could the bureau at some point during the negotiations included something like um parking
offsite or incre like contributing to a parking fund you've that could have been part of any I mean you have the ability to ask to negotiate anything but you're not obligated you they're they're not obligated to provide that like there's there's a statutory prohibition on the
bureau saying you're doing this project and now you have to do these other improvements that are what are determined to be costgenerative so not um not tied to the cost of their own project but other improvements that they would not benefit from I mean as part of
negotiation You can ask for you know in general you can negotiate a lot of terms but the negotiations for these projects as as you know were very tight they were very heavily negotiated there were lots of issues regarding density and height
that was the main focus the impact on Main Street so we were focused on parking in connection with the projects themselves um well while I have the microphone on I I'd like to just say for the record I I
I'm with you mayor and I'm with the clients here that we need to focus on parking and the councilman levels will tell you that when we have harbor commission meetings that is always a constant refrain is that need for more parking uh the cost for that type of garage is alarming but I'm wondering I
you know as part of public works committee or whatever it will be to do is to look into every single possible source of funding to kind of tangible outcomes here but what I have heard unfortunately is that parking does not really get uh
really many grants because they want to they want to dissuade people from using their cars because of the number of of car that's why we're considered a transit village and all that so it's not likely that we're going to be able to
find any grants that will fund parking of any kind so it's it's something that you know we probably would have to do ourselves somehow and see you know if there's a way that that we can do it and I have a few ideas but you know we'll
see as we as as the weeks go on what we can do i I would agree though i think that we absolutely have to figure out our parking situation because it's just going to get worse before it gets better that said April do we have a parking fund and is there any money in it that
would be a question for the CFO could we use the parking utility that from the meters and everything towards like that some of that funding go towards building a parking garage or whatever like non Ocean Avenue parking would be i I I I would I don't know
directly and I would assume yes i I just don't know how much of that is really you know it might take we don't want it to take 10 years to to be able to build a parking garage you know we'd rather do it like yesterday but um I think you
know it's definitely something we should put our heads together and try to try to come up with a solution any other comments okay barry Luben 15th Avenue um short speech um it was brought up uh a while back
about what is the population of town in 1980 was 6771 and it has dropped since then uh estimate in 2023 was 5861
that's a thousand people less um in my career as a business owner retail business owner I've been to many uh municipal not here um presentations i've I have been to every presentation here
with you guys um my point is very simple the people that own or want to own these properties have a right to build our right your right is to limit that building we are required by the
state to uh put in the affordable housing i understand all that but if we don't add this housing some is taxable some is pilot uh
from what I understand there is a net gain each year from the agreements in place the planning board will have say so in some of not in units but in what
the buildings look like and that sort of thing um but as a business owner former business owner now that I'm retired um those additional that additional
population is actually from many presentations I've been to good for town maybe not for the parking but for the businesses on Main Street to thrive not just survive we need additional people
we are would you call it a transit um a transit town not everybody's going to have a car they're going to commute they're going to use the train a fair share of it
um so I'm just trying to say that having been to every presentation that you guys have done up here other than the parking and other
than oh it's just going to change the town progress it's that's what this is we're controlling it we're not getting a 21-story building like somebody was threatening um
so in what we are required to do by the state of New Jersey we're making you know lemons and lemonade whatever you want to say uh I know a lot of people don't agree with doing the
um the DJ yeah uh but from what I understand what I have read read about other towns across the state doing it was the only thing
because it had been ignored for so long so again you know the decline in population this from what I remember the numbers will not even bring it back up to that top population
it will improve bring in uh new housing so let's look at it as positive instead of all negative and all blaming
thank you any other comments eugene Kamemer 4th Avenue uh like uh Mr klein said u my biggest problems here are with the sub area
B um I did uh review the uh exhibit A that was done by the planner and exhibit B which were comments from the planning board attorney um one thing I want to say uh
and Mr klein avoided skillfully avoided the last part uh River Road is on the west side of the
railroad river Avenue is on the east side now in the uh planners report um the the street name was wrong it's River
Avenue and uh River Avenue is a non-ontiguous street but it runs all the way from the railroad down to the Belar Fishing Club and it's it's been River Avenue for all that time that has to be corrected
um the other thing I trying to figure out is uh sub area B includes block 57 lot
4 is there any evidence that that lot has been designated for redevelopment
uh as I did take a look at the 2016 uh expanded redevelopment uh area plan uh which started the the town not having its condom nation
powers um uh that particular property i can find no evidence that neither the planning board or the burough council had designated
that as a property that was in need of redevelopment what are what are the what are the boundaries of that lot what what street is that on uh that's River Avenue
river River Avenue right here yes avenue runs from the railroad all the way around the back of the building down by uh actually I guess it would be the old Pi Piper property if you remember that um way down to in terrace
is the other side of Inlet Terrace River Avenue also right all the way down to uh where Mr merkel is building his new condominiums that frontage there is River
Avenue it makes it hard for the pizza delivery to figure out where they should deliver the pies but uh that has to be corrected i checked that with uh with NJP uh with Mammoth County and also the
Burough Tax Map actually on all of this I would much prefer if references to property were done on uh using the Belmont tax okay um that that has to be
corrected it's just plain old wrong um that'll be corrected if it needs to be corrected it'll be corrected okay see what else I had here actually I had question or two about the formalized
ordinance now um the preface here all the whereas uh go down three if you would i guess you'll call that whereas number three the Pearl Council adopted an ordinance which
designated the area known as parcel 20 of the rehabilitation area where is that parcel 20 where do we find that you know and it's funny you said that because about five years ago I sat
on my porch and I figured out what parcel 20 was so you're going to have to give me a minute to look through my files here but you know it struck me at that time that why didn't they just use the the the the lot block numbers of all
these things because I had to go through and find out like what's parcel 20 what's parcel something else i might actually have it but you you really have to go through and and look at the the uh the original plan that was done but if
you give me a second I might actually have it okay I could find uh parcel 1 through 19 but I couldn't find parcel 20 let me see but I'm not sure it makes that much difference the reason I'm saying that
is parcel 20 the rehabilitation area and collectively with the original redevelopment area the original seapport redevelopment area as an area in need of re
rehabilitation pursuant to section 14 of the redevelopment law why is that in here in as much as what we're talking about are areas within the redevelopment
area those recitations are put in every every um amendment to the to the if you look back you'll see the same paragraphs are said over and over and over again because they're all essentially modifying the original uh ordinance am I
I'm correct right that that's basically what what's going on so yes Mayor you're correct there's a procedural history that's included in all of the resolutions and ordinances all the legislation that would be in connection with this project and as far
as a rehabilitation area part of the um properties that are included in this overall redevelopment plan were designated as rehabilitation areas and some were designated as redevelopment areas so there are two different categories within the redevelopment law
and not all of the parcels within the Seapport redevelopment plan are uh have been designated as redevelopment areas some are rehabilitation areas none of which are impacted by this amendment this evening all of the properties uh
that are impacted by this amendment are have been designated as redevelopment areas so it has it it serves no purpose here it's part of the procedural history to explain the how all of this came about how the redevelopment area first came to be how it was expanded it goes
through the history of the redevelopment area itself for your information uh in the aftermath of Sandy the entire burrow of Belmar from its municipal boundaries the
entire burrow was designated as an area in need of rehabilitation at that time the only the only thing the bureau did to it was tax in order to spark rebuilding in town
after after the hurricane but uh it's almost meaningless to start diving out what areas rehabilitation the entire town is rehabilitation in fact I'm unaware of any method of rem removing that
designation uh of course the town uh ceased its uh tax abatement but uh it's my understanding that that being in place the burrow could offer uh tax abatements
if they wanted to spark development at any time just by simple resolution and so the entire bureau is an area of re of rehabilitation uh I want to draw bring up I guess it would be where is
one two three four five the bottom one on on the first page whereas on July 20th 2016 the burough council adopted a resolution
designating the property currently known as and it lists all kinds of blocks and lots as being the expanded redevelopment area i cannot
find block 57 lot 4 on that list which is part of that uh sub area B that could have been and and like the mayor said there's a long history of
ordinances that do identify what the parcels are so that block could have been included in one of those parcels you know one through six 7 through nine so it might have been part of the original area versus the expanded redevelopment area i would have to track through the procedural history to find
that parcel okay um actually uh block 57 block four on that 2016
uh map and I believe that was prepared by Maser um that has the area listed for rehabilitation not
redevelopment now we're modifying redevelopment areas here but I haven't heard any mention about modifying rehabilitation areas i can't speak to that because I want to find the actual uh designating
resolution for that parcel so we don't know i would need to track the legislation which I will do thank you i don't have that information right in front of me i guess one other thing I wanted to say
this declaratory judgment uh isn't it somewhat irresponsible u entering into that sort of thing without first performing a jurisdictional
determination in other words we have to answer to a higher power here uh on these three particular properties here with uh development of of more than uh 15 resident or excuse me 25
residential units each one is going to require an individual permit postal area facility review act that's federal i mean I really don't care what the New Jersey judiciary does
federal supremacy trumps anything state of New Jersey does and the Cath permit is a federal permit so why are we even looking at plans when they have to be approved by
the Department of Environmental Protection and they still do there's no these agreements do not circumvent any permit requirements that they're required to get through D so if they need a caffer permit these projects that redevelopers are responsible for
securing those permits there is no we're not bypassing any uh procedural requirements that's fine but we already have one uh developer the Russo
developer uh he already has a c is currently applying for modifications to that permit uh and and by the way this may be a great opportunity in as much as the planning
board was kind of like pigeonhole is how they could respond on things perhaps uh they should participate in the caffer review process and comment uh and I encourage everybody to do that
uh one thing that's that's important in this town is you heard the the mayor mentioned before uh we're very much uh under the oversight of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
um our beaches our drinking water our sewers all the DB has got oversight over all of that okay that should come first in Belmar environmental consideration
should should come before this business of of oh we're going to just going to we're just going to build housing for a couple hundred people um it's strictly regulated i encourage people to participate in it and uh quite
truthfully I wouldn't look at any plan that's been presented here without it being approved by the Department of Environmental Protection because they are the ones that actually set the design criteria
u I have a question since you're I guess the question I have as as Mr premise speaking is hypothetically what if a development does can't cannot get a CFO permit based on what they've said
they're going to do what what happens then in terms of our you know the developer will come back I mean hypothetically speculate but uh my assumption would be they would come back and the we would be addressing the
project and the issues that are preventing it from getting the CAFRA and then it would be before council again as far as addressing any modifications that are necessary to get the CAFAR so there's no there's nothing uh we're not circumventing CAFRA in other words it's just that they're putting the the cart
before the horse i think that's what Mr kramer is trying to say like but why don't they get the caffer first and then do the I guess they just figure they're going to you know move ahead with their plans and assuming that they will get the caffer permit but there's always the possibility that they might not in in
in the hypothetical situation and then we'd be back to the drawing board in terms regular course would be that they would want an approved project before they were going before they're going to do it process which I got did not have okay so it's it's it's just I see
your point but I also see their point developer is not going to propose something to Caffer unless they know the project has been approved first and then if Caffer permit is not awarded then they have to go Yeah design another project which they hope will be approved
as the bureau has done in the past the bur would likely object application for a project that it hasn't approved right exactly i'd like to move on mr is that is that um about everything
i guess please um if you have you know any further questions I'd be happy to sit with you and and you know and try to answer some of these uh these other questions about the redevelopment i'll ask a simple
question why are we even looking at why don't we as far as fulfillment I guess there's some sort of u true up here that the burough's pressure you know is it pressure it's all about pressure isn't it u you know
for years we've had development pressure from luxury housing and now it's it's being twisted around and now we have uh development pressure coming from uh affordable housing Uh but in any case I don't think any of
us here in town really want to look at any development without them having the taffer permit without them having a plan actually approved by the DP that says you have enough sewage capacity you have
uh uh enough circulation of of traffic uh you have enough water at your water plant to supply uh it it this this is what we actually should be looking at not this
this these artist renderings of of concept plans I mean a lot of these things just turn into you know architect pipe dream well I I think as as we just said though the process here is the developers want
to have their plans basically done and approved by the court and buy fair share housing and buy us and then they'll apply for the career permit that just that's just the process excuse me do we
have a deadline a deadline date for uh we have a we have a schedule now that um we have our what is our uh court hearing date is in June 27th june 27th right so um and and this is I'm just wondering
whether this potentially could be used as you know be weaponized against us um you know do we actually have a court date that we have to produce evidence or or you know what we have here it's a court date that basically will will put
its you know like the good houseke housekeeping stamp of approval that everything is in order all the parties agree and you know and this is going to move forward again subject to any of the permits that the developments need to
get why not as far as drawings are concerned why don't we just limit ourselves to actually Belmar tax maps with the block and lots identified and the tabular the tabular information I had no
problem with with with the planner u just as an attachment would that fulfill what whatever requirements are here i mean are they looking for this are they looking for conceptual plans
yeah i mean I think the the the whole idea of the of the agreements are that the plans are are going to be the plans that there's not going to be a change after everything is approved in other words it's not you know if we're approving you know a certain number of
stories with a certain number of units with certain number of square footage and certain number of rooms and and what have you those are those are not subject to being changed once everything is approved so those are definite plans
right right they're definite up to the point that they'll need a caffer permit exactly well what happened with Manitraia was they submitted a set of architectural plans they got bounced
back you know into the ocean way out there and they had to come back with plans that were prepared by an engineering firm at Belmar and they eventually did get an approved site plan but the but the onus is always on the
developer in other words there's nothing there's nothing that's um detrimental to the borrower by them having to go and and you know modify their cash flow permit you know if it takes them six months a year or whatever
to get the caf permit well oh well you know it's not it's not uh something that the that we're you know uh paying for or at some kind of loss for you know so it it's really you know the the burden is
on the on the developer if they can't meet the capital permits well then that's their problem it's not our problem so you know you have to look at it from the burrow's perspective you know if it takes them five years to get approval in order to build something well it takes
them 5 years you know it's not it's not something that that you know that we're really shouldn't be that concerned about if the the the onus is on them to do that
so Okay okay thank you any other comments david Wolf 6026 if the onus is on the developer for the caffer is the onus also on the
developer for uh the council and the zoning board to prove their point i'm I'm not Why don't you answer those questions i don't understand the question i I
don't understand the question repeat your question there was a comment just comment just made that for CAFRA permanent approval the onus is on the developer is there any onus on the
developer to prove their point when they come before the board and the zoning commission here to prove their point why they might need a variance for any issue well they're they're going whatever permits are going to be required from the burrow building permits or whatever
there's they're going to have to go through that process but as far as a variance in front of the zoning board that is the purpose of the amendment to the redevelopment plan the amendment to the redevelopment plan is has been developed in consideration of the negotiated project so when they go
before the planning board there shouldn't be a need for a variance because the redevelopment plan has been uh developed in consideration of their concept plans so the the developer then isn't responsible for the influx
and use of schools utilities resources traffic they're not responsible for anything except their project well they're responsible to to pay you know provide for the utilities for their project there have been uh
there was an analysis done for each of the projects that's on the burough website addressing the number of school children that's expected to be generated from each site and there was an economic analysis done uh comparing what these pro properties are currently generating
by way of tax revenue and what they will cost as in in uh consideration of municipal services i don't have the reports in front of me together on the website but in each case uh the bureau was going to make uh an increase in funds even with the increase in
municipal services given the increase in tax revenue or pilot revenue given depending on the project and as Mr klein stated these 1.3 vehicles per
unit an estimate of 300 vehicles not having parking and circulating the town looking for something where we're talking about maybe utilizing the municipal lot after hours
how's that proving or conceptually feasible and realistic that's something that the burrow to take can take into consideration as far as a shared parking arrangement obviously there hasn't been a lot of consideration
by the bureau for development in Well I'm going to take issue with that because the the the issue you have to understand response to the needs of the res of the current residents regardless of those residents
which might come in these units thank you i was just going to say though that the the balancing that had to take place with the developers was the balancing between the height of these buildings and and the parking we could have
provided they could have provided parking to three spots for every unit but that five-story building that's going to be over here would have been an eight-story building because you would have had two levels or three levels of
parking and the the one that's going to be on the corner of ETH and Main instead of being four levels that probably would have been seven levels okay so it it's it's was a balancing between what what would you
want do we want to see huge structures do we want Main Street to be like a cavern like a New York City street where you where you go down and there there's huge buildings on each side or do you want to you know amend the parking a
little bit so that we can keep the heights down and keep the you know the feel of the town the way it is it's not an easy choice there's no there's no easy answer to this and that's that's why it's called a compromise that was
the compromise i think uh had I been here in 2016 you know maybe by 2018 I would have looked at the master plan and said "Oh gee you know we could have used a parking garage." But unfortunately I'm sitting here in 2025 saying "We can't afford a
parking garage." You know so you know that's the difference you we could have what we could have had and what we should have had is really irrelevant it starts you know the whole idea is compromise do what's best for the town and and I think I think we've all done a
great job in trying to uh to make things work as best we can sounds like in compromise the town didn't get such a good deal and the developers possibly got a better deal that possibly the town was taken
advantage of in compromise both parties should be happy if you're happy with that and your residents still oppose some of the features then maybe it wasn't a good compromise thank you thank you
um Mike Delasio again i just want to follow up on some of the comments I heard you say about the developers and their obligation for improvements in a typical development agreement if you're putting 300 units on Route 35 Route 35 sewer water roads are
going to be affected are you saying they're not obligated to improve anything outside of their development i just wanted to clarify and I appreciate coming back up what what Councilwoman Donovan had also asked when you make agreements for off-site improvements I'm going to get to your
specific question but when you make agreements for off-site improvements that increases the cost of the project and as a result of that that impacts the density so I didn't specifically state that earlier but that's why when we were focusing on density um when you if you require something you can negotiate an
off-site improvement like a parking deck or anything else but that increases the cost of the project the way the rig developer recoups that cost is by increasing density which increases height and additional traffic and all the other issues that people are concerned about as far as the off-site improvements go there will be um a
consideration they will be responsible for the their impact on the infrastructure now um whether that is that there's going to be uh increased traffic two blocks away and they're responsible for those improvements I would say no they're not going to be responsible for that but they will be
responsible again the standard is they're responsible for the um improving the utilities and providing the infrastructure to support their project okay is that done with their engineering or the burough's engineering both okay both are they responsible to pay again
as a develop as a developers coming to the town when they're proposing these things and these improvements they have to pay the townships engineers also to review and approve if I'm correct there is a redevelopers escrow that covers the burrow costs yes okay thank you
sorry Ali Klein again uh I just want to make another comment uh you mentioned if you had been here in 2016 rather than 2019 or whatever it was you came here it's been mentioned about the
parking garage it's in the 2003 uh Seapport redevelopment um plan uh almost every town meeting as we are here tonight in the 1990s it mentions the
parking garage and every time the Seapport redevelopment was mentioned planning boards uh uh workshop meetings it's all there anyone who's been involved in Belmar
throughout the last 35 years it's not a surprise it's was supposed to be built Every administration has pushed it off because we're going to leave it to the next guy well you guys are it okay by
default and uh it it has to get done or the business area is going to be destroyed and you're going to have a lot of unhappy residents like this two two previous guys mentioned here uh so it
needs to get done and uh again I'm going to urge you to please uh consider it and uh let's let's get a group of business people and residents together and work on finding a way to do it thank you thank you for your perspective and we'll
do the best we can any other comments i have a motion to close the public hearing motion all in favor i I have a motion to adopt ordinance 2025
i'll make a motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor Busesco yes councilman Rosiniro yes councilman Levit yes okay uh now we have the regular public
session if anyone would like to take a comment please step forward state your name and address i have a handout should I give you that first if I may why don't you just state your name and everything okay
i'm a little shorter than the last one i'm weaker [Music] oh oh I got a big voice anyway my name's Edward Quigley i go by Ed and I live at
5521 Cottage Street in Richmond Virginia i grew up in New Jersey my parents lived in Manisquan brothers sisters live all around the area cousins around the area uh I'm here to speak about beach
umbrella safety so let me give you my hand out in 2015 July 7th The oak shaft of a windblown beach umbrella impaled my left eye and breached my brain cavity i died on the
operating table and it took 23 minutes and seven cycles with the shock paddles to bring me back after about a year of recuperation and uh reconstructive surgery I decided that I had a mission
to inform people of the danger of windblown beach umbrellas i was on Inside Edition and I set up a website called beach umbrellasafety.org because of my national recognition as having uh become
an advocate I was invited to participate in a an ASM that's uh American standards for testing and materials they develop safety standards and all other kinds of standards
uh along with that uh I visited Congress and uh a number of senators got together and wrote a letter to the consumer product safety commission that was in uh 2021 and the consumer product safety commission assigned a team of engineers
to work with the task group that I was assigned to in ASM they spent two years testing beach umbrellas on beaches and in wind tunnels and determined scientifically what's required for a beach umbrella to remain
secure in the sand in winds up to 30 mph literally thousands of people are injured each year by beach umbrellas not all are as serious as mine there have been a number of deaths uh one that I'm aware of in South
Carolina just to give you an idea a beach umbrella is a javelin with a sail attached this beach umbrella with an average wind measurement on this beach of 8 miles per hour and some gusting which was not measured went through a
woman's arm and her chest and she died um I uh am here to ask that well let let me give a little history uh prior to uh our
efforts our efforts at ASM and with the Consumer Product Safety Commission the Consumer Product Safety Commission had a guidance which stated you took a beach umbrella shoved it into the sand rocked
it back and forth and tilted it into the wind that was how you installed a beach umbrella i said nothing about anchor devices or any other uh protection in April of 24 the safety standard was
published by ASM and in May it was adopted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and incorporated by direct reference into their new guidance so their new guidance is based on the science what what it says is that no
beach umbrella is safe without an adequate anchor device and so my ask for this council and the town of Belmar is that at your beach access
points you display a warning sign to make the the public aware of the danger this warning sign is a replica of the label that is required on newly manufactured umbrellas under the safety
standard it's to inform the user of umbrellas that there is a danger it's a somewhat graphic but it's no more graphic than the one that is on your lawn mower that shows severed fingers and blood or on power tools you need the
graphic to attract the attention of the user to the the danger uh Beach umbrella safety is prepared to provide 12 by 18 in signs that can be
put up at your beach access points and hopefully also on your lifeguard stands many people as they go up and down the beach pay a bit of attention to the lifeguard stand sometimes the water temperatures posted there safety kinds of things so that's my ask is that the
town consider placing these signs to inform the public of the danger thank you i think that's a a tremendous uh thing that we can add to our questions what is the what does a said anchor look like besides like I've seen
like the twisty you know like the cork screw yeah I have a comment about that uh the testing proved that the screw type devices are not effective and the reason is that the wind acts on the
umbrella the umbrella vibrates what you wind up with is just the little bit of additional weight of sand in the the the screw itself and that does it's it's a bit more than just the shaft of an umbrella but not enough uh so the the
one of the things that we did with the safety standard was be agnostic of the design the design of anchor devices so there are anchor devices out there primarily they use the weight of sand to establish the anchor for for the the
umbrella so some of them are in this uh bags some of them are uh other devices that use sand would just fill a bag with sand and attach it somehow to your umbrella so that it doesn't like totally take off is that the idea yes and uh
part of the uh safety standard uh this is going in and out for some reason part of the safety standard uh established testing methodology that manufacturers distributors retailers uh even individuals could use to uh determine
that an anchor is uh adequate if it passes the test one one of two tests then uh a compliance label can be affixed legally to the anchor device stating that it is safe for a certain uh
umbrella size uh up to that 30 mph wind so I'm sorry one more question i I just never have seen like anchor devices for sale so like are these Yeah go if you go on Amazon and search for beach umbrella anchor and uh put
F-3681 that's the safety standard along with that request the ones that are in compliance with the standard will show and they're sort of compliant with all umbrellas or or only certain umbrellas or they state they
state they state the uh the square footage of the uh the the bottom plane of the canopy so a standard beach umbrella that you might see from a rental company the kind with the oak shaft uh is 7 and 1/2t diameter and so
that's uh um determines the square footage of of that canopy so you can take an existing umbrella and make it safe by getting the anchor appropriate size anchored for it yeah typically the
anchor devices are in the range of uh4 to $60 okay that's good to know that's good to know i I don't promote any individual product to maintain my independence right right right but as long as it has
the um the certification the ASMF3681-24 then we know that that's a basically what we're looking for and and we do expect uh a revisions to come out this year for that safety standard so you see a -25 at some point okay thank
you just get back to me let me know how many of these you need uh if you decide to go forward and we will uh ship them where you ask you have a uh page of the handout as my contact
okay thank you thank you so much great information close to my heart as you can imagine yes thank you so much any other comments clar 18th to be how could I not come up i've been attending these meetings for
close to 10 years now it started out as something to do okay it's been very interesting over the 10 years and there's been two things that I have been up here and asked about been asked about been asked about and it sounds like both of them well one is definitely done a
little bit left to do but done enough and the other is you mentioned today the bathroom the kindergarten toilet in the bathroom okay saw it firstand okay i mean it I first brought that up in
2019 okay um and it was dismissed because it was grandfathered in no less and the curbs i was told it was homeowner's responsibility and our engineer told us no it was the burough's responsibility and the burough took care
of it so I thank you all very much thank you for getting yours the only thing I'll say Billy is if before you make any changes there you have to talk to Jim Morris because if you're going to make changes and make it an official handicap bathroom there are many other things
that need to change terms of the the door the sink the it's not just Okay so check with Jim and he'll he'll give you the specs as to what what we need to do we got the process started
claire just start with the toilet yeah any other comments yes uh Eugene Greamer Fourth Avenue um just got my new water my latest water bill and
um I like to conserve water but there's no meter readings on the bill um it's only ink i I you know I down the bottom says there's a chart that shows the the
meter reading that's that's not a meter reading no they they they used to have them on there with the exact numbers it started at this and went to that because I have a spreadsheet that calculates it all out um but now it just gives we only you use this many whatever okay there
used to be it went from 1,452 to 3,525 whatever those numbers used to be on the other bill right i don't know if that can be done i mean I heard I heard you oh absolutely can be
done why would you need it done question how would you know mayor if you were going to exceed the 5,000 gallon allowance how you going to know that as you're using the water you have to go look at your own
meter right correct can you see your meter can you You don't have like an electronic thing on top of your meter i got a I got a water meter in the basement and you can physically see the numbers on your meter okay absolutely
we can do it all right we'll look into it okay see if we can do that thank you used to when it was on when we got the mailing uh with card stock it had you know well if they had the difference
I'm sure somewhere in the in the formula there's the starting number and the ending number so no I mean somewhere to get that difference there has to be a calculation being done and I'm sure that the beginning and end points are there just have to be it may I believe that
those numbers may actually be available if you pay uh online uh but no it's not paying online correct there's the chart the chart shows you usage instead of the actual reading
that's what he's saying he would like to see the beginning number and the ending number which has to be captured it's just that we're not showing it on the bill and I did mention that last last quarter at Burough Hall what's that i mentioned that at the last quarter when the bill came in and they said that they
could I'll check the minutes to make sure we No not last year right back there okay any other questions comments I should say johanna Oka Robinson 9inth Avenue been sitting a little too long i'm stiff now
but um I have a question as far as an ordinance in regards to like when you um are doing your yard work and cutting down shrubs and things like that isn't there an ordinance where you're supposed to put your shrubbery on not in the street but on the side like the curb
side of your property i don't remember the ordinance off the top of my head i remember Tom Brennan always saying "Don't put it in the curb put it in between in your in your planting strip." Right like the grass in between your
sidewalk and your curb i remember Tom Brown yeah because the curb if it rains then it's going to get washed it's going to get washed down the block and not part of that that my concern is that you know that maybe we could do something just like if we have um our uh recycling
maybe they can have bins going forward that you put your that you're keeping it out of the street and you're keeping it on the curb side um because one thing that I've noticed recently is by it being in the cur on the street sometimes they don't come around for weeks to pick
it up so once it's once a once a month once a month I've seen it be my pet peeve is that you know it was just picked up you know and now somebody will put it on the street like tomorrow and it'll stay
there for a whole month and that creates a parking issue too on the street should create a ticket that's what it should create it better can you remind everybody when the date of pickup is for brush
Uh yeah the uh brush pickup is the first Monday of every month and it runs from April to October right and people should also be reminded there is a bin at the recycling center for brush so if it's just brush you know just don't let it
sit in the curb like it's just uh you know obviously branches and things like that that you might not want to lug in your car you know you you would put on the on the curb and but again you know don't put it out there on the you know the 10th of the month and now we have to wait you know 3 weeks before it gets
picked up i agree with you yeah and it because I noticed um just recently like more flooding and I can't figure out if it's from the brush or if it's from some of the construction that's going on now but there's flooding that I've never seen in my particular block that you
know so I'm not sure if it's from the new construction that we have directly across from me or not but like it floods my whole driveway now so Okay all right thank you all right all right thanks uh can I have a motion to
close the public session and adjourn the meeting i'll make a motion second all in favor i