Good. Call to order the May 20th, 2025 regular meeting of the township of Bernard's planning board. All rise for flag salute, please. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'll call Miss Kefir. Oh no, sorry. Open public meeting statement. In accordance with the requirements of the
open public meetings law of 1975, notice of this meeting of the planning board of the township of Bernard was posted on the bulletin board in the reception hall of the municipal building Kolier Lane, Basking Ridge, New Jersey was sent to the Bernardsville News, Whippony, New
Jersey, the Courier News, Bridgewater, New Jersey on January 22nd, 2025 and was electronically mailed to all those people who have requested individual notice. The follow following procedure has been adopted by the Burns Township Planning Board. There will be no new
cases heard after 10 p.m. and no new witnesses or testimony will be heard after 10:30 p.m. Roll call. Thank you, Mr. Kuzo, Mr. Yorio, Mr. Lazinski have all indicated they are unable to attend this evening and it's my understanding
that Miss Manduke will be here um 7:45. All righty. Chairwoman Master Angelo here. Mr. Crane here. Mr. Rabino here. Mr. Seville here. Mr. Tenry here. Uh, Miss Smith here. Miss
Ali here. Miss Ley here. Mr. Drill here. Mr. Good here. Mr. SL here. And for the record, um, Miss Kefir is present. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. You may proceed. Thank you, Miss Kefir. May I have um a motion to excuse the absences
of Mr. Inski, Mr. Eorio, and is there another person? Kusoinski. Uh, Miss Mr. Kuzo. I missed him. So, reflect that Manduk is present. Miss Manduk is present. Can I have a motion
to excuse Mr. Kuzo, Mr. Eorio, and Mr. Latazinski, please? Mr. Seville, and Mr. Rabino has a second. Roll call. All in favor? All in favor? I opposed
abstain. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes for the May 6, 2025 regular session. These were distributed in advance to our board members. Um does anyone have any edits or
comments? Seeing none, does anyone have a motion to approve the minutes? I'll make that motion. Thank you, Mr. Crane. Second. I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Seville. Roll call. Mr. Crane? Yes. Miss
Mandu? Yes. Mr. Reina? Yes. Mr. Yes. Yes. Chairwoman Master. Yes. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the May 6, 2025 minutes for the executive session.
These were placed in front of you today and I assume that everyone's had a chance to review them. If you have not, let me know and we can take a minute. Does anyone have any comments or edits? Seeing none, may I have a motion
to approve these minutes? Move. Mr. Tanky. Thank you. Second. Second. Mr. Rubino. Thank you. Roll call. Miss Kefir. Mr. Crane, yes. Miss Mandu, yes. Mr.
Medina, yes. Yes. Mr. Treaty, yes. Chairwoman Master Angela, yes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda are the approval of resolutions. The first resolution is Fellowship Village, Inc.
9301, lot 33, 8,000 Fellowship Road, PB20 hyphen 005C, which was approved at our recent board meeting. May I have uh well, an approval of the resolution, a motion to
approve to approve to adopt it. Yes. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve this? I mean, eligible. All right. Um, Mr. Angelo, Mr. Mandino, Mr. Tang are all eligible. Any
of those five? I don't have Mr. Tangi on. Oh, yes, I do. Sorry. So, the voting's up here on the actual application. This is the adoption of the resolution down there. Yeah. So, only these people only the people that voted
yes on the approval can vote to And some of these aren't here tonight. That's why she listed five people are here that are eligible to vote. That's correct. Okay. Do I have a motion from one of the five? I move to adopt. Thank you, Mr. Rubino.
And a second. I'll second. That was Mr. Tenry. May I have a roll call? Mr. Craig? Yes. Miss? Yes. Mr. Rubino? Yes. Mr. Tenredi? Yes. Chairwoman. Master Angelo. Yes.
Okay, great. Next item on the agenda is the approve the adoption of the resolution of Fellowship Village, Inc. Block 9301, lot 33, block
9401, lot 9, 8,000 Fellowship Road, 55 Allen Road, PB22, hyphen 005 A. May. I have a motion again. Can you call out who's eligible on this one?
Yes, please. Mr. Crane, Mr. Bino, Mr. Send, we're looking for eligible people to vote. Yeah. Telling you, keep calling out the people to vote. Okay. Can you start again, please? Certainly. Uh, chair chairwoman master, Mr. Crane, Mr.
Mr. I'll make that motion. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Crane. Second. Second. Mr. Rabino seconds. Can I have a roll call? Mr. Crane? Yes. Mr. Rabino? Yes. Mr. Seville? Yes. Chairwoman Master Angelo?
Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the adoption of the resolution of Tao Tao Shaw SHA. That was the first name. Block 11401, lot 11.02.
2 7 Mountain Road PB22- 001B more people eligible to vote on this one. Can you call them out please? Chairwoman Master Angelo, Mr. Crane, Mandu, Mr. Rino, Mr. Mr.
Do I have a motion for this uh resolution? I'll make that motion chair. Thank you, Mr. Crane. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. Crane, yes. Miss Nando, yes. Mr. Rubina, yes. Mr. Sil, yes. Mr. Treaty,
yes. Chairwoman Master Angelo, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Now, we're going to move on to the public hearing on the adoption of the 2025 housing element and fair share plan. And I'm going to invite Well, she's already
there. Sorry. is Ley Kendra Ley our one of our planners up to the podium and she has saved time for us already up you swear or affirm the testimony you're going to give in this
matter during this hearing the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes no what happened the screen went up we don't get we don't we've got a couple
No. Okay. We're we're at least live just just in case any questions or anything comes up with both our county planner and our board engineer. I'd also like to swear them into both of you stand up and raise your right hand. And
do you swear or affirm that any testimony you may give in this matter will be the truth to nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. And are we we're definitely live though, right? I just can't see us. Let's just double check.
While we're double checking. Yeah, we're live. We're live. Yes. Let's pass down the executive session minutes, please. Takes a village. Down here. So we told we're live so you can proceed. Okay. Thank you. Good evening
board members. Uh my name is Kendra Lely from the firm of Kyle McManus. I'm here tonight to go over the housing element and fair share plan provide testimony. This is a public hearing so obviously will be opened uh to the public for any public questions and public comments.
Um, just so you all aware, your housing element and fair share plan is an element of your master plan. Um, there was a housing element and fair share plan for the what's known as the third round obligation. This is for the fourth round obligation. Um, and it is the planning board's responsibility for
adoption of uh said element. And I'm just going to briefly uh go through the highlights of the plan if there are questions from the board. Appreciate the um holding those questions to the end of the presentation. And then of course I'm here to answer any questions uh and from the public. Um so the agenda for the
planning board uh public hearing I'm briefly going to go over affordable housing as it relates to um kind of the big picture state of New Jersey 30,000 uh foot view. I then going to talk about the uh township's obligation um go over the fair share plan that's
obviously within the plan uh talk about what the next steps are and then open it up uh to the public. So as as was indicated, the housing element and fair share plan is part and parcel of your master plan. All of the uh boxes that you see on this screen are the required
elements per municipal land use law. So the housing element and fair share plan are guided by municipal land use law, but it's also guided by the fair housing act, and we'll talk about that in a second. Everything that you see pretty much from three 3:00 all the way to about 1:00 uh is in the main body of the
text of the plan. So um looking at well except for the housing demographic employment analysis. So we provide that as an appendix item. It is the first item in the appendix. The housing uh demographic and employment an analysis is required by municipal land use law.
Uh we have updated census information. So that sits within the appendix but everything else uh is within the body of the of the plan. And then in the appendix you will see draft ordinances, draft resolutions, a draft spending plan. Um, per the Fair Housing Act,
these are all to be in draft form as we submit them to the the program. And I'll talk about why that is, but that's why you will see in the appendix the word draft over most of these items. Um before we get into the obligation, I always like to define what
affordable housing is as it relates to um how the Def Fair Housing Act defines it. So moderate and very sorry, affordable housing is considered moderate, low, and very low income. Um and and that basically means a certain percentage of what the median income and
what I have on the screen here is an example of a twoerson household. Um the township is in what's known as region three. There are six regions in the state of New Jersey. Region three includes 100 and Middle Sex and Somerset uh counties. Um you sit in with region
three and that's how the incomes are broken out through the state of New Jersey. So in region three, the median household income for a twoerson household is 116,000. That's the base measurement. And of course there are incomes and you and there's a there's a um a couple of
charts in the plan that go through not only uh different types of households the moderate low and very low but also gives you some um information as it relates to the affordability meaning for sale and rental prices. But um just to give you a sense of who af who can
afford and who would qualify for affordable housing, a moderate income twoerson household family which earns 80% of median income is about $93,000. A twoerson household at of low income means is 50% of median income
$58,000 and then very low income is 30% of median which is $35,000. What does that equate to as far as what somebody can necessarily afford? Um, a forale home would range anywhere between 150,000 and 250,000. Typically, you're looking at a two-bedroom house,
excuse me, a two-bedroom home. 1550,000 represents somebody that has low income that could afford that. And then $250,000 is a moderate income. On the rental side, you'll see that per month $1,500 to $2,500. Um, that covers somebody that
would earn a very low income to a moderate income. most folks in the very low income uh range cannot afford or cannot qualify for a mortgage. So, uh that's why they typically I don't put that in for a for sale home. Um there's always questions about well, how how do
how does somebody get a a um affordable housing unit? And first of all, you have to income qualify. Um these folks have jobs. They have to go through the normal u mortgage uh process. They have to go through the normal credit background checks for rent. Um and so uh there is a
very stringent state regulated uh regulations that provide for the administrative agents that are hired by the municipality as well as developers uh that they go through a a very clear process. People who initially income qualify get onto a list. That list is
what's known as a waiting list. That waiting list is then um put together as a unit becomes available. The um people are then put through what's known as a lottery. It's a random selection and you are assigned a one, two, three, four, five all the way down to however many people are on that list. The first
person on the list gets choice of that particular unit. Uh if they choose that they want to go forward with that unit, they're then there's another process of a more stringent income qualification process. Uh and so that's typically how somebody is is placed into a unit. uh
and um it it once the the list is put together that's good for a couple of years um and then they will most likely re-randomize the list as it goes forward. Somebody can't necessarily um be uh pushed out of a unit uh because they may have won the lottery the next
day. So you can have a lower income and get a huge salary increase or win the lottery and you still can stay in that in that um in that affordable housing unit. So we are all based um uh upon one particular decision back in 1975. This
Mount Laurel doctrine and all the laws and decisions that have been made since 1975 and that's a Supreme Court decision known as the Mont Laurel decision. Uh Mount Laurel Township was sued uh they were sued because they were uh accused of of zoning uh in an exclusionary
manner which basically meant they did not provide for anything other than single family homes. So there was no zoning that allowed for anything other than single family. Uh the Supreme Court uh made the decision and and issued the decision in 1875 that said two things. One is exclusionary zoning is prohibited
and secondly every municipality in the state of New Jersey has a constitutional obligation to provide for realistic opportunity for affordable housing. Um and so all the laws, all of the cases are are based upon that premise. And that's why you you will often hear uh
the Mount Laurel doctrine or that we talk about affordable housing with Mount Laurel as uh one of the subject uh titles that we that we use. The Fair Housing Act was adopted in 1985. So 10 years after the Supreme Court said that there that there was to be no exclusionary zoning, that every
town has a responsibility to provide for a realistic opportunity for affordable housing. The Fair Housing Act came al came along. legislation was was passed and there's been amendments sort of uh you know on the surface over the past uh 30 years but the biggest amendment
occurred last year um and this amendment was signed by Governor Murphy in March of 2024. It created uh um the basically the guidelines for what we know now is the fourth round. Uh we are ending the third round uh in June on June 30th
2025. The new round of 10 years will begin on July 1st and go to June 30th, 2035. This law established a couple of things. It first established the need. So, as you all know, we have an obligation. Where does that obligation come from? It runs from the statewide
obligation to the region to you as an individual municipality. The law indicates that there are 80,000 affordable housing units that are required statewide. divvied that out into those six regions that I mentioned. 11,000 units is required in region three
and then it created a methodology as how you take that those uh that need and bring it to the municipality. Uh as was indicated I think when I talked about the obligation there are three main factors and I won't get into the details of it but basically your obligation is
based upon household income as it relates to the region. the non-residential um assessment value assessment of your non-residential um uh properties in the municipality against the regional um non-residential assessment and then the final is
developable land um and that's the land capacity factor. So those three factors in different varieties of iterations uh came together to create your obligation for the fourth round. It also created new compliance regulations, new bonus structures. I think on page seven and
eight of the plan, I go through the highlights of of the the changes per the Fair Housing Act. Um, and one of the biggest things that actually did was set up what's known as this mediation program. And so you'll see the words program that and you will hear me talk about it that this will be submitted to
the program. It's a mediation arm of the court. We are still being reviewed by a court. This is not an administrative body. Um this will be you will receive a judgment of compliance and repose just like you did for the third round from uh the superior court. But this mediation
arm is a panel of seven judges that have been retired. uh they were they were recalled to help basically create a program that allows for the review of your housing elements and fair share plans if there's any objections to it to mediate that and then to recommend to
the superior court uh what the actual fair share plan uh will be as it relates to you know whether they approve ours or whether it's something different based upon mediation. Uh so that's a big change as it relates to uh the new law. So, uh, your affordable housing
obligation, your third round obligation, uh, which was a very long period of time, 1999 to 2025, uh, your perspective need, which is also known as new construction, is a 873 was 873 units, and your rehabilitation need
was 44 units. Um, and I and the reason why I'm talking about that is because one of the requirements of the Fair Housing Act is that we have to look back and make sure that you've done all the things that you said you were going to do in the third round. Now, the third round, the final third round, um, like
it really was only a couple years ago. So, it may feel like we've we've been talking about this for many years. Um it but because the third round was uh such a long period of time and there was so much litigation and so much time uh really up until about 2015 not much
happened and until we were forced to do something uh based upon the Supreme Court's decision in 2015 that basically the courts were responsible for reviewing uh housing alums and and fair share plan. So, um, the reason I have it on there is is that I will go through,
uh, how you have actually met your third round, which is, in my opinion, for 873 units is quite the the feat, um, in the last couple of years. Uh, and I also talk about the rehab need. Your fourth round obligation, as I indicated, is 10ear. It's a 10-year cycle. It's always
meant to be a 10-year cycle. So, we're looking now forward even though it starts at the end of next month um or the beginning of on July 1st uh your prospective need is 198 units and your rehab need need is 24 units. Just so
you're aware, the rehab need is not is not cumulative. That's a recalculation. So, the 44 units that were in the third round were recalculated based upon census data and now are 24 units. And so it's not it's not an addition uh ma uh math math uh
problem. So your third round status and I go through it in pretty in pretty detail. There's a table in the plan. You as I said your perspective need was 873 units. You have um satisfied that need uh with what you see in that box. You
have 481 units. Uh you have 187 what's known as RCA credits. Those are regional re regional contribution agreement credits. Those are no longer available. If you all may remember um years and years ago, the you could transfer up to
a certain percentage of your obligation if you paid another town to take it. Um and this in this particular instance, you gave money to Philipsburg to help with their affordable housing need. Um but you received credit for it in the third round. You also received of for of
that 873 units, 217 of those were bonus credits. Um, and so you not only met the obligation, but there was additional projects that were put in place after you adopted your plan for the third round, which actually gives you a surplus of 12 credits going towards your
fourth round. So the status of those 481 units include the fact that you have 194 units that are occupied. 62 units are under construction. You extended quite the number of of controls. Extension of controls just basically means that the
deed restriction. So in order for a affordable housing unit to be creditw worthy, it must be deed restricted for low and moderate income households for a minimum of 30 years. some of the original um affordable housing units in the township were coming due in the third round and you received credits for
extending that for another 30 years. You had 225 units that uh came due in the third round. So those were existing units and you took credit for extending those those controls. So you didn't necessarily have to build 225 new affordable housing units and of course
the RCA which was 187 uh credits. So the majority of the plan goes into how you are going to satisfy your obligation of 198 units. Uh and that's what's known as the fair share plan. So
as I indicated the prospective need is 198 units. Your rehabilitation need is 24. You have rehabbed for 15 units since the the previous round. You get credit for that towards uh the rehab uh requirement. And so you actually have
nine units that are now is now as your requirement as you move it into the next 10 years. Rehabilitate, excuse me, rehabilitation. Um to meet that, you don't actually have to um completely meet the 24 or the nine units. You have to put a plan. You have to put a plan together that basically says we are
going to offer a minimum of $10,000 to a unit that has a low and moderate income, somebody that has an income that is considered low and moderate and at least one system of that building needs to be repaired or upgraded to to code. And so, uh, the rehab obligation is something
that, um, isn't necessar Oh, okay. Oh, boy. While we have this low, just by way of comparison, if you take the 873 respective need obligation for the third round and divide it by the number
of years in that round, which is 25, it comes out to approximately 35 per year. If you take the 198 perspective need for the fourth round divided by 10 the 10ear period, this time it's about 20 per year. So the bit of a reduction. So the
need So it looks humongous. 80,000 for the state is actually at least for county considerably lower than the third. Yeah. And and I will say there's a little um blip in the Yeah, I see it. A little blip in the plan that talks
about you all may remember. Um I'll just keep talking until it comes back up. Um that that your original obligation was higher than this and there was a settlement uh agreement to to bring it to 198. So, uh, DCA had figured out your obligation to be
higher. We reviewed it. There wasn't there was an issue with the land capacity factor. We said it was lower. We sent we basically went and I will say it's still we're stilling. That's a delay. Okay, here we go. I'll do it real
fast. Okay. Um, it's fine. So, the so the perspective need the again the majority of the plan talks about how we're going to meet the perspective need. Basically in numbers in round numbers there will be 160 units total and then 49.5 bonus credits uh you will
have a surplus of 11.5 credits to go to the fifth round potentially. Um just so you're aware the 0.5 the 49.5 the Fair Housing Act now gives not not only full bonus credits for certain types of projects but it gives half bonus
credits. So you we're ending up with with a half credit. Um and so we are suggesting that we have 49.5 bonus credits. Okay, it's fine. Go ahead. Okay. Um the so so that is broken into a couple different projects. One is a supportive
and special needs project and we'll talk about that in a second. The other is 100% age restricted rental project known as Ridge Oak 4 and we'll talk about that in a second. One is an inclusionary family rental project um and that is Westgate. Uh again, I'll go through
that. The two that I wanted to just mention because I don't necessarily have um a maps of this is one is an existing assisted living facility that was approved by the board. Uh I think it was the board of adjustment and that was 10 units and that is surplus credits from
the third round. So that wasn't necessarily in your original third round plan. that was something that was um provided as an approval after the fact and so we get credits for that that will go towards the fourth round. The other was a small two two um small projects.
One was a um a one unitit family rental unit and there was another one that that came from um an additional um uh project actually that was in the third round. So these are all surplus credits which I really don't talk much about other than to just name them in the plan. So
generally this is a map that we have in the appendix. All the mapping is in the appendix. This just gives you a sense of where the sites are that that we're going to talk about. Um so the first one as I mentioned is this is supportive of special needs known as our house. We get eight credits for this um u single
family home that has four bedrooms and that's because the fair housing act now allows for four um full bonus credits for every bedroom of special needs. So for I know beds. Thank you. But you get beds credit for bed. So in
this particular instance there there are four beds in this um existing single family home and we are getting eight credits from it. Uh it's it's not something new that's being built. It's on 71 acres and the township is actually committing $200,000 to help with the
renovation um of this particular project. The second is Ridge Oak 4 uh 29 credits. This is 100% affordable housing, meaning meaning all units in the U building will be affordable. It's on 2 acres. It sits
uh next to the other uh Ridge Oaks. So, Ridge Oak is to the north of this property. Um this has already been zoned, as you all are aware, as ASH4. Uh this was adopted uh by the municipality last month. Um the township
at this point has not necessarily said that they're going to contribute money to uh the project. However, um there is a requirement that any 100% job that there be something called an intent to bond uh resolution and that sits within your appendix. There is an intent to
bond resolution. If there is a gap in funding with a 100% project, municipalities are the backs stop for that. So, um there would be a potential uh commitment uh to uh deal with any any funding gap. And I've been talking to
the uh folks at Ridge Oak and normally they receive their funding from the federal government. And with uh the the angst and the unknown what's going to happen with um some of the funding that has happened in the past, um it's possible that we may need to use money from the affordable housing trust fund
to help with any gaps. Can you also just go into you didn't have 100% project where you get one credit for every one of the units. If this was an inclusionary project to replace it somewhere else, how many units? Pretty
much multiply it by five. 29 is a little under 15 has to zone for 150 units to get 29 credits. Yeah. So, so the had to agree
to have a financial back stop, right? Because the because an inclusionary zone the the market rate units are the are this funding mechanism for the affordables. So just in broad numbers if you had a if you had to zone for 150 rounding up to get 30, you have 120 new
market correct to get to get to 29 units. Yep. Um you will also notice streets and in this particular instance the ingress and egress will occur on Manchester. However, there will not be a new um ingress egress that comes out
onto Manchester. It will go through the existing uh age restricted community and then use the existing access onto that particular road. There is an emergency access that will be had through the uh great swamp road that was not vacated. Um and so certainly can indicate that we
have access to an appropriate road. It's developable, meaning it has access to sewer and water. It's approvable in this particular instance. It's already zoned. Uh it doesn't necessarily always have to be that case when it comes before the planning board as part of the plan, but in this particular case, it's been
zoned. Uh it is it can be compliant with re residential site improvement standards. It can be compliant with New Jersey D. Um as it relates to wetlands and storm water. Uh and then of course this holds true for all uh of the pro the projects is that they have to still
come to the planning board for site plan approval. Um and so that will be the next step once you receive approval from the court of your plan as it relates to the 100% job. The only other two items are the fact that they have to provide a proforma showing us uh how much this is
going to cost so that the town can basically say that they'd be willing to backs stop the project and then also a construction schedule. There's a very specific time frame for 100% jobs that they basically have to be built within two years of getting a judgment of compliance from the
court. This is a quick site plan. This is also in the appendix uh concept plan that was part of the um the ordinance that was adopted. Uh to the top is the building layout. Uh to the right is the existing uh Ridge Oak and then the
parking sits uh between Manchester Drive which is that that curve linear um shape that you see on the on the drawing. Um and then you see the connection to the existing uh uh Ridge Oak development. Westgate is the second
project. This is an inclusionary uh project development. This is on 477 Martinsville Road. 34.6 acres. Uh you are receiving 160 I should say 160.5 sorry that's not6.5 credits for this this project. Um
this is the site of a vacant office building. Um the proposal is to provide for 574 total units of which 115 will be affordable. You get 45.5 bonus credits. The fair housing act has allowed for as I indicated half bonus credits. you get
half bonus credits for any development redevelopment of o of office buildings um or commercial spaces and so you will receive 45.5 bonus credits for the redevelopment of this office building as was indicated um but it also well I
didn't indicate it but the MX1 zoning district has been adopted uh for for this uh for this site uh just quickly I want to go through the available the the aables uh as it relates to this project this is owned by the devel developer. Um, so as it relates to available, uh,
we also know that there are we we don't know of any, uh, known in encumbrances that would, uh, limit the ability to provide for affordable housing on the property. It is suitable the compatible uses that surround this site, single family homes to the southwest and the
southeast. There's a hospital to the northwest, commercial to the northeast. Um, access to appropriate streets. We know that there is an existing ingress and egress and internal drive that comes out onto Martinsville Road, which is a signalized four-lane highway. Um, this
is designed uh definitely for what was a very um uh intense user of that road, which would have had a much larger volume of traffic, definitely at peak hours. And we are now looking at a multif family development that would um
certainly not have that same volume of traffic. uh it must be consistent with environmental policies. There are some wetlands um but they are on the outskirts of the site. U the majority of the development in this particular case which was one of the benefits is that it took over most of the existing
impervious cover. So not not adding too much new imperous surface um that would impact u the the site. Um it's develop it's developable. It has access to sewer and water. The only area that does not have access to sewer currently is um and
I'll show it to you in a second is upwards towards Martinsville Road, but the all of the residential development is actually occurring to the rear of the property where the existing office building is. Um and so this is the site layout. Again, this is also in your
appendix. As you will see, the the hotel that's being proposed um sits up against um the the four-lane highway, Martinsville Road. U that's the area that I had suggested that or indicated that there is not sewer. It's not in the sewer service area currently. That's not
most of our concern that what our concern is of the residential units and that they are in the sewer service area and it does have adequate capacity. Um so while the township certainly and I and I go through this in the plan receives seven other proposals,
you are a very popular town actually. I think you're one of my towns that um had the most uh proposals from developers. Most proposals. Yeah. And we spent actually I was thinking about this as I was walking in. I think I was hired June of last year and we started um going
through those proposals of about a year ago. So after many months of analysis, uh the housing the affordable housing committee decided that the projects that we are um proposing to the planning board in this plan address the obligation with the least number of
total market rate units. Um we are saving we did an analysis of about 250 market rate units through um these two projects and as as John had mentioned it's because one is a 100% project. Westgate was always going to be a senior development that was going to provide
374 units. So the additional 200 units created a family project. So um that was one of the the main reasons. It it also provides the most uh the maximum number of bonus credits. That's always something that we want to make sure that we do is we maximize the bonus credits.
We can only take up to 25% of the over obligation for bonus credits and we don't want to leave those credits on the table. Um and then based upon uh review of all the other projects, we felt that the affordable housing committee felt that that that these projects created the least amount of impact to the
environment. As I mentioned, using existing impervious cover areas and are located in areas where the existing infrastructure, not only utilities but roadways can handle and and uh accommodate that particular development. So, in my opinion, uh I uh believe that
the plan is designed to achieve access to affordable housing to meet the constitutional affordable housing obligation and it considers lands um that are most appropriate for the construction of low and moderate income households. So, the next steps include
uh this will be submitted to the superior court or the program within 48 hours of tonight if the planning board approves it. That's by the township attorney. Yes. John wants to make that clear that he will not be submitting that by Mr.
Bolardo. Um in May or June, the township committee will do something called an endorsement. So they basically endorse what you are approving tonight. It will go through a process that I'm not sure what's going to happen necessarily, but I can tell you what the time frames are.
From the time from from July 1st to August 31st, there will be a 60-day objection period. Anybody can object to the plan and sit and pro and and put those objections on file. If somebody objects, there will be a three-month mediation process that will end at the end of this year. So, if we get
objections, we will sit down with the program uh with the with a judge and with an adjudicator and we will go through each of those objections. Um, and if something changes based upon a settlement negotiation, we will be back before you with that change because you
as a planning board have the ultimate authority for the final approval of your plan. Um, and so you have to take a look at whatever those changes would be. If you um if you don't necessarily have an objection, uh there there would be a pretty swift approval process and we
would be um on our way to having site plan approvals before you most likely sometime next year in my opinion. Uh so that's that's basically the the next steps and I'm going to leave it to questions. Back to your ultimate conclusion. Sure. Yep.
Do you have a question or do you want me to say it again? Under the municipal land use law 40 55D-28 for the planning board to adopt a master plan for a component part and a
housing element and fair share plan as a component part. It has to make a finding that the component part will guide the use of lands within the municipality in a manner which protects public health and safety and promotes the general
welfare. So is it do I agree? Yes, I agree that that this plan does that. And you had a conclusion out of the Fair Housing Act, correct? It was 527D-310. And can you sure that that basically the the plan is designed to achieve access to affordable housing to
meet the constitutional affordable housing obligation and it considers lands that um are the most appropriate for the construction of low and moderate income households. So for all the factual reasons that you laid out, that's my conclusion. Your conclusion,
correct? Okay. All right. I have one question. You mentioned the ridge of 100% affordable has to start construction within two years, but that's after all this. Correct. So the clock starts ticking once all the um
if and when there are any objections, appeals and everything. So it's not like two years from when we submit. No, no, it's it's two years from from you will get an order from a judge from superior court that says you have a judgment a final judgment of compliance and and repose and they will be aware of that.
Correct. And could they come for a variance on that or is that is that flex is that at all? They can come for a variance on it. It's it's a normal zoning ordinance. Um and so if they need to request a sideyard setback or rear yard setback, they would re be
requesting that as part of site plan. on the timeline? No. Oh, no. No. Well, I will put it this way. If if there are funding issues or if there are construction issues as they're going through the process, and this happens a lot, um, we will most likely go back to
the court and ask for an order that says we need an additional time. The answer is we wouldn't grant it. No, to grant any. That's a superior court. Exactly. That was my question that I had. Okay. Does the affordable housing in the
Westgate property component that has to be um dispersed within the market rate? Correct. Correct. So be confined to one building integrated. It has to be integrated and it's recommended per the COA regs um in the new uh hack. It's in
the new uh hack which may change but who knows what happens. Uniform housing affordability controls. Um but yes it has to be interspersed and I think the other part that you all should be aware of is that there's a uh income distribution and a
bedroom distribution requirement. So half have to be um low of of which 13% must be very low and then the other half can be moderate income and then a certain percentage of ones you can't ex exceed 20% onebedrooms and you have to have 20% threebedrooms. Everything else
could be two bedrooms. So those are absolute requirements um that they have to provide. I think the other thing you have to be cognizant of is that um in an inclusionary development there's a phasing requirement. So you can't build all your market rates and then leave the
affordables to the end. They have to be um pretty much done at a certain um schedule that so many market rates are done. You have to do so many affordable units. And can the hotel be built before the affordables? Not that I'm aware of. Actually, I don't recall in the
ordinance if there's a requirement requires J to the microphone please. The ordinance requires that the affordable housing units must be in the first phase so they can be done at the same time but not for him
not affordable has to be be part of the first phase. I was just going to say that you're so smart but we knew that those are my questions around I know Mr. Crane is looking at me like
question. Yeah. Um the two uh communities that we're talking about, what planning areas are they in state? PA2 and what's the suburban planning area and the suburban PA? So our state
is broken up into planning areas and the 2001 state plan indicates what those planning areas are. You we are all the entire state is going through cross acceptance for a new state plan. Um, and so they designate areas as metropolitan, suburban, fringe, or rural or
environmentally sensitive. When you're in PA1, PA five. Yeah. And then they have some other ones, too. But PA1 and PA2 are technically the ones where in the state plan, it says that they want to see redevelopment and development of
housing and and other uh commercial entities and that type of thing. That's where they're pushing affordable excuse me pushing housing spec specifically affordable housing to be of commercial ju just redevelopment just generally ju so so really think about it this way PA1
and PA2 is where development should occur PA three four and five is where really development should not occur unless you have a center designation or you have sewer water that can support it if I can we only have planning area two and
three and five right we don't have planning area Correct. Um just just a clarification when you said Supreme Court, you talked about New Jersey Supreme Court decision. Mhm. Okay. For the Mount Laur. Yes. Was it important? Is that what you said? In a
further federal 1975 Supreme Court decision said all developing all developing communities. In 1983, Mount Laurin said all communities. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if I went through the history of it, I would have probably gotten to it, but I
figured I wasn't going to say anything. So, wait a there's a couple others, right? You're PA3 and five. Three is it's called the fringe area.
Correct. Yes. It's your testimony that the compliance mechanisms that involve building either inclusionary or 100% projects are in PA2 not correct four or five. Yes. Yes. And that is in the plan
just so it's in the in the areas where we talk about developability and suitability. Mr. Crane, do you have anything? Mr. Mali, do you have any questions? I'm gonna go along here. Mr. Any questions?
Mr. Try, no. Miss Smith, no. Mr. I um I just want to look over my notes. Okay, sure. Just want to make sure I didn't miss anything.
No, I'm fine. Okay, thank you. Okay. So, wait. I'm gonna ask if there's any um questions. I'm gonna open this up to public questions. You might do public questions and comments. If anyone has comments, I'll square them in. But if you have questions, fire away. Would
anyone from the public like to question Miss Leaching the microphone? more quickly, but that's okay. You're going to also make comments, I assume. Can you identify yourself for
the record? Toddlestein, 172 Riverside Drive, Passing Ridge. Swear or affirm that the testimony and comments that you're going to be giving in this proceeding will be the truth to nothing but the truth. Yes. Hi, Mr. Fine. Uh, just a couple
questions. um over Westgate. These um affordable units, how long are they going to be affordable? The Make sure this is on. The green light means it's on, right? Yes. Yes.
So, um the new Fair Housing Act requires a 40 a minimum 40-year deed restriction on rental units. Okay. You said 48. 40. 40. So at the end of 40 are they obligated to come to the town and offer
to renew them for 40 more or can they do whatever they want after 40? So the deed restriction has to be lifted by the municipality. Okay. So after 40 they have to come to the town and then Okay. That's a I think that's pretty important because I think we've been bitten by
that a couple times. Um I think it's a good plan. Oh, one question. As an expert, and there's been a lot of talk about this for the last couple weeks to
months, as an expert, could you make it? Do you have an opinion? If we had done a Highlands thing, would that helped us any? Was it is it worth would have been worth going to it or
not? So, the Highland think. Well, yeah. I I mean, I would say that I would question what what's the question? The Highlands if we conformed our the townships if we
were if we were to join the Highlands regional area. I guess I don't know the name. I think what you mean is had the conformance if if we had formed the planning area so they in effect would be
treated like preservation areas. Well I if if you would have come come under conformance your obligation may have changed um and that's based upon a whole bunch of different factors. Um unfortunately the timing just didn't work out that that it was even possible.
I understand that. So to me for to to answer your question, I don't know how advantageous it would have been or not because we didn't get too far down into the the weeds. We did do an initial assessment um and that initial assessment went into more about um what
properties should be in uh different um districts and they're called subcategory districts, but we didn't necessarily get into an actual number of and and and again I don't want to get too much into the details because this is still litigation and we still are under uh
attorney client privilege and so I I don't want to talk about what we looked at with the Highlands and actually we just ran out time so you can do it. Okay. I It's just been a hot subject. Yeah. And we're here now. Now's the time
to ask the question, I I think. And I just was looking for an educated opinion basically. Not from somebody who, you know, gets it off the computer, you know, googling it. But thank you very much. Did you want to say anything else? I thought you were starting to say good
and everything. Well, it Well, now that Mr. Ukraine has um I didn't prompt that. No, not much. But I I agree with the plan. I think, you know, especially Westgate, it's already there. You know, it was approved at least two years ago,
if I remember right. So, even if we decided not to do it, they were still going to be building. So, I think we saved ourselves on that. And um the one to one on Oakidge, yeah, you really can't beat that.
Ridge Oak Oakidge. Oak Ridge Oak Ridge Oak Oak wherever's on Manchester. How's that sound? I get it backwards though. But um anyway, I think it it's a good plan and as much as we have to deal with it, it's it's the best option we have at
this time. Thank you very much for your time. Is there anyone else from the public that would like to question or comment um at this time? This is your opportunity. I came for a different reason. So I don't appropriate to talk about it tonight. No one's raising their
hand. Okay. So, I'm going to close the public question and comment portion. Um, so does anyone want to deliberate? No. If it seems like unless someone
indicates that they're opposed to a motion to adopt this plan, I'm going to read a proposed resolution that I suggest after I read it. Someone say so moved to adopt a resolution. This would be a resolution adopted the 2025 fourth
round housing element housing plan element and fair share plan element of the township master plan. Whereas upon notice duly provided pursuant to NJSA 40 col 55D-13 the Bernard Township planning
board and hearing after I'm just going to refer to it as a board held a public hearing on the proposed 2025 fourth round housing plan element and fair share plan element of the master plan and I'm going to call that the 2025
HPSP on May 20th 2025 whereas upon conclusion of the public hearing the determined I'm going to answer I'm not going to put this based on the testimony of of our star witness that the proposed 2025 HP FSP will guide
the use of lands in the township in a manner which protects public health and safety and promotes the general welfare in accordance with NJSA 405D-28 and is designed to achieve access to affordable housing to meet the
township's fourth round constitutional affordable housing obligations and considers the lands that are most appropriate for construction of low and moderate income housing in accordance with NJSA 527D-310. Now therefore be it resolved
by motion duly made and seconded on May 20th 2025 that the board hereby adopts the 2025 fourth round housing plan element and fair share plan element of the project master plan. That is my suggested resolution to be adopted if
someone would make so moved. Second. I'm sorry. I moved and Mr. Rino was the second. And Cindy, since you're going to have to fill in these names. If you go slow, I'll fill in for you. If you want to go fast, I'll give this back to you.
All righty. Mr. Crane, yes. Miss Mandu, yes. Mr. Ino. Yes. Mr. Seville. Yes. Mr. Tying. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Miss Ali. Yes. Chairwoman. Master Angelo. Yes.
Okay. The next uh part of meeting will be comments from members. Um I would just like to say a few words. We have Miss Kefir, our esteemed board secretary, who is unfortunately um going to be retiring at the end of June.
Um and we have been very very lucky to have you, Cindy. I mean, we have great board professionals and you are one of the great ones. And um you set the bar really high. You keep us all organized. You get us things in a timely manner.
You remind us. You really are the grease that keeps the wheel going. Um, you know, I'm at a loss because I'm I wouldn't have accepted the position if I knew you were retiring and that's the truth. No. Um,
so really, you have our appreciation. You have been dynamite. Um, thank you so so much. Can I say something? Yeah, of course. So, I've been doing this since 1987 and I represent full-time eight manage boards and I do all sorts of
other work and hopefully this will not get out to anyone else. Sydney is the best board secretary that I've ever worked with in my entire career doing this work. Thank you. That's an accurate means a lot. I just
want to say I worked with Cindy for eight years on two different boards. I don't ever remember you missing a meeting? I can't think of anyone one. I got stuck in um in Europe for co
That's impressive. That's very impressive. That's impressive because you also cover the zoning board. That's what he's referring to. So, and to hear Mr. Jill say that is is really a testament because he sees a lot of boards and um the good,
the bad, and the ugly is born and great Miss Cindy is fantastic, phenomenal. Any other word you can think of. Oh, thank you. That coming from all of you that means a lot. It is truly been a pleasure working with all of you,
not just this year, but in all the years I've worked with this board, your dedication to this township is more than admirable. Um, it's just amazing to me. All of you put in so much so much effort. Um, you actually make my job
easier because you're always prepared. Um, and again, it truly has been a pleasure working for all of you and I I'll miss it. I I have to come back. Definitely. Six months. We'll welcome you back. I think it's a six-month hiatus.
I checked the rules. So, would anyone else like to pipe in? I I would just like to confer. I've been playing watch a lot of the YouTube on the board of adjustments. So, I would agree. I can't top Mr. Krill's comments or the
chair, but I would concur. He's never at a loss with for words. That's sometimes. I I'll add that, you know, I don't have the tenure of some of the other people to sit up on this board, but the time that I do have
in your work has been admiraable, you outstanding. That being said, we reject your I'll second that. Well, congratulations. Thank you very much. Did did it was around um as somebody who served on the the board of
adjustments as well as planning board. Uh and just starting off in the board of adjustments, you know, kind of you personally giving me the lay of the land has been uh was great. Um and of course continued support on the planning board as well has been awesome. Um, but if I
can pivot a little, I just want to thank all of our professionals for kind of navigating us through this affordable housing process. Um, we really do have some of the best in the state. uh some of us who have been with us for the long haul and unfortunately uh
leaving us. But then we we also have a number of you who have been with us for the long haul as well who will be continuing to to navigate us and and guide us through this process. Um and then of course we have newbies as well
who are also state experts. Um, and so I just want to thank everybody, uh, thank all of our professionals for for leading us through this process. This was a heavy lift. So, thank you, Mr. Mr. Mr. Drill. Yeah. And everyone else that
we haven't mentioned anyone else. Okay. Um, comments from staff. No. Madam Chair, are we going to cancel? Yes. Um, So, we are going to cancel the June 3rd, 2025 meeting since we finished
the housing element fair share plan today and stay tuned for the June that would be the 17th meeting. We will let you know. Um, but uh June, you have a little
hiatus. You have to come back early for Memorial Day. And um any comments? Oh, that's it. No comments. So I will take a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Thank you. M second. All in
favor. And um we do have a little celebration cake which we any members of the public are welcome to join us for as well for Miss Keeper's retirement.