bernard's Township Committee meeting for March 25th 2025 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 adequate notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building one collar lane Bassing Ridge on the township website and emailed to the Burnsville News Whippony the Courier News Bridgewatertap
into.net net patch.com and filed with the township clerk on December 18th 2024 any motion to go into close session will include the matters discussed as such closed sessions will be discussed to the public when such matters are finally
determined there's no further reason to prohibit the public from disclosure of the information relating to such matters no new business will be introduced after 10:30 p.m public comment will be accepted at all meetings speakers will be limited to 5 minutes each all
meetings will adjourn no later than 11:30 p.m roll call christie miss Acy here mr darte McCarthy here mr mcn here mr tanky here mayor Fields
here executive session Christie the executive session resolution is listed as item 14 on the agenda presentations resolution 2025-0161 recognition of n national
agricultural month so I've asked my colleague Anna uh to present the agricultural resolution she's the lison to the agricultural committee wonderful thank you so March is also recognized as agricultural awareness month and it's a
time to recognize the vital role that agriculture plays across the country and in our local communities one of my responsibilities on the township committee is serving as the liaison to the agricultural advisory committee the committee is responsible for promoting and preserving agriculture as a viable
economic activity within Bernard Township and enabling agricultural enterprises to continue to contribute to the quality of life in our community the committee makes recommendations to the planning board and township committee as to municipal land use procedures that
strengthen and sustain agriculture and advises on legislative and regulatory issues pertaining to agriculture and lastly it also serves as a forum for discussion of local agricultural practices and as an agent of change for public policy that may impact farming
and the preservation of farmland we often describe Bernard's Township as a farming community yet people may not recognize the history of our farms and the important part they play in our community as an example English Farm has been here since before the Revolutionary
War 1730 and I believe may be the longest running business in our community some of you may have visited English Farm which hosted the pumpkin smash in early December or just to go and buy local produce if you look at our website there's a great map of the
agricultural advisory committee page that highlights many of our farms um including some of our retail farms Crane Farm English Farm Ripple Hill Farm and Anderson Farm along with several operating farms close to the public including among others Harrison Brook
Farm the Pinson Farm Double Nickel Farm and Moloto Farm in addition we have our historic farm the Ross farm we are very appreciative of the heritage of our farming community and it is with pleasure that I support the adoption of this resolution i want to see if Joe is
here joe SJ great joe if you could come up please so Joe is the head of our uh he's the head of Ripple Hill Farm he's also chair of the agricultural advisory committee and we want to present him with this resolution so mayor should I go ahead
and so can I have a motion yes I'll make that motion second all in favor i I All right so I'm going to just uh read this quickly some parts of it whereas March as I shared signifies a
national celebration of the importance of food and agriculture in the United States as it provides almost everything we eat and use each day whereas the advisory committee was tasked and continues to help promote local agriculture educate the community and help meet future economic challenges and
encourage communication and cooperation among farmers and the public now therefore be it resolved the Bernards Township Committee recognizes the month of March as National Agriculture Month in Bernard Township and encourages residents to visit our local farms this
month and all year round and be it further resolved the Burners Township Committee applauds the work of our local farmers for their continued efforts to provide the food we eat the economic diversity we appreciate and the open space we rely on and finally be it resolved the committee applauds the
continued work of the agricultural advisory board for supporting our farmers protecting our open space and for developing an interactive map which I just shared of the commercial farms and seasonal newsletter to encourage residents and the broader community to
visit and support our farmers we are very grateful Joe for all that you do for our community so we thank you wants to come down take a picture thank you thank you Christie public work session none this
evening mayor correspondence none this evening next is public comment comments are welcome during the public comic period during this meeting on any agenda item or other matter over which the township committee has jurisdiction however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda
please hold your comments for that particular public hearing the public comment portion of the agenda is not structured as a question and answer session but offers an opportunity to share your thoughts with the township committee the committee may or may not address these comments during the
meeting however all comments are considered to address this body the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to 5 minutes the clerk will keep time please promptly yield the floor
when your time has expired and return to your seat your cooperation and adherence to these rules of order will ensure an orderly and respectfully meeting i open to public comment hi good evening my name is John Tommpkins i live at 82 Independence
Drive in Basking Ridge where I've been there for the last 26 years so I have some concern about the whole process of the affordable housing it's my understanding this train has been coming towards this town for years nothing
popped up out of out of the blue in the last 6 months and my understanding is we're coming up against a hard deadline um and if we don't meet that deadline we will I'm certain uh we'll be incurring some sort of financial penalties or
we'll be paying tons of money in legal costs to uh try to remedy it or delay the final outcome so I'm curious as to why we've waited this long for it to come to this point when we've seen this
thing coming towards this town for so many years um recently the Highlands uh have been introduced my understanding is that's about a two-year process to get that um uh to be become a member of that and to get some relief from the affordable housing so at this point
that's a rather moot point it's it's something it's it's a distraction so would you guys be able to publish or provide us with the timeline as to how this whole thing unfolded just so we have some idea as to why we're sitting
here in a position where we're coming up against a hard deadline and we're going to start losing control of the situation the town will start losing control of the situation and we're going to start spending a lot more money than what we needed to so if you guys could put that somewhere post that somewhere publish it
somewhere so we know exactly how we've wound up in this place I would really appreciate that thank you thank you Suzanne Glassman Emerald Valley Lane and Basking Rich as a taxpaying resident for over 30 years in Bernard's Township I'm
truly dismayed by the affordable housing solutions presented by the Bernard's Township Committee there is no open dialogue with residents on plans then one option is presented voted on and what I think is an unacceptable plan is put through to the planning board the Westgate plan is another version of
here's a property here's our affordable housing obligation done and it doesn't matter that it looks like a big city with five-story buildings within our small town just because affordable housing allows for 80% coverage doesn't mean it has to be the only option shouldn't our township committee members
decide what's in keeping with our town why propose uh two huge developments Mountain View and Westgate within a half a mile of each other that would create overcrowding in our schools massive traffic jams on our roads onelane roads many of them and flooding from runoff
was a reassessment of wetlands ever done now that the Mountain View has been clear-cut the Mountain View complex has been clear-cut and development started were traffic studies or the impact on local schools reviewed i feel like even though we have years to plan for affordable housing we never seem to be
ready for it the Westgate project is at the bottom of steep slopes so there will be runoff where are the new retention basins to accommodate this there is already one massive five-story building on the property another five-story building twice the size to be built and
a third building then clear cutting a wooded section to make way for our town's sixth hotel plus businesses is there a park or green space for the people who will live in Westgate to enjoy no bike paths for the children no wooded areas as a buffer no in the new
building there will be two courtyards surrounded by five-story walls where people can scramble for the sliver of light that will get in the density will be so great it will become a city atmosphere within our small town of Basking Rich we need two other options either mitigate the sprawl from the
existing Westgate site by adding another affordable housing site or join the Highlands coalition the state is looking to take away control from local townships on affordable housing so the Highlands might be a good way to head that off at the pass i would also like to see an option for special needs
children and adults which I think the smaller building proposed on the Westgate property would be perfect for i'm I'm not sure about like what concessions we received either from allowing this huge project to be put in our town thank you very much
sharon Vel 20 Evergreen Place good evening honored members of the township committee i'm here to comment on Burners Township's affordable housing plan which was just found to be inconsistent with our master plan by the affordable housing planning consultant Elizabeth Mcmanis her finding states in part that
quote "It is fundamentally not addressed and not recommended in your two primary master plan elements we can't ignore the township's master plan we can't ignore our own planning board and we can't ignore Miss McManis and her findings so I'd like to ask for you to consider two
very important things that are vital to this and every subsequent affordable housing round we can't keep kicking the can down the road the time to conform to Highlands is now if you don't make conforming to Highlands priority number one then you're doing us a disservice you have a fiduciary responsibility to
residents it means putting our best interest above anything else and the previous plan doesn't do that here's a quick bullet list I put together of the pluses and I did my own research it forever protects us from future overdevelopment due to continued mandates it would cut in half the number
of affordable housing units right now it means preservation of open space while mandates put a target on their back conforming means access to funds grants for planning and I think uh also technical assistance um when it comes to planning and zoning saving us money for
the taxpayer it only affects large subdividable tracks of land so I know that but not the average Basking Ridge single family homeowner or about 13 parcels of land for those subdividal parcels many of which are corporate and not privately owned it means no more
threats of high-rise type overdevelopment plans our own municipal zoning stays intact intact it doesn't get trashed we won't lose control over our own zoning and we and it won't leave us open and vulnerable to plans like Westgate we'd also be provided with
legal representation if we ever got sued so you either keep things the way they are and negatively impact forever the township's 28,000 residents with continued overdevelopment that impacts our infrastructure municipal service needs schools roads commute time small
town feel peace and enjoyment and for sure our taxes or you afford us protections against overdevelopment that would only affect about 13 parcels of land it is not in the best interest of residents to have 574 plus housing uses
plus a 150 room hotel we already have 741 including the old mill in Burnsville it's just over the border when instead we could cut that number in half and protect the future of Bernard Township in the process the second very important thing I request that you address with
actionable solutions is housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities or ID as a mother to a teen with ID who will need housing in several years there is none right now there's a 7 to 10year weight list for residential group homes in the state even with the state adding $6
million to build and upgrade homes it only addresses the needs of a 100 people at least at last count there are 2,589 just on the priority list which is a list of adults with ID whose parents are 55 and older when there is zero
housing for people with ID in these last two plans what does that say you are putting them out in the cold they're already among the most marginalized citizens in our society why are you not doing more for them do you know and I want to ask a
question do you know what happens to people with ID without appropriate housing they get stuck in nursing homes regular nursing homes that can't uh take care of them they don't have the proper care or they stay with aging parents until they die i have an absolutely awful story I don't talk about often but
I'm going to because if you don't understand the gravity of the disability housing situation before hearing it I hope to God you do after i'm great friends with a woman named Amy Allison who's the executive director of Farmer's House in Missouri she has 30 years experience working with people with ID she's held lots of roles Medicaid case
manager group home supervisor service coordinator supervisor direct care provider before moving into senior executive roles this is by far the worst story she's ever relayed to me she was serving as a case manager for an adult male client with Down syndrome named Bill bill lived in his childhood
home with his aging mother who had cancer when Amy failed to hear from Bill's mother after repeated calls she sent a staff member to go check on him they found Bill in the house with his mother who'd been dead for nine days bill became a word of the state and as
an immediate needs case he was moved into a home with 10 other people with disabilities he'd never met before it goes without saying Bill was traumatized for the rest of his entire time on earth here i don't expect you to know all these things unless you have a loved one
with a disability like I do but I do expect you to care i do expect you to address the needs of your constituents who face these vital issues by ensuring vastly greater numbers of housing units for people with ID in every plan moving forward and by the way so the public
knows I'm almost done you get two credits for every one housing unit you build for people with disabilities so where are these units for them so they can live dignified lives in homes getting qualified care they need it's time it's time to conform to Highlands and well past the time to provide much
neededed housing for people with disabilities thank you very much thank you good evening my name is Emma Vopel and I came here tonight to comment on affordable housing i heard my mom talking about it a few months ago and then again the last few weeks there were
two things she mentioned that caught my attention one was about how there's not many homes for people with disabilities not just in our town but in all NJ towns and across the country too my question is if the number of regular and
lowincome homes are to be built is 7 and 5 574 and I found out that there's supposed to be a hotel why didn't you have even one home or apartment for people like my sister who has a
disability i know from growing up in a family that there's a really long waiting list just like my mom mentioned and I don't think it's right of you to exclude people with disabilities from your plans and I think you need to work harder to get them the housing they need
the other thing I wanted to mention was that a friend of mine in tech crew I go to Ridge High School heard that there might be a small film studio built in Basking Ridge over by Verizon near 287 but that this plan which also did have
housing for people with disabilities got shot down i'd like to know why because as someone who's very involved in both drama club and especially tech crew where I'm learning spotlight set wiring soundboard and special effects I think that could have
meant a really great deal and a lifetime opportunity to have the Ridge High School drama club and our tech crew connect and ultimately work with the film studio people so it's a lost opportunity in two ways you took away a real opportunity for us to work with a real film studio
and you scrapped the plan that did have housing for the disabled to go with the ones that have none thank you thank you good evening frederick Petri a resident of 30 Prospect Avenue and my property is
within uh 200 ft from the proposed structure as an architect and resident who has lived in this affected neighborhood for the past 11 years I have several cons concerns regarding the proposed expansion of Rejo senior
housing from both professional standpoint and as a concerned neighbor I believe this expansion possess several risk that need to be thoroughly evaluated and uh before proceeding the first one is uh traffic impact and uh
safety concerns from uh my perspective one of primary concerns is the lack of the comprehensive traffic impact study conducted by township given the scale of this expansion it is essential to assess how the proposed development will affect the flow of traffic in the area the
current proposal only includes one point of entrance and exit for the new expansion which I believe is insufficient for both operational and safety reasons single access point will undoubtedly create significant congestion especially during peak hours
in the event of the emergency this could create dangerous delays for emergency responders uh and the residents ability to evacuate safely um if you look at the plan in in in this expansion if approved there will be
likely request for an additional curb cut or traffic rerouting which could further impact traffic problems in the surrounding neighborhood because I guess we should read from the plans that everything is contained in that corner
where there is existing entrance but the the amount of people units and parking provided or proposed definitely is in insufficient second point infrastructure strain another critical issue is a
potential strain on existing infrastructure specifically the underground uh sewer system plumbing and electrical service uh given the increased density of the proposed development it is crucial to consider whether the uh current system
are adequately equipped to handle the additional load uh third point is disruption of the neighborhood characters and scale the third concern I have is the nature of the proposed expansion itself rejo was
initially designed by local churches to serve the elderly and its scale and design were in keeping with the character of surround surrounding neighborhood however proposed expansion appears to be an aggressive and
nonregarding growth uh the facility which seems to prioritize development at the expense of the established residential neighborhood the expansion threatens to fundamentally change the character of the neighborhood that I and many other residents have
come to love and appreciate i worry that the addition of the large senior housing complex will drastically alter the neighborhood's look and feel i will skip on a uh item number four which is long-term
community impact i just want to make a short statement um based on what I reviewed and discussed at the meeting that we had previous session that you have saying that uh there will be some amenities here provided for the senior citizens in this
development well in addition to that my understanding is that the owners are planning also to bus senior citizens from other communities to our community to use that amenities so
that's a huge impact on infrastructure and on all of us in the neighborhood thank you hi my name is uh Les Corn Hill Cone i'm at 25 Emerald Valley Lane i'm don't have a lot to say i just want to say when you
guys all ran for office I got a lot of flyers that said we are opposed to overdevelopment both parties sent things my husband's a Republican i'm a Democrat we got everybody said we're opposed to overdevelopment i can't think of anything that's bigger overdevelopment
than 574 families they're not units they're families 574 families and 32 acres that's a 15 to1 ratio i mean that is the definition of overdevelopment
so I don't think it really matters the details of like it's a bad site that Westgate's bad because we're going to have kids under the age of 12 playing right next to a hotel or the fact that to leave that that facil excuse me to leave that that development they will have to go to Mountain Air excuse me
Mount Airy Road which has no sidewalk it's a busy street where we could talk about the the obvious traffic that's going to happen on the corner of Mountain Road and Mount Airy when you have Mountain View and now you have West Gate two houses I mean excuse me two
cars per house but none of that really matters i think you all know the density is ridiculous 575 families would you want to live there would you want your mom to live there would you want your kids to live there would you want your grandchildren to live there you made
promises keep those promises thank you good evening my name is Bonnie Kelly i'm the executive director of Ridge Oak Senior Housing i'm here tonight to express mine and the Ridge Oak Board of Trustees uh support of affordable housing for
senior citizens in Bernard's Township we have here tonight a a bunch of residents of Ridge Oak who have enjoyed living in the neighborhood of Manchester Drive Prospect Tanglewood Juniper etc we've been neighbors of um part of the
neighborhood for the last 49 years ridge Oak was founded by the six sponsor churches Christian Churches in Basking Ridge we are a nonprofit 501c3 corporation are while I don't really want to talk at
length about the ordinance that you'll be considering in two weeks i wanted to express our support in general for senior housing affordable housing we have 248 people who are waiting for an apartment at Ridge Oak um some of those
people are desperate uh we got a call the other day from a woman who was kicked out of where she was living and was in her car she had no place to go unfortunately she wasn't coming up on our waiting list so we couldn't take her right away but we were
able to um refer her to other organizations that may have been able to assist her a couple of comments have been made relative to traffic my residents usually drive between the
hours of 10:00 a.m and 2:00 p.m they like to avoid the school buses and they really don't want to be in heavy traffic it's just kind of widely known we have 356 people at Reoke 307 apartments we
have about 165 cars some of those cars never move um regarding the comment that uh there'll be some long-term community impact and that we have some plans to
bust people into Rididge there is no plan to bus anybody into Rididge for any service anything that we provide to our residents we provide onsite we will not be opening our doors to members of other
communities to enjoy the uh support that we provide to our residents this is a tough spot you're in and I understand that this is not news to me nor should it be news to anybody in this town quite honestly that the
fourth round of affordable housing was coming back in I think it was January of last year or maybe it was this spring I came and I sat in on an excellent presentation that was given by your planner about the affordable
history of affordable housing this round of affordable housing why it's important the court cases that support it and she did an excellent job i believe that that presentation is available for people to
watch on the township website and I would encourage any member of the public to take the time to do that it was excellent the project that we're going to be putting forward to you is 29 apartments not 574 not
653 not 80 not 90 29 apartments there is in my estimation and I've been there 25 years one house that will be able to see the building and the building as it's proposed is as far away
from that house as is humanly engineering and architecturally possible we'll be prepared at the appropriate time when we go before the planning board for site plan approval with all the information to support our
proposal that will include traffic studies engineering studies etc please keep in mind that the people who need affordable housing are your neighbors they're your parents they're your
grandparents not some strangers that are coming into town about 40% of the people who live at Rejo either lived in in Bernard's or a local community or have family that live in Bernards or a local community we have
people banging on our door to live at Ridge Oak we're the best in the business and we're damn proud of it affordable Affordable housing is for everybody it's for the disabled it's for families it's for children it's for
senior citizens it's for everybody again it's for your mother your grandmother your uncle your father thank you good evening my name is Suzanne Walszac and I live at
114C Manchester Drive however yes I am part of Ridge Oak but I face East Oak Street so a lot of people don't even know that we're there we're behind the barns but I'd like to just say something about
the affordable housing a lot of people do not understand about affordable housing they put a label on it and they put a label on the people that live in affordable housing now I will tell you that I lived
in affordable housing before I came to Ridge Oak and in my community there were families and there were a lot of women widowed divorced and I want to tell you it was
what they could afford and that's why they were there and that's why people need affordable housing because not everybody has a good job not everybody was born with a spoon in their mouth
and you don't know the circumstances of everyone in today's world nothing and I mean nothing is secure you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow and as I have been fortunate enough to be at Ridge Oak for almost
eight years and I will tell you I could not be happier the apartments are well-kept the maintenance and there are a lot of residents from around town that walk through our development and they can see
how nicely kept it is and it might be your mother it might be your grandmother that needs a home and you don't want them to live with you and you don't want to put them in a nursing home so where else do they go
you have to put them in a senior housing and there's just not enough around and as Bonnie said the waiting list I waited three years before I got in so I just want to say that it is
needed it is well needed and I don't know if any of you have taken a walk through the community but you'll see how wellkept it is the maintenance is unbelievable and it's just somewhere
that you would want to live if you needed to at your age not now but I'm saying in a few years but I'm saying we need it we need it and as far as far as affordable housing the regular affordable housing
you know what everybody needs a house basking Ridge or Bernardsville doesn't want to be known as having people on the street because they didn't want to help them and all these people behind me that
live in Rejo they're thankful every one of us are thankful for being there because some of us don't know where we would be so I know it's hard i know it's hard on
the residents but you know what we keep to ourselves we're old people we don't go out after m Well probably not out after dark because if you walk through that development at 5:00 the shades are all
down so you know we don't bother people and there's a lot that goes on in the community if and I'll tell you it's just a wonderful place and if it's expanded there's going to be a lot of other happy
people and I know it's a very very difficult situation and I know how people discriminate because it's affordable housing for the regular housing that you have to um provide but you know
what you have to go with your heart you have to go with your mind what's good for people thank you all right this will be a rough one because what I'm going to I'm at 35 Prospect Avenue Libby West i would be
one of the ones staring at this um complex i am not anti-affordable housing i have no thoughts negative or positive unaffordable housing i'm I'm not anti- senior housing what I'm anti is an
apartment building that I will stare at from my bedroom window that's it that's what I find a problem the land that you are if you've walked back where they are per proposed building they purchased that single
family tract because the folks were unable to sell it because of it borders Ridge Oak as Ridge Oak grows each one of our houses now becomes worthless and what are we going to do about that when does the growing then
they buy the next house they buy the next house and it comes out into the development i know there is land behind it i know some of it's wetlands i don't know exactly which plots there may be a better solution as to placement again
I'm not anti-housing or anti-affordable housing it's just the wrong location and type of building you are literally putting it into a neighborhood and it's an apartment building i know it's pretty i walk through there i love walking
through there i know it's wellmaintained it's an apartment building in a neighborhood that is what is wrong with it sher Nelson 195 Smoke Road i just wanted to say what Libby said i'm not against affordable housing i have a disabled
adult son he's going to need it one day i have no negative thoughts about it whatsoever i'm against overdevelopment um just to clarify we're talking about 29 units at Ridge Oak but we're talking about 574 at Westgate that's where that number is coming from so there's two different ordinances to consider and two
different plans here and that's not 574 affordable units we're not helping people out we're just giving a greedy developer some money so I just want to make sure we know what we're actually dealing with here um I attended the planning board meeting last week and the
planning board unanimously voted that both of these ordinances are not consistent with our master plan so I would urge you all to vote no on both of those ordinances when they come up in April um this plan is overdevelopment it does not even include affordable housing
that was um for the disabled adults and after everything we sat through with these December meetings and Every single person got up to this microphone and said that that's what they wanted that's what they supported i know you guys are working with our house for a group home that's four people that are going to get
help by that um I think someone said before there's a three-year waiting list for senior housing there's an 8 to 10 year waiting list for disabled adults that is disgusting and to know that we're not even going to try to address that with our affordable housing credits
I it's mind-blowing to me it should have been a priority and I know a lot of people are really upset that you guys are not including that i would ask that you start over come up with a new plan this is not good enough um I'm also asking that instead you
consider pivoting and conform to the Highlands plan um my understanding is some of the positives would be that it would reduce our affordable housing obligation by half protect our town from litigation related to our zoning protect
the environment and protect us in the future from overdevelopment many towns have chosen to conform including Mendum Burnersville and Harding we don't have much time to do this and I think it's time that we control our future development instead of having developers
control our town thank you just let me set up my little iPad here good evening everybody my name is Julian Balmer and I live at 48 Deer Ridge Road i moved here with my wife and my two young kids in 2022 paid
probably 25% over market value from what it used to be uh we love it here um I respect what everybody is saying i think this is a bigger issue that you guys have on an emergent basis and it's exactly what Miss Nelson just said at
the end which is the Highlands coalition and from in my opinion this is about the legacy of everybody here everybody sitting on this side and every committee person it's about what we're going to leave behind for the people that come after
us it's a bigger issue than just affordable housing and I mean that with no disrespect and I think every one of you guys knows that as well i'm going to read you a quote the scale and character of historic villages is also a major concern and Liberty Corner and Basking
Ridge stand as testimonials to the historic past of Bernard's Township these mixeduse village areas have a fabric which is susceptible to damage by the removal and replacement of older and smaller buildings with new larger buildings does anybody recognize
that it's from the master plan of Bernard's Township a principal objective of this land use plan is that the highly prized community character and quality of life be protected and maintained throughout Bernard's Township whether in newly constructed or older suburban
neighborhoods historic settlements or rural portions of the township protecting these features will likely require a combination of regulatory techniques including carefully crafted strategies to protect and enhance these assets that's what everyone here
is bound to respectively that until it's amended that's that's the plan that's what everyone's here to do and we're all at a crossroads together as one of the main issues facing us as adults human beings parents members of
the community is the environment we can stick our head in the sand as much as we want but it's here and it's here to stay and I grew up in New York City moved to New Jersey for high school i remember being on both sides of the armpit of the
United States moniker um I love New Jersey i love New York but everybody here knows it's it's the most densely populated portion of the country i mean I don't mean this as a joke but we I mean we should be paying people to
move to Pennsylvania not building more homes to fit more people especially in an area with a rich tradition like Bernard's Township my three-year-old went to the to school at the oldest Presbyterian church in the country walking by tombstones of
revolutionary soldiers this is a very unique place and the best way to respect that is to use the opportunity that state law has given us that it hasn't given to other places i mean it's like you you get an
ace and a king you got 21 and you decide you know I'm going to live dangerously like Austin Powers would say and I'm going to hit you've got a great opportunity and instead of taking it you're going to I don't know wait until potentially
down the road we say I wish we would have made a different decision so my understanding is that the time is running out to do this and I'm hopeful that everybody here can look at their their best nature and see what is
the biggest issue that we have to face right now and I don't mean that people individuals don't have problems i know everybody does but collectively our number one priority is to make sure that
we take care of where we live and that's everybody not just here and you know all politics aside make sure we don't all kill each other that's that's a pretty good idea too but make sure we take care of where we live for everybody and I think that the Highlands Coalition would
pro would place a very small burden on everybody yet as Miss Nelson said help us take control in a way that we can foresee everything that's going to
happen and get ahead of it instead of you know laying off more of my kids' teachers in the future when when they say "My favorite teacher is not going to be there next year." And I have to say well I have to lie to them and say "Oh I know your your your next favorite one's
going to be there the year after." I think that taking care of our getting ahead of our our fiscal welfare and joining the Highlands Coalition will be the best bet thank you thank you hi I'm I'm Ken Wessel from 74 Hos Road
and I'm going to share a story about my father and if it's not familiar to you it probably will be someday uh my dad grew up down the mountain in Planefield where I did he was born there he worked in after high school in the same factory
for over 40 years until he retired in the 80s he retired in the 80s with no pension just his social security couldn't afford to live in New Jersey anymore moved to Florida sounds familiar already doesn't it he moved to Florida
he he bought a house with cash what he got from his house in Planefield uh he and my mom lived on their social security they had a wonderful life in Florida together she passed away and he couldn't manage anymore after a few years and he started
talking about needing to move back up to New Jersey to be with his kids his grandkids and his greatg grandandkids and by the way one of the things we frequently did every Sunday is four generations of us played cards every
Sunday but he couldn't have come up here at a market value apartment he needed to be independent he wanted his cat he he he needed his own place and there was no way he could play market value fortunately I knew about Ridge Oak and
subsidized housing when I was a social worker in Patterson we dealt with section 8 housing beautiful well-maintained uh government very generous with it people get to live very well um where they otherwise couldn't my father couldn't have come back he couldn't have been with his
great-grandchildren his grandchildren and his children if it wasn't for Ridge Oak it's going to happen to a lot of you people too think about it good evening nancy Dandrea three Vander Drive all right first off I'd
like to um thank Mr bolardo last from two weeks ago uh explaining a lot about what's happening with the affordable housing in our town if um you haven't seen it go back on YouTube from two
weeks ago and listen to it it is very detailed with a lot of information please stop getting your information from Facebook friends okay you need to listen to what our elected officials and our county I mean and our
town council and our administrators are saying okay so that's the first thing second um your house is valuable because of Rich High School i I got to be honest with you i
I'm I'm at three Vandervir i have neighbor next door just recently moved across the street's planning on moving and another neighbor who's been there for decades is finally moving why are these all three people they all selling this one this house
sold for almost half a million more than it was asked for why ridge High School Chinese family coming in with young kids okay i love it it's great all right so your house is valuable valuable because of our schools
our schools I said this last two weeks ago Basking Ridge is ranked top 20 uh in the state top 300 in the country it's our schools it's not the street you live on it's not the apartment building you
might see in front of you it might not be the apartment building that you see behind you it's because of our schools um next up uh I remember hearing two weeks ago uh that special need housing
adult housing was included in the plan this is what was said to us two weeks ago so I don't know where anybody here heard that we don't have any special need housing included in the plan but I heard it was and it was said I think right from Janice right from Mayor uh
Fields i did say it and I also said we're working on another project for special needs okay thank you um the people Okay so uh the the young woman that talked about the film studio um I was for the film studio i'm going
to be honest with you i was one of those Let's go uh we had NIMBI again not in my backyard we have NIMBI now not in my backyard there's always not in my backyard well it's got to go somewhere it's got to be in someone's backyard all
right but I was all for the film studio um but you know uh those people did what you guys did all coming up and making a ruckus and saying no well sorry i'm sorry for the young woman that wanted to study more it was shot down because not
in their backyard um and to the woman who said that people do not understand affordable housing oh my god that is so true that people just don't understand it they don't understand it uh let's talk about the Highlands plan because we're hearing a
lot about it and I've been reading little hypocrisy here i don't read the community Facebook groups i like the buy nothing group if you don't know what that is that group's fantastic um so it's like you give and you get for free so um on some of the moms basking
rich moms and all that they mentioned um Nace was on it um and they said and as ACI continues to talk about this Highlands Council as a way forward okay um on Facebook you stated that you led the affordable housing efforts last year
along with uh Mr bowman who's no longer with us um and yet uh the Highlands was never prioritized if I recall correctly the group that you were leading which is from last year was looking at different options where Red Oak and Westgate were
the two that were considered the most okay when was the Highlands Council option told to the rest of the committee that's my first big question because everyone's talking Highlands Highlands Highlands but if we're not going to
shove a film studio down our throat I don't want to have the Highlands shoved down my throat because I don't know a lot about it and I I'm you know I'm here i try to be here every two weeks i try to I just want to know more then before we jump to it okay if but I don't know I
don't know if Mr tomkins is right and it takes about two years to get it going i do not know that answer um the other thing I want to talk about this isn't that very nice and a lot of people here probably won't know what's going on but
um on Facebook we also had Miss say "Oop sorry Miss Aay say "If you're unable or unwilling to do the work necessary to truly evaluate our strategic options perhaps you should step down so those
who are willing can." That's a quote we need to stop this nonsense you all were elected okay whether we voted for you or not you were all elected you all need
to figure it out together we don't need a repeat of the board from when it was the quarry in 2017 which by the way none of them are here today okay so
please move on move forward respect each other and let's just stick with facts and personally I would not go to Facebook to air your grievances i would go through the
township committee Facebook page and have factual news reporting okay that is my request and besides the ask about Highlands thank you so much good evening my name is Julianne
Kaine and I live at 262 Child Road thank you to Miss Acy for sharing your comments on Facebook and for being transparent thank you for proposing to put a film studio which I can't honestly think of um something that could have potentially benefited students like
yourself at Ridge could have benefited um my sister who's disabled um if I had enough guts I would sit here for five minutes and make you sit in silence for the silence that she hears every day um you know from looks from different
people and needing to have affordable care i employ four people that live in affordable care um I'm proud of all of them you know they've all really worked hard to buy those properties i'm not against affordable care what I am
against is about it's the holidays there's not enough time um for those of you that work in healthcare I think you all know you know things don't stop at the holidays even if if something comes
up um on Christmas Eve I would hope that you would take the time to really digest it for our town as you are elected officials and I do agree if you don't have time you should step down i don't have time to do this i really don't have time to be here tonight um I wanted to be here but I do have to say thank you
for the Facebook posts thank you for educating us thank you for being transparent and whether the Highlands plan is a great idea or horrible idea you know what maybe you guys should propose building a thousand unit apartment complex and make half of it disability housing that could work sure
when you brainstorm things you could build 5,000 apartment units for for seniors that need it and you could probably fill every one of those units but what I ask you is we all elected you you told us you weren't going to overdevelop you got to look at opportunities you got to look at every
single you know step one with you know SWAT analysis is you got to look at your strengths your weaknesses your opportunities and your threats and you got to look and maybe it's the dumbest idea in the world but maybe it's the best idea in the world and I just feel like the film studio got poo pooed and
it turned into this like intense back and forth of the quarry who knows i didn't really pay attention to the quarry i'm sorry but I can tell you now this feels not great and I'm glad for all the community showing up but we need you guys to do the due diligence i don't
I can't do it i don't have time i would never run i I don't have time for this and I really am in awe of what all of you do i do appreciate your time i do realize it's a volunteer opportunity but Miss AC please don't stop with your
transparency and I really appreciate your time as the mayor and the transparency and what you taught and your focus on positivity and your focus on calling out Girl Scouts and other members of this community positivity goes a long way my daughter respects you
she sees you as a role model and you've really been an influential person in her life for the role you lead not only as a female but as an elected leader and a volunteer so don't stop with the Facebook posts i know that you try don't stop it's 2025 you know we get it we're smart
people you can look at something and figure out if it's a high quality study or lowquality study but don't stop we really appreciate you so thank you my name's Bob Glassman 109 Emerald Valley Lane um I also am not at all against affordable housing but it's
really the overdevelopment that concerns me and also thank you for everything you do and you guys are doing a wonderful job the proposed Westgate uh plan as it is with 575 units and a hotel with 150
units right next to the other Mountain View which has 280 units that's a thousand new units and which means a thousand more cars 1,000 more school children in a very concentrated area this would create a traffic nightmare on
the section of Martinsville Road that feeds down into one lane and creates major backups and that's even before the uh project is built so adding a thousand school children would overload the schools so that a major addition or even
a new school might be needed the sewer system would need to be upgraded and more police teachers and other public workers would also be needed the quality of life in the area and home property values would go down while the property taxes would inevitably go up
this plan allows an 8020 coverage ratio and it adds a 70-foot building right up against residential property lines at the base of a steep slope the water runoff from these projects will create a soggy swampy mess and a potential
flooding over the wetlands that are in the Westgate uh in the in that area wildlife habitat would be destroyed which will increase resident interactions with coyotes fox deer etc uh will the developer be paying for
the added infrastructure schools and flooding issues and what concessions will the developer be giving our town if this were to go through also I don't see why we have to use the builder's remedy every time we create affordable housing which is necessary some towns pay
developers directly to build only the affordable housing units instead of adding four more units for every affordable one there would be an initial cost to the town but we would avoid the huge infrastructure additions and future
costs of a mega development so I ideally it uh seems that we could join the New Jersey Highlands Coalition which would both protect the state's water supply and reduce the number of required affordable housing units this would seem
to be a win-win situation for the state and for us thank you deborah Dwit 140 Spencer Road i'm here uh for another uh voice in support of the Highlands and I'm here to let you know
that yes I have read a lot on Facebook about this whole situation but I've also done a ton of research so this is what I'm sharing with you as to what I've learned from the research um I do think that there's three major major benefits to joining and a lot of people have talked about them already um yes it
would affect our affordable housing uh number and the reason is because we would have less developable built less developable land um and then therefore it would reduce the calculations that they would give us for affordable housing um and in this instance it could
be reduced from 603 units that are being proposed to 89 and that's that's information that you guys talked about at a previous meeting so I I didn't just make that up um as importantly conservation and protection of an environment environmentally sensitive
area of New Jersey that not only provides our own clean drinking water but water to almost 70% of the residents of New Jersey and I think that that's worth investigating and thirdly preserving our qual quality of life which is one of the reasons why we all live here in the
first place so when I was on the environmental commission I was told that the reason that we never explored highlands is because we'd lose home rule and I think this is perpetuated by statements such as what Andrew made at the March 11th meeting when Andrew said "What we're talking about when we're talking about
joining the Highlands Council is surrendering local control over land use to an unelected body comprised of people who don't live here." What I've learned is that Highlands doesn't impact home rule at all for most of us if homeowners have land that's not subdividable into
three conforming parcels then we continue business as usual as per our local zoning board and our planning board ordinances i know work has been done to identify who this does impact and I can guess it's some of them and I'm thinking that the USGAA Golf Association and the Corey are probably
prime suspects and personally I'd be happy if neither had the capability to subdivide and if you spoke with the USGA they may never intend to subdivide their property so I think if you start going through all the different properties identified and start talking to the owners we may not f we may find that there's no issue at all i also want to
point out that should we decide to join the Highlands we can choose to leave it if it becomes too restrictive so we have an out this isn't a permanent decision that's going to be made further and in case it's not obvious home rule is slowly and steadily being taken away from us already dewey
Meadow and Mountain View are two examples of developments that had to be reszoned for highdensity mixed use against our will to meet our affordable round three affordable housing round three obligations putting in an overlay zone over at Westgate in 2023 which
allows 80% impervious coverage in multi multi-story apartment buildings is another example of losing home rule additionally there is a bill in New Jersey that passed the Senate and is before the Assembly that's going to allow if it's voted into law mixeduse
redevelopment of underused commercial properties while limiting the local officials ability to intervene so we can either let this happen to us or we can take control and do something about it so I'm I'm asking you seriously who exactly is being
protected by not joining the Highlands because it sounds like it's the developers it sounds to me like we're protecting the developers and maybe as a town we do need protection by an unelected body comprised of people who don't live here because the developers don't live here either and some of the
people who are elected to who are elected here do live here and want to push through an overdevelopment plan without exploring all the options so I think Jen Ac summed it up this way best conformance to Highlands is not a surrender of autonomy it's a pro
proactive step to protect it and we're very lucky that Bernard's Township is in the apron of the Highlands planning zone and we would be foolish not to take advantage of this gift before us thank you stephanie Dy 76 Manchester Drive um I
came here tonight to voice my opposition to Ridge Oak expanding at 95 Manchester Drive and there's been a lot of comments made here tonight in favor of affordable housing for seniors and I think it's very important to distinguish that you
can be in favor of affordable housing for seniors and also dispute a location where something is proposed um this is not a not in my backyard situation there's 307 low-income affordable housing units
for seniors in my backyard it's there they're out of room their solution is to knock down a single family house and put up a twostory 29 unit apartment building it sounds like that's not enough quite frankly but we can't knock all the houses down i I think while there's a
need and I'd love I don't want to see seniors living in their car i don't want to see seniors without a place to go i don't ever want to see that happen to my parents i certainly don't want it to happen to me someday i we we need more affordable housing for seniors but that is not the right location it's a
residential neighborhood there's 307 apartments there already let's find another location at one point Westgate was supposed to be senior housing i don't know what happened to that i don't know where that proposal went certainly that can house more than the 29 units
there's other places that this can go i don't believe that this is an appropriate location i think it's a dangerous precedent to start taking down single single family houses in neighborhoods and putting up apartment buildings it doesn't feel like the right thing to do that is not to say
that there is not a need i'd love to find another solution for this need that is just not the location thank you good evening i'm Barbara Giri 66 Dryen Road and I just wanted to point out regarding um the Ridge Oak development
that no one here is against senior housing no one here is against affordable housing especially for seniors you know looking back it would have been a gift for my parents to have been in senior affordable housing but they lived pay they lived social
security check to social security check until they passed away and they did what they had to do maybe because they grew up in the depression and they had to they knew how to do it but um the reason that 29 units are on the table for Ridge
Oak is because Westgate was a senior housing unit for 374 families so 374 is much greater than 29 and it wasn't going to be in someone's back it wasn't going to take down a single family home
the 574 family complex will change the school district's ratings so yes it will change our home values because when you add 574 more families into our already overcrowded schools it will be drastic by 2028 it is projected that
Cedar Hill will have a capacity over 150 students and Liberty Corner will have a capacity of over by being over 70 over and all the other schools will be at capacity at last night's board of ed meeting they are trying to figure out
how to gap a $2.5 million gap and that's after scrubbing the budget to bare bones for next year and that was going to be $2.5 million worth of teachers administrators special ed teachers everything is going to have to be cut
and you know what is going to happen we're going to have to put more students in fewer classes so know what's going to happen to the school writings that we're all so proud of they're going to tank too so stop adding more families that we can't support when we have no classrooms
for them thank you i ran up here after Barbara because I have to e echo a lot of her sentiments um my name is Lindseay Ponucci i'm at 146 Lynden Drive um I am totally understanding um that affordable housing
is a requirement um I think everyone here is but um I'm confused as to why this is the given proposal um first I am a parent of Cedar Hill students so that's how I'd like to speak to you first because we've been affected by
Dewey Meadow going up and the way that we've been affected by Dewey Meadow um so I can say for certainty it has affected our schools um we don't know how Mountain View will affect the schools because it hasn't gone up yet um but what has happened
with Dewey Meadow there has been in one summer over 50 students that entered and they are constantly throughout the year coming in if you'd like to I'd be happy to put any of you in touch with Chrissy Uler and Sarah Thompson principal and
vice principal over there it has been an ongoing effort on their part managing the incoming students where to place them the other thing similar to the ratings of our town what has happened to and I don't
even know what they're going to do now with the budget issue but Cedar Hill is already at capacity um and Dewey Meadow really put it over the edge where we have five sections of pretty much every grade K through five whereas some
schools um especially Oak Street have like three sections in some of the grades uh and that's with 20 kids in each class if not more so now having to make cuts and cut teachers and whatnot that's only going to make the class
sizes larger so now add in more students i don't know what that's going to do if we're going to be close to 30 in a class again um but what I can tell you also too is that many of the students who are coming in they are not um accustomed to
the high demand academics that are in Basking Ridge and many of the students are being flagged for needing services many of them are going through INRS going through RTI which is the process needed to get an IEP in town i'm next going to talk as uh wearing a different
hat because I'm also the co-president of Bernard's parents for exceptional children uh PEC which is the organization in town for families who have children with special needs um as many of you already know but many of the students coming in that I have seen
firsthand through coming in um Dewey Meadow into C Cedar Hill um have needed to get evalu valuated for services they unfortunately and many times need more services and more support than students
that are already living in this town and there's only a certain amount of services that are going to be given and especially if we're looking at a budget crisis there's definitely going to be a smaller amount given um so it's definitely affecting our schools and it's also affecting our ratings um I
don't know if it's out there yet um with how this year's um scoring has been across the board with the elementary schools i know they take turns and kind of talk about how everybody is doing on the MAP test and the NJA and um I know that scores are
down um I've with they've been talked about in the uh pack meetings um the parent advisory council meetings and that's a problem and I don't know if it's been looked at at the correlation between the moveins and why the scores are going down and which students are
scoring lower than the others and how long they've lived here um but the other thing that personally my heart breaks for the Liberty Corner area and that community because like I said I've experienced Dewey Meadow and seen how
difficult it's been um and with Mountain View not even being up I truly believe that the unit that you're proposing with 575 units will totally crush them um I really don't know what they will do um and I don't I'm I'm very interested to
hear what Nick Marcarian thought of this plan because I can't imagine he welcomed it with open arms um given that we already are looking at potentially redistricting and or what should we do because of uh the over capacity at the
schools because many of the schools are either close to or over capacity already um and as I mentioned before I am co-president um of Bernard's Parents for Exceptional Children and I was very disheartened to see that the
plan I was under the impression uh of her dueling things here now tonight um if it is in the plan for um special needs housing I'm not sure what it is if it is that um our house location um on
Mount Air with uh for the four um individuals or if there's another plan um but I would love to encourage you all to take a look at all of this and really examine it um I don't know anything about the Highlands so I'm not going to
comment on that but what I do know is that if you are really about the this town and the people who live in this town and preserving that I really implore you to go back to the drawing board and come up with something
different thank you hi Melissa Clinton 42 Autumn Drive uh I am also here to oppose the necessary suggestion of the buildings um so first off I want to speak about my personal backyard which is um I have Harrison
Brook that runs through my yard as well as a bunch of other places we are just overall noticing my neighbor has lived there since the whole development was built she said when she was younger she could step over Harrison Brook now you need a 30 to 40 ft bridge to go over
Harrison Brook and when it rains oh boy what our neighborhood looks like you can only imagine what this might be when we continue development growth at changes of the infrastructure of the ground system as a biologist myself I can I see what it's doing to our community and as
we are a tree community this is very important to what we stand for i'm also an educator i'm a high school biology teacher at a highest esteemed school like Ridge ourselves i strongly encourage that the township committee join with the Highland plan as it to
preserve much of the natural landscape but as well as maintaining what we have already of what makes a town and that is a school district what makes the value of our education system as we all believe and bought houses here for those reasons as a representative of our
township it is my belief that our responsibility as residents of this town above all else we should not simply acquaintance the state's mandate when there is a viable alternative which prevents overdevelopment of our town but also overpopulation of our school system
to give the students who are already here with special needs as well my son is also a special needs child that needs these services that is here for we I know that we are trying our best as a district to fulfill these things and I
know that we need to come up with solutions but please let's think a little bit more before we vote this across the board thank you sut trap 214 North Maple Avenue Basking Ridge in looking at the
Highlands I'm a little concerned because it's been stated that this will only affect 12 residences what research has actually been done to quantify that particular number i had heard that same count when the film studio was proposed in that
case the number was only for those people that were 200 feet in the notification zone it wasn't actually the true impact which was significantly more so I'm obviously very skeptical skeptical skept skeptical of all the
numbers being communicated also in relation to those potentially impacted I'd appreciate some clarification from our township attorney who has been fantastic in clarifying a lot of other aspects or even our planner or our township manager who may know
this in reading the exemptions and grandfatherings on the state D website it mentioned single family homes in existence as of August 10th 2004 does that mean that those homes that were built after the state are subject to the Highlands rules and
reviews if they want to add an addition of if they want to add an addition or even a pool what about the implication for condo complexes what if they want to build additional impervious structures such as tennis courts pools or even
additional pathways and parking what about multi-dwelling homes motheraughter type homes if not autoexempt do we know the exemption process including estimated timings and costs those are the things that are going to affect a lot of the
residents that have not not been bought up yet regarding Highlands I also caution that although Highlands might give us some uh affordable housing relief in this round I have little doubt that the developers with their highpriced lawyers will find a way to
circumvent in the 2035 round how many of my fellow residents plan to still be in their homes in 10 years think seriously about the potential to being tied to a restrictive property use edict and then on top of that have more affordable housing requirements i am by no means
against joining the Highlands but I do believe much more research and information sharing is needed and to be shared by a nonbiased entity given my prior experience with the film studio I am suspect of the messaging when not from the official voice of our township
committee as those would be subject to collective reviews of our outstanding township experts this should include what it takes to withdraw as my own research has found that it's not an easy process that has been put out there and in fact some
oversight oversight actually remains even if you do are allowed to withdraw i also find it very ironic that with this strong current push for the current Highlands that there was messaging during the contentious push for the film
studio so where was this messaging under the Highlands the film studio have been significantly challenged especially considering it proposed impervious coverage of what was it 58 52% removal of almost 20 acres of
forested land proximity to protected wetlands and runoff to the Payic rivers regarding the two sorry regarding the two uh affordable housing sites I very much sympathize with the unwanted development that has to be near anyone's
home and the concern concern for the impact to lifestyle and home equity with Ridge Oak i can I can appreciate the appeal it's a 100% allocation of all the units somebody was saying well we could just build our own and then we are in
control of our own world well this is even better somebody else is willing to build it for you and we get 100% of the allocations i going to doubt pretty much that there was going to be any loud noise late night disturbances or even in the need for an increased police presence
it's only a two-story building 35 foot max i get it's in some people's backyards so why can't we work together to find some way of finding a natural barrier that can allow people to have their privacy in their backyards and into their into their back windows i
think there's the land to do that also there was the talk about the high traffic well I don't know if people are aware there's another entrance and exit to Ridge Oak it's just there's a gate there it goes into East Oak so why not talk to them about keeping that gate
open during the concerns of the rush hour times or within the high traffic times also in terms of I've heard other people saying well why does it have to be the senior why can't we make it some other special well that's because Red
Oak is in the business of senior housing they're not in the business of doing the other kinds of things and when you have the seniors right there sorry when you have these seniors right there they're going to get the support that they need from their management who has the
experience to provide it it's the same that you'd want your folks with the developmental disabilities to be around people who can support them in the right ways also there was another argument well we already have enough senior housing and this is a very vulnerable
part of our population that are still active and they can't afford the rates of the Fellowship Village Sunrise or Arbor Terrace it's unfair that these places can cost 5 to 10,000 a month and not be covered by Medicare we need to support these people who don't have
those funds they're just as important as any other of our vulnerable groups and I was going to just say with Westgate I'm just going to say a couple of words just keep in mind for everybody it's it's you're right it's
overdevelopment i sympathize with all that unfortunately the way this world is right now and the way the developers are and the way the developers are in the pockets of our politicians right okay that's that's the basic line we got states coming up state
elections coming up guys that's where you voice it the issue is is that with these developers they h they are only going to be they're in it to make big profits huge profits you got to wrap it up okay the the point is is that they're going
to want to keep those affordable housing allocations to lowest levels they can because then they can sell the other at top levels so you only have so much negotiation you can do we're getting 20% That's actually a very high number in these days when you go and talk about
all the other ones i know it doesn't help with all the numbers that have to come with it but it is something to consider if we split up to other places we're not going to have that leverage and it probably won't be thank you hello Moren Dazzo 15 Brandeise Court um
I sent a letter to the township committee today um I am also on the board of our homeowners association it's nothing really official it's just something that we do for our neighborhood to get the word out about what's going on in our town and how to make our own neighborhood um a safer
place and have garage sales and block parties so it's nothing like a big HOA just want to make sure you know it's nothing you know I don't want to get in trouble for that um it's just basically a communicative uh board of uh of our emails of our residents in our community
um so I just wanted to read again what I wrote you today and things that I've just been conveying to people in our neighborhood um a lot of them are against the Ridge Oak proposed building some people are not and I understand the various reasons um but I feel it's
important to get the word out to everybody about what's going on in our community what's happening at the township level what you're having to deal with with round four didn't know anything about it until it popped up about a month ago at the township committee whoa here we go again i feel
like that our Basking Ridge township has the swell of all of a sudden it's another round of affordable housing doesn't mean that we're not against it it's just how can we effectively meet our state mandates in the best way possible um so I'm going to read to you
again if you haven't read my email today um what I wrote to each of you um dear down township committee I know you are in a tough position again to determine where the statemandated affordable housing units will be built
for round four it's not an easy task since our community does not have a lot of available buildable land where this type of development does not piss off someone for some reason i and many others were alerted to the
two amended ordinances uh number 2573 which is changing the residential zone to senior housing zone on Manchester Drive and number 275 2575 which is switching um or the Westgates Westgate mixeduse
proposal when they were introduced at the March 11th township committee meeting many of my Willow Brick Farm neighbors and I are very opposed to erecting a 29 unit two and a halfstory building plus a large parking lot with
lights on a lot which is currently uh has a house located at 94 Manchester Road in our neighborhood i'm not opposed to adding more senior housing but not in this location which is in the backyard of
many houses in my neighborhood have you ever visited this site to see how close this large building would be to these many houses and how a lit parking lot would be disrupted to the many houses that back up when those lights are kept on at
night i'm making a little uh reading off my script a little bit uh this addition will also add more cars driving directly on streets through our neighborhood to get into the Ridge Oak Complex several of my neighbors have complained about the many speeding cars going into the
complex and one is even has a video which I think they might have shared with you of an accident taking place right on Manchester Road at the entrance to Ridge Oak more traffic and more speeding cars will affect the safety of the many walkers and runners in our
neighborhood as many as well as the many children that walk in our neighborhoods to go to our schools i am also opposed to the 574 units being proposed at the Westgate complex i agree this location is a good place to build since it is not in a
neighborhood but why the overdevelopment i agree um sorry why a new hotel and why eliminate senior housing options at this location too many family units mean more kids in our school
system with Cedar Hill at capacity and Li Liberty Corner soon to be at capacity where will these new kids go to elementary school our town does not want to build another elementary school and don't forget that once the Mountain View Apartments are completed
this will also add more students why can't negotiations with this developer be scaled back to reduce the number of family units and include senior housing and DD housing to get more housing credits at this
location putting senior housing at Westgate as originally planned would eliminate the need for the new building at Ridge Oak and lessen the school population growth another option for the township committee members to seriously consider
is joining the Highlands Council i know some members do not like this option because it gives away the home rule but don't the benefits of joining I will be wrapping it up very quickly and lowering the mandated units by 50% by doing so outweigh the negatives which
apply to only 13 property owners that might be impacted by joining this council isn't it worth the time to reach out to each of these owners which may be affected to get their view and their opinion isn't it worth
investigating both Bernardsville and Harding Township are now part of this council i urge you to consider this option now so our town can benefit from the lowered mandated housing units for round four we as community members appreciate the time and effort you put forth to make our town a great place to
live please listen to us now these two proposals for development were deemed not consistent with our master plan by our planning board which we urge you and we urge you to seek other options aren't there around 10 locations currently to
consider where to put these 218 units right now you are only presenting two to the public i and 48 others I'm not going to get into that that was something that I sent to you about the uh uh group of us that showed up at the planning board meeting some of them couldn't stay so I
sent that um a note along in my attachment to you um again please note that building at 29 29 Ridge Oak units right in our neighborhood is not consistent with the master plan so I hope you will vote no in amending and accept an ordinance 2573 um that lot should only be zoned
for residential use since it is in a neighborhood thank you thank you uh John Taylor 172B Manchester Drive without Red I would be homeless pure and simple we need affordable housing for people like me i'm on Social Security
disability no doubt about it everybody sitting here not in my backyard no no no we need it point blank hope you vote yes thank you John hello Sharon Maloney 109 Woodman Lane in Basking Ridge um I'm here to speak about
the affordable housing and how I oppose it uh Bernard's Township like Harding Township Bernard'sville and Mendum Township should conform to Highlands immediately this would drastically reduce our affordable housing obligation by more than 50% with little to no
downside for our town there are maybe as others have mentioned tonight 13 properties that are affected by this and some of them are the properties that were mentioned like farms maybe that golf place USGA and Verizon etc so it doesn't seem that there are many actual
homeowners that will be affected by this the notion that we should avoid conforming because we would lose hometown rule is misguided in fact as others have stated tonight it protects us from future mandates the lowincome housing specialist at the
planning board meeting last week stated that there was no shortage of suitors who have submitted proposals to help us satisfy a round for obligation so I wonder why haven't you guys thoroughly explored and examined all the proposals submitted i in fact I believe you have
mentioned this twice now at uh previous meetings why we haven't been discussing this i also believe that the township committee is being disingenuous in its representation that Ridge Oak gives us 100% credit while we do in fact get 100% credit towards our low-income housing
obligation it comes at a cost of 3% contribution by the township of the overall cons uh construction costs numbers that we do not have yet so it is irresponsible of the township committee to adopt a plan when we don't even know yet what the cost of that plan would be
to the taxpayers of this town so like others have said tonight also we elected you guys you guys promised no overdevelopment seems to be the theme tonight i moved to Baskin Ridge 15 years ago i loved all the open space that we have here and I find it really sad that
now everywhere I go it's taken up by development after development after development so just remember that's what you guys ran on that's what we voted for thank you good evening uh your honorable mayor and the uh members of the council uh thank
you for your service to the uh this community actually uh I'm a resident of the uh Oakridge i'm very new it's been six months that I have lived here and this is where I've dropped my
anchor age of 83 this is where I'm going to be end and it's nothing but a blessing to me the previous uh people that who has
been opposing to this affordable housing that bases on I I don't like it it's not the matter of I it's us and we are part of YouTube
too if you didn't have a mom and dad you wouldn't be here we are fathers grandfathers and husband let's have a little heart we're not begging we're not sleeping on
your neighborhood on the street we're not causing any nuisance we live respectively just like any of us citizens that have lived and I'm so
grateful that after three and a half years of a waiting list when it came to me I really thank the good Lord who has given me the opportunity to
fish finishing up my life in a way that landing in the paradise it is paradise every of you should be very proud that you have pl places like
Oakidge is it part of your town so don't say I it's us we please we're not asking we're not going to build 200 90 units
there we need more we are part of you once said we living here we are the person in your town our town please open up your
heart give us a benefit of a doubt would you please thank you thank you keith Molinari 27 Franklin Drive i'm here to speak just for myself and not as a member of the town's board of education um that's hard to follow and u
I totally understand what he's saying i actually uh had my first uh property investing region affordable housing i got out of the military got a 100% financing through a VA loan didn't you know didn't have the best painting job at the time but that helped me and my wife get our start uh my mom lived in
senior housing so I understand the need it's definitely there and it whether you want or not it's coming too so I think the idea is just how we are going to control it and I think the public just wants to make sure that all the options are explored and you know I like the
discussion i like the fact that you're not all agreeing because I think sometimes out of some tension comes the best ideas i think a good idea came last year honestly with the uh with the movie studio which was in my backyard i lived right near there i was you know I was intrigued by it but and I would have taken care of some special needs housing
units as well which I do understand count as two for one when it comes to affordable housing obligations which makes it not only good on a moral level but on a practical level as well you know that's water under the bridge but I do believe uh you know that's a sort of out of the box thinking that we we can
use um the Westgate proposal doesn't seem to be that um we talked about not in my backyard well 574 whatever is units there that's everybody's backyard there's there's no nimiism in there for anybody in town so
whatever we can do to reduce that level of obligation I think it's incumbent upon us to do um and if exploring the Highlands option cuts that obligation in half uh even I think it's I think it's incumbent upon you to explore it and if
it's not viable to come out very in a very detailed way explain why not because it would seem to be a good a good option um that can reduce those obligations and you know I get given up home rule and if I'm off base on this I'd love to be corrected but if it does only affect 13 properties and I feel for
that because if you don't want to be one of those 13 property owners but you do have to balance that against the other 27,000 residents of Burns Township now the the planning board said that that that plan that was submitted to them is incompatible with the master
plan i think that alone makes it incumbent upon you to come up with other options here um also here's a thought too when development does come I know many of the properties under consideration are vacant office buildings so our pilot program is being
explored by pilot that's payment in lie of taxes and that is where um the developers will pay the town directly usually for lower than a property tax would be and the town can keep all that and kick a little bit back to the state but if that is something that gets explored I would urge you to also
consider allocating a portion of that to the school district because when we do get new kids in town it's going to in it's going to raise taxes it is so anything we can do to alleviate that I think we should try to do rather than necessarily passing all these costs on to the taxpayers so please consider
other options and uh fully and succinctly explain those options because you know the schools are one pillar of this town is what keeps our property taxes our property values high but it's not it's not yeah property taxes too yeah come to our meetings um
but uh also it's not just the schools it's also safety so 5744 units that's not going to help that aspect of the town either with traffic with uh congestion with kids crossing the street so you know please consider all your options before you make any final
decisions sir thank you i just got a a Facebook message from bunch of parents uh my kids are at Liberty Corner there's a bunch of parents as you can understand can't be here tonight their kids are He's got to go i appreciate it thank you
my public's leaving me titlestein Riverside Drive really didn't want to talk about this but I know that we'll be able to save a lot of money by getting rid of our planners because tonight is proven that
we have a room full of planners here they're all experts at planning i don't think so i think the planners that we have have brought you a plans you've gone over the stuff nobody here wants development
the people who said "Well we're not against it you know we just don't want it near us." You might as well just say you just don't want it period westgate even if we don't use Westgate
it's still there it's going to be developed anyway we might as well take advantage of getting a bonus points by using red redevelopment of a business of a um commercial property you get bonus points
for that the master plan that we had that we just got through i didn't see anybody else there during the master plan section when they were talking about the Highlands and they did talk about the Highlands not a
single person in this room were there and that's a fact because myself was there by myself we're a victim of our own success with the the schools everybody's coming up here well
we moved here for the schools well guess what you just make it more everybody wants to go to schools everybody wants a better school everybody wants great schools we understand that so we're
going to still pay for the schools and property values are not going to be dropping like some of the people said because everybody here has lives in a some type of development of some way i live over on Riverside Drive
Manchester Winding Way you name the street they were a development at one time whether you like it or not and you don't want to believe that fact it is it's just another development i don't want a development any more than anybody
else this is being pushed on us by the state we talk about the Highlands i think it's past the fact we we got you use the Highlands but even if we did the governor controls the board
of the people on the Highlands the governor could replace everybody in one shot governor Christie did that they could put in a board of people on the highlands and they could change every rule there and you wouldn't have the
protections that you think you have from Highlands and that's another problem i think we need to allow the committee to go through what it need to do and um I'm sure they're going to try
to do the best they can i'm sure they don't want to do this any more than anybody else and by yelling about it or screaming about it is not going to make a difference um one other thing I wish uh Mr bardo could speak for a couple of
moments when he gets a chance tonight and explain about um exe executive session because last week at the planning board people were quite on pins and needles about the executive sessions they thought it was too
long they thought that um the planning board is pl doing something behind their backs now you can explain to them what executive session really is for this board the committee and for any other boards of certain things that
they have to speak about behind closed doors and um thank you very much thanks John anybody else i'm going to close public comment and uh we're going to take a two-minut break
that was This is dad i own a goose thank you all right really long time i think I'm just So nice to see you guys they got rallied they have no idea what
they're here for i mean That could be I love each other happy Come on okay she doesn't have this year last year
Hello thank you we know how to do it okay next is staff comments pat uh thank you mayor i just want to congratulate on the retirement the following individuals for the town uh Vatala Kumar from the
library Nancy Keteritz from the engineering department and Richard Kukowski from the DPW uh we had also uh Doug Davenport who was being promoted to the vacancy created by Rich Kowski to flee foreman so congratulations to Doug and earlier this evening we had the
police department squaring in so I want to congratulate our new Lieutenant Fallon uh Sergeant Yo and Corporal Mark that's all I have mayor thank you Christine yes thank you Mayor the June 10th Township Committee meeting will be cancelled as it conflicts with the
primary election the next meeting in June would be June 24th at 7:30 p.m thank you thank you Mr bolardo yes and I understand yeah can you give a brief uh I'll give you a a brief overview on on affordable housing i I did two weeks ago
because people want to know how did we get here and I indicated we've had 50 years of Mount Laurel affordable housing as of 2025 the first case came out of the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1975 we've had other subsequent Supreme Court
cases we've had the Council on affordable Housing uh that used to set the numbers and the township participated in that and obtained petitions for substantive certifications that protected us against builder's remedy lawsuits that eventually became a
more abund it failed to operate the courts were then involved for a period of 20 years attempting to get the legislature to act and to come up with new legislation the legislature failed utterly to do that so in 2015 the courts
jumped in and imposed the old system of builder remedies uh towns were required to file declaratory judgment actions and an attempt to settle with fair share housing center and the courts to come up with their obligations that's what Burns
Township did burns Township entered into a settlement in accordance with numbers that were decided by Judge Jacobson in Mercer County after a 43-day trial the other Mountain Laurel judges upon reviewing Judge Jacobson's decisions decided that was the mathematical
formula that would come up with the affordable housing numbers every town had a number uh we met our number these were state imposed numbers not numbers that any of the governing body members in this particular town were in favor of
uh we then obtained a builder uh strike that we obtained immunity from builders lawsuits through July of 2025 and municipal attorneys sat around after that and were wondering are we going to
have the same situation that we had in July of 2015 are we going to again in July of 2025 have to file declaratory judgment actions in order to determine what our numbers would be for the fourth
round from 2025 to 2035 and the thought amongst municipal attorneys was that is what was going to happen because the legislature had continued to fail to act well all of a
sudden in the in February of 2024 the legislature rushed through a bill that was signed by the governor in March of 2024 and I can tell you as associate counsel
with the New Jersey League of Municipalities one of the few attorneys in the state that sits as an associate counsel with the New Jersey League of Municipalities that represents the interest of all governing bodies and elected officials of both
parties that we were opposed to that legislation and on behalf of both parties the League of Municipalities lobbyed against that legislation because we knew that the formula in that legislation was going to impose
draconian numbers resulting in overdevelopment and our pleas fell on deaf ears because that legislation was enacted and that legislation was signed by the governor so there we were in
March of 2024 and this particular body formed an affordable housing subcommittee why we knew that Bernard's Township was such a desirable location that we were going to be flooded with proposals by developers to build affordable
housing yet we didn't know our number because the law said that the DCA Department of Community Affairs was not going to give us a number until October 20th of 2024 and we attempted to estimate our
number for a while based upon numbers that Jeffrey Serenian put together who is an attorney that specializes in municipal affording housing obligations we thought our number could be as high as 444 uh we then hired um Kendra Lely uh
we began to look at the numbers ourself as did other planners for other towns and I I I think we were then thinking our number would be around 261 so there we were still waiting with baited breath what was our number going to be okay it comes out from DCA
Department of Community Affairs is 218 units what did what did the law say the law said you could try to reduce your number if you could look at the underlying database of lots that they included as developable land and argue that some of those lots were already
developable not developable or on open space or on Rossi or had existing structures or in some cases had railroads on them as did some of the lots um and so okay we're we're looking at that and uh David Schlly our in-house
planner and Kendra Ley our planner are crunching those numbers which took time because they had to look at the underlying database and then all of a sudden a couple weeks before Christmas the Administrative Office of Courts comes out with a directive that
says "Okay this is what we're going to do between now and March 31st of 2025." Guess what you have by the end of January to file a declaratory judgment action with the superior court in your county and certify as to your number for
both present and prospective need our present need we certified as 24 units not in dispute involves rehabilitation of existing housing that's substandard and that number may even be lower after we do what's called a driveby survey we
certified that our number instead of being 218 was 171 we had an idea that that was going to be contested and that objections would be filed and the program said that until the end of February interested
parties could file objections to our number and there were about 158 or 159 towns that took reduced numbers and we were one of them guess what new Jersey Builders Association that represents all of these builders filed an answer
objecting to every single one of those towns reduced numbers and their argument was well if the numbers are all reduced in those towns it'll fall short of the number that was set by DCA and therefore there should be a reallocation of those numbers even if you get a drop to those
158 towns fair Share Housing Center filed an objection they argued that our number instead of being 218 by DCA should have been 225 even though we contended it was 171 what happens next after February
28th we filed objections under the program with the retired judge that's overseeing our particular town and that's Judge Thomas Miller who is a retired judge there's seven judges in the state that are overseeing all these objections judge
Miller is the head judge that oversees the other six judges and there was a very expedited process you had to mediate and come up with a number by the end of March and the program called for the first session to be a mediation session in which parties attempt to try
to discuss a settlement if they could that was held on March 11th and there was no settlement discussed because both both council for fair share housing center and myself were were not available when they proposed the date i was in an airport they changed the date
at the last minute so that was carried to March 18th and now we have a session before Judge Miller myself as council we we were required to have a representative of the governing body that was deputy mayor Andrew McN that was there we had Josh Bowers who
represented Fairshair Housing Center you had Rick Hoff and Bacher Hoff who was there with the chief executive officer of New Jersey Builders Association and all of us on behalf of the town had filed objections and what Judge Miller
said to New Jersey Builders Association is what you're saying should be done we're not going to do we as judges in this program are not going to reallocate numbers so if you're here to argue that get out of the room because that's a
legislative solution and we're not going to count that so that left most of the municipalities including Bernards having to deal with fair share housing center and we participated in that conference and we have to come up with a number by the end of end of March and we're going
to have an executive session at the end of the night because there's been a number thrown out there by fair share housing center that will or won't result in a settlement because Judge Miller said Bardo you got to call me tomorrow morning and say is your townling And if
they're not settling we're going to have a session likely on Wednesday or Thursday and I'm going to call the number and the deputy mayor can tell you what the judge said the judge said you know you don't have to settle you can
roll the dice but I'm telling you Bolardo and I'm telling you Mr deputy Mayor that I've spoken with the other six judges in the program and you know what we're thinking of doing if you don't settle we might just very well say the DCA number is presumptively
valid and you're stuck with that higher number and I spoke with a colleague that represents Oldbridge and they had a number in the high 600s and they tried to reduce their number to 300s and he had great great
arguments as to why that number should be reduced and he thought man I'm I'm on a roll you know I've got this lot out and this lot out and this lot out and you know what Judge Jacobson said at the end of the hearing and she's the same one that came up with this formula after
43 days of trial she said "Those were very good arguments Mr sordillo but you know what I'm going to do i'm going to go with the DCA number because that's presumptively valid." And old bridge you're stuck with your original number of 600 or so so we are in a very fast
moving process in which there will be a number certified or recommended or decided by Judge Miller this week and that will be recommended to a Mount Laurel judge in Somerset County that's presently sitting
and that judge will either certify the number or not certify the number and give us a certification of of compliance um so these folks are under a lot of pressure because all this started happening in the middle of December that's when the rules were first laid
out i want to comment on another thing the planning board did say that these two proposed ordinances were inconsistent with the master plan i knew they were going to do that because we're moving quick but you know what both those ordinances say the ordinances both say that no developer can come in with
an application before any board until such time as the planning board by June 30th of this year includes those ordinances and includes those projects in its amended housing element and fair
share plan so there's protection in there the ordinance also says none of those developers can come in until such time as any challenges to our number or amended housing element and fair share plan have been settled and
resolved new Jersey Builders Association essentially has been boxed out by municipal attorneys and has represented publicly before these judges that they are not going to challenge any number if a settlement results with Fair Share
Housing Center they're out so that's where we're at um I I wish I had more time but we've got budget we've got other things so I hope that provides an explanation as to where we are and I know this body and
the mayor has asked me to be as transparent as possible in telling you all where we are and we are going to go into executive session and we have the right to do that to discuss existing litigation which we have with Fairshair Housing Center and the New Jersey Builders Association and we're going to
open the meeting up again to the public when we come out of executive session because we may or may not take action and I don't know what these folks are going to decide with respect to fair share's proposal but that's what we're going to talk about in executive session
so that's where we're at thank you John J you're welcome Mayor sure so some updates um I wanted to recognize um Sergeant Baldeseri a huge thank you to her and the Bernards Township Police Department and Just Writing Along for hosting on March the
22nd Coffee with the Cop and Pedals with Police it was a really creative way to bring in um interactions with our police department and bike safety so very timely um I also wanted to recognize um the Burners Township Parks and Recreation Ski and Board Club so um
earlier today we reviewed completed surveys of participants and volunteers of the inaugural year and it's a huge thank you to Elizabeth sites Desiree Nolan and Jennifer Gander for their leadership as well as a huge thank you to our parent volunteers who enabled the program for 123 Bernards Township Middle
School youth um the feedback um was overwhelmingly positive and incorporated and we look forward to the next season um just a gentle reminder April the 5th is our uh townwide uh green yard sale so
please make sure that uh you have you're signed up on the website again thank you to our clerk's office for uh leading that so I want to speak about affordable housing a comment um so I really like the stickers that you all are wearing
about I support affordable housing and I think that um I I don't really want to speak for everyone but I would say I think all of us are right um what many of us reject and object to are the overdevelopment that comes along with
some municipalities choose to build only affordable housing and um just in the last two weeks I've been helping two people that are working professionals um to find affordable housing so um I don't believe in stereotypes and um it is very
much needed so I just I wanted to acknowledge that um for folks that have sent messages and things I really want to thank all the residents who have spoken out since the March 11th ordinances were introduced with over 105
emails attending the township committee on March the 11th the planning board meeting on March 18th including thanks to Miss Dazzo the 49 resident signatures gathered and tonight also engaging with me directly in conversation i hear you loud and clear this community does not
support overdevelopment and we must explore better options including Highlands conformance and a substantive plan for special needs housing and I do want to clarify because there's some been things been going round and round um there is one house one fourbedroom
house that has been disclosed to myself as a township committee person if there are any other plans I'm not aware of those so perhaps we will all learn i've done extensive research i've spoken with mayors who have conformed those that are
in the process and those who haven't as well as professionals from the Highlands Council and our own township experts i am confident that the Highlands conformance is our best path forward one that allows us the residents to determine how our community grows not
outside developers with financial motives and to there was a question posed earlier we can conform by June that is confirmed this is also Miss Dandrea i already had this planned this is not a
lastm minute idea it's been in motion for nearly a year last spring Gary Bowman actually suggested that we explore Highlands conformance gary Bowman is no longer with the township committee and the affordable housing subcommittee began investigating it in
June the Highlands Council approved a $15,000 grant for the township's initial assessment report which was completed and sent to the township committee for review on January 8 January 8th 2025 to my knowledge the committee has not
discussed it yet it must be finalized to avoid reimbursing the grant and you can double check me if you don't believe um the township committee accepted the grant as revenue on the September 10th
agenda meeting in November Anna and I met personnel with the Highlands at the League of Municipalities meeting multiple times i also am aware that both Anna and David have reached out for more information the groundwork has been laid
and we need to act every township committee member here has campaigned or will be campaigning against overdevelopment now is our time to turn our words into action our votes must reflect our commitment to responsible planning and in the best interest of our
Bernards Township it keeps being brought up i wasn't going to formally speak about the the film studio but I do want to call it out a film studio was an idea we didn't have full information and unfortunately we weren't able to have a public hearing or honestly an actual
concept so that everyone could see what it was so we don't know what it could be but yet we continue to debate it um and re in reality what happened right is the uh initial intra um introduction went to planning board the planning
board was unable in December to do a conformance a consistency review right that same planning board was able to do with the same time frame a consistency review for not one but two ordinances
that just happened on the 18th so let's just be clear and because they didn't take that action that ordinance died and none of us including myself ever got to see a concept so that was taken from us to even be considered so I just want to
put that out there um around that and lastly budget introduction i would especially like to thank our township department heads Pat Monaco and Shawn McCarthy for their efforts in putting forth this proposed budget yesterday I emailed the township committee to ask why the budget number
had changed from what was initially shared with committee members i would also like to ask another question to the body what process led to this budget change last week u I was not consulted and unaware of how it occurred and to your point Mr deandrea I also would like
to understand how we as a committee are working and desperately request that all information be shared with all members so we can all make a full and informed decision thank you David thank you ma'am just want to thank everybody here this evening um for
sharing your concerns your opinions uh and your powerful statements we heard some really powerful stuff tonight on affordable housing your attendance and your emails are appreciated and they're very much helpful to us as we navigate this difficult mandate myself as Jen mentioned I have
looked into Highlands looking into impact on schools traffic special needs housing and senior housing and I just want you to know we are working diligently on on all these subjects and that's all I'm going to say tonight on affordable housing um once again congratulations to our officers uh who
were promoted this evening um we really appreciate them they keep us safe they keep our families safe to our retiring employees that Pat mentioned uh we thank them for their years of service and dedication to the township and we wish them health and happiness in their
retirements committee reports um pool commission uh early payment uh discount deadline for payments in person or online is March 31st payments mailed or placed in a dropbox must be received by 4:30 on the
31st if you take advantage of the early payment you'll receive two complimentary guest visit credits and remember you must create a household account online to purchase a membership regular payment will res begin on April
1st and the next extended hours for pool membership ID is April 28th and that will be from 8:30 a.m to 700 p.m parks and Wreck uh fishing derby is coming up at Southern Park April 12th 9:00 a.m to 10:30 and it is free to children of all
ages the feebased pickle ball open play program has been postponed and we will continue with the no fee program until further notice and you can check out the new schedule for the pickle ball courts pleasant valley courts um that will take
effect April 1st and uh go to the parks and wreck web page for those details and finally uh registration opens March 24th for the 2025 summer workshops programs that run from June 20 June 23rd to August 16th so if your child is
interested in theater science dance and art uh we invite you to register for those programs thank you thank you Mayor all right couple of things i also want to congratulate our officers that were promoted this evening
can you all hear me thank you all right so I wanted to first start by congratulating the officers on their promotions this evening and they were joined by their families and it's always one of the better moments of being a member of our township committee to see that uh community come together and
celebrate its own i also want to thank Joe Sergey who was joined us earlier this evening and accepted the resolution for the agricultural advisory month he is the chair of that committee and uh also the head of River Hill Farm and then just quickly because these are
timesensitive the municipal alliance still has time for residents to sign up for QPR question persuade and refer training to reduce suicidal behavior that training is free to anyone over the age of 18 and is being offered on
Wednesday April 2nd from 6:30 to 8:30 virtual via Zoom i took the training last year it's terrific um you need to register soon and can do so on our burnardshealth.org website our golf committee has met our Kiri Russo golf course opens on Tuesday April 1st there
is still time to renew and register for a new membership and it's a terrific uh resource that we have here in our community it's a nine-hole course for those of you who've never gone I would encourage you to do so and our environmental commission is gearing up for charter day but immediately there is
a native plant sale that's going to go live April 1st uh for those of you who've participated in the past you know that the plants go very quickly it's done through the Great Swamp Watershed uh the link will be live and you can shop for individual native plants and pollinators so again that goes on sale
and goes live April 1st and the distribution is at Ross Farm on May 3rd so just a couple of things i had hoped that our our last township committee meeting um I shared that at the last township committee meeting that we have a presentation uh this evening on the
fourth round of affordable housing and the Highlands Council i appreciate our attorney John Bolardo for providing input uh but more so because I thought that would provide an opportunity for questions and answers from you um I've been on your side of the day you come up you speak you go back and sit down it's
great to have a dialogue so I'm that we weren't able to do that um our meeting agenda is full in light of the approaching statutory deadline for budget introduction i too appreciate the work that our CFO Sean McCarthy has done and will be presenting shortly um and
his hard work and that of the department heads that contributed if you give me the grace of a few minutes I'm also going to provide thoughts on the decisions regarding our fourth round obligations that this township committee has to consider i too want to start by thanking everyone for your emails your
input and your concerns and recommendations um I've heard a lot of themes tonight whether it was about traffic and pedestrian safety the ecosystem that this community is fostering by creating something large like a Westgate development and differently the intimacy of
neighborhoods close to Ridge Oak we also heard about the needs um and the impact potentially to schools whether it's Cedar Hill or Liberty Corner School among others and then I thought very eloquently was the story that was shared about what it is who are the people who
are impacted and are able to have a home through affordable housing whether it's individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities um from personal stories we heard here from residents at Ridge Oak for whom this has become their home so I really app appreciate the cander of everyone who
shared both personal stories your own stories or those of families and loved ones these are really important decisions with significant impact to our community we need to uphold and meet our legal obligations and that intersects with what's best for our community and
its hoped for future in the last few weeks I too have had conversations with residents some here tonight with officials from other municipalities from representatives of the Highlands Council which was referenced re frequently this evening and an expert community planner
i learned with no surprise that municipalities that have considered conforming with the Highlands Council as one way of approaching their land use um and considering affordable housing obligations commonly began that consideration several years ago before
they made the decision to do so as an example the expert community planner I spoke with said one municipality they worked with passed an initial resolution to consider conformance 10 years ago and still hasn't done so potential benefit of doing these
considerations in measured time is allowing for studies that a municipality can apply to the Highlands Council for funding such as storm water management or seeking public input the study allows the u opportunity for a township to be
informed on the potential and the impact and if the township passes an ordinance to conform it does so with eyes wide open another consideration are the 13 parcels that were identified in the initial assessment of Bernard's Township along with more stringent requirements
that may come with conformance to the Highlands plan what is the economic impact to those individuals to the future economic development of our community to our parks and recreation and to our farmers these are not turnkey responses they need to be considered
i've also spoken with numerous residents who are concerned about the size of the present ordinance at Westgate and I was struck with the sentiment from one resident who shared she had the sense the town doesn't consider areas on that side of Route 78 as part of the town
moreover let's just throw things there and not worry about sidewalks where kids would play because no one will see it these are among a few of the important considerations we need to make regardless of what happens in the next few months please know that I want to do
what's best for our community and want to make informed decisions on the Highlands we have a small window to consider conformance if we decide to pursue the potential to conform we should not do so because we are afraid of affordable housing numbers we do so
based upon the community we wish to be lastly there have been some comments made in emails and other areas that this township committee is not doing its work i see it differently we have been doing the work with the information we have before us as an example there was an
affordable housing subcommittee and as committee AC said we were introduced to this in the fall i was introduced to it in November 2024 it was an informal conversation it wasn't positioned at that time as a priority rightly or wrongly we as a group are not in a
position to throw stones at one another by running for office we chose to be in these seats at a time where difficult and decisions need to be made and have long-term impact we need to work together to do what's best for our community in the time we have thank you
Deputy Mayor thank you Mayor um just a couple of uh quick things i too would like to congratulate our newly promoted officers um it's always a good time uh uh to see that sort of thing um you know we're going to hear from um Mr mccarthy introducing the budget tonight we heard
from committee woman AC who brought up this notion that um she wasn't included on something um when I was in my budget meetings uh I had said that we want um you know the tax levy to remain constant
year over the year or otherwise go down um the email that she had sent said can someone please share why the percentage decreased what she's questioning is why aren't taxes going up more so I just want to be very clear about what that is and let me speak a little bit about uh
affordable housing and it's late and I'll try and be brief um I want to thank everyone um no matter what side of the issue that you're on for coming out and for those who have emailed us i read them i hear you it's important that the
public have some participation in this um the mandate that comes from Trenton is real uh and it's not only affecting us it it's affecting towns uh all over the place and
um the impacts that it's going to have on the town are are similarly real i am not ignorant to the fact that you know this has impacts on schools this has impacts on traffic this has impacts on
our uh infrastructure overall population all of those sorts of things and those are fundamentally arguments I believe that say why there shouldn't be a mandate or a mandate in the form that we
have it but the reality is that we do have it and one of the ways that it works is that it puts your local officials in the place of having to carry out this mandate um that's not a great position to be in uh although I
suppose it's better than having somebody from the Department of Community Affairs come in and dictate how you're going to fulfill your affordable housing number um so this is legally binding upon us we endeavor to try to find how it can be as
least impactful as possible but least impactful doesn't mean no impact doesn't even mean not a substantial impact this is going to have an impact and I think we have to be you know upfront about this um as you heard earlier tonight there was a subcommittee formed last
year and what I took away from the subcommittee's work is what we're moving forward with right now which are these two projects plus an a a
a special needs project uh covering four units with an eye towards doing more and no one should be thinking that uh we're doing this oneanddone special needs thing we are looking for places to do even more of that but I want to be very
careful and intentional about how we go about doing this so the projects that were moving forward Ridge Oak and Westgate were at the top of the list for quite some time um now why is that news
to many of you the reason is that if we were to tell the also rans uh you have a project that that came to us on Marstown Road on Martinsville Road on Allen Road you tell them that they're no longer in the running they're definitely going to sue you and they're definitely going to
bring a challenge uh during that narrow window that they had to bring a challenge so you have to keep the cards close to your vest if you want to keep this number as low as possible we've been doing everything we can in order to do that the state gives us a number of 218 we say no we're going to go to court
we're going to try and you know stick to our guns on this sort of thing but as Mr bardo said I'm in mediation and there's a judge telling us we're going to get a higher number um the these these are real uh uh uh obstacles that we face as
we try to manage doing this in a way that is uh as not impactful as possible um you know you've heard a lot about the Highlands that was something that came to me pretty late in the game there was
a report that I have studied that was produced two months ago uh that I have looked at and the conversations I have had with our professionals with my fellow committee members with uh folks outside the town who have you know
considered going down this road um I don't believe that this is for us and for there being some towns that have done this a great many the vast majority who have had the option to do it have not done it uh and it comes with serious
impacts there's at least 15 properties that are affected not 13 uh property rights matter i'm not in the business of just steamrolling over people's property values no matter who they are um and it does touch potential commercial
development on a go forward basis one of the things that you have heard and John alluded to this a little bit before is how the planning board uh made an inconsistent determination just the other night uh when they had to review
the ordinance that doesn't come as a surprise to him that doesn't come as a surprise to me um but the the the master plan and the planning board are cited is okay uh we should definitely move into Highlands because the the proposals that
we have uh uh to move forward now are uh inconsistent with the master plan that's no surprise but let me tell you what else the master plan says in an area a section entitled Hyron's Highlands regional master
plan uh it says in Bernard Park Burns Township determined that state land use regulations for wetlands repairarian areas flood hazard areas and storm water management burners Township master plan policies and local environmental ordinances many of which predate the
Highlands regional master plan provide adequate land use protection in addition it was observed that another layer of state agency review referring to the Highlands Council over local land use decisionmaking is not desirable as a
result it was concluded that Bernard Township would not conform to the Highlands R&P so I'm reading this right out of the 2023 Bernards Township master plan concluding that Highlands is a bad idea
i agree with that so the other thing I would say and it picks up on something Mr edelstein had said was that this mandate as troublesome as it is imposed upon us by
the state um if you think that another state entity i.e the Highlands Council that's appointed by all the same people who brought you the mandate in the first place is going to meaningfully help us manage this i can
assure you that's not the case i have worked with town after town while I was in state government who were subject to the Highlands who didn't have a choice in the matter and I can assure you they're not happy about it there are at least 10 bills pending right now from
representatives who represent that area trying to seek relief from these towns due to the obligations that are imposed upon them i am not going to surrender local control over land use determinations to this unelected body that doesn't consist of people who live
here especially when we are moving forward with what I think is the most responsible plan that we possibly can under the circumstances and for Ridge Oak specifically if there are folks who are
opposed to that uh and think that the Highlands uh conformance is in any way going to alter that highlands conformance at best uh would reduce the number it wouldn't eliminate it the number that's thrown around 90 that's
just a guess based on an educated guess based on what our planners have said uh I think it's likely to rise um if we were to go down that road but Ridge Oak provides one for one affordable housing and that would be part of the plan whether you had Highlands conformance or
not i'm confident that this body is based on the information that we've gotten from our professionals from our staff are making the best possible decision that we can under the circumstances that doesn't mean it's great that doesn't mean it's ideal but
out of the alternatives that we have uh this is is is the best decision that we can make and I almost liken it to imagine you go to a restaurant and the restaurant serves a type of food you don't like at all you have to pick from a menu that's effectively what we have
to do under certain circumstances when it relates to an affordable housing mandate for up to me we do it a different way but this is what we have in front of us and this is what we're carrying out the best way we know how thank you mayor thank you
so first I want to say thank you to Andrew for being the lead on the affordable housing and uh explained so well and um Andrew thank you for working with each and every one of us um and getting information we've all been working so hard on um you know taking a
part of it and trying to understand it and work together as a team because at the end of the day we have to make the decision together we have to compromise and at the end one of us may not agree and four of us may agree on a different way to go but I just want you to know
that we hear you we've read your emails like they have said be like my colleague have said we read the emails we hear you it's a very difficult decision and unfortunately it is a state mandate and there isn't anything we can do about it what we can do is do what's best for the community for the
future what is going to work what isn't going to work and these plans are the ones that we've decided on and also we also have to decide on the number same thing with the Highlands some agree some disagree but is it the best interest for our community for us
to do the Highlands together we make that decision not one person and in the end it's either 4:1 3:2 i'm not sure really how it's going to go like you said tonight we're going to make a decision we have to make a decision on the number but I just want you to know we live here too we care
about the future and what our town looks like and how it's impacted but at the end of the day everyone has to realize that the legislators are the ones who put this on all of us all the towns all the communities and no matter how much we can fight with them it's not going to
change unless you go and you elect um different legislators who have different ideas and different change and want to make a change to this so we're going to do the best um we're going to make the best decision possible and just know that it's weighed on us every single day and um we'll have the hearing on the
15th and we'll have the uh close session after this to try to determine if we can come up with the come up with the number that we're under the gun about so thank you Andrew thank you to all my colleagues because I know there's phone calls and and everyone has been working so hard and I'm going to tell you right
now not one person on this day has been lazy and not one person on this day hasn't done their research and hasn't reached out and hasn't cared about the future of this community and how it's built and developed and what it's going to look like in 20 years so that's the
other thing I want everyone to know i too would like to um congratulate our officers on getting promotions i'd also like to uh thank Sergeant Buldeseri for a coffee with a cop which I heard was a great success i'd also like to uh thank Anna because I know she's taken
the lead with the uh community outreach with the police department her and Andrew are both the liaison um I would also like to uh thank Assemblywoman Matt Sakutus uh and her staff for hosting the mobile office hours here tonight um also
we will be having a um they also set up for us the division of motor vehicles will be at to town hall on April 3rd this is for the real ID i'm actually giving this announcement for the people who have already made an appointment you need to come here on your appointment
date which is um April 3rd all the appointments are already sold out so I just wanted to remind everybody about that and I'd like to thank my colleague Jen Ac uh spring art sale because I was going to bring that up um and announce it it'll take place on the 5th um April 5th
from 9 to 3 there's no cost to residents you can go on our website you can register and then we will be publicizing it so everyone knows where it's taking place and like I said it's the greenard sale and uh we're really excited so we'll hope that you'll all participate and I know it's been a huge success in
the past just a reminder Liberty Cornell will be having their comedy fundraiser as you can tell I'm trying to talk real fast because I know we got to get to the budget sean's waiting patiently i know he's waiting patiently um they'll be hosting a uh April 26 will be hosting their comedy night um and uh dust off
your boots and save the date for the barn dance at Farmstead on May 9th at 7 p.m and the library would like me always to give an update because the library works so hard to outreach to all the communities and it's so important for them and I have to tell you I'm on the library board and every meeting that we
have we're always thinking of new ways to get uh new people to uh renew their cards or get their cards or how we can outreach and how we can help they have meeting spots if you're interested and you'd like to have a meeting there you can have a meeting there but they wanted you to know that the spring semester of
leisure learning starts on Monday 3:31 as of now there are 270 attendees signed up the library staff have recently done outreach at the VA Food Bank Ridge Oak and the Senior Wellness Center at Basking Ridge and like I said they're always outreaching god bless them the
Liberty uh the library has also uh had another repair cafe last Saturday and more than 55 people attended our volunteers were able to repair items like lamps vacuums jewelry clocks and toaster ovens so look for the next event
which I think is great this uh repair cafe idea is just fabulous so I just want to say again thank you to all of you for coming we always encourage everyone to uh come and attend voice your opinions we care it does weigh on the decisions that we make so thank you
and thanks again to my colleagues christie we will move to the next um no fire and rescue rescue appointments this evening Mayor okay ordinance 2570 an ordinance to amend the revised general ordinances of the township Mc
Bernard's chapter 7 schedule 20 handicap parking areas on public and private properties and this is a public hearing i open the public hearing and welcome anyone on ordinance okay I closed the public hearing may I have a
motion so move second yeah adopt the advertisement oh you have a different script mayor I move that ordinance 2570 be adopted and advertised as required by law second
discussion roll call christie miss Acy yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried ordinance 2571 an ordinance to amend the rise general ordinances of the township of Bernard's
chapter 7 traffic scheduled 29 handicap parking areas on municipal and board of education properties and this is a public hearing i open the public hearing and welcome comments seeing none I close the public hearing may I have a motion
i move that ordinance number 2571 be adopted and advertised as required by law second discussion roll call christie miss AC yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tangry
yes mayor Fields yes motion carried ordinance 2572 an ordinance to amend the revised general ordinances of the township of Bernard's chapter 7 traffic and this is a public hearing i open public comment and welcome any comments public
hearing seeing none I close public hearing may I have a motion mayor I move that ordinance 2572 be adopted and advertised as required by law second discussion roll call christie miss Ay yes miss
Dwarte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried new business 2025 municipal budget and golf utility budget presentation by Sean McCarthy CFO
okay thank you um I realize it is late so I will do my best to abbreviate what we have on the budget tonight um we do have the 2025 budget prepared for introduction uh this year the township is eligible for self-examination of the budget uh last year we were state exam
that happens on a three-year rotating cycle so uh this year we are eligible for self- exam there was a resolution in addition to the introduction resolutions on the agenda to authorize uh that self-exam um by statute the municipal
budget must be introduced by March 31st uh so following approval tonight we'll file all the necessary budget documents with the state so we continue on schedule with our public hearing and adoption of the budget which will happen on April 29th um so with that I'll get
into some of the budget detail um just taking a look at some of the budget highlights for this year our total proposed budget comes to 48,534,669 the amount to be raised by taxation to support that budget comes to 23,57499 and that represents an increase of
3.44% over 2024 um our projected anticipated uh municipal services tax rate is 0.253 for $100 of assessed value and that rate is down 6.19% from last year's rate of
269 um that decrease again this year is attributed to the increase in uh overall assessed value that we're seeing um this year being the fourth consecutive year of a significantly reduced tax rate and we'll take a closer look at what um
those assessed values have been doing in the past couple years um I'll just also note here that the uh the budget funds an additional $785,000 toward capital spending for total capital budget of $7.5 million for
2025 the budget complies with both the levy and appropriation caps as well as complies with the township's use of fund balance policy and then just one last note here uh this budget mitigates a loss in state aid for 2025 of
$175,000 with the municipal relief fund of 2023 and 2024 no longer being funded in the state's budget um here's our appropriation summary that we typically look at at introduction um this is a breakdown of the budget to the major budget
categories compare that to 2024 um you'll see overall the budget is up 3.76% um however in this comparison what we do is pull out our grants capital and reserve for uncollected taxes numbers uh because particularly those grants uh
vary as the year goes on at this point in the year we only have a few of those grants um as we receive grants during the year the budget will be amended and those will be added um so for this purpose we pull those numbers out to come up with a fair comparison of what our actual operating expenses are
year-over-year and in this case that increase is 4.04% um just some some some notes on what some of the main pressures driving that increase are this year uh we have a statutory increase to the library tax
levy that you'll see in that chart above of 10.86% this year uh our employee health benefit premiums are increasing on average 16% our liability and workers comp insurance premium premiums are increasing
4.3% uh the budget includes continued funding for expanded public safety initiatives for an increase to the police department budget of 6.3% um and all of that just in addition to overall inflationary operating cost increases uh to generally all of our
operating budgets um just really quickly this chart just shows the proportionate share of each of the budget categories uh to the budget as a whole and really here we're just trying to highlight the increased capital spending for 2025 this year making up
15.53% of the total budget that number is up from last year when it was 14.59% um you know that capital budget was really the the primary goal for this year's budget um we want to make sure that we can continue to fund our
five-year capital plan um and adequately maintain all the township township's infrastructure and equipment that's been a long-term goal of ours we've been building uh towards what we feel will be an appropriate level of capital funding and we're just about there this year
um really quickly we'll just take a look at the cap laws that apply to the budget there are two two separate distinct cap laws that apply one being the um appropriation cap that is the 1977 budget cap um so for 2025 you'll see the
percentage allowable for this year is 3.5% that does include an allowable increase of an additional 1% which is authorized by a cola ordinance adopted by the township committee earlier this year um passing that cola ordinance is considered a best practice it's something that the township uh does on
an annual basis and the reason for that being that under the cap law uh there is a provision that allows any unused cap bank dollars to be banked for up to three years for use in a future year's budget um we are not in a position where we need to use any of those cap uh bank dollars this year uh but we'd like to
make sure that we have them in the bank should we need them in the future um and then on the left there you'll see that the numbers associated with that cap the maximum allowable appropriations our total actual appropriations and the amount under cap that this budget comes in at which is just shy of a million
dollars uh then there's the the tax levy cap that's the 2010 cap that applies specifically to the tax levy itself that is the 2% cap again uh the information on the on the right right hand side there is just showing you the maximum
allowable cap our actual tax levy proposed and the amount under cap and our available banks uh so assessed value I think it's probably worthwhile to spend a minute on on assessed value um again this year we're seeing significant increase in
assessments um this year total assessed value will exceed $9 billion in Burner Township uh that represents an increase of 10.26% over last year um as I mentioned this is now the fourth consecutive year of assessed value
increases that trend really started back in 2022 uh when we saw an increase of 6.45% followed by 8.01% in 2023 8.56 in 2024 and now the 10.26
that we have for 2025 so um we're clearly seeing the effect of the real estate market continuing to accelerate um again the assessed values are driven strictly by the real estate market so as the market in Burners Township continues to perform as it has uh we're going to
continue to see our assessed values increasing uh directly correlated to that to that market activity um differently but similarly we've we've discussed in past budget presentations that uh typically increase in assessed value will result in a reduction of the
tax rate that tax rate is the rate that's applied to the assessed value of your home to determine what your actual tax bill will be um that's certainly the case again for this year and we'll take a little closer look at that in the next few slides um key point to be made here though and something we always want to
reiterate is that um though you know there there is an increase in assessed value that does not necessarily dictate an equal increase to the tax bill um you know there's really pieces to the puzzle that determine what the tax bill impact are going to be that's the assessed value the tax levy itself which is
determined by the budgets of the township the school the county and then the tax rate that's associated with that tax so it's all three pieces of the puzzle that we need um this just simply shows that calculation on how we arrive at the tax
rate um this is this example is just for the municipal portion of the tax levy only and you see when we take our tax levy proposed 23507 apply that to the overall assessed value multiply that by 100 we come up with 0.253
which is the rate for municipal services only for this year and then we simply apply that rate to the average assessed value for a home in Burners Township in 2025 and we come up with a annual tax bill again for
municipal services only of $2,22 um here we're looking at that same average assessment and the impact to the tax bill uh and the change of that impact year-over-year um so you can see for 2025 we have our average home value
871769 um that did increase over last year by about $87,000 when we apply that municipal services tax rate to that assessment you can see that that results in an increase to the tax bill for that average home of $8757 for
2025 um you know this is probably a good example of you know what we're talking about as far as how assessments impact the tax rate and ultimately the tax bill so last year's budget saw the same tax levy increase of
3.44% um however the increase in the assessment on the average home was slightly lower so due to that slightly lower increase uh in assessment last year's tax bill increase came in at $127 compared to the $8757 that we see this year so again
same increase to the tax levy a slightly lower increase to assessed value results in a pretty significant decrease in the actual amount build in municipal taxes for that property now um want to be clear of course that we're not saying that everyone's tax bills are going down due to assessments
uh just that in this example of the average assessment the increase in assessed value was substantial enough to mitigate some of that increase to the municipal tax bill uh taking a look at our total capital budget for this year as I
mentioned just over 7.5 million um this just lists the amounts for each uh category in the capital budget um and again the budget for this year really focuses on the maintenance of our existing infrastructure replacement of
aged equipment um and is typically the case just 4% of this year's capital budget will go towards what we consider to be any new uh capital items and lastly we have our golf utility budget for this year i'll reiterate like I do every year that the
golf utilities operated as a self-liquidating utility and that means that its operating costs are fully funded by user fees not by taxation and as you can see here our total golf utility budget comes in at 569,313 for this
year uh so we are scheduled like I mentioned for our public hearing on April 29th all of the budget data as well as this pres presentation are attached to the agenda um I'll leave my email and phone number up on the screen for anyone who has any questions please
feel free to give me a call and that is all I have thank you Sean resolution resolution 2025-187 introduction of the 2025 budget and municipal budget notice of the township of Bernard's County of Somerset
for fiscal year 2025 you have a motion i move that resolution 20250187 be approved and scheduled for a public hearing on April 29th 2025 second discussion roll call Christie miss Acy
yes miss Darte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tanrady yes mayor Fields yes motion carried resolution 2025-188 emergency temporary appropriations for operations
can I have a motion i move that resolution 2025-0190 be approved and scheduled for public hearing on April 29th 2025 second discussion roll call christie
miss Acy yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried resolution 2025-189 emergency tempor emergency
temporary appropriations golf have a motion oh I move that resolution 205 20250190 be approved scheduled for a public hearing on April 29th 2025
are we on oh you know what the next one is also 189 right oh maybe there isn't a script oh okay can I have a motion just a motion i make a motion to do it or just
a motion all right i make a motion to approve resolution 20250189 correct second and I will second that motion discussion roll call christie miss AC yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mrs mcn yes mr tenry
yes mayor Fields yes motion carried resolution 2025-0190 introduction of the 2025 utility budget and utility budget notice of the self-liquidating golf utility of the township of Bernard's County of Somerset for fiscal year 2025
mayor I move that resolution 2025-0190 be approved and scheduled for a public hearing on 42925 second discussion roll call Christie miss Acy yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mr
mcn yes mr tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried resolution 2025-0191 christie authorizing the Bernard's Township Chief Financial Officer to conduct the annual budget examination
have a motion make a motion to approve resolution 20250191 second discussion roll call christie missy yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr
tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried consent agenda the items listed within the consent agenda portion of the meeting have been referred to the township committee for reading and study and are posted on the agenda on the website and considered routine and will be enacted by one motion of the township
committee with no separate discussion if separate discussion is required the item might be removed for the agenda by the township committee action and placed on the regular agenda under your new business would anybody like an item removed seeing none can I have a motion
move the consent agenda second discussion roll call christie miss Acy yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried ordinance 2576 Christie
an ordinance to amend the revised general ordinances of the township of Bernard's chapter 12 building and housing section 1-3 construction fee schedule and this is introduction may I move that ordinance 2576 be introduced on first reading advertises
required by law and schedule for public hearing on 41525 no that goes through you okay discussion seeing none roll call miss Acy yes miss Dorte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tani
yes mayor Fields yes motion carried ordinance 2577 accepting a Reparian zone conservation easement including the termination of an existing stream buffer conservation easement on property located at 28 Castle Way block 3302 lot 12 from
Jeffrey L adler and Adrienne Adler to the township of Bernards and this is introduction i move that ordinance 2577 be introduced on first reading advertised as required by law and scheduled for a public hearing on April 15 2025
second discussion seeing none roll call Christie missy yes miss Dwarte McCarthy yes mr mcn Mr tangry yes mayor Fields yes motion
carried ordinance 2578 an ordinance of the town of Bernards appropriating 1,345,000 for various capital improvements and this is introduction mayor I move that ordinance 2578 be introduced on first reading advertised as required by law and scheduled for a
public hearing on April 15 2025 second discussion seeing none roll call miss Acy yes miss Dorte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tenry yes mayor Fields yes motion carried approval of minutes 311 2022
open session meeting minutes can I have a motion so moved second roll call christie miss AC yes miss Darte McCarthy yes mr
mcn yes mr tani understand mayor Fields yes motion carried executive session resolution 2025-0186 authorizing executive session meeting of the township barracks committee following the approval of the resolution the meeting will temporarily adjourn to
executive session upon conclusion of the executive session portion of the meeting the township committee will resume the open session formal action may be taken at this time may I have a motion to temporarily adjourn to executive session so move second Christy Ro
Miss Ay yes Mr marte McCarthy yes Mr mcn yes Mr mr tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried and I want to be very clear to the members of the public in the interest of transparency as I indicated during my comments we are
going into executive session to discuss litigation involving our declaratory judgment complaint and the objections filed by Fair Share Housing Center and New Jersey Builders Association there may and could be formal action in the
form of a resolution taken when we come back into public session so if any members of the public want to come back to public session and see what we're going to do or not do I'm putting everyone on notice and if anyone stays
we will come back outside when we come out of close session and tell you when we're opening up open session thank you thank you okay we're back on the record here chissy amend agenda resolution 2025-0195 correct
mayor I'd like to amend the agenda to add resolution 2025195 authorizing entry of and execution of mediation agreement fair share housing center before the affordable housing dispute resolution program in the matter of the application of township Bernard's docket number
SOM-L-157-25 second discussion roll call christie Miss Acy what are we doing are we voting to agenda or the resolution to amend the agenda to add
the resolution oh okay then we vote yes got it miss Tarte McCarthy yes mr mcn yes mr tani yes mayor Fields yes motion carried christie resolution 2025-0195
authorizing entry and execution of mediation agreement with fair share housing center before the affordable housing dispute resolution program in a matter of application of the township of Bernard's docket number SOM-L-157-25 May I move that resolution
2025-0195 be approved second discussion roll call Christie Missy No Miss Dearte McCarthy no Mr mcn yes Mr tani yes Mayor Fields yes
motion carried thank you we can adjourn right motion to adjurnn you want me to summarize the public what what you authorize that would be helpful John okay i'm going to summarize what the passage of resolution
2025-195 authorizes um and I I do have copies for any members of the public that that want it they will not be official copies because the clerk will not have signed them fair Share Housing Center was contending that we had a prospective
need obligation of 225 units we had lowered our number to 171 units this authorizes a mediation settlement agreement with Fairshare
Housing Center at 198 units it's essentially splits the difference between 171 units and 225 units to 198 units it also indicates that the New Jersey Builders Association had placed
on the public record before Judge Miller that it would have no further objection or challenge hour number provided we reach the agreement of the share share housing sale i will alo also represent that if the Ridge oak ordinance and
Westgate ordinance and four units are approved at our house on 399 Mounter Road the calculation of bonus credits would add up to 198 units and would meet the settlement number without any further action necessary to be taken and
of course um this would also eventually go over to the planning board to amend the housing element and fair share plan uh by June 30th uh 20 uh 25 i will be contacting Judge Miller as the
judge had requested tomorrow morning to indicate that a settlement agreement has been reached and I will also be reaching out to Josh Bowers the attorney for Fairshair Housing Center to also indicate that a settlement has been reached this will result in in the recommendation by Judge Miller to a
Mount Laurel judge with this particular number and and then we will be getting an order from the existing uh present Mount Laurel judge that's not retired certifying the the number so this is a step in the process
can I have a motion to adjurnn i make a motion to adjurnn