##VIDEO ID:RPA6Dvbyn6o## you're so your voice is so malous good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the January 30th uh Town council meeting in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting was provided on December 10th 2024 by sending written notice and electronic notice to The Courier News and the breeze posting on the website and the bulletin board in the municipal building and filing with the Township Clerk may we have the roll call please councilman kers councilman cill here councilman pedroo councilman ring here president oralis here uh I would be remiss councilman kers sends his regrets he's away on business but he uh he promises that when he returns for the next meeting he will gladly provide his individual aspect on uh affordable housing um councilman Cilla would you uh please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance stand if you're able to please pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh minutes for approval we have the minutes of January 16th uh regular session which was circulated has everyone had an opportunity to look at them and if so could I have a motion for the minutes please I'll make that motion motion second all those in favor I I the minutes are approved the closed session for January 16th will circulated some additional time some future time um okay thank you uh Township Council reports could we begin with councilman ring please certainly it's going to be a brief one but um had the opport Unity to attend the uh Somerset Patriots uh end of the year celebration uh last week I I know they're here we're going to be speaking further about them but um outstanding event that they held uh and then a couple days later uh um attended and swore in the officers of the Martinville Rescue Squad during their annual reorganization meeting and that's my report thank you councilman cordilla please I witnessed councilman ring having a nice time at the patriotes and I also witnessed councilman ring swearing the officers of the Martinsville Rescue Squad and I have to say both both activities were nice and I tipped my hat to all those who volunteer for Bridgewater Township thank you my report is as follows I attend also attended the annual Patriot baseball team celebration and as the Yankee affiliate affiliate daa ball team continues to win the hearts of Bridgewater Baseball fans the team in the stadium which are owned by the very philanthropic califer family continues to be a main stay of entertainment for the community I plan to attend the Lunar New Year celebration sponsored by the Bridgewater Chinese American Association scheduled for this coming Saturday at Bridgewater sen uh Senior Center this is an energetic celebration of song and dance the Lunar New Year which this year is the year of the snake includes massive festivals throughout Asia and the world over the past weeks I have participated in numerous conferences and phone calls as our town fine tunes our response to the state which is due tomorrow uh by the end of tonight's meeting this Council will commit to an affordable housing buildout over the next 10 years this has been a stressful time for the administration for the council and our consultant says we address an arbitrary and blatantly unfair number forced Upon Us by the state and the courts much more about that in a few minutes uh in case uh you have not heard about the musical chairs uh in New Jersey politics let me try to provide some insight Douglas steinhardt who represents the 23rd legislative district in the New Jersey senate has been nominated to serve as the uh New Jersey State Attorney General by the Trump Administration upon steinhardt vacating the senate seat there is a possibility that assembly minority leader John Deo who represents our town will succeed steinard if that happens then deo's assembly seat becomes vacant our very own mayor Matthew mench has publicly announced his intention to run for the vacated de Mayo assembly seat there you have the cliff notes on what's happening in politics um we're now up to uh mayor's report please thank you and uh whether those may people May Cry or Rejoice I am still here at the moment and may continue to be here um but uh we will uh we'll see how that fun stuff plays out um a couple items to uh address before we get to uh uh the Patriots uh Proclamation uh I want to First note that this month is maternal health awareness month and there's also maternal Health Awareness Day on January uh 23rd and uh I was able to go over to Somerset uh Hospital uh to tour the Maternity Ward and meet with the nurses and uh one of the doctors over there who are the primary Caregivers for those who are in the OBGYN unit over at Somerset Medical Center to learn about the services that they have um learn about uh what they provide for our residents in the area and uh it really was it was phenomenal it's a great facility um the staff was great and we were just thrilled to be able to uh thank and give a proclamation to those workers uh to thank them for everything that they do to care for uh the mothers and and babies that are delivered in Somerset Medical Center so uh in particular thanks uh to Jack Morris for helping to arrange that uh Chief administrator blouse and her team the chief nursing office officer uh Michael valendo and his team and the entire staff um there's just for everyone's education hospitals attorney unit helps facilitate about 800 births a year and uh this year Robert with Johnson Somerset they were telling us is celebrating it's 125th year of caring for the community here in uh the Somerset County area they're going to be doing uh events all year including uh you know we're going to see how we can match up some of the connections to Bridgewater with the hospital and I'm told the original Hospital building is still standing um and uh is down there in summer Somerville I don't think I realize which building it was until after uh the meeting there so um along those same lines there was a uh blood drive that was held by uh three of our residents and done in consultation with Robert Wood Johnson uh in New Brunswick Casey catel Brianna sorry Brianna I'm going to butcher the name Zarin ktz and Patel uh this was hosted at the Bradley Gardens fire department thank them for hosting and waving their fees and uh you know we had folks we made it available for any staff members who wanted to go and donate blood that day uh to help with um you know raising blood for maternal awareness for maternal Health um that uh they could they could do that um so uh and Casey was uh who was one of the women who helped run that event um that was near dear to her heart uh based on her own personal story and uh so we were happy to support that and uh glad that we were able to um get residents out to raise blood and they raised I have my notes here they collected 82 units of blood so it was a very a great success for them so thank you for all that work and uh last we have applications for the citizens 2025 Citizen Police Academy we're going out the first week in February and so uh folks should if you're interested it's a f you know fantastic program if you've talked to anybody who's participated in it it's always been um we got a lot of positive feedback on it it's a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about uh policing our community and um you different ideas of understanding what our police department does and building connections between our residents and our police officers and uh also mentioned uh two other things we had the evaluation of the municipal Emergency Management program um which is reviewed uh bridgew is reviewed by summer state county every year since 2017 and that ensures compliance with all the different OEM and disaster mandates and making sure we're prepared for whatever may come uh this year Bridgewater scored a 106.8 out of 100 so um not only did we meet all the criteria we actually suce you know exceeded it with the bonus credits and extra credits and everything else so we're very proud of the Emergency Management uh Team who uh helped make sure that we are fully prepared something that's near and dear to all the council members who were sitting on uh this day for their portions and their part in the Emergency Management response of our community I will well I guess last but not least um you know we are going to be engaging on the next step of the affordable housing mandates that are thrust down upon us from the uh New Jersey Supreme Court which has um created a constitutional requirement uh to provide affordable housing which has now been expanded and Beyond what it was even ever attended by the Supreme Court um under that process the law that was passed every municipality must accept a number um you have to pick you don't pick it it has to be done by um with the help of your professionals and using the criteria that the legislature has set forth so we don't get to pick the criteria and say there's better criteria to help us come up with a more accurate number we have to use the number the criteria that they gave us and if you don't submit a number by the end of the month based off of our own analysis and comparing it to the DCA analysis then you lose your immunity from Builder remedy lawsuits so uh this is not a situation where we can simply whether we disagree with the methodology whether we disagree with the requirement if you don't have a number then you do not have Builders remedy immunity you still required to provide affordable housing so you can't just say we don't want to do it uh because if you do that then somebody come in through the township and then rather than us get the choose where and how the affordable housing is built um then the the developer who is building the bringing the developers remedy lawsuit basically they get to force it where they want it so this is the first step of a year-long process where tonight the first part of it is going to be determining a number there's a process whereby um interested parties can review the number and either say that they agree with us or not at the end of that process we'll get quote the number then we'll have a few more months to develop a plan for implementing that number over a 10- year period of time uh and then once the plan gets approved uh and interested parties can weigh in and say they like it or don't like it uh in the court system um once the plan's approved by the court then we have to actually implement it we have their bites by changing densities in our planning whether it's by overlay zones whether it's by uh public private partnership projects there's a number of ways you can do it um but so this is the first step in that process tonight which will take us over a year to finally implement but um it's unfortunate as I've stated publicly before uh we don't agree with the law that's been set forth in terms of what criteria they're using uh they're double counting units they don't give us credit for uh units that are being built in areas that are EX from building it's uh it over inflates the numbers and it doesn't give enough credit to What towns actually can can manage but be as it may um Step One is tonight with adoption of the number so those are my uh comments and my report for this evening um but on a happier note uh we have a um phenomenal opportunity uh tonight I have a proclamation uh which we will we will give um uh for the uh Patriots organization um I know I'm sure everybody in this room has been to a Patriots game at least once if not dozens and dozens and dozens of times and I know as um father of of three kids it is such a phenomenal experience going over to the Patriots whether you're a huge baseball fan like I am or whether you're somebody who just wants something to do with your kids on a spring or summer night um it's great I don't know if everyone appreciat how lucky we are to have that kind of amenity here in Bridgewater and when you couple that with the partnership with the Yankees that allows us to see some of the biggest stars in baseball right here in Bridgewater for 12 bucks a ticket or 15 bucks or eight bucks or it's it's not that expensive uh thank you by the way for keeping it that way um but you can afford to go and for those people who can't afford to go or can't afford the time to go into Yankee Stadium or go into a major league game because of of whether it's money or travel or time to be able to come here and and see those players right here and to be able to spend a night out with your family um all of us were at the the you know the celebration uh this this past uh week and um it struck me that uh the absolute common theme when I heard um Everybody speak who's part of the organization was a family and how important family is to the Patriots organization of course uh the califer family um but the whole organization it's it's not just the family members it's the same faces that we've seen here for years whether it's at the game saying hello to folks uh whether it's the staff members that are there and to me when I take my kids when I go to the Patriots it's usually a family event and so it's you you create that family experience uh for just hundreds and thousands of families that have sat in the stadium and cheered on the team hopefully cheering us as opposed to the visiting team but uh um but who have been there uh you create memories for families uh in our community and uh that is something that is priceless and we cannot thank you enough for doing um so uh um coming from a Mets fan that actually I'm a Yankees fan Tim I don't know what you're talking about uh I have a proclamation we'll go down I'll read it and we'll bring everybody up and we'll take some pictures so so in addition to just my comments on the Somerset Patriots organization um I'm not the only one or all of us at the dayas here are not the only folks who have recognized the Excellence of the organization which received its own award this year um for being an outstanding organization uh within all of minor Le League Baseball so um I'll read the proclamation I'll ask you guys to come up and we'll take a picture or two uh whereas the Somerset Patriots the doublea affiliate of the New York Yankees have consistently demonstrated Excellence dedication and a commitment to the community and the sport of baseball and whereas the Somerset Patriots have been recognized with the prestigious 2024 freest award an honor given to the finest minor league baseball team in the nation highlighting their outstanding operations fan engagement and community outreach and whereas the award celebrates teams who exemplify Integrity leadership and Innovation and the Summerset Patriots have undoubtedly achieved these qualities year after year bringing pride and joy to our region whereas the Somerset Patriots not only Excel on the field would also Inspire countless fans support local businesses and serve as a source of joy and unity for our entire community and whereas a success of the Somerset Patriots reflects the hard work dedication and passion of the entire organization from the players and coaches to the front office staff sponsors and countless volunteers who make their achievements possible now therefore it be resolved I Matthew C mench mayor of Bridgewood Township to hereby recognize and honor the Somerset Patriots for winning the 2024 freus award and extend and extend heartfelt congratulations to the entire organization for this well-deserved Accolade your commitment to Excellence both on and off the field continues to be a beacon of Pride for all of us and we look forward to many more seasons of success and Community impact thank you all come up and [Applause] we we're proud to have the califer brothers with us Jonathan is the bearded one Josh is the unbearded one and they are the co-chairman of not only the park but the team just come briefly uh mayor thank you for those uh wonderful words uh as a dedicated baseball fan and uh dedicated Bridgewater resident and leader uh you do know the team well and it was captured perfectly in that Proclamation administrator and esteemed council members thank you very much I have a brief proclamation of my own to make um and that is that we are particularly proud of this award Baseball America is the industry trade newspaper and I am so proud of the fact that they have recognized the amazing team behind the team and that their hard work and dedication is uh being recognized by such an esteemed publication so one more round of applause if I make for the amazing guys and uh one last Proclamation before the pictures and then that is we are incredibly proud also to be this community's home team and it is a responsibility that we take seriously the mayor mentioned affordable family entertainment and that is a big part of that responsibility and it's a mission that we intend to uphold so thank you all hope to see you at a game this season or three [Applause] yeah you got to go no choice no choice m Mr Mr President now up to uh item number nine on theard Mr President if I could uh uh Mr Corsini and I were talking about a topic that he had something to just brief the Council on and and distribute if we could just take a moment yes this is on a part of the administrator report although since the mayor gave it tonight we skipped over it which is perfectly fine um so as you guys are aware uh periodically uh when I stumble on a reference in your code um that is outdated uh councilman council president or Galis uh often wisely says our ordinances our organic document living document living document I occasionally stumble uh you may recall years ago I stumble on a Prohibition era reference uh tonight a little bit more recent uh an outdated code reference from 1949 um the uh statutory citations are long expired uh I try to fix these things as I find them uh as as we uh stumble on them um so I'm going to give to you tonight an ordinance in the Municipal Court you're you're reappointing your judge tonight as I prepared that resolution I found this reference it's in the Municipal Court portion of your ordinance it's merely a statute SE two statutory citations that are uh long expired uh the statute doesn't exist anymore the ordinance I'm going to provide you updates that provision uh removes the uh the erroneous reference um I would like to get this on for the next meeting administrator asked me to give it to you tonight so that could be effectuated because I know you guys like to uh hear about these uh one meeting in advance so it's a the minor of changes uh but a change uh to make our code look a little shinier so you insiration we put I'm I'm going to give it to I'm going to give it to Grace and you a copy to each of you as well so I thank the uh thank you council president for that and that is all I have okay we are now moving to item number nine which is the meeting open to the public members of the public wishing to address the Council on any matter will be allowed three minutes to speak unless there are unusual circumstances could I have a motion to open to the public please so moved second second all those in favor signal by saying I I we are open to the public ladies and gentlemen anyone wishing to address the council please come forward there's a signin sheet there and uh share what you like our frequent flyer good evening president noralis council members mayor great I will learn how to say your name one of these days um I'm Joan G Gyer um I had had uh forwarded to the council uh a series of questions I have about one of the resolutions that is on tonight about the affordable housing and I just wanted my questions to be placed on the record to help you um be able to answer them and I'm going to uh phrase them in terms of the whereases so with respect to the fifth whereas um it's my understanding and this has changed a little bit from what I sent you um that in the past we have not had litigation relating to the Builder remedies and exclusion um zoning litigation we've been able to avoid that and I just want a clarification if in fact that is the case um regarding whereases number sixes and seven um I would like some information from the council uh and the mayor as to what you see as the disadvantages of compliance with A4 as well as what you see as the advantages of compliance with A4 I think you have to do a compare and contrast to be fair um with respect to the 15th whereas by my crude math um if the 4177 number holds then Bridgewater share Statewide would be about 1 half of 1% Statewide and uh if your calculations are different um as to the state's total annual requirement um I would like to know what your calculations are and if you feel that the state's calculations are not fair then what is fair um I assume zero is not the number that you think is fair well maybe you do I don't know um with respect to the 16th whereas what was the prior annual number imposed by COA and what percent was that uh Statewide with respect to the 19th whereas it was my understanding that you have already allocated the funds or most of them for the 130 units um and that was mostly for repairs and Renovations and I just would like some clarifications if that is in fact the case with respect to the whereas number 24 um if there are any plans for further adjustments I'd you know what are they um and you may not know yet but I assume that's in the works um and with respect to um reducing Bridgewater share from 474 to 4177 and assuming that that is fair um and further reducing it as indicated in the 24th whereas assuming that is also Fair once that is done um can any of you or all of you make a pledge to Bridgewater residents that you will consider the costs of litigation um referred to in whereas number 25 and weigh that against the benefits of affordable housing to the community uh and finally um will you consider some innovative solutions to this to the affordable housing um requirements such as accessory housing units thank you for your time thank you Miss ker um I'm GNA offer a couple of comments here uh before the next person comes up I'm going to start at the back end uh one of the one of the things the uh the governor mentioned in his State of the Union Address was uh accessory housing units which permitted a uh an additional smaller building to be built on an existing lot and the ownership would would go with the I'll call it the big house uh we are our current ordinance does not permit this type of of structure H and absent moving forward now it's possible that uh and it's pending before the the Senate and the assembly and it may become la at some point uh it looks like the the governor is pushing it but right now uh we we do not have that as part of our ordinance if I go back and I have the list of she was kind enough to send it to me um and and I would I would say that we have worked very hard uh for over a period of months to come to a a number that we would not necessarily feel comfortable with but less uncomfortable uh the number that the state has come up with the 474 and obviously we're we're proposing 47 for Council action and administration support uh is is heart for we have been compliant in in round three we were disappointed that all of a sudden they took the round three results and threw everything out the door and started with a new process uh whether it's fair to I don't know what we spent on litigation uh years ago in in other rounds and quite honestly probably don't don't care to go back and spend the time to look for those numbers uh we we want to do the best job we can for our 46,000 residents by protecting them uh from from issues the mayor mentioned Builders rep remedy if we do not file a response by tomorrow uh I we are we have been told that we almost instantly then would fall victim to a possibility of a build Builder's Rec remedy and basically that means a builder finds a piece of property takes us the court and says Bridgewater is deficient in its affordable housing and therefore I this developer I want to help them and I'm going to offer to put in a 100 or 200 or whatever cuz don't forget nobody builds with very few exceptions just plain affordable houses we'll talk you'll see in the agenda tonight that we have one example like that but Builders want to build buildings to make money and so there there is generally a percentage of the building of the number of units that they will say are affordable uh in the past it has varied anywhere from 10% to 20% very few people offer anything above 20% but what that means is to get 20% uh affordable you have to build five time four times five times that amount uh to get to it uh which means much more development our administ our mayor and our Council folks uh on behalf of our residents have said we want to control development we want it to be rational we want it to be reasonable able and unfortunately some of the constraints that come down from the state preclude us from doing it as far as the money for the 130 um improvements uh we have a fund for that we don't allocate it until it is necessary but when when it is necessary we do it we have a number of homes where people need roofs they need electrical work and and if their financial situation is such we try to help them out now I've been long-winded as there anybody else who would like to offer a comment here the only comment I could talk about this topic all night long um but just without Bing the point since it is the biggest topic on our our agenda tonight and quite frankly is one of the biggest if not the biggest issues overall facing municipalities in New Jersey um just to make sure everyone understands from the public when the Supreme Court uh years and years and years ago said that there is an obligation to provide affordable housing they had used the term you know everyone every municipality has to provide its Fair share and over 40 years there's been all kinds of arguments about how do you determine what's fair what numbers do you use to figure out what's proper what's not proper um and obviously just people have been arguing about that again since the time it was um first first issued um they look at it in regions so I know some of the questions were talking about the state I mean I think there is a state number but for purposes of what uh we look at when it comes to affordable housing compliance for round four they divide the state up into regions and the idea of the Supreme Court case was that if each municipality only looked at its borders and didn't consider the needs of the area well then you could have a situation where there's no ability to provide affordable housing um because every town just you know worries about itself so that's where the Supreme Court said we're not going to let towns do that so they look at it in terms of regional need um originally this was because of uh kind of the white flight from the city jobs were moving out of the cities um but there was no housing for people who then wanted to work in those jobs so um there was a problem because you had the workers in the cities jobs outside and and that was an issue um what we've seen over the past couple decades is that that trend has changed um in the 201 2010 decade it was the growth between the cities and the and the um sub suburbs was basically even uh last year last 10 years we saw a growth where you're now having development and jobs going back to the cities but the law still exempts cities from a requirement to do affordable housing so what winds up happening is our region I believe includes New Brunswick or Trenton I forget which or both Chris might know New Brunswick so as an example um if anyone's been to New Brunswick recently you see there's some great apartments in New Brunswick or some great new projects they down there was development going on there organically um they have developers coming in they're taking the Ruckers area they're they're improving the entire Community New Brunswick when the state looks at our Region's numbers they take a look at growth that's one of the factors so New Brunswick the growth in New Brunswick gets factored in to determining future growth but New Brunswick is exempt from having to do affordable housing because they look at the various income and numbers and say uh well you know that's not fair they they already have more need than than they can amount to so we're not going to make them do it but part of the problem that you have is that we're also not getting credit for the numbers that they are building so they're going to build housing anyway not because they're forced to just because they're doing it yet we don't get credit for those numbers so we still have to build units in our region even though those units are being built by new brunwick um which is already exempt from affordable housing so uh they look at the numbers as a whole answer to question I was asked uh it's the so I don't know what the answer about the the what percentage in terms of uh overall um uh our portion of overall for the state but if they look at it from a regional perspective and what will now happen is all these towns are going to file these their own numbers and then the special arbitrator by the court will essentially allocate um could go higher could go lower they'll evaluate what you can build what you can't build um um and they'll come up with a final number to meet the Region's needs as determined by the state our in round three we were we were the first municipality to get certified by uh our County uh judge for housing judge so there was no if I recall correctly there was no affordable housing builders remedy lawsuits against the town in the third round we proactively filed a declaratory judgment action which gave us the court C ified our plan we were the first town to do that in the county and as a result of that we did not have any litigation costs from affordable housing I don't know back in the 80s or 90s I I don't know whether or not there was uh any litigation at that point in time but for third round um we uh we did that so um the question about advantage or disadvantages with the with the law I mentioned a little bit earlier but the if you if you participate in the process you are protected the whole way through so you can't have a builder's remedy lawsuit you're you're protected through that entire process and um you know theoretically you come out of it you know quicker with less costs than if you were litigating it in court that's the concept um I have a lot of concerns over how the program is structured the ability to appeal it there's a lot of unknowns there's a whole bunch of lawmaking and Ru making that are seem to be outside of the statute I have a lot of concerns about the process but if you you know answer about the biggest disadvantage if you don't participate in the process then you still have to comply with the law which is the statute on the books that tells you how to calculate your your housing needs but you no longer have the protection of the process presumably a Court's not going to look at you as a great actor if you've decided to just thumb your nose at it and and not participate and then we risk being able to not determine our own fate when it comes to how to build the the issue when it comes to fair and not fair is also not talking about the 417 or 474 units as council president mentioned it's how do you account for that and if it was just 417 units and that was it you know it's still a lot of units but it's a town that's 40 you know 6,000 people it's probably manageable the problem is it's not just 417 units it could be as high as 2400 units if you were doing it through traditional Builder uh private Builder projects and so now you're dealing with 2400 units and then all the infrastructure the people and everything else that goes with it so the plan that we will attempt to create is going to have to try to balance all the different tools at our disposal so some of it may be traditional Builder um sponsored projects and we just try to find the right density in the right locations uh for the right type of mix of units it could be uh project like um housing for developing disabled individuals uh you could be housing like Habitat for Humanity housing you can do public private Partnerships where if we own land that we you can have a company that comes in and builds and it all inclusive like centerbridge if people are familiar with centerbridge you could have a project like that so it's um it's a mix that's that's the plan that's the important part the numers less important than the plan that you create because um that's what's going to guide the town over the next uh 10 years so until June to file that we have until June so once the number gets certified you have to work we've been working on this just this part of it and even starting to come up with ideas for the plan since December of 2023 so even though this moves a little bit quickly we've been working on this uh not just we didn't know the exact number but we knew we were going to have to come up with solutions for affordable housing in terms of figuring out what is the Right Mix what areas of of you know what property is either available for us that that we own that private developers or private property owners May own how do we figure out do you put in a lot of units on one project to make it more dense there do you make it less dense but spread out those are all the considerations that go into figuring out how do we create a plan um and the plan doesn't require it has to provide a reasonable opportunity for them to be built so it doesn't say town you have to go out and actually build you know yourself and pay the money to build the units but we have to make sure there's enough property available there's enough opportunities available so a developer or private entity or a nonprofit can come in and ideally according to the law over the next 10 years would provide those units so um you know that's that's all the things that we're trying to balance and this is step one which is the number and we've done an analysis we've hired professionals to look at one of the things that they factors that they use to try to figure out your number is your ability to build and so what they do is they look at vacant land and that's been the biggest problem that town have faced is that the vacant land analysis has been incredibly over inclusive so when the state ran these numbers there's examples of towns using you know they use the front lawn of a municipal building medians on a highway in hell it was PNC Art Center was included uh in Bridgewater they included part you know Camp Cromwell as a you know developable property the reservoir on Chimney Rock R developable property so the Richard Hall Richard hall right so so this the number and our bridgew is playing going from 474 to 417 is largely reflected on saying hey State even though we might disagree on the factors and we might disagree on the overall concept we're That's the Law we have to comply with it but you miscalculated what our capacity to build is because you're including property that just is not developable um it's it's you know open space property all the stuff I just mentioned so um that's what they'll look at and the the court will review it uh if anybody know there interested parties out there who disagree they'll have an opportunity to file an opposition and say no Bridgewater's wrong number should be you know something different and then in end of March we'll have the number that will go towards our plan and if I may the the issues with the state with these calculations this is not a Bridgewater issue this is not a republican issue this is not a democratic issue as of this morning 85 municipalities have filed formally disputing the numbers given to them by the state um the and again not Republican not Democrat the Democratic mayor of East Brunswick in one of the newspaper articles today New Jersey rushed miscalculated land estimates for affordable housing mayor says is the headline uh East Brunswick has been very critical Milburn has been very critical um as the mayor said you know we would be building houses down the Center median of Route 22 in the grass strips um there's close to about a 100 different properties in Bridgewater that um the state says are buildable some of them um that are buildable are isolated pieces of property less than 2500 square foot in size you'd be living in a shed there um it's it's mindboggling how they did these calculations um but yeah thank you Tim Alan do you have uh I know you want to say something I'll wait till we bring it up okay uh is there anyone else who would like to uh speak to the council at this point come on up please he hello Carol and Joya nice to see everyone tonight especially you Mar mench um there is an exhibit a I believe that was supposed to be attached to the resolution is there any way the public can get access to exhibit a which I believe is the topology report which supports how you came up with the 4177 number maybe it just wasn't a Ed no yeah we have it it has to be by law it has to be posted online after the after the the council adopts it put on the web so it will be exibit a there yes it by law it has to be we have to publish for the the public once it's adopted assuming that the the council does in fact adopt the resolution that we expect that makes sense I doubt I'll understand it but I would like to kind of read through it and then um councilman nalis you had mentioned that um there's an ordinance that we can't build independent accessory dwelling units on property um is there also an ordinance I'm sorry would you repeat that that I said what you said that I think there's an ordinance that in bridgew we can't build um accessory accessory is correct we do not have an ordinance permitting it oh it's not that we don't permit it it's that we don't have one that does permit it kind of reverse psychology but that's the way it works okay and I think you were referring to Independent units on a property are you also including renovating a garage then renovating a basement to the point where you could rent it out and it would qualify as affordable housing and would reduce our mandated number that that would not to take a garage and convert it into a living un is is not permitted in our Township right now that's what I wanted to know I was curious on that and then finally I thought I had another thing um okay I read something from um the the township I guess it was with the schools that um you know as this implementation of um deportation and um that whole thing um that if um the superintendent would need to be notified before any student was removed from our schools I was reading something about that um which got me to think um is our Bridgewater Police Department going to be working in conjunction with ice any of these um situations and at some point do you think that we could have a presentation from the police department on what to expect if something like this were to happen in our town and what we can do about it or not do about it U we'll leave that to the administrator to discuss it with the the police chief in terms of the parameters of of What specifically uh don't forget uh the the police department is in charge of our security so they they don't publicly pronounce everything that's going on because they want to protect us and the less they say sometimes the better but talk uh Mr papis do you have a comment on that this has been something that the chief and I have discussed um there hasn't been any incident any situ ation that has warranted any action so far yeah I guess I'm thinking more um proactively you know to know what to expect down the road that's all I think a lot of this in speaking to the chief that a lot of this is directed by the state police um and uh any um action would likely need to be in Co coordination with the state police that's at least what he has told me he's been instructed to um expect I suppose it was when I heard the superintendent of the schools putting out the statement about what to do that's what made me think recognize the superintendent and the board of education is a separate body entirely uh we happen to collect the funds and pass it back to them but there are separately the Board of Education folks are separately elected by you and me uh and and run the school system uh we we do not and the police department has some oversight from the State Attorney General's office which is different from the school district so you know I can't speak to the school district's comments but you know different situation than we have here and the fact of the matter is if the federal government comes in the federal government is going to supersede anyone locally understood all right that's all for me thank you thank you anyone else wishing to come on in [Music] sorry about the sorry about the multiple glasses I have to take care of that someday um thank you again uh for everyone being here on this name and address please uh Manish Patel 41 schaer Road thank you again um thank you uh council member papis for giving me your card I'm going to reach out to you and uh we're going to talk about administrator administrator administrator I'm sorry Town we're going to talk about uh how to you know how I can help how we as a community can help uh maybe bring some business into uh into the town um and that's maybe a little bigger in scope than what Chick-fil-A or another Starbucks can do um I I did have um uh two questions uh about the affordable housing uh dilemma and one I guess uh hypothesis or Theory um could you change the the um the rules allowing uh garage I mean it doesn't allow it today but could the rules be changed to allow uh converting extra space a stee council said our our documents are living documents we can make changes where we think it is consistent with the betterment of the township so right I mean without degrading the quality of life Etc we don't want you know I guess strange uh as I mentioned the last time I was here we love this town and for multie reasons and uh want to do only what we can improve but we also want to you know give people opportunities to and if and also G you know alleviate some of the burden that the town May face uh in trying to accommodate affordable housing so if there's quicker ways or better ways or simpler ways to do it by changing an ordinance maybe that's something we can talk about uh second question was obviously our Mall uh which uh has been purchased um I'm not as in tune with all the latest uh details of what's planned I know you know people have discussed things like oh they might add apartments and uh things like that to the mall um you know how can that potentially alleviate this situation at at least you know a small part of it uh the the issue of of rental apartments or apartments or residences in in any main way shape or form at the U at the mall has been discussed at Council and with the mayor and at this point we've gone on record of saying we are not supportive of that at this time okay um if there's an answer for it uh is there a reason why we wouldn't do it Mr mall was built with developers agreement that there are certain things that were agreed to when the mall was built and that was one of the stipulations that was put in place um you know I think again tonight we're focusing on what our number is uh and then June we come back with how do we accomplish that number okay um so you know tonight's affordable housing though is is strictly on we don't agree with the state's number of 474 we're submitting documents ation and resolution at 4117 that and then by June we have to come up with the plan assuming assuming the state accepts our number the the answer question the numbers we are submitting or will be submitt the number uh does not include any uh residents at the mall or any change in our zoning or in our existing zoning always subject to change yeah the the issue tonight all these things are you know the questions that you're asking and some of other presidents have asked really get into how do we comply with the number and the answer is we're going to look at everything in terms of uh and and the law gets complicated so you know they they don't allow towns as example you might be able to do a certain number of um senior or kind of age restricted but you can't just say we're going to do 4177 age restricted units and think that's going to accomplish it so it's going to be we're going to look at every uh aspect of how do we meet the number with a variety of options the concern with the allall as as a whole just separately is that um from my viewpoint the mall is such an important commercial center to the town that I don't want to see it become um that you I don't want a developer to come in and think there's an easy you know the easy solution is just to build apartments and wind up losing ultimately losing the mall as that main commercial center right now in all the conversations I've had with the mall ownership about the short-term me medium-term and even long term uh they have not proposed to me anything with regard to uh uh you know housing on the site there been there's some talk in the community about it um but nothing from them uh right now they continue to be committed towards uh commercial uh entertainment you know restaurant all the uses we see there uh to continue that uh and if at some point in time they propose something different obviously we'll we'll address it but um you know there's a lot of concern about somebody coming in and putting in you know hundreds or even thousands of units and uh taking away from them all um thank you uh and one last thing again this is probably better suited uh for the June discussion whereas how to solve the challenge but uh mayor men mentioned something that I I heard uh I think uh councilman oralis also mentioned something about we'll have to get creative and uh I'm I'm going to be brief about this uh my old College in Philly um I I I look at a college I look at the way a Township operates very similarly in terms of like the burdens they face uh and the revenue that they have coming in always a challenge you know how College uh tuition has gone up they go up like it goes up like taxes do right uh but regardless a solution that the college did have was um they took land that they owned uh they didn't sell it to a developer they gave it to a developer the developer built dorms on it and then the developer recouped their investment on it through uh the rent and I'm sure that model has been played out in many other real estate scenarios as well but it's you know one one that came to mind when I think of the books and balance uh I should say the budget of a of a town yeah one of the issues that comes up so we we look and will continue to look at our own inventory of property and then how do you manage it um some of the private developers who will come in to build you know if we give them land whether we still own it or we sell to them for a dollar or however the the ownership issues work and there's different models for it is if in order to make finances work on something like that often times uh those if it's all inclusive affordable housing then to make the finances work you have to worry about one the quality of the of the building because obviously there's there there may be cutting some cost there but the other concern is that the federal a lot of those get federal grants and there's federal fundings and state funding to help build affordable housing however if you do projects that are funded with some of those federal grants the federal government can use those as um they can put homeless people there they can use it as um housing it's not necessarily somebody who is uh you know by taking a federal money you give the federal government the ability to take empty units that are there and potentially use it for transitional housing or um homeless housing or programs from you know folks who are getting out of jail that need to have housing uh stuff that we may or may not want depending on where it's located and what pair you know the number of units and things like that so there's additional concerns uh if you don't know exactly the scope of the project and if you stick around for a few minutes in the in the ordinance that will be proposed tonight we're actually taking a piece of property and donating for a an organization to build a home so stick around for 11a and you'll see okay all right well I'm done there um just want to leave you with one thought um um given all the uh toxicity and turmoil that surrounds us which thankfully has not permeated this room tonight for sure um it's uh how wonderful it would be how wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world which is I think what we're all trying to do here and of course that quote is attributed to Anne Frank um and uh I hope we all remember more about her and what she stood for and uh thank her dad for having uh shared her diary with us so good night guys thank you anyone else wishing to address the council please uh good evening I have uh last time I was here was at the uh the end of December remember I think the last meeting that we had uh I think some of you gentlemen know that my concern really is the financial condition of uh bridgew at the last council meeting Mr papis asserted that taxation levels were impacted by property assessments and that fortunately in Bridgewater our property values continue to appreciate from nine or 7 to 9% both residential and Commercial however when residential property values rise it does not follow suit that our taxation uh levels would rise because there's no correlation between property values rising and the cost to run Bridgewater which is the municipal tax levy in fact our Municipal Taxes should stay the same and our tax rate should become lower I did not try to draw any comparisons between the school budget and the corresponding tax levy to the school budget and the municipal budget and the corresponding tax levy to the municipal budget they're separate budgets the municipal budget is the only budget controlled by the mayor and this Council it is unclear what the intent of Mr Pap's point was other than to aisc the questions I have concerning our Township's finances and the overreliance on the budget surplus which this Council not me has called out has an issue in its own audit which is submitted to the state and clearly visible on the town's website so I wanted to clarify for the record and the benefit of the public it is not my opinion but the facts in 2019 the municipal tax levy Rose 1.94% in 2020 it Rose 1.46% in 2021 4.01% % in 2023 5.07% and in 24 it more than doubled to 11.7% it also is a fact that over the last two years this Administration has delivered the budget late months Beyond when it is required and that and in over Reliance on the budget surplus is what is concerning and brings me to conclude that our our financial houses is on fire here um my question tonight is in 2025 what are you doing to reverse this trend relying Less on Surplus depletion and keeping our Municipal Taxes low thank [Music] you anyone else wishing to address the council please come forward [Music] I'm sorry I forgot to do that last week uh Jen lockran uh 716 Falcon Court uh it was explained maybe last meeting um that like one affordable housing unit could equal up to like 10 like regular units is that true one one to four for every one affordable housing unit if you did it by tradition funding addtional building they would build four market rate units my math definitely didn't math so um so what is that in total then with 417 that would be like, 1600 uh yeah 1668 if you got 25% it be 2,000 but just about just about 21100 units okay you're saying 20% yeah 20% thank you for clarifying that out of every five MH because 10% or um 4,000 seems really staggering still um that's a a lot of units um so I just uh I'm just going to probably repeat what I said last time which is just ask you know as you look into June um for consideration for public space um non-motorized forms of transportation safe routes especially for bikes and pedestrians and uh and I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't uh mention to build a skate park but thank you appreciate your time anyone else please come forward good evening my name is Andrew bucko I live at 543 barrywood Lane and uh actually um uh would like to talk further about the budget uh specifically I've I've been looking through uh uh through the last couple of years and um uh in preparation for you know budget season coming up and I couldn't help but notice that uh from 2023 to 2024 is budget uh there are 46 fewer employees now as a employee in a uh the private sector who's gone through several rounds of of uh of of layoffs uh I'm I'm sure it was very troubling uh to have to uh cut the the headcount of uh the town's Workforce it's uh it's never a fun uh thing to do and and obviously impacts people uh people's lives very strongly but from 2023 to 2024 the town also added nine new supervisors at a cost of $1.3 million now with 46 fewer Rank and file employees these new supervisors were supervising negative five employees each what are they actually doing with our tax dollars the tax levy uh um as as a previous speaker uh noted went up from 24.4 million to 27.2 million an 11.6 or 11.7% increase um that increase has been able to be masked because the aggregate property values went up from 9.3 billion to about 10.7 billion a 14% increase and as we all know simple math the numerator goes up the denominator goes up also it can even out but then if you dig deeper into the numbers the residential property values increased by 24% the commercial values only increased by four and the industrial actually went down by 77% this means that the residential share of the tax burden went from 72% in 2023 to 79% in 2024 so I have to ask what is the town doing with our tax dollars and where is it all going and and why are the residents of this town uh bearing the burdens of uh what appears to be significant overspending now obviously residential users are uh residential um residential uh residents uh use more Town Services they use the schools uh police probably uh um other Township Services um so obviously we we need to we need to balance the growth of of the residents with other categories ories commercial industrial the the the categories that will ultimately use fewer Township services but I can't help but wonder if the mayor's just say no attitude to development is scaring away would be investors into our town how many uh businesses has has he driven away we could have been uh reaping the benefits of of uh of um recreational marijuana either uh through retail sales or grow facilities which would have netted US money uh revenue from uh from that but uh the mayor went against the opinion of the voters and said that we shouldn't have that in uh in Bridgewater so in closing my question for the uh the the committee here is what are you going to do about it where what are you going to do to shore up the finances of Bridgewater and and uh why is it on the backs of the taxpayers for uh why is all this uh overspending falling onto the backs of the taxpayers thank you I I would offer one comment and uh part of the problem problem is in some of the major complexes I'll take the eacon site and the sanv site up 202 206 they left to go someplace else or they cut down significantly it's not the case that we're we're driving people out of town it's they want to they want to do something else and many of the larger complexes uh are are really feeling the heat where people are working from home absolutely absolutely I I I certainly agree with that and and the the uh um the sooner the the realization comes across that big sprawling corporate campuses are just not in style anymore it's not something that's being demanded it's it's an issue that this that this Township needs to cope with that the people who run businesses in the township need thank you for your that is absolutely true but at the same time it is the responsibility of the mayor and this Council to attract those businesses that will invest in the town and not drive them away we're well well aware of that thank you anyone else wishing to address council president if I could just comment briefly you know um there's a couple things that certainly can be open for debate except that you know the facts are just slightly off uh with some of the comments were just made you know as a as a threshold matter the idea that businesses aren't coming to Bridgewater is just factually inaccurate uh we have Thor equities is just building a uh you know huge facility um a new building on 2226 ingredion is uh here with its corporate headquarters um uh AOS just got approved by the planning board so we have companies that are continuing to build their bring their national headquarters um is it cell uh Solaris has you know the uh you know building the uh their cell therapy major manufacturing here in Bridgewood that just opened so the idea that companies aren't coming to to Bridgewater there's not been uh you know new businesses that are not only just coming here but growing here uh is simply not accurate um so as a threshold matter um you know we still have challenges with major campuses uh but we've seen some of that improve already and there's plans and hopefully we'll have more and more of the biotech companies continue to come here including uh the company that just started it's doing the CO2 emissions uh on Middletown Road that has its uh national uh development company here in Bridgewater that's state-of-the-art CO2 emissions cleaning uh facilities right here so the um the other part of it just uh to respond the just remember that the tax levy is the amount of money that's collected from taxes but that's not necessarily tied to spending it's tied to revenue so if we have a you know Federal Grant or or funding from the mall or funding from hotel revenues which goes down um then you need you know they need to make it up so sometimes the shift between uh the tax levy uh is not because of changes of spending it's in can be in part because of loss of income from other non- taxable Revenue sources the uh comment about the subis we did not lay off 46 employees I don't think we laid off anybody last year um the number of changes if you saw them in the budget could have either been that we didn't fund positions that were already on the budget either because they've been in the budget for years and we simply eliminated the position that wasn't filled by somebody it could have been because of attrition uh somebody retired we may not have backfilled a position um there's any number of reasons but we have not laid off any employees since uh 200000 um uh yeah 20 yeah 20 um the first year that I was here was the only year we ever laid off uh any number of employees so um the numbers there are not reflective of of that um so uh so I think that was kind of the the comments there the tax assessments just to be clear the tax assessor is an independent works for the township but is independent in other words we don't control the assessments they're controlled by the county um they're technically a County employee so they're independent so we can't go out and say to the tax assessor I think uh property is worth X dollars or we want you to shift you know balance the tax assessor is independent too isn't he yes you know so it's and it's a whole different it's like a mpal court judge you know they might be part of the township but they're not controlled by the administration from the standpoint of policymaking they're intentionally independent to make sure that they're immune from the political process of um you know that can go that could go along with assessing properties uh and last but not least I am absolutely against Residential Mar uh recreational marijuana in Bridge order have been and will continue to be thank you mayor anyone else uh wishing to uh address the council uh you we need folks the first time please John did you want come on up [Music] John colio Washington Valley Road I want to congratulate the mayor for his possible promotion to a legislative seat in Trenton I know he's worked decades for this and for the public good uh part of his U election promise in 2019 was a 5year road rebuilding project um uh I think we're in year five uh I think everybody appreciates the potholes but some people will look at the town's taxes and the debt and will say well this a trade-off for that we've put a lot of debt on we put a lot of interest on we made bad decisions in terms of interest rates during the pandemic we didn't lock in when the rates were extremely low below 1% but now we're in the fifth year and uh if the mayor is not with us anymore I'd like to consider what should be the absolute number for Road repaving this year and going forward we may want to look at that as a combined you know thought process this year next year and ongoing because we did raise it dramatically we've benefited from the the raise I think we now have to sort of look at the next five years and that's all I just got to say thank you much thank you is there anyone else who has not yet had the opportunity to address the council okay second by to the app thank you Mr nalis uh there's two points that I want to make the first being please state your name and address my name is Dan zalinski and I live at 7:15 Chimney Rock Road there's two points that I want to make the first being that uh years ago and I believe there were members on this Council that voted in favor of it uh would have kept copi in Bridgewater uh through uh a development called the center for excellence and uh something happened along the way and uh we didn't meet what the needs were of that company which was in a growth mode at the time and they went to Morris County and we lost one of the highest uh tax providers uh uh that we had in Bridgewater and so to say that businesses are just leaving on their own is not entirely true the second point that I want to make and I don't know that I really disagree with uh uh Mr mench about recreational marijuana in uh Bridgewater Township but uh I believe it was somewhere in the vicinity of 65% of the voters in Bridgewater voted in favor of it and I think when uh voters uh vote in favor of something it should be the government's uh responsibility to act on that uh act on that vote and while recreational uh dispensaries uh in Bridgewater might not be the best idea there are a number of other businesses that are related to the Cannabis industry like grow facilities as the previous uh resident mentioned as well as testing facilities both of which would have netted Bridgewater revenue from the Cannabis business as those uh grow facilities and the testing facilities uh do business with other municipalities and that's where the tax income comes from thank you thank you for your Insight anyone else wishing to address the council seeing no movement could I have a motion to close public input so moved coun president just uh the Santa Fe property taxes have stayed the same whether they were there or not because of the uh agreement uh that was in place in terms of the they still pay the same property taxes uh from when they initially left on that facility um and uh just wanted to point that out Alan did you second he did okay all those in favor of closing input I I all right we are closed to the public thank you uh we're now up to item 11 oh there are uh public hearing and final actions there are none for item 10 number 11 introduction of ordinances I'll read it as follows 11a an ordinance authorizing the sale of property known as lot 15 in block 477 on the Bridgewater Township tax map and located at 901 route 20226 to Noel Main Street urban renewal LLC of 610 Anderson Avenue Cliffside Park New Jersey as the buyer for a nominal consideration of $100 pursuant njsa 40a coland 12-21 I to construct an affordable hous affordable housing um Mr papis or mayor did you want to offer any insight of this we have with us our um affordable planning person uh darling green she may not want to acknowledge that she's here but she has uh she has been laboring on the affordable housing issue for many many months and is to her credit the reason we've been able to uh winow the the 474 down to 417 is because of her personal Insight in terms of literally almost going property by property Mr President if I could could since Miss green is here maybe she could just come up and just briefly describe this uh project [Music] good evening everyone it's Arlene green of collar engineering and design um tonight in front of you this ordinance would allow the sale of a Tang bone property that was actually bought with trust fund money so this property whether you adopt this ordinance or introduce this ordinance tonight or not has to be eventually used for affordable housing because it was purchased with trust fund um monies novel is an organization that builds 100% affordable housing uh typically across the northern half of the state I have worked with them in other communities what they're proposing on this site is what would appear as a single family home which is permitted in the underlying Zone but inside it would house um developmentally disabled individuals which is a permitted use in the zone the way the affordable housing rules are currently written the township would receive one credit per bedroom created within that unit and because it is a uh facility for special needs individuals the home would also be eligible for bonus credits so there is a possibility that we could receive if it's an four-bedroom group home eight credits for one site that looks like a single family home from the outside and although uh Miss green mentioned that uh the original plan was for four bedrooms in this group home there is consideration on the part of nine I talked at length with with their managing partner uh that they will attempt to go to five or even six if possible uh the the rules change between five and six by the state uh but I'm I'm very enthusiastic that uh this will be a very beneficial deal and addresses the issue that was raised before here we have a piece of property uh and it has some constraints it has a a stream running through it uh but it as as Darlene says it was bought with affordable housing trust fund money and has to be used for that and now we have an opportunity to put a spade in the ground and make it happen does anyone have any questions on that we I know we've talked about it at length I'll move the introduction of 11a okay could we have a second on the introduction a roll call please councilman cill yes councilman ring yes president G yes sorry I'm not used to being second uh for Resolutions now I want to move one I want to remove resolution K up to right now uh so that Miss green can can leave she's graced us with her attendance here uh but she would she we want to have her around but I item K is the resolution of the coun oh I'm sorry yes Grace needs to sit the public hearing I beg your pardon that's okay okay final action is scheduled for February 20 2025 at 7:30 p.m. here in the municipal courtroom public inspection of this ordinance is available on the township website the bulletin board and in the clerk's office thank you okay uh K resolution of the Council of the township of Bridgewater uh committing to round four uh present and prospective need affordable housing obligations as required by the March 24th 2024 law signed by Governor Murphy PL 2024 C2 herein after abbreviated as A4 uh council president I think as we've we've discussed before um you know this is the resolution which uh is being proposed based on all the hard work of of our professionals uh and uh to help us learn how to or figure out how to manage it um the essentially as we've really kind of discussed really at nauseum at this point uh proposes the state gave us a number of 474 under the law the DCA numbers are advisory numbers it's non-binding but it's the DCA that says well this is what we think it is and then you can do your own analysis and see if you agree that analysis has been done and it uh under our um uh agreement it's uh it's less so um I think think uh Darlene I believe has a some more information can provide to the council and the public but uh this is the this is the resolution that we need to pass in order to uh um you know comply with the law and move the process the number is 417 now I know Darlene has I won't call it a presentation because she can talk as little or as much as she likes in terms of giving her giving us a capsule as to what has happened in her life over the past 14 16 months on this issue it's not at all moment that's for sure oh you have a mic okay M as long as it's working um so I have next time I want to go first because you guys must have gotten a copy of my presentation and memorized it um but I I would like to add a little bit of um finer points to some of the items so as mentioned earlier this is a process that's been going on in the state of New Jersey for decades it started back in 1975 when the Supreme Court mandated that every town has a constitutional obligation to provide a realistic development potential for affordable housing after that occurred there were a series of lawsuits it was the wild west and the legislature realized that this is not going to work and so they created the fair housing act in 1985 to provide an administrative process for communities to comply with their constitutional obligation to oversee that process the Fair Housing Act created the Council on affordable housing also known as COA I'm sure you we've heard them read about them in the newspaper Co was tasked with adopting regulations and promulgating uh affordable housing obligations the Fair Housing Act and the court process that we participated in in the third round and the process that we're about to participate here in the fourth round always carried with it the carrot and the stick approach and that's been mentioned a little bit tonight the carrot whether it was through COA or in the last round through the courts or here in this fourth round that we are entering was Town come in and voluntarily comply with your constitutional obligation and we whether it's COA the courts or the program will give you immunity from build or remedy lawsuits you get to choose how to address that obligation as a municipality conversely the stick has always been and continues to be do nothing to and you'll still have that obligation but instead a builder and they don't have to be the property owner they could be merely a contract purchaser to file a build or Remy lawsuit can go to a judge and say judge this town is not complying with their constitutional obligation and I am going to help them out a builder remedy is blind to your zoning it's blind to your master plan it does not care if your schools are full it does not care if you have a fir truck to reach to the top of the building a judge somewhere else makes the award and that's the remedy the fix and so I know a member of the public asked earlier what are the advantages and disadvantages the choice before towns every town in the state of New Jersey by tomorrow is do you want to control your future or do you want some developers to control your future that's what this boils down to it's the carrot and the stick so COA started with the first round in 1987 and the rounds were six-year rounds the first round was from 87 to 1993 the second round was from 1993 to 1999 and in these sixe rounds were given a number they had to put together a plan and then implement the plan Co realized that is not long enough to actually do all those steps so for the start of the third round they said we're going to change this process and it's going to be a 10-year round so it gives towns more times to actually comply the third round was to commence in 1999 and last 10 years but unfortunately CO's third round rules could not pass judicial muster and ultimately the third round ran from 1999 to 2025 so instead of 10-e period we had a 26-year period in the middle of that time the um Supreme Court stripped col of their power in 2015 and they returned affordable housing compliance back to the courts so we rewound the clock to pre-1985 and towns were ordered to file a declaratory judgment action by July of 2015 or face the possibility of a Bild a remedy lawsuits they contined that same carrot and stick approach in response to this Bridgewater filed a declaratory a judgement action in July of 2015 and we received final amended um Judgment of repose and compliance last year so the members of the public are aware as we sit here tonight the township already has two existing obligations that we have prepared a housing plan which has been approved by the court we have our prior round obligation which is both the first and the second round which is 73 affordable units the third round which is 1,414 units both of those are addressed as we sit here tonight because of Bridgewater's proactive efforts as mentioned by the governing body we knew there was going to be a fourth round but we didn't know it was going to unravel this way last year the governor signed this new bill A4 and that officially abolished the Council on affordable housing it changed the process for compliance it amended the bonus credits and it set forth deadlines um that are extremely important the reason we're sitting here tonight is the Jan uary 31st deadline which I have termed a shotgun deadline because if towns do not comply by this deadline they will automatically lose immunity automatic loss of immunity did not happen when COA was functioning automatic loss of immunity did not happen in the third round when you were in front of the court there was a a process before town could lose immunity so this new amended Fair Housing Act is dramatically different than prior rounds because of the shotgun deadline of tomorrow and the second shotgun deadline is in June when we have to have our housing plan adopted that deadline if we do not meet that deadline once again automatic loss of immunity so in order for towns to comply with tomorrow's deadline the bill charged the Department of Community Affairs with calculating the fourth round obligation they issued their report in October and they assigned Bridgewater a rehabilitation obligation of 30 and a fourth round obligation of 474 the obligation starts at the state level for the fourth round number for the State of New Jersey DCA has assigned a an affordable housing obligation of over 84,000 affordable units to give the public some understanding of how is that even relatable if you look at the last 10 years how many total CEOs were issued in the state of New Jersey in total blind to whether it's affordable or market rate a little over 160,000 total CEOs were issued in a 10-year period that means that the obligation that has been assigned to the municipalities is more than 50% of the total number of cosos issued in the state of New Jersey the number is bloated that's the number that the towns are stuck with after the fourth round number is assigned to the state it's divided to the six affordable housing region our region um that we're located in Somerset hunon and middlex has the fourth largest affordable housing assignment once your region has a number it is then allocated to each municipality except for Urban Aid communities through an average of three allocation factors the first allocation Factor looks at equalized assessed non-residential valuation specifically the change in value of your commercial and your industrial properties between 1999 and 2023 so the more your your non-residential properties grew in value the more affordable housing units you're assigned they use the value change it's essentially a proxy for job growth the second allocation factor is the income capacity here DCA utiliz census data and they looked at 2023 median household income and your municipality's income along with every other municipality's income in the region is compared to the lowest median household income for your region so the higher that difference is the more affordable housing units you are assigned lastly is the land capacity allocation and here DCA was tasked with utilizing data from D they specifically were required to use their land use l capacity um data set that is based on a 2020 aerial image that DP took and then assigned different um land use categories DCA looked at forested areas I should say the classifications for forested areas shrubland areas farmland and other Barren lands so those were the categories that they looked at to determine what is developable the land capacity Factor for um Bridgewater is 2.59% the income capacity factor is 4.02% and the equalized non-residential valuation is 5.64% so when you average those three together that uh results in 4.08% and that is then multiplied by the regional obligation and that's how you end up with a number of 474 um as the mayor noted these uh obligations are non-binding but you have to work within the framework of the formula we can't just pick a number out of thin air I was actually asked that last night can we just pick a different number no we cannot um but what we can do is scrutinize the data that DCA put forth they issued a very detailed spreadsheet and the township uh retained topology to go through the land capacity data which was published eventually uh after many uh Opa requests and the Department of Community Affairs has determined that there are two over 267 Acres that are developable that number uh after topology reviewed it is overstated as mentioned the state has identified portions of Camp Cromwell deed restricted land owned by both the county and the township uh multiple sections of the meeting of Route 22 there are areas of common HOA land that have identified land inside of The Jug handles is identified as developable um detention basins are also determined to be developable by the state so you can get a sense of of what their analysis showed so topology reviewed all of that information and they um determined that only 113 Acres of the 267 are actually developable when you input the corrected acreage into the DCA formula that's what modifies the fourth round obligation from 474 to 417 so the resolution that's in front of the governing body tonight will accept the conclusions in the DCA report regarding the rehabilitation obligation of 130 and the fourth round income and non-residential valuation capacity factors the resolution is correcting the overstated fourth round land capacity data which would yield a fourth round obligation of 417 not 474 in addition you will note there are multiple reservations in the resolution we are reserving the right to conduct a windshield survey to potentially lower the rehabilitation obligation we are also reserving the right to conduct a vacant land adjustment and or seek a durational adjustment if we find there is a lack of water or sewer to construct all of these units those are permitted adjustments that towns can seek um if they cannot achieve their fourth round number all of those adjust ments would be part and parcel of any housing plan that we adopt so those are done after the fact the the purpose of tonight is to essentially set the number and then from there we can take adjustments as part of the housing plan um that's my summary I'm happy to take any questions that the governing body might have can you talk a little bit about um so tonight we approved this m maybe just now to June now to June um well when you get no sleep there there is no more sleep uh so anyone can file a challenge in the challenge window that will last until February 28th so that could be a developer it could be fair share housing center it could be a resident if by chance no one challenges our resolution then our number is established by default on March 1st if there are challenges the the program was supposed to review all of them and have them adjudicated within 30 days I would not hold my breath for 85 have already challenged as of well I'm sorry 85 towns have already disputed their numbers as of today yeah it it's it would be very difficult and what is concerning is the way that they wrote the legislation it did say that even if your number is not finalized by June 30th you still have to adopt a housing plan so there is a possibility that towns in the state will be forced to adopt a housing plan even though they don't know what their number is now would it be on the 417 or the 474 or we don't know we don't know okay but clear as mud oh clear as mud so I would encourage the township to continue the proactive work that we've been doing not wait for our number to be finalized instead use our 417 as a proxy and figure out a plan because the housing plan is the only master plan element that requires both a hearing in front of your planning board and endorsement by the governing body because it contemplates expenditures so that means two public meetings and I am sure just like this week where I had 10 Council meetings I I'm sure that everyone's going to want to have all of their planning board and Council meetings the last week of June um so there's going to have to be a lot of planning to back into that housing plans are very detailed and they can include hundreds of pages of appendices to prove what we're submitting in addition to that housing plan we're going to have to have appended to it a new spending plan for our trust fund if we are doing any rezoning whether it is for inclusionary development for accessory apartments for any other mechanism all those ordinance will have ordinances will have to be drafted and attached to that document so it is very likely for a town of this size with a number over over 400 that your housing plan could be somewhere with all the appendix documents from 500 to a th000 pages long wow there's a lot of work to be done any other questions for Katherine guys Alan any questions on your part I have no questions I opinion but no questions U if there are no no questions at this point uh I would entertain a motion uh for 12K not something that I want to say you know excited to do but uh you know necessary evil I'll move this is a gun to our head yeah it's it's someone else deciding what's best for Bridgewater and and not allowing us to decide what's best we have a motion Allan will you second yeah I have a second and a comment I'll proceed with your comment please most of the evening uh you know a lot has been said about the affordable housing requirement and I've I've been quiet on it till this point however I just want to publicly say I don't like it I think it's terrible while I know what I say that because of what we have done in Bridgewater for the past 20 years or so regarding affordable housing the number of units that we've complied we've installed we've complied with we met our allocations and I think the uh I find it unacceptable to have somebody from Patterson passing legis pushing legislation to tell us what we need to do my question is who in this room would like to move to Patterson I know I wouldn't the a lot has been said and I've read some documentation from DCA on this uh what the foundation of the argument is and one of the comments was people should have we want to make it so that people can move where they want to go and move as far as I know when my family moved to Bridgewater they they decided to move to Bridgewater and they worked hard to make it happen my father at the time had he was a garage mechanic making about $7,000 a year as a salary but yet my mother and father together worked to make it so we could move to move to Bridgewater from Hudson County I have the opinion that this is being pushed by Hudson P Essex County Camden and so forth and I think I'm upset with it bothers me that people that don't live here are telling us what we're going to do because we want we want to change the way you live now that may sound cruel and it's not meant to be it's an opinion it's my opinion that you know uh if I want to it's when I look at that argument and think about people should have the right to live where they want to I'd like to live on Sunset Ridge in Bridgewater the view is great realistically I know that I can there's a lot on here for where the water tower is for a home hey you got indoor sprinklers too um but I know that's not possible and you know what I'm very happy where I am um I don't want to see somebody say well uh councilman cordola wants to live on Sunset Ridge so let's pass legislation that that will force that to happen that's not the right way to do it if I want to make it happen it's up to me to find a way to work get the income to make it happen um along the way I realize that I have an obligation as a councilman my obligation as a councilman goes to every single res resident in Bridgewater Township residents who may share the opinion that I have and residents who may have a different opinion but I do know having said that that my responsibility is to listen to everybody's opinions listen to their arguments there are times probably more than I want to admit that my opinion somehow just isn't right however I do know that there are many times that the opinion that I have based on what I would call Common Sense does work and I evaluate you know Contra contrary opinions against mine and my obligation is to make a decision based on what I feel is best for Bridgewater Township and not best for Alan Cilla so having said all that and I apologize for the length of it the I will be voting to support 12K I will be voting to support this resolution however I'm supporting it because we have to not because I want to see this happen to Bridgewater Township the the uh repercussions for not supporting it are certainly not acceptable we need to work to uh come up with a plan that you know will work for Bridgewater I think miss guer you asked what my number was to be honest with you you're not going to like it but my number is zero I find I do feel that somewhere along the way we'll come to a agreement between 0 and 417 uh but that's the way I think and the way I feel I I am approaching this resolution um enough said thank you Alan uh I think by this time everybody knows my view on it so I will not bore you with a another recitation could we have the roll call please on 12K councilman cill yes councilman ring yesalis yes all right we're moving to 12a which is the appointment of Katherine H as Chief municipal judge for a three-year term commencing on March 19th 2025 so moved second second roll call please councilman codella yes councilman ring yes president nales yes uh 12b authorizing the appointment of Michael kalachi Esquire from the law offices of kalachi law firm as the alternate municipal prosecutor for a term commencing on February 1st 2025 and terminating on December 31st 2025 I'll move it second please second roll call councilman Cel yesman ring yes president oal yes uh C is authorizing appointment of Township planner Kathleen sarmad PP aicp of the sarmad Planning Group as principal planner for the update of the town's master plan and amount not to exceed $20,000 for a one-year term commencing on January 1st 2025 to be funded from the planning division account so moved second please second roll call asman cill yes ring yesalis yes D is authorizing dispersal of $2,912 from the affordable housing trust fund for additional Renovations and repairs 4 One completed low and moderate income property through the Bridgewater housing uh trust fund Bridge order housing rehabilitation program to be funded from the affordable housing trust fund 127,000 more to go yes so moved I'll second it roll call please on D councilman Cilla yes councilman ring yes president oralis yes uh e is authorizing submission of a Grant application to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for the local Recreation Improvement grant for the ADA Compliant equipment for the Bridgewater Park system and an amount up to $100,000 with a 5% cash match of the total project award the 5% cash match will be funded from the open space fund I have a motion on E please I'll move it second roll call please asman Cilla yesman ring yes presales yes f is an award of contract to AR LLC 107 blueberg Drive Number 10 Hillsboro New Jersey 08844 to provide information technology services for the period of January 1st 2025 to December 31st 2025 and an amount not to exceed 88,000 to be funded from the information technology account Mr papus was there anything you wanted to add uh on that particular one no just that uh it's gone well uh it's their this resolution actually expands their assistance to the police department and um really no increased cost overall the the funding that the police department has been utilizing to fund a vendor uh will be now Consolidated into this one vendor providing service to all Township departments and and they have been very successful in satisfactory performances I understand could I have a motion on F please I'll make that motion second please second roll call asman cill yes asan ring yes resales yes G is an award of secondy year renewal option for the HVAC contract to air systems maintenance Incorporated 718 Jefferson Avenue kennworth New Jersey 07033 for hbac quarterly maintenance services and repairs if needed to various Township locations for the period of March 1st 2025 through February 28th 2026 in an amount not to exceed $34,900 to be funded from the building and grounds account does that include the library yes motion please I'll make that motion second second roll call cman Cilla yes R yes presales yes I'd like to do consent on h i and j h is authorizing release of the performance guarantee in the amount of $32,400 wood Lawn Avenue uh I is authorizing release of the performance guarantee in the amount of $2,525 and the acceptance of the site improvements for gay Lake Communications LLC block 557 Lot 1 at one voke drive Jay is authorizing release of the performance guarantee in the amount of uh 2,993 45640 an acceptance of the site improvements for the ltf Real Estate Company Incorporated block 411 lot 39 at 145 Commons Way so moved consent okay second okay roll call please on h i and J cman cill yesman ring yes presales yes L see we get J K L okay uh L is objecting to the issuance of of a permit renewal for Bridgewater resources Incorporated to operate the waste transfer station on pima's Lane without updated studies and information uh Mr papus would you weigh in on that please sir yes that facility has been in existence for years they are uh requesting a renewal and we have uh expressed opposition one of the concerns is with the increased traffic that we've seen in that part of the community since uh this uh present license was established is 20 years old the last time that they have undertaken a traffic analysis is 2004 and that is one of the reasons that we're objecting um there are other concerns there there's the expectation that with their stated intention to bring trash from New York through Carney through both truck and rail will likely increase the number of hours per day perhaps to a 24hour a day operation which would have other impact to the community thank you any questions on that could I have a motion please um I just on this I know apologize I'm trying to find the exact section we're going to send a copy copy of the resolution of the governor commissioner I think we should also send a copy of this I mean to our neighbors I think Somerville Manville our neighboring towns need to be aware Bound Brook you know there there good idea there's a huge potential impact to not only Bridgewater but to the neighboring towns with rail cars and now garbage being trucked from New York City here do that okay so with that modification I will move 12l second please I'll second it roll call please councilman cordilla yes councilman ring yes president Nogales yes okay we're up to item number 13 which is close session litigation uh be it resolved by the Bridgewater Township Council uh that uh we will now uh this body will hold a closed session to discuss litigation some through the Somerset County Corporate Center Warren Township duberg and flor's versus Bridgewater when and if the matter discussed become public record this will be made known to the public at that time the public is excluded from said meeting and further notice thereof is dispensed with all in accordance of Section 8 and 4A of the open public meetings act uh could I have a motion to go to close session please I'll move it all right I'll second it do we anticipate any action uh thank you uh we do not anticipate any action of this body uh so at the conclusion of the O the closed session we will simply adjourn but thank you uh roll uh all those in favor of the close I okay we are closed uh did you add the third one to the resolution I wasn't listening okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e oh okay all right we're back on the air uh we have uh completed our Clos session and we are now at the point of adjournment with there is no additional business could I have a motion to adjourn I'll make that motion and a second I all those in favor of adjourning uh I we we are adjourned thank you back next week yeah yeah that's why I did that or so you had something to vote on WE Suzanne we're back seven days from tonight