Southwest. >> I'd like to call the meeting to order. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
>> Okay. [Music] Statement of adequate notice. Under the Sunshine Law, adequate notice in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act was provided on January 16th, 2025 of this meeting's date, time, and location. The agenda was mailed to the
Cranberry Press and Home News Tribune, posted on the Township Bulletin board, mailed to those requesting personal notice, and filed with the municipal clerk. Roll call, please. Um, Miss Anderson is out. Miss Alba should be coming soon. Uh, Mr. Mr. Giddings
>> here. >> Miss Conram >> here. >> Mr. Mildenberg >> here. >> Mr. Mucili >> here. >> Mr. Pulk >> here. >> Mr. Stewart is out and Mr. Whitman >> here. >> Thank you. We have a quorum.
>> Okay. Um, first item on the agenda um is the special meeting minutes from August the 26th. Are there any questions, comments on those meeting minutes?
Okay, hearing none. I'd like to have a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second, please. >> Second. >> All right. Roll call for the August 26 minutes. See, Mr. Giddings, >> yes.
>> Miss Conro, >> yes. >> Mr. Mildenberg, >> yes. Mr. Mucelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Pulk, >> yes. >> And Mr. Whitman, >> yes. >> Thank you. Motion passed. >> The second item is I'm going to do this
together. The September 4th meeting minutes plus the September 4th close session minutes. Any questions or comments from the board? Hearing none. I'd like to have a motion
to approve. >> So moved. >> Second, please. Second. >> All right. Roll call for the September 4th regular minutes and close session minutes. Um, Mr. Giddings, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes.
>> Mr. Mucelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Kolk, >> yes. >> And Mr. Whitman, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. I'm going to open it up to the public for comments not on the agenda.
Hearing no comments from the public, I'm closing the public portion of the meeting and we're going to go into the approval of the resolutions. We have four resolutions. We'll do each one of those separately and Gina has who was here for those when
they were discussed. So, if you weren't here or whatever, she she has the record of that. So the first uh resolution is um PB390-24 Cranberry Housing Associates. Does anybody have anybody from the board
have any comments, questions on that? Okay, hearing none. Can I have a motion to approve resolution PB39024? Yeah, it can only be Lisa, John, Les, or you. >> Second. >> Okay.
>> All right. Roll call for PB 390-24. Uh, Miss Kiran, >> yes. >> Mr. Mucelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Pulp, >> yes. >> And Mr. Whitman, >> yes. >> Thank you. Motion passed.
>> Second resolution PB 406-25. RDC mater site plan approval for rooftop solar. Any questions or comments from the board on this? Okay. Hearing none, I'd like to have a
motion to approve. >> Same thing. >> If one is a motion, one is a second. >> Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Um, roll call for PB 406-25. Miss Conira, >> yes.
>> Mr. Mucelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Pulk, >> yes. >> And Mr. Whitman, >> yes. >> Okay, thank you. Motion passed. >> Okay. Third resolution, PB49-25, Cranberry Senior Apartments LLC,
preliminary maker site plan approval with both varants. Does anybody have any questions or comments on that one? >> Okay. >> 12 and 13. [Music]
I think you should have read the applic 12 Um but the thought was that actually should be reduced. I think there's a condition that
>> You mean the EV spots? >> The spot. >> That's That's great. Love it. Um I think given some of the you know considerations for landscaping
would have been free up landscaping and because at least three of those were consider considered boneless spaces under the statue. So there could be three, but I think the thought was
actually the six was um >> I might have an agenda or an update on that. So they when they actually did their their um they actually did a a survey, they got a final survey in and
it looks like they had a little bit more land than initially anticipated. So, um, if we can get rid of some of the, you know, keep, we're not going to lose any parking spots because, so that's tough. There is more, there is
more land to do landscaping. So, and that when they come back in with their final plan, they'll show that, but we don't need to remove any parking spots because that spot that whole thing. But if we can reduce down the EV
spots, we should do that. >> Yeah. I think by the way that's acceptable. I mean it's in here as a condition to reduce the number of cases from 12 to six. >> Yeah, I'm fine with that. Any other questions or comments?
So, per Martina's corrections, can I have a motion to approve PB 409-25? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> All right. Roll call for PB 409-25 with
amendments. Um, see, Mr. Giddings. >> Yes. >> Miss Conro, >> yes. >> Mr. Mildenberg, >> yes. >> Mr. Mucelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Pulp, >> yes. >> And Mr. Whitman, >> yes.
>> Thank you. Motion passed. >> All right. Last item on the resolutions is PB 407-25 Bat Properties LLC, minor subdivision of both variance. Any corrections or comments with respect to
that one? >> Okay. Hearing none. Can I have a motion to approve PB 407-25? >> Second, please. >> All right. Um, roll call for PB 407-25. Mr. Giddings, >> yes.
>> Miss Camro, >> yes. >> Mr. Mucelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Pulk, >> yes. >> And Mr. Whitman, >> yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Motion passed. >> Okay. Um, on to old and new business.
First item on the old and new business is the 2026 proposed meeting dates. You have a sheet in your packet. We don't need to decide this tonight, do we? >> Um, it's more just if anyone has any
concerns that I missed, like a holiday or something that would affect a lot of people. Um, most of them are just the the same like the first Thursday of the month, except for April I put the second week because that's like spring break
for the schools and Easter is the first week. Um, and then also, uh, I didn't want to put it like next to Fourth of July. So, that one's the second week, too. Other than that, it's just the first Thursday.
Anybody have any initial problems with this? And if there is, we could we want to finalize this at our next meeting. Just you have it now. >> Give the dates. Yeah. Clerk. So >> when do you need to do that by >> next meeting?
>> Probably. Yeah. >> All right. So if anybody's we'll codify this at the next meeting, but if there's anybody that and if we need to do that beforehand, just let me know. I'll just send a memo around to everybody.
But all right. Um, zoning sub commmittee, any updates on you sent an email out before this meeting just checking on everyone's availability for the subcommittee for next week. um just if we can meet uh
Tuesday through Thursday and then also HPC reached out to me the chair um to sit have a cup of coffee and go through the design guidelines as they pertain to each PC. Um so we're trying to schedule that for like Monday or Tuesday. So um
and then the goal would be um if we can complete the design guidelines we may take another meeting after this one and then I think what we're we would then be ready to present back to the planning board and then I think at that point it's also any
implications to any changes right that would come back to any sort of zoning board or code or anything like that that is a result of that work. So which would be obviously discussed as a planning board in its entirety. It's just that we
would present that body of work back and then go forward from there. And I think if done right, you won't need a unless something else needs to be done, you won't need a zoning subcommittee going into 2026. >> Okay.
>> Right. If we do this, maybe a little bit, but >> sounds good. you may have a different leadership of that zoning sub committee. That's the only thing you need to consider going into 2026. Okay.
>> Okay. Very good. >> So, we're looking at if not the next meeting, the December meeting. I think the I think the checklist for sure the next meeting um depending on my
meeting with HBC I'm not quite sure about the design guidelines but that I I don't know what that I don't know if they should say so I'll let you know but I think the checklist for sure is a completed body I think the checklist is I think that um
I think the design guidelines I think district is just a little bit little more complicated. I think >> are you saying that? >> Yeah. And I mean it's really up to the TC if they want to do everything all at
once or I would say maybe at this point. Let me get that meeting under some discussions about what those challenges are. that are a lot they may have broader implications than the design ones that we've updated and I don't
especially with the expansion of the buffer. >> Okay, very good. Um, we have one item of new business and this relates to
I guess um maybe a change in language. Our friends from the township committee asked us to review this and provide some comments back to them on uh incorporation or the codification
of you of having um I guess farm animals in our backyards in our residential zone and the farm animals in particular we're talking about are chickens or all farm animals
you know goats stonies, pigs, and everything else in between. So, if you can if if you can Liz is Liz is gonna give us the 50,000 foot view. We are not going to get into this tonight >> and I will not make any chicken.
>> We're not making nobody's prior and so and if we we will discuss this more in detail at our November meeting if we need and then you could read over notes that Liz can send or whatever along those lines and you could sleep on it
and think about it and then we'll go from there. So >> okay. So I will try to be brief but >> you have three minutes. [Laughter]
>> There was a resum in the village. Sorry. The village gland residential zone who was a zoning officer or enforcement officer required them to remove a chicken coop from their backyard and they had thought
they had um reached out to the TC to indicate that they thought that this may have been an oversight dating back to 2010 master plan and some subsequent uh zoning amendments at that time. Um and the issue in 2010 master plan uh it
had to do with both commercial and home agriculture. Um and home agriculture is a fairly broad category in the ordinance includes chicken coops but also it could be like tomatoes you know it's a very broad uh category but the 2000 master
plan and both commercial and home agriculture were committed in every zone in the township and um in the 2010 master plan there was a recommendation to not to ex very well to take out of
you know every it's permitted in every zone except the village commercial. So when there was subsequent um zoning amendments in 2011 that that exemption or the the removal
of um the village commercial from per permitting commercial and home agriculture village commercial was part of those zoning amendments. that same um exemption applied to the BHR and when they amendment sorry so the
2012 master plan recommended it for the BC but the amendments when they came included not only the BC but the BHR so you know this was a little bit of sleuth soothing on our part because looking
back at at meeting minutes um from 2011 at the TC it appears that at that time members of the TC question whether this should apply to the VHR zone because it wasn't explicitly stated in the master plan and that the lot sizes were
different, you know, from the BC. Um, and so that was something that they asked my predecessor and former colleague Richard Price to look into a little bit further. Um, and then the case goes cold. You know, I I I see that
Richard acknowledged he had to look into it. Um, and he wrote a memo to the TC. >> Oh, he got check he went chicken out >> in 2012. He wrote a memo to the TC saying, you know, just, you know,
just take take into consideration when you're examining this issue and he's explicitly said to, you know, that this is something you may want to, you know, the home culture is broad term and you may want to be specific as to
what you're okay with in these in these different the VC zone and then the BHR zone. Um, and so as I said, it hasn't changed since that 2011 master uh zoning amendment. It's still not permitted in
either of these zones. Um, and it's unclear really what determination was ever made, if any, beyond, you know, the beginning of 2012. So, um I think you
know this resident was asking the um TC to look at this issue again and um I think we were directed as planning board the master plan to make a recommendation to the TC regarding this issue and
specifically in the VHR zone but also the VC zone as well. Now would that be in now how about other residential zones of town like RLD1 or other >> as of right now they're permitted you
know so um you know and I think one of the things brought up in 2011 by the TC was a lot of people in these zones have so that you know and that that's something that um you know you all here as residents might have a greater
sensitivity or you know knowledge of than I Yeah. So, anecdotally, I have a neighbor down the street from me and their neighbor has chickens and they don't keep them in the and the chickens get out and scratch up their landscaping in
the in the other yard and it's it's a real pain. So there if if we're going to even think about allowing this kind of stuff other than growing tomatoes in your backyard. Um there's got to be obviously some restrictions on this kind
of stuff. But again, I could let people sleep on this. You could provide us more of an information. I don't know what we're I don't know what our goal is to to say either this is allowed or should be considered or not considered. Is that kind of the ultimate I think that
they're looking for some sort of recommendation, you know, which could then be codified. Yeah. >> Right. Because if if if somebody's going to have a rooster in their yard and it's going to be make a noise and your house is next house is 15 feet away, that's
just not going to work. >> So, doesn't a rooster fall under something else? That's what I wanted to ask is can you specific, you know, home agriculture and chicken poop is one thing, but doesn't a rooster have its own ruling? I will have to double check. I the definition agriculture is the
production principally for use or consumption of the property plants, animals or their products include but not limited to gardening, food production, poultry and livestock products. This does not include the sale of products produced offite but does
include sale products produced on site. So that's pretty I'll double check if there >> that's I feel like for the rooster like it's even more strict >> meaning people do not want to have a rooster next to them
>> but we don't have that detail where it's allowed now it's that definition that you just provided for so speaking from someone who has a rooster located very close to their home uh it's not specific to that it's just poultry
Yeah, I just typed in the code. I feel like anecdotally, you know, people often throw around and I don't have a rooster buffer. >> Well, you just don't have a rooster period. I mean, you feed your chickens fertilized feed and they don't you don't
need a rooster period. So a lot of the complaints that do arise arise because more than you know the issues and so can you share maybe some of the practices of
other >> yeah if you could if you could send us some information before the meeting and we could read about it and then make some kind of an educated decision. Um, >> so the the expectation is not to just
allow it or not allow it. It's also to maybe make a recommendation of some parameters around it. >> Well, you're going to have to. Yeah, absolutely. >> We're not freeranging chickens out in the backyard. That's not going to happen. >> But you don't So the question would then
be, were the places it's allowed now, would they be subject to the same parameters that you're now going to be creating for the BHR or the VC? like what's the implication of now creating a a solid um
criteria because of this request versus what it exists already in other parts of the town has to be considered. >> They're going to they're going to be they're going to be given a time period to conform. >> Yeah. >> And that and that's and they're not
going to be grant if they're freeranging their chickens now. They're not going to be allowed to do that in the future. I'm just saying it's not just a VH. >> Yes. I I mean I think I don't know and perhaps this resident is right that the BHR kind of got unfairly lumped in with
the BC um because I I know there was specific language either was the master plan or maybe I read the BC zone the lots are really small you know there was particular there are particularities to the BC zone
that don't exist in the VHR necessarily um so where you're really like very close to your neighbors. >> But again, I think we should be clear throughout the whole town if we're in in particular if we're looking at chickens and
this is what's allowed, this is what's not allowed and you'll have six months to get corn and if you you know you don't then we're taking the rooster, we're going to donate it to a farm things along that line. If you're freeranging your chickens, you're gonna
have to build a coupe and keep them contained. >> My guess is, and I I haven't really looked into this at all beyond what I just shared, but that it probably would be based on size, right? You wouldn't, you know,
maybe I don't know. It's up to you. Um um I think if it's a residential zone, we need to be consistent throughout the entire township period and you know there's and and go from
there. Now, if somebody has, you know, a five acre lot or whatever, it's like a six acre, >> but I'm farmlandessed, >> right? You're farmland assessed. That's a different story. So, you're allowed it. But somebody on a oneacre lot,
what's the I could hear roosters 100 yards away, you know? So, it's it's it it should be consistent through the whole town. I I I'd rather have it, you know, I'm not going to one little spot here and it's up. No, it's townwide
cuz my neighbor down the street's having a problem with his neighbor not confining their chickens. And every time he has his landscaper fix his yard up, the chickens come over and scratch all the landscaping material out of the out of the beds and they're ruining his beds in the front of his
house, back of his house. And it's, you know, that's not right either. it's not fair to to them. We have to strike that balance though I think between um you know sort of trying to create that environment that most people are happy but then also not creating an
environment that so much enforcement has to occur that we may not be able to get ahead of >> well having a coup is not a big deal if you want to have chickens you know and and you set up a pen and they can run around in that little pen and be happy
and content and you get your eggs and have a nice other towns too. Just think about it for the first time, you know, ahead can make noise. So, a certain distance from another other house, you know,
>> got the bark and dog syndrome here, too. You know what I mean? >> But that's already covered in another. >> All right. Yeah. Put that together. >> Thank you. >> Because I'm told I have to end this meeting by 7:30 or I'm going to be short. So, does anybody Let's see what else do
we have. Anybody else have any other comments or questions tonight? Anything for the cause? Okay, I think we're good. I'd like to have a motion to adjourn. Second. >> All those in favor?
>> All right. Meeting closed. Have a good night.