Good evening everybody. We would like to call the township committee special meeting for Thursday, June 26 to order. If you can please uh stand for the pledge of allegiance which the flag is located here now to the flag of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We're going to move on to the open public meetings notice to the open public meetings act notice that this meeting was sent to the
primary press, Trenton time, and home nurse Tribune on June 13th and was posted on the township website and sent to those who requested a copy of this notice. Roll call. Mr. Christopher here. Mrs. Zagabi here. Dr. Rogers here. Mr.
Scott here. Mayor K here. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to our uh ordinances two for first reading this evening. We're going to start with our first ordinance, which is Cranberry Township Ordinance number 06-25-08, an ordinance of the Township of
Cranberry, Middle Sex County, New Jersey, amending chapter 150 development of the code of the township of Cranberry to add a new residential Mount Laurel 4 R-M4 zone. Introduction Second.
Thank you. We'll move to roll call. Mr. Christopher. Yes. Mrs. Elaw. Yes. Dr. Rogers. Yes. Mr. Scott. Yes. And mayor Kir. Yes. Okay. We're going to move on to the second ordinance that is up for introduction. And again, both ordinances
second reading will be July 14th, 2025. So the second ordinance is primary tangent ordinance number 06-2509. An ordinance of the township of Cranberry, Middle Sex County, New Jersey, amending chap 150 land development of the code of the township of cranberry to end a new residential
mount 5 r-5. So I get a motion and roll call. Mr. Christopher, yes. Mrs. Eladawi, yes. Dr. Rogers, yes. Mr. Scott, yes. Yes. Unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Um, we have no second reason tonight. So, can I
get a motion to move consent resolutions A through D? I'll make a motion to accept A through D. Second. Thank you. We'll move on to roll call. Mr. Christopher. Yes. Mrs. Elar. Yes.
Dr. Rogers. Yes. Mr. Scott. Yes. Mayor. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to a public comment. As a reminder, when you step up, please sign in your name, put your address, and tell us your name. Um, and comments are limited to three minutes.
American, before we start that, make a quick comment. Yeah. Um, I just want to start by reiterating what I said a few weeks ago. This that situation we're faced with brings us no joy. That being said, I'm not here to reiterate what's been said by my colleagues or rebut false or incorrect statements by others
in the community or I want to reflect on my first six months in this role. I've experienced many things that I could not have expected. From long signs to brain flows, from people playing dress up to the involvement of national media. In the it
all, I can say that this committee has made decisions in a responsible and ethical way in the best interest of the town that we love. Through it all though, I have found some things to be thankful for. First, I appreciate the partnerships organizations in town,
especially the cranberry police that we can see in the back of the room. I'd also like to thank the people in the community who ask questions, not just to be heard, but to listen and learn. Of course, my fellow committee members and the staff panel. This has been a difficult situation for all of us and
all of you. Finally, to my family who are watching from home, four of you have been amazingly supportive through all of this and I love all of you. [Applause] [Music] Thank you. Okay, now we're going to move
on to public comment. Once again, limited to three minutes. Please come up, sign your name and your address, state your name, and then again bid you three minutes. Everything's good. Thank you. My name is Mark Wowski, North Main
Street. I am speaking as a resident not representing CHA. These comments are in response to the affordable housing plan that was approved. It was approved by the planning board Tuesday night and attached committee
because of the threat of a builder's remedy. At this stage, I get it. But the plan is an insult to CHA and the sins of cranberry. It is an insult to me personally. You should be ashamed of
yourself in the manner that it was developed. In the beginning, there wasn't any information about the requirements of the Affordable Housing Act presented to the public. The citizens of Cranberry were never told about the options available, but
only why you approved the options you did. You indicated that the plan was the most fiscally responsible approach to meet the requirements. How about ally responsible approach. You
will be dealing with people's lives and a plan that puts 130 families in an industrial zone surrounded by warehouses. This plan is just wrong. You will be creating a separate community
isolated from Granville. Shame on you. I never heard a public discussion about the TC members about the plan individually. Did you just accept everything that was told to you? Did you ever question anything about alternative
approaches? Is this how all township business is handled? Never questioning in public anything about what you were told. Shame on you. The latest insult is the draftou that
was just sent to CHA yesterday, 3 p.m. and what you approved tonight. Did you read it? Among other issues that I have with the plan is that it states you don't need CHA for the 24 unit project to have excessive
numbers from the projects provided by the forprofit development. Shame on you. The option now is to spend a lot of tensions money defending the plan in court. So I'm sure we will be discussing the current plan in a different venue.
Thank you for all the heartaches that you have given me personally in trying to do the right thing for the current and future residents of Cranberry. You may have done irreparable damage reputation of Cranberry on the local,
state and national stage. Shame on you. Any other firm? You have It's not a back and forth. So it' be three minutes, right? Is that all together? Well, you can. Yeah,
it's it's three minutes if you're speaking continually. You're doing or No, I we had last time we got three minutes each, but I'm just Thank you for microphone on names. Okay. Timothy
Dugan. I'm attorney with his spark and spark. I represent the property owner Andy and Chris Henry and their family. Um, since I've appeared here on May 12th, uh, in an effort to have the township reconsider its position to
condemn the Henry Henry farm for this project. Um, I've been inundated with phone calls, text messages, and emails throughout the country. Every farmer has called me uh farmers, lawyers throughout the country and the amount of support
against taking farms for eminent domain is unbelievable. Um we, you know, we're this divided country. I think I found one issue everyone seems to be behind which is stop the use of the power of eminent domain to take these farms. We have dwindling farms. If it's absolutely
necessary, absolutely necessary. When there's other options, it's not. And this has risen to a national level because it's not just It's happening throughout the country. We do want to thank the secretary of the US Department of Agriculture for bringing this to a
national level. It is important and that's the reason she's involved is to let everybody know that know that they're being the local governments, counties, states that as these are being taken, it's important and we have to preserve them. And I encourage you once
again to please, please look at the other alternatives to avoid taking the farm. I the courts ultimately decide whether or not your sites are suitable. Okay, that's a fair and the court issue and we've already started that process and we'll continue that process. Um to
the extent the court allows it, the court allows it. Um but I'm asking you to reconsider. I know it's late in the game. you have other ideas and please try to use those other alternatives to have inclusive and fair housing program
and avoid taking this farm iconic historic farm and very proud to represent Andy and his family. They turned down these these tremendous offers to do the right thing for this township. Township is a beautiful farm by the way. You've done a great job up
to this point in your planning and it's a wonderful town. Um, so I will, um, you know, turn this over to Andy and let Andy have his comments. Thank you. U, first of all, I want to thank anybody
who put a Savings Farm sign up in their yard or driveway. Um, I wanted to explain a little bit to the town council why we didn't preserve this earlier. And in fact, we were in an 8-year program
which ended in 2012. My father leased the land to a family to grow nursery trees. So we got into the program starting in 2020 2004, but instead they sent legions of dump trucks with branches, trees, logs, and they just dumped them there. They ground up
some of it to look like they were making mulch, but it became obvious we were being scammed. The same group did it to another cranberry owner on Brickyard Road. It was a miserable court battle. I told him my 87 year old father wanted to help working people.
I tell this story for perspective and to remind people our elderly ones are more vulnerable to exploitation. We were not focused on preservation then rather restoring a farming operation. Leased our land and started with two to
three animals in 2016 now has a herd of 40 cows today. He restored the fields, grew hay, uses no hormones, no antibiotics or any synthetic fertilizer. So, it's a good farming operation. Now, preservation of the house and the
farm has long been on our radar. Uh, we were focused on other things as I just hope I explained. We're now gathering the facts and learning the details of these programs, what our obligations and restrictions may be.
We must learn what burdens we placing on our children so we don't end up in the situation of the pretendic house which we discussed on April 28th which they wanted to tear down because apparently nobody was able to do the proper
maintenance on it. So we are looking into the preservation very seriously and that's what we expect to do for both. We just have to get the facts first. Thank you. Any other public comment this evening?
Thank you, Mayor. I'm happy to go last if anybody else wants to speak. Is this again? Thank you. on show. Okay. So, I'm
409 South Main Street Heights. I'm attorney with Post. represent the act and I think I've been too there in this town as you all know I've heard some rumors that people have
been lying to my face about being willing to work with me in lifting the I would say feasible agricultural easement on my client's land it may be even more than easily feasible but I've been very nice up till now when we figured out what was going on based on
Mr. He's letter of May 29th. I then wrote a letter and this board for this board on June 5th says understanding is that you don't want to take this farm. Um I've got a property that's far better for residents. Far
better. It's on the border plans right next may or may not be in the sewer um u service area. Um long think it's not. I think it is. We'll figure that out. right next to sewer, both in cranberry and insight.
We're less than a mile from grocery store um accessible by walking past. I thought that on 6 I've been getting a call from this guy saying, "Please talk to us about this." Very late in the process, but we've got, you know, we've got 25 days. Let's talk about
for a couple weeks. I called Ken over a number. I called me two, five, six times and all that. his client, don't respond to her. I came into plan board and I came this way. I wrote a letter on June 20th. I
sent it to Kevin 11 Friday, June 20 response. I came to this body just this past Monday night. Um, and I was told, you know, we just got we haven't thought about it, but you know, we'll definitely be reaching out to you. We feel that we're very undergone. We've got to get this done, but we'll definitely be
reaching out to you. I hope necessarily that's true. I think it would be good for all of us if that would be true. Um we then heard from Miss said a couple of very interesting things to me. Um she said that she had told you or you've been told by someone else and she concurred with it um that there would be
a rule prohibiting multiple small 100% sites of the kind of CIS. That is not true. I told you that until last night. Really should have looked into it. It's blown. They fantastic. anything they wanted to do. Um, we certainly certainly passed muster. They've done a great
great job. Um, I then saw that she agreed that we weren't in farmland conservation. Um, once again hoped and was once again reassured that you talking with us as soon as you possibly could. You just had to get this in because someone's ready
to sue you. I can only presume that person probably offer I don't know certainly. Um, but things like made me think that I have to now protect my client's rights more aggressively. Thank you. I would like to mark as my letter June 20th.
If you will mark it, I won't have to read from it. Otherwise, I would like to read from it and I will let anybody opra it if they prevent me from Can I get a motion to my Thank you.
Oh, like I'm not your public. What? You're returning the meeting? Just the meeting. She wouldn't cut off her mic. Oh my god. You're going to blame one person and not let anybody else speak.
For the record, the It is not permitted for the town to committee and the public to engage in a public discussion outside of a properly noticed open public meeting. This is not the time or space for any further talk between the public. They constitute quality. They're not
allowed to talk to They called for public comment. You specifically called yourself for public speaker. Not not to me. But they decided not to like what I had. Not because there was no more public.