Good evening. I'd like to call to order the township committee meeting for Tuesday, May 27th. If you're willing and able, could you rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we'll move on to the open public meeting statement. Pursuant to the open public meetings act, notice of this meeting was sent to the Cranberry Press, Trenton Times, and Home News Tribune on
January 3rd, 2025, posted on the township's website, and sent to those who requested a copy of this notice. We will move on to roll call. Mr. Christopher here, Mrs. Elbidawi here. Dr. Rogers here. Mr. Scott is currently absent. And Mayor Con here. Thank you.
Okay. Do we have any additions or changes to our agenda this evening? No. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the township committee uh minutes, both the regular meeting of May 12th and the closed session of May 12th?
Moved. Second. Thank you. We'll move on to roll call. Mr. Christopher, yes. Mrs. Elbidawi, yes. Dr. Rogers, yes. Mr. Scott is absent. And Mayor Conum? Yes. Thank you. Okay. Can I get who wants to volunteer
for members of the committee for updates? Thanks, Barbara. Uh yeah, there's an environmental commission meeting May 19th. Um and uh uh just want to run down some of the the things that are going on. Um the
community energy grant um is still on in the works. U we have it. It's just paperwork has to be done. um uh met with Teresa regarding reertification as a uh sustainable Jersey town. As you can see, we've been
doing this for 15 years. It's over there. We're silver at this point. Um this year is another year for reertification. Uh new recycling guidelines. Uh there were some clarifications there. Um the school garden, lots happening there. Um some
great leadership from Delpha George on uh on school the school garden working in partnership adopt a drain um by Gabe um he's he spoke with Plansboro to find out how their t town runs their adopted
drain and um hoping to create a map uh so that people individuals can take care of drains outside their certain area. Um June 7th is a trail day 9 um 9:00 a.m.
Reinhardt property trail. Um pro uh EC is asking the public to come help uh maintain the trail there. And 11:30 the Girl Scouts have uh redone the Mon um a kiosk in Cranberry Brook Preserve and it's a Monarch Way station. They've
worked really hard on it. Um and they're going to do a presentation and treats will be served. Um and um I was asked by the watershed institute to join the upper millstone watershed working group. It's um everyone has seen that now but they specifically reached out to me
because I've worked with them before. It's a regional approach to cleaner water and reduced flooding and it's for um you know a regional approach to uh you know water management. It's uh and it's the MS4 permit. Um and uh that is
it. Okay. Can you uh share that date for the uh the cleanup? June 7th. Okay. It's it's National Trail Day and so they thought they would partnership with National Trail Day. Um the one other thing that I wanted to mention is um
this wasn't didn't have to do with the EC but uh uh Shade Tree is um reworking their appendix uh to the ordinance for tree removal and replacement and they're updating the uh the form that you need
to fill out if you take down a tree um on your property. That's it. Thanks. Yeah. Any questions for good? I will, if you don't mind, share some updates and then I'd like to share some thoughts. Sure. If you don't mind. Um,
in terms of my boards and commissions, nothing has met since our last meeting. Uh, but we did have a a meeting with CHA May 14th, sort of to extend the affordable housing uh conversation. And on May 19th, I attended actually a celebration at the governor's mansion
for Asian-American and Pacific Islander Month. Um and that's really it in terms of activities. Um I just I really wanted to share some thoughts um given how I have felt since the last meeting and um
it's it's been very difficult to see myself I believe in particular uh to come under a level of scrutiny that I don't feel that I deserve. Um I am not your forever foreigner. I will not be your forever foreigner in this
town. I do the work here. I step up and I clean streams with you. I volunteer in many spaces with you. I am there when you are at your funerals to bury your dead. I am there to celebrate when you are
celebrating. And I love this town. And I'm not the forever foreigner. when we march at the parade to have a local resident point their hand like a gun and shoot five times as if they're
taking a shot at every one of us here on the TC. It's despicable. And when I have people in town putting up my address online encouraging one another to go get them, it's
despicable. When we left the meeting last time to hear a resident in this room say someone is going to get robbed, it's despicable. My children are afraid and I'm afraid for
them. I am not afraid for myself. I'm afraid for them. If that is your cranberry way, then continue. It is not my cranberry way. Thank you. Thank you. Rob,
I will go through uh subcommittee tasks. Um I was unable to join the school board meeting. Uh I was out of town. The HPC meeting um met on the 20th. Uh there were a few applications that were heard.
Um there was some conversation about the historic district amendments, homeowner letters being sent out. Um the uh lack of response to the survey is going to cause um an additional outreach to folks because I think we've only got two responses to the survey that went out.
Um additional conversations, there's a planning board meeting on the 9th. Um the CLG grant deadline has been moving. No updates on that for additional registration of historic properties. The Hamlet uh process is ongoing to get the
certific certificate of eligibility. Um some other pieces of business um as it relates to or some conversation I should say as it relates to the Fortunic farm. Um also some conversation about the overlap of affordable housing
sites uh as it relates to historic housing sites. Um and I think that's uh that covers it. Okay. Questions as it relates to that. What was the process for the survey like? How can what can we help or
amplify or what's the survey intended? I think the hope is going to be to put it in the mayor's update and potentially send an email out to all of the affected folks. Okay, got it. I'm sorry.
The survey was for to um garner feedback as it relates to the new guidelines for his in the yeah the um the removal of the buffer removal of the buffer to the to the now historic zone. Oh boy.
Okay. I Okay. Okay. Anything else? Uh how did they put the survey out? Just curious. I think it was emailed and they got Jen could probably speak to it directly, but respond they only got two responses. Well, you I'll I'll follow afterwards. I
was going to say um so thank you for trying. I know Robert's new to the committee. We um we sent it out in the mayor's email. Um we got two responses. We tried to push it out again and we're going to do a homeowner letter. Um the survey is um evaluating the current
design guidelines that we have right now as we're working to update them. [Music] Okay. Welcome. Hello. Apologies for being tardy. Um, I was unable to attend the uh
parks and recck meeting, but I had a nice conversation with Brandon Hansen and I watched it on YouTube, the meeting on double speed, which I recommend to everyone. It's really fantastic way. Um, so I've saved half hour of my life. I'm just making a note for the planning
board meeting. Double speed. Uh, a couple of things. Uh, all all good things coming from parks and wreck. uh pickle ball court contract to to resurface the pickle ball court and tennis courts. Um that contract has been awarded to a vendor. Work should start
hopefully next month, two months soon. Yeah. Um pavilion roof should be installed by the time of the next uh parks and wreck meeting next month. That's what Ken Jacobs tells us. Uh the chest tables by the school will be installed soon.
Um there was a couple other housekeeping items. today. Uh the parks and recck committee, you know, since we uh combined the two committees last year, um parks and wreck uh has been looking at the uh at the code for parks and wreck and and there's some language and some wording that they want to change. They're they're going to work on that
and they're going to um present something to the TC in the next month, two months. Okay, we'll see. Um I I told them I would ask if maybe uh we'd want to have a work session with them to go over any of that, but we've got a lot on our
plate. But yeah, so um June 7th is coming up. Uh there's a trail maintenance day which will be a lot of fun with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. We already mentioned this. Barbara covered. Okay, that was great. Damn it. Steal my thunder. Was that your cherry on the Sunday there to get the dates the
times? All right, good. Perfect. Perfect. Um, oh, the times we need 9:30 at Reinhardt. I'm sorry, 9ine. Thank you. At Reinhardt, 11:30 at Cranberry Brook Preserve. At 11:30, there'll be snacks and water. Treats were mentioned. And
please bring your your trimming tools and bug spray. Okay. Um, the last thing is just that um they are planning to have a a band present for the 5th of July similar to what they had last year. That's it. Okay. All right. Any
questions from Matt? Okay. Um we uh continue to have a planning board subcommittee uh which is basically to review the checklist that the planning board has to go through and um we're near completing that. Um part
of that section um that needed to be reviewed um got sent to um HBC because we wanted to make sure that there might have been some inconsistencies there. And while we're redoing the checklist, we want to be inclusive of that. And then the next will be the shade tree um to make sure that anything that's uh
written in that code that uh in the checklist uh and then we'll move on to if there's any kind of code renewal or uh modification that we need to make based on that those checklists. But that's a lot of heavy lifting and honestly I learned a ton. So, uh, you
can ask me a lot of questions about that checklist if your application is good for readiness. And I I think I could do it now. Not well, but I could do it. Um, and then, um, prior to us going through the agenda, um, in the spirit of
transparency, what we're trying to do is when we have public comment, we want to take that public comment. if we can't answer those questions there, do the research, do the work before the next township committee meeting so we can come back and address a couple of things that were mentioned there. Um, so um I
want to start just again with I have continued to read social media posts, rewatched our previous township community meeting, and I've spoken to many residents around town to continue to educate them on the affordable housing process that we're going through right now. Um, I want to address certain
comments that are being repeated um, and make sure that everybody understands they're either in wildly inaccurate or they're completely not true. So, I want to address some of them. The first thing I'd like to address is the comments being repeated that the letter received by Mr. Henry addressed to Henry Realy
Co. was the first and only communication that was had on behalf of the township. This is completely false. The site was visited and we did a site visit was conducted where the property owner was not home as we later learned that they reside out of state. This is also when
we learned that there is a tenant farmer leasing that property. The tax bill for the property has an address out of state. We researched phone numbers under that LLC to find out uh one was out of order and we finally found one where there was either a service or an
answering machine that was present present. Multiple messages were left for the property owner. When those calls were not returned, just as in the other property that we have uh chosen 1274, a letter was sent to the property owner at
the address out of state. The second comment that we illegally met with Andy at town hall without his legal representation present is also not true. Andy reached out and asked for a meeting at town hall and we accepted that meeting and scheduled it.
He informed us that he would be coming alone and our lawyer immediately contacted his lawyer to make sure that he knew that we would have counsel present and we received agreement and authorization to go forward with that meeting. We were also informed that his client was aware we would have counsel
there. The third comment I would like to clarify is that the township is I can't say quote unquote because I'm paraphrasing. The township has not said how many fair market units versus affordable housing units we will build. This is a very simple answer as the
number is zero. Any and all units will be 100% affordable housing towards our state obligation number provided. The township of Cranberry is not building fair market housing. Lastly, anyone out there wanting to have a conversation with us has been
encouraged to do so. Many properties continue to be placed on social media for consideration. And what I can't stress enough is the diligence that we've already done. I'm watching many of you reach the same conclusions that we've reached through our subcommittee and through our property reviews for
months now. Andy's property was identified at the state level as developable land because through his own rights he not sold the property and also because it was not placed in farmland preservation. This property as well as
1274 South River Road were used in the actual calculation of our statemandated obligation number. If anyone missed those comments, I'll be happy to repeat them after public comment. I'll be happy to to do that if
anyone joins late. Okay. Uh, do we have any follow-up items? No. Okay. Um, vacancies still the same four. The environmental commission has a first and second alternate alternate uh open. The municipal
alliance has a second alternate open and we have a full membership on the shade tree. As the members of the public continue to show up to our meetings, I encourage any of you have any spare time if you'd like to volunteer for those positions.
Okay. All right. We have a first reading tonight. Yes. The ordinance that is on this evening for first reading is Cranberry Township Ordinance number 05-25-07. An ordinance amending and supplementing the provisions pertaining to community residences for
developmentally disabled and community shelters for the victims of domestic violence contained in article 3 of chapter 150 entitled land development of the code. The second reading for this ordinance will be on June 9th, 2025. We have a motion for introduction.
I'll move second. Thank you. We're going to move on to roll call for that. Uh, Mr. Christopher, yes. Mrs. Elidawi, yes. Uh, Dr. Rogers, yes. Mr. Scott, yes. American, yes. It's unanimous. Thank
you. Okay. And we have a second reading this evening. Yes. This uh ordinance that is on for second reading is Cranberry Township Ordinance number 05-25-06, an ordinance amending the code of the township of Cranberry, Middle Sex County, New Jersey, chapter 72 entitled
Construction Codes Uniform. Okay. Nope. Nope. I have to public comment right before that. Yeah. Is there any public comment on ordinance 525-06? Okay, seeing none, I'll make a motion to approve.
Second. Okay, we'll move on to roll call for adoption. Mr. Christopher, yes. Mrs. Elbidawi, yes. Dr. Rogers, yes. Mr. Scott, yes. Mayor Kim, yes. Thank you. Okay. And we have consent resolutions A
through A. If anyone would like to have a motion. Can I get a second? A second. Thank you. We'll move on to roll call. Mr. Christopher, yes. Mrs. Obidawi, yes. Dr. Rogers, yes. Mr. Scott, yes. Mayor
Conam, yes. Unanimous. Thank you. Okay, this is time. We'll open it up to public comment. Just as a reminder, you have a threeminut time limit. If you're unable to continue whatever it is you'd like to say tonight, please have someone ready as a backup so that make sure you get
all of your thoughts out. And with that, we'll open it up. Okay. And we need each person to sign in. Oh, I'm sorry. And if also when you come up, if you could just sign in and then just state your name. Thank you. You It's fine. You just put your street
in. It's fine. Just say one of the buttons. You'll see it'll turn the other one. There you go. There you go. Susan Westerberg, Scottdale Court. I'd like to make a comment about
parks. And if you're listening, Mr. Christopher. Um there have been some delinquencies in that new um adaptive park. One is at the um opening in June.
I noticed that there was no safety garment for the for the adaptability. And they keep telling me it's on back order. It can't be on back order that long. So, and also there's poison ivy on the fence that's opposite
that. So, I'd like both of those things taken care of. Yeah. And then the followup will be to with Mr. Scott as he's the leazison to parks and wreck. Okay. Just so you know, I think we might confuse people because we've got four first names amongst the
two of us. True. [Music] Stephen Gosano, Prospect Street. I just wanted to comment um on the the mayor's comments just a minute ago. I just uh want to throw out there if you're going to post that statement in the uh mayor's updates um I would just double check the
definition of the agricultural development area. It does not mean that the land should be developed. It means that it is uh it's that the agricultural development and ADA is a designated geographic area where agriculture is considered the preferred land use either
currently or potentially in the future. They have um the county and state like you're correct did identify that as an ADA. Um they have it listed. Um the next step is a targeted area where they actually target it for preservation. It
just didn't get to that step yet. So I just I just wanted to clarify that. And you can just check it before you post it. If if I'm wrong, then that's fine, too. But um uh that's all I wanted to say. and uh I I appreciate um your consideration in the future towards
other properties and if you're able to still uh consider reaching out to other people that that's great. So, thank you. Thank you, Steve. Okay. Um, I'm Jennifer Smireer. Um, I can just tell by the way this room is
going that I can tell all of you are really uncomfortable and not really happy to be in your seats right now. I can just tell from your non-verbal. And it makes me really sad because I also don't like that lawyers are starting to get involved and our town is starting to
spend a lot more money on lawyers. No offense, uh, Mr. Vanheis, but lawyers are expensive. And I feel like all this drama that we've been having, I understand that you guys are doing what you're trying to do. You've been working on something for a long time. I know
what it's like to be working on something for a long time and have an axe thrown into it. I had it happen to me with HPC when we had an angry neighbor show up and throw an axe and set us back a year on what was something we were working on. So, I know it's
frustrating. Um, but one thing that I implore all of you to do is take a a breather because there's got to be another way for us to achieve our affordable housing goals without like taking land from
people that don't want to give it to us. And so I just ask for you guys to, you know, I understand that the state has rules and has laws and there's a process and a lot of resources and your time has been spent on this. Like I get that. I appreciate that. But let's, you know,
explore pushing back with the state, you know, telling them, explain to them where we are and how we getting there. Making sure the state understands that we're in a place that, you know, as Rob said, you know, this is not something you're enjoying doing, right? um you know you know possibly going you know
talking to a farm that doesn't want to be sold. Um I also challenge you guys please let's think about like areas that are not developable like farmland like let's think of like brown fields areas that are run down. I know you guys had a long checklist and and everything and
Lisa I'm I'm you know I may show up at your house and ask ask more questions but like please do I feel like I feel like there's just there has to be a way and maybe we can't meet the state 100% the way with what they're telling us and that's okay sometimes you have to
negotiate. Um so let's let's try to find another way is my ask of you guys. Thank you Jennifer. [Applause] Good evening. Tim Brennan still on. Sorry about that. Hey, uh Tim Brennan, 10 Park Place East. Um
referring to the farmland that's that's being taken for acquisition. I don't know if you've looked and I made a video. It's on three different YouTube channels. It's all over about what surrounds that warehousewise. And I'm not sure that you're aware within 310 meters is a marijuana dispensary. I
visited this afternoon. I was 50 yards away. It rire of marijuana in the parking lot and across the field. Just please look around. and is that where we want to put people from our town to live. The dispensary is called Breakwater. It's been there for a number
of years. It was approved by town council to be there. So, you guys know it's there. Please take that in consideration. We're talking about putting our neighbors there. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Kevin Golisano, 15 Prospect Street. I just want to say that, you know,
online bullying, cyber bullying, just any kind of uh nonsense happening on Facebook or the news or anywhere. Uh don't let the actions of just a few speak for the many. I think there's a lot of people here who want to work with you and and
are kind people. Um and just want to restate the importance of preserving and fighting for our open space and farmland. Uh, as a few have said before, target sites that can be improved. Um, even if it takes additional investment
from the town to get the sewer line out there, whatever the little technicality is, um, let's fight for this town. Don't just go with what a consultant says or what the state says. Fight for Cranberry. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin.
Sam4 Adam microphone. I'm sorry. Thank you. Sorry. There you go. Thank you. Stan Ratif for Adams Court. I don't know Andy. If he's in the room, I wouldn't recognize him. I don't know any of
you. I live in this area. What you said earlier is despicable. And for anybody to uh advocate for that kind of action or that kind of behavior, I agree it's despicable.
I don't think it's appropriate, however, for there to be a blanket condemnation of everyone who came here tonight because I wasn't at that meeting. I wasn't at that parade. And yet, I felt scolded when you made your remarks. So, I'm sorry what your children are going
through. I'm sorry what you're going through. But I think that we ought to realize, as this gentleman just said, that that is probably a very small minority. It's unacceptable, but it's a small minority. The other thing I'd just like to add is that this is a lovely part of the of the uh township. When I
was driving here tonight, I was looking at the historic buildings, looking at all the uh foliage and whatnot. What we're talking about when I drive down that street, the only part of that that thoroughare that's lovely is where the
cows are, is the the grazing area. Our kids smile whenever we go by there because of those cows. Uh my understanding is that they've been there for generations. The fact that there isn't a better option seems highly unlikely to
me. So I would concur with my my fellow citizen who suggested that we continue to look for an an alternative. Um there's got to be a better way. Thanks for what you do. Thank you, Sam.
[Applause] It's turn. Thank you for having us. Uh, Walter Ziggler, nine Prospect Street, Cranberry. My family has been in this town since 1870. It's likely that my great great
uncle farmed near the Henry farm. We had multiple farms in the area and looking at the photos outside in the hallway, photos we have at home. This
town has always stood by the farmers. Always my family personally has served in the fire company, historic preservation society, HPC, Lions Club, women's club, and my mom's desk as the deputy township clerk used to be right there. I've spent 35 years as an
architect and a planner. I've worked on Mount Laurel Housing. And the way this has gone is entirely against anything any firm I have ever worked for has gone. There should have been open door
meetings, cheretses, which if nobody understands what a sharet is, a sharet is when you bring in a designer and they work with the township and they work with the public to understand where the public would like to see something happen. This never happened. This was
always behind a curtain. And where you want to put this housing, not only is it bad for Andy and his his legacy, but it also is bad for any resident who lives there. There's no services. There's no walkable
community. You're three and a half miles from your nearest neighbor. There's no food and there's no engagement in the community. We have multiple areas in this town, including out on Old Haggtown Road, south of Hegytville, where I know that Judson used to talk about housing going because
I used to work for Justin. There are areas across from Old Trenton Road where it comes out on 130, which as old Trenton Road comes out, that's a natural extension of Old Trenton Road. It's far
enough away from warehouses. Yes, it's a forested area. It's a managed area and it's an area that can be connected visually and physically between the housing area and
town. I haven't heard anything about that. There are areas on South Main Street. So, I've talked to several of you. If there is a if if the area south of Hegertyville, as I call it, on on Piketown Road, is part of the
offset for the land that was used for the turnpike. Why can't there be a land swap and use that? And going back to Iman's comment earlier, no one in this town should be threatening anybody. Period. It's not
what we do. We stand by each other and we talk about it. Go have lunch at Teddy's and discuss. Thank you, Marcus. [Applause] All right. Y can you guys hear me? Yeah. You just
need to sign in. Sign in. All right. Perfect. Uh like Brennan or Alec, whatever you want to call me. Uh 10 Park Place East. Um, I just want to start by saying I know most of you I've graduated with two
of your daughters twice. Um, one of you helped my grandmother when she got cut and my my grandfather got uh, you know, stuck on a seat right very close to his death and the other one has driven me to soccer practice multiple times. And I
love all of you because you guys are regardless of when I was a Republican, I was in middle school or when I was a a jean short Birkenstockw wearing kid at Grenell College in Iowa rooting for a grassroots Democrat. I've always loved all of you
guys. Aside from that, um I'm just a little disappointed. Um, I feel like I have we've all entrusted you with full confidence regardless if you voted for you for you or not. I think we're such a small town.
Everybody can trust each other to make the correct decision. The fact that I'm hearing of Watergate sounding closed door meetings about a small farm town uh in a small farm town about a small farm. Um, it's
just a little worrying to me that we're heading in the wrong direction representative wise and I just want this town to get back on track with full transparency and that Andy can have his farm for whatever he however long he wants and we don't have
to get the federal or state government involved with eminent domain. This is just a small town. We're not in Newark. We're cranberry. We've been around for hundreds of years and I I just think we need to be a little more transparent with our constituents and then look at exactly
where we are putting the this affordable housing. I mean, are we expecting kids who are here because of a great program, which is affordable housing, which I fully support, are we expecting to walk 50 minutes to cranberry pizza across a
highway? I mean, this is I mean, I think myself in freshman year could have figured out that's a little bit of a logistics problem. Let's just we can solve this without yelling and threatening daughters. And if we're for that, then you should leave this town. Thank you.
[Applause] Any further public comment? Okay. With that, we'll close public comment. Okay. action. Um, any action items besides the usual commitment to digest the public comments that have been made tonight and
come back and be as transparent as we can to answer some of those questions. I hope everybody understands that there's parts of this process that preclude us from sharing certain things. This is a legal process and it precludes us at
this time from saying certain things. It doesn't mean we won't eventually, but I just need to remind everybody of that. So, we'll do the diligence on tonight's public comment and we'll come back next committee and we'll address those things and we'll continue to do that. I I
captured an action item for Matt. Well, and and the to look at the harnesses and the poison ivy. I guess that'd be more of a DP. We'll look into action item. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, sorry. So, we're going
to make a motion to close our public session. If I could have that. So, move. I get a second. Thank you. We're going to go to roll call um in regards to Cranberry Township R05-25-078. Uh, Mr. Christopher. Yes.
Mrs. Elidawi. Yes. Dr. Rogers. Yes. Mr. Scott, yes. Mayor Coner, yes. Okay, that's unanimous. We'll be going into close session. Okay. [Music]