and good evening everyone let me call this chamber to order so everyone please rise if you can as we pledge our nation's flag remain standing for a moment of personal reflection i aliance 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 thank you clerk please call roll and read our statement of adequate notice council
member Hall here councilman Wendell here councilwoman Winston here councilwoman Dimbicki here and council president Makavoy also present mayor Brad Cohen here administrator Joseph Krisculo here and township attorney Anthony Aayakoka
here adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 public law 1975 by specifying the time date location and to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy on
the bulletin board located in the main lobby of the East Brunswick Municipal Building providing a copy to the Home News Tribune and the Asbury Park Press newspapers posting a copy on the township's website and by following a copy in the office of the township clerk
which will be entered into the minutes thank you council we have resolution 25-137 adopting our meeting minutes from our March 10th 2025 meeting may I have a motion to approve motion to approve second second is there a need for
clarification or correction on these minutes seeing none roll call please council member Hall yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman Zimbicki yes and Council President Makavoy yes thank you Council we have
two proclamations one resolution of recognition and one proclamation from Trenton first up will be Council Vice President Dana Zambicki to proclaim the month of March as development disabilities awareness month council Vice President will you tend to this
matter may I do it at your leisure thank you good evening everyone whereas individuals with de developmental disabilities come from diverse racial ethnic educational social religious and
economic backgrounds and are valued members of our community and whereas recent estimates in the United States show that 1 in six children aged 3 through 17 have a developmental
disability and about 15% of public school students receive special education services and whereas individuals with developmental disabilities contribute significantly to our schools families faith communities
and the workplace whereas recognizing the abilities and contributions of people with developmental disabilities enriches our community and signifies our commitment
to equal opportunity access and rights for individuals with disabilities now therefore be it proclaimed that Brad J cohen mayor of the township of East Brunswick along with the township
council hereby proclaim March 2025 as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and we encourage all individuals to support the goals of this observance thank you
[Applause] next up we have Councilman Desh Behal to proclaim to proclaim the month of April as seek awareness and appreciation month councilman Behal will you tend to this matter please thank you Council
President before reading this proclamation I would like to extend my warmest wishes for happy sick new year to all those who celebrate east Brunswick is known for its vibrant diversity and for its commitment to recognizing and
celebrating various faiths is a testament to its inclus inclusive spirit i'm honored to read this proclamation today as I'm a follower of both Satan and six religions so this proclamation is very special to me i'm so grateful to
council president for giving me this chance to read it tonight whereas the sick community has a rich diverse history spanning over 500 years with a strong tradition of service and dedication to community and whereas
sikism is the fifth largest religion globally there are more than 30 million siks worldwide and more than 500,000 siks in United States with a strong presence in New Jersey where sik Americans have made significant
contribution to various fields and whereas sikism is an Indian religion that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of 15th century by Shir Guru Nanak sik
means a student a learner in Punjabi and whereas the year 2025 may mark marks the 556th birth anniversary of Shri Gurunanak Dave founder of Sikism and will be celebrated on November 5th
worldwide as Gurunanak's gurub and is one of the most important dates in the sik calendar and whereas vasaki and kalsa sajinadas is one of the most historically significant days of the year for siks and is celebrated on April
14th of every year whereas six are known for their values of equality compassion and service to humanity as exemplified by their commitment to Sava selfless service and their dedication to social
justice and whereas East Brunswick is committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment for all residents recognizing and celebrating the diverse cultures and traditions that make our community vibrant the township seeks to
further the diversity of its community and afford all residents the opportunity to better understand recognize and appreciate the rich history and shared experience of sick Americans and now therefore be it proclaimed that Brad J cohen mayor of the township of East
Punswick along with Township Council recognize April 2025 as sick awareness and appreciation month given under his hand and great seal of the township of East Munwick this 24th day of March in the year
2025 thank you so who's going to come take the proclamation we have want to say a few words yes i was hoping to say it after yeah we can wait for that also or should we do it i don't know this Yes
thank you you're not You're not next do you want you want to get everyone to gather for We can do this again when uh when the assemblyman comes up too council please join me okay we'll do this with as many people as you
want please children your family and then we'll do it again kind of balance it out that's fine good job how about before you leave the
assembly and Perfect one minute thank you check it out okay what i have no idea do the police okay you're good
i take my time you're more than welcome no rush you know just have a quick second i'll make it 37 seconds make it 37 minutes council we have a resolution
25-1 138 honoring and accepting the retirement we're doing proclamation no I'm doing the No I've got my order oh okay i I see you're paying attention that's okay
we'll try it again okay sorry council we have resolution 25-1 138 honoring and accepting retirement of East Brunswick Police Department Lieutenant Ray Gordon may I have a motion motion approved second second
lieutenant Gordon is not here but uh our chief chief will you please join me thank you trying to hold it up [Applause] see what happens when you clap resolution 25-138 resolution honoring and accepting the retirement of
Lieutenant Wade Gordon whereas Lieutenant Wade Gordon submitted written notification to the Township of East Brunswick that he will retire from the East Brunswick Police Department effective April 1st 2025 and whereas on March 13 2000
Lieutenant Gordon began his career with the township as patrol officer he was later promoted to sergeant on August 1st 2013 and then promoted to lieutenant on August 1 2019 a position from which he retires effective again April 1
20025 and whereas throughout the 25 years of service to the township he demonstrated exemplary characteristics to the township of East Brunswick through his work ethics dedication leadership team spirit and enthusiasm for duty
now therefore it be resolved by the township council of the township of East Brunswick that Lieutenant Gordon's retirement is hereby accepted with an effective date of April 1,2025 be it further resolved by the mayor and the council of the township of
East Brunswick that they hereby extend their sincere and grateful appreciation to Lieutenant Gordon for his 25 years of dedication and outstanding service to the township of East Brunswick congratulating him on his well-earned retirement and wish him much happiness
and good health in the years to come signed by everyone behind me [Applause] i don't like having my back to you but I apologize um so I just want to accept
this on behalf of Lieutenant Gordon who could not be here um sometimes with small kids you get divided many ways and he had to make a split decision and he went with his family the police family is sorry to see him go um I could attest to exactly the words on here it is
amazing what he did committed to this town it exemplifies what the men and women who serve the town do but Wade is going to be uh surely missed at the police department and we welcome and and wish him a happy very healthy and very long retirement thanks Chief thank you
[Applause] roll call please counciloman Bhal yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman Zeniki yes and Council President Makavoy yes we'll now hear from our 18th Legislative
District Representative Sterling Stanley our assemblyman is responsible for approving significant funding for East Brunswick last year and so far in 2020 2025 his message has been exemplary
$500,000 for Crystal Springs improvements $38 million towards the school budget $368,000 for road improvements surf surf the road surfacing on the village drive all these combined demonstrate his
commitment to keeping our infrastructure safe assemblyman Stanley we are honored to have you here this evening to help proclaim the month of April as seek awareness month the floor is now yours
thank you President whatever you would like sir would anyone like to come up here and join me council President thank you mayor Council it's a pleasure to be here tonight i miss sitting up there with you
guys sometimes um I I'm going to read this proclamation into record but before saying that uh the one thing I want to really uh tell from the bottom of my heart is that you know in the Indian
army the majority of the army is made up of the seek population and that tells you what commitment they have how strong they are and how they are committed to protecting not just the nation but the
whole uh community itself self the sea community does not make up even I think 10% of the population of India but more than 50% of the Indian army is made up of the SE community men and women so that's something I want to just put out there
and that's something I really appreciate so with that I want to read this joint legislative resolution uh by Senator Dagman assembly caravaner myself uh I just want to read this into the record whereas as the month of April
is marked and celebrated as sick awareness and appreciation month within the Garden State and throughout this nation and whereas the Senate and General Assembly of the state of New Jersey are pleased to honor the SEK community upon this apacious occasion
which is a fitting time to recall the immeasurable contributions seeks have made in furtherance more than just an equitable society replete with opportunity for all and whereas a holistic understanding of peace supported by praiseworthy ideals of
equality and fraternity are the hallmarks of the seek tradition a movement that traces origins back to the state of Punjab in India and its followers strive to conquer hatred and division by following the sacred
teachings of Gurunanak and his tenants of honest work charity and reverence and whereas seikhs have played a vital role in the growth and vitality of our nation in the prosperity and success of the garden state which has been forever enriched by the diversity of it
citizenry and the climate of social tolerance that has sustained us throughout history and whereas is altogether fitting and right for the members of this legislature to pause in the deliberations to acknowledge seek awareness and appreciation month and
affirm its importance to this state seeks residents whose remarkable accomplishments within all fields of endeavor have brought us all closer to a more perfect union now therefore be resolved by the Senate and General Assembly of the state of New Jersey that
this legislature hereby joins in commemorating seek awareness and appreciation month and encourages all New Jerseyians to participate fittingly in his observance and be it further resolved that a duly authenticated copy of this resolution be signed by the
state president and the assembly speaker and attested by the state senate secretary and the assembly clerk thank you good evening Assemblyman Sterling Stanley mayor Cohen you can bring the golden
temple goldman Temple good evening Assemblyman Sterling Stanley Mayor Cohen esteemed members of the East Brunswick Town Council respected community leaders and fellow residents on behalf of the sick community of East Brunswick I stand
before you today with immense gratitude we're deeply touched and sincerely thank you to approve the proclamation recognizing April as sick awareness and appreciation month in our town this proclamation is more than just a symbolic gesture it signifies a profound
understanding and respect of our community for our community our faith and our contributions to the vibrant tapestry of East Brunswick it acknowledges the values we hold dear service equality and
compassion and recognizes our commitment to build a stronger more inclusive community for all your support in raising awareness about sikism will undoubtedly foster greater understanding and appreciation among our
fellow residents it will help us dispel misconceptions and promote harmony creating a more welcoming environment for everyone i'd like to express my gratitude towards the East Brunswick Public Library for helping us in showcasing the sick history culture and
celebrating Wasaki this year we're truly honored to be a part of our town that embraces diversity and celebrates the richness of its cultural fabric we pledge to continue working alongside you contributing our efforts to make East Brunswick a place where everyone feels
valued and respected thank you once again for our for your open hearts your thoughtful consideration and your commitment to building a united and harmonious community we we are deeply grateful for your support thank you
fate dear mayor town council members and neighbors my name is Kerman Sing i am here today to talk about my community and how my sick faith teaches me to be a good citizen my religion sikism is all about helping
others and making the world a better place we learn about this from our gurus who teach us import who taught us important things like everyone is equal we believe that everyone deserves
respect no matter where they came from or what or what they believe in that this means being kind to everyone in East Brunswick working hard and earning honestly we're taught to do our best in school and our and in our jobs and to
always be honest wherever we go we also are taught to share what you we have we believe in helping people who need it like volunteering or donating to local local charities thinking about everyone's
well-being we want East Friends to be a good place for everyone not just for some people and that goes for the whole world as well here's what I as a young sick want to promise to my town i want to do my part to keep East Brunswick a
friendly and safe place i want to help out with community events and volunteer when I can i would I want to learn more about my town and how I can help make it better i would love to help out in any
youth programs that are available i want to help make sure that everyone feels welcome in our town i know that even though I'm young I can still make a difference i hope that by sharing my sick values I can help make our community even
stronger thank you for listening [Applause] as always every year we do have the postcards that we would like to distribute to everybody so the kids will
distribute thank you again thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you okay once again finally this evening we have a special presentation regarding the traveling Vietnam memorial wall that was
spearheaded organized and presented by the East Brunswick VFW Post 133 under the leadership of Mr tommy Koulhill and Mr ma Mr for Wayne Lions um amongst amongst many others
amongst many others who spent countless hours getting ready for the traveling Vietnam Memorial War mr coolhill the floor is yours mayor Town Council Kevin uh I'm here today to present the as plaque to our to
our mayor on behalf of East Brunswick VFW Post 133 and thank you all for the great job you did supporting us with the war it was a a a big event it was took a long time and I thank Kevin and Rob Zuckermanman here tonight for all the
help they gave us i'm also here to thank the police department Parks and Recreation John Cic from the town and and and more other people that I will meet but right now I would like to present that this this award to the
mayor [Applause] you want to get a photo on that Tommy yes look real nice in the foyer okay you're good
now you got to figure out where we're going to hang it it's a good spot it's beautiful the the county for all they did with us in here and and supporting us throughout the time and we appreciate that and we also have a couple other
people I'd like to thank our our our auxiliary at and our post 133 Brunswick Memorial Home Rolling Thunder which escorted the wall in from Delaware all the way up to the hotel for us east New Brunswick remodeling and Stop and Shop
for their help throughout the whole time and I'm knowing there's people I'm going to forget here kevin thank you for all the time you put in with us putting up with us staying late at night it was a Well let me I was waiting for you to pause let's not forget Wayne Lions and
Tommy Koulhill okay if we don't have the two of you as well as I saw you walked in with this young lady over to my to my to to your left if we didn't have the Rob Zuckermanman's of the world or the the role that I played to help out it
was just such a f it and it all came together so well that we didn't have any snags we didn't have any storms we didn't you know the weather was perfect the the the amount of people who came the amount of people who spoke the compassion that was involved was uh
again a credit to you guys and just when I was talking with my wife just when I thought that oh boy the Vietnam wall the traveling wall I guess there's really that's no more stories what happens we get this this plaque that's going to be a showcase right right in right in in
front of the mayor's office thank And I I Rob Zuckermanman who wife was having a baby any minute stayed with us all night long and trying to tell him to go home but he stayed with us and we thank him so much for all Rob would you stand up please for a second so everybody can see
who we're talking about thank once again we could have never done it without the town and the support that we did get from the town and the people it was great thank you thanks Tom god bless you god bless our troops god bless the United States of America thank you thank you Tommy tommy
council we have ordinance 25-10 for a second reading and public hearing township clerk can you read this ordinance please an ordinance of the Township of East Brunswick County of Middle Sex State of New Jersey amended
chapter 3 article 18 fees for services and copies of documents to update the fee schedule for police services may I have a motion to motion to adopt and a second second i will now open this to the public anyone wish to speak on this
issue and this issue only seeing none we'll close the public portion roll call please council member Hall yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman Zimbicki yes and Council President Makaboy yes and let me just take a quick interruption if
you would like to take off i know the the younger kids probably have some homework that they need to complete and uh again we appreciate you coming out this evening we'll now move on to our reports section of the meeting mayor Khan thank you
Council President i just wanted to uh shed a light on one of the resolutions that's on the table for this evening before we get there and that is the designation of an area in need of redevelopment for the Brunswick Square Mall i know that's uh in front of you
for review this evening that is a project that's part of a much longer redevelopment uh vision that the township has had for the entire Route 18 corridor uh clearly this is one of the biggest uh projects that we will have
undertaken considering that when you put the mall and pennies and uh and Macy's together along with the properties around it it's it arguably is the largest taxpayer in the township and we all recognize that over the course of
the last 50 years since the mall was um initiated and built that the nature of malls the way which people shop the functionality of the mall as it sits right now has suffered the test of time
and it's time for us to start looking at how that can be um reinvigorated to be much more uh productive and useful and um and the mall itself um is requesting that we consider doing it on top of the fact that the township had eyes on
looking at that piece of property uh for a while now part of the original vision which dates back uh even before I was mayor was reinvigorating revitalizing the entire route 18 corridor which as many people know fell into disrepair and
um in many places blighted areas as um fallout from the great recession of 2008 and9 as a lot of businesses left and then of course that got um that process continued as the world moved to an online shopping um format and even worse
after COVID so it clearly needed to be addressed uh you see now the work that's being done on the north end of the highway which taken us a bunch of years to get there land use takes a lot of time and uh so the Vermela project which
is going up as we speak uh in phases is started the legacy project on Tyson's Lane uh is well past the halfway point in terms of it that project um and then um most recently we designated the area
that borders Route 18 and Edgeboroough Road many of those properties as area in need of redevelopment because we clearly recognize that that must be updated if it's going to match what we're the efforts that we're doing across the
street at a project like Vermela the idea of coming now down to the mall bookends the highway um with our most important and most valuable real estate to try to have an opportunity through redevelopment
designation for the town to have a say in what the ultimate product looks like if we if the town were not to have a redevelopment designation on any of these properties then the owners as long as they do what is within the zoning
rights by statute with the township can basically do anything they want and they don't need the town's approval the only way the town can have a say in in what a owner of property does to its um to his
his or her own property is through the designation as a redevelopment zone that gives you the right to offer tax incentives for the township to work handinhand with the developer of the property or the owner of the property to
turn it into something that meets the needs and the goals of the township without that designation you have no right to do that unless they come back to you to ask to do something that's outside of our zoning laws so this is a uh a massive undertaking um it's
fundamentally changing the nature of the corridor because it needs to change as you could see most of it has moved Mount towards a a recreational and entertainment and services corridor from the retail corridor that it was before that clearly didn't work it doesn't work
in a 2025 environment doesn't mean that we're getting rid of all retail it just needs to be reworked in a way that works in 2025 and that's really the what we're asking you to consider this evening the first part uh of this process started
when you asked the planning board to take a look and determine whether or not the area met any of the prescribed u valid reasons to be declared an area in need of redevelopment you you can't just declare anything an area in need of
redevelopment is must must meet specific uh statutory requirements to do that and uh the conclusion of our planners was that it did that process then was approved by the planning board and now
it's in front of you uh for final consideration when and if you approve that uh it then gets turned over to the redevelopment agency to work with any potential redeveloper uh so that they could sit down together representing the
town and the owner or developer of the property and determine what then would make the most sense for the township and at the end of that process we may or may not come to a conclusion that uh uh or
we hope to come to a conclusion that's satisfactory to the township at which point any tax incentive any plan that is approved comes to your table for final vote so this is the we're still in the beginning process of getting this
started but the first part is for you to approve the results and the determination of the planning board so that they can now sit down with the agency and the owner of the property to find a developer that meets the needs on this property of what the township would
be interested in having um on that site and so uh if there's any questions I'm more than happy to answer those as we either now or as we get to that um but I wanted it clear for you and the public the process that we've undergone to get to this point
i'm just going to interject for a second because those of you who have your agenda in front of you we are in the reports section there is still to come a section on the a resolution regarding exactly
what the mayor is talking about so I'm going to stay on my schedule and then when we come to uh resolution 25-1 139 I'll turn the microphone back over to to the mayor and we can entertain questions
from council if need be having said that u our business administrator Mr chrisculo no report this week uh our township attorney Mr aayakoka nothing to report at this time our township clerk Miss Lawful uh just quickly as a friendly reminder to all of our
residents with pets uh cats and dogs uh March 31st is the expiration of your animal license i encourage you to renew your animals license as soon as possible to avoid any penalties if you have any questions or concerns please contact the clerk's office the contact number is
732-39-6850 once again 732-39-6850 thank you council members council vice president thank you so I have a report for the recreation parks advisory board um first of all always looking to be environmentally
responsible and Ronnie Lee uh let us know that 82,50 tennis balls were turned over to recycle balls so that it will not go into the landfill so we are doing an amazing job with that um also on March
30th there is going to be a rugby match at 10:00 a.m at Heavenly Farms and it's for uh high school boys please look at the township um wreck website for more information or Facebook page on April 27th from 10 to 11 at the community arts
center will be the 2025 Keller Run it's $7 and it's sponsored by youth council and when you're done with that you can just walk right a couple minutes away a couple seconds away for the Fly a Kite event that's sponsored I believe by the
Arts uh commission and also uh now until well until it's sold out the Egg My Yard event is $12 where you can pay and all proceeds go to the EB adaptive recreation program and uh your yard or
somebody's yard that you choose can be egged in a nice way not in a mean way on April 19th and adult and youth tennis classes are now starting so please see the recreation website for that and um last but not least this is a great event
um there was a grant that was given to the youth council um and it's for youth mental health first aid training and the grant is for 15 individuals in East Brunswick that work with our youth so maybe with the rec camp maybe at Crystal
Springs you can be trained and certified in this and I think that's an an amazing many of our many of our uh employees are already trained in this but this is an additional grant to allow for 15 more people to be trained for free so it's a great opportunity if you're interested
also see the WCK page or the Facebook page for more information thank you before I let you go Council Vice President Zanviki how about how about this one so you you mentioned rugby okay so maybe they're thinking about a rugby
team at the high school maybe I I I don't know but what I'm what I'm proposing is if we're going to do something for the boys we got to do something for the girls and what's real popular right now is flag football for high school girls i
know a number of schools especially in Mammoth County that are doing flag football just like just like they're playing football for the boys maybe you can bring that back to your council i will see if they uh bring it back we'll uh adjust some of their thinking and I
agree good um township clerk will you please read our public comment statement the public comment portion of our meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments in accordance with
NJSA 10 col4-12A and the East Brunswick rules of council the council asked the public to limit their comments to 5 minutes or less at the conclusion of the statements or questions from a member of the public
the council president at his discretion may choose to respond or not respond thank you is there anyone from the public wish to address the council the council president please sir go right yeah in the blue shirt yes sir thank you
in light of everything that uh has taken place tonight well I just need your name and address yes I will okay joel Henin 14 Delaware Drive East Brunswick uh and let me start by saying that I really believe that East Brunswick has the
opportunity to show America that a very diverse community such as this is okay uh can really exist and flourish in our world today and I guess I should start by
introducing myself i'm Joel Hen i've lived in East Brunswick for over 50 years okay uh I sat up there as a member of the zoning board for 13 years so uh I've been around a while i was president of the East Brunswick
soccer club when we had 2400 kids playing in the town and we were one of the leading soccer operations in the United States definitely in the Northeast um I was president of the JC's when we established the reclamation center uh
when it was just wooden all right where the uh pool is right now and of late I recently been involved in the beautifification committee and the committee that approved the East Brunswick logo uh and so why am I here okay so
let's get to it uh of all the things that have been going on in this crazy world right now one thing bothered me more than anything else and that's when I read and heard about on television the story of the woman who was a teacher in Idaho who had a sign in her
classroom that said "Everybody is welcome here." I don't know if you read that and saw that all right she was made to take that sign down all right and had been there sitting there for a long time and the signs said everyone is welcome here it
showed the hands of different colors people of different colors hands and this really really bothered me uh there are so many strange things that we're we're you know experiencing right now financial whatever and this bothered me
so what I'm proposing basically is that we have a sign for people who come into this town all right uh be it a regular sign that says everybody is welcome here or maybe even replace or add to the current sign that
we have outside and in other places uh and let people know that this is what this community is really all about because I've experienced it here for a long time all right and uh and that's really all I wanted to say um I think we we have an opportunity to lead America
and show who we are all right and and I think it's very important simple as that thank you you're welcome and I'll kick it around with my fellow colleagues and uh we will discuss it thank you for coming in Mr hen anyone else wishing to address
council president please sir yan Bregman for Troy Court uh and I would like to discuss uh 8 million uh deficit in East Brunswick town uh school system so first question it's multiple
questions so probably write it down um first question when this town council is became aware about this 8 million deficit uh second question what specific actions this town council did uh to resolve this
issues uh the third question um if you think that this is strictly board of education juris jurisdiction then I should say 8 million affects entire t so it's not just uh school system think everyone affected
by this and I formally uh request that this town council issue by a lawyer or uh written request to get all expenses that uh school district has for 218 219
223 224 so we can compare expenses and if you think uh you should not do this then I think uh the t town of this our town should know your actions basically that you you do not wish to proceed with this action okay so hopefully you can
answer my questions no not this this is not a question and answer session and you know that because I' i've seen you at meetings of spanning the past three four five years i we we took notes on your statement and thank you for coming in so no answer i I gave you an answer
this is not a give and take no answer okay anyone else wishing to address council president i'm here specifically on the next resolution be discussed an hour yeah this is this is this is your opportunity thank you good evening i'm
Robert Becklman from the law firm of Walence Goldman and Spitzer um I'm here to speak you're not a resident of East Brunswick no sir i'm sorry no sir and you work for who again wance Goldman and Spitzer okay um I appeared at the planning board hearing um regarding this
matter resolution 25-139 um as the resolution that you have from the planning board notes uh took some cross-examination of the planner and had questions before the planning board um I'm here on behalf of CT7 Chai LLC they're the owner of the
Habitburgger in the redevelopment area um we objected to the inclusion of this property in that redevelopment area for various reasons uh most notably that the town just two years ago approved us to build the Habitburger um and develop that and subdivide it from the remainder
of the slot we really think this is a tail wagging the dog situation and we had we had asked the board to make the recommendation to remove this property from the redevelopment designation we're here um to ask that same question of this council i believe you have that prerogative to make the determination
based on the planning board's recommendations i won't belabor what we went through at the planning board hearing but essentially as the mayor noted there's specific statutory criteria that are required to dee deem the property in need of redevelopment to
be included in an area there's no question that none of those um properties were established for this property the Habit Burger just built two years ago just approved did not demonstrate any of the conditions and that's not disputed by the planner the planner's sole basis for including this
property in the redevelopment area was this operating agreement from 1972 which I understand is still in place um it was discussed at the meeting that that operating agreement is subject to termination it was discussed at that meeting that that operating agreement has no legal control over what this
council is going to do if this council proceeds to designate a redevelopment area it will be a condemnation redevelopment area and they can get rid of that operator agreement as soon as they adopt the plan and provide to do the same so there is something in the redevelopment law that would allow a
property to be included even if it didn't meet the criteria if your planner or the the study determined that it was necessary separate from an operating agreement there's a statutory criteria that the planner would have to apply and you must have this property it's
necessary in order to effectively redevelop the area i specifically asked that question of the planner and the planner said I did not make that finding this did not meet the statutory criteria to be necessarily included in a redevelopment area again the only basis was the existence of this joint
operating agreement which is not going to bind the properties forward the town's certainly not going to be bound to follow anything that was provided for in that joint operating agreement it can make it go away so with that um I would like to comment i've I've had
some experience with East Brunswick redevelopment i think it's you're doing some great things i think this we think that this project is is is a laudable project and we wouldn't want to stand in the way of the overall goals of the redevelopment area for the Brunswick Mall however we just don't think it's
rational or legally supportable to have included the Habburger in this site particularly subjecting my client and the owner to condemnation to lose ownership of the property that this town just approved them to build two years ago so with that we respectfully request
that the council vote to not include block 131 lot 21.03 in this redevelopment area at a bare minimum do not apply the condemnation criteria to this property thank you anyone else wishing
to address council president Laura Hoover nine Avon Court ex employee I know some of you so um I understand the resolution that's coming up and I know there's three steps that come after that that the owners of the properties
have options they can redevelop themselves and work up a plan they can turn it over to the township or they can hire their own developer this is what is supposed to happen with these redevelopments my question to you is obviously this has been planned for a
while and you've been talking about it so um is Paramount and the other owners planning on redeveloping this or is the town redeveloping this oh I'm sorry council president redeveloping this project or is it and once again as as you heard me say to this gentleman this
is not a question and answer you're allowed to make a statement it's out there that's all you don't have to answer me that's fine um and I just want to heed a warning to the council i was here during the Golden Triangle era and there were some major mistakes made
major mistakes i was acting as a tax collector and a finance officer at the time and I hate to see you make the same mistakes so when you are voting on this and you do create your committee please heed those past
mistakes remember the situation we have with our board of education right now and be careful as to who you hire what you build and how much money you spend to redevelop this property that's
it thank you thank you and does anyone else wish to address the council president please jeff Winston fresh ponies hello council council President uh the mayor's report tonight was great
i liked a lot of the language that I heard uh it's encouraging as a six decade resident of this town uh even knowing the gentleman who spoke about head of the soccer league back when there were 2400 members I remember those days clearly but I heard the mayor speak
and he and and the language he used was really encouraging uh I understand there'll be some politicizing about that property the mall has some great memories for me and I'm only counting on the evolution of what has already been established in redevelopment of East
Brunswick and I for one am one of the people are actually encouraged by that and the mayor said something in his presentation he said "We have to do something because change is necessary or change is needed I think were the exact words."
Uh little later in some commentary I I heard you council president say maybe maybe the high school will put a rugby team in place i love that idea but there's a problem the high school's not adding it's subtracting
programming growing up there was a phrase in my house my father who is a career educator actually I've said several times here was one of the actually among the first crew who taught at East Rosac High School he would say when presented with you know with problems things that either happened to you because of you or in
spite of you that's good and the mayor is great the mayor saw the problem and because of his vision he's affecting change we have a very big problem right now as you build and redevelop East
Brunswick in the way that it is anybody who watched the board of ed meeting the other night which ended around 1:30 in the morning there were some really big takeaways from that the public outrage being one of them but more importantly it was more of the information fed by the the BA the business administrator
and in that discussion he said not only are we going to remove programming this year and lots of it and not only we're going to remove teachers this year quite a few as we did last year but this is a three to five year problem what that means exponentially that if
this happens for the next two years forget about three to five our school district will collapse the school district that you made a career out of council president that saddens me knowing what
we've built what you taught in and what's being destroyed we have 15 major elected officials in our town 10 of which are in front of me are uh six of which are in front of me nine of which sit in the board of education there's a gentleman who said
"What are you going to do about you can't do anything about the 8 million that's on the other side of the block i get that." But again when change is needed you have to say something you represent every citizen of this town you
can no longer sit silent while 65% of this budget is about to collapse collapse the school system that you made a career out of and that my father taught in and many people went
to a vote of no confidence is now time to to direct toward our superintendent who should be encouraged to take his coat get his box move on out of town a new set of eyes a
new set of ears and a new direction in this town where every piece of redevelopment that you're building this town the town's done nobody ever moved to Root to East Brunswick to be closer to Route 18 and maybe that will change with what you're
building but many people will leave what's being torn down i am begging this council to get involved get your skin in the game vote no confidence remove an a an ineffective leadership team and save
the school that both you and I sir know we love thank you okay [Applause] anyone else wishing to address council president mr ingressini
Mr mayor count um I just want to remind people that the your uh your address 58 Deerfield Road okay just want to remind that I got my um anchor form the other
day in the in the news and in the mail and the only thing that changed I think is if you uh apply for assistance uh tax freeze but otherwise I don't think you have to do anything according to what the information said but the forms are
out applications are out and uh I just don't know about the state in New Jersey Act yet i haven't heard nothing about that um the other thing was there's a good note I hear Chick-fil-A is opening up this Thursday on the 27th
and um you've been waiting for that for a while yeah we've been waiting for it because go too far we're going to uh you know Marbor East Old Bridge and the other thing just like to know is my wife's been active with the board of
education for over 30 years she works at Irwin after school program she can't get her real license because her first name is Rose okay I'll say it rose and but I ain't always Roseanne that's what she's been known as
roseanne social Security roseanne you go there they give you the form and everything else it tells you her father's name mother's name maiden name date she was born but yet with the birth certificate says Rose and they won't give her an ID she has a regular um
digital license now because the cops in at the Irwin school checked it out it's really an you know ID it's in order for it's a perfect ID yet they won't issue her the real ID with the star and I I
had Sterling Stanley's crew working on it and they can't get an answer the only answer I got was I called New York up i I told him I had the birth certificate i have to apply for a a name change in Jersey
court then send that over to the New York vital records and then it'll give me the new name but I know my wife as as she is it's just it's bureaucracy Mr ingrescini and the vital records in New York is probably going to be your bottom
line solution if you didn't hear from from uh Representative Sterling Stanley then they don't know what to do either they've been checking out for me too so we can talk about it till the cows come home right you know but the fact is that it's frustrating it's frustrating i hear
that right so well good luck with the uh New York my marriage certificate has Rosanne everything on it then you're talking almost 74 years ago when she got this name so it's uh it's not that she changed it so and uh Okay okay that's all I have to say if anything could be
done I think it should be thank you thanks any else wishing to address the council president seeing none we'll close the public portion and resolution 25 hyphen 139 uh
which I'm sorry motion to adopt over i I didn't even get the words out of my mouth i You said what you said 139 i was like uh township clerk would you please read first oh I'm sorry that's okay a resolution of the township of East
Brunswick County of Middle Sex State of New Jersey delineating certain properties identified as block 131 lots 7.01 20.01 20.03 20.04 21.0 02 21.03
21.04 22.01 23.01 and 24.01 as a condemnation redevelopment area in accordance with the local redevelopment and housing law NJSA 4812A-1 may I have a motion so move and a second
second thank you uh any comments um I just I would just like to say I mean to respond to the attorney's comments the redevelopment agency will now take this into consideration we'll take into consideration which properties actually
need to go after a planner reviews the properties and understands what we potentially want to do with all those properties that property may not necessarily be included in the overall redevelopment plan but in this is what
was suggested from the planning board and the planner who did the study so I think it's incumbent upon us to take the recommendation of our planning board and their planner at this point and move forward and see what is actually
necessary and allow the redevelopment agency to do their their job at this point thank you Councilman Wendell mayor Con any any any further comments any clarification anything we missed same thing with that that uh Councilman just said it's it's it's a very good
likelihood that uh properties like that may end up being taken out as they look at the project and recognize that uh perhaps that's not really the the major thrust is more the properties where the mall is but it right now it's one large
segment and we'll let them take a look work with whoever may be the developer the developer may be a property owner that's there right now it could be all three property owners working in conjunction it could be somebody coming in completely outside of the three
owners who has a better plan uh that the township and the development agency thinks works best can't tell you that right now but I I think they deserve the all you're giving them right now is the opportunity to sit and start to work with this and um and figure out
something that works for the township the developer could be his client you know the owner of the Habitburger we don't know roll call please council mobile yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman Zimbicki yes
and Council President Makavoy yes we'll move on to our consent agenda township clerk could you please read our consent agenda statement resolution 25-140 through Resolution 25-147 the following items are considered routine and non-controversial
items by the township council and will be enacted upon by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member still requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda to be discussed and voted on following the approval of
the remaining items listed on the consent agenda thank you does council need anything separated we have a motion for uh resolutions 25 hyphen 140 through 25 hyphen 147 so move
second second roll call please council member Hall yes councilman Wendell yes councilwoman Winston yes councilwoman Zimicki yes and Council President Makavoy yes um for the good of the cause
very quickly yes thanks for time just uh there was a great opportunity today with our high school students um Mr powski students um actually presented um a project for me to Well I'm going to I'm I'm going to have you speak about it
because but they they did a urban um redevelopment presentation in front of a board and there were 10 I think presentations and just the level of the absolute level of intelligence
from these kids and the way they spoke and the way they conducted themselves elves so professionally was so refreshing and amazing and we had our very own councilman who was part of the committee so uh Councilman Wendell would
you like to talk yeah um having done this for many years with the mayor um this program was actually introduced by Urban Land Institute through one of our township presidents Mr michael Axe to the um high school
department and it's it's primarily a redevelopment area fictitious redevelopment area and the the students get what we reference as a redevelopment plan which is a guideline of what items
can be developed in these certain areas and the students spend I don't know is it almost a semester on this and they build it all with Lego blocks and all of that and then they put together presentations and they present
their plan they have a marketing assistant they have a a neighborhood liaison they have a planning person they have a financial person and they have all these different people on their team and they present to what we call a mock
council and it was me the mayor um Mr michael Axe and a couple other volunteers um that sit and listen for the day about their presentations and then act like we're you know like we're a potential planning board or potential
town council and criticize ask questions and at of all these presenters and there's a there was a team of there were 10 teams of five and it was just it was a tremendous
I I I just enjoyed doing this so much because redevelopment is what I do for a living redevelopment is what I do you know for the agency real estate development and it's been something I do for the past 30 years and to see these
kids get up and speak and have answers to questions and some of the questions are somewhat fictitious we asked them if they've talked to the church next door that they're building this stuff and
they you know you can see how some stumbled and they're like "Oh no we didn't talk." You could have said yes you know it doesn't matter and um you know but it it it's really nice to see
um 10 teams was the most we've ever had and the the students were all very knowledgeable it's all juniors and seniors primarily from the high school and um they're planning on putting a team in the nationals again this year for the
urban plan um competition from East Bronswick last year they I think had two teams in they said and uh you know it's it's exciting it's exciting to see the kids and you know they come up to us at lunchtime i
actually had a a a young lady she came up to me and she was talking about how can I get involved with more of this kind of thing on the township level and I told her you can be our student liaison at the redevelopment agency if you're interested and she says "Okay how
do I how do I get that going?" And I was like "Just go on the township website send me an email." And I got the email within an hour and a half after the pro the bus left she was you know very interested and she was one of the ones we gave a special award to as well but
you know there were so many kids that had such a command of their design and had the responses to questions that was just tremendous and you know there were a few kids that didn't even speak they spoke right from their mind they didn't
read off of cute cars or or you know and so it was it's it's it's a great time and I I commend the Urban Land Institute which is a a group that's worldwide what did what did Bill say there's 55,000 members in
it's a massive number yeah there's 50 like there's like 55,000 members in the US but um which of course I am a member but anyway um it's a great program um the kids really enjoy it their teachers
are tremendous and some of the volunteers that we worked with actually go in to the school and work with the kids on certain days about their design and critique their designs as they're working through it so it's great time thank you i think that the uh most
interesting thing when you first of all some of the put a flavor on some of the things that they're asked to understand what is the absorption rate of the apartments that they're or buildings that they're putting in what is the rate of return that the investor is going to get what is the township going to see in
property values what uh what percentage can they can they build that the end result is a net carbon zero product the these are like highlevel type of things that we're talking about regularly when we're dealing with redevelopment or planning board applications these are
the things we talk about every day so it's immediately applicable to the stuff that we're doing but I think that the most interesting thing that I find when you talk to these kids is that if you ask them what it is that they would like in redeveloping any type of area and you
ask their parents they are 180 degrees opposite one another if you ask them about affordable housing they can't wait to be able to provide affordable housing to individuals so that everybody can have an opportunity
that is not what you hear when you go on Facebook talking about apartments in this township all you hear about is how horrible it is that we're building more apartments and why we need to do that for people that are less fortunate you ask them what type of retail they want
they will or restaurants they can't or you ask their parents parents want more non-chain restaurants or tired of hearing the chains but they want Chick-fil-A they they can't wait for that to open they want Chipotle they like Dave's Hot Chicken they have
everything they wanted is a chain restaurant uh complete opposite what their parents are telling me so I think that uh maybe the best thing we could do is just get them in a room together and have them start to talk to one another
uh because the pro process that we're undergoing right here on the highway is to try to make it relevant for the next generation so while I'm not saying that we don't care what everybody wants um but I'm going to have to turn off the
Facebook because if I get one more complaint or comment about uh some of the things we're doing um I'm just going to send them to talk to their children because the reality is that what we're doing is exactly what their kids want walkable type of communities where
people can uh interact walk work play together um all within these uh type of areas and I think that in the end in this one small commercial corridor that does not represent the vast majority of the township um we are creating that and
it's exciting there was only one group who said a family-owned restaurant you know with regard to adjournment please signify with a verbal I i the eyes have a good night