##VIDEO ID:AwZ_1y5LlFc## good evening I'd like to call this evening's planning board meeting to order um if everyone would please stand for the flag salute FL of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all notice of this meeting has been given as required by the open public meetings Act and the annual notice of meetings a copy was posted on the township website a notice of this meeting was sent to the Sentinel and a copy was posted at the Franklin Township Municipal Building I'll take roll call at this time Mr Brandt here Mr Clark here Mr Doyle Mr Kelly here Mr Mady here Mr sued here Mr Ranson Mr cahoot mayor Bruno here Mr traval Leon here Mr pesh here okay at this time I'd like to open nominations for board chair oh I'm sorry in the board members so we'll do the uh like theing the board member uh the new board member is Mr Jason Grant and then we have a few members that need to be that be appointed and we have any other MERS very good so like to hold your hand up your right hand please repeat after me I your name I doly swear that I will Faithfully faithfully impartially and justly andly perform all the duties perform all the duties as a member of the town of Franklin planning board as a member of plan board to the best of my ability best of my abil I do solemly sweare s I will support the constition I will support theti of the United States United States of the United States and the constition of the state New Jersey St New Jersey and I will bear true faith and Allegiance I'll bear true fa and aliance to the same to the and to the government established and to the government establish in the United States and states and the United under the authority of the people of people help me help me conratulations [Music] okay okay and at this time I'd like to open nominations for board chairman nominate Joe pets for chair you got to open them first you got to say I open them first I open I I make a motion to open the nomination for Joe Pat chair for chairman at this time I make a motion to close nominations well we need to Nom got Nom you got nominate I nominate Mr PES for chair second are there any other nominations hearing none I make a motion we close nominations I have a second second all in favor I who was second tell yeah would you call a roll on that nomination Jason settle down you're new here J might be might be brother oh stop Mr Brandt yes Mr Clark yes Mr Kelly yes Mr Mady yes Mr sued yes mayor Bruno yes Mr traval Leon [Music] yes you your yeah Mr PES not sure yes makes two of us congratulations thank you congratulations congratulations do something about the new member yeah first off I'd like to thank the board for uh your vote this evening and I'll at this time I'll entertain the nomination for solicitor I would like to nominate e El any others hearing no others a roll call vote Please Mr brand yes Mr Clark yes Mr Callie yes Mr Mady yes Mr swed yes mayor Bruno yes Mr Travon yes chairman PES yes all right let's move on to congratulations thank you congratulations Kate we'll move want to uh entertain nomination for vice chair TR I nominate TR a second nomination I have a second any others hearing no others roll call vote Please Mr brand yes Mr Clark yes Mr Kelly yes Mr Mady yes Mr sued yes mayor Bruno yes Mr Travon yes chairman P yes thank you congratulations Ral uh entertain a motion for board secretary make a motion nominate Christina Mur second a motion second any others hearing no others roll call vote Please Mr brand yes Mr Clark yes Mr Kelly yes Mr Mady yes Mr swed yes mayor Bruno yes Mr traval Leon yes chairman pass yes thank you have gentlemen congratulations Christ all right uh next Nom next the nomination for engineer planner I nominate CME engineering second have a motion in a second hearing no others uh Chris go ahead with the roll call vote Please Mr Brandt obain Mr Clark yes Mr Cy yes Mr Mady yes Mr sued yes mayor Bruno yes Mr traval Leon yes chairman PES yes right congratulations uh next will be the official uh depository for 2025 currently lefi Bank second moving second and hearing no others roll call vote Please Mr Brandt yes Mr Clark yes Mr Callie yes Mr Mady yes Mr swed yes mayor Bruno yes Mr traval Leon yes chairman Tes yes next would be the official calendar and it's in your packet which is the same uh third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. is there a motion uh for that motion to approve the calendar is listed second mov seconded all in favor I I uh the last one I need not uh a motion for the official newspaper and Chris uh did we name last year do you do you recall we named two senel I make the uh motion for the official newspapers South Jersey Times in the moving second uh any others hearing no others uh Chris go ahead for the roll call vote Please Mr Brant yes Mr Clark yes Mr Cy yes Mr Mady yes Mr swed yes mayor Bruno yes Mr Travelon yes chairman pesh yes um Kate this time I would ask you to swear in the uh Professionals for and so noted that this this swearing will be carry for the entire year okay raise your right hand you swear from the testimony will be providing to the planning board um will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes we do congratulate thank you congratulations guys moving on to resolutions uh PB 242 for the generation Enterprise is there a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve PB 2402 second all right roll call vote Please Mr Kelly yes Mr Mady yes mayor Bruno yes Mr traval Leon abstained chairman pesh yes and the second resolution is PB 2405 which is the bunker fitness center uh LLC I'll make a motion to approve PB 2405 have a motion second I have a second roll call vote Please Mr Clark yes Mr Kelly yes Mr Mady yes Mr swed yes mayor Bruno yes chairman PES yes uh applications PB 2409 uh that application has been um rescheduled for next meeting there was a uh error in the uh notification to uh two property owners were not notified they're going to notify them the hearing on that application will be February 18th the next meeting and um we're they they're only required to not ify the two the two individuals two property owners that weren't notified so there will not be a total Ren notification and so that will be heard on February 18th 7 o'cl in this building reports Ralph I understand you have a uh agricultural advisory report yeah I gave every one of the members here tonight an a a form we're doing a marketing program for more uh Farmers to buy into the Farmland preservation program and um every year we have to annually the agriculture advisory committee is a subset of the planning board and every year we have to report to the planning board I was not able to do it at the December meeting so I'm doing it tonight um we accept we take in about $125,000 per year at our 1% dedicated property uh tax and it's an open space fund that can be spended in three different directions uh Recreation Farmland preservation and historic renovation as we speak uh during the calendar year 24 there was some historic uh renovation for the old train station in a tune of about $40,000 and then there was some work spent at the Malaga Lake Park and I understand this year they're going to do more work at far Grove Park and uh another Park is that true Mr Mayor uh it's it's yeah it's on the agenda to some exent yeah so currently the fund at the end of the year had 500 $50,000 and this open space fund we all paid for with our 1% uh tax one cent per 100 I'm sorry not 1% uh also during the year we report on how many farms we think will be preserved and how many acres we think this year we're estimating that 135 Acres will go to preservation with an outlay from this Township of $60,000 uh the state of New Jersey the county of Gloucester and the township of Franklin have entered into into a joint agreement and Grant where the state pays 60% of the preservation costs and the remaining 40% are split evenly between the county and the township so that's the official report uh for this year 2025 okay thanks Ralph have they come up with the new pricing yet Ralph uh state of New Jersey agriculture development committee known as the sadc has came has come up with a new valuation formula in the past they said developers were largest threat to farmland and in the last recent 10 years uh it's warehousing and in the more recent five years it's solar Fields based on that and more money coming into the farmers from these outside sources the state realized they weren't paying enough to the farmer so their goal is to increase the appraisals by 20% and that uh new valuation formula will roll out give or take uh May 1st of this year okay that's kind of what the holdup is that's what the holdup is we haven't done any work because we put everything on hold everybody's waiting for their new valuations how exactly does that work did you say uh 60 2020 no no no the how are they acoss the boarding the valuations when they're done by independent appraisers so there's a list of approved appraisers by the state of New Jersey and these apprais ERS um like all market conditions location location location and they compare each farm with three other farms uh on soil types uh whether they're contingent or not to other Farms um and of course what values are in the area and uh the state of New Jersey felt that they were uh not offering enough to the farmers because they've had a larger um declining rate in the past 3 years years so they thought they had to I hate to use a term but I will sweeten the pot offer more to the farmers to have them move into the program I'm not sure I understand that because value is the value and the praiser is not going to put his his reputation on the line to to juice up a number they're changing the formula to allow for if your farm that you intend on preserving is next to an already preserved Farm proper planning says you want Farms next to Farms so there's an incentive where it's a higher ratio is paid if you're already next to a farm as opposed to a non preserve Farm as opposed to a non-farm so there's an increase if you fall into that category they're also looking into as I stated uh soil types um many of our soils are 100% primed Farmland in our Township a lot of areas in the state of New Jersey have Muk and Clay and other soils uh so they're taking into effect the better soil quality will get a higher appraisal even though the developer or the solar farm or the warehouse doesn't care about the soil okay I I just I I have a I I'm just having a hard time understanding that logic because let's say a guy that is Farm preserved last year is appraiser valuated at at X and then the next door neighbor gets it appraised in under this new program the following year and he gets 20% higher what sort of recourse does that guy from last year have say hey wait a minute there's no difference here we're we're all in the same neighborhood there is no recourse he signed an agreement he signed a contract at time I know but the appraiser is putting his his name on the line he's an independent guy yes he is right so he's not I just have a I'd like to know more about the details all right I'll talk to more after the meeting is it would it be fair to say that the appraised value is not going to change they're simply going to give additional funds and answer to your question is no the appraised values will be higher I I hate to say a number but let's just say the average acre in Franklin Township phrase is at $7,000 currently under the new formula it'll be 7,000 plus 20% should the new formula come in at 20% I think we what's basically happening they have new criteria so the new criteria is what's making the values change so that's really so in Ence um you know maybe if the I mean the farm didn't change right so the criteria Market didn't change the crer actually it did and I'll explain there's a formula where they take uh three numbers into account what a builder would say would pay for the farm and what a farmer would pay for the farm if a builder is offering $20,000 an acre and another farmer offers $5,000 an acre the difference is 15,000 well under the old formula the state of New Jersey offers the farmer that wants to preserve the missing piece the 15,000 in the last 3 to 5 years postco there have been many resale of already existing preserved farms uh five years ago uh the state of New Jersey said the average preserve Farm was selling for $3,000 to $4,000 per acre in our area that number has moved up to $6,000 per acre because there seems to be more Cottage farmers and paying more and I choose that word carefully Cottage Farmers the higher that The Preserve Farm is bid up it makes the piece in the middle smaller therefore the state's changing the formula than thank you I want to make a quick little comment um Franklin Township has 13,600 Acres of assessed farmland and of that there's 3,380 already preserved so it's you know open space forever that's it okay very good thank you Chris correspondant no uh this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes of December 17th and the also the Clos session minutes make a motion I have a motion second I have a motion and second roll call oh I'm sorry all in favor abstain yeah I got two extensions there okay uh Kate no reason for Clos session this evening correct thank you um closing comments any the board members have closing comments I have a comment that I'm going to address to our mayor uh last year during 2024 uh the planning board and its committee worked on the master plan revisit and we would like to know how that is progressing on the uh Township committee side it's not right now okay okay haven't really discussed it anybody else yeah I just like to uh thank the board as well as thanking uh the mayor and the committee for uh their confidence and my abilities serve here uh so thank you for the appointment Mr Mayor you I want to your colleagues at the committee um also I know that there's been recent uh affordable housing rules that came out so I'm looking forward to you know discussing those with uh with our planner and Council moving forward to implement some of those changes and congratulations Mr P on your compl chairman thanks Jason with that said welcome aboard thank you uh you you're knowledge of land use and developing uh of codes uh is going to keep everybody on their toes here uh I'm going to actually have to do my homework to be able to keep up with you uh I think Mr Brun is already regretting the decision within the first two seconds of sitting now be correct welcome aboard uh just a couple notes Here the uh TVs Chris um not on a resident lot line adjustment but on a an developer application we want to make sure that uh they submit electronic copy so we can get the monitors running they can submit electronic classy however they have to provide their own laptop to show that I cannot put that on a so we want to make that part of our checklist so that we can get they have to bring their own their own uh laptop and plug it in all right that's fine the uh we want to get that uh piece up so the uh audience can see and I'm not really concerned about a resident lot line a minor uh it's more about a major application uh Financial disclosures should be coming out when Chris April or some April a i remind everybody to make sure you file your financial disclosure it's easy to do and if you don't the state will come down and bring the hammer down on you so uh be before warrant I think they're usually do ail I think so they due in April they come out in April in the next couple month barbar's very good about getting them out to everybody uh okay with that no one else has anything else I'll entertain a motion to adjourn at this time make a motion a motion second all in favor thank you for coming out this [Music] evening e