This meeting is called to order in accordance with the public meeting act. Notice of this meeting was provided to the home news tribune, the star ledger and the Highland Park Planet on January 8th, 2025 and was posted on Borough Hall
website at www.hbbor.com hbro.com and on the bulletin board of borrow 221 South Fifth Avenue in Highland Park, New Jersey and and has remained continuously posted at required by law five exitor to my right and left of council chambers.
Aaron, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Of course. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Welcome. Mayor Foster, yes. Council member George here. Council member Hail here. Council member Hirs here. Council President here. Council member Pel here. Council member Vargas here. We're bureau
attorney here. B administrator here. Okay. Uh tonight on our discussion item, we're going to start off with 308 Ritton Avenue uh redevelopment. Yes. Thanks, Mayor. Um so uh I have been working with uh the owner of 308 Ritan
Avenue uh along with our our um planner Chris uh to they've the purchaser I guess she purchased the building probably a year ago a little maybe give or take and I know we've discussed it at various uh iterations um but they've
gotten the project to a point uh where um we are recommending as a staff that we consider a conditional developer designation which would allow us to establish uh an escrow account and agreement so that we can further vet
this concept out uh inclusive of whether or not a financial agreement makes sense based on the project. Um just to to to kind of summarize just for everybody. Um it's 308 Ritan which is the vacant property in between Elsoul and the Gold
Mine Barber Shop. Just to kind of orient you um it's uh the project that's being proposed is mixed use, meaning there's retail on the ground level and apartments upstairs about uh 28,000 square feet inclusive of the driveway uh
access that they have proposed. um 18 residential units and with uh three of them being affordable in accordance with our ordinance. Um uh the commercial space is approxim as as currently kind of sketched out 1,200 square feet of
commercial on the ground level. I should mention the owner at least as the last time I talked with her is a pharmacist and her proposal is to move her business into the building at least as of the last time we spoke about it. Uh and I know that's a important issue uh in in
our current climate. Um the there is a kind of a creative parking solution in that uh which has been proposed is a kind of a self-p parking mechanism. That's another thing we want to do a little more due diligence on to see how that would work. And probably the most ambitious element of the project that
she's proposed is that it would be a 3D printed building which would be as far as we know the first of its kind in terms of the commercial development in New Jersey of this nature which is highly ambitious as well as utilizing a lot of uh kind of green design kind of
advanced green design technology is how I would put it. Um, and so basically this what what I'm asking council to consider uh hopefully at their next meeting on your next meeting on the 24th is a resolution that would basically authorize an agreement that would
designate the owner of 308 Ritton which is unfortunately titled United Estate Family Holding LLC. Very um not hard easy to you know understand what that is. uh uh the conditional developer designation. It would it has that same
kind of time frame like we had with uh you know six months kind of to do our due diligence that both parties act kind of uh in good faith to explore whether or not the project's viable. Um answer questions about the project's expense
performance things like that as well as um any other questions we might have you know for her professionals. But I will say um the owner has put in a lot of energy into the project so far. They did post I mentioned an escro agreement, but we have been charging escros for our
planner's time, but we're going to need more uh and and really we should we should formalize that agreement now. Um we don't want to, you know, we she needs to have some assurance that we're giving it fair consideration at this point. So that's kind of it in a nutshell and I'm
you know happy to and I know we've discussed this in various formats prior but there are any questions I'm happy to feel them. Um just to say the economic development committee talked about this um speak that we we think it's a good idea to sort of move the ball forward a
little bit whereas you know there's still it's a it's a fun interesting new different kind of project. Um but that means that there is some really high upside but there's also we got to make sure we're doing things the right way. And so I think this is a process of conditional development is that we sort
of both get to vet this out for a little bit more before anything else goes forward. So I think that was that was our thought. Is that fair summary of what we talked about? Yeah, absolutely. I think you know we were excited by the green design elements. Um uh curious
about the 3D printing uh construction. I guess we would have to we would want all the assurance that it will be uh sound in construction and I don't know if the construction code is fully caught up to it. That that is that is a big question
that we will have for she has brought on somebody who's got some experience with 3D printing and you know some of that risk is on her you know to make sure it passes muster with our code officials and the state. We're going to need we've
we've voiced that concern many times. You know, we don't have that. I mean, nobody has that experience, frankly. I mean, there are some examples of 3D printed homes, but they're kind of like offsite printed and then constru but I'm I'm sure we're going to have a wealth of
questions around that. Um, the parking system and otherwise, but this at least gives us kind of a little more structured format to have that conversation. And just to Matt's point, I think we're just very excited about the prospect of that like um kind of
defunct property being revitalized and put to you know what sounds like a very promising use. Uh so and what I should say is based on our recent last time we looked at the plans, they generally conform to the 2005 redevelopment plan
parameters uh with with some of these kind of new uh design techniques included. So, we've done enough vetting of the project to know it kind of passes that first cut, but now we got to kind of slice in. But, you know, she's eager.
It would be nice to see that project move forward in some fashion just because that property has been in bad condition for such a long time. Um, and and I, you know, so yeah. May we leave this when we talked about this last because I think that we had
some concern I had some concerns about a redevelopment area, a pilot. I mean like so what is the what can you remind us what the purpose of designating this as so this would basically it does not commit us to the project or the any financial agreement but what this will
allow and what we had discussed previously was we needed them to post the escros so that we could have our professionals evaluate the numbers and evaluate um if a a financial agreement
made sense or a pilot made sense as well as um the other aspects of the project. This gives them some a little more protection that we're doing this in good faith to try to see if we can figure it out. But in and it's very clear in the
agreement and in the reszo that this doesn't mean your project isn't that is 100% not not what this is. But this basically carves out the space that, you know, you're going to post these escars, you're going to keep them replenished and and then until we get to a point
where it's either a thumbs up or a thumbs down and and and we'll move forward. But they're going to be thinking that a pilot is is that's the requ the request was that they would like they they they're arguing it would be a modest uh amount, not a huge one, to make the project work. and they're
willing to throw in some additional benefits to the municipality which I'm not prepared to present right now. But um that's the conversation that having this designation and these funds will allow us to have and bring back to the council. Did we did did they hear our
feedback about the kind of ambitious nature of the project and that that that ambition is what necessitates a pilot potentially? I mean other than instead of a normal building for example. Yeah. This is really cool though. I'm sure it's really cool. I've been watching
them in Switzerland and there's a thing in Nevada. Yeah. But they're like they're really No, it's been related prior to council from myself and they've done well, but I'm I feel that they've done enough due diligence and put enough
specifics together that we can make a reasonable evaluation. And and just to remind everybody in a redevelopment agreement, we can include timelines and things so if the project can't get off the ground, you know, there can be contingencies for that as well so that this property doesn't fall in under its
own weight, you know, uh and ambition. So there are ways we can structure that should we decide to move forward. Maybe they can build one more affordable unit. And as Terry said, they have actually when when they first brought it to us,
we were a little ner nervous and they've done some serious work to get it to this stage, right? Like they I think they heard us. I think they heard some of the things that we we said to them and have made some real effort to sort of get us to this point. So they they put in some work. So I think it's What do they do?
I'm Well, they they they just came back with with some some more concrete foot on the on the or bone meat on the bones, I guess, is of the plans. Um, it was just sort of at the beginning, my memory of it is that it was let's have a 3D building and we're going to, you know,
and I'm going to build it because I saw it on YouTube and I think they've done a lot more than that. So, I think it was just ideas, right? And no professionals. Yeah. The good thing on the redevelopment plan from our side is we can we can ask them for these details,
you know, to put more flesh on on the bones of of the proposal. We can actually ask them and they pay for us to look at it. Yeah. Is there any issue with if the developer is also the retail operator? Is that is there any issue there with the pilot or anything? I
don't think so. Yeah. I mean, if anything, because I would argue it's an owneroccupied building that makes the financials work better, meaning we're less reliant on a pilot or, you know, bigger because they're going to benefit from their own
building. So, that's, you know, it's just kind of like if you own a two, you live in one of the units, you're benefiting from it. So, I think that probably helps the financials of the project because that's money she would have otherwise been paying rent to somebody else. she can kind of put into
her own project. Um so so um there there's a lot of you know it it is ambitious but it's encouraging and I know we've been talking about wanting to see um smaller projects more infill type stuff happen not just our larger track
to HRC kind of projects. So this kind of fits that bill in my and I like it because it's women and minority owned. So those are really good components that that she's bringing to the table. What would be the difference between like say for example the former safe
drugs you know which is have which has their own building issues you know what would be the difference between others other smaller projects coming in and saying hey I want a pilot too. I mean right now the main difference is this is in a redevelopment area. Uh it's in the
2005 designated area. So, you know, it's it is to some extent on the table for properties that are conforming to the 2005 or our more recent 2019, 2020, whatever we updated it 2024 uh tract A
to D. So, it's not even on the table in areas where we've relied on, for example, on the most recent one, 810 North Second was a small redevelopment plan, but it was using the rehab uh statute to adopt the plan, which doesn't include long-term financial agreements
as a threat. So, that's one criteria. And certainly if you guys are going to you know consider that here we can have that conversation about well what are what do we you know what kind of parameters are we comfortable with you know community benefits environmental benefits things like that um obviously
the affordable housing we're always looking to encourage that of course um so but the main difference between them and any other property is the the 2005 redevelopment at least puts it on the I don't know if I have a good handle
over this over this proposal. Um, but I I'd be willing to support it right now. But I I it's I don't really understand the financials or the neither do you. That's why that's why we need we don't have the financial information. That's what this will be kind of jumping us
into. And what I can share with everybody is the draft agreement and resolution that the attorneys have put together. So you get a better handle on what the council at the next meeting is going to be, you know, asked to do, which is really just the designation and
the escrow agreement. Uh, and it it's very clearly not, but it acknowledges as of right now, the project looks like something like I just read off right out of the agreement, the parameters. Um, looks like that. And that's that's what we're we're basically saying, okay, we
you know, we you know, it seemed like there was at least a general interest enough and we were very clear it's not a slam dunk moving, you know, but that you know, we are basically indicating that we are willing to give this thought and we're
not we haven't closed the door. Any further discussions, questions? Okay. So, Terry, please do send information around. Sure thing. So, everybody can have it.
So, okay. So, we're going to move this is going to be on I would like to request because you know I I believe they're ready and and you know at the 24th if if no that's why I was asked if there's any other the reszo and the
agreements are ready yeah I think this is one that we'll need to okay so because of the ordinance issues we might have to adopt we I think we need to keep a closer eye on this one as it goes through the early stages rather than just have it come back in six months
because I think we're gonna have to change some ordinances here. Sure. All right. So, uh, you have I just want wondering when when will we be able to see the agreement? I I could forward it to you when I get back to my desk. Okay. Um, we'll I'll get a copy of the
agreement. Well, I can't vote. I mean, if I need to see it, we're not voting tonight. I know, but I mean to We're voting to allow for this to be on the agenda, right? We're not voting. We're not voting. We're saying we're going to add it to the agenda. I mean, the my
request is us to consider it on the 24th if you would, you know, and that's that's what I would ask the mayor to put it on the agenda, but you know, there's nothing saying it has to be. Okay. Show of hands. Who would like to see it on the agenda? Okay. I'm going to move forward with
putting it on your on your agenda. Please send that document out so everybody can have a look at it. It was not unanimous and and yes, please note it was not anonymous for to be on the agenda. They had no extension. Okay. Number two, he
know I can follow that which is okay. So, um, in in 2001, uh, the bureau entered into a mortgage agreement with, uh, the New Jersey housing, uh, housing and mortgage finance agency, uh, for a series of, um,
a lowinccome uh, properties, about 75 units. That mortgage was a 25-year mortgage. It was $200,000. And the terms of that mortgage were it was at a four and a half percent interest that compounded. But each year the operation had to look at its revenue, see what it was able to take in from the state. This
is very subsidized housing. Uh and if they were able to make payments on the interest, they would. But if not, then that interest just continued to acrue at the end of the 25 years, which is the end of this month. Um all of the principal and the acred interest comes
due. They approached us because um their their current deed restrictions and the pilot agreement that goes with those deed restrictions extends for another five years. So it goes out until 2031. So uh what we're putting forward is a resolution to amend the mortgage
agreement to allow them to have the mortgage expire at the same time that the deed restriction in the pilot would. Now in doing that they are we are working on extending out that deed restriction for another 30 years. Um, and I'm assuming the pilot would go with
it. Um, so that's effectively we're going to do this and in exchange they are going to extend extend the deed restriction out and do whatever they need to do in order to make sure that those those properties stay deestricted. Um, we'll take you through this this section of the the active report stage four right now and we'll take you for
another 30 years thereafter. Uh, the nice part with this too is that in doing so you'll continue to earn interest. So right now we estimate that the interest acred was about $216,000 and at a $200,000 principal. So that $200,000 principle that 216 will be memorialized in this and then you'll continue to earn
interest in an acrewed fashion. That will all come due now November of 2030, questions I know Matt doesn't have one because this was your project for a while there, wasn't it? It I mean kind of oversight when you were on the housing authority.
I remember you bringing this to me. We're discussing it. No, this is great. Thank you for Thank you for Yeah. All right. Any questions? Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that I understood correctly. So, I guess to be clear in terms of deed restrictions that we'd be extending for 30 years is the affordability. Uh yeah. So, they're
actually getting uh money toward the rental properties uh through the state. So, this isn't just like deed. I mean, this is like a truly subsidized housing. Um, which is a wonderful thing to have in the town and it and it has really uh held a lot of folks. It's going to
extend that deed restriction on those properties past 2031. And what we're working on is another 30 years thereafter. So, um, that that's at least the plan otherwise, you know, and that's the only reason why we're looking to do extensions. That's just trying to make everything line up together. Where which
units are Yeah. Where for the record, where is the So this is so element across from the Kronman building that's run by Conifer. Um that's the building that's called a height. I've
called it book numbers, page numbers, blocks, lots and block 57. Yeah. So um so yes, that's a better better. People often think it's public housing. It's the building right across the street. So if your if your back is to the front of the Croman building, you're scaring that pretty
much building we're talking about maybe a little too late. Yeah. Oh, I just want because I hadn't heard anything about this before, so I just wanted to make sure I understood. We started the conversation early. So we're starting with the mortgage now. We're well in advance of the deed restriction
kind of expiring. But because they needed to do that, we're starting the conversation that we wouldn't have had probably for another four years. We we've just kind of started now one one thing we we did discuss it at finance at least once um because I knew this was coming and it was kind of convoluted sounding and I needed Karen's help to
explain it but it actually got a little simpler because we're basically doing step one and is we're extending five years. It doesn't no skin off our nose to extend the mortgage additional five years. um if we can't make it work or if they can't make it work because they've
explained to us they want to do the additional 30 years but they've got to layer in all their subsidies. It's not our pilot alone should we agree to extend it another 30 years may not be sufficient to to run that operation as as subsidized as it is. Um, so they'll
have to explain to us all those particulars and this gives them they basically get out a few years to figure it out and we'll we'll kind of be there along the way trying to figure it out. Um, so because I I don't think we donated that land and did this so that we one day revert to market rate, you
know, in five in 2031. I will say what and one thing that gave me some comfort to know was if for some reason we can't make the deal work and the project does revert, there is a three-year Yeah. If you could explain that. So, in the current agreement, there's a three-year de uh there's a deed restriction. If the
deed restriction expires and they have to go through the state for these, so there's some it's a little bit more complicated on their end. Uh it has that for three years, they can't remove any of those residents. So, if the residents leave over the course of three years, that's fine. Then those apartments will cycle, but we'll at least have a little bit of a buffer uh if they decide to no longer go with the deed restriction that
that you know, we'll be able to to figure some things out for these folks. But, like I said, when I talked to them, they have absolutely at least what they have relayed to me was that they're not even considering. they just want to continue the project as is. They want to extend it out. They they like where it's at. Um, ironically, and I think really
their point was we did a 30-year pilot, a 30-year deed restriction, and a 25 year mortgage. And they were like, why didn't we just do it 30 years? It should have been 30 and everything just kind of comes together. Yeah. So, pretty pretty straightforward. Uh, I would also, you know, just so you
all are aware, right now the way it is, uh, we haven't actually received any money in terms of the mortgage or the interest payment yet. And I just to kind of reiterate that. So, so it's not like we are losing revenue or anything like that. It's it's right now the way that the agreement was done is it's only if they're turning a certain amount of profit do they make these payments or at the expiration of the mortgage. So,
we're we're not changing any dynamic of where we are right now. We're just giving them a little bit more time at more interest before they finally pay us. So, it'll be one that one we are under some pressure to get done because like he mentioned their their term
expires at the end of the month. So, and we've been they've been very good about working with us. I wouldn't want to. So, I'm hoping you guys are comfortable at this point to agree to that. Um, because they're they're going to have to hustle if we don't make it work. So, I uh like a few questions came up.
So, is it a fixed rate that they have or Okay. Yeah. So, well, so it's it's a four and a half interest, right? But, you know, the everything's compounded. So, and because they're not making any of the payments, they have the compounded interest plus the principal that they know. So that's why we're estimating about $216,000 in print in
interest payments and $200,000 in principal is what's currently owed. And then that will go up by another, you know, 60 months of interest. It was a pretty straightforward mortgage, which is kind of nice. So it's it's because we're not bank so we go
through a little bit easier to do. Just one follow question to that. So, I guess um sort of what we're giving up in exchange for the extension of the affordability controls is the OT restrictions is that um we would be getting the payment for the mortgage in
the near future, but we're delaying that by five years. We are, but we're lining it up with the current deed restriction. Right. Which makes sense. Yeah. and and you know look everyone can say this is what we want but sometimes the economics
might change it. So you know part of I think their concern is they want to extend out so it all kind of lines up so their finances are on the same page. It allows them to now go through and try to extend the deed restriction. In the reverse is we could, you know, and the council certainly has this right is to say we don't want to extend the mortgage anymore, to which case the mortgage is
going to come due pretty much in the next couple weeks, but they may turn around and say, "Well, then we're not going to look to extend up the deed restriction, and then we'll have to start that process." So, um, my advice or my recommendation is is I I think the extension makes sense. It's it's at the end of the day, it's we're going to
attract the interest. We're going to attract a balloon payment. It's going to be a little bit more money to the town and it's going to secure you in all like an a good extension on affordable housing. There's an important Yeah. Yes. I I would it would be a little hard to
imagine if that just all of a sudden was a you know it's just it's it's hard to imagine. Um especially, you know, we're in such good position with all of our numbers and you know, and and we would also that's like a fifth round accomplishment because if we get that
done during the fourth round and the then that's absolutely we run right into round five, whatever that looks like, you know, in a very good position. That's what I was going to say too is number one, it doesn't look like a project that would do a lot in the open
market. Um, number two, it is a major cherry for fifth round. Um, because it's going to come due when we have to start putting the mortgage going to be due when the restrictions come off. So, we may actually be able to take credit for something that's just going to happen
anyway. Uh, and the third thing is it's really probably one of the most affordable of anything that we call affordable town. So, I think we need to do that. Yeah. The fact that this is subsidized through the state as well is is a huge benefit to the folks. Absolutely.
Okay. Sounds good. Good. Wonderful. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Ask him now because Aaron's not gonna be at the next meeting. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's all right. Ask it in advance of his vacation. So, that way. Okay. Number three,
sustainable New Jersey. Yeah. I just wanted to take a few minutes. I wasn't intending on a full deep dive on these actions, but I did print out copies. Matt and I are crazy about this because we love to go to that conference. You do. Um, but I am going to do a take one and pass it down if you don't mind. Um, I'm going to start with the complete
green streets policy. I did email this right before the meeting so you have this digitally, not because I expected you to have read it. Um, I did share it with public uh safety and but we didn't get into the weeds that I basically wanted to walk you through what this was and what the proposal is then give you
time to read it and we're going to loop back around. I am hoping we can uh move forward on this as a policy not an ordinance because frankly for us to get I think it'd be better to try it out as a policy. They give you two options with sustainable Jersey policy as by reszo or
policy by ordinance. Um, but I'll give you my rationale for why. But with sustainable Jersey, all of these actions are we have one last chance to submit our actions in July. I think by the end of July. So for us to if we're going to do this and we think it's pretty close and we can do it, you know, I'm going to
really encourage us to try to get that on the July 1 agenda. So, what I wanted to do because it's a lot of material and I thought if I could just give everybody my preamble um and then we can ask some high level questions but give you some time to look at it outside of the meeting and then we can we can follow up
as needed. But Peter Bilton from uh safe walking and cycling took the sustainable jersey uh model resolution and policy and the reason I suggested and I should mention I met with the chairs because a lot of this policy falls on
administration because it's really about how do we integrate bike ped safety into our routine decision-makings about road projects about uh redevelopment projects all of that of and it creates a really good
template for how to do that. It also creates some accountability mechanisms that aren't no work for me. Uh like a report you do every year, but you know, we're not doing, you know, millions of miles of rogue projects a year. It's it's it's doable. Um but the reason I was suggesting we consider a resolution
as opposed to the ordinance is there's enough moving parts with this that I wanted the opportunity. I thought doing it by reszo would make it easier to make adaptations, learn from experience, and then jump in with the ordinance once we've had a little ch chance to look at it. Plus, in my grub for points, as I
like to call it, I can't get an ordinance done by the deadline. I can do a resolution by the time. There we go. Um, so what you have here is the model that sustainable jersey promulgates and there's a color coding there where basically the items, you know, there's
no way we're doing any less than tier 2 in my opinion like we're we're we're already advanced in our thinking. We do have a bike ped plan. So a lot of this advances the bike ped plan and basically creates a place for it to have have be
part of the conversation. That's how I'm looking at it. Um but basically the text in orange but according to the sustainable Jersey point structure what Peter's tried to do is tell us things that are optional versus things that are man mandatory by the different tiers and
my propos I think we could probably and I know Phil was propo a proponent of uh going for green uh the green tier here uh which is not what they call it it's a statement of jersey but that's Peter's you know uh annotation here um and So
this is really something that you know I think we can do because frankly I'm probably at the crux of these projects and I I I feel it's doable. One thing I'll point out and you'll have a chance to read this on your own. We will have
to establish some sort of kind of committee that would meet. Um, and my suggestion was going to be because this is such a cross-section that it would include um probably not like and and Phil most importantly SWAC, stack and uh
maybe sustainable and environmental and they would each send a representative and we'd probably only have to be once at the at the kind of early planning stages uh or or twice if we have a project pop up. Um, and we would use the the the policy and the templates to kind
of evaluate, you know, the project that's at hand. So, one of our road projects, for example, one of our very routine, you know, we're going to do between, you know, Dennis between, you know, second to to fifth or whatever it is. So, um, there's a lot in here, so I'm not going
to attempt to go through it all with you. Um, but what I will say is it is very much a framework for how you're going to make decisions around bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and how you're going to integrate it in. And the
nice thing, this is a very well vetted action like the road map. It's it's like there's templates and there's even towns that have already adopted these and we can use their checklists, you know. So, one of the things we'll have to do is make up a checklist for each project and that would have, you know, as specified
in the policy, certain questions we have to answer. Doesn't mean that every project, and this kind of goes with the sustainable energies pledge discussion that we'll have in a minute, um, has to do everything, but you have to go through the exercise of well, if not,
why? And because sometimes it's because you forgot, and that's not a good reason. And so we want to make sure we're picking up the low hanging things that we should be doing. And then if we're not doing them, we're doing it intentionally, not because either we didn't think about it or we're being stingy. You know, maybe we are going to
we just don't have the money and that's the reason. That's okay. Or the maintenance on the the green infrastructure. We just don't think we can manage it. It's too hard, you know, but at least we've asked the question. So that's all I was going to try to you have it in your inbox so you can read it
and if you like to read it that way. Um, and then but but I I I will circulate an updated version very shortly with what I think is a reasonable um based on the fact I mean basically Swack turned to me and was like you kind of have to help us decide what's reasonable here because
you know so much of this is done by the the Burough administration and and the and the CME team that is part of that when we're doing these projects. Uh just a quick comment when we were looking at it and going over it with Slack. Just want to point out that the
the green level um which would go for 25 points. I agree with the resolution approach. I originally would have preferred to do it by ordinance, but that was a couple years ago when we were talking about one of the older versions of it uh to do it to so we could incorporate it into redevelopment along
with some other improvements to that. However, if you look at this uh just to let you know, the green section basically is only adding accounting for each project. It's for benchmarking uh by by a theoretical oversight group
which is really just you know it's basically the committees we already have. So that the only green addition uh to take it up to the next level in the resolution is benchmarking by uh by the but basically by SWAC public safety
redevelopment and public works. Um they all have an input in that for a particular project. Again it's not everything but and there's going to be stuff that's hard to bench. You know we we do know with because we have the bike ped plan where we have gaps in the sidewalks. And
so one of the the measures that they want you to do is have you filled in that network, you know, and so we have a reasonable approximation like do I know to the like linear foot like the amount of missing sidewalk? But certainly when we fill it in, we know how what
percentage are we filling in each year as we go if we do a special program, what have you. Um so there are going to be and even Swack acknowledged uh the folks you know that there were some metrics that we're just going to do our best you know to get that baseline we're not going to make it a full B and then
we and then and then it's like every year we just have to build do a look back you know and how did we do and then I'll have to report back to all of you uh you know and we'll just make it part of our routine. That's the hard part is you know changing the routine and I know that's something you've been talking
about for a while Matt. So, I think this gets us a good way forward, but we still have to do it. This is better than than than my back of the nap napkin overlay of where bike lanes going on. I'm trying to match it up with a road road reconstruction project. Put the bike pad plan in a place of like, you know, we
have to look at I just glanced at some of the green and I'm like I can't tell you how many times I'm like, what should we do? I'm like, wait a second, my pet plan. Why am I trying to do this from scratch? Yeah, just for further some further context, I mean this was, you know, this was on Trish Sanchez's radar when she chaired
SWAK, so this has been a long time. This has been a while coming. So, this is it's great. Yeah, this is great. And I really app this what Peter did. It seems very simple, but that makes my job going through it like, okay, these are the if we have no discretion, that's like, okay, move on. Uh, but if that's why the
meetings went on till 9:00. Yeah. and and I and I think that's why we decided let's just us sit together and then just try to bang something out because I think we all were on the same page. So that's this one and I will circulate one because I have all the highlights that's
kind of like my final proposal. Um and then um we'll hopefully be in a good enough position to move it forward at the July. I do need a little more time myself. Um another take one in I feel like a school teacher. take one and pass
it around. Um, the sustainable land use pledge. I have an interesting history with this one. I'm sorry, mayor. May I move on to the second award? Yes. Yes. Um, the sustainable land use pledge is uh an action that I regret to inform
you. I authored when I worked at New Jersey Future and I somebody told me that this morning needed I regret to inform you only because I always found it to be not sufficiently strong enough you know uh when I was kind of in the advocacy role. Um that said I was the
reviewer for sustainable Jersey for many years for this action. So what I've done in the version you have here and in your inbox I've customized the pledge to a little degree to add some Highland Park flavor. Um, I also did ask Erin to review it because I know the economic
development committee wanted, you know, a take on like would this bite us in the butt in some unanticipated way in a future project. So, I'll let Aaron speak to that in a second, but essentially the first four whereases in there are straight out of s me circa 2000 whatever
that was when I helped write this. And some of these tell me that you helped write this this morning in my meeting. That's so that's hilarious. So you have so um so then but where I tried to add the flavor and I think it's kind of important it helped me think about the pledge a little bit better and this is
what I was kind of trying to address some of the concerns raised by the committee which were you know we're not going to be able to do all the good things that are in the one two three to seven on the next couple pages in every project and every plan and everything but it's basically we're pledging that
just like we're doing with the complete street policy that we care about these things and we are going to do our best to address those things in the projects, you know, moving forward. What I will say is when I was thinking about it, and this actually was prompted by recently going through the cross acceptance
exercise for the state plan, you know, almost by default, and I added the kind of last three where's uh to try to address this is like we do have a historic land use pattern that is more sustainable because it's walkable, it's compact, it's near transit, it's near,
you know, employment hubs, all those things. So when you when you look at like smart growth and sustainability from a landing perspective, we're kind of like already doing it almost because that's what we were born to do. And then I would argue in the next whereas we've
been in keeping that tradition going and if anything we're trying to double down on it through our master planning efforts, through our redevelopment efforts and so forth. So this is a story I was trying to tell in the reso. So hopefully you see it sing to you. And those are not things you'll see in the template, you know, from sustainable
Jersey, but maybe someone will steal ours one day and we'll see it in 50 towns. Um, somebody will because I'm going to send this to NJ conference of mayors. We're looking for this today. Insert town, you know, special thing. That's No, after we after we we mark it up and get it transitions into these
different categories, some of which are things you almost have to do anyway. Like Phil was saying with with some of the stuff, regional cooperation within land use, you have to notify your neighbors, but we also are in constant contact with the county, mayor meets with our neighbors regularly. We try to
to the extent that we have projects that might negatively or positively impact New Brunswick, Piscatoaway, Edison. We do do a job and we have shared services like our animal control and our health inspect. So we're we are knit in. So that's kind of to me a ring like we do
it. We'll continue to do it and we're always looking for more opportunities. The transportation choices, you know, be by virtue of where we are, we are very well situated for transit and assuming we like some version of the complete streets green streets policy, we're
already contemplating an action that would advance complete streets approach as is suggested in in this reszo. And then natural resource protection. This one's a little more tricky for us in that we are not like this. Remember, this pledge is supposed to be for every kind of town. So, we don't necessarily
have swads of environmentally sensitive areas, although we do have our ecological our quarter of that ecological preserve area, which our zoning does protect. Um, we do think about um we do have a natural resources inventory and we have been talking about
getting it updated in the next couple of years. So, you know, while not every project is going to preserve natural resources, um I think by virtue of developing in a Highland Park kind of context, we're playing our role in the protection of natural resources in the
state as I look at it and we certainly value it and our parks and our open spaces are precious to us and we we have concerns about climate. I will say glaringly omitted from this is climate change in part because nobody was using it as a it wasn't a term of art at the
time when I was drafting it you know it wasn't in the repertoire I guess in those even though we knew it was a thing so you know that's one thing I contemplated do I put a you know tip of the hat at but I decided to kind of stay within the parameters of the of the model um mix of land uses all of our
redevelopment all of our our town we just we're doing it um housing options, our affordable housing plans, our in kind of our approach. Um, this is a little broader. It's also saying, you know, a commitment to looking more generally at housing, not just kind of
deed restricted affordable, making your numbers work for fourth round, but other kinds of things like um could we look at allowing more two families in certain zones? Things that we've talked about over the years. You know, this these would this would be something that we're
willing to have those conversations. Um and then green design. Uh we we're we're already incorporating green design into our redevelopment plans. And certainly if we were opening up our um development uh and design standards, uh we could certainly consider that as well. And
there are some sustainable actions around green design that we could consider in the future. Um, and then municipal facilities sighting is kind of a dorky one in the sense that like we're not moving municipal facilities a whole hell of a lot of the time. And if we were to locate them, they're all in good
locations because we're 1.8 square miles and walkable. Uh, but you can imagine there are some communities with vast sprawling, you know, you know, and they they you know, put it over here instead of like, oh wait, why didn't we put it? So, that's one that probably doesn't
speak to our community as much as it might to another community with a lot more land to to play around with. Um, but it's still important to think about it like maybe there's a better place to put that resource than, you know, let's say we were building the teen center. You know, I think it's well situated
right by the community center by Burough Hall by some of the neighborhoods that have some more a need for for support. But, you know, we would have that conversation like, does this serve its purpose where it's located and can people get there easily? Um, so that is my I probably went longer than I I meant
to on that. And I see the mayor's yawning. So, uh, uh, but but, uh, I I I I feel very comfortable because I'm familiar with already what we're doing. And Erin, I guess just is there any thoughts you have about, you know, concerns? Could this be like in a
lawsuit one day like it's right here you pledged? No, it's just that just a pledge. Uh but I want to do the things like I I don't I'm not pledging it just because I I do want the points too, but you know. Yeah, I know. I just wanted to this is awesome. I just wanted to add that uh you know sustainable highland
park uh you know has really been you know eager to kind of promote these types of practices in redevelopment and and you know heat island effect and air quality are you know routine routine consistent and and you and greenhouse gases are addressed are they in there whereas I mean well good that was
probably the term of the day right 201 I feel a little better right um I was focused on my wherees the more recent wherees. So any other thoughts on it before and and again you'll have a chance to kind of look at your inbox and so just to just to clarify the question.
So pledges are just that. So it's not uncommon for councils to put forward resolutions where they are committing to a concept or an idea a direction that they would like the administration and the bureau to go to. But this is not an ordinance. This is not a binding agreement. you're and by the way I
pledge you know to pledge to do these things does not bind you to make every single decision in a certain way shape or form these are written in a way where we're saying this is the general concept of where we want to go but we're not pushing ourselves into one very specific we're not pigeon holing ourselves in any way shape or form I I there's no challenge that someone could make you
know no one's going to file a prerogative right and say you know three years ago the council pledged to do something and I don't think this project met that pledge that's just not the thing and and this this action has been around since I was at New Jersey Future in my early And my challenged I think we would have
had more of a problem that got in trouble. And even as we talked about some of the other project going to ordinance to resolution, it's sort of the same concept. Resolutions are are, you know, we're we're going to do things in a certain way. Ordinances make things a lot trickier and they are much more emphatic as to how we have to
do things. So, um I I like doing things by resolution and and and by pledge. I think it it creates a concept. It tells everyone the direction you want to go and it gives you flexibility to then look at a project individually and then see how it fits globally and then kind of make adjustments as you go. So you're
fine here though from a perspective. Oh, one last thing I should mention. The the other kind of Okay, we assuming there's support and you vote in favor of it um at the July 1 meeting. The the next step is we send the pledges to our planning
board and our zoning board uh members and you know, Matt will be there to try to explain you know what's going on. Uh but basically just to remind them that you know these are our values. Again, they're not going to be shocked by these values. They're their values too. That's why they're on those boards. Um, but
it's it's just a way to regroup. I think we're just lucky in that we we live this philosophy already. There are towns that don't. And so this is a much bigger lift in a town that has never thought of any of these things. And I can tell you my biggest biggest challenge people gave me when I was a reviewer was I don't want
to put the housing. And now they have no choice because the way the world has changed, but they were very petrified mentioning anything about the housing and that was like you must. So, um, so anyway, thanks for your consideration. Highland Park San this is easy, but
other towns for those at home to maybe consider like come on. You're 100% right. I was at the um the planet at Blouseing School this morning and all these towns have no concept and we talked about this that meeting that head
of thinko who was there she mentioned you with this and she was like we got to dig it up again and I was like I'll get on little did you know so as soon as we we we pass and we move on with this then we can share with the rest of the state
and say look at what we do because there were like 15 towns who said they would love to see something like this. It's true. So yeah, make sure they cite us in all of their resolutions. And that's why we wanted to make sure that our replace
look at us. All right, cool. And the last sustainable item there was the I'm not even gonna I'm gonna I promise this one's short. You may all recall, except for those of you who maybe weren't around back then, we did a survey of all of our board and
commission members, there's a diversity um uh category within the sustainable Jersey program. And it's a simple tool uh but basically we would send out a survey asking for certain demographic imi information from all and some of you maybe in in your roles on boards and
commissions completed it uh at the time basically and then we compared the that demographic and we're trying to one of the feedback we got last time was shorten it. So we tried to just limit it to kind of key demographic uh you know gender, age, time, even town you know
because we want to get a sense for how how do our boards and commissions represent the community more generally. So we also tried to tie into if it's a census data point have our categories like for age ranges
or for any other thing income whatever match the census category so that we can more easily say you know while x% of Highland Park according to the census is blah you know only blah's percent is in in our boards and commissions so and and
we recognize some people serve on multiple boards and then what happens after we do the survey Okay. Is we'll do a report back out to the council either at a work session or during one of our regular meetings. That's a requirement of the action. So, you'll hear, you know, what our findings were. That's and we're we're going to be ready to roll
out. It'll be a digital survey. It'll be anonymous. It's not like I'm collecting your name and your, you know, who you are when we get it. Um and um we're going to ask our board chairs to kind of encourage their members to take it and we're going to distribute it digitally to everybody. But as liaison to your
boards and committees, really encourage them to complete it. If they're we're going to, you know, if they don't want to fill one of the questions out, they don't have to. You know, I'm going to try to encourage people to fill as much as they're comfortable with and just try to get to the end of it. And we're trying to make it a little shorter and quicker. So, that's an action that we're
just refreshing. Uh, you know, it was done long enough ago, it doesn't continue to qualify for points. So, and it's probably interesting. We have a lot of new faces on on the boards and so anything you can do because it was like pulling teeth to try to get people to complete the surveys. Uh, so I'd really
appreciate and you you'll be copied on the distribution that goes out and you'll and you know, you'll be able to, you know, nudge them in your meetings or what have you. Maybe everybody could just take their phones out for five minutes and do it at one of their meetings. You know, I'd appreciate
anything you can do because again, we're gonna and I'm just going to say you got, you know, we're gonna give people like two weeks because really if you don't do it within two weeks, you're not going to do it. You're going to have forgotten and we'll do one last, you know, we'll do a couple reminders and so forth. So, that's just coming and it's more of just a heads up. I was just Is it like a
Google doc survey just to your point that Yeah, it's it's I don't know if you use Survey Monkey or Google or whatever. One of those tools. Yeah. and and and there is a print version so we can do it that way if somebody for whatever reason technology or otherwise we can provide it but obviously the tabulation will be
much easier if people just complete the survey um and if you can just ask for that minute on the agenda once it goes out so I believe we're trying to get this out next week so probably you're you know in the next couple of weeks and you can do like a final nudge at your
July meetings if you have time okay and Now, did you have a question on it? Um, no. Just a um Oh, the next one. No, no, no, no. Um, so, so, um, along the lines of getting the diversity survey taken out. One of the things that
we've talked about with sustainable jersey is we live them like their their values are our values. We follow and so we we able to do a lot of of things because they represent a lot of what we want and things like that. Um, but is there could we think about it that at
some point of saying by being a silver member of sustainable Jersey or if we get to gold or something like that, here are some of the other benefits that we get, right? Like what are like can we quantify those to tell people so that people see that we're not just doing it to chase points and and all that. We're
doing it because it helps frame what we do. It helps, you know, gives us a checklist for all this. But but someone if if we could help people understand exactly what those benefits Absolutely. We get grant money. We absolutely the the there are grants and sustainable
Jersey is very good about trying to reward um either people who have done specific actions in the like for the most kind of sizable answer to that question was we did the community energy plan uh number of years ago and it had
like a million things we might look at around grants available and that's where we applied for those fast chargers right um and so we got the money I think it's like $250,000 from the um BPU to do the fast chargers, which is not enough money, unfortunately. But I'll be back
to you on that. Uh but um that's right. Matt's going to write the check. Yeah, but the um the the point is if you hadn't done the plan according to the action, you couldn't have gotten in the funding for the implementation. So there are some examples of that. And then some
of these are just because it's a best practice and we care about it and some of them save money in terms of operations like EV vehicle inventories tracking that use trying to get better about replacing them when they're starting to really you know not you know
are we perfect at that but at least we're keeping our inventory up to date so that when we kind of can build some more capacity to really have a a kind of a robust approach for our in our fleet you know that saves us money in the operations. So, I I think that's a good challenge.
I'm gonna give it to Jake. All right. Um, it does. And, um, I wonder if there's probably some sustainable Jersey like document out there of why we're so awesome for your town that I can just grab it right out of. Uh, that would be nice.
Any other questions? Yeah. Please help me with the survey. and they never want to take it because you're always going to come back to it and you don't like that it's if you don't do the survey when it lands in your inbox. Um and and I should mention we are convening our board chairs for our kind of we're getting back onto our
annual meeting just just the staff and them and I'm going to make the personal plea at that meeting. Uh that's going to be the launch and maybe I'll try my trick at least get the board chairs to fill it out right sitting there with me. Um and uh and Jake. So um you know it
because it was just frustrating last time. I just remember I'm really struggling just just getting a decent participation rate. Any other questions? Okay. Now we move to South Third which Matt is jumping to talk about.
I Yes. I'm jumping to town because we had a meeting. We got a kickoff meeting. All right. I happened to call that. It was like we had to meet and I was like, okay. No, we had we had a we
had a great meeting this morning with Arterial and their staff and we met the engineers, we met the planners, we met the landscape folks. We, you know, we had known them um beforehand. Um and and it was really just sort of a an a kickoff meeting to get things started and and I thought it went really really
well. I thought we um you know we we clarified a couple they had some questions about where we were in terms of um yellow brick road and where we were in terms of right aid and the cutthrough and you know all of those things. So we we were um we've shared some some good information. Um so uh the
the the idea is that we're going to continue sort of the the internal staff meetings. We're going to sort of put some more meat on the the bones. We have a stakeholder committee which we've we've conveyed of of people from Main Street, people uh centers, people who live on the street. Um you know down the
road we'll we'll start with start with our stakeholders um to again continue to to flesh some things out. Um you know obviously the the down the road we'll have public meeting. We'll have um a listening session where you know the public can come in and say boom boom
boom and and all of that. So it was just it was it was great to sort of finally get the the kickoff. I will say that one of the things that we um uh one of the the planners, so could you give us a timeline and I said tomorrow. Um they didn't think that was going to be that
fast, but we they get the point that we are ready. We want to go to get this moving as fast as we possibly can. So um so I it it was a good kickoff meeting. I think we we got more to do and um but it's nice to actually get it going and you should definitely report on that in
your next meeting and especially that Matt told all the kids last week what it's going to be a park and next year yeah you set some high expectations like those kids went home and tell their
parents yeah park next year if I might just add to just kind of and it may have been after the point where had to jump off Matt the uh the meeting went long. We were all excited. We got we started like planning the project. You know, we couldn't help ourselves. Um but the um
kind of just to terms of engagement kind of think of it this way. We have our advisory committee which is the small group that's going to kind of we're going to kind of pitch our outreach strategy to. They're you know kind of they kind of bless it. And then we're going to have kind of smaller stakeholders. The obvious ones being uh
you live on res on South Third, the businesses immediately kind of adjacent to the plaza. Our kind of special stakeholders are going to have special concerns. Our burough departments like public works, like police, like fire. We're going to bring them in early so that we don't get excited about an
alternative that then has a fatal flaw that we hadn't think of. and also not necessarily stakeholders but adviserss to the project are going to be our engineers at CME especially around storm water issues and some of those important things and they're going to be kind of you know kind of have our a second set
of eyes on the engineering and and LRK will kind of be an adviser to the project they're not going to be at every meeting are not going to be spending a ton of money on it but it'll I consider them part of our staff and so we're going to roll them in so we hope to have kind of a proposal put together in really short order about kind of key
benchmarks and time frames. The listening session, you know, we want to do kind of an openhouse format sooner than later because we might as well just put it all out on the table, but have some parameters for that conversation. Um, and then get to work designing, you know, that's, you know, get to it as
soon as we can. So, you'll have a much more they kind of I think we gave them some key backing into dates of, you know, important events and things like that. So now that it's on them to kind of come back to us with a revised proposal. Um and as soon as you know the advisory committee kind of blesses it
and weighs in, we'll we'll share and we'll make sure all those dates get on your calendar where appropriate. Any other questions? When's it going to get Bill? Yes. You must have been in that meeting with
just wanted to suggest instead of tomorrow for deadline we go with yesterday. Um I'm just curious like in terms of some of the all kidding aside the in terms of uh I think some of the work that needs to happen underground um that is maybe just we know it has to be done
is that going to uh commence anytime soon or I'm working on the utilities water and sewer in particular that's the big ones that go through that area. uh middle middle sex water through our operations contract is coming up with the uh specs and an estimate for that
work and then I'll be back to you begging for money. Uh and the hope would be we would get that out of the way well before construction. I think that's kind of work you can do at different times of the year, especially if you're not looking to perfectly restore the the roadway knowing that something else is
coming the next year. So absolutely get that done on the front end. Um I just don't have a price so I don't know how much to ask for. So that's what I'm waiting on. And the other the other sort of infrastructure that we we talked about is actually the light brand right on Rid. And that's CME has done the
specs for C has done those specs but that's another sort of infrastructure thing. So you don't think about it but Arterial was like I was like it's got to be at least like $100,000 and they're like really three to $500,000. I'm like why is everything so it's just a bunch
of lights hanging. Uh but it is what it is. So there are a lot and then of course we have the parking lot areas you know we need to you know so we've got these kind of different sections of the project and that was what we started talking about was like how we might phase things in construction wise and
opening wise and so that works for Main Street optimally but it also works for track C. You know we got to juggle all these considerations right and I was just going to say that that that you know
We we have a million dollars. Um it sounds like a million dollars is already gone. We already spent a million. We need another million dollars. So, anybody who's got, you know, we need to be on the lookout for those types of things, right? We're going to need to be
be looking out for some additional funds as we as we move forward because this is not going to be a cheap budget. I was sorry. The other question I had was related to the funding piece. I'm curious. So, it sounds like it's already like looking like it's going to be more expensive than being anticipated
originally. Uh, but in terms of some of these like infrastructure projects and I guess just getting up and running with arterial, have we begun to draw down the um state funding that we have? Arterial is being charged against that grant. Okay. So, that's already being spent. Yeah. Good. So, that and keep in mind
that that includes the soft cost, the engineering, you know, it's not just the con, you know, the design and the construction. And so, you know, fortunately, we've invested a lot already in the permit. So, we kind of know what's doing in the intersection. And for another 15,000, we could have
bid documents for that. That's that's not too much. But then we it would be I would love to have an estimate so that we could really so the mayor could have that in her hip pocket every time she's hitting people up when she's out and about. And and we're going to be creative. We can look at um you know,
other options in our negotiations with our TRX friends and other things. We'll see what we can we can do. Um, but you know, there's only so much you could squeeze out of one thing, you know. So, we're trying to figure that out. But it became very clear, not through arterial, but even through the interview process
with the other consultants that we interviewed, they all thought it was at least 1.5 to two, some thought even way more. You know, I would anticipate that this would be more expensive. I mean, just considering a track and field was a million and a half. Exactly. And that
seems very routine. And well, we asked for 1.8, 8 by the way and we got one so that you know we knew as well. I'm sorry. I just wanted to just a quick clarification. You mentioned $300 to $500,000 for hanging lights. I missed that. Oh, no. Sorry. Street in street
intersection signals. Sorry, the light signals. I got to use the right word. So, we have to redo, you know, if you're going to close South Third on that one side, that changes all the lights. And of course, DOT makes you upgrade everything while you're there to the latest whisbang and pedestrian intervals
and all that stuff. So part of what that permit was was the plan for that, right? And and we basically told Arterial, we want to work on the other side of that, you know, like keep the the DOT permit in terms of the street intersection
alone and focus on the plaza. We may have to deal with some, you know, ADA curb ramps and things like that course, which DOT will need to review, but but we we think we know how the street signals need to work. You don't have to worry about that. And we're giving them a design so they they can back right out of it. Um, so yeah, I kind of fumbled
the term, but it's this intersection signals. The signals, which who knew that was a, you know, I was like, why can't the Jason? Yeah. So, uh, to just continue on the questioning line of questioning was, uh, what I was trying to get after was
I'm just curious like is the, um, money from DCA, the grant that we have from the state budget, is that like fully in our hands? Is it expended? No. So, there's a million dollars and we haven't charged a dime against it yet. We've been using our own funds to fund the CME
work with related to the because it really predated that money. Um, that money is there. I don't know if we've gotten an advance. Sometimes you can get an advance or not. I can't remember with that one. There's a couple different grants in the Hopper and Sage. Um uh but
that million dollars is eligible for any design and and construction work. And when we we awarded to Arterial, their chunk is coming right out of that. That leaves approximately I want to say $800,000
for the first phase, whatever, you know, eight and a half. I forget exactly what their contract amount. We may have some um So, so does that answer your question? Yeah. Well, because I guess the concern that I had was like if the money is still with the state, like it could potentially No, it's been awarded.
We have a grant agreement. I don't think I mean, I don't know. Maybe I mean, look at what's happening at the federal level. Anything else? That's exactly where I was going. Uh I I don't I don't want to speak, but I'd like to hope our our state officials would honor the commitment they've made to our Well, it's just that the potential that that there could be drastic cuts at the
federal level that, you know, severely like impact. I believe those funds are encumbered and it's not something that the state can just slice and dice away. That is I think we will get going on that uh upfront payment. If it is in fact something that we can do, we will do that. But we should also just at
least confirm that it's incumbent that if the money I don't know how they but then again I don't know how the federal government was into all these agreements and pull the rug under everybody. So I guess anything can happen if you're willing to throw everything away
agreement that we had to execute and people at the high levels of wherever in the state government you know these grants. So if you tell me that doesn't mean it's a sure thing then I don't know what to do that I can't speak to you. Yeah. Um, but I would just it might be good to let's do a draw down if we can
take a quick look and see what we can take. Whatever work usually they'll let you advance a certain percentage and then hold back, you know, increment. These are different grants. So, I don't know any of the work that we can do on the sidewalks like to get underground and do that that work that doesn't involve shutting down the street. Um, I
don't know. Might be good to Oh, yeah. Expedite. Just that's the only money I have to do anything, Jason. So, that's the money that we'll spend first 100%. But I think Jason's good. That's a good point. Let's get it sooner. Let's get the money in our congress. Right. I I'll
see if we can get it. I'm not sure how that works. Yeah. No, there are other grants that we have through DCA where the community center roof, for example, was like, "Oh, you're you can ask for an advance." And it's like 25% of the grant. So, we can certainly do that. It's no skin off our nose. It's an easy
application. um you know, we don't necessarily need it to keep the project afloat, but given what you said, I think it's I think it's prudent to follow Jason's lead on this because we don't know what's happening. I was speaking to someone, a lawmaker, and they're saying might be September before we get a budget. And I was like,
I think they'll pass some budget, but this would have been last budget. They have to they might reopen it. Yeah. And then that's what they were saying might Jason just to be clear I believe this was last year's budget. It was it
was it was there's still money but yeah there's only so much I could do. We could probably do a drive around 250. I mean we can take a look what what we're saying is take a look and see what the possibilities are because it's crazy. But we can't do that sidewalk work until we have a better sense of
what the rest of the project is, you know. Oh, sure. I just that is like I mean because I don't know you know the construction Jason will die if this doesn't well well actually the other thing I think we learned more recently is that we're very comfortably below our borrowing threshold for like what's a good practice I feel like we have
borrowing capacity that we do although what you borrow you must pay back and that we want to be careful and things like that but absolutely I think we're going to have to look at all those sources of revenue to make this project you know happen and um I think we all
knew that eyes wide open. Um it's just it's reconfirmed and basically we told them let's go for a $2 million project but we don't want to take things off the table that they really want. So you know we we have we want to have I don't want them to say rule out an idea just because oh that's going to really throw
this off but they they asked for a number. So we said okay two you know as kind of an outer number that we would want to consider. Um, so I don't think it's worth the investment if it's something down the road that we need to bond for a portion of I think the community would agree that
it's worth the investment. I guess that's they're really really want any other questions on this one. All right. Okay. Now we go to number five. NJTPAS. So I had asked to put this on the agenda because I thought we might have an
opportunity. We did have an we do have an opportunity you apply for this program. It's it's kind of a technical assistance program run out of NJ North Jersey transportation planning story whatever. Um and the one good thing about going to conferences is you network and I was sitting in the um I
had this on the agenda already. I was in the conference at the planning and redevelopment conference and I saw like half of the staff of the NJTPA you know Jeff Crowman and his staff. Yeah. Exactly. And I'm like, not for nothing, would this be something that you'd considered? And the idea I had was to
restyudy the one weighing of Magnolia and Benner in light of the redevelopment and on South Third and I really love the idea and I had seen something in the this the you know project description that thought oh it had the word complete streets in there maybe it would go and they basically said no they really want
townwide things. they want something. It's due at the end of the week, but they did say they have a complete streets test assistance that they thought that might be a good candidate for. So, now that's on my radar. So, I apologize for the false start here, but I wanted to talk about it because I would have to apply for it before we had
an ability to do a reso. Um, and but we're not going to apply at this time. Save Rujo a lot of time. She'd already started it. So we have the idea and it's something that came up when we had thought we were getting the funding through the federal government to do the the some portion of North 8 and the one
ways on on and I think it's a valid point that we need to revisit it look at the feasibility and if we don't think that the configuration that's in our bike pan makes sense anymore what could we do to get the same kind of through traffic for bikes and the safe kind of a
dedicated bike space on kind of parallel rare you know that that was the goal with that that proposal. So, alas, on hold, but we will you will see it again uh when when the if I see any other opportunities. But I really like that it was kind of TA because that's what we
really needed. Um and they have the expertise there. Um so, so that was easy. No action needed. Okay, Matt, I just wanted to mention that at the conference that um Terry just talked about, Terry gave a presentation that
rocked the house. So I just wonder an audience that consisted of Matt, Chris, Ratuja, but it was it was about super navigating a food crisis. I have to give my PowerPoint to anybody who wants to listen, but uh it was basically they wanted us to shout on Mayor wants your
PowerPoint. Okay. It was basically telling Can happy to do it. Um, but basically telling our superfood story, right, and how we we tackled it using kind of all the toolbox meth methods we had available to us and and it was I
actually really enjoyed it and I it was actually how it was a little like PTSD putting it together, but then you know it was it reminded me it's kind of like okay I'm going to apply these to write a you know same lessons different situation you know we can we can do this
and um so thank you for the app. It really was a good presentation. Got good comments. People were really, really interested. So, thank you. And I like the other speaker, too. So, we did it. We did it. It was a good The title was not a good title. I I felt like the branding. I did not write it. I was
like, you know how you skim the conference thing? It was like harvesting growth, you know, navigating the challenges. It was like, oh, nobody's going to know what this is about by the title. The new normal. Everything's the new normal. Yeah. Everything's the new normal. uh harvesting
and some people thought it was going to be about you know warehouses made for growing food you know I was like no that's what this is not a good title can I just add to the chorus of patting patting you on the back and ourselves on the back is is is like I you know just
in in my in my day job people ask us from other towns you know how what what we the steps that we took in the grocery store yes um you know the hands-on approach I think that part took mayor now I have slides But I can it was a big one today at the the conference today. That was another thing that came up.
Okay. So, yeah, kudos. That's awesome. Yeah. And I told him to reach out to you. All right. No, and I already did talk to I think the Chattam mayor, the North Chat mayor. North. I I kind of glump a lot of those towns. Like I don't know them well enough to
know which is which. But yeah, happy to share. It's they're all tools we all have. It's just doesn't work for your town, you know? Right. Right. Right. All right. Any other questions on this? Okay. Now, it's time for public comment. Anyone online? Nobody online. And I
guess member. Okay. So, seeing that there's none, I'm going to skip that and going to go right to adjournment. So, move. All in favor. Good night. Or I'll see you next Tuesday. Everybody. This was good. This
was very productive. Was very Angela. Enjoy your vacation. Hey, good job. And you know, we get into the meeting. It saves everything. It's for the growth.