##VIDEO ID:nRnYFR3hNII## it's notated I'll def to the board CL close good evening everybody uh today is Thursday January 23rd 2025 for planning board business meeting please join me in a salute to the flag pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all this meeting has been duly advertised according to section five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 otherwise known as the sun Sunshine Law notice of the 2025 annual meeting schedule has been provided to the officially designated newspapers the Township Clerk posted on the township website and available at the Hillsboro Township municipal complex uh all application documents will be made available on the Township's website at least 10 days in advance of the meeting complete application files are available in the planning and zoning department for inspection in accordance with the public meeting notice and with that can I have a ro roll call of all board members and professionals Mr is Mr Wagner here Mr flag here Mr rewitz here Mr V here Miss Smith here Mr Smith here committee man present mayor Chelli here Vice chairman P present um chairman s is absent Mr pres uh Miss Paul here and Mr H here um Mr Paul paace he's here and I'm here okay thank you very much uh next up is consideration of meeting minutes uh on the agenda tonight there is the meeting minutes of December 12 2024 however I we do not see him loaded up on Civic clerk so we will defer those meeting minutes until next meeting um consideration of resolutions seeing none we'll move on to planning board business uh and number one is master plan Amendment land use element January 2025 Mr Co would you want to take it away yes thank you Mr chairman as you're all aware the Hillsboro Township planning board is currently undergoing a comprehensive Master Plan update however the proposed master plan Amendment land use element uh for tonight is a result of a settlement agreement between the township of Hillsboro and and Lin entities uh the lawsuit was filed on July 31st 2023 following the passage of ordinance 20 23-8 on June 13 2023 to remove warehousing shipping and receiving facilities as a principal permitted use in the i1 I2 I3 light industrial districts the GI General industrial district and Li light industrial district it also removed warehousing shipping and receiving from the de definition of an industrial or Office Park since the adoption of the ordinance a total of 87 certificates of non-conformity have been issued by the township zoning official most of which are located in the LI District uh this amendment recommends permitting smallscale Logistics facilities as a principal permitted use in the LI light industrial district and other such standards uh this amendment is intended to maintain the character scale economic viability of the stated uh Li District once this amendment is adopted it will be incorporated into the ongoing master plan as part of the land use plan element as we dive into the document itself U most of which I just stated is within the document in the introduction it then goes on to uh talking about the study area for the purpose of of this amendment uh the study area is the LI District which consists of nearly 300 acres most of which are developed with the exception of approximately 43 Acres just give you a little bit history of the LI Zone it was created in 2009 uh previously this area was in the GI General industrial district uh in 200 9 it was recommended as part of the 2005 master plan amendment that the purpose of the new Li light industrial district is to provide areas where a wide range of office industrial and other non-residential uses are permitted within the limits of design and environmental regulations uh under planning considerations uh just keep in mind as I stated before we we do do have the ongoing uh Master Plan update and there's several new goals that are are being considered they're not yet adopted so for the purpose of this amendment it's still the current goals that that Township has and so for that purpose I have a number of them uh stated that shows that uh essentially this amendment is consistent with all the goals that are that are stated here uh a lot of it has to do with uh having an appropriate land use pattern for the township uh exercising stewardship over the land and Waters uh to ensure the resources are available for present and future Generations uh emphasis on the community design to encourage development of employment areas uh near residential neighborhoods but with design that assures peace and Solitude of residents and as we go into the recommendation a lot of this has to do with finding the right and appropriate scale for the use to fit within within the area uh Transportation minimize the impacts of transportation system on the environment including air and noise pollution and for economic development uh expanding employment opportunities by encouraging the development in appropriate areas and consistent with available infrastructure and supporting services and also to promote employment opportunities and locations compatible with existing proposed development then the document goes into the recommendations the use that's being recommended is essentially uh trying to respect what has essentially been built in the Li and that's currently operating there uh the terminology for the use is is called smallscale Logistics and it explains all the all the different uh different functions that could take place within that definition uh if this amendment is approved the township committee can take any of these recommendations and and choose to apply the appropriate standards to to enact it and put it in place um another recommendation is to change the definition of an industrial or Office Park from a use to a designed standard uh just give a little bit of background on that the way the ordinance was originally designed uh it had considered warehousing shipping receiving as its own principal permitted use but it also talked about industrial parks or office Parks as being its own individual principal use when you would go into the definition for an industrial park it gave a general statement that warehousing shipping receiving was permitted when the Township community took action they not only took warehousing shipping receiving out as a principal permitted use but they made sure to also take it out of the definition and so what this recommend recommendation is trying to do is is to treat a Industrial Park more as a a design for like a from a function standpoint instead of uh considering a use uh this would clear things up in terms of how we administer things within the office as well um uh this is a a really important recommendation it's limiting the building size to 41,000 Square ft except for the large format Supermarket when we look at all the current industrial buildings within the LI District there's no building that's larger than 41,000 Square ft uh the next recommendation was to also reduce the height maximum to two stories or 35 ft it was previously UH 60 ft and for this to be consistent with the master plan and the goals especially when it comes to having an appropriate scale uh this was an important recommendation to include and then uh limiting the maximum loading docks from one per 5,000 square ft uh that's basically representing what is currently in the LI uh maximum so there's a variety of different industrial buildings throughout the district that are either owned by Lin or owned and operated by other entities and the most loading docks that are included in any of those buildings are are are one per 5,000 square fet and with that said those are all the all the recommendations okay any questions from the [Music] de Dave I have a question thanks for putting this together um the height maximum to 35 feet we've come across this um on another application is there anything that establishes the elevation or from where that 35 ft is measured So currently we would still be going by um the current definition within the ordinates that measures it from grade to the highest part of the roof structure uh there could possibly be a recommendation in here to uh if you wanted to uh include it that we could that we could potentially change that I I think it's actually a larger scope okay than th than just this right so we don't want somebody putting up 15t embankment and putting 35 ft on top of that and that's that's what we're trying to avoid which is what happened on another site so I think we need to consider from a global standpoint how we handle that in the master plan maybe not in this document right but from a from a global standpoint how do we how do we measure it because it again it we could change it for this one but then we're going to change it for every other one right so I think we need to as we revisit the master plan need to consider that definition and how it flows through into the rest of our um master plan and ordinances understood uh for those of you who recall the the definition essentially is two sentences uh the first one I'm just going to paraphrase it because I don't have it in front of me right now but the first sentence talks about measuring it from the grade uh essentially up to the roof uh the second sentence talks about when a structure faces uh two right of ways it could actually be measured with the average uh some of the Len properties in the LI are actually a pretty good example of this because a number of those warehouses actually uh front on on public roads on on both ends and so the majority of those buildings are actually built a little bit under 30 30 square feet uh but they do get uh to use that second part of that definition that gets to use the average aage meaning to regularly a when a structure just faces one road uh all parts all faces of the structure have to can't be any larger than the maximum measured from grade to to the roof but we could certainly keep that in mind and incorporate it into the rest of the update well it seems to be a gap right if we're measuring from two roadways why would we not re measure from one but so it it's just a gap I think we need to close yeah agreed I I I think originally the the thought process was that when the roads being constructed it's it's very possible from one road to another they're going to be at different elevations and I I think uh that was some thought to that uh but we could take a look at it and um see how it applies to everything else thank you you're welcome great thank you mayor um I got David are there any structures and I'm in this complex that are over the 35 ft like that isn't there um at the end of raider and Striker uh they used to do juice RC RC Fine Foods are they over that 35 fet and would they need to have a a waiver for an existing building rc5 I I don't believe they're over 35 square feet 35 not square feet excuse me 35 ft in height I I don't believe they're higher than that I guess we just we can confirm that just because otherwise we put them in non-compliance situation correct if if they are any structure that ends up being higher than the 35 square ft if they're completely destroyed uh they would need a variance to be rebuilt it higher than 35 they could be rebuilt at the 35 though okay what what would you advise so I I guess um you know we can we can move this I just would like to know from our standpoint because they're obviously not here to okay to talk about it in front of us as a owner if they were notified or not okay Markin was but just to make sure if if they are in compliance with this number or or not okay we can make sure and certainly uh before the introduction again if this amendment is approved by by the planning board we could certainly make sure before the ordinance is introduced okay okay anybody else David I have a question um this the map that's on the um proposal the showing the uh the area that's in this the section is this the entire remainder of the light industrial zone or yes that's that's that lighter gray is the entire Li District okay got it so it's nowhere else in the township it's nowhere else in the township there are plenty of those zones that are called L industrial but they're they're all technically different uh this is the only one that's the LI light industrial district got it okay thank you all good all right so uh with that um would anybody want to make a motion to recommend this updated master plan Amendment land use element oh okay motion open to public so moved okay all in favor I all right anybody from the public please come forward state your name and location good evening uh Brian Tarantino From on Fairfield Lane how's everybody doing tonight um so I wanted to start by really um uh commending the township committee for back in uh 2023 passing the the change to eliminate warehouses as a as a permitted use in the township I think it's the right it was the right action um it was good for the town it was good to um to recognize that it was causing that kind of high intensity that we really are not wanting in our town and I think that's that was a really great thing of course going to be people that are unhappy about that and you know we have to contend with that but uh certainly that doesn't mean it wasn't the right uh step to take um I'd also like to commend I don't know if it's you guys or the township committee for uh seeking to settle um this the Lin um uh suit I think that's the right thing to do Lin's an important uh corporate Citizen and so taking that kind of Step um really makes a lot of sense uh the concern that I have is uh not re the concern that I have is that there could be um there could be a loophole um that would result in uh a developer building multiples of these 40 1,000 squ foot buildings and still have a a plot that would have the same kind of intensity that we were that was originally intended to be avoided so for instance we know Village shop rate is was in was proposing to subdivide their property and build a 171,000 foot building um they didn't submit a complete application and are suing us all uh for their lack of completeness on their application but they certainly could uh use this new um smallscale Logistics facility to I don't even know if they would need to subdivide they could take that plot and instead of putting 100 71,000 ft building that could put for 41,000 squid and they would get the intensity that they were looking for and by the way they they were looking they were proposing 34 loading docks with four 41,000 foot they could get 32 loading docks so they would still get their loading docks they would still get pretty close to the square footage they were looking for so that's my concern is that that um while this is a a really good thing to do I think uh I don't have any argument with the 41,000 um I just want to make sure that there's some protection against um folks getting creative and and um bypassing you know what you guys are trying to do one suggestion I would have is there would be a total limit on the number of square foot for small scale Logistics facilities that you can propose for a particular piece of property or for a particular development application I would suggest that that might be 41,000 square feet um but perhaps there's a more elegant way to do it and I would defer to your judgment about how you might want to do that but my suggestion is my concern is that as written today um somebody like Village shoppr could just basically get what they were originally looking to to get thanks for hearing me great thank you for the input Mr Tarantino we appreciate it um yeah any and all input is welcome yeah appreciate it anybody have any comments on that um think you know we can we can parse it and you know try to slice it and dice it any way we can but I you know we may come back around to the same uh issue of a property owner saying you just devalued my property and I want to sue you some more so you know I I think that's kind of my thought on that anybody well we are in a an active lawsuit with them so probably should not say anything publicly about it okay thanks for your attention to it yeah I app we do David actually I have a question based on uh what Mr Tarantino brought up I thought I saw something about the F in here what what is the f f for this District uh it's an excellent question get that for you where are you looking to need some music Je I I could take any other questions too as well excellent multitasker um f i don't expect you to know every single District so sorry there too many districts I've tried um thank you excellent I cannot re all right so let's see here actually it might be written out as okay the FL a ratio is 0.30 that's current Max maximum and so Mr chairman may I address some of the items that were brought up uh just to go back to committee leani uh while it's not specified in this master plan Amendment uh we do already have a draft ordinance in place and uh one of the catchalls that's included in there is talking about non-conforming structures so there's actually a a catch all that's included in there that says that any ible accessory structure lawfully created which shall accidentally be destroyed may be replaced in the same location as occupied under the same specifications on the lot immediately prior to said accidental destruction and shall not constitute a nonconforming use um the reason why we included that was exactly for what you brought up just in case there are some structures that were slightly higher than 35 square fet uh to adjust what Mr Tarantino brought up um while right now within the document it doesn't have a specific square footage maximum within the definition the proposed ordinance would actually include the 41,000 Square fet by doing that that means you you couldn't have more than 41,000 square feet on on any lot uh so that that would be the max someone would have to subdivide the property to um let's see here the minimum lot area for the LI is two acres so someone could potentially put a 41,000 square foot on a 2 acre lot but they would have to conform with all the other standards including floor AA ratio impervious coverage so that's another way to actually manage the intensity those are existing those are existing existing standards correct uh essentially what's in the recommendations are things to further make the Zone stronger in terms of managing the scale size and scale of of any new buildings that could potentially come into the district right think that answers that thank thank you David you're welcome okay um motion to close to public so moved second all in favor all right okay all right um any comments counselor on this good make them any more from uh our engineering Pros planners planners don't call them Engineers I I'm an engineer now okay miss ball this is great this is great for me uh we have no we have no further further comments great thank you so much for the presentation so with that now when anybody would like to make a motion to recommend uh this amendment to the land use plan element and I believe this gets a recommendation to the governing body so we're not specifically passing something uh until the governing body actually passes it so this is a recommendation from not correct okay I guess I I'll move make the motion I'll second okay roll call please Amendment voting yes Wagner yes yes yes yes Miss Smith Mr Smith yesi yes yes thank you all right uh next on the agenda is an update on the fourth round of affordable housing counselor do you have a an update so and David was good enough to put together a little outline here what some of the critical dates are some of them have already come and gone obviously um but most coming next is this resolution committing to certain numbers now the DCA under the new law was obligated to come out with numbers for both the present need and the perspective present need is the rehabilitation that be housing units that are occupied by lower inome families that are substandard that whatever and so that's the prison need perspective need would be new construction so there's two numers DCA comes out with the numbers under the new law and every municipality has the right to make its own determination as to those numbers but there has to be some obviously some jic some support for them uh and then by the end of this month January 31st the Gover iption committing to whatever numbers they decide either dca's numbers or their own numbers um and if you miss the deadline you lose your immunity to builders remedes so it's important it's critical that that deadline committee is considering resolution there some adjustments to the perspective need that are set for in the resolution and then once that resolution is adopted we have 48 hours to follow asking that for certificate comp once that law is filed it gets sent to what is called the affordable housing and the program is going to adjudicate if there's a challenge third parties can challenge what the municipality determination is and the program will adic those those challenges so after January 3state next deadline is February 28 that will be in which third party has to file challeng to municip determination ofec um by March 1 municipalities obligations are established by default if there are no challenges so if no one files a challenge by March 1st those are the numbers uh by June now here's a critical piece Bo which is by June 30th that's the deadline by county has to ad a housing elementare buy that and that has to be done by June 30 and then similar to theing 31 can I'm sorry should have been using my microphone no one can hear me right I have to start all over I to start all over right what he said wor I got okay as long as the reporter got me matters so so um housing element of fair share plan has to be adopted by June 30th third parties have the right to challenge the housing element and fair share plan that has the deadline for that challenge is August 1st uh and uh similar to The Challenge to the housing numbers if they don't meet that deadline then it is accepted and then March March 15th is the deadline by which the township committee has to do adopt all resolutions ordinances to implement the housing uh element of fair share plan and his zoning changes Etc so those are all the critical deadlines uh under the new law the new law was in theory uh a concept to allow for some flexibility for municipalities to determine their own Fair share housing obligation numbers um we'll see how it works in practice I guess but um that's kind of in a nutshell where we are at the moment the critical deadline is the day by which the township committee has to consider the resolution uh with respect to the numbers great thank you questions um yeah I'm just curious when uh there's a challenge by a third party typically what type of party would be a third party that would challenge would it be typically it would probably be the fair share um housing center okay uh it could be anybody really contractor developer it could be a developer yeah any any third party can challenge the numbers all right so we have a little bit of work to do on that do should we I don't know if it's appropriate for David to just put a little more detail on that or I mean I could but fill in the blank I mean we so we were given the DCA designated us for determined 565 um the future need our our our consultant has been doing work to reduce that number and we have a proposed number that's less than half of that right to be finalized or well is it to be finalized or not and then um and then I understand that there's another step in the process here for a a vacant land adjustment when when would that happen when would the vacant land adjustment occur so John the vacant land adjustment so there's a couple of things and I put together the resolution for uh so I'm familiar with it obviously uh and Jen beam who's the planner is working on the adjustments to the perspective effective need number and as he indicated DCA came up with 565 and Jen's recommending about half um I did speak to Jen on the uh present need number as well uh and um there's not time to do this now but what I've seen in some municipalities is what what the COA regulations allow for is a windshield survey and what they do is they go and they see if they're there are there really x amount of numbers uh you housing units that need to be rehabilitated kind of thing um that would take and I think your number is 111 on the present need that would take a pretty big effort but uh what I'm putting in the resolution is some langu which to reserve your right to do that right so and then throughout the resolution there are reservations with respect to the vacant land adjustment as well that would come in once it's referred to the program and once um you know if there's a challenge and and that kind of thing but we'll H and and and really that comes in in your in your fair share housing uh uh your fair share housing element fair share plan that's where it comes in so that's June 30th so somewhere in that right time frame right right so there's some time on the vacant land adjustment there's also something called durational adjustment so there are various adjust and the reservation on the present need that I just talked about so there's some time to work on those issues as well um before you adopt um the housing element of fair share plan and that would all be done through the program all right great so we're I guess locked and loaded for the deadline of January 31st with the resolution yes we'll be introducing that uh ordinance next Tuesday on the 20th 2 20 is that next Tuesday or we 28 28th okay and then and then as I indicated within 48 Hours the uh the lawsuit has to be filed and that kind of starts the whole process great all right any other questions from the Das are all good right thank you so much for that update you're welcome uh I'll just add that that all has to be built out in 10 years right it's a 10 year it's a 10 year 10 year uh program yes the last where the last one was 20 years this is is a 10e program 10-year program and just to add to that uh one of the things we're going to be doing as we look at the at the Master Plan update is looking at any of those vacant lots and looking to see what sort of challenges might exist with those lots being built because when we get to 2035 again any of those lots that remain vacant will continue to drive the obligation number considered buildable right so it does give us some time to try to understand are there environmental concerns on some of those properties if so then that could potentially limit the potential building on those properties uh so we have we have 10 years to try to figure out what are some of the challenges to does the zoning need to change on some of those uh properties uh there different types of uses that could potentially go there so that's going to be one of the strategies to include in in the master plan and again this is a new a new affordable housing law that we're all going through for the very first time and trying to see what the true impact will be but in terms of some of the calculations with the obligations we're already going to work uh to be strategic uh to to look at that to try to protect the town okay and uh just I'm not sure how familiar you everybody here is especially the new members but the town has a was it a 23% 2 24% uh affordable housing if a development goes in 24% of the houses units need to be affordable so basically any number that has to be affordable you multiply by four and that's the total number of units that we're going to develop over have to be built over the next 10 years so just keep that in mind that's kind of how that works and that's in addition to everything that's already been approved correct yes yeah we have some a couple of developments proposals from the third round that still have to be built in the pipeline they're in the pipeline all right now anybody else to the floor yes sir all right so thanks again for the update uh and moving on to business from the floor for matters not on the agenda um I'll allow even if it is on the agenda anybody from the public okay I'll make a motion to adjourn before anybody has chance to get up second all right so uh um motion to close public motion to close second all in favor I all right consideration of ordinances seeing none we're moving on to adjournment do I hear a motion to adjourn I gave one there you go do I hear a second all in favor I all right we're adjourned qu to eight under an hour make sure you call your wife to say make sure the boyfriend left before he go