##VIDEO ID:9LQ9sAnMtLo## I'm looking younger you see a picture difficulties okay ready good morning all good morning Mark hello hello good morning hello Darlene good morning how's everybody doing good um we're waiting for Justin Justin won't be here anyone J will not be here okay okay so um is everyone ready to begin go okay uh let's start with the uh called meeting order and do the Pledge of Allegiance since I can't find anything else I guess we're going to have to do I'm gonna I'm gonna unblur my flag here and we can all do this okay ready I pledge allegiance uned States of America superce all my we're so much in harmony we should start a chorus it's just wonderful um yeah okay um let's go over here okay this is a special meeting of the Hillsdale Borough Council on this 28th day of January 2025 notice of the time and place of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the Bergen Record a copy was posted on the bulletin board outside of our public meeting room and provided to any interested parties please silence all cell phones please wait to be recognized by the mayor during the public hearing and the public the comment part of the meeting you will need to state your name and town of residence for the record will the clerk please read the role mayor shinfield here council president Oso here council member colleti here council member Fox council member maach Chong here council member ruko here council member Troy here great okay um I don't see anybody from the public who wants to say anything I guess um as far as the discussion goes um I we have Darlene green here who is going to provide us with kind of a brief overview of where we stand um as we as we are here to consider basically one resolution here it's about affordable housing so Darlene please well let's let's hold that are we going into close I I wasn't aware that we we were do we need to go into closed no maybe we do the motion first and and second and have the discussion and then the Lin come in and talk about the background okay so so we'll do a motion to consider 25057 can I get a motion motion can I get a second second okay we're getting there okay um anybody anybody have any discussion on the board first mayor can just take us through the background on how we arrived at this and then the numbers Darlene sure so good morning everyone Darlene green uh burough planner for the record um this began over um about nine months ago so the governor signed new legislation in March of last year uh radically amending the fair housing act it changed the the process the procedures some some of the crediting uh bonus crediting and it also set forth in the legislation firm deadlines the deadlines in some instances um have consequences attached to them if towns do not comply by those deadlines the reason for today's meeting is because the first deadline with a severe consequence is January 31st of 2025 in the legislation it says that towns have to adopt a binding resolution committing to their fourth round obligations by that date and if towns do not they will lose immunity from build or remedy lawsuits so the new statute continues what has historically been done in affordable housing in the state of New Jersey there's a carrot and a stick the carrot has always been whether it was when the Council on affordable housing was operating or in this last round when Mr medo and I were in front of a host of Judges the carrot was always come in and voluntarily comply to meet your constitutional obligation to provide affordable housing and we will give you immunity from Builder remedy lawsuits conversely you can choose to do nothing towns and if you don't the stick is a builder Remy lawsuit and for those who are not aware a builder Remy lawsuit is where a developer they can either be the owner of the property or a contract purchaser can come in to a court and say judge Town X is not complying with their statutory requirement to provide affordable housing and I am going to help them by building hundreds of units on a site that judge then has the power to erase your underlying zoning erase what your master plan goals and objectives are and single-handedly approve projects so ultimately the stick in the world of affordable housing is that towns lose local control of zoning and so that's the way they've set this statute up is that you um they continue to have the stick the carrot and the stick approach and so this deadline follows that traditional form format of carrot and stick the law tasks the Department of Community Affairs with coming up and calculating the new fourth round numbers so as a refresher every town in the state um except for Urban Aid communities will now have a four-part obligation their prior round obligation which spans the period from um 1986 to 1990 excuse me 1987 to 1993 their third round obligation which spans from 1999 to 2025 and in this DCA report every town was given a new Rehabilitation obligation and a fourth round obligation for the time period between 2025 and 2035 the DCA report assigns Hillsdale a rehabilitation obligation of zero which we have no objection to and a fourth round obligation of 220 that report starts with an overall Statewide fourth round number of more than 84,000 affordable housing units those 84,000 plus units are then distributed down to the six affordable housing regions you are located in region one which receive the highest allocation out of all of the regions once your Regional number is established it is then assigned to the municipalities based on an average of three allocation factors they look at equalized non-residential valuation so how much did your commercial and your industrial industrial ratables change from 1999 to 2023 they also look at the income capacity which is taken from census data on what is the Burrow's average household income and lastly they look at land capacity and they then average those three factors together and that percent is then multiplied against the regional number our office reviewed the DC CA data for accuracy and what we found is that the U non-residential valuation and the income data is correct however there are errors on on the land capacity Factor DCA was charged with using D's land use land cover data which is based on a 2020 aerial image that then gets classified into a variety of different categories many of them are Woodlands shrubland scrub um and I think other barren areas are the categories that they reviewed the DCA claims that there are over 15 acres of developable land in Hillsdale our office reviewed that data and some of those property include the reservoir land that they claim is vacant and developable what we have found is that there's actually a deed restriction on the reservoir properties that preclude the development of anything but water related um facilities and so reviewing all of the properties that they identified we found that the um there were really only 4.77 acres of developable land in Hillsdale if you input the corrected acreage into DC's formula it modifies hillsdale's fourth round obligation from 220 to 171 so it is my recommendation to the governing body that we accept the conclusions in the DCA report regarding the rehab abilitation obligation of zero and we accept the conclusions in the DCA report regarding the income and equalized um non-residential valuation Factor but we correct dca's overstated fourth round land capacity factor which would then in turn yield a fourth round obligation of 171 instead of 220 darene we also stipulated in the resolution that we have the right to go back to this number and adjusted even further more work be done the next few months yes so Mark has included a host of reservations um because we we don't know how this is exactly going to um unravel in the next coming months because this is a entirely new process what I would also point out is just like in the third round while where we received a high number we still have the opportunity under the rules to seek a vacant land adjustment for a lack of vacant and developable land which is a completely different analysis than what DCA did uh we can seek a durational adjustment if we have a lack of water and or sewer so I don't want anyone to leave today's meeting thinking that we are going to have to build 171 affordable housing units that's not true the the number has to be established and then as part of the housing plan that will be required to be prepared between now and June the housing plan will contain any adjustments whether they are a vacant land adjustment a sewer adjustment or a water adjustment so I don't want anyone to think that the burrow is responsible for 171 that just sets the number and then we will seek the applicable adjustments the downward adjustments that um make sense for Hillsdale if I can jump in Darlene the 171 is just our counter to their 220 the rest is the application of lawful mechanisms that bring down that 171 to a number that we have no other way to construct other way to meet except through construction and that's our RDP this is not about building 171 but 171 is the number that goes in this complaint into the formula and it goes in Darlene's report what we do in the next several months to indicate how we meeting 171 is the hard work now if you don't want to put 171 in here then the DCA would be very happy to start at 220 and then you apply the mechanisms have question counc yeah darling what happens to the 49 does it go back into the pot we don't know what's going to happen to 49 you said that was that's a distributed number across our area right across your region so there there is some concern that fair share housing center which is a public interest group for affordable housing um households will attempt to have the obligations recalculated and reallocated now I don't know that the statute actually allows for that uh I I think Mark let's hold the thought every single thing you are saying here is going to be sent to the DCA and fair share housing we are doing this in public now if we want to just talk about the number your choice today is do you start with 220 and then apply various lawful mechanisms to get down to what actually has to be built or do you start with 171 or at least try to start with 171 and thereafter apply various lawful mechanisms mayor mayor the the numbers that darene did the calculation and the stipulation that Mark put in here I'm very comfortable that we start that we approv the 171 for now and further work to be done by Darlene and the council for the next steps right if you want to discuss mechanisms strategy no I think that's off the table let me just make clear what might be the end result because I see memos where people want assurances as to what the end buildout might be we can't give you any of that we can only say to you we want to start at 171 instead of 220 and then apply every lawful me mechanism and the net actual construction that might have to take place is still unknown but I want it very clear Darlene and I are not representing to you what that might be any more than last round three that councilman roko and I worked very closely on that we could represent what the final actual build number might be we are early in the process we're establishing a starting point is everyone okay that that starting point is 50 units less approximately than dca's take on it well that's where we're going to vote but I I think that that that's that's just the Baseline okay so absolutely okay question is um assuming that we agree for the 171 uh what's the next key deadline for the burrow I mean what do we have what's the next hurdle that we need to leap over question um so this uh the next deadline is actually February 15th and I haven't talked to any of you about it because Joy and I actually have that one under control in fact we were emailing about it this morning by that date Town's have to submit monitoring data through the new affordable housing monitoring system portal on completed units as well as your trust fund Joya has been entering that data and as of this morning all the data entry is complete and all she has to do is click a button to submit it and you guys are in good shape compared to a lot of my other towns right the deadline that this governing body needs to worry about is June 30th of this year by that date we have to adopt which means both a planning board hearing and a governing body meeting to endorse because it's the only master plan that requires your endorsement because it contemplates expenditures by June 30th we have to adopt and endorse a housing plan that housing plan will have to have attached to it an updated spending plan uh and drafts of any ordinances to effectuate mechanisms in the housing plan there is a to to Mark's earlier point there is a lot of work that has to be done um in the next few months my office has already started a vacant land adjustment uh pursuant to the request of the governing body uh and so that will help us to understand what our RDP as the mayor mentioned realistic development potential is for the fourth round and I am um I am sure we'll be having several meetings between now and then to talk about our mechanisms and our strategy thank you I I think there's another critical date uh Darlene unless you said that in there somewhere is we we we are effectively sitting on our hands for a period here to see if anyone again monitoring all of that stuff I know Darlene is on and it's largely an internal function what the real critical date for me is I am filing this assuming that the resolution is signed and Denise will run someone over there to pick up a certified copy is that um we from the data filing and it's posting on the website which Denise and Mike are taking care of the um the fact is there's a 30-day window am I correct Darlene 30 uh until February 28th till February 28th uh where we have to sit on our hands and see if anyone challenges us that to me is the you know frankly that's the date every morning I'm going to get up and check the court website okay I'm going to see if anyone has challenged our filing that would trigger that that would be a fork in the road in how this moves forward does it move forward as a contested matter or does it move forward as one of just figuring out mechanisms right that to me is is the real important date and maybe John that's kind of maybe what you were looking for but yeah yeah I I I appreciate the importance of June 30th I had heard something about this time period that there's contesting could happen that's what I was trying to get that down you've just explained it thank you okay okay if there aren't any other questions here I think we should move to a vote uh will the clerk please read the role council member colleti yes council member Fox is absent council member maachan yes council president Oso yes council member ruko yes council member show you yes great 2557 passes um just in my quick commentary I want to thank everybody here and I also want to give a special thanks to the subcommittee that we sort of established to put this together Clemente the ba Mike Joya Cassidy as was mentioned earlier um the planning board uh chairperson Meredith Kates and Mark and Darlene for really shepherding us through this process you guys have done an amazing job spoken to a lot of Mayors um that are putting this together and they are nowhere nearly in the shape we are in and that is a testament to what that group does what we've all done and especially what Mark and Darlene have done to put us where we are and so I am very thankful Mary you're kind but it's Darlene well okay okay she's the one who really comes up with the stuff I just St all right is really the smart one here regardless thank may I ask before we Denise um how do I get a certified copy of the resolution all 100 Pages or so with the exhibit package I just need the mayor to come in and sign it and either I can bring it to you however you want to do it we can talk offline we'll talk offline but um my intention is this gets filed by hook or crook tomorrow by noon all right and I will be coming down to burrow Hall to sign that over lunch awesome thank you man okay okay does anybody else have anything in commentary they need to say seeing that and seeing that we have nobody in the audience to speak we I'd like to make a motion uh for adjournment all those in favor signify by saying I I right and anybody obviously if there's questions please call thank you very much everyone see you soon than thank you guys great day