will kindly explain it to you, but it's this ordinance is pretty much involving the R3 zones. Those are the residential, you know, high density zones. The other zones in the map are will not be affected by it. So it's only certain
sections of town pretty much from Aldridge Road east and west and south to the borders of Jackson, Lakewood and Brooktown. If you look at the map, lower
right hand corner is the Ramtown section of town. And then when you move up into this other green section that pretty much encompasses all of Candlewood, Aldridge Road, Locust, anywhere it's R3. So if you live on an AR2 or you know
something like that, this will not affect you. It's pretty much just for the developments. So we want to hear from uh the citizens. So I'm going to make a motion to open up public comment. I'll make a motion.
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Each person shall first give their name and address to the clerk. The council should be addressed as a collective body and not as individual members. Each person shall have one turn to address the council and comments shall not
exceed a total of five minutes. Speakers shall be notified when their time has run and no time extensions shall be permitted. Uh before we jump into public comment, I just kind of want to go over the ordinance for everybody that's here so there's no misunderstanding and what
we're here to do today. Um and just want to kind of tweak what you said about the the R3 zone. Um that it's currently as written, it's all of the R zone. So any of those highlighted areas on the map is considered an R zone. I can zoom in on
any of the other ones if you'd request. But, uh, today we're here to talk about the overnight parking permit program. Um, it's an ordinance that has been drafted and introduced. We're here to take public comment today and get your
thoughts and opinions on this ordinance. Um, this is the first of two plan sessions. There might be another, I'm not sure, um, at this point in time. Um if there are any substantial modifications to this ordinance that come out of these workshop meetings, uh
the governing body would have to reintroduce the ordinance prior to adoption. So it would be another two meeting kind of uh setup for acceptance. Um how the ordinance is currently established is that it is a overnight
parking pro permit program. So residents that live in these R zones would be would need to sign up for this permit parking pass. These passes would be free to residents, but you you do
have to take that initial step to sign up to get them. Um off the bat, it it bas it the number of permits you get are based on bedrooms in your house. Um, a four-bedroom house automatically gets two permits. If you need more permits,
you just have to reach out to the township and request more permits. And there's uh a method on getting these permits. So, if you have more bedrooms, you're entitled to more permits. these
there. You might also have to supply additional information just proving that you know you are getting these permits for people that reside in your household. There's also appeal mechanisms. So say you get denied for a permit but you need
more there. There's an appeal mechanism built in. So you just have to appeal to the manager, write out the reasons why you're requesting it. Um I don't anticipate the the vision is to be overly strict with these. I I believe it
is just to control the overcrowding that we are seeing on the streets. Um in addition to uh how many you're entitled to um again they are free. You have to sign up for them. If you have
overnight guests, which I believe um is a lot of concern for people, we are going to establish some sort of notice mechanism, whether that's to the police department or through an online portal um to notify the township when you're
having overnight guests so they don't get tickets. um that will be monitored so you're not you know you don't have an overnight guest every night of the week uh that you know would otherwise need a permit but otherwise uh there will be
allowances for overnight guests so people aren't getting tickets. So uh with that preference uh I I think we'll we'll hand it off to public comment um and we'll start with the people on the list. Bob Leonard.
Uh, good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. Uh, I have more of a thing about what's not in the ordinance. Uh, I was just wondering about people that are going to have work done on their driveway and they're not able to use their driveway
for 48 or 72 hours. Uh, at that point, I don't care how many bedrooms you got, you everybody is going to be on the street somewhere. And I just wonder if there's any provision. If you try to go to the clerk and get a an exemption, the clerk won't be able to do that because
it's it's not written in anywhere. So, that's the only thing I had about it. I the first thing I noticed right away is uh I plan to have driveway work done anyway, but I can't be the only one. it's going to come up and uh even at 48 hours that's probably going to be three
nights. So, uh I just that's that's the only concern I had about it. Oh, unless you want to address unhook trailers on the street at the same time, then that's another thing you could do. But that's all I had about it. Just something to consider.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Ed Wells. >> No comment at this time. >> Okay, sir. >> Diane Lap, no comment right now. >> William Hayes,
Mr. Mayor and Council, William Hayes, 46 Newton's Corner Road. How are you today? Uh, I have a couple concerns. One is I have a take-home vehicle from work. It's registered in New York. I'm an elected official up in New York. What happens in that case because the way the
way the orders is written, uh, where can I park the car? I have two adult children, one of which has a spouse that lives in my house as well. would be a problem for parking. I mean, I need to know what I could do with this car. As an elected official, I
have to have access to the car. It's my, you know, it's an emergency vehicle to get back and forth to work. That's one concern I have. I It's not really addressed in the ordinance. I think it needs to be. Um, my second concern is, as the mayor is well aware, I live on Newton's Corner Road. I've lived in this
house for over 30 years, and I got to tell you, you know, they put signs up on the road to slow the traffic down. When I tell you the road is dangerous, that's the biggest understatement anybody could ever say. I got cars going past my house at 65 miles an hour and
25. There's been cars totaled. I've had cars told in front of my house. I have cars flipped over. I've had cars drive through my neighbors houses. I've had cars drive into pools. We've come the police I've spoke to them dozens of times over the last 30 years. It's
gotten worse and worse and worse. There's commercial vehicles going to pass my house, tractor trailers sometimes so fast, passing school buses at 7, 8:00 in the morning with with stop signs out and nothing is done about it.
Mayor, I've spoken to you several times about it. The police department doesn't want speed bumps in. They say it's a hazard for whatever reason. Something has to be done. There's been kids hit by cars. I know a child was hit maybe a dozen years ago. To this day, you know,
the poor kid is forever disabled. Something needs to be done. You guys need to do something about it. This council needs to put their foot down and put a stop to it. I know you put the signs up in other areas of the town. Those other areas is a different
situation that those homes are 100 yards, 200 yards from the roadway. These houses when those houses were built are 25 or 30 feet from the street. There's little kids playing in the area. My children are grown now, but there's a next generation of kids in that area now. And I see little kids out in the
street, balls rolling in the street, and these cars can't stop. There's tractor trailers, like I said, rolling through there and dump trucks, everything else, taking the shortcut to avoid the way station as we all know, getting off at 98, flying through that area between the
Waw Was at 50, 60 miles an hour. And I've spoken to some of the police officers, they're 15 miles over the speed limit. Let me tell you, 15 miles over the speed limit in a 45 and 15 miles over the speed limit in a 25 are two completely different things.
Something needs to be done. Thank you for your time. Greg, Greg Fodel, Pedipatch Trail. Good afternoon, council and mayor. Um, I'll rattle off some of my questions here. Um, about the permits, it says a h the ordinance proposal ordinance says a
household can get up to four bedrooms shall be entitled to receive two residential permits. Is that is the two driveway ones already counted and then you get two for the street? That's a question. Um, under 21615C2,
um, the ordinance says that the township manager shall consider the household's demonstrated need. What is that? That's very vague. Just want more definition on that. Um, 216-17 paragraph 2. The township may deny or
limit visitor authorization where misuse is evident. What does that mean? That should be defined. Um 21619B uh $50 fine. I think that's very low. I think that should be increased.
How are the uh bedrooms being determined? Is it off of the tax assessment? Just a question. The first gentleman said uh the concerns about driveway work. I also should note about home construction if there are multiple
vehicles for a big home construction and you have to park in the street etc. Um will the parking permits be connected to your license plate number or to the residential address? Um are they renewed on a semiannual or
annual basis? Um, let's see. I don't know if it's been determined what documents you'll need for these permits. I saw in other towns, I mean, they do portals or you can do it in
person. They had driver's license, vehicle registration, vehicle insurance card, a valid deed for the homeowner, a valid lease or rental agreement with all tenants names listed on it. must not be expired and
landlord's affidavit are not acceptable. A copy of a signed residential CO issued to the homeowner by the fire prevention department. Um, so those are all my comments. Thank you, >> David Tidwell. Thank you. David Tidwell, 12 Tulip
Court. A lot of my concerns that I raised in the town meeting have already been addressed in this document. The the two of them that remain are the number of permits. You've indicated that a three-bedroom house or fourbedroom house would receive three permits. And I would question that
because if you have two adults, two children of driving age, that's easily four permits. So, I'd ask you to rethink that uh based upon the initial permits that are offered to a home. Um, in my case, I do have my wife. We both have
cars. I have two adult kids. Automatically, that should be for permits. You've addressed the cost of payment. That's fine. Um, and I'm not sure the understanding of how garages, size of driveway play into that. I'm
assuming that's a non-issue as far as the standard number of permits that are going to be issued to a household because you could you could have a garage but not use it for that purpose. And you could have a a driveway that might fit two cars, but that could be questionable if you're on the sidewalk
covering part of the sidewalk. So, those would be my only concerns uh to put before the board to consider in this case. I would also raise that it probably wouldn't be a bad idea in this ordinance to address cars that have
expired tax. Okay, they should be ticketed and removed or are broken down on the street and sit for extended periods of time. They should be ticketed and removed. So, I would just ask that you consider putting that in there as well as part of this. Um, I know there
was another ordinance that I don't quite have an understanding of. I know this is not the time. I guess there's another ordinance that talks about cars parked on lawns and things like that. I'm not sure how that one reads. I'll just throw it out there that I hope in there
there's a provision for the winter when people do put cars on their lawn because they want to get the cars off the street for proper snow removal. >> And that's it. Thank you. >> Uh sir, can I just ask you just a follow-up question if you guys don't mind? Um, just since you brought up your
house, how um how many cars could fit in your driveway? Hypothetically, >> normally I don't drive I don't typically one car comfortably and then in the winter time when I want to get a car off the street, >> I'll put a second car in there. >> Okay. >> Um, >> but it could block the sidewalk. So, you don't want to correct and you know risk
anything like that. So, you >> just driveways are private space, so you wouldn't necessarily need permits to park in your own driveway. >> Exactly what I'm talking about. I'm hoping that that's >> Yeah. So, so you have hypothetically four cars, one car driveway. you would need one over the two that you're getting. >> Correct. >> To have the space. Correct. So, yeah, like again, people have two car
driveways that are putting two cars in there, >> then that still gives an extra overflow for two additional cars. So, I know that came up from someone else's question, but driveways, you don't need a permit. That's your personal property. It's merely to park on the street. So, all right. Thank you. >> And then as far as hanging over onto the sidewalk,
>> this is overnight parking. >> Yeah. >> This isn't during the day. Normally during the day, if your cars are hanging onto the sidewalk and you're impeding walking through the neighborhood, that could be an issue, right? Enforcement or the police department can knock on your door and say, "Hey, you need to move that car. People can't stay on the
sidewalk." >> Right. But it is it just the point, Mayor, it still could be an issue in the wintertime because unfortunately like take 12 to the court. Everyone on that street extremely good job >> moving their cars off the street when a snowstorm is coming in.
>> But rarely do the plows get to the curb. >> Sure. >> Which creates a problem which may still force you to have a car hanging in the hanging in the sidewalk. >> Sure. >> But during the winter months when we're doing snow operations, we're not looking to >> right, >> you know, target, you know, a household
for that. We're just trying to get the snow off the street, the cars off the street, right? And then to what you said about parking on the grass during snowplow operations, park on the grass to get to get off the roadways. Exactly. As soon as the spring comes and summer and fall when it's not snow time, you
know, we want well-managed neighborhoods and we don't want cars on the front lawns and, you know, like I said, I haven't seen that other ordinance. I didn't know how it >> already in place. We don't put we don't allow parking on your front lawn and >> Exactly. >> You know, if you want to make a couple extra spaces next to your driveway with some blue stone and or more pavement,
that's allowable. You know what I mean? But I mean, your in your case, the townhouse development's restricted to to space and stuff, right? You know, where you're at. >> Y >> and and that and that ordinance does specifically say you can put it on your front lawn if there's snow. So to what you said, so that's already built into the ordinance.
>> We said we still have a lot of cars on on on the grass in in town. >> Yeah. >> Because of the snow, right? So >> hopefully it'll be gone soon. Yep. >> Thank you, David. >> Anyone else from the public?
Ladies first. >> Hi, my name is Dana Pilott. I um I live on Albatross Drive here in Howell. Um I originally I lived moved here six years ago. I originally came from Clifton, a town of major overcrowding. I owned a
two family house in a neighborhood with many many illegal apartments. Uh we had no driveways to park in. So I want to say first that I actually um think permit parking may be a very good idea
here. Um but it also may be a very bad idea if implemented incorrectly. Um, so Howell has 12,000 about single family homes and 65% of those homes have no
driveway or can fit up to two vehicles, but the majority of family homes in Howell have four to five vehicles each. Um, I'm sorry. Uh, I want to know, um, basically from
the council, how asking for more permits, uh, per bedroom or just getting, you know, two permits is actually going to stop um, people from having to park outside your home. And to prevent that overcrowding when your
neighbor, the neighbor next to them, the neighbor next to them all have four to five bedrooms and can do the same thing you are doing by either asking for more permits or calling up the, you know, whoever we're calling up and saying, "We're going to have overnight
visitors." Maybe they don't stay overnight, but they could still do the same thing and say, "We're having visitors." So I'm not really understanding there how if I can ask for more permits or ask for permission if my neighbor who I have the issue with can
also do the same thing and so how that how does that really prevent anything. Um I also want to know how this is being paid for. Obviously it's an ordinance that does need to be enforced and it's a pretty big ordinance. Um will we ever
ever down the road be charged for these permits? We're saying now we won't, but that doesn't mean there isn't something written in there that says eventually like we can. Right now that doesn't exist. Um I want to know what happens. Um obviously there's no department from
my understanding being formed here. Um how is a call to the police station not going to take away from emergency services? Um, so if we're sending police to write a ticket for someone who is parked or to make them move or leave or
whatever we're doing, and I still don't know how that's defined either, like how is that while that police officer is doing that and I have a child or my, you know, has epilepsy and needs to go to the hospital or my neighbors having a heart attack and the police need to come first. How is that being addressed when
we're not really adding into anything for the police department to take away uh to handle that? Um and in the same thing, how are we for the staff at um city hall? How are we handling the volume of complaints and the permit
distribution? Um why is there no parking committee being formed to basically handle this? I don't understand how the existing infrastructure is not gonna cost us anything at at all. I don't see it's how it's going to kind of fit into
that budget. Um and what budget again? Um I do think that um online there's a lot of people saying about oh you know Eaton Town, this town has this. Those are all examples of walking towns. Howell is not a walkable
city. Um, so and I do believe I don't personally live in Glenn Arden, but I have read a lot about how there's a lot of parking issues there. So again, I feel that certain areas of town may benefit from some sort of parking permit structure. It's not like we all don't,
but I don't know if it's every section of town. It's a huge inconvenience to the 50s something thousand people who live in Howell to make sure everyone is under this parking ordinance. Um, where
else? Sorry. Um, I actually also think uh not understanding some of these things and how they work do open up an avenue uh for violations of the Fair Housing Acts. Um, again, I lived in Clifton and that's why I opened up with
this. Clifton is next to Pake Park. Pistake Park also has I'm gonna just say this here, a large Orthodox population and many people. It also has a large Muslim population, a large Indian population. We there are multiple people
in these houses. It would have done a great benefit to have some sort of parking permit. However, they ultimately decided because they couldn't do that because they were sued so many times. Clifton actually, >> it's been five minutes. Thank you. >> Yes. Sorry.
>> Thank you. >> Please. >> Hi. Good afternoon, council. My name is Eugene Gratzky. I live at 37 Wilson Drive in Ramtown, and I hear a lot of concerns about the new ordinance, and of course, they are valid. However, I'm
here to offer support. Um, taking an opposite view, I'm in support of this ordinance because last year on May 20th, I came before this council complaining about a residence on my street that utilizes
my R3 um designated neighborhood as a commercial vehicle parking lot. So in my view, since this is an ordinance that could be utilized to control the storage of commercial vehicles that are not
attached to the home address, many of which often have outofstate license plates from Pennsylvania. It would solve that problem that I brought before the council last year. I know personally of another um resident on in North Howell
who has the same exact problem I do. I've also noticed other residents residences in the neighborhoods utilizing their residential streets as commercial parking lots as well. So I'm in support of this ordinance which would
help alleviate the clutter that happens for example on my particular street. The home I'm complaining about is situated at a T where another road connects into my road. And at that T is a fire
hydrant. And when there are eight commercial vehicles, transit vans by the way, parked nose to end in the street blocking the roadway, it's bad enough that the visibility for the roadway is blocked, causing dangerous conditions.
But when those vehicles are parked overnight, they block the fire hydrant access by large fire engines should they be needed and EMS vehicles. So, it's a safety hazard in more than one way. I would love to see an ordinance with
these concerns uh worked out so that this ordinance could move forward and help prevent our residential zones from being utilized as commercial parking lots. Thank you. Paula Samurel Heritage Point. You have to bear with me. I just wrote some
things down here. Um, I'm thinking that instead of changing the zones to reflect overnight parking permits, perhaps we should add zoning to allow the change of use um for houses that have been allowed to um and only have those areas for
change of use homes be in that in that zoned area. Um, some of these homes that have been purchased for the sole purpose of changing its use to a house of worship. Um, I know that there's, you know, there are there's some concerns about lawsuits. Um, our neighbors in
Lakewood have instituted instituted change of use ordinances. So, um, I don't see the likelihood of of of that of being uh sued by if if the town enforced the change of use ordinance. Um
uh also um I really feel that this parking issue uh would have been alleviated if past town manage managers and past code enforcements enforced the change of use ordinance. Um I just feel
that why does the rest of us have to suffer um because of those that have no regard for their neighbors safety? Um because many of the reason is because many of these um people that have convert that have bought our bought the homes and converted them either
partially or completely to um uh to houses of worship or shs or whatever. Um they have no regard whatsoever for the safety of the people that are living there. They they I know um one of the um homes that was converted, the garage was
converted to um uh to a a house of worship, a shul, whatever you call it, there can be as many as 30 to 40 people um parked around in our community right on our streets. Um and the person that owns this um this home that purchased it
a few years ago, they're not I don't believe they're living there full-time. Now, I know that you're allowed to have a, you know, a house of worship um with, you know, where you don't live there. You buy it. It's a home. It's a single family home. And you can change it to um
you know to to become a shul. But that's the word the key word is change. And if these homes that have been converted to shulles in the beginning two years ago in in in example of right three houses
down from where I live, if the if the code enforcement people and the town management would have forced these people to make a change uh you know a change of use, this could have been all
alleviated. This this problem may have very well been alleviated. We have an ordinance for h for houses of worship that states that you're supposed to have a certain amount of parking spaces per however many people are are worshiping. Um you know it's supposed to be on five
acres. You know that is not being enforced. I have nothing whatsoever, you know, about people worshiping together. I see fathers bringing their young sons up to to the shul um you know six, seven days a week. Um you I have no problem
with that. No problem whatsoever. What I do have a problem is with the safety factors and the traffic that is caused right within my area of where I live. I live on a corner unit and I'll tell you
a few months back there was I don't know there was some kind of holiday going on and there were people literally zooming in staying for 15 minutes zooming back out and as soon as one car moved out another one was moving in. they ha the I
just really feel that perhaps if we changed the zoning in the master plan that if you want to have a change of use if you want to change your home to you know uh I can't I guess you can't change it if once you've bought it but let me
tell you something I really strongly feel that what's happening is the homes in Howell especially over in where I live these homes are being purchased for the sole purpose of changing them into
shooles where the neighbors can go and worship together and that's fine. I have don't have a problem with that. But we have people coming from Brooklyn, from North Jersey, out of state where they're driving into our communities and I just
feel that this is this is another option. The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many or whatever that saying is. and um you know we we need your help. We need your help with this. This has gone on long enough. Thank you.
>> It's been 5 minutes. Thank you. Good afternoon, council and town professionals. My name is Larry White. I reside at 15 Renway. Um, as far as section 20 216-15,
I'd like to ask the council to consider another means of qualifiation and that would be not based on the number of bedrooms but on the number of registered vehicles to occupants within
that home. Okay? I mean, I don't have a big lay of the land of real estate in our township, but I don't think there's a lot of over fourbedroom houses in in the township. I could be
wrong but um the point being of of my suggestion is that um by reg you know going by the number of registered vehicles to occupants within the home then you get an idea of how many vehicles that
household owns or requires permits for. Okay. And then, okay, so somebody gets their driver's license, they turn 18, and they get gifted with a car. Then they could come in and ask for another permit, an additional permit based on
that vehicle. Sometimes you have four drivers and only two cars. You know, that happens too, or maybe even one car. So by tying it to registered vehicles to the occupants of the home then you have a better way of precisely regulating the
vehicles that are owned and attached to that residence. Okay. So I ask the council to consider that as the uh requirement rather than number of bedrooms. Okay. And if you've got you know more than four bedrooms then maybe you're approaching a rooming house and
then you're going to have you may have to produce a lot more permits than you want to, which would defeat the purpose of the ordinance. Okay, that's the first thing. Um, the second thing uh in 216-17,
is there going to be a a website page that people can easily access in order to um make the temporary overnight applications for guests? Um, is the permit going to be a window
sticker and where will it be attached so that the police know where to look for it? I mean, rather than having like a car that you put on your dashboard or something like that, seems to me the most efficient way to do this is to produce a sticker, have people stick it on the windshield. It's a set it and
forget it thing. And you can specify the location where that should be located so that the police, you know, maybe the front lower right corner of the windshield so that police driving by can be able to eyeball it easily and see
whether or not it's in violation or not. Um, is there a uh draft application um for the permits that has been uh drafted that we could review before the next council meeting and the final
adoption of this ordinance? There might be some input from the citizens that could help to make that uh more efficient, streamlined, and have all the necessary information in it. just like the many suggestions you've already gotten today, some of which I never
thought of, but were all uh good and worthy. And then um finally, my question is, how many people are on staff in the police department in the overnight shift? And do we have sufficient
personnel in order to be able to adequately enforce this ordinance should it be passed? Um those are all the things I have. appreciate your time and consideration. >> Anyone else from the public? >> Come up, please. Zach Mezer, 9 Woodstown Drive. Uh the
opinions I'm about to express are solely in my capacity as a private citizen, not necessarily reflective of my position as a Freehold Regional High School District board member or the individual members of that board. Uh I would absolutely agree with the gentleman who just got up here and said uh that we should have a
registered vehicles to occupants for determining how many permits you do get for household. Uh speaking from my own personal experience, you know, I'm the youngest in my family. I'm 18. We have five of us that live in the house, five cars for each of us. We're a busy family. We go in and out. You know,
sometimes someone's in the garage and you there's a car behind the garage. So, yeah, we got to park on the street from time to time. Uh just this past September, we had some work done in our bathroom. So, everyone was parking in the street. I think instead of saying, you know, you have to demonstrate need as it currently says in the ordinance
where if you have something where you have registered vehicles to occupants, I think that's a wonderful common sense solution to be able to say, you know, you have families here, this is who's living here, you know, so for each person living here, you get one pass so that you can park on the street. Uh then just another question, just a bit of
food for thought is sometimes I do think you need to ask is the juice worth the squeeze? Which essentially is, you know, look at where we are on this map. I mean, I live in North Howell. I live in Country Meadows, too. Parking, it's not really a huge problem in my neighborhood. We have pretty wide
streets. And then as far as illegal rentals go, uh, we don't have really that problem. At least to my knowledge in my neighborhood. I've never heard any of my neighbors complain about that. >> But, Zach, you live in your zone. This doesn't apply to you. >> No, it does apply to me. I'm R2, too.
>> Yeah, but you're you're in an HOA. >> I'm not in an HOA. >> Sure you are. What do you mean you're not in an HOA? You live in a in a townhouse? >> I don't live in a town. That's the townhouse across the road. I live in a a development. >> Oh, across the street from >> Yeah. Yeah. Across the street. Yeah. >> It's It's R3 over there,
>> I believe. So, yeah. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, >> it's R2 on the map. >> Yeah, R2. Right. It's in the green right there. >> No, you're probably you're R2. >> Oh, R2. Yeah, I can't see. I need a glasses. R2. I think you're R2. >> Yeah. Yeah, I am R2. Yeah, we're the
mouse. Yeah, right there. Right there. Yeah, right there. So, I mean, you know, it's not something I've ever heard any of my neighbors complain about. Is it an issue? I don't know. Might be. Uh, but, you know, as far as that goes, you know, maybe you don't need a parking program
there if it's really a non-issue. Uh, so, you know, save your resources and focus it on the areas that actually need it because I don't I wouldn't say that my neighborhood is one of them. You know, that's just my two cents. So, uh, thank you all for your time. Thank you, Zach. I think we're gonna talk about the
the Rzones again. >> We're going to tweak them. >> All right. Thank you. Have a great day, everybody. >> Anyone else in the public? Come up, sir. John Boundbox, 7 Lexington Road.
Uh, thank you for uh, addressing this problem. It's been annoying uh, the residents of Candlewood, which is where I live. And it is a problem in Candlewood. Uh, I see the problem in four different buckets here. I see uh, one of the problem being multigenerational households. The second
one the commercial vehicles. uh the third one being the rentals and the fourth one being the Orthodox community. In my neck of the woods, I have uh a house of worship at number four Lexington, at number 11 Lexington, and
at 21 Lexington. Um I've complained to you uh the code enforcement about this and we can't do anything about it. So, I applaud you for at least addressing the problem of parking because it does become a a real problem on the weekend, plain and
simple. And I just want to say thank you for addressing it and starting the conversation about it because it does need to be addressed. Thank you so much. Anyone else from the public? Uh, Richard Krue, Heritage Point. Uh, so
I'm listening to everybody talk and the comment was made. I I I don't know if it was Susan or the other council woman about the problem is overcrowding on the streets. Is that correct? Right.
Seems to be what the problem is in general. So being uh an engineer, I look at what is the source of the overcrowding. Instead of uh trying to figure out ways of managing the overcrowding, maybe we
should look at why is it overcrowded? what's going on. And um my issue is that we're not doing the zoning enforcement. And I love you, Paula. I love you,
Paula. But there but there is no change of use that can apply in an R3 area like that. You cannot make it a gun shop. I'm I'm making a joke for you, Ian. You can't have a gun shop in there. You can't have a house of prostitution in
there. You can't have a synagogue in there either because it's not allowed. However, and I want to make this super clear because there's there's case history going on right now as I'm standing here in Manchester over this kind of stuff. Anybody can do whatever
they want in their own home for their own purpose if they apply for permits for that. And I think everybody knows that's correct. So, if I want to put a little synagogue in one of my bedrooms that I don't use, I'm certainly allowed to do that and I can pray with my family
in there. But I'm not allowed to bring in people uh from the street who are not related to me because now it's a business. And please have no doubt they're charging for people to attend these places. Okay? It's now my
knowledge. Uh somebody made a mistake and told me this. They should have never told me, but there donations, okay, uh that are made to these these places. So, if we could enforce the zoning issue,
um and there's ways to do that, and you have to be smart about it, but when somebody applies uh for an al alteration to a house, there's one going on right now at 37 Sammy Drive. I called the
police Sunday night at 9:15 and they sent a very nice officer to shut the do job down because they're framing out the addition at 9:15 at night on Sunday and there's no garage anymore. There won't not be a garage in there. It's a
two-story edition and they squared off the back of the house. I'm sure that's going to be some kind of uh house of worship. And so when they make out the submittal packages to get these permits, they have to put down what the use of
the rooms are. And at some point, somebody's got to do inspections. And when they do inspections, they have an opportunity to look at it and analyze what's the purposes. You told me it's a weight room. Well, I don't see a weight room there. I see 12 folding chairs
there or 15 folding chairs. You know, if it walks like a duck and smells like a duck, it might be a duck. So, I I think we're making things more complicated than they really are. No, nobody is going to be able to get a change of use
to one of these homes. Uh I I I guess they could try. They're going to go to the U zoning board of adjustment and they're going to get denied if we're doing our job properly here. So that that's that's my my take on we have some laws in place that will help
us uh control problems and we should utilize what we got already and that's the zoning issue. You can't have a synagogue open to the public uh in in an artery development. Uh I suggested to a
couple Jewish guys, you know, the legal building is standing empty. There was space over there in the bin stop area across the street from us. Let them rent places out over there where they can hold services there. It's very common in North Brunswick where I worked as an
official uh and they could have multiple entities in there at one time sharing a big building. We get 10 or 20,000 square feet could have a lot of services in there. Let them uh take permits out to segment the the building up. There's
just a lot of ways to handle it. I'm not against the the parking. I I think it's not a bad idea. Uh but it seems like it's an unnecessary reach for no reason. Maybe you can control it by enforcing the >> in five minutes. Thank you.
>> Okay, I'm done. Thank you. >> Anyone else from the public? Seeing no one else, may I have a motion to close public comment? >> Motion to close. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> Mr. Gross.
>> Thank you. I'd like uh first I'd like to thank everybody for coming out today and and and give us some very thoughtprovoking uh suggestions and comments. Uh many of which we've contemplated, some of which we have not. So, uh, we we certainly appreciate the input. Um, I I I think I
want to give you a general overview, uh, about, uh, what the intention of this ordinance is, uh, and then I'll try to delve into specifics on on some of the the issues that that have been brought up. Um o overall we're attempting to
deal with overcrowding and as part of that um we wanted to put together a thoughtful an efficient and effective manner to to address the issue. This is not the only way that we're going to be
addressing the issue but it is a way that we can address the issue. Um, in doing that, there are many things that we in intentionally did not include in the ordinance and left off as administrative. So that as we go through
this process, this is something that we've not done here before, we can adjust uh administratively the processes by which uh we're going to effectuate this ordinance. So some some some of the questions that came up today are part of
the administration of how we do it. And we want to have the ability to um uh as as situations change or as we determine certain um administrative uh
processes aren't aren't effective or or too burdensome uh the ability to adjust. So um that that that is one of the reasons perhaps that some of the things that that you've brought up here today are not included that we have thought
about but intentionally left them out so that we can be nimble in the in the actual uh use of it. Um starting right with the permits. The permits there's a designation of uh BA is based on on bedrooms. that is that is the first
level of permitting that that a property owner gets just by having a property here in how um after that any further justifications which would include uh other vehicles registered to the to that
particular location as well as vehicles assigned uh through work and etc would be further justification for additional permits and that is was part of what we you are the the initial because this is so far reaching. This is a very broad
approach to a narrow issue that we wanted to make sure that we did not put um unusual or burdensome requirements on property owners that frankly didn't need
to have those uh additional permits. So th those will all be administrative um handled in administratively. That's our intention. Um and and to deal with those requests on a on an as needed basis. Um
now how we would how we anticipate doing that. We brought up we're we're going to be we already started investigating technology on online technology that allow us to to um property owners to apply online directly. Uh and to the
extent we're looking at the possibility and the probability of being able to register for overnight guests online to make that process and streamline that as much as possible. That's our intention. Um and and that's what we're trying to accomplish. And
again, this this whole process we we we we presented an ordinance to the governing body. When we presented to them, we said this is going to be a long process. We need to have pardon me a lot of public comment, a lot of public input into this and that this will take a
while. Most likely the the the final pro product will look different than what we suggested, but it was a starting point uh to get the conversation going with the governing body, a starting point to get the conversation going with the community because it is this is a
significant effort that is going to touch many many residential areas if not all. Um I that that's the backdrop of the disc discussion. Last thing I'll say if
I don't address a particular issue that was brought up or if there's other other issues you'd like to discuss um I'll be here after the meeting and please come up and and we can discuss them further. Uh and if that I'd like to handle it that way if possible um so make sure
that you get everything you do you you're concerned about does get addressed. I'm going to now go through the list and try to highlight some of the stuff that that that some of the things that you've discussed with us or brought up to us and make sure that I'm I'm addressing them. Again, this during
during construction, I I anticipate there'll be temporary permits as well available for for for temporary circumstances. Um unhauled trailers, maybe we'll talk about that after afterwards. Um,
in terms of again the the demonstrating the need will will demonstrating need will indicate the number of permits that that can be issued. I think I agree that the $50 fine is probably a low number. Um,
a lot of a lot of the comments were more about um the the the the amount the number of of permits that would be issued to a particular uh property whether it had to be the number of bedrooms. Question came up about how do
we determine with the number of bedrooms. That's an important issue. Uh we we have we have records about that and if if if there are requests for more bedrooms than we have records, we have to just we have to figure that out as well. That'd be an offshoot of this to determine why our records are different
than perhaps what's being requested from the property owner. Uh and we would we part of this process would be to uh true that up either our records or or or or the actual use of the property. Um
disabled disabled vehicles in the streets is a different issue. We can talk about that. Um try to go through that talking about the fees at this point in time. Again, um there's this
this ordinance does not have a fee. Could in the future could a fee be established? Uh that would be a a question that would come up in the future uh in in terms of of whether a future governing body would determine to to c to charge a fee because of the
nature of this and the the this particular ordinance. It was it's our recommendation not uh to charge a fee. Uh there will be some expenses from this. We anticipate that those expenses uh will be covered by any um fines that
are are generated from um this initiative. Um we depending on how we do enforcement and there's some questions about how we do enforcement, whether we're going to be doing enforcement all the time or whether we're going to do whether the enforcement is going to be
based on need, meaning in areas where there's actually overcrowding occur as opposed to um across the board. And that's something we still need to work out with our with legal department. Um that will make that will determine
whether or not we need additional staff or whether our existing uh resources can be utilized to do that. Um either way, we anticipate that um the cost of whatever whatever additional costs will be u will be covered by the fine
structure. um commercial parking violations. Maybe we could talk about that afterwards after the meeting. Um as far as um this again going to the questions whether
they be window stickers or or hanging, I tend to or I tend to think stickers are are probably the the one of the best ways to do this. Um but administratively we would handle that and if we make the wrong decision then we can we can change that and we you know if if if we find
out that you know going down with stickers causes us a problem. Most likely we will implement this on on a section bysection basis so that we we can get some experience as we go through um implementation and make sure that the
whatever process we use are efficient and effective. Um again I think I mentioned before this is this is a single uh effort that we're looking at the the suggestions about looking at zoning and other um issues
that we can do to try to deal with the issue of overcrowding. We are going to do um this is again this is not intended to be uh a panacea. It is not the end all. It is not perfect. Um, and that that's another reason why uh we want to
have the meetings to get as much input as we can to try to make it as as productive um effort as possible um and just give us another tool to use in our our efforts to try to control what we
consider a problem which is overcrowding. So I don't know if you legal wants to address anything further. Uh there there's nothing uh too specific I would like to address, but I will say I've heard comments today that were uh
very helpful and had some uh there were some suggestions that you know I I think I I'm planning on trying to flesh out further and uh thank you for coming today everybody. Evelyn, >> I do have a concern about um
implementing a program uh that we can afford to implement properly and constructively and to actually fix the problem. So, if we're speaking about parking between 12 and 5, which is the time frame that I understand to be the
uh the issue at hand, then you're talking about somebody patrolling uh the specific areas that are involved 5 hours an evening. So, I don't know if um hiring extra police
is the answer, and that's a that's costly. an officer. Um, you know, they also they're involved in a pension and in medical insurance. Uh, part- timerrs, um, I don't know if anybody would do this part-time 12 to five, but I think
there's going to be a significant cost. I don't believe that the fee structure of $50 would ever cover the cost. Not saying that the cost would be a reason not to do this. I'm just thinking that I think it's wise for us to be overly
cautious and thinking that um we can you know we can do that financially. Um there were some excellent concerns and everybody that has a concern has a valid concern because it's something that um without knowing sometime would
you know know something it's easy to be afraid of it. There are issues in certain places with parking. understood. Um, it's interesting to me that as people spoke it it occurs to me that I think as Mr. Krug said, you know,
like well kind of where do we start? And honestly, I think that sometimes when we look at these places that we permit to be built with one and a half parking spaces or whatever the RSI standards are, it's just not enough. So maybe we
really need to look at what we permit to come in and how we permit it to come in. Um, you know, true condos, if you have two, you can easily have four or five cars in a household, easily all the time. Then comes a holiday or graduation. Uh, you if I invite my
family over, I can have 40 cars in my driveway um, you know, for a big event. But it it's problematic and if you uh that you can't really think of every particular thing that can happen. But I do think sometimes we should be looking
at the problem before it begins. And that comes with what we allow and how we allow it to come in. And it seems to be, you know, the the more congested uh structures when you have condos or uh when you can have one acre uh part uh
oneacre lots um and the driveways. Let's face it, when you look at a senior com uh place, those driveways, you'd be lucky if you can get two cars in a driveway, there are many more comments I could make, but let me share the floor with the rest. Mr. Mayor, please.
>> You have anything the same way? >> Uh, no, I think our professionals covered it pretty well. Um, just to echo something I think Sue said about the the Rzzones particularly, there are a couple that are uh age restricted that already have HOAs in place. So, it would kind of be duplicative to enforce it there. So,
we are looking into maybe removing some of those. Um, but uh yeah, like John said, it's going to be a process and that's why this this type of engagement is is very powerful and very important. Um and uh yeah, we'll make sure to
advertise this properly. I think also um we should think of a way to uh bullet and itemize the changes made to the ordinance as we have these workshops in real time, whether it be through our website or social media or all the above. just so folks know that
we're not just, you know, writing it down here and and throwing it away. Like we're actually taking it to heart and it's actually there's a track change document that we're actually implementing these things in as we as we uh adjust it. So that would be my comment. >> Just want to thank everyone for coming
out today and for your input. uh some things that you know may have been overlooked or specific situations that we weren't aware of that you know we'll have to look into and potentially tweak this ordinance further. Uh I just had question on one of the specific issues
for Caitlyn. When you look up um you do some legal work for the like the work vehicles is that something that we could potentially require a paycheck payub W2 with the resident's address that matches that vehicle or that company. So, we know that it's
actually someone living here that is using that vehicle, something to that effect. >> Yeah, that that's something that is more geared to the administrative side of processing these permits, which is why it's not explicitly written down in the ordinance, but demonstrated need could
easily be a request, something along those lines to show that, you know, this vehicle belongs at this residence, >> right? Because work vehicles could be more of a larger issue than we foresaw that a lot of people do have take-home vehicles and stuff to that effect.
>> And and and certainly by identifying a different registration or different way that we're we're actually going to to justify it will allow us perhaps to set up rules of more more frequent renewals or to monitor that. And plus, once we
have data and and we see that there's a a large number of those that seems it it'll it'll let us it'll let again it'll let us be able to tweak the system better to make sure that that we're uh um we're addressing the issue and we're not over not over addressing the issue,
not under addressing the issue. All right, folks. Uh, I'm going to keep this pretty short. I have some different opinions about what's going on in town, and they're uh not not very popular with certain people. So, you know, we're damned if we do, and we're damned if we
don't. We're trying to keep well-managed neighborhoods. We're trying to keep public safety, you know, addressable. You know, we need fire trucks coming down the roads, EMS, cop cars. We can't have overcrowded roads and unfortunately certain neighborhoods are dealing with
these issues. Okay? And the lack of effort the last two or three years when people in this building that are still here and not here anymore could have started addressing these problems and they weren't addressed. Okay. So, here we are now today talking to
everyone trying to get this as best, you know, put together as possible without pissing off as many people as as possible. Okay, folks. I'm sorry, but that's just what it is. All right, you know, the parking
in some of the neighborhoods is absolutely ridiculous. We don't live in New York City. We don't live in Staten Island, okay? Clifton, Elizabeth, whatever. All right, this is not a city. It's residential areas, okay? And the few bad actors
that are causing the problems, okay, is the reason why this ordinance is being addressed. And we are going to get push back on the ordinance, folks. So, I hope you understand we are going to get push back, okay? And but what do we do? What does the mayor and the council do for
the residents? We're here to work with the residents to make keep Howell a nice place, keep Howell well managed, keep it safe. Okay? And we get put in this position now that, you know, well, you can't do this, you can't do that. You
know, this is not going to be legal, this may be legal. Okay? It's always the same answer. It's always a word salad answer that I get from from certain professionals. And listen, we don't like it, but some of the stuff is out of our
hands. And I've told you folks multiple times since I've been mayor. Some of the changes that need to be done need to be done at the at the next level of government, whether it's Congress, Senate, right to right to the state, right, for allowing certain things that
are going on in residential areas that are going on. So, we're here just to try to clean it up. try to make it more manageable. And I, you know, I'm not happy with it either. Okay. The development I live in is
seeing a lot of this. I live in the Candlewood development. Okay. And I see a lot of this stuff going on. So maybe same with me and Mr. Gross spoke this morning about one side of the street parking only instead of two parts of the
street parking. Okay. because that that would alleviate traffic in certain areas. But then how do we define that? How do we pick what se which sections, you know, there's a lot of work to do here? That's why we had this first meeting. We're going to have the second
meeting. If we have to have a third meeting, we'll have a third meeting. Everyone up here is in agreement that we need to fine-tune this as best as possible with our professionals, with the manager, okay? So it fits as best for the community. And we're still not
going to have people happy. We we get that. And that's unfortunate, but that's just the way life is. You know, put your big boy pants on and and deal with it if you know if you don't like it. You know, stop huddling up the roads. Be respectful of your neighbors. Okay.
Don't have 15 cars at a three-bedroom house. I have five I have five cars in my house. Zach, you go to school with my son. >> Yeah. >> All right. I have five cars at my house. So, every single one of those cars now when this goes through are going to get registered with the town. The
registration for those cars is going to match my address. So, you want to park in the street with those cars, you can park in the street with the with the cars. You know, Ian and I have spoken about what people complained about, well, what if I have people over over for the weekend? Okay, the registered
cars that are on the list, put them in the street and put the unregistered cars that are your friends for the weekend, put them in the driveway. So if the officer does happen to come down your block for enforcement, those cars are in the driver. They're not in the street. You know, some of the
stuff you, you know, is I think is common sense, but we're, you know, some people are just making a big deal out of it. And like I said, if you if if you're not, you know, abusing the ordinances that we have on on the books as far as ordinance, you know, as far as occupancy rules for a house, you
got a four bedroomedroom house, depending on the square footage of those bedrooms, that determines the occupancy of the home. So, if it's 12 people can live at that home and there's 12 cars at that home and those 12 cars are
registered to that home, then I guess those 12 cars can get a permit, right? Ian, is that we discussed it? >> It's pretty much >> it's pretty much right. You know what? So, you know, it's occupancy rules, too. >> Yeah.
And Mrs. uh Eugene over on Wilson Drive. I thought we we addressed uh those those vehicles in the in the street, those those commercial vehicles. I know before the snowstorm, code enforcement was over there and cleaned up the street. So, if it's still going on, please call the
code enforcement and let them and let them let them know. Okay, Mr. Hayes, we're addressing what you're saying about you you having an out ofstate truck, but that's your work truck. I'm sure the work truck matches your your address as far as your pay. So that's,
you know, that's that's simple. You know what I mean? I think some people took some of this too far and not understood. Uh to the gentleman, Bob, your unhooked trailers, unhook trailers are not allowed in the roadways. So kindly give Mr. Gross an email of those those streets where the unhook trailers are or
send it to me. We will get it right over to code enforcement and to the police department because unhooked trailers are not allowed in the roadways. That's that's one of our that's a that's a rule. So certainly honor. And Mr. Hayes, I understand what you're saying about Newton's going on the road, sir. All right. I've lived there, too, since
1986. It's a disaster and I would love to put speed bumps first thing in the spring. I would love to do that for you, but it's not one decision that I can make on my on my own. And it's not it's not popular with with the police department, you know, with fears of
because the cars are are close and the homes are close to the roadway with fears of, you know, idiots coming down the street at 3:00 in the morning doing 60 miles an hour and then launching over a speed hump into somebody's, you know, house or onto their lawn. It's >> right now, John. >> They're doing it now. I've seen it
>> driving people's houses. >> Yeah, I've seen it. You know, I've seen this. It's just I I understand your your frustrations. It's it's an issue. Okay, sir. So, um, you know, I thank everyone for coming out today and please attend the next one when it's going to be a
nighttime meeting hopefully sometime in March or early April. We don't know yet. We have scheduling conflicts with religious holidays and stuff. So, Mr. Gross is working on that with our attorneys and um we appreciate all the input and I'm sure our professionals are going to take some of that and tweak
what we already we're going to be doing because we're here to listen to your concerns and we want to be as transparent as possible with you folks as far as getting any of this done. As much as it's going to be unpopular with certain people, okay, and certain
residents, it it is it is what it is. Everyone should have a say. We're all taxpayers. We all live here. I don't see any further business. I have a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> All in favor? I