reconvene meeting 711 we will now reconvene with regular session councilwoman fiser here councilman Nell here councilwoman odonnell here Deputy Mayor gazer is absent this evening mayor Leo here thank
you um Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of individual prayer please I Al to the flag of the United States of America to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liy and justice for all thank accept of minutes motion to accept minutes March 4th 2025 a second councilman fiser yes councilman Nell yes councilwoman oono yes mayor Leia yes thank
you reports of Township Department officials couple of quick ones so Saturday April 5th 2025 Oak Glen park at from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. we will be having our annual Easter in the park uh there's going to be egg hunts uh music
games food demonstrations face painting a petting zoo and as always the Easter Bunny will be there um Thursday May 1st here at the Howell Township Municipal Building 4567 Route 9
North we will have at 7 p.m. our National Day of Prayer so all are invited and on Friday May 16th we will be having a babysitting course from 5:00 p.m. to 900 p.m. for
young people ages 11 to 15 years old um 4-Hour course you can learn an all is about babysitting it's being given through the Red Cross and the Heart Association so um the cost is $30 and again that'll be right here at the municipal bu
building nothing for me nothing from legal all right I would like now like to open the floor now for hearing of citizens and public comment 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 comment shall not exceed a total of 5 minutes speaker shall be notified when their time has and no time extension shall be permitted go ahead
sir good evening do I have to be sworn in for this or is this just an informal name and name and address please okay Ron Springer 494 Lakewood Farmingdale Road in how should I proceed proceed yeah okay
uh this is a letter that we drafted um kind of to follow up on our previous letter of January 6 2025 so I think most of the people on the board are on the council are semi aware of what's going on here but as a follow up to this letter as farmers in Hal Township we are aware of the efforts of the mayor and
the council have considered to help preserve an independent Farms we embarked on a plan over a year ago to obtain approval to use our farm for events such as birthday parties and showers and occasional weddings after many months and substantial costs close to $100,000 we are nearing the Finish Line to begin to utilize our farm for
small events we did not initially anticipate the high cost this project of this project that included boundary survey topographic survey Loi application to D FHA application to the hiring a civil engineer to design the plans hiring an attorney professional
planner traffic engineer and wetlands expert uh and now now we're dealing with the county and uh just standing here before you guys tonight um we've been on this form for over 20 years uh we've been pretty good citizens I think it's been a lot of hard work I work probably
60 hours most weeks to try to keep this place looking good uh we've been good citizens we've donated to the Girl Scouts to the Little League teams we donated the Landscaping to Soldier Field and at this point in time we never anticipated that it would cost this much to you know get this kind of permission
to do these events I know recently approved all Farms to do events for up to 50 people and there was no cost involved for anyone there and now we have a lot of Frontage on our property and it's a rural road where there are no sidewalks from Farmingdale to Lakewood
and uh it looks as if with this sidewalk fund building these sidewalks cost $15,000 and it's just so far beyond anything we ever anticipated and anything we really can afford at this point so now we're right at the place where we think we could start you know
earning money to save our farm and this seems like the not a very fair way to end it and I'm just just standing before you guys tonight asking that you would consider waving this for us because I know it's happened for other people in raw locations where sidewalk fund
contributions are waved and I feel like we we really do deserve it and we need it and I'm just standing here tonight asking that you would consider it and uh would help us out and and just make us feel like we really have the town behind us um it's still going to cost us some
money to do some things the county wants and uh we're just appealing to you guys for some help thank you thank you Betty valet gimble 97 Victory Road I came before you on February 4th to
discuss the Victory Road Warehouse I provided an overview and I questioned why the Howell Township planning board attorney Ron cier was not welcoming the Sierra club's involvement in the litigation councilman nadell questioned
answers were promised I'm hoping that you had an opportunity to discuss this with Mr Clark I appreciate the time that you took today Mr Clark to speak with me please don't take this personally but I'm still left with an uneasy feeling so
I'd like to share two emails with Council to help you understand why the first email um is from Mr Clark that referenced um the Sierra Club might want to intervene in the matter of their own right not to represent the town from
what I understand Ron didn't reject the Sierra club's participation but instead advised it that it is free to take whatever action it thinks is necessary to intervene right now we're waiting to see what happens the next email is from the Sierra Club um if the Sierra Club
were to get involved it would only work if there was a collaboration with the township and discussion of legal strategy that would be helpful to the town so far Ron ciero does not seem interested in such collaboration the Sierra Club wants to work with the
town according to my legal sources nothing prevents the planning board from doing this the residents of Victory Road have been through enough and here's a bit of an overview of some of the things that we've gone through at the start of this nightmare we lost councilman gazer
planning board vote when he visited with some of Victory Road residents under the tutelage of councilwoman odonnell we were chastised by a planning board member on Facebook Who as a result recused himself we were ridiculed by a former councilwoman who called into a
radio station to label us activists and joined in the Facebook chatter we fundraised and contributed our own funds to pay our legal team and experts over $94,000 we were used in campaign Shenanigans by councilwoman O'Donnell
who pleaded for the property's purchase in upwards of $10 million on the back of the taxpayers and now we are left with the uncertainty of a Whispering Wood settlement agreement as is customary to the appeals process if the town does not want a warehouse project then why not
coordinate with Sierra Club unless the town plans to give in and compromise with active Acquisitions and stola realy with a back room deal I'm not happy with what I feel are games and I will not stop until I find
the answers we're asking our elected officials to stand behind us the residents thank you anyone else I have not seeing anyone so I make a motion to close uh public comment motion to close public second
second all in favor I all right we're let anyone like to respond I'll just briefly touch about on some of the legal issues that um Miss FZ uh brought up um technically the board
getting sued is the planning board not the council um you guys really don't have any oversight onto that litigation you appoint the planning board members but they're a separate entity Al together that controls that litigation regardless from my conversations with Mr
ciero you know it it doesn't seem like there's any oppositions to if the Sierra Club wants to intervene which is a typical course of action for a third-party entity who might have different interests than the the the
entity that's already involved um I if they wanted to intervene from my understanding there's not going to be any oppositions to that but they have to ask the court to intervene and just as a basis of understanding for public
entities um if there are potential conflict issues typical private clients are permitted to wave conflicts a public entity is not allowed to wave any type of conflict so if there is any type of
conflict of interest which I can't speak to because I'm not involved in the case but if there is a conflict in there the planning board is not permitted to wave it as a public entity any other professionals no just to I I'll
reiterate what what Caitlyn just said so I'll put my lawyer hat on for a second the Neer cleaner way is for Sierra Club to intervene on its own right instead of piggybacking off of the town or joining in with the town planning board would need to exercise its authority to permit
that to happen um and then if a conflict were to somehow arise they're sort of stuck between IR rock and a hard place so um crer Club could conceivably on their own initiative come into the action themselves and again I don't think that
there would be any sort of opposition to that any other professionals no Mrs fiser councilman woman um yeah at some point um in terms
of the Springers and their concern uh yeah I'd like to really have a conversation with the council and um some of the things that we are privy to of that particular area so we can have a better view of a resolution
if it's if if that could be the case so um I know there's a well I'll I'll talk to council I guess offline because I don't want to get um if there's any pending litigation anywhere down the road I don't want to compromise
the council but I think it's a conversation that we still need to have just as a planning board member I just don't want to publicly discuss anything involving the Sierra Club same here as being a planning board member we will discuss that in uh
executive with the the proper channels as far as Mr Springer Mr Mrs Springer uh as as Evelyn said we need to talk about this as a group and uh we look at every case individually
and I understand your frustrations about you know how much you know what youve put out trying to get to the point where you're at today and um you know that's a County Road and it's uh no no surrounding sidewalks no curbs no aprons you know it's uh it's
something that we need to just collectively talk about uh at the proper time so when when and if you come for that relief we'll uh we'll discuss it then all right fair enough thank all
right information all right um consent agenda items uh we will uh we'll vote on the consent agenda items and I wish I wish to pull one agenda item separately um
r25 d113 it's authorizing the increase of how Township council members annual salary I am making a motion to table this until we have a full Council to vote on it uh being that Mr uh councilman uh Deputy Mayor Mr gazer is
not here I would like to make a motion to table this I'll second that motion Council Fischer yes C n doubt yes Council no Don a strong Obion and mayor legio
yes thank you the mo uh motion to carry has been approved resolutions make a motion uh approve resolution 25-17 through an including r25 d112 second councilwoman Fischer yes
councilman Nell yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor legio yes thank you the consent resolutions pass that done resolutions to be voted on separately we will now proceed with with
uh resolutions to be voted on separately I'm sorry I repeated myself r25 1114 providing for transfers between budget Appropriations contained in the 2024 appropriation reserves Municipal budget may I have a motion to approve
motion to approve R 25-14 second councilwoman fer yes councilman Nel yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor legio yes thank you the resolution passes resolution r25 d115 resolution of the township of Howell
County of Mammoth state of New Jersey authorizing the transfer of 164,000 from the 2024 appropriation reserves for accumulated leave to the Comm cumulative Reserve trust fund pursuing to njsa 48
col 4-39 and njac 5 col 30-15 motion motion to approve r25 115 I'll make a second and I would ask um Mr Clark could you just elaborate on this so that the uh people sitting here and the people at home are clear what we're doing it's money left over that we're
then moving into the um recovery trust fund we didn't need it this year so it's getting parked um and it'll stay there for future years thank you councilwoman Fischer yes councilman Nell yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor legio yes thank you
the resolution passes r25 1116 authorizing the transfer of 500,000 from the 2024 appropriation reserves for snow removal to the storm recovery Reserve trust fund pursuing to njsa 4A colon 4-
62.1 and public law 2001 motion to approve second councilwoman fiser yes councilman Nell yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor legio yes thank you the resolution passes all
right unfinished unfinished business uh public hearing and Adoption of ordinances so Mr Mayor before uh we after Diane reads the titles and before you guys vote on them Matt's going to give a short description of everything
and sort of explain the purpose except the first okay the first ordinance 25-8 an ordinance of the township Council of the township of Howell Mammoth County authorizing the leasing of a portion of echol Lake Park in the township of Howell pursu to njsa
4A col-1 12-15 I'll move to adopt ordinance 25-8 excuse me we need a public hearing on ordinance 2508 uh which is now open if anyone wishes to comment on this ordinance please come to the podium and state your
name and address for the record good evening mayor and Council professionals Mark pry 2 Castle Court I'm just going to make a general comment about all of these farming ordinances uh I just want to applaud everybody that was involved in this Council Township Administration
Betty how Farmers United I know that this has been like a year and a half um nothing's perfect but I think that you know based upon conversations that I've had with people in the community and and some of the people up here at the deas um that that we've landed in a good
place where like there's something that we can put on the books see how it works we can always come back and tweak things and uh I just think it's really good for the community that we're able to get these ordinances I know that um having you know learned a lot that there's not a lot of this going on in the state you
know and I recognize that Matt you know what I mean like that that like we're we're we're carving out some new stuff here so uh I think it's really awesome that we're able to do something and you know maybe lead by example to other you know towns in in the county and in the state and and see how what we've done and and how how it works so I just want
to just say something nice and just uh you know give a kudos to everyone involved motion to close public motion close PA second all in favor I I make a motion again yes please okay now
I move to adopt ordinance 25- 08 second Council fiser yes councilman Nell yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor legio yes thank you the ordinance is adopted ordinance 0- 25-9 uh motion hold on you want me to
read it okay it's the title is an ordinance amending chapter 188 land use Article 1 title purpose definitions section 4 entitled definitions and rules of general applicability of the revised General ordinances of the township of
howl so this ordinance uh is just putting some definitions to some new terms um such as uh Farms Farm related special events both small and large scale farmers market and farm stands ultimately a lot of those terms are coming in in the ordinances that will follow um so they're starting to match
up um putting a definition uh for those terms that come later public hearing on ordinance 25-9 is now open if anyone wishes to come to comment on this ordinance please come up to the podium and state your name and address for the
record seeing no one I make a motion to close public motion to close second all in favor I I'll make a motion to adopt uh set ordinance second councilman Fisher yes
councilman Nell yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor legio I fully support this uh ordinance but I will be abstaining thank you the ordinance is adopted ordinance 25-10 an ordinance amending chapter 188 land use
article 99 zoning requirements to add section 64.1 entitled Farm related special events small scale of the revised General ordinances of the township of Howell so this section creates um what we think is one of the first permanent
processes in the state to allow for weddings Milestone events birthday parties anniversary parties on farms um this ordinance is important because it excludes certain size events from site plan review um so this means that you could come to the Community Development Office um through land use and if
obviously if you need building permits they'll be involved as well if you're doing things with uh cooking under tents fire Bureau may be involved but you can pull administrative approvals so no site plan approval for events up to 50 people in size we've also extended that to up to 80 people if you're on a preserved
Farm preserved Farms tend to be larger uh than your standard Q Farm um so we feel comfortable going up in size uh and this is a permit process that should take matter of days maybe a week or so as opposed to site plan uh which can take months so we think this will be uh
really good for the Farms to be able to do small scale events without taxing infrastructure uh or hopefully not creating issues with neighbors the public hearing on ordinance 25-10 is now open if anyone wishes to comment on this ordinance
please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record Betty V gimal 97 Victory Road uh just wanted to um again thank um Council and admin for this one uh because we are very well versed in the right to farm
and this was not a permitted activity um under the right to farm especially for just the Q farm so we appreciate extending that to um all farms uh and we also will appreciate uh the future as far as working with um any issues or an
understanding as we move forward to each individual Farm um should there uh any issues arise so thank you just to Echo that um Miss Kimble's correct uh Right to Farm doesn't permit any of these events so this is something
a little bit off a separate Branch but we're excited to do it uh we're excited to be one of the first to do it um and you know it's something that right to Farm's lacking and and being able to offer this protection so it is a a great tool that how's able to use um we hope that in the future we're going to have
no issues we hope we're g to have no complaints and we'll be back here making revisions to loosen the rains and to be able to to expand on these but with that'll come in time so I'll agree quickly it it was a process um you know we have it in place
now there's a few Farms that are going to be able to take advantage of it so whoever's out there watching this on the internet come to how for your wedding for your special occasion events we're open for business now so anyone else from the
public no uh motion to close public motion to close second all in favor I I I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance 25-10 second before we vote can I ask for a clarification on one point sure
okay um this is in particular to the um guidelines that the governor had put forward correct preserved and the qualified Farm yeah so the governor what they the law that was passed was was allowing for preserved Farms the opportunity to do these events
um they don't have they didn't give themselves ultimate say and say the township can or can't do anything um what happens when you preserve a farm the language in the easement is very specific you can farm this area you could use these tools you can't put new structures up or you can you can't put
new houses up or you can it's very specific and there's no easement in the state of New Jersey that probably included special events so the governor was saying that we're going to give you an opportunity to release language in that easement through the holder which is usually the county or the state that
they would let you do the events and they gave some guidelines but it still said that you had to go to the town um this is giving you on the small scale the town now being able to to smooth the path no site plan um and to be able to come in for a permit because otherwise
without the ordinance as we know Z plan and use variance with this ordinance administrat a permit you know under these conditions I just wanted to you know make have clarification on the point that this really started out as a small funnel you know all good
intentions obviously and it was difficult because there wasn't clearcut um a venue to follow so that was very difficult at the least but I'm very happy I think there's two preserved qualified Farms that can take advantage of the larger venue such as a wedding so
it's a good beginning and I think Mr Clark has made a nice commercial that um bring your wedding to hell as as Miss gimble said right to farm doesn't cover it then the state comes in and says we're going to cut we're going to allow you some flexibility in your easement just for preserved and the towns have to
deal with everything it's it's extremely complicated it's overlapping these ordinances are more detailed than anybody wants but that's the condition that's created by these laws because they're not giving just a streamlined approach and there's certain aspects of what the farm is doing versus what the
the on Farm direct marketing allows you to do and there's there there are strict parameters there's very little oversight from it from the county or the state almost none um and it does leave uh the township to have to kind of get involved more than we want and I think the product here speaks about the year and a half of work that was put in by
everybody and I think it's going to be a success yeah I just wanted to you know remind everybody watching at home and whatnot that you know this was a very unusual um task to undertake to come out with something you know that was going to be
viable for uh the qualified Farm the preserved farm and neighboring people and you know to to achieve the task at hand and the focus that I'm sure the governor at the time was looking at and uh I commend you for finding that narrow Pathway to the
end of this with a good result so I thank Administration very very much I know it was not easy and that's it I'll continue with call on the vote councilwoman Fischer yes councilman Nell yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor
legio again I support this ordinance 100% but I abstain thank you the ordinance is adopted ordinance 25-11 an ordinance of the township of Howell supplementing chapter 188 article 10 zones supplementing section
18869 entitled agricultural rural estate zones A1 A3 a 4 and a 6 and section 69.1 agricultural rural estate A2 to include Farm related special events large scale
and farm related special events small scale as a permitted use somewhere mayor Burger is just very happy she didn't have to read that um so this is a pretty simple one there it's just couple sections listing the agricultural rural estate zones what
this is doing is putting small scale and large scale events as a principal permitted use in the zone small scale events are the ones we just passed the permit requirements for large scale still do have to go for site plan um future ordinances will hopefully make that easier uh that are on tonight future ordinances um but this is putting
them as principal permitted uses which means no use variants no conditional use variants no zoning board um that the applications can proceed to the planning board if needed which is over 50 people for a qualified Farm over 80 people for a preserved
Farm the public care on ordinance 25-11 is now open if anyone wishes to comment on this ordinance please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record I'm seeing no one so motion to close public hearing motion to close
second all in favor I may have a motion to adopt motion to adopt ordinance 25-1 second councilwoman fiser yes councilman yes Council no Donald yes mayor Leo support 100% but I abstain thank you the
orian is adopted ordinance 25-12 an ordinance amending chapter 139 fees article 17 land use subsection 31 entitled land use certificates subsection 34 entitled site plans and subdivisions and subsection 41 entitled
escrow amounts for Professional Services of the rules of the general applicability of the revised general order ordinances of the township of Howell mostly a housekeeping ordinance so we're doing a a permit uh for the administrative approvals this is setting a reasonable fee for that it's in line
with our other land use permits um also we did follow the state guidance uh in their law saying that there's a $50 fee for uh preserved farms under their law so we we matched $50 for ours as well the public hearing on ordinance
25-12 is now open if anyone wishes to comment on this ordinance please come to the iium and state your name and address for the record I am seeing no one so make a motion to close public hearing motion close second all in favor I I I make a
motion to adopt I'll make a motion to adopt set ordinance second councilwoman fiser yes councilman n yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor Lego support 100% abstain thank you the ordinance is adopted
ordinance 25-3 an ordinance amending application checklist subdivisions site plans and VAR variance applications to add addendum a entitled Farm related special events checklist of the revised General ordinances of the township of
Howell this was probably one of the harder ordinances to come up with over the last we've been working on it solely for about six months um is a revised checklist uh so when somebody does have to go to the planning board uh we don't want it to be uh more arduous and difficult than it needs to to be um so
we've come up with we've taken our checklist paired it down significantly what was 90 plus items still o over 45 it's close to 50 items but the items are relatively straightforward um we're looking for a plan a Ser you're going to have to get a survey of the site a plan
um show us just the improvements that are being made where the events are being held this is obviously only if site plan is needed um and if it's a smaller sized event and we're not having a traffic impact we're asking for like a narrative from the from the owner as to how they're going to manage traffic same
thing with parking and noise if it becomes that we do get a 3,000 person venue then in the checklist it does give the board the ability to ask for more information um so what we've done is we have a lot of those items that are taking out environmental reports things that that don't pertain unless they are
very specific to your site um and we're making that effort a lot easier um in terms of the site plan again it's only for permitted uses this is a permitted use so it's going to the planning board this should make the process a lot easier and for the Farms
that have gone through the entire site plan and use variance process um we Al also have in all of these ordinances that this doesn't apply so the administrative permit um the the any requirement under these ordinances they just have to follow their site plan and use variance approval that's what's
there they've gone through that process um so they're going to have a little bit easier time too and we think that's fair the public hearing on ordinance 25-13 is now open if anyone wishes to comment on this ordinance please come to the podium and state your name and
address for the record seeing no one may make a motion to close public hearing motion to close public second all in favor I motion to
adopt 25-13 motion to adopt ordinance 25-13 second councilwoman fiser yes councilman Nel yes councilwoman odonnell yes mayor legio supported 100% obstain thank you the ordinance is
adopted now introd introduction of ordinance ordinance 0- 25-14 an ordinance of the township of Howell supplementing chapter 188 article 10 zones supplementing and modifying sections
9.1 Special Economic Development zone-1 S1 to include active and passive Recreation uses including outdoor and indoor facilities as a permitted use may I have a motion to introduce 25-14 I'll make a motion to introduce
ordinance 25-14 second councilman fiser yes councilman Nal yes Council odonnell yes mayor legio yes thank you the ordinance is properly introduced the next regular scheduled council
meeting will take place on April 1st 2025 executive session begins at 6 p.m. and the regular session begins at 7 p.m. seeing no further business before the council I'm sorry could I make one remark yes um I meant to say
um and I'd be remiss if I didn't into it at this point um a former volunteer Mr Paul Schneider had been hospitalized he was ill I'm happy to say he's home he's getting stronger so please continue to pay or pray for his recovery to continue
this was a gentleman that served over 50 years in this town so he brings volunteerism to a uh a level that's tough to match so uh Paul we think of you often we wish you well and if you need anything Pick Up The Phone World
still here thank you seeing no further business for the council may I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor I I