good evening everybody and happy first day of spring that spring started at 5:01 this morning um you can take your word for it it's true thank glad to see everybody uh we are already in open session we've already
agents in a moment of silence we were in close session a little bit earlier so we're back in in public session already and we'll begin with um approval of the minutes so these are the minutes
from February 6 February 20th close session part uh February 20th meeting March 6 close session March 6 minutes guidance does everybody have a chance to look through the minutes and make
any dates everyone can vote on this last um so uh if everybody's good a motion to approve these minutes move second all those in say I i now have the close session minutes
from February 20 part B um make a second rather sorry all in favor i abain okay thank you uh next on the agenda is uh administrative reports that the council
member to look at the administrative reports from that were submitted to the city okay um I would I know a couple of things that the storm sur was finally delivered on March 14th so uh I was there when it arrived and um very
excited to get it going cool i would also note that this um this is the first time we have a um storm management report and that was submitted by Britney who's done a wonderful job lots of pictures and uh she's doing a she's
doing a remarkable job so kudos to her i will be meeting with Britney and um Lester Myers the director uh on Monday with the city engineer and GIS specialist this year the city has to map all of these um underground pipes and so
uh that'll be coming up that'll be a capital project that we'll be talking about fairly soon we also need to retrofit all of our uh inlets which I've talked about a couple of times couple of other things of uh from the administrative reports we did we had 8,900 park mobile transactions last
month and 20 just over $26,000 in uh meter fees uh we did welcome a couple of uh new uh employees that month uh to police department conor English and Bet um are
recently hired and will be at the police academy for the next six months uh returning to full-time service here and there I think in September and hotel took in $12,990 last month in my
hotel tax so motion to accept the administrative reports please all say I thanks um we're going to move on to public participation and constituent concerns before we do that
uh I had I had a telephone call today this afternoon from John Potter who's the developer of the Fingles former Fingle site um called me from California said he had lost the the meeting the last meeting and he wanted me to reach out to the community to uh express his
gratitude and also to say that when he was back in California he would like to uh set up a community meeting um with uh all members of the community neighbors uh anybody who has any questions um more than willing to talk about kind of where they are what they're thinking what
their plans are um and answer questions so as soon as I have that um Cindy will notice it because uh I'll the council will all be invited of course um and he wants to do that really within the next month so uh if everybody will just kind
of keep that in mind uh we'll get the word out we have eventful matters on the regular noticing requirements um so looking forward to that all right so I will now open up to public participation we ask unless you have mobility issues to step up to the mic you have three minutes of
uninterrupted time to comment make your comments or ask your questions and we would ask you to say your name and your address for the record hi everybody i'm Beth O'Brien from two Hancock Street i want to thank you mayor
with your Lambertville Lambertville Matters letter today for encouraging residents to get their wells tested i do not want the environmental crisis in my neighborhood Konut Hill to fall off the radar it has been eight months since our well tested positive for dangerous
levels of POS it is a long and complicated process to navigate the spill fund it took us four months to get our filtration system installed we still have not been reimbursed for boil testing and bottled water many of our neighbors still do not have access to
clean safe drinking water it's been eight months for the record I would like everyone to know that 74 wells have been tested on Connet Hill 71 of those wells are contaminated and are not safe for consumption the residents of Connet Hill
are working together to support each other working with our neighbors in West Amwell the D plans to test 40 more wells in May thank you jeff Tiddle 33 Wilson Street i just want to say that you know in many other
communities they're doing a lot more in in their Washington Township the town's actually testing wells and getting putting funding out ahead of time and also working with the community to bring in water sources uh but I'm here talk about I think something more important
which is the future of our community we are seeing a double threat to our community with the development on the hill and development at glad that they're coming to discuss it because from what I've seen and heard it's a fairly large project that could have a
long-term impact on neighborhood with narrow streets but the main issue I'm here is to talk about what's happening on the hill i've read the different briefs um my concerns and fears that I've been raising for months and months and many other people in this community have raised are coming true um I thought
our brief did not go far enough and saying why the hill was not an appropriate place um I I felt that our brief in mentioning our current plan was opening the door for an attack by hip hop kod and they did uh not having
alternative sites gives them more standing to go after us and when I read their report or their response that came true i mean not only did they uh go after the town for not doing anything for years but they said that we that
site's been part of the plan for seven years our response was with that it is part of our plan they are the contract owner they want to go up to 200 units um our planner in September 9th and they used the quote said that was an appropriate site when she didn't do a
profit analysis which we raised at the meeting that site is has so many problems with it you could talk about flooding traffic ingress and egress you have you have a line you have something the town has never thought about or never really talked about you have a an unlined and unrediated landfill you have
a former electronics factory which wasn't mentioned in our brief you have wells that have been tested in that area now 71 of them with POS you have former ball fields that could have arsenic and former um uh and and a former orchard that's why it's wrong and on the other
side we have still not talked about or gotten to the place where we have alternative sites the Village Apartments is like the number one site that everybody wants they came here back in June with a plan we haven't heard from them but we've never gone back to see if
they're sticking with their plan do they want to go to another plan i don't know has anybody had any contact with them that'll be a question um hopefully will be answered when I'm done but that's the key site as are some of the other sites if we don't have an alternative plan and we don't say why the the hill is wrong
we're going to lose and I'm really concerned about that because that is a terrible project that's going to have long-term impacts especially if they can get up and do the five from um the five from farm and a few more 200 units is just unacceptable 139 is terrible we
have a toxic problem whether it's in our parks or in our water we have other sites that are also have contamination we're going to get inundated with development if this thing goes through because if they get away with this there going to be other developers coming in one after another so between the two
sites the future of this town is at risk basically it's not the game of jeopardy we are in legal jeopardy thank So there's a problem with the Zoom people the host needs to start the meeting I think
while you're looking at that um I'll just comment on what Jeff was saying um you know clearly uh you know you've been talking about the environmental issues on this site for a long time there are significant environmental issues um you know I think obviously we we need to find out more about those environmental issues and we need to work on finding
another site uh to put this up there because obviously we don't want to build any housing let alone affordable housing in a place where it's not safe for people to do that and you know obviously this this has been part of our plan for a while but I think everyone in this room knows that I have changed a lot of
things um I would hope that the judge would understand that as well um you know we we learned a lot because of that and we don't want to make those same mistakes again so you know yes it wasn't our plan but are there changed circumstances absolutely and you know we've been talking about this for a
while but we need to find another site and I think we're finally moving in that direction is you know the goal is to find a place where we can provide really nice affordable housing that's safe 295 North Main is a much better location there is a laundromat right there
there's the CVS there it's right across the street from Pul Park it's right next to the schools but when we talk about a good location for affordable housing you know as long as it's high enough there which obviously would have to be it's a much better location than the pedestrian access water issues that we have up on
the hill so well somebody's got to either talk to them or do something thank you good evening i'm Roger Fergus 14 railroad point um I came to speak about Caval Park by way of background I am a licensed site remediation professional
and I'm the owner of P Jersey Environmental Consulting located here in Hunter County i am living at the work that has been done on behalf of the town on this i have correspondence i prepared to send the New Jersey D to ask that the
department execute compulsory direct oversight of the site because the state's remediation time frames have been missed and the work that has been done yearto for is incompetent i'm encouraged to see that you're hiring another firm but I'm very discouraged to
see that as a Pennsylvania firm who does not have an LSRP on staff and I'd like to know how this council will effectively complete the remediation so the people of this town and my grandchildren can safely use the park i thank you
um we're going to stay on top of it right that's I mean that's all I can say i don't know a bill if you know anything specific this has obviously been something that's been going on for years um and was not taken care of uh over the last three years uh the city attorney and I have worked on trying to get some
information that was uh relevant and pertinent and important to the RAO um but that was not uh forthcoming we made multiple requests there's many there are many email chains uh that will that will show that we've been trying to work on this for the last couple of years i
can't speak to what happened before I before my administration um obviously there's some public record but uh it's clearly it's clearly a problem and uh it you know as I said in Glamorville matters today and as I said publicly you
know we want our parks to be safe absolutely and uh you know we also would like to close out this uh grant with green acres um uh which is you know uh which technically expired in December um
so I think that it's very problematic and I'll let Mr fill in any other details that you think might be your remarks there will be an LSRP will be I don't have a name for you i can get it for you i would appreciate that
absolutely not firm does not have one on staff and that that is a grave concern that is not the legislaturator's intent as to how the program was set up yeah well we the city needs somebody to substitute in for the current LSRP of
record on has TNM been released from this project it will be okay i've I've spoken to that gentleman i I have to admit as a professional who does this for a living I'm very unimpressed and I would suggest that the town has
grounds to file a complaint against the L to licensing board in this matter against all three elic served on this case that's how badly this has been screwed up we have talked about that so I'm not prepared to discuss that in open
but thank you thank you for coming dave Bird uh 255 Avenue this is a simple question and maybe I just missed it in the past uh the ordinance tonight for first reading uh 042025 notes a business administrator at
50 to $130,000 a year shared service uh uh at the yes shared service annual do we have a a business administrator uh no not currently we have a budget
consultant uh and we are uh the council so it's it's just a spaceholder uh well I'm prepared to say it's more than a spaceholder at this time uh you know after having a discussion with the council uh I'm looking to potentially
hire into a shared service agreement with Frenchtown for shared services for a business administrator i I think though to Mr to Bird's point before we did that um I believe and it precedes me at the time on the council is that we
had changed the city ordinances for to hire the prior business administrator which turned out to be not such a great uh situation not such a great idea and I think we need to take a look back at the way we they structured the government
then with the business administrator because it needs to be redone and and the business administrator ator had what had I believe and I'm talking off the top of my head so too much authority the way city hall was structured it was not a functional situation so no we don't
have one and I want to add that if we were to add one that we really need to re take a fresh look at how some someone like that would operate particularly when they're part-time as well so with
care you both so much I' I've looked at the the I have the administrative code i've been reading it and looking at it and sort of trying to imagine um what an administrator what functions an administrator would have here i think we've talked about it councilman Stegman
has talked I think and I have talked about it we will review the administrative code and find sort of what's best for us i think in terms of the if I may I'll just talk about this for a couple minutes i think in terms of a couple of the things that are in the code that I think are important are that
we need someone to manage the human resources uh end of things in town that's a very important element and we could also use help um overseeing projects right i mean I I honestly think that part of the problem we have at Cabala Park and with a project that was
never finished up on York Street and other projects is that you know we could really use a project manager somebody who oversees some of these more complex you know as it is at Cindy and me and you know we're kind of patching together a communication we do it pretty well I
think but I can certainly understand how um things uh kind of fall you know be through the cracks um and I'm more than happy to look at kind of the code and to adjust it accordingly
yeah any other comments or request from anybody online to make a comment okay all right thank you for joining us everybody and uh seeing no other members of the public wish to comment I would ask for a motion to close the public participation
test second all those in favor please say I i um resolutions consent agenda the resolutions on the consent agenda are considered routine and shall be enacted by one motion should any member of the
city council accept a discussion day item that item shall be removed and discussed separately i just want to note that I did mess up on the resolution numbers there's to a duplicate so you really don't worry about the numbers you're voting on the
actual resolution and I'll adjust the numbers 65 i I I duplicated uh I will just make a couple of just a couple things I want to point out
probably will note that we have some new um non seed amounts to be included in our budget this year uh these have been added recently because of uh what are what we would expect to have upcoming changes terms of litigation
um and some incidentals which we neglected to put in during the during the earlier um reord with the the greater area greater area chamber of commerce for shad festival um there there's uh change from
last year uh right working with a couple of the business owners and uh with the council we will be uh closing uh North England Street between church and uh Northland Street uh Friday evening before Shadfest church and bridge what's
that church and bridge church and bridge i'm sorry church and bridge you did okay um uh for kind of a local site a little bit of a block party if you was going to get a band in the parking lot and we thought it would be a nice opportunity uh to to have people wandering that
block and feeling safe and fun and having a good time uh so so that [Music] all point out yes are there any questions from council
[Music] hearing none i would have the motion this year uh accept resolution uh 63- 69 it's actually going to be 63 through 70 i'm sorry 63 through 70 correct thank
you second all right all those in favor please say I um Bill did you answer 70 the ordinance doesn't comp contemplate a separate hearing okay thank you um resolution number
70-2025 this is a resolution of the governing body of the city of Lambertville county of Hunter state of New Jersey to authorize the cannabis application filed by collective LLC for submittal to the state of New Jersey um this is collected
LLC filed an application to open a blanker business class 5 dispensary at Riverwalk this application was approved by the filing board on February 19th 2025 and has been reviewed by the city attorney
and and the CMFL and the CML thank you for adding that thoughts or questions from the council on this resolution yeah I have a question we've been uh discussing a potential extension of
business hours in the central business district that yeah will be a discussion oh yeah okay good thank you i just have one um question well um and I look to you Lieutenant Brown that I know we um
had a hearing before the planning board and we talked about that that the uh police department was ever was able to provide input into the plan but I do ask you know one thing that we had talked about was that you know the police department continue to uh have a liaison
with the applicant given the fact that there's also a residential neighborhood there that folks are going to be passing through to to get to the site and that you know we a little bit talk of traffic and everything and how it was going to go that um that we keep that uh
communication open and if there are any you know issues to be able to you know share them with Lieutenant Brown as well i was going to follow up on on this i think my concern was the traffic on Wilson Street and I'm glad to see that
you know the delivery trucks will not be able to go there so I think the residents there will appreciate that because that street is small and it just doesn't make a lot of sense so I'm glad that that break all right no further comments i'll make a motion to adopt resolution 70-2025
second all those in favor please say I thank you motion carries next is resolution number 72 72- 2025 this resolution um expresses support for the city of Lambertville to
work collaboratively with Habitat for Humanity for the potential construction of six semi- detached houses at the city owned Pulham Farm property um comments questions from anybody well I think we um wanted to describe
that some of these would be um affordable units that um that we would be pursuing there um and part of that is our work in re you know replacing um some of the units that we owe for round
three and our affordable housing plan um so we're looking forward to working on Habitat for Humanity for that and and and also I look forward to finishing out our round three plan as well
i would just add that uh I think this is really important that we do this because we want to show fair share that we're serious about affordable housing we obviously have you know a lawsuit on our hands um and I don't want fair share to think that we don't think that this is important uh you know in the past couple
years we've had lots of people come and I don't think anyone has said we don't want affordable housing what people have said is they don't want overdevelopment those two uh you know obviously are very different so I think this is a big step for Lamville we have not done a lot in terms of or enough to provide enough
affordable housing this is a big step um we've also deed restricted uh you know the the apartment that we had as well so it's proposed proposed yes proposed and you know I think that this just goes to show good faith to fair share and that
we really are trying uh to maintain and you know comply with our obligation and we all really want to do it in a way that makes sense for this am I yes I think it's a it's a great move
forward and uh Habitat the city's worked with Habitat in the past with a lot of success And uh my only concern that I'm because it's so early in the processes is that
whatever gets built up there uh whatever the architecture is should reflect the fact that it's located next to a historical site so uh I think you have to take that as some kind of consideration when these are uh
designed uh and that and that uh sure uh the final uh the final look of it will uh look similar to what was already up on that site as far
as architecture so it should help you know set the tone for the reason why we purchased it in the first place so that's my only my only concern and I don't see I haven't heard any push back
from Habitat we haven't had a discussion really yet but I think it's great that they're taking an interest and it's great that we have a property that we can donate and uh and provide affordable housing to people uh
in in Lambertville again so I think it's a great idea policy product geez that we'll keep it short and sweet i I just I just want to um actually acknowledge Councilman Stegman's foresight uh when he and I were first
taking office uh prior to our taking office which would have been late 2020 we had conversations about doing this very thing uh it didn't go forward at the time but I'm really glad to see that um we're able to do this
thank you i think it's a wonderful project i'm very very pleased we're going to be able to hopefully get it all done do it well um on that note I would ask for a motion to adopt resolution number
2072-2025 authorizing memorandum of understanding with the membership second roll call please sure councilwoman Kaminsky yes councilwoman Lambert yes president I'm sorry
councilman L yes councilwoman Steman yes mayor yes great thank you keep everybody updated on progress uh we will have the Habitat for Humanity folks begin to draft anou and uh I'll keep everybody up
to date uh the bills everybody look at the bills [Music] the reluctant motion over there all right all in favor of paying the bills please say I right there's some big text on there
my goodness got to get plenty of ink in her uh we're going to move on to ordinances first briefing uh the first one number 04-2025 this is an ordinance to amend the Lambertville City 2014 chapter 7
traffic to install two handicap parking spaces this will allow for the Department of Public Works to install two handicapped parking spaces one in front of 138 South Main Street and on the north side of York Street by assistant five York we we do this on a regular basis
for our residents and u this is fairly straightforward matter unless council discussion I would simply entertain a motion to introduce this a quick question yes um Cindy do you know if there are are currently any handicap spaces that are that have
expired not but Lieutenant Brown might whether there are current handicap spots that are on the street that are no longer used for not on the current ones that were there not on the current ones that we're looking at i know but in the
city itself of the inventory so we want to know that so so when the person moves or pass away unless they notify the city I would not have any way to uh know that right so and again these
handicaps spaces are not just for that person it's for any public person to be or for the public to use well and I would think that there are instances where neighbors who uh know that that a handicap space is no longer used would be eager to let the city know that no
longer space and please remove the yellow lights so have to get public buy in and public advice i I think there are two i think there's one in front of Lville Academy that has not been used for years uh that's handicapped and there's also one on our net street my old neighbor who
left bill it's no longer there so there's there's two for you right there there you go and then I don't want to recoup i would probably advocate leaving the one in front of Lambertville Academy it's hard not to drop off your kids let alone having to find a park space well you would advocate people that aren't allowed to park there are
you that's what tickets are okay it's like a walking machine when you have to do it council president's idea maybe that should be a loading zone well there there is a loading zone on your street um front of St andrews um
and I'll offer you that it's a loading zone for I think 15 minutes in the morning and we have two drop off space there too as well right we'll we'll check does it make sense to go through the list and double check everything you know Lester honestly
every once in a while will come in because you know we changed the ordinance years ago it doesn't require the ordinance to come back the mayor just has to sign off on it going away um we haven't had any so far this year but last year he removed two or three of
them um most of them on two on Clinton Street and then there was another one i can't remember where but he does usually keep pretty pretty close uh eye on it thanks for reminding yeah yeah we have I have signed off on a few of those the last couple years
just a suggestion got it thank you so now that we've had that discussion would somebody make a motion to introduce this ordinance on first reading so move second all in favor please say I i thank you
i forgot to note that this will be uh scheduled for a public hearing on May 15th can you put the mic a little closer oh sure please april 17th april 17th see good thing nobody
you know what yeah it's me i missed it total sorry are screwed up it's April 17th april 17 thank you for catching uh next is the ordinance number 05-2025 this is the salary and wage
ordinance um we uh I would note that the positions highlighted in yellow have been eliminated they're positions that have been probably out of use for some some for some years now um and we're changing the way we've done this uh
certainly in the last few years we have done not the entire uh breadth of salaries for the city we've just kind of changed amended the salarying wage ordinance relevant to those positions that were kind of hitting the 2% cap on
the raise so we were doing sort of peace meal but we've discovered really that it's harder to keep track of the salary and wage ordinance when it's done by multiple resolutions over multiple years so we're going to go back to for the sake of simplicity doing a salary and
wage ordinance each year um are there uh any questions from the council about that ordinance we have a motion to introduce the conference meeting ordinance number 05205 raised for city employee for
public hearing scheduled for October just kidding there's another here all in favor please say I thank [Music] you ordinance number 06-2025
this ordinance uh of the city of Lambertville Town Park in New Jersey would approve an affordable housing deed restriction for the accessory apartment owned by the city and located at S Lily Street um so we've had this apartment for quite a few years specifically 1972
1972 so um we thought that it would be fun time restricted uh and also get credit for it with our affordable housing obligation um it's a lovely apartment not too long ago it's quite quite quite a little place um questions
from the council about this does it say I should know the answer to this is it round three uh I'm not sure which it's going to round four i think this was a round four unmet need it's an important minute so I I'm not sure 100%
sure yeah i I don't remember talking about it for round three okay okay and I will just point out too that it's retroactive to when we start using it as an affordable unit so going back to 2013 so it's going to be 30 years from 2013 right thank you that's good good
point motion tot number 06-2025 [Music] second all in favor you motion carries ordinance number 07 2025 uh an ordinance to
dedicate a new way to farm to farm road i'm going to remove this from the agenda this evening and I'll explain why first I'll explain why I need to do the ordinance uh this is the last uh requirement uh for the city to meet in
order to get our green acres funding for park uh I I sent the DOT uh an email a couple of weeks ago um because we decided that we needed to make sure that we could dedicate the road um and to see whether we needed to
have any DOT approval on that um DOT assistant commissioner rank and just call me this afternoon to say that there is a process we didn't need to apply for a major access permit um and therefore kind of hold off on using appointments for the moment i'll meet with the DOT
and the city engineer want to file a permit request for this access uh and once that permit is in hand introduces an ordinance ordinance second reading number is ordinance number 02-2025 this is an
ordinanceville city code 2014 chapter 7 traffic to install handicap parking space in front of 47 Delaware requested by John Frank thank you um this will create a handicap parking space just where it says
[Music] 47 because this is the second reading I will open this up for the public to make comments if anybody has any comments about this ordinance online motion to close the public comment
please all in favor i I miss any questions about this for a motion to adopt on second reading ordinance number 029 mike second all those in favor please say I i
ordinance number 03-2025 this ordinance of the city of Lambertville and the county of Hunter in New Jersey providing for environmental investigation and remediation marked in and for the city appropriating $140,000 therefore and
authorizing the issuance of $140,000 of general improvement bonds or notes of the city to finance the same uh we already talked a little bit about this uh this is for remediation testing and further any potential remediation in Koala Park um I will open this up to the
public for any comments or questions as this is the second reading uh Jeff Tiddle 33 Wilson Street now does I haven't really followed the ordinance closely this is for the is going to be for the new engineering firm
that's going to be doing it that doesn't have an LSRP it's being the firm is so powered through a city engineer uh yes and then the other question is will it and I mean you may not be able to answer it but will the town try to recoup this
from whoever dumped or whoever looked the other way to allow this to happen we spoke about that a little bit earlier public at 12 days we have discussed today council anyone else if you could please state your name
and your address and you have three minutes of time for comments or questions go ahead and unmute something you do hello hello oh it's tough to hear some good
evening john Henchek 99 Quarry Street Lambridgeville New Jersey that's why I'm here i'm alive and well folks when it comes to the situation at uh Cavalo Park having been one of the uh folks that
restored that many years ago with the great help from the people of Lamresville um I came across uh the article relative to the um polyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
uh and took some time to seek out a person knowledgeable in this area is this what they do for a living and would like the council to uh confirm that perhaps we need to take a better look or
a deeper look at this because based on what this individual told me is that you can't eat enough dirt to have it really affect you and that the conditions that exist in the park are those very same
conditions that one would find around any grill in anyone's house anywhere else and I happen to recall that there was a factory in Milford a paper factory
that um produced uh something a little bit more complicated than just plain paper and it put a plume of lead in the air and a DP has maps of this which show that the downflow of the water follow
the air following the water flow that we were in the fall down zone of lead and so we would tend to have a slightly higher lead content and that combined with the railroad um that we had as well as a 19th century community that
utilizes coal that they people sometimes threw the ashes in their yard that over years that that build up that to take a second look at it but my understanding is the conditions that were pointed out as problematic in Canval Park are the
very same conditions that exist under everyone's grill that that has such a thing any place and uh I'm very concerned about the uh amount of money but I'm also concerned about the safety of children but what I was told is that
you can't you it's it's ingestion that causes the problem and that you the problem you would have would be the dirt itself thank you very much thank you i would ask motion to close the public comment period
please all seconded all in favor please say I i thank you public interest any last thoughts before I ask a motion to adopt the ordinance
second please all those in favor please say I i okay now that we've uh funded this clean up or this project um we can now uh consider a resolution to award the contract for the LSRP services for the Cabala Park mediation um this
resolution awards a contract to Brownfield Science and Technology to fund the work outlined in the preliminary assessment park they will be working as a subcontractor for uh the city engineer um any questions
we have a motion to adopt the resolution number 72 2025 73 sorry [Music] all right all those in favor i thank you motion carries
our correspondence as noted in the meeting agenda jcpl notes of public hearing for infrastructure investment program health division of mosquito tractor control um you know there's an area wide moto patrol and uh county
commissioners accompanied by resolution 25-20 urgency to pass legislation tax school districts and all local governments to publish legal notices includite board appointments i would like the council to consider the
following nominations to fill vacant or upcoming vacant positions um so Lambertville Municipal Utilities Authority we've had a number of people there who served on that board for many many years uh believe that Paul Rani has been on that board for more than 15
years um and um certainly Jackie Milson's been there for some years and Vince Hule who is really an expert uh has also served on that board for some time so beginning in April my uh suggestive appointments are that Paul Ratelli will step down well we know that he's going to step down from the board
holly Havens would replace Paul Rundi in his capacity david Bur and replace Holly Havens as alternate number one beginning in May Jackie Middleton steps down from the board david Burke replaces Jackie Middleton Oil appointed
would be appointed to alternate one and beginning in June Vince Ule sits down from the board and Bob D replaces Vince U and Min would be appointed to alter 22 there any questions from any council members on these appointments
okay hearing none I'll ask for a motion to approve them second all in favor please say I i i thanks motion carries and take an opportunity to say thank you again to everybody who serves on boards and commissions a lot of work people do it very generously of their time more than
100 people um and uh the LUA board is a lovely board the people on it are lovely it's maybe not the sexiest board in Lambertville but they're good people and they do good work so I'm especially appreciative of them also in terms of appointments I would like to appoint Jen Gipper to the
parks and recreation commission jen is a a wonderful uh resident here in town with two small boys who I see all the time and I think she'll make a great addition so I have a motion to appoint Jenn
all right all in favor say I i all thank you um not really too much to say follow an update on projects i spoke about projects in Lambertville Matters this morning um we have a lot of things all the time going on in the city we have
road projects coming up this year um we continue to um look at infrastructure storm water infrastructure um we've got painting at the library lead remediation coming up painting um busy time to the
city now that we're into spring and um if anybody has any questions about any projects or like to see a project should just call me um and always happy to entertain uh ways in which we can make the city better more livable for everybody u announcements uh the website
yeah please go to lambertvillej.org for all your news we also post on Facebook and uh many things are included in the newsletter the cleaning newsletter street sweeper resumes March 24th weather permitting um so please make sure with your cars next
week um I believe that Paul was up on the hills this week um he was indeed he was indeed so um that's great news uh our city offices will be closed on Friday April 18th in obser observation of um the holiday good Friday ch
festival is scheduled for April 26 and 27 and sparkle week is as noted we all through that but if you have any questions about spark please reach out to us pride parade is this Saturday May 17th uh and now we'll open the the meeting up
for the second public participation period so sames as before step microphone with mobility issues take your name and address in three minutes hi Beth O'Brien to Hancock Street um could you clarify what the Habitat for
Humanity units what round those will be designated to i think it's to be determined uh no actually no I think they're typically replace the um station is for round for round three so yeah so
because we have you know the two holes in our round three plan right came the hill and that that replaces it proposed um yes but that's our intent that's our Yeah I just wanted to it's our intent also thank you very much we're close they wanted to see the
ordinance tonight and obviously memorandum of understanding with that because shows our intent yes yeah so we're we're close to be able to report that all right hi I'm Caroline Gavo i'm uh 41 Quarry Street i'm owner of coffee and vice president of the greater Chamber of
Commerce um you know I just wanted to thank council for and the mayor for bringing up the idea of locals night for Shadfest i think it's uh you know over the years the chamber has struggled with the perception that Shadfest is not a local event and we've been working really hard over the past number of years to both make sure we're kind of
engaging the local artisans and the local creators and crafters but also this as an extension uh opening up for the poster auction the work that Amy does you know with the scholarship funding um as an entity of the chamber of commerce is I think the real value ad of this event um and uh I think that the
locals night is a great way to get people out so I just wanted to thank the council for considering that and for the mayor for the idea and for the police for helping make it happen um also just in regards to the hotel project I'm very excited to uh hear that there's going to be some kind of subsequent conversation um with the developer and I would say
that you know any uh devel you know generally I'll speak personally not on the on behalf of the chamber but um I'm not always opposed to growth and change i think growth and change is really essential for our community but um you know we need progress with intention and input from the community and and I think intentional decisions about how we grow
uh and so I'd just say that um as as an entity of the chamber I would love uh for us to have a voice for any committees that are developed regarding um central business growth business development growth um how we're moving in a proactive way as opposed to a reactive way so I think that that is uh
fundamentally keeps people a lot calmer and keeps us all on the same page so um the chamber's on board and um you know I'm happy to be a resource in that way so thank you guys so much thanks the chamber as Michael and I'm sure I think the verification when I speak for the
council that they all been to the chamber and the success of the central business district um and this year miniature pony at major pony not not a local night no spider guy too spiders everybody just
get ready we store Jeff 33 Wilson Street two points one um in going through the briefs I saw that a manian who a few months ago had threatened us that we didn't give them what they wanted they were going to walk away also had a letter and I had never
heard the council bring it up but it was in a packet that they were threatening to go after 470 units against the town which just shows you you know how outrageous this company is and how they look at places that they could destroy
and I think when you start really understanding what you're up against and I've been through a build I went through what 40 years to three years and we won uh because Greenwood was a buy rally sentence it's a case you can look up it's countryside versus Ringwood in that
case the town council tried to settle and the citizen groups and legal voters actually entered the case and took it over and forced the town to go with it and now that area is protected it's in the Highlands Act but the point is that our town is really at risk if they could get away with what they're trying to do
and given u the fact that I think we're not as prepared as we should be to this onslaught we really need to get our act together and again I hope somebody's talking to you know uh village apartments the the other point I wanted to make is about the wells um 71 wells
we should have them um on GIS and maybe D will do it because it shows that it's spreading where it's spreading to and where the areas where it could actually go other thing that I think it also means we really need to get D to declare this area an area to be a concern we
need to get resources we need to get them more involved we need to and with D with so many places that have this issue you have to yell because they only they will only listen to a lot of voices and they can come in under the spill act and actually do testing on the hill in other places and so we really need to push
them and certification folks in D to do that and then the other point to leave you with um if it's spreading this far the town really needs to think about class action suit many other towns in New Jersey are doing it over 40 um some
of the residents on the hill are doing it uh it's the only way we're going to protect ourselves because when they start sewing all over the place we're going to get it down too i know you do litigation but it's something to really think about because you know I I thought it was like you know I was sort of
surprised i said it was 20 and 30 you know when I hear 70 and and then we know this this up on Cottage Hill now I'm really concerned so thank you hello again John Towns Hancock Street um couple of quick questions seven eight months we've been
having discussions regarding pretty hill and chop and all that other nonsense um I have to ask a question a number of houses were built properties were built new construction in in the town yes were they sorry I don't understand the
question were was there new construction built in town like Wilson Street over the last five years there have been at least 14 or 15 i asked this question back seven eight months ago why haven't we reimplemented the 20% for
these builders to build low-income housing if we're going to show the court hey we're serious now I understand we're also going to be the pickle site is going to be some wedding venue is that correct are we forcing them to put in lowcost rentals
or can we are we exploring this um I mean the city attorney could probably answer that better but I'm sitting in the cheap seats and my you know came in a little late but it's not looking like there's a lot going on now maybe there
is but I don't have a lot of faith because we've been dragging feet for so long and not just this year years previous and this is going all the way back to Dave Delveio for goodness sakes about wanting to build up on that
hill and you know Julia our previous mayor she's stripping those layers out and stripping out all those requirements for anybody to build they can build what they want what's the cheapest house on Wilson
Street right now the new ones $850,000 how many they put in five six I'm not sure but I mean one or two of those or at least one 20% could have been for low income i don't know so now you
understand where we and out here are looking at you guys as leaders it's not being addressed and now we're going to have to get a a lawyer and we're going to have to go up against not only city hall but all these people who are building these things and not adhering to a state mandate that we
don't want anything to do with by the way just my opinion we don't need any more green acres this city is one mile by one mile how much more do we need we can't afford it anyway thank you so very much
have a great evening um so let me answer your questions uh the city does have a 20% set aside for uh developments over five units so five units and above you have to you have to build 20% um so 95 units you're required to build uh one
unit of affordable housing um and that's throughout the city and um for for projects that are less than five units there is a fee a development fee that's paid into the affordable housing trust which has tripled in the last three and a half years um so so
that hopefully answers that question um the BLE site you know we'll see what the plan is i'm not going to come planning that has not been submitted to the city um they have uh you know our our zoning ordinances allow for certain things in
any given zoning district so we have to see what comes in officially when when when it comes in um I believe eight houses were constructed at Wilson Street and I don't know I don't remember why there was not a 20% set aside for those
houses i don't know if Bill or Sydney can answer that question was before the 20% set aside was citywide no I think that they were two separate two separate developments right and they were four each so they had to pay a development fee rather than put in the more than
five when you had to build that's a tricky middle thank you for that nice yeah well what I I just like to add is that what I really hear a lot of folks saying and that I really would like to
acknowledge is that I for for me I feel like as a a council person and I'm only one of bunch of people and people don't call me when they're coming into town but I do feel like that we owe everyone to be a good steward of town so I I
really sometimes I I love that somebody wants to come and make a presentation to us and all of these things but I think that one thing is that I always like to be clear with with folks who are coming is that um our community experience is
more important than someone's like boutique hotel experience that we are mindful or I am mindful of of of keeping that principle as we go down the road with looking at
any of these projects because our community experience is what what we're all about and and we have to be good stewards of that so I think in part of doing that is you know we are we do we're revamping our historic
preservation ordinance and it came started when we were um doing that for flood replacement for a whole another reason but it's a reason to take a look at maybe there are some things that we need to twerk up to you know protect our
neighborhoods and help our neighborhoods because it's a different time people have more money they're amassing sites they're doing things that we never thought of before and so we have to be smart planners and zoners and just protectors of the community experience
with whatever tools we can and you know I think it's time we you know vision a little bit and sit and talk about maybe some changes you know in our master plan and our existing zoning and take a look at it because you know it is 2025 i keep
forgetting but but land use patterns have changed you know the business practices have changed and I just think that that's something that I'd like to see us do and and I want people to know that that's something at least I'm thinking about you know that that you
know our community is important and we're important like we got to be the sheriff about it you know and not say "Hey just come on in." Well but this is what we hold dear and we need to let you know that
yeah please go ahead i think we should look into changing uh the number of town houses allowed to without uh from five to four where things start to kick in because people will build out
to however many is permitted before they have to kick in to to set aside so with properties being in some cases overdeveloped just to get five in in and
be able to uh pay you know pay the fee so to speak i think I think we have to look at you know just because a property can hold five doesn't mean I think people are responsible uh uh you know we
have to be responsible for what we have put in our ordinances to start to limit the mass uh of uh where the number kicks in to provide money or an affordable unit in town so I I think we should you
know as long as we're talking about fair share housing and affordability and the 20% set aside and I agree with Karen it's not the same it's not the same city it was for most of us who have been here
more than 20 or 30 years or grew up here it's the whole environment is different than it was so maybe we should look at those numbers too and make a developer more responsible
uh to to provide fair share housing when they when we have all this infill that sound interesting that's all interest I both of you i think um what's it you know as I reflect on some of
those large not large but those kind of shopping under the floor limit types of projects where they do them in two phases so they don't have to make a commitment we need to challenge um individuals or organizations that want
to come in and sort of um take advantage of our uh popularity and the desiraability factors of this community because the reason they're all trying to do it is only because they're going to
change why they're trying why what attracted them to be to begin with right it's or quaint smallcale community and I've said this before I ran for this position to to oppose that type of
approach and um I am committed to you know retaining the small town feel um that has made Lambertville such a remarkable place to live for many people um no I agree with what everyone is saying um you know it was very
frustrating to see this house is being built no affordable housing i completely agree with you um you know uh anytime I see construction like that I'm always thinking you know how can we you know put affordable house in there um and I think the only thing we can do in that situation is they did pay money to the
fund and you know we need to make sure we utilize that money to go out and rehab other properties which we're allowed to do so when those properties that are not producing affordable housing they pay a fee to the city the affordable trust fund um and we have funds there and as the mayor said that those funds have increased significantly
over the past couple years and I think what we're doing with the affordable housing committee we're looking for areas that we can spend those funds in town to rehab properties and convert them to affordable housing so I agree we shouldn't have done it but it happened and so we've got to make the best of that money and use that to our benefit
and to to your your point the last two big developments that big small developments that were approved was the Wilson Street one and and Ferry Street so and Elean and Elean and Elean so you
know you can kind of look at those and say gee maybe there should have it should have been larger and there should have been less to be able to kick in fair share housing and so I think all of these are good points these are significant process
questions we have a map plan in place and on the examination report which was done in 2019 these are the guardrails for the kinds of things that we're talking about tonight um we have processes in place through the plan board and zoning board and all that i think that there's a real sensitivity to
uh to change and and and doing it well and I think that we have done some very good my opinion there's been some good changes in Lambertville certainly in the last 10 years that I've been here in terms of our economic growth in terms of revitalization in terms of people's
interest coming in i think that there are a lot of things the one thing that we haven't talked about when we talk about um future development is um the incorporation of our resilience uh action plan into the next version of the master plan when we talk about how this what the city is going to look like in
two years or five years or 10 years we really need to be considering what's going to be published in the next probably the next month the the resilience action plan which has been going to provide us with a lot of women living data about public develop in a way that's not only attractive and
uh and and appropriate in terms of scale but what's what's uh going to provide our residents with a level of safety and education and knowledge about the the place where we actually live right the geography the climate you know the issues around climate change all of
these things are going to be part of our next re-examination report And uh certainly you know that that's due in 2029 if the council wants to start kind of looking at some of these things a little bit earlier I'm certainly willing to put resources i think we we could
certainly do that um but uh the resilience you always need to give a shout out to that because that is really going to be an important component of what this city how the city moves forward in terms of the way its residents live and are are um are safe
um please stand up i forget what I was supposed to say brunswick Avenue as an education so this is an education piece and a question all right the process the mayor sent the letter uh and
then there was you know the developer sent a document to the judge all right we sent a document to the judge and they the developer then sent a letter or sent a document to the judge all right when
and reading that it's like unbelievable all right you know paper stands still and I understand that all right what's the next process is you know can we rebut at this point or refine our agreement or does is that the end who we
talk to to the judge makes a decision or what what happens and and the other question is that if there's something that can be done uh are we processing or moving forward with that process councilman you want to take a crack at
that i Yeah so I've been posting the uh briefs to we call them briefs as lawyers file papers so um we so there and there's actually a briefing schedule that I can send you as well because all the parties that are involved had opportunities to file papers then
there's typically a response and then there's a response to that too occasionally the judge will let you have a fourth crackly but you need permission and I don't think on this they would really need that uh but I believe fair share has to file their brief still and I believe we still have a response to uh
to play hop i think that's what it says um and just so you know too the the first thing the judge is going to be determining is whether or not the developer is entitled to intervene so that doesn't mean they're going to get what they want it just means are they going to get an opportunity to sit at
the table with everyone to decide this that's what the motion is uh before the judge there's going to be oral argument uh the judge could give a decision that day um you know I think on something like this I would expect that you know he's probably going to wait to hear oral argument and hear everything because
obviously he's read the papers and then shortly after that issue a decision so there there's still more stuff to the process but again if that motion gets granted that's only the first step which is their ability to participate in the litigation and the oral argument is the end of the month I believe and there
probably I would presume because it's public access there's going to be a zoom link and if there is I could certainly provide it uh you know if people want to watch it um you know everything in court is open record you could if it's in person which you could be uh you're entitled to go to the courthouse and as
long as you all respect them you're able to listen there and uh hear everything yourself too so I can certainly provide any more information today if I know that there's going to be a hearing so people can attend thank you i'm not sure what you said but it's okay more papers are going to be
more paper hearing decision to respond at this juncture prior to the theals and and the action by the judge so we've already filed some papers kelly Grant our attorney and I believe we are filing a response as well
to look at the briefing schedule again um just to this initial issue if they're able to participate in litigation okay thank you bill do you have anything to Okay thank you [Music] council anyone else in the room have thought
okay a motion to close second all in favor please say I i thanks for the public participation session it's good to see so many people here and it's good to see so many people on um hope you all have a lovely weekend
and a motion to all thank you thank you thank you sir inside the