All right, we're going to get All right, it's 5:30, so we're going to get going. Uh, this meeting is being held in accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act, and adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required by law. Specifically, 48 hour notice was emailed to the West Sussex Tribune and Star Ledger on June 18, 2025. The agenda and
resolutions for this meeting is available on LivingstonJ.org. To the extent possible, this evening's Township of Council Livingston Township Council meeting will be livereamed via Facebook at www.fas. facebook.comlivingstonj um roll call please. Council member
Anthony here. Here present. Deputy Mary Klene is joining us telephonically. We have a Can we have an affirmative that he's on the phone? John, is he still on? I was on mute. Yes, I'm here. Thank you. Mayor Minhart, I'm
here. So, we stand for uh the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
All right. May I have a motion to open the meeting for public comment on agenda items only? I'll make them second. All those in favor? I Okay. Uh the meeting is now open for any comment on agenda items only. Motion to close. I'll second. All those
in favor? I opposed. Okay. Uh we have one resolution for this evening. Uh 25-223. Uh Carolyn, will you please read the resolution? Yes, mayor. Resolution 25-223, fourth round housing element and fair share plan. Make a motion to approve the
resolution. I'll second. Okay. Um any discussion discussions now? Right. Um maybe I'll make a couple of statements. Um this is something that's um very near
and dear to everyone who's living in the town has the concern. Uh last year when I joined the town council, prior to that I was a resident and all of this round three which you
see on the on the resolution, it was all approved um as I was watching it as a resident. I was concerned as many of our residents are concerned today. Um these are statemandated
u requirements and I think what I studied in those approvals even though I was not part of the approving process but I saw what it meant what was the required component there. Um there were quite a few pieces there which which really struck me saying where is the
creativity. So I saw some of the approvals uh as they went along. These were not just apartments. I mean there were quite a few creative ideas where senior housing to the limit uh that was approved where it was allowed to a limit
um that was approved during during this constructions uh or development projects that gave a lot of credit uh requiring us to build less or rather allowed to build less. Um there were uh besides the senior
housing there were special needs uh development that were approved that has more than about the double the credit. So we carry those credits into our calculations. There was also uh a component of senior
care uh which is essentially the building next to the town hall. Uh that was part of it and that had uh something to do with no kids of course. So no no no no additional uh burden to the
township uh schools I mean and that continued to uh to to to fill in into our requirements our obligations to fulfill what was required for round three. And as I got into the township council, I saw that there is a constant
communication going on with the school board of education where this council and with the help of our town manager, a continuous road map of new development has been given to the board of education
and they have a long-term facilities uh committee uh that plans for long-term uh requirements of what the facilities are required essentially. saying to us that what are the needs of schools? Uh I hear that you
hear that that you know there are kids sometimes sit in the floor and eat lunch. Yes, I mean there are situations even though my kids are not as young I do hear that and our uh friends and neighbors around us do they do talk about it.
Those are the those are the issues definitely need to be addressed uh by our schools but we also support schools. So for example, we're about to give uh Mammoth Court uh which is our school uh which is going to be a new school um
from the township perspective to uh to allow them allow the board of education to build additional facility. Hopefully that'll that'll reduce the stress um as as it gets managed into the school board's planning. But also generally um there are numbers if you see and I'm a
numbers person. I mean I see the numbers being consistently about the same or slightly above um when you look at the the history in Livingston schools as well as in our number of residents. Yes, this will this will increase more uh the
third round of rules and the buildings you see going to go up or are already going up. But that's where the the mandate comes in. It's unfair and I think the unfair part of it is uh that there is hardly
any there was hardly any tooth or you know the weapon given to to township uh municipalities to really challenge the builder's remedy lawsuits. Um and as such there were no clauses for even sustainable uh growth in our townships.
uh which I think is changing in round four uh a little bit and for that reason what we need to do here and council please correct me if I'm wrong but this is the requirement for approving this uh resolution
on June 30th that is today so that we have an upper hand on any future um legal recourse of anything like that that has been taken by any builders or any any builders remedy lawsuits to come in in future. Uh essentially uh if
you're talking about numbers the numbers that are required for us to build in this round four after the credits is about 95 which is which is where you know the the message comes in here is that how um this council in last few
months or and to the help of uh you know uh great arguments done by our council uh Jared thank you for for making all the efforts there and and the council and mayor Minhardt and everybody else on the council. Uh a lot of negotiations happened, a lot of credit work that
happened. All of these plans were really discussed, reviewed and unanimously approved in the planning board only last week. It was a good good debate and and it was a conversation that the planning board members went through with the with the
planner that we hired from the township. So, it's all open. Um and that's what I wanted to bring it up here and just just put it out that you know this is something that is been thoroughly discussed round four which is for future
and uh you know all the deliberations have happened. Um pretty much those are my comments. I don't know if Jared if you want to talk about why this June 30th if you can comment on that please. Sure. So, um
there's a mandate by the statute that our fair share housing element uh needs to be adopted and endorsed by this committee prior to June 30th. Um if we participate in the program, which um this endorsement will have us fully participating, we'll then be immune from
builder remedies lawsuits. Then we'll have fourth round immunity. Um however I will say that um July and August any developer or any uh objector like fair share housing does have the right to object to our plan for July and August
um during those during that 60-day period following starting tomorrow. Um then starting in September any objections that may or may not be raised will be dealt with in the court. Um it's a pseudo court proceeding uh first remediation and then if not a judge a
retired judge who's been appointed by the state will decide any unresolved disputes. Um we again we vetted all the projects thoroughly. Um we this you know this council worked really hard. Uh Mr. Lewis worked hard. Our township planner
um did an amazing job in in really determining the needs of the township. um this township is committed to providing its fair share, which we believe that this plan does. Um and just for simplification, what's before this council tonight is an endorsement. Uh the state legislature left it up to the
planning board to adopt the element. Um a lot of work was done, but it was ultimately up to the planning board. Um tonight, it's called an endorsement. Um but it's an acknowledgement of this council of its obligation and what the planning board passed. um any legislation associated with this whether
which will mostly be zoning ordinances they need to be implemented by March of 2026 which would follow when all the objections if any will be resolved um but we like I said we we considered um and it's in our plan we considered all the projects that were brought to us uh
it was through uh deliberation and we believe that this is not only the best for the township but the best way to accomplish our affordable housing uh requirements that were put forth by the state legislature for this fourth round. Thank you, Governor. Thank you. So, I just want to just I'm just going
to go back for 30 seconds. Um the reason why we're here tonight is a result of and a result of our third round. So, it should be known to the public that the reason why we're here to begin with is nothing that this town nor any of the other surrounding towns wanted to happen. When you drive around the the local areas and you look at towns like
Rosland and East Hanover and you see what's going on, none of the none of the town council people in those towns wanted this as well. This is something that the that um Trenton came to us as part of the Mount Laurel projects and said that this is what we have to do and we did such a great job in the third round and I'm going to compliment again
and thank Jared Caner and our town manager Barry Lewis. the reason why we're here today adopting and I just want to read these two paragraphs from this resolution that we're about to uh vote on uh that says whereas a township disputed the prospective needs obligation proposed by DCA formulation
of 461 units and opineed that its prospective need obligation was 47 units and the present need as indicated by DCA as zero units and whereas the township adopted a binding resolution that its forthrown obligations included a present need of zero units. So all of that is
the reason why we're here today is because of the work that was done in the third round with all the credits that we have uh achieved and have been signed off for by the courts that we can honestly we can say that we have a zero needs for the fourth round. I am extremely proud as I said a few weeks
ago at the town council meeting of the work that this council has done. All five of us have spent hours and hours and hours at meetings and prior to that um we spent hours especially Councilman Anthony and I we spent a few hours from with many of these developers and meeting with them and getting to them
and understanding trying to understand what we were looking for when it came to the amount of bedrooms and the size of the bedrooms and everything that we worked on and the 55 and over and how much we could maximize on the 55 and over community like um Councilman Bhutani had just mentioned as well and Councilman Vieira sat in on other
meeting as well that a developer wanted some crazy number and we wound up settling on half of that number and half of that number was 55 and over to begin with. So we've all had our turns at these meetings and council and deputy mayor Klein as well. We've all had these towns we've all had these turns at these meetings and I am really proud of the
work that we have done as a council group to be here today to say that our perspective need of zero that we're going to be voting on for this. So I really want to just tip my hat to my fellow councilman. Again, I want to thank our township attorney and our town manager, Mr. Lewis as well because without their leadership and guidance, I
don't think we would have gotten here and uh we can prove that because we were we was definitely behind on third round until we did change some of that leadership and we did change some of our council. So, I want to thank you very much. Mayor, if I could just uh piggyback on on what you said um and
congratulate this council for a round three. We're in this position again because of round three. But um round three we were also in the position because a um town manager prior to our existing town manager, our current town manager, you know, there there's 10
years to do this and nothing was done until like the last four years and we had to throw everything and do everything in the last four years. That's why it was pretty much like a a sticker shock to a lot of the communities. Uh but uh I think in those four years um we did so many good things
that round four looks great as the mayor had said and uh you know I keep on reading oh you need to be more like Milbourne more like Milbourne. I'm glad we're not Milbourne. Milbourne's in trouble right now. So um I just want to say uh thank you to the rest of the council because we are in great shape
for round four. Barry, you seem like you have your finger. Just wanted Yeah, I just wanted to uh add on and and put a little context. I think for the anybody who's viewing and the people in the audience of how far we've come and and what a what a I don't know if people fully appreciate I know I sit on the planning
board at the planning board meeting our planners who have done this in a number of towns literally said this was the easiest plan for them to put together because of all the great work we did in the third round and um bottom line is the state came out with a fourth round. They came up with a number. We can all debate whether numbers that include
assessed values and income levels have any bearing on it, but it is what it is and we had to deal with the statute. Uh we challenged that first number. Uh we're more successful than most towns. I think we got a bigger compromise of the building association almost double the percentage than they were sort of giving to other people even though it seemed to
be kind of a rigged process. Got that number down to 430. The law then allowed us to do what's called a vacant land adjustment which uh a lot of credit goes to our planners topology. They painstakingly went through all the maps, found all the mistakes that the state went where they were, you know, counting
wetlands and saying you could build there and counting green acres properties and saying you could build there. Reduce our what's called a re realistic development potential down to 13 units. Um, and then the what the law provides above that is whatever is left is you have to provide a realistic
redevelopment opportunity for 25% of that number. And as a result of all the the the great work, uh certainly starting with the mayor and council and our planners and Mr. Caner, uh we amassed enough excess credits from the third round in addition to projects that
we did not have to include in the third round, but of which the public is already aware. Um so that we not only met our RDP of 13, met our 25%, we still have extra credits on top of that available. Um, so we think we are very
well positioned when almost, and I hate to say it, but almost inevitably some objections come because they always do. Uh, that we are well positioned to say not only have we met our 25%, we have more extra credits above that. Um, in addition, we're exploring other
mechanisms relating to sewer and water capacity and and infrastructure needs that um I think will only strengthen our arguments. Um, but from the public's perspective, the good news, if there is any good news out of this whole unfortunate situation, is we're in this position now with all the projects that
people already know about, meaning there's no more new projects that you're going to hear about or on the horizon. Um, you know, so while some of them have been built, some are under construction, some of them are still awaiting planning board review, but they've all been fully vetted. The Bottle King project, the
Westminster uh hotel project, the units at the mall, they've all fully been disclosed. So, we are very well positioned. It's a great credit to uh topology, our planners, Mr. Caner's office, and the the sort of foresight of the mayor and council to get ahead of
this. Um and and again, I I can't say enough about how comfortable I feel in our position and the fact that what you what you've seen, that's all that's coming. So, thank you. Yeah, just one more comment. I didn't get a chance. I I forgot to mention uh with a big thank
you to Topology, our planners. They've done a great work. Um, you know, but also one of the reasons that we're here today because of all the hard work that they've done. So, I just want to thank them publicly as well. Roll call or Okay. Actually, someone has to We've called
the question already. We've had discussions. Move and second, ma'am. Okay. We've had a second. So, we'll have the role, please. Council member Anthony, yes. Banani, yes. Vier, yes. Deputy Mayor Klene, yes. Mayor Minhardt, yes. Thank you very
much. Can I have a motion to open up for public comment? Motion. Second. All those in favor? I. Okay. The meeting is now open for Thank you. The meeting is now open for public comment on any subject you'd like to talk about. Like the only person in Siberia at the
moment. Um my name is John Wolf. I'm a Lemson resident. Um could you just help me with this uh development plan? Just I hear a lot of numbers banned about. Can you tell me exactly as we stand now how
many units are going to be built and how many units will be affordable housing? What's the total? The the plan that was just passed that we just voted on. Yeah. On Okay. Well, the plan that was just voted on voted on was a zero. Zero what?
Zero apartments to be built. If you heard the township manager, he just explained that the reason that we I understand that. So you I assume you're referring to the projects that are either already under construction, ones we already approved. I I'll confess I don't have a full total number, but I'm happy to put that together. And if you
leave me 30, what's that? So the the state had a came out with a formula that included uh again income levels of towns, assessed value increases in towns, which again we can argue whether that should have been a factor or not.
And they came up with numbers that they assigned part of your regional need to each town. Um our original number was 460 something. We argued we got it down to 43. That's what the state is telling us. They their math says that our share of the future anticipated affordable
housing units should be 430 units of affordable. We argued that number. Um we did a vacant land adjustment. The law specifically recognized if you don't have the land, you don't have the land. You'll have to accommodate for it. So any of the numbers that are currently on
the table, as I said, have already been addressed in projects that have been um at least publicly vetted. Most of them have already had ordinances or something that include all of the ones that are going up now. That includes everything that's going up now and and the to a certain degree and I don't want to say
it, but the fourth round to us uh turned into kind of a big nothing burger because we'd already done so well that we already had all your units in place. Okay. And so the good news is there's no more projects that we anticipate having to do. Um but in terms of the total number that have already been approved, I'd have I mean I could go quickly
through my head and know what they are. Um, for the most part, whatever that total number is, 20% of them are affordable. Um, with one exception, I think Bottle King was 15% uh, affordable. Um, but it's it's unfortunately it's a significant number
of units. It's going to have an impact on the community. As the mayor alluded to, we were certainly cognizant of the potential impact on the school system. So, we you're limited to a certain percentage that can be age restricted. We maxed out that number in both third and fourth round. So got as many 55 and over as we could, which would have no
impact on the school. On virtually every project we did, we were holding them to one and two-bedroom units with the exception of the law requires the affordable to have 20% of the affordable units have to be three-bedroom. Uh we couldn't change that, but those are literally probably the only threebs we've allowed. So we've done everything
I think we could in our power to to mitigate and limit the impact on the schools to maximize the 55 and over. Um, and you know, so ultimately I I I don't want to hesitate to guess, but if you leave me your information, I'm happy to kind of tally up the total. It's okay.
It's Yeah, it's okay. So, time's up. If I sit down, can I get back up because I got a couple more questions that are unrelated to the development. I'll leave that to the mayor. We'll give we'll give you a fair amount. Yeah. So, we'll get we'll give you two more minutes. Use some of your time talking. I'm I'm thinking about the development at the
corner of uh Northfield and South Livingston. They finished, it looks like they finished all the construction there and um I don't I guess they're renting space and looking for retail, but I'm just curious about the traffic. I can't imagine anybody being able to
come out of there and make anything left turns without a traffic light. Are there any plans for a traffic light there to come out on the Northfield side or even on the South Livingston side? How are people going to get in and out of that area? I don't I don't think there'll be a traffic light because it's very close to the one that's currently on the
corner. Um but all that traffic studies were vetted at the planning board before anything was given permission to be built. Just like every other complex um that we that we vote on after it leaves this council, it goes to the planning board where traffic is actually traffic studies are one of the requirements of
the planning board. So that was studied at the planning board and there was no traffic light I guess recommended. Yeah. And the the good news is it's it's only 26 units. So, in the scheme of things, it's not that many trips. And they they certainly look at peak hours and when people are coming and going in that there is an there's access on Northfield
and there's also access on South Livingston. Yeah. So, if you want to go north on South Livingston, you're fine. Even if you want to go south on Livingston, you can go right onto Northfield, then make the left and you can go right on Northfield. So, it's really only that left turn movement to go east on Northfield. That'll be a little tricky like trying to fly, you
know, make a left turn out of Shopright. You know, it's the same thing. Aside from that, I'm curious about you make the traffic um studies in advance of whatever the development plan is. Well, what's what result can you show
that you've come back after the fact and said the traffic study was uh not valid in terms of what we have planned it to be and exactly what it turned out to be. Uh do we do pre-post on any of this? Well, I listen I I mean do we formally
do them? No. you anecdotally kind of know like, wow, this is worse than we thought it was going to be, I guess. But at the end of the day, when you're doing the planning and before the project's actually built, the best you can do is use experts and statistics and whatever they do. Uh it's it's um you know, they're not infallible. Uh at the end of
the day though, once the project's already built, there's limits. We can't like, oh, now you have to close half the apartments. That's not legally an option. Um, certainly there are ways to explore. Can you do some traffic mitigation, any improvements after the fact work with the owner, but it's it's a challenge that sometimes the best lay
plans don't always We'll see. Thank you guys. Sure. So, so Barry just to help summarize the answer you gave uh to the previous question all the construction I think that was the question you were what you see
around that's all round three and round three gave us a lot of surplus which resulted in today's resolution with zero need uh so that's that's how far ahead which was what you what you heard in the earlier comments just to help make it
straight up two liners accent. Any other any other any other questions? Yeah, we definitely we definitely ask for it. Like I said, any other questions? Do you want me to come up? Name and the town you live in, please. Jennifer Castler, Livingston, New
Jersey. Um, so I think a lot of third round from what I recall, a lot of the development was happening almost as the township respectfully using it as a shield against potential builder's remedy lawsuits knowing that it appears that we have zero impact in the fourth
round. Do you think that means on a township level you feel we've reached saturation that if a new developer were to come in and say we want to build on Payic Avenue I'm choosing a random location in town Payak Avenue a
different location that the planning board the township would say no we're done I guess I'm just trying to understand the impact of fourth round I think we would evaluate each project as it comes in to be honest with you I mean I don't think we would make that firm statement here but I do think this council recognizes how much development
has been done. Okay. I think part of the third round was they were all forced upon this council. They weren't chosen. I think the fourth round they were able to kind of take control which is what we wanted to do and I think having that control would allow them to make informed decisions if additional projects came up. So I don't think they
can make a commitment today to that. I don't want to speak for them but that doesn't mean there is a recognition that understand there's been a lot of development. Okay. I think you know I hope for people obviously there isn't there aren't so many people in the audience but hopefully there are people watching at home and commenting possibly
offline that might be something really positive for the community to hear that at I that there's a recognition on the township level and possibly the planning level that we are at some level of capacity with I'm not putting words in your mouth just paraphrasing to kind of
put like reading between the lines yes we are yeah we as as indicated earlier where we believe that we have met our obligation under the statute with the 25% opportunity and because listen the state you do the vacant land adjustment
which means there's no more vacant land and I don't think the state expects any town to just tear down or provide to tear down 100% of their remaining just like heavy commercial use to fit in housing they require 25% we more than met the 25% so I think certainly our
intention is unless ordered or forced to do so not We think we've done what we in the audience hearing the number zero is a really nice number to hear. So that's that's what I had said earlier. You know, I'm happy to to talk about that. This is that's why I said that we're
very proud of the work that we've done to get to that resolution where I read those two paragraphs that said the number zero because and I'm certainly agree with you that I hope everyone who's watching on Facebook and the comments that that we read the same comments that you read as well understand the work that this council
has done to get to a day like today. Um and that's why I'm very proud of the work like I said this council has done to be able to vote zero for today. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Just name in the town, please. Good evening. Evelyn De Mayo, Livingston, New
Jersey. Um, I want to thank you all for you. You and colleagues and everyone else in town who got to that zero number. Um, that's that's such a win for all of us. Um, that carries us until when? This is the end of the fourth round. This is a 10-year round. I'm
sorry. It's a 10-year round. A 10-year round. So, in 10 years, we revisit the whole There'll be a fifth round. I'm sorry. There will be a fifth round in 10 years. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, how do how do we feel about that? I mean, I'm trying to be forward thinking. So, it's
it's really hard to predict now. Uh, as the town manager alluded to, um, we're hoping in the fourth round they added some more infrastructure requirements like water and sewer, which weren't part of the third round. Um, and hopefully, you know, I I really think, you know, I don't want to speak for the governing body, but it's really relying on the
public to reach out to your legislators and let them know that if they do have another round, they need to include things like fire, police, schools, streets. Um, and they need to really actually include that in into the fifth round in addition to affordable housing.
And I think, you know, this is just me speaking, but you know, I do this in five towns that we're going to see what happens when everything gets built and if it all gets rented and if there's really, you know, if the if the developers are going to push as hard in the fifth round as they did in the third round and they are in the fourth round,
if there's really still that market need for all those market rate units. Mhm. I think I think Jared, our attorney, makes a great recommendation to you and to everybody in the community is to let our legislators know in Trenton exactly how you feel. Like I've said for the last two years, two and a half, three years
now, this is not something that the five of us magically vote said this is what we want. We all feel the same way. This is something that the legislature in Trenton has kicked back to all 564 municipalities in New Jersey. And so I agree that it's that you know that you
can tell us all you want and I agree. We're always happy to listen. We're here every other Monday. We hear it. But I urge you and all the residents to please reach out to our you know to assembly men and women assembly women who represent the 27th and our state senator and tell them how you feel and let them know we just let them know because they
they actually vote on the third and fourth. They were the ones who actually voted for the third and fourth round. And I assume in 10 years from now, I would assume will be the ones who will be whether these people doing it or somebody else will be the ones voting for the fifth round. It's not us who
have a vote. We kind of know I think we we kind of know how we would feel how we would vote. Okay. Um am I able to ask another question on unrelated um related to affordable housing? Um, you know, there's this push to provide affordable housing. Yet, what's going on in town is
we're allowing developers to come in and buy houses at a market rate, maybe a little undermarket rate, and then build a house on that property that doesn't fit in that neighborhood at all. Um, and we're kind of pricing young families,
young couples from finding affordable starter homes in our town. Is there any way, and this is somewhat hypothetical, if anybody has an answer to this, I'd appreciate it. Um, if not, you know, maybe we can look for a
resolution. Is there any way to control the number of developers that come in and buy up homes and the number of homes that a developer can come in and purchase and, in my opinion, price out of the neighborhood. I I so I'm also the
tax attorney in Melbourne and we looked at this issue on how to limit corporations or LLC's or non non-individuals from purchasing residential houses and limiting the number which they could purchase. And my research found that there was no limit that we couldn't legally do that. It
wouldn't be constitutional. So I'm unaware but um it's not just a need here in Livingston. It's happening throughout the state especially in in this area. So if anything were to come up we would certainly you know look at it because I think it's a concern as well for everybody up on the day. If we slightly
flip that a little bit, uh Jared, we have this resolution, we have the need and we have our commitment or obligations. If we have met these obligations, if we are requiring zero units to build that essentially puts us ahead of the game by denying anybody's
doing doing a remedy lawsuit and say I want to construct here then you you start having teeth to in that game. You have a card in that game. That's the whole talking about I think you're talking about single family residences. I'm talking about generally more construction and everything. I don't
think single family is part of that equation. That's what I was going to say. Uh Jared, when when a person buys a a single family house and and redo it, that really doesn't fall under the affordable housing at all. Correct. Right. Yeah. And it's and it's tough for us as a as a township council to tell a
resident, not a resident, I'm talking about builders. No, but tell a resident who they can sell to and who they can't sell to. That that's that's where I was heading with my comment. To Mr. Caner's point, I don't I don't think legally we have the ability to say you can buy it, you can't buy it, or how many you can buy. Our ability to kind of address the
issue you're concerned about and and the town took steps with what we kind of know as the McMansion ordinance was to kind of reduce the size based on habitable square foot and how many square foot and how big a house. Um, it's a never-ending push back. we just had to do another amendment to try and
close another loophole because the builders are trying to exploit it. But at the end of the day, it's a very attractive community with great schools, great asset. You know, that even with, you know, they're they're bigger than most houses in the neighborhood, but they're not even if we've shrunk them down to not that big, still people are
willing to pay healthy prices that warrant tearing down older houses. And there's very little we can do about that. Sort of the price. So, we just have to implore, just like we implore other residents to contact their people in Trenton, we need to implore them,
please. Yeah. To maybe try to change the kind of ruling that we can because like I said, it's, you know, it's tough for us to tell if you want to sell your house, we can't tell you who to who you can and can't sell it to. Understood. Um, one last question if that's okay. Sure. Quickly. Um, and this is about uh
primarily builders, but also residents of the town that are expanding and improving. um the amount of space that is allowed on a lot to be covered with imperous um
finishes, whether it be a building, uh asphalt, uh cement, what have you. Um it on our street when we've had lots of rain, this is not an a typical thing, but every so often it does happen and we
wind up with rivers across our backyards and my street, Sparrow Drive, several times has become a river itself. Um now we have one house that is almost finished being constructed. We have a new house that's going to be going up
down the street and we as a neighborhood were very concerned about the imperous area that you know areas that's going to be covered and this drainage is going to have it it's going to have nowhere to go. If it hits grass um if it hits a
drain it can be held there for a while but if we have asphalt and concrete and brick it it's going to drain to either the street or the back and it creates a real issue. Is there any way that we can
create a new ordinance to combat that issue? Um because I fear I mean for my neighborhood I'm just praying that it's going to be okay. Um but the past tells me that we're going to have a problem. I a lot of those things that you're discussing come up at the zoning board
of adjustments especially with each application. each application um people are allowed to come up and speak during the application period for or against the application. Yes. Um and a lot of that is covered on a application by application basis as well and at the
planning board as well on certain for certain larger properties as well that that comes up as well. Um I've been told in Livingston that there is no ordinance. There's nothing that governs how much of each lot can be. No, we we uh I don't know who told you, but I'm happy to share it with you. I certainly
invite you to go on our code. We we do have um impervious coverage limitations, floor air limitations on any lot based on the zoning and there usually as a percentage of the lot size. Uh it's obviously a concern as we've gotten more and more built because even though they may be within the limit, the more that
go to the limit where some of the house are replacing wasn't as big creates an issue. Uh I would tell you this there is also the state of New Jersey has is increasingly and most recently re-uped their um storm water regulations. So there are requirements for new development to have
what's called zero net peak discharge meaning that during a peak storm no more water can be coming off the property than was previously. Um so that may require them to put in dry wells and holding systems actually on the lot and that that is enforced and overseen by
engineering. Uh we're having to now go back and look at our own storm water collection system um because it's being searchcharged and there's certainly neighborhoods where all a sudden water's coming out of the drain instead of going in the drain. Yes. Uh so we we are taking a very good look at that. We're funding a lot of money to study it to improve it to improve the size of those
pipes so they can take more water away more quickly. So we're 100% understand where you're coming from, but believe me, we're not ignoring it. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions for open public comments?
Seeing none. Motion to close. Second. All in favor? Motion to adjurnn. Motion. Second. All in favor? Yes. Meetings adjourn. Thank you, Sean.