##VIDEO ID:Kg1AKcrCHcM## [Music] welcome everybody to the meeting uh Township council meeting January 27th 20125 at 7:30 this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings acts and adequate notice of this meeting has been providers required by law specifically the annual notice was emailed to the WS6 tribute in Star Ledger on January 3rd 2025 the agenda and resolutions for this meeting are available at www. Livingston nj.org certain portions of the meeting may be closed to the public for purpose of personnel Andor matters outlined in sunshine laws decisions made and or discussed in Clos sessions will be made known to the public at later time notice to the members of the governing body and Township staff any use of electronic devices during the meeting shall be solely used for the purpose of Township business and any Communications are subject to the open Public's record act to the extent possible this evening's Township of Livingston council meeting will be live streamed uh via Facebook at www.fb.com back Livingston Township NJ questions or comments will be accepted and shared by the township Council by emailing live comments Livingston nj.org by 4M on the day of the meeting each speaker should follow the rules of order in Livingston code 2-15 roll call please council members uh Anthony here bbon here Vieira present Deputy Mayor Klein here mayor Mard I am here we're going to rise for a moment of silent and then follow by the pledge um a few weeks pass and I failed to mention it at our last meeting uh Livingston lost U um one of our dear friends to all of us and to the whole town uh Joyce score so I think uh we would be very appropriate um to have a moment of silence in her memory as well as all the other victims of Senseless crimes um and the people in the wildfires in Florida in California excuse me um so this would be appr be a time for that thank you all right um I do not see um Eileen Fishman from the county so we will go to proclamations and presentations League of Women Voters Martin Luther King Jr day letters to the mayor Amy it's all you okay great I think there's a there's a microphone here as well that you should come up please and turn it on come through you can you you can come through okay okay good evening Town Council I'm Rya safferstein and I'm porva gopal and we are the presidents of the Livingston high school chapter of the League of Women Voters and at the town's MLK Day of Service event the League of Women Voters got children ranging from elementary school to high school to write letters to the mayor asking what they like about Livingston questions they may have and things they want to see changed it's so important for kids to get involved in Civics and find their voice so that they can also become actively engaged citizens and this is one easy way to introduce them to the inner workings of our community and local government two large themes that we gathered from the letters were that the kids love our Public Schools but they also want our sidewalk to be better maintained we are going to read some highlights of the letters from the kids and we hope you find them meaningful okay so in almost every single letter every kid none of them spoke to each other they all wrote about the sidewalks every single one of them yes okay exactly um and something that we both wrote about in our letters is that we really appreciate the town's continued support of cultural events and the diversity and your work with Dei I wanted to add that one of my favorite events that the town does is definitely MLK day um being there last week it was amazing to see so many different organizations come together people of different cultures backgrounds all just coming together to celebrate this amazing human so I'm so glad you guys can make this possible and then I would also say a common theme was kind of getting kids more involved just in everything within the town because obviously we're here but we're not seeing a lot of more other kids so kind of get finding more opportunities for them to be able to take part and thank you so so that was great so thank you both very much and all of the members of your organization um we I say it every time and I'm going to say it again I love when people come and talk to us because that's how we learn what's going on in the community we learn what's good what's bad what's wrong what's right everything so my my request would be to please ask all your friends we're here every other Monday night at 7:30 most every other Monday night sometimes on Tuesdays uh we can always happy to forward you our schedule for the rest of the year um everyone's allowed to speak at these meetings we'd love to hear what's on your mind uh we have a conference meeting at 6:30 if time if that's a better time for some of you as well you get to see what goes on some of the workings of the town our doors are always open please please please uh as you said we don't see a lot of kids come to these meetings if you look around you don't see a lot of adults as well um so it is so that's why I'm always happy when people come so we get to learn and so what you guys are doing is I think very meaningful for all of us here because we got involved to help as well that's why we're all here as well to help and make this community a better place um and I'll will turn over for a minute to uh councilman bani we had a very interesting um session at 6:30 about um complete streets which included sidewalks so if you want to talk about that I think it's very relevant to what you just said to us thank you mayor yeah this was this was right right there um as mayor said I mean if you if anybody if yourselves were there you would have seen what we are looking into we're looking into making Livingston safer to walk and one of the things we talked about just 30 minutes ago how do we engage schools and making walkability to school safer for our kids which is right in the Val of what you are hearing say sidewalk safety and maintenance right so it all goes hand inand and it's so good that what kids are thinking what you what the school children are thinking as well as you know what you are hearing letters to the mayor and what we are thinking in the council kind of aligning without really talking to each other so that's that's the common goal um and I think as far as the kids engagement is concerned I do see a ton of Engagement in lcdi there is a lot of at least four kids every monthly meeting I see and they give inputs and always are engaged and MLK day as you said Pura you are favorite day and and you said the same thing right so it's really where their inputs have have made a difference uh in making that that event very successful thank you thank you so I'm gonna let I'm gonna let everybody have a minute to speak but just um our cler K mizuka was nice enough to point out to us one of the things you can do is um the last few years uh high school kids is it over the age of 18 yeah okay so you're both poll workers I understand so that's a great way to encourage your friends who qualify as well because it's a great program we I know we we talked about it at the five on five over a year ago and after that we got a huge response obviously you you both were part of it and so you know we'd love to encourage more of you to get involved as well with that with that I'm going to start down the line councilman Vier well thank you very much um I I you know I love working with the um the kids in in the schools um I just know a couple weeks ago a uh a freshman a High School freshman had contacted me and she said um she started a Portuguese club at the high school and she said can we get the Portuguese flag raised and I said I will work on it and you know what we are going to work on it we I talked to in conference room today about raising the Portuguese flag but it's nice those ideas are coming from students and and they're bringing them into the council and the council is acting on that so uh I I clearly encourage uh any student whether you're in kindergarten to to high school just come to us if uh if they want to talk to us and I know that um I think we all got uh read America so I think in a couple days we're going to be uh I I think I'm at right no I think it's Collins that we're going to be reading to the to the oh February February 4th or what yeah 24th is it okay yeah so it's great I we I think all of us I could say that we just love working with the the students so again thank you very much thank you so much everyone well we're gonna we got a couple other people everybody wants to say I'm sure word so Deputy Mayor Klein I'll be brief um when I my feeling when I see you guys come up here um has a lot to do with um making me feel less panicked about what's going on with the federal government um it's it's young people coming up future of the country having sensible heads recognizing the importance of Institutions re recognizing the importance of democracy keep doing those things all right this is this is what saves the country in the end in my opinion thank you councilman Anthony I just want to thank you um did you paraphrase all those letters there that's amazing yes they're like 33 it's like 33 and you condensed it great job um I I admire the the brevity up here as well um I just want to say that on the LEC we uh we added uh students to that and I think we're always looking for ways to hear our younger voices I'm telling you the on the LEC it was it's the best ideas the young you know environmental ideas that are coming from the students um because you have a bunch of older people like me on there and it it's been a a real success and you're seeing some um some projects that they're working on that were totally the idea of uh students and um on I love that you said the m K day because that's always such a nice event and um he did you call him a great man great human being i i i big fan okay so part of uh what I went into but um thanks I'll pass it on to I think everybody I think everybody had a chance to comment um so thank you both very much and I will just take a second to thank Amy and um Robin for hosting all of us again this past Thursday night we had a really nice hour and a half session um very informative love the informal style and uh really enjoyed it so thank you both for for hosting all of us just let us know when all right thank you while she's handing they handing you oh okay pi than all right so now with uh no further Ado um we are we are going to ask uh gr pedo from tapology to go over a presentation that the council uh heard last week in in a Clos session about the fourth round of fair share housing and we all felt it was very important for the entire Community to see the same thing to hear what we hear and to see what the state has mandated us to pass so Graham thank you it's good now we're good yes okay thank you um so first of all good evening uh mayor Deputy Mayor members of the township Council um and residents of Livingston uh my name is Graham pedo uh principal planner with uh topology here this evening to um preview the fourth round of affordable housing here in for the township of Livingston uh to provide kind of an overview of how the process is different from the third round um and what we can kind of expect uh forthcoming as we move into the next round of affordable housing obligations okay so first I'm going to walk through kind of a a fourth round compliance process high level um just a high level sorry no worries um just a high level picture of of what to expect over the over the next coming months um and how this process lays itself out um in contract as you all are well aware uh in the spring uh Governor Murphy signed a new legislation that codified um the affordable housing process um so this process moving forward for the fourth round and all future subsequent rounds for each 10-year period forthcoming uh will be much different than the third round process the third round was a court L process settlements happened kind of closed session um things will be much more out in the open uh and we'll walk through that process for everyone to understand um so on the screen here I have kind of the the high level timeline of what we can expect um the first key date marker uh for the township to be aware of is January 31st of 2025 uh that is a date by which the municipal governing body needs to adopt its obligation number the number of units affordable housing units that it needs to plan for over the forthcoming 10-year period from 2025 to 2035 um that number needs to be adopted by resolution which I believe you all have on this evening for consideration and adoption um following uh adoption of that number there will be a review period or a challenge period where interested parties May challenge the municipality's adopted number um that gr could I just real briefly for anyone out there watching we will have this whole PowerPoint on the website because I know if you're watching the Facebook it might be hard to read some of this sure so we'll put the whole PowerPoint up on the website uh tomorrow thank you Mr Lo for for referencing that so um Carolyn saying that it's up on the uh with the agenda so people people actually can see it now okay with the agenda pack okay thank you thank you um so the there's a challenge periods where interested parties can can Levy a challenge against municipality's adopted number uh that challenge must be filed by February 28th of 2025 following that challenge period there will be a review process uh from March 1st uh through April 1st of 2025 the affordable housing dispute resolution program will review the challenge um and make a determination they will either approve the municipality's number um accept the challenge and pre present a different number modify the number um there's still some rules being drafted and finalized for how that process will play out um however after we adopt our number here this evening the township uh will start to move into their housing element fair share plan process um that's going to be a public process in partnership with your planning board to develop a plan for how you will accommodate affordable housing over for the next 10e period here within the township um and that process needs to conclude and be uh completed by June 30th of 2025 um the housing plan is to be adopted by the planning board and then also endorsed by this body as well and both of those actions have to happen by June 30th um then there will be another challenge period potentially to uh if any interested parties are interested in challenging um between July 1st and August 31st uh where challenges can be presented to the housing plan that's adopted by the municipality um interested parties may suggest that such strategies in the housing plan may not work or you know other questions that they may have um then uh through the through the end of the year the municipality can work together uh with the uh challenging party um to identify resolution to the housing element fair share plan um and then finally the last deadline is by March 31st of next year all implementation strategies of the housing element fair share plan must be codified and adopted um by ordinance or other me mechanism uh to effectuate the plan uh and again this will be this is available for you and happy to answer any questions um and I should also reference that we've prepared kind of a process memo as well um that that's available for the public uh to review as well um that kind of details this these steps with more information as well okay um so the first step uh which we're talking about this evening is really the adoption of the obligation number and how that number is calculated for municipality um so calculating need obligations um you know previously numbers were published and provided there wasn't really clarity as to how affordable housing obligation numbers were prepared or uh developed um that process now for this fourth round and moving forward is wholly different the entire methodology the steps to calculate numbers are all codified in njsa 52 col 27d d343 um the entire process is spelled out as to how you calculate that um so the first highle step is that Regional needs of affordable housing are calculated um there's six regions across the state of New Jersey Livingston is located within the second region Region 2 um and the future need is determined by a share of past growth within the region um the affordable housing oblig the uh Region's affordable housing number is then allocated to municipalities by averaging three allocation factors an income capacity factor a non-residential valuation change factor and finally a land capacity Factor um so the region 2's perspective needs this is for the region that Livingston is located within um so you calculate the prospective need of units between 2025 and 2035 to do this set forth of the methodology is you look at how did the region grow between 2010 and 2020 you take that number of new households divide it by 2.5 to estimate the share of low moderate income households so for region two which encompasses Essex Morris Union and Moren counties the total growth was 51,2 64 new households uh between 2010 and 2020 uh the share of of those units that's estimated to be occupied by low and moderate income households is 2056 and that's the number uh that needs to be allocated to all municipalities for the future growth period the allocation factor is used as a percentage applied to the overall Regional obligation and it's important to note um that within region 2 there are 13 qualified Urban Aid municipalities that do not receive an obligation so here within region to only 91 of our um 104 municipalities receive uh an assigned prospective need obligation so gram I'll just jump in so this this was the subject of the monfil litigation um that these qualified Urban Aid municipalities should be included and if they were included it would reduce our number um more significantly than some of this other work um that lawsuit is is kind of at a stand still they were denied they again today they were denied in court um but we do have in our resolution um language that if that model litigation is successful or similar litigation is successful that we can modify our number based on that and Jared I would just point out that because I think it's shocking to all of us that like a place like Monclair is part of of uh one of these municipalities is identified as not requiring units so the process of how those um townships municipalities were uh were configured to not need to not have any um need uh appropriated to them it seems really unfair to other towns correct yeah that Monclair is one of the qualified Urban municipalities and again the list is set forth and the standards within it are set forth within the legislation okay so to facilitate this process and assist the DCA has pre prepared non-binding advisory calculations uh those were released on October 20th of 2024 um where the DCA went through the full methodology document calculated the number for every municipality across the state that's participating in the process um subsequently on November 23rd of 2024 the DCA released a digital map file called a GIS shape file or data layer of depicting all the developable land within each municipality across the the state um DCA also released its full methodology document workbook spreadsheets everything so we appreciate the open and transparent process that DCA went through uh to provide this information and I have a link all of this is available online so anyone can visit that link and see the materials that have been published and posted um and again these are non-binding advisory numbers so municipalities may use these numbers as guidance um and prepare updated calculations informed by more accurate local conditions again it's the three factors income capacity non-residential and land capacity factors I'm going to walk through each of them for Livingston um so the income capacity factor is determined by averaging the municipal share of the regional sum of differences between median household income and the same calculation but weighted by number of households within the municipality that's a lot of word salad in short it essentially means that communities with higher incomes and higher share and larger in size more households have a higher income capacity Factor um High income smaller in size have a a smaller but still high income capacity Factor um and here I presented at the bottom uh and this is based solely on census data so this is a math exercise the DCA has calculated living sensing capacity Factor at three um and I just wanted to note that that is the third highest among all Region 2 municipalities next is the non-residential valuation change Factor essentially this is the growth in non-residential valuation of your commercial and Industrial assets from 1999 through 2023 you just summarize the value that you had in 1999 summarize in 2023 what's the change and what share is that change representative of the entire Region's growth so here for Livingston the DCA did that calculation and found that uh the Livingston non residential valuation factor is 2.69 essentially saying that 2.69% of all of region 2's non-residential growth occurred in the township of Livingston um and again this is the nth highest uh in the region too and finally the land capacity Factor this is again determined by estimating the area of developable land within the municipality's boundaries this is the exercise that DCA went through with their developable land file um and DCA found that uh living ston land capacity factor is 1.06 um they estimate that there's about 57 acres of developable land um and that's a um of the 5358 acres of developable land across the entire region that's 24th of the 91 municipalities in Region 2 okay so in summary this is where the math comes in you take your 3.0 income capacity Factor your 2.69 non-residential factor and your 1.06 land capacity Factor you average those three together the average is 2.25 you multiply 2.25 by 20506 and you get the prospective need obligation of 461 units that's uh how DCA went through their math and determined the number of units uh that you know they estimate that Livingston must accommodate um over the next 10e period um so to support the township um what we did at topology was we completed an assessment of the three component factors to confirm accuracy we did that for income and not the non-residential value uh the DCA methodology is correct and we affirm those um the and then we've uh also processed updates for the land capacity Factor so the land capacity Factor was further assessed following the publication of their GIS file so we went through took the map uh that they prepared overlaid it with Township information uh additional Flood information Parcels looked at the configuration of these areas that they claimed were developable or you know identified as developable and did a further assessment and we have modified this Factor accordingly based on what's actually on the ground um and I just wanted to caveat this in defens of DCA you know they did this Statewide this was a 30,000 foot kind of flyover analysis they didn't get to the level that we did um to support this work so that's where we wanted to get into some detail uh just a quick note on this these developable lands that um the DCA has identified we're going to show some maps depicting some of these areas I just want to cave out this that you know nothing is to be built on these areas at this point um these are really just illustrative of what CCA found as developable um so this is just kind of a disclaimer slide that explains that you know it's an estimate of what we're estimating as developable yeah I think it's also important to add that even though it's developable it may not be residential developable for the purposes of this presentation so we have to account for that it could be industrial it could be Warehouse so this doesn't mean that this is residential and these aren't the lands that have to be built as part of our we don't to we don't touch any of the developable land as part of our forr obligation that's correct yes thank you Jared um okay so a couple of sample images kind of depicting the areas that the DCA has identified as devel as developable um here this property located at the at the intersection of um South Orange Avenue and East toart Gap Road um that little kind of red I don't know this can't point this red squiggle area um is a piece that DCA said is developable land and we've identified that clearly this configuration of this piece existing on two sites that are both improved themselves this is not developable land and should not be included um within the calculation again some of these areas again the red uh coloring in this kind of very narrow um parcel located along the municipal boundary there is no Road access to this area um these are other areas that we have eliminated from consideration so I'm not through every single one we have a lot there's a full list contained within our final report um but just kind of wanted to show some highlighted areas of what we've gone through and screened out um here's another area um located uh adjacent to the mall site and to uh the St Barnabas property um this kind of median piece that's uh bisected by the floodway and 500-year flood plane obviously this is not developable property and should be excluded from consideration as a developable land uh and finally this example we have a lot this is very common situation uh you know the the rear of uh religious or house of worship properties um that are forested we find that there's a lot of those that were included um so here we have a a church property on West Northfield um the rear of this lot the forested area at the back uh DCA is identified as developable and also some of these areas uh L lining some other properties um clearly these are not of sufficient size they're not available they're already encumbered by existing development these should not be included as developable areas um so in going through this analysis for your land capacity factor on a partial by paral basis um we have reviewed all of the 5 56892 Acres identified as developable by the DCA and we found that in fact only 14 of those acres are truly developable um as such we have removed about 42.6 Acres um from the calculation and this modifies the land capacity factor from uh all the way down to 0.27 and I just wanted to note you know that seems like we did a big we took a lot of land out you know we should see a huge drop in the number would be your kind of thought process um but I wanted to add this kind of calculation note slide that talks about um the strongest factors remember what's really pulling uh living stance number high are the non-residential valuation Factor you know fifth or sixth highest ninth highest in the region I forget exactly the number uh the income capacity Factor third highest in the region um those two factors alone are allocating 38 units to Livingston so you you can't get much lower than 388 um you know so we don't have much room to work with so what what what what was just said is if we had zero land we would still have a 388 that's right need based on our income and our non-residential value um so the land capacity factor is the weakest of the three factors um so and based on this strong waiting you know there's really not much room uh to kind of pull pull development down further pull pull the obligation number down further um so so then this final slide we I kind of have presented um the modified calculation so we have all the metrics the DCA calculation the modified values that we're uh recommending and then the relative change in those so as you can see in the middle column the modified values um by incorporating the land capacity factor of 0.27 that drops our average allocation factor from 2.25 down to 2.01 um and results in a 407 unit perspective need obligation um roughly a 54 unit drop um from the DCA calculation model so I just want to say this what's before the the governing body tonight and you'll certainly ask you know gramar myself questions is is resolution 25-7 so what we're doing tonight is we're modifying dca's number down um it's it's very mathematical it's very statuto um I think that topology did an amazing job going property by property um a lot of municipalities are going through this and not going through this painstaking detail um I think they did an amazing job with all the maps they include in the reports uh to just ify this 407 this doesn't mean that we're going to have to build 407 affordable units The Next Step will be doing a vacant land adjustment to understand what our realistic development potential is um but this is coming up with our with our modified need um based on the DCA number um there's not really much wiggle room and I think we could justify this 407 based on the work that the poy did um and following our adoption of the resolution uh we'll be filing a declaratory judgment action that was a new uh procedur requirement that was added within the last 30 days as this as people are just trying to learn this so we'll be filing a declaratory judgment action uh which are authorizing my firm to do as part of this resolution also um confirming this 407 as our modified number that's it so if anybody has any questions happy to answer so I just I'll just go first so Graham thank you very much I appreciate this we appreciate a few weeks ago we appreciate all the work that you have done um since you and topology have come on board it's really been a wonderful thing having you as our partners uh working together with you and Phil and the rest of your staff as well very much appreciate it I I just think the one thing we should also maybe talk about is that going into the fourth round whenever that we do come up with these numbers that you know thanks to all the hard work of um of our counselor Jared and topology as well um you know we have a whole bunch of credits as well that are com coming into the third round as well from all the stuff that we worked hard on to get done so I don't think I don't know if you have the exact number but if you want to just elaborate for 10 or 15 seconds about some of the work that we've done in the past I think it would be interesting for everybody to hear that as well yeah so in the next well I'll just so in the next uh month we'll be we'll be finalizing and adopting um our overlay Zoning for the mall um as a result of our third round settlement agreement um we have 124 Surplus credits and what makes our development what makes our s settlement agreement unique and you don't I don't think you can find it in any other municipality but I wouldn't swear to it is specifically within our settlement agreement it allows us to carry these Surplus credits um towards our RDP in the fourth round um so I think that that's important um it's 10d in our settlement agreement um so we have 124 Surplus credits that we can carry forward um they're not bonus credits they're not for new building it's actually um we've gotten a benefit from what we built in the third round and I think that was part of the reason why among others that we agreed to the zoning on the mall that we agreed to at that time I'll ask any other council members if they have any comments well gram sir see I I'll just quot quickly um I I second mayor's mayor's note that thank you good work and U uh this is detail and and this is what we should be a little disappointed that we we have we do not have many people listening to this very informative session I was um at an nlm event this past weekend and I can say that almost every town I I spoke to the representatives of those towns they were concerned they were concerned they were asking questions a lot of them were from the from the naiveness or other having not not having enough information so this sets us apart um this kind of information being transparent to the community and to the council and the work of reducing it um you know as much as we can the thing that really strikes me is uh something you mentioned J uh Jared that this factor of land adjustments reduces it to let's say 60 or so units or or commitment or requirement if we had zero land we still are obligated for 388 that's how Troublesome this is right so I think I think it is is more and more awareness uh hopefully residents reaching out as well and everywhere I think this is this is where it hits home you know where um how it is more drawing on Town's resources this kind of uh you know legislation so just wanted to point that out and or to make sure it is noted uh that we are all concerned I think I can speak on behalf of my fellow members as well on this that it is a concerning pie but thank you and I'll just follow up that the fourth round does allow for a downward adjustment based B on sewer or water capacity M but not for school not for fire not for police not for those things that you know really matter to Livingston um which I think was a disappointment thank you any other of the councilman Deputy Mayor have any comments the one thing that I would uh say that we seems like it would be a solution to this problem and uh you know we we we tried to bring it up is that um you know and this is something we should bring up because we actually haven't mentioned it that typically what happens here is that when a developer comes along they build it a 4:1 ratio right so we're looking at if we had to do all 461 uh units potentially that's 2,300 new units 407 no no no but 46 four we're going to say 407 but the DCA was telling us 461 yes we are but if we're but DCA would be 10,000 units so two excuse me 22300 would it be if if the DCA you know we took their number uh without you know trying to make it more fair um we have 10,000 households in this uh municipality right now and added another almost 25% more households that's that's what we're talking about here so if you want to talk about um being concerned about changing the character of Livingston you want to talk about taking a place that is I think in my opinion kind of a Golden Goose and uh a place where people can come from wonderful neighborhoods and be at at schools that uh that do an outstanding job and and uh for our student for our students and and a place to make us all very proud when you change the character you may chase away the people that are bringing that to this town and you may end up making it uh a place that's different than what you're trying to you know instead of bringing people in in a way that you want to give people access to a town like this um you may be destroying the access that they're getting never got a standing over from Justin before thank you sir Michael thank you mayor and I just want to thank topology um you know I'm I'm happy to see that we're getting in front of this instead of the the last time that um you know unfortunately and Barry it wasn't your fault because you weren't here uh the last uh Administration did not start this uh I think they started it probably with uh three years left on the time clock and and that's why we had to push a lot of stuff uh right to the end and uh I'm just very happy that we're starting very early so that we can get a uh a handle on all of this so it doesn't come down to the uh the final year of round four where everything that's good gets uh just shoved down our throats so uh I want to wish you and all of us the best of luck as we proceed in the next uh 10 years and trying to to deal with this so uh thank you and I'm very happy that uh you know what even though we had some uh some issues in the last round we have 124 credits that we came out of ahead for this round so it does help us also so thank you agreed we good you want to real quick U thank you so much for taking the deep dive here i i u the 461 to 407 it just some of that land is not developable at all it's it's you need I'm glad you're taking a deep dive with your expertise and topology's expertise of pushing back on on some of this it's uh sometimes you numbers picked and it really has no basis to reality when you you really take the Deep dive but thank you for that and uh and yeah Jared a great Point 388 with with nothing so you might as well chop down this 461 when it doesn't make sense so thanks sir right Graham thank you again really appreciate it very much very much thanks all right moving on on the agenda um is there a motion to approve minutes I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from January 13 2025 uh regular and Conference and January 13th close session I'll second it all in favor I I all against no all right motion open up public comment on agenda items I'll make a motion oh I'll second that motion all in favor I I I all right um justware Mr alert for this year we're not going to have you say your address just say whether or not you're a resident or not we're trying to keep because this is recorded going on on Facebook we're trying to protect people's privacy as to their home address it's still the law though law good evening Mr Mayor Justin Albert I am a resident of Livingston um resolution 25085 appointed commissioner and Alternate commissioner to New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund would welcome you to pull that from the packet so we can understand what's going on there with the intergovernmental Insurance Fund um resolution 2577 seven committing uh to this new affordable housing what a tremendous disappointment the Murphy Administration has been has been seven years wasted the third round was a waste of time this fourth round just doing back of the napkin numbers you know if there are 50 acres developable and we're doing 4 to one and they want 400 that's 40 units per acre and even if we just include we know we stopped it down to 14 acres that are actually available and If we have 388 units that's what 27 per acre and that doesn't even include the four times multiplier uh every County in this state shifted red in the last election the Republicans are very very excited because they feel that uh majority people in this state feel that uh we have suffered under the absolute power of the Democrats in the New Jersey state democratic committee welcome one two three of you to become Republicans switch parties we're there's a lot we could do we can move in uh Stronger leadership that empowers the localities to plan for Healthy Growth and just a point here if we are going to be planning for 2,000 units over the course of 10 years that's only 200 per year that's about a 2% growth rate if we are going to do that what you want to do is you want to account for the cash flows associated with that 200 uh units coming in in year one and you want to make sure that the construction money in year one we're going to have to go and hire people from outside by the time we get to year 10 all that money should be staying in the community because we are hiring people in the community to do the work that needs to be done that's associated with Healthy Growth in the community we can probably back this number down we can back it down significantly by installing stronger leadership but we need to be planning for growth within this community in a way that we are doing the work in the way that the cash flows that coming in benefit the community over the long term when we see cash flows come in and cash flows come out we want to increase the cash flows coming in and limit the cash flows coming out and build an internal dynamics that you would associate with a vibrant healthy growing Community make no mistake Healthy Growth is both desirable and achievable but we need local control and we need the ability to responsibly innovate and if everyone at the New Jersey uh League of municipalities feels that this is a bad idea we have the ability to take back control over our state government this is a political problem the courts are way overextended by four decades on their Authority here we have the opportunity this November to regain responsible control and we should to do so and this Livingston Council should be active and vocal and we should be leading the 500 some municipalities to do it right thank you very much Mr Mayor thank you Jus may you want to give a quick color on um 25- 85 for Justin's request yes so um at the reorganization meeting we our commitment in a joint uh we get our insurance through a joint intergovernmental Insurance Fund uh every three years the cycle is up we went out for competitive proposals we had previously been members of the Garden State Municipal joint Insurance Fund we got a more favorable proposals save significant dollars switching to the New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund so we joined that fund and one of the requirements is that we appoint a commissioner and an alternate commissioner so that's what that resolution is uh I'm not aware of that we control that now because it largely goes to other insurance companies okay any other anybody else for comments on on agenda items only motion to close public comment period I'll second all in favor I I okay thank you uh final hearing uh second reading ordinance please Caroline 01225 thank you mayor ordinance 1-22 amending chapter 162 lead testing inspections for rental dwellings motion open public comments I'll make that motion second all in favor I seeing seeing none any motion to close motion to close second all in favor motion to move I'll move it second council member Anthony yes bani yes Viera yes Deputy Mayor kleene yes mayor Reinhard yes that'll move us down to the uh consent agenda matters listed on the with an asri are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the council and we approve by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items l a member of the governing body so requests in which case that item will be removed from the consent agenda and consider in its normal sequence on the agenda as part of the general orders would anybody like to see any of these removed not hearing any I would like ask Carolyn to please read them all resolution 25- 076 appointments to the zoning board resolution 2577 committing to the Department of Community Affairs fourth round affordable housing present need and prospective need numbers as modified resolution 25- 078 authorizing disposition of surplus resolution 25- 079 authorizing the award of a contract to McManaman Scotland and Balman LC for redevelopment Council resolution 25-80 authorizing the award of a contract to Antonelli caner Rivera affordable housing Council resolution 25- 81 authorizing the award of a contract to topology NJ LLC resolution 25- 82 authorizing a contract extension with Waste Industries LLC resolution 25- 83 preserve NJ historic preservation fund administered by the NJ historic trust resolution 25- 84 authorized membership in the New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund resolution 25- 85 appointing commissioner and Alternate commissioner to the NJ intergovernmental Insurance Fund I'll make a motion to approve the res resolutions on the consent agenda a second any dis there any discussion on these or there's no council member Anthony yes Bon yes viea yes Deputy Mayor kleene yes mayor mhart yes thank you I have a motion to open up the meeting the public portion motion to open up the meeting of the public portion second all in favor I okay hi Mr Mayor Justin Albert I'm a resident of Livingston three points one J I'm not g I'm not going to take your time away we'll give you another 15 20 seconds maybe we should just say going forward how many years you've been residents of of Livingston we're going on 21 this year which is very exciting appreciate that if I could take that additional 30 seconds just to comment how efficiently government is being run Mr Mayor thank you very much these meetings are all being run very efficiently and I think everybody is appreciative the entire audience is appreciative so thank you're you're actually you couldn't be more right your your extra 30 seconds is granted without a vote without without a vote thank you so let's reset back to three minutes um uh we we discussed in the back uh raising a certain flag certain students wanted to come in and uh raise a flag a and we discussed that it was uh strictly the council's determination as to a flag being risen and the township attorney raised uh the issue that I generally have an issue with the uh uh rule that you guys have developed and I do um your only purpose being up there is to reflect the sentiment of the community when you take a piece of community property for yourself from us and you use it for your own speech it literally does not serve the interests of the community um we should be having flag raisings we should be inviting people flag racings that stars and bars that stands for liberty and justice for all that includes all of us we should be raising that flag and inviting people to bring all their other flags that they're interested in and you know what it's okay if it's a flag that we don't necessarily agree in because we're all big boys and girls and we can have a discussion rather than shutting that off and creating the council's own speech Let's have a community speech and let's do it under that stars and stripes two um this is a continuing issue with uh uh things to Ed uh behind closed doors you said uh you agreed on something with respect to the mall we've never had any public conversation with with respect to the mall so I'm actually really interested in what it is that you guys agreed to with respect to the mall there's not been any public conversation yet as well you guys made a decision in a closed room it was not on the agenda to shut down all Facebook comments well you know what that's a wonderful tool for for the community to communicate but you guys shut down all comments on there and the question is why can we reverse that can we reverse it right now um there should be more done in public we can't be afraid of the public we can't be afraid of speech of the public there is nobody in this room if we want people to show up you guys got to be out there and you have to be saying to people hey we have this wonderful presentation coming out tonight come out let's have a conversation about this let's discuss what it is that we want this community to look like but instead there's no one here it's just you guys we could do better thank you very much Mr Mayor thank you yeah so just clarify there's nothing new on the mall um what's going on with the mall was what was agreed to on July 22nd 20123 third round fair share housing settlement agreement uh we agreed to certain zoning in place in the mall uh we had a public resolution that was passed we had public discussion there was also fairness hearing as it related to the settlement agreement uh this is just the implementation of that settlement agreement uh we were just waiting on topology to draft the appropriate ordinance mayor yeah uh we coun yeah we agreed to uh 76 affordable units at the living some wall um the final count was I think 376 376 units and it's just on the um transform Coast site um the former sear site um as part of this agreement which I think was a benefit to the as you recall to the township um we fought and we preserved the rights to the rest of them all um that fair share housing Corporation or any any interested party cannot look to the mall um for units in the fourth round so we protected Livingston Mall from the four fourth round of fair share housing and limited it to just a transform coer site so uh mayor may I that's actually a victory for us because we have a dying mall over there that you could put probably thousands of units over there and and we locked it in in the last round where it's 3 76 76 units okay so I I think that's clearly a a success right there for us it was a huge Victory because they were looking to they were looking to put units across the entire span of the mall and have a zone for entire span of the mall um and we were able to convince fair share housing uh as part of litigation uh to limit it to the transform coite we also were able to use a credits although it's part of our third round obligation we're using those credits in the fourth round and uh no develop no fair share housing Corporation and no insurance party can look through Livingston Mall in the fourth round we can't be forced to use Livingston Mall in the fourth round we certainly can allow it but we can't be forced to is there a for is there a master plan for the mall property um the M the mall's included in the master plan and this part would be included in our master plan as part of our fare housing element uh if the mayor wants to com as I mentioned on New Year's Day there will be uh something coming out bar we still looking possibly for the end of the month if we can get everything done correct end of February excuse me uh I am hoping that we can plan like I discuss it my remarks on New Year's Day uh something called the charet which is a will be a week-long process where we will have have um buy in from all the residents of this town there'll be sessions held throughout the entire uh different parts of the day uh run by a company that does this um full-time uh in association with topology who was here today as well and this way we will have buying from the entire town as to what they're looking to see as well and what makes sense as well from an economic standpoint of anyone who would take over the mall that sh right will be the beginning of the planning process for the mall yes and while that money will be paid at this point whenever whenever a developer is selected for the mall and whenever that happens the first thing the developer will have to do is pay the town back for all the amount spent on the shet can I have a anybody else can I have a a motion to close public comment motion to close public comment second all in favor I I all against okay reports of Township officials and council members an anything for this evening nothing to I thank you mayor Adam nothing tonight Barry uh nothing May other than uh the topology report the power point and the um compliance memo that Mr PTO reference will be up on the website Russ nothing counselor uh nothing further mayor Thank You Caroline nothing thank you okay as discussed at our meeting two weeks ago instead of all of us saying the same thing five times uh we're going to have one person speak for uh us and we will rotate it this week it's Deputy Mayor Klein I did not know that was going to be me and I have not collected comments from my fellow councilmen know you we never talked about me being the first one to go anyway um all right so all right well no one nobody sent me any comments let me say that okay I didn't collect okay so so I can so we'll go so so for an extra two minutes if we can keep everybody to two minutes then I'll be very brief okay and then why you go give it your best shot and we'll see who else adds on I would like to just say that um and thanks to Barry and thanks to Chris Southworth at um at our DPW uh we were able to open up lel's Pond for ice skating um over the weekend uh first time in six years um and we we uh some of the councilmen ventured over there just to see what was going on I think we got there a little early Apparently one person had been there and uh she had scared it off but when we were there it was still early and quiet uh but then people came after we left um but uh I think it's just really fun nice little thing and uh thanks for you know it really take some work on the Township's part and we had someone Staffing there the full time uh just in case even though we of course tested the thickness of the Ice uh but we had to get the insurance company to sign off and Russ helped with that uh we had to um our DBW was Staffing there the whole time with someone who was in a suit that if someone fell in the water that they could be rescued um it just shows that uh the town can do some fun things and be a little agile when we want to be and uh it was it was great thank you all right so I'll give everybody one minute Michael you have anything I had nothing because I thought five people would send it to to Sean but uh I just want to thank the livon diversity and inclusion committee uh a wonderful job for the uh Martin Luther King day um and I just want to thank everybody who participated great event as usual thank you uh mayor me sure we'll let Al go before K this time you want K okay you guys flip it make it um [Laughter] I think Michael covered the uh lcdi great Martin Luther King I don't want to repeat anything but when I went over to the skating I saw would you see one person I saw there was one I saw I saw three people there but it was us three and a half three and a half I saw five on the ice yeah someone was really one was a figure skater a little bit of Hockey being played yeah yeah so so I have nothing else because I didn't send you any comments but I think I'm March 10th okay I did send the list out just everybody realized I did send it out anyway Kon you're up yeah yeah know I won't repeat the pond and uh but but I do want to say I'm I'm very proud uh I'm Le is on on uh uh Livingston Community Committee for diversity and inclusion and what a fabulous job uh the MLK C celebration was was very well attended as the kids came in in the in the the beginning uh the excitement was there a nice way to give back give the service uh you know do the service as as as MLK Junior's Moto was so that was fabulous and um um and and again a a shout out to DBW uh we had a pretty bad cold snap uh and some snow and the roads were clean uh very nice job I think uh but there was a lot of good wife that came out saying my street was clean cleaned in the night uh people were up in the morning and they were all pling through their their their driveways but the streets were clean so that was good so just want to that yeah thank you I'll just add to the the DPW because they deserve all the credit I say it every day every time we have a chance to they're the backbone of this operation appreciate all they do I had a friend of mine um who had rounds to go to early Monday morning and he was loved the fact that he was able to get out at 6:00 in the morning get to the hospital and do his rounds so um thank the DPW for everything they did and also the Martin Luther King day was a was great great event to be at and these letters were great as well so I thank everybody um and with that I'll take a motion for ajour motion second all in favor I I all right e