e we're on the air I'll fix the sign in a minute okay welcome to the meeting of the Long Hill Township planning board on March 11th 2025 we're commencing this meeting at
7:30 uh can we uh have the announcements absolutely number one call to order and statement of compliance adequate notice of this meeting or hearing has been provided by posting a copy of the public meeting or hearing dates on the municipal bulletin board and website by sending a copy to the echos Sentinel
newspaper and by filing a copy with the municipal clerk number two standard board procedures any meeting or hearing conducted by the board as a quasi judicial proceeding any questions or comments must be limited to issues that are relevant to what the board May legally consider in reaching a decision
and to Corum appropriate to a Judicial meeting or hearing must be maintained at all times number three electronic devices all in attendants are asked to mute cell phones or any electronic devices as to not interrupt their proceedings number four pledge of to the flag the United States of
America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay roll call Miss Dill was excused this evening
Mr Hans there been Lavender is excused this evening Mr lerio here Mr Mitchell present Miss oens here Mr opalco here Vice chairman Jones present and chairman Richardson here chairman we have a cour excellent thank you well good evening
again everyone uh we're going to jump right into our agenda the first is to uh review and approve the January 14th 2025 minutes February 11th 2025 and the
February 25th 2025 minutes has everybody had a chance to review them if you need a minute Mr chair are we going to do them one by one or are we going to do them one by yeah we'll do it one by one thank you so why don't we start with January
14th please let me know quick comment sure under the um site plan under the site plan committee s plan for marsville for the statute what number 17
last of 17 mhm okay last last yeah it said on agreement the board Carri the application to febr 11 with no further notice by the app yes I thought we decid that they would do that was on
February 25th we decided that or February 11th hold on go to The Next set oh on on February 11th yes so if you go to February 11th motion the board carry the application April 8th the board noted that because of the length of time
this application has been asking to be carried the board requests the applicant re notice for the next right I motion it's thanks no problem good any other questions
comments if not is there a motion to approve approve is second in favor I okay great let's go to now February
11th questions or comments a quick one on number nine adjournment um the reorganizational meeting wasn't the reorganization oh yeah I think I did that on all yeah yeah that also on the uh February 25th as
well thank you no problem other than that that's all I got so mej time is right just going to be the meeting German time was right 8:32 uh I usually take it from the recording and then I'd like add a minute okay usually a
minute how many how many milliseconds we're down to a tenth of a second uh so the meeting hearing just we're just deleting reorganization yes y right okay catch and that was also on the others
to feary so this might be de minor point but since Teresa wasn't uh reappointed should she be excused she was reappointed she was
reappointed in February 25th not February 11th well she was very appointed but she didn't take her with of office until okay yeah yeah yeah I looked at that too because we didn't really have that's that's I mean should I take her off of February 11th altogether Ian the fact that she was
appointed I would just for recordkeeping purposes I see no reason why you can't leave her there okay you know I mean I guess kind of good question I've never never thought about that had she been here she would have taken the oath I was say technically she was reappointed by she was reappointed
she just didn't take the oath yet she wasn't here to take the oath so being excused would be fine that's the logic so any other okay any other uh comments is there a motion to approve as amended the February 11th 2025 minutes
approve amended motion to approve 11 second okay roll call or no just I I okay last but not least February 25th 2025 I was Mr chair I was not here for
that uh however I did watch the video so I'm happy to either uh abstain uh or not cast an ey but I will not second or make a motion thank you for that clarification so just picking
on Miss diligan she's not here uh the expiring 1232 25 oh yeah 32 extra Day in the year I mean there's not 32 days isn't that leap it's leap December just for to
find catch it spell checker didn't pick that up I have 31 same comment I had before any other modifications comments questions if not is there a motion no is
there a motion to approve the amended February 25th minutes motion to approve the amended minutes of febrary 25th second okay all in favor great thank you very
good all right we're going to move right into uh old and new business uh first up is an update regarding the state plan cross acceptance process who up Mr hands thank you and I
think um the last meeting um well firstly just to recap briefly we the subcommittee or committee had a meeting or two um over the last few weeks with I think Tom myself and
Bob and uh we put some material together that everybody hopefully received on Friday to give a bit more background and a little bit of focus of the conversation tonight before we get into the conversation Bob and I did attend the
Moes County meeting um couple of Fridays back yes and we sat through a presentation of about an hour and it was good to go and Bob let Bob speak obviously his own thoughts in
a second um we were the only real town present um it's open to the whole mo County but we and there were a bunch of people on on Zoom or whatever media they used but they could not ask questions so the
purpose of going was just matter of interest and the opportunity to ask questions so we were able to talk to people before the meeting and ask a couple of questions um at the Q&A session at the meeting so it was another
oversight as to what the plan is and the purpose and really just to also emphasize and this is a buildup from the 2001 plan and Bob likes to point out the hundreds of pages that were in the 200 2001 plan cut down to about half the
size for this current plan for 25 and I think they learned their lesson a little bit from the large plan and their focus was less on youth Township how are you adapting and adopting the plan that we have set the
state the focus was more this is what we would like to recommend and suggest and it's not you know you don't have to do it it's not mandatory but it's more a opportunity to think about how you are doing against it
but the main focus is what can we do together moving forward so our review doesn't necessar have to do a tick and tie everything they say in the plan how have we done in our master plan but we've talked about that briefly before that our master plan is
pretty decent pretty you know we hit a lot of the marks where we can and so I felt pretty good about that but then it's more the question about how do we go forward so I'll leave that and my last comment I hopefully people had a chance to look through the
documentations we sent up last week those are very helpful I'll stop that for a second Bob go right so uh they made a point of it being an advisory document um and there there was some general discussion
by a one of the past authors on the 2001 plan and the fact that the state had really not done a great job of moving forward with a lot of the things that were in the 2001 plan and perhaps they could do a better job
of moving forward with the 2024 plan um I think that the dialogue that we were able to have before the meeting and then a couple of comments during the meeting although they're not I think things that will lead to some change inside the plan
it it at least provides an opportunity for the township to to further some Dialogue on issues that are important to the town and uh Mars County
the the the gentleman who was leading the group for moris County was very interested in trying to set something up to work with us on that because we pointed out that was primarily around the the the uh flooding issues around
the community and how it involves Three Counties 10 12 different municipalities and how could any town be in a position to coordinate that kind of effort on a region like ours and and
that was under pretty well understood I think so it was was good to make that point both before the meeting and then during the meeting so yeah that's that's fantas yeah so with that
all said um and we'll come back to a couple of Bob's points as as we go through the conversation because there were some immediate things we could do and but we also have the mecy of responding if we so wish to mois County
to um act on our behalf with other mo County municipalities to respond back to the state and I think some of the counties are probably more in the highlands region so this may not necessary be all of mo County nonetheless that's our Advocate body if
we so choose we can still step away and do it ourselves but I think we'd probably say let's just go through mois County we don't need to go through an additional step so we do need to respond back to the count it by the end of the
month so I presume tonight we need to have our thoughts together present them back perhaps to the township committee because they're probably more appropriately placed to respond to the county that'd be a fair State yeah that would be my first question is what body
should respond well as I understand it's the municipality meaning you know typically that just means the governing body right the ultimate authority of the municipality so that being said I mean they've obviously tasked the fing taking care of this so right we got to do the final or the draft response discussion
tonight the final draft would be on the 25th from out of here 26 is when the governing body would have to adopt it and then they would submit it to Morris County does that make sense yeah right so that's and let me just double check with you the 26 is a Township committee meeting I I recall it was the
conversation we had last meeting right just double check right there I'm sure you're probably right 26 yeah okay so we're good so we got a little bit time to give it to them y yeah so I was hoping this is why I really would to said could Liz be here tonight because she could have coordinated the response on our behalf that was I I should have
thought that's still very doable it's just a matter of yeah giving her some direction I don't know if she really needed to be here we can put give her Direction so with that said support are we comfortable then that Liz creat something to go back to Township committee on our behalf yeah I think
that makes total sense as our as our planner um there I think she's going to look for uh I know you've aced a bunch of notes and other things so I think that would be serve as a great BAS
and if Sister streamline the process we will not have another planning board meeting I think before the township committee Mee we do but just before corre I think he means wait I think before 31st yeah yeah
before well before the next yeah should we because we got the draft final response what do we need to give to the township committee before so they have time to think about it um I mean typically what
do you give the township committee to review something few days I think it depends on should we could I suggest that maybe we have there's draft a response based on conversation tonight and maybe give that draft as well to the township committee
absolutely so they have some familiarity before we finally do whatever we need to do the following AB B me okay I was just concerned about the time frame okay let's do that then if that's okay so with that said then uh so the next the
so the the direction to Liz is to commence drafting do you have so what should she have from your group your team we shall discuss that tonight okay
right so um and we presented a Tom put together spsh put together a PowerPoint to try and bring together the thoughts that we had as a group and have briefly discussed
within on on the planning board so hopefully everybody saw those and that's what we'll discuss tonight and the PowerPoint was really to help focus on probably two or three rather than the whole questionnaire and stuff we don't need to go through some of those points but it's more about you know how how to
agree about conforman but really more about the future and there's some additional thoughts I think we people share as well as we go but as long as hopefully there's enough there to start you guys thinking the board thinking for what we've
presented and I will step L let's have a conversation to start off with now because I'm sure people would like to say a few words so thank you for putting this together obviously it took a lot of time it was very detailed so I
appreciate the work um couple little things um in the overview response number three infrastructure I think one of the things that we didn't talk isn't in there is power outages which kind of ties into climate change
as well can I ask which tab is that on in uh New Jersey state plan overview page two of I guess the power point Power Point okay Power this page gotcha um I think that's the third Factor here
that we kind of you know we talked about New Jersey Transit the need to modernize the transit system to really make those Transit oriented uh villages that they talk about inside the the state plan we talk about how we're kind of constrained by New
Jersey American water but it's also electricity um so putting something in due to the Hurricanes when those happen we you know obviously we had massive power outages in the past around here so trying to become more dense in this
area um through 2050 making sure that there's at least something along those lines noted so just to so just to uh elaborate you're pointing number three on the on this slide right yes all right so these
are the goals that uh were sent back to us that we matched back to um um uh the state plan right right so infrastructure was the third goal so to promote uh benefit economic blah blah blah blah so this this was our response when we did
an assessment to see how well aligned we were to the infrastructure component of the goal so your feedback is absolutely spoton uh we did call out um the fact that was the the wastewater treatment plant and the sale to uh American Water
you're right that we need to we we do mention the three TR trains uh stations but we don't mention the power outage which is got has gotten has improved yes right with the elevated uh telephone poles or power poles that we've seen um I think there's less rodent interference
with the rabid squirrel or an errant bird that has taken out some of the substations however that still lingers as problem and will the infrastructure will always be and also the um uh the power RightWay where they took away all those Lattis uh style uh Power and put
in the more Hardy but yes so what you're reading There Is Us assessing how we aligned to the goals of the state's master plan and and what's good is we just rewrote our master plan uh at the end of uh 2023 so we are very close
because Liz brought us there yep right so 100% And this is more of I liked this slide because it frames the discussion points right so if the tighter it felt like the better we put this out there so
that the public sees more line so it that was where I was going with it because I think that this one slide encap encapsulates kind of how we should be framing the answers that go to Town Council okay I think if you would have
looked at our old master plan we would have had a lot more nose absolutely absolutely um and along those lines inside the state master plan on page 38 they talk about Redevelopment as a new normal and how
much denser the state's become since the last time this came out so one of the things that I think we need to just talk about is uh question four where how well do the designated uh Spa suit the current and future development making
sure that any Redevelopment is in line with the infrastructure so you can't have all this growth happen if the issues that we bring up in the infrastructure section aren't addressed so it's great that you want to take down
make smaller multif family into larger multif family but if we're changing the township to meet that density or Redevelopment as they talk about but we don't have electric electricity and everything in place for
2050 right because it's not today it's the way that I read it was where do we want to be in 25 years right so um I think that's kind of even more of a priority than New Jersey Transit in a way because it affects us it affects
everybody not just the people who use the public transit okay that's good great uh I have a question on uh line nine the equity category could you just elaborate a little bit more on first what that's
all about I just I get confused in regards to what we're trying to achieve and then the response okay so here's in the uh summary they have a description of equity yeah it's only a paragraph so it
says sustainable and Equitable growth requires promoting wealth building in all community commities and focusing on Prosperity in every part of the state for decades disinvestment has produced inequities in overburdened communities
this included citing a disproportionate number of environmental and public health stresses in these communities including polluting Industries contaminated sites blighted properties Urban highways substandard housing stock and public health pathologies the state
has begun to address these impacts by reinvesting positively in these communities by closely Consulting with affected communities and by implementing affordable and abundant housing restorative land use and transportation
strategies that mitigate and address those negative impacts so this is uh en environmental justice issues and in in my opinion they're they're bigger issues in other areas of the state so they're
focusing the on the larger urban areas where industry is left or industry remains and how is that affecting those communities um so and I know there's an acknowledgement of being in this
planning area really mitigates that as far as an issue for us is what for us if and I think if I don't think you know look around the town I don't think
one area of the town is is harder hit negatively than other areas of the town this town has always been a collective of of folks and an environment that I don't think anybody can say that we have
any of those sort of consequences of social issues right or real what we're talking about are real disparities right I mean that there's alignment Cor which equates to a really equity and yeah there's no wrong side of the track the track goes right between
right through the heart of us right you're not on oh you're on the other side of the track no that's not how long and that's the beauty of long I was referring to you being on the well I'm on the other side of the Hill it is kind of the higher up but I think we can stand fairly
comfortable and comfort thank you Bob that's very helpful though for saying and and we also address with our for round of fair share housing obligations and and to your point about the Redevelopment that's right you know there's a 12 x 12 uh foot room it's
still a 12 XX 12 foot room regardless of what furniture you put in there and how you rearrange it so it's time to get a new sofa or it's we need to do something about a a blighted area or that business doesn't exist anymore we need to do something with that right and we're
addressing that what our big challenge here in lill is that 40% of it is is water yeah or Wetlands for a state park so that's the challenge that we
have our our main living Corridor is right here on Valley Road that's that's where're but yeah the one thing that and thanks is just I'm going to challenge a little bit because I do think the master plan does address some of these Equity issues in regards to really trying to
focus on clustering development not abusing and taking on areas that might be more sensitive in regards to potential future development so could that be I I the statement is just I I it
struck me that the 2023 master plan does not meet or doesn't address these various impacts on equity and so doesn't that qualify this for then a no are are you know what are we saying I don't it applies like I said I think I'm taking
Equity more in a social consequence of planning than anything else but it but it says the 2023 master plan does address the various impacts on Equity not does it doesn't say does not oh I'm sorry so I I
mean you could even take the however out if you wanted to yeah that's what threw me because we were kind of saying however almost like the counter argument right but it's not it it's not it's not a no it that's the word that made okay so maybe we just take out the negative right CU you're you're expecting a
negative statement after that but in instance it's not yeah we might positive I I get it I'm sorry that's okay that's all the good work you did on the master plan in 2023 right that's right d do you have any other comments we've heard from Tony Don yeah that that's really the
only big one I had I had a comment about number four um same thing goals on the goals yes gos y than under the revitalization and reentering and David it looks like you were asking for a
little input when you have on the second line suggested revising it to read um I think you're your um revising it to read is is a good point I would say do what you felt you needed to do
and do the revision the only thing I would add and again I'm the the detail person this one is in line number three uh halfway through where it says of these categories I would elaborate on
the on the actual categories um and consider adding um this is one of our challenges is uh to include empty commercial properties because we're seeing a lot of empty
commercial properties um also taking into consideration another challenge being our d Ed super f f super fund sites and a third one being um probable structure SL ground contamination is
another um challenge that we have in revitalizing and recentering and I can send these to you um if you'd like so it's just we're just elaborating on the categories including not not everything
but the empties storefronts the delisted and the the ground contaminations and Miss oan would you also include properties where the structures are um subgrade or something uh compromised
potentially compromised where whether it's a residential or a commercial you see some of these structures are leaning right I don't want to call it a blighted property but questionable structures that look to be unsafe and and needs to get in there and take a
look at it but I would include those as well because there are those within the municipality and it's not just here on Valley Road you see them in other places even driving down into the swamp there's there's one property right there on the that that looks like it's been abandoned for a while now at least nobody's living
there yeah so I like these thoughts I would think we would want to preface it with something like of The Limited number of properties available for redevelopment yeah because it's not a WID scale problem it's not a wides scale problem but we we only have a
limited amount of area for development so we would want to say something in the limited areas of development or something like that these issues exist as they do in most communities of yep I'm happy with that okay Pam do you want to send these notes sure I
will you'll send to to David said replay just said I'm gonna yeah can I make one more comment yeah please so there's a big section about the age and population inside the state master plan talking about the growth of age 65 and up and
how it's going to become an even bigger portion of the population by 2050 MH I think in the response we should talk about how uh we do have senior housing coming in that's been approved and also how we're trying to make the town more walkable in those Center
Villages I think that's in here I think I've read that David where you talked about the Rails to Trails kind of thing yeah um being a little more walkable and and uh connecting the different but you're right I did make a comment too about connecting the various areas of
the town with the non-motorized to steal your term yeah I mean there's a big section here about that right so it's how the the demographic is changed over the last 25 years and how it's even supposed to almost
in a big paradigm shift in a way right because you're going from 13.2% in 20 in 2000 to 16.5 in 2020 and it's going to go all the way up to 23.4 right so there's obviously they put that in here because they really want to hear
about how you're making it easier for seniors who are going to make over nearly a quarter of the population y um and I think in the response we need to just note that we realize that that's a big challenge for the state as a whole and we're trying to work towards that to
to acknowledge it yeah and I and I think our demographics are right in line with the state I don't think we're unique right uh with our demographics if anything we probably shade a little bit on the older side correct right so I I think that's just one of the points
where you know we're not the the section about the 20 to 39 I think that this is where you go from those Urban cores that are over represented as it says to the Suburban areas but this is something that really affects us so I don't have a great way to it I was trying to figure
it out but I I think that there's just got to be something that pieces it together from your responses that just says that there's almost like an acknowledgement that it is something that our master plan um has thought about we did look when we were going through the master plan and we can I
think it's a good point Tony and I think one of the things we can highlight is the accessibility the walkability but accessibility because that's important too for all modes of whether you're biking whether you're in a wheelchair whether you're at a on a foot you know
is accessibility is one of the KE compl agree perfect yep Pam did you finish uh the just on number five uh the second Poss the second line under the comment where it's
possible to help halt the progress of climate change um I don't think we can halt it I thought we changed that to minimize the effects of or something just minimize the effects I'd like to be able to hold it
but well be able to do that ability to change it that's fine and that was it perfect good you sure okay Bob did you want any additional comments from yourself um my my my only other comment is is our
objective in the response is are we consistent with the plan and um in in reading the instructions it's not for us to rationalize how we're consistent with everything in the plan it's
more does this plan meet the township objectives where it where it should and what is the town master plan meeting State objectives where it should right so so it's it's it's more an issue of trying
to show we consistent as opposed to how you know how much we check in all of it um so we we need to be a I think in terms of how they've placed Us in terms of
planning area I I still believe is the most important thing for the township because they they've recognized that there's a limited available for area for growth in within the town that there's a lot of environmentally sensitive areas there's there's uh
Wetlands issues and all of those things are what we would want the the state to recognize right this is not a place that you can make a huge change to to meet all of the needs of the state and and they've recognized that by placing Us in
pa5 which is the same group they placed Us in 2001 and and so our comments should be reflective of we're consistent with that and we agree with the placement okay good no that's and I was
trying to to reinforce that I mean but if you look at how the Land Development has changed inside here how they they bring up that it was vacant land that was developed and since 2008 there's been a sharp decline in vacant land it's been more Redevelopment highlighting that fact
that you know we want to stay in this category where we feel that we belong here rather than moving us up by you know taking out the Great Swamp in the areas that we talked about so we don't have these overdevelopment issues based on the resources and infrastructure that
we have is what I think it's important in the responses to highlight because to your point I think the consistency both ways us to them and them to us having them pick it up the next time they they do this whenever it is and being able to
take that questionnaire and really highlighting how the hard work that was done to make the master plan you know be Forward Thinking rather than fixing errors in right so I think that's why that's what my the purpose of my
comments was to really highlight what you were talking about B okay um I I think when we were at the meeting this was one of the prim objectives of David's comments during the meeting too was if if there's going to be
development in our Township it's going to take some help from other people to allow that development to take place because the properties that are have been identified by the township are impacted by issues that the township
cannot control right like flooding and looking at the new the new FEMA map it only highlights that further for us and so that was the the premise of most of David's comments during the pre- meeting and then during the meeting was
to try to point out to them this this is our struggle how does the state or the county help us address these issues so we can move forward like we want to but I guess in summary then so are we all
comfortable as a board with the statement that our master plan is not in consistent with the state plan yes that's essentially the conclusion yes that's right okay then I think that's what we need to right assist with Liz
Liz will have the right language and help us write this up so let me now go into the next part of the conversation right which is what we do next so let me just recap back so I think the thing was inconsistent absolutely we had largely ticked a lot of boxes and I feel fairly
comfortable I think collectively we can feel comfortable with that the map was a question was there any changes that we want to make to the map that a question that was asked and I think we can collectively say no let let it be because it's true I mean if there's
inconsistent if there's something obvious I don't think anybody would say there's anything obious in there from M to say we have to go back and change it so we are staying within the area and that's our guidance for development so that's all good so then come as you
saying turn a little bit I'm sorry D just when you're referring to the map you're talking about plan in area five correct yeah principally that map challenging designation that's the map they had on the right on the board at the meeting so that is the one just to
Simply focus on cuz that's and you see we're surrounded by Suburban areas around Warren Berkeley Heights and what have you but so we're a little bit sheltered in some way it's accurate but I don't think anybody would disagree the accuracy of the plan map no okay so
that's that's good the next thing is how do we challenge ourselves reading through this in doing a better job with our master plan or the next steps and I think there's a couple of areas that we could do a little bit we do talk about walkability and um connecting I think
the Aging population is an important one just to highlight cuz even for myself at some point you think oh where do I retire do I retire oh but I like to stay in town but where would I retire in town not sure maybe I would like to downsize so that does start to become more relevant so I think the Aging population
one we should take a little bit more of a we don't have to do that today or tomorrow but some of the things we should start thinking about for our next or the re-exam or over the course of in the near term perhaps some of the things that we could uh challenge ourselves with I still challenge ourselves with
Redevelopment and reuse and repurpose as I said last time we look at um Valley Mo that would be New Jersey say well that's a fantastic opportunity to do something and to do something may not
be it's to use it as a center to helps helps Focus ourselves to say well maybe really should go down that path of thinking about how it can be used as a as a center in itself me it's hous it's mixed use it's not necessarily keep it
as a as a planning as a shopping center how can we better ourselves so that's something that plan I think helps point us to and we can stand up and say well this is why we're going to go potentially down that path because the state plan says so or recommends it so I think there's a few things like that we
can continue to challenge ourselves with over the course of time but one of the big things though is what can the state do to help us we can't do this alone and we're so dependent on what we have discussed
flooding yes the power the consequences of the power lines and um our lack of the sensitive area and we have an asset the train that we can't address ourselves and we have
areas who try to develop thermoplastics that we've got nowhere further forward Central Park nowhere further forward for no reason I I'm sure there's back story reasons for some of these things we know about Redevelopment thermoplastics because we propose housing
but we can't do that so we if we have to take housing off the table what else can we do and how can we get helped to do it and for me that's what I'd like to start to emphasize back to the state to say right these are the things that we'd like to we need help
in so I've got a list of stuff that we need help in right but there money but some of the things and I'm about going through them all but some of the things are also identified in the the plan to say we want to help you do these things
new Redevelopment zones they call special relative special re development zones or whatever it may be um they talk about underperforming malls perfect we have an underperforming Mo my opinion everybody else have opinion right State
opinion um multigenerational households Transit which location for housing how can we build upon that trail by rails we talked about connection we can't do it alone we tried it a little bit New Jersey Transit so I think for for me at least it's more about putting
those forward but then more formally because you can do this thing called a a um where is it my example you can do a plan end we talked a bit about this I know Tommy asked Jessica the question about plan endorsement
recommendation report or process so I think that takes yeah so that takes this the plan into something specific to you as a town so some towns have done it and I think they're just are saying well this is where we maybe know just a recap
this is where we've supported the plan and these are areas we need your help to continue with the plan right so I think we can possibly think about doing that and this is not mandatory either but you have there's a by biannual I think it
was review of it but it's it's a for formal thing that goes to the state and once you present it and the state approved this preliminary plan then that's sort of holding them accountable as well to support us because they've agreed to the plan so so David just in
the element of time I think what would be great because it sounds like you're very on top of it with you and your team is coming out of the state cross acceptance process maybe you could come up with a list of things and compare those to areas we can emphasize that's
already either in our master plan and we can better highlight and prioritize or if it's something that hasn't been really addressed we can identify it so yeah we can come back with potential future reexamination exactly a few we can give a few examples back to mois
County for the mediate say look um but then ourselves do we want to go as far or something like this plan and my last Quick comment was as bill um Bob mentioned there was a with the G one of the two speakers at the meeting one was
the state guy and one was the Moes County person and they said mo County person came up after us and said about the flooding we need it's not something we can do on our own we talked about the mosquitoes there only reason it got clear because of the mosquito Grant and the Boy Scouts going up and down the
river but that's you would think that should be a fundamental thing to get done to let the flow water you talk about the snags right the clearing of the river and then you also think about what maybe happened at um the farm across the road at Warren if they build up there what's
the negative consequences on us don't go ahead the different County different town make sure that we are aware of what they're planning I have no idea what they're planning for for the farm back there so wag wag Farm thank you thank
you so so don't do things that impact us and to that point the gentleman said he had they proposed something a few years back but it sort of withered a little bit can we write a letter to him and he'll happily try and reinv vision bring
back together those grouping of towns and counties to start thinking again about the flooding and the of theic river so I'd like to all so again that would be I would really appreciate it and again appreciate all the work that
you guys have done on this coming out of the process if we could identify some of those areas and we can put it on the agenda for discussion and then discern priorities obes recomendations coming out of
this of work to continue to our yeah so immediate response one to the county separately for the just mentioned and back to the Town St let's think about this future plan and and I hear you try to take advantage of what state resources are available to us to be able
to implement some of these things they talk about multiple States and even a Heritage New Heritage plan for tourism yeah fantastic how can we adopt um utilize that well again thank you all for your efforts uh excellent okay anything more from your
Mr no if everybody's comfortable we'll move on from that so I Mr chair would like to personally thank Mr H and Mr Al for the contributions and work that they've done to get us to this point I'd also like to recognize uh miss cwell m
and uh our count administrator uh Randy bar for the work for their support in helping us get to where we are right now and on time and on time you can you can congratulate them once we Del at theend we're right now hitting our
mileston great thank you thank you good all right so we'll turn it on to the second sub item an update from the ordinance Review Committee back on me yeah thank you so the or as we AFF like to refer to ourselves the ordinance
Review Committee um has been meeting uh quite regularly and yeah help Willi over here on my meeting invite so that we can discuss this uh we have two ordinances our Legacy from last year that will be going
to the TC at the end of the month so good to have that uh going forward I know uh committee lavender would like somebody from the planning board to be present I will always try to available at those meetings if I can't be there for whatever reason I'll planning
board when we have an ordinance going before the coun committee and that's really just a support right we we want to get these ordinances over the line as quickly as possible and get away from the table tenis of kicking it back and forth between PV and TC there's always a
two lag and you know you forget what was discussed and it's a month before it's packed on the PC agenda um and just on that point with the hearings before the Township Board are you going to or someone from orc or
someone from the plan board going to provide kind of the background is there a talking points how how is or is it just going to be available for questions we're available we're making ourselves available for questions okay um so that
brings me to my next point the great way to te me up thank you for that um one of the challenges we have when we're doing um coordinance reviews is the homework that we do to try and assess um what needs to be addressed how do we address
it where do we get our information from and how do we get to a final product right so that and and I I respect everyone's work uh in that but you don't always remember everything when you're sitting there on a weekend trying to with whatever free time you have uh
trying to put this together so what so what I did was I put a template together and this temp temp really and I'm just kind of walking through it at a very high level it's a worksheet right so when did we submit it what's the ordinance number we're trying to address who submitted it I'm going to throw a
number on it so this way we have a catalog it's going to pull up um from the book of work uh from the master plan um any ordinance information right so it's got the element the section the title and the section page the issue statement what is coming out of the
master plan ordinance um the master recomendation or um what is the ordinance that's causing the issue that needs to be addressed then we will take a look at what is the actual verbiage of the Long Hill Township ordinance straight out of the codebook so we're
not sitting here looking at our iphon or blacktops and trying to recall exactly what was that ordinance it's there we have it then we'll list out any other impacted ordinance because sometimes an ordinance is going to reference another ordinance or two other ordinances or a host of other ordinances right there is
a domino effect so we want to try and look at at that whole end to-end process to make sure when we make a change here it's affecting something uh down the line or it's not then the next thing what supporting information what research did you do could you look at another Town's or what how did they do
uh did you find the best of pulling that all together and then coming back with a little bit of feedback on what to do and then what are the recommended steps to take it forward so I know that um some of you have already started to look at the houses of worship for it's called churches which is just listed in our
general terms uh section of our code book um and the issue is um the religious houses are Loosely addressed in our ordinances and needs better definition to ensure guidance is provided right so that's your problem statement all right now we have an idea
of what we're trying to address then I pull up the actual ordinance I call out the Lu number it's in general terms it's called Church well not every place of worship house of worship is a church it could be a temple it could be a MTH it could be whatever uh Fai that they're
following right so um church is already I don't want to call an issue it's a misclassification right and here we're calling it a building or group of buildings including customary accessory buildings design designed or intended
for public worship or for the purpose of this ordinance the word church shall include chapels congregations Cathedrals temples and similar designations so there's kind of a catchall but I think there's a better way of doing this and I've noticed and you'll see this uh as a
later on I started looking at other uh ordinances because I'm not an expert I want to see how other towns addressed it maybe we can come to a vest of breed or we can come to you know what I like this piece I like this piece or you know everyone's got the same problem so a so
with that um I I pull out other impact ordinances so you got height modifications in l136 uh where it calls out Church expires not every church has Aire um also in L uh Lu
15554 permit permitted signs so there we're address addressing signage uh and churches mentioned there also L 151 off street parking or how many parking spaces per um uh seats uh Congress member or congress
um anyone who goes to these places of worship you know how many seats for how many parking spaces etc etc so to get these Tom did you just do a key a search for church throughout our ordinance throughout our Cod and this is
all that came up with all that came up that is correct and I didn't just hone in on church I tried worship I tried Serv it in case somebody wrote something and they didn't do the knockout effect right right so then what I did was now I'm now I'm on a p part where I go
okay I'm doing my research where am I getting my information from so I looked at chadam chadam very similar to how we've written ours then I looked at Harding Harding has a pretty comprehensive uh um uh set of ordinances
that addresses uh uh places of worship or houses of worship and they reference two other ordinances within theirs uh so they they call it house of worship so it's now a generalized statement so it's inclusive to everybody they talk about how um what are the St what are what are
the conditional uses and then they say it's accepted in all zones right so um to give structure to whoever is building a place of worship you know if it's in an R1 zone or if it's in the BD zone or
if it's in you know Gillette or if it's in marsville circle or it's in Sterling or it's in Millington or even if it's in Homestead you know how are you going to build this right you're going to have to follow their setbacks and that's what Harding did you can have it anywhere but you have to follow the bul standards
right so that's kind of what's laid out here now I'm I'm not asking anyone to start thinking about what how we're going to do how we're going to address it but the homework is there the research is done for you you can go and do additional research if you'd like but at some point when you get down to the
very bottom you start coming back feed back and so my initial assessment with this particular orance is parting is a uses a very good approach in addressing the this particular topic and I think we should follow some of the things that they've done I not say not fortim but
there are some things that we can take from there to construct um and then the recommendations U I have is kind of Follow That example change churches house of worship so I'm kind of giving you some of the steps that you need to
to take forward of this we can have a discussion to address and if anyone wants to take on in that you are passionate about and we're not addressing just like Miss still said last week that I saw on the uh on the
video don't wait for me take the worksheet grab the ordinance and then we can move it forward there are several ordinances um which I know that you're going to be passionate about that you're working on with the zoning Maps is the zoning the renaming of all the various zones that
we have which the blueprint is in the master plan so so that we have to change our ordinances and list of ordinances that Miss D has already started to put together and she's going to follow the worksheet so you know whoever is going
to uh draft the ordinance you and I think that's going to be our attorney thank you I'm hoping I'm making your life easier by doing this absolutely I think this is great um it'll start to help us pick up speed and you don't need to have me here at every meeting still can talk about it Mr Hans
can talk about it uh Miss oin can talk about it anyone here can talk about anything and then it's a support to TC at the meetings so when they call up hey you know what's this all about houses of worship Tom oh I see Tom back there or I
see uh chairman chairman Richardson back there they can come up you take your worksheet with you and now you've got speaking voice great perfect I think it's really cool idea yeah excellent uh so what's the next specific action item
then you said homework for us so are we to come back by next meeting was have recommendation to come back next meeting to uh have a read through this and um let's start drafting up the language to
address uh so the the homework is by next meeting is that we would discuss comments to your recommendations and and what you've proposed here yes great and this worksheet if there's
something that's missing that you want to have added let's talk about it it's it's to help us help the municipality do the needful that excellent Tom I might be putting the cart before the horse
but there's a lot of discussion about schools and parking for schools and um I wondered because you did make reference to a possible um School standards there is no school standard
thean looking it's mentioned 25 times but there's no such ordinance so would you think of that as a possible recommendation as we come up with school standards and every 25 times in our ordinance is where it comes up see if we
can make it cohesive yeah look we have St Vincent right that has a school Associated to the church right or to yeah to the church so it'd be nice to point to a standard so that they have guidance and if there's another place of
worship that decides that they want to construct and have a church or have a school Associated to it we can point them to the ordinance right now we don't have an ordinance that addresses schools and how now it may be somewhere else maybe B of Ed has something I don't
think so yeah but um it would be nice to provide some structuring guidance and that's what we're trying to do and also helps us as a board to know what these ordinances are so if we were to have school standards it would apply to
Public School uh private associated with a house of worship kind of school just all schools if you see Harding that's what Harding did I have the Harding one I had I everything's I I put the school piece in there uh which is probably the
same exensive it it it provides some some some howto when you have that kind of situation developed and there's going to be other faiths that are going to come to 25 years from now Y and just to to
add on going back to what our previous conversation if there's Redevelopment more students coming in our schools are already nearing capacity there could be buildings that are repurposed for schools and having this getting ahead of
this I think is a great idea because making sure that the Redevelopment of those buildings or areas to accommodate and think forward about where we want schools and where the design and impact of the
schools to everything else is is important and I think that's one of the things that we haven't had to think about because we've had enough schools for our town currently but but if there is some of the the Redevelopment that's the 2050 plan getting ahead of this I
think is a great idea when you have the um round four of fair share coming in that means it's more high density coming in doesn't always translate to more children but that does translate for the opportunity for more children to be in
in in town and with that you know the schools could get overwhelmed where we need to think about where going to put this additional school right right now we have what three schools in town we have the one down here we have one in Sterling and then we have the other right so we have those three schools and
they could get I mean there there's already been talk about it with Gillette for for years about how crowded gillette's become they're repurposing a room for another 3K program already take which was an issue about taking away some of the uh I don't think it was a
library but it was at the music room or something along those lines right so um and then talking about Valley Mall if that becomes a larger mixed use development I I think that to your point a lot of these ancillary things that we haven't worried about before where we've had a very Broad in general being more
specific um and putting everything together so disc reminds me that we really should and we we lost Mr Sandow was very diligent in regards to monitoring Board of Education activities so if somebody is so inclined on this
board that uh has some time that they can help us monitor Board of Education uh discussions and activities that would be fantastic you don't need to answer me now but certainly come and approach me because that is very critical that we stay in tune to what's happening there
on the school side great are are we good Mr Jones uh thank you uh for your leadership in this area and your work to get us organized excellent thank you uh Deb I'm going to ask you do we have
anything coming up of note for our either next meeting on the 25th I know we have uh potentially some hearings on applications that I just want to highlight the next meeting on the 25th we hope to have the draft of the fair share plan for the board to
start reviewing not for public hearing but for the board okay to review it to hopefully get to the point where we could uh schedule the public hearings for may we have a timeline there that that trying to meet I think end of jun
right end of June yeah so we've budgeted quite a bit of time as we've worked together to make sure that we have enough time for hearings and so forth so that so basically right now we're in crunch time that um I've asked the uh
I've asked Jessica Caldwell I'm sorry together with Don Don and I met and we had discussed this uh Jessica Caldwell and uh Liz need to provide their reports so that um we can the board can have the next basically three meetings between
March 25th April 8th and April 22nd to review these documents for hearings in May perfect that would be the intent uh you do have a subdivision application coming up which I don't know whether we're going to put that on the 8th or the 22 it'll depend at this point on
review but there's just one minor subdivision coming way as well so but we be this is an excellent time to get some ordinances drafted I mean I take take this window because it is going to get busy I promise you and in the midst of that by the end of April I'm hoping to
have the um the latest end of April um the annual report from zoning board yeah which will have additional information to help us with our zoning or our uh ordinance priorities so great thank you so the next meeting the 25th will Liz be
here then well she can be yes if you wish it may be helpful for both that and the state plan okay so if we could have there that' be great thank you good any uh new business old business anything else the only
thing I have Mr chair is that uh I know that the township committee is going to have uh the township engineer uh Jo uh present it's not going to be this meeting the agenda probably next meeting that would be the 26 the 26 talk about
the uh what the draft FEMA flood plan looks like and what does that mean for long very good that's going to be an important briefing so yes I encourage you all to attend will be attending and can attend in I think also to be pres so
yes though the boards are going to be invited we've decided uh legally that we do not have to call it a joint meeting y the board members the board members are going to be invited that's MERS right exactly if there are if the full boards are in attendance for that meeting right
it doesn't matter whether there are five or more so we're not correct just don't all sit together and discuss spread out we we know that from the bylaws thank you very much
better good when was that M that's on 26 26 it looks like I think has that been confirmed no it not that's not Township committee was it well you know what well I'll I'll Monitor and keep you posted on that between time or myself we'll make sure if it's just what time a day would
it be 73030 when the TC starts oh it's at the TC meeting TC because the township committee wants to do in a public for and not have three times Jo me okay okay gotcha they live stream their meetings
right no you can watch it in your pajamas do open public is there a motion to ajour want open the public yes um with the state's development Redevelopment plan and it is the responsibility of the
planning board of course to um respond to the state at what point if at all do we um share this with zoning and the board of adjustment or is it just not not important that that be done I think
we could and we should no reason why not to there's no reason absolutely good idea I mean the more communication the better yeah but we own the master plan yeah like strictly General comment sorry
Sor the Z board is almost strictly a like a Judicial body right like they're mostly cases you guys do combination cases plus this more legislative stuff so just put that in pers yes that's public comment uh yes did you
have a comment you like to make sure please I appreciate you yeah thrilled my name is richardon it's nice to hear hold on one second we're give you a microphone yeah we're just going to give you microphone so everybody can hear
online especially when you say positive give the microphone we appreciate your patience mic say something take it away that's the new tactic I not wait do you want to take that one do you want to sit there do you
want to sit wait hold on sit at the table is that one live is that live sit come sit with us comtable okay my questions for the board are can you just repeat again uh your
name and where you're from uh my name is Richard Schuman one samod Road Millington and my questions relate to a resolution of the planning board as it relates to prism LLC and the uh development of 50 division
Amy as part of this ordinance it was approved with a couple of little contingencies ordinance or resolution uh well it's ordinance and and a resolution we'll go we'll go to the resolution part that it was stipulated and agreed on Rec
on on record I'm sorry sir yeah yeah I don't want to be a wet blanket but you want to discuss an application the board already heard um you know we can't really discuss that outside of the context of a duly noticed public hearing um also the board's already acted on the application kind well I'm not
questioning the application there as part of it the board is supposed to put together a group to with the applicant so you're ask so you're asking a question on the process and where the process where you are in this process of
of uh coming up with a committee that would meet with their designers right relative to the exterior designs of the buildings I that seems like and and my question is have has anything taken place to move
that in that process y you want to take that yeah since you're the the short answer is yes we held a thank you for that um so the short answer is yes uh committee men
lavender and myself did meet with uh uh Mr foradis of prism to start the conversation we have not talked design elements of the buildings uh but that will be part of our conversation um and we'll try to uh
we're going to learn how we're going to go forward uh so we've had one meeting with him recently about a week ago and we have had a couple of meetings prior to that as we watched um what was going on with the uh water treatment plant so
a lot of it that is the the critical cop right now that's and uh everybody's watching with the baited breath on how they are uh proceeding to the October 2025 deliverable date right um there is one moving piece where um Mr fornat said
that the town will receive a letter to uh it's basically to cover them that they're meeting their obligations for fair share that is contingent on the American Water meeting the uh uh capacity to take on more rable right so
that that has started okay well that that's my question I didn't want it to fall through the cracks and not knowing the only way can find out if they ask the question perfect thank you so much and when when's the deadline for this was it 25 but the expansion yeah October
2025 they either have to meet the uh um expansion of the plant or they need to work with the I think it's EAP and fair share to say why they can't meet the obligation the deliverable date and the
confirmation on that date is going to happen this month month according to New Jersey American if you if you recall from their briefing right yes uh they were going to confirm their obligations and their ability to meet those obligations by the end of the month so
stay tuned and I believe I believe mayor dorsy um has uh spoken to American water and said they want month monthly updates so uh we're going to start seeing more updates and I'm sure Mr Fortis will be here as well because he's very keen in
getting that proper going I'm sure he is yeah good great thank you so much thank you for that positive uh reinforcement thank you that does that does that increase our pay no oh doesn't decrease it there's the positive is there any other New or Old
business I want to say that we look very smart today so thank you very much very nice the yes a motion to adjourn so moved second all favor I