all right everyone welcome to the April 23rd 2025 uh Township of Lacon Planning Board meeting would everybody please join me in a moment of silence uh followed by the pledge of allegiance
pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting has been provided indicating the time and place
of the meeting in accordance with chapter 231 of the public's laws of 1975 by advertising excuse me a notice in the star ledger in the express times uh by posting a copy in the bulletin board in the municipal
building all right first order of business swear in uh class 4 member James Manguchi mr minguchi if you'd please stand and raise your right hand I'm just going to have you affirm at the end do you solemnly swear affirm that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of
the State of New Jersey that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people and that you will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the duties of the office of a planning board member class
4 the tangible back according to the best of your ability some help you got congratulations welcome back welcome back thank you just sign that uh if you could we'll remit it to Beth
all right did everybody uh receive a copy of the minutes let me call the role please yes please members Coyle here hoy George
Lawler here manguchi here leo here weeks here vice Chairwoman Dio here chairman Samson here all right so did everybody get the email with the minutes yes does anybody have any question
questions comments corrections of the minutes somebody like to make a motion to approve those minutes motion second okay I'm going to roll call that members
Coyle uh same yes luchi yes weeks yes chairwoman Deio yes yes okay next up we have our uh housing
element and fair share plan mr block do you have an update for us yes uh we did reach a settlement with the New Jersey's Builders Association um we have settled at 81 units
um for the fourth round prospective need and I don't I don't know that we have a settle a signed settlement agreement with them yet and an order from the judge i think that is still forthcoming but we've essentially said it settled on 81 units um so we've begun working on
the housing plan um and we will we are working on the vacant land adjustment so we will be working to reduce that get a vacant land adjustment to reduce the realistic development potential um based on the amount of vacant land left in town and um that will be what will we
require to meet in terms of credits the remaining will be the unmet need that we'll uh we won't have to do units for all right so we ended up at 81 where did we start with that 84 we were at 87 was
the DCA number we came in at uh 72 and so we met in the middle around 81 okay anybody have any questions about that in terms of the schedule we will we have
to adopt that housing plan by the end of June so one of the June meetings we will need to set aside time to have a public hearing on the housing element fair share plan which has to be adopted by the planning board and then it would need to be um endorsed by resolution of
the governing body before June 30th so the May meeting it'll be on the agenda for the May meeting for for June we have a June meeting for June this June meeting is usually the one next so it would have to
be July because their their meeting is in the beginning of the month right yeah council has a meeting the first Wednesday of the month or we'd have to have a special council meeting at the end okay yes so if you could give me a time June Yeah june uh May 28th yeah
that's right may 28th and then June 4th would be the council meeting okay yeah so you you want to have that you want to have a public hearing on the housing element fair share plan on May May 28th so we're going to have to do notice and everything for that yeah give me a
notice yep yep so the notice would need to be done by May 18th for that public hearing okay the ordinance 202506 an ordinance adopting revision codification of the
ordinances of the township of Paccom County Warren state of New Jersey um does anybody have any questions about that or you want to do these in bulk well yeah
and I'll just give the board a little bit of a background so the first ordinance uh number 06 that's basically uh the township just going through and cleaning up certain things uh not really doing anything of substance to the
ordinances um it's just basically provisions to grammar things of that nature chapter 243 of the zoning ordinance is implicated but doesn't look like there's any substantive changes in there that affect the zoning ordinance so it does appear to be consistent with
the master plan now when you're talking about ordinance uh 07 that's simply amending and it's before you on the das that's simply expanding or amending how an alley is defined under street um and master plans are silent as
to that um so it's certainly not inconsistent in my view um so the board's challenge tonight is to determine whether the ordinances are consistent with the master plan or inconsistent with the master plan and if
they are inconsistent we can make recommendations or revisions suggested to the governing body okay so a yes vote here is going to be consistent and then obviously no is um we're going to do these in bulk
correct yeah there is I before the board on the dis tonight is a single resolution that actually addresses both ordinances and finds them consistent i've got what have you changed exactly
for alley what an alley i didn't change anything the governing body I can I can speak to it Brian if you'd like so the intention here was to actually my job of course yeah uh essentially what it is is to sort of
alleviate some of the difficulties in you know some of the neighborhoods where we do have alleys delaware Park as an example mors right so where those alleys exist you know the the current conditions of development along those alleys and a lot of their garages sheds
fences all sort of encroach on what would be traditionally a front yard if that street if the alley would be considered a street and and the alley would be considered a front yard so what was looked at we looked at sort of and this has sort of come out of a few zoning permits that had come forward and
you know trying to al alleviate the need for people to come before the board to get a zoning board to get a variance um we're modifying or amending that definition so that those property lines fronting on an alley be considered a front or a sideyard functionally to the
house so if it's behind the house garage it's on an alley right all right is that considered I can consider at the front no longer no longer that'll be considered a rear yard okay but if it's if it's built way on the alley how
you if it's within the right of way that's a different consideration certainly but the idea would be that if you want to come and reconstruct a shed reconstruct a fence you can get a zoning permit to construct it and that setback would be considered a rear yard which is a 5ft setback so this way it gives you
that flexibility and you're not coming before the board for a 25 foot setback it's a good set right yeah instead of treating it like a quarter loting an alley and the lots are not considering that a front door and the lots are already you know quarter acre
lots they already don't have a lot of lot area this way right i mean I got to make sure that you weren't imposing on people because you know to change that because there's a lot of people that even the roads especially in Delaware Park the roads are are making it up 50
ft wide and the roads are only 30 and their their front porches actually are right yeah right yeah this is making it easier to give them that right you have a house at least right yeah so this is this is alleviating some of the burn that's what I want to make it's not
adding to No okay all right cool anybody else all right does somebody want to make a motion uh to approve the two ordinances in bulk make a motion to approve both ordinances 20250 and 202507
in bulk i'll second members coyle yes baller yes and yes yes weeks yes vice Chairman yes yes
all right next on the list Architect's Golf Club zoning block 95 lot 12.0529.formational discussion um Mr to Turko you have the floor nice
to see you it's uh three decades later feels like deja vu all over again uh it's been quite a journey um architects we put Le Pakan on the map um our family um we're so proud of the asset and it's uh I guess it's just time to retire um
we're going to go to you know my my my family doesn't really want the golf course anymore so I thought it would be a good idea if I would come talk to the board like I did three decades ago to see if uh this journey as it continues that we can have the Pac part of it and
maybe some open space and be able to you know be successful with you know the next journey where we're heading with the family legacy um we were fortunate enough to partner with Hanian New Jersey based company um
prominent um we have a a very strong relationship and we just wanted to share some thoughts with you just to tell you what uh you know what what what thinking about doing appreciate you guys um quickly putting us on the agenda um I
really do but it's been great we uh it's we're still going to be around for a while but um it's it's going to take it's going to be a process but I think we'd like to see if we can get the process started so thank you very much you're welcome thanks sir
good evening board members my name is Ryan Benson i am area council at Khubinian Homes um also with me tonight um I have uh Joe Lipinowski who is a land acquisition acquisition manager at
KHUB and he's also a trained architect and I also have Michael Gallagher who is an entitlements manager and is a professional engineer by training um we are here tonight to show you some ideas that we have for a residential
development at what is now Architect's Golf Course um and we want to get your feedback um I want to emphasize that the ideas that we're going to show you tonight are are just ideas and what we're most interested tonight is is your
feedback on them um for what it's worth uh I actually grew up in Warren County i grew up 20 minutes down the road in Washington i went to Warren Hills High School i played football and wrestled against Peabberg High um and I actually still live in Warren County um I live in
Alamuchcci currently so I'm familiar with the area uh I love the area um so I'm excited to to be here to be able to present to you tonight um about this beautiful property um and before I get started I want to
say on behalf of Khubnian thank you for for taking the time to uh to hear us tonight i'd like to get started by introducing you to to Khubnian if or to the extent that you're not familiar with the company um or Khub as it's often called
for short um Kahub is a home builder uh specifically we build forale single family homes forale town homes and forale condominiums we don't do commercial development and u we don't
build rentals um our focus is on for sale residences uh KHUB has been building homes for over 65 years which means that we have a lot of experience um a lot
of our experience means that we can see pro excuse me see projects through um we know what we're doing um Khubning is a large company it's traded on the New York Stock Exchange um so we have the
means um to see our projects through also uh but I would also like to to say that although we are a large company and we build in various states across the country from New Jersey to Florida to
California uh Khub as uh Mr turo said um started right here in New Jersey we're still headquartered in New Jersey um the headquarters is currently in Madawan which is down in Mammoth County um so we're well familiar with the process in
New Jersey we do a lot of work all over New Jersey including in uh northwestern New Jersey some of the projects that we've done in northwestern New Jersey um in case you would like to take a look at them are um one is in Washington Township in Morris County that's called
Hidden Hills there's another one in Flanders in Morris County called Milbrooks Estates there's one in Wharton Township in Morris County called Morris Woods um and one in Readington Township in Hunter County that is called um I'm probably going to butcher the
pronunciation but it's Lake Kushet Tunk Woods is that right okay um so that said let's turn to our general concept for Architect's Golf Course joe would you mind putting up the the first board
so what we have here is a bubble plan and I'm just going to step over here if that's all right um this is just very general to give the board an idea of what we envision again just ideas we're open to your
feedback um right in the middle here we envision having uh market rate single family homes we envision over here having um active adult single family homes and then over here um closer to
Route 57 uh we think we would have town homes that would also include affordable housing units and as Mr block was already talking about tonight um believe your affordable housing obligation for the fourth round is is 81 units um so
this project right here could knock out that obligation for you in one stroke um and then we would also uh leave a great deal of open space down here and up here um as I understand this is a stream
corridor so it could uh potentially be used for um some very nice walking paths and down here you also have the uh the pre-existing architects um clubhouse and facilities around it i believe there is a driving range down here currently um
so that also could be used for open space and recreation um going to switch to the next board so in case you're wondering thank you in case you're wondering what the layout might look like for that very
general bubble plan this is one possibility again very preliminary very conceptual um but again this is the um uh the single family homes the market rates over here the active adult single
family homes over here the the town homes and affordable units and the um open space down here and here um and of course in case uh you need some orientation you probably don't but this
is Striker Road down here and 57 would be over here somewhere so um I would like to now turn it over to uh Mr gallagher who will continue the presentation thank you Ryan again my name is Michael Gallagher i'm the entitlements manager for the northeast
division of what I basically do is uh take a piece of property that our acquisition team has identified and I shepherd it through the design and approval process uh including all uh entitlements all applications and permits but I do get involved at this
very early stage to have uh an engineer's input before coming to Cave Namian a year ago i spent 20 years on the private consulting side kid and he was actually a longtime client of mine and so uh had a good match there so uh
doing these kinds of developments is kind of my my bread and butter um and this type of community we feel is a an excellent transition as you go move away from Route 57 to the south you have your more high density residential community
into more of a medium density before you get back into the similar medium density and lower density communities further to the north um again as Ryan mentioned these would all be for sale units we do not do
rentals so it's an excellent tax relief simple box they would be on uh under a uh homeowners association we have a mixture of two and threestory uh town homes in the southern portion of the property uh that's what the different colors are we actually
have handouts it might be helpful for to see it uh a little closer up and then as you move to the north you get uh as Ryan mentioned you get into uh
single family market rate uh lots non-age restricted this plan and this is again this is just purely conceptual to give the board a sense of scale um but about four units per acre quarter acre lots essentially and then as you continue
north you would get into an a uh an age restricted active adult community uh with its own clubhouse and uh recreational amenities as those type of communities do so it's almost three uh separate communities in one project and we see it as kind of a lifestyle pattern
you have your retiree who uh is ready to settle downsize and move into an active adult community and maybe their children buy a lot in the single family and start the family there and then we see your firsttime home buyer uh purchasing a
town home um as we mentioned we're looking to maintain a tremendous amount of this beautiful piece of property uh there's a lot more development potential on this property but we what we see here is basically is an ideal fit keeping the
stream corridor largely intact it's a category 1 water the lack concrete so it has a 300 ft buffer that we would not be able to touch other than to potentially reforest some of the areas that were cleared as part of the golf course but we would look to reuse all those cart
paths as walking and biking trails uh make it an attractive uh recreational amenity and then up along Striker Road we would look to maintain the existing clubhouse it's a little larger than um the clubhouse we would typically have on one of our communities um it is a
beautiful facility it's hosted a lot of local events and banquetss and weddings and things of that nature so we would look to keep that possibly if the township was open to it dedicated as a community center or something to that effect again just ideas and then up
where the driving range currently is look to put more recreation uh pickle ball courts uh dog run uh things of that nature those are just early ideas that we had thrown around internally but uh we see this as a a wonderful vehicle to
potentially satisfy the township's fourth round affordable housing obligation as Ryan said in one single project we'd love to get this uh conceptually incorporated into the fair fair share housing plan uh but we're here tonight again we thank you so much for your time and and and having hearing
us and uh hearing what you have to say and for more uh on a technical basis we would keep uh there's two existing ponds which handle storm water on the site we would keep them but we would be subject to the current storm water management regulations so these green
areas are all uh what what I'm sure the board's familiar with at this point would be smallcale green infrastructure we'd have a private roadway network um we would have to do a a good amount of work to bring sewer service to the site
the uh clubhouse is on public sewer but it is the only the piece of property that is in the sewer service area so we would uh need a water quality plan amendment so there's a lot of steps in this process uh should this project move forward but obviously the first step is
we want to uh see if this is something that the township would uh would be interested in seeing as a redevelopment of this uh this beautiful piece of property so if I'm doing my math the market rates in in the homes it's 184
homes on that 46 acres um it's about actually it's about 160 160 yeah 60 to 107 i have a qu two questions actually um not that it's official or any of that
direction have you taken it into consideration the people that buffered their property up to your golf course and if they purchased and lived there because of the privacy have have you thought about backing that away from
their property at all um absolutely so what you actually see on this plan the red line is the property boundary between those lots and you'll see uh a a swath of land in That's what I was kind of trying to figure out how much that was it's at least 100 ft that's what I
Hey so before we get you know too far into this um you know my my this isn't really a hearing this is not an official hearing here uh but I have been advised that you know if we want to ask some questions it
won't be uh it'll be without prejudice right that's correct all right so if we you know have some short questions for the just the so your townhouse portion how many home how many
residences do you have in that area so that is about um about 350 homes in this area um again a mixture of uh twotory town homes uh which are at the perimeter the they're
the uh the orange and yellow buildings threetory which are the the pinkish buildings and then the the the darker orange those are are stacked town homes and those are the affordable units and yeah we actually have uh perspective
elevations of each of them just to show that they uh so these are the single family uh market rate homes all twocar driveways um you know very similar uh you know nice variations
on the the facade treatments there'll be a variety of model options and then these are our active adults which again similar color palettes we want it while they're I mentioned they're kind of three separate communities we want them to all flow together and and be uh have a sense of
cohesiveness um this is a rendering of what a active adult uh clubhouse would would look like uh similar to ones we've built throughout the state and I'm definitely not an architect joseph is you can go into more more detail on on what we propose uh and
these are the uh the twostory town homes again two-car garage twocar driveway um and the similarly threetory uh town homes very similar uh uh color palettes finishes uh you have uh architectural
stone um water table and then finally these are the affordable stacked units which same materials same colors um we look to really blend them into uh the communities to make it uh as integrated
as possible is that a private community where you maintain everything we wouldn't go in our roads we wouldn't do sewer we won't we I mean usually we look for some services given that they're all key simple and those taxpayers yeah we've
had communities where um you know we work out an arrangement with the township i know if we do have to plow the roads I think there's some reimbursement program yeah Brian there's the municipal services act so either way whether the town actually undertakes it itself which it's allowed to do or if
the developer and the actual community do it it's based upon basically per mile cost and we're reimbursement by municipality we would hope to have municipal trash pickup things of that nature yeah that's understood
any other board members have any questions i was just going to ask are there any anticipated price ranges for any of the units or anything or um I think we're still evaluating that um maybe Joseph's uh works for our land
acquisition team um but uh that's not usually something something that I personally get involved with i if anything I just hear things I honestly don't answer the question so the single family dwellings you said
the 160 to 170 is that including that combined market rate and active adult total no the active adult would on on this plan we have a little over a 100red active adults in this area
so all all told this plan is about a little under 600 units total i do have a question i know that Kate Hominian does not necessarily get into any type of rental business but with my
understanding of the new regulations I think um 25% if I'm right yes Dan 25% of our co-obligation has to be through rentals so I'm thinking that if you're really serious about trying to deliver
um whatever the final number turns out to be and after adjustment um is there any type of uh affiliation or partnership that
Kubernet has done with perhaps some other type of company that is in the rental business that certain buildings could be reserved and conveyed to that affiliate for rent uh the answer is yes
uh we partner with rental companies uh as part of overall projects and um if the town sees fit that they would like a rental component of this project we would uh certainly bring in a rental um folks that construct as well as
manage uh rental properties on site okay thank you yes yeah thank that's an excellent uh excellent question had honestly hadn't considered that the active adult would those be age restricted or just age targeted uh age
restricted age restricted 50 yeah no no school children description on school age children factor you know possible which the population that this
development would bring in you have any idea uh we haven't gotten to that statement because we we don't want to do like a community impact study until we have the basically the yield the density is uh a little more yeah we're still we're actually
still in our due diligence period but with you know it's a very important first step is is getting it from the horses now and hearing what the town has to say anybody else have any questions gentlemen thank you very much best of luck to you we're looking forward to the
application site plan um and we'll see you soon thank you very much thank you very much good night everybody all right that being said would someone like to make motion to adjurnn i'll make that motion
second motion favor so