yep good evening everyone welcome to the February 26 2025 planning board meeting of the township of low pacon um would everybody please join me in a moment of silence followed by the
oath of Allegiance flag Al to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands Nation indivisible 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 laws of 1975 by advertising a notice in the Star Ledger and The Express Times by posting a copy on the bulletin
board in the municipal building all right first order of business we have a new member today Terry Lawler we need to uh swear him in okay Mr Lawler if you raise your right hand do you solemnly uh swear or 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 the state into the authority of the people and that you will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the duties of the office of
a class two member of the planning Bo of the Tang L pong according to the best of the ability congratulations congratulations last okay the r members co co George here Waller
here here we here Vice chair Deo here sson here um so we got some sad news today George Ritter passed away
um February 7th is that five February 5 February 5th um you know so I feel like a few meetings ago we all agreed that it'd be nice if we did some kind of resolution ution for him um you know George started
here I learned today 2004 you know so he spent 20 years here with lat knew everything about the township you know and it was it was really a pleasure to work with George I can say you know um learned a lot from
him uh just a great guy um you know you can't say enough good things about him you you want to read this so it's on the record sure yeah Okay resolution of a planning board of the township of L pacon county
waren in the state of New Jersey recognizing and honoring George a Ritter whereas George a Ritter obtained his license in professional planning in 1979 and whereas Mr Ritter was appointed as the professional planner to both the
vacan township Zoning Board of adjustment and the planning board and served the township of leacon in such Capac aties for over 20 years and whereas during Mr Ritter's tenure he provided professional guidance on many individual applications before the
respective boards and significant developments within the township of LA pakan and whereas more importantly during his tenure Mr Ritter provided the township guidance and leadership in developing important land use policy including Master planning Highland
conformance affordable housing performance and Redevelopment planning and whereas Mr Ritter's service contributed greatly to both the welfare and the betterment of the residents of leacon Township and the township of leacon itself now therefore be it
resolved by the planning board of the township of op pacan County of Warren state of New Jersey that is here that it hereby recognizes and honors George a Ritter PP aicp for his distinguished service to
the township of the pacon and expresses his gratitude to him for his valued contributions to the planning board and to the welfare of the lakan Township community he it finally resolved that this resolution shall be reported and spread upon the the official minutes of
the planning board of the township of pacon for cerity and that a copy of sing shall be provided to Mr RIT with the thanks and well wishes of the board very nice all right does somebody W to somebody
want to make a motion to uh vote this in i' like to make that motion I'll second it all in favor I okay all right everybody get the minutes in the email last meeting anybody have any questions about the
minutes concerns no somebody like to make a motion to approve the minutes I'll make a motion second all favor okay new
business ordinance number 20253 an ordinance to amend the code of the low pack con chapter 243 zoning and land use Article 13 General regulations to permit as a principal permitted use
certain can cannabis establishments and designated Zone districts and create chapter 88 cannabis regulation review and comment so did everybody get that
resolution uh in the email does anybody have any questions about [Music] that yes so chairman uh what the board is looking at tonight is looking at this
specific ordinance not from a totality as the licensing and the taxation but to its effect on the uh zoning ordinance because it does actually have an amendment a clause that amends the zoning ordinance that allows this
particular uh use to become a permitted use uh within a Zone District um the board's job here is to make sure that it's consistent with the master plan um and not inconsistent with the master
plan uh I can tell you that the master plan doesn't speak anything specifically to Canabis uses um that's not part of the master plan this would be a retail use um for the board to determine whether or not it's inconsistent with
the master plan but uh I I think that our current master plan does provide for retail uses and doesn't distinguish necessarily between the types okay so then really go this is not just for retail if
you read this this is for growth growing in retail this growing in retail that means that they can put pieces I come from a forest it's one in one we have well today you have tomorrow you don't know okay um
really think about what you're doing here before you make that decision that's what I have to say to you okay um I know a place I did a lot of research I know a place that they got kicked out of because this the growing
smell so bad because and and I agree with that because I grew up in a florist all right big major Flores that's what my dad still ownes okay it gets ented you're putting this next to that this one isn't but the growth one will be
because we don't have that many fills here okay next to homes so if they make it correctly you won't smell anything I'm going to disagree with you one you don't smell a thing
inside or outside so it has to be I think the only thing that I see on here is U retailer that's well that's my question too is this specific spe to this potential tenant or no this
ordinance is allowing for two licenses one for retail I think and one for manufacturing or is it just is it just a retail in there that was my One retail license in the HB Zone that's it yeah class four is under this ordinance class
four it says cannabis distributor license for businesses involing say the state act right that's the state act right but that's when I read what we had it it it it it it's it's opening a door for all that to happen all right
because once you say it's good it's good youut you're not here to make a determination know consistent with the master yes than then I'll shut thank you no and just I just want the board should be clear there's multiple types of
licenses that can be granted uh they're identified on the first page you're going to see there's six types licenses that can be granted this is only concerning um to my understanding retailing license yeah that's here that's here actually um to speak to that
um Jim says section two the code of the township of laac on zoning and Lan use article J general regulations is amended as follows cannabis retailers subject to compliance with the chapter regulation set forth in chapter 88 and the following requirements so it's not it
does Define all of these cultivator manufacturer wholesale distributor retailer but it does specifically say the ordinance is mod is amended to permit cannabis retailers on minimum loss an acre um and in the HB
zone so you're right it does list all the uses yeah so so it's really a question at this point whether or not it's consistent with the master plan [Music] all right so the vote's going to be the
vote is going to be whether or not a yes vote is going to be that it's consistent you know uh with our master plan right so that's basically what we need consistency determination uh they've already changed
the Town Council has already changed the Zoning for that I believe so no no this is the introduction that's what this is going to do we're going to this is a necessary step before they do the final reading the passage okay so being being that this is
proposed in the HB Zone it's a retail use it's really another type of retail that's already retail is already committed in the HB zone so I'd say it is consistent it's just another type of retail where retail is already permitted so it's not a change in the classification of the Zone it's not like
you're adding an additional industrial use to a retail zone or or anything like that so it's in my opinion I think it's consistent or not inconsistent with the master plan in the only [Music] need okay somebody want to make a motion
that this is consistent with the master plan I'll make that motion one [Music] second yes yes yes Vice chairwoman Deo yes chairman
Samson yes okay next order of business uh affordable housing talk about that yep so the the next thing we have to do is prepare a housing element and fair
share plan we're we submitted our challenge to the state um they have until March 31st to get back to us with the whether they agree with our number or not they have to resolve the challenge by March 31st in the meantime
we need to go ahead and start working on the housing plan um so we don't get caught behind the eight ball so we're going to start doing that work we we can uh we're going to submit a grant request to the highlands Council they will provide funding for the town to do this
work um up to $30,000 to fund this um the uh housing plan so we're going to we're going to submit that Grant to the highlands Council and then we'll get started on working on the plan figuring out can we do a vacant land adjustment
and um where we can find credits from did I give you a one copy of this you did I should probably give him the fair share too I guess Hing element this does list of Fier
obligation I don't know if that's part of it or oh it's from 2018 though yeah that's the last time we did this is the last plan right right I don't know if there's another element is there another another report
well I think there's the there's separate share element numers in I think this is the full report is it I think so it has some fear share like calculations in it I think this is everything tables I just got give everybody an idea
what all right so this is this report that you have is for the third round we have a new obligation for the fourth round which we will do a similar report for [Music] so do we need to you want this to work
there's nothing to really work just so you know right now we're from a a procedural standpoint I think they have until tomorrow to challenge our numbers uh any interested party right Friday
Friday I'm sorry Friday 28th I misspoke um and thereafter there's going to be a period of time in which those if there is a challenge uh the court will
have a set piece of time I think it's actually I have my cheat sheet here March 31st um we'll get a ruling as to that and then it's June 30th it's the it's between March 31st and June 30th you
have until to adopt the housing element in Fair share plane so during that time the analysis has to be done and I think the planner is going to be working with other Municipal officials you may want to put together a subcommittee um to actually assist the
planner maybe somebody from the governing body as well to identify sites that should be included uh within the fair share plan and housing element um where you think that you can get credits I leave that
certainly uh to come up with uh the most effective plan that you can then be adopted on the the the March 31st date or the June 31st date 30th date 30 speak didn't even read
easy for you to say I know um but so you may at this point in time it may be a little bit premature but you know what you can't really I think as it was indicated try to get ahead of it um get the master plan subcommittee together
appointed and you just don't want to have a quarter so who would be interested in assisting with that because it would be the subcommittee with planner making the recommendation to the board at a hearing
to adopt the plan which would require notice and everything else okay so do we have anybody that wants to volunteer for volunteer people want to got room for one more I don't know anything to volunteer how
would it help well you learn what you learn to say all along three is actually probably three is four is good perfect three is three is good I just don't feel like I have enough knowledge of that at all
so you would be interested and govern body member out I said yes you so we don't there's really no action until uh there's no action I believe they said it was 80
right we came back with 70 yeah 71 71 so then they'll come back and we start start working on them I guess yeah yeah but that way at least the subcommittee can communicate right
between meetings we can we can coordinate and make sure we're moving the right direction and when will they get together like at the council meetings with the subcommittee yeah that's up to the subcommittee when they want to get we can probably just
coordinate by email and if we need to meet we can just set up a meeting at you know at hoc okay now sir and Jim has a key to the building so you can me it any time if with the council meeting if they're looking for somebody I'll do
I'll represent Council as well perfect anybody else have any questions about [Music] that no I'll make sure you get emails
great all right somebody want to make a motion to adjourn you