All right. Uh, I'm going to call this meeting of the Township of Ocean Planning Board to order. Can we have a roll call, please? >> Councilwoman Kaplan >> here. >> Mr. Gil, >> present. >> Mr. Bowitz, >> here. >> Mr. Gosling, >> here. >> Mr. Manell >> here. >> Miss >> here.
>> Mr. Vovich. >> Mr. >> Here. >> Vice Chairman >> here. here. Salute to the flag. I >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. The notice requirements of the open public meeting law for this meeting have been satisfied. A copy of the notice having been sent to the
Asbury Park Press and the coaster and filed in the office of the township clerk. There is an emergency exit through the courtroom doors and two exits at the rear of the room. There is no smoking and that includes vaping or ecigarettes. Board policy, no new cases will be started after 10 p.m. and no new
testimony taken after 10:30 p.m. In addition, the applicant will be limited to 45 minutes of testimony. All meetings will be video and audio taped and shown on the Township of Oceans Community Cable Channel, channel 22 on Verizon FiOS and channel 1300 on Cable Vision.
All cell phones must be turned off or if you need to make a call, please make your call outside the meeting room. Uh we do have one minor change to the agenda this evening. Uh after our resolutions, we have a time extension request that we're going to be adding
in. Um so first off, correspondence. Uh you should have all received in your packets an application for a letter of interpretation. Line verification has been submitted to the NJD, Division of Land Resource Protection for 1610, Route
35, Block 34, lot 11 in the Township of Ocean. Um, I think it was pretty self-explanatory. That's Orchard Plaza questions, comments, concerns. Okay. Uh, resolution memorialization. Schlommo
Jamal as trustee of the Lisa Jamal 2018 irrevocable trust 1012 Norwood Avenue block 11 lot 10 in the R4 zone. Uh, do I have a motion to move that resolution? >> A motion. >> Have a second.
>> Second. >> All right. Roll call, please. >> Kaplan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Vice Chairman. >> Yes. >> And >> yes. All right. Next resolution
memorialization. Rebecca and Eric Brown, Ryan and Gabriella Sherman in estate of Albert F. Koig, 1298 Wikipico Drive, block 140, lot 1.01 in the R six zone. Do I have a motion to move this resolution? >> Motion. >> Do I have a second? >> Second.
>> All right. Roll call, please. >> Council, >> yes. >> Mr. Burke, >> yes. >> Mr. Goslin, >> yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Chairman. >> Yes. >> Chairman. >> Yes. All right. Uh, and now for the time
extension. BC Realel LLC 3501 Bel Avenue, block 183, lot 7 is requesting an extension of the resolution that was memorialized on September 23rd, 2024. Mr. Lex, can you give us any background on this? So, they're still in the
process of trying to solidify all their approvals, including um the bylaw review, which has been presented to me. I need to go over those, but there are other things that they're doing as well. So, they're asking for a one-year extension of the resolution. >> Do you have any concerns with that?
>> I don't have any concerns. >> Okay. All right. Do I have a motion to move and accept this request for an extension? >> I make a motion. Second. >> All right. Roll call, please. body.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> And >> yes. All right. We have no new cases
this evening, but we do have a presentation. Topology LLC will present a redevelopment investigation report for the property designated as block 25, lot 2.01 L1 on the township's tax map and commonly known as 399 Mammoth Road as to whether all or a portion of the area
here and after described meets the criteria for an area in need of redevelopment pursuing to NJSA4A12A-5 and should be designated as such. And I turn it over to our friends from topology. >> Hi, I'm glad to be back. Um my name is Golden McMillan. I believe you guys met
Phil Abramson from topology. Um, this is our second preliminary investigation that we're presenting to Ocean Township. Um, this one's unique because we're actually sitting in the building that we're going to be discussing. So, um, I want to say that we're probably pretty familiar with, uh, the municipal
complex, but having said that, um, the local housing redevelopment law has a very, you know, detailed um, and fine uh, criteria of how to designate. And I'm going to walk you through the process of this building with the local
housing redevelopment law which uh the governing body earlier this year passed a resolution to have this building study to see if it meets the area in need and um the conclusion is we're going to say yes. Um and that's the purpose of tonight and then we'll conclude with any questions and what happens from here
afterwards. >> So I'm just going to kind of go through it. If you have any questions I tend to talk I sometimes talk fast. If you need me slow down just let me know. Okay. Hi, Colleen. So, agenda, um, pretty much just already
laid that out, but we're going to go over the overview, the criteria, what our findings were, and those next steps. So, just a very highlevel snapshot. I have an upcoming slide that's going to get a little more detailed, but um, this is 399 Mammoth Road. I've already said it
for the record, but I'll say it for the record. Block 25, lot 2.01. It was formerly known as block 25 lot two. Uh had to go back and forth when that happened. And about 10 years ago, almost 10 years ago, there was actually a portion of land to the congregation to
the north where there was um land acquired. And so um as recent as 10 years ago, um that subdivision or I guess you can say a merger between the two lots had occurred. But this is a snapshot of the area. It's um in a
residential neighborhood um south of this um congregation and then it's at the intersection of Deal Road and Mammoth Road. So, as I said, we were retained um to study this in pursuant to NJSA 40A 12A.
That's the area need of redevelopment statute, specifically non- condemnation area need of redevelopment. the governing body passed that resolution to do that study back in April and uh the report has been submitted to the town since August 14th, the day before my
birthday. Uh wanted to make sure I got this out before that day. Um and so it's been on file since. So, um what we're going to do is we're going to hear it and then the municipal council can either accept, reject, or modify anything of the designation because it's
tonight's proceeding. So what an area in need of redevelopment study does is it it's a starting point and so from here the remainder of the process is up to the municipality and what could happen from here is a redevelopment plan could be conducted
and and adopted for this area. Right now we're just at the study. It would enable that should this planning board find it in an area need. And what that redevelopment plan could do is adopt um new zoning controls, a little different than your traditional zoning, have
different types of tax incentives. It it's a little more flexible than your traditional zoning. That's down the road should the township pursue that. Um but tonight is just the study though to see if it's eligible, if it meets that criteria. So, I think I already said um some of
this background, but um I've probably done more site visits than these two dates just because um as a consultant planner, we've been coming here a lot this summer. But officially, I my office, we've come out um May and June of this year to get some aerial
photographs, interior photographs, pull records, really study this for in context of this study in particular. um all tax records, whatever permits, whatever we could find in terms of what was available to us, we requested and reviewed to help support this, as well
as looking at historic maps and um just historic reviews where possible. So, uh I think I said most of this, but this is a 3. It was built in the 1950s. Um and it serves as your municipal complex. It's
in the R2 lowdensity single family zone. We always like to just kind of know a baseline of where we are to to to bring our study forward. Um, and what we do is we look at historic aerials because I know it was kind of difficult to get the original site plan. I don't even think we were able to get the original site
plan. Um, I know when you do site plan reviews, it's a little different when you're a government uh zoning and you might not have some of the um same type of process as a traditional site plan would. But what we wanted to do is kind of get an idea of the age of this building because one of our criteria
we're going to talk about is a little bit about the age and infrastructure. And as far as um we can see from the aerials as well as a a report I'm going to introduce when I get into the criteria. This building was built started in some point in the 50s we
believe between 1953 and 1957 just based on the aerial when the development occurred. And what we can see through these series when we go through decades worth of uh historic aerials, there's additions and uh building additions, parking additions, expansions that
occurred to this building over time. Um as soon as the 60s and then bringing us into the 90s and then even the post subdivision I was just referring to earlier, there was even more parking added to the top. So um different sections of buildings built over time.
So, the conditions today, it's a multi-level building, approximately 30,000 square feet. I call it multilevel. I say lower level, first level, second level, third level. There's not actually, I would say, a traditional threestory building. It's kind of a split level building.
Everyone's nodding their heads. I think we're all familiar. You would even I guess this is the lower level technically, the courtroom, meeting room that we're sitting in in the police department. Um there is a first level kind of towards um Mammoth there uh where you kind of get the entrance and
the finance department leads you to the second level where the um a lot of the building and planning and zoning and administrative offices are up to the third level. Um and according to this site plan that we were able to pull from 2015 which was prepared by Greg Blash
who I believe is the township engineer. um you know 139 parking spaces. So the statutory criteria and what our findings were. So I've already talked a lot about the purpose but um
you know it can't just be hey there's a little substandard issue here or hey maybe this you know little issue here. You really have to collectively look at all of the evidence and find substantial evidence on the record. Um, and this could be through interior inspections,
which we did, exterior inspections, permits, every record that we pulled. Um, just to really analyze what we're looking at here. And what we found is the main criteria that this building will meet is criteria A speaks about
generality of buildings that are substandard, unsafe, unsanitary, dilapitated, obsolescent or possess any characteristics of or lacking in light air space to be conducive to unh wholesome living or working conditions. And then we also would like to apply
criteria H here which um you know Ocean Township being where it is on major network some major highways. I'll I'll get into more discussion when I get into criteria H but um ultimately doing a designation here does lead to smart planning.
So criteria A has several points in there. It does not need to meet every point. It doesn't need to be n unsafe and unsanitary. It needs to just meet some of these points and to be conducive to unh wholesome
living or working to conditions. So I underlined the specific observations we had and that is that the generality of the buildings we find are substandard and obsolescent and that they possess these characteristics and that we
believe it leads conducive to unh wholesome I say living because I'm going to talk about the police and how they get ready and shower here even though nobody actually lives in this building but there's a little bit of that habitability to the building but definitely certain certain for working conditions. in our findings.
So, I'm going to show a series of photos and um kind of describe what you're looking at before I do that. Any questions or Okay, I think you guys have done this a lot already. So, specifically to the substandard characteristics.
So, not in any particular order other than I just kind of put them in an order. Um so, what you're looking at is the roofing and some water damage. In our report, we app we put an appendix in it which is your township engineers um
report that he conducted not to do with our study. There's overlap. Our study is more specific to does it meet criteria for area need redevelopment. His study is more about the like the existing facility assessment is what he calls it.
But it's a reliable source by a professional that's licensed who did an observation. We did our own site inspections and you know reviewed his report and and we are relying on some of the evidence in this report which you're going to see.
Um so I just wanted to say that too. Um so substandard roofing water damage. So, based on the report and kind of what we're seeing with some imagery, which I have no reason not to believe what um the engineer says, the roofs are over 20 years old and that there's been multiple active leaks and that's been confirmed
through both there's a gable roof and a flat roof portion. It's happening on all those roofs per this report and that there's been multiple attempts that have been failed which is just leading to more and more interior damage which my next slide I'm going to show you some
water damage pictures that we took. um and that it's becoming very costly to replace these things. The engineer did estimate a cost about $800,000 for both a gable and a flat roof cuz over time there's just been um deferred maintenance going on with patching up
the roofs, you know, fixing the um issues, but not long-term fixing them. Just kind of um >> Oh, sorry. Just beeping. Got me distracted for a second. >> Do we do we need to pause? Are you guys good over there?
Hold, please. >> Test. Test. >> Were you able to catch anything I said? >> Oh, there it is. >> Test. Test. I hate to redo everything.
>> Okay. The equipment not working. >> I was nervous. I was going to have the tech problem when I >> Can this be added? >> Can this be added to the list? >> Yeah. Add this. Right. >> Real time addendums. >> Yeah.
Her elevator worked on the way. [Applause] Do we need to hold up while you're doing this? >> Okay. >> I don't know if tech console is substandard. I go down just fish like little
Okay. Okay. >> All right. Let's continue. >> Sorry about Okay. So, um >> Yeah. In summary, the roof, you know, it's over 20 years old. Um it's definitely just reached its end of its life. Um I'm showing you now the next
slide, which are some photos of uh what I what we believe are the results of some of this roof leak issue and just stained ceilings. This is both in the town hall and in the police station. Um we also found water infiltration in the
town hall basement. Um which to us is a visible sign of moisture that's present. We were able to observe dirt and sediment buildup which um you know means there's some water entry happening. Um warping is also consistent to water
exposure. We see these on the stair stairs leading down here. Um, so the issues are becoming widespread because of the the water and the moisture. It's doesn't seem like it's just your roof alone and that it's really actually impacting the inside of your building.
Um, and this isn't just like inconvenient. This can really disrupt some daily functions of what is a municipal complex that does, you know, public service functions. The next um series of photos came from the uh existing facility assessment. Um
and I have had correspondence back and forth with the police uh director of the police department who has basically confirmed his observations too which is there has been sewage backup in the police departments especially in the classrooms in the hallway area. This um
creates an unsanitary what we find to be very uh substandard condition um and definitely poor work environment. Not not nice to be in this kind of condition. Um per the uh facility assessment report, we also read that um the hot water systems are been a problem
in the town hall. Um it has to do with the way some of the plumbing recirculation loops are engineered. Um I defer mostly to this report. I won't pretend like I'm an engineer, but what I can conclude from the report is that there is a hot water system and a delay
in hot waters that are happening per the uh town engineer in his observation. And um this would definitely affect hygiene and just how you use water here in town hall daily. Um we also read that it's um an issue in the locker rooms for the
police station which it definitely impacts basic hygiene and employee safety. So that's why I said um living conditions, not just working conditions, but a little bit of an element of a living condition when you have to, you know, get ready here like that. And so the plumbing issues, what we're finding is it's really beyond the
leaks actually. it's it's within the infrastructure. Um so it's more than just a health issue. Um it's an operational issue. What we uh concluded out of the facility assessments report is that this is also incurring a lot of ongoing maintenance
expenses and um that the sewer backups just kind of keep continuing and that there isn't quite a cause yet, but there has been cost to fixing these issues. Um so this is a risk this is substandard in our
opinion. So the HVAC system um it's found to be per this facility assessment report quite outdated and a bit unreliable uh and it's inconsistent. Apparently, it gets very cold in certain months and
then too hot and you have to put windows open in the summertime. And so, there's really like an inconsistent um stabilization of temperatures. Um and some of this could be because of the building layout. Um you know, there's multiple sections to this building. And
what this assessment report also concluded is that it will be significant to repair this type of equipment too. and that over time nearly, you know, over $150,000 has spent in um over three years just because of these aging units.
And it also kind of makes it quite difficult for um finding like replacement parts when we find aging HVAC systems. Um and that these are just it's it would seem what I would conclude from this report is that they're pretty much nearing the end of their life.
So other substandard um findings that we um observed are the kind of the spaces themselves for working here and that there isn't really a lot of space for some of your staff. Um there is no
ability to add any new departments here. Um as you can see the building's been added on over the years. Um in fact it seems that two of the departments are actually offsite. It would be the rec recreation and the human services department aren't even located on your building. I wouldn't say that that's
unusual. I've worked in towns where there's buildings where you have off-site departments, but it does show that there is no more expansion, no more space in this to had any more services. um in talking to the police chief um in
actually a presentation he gave the town council back in March 18th, 2025 um which is public record. He I believe we refer to it in our report. Uh they did a presentation at the council meeting and they talked about how the police station really is full of capacity and that there's really no more
room for any storage. The lockers are all maxed out and that um there's just no more space to add anything. [Music] are curious. You know, the building is um almost 70 years old. Something kind of from a planning perspective we
observed is this building, you know, back in like the 70s, we looked up what the population was and it was about 18,600 in Ocean Township. And uh the most recent American Community Survey, you're at, you know, nearly 28,000. So
you're at 10,000 more people, but what's kind of the same space. So as you have a growing population, growing records, growing need for government services, same amount of space starts to kind of get a little overcrowded here. Um,
and it's worth noting that this is impacting the um essential services. You know, it's a government operation. We're not just overcrowding. I'm not saying no business uh that a business is not more important than another, but this is specifically a function that serves the public, welfare and safety. It's a
police station, it's government, you know. So, that's that's just something worth um keeping in mind. So, what you have before you is just kind of a breakdown of all the square footages of the lower level, the first level, the second level, and the third level. I won't read everything. It's in the
report, but what you see highlighted are the spaces that are less than 200 square ft per employee. Just a little baseline of when um some of the spaces are a little more tight. I know that some of the spaces share um employees. Um it's
not I wouldn't say unusual not to have an office for everybody, but there's a lot of shared spaces here. And what this next series of photos are showing is that a lot of the storage capacity is very maxed out. Um, based on what we read in the assessment report, the attic is over capacity. There's no more space
there. Um, older files are being moved off site. Um, and that there's just uh not a lot of solution to other than maybe like digitalizing and getting more in this century. But right now, you know, there's crowded hallways, there's things
blocking some of the storage space. So, we find that to be um kind of a substandard way of doing business. So, going to obsolescence. Um, there's a bit of a just disjointedness of a layout to this building. I remember the first
time I came here, I went in, I think, all three entrances before I found the right one that I needed to be in. Um, as I said, the building is nearly 70 years old. There's been additions over time. There wasn't really like a a unified site plan. We couldn't find an original
site plan. It seems like there's been additions over time. Um, and even some of the spaces have been repurposed to different uses. So there were spaces that were originally the library and now it's office space. And so what this is kind of resulting in and what we're observing is a little bit of a
functional obsolescence and inefficiency. Um, there's three separate public entrances, but none of them seem to have an internal connection between them. And so what's happening is we see that maybe visitors are entering and re-entering.
And so this is all just very obsolescent. in design. Um, it creates confusion. It's definitely just inefficient and it could even be a pedestrian safety concern at times when there's um strange movement um from entrance to entrance. So, this is just
like an aerial we took of kind of the three main entrances. Um, in addition, we um reviewed uh with the police chief and reviewed back in March what he had presented to the council and that the police department as well has a very disconnected layout
and that the um the garage the book and route it it requires the prisoners to actually go through public hallways which is a little less than ideal just because of um how it's connected and that could be a concern for um safety as well. So
again, it's not just inconvenience. It also is a bit of a security secure uh risk when these things happen. Um based on the assessment report, there really is no practical remedy. Um because this is a lot of this is structural.
So then um kind of going a little out of the building and looking more at the layout, uh this is the northern parking lot where um one would have to cross the drive aisles and the parking lots really to get into the buildings. Those red arrows are the entrances.
Um, and what we see is we don't really see the most safe direct route to the building. And this could increase, you know, accidents and definitely confusion. And it's definitely confusing for a layout for what would I would say undermine public safety, especially
again, it's a police police department here. So, continuing with obsolescence, um just observing the elevator and the ADA compliance here. Uh there's two elevators in this town hall and they're all outdated. Um we've been told that
there's been frequent breakdowns and even an emergency rescue before. Um it appears that they probably date back to the original building, which you know, going back to when this first was constructed in the 50s and substantially additions into the 70s. um has a
different kind of design than what you would see in a traditional elevator today. Um but there has been a lot of money acrewed just to kind of keep this eras uh the elevators operational. And so this is really kind of impactful when it comes to disabled visitors um to keep
that in mind and you know puts the town possibly at risk about ADA compliance. So um we find that to be a very obsolescent um issue as well. And then lastly, I think this is the last photo. Uh, so there's this drive aisle that we
observed and we talked a little bit to uh the police, somebody in the police department, I know when we did our site visit and they were kind of talking about the garage. I won't quote them because I don't know exactly what they said, but it made us look at this a little closer. And what we found is that there was a little bit of unusual layout
and what we're going to call obsolescent layout to this drive aisle. And what you see here is 90 degree parking happening with um parallel parking happening with angle parking happening with a garage all in the same aisle where the aisle at points was about we can measure kind of
14 ft from this parking space to the building area where the garage is and per the town ordinance the 24T minimum is required for all perpendicular spaces. So, um I don't want to go as far as say like unsafe here because I'm not
an engineer, but I would say it's it's kind of an obsolescent layout just over time to have such different parking spaces with the garage, different angles, narrow, incompliant with one of your drive widths zoning code. So, we went as far as putting it into our
report as an obsolescence um especially because it's an emergency personnel driveway in particular. All right, Golda, I'm going to stop you real quick. Looking at the time, are there any members of the public here tonight for for this presentation who may have questions that they want to
ask? >> Do do I have a lot of questions from my board right now or or can we have five minutes, Colleen, to finish this up? >> All right, >> so that was the substantial part probably I had to say the most on the record. Um, that was conclusion to uh
criteria A. Criteria H talks about how you can designate if it's consistent with smart growth and planning principles which we've done this before in Ocean and mostly because Ocean is a town with mixed land uses and uh you know transportation and so we wanted to
apply criteria H as well and that there's access to roads. It's approximately one and a half miles away from a New Jersey train station that serves the North Jersey coastline. So kind of just studying this in the first place as an area need a redevelopment and whatever happens thereafter is in
line with what is smart growth principles. Um that's basically the same thing just talking about the smart growth um on the state level but that's really it. So, um, our conclusion is that, you know, based on what we're seeing here, there's substance, uh, substandard and
obsolescent characteristics here, um, especially those that serve a building that is essential to public functions. Um, and so we believe because of criteria A and criteria H, and I'm sorry, this says B, D, and H, so that is
a type five in front of you. I'm sorry. Criteria A and H. um that this f meets the uh area in need of redevelopment. So that's tonight. Um your board attorney will I think direct you on what to do from here, but thereafter then the
governing body will have um their own process as well. >> All right, members of the board, do you have any questions for our presenter? Do you have any questions about what we're doing next? All right, Mark. So, I'll just give the
usual speech that this is not a question of whether you like redevelopment, you think redevelopment is a good idea, it's a bad idea. That's not your choice. That is the choice of the town council. All this board does is determine whether or not the case has been made that the property in question meets the criteria.
And if you find that it does, then you're obligated to make that finding that it that it does meet the criteria H and criteria A as have been set forth in the report. But this is not a it's not your role to decide whether you think
it's a good idea or not. >> All right. Do you want to have any discussion on this? Is there anything anyone would like to say? Any commentary? I I will just add that anyone who spent any amount of time in this building or has spoken to the folks
who have to work here every day has heard all of these points. Um there's there's something that I learned years ago in infrastructure that if you take a gallon of clean water and a gallon of sewage, you get two gallons of sewage. And uh that's not good for any of our
town hall employees and definitely not for the folks coming in here. So that is a a serious concern. Uh and I understand that that is a issue that has been ongoing for years. I just add with the police station, we're also exposing a town and civilians
to a lot of liability with their Sallyport situation uh under the rulings coming from the Department of Corrections, a prisoner is not supposed to be exposed to civilian areas. Now, they've probably made arrangements that allow that person to
be walked down that area, but that's not acceptable and that can lead to real serious consequences. So, a lot of things are going on over there. It's usually not acceptable how it's been allowed. Obviously, the building is the building and they've made arrangements,
but that's very dangerous and pose a lot of threats. These are things that need to be addressed. >> I think also, you know, the that you had brought up how there's three civilian entrances to this uh facility, which I think is very dangerous. Um, you know, where there's no proper screening of
visitors. or at least like this entrance there's zero during the day as far as I know. Um it is I think a a danger to the public in my opinion um from that alone plus what you added I think there's significant dangers um here.
All right. Um any members of the public? All right. Do I need to close public hearing on this or >> you don't? >> Okay. >> I don't need a motion. >> All right. So then, do I have a motion to uh accept this study and make a determination that this is an area in need of redevelopment?
>> And Mr. Chairman, I did prepare a resolution if you want to do that as a single motion, assuming you're going to make that designation >> and accept Mr. Lexian's resolution to that end. >> I'll make the motion. >> I'll second. >> All right. Roll call, please. >> Yes.
>> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Buritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair. >> Yes. >> And chairman. >> Yes. All right. With no further business, do I have a motion to adjurnn?
I'll >> move. I'll second. >> Okay. All in favor? I. Thank you very much.