the notice requirement provided for the open public meeting law has been satisfied notice was properly given having been transmitted to the Courier News on Tuesday January 6 2025 as well as posting on the city's website clerk
may we have a roll call council members Briggs Jones present sherry present graham present mccrae present wyatt present vice President Cessums present and council president Hakaday present all members present and a corn thank you
uh please rise for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for the invocation 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 humbly we ask God the giver of peace and the lover of charity to give the entire family of nations true agreement with his will to grant the light of his spirit on all those who work for justice and peace amen amen
okay may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of March 10th so second okay all those in favor say I i any opposition or abstensions all right the motion has been passed
minutes have been approved all right we'll first move to uh discussion items uh we have a presentation uh regarding our resolution that we have on tonight for Jackie Robinson Day yes
Jackie Robinson Day and also um National Community Garden Day and I'm going to ask the superintendent of recreation superintendent Taylor to come up and speak good evening human and thank you on uh for giving me time on your most busy agenda unfortunately I
don't see any of the kids here and when we planned these activities it was planned during last year before I knew about the schedule change so the Jackie Robinson Day was held on April 15th and you were supposed to receive these shirts prior to our trip because
Planefield went to the Yankees game for uh we celebrated Jackie Robinson Day at the Yankees and the city of Planefield was there so I have your shirts which I of course will give to the clerk to distribute you all can use them next year and unfortunately it's spring break so none of the kids are here because I
had wanted a photo op so I appreciate your accommodation and consideration for that but I do have my two community garden uh coordinators here Angela Davis and Ashley Neil and we had planned we had invited the gardeners to come but I don't see any of the Oh the gardeners
come come so uh previously April 14th is recognized as National Gardening Day and we have two community gardens in Planefield and the third is the tree uh fruit tree orchard gardeners please come
up we've been working hard at these sites and you know bestkept secret we want I wanted to introduce to some of the gardeners because we have a very large active group and we get lots of calls every year about gardening and uh they also want to give you a gift about
some of the work that we do angel what's in this plant i'd asked them just to give you guys a peanut plant to take home put in your garden but they wanted to do a little bit more so just tell them briefly what that is okay briefly briefly hi I'm Angel hello um so I have
we have Sorry okay we got three plants here it's a companion planting it's an ecosystem as the community of plain food is ecosystem so we have maragold here which helps deter pest uh rosemary which is also helping to deter pest and add nitrogen to the soil and then we have a
hyasin which is just in place for the peanut plant and they all go together and work together to support each other give nutrients and that's it thank you so they were instructed to give you your plants tonight but when I saw how large it was I suggested that we take them to the clerk's office for your uh pickup
tomorrow and there'll be a little instruction card for how to take care of your plants at home but the gardeners are here they got two new sheds this year and we also got notified uh this week that we were awarded the Union County Grant so we'll be installing two c handicapped accessible um large
planters in both of our both of our locations and this year we'll be installing our fruit tree orchard on Sloan Boulevard so since they are here mayor would you indulge us with a quick photo up and uh members of the council that's why we came so early if you wouldn't mind just one quick photo up
for us thank you of course in the middle would you all mind yeah thank you so much tomorrow thank you again oh yeah no and thank you again we just wanted the community to be aware and know that we do community garden and please call
the division of parks and recreation because gardening is important we want to put create opportunities for planeful residents to be in nature so we can rest so we can breathe so we can live so give us a call we hope to see you soon in one
of our gardens and thank you again for your accommodation all right thank you once again all right we will move to consideration of public hearing second reading and final passage all right
so we have ordinances MC 202513 and MC 2025-14 which are scheduled for public hearing and final passage for the regular meeting as advertised we'll now move on to resolutions we'll start with
the legislative body items R 173-25 through R 175-25 uh council do we have a consensus to add these items to the voting meeting so move second
okay uh all those in favor say I i i any opposition or abstensions for the legislative item body items okay hearing none president consensus what you say uh before we move on I just wanted to note um you'll see on first reading MC
202515 it's an ordinance to um establish uh the budget appropriations limit the bank cap by law we have to adopt that ordinance before the introduction of the budget so when it comes time for
um the second reading for the ordinances we're going to add that along with it so that that's adopted before the uh adopted project okay thank you okay so we have consensus to add the
legislative body items uh we'll next move to the mayor/ business administrator items r1 17625 through 184-25 please present your items okay thank you the first item we have um I'm going to talk about the item and then
we'll take a brief bake to do the swearing in so we will be um requesting advice and consent for the appointment of Sergeant Bethea as our OEM coordinator for the city of Planefield and I'd like to just take this opportunity to thank Director Childris
who has served in that role very capably um for the past few years and also to note that Sergeant Betha who's been with us for over 20 years will be our first female OEM coordinator in the city of Planefield and we are very much looking
forward to So we'll just take a second to do the swearing in we have to do that after the adoption we have to do that after it's Oh after okay okay sorry all right we'll come back to
to the swearing in portion late later okay we have another resolution um another advice and consent resolution this is for Rich Sodel for the Planefield Historic Preservation Commission then we have two resolutions
related to the um Hif that we're a part of they have officially changed their name to NJ Solutions Joint Health Insurance Fund it was a whole process with the state to do this so they weren't able to do it by January when we introduced the HIF so we have to now um
amend the agreements the bylaws and the indemnity and trust agreement which is um 17825 and 17925 so that the name change is there um but nothing else about those are changing then we have a
resolution for support for us to enter into a contract with the Planefield Community Outreach Incorp VIP summer program not to exceed $40,000 this we did this last year as well this is a six-w week enrichment camp they do they
offer breakfast and lunch they go to the pool they do field trips um they do they learn tech things like that for K through8 students who are residents of the city of Planefield and we supplement that for $40,000 for 150 kids um so
that's what what that resolution is the next one is seeking approval to submit a grant application for $18,563 this is one we do annually with the county um and this gives us money to do drug and alcohol education um
specifically we've been focusing on education around vaping the next one is another uh resolution with the county this one is seeking approval to enter into an agreement for $7,000 with the county this is for our July 4th celebration and
this is to pay for the police and maintenance um so police services and a maintenance attendant and then we have the two that uh Superintendent Taylor just went over the Jackie Robinson day on April 15th
and the resolution recognizing April 14th as National Gardening Day okay thank you do we have any questions from council members council president I have one question go right ahead council resol R 180-25 is there a cost
associated to our constituents to attend this program yes we're supplementing but I believe it's about 100 to 150 a week for the families thank you further questions council President
R8125 can you talk a little bit about the the the campaign that we do around vaping how are we getting the message out yes so we've been going into the schools um the Division of Parks and Recreation has been going into the schools to do that and they've also been creating
literature about what harms vaping can can cause cuz obviously it's a newer um vice and so teaching kids the impact it can have on your lungs and on your on your body so would this be for the remainder of
the school year for next school year it'll be for the remainder and for next it'll be all the way until next time this year so we'll get we'll probably apply for it again you know next April further
questions okay okay do we have consensus to add these to the voting meeting yes yes any opposition or abstensions okay these shall be added all right we'll next move to the Department of Finance items floor is yours
good evening all good evening i have four resolutions for your approval resolutions are 185-25 through 188-25 r185-25 resolution authorizing a
contract award to Prime Point software this is for this is for payroll services time and attendance and tracking of our human resources management system make sure your microphone's on it's on okay
okay i'll speak a little louder i don't think it's on okay there are four resolutions for approve the council's approval first one is resolution authorizing a contract award to prime point software and this is for pay perial services time and
attendance and crack tracking and human resources management information system and this is a renewal for one year the second resolution is resolution authorizing tax refunds on on certain properties um these properties are
managed by the financial institutions but the residents um mistakenly also paid the taxes so we have to refund the residents the third one is the resolution author authorizing amendments to our temporary budget we're still um operating on the temporary budget until
our budget is adopted so we added um seven grants so that's the addition and then resolution authorizing the introduction of the municipal budget
in the amount of 1888 million73,426.14 for the current fund 1,215,000 for the parking utility fund 9,354,25 for the sewer utility fund and $14,854,698 for the solid utility fund
are there any questions any questions from council members yeah just one go right ahead with regard with regard to uh resolution 186-25 when that happens is does that happen automatically or does the homeowner uh have to kind of petition
the tax office for that refund um they sometimes they would notice that they've paid it twice but most times the tax office would let them know that it's been paid twice and then you guys just automatically do we just refund it okay thank
you further questions um 18525 if you would just clarify um because I was reading the background information it wasn't clear is this a renewal from a current contract or is this a new contract award this is a
renewal from a current contract we had a three-year prior to this which expired but we are renewing for one year thank you sir mr president mayor uh I would just like to add a couple comments as
they relate to the introduction of the budget it should be pointed out that this year the budget is being introduced with a 0% tax increase and it's actually better than that there's a 0.18%
reduction in municipal taxes and this would be the third time in the past five years that we have done that and so it's important for that to be pointed out in
2018 the current average increase was 1.49% no decrease in services in fact services have have increased salaries have gone up significantly health benefit costs have nearly doubled and we've all been made aware of the burden
that health benefit costs has imposed on municipalities and counties all across the state and so the fact that we've been able to retain to have taxes remain stable have taxes being reduced putting
or keeping monies into the pockets of our property owners i think that that deserves to be made mention of and this can only be done with someone with significant financial and municipal budgeting experience and in order for us
to do this in order for us to present you with the budget that we have presented it required someone with significant financial experience it requires a department that has the experience in
order to assemble a budget that we have presented that we will present to you here this evening on first reading and so I just wanted to point out to our residents that this budget reflects a 0%
tax increase it actually reflects a reduction and this is the third time in 5 years that we are doing this so I just wanted to make sure I share that with the governing body and with the listening public thank you thank you
any other questions from council members just a quick question regarding Prime Point why why one year instead of three are we looking to go in another direction or um go ahead I could speak to that um their HIS is a little bit
limited and in the past four three years that we've been with them technology has advanced in with other vendors so I just didn't want us to be married to them for another 3 years when I see that technology is much advanced in the HIS
field and other with other vendors okay thank you any other questions okay do we have uh consensus to add these to the voting meeting so move yes okay all those in favor say I i i
any uh opposition or abstensions okay this shall be added to the voting meeting the police department director please present your items good evening council president good evening yes
can you hear me now yes okay good evening council president and council members police department has three resolutions for your consideration tonight first one is R18925 resolution for a one-year subscription renewal for Power Document
Management Service which is Power DMS and an amount for an amount not to exceed $8,832.96 r9025 is a resolution authorizing approval to enter into professional services contract with Lexipole LLC
they've replaced the Rogers Group and this is in regards to us maintaining our certification as a fully accredited police or law enforcement agency that will not exceed $13,928.36 and lastly is a resolution for the department to enter into an
agreement with T- Slack Environmental Services for required repairs to the fuel tank product lines and tank top equipment and an amount not to exceed 65,000 uh $890 that is the fuel tank at the police
department that's in the ground it uh it has a problem with it and we have to make these repairs to be compliant with the state of New Jerseyy's guidelines that's all I have any questions from council members any questions from council members
okay hearing none do we have consensus to add these to the voting meeting yes all those in favor say I i any opposition or abstensions okay those shall be added uh the fire department floor is yours
okay the fire problem has one resolution for your review tonight which is R192-25 and it's for the upgrade of a uh a truck that we have uh to fit a much larger uh ladder questions from council
members okay do we have consensus to add this to the voting meeting yes yes okay any opposition or abstensions all those in favor say I i all right that should be added to the voting uh meeting uh the Department of Public Works the floor is yours good
evening Mr council President members of the council department of Public Works has seven resolutions for the approval resolution 193 authorizing the approval of Mars County co-op for the milling and paving of Berkeley Avenue and Dixie Lane and amount not to exceed 324,657.50
resolution 194 resolution advised approval to enter the contract for Morris County Co-op for concrete replacement of 21 ADA ramps at $7,500 with Sepelli General Contracting and
resolution 195 is authorization award for contract JA Alexander Inc of to mill and pay five intersections with crosswalks etc is under the uh safe router school and the amount not to exceed 678 57421 and that's five
intersections resistance 196 is authorization toward a contract for portfolio builders uh for the road resurface of west east front street from planefield avenue to wank avenue on the amount not to exceed $1,45,166 and that's also includes this
signal traffic light resolution 197 authoriz award of a professional service contract only associates that's for the hire a licensed site mediation professional for the Madison Avenue Park and outdoor fitness area under the guise of the NJDP
uh $155,000 resolution 198 authorization to change order number one to Remington and Vernick for the Rushmore recreational complex progress area for construction renovations and contract administration services amount not to exceed
$61,630 and that close my resolution questions okay you did $1 19925 okay any questions from council council president yes council uh thank
you i'm sorry i have one more i'm sorry go ahead 199 resolution board of contract to Fisher Contracting Inc for in installation of uh speed humps and the total amount of $144,82.70 all right thank you go right ahead Madam
VP thank you uh good evening director i have a few questions for you this evening um regarding R 196 um can you clarify for me the difference in the alternative bids 123 plus base could you explain that to me yes good question
that that is that's the traffic lights at each intersection that was the addition of a traffic light we moved number one because that came out with those lowest responsible bidder and that was for one light to be at park in front of you so we wanted that all the other lights would be for
you so I'm take you to resolution for polino you asked about right mhm we we did alternate bid number one okay that was the lowest responsible bidder based on all the bids that was submitted the six bids and the alternate lights were for three different
intersections that lights would go up in that location so Front Street and Park Avenue would be the first first alternate number the second one would have been West Front Street and Central Avenue and the third would have been Madison and West front so that was the ultimate for the edit a light with
that so we can only do one light based on the funding so that's why we chose the first one the ladder which be front and park okay so with each bid you added a different intersection and that's why it went up okay and the light yes okay
thank you for that um regarding R1 197 um where it says per the purchase of professional services um does this include um the actual uh uh remediation that will happen or is this just the
cost of them to manage this that's just the manage the whole the whole area it's not the remediation itself and we will have to cover the cost of any remediation that happens yeah we we're applying for a grant through the NJ to cover that for us we would have to
pick 25% of that if we're awarded that okay so we anticipate like 200,000 for remediation work okay and if I may add uh councelor I've actually directed a team and it's taken longer than I expected to find out who
owned that property prior to the city taking ownership of that property because if it's PSENG whoever it was the same way that right outside here used to be an old coal plant way back when and it was a major
remediation that occurred here at this parking lot the entire lot was resurfaced the street was repaid so I want to find out who owned the park that we currently use as a playground so that we can go after who that owner was if
it's PSNG we will go after PSNG but we need to find out and I hope by tomorrow I would have an answer from the assessor's department on who the prior owner was that would be great mayors in order to make sure that they cover the cost and it's not passed on to taxpayer
um regarding R1 198 um we have the engineer wanting additional $61,000 why and what was their deadline for this project the project was 4 years 365 years it far exceeded that because
plus supply and demand trying to get things that we need for it and then the weather played a part in that too you know with the rain and snow that extended everything again more so supply and demand trying to get certain equipment and things that we need to finish the project what is their what is
their deadline that they promised the city that they'd have this project done by the deadline was really trying to do that by sometime Memorial Day in that area that time okay okay we're looking at to right now based on that maybe sometime the second third week in June that have never been
completed okay and then my last question regarding our $199 um this $244,000 how many speed bumps does that buy us that gives you roughly 37 speed
and that's two per street some streets are two depends on the study some have two some may have eight some may have four based on the location something like that based on the study okay thank you council president you're welcome any other council colleagues wish to uh ask
questions council president I have a question please go ahead for R 193 and R 196 director is it the goal to have all the lead service and gas lines done prior to this milling or Absolutely that's our goal we work in public service and water to make sure they're
going to deliver ahead of us so we can do what we have to do okay thank you thank you and then for R96-25 thank you first for identifying the funding through NJ DOT because I know that that was one of the things that your administration said that it would not be a cost to the taxpayer what
is the time frame okay but this area right here is the city on the property so that right there that portion right there between MLville okay that's city that's why that's why you see funding and capital because everything else outside all about 28 is no capital at
all okay so grant funed grant funded correct so what's the time frame to complete that project start the beginning yeah beginning well right now we're just waiting for some funding and we got some some bid openings coming up so hopefully maybe September October
weather committee we can get everything done thank you and one last one for R9-25 are you able to provide a list of where the speed bumps are going to be located yes we certain we're looking at too still to make sure that we're Yes
thank you anyone else yes council president go right ahead councilman yes resolution 199 have we did a study to see if the speed bumps are actually working has it been slowing down traffic well that was
constantly a question but yes everything we doing we've been getting just good remarks from everyone where we play speed humps everything has slowed down somewhat so and that and also if it stops we've been pretty getting positive feedback and I would for the police on that part but yes we get positive
feedback okay there's demand for so much more like this list I'm getting calls from everyone saying they need them in certain are we do monitor to see how fast people are going and it's been made quite a difference okay so we have been tracking the data we're tracking everything we can data itself we just do
the study but any data you know I refer to monitoring whatever goes on with that okay and with the four-way stop since you just brought that up as well is there a time where we're going to say you know what we're going to educate the public on how to utilize the four-way
stops we've we've been doing that from the beginning there have been flyers that we've sent out there's been several communications that we have sent out regarding the public on how if four vehicles arrive at a at a four-way stop sign who goes first so we'll continue to
do that because it's an ongoing process a lot of times people they're in a rush they just want to go through there and run through run through as quickly as possible but we have been educating the public we're doing it as best we can and we do know a bad actor is a bad actor right we try to do to make things better some folks doesn't matter what they do
they don't follow the laws or rules for some reason okay so you said you've been senders you said flyers you send out yes sir okay um do we ever think about since we do have the social media putting videos up on the city website some of
the community forums and town halls that we have as well yes it's funny that you actually said that my my traffic division actually completed some videos just recently in regards to this in regards to all the new layouts and things that we have been doing uh we have used social media to put up that flyer that I was talking about instead
of just handing out paper flyers we have put that out on social media we'll blast it out again but we have just completed a video on various things that we have changed in terms of traffic in the city and how people can comply with it okay the last question um have have you seen an impact on the emergency services as
far as the police fire you mean in like slowdowns or something like that really no i I can only speak to the fire department obviously Director Childris is here we can speak in regards to the the fire department but I haven't seen any any instances where it has caused a problem where we're responding to an
emergency okay thank you no further questions i could just add to that that our EMS services are are beating numbers that we've never seen in Planefield so I it's not slowing down EMS services okay go right ahead uh with regard to um
item 197-25 the outdoor fitness area is will there be a point where the community would have input as to what type of equipment or what they would like to see there with regard to the exercise equipment well we did most of that we got just about every piece of equipment you can think of is going to be there so okay it be pretty much
everything something for everyone and it's all inclusive equipment so it's for everyone if you have a handicap etc but it's for everyone from 13 and up so that's will be there in that location okay it's every piece of equipment you can think about pretty much we looked at thank you
further questions okay do we have consensus to add this to the voting meeting yes okay all those in favor say I i any opposition or abstensions okay those shall be added to the voting meeting uh we'll now move to
the Department of Economic Development good evening council good evening i will be presenting items R20 to 204 the first resolution refers to a refund for a construction permit fees these fees are
no longer necessary because the work was not performed for items 2012 they're in reference to the center of excellence Planefield Recreation Cultural Center of Excellence there was
a request at the last council meeting that we do a presentation that's associated with this so we're just going to take a moment to bring it up so just to remind everyone going back to the first slide the first slide is looking
at the historic building which is the YMCA building across from city hall this building will be preserved we have applied for we've received actually a New Jersey historic trust grant from the
state to develop a preservation plan we are also looking to do the construction with historic tax credits so what that means is we're going to preserve the outside of the building and this will be
an adaptive reuse for the 55,000 square ft building the building that's behind it right here you're going to see the two tones the two tones this is for the 100% affordable units that will be
behind the building it will start the mid block where you're looking this the street that we're facing right now is watch on it goes back to Cleveland in between East 6th Street and East 5th Street
looking at the side view this is looking at the intersection of Watchon as well as East 6th Street the residential area starts midblock what are we doing
okay there we go the residential area starts mi midb block the affordable unit it has some parking that goes underneath the building if you see the opening that's in the center it's 75 parking spaces
that are under there if you look at what's in the interior of the building so again this is going to be a recreation and cultural center so we will have live performance spaces we will have a yoga studio a
dance studio as well as a recording studio what you're seeing in front of you starting with the upper leftand corner that is going to be a cafe you're seeing the basketball court which will also double as performance space and
you're seeing a competition pool the competition pool will go as deep as 10 ft this will be with a seller you're looking at four story four layers of a building that's being there but we will
stay in the existing footprint then looking at the residential building this is looking from the Cleveland Avenue point of view this is the 100% affordable units you're seeing a courtyard space that's going to
have sculptures you're seeing on the sides where we're going to have a mural then in the red brick building that's where we have the 6,000 square feet of the gallery space that's going to be available now specifically referring to
item 2011 this is referring to the designation of a developer for the city hall parking deck this is looking at a plan view or over top where you're able
to see that city hall building will not be touched it will be subdivided and it will also offer for additional landscaping where we'll have a heritage walk we will also have a micro forest
that will collect particulate matter for to remove the pollutants from in the air you're going to see solar panels on top of the building what the building will look like behind city hall it's meant to look like a forest behind city hall it will
be a live wall it will be green we will have solar L louvers on the side as well as solar panels on the top we will also have a battery storage backup as well as
a full generator which we have now the full generator will be slightly larger to support both the parking deck as well as city hall if you look at the louvers from the side the louvers are actually solar
panels themsel as well and what we have in item number 202 this resolution refers to the submission to EDA as well as the housing
and mortgage financing agency this is to certify that we will have affordable units within the residential that we've shown then moving to item 203 and
204 these are inspection items the first item is looking to place a lean on 20 properties and this is for a debris cleanup the next item is to return part of a a lean for the maintenance of the
property and that concludes my presentation council President okay any questions from council members council President go right ahead uh R201-25 can you talk a little bit more about the plans for
parking sure so the parking deck in total will have a total of 400 spaces there are a total of 100 spaces there right now for the city hall building this is included for city employees as
well as visitors 200 spaces will be dedicated to the residential part of the center of excellence resident where they have units behind there and then 100 spaces that's dedicated to the
office/commercial that's going to be on top of the parking deck what I will say about 200 spaces dedicated to the center of excellence 200 spaces of course for the city hall or office those spaces
will only be used on mo in most cases a 8 to five basis so they will be available to share in this case we are getting a surplus of parking at this level mhm director Peele could you explain
like expand on sharing sure because right now when we're at city hall and it's currently used for our parking lot our parking lot is available for parking after 5 for free so we have churches we have other residents that can use our
parking and not get a ticket this will be the same thing for looking at the center of excellence other other council members have questions yes council president go right ahead all right so you said 75 parking
spaces will be underneath the residential apartments right and 200 across the street did you do a impact study on traffic and congestion in the area so that will be done when it's presented
to the planning board so what's being presented to you now is the designation for the parking deck itself for the planning board site plan approval it's going to be required to do a traffic impact study for the parking deck itself
and for the center of excellence residential okay and this is all affordable housing correct 100% can you define affordable housing sure in this case this is being subsidized by Aspire
it's being subsidized by lowincome housing tax credit as well as potentially looking at new market tax credit what that means is that it f has to follow the uniform housing affordability controls so for example it
has to range between 30% and 80% of the area median income so when we're talking about an apartment that's going to be for rent that's at the 30% of the area mean
median income if we say the area median income is 75,000 that means that that person cannot make more than 25,000 a year in income therefore a studio apartment for them is going to be 600
now the highest amount looking at someone that's making um 60% of the area median income if you look at 60% they're only making close to between 45 to 50,000 a year the highest they would pay
for a threebedroom is $1,830 so $1,800 a month okay so those apartments will be between 600 and 1,800 and 30 and and 30 a month yes okay 1,830 mhm okay all right
um and this is a 30-year tax incentive that we gave them this Yes this tax incentive it's backed by the housing and mortgage financing so yes it's at 6.82% are they contributing to the renovations
for the center of excellence as well as the parking deck in the back of city hall so looking at the center of excellence the itself we are getting roughly $3.5 million that will go towards construction for the parking deck we're
getting $2.5 million do we have the total of how much the parking deck will cost we have an estimate but that financial agreement is not being presented to you tonight so we have an estimate but we just can't know tonight we're expected to vote on
these items you're not voting on the estimate you're voting on the designation of the parking deck so what we do with every item we present the study to you we present the redevelopment agreement and the financial agreement which has the cost
of the project cost okay so a ballpark figure of $54 million $54 million and they are contributing 2.5 and the taxpayers will absorb absolutely not that's why they're going for the Aspire
tax credit as well as we passed in the past the clean it was the CPACE which this allows for funding when you're looking at a sustainability structure so what we have is an opportunity is that a developer is leveraging the tax credits
and the incentives that are available by the state the city is not funding the construction of the deck okay so the developer is going to contribute 2.5 for something that's roughly around 54 million correct
what they're paying for is a land purchase price they are not contributing for that construction so that's not what I'm saying i'm saying they are contributing 2.5 million to purchase the building from us as well as a community
benefit for construction we will maintain the use of 100 spaces as well as any other spaces that are leased from the office spaces the developer for the center of excellence is actually paying
for the 200 spaces for the 200 so that's 2.5 no that's not what they're paying so again we're not presenting the cost of the construction we are presenting the designation of the agreement okay gotcha
further questions from council members uh in in the lot now we have a hundred spaces available how much of what percentage of the lot is used daily during the during the workday well we have at we have all of our fleet
vehicles that are parking in there now we have employee parking as well as our vid our visitors so right now it's using I would say 90% but again it's not just for city employees it's for visitors as well mhm
um you indicated there's solar uh and so forth uh there is there an uh any hookups for electric vehicles clean energy there should be a total of about 30 electric charging stations included
okay so we have a total of 21 hybrid vehicles in our fleet okay what's would those uh any of those electric uh charging stations be available for residents of the affordable housing yes
okay sounds like a good feature um other questions from council members before we uh ask for consensus council President one more question sure the solar panels uh the energy who will be able to utilize the energy or benefit
from that so the energy is going to go one to charging the electric charging stations but it's also going to a battery storage backup that battery storage backup could be redistributed through the parking deck itself for
lights and cameras and so forth and also for the city hall building okay has there been any thought to distribute that to the community i know that PSEG is talking about going up 20% um and many people will be impacted by that and if that's such a large structure there
with all of the solar panels um so if not there have we thought about having solar fields or doing projects like that elsewhere to help it's a consideration and we have to work out the agreement with PSAJ but right now we need to do the analysis on the load that's going to
be captured okay last one too um did this go before the HPC did they weigh in on this at all because City Hall is historic um this is the parking lot so did they weigh in on this at all so this is a city-owned
property and we are exempt from the HPC again we are not touching the historic property we are subdividing it i'm only talking about the parking lot okay thank you okay thank you uh do we have consensus
to add these items to the voting meeting so yes okay please remove i'm sorry I didn't hear you yeah r 2011 and R 2022 we vote on that separately okay so we do have consensus for R 2000
and 203 yes oh all those and 204 and 204 as well and 204 do we have uh consensus for those three yes all those in favor say I i any oppositions or abstensions
from those three that's 200 2011 and 204 okay hearing no none those should be added to the voting meeting 202 and 203 will be voted on separately uh 2011 and
202 right okay will the Department of Health and Social Services present their items okay i'm going to be speaking on behalf of Director Brown so the first resolution he has is a resolution condemning federal public health funding cuts as
dangerous irresponsible and detrimental to the residents of the city of Planefield and communities across America we're all aware of the attempt to cut the federal budget by 11 billion for the Department of Health and um we know that this will disproportionately
impact lowincome communities um immigrants communities of color and it will absolutely have a detrimental impact in playing field um these cuts threaten programs like WICK um our vaccine programs our nutrition programs
uh meals on wheels and so we are we are looking to you know we're obviously uh very worried about this and this is something that we are strongly condemning the next resolution that he has is a resolution to um extend the
contract that we have with Proceed Inc and this is for $554,500 they are the company that we use for lead remediation and abatement and that is fully grant funded by the DCA so that's when we do lead inspections and then they need abatement
work and remediation um proceed inc has been doing that work at and not not at a cost to the residents okay any questions from council members regarding those items council President um R206 have we gotten any data around
um the lead abatement specific to the city any numbers in terms of what in terms of the residentials like how many you mean for the inspections that we've been doing so that's separate than this this is what we do our normal lead inspections i
think you're speak are you speaking about the big grant that we got to do the program that goes into every building and they have to call and sign up that's this is not this is not the vendor that we're using for that that we're using a shared service with the town of Elizabeth the city of Elizabeth
this is our normal lead inspection where they go in when there's children um so it's it would be it's a different program is there any data around that i'll ask Director Brown thank you further
questions okay do we have consensus to add these to the voting meeting yes okay okay all those in favor say I i any opposition or abstensions okay these shall be added uh the department of communications technology thank you council president and thank you
councilors i am presenting um resolution 20725 authorizing the city of Planefield to purchase uh Tel B2000 system and related cloud services in an amount not to exceed $51,391.50 um what this is is that we're upgrading
um PCTV as you know which is our community broadcast um platform and um we're making it a little more modern and flexible and um this is a standard for community broadcasting you know in the
21st century what this upgrade means um it modernizes how we produce schedule and share video content across both traditional cable and new digital platforms with uh the implementation of Tel View PCTV will have the ability to automate remote um scheduling of
programming um live and on demand streaming online including mobile and smart TV access cloud-based storage and management of videos and significantly improved accessibility tools like automatic captioning in multiple languages
what it means for residents they'll no longer be limited to watching PCTV only on Comcast or Verizon channels they'll be able to watch city council meetings community events special programming live or on demand on their phones tablets or laptops they'll be able to
search and navigate content more easily thanks to enhanced content organization and streaming interfaces and they'll be able to access content even if they missed a broadcast or no longer subscribed to cable for for those of our residents who may be hard of hearing or
whose primary language isn't English or new captioning system we'll make sure that everyone can be a part of the conversation um that's those are the highlights uh we chose to go to tel over electronics which is what we were
utilizing before um it's electronics is basically rooted it's an analog cable uh platform and Tel View offers true digital first functionality with built-in scalability for future growth better streaming features more reliable
content management and overall an improved viewer experience so okay questions from council members regarding this resolution hearing is saying none I'll um ask if there's consensus to ask add
this to the voting meeting yes okay all those in favor say I i any opposition or abstensions okay this should be added to the voting meeting uh we move to the Department of Solid Waste and Sewer that's going to be me again thank you
okay there are three resolutions for the Department of Sewer and Solid Waste the first one is authorizing approval to utilize Tilcon um company for the transportation improvement project this is the road resurfacing so they're going to be doing
paving when you pull into the transfer station and they'll be doing that road um so that would be much smoother for everybody who who travels that way and then they have a resolution authorizing approval to utilize sun contractors and this is
going to be for the replacement of the tipping floor and the curbing in an amount not to exceed $123,567.50 um they're going to be replacing it with concrete the next resolution is somewhat related to that because they had first gone out to bid to see if they could replace it um with
a different material not concrete those bids came in at over $500,000 so considering that we're going to spend $123,000 that was just way too high um so we're rejecting both of those bids those half million bids um and
that's what that last resolution is okay do we have uh any questions from council members okay do we have consensus to add this to the voting meeting yes okay all those in favor say I i any opposition or
abstensions okay that should be added to the voting meeting uh we'll now move on to ordinances on first reading ba please present uh the ordinances listed thank you very much okay we have seven
ordinances for your review this evening the first one we spoke about a little bit earlier um this is the annual ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limit that we're going to have to um do prior to the resolution being readed for the introduction of the
bud of the budget the second one is an ordinance to amend and supplement the um no parking ordinance and this is going to be no parking on the south side of Wong A on the 1200 block this is a response to resident complaints and conversations that we've had with
residents in that area the third one is an amendment to the ordinance um amending chapter 17 land use ordinance this is for our primary and accessory dwelling units so in an
effort to increase affordable housing and availability and promote sustainability um we are going to change a little bit the application process for accessory dwelling units to make it easier and that will just go in front of zoning now not in front of planning um
this would just promote efficient more efficient land use the next one that we have is a tax ex an ordinance um granting a tax exemption and this is for I don't think you want me to read all these blockin
lots so I'll I'll um just say that this is regarding the home ownership of small lots that we've been talking about so we've been talk I think we've been talking about this for the past three or four meetings or so these are the six one family houses and the two and the one two family house um and this is the
one where the money that the city is getting from selling this land is going to go into the residents who purchase these properties we're and in the form of a down payment and then the tax exemption will also be passed on to the
resident buyers um so for 10 years they'll know exactly what they're going to be paying because it's spelled out in the tax exemption for them the next one that we have is a transfer of a redevelopment agreement and a financial agreement so the council already voted on the redevelopment
agreement and the financial agreement but there is a sale of this property so it is a transfer from 803 south urban renewal and 803 urban renewal and authorizing the exe the execution of an assignment and assumption agreement in
connection therewith the following one is an ordinance adopting the JFK Muenberg hospital redevelopment plan amendment and this is an amendment that will add additional uses to that redevelopment plan
and finally we have an ordinance that is repealing some of the 2022 amendments that we made um to the ordinance regarding the HPC and this will give more review authority to the HPC um and
and that concludes the ordinances that we're presenting this evening questions from council members yes um with regard to MC 2025-17 uh Director Fields if you can just kind
of briefly give like an overview as to what can and cannot be done with regard to an accessory dwelling some of my constituents believe that you can only build above a garage but I understand that you can build from the
ground up an accessory dwelling and just talk about the setback requirements and are we going to have a low tolerance for these items that should the property owner should feel the need to go before
our zoning board for variance sure so um just to back up to the zoning board what's going to make this affordable is that you can go to our zoning officer so the reason why we wanted to give the approval authority to our zoning officer
because what we're looking at here is zones that are R1 R2 and R3 which range from low density to moderate density residential which means that you're
looking at a single family home this would allow you to build another structure you can choose to build another structure on top of of an existing foundation that may be a garage or it may be a part of your home that's
only one story and you're able to go up 24 ft you can also build another structure in the rear or side of your property you have to adhere to the bulk standards or the setback requirements
for whatever zone you're in whether you're in R1 R2 or R3 in most cases when you're looking at the setbacks from the property line you're talking about 10 ft from the property line
followup question follow-up question um and and the property owner they can do bedrooms bathroom they can do plumbing the whole nine this is a for for living right so it's meant to be a
self-sustaining unit meaning that it has a bathroom it has a kitchen it has a bedroom it cannot be any larger than 800 square ft which is what is allowed for our one-bedroom apartments they have to
be a minimum of 750 square ft so this is a large one-bedroom apartment all right um stay right there because I have a question about MC 2025-8 with regard to the down payment assistance in the tax is it a tax
abatement that the uh property will would be getting as opposed not it's not a pilot it's a tax abatement well it it it is a a payment in lie of taxes so we're we're passing on a payment in lie of taxes on to the home buyer so what
that will be is uh up to duration because these are deed restrictive properties we want to keep them affordable where they're not flipped where they will have for the single family homes it's going to be a
10% tax abatement so 10% of the the cost which is roughly about half of what conventional taxes would be and for the two family home it's going to be 12.5% you know it's awesome that the little guy can benefit from these incentives um
and with regard to the down payment assistance and the deed restriction so particularly the deed restriction um at the deed restriction is for 10 years correct yes and when the deed restriction has expired pretty much the seller can they
don't have any they can sell the property for whatever the market value is once the deed restriction expires so it's sort of like the city helps our residents to create wealth right these are are meant to be starter homes our
incentives are for host firsttime home buyers in the playing field so instead of us collecting for our our properties the cost of the property or a community benefit we're passing that on in a form of down payment assistance for 30,000
for the Planefield residents and also these buildings right now if they were to sell at market value they would go for roughly about $800,000 they're being sold starting at 500 they're four bedroomedroom homes
that's awesome thank you director those are my questions council President thanks council President I had a question go right ahead for MC 2025-20 are there any zoning regulations that govern um educational buildings and
behavioral health facilities so right now looking at the d the distance this is within the distance requirements okay what's the distance so if it's looking that it has to be so many feet away from it but we'll give
you the exact number but we are consistent with it i'm done okay uh director regarding um uh MC 25 2025-17 um can you talk about um
staffing capacity to handle this with all of these applications going to the zoning officer i'm assuming that that's a oneperson title um so is there any concerns about the increased volume um
for that one particular person the length of time it's going to take for the residents who put in these applications who are interested in getting work done on their property and how long it's going to take just to go through the approval process as well as our ability to handle the increased
volume of inspections that are going to have to happen as a result of this um personal property development sure so right now most of our property applications they start with the zoning officer so even if you need to go to a
variance for the zoning board of adjustments or go to a site plan approval with the planning board the zoning officer has to review it first at that time anyway what makes it actually easier for the zoning officer is that
she's given authority to review this within a 10day period versus putting this on the homeowner where they have to go through the application process which could take up to f 45 days before they
hear they have a hearing in terms of it being on one person we do have a backup zoning officer now we are training other zoning officers um in terms of the actual inspection of the property that's
done by the building and construction division so whether you're looking at the structural inspection looking at plumbing engineering fire and and so on we have different sub code officials for that and we have different inspectors
for property maintenance thank you for that um I'm aware that you have the different inspectors for the different areas electrical plumbing um mechanical and so on and so forth i think my my question is really about capacity um
with there being an increase in applications in addition to all the other work people may be trying to get done in their homes in addition to the development that we have going on will we have the inspectors to do this
i think we could always use the increased resources but right now we are staffed up because the way I look at this right now to for her to review something that has to be referred to the zoning board of adjustment it's still
the same amount of time right now but we are looking to increase our capacity with the zoning officers thank you anyone else yes Council President i have Go right ahead all right uh just for
clarification so we're doing a 10-year I'm sorry 2025-18 um it's a 10-year tax exemption for building market rate homes priced between 500 and 650,000 right and the target income is
between 150,000 and 250 so you have to make between 150 and 250 to be qualified for this hair the average or median salary in Planefield before you said I believe was 73,000 um yes 73 between 73
and 75 and what we're looking at now is that this would be workforce affordable and most likely this will be two income homes okay all right so when we say that this is affordable units I don't think that this serves the
low or moderate families that's in Planefield and I was reading this the contract and it said we're going to give the land away we're going to deed it for a dollar yes so we can put it back into a down payment assistance fund a dollar so I wouldn't look at it as a
dollar i would look at it is that for every property we're getting 30,000 and giving that back to the home buyer okay and quick question my colleague here you're in real estate do they have firsttime home buyer programs for people who to offer down payments they do have
that correct you're asking me yes yes okay all right so we're giving away our assets the city assets for a dollar for developer to build market rate homes for people who are struggling to one day want to buy a home but you
have to make between 150 and 250 in order to receive this to be qualified for this program here and it's almost like we're giving essentially we're giving away the taxpayers property to developers for free or in this case $1 no that's not
what we're doing what we're doing is creatively looking at our property which is typically undersized so it's underutilized so you all have gone to the trouble of making sure that we have the zoning and the bulk ordinances that
looks at property right now that's being vacant and not used and we've created zoning that will make affordable housing we've partnered with a developer to look at this property and say "Well can we build market rate homes but make it more
affordable to people?" And what we are not giving our property away we're giving at least 30,000 for each piece of property that's currently under size and not being used okay so you said the same thing no I
didn't say the same thing at all you didn't so a dollar we're giving the properties away for a dollar in return they're going to say "Here's $30,000 for a down payment but you have to make between 150 and 250 in order to qualify for this." So I'm saying that $30,000 for down
payment assistance and we're looking at a range for workforce deordment devel workforce development affordable for the property so we're not looking at low income this is not being subsidized the difference between this this is not
being subsidized by the uniform housing affordability controls this is something that we're working on with the developer to invest in firsttime home buyers all right um so with this I I just don't understand is will there be uniformity
with the the neighborhoods cuz I know that we have did other projects where undersized lots people have built homes and the neighbors on both sides are like why did they build a home like this on this property and why did the city okay this what do you mean by uniformity
so certain streets and blocks in Planefield the houses kind of look the same on the block so it'll fit into the residential context meaning fit into the residential context with the height and the pitch of
the the roof i don't know what else you mean by you on the farm uh for instance on Sloan Boulevard if you stand on the front porch on most of the properties you can look down the street and you can see all the neighbors unless they have shrubs oh okay you can look down the street um there's a house that are
familiar that was built recently and it's pushed up more to the sidewalk so now the neighbors they can't see this way because when they look they're looking at a side of a house rather than being able to see their neighbors so when I ask about uniformity I'm saying will that be taken into consideration so
that's talking about the setbacks which Councilman Graham was talking about earlier so you're looking at the setbacks where if you down the street you could see that there's a 10-ft setback yes that does exist and was taken into consideration okay all right
um I have a few more here just move the notes so I can don't be longwinded um anyone else while he looks any other council person yes um counseloman go
right ahead can you hear me now yes okay uh MC 2025-20 about the Millenberg services of Milberg Hospital um I I want to know uh actually there's two things I want to bring to
your attention and um I want to know about the addiction services um you know as is it the same distance for the health services versus the u behavioral health the behavioral health is a part of the
addiction services it is okay all right so it's the it's the same it's the same services everything's is combined the same so Rucker Behavioral Health offers addiction rehab services okay all right s
um that answer my that first question um the next question is the properties that you were speaking about and the for the firsttime home buyers um the question is uh let's just say you have about 300
applicants and how would it be how will these applicants be chosen let's say everybody has good credit um who will be doing the choosing um how is that going to be laid out what's the plan for that it's going to be a lottery that's going
to be hosted by the developer so let's say we open it at a certain date and time okay they'll be accepting applications where you'll have to show proof of income you'll have to show proof of residencies and other
qualifications for creditworthiness um at that point let's say it opens up at 12 the first person that applies if they qualify they're they're in it the next person that applies they they're
missing some kind of document or some qualification they're off the list then you go to the third person and so on okay okay um the third thing this is not directed at you but um I um never got a
response i knew I was supposed to do is during res resolutions but I never got a response um for whatever reason I put in for a request to name Albert Steel Mills the street between Prescott Place and South Second Street so I don't know i didn't get a response i know that uh
council president responded but no one else responded so I wanted to make a motion to name the street after Albert Steel Mills Prescott Place and South Second Street counseling you you're looking at me like you wanted to say something council President I I we're in the workshop session of the meeting so I I
respectfully Councilwoman I think this is probably not the appropriate time for such a motion i think it would be during the voting portion of the meeting that motion could be made okay and such a such a motion would require five votes to be added to the agenda
okay okay so when should I make that motion during the voting meeting so that's when when we come back uh after recent you got it okay other questions from council members i'm ready all right good all right i'll just read it so uh won't be
long all right so 2025-20 uh the amendment I believe is it shifts focus away from creating a healthc care hub and honoring uh the Millenberg hospital legacy the site was supposed to address the healthc care gaps uh we did an assessment in
2014 so now creating uh general education K through 12 it completely shifts the focus from there um K through 12 schools as we know bring on heavy traffic school buses um that also undermines what we were supposed to
be doing as far as we spoke about earlier the safe routes to school goals so instead of enhancing pedestrian and cyclist safety added school traffic could danger that uh also would like to include the inadequate parking so we said one one which is in the proposal uh
the ratio so that's for teachers and staff that ignore student drivers who uh sophomores juniors and seniors or juniors and seniors who have cars and drive to school uh visitors part-time staff and that will lead to more congestion throughout the city so we've
been changing the character of our entire city and it's becoming a Jersey city in Elizabeth with all of the congestion on the streets so for us to now say we're going to shift from making this a healthc care hub to now saying "Okay we're going to do a K through 12
or for educational purposes here at this site." It just undermines the complete original uh proposal and purpose I believe yep any any other councilman or council woman
okay and also on the 2025-21 and I will just bring the notes up to this as well one second here just wait for my email all right so I'm actually happy to see
that uh it's being restored in the ordinance it had never been removed in the first place um outside of it being election season what prompted you to restore the the ordinance the changes in the ordinance that were removed from the uh HPC
council President I'm sorry but that question is awfully argumentative i don't know how a director could possibly answer that you want me to restate it okay i'll I'll read it verbatim what prompted you to restore this now it should have it shouldn't
have been removed in the first place what prompted you to restore these things now and what is in place to protect them and say "Okay you have it now but in the future we will make the changes again." C council President if I can address that policy changes happen
all the time we're never really prompted to ask why we made the change we offer up specific policy uh for this uh council this governing body to review the council the council members can consider that and ultimately decide but generally it's never asked about the
what prompted a switch policies are there there are a million reasons why policies can change it could be the constituency it could be uh the public speaking out it could just be uh recognizing what the issues are that are facing the HBC right now i I I don't
know if it's fair to ask a particular department head to to answer that question other than to say we're offering this policy this evening we're willing to debate the merits of the change uh with any council member or answer any questions that she might have but to say what prompted it I don't think is relevant to the inquiry and
I'll just add that um like I said with um quiet in the gallery please thank you like I said with MC2025-16 that we are you know responsive to resident complaints you know we're responsive to conversations that we're having with residents
okay thank you um other questions so the redevelopment areas you said that they are exempt historic districts are exempt right is that other redevelopment areas within historic districts are exempt yes redevelopment okay um so I don't believe
that they should be exempt so when you look at towns like Fanwood Scotch Plains when they weigh in the architectural designs are more appealing when you look at playing field the things that's going on they are unappealing and it doesn't look like they will stand the test of
time almost looks like low quality so if you just take a trip down South Avenue and ride through those towns once you get the playing field you can see the difference here so I believe that having the HPC weigh in on those um decisions should should that should also be in here as well uh code enforcement is
another thing that I don't see in here um that should be included so code enforcement people have issues across the city with code enforcement uh but many of the the residents in the HBC and historic districts always complain about things that are going on so who enforces those rules so if we're going to really
make this change which I think this is great it's a great start down the right path but this can also use much more so just to clarify in terms of the redevelopment areas the historic preservation commission still reviews
those properties just like we have our technical review committee where we have our shade tree commission that weighs in on any of the landscape the historic preservation they also weigh in on any properties we the last property that we
had that was a redevelopment area in a historic area they provided eight pages of comments that were all accepted and incorporated by the developer we also had other properties that they weighed in and there were changes made in the
architecture to accommodate the context of the historic area in terms of the property maintenance property maintenance if it is in a in within a historic area they are required to
consult with the historic preservation secretary that will escalate and coordinate any hearings as necessary with the historic preservation commission that is currently in the ordinance okay thank you
all right so thank you director uh for those explanations um what I'm observing uh through this process um is that building and providing affordable
housing is is very hard it's it's very difficult to do um there's many calculations and formulas that uh need to be employed in order to bring cost down for residents uh and the city of Planefield as a whole
aims to bring different types of affordable housing uh there's going to be affordable housing uh for varying income ranges uh it's not a one-sizefits-all uh in terms of affordable housing um obviously in this meeting format we go
one by one uh so as we look at a particular housing project uh or or affordable housing uh situation you know you may not agree with that one or maybe you don't qualify for that particular
one or maybe but maybe you know someone who does uh Planefield is a very diverse community with people of all income ranges and certainly we need affordable housing for all of them you know so my hope is that you know we look at them
individually and and and think about those other than ourselves in some instances when we look at the different affordable housing uh options in terms of uh the accelerate uh accessory
dwelling unit i just wanted to make uh just one clarification cuz I think uh initially it was stated that it goes from the central planning board to the zoning board but I you know I know that the central planning the zoning board is
really the most restrictive most difficult most expensive board the central planning board is a little less requirements but still expensive for homeowners to apply before the the central planning board you usually need an attorney uh who's uh
well-versed in the laws there's very very uh detailed notice requirements uh so it costs a lot of money in order to go before the zoning board or the central planning board so what the change is proposing uh is that it go before a zoning officer uh so what that
means is that you simply submit your your application directly to the city not one of the boards that you probably need an attorney uh and you know spend several thousand dollar on legal fees in order to do uh but you're able to just submit your application as a resident to
the zoning officer and them have the authority to rule uh on on on your application uh for your acceler accessory dwelling unit so essentially it's just trying to make it more user friendly give our zoning officer the
ability uh to instead of having to send it to other uh to the zoning board or the central planning board she can handle it herself uh or himself or whoever's um whoever's in so these are all good things uh I believe so uh with
that I took up a little time but I'll if anybody generated additional questions uh I'll give a opportunity i just want to just make a quick comment regarding the accessory dwelling um ordinance that uh will be voted on i was alluding to
making sure that we don't send our property owners to the zoning board i want us to have a very low tolerance where they would be discouraged from
seeking a variance for the accessory dwelling just stick to the rules let that be that if you don't qualify um then that's that you know I don't want to see accessory dwelling applications need a variance to do
outside of the scope of what's written in the uh ordinance well the encouragement as the council president was mentioning it's a application fee of $50 for the zoning officer versus
$2500 for the zoning board of adjustment okay all right so with that uh I'll ask if there's consensus to add these items to the voting meeting and I'm sensing that there'll be some so which items do we want to pull first
yes we're doing all set during the regular meeting there they're all voted on okay all right okay okay so these items will be added to the voting meeting all right you want to do the at at this point I believe we
wanted to uh consider resolution 17625 uh appointing the OEM coordinator so at this point you would just need a motion to suspend the regular order of business to move that 17625 be approved can we have such motion so moved second
can we have a roll call well we'll do voice vote all those in favor say I i i any any any opposition or abstension okay make it a little easier for you all right so now that that has been approved
uh we'll uh do this the the swearing in of our new officer and before I come down to administer the oath of office I wanted to point out the fact that there are several deputies
's deputy OEM coordinators and those individuals are yours truly business administrator Abby Levenson Abubakar Jallow the city clerk
information technology director Jazz Clayton Hunt public works department director Orin K dabney Senior Police Department james Abney Police Department lieutenant Mahasa
Alamine yes you can clap for that and and in our fire department I'm proud to also say Deputy Chief Damon Selket is also one of our deputy alien coordinator
we also have Lieutenant Malcolm Alston and the board of education is represented by Christopher Payne those are our deputy OEMs and at this time I would ask Kesha Batia Sergeant Kesha Bathe to come forward to receive the
open office dad raise your left and raise your right i Kesha Albatha I Kesha Elthea do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will faithfully I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly
perform and justly perform all of the duties of the office all of the duties of the office required by me as emergency management coordinator required by me emergency management coordinator
of the city of Planefield of the city of Planefield according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God i do further solemnly swear I do fur further solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United
States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and I will bear truth to the allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to
the same i will I will bear true fair and allegiance to the same i was doing good and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments
established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God congratulations she She has done this at least three times okay
all right Sergeant Bethea did you want to give any words did you want to give any words yes all right go right ahead i sure do if you know me I like to talk but I'm not going to talk long but I do want my
search team to stand up and I want to acknowledge them because I know they've been here for but first and foremost I want to thank the mayor and the administration and also the council as well as director children for his
continued support and guidance uh you know as Miss Abby Levenson stated earlier that he served a long term as OEM coordinator but he passed the torch to me so I do appreciate the opportunity
so I will be here to serve if anyone know me and you've seen me in the community I always say you know when you superersize your serve God will supersize your blessings so I will continue to educate the community when it comes to preparedness and I'm just
excited to hit the ground running and I want to thank you and I want to thank my court my deputies as well so thank you thank you thank you ladies wow that's awesome it's like the
hidden figures of OEM up there beautiful beautiful bunch okay can I get a picture yes let's get a picture um let's get a picture of the hidden
figures um we was here this long beautiful flowers soon as we get a good picture I'mma re I'mma adjourn i don't want everybody walking every in front of the picture two
are you sure all right we'll take a fivem minute recess okay council come on come on up we're in recess recording stopped okay anybody here we go okay we will move to consideration of public hearing
second reading and final passage madame Deputy please read MC 202513 by title and certify its legal compliance mc 202513 is an ordinance for a four-way stop intersection at Liberty Street and West Sixth Street to amend
and supplement chapter 16 vehicles and traffic article 7 through streets stop intersections stop and yield intersections designating certain four-way stop and three-way stop intersections it is hereby certified that notice of a public hearing on this
ordinance was published in the Courier News on March 12th 2025 okay the floor is now open for any member of the public that would like to speak regarding this ordinance specifically is there anyone online yes there is with
their hand raised okay person online are you calling regarding MC 2025-13 caller you need to unmute yourself for us to hear you you're still muted okay let's move on
uh I am May I have a motion to close public hearing on this ordinance so move so move second okay all those in favor say I i i okay any opposition or abstensions okay may I have a motion to adopt this ordinance on second reading
and final passage so moved second clerk may we have a roll call council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cessums yes council
President Hawk yes that is unanimous orders has been adopted on second reading and final passage okay madame Deputy please read MC 2025-14 by title and certify its legal compliance mc 202514 is an ordinance of the city of Planefield and the county of Union
adopting the TOD South redevelopment plan amendment dated February 20th 2025 it is hereby certified that notice of a public hearing on this ordinance was published in the Courier News on March 12th 2025 okay floor is now open for any member of
the public who'd like to speak regarding this ordinance specifically hearing and seeing none I'll entertain a motion to close public hearing on this ordinance so move second all those in favor say I i any opposition or abstensions public hearing is now closed
i'll now entertain a motion to adopt this ordinance on on second reading and final passage on first reading first reading second clerk roll call roll call mc 202514 council members Brick Jones yes
cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt no vice President Cessums yes council President Hakad yes in favor one opposed or ordinance has been adopted on second reading and final passage okay madame Deputy please read MCMC
25-16 by title and certify its compliance mc 202515 is an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank 2,882,742.72 cents and just to uh remind
everybody this is first reading which has to go before the adoption of the budget okay this is first reading okay so all we need is a motion and a second to entertain this on first meeting so second okay clerk can we have a roll
call roll call mc 202515 council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cessum yes council President Hogay yes this ordinance has been introduced on
first reading okay madame Deputy please read MC2025-7 we're going now to public comments for resolutions okay and we'll do the other first reading ordinances after the resolutions okay so we uh we'll now open it up for
for public comments on resolutions being considered this evening uh floor is now open and each speaker will be given three minutes uh for anybody online uh the instructions are contained on the website the floor is now open for
resolutions being considered this evening uh state your name and address and the resolution you're speaking regarding good evening samita Cooper North Planefield New Jersey i actually have a point of clarification for myself is this the regular public comment or just specific to these just specific to
those okay so I don't know the ordinance number um but it's in reference to the accessory housing and my comment and question is will there be a specific board for the applications i heard you say that there might be a lottery um for
certain things um as far as as far as the buildings that we were talking about with the $500 to $650,000 those particular houses but when it comes to the accessory units I wanted to know is there a specific
committee um will the neighbors have to be noticed will there be emails how will you go about making sure that the residents who live here which again I love the whole idea of the accessory units how will we go about making sure that everybody knows that that's
available um the ease that you were talking about on making sure that we know that it's not going to be this $2,500 burden and it's only going to be $50 which I think is awesome so how will we go about communicating that making sure that those of us who have houses
who may need to have multi-generational living and make the best use of accessory units how will we go about that so I'm sure you're still in the working stages of that i'm sure you can't answer that tonight but that is one of the things that I would love to
hear about and that's it for that resolution i'll be back for the other part sounds good okay thank you okay i'll have the director answer that once all the public comments are are done uh yeah Nancy if you have 1129
Myrtle Avenue um two one resolution 197-25 pertains to the Madison Avenue i believe the mayor asked a question about who was a former owner while I was sitting here I looked up the Sandborn Fire Maps and in 1904 it was the EH
Homes Coal and Wood Company owned part of the property toward the railroad tracks and in 1910 the Wadley and uh Good Enough Coal and Wood Company owned it and they owned it until they changed their name about 1940 to Wadley and
Smith so there's a progressive area in that area where there were coal um and lumber yards along the railroad track the gas company I believe was across the street where the old uh bilingual daycare center was um but those maps are
available at the Princeton University archives if you need to look up and get more information um and also for uh 2025-17 for the accessory buildings i appreciated the um commentary about it
but it is still a little bit confusing if the zoning officer if somebody decides to do that and if the zoning officer decides that you do need a variance then would it have to go before one of the appropriate boards or who makes that decision it kind of bounces
off the other lady's question i mean the zoning officer is giving that much power and she determines if everything the bulk standards are good then fine but what happens if the bulk standards aren't good and if a variance is needed
then the zoning officer going to refer it to the zoning board or the planning board or the appropriate board thank you good question all right come on up name address and resolution you're speaking regarding okay right uhwani
Palmer channel is 1227 East Front Street apartment 43B um I wanted uh I want to comment on the uh introduction of ordinance first reading MC 202518 and the question I had is with
the deed restriction does the deed restriction put in writing that these homes are for planefield residents only is that part of the de deed restriction um also do we actually know the number
of singleheaded households in Planefield and the number of people who actually make between a h 100,000 and $150,000 a year because if that number does not reach where we need to reach um does that mean that we go outside of
the city of Planefield to find those people who qualify for these single family houses we got a lot of single family female houses a lot of women taking care of children who should be able to buy homes to do that and if they don't reach
that threshold who does it go to thank you thank you south Corano 1284 East Front Street that's a very good question actually um I'm speaking on
202517 i am confused and I'm in real estate last month Councilman said when I questioned a building that was being built developed
worked on that the owner had conversations and the owner may not have understood the rules and the regulations although it's the fifth sixth home literally within a thousand feet of that building having said that this week I'm
hearing well we just don't want everybody requesting or asking or seeking because it is only 50 bucks not 2500 bucks well if it's 50 bucks I assure you everybody is going to seek it
and it's going to be overwhelming for the person andor department that it's being presented i don't know if the suggestion should be there's a cap if it's 50,000 or below it could stay in that particular person's
hands or if it's 50,000 or 100,000 and above it has to go through the planning or variance or whatever so I I would reconsider the implications and the unintended consequences that that may
bring thank you okay seeing no more public hearing there oh there's somebody online okay great there are two people online with their hands raised all right admit them um hi can you hear me yes we can hear
you name address and resolution you're speaking regarding yes thank you william Michaelelsson 556 Belvadier Avenue i want to talk about 2025-17 um I get the feeling there may be a
nugget of something legitimate in here but it's a mess and I'm going to ask the council to table it and I'll tell you why just glancing over this within minutes i I wrote down six different sections that have problems and I'm just
going to recite them very briefly in subsection B um these accessory dwelling units cannot be sold well what about whether they're leased you can't just uh ignore a lease hold once it's been granted maybe the people that are going to live in these units shouldn't be
tenants b i do not believe that this rule should allow new construction at all if it were to do that it needs to go back to the usual process through one of the boards uh D changing the setback rule so that the new unit only has to have a
five foot setback from a property line well the set the areas of town you're talking about the rule now ranges from a 10-ft setback to as much as a 50-foot setback it's not a good idea to just
wipe that out all at once subsection E allowing detached accessory dwelling units i think that's a bad idea again it goes back to the equivalent of building an entirely new home it should go through the usual
board process of section F about waving parking spaces well the last time that happened we got the situation that we have now on South Avenue where uh there's a constant line
of cars parked in the evening and a lot of people still can't find a space i do not think that waving parking requirements is a wise thing to do anywhere and subsection H allowing the zoning official to make some decisions
that normally go to the boards well I realize uh speeding up and and making a process like that far cheaper for the homeowner is is a desirable thing but I don't think this is going to achieve it
basically this proposal would simply reszone most of the city from one family to two family that cannot be done and it should not be done now there may be some legitimate room here for let's say a
motheraughter unit a family member who has a a separate unit with a separate stove but that's delicate this is how we got into the problem that now afflicts the Crescent Avenue and Putinham watch
historic districts where this was allowed back in the 1950s and60s letting new units be put in with a hot plate instead of a full stove and now all these years later they're
constantly telling us "Oh that's a legal three family or that's a legal family." Mr president the speaker's time has elapsed thank you all right thank you for your comments sir admit the next speaker name and address for Good evening
name address and resolution you're speaking regarding thank you sure sharice Coun uh 141 McKinley Place i'm speaking uh regarding resolution MC2025-17 and that is the resolution regarding the primary and accessory
dwelling units um I I would like to have and I I don't know that this is the time some additional clarity uh on that resolution i actually had contacted the city for something uh similar that I
wanted to do on my property and um by the time I got all of excuse me all of the runaround and excuse me contacted an architecture architect to you know do uh renderings and things like that it it turned out that it would be a very
expensive um project that I was looking at so I'm looking to have a little bit more clarity on uh what this resolution is actually um looking to um help residents with i would love to have the
opportunity to um do some multi-purpose on my garage i have this big threec car garage but I I just need to have some additional clarity uh on what it is that is looking to be accomplished with this thank you
you're welcome okay seeing none uh we'll now close public comment for resolutions being considered this evening director uh there were a couple questions about uh ADUs if you can clarify please sure so to clarify it
does not supersede the bulk standards of each of the districts for example R1 the setbacks there are significantly different from R3 the setbacks go as far
as 50 ft for R3 it goes down to 10 this does not make the setbacks the same for every unit that has an accessory dwelling units so if you are in R1 you are looking at the 50ft setback if you
are in R2 you are looking at the 40 foot setback if you are in R3 you are looking at as low as 10 ft setback on the sideyard so just to clarify this does
not supersede and make every unit available for two family homes because all of these homes have to have a primary residence and a sing and the homeowner must occupy the primary structure
um looking at the next question that's related to the zoning officer how we're going to advertise this um once should this be adopted with the
zoning officer we are going to present this at the planning board we'll present this at our joint boards and commission meeting on May 3rd which is going to be at the senior center at 400 East Front Street we are going to make this
available on the website quite often we have homeowners where several homeowners have come in to me and say it is cost prohibitive to go into making an addition for their children or for their
parents so this is intended to make it more affordable to build a mother and daughter suite not to have a goaround to build another structure for a multif family home at all this will not allow that
the next question was related to the deed restrictions for the single family and two family home looking at 2025-8 the down payment assistance is
going to be available to only Planefield residents residents outside of Planefield may purchase these homes with the income restrictions but they will not get the down payment assistance to answer the question how many homes that
households do we have within Planefield that are above 150 it's over 1,800 households 1,853 households are currently available in Planefield did I get all of them
yeah I think that's it okay thank you all right we will now move to the consent agenda all right clerk can you please announce the
consent agenda yes the consent agenda items have been identified as resolutions 17325 through R 225 and resolution 20325 through
R21025 on consent voted separately will be resolution 2011 and 2022 okay may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second uh clerk may we have a roll call council
members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes uh Vice President Cessums yes council President Hakaday yes that is unanimous to the consent agenda items have been approved we now move to resolution 20125
council President if I may be heard on 201125 sure um at this time um it's a we have a there's a request from the administration and the legal department we uh like to uh table uh this resolution for uh further technical review um so at this time I I would
recommend a motion to table uh resolution 2011-25 okay so moved second okay uh clerk can we have a roll call roll call to remove resolution 201125
council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cess yes council President Hawkiday yes that is unanimous 201125 has been tabled we now come to resolution 2022
madame deputy please uh motion and second second okay clerk can we have a roll call roll call resolution 2022 council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes
graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cessums yes council President Hawkeye yes that is unanimous this resolution's been approved um I believe Councilwoman Briggs Jones had a motion that she wanted to make now would
be the appropriate time oh I just wanted to make a motion um I would like to have the street named after Albert Steel Mills um it's between Prescott and South South Second Street um in his honor uh
he has very has been a pillar to the county to the um to the city of Planefield also was a former uh social um security officer and um the boxing program that he have a lot of people a
lot of our young men have come up under him and I just wanted to make a motion to have the street named after him second so so to be clear the first motion is to add it to the agenda because it's not on the agenda that requires twothirds vote then you need a
motion to approve it and that requires a simple majority okay and and councilwoman just so I'm clear you're you're asking for an honorary designation right you're not asking for an actual the actual street because that would require an ordinance to actually change this is an honorary title that we
would give to the street similar to what they did par Parliament Funkadelic Way was honorary as well yes cuz we have done some where it's permanently and done by ordinance but this one will be an honorary right right okay that's great this would be identified as resolution 21125 so you
need a motion to add it to the agenda so move second roll call any comments council member Brick Jones yes i got a comment um I agree with everything that um Councilwoman
um Brix Jones uh had said about Albert Mills and uh there's a boxing tournament in his name and in his honor i would like this to be more formal um with a presentation like we've done uh earlier in this meeting uh regarding
uh this designation uh and honor for the street um can we do it like that as opposed to voting on this tonight we're asking adding we want to add this on so that way we can vote it for a second time that's what we're doing right now
and then we vote on it and and there's let's just say it passes there's no presentation no pictures with the family of Albert Mills or anything like that um I I think uh what I think the council was asking if you withdraw your motion
so that it can be done in a more formal process right and that's okay we could do a more formal uh process to have the family here it's just that I'm I'm asking to have this name it was um if the family actually came to me and asked me to do this a while
ago it will be a ceremony if it happens all right look we can do it in two parts we we can bring them back next next meeting if for the ceremony should it pass no objection to that you know just to present the resolution it's fine okay okay it's been moved and
seconded council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cessum yes council President Hawk yes this resolution has been added to the agenda
2125 now you need a motion to approve so move second roll call please yes roll call on resolution 2125 council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes
graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cessums yes council President Hakaday yes that is unanimous this resolution has been approved that concludes resolutions for this evening okay where are we and we skipped 15 because we did that
during the beginning so we'll go to uh MC 201516 okay madam Deputy MC 202516 is an ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 16A article 16A
section 1 schedule 1 no parking on the south side of Wong Avenue the 1200 block okay uh this is first reading right correct okay i'll entertain a motion to adopt this ordinance on first
reading second second okay clerk roll call roll call MC 202516 council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cessums yes council President Hagadai yes this ordinance has been introduced
on first reading unanimously madam Deputy MC 202517 is an amendment to an ordinance of the city of Planefield in the county of Union amending chapter 17 the land use ordinance article 9 section 17 col
9-23 buildings or structures per lot a primary and accessory dwelling units okay I entertain a motion and a second to adopt this on first reading so moved clerk roll call please
roll call MC 202517 council members Brick Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt no vice President Cessums yes council President Hawiday yes six in favor one opposed ordinance has been introduced on first reading
okay mc 202518 is an ordinance of the city of Planefield in the county of Union granting a tax exemption with respect to certain property identified on the city's tax map as block 109 lot
41 block 122 lot 1 block 131 lot 15 block 209 lot 4 block 239 lot 22 block 502 lot 10 and block 727 lot 17 and
designated in the city's tax records as 608 West 4th Street 937 West 3rd Street 1147 South 2nd Street 45 Broka Boulevard 121 Liberty Street 659 West 4th Street
and 1261-1263 Arlington Avenue Planefield New Jersey and authorizing the execution of a financial agreement with Home Ownership Small Lots Urban and renewal LLC tax abatement to be transferred to home buyers
okay i'll entertain a motion to adopt this ordinance on first reading so moved second clerk can we have a roll call roll call mc 202518 council members Bricks Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt no vice President
Cessums yes council President Hockaday yes six in favor one opposed ordinance has been introduced on first reading mc 202519 is an ordinance of the city council of the city of Planefield authorizing a transfer of redevelopment
agreement and financial agreement between the city of Planefield 803 South Urban Renewal LLC and 803 Urban Renewal LLC and authorizing the execution of an assignment and assumption agreement in connection therewith okay i entertain a
motion and a second so move Second clerk can we have a roll call roll call mc 202519 council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President
Cessum yes council President Hagaday yes that is unanimous this ordinance has been introduced on first reading mc 202520 is an ordinance of the city of Planefield and the county of Union adopting the JFK Muenberg Hospital
redevelopment plan amendment dated February 20th 2025 c council president at this time on behalf of uh the administration um and the office of corporation council we ask that this be uh tabled for more technical review um so I recommend a motion to table so
moved second roll call please so roll call to table ordinance 202520 council members Brick Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt
yes vice President Cessums yes council President Hawkiday yes mc 202520 has been tabled okay madame Deputy read MC 2025-21 mc 202521 is an amendment to ordinance
and repeals certain 2022 amendments of the city of Planefield in the county of Union amending chapter 17 the land use ordinance article 9 sections 17 col4-10 17 col10-4 and 17
col10-5 Historic Preservation Commissionformational meetings actions requiring a certificate of appropriate ness and referral of permits i'll entertain a motion to adopt this ordinance on first reading so move so move second roll call please
roll call mc 202521 council members Briggs Jones yes cherry yes graham yes mccrae yes wyatt yes vice President Cessums yes council President Hakaday yes that is unanimous this ordinance has been introduced on
first reading and that concludes ordinances for first reading this evening okay all right we'll now move to general comments public comment total of 30 minutes has been allocated for all public comments uh each speaker will be
given three minutes if any member of the public would like to call in please dial the number that's on the website name and address and speak on any topic at all thank you again in Samita Cooper North Planefield New Jersey forgot to
mention that I'm actually a local real estate broker here in the city but I am also a homeowner in the city of Planefield while I may reside somewhere else uh had to get my little notes together none of this is a complaint
this is truly just a conversation or just comment to have you think about and I need a clarification on something i was told by someone in the Division of Inspections that if you have a property that's located in a flood
zone you are now not allowed to finish the basement as a real estate broker when I'm selling homes one of the points that I point out is hey you can finish the basement i obviously don't want to be giving out the wrong information so I
need to know and I don't know who would be able to assist me with that if that's something that's truly in writing if it's from FEMA or where can I go about to get that information so that I can do my best job in serving the city and the
community uh when it comes to the accessory dwellings I wanted to know will there be will there be excuse me will there be any specific policing or inspections regarding it because it's
sounding like we're going to be able to build a studio apartment or you know something right below 800 ft so I'm sure some of the homes already have and I want to say this
delicately overcrowding so this of course will be a way to relieve some of that but I know there's a challenge with inspections as it is in trying to make sure that houses are not overcrowded so I'm just
wondering is that something that we're thinking about uh earlier today I was downtown Planefield and I was across the street from the McDonald's i'm not going to point out the officer but just know I was there perhaps talking to one of the officers and there was a scooter that
was on the sidewalk going extremely fast and the officer attempted to stop the scooter and let them know that they shouldn't be on the sidewalk and the scooter kept going so I wanted to know what are we doing about that um how can
we do anything about that i know that there are challenges as some of those scooters aren't registered as far as you know motor vehicle registrations so how do we combat that i know that also falls back into us not being able to chase vehicles and so forth but it's a safety
concern and I understand that there are challenges with those scooters so I witnessed that witnessed this myself um this was probably around 6 p.m and I'm just wondering um how can we as a community assist you to assist us so um
I think that's it so thank you you're welcome uh Nancy P 1129 Myrtle Avenue i'm I'm come before you tonight with some information um as everybody knows Muenberg and the doctors and the nurses at Muenberg um I owe debt of
gratitude because they saved my life in 1974 and they also saved my life in 2000 when I had to have a blood transfusion um last week I got a news alert um Hackinac University Medical Center is now the first in the state to be able to
give blood transfusions in the field um the department New Jersey Department of Health recently expanded their blood bank license and regulatory waiver to Hackinac Meridian Health to allow trained paramedics are permitted to
carry blood to uh administer blood transfusions in the field uh right there on the scene uh during and during transport since Hackinac Meridian has a base in Playfield um I would hope that
um Mr um the the CEO of Hackinac Meridian uh decides that uh we are entitled to have a paramedic that is able to give blood transfusions in the field on site at Muenberg at the satellite emergency department and their
transport systems um this is relatively new um it's there's been case studies done that that will save lives in in case of severe accidents or hemorrhages and I just want to make the city administration and the council aware
that there's is a possibility and that Planefield is not left out of the mix since they cover a wide area we should be asking uh Mr garrett um that we we have that service available in the city of Planefield i'd be happy to give these
to the city clerk that can be passed out because this is a new and upcoming technology and I think Playville deserves it since our hospital was closed by the department of health thank you againwan chambless 12270s Front Street
Planefield New Jersey um even though we have uh tabled ordinance MC2520 um I still feel compelled to speak on it because tabled means that it's eventually going to come back so
um I'm just really concerned about the expansion of this property being changed to something that accommodates um additional educational facilities uh in the
city all of us were here um the majority of us voted for college achieve charter school uh to enter into a memorandum of understanding with them so that they could expand to that property and either unbeknown to this
board or ignored by this board the mayor the lawyer and whoever else they are currently under investigation by the state and were under investigation by the state in November of 2024 um before they came before this
board with this great idea of what they would do for our children and uh we voted yes to enter into a memory understanding with an organization that is currently under investigation from the state and that's totally problematic
for me so if you are going to allow this to be another opportunity for a charter school to expand in Planefield again 21 districts Planefield is the only one that sells their education to the lowest
bidder can you at least do your homework before you vote to make sure that you're not selling our kids to an organization that is currently under investigation from the state for financial impropriities almost $8,000 their CEO is
making to fail children and we think that's a good idea to bring them here so I really question that vote that you did um so if and you know if I if I were to speak they you guys would call me to attention while I'm speaking in the audience if
you guys up here speaking so I think the the word used earlier was things are unfair i think it's unfair what he's doing i just want that on the record i think it's unfair also um going back to the single family households we have a
number of families here that are on the section 8 program that are having their rent paid they pay a portion of rent section 8 also has a firsttime homeowner home buyer program that allows you to have your mortgage um paid in the same
way i don't know if we do that in Planefield i don't know if we're looking to do that in Planefield that would be a really good way to help some of these homeowners who don't make a hundred or 150,000 whatever it is become homeowners i heard Mr haka said there are several programs there are several ways we can
do that it's not just one maybe this is one that you guys should look at for another demographic of people that might think but thank you thank you good evening name and address for the record good evening council my name is Robert F edwards i live at 510A West
Forest Street Planefield New Jersey back in 2023 I brought to the city council that there's an issue called there's um an emergency uh in the housing authority and it's
called electromagnetic radiation what in simple language what it means is that uh there's excessive electricity running through the sockets and through the entire uh unit well I brought that to the city
council and um I brought it to the uh inspections department the health department they came by and looked and there was really no results ultimately I filed a complaint and the um Rosel Park
municipal court found probable cause uh in 2004 2024 uh both that department is unfit for humanitutation which is 5 5.02 and
2.24 about the electrical malfunction unfortunately uh the court did not really rule on the uh violations subsequently it's now going it's it's on its way to superior court um that
process is already in uh in motion uh uh the city council knows about it because he was able to get a copy of uh what's going on with that issue in addition to that there's excessive chemicals substances coming
into the apartment send me to the hospital approximately once every once a month and um I have one just one of the medical reports that says the air quality in the patient's current residence is affecting his health it is
recommended that the building be inspected for air quality/chemicals also um there's another report from another doctor recommendation that is Robert Ed was seeing treated our emergency room
41225 uh please evaluate the department for any electrical abnormalities these were two different doctors talking about two separate issues that have been merging and intertwining and sending me to the
hospital almost every month i'm asking the city council to look into this to investigate this because it's not only affecting me it's affecting the other tenants they just don't want to speak up about it i can't speak for
someone else i know that it's affecting them because they're asking me "What is that smell coming into their apartments?" Thank you thank you this will be real fast good evening pamela Dunn 750 West 4th Street couple
of comments i know I heard something about speed bumps um with all the speed bumps that you're about to install you think maybe you could put a couple in front of Hubby School cuz they repaved the street in Hubby School and they're using it like a speed like a raceway
kids are coming out of school i'm a bus driver i pull up there every day it is terrible my second thing is Abby thank you for the crossing guards but I think that they need some training your crossing guards are going to get
mashed because this is what they do they don't look they just step out somebody's going to get hit they have no control over the kids i don't know what you're going to do about that but you need another one on the corner of 8th
and Planefield Avenue please put someone out there please another person you got one but he can't handle the traffic and the kids that just going out there anyway okay I would appreciate that i
would hate to see somebody's kid and a crossing guard get mashed because these people do not stop they go out around them maybe a police officer every now and then might sit out there and discourage this double parking and the ice cream
trucks okay let me digress i'm a bus driver it's very hectic over there you got a ice cream truck on Spooner you got one on Field Avenue right on the corner these kids are coming out of school dashing to get the ice cream and nobody's telling them to either move
down or park somebody someplace else that's all thank you okay thank you seeing no more is there anybody online yes there is okay public hearing is closed in person we'll now move to online uh public hearing public
comment name and address for the record once again William Michaelelsson 556 Belvadier Avenue uh two issues I'd like to bring to your attention and the common thread is that it's hard in Planefield half the time to find out
where you're going there are literally hundreds of street corner name signs that are missing at intersections all around town um a lot of the short streets for instance in the Fourth Ward
there's a lot of that you there's just nothing there to tell you where you are uh there's a lot of additional signs that are either illegible with age or falling down i really think it requires a citywide program to place all of the
street corner name signs all over the place that need them before somebody dies because the police or the ambulance or someone can't even tell what street they're at uh same theme we have an
ordinance that requires people to have a legible street number on the front of their house or other building it's section 13 col 8-2 and here too we've got hundreds if not thousands of properties around
town where there is no street number out front um it would be all right with me if the city pays for it for some people it would be all right with me if the city issues citations to all these folks
to do it get street numbers so that we can all tell where we are uh finally I want to thank the mayor for HPC 20 yeah the HPC ordinance that was just uh adopted it looks pretty good
i checked it out uh there might be a detail or two to be tinkered with later but I I think it it looked right i am told that the decision that was made in 2022 that we're now reversing was actually
inadvertent thank you there's one more caller one more name and address for the record uh good evening uh Shereice Coons 141 McKinley Place again i just have a a few
comments uh first I'd like to uh thank Director Abney um I had an issue with one of his officers and I did call his office and um we were able to address the issue um immediately and I just
wanted to let him know that you know I appreciate the speed at which um he addressed my concern so I commend you for that and I thank you for that um quick response uh the second uh thing is
you know I was looking at the presentation uh by Miss Fields when she was going through uh the different renderings uh with the new um the parking deck and uh of the uh the
renderings around the Y uh around the Y building uh that will have the uh the center of excellence and you know as I as I looked at those renderings I said I I think they're good but I think the renderings are a little misleading
because it did not take into account all of the traffic that all of these new developments are go all of these new developments are going to bring into the city uh I'm not sure um how many of you have tried to drive from Rock Avenue to
Terrell Road in Planefield it will take you a very long time i am really concerned with the amount of traffic and congestion that all of this development is bringing into the city and um that's really concerning to me as a resident
and I I'm hopeful that you know as we're looking at new developments in the city we're taking that into consideration because it is very congested already um my last issue is uh down on the in my
area uh on McKenley Place uh PSC is doing the new gas lines uh and they're doing a lot of digging up and and um tearing up of the streets and maybe this was addressed previously but I just want
to know is there going to be any repaving or like what's going to happen uh with the streets because I mean the what they've done you know I appreciate that we're getting new gas lines uh but is there going to be a a regrading um
and are these roads going to be fixed because it's it's dangerous to your tires driving over uh this construction that's going on and that was my only comments thank you okay thank you any more online
there is one more caller but their hand isn't raised okay all right so public comment is now closed online as well uh did did uh the administration need to respond to anything outstanding just as far as one person mentioned
about street signs we have a crew going around the city trying to replace street signs that that are missing across the city that's something we're continue to do and to things back to where it should be that's one portion and the next question I guess someone mentioned about public service yes there's a restoration
plan in place for all roads to be resurfaced over time across the city where we're doing uh the gas man upgrades and as well as American Water the work they're doing as well so that's all the plan in place all right the restoration thank you
director and I have one thing in regards to the uh motorbike or bicyclist in the downtown area on the sidewalk there actually is a ordinance in place there are signs that we have put up downtown and we're continuing to put up more there's no bic bicycling no motorbikes
no bikes of anything on the sidewalks in downtown Planefield um we're going to work on a more comprehensive campaign to get that message out to people in English and Spanish but it's it's like anything else so we get a hold of those motorbikes we confiscate them they're not supposed to be on the street thank
you um in response to the question about the flood zone any address that you have that you have a question about being in a flood zone you can direct it to either the zoning officer themsel you can
direct her to the building and construction office they'll be able to look it up or you can come to the planning office we can look it up for you directly um in terms of the ADU and being subject to
inspections all of our ordinance related to building and construction as well as property maintenance still apply so all inspections will apply to the accessory dwelling units okay all right i think that about
does it uh entertain a motion to adjurnn so moved second all those in favor say I i i