Wednesday, March 11th, 2026, 7 p.m. This meeting is also being te telephonically conducted. The dialin number is 425436 6365, access code 213563, pound sign. This meeting may also be
viewed on the Ramsey YouTube channel. Miss Bendy, may I please have a roll call? >> Mayor Dylan, >> here. >> Councilwoman Cusk, >> here. >> Councilman Gerson >> here. >> Councilman Gutwer >> here. >> Councilman Kilman >> here.
>> Councilman Papo >> here. >> Councilwoman Poppy here. >> Thank you very much, Miss Bendy. And now, may I please ask everyone rise? And if you're wearing a hat, if you're able, please remove it. To salute our flag, I would kindly ask former President Kilman
to lead us, please. >> I pledge to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
>> Thank you, Peter. The New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of all citizens to have advanced notice of and to attend all meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting the public is discussed or acted upon.
In accordance with the provisions of this act, notice of this meeting of the mayor and council was published in the Bergen record and the suburban news on Wednesday, January 15, 2026 and is posted on our legal notices page at
www.ramseyj.com. May I please have an approval of the minutes? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes listed on tonight's agenda from the February 11th, 2026 meeting. >> And I second that, Council President.
>> Thank you very much. Do we do we need a roll call for that? May I please have a roll call? Thank you. Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes. >> Councilman Gerson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gotwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kelman, >> yes. >> Councilman Papo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes.
>> And this is Councilwoman Cusk. I would like to accept the communications that are noted in our agenda. >> I'll second that. >> Thank you for the second. Mr. Gerson, >> may I please get a roll call? >> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes.
>> Councilman Gerson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Pablo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes. >> Now, I'd like to get a motion to go out of order for an appointment. Yes,
council president. I' like to make a motion we go out of order for the special presentations. >> She's not here yet. >> No, >> they're not here yet. >> No, this is for the final appointment for the appointment. >> She She is not here. >> She's here. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> So, >> thank you.
>> May I have a second, please? >> I'll second. >> Thank you very much. Madam Mayor, >> I hereby make the following appointments. Jackie Gersh, Ramsey Municipal Alliance. Kathy Dany, planning board member, regular member dwelling the unexpired chimber Joseph Kerry and
Christina Hayek, Ramsey Fire Department. >> Will she be sworn in? >> All right. So, go ahead and swear in Madame, you ready? I'll turn this way. Please raise your right hand. Please raise your right
hand. Repeat after me. I say your name. I softly swear I swear so faithfully that I faithfully impartially and chose perform all the duties all the duties of the office of the office of fire department
to the best of my according to the rest of my swear I support the constitution and I support the constitution state and I will bear true faith and allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the
until the government established the government established in the United States and this state in this state. The authority of people under the authority of people Thank you. >> She needs to sign right now. Here you
want find her. So, um, may I please have a motion to go back into regular meeting order? >> Yes, council president. I'm going to make a motion to go back into regular order and going into public comment.
>> I'll second it. >> Thank you, Mr. Kelman and Mr. Person. >> All in favor, please. >> I >> Thank you very much. Uh public comment. Please note, folks, that this does not pertain to the public hearing on the final consideration of the ordinances
that will be done during the hearing. Um, so for public comment tonight, anyone wishing to address the governing body, please give your name, spelling the last name and address, please speak in an audible tone and address your comments to the chair. There will be a
five minute time limit per speaker unless reduced because of the volume of business on the agenda. Please note that public comment is your time. Out of respect and fairness to all, there will be no interruptions or questions answered during your time. No time shall
be seated to anyone else and no time should be saved later for shall be saved for later use. Any responses may be given during the governing body's comments later in the meeting or as directed by the chair. The burough clerk is the official
timekeeper. First call please for public comment. Anyone on the telephone for public comment? Second call for public comment, please. On the telephone, please. Third and final.
Third and final for the telephone for public comment. Thank you. Not seeing anyone approaching or on the telephone. I will close public comment for the meeting. >> I would like to make a motion
uh to resolutions >> to present the consent resolutions, please. >> Yes. To make a motion to go into the consent resolutions because we're waiting for Mr. urges to arrive. We will be here closer to 7:30,
but we have enough work to go through until we get to that time. >> I second. >> Thank you, Mr. Cone. Thank you, Mr. Kelman. So, second, all in favor, please. I >> I >> Thank you. >> Consent resolutions, please.
>> Thank you, Council President. uh be resolved that resolution 060 2026 through and including 073 2026 having been considered by the governing body of the burrow of Ramsey D and are hereby passed and approved.
Uh there's a special permit request tonight. Shannon Rose requested permission for employees to park in the McFaren Field parking lot from March 13 to March 17th and there are no block party requests this evening. >> I'll second that. Thank you very much,
Mr. Gutw and Mr. Papo. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Bendy. >> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes. >> Councilman Gerson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Papo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes.
>> Thank you very much. May I please have another uh motion to go out of order for our committee and liaison reports? >> Yes, council president. Make a motion to skip over the special presentation to committee and leaison reports. Second. >> Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank
you. Finance and administration. >> All in favor? >> Excuse me. >> Um, all in favor. >> Thank you very much. Finance and Administration. Councilman Michael Gutter, please. >> Uh, thank you, Council President Cusk. My report could receive. First off, I
just want to congratulate those appointees who are listed on tonight's agenda and thank you for the attendance for the burough. Uh my report start with the library board. The lunar new year event was another successful event with over 30 individual performers and 275
people in attendance. The library director is working on the 2026 budget proposal and the 2025 annual report and state report which presented to the board at the most recent meeting. In addition, the board is working on a five-year capital plan presented in the near future. Team room furniture will
delivered in the beginning of this month and instilled and residents can check the library websites for spring programs from recreation commission. Registrations for spring sports are available on the Ramsey Recreation website where there are links for the various sports. The spring Easter egg
hunt is being held March 21st at the Ramsey High School front lawn at 9:00 a.m. rain or shine. Following is the Ramsey Fire Department breakfast with Easter Bunny from 9:30 to 12 at the firehouse and summer day camp uh like
registration at Finch Park opens on April 1st. I believe there are also counselor applications available on the website for that. Ramsey Farmers Market is open from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm through April. In May, the hours change
from 9:00 a.m. to 2 pm. Uh, the Touch a Truck event has been rescheduled to April 26, sponsored by the Ramsey Juniors. And April 19th, there's an EV car show sponsored by the Ramsey Environmental Commission, Dream Team, and Second Chance toy Collection
sponsored by the Ramsey Environmental Commission. Green Team. That's my report for this evening. Yep. Thank you very much, Councilman Gutwer. Public safety, Councilman Kilman. >> Thank you, Council President. First, congratulations to the appointments
tonight, Jackie, Kathy, and in particular, Christina Hayek, who is here tonight from the Ramsey Fire Department. The board of health will be meeting tomorrow night. So, after that, we'll have a report from them. And then lastly, at uh dealing with our new
emergency services complex, at our last mayor and council meeting, the architects and Ramsey emergency services building committee presented an overview of the project's design. At this time, they continue to fine-tune the design details as it nears completion. Once
completed, reviewed, and approved by the mayor and council, we now expect that it will go out for public bids sometime in the second quarter of 2026. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Building planning and zone zoning council member.
>> Thank you, Council. Uh first of all I'd like to congratulate the appointments Jeffy Kathy and Christina at the February design review board meeting for sign applications were group one not approved and there was one no
show again um at the February zoning board meeting there were two hardship variance applications that were both approved for additions to single family homes that's Thank you very much, Council Member
Sunday. Utilities, Buildings, and Grounds. Councilwoman Cusk. Um, thank you to Jackie, Kathy, and Christina for your service to the burrow. These are our appointments tonight, and I have the honor to attend the Ramsay Volunteer Ambulance Corp dinner on March 7th.
Thank you for your service. Sadly, you've been very busy lately. Please know how grateful we are for all you do for our community. My report will contain an update on our planning board, shade tree commission, and board of public works. At the Ramsey Planning Board meeting on the 3rd of March, there
was a hearing for the amended housing element and fair share plan. The plan was adopted by the Ramsey Planning Board on March 3rd by a unanimous vote. There were three ordinances. 042026 new R-5E Island Road Multif Family
Residential Overlay District 0-2026 05-2026 new R5F North Franklin Turnpike Multif Family Residential Overlay District and 0-6-2026 affordable housing mandatory set aside.
The planning board conducted a review of these ordinances. The board reviewed the provisions of the proposed development regulations and on a correspondence from the planning board chairman dated for March 2026, they have advised the governing board that the regulations are
consistent with the 2026 amended housing element and fair share plan. The next planning board meeting is the 7th April 2026. Ramsey has a no knock registry. We maintain it and it allows residents to opt out of door-to-door commercial
solicitation. Addresses on this list. >> Dr. Please. Thank you. >> Addresses on this list may not be approached by licensed commercial solicitors. It covers commercial and door-to-door solicitation by licensed
businesses. It doesn't cover not for-profit groups, charities, religious organiz organizations, or political organizations. You can enroll by visiting the website and completing online application. What you're going to do is search no knock list in the um in
the icon with the magnifying glass. After your registration's process, pick up a no knock decal at the burough clerk's office. Displaying the decal helps reinforce your registration. So, you're going to display it at your door. Our shade tree commission last met on
the 19th of February. The next meeting is 19 March. We've been a tree city for 30 years now. Spring planting preparations is ongoing and our shade tree commissioners are reaching out to Bur residents for requested trees for the planting season. I'm going to um
mention just quickly that Ramsay's board of public works are working to treat POS which are the large group of humanmade chemicals um and we are working with HQM our engineering and architectural firm. In addition, we have a lead service line
replacement project for the Burough Board of Public Works. They continue planning and implementation measures to comply with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's LE service line replacement mandate. To encourage the proactive replacements, the
ordinance that the bureau has put in offers a $750 reimbursement to property owners who replace their galvanized or lead water service lines within a specified time frame. The details are on our website and due to timing I'm I'm
going to um forego the full qualifications, but they are always in the minutes from past meetings. Ladies and gentlemen, um and lastly, snow removal operations. We understand the frustration of our residents. We drove the roads, too.
Ramsey received 18.7 ines of snow from February 22nd to February 23rd. Your concerns have been heard. We have your correspondence and we have discussed this among our government partners. Process and resource changes are being
made accordingly. Those are my comments for this evening. I would like to ask now for public and governmental regulations relations with councilwoman Sarah Py. >> Thank you, Council President Cusk. Um my
report is short this evening. I would first like to congratulate our appointees, Jackie, Kathy, and Christina Hayek, on their appointments for various committees and emergency services. The Ramsey Municipal Pool will have their
commission meeting next Wednesday, the 18th, downstairs in the front conference room at 7:30 p.m. This will be their budget meeting. So, watch for early bird registration, which will follow once that is put into place. The Ramsey
Journal is accepting submissions through today. Um, thank you to all the organizations who've submitted photos and articles. The editing has begun. Um, I'm very excited to read all of your
submissions and I would like to thank um, Meredith, uh, Kelly, Sylvester, Erica, and the office for all their assistance so far and, uh, the assistance that shall continue through the next weeks. The Ramsey Journal is
expected to be in mailboxes the week of April 6. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Councilwoman Poppy. Health, Education, and Social Services. Councilman Pop, please. >> Thank you, Council President Cusk. I
would also like to congratulate and thank Jackie, Kathy, and Christina on their appointments and of course for their service. I will begin with Reich. Our basketball season concluded on Saturday. Uh they were undefeated again. >> Undefeated again
>> this year. >> Um >> go right. >> They had their medals and uh again good attendance and thank you all to everybody that volunteered and helped out uh the challenges in Reich this season. Next up will be softball which starts in late April depending on the weather. Uh Reich also completed an art
night which was a great event. About 26 Refers attended the uh event on February 26th. Um and the next event for Reich will be a spring dance which will be May 1st at St. Paul's Church. Uh environmental committee uh we met last
night. The styrofoam recycle scheduled for March uh has been cancelled and will be picked up by Upper Saddle River. Uh we will then pick up the uh April date for the recycle. Cleanup is uh scheduled for April 18th
uh from 9 to 12 uh and as well the EV car show and second uh hand toys drive will be the following day. I had uh started discussions with Sarah uh I hope I pronounce her name right. Schlope of the sit stay New Jersey. Uh we will be
looking at um dog bag stations on our bike path as well as other areas within Ramsey. So we'll take a look at different spots that we think are hightraic areas for for that and I'll get back to the council mayor and council you know when I have more
information on that. Uh Ramsey Municipal Alliance next meeting is on the 23rd and our board of ed the next meeting will be on 17th and that's the next. Thank you very much, Councilman Popp. And
I would like to please ask Madame Mayor Diego Dylan for comments. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Um, thank you and congratulations to Jackie Gersk, Kathy Dany, and to Christina Hayek. Um, I always admire people when they sign on to be in the
fire department because of the countless hours that they have to go through for fire safety one and all the other training. It is a true commitment. So, I thank everyone who does that. Um, this Sunday we have the Boy Scouts Arrow Arrow of Light Advancement, which is
always a wonderful ceremony. And then the following week, we have Francesca Mura, who's having her Eagle Scout Court of Honor. I don't know if you've noticed all the wonderful improvements to Veterans Park across from the high school. That was her Eagle Scout Court
Eagle Scout project, and she did a phenomenal job on it. and I thank her for her leadership and everyone who helped her accomplish that project. Um, and thank you to Mr. Kerry for his service to the planning board for many years. And also, I was at the Ramsey Ambulance Corps recognition dinner. And
as I mentioned that night during my remarks, the people in the Ambulance Corps truly are angels on earth. They see people at their worst, at their very worst when they're scared, they're injured, they're afraid. um and they render such compassionate, kind care and
deliver them where they can get more advanced care at the hospital. So, you know, thank you to the Ramy Ramsey Ambulance Corp for inviting me. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor. Borrow Administrator Boza. >> Uh thank you, Council President. I'll hold on my ordinance comments till we
get to the ordinances. Uh just and resolutions. I'll just highlight one resolution uh that was on the agenda tonight which is uh resolution 66. This authorizes the bureau to enter into a shared services agreement with Allenale for the provision of public safety
dispatch services. Uh the burrow is entering into a shared service agreement with the burrow of Allenale whereby Ramsey will be providing public safety dispatch services for the burrow of become increasingly difficult for towns to maintain an independent dispatch
service. There's a high cost of maintaining and upgrading the communications equipment along with maintaining personnel for a 247 365 day a year operation. When we heard that Alleno was looking at shared service options, it made a lot of strategic
sense to partner up with them. Ramsey will be be providing the dispatch services from Ramsey PD headquarters for both Ramsey and Allenale going forward. As part of the agreement, Ramsey will be bringing on a couple of full-time dispatchers from Allenale. This will aid in the transition as these dispatchers
have experience working for Allenale. However, one was also previously a Ramsey dispatcher and both are volunteers in the Ramsey emergency services. So, we're very familiar with both community. This shared service and increased dispatch personnel will also help alleviate the times where police
officers are needed to cover dispatch duties and temporarily folds off patrol and emergency response duties. I'd like to thank the mayor and councils of both towns and police departments for their foresight in pursuing this opportunity, which should be a win-win situation for the two communities moving forward.
Um and I think I'll hold the rest of my comments for now. >> Thank you very much for administrator for attorney. >> Thank you um >> thank you for
>> Okay. Thank you very much everyone for that. I'd like to make a motion now to um go out of order and go back to uh section eight on the agenda for special presentations. Please may I have a motion? >> Yes, you have the motion to go either
back or forward into the order that we need to do for the special presentations. >> And a second, please. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Councilman Person and Councilman. >> So, um roll call. Roll call, please. I get that roll call.
>> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes. >> Councilman Gerson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Papo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes. >> Thank you. So, tonight's special presentation, um, we have on the day
with us Joe Burgess. He's our Ramsey planner and, um, our subject matter expert on the fair share plan and the overlay zones. Um Joe is going to give his presentation and um when we're ready for questions I will ask Joe as our
subject matter expert to field what is appropriate for him to field um as per um when they arise. So Joe, >> thank you very much. >> Uh good evening everyone. Uh just a quick show of hands. How many were at
the planning board meeting last? Okay, there's still quite a few that were not. I'm going to try to give a much briefer overview of the whole affordable housing issue. Um just to touch base on why it's necessary to comply with this
whole affordable housing issue raised by the state and touch upon what our obligation uh have been established by the state and how it's been reduced and then specifically get into some of the ordinances that we're going the council
going to be considering tonight. Um, as you heard when I spoke at the last meeting, the reason to comply is very simple. Municipalities that fail to comply with the so-called Mount Laurel doctrine and New Jersey Fair Housing Act
uh can have all of their local zoning ordinances declared or deemed unconstitutional. Um, if that were to happen, municipalities would then lose their ability to zone property. And as I said
at the last meeting, um, right here in Bergen County, we have one municipality that chose not to pursue their affordable housing obligation, and they did in fact lose all of their obligation or ability to review site plans. and a special master
special adjudicator was appointed by the court to review all development applications claim was completely cut out of the picture. Um that's about as egregious a process that could possibly happen to
you. When I talk to you when I mention the mount laurel doctrine the question is usually well what is that mount laurel doctrine? That mural doctrine goes back to a New Jersey Supreme Court decision back in 1975
where the court ruled that every municipality has an affordable housing obligation and it's a constitutional obligation that they must deal with. Um originally they talked about it in the context of developing municipalities but
then a few years after that 9075 decision. Uh they adjusted that to simply say that every municipality had an obligation and those municipalities that were in the then state plan growth area such as Ramsey and basically all of
Bergen County would have a greater obligation than those municipalities that were in the non-growth area. And they also urged the state legislature to address this issue. State legislature did by creating the what was then called
the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, known as COA. Um they went into the into business in 1985. They spent about a year or so putting together affordable housing obligations for municipalities
and also the affordable housing regulations. And initially, every six-year period, beginning in 1987, they were obligated to provide new housing needs for every municipality. That was subsequently at one point
changed to a 10-year period, but for the purposes of this discussion, it doesn't matter. Um, the big issue was if a municipality did not comply with their obligation, what would happen? And the
legislation allowed what was called a builder's remedy lawsuit for municipalities that didn't comply. The court would award sight specific development
developers uh to build affordable housing provided they would provide either 15 or 20% set aside of their total number of units. um and make certain that the municipality achieved the entirety of their obligation. That
was particularly ownorous to municipalities that were basically fully developed and who would not normally be able to address their entire obligation. Um they also the COA also identified a
series of site selection criteria and as we discussed at the last meeting amongst the the issues that the that COA and the courts focused upon was proximity to mass transit in particular train stations and access to regional highways
network. um with and there were three affordable housing rounds before this current fourth round that began just in this past year. uh with the fourth round they added a new component and they said that for towns that were considered
vacant land adjustment municipalities which uh Ramsey is one um you also would have an obligation to address 25% of your unmet need through identifying redevelopment properties that could
redevelop over the 10-year period of the fourth round. There are a number of other criteria but I think those are the two critical ones um for this discussion today. Uh initially just to round out the picture
uh we had a first and second round combined obligation that was from 1987 to 1999 of 89 units. The third round stretched out over a long period of time because there was a lot of litigation which I'm not
going to bore you with the details but that took a 26 year period to to establish a third round and Ramsey's number at that time was 736 and now with this fourth round they
initially determined our obligation was 450 units. Now, the saving grace to the regulations was that if you're fully developed, you're entitled to seek a vacant land adjustment. And we achieved that in each of the rounds. Um, after
beginning with the third round, first and second, we actually addressed the entirety of our obligation. But the third round, while our obligation was for 736 units, we through our vacant land adjustment determined that we had a
what was called a realistic development potential of only 54 units and there was a the difference of close to 700 units. And in this fourth round, our number was 450. We reduced that to a 26 unit
realistic development potential. Um, and the difference there was 424 units. That difference is what's referred to in all the regulations as unmet need. And the burrow, as I mentioned a moment ago, is
obligated to address 25% of that unmet need to develop sites that have the potential for redevelopment. So in the first and second round, we addressed the entirety of our number. Um I'm not going to go through the list
what was of all the sites that were selected then. But what was interesting is that a good portion of that 189 unit obligation roughly half was addressed through extensions of expiring controls
on affordable housing units. Now if we didn't extend those controls those units um had these restrictions for a certain period of time they once they were at that end of that lifespan those units could become market rate units and we
would have to make up the difference uh in a new plan for that those lost units. So by allowing by working with the developer and the owners of those units to extend the controls, we were able to achieve out to address that obligation
without having to see any additional units being built. So that was a a good issue. Secondly, on most of the other remaining units that were part of the obligation, some of the other projects have been
overbuilt with affordable units. We use those existing units to address the rest of our obligation. So, we never had to build any more affordable units to address the first two rounds. In large measure, the same process played out
with the third round. our obligation as we determined through a realistic or coded RDP for short was 54 units. Um, we were able to use all existing units
to account for that third round 54 unit obligation. all the projects. Uh, Timber Valley, the ones on D Simone Court, and there was a section 202 senior rental project, uh, allowed us to build get
credit for 40 existing units, and there were additional rental and senior bonus credits that we were able to apply to to address the rest of that 54 unit obligation. Um, we did the same thing with that large unmet need in the third round by
using a lot of extensions of existing units. So, we didn't have to build too many additional units there either. That takes us to this current round. Now, while our number was initially high, uh, we determined that
our RDP was only 26 units. And again, we were able to provide a address that through a RA Ramsey housing special needs project for four units and four bonus credits. And
there's a project over on Constantine Drive, which if you're not familiar with that street, it's if you're going northbound on Route 17, it's that narrow road right before the entrance to the Home Depot. And on that vacant property
there, um, we would allow nine affordable units. We get a couple rental bonus credits or bonus credits for that project. Uh, then there's the 425 Island Road senior rental project, which was
recently approved for a total of 70 units of which 11 would be a affordable. And then there was also objective to our fourth round plan at 40 North Franklin Turnpike. Um there will be a small
project. We had two two units of additional credit there. So you would see 20 units out of that original 346 unit obligation dealing with the entire 26 units 20 of
which would actually get built. the rest of the their bonus credits to deal with the entirety of that obligation. That takes us to the ordinances at issue tonight and the two sites that we're I
think most of the people are here about. Um one is a zoning ordinance called the R5E Island Road overlay. So there's about 30 30 units in that area. is immediately below the or south of the
train station fronting uh Route 17. Um there's a total of 70 affordable units that theoretically could occur in that pro in that area. Now, as I said at the housing plan hearing,
no one is obligated to build those units. This is an overlay zone. The underlying single family residential zoning still exists in that area and people can build or expand the single family homes in that area. Um
but we were obligated to do that in order to achieve certification from fair housing center. Uh, fair housing fair housing, excuse me, fair share housing center is a nonprofit entity down in Camden County
that goes around the state making certain that the state's affordable housing program is being affirmed throughout, you know, all municipalities in the state. There were 424 municipalities in the state that have
participated in this fourth round process. They took issue with an even 400 of them. And as I said at the last meeting, the irony is they are not planners. They're lawyers. They don't have any licensed planners on their staff. But
they made the determination that nobody seems to know how to write a housing plan, but they people who have never written a housing plan in their lives. Um, but be that as it may, they objected to 400, including the Burrow of Ramsey.
And they would not let go of the fact that because this area was next to a train station, um, they would not relent and they would take the municipality to court if we didn't settle for some number of units in that area.
um in that area. They had originally suggested the zoning for that area would roughly be double what we ended up settling for when they came in at 30 or 35 to the acre. Um we took strenuous
objection to that. We were in front of the affordable housing dispute resolution program judge that program and I just call it the program from now on but that program identifi it had 10
retired judges overseeing all the municipalities housing plans in the state. Um, we spoke with the adjudicator that was appointed to Grahams at for the Ramsey project working with the judge and in over a
series of meetings we convinced them that 35 to the acre roughly 35 to the acre absolutely made no sense but they would not been below what we ended up settling for which was 19 units to the acre.
The second and the ordinance that was written identifies that density of 19 units to the acre. It requires a 20% set aside meaning 20% of the units that would have to be affordable units. Um
there's a series of area and bulk requirements in that ordinance. Probably the most critical ones are the fact that it requires a minimum lot size for this to happen at two and a half acres. Now why is that critical? The analysis of
the roughly 30 lots in the in that area we find is that the average minimum lot size is 0.58 acres. So someone's going to have to accumulate four or five adjoining lots in order to
make something happen. Except in one instance there is one lot in that area that is over two and a half acres. It's on the westerly side of the street. It's a got a narrow bit of frontage, but it's a very deep wide going, I guess,
westward. Um, the ordinance that we've prepared has a series of standards regulating building setbacks. It regulates building coverage to no more than 30 45%
of the site with buildings and the imperish coverage meaning buildings and all pave services can be no more than 75% of the lot um meaning that 25% of the lot has to
remain green. the ordinance for those who have had an opportunity to look at it as a whole host of architectural design standards. Uh we want to make sure there's a varied design feature to whatever might get developed there. It
talks about varied roof lines, uh varied facade elements, different coloration, uh different internal building setbacks, uh to make the units look as attractive as we could possibly make uh within the
context of what we're allowed out to do. The other zone is the one on Franklin Turnpike. Now that Franklin turnpike site um basically stretches I forget the name
of the street um from Lake Street up to um roughly Madison Madison Avenue. Um there's a handful of lots in that area. It's not as large as the other area I just spoke about. Um
this area has a number of multif family projects in the area. one of the litigants owns property in that area. Uh and we have zoned this area for 13 use to the acre. Now, because it's 13 to the acre, we have more modest
uh minimum lot size requirements because the lots are are much smaller. Um but a lot of the internal setbacks that I just mentioned are also obserable in this zone district. Um
the one thing I didn't mention uh in both instances fair share housing center was initially arguing for a much smaller minimum lot size. Um, in the first zone, well, we ended up
with two and a half acres, they were initially pushing a 1 acre lot size, which meant that basically roughly any two adjoining lots would be able to combine and make, you know, be available for development. Um, we won that fight.
The it special adjudicator agreed with us that that seemed too unreasonable and too flexible. Um and same holds true for the area on Franklin Turnpike. Um
that area as I mentioned um is a 13th of the acre with a 20% set aside. Roughly 37 affordable units could be built in that area. And just like the first zone I mentioned, this is an
overlay zone, meaning the underlying single family residential zoning also applies in this zone. So if you have a house in this area and you don't want to sell and you'd rather keep your house or expand your house, you're entitled to do
so. I told you I'd be much griefer than I was the other night. You know, I appreciate that. And I think that break basically summarizes where we are at. >> But could you please talk about the other sites that were considered?
>> I'm sorry. Talk about the other sites that were considered in town. >> Uh there were quite a number of other sites that Fair Share Housing Center wanted us to pursue. Uh at one point they were saying why don't we in addition
to these two areas zone the entirety of the business district for roughly four or fivetory buildings with atgrade retail with apartments above. We pointed out that unlike those the Franklin Avenue and Island Road areas, those are
fully developed properties and there's no way to get any parking in those areas to serve any residents who would live on on the upper floors. And again, the adjudicator supported our position and clearly rejected
um that recommendation. That was a big fight. It took a while to convince fair share to back off, but eventually they did. And what's interesting in the process, just so you understand how this plays out, the adjudicator,
who's typically a planner, it was in this instance, um, writes a report to the program judge. The program judge then writes a report to the county judge who's going to handle all affordable
housing matters. We have to recognize the program judges are all retired. So, they could only make recommendations to the sitting judge. In Bergen County, uh there are two sitting judges handling all affordable housing matters. It's
Judge Padavano and Judge Cariston. Uh they are already starting to schedule hearings on these on these matters. So I'd imagine that can a date can be selected shortly for that realm of activity. Uh but that was probably the
biggest focus of fair share uh after these first two areas that I mentioned at the outset. Um and eventually we at least were able to convince everybody that that was improper. And from the discussions I've had with fair share, it
sounds like they are not going to be arguing in front of either Judge Padavana or Judge Car that um the downtown area should be, you know, re-examined again.
>> Thank you. If necessary, folks, uh you can go to our um website to see Mr. Burgess's very detailed planning board presentation from the 3rd of March and and the slides along with a number of excellent questions that were posed by
residents during that meeting. This is a complicated matter and that presentation that Joe gave that evening was um over two hours but it was extremely comprehensive and I'm I'm grateful. And along with that too, you can please go to our burough website to see um Madame
Mayor Dylan's video presentation regarding the um the ordinances and the um housing element and fair share plan. >> I think you want to um go back into advertise public hearing for final consideration. Madam Mayor, I would I um
would like to make a motion, please, that we go into the um >> Thank you, Peter. The um advertised public hearing for final consideration of ordinances. >> I make that motion. >> Thank you very much, Councilman Kman.
>> Thank you, Mr. Person. All in favor, all in favor, please. >> I >> Thank you. So, um, the advertised public hearing for final consideration of ordinances or >> ordinance 01-2026.
>> Okay. Uh, thank you, council president. Excuse me. Uh this is a reading of final ordinance number 012026. Ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cat bank having been brought up for
public hearing and all persons interested in having been given opportunity to be heard cast final reading by title that said ordinance be adopted as the ordinance of the burrow of Ramsey and be it further resolved that the burough clerk be and she hereby is directed to cause a copy of the title of said ordinance be published in an
official newspaper of the burrow in the manner provided by law together with a notice of the date of the production and adoption of set ordinance. I'll second it. >> Thank you very much. Um, Mr. Bose, any comments for this ordinance, please?
>> Uh, sure. This is a pro former or standard ordinance municipalities across New Jersey adopt each year ahead of adopting a municipal budget. The state allows a municipality, if they adopt this ordinance, to potentially increase their budget appropriations within the cap by up to three and a half% from the
prior year's budgeted appropriations. It does not impact the tax levy cap of 2%. Deals strictly with appropriation line items under the state municipal cap and allows flexibility if any given year certain line items need to be increased above the appropriation cap. While
Ramsey may not utilize this flexibility, there's no harm in adopting the ordinance in any amount under the revised allowable level a town has bank for potential use in future years. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Jose. Um, now
I'd like to open ordinance 01-2026 for public comment. Anyone on the phone for ordinance 0? Yep. Anyone on the telephone? No one's on the telephone. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Second call for public comment in
the chambers. Third and final. Not hearing any. May I um may I have a roll call, please? >> Councilwoman Cus, >> yes. >> Councilman Gerson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Pablo, >> yes.
>> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes. >> Thank you. Uh, next, I'd like to um ask for a reading of ordinance 02-2026. Uh final ordinance of 202- 2026 ordinance repealing and replacing
chapter 29 of global housing with the revised general ordinances of the frames having been brought up public hearing all person interested interested in having been given an opportunity to be heard and pass final reading by title.
not ordinance be adopted as ordinance. Be it further resolved that the bur hereby is directed to a copy of the title of said ordinance to be published in an official newspaper of the burrow
in the manner provided by law together with with a notice for the date of introduction and adoption of >> Thank you. This is council president and I will second. Um, Mr. Boz, any comments, please?
>> Sure. This ordinance repeals the current chapter 29 of the burough code pertaining to affordable housing, replaces it with the new chapter which is being updated in accordance with the fourth round state affordable housing legislation. >> Thank you. Um, now I'll open the floor
to public comment on ordinance 02-2026. Anyone in the chambers for public comment, please? Second notification 02-2026. Third and final. Thank you very much. May I please get a roll call to vending? >> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes.
>> Councilman Gerson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Popo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes. >> Thank you. And on ordinance 03-2026 um that is with me an ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 30 use
of development fees of the revised general ordinances of the burough of Ramsey having been brought up for public hearing and all persons interested having been given an opportunity to be heard pass final reading by title and that said ordinance be adopted as an ordinance of the Burough of Ramsey and
be it further resolved that the Burough clerk be and she hereby is directed to cause has a copy of the title of said ordinance to be published in an official newspaper of the bureau in the manner provided by law together with a notice of the date of introduction and adoption of said ordinance.
>> Thank you. Councilman Gerson has a second. Um Mr. Boz, may I please have some comments? >> Sure. Thank you. >> This ordinance replaces the current chapter 30 of the burough code pertaining to affordable housing. replaces it with this new chapter which is being updated in accordance with the
new state affordable housing legislation for round four. Thank you. Um now I'll open ordinance 0-03-2026 for public comment. Anyone in the chambers for public comment 03-2026,
please approach the speak. >> Oh, no one's ever said that to me, but I will certainly speak louder. Thank you, sir. >> Second call for ordinance 0- 03-2026
for public comment. Third and final call from someone in chambers to have a public comment to 03-2026. >> Not seeing any. Miss Bendy, may I please have a roll call? >> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes. >> Councilman Roni, >> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer,
>> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Papo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes. >> Thank you. Ordinance 04-2026, please. >> Thank you, Council President. An ordinance amending and supplementing
chapter 34 zoning of the revised general ordinances of the Burough of Ramsey in order to establish a new R-5E Island Road multifamily residential overlay district. having been brought up for public hearing and all persons
interested, having been given an opportunity to be heard, pass final reading by title, and that said ordinance be adopted as an ordinance of the Bureau of Ramsey, and be it further resolved that the Burough Clerk be and she hereby is directed to cause a copy
of the title of said ordinance to be published in an official newspaper of the Bureau in the manner provided by law, together with a notice of the date of introduction and adoption of ordinance. >> I'll second.
>> Thank you. Uh, now I I would like to open for public comment. >> Oh, uh, Bruce, please. No, it's already been addressed by Mr. Burgess. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Um, council, councilman, and madam mayor. Okay. >> So, um, now I would like to open it to
public comment if anybody else on the council wants to comment. >> Oh, does anybody else on the council want to comment on this particular ordinance 04-2026? Thank you. Um, I'd like to open it now to members of the public, please, for 04-2026. Please state your name and spell it last
name and provide your address. Carrie Maryanne, spelling C A R E Y. I live at 498 Island Road. Thank you. Um, one thing I'd like to point out, uh,
Mr. Burgess was giving his report and he referred to the uh, area of people who live on or the as units. The these are homes. They're not just units. These are people's homes. This is a very
personal very personal uh, ordinance that's going on and not many towns do it. But for decades, Ramsay relied on zoning as a clear, stable guide for when develop where development belongs. We value creating
affordable housing, but sudden changes to zoning like this rapid overlay break the trust zoning was meant to provide. Quick, unexpected ordinances leave residences
residents feeling unprotected and unsure whether their community's long-term vision is being respected. Good planning evolves transparently and inclusively. It should bring people together, not
surprise or push them apart. When the planning board was questioned on Tuesday night why they were not included in discussions of the unprecedented island road overlay, Ramsey Planning Board Chairman, Mr.
Roger Aorio said there was nothing before the board to act on. As you know, the council in As you know, the board has agendas based upon applications that come in in ordinances that are that the
mayor and council introduced. The board was not part of any of these discussions regarding the fair share housing settlement or mediation. So I'm not exactly sure what you think the board could fir could firmly do on their own
when they are not part of any of this and that was said by Mr. Aorio. Okay. The master plan the RA Ramsey planning board has given up that responsibility. This is a question. Has have they? I'll
leave it at that. Thank you. Mr. Burgess, do you have any comments to that, please? >> Yes, and I think I partially answered that last Tuesday. Um, the process that the state legislature put together
uh really cut out the planning board's participation until the very end. Um what they had done was make it a legalistic process that required the governing body or profession as
professionals to work behind closed doors. And the reason for that was that if we had open sessions, all the objectors, fair share housing center, the developers would have been sitting in
the audience and hearing of the municipality strategy to address the the obligation and that would give them the opportunity to respond well in advance of when they would have finally learn
what our final decision was because they would have been able to bring up whatever sites were contemplated and also allow somebody to go and buy or try to go buy those properties and have that included in the housing plan because it would
suggest that we felt that additional sites may have merit to be considered. Um that's why everything had to be done behind closed doors. And you know, as I mentioned at the last meeting, you know,
we've done housing plans all over the state and the same question has constantly arisen. Um and it's a a very unfortunate part of the process that the legis state legislature forced upon municipalities and governing
bodies and unfortunately cutting up the planning board's uh typical role in the master plan process. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burgess. Um any other comments on ordinance 04-2026,
please? Yeah, good evening. My name is Steve Forbes, F O Res. I live at 19 A. I have a couple questions on this ordinance. You're claiming that 45% of the lot is buildable.
The building will be on. >> Yes. >> Okay. For 19 units, how tall is this building? >> The ordinance, I believe, allows two and a half stories. Let me double check that for you. It's 35 ft. >> 35 ft.
>> How do you get 19 units in half an acre? >> You don't. >> You don't. >> You're obligated to You're obligated to have the 2 and 1/2 acre site. >> Okay. >> So, if you have only a halfacre property, you wouldn't even be allowed to file an application. >> All right.
Also, 75% is going to be impervious coverage. 75% is the imparious cover if that's building >> other plus all the plus all the hardcape and everything else. >> Where do you plan on parking all these cars?
>> Uh on the difference between the 45% and the 75% all that is paving >> 38 cars. um they would like to make that fit and if they can't make it fit and they can't comply with the residential site
improvement standards which sets forth all the parking requirements uh then they would have to reduce the number of units. >> Who's going to enforce that? the uh the planning board would because when the uh the applicant files a site
plan, it gets filed with the planning board and the planning board then has their engineer and their planner and their traffic consultant looking at all that. >> So once the resolution is adopted, who will enforce the resolution? >> Uh the building department does.
>> Okay. About 15 18 years ago, they proposed to put 150 units in over there where the lumber yard is. There wasn't enough water and there's not enough sewer capacity over there.
How is this going to be handled if these units get built? Who's going to pay for that? um if they cannot provide the sufficient water and sewer capacity and two water facilities
um they would have to reduce the size of their project. >> Okay. So this is someone's dream. >> It can't happen in Ramsey. >> There is no project at this point in time. >> Okay. But by adopting this ordinance, you've opened the door.
Thank you for your point, Mr. Burgess. What happens by not adopting this ordinance, please? >> The state legislation mandates that these the housing element and trans share plan and these ordinances must be adopted by March 15.
If you do not, you're in violation of the Mount Laurel doctrine. as I said earlier and you're in violation of the settlement that we had forged with um various subjecting parties. Um
that would open the floodgates of allowing someone to attempt to see whether they can get much much higher densities to meet the entirety of your affordable housing obligation which we have as you had heard earlier reduced
dramatically. >> Okay. and and I I appreciate your your hard work in doing that, >> but you know, we you're going to open a door. Someone's going to come through. What What can we do as a municipality to
keep the Burough Ramsey the Burough Ramsey? I've lived here all my life, right? I've lived in town almost all my life. I don't want to see this town destroyed. the the short answer and when I said it
at the last meet at the plate board meeting I don't know if you were >> no I did not I I work a lot >> you're not obligated to sell if you don't sell they don't build now I understand that a lot of neighbors are getting letters from developers
and they're trying to pressure you presume I assume they're trying to pressure you to sell but if you Don't nobody builds. You're not the municipality is not obligated to ensure
that the projects get built. They're only obligated to provide the zoning to enable it to happen which is different from other kinds of projects. For example, some municipalities
uh to avoid all the additional market rate units, they will build a 100% affordable project. Municipalities that do that approach are obligated to make that happen. They have to provide the money to make it happen.
Excuse me. They're obligated to get the developer on board to make that happen. And I think you can see down in Saddle River where those fourstory buildings went up on East Allenale Road
just at Route 17. That was a 100% affordable project. >> Okay. I'm I'm concerned about Ramsey. >> Right. And that's why this municipality chose not to go that route. >> Right. So, does our planning board, our
zoning, our construction officials still have rights of refusals on these projects if they don't meet certain criteria like water and sewer? if they if they do not meet the criteria spelled out in the ordinance,
um I will point out that any applicant has the right to seek variance relief, but if it's a health and safety issue, that's a whole other matter and the board would then be entitled to deny an application. >> So, we do have some checks and balances.
>> Yes. I will also point out as I did at the last meeting that there's a midpoint in other words five years from now because it's 10-year period for this uh program at the midpoint review there is
a review that must take place to see if projects have been built and if not you have to identify why not. nine 99 times out of a 100 is simply that the regulations seem reasonable. Nobody came
forward. There have been a few instances around the state where there's been significant change in certain conditions that warranted reconsideration of one site, but typically that means you have to look for another site to make up that
lost difference. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Good evening, Jamie Stevenson. Sten s 521 Island Road. Um, good evening, Mayor Council. I want
to follow up on the March 3rd planning board meeting regarding the overlay ordinance um and the proposed changes affecting Island Road in Ferguson Place. At that meeting, I had asked Mr. Burgess about the apparent conflict between the proposed overlay ordinance and the
adopted 2021 land use plan element of the master plan. As discussed on the record, several policy statements in section 2.2, too, particularly those emphasizing preservation of established residential character, maintaining
existing densities, buffering incompatible uses, and limiting intensities of development appear difficult to reconcile with the increased intensity contemplated for Island Road and Ferguson. Mr. Burgess indicated that there was insufficient
time and resources to amend the master plan prior to advancing the ordinance and that amendments would occur later. Accordingly, I respectfully request clarification at some point on the following. When does the planning board
intend to hold open public hearings to discuss amending the land use element master plan to reconcile these inconsistencies? Will the public be invited to meaningfully participate in that process before the final draft is prepared?
Will master plan amendment hearings be publicly broadcast on the burrow's YouTube channel to ensure transparency and accessibility? Additionally, during the meeting, I referenced the December 2024 document issued by the affordable housing
coalition, developing effective housing plans in the fourth round, which provides guidance to m municipalities on preparing housing elements and fair share plans. Mr. Burgess stated that he read it when it was first issued in
December 2024 and expressed the view that it lacked land use accreditation. Rather than ignoring the Affordable Housing Coalition, shouldn't we have studied their playbook? The guidance offered by the coalition
outlines analytical components beyond proximity to public transportation that municipalities should consider, including evaluating demographic characteristics, existing housing stock, and the extent to which municipal or
ordinances advance or detract from the preservation of multi multigenerational family continuity. Based on publicly available information and the board's own 2021 data, the Island Road and Ferguson Place
neighborhood appears to be stable established residential area with long-term home homeowners, seniors, young families, and first generation homeowners. To my knowledge, and Mr. Burgess pointed this out. No demographic or neighborhood
character analysis specified to this area was presented prior to designating the overlay. This raises serious questions. Was there an opportunity to challenge the placement of this overlay in this
affordable housing coalition in this specific location using objective planning criteria consistent with both the master plan and affordable housing coalition's fourth round guidance at the March 3rd meeting. It was
suggested that time constraints and limited state resources left the bureau with little flexibility. While I understand that municipalities face legal and procedural pressures, it's deeply concerning that 28 homeowners on Island Road and Ferguson Place now feel
as though we are being asked to absorb the burden of protecting the broader community. Equally troubling was the repeated suggestion that it's now up to us, the homeowners, to protect our properties
from from potential overdevelopment. We didn't create this overlay. We didn't it didn't initiate this change. We didn't have a say in the matter. It's not reasonable or it's not reasonable for the burrow to shift the responsibility of mitigating development
impacts onto individual residents. So I ask, what concrete measures does the burrow What concrete measures does the burrow intend to take to protect the character of the Island Road neighborhood, to
guard against predatory development practices, to ensure appropriate oversight of rental properties, to provide stability should homeowner homeowners face life events, such as relocation, illness, or death.
My friend Jamie Troy has submitted numerous recommendations to address these concerns that I hope the board and council seriously consider. She's witnessed the effects of such overlays and act and lack of protections by the town firsthand right over the
borderline. Finally, the tone and conduct of the March 3rd meeting, including remarks directed at Mr. Carry by Mr. Verdone and Mr. Vince that are now part of the public record. I listened to it over
numerous times on the YouTube were inappropriate and undermine public confidence in the process. Residents are entitled to a professional, respectful forum when matters affecting their homes and property rights are being decided.
And in general, this matter affects not only zoning policy, but also fundamental issues of procedural integrity, transparency, and equitable treatment of residents. To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement.
I seriously and sincerely hope that moving forward there will be greater transparency, earlier public engagement, and a demonstrated commitment to protecting the residents who have invested their lives in this community. Thank you.
Can you please silence your cell phones? Thank you. Thank you, sir. Any other comments from the public? >> Hi, good evening. Uh Joe Carrey, C A R E Y, 498 Island Road. Um I have a number of different things to hit here. Um many
of us, this is not one project. This is 10 plus years of growth that's going to happen again and again and again. I'm sure Mr. Burgess will agree. But Ramsey has two train stations, Route 17 and Main Street. We also have a major highway with scheduled bus buzz routes
and rulings from New Jersey Supreme Court transit towns, which is what we are considered. It could be called transit village, transit oriented development, TOD, or whatever they're calling it this week. Um, those towns are expected to absorb significant amount of growth.
And now Ramsey's affordable housing obligation isn't based on local growth. Our growth is calculated as part of a housing region. We're in region number one which is um Bergen, Hudson, Pose and and Sussex counties including cities like Jersey City, Hoboken, Hackinack,
Patterson and Pose. So when Hoboken grows, somebody else has got to be um deal with it. The current fourth round runs through 2025 to 2035. And when that ends, a new round begins, meaning regional growth pressures don't disappear. They just reset and continue.
When those places grow, somebody has to deal with it again and again and again. And before the council votes tonight, I want to place one factual point on the record. I can give um can I give the uh board secretary a a document? So, what
we did was we reviewed um there's a uh New Jersey court's website where they have all the housing plans have been posted. Um, and we reviewed all the plans that have been posted through noon today, uh, March 11th, recognizing many
municipalities such as Ramsey still are submitting their revisions before the March 15th deadline. Um, across the plans reviewed, municipalities overwhelmingly met their affordable housing obligations through redevelopment areas, inclusionary mixed income developments, rehabil
rehabilitation programs, and conversions of commercial and underutilized sites. Um, Mr. Bird has used redevelopment for or someone used redevelopment for the Island Road Ferguson um neighborhood. This is not a redevelopment. This is a
this is a home. This is homes. People are taking care of it. Um, people have lived there. People are pouring their life savings into many of these properties. Now, overlay zoning is commonly lo used as a tool. The burrow has already done it with two other sites in that same area, but it's almost
always applied either vacant land such as 425 island, yellow farmhouse, redevelopment areas, or non-residential properties such as Ramsey Lumber. Explicit examples where an overlay district is placed over parcels already containing residential homes remain
extremely rare in court filed plans reviewed to date. This information is offered simply to provide a statewide planning context as the council considers the ordinance before tonight. Um, so I also had my neighbor um I have
another thing to give to the uh the board secretary, excuse me, the council council secretary. Um, Nimma Walkler. She had asked me to read this for her. Um, it's a three-page letter, but I'll just read a couple of things. She says, "My husband and I raised our son,
Gregory, in this lovely town. His death on 911 did not deter us from improving our home. On the contrary, it has become a way to love and honor him. We have a lovely memorial in his honor on our backyard." To whom it may concern, I
have zero intention of leaving this home and its memories. Neither will it be once I leave this earth. The thought of more traffic on Island Road is hard to fathom. It is sometimes takes more than three minutes to roll out of my driveway. And it goes on and I'll give
this to the board secretary so it could be submitted as part of the record. >> We've received that. >> Okay. Thank you. I don't know if she sent anything to you already, >> but I'll I'll give it to the board. I'm sorry. Keep calling the board council
secretary. Um, now it's also I I know uh council president Cusk had mentioned no knock registry. Good step. Thank you. Um, but it's also worth me noting that many neighboring Bergen County towns have modernized their no knock ordinances way beyond what Ranie already
does. Mawwa and Wyoff have stronger systems that include police managed registries, clearer enforcement requirements, and more detailed screening of solicitors rather than reinventing the wheel. Um, Ramsey should simply review what those two those two
and other towns such as Upper Saddle River, Saddle River, and Allenale are are already doing. Looking at proven models from neighboring municipalities would be a simple way to strengthen protections for Ramsey residents. Thank you. >> Can you make some comments, please?
>> Uh, certainly. Uh, let me take the last one first because it's freshest in my mind. Um the no knock uh ordinance was brought up at the last meeting. Um I think it was
you who sent me material on that. I was going to discuss later this evening if the barrow was going to direct me to take that information. We wrote upper saddle rivers and Allenales and others.
So we have a good backlog of information that we could use to see how your ordinance could be improved upon. But that would I have to be directed to do that. Um some of the other issues that have been
brought brought up. Um, I could point to I generally agree that the majority of overlay zones are in more developed non-residential areas,
but I also know of quite a number that are in similar have similar characteristics to these overlay zones that we're talking about. So, it's not as unusual as you I think you were suggesting. Um, it's an unfortunate
aspect of this whole process that fair share doesn't seem to care about land use patterns as much as the fact that there is property next to a train station. They could always be developed
from more intense development. And that is the fight that we have been fighting with them all over the state. And sometimes we win handily like we did here on the one in the down what I call
the downtown train station area. um we did not do as well uh with the Route 17 train station be and part of it was because we had been so successful in reducing your
um obligation through the vacant land adjustment process that they were holding firm on that one on on those two areas. Um my experience also seems to suggest
and I can't say that I have hard fast um studies to support this entirely but it seems that in wealthier municipalities fair share seems to consistently taken a
harder line on what they wanted and I think Ramsay fits that bill unfortunately uh in that regard. So, you know, that's where we were on that process. >> Thank you, Mr. Burgess.
>> Thank you. >> Hi, Alicia Carbone, 50 Ferguson Place and 46 Ferguson Place. My neighbor Steve at the last meeting asked a question about our street, Ferguson Place. Super narrow street, one car, you could barely
get around it. Certainly no, you know, fire can get there. V volunteer ambulance, they have trouble getting in and out. So when you obviously remove the dead end aspect of our street and make it a through street,
you'd have to widen it, right? I imagine it's about what, like 18t wide, that road, >> right? Would you say? Yeah. So how how much bigger would you need to make a street? So to allow for >> there there is no project proposed there. >> I'm aware there's no project but the
stone yards behind us and the lumber yards be right next to that. So if anything's going to go first it's going to be that right. >> So when you do have to make our street wider, how's that going to happen? How do you take the property from us? >> Uh without >> potentially let's talk hypothetically
>> without looking at the map. I I believe that there's a 50 foot wide right ofway, although the pave surface is very narrow. >> Very narrow. >> And so the widening could occur within the public right of way. >> Mhm.
>> Um if a developer and I've seen where developers don't want to pay for that >> and I've seen where applicants then get denied because of that. >> So you know that's the balance that will be fought during a site plan review process. >> Okay. as to how that may or may not
occur. >> So, I'm supposed to expect that maybe someone on this board or another board or any other board in this town that just says yes to everything is going to say no, we are not going to take property from our property. >> Well, if there is that 50 foot wide
rightway, which I believe it is, that's municipal property. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Brian Oconor. That's oas c o n o r. I live at 464 Island Road with my wife and my
daughter. I'm asking this council to table tonight's vote on the R5E Island Road overlay ordinance. You were elected to protect the residents of this borrow. Every person on this council and the mayor took an
oath to serve the public interest, not to meet a state deadline, not to accommodate a developer timeline, and not to rubber stamp a reasonzoning that the people most affected by it learned about a couple of weeks ago. I support
Ramsey meeting its affordable housing obligation. What I'm asking you to honor tonight is your obligation to us. The R5E zone was introduced to the planning board 8 days ago under NJSA 4055D64.
The planning board is entitled to 35 days to review a zoning ordinance for master plan consistency. That has not happened. You're being asked to vote on an ordinance that has not completed the legal review process
that exists specifically to protect residents like me. Under NJSA 4055D28, zoning must be consistent with the master plan, your own master plan. The document this council is responsible for upholding says, and I'm quoting
directly, avoid zoning changes for higher density residential development to limit future increases in traffic volumes. Allen Road is explicitly named in that document as a traffic sensitive residential corridor. Tonight, you're
being asked to vote for exactly what your own master plan says to avoid. The borrower adopted a new traffic circulation and transportation element in December 2025, and I've read it. It documents that Island Avenue, the primary outlet for Island Road, carries
6,56 vehicles trips per day. It confirms that 66.7% of Ramsey residents drive alone and it contains zero anal analysis of what the RFIDe overlay zone will do to traffic on that corridor. The BA commissioned a traffic study three
months ago and never asked its own traffic engineer what this resoning would do to the street where my family lives. That's a failure of duty to us. The March 15 deadline does not require this specific ordinance. You can table this tonight.
Direct borrow council to seek grace a grace period from the county housing judge and come back with a plan that actually protects the people you represent. Island Road residents are your constituents. We pay taxes in this borrow. We raise our families here. We
deserve a process, a traffic study and 35 days of review, not a permanent reasoning decided in 8 days. Now, I've been resigning at my home uh March 2021 to uh right now there's been five car
accidents. One of them, one of the cars ran through my property. So, that's of a major concern to me and as well as my family. I currently have a problem right now even backing out of my driveway. Sometimes there's so many cars parked on the street I'd have to inch all the way
out. Sometimes I'd have horns honked at me because they assume that I'm just pulling out on the driveway without looking. But the obstruction right now is horrendous. And what I'm concerned about is what,
as my uh one of my neighbors has said, we've opened a door where in the future we could have more more more buildings, you know, coming up and that could again could cause a potential problem. Last Thanksgiving
there was no parking on my street all the way from uh Island Road to the train station all the way up going towards uh Interstate Mall. So that's another one of my major concern. So if we have 30 more units, we're
looking at 60 more cars. If we have 75 units or five years, eight years from now, 120 units, we're looking at 240 cars. What's going to what it's going to look like on Thanksgiving Day? Thank you, >> Mr. Burg. Will you please make some
comments about the comments, Mr. >> Certainly, Mr. Connor? Um, you know, this was brought up at the housing plan hearing and unfortunately what I had said earlier still holds. If
this municipality does not adopt these regulations by March 15, um they have the potential to lose their immunity from affordable housing litigation. Um, and I know that's a hard pill, a
bitter pill to swallow, but the state legislature created this schedule um that didn't allow for, you know, some of the questions to be answered that
have come up at this meeting. um at the five-year re um review that I mentioned earlier, you know, the municipality is also entitled uh to take a look back and decide if
something uh make something in the plan makes sense or no longer makes sense. But for now, I I I hate to say it, but I think the municipality's hands are tied at this stage because of that March 15th
deadline. The last thing you want to do is delay taking an action and then facing the court issues that would follow in terms of the builder's remedy lawsuit. >> Mr. Burgess, can you comment? I know
another municipality or several municipalities took this particular subject to higher courts. Can you please comment on that? >> Well, uh there's actually two court issues. um
26 I think it was 20 26 municipalities throughout the state primarily in the north part of the state um had pursued litigation in three different venues to slow down this process.
A lot of other municipalities simply took the position that we're not going to fund that and participate but if they win we all win. But um they lost in each and every uh instance. And
in fact just LA this past month. Uh they went to the federal Supreme Court and Judge Alita was the one that received the papers to decide whether or not a federal issue is at stake and could the Supreme Court, the federal
Supreme Court uh could hear this matter. And there was a lot of optimism there because uh Justice Alo is from New Jersey. So they thought that might help a little bit. But unfortunately in a two sentence decision he said there's no issue for
the feds and rejected uh having a Supreme Court review. Um, Anglewood Cliffs is the poster child for what could happen when you face a builder's remedy lawsuit and
not pursue what you're obligated to address. And I mentioned this at the last meeting. Anglewood Cliffs uh fought the good fight, lost and the court took away all of their zoning powers to
review any development application in the municipality. And they appointed one individual who was charged with reviewing any development application and look at each and every development application no matter what it was for and make an
initial determination as to whether or not that site should more properly be uh developed for a multif family housing with an affordable housing set aside. Um and she was making the decisions for
a number of years before the town uh adopted a new housing plan and that's the fear that every municipality faces. >> Thank you Mr. Burgess. >> Linda Dunn Teneandanda Court Dun.
So at the planning board meeting, I reintroduced this report which was from 2004 and had been on the burough website for quite a few years before it was taken down. This was a traffic calming study that was done in advance of the
Route 17 train station opening. It's an excellent report. It has wonderful suggestions to calm traffic along the Island Road corridor. And I'm sure all of you have driven to either Finch Park or Shopright or Route 17 that way. And as even if you don't reside there, you
know, it's it's an issue with speeding and traffic and congestion on that road. So I ask first of all that you put this back on the website, but secondly and more importantly, I ask that you take this document and study it. All the points that are in it are as
relevant today and probably more so as they were 20 years ago when this was prepared. And by my count, there are about 58 suggestions in this report and the burrow made two two of them. So there are about 56 more that can
actually be done to calm traffic. Do you uh do you need a copy of this? >> You had you gave me a copy of >> I'm sure you have it, right? And if you need it, I have a PDF and a word. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. As I
as I had indicated, um the municipal land use law mandates that at least minimally every 10 years a municipality must go through a master plan re-examination report. Your last
one was 2021. You do not have to wait 10 years. um the municipality can begin looking at some of the issues in that report and adjust their master plan and zoning regulations well before that 10-year period ends to
address some of those issues. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burgess. >> Yes, please. >> Um good evening. My name is Sarah Medina Alvarez. Uh Medina Alvarez spelled very long. I'm sorry. M E D I N A- A L V A R
E Z 486 Island Road. Um I don't really have questions. I think Mr. Burgess explained everything very thoroughly and beautifully. I would like to do a reflection if I may of everything that's come down in the next I'm sorry in the
past few weeks. Um we keep asking ourselves how did we get here? having to choose from bad or worse. about being adopting ordinance 042026 in response to a settlement between the
Royal Ramsey and for uh 40 North uh Franklin LLC and Fresher Housing and by doing so opening the door to the redevelopment of Island Road and Ferguson Place where us 28 families leave in an established diverse community that happens to be by a train
station in a highway corridor or worse potentially facing a builder's remedy lawsuit. Um, Mr. Burgess, you said before that uh on the fourth round the obligation was 450 units that came down to 26, correct?
>> And the end of the third round was after many settlements and litigations were 2018. Is that correct? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So since 2018 to 2025, our town had seven years to come up with a sound plan to meet the state
affordable housing obligations and to identify areas in town that could both satisfy the 25% unmet need and be in harmony with our master plan. Many of these potential solutions were discussed
right here uh on the March 3rd 26 planning board meeting uh such as oxo auxiliary dwelling units, mixed use zoning, underused parking lot spaces etc. In my humble and unqualified opinion, I
think the world has had more than enough time to slowly, creatively, gently, and uh uh just thoughtfully, thank you. Yes, that's the word I was thinking about. Um
you know, adjust our zoning without having to redevelop our community. That's the reality here. Again, in my humble and unqualified opinion, this overlay ordinance 042026, as Mr. Joe uh um Joseph Kerry said, is reactive. Our
neighborhood was picked by a nonprofit organization with a very noble cause. I'll talk about that in a minute. And uh by a developer whose only uh objective is profit. Uh not a single um I'm sorry that this organization you said, Mr.
converges that they don't have a planner in stuff, right? They have very >> I'm sorry, could you say >> the the uh first fair share housing LLC, they don't have a planner in staff. They just have great lawyers. Okay, great. So, between First Share Housing and the
developer, we have this as some of my fellow neighbors said during the March 3rd meeting, we are setting a very dangerous precedent here. They had the upper hand with the fourth round fifth March 15th deadline approaching and they knew it.
They placed their finger on a map or corner of Runy and they got it because we are near mass transit and have an access to a highway which is route 17. The board argued it's been said here before that ultimately it's up to us to
preserve the character of our neighborhood. M Stevenson just said that but you know this is not entirely true. Uh, of course we have the last word on whether or not to sell our homes. But the reality is that by adopting this ordinance, you have left us in a very vulnerable position. That's the reality
here. Out of principle, all of us can say here, we're never going to sell to a developer because, you know, this is outrageous. But what if our situation changes tomorrow? What if I we any of us is forced to sell our home to face a
death in the family a serious illness with very hefty medical bills uh divorce separation with alimony and child support the list is infinite and I'm forced to sell to the highest bidder that as you may recognize in most cases
the developer so can you um I would invite you all to consider this uh I'm I'm guessing you're all Ramsey residents imagine having to consider how the sale of your home might affect your neighbors while you're trying to avoid or overcome your own
personal financial hardship. I sincerely hope you're never faced with this question because we will thanks to this ordinance passing today. Mr. Burgess, you and the planning uh board acknowledge um um on the last meeting that these were all very valid concerns
and that we should elevate them to the state legislature, but they're not in charge of municipal planning. The Bor Ramsey is they we don't have to challenge the law. The law makes sense. New Jersey is a very densely populated state and it's
very hard to buy a house in New Jersey. Not a single one of us neighbors is opposed to affordable housing. We understand there's a need and we understand that Ramsey needs to meet it. But what we're against is that those 350 units land in our
corner in a neighborhood for lack of better planning. they should have been spreaded out. We had seven years to prepare for this. Um the irony here is that in the spirit of mural um the doctrine which was and is to
avoid displacement of established community due to interrogation and influx of population for from other areas. We are now the ones at risk of being displaced. Perhaps not right away but it will happen. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. developers, as
stated before, excuse me, they're already knocking at our doors. Uh, and, you know, I think we need to stop using the argument that, you know, um, there's no approved developments. We have full power to receive our neighborhood. After today, this is no longer going to be the
case. And please honor us by acknowledging that. Um, after basically what I just wanted to say, this is my last uh uh portion of my my speech. which I'm sorry it's a little long. Basically, a settlement has decided our
fate. We stumbled upon upon this ordinance. We had no idea this was going on. We didn't even have time to secure legal representation as you know yet to properly prepare and we have come to all of these meetings and respectfully voice
all our concerns knowing that we had already lost. Um, I would respectfully ask the members of the council, you Ramsey residents, how would you feel this happened to you if this came to
your neighborhood? And how would you want your planning board to prepare for the next round in 2035, the fifth round, when they're not going to demand 450 units, they might demand double. Thank you very much.
MR. BERS, please some comments and thank you Mr. Burdens. Also, would Mike be helpful to the timeline where everything was okay, everything was settled, and then at the last minute the negotiations had happened in December, approved in
January, and I personally didn't see until three days before the February 11 council meeting. >> Yeah. Let me talk a little bit about the timeline. Um, was it Miss Alvarez?
>> Um, >> when you talked about the the municipality had seven years to prepare because their last plan was adopt actually adopted in 2018. that that's really not accurate because nobody knew what the obligation was
going to be. Throughout the planning profession, it was anticipated that a whole new formula was going to be developed because through the third round, everybody was under the impression except for Fair Share Housing Center
that the formula used to create the numbers was so out of whack. you know, municipalities that are were fully developed were getting hundreds upon hundreds of units of obligation. I remember Park Ridge, we calculated that they had 4 and a half acres of
developable land and they were given an obligation of like 500 units. You know, none of it made sense. And we thought finally call our heads would prevail because so much of that in congruity had been pointed out in a lot
of case law. Unfortunately, what did happen is they did create a whole new process and they did create a different approach to creating the numbers, but the numbers
were still extraordinarily high. And unfortunately they didn't get published until just a few months ago. So towns were scrambling at the last minute because again and I keep harping about the state legislature. They created a
process that allowed a very limited amount of time for the municipality to initially come up conceptually with how they would. First, we had to decide how can we attack the number and we we did
that to a certain degree and getting the department of community affairs initial number lowered but then they set up another t limited time frame of about I don't know two months or so for municipalities to
prepare a housing plan. Now I will tell you that under the first, second, and third rounds, a quality housing plan would take six to eight months at a minimum. And if you're
had a difficult community in terms of finding appropriate sites, it could take a full year. But would not without knowing what the numbers would possibly be, it would have been very difficult to properly prepare some assessment.
No matter what the number was going to be, one of the things we knew was not we were not going to be looking at Island Road. That was it's an established single family residential neighborhood. There was no basis from
our perspective to identify it. And that was the initial stance that we took. We did not include that in our initial conceptual appro conceptual approach. And then when we finally had to adopt a preliminary plan uh by June 30th,
um we took that position. Developers including Fairshare Housing Center then had the month of July and August to file objections to the plans. Most of those objections were filed the
last week of August. That was done on purpose because it didn't give you much of an opportunity to respond because the legislation gave us one month to respond to the objection. So that became a difficulty.
Um but from the time the plan the objections came in and all of a sudden we were told that we should be considering all of Island Road um at 35 units to the acre with three
and fourstory buildings and we should consider all of Franklin Turnpike down to the Allenale border with a similar kind of development pattern. you know, we were fighting those fights.
The adjudicator in large measure agreed with us, but in the end, and this is what was most hurtful, they said that that area because of its proximity to the train station into Route 17 had to be
considered. And that was the recommendation they made to the program judge who then issued his recommendation to the Bergen County judges. We then were given I think the
equivalent of about three or four weeks to write the ordinances to implement that which is why the governing body didn't receive it until like the week or so before everything would had to be published. Um it was a
ridiculous time frame and I'm not I don't expect anybody cry cry the blues for us having to do that. I'm just pointing out that the time frame that was established was ridiculous and every planner and every lawyer in the state
except for those that represent developers would agree with that statement. And it's it is unfortunate what's happened in these two areas because it never should have been. But we did not want to lose our
immunity. So we at some point had to give in to a certain degree. I we certainly weren't giving in at 35. And at 35 we just simply said we'll go to court and fight that fight and see what happens because we felt that was so
ridiculous that we might be able to win. But with the adjudicator report and the way it was structured and the judges recommendation to the the retired judges, the program judge's recommendation to the uh the county
judges, it was clear that they were supporting the level of development that's now in your housing plan. And when that happened, there was really nothing more for this municipality to do unless they wanted to take the chance and lose
immunity. And coincidentally, in addition to all the housing plans my firm wrote, I'm an adjudicator for a lot of these judges. So I was getting the in, you know, I was hearing about
their positions from that position and it made me realize that there are towns that are going to lose immunity because they uh the judges feel that in the end the affordable housing is a constitutional issue and that's what the
Supreme Court had ruled many years ago and you can't ignore that. And that's what's so unfortunate about this process. Hope that answered your question. >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Hi, my name is Carrie Robinson. I live at 467 Island Road. R O B I N S O N. You told us that there was nothing to worry about and no one was going to come and take our homes. Well, we are already receiving letters from developers and once the property next to mine sells to
a developer, as they say, there goes the neighborhood. I live on one of the larger lots on Island Road. So, can you imagine the amount of pressure that we are now under? You then told us that your hands were tied, there's no time to wait, and that
in order to save the town, we needed to take one for the team. Well, you don't seem to understand exactly how personal that is to me. As I'm sure you've gathered from those who spoke so eloquently at the the last meeting and those who spoke at the planning board meeting, if you'd been
there, we vehemently oppose. My children are sixth generation to live in Ramsay. My great-grandparents, George and Katie Bant, were married in the burrow in 1908 and rented one side of a two family house on Darlington A. It was
in that house that my grandmother Jane was born in the same house she died in in 1999. She went to grade school in this building and graduated high school from the school street school many of you know as the old dator building. Her father, my great-grandfather was the
custodian there, getting up at 4 in the morning to walk over to put coal in the furnaces. When my grandmother Jane married my grandfather, Robert McFaren, he purchased that two family home on Darlington. They raised my father there, living in one side, his grandparents in
the other. My family still owns that house today. At that time, my grandparents realized there was a need for ball fields in this town. So, they along with their friends decided to spend their free time cleaning up the town dump to create the ball fields now known as Finch Park.
My father played on the first little league team in town. His father coached it. My grandfather was a volunteer firefighter for this town for 40 years and also volunteered to run the water department. It is for him that McFaren Field is named.
My father graduated from Ramsey High School on the same spot that my children would graduate from exactly 60 and 63 years later. My father's name is on a plaque in Veterans Park. When my husband and I were looking for a house, we found out that my cousin Gary Bant was selling the home we currently
live in. Gary was the former chief of police in this town. He lived there for decades and sold to us 30 years ago. When we first purchased the property, we walked around the yard and Gary pointed out flowers. Those same flowers that still come up in my yard today were
planted by my great-grandfather. We raised our children there. We've loved our home. We've paid our taxes. It's where numerous holidays, family celebrations have been spent, and countless time with friends. I know many of you may ask why I'm
telling you all of this. We all have homes and ancestors we're proud of. It's because I need you to know exactly how deeply personal this is. I am just one of many. There are many families in this town who have been here through the ages, and we stand on the shoulders of
the town they built. That is the legacy they left on this town. Many generations of my family are buried in the Union Cemetery on Darlington Avenue, and right now I think they're rolling over. You say you need to do this to protect the town. Well, I'm sorry. Those of us
in the overlay area do not feel very protected. We feel like a sacrifice. You've already shoved 70 units down our throats on Island Road, and you should have found some other areas of town to share the burden. We've already taken one for the team. I believe this is a done deal, just
another ordinance that's going to get pushed through because it's the solution that Fair Share Housing told you they wanted and somebody caved. And once you push it through and you destroy mine and my husband's retirement because you've destroyed my property
value, do you intend to lower my taxes? How do you intend to protect those of us you have decided were expendable? Once again, I think the lack of transparency in the situation speaks volumes. You told us that our neighborhood needs to do this to save the town of Ramsay, but it's at our
expense. I think it's awful, and I think our ancestors would be ashamed like to speak if you're not comment. I didn't prepare. Excuse me. Uh Jamie Harsha Troy. My name was mentioned twice here. So now I feel like I have to stand up and talk about um
>> you spell your last name. >> H A H A R S H A space T T R R O Y. I live at 11 Thornhill Drive. I'm not directly affected yet. I am. I live behind uh Franklin Turnpike
uh overlay. So, I came to you guys at the planning board with some ideas to move forward with protections because as our last speaker just said, this is probably a dundy. I understand uh fair housing and and fair housing
needs and ordinances. I'm a real estate agent licensed in both New York and New Jersey. My qualifications in New York have allowed me to see what can happen. So, I wrote a proposal to you, many of you. Some did not receive it because I only had a few emails. And I'm going to
just read it out today because this is what I feel like is the next steps and your obligation to protect our neighbors. One thing that we talked about was today was adopting a stronger solicitation policy. Um, the no knock ordinance,
while it is good, it is not what many of our neighbors have adopted. Many have adopted full no solicitation ordinances with signage in place at the beginnings and the entrance of the towns. So just so you know a no not ordinance can only go so far. I think we need to tighten
that a little bit and signage is absolutely necessary. I did witness this in a few neighboring towns. Next step is require registration of investor owner properties and identify LLC's.
This is vital. You require them to have a local property manager so they have someone accessible if something should go wrong. Annual registration fees, proof of insurance, and disclosure of beneficial owners of LLC's, corporate ownership structures,
and local agent responsible for the properties need to be public knowledge. Really, at the very least, your knowledge. Um, this discourages large-scale absentee investors. It gives the town enforcement leverage if properties are neglected and it helps
track down people and entities. Now, I did see something potentially on one of the proposals about immediate restriction of short-term rentals and Airbnbs. We are in a town where cap rates and
those who don't know that that is the rental received from purchasing a property does not make it beneficial for an investor to often purchase that property and rent it out. That is a good thing. However, they are turning many of
them into short-term rentals and Airbnb where we are in a fairly decent touristy hiking deestination. So, we do have the potential to open this up for short-term rentals. That is where they make their money. The
properties sit vacant, summer long, they're rented three months at a time. We need a minimum of six months in a short-term rental. We need also um anti-black enforcement. Vacant properties detract from the
neighborhood. We need to issue fines or we need to have registrations on vacant properties. Other things that we can do that are a little bit more controversial, vacancy taxes on investor owned properties. I do have I do I know of
towns that have this. They're very effective. um it's you know for the care of the property limiting bulk purchases we as a town we do have the right to do that and again it's a controversial concept
right of f first refusal programs at a town level or advertising the property outright I'm a real estate agent I know how that can be complex that's why it's at the bottom of the list and then ban or licensed real estate wholesaling I think
that speaks for itself bulk buying of properties can be to the major detriment of this area and any kind of mass zoning overlay. I think that's why people are so upset here is that if this had been split amongst the town,
it wouldn't be such a uh focused in area for investors because the concept of buying a property, sitting on it for five years, getting the next property, sitting on that for a couple of years until you
build up that zone and then you build. and and by enforcing these rental ordinances, which is vital, you're going to protect against that. There is hope here. But I got to hold you to this, and I'm going to keep repeating it any
chance I can. We have one of the loosest regulations for all of these things that I just listed amongst all of our neighboring towns and amongst a lot of New York towns, honestly, right now, because they did too little too late. And so that is my
suggestion. Many of you have it. I have many copies that I can send. I can email anybody. And if anybody wants to see it here, that's my proposal. Thank you very much for your suggestions and I I read your letter and we do have some ordinances in place and to your
point we will reook at them and we have been speaking madame mayor and um and council scanderado we have been speaking about them and hopefully everyone in town has subscribed to our rave where we talked about our no knock registry Joe
we will be talking about the um the the no knock registry that you've developed and thank you very much and and appreciate your comments. >> Hello, I'm Melissa Rohe. I live at 480 Island Road. Um I didn't
prepare any formal statement, so I'm not going to be eloquent like my neighbors. I just couldn't honestly I couldn't bear to spend another moment trying to craft the perfect words when the words really in the end weren't going to do a thing. Um I do have a two questions for Mr.
Burgess just to understand and clarify. I know that you said when they talk about when they were looking at the downtown area and just the parking just couldn't support it. Do you mean that because the current regulations for housing or zoning
require a certain amount of parking to be allotted to buildings or what what did you mean by that? >> There's something called the New Jersey residential site improvement standards which identify specific parking
requirements for one, two, and threebedroom dwellings. Um applicants have to comply with this these standards um with any development application. Uh the fair share suggestion that we
should be building three and four stories uh three and four stories above at grade retail up and down Main Street. >> Um neglected to acknowledge that there's no parking to accommodate that that kind of development. But is the part just to
be precise the parking is street parking that you have to have available. >> It would be on site. >> So how do they do that? I looked at Hobok and I didn't have >> no you can't do that and that's why we were able to pretty easily convince the adjudicator and the program judge that
their recommendation or suggestion simply didn't make sense. >> Right. But how do maybe urban areas have a different rule but places where I have lived like Hoboken there was no I had a rent you know a building and a rental apartment and there was no assigned
parking you just figured it out on the street. >> Um the residential site improvement standards are are somewhat relaxed in urban areas >> by law or just by law. Okay. but not in
suburban communities like Ramsay >> and there's no getting around that with some >> the only way to get around that is if the governing body >> of the town >> um made application to the RSIS
uh residential site improvement standard board to see if they could adjust it but recognizing that there's a total inability to provide on-site parking up and down Main Street. Um I don't think the that board would
ever approve such an application. >> Okay. And then all of I don't know who owns every lot, but all the lots in town are any owned by the town. >> Are any >> owned by the town, >> such as the one across the street here?
>> Municipal. There are municipally owned. And then the one by the train station or No, >> I think that's a DOT property. >> Okay. Okay. I just wanted to understand better the whole parking situation. And then my second question was what happens and I know we don't seem to want to talk
about what happens in the future, but 10 years from now, let's say everybody holds their property, no one sells it. when they come back and see we haven't built a thing in that section sincerely what happens what do they do I know it's
unmet need so it's not it's a gray area but >> you're not obligated to have your unmet need built you are obligated to actively pursue you know your RDP realistic development
potential that evolved out of the vacant land adjustment um If 10 years goes by and nobody builds any affordable housing, you're you in all likelihood, and I say that because the regulations may change, but you are
you you would likely be obligated to make the assessment as to whether or not that area designation continues to represent a realistic opportunity or not. >> Right. Because I would assume Yeah. that
it's it no longer represents a realistic opportunity. Um you may you may be able to resend that zoning, >> but the the share the fair share housing center would pro again if this all still
exists in 10 years in this form they could I mean I assume they wouldn't be like sure take it off the table. They they'd need something else to feed them. they would be arguing against the removal of it >> and or >> but then that would go to the courts and
you know let's say there's nothing that's nothing gets built. Um you may be able to posit a fair objection to say response to say nothing's happened.
It doesn't represent a reasonable opportunity. And the question right now the courts are saying you have to show that it's a reasonable opportunity that will get that it will get built within 10 years in within the
>> time frame of the fourth round. >> So if nothing gets built you know you're you'll be in a better position to argue that that area should no longer be designated as such. I mean that would be nice but I am really more concerned about them
coming back and being angered that you we haven't even attempted to meet the need. So that's really well >> more we have the what are called the RDP sites. >> Yeah. And depending on whether they got
built or not, that would certainly strengthen the board as the municipality's position. But we're really talking about a hypothetical at this point because a we don't know what the the regulations would be in the fourth and clearly
between the second and third realm the rules changed a lot and between the third and the fourth realm they substantially changed a lot. the uh formula has been adjusted a little bit. It became a little more flexible.
Um I know his planners were all saying it needs to be adjusted that formula needs to be adjusted significantly and maybe that will happen with the fifth round but >> okay >> anybody's guess right now. So, I mean, I feel like going back to Sarah's comment
of planning ahead, we don't know what's going to change in the next year, two years, five years, 10 years, we have no idea. But as she points out or and I will echo that we should have even if we don't know what the role will be, there
should be a plan about I mean, I'm looking at it like disaster preparedness. Do we think there's going to be a tornado tomorrow? No. Do we think there's going to be a huge earthquake? No, but you have to have a plan in place. >> So I feel that there needs to be a plan in place at all times like okay what if
scenarios what if this what if this you know >> and I would agree with that and with some municipalities that have more non-residential development that seems to have fallen on hard times in those
municipalities. towns were, you know, more forward thinking because they realize that those sites are ripe for redevelopment. That's not necessarily the case here, but you know, let's look what happens
three or five years down the road to see if the municipality could be looking at other sites. And if we find a site that becomes available, maybe we can swap one for the other. >> That would also be
I I again, we can't see the future. It's just frustrating when you're the one that is taking the brunt of the of the burden of not having done that level of planning where you could have adjusted on the fly. I see, you know, I live down the block from that Sunrise Terrace
development, which that was some of the little bit of undeveloped land in Ramsay, and it was developed to be gorgeous, gorgeous, but luxury homes, and all that space was used for that. So when I see something like that, yes, it was built before the fourth round ever
came to pass. But that's the kind of thing that I would, you know, reference where maybe with this disaster planning, hey, what if some of that could have been adjusted so we would have less of a burden now than we would have otherwise
had. What's done is done. Uh, and that's it. I mean, I don't really have too many more comments beyond like I'm I'm I am I will admit I'm pretty stunned. Uh I'm not sure. I'm hope hoping to work through that, but I'm I'm stunned from what has happened in the last few weeks.
Um and it is because of what my neighbors have said that this doesn't end tonight. Now going forward, uh, sure, I'll go back to my day-to-day life, but in the back of my head is always going to be, how is this affecting me? When is the
day that I'm going to figure out, I'm going to find out today that my neighbors to the left or my neighbors to the right or my neighbors across the street have sold and now they have enough land to develop. What are they going to develop? How is it going to happen? What happens when I go to sell
my house and and I insist on selling, excuse me, and I insist on selling to an individual or a family, not to a developer? Why would they ever offer me what they otherwise would have offered if it wasn't dual zoned? Because who in
their right mind wants to move into a neighborhood when they don't know what's going to happen in that neighborhood if they're looking for a single family home? So, that's the reality. It is what it is, but this is what we're all grappling with.
>> I understand that dilemma. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Miss Ro. >> Anyone else for public comment? >> Laura Leonard, L E O N A R D 40 Cherry Lane. Um, so the proposed overlay zones that
are being voted on tonight and the approved project on Island Road will obviously have significant impacts on municipal services, emergency services, and the schools. So funding for that is obviously a concern, I'm sure, for the governing
body as well for residents. My question is, has the municipality entered into any pilot agreements with the developers for Island Road or 48 North Franklin Turnpike? And would pilot
agreements be considered for future development within those overlay zones >> as in tax agreements? As in pilot agreements? No. >> Okay. >> No, we're not. >> Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Miss Lard. >> Hi, good evening. Laura Genevese Spearman. Ge N O V E S E V E H R M A N. I'm at 30 Island Park a um I recognize the changes to fair share housing laws
rest with the state legislature and Mr. Burgess has repeatedly stated here several times tonight in response to several residents questions um has stated that. So my question is, what is the bureau doing to work with their peers in other towns to advocate to our
elected officials responsible for these decisions at the state level and empowered to make changes to these laws? Um, we've been told as residents to go to the state and ask for change. However, there is certainly power in our elected officials doing the same. I'm not asking you to file a court action. I'm asking if you're seeking
opportunities to pursue advocacy for change. Um, clearly everybody sitting at this day dis knows I'm the president of the Ramsey Board of Education. I'm here as a resident, not on behalf of the board, but what I can tell you is that as board members, we invest a lot of our time and energy in state advocacy on
behalf of both our schools and our residents. So, I'm trying to understand what, if anything, can be done in your roles as our elected officials. Thank you. >> I do understand, Mrs. Beerman. Um, I personally reached out to our liaison in
the office of intergovernmental affairs for U. Governor Cheryl and I specifically requested an extension of the March 15th deadline and I tried to explain to her why I was ex asking for that extension and the answer came back
no. So Trenton doesn't care. They just don't care. >> And and um Mr. What what did some of our other municipalities I know that there's a project in in Sabo River that or upper
Sabo River by the Allenville. So they they went ahead and >> well they they're are you talking about the 100% affordable project >> um well some municipalities do that but I'd like to answer >> thank you >> her question.
Um, you know, working around the entire state, I have found that groups of mayors and councils have gotten together to go down to Trenton to make the argument that our mayor just mentioned.
Um, a group of planners have gone down to the state to argue how the formula doesn't work and the time con the time line that was established simply doesn't work. and it all all fell in deaf ears.
And then there was the group of 26 towns that got together and litigated a whole bunch of different issues uh including the timeline issue and um lost it every step of the way in court.
So it's been a very frustrating process for a lot of people. uh efforts have been made to try to slow down the process and make it more re reasonable and certainly more transparent because as you've heard it's not the most
transparent process. Um, and unfortunately those efforts lost every step of the way. And I think for the state legislature, it's easier to say we've adopted something, they'll leave us alone because I think that's what's happened
here. Because if they if you bring it up, then they'll be inundated with a lot of uh effort to to make change. This way, it's all done. Thank you, Mr. Burgess. Thank you, Madam
Mayor. Any other comments in the chambers, please, to ordinance 04-2026. Any comments, please, from anyone in the chambers to ordinance 04-2026. >> Thank you.
Close public. >> I'm going to close public hearing now and I'm going to ask for a roll call. Miss Bendy. >> Councilwoman Cusk. >> Yes. >> Councilman Gerson. >> Yes. >> Councilman Gutwer. >> Yes. >> Councilman Kilman.
>> Yes. >> Councilman Popp. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy. >> Yes. The next ordinance, please, to be read is ordinance number 05-2026. This is the final reading of ordinance
number 052026, an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 34 zoning of the revised general ordinances of the Burough of Ramsey in order to establish a new R5F
North Franklin Turnpike multifamily residential overlay district having been brought up for public hearing and all persons interested having been given an opportunity to be heard. has final reading by title, and that said ordinance be adopted as an
ordinance of the Burrow of Ramsey, and be it further resolved that the burough clerk be and she she hereby is directed to cause a copy of the title of said ordinance to be published in an official newspaper of the burrow in a manner
provided by law, together with a notice of the date of introduction and adoption of said ordinance. I second that council president. >> Thank you very much Miss Poppy and Mr. Kilman council people. Um
>> Mr. Boz any comments? >> That's Mr. Burgess. >> Mr. Burgess any we've made your comments. Thank you very much. >> So um >> any uh comments from council? Thank you very much. Any comments from folks in the council
>> hearing? None. I'll open this up to public comment from people in chambers. Please, >> any comments to 05-2026. Thank you. Hi. >> Good evening. Uh Bruce Peters, Per 31 Crest Road. Um I have a number of
questions. Um I'm not sure who to address them to. My very first question is I notice some of my fellow towns folk seem to have known about this planning board meeting and were able to at least attend and ask questions. So, some of my questions were probably be better asked
there, but I wasn't notified. And looking through the town code, it says that if they're, you know, section, uh, chapter 31 land use, uh, article 31-17 requires notification for anyone within
200 ft of the entire border of whatever it is that's being studied, whether it be a subdivision, a site plan. So my first question is, why wasn't I notified legally? Yes, I I heard what you said in the beginning that it was posted on the web, but I you don't know what you don't
know. So, I didn't know this was coming up, so I wouldn't know to look to say, "Oh, they're going to be changing the zoning right behind my house." >> So, the question is why wasn't that done? Because I I did get notice about this meeting. I didn't get notice about the first meeting and I didn't get notice about the planning board meeting,
but the town code says I should have. first. >> Okay. >> I own a house behind the overlay zone on Franklin Tpike and it says within 200 if it goes to the planning board or any of the land use boards 200 ft in all
directions from the property line application. >> The planning board wasn't having a hearing on those ordinances. Those or they only had a hearing on the housing element plan at their last meeting. Okay. >> You got the notice because the hearing
on your or on the overlay zone ordinance is tonight. The planning board just did not take action. They didn't >> But they were presented with this same map that was prepared. Correct. >> Correct. But they didn't have a hearing. They didn't vote on introducing or
adopting the ordinance. That's done by the man. >> So no resident was notified legally or by paper. I'll put it that way. >> No, not for the planning. So, they just happen to see it and then show up. Okay. Um, my first question is it's for this
overlay zone. It's 13 units per acre. Is that per 43560 or is that per 40,000 ft? Because the ordinance spec uh specifies the minimum lot width of 40,000 square feet. So, is it 13 per 40 or 13 per 43?
>> Uh, 43560. >> Okay. Okay. So, if you're less than at 40, whatever that works out to be, um is there you I um in the mayor's I watched the mayor's uh YouTube video and you've referenced it a couple times that
there was some litigation with 40 North Franklin. >> Yeah. They filed an objection, >> right? And apparently we're already going to take credit for whatever it is they want to build, but it hasn't come before the planning board yet. Correct.
There are no official plans yet. >> Correct. >> Okay. But we're going to take credit for something that hasn't been submitted. So, if we're going to take credit, what is our is can the town planning board say no to this? Did a judge say no, you get 10 units and that's it. The planning
and if that's the case, they don't even qualify because they're at 37,113.12 ft. So, they don't even qualify under this overlay zone. So, did a judge already overrule this? >> No. Uh, but they don't they won't
qualify. >> They will be obligated to seek variance relief and they'll have to prove their case pursuant to the statutory criteria for a variance for that um
reduction from the minimum requirement. When you prepare for a current plan, you're entitled to take credit for the proposed components of the plan, but realistically, nobody has built anything for the fourth
round yet because the fourth round just has begun. >> Right. But you said in your I watched the video again and we're taking credit for two units at 40 North >> Franklin Turnpike, which hasn't been built yet and hasn't been proposed yet. >> Correct.
And we're to do that. >> So then it's already a fat complete. >> Well, how can you turn it? Uh, let me back up. >> Is the whatever will be proposed? I know there's no plan. Has a judge already
ruled in favor of whatever it is 40 North Franklin Park turnpike wants to do? >> No. the the program judge has made a recommendation to the Bergen County judges
to say that this represents a reasonable plan, but the applicant still will have to go through the normal site plan review process and if any variances are necessary, they will have to make application for it and also justify it
pursuant to the criterion in municipal land use law >> based on your >> next let me finish >> okay >> if the board were to deny that application because of the reduced lot area for example
um the municipality at the five-year review that I mentioned earlier you know may have to look for a different site for those two units Mhm. Yeah, I don't have a problem with
that. Um I I it's just a little confusing. We're taking credit for something that hasn't even been proposed yet. And does the planning board theoretically they can just say no, you don't. We just passed this new overlay zone. You don't meet
it. And you don't meet it by a little under 3,000 square feet. >> In in a theoretical sense, they could, >> right? Um >> and then that they could also then seek a variance to have that reduced. >> Well, they would seek a variance before
the planning board. They would file an application for the site plan and if that site plan application requires variances to the various ordinance, they would have to apply for those variances and then the plan board would have to consider that at a hearing, a public hearing where and you would get notice
of that hearing, right? >> Um under the municipal land use law. >> Okay. Do they know we're already taking credit for two units that haven't even been proposed? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, okay. Um the uh max building height you say is
33 38 feet or three stories and three stories. Where is that measured from? In other words, if the property sits like this, is it from the low point, the high point or every point? >> I I believe without looking I don't have the ordinance in front of me. The ordinance doesn't specify that's
>> I believe the ordinance does in fact say that you measure either 6 or 10 ft from the foundation and it 10-ft intervals all the way around the building. So theoretically point to the midpoint of the >> So theoretically if I have a lot that
sits like this and I make my foundation match the grade then it's 38 ft here and then so looking at it on a flat view it's 38 ft in the front from that elevation and 38 ft from the uh back or front and back. You know what I'm
saying? As opposed to if the foundation is straight it's 38 ft. And if I'm diving into the land so be it. But if it if I make my foundation like this, if I propose it now, it's 38 feet to the back. And the reason I asked that is because the 40 North Franklin that we're going to take credit that hasn't been
built yet. That's going to affect their line of sight because if it's 38T from the front of North Franklin turnpike, it'll be hard to see because that property dies down pretty well. So I just I wanted to be clear about that. So it's at the foundation wherever the foundation may sit. So if I stagger the
building, the foundation will follow and so will the elevation. Um I was a little confused by the backyard setback. Um it says 30 feet as per in uh 34 32.6 K1 it's 30
feet but 34 32.6 says 40T for everything you know minus the 10 ft if you have a deck or a patio. I know 34 32.6 6 A1 is specifically for anyone who borders the R3 which I do. So
what is the rear yard setback? >> I believe that ladder provision will also apply the way the ordinance is structured. >> Right. So what is what is the >> would be 40T in that case. >> 40T for anything other than a patio or deck.
>> Correct. >> Because patio and decks at least are exempt. Okay. Um, I don't know how much time I have left. Um, that was answered. That was answered. I have a for Why weren't 4601
lots 36, 38, 39, and 5? Why weren't they included along the Franklin Turnpike corridor? >> They because it seems like they're cut out >> parking lot numbers where they would be. Hold on a second. >> They're on the south side of Frank. Uh, >> what happened? This overlay zone was not
in our original plan. >> No, I understand. Right. And then we received the objection from the developer. So we had to go into mediation with the developer. >> So the developer got to help choose which lots were in and which out. >> Would you say that?
>> Yeah. That's exactly what happened. >> Um I I know this deals with the other zone, but it deals with this too. Assuming these pass, is there any chance that someone like Fairshare or another developer say, "You know what? It's kind of interesting. You left out that giant
piece. That's the lumber yard." >> Uh yard is already subject to an overlay. >> Okay. But no one can turn around and say, "Now you have to include that." >> No, no, it's an overlay. Nobody can force you to develop an overlay.
>> Okay. Um, I have some other questions, but um, I guess that's it. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Peters.
>> Any other comments from the public, please? >> I get to go again. Steve Forbes FBS19 Armont A in this in this section where we were
doing multif family homes. I already live across the street from a multif family home, the apartments and the town homes on the corner of Franklin and Airmont. I asked before, who's going to enforce the resolutions?
cannot get those resolutions enforced because they're not being upheld to. We have a serious parking issue on Airmon. There's not enough parking for the apartments. They are over inhabited.
The town homes do not abide by the resolution of the visitor spots and the handicap spots. They use them as their own when they have company. Most of them are overnight. They park on
on Airmon A. They start at the driveway and our many cars. They go right up the street, blocking sidewalks, blocking driveways, blocking access out of my driveway. I will let you know, I'm a volunteer fireman for 50 years. There's
times I can't get out of my driveway. I can't see to get out of my driveway to respond to emergency calls. We have called the police department for three years. Very little has been done. I've been in negotiations with the police department on what they can and
cannot write. Apparently, they don't understand the ordinances. The ordinance that works the best is an overnight parking. We get overnight parking from Thursday through Monday every weekend. These people come with suitcases and they just park and they'll
stay there for three days. I've asked the police department to improve enforcement. Mayor Dylan has assured me that they're going to improve enforcement. I've asked, I've called, I've stopped him at the police station. The best luck
I have is finding patrolman on the street. They're more than willing to go write those tickets. I also asked that they write the overnight ordinance. They tell me they will not write the overnight ordinances on Sundays and
holidays. The ordinance is written that it is seven days a week. They don't even understand it. I was I was emailing with Patrolman Gillis today. He did not understand it.
>> It's very plainly written. So, all I'm asking is that somebody enforce the resolution on these two buildings because they're not being enforced. We got commercial businesses running out of those apartments. There's two. Google Earth it. It'll show you the two
businesses that run out of those apartments. And those trucks come, they park. We've had vehicles towed there because they've been abandoned there. People go on vacation and park their cars there, right? It is affecting my quality of
life. And then I'm told that they're looking to rewrite the ordinance for no parking. So now I get penalized for people parking in front of my house. It it detracts from my quality of life that I spend good money. Although it's a
very small house, you know, we take care of it. We have pride in our neighborhood. The whole neighborhood does. I just want to make sure that as we go forward, what I'm hearing is this is a done deal. The state has strong armed us into this.
We're we're not going to get out of it. But I want to make sure that on both of these projects and in any project in this town, the ordinances that are passed are enforced. The resolutions on these buildings are enforced.
That's all I've asked for. I mean, I've lived in this town my whole life. You've heard this before. I've dedicated my life to serving this community. My parents still live in this town in their mid 90s. I love this town. I'm I'm not leaving, but I can't deal
with this. Other people being non-courteous for me, and it's because of those apartments are over occupied. Now, this overlay that's on our side of town, the North Franklin area, this is an established residential community.
Once you start plucking these multif family homes in there, they're going to have the same problem I do. picking up the garbage, the diapers, the soda cans, the beer bottles, all the stuff that gets thrown from all these people parking there. I don't want to see that happen to the other people in this town.
So, please, can we enforce this and at least help us through this because we're all taking it on the chin for the town and I don't think it's fair, but from what he's telling me, it's a done deal.
>> Thank you, M. >> Mr. Forbes, I will I will personally speak tomorrow with Lieutenant Canonico and Officer Gilling about this, especially about, you know, not enforcing it overnight on Sunday nights and holidays.
>> Yep. I mean, he sent me an email today. He says, "Well, I'm confused." He sent it to the court clerk. >> Cliff, can you forward that email to me, please? >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. I'll follow up tomorrow. I usually do include you on all my emails, but things have been going pretty good over
there. You know, it's not been as bad as it's been. I mean, there's another gentleman here has had problems with it also, you know, but come Thursday night through Monday. >> Okay. >> It's a parking lot. It's a park fest. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Got it.
Hi, name's Lou Machio. M O CC io. I'm at corner of 90 North Franklin Turnpike and Airmon. So, Mr. Forbes is my neighbor. So, in talks with him. They're parking in my parking lot nights
and weekends. I've been instructed by Ramsey PD that they cannot issue tickets on private property. They can't enforce anything on private property. >> That's true. >> So, Officer Gilly said, "If I am willing to
meet a patrolman on my property while the car is there, he'll write a ticket in my behalf." So, I agreed. I said, "Not a problem." the littering, the damage, the broken branches. You know, there's my tenants, there's
women, they have to have confrontations with these tenants from across the street. They don't want to deal with it. They're afraid that if they go to work early and there's no spots, that what they're going to do.
Um, I called up the management company across the street, JP Management. They said very nicely, "We have the same problem. There's not enough parking spots in the facility." She says, "Do what you have to do. Tow them, ticket
them." I said, "Okay, well, what can we do together? They're not coming. They're not my people. They're coming from your apartments." So, it's onebedroom, two-bedroom. There's multiple cars for each apartment. So, how does that get police if the management isn't going to do
anything and say, "Here's your parking permit for your one unit, for your onebedroom. Why are there three cars for that one apartment? I know my neighbors where I live. I know when a car is not supposed to be there." Okay, it's unsafe. You know your neighborhood.
Everybody in here knows their neighbors. They know the corners. They know the people. They know who's supposed to be there, who's not supposed to be there. They're out of state plates. You have every place that you want to with this overlay. It's direct access to highways. You have kidnappings. We have strings of
burglaries, car breakins. All these towns, it's hit and run from people out of out of town. And now low-income housing. What kind of people are going to be moving in? I hate to say it like that, but it's true. They don't have the Ramsay pride like everybody else. Grew
up here. My kids go to school here. You know, we care about the town. Low income. They're going wherever low income puts them or wherever the powers to be, wherever their story is. So, it's a safety thing. You're going to wait for
something to happen and then say, "Oh, let's address it now." Well, let's address it before it happens. You know, there's women, there's children, you know, Island Road, everybody goes to school. I know half the people in here or at least seen
them. So, it's, you know, same thing Mr. For says, the traffic. You pull out of the parking lot, you can't see left facing group 17. I almost got t-boned last week because I had an inch out. By the time I got far enough out to see, the car was flying down. It's 25 miles
an hour. The little blinking lights don't do crap. You know, it's it's it's a nuisance. They probably see the lights flashing in the middle of the night when people do 30 miles an hour through their windows. So,
if you're going to have the overlay on any one of these roads, especially Island Road, it's not so much the parking that's for the units. It's the guests, the overnight parking. >> Who are they? Where are they coming from? I don't know. What's their
intentions of being there? >> That's all. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Machio. >> Good evening. >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Jim Kavanagh, CA N A G H. I live at 12
Chelsea Court, Ramsey along Franklin Turnpike on North Franklin Turnpike. Um, I also represent the Chelsea Condominium Association as the board president. Um, I'm going to be educating myself since I only learned about this eight days ago as well. So, I just have a couple of
points that uh, maybe Mr. Burgess could address. Um, that that North Franklin Turnpike Road right there has a lot of commercial businesses already in place. what's to prevent these owners of these buildings from
selling out immediately and progressing with residential housing to meet the um meet the the ordinance. Uh so that that's that's one significant question. The other impact that I see um is that that
North Franklin turnpike area currently is a flood zone. Okay. It has inadequate drainage along Franklin Turnpike and it and it feeds into I guess into the Ramsey Brook and and down into the central part of Ramsey. What is going to
be done if we have to deal with this density of housing and additional parking with flood um flood remediation? >> Mr. uh that would be part any application for that property to do it. Drainage is part of the pro is part of
the applications. It's a required part of the application. New Jersey is actually very strict on that. >> So what protects us from these commercial businesses selling out? There are a couple office buildings there that if I imagine if they sold they would meet the property size limit that
>> thank you. you know, wi with the overlay both the underlying current zoning exists, but if someone wanted to build, if they have the required area and can meet all the other requirements in the code, they would be entitled to convert
their property. >> So, we have no protection from commercial businesses selling out tomorrow and >> that would be correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kavanagh. >> Any other comments to ordinance 05-2026,
please? >> Hi, Joe Altabel. A L T O B E L L. This reminds me of the famous Vietnam War. What they said, what a colonel said they had to destroy the village in order to save it. >> Can you please give your address, please? 39 Crest Road. >> Thank you.
>> I guess this is a done deal. I'm very disappointed. When I first bought my property, it was zoned, I think, for B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B2 um uh commercial and now it's um excuse me, B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B2 um commercial. Now it's
residential five uh which is high density housing. So um I'm very disappointed about that. But my question in terms of the buffer zone, um, per what Bruce had had mentioned, it
sounds like it's 40 feet. Um, between my property and 40 ft, can we um suggest uh trees or vegetation or fences or any kinds of those things? And when would we do that? Uh, at what point in time would we do that?
>> That is already in the municipality site plan review ordinance. There's a whole section about buffers, fencing, and the like. So, that's already covered. And when they when someone were to file a site plan, uh there's a complete review
of not only the zoning ordinance, but that site plan review ordinance to make sure the applicant also conforms with all those standards as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr.
Any other comments, please to ordinance 05-2026. Not seeing anybody approaching the microphone and podium. I'll close public comment. Miss Bendy, may I please have a roll call? >> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes. >> Councilman Greson,
>> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Pablo, >> yes. Councilwoman Poppy. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Uh, next ordinance for public hearing 06-2026,
please. >> Thank you, Council President Cusk. Uh, final ordinance 062026, an ordinance amending CH charter 34, section 4.28 28 entitled affordable housing mandatory set aside for the
revised general ordinances of the Burough Ramsey having been brought up for public hearing and all persons interested having been given an opportunity to be heard. pass final reading by title and that said ordinance be adopted in the
ordinance of the burough Ramsey and be it further resolved that the burough clerk be and she hereby is directed to cause a copy of the title of said ordinance to be published in an official newspaper of the burrow in a manner provided by law together with an
ordinance of the date of introduction and adoption of said ordinance. >> I'll second. >> Thank you very much Mr. Burch just any comments? >> Uh, very quickly. >> Okay. Go ahead.
>> The bur already has a mandatory set aside ordinance, but with the fourth round, the regulations change. Whereas previously, if it was a rental affordable unit, there would be a 15% set aside. And if it was for sale, there
would be a 20% set aside. And the state regulation changed where everything whether it's rental or a sale unit the affordables have to be set aside at a 20% set aside and that basically is the change. >> Thank you. And burough administrator is
there anything you would like to add please? >> No I would have had the same comments Mr. Burch. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, any comments from members of the council on ordinance 06-2026?
Thank you. Any comments from the public, please on ordinance 06-2026. Not seeing anyone approaching the podium. I'll ask a second time. And a third and final time,
I'll post public comment. Miss Bendy, can I please have a roll call? >> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes. >> Councilman Berson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gotwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Pablo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes.
>> Thank you. This closes our advertised public hearing for final consideration for this evening. Um, I would like to make a motion that we take a five minute break, please. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Thank you.
is Councilwoman Cusk and I would like to uh reopen our meeting with a roll call, please. Miss Bendian, can you please make a roll call? >> Mayor Dylan >> here. >> Councilwoman Cusk >> here. >> Councilman Gerson >> here. >> Councilman Gutweather >> here.
>> Councilman Kilman >> here. >> Councilman Papo >> here. >> Councilwoman Poppy >> here. Thank you. I'd like to uh go to agenda item number 10. the in sorry >> yes
>> I'd like to go to uh agenda item number 10 the introduction of ordinances >> um ordinance 07- 2026 be it resolved that the ordinance entitled an ordinance a amended chapter
13 branch in county Jersey entitled building and housing So as it so as to establish section 13 uh through 18 short-term pass the first reading by title that and
said ordinance be further I'm sorry considered for final passage of adoption at a regular meeting of mayor and council to be held on the 25th day of March 2026 7:00 p.m. prevailing time or as soon as the matter can be reached at
a municipal building in that burrow. And be it further resolved that the burrow clerk be and she hereby is instructed to publish and publish an official newspaper of the burrow in the manner provided by law copy of the ordinance
together with notice introduction therefore and notice when the same will be considered for final passage and adoption. >> Thank you. This is Councilwoman Cusk and I second. Miss Bendian, may I please have a roll call? Oh, actually, actually, sorry. Um, may I have comments
on this ordinance, please? >> Uh, sure. Council President, I would just say that this ordinance establishes a burough code section that prohibits short-term rentals of a dwelling unit in Ramsey for a term of 30 days or less. It does not impact an existing lease or
rental that already exceeds 30 days where the parties are looking for a shortterm hold over or extension of that lease of which the hold over or extension is less than 30 days. >> Thank you very much. >> Roll call, please.
>> Councilwoman Cusk, >> yes. >> Councilman Greson, >> yes. >> Councilman Gutwer, >> yes. >> Councilman Kilman, >> yes. >> Councilman Papo, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Poppy, >> yes. >> Thank you. Agenda item 11, unfinished business.
Not hearing any. Agenda item 12, new business. Thank you. Lucky 13. Agenda item. May I ask for adjournment? May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll make that motion.
>> Thank you, Mr. Gutter. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Papo. Good night, everybody. >> All in favor? All in favor? >> I >> I thank you everyone. >> Thank you.