okay thank you good evening welcome to the mayor and council work session on Wednesday April 9th 202025 i'm sorry 2025 this meeting is also being conducted telephonically dial in number is 425 436
6365 access code 213563 the meeting may also be viewed on the Ramsey YouTube channel which is available through the Burough website may please have a roll call mayor Dylan here councilwoman Cusk here
councilman Gutwer here councilman Kilman is not here councilman Papo here councilwoman Poppy here councilwoman Woods here thank you stand for the flag please
i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] new Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was
enacted to ensure the right of all citizens to have advanced notice of and to intend all meetings of 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 2025 and we don't have any minutes for approval this evening can we move on to communication i make a motion to accept and file the communication listed on the agenda thank
you do we have a second yes Madame Mayor i second thank you roll call please councilwoman Cusk yes councilman Gutwer yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank
you okay public comment 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 5-minute time limit per speaker unless reduced because of the volume of business on the agenda
please note 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 shall be saved for later use any responses may be given during the governing body's comments later in the
meeting or is directed by the chair the burough clerk is the official timekeeper now if you're here you have comments on the island the ordinance pertain to Island Road um the proper time to make your comments or ask questions is during the public hearing which will be later in the meeting once once Mr burgess
arrives so does anybody want to make any comments other than Island Road okay not hearing anyone anyone on the line second call for public comment okay there are final calls for public
comment i will close public [Music] comment okay we're um we're going to go now we're going to advertise public hearing for final consideration of ordinances can I please have a motion to table ordinance 0420 to have table the
hearing on the ordinance 042025 until later in this meeting when Mr burgers arrives make a motion to table ordinance 042025 until Mr burgess arrives thank you Madame Mayor this is Councilwoman Cusk and I second that thank you all in favor
i Okay thank you and let's move on to the public hearing for ordinance 072025 thank you Madame Mayor this is Councilwoman Cusk i'd like to read the final ordinance for 07-2025 an ordinance amending chapter 4
of the code of the Burough of Ramsey Bergen County New Jersey so as to establish section 4-9 thereof entitled liability insurance and annual registration requirements for businesses and owners of a rental unit or units having been brought up for
public hearing and all persons interested having been given an opportunity to be heard past final reading by title and that said ordinance be adopted as an ordinance of the Burough of Ramseyanne 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 said ordinance we have a second yes madam mayor i
second thank you do we have any comments on this ordinance thank you yes madame mayor this ordinance um to establish liability insurance and annual registration requirements for businesses and and owners of rental units is on um in part the state adopted into law
S-1368 which requires all owners of multif family rental units to maintain certain minimum levels of liability insurance so um in addition they are required to annually register that certificate of insurance with the municipality this ordinance codifies the
state insurance requirements and establishes the bureau's administrative fees and the penalty for non-compliance thank you okay all right i will now open it up to public hearing is there anyone in the audience who would like to
comment on ordinance 072025 okay not seeing anyone step up is there anyone on the line who would like to comment on ordinance 072025 second call for public comments third and final call for public comments hey not hearing anyone i will
close the public hearing for ordinance 072025 can we please have a roll call councilwoman Cusk yes councilman Gutwer yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes
thank you consent resolutions uh thank you Madame Mayor be it resolved that resolution 076 2025 through and including 082 2025 having been considered by the governing
body of the burl Ramsey v are hereby passed and approved uh there's a special permit request this evening sigma Free is requesting permission to post signs in various locations advertising for a Sigmafree event on May 4th 2025 and there are no block party
requests this evening thank you any comments on the consents not hearing any do we have a second i'll second it thank you okay roll call please councilwoman Cusk yes councilman Gutwer
yes councilman Pablo yes councilwoman Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you okay we'll move on to committee and lead on reports councilman Gutwire thank you again Madame Mayor uh my
report for this evening uh for the library board um as mentioned previously a new digital content format called Comic Plus uh being newly offered which provides digital comics and manga the library is now also offering a new type
of audio player to borrow called a Yodo player which are portable screen free audio players geared for kids that play stories and songs and the friends at a Ramsey Library jewelry sale was this past weekend was successful proceeds will be uh going to support library
services including the summer reading program Sunday concert series and museum pass program for the recreation commission in the Easter egg hunt in partnership with the fire department will be held on this Saturday April 12th in the morning and summer camp at Finch Park
registration will be open shortly and the homeland derby is scheduled for June i believe it's the 14th i'm about date confirm that uh Ramsey Farmers Market is open 10:00 a.m to 1 p.m continuing schedule
through the end of this month and then we'll expand the hours starting in May um there are still over upwards of 50 dedicated farmers and food purveyors each and every Sunday uh the easy car shows sponsored by Environmental Commission will be on April 27th and on
May 4th uh the Ramsey Area Garden Club annual plant sale sponsored by the Women's Club of Ramsey will take place i just want to thank Councilwoman Sarah Poppy another successful Ramsey Journal which hit the mailboxes i got mine today
i'm not sure if anybody got through yesterday or are getting theirs tomorrow but it looks like a really good issue and thank you for your efforts for you and your team that's my report for this evening thank you okay Mr councilman Kilman is absent does anybody have a
report for him for public safety okay wonderful building planning and zoning oh the woman was hold on here thank you Madame Mayor my report is short tonight because of how my meetings
fall um the design review board uh last met on March 25th and they had three applications approved the next design review board meeting is Tuesday April 22nd the senior trustees board will meet tomorrow but their last meeting was on the 13th um I just want to mention again
the seniors will be stuffing like thousands of Easter eggs at 12:30 tomorrow at the senior center if you want to come help um and uh the zoning board of adjustment will meet next week April 16th and they will hear two applications thank you Madame Mayor thank
you utilities buildings and grounds councilwoman Cusk thank you Madame Mayor this is Councilwoman Cusk for my report 9 April 2025 i want to thank the environmental commission and our volunteers for hosting cleanup day this past Saturday my report tonight will be
an update regarding our planning board our shade tree commission and the board of public works for the Ramsey Planning Board the next planning board is scheduled for April 15th the meeting on April 1st was cancelled at our prior mayor and council meeting in March i
gave an update on the activities of the planning board for our Shade Tree Commission it last met on the 20th of March 2025 the next meeting is scheduled for the 17th of April 2025 this year there will be over 40 new trees planted in our burrow our shade tree commission
also has a wonderful submission in the Ramsey journal spring edition the board of public works it last met on the 17th of March 2025 our next meeting is April 21st 2025
perr and poly florinated substances POS are a group of chemicals used to make fluoropolymer coatings and products that resist heat oil stains grease and water there are US EPA PAS water quality limits which impact our water supply h2m
our architectural and engineering firm is working with the Ramsey Water Department regarding treatment approaches at our well treatment facilities at Arrow Road and at Darlington Brookfield North Central and Spring Street the lead service line replacement
the Board of Public Works continues planning and implementing regarding the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections lead service line replacement legislation this project requires that all lead service lines served by the water system be replaced by the year
2031 ramsey gets our water supply from wellwater and reservoirs from Violia that's an external provider violia sends the burough water with higher levels of chlorinated water to supplement our wellwater supply and this is because
Violia's water supply is from surface water sources as compared to our wellwater sources madame Mayor thank you very much thank you public and governmental relations Councilwoman Poppy thank you Madam Mayor
thank you bruce [Music] um as Councilman Gutwer stated the Ramsay journal was dropped at the mailbox by printer on Tuesday so everyone should be getting their
journals is invalid every meeting totally wrong wow yeah I'm just moving a little over here um so everyone should be getting their journals today tomorrow and uh Friday uh I'd like to extend a special thank you
to Kelly Sylvester and Maredith Bendian for all of your help editing the journal it is a mammoth undertaking and I really appreciated uh all of the support and hard work uh this year the municipal
alliance will meet on April 28th they are preparing for mental health awareness month they are also working with um resurrecting stigma free so stigmafree will be um a you know coming up
um with programming to support mental health awareness they will have yard signs there will be a walk and talkathon at the high school track that was originally slated for May 3rd um they had a conflict at the high school so
it's now May 4th from 1 to 3 so when you leave the farmers market you can go up there and participate in the walk and talkathon they have a lot of great programming and speakers uh that they're coordinating for that
event um the next new resident mixer will be held at the town pool on the 6th of June i will be sending out notification to the local organizations just letting them know to save the date and we will be sending out letters to
the new residents um to be invited to that particular event and the Ramsey Municipal Pool as a reminder the early bird registration is open until the end of this month um and then the rates will
increase starting in May so um if you'd like to take advantage of their early registration I would encourage you to do so now and that concludes my report thank you thank you health Education Social Services councilman Papo thank
you Madam Mayor um brief update tonight i'll start off with Ramsey's for everyone we have a break until uh the the end of April where soft will begin um towards towards April the probably that last weekend in April uh and
nothing else going on for it is for everyone for environmental uh we met last night uh four things I'll bring up we had a a good turnout for the Sam Wright uh cleanup about 140 volunteers more than half were children which was good so they they did a lot of
the parks and activity around that uh we did hit most of the areas of Sarra Pond the bike patch and some of the main main main streets white golf a as well uh toy drive was on 46 they had a pretty good turnout in getting plastic toys and brought them down to Fairline i think we
only had one car load going down and usually we do two so it was a little little bit light but that's all we had there the EV car show is Sunday the 27th that's from 9 to 1 uh and that will be having about five or six vendors that'll be present there for that date and then
the next uh styrofoam collection will be for Ramsey on May 17th upper Saddle River is having one on the 19th of April and we'll work with the with our um board to kind of go down there and make sure that we get the traffic going on out of Richmond Park on that so we'll
work with our crew board of edies later on this month uh the only other thing I'll bring up was the Cub Scout Pack 306 the Arrow Light was a great event that we had at the um uh Brick House in Whiteoff uh there was at least a dozen uh Cub Scouts that were moving on to the
next level uh if they want but it was a really really nice event well attended so thank you thank you thank you okay good evening everyone it's not public comment
yeah you already had it um so I want to let everybody know for stigmafree the month of May we're actually going to have green ribbons on the light poles on Main Street which is the first time we're doing this um and they will be up for the entire month of May and I'd like
to thank everybody who showed up for the Ramsey Cleanup Day it really was a great turnout um it's amazing the cleanup that was done on Woodland Avenue um Councilman Papa my husband and I cleaned the bike path and it's amazing how many cigarette butts we picked up amongst
other things um and I hope everybody can join us on the stigmafree walk and talkathon next month because we used to do this before co but we discontinued it during co so I'm glad that this um event is now back on the schedule and thank
you to Councilwoman Poppy for all your wonderful work on the newsletter very informative that's all I have um Mr jose uh thank you Madame Mayor just first would like to comment on a couple resolutions that were on the agenda tonight uh resolutions 81 and 82 awarded
contracts to PM Construction for paving ramsey is the lead agent in the Northwest Bergen Shared Service Group and annually coordinates a shared service bid for road resurfacing this year we have four municipalities included in the bid allowing us to have additional paving quantities and achieve
a more attractive bid package the public bid was advertised and bids were opened on April 2nd it was very competitive bid process we had nine firms bidding on the contract pm Construction was the low bid pm Construction has successfully performed under contracts for similar
scope of work in the past and after both the technical and legal review of the bids by the burough's engineer and QPA as well as the burough attorney respectively the recommendation is to award the contract to PM Construction resolution 81 awarded the
contract that as the lead agent of our uh shared service collectively for all four towns with a total amount amount of $1,39,834.50 and resolution 82 awards a subsidiary contract which is only for Ramsey's portion of the work uh totaling
$211,73622 um I have a couple comments on ordinances upcoming and I'll hold those for when we get to them okay thank you for attorney nothing thank you clerk has nothing thank you thank you okay now
let's go into introduction of ordinances ordinance 082025 thank you Madame Mayor this is Councilwoman Cusk this is an intro to ordinance 08-2025 it resolved that an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending the
Burough of Ramsey Code of Ordinances to repeal chapter 255 flood damage prevention to adopt a new chapter 25 flood plane management regulations to adopt flood hazard maps to designate a flood plane administrator
and providing for severability and an effective date pass the first reading by title and that said ordinance be further considered for final passage and adoption at a regular meeting of the mayor and council to be held on the 23rd
day of April 20257 p.m prevailing time or as soon after as the matter can be reached at the municipal building in said burrow and be it further resolved that the burough clerk be and she hereby is instructed to publish in an official
newspaper of the burrow in the manner provided by law a copy of said ordinance together with notice of introduction thereof and notice when the same will be considered for final passage and adoption i'll second thank you any comments on
this ordinance boro administer would you uh give the comments please sure thank you um recently FEMA had reviewed the New Jersey model flood damage prevention ordinance and recommended that the New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection the D revised it to ensure that all 553 New Jersey participating community ordinances are compliant with the National Flood Insurance Program this model ordinance was provided to New Jersey municipalities by the DAP and incorporates those FEMA recommendations
and adoption is required by June 18th of this year introduction of this ordinance and public hearing for adoption at our meeting tonight will ensure compliance with the D timeline and bringing our local ordinance in compliance with FEMA and the New Jersey DP's model ordinance
to be enacted thank you can we have a roll call please councilwoman Cusk yes councilman Gutwer yes councilman Popp yes councilwoman Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes okay we don't have any unfinished business we'll
go into new business we're going to have a public hearing on the Bergen County Open Space Recreation Flood Plane Protection Farmland Historic Preservation Trust Fund for obtaining a matching grant of approximately $17,500 from the county trust fund to
fund improvements to Finch Park including the installation of permanent energyefficient field lighting to enhance accessibility and playability while eliminating the need for inefficient diesel powered temporary lights mr mr ros you have any comments
on that yes I do um this grant application uh is going to the Bergen County Open Space Program that program requires uh or under any successful grant under that program they would
award you 50% of the project cost the burrow would be providing the other 50% um this comes out of the open space trust fund funds that are sent um through uh municipal taxes down to the county for this open space trust fund
and that's how they distribute the grants uh to different municipalities uh the specific project for this year as um was read it includes improvements to Finch Park for the installation of permanent energy efficient field lighting would be on the
field if you're familiar kind of where the where the fireworks are held every year um and certainly there's football practice there in the fall and some other things uh the lights for the parking lot and that field uh are very
old very inefficient need to be replaced they are also diesel-powered temporary light towers that are very noisy and again energy inefficient um to you utilize so uh the proposal is to get the
grant to install um light poles to point down focus the lighting so there's not as much spill as there currently is to the neighboring homes and also become a lot more energy efficient and utilize less electricity or diesel powered
generators to get us to the same place in updating the park uh to current standards of any lighted area and field thank you okay is there anyone in the public that would like to comment on this grant application okay yes sir please step up
thank your name new lighting 245 days a new lighting include the pickle courts this application does not but we had a prior application that did include the
pickle ball courts so that it the pickle ball courts will actually be at earlier phase of the lighting upgrades at Finch Park before this oh you do plan to light them yes good thank you sure anyone else
okay anyone on the line wishing to comment on this second call for public comment third and final call for public comment okay can we please have the resolution Councilman Gutwarter uh thank you Madame Mayor uh this will
be resolution uh 0832025 authorizing the burrow to submit an application for a grant to Bergen County Open Space in the amount of $17,500 for improvement to Finch Park including energy efficient field
lighting i'll second it thank you can we have a roll call please councilwoman Cusk yes councilman Gutwer yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes okay
thank you um so at this point we're still waiting on Mr burgess do you want to go ahead and give you start giving the background mr ros will start giving you some more background on the Island Road project and then you know we'll have Mr burgess here
do you want to um introduce like have the title read and then Sure why don't we go ahead and do that can I have a motion to go back um to unt ordinance 042025 a motion to untable 042025 thank you can
we have a second a second thank you roll call please councilwoman Cusk yes councilman Gotwer yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank
you okay so let's go ahead and do we'll start the advertised public hearing for final consideration of ordinance 042025 all right thank you Madame Mayor final ordinance 042025 an ordinance to amend chapter 34 entitled zoning of the
revised general ordinance of the bureau of Ramsey to establish a new R-5C Island Road multifamily residential zone district having been brought up for public hearing and all persons interested have been given an opportunity to be heard cast final reading by title and that said ordinance
be adopted as an ordinance of the Burrow of Ramsay 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 the manner provided by law together with a notice of the date of introduction and
adoption of said ordinance thank you we have a second this is Councilwoman Cusk i second thank you Mr go uh thank you Madam Mayor as mentioned this ordinance amends chapter 34 of the current burough code of zoning
to establish a new R5C Island Road Multif Family Residential Zone District um which involves block 4201 lots five and six this ordinance does not approve a
specific development plan any entity wishing to develop the property will need to come before the planning board and publicly present its plan to the board and its engineers for review prior to any approval to move forward with a development
at that hearing of the planning board it will address that any new development also must adhere to all state regulations on storm water runoff and a net zero requirement that's there the public can comment on the application at the time of the planning board hearing
as well question the developers their professionals that will present at the hearing regarding any development of the property what I will now to that's not tonight we don't have a specific plan what the ordinance has in it tonight
I'll talk about some of the provisions that are in the ordinance as I mentioned this is a reasonzoning pertaining to only block 4201 lots five and six the purpose of the resoning is to create a realistic opportunity for the construction of an age restricted multif family inclusionary development to meet
an increasing need and demand in Ramsey and surrounding communities this particular site's relationship to appropriate infrastructure and proximity to other residentially zoned and developed properties along with sufficient size allowed to accommodate such development this development will
also help to address the fair share housing affordable housing obligation of the burough the permitted use of the property would would be for inclusionary multifamily development with age restrictions the minimum age requirements for any affordable housing
incomerestricted unit would be at least one resident must be 62 years of age or older and for any market rate units at least one of the residents must be 55 years of age or older the minimum afforded housing component will be 20%
of any units for sale and 15% of any units for rent by ordinance the area and bulk requirements compare favorably to those seen in multif family zones and as compared to zone R5B on Island Road which is further down Island closer to
Route 17 for example the unity density per acre in this R5C proposed zone is 8.2 while in the R5B which exists further down has a density of 20 per acre this ordinance has been developed with
the burough's planner Joseph Burgess of Burgess Associates he's one of the leading planners in the area and this ordinance is also very in line with the current needs and market conditions seen in all of the Northwest Burton County towns in terms of land use and project
development thank you right so at this point um we'll wait for Mr burgess to arrive hopefully he'll be here very very soon we'll have him you know make comments and then we'll
open it up to public hearing where you can make comments you can ask questions of Mr burgess during that public hearing okay if you want to stand up stretch your legs you're more than welcome to
madame Mayor we're going to go back on the record um Mr burgess is here he'll be in the room momentarily okay nice seeing you [Music] there he is there's Mr burton
the man of the hour come on up Joe you sure you want to go by Meredith yeah of course okay once again um this is now the public hearing for ordinance
042025 okay and we'll uh can we have a roll call please sure councilwoman Cusk here councilman Gutwer yes councilman Pablo yes councilwoman
Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you okay um Mr burgess yes i got to tell you I've been doing this for 40 years first time I was ever locked out of the media industry yeah it's a little embarrassing actually
hi everyone thanks for your patience um you know this is a public hearing on this ordinance for 425 Iowa Road uh and it purpose is basically to identify a site for multif family age restricted affordable
housing affordable housing set aside meaning that either 15 or 20% of the units could be for affordable housing all the rest of the market housing um I would imagine I'm trying to catch
my first conversation i would imagine that you have two questions in mind why are we doing this and then secondly why here in order to fully understand it what I'd like to do is give a little background on the whole affordable
housing issue and what our obligations are and the limited needs of a few weeks thank you how we have to address at least a portion of our obligations um let me start with the what's called the third round of affordable housing we are now up to
round four under the third round I'm going to throw out a couple numbers that might shock you um but then I'll explain how it's not as bad as it might initially sound under the third round the state of New Jersey gave Ramsey an
affordable housing obligation of 736 affordable units we prepared a housing plan where we identified the fact that we just don't have enough vacant land or developable land to address that kind of number and we reduce that number from
736 down to 54 yeah I like that expression um the same holds true the fourth for this fourth round the fourth round technically starts just now and it's good for a 10-year period into me 2035
and the Department of Community Affairs now publishes housing need numbers for every municipality in the state and they made the determination that Ramsey now needs 503 affordable units now there's an organization that supports affordable
housing in the state called Fairshare Housing Center you may have heard of that or read about them in the paper they actually uh have done their own calculation and suggested our number should be 520 affordable units i will tell you that based on
uh our experience with the third round where we're entitled to do what's called a vacant land adjustment and a realistic development potential uh which in that third round was 54 units we're very confident that we're going to have a similar significant reduction this time
around unfortunately you know our options are very limited um the one thing I think I have to stress with all this if we do not provide for a certain amount of affordable housing we would lose our
immunity from all affordable housing litigation um that could be a very put you in a very desperate straight for example uh in Englewood Cliffs I think is the poster child statewide for when you just ignore your obligation um they were
fined literally millions of dollars for not doing what they were supposed to do um they the state also the courts also took away the power of the planning board to review development applications and they had hired uh they appointed a special master to oversee all
development in the state in the Englewood class Eclipse on behalf of the state um we certainly don't want that to happen here um what we do know is that our options are limited first of all everybody knows we're a fully developed municipality
we don't have much vacant land to speak of but Fairshair Housing Center as well as the state is aware of the limited amount of vacant land and potentially redevelopable land that we do have and
because of that and because we have a this particular site which is near a train station where the state is actively encouraging multif family housing um we know that this property is in fact
in play now typically when you look at uh sites near uh train stations for example and near other multif family housing which is across the street from the site um DCA previously the council
on affordable housing and fair share say you should have much higher densities for example in Park Ridge near their train station they were zoning sites near the train station at 50 60 and 70 to the acre which we found totally
unacceptable here uh we were able to come up with a plan that talked about 8.2 units to the acre for the site now the minimum standards are typically six to eight for more rural open areas we're
applying that here for the fact for the reason that this municipalities just can't sustain the kind of densities that you typically see at train stations we're not going to be able to ignore this site we're going to have to deal with it but we figure if we zone this
now at this level of density um it would put us in a very good position when we ask for that significant vacant land adjustment to help us get a plan approved by the state uh which will result in total numbers that are
significantly even less than what our prior rounds of um realistic development potential number is um so we put together this ordinance uh as I said it's a it only allows for age
restricted multif family housing at a density of 8.2 to the acre the site is roughly 8 and 12 acres in size so at most you could get 70 dwelling units townhouse units on the site
now I know from letters that have been filed uh with the mun or sent to the municipality amongst the other concerns is fl issues of flooding issues of traffic generating potential i can tell you that while everything across the
street from this site is in a 100year flood plane this site of the flood plane extends onto this site for only about the first 50 feet of the property the rest of the site is not in a in a flood
plane that would suggest that about 7% or so of the pro of the frontage of the property is in that flood area but the rest of it is not so that also reinforces from the state's perspective and fair share's perspective that this
site should be in play um what we've also done to minimize development in terms of not only density but we're also imposing uh building coverage and impervious
coverage limitations such that minimally 40% of the property has to be retained as green space on the property so we're not going to see the whole site pace for example um other standards that we're imposing talk about a building height of
38 ft typically uh in municipality for single family houses you could have a height of 35 ft the reason it's only 3 ft more than that is because of um the way town houses are designed today um they just need that little extra uh
height to uh you know provide for the kind of aesthetic features to the property to the buildings that we want to see and that we've built into the ordinance um the ordinance itself also has a whole
host of architectural design standards to make sure that we uh you know end up with something that's very attractive and won't adversely affect any property values in the area um so we're comfortable that the regulations and the design criteria that
we've built into this ordinance really represent something that will result in a positive project albeit I understand that eighth of the acre is not something you would prefer to see in in a neighborhood uh it is actually a little
less dense than the apartments across the street from it i should point out finally in terms of the flooding issue as an example and all the other design issues and this is just the first step all of those issues will be reviewed
when the applicant ever files a site plan to develop the property and the planning board retains both my office engineering engineers office there will be a traffic consultant analyzing their
plans to make sure that it fits in as best as it can you given the circumstances that we have i think that briefly summarizes things yes thank you so I'd be happy to answer any questions so if you have any
questions please come up here to the podium um give your name spelling your last name and your address and then please ask any questions that you have [Music] uh Mark MacG M A C I About 241 Davidson Avenue um so I guess you mentioned the
site are there other sites considered prior to this one or and what eliminated those sites compared to this we are obligate and I I should have explained this earlier as part of our obligation we have to file a housing element and fair share plan with the state no later
than June 30th that we are looking at and we will be looking at other sites um we recognize that in the end and we haven't completed our analysis yet but while we had a 54 unit realistic development potential that's called RDP
for short um under the last round we are confident that that number will be somewhat less than that um we certainly didn't want to put all those units on this one property so we will be looking at one or two other sites to help me
whatever that final IDP number is okay and and you mentioned earlier the the the flood concerns so I I lived in the Ramsey 13 years um my first five or six years here we had no issues with flooding on Davidson um they built the
homes off off a shop right there those new that new development maybe six or seven homes up there up that hill uh ever since then like my neighborhood has experienced a lot of flooding during any type of heavy rainfall um I have images if you if you like to see them I can
share those with you um we've called the town personally to kind of figure out what's going on why it's what what's changed since those homes went in um my neighbor asked me to share a paragraph that he received in the email from from your um your burough engineering the PW
director Jack the August diagoaro if you don't mind I'd like to read that to you if you don't mind of course regarding the flooding issues that we've had in our neighborhood um regarding the other issue you bring up flooding following the rain from Hurricane Henry and the storm sewers in
the Indian Valley Davidson area do not sufficiently do not have sufficient capacity for the amount of rainfall that fell the storm water system having been built over 70 years ago was not designed to present standards the burrow does not have the resources or responsibility to
upgrade the storm sewers in your area or other areas of the burrow to today's standards the DPW will continue to provide assistance to make sure the existing pipes and drains are clear to maximize their cap their capacity so my concern obviously is if we if this structure if these
structures do go up like how will that adversely affect our our area again uh I'm not the engineer but I can tell you that the new D regulations mandate that whatever design is done for this
property the rate of flow they first analyze the existing rate of flow coming off the property and they are obligated to reduce that amount by a certain percentage so there will be less flow coming off this site if there is flow
coming off the site um but whatever it is it has to be reduced by a certain percentage um so in that way they attempt to minimize the potential for any additional flooding in the area but there is potential flow to go to where
to where where we reside is that is that what I'm am I hearing you correctly i'm sorry yes that again so but there is potential water flow going behind that behind the structure to where we where we currently reside in Indian Valley in Davidson i
couldn't even tell you that because no you know there's been no design for the property yet in terms of engineering details okay that's the kind of thing that David Halls our engineer will be reviewing as part of any future site plan that is filed
okay okay i think that's all I have i can share images with you guys if you'd like them yeah and as part of if there's an application filed to go before the planning board one of the biggest elements is drainage and they will present they will have to present very
detailed plans um prepared by licensed engineer and that as Mr burgess said those plans will be reviewed by Mr halls who is the engineer for the planning board okay okay thank you anybody else have any
questions okay [Music] yeah yeah of course want to just give them to Miss Bendy and she'll do it um okay does anybody have any comments that you'd like to make yes neighborhood
behind the tracks y okay thank you yes ma'am that living there it used to be beautiful and there were all there was all woods 238 Davidson so I live right on the other side so I live right behind the new
development um which since it's been there as the other gentleman said we flood really really badly you can't even get off the block that's how bad the floods are so with everything said how everybody's trying to make it not that
way and it happened so it doesn't give us much to go on if it's already happened and now you're talking about building another building there when we're already having this flood problem so right that's my comment that Okay got
it and as Mr bird has said you know there's new standards from the DP that this project if it goes forward because there's been nothing presented to the planning board um will have to address those new standards right and just basically having a building there it
just takes away the charm of Ramsay and it's making it not the little town that we originally moved to and that's sad understood but you know you have to understand no I do understand affordable housing right we have to comply with
this we just don't have a choice and Mr burgess Mr ros and I a couple weeks ago we were on an 80minute mediation meeting with Fair Share Housing Center and we were actually arguing with them about okay this is what they told us you know where they told us we could do housing
you ready in the middle of Donbos High School they said oh there's plenty of woods right there so they wanted us to actually say yes let's divide Donbos which is private property let's divide it in half and put affordable housing there so that's what we're dealing with
right so you know yes our hands are tied to a certain extent but we're really doing our best to make sure that yes Ramsay meets its obligations but in the best way for the burrow and one of the reasons we're limiting this to zoning to or living to 55 and older 62 and older
is because there is a need in town for people whose children have grown who would like to stay in town but no longer want to live in a big house and pay all the taxes and take care of the property this is something we have in mind for them so as people age they can stay in town and if their family still lives
here they can walk into town they can get to the train station so we're trying to be very forward thinking with this project and I know change is hard it's just we have to do this with the state um if you look at what's going on does anybody see the developments that are
going on over by GA yes okay cost and police part that's going to be six units of special needs housing for high functioning and we get affordable credits for each one of those units in fact we get one and a half credits for each of those units so we will get nine credits of affordable housing for that
project so and that's a great thing all right well thank you yeah I can find you another spot though and remember if you know if there is an application for this um you will be notified if it goes before the planning board and you have
every right to attend a planning board meeting to ask questions of the witnesses and there's plenty of witnesses at a planning board meeting trust me um some of the meetings can go on for three some of the hearings can go on for three meetings there's so many witnesses but you're welcome to attend listen to what the witnesses have to say
ask questions of them and then also make statements and you know give your thoughts about the project so you will have the opportunity to do that if an application is filed anyone else have comments i have a couple questions sure
uh Mark Robinson i live at 467 Road so I'm going to presume what I'm kind of hearing is that what you're the zoning you're doing this is going to be rental properties or you or you don't know at this point yeah not necessarily not necessarily not
necessarily okay and if some of these do become low income does the lowinccome aspect ever run out after 30 years no actually with the new regulations it's a 40-year deed restriction okay but then after 40 years
the town has the right to tackle an additional Did you say four years or 40 40 years okay um so I'm going to presume that what I'm kind of hearing that you're it's a foregone conclusion that this zoning is changing well the the
council has to vote on it still right but this is the first we we're actually hearing about it we got the letter in the mail and you know so this all came about because of the affordable act that you guys have to uh
you know basically because we need affordable housing yeah we have to comply so so you basically you saw this piece of property you said hey we can do that with that piece of property and that's how this whole thing came about or did the or from what I what I understand the builder or the owner of
the property he wants to put condos in there there is a developer that's interested in putting condos in it yes i'm just hearing this from word of mouth coming because I've heard guys got a big There is there is a developer that's interested but as I said no application has been filed okay so what's let's just
say for sake of argument the owner of the property he decides I want to build my 16 homes in there that was originally when the property was sold and subdivided for if this ordinance is passed he won't be able to he will not be able to okay one of And would they
address the traffic issues yes i live like I said I live three doors down from this property i've been hit pulling in my driveway and I've been almost hit five other
times and the traffic and I'm sure you know Jim Dolan who was a real pain in your ass excuse my French welcome to Ramsay you know but he he wasn't kidding it's it's an issue yeah
you know on that road and you know bringing in more you know 65 units in there 64 60 whatever you know that's going to bring a lot more traffic into the area you know so it's just it's very concerning to have those you know with putting that property in there and not
to mention the other issue for me I look right out my family room window and I look at that property i can see the new homes that went in across the way and one of the huge issues I have with apartment complex across the street knowing when I bought the property was
there so I dealt with it is lighting and when you put a condo unit in the lighting never shuts off it's on all the time i have to have blinds and stuff on that side of the house to block the lights because they come through you
have to have blockout shades so it's a concern with you know light pollution and we have a lot in Ramsey already and lighting will be addressed as part as part of any application yeah Mark if I if I can uh one of the things we built
into the ordinance um or buffer requirements that they've got to provide a double row of evergreen plant material around the perimeter of the site and also in front of the site and on top of that our ordinance now
requires all freestanding lights should be down shield shielded and downlit so we try to minimize light pollution that way understand your concern okay and and of course they all said everybody's concerned about flooding and
I've seen the road flooded on Island Road too so that's all I got okay thank you thank you sure come on up [Music] i wasn't speaking my name is Briana Battlementia 29 Indian
Valley um now that we spell the last name please b A D A L A M- E N T I thank you um so I'm here my concern is the potential additional flooding to our area in Indian Valley and Davidson um
and now that we have an active or you know audience I was just curious like do you have any suggestions how to get help from the town for what we are experiencing already because we have called we have people have seen these pictures before but I think as neighbors
we need help now so if we have you here how do we do that uh I will tell you I could talk to David Hol about that I'm not the engineer so I can't offer engineering solutions But I will I'm sure he's aware of this already he's been an engineer for a
number of years here but I'll have a talk with him to see if we can Yeah show him those pictures my son at the time a couple years ago this was in 2021 22 um we have a plastic boat in the backyard and it was sailing away because of the water so high so it's a concern it's not
a good thing so we'll see Mr halls next Tuesday um because this councilman Cusk and I have planning board we're both on the planning board we will discuss this with Mr of course and we'll ask him to go out and look around and definitely
okay anyone else come on up 245 Davidson Avenue d A M I A N O no one's addressed noise yet i mean we have a we get a lot of noise from the train i
think some of the open air that we have that you're thinking about building on some trees some shrubbery absorbs a great deal of that a great deal of that sound you build new homes I heard you say you're going to put a buffer in a
double buffer we need a big buffer and a thick buffer because the noise lately has been I mean these the the freight train you know they built these new trades you think they'd build them quiet they're no quiet than the old trains they still click clack maybe it's the
track i don't know what it is and and the I wish I could talk to the train people because they love to blow that whistle every time they hit the train not just once i know they need to because it's you know cars cross there but they
blow it two three four times the other day I was on the golf course i'm ready to swing the club he saw me and he blew it so but that's beside the point noise is a problem and I don't know and I think a development
of this size will create more noise so we're going to have to be serious about how we mitigate that okay um as we review their site plans whenever it comes in um there are certain mitigating factors that we could impose on them um
but I can tell you we're not going to be able to eliminate noise from the train certainly the train's a train i know but the more we can do the you know the other thing that concerns me and this is probably minor we have a
substantial wildlife that lives in that open space we have a couple two or three families of fox we have way more deer than we can than we can he handle um we have raccoons i mean we have a little forest back there a little a little
nursery of animals i don't know where they're going to go i you know take that land away another not a problem but it's just an issue one of those things you think about okay okay thank you that's a list anyone else
okay everyone uh Diane Tangga 20 Indian Valley Road T NGA i had a whole list of things I was going to say a lot of which are irrelevant at this point with the stage that this project is at um definitely flooding is really our major
concern but um the whole environmental effect which was just brought up the wildlife is is going to make it worse we have a lot of little kids in the neighborhood so I think that environmental study should be done um
which I'm not sure if that is going to be the case or not now the ordinance I believe uh already mandates for any project of a certain size and if you qualify they are required to file to file an environmental impact statement i
think that is covered okay so now my my question is when somebody proposes a plan a developer will we be notified as to when that meeting would be yes they are required by law to send out notices to
everybody within 200 ft okay so everybody within 200 feet will definitely get a notice in the mail um there's usually there's also an advertisement in the newspaper about the application and I could just tell you from the way I know how these things
happen one neighbor gets a notice the word immediately spreads but and that's important for you to keep in mind though to make sure you want all your neighbors to come out right okay yeah um the flooding really is a huge huge concern
it's ankle it's up knee deep understood and it's inevitable that any new project going in there taking forestry away is going to have runoff so you could say you know engineers and developers are coming in but it's it's
inevitable sure fred Demiano 245 Davidson Avenue Da M I N you can't fix the flooding that we have now the development's done it's been it you know it's but we have our houses are these all this flooding
they're talking about is in the sore system that we have in a developed area from what I understand the pipe does not have enough pitch in it so when you get a heavy rain it fills up the drains i mean we've
had several times where the fire extinguisher disappears that's how deep the water is and so you know we keep talking so anything that a new development could add to this anything would make it that much more worse than
it is uh as I as I said earlier the rate of runoff has to be less with the application than it is today but as you heard the mayor speak uh we're going to be seeing David next week and we're going to bring all this to his attention to see what he can
offer you know I know I've seen the whatever department that is there with the big machine with the snake that goes in and clears the pipe i know they're trying to keep it clear and flowing as well as they can but when we
get a big storm we just don't have the capacity to handle it and many homes I mean I can't I many most homes in that development have water in their basement have a wet basement most Because when when when the when the
sores stop accepting the water goes up on the lawns into the houses different problem from what we're here discussing today but still anything that this new development adds to it anything will exacerbate the the problem
thank you for strong is there anyone else come on up karen me 237 Davidson Avenue i just want to echo my neighbors of what they're mentioning about flooding and the nature um concerns just to further echo about
flooding when it does flood my house is not particularly impacted but we are flooded into the street there is now multiple feet of water that we are driving through to exit until the flooding is fixed so again I just want to reinforce what everyone is sharing that we are in a very critical state
today um and how this is going to be fixed today in order to have any impact for the future thank you thank you okay is there anyone else madame Mayor can I add one thing of
course um I would like to mention that I encourage you to go to the planning board meeting because when you hear the experts lay out and show you pictures of the topography of the land and how they're going to mitigate the water issue you're going to have a better understanding of um you know if there's
drainage pits or whatever you're going to I think feel more comfortable these experts go into so much detail and that's the same thing with traffic all these things you're going to learn you know what they're addressing and you can ask them really good questions it sounds like the flooding you're having now is
really something that needs to be addressed and I think that's going to be taken care of um but I encourage you to listen to these experts because um the planners they're phenomenal and you will at least uh get your questions answered and you might bring up something that could help them so right and once again
there is no application and when and if one is filed as part of the process under the New Jersey municipal land use law they have to give notice to the residents that are within 200 ft it's by certified mail and one of the things Mr whitaker who is the um attorney for the
planning board he will have check with the applicant lawyer to make sure that all the notice was properly given if the notice was not properly given the hearing will not move forward they will have to do another notice period and get themselves on another
agenda okay so you know this is just the very first step in something extremely long process okay all right any other questions or comments okay not hearing any that way I will close the public comment thank you
Mr burgess i appreciate it okay can we now have a roll call please ones 04 2025 councilwoman Cusk yes councilman Gutwer yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman
Poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes okay thank you folks thanks for attending safe get home safely and have a happy Easter [Applause] we need a motion to adjurnn we have a motion to adjurnn motion to adjurnn
second second all in favor i yay 8:23 i forgot to do a motion to I'm like waiting for it the I was playing