##VIDEO ID:-eCBJOCoYNU## all right folks we're going to get ready to start thank you everybody and welcome to the regular monthly meeting of the mayor and Council being held Monday January 27th 2025 starting at 6:30 p.m. Miss could you please call the role mayor nzi here council president McAn present councilman D con here Council C here counc kley here counc Erico here counc kman here thank you if you're willing and able please stand for the salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States stes of America and to the rep for it stands for nation God indivisible thank you missy in compliance with the open public meetings Law chapter 231 public laws of 1975 notice of this meeting was transmitted to the record in Herald news and filed with the bur clerk on December 23rd 2024 is posted on the bulletin board outside of burrow Hall thank you um councilwoman thank you mayor so we have a number of proclamations to present to our newest Green Leaf businesses and organization so I'm just going to read the names of those organizations and I'll read the proclamation once and then we can go ahead and give them to you and I think we'll take a picture is that right mayor yeah we'll uh step down you can read them after uh you announce them oh okay yep um so today receiving uh Green Leaf acknowledgement is the Rutherford Congregational Church Rutherford swim Association and sweet Avenue bake shop and I'll just read the proclamation well you want to do it down there I just thought I should do it in the mic but I can do it down there use that mic sure all right if the mayor and Council well it's me would step down in front of the DI okay first we have Rutherford Congregational Church can we have the representatives of that organization come up whereas Rutherford Congregational Church church has pledged a dedication to environmentally friendly business practices and whereas Rutherford Congregational Church has worked closely with the Rutherford Green Team committee to meet the requirements of their Green Leaf certification program and whereas Rutherford congregational Church's dedication to the environment benefits the Rutherford Community as a whole by making it a cleaner and healthier place to live and whereas Rutherford congregational Church's commitment to sustainability shows how small changes to Everyday practices can make a big difference with measurable results and whereas Rutherford congregational Church's participation in the Rutherford Green Leaf Green Team committee's Green Leaf certification program is a strong example of environmentally sound leadership with the Rutherford Community now therefore mayor Frank nunziato of the burough of Rutherford hereby presents this proclamation to Rutherford Congregational Church for their dedication and Devotion to the environment and sustainable business practices within the Bureau of Rutherford thank you so up okay is there someone here from Rutherford swim Association great I'm going to read to you as well whereas Rutherford swim Association has pledged a dedication to environmentally friendly business practices and whereas Rutherford swim Association has worked closely with the Rutherford Green Team committee to meet the requirements of their Green Leaf certification program and whereas for swim association's dedication to the environment benefits the Rutherford Community as a whole by making it a cleaner and healthier place to live and whereas Rutherford swim association's commitment to sustainability shows how small changes to Everyday practices can make a big difference with measurable results and whereas Rutherford swim association's participation in the Rutherford Green Team committee's Green Leaf certification program is a strong example of environmentally sound leadership within the Rutherford Community now there for Frank nunziato mayor of the Bureau of Rutherford hereby presents this proclamation to Rutherford swim Association for their dedication and Devotion to the environment and sustainable business practices within the burough of Rutherford congratulations and sweet Avenue bake shop I see you back there okay no we're GNA give you some oh sweets I wouldn't say no to that I'm GNA read to you too because you deserve it okay come come closer whereas sweet Avenue bake shop has pledged a dedication to environmentally friendly business practices and whereas sweet Avenue bake shop has worked closely with the Rutherford Green Team committee to meet the requirements of their Green Leaf certification program and whereas sweet Avenue bake Shop's dedication to the environment benefits the Rutherford Community as a whole by making it a cleaner and healthier place to live and whereas sweet Avenue Bak Shop's commitment to sustainability shows how small changes to Everyday practices can make a big difference with measurable results and whereas sweet Avenue bake shops participation in the Rutherford Green Team committee's Green Leaf certification program is a strong example of envir irally sound leadership within the Rutherford Community now therefore Frank nunziato mayor of the burough of Rutherford hereby presents this proclamation to Sweet Avenue bake shop for their dedication and Devotion to the environment and sustainable business practices within the Bureau of Rutherford thank you and congratulations congratulations thank you bye [Applause] yes sure you're up R um good evening everyone uh so this part is the engineers report so we are uh moving forward with the construction of diamond 4 there was a layoff last week due to the cold weather but there were forming curves today and the project is uh going uh fairly uh well so far and uh so we don't have anything dramatic to report with respect to Diamond 4 this evening thank you Brian any questions from the council seeing none anything else for reports yes and then I'm here for another purpose is that uh part of the Green Acres uh Grant purpose is a part of this mayor and council meeting is considered a uh public portion for input from Green Acres for Tamlin field um and that's part of the uh checklist items that um uh and is a continuation of our presentation a little bit later on the public hearing a little bit later on the agenda so you just want to five minutes minutes yeah okay uh so uh now uh in the context of the current CA guidance for fourth round uh it was the charge from that process that uh we look at their math and we looked at their math and I'm going to have um Lindsay from my office explain the process more in detail but we checked their math and and taking consultation from your um fair share housing attorney uh We've produced a document needed and there's a resolution that the company company's had so if you want to go through that Lindsay real quick Lindsay is the it good evening um so about a year ago the state issued new legislation that said that there would be new guidelines for the fourth round of affordable housing in October they released numbers which for every municipality in the state stating what their present perspective need would be the present need is um historically been called the rehabilitation need that's going to be something that is existing in the burrow it is something that would just need to be rehabbed and brought up to the standards um many times these units are experiencing overcrowding or they don't have correct Plumbing things like that um and so that Rehabilitation is just um existing units maybe it's a affordable unit that isn't um bed restricted as well so those can fall under that so um let me just pull up so that one we didn't really explore too much because they existing units it's work that can get done using your affordable housing trust fund um and the buau has 16 units so over the course of 10 years 16 units would have to be uh rehabilitated the second piece was the perspective need now these are going to be new units um that will have to be built over the course of 10 years what needs to be adopted by January 31st is a resolution stating if you agree or disagree with the numbers that DCA um has put out there the um legislation says specifically that you have to use the calculations that DCA developed they created a um a calculation that could be used across 500 plus municipalities so they use three equally weighted factors at 33.33% each the first is going to be your non-residential um uh eval evaluation so that's going to be your tax assessor valuation of properties that are non residential um and it compares the from the previous round to the current round um the changes that occurred the second factor is your um res your income your median income and it gets compared back to the median income the lowest median income in your housing region we're in housing region one so that would be patteron um and that's all based off of census data so those two sources of data are not really information that you can argue right it's census it's tax assessor records the third Factor was the land capacity factor and this one was um we use GIS it's a mapping system that we use that was um distributed by the state they put out a map and they said they identified it wasn't even entire Parcels it was just pieces of lands um that they said could be developed they made these numbers non-binding purposely so that the um the towns could all go back and look at the maps to determine if these numbers uh were correct if these uh lands were correct because there's no streamlined way to report things like zoning board decisions planning board decisions or even Your settlement from your third round um so we took the mapping we looked at it we looked at where some of the mapping um was located there was one piece that was um part of a right of way a lot of it was adjacent to the turnpike um and it seemed that the way the mapping was laid out and the aerial imagery that they used wasn't aligned correctly so the process that we were able to remove some parcels to bring your unit count for prospective need to 210 units in lie of the 223 units that DCA had calculated so tonight the resolution is basically to say we did the math we showed our work in our report we checked your work and unfortunately we do not agree and this is why we don't agree our report goes parcel by parcel identifying each lot and stating why it doesn't um why it's not developable um I want to just bring up that there's a second piece to this this is kind of a two-piece approach the first piece is the resolution this evening which is just about the numbers and the calculations the second piece which will happen in June when a housing element is adopted is where you look through a vacant land analysis and you figure out the realistic development potential um so right now we were constrainted of just using the calculations given to us by the state whereas in June we'll be able to bring kind of a more robust network of information to further Define what is actually developable within Rutherford I know I gave you a lot of information so if you have questions um I'm feel free to ask um more than happy to help you thank you thank you Lindsay anybody have any questions for it good councilman um just from a overall development standpoint the 210 affordable housing units what would that equate to in this in terms of the uh overall development to fit something uh that size proverbially or um figuratively speaking so um there's a couple ways to answer that right the the units could be built 210 outright units in one place um building that way is frowned upon especially for affordable housing um the gold standard for affordable housing in the state is typically looked at as like a 20% set aside of your market rate projects so the way I've been looking at it as seeing that number and timesing it by five because ideally they would like to see it done with a 20% set aside where you know it's together with market rate you're not secluding the affordable housing from everything else um and that is typically in past um housing elements how most municipalities have gone about saying okay this is our need this is how we're going to go about it we're going to have a 20% set aside on all multi family residential projects or we're going to have an overlay Zone um which I'm sure you guys have seen as well so um those are kind of the ways to look at that number perfect thank you I see a lot of faces in the galley today who have a good understanding of what it exactly it is we're talking about but the bulk of our community does not and so more information discussion points like that that we can bring up here and put on the record I think is very very important because it is it's an astronomical number when you're talking about the projects required to put them in so thank you for that thank you Lindsay mayor add one thing also on agenda tonight is asking for authorization for the uh phase two of the study uh for neala which as Lindsay referenced involves the the housing element the vacant land analysis and that'll be another way to approach those numbers and see if those numbers are still uh legitimate enough for this burrow or not so the 210 could go down even further based on the findings of the next next phase that's another issue counil sorry thank you um just so I understand and maybe Bob you may have answered my question but once we go back with this 210 number that's not necessarily a concession that we will do that right we will then have in the second phase the opportunity to show whether or not we can actually have that come to fruition through any number of projects based on real estate is that right yeah that's correct yeah so the first number is truly just seeing their calculations the legislation is written in a way that doesn't allow you the ability to bring additional information to the table so the second piece is where we bring that additional information to the table that can be in my opinion more powerful to help with the numbers and the actual developability of these units okay thank you thank you Lindsay anyone else council president thank you mayor um first of all thank you both for your your good work on this and your guidance um to the burrow in this process um I I have been pretty vocal about this entire process um and I just want to say that I appreciate we're going into the next phase where we start actually trying to justify whether or not this is even feasible um but there is I can't help but get past a level of frustration which has been shared with us by residents over the last few years right which is this push to force communities to develop and and I you know I appreciate that today was about the numbers and the next phase will be about the can we and should we but um you know we're talking about I just want to remind my colleagues we're talking today about uh 20 210 but that is an addition to the already prescribed am I close it was it 400 and something or 500 Brian am I close right okay so I just you know I just want to be transparent with our community that yes we're talking about phase four which meant there were three other iterations of this and it is cumulative it is not um we are not just talking about 200 in a snapshot we are talking about um an incredible number and to my Council colleagues credit who asked what does that number look like so I just want to make sure for those of you with your calculators out on your phone when you are multiplying by five I would be using much larger numbers like 700 thank you thank you anybody else councilman Erico thank you mayor um I just want to clarify that the ultimate um outcome of this I think in 2019 we adap we adopted a um housing element and fair share plan is that the ultimate outcome of this process like at the end of all of our appeals and whatever else so that is a piece of the ultimate outcome um the last deadline in this process is going to be in 2026 where you adopt any ordinances um amendments to your zoning map amendments to master plans Redevelopment plans and things like that to um to put all of this information kind of on paper and make it like the legal piece of it thank you all right um anyone else okay um councilman ero and I will be sitting on a panel for the metaland chambers regarding this on Wednesday so this is very helpful thank you else Bri thank you Lindsay uh we have no changes to the uh proposed agenda anyone else no okay or on first read we have nothing or on second read councilman Guzman thank you very much mayor I have ordinance on second read establish a handicap space on Dean Court Miss e would you please read the ordinance by title only an ordinance to amend and revise chapter 126 vehicles and traffic of the burrow code of the burough reord to establish a Handa parking space on Dean Court I'd like to motion that the ordinance be passed on second reading and advertised according to law I'd ask for a second second second by council president I'm now going to open this up to the uh public for any public comment you know the drill I know uh Denise gordini One Walnut Street hi everybody first of all thank you because you did address some of the questions that I had so this is just ex this is just about the parking ordinance we didn't get oh I'm sorry okay it's okay I'm going to close it to the public open up for any Council comment seeing n roll call please council president McAn yes Council Del yes counc Clon yes c m kley yes C ero yes C Gman yes thank you all right now you're up kid sorry about that Denise cordini one walnet street hi um so my question now is something that Stephanie alluded to um so we've had a first second and third round mandate prior to this one so I'm interested to know what our total note is I know about the the 477 perspective I think it was 477 from the third round on top of the 223 which we're asking for 210 so that's already 700 units um but now there were two prior rounds and I'm wondering are we still able to deal with the earlier rounds or are we stuck with those numbers and goodness knows where the heck are we supposed to put this places you know um short of building tenements which really scares me and it should scare everybody Bob you wantan to I'll give it a shot so great question um and I I don't think anyone knows that answer yet uh you know initially we were told that they would be an addition to uh we were at 477 after the third round now we're at hopefully 210 uh but now we're also hearing that on July 1st there's going to be a a ruling issued that'll give Clarity so right now I don't have that answer we're hoping the round four supersedes everything else but we don't have that answer yet hopefully by July 1 we'll know Lindsay you want to add anything anybody else from the public sure David labruno 423 stent Bob you just mentioned a ruling or excuse me just directly uh to someone up there there was a ruling mentioned I was wondering who would be the person making that ruling is this our state legislature or the state you know supreme court because that's a big difference there um you know our state legislators continue to come up with these numbers I would hope we could consult with them speak with them wonder how they come up with these ideas also uh our our person over here Lindsay uh had mentioned the uh calculation and she just mentioned three factors that went into it is this a mathematical type formula and maybe you could direct us to someplace specifically on the internet where we could you know peruse this instead of looking through reams of information um so that's it uh one other thing would be you know we mentioned we're over 700 units that uh would give us if we do what we've been doing lately which is just getting Apartments which count 15% that puts you 4,700 units so um that since it's only a 15% calculation instead of the 20 which we've not done in this town to my recollection ever so in interest of transparency that's an even larger number so um and then I just uh you know wondering what this means since the other numbers were not fulfilled as of yet it seems unusual to me that the state legislature and our legislators that we have in this area would just continually to you know generate larger and larger numbers without any concept of how this truly and actually would work because unfortunately the state supreme court seems to uh approve these numbers and and and uh uh mandate these numbers let's say as when they invented the developers remedy so uh all of this is not great stuff and I wish we had better representation at the state that would make uh you know some of these things better thank you thank you we'll we'll answer that let everybody else speak and then you can answer anybody else from the public wish you to speak seeing none I'm G to Katie Katie Marshall 58 the Terrace um you know just for some perspective when looking at these numbers for the fourth round when you do the math it brings you to 210 affordable housing units plus 1,50 market rate which brings you up to 1260 and just for some perspective I was thinking you know what big Housing Development do I know star at City just came to mind because I used to see commercials for it when I was a kid so I looked up the size of star at City 5,881 units in 46 buildings that are 11 to 12 stories high now that is just I mean our fourth round is 20% of that size of star at city so can you imagine if we combine all of this together um I was very disappointed to read today that the um lawsuit didn't go so well on the half of the 27 on behalf of the 27 towns which I you know we all anticipated that um is there a way to request from the state what the filled or the capacity is of what has been built so far and what the need the real true need is um as David pointed out I mean the numbers just keep piling up and piling up but is there any way of measuring um how effective and how useful what's been built so far um also I think that we need to or I request please that we have a town hall about this because this is the biggest thing that has ever happened to this town I'm sure you're tired of hearing me say this but my family has lived here since 1888 um my husband doesn't want to live here anymore because of this because it's just not the town that he moved into 30 years ago um I think that the residents are due a town hall in a very thorough town hall to really discuss the issues at hand and to see what is the best way that could be dealt with this without capitulating hopefully and building 80 to 20 and winding up with more than starred City and where would that go and you know the town rejected building another town across the highway once before now it seems like the state is mandating that we're building another town and that will fall in the backs of the taxpayers especially when developers are given Pilots so these are all things that I think about on a daily basis because this is the town that I grew up and love so thank you thank you anybody else from the public wish to speak all right I'm going to close it to the public now and um Lindsay um to answer the question about the numbers um the state has really prided themselves on transparency about how they came to these numbers so they actually have an Excel document that you can download and look through the numbers um I don't know the exact website but if you just Google New Jersey DCA fourth round affordable housing it should be one of the first ones that comes up you'll see the full report where they explain each of the factors and how they came to the numbers and then there's also a downloadable Excel document that links to different pages and you can see exactly which numbers link and how the um calculations were done thank you lindsy and Katie just for the record I lived here my whole life so I don't want to see the change either believe me uh anybody from the council wishing to speak councilwoman um I just wanted to say um to miss Marshall I I agree that a town hall would would be helpful I think my only question for our burough Engineers would be at what time would that be appropriate to so that we can give them the most robust information because what I don't want to see happen is have us get together even at this point where there's so many phases left um and we leave people in in what we'll already be a rather dissatisfying conversation I fear um dissatisfied by lack of information and I think for for us to be able to educate ourselves up here on the dis is to understand when we will have the most information about what our legal options are what our practical options are and I just was I'm not going to hold you to it but if you had a sense of that timing that would be helpful --------- ##VIDEO ID:GJMDAoZ9V78## and that part I find incredibly frustrating and so whomever are making these decisions about us continuing this discussion going forward I just think that I hope that becomes part of the salable point someone holds on to that you know um a great deal of money continues to be spent in both examining the same question looking at the same exact space and and continually talking about what can you what can you build what can you build I I just I hope that that discussion changes and I I just appreciate the many years of people coming forward and giving us really meaningful feedback about if we were to proceed what should it look like and I think that we should continue to do thank you mayor thank you anybody else before we move on councilman thank you very much mayor um first off I thank you very much Lindsay for coming in today and Brian of course for always being here um I look forward to a public forum on getting the public together educating the public on what is going on We're All in This Together this is everyone's problem this is all of our problems we need to make sure that everybody understands what we're faced with um this is to your point the biggest pro issue to ever come to the burrow um and it's not going away so we do need to make sure and I appreciate our professionals here today and and our team up up here on the dis that has been working on this for numerous years and here we go here we are again with the numbers just keep adding up and adding up and adding up and we're a small bar we're a small town with very limited land what do we do so the better that we the quicker we get information out there to the to the public and they understand what we're faced with when they hear that another building is going up they understand what we're trying to accomplish here and it's just we don't want to put up buildings just because want to put up buildings we're forced by the state here so at the end of the day we need to make sure that our residents understand the whole scope of why things are happening here in the burrow and what we and what the repercussions are if we don't follow through so thank you for the due diligence and much appreciated I can't wait for the next uh for a uh town hall meeting thank you thank you and now we have the open public hearing for the application of the njd Green Acres Jake law for completely inclusive um playgrounds Grant anyone from the public wish this speak have to make a little presentation first it's all about me so yes before we get into public comment let me just explain what we're doing tonight uh so the burrow is in the process of applying for a uh a grant through Green Acres uh for the submission of an all-inclusive playground at tamin field uh located at block 102 lot 34 uh this grant through the Green Acres Program is also known as Jake law uh for play equipment to be accessible to children adults with disabilities you we are proposing a new playground to replace the existing structure that's currently located at the southeast structure or Southeast corner of of Tamlin field we want to relocate it next to the Civic Center closer to Woodland Avenue uh since September you know beginning on Rutherford day uh we have been soliciting public comment working with our access for all committee on the what people will Envision the equipment to look like the structures the design of that Park uh we also included a a survey on our website uh received over 640 responses uh we had some help with our partners with the Board of Ed who sent it out to their uh population as well uh we are very satisfied with the response we received uh last week we also had an informal Town Hall soliciting additional comments uh for this facility or future facility uh we hope that we are uh receive the opportunity to receive this type of funding uh the Jake law funding is normally uh geared towards counties uh they recently open it up to municipalities the grants range anywhere from $500 to $750,000 um we have worked with our bur engineer who has developed a concept plan that he will discuss shortly uh prepared an environmental impact study for the uh proposed Park and we have an estimated budget uh I think it's a little bit under $750,000 so we're right in line with what that Grant uh will propose uh you know I want to thank everyone who participated in this uh our access role committee thank you very much for your your involvement Your Enthusiasm your participation throughout this process I know the council president this is a project near and dear to her heart and so I know you may want to say a few things about uh some of the survey results so I'll I'll pass it over to you thank you Bob um if you just want to flip over to the the slides thank you for that great overview um and the work of Bob and Rosen guante um and our engineers and planners and our public information officer our rec department there were a lot of people involved in this um so just without going through every one of these but I do think it's important that everybody understand what did we really survey we sent out this survey and and this first one because I love a good py graph it is stunning to me that of the 640 responses we got it literally almost broke out in quarters so every quadrant of the burrow responded to this so we can say with certainty that this is representative of our community as a whole and not just one cluster and and um as a researcher myself this is incredibly accidental and very hard to find so I'm really appreciative of that Bob you can keep going um so a lot of things we learned from our residents uh the concept of well I need to walk to my local park when we actually found out that the overwhelming majority of our community is willing to put their kids in a car and drive to the park that they think best suits their their family anywhere within our burrow and probably outside of our burrow and so um we talked about the ages of the playgrounds and and Bob you can keep going but I think that what this data show us is that our community really does use this playground from birth and Beyond right the idea that a playground's only for two to 5year olds that or a six-year-old or an eight-year-old the reality is this concept of inclusion and accessibility it really goes beyond age grouping and really talks about the need of the space right a play Space a safe space a space to bring people together um and so how often do you visit very often by the way um I am thrilled that the data show us that the rehabilitation of kid spot the project that was undertaken in 2018 was this the the Highlight Reel here people gravitated to it not just because it was pretty but because it was functional and it was useful that tells us us that we're going in the right direction um and so y thank you sorry U it's okay um one of the one of the findings that started to pull out of this was the importance of not just fun play equipment but the I'm going to keep coming back to that idea of a functional space and in in the disability circles functional space can also um talk about quiet space so not just hearing the trees sway side to side but how can we actually create structures or put things with this where individuals who may become oversensitized that need a quiet space and that's not just small children right that could be young adults and adults as well that they are able to put themselves in a safe space so that they can continue to use this space in a productive and important way part of the community uh we talked about what um what were the three choices that were important that you look for when choosing a playground shocking uh people talked about the great equipment um right they talked about the equipment they talked about um a a safe open space um and and proximity to home which means the importance of keeping it in the burrow right it didn't have to be down the block but it should be in our community and and as you can see there was a number of other wonderful thing easy access to parking all things that I think we're taking that we're thinking as we're moving this project forward is there any other slides thank you um and we've already kind of talked about this already uh like do we need picnic areas quiet spaces tlin and and I want to just throw something on here that's not here but was um an outcome of the town hall and why having those discussions are great the conversation started with well wait a minute the Civic Center's right there hey wait a minute is there a way that we could kind of marry this project at the this park project to the Civic Center could that be a way that we start rehabilitating space for quiet spaces right so instead of having to just upend everything how can we rehabilitate structures that exist here right now that probably need a little right and what other areas of funding outside of Jake's law outside of this funding source can we start pairing together so that residents of Rutherford get the most value for what we're doing in this project and what we hope will be funded um style I thought this was great there I mean I have to tell you um clearly the thing that resembles more natural elements um I was not surprised to see that uh interestingly when we did kid spot the answer to that question was primary they wanted bright primary colors and yet when we're talking about tamblin field welcoming that you know the tree space and that that quietness which I think speaks to the surrounding Community right something that'll blend to be welcoming that's it awesome so the the fact that we have 640 respondents is just incredible uh it was incredibly informative it really LED this application um and and I know that Brian is going to speak to this but I do want to reiterate I want to thank my colleagues all of whom have been incredibly supportive about this um not just because it's about an inclusive accessible space but because I I think that it is just um further Evidence um that we are committed to revitalizing our parks and our playgrounds and we are willing to make the attention about every child every child's ability and every member of our community Brian thank you council president you have my permission you can speak Brian thank you sir sorry mayor is it okay if Brian speaks okay thank you so uh in the context of the Green Acres application uh we're talking about funding through Jake's law the burough administrator has gone through that we incorporate those principles of inclusive play uh we've done that at kid spot and we want to carry that same philosophy forward but with a little different style so then if Bob if you can go to the existing conditions of um so if you ever been to Tamlin I'm sure you all have been there's there is a playground there it's in that Southeast corner and it's it's a you know it's it's a need of an update and so it was there when I was five it's like unbelievable and it's been uh the burrow got its money's worth from that equipment uh and uh so then in the context of working with our um landscape architect and as council president has said we want to leverage the Civic Center so um one thing that we want to do and we could show the proposed condition so what the proposed condition shows is that where you come in off wood na um there's the old ticket booth and it's like um a two-way Hill that goes down into the lower area where the um baseball field is the burrow made the investment about two years ago with County money to build uh a family bathroom that you can get right off a grade on the back side so this this layout um incorporates a wheelchair friendly uh accessible playground and then if you're coming up the handicap ramp or the ada8 ramp to the Civic Center we're going to cut a section out that will tie right into the ramp system uh for the new playground so you can come in at that level and then you can work your way out to the lower level all with the grades that would work uh that are acceptable for wheelchair accessibility uh so um and that is a two-part grant that the burrow is doing one Grant is for to to uh do the grading uh if they get that Grant and the other Grant is the straight Green Acres Grant uh to uh do the rest of the construction uh so that's basically the highlight of that so that will activate that area in terms of Green Acres what we have to say is that there isn't any Wetlands or uh constrained flood area in the area um we don't see any uh other environmental impediments to do that uh this will follow the normal uh run of construction there'll be demolition short-term inconvenience but in the end uh you'll get an accessible playground that is truly accessible from the street side so that's the overview of what we're proposing to do thank you Brian anybody from the public wishing to speak on this tough walk huh yeah this yeah Denise cordini W Street um my only is that the area that's currently a parking lot or well it kind of is a parking lot but it kind of isn't and uh it doesn't meet any real standard and we believe that although there's maybe one or two spaces that are used we believe if we cannibalize or reuse those spaces for the playground then um that helps us make the grades work by by using the existing Ada ramp that at the mid stop you can get out onto the uh play ramp so we thought we really want to leverage that and you know and when you work in a town if you remove one space that's one space too many oh we understand that so we we do have a revision that came out of the Town Hall last week where we would have an ADA space that would be van accessible so that would be but that would be a formalized space and would need standard and grade to get both to the building and to get to the playground and you think there's enough street parking I just I I love the idea I don't want to put any damper on it whatsoever just notice that it was where yeah I mean it's it's a it's a it's a playground or play area that like many traditional playgrounds did not account for parking demand but we look to building something like that you know 10:00 on a Tuesday Tuesday when you would have a caregiver and a special needs person that they can enjoy the park and they be able to get that parking space just just to add to that is that's that's not parking it's illegal parking that area that he was talking about the the the black top yeah oh okay I didn't get a [Laughter] to anybody else from the public wishing to speak on this seeing none I'm going to close it to the public and open up for any Council comment seeing none thank you Brian we have uh several uh resolutions here separate from consent resolution 49 procedures for directing the bureau attorney to prepare ordinances mayor can we um move to resolution number 54 and return to 49 last would that be possible sure resolution number 54 authorizing the submission of a grant proposal by the NJ DCA fy2 local Recreation Improvement Grant programmed by the Bureau of Rutherford to carry out infrastructure improvements including retaining wall rehabil Rehabilitation at tamblin field I'd ask for a motion motion motion by council president may have a second second second by Council Del r con any questions or comments seeing none may roll call council president mwan yes counc Del con yes counc Clon councilman kley yes counc ero yes coun yes thank you now we're going to jump back to resolution number 49 procedures for directing the B attorney mayor with if we can hold that that would be great resolution ution number 55 resolution regarding the Bureau of Rutherford Rutherford's present and perspective fair share affordable housing obligation for the fourth round I'd ask for a motion motion motion by council president may have a second second second by councilman Guzman any questions or comments by the council seeing none mayor roll call council president mwan yes C de yes coun kley yes C ero yes C Gman yes resolution number 56 authorizing Grant application to the njde Green Acres for inclusive playground at tamblin field motion please motion by council president may have a second second second by councilman Guzman any questions or comments see n Roll Call council president McAn yes Council D con yes councilman kley yes counc Eric yes Gman yes resolution number 57 Amendment to the 2025 temporary budget motion motion by council president have a second second second by councilman Guzman questions or comments by the council see n May roll call council president mwan yes C dou yes C kley yes C Erica yes councilman Gman yes next I have resolution number 58 Award of Cooperative Cooperative contract to musco sports lighting LLC for Memorial Field number four number four Lighting in the amount of 3 $399,800 related to uh continuing work done at Memorial Field uh 58 is specific to the lighting required for the the new softball field we are building at Diamond 4 uh I'll speak to 59 while I'm here as well 59 is the relamping of the the lights at Tron uh LED lighting uh to uh make that a little bit more brighter uh for the next football season so that's yeah and and they both related to the the grant funding we receive from the state so this is just continuous work uh on the appropriation that we were generously awarded uh by the state to make significant improvements to Memorial Field over the the last six and probably next 18 months thank you I'll talk about 61 while I'm here I guess uh 61 is related to new playground equipment through uh our open space Grant at wallfield uh we're going to be placing the uh the playground equipment U this spring so that's what this contract's for thank you we going to move back to resolution number 49 procedures for number 58 uh the musco lighting I'd ask for a motion motion motion by councilman kley may have a second second second by councilman Del RE CO any questions or comments c m roll call council president McAn Council Del con yes Council Clon yes cman kley yes cman ero yes cman gin yes resolution number 50 59 Award of of Cooperative contract to musco lighting LLC for Trion field in the amount of $227,450 i' ask for a motion motion motion by councilman K I have a second second second by councilman Guzman any questions or comments for the council just one comment this lighting will also benefit girls soccer and all the other sports that are played on that field thank you thank you missy council president McAn yes Council Del con yes Council M Clon yes cman kley yes C Aro yes C Gman yes thank you next is number 61 Award of bur County Coop contract for wallfield playground improvements in the amount of $111,000 9 and 47 I'll motion motion motion by councilman Guzman may have a second second second by councilman Del con any questions or comments seeing none mayor roll call Council presid mcowan Council Del con yes counc Clon cley yes coun Erico yes counc mman yes all right now we're going to go back to resolution number 49 procedures for directing the bur attorney to prepare ordinances may I have a motion motion motion by council president may have a second second second by councilwoman quatron any questions or comments see n m roll call council president McAn yes Council M Del con yes coun clone yes coun kley yes coun ero yes coun Guzman yes council president thank you mayor all items authorized to be consent by the Council be enacted by one motion these items are routine in nature motion I have a motion by the council president may have a second second second by councilman Del re con any questions or comments see none M call council president McAn yes Council Del con yes Council Kon yes councilman kley yes councilman ero uh yes except with regards to to the adjourned meeting on January 3rd for which I will abstain thank you councilman Gman yes thank thank you um new business uh the discussion regarding the bur attorney to write an ordinance to include tattoo shops in the allowable districts any want to start this councilman thank you sir um so just if anyone was not present towards the end of Q4 of 2024 uh there was a presentation made on December 9th and then again a summary of it on December 23rd uh if you'd like to go back and take a look I did not want to represent all of that information uh but effectively what we are looking to do now is to uh the ordinance was vetoed by the mayor with some um caveats one primarily being that we adhere to or administer uh the planning board's recommendations they had voted it through as a yes but had some recommendations which we were willing to adopt at a future date which is now um the other one of the other bullet points I would like to include is the mayor's suggestion at a uh my colleague has referred to as a clustering um designation of about 1,500 ft per uh particular shop um so we're going to look we're going to spend the next month looking into whether these are viable and legal options uh we will be removing for the planning board suggestion the Second Story uh in order for the ordinance to be more ADA Compliant um I would like to point out this evening that Mr Pereira who is a Rutherford resident and a tattoo artist who currently works at a Harrison um and was kind of the inspiration for moving this forward a couple years after I first brought it up uh as in attendance this evening so thank you Mr Pereira for again you know being here um but I will open it up to my colleagues for any other comments or questions you might have um but thank you again for all thank you again all for your support um and hard work on this coun Council woman thank you very much mayor council woman oh all righty um councilman kley um thank you very much once again thank you very much for uh doing all your hard work um you just made a comment about clustering could you just uh tell me a little bit more what your what Your meaning about that um so as I understand it and I'll defer to my colleague on my left councilman ero for more clarification if he's willing to speak to it uh but effectively what it is is it basically spreads out certain businesses right so um if we were to take Mr pereira's wife's business currently on at 32 am Avenue that we would designate that there couldn't be another tattoo shop within, 1500 ft of that one um as another example the state tried to do or had attempted to do this uh in terms of relationship with cannabis um businesses in relation to churches daycare centers things of that nature um obviously to you know apples and oranges in my opinion um but that's effectively how it would work but again we need to do the leg work on whether or not that is a legal designation within an ordinance but it was the mayor's suggestion it's a good one we were entertaining it um now we're going to take the time to look into whether it's a viable option thank you very much uh councilman cookley on that um and with regards to the uh previous ordinance that was put forth um I just wanted to see if there was any discussion or any more thought about um the the areas that a tattoo shop would be able to open up with it with regards to throughout the burrow is that still the the way we're seeing it or is it are we seeing it possibly within certain just certain areas of of the burrow we we are looking into and this gets a little more complicated right so because it would require kind of a zoning change to where we are designating certain businesses right so for instance ases Avenue was included in the same Zone as Park Avenue right so we would that is part of the process here but in the next phase of it we again this back to my point in December I'm looking at this as a fluid discussion now again we're going to take the next four to five weeks to really fles this out work with Bo um and councilman ero and anyone else who would like to join the the effort um to make sure we can get this done as well as we can um the the larger zoning change separating things out may be a bigger push um but again we'll find that out in this process right now so tonight is really just asking for your support to go ahead with that work for the new for councilwoman quon's new effort on um ordinance adoption thank you thank you councilman once again um I look forward to uh seeing the more in depth in the uh the the outcome and uh actually before even the outcome I would be happy to lend my support in any way I can to uh see uh what we can come up with come up with and hopefully that I'll be able to come up with something here that can be supported by all thank you Council thank you mayor um I just wanted to speak a little to process um since that has come up quite a bit with regards to this ordinance and some others and at our last meeting on January 13th the mayor mentioned that I submitted an Oprah request in connection with the zoning issue around the tattoo shops I had not planned to address the fact that I had done so publicly but since he mentioned it I feel I should provide appropriate context I recognize that every Oprah request uses burrow resources and I do not take that lightly this is my own vision of transparency which is nice to hear we all share throughout my two years in office I have found communication on the governing body to be very difficult with the mayor especially for me communication has never been an issue for me so I really reflected on the cause the mayor and I haven't had any meaningful conversations in well over a year our communication ended after an event where he told me that I don't make him comfortable and I don't know how to do this job he has shared that he believes I'm aggressive and that I asked too many questions which frankly is a compliment when you talking about a leader I know I know how to lead the good news for the residents is that ask questions as part of this job and I have been an employment lawyer long enough to know that the word aggressive is only used for women that have voices as a public servant it is my job to get information for my constituents not that the information not just the information someone wants to give me but the information that exists we have what's called a weak mayor system in Rutherford the council votes and the mayor only votes if there is a tie to break there was not a tie for the zoning issue and the mayor decided to execute very extraordinary right of a veto it was subject to much discussion and commentary before we voted those that voted were well informed a veto is an extraordinary executive power if you all if you had us all up here voting only to be vetoed by the mayor then the weak mayor system we are bound to becomes moot not one of my Council colleagues knew that the mayor felt so strongly about this ordinance that he planned to use his veto power and that's troubling considering how much much discussion there was around the issue I was not comfortable as a resident or a council member that the mayor's veto referenced a failure to follow process which he said during our meeting it is dangerous to say things like that when it simply was not the case the mayor's veto letters that he filed with the clerk's office also mentioned that he had quote informal Communications with the planning board that drove his veto decision that also made me very uncomfortable because the mayor and Council received comments from the planning board in advance of our vote those comments were sitting in front of us in writing at the meeting and they were emailed to us before the meeting we even discussed them at the meeting I was uncomfortable at informal feedback to one member of the governing body who Gates keep gatee keeps information from some of us including me resulted in his decision to exercise his extraordinary power I am uncomfortable with the fact that our public information officer whose job should be grounded in dissemination of information was somehow Pary drafting The veto based on those informal Communications if I thought I could go to the mayor and simply ask him what those Communications were I would not have needed to make an Oprah request given the behaviors that I've already referenced I knew that wouldn't be the case I did receive the response to that Oprah request and as the mayor flippantly said at the last meeting there wasn't much there as an attorney I looked critically at what my options were for getting information so that I can serve the public that is the only reason I am in this job our government does not function effectively if there are two people that sit in the mayor's office and think they have the power to make or veto the decisions of those of us that are elected especially when only one of those people has been elected it's frustrating and it's wrong I reviewed the Oprah request response and I have challenged some of the redactions that's where being an attorney is also super helpful I hope this is the only Oprah request I will have to make while sitting on the stas but I will continue to question because that is what leadership is hopefully things improve I look forward to supporting you Matt you've done incredible work on this ordinance thank you thank you uh anybody else have anything to say sir thank you mayor um I I don't want to gloss over your comments councilwoman so the fact that I want address them is not in any way diminish your comments um to speak to the um the ordinance itself um you know I have a number of thoughts uh on this and of course I'm coming to this with a new eye uh but before getting into those substantively or maybe at a future meeting I do want to point out that I believe the um existing ordinance that uh the council passed several years ago um permitting cosmetic tattoos um you know my reading of that ordinance I think it's drafted a bit strangely um and you know to be frank I'm I'm not entirely sure that it uh it enacts what the intent was at the time when we passed it so as part of this process I would also like to to look at that ordinance uh to make sure that reflects our um intent and uh you know amend that or uh remove it if if necessary I think as to the issue of overarching zoning changes uh as councilman kley referenced um I think that is a an interesting thought and it's one that U I've thought of and and uh discussed informally in the past I think that is a bigger project uh but um just as a a preview from my thinking I think that is something that we uh as a council could consider focusing on and and looking at our zoning laws more holistically uh instead of in a reactionary manner so I'm excited to uh work on that I don't know if that will be part of this um uh proposed ordinance or not but um just uh you know I think that there's there's something there to further explore thank you councilman yes the intent there is to kind of look at the overall holistic um composition of both um ideally without effect the current business in play um but again you've been incredibly helpful uh in guiding this process overall and educating me uh as to you know the best steps moving forward thank you thank you anybody else from the council council president um first I I want to start with um councilman kley I want to thank you for um for the time we spent talking about about this and I want to thank you for um and hearing my concerns and and making sure that the voice of the planning board um was represented and will be represented in their suggestions moving forward and so um I really I appreciated that and I wanted to give you that feedback um because um I I appreciate the complexity of what we're talking about and um councilman ero you you bring up an interesting thing because as you can tell now we're talking about things one item is bringing up this like this tertiary thing that could be happening simultaneously in a in a bigger context right um neither of them are small right and so the the greater question is is do you hold one while you work on the other or do they work simultaneously and hopefully inform each other um and so uh you know I I I hope I was articulate previously and and I really for me it was about process and an inclusion of um communication and these Al alternative boards and and agencies that are supposed to be um providing us guidance and feedback and so I appreciate immensely um the fact that all of that has been encapsulated into this and um and again I I appreciate the fact that you open this back up to us and I'm glad to see that we are not just uh passing resolutions of how we're going to talk about things um but that we're actually practicing what we preach and this is this is good for us and it's good for the residents um and so thank you thank you councilman I I do just want to in closing add that I will still hold true to the fact that I followed the process that I was taught up to that point we just adopted the new process resolution today I had handled my business properly and I got the four votes needed not everyone has to agree all right so again open to those conversations if people are willing to have them sometimes they are not and that's okay too all right but I did the process exactly as I was taught to do it and achieved the end goal and I said on the record we can check the tape I was going to include the planning board's recommendations on a revision to that and you yourself just said some things can work in Tandem and be almost fluid I believe was the term used in December I'm not being disrespectful here I'm just saying we're trying originally Ironclad was the phrase and now we're talking about being fluid and working on bigger things anyway just want that being said so that my my stance is on the record too thank you and again I appreciate the coffee and the conversation and getting us here thank you mayor may I sure thank you um I I just want to apologize because apparently the way I said that it was not meant the way that I think it came across I actually it was meant as a compliment to everybody body that we were doing this because we voted on this tonight and so I mayor Cula it was absolutely not meant that you did anything inappropriate and I apologize for that councilman that was I was I was being justful that we actually did this and then we were doing it so thank you I'm sorry about that so I don't even think I'm going to respond to the councilwoman's in accurate comments toward me um I'm glad we're moving forward this way I am not against your business I just ask that we handle it this way and I think we're going to get there so that's that's all and I'll even give you that Matt that the way it was done sometimes in the past yeah I even looked it up yeah we we didn't follow the proper procedures and now we are so I take responsibility for being part of that as long as I've been here as well so we're following the process they're going to work with you and we should have an outcome that everybody worked can work for work with Okay um we're going to move on now to we I believe we have to make a motion to direct the attorney to work on the ordinance yep uh so I make a motion to ask the burough attorneys to work on uh the inclusion of tattoo shops within the portion of the zoning uh for allowable businesses motion I have a motion by the council may have a second second second by councilman Dee Con any questions or comments see none Miss council president McOwen yes Council Del con yes Council Clon yes councilman cley yes counc Erico yes councilman Gman yes thank you council members committee and L on reports council president thank you mayor um I first again would like to thank my Council colleagues and members of this community that have rallied around our Jake's law application um I I do want to reiterate although I don't know that we said it this is an extraordinarily competitive Grant this is not a a give me there's there's no guarantee this is coming but I I have to tell you it was um as somebody who Advocates very hard in the disabled Community it is making me emotional In This Moment uh that the number of folks who've reached out to us people people we've never met um who want to make sure that their families are included in in this accessibility and that they feel like we're hearing them is awesome and so I want to thank all of you for supporting that uh because it's it's good it's just good um I want to continue to uh Champion the amazing work of um uh the Kip Center 55 Kip Center uh if you are a appropriate and would like to become a member and start using their resources I encourage you to do a walk through stop by see Kathy bavello um and look at all the amazing offerings they have they're also doing something that I think is really interesting and and I I want to put it out there for the community um because maybe somebody's listening or watching um they're looking for sponsors for their Saturday programming in their lunches um and we have some incredibly generous people in this community who have stepped up to cover the cost so that um members of the Kip Center not just of Rutherford but even of South Bergen that just need a place for Fellowship thank you and um and a hot meal um they they have a place to be and I was so moved by the number of people who already started reaching out but if you are a business or just a family member or maybe you're somebody like me whose mom used that place and and it may made all the difference in the world that she could have lunch once a week with her friends um and you have the means to support them be it's small or large uh if you could make uh give serious consideration to this extraordinary Hallmark of Rutherford many communities do not have what we have we take them for granted but they are they are incredible caretakers to our senior population thank you mayor thank you next up councilman der C thank you um just on behalf of the green team I would like to just remind the community that the green team is looking to bolster its membership um you can find the application on the both the burrow uh Facebook page as well as the green teams I also shared it myself today um the Green Team really does a vast um and expansive amount of work with the burough to increase sustainability and wellness as you probably heard at the start from uh those proclamations we gave to those businesses so if you'd like to join the Green Team um they meet once a month and then there are various committees working on their Endeavors uh similarly for the Green Team um there is another repair Cafe happening this Saturday February 1st from 11:30 to 3:30 at the library um for anyone who's unfamiliar the repair Cafe allows residents to bring almost anything um to uh try to get fixed by the volunteer experts who are there everything from Electronics to jewelry to bikes um they really do EX ordinary work and it's completely free of charge so please go by the library on Saturday afternoon if you have anything that needs to be fixed thank you very much thank you councilman Del con I mean sorry councilman quat thank you mayor I want to belatedly um say that I'm very honored to be the new Fire liaison to the fire department and I know I have really big shoes to fill because councilman kley was incredibly great advocate for for the fire department so thank you for that work and you know just in the past month getting closer and being witness to the work they do I I knew that they did wonderful work and contributed to our community but they really are it's been incredibly inspiring to see how heroic the work is and how important it is there I think they have a like a recruitment flyer in town that says we're not Heroes we're your neighbors but they're both Heroes and our neighbors so thank them all um and belated congratulations to Chief Brian Sartori and everybody else in the department who who got a promotion and I also just want to mention um thanks to Robert zenowitz for his work on the fire department and I know that he's moving to the police department so thank him for all all his work um I also just want to quickly say that the resolution that I shephered uh that we passed today I want to thank my colleagues for the support of the resolution that establish a regular process for bringing forth ordinances for the council um the the process will be as as the resolution states that if a member of the council is interested in bringing forth a resolution I mean bringing forth an ordinance they will have that the subject of the ordinance put on the public agenda for a mayor and council meeting we will then discuss that topic and as we did tonight um if appropriate the that member will ask for a vote to um direct the bur attorney to draft the ordinance I think this is just a way to increase transparency for the public to allow the public to have more notice about what we are working on that's non- routine these are non- routine ordinances um and so they can come they can prepare questions they can write to us they can discuss and debate in the public comment period and it also helped it's it has helped communication I think between the um members of the council and the mayor which probably could be improved a little bit um so I am very happy with sort of the test the test trial we did last year I think it worked really well and I'm really I want to also mention specifically mention councilwoman um Gowan who collaborated with me in coming up with this idea and did so much great work to make it happen thank you so much and to all my colleagues I sent this to all my Council colleagues they all weighed in every single one right away very responsive fantastic comments I Incorporated them into the draft they made it stronger and better so that's exactly how the process is supposed to work and it worked really well I think uh thank you all thank you coun counil nothing this evening sir thank you councilman Erica thank you mayor I first want to thank all the department heads uh who showed me around their departments over the past uh two weeks I was uh really appreciated and thank you all for your hospitality and time it was fascinating to see the burough on a more uh intimate level I also want to congratulate Phil Townsen on being appointed chairman of the board of adjustments I think we have an extremely strong Board of adjustments this year so I'm excited about that uh I met with a representative from nerad boat club um and talked about a number of things but one thing that occurred to me is that many of our residents don't even know that nid exists uh nid is a fantastic amenity and piggybacking on Council president's comments about uh the gems in Rutherford n is one of those gems and I encourage everyone who is not familiar with n it's a Rowing Club uh right here in our in our Bureau uh there are discounts for uh Rutherford residents to join the club I've rode there uh last summer uh and had a great time uh so please check it out if you haven't um the final matter is uh I want to acknowledge and say thank you to our bur administrator Bob for working on a grease trap uh issue uh I think as some of us know we've had some issues in the past with uh restaurants not maintaining their grease traps which have led to uh issues for our Municipal sewer system um Bob has been fantastic in convening several department heads together with regards to that um I think you know I don't want to necessarily um paraphrase what uh Bob has done but uh you know our existing ordinance was not uh being enforced uh to the extent that we uh wanted to or think is appropriate and that has been remedied in several different ways um so I'm looking forward to hearing about that and I just want to say thank you again to Bob for your work on that thank you councilman councilman Guzman thank you very much mayor I have nothing new tonight thank you thank you I already have a couple appointments tonight uh 2025 School traffic guards and special Law Enforcement Officers there's an attached memo um I'd ask for Council consent on that motion motion by Council M gu M may have a second second second by council president any questions or comments see none may have a roll call council president McOwen yes Council Del con yes Council Kon yes councilman kley yes councilman ero yes coun Guzman yes thank you next I have Charlie labello to the sh a triade commission um Charlie's Nursery in North Arlington if anybody's familiar with it has been their family uh Nursery forever and Charlie's very knowledgeable in the field I'd ask for Council by consent Council consent motion motion by councilman CLE I have a second second second by Council Del Cohen any questions or comments see n m roll call council president McAn yes counc Del con yes councilman yes councilman kley yes councilman ero yes mman yes thank you the last is um a committee appointment um I would like to uh appoint councilman kley as our liaison to the FIFA committee for the World Cup I am appointing sorry uh next we'll have a hearing of citizens for agenda and agenda items only anybody wishing to speak please step up to the microphone seeing none you want is it agenda item only okay I turned that off so you just have to hit the switch on there okay okay do I have to Denise cordini one W street again um thank you um so I'm considering this an agenda item you can tell me to sit down and forget about it but discussing the the ordinances um the changing of ordinances and we've been discussing um resolution 55 which and the ordinance for the tattoo shop which require may require changes of zoning um if I recall the master plan is due to be reup this year and I just wanted to know what the scoop was whether we're going to have Community involvement and when that process would begin Bobo Chief anybody uh you are correct the master plan is uh right around the corner well and I'm pretty darn sure it's going to involve Community involvement uh we don't have a timeline yet uh maybe end of the year we'll start the process uh we did a refresh I believe in 2018 2019 uh so it's good for 10 years so we're probably maybe two years ahead of where we need to be adoped a new one uh but it is a process that is multiple years so we will be starting it probably within the next 12 months you're welcome uh now accepted a motion to adjourn motion motion by councilman Guzman all in favor I have a great night everybody