Councilman Catz here. There he is. Deputy Mayor Belchure, I think she's about to come in. Deputy Mayor Oregon here. Mayor Schwarz here. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by resolution number 300-2024, selling a copy to the newspapers
official designated for 2025 by way of resolution number 2-2025, finding a copy of the township clerk's office and posting it on the municipal building bulletin board. And the mayor hereby directs this statement be included in the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Welcome to the June 17th, 2025 APM open session meeting of the township of Tina,
township administration president. At tonight's meeting are Jaclyn Hashman, our township manager, Doug Rousion, our township clerk, Kristen Denori, our deputy township clerk, Scott Salad, our township attorney, Mike Asher, township redevelopment attorney, Mr. Ebasi, our CFO, and Ron Goodman, our volunteer
cable master. Upcoming events for the public's information, we are currently holding a hybrid format meeting. We have people in person and on Zoom. If our Wi-Fi at the municipal building has an issue where the Zoom meeting drops, we'll aim to retrieve the connection and continue the meeting. If you haven't yet
signed up for website updates and township alerts, please do so. The next televised regular council meeting is July 15th, which begins at 6:30 p.m. with public portion beginning at 8:00 p.m. Our easy ride and te police department street smart community meeting will take place tomorrow night,
June 18th, at from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Roa Center. Our Junth events on Thursday, June 19th will be a silent walk at 800 am from FDU, the MLK monument to Commander Walk burial ground, a flag raising of OT Park at 12
p.m. and a Jubilee at the excuse me, Jubilee at the Roter Center at 1 p.m. The AG AGU community meeting will take place on June 26, that's Thursday, uh here from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. an explanatory meeting of our new AD ADU
ordinances and then join us of course Friday July 4th for our parade. More information is on our website and will be going out as well. The council met in close session to discuss the following personnel contracts, affordable housing, elections, legal issues or opinions regarding any items on the open session
agenda, litigation updates, and Oprah. And welcome back to Mayor Jack Pates and Councilman Alan S. Um, I'd also like to just take a moment of silence for Hill Fold. Hill Fold was a almost lifetime member, resident of Tank and River Road, 29 years old, that was tragically hit
and killed by a car in Long Island on um this past Friday night. Thank you. and also like take a a moment to um best wishes or safe return to some of our residents that are stuck over abroad. Specifically, Deputy Mayor Ellie Katz, who is joining us on Zoom but is
out of the country and we hope to see you back here soon. Um and with that, we'll turn to our agenda and we have two presentations tonight. The first will be our youth advisory board 2025 recognitions. And I'll come
down there and we have our representatives here. So, youth advisory board, I like to think the youth youth advisory board almost like the minor leagues. You come out, you get involved, you get involved civically, you learn about it, and then you wake up one day and you make the tragic mistake of running for council.
But, uh, up until that point, it's a great event and and it's a great team. Uh they do great stuff and I'd like to call up our volunteers. So we'll start with Hilly Palmer who's the chairperson of our youth advisory board and and that's the good news. Here's the bad
news. You're running the meeting. So continue. You got them open. You got improvise. Okay. Um I just want to say thank you for the privilege of being able to give back to my community. Um I'm a new resident of Tene. I've been here for about three, four years and it's treated
me very well. Um, I just hope to treat it well too, especially with the little libraries coming to fruition and I hope to do more in the future. Thank you. Thanks. Back to you. Why don't you grab the next call pull them up? Oh, yeah.
You're running. You're running. Okay. The next member is my vice chair, Caleb Bidleman. Okay. Thank you very much. You take the next one. Jump right in. I also want to say thank you for getting the chance to be a
part of my community and actually make a difference. The next person is Liam Fletcher, who isn't here tonight. And what is his title? He's the media specialist. The next person is Nessa Bwitz.
She's a sergeant of arms. The next is Rain Craftton who's the secretary who also isn't here. And next is Zahara Khan, who's also isn't here tonight. Okay.
Okay. Thank you very much. Do you guys want to run the meeting while I go home? No. You You're good. Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much, guys. Elizabeth, we're taking control. Yeah. Report. Um, you're going to give us the age report.
Sorry, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Can I just say couple words? Yes. Yes. Um, congratulations, Hie and Kayla. First of all, thank you for all you do for the community. Um, to watch you grow through the the youth advisory board is just so fantastic and we are just so grateful to
do the bringing the um little libraries to life um was just the one example of an amazing project that you brought to Tene. And so I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future. [Music] Um I I just want to ditto that I I think
you guys are doing extraordinary work. I mean you have such um you are such great leaders and you are led by uh such great community leaders as well. And uh I would just ask that you consider uh maybe asking some businesses that might be interested in doing the little
libraries as well as a as a possibility. Thank you for all that you do. First and foremost, congratulations, but also thank you for being involved and please stay involved because when I was your age, I remember I used to roll my eyes when people used to say to me, "You
guys are the future." But the truth is, you guys are going to be the ones that are running this town in 15 years, maybe 10 years, 20 years, whenever it is. So, please stay involved and please keep paying it forward. Thank you so much and congratulations. It was really fun participating with you at the civics event and watching you run
it. Um, and uh, last year was great with the AEDs. We waited to see what you were going to do this year and the little library was was great and um, can't wait to see what the youth advisory board comes up with next year. They're really such um, necessary projects. So, um,
thank you for them and thank you for bringing them to us and, um, good luck with everything that you do going forward. Okay, with that, we'll turn the microphone over to Elizabeth Davis. If you could give us an introduction to yourself and to your organization. You've been here before, so you know how
to do. Take it over. Thanks. Presentations. Okay, so you'll bring that up. Good evening. Um, I'm here tonight with two of my colleagues, Jackie Kates and Colleen Diskin, to share some very good news. Community Begins at home, an
initiative our nonprofit launched two years ago to address the needs of older adults with disabilities has been awarded two more years of funding from New Jerseys inclusive healthy communities program. This this additional funding from the New
Jersey Division of Disability Services of the Department of Human Services is a testament to TX's commitment to being a welcoming place for people of all ages and all abilities. We want to extend our thanks to the township manager and the township council for their endorsement
of our IHC application and for their pledge to continuing to work with this initiative as well as our age friendly T-neck initiative. For those in the audience who are unfamiliar with the work of our nonprofit, I'll share just a little bit of background. Next slide, please.
We've operated Bright Side Manor and affordable assisted living residents for 35 years. We've helped develop two affordable senior apartment buildings here in Tene, the Brookdale and 1425 Tene. We offer free money management services and a and a variety
offormational programs through our senior checks and secure futures programs. We launched age friendly Tene almost a decade ago and community begins at home is an offshoot of that initiative. Next slide, please. Outreach to the often invisible community of
older adults aging with a disability is a c crucial component to our community begins at home initiative. This is a picture I have some here of of a postcard we've been disseminating at community events and sharing with our project partners and local physicians
offices to help reach those in our community who may be struggling in silence. Next slide please. According to US census numbers, about 1,700 TEK residents over age 65 report having one or more disabilities. Some of the
challenges they face include safety issues in their homes, increased risk of social isolation, lack of access to resources that could help them remedy those challenges. Four and 10 US households that include a person with accessibility needs lack
accessibility features such as ramps, lifts, safety bars, or entrylevel bedrooms or bathrooms. Barriers in the home and in the community can prevent people from fully participating in community life and lead to social
isolation, which in turn is a threat to both physical and cognitive health. A study released in 2023 by Department of Human Services reports that up to 45% of individuals reporting a serious disability or chronic illness are
socially isolated. Next slide, please. One of the initial steps we've taken with community begins at home was to enlist project partners. From the onset, our most important partnership has been the township of Tene. We've developed a good working relationship with the
township manager and department heads. Our events and outreach materials are regularly shared on township communication platforms. And you can see from this slide, next slide. Um, you can see from this slide some of
the other service providers and disability advocacy groups we've connected with. An off-sighted motto of the disability justice community is nothing about us without us. So, we've prioritized including older adults with disabilities in the design and
implementation of this initiative. Next slide. We've also worked to gather information about older adults with disabilities and their family caregivers through a survey, focus groups, home safety assessments, one-on-one visits, and
referrals. We've held presentations about this initiative to government groups, local faith organizations, and we've created newformational handouts, and added a spotlight on disability resources in each of our monthly age friendly T-neck newsletters. We've
hosted a home safety expo and connections fair to help educate residents about resources available to address their aging and place challenges. Next slide, please. A goal of this project is to raise consciousness about the health and
social challenges of residents aging with disabilities. The first lesson we learned was that many older adults who have aged into having a disability, such as vision loss, hearing loss, and mobility loss, often don't self-identify
as having a disability. We've encountered older adults who walked with canes or who had hearing aids but declined to fill out a survey because they didn't see themselves as having a disability. We've addressed this by changing some of the language we've used in outreach to less
stigmatizing language such as terms like mobility challenges. We've learned that many of these older adults who resist the disability label also lack awareness of benefits and resources available to them, such as assistance paying for hearing aids or getting a ramp or safety
bars installed in their homes. We've also discovered that many people who have long had disabilities face new challenges as they age. They too lack knowledge about older adult programs and services that could assist them in aging in place and remaining active in the
community. Next slide, please. As we move ahead, we're hoping to recruit Tuck residents with disabilities to serve as adviserss to this initiative and to act as ambassadors for specific disability communities to ensure we include many diverse perspectives. As we've mentioned
above, people aging with disabilities can become isolated and cut off from community life, which makes it hard to enlist them in initiatives like ours. We would like to ask the community's assistance in identifying neighbors and older
residents who could make the community aware of their experiences or the experiences of those with vision loss, hearing loss, mobility loss, chronic illnesses, and other disabling conditions. And our intent would be to compensate these project ambassadors for
their time. We also want to work with township leaders to identify ways to improve the accessibility of community spaces through steps such as ensuring residents always have an option to participate virtually through Zoom or other technologies and important
township meetings as well as in programs and classes at our library and recreation center. Equipping our council chambers, public library, and other meeting spaces with hearing loop systems, technology that will be essential in future years to address
rapidly rising rates of hearing loss. The number of people with hearing loss in the US is anticipated to rise from 44 million in 2020 to over 73 million by60. This increase corresponds to the expected rise in the population of
adults over age 60, the age at whis at which risk of hearing loss sharply increases, bringing with it increased risk of cognitive loss and social isolation. In response to this trend, communities will need to work to normalize use of hearing aids and loop
systems. would like to partner with the te with the township in an effort to identify grant opportunities or other ways to fund the installation of hearing loop systems which would be a way for people with hearing aids to seamlessly participate in community functions and
meetings. Lastly, we would like to see Tene and panel a disability justice advisory board to make sure the unique perspectives of people with disabilities and their caregivers help shape Tene's vision for the future as we all work together to build a more welcoming and
inclusive community for people of all ages and abilities. We encourage anyone interested in knowing more about our initiative to contact us at the email address on this screen. Um, thank you so much for taking the time to hear about
our community begins at at home program. Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to working with you. And I'm going to leave, if it's all right, um, some of these cards. Please feel free to take one, share it with a neighbor or friend who might be interested in um, being involved or or
receiving some of our services. Thank you. Um Elizabeth, thank you very much. Um Tene has a lot of offerings, everything we offer from pools to parks, but to have an organization like both age friendly like Bright Side, uh we've worked with
um obviously you guys for decades or since you began the in the initiative, of course, Bright Side in the various buildings, um affordable housing, which is obviously something that you and I have worked significantly on. and uh the age. Everyone's aging and thank God aging in place and many aging healthy
and and what this enables us to do is make sure they stay healthy but facing reality when they aren't healthy anymore that we're there to support them. So people are looking to get involved and there's many people what can I do and if you don't want to coach your little league team you can do this. There's so many offerings here so please step up.
Thank you guys. Okay, we'll jump right into our work session items. Uh, anyone for miscellaneous and anybody for old business, new business, communications,
and jump into community reports by council leazison. I believe we have two items. the township poet laurette 2025 impact report which is amazing who I I listed it. Sorry, please go. So Scott Pleasants actually sent this to us on his own. Um
in 2023 then um mayor uh Pagan asked um Mr. Pleasants to become our first poet laurette which he did for two years and just last month we asked him to stay on uh for another
term. um his poems have uh enriched so many of our celebrations and our events and I keep telling him that each one is my favorite. Um but my two favorites, I think one or two of which are in here are the one that he wrote when we
planted a tree um to honor Dean after he retired and the one that he read at our reorganization in 2025. He actually wrote this um impact report on his own. Um it's very detailed and told us we can do what we want with it. And so I put it
in here just so that the public can see all of his work over the last two and a half years. Um and there are some poems in here. Feel free to read them. And we thank him for all of his uh work, his beautiful poems. Um I think they're they're becoming my favorites because
I'm starting to appreciate poetry more because of him. um not because um each one is improving but we thank him for uh taking this on for another two years for us. Okay. Um 1423 Aspen, do you mind if I
hold on? I'm going to put I'm going to punt on that for now. Um my comm reports our Cedar Lane um the Cedar Lane management group whose budget's coming up tonight. We're almost finished with the printing specs for our vacant our vacant
storefront uh trial and that's where we're hoping to maybe pass an ordinance that we do not no longer allow paper into these vacant storefronts but a design Surfside Florida has this but we're working on the landscape design and the library we needed some
information they reach out to you basically we're getting some of old cedarine landscape pictures to put on these uh sample by the dollar store and I'll report more on that, but that's what we were working on. Uh we also had a very successful Memorial Day event. I actually think it was one of our best uh
Memorial Day events ever. So, thank you for all who worked on all who came out. Anybody else on committee reports? Okay, council listed. Um Deputy Mayor Belure and Council. Um is this on? Um
thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh so on behalf of Deputy Mayor and myself, I'd like to read this resolution recognizing Junth. Um, as the mayor already mentioned, we have a plethora of activities on Jun on this Thursday to acknowledge Junth. There's a flag raising, there is a
silent walk in the morning, and there is also a jubilee um at the Roa Center at the end of the day. So, I'm just going to read this um for the record. And I also before I read it, I just want to say a shout out um Selene Wong and the Junth committee and um our clerk for really working together to put together
this amazing um day of activities. It was so thoughtful. I know last year we were burning hot outside during the flag raising. And so to to do the Jubilee indoors this year is um was really a clever idea and a way to really celebrate um in comfort after after we
do the the outdoor activities. So shout out to Selene and um Kanji as well who's participating on that committee um and all others who were helped to make that happen. Um all right. So whereas Junth also known as freedom day, Emancipate
Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, and Black Independence Day is a significant annual observance commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans in the United States. And whereas on January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states were to be set free. However, enforcement of the proclamation relied on the advance of Union troops and not all enslaved people immediately gain their freedom. And whereas on June
19th, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and in and issued General Order number three, announcing the Civil War had ended and that all
enslaved persons were now free, thereby bringing liberation to the last remaining enslaved African-Americans in the Confederacy. And whereas Junth has since been celebrated annually to honor this momentous event, evolving from a regional celebration in Texas to a
nationwide observance of African-American freedom, resilience, and cultural achievements. And whereas Junth serves not only as a celebration of emancipation, but also as a time to reflect on the enduring contributions of African-Americans to this to the
nation's history, culture, arts, sciences, and public life, and to recognize the ongoing pursuit of equity and justice. And whereas the township of Tene, a community enriched by its diversity and longstanding commitment to civil rights and social justice,
acknowledges the importance of understanding history to build a more inclusive and equitable future. And whereas recognizing Junth and Tene encourages meaningful dialogue about the nation's history, fosters cultural awareness, and strengthens the bond of mutual respect, understanding, and unity
among all residents. And whereas on June 17th, 2021, Junth was officially designated as a federal holiday reaffirming its national significance and the importance of recognizing the long and ongoing journey towards racial justice and equality in America. Now
therefore, be it resolved by the Township Council of the Township of Tene, County of Bergen, state of New Jersey, that June 19th shall be recognized annually as Junth day in the township of Tene. And be it further resolved that the township of Tene encourages all residents to honor and
commemorate Junth through community events, educational programs, and acts of reflection and service that celebrate African-American history, culture, and contributions and reaffirm the township's commitment to equity, inclusion, and justice for all. Thank you.
Thank you. Please. I make a motion that we adopt this resolution. Second. All right. Clerk, roll call on that one, please. Council Gan, yes. Councilwoman G. Yes. Councilman Catz, yes. Deputy Mayor
Pelchure, yes. Deputy Mayor Morgan, yes. Mayor Schwarz, yes. Added to consent agenda is resolution 171. Perfect. Thank you very much. That was very That was excellent. um township manager report if there's any if if you'd like to stay from the the rest of
the meeting. Great. If you wanted to go want to give you I want to give you the out but I it's we're going to jump into the meat of our meeting. So it's I I didn't want you to feel that. Okay. You could stick around Mayor Kates. She knows the agenda.
Yes. You could run for council next year also. come back. Okay. Mrs. Manager, please go ahead. Thank you, mayor, and good evening, council and township residents. Friendly reminder to our composters, the BLM mural was rescheduled to be repainted on
June 22nd, so the overflow parking lot by the Roa Center will be closed. Composters should refrain from drop offs th that weekend because the lot will be closed late afternoon on Friday through Monday morning. To date, our composters have diverted 1,569
pounds of material from landfill. Job well done. In the fall, we will report on a date for the compost give back program so the community can use the soil in their gardens. We will also be preparing for our Junth flag raising event at the ROA Center on
Thursday, June 19th, starting with a silent walk at 8 a.m. flag raising at 12:00 noon and the vote at the Vote Sports Plex and then a Jubilee in the ROA center from 1 to 3:00 p.m. Please refer to the flyer for additional details. A friendly reminder that
township offices will be observing Junth. So, Township Hall offices will be closed on Thursday, June 19th, with the exception of our DPW, police department, and fire department. Pride Month continues in Tene with an upcoming event this Saturday, June 21st on Puff and
Away at 7 p.m. Featured presentation is David Drumold's variety show. The July 4th parade and festivities are underway and the flyer is posted for your convenience. If anyone you know is interested in marching, please contact our township clerk via email,
clerk@tenecknj.gov. Tuesday, August 5th is National Night Out from 5 to 8:00 p.m. at Vote Park. The flyer is posted with sign up and additional details. The Motor Vehicle Commission mobile unit will be on site at Township Hall on August 18th. Online appointments will be
available 30 days prior for resident sign up. The Tene Farmers Market continues on Thursdays through October at Garrison and the Beverly lots. An ADU community meeting is scheduled for June 26th from 7 to 9:00 p.m. in council chambers for
all to attend. This will be anformational meeting to go over the specifics of our ADU ordinance and what this means for our community. We will also be hosting a community meeting on July 30th in reference to the following AI NRS: Tene Road, Orchard, and West
Englewood. A flyer will be posted later this week with additional information. Our little library uh posts were installed at Vote Park and the DPW will be assisting with final install this week. The Tina community pool now has
over 1,500 registered members and will be open 7 days a week beginning June 30th. We are in discussions for the for the pool to be open as early as next week since we do have a heat wave in the f in the near future. Updates will be posted on social media and I will also
nixle that information. Our splash pad and sprinklers schedule is posted on our website and we are now opening only the vote park splash pad on June 23rd from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and we'll post details as soon as
possible. the bottleneck areas throughout T-neck. Um we have the police department consulting with the county um to make some additional adjustments and I will continue with some updates. Our grant updates for tonight. The township and environmental commission
was awarded the ANject grant for trail connections in the amount of $1,462, but we may also get up to $3,000 after additional submissions. The township has been awarded $7,000 through the NJ click or ticket mobilization grant program for seat belt
enforcement overtime costs. We are currently preparing applications for the US Department of Justice cops hiring program. We are also in the process of um applying for the NJ DOT local transportation projects fund grant program which will be improvements to
Queen Anne Road from the Boot border to Cedar Lane. We are also applying for the NJ DOT municipal aid grant project for paving improvements to Garrison Avenue from Cedar Lane to the Route 4 bridge. For some project updates, Eric Park
impre improvements are just about complete um by the end of June. We are also going to complete and pave the parking area this year um as opposed to next year. So, you will see that done um rather quickly. Bike lane improvements, construction and concrete work is starting tomorrow and
the paving is scheduled for August. Argon Park tennis courts. The project has started with a completion date in four to six weeks. The Andreas Park pickle ball courts, we had the ribbon cutting event today. Um they are officially open and everyone
seems to be enjoying them. We are exploring some lighting options which we will update by next meeting. I will be meeting with our township engineer for proposal and to see how we can proceed. The Bellab drainage project, the bid opening is scheduled for early July and
our 2024 road resurfacing award resolution to DNL paving contractors is on our agenda this evening. The list of streets that are scheduled to be paved will be posted on our website later this week. Sagamore Park improvements. Two concept plans um are being considered by the
council and I will present that concept plan at the July 15th council meeting. Maple Avenue improvements, the bid opening is in early July as well. And our Phelps Park splash pad. Um we are finalizing the design phase and we will be going out to bid next month. Please
remember to sign up for township alerts um for important messages. Um it's the best way to get any important messages about the township. That's all I have for you, mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Manager. Um, do we want to do the legal report? Um, now we Yeah.
Yes, Mr. Mayor. So, uh, first thing before we get into it is um, we'll come we'll come back to this. I'll explain more later. I would just ask the uh the council when we get when it comes time to the get to the consent agenda that you pull uh resolution 200- 2025 relate
to 100 State Street. I'll explain more when we get there, but I just want to note that for the council. Uh with that, I'd like to pass things off to our redevelopment attorney, uh Mr. Michael Ash, who's sitting down there in the pit, uh for a report on our affordable housing situation.
Man of the people down here. That's it. Yeah. Um, so, uh, thank you for having me this evening. Um, before we proceed with the affordable housing update, um, Mr. Clerk, do we see Golden McMillan in the
audience on Zoom? All right. Way ahead of me. Thank you. Uh, so, hey, Golda, can you hear us? Okay. Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Okay. You sound perfect. Okay. And is she able to
share her screen? Wait, I need to give you that access. You see that pretty green button at the bottom of your screen now? Nice. All right. Very good. Um, again, my name is Michael Ash. Uh I'm an attorney with
the firm Carllin Ward and Hire. Uh the township of Tene has directed me to uh assist the township attorney, Mr. Sammon, with the township's obligation to comply with the brand new state
statute, the Fair Housing Act, uh otherwise known as A4 in, uh planning circles. Uh with me tonight on Zoom is the township affordable housing planner Golden McMillan from the topology firm
and uh together we are going to present an update on TX compliance with the Fair Housing Act. uh including the most recent development which was last night the planning board adopted
a an amendment to the master plan which is a housing element and fair share plan that is a requirement of the fair housing act process which is on the agenda tonight for the governing body to
consider with an endorsement that would allow Tene to continue the compliance obligation under the FHA and to advance to the next step of that state process. Uh so with that uh Golda take it away.
Thank you uh Michael and thank you um everyone on the the mayor, deputy mayor's council and everyone. So, um, as Michael says, this is the township's round four housing element and fair share plan, and last night the presentation that you see right now was actually presented to the planning
board, um, which was adopted at that meeting. So, this is in fact adopted and really what the role is tonight is for the governing body to endorse it, um, through a resolution. Um, so before I get into the timeline
and all the slides, um, just want to get into the crux of what this fourth round compliance process was, what it looked like, and how it was really different from, you know, the last decade. Um, you may hear me say things like rounds. And what that literally means is um, every
10 years under Mount Laurel um, the state they'll publish new rounds and it's a 10-year housing element. Um and then this begins as we end one now in June from um 2015
to 2025. Here we are going from 2025 to 2035 in what is called round four. So if you hear me use the words round three, I'm talking about the last 10 years. And if you hear me use the uh the terms round four, I'm talking about pretty much the end of the month begins the
next 10 years. Um, and so what round four is, um, it's a push at the state level. Uh, I'll probably let Michael really define any questions around A4, but that is that legislation that recognizes this
affordable housing process and what it was intended to do for this upcoming 10 years was to give more power back to the municipalities and kind of take all this cortiented process that happened in the last 10 years.
That was kind of the idea, but this was a very unprecedented process and not just T-C, I've seen it across pretty much the entire state. Um, definitely the courts are still involved. There's still litigations, there's still appeal periods, things like that nature that um
still kept courts involved. But to high level explain what the big changes were in A4 um in this upcoming round is it abolished what was called COA which may have been abolished under Chris Christie maybe reinduced I'm not really sure but
it's officially abolished now under A4 and what they did is they transferred COA which stands for the Council of Affordable Housing the powers to the DCA and it enabled the DCA to began calculating all the municipalities
affordable housing obligation um which was adopt not adopted um uh given out in a report I'll say um really not that long ago uh this whole process began pretty much October of last year
where DCA through a certain methodology um formed its obligations for every municipality including T-neck and this was a nonbinding um recommendation and
what um the municipalities were tasked to do was in January of this year adopt either that DCA number or come up with their own number. We uh can we go to the timeline slide? Oh yes, sorry. There you go. Good point. Yes, I thank you. Um so
that at that moment when we adopted our resolution in January that really kicked off um this timeline and this process of this year and you're going to notice this is kind of an aggressive timeline and this wasn't just you know our timeline that we put together. This is really under milestones and benchmarks
within A4 and within the state um I call it aggressive benchmarks and time frames. Um and it is because you know since that October release of the obligations and the January adoption
you know here we are in June and you know within 6 months is the deadline to adopt a housing element which occurred last night. Um so what this plan does is it's um a plan that is compliance with the timeline as well as um A4. So I will
probably let you Michael speak more about kind of the real legal things that transpired you know especially between January and into April May and now but essentially what this DCA report did was
a very highlevel bird's eyee view using different methodologies GIS some census data and they calculated an obligation for every municipality on a bird's eye view. I call it a macro analysis where
satellite data things that aren't going to be very tailored to T-neck or some of these other municipalities. And it was kind of the municipality's role to take a look at how they did their analysis and do a report if you would like to rejust
the obligation set forth in that DCA report. And that's what we did because when we looked at that DCA report back in January, there was um you know raw land, physical land, but some of this land that they included to help formulate their numbers were really not
suitable for what should be in in an analysis. Um it was land that may have had environmental constraints like severe steep slopes. Uh there was cases where they used little slivers of Route 4 and said that this is land that is
suitable for affordable housing. Um there was even properties that just straight up had buildings and parking lots on it and they took what was like a very tiny patch of green grass and said, "Hey, this is where affordable housing can go even though it was within a very
much improved parcel." So we adopted our own resolution in January that did adjust that number down. and Michael will speak to the numbers specifically um and presented that and adopted. So we complied with that benchmark and what that did was it opened up in the month of February
uh objections and a challenge period. Um anybody could you know file to object to what kind of um adjusted obligation or even if they accepted the obligation you could you can uh challenge it during
that period. uh in uh in March to April. Um that that challenge did occur by the builders association. I'm going to let Michael speak about that. And here we are tonight um ready to you know endorse the
plan as set forth. And then from here begins yet another challenge period where in the summer until August um you know this plan would be if not already filed is about to be filed with what they call the program which is the um
dispute. Um, Michael, you probably have the more technical term for it, but essentially the people you file this plan with and anybody can file a dispute with. And post August, you know, once those legal challenges are concluded, then um
essentially the plan is officially memorialized and you have until March of 2026 to adopt any final um kind of zoning mechanisms that the plan may have suggested. So with that, I'm going to turn to you um Michael to explain a little bit about the legal things that
happened this year. Sure. Um and this uh this slide is important because it it includes the key dates from the FHA law from the the state law that was adopted about a year ago.
And the policy with this legislation was for most municipalities in New Jersey, the affordable housing process would be uniform and would be on the same time frame throughout
municipalities that qualify to participate in this statute and Tene is one of those municipalities. So the dates you see here are applicable to TX compliance. There are also the same deadlines and dates applicable to most
municipalities throughout New Jersey to comply in the same manner. Our uh objective since the beginning has been to comply with the A4 guidance. As as long as Tene complied with A4
guidance, Tene would maintain immunity from builder's remedy lawsuits. So, we would be immune from a developer or a builder running to court suing us uh to say you're deficient in your affordable
housing obligation, which is a constitutional requirement in New Jersey. And since you are not creating enough opportunities for affordable housing, I'm proposing a project and it's going to look like this. and it's going to be so many stories high with as
many units as I can fit and there's nothing the town could do about it. So compliance with this process in these time frames and meeting these deadlines for all these key steps is
critical for Tene to maintain immunity which we still do. So originally DCA published their number and said Tene has to have a prospective need or a future
obligation for 431 units. After the planner reviewed the DCA data and and found certain laws omissions, there was a recommendation that the number be reduced to 384.
In uh January of this year, a presentation by topology was made to the council uh here in a public meeting and the governing body uh resolved to accept the 384 number and to move forward on that basis. So we did and we
went to court and we said our obligation going forward is going to be 384 units and up until uh February 28th um any party who is interested in
affordable housing could intervene in our lawsuit and object. And that happened and the New Jersey Builders Association objected and said, "Uh, 384 is not the right number and you're not,
uh, Tene, you're not accounting for the loss of units across the entire region one of which Tene is one municipality uh, across multiple counties and and a number of different municipalities.
Um through that process, a retired judge, Judge Bookbinder, um had a hearing um for the reasons that Judge Bookbinder put on the record. He believed that 431 was the right number, not 384.
And we received an order on May 30th directing Tene to comply with the obligation at 431. that resulted in
the uh publication of this plan that is presented tonight and that uh was presented last night to the planning board and adopted by the planning board. This plan is
consistent with similar plans that other municipalities will also uh approve and endorse and submit to DCA as part of this compliance process. Um the next step
if the governing body endorses this plan it will be filed with DCA and that will be TX compliance and TC advancing to the next phase of FHA and
saying our obligation to provide affordable housing is memorialized in this plan and we'll get into some of those details and through the creation of zoning in certain uh locations
throughout town. We anticipate that the opportunity to create 124 affordable units uh is will be based on this plan. That plan is
it must be filed by June 30th of this year and then the next period under the FHA from July 1st through August 31st any third party any intervenor can review TX plan they can review any
municipalities plan uh and if there are disagreements if there is a lack of compliance if there are gaps If there is not a clear and specific plan to create the number of units that are required,
that third party can challenge the plan, start new litigation, and you know, perhaps it ends with uh additional affordable housing requirements. the plan that we uh prepared, the plan approved by the planning board and the
plan you'll hear the details of tonight um seeks to comply with the FHA requirements to the fullest extent and we have been contacted by property
owners developers who have affirmatively said include my property and my project in your plan and there are six different sites that meet those criteria and they in the aggregate
allow us to fully comply with our requirement. And so we'll get into some of those details uh in the next couple slides. Gold, thank you. So I'll discuss this more specifically in some slides. So, a term I just want
to define for the record. Um, you might hear me say new construction, you might hear me say perspective need obligation. It's essentially that 431 number that we were just referring to. Um, it's defined as a projection of low and moderate
housing needs based on development and growth with reasonably likely to occur in the region or municipality. Um, and this is this is what we define the obligation as. So, I already referred to how we did an
adjustment in January. I'm going to refer to something called a vacant land adjustment, and it also is in an analysis of an adjustment to some obligation, but it's it's a separate process. So I I hope I don't confuse uh the group here, but essentially um a
vacant land adjustment is an analysis that municipalities can do under the rules um to review if based on the obligation. The reality is we might not have enough physical land or suitable land to
address that full obligation. So the 431 obligation that was, you know, DCA, the non-binding report that ended up being binding through this um litigation process Michael just spoke to. Um we analyze the municipality. It's an
appendix to this housing element. Um many municipalities do it, especially in very um urban builtup communities um such as Bergen County. And what we do is we take the tax cards, we take Cernin
data and we look at what is considered vacant under the tax records and of that of that vacant property is there further constraints that exist maybe um sometimes things come up vacant and it's
really on your Rossi your open space inventory which can't be built on or things like that. Um we also look at the rules which considers that the property in the acreage of unconstrained land needs to be um large enough to actually
do a multif family project and the regulation considers a six dwelling units an acre with a 20% set aside to come up with that number and all this analysis is um it's very complicated and I can answer very specific questions if anybody has any but what we do is we
look at this analysis and it comes up with what we call a realistic development potential. And so what a realistic development potential is is it's essentially the amount of the obligation that can realistically be provided for right now. That difference
um is called the unmet need, which is the amount of the obligation that pretty much can't realistically be provided for right now. And those two components make up what is that prospective need
obligation once you conduct one of these vacant land adjustments. So what the rules allow for in round four that's a bit different right now is once you get that realistic development potential there's a caveat in the
legislation A4 and that's what you see underlined right here where any municipality that receives an adjustment in this case a vacant land adjustment of its perspective need obligation shall identify sufficient parcels likely to redevelop during the current round to
address at least 25% of the prospective ive need and they must adopt realistic zoning accordingly. So what your fourth round obligation really kind of becomes in this housing element in these plans is that RDP number that realistic
development potential plus that land likely to be redeveloped. That's what the LTR is. Um and so this is very much a kind of a new process. Um, so what can this, you know, adopting
realistic zoning or meeting this 25% realistically look like? Um, they really have to be like bonafideed projects, available projects, realistic credits, um, things like zoning ordinance or redevelopment plans to to make it a
realistic opportunity to make these projects available. um bonus credits which actually have been restructured pretty significantly under this round. Um all these things can be considered part of the credits. Uh I was just talking about the bonus
credits. They have been restructured under this round. Um I'll get more specific in a let's let's let's go to the actual projects and we can walk through those calculations and see the credits. Uh this is just a highle slide. Um I'm
not sure if I said this yet, but when we did the vacant land adjustment, uh the RDP was 11. So with that 431, I think you said it Michael, but yes, this is 105. So to address something called the present need, which is a rehab need
obligation, because that is all part of round four. Um we intend to continue working with the county in their home improvement program and any kind of funding available in our trust fund to rehab projects. Um it's an open policy
with that and we will continue with that. So to get into compliance framework um these are the projects we referred to that will help address that likely redevelopment and the RDP obligation. Um it's six sites identified
here. Um 140 State Street, uh Cedar Lane, and Legion Drive. I'm not being very specific. I I would refer to the block and lots to know exactly the parcels. I'm just kind of giving um areas, and I can zoom in on the maps in a in a moment here. Uh 143
State Street, 82 uh 827 Tene Road, uh 1387 Hill Street, and 54 West Anglewood. So with a combination of low moderate income set aides, each one of these projects actually has one of those bonus credits whether it's near a
transitoriented development uh near a bus stop or some projects are existing commercial that will be you know in under this chart uh affordable housing that's considered one of these bonus credits. And so this is a a very large
matrix, but essentially your low moderate units, your bonus credits, the last column is the total credits that that project yields and the bottom number there uh meets that that obligation. Um so really the next steps are for this
board uh we so the major step last night uh with the adoption of the planning board with tonight's endorsement by by township council and to meet the June 30th deadline to submit everything to the program in DCA and then the summer becomes a challenge period where any
interested party withstanding is uh permitted to challenge the housing element and then come September or it'll be done. Thanks, Cola. Thank you very much for that detailed
explanation and um the long summer ahead. So, this some the challenge period would be if it's someone to challenge us. We're done. Yes. Okay. Um Okay. Thank you. And then we're going to see this as a Where do we see this? Um,
we're endorsing this plan which was adopted by planning board last night in the form of resolution 198-2025. It's been on the agenda since Friday. Thank you very much. Okay. Onwards. Sorry. Uh, are we able to comment?
Absolutely. All right. So, um the yes, the planning board did um vote in favor of this, but it was um very difficult to um to really understand certain components of it. That it uh it involved
six properties that um most of most people did not understand why they were there or how they got there. And as our attorney explained, um, apparently these were the owners that came to the city and said came to the township and said
they wanted these properties included. Um, the issue is that there are a lot of concerns from the community and we we hear those concerns and I just wanted to to go on record of saying that the planning board really struggled with this because of the fact that there were
things that were happening extremely fast from the time that the courts basically said they were rejecting the 384 um uh number for the township and that they wanted us to go to the 431 was May
30th as the attorney indicated. Uh and we had a finite amount of time to stand up a um a public hearing for the purpose of having public input uh and so forth.
So we've viewed this as and it is not just a view but it's a fact that this is an element or this is an insert into the master plan. It is a document that will live for 10 years. So some of the some
of us felt that it is not a compliance document but it is a housing and afford uh affordable housing document. So we felt that it was important to to say some specific things that were forwardthinking
that 10 years from now whoever's sitting here on this de and whoever is sitting at the planning board understood the intent of of the document. So, I just wanted to give that that flavor to it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anybody
else want to comment? I thank very much from Deputy Mayor Belure for representing us on the planning board as well as the mayor's representative D Green who is here tonight as well. Thank you. Um on to public hearing and adoption of ordinances of which we have none. So, we'll move on to authorizing the township clerk to read the 2025
municipal budget by title only and then we will open up the public hearing on the budget. Mr. work. Resolution 193-2025 authorizing township clerk to read the 2025 municipal budget by title only. Is
there a first? Yes, Schwarz. A second. Second. This is um just the resolution to authorize me to read the budget by title. So we had a first from Mayor Schwarz, a
second from Deputy Mayor Oregon, Councilman Pagan. Yes. Councilwoman G. Yes. Councilman Katz. Yes. Deputy Mayor Belchure. Yes. Deputy Mayor Oregon. Yes. Mayor Schwar, yes.
2025 municipal budget. Just the title. Thank you. Good job. Okay, the public hearing is now open. Um this you'll have three minutes to speak. We'll start with everyone in the room first and then we will go to Zoom. This is specifically
and only on the municipal budget. Anybody else? Councilman Zone. Alan S, former council member. Tonight, your property taxes will be going up 7%, $325 for the average resident. But this
is just a start. CFO E Abasi projects increases of 14.4% for next year, 16.7% in 2027. That would mean an average increase of $1,800 for the typical resident. Meanwhile, debt is soaring. $12 million
in new debt was authorized last month, and the latest supplemental debt statement says debt is now at $83 million. The budget being adopted tonight, quote, reflects the plans of the governing body, subject to approval, of another $88 million in capital
projects. By 2030, G debt could be $140 million or more. Whether or not you did or did not vote for Mark Schwarz or for Karen Oregon, your taxes are going up. If you live in the Northeast, no matter
who you voted for, your taxes are going up and you will be bearing the brunt of development, the overwhelming majority of which has and will continue to impact that neighborhood. If you live in West Anglewood or Country Club or Phelps
Park, your taxes are also going up, no matter who you voted for. And even if you thought your candidate would keep tax increases at zero, the bigger your property, and especially if you had a manicured lawn with some really big signs, your taxes may be going up 8, 10,
or $12,000 a year. New development can help, but it's not enough. With estimates of pilot revenue of $4,000 per unit, it would take 6,000 units to fill the gap, or more than 20 buildings the
size of the one on Alfred Avenue. The cannabis operation down the block could bring in 750,000 a year, and another 30 cannabis operations like it would fill a $24 million gap. Mr. Mayor, I've shown you mine. It's time for you to show us
yours, your data. that is all of the information and estimates that I provided are coming from township records, township staff, and other official documents. If there is another plan to fill that $24 million hole,
where is it? If build is more than just bull, how much will it bring in? When will the projects be built? Will the thousands of units be equitably distributed across the township? And why will the residents of the Northeast be
forced to pay the tax increases and bear the brunt of the burden of thousands of units that would need to be built? There needs to be a reckoning of how to move forward. This year is a warning shot for every single resident and for this council, and we need to find out how
we're going to move forward. We need to do a deeper analysis of how we spend money and establish real priorities on a long-term basis, not just on a year-to-year basis. A series of workshops with the auditor and bond council are critical. I hope these
things happen. I hope this is not caused burden to township residents. Thank you, Mr. S. Anybody else in the audience like to speak on the budget? See no hands. Mr. Clerk, what do you have on Zoom? I have Katie Naylor.
Yes, that is correct. Can everybody hear me? Yes, you have three minutes. Just a reminder, this is solely on the 2025 municipal budget. Yeah. Um I and I was became aware of the increase in um property taxes and quite upset over the
whole thing because as I did a little bit of research um on things, I found in Bergen County, we are ranked number nine on our property taxes, meaning our property tax number. There are 70
townships in Bergen County. How is it that we are number nine? What are we doing wrong? What are all the other townships doing right that their property taxes are not as high as ours? What type of analysis has happened to
say, okay, how are we comparing to these other townships that keep their property taxes lower than what we are? I don't see any better services in the other townships. I don't see better roads in the other townships. What is different?
Have those analysises been done? As elected officials, you should be doing those analyses to find out, are we hiring too many people? Where are we spending our money? Because this is ridiculous. How are we number nine out
of 70? That means there are 60 other townships that have lower property taxes than we do and we're raising ours. They might be raising theirs, too, but they're still lower. So, where's that
analysis? Has it ever been done? Why are we not sticking with what's going on in other townships? Anyway, I hope as elected officials you all decide to do some type of analysis to straighten this situation out because
I don't understand how we are number nine when we have high property values and you know other townships pretty much same populations, same challenges can do it better than us. We need to be doing
it better. That's all I have to say. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Seeing no other hands, this hearing is closed. We'll turn over to the council. Um, thank you, mayor, and as always, thank
you to all of our residents for coming out tonight. Like I said at our meeting last month, there are multiple reasons why I'm voting against this budget, but I will mention just three simple reasons why I'm voting against this budget, so that we can keep tonight's agenda moving along. Number one, this budget is the
largest tax increase in Tina history. Number two, this budget is spending way too much money. And number three, this budget is adding way too much to our municipal debt, which is already far too high. And when you factor in that the school board is raising taxes, the county is raising taxes, and the New
Jersey Board of Public Utilities is raising rates. A 7% tax increase is just too high of a burden on our residents, in my humble opinion. But I know that you worked hard on this budget, Mr. Mayor, and so did our staff. So, I want to say thank you to all of you for working so hard on this budget. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bean. Anybody else?
Um I I know the 7% increase is not ideal. Um we benefit from years of 0% increases and I think the reality is that now that has caught up with us. Um there are no we don't have development projects to save us this every year. Um
and the reality is we have to continue to improve services in town. We want to have parks that are refreshed. We want to, you know, we have to repave the roads. Like we need uh new equipment for our um safety departments. Like that's just the reality of where we are. It is
not ideal. Um and I think, you know, the suggestions that were made by the caller are are right. We need to do a better job in terms of how we how often we look at the budget, have regular budget meetings, look at opportunities for new revenue, look at opportunities for economies and sales scale and
efficiencies, and um you know, really comb through the budget efficiently. Um again, I'm not happy about a 7% increase. Um but the reality is that's what we need to do in order to um you know, keep the town moving forward. I think that um it it is u an extreme
increase. Um 7% is not ideal. We all agree that um I do recommend I recommended in our last meeting that we we uh I asked the manager to stand up um a monthly grant uh meeting so that we
can search um on a monthly basis as opposed to you know quarterly or whenever we meet. I also recommended that we start the budget season earlier like uh not wait till January but to start in September. We come back from uh summer break um where we have uh
meetings uh monthly with the CFO and the manager to uncover um budget savings to discover economies of scales to uh look at um shared service agreements and so forth. Um, I I I am um of the opinion
that I do not want to vote for this unless we as um the government of this town make a an a concerted effort that we are going to do some of these things that are uh able to
address the fact that we're facing some serious um numbers next year. So, um, on on that note, I'd like to make a motion that we stand up this three-point recommendation of monthly grant search review meetings. We start our budget
season in uh, September after the summer. Uh, and that we uh, we do that with the CFO and the manager to uncover budget uh, savings and have actual workshops, not just presentations from our department heads. Do I have a
second? second. Any comments on that? M can we finish discussion on on the budget first? Can we all talk on the budget and then maybe um Well, I I think it's important to know that we want to
Yes. We don't want to just vote on this without making recommendations to improve upon what we're looking at in the future. That's the only intent of my motion. I'm
more than welcome to. It's not moved. And uh just one more time for the record, Deputy Mayor. I apologize. What exactly is the motion? We're being asked to vote on a budget for a 7% increase. Okay. We we know we're faced with having done what
everything we possibly could do to not see such a high increase. I'm basically saying let's if we have to do this, let's commit to monthly grant search reviews uh starting budget season in September so
that we can ensure that we're starting earlier um by having workshops so they're not where we're not waiting until January um to start budget season. So monthly grant meetings and begin the budget process in September. In September. Exactly. Oh, can we have
discussion on that motion? Sure, absolutely. Okay. So, I'm I'm very happy to to sit down and go through steps um to amend the budget process. I just think that doing it in the middle of discussion on this budget and the middle
of a roll call on this budget isn't the time. I think it's rushed and I think there might be more input on that. I understand doing it because it's a painful pill to swallow this budget and it might make it easier to swallow, but I think we need to get past this and
then we can regroup. We can have a discussion on this. We can even open it up to the public, but I don't think a motion on these three items is enough right now. I think um it's it might make this easier to swallow, but we have to
vote on this. We have to get past it and then we can come up with other steps. But I I think that this might be rushed. So I'm I'm going to vote. I I don't doesn't mean that I don't think there are steps we can take, but I don't think this is the time and these are the only
things that can be done. So I'm going to vote no on that. Okay. Respectfully, I disagree. I believe that these are ways in which this is a baseline for us to say to our constituents that we know we're we're we're faced with an
increase, but we have some recommendations to address how we're handling things in the future. So, I I would I'm kind of leaning toward toward what um my my colleague um Councilman Pagan is saying in that why would we
vote for an increase if we're not going to uh put in place corrective actions that correct what we're doing or that has recommendations to improve upon what we're doing for us just to say let's vote on it and uh and then we'll discuss you know how we can remedy things or
face things in the future. I think that's somewhat irresponsible on our on our part. Roll call. There's no one else. Roll call. Roll call. The motion. Just a motion. Right. The motion. Yeah, there was just a MO. There was a second from
Danielle. Yeah. Right. Were you going to say something else? No, I'm just waiting on my vote. Sorry. Uh, Councilman Bean. Yes. Councilwoman G. Yes. Councilman Katz. Yes. Debbie Mayor Belchure. Yes. Deputy Mayor
Oregon. No. Mayor Schwarz. Yes. Okay. Um, Deputy Mayor Oregon, onto the budget conversation. Um, so I am certainly not uh happy to raise taxes uh 6.9%.
I worked a 13-our shift yesterday. I spent today working my day off working on council items. And tomorrow I'm going back to work for 12 hours. This isn't a hobby for me. My job is not a hobby. I go to work and a a 7% increase um hurts
me and hurts my family. And so I understand I'm you know we're not just council people, we're your neighbors also. So this is not easy for us. Uh this budget was um the increase in this budget was affected by many things. Uh a
decrease in state aid, uh increases in insurance, increase in in employee health benefits. So there were things that were beyond our control that had to go up um and T-neck is um maybe um
number nine um if if that's so in property um in taxes, but it's also a high property value time town. Um we're looking at at houses that are going on the market now that are selling within a month. Um houses on Sussex Road are
selling for $1.2 million. houses in the Northeast are selling for $850,000. Um the values of our homes are going up now. It's 2025 and everything is expensive. We have a paid fire department in Tene. Um we are taking
care of our employees too because their expenses are going up. So there are a lot of variables in this budget. Uh and there are increases in this budget and um I um am not happy about the increase. We've tried to keep the the taxes low,
the percentage low for as long as we can, but unfortunately uh this is the year that it went up. We have seen that the stall in development over the past two years has had an effect. Uh the the additional revenue from permits, the
revenue from uh from uh the the um uh rent has um slowed in the last few years. and I hope that that will take off again now. I hope that allowing development will help. Um I do think
that politicizing the budget um is a big mistake. I think that um all of us have to own it and I think anybody that sends out an email the day of an increase to the entire town blaming the council for
the increase and not owning it. Um, I think that's very sad and um I think everybody should pay attention to that. Um, all of us have the opportunity up here to do everything that we can to keep um the budget as low as possible
and blaming other people for voting for it, but not contributing to lowering it uh is very irresponsible and um they don't deserve to be sitting up here. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll make my comments brief. In 11 years, we've now with tonight
increased our taxes by 14%. Virtually no town in Bergen County will show you that math and that did better. You're absolutely right. 7% is high. 8 years of zero where 99% of this population loved that number. Admittedly, there are two people, one in the room that had a problem with that
zero. And I respect that and I respect his comments tonight as well. But if we increased our taxes 2% every single year, that same 11 would be significantly more than 14%. And that that's not even taking into compounding.
So unfortunately, every single municipality likely in the entire country is seeing an increase. The increase is $325. $325 gets you the police, gets you the fire, gets you the health, gets you the parks, gets you the roads. You're not
going to get a better deal than that. But no one has come up and said, not in the deis, not myself, not in the public, and said, "This is what I want you to cut. We're not cutting fire. We're not
cutting police. We're keeping our services the same." And that is the most important thing to take into consideration. Find out where else in the world for $325, you're going to get that. And I, if I'm correct, are paying the most increase on the council. Lastly, or continuing down the line,
looking at our future increases. Those numbers, those high numbers are always in the budget. I believe there's $30 million in the capital for the replacement of Tenic Fire Headquarters. You did not put that there. That's there every single year. Those are placeholders. To sit here and say there
will be a hundred million in two years is outright false. That's not what we do. We we push those numbers every single year. the suggestions you mentioned. Excellent. We'll gladly work on it. But understand something. We were just awarded awarded significant grants
for Argon Park and for the SPL handicap replacement. The handicap park. Many of that many of our grants are matching grants. $1.1 million in grants. Excellent job done. We had our grant. What does that mean? $1.1 million in
matching funds that come from our capital budget. Millions of dollars this year is being raised to our capital budget, increasing our debt to match grants that we were given. 50 cents. We spend a dollar, we're getting $2. Great deal. Oh, you got to spend a dollar.
Sorry. Uh lastly, to sit here and say that what is TX offering different than 61 other towns is very simple. We have a paid fire department. When you call the fire department in this town, they come and they come very quickly. And there's one
person in this room that can tell you the difference between a volunteer fire department and a paid fire department. And that's myself with 25 years as a volunteer firefighter. So when you call 911 cuz your house is on fire in the town that I'm a firefighter in, do you know what I'm doing? I'm getting out of bed. I'm putting my sneakers on. I'm
getting in my car. I'm driving. I'm picking up a fire department. When you call 911 in Tene, you were having a fire truck or a fire engine in that rig within minutes, if not a minute. That cost us about $12 million a year in
staff on a seven on a budget of 70 million, 170 million, significant amount of money. Take that off, we'll save a fortune uh not getting my vote. So when someone wants to approach us in the next few months, come back and tell us what do you want to see taken off the table
from your services. We look forward to continue the dialogue for the rest and with that the rest of the year. And with that, I'll make the motion to approve the budget as introduced. Second. Uh, first from the mayor and a second from Deputy Mayor Oregon. Councilman
Gan, no. Councilwoman G. Yes. Councilman Catz, yes. Deputy Mayor Felchure, yes. Deputy Mayor Oregon, yes. Mayor Schwarz, yes.
Adopted. Okay. Mr. Clerk, I'd like to um authorize the township clerk to read a motion to authorize the township clerk to read the 2025 Cedar Lane Special Improvement District budget by title and they've already asked me for their money. So, I'll make that motion to authorize you to read it by title. Do I
have a second? Second. Thank you. Roll call on that. Mer you. Councilman Pagan, yes. Councilwoman G. Yes. Councilman Catz, yes. Debbie Mayor Belure. Yes. Debbie
Mayor Oregon. Yes. Mayor Schwarz. Yes. Okay. The public hearing on the 2025 Cedar Lane special improvement district is now open. Anybody in the audience that like to speak to that budget for the Cedar Lane Management Group? Seeing no hands, Mr. Clerk, is there
anyone? Is there anyone on Zoom as it relates to the hearing for the Cedar Lean Management Group? We do not. The hearing for that is closed. I'd like to make a motion to authorize to I make a motion to introduce the 2025 Cedar Lane special improvement. Adoption, sorry. Adoption. Oh, good. And
first by the mayor, second. Second by Councilwoman G. Thank you both. Councilman Pan, yes. Councilwoman G. Yes. Deputy Mayor Belchure. Yes. Deputy Mayor Oregon. Yes.
Mayor Schwarz. Yes. Mr. CFO initiate the wire. Thank you. Adopted. The meeting is now open to what I hope everyone who's here waiting for public good and welfare. You have three minutes to discuss anything you like to start. We'll start with the people in the room
and then we'll go to Zoom. With that, Mr. Schwarz and congratulations on Space Walls 2027. May the Schwarz be with you too, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. members of the council speak tonight on behalf of the
coalition of neighborhood associations. An important part of CNA's mission statement is that we are dedicated to advancing a safe environment for all its residents. We believe that this is an essential aspect of having a good
quality of life. Today we are living in a very difficult national and international climate right now. with violence targeting different groups on the rise. Recently, in response to that violence,
a Tina council person advised one such group in our community in a social media post to open quote get armed close quote. We do not dispute the constitutional right of any citizen, including members
of the town council, to post his or her opinion. However, particularly in these contentious times and with the incendiary potential of social media, we feel it is the responsibility of every
member of the town council as leaders to bring down the temperature and advocate for peaceful relations and dialogue in our community. We need to bring people together
and in our view such comments by any elected representative do not aid in that endeavor. We believe that our council members whatever their personal beliefs should be consciously working to create an
atmosphere in town where all citizens feel safe and able to live in peace with their neighbors. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Schwarz. Thurf. Good evening. I'm Norman Leven, uh, 33-y year resident. I really came to listen.
I didn't have an agenda to bring up, but I do want to raise a couple of points if I may. I appreciate the report on the housing units. It's not clear to me. Is that 431 new units or it counts the affordable units already available? We'll address that. We'll address that
at the end. It's a legitimate question. Absolutely. will address that. Uh it says six sites, but my understanding is the master plan has never been presented or finalized. So, while I saw a map that showed the areas where these houses housing potentially will be, I don't
believe the township has had any productive feedback on on the selection of those of those areas. So, that seems more arbitrary. Um, council member organ, I I appreciate what you're saying about the other
council member posting this only today, but the council didn't post anything. We had no idea about what the debt is. As a matter of fact, mayor, I believe you said a few moments ago you you turned to the to the uh county super to the township supervisor and said, "What is
our budget? Do we know what is our annual budget? It's not presented to the township. How can we have give you any positive feedback when you say, "Well, what should we cut?" I don't know. What are we spending? That that just seemed unfair. And uh if in fact part of the
budget has to do with ailarating existing debt, then perhaps we shouldn't go into more debt. That doesn't seem to be something that the township residents are aware of. I'm concerned about that. One final point before I before I
conclude. I am concerned about the master plan. I hope that will one day actually get presented. I'm fortunate enough to live nor when I go up Windsor Road, I can make a right turn over the Sagamore
Avenue bridge. I never have to worry. I notice all the southbound traffic on Windsor Road to make that left turn, they're backed up a whole light. You need a left turn signal for those poor people. I'm happy to make my right turn,
but you're doing them a disservice. Thank you. What was your name, sir? Norman Leven. Thank you, Mr. M. Lean. Mr. Seagull. Hi, my name is Richard Seagull, 26year Ten homeowner. I don't see my
clock. Where? I'm waiting for it. You're going to tell me when it's on. Ah, I see it. Okay. Um, I sent everybody here uh a link to a video about the Nephesh Benesh
Aliyah event. I don't know if you all bother to look at things I send or not, but that video had absolute proof positive that West Bank settlement homes were being pushed. Um, putting it into
context, we are 20 months into a horrible genocide in Gaza. Uh there is an increase in the ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel has attacked Lebanon and
Israel has just attacked Iran. Um in that context, um this town is still having illegal Israeli real estate events. uh a year after the Jewish community was served notice that these
events are in violation of not less than 22 laws. What does that say? I mean, there's all this complaining about an alleged increase in
anti-semitism, but how can anybody help but notice the kind of entitlement by which the Jewish community here seems to think that they can just violate the law because they want to. That's what's going on. Okay.
And I also want to say something about what Mr. Schwarz just mentioned, and that is the fact that one of our council members, and I'm not allowed to mention her name. She's not here tonight, posted on social media an instruction for the
Jewish community to arm themselves. Can you imagine? I guess she didn't include me cuz I'm a capo. I'm the self-hating Jew, but I guess everybody else is supposed to arm themselves. What would happen if our
AfricanAmerican council members told that community to arm themselves? Can you imagine the uproar if people said, "Black people, go out and arm yourselves." What about the Muslim community? We don't have a Muslim council member, but we used to have a
Muslim mayor. What if Mayor Hamemed Dudine said, "Muslim people, arm yourselves." Can you imagine the uproar? Is it okay because our little Miss Queen Esther council member is white and Jewish? Are
are we somehow less dangerous? I think we're more dangerous. We're committing genocide in Gaza. What does she have to do to be removed from this deas? I think if she took a on the deas, she'd be back like, why don't you have a seat? We're good
with that. Thank you, sir. Thanks for hearing me out. Maxine. Good evening. Hi, my name is Maxine Angel. I live in Duck. Um, I just got back from Cedar Grove in Essex County. My son had a baseball game there and they have a beautiful baseball facility.
You know, we're very into baseball. Um, really impressive and it was so nice to see so many people out enjoying. Um, a couple things. Um, all of you council people are duly elected by the public. So, I think you all have a right to be
up there having been elected by TAK voters. So, you're all eligible to be up there serving TAK. So, thank you. And um I came here, it started a couple years ago, actually maybe several years to talk about cannabis and so the facility
is opening on Alfred. And while I understand that you have a very difficult job on your hands with the budget, um I think it's tremendously unfair to say that it is not anywhere near a residential neighborhood. We know we have neighbors living over near
Alfred Avenue and we know that there are 256 units in the Mark building with I believe a twin building forthcoming. So that's about a th00and feet. it's about um so I know it's not within the 250 ft
or 50 foot limit for the cannabis to pretend that nobody lives over there I just think is completely disingenuous and I think it unfortunately categorizes a lot of the spirit of this council which is really unfortunate for the beautiful town that we live in. Um tonight someone from Ridgewood asked me
what's TAC like and um I had to take pause and I said we're just trying to find our way through and I think to something that I would have been against the cannabis being in our neighborhoods I would have loved to have seen some
honesty to say we realize it's a thousand ft from homes and we're doing our best to try to protect the children and recovering addicts who are living in this community. We're doing our best to try to protect them, but instead of
saying that it doesn't exist, we I saw comments on the Facebook post about this. And this was a post by a council member. So, um again, all of you are elected. You deserve to be up there. And uh you're all doing your best, I hope,
for our town. Um 7% is a lot. And I I really like the Mr. Leeben, it's nice to see. I've never seen you. welcome. Um, I love the the comments and I just second any transparency for residents to be
able to get a a snapshot of the budget. That would be very helpful. And um, you know, how to reach me, any questions you might have, and I I'm sorry I missed the YAB um I don't mean to to conflate this.
I'm sorry I missed the YAB presentation, but YAB is such an amazing program. I had originally applied to PB um for the parks and recreation and there's just so many opportunities for the children of our town and have a good night. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Miss Angel. Anybody else in the room like to speak? Sorry, Mr. Hello, I'm Paula Regoven. Um, the Tene Peace and Justice Vigil will hold our 136th consecutive vigil tomorrow, June
18th, at the corner of Tene Road and Liberty Road in Tene. The vigil was founded in 2005 by Veterans for Peace, Chapter 21, New Jersey, Military Family Speak Out, and other residents. All these years, we have called for an end
to wars. We've called for the use of diplomacy. We have called for the government to take care of our veterans. We have called for justice. Some of our members have loved ones and friends who have died in the wars in Vietnam, Korea,
Iraq, and Afghanistan or loved ones who have died by suicide after serving in these wars. Some of our members and their friends and relatives suffer from agent orange poisoning impact and impacts of from burn pits PTSD as well
as other impacts from war. The Tene peace and justice vigil members are peaceful. We stand for nonviolence. Our vigil has applied for a permit under Tene's new protest ordinance. We asked for a permit for until the wars end and
justice prevails. and we were granted a one-year permit and told that it can be renewed each year. We were appalled to see that a member of Tene Township Council posted this on social media, Jews get armed. While it may be a first
amendment right to call Jews get armed, it is irresponsible and provocative for an elected official to do so. Since that call by the council member, our vigil has faced harassment which we have reported to the police.
The council member's call to Jews to get armed has created a sense of entitlement for some and an atmosphere of fear for others. Now we are seeing reckless calls for violence by federal officials that are leading to tragedies such as the
assassination and wounding of elected officials in Minnesota. We call on the council member to apologize publicly for this misguided call. We encourage the people of Tene including elected officials to promote dialogue,
understanding and peace. Thank you very much, Mr. Anybody else in the room like to speak? Mr. S. Alan S, former council member Tene resident. I want to thank Michael Ash. I want to thank Golden McMillan uh for the presentation that was made la both last
night and this evening. Uh uh Deputy Mayor Belchure and I were the two people in this audience who had the privilege of enduring that same presentation on two consecutive nights. Um uh it's it's chock full of information that I I think the overwhelming majority of people
don't understand as uh as we were already asked. Uh 431 units uh with the 15% set aside would require the construction of about 2,850 units. Uh we might well and we would be eligible as we learned both uh tonight and last
night uh that we can get bonus units uh for that would account for about a quarter of the units uh which would mean that we'd be down to a little bit over 2,000 units. That's a substantial number of units. Um, I I appreciated seeing the plan, but I was deeply disappointed to
not have any meaningful opportunity as a member of the planning board to discuss that, make changes, get input from the public, and incorporate that into the document because the document was not made available to us until the day that
it was noticed on on May 6th, on June 6th. uh and basically there were 10 days uh to have that noticed. If we made any changes, it would have required renoticing uh and the next 10 days would not allow the possibility of a planning board adopting this document and of the
governing body having a chance to endorse it. And I think whether it is the process of coming up with the housing element and fair share plan or the master plan or the budget, we really do need to have a more thorough process of working with residents, hearing what
they have to say and understanding what those numbers are. We have a paid fire department, but I will point out that we've had a paid fire department for over a hundred years. This is not a new phenomenon. This is not something that's just been
added to the budget. Yes, I do recognize that the projections that Mr. Abasi has made usually air on the high side, but what's in the pipeline is extremely high. Mr. Mayor, you said that the project for
the firehouses is a placeholder and that and that scares me and it really should frighten every single member of this community because those firehouses, especially fire headquarters, is drastically inadequate for a modern fire
professional fire department. We need to do these things, but we really need to sit down and understand that process and say, is this a real budget? Are we really focusing on our needs or are we implementing our wants?
All of this demonstrates and how this budget was adopted, how the fair share plan was was adopted and endorsed, I think are a demonstration of how we really need to change the way we do business. It's a disservice to the public. It's a disservice to those people who show up at meetings. We need
to do better. Thank you. You Mr. S. Anybody else in the room like to speak? Ma'am. Hi, my name is Jenny M. Um I'm a business owner as well as a property owner of 1364 Tene Road, which is um our
business Mama Hen House. Um we we're relatively new. Um we're getting older um as the year goes on, which is pretty exciting. Um recently we've been um we it's been brought to our attention that there the planning board has um they
need to make more affordable housing as was discussed today. Um which is great but um our block was came up um as one of the places that were going to be redeveloped and I spoke to other business people on our block as well as
property owners and we are against it. Um, I just wanted to let that know, uh, let that be reflected on the record. And, um, of course, we need more information as well, which we're interested in getting. But, um, yeah, that's pretty much all I came to say.
Thank you. What What is your name? What is your Jenny M. Jen Ny? Thank you. Anybody else in the room like to speak? Yes, Ellsworth James 215 voice 3 T for
many. Ellsworth James 215 voice 3 T. I heard the term used this evening affordable housing planner. What does that mean? T does not have an an housing authority
as far as I understand. And yet it seems as though something has gone into plan to put a new wording to represent housing authority and yet is privately owned, maybe privately owned. And I can understand if a building is half owned by the township
and half owned privately, is still a problem because yet it's not affordable to the many um retirees who will be able to rent some of these buildings. Now the revitalization of Tene Road a
few years ago is still incomplete. Yet I understand that there is something at this planning stage to to gentrify as a jungri a part of ten road which is not right.
We have m we have um were able to stop this many many years ago and suddenly it's coming up again and many of the folks who I've spoken to they are opposing gentrified um the area between um Orchard and West
Inglewood and I think the community doesn't know anything about it and yet we moving ahead moving fast ahead as part of the planning that the there's no real input
from the community to um since you have revised the master plan of Tene and I would like to ask a question how many people were there when this uh revise was done core section of tene how many of us were there and I would
like for this to be revised again in have the community as a part of the meeting to have their input and what they would like to see TE would tie road would be like northeast TK especially. Thank you.
Thank you. Anybody else in the room would like to speak? Okay. See other hands. Mr. Clerk, what do you have on Zoom for us? I have Lillian Lewis with us. M. Good evening. Lillian Lewis, a 42-year
resident, and I'm calling regarding the proposal or discussion of the development of uh 254 unit housing from West Inglewood to Orchard Street. I want some clarification. Is that in planning stage or is it just a discussion? Please
clarify that. I noticed on with the U manager, town manager, it was not on the listing that she had. So, please clarify. Is this something that's under discussion that they're planning? It's from West Inglewood to Aut Street and it said no retail. So that mean you would
you would uh take away all the businesses that are on that area at this point and bring in that 254 uh housing unit. So please clarify that please. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you M Miss Lewis. Mr. We have Charles Powers.
[Music] Charles Powers. Yes. Do you have me? Oh, we got you. You have the audio video. Just the audio. Three minutes. Why is that? Because it's quicker to get people in if I just permit audio. Chuck, thank you. Three minutes. not that much in a
I'd like to criticize the reporting processes that our attorneys and I'm speaking here of both redevelopment attorney Ash and and township attorney Salmon
about the way in which they have handled everything associated with this next fourth round of action required by the states. affordable housing law.
It turns out that ever since March, they have known that we were going to have to have some sort of document that would amend our master plan and be a document
that the council would have to approve. Even though they did not know whether they would be successful as they absolutely were not. They were completely shut out in what the decision was of the arbiter who took a look at
this question and rendered a judgment on the 30th of May. None of that process did anybody in the public know anything about. And it turned out that meanwhile topazi who for some reason was given the
responsibility of developing the report that was going to become part of the master plan which is the sole responsibility not of the council or anyone else. It is the sole responsibility
of the planning board. But that planner we now know had nothing to do with the report that was being evolved apparently since the 26th of March and then led to the decision on the 30th of May that prompted our recent discussion. More
than that, we didn't. No one was told on the planning board last night. I believe I'm the only person who heard the entire thing. None of the pl none of the planning board was told. What you
council were told tonight was that the way the six projects were chosen was not on the basis of their status and their readiness to be given redevelopment through approvals and development plans through a normal
process. But because those developers came forward secretly apparently and told the township somebody in township, not the town, not the planning board attorneys,
not the planning board, not the planning board planner, but they would like to be included in this latest document. Everything about this document we saw last night was
painfully finally approved by the planning board with every one of the members who spoke saying I don't like any part of this process. It's totally broken. Sorry, Mr. Powers. Three minutes were
up. We have free reads mentoring. Please state your name for the record. Hi. Uh, can you hear me? Yes, loud and clear. Who is this? Hi, this is Selene Wong. I didn't realize Free Reads was on
there. What's up? Three minutes. Yes. Um, my apologies. I didn't mean for free reads to pop up, but hello everyone. This is Selene Wong. Um, resident of I believe nine years of TEK. So, first I want to um thank the council for
adopting a resolution um for celebration of Junth this Thursday. Um it's a time of remembrance and celebration and on behalf of the Junth Committee of Tene. We are very grateful um and we will continue to
bring awareness and celebration to our beautiful town and thank you to Councilwoman G for reading the resolution um so beautifully. Um, as mentioned, at 800 a.m. on Thursday, we are meeting at the MLK monument in Hackinac on the FDU campus, and we're
walking down to the enslaved burial grounds on Palmander Walk uh for a libation ceremony. Then we'll be at the flag uh raising uh ceremony at Volti Park at noon and then at 100 p.m. at the
Jubilee at the Roters Center. Um I'm very grateful that this is our fifth year doing this and many of our towns council um have been participants in this and I'm be happy to see you guys again. Um on Thursday we have as you
just you know heard we have a full day of events and I'm very happy that TAC will be doing this uh for the entire day and I'm welcoming um everyone in the township to participate in the events. Um lastly, the Jubilee that I mentioned
that's at 100 pm at the Roter Center. We'll be honoring and celebrating um Tene youth. A lot of our Tene youth will be participating in reading poetry and singing. Um and also we're honoring a Tene senior who has uh had a a wonderful
year of community service and also honoring our wonderful lifetime Tene resident Dr. Henry Puit. So, I'm very grateful that the town will be celebrating and I'm welcoming everyone to celebrate with us this Thursday, Junth.
And that's it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Selene. Okay, no more hands on Zoom. Want to close good and welfare. And um Mr. Attorneys, you some comments. Do you want council to comment first or do you guys want to comment first? Uh I would I
think Mr. I should Okay, respond. Is this on? Okay. So, as far as the timeline and and process, um, everyone knew the timeline. It was right in statute when it was first adopted about a year ago. Everyone knew the timeline.
Everyone knew the deadlines. Every single step had a a pretty short window for compliance. you know about 60 days for each phase. Um our planner worked day and night to compile all the
documents required uh in order to comply. Um we didn't wait for the the final order. Uh the report took weeks to draft and really the only missing piece of data was what
was the final unit count going to be? And when we finally learned that from the court on May 30th, the the draft report was uh prepared for circulation in a final draft on on June
2nd. So, you know, we complied with every step in a timely manner. Um and you know, our planners have worked diligently for the compliance. And you know I know there's been this discussion
or this issue raised about you know why is topology is the town planner handling uh the affordable housing compliance preparing this report and not the the planning board's planner. And the answer is is pretty simple. It's affordable
housing compliance. FHA A4 compliance is a township obligation, not the planning board. And the planning board planner's role is to, you know, review applications that are
considered by the board um and provide opinions and guidance to the planning board. But the affordable housing compliance is the township's obligation. So, the township's planner has taken the lead role in that compliance and I think
they've done a fantastic job. Um, this issue of the the property owners, developers asking to be included in the plan, that's also how the process is supposed
to work. and they're better off asking to be included in the plan, satisfying the obligation to provide the units and not challenging through litigation later if we are short on the units. Um
each of these property owners sent a letter to the township visa v the clerk. Um and and these are public documents without any secrecy. Um I want to jump in for a second and
just I want to stress that almost every single municipality in the entire state of New Jersey has been operating under the same time frame to the same statutory deadlines. every single time I shouldn't say every single because there are a couple municipalities that are exemp exempt from this but almost every single municipality uh has been in a
frenzy trying to comply with these same obligations. Uh there literally are not enough certified planners in the state of New Jersey to handle all the municipalities that need all of these reports. So our planners have done the absolute best job that that they can in this shortened time frame. We have not
delayed in any in any way. We have you know we were going I think I say even above and beyond pleading with the court to give give us a decision early on for what you say two months. Yeah about two months we were pleading with the court to give us a decision so we could get started on even even sooner. They wouldn't do it. There's nothing we can
do. We can't order the court uh to to issue their order any sooner. And so given that given that I would say I think I just want to push back as strongly as possible that the township was in any way delinquent uh or or dilatory uh in our work here. We it was we went uh I would say above and beyond
especially our planners who I don't think is possible to give enough enough credit to topology for the work they did in such a short time frame knowing that they have many many other clients as well not just T-C but they really really gave us I think the attention that we needed and that we that we deserve and
so I want to uh I want to push back on on any I guess on on anything that would imply they that they what we did otherwise. Yeah. And then not only that, not only the attention, but and and the responsiveness, but also state-of-the-art
cutting edge advice and guidance because these planners were doing this work for Tene, but they're also doing it for uh a number of other municipalities throughout New Jersey. and and the planners at topology
um you know have been the thought leaders on this issue. Um they've been sought by you know not just municipalities but you know other professionals involved in the actual you know program of compliance. Um and I'm
confident that Tene received the absolute best advice in a very short time frame. full complete compliance and we feel very confident going into the next phase that um you know we will not be
receiving substantive challenges and if we do they will be quickly addressed. Thank you very much and I absolutely fully agree they did a great job but we also know had they um not done that job had they slowed down we'd have people here screaming because now we'd be in default and those that would have been a
far a lot worse outcome with that. So thank you very much to you both of you and to them as well. Um, Mr. Fine, you're good. Okay. Councilman G, you're good. Deputy Mayor Belure, I have a couple things I just like to kind of speak about. Um, first
off, um I think that um we as members of um the council, I think all of us are committed to smart development. Um 431 um affordable housing units is substantial. um it translates into
thousands and thousands of of building buildable units. Um that that is not sustainable in terms of thinking that we can place them all on one area of town. Uh we have to build but we have to build
smart and with a lot of wisdom. Um, one of the issues that I think that's really troubling to to um, people in the community that have reached out to me regarding uh, the Northeast, regarding uh, discussion of a uh, on the subcommittee meeting on zoning. There
was uh, there was not even an agenda item about it. It just kind of happened to come out as a result of an of attorney who um was representing another site and he happened to mention about this AINR. Now um I asked our attorney to provide
details about it because there was some misinformation. What is that misinformation is that the boundaries of this AINR is not correct. There are lots of irregularities about it. Okay. Some people have mentioned Orchard Street. Orchard Street was never a part of it.
Tene Road, the TX road strip um between West Anglewood and Orchard Street are viable great retail locations. Uh I mean I think there's maybe one vacancy right now. So if you were to put that side by
side with with other areas, you would see that, you know, this is a viable small business um retail area. Okay. So, I'm I'm really really concerned that we went from
this not being an item on the on our zoning subcommittee um meeting to our town manager announcing that there's a community hearing that's happening in the end of July. And
I venture to say that my colleagues haven't even discussed this. So, it's so important that we we address misinformation. It's so important that we are transparent. It's so important that we do that. So,
we can't not talk to each other and then expect the the community to give us input or to come out if we if we have irregularities in something. We need to vet that before we present it to the community. One other thing I want to say
is that regarding this document, we began the the reason why the planning board has so many issues with it is because if these six sites, we did not know the planning board was not told that these owners came forward and
volunteered to place their sites in this plan. Okay, I don't I've asked my colleagues had they known this. They didn't even know it. So the point that I'm making is this. We have to be so transparent when we talk about building,
when we talk about what's next, when we talk about exactly where we see our town going. One of the things that the planning board did insist upon was taking the ADUs as an item to place in this document so that as laws are
evolving and as regulations are changing that is in the event that the government allows ADUs to be counted toward credit. maybe not today but maybe five years from now or a year from now that we have
this memorialized in this document. So that's why you see 80 that's the only reason why ADUs got into this document. So the point of the matter is that we see this the planning board did not just see it as a compliance document they saw
it as a vision for our township as it pertains to housing. So, I just wanted to say that it's vitally important that we as a body continue to communicate and continue to make sure that we when we when we're talking about sites that
we're all on the same page. Thank you. Um Mr. Leven, the the master plan was passed at the beginning of 2025, so it's on the website if you want to take a look at it. the fourth round we need um an additional 214 units affordable but
there are credits for certain units so it it it's less than that if you do the math this presentation will go up on the website also if you want to look into it'll show you how many um we did start budget discussions in March we had four budget meetings on Thursday nights maybe
three um and the budget has been on the website the proposed budget so you can take a look at that also though for anybody who there's misinformation out there. One of the six sites for Affordable um was never from West Anglewood to Orchard on Tene Road.
That's not one of the sites. Jenny, I did not recognize you at all. Um stop by one day and say hi. Um but that's not one of the sites at all. So you don't need to worry about that, Miss Lewis. You don't need to worry about that. um Cannabis on Alfred Avenue. There was
only one um residential building there at the time that Alfred was zoned and the the building next to it um which is now going up as a residential building was not zoned for cannabis. the developer chose to purchase that
building and put residential there, but it was specifically left out of the zoning to leave a buffer between the the uh what could be zoned for cannabis and residential. He chose to purchase that and put residential there. But anybody
who walks down Alfred will see with the curve in the road down there how far it actually is from any residence. When you stand in front of that building, I urge everybody to go down to 455. you'll see it's completely isolated. It's an
industrial. It's not near any um any home. And um for Seline, I took the day off. I I really enjoy the uh silent walk. It's I think maybe going to be my I don't know fourth or fifth year attending, but I really enjoy it. Um
thank you. Thank you very much. Um make my comments brief and thank you for addressing Mr. Levin's comments about our budget which was up on the um up on the website. I look forward to you coming to more meetings. So, welcome to the township council um meetings. Um
Maxine, Miss Angel, I'll fill that in for you. You weren't sure what to address the person from Rididgewood when they asked you about Tene, but you went on to say that you talk about the Yab and that Tene has so many opportunities for children. So, next time someone asks you about Tene and how how you how's it going in Tene, please feel free to
mention all the opportunities that we offer to these children and thank you very much for your um participation with them on YAB. Um Jenny, it was addressed at 1364 Tina Road is not part of the affordable housing sites that were mentioned at all. Um that'll also be up
on the website. Mr. Clerk, will we have that report up on the website? Um the topology report is it'll be up on the website. you can always verify that that was not one of them. Um, as it relates to these sites um that were also addressed, they were addressed in in
council on May 20th, 2025. These sites were also brought to the council's closed session meeting and I believe Topology and Mr. Ashue presented the unit counts and and whatnot to the council and I believe the minutes accurately reflect that. Um lastly,
uh if we can please look into the AINR comment. If if Deputy um Mayor Belchure is correct, then we need to address that. I believe Mr. Clerk, you may have pulled that out. And that was about the West Inglewood Avenue to Orchard Street, AINR. If we can please verify
if indeed it was properly done as it relates to the the the the area, the location, the feed from West Anglewood, the feed from Orchard. Um, and if we can verify that the purpose and the only plan, there's no plan of 254 units anywhere. That's referring to a building
on uh on Alfred Avenue several miles away. Um, there is no plan for anything on Tene Road between Orchard and West Angwood. The sole purpose of the July 30th meeting is to do exactly what's been requested and that is a community
meeting to discuss and to hear what residents want or don't want and don't want is a very important but that's the only purpose. There is no other plan. It's not an affordable housing component. We'll verify if it's in the INR. The purpose of this meeting is what
people have requested to come out to listen to talk. If we don't have these meetings, we can't hear. And that's the goal I mentioned on July 30th. And more importantly, there will be other meetings. We've had other meetings and then referring to that site. We've had other meetings for other sites for other
areas for other locations and we'll do the same thing here. Um and with that, Mr. Clerk, we'll end good and welfare and our comments and we'll turn you over for consent agenda in the bills list. So, please jump in. Yes, sir. Um, we
have a bit of a thick consent agenda this evening, mostly due to the fact for our annual liquor license renewals. Before we move to the consent agenda, I just want to remind council of that dimminimous change that Scott Sammon was
alerting us to resolution 200-2025. We are changing the name of the individual named in the resolution and to be noticed to Lauren Lieberman at 100 State Street Development LLC 4637th
Avenue s sweet 1301 New York New York10100018 with an email address a fixed. We are putting that into the resolution with your motion and second and hopeful approval from council on this consent
agenda. So with that change and the two raffles, two sets of minutes, resolutions 171 to 208-2025 and the bills list in the amount of 10,750,453.33. Move Schwarz.
Is there a second? Second. Roll call, please. Thank you, Councilman Pagan. Mr. Clerk, I am a no on 173. I am abstaining on 198. I am a no on 200 and
yes to everything else. Thank you, sir. Councilman Oh, he dropped off. Deputy Councilwoman G, I'm sorry. Yes to all. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Belchure. Yes to all. Deputy Mayor Oregon. Yes to all.
Mayor Schwarz. Yes to all. Yes. All adopted. And Mr. Clerk, introduction of ordinances. Quite a bit of ordinances on for the next meeting. Many of them relating to handicap parking and to the sale of land. Mr. Clerk, if I'm correct, those are all those small pieces of land
in between neighbors houses that we've been negotiating and you've been running lead on. So it'll help the budget for next year indeed. Get a few dollars. We have ordinance number 23-2025 amending the township code for the township patina act to add a liaison
from most to the fields advisory board. We have ordinance number 24-2025 amending section 36-1.2 of chapter 36 code. It's matine adding restricted on street parking for handicap parking at 427 Cumberland AB.
We have ordinance number 25-2025 amending the township code to revise no parking on certain days to include a portion of Anglewood Avenue. We have ordinance number 26-2025 amending section 36-11.2 of chapter 36 in the
township code adding restricted on street parking space for handicap at 102 Fair View. We have ordinance number 27-2025 authorizing the sale of town property known as 151 Intervail Road.
Ordinance number 28-2025 authorizing the sale of town property known as 1233 Overlook Avenue. Last but not least, we have ordinance number 29-2025 authorizing the sale of town property
known as 254 East Forest Avenue. Those are all the ordinances. Motion Schwarz for introduction. Second. Roll call, please. Second from Councilwoman G. Councilman
Pagan. Yes to all. Councilman Councilwoman G. I apologize. Yes. Deputy Mayor Belair. Yes to all. Deputy Mayor Oregon. Yes to all. Mayor Schwarz. Yes. Yes. We will see them all again on July 15th, our next meeting.
Thank you very much. Motion to adjourn. Second. No call needed. We're 10:24. Everyone have a great night.