of April 7th 2025 of the recording i'm sorry we're not recording yet so I'm going to have to hold for a minute thank you i'm going to call to order the meeting of the West Windsor Township
Council of April 7th 2025 um Allison can you please call the role gawas here Jivers here Mandel here Weiss here Whitfield here and have we adequately noticed yes we were adequately noticed to the times in the
Princeton packet on January 17th 2025 filed with the clerk of the municipality posted in the Westminster Township Municipal Building as well as on the township website please stand for the salute to the flag thank you there are no ceremonial mo
matters tonight so I'm going to go right into public comment i'm going to open public comment there is a three minute limit for each person please state your name and address and uh there's a 30 minute total limit for public comment i
have a list jacob Schwarz hello and please speak directly in the microphone make it a little higher higher so because we do want to record properly uh yeah if you can loosen it or you can take the mic off and speak in a little
bit easier thank you i better good that's good thank you hello everyone my name is Jacob Schwarz i live at 42 Cranberry Road in Princeton Junction near the train station and near Ellsworth Center um so I wanted to
comment on 2025-R102 the pledge to expand sustainable land use planning um so certainly I generally agree with the sentiments in the pledge when it comes to land use uh sustainability is a multifaceted concept
um generally like I agree with these sentiments that that are in the different whereas clauses that well planned land should create transportation choices and provide her a range of housing options and certainly sustainability doesn't mean doing what we have always done or what we might be
used to when I think about allowing more sustainable land use patterns I mostly envision allowing people to build at higher densities than we have before particularly in the town centers in order to build walkable and bikable communities for example I'm really
heartened to see the construction of apartments just north of the train station having access to the Northeast Corridor is an amazing resource but when you look at West Windsor train station on a map we have more parking lots surrounding our station than any other station on the Northeast Corridor i see
the land around our station as terribly underutilized and in effect undervalued i would hope to see this zone continue to develop into a wonderful and walkable town center however we should think not we excuse me
we should not only think of increasing density as apartment blocks i would also love to see an easing of restrictions on the types of housing that can be built around Princeton Junction in my own neighborhood to allow things like duplexes or forplexes and accessory
dwelling units allowing more people to live in the walkable and transit accessible zones near our train station will ease the pressure to develop our open spaces and lead to a more sustainable way of life for our township's residents thank you thank you
um who's next want to come speak anybody else like to public comment please come forward and state your name and address good evening john Church left in Princeton Place just be very brief this evening uh I sent out a memo to council members in the administration about the
budget now this is not the budget hearing so we can say more about it when you actually have the hearing but I I hope everyone got a copy of this and maybe you can want you can discuss some of the things some of the areas that I brought up in that memo and that's all I have to say right now the rest of things
fine everything's good so no problems thank you very much thank you John is there anybody else that wishes to come up and make any kind of public comment seeing none I will close the first public comment there will be
another public comment after uh deliberations uh later in the meeting okay going on to administration comments carrie did you want to start good evening um we have several
announcements um on Friday April 18th the township offices will be closed uh in observance of the Good Friday holiday and the public works facility will be closed on the following Saturday April 19th however there will be no changes to
trash collection scheduled for Friday April 18th um the West Windsor Shade Tree Commission presents Arbor Day celebration what the trees see on Saturday April 26 2025 from 10:00 a.m to
11:00 a.m at the Ron Rogers Arboritum the annual Memorial Day parade and ceremony will be held on Monday May 26th at 11:00 a.m additional information is on the township website to register
and uh line up for the parade will begin at 10:30 at the Westminster Plains High School South parking lot um a new update from the West Windsor Fire Marshall's Office um they have a fire safety update
regarding landscape material use uh changes um from the New Jersey Uniform Fire Code which prohibits the use of combustible landscape material such as wood mulch uh within 18 in of any combustible building structure or
combustible building accessory such as a deck porch or balcony this update does not apply to single family homes that are owner occupied but does apply to single family homes that are not owner occupied and it such as a rental um but it is for all other buildings for more
information please contact the fire marshall's office at 6097998735 and this update is also going to be on news and notices and that's effective April 15th and it's coming down from uh the New Jersey Uniform Buyer
Code um the 2025 municipal election petitions are available from the clerk's office um and additional information can be found by contacting the clerk's office at
6097992400 extension 225 um the senior center bus transportation is still currently suspended but we plan to resume service uh in the very near future and we want to thank everyone for their patience with that and the senior center is still offering with AAP free
tax services through April 15th on Tuesday mornings and appointments are required uh public works is uh currently started in zone one this week for brush and leaf pickup um and they will also be holding their
um spring cleanup day on Saturday May 10th 2025 accepted items and more information is on the public works page and on our news and notices and then this Saturday April 12th Mercer County Improvement Authority is hosting a document shredding event at 6:41 Broad
Street in Lot 4 in Trenton from 9:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m with a maximum amount of eight box bankers boxes that's all the updates we have right now thank you K mayor thanks Andre
um welcome i'm glad you like the train station we are trying to do other improvements in there uh we're working with the county to make 571 more walkable between Cranberry Road and High School South um the old bus garage for
the uh school district uh looks very ugly now we are working with the parking authority to change that uh into a parking lot that can be used for food trucks and other community events uh so stay tuned i mean the parking lots does
look underutilized uh as a result of COVID uh before that there was a time when you couldn't get parking in Wester uh Westir train station um Hamilton opening a train station helped so we're not necessarily looking to expand
parking but we do look to make that more uh walker and bicycle friendly as much as we possibly can so again thank you for coming and making those comments um I'm also happy to report that West Windsor was awarded a uh 2025 local
recreational improvement grant from the Department of Community Affairs uh to resurface the basketball and tennis courts at Duck Point Park so hopefully we'll get it done uh this um this summer
um the um affordable housing update um as some of you know we had a hearing in front of Judge Jacobson uh we went in with the number of 392 based on the uh based on the uh resolution passed by the
council the fair share housing center came up with the number of 480 we asked multiple times how may how they came up with the number and they failed to provide any justification how they came up with the number as far as I know um it's just that they said we feel like
your number should be 480 for whatever reason um we did go to Judge Jacobson we were hoping to have a argument in front of her based on the law uh but unfortunately essentially she told us that unless we settle with the fair share housing center she will have to
assign us a DCA number which was 667 uh almost 200 higher than uh what the fair share housing center uh was asking for so we looked at the properties that the fair share housing center objected to as developable and even after
accepting all questionable properties we still believe a number would have been maybe 396 uh so I don't know how uh 480 they came up with but unfortunately the judge's unwillingness to let us argue the point of law we were forced to
settle with 480 with fair share housing center so that's the number that uh stands now last time I checked with our attorney we still haven't received a written opinion by the judge uh so we are waiting uh once the judge uh once
the judge issues the opinion it goes to Mount Laurel judge Loi and then he has to sign off on it uh but again that is mute because uh come June uh we will go to uh council and the planning board who
approve our fair u housing element fair share plan uh that number will be very different than 480 I expect will be a lower number potentially lower number at that time we are still working on it and working on the properties to uh satisfy whatever number we believe is our number
based on the law and uh once that's approved um and we file with the court we do expect um many developers and again fair share housing center to object to that and um we will go from
there um I do expect both the planning board and council um to have a meeting somewhere around June 18th to approve our fair share housing element fair share plan and before that day I'll share it with the council in close
session what our plan is going to be and um lastly my annual comment people say the council listens to me because I'm the mayor and every year I request them not to schedule a council meeting on NC to a final day and every year they
ignore me and do it and Linda Duke threw away the game because they were disappointed you won't be watching yeah well that was that was a little tough other would have won so anyway so that's just an example nobody listens to me so thank you very much game
tonight oh championship men's basketball women's recess one right you come nice you want to You guys are teaching me there you go there you go tutorial later
okay thank you mayor um let's go for council member comments sonia I really don't have much to say today thank you thanks Dan well I'll be brief as well i have nothing to add to the conversation today thank you okay i think everyone
wants to Martin i echo my council colleagues i have nothing tonight thank you well I have a few things she's gonna make up for all I gonna say something you know so so uh opening day for the
Wester Little League uh was last Saturday and I uh wish all the players and the coaches uh good luck and uh good sportsmanship uh in their new season thanks to uh recreation manager Ken Jacobs uh for getting you know and
working with the DPW workers for all the grooming um of the fields because that's a lot they got a line striping grooming and all of that um and also they had to get the batting cage uh just all in order for you know for all the practices over there uh Westwinds Lions Club is
holding its annual Easter egg hunt at Community Park uh 10:00 a.m this coming Saturday so get there early because it's very competitive events and once they roll out the eggs and they say go all you know hundreds of kids just like run out there and grab the uh and grab the
eggs and it goes very very quickly so don't be late to that uh and there's also pictures uh with the Easter Bunny be walking around and that's a lot of fun as Andrea and I know is last year we got our pictures with the Easter Bunny yeah and I think I was one who got to stand between the big kids and the
little kids so it's still it's still healing yeah it's fun it's a fun event um as there are Oh oh Andre and I will also as the council's leadership will hold an openhouse meeting on April 22nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m in room B of the
municipal building here so uh we are here to listen to whatever topics or ideas you'd like to share um and uh finally as there are several religious holidays this month I wish everyone a happy Easter happy Passover uh and a
happy Eid celebration so we're grateful to uh all who make our diverse community uh such a welcome and wonderful place thank you Linda my turn um I was also at the I was at the little league event and they had
a really nice turnout um by the way they serve really huge hamburgers there if you want to buy hamburgers um and uh I see it looks like it's going to be a you know was in the rain everybody was out there the kids were all marching onto the field in the rain so I think it's
going to be a really really good season this year um on March 26 I went to um the county had a Vietnam War Veterans Day um one of our one of our very famous and well-known Vietnam veterans Mike
McMahon who uh work who goes over to the Washington um Washington DC uh Vietnam War veterans monument there and um is is a big um veterans uh proponent what was
also there it was very nice ceremony i particularly appreciated that most of the ceremony speakers were veterans and veterans of the Vietnam War and um really did speak from the heart and um it was it was very nice on Thursday
March 27th I got to go to the New Jersey AI hub ribbon cutting which was right here in West Windsor New Jersey over on Alexander Road and on Canal Point Boulevard on the corner over there uh Princeton University has bought that
large office building and uh the third part of the third floor has now become the AI hub uh this was something that was planned back around December of 2023 it was announced by the governor and and the president of um Princeton University
and it was a little over a year that is now starting up so that's pretty good considering all the different groups that have to be involved uh there's Princeton University there's Microsoft is a is a big partner in it the New Jersey Economic Development Authority
Horeweave which um had its um um its public offering I believe uh on the day that this uh this meeting took place um and uh it it um we got a tour of the facility there which is very similar to
what you would call like a um workspace office except that when you do go around there's a lot of opportunities for synergy so you're going to have a a place there where there'll be a couple of representatives from core there'll be some people from Microsoft there'll be
uh regular workstations where you're basically sitting next to people but then there'll also be some little breakout rooms and special offices um and I particularly liked that there was one room that kind of scared me that you it was a box almost and you went into it
but you if you didn't want to see the ceiling you would there was louvers and you could push a button and these louvers would close up and you were essentially like in a in a box so they had something for everyone but but the more exciting piece of it was that there were floors in common so there'd be a
common central area there'd be a common little kitchen area and the whole idea was to get people talking to each other and to get that synergy and to get that working together going so I'm looking forward to that expanding to that bringing uh more business into West
Windsor i got to speak to the governor for a few minutes and he was very very uh he was up on things he said "Oh West Windsor's got one of the best school systems in the country." and um and uh that you know our town was is really a good place to have to have this kind of
a um thing um I spoke with Provis uh Jennifer Rexford who I've spoken to before and she was really excited that they're going to be using this to um facilitate training for even people in community colleges so they're going to
be putting together curriculums for um for different levels of schools including the community colleges there so that everybody can be trained to be able to work into this new AI um world that we now find ourselves in and I want
to thank Kristen Applicate for putting that together our own Crystal Applicate she used to be um a council member uh here in West Windsor she's um vice uh president I believe over at at uh Princeton and uh she put the um the whole uh thing together there so I'm
looking forward to seeing what's going to happen with that one next and I spoke too long on a bicycle night so we will move along now and um get on to we have no public hearings but Allison do you have any
comments i have some announcements um following up from what administration also announced a reminder Memorial Day parade is May 26th kickoff for the parade is at 11:00 a.m at the high school south um and a ceremony will follow at the end of the parade here at
the municipal building um if your organization wants to participate in the parade the sign up form is online and you can also um contact the clerk's office um also it's spring so um that brings out solicitors uh the clerk's
office has also been notified uh by our dispatch that solicitors have been going doortodoor just a reminder to residents that solicitors are to be licensed uh with the clerk's office they are issued an ID um they are by ordinance they have
to be able to show you this ID upon request um if you want to be added to the no solicit list you can email me at the clerk's office as sheen west windsorwp.com um even homemade signs
count so all of these um signs and our stickers are to be respected uh one last announcement is that petitions for mayor and council vacancies are now available in the clerk's office um you're to provide your name as though you want it to appear on the ballot your address
your email your phone number uh this all this information and a form um with this information is also on can be found on our website um so I do want to announce also that we have received the clerk's
office has received a request um uh the mayor Morate has requested and has received his packet and petitions as a candidate for mayor okay and that's all the announcements for today thank you Alison and just to just to clarify
the ID that they're supposed to have is not the ID that their company gives them because every time I ask that's what they show me oh no this is an ID issued from the clerk's office uh which also has their photograph on it and my signature and each solicitor should be carrying that so not just one from each
company but each individual person right that's the other okay thank you as I said there's no public hearing so if you want to go into the consent agenda does uh anybody wish anything full um we no the public comments but there
will be another public comment session uh after we're finished with this business so it'll be available thank you okay so we have bills and claims on consent agenda okay does anybody wish anything pulled from bills and claims
no can I have a motion to approve so moved second roll call please garwas yes chvers yes weiss yes whitfield yes mandal yes okay and now the recommendations from
administration and council clerk 2025-r1000 authorizing the placetoplace delic transfer of liquor license 1113-33-016 GMRI Inc to remove suite 100A Baham Breeze from the licensed
premises 2025-R0 R101 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the renewal of a shared services agreement between Westminster Township and Heightstown Burough for the provision of public health services and receipt of public health nursing
services for the period January 1 2025 through December 31st 2025 2025-R10 102 authorizing the commitment to pledge continuation and expand sustainable land use planning practices within
Westminster Township in support of an application under the sustainable Jersey municipal certification program 2025-R103 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a professional services agreement with center state engineering
to provide construction administration and observation services for the sidewalk repair program 202 24 project $19,200 2025-R104 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute a professional services
agreement with Center State Engineering to provide construction administration and observation services for the street tree removal and stump grinding winter 2025 project $10,200
2025-R105 authorizing the mayor and clerk to execute the renewal of an agree agreement with the Hamlet at Bear Creek LLC for HVAC upgrades and site improvements as part of the township's affordable housing spending plan
$499,300 2025-R106 authorizing the business administrator to purchase packet talk automated license plate recognition cameras and apper appentises for the police division through the educational
services commission of New Jersey ESCJ cooperative pricing program $63,999 2025-R107 authorizing the local examination of the 2025 budget
2025-R108 certifying compliance with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's employment guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 in accordance with NJSA4A 4-5 thank you does anybody wish anything pulled from here no no seeing none can I have a motion to approve i make a motion to approve
2025-R100 through 2025-R108 second garwas yes giver yes weiss yes whitfield yes mandel yes thank you okay moving into introduction of
ordinances okay 2025-03 an ordinance amending chapter 200 land use article 4 the procedures set forth for site plan approval and subdivision approval sections
200-11 12 13 14 and 15 of the township code of the township of West Windsor and I have a motion to introduce salute second gawas yes chvers yes weiss yes
whitfield yes mandel yes and public hearing will be May 19th 2025 okay 2025-04 an ordinance amending chapter 200 land use part 2 article 11 the procedures set forth for site plan
approval and subdivision approval sections 200-47 4950 53 and 54 of the township code of the township of West Windsor I get a motion to introduce salute second and does anyone
want to say anything on that yeah I'd like to discuss this before taken um on number number nine I I'll I may the clerks made copies so that it's easier to follow because sometimes we don't
know everybody get a close everything with us here the um a number nine there it says the proposed names of all streets within the subdivision shall be shown and shall be subject to approval
uh by the planning board is is what I would like to keep um and also add a second sentence the township engineer shall coordinate with police fire emergency services and the US postal service to avoid duplication of street
names um this was here one second the original language only had the proposed names of all streets within a subdivision shall be shown and shall be subject to the approval by the planning board and this has been I guess in code
for the past 20 years um personally I I I think that the planning board um when they approve applications that come in approve everything and if there's something in there whether it's a brick
or or a sign or or street names or something should have the right to then bring it up before the planning board and and discuss that um I know I brought up something I guess probably goes back to 2021 application that came in uh on
Old Trenton Road for the senior development that's now going up and I I asked about the names um you know and asked for consideration of a change and and they did that the developer wound up doing that um so I didn't want it to be just the township engineer
decides uh and then there's no opportunity for planning board members um to to have that discussed um as of the past hour I learned well the township engineer can make a final determination and recommendation for
accepting new street names and will so notify the planning board or zoning board as appropriate and the developer of the township engineers decision so yes I I understand that does come in um at the technical review committee the
TRC level sometimes developers know what names they are going to give for the streets and sometimes they don't um often though by the time you get to the planning board level for a full vote on an application
um the names are there um or at least it you know and if they are they can be discussed if someone didn't didn't like that i mean it usually does not happen where names are changed or requested um but I don't like to see the planning
board not um being able to um at least make a recommendation or suggest changes for the street names in in a development um so anyway so so that's that's what led um to on the front page here to go
back to uh subject to approval by the planning board not the township engineer but to go back to what we currently have on the books uh is approval by the planning board and then the township engineer you know would coordinate with the police fire emergency services and
the US postal service to avoid duplication of street names and and that's what it should be because we don't want confusion we don't want um names uh in town to have duplicates because that causes confusion um for everyone
is the red lining your redlinining attachment yeah yeah no well it's it's on on this page on on nine are you looking at number nine no the red lining was um the proposal that we got okay
that was given by the um by the land use people and so the language that you want to change it to is to go back to what we have now which says the planning board um I think what and the other line is just like I I agree you know with the
administration over you know coordinating having the township engineer coordinate with the police fire and EMS postal service so there's no duplication of of the names of the streets that that it's fine they currently do that but it wasn't in writing linda did you have did you have
something in this packet with what you were looking to say instead or Well this this is what I propose this top this top page shows the changes that Linda is proposing versus the number nine packet that you received just number nine that's the number nine okay so when so
when you took out planning board so where's the original yeah that's this was in here and that was in here it was there to Yeah that's why crossed out and then it's page 113
there number nine that is what they put in is on um yes this is 113 number nine this is what we got and what we were reviewing yes planning board is cross crossed out and then it's just the township engineer
piece and um this is done the opposite way and the one over there number nine is the so the proposal was to remove planning board and have township engineer in co coordination with police fire emergency services and the US
postal service what Linda's um suggestion is that we do we keep the planning board in there and and then and then we added the line about the town engineer checking could that line really be that the
township engineer will advise the planning board well the township engineer um of this specific coordinator right uh the township engineer does have a way to um has to be able to rule that
if it's a safety issue um and that's really what they're doing if it's a um if it's an issue where there's a name or too similar then the township engineer needs to be able to say we don't want to do this right and then the other one is the post office that the post office
looks at this and makes sure that there isn't a road with that same name yeah so in that particular case the township engineer should have that capability my point is that the it's not clear about the relationship of what the township engineer is doing to the decision that the planning board yeah I
wasn't it's not it's not perfect the way it's written i I I know that at the TRC level you know things come in and they talk back and forth they they may or should you know get a list of of the the names of streets and things like that
sure um and so I think that's one of the things things that the township engineer Yeah has Yeah so maybe the wording is that the planning board makes a decision subject to the township engineers coordination with
so on and so forth just just so you guys you know the council is aware you represent a lot of towns have a lot of planning and zoning boards normally a planning board doesn't have much input with straight names it's usually done by the tax assessor mike let them finish I
comments and then you can you can join it uh the the other concern I guess with this is that this particular uh ordinance that we're voting on is not actually a set of regulations it's more
a set of what has to be turned in for a complete application so um we have to kind of think of it in that direction that we're in other words we don't say what the um what the impervious surfaces or it
should be we don't usually say what the setbacks basically we're just saying you have to include it in your application and then we take whatever is included and then the planning board will uh take that with legal opinion as oppos uh check it against current laws and things
like that so um there this is a this particular ordinance is um a limited ordinance for just saying when an application is complete so we do have to think about that also um that context
yeah okay with this change um anybody want to say not a problem just so you know I mean I've I've been on the planning board 10 years and I mean every now and then something about names or whatever would would come up but it's not often to be honest you know but I
just saw that um you know taking the planning board and giving saying um shall be subject to approval by the township engineer i I felt that we were taking away um some of the right of planning board members to to approve it
because you're approving an an entire application okay um mayor okay uh another example uh going to disapprove with my colleague in public
and quite vintly i have disagreed in private we've disagreed at the planning board meeting this is third time the same thing first couple of uh statements that are not accurate uh first township engineer never decides the names of the
street township engineer just approves whatever is proposed or disapproves or proposed so the township engineer doesn't come up with names uh uh he just approves or disapproves based on a whole bunch of criteria uh some of them as much as checking not only with the
postal but checking with Princeton since we have a Princeton zip code and I can't tell you Linda lives on Hawthon street I can't tell you how many pizzas have been delivered for Hawthon streets in plansboro because the same same number so there a lot of criteria for that um
the second thing is that what we have now we don't have that now uh it's a little misrepresentation to say we have that now right now the planning board has not approved any names um this is
from Francis in my time here since late 2008 I have never seen the planning board require comment upon the approved development street names sam said it sam has been here longer than that for 40 years and my objections are both philosophical practical and then the
third one is legal uh first one is planning board is a appointed body not legislative body council has every right to name every street in in town if they want to change street of my name with me we are welcome to do that right planning
board's function is not to choose street names not to get into argument about whether it should be named after me or Martin or anybody else here the job is to approve the application and Mike will back up and Mike will say whether any other townships do does that so I really
don't want planning boards to get into an argument about the street names or so right now what happens is um when the application is provided it generally has names street A street B street C or street one street two street three
doesn't have a street name on that um Francis recommends uh that that you don't need to have a particular street names and submits it to the planning board planning board has never objected to that have never asked any questions
regarding that then when the application is complete and when they are ready to build they propose some names francis checks with police Francis checks with Princeton Francis checks with Plansboro neighboring towns checks with uh fire department and there are various
criteria they use and if they feel that it will cause confusion uh they recommend that they change the name but we never suggest that you name after a certain person or something and township has just a question so the developer proposes the name the developer proposes
every name and the township has named streets certain streets in town it's not like the the street going into community park named after a gentleman here right they have named it but that's council's prerogative you can name every street in
town if you wanted tomorrow it's not easy to do because it like that street nobody lives but if somebody lives on that street that puts a lot of commitment that's why that that decision shouldn't be done lightly i mean that there's a reason why the decision should
be done right and lastly um the current land use code section does not require planning board approval so but if you add whatever Linda is proposing you are essentially adding something to the code that it doesn't exist so I'll read the
current code sections and since Linda and Andrea were asking those questions I provided copies to them and I can give you the uh copies to you i didn't get I I was running late um do we have copies for everybody Mayor i I can I can I give
you a copy give me a copy i I'll ask her this is called Is that it no I mean I gave you a paper with Yeah I gave you so the current township code uh section
200-56 that deals with street sidewalks and alleys states that the developer sums shall summit in writing on a form to be provided by the township department of community development a list of all proposed street names for any new development this list is to be
forwarded to the township uh forwarded by the township to the appropriate postmaster serving the particular zip code for review and verification of non-conlicting names within the zip code the township engineer shall m then make final determination and recommendation
for accepting new street names and will so notify the planning board or zoning board as appropriate and the developer of the township engineers decision a lot of things go on before he decides as I said he checks with the police he checks with the fire um he checks in the
neighboring township to see that there is no confusion so the current code section doesn't require the planning board to have an approval uh and to put planning board in a position to debate actual names um is really unfair i don't
philosophically like that practically don't like that uh currently they just the the streets are named ABC 1 2 3 depending on what the developer likes and not necessarily the names and I would like to keep it that way so in
other words the planning board doesn't even need the street names in order to approve a plan speaking oh the the planning board doesn't need the names of the streets in order to planning doesn't need the names of the streets to approve the application and sometimes those street
names get decided well after it's been approved they are always decided at the that's the last piece of information that's decided by the developer the developer does submit to the and and plans has no skin in the game he's an engineer so there's nothing involved in that he he decides and how the developer
chooses the name is up to the developer we don't influence that um and Avalon the um it's not that we have never done that but but we have i mean I'm not suggesting that planning board members should come up with the actual names for
the developer um but but just know that this subject to approval by the planning board is in current code right now linda what I'm just I'm just saying that's that's what our current code says our current court
do I mean some of that may seem like it's in conflict with with this other with this other code so see the other the other practical implication of that is the developer will have to come back to the planning board if the planning board has to approve the names because the
names are not given to the planning board when the application happens the names are decided right at the end uh we don't do the work right up front the rains are not decided right at the end so if you insist that the planning board needs to approve the names the developer
will have to come back to the planning board additional expense additional meeting for the planning board rather than as our current code specifies the township engineer simply uh simply um uh tells the planning board or the zoning
board what names were chosen so I would strongly encourage the the the number nine as it's written in the uh in the agenda is planning to fix the problem that is in the current uh current system
in that we really don't never give names to the planning board we simply say uh uh road A road B road C and Francis just recommends that um that that waiver be granted to submission this will remove that requirement by that they don't have
to necessarily give any names to the planning board so Mike can jump in and so are you suggesting to leave it the way it is the way leave it as it is the the township engineer shall coordinate with police fire emergency services in your poster then he will notify the
planning board zoning board if you if the council wants to know the names I will request the township engineer to send you a list of names every time a final list of names for development is is decided so the um so where it says
the proposed names of all streets within the subdivision they're actually not going to be necessarily shown right uh to to the planning sometimes they are sometimes never i mean I have not been a It's right here you know here here this
this is the one on old Trenton Road so and it it says preserve Boulevard Holtz Road and it was at Mech Drive which so so some based on the code that we have here that says the township engineer shall then make final
determination and recommendation for accepting new street names and will so notify the planning board and zoning board as appropriate um can that word that word that word recommendation though right here right for final determinance and recommendation but the
recommendation goes to who I mean and and it says and we'll so notify the planning board and zoning board so if it's a recommendation um then it seems like that recommendation goes to the zoning board or the planning board regarding you know the applications that that you're just
putting an additional burden on the applicant to come back to the planning board with the names when the names had decided just to come to the planning board for getting approval for the names i I think there can be there can be conditions i I hear you i understand what you're saying um there can be
conditions if there is say discussion and the planning board or zoning board didn't particularly like the names there could be a condition that that they come back uh and approve it with the township engineer but not Linda that I mean with
all due respect that's not the role of planning board and zoning board to choose street names in the town i mean their their job is to look at the code and approve not to choose and to put them in a condition uh potentially uh political situation of choosing names is
is very unfair and I philosophically disagree with that and practically it has implications to having additional meetings putting u additional resources for no good feedback i mean the system has worked for 40 years other towns use
the system mike can comment mike started commenting i cut him off but um he can comment and go ahead i'm just saying it rarely happens that's what I'm saying it rarely happens but on occasion that it does but if it rarely happens should have a right to say something but
cutting that right off okay can I back up a minute and ask Mike under what condition would a planning board be allowed to make any kind of determination on a name it really is not under the perview of the ML the miscellaneous law it's just not
something that miscellaneous law gives as a jurisdictional matter to the planning board ministerial item or as the as the mayor said something that council can involve themselves so council would have a right to change which changing a name is a
major ordeal to everybody involved but as the mayor said planning would do an application to give the streets A B C and D as long as those streets are delineated you know with different numerals or letters that's fine but to you know it's like a planning board
involving itself on minute details of architecture that's really not their purview their purview is to review an application pursuant to the land use law as set forth by the uh the town and that land use law has to be pursuant to the municipal land use law of state so no
matter what we put in an ordinance we wouldn't be really allowed to have an I'll put it this way if a an applicant came before a planning board the planning board said we want you to name this street Herbert Street uh and the
applicant goes ahead and consents to it at the at the hearing they would be able to file a uh an appeal of that condition of approval and most likely the court would throw out the requirement that it be Herbert Street well what if somebody
comes in and to a planning board and says "I want to name this Hitler Street." Can a planning board say "Hey that doesn't fit with our town?" I mean they they could say that doesn't fit with our town that's really it's a
ministerial it's a ministerial ability and that's why most towns as I try as I was saying before is a a you'll have the tax assessor review it as well because the tax assessor has knowledge of all road you know street names and all that and can consult with the engineer to
make sure there's no duplicative or also something that uh you with the input of the administration something that could be an offensive name so who would make a determination on an offensive name though well you know it would be by the tax assessor first and
the tax assessor could flag it if the person sees something offensive and tax we never got a tax so or is saying use a tax assessor yeah tax so they could flag
it and legally they could stop it or Yes in the end town can stop it yes okay i'm just trying to figure that one you know what and I'm just I'm just trying to curious um
so at this point our applicant application be approved and then when you go in for you know for resolution compliance and pulling construction permits and so forth that's when you usually establish street views and you can establish it as far as the
beginning of the application as well but you know it it really can go all the way to uh compliance with the resolution well as I suggested I mean I can ask Francis to send the council all names once they decided you have every right
to change every name and name it after all five of you i have other things i have other things to do than just that's your not the planning board okay all right so the the law we have here now the one that's in our E-code which
specifically says yes the engineer can check for this and that that's all fine because that's either involving safety or it may be involving um uh you know somebody somebody being able to find the road or not getting somebody else's package or and and that comes down to
sometimes to safety also um look board could say "Hey we want you to name streets patriotic names we'd like you to do that they can't require it but they'd like you to do it." A lot of times an applicant will say "Well I want to maintain the favor of the planning board as they go through the process i'm going
to do what they they asked me to do." So the planning board can always make a suggestion i I know I've done that um and and the that would be subject to the ministerial review of the administrative staff
okay so a plote can make a suggestion on that the same as they could say we like red bricks or anything else it's I understand why it's being taken out of here okay it's really not under the perview of the Okay should that number nine even be in there
or Yeah on on the names absolutely keep keep in mind that this is really just a checklist and this checklist is being used to decide whether or not something is a complete application which is very important because obviously that's the
date when the clock starts running as you know um so that so this is this is not a this isn't usually a regulation it's more a checklist of what has to be included a checklist could be filled out for street names could say "Well I'm going to now name the streets street A B and C." And that would be fine to
complete the checklist for completeness so it can go before the board or most the time an applicant will because they want to have something that is is appealing to the planning or zoning board will say well I'm going to name this street you know Xavier
street so so can we can we just then I'm just looking at the e code and and the suggestion for the ordinance um can we just add after uh township
ship engineered in coordination with police fire and emergency services and the US postal service um can we add and will so notify the planning board or zoning board i don't know does that Well they have to
do that anyway yeah and and under this it says that in our other but but we don't need to double tap that because this is already in the code it is already in the code so this is merely what the this isn't what the planning board or what the land use people have
to do this is really what the applicant has to do because it's a checklist so if that's what we're trying to do I would just put that in there and then expect or hope that the um engineer would do that because it's in don't make it more
complicated my only comment would be is that the way this is worded it says the proposed names shall be shown which kind of forces the applicant to put the names in as opposed to just say names A B C but again that that's not the
municipalities law does not require them yeah but I'm saying and that's my point so should that now be changed to may the proposed names of all streets within the subdivision may be shown the the way it's written it kind of makes it sound like you have to supply the full names
that's that's my concern say it's not required though i I you know I don't have a problem with the way this is changed well you have a problem with the way it's worded you don't think that will cause us an issue as long as we don't try to enforce that that those
names are included but again you know any applicant who is putting forth a a legitimate application they're going to probably name those streets and they're going to want to name them streets that they know will be pleasing to that planning board because they're going to be probably be applying for variances
and you know you're going to be able to get a variance from planning board you want to have them happy with everything else part of your project but the mayor did just say we get a lot of streets named A and B and C no I mean one of the reasons I mean Dan was asking me one of the reason there has to be a placeholder
ABC 1 2 3 because when planning board is discussing sometimes they will say that road A right they have a question if you have no names in there very difficult to say which road but in that case road A is really just a placeholder it's not the proposed yeah yeah it's it's always
been done like that for 30 years it's always been placeholder if you look at Avalon it was named road A road B road See I remember two specific applications one by toll um where on bearbrook road it was named ABC EFG i mean vertical
roads were named by number horizontal by letters that way easier to easier when you're making comment it's easier to say road H and intersection of one yes yeah i get my point it's a it's a little tiny issue but as it's been rewritten it says the
proposed names must be must be shown as opposed to a placeholder name that it's just it's kind of a mind well that was actually in the way the original is too that's what kind of gets me but that the original and the and the current and what we're talking about so it's been
there all the time um and yes you have to have some way of identifying what you're talking about and and essentially have a menu on a drawing and just like you you'll label the names of the buildings and everything too you may call them A B C 1 2 3 because you're going to have to put out the square feet
and you're going to have to put all kinds of uh information on there so yeah I mean I don't have a problem if you change that to me but has to be some some nature i mean I'm I'm I'm willing to try I'm willing to try to give a shot
for it and leave the show but uh I prefer I prefer if they put I prefer if they put them in but you're telling me we couldn't that's one thing we probably couldn't hold them to if we absolutely had to yeah again it's a ministerial function of the
township towns it's not a uh it's not a function of planning okay and um well maybe you could put the proposed names um or um what was I going to say the uh placeholder names well I was going to
have to come up with a little better word for you over complicate no one's proposing street A B or C you know um again in the context of it's a checklist it's giving guidance to the applicant we're letting them know that they can
provide proposed names if they want but they don't have to give us the proposed names and at some point there's going to be there's going to be a list and says A is now this and B is now this and C and probably a whole new drawing with with everything on there um anybody anything
else they want to say at this point i think over is anybody anything else no no okay so um there's no objection uh Allison can we call the RO okay gawas
yes gvers yes weiss yes whitfield yes mandal yes okay public hearing will be May 19th 2025 thank you all right and lastly 2025-05 ordinance to exceed the
municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank okay can I get a motion to introduce so moved second gwas yes chver yes weiss yes whitfield
yes mando yes public hearing will be May 19th 2025 yes 2025 budget introduction okay can I get a motion to introduce our budget for 2025 so moved second second
yes gvers yes weiss yes whitfield yes yes thank you all all right i'm now opening additional public comment so you'd like to come up um it's a three minute limit per person and please give
your full name and address thank you hi I'm Gir thanks for all the mic the microphone down there you go um you can that and bring it down a little bit if you don't speak in the mic it won't get
recorded well and if you could uh I need the spelling of the name um I'll have you sign in the sheet when you're done okay okay if you could just repeat your name and address hi I'm Girija Suryan Narayan i live on I
live at five Milstone Road thank you for all the things that you uh the council members do to the town um I just uh I have my son here um his name is Rashid can you introduce yourself um hello my name is Rashid Michael sixth grade at the school
or community middle school and I also live near and I'd like to say two things that I would like to happen so one would be that I've noticed that our roads don't have that many street lights excuse me um can you get
in a little closer to the microphone so maybe lift it up a little further thank you i've noticed that our roads don't have many street lights and it doesn't help that much cuz once we were driving and we nearly got into a very close call
with the deer and we think that this could be avoided if there were brought street lights which is a better result than putting high beam on cars i also think that another good option would be to make the speed limit from 35 to 25 or
30 because some people drive over 35 and when people like me play ball and the ball goes on the road it's it's very dangerous since drivers don't notice all the time or they get panicked and scared another reason is that I'm not allowed
to bike to school and because of the one reason that many cars are going very fast on the road so I think that it would be good if speed limit is reduced these were just the two propositions that we were trying to
think about because uh um I mean I I see there is a street light at the house number 24 uh which is like right before the bridge and after that it's just till the uh traffic light there are no lights in between uh it's suddenly like a dark
zone and uh you have oncoming vehicles and I mean it's not like often but if you're like after 8 or just even during the 12 light zone when there are some uh small kids who for biking or now especially this road is uh having a lot of new residents move in with small kids
around which was not the case when we just moved about like 15 years ago so it's it's a little risky I feel that we just have this proposition if if it yeah if it can make the changes it'll help all the people residing on that road and
this is Milstone Road right yes thank you okay no sidewalks there right there's no sidewalk too yeah if Yeah I mean we are ready for the sidewalk and I'm not sure about if there's any opposition or anything from the other residents i'm
I'm not aware of it but yes we would love to have a sidewalk which continues right from the train station on that road too sidewalk sidewalk has um like you know Cranberry Road recently got sidewalks right right that's right if it would just continue even to our there's
a long process for it all the residents have to agree to it and all of that like I'll be happy to talk to you on that okay yeah that would help also i mean anything that um he's a scout so anything you know for the scout to do
which can help us uh you know move on with this will be great okay thank you very much thank you yeah on the issue of the speed limit we have the administration take a look at that i mean Milstone Road we did do a traffic study to see if we can reduce the uh
speed limit it's one of the frustrating and silly things because the people are driving too fast the law says that once you do a a study you can only reduce speed limit to 85% of the average speed of the car and that average speed was
more than 30 so we couldn't reduce the speed limit doesn't make logical sense that you you can't reduce the speed limit because people are driving fast you want to reduce the speed limit because you want people to drive slow um so we did we did try to reduce the speed
limit there we haven't thought about sidewalk sidewalk is a long and expensive process but we did try to reduce the speed limit so if we get around to doing the study again just drive very very slowly there multiple times a day just to reduce the average
speed so yeah the the laws are very weirdly right so if if if an average speed of the car right now currently is faster you can't really reduce it is is what
the law says right so when we do a survey next time we can work with our neighbors to drive really really slow on that road so we can bring their If we if we could if we could do that we should probably get them to do that now um yeah
the the law is kind of set to favor motorists more than pedestrians so they look to not discomfort the um the motorist with slower speeds than they're going and they wind up taking a look and saying "Hey people are going faster on this
road so the road could probably take it and that way everybody who's driving will be happy." And uh I I keep hearing rumors that they're looking to change that or at least to allow us to have some sort of um exceptions allowed but that's not in my power so um the other
option is that to look at ways to create um a situation it's called you know road calming or driver calming so that even though the speed limit is 35 when somebody's driving on that road that doesn't feel like they can go 35
either because there's um you know a center medium or the streets are more narrow or I've seen even places where they take the center line and make it squiggly as opposed to straight because it then creates this um visual sense that oh I can't go fast here because
it's could be dangerous so there's a combination of things that can happen in order to slow drivers down um not necessarily always changing the speed limit on the sign but doing other things to the road to make people go slower yeah i I think anything that can help
because I know that that's the road where all the high schoolers drive during the morning times and the evening times it's it's really crazy because it's the it's that time when everybody wants to reach the school fast because they are at the cut off time to
enter the school so they are like zipping past then they know that before the bridge there's going to be traffic so and also there's another question we appreciate your comments comments we do have um and we will be looking into into
that yeah let the police know maybe they can put up electronic sign you know which which shows how fast you're going different things that they can do yeah that will that will really help thank you so much thank you okay is anybody else wish to make any
public comment at this point seeing none I will close the second public comment are there any additional administration updates from Kerry Mayor Allison oh sorry yeah missed i think that's twice i've missed
council reports um Andrew is trying to go watch the game good good work linda you're here first yeah okay uh Shade Tree Commission met on March 26 members put their uh final touches on tasks for the annual Arbor Day celebration uh which will be uh
Saturday April 26 at 10:00 a.m at the Ron Rogers Arboritum um if bad weather occurs then it will be on the same day in the senior center uh winners of the K through8 grade art contest will be announced and you did get uh Francis did
send us all an email that if we want to um put in a vote for the art contest so we can come in the other room tomorrow tomorrow yeah uh there'll also be dedication um of a stone marker in honor of Ron Slinn who passed away a few years
ago uh the D's required community forestry management plan will likely need the hiring of a consultant which Francis will handle uh in part this plan will review the existing need for more street tree maintenance uh the
commission welcome Alyssa Stannis Law as the township's new landscape architect thank you okay Martin sure planning board met last Wednesday uh April 2nd uh few things that were discussed wasn't a very long meeting of a resolution to the
second amendment for the senior living at Bear Creek site plan uh then obviously the adoption of amendment to land use plan element RP-9 district and adoption of amendment to Princeton Junction redevelopment plan RP9 district uh which was approved uh next planning
board meeting will be May 17th thank you Ben may 7th no sorry recreation committee met last week uh two things I'd like to highlight one is uh registration for pool permits or pool memberships are are
open now i've done mine so awesome um as well as some of the the summer programs available um some one change that they're going to be making at the pool is to turn it into a cashless transaction model um that would be great
preventing having a lot of cash around is um one of the objectives i was also introduced to our our new um pool manager who just started a couple weeks ago and he came from I think it was Marlton or Marbor one of them
one of the south um who's had actually direct experience in aquatics so he's really comfortable with the current environment and um everybody's really happy to have him on board uh the other item of interest is that they are in the process of starting
the repavement of the the walking route in community park which we approved um so they believe that they'll be minimally be able to to complete the entire loop um and depending on the condition of what they see they might be
able to extend it a little further to the other side of the of the bridge great i look forward on my Tuesday morning walk nice soft nice smooth stroll there thank you Sylvia affordable housing committee met on
April 3rd um they did review the resolution that we recently we just passed earlier today um R105 um there was some discussion on that to um find out if um there's a
implementation timeline um to the um improvements um or is it like you know as as the apartments are being transitioned from um from one um ownership to the other ownership is when
the changes will happen so that was some some discussion on that um the attorney also um uh mentioned to us that there is um a new um the new affordable housing HMFA laws will be
permission published by end of this year most likely summer um one important thing to note is the area median income um limits may increase by 2% overall um parking authority meets this
Wednesday um so I don't have any uh updates on that um on another note uh Westminster Gives Back has um announced um their uh their events for this year
so just save the dates um May 24th would be the cricket tournament june 20th would be dive into summer and the tentative date for mayor's ball is September 27th thank you looks forward to everything um
the um environmental commission hasn't met since the last meeting they will be meeting Thursday night uh but we're continuing to work on uh some of the projects including the sustainable Jersey uh in between meetings thank you
uh we are not having a closed session so at this point unless I've left anything off may I have a motion to adjurnn so moved a second second all in favor i thank you all