this and it's everyone gets five minutes or more you know I've All right. >> [clears throat] >> Adequate notice of this meeting is required by the open public Meetings Act was provided through the posting, mailing and filing of the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings of the
town council on December 10th, 2025. The notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building provided to the Westfield leader and the star ledger and filed with the clerk of the town of Westfield. Miss Lowshi, may I have a roll call? >> Mayor Burman >> here. >> Council members Gilman, Domagal
>> here, >> Pecker >> here. >> Kefir >> here. >> Saunders >> here. >> Adore here. >> Armentoto >> here. Toronto >> here. >> Please rise for the invocation which will be given by Councilman Saunders and then remain standing for the salute to the flag. >> As we gather here today, let us be
mindful of the diversity of beliefs represented in our community. Let us draw upon the values of respect, understanding, and unity as we deliberate and make decisions for the betterment of our town. May wisdom guide our discussions and compassion govern our actions.
>> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Good evening and thanks to everyone who is joining us tonight both here and in
person and via the live stream on the two town's YouTube channel. As always, the replay of this meeting will be available on Facebook, YouTube, and TV36. Public comment will be accepted in person only. Uh, I'm going to make a few brief remarks before we begin tonight's
legislative agenda. First, thank you to all who organized the great lineup of recent events around town. I was happy to attend Lifelong's Westfield Soup and Sandwich event last week uh with our amazing senior community. We have also hosted the annual crossing guard
breakfast here in town hall organized by breaks to recognize the important work of our crossing guards. Thanks also go out to the green team for coordinating the spring parks cleanup. uh the Chamber of Commerce for another successful spring fling and good weather. Uh Compass Schoolhouse for their first ever
PlayFest in the park and the DWC for the kickoff of their weekly spring into fitness series. Looking ahead to the next couple weeks, don't miss the tour of Notable Homes on May the 9th, and that's co-hosted by the Historic Preservation Commission and the Friends
of the New Jersey Festival Orchestra. The DWC girls night out and fashion show, which is on May the 14th, Breitwood Park Day is on May the 16th, and of course, our Memorial Day parade on May the 25th. In addition, I look forward to moderating a public safety forum alongside Assemblyman Andrew
McCertie and featuring Chief Baloro amongst others on May the 12th in our town hall community room. Moving on to tonight's agenda, I just want to take a moment to highlight a few key things. Uh in addition to a handful of standard financial actions, we have two resolutions authorizing awards of
contracts for improvements to the Westfield Fire Department. one for roof repairs at both firehouses and the other for interior renovations at firehouse 1, both of which were provided for in the 2026 capital budget. From the public works committee, we have a resolution
authorizing the purchase of commercial batterypowered leaf blowers as well as batteries and charging stations for use by our public works department and the board of education maintenance staff. As part of our commitment to sustainability and in response to community interest in
exploring a reduction in gas powered equipment, the town and the board of education have tested battery powered equipment to evaluate real world performance, worker experience, battery life, and durability. Based on that testing, we have selected the equipment that's on tonight's resolution to be
part of a formal pilot program this summer across town properties and school grounds. The goal here is to assess whether batterypowered equipment can meet the standards we require for professional landscape maintenance. The purchase of equipment for this pilot program would use funds raised last year
from the community solar program, not from the municipal budget. We expect results to be presented to the public works committee in the fall. If the pilot demonstrates that electric equipment can do the job without compromising our standards, that will open the door to legislation, which
would likely include a seasonal restriction on gas-powered equipment. While I'm hopeful that the pilot program will be successful and we proceed to legislation, it's important to mention upfront that there are real implementation questions to work through, including costs, communication
with the landscaping community, and enforcement, which has proven to be a challenging piece for other municipalities. In fact, less than 10 of the 564 municipalities across New Jersey have been able to adopt and maintain such restrictions. Our aim is to enact
sensible legislation that balances the needs of local landscaping businesses with environmental and quality of life impacts. In order to do so, this pilot program and the resulting analysis are the next logical steps in the process. And finally, tonight's meeting includes
a presentation by Dresnet Robin, the firm that was hired in late 2024 to develop the Tamakas Park design plan. To date, their work has included a park inventory and site analysis, as well as the 2025 online community survey and stakeholder group meetings. Dresnar
Robin and the Tomakus Park steering committee have collected all of this information and input to define which elements will be considered for multi-phase park plan implementation. And thank you to uh both our steering committee members and reccomission members, many of whom are here in the audience tonight. Thank you for coming.
As you'll hear in the presentation, the next step in this process is a three-week public engagement period that kicks off tonight on the website that you'll see shortly and solicits input about the proposed elements for the park's design plan. I encourage everyone both here in the crowd and listening uh
online to visit the feedback website through May the 26th and provide your thoughts. All of which will guide the first phase of improvements anticipated in 2027. Ultimately, we expect the final plan to include both light touch improvements and more substantial
changes to Tamakus Park. All aiming to preserve its green space while also delivering long overdue upgrades that serve the residents of all ages and interests. It's an exciting opportunity and I look forward to seeing the results of the community's input. So, let's
begin tonight's agenda. We are first going to start with a proclamation for building safety month uh which I am going to read and then we are going to get to our Tomas Park presentation. Very small print. Uh whereas our town is committed to recognizing that our growth
and strength depend on the safety and essential role of our homes, buildings and infrastructure play both in everyday life and when disasters strike. And our confidence in the resilience of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians, building safety and fire prevention officials, architects,
engineers, builders, trades people, design professionals, laborers, plumbers, and others in the construction industry who work year round to ensure the safe construction of buildings. And these modern building codes and standards include safeguards to protect the public from hazards such as
hurricanes, snowstorms, tornadoes, wildland fires, floods, and earthquakes. And building safety month is sponsored by ICC to remind the public about the critical role of our community's largely unknown protectors of public safety, our
code officials who assure us of safe, sustainable, and affordable buildings that are essential to our prosperity. And each year in observance of building safety month, people all over the world are asked to consider the commitment to improve building safety, resilience, and economic investment at home and in the
community, and to acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal building safety and fire prevention departments in protecting lives and property. Now therefore, I, Jeremy Burman, mayor of the town of
Westfield, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as building safety month, and I encourage our citizens to join us as we participate in building safety month activities. Thank you for listening. I am now going to pass it over to Dresdn Robin to give our
presentation on the park plan. Okay. Good evening, council. Can you hear me? Okay. All right. Thank you for having us. My name is Mallalerie Clark of Dresnner Robin. I'm a senior planner and project manager with our group. Um, we are the firm that was hired to work
on the Tmacqua's Park design plan. Uh, our contract kicked off in late 2024. And tonight we're very excited to present you with our concept plan and the mechanism uh by which the community will have an opportunity to give feedback. Um I'm going to take you
through just kind of the process to date, all the work that has been completed and how it has informed the concept plan. And then I'll turn it over to Mark Robersonson from our group uh who will take you through the concept itself a little bit more in depth and also explain some of that functionality of how the community can give uh
feedback online. Um so just a quick timeline recap. As I said, our contract initiated in November of 2024. Um since then, we did complete a topographical survey. We do have um survey services within our firm. That
was completed in early 2025 um alongside a park inventory and site analysis. Uh we also completed a master plan review. We know you have a substantial parks master plan um with recommendations that are relevant to this park. So that was reviewed for consistency and relevancy.
um since that was adopted and conducted an online community survey. Um we had great success with the survey. We had about 200 responses. Um that was extended a few times to make sure that we gave substantial opportunity for feedback. Uh and we really got some
great information from the town uh through that process. Uh after we analyzed all those results and collated the feedback, we kicked off a series of stakeholder meetings. uh I'll get into that a little bit more in a couple of slides in that was completed
last summer of 2025 and we then consolidated all this feedback into an engagement summary report. That summary report is available on the project website. So I'm going to give you kind of the highlights of what we heard from community feedback. I'm not going to bore you with, you know, dozens of
minutes of of the things we heard, but if you want to really get into the nuts and bolts of what the community said, that report is available for download and review. Um and then we've jumped into concept development. So that really started in the winter and here we are today to kind of share the preliminary concept with
you all and that will get refined moving forward uh with the hopes that we wrap up the final concept plan this fall. Uh once we completed our uh topographical survey, we really did an in-depth existing conditions review. So,
um, you don't need to see these visuals, but just to give you a sense of some of the things that we were mapping both on the ground and, um, on the computer. We did, as I said, a detailed site survey, which helps us understand a lot of the existing infrastructure and amenities that service the park, the topography,
which is very relevant in this park as there are some wetlands and um, some drainage patterns that we need to be aware of particularly around the athletic fields. So, we did study hydrarology and surface water features as well. And we also did an in-depth analysis of site circulation and
parking. That was a big source of a lot of the community feedback in this park and a lot of our site observations. So it did have a lot of influence on overall concept development. Then we were getting in the field ourselves just to kind of um get away from a lot of the data and the mapping
and really understand how does your community use the park. So, we looked at how user behavior existed in the park through a variety of lenses, specifically the athletic programs and facilities. Um, additionally, the leisure and independent recreation. So, if someone comes to a park not for a
scheduled activity and they're just using it um at their own leisure, how did they behave? How did they use the park? Were there areas they were avoiding? Or were there areas that had very heavy use that maybe need to be improved or expanded? As I said, parking and circulation was a very big component
of that. And we did also try to make a strong effort to understand the fluctuations in parking and circulation. As everybody knows, we've heard time and time again that there's a lot of demand on the park associated with flag football Saturdays in the fall. And so the circulation and the parking needs um
are very different on those days than they are maybe on a Tuesday in July, for example. Um and finally, we looked at the natural habitat and natural features that the park boasts. It's one of the things that we as a firm love the most about this park is that you're able to provide very
active recreation but also maintain a strong ecological character in the park and that was something we heard a lot of feedback on in the survey as well. Um, so this kind of caps recaps what I just said, but um, really what we were looking to do is understand both on the
ground realities in terms of what's built, what condition it's in, how many of certain amenities exist, what amenities might be missing, um, and then how that kind of intersects with user behavior, and how the community actually uses the park day in and day out.
And so, like I said, I'll give you the kind of the highlights of what we heard in the community survey um and tell you kind of how that fed into our analysis. So, uh we did ask the community in terms of existing park amenities, what do they use the most?
The number one answer was paved walking and running paths. There's a variety of those throughout the park. Um you'll hear me refer to the perimeter loop, which is that main stone dust trail that circulates around the athletic fields. Um, and then benches and seating areas
and restrooms. You'll also hear me say restrooms were like the unsung hero of the survey. They were mentioned a lot. They're not a glamorous thing. And they're kind of a different a different amenity for us to evaluate because they're not a they're not driving usage of the park. No one's I [snorts] don't
believe was coming to the park specifically to use the bathroom. Um, but they're an important amenity nonetheless because most people come to the park will use the bathroom. in terms of requested amenities. So, what would you like to see in the park? Um, number one response was additional parking areas. I'm going to caveat this
and I'll come back to it in a in a slide or two. Um, but it was the most frequently selected answer. And this was a question where we gave a expansive list of amenities um that people could choose and you could choose as many as you wanted. So, this was kind of, you know, if you could have your dream list
with no limitations, what would you like to see more of or added to the park? There's a couple quotes here um that we pulled. We did have a lot of opportunity for people to give open-ended feedback as well. And some of those quotes were very um informative of kind of the
sentiment of the community. Uh one thing we heard over and over again was safety concerns about conflicts between pedestrians and bicyclists and cars on the uh main perimeter loop. And we also heard a strong desire to really maintain
the green character of the park. So park wish list. So now we kind of took that first set of questions and we really said, "Okay, you told us you want 20 things or 10 things or five things. What are your top three?" So if you have to actually assign some priority to what
really matters to you, what are the things that you would like to see most done with this concept plan? Um, the number one answer was tied between the expanded nature trail system, which goes in line with kind of that first answer of walking and and jogging
pass being a highly used amenity um, and a permanent ice rink. I'll come back to this again in a minute, but we have done um, some further study and coordination with the current operator of the ice rink at Gumbbert Park. Um, and we'll talk about that in the recommendations
uh, in a couple slides. Um other amenities were dedicated pickle ball courts and then expanded walking and jogging paths. Second most wanted once again expanded nature trail system. So this is a very desired and um beloved amenity in the park. We see a lot of
opportunities for better connectivity to new areas of the park. And we also got a substantial amount of open-ended feedback um on kind of how people behave in that portion of the park, the ease of wayfinding on the trail systems. And a big um feedback that we heard
consistently was um some issues with dog policing in [laughter] that area of the park. So a lot of people kind of treat it as a dog run, let their dogs be off leash, and it can be off-putting to some people um in terms of feeling safe back there. The third most wanted are unsung hero improved and expanded restrooms. So
I do want to just call to your attention here that um nowhere in this list for the three most wanted amenities is additional parking listed. So while that was the most requested additional amenity when people had to actually assign priority to it and how important
it was, it wasn't in people's top three. We will be addressing parking in detail. Um, but I just wanted to put that at that at the forefront of your mind and also just to show you how that next layer of analysis really matters in these kind of surveys because if we just took the community at their word, we'd
have a very different design um than once we start to actually ask what really matters to you and what are you actually going to use here. So, like I said, the full report that kind of summarizes all the survey and our stakeholder engagement is available for download on the website at the link
listed on the slide. feel free to download and review at your leisure. Once we wrapped up um the survey, I said we went into some stakeholder engagement meetings. So, these were really small group targeted meetings that help us get specific types of feedback. The first uh
of these was the athletic group. So, we invited representatives from all the sports leagues that are assigned field time um at the park and then also some representatives of sports leagues that don't actually have dedicated field time to come and kind of tell us what their
pluses and minuses are of their um locations in the park. Are things working from a maintenance perspective, an equipment perspective, field usage and field times? And we also did a little exercise of if you could have your ideal layout of the park for your sport, what would that look like? It
helped to have everybody in one room because we were really able to see kind of the push pull and and everyone was able to hear, you know, that their priorities may or may not conflict with other groups and that we were going to have to be very strategic and um come to a compromise about what the best solution is for accommodating all these
sports. We also had an immediate neighbors and seniors meeting which was really um geared towards people that live directly adjacent to the park and we consider them kind of our expert quote eyes on the street if you're a Jane Jacobs fan. Um, so that's really about these are the
people that are observing the park day in and day out. And so they're really our experts in how that park usage changes from season to season, day of the week, different sports programs, how driving and circulation behavior um is or isn't a problem, and how new
amenities may impact quality of life for immediate residents. We also um as I said, we spoke with the owner and operator of the ice rink to understand the facility needs that would be associated with a permanent location
both from just a size um perspective and also just a intensity perspective in terms of energy and things like that. We had a meeting with uh your DPW to understand the maintenance practices that exist within the park, what they struggle with, um what they've been
working on in in recent years to improve maintenance and how different design decisions might impact their work from a day-to-day. And then lastly, we brought the steering committee together to do a concept workshop, which is kind of the first um step of this concept design phase where
we looked at kind of all this feedback. Um collated everything and dove into how we start to make decisions for you know what kind of quote makes the cut or what doesn't in terms of how we propose new amenities, how we shuffle existing amenities, etc.
So high level summary I'm not going to go very in depth on this because Mark is gonna take you Mark is going to take you through this in depth but um we do have a light touch foundation for early phase improvements. So these are things that we think would be necessary in any uh
version of what the final design is and um they're really achievable and will have kind of high impact for either low investment or low um construction period. We had an emphasis on circulation and mobility. Um we really looked at optimizing configuration and maintenance
within the field areas without um impacting usability for the sports as they exist today. We looked at increasing and reconfiguring parking capacity without compromising the character of the park um in terms of the green and lush feel that exists today.
Uh we looked at new amenities based on community demand from the survey and also um are looking to establish a heart of the park through increased programming space at the park core. Um so Mark again will take you through this a little bit more in depth but just a static slide here for people from the
community who may come back and and watch this later. Um there is feedback opportunities on the online map. So it's an interactive platform. You can click any of the bubbles and you'll get a little popup like this first one here. and it will tell you exactly what the
proposed improvements are for that area. There will be some precedent images to help you understand visually what those recommendations really mean. Um, and then with which e with each of these bubbles, there's going to be a opportunity to click a feedback link. So, every single recommended new feature
or improvement you'll be able to give your feedback on. Um, and so, as was stated, that uh currently is slated to run through May 26, that feedback period. So everybody can fill that out. And for now, I'm going to pass it over to Mark.
Thank you, Mallerie. [clears throat] All right, so um the township will be sharing this link through a number of channels, including the township website as well as social media channels. Uh and this is where you will land. Um
there if you want to go a little deeper, there's the project background, project timeline, and the engagement summary report that uh Mallerie had uh referred to. But here at the top, if you want to jump right into the concept plan, you would click here and the concept plan
will load here. As mentioned, this is an interactive uh version. So, you can just kind of scroll your wheel in or use the uh plus and minus buttons to dive into the plan itself. Additionally, there's a legend here that outlines the different
areas. They're color coordinated, whether they're circulation improvements, nature improvements, field improvements, infrastructure improvements. Uh I will say the first thing you'll notice about kind of diving into this, this is very loose at this point. These are areas of improvement.
We've just created these loose bubbles. You don't see any hard lines on here. So, uh that would be the next step where we actually start to implement a real plan if and when these uh potential improvements are decided upon by the township. So, I'm going to take you
through about half of these proposed improvements uh tonight and uh the rest I I I I sincerely encourage everyone in the town to spend some time with this, dive into this and really look at each one of these and and see how they relate
to one another as well. So, as mentioned, when we were brought on board, we you have a wonderful park. It's it's well-loved. It's really mature trees. The nature's wonderful. the fields are well-kept. Um, it's a a a park to really be proud of. So, we
wanted to come in with a light touch and you'll see some elements that really subscribe to that and then we'll see some that are a little bit more advanced where we think these improvements could actually improve the usage of the park and and the circulation and a number of
other things. And we'll dive into those, but we'll start with light touch. So, one of those is the shared use path. One thing that we heard in the survey was that uh people use this all the time. It's one of people's favorite features of the park. You'll notice we are not
making any major changes in circulation or in in the sense of trying to make it two-way or do anything um terribly interventionalist. But with the shared use path, what we did here is the adjacency of uh folks right next to the
travel lane of the vehicles with strollers or um joggers, it it does become a a a pedestrian concern. So, one of our recommendations is basically with the same footprint, just expanding it
ever so slightly, we could um create a section, this is a typical section of a proposed division of vehicular lane and bike ped traffic. On the far right would be the vehicular lane. Dividing that from the pedestrian and
bike route would be a 5-ft bioail. This presents an opportunity for more greenery planting in the park, but also is a a drainage opportunity for some of the issues at the field. We can route some of the um runoff into this and and
basically create a division between the vehicular traffic and the pedestrian. Uh we have a 10-ft asphalt shared use path uh which would be striped so that there would be a separate bike lane from the pedestrian traffic. And then the stone dust walkway uh basically would exist
where it does now. So that's just uh one illustration. If we go down further, um we did some loose sketchy renderings of what this might look like. I'm going to move very briskly through this. I won't dwell on anything too much uh in the interest of time tonight, but please
take a look in more detail. Additionally, along the vehicular path, we're recommending the speed tables. the um the vehicular loop is posted at 15 miles per hour. We heard from our surveys that is rarely adhered to. So um
this would help with traffic calming as well as these would exist at designated crosswalks. Moving on to the next feature, this is a very easy light touch. We noticed a really nice patch of green open space by
the nature trail parking uh and see this as a great opportunity for a community garden. Uh very simply, raised beds would be here for the community's use and it would be surrounded by a deerlosure fence. Moving back into the nature area, uh
I'll just point out quickly here, uh proposing a new bridge here that would be bike and ped friendly. But then moving back here, we had a real observation about the pavilion area, which seems to be a little underused right now, and it it seemed ready for a
refresh. Um, what we notice though is the area with the the pavilion here and it's quite small because we're looking at a panoramic view, but there's a natural amplitheater here just with the topography of the site. And um these mature trees, the lawn could be improved
to really take on um a kind of botanical garden kind of feel. Um we could improve the lawns. uh we can actually label the trees so that they can become educational features. Um, additionally, what you're seeing here in the yellow
dotted line would be um an ADA compliant path that would allow better uh access and mobility for some of the town uh users. And finally, um just kind of taking on this botanical garden kind of
feel. And finally, um, improvements to the pavilion itself and an expanded area there could serve as a a kind of natural stage so that, uh, were it to be programmed with um, a high school band
concert, graduation, people could sit out on the lawn, picnic, and enjoy those sorts of events back there at the picnic grove. And then the um on the nature trail itself, you you have
wonderful nature trails back there. Very healthy woods. Um it's really impressive. One thing that we did hear in the survey though is some residents are a little trepidacious to go back there uh in the sense as mentioned the dog's off leash, but but also just they folks feel they could get a little lost
or they don't know exactly where the trails go and how they circle back. So, um this simple recommendation is is quite easy and it's just putting in um really clear trail markers, just simple posts um creating a trail map at the
trail head um that would um let people know which trail they want to go on and give them a sense of how far they would be walking on that trail. Um so, just clearing that up and giving people just a better sense of um security while they're back on the nature trails.
And then um we're talking about we one thing that we heard is people wanted more nature trails. Well the the nature trails back here as evidenced by the map here is um you know pretty expansive but what it's really one way in one way out. So one
thing that we thought we could do is kind of expand that by uh creating another bridge connection here and creating a nature trail that would connect to the park um in another location. So creating new trails. Um if
I click on this, this would require a new bridge over the stream. And additionally, um, this is an area of wetlands, but that also presents an opportunity to get people closer to the wetlands, better appreciate the wetlands, and, uh, possibly, as you
notice to the left here, I won't go into great detail here, possibly ecologically restore that area as it is, um, an area that had other uses in the past, we learned, including a a shooting range for the police. And um so being able to
restore that area um would would be really nice and great create another ecosystem that people can enjoy back there. And then moving on to some some more of these are a bit more interventionalist but at the same time um one of the
things that we heard is that at peak use times traffic becomes quite difficult. um people get have a very difficult time getting in in and out of the park and that's because you know by and large there's one way in one way out. So one recommendation would be a new Lambert's
Mill access. Um this very simply would mirror the other one on the other side but this would um basically um keep people from having to complete the entire circuit when they're just dropping off their their uh child for a sports activity. Um, so really the
thought is is quite simple here. If we provide another way in and out of the park, that's going to help ameliate a lot of the uh traffic and congestion concerns during peak hours. One other thing we looked at was um obviously this is a heavily used park
from an athletic standpoint. Um so one of the things we're looking at was reorientating the fields. Um, additionally, we heard from the athletic groups that these fields get after any rain, we can get one inch of rain and and it'll hold it for days. Um, so we
thought, why not take care of all of these things at once? Field reorientation, particularly with these three baseball fields, would allow us to create better ADA access to the the hub of these spokes. Uh, additionally at
that time we could introduce draining which would uh drainage which would drain out to the bioail and um also allow us to just regrade. Uh this presents other opportunities like a concession stand and having everybody
here at this location um for viewing purposes. Um, one other thing that we heard, obviously, um, pickle ball is something that people want to do and, um, and so,
uh, we'll we'll touch on this in a second, but, we're reorientating or making suggestions anyway for reorientating some of the parking. Um, and if we were to remove this parking area, this presents an opportunity without taking anything away of introducing new dedicated pickle ball
courts as well as relocating the basketball court. Um, so in this case, um, we could have a dedicated pickle ball court area. We're imagining about four pickle ball courts and a new basketball court as well.
And then finally moving down here uh a number of the these elements are interrelated. Um as mentioned before the area here that says multi-purpose field um there is an appetite for having more fields within the park. We want to be um
we want we took this under consideration and this area is an area that a multi-purpose field could be installed. Um it is an area that is outside of the wetlands and many of the trees here are either invasive or native wedi. Um so if
we pair that with ecological restoration along its edges, uh we could introduce a multi-purpose field here. Um, this field could be striped for multiple sports and um and essentially live adjacently to a
multi-purpose building or community center uh that we'll discuss in a moment. As you'll notice here, the multi-purpose building is adjacent to the multi-purpose field. Um the multi-purpose building um would be a
community center with that could host spaces for indoor athletic uses such as wrestling, cheerleading. Those are two things in particular that we heard there were needs for in the township. And uh and as well as uh community meeting rooms, ecological learning center,
athletic equipment storage, and DPW storage, which we understand DPW is bringing a lot of their equipment to this park and can't leave anything behind. So that that would actually help with their their uh logistics. Uh the building design and materials are to be
determined. Um this is something this is just a loose representation of what it could look like, but we could introduce a drop off area so that um you know students or athletes could be dropped off by parents. Um and the it would be
ad adjacent to the main field flanked by two parking areas which would effectively become the primary parking area for uh the park. Finally, um the multi-use building
really is at the terminus of a potential idea. And this is this is um something that we found really interesting in the sense that right now when a vehicle comes into the park, they must complete the loop. Uh so with the new entrance on Lambert's Mill, as well as potentially
introducing a shared use plaza, uh which would allow for vehicular traffic along with pedestrian and uh and plaza activities. Um it would allow for vehicles to not have to complete the loop, cut across here with dedicated um
dedicated drop off areas as well. So we're calling this the heart of the park concept that would feature um the vehicular lane as well as 88 parking spots. We've accounted for about 10 right now so that anybody with mobility issues could park right at the center of
the park and have easy access to the fields. Uh but this would be healthily um amended with landscape plantings as well as permeable pavers suitable for event staging. Uh we know that a lot of 5K events take place. Uh but this could
expand other programming in the park such as markets. Um so just to give an idea of what that might look like, the vehicular traffic again would be separated by a bioail and um looking back towards the um the
multi-purpose building, it would look something potentially like this. And uh drop off area. And finally, um the area on the end adjacent to the
uh tennis courts, the existing um utility building, this could host the ADA parking, outdoor classroom, uh be adjacent to a tot lot and host events on uh days that warrant it. And uh with
that, I'm going to hand it back to Mallerie, and she's just going to uh take us through a few next steps. But again, I just encourage everyone to go on here, read over the descriptions, check it out, and please feedback. It's important that we understand what the community really wants out of this park
when it comes to these specific possible uh features. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Um just two quick notes on the concept. I want to ensure that you um recall we had the conversations about the potential permanent ice rink
here. We discussed that in the area of the multi-purpose field and multi-purpose building and ultimately we determined that the size needs for that facility would a prohibit us from expanding fields um within the park and just result in a much more substantial structure. Um, so I believe the decision
has been made to um find a different location for that moving forward, but their contract has been renewed for the Gumbbert Park location for the coming season. So I just want the community to be aware that the ice rink will continue to operate there for the time being and they can expect future updates on um
that programming moving forward, but uh not to be included in in the concept as it's presented tonight. Um, so upcoming milestones, uh, like I said, every time you click one of those features that Mark clicked on, there's going to be an opportunity that says provide feedback on this feature. So
each independent independent recommendation, you can give a thumbs up or thumbs down just to tell us if you like it or not. And there's also an open um, line item where you can write in any additional commentary on those those features. Um, so the period the comment period
will be open through May 26. We will then coalate all that feedback, do kind of another round of analysis on the results and start to uh make program and amenity decisions based on that feedback. We will then revise um final design to the schematic level. So that's
when you're going to start seeing more concrete line work of what these amenities look like on the plan. Um and then we'll develop a select set of renderings similar to what um has been shown for the heart of the park concept for key areas of the park. and we will be work working to refine our cost
estimates. So we have some highle assumptions built into the concept at this point. Um but moving forward we'll be drilling those numbers down more and more to reality as design decisions are made. Um we'll also simultaneously be coordinating phasing and priority rubrics which is going to help you as
the council make um kind of financial decisions moving forward and balancing both the desires of the community in terms of the things that they would like to see happen the most with the realities of the dollars and cents that comes with those decisions or those amenities um and the the timeline of
implementation. So some things may be a longer timeline. Some things related to an improvement in a later phase might actually have to start in phase one. It's very common with utility work that we need to make certain utility improvements that might not come online for a few years, but putting that putting improvements in now and not
including those um utility lines might cost you more down the line. So, we like to anticipate those things. Um and then we'll be working uh with the town, with you all, with the steering committee and with Jim and his team um to really develop final design and
phasing to be presented to you in the fall. Um, so that's our concept today. Um, we're really excited to get the feedback from you all and from the community over the course of the next few weeks and we're happy to answer any questions first and foremost about kind of the process or decisions andor the
functionality of the the online platform. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mallerie. >> So, this this is a time now where the mayor and council has questions of the consultants, you can do that now. uh if not then the meeting would continue and then there'll be the uh open public
portion by citizens at at the you know a few minutes from now after some of the legislation. So if anyone has any questions for the consultants on the council feel free >> questions or comments maybe not. >> You have one question on the uh new athletic field that was like backed up in the corner. Um was there consideration to put lights there or was
that a maybe he was in there and it went fast? I don't know. What we heard from the athletic um what we heard from the athletic groups is um that potentially lights in that particular
case it's still open for consideration. It really depends on how much use those fields get. Right now, um what's happening is if we were to put lights out there, the fields would get overused. And in fact, that would be an issue for um basically they they get so
much love right now that they're getting threadbear and um and putting lights there would actually increase the usage of the time. So, um >> sorry, I just meant the one new net new field. >> Yes. >> Okay. We're talking about not all of them. >> It it's still to be determined.
>> Got it. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um the community garden that you have um was this is no pun intended actually. Was that organically grown from the re the responses that you had received or was that something that you might have
suggested that was embraced by the public? >> Uh both it we we definitely heard that uh people wanted more green space, more gardening, more natural areas as well and we saw that as a potential opportunity. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah.
>> Yes. >> Um in in regards to the amphitheater area and right now you showed um there's a covered area there. Would you change that in any way? You were saying would could be more of a stage or um for like a graduation. So would you change that
area in any way? >> I think what we would consider doing is upgrading the pavilion. I think the other thing too is um at the time that the pavilion we're just seeing different tastes in how people use uh outdoor spaces uh there was a time where you
know right now a single family going out there and using the pavilion is unlikely. So, being able to create some pod areas where um families or small groups could go out and really enjoy the space and feel that they have their own space as well as being able to host larger events there and create some sort
of um stage-like area that extends out and faces out to that amphitheater um is something we would um explore further in our design moving forward. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, Mark. um on the multi the
multi-purpose room on the map it looks kind of smallalish on the drawing it look kind of bigish and so I was just wondering if you can speak to the rough dimensions of what you had envisioned and then and then the second part of that would be what do you think is going to be in there besides another set of
bathrooms which we know is a big deal >> what are we going to use that for? Um, so one thing we heard from the athletics groups were was indoor athletic space was important. Even from the flag football folks being able to shelter
kids if a storm rolls in, they really don't have any place in the park. But um, so uh, imagine a room with mats and you know for any sort of wrestling uh, cheerleading even fitness. Uh there there's other
community uh centers that I've seen in parks around this area that have um fitness classes that go on in there. So um that's kind of what we're imagining from an athletic standpoint to speak to the um but that being said, there can be community rooms that can be rented out
by Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, uh etc. or just reserved I should say. Um so we imagine a lot of multi-purpose flexible space within there. Again, this would be something that would be developed in handinhand with an architect. Um, but uh
right now we're representing the space as 100 by 60 ft. >> Okay. >> And so that's 12,000 square ft. Um, so not by any stretch small, but you know, that being said, we could expand that footprint if the desire was there in
the, you know, so that's kind of where we're leaving it right now. It is quite loose. >> Thanks. Uh just one there's one thing on the map here for pond improvements that were I don't know not mentioned in the presentation. I just talked to that briefly.
>> Sure. Um there's already um uh consideration of dredging the pond uh to just make it more healthy. Um additionally, so what we're we're talking about is right now we think that is a really incredible asset and at the same time it's kind of tucked away in
their corner. So, if we were to add some improvements there and try to drive more traffic to it and and really make it just a more usable space. So, dredging would be one thing, selective native plant plantings to help erosion issues along the banks would be another, but
then introducing seedings or a small dock. Uh, and possibly working with the township to think about other sorts of um uses for that space, whether that's model boats or paddle boats or something like that. Again, uh we're not there
yet, but we just see it as a real opportunity and at the very least a a place for simple improvements to make it and and a small picnic area over there as well might be nice. >> Can I ask one more question? Um you you mentioned the dog in the in the um
nature walk area that there a lot of people are concerned about the dogs off leash, but I didn't hear any like curbing mechanisms of that. Like it led me to believe that something was there, but maybe maybe not. Yeah, we we discussed that a bit. What we're talking about is improved signage um there
that's clear and then coupled with um enforcement by the township to uh just uh and communications to residents that it it isn't it is not an off leash dog area and that you're welcome to bring your dogs back there, but they must
remain on leash. Um, we just heard a lot of uh feedback in the survey that people are reticent to even go back there because so many dogs are off leash. >> Did you consider like a a dog gated in like a dog run or whatever?
>> We did. We did. The general feedback was that um that was not desired. >> Okay. Thanks. >> I have another question in regards to the additional um ent entrance pathway or the nature street.
So in so it's now just one more way to get in and out of the park, but it's still going into that one lane. Correct. So both So whether you enter from Lambert's Mill or whether you enter from the other additional um new entrance, it's still going into that one circle.
Correct. >> Correct. It would still all be one way. >> And so um I guess my concern is so now you have another So you just have merging traffic and you have two. So you have one person already in the circle, one person coming into the circle. So
I'm curious how that how you're imagining that to be mitigated. Is it a yield sign? Is it a merge? How how is that going to be mitigated? >> Once once we start laying out the plans um with with more detail, we'll get more finite about it. And I think uh speed
tables in those locations, rumble strips, signage, um using colored crosswalks, uh all a number of traffic calming measures that we could apply in those locations to uh make drivers aware that they're coming up on a location where, you know, traffic's going to be
coming in and uh or there's going to be merging traffic. So, but it it is it's one of the easy things to do within this park just to make people feel safer and we're really excited about just making those light touch approach kind of uh improvements.
>> Thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> And please everyone do go on the website. We're excited to see your feedback. Um and we will collect all of that feedback over the next three weeks. Okay, moving on. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from the town council conference and regular meetings
of April 21st, 2026? Moved. >> Councilman Saunders. Second. >> Seconded by Councilman Venetan. Any discussion? All in favor? Yes. >> Yes. >> Opposed? The motion is carried. Uh now it is time for open discussion by
citizens. Anyone may come up to the microphone and speak to the council on any subject which this council has jurisdiction. Please state your name and address for the record and limit your comments to five minutes. >> Evening, mayor and council. How are you?
Good to see you all. Um, my name is Sean King Foley. I'm a former councilman. I'm a Scotch Plains resident. Um, but I'm here tonight to reintroduce a resolution uh moving through municipalities across our county that addresses the growing use of rent pricing software and its
negative impact on our communities. I've been going town to town because this is not an isolated issue. It is regional and is affecting families in real ways. This resolution is to pro protect residents from economic harm and it does this by asking to stop and reflect on
the tools we are embracing the values driving them and the harm they can bring into our communities. For the past 15 years, this ethos of move fast and break things has slowly crept into our civic and communal lives. But what gets broken
is not abstract. It is our communities. It is stability. It is affordability. And the harm has been real and widespread. So rent pricing software can drive rents up in a coordinated way, pushing families out, straining people already stretched thin, and makes
something as basic as housing less stable, less predictable, and less attainable. This software can drive up rents in a coordinated way. It is the equivalent of going doortodoor extracting money from people except instead of a person made
of flesh and blood doing the extraction. It is code made of zeros and ones doing it at a massive community scale all at once. And it results in people paying more and affordability getting worse. And let me be clear, if this software is
not regulated or banned, it will continue to harm communities. After all, these systems are designed to be frictionless. We see it everywhere. Amazon, Facebook, online gambling, fast, automatic, and optimized. But in
pricing, housing, frictionless removes human connection from decisions that affects people's lives. Real human interaction naturally comes with friction. And that friction creates pause, accountability, and restraint.
It creates distance between the people making the decisions and the residents living with the consequences. What once required a person to wrestle with the morality and impact of a decision becomes code executing an objective. And when there is distance between the
action and the consequence, harm becomes easier, more efficient, and more likely. And in doing so, it erodess communal responsibility and it rewards pure self-interest and exploitation. They call it a tool, but it is not.
After all, people decide how tools are used. A hammer does not decide what gets built or destroyed. But today's software is increasingly making decisions for us. And rent pricing systems are making pricing decisions for management companies to deter to the detriment of
hardworking people. I believe this resolution draws a line. It says we are holding the use of this software and those who rely on it accountable. and it says we will not allow our communities to be quietly harmed by systems designed to extract from them.
I uh thank you all for letting me talk. My advocacy with this always comes with the most prof uh most profound respect and professionalism and uh happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sean. >> Good evening. My name is Gregory Dieso.
I live at 199 Lincoln Road here in Westfield. Uh tonight I have twofold uh purpose. Number one is to seek the withdrawal of a violation that I received concerning uh disrepair of my sidewalks. And the second one is to
bring to light the absolute hazardous situation that exists around Franklin School concerning sidewalks. um I submitted to you my reports, photographs and the violations that I am now under.
So my first request is and again I won't take a lot of your time is that um I went and appeared thank Jim allowed me to appear in front of his uh his committee to discuss the violation. The violation I found out was submitted
anonymously through a website and uh it involves, as you can see from the pictures there, I have some cracked sidewalks on my property. And I also had a um a little bit of a hole that was caused directly by uh a harsh winter and
the roots from a town tree that is on obviously the the street side. Um I received the violation by a certified mail. I was not informed prior to that and again I say this respectfully uh there was no knock on my door after
being here for 40 year 40 years 33 of those on Lincoln Road. No knock on my door saying Mr. DSO we need to have discuss the sidewalk and see how you can repair it. Um none of that happened. Instead I was issued the the violations.
And the violations um include up to a $1,000 fine every day that I the the violation is in fact that I don't act on it. So after I had the meeting with the the committee, I realized that I had to act on it. So the next day because I
felt that it was a problem. I felt that it it was maybe a hazard and maybe people could fall. I was informed that the the person who submitted the anonymous complaint through a website, no less, that her toddler had fallen on my property. I knew nothing about it. I
was not alerted to it. No one came to my door. There were no police reports filed. There were no emergency uh squads uh reports filed about a toddler falling. Um I was suspicious of that. So as a result, what I did was I went out
and I patched the few cracks and the hole specifically immediately to avoid any hazard that children at school will have. After living on Lincoln Road for 33 years, our primary objective has always been the children's safety. I am
a bit of a fanatic about the parking there, as some of the committee members know. Um it's just been crazy. years ago, we advocated and we were able to successfully put up signs, no parking signs around the school where people and parents can't park, but that doesn't
seem to matter much. So, my my twofold reason is number one, the pro the problem has been been eliminated. Whether it has been eliminated up to the town's um liking is another story. I honestly can't afford I'm a senior citizen and my wife and I
are both retired. I can't afford to replace my sidewalks. Additionally, my house is for sale. We've having we're we're looking at some offers right now and we intend to to sell the house soon, very soon. Um because it's just too expensive to live here in Westfield. I
hate to say that after 30 almost 40 years. So, the twofold again repeat and my time is almost up. I'd like to have this violation removed. Number one, I don't have the funds to replace the sidewalks. The sidewalks have been repaired. They're now flat. there's no
holes, there's no cracks on my property. And number two, um I'm asking that because of those pictures, I'd like to help wherever possible to fix these sidewalks around Franklin School. They're hazardous. I will not allow my grandchildren to ride their scooters on
these these sidewalks. You saw the pictures. There's some deviations up to seven inches that if a child hits that with his bicycle or a scooter, he's going over and it's going to cause serious injury. not like the four 4 in x 5 in hole on my property sidewalk that
was easily repaired. So, there's a lot of problems around Franklin School. I'm here to help. 33 years knowing the situation, knowing the property, knowing the neighbors, knowing the condition of the sidewalks. Something has to be done before children really get hurt now that
everybody is using scooters and bicycles. So, um my time is almost up. I respectfully submit those two proposals to you and I'm here to help wherever possible before we move. Thank you for hearing me. >> Thank you, sir.
>> Do we have any others? >> Hi, Greg Lindberg, 528 Grove Street. Um, I I was really glad to hear the presentation tonight and um glad to see that there's going to be what I think are meaningful improvements to the fields uh the existing fields at um
Tomacos Park. [clears throat] It it wasn't clear to me from the presentation um if the new multi-purpose field is going to be natural grass or artificial. Um, that's one thing I'm hoping that the
the uh website will will will clarify. Um, it it's I think it's important to remember that based on the survey results, there was a 22 point uh
advantage uh or preference for uh natural grass fields. So, I would hope that that piece of information is used to make that decision. Um I would also uh say that the there there was one comment made
about the use the usage level of the fields and how they get uh threadbear I think was the word. Um I would argue that the fields are not overused but they're undermaintained. That's despite
you know the best efforts of the DPW. um very high use natural grass fields are possible. Um there is an upcoming uh webinar being hosted by the Sierra Club at the end of the month. Um and it
features um uh Zach Holm who's the current president of the Sports Field Managers Association of New Jersey. He's made a career of managing uh uh athletic fields. I'll send you all the um the the
link to register for that webinar in case you choose to uh to to listen in. And uh I think you'll you'll hear more about uh what the possibilities are with natural grass fields to really maintain them, upgrade them and maintain them uh
to top-notch uh fields despite however much use might get thrown at them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Lmberg. Uh, hi Phil Lampereelloo, 205 Dixon Drive. I want to thank the council and Dresnner Robin for what I think was a really, you know, positive presentation
and for, uh, what I think everyone would agree are much needed improvements to Tamquis Park in the area. Uh, two particular things that I want to highlight andor, you know, raise for consideration with the town. One, and they both come from a safety concern which I think is very positive. the
first being with this new circulation. Um, you know, there's a lot of neighbors of mine that are within the um the room tonight. And I think that this new path, particularly adding this heart that's in the middle, is going to allow much better circulation for that top half of
the park and kind of focus pick up and drop offs and alleviate traffic on the second half of the park. So, I'm, you know, really glad to see that and to avoid uh what has, you know, been at times kind of dangerous circulation problems on Dixon with people going the
wrong direction and backing up and going the wrong way there. Uh the second thing is for the first time I did hear comments with respect to this uh you know or at least the thought or concept of a proposed dock related to the uh tomacqua pond there. And the one thing I
would like to raise, you know, from living over there, I'm sure a lot of people know there's pe kids during the s during the winter time playing ice hockey, trying to do other things on the pond, which can be a dangerous kind of thing. And they always get chased off, but they're always out there whenever you have those cold spells. So to the
extent there is a dock you know I think there should be some thought given uh you know I'm a view of not having one but I think providing an easier way for kids to get on and off that pond providing direct access to the middle of it is something that needs to be you
know thought of criticized and taken into consideration because I think it would be a big you know liability issue related to the town that you guys should be thinking about. >> Thank you Phil. Any other comments? Okay,
>> all right. One more. >> That's right. >> Just James Weinberg, um 834 New England Drive. Um so again, same thing on the presentation. Excellent. Uh a lot of really good improvements. My question is
similar um but maybe slightly different. I just is and I'll put the feedback on the on the plan document, but uh for feedback, but I was just curious. I do I do like the fact that it um that path going through the middle of the park
does alleviate some of the I'll call it the Dixon Drive area of the park, which is which I do like. At the same time, it is a street going straight through the heart of the park, which creates more intersection. So I I am just curious if
there were other considerations of like originally I saw some when you were considering a second entrance one that would be in and out like so not creating more more traffic um so they could come in drop off leave but you're now
creating more intersections. So I just you know I'm not necessarily opposed to that but I wanted I'd be curious the thought process of what other what other options were considered. I'll just say one quick thing. Um, >> none of what you saw here tonight is final, right? This is this is the best
efforts right now taking into account all of the information that was collected from stakeholder groups and um and residents, you know, filling out the survey. Um, and then also um the two entrances would have that effect. So adding the second entrance, you would
drive in and you can go right back out. So that that that would accomplish the >> the second part, >> but I guess maybe I misheard the presentation. They said like, "Oh, you can drop off and then cut through the park." >> You could actually go all the way around. >> You could actually come in the existing >> Yep.
>> uh entrance, which is there now. >> Yep. >> Come in for a little bit and then go back out. >> Right. I just meant like a Okay. >> Yeah, I get it. >> Thank you. Okay. Okay. Hearing no other comments, I will close this portion of the meeting
and move to bills and claims. Councilman Veneton. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move bills and claims in the amount of $58,51727. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Daggala. Any discussion? All in favor?
>> Yes. >> Opposed? The motion is carried. Uh, next on the agenda is reports of standing committees beginning with finance. Uh, Councilman Veteran. Thank you, mayor. I have nine resolutions I would like to move as a package. One,
resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to refund recreation department fees. Two, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to refund Pedler's license. Three, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to draw warrant for dog licenses for April 2026. Four, resolution authorizing the chief
financial officer to draw warrants for overpaid taxes. Five, resolution authorizing the chief financial officer to refund street opening cash bond. Six, resolution authorizing affordability assistance grant pursuant to the town of Westfield's uh affordability assistance program for a tenant of an affordable
housing unit at 3301 Echolane, unit 3301. Seven, resolution authorizing an affordability assistance grant pursuant to the town of Westfield's affordability assistance program for a tenant of an affordable housing unit at 516 North Avenue East, apartment 111. Eight, resolution authorizing the chief
financial officer to draw warrant for risk management consultant fee. Nine, resolution to approve insertion of special item of revenue, NJACCH. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilwoman Adoir. Uh, is there any discussion?
All in favor? >> Opposed? The motion is carried. Councilwoman Adoir, please move the items for public safety. >> Thank you, mayor. I have two resolutions I would like to move as a package. One, resolution authorizing an award of contract for roof repairs for the
Westfield Fire Department. And two, resolution authorizing an award of contract for interior renovations for the Westfield Fire Department. >> May I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Arnto. Any discussion? All in favor?
>> Yes. Opposed? The motion is carried. Councilman Edoir, please move the public works committee resolution. >> I would like to move a resolution authorizing an award for contract for landscaping equipment for the Department of Public Works. >> May I have a second? >> Second by Councilwoman Saunders. Any
discussion? [clears throat] >> All in favor? >> Yes. Opposed? The motion is carried. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Councilman Armentoto second. >> Councilman Kefir, any discussion real
quick uh before we wrap up also make uh my own two cents on Tomquist. So just to give some background, I'm a word for resident. I grew up near Tomquist. Uh it's very very near and dear to me. Grew up going there all the time. So you know I don't want anybody to think it's just
circles on a map or just something that we're trying to get through. Um if you have any comments on it, please leave your comments. We read through all of them. We care a lot. Our goal here is to make the best park we possibly can. So that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you, May Council Per. All in favor
to adjourn? >> Yes. >> Yes. Opposed. >> The motion is carried. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for coming.