flag of the Republic. >> Okay. Approval of minutes November 10th, 2025 open session. Is there a motion? >> Second. >> All in favor?
>> Any oppose? None. The motion passes. November 10th, 2025, uh, close session. Is there a motion? >> All in favor? >> All right. Motion passes. Okay. Baseball. Thank you for coming on such a crappy
night, but uh it shows your dedication to the sport. Uh I remember a few years ago when my boys were playing baseball, the the gold standard for baseball in the county was Paramis because they went to the Little League World Series and the whole thing. But I always said that
Woodliff Lake had the premier baseball organization because we won championships every year and we continue to win championships every year and we don't see them from Pamis anymore. So for a small community, you deserve a lot of credit. Congratulations.
So at this moment, I'd like to turn it over to our council president, Josh Stern, for some presentations. Sure. And I guess one of the things we'd like to do at the beginning of our meetings is to honor some great achievements. And I think we have a lot of great achievements tonight. Uh five of the
travel teams won their championships. Then the 9U, 10U, 11U, uh 12U, and 13U teams. The 8U team lost a nailbiter in extra innings. Um came in second. Um, it was probably one of the most competitive
and fun games I've watched in a long time. Our kids work tremendously hard this season. Um, it really showed, but it also takes a huge team in order to have this type of success that we see there. We have a tremendous baseball board uh that works really hard. Um, you
know, if we look at our uniforms, one of the things that that our kids and you know, the parents really have a source of pride in is we always look the best. you know, we play very well, but we also have some great uniforms that that a lot of other teams don't have. Um, we have coaches that spend countless hours with
these kids. Sometimes I don't know why because, you know, the kids can be difficult, but we really have a great great um great coaches. We have moms who are out there um you know, rain or shine and cold and in darkness. Um, we also
have a really um really good DPW staff that helps get our fields in order. Um the last couple years we've put special emphasis in improving our fields. This last year um we installed new scoreboards in all the fields. Um this
upcoming year um it's our intent to turf the infields of major. And if you look at uh resolution 25280 uh which is on for tonight, we are authorizing uh money for neglia engineering who's our town engineer to
begin that process so that we can hopefully turf the infield of major beginning um beginning after next fall season. Um, so you know, we have first rate children and first- rate kids and we really
deserve first rate facilities and hopefully hopefully over the next couple years we can really reach that goal of having some great facilities for those kids. So, I'm going to have the mayor read the proclamation first and then we're going to announce all the teams and all the players and coaches.
Okay. Whereas the spirit of teamwork, persevere, sportsmanship lies in the heart of our community, most cherished traditions, and whereas the athletes, coaches, and staff of our championship baseball team have demonstrated dedication, resilience, discipline throughout the uh season. And whereas
during the fall of 2025 season, all Woodliff Lakes travel teams uh won trophies for placing first or second in their respective leagues. And whereas the Wliff Lake 9U, 10U, 11U, 12U, and 13U teams each won their respective
league championships. And whereas the Wliff Lake 8U travel team finished second place after losing in extra innings. And whereas you will have memories that will last a lifetime. Inspired by your coaches, you believed in yourselves and you showed what it
really means to be a winner. Whereas the season like this does not happen without dozens of coaches, parents, volunteers, all of whom should be commended. A special special thanks and gratitude to all the baseball association board members, Joe Block, TJ Churchill, Brian
Freriedman, Michael McKinley, uh Chris Deforia, uh Anthony Bales, uh Gus Guida, Mike Ventino, uh Kevin Perttonudo, and uh Chris Pandro. And whereas it is fitting that we
publicly recognize and celebrate their successes as well as supportive families, fans, community members that have contributed to this achievement. Now therefore, be it resolved that the mayor and councel of the Burough Wolf Lake honor you for your achievements and wish you continued success in the
future. signed. Mayor Carlos Reno, Council President Josh Stern, Councilwoman Julie Brodzky, Councilwoman Nicole Marsh, Councilman Christopher Bernano, Councilwoman Jennifer Margolus, and Councilman Benjamin Pa.
Congratulations, boys. Let me read the team. So, let me read I'm going to have each team come up. They're going to stand over there. Let me read the roster so each kid gets recognized and then we'll get give out the proclamations and we'll do a group photo.
>> No, we'll do it once we do let me call everybody up first. Okay. So, why don't we have the 8U team uh come up and stand over there. >> 8U. Yeah, just just let ME >> So the
Okay, so the AU get in there. >> No, >> sure. Okay, so the AU team is coached by Gus Ga, Andrew Gangi, Chris Leforger, and special shout out to Paul Forco who does Game Changer. Um, the players on the
team are Henry Barrett, Leo Benjamin, Luke Bels, Luke Friedick, uh, DJ Gangi, Logan Gold, Gus Ga, Manny Leforger, Dylan Mcllen, Owen
Porco, Hudson, Hudson Smith, and and last but certainly not least, Grant Stern. Okay. So, why don't we get the nine team up? And the nine new team is coached by Mike McKinley, Angie Gooberman, Michael
Kaufman, James Slays, and Doug Seagull. And the players are uh Max Ballinger, Dez Dio, A Vera Dewan, uh Ben Dwarkin, Bradley Gooberman, Jay Khan, Nick Kaufman, uh Nate Lurcher,
Connell Loffrin, Grayson McKinley, Noah Phillips, Zack Seagull, and John Sllays. Why don't we get the tenu team up? And the tenu team is coached by TJ Churchill, uh, David Flans, Paul Porco,
and Steven Commandor. And the players are Ben Bes, Jacob Bender, Jackson Churchill, Jason Commandori, Kaden Feritini, Andrew Fland, James Hill, Preston Lee, Aiden
Mcllen, TJ Porco, Jared Sandler, and Gavin Seagerman. >> Let's get the 11U team up. All right. The 11U team is coached by Chris Leforger, Joe Block, Brian Freriedman, and Jared Zimmel.
And the team is Andrew Bergman, Sean Bergman, Brandon Block, Matias Carbalo, Hudson Dugen, Samuel Freriedman, Anthony Leforger, Cody Lavine, Ryan Sandler, and Tyler Zimmel. >> So, let's get the 12U team up.
And the 12U team is coached by Christopher Polyandu, Anthony Bales, David Flans, and Matt Misano. And the players are Christian Asona, Matthew Bender, Anthony Basels, Liam Burbage, Zack Flands, Matthew Misano,
Kieran Mcllen, Edward Milano, Jonathan Muller, Christopher Polyango, Brody Portundo, Nolan Seaw, and Hudson Wall. And last, let's get the 13U team up. >> And the 13-U team is coached by Michael
Furantino and Jason Titlebound. And the players are Sebastian Carbalo, Anthony Furantino, Jake Foster, Austin Gade, Jaden Han, Joseph Ali, Austin Titlebound, Chase Tidlebound, Samuel Tuckin, Christopher
Churchill, and Matthew. the coaches. You want to take a break? You want to say something? No, I did it already. All right. So, uh, we're going to take a fivem minute break. Boys, you don't have to stay for the boring meeting. So,
>> thank you so much. No worries. second part of our agenda which is the presentation on ordinance number 2512 uh it's known as the pilot program. Uh first personally I'd like to thank our experts uh that are sitting to our left
to your right for their hard work and dedication to the burrow lake and looking after our interest. Uh that is important because when you have complicated issues like this that's who you depend on and our experts are auditor our own personal auditor so he
has obviously a vested interest to make sure WLake uh has the best possible deal uh for our residents uh also our planner uh Fran and our attorney uh Wendy for many hours putting to put this together.
But I'd like to particularly thank uh Council President uh Josh Stern and Councilwoman Nikki Marsh. Uh when we put this committee together, I wanted two attorneys on the committee because I said, you know, these are moving parts and these are very complicated
negotiations and a very complicated uh uh set of facts that we have to um work through uh and you know look at every detail uh to make sure that our burrow is protected. So, at this moment, I'd like to turn this over to Council
President President Josh Stern, uh, who sat through every single one of those meetings, uh, even with his busy schedule as an attorney. Uh, but he put in a lot of time and effort, uh, for the Burough Wolf Lake. And same thing with Nicole Marsh. All right. Thank you, mayor. Uh, to those that don't know me,
um, I have a first grader, I have a second grader, both at Dorchester. Uh many of the council people um sitting on this dis have young children who attend both Georgechester and the middle school. Uh for all of us sitting up here, these are deeply personal um
issues. Uh we we definitely share many of the concerns of the residents here. Um but our number one job as council people, my number one job is to protect the burrow uh even on issues that may be unpopular. I want to address um a few things and
then we'll turn it over to our burough professionals. I want to address some of the misconceptions. I know there's been a lot of uh chatter on social media, some of it uh inaccurate. So I want to address some of those misconceptions. Um
first, you know, a pilot ju just by its term stands for a payment in le of taxes. Um it is not a tax abatement. Um it is um it's an alternative way for the borrower to receive revenue. It would be paid um quarterly in the same way that
taxes are paid. Um it is not um like I said, it is not a tax abatement. Um our local school districts um a pilot has no effect on the funding of our local school districts. whatever budget each of our schools set, those schools will
get that that money. So, pilot has no effect on on the amount of money that each of the districts will receive. Second, while the law mandates that the municipality is to receive those pilot payments, it doesn't prohibit the borrow from sharing money with our school
districts. And in fact, it is our intent to share some of the pilot money with our local school district. uh to that extent we've already had initial meetings with our school district about those um sharing of some of that money.
Those will continue, you know, once we approve this, those will continue and we will reach an agreement with our with our local district about sharing some of the pilot money that's coming in to the municipality. I want to get into some of the benefits of a pilot. Um, I know there's, like I
said, there's been a lot of misconceptions on social media, but but I do want to to get into some of the benefits. Now, the the first real benefit of a pilot is a pilot gives the burrow certain control over what gets
built uh at the BMW site. In essence, based on the way the state law is structured, the developers have a lot of leverage on the towns. We've seen that all over, you know, we've seen that in Park Ridge. We've seen that in, you know, municipalities all through the state.
The way that Trenton has structured the law, burrows don't have a lot of say on what gets built except we we do have leverage on a pilot. Now, what the pilot has helped us do is we were initially looking at a developer who wanted to
build six to 700 units on that site. So we leveraged a pilot in order to reduce those number of units down to a more manageable 370. But we not only got the number down to 370, we we took a lot of steps that really um lessened the the
adverse effects that a pilot that that development would have on on the community. One um we've reduced the we've reduced a lot of the bedroom count. So, if you look at the apartments in particular, I believe 90 plus or one
and two bedrooms, whereas if we had no control, we'd end up with a lot of three bedrooms. Um, of the 47 town houses that are being built, 17 of those will have elevators. Those elevators make those units more desirable for for retirees. Certainly, people with children are not
going to want want to buy a townhouse with an elevator. Um we've also been able to use the pilot in order to uh put in place a 40 bed supportive housing unit. Those 40 beds are in lie of 40 affordable housing
units. Uh some of those 40 affordable units would have been three bedrooms. Um if you know anything about affordable housing, it's really the um it's the affordable units that really drive these school age children. So by using that pilot we were able to smartly put in
place a 40 bed supportive housing um in lie of 40 separate units. Another benefit uh which we'll talk about is that um in connection with the pilot BMW settled all of its current tax
appeals with the burrow. I know we've had tax appeals with BMW probably dating back from 2012, maybe even before. The the bureau has spent millions and millions of dollars with tax appeals with BMW. We we you know, as of last
year, we we had exposure for up to about $7 million in tax appeals. All of those appeals have been settled. Third, um, one of the things, if you know anything about what's being built in Park Ridge is Park Ridge is now being sued by the
developer for approximately $30 million relating to bringing of utilities uh, to one of their affordable housing sites. In connection with the pilot, we were able to negotiate that the builder is responsible for the bringing of all utilities to that site. So, if there's
an issue with electricity, if there's an issue with water, that's all on the builder. the the burrow is not going to face a lawsuit the way that Park Ridge is facing a lawsuit. Fourth, the the burrow is getting several different community benefit payments.
The the first one we'll talk about is that the developer has agreed to fund approximately $2 million for the renovation of Lie Decker, both the both the structure and the grounds. Um it's a decent amount of money to do it. We're
going to hopefully um start on that right away. But that also allows us to build something like a playground on the outside of those grounds, which is um which I know our community desperately lacks. We also will have a um community
payment where the the the developer will pay approximately $900,000 every year uh until the pilot comes online. um that should have a great effect on uh offsetting um some of the tax increases
that may go um that may happen when that building is demolished. as far as the actual payments themselves, and I know our our professionals are going to get into it. Um, right now the burrow receives uh for for purposes of so the borrow and the
local district receive about $900,000 a year for that property. That property is assessed at $69 million. Although when we talk about a $69 million assessment, in reality that assessment is probably a little higher than it should be and is one of the reasons why we've been paying
tax appeals on it. After the pilot, we're going to be receiving about double that amount of money. So that the local district and the municipality will receive beginning probably about 1.8 million and then it's going to uh gradually increase from there. So we're
dealing with significant amount of money. Uh, I'm going to turn it over to our auditors who are going to go specifically through um through the payments and through the program. Thank you. Um, I'd like to start off by just introducing ourselves. My name is
Paul Lurch. I'm a partner with the firm of Lurch Vincy and Bliss. Uh, sitting to the right of me is Julius Con. He's also a partner with the firm. Um, Julius Con has been very involved Yep.
>> Uh Julius has been involved from day one. Okay. So, as I said, Julius has been involved from day one, uh, through all of the calculations and all of the negotiations that have gone on. Um, our firm was responsible for not coming up
with policy whether or not to do the pilot. Um, our firm had the responsibility of determining and negotiating the best possible deal for the burrow. Uh, and I know that after going through this process for several months, negotiation after negotiation,
revision after revision, um, that I I know I certainly feel very comfortable that the bureau is in the best possible position they could be through this process. And as I indicated, it was hundreds of hours. It took several months uh to go through this process. And I do feel that at the end of the
day, um, what's being presented is really one of the best possible deals that the bureau could could achieve. Um, we have a small, uh, PowerPoint here and the object here is that, uh, we're keeping this very, uh, uh, very basic at
this point. Uh, we'll go through just some of the basics to to inform the public and then what we'll do is we'll open it up to any kind of comments or questions that we have. Uh Julius obviously uh is here as myself and and
myself to answer and Wendy as well. Um her team was intimate in the analysis as well. Um so what I want to do is just kind of go flip through this quickly here. I'm not going to belabor a lot of this, but just and I think a lot of this is probably
public knowledge already since this has been through um uh the process a little bit here. You know, what are we talking about? We're talking about 300 Chestnut Ridge Road, right? The former piece of the um BMW property. And ultimately the
uh financial agreement or the pilot um is looking at an apartment phase and the apartment phase is 263 market rate with 34 um affordable units. There is a town home phase of 47 market rate units, some
supportive housing as well. And then there is going to be a small piece of the retail and restaurant component. So the pilot as as the councilman indicated the pilot is a payment in lie of taxes. Um and it really is um an amount that
the property owner will pay instead of paying a conventional real estate taxes. Um as part of that apartment phase, um the pilot can go from a term of 10 years to 30 years. The pilot that's being proposed for the apartment phase is the
30-year by statute. Um as part of this pilot agreement, the land portion is exempt from taxation, is not exempt from taxation, I'm sorry. The town home phase is exempt from taxation. And that pilot is only going to be a 20-year phase.
So after the 20 years and after the 30 years, those properties go back to the full market value. There'll be a piece of it which is the supportive housing phase which is taxexempt on the land and improvements and the retail restaurant phase as well
which will be 30 years. The pilot terms as we indicated for the apartment component is based on annual gross revenues. What is the percentage that on the return that the
municipality will receive on annual gross payments over the various years? Um we've seen pilots um that have been much less on the percentage return that the burrow would be receiving. So here you can see that through years 1 and 10 it's 10%, it escalates all the way
towards it towards the end where that the burrow would be receiving 15% on years 28 through 30 of the gross revenues received by the apartment complex. The other component is a town home
component that's over a 20-year pilot and that's based on the percentage of taxes on the improvements which is a little bit different. The apartments are based on the revenue. The town homes are based on percentage of taxes otherwise due uh which is really based on the
conventional tax assessed value and the current rate of taxation. So they are calculated differently. Um and I guess I should have said this up front, but generally speaking on the pilots, and I think we'll talk about a little bit further that the
county government will receive 5% of those pilots. That is by statute. The remaining portion will stay with the municipality. And this is just a little bit of a background information here. uh kind of looking at what the existing value is. So that property right now that we're
we're talking about uh for for development um has a current assessed value of $69 million. And I think as a councilman indicated, you know, when you look at market value, it's probably less than that. Um but I think for for our purposes, that's the amount that's on the books. So we're going to continue
with that for for our analysis purposes. Um, so the project or the site currently generates about $1.5 million in total taxes a year. So in other words, if we did nothing going forward and no development was was uh proposed on that
property and it stayed without an appeal, without a redevelopment, it would generate roughly at $1.5 million a year, which is what it's doing right now. And you can see the allocation as to and basically it's typically 25% municipality and the rest goes either to the school or to the county.
Um then you get into the pilot uh projected pilot taxes after improvements. And here's really where you know a after our calculations and negotiations with the developer here's really what the dollars and cents are going to look like. Um so you can see we have it
broken down into two components because the apartment phase is done differently than the townhouse phase. So on the apartment phase, uh the pilot is we're going to receive total over 30 years is going to be $69 million in total. 65
coming to us, 3 million and change going to the county. Um as I indicated before, the land side of it, the land value will continue to pay taxes um as it currently does today. So, when you look over the 30-year component, 69 millions on the
pilot, plus we're going to still continue to collect or at least in total, that property is going to uh wind up paying an additional roughly $5 million. So, that's the apartment size of it. The townhouse side of it, which is based on a different calculation,
which is only a 20-year pilot, um that pilot's going to produce the $16 million. And then you have the conventional taxes going after on years 21 through 30 because after the 20-year period then
that property goes back to the regular market, goes back to the regular assessed values and we just tax it like any other home or property in the burrow. So years 1 through 21 it's 16 million and change. After that it goes back to conventional from 21 to 30 of an additional 15 million. Um so as you can
see on the on the townhouse side of it um the land values are exempt. So it's not part of that calculation on the pilot years one through 20 and then that gets you to the grand total. So you really need to look at all of these components to say okay over a
30-year period if I was trying to figure out what are the dollars that are going to be collected over that period. You can see that when we when we add up the pilot for the apartment plus the land taxes that you normally would have paid that that they're going to pay anyway. Um then we add the town home years 1
through 20 and then we add years 21 through 30. it comes to a grand total of $106 million. That's over the 30-year period. So, that's what we're projecting the pilot to produce in addition to the other money that we'll talk about in a minute. Um, that was part of that
calculation. And then you have existing taxes versus the proposed pilot. So, as you can see in the middle column, that is the 106 million that we just went through the analysis. How are we getting that 106 million? we have the
various components and then we look at the existing taxes. So the existing taxes just for comparison purposes is as that piece of property the way it is, it's at that $69 million assessed value. What does it currently produce in taxes?
Um what does it produce over that 30-year period? It's going to produce roughly $64 million. So that property at $64 million today compared to what the pilot project is going to produce um over that same period is going to be $106 million. And that's the
differential. So it's roughly $42 million difference. The big difference is obviously when you look at that analysis is that really the bulk of that money now comes to the municipality. Um the county is still going to wind up getting roughly almost the same 5% and then the school and
regional. It's just a shift at that point um from those components. >> And if I could just add one thing to that as well, at the end of the 30-year period, it reverts back to conventional taxes. And as you could see on the slide, the improved value after this
project is done is going to be 143 million. That's almost double what the assessed value is today. So that will revert back to regular taxation at the end. Right. And just a little bit of a recap about the other financial benefits, right? We
talked about this or at least the council member did. Um the $2 million that's being uh donated uh contributed towards the Li Decker House. Um there's also um other community benefit payments that are being um uh valued in here as
well uh for the next roughly five years um approximately almost a million a year, $900,000 a year over that period of time. So when you take the 106 plus these other components, that's the total package of the um pilot agreement.
I think at this point at this time um if anybody has any specific questions, we can get into some of the details if if you need be uh or just answer any questions. Oh. Uh, prior to that, I think, uh, the mayor wanted if, uh, Miss Koga, if you had anything to add on the
on the legal side on this, and then if not, then we'll take a motion to open to the public for for, uh, for comments. >> I think Julius did a wonderful job of giving the overview of it. Um, >> no,
>> I we'll wait for questions and and see if there's something that we can clarify for the public. Once we open that to the public, uh, as we did in the previous meeting, uh, all comments or questions, uh, Miss Koga is going to jot them down and she or the team there, the financial
team, we'll answer that at the end rather than back and forth because some people may have the same question. >> So, uh, >> okay, I >> think we need a motion to public hearing for ordinance 252. >> Motion to open to the public. There's all in favor.
>> Any oppose? None. Motion passes. Okay. Whoever would like to speak, uh, come on up, state your name, the town you're from, and, uh, three minutes, and we'll take down your questions, and then we'll have our experts or us answer them, uh,
when we're done. Come on up. >> Not Not everybody at once. >> Um, Jill Strasburg, do you want to know my address? No, just would like >> Okay. Um, pilot tax payments are allocated
are required to be allocated uh uh or 100% to towns and for 30 years in this case or I guess 20 years in part of it with none required to go to school costs. This new development and other
developments converting offices or hotel properties to residential in coming in the future in Woodcliffe Lake could bring in significant increases potentially 20% of residents and units
into our K8 schools and regional high school. If any of the students have special education needs or if teachers or space need to be added, costs will go up perhaps sign significantly. Residents and other businesses could see
an increase in our already high property taxes. I'm asking how will the mayor and council allocate taxes to school as part of future revenue agreement? And another follow-up question after looking at the
PowerPoint, I'm seeing on the BMW property that the tax while the taxes are going up to the town in total, the school taxes are going down 28 million
in total. So, and just if are my three minutes up? Okay. And then in addition, I'm wondering why the pilot taxes are needed as Woodcliffe Lake is not a blighted
town in need of redevelopment. That's it. Should I sit? >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Come on up. >> Wendy, you got all that. >> Josephine Higgins Wolf Lake. Uh,
I want to say Paul, you always give good luck in presentations. Um, we were lucky to get Paul when I became mayor and uh, the only thing I have to ask is why hasn't this been given to us sooner than
tonight? I mean, really, this is a lot to devour in one night. Um, the other thing is the master plan. I worked very, very hard on the master plan and we met down at the town hall
and we had small groups and then we had another meeting with larger groups. And I got my paperwork out from there. Some of it I have left, some of them I don't. There was nobody, nobody who wanted something this large in their community.
They wanted to keep Wafl, you know, the the place they moved into, you know, where they can afford to stay. A lot of the seniors, they're not here tonight because of the rain, stuff like that. I talked to several of them today. they called me are are quite concerned you
know that uh they are not going to be able to stay here over the years as the um taxation falls back on the residents you know um during this period. So, uh, I was wondering if you could answer
that, you know, later on. Is there going to be any benefit for the seniors in this? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You'll answer it later. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Hello everybody. I'm Alvin Star, a
long-term resident of Woodcliff Lake. We uh for 40 plus years have lived at 209 Glen Road. My comments really deal with issues of the site itself. The site is major limitations and let me outline at least three three issues right here. I'm
calling attention. And I know the developer isn't here, but I'll call attention to the current site drawing A01 and the proposed site drawing A02. Topography is not shown on either of these drawings. These drawings do not
represent the site. Uh then we note that the current uh BMW building is is way far from the north end of site for good reason because the north end really isn't buildable. So you had apple, you had an apple orchard there. Um
I would say has the man council visited the site from the perspective of say the Bristol uh driveway. You get a very nice view of the limitations of this site. Uh you will notice significant slopes along Glenn Road and the Garden State
Parkway on ramp to build on the northern to build on the northern side of the of the site. And the drawing shows the building right to the edge of the site is going to require a major geocvil structural construction that has to be done bringing many truckloads of
construct constructible soils, compacting, development and construction of retaining walls and major retaining wall construction. Uh you need many truckloads of constructed soils, building of massive retaining walls.
And another issue is when when you're building the retaining walls and you have a point of ingress and egress on Glenn Road, these cars entering and exiting will be going through a trench and as you exit it there' be very limited uh line of sight and we're going
to have a situation like it's 168 in the park when you get off and you try to make a left turn where you can't see. So it hasn't been addressed. The site has many issues and exiting the wall, exiting there could be a death trap just like we see a
168 on the Parkway getting off and and I think everybody knows what exit 168 is like. We don't need to create another 168 problem. Um, I recommend to mayor and council that the site plan show the current
topography and the final topography. And I recommend that in addition to the aerial view, which is looking down, you have at least from perspective of Glen Road, you have frontal views and side views on different angles to to
represent what the retaining wall will look like, what the point of ingress and egress will look like. And you can judge from the drawings or the images the risks that will be there. And if it can be amilarated, let it let it be corrected. But this is a danger spot.
And um and the same thing along the Garden State Parkway ramp. But this is should be an issue for the chief engineer of the turnpike authority. He should be brought into this thing. when you compact it or you replacing a lot of permeable permeable soils with
non-p permeable surfaces there be a lot of runoff a lot of water run off when you have the heavy rain how you going to manage to how you going to manage the runoff the runoff goes into the Bear Brook wershed which is right downhill and we all know what happens in heavy
rains on bear brook all you have to do is look at that new bridge at the foot of Glen Road and you see all the scour damage from heavy rains you get a really big rainstorm. When you get something built over there, you're going to have a problem right down to the bottom of Glenn Road.
This is a major project and really it needs a lot of it needs a lot of geocivil correction to make it work and to not create a not create other problems. We're trying to avoid these problems and it hasn't been addressed.
I'll say one other thing. Traffic on Glenn Road. I live on the town section of Glenn Road between the Maybrook Bridge and the bottom of the hill. I'm at the top of the hill and the traffic has been increasing yearbyear. And what's particularly annoying and dangerous is the police cars come
running up 40 miles an hour, lights and sirens a couple times a day. And when you make that turn at the top of the hill right before uh the Bearbrook Bridge, you can kill somebody. People walk there. My wife and I walk there. People walk the dogs on
the road. a narrow road and some portions they can't even go. Barely two cars go in in opposition. What I'll say is this is a very very dangerous situation and I don't know how the applicants going to deal with this thing. I don't know if they can. It's a mayor and council issue. You're going to
have the Hilton property is going to be housing what's going to be happening at the party party city site more housing. You can have more housing here. you have cumulative impacts and you're creating a very very dangerous situation. Should the should the should the police go up
Woodcliffe Avenue by the school or they should go on Glenn Road or should they go on Fremont Avenue? Not a good choice here. But you're creating a very very dangerous situation where people live in town and it's not been addressed. So I think this needs to be looked at and this is this is
basically a problem project. It has the site hasn't been built on to this extent because it really isn't buildable within reason. And thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Hey there, Alexander King, Woodcliffe
Lake. Um, thank you for advisory for preparing all the numbers. I have a couple questions about that. The first one I saw it in another presentation but it looks like we don't know yet exactly at
what point headcount saturation occurs at the schools. I know this is like a model based. So at what point I think it was 780 is what 2023 24 enrollment was. So depending on elementary, middle school, and then Pasco Valley High, at
what point do we reach saturation of the current budget and when that would roll over? Because that's really the number that most people are going to care about because we have to absorb that as residents unless, like you said, there's a chip in from the pilot money that goes
in. So the second thing is do you have a date or an idea of what the chipin would be of the sharing because that's a meaningful figure. I think most people are looking at that. So at what point is
that reached or an idea reached and at what point is that percent probably a percentage it's my guess. So I think a lot of people are wondering about that. Um, another thing are the
adviserss and auditors on board like how long are they on board for through the project? Uh, the reason I want to know is because I don't know if you know of the BKFO Connor Davies white paper on pilots, but the majority of
towns, municipalities like this don't have proper controls in place to address things like if they spin off an entity to absorb the rent and we don't have the ability to access the right numbers. Uh what they saw is that
most towns like us are smallalish, developer is big. So they have a lot of very clever accounting tricks that make it easy to extract more money out of the project when something like that would be coming towards us. What protections
are in place that you built into the agreement to do that, if any, and if they're not, are they coming? That's meaningful. Um, and I don't remember what the fifth one was, but I'll think about it. >> Well, this is an important numbers one,
so we we want to know. >> Thank you, >> Roger Gross. Wait. Um, I just want to acknowledge the process that's going on here is terrific. Um, I think the introduction to the project is great. I recognize
tonight we're talking about the pilot, not so much about the lack of engineering. I'd like to thank the gentleman for his uh thoughtful concerns that he's raised. I think that all of this is been about how good this is for
everybody. And I'm not suggesting it's not so good for everybody, but I would suggest that the concerns that are being raised by the public are concerns that ought to have maybe been uh part of the
conversation from the get-go. I have a couple of concerns. Councilman President uh Stern, I think you mentioned a couple times that the revenue from the existing site is 900,000. In the in the illustration, it says a
million5. >> I mean, I think I what I said was the the revenue to the local district and to the municipality is about 900,000. I think it's 920,000 to the municipality and the local district. >> So, where does the balance of the million five go?
school. So I think referring to that he was saying >> got it. >> Okay, I understand. >> Okay. The primary thing I wanted to try to express was based on the projection
is over 30 years. The first 20 or 23 years I believe it's a 10% of the gross aggregate on most of the revenue that's generated. And then it's not until year 24 that it starts to climb to 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15.
>> It's actually in year, it's year 11. >> Year 11. >> Year 11 it goes to 11%. >> Correct. And then year >> and then only in year 23 it goes to 12. >> No, year 18 it goes to 12. >> 18 12. >> Yeah. >> Okay. But there's different parts of it that accelerate at different rates or is
that aggregate calculation all of the revenue, the apartment phase and the town home phase? >> It is. >> Well, no. So the percentage is only the apartment phase. The the town home phase has a different percentage, right? That's based on the total assessed value. If you look at the slides, it's
actually page four >> is the town homes and the page three is the apartment and retail phase. >> Okay. So I guess the the the primary concern was that it looks to me like of the 106 million the difference the
majority of the income to us I feel like is weighted at the back end of the 30 years and I would really like to see a projection of the entire annual 30-year process because I'm sure it's in a
spreadsheet somewhere and to see that the majority ity of the difference in the revenue that we get now versus the projections from the pilot seem to fall in the last third. How much of those additional revenues are in the first 5
years, 10 years, 15, 20, some sort of better detail of the the phasing of the growth of the revenue from the project? Does that exist? Well, of yeah, of course it exists, you know. Um, but as as far as the
calculation and the presentation, you know, this is an overview. >> Okay. >> And and of course, we have the detail as to how the revenue breaks on every single year. We've got it by year, right? >> That's what I think. So, that's what I was looking to see. And then I guess the the the ultimate question to interrupt
for one second just to remind that we weren't going to do question and answer. >> I'm sorry. The last question I have. I will write down what you're saying, but I would ask that everybody just let the gentleman speak so we can move to >> I'm sorry about that. The last question it um and now I'm going to forget it.
>> You made us You made us forget the other way. >> All right. So So I guess it's the projection. The last question I'm going to have to think about. >> Well, you have another opportunity. I was I was on a roll. I'll get back on. >> Yeah. Yeah.
You still have a couple seconds left. All right. Anyone else? Come on up. >> Good evening. I'm Miss Snowy Hank. Um Bert Taylor uh Woodliff Lake and I am very grateful to uh Council President
Stern for updating us as to what the situation is with the uh offers by the firm. Okay. Uh I just kind of feel like with the wet
out there like we're all mushrooms. I've been looking at this thing for months. What's happening out there? I've gotten a copy of the ordinance 25-12 that spells out a lot of the terms and
conditions that are out there uh over 10 years and 20 years. And the retail space, I don't know why the retail space is getting a retail space is getting a break, but they certainly are. They're not paying anything until they get some revenue in, even though they got the property. Uh, I had requested from the
town clerk a copy of the from Oprah of what the latest agreement is as of Monday. I wasn't aware of what things you're talking about tonight. So, somewhere between Monday and Wednesday, we've added all of these terms in.
Uh, I don't know how that happens. I I I will give you a challenge. Can anybody up there tell me what the revenue will be in year 20 and what it will be for the schools? Come on. You're just giving us
information at the very last 11th hour at the 59th minute and expecting us to say, "Oh, that looks good." How can we possibly make a judgment on that? You haven't told us in months that it was there hasn't been noticed to the
public that there was even going on. Nobody knows that this was going on. It was a big secret. I aside from certain people on the council, Congress, I I'm I'm making you even better.
Council President Stern, we sat down together and you you sat with me and I appreciate that very much. We were open and honest and that's the way it has to be. But the rest of this has been a mushroom. We don't know what's going on. We don't know what the terms and conditions are. We don't know what's
being put into this. Why has you got the accountant over here making all of these judgments, but it's not given out to the public so that they can take a look and and find out what's happening. I got the copy of the agreement that's ready to be signed on Monday, and I didn't know about this stipulations that that I'm
hearing from Mr. Stern. That's unacceptable. What stipulations are we talking about? >> $2 million going over to to the uh Lie Decker House. I didn't know about it. It's not in there. >> We're not going to go back and forth. >> I understand that. But what else are you going to add to this that we don't know
about? What are you going to take away from us that we don't know about? When is the public ever going to know what you're doing? And how can you make a a a a a judgment in basing this on the 11th hour
in figures that are just being presented to us now and the public has no idea about them and they say, "Oh, well that sounds good." I say, "Bull dinky. Let us make a judgment and don't make the judgment tonight. Do not pass it tonight
until we know and we can approve what you're doing to us. You got up there $26 million that's not going to our schools. Tell it to the kids who just came out of here. Are they going to be happy? I hope not. Cuz I'm not. >> Yes. Just one more thing.
>> Welcome. >> Are you new to the area? Less than a year. Yes. >> My name is Alicia Wallace and I live in Woodcliff. Alicia Wallace and I live in Woodcliffe Lake. I'm a local realtor.
So, I was asked to speak on behalf of property values. Um, let me go ahead and put on my glasses. Nice to see everybody. I love the way the meeting is run. Okay, so um that's the concern and I know these questions are going to be answered at the end. Um, someone a few
people have mentioned the 26 plus million shortfall to the schools. So, that's definitely the concern because school performance is one of the strongest predictors um of property value in an area, especially in Woodcliffe Lake and these
smaller townships of Bergen County that are not right next to the GWB. Um, you know, the moment there isn't funding for kids with an IEP, each kid that requires these individual programs to be drawn up for them costs
about $100,000. And we're seeing it more often, unfortunately, than not, that students need these programs. Um, so the minute rumor gets out that these programs, they're mandated by federal law, so it's not something you can wait
until later to do. It's called the idea act mandated by federal law. Um, you know, once that stuff starts happening, it gets online. You know, goodschools.com, people start making comments and um,
that is just one of the strongest predictors. Um, buyers perceive the district as less desirable, which leads to fewer buyers entering the market for this area. you know, longer days on market for houses that are on the market for sale
and um you know, it's declining long-term appreciation. It shows that even modest drops in school rankings can reduce demand from families who are the the major driving force behind suburban property values.
Strong schools protect home equity and weakening school performance does put that at risk. So, I look forward to hearing about the um the revenue sharing program between the schools and the township. Thank you. Alexander King again would click like I
thought of a couple. Can you talk about I know the state's been tightening the wrenches on us for affordable housing. Can you talk about how that was part of the equation? Was that part of negotiation to fulfill our obligations? That's been a pretty big one also that I know a lot of people have talked about
and I'm sure was part of this. Um, thanks >> Jill Strasper. The pilot agreement is defined as based on annual gross revenue, but nowhere is annual gross revenue defined. Can you tell us what
that means? >> Hi, Laura Jeff Wolf Lake. Uh, I just have some simple questions, things that I don't necessarily understand, uh, you know, what I've been reading lately. But first of all, I want to ask I see the the financial benefits of the project
and it brings up these numbers for 26 through 30 and they're short of the million5 that's being paid on that property. Now, where are we going to make that number up? That's my first question.
Um, and hey, the way that this was presented, it sounds like my taxes will be going down, not up with all that money coming in. But maybe I'm wrong. Um, another thing that um I want to ask
about is if you could explain the uh town houses and how they're going to be paying their taxes because it keeps talking about it talks about the uh developers going to be taking care of that. Uh but I don't think that's the way that it is. I would assume it's from
the residents of those buildings and the benefit to the builder would be that they can sell it as uh a discounted rate uh when they market the properties. Uh what else? Oh, I think it was asked earlier about
the audit. Uh that information is going to be monitored yearly through uh these folks. So, they're going to we're going to be paying for that to be done and then it's going to be compared to uh what the developer gives us. How do
we how do we do the checks and balances on that? >> Okay. All right. And then some of these numbers seem to be based on 100% occupancy. Uh so first of all are these this number
of 2030 the project going to be complete the builder has guaranteed that is that correct so everything will be at 100% in 2030 and if it's not what is happening
um you know how are we getting any kind of revenue at that point um if that doesn't happen um what else did I want to ask. Oh, and if you could go again over how the schools are going to be funded,
uh, that would be terrific because I know you said that we're going to be g they're going to be giving money or the money from the town is going to go some of it to the school. Um, but is it going to cover each and every child that's going to go into the school or is it just going to be a predetermined number
by the town? So, like if we have, you know, 50 kids, are we going to be, you know, putting putting out the 23 and the $32,000 a year that we need for each of those kids? Um, so that we have those total numbers or, uh, you know, how are you
determining, uh, what's going to go to the school? I think that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. reminder. Financially, whatever you do tonight, we haven't had a chance to take a look at it and you
have auditors who have. So, we might have a questions about what those numbers are. We haven't heard any answers to what those questions are, but we have questions. Whatever you do tonight, you're setting a precedent. We are at the tip of an iceberg.
It may be a lot of units that we're talking about with BMW, but it's an iceberg out there that you're talking about with the Titanic. Take a look at what's happening with Broadway. You got four units over there. They've got the same situation. So,
they're going to want to have the same pilots. are going to want to have the same concesses concessions that you're giving tonight, but they're not here to talk about that. But they're going to want the same concessions from you. And when we go over and let's take the
Hilton. The Hilton is now owned by a billionaire, owns a a football team. So, he's got some money, but he's going to want money back from that. He's going to want money, and he's going to want concessions. He's going to want profit. He's going to want everything that you're giving out tonight for him. and
he's got almost the same amount of property over there. So, you're setting a precedent to say nothing of the property that's over at and I forget the name of it, but it's the property that's over at the corner of Pasak and old Pasak Road up on the hill there. Okay?
Want to have the same thing over there. If you put this all together, what you're proving tonight, or if I you do, and I hope you don't, I hope you put it off until we have a chance to find out more about what's really happening. Because if I can't find out what's happening in two days, then you have to
let these people know what's happening. Um, is going to be triple what we see tonight in terms of units, in terms of people, in terms of what's going to be happening with our schools. I did some calculations and I used the
Ruter School of Education as to what should be used for schools or whatever our school principal said. I went by the Ruter School of Education from 2025. I think that's a pretty good source and there'll be kids coming in and even if
they don't make any concessions in terms of what they need for for classrooms, they're going to need lunchons, they're going to need school books, they're going to need after school activities. It's going to be cost for those kids. And this is only one-third of what's going to be coming up in this town
within the next three to five years because we're looking at the tip of an iceberg. Don't be an Atlantic. Don't be, excuse me, a Titanic. Don't go down with the ship
because everybody's going to want the same concessions out of you. If you give them tonight, you get at least six others who say, "Oh, I'd like that, too." Also, just think about it some more before you
go ahead and commit all of this millions, hundreds of millions of dollars into the town that we don't know what the what the long-term aspect will be until you look at the big picture. The big picture is staring at you. Don't
just look at this. It's a bigger picture than what you got tonight. >> If I may, I just want to interrupt to say that I am writing down all the questions. So, if somebody's already said it, you don't have to worry about saying it again because I've already written it down. Uh good evening everyone. Uh Richard
Jagarian with Cliff Lake. Um heard all the comments um tonight. Um a lot of good comments as well. Um I've been a resident for 28 years. I've been to many of these meetings and one thing I've come to conclusion
is that it's great that we all share all our comments with with you all. Uh hoping that it uh falls on, you know, that you listen to us. It doesn't fall on deaf ears. But at the end of the day, we know what happens. We all know what happens. You're going to do what you're going to do. Uh just know that, you
know, the developers are doing what they want to do. They want to they're going to take advantage of the New Jersey laws and they're going to push it those laws on us. They know that we're a small town. We don't have the resources to fight against these. And we end up making concessions and then, you know,
what happens happens. Um, you know, I don't like where I remember when we did these uh town houses next to where we live. I mentioned during that process, I said once you put town houses in Woodluff Lake, this is a single home um
county. I'm not county, a town, and once you do that, it's going to open up to more town houses. So, now we've gone to not just town houses to apartments in support of housing. So, I don't know how we've gone down this rabbit hole. And it's really um it's sad, but at the same
time, as a resident, if I don't like it, I guess I move. And that's the someone else is going to move into our house and that's that's what they're going to live with. So, if if you want to keep the town the way it is, great. But if you want to change it and make it into a Monteale or some of these other towns,
then that's what's going to happen. and Wickliff Lake has been a you know we we all know we all moved here for a reason but it's changing fast and um anyway it's just sad to see but I know that you're going to do what you're going to do so um you know you can't fight city
hall or town hall in this case anyway that's it >> thank you >> I just want to clarify this last point >> so through year 23. 11 we get we get uh at year 11 it goes
up by 20 uh 10% of the number because we're getting 10% of the annual gross revenues and then through year 23 of a 30-year pilot it goes up another 10%.
So, what I'm suggesting is in the last seven years of a 30-year pilot, there's a another 10, 20, 30, a total of a 50% increase, but it's so backwaited in the last seven years. And my request
is to try to level these percentages so that all of the the 30% additional revenue that we're getting in the last seven years is spread into the first 23.
This is this is the point I want to try to make to level the the backend revenue where money in the future isn't worth money today. 23 years out, discounted money. Who knows what's going to happen 24, 25, 26,
30 years out. So my request is that we look at leveling this more than a 50% cliff the last seven years getting the most of the money. That's my point. >> Okay. >> One more question. Can we talk about the
clock and how the clock works here? Because like it says, you know, when we're talking about um the town houses from the first day of the month following the substantial completion of the town home until the last day of the fifth year. So it he's not going to
build everything all at once and finish it all at once. So if he takes the first 10, does that mean that the clock starts for those 10, but maybe the next 10 uh the clock in year one through five,
you know, lands there? And is that the same thing with the pods? Like he's not going to finish he's going to finish one of the pods for the apartments first. He's not going to do them all to together because he's going to want to start collecting his revenue. So, um,
are we is that considered year one for the apartments that we're going to be collecting this money or it's just going to be a portion? I mean, it just it just seems like it's going to be a lot to, you know, try and figure out what we're getting and when we're getting it
because of the, you know, the phases that everything's going to be built in. So, can you just, you know, talk about that a little bit, please? >> All right. If there's no other questions, I'm going to turn it over to our Oh, come on up. >> Hi, Christina Radu with Cliff Lake. It's
a Radu RDU. It's a very straight one straightforward question. Should we the existing taxpayers expect our raises our taxes to grow by a certain percentage? We know that taxes grow up every day. Every year, every year there's an assessment
that taxes go up. Should we expect our taxes to go up due to this project? Are we the existing taxpayers in Woodcliffe Lake today expected to pay
should we expect to pay higher taxes in the following years due to this project? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Come on up. John Grasswood, Cliff Lake, how are you? Good. >> So, I I share a lot of the things that
the people here do in terms of, okay, we have roughly 6,100 residents here in Woodcliff Lake. When these homes are built, I'm expecting there to be another 3,000 additional people here because I mean, you're not going to have
one or one person renting here. Has there through this pilot program, has everybody accounted for, you know, what's the road work going to be like? How much how much are we putting into the DPW? Did we account for police officers,
EMTs, firefighters? Um, did we account for their increases, pensions? Is that part of this? Right. Did we account for the amount of children that are going to be part of those 3,000, you know, approximate people that are going to be
living here? And do we have enough money in the pilot program to cover that? Or are our taxes going to cover that? So, I know what I know what's in for the developers, right? I know what's in for the town. I think the people here want to know what's in it for me. I think
that's what's what's and I I believe they want to know that they're covered in taxes, too. that they're not going to bleed. That's real important to us. Okay. >> Hi. Analise Benham Woodcliffe Lake and I actually moved two years ago to
Woodcliffe Lake for the schools. So, I am very concerned about >> Can you say state your name again? Because >> Yanise Benham Wood Cliff Lake. Um, my question is why is a 30-year pilot program necessary? Why can't it just be
10 years? Let them get off the ground um and try to get revenue to the town faster. Was an independent study done? And I'm sorry, I was putting my two young kids to bed before getting here at 8:00 at night to join this meeting. So,
this is important. Um, and has uh is it just one developer that we're dealing with or was were there multiple? Are we kind of just stuck with this one deal and that's why we're even entertaining this pilot program? But all of this, you know, again, the fact that there's going
to be we're going to be missing this amount of money to the schools and we're going to be getting an increase of potentially children and family. This is why I moved to Woodcliffe Lake. Other people are going to want the same. What is that going to mean? And everything goes up. So, if we're going to have a
higher headcount in the school system, teachers need increases over time, right? How do we keep the school competitive in the way, you know, as it should be. So, we would appreciate answers to that and thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Come on up. Just want to add one more thing. John Gruss would click. I was just wondering if anyone has conducted any studies on other low development project to see how many children actually do attend those projects so we get a better idea of how
much we have in this pilot program to cover those children. So that that's the only addition I have. >> Thank you. Okay. So come on Laura, just tell us all your questions. >> The microphone
>> people they need the microphone otherwise people at home can't hear us. >> What's that? >> Come up because people at home are listening and then they can't hear you. >> They can probably hear me. Um my the last thing that I wanted to say is I you know just FYI I you know I I know more
about you know this affordable housing than I really want to admit to. But this developer has had pilot programs pulled from him in other municipalities in Pamis uh in uh Hackinac uh and those are the two that I can
think of offhand and he's you know he's the one who's doing all the work at the Bergam Mall or the Bergentown Center that big monster that's at uh Pamis Park and and then you know some another complex in uh in Hackinack that I don't
know if it started yet or not But I think it's the Sears building, but he hasn't walked away from anything even though he's not getting these special provisions on those projects. He's still, you know, usually the pilot program, and correct me if I'm wrong,
uh, you know, is is given to a developer because they have a problem getting their funding. Uh, you know, or as somebody else mentioned, the area that they're redeveloping. Uh, you know, makes sense in Camden, but, you know, it's not happening in Summit. it's not happening in these other towns that, you
know, equate to what Woodcliffe Lake is. And the projects are, you know, they're still going forward because of the fact that this is such a desirable community. So, I I I just think that we really should see how the uh all these numbers
really break down. You know, it's great to have these totals, but what does that really mean? What does that mean for me five years from now? What does that mean for me 10 years from now, you know, versus 30 years from now where, you know, I'm going to be looking up at everybody. But anyway,
that's I'm done. Thank you. >> Anyone else? All right. Motion to close with the public. All in favor? >> No. Second, is there? >> All in favor? All right. Councilwoman needs a bathroom
break. So, we're going to take a bath before we go to the uh to answer the questions. >> We're going to take a break and then we're going to go to the experts to answer the questions. >> Yeah. Is everyone here? All right. >> So, I'm going to address all you know
the questions one by one. Uh before I turn it over to to the uh experts, I just want to address uh Mr. Taylor and Mr. King and Mr. King. Now, Mr. Mr. Naylor made a comment. He said, uh, this is the tip of the iceberg
with these developers. And I agree with him. That is true. Right. What I don't agree is that we, if we make a decision today, will set a precedent because that precedent was state set by the state of New Jersey and the fair share housing uh
act uh and the regulations coming out of Trenton. They are handcuffing municipalities into these developments. Just look around you as to what happened. We're not unique in Wl Lake. Hold on one second. No, no, this is not a question. This is not a
I'm >> No, I'm not. I'm talking about what's going on with fair share housing. It's happening with us with Montville. Now you could take the tact of Montil and challenge these things and take the tact of Anglewood Cliffs and challenge these
developments. Anglewood Cliffs got stuck with 1500 units. Montville's their immunity was taken away from them. Right? There's legislation right now in Trenton that dictates any houses of worship needs overlays of 40 units an
acre. Right? That's during the lame duck session of Trenton. So the the rights of municipalities are being taken away by Trenton and the state of New Jersey. That's what we're faced with. And as Mr. King said, how much of this is being
driven by fair share housing and the affordable housing? 100%. 100%. And that's the reality. And as Councilman Stern said, the pilot program is a way of controlling these type of developments. We had developers coming
in for that lot for 700 to 600 6 to 700 units for that parcel, right? We fought, we fought, we said we don't want those type of developers here. And that's where we came up with Mr. Russo, who is a local developer who lives on Saddle
River, who has an interest in making sure this is the premier project for his company and for the town. and we controlled this development through this process. It took eight months of negotiations going back and forth. So
this wasn't, you know, a haphazard decision to do this, but we have to protect the municipality and there's litigation going on, right? So for example, Party City objected to the fair share housing plan that we have. That's what we're dealing with. We're dealing
with the state of New Jersey and the developers and the hammer of the developers. So, we try to do the best we can for Wliff Lake to control the size of these developments. You know, Mont Bale struggling with it. Park Ridge is struggling with it. Drive down where Miss Road, go into Washington Township,
44 units on that small acre. I mean, come on. See it. It's not just Woodloff Lake. So, uh Wendy, I'm going to turn this over to you to answer some of the specific questions. Okay. Um, instead of going just in
order, I want to address the biggest elephant in the room first, which is the schools. Um, I think what people are not understanding is that while these numbers show a different in projection of the tax revenues that are being collected of of as far as the pilot
versus traditional taxes, the schools are not losing money. The schools write their budget. Whatever their budget is, the bureau collects taxes and has to pay that budget. They're not getting reduced by any amount. That's the first thing
that has to be understood. Although these taxes are getting collected in a different manner by a payment in lie of taxes, the schools still get fully funded based on what their adopted budget is. That does not change. So I think that addresses a lot of the questions that people are asking about
the schools, the special needs. Yes, this will generate school children. Yes, there have been studies done. It was presented at the time we were here um for consideration of the redevelopment plan which was the zoning that was adopted for this site. Um and that's
where somebody had indicated that it's been shown that the affordable units tend to produce more school children than a market rate unit. And as part of the negotiations for this project, which if adopted tonight will include a pilot, was also
to reduce the number of the larger apartments so that it would decrease the number of school children in the market rate units. So that's something that I think is needs to be made clear to everybody here that may be concerned about something that
messaging has gotten lost. The schools will be fully funded based on their adopted budget. That being said, this council has indicated publicly that they are committed to working with the schools and have started those conversations to make sure that some of
this money goes to the school. How does that happen? That's not going to be the operating budget because this pilot is a set time frame, right? So, you don't want to put something into an operating budget that may not be there after a certain time and then it's relied upon because then you will create a hole in
their budget. But the ways that towns can help the schools or work with their schools is if the school has a capital project that's not operational. You know, schools need a new roof, maybe there's new fields that need to be done, ball fields built, etc. That's a perfect
opportunity to negotiate with your your burough council in order to alleviate the impact of the need so that the school doesn't have to go to a referendum because now we have another money source. So that's really how the interplay happens from pilot payments when a municipality is willing to
negotiate and help fix certain issues for the school. But certainly it shouldn't be the operating budget. That budget is fully funded by what is adopted by the school board which is a separate entity from the council. Um going on to the other
questions. So that was the allocating of money. um school taxes are not going down real in in reality. It's just that as based on what the current assessment is, there's not an additional allocation into the
tax dollar. So the percentage of your tax dollar that is going to the school will increase because they're still getting fully funded, but the municipal portion is also decreasing from there. that's getting probably more into something that the auditors want to discuss. But um
yeah, if you don't mind, let's just address the schools first and then we'll go to the next. >> Sure. And just another way of saying with what Wendy has has said already is is that you know under the pilot program and we'll call it $143 million project, right? That's going to be the value of
this project. under the pilot program for the most part. And of course, there's going to be some small piece because we have a piece split between apartments and and and the um town homes, but generally speaking, that $143 million will not go into the burrow wide
assessed value when it comes into determining how much the school is going to be able to share on that component. But the school will develop a budget. They'll have a tax dollar amount just like they do every single year. that taxable amount or that dollar amount
that they they need to raise will then get divided by the assessed value of the burrow will have a tax rate. They'll get the full amount of that dollar value. School is not going to see a single drop in their tax dollars that they need to
operate their budget. The distinction is is that on a $140 million project that that assessed value that money is going to be primarily given to the municipality. It's not going to be added for the burrowwide assessed value that everyone would have
normally shared in on the project if it was not a pilot. So that's the difference. It just means that the money is being diverted to the municipality. The school is going to be based on a different assessed value and that number is going to be raised and given to the
school on an annual basis. So there's not going to be any kind of loss of revenue on the school basis on the tax side. And one other important uh thing to note uh based on the projections here, our auditor's projections because the number we have today is a certain
assessed value for that property. That assessed value is likely not to continue if something isn't built on this property because the condition of the building is such that it may not have that same value. Um
there's been plenty of property tax appeals. that's what's generally the result of when there may be a a property that is assessed higher than what it should be. So I just want to note that even though the projections for comparison purposes had that same what is it 69 uh
>> 69 million >> 69 million as the assessed value of the property that would be unlikely to be the assessed value moving forward if that property stayed as is. So it's there for projection purposes. Um, and I just wanted to make sure that everybody
was aware that that was only for projection purposes. It doesn't mean that is what would happen absent something coming onto this property. Um, I know that the mayor has addressed this, but there was comments made about the slippery slope of we never had town
houses, now we have town houses, why do we have apartments? We shouldn't have anything but a single family home. That is illegal now in the state of New Jersey. That is what Mount Laurel is based on. So as much as people might want to just have single family home,
the important part of what the bureau is doing and candidly I I also do the affordable housing for the burrow. So I I know how this council has struggled to make sure that they are meeting their constitutional obligation while still
trying to protect the single family neighborhoods because what happens next is if you don't allow development on properties that are turning over is and I have this happening in other towns. A builder buys a 2acre single family
home and now you're getting 10 town houses on it in the middle of single families. I have another town that's getting 12 units on a 73 acre of a home because they have unmet need. So, you know, this is very important that everything be
looked at in a holistic picture and not just as a one-off. I understand that today we're here to talk about this particular project, but we were all here back in June with the housing plan and it is an overall picture that needs to be looked at of we have people knocking
down your door. Where should it be approved? Because it's coming somewhere that moving on to uh the next point. Um, I know there was a lot of talk about the engineering of the site and I I agree
that that it's wonderful that that these things are being addressed, but this public hearing is specific to the ordinance on the financial agreement. So, that is actually a little bit outside of the scope of what we're going to be discussing tonight. Um, as far as
let's see, the audits, that was a big question that was brought up by a lot of people of how are we going to be able to tell whether there the information being provided is correct? How are we determining what the yield is to the municipality in the pilot? There is in fact a requirement under the the statute
for there to be annual audits. The developer will provide their information first. However, the bureau will have their professionals review and um confirm or request additional information to deny
whatever was provided by the developer. Um I want to make clear to all of the residents, this is not being done on your tax dollar. The financial agreement has an escrow where the developer will be reimbursing any administrative cost of the bureau, not only the audit, but
any administrative costs over the next, you know, term of the pilot. Um, there was a question about the term of the pilot. So, I think that's probably a good crossover. The way that it works and um
this also addresses something that uh both Mr. Taylor had spoken about and council president spoken about. There is a community benefit payment that the developer is agreeing to make to the bureau for up to 5 years. And the
reason for that is it may take up to 5 years for the project to be built. And in between that time, you would otherwise only be getting the value of the land tax because the pilot payments come after the CO or the TCO. So that's the substantial completion. That's when
the the project's built and ready to be occupied. So in order to make sure that the burrow is not harmed during the construction phase, we've negotiated a community benefit payment to make sure that the burrow is still receiving uh funding so that the taxpayers are not
impacted and your taxes don't go up during that period while you're waiting for construction to happen. To Mr. Taylor's point about having requested the redevelopment agreement and none of this was in there. You may note that on the agenda tonight there is a resolution to approve an amended version of the
redevelopment agreement and the reason why that redevelopment agreement wasn't executed and why tonight there'll be a new one is because there were substantial changes made to it because the the buroughs professionals at the direction of the council and the committee kept going and so now that is
in there when it wasn't in there the last time that it was approved. That's why you didn't see it in the copy you saw. That was a draft copy that hadn't been executed. There is a new agreement that is getting approved tonight that includes those payments for up to 5 years to make sure that there's no
burden on the taxpayer. Let's see. So, someone did ask about the revenue of the existing site. So, I suppose I already touched upon that by by noting that there that's projected from today's revenues. But quite frankly,
this property is not a $69 uh million value at the moment. If uh we base it on what it it's transferring hands on, that would provide for a big tax appeal. Um let's see. So that's why the
redevelopment agreement in draft form did not have all of the terms because we're approving or asking the council to approve a new one. um the way that the town houses are getting built and seed co seoed because the town houses are different than an
apartment building. The apartment building would have to be substantially complete before anyone come in. Town houses can be built one by one. So each one of those town houses will have a start date from when they sell and there's a co. Um but under no circumstance is anything going to go
beyond the period of the financial agreement. So, if some if the developer waits 15 years to build a townhouse, they're not going to get another 20 years on top of that. That's not how it's going to work. Everything ends within 35 years.
It's 30 years on the apartments for the actual pilot agreement and they have up to 5 years to complete the construction. Um, with the townhouse, that would be the 25 years. It's the 5 years plus to to start and completes construction, you'll have 20 years of the pilot.
Um, some of how the town houses will be paying their taxes is going to be based on a percentage of what the actual assessed value is. uh that
the benefit to the bureau about the taxes being paid in that way again is that the municipality is able to get a larger payment because it's 95% of the revenues going to the bureau versus having to spread to all of the other uh
parties that would be into that calculation and the county is getting less with only the 5%. Um, I think I'm going to turn it over to our auditors to get into the specific questions about the different um, projections of the payments and the how
it it spreads across the time period. Um, and just note that it is not 100 it's not calculated at 100% um, occupancy. There's always a certain percentage in the industry that has turnover for the rental apartments.
you know, the town houses are going to be sold, so they'll be 100% sold at some point, and each one goes by itself. But when you're doing the calculations and the projections for apartments, there is a certain rate of of uh turnover that is anticipated and then there's also a
certain rate of rental increases that are anticipated. So although it looks like it's substantially back heavy on the pilot, you also have to keep in mind that the revenues are growing. Not just the percentage to the bureau, but the revenues because of rent payments going
up. But I'm going to ask you all to take it a little bit more. >> Sure. Thank Thank you, Wendy. And I'm going to turn a lot of this over to Julius in the detail, but just a couple basic comments. Um yeah and that's the reason why it is
backloaded. So those percentages are are smaller up front and there's more risk to the developer at that point as well. Um u and so that's why those are typically backloaded. Um you know as part of this whole process, this whole process started with a blank slate,
right? And really what happens is the developer comes in then and says this is what my demands would be. And then that's when we went back and forth over again, eight eight and a half months and constantly revising that to to the betterment of the deal to get more for
Woodcliffe Lake um as opposed to what the developer really wanted. And there were a lot of concessions that happened during that process. Um Lie Decker obviously being held harmless on the uh current tax value as the building gets demolished now and as the process
happens. it could be up to five years before it's fully built out. Um so we're not going to lose revenue on that side. Um there's the donation. Um you know, one of the things and one of the biggest issue is again, you know, from the developer side, they're looking for at least what what are we escalating on
rent increases on an annual basis. So the rent increase on the annual basis was projected at 2 and a half%. But when if that rent goes up, so that's a minimum. That's the number we're going to get. But if that number goes up, it can be more money again to us on the municipal side. Um, so I don't know if
there's other specific, but I know you want I know there was a question regarding escalation and dollar values per year. >> Uh, yeah, I think Paul touched on a lot of the issues already. Uh, the rent, I think somebody asked a question earlier about what is annual gross revenues.
Annual gross revenues really is translated that's rents essentially. what are the rents that somebody renting an apartment is going to pay and then basically we talked also about well how does that grow so the rents we assumed and a lot of this is based on
projections so yes there's certain assumptions that went into all those numbers that we presented earlier but the assumption was 2 and a half% increase on rents a 5% vacancy once the project is fully built out and occupied that there is
always going to be a 5% vacancy that was factored in in the first two years and you may have noticed it in the n well actually you didn't see it in the numbers somebody requested that we bring the breakdown by year so once we get that blessed by the council that could
be made available but when you do see those numbers what you'll see is the first two years actually those numbers are lower because that was when the project was being built and it was the rentals were being phased in over time. Then by year three,
when the product is fully built out, that's when the 5% vacancy really kicks in for the apartment phase. With the town home phase, we basically did assume that that was going to be for sale units and they were all going to come online
right up front in year one. Again, that's an assumption. May not happen that way. That would impact these numbers, but those were one of the some of the assumptions that we worked on off of. And then the other thing too is like getting back to the percentages on the pilot.
When you look at the percentages on the pilot, somebody said, "Well, why weren't the percentages more evenly spread out over the course of the 30 years?" Basically, when you do the financial analysis, and we do this work for a lot of municipalities, the project doesn't support a higher percentage in the early
years. Otherwise, it wouldn't be feasible for the developer to build the project. We look at all those things when we're determining what can the developer afford to pay in a pilot for this project to be built. 10% is the minimum under the law. So
they're paying that minimum percentage for the first 11 years or first 10 years. Then beginning in year 11 once we saw that the project could support a higher percentage we went back to the developer and this was the negotiation and we requested higher percentages and
those are the ultimate percentages that you saw that we had in the presentation. So to say that to ask to spread it out we really looked at that already quite honestly and we tried to negotiate the best deal that we could for the for the town and I think we really did a a
pretty good job. I mean, if you look at other pilots that other towns do, most of them don't get up to 15% in year 30. So, we really were very aggressive when we went to the developer and asked for these additional pilot percentages
on the town home phase. We also took a hard look. They originally had asked for a 30-year pilot on the town homes. We looked at the financials and we said, "Well, this project doesn't really warrant a 30-year pilot on the town homes." That's why when you look at the pre the presentation, we only did a
pilot for 20 years on the town homes and then after 20 years, it reverts back to full taxation because that portion of the project didn't warrant a 30-year pilot. So again, all these things were looked at as part of the negotiation process. And I'm not sure if there are
other questions I didn't address. So, I'll definitely welcome Wendy here to give me a keeper. She's the gate. >> I'm just going to I'm going to talk a little bit just about the the site itself. There was a couple questions regarding uh the site topography and concerns about about the project. the
project. Uh the developer did have a site plan application uh at the land use board and that site plan application included very detailed plans regarding topography, regarding how the uh the buildings were laid out uh in terms of
not only the locations but also too. Uh they've indicated that they and they're required by law to meet all storm water management uh requirements through NJD. Uh there was a comment about making a left turn uh from the from Glenn Road exit. Uh it's a right in right out on
Glen Road. So so that is uh of no concern. Uh there were uh retaining walls that are being provided, elevations, renderings. There were cut sections across Chestnut uh Ridge uh to the building showing the existing u
slopes that were going to be maintained as well as maintaining existing uh trees along that. I believe that all of those documents would be uh at at Burrow Hall. Uh there was also a question regarding the impacts on DPW, police, fire, etc.
So obviously the the site had development on it pre prior which police and fire were required to um you know to maintain as a part of that. This the property the land hasn't increased in size. Uh the roads on the interior of
the of the property are going to be private. They're going to be maintained privately. Garbage uh pickup will be private. So there'll be no impacts on DPW. Fire and police should be the same as it was prior to um uh this project.
Uh so so we believe that all of those kind of issues have been addressed as a part of the site plan application. I think the last big question to address now is what's going to happen to the resident existing resident taxes. So,
while I will say this with the caveat of, you know, things always go up, right? The school tax is always going to go up, the county taxes is always going to go up. What I will say is that your taxes are not going up as a result of this project. As a result of the pilot,
it may help keep you the municipal portion of your tax at a lower level for a longer period of time than perhaps otherwise because the bureau will be collecting more money based through this arrangement. Um, so to the extent that
perhaps you might need another police officer, the pilot will cover the cost of that. Um it I can't speak for what the future is going to bring with health care costs and whatnot, but this project is not in itself going to be generating any tax burden onto the existing
residents. It will more than cover its own cost. >> And I I'll just I'll just add to that. >> I'll just I'll just add to that and uh you know Wendy definitely answered that appropriately. Um but just think about it, right? So this project alone, this $143 million new project, right? What is
it going to do? It it's going to provide $106 million worth of additional proceeds, right? 86 million of that is going to come to the municipality. Um, and if you compare it, if we just again went under the assumption that what's existing there stays forever and it's at
the right value, we're still going to generate $42 million more as a community. Um, so, you know, I think at the end of the day, I think this is a plus plus for the for the burrow of Woodcliff Lake. Um, you know, the fact that we're generating all this additional money and
we're really not adding substantial charges or costs to the barrel, >> right? I basically Paul said it spot on. I mean, yes, the tax burden may shift between the municipal share, the local school, the regional school, and the county, but overall tax burden to the
residents is going to go down based on these projections because we're generating an additional $42 million that wouldn't otherwise have been generated if this project didn't go into place. So, that's a benefit to the residents. And as I said, the burden may shift, but in total, it's going to be a
benefit. Mayor, I believe that that covers all of the summaries of the questions put together. >> You know, one of the big benefits of this agreement that I don't think people realize that it's an important point is
that with this agreement, the BMW tax appeals go away. So, when we're looking at these tax appeals, we're looking at exposure of maybe 13 million. Well, our budget is 14 million. If we lose these tax appeals, where do you think that
money is going to come from? From us. So, this was a big part of that negotiation and eliminating the tax appeals. And as as Paul said, these properties were pretty much overassessed and we would have lost that in tax court. So, that's that's a huge benefit
for this municipality that we have to realize and uh and that's what we looked at too. The community benefit portion also protects us when the building is not there where we're receiving revenue for that loss of that assessment. That's
also huge, right? They didn't have to do that. We negotiated that in to the agreement to make sure we're level throughout the whole project and we're receiving revenue to cover the losses of that assessed value. That's a big
portion of of this agreement. And also the $2 million that they will provide to the municipalities for the beautifification of of the Wormis Road Corridor Light by Decker and surrounding grounds. We also negotiated that into the agreement. They started at 500,000.
We pushed it to 2 million. Right. That's all part of the negotiations that we were involved with. Uh Mr. Stern, M. Marsh. Uh we looked after the benefits of our burrow understanding
the risk that's involved. We're not moving forward with these projects. The fact that this project is isolated and as Wendy indicated, look look what's happening in Washington Township. You have a single family residential zone and you have 44 town homes going into
one lot. Just drive down where we're miss road. Look on it on the left. We were cognizant of these issues. So the idea is is try to limit the damage as much as possible and understanding the communities around us that are
developing. Montail KPMG is 30 acres coming up. Okay. So think about that. Look what's happening in Park Ridge with the Sony property, right? So it's here. Unfortunately, the area is going to
change. we have to adapt to it and try to control it as much as we can for the benefit of our residents and that's what we were all cognizant about to protect our interest. So I don't know if Mr. Stern anyone else from the council would like to say anything can I just say something very quickly is that okay just
one I I just want to say that I think it's important to note that none of us wanted BMW the Hilton our party city to go out of business and leave our burrow. I think that's the most important thing to begin with. We did not choose to build developments. We wanted our businesses to stay, but when our
businesses left, we lost a lot of revenue and the property was sold and the buyers who wanted it were developers. So, I think that's just a very important thing to note. >> Miss Marsh, >> sorry. I also um I wanted to make a
point. You know, I want to thank Paul and Julius and Wendy and Fran. These are our experts and they're here. And I know um as Mr. Taylor pointed out, it seems like this has all just sprung on you, but this is two years of all of our lives that we've been working and negotiating and back and forth and
really, you know, this is not an overnight something. I've personally talked about it at every council meeting since, you know, for about two and a half years that these things were coming and happening and trying to get, you know, people to understand that these
are these are things that we've been working with and dealing with. And, you know, our experts have spent a great amount of time preparing and going over numbers and going over contracts and and back and forth. And this is not anything that any of us on the council have taken
lightly. It's not anything we haven't taken seriously or paid attention to and it's not something that hasn't been, you know, really worked hard on by all the people who are here. And so I understand that everybody has questions and concerns and that is all valid and fair.
I just want you to know that this is something that that we really we've had these questions. We've we every question that you guys have presented, every something that you've brought up are things that we have been addressing and dealing with and back and forth for two years. We are residents of this town. We
are not just representatives. And these are not things that we haven't asked of ourselves and asked of the developers and asked of our experts. This is this has been a really lengthy negotiation process and it has not been easy for the developers to, you know, to have this
project with us either. We have really advocated as best we can for the residents of this town. And whether ultimately everyone wanted development or didn't want development, I can tell you over the past two years, we have made sure that we don't have a 700 unit
development on this particular piece of land. And I know that doesn't might not seem comforting, but it was a lot of work for us to get here. So, I just want to thank everyone who's up here. Thank everyone who's at that table. I appreciate that everyone came out tonight, too, because it's important
that you guys are here and ask questions. And here are the presentations. So thank you. >> And when we look at things when we look at things in terms of the righthand turn, I mean couple years ago certain, you know, many residents, oh open up the right hand turn on one, you know, 171
open. There's a reason why we don't do these things. We looked at these things perspectively and what's coming up and we understand that these developments were coming up in the future. So we planned these things not from today. We plan 10 15 years down the line of how
it's going to be and how it's going to look with the with the help of our experts and we try to do the best we can to try to control the amount of development that that come that comes to the area. Again, it was a real challenge telling he's telling the the realtor for
for BMW, we don't want 700 units on BMW. We don't want 600 units of BMW. And that was the push. and they got they they got offers for that much and we said no and we held the ground. So this is the best that we could do in terms of limiting
the size and scope of these developments because think about what the alternative would be and it's not good. >> Well, thank you mayor and I want to especially thank uh Councilwoman Marsh and Council President Stern along with the mayor and our professionals for all their diligence. You know what the
public doesn't often see is while we meet perhaps 12 times a year monthly for these council meetings is the countless hours throughout the day throughout the workday our evenings time away from families and others that go into working
with our professionals working with um realtors folks um part of the re Russo development program our professionals to see this through that this was as Councilwoman Marsh and others pointed out years of work to make sure that We are protecting the interests of the
municipality. Four of the six of us on this deis from the council perspective have children in the schools. Um this is something we are all taxpayers. Every single person who lives in Wliff Lake on this deis is paying taxes. We are all cognizant of the impact this has. What
you see in front of you and and you know I've seen some of the commentary and things like that on social media. I've had friends and many of you as constituents ask us sort of all right we understand we are where we are from a constitutional perspective with BMW but
why the pilot and I think what you've heard tonight is the pilot for us for the municipality is a tool for us to get more favorable terms that we can build something that we as a municipality could support from
uh resources that we have available that We can use it as an opportunity to get the best possible outcome based on our constitutional obligations with Mount Laurel and others for the municipality. That is other revenue sources. That is opportunity to defay costs that we would
otherwise have to spend. I asked every single one of you unless you live on Brookview and the other two streets that we paved this year, what is the condition of your streets? I'm sure every single one of you would raise your hand and say, "Please pave my street." We need to pave all 46 miles of roadway
in this municipality. We have ball fields that are consistently flooded. We've got uh burrow hall that needs uh considerable amounts of work. The lists are endless for this municipality. And it's not to say that the only way to do that is via this pilot. The question is
that we have this constitutional obligation in front of us from building affordable housing, meeting these obligations that if we don't do, we're going to be in court. we're going to be sued, we're going to lose, and we're going to get a much worse outcome than if we had this pilot agreement. So, this
is one of the very few tools in our toolbox to help this municipality and make sure that we're getting the best possible terms that we can given the situation in front of us. The other question that was raised um is around public safety, around the needs for extra uh police support and emergency
services. I can speak. Um, Councilman Stern, Council President Stern, and myself have been working for the last year on renegotiating the PBA contract with our police department. That is going to be a five-year contract. You'll see on the agenda for this evening, a memorandum of understanding with the PBA
outlining the terms of that new contract. As part of that contract, one of the things that we are doing is changing their schedule with agreement of the police department or the members of the police department from an eight-hour shift to what is called a pitman 12-hour
shift. By doing that, that enables us to put more cops on the street per shift while maintaining the current um expenditure for salaries and and other benefits for the police department. So, we are looking at ways, how do we
stretch every single tax dollar that we possibly are getting in and getting more out of it. We're getting more cops on the street to proactively support us for things like this BMW development in the future for things like the Hilton so that we don't automatically have to turn and say, "We need to hire more cops. We
need more volunteer firefighters," which we do need more volunteer firefighters. So, anyone who wants to raise their hand, we uh would very much appreciate it. But from a police perspective, working from a EMS standpoint with Tri Burau as well as um local EMS services,
how do we get um and make sure that we are continuing to protect our residents? So, getting back to sort of the the original point of the amount of hours that are poured in from this council of thinking through all of these things, do we have enough water, electricity, can
our sewers uh support it? These are all things that are being proactively thought of. You are going to see some changes as of the beginning of the year as mentioned in our last or as approved in our last council meeting to our sanitation schedule. Um things such as outsourcing garbage so that we can lower
the the load on our current DPW um and enable them to focus on other things in the municipality including keeping our sewers clean, uh maintaining our parks, roadways, and otherwise. >> Thank you, Councilman. Anyone else?
Okay. So motion u on ordinance number 25-12 motion to adopt. >> Is there a motion? >> Motion. >> Uh Mr. Pollock. Mr. Banano. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Banano. >> Yes.
>> Brodky. >> Yes. >> Mr. Maris. >> Yes. >> M >> Marsh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pollock. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stern. >> Yes. >> Okay. Resolution number 25-285. Resolution approving modified redevelopment agreement with RW Flake
Urban Renewal. Is there a motion for adoption? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Banano, >> yes. >> Mr. Sprdsky, >> yes. >> Mr. Margolus, >> Marsh, >> Mr. Pollock, >> yes. >> Mr. Stern, >> yes.
>> Yeah. All right, we're going to take a fivem minute break. Thank you. If anyone has any further questions, you could ask the experts or anyone like Wendy, you're you're done. You want to go?
>> Oh, no. Yeah, Wendy, you're not done. >> Banana needs a break. No, I'll see you tomorrow. >> I I I kind of All right. >> All right. So, >> motion to open to the public. >> Is there a second?
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> Yes. >> Anyone from the public like to speak? Seeing none. Motion to close to the public. >> Motion. >> Is there a second? >> All in favor? >> Motion passes. Mayor's report. I have nothing to report.
>> Uh, council members reports. Councilman >> Banano great to see so many Sunday showings. for our holiday celebrations. Uh ice skating event as a result
contest award Monday December 22nd from 5 to 7 p.m. more information. Uh last thing decoration decoration contest not win this year
tree decoration contestation creativity and enthusiasm a lot of spirit uh for the seniors had a wonderful uh party uh holiday party girls this week uh last week for everybody and the seniors we welcome
in 2026 in the senior center on New Year's Eve All interested should reach out. Uh DPW I think I I had to we did have a special guest this Saturday. I'm trying to be
uh DPW uh sanitation recycling 2026 sanitation recycling schedule has been finalized and shared via newsletter. Public notice and calendars are going out this week. Uh bulky waste collection will resume in January. The bathrooms and sprinkler systems of parks and ball
fields have been winterized. All park and field bathrooms are closed until spring. Uh final leaf collection pass is underway. Over 25% of the town has been completed. So >> east side has all been completed. >> East side is done. >> East side is done. So if you're on the east side,
>> do not put your leaves out. Um you'll need to uh make arrangements with your landscaper or else >> Yep. Uh and the Weiss Lane pump station construction is well into progress. Uh, also finally just want to thank the DPW for doing a great job decorating the park and getting ready for the holiday
events. And sorry to say that I didn't bring mention before, but that's that's what I got. >> Good. Councilwoman Barrosky, >> thank you. Um, we do have some exciting news in an effort to continue to seek out uh new avenues for communication to
our community. We are looking to launch a new Woodcliffe Lake community app um targeting February as our launch date. Um residents will be able to download the app to their phone plus have the ability to opt in for push notifications which will be really important. Um
initially the app will include information on all things park and wreck including camp information, all events plus DPW garbage and recycling schedules and mayor and council and land use meeting dates. It's the hope that we can feed as much information to the app in
the future. Um we will keep the current RAE system as it is. This way it'll help differentiate emergency and non-emergency information. Um, and then, uh, Jennifer Erdy, a Woodcliffe Lake resident, has been
selected as the 2025 hometown hero. Um, Jen couldn't make it tonight. Um, but I do want to mention a couple of things about her. She's the co-founder and president of Spoil Me Pink, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting local individuals diagnosed with breast
cancer. She creates uplifting and pampering events providing moments of joy, rest, and self-care during some of the most challenging times in their lives. Boil Me Pink has been recognized nationally on Live with Kelly and Ryan and ABC News. Anyone who received um the
October issue of 2011 magazine, she was on the cover, which was very exciting. Um, Jen also serves on the board of the nonprofit organization Josephine's Garden, which is dedicated to creating healing spaces and experiences for pediatric cancer patients and their
families. She co-founded the Brian Long Memorial Foundation in honor of a local police officer in Park Ridge who tragically lost his battle with cancer. Most recently, she co-founded the Rockco Roden Memorial Scholarship Foundation in honor of a beloved local high school
student who attended St. Joe's. Professionally, she serves as the district community internship facilitator for the Pasco Valley Regional High School District, where she bridges education with real world experience through the senior internship program. This past October, Jen was the
recipient of the Greater Pascal Citizens Award given by the Pasc Valley Chamber of Commerce. Like I said, she was unable to attend tonight. She's actually at um one of the uh a fundraiser of one of the organizations that I just mentioned. Um Jen, if you're listening, the Burrow of
Woodcliff Lake is proud and we're lucky for all that we're lucky to have you for all that you do for our community. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Margolus. >> Sure. I'll I'll make this quick. Um I just also want to highlight that tomorrow night is the TICE event at Ty
Center. Um at not at the senior center, at the marketplace, at the mall. It is their winter wonderland from 5 to 8. So, we would like to help support our business partners and also Santa from what I understand will also be able to stop by in case you missed it last
night. Um the food drive is still going. We have um been able to fill many many bins both at 50 TE who has been a great partner and at Burough Hall that they've had to pick it up very often which is an amazing problem to have. Um we should
keep on the drive. They still need many things. I was in the food pantry the other day. It is stocked, but the amount of bags that were set up for people to come in and get was astounding. So, the more you have, they will take reusable bags. They're actually looking for them and any food or anything that you can
donate. We are up to 33 families in town who um get SNAP benefits. Um Councilman Banano and I met about the Chamber of Commerce and we're tackling it the best we can with the information that we have. If anyone has any other businesses that they know of, please reach out to
us and we will get going. And um in terms of resolution 250, we will or we're waiting for some of the notes from the county and then we'll be having another meeting hopefully in January. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Marsh. >> Okay. Well, not to harp on 300 Chestnut
Ridge Road, but at our December 2nd planning board meeting, um we did approve the site plan for the project and all of the documents relating to a lot of the questions brought up, the engineers, the the soil, God, there's a
lot of soil um documents um all of them are up on the land use board site. So if you go under on the web burough website, if you go under boards, if you go to land use boards, you can look up the project and we will have all the documents there. For some reason you can't find anything, please reach out to
me. Um we had a cross-examination of witnesses. We did have a lot of residents come out um and that was approved last week. It was a special meeting. Our next land use board meeting will be next Tuesday, December 16th. It will be our regularly planned meeting
and I believe we will be continuing with um the Woodcliffe Manor. Um that's it. >> Thank you, >> Councilman Pollock. >> Um just a couple quick um updates from my side. As I mentioned earlier today on the agenda this evening is the police
umou. So, I want to thank um the PBA 206 collective bargaining unit um for their their work and partnership over the last uh year working with uh Council President Stern, uh Administrator Padilla, and myself uh seeing this this
through. Um, I believe that this is a fair contract for both uh the municipality as well as the PBA uh and sets us up for success over the next 5 years and beyond. As I mentioned earlier, this does shift our
uh police department schedule from an 8-hour shift to a 12-h hour shift. This ensures better coverage for things such as a school post, puts more officers on the streets per shift uh and generally just uh continues to make sure that uh our police department can properly grow
with the changing needs in the municipality um and uh ensure that they can continue to do the things that they need to do. Uh several promotions are on the agenda this evening as well. Uh three sergeants and two to the rank of
lieutenant. So, want to uh hopefully this goes through and and want to congratulate them uh on these well-deserved promotions. We will have a promotion ceremony uh to be announced likely for sometime next >> Wednesday, >> next Wednesday um here in Ty Center. So,
congratulations to them uh and to the welldeserved uh promotions. Do want to remind residents as we approach the holiday season, many decide to leave town on vacations or be with family. uh you can go to the police department, register the days that you would be away
just like you would hold your mail and the police department will uh do their best to keep an eye on your property. Lastly, uh as is also stated in the engineers report, uh the train station and the associated closures um
should be wrapping up towards the end of this year. As stated, uh we're hoping to reopen the lot uh before the end of the year. Additional work will be needed in the spring. plantings, benches, um, and things like that. But that should not require, uh, any lasting changes. And
then lastly, from a police department perspective, this Monday, December 15th, at 8:30 a.m., the train the tickets go on sale for the train 8 o'clock. Um, uh, down at Burough Hall or police police department, I think police department. That's why I shouldn't give
updates. Um, at the police department, uh, train passes will be on sale. So, uh, first come, first serve. >> Thank you. >> Council President Stern, >> I'm going to keep it very quick. It's been a long meeting. I know we've had two major initiatives on on one of them.
I wanted to thank Nikki for the work on not only the pilot, but but the affordable housing and on development on the PBA contract. I did want to thank Ben. Um, I think we've done a lot of good work tonight and I think people should be proud on how we've protected
the borrow and, you know, the next five years that that we're going to see. So, Thank you. Engineers report is in your packet. Administrator's report. Tom um >> mayor, I just wanted to add to um police uh committee report that theou is uh
hopefully being adopted tonight. As part of that, uh one of the um the agreements now is all new employees and actually any uh the last 11 hires are going into a high deductible plan. This is going to save money for us on
the health benefits. I want to commend our health benefits consultant was very helpful with that and of course Mr. Stern Pollock we all work together to make that happen. Um and as part of that we have we will have and it's already been approved by the BMA we will have special enrollment beginning tomorrow
through Monday so that those officers who have to move over to this plan can do so. But at the same time, I have been informed that we may have some other officers and other employees who may want to take advantage of moving to a high. So, >> nice.
>> And Tom, I guess going forward, we're all new employees of the burrow. We're going to be on >> we will we will need to do a resolution that in the new year councilman and also as part of that what we what we'll be doing that I spoke to our labor council is we will be amending as you know we just did our personnel manual. Uh we'll
we'll need to officially amend the personnel manual so it'll be part of that. But yes, any any new employees and correct that that'll be uh so forth. >> Is that it? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Okay. Consent agenda. Any questions? >> Before Yeah, I have a question. Um I have a question on re resolution 25-280
which is the major field improvement. Um Councilman Cern, you mentioned earlier that the plan is to turf after the next season. Where is the funding coming from? Do we receive any grants or are we doing anything related to that? As far as the funding, we we haven't had
discussions as as to the capital budget, but it's going to come out of the capital budget. Um, >> is it are we planning to pay for it entirely? Is baseball going to be chipping in? >> We we haven't had those discussions with baseball yet, but once we get a firm handle on what the pricing will be, we're going to have those discussions.
I've had early discussions with baseball just to let them know that we would expect a sizable contribution for some component of it, whether it be fencing or back stops. But we haven't had those discussions until we get um >> and then one further question because
we've talked about it in the past couple years this year and previous year with also with the rec current rec committee. Um have we worked on a recreation plan for fixes to the other fields as well? Um Lockwood and Rins. >> So we've so we've looked at the other two fields. Um the Windsler we've looked
at is going to require both turf and a retaining wall. um which if I recall was in excess of a million dollars. I think the the turf lockwood I think was about 1.8 million. Um these are certainly
discussions for for the future about what we can afford as far as debt levels and stuff like that, but you know we we do need to come up with a plan as to how we're going to address both of those projects and which one would go second and which one would go third.
>> Okay. Thank you. Any any other questions on the consent agenda? Being none, motion to accept the consent agenda. >> Motion. >> Is there all in favor? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to go to close.
>> No. Motion to adjurnn first. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. Motion to go to close. Motion. >> All in favor of litigation. >> Uh be up. Yeah.